It really surprises me to see so many Churches and Pastors in particular, setting up their websites on free services like blogger.com or wordpress.com when Web hosting is just so incredibly cheap.
For example; If you chose to set up your website with a paid web hosting account from Webhostingpad.com, for just .06 cents a day you could have…
- Your own personal email address (Unlimited Email Address)
- The ability to collect the names and email addresses of your websites visitors, Imagine having a database of Christians from around the globe that you could call on at any time you liked for intercessory prayer or support.
- The option to choose any available Domain Name you like for your website.(Including The Option Of a Free Domain Name from Webhostingpad)
- The choice of any Free or Paid website theme or design you like.
- The freedom to add any software or script on your website.
- The option to Install and manage your Own Databases.
- The power to track and monitor your traffic.(Free Tracking and Stats Using AW-stats or Google’s Analytics)
- The advantage of uploading and adding any type of content you want.
- A PayPal Button on your site to collect tithes or donations.
- Access to friendly and reliable support 24/7
- Unlimited Domain Names, meaning each one of the leaders in your church can have their own individual blogs.
- Easy Wordpress Installation Using Fantastico
- A 30 Day Money Back Guarantee.
- Plus many, many more benefits that are simply to numerous to list…
Now compare that to…
- Not having your own professional looking web design.
- The risk of having your site pulled out from underneath you at any time, for whatever reason, without any control over the situation at all.
- The inability to collect donations or tithes for your church or fundraiser.
- Very Low bandwidth or hosting space.
- No FTP access.
- Very limited support.
- The risk of loosing valuable content that has taken many precious hours creating.
- And the loss of visitors and back links to your site, when you are finally forced to set up a self hosting website, all of your hard work lost forever.
Why someone would take such a risk when there is so much at stake is beyond me.
I guess if you were to build a two or three page website you could argue that a free alternative may be sufficient, and I would probably agree with you, but most of the sites I see out there, and what I am talking about in particular, are sites that have been around for quite some time, that could at any moment be closed down.
All it would take is for someone to take offense at something that was written or said and you became the target of a malicious complaint, causing your site to be closed temporarily or permanently shut down. If you don’t think this could happen then please read the article on the following link and in particular take a look at the comment made by Carla on this post Titled “Moving from WordPress.com to Self-Hosted WordPress in Plain English”
When you compare having the security and peace of mind along with the actual cost of web hosting to having all of your effort and hard work at the mercy and control of another person, it’s really not worth it.
Your website should be considered a major part of your ministry, and the reality is, the cost of running a website is so insignificant that it really defies logic as to why a pastor would risk loosing their connection to the people they are ministering too through their website.
All for the sake of saving a few cents each day.
Please don’t under-estimate the potential your website has in terms of reaching into someones life, I myself have experienced incredible ministry through the likes of Andrew Wommack and Curry Blake, and to be honest, some people may consider these evangelists to be radical or extreme, but wasn’t Christ a bit radical and extreme!
So it would be fair to say that if hey had built up there websites using a free alternative then I guarantee they would have had there fair share of complaints and would of probably have been shut down long ago.
If you intend on building a ministry online then seriously consider spending the few dollars it takes to get started. Moving your site later will only cost you precious time and lost contacts. Your ministry is way to important to gamble with.
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, Jeremy
, Forfattartips
, Susan LeGree
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