Website design for priests and deacons gets top priority treatment in my weekly workflow because I know the clergy are dedicated to the salvation of souls, which is the “art of arts” as Pope St. Gregory the Great said. In modern day evangelization, a website is part of that art.
Web design work is like air support for a priestly mission, so it can be a superb force multiplier for your Ministry of the Word.
My overall offer to you includes the following four commitments because I believe these are the hardest parts of setting up and running an effective website. My services are meant to streamline them for you and save you work and money:
Cost
I offer something that few other designers will offer—a one-time fee that includes all future web services. Please check prices of other designers to see what I mean:
- I charge $1000 for my work (half up front, half upon the completion of set up.)
- This fee includes not only the initial design of the site, but also the ongoing maintenance and updates for your website. My commitment remains for as long as you want my services.
- I will never charge you another dime.
- Your only other costs are not from me. They are the domain name and the hosting fees that you pay to a provider if your website is hosted on any platform other than WordPress (see “Technical Questions” FAQ for explanations of these items).
- In the rare case where you may need a more sophisticated design tool that requires a fee (for example, some form builders provide much more design flexibility than the basic ones in our plan), that cost, again, will not be to me. It will be to the company that provides the service, and we will discuss all possible options before you commit to it.
- Please also be aware that if you choose to take donations or payments through your website, the payment portals themselves will charge fees for their services (PayPal, Stripe, Faith Direct, etc.) These are part of the cost of doing business but, again, are not my fees.
Hosting and Website Management
- I offer a cost-free option for web hosting. If you are looking to save money, I provide free hosting for all WordPress websites that I create. My provider is Bluehost which caters to web designers and developers for this reason and allows the hosting of unlimited websites.
- I also offer to manage your website for as long as you need me to do it.
- On-Site Management Option: if cost is not that big of a concern, you may wish to use one of the newer platforms (Squarespace, Weebly, etc.) that charge yearly fees but that can be easily managed by you or staff members after the initial set up is finished. That way everything remains under your control and you don’t have to keep coming back to me for daily needs.
- I will happily train you or any staff members to manage the website and learn how to upload materials.
- Having said that, I will always be available to you and your staff for ongoing consultation and help.
Note that if at any point in the future you decide to go with another designer / developer, no hard feelings at all! Priorities and circumstances change. I will smooth the transition by providing your new designer with all the access information in a document called “Specifications” once the setup is complete.
Editing
As a clergyman, people expect your written content to be both professional-looking and smart. Nothing kills credibility more than obvious typos, grammatical errors, and substandard phrasing in the presentation.
The service I provide is properly called “touch-up editing.” When you send me your written pieces, your words are yours entirely, and my editing function is limited to the following:
- Amending typos and minor grammatical glitches (trust me, you can’t see yours, and I can’t see mine. Another pair of eyes always helps.)
- Smoothing out syntax and phraseology for clarity.
- Edits for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The ins-and-outs of this are complex but basically it has to do with getting your material to be found more easily in web searches.
Editing for the internet is somewhat different from editing for book publication because an internet audience comes to a website with different expectations and tolerances than they do when reading a book.
For example, web readers generally skim rather than read web articles, so the formatting of text will be different on a web page than on a printed page (e.g., shorter sentences and paragraphs, lots of breaks, subheadings, and highlights in the text, etc.)
Due to severely reduced attention spans these days, proper web editing is necessary to create good web content that holds people’s interest. That’s my job.
Formatting
Your work as a clergyman includes the Ministry of the Word (writings, sermons, and presentations, etc.), so a website is a natural way to get this word out to a broader audience. This means you have to know how to properly present Articles, Images, and Elements in a virtual format.
It means you have to know how to format your material for an effective presentation on the web page where words, images, videos, and interactive elements are integrated into a seamless presentation. This is easier said than done.
I can teach you how to upload your own content to the website OR I can do it for you. We may even find a happy combination of both functions.
My goal is to save you time because you have more important work to do in your pastoral ministry. This is how I would do it for you on a normal basis:
- If you send me your written works in Word documents, I will review them and make them into readable, stylish web posts and pages if they are not already (see “Editing” above).
- If you send me specific pictures you want on the site, I will put them on the page in the right place, order, size, styling, etc. (I use a Photoshop-style web app called PIXLR to dress the images up to suit your needs and standards.)
- Or, you can just send me a whole lot of images, and I can choose appropriate ones and place them on the site where I think they will have the greatest visual effect according to your purpose and message.
- Or, if you’re undecided as to how to present something on your site for the greatest mission impact, we can brainstorm to find the right combination. (For example, a short video might make your message resonate better with your audience than a printed text, etc.)
Ultimately, you always make the final decision about what to include and how to include it, but I will consult with you regularly and make design suggestions as we go.
I never forget that it’s your site, not mine.
A Final Word About My Work Ethic
Finally, my standard operating procedures also include:
- Consulting you on every aspect of the design.
- Getting your evaluation and feedback.
- Changing things you really don’t like and altering things you really think could be better or more in keeping with your style.
- Posting and updating your content in a reasonable timeframe (usually within 24 hours, but often quicker than that if it is a simple posting).
- Meeting truly important deadlines.
- Working to the best of my ability to make your website serve your mission.
- Praying for you and your mission—daily.
Your part will include:
- Being a good communicator during this process.
- Providing all relevant content (images, documents, videos, flies, etc.) that I will need to do the work.
- Sticking with me through the “back-and-forth” of the initial design process.
- Praying for me too!
See more detailed explanations our working arrangement in the document, “What the Design Process Looks Like.”
