The Church Free Web Podcast

Today's web designers need to pack more information into a single webpage than ever before, and optimise it to be viewed on everything from large monitors to mobile phone screens. I'm introducing you to my favourite "superhero" plugin, Elementor, a page builder that enhances WordPress websites and does all the hard work for you, even in its free edition. Shownotes for this episode can be found at https://churchfreeweb.co.uk/117.

Categories and Tags help organise WordPress posts. I'll take you through how to use them, introduce a brilliant plugin that adds lots of ways to re-use past posts, and set you homework. You can find useful information via the shownotes at churchfreeweb.co.uk/116

We're changing the homepage from the default a list of recent posts) to some brief information and the events calendar, so people will be confident they's found the right page and can get straight to the information they need. You can find the shownotes for this episode at churchfreeweb.co.uk/115

The calendar is vital in almost every church website. What's on, where, what are the regular services and events and the one-offs. We'll take a giant leap forward by using a free plugin that does all we need and more.

Now we're pressing forward. We'll adjust a few settings, make connections to our website secure so that visitors won't see warning messages, and begin to add some posts and pages. Show notes are at https://churchfreeweb.co.uk/113 complete with helper videos for these important steps.

Now it's time to plan your website. And to avoid starting with a blank sheet of canvas, I'm going to guide you through finding good models to learn from. The shownotes for this episode are at churchfreeweb.co.uk/112

By now, you have a domain name, free web hosting, and the beginnings of a WordPress website for your church. Before we begin to work systematically through the steps, you need a basic grasp of some WordPress terminology. I'll introduce Posts, Pages, Themes and Plugins, and then you can experiment safe in the knowledge that it doesn't matter if you break it! You can find the show notes for this episode at churchfreeweb.co.uk/111.

We've laid all the foundations. This time, we're going to complete a number of tasks, until your website appears. So you may need to listen a few times, perhaps over a day or two. Find the shownotes here, with lots of useful notes, links and a helper video.

If you absolutely can't afford to register a domain name, hop over to the show notes for this episode and let me know via the comments. I can help fix you up with a free subdomain instead. Otherwise, let's press ahead and choose a domain name, review the top level domain choices (such as .com, .org.uk and so on) and press on!

Before you invest £5-10 in securing your church domain name, let's consider the 100% free alternatives. And some of the low cost options get a shout-out too.

We'll talk about getting an address online, how do do that for free, and why I think you should invest in owning a domain name. I'll give recommendations for where to buy, and suggest that you wait until the next episode to decide!

At this point you should have applied for your free web hosting package and know your charity number / HMRC "X number." Now the magic happens! We're activating that account, by proving your charitable status. Show notes at https://churchfreeweb.co.uk/106

Having great web hosting is essential if you want to use all the great free tools out there to build your church website. And yes, we are going to get totally free web hosting: proper web hosting, discounted to our favourite price of zero pounds, zero pence!

We're going to need an email address to complete the project, and there are reasons why it may not be a good idea to use either your or your church's existing email address for the purpose. So this episode I'm walking you through this task, so you can keep on track with your project to create a free website you'll be happy with.

The vast majority of UK churches are charities, but they're not always registered in the most obvious way. In this episode you'll learn how to prove your bona fides as a charity and unlock some fantastic tools that cost money to most people but are free to charities.

Most churches don't have websites. So why should this be a priority? I'll give you the cast-iron, copper-bottomed reason why you can, should and (with help from us) will spend some of your time and none of your money making a church website that's just what you and your community need.

Here's what we're aiming for from the season as a whole. New listeners, start here!