Hello, everyone.  Today’s topic is the first in a two part series covering Google Analytics.  Anyone who wished he could learn about their website statistics, including number of visitors, which pages they visit and how to improve their site should seriously consider Google Analytics. Of course, there’s a lot more to say about Google Analytics that would take up hours on a video, so let’s just concentrate today on how to install this free feature on your site.

As you can see here, I’m on the Google Analytics page, which is at this address up here…. google.com/analytics.  Remember, this is free and it’s available just by going to google.com/analytics.  You can create a free account by clicking this “Sign Up Now” link right here.  And you’ll receive a special ID code from Google.  We’ll discuss this code in a bit.  And also, Google will create scripts for you to use on your website, similar to this one right here.  And again, this looks very intimidating, but it doesn’t need to be because, on your website,  you would just simply insert this just above the body tag on the page that you’re designing.  That, of course, is for the regular html web page designers.  So, use this script.  These little x’s right here are filled in with the code that Google gives you as your special ID code.

Now, if you are using the NE1 Web Builder, we’ve made it very, very easy at ourchurch.com to include Google Analytics on your site.  Because, when you go to the “config” tab, right up here at the top, you have a tab here to choose from called “Analytics”.  And this has a place for you to insert your Google Analytics ID, which is just that little code we were telling you about, which is “UA-“ and then whatever number they give you.  You simply insert that right here in this box, press “Save Changes” and you immediately have a way to track visitors and other very, very important statistics about your site.  You would just simply come back here to the google.com/analytics, log in and you can get the statistics that you need each week and really use those statistics to your advantage to draw more visitors to your site and to design it in a better way to draw visitors.

So that’s your tip for today.  We’ll have part 2 coming up.  Thanks a lot.

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How are you doing everyone? Today’s topic is the Meta Tag.

How are you doing everyone? Today’s topic is the Meta Tag.

Now many of you may not have heard the term Meta Tag before, but that could be because the Meta Tag itself is something that’s not visible to the public. In fact, the Meta tag is part of coding that makes up a webpage and while it is read by your browser, it is never actually seen on a page. And then on other hand, there might be some of you who have heard of Meta tags but never really thought they were necessary.

And, the bottom line is that Meta Tags are necessary but are not as important now as they were years ago, that the shear number of websites today call as search engines to use many secrets for listing websites. And Meta tags are only a tiny portion of those secrets.

As I said however they are definitely good to have, and I’m looking right now a good place to start when learning about meta tags. This particular page is from the W3Schools.Com website. This is a good place to learn about coding and HTML and different things that go into making up a website. If you’re designing yours on a standard website software application, then you’ll need to know these different lines that you wanna put in what we called the Header Tags. Everything between these is what’s called In-the-header, and you’ll see that they start off with the word “META”. And the Meta tags is what basically describes your site, it gives keywords about the site or the author, so the Search Engines can find out more about your site in list them correctly.

Now, again if you’re using your own web design software, you’ll want to know how to write all those up on each page and the code for that page. However, if you are using the NE1 web builder supplied by OurChurch.Com then this page will look familiar to you. And when you get to your page, to edit the page – you can do this with any page – click on the little SEO Features tab, and you’ll see here that it makes a lot easier to provide Meta Tags information. Al you do is just fill in the boxes and press your Save Changes button.

Important note to know what these are, the SEO Words category, are words that actually get added to the address of your site. So, whatever words you put in here would get added to the end of the address that you would type in for URL of your page, that helps Search Engines a lot because they were rather see words in your site rather than numbers or codes things like that.

The Meta title is not only subtitle used by Search Engines to describe your site but it’s also something that is seen at the top of your browser when you go to a page. This one it says, Mozilla Firefox but if you went to a particular page that had this right here on it, and then it would be right up here at the top.

The Keywords are just that, they’re just keywords, words that describe what your site does. I’ve had it a couple of year, hosting, web builder, Christian web hosting, etc. So, if you wanna put a lot of keywords in there separated by commas. You don’t wanna put too many – sometimes there such a thing as Overkill, but we recommend perhaps 20 to 30 keywords or phrases separated by commas.

And then finally, the description, the Meta description, is just simply a sentence or two that describe what your site is all about.

Now, the Head Content down the bottom is usually used for some sort of script or something else that you wanna put in the header, and that is a little bit more videos that we will covered at this time but sometimes necessary if you gonna have your page do something in particular especially with 3rd party software.

So, that’s our quick tip for today, we have more for you a bit.

Thank you!

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Hello everyone, today’s topic is adding a YouTube video to your website.  Video is an excellent way to draw people to your site and, of course, to keep them there for awhile.  YouTube had made the process quite simple.

I’m looking right here at a very familiar looking page, I’m sure, to most of you.  This is a page that’s right out of YouTube and, on the page, there are several options that you have after viewing a site.  We want to concentrate on just one little option here called “embed”.

If you click on this little “embed” button, then some code pops up and this is the code that you would use to embed the video directly onto a page on your site.  And YouTube gives you this code in an interesting way because the code is already highlighted, as you see right here, so all you have to do is just simply copy it with “control C” on your keyboard.  And, once it’s copied, then you would just take it over to your site and insert it into the html code on your page, wherever you would like it.

And again, like we’ve been doing in the other videos, if you have the NE1 Web Builder provided by ourchurch.com, then this is a familiar looking page to you as well.  And you can add that code on a page just by doing this:  you’d want to click right correctly on your page.  Go all the way over here to the far right and click the “Paste HTML Code” link and that will give you a little bit of a dialogue box to put in the title.  You just want to put in the title.  Let’s put “OurChurch.com Video” and then, in the html code box, you simply paste that code that we just got from YouTube.

And by doing that, you not only save the code for later use, you also put it in a page where it’s necessary.  Just simply save your changes and, when you do that and you go to preview your site, go to the page it’s on and this is what it looks like right here.  The YouTube video shows up and, of course, people can play and listen to it there.

So there’s your quick tip video for this week from ourchurch.com.  Thank you.

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Hello, everyone. Today’s tip is about using a table in your web design. Tables are often overlooked, despite the fact they are the easiest way, by far, to align lists of items on your website.

A common mistake by many beginning web designers is to use the space bar for moving text items around on the page. This is a web design and a graphic design no-no, using the space bar for spacing.

Now, I’m showing you here an example of a page that has been designed using a space bar. And while it’s not immediately evident, a close look will show you that the words are not aligned properly and the lines themselves are too far apart.

You’ll see here that this word looks a little bit too far over to the right. The same with this word here. And the lines themselves, because they are evenly spaced, look too far apart and they don’t look like a normal list.

Now, the solution to this is a table. And creating a table is actually pretty simple, though there are a lot of advanced features that can be learned later on. And here’s a great way to learn the code for a table.

This is a website that teaches people HTML. It’s w3schools.com and then this is the place where HTML tables are explained. This one example right here is the best way to show somebody how to design a table.

It basically uses tags, which are basically the greater than and less than signs that surround code in between. And you’ll see here that the “td” tag is a row.

And then, of course, the table itself is listed within the tag as well. Most importantly, however, is to use this as an example to set up your table. And then, of course, it would look like this example down here.

Now, once you have used this code, of course, you can align the table just by simply grabbing the table itself in your design program, whatever it might be, and moving the rows around to make it wider or narrower or however you would want it.

Now those of you that are using the Web Builder, the NE1 Web Builder that we use with ourchurch.com websites, inserting a table is really quite simple. Just simply go over here to your space bar.

And, in this particular case, we wanted to use eight rows and two columns. So you just simply put “eight” in the rows. You don’t need to worry about these other items.

And then, once you’ve got your table on here, you can just stretch it out a little bit. And you’ll want to put our agenda on here. Let’s put down here, “Monday” and then, on “Monday”, we’re going to have our little trip agenda. We want to swim. And, over here, we want to go to a theme park. And then eat with friends.

And, by the way, this is a great way to divide all sorts of different lists. In this particular case, of course, we’re using it for an agenda, but it can be used for all kinds of lists. Another day at the theme park. Another day at the theme park and then tour museum. And then, we’ll have the flight home.

And, once again, like I said before, if you wanted to make any kind of adjustments, you can simply grab the ends of the table and make adjustments.

But, the important thing is, if you save changes, you can go and simply save your changes there and your example here you can tell is much different.

Now you’ve got the lines that are a little bit better spaced. The words are spaced and the table makes it so much easier to add and subtract later on.

Most importantly, however, is because the space bar isn’t being used, then you don’t have to worry about different browsers showing different alignments. This is going to look the same each time.

So that’s your tip for today. And thank you very much for watching.

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How are you doing, everyone? Today’s OCC Quick Tips video gives instructions for adding a map to your website.

You know, these days, any kind of ministry or school or church or organization can benefit by providing a map to those that visit your site. In fact, perhaps one of the most common reasons someone will visit your website is to gather contact and location information.

So, today, I’m going to show you how to quickly add a map to your website using Google Maps. As you can see, I’m on the Google homepage, and this is where we’ll start with our little tutorial.

We want to begin by clicking the “Maps” icon….the “Maps” link here at the top of the page. Many of you are probably familiar with this feature already, but perhaps didn’t realize it could be used to enhance your site. Okay, and we start by entering the address of the location you would like mapped. I’m going to type the name and address of a church that I’m familiar with.

As you can see, Google’s already filling in some of it for me. So, I will select that right here just by pressing “Enter” on my keyboard or, of course, you can click the “Search Maps” button as well.The result is a nicely detailed map with several options. You can adjust zoom levels. You can move the map in one direction or another.

If you’re satisfied, however, with what you see, click the small link up here in the corner that has the icon and chain link right here. Click on that.

Now, even though what you’re seeing here is a bit intimidating, there’s nothing really to be concerned about. Simply click in this lower box to select the code that you’ll need for your site, and you can right click to choose “Copy”, as I’m doing right here.

Or, of course, you can go up to the “Edit” menu and you can choose “Copy” there, or many people use the “Control-C” on your keyboard. The point is, you need to copy this text right here to be used later on.

Once you’ve done that, of course, it’s time to paste the code on your website. And those of you who have created your sites using an html editor can simply paste the code where you would like it.

However, for those of you using the NE1 Web Builder provided by ourchurch.com, let me show you how the “Paste HTML” feature works. I’ve already logged in to my sample website here. And I’m sure this page looks familiar to many of you.

My first step, of course, is to click on the page I want to place a map on. I’ve already created a page here cleverly titled “Google Map”. And, at this point, the page really only contains the “Under Construction” text. As you can see, it says “Google Map”, which is the name of the page and then “This Page Under Construction”.

So let me start by doing a little editing here to change the title and erase my construction text. Let’s put “Church Map.” And I’m just going to erase this altogether. There we go. And then I’ve already clicked right here where I want the map to go, right underneath my little title.

And, this is where I would go to the far right of the toolbar and click the “Paste HTML code” button. And in this box here, you basically have just two things to fill in. Up at the top, you can give the name of your code any name you want. Let me just name this “Google Map”.

And then down in this HTML code box, click here and this is where I want to paste what I just copied from Google Maps. A lot of code there, but again, you don’t need to know what it says or how it works.

Just simply paste it in there and then click the “Insert Code” button and the result is that I get a little bit of a piece of code right here that represents the map for you. So my next step is simply to click “Save Changes.”

And once those changes are saved, then I’m ready to go ahead and preview that map. And this is really, really nice because all I have to do is click on “Preview Website.” And once that website comes up, I want to click on my page entitled “Google Map.” And you can see the result.

Incidentally, this “Paste HTML Code” feature can be used for all sorts of third party scripts and codes. Not just maps. The beauty of it is that, because it is built the way it is, you can enter it on any page, in any location on any page. That makes it really handy.

So that’s all for now Using Google Maps Stay tuned for future OCC Quick Tips. Thank you.

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Hello again everyone, this is another OCC Quick Tip video and our topic today is making documents available to your site visitors or just linking to documents.

You’ll find yourself often with a need to distribute documents, such as sign-up sheets, homework assignments, announcements or newsletters.  And fortunately, this is an easy task, whether or not you are using the NE1 Web Builder to construct your site.

Now, if you’re not, if you’re just using the html coding, right here is what you need to know.  This is a simple what they call an “anchor tag”, and you’ll see that they have the “a” in the front here and the “a” at the end.

And, of course, the greater than and less than signs are used.  But what you need to know is, in the middle between the quotes is your path to your document.  And that means that’s where you’re document is.

Let’s say you have a folder called “documents” on your web server, and then inside there, you’ve got a folder maybe called “school docs”.  And then, you’ve got your actual file and let’s make that a .pdf file.  So that’s what your document path would look like.  And this is what the people see on the page.

So you want to say whatever your file is, “myfile.pdf” or however you want to label it.  You can just simply say “myfile”.  That’s what they’re going to see.  So, and again, this is what they see on the page.  When they link to it, they get access to this file right here.

Now, if you’re using the NE1 Web Builder, it’s a lot easier.  I’ve already gone to my little web builder page here called “school documents” and I’m just going to put down here “mysample.pdf file”.  Once I have written the text, I select the text right there.

That makes this little chain link available, so I want to click on this chain link.  And a whole bunch of little fields will come up, but you don’t need to worry about these.  Just simply click on this little yellow folder right here.  And then you’ll have access to your documents.

Now, I’ve already uploaded this sample .pdf doc right here.  If I didn’t have it uploaded, I would just simply need to click on the “Browse” and “Upload” buttons right down here and I could upload it.

Since I already have it, let me click on it and then just simply click “Okay”.  Again, you don’t need to worry about any of these for right now.  Just go ahead and click “Insert”, and there you have a link.

If I save my changes right here, then after those changes are saved, of course, I’m going to go preview that page and I have to remember that some browsers will allow me to look at a .pdf file right within the browser.  So, if I go to this document page right now, click on “mysample.pdf file”, there you have it.

So that’s the quick tip video for this week and we’ll see you later.  Bye, bye.

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Hi Everyone, OurChurch.com has just completed an exciting upgrade to our help desk and our help pages.  We’ve created this video to give you a quick overview of the changes and the new features.

To begin with, let’s take a quick look at the help pages and the various topics and categories.

The address:  ourchurch.com/help is still the same.  But you’ll notice a new look right off the bat.  Topics and categories are easy to see.  And we trust you will find answers to your questions more quickly.

Now, let’s click on a sample topic to get a quick look at it.  You’ll see that the topics have numbers for the number of articles within them.  And you’ll also see that the different, more popular questions are listed for you.

And, if you don’t find them within the category, you can search the knowledge base as well.

But perhaps the most exciting upgrade in our support system is the new method by which tickets are created.  As in the past, it is still possible to send an e-mail to support at ourchurch.com.

However, we know when you see how this new section in your myOCC page works, you’ll be impressed by how easy and efficient it’s become.

Just a reminder, all registered OCC members can log in to their myOCC page from the top of any of the pages in the OCC website.  Not only will you see an overview of your account, but now creating a ticket is as simple as clicking this icon.

What’s even more exciting is that, with this ticket, its replies and its status can always be accessed right here on this page.  Even more exciting is the fact that, while you are typing your question, our help desk system tries to assist you by providing appropriate answers ahead of time.

And you’ll see those answers below as you begin to type your question.

It’s always been a priority for us to provide top notch support and we feel like this is a big step toward making life even easier for our members.

Remember, we always welcome your comments.

Thank you very much.

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Hi, I’m Paul Steinbrueck of OurChurch.com and in this series of videos, I’m answering common web hosting questions. Now one of the questions we get frequently here at OurChurch.com is: Can I put audio on my website?

Regardless of where you have your website, the answer to that is going to depend on the service.

Now here at ourchurch.com, you can have audio on your site if you have a Gold, Silver or Bronze package. But audio is not available with our Starter or Free sites.

Now if you do have a Gold, Silver or Bronze package, and you’re using our NE1 Web Builder, if you go into the editor, you’ll see a little icon on there that looks like a film strip. And you click that and that’s what you use to add audio to your site.

So, if you are looking for web hosting or a website service for your Christian church, school, ministry or business and you’d like it to have audio on it, check out our Gold, Silver or Bronze package.

Thank you very much. Bye.

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Hi I’m Paul Steinbrueck of OurChurch.com. In this series of videos I am answering common web hosting questions. One of the questions that we are asked from time-to-time is why should I choose a Christian web hosting company?

There are thousands and thousands of web hosting companies out there for you to choose from, so why a Christian company?

Shared Goals

It’s because we understand what it means to be Christian ministry; we share your values and ultimately we share the same goals that you do. We want to see the gospel Jesus Christ proclaimed around the world and we want to see his kingdom advanced. So when you choose OurChurch.com you don’t just get a vendor or a service provider you get a partner in ministry. That’s genuinely how we view ourselves.

When you call us on the phone or send us an email it’s not about how quickly can we get your problem resolved and move onto something else. We want to see you succeed and so we go the extra mile so that we can do that.

Shared Understanding

The other thing that comes with it too is all of us here at OurChurch.com are Christ followers ourselves, so we share your passion for the Lord. We share your passion for ministry. We’re all part of churches. We’ve been on staff on churches. We have spouses who are teachers in schools. We’ve served on boards for schools, churches, ministries and so forth.

So we understand where you are coming from, some of the challenges that you’re going through and often times we understand the solutions that really can help you that other organizations, other secular companies might not understand.

So, there are some great advantages to going with a Christian web hosting company.

That’s why if you lead a Christian church, school, ministry or business, we hope you’ll consider OurChurch.com for your web hosting. Thank you.

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Hi, I’m Paul Steinbruek of OurChurch.com and in this series of videos I’m answering common web hosting questions. And, one of the most common that we’re asked is: How much does web hosting cost?

It’s kind of a tough question to answer because it really just depends on the services that you’re getting.

Here at ourchurch.com, we offer everything from free sites that are supported by ads to our Gold package which is between $25 and $30 per month, depending upon your level of commitment. You can find a full list of our web hosting packages and prices on our website.

You can obviously go cheaper. There are some hosting companies that charge just a few dollars a month, but oftentimes, you get what you pay for in terms of customer support.

So, if you’re looking for a web hosting company for your Christian church, school, ministry or business, we hope you’ll consider ourchurch.com.

Thank you.

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