We’ve been trying all kinds of new things here at Christian Web Trends with the goal of helping you communicate more effectively online. Today I’m excited to announce another experiment towards that goal.
Wednesday Website Reviews
Every Wednesday, starting January 13, we are going to post a review of one of our readers’ websites here on this blog.
Honest feedback is very important to improving a website. Unfortunately honest feedback is very difficult to get because few people want to risk hurting anybody’s feelings. So, once a week we are going to give one of you honest feedback about your site, and we’ll invite other readers to offer their feedback as well.
If you really want to improve your website and your online communications in 2010, this is an opportunity you don’t want to miss out on.
Here are the rules and review request guidelines:
A) If you’d like us to consider posting a review of your website, you must start by posting a request to the “Request your free professional website review” topic in our forums. In that post, you need to answer the following 9 questions, which will help us provide you with guidance.
- Your name
- The name of your organization
- The URL of the site you’d like reviewed
- What did you use to create the site? (Dreamweaver? HTML? WordPress? An online web builder? Paid a designer to create it for you?)
- Who is the target audience of your website? People already involved in your organization? Prospective buyers? Teens? Their parents?
- What are you trying to accomplish with your website?
- What is your 2010 budget for your website?
- What if any goals have you set for your website in 2010.
- Why do you want a professional review of your website?
If you don’t answer all 9 questions, your site will not be considered.
B) We will not review free, ad-supported sites, even those hosted by OurChurch.Com. Sorry, but if you can’t scrounge up $5-$10 a month into your site to pay for hosting, I question you’re commitment to having a quality site.
C) You must post a meaningful comment to the blog during the previous week. The idea behind the Wednesday Website Reviews (and Christian Web Trends as a whole) is that we as a community help each other get better at online communications. That means you’re not just receiving but also contributing. So, if you want to be considered for next week’s review, post a meaningful comment to any of this week’s posts. If you’re site is not reviewed next week, you must post a meaningful comment next week to be considered for the following week. Cool?
D) You must be able to handle constructive criticism. We are going to try our best to speak the truth in love and not hold anything back.
That’s it.
If you have any comments or questions post them below in the comments. If not, we hope you’ll participate and both request a review and comment on the review of other sites.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by OurChurch.Com, Paul Steinbrueck. Paul Steinbrueck said: Im stokd a/b the new Wed Website Reviews. If u'd like a free professional review of ur site check out http://is.gd/5ONaV […]
I think this is a great thing that you are doing. I hope I can answer all the questions… some of them I'm not sure about.
I hope so too. They're not intended to be difficult. But the audience and goals should drive the look, layout, and functionality of a website. The tools and budget will give us an idea of what limitations you may have to work within.
This is a great idea. There is a definite need for good, active community for Christian websites. I have just submitted my website for the review.
My websites are in Spanish, may I still submit them for reviewing?
Thanks
Awesome!
Wow, great question, Carlos. There would definitely be some parts of the review I couldn't do, but maybe that's where the community part of this fits in. Perhaps others could comment specifically on the parts that require an understanding of the Spanish language. I hope you'll submit a site for review and we'll see how it goes.
ok these are good information to help us do better
Excellent idea, iron sharpens iron! We represent a Creator who is perfect in what He does, we should give of our best, using the talents He has gifted to us. I will be definitely be submitting my website for review
Great!