eTips: Content Managing and Archiving

eTip: Content Managing and Archiving

You don't have to go from A to Z to have an organized website

Gone are the days of files upon files in boxes upon boxes of information and data. Now, thousands of pages can be stored in a space smaller than your hand. Whole libraries can be called upon at the blink of an eye. And what was once an unthinkable task - to find the telephone bill for April of 1989 - is now just a few clicks and types away.

But the question still remains, how can I most effectively store my information so that I can have easy access to it? Let's face it, it's just as easy to let things pile up in our computers and websites as it is the inbox on our desk (or bills stack at home).

Your ForMinistry website gives you the tools you need to keep resources, materials, and articles together and organized.

Here are some benefits to a well-organized website:

Clean, well designed home page - (can keep most material in the background)
Easy to remember menu structure
A simple, flowing content management area
An organized website

The content management area is where you store all of the items on your website - whether they are text items, images, etc. ForMinistry provides you with the CMS - Content Management System, which houses all of what you have.

So here are some great reminders as you start to think about your ForMinistry website, and how you can not only keep up a great, current website, but also have a storehouse of material with easy access.

First: A Great Title Goes A Long Way

The first step in a great content management area is to use effective titles for each of your items. For example, 'home page text' isn't the best title for your welcome note - because you may change your welcome note in the future, and have many other text items on your home page. Also, if you were looking for a particular address or piece of key information, you wouldn't know where to look.

A good way to think of it would be to start with a general subject - for instance, 'Weekly Pastor's Message.' Then if it's something that will be updated and change, you can place a time stamp on it, such as 'Weekly Pastor's Message - 1st Sunday of May 2006.'

If you've had your ForMinistry website for some time now, it might be a good idea to sit down and organize your website's content into its main areas and sub-areas - then go back and rework your items, pages, and sections so that it can flow better.

Second: Create and Update Categories

You can also create categories for your items that will help organize your website content. Just login to your ForMinistry website:

Under the 'Organize Content' tab, go to 'Manage Content Categories.'
Create Categories and Subcategories as you see fit. You can also rename, delete and add at any time.
When finished, click on 'Save and Update.'

Now when you create or edit a text item, just click on the 'Categorize' tab at the top of the content editor window, and check off the box of the content category you wish to have this under. Make sure to hit 'Save and Update' when finished.

NOTE: Categories are not seen by anyone except website editors. This is just a way to organize on the back end of your website.

Third: Sections, Sections, and More Sections

Sections are a great way to organize pages of material. You can use your section titles as well to name items that go in that section - for instance, 'Bible Studies.'

Even though you may have already begun this process, it's also a great idea to have sections within sections. So for your Bible Study section, you can have a sub-section titled, 'New Testament,' or 'Prayer.'

Then in each subsection, you can title your pages and items accordingly. If you have to search for something that you had on your website a year ago, all you have to remember is that it was in the Prayer sub-section of the Bible Studies section, and if was titled, 'Bible study - Prayer: How long should we pray?' you will be able to find it quickly.

Fourth: Go to the Archives

An archive is a place you create on your website (page or section) where you place older material that may not need primary real estate on your main pages. For example, you may have had a whole series of messages and resources on the topic of 'Money' last month, such as thoughts and bible verses on your home page, sermon outlines, and ways to get help. Now that the money series is over, you want to move on to your next topic (like 'Family Life'), but you want to keep a section of your website available with all the great resources you gathered.

All you have to do is create a Money section (or sub-section) and keep all of your items and resources flowing out of that area. Don't forget to link to that section from other areas of your website so that it's not forgotten!

Archives are great places to go for study, research, and information gathering. One of the strong points about the internet is the ability to get information quickly and easily. Fortunately, archiving your website isn't going to take a garage-full of space.

Last: Link everything together

When you create text items on your ForMinistry website, it automatically generates a predetermined 'page' address. These predetermined pages are set up from ForMinistry to hold a place for every article you have on your site that is referenced to through a teaser.

This is not a formal page where you can add and delete from - but a setup page so that you can link to it if needed. For example, the first article on www.forministry.com/equip titled, 'Bible and Technology' goes to:

http://www.forministry.com/vsItemDisplay.dsp&objectID=72C9C73A-61BF-4A58-BEF2FE00EBF82C00&method=display&templateID=25A21461-D996-4868-AF3318DC0A555B12

But no one is going to remember this long address, so we just link it to the title given (Bible and Technology).

You can do this as well with your articles, and place a number of them on one page. This page then becomes your archive, and you can have it available for others to look through and browse.

All you have to do is create a text item and a teaser associated with it. On the page you created your text item, click on the Options link. Choose 'Display Teaser' and then when the page refreshes, hit the link to go to your article.

Once the article page comes up, copy the address that is in the web address area of your web browser. This is the address for your article you can link to.

Check out these archived pages on the ForMinistry.com website:

Remember, it's never too late to start cleaning!

Until next time...
Henry Kay, web_builder host

Contact me at support@forministry.com