Grader.com Grade for ENDIS

Many of you may not know, but here at ENDIS we have recently started to offer SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) and Inbound Marketing, to our clients. Just before we started to offer these features to clients we rolled up our sleeves and went to work on our own site endis.com. SEO and Inbound Marketing are big task to tackle, even more so for a CMS ( Content Management System ), which is what the Insight platform is, a CMS. When we started out there was a lot of trial and error, seeing how we could accomplish the goals of SEO and Inbound Marketing not only for us, but in the future the goals of clients. One of the tools we use to help do this is a website called Grader.com. It is a great site and is FREE!!!! Grader.com goes through your site like search engines do and gives you a grade based upon certain criteria. When we first ran the test we got a 38%. Obviously a failing grade, so we rolled up our sleeves even more than ever and got to work. Our current grade is a 97%! A dramatic turn around, but the work is not done. The thing that everyone must realize about SEO, is that is an ongoing process. As always, if you have any questions about Insight or how ENDIS can help you with SEO, and Inbound Marketing please call our Sales Representative Oscar Aldaiz at 417-429-0798 or email him at oscar.aldaiz@ENDIS.com

Page Specific Meta Tags

Specific Page Titles

In Web Office go to the specific group that you would like to change. Then in the summary tab scroll down to advance options and click on that. Scroll down to the task footer and there will be text that says " Edit the page title and meta tags for....." click here. Then go in and where it says Page Title there will be two different options = Page title inherits settings or Override settings for page title. The Page title inherits settings is pre-selected, this is setting, along with the Meta tags is drawn from the the Settings tab under Page Titles and Meta Tags; this is where the global settings are changed, but in this case we are not looking to change them over the full site just a specific page or group. When you select the Override settings for page title another drop select box appears, the Set Page title here option is already selected. In the box type what you want the new page title to be, you also have the option to add the group name into the Page title. When you scroll down some, you have the option to check the box These settings are inheritable, meaning each page under the group will take on these changes you have made. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select Save, and your settings are saved and the changes are made immediately.

Page Specific Meta tags

When wanting to change the Meta data scroll down and click Override meta data. Another drop down box appears, the Set meta tags for this page here is pre-selected. Scroll down some and you will see blue text that says Add new meta tag, click this text. When you do this, new boxes will appear, it will ask for a Name. This is where you will title the Meta tags. Just below this box is a larger text box that says Content, this where you put your information that coincides with the Name. For example if the name of the Meta tag is description, you will put the Meta description in the Content box (remember that meta descriptions can be no more than 160 characters). When finished click the Ok button, the information will then appear in a table format. If satisfied click the Save button at the bottom of your page and the changes are saved and updated immediately to your site. Remember you can always go back and edit this information, or delete it all together.

Remember these are important things to do! Search Engines look at these things and uses them to rank your site. Having different page titles and meta tags for each for each page allows search engines the ability to better understand what each page of your site is about. This is just one more way Endis is helping you have a better website.

Back to School Sale

Endis is having a back to school sale on yummyskins.com! The sale will end on September 15, so hurry before the rebate is gone. Get a $150 instant rebate when you go to yummyskins.com and purchase a new template for your Insight web site. Whether you are a youth group using ChurchInsight wanting to kick off a new look for your page or you use MinistryInsight for your college ministry, amp it up now for only $600! If you want a new look and feel to your site, now is the time to take advantage of the 20% savings. Rebates like this don’t happen all the time so be sure to take advantage of the lowered price while it lasts. Go to yummyskins.com, choose your new look and enter the sale code BACK2SCHOOL, and save big!

Pro's & Con's of Templates

Pro’s and Con’s of Templates

Like most things in life there are pros and cons to buying templates. Here are a few things you should consider before buying a Website Template.

First the Pro’s to buying Website Templates.
1. Website Templates are cheaper than a custom design skin. Typically you are going to save anywhere from 70-80% in design cost by choosing a premade template. That savings can provide a bit more flexibility in use of funds for other aspects of your project.
2. Templates are easy to work with rather than a custom design. Think of a template as a tract home, with all the variables worked out for you. Templates dictate where specific graphics go, where text sits, ad placement, etc, and so there is little decision making that is required.
3. You get instant gratification. Custom designs can take anywhere from days to weeks to produce, and so there is a slight emotional rollercoaster that we see people go through. With a template, you can make a choice and see it in place nearly instantly. This is a huge asset to organizations that need something up “quick” in order to meet upcoming deadlines.

Con’s to Templates
1. Website templates can be used by more than one person. Though the risk of ever running into another organization that uses your template is small, the risk is real.
2. Templates generally come with some limitations. Unlike custom designs, templates are built to be used by the wider audience, therefore some limitations on graphic placement, content length and general work flow can be inhibited.
3. Templates can sometimes be difficult to update. Again, there is a specific market that templates work well for, and those that are uber creative find them too restraining. As we hear often, “it is what it is” … and what a template is not … is custom.

In the end, it boils down to the over all goal that you are trying to accomplish with your website. If you want to take a look at a great site for templates, we offer many at Yummyskins.com. Yummyskins are designs specifically for the Insight platform and are available for a discounted rate through mid September.

Sitemap Submissions

We recommend to all our customers to use tools made available by Google to help bring exposure to their organization. Two of those tools are Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. Though it is sometimes debated, we are on the side of the argument for the submission of sitemaps to Google Webmaster Tools. If you would like to do this, we recommend these steps (assuming you already have your free account!):

1. In your weboffice, create a folder called Sitemap.
2. Use a free online sitemap generator, such as xml-sitemaps.com, to crawl your site by providing your domain name.
3. When completed, you will have an xml file (probably called sitemap.xml) that you can download onto your desktop.
4. Once you have the xml file on your desktop, you'll want to open it to edit it. The crawler will find things that you probably don't need indexed and you'll want to take those out. If you are on a mac, you can use textedit to edit the xml file. There are options for PC's as well, and you'll want to make sure that you save the file as xml with the file type as UTF-8.
5. Validate your site map with any free online site validator. We use one at AutoMapIt, because it also will ping the search engines for you with an updated map.
6. When you map is validated, upload it in your weboffice to the SiteMap folder, using the Media Tab and Upload New Document.
7. Open the newly uploaded document and select the URL that is next to the image of the XML file. It will begin with "/Media".
8. In your Google Webmaster Tools, choose the site maps option and add in your the link for your new site map that you just copied. If all works well, you will get a green check mark letting you know that it was successfully submitted.

Search Engines Working for you

Inbound Marketing

Please Go Away

How To Reach these People

Easy Steps To Do This

1. Find some one in your office who has time to be able to spend about a half hour to an hour a day on social networking sites i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, and the many others out there. You can even put a blog on your site like we have here at Endis. Here is an example of how it could look- Endis blog

2. Set up accounts on these sites and update them with new material so once you start to build up followers they will have reasons to keep coming back to your social networking sites.

3. Try and link back to your site, but don’t get carried away with it, because Search Engines like Google recognize this as a trick to get higher on the search list.

4. Go out and comment and talk to other people, churches, ministries, business. When you do this, people who are not following you but are following the person or blog that you commented on will go to your site just to see who you are. When you do comment on others sites, remember that you want to be kind, it is like Thumper said on that Disney classic Bambie “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. The worst thing you can do is to get on and start leaving negative comments, that will generate people talking negatively about you and will turn this whole idea around very quickly.

Customizing the User Experience

A great feature available to all Insight users is the ability to draw in the user experience with their website. We have built in forums, free blogging, article commenting and user side content submission that allows for true online communities. One of the unique ingredients available is the My Area section, which can be utilized in full or in part. For every Insight site, the My Area becomes dynamically accessible in the main menu structure, or can be linked to from anywhere in the site. My Area can include any of the following:

• Include Change Password
  
• Include My Organizations that the user belongs to
  
• Include My Registrations for Events, Subscriptions or Giving Registrations
  
• Include My Financial Reports to get quick access to any date range of purchases or giving
  
• Include My Wallet to update credit/debit cards on file
  
• Include My Membership to view areas of the organization they are a part of or would like to apply for
  
• Include My Mailing Preferences to manage all of the mailing types they are subscribed to
  
• Include My Reminders for tasks that have been assigned to them.
  
• Include My Documents to contribute or file any content they have submitted to the site
  
• Include My Bookings to see what resources they have reserved or update their requests
  

If an admin wants to turn off any of these options, its simple to do so. After all, all organizations are not the same and may not require each of these for their users.

Example: How to Turn off My Documents

The My Documents feature allows logged in users of the web site to post articles. These articles are then reviewed and published by those with appropriate permissions.

The My Documents option can be removed from the list of options available under the My Area menu by deselecting the option from within the drop-down navigation menu component of your layout through the Themes and layouts tool. Note: you'll need to remove options from all the layouts on your web site to make sure it doesn't appear anywhere on any area of your web site.

If you are new to editing component settings within a layout see the Themes and Layouts user guide for instructions on how to edit a component's settings.

Google XML vs Flash Slideshow

1. Create an article in any folder and call it your choosen name for the image player.
2. Select the source button in the article and place the code as is into the article.
3. In the Media tab, upload the images into a single folder that you want to use. These images MUST be the same size. If you place different sized images in, the feed will not work properly.
4. Write down the height and width of your images. Open your document back up and replace the source code height and width with the size of your images.
5. Now go to the Web Office and choose Settings > API > Media XML and create an xml feed for jpg images from your new media folder.
6. Copy the newly created feed in that window and place it back in your document.
7. Your feed is now ready. To display the feed, simply place an article component anywhere you would like and point to your new article. The images will show.

ChurchInsight in the UK

• Endis is the corporate entity in both the UK and US, with Insight as its product line. Because the markets are so different, the companies are run distinctly to meet those specific markets.
• Pricing is different. The UK offers levels of pricing depending on feature requirements. The US offers a lower median thresh hold of pricing that includes all features.
• Support for all Insight clients world wide is shared by both the US and UK Offices. All customers are welcome to call either office at anytime, and our email case management email address is handled by both offices as well.
• The UK takes more breaks for tea and darts. That's just a fact. There is no reason to comment on this.
• The US has a single site for all Insight products at www.endis.com. The UK offers the same products, but on product specific sites (i.e. churchinsight.com).
• Insight by Endis, regardless of where it is used in the world, runs on the same technology and benefits from all releases. Releases are usually available one day earlier in the UK for testing. Once testing is complete the release is made available in the US.
• The UK office has a motorcycle repair shop under it, so if you call you may hear weird sounds. The US office is run by people that have lots of kids ... again, the weird sound disclaimer.

Integrated Online Giving

Common Excuses for Not Using Online Giving

1. The demographic of your organization is not on the web. Wrong. Unless your demographic is from the Chukcha tribe in Eastern Siberia, you not aware of current web usage. Did you know that 16.5 million adults ages 55 and older engage on social networking sites? On Facebook alone, the fastest-growing user group is women 55 and over, up more than 175% since last fall. Men over 55 increased almost 138% during the same time period.
2. It’s not secure. Wrong. Using a platform that provides layers of security should be password protected, use and SSL and not store credit/debit cards. Many companies offer online technology now but in fact store credit cards of users for repeat transactions (US law currently allows this). Pick a solution that does not store credit cards numbers at all. Online transactions also provide for security in the sense of “if a human isn’t touching it, then there is lower risk of error or theft”. It is by far a better solution.
3. Online donation technology is too complicated. Wrong. There are providers that hold resources, control giving structures and put a high price on the use of the technology. Well funded web apps provide this technology for free and allow complete flexibility over how the giving is structured. Look for solutions that provide cyclical giving, designated giving and automatic options to various giving partnerships.
4. There are too many fees to contend with. Wrong. It is true that many merchant account companies take advantage of the market by over pricing products that are required for online giving. In general, you need to be aware of two types of fees: the ecommerce fee and the card transaction fee. Card transaction fees average about 2.3% (so build that in to your expenses). Ecommerce fees can range from a flat fee to a percentage, and some companies provide online donations absolutely free. Yes, Endis does.
5. Online Donations conflict with church values. Wrong. In the economy that we are living in, it is a valid point to not want to position members of your church to incur interest charges on tithes and offerings. Fortunately, there are now systems available that enable direct-debit from a checking account that provides the ease of a credit card transaction without the associated debt. Debit cards and credit cards are processed identically, but debit cards are linked to bank accounts and charges against them do not incur interest or increase debt. With the correct provider, a church will be able to pick and choose which services it would like to utilize, facilitating the ease of electronic giving while staying true to core values.

Setting Page Titles Correctly

• Keep the number "63" in mind. There is some dispute over what the actual number is, but generally Google considers only the first 63 characters of your titling.
• Your page titles are created by two parts: 1) the site title itself and 2) the page title. The site title can be changed in the Web Office under "Settings > Technical > Site Name. The page title is created by the name of the folder your article sits in.
• Remember that is the combination of both the site title and page title that contribute to the 63 characters. This number of characters includes all spaces and punctuation. We use a little formula in that we know how many characters our static site title is, which leaves us with only 14 characters for folder names. Therefore, we dictate that all folders be 14 characters or less. Ahh... I love systems!
  
• Site titles should include key information about your organization, whether that be your industry, city, name or other items that you feel would help people find you. The wording you use here will be the wording that shows up as "bold" on your entry in Google.