“The Blogging Church: Sharing the Story of Your Church Through Blogs”
By Brian Bailey, with Terry Storch (San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons,inc., 2007, 199 pages)
This is an incredible book. Essential for all ministers and pastors interested in blogging as a possible media for ministry. < –Read my complete review–> *Top
By Aliza Sherman Risdahl (Avon, MA: Adams Media/F+W Pub. Co., 2006, 305 pages)
This is a comprehensive book on blogging. It starts at the beginning and defines what blogging is and introduces you to all the major terms that everyone uses and identifies the differences between blogs and regular websites.
Next there are chapters helping you to get started. Very good help in choosing a host and a blogging program. Then there is help in actually getting started with some of the most popular blogging hosts and programs like Blogger, LiveJournal, and TypePad. See my evaluation of the Blogger info. at my Blogger site.
The middle chapters deal with improving your blog design and evaluating different blogging tools that can be added to the blogging experience. Then the book finishes with more advanced topics of how to promote your blog, analyzing traffic, and possible legal issues.
This is a very fine book and helpful for those getting started but also for those who have been around a while. Even though I have been blogging for over a year I found the chapter on legal issues worth the price of the book. *Top
I bought a few domains at Go Daddy and got free hosting and their free blogging program- Quick Blog. I set up a new blog to see how it works. Read my evaluation posted on the new blog. *Top
I just purchased 5 domains for Blogging Ministry from Go Daddy. The experience was not all that fun. I had purchased domains for my other blogs through Yahoo and it was quite fast and easy. However, Yahoo is actually a third party seller and not a direct accredited ICANN registrar. Also, most people in the know say that it is best to buy your domains from one source and host your sites/blogs with another.
So when I wanted to lock in all the community addresses related to bloggingministry.com, I searched on the web for an accredited ICANN registrar. I also wanted the best deal from the most reliable source possible. Go Daddy seemed to offer the best deal for purchasing 5 domains.
So then I searched the web for Go Daddy complaints (I googled: “go daddy complaints”)
Go Daddy had a few more complaints than I was comfortable with, however nearly all the problems had to do with hosting. Since I am not going to host a major site with Go daddy, just a ‘free’ test blog, I went ahead with the purchase.
Read the account of my experiences in registering with them. It is posted on my new ‘free’ Go Daddy Quick Blog. *Top
Here is a good article on purchasing domains. By John Kinney posted in the Entireweb Newsletter, Sept. 26, 2006. The site is full of advertising so it is somewhat hard to follow the post, but it is a great summary of important information about domains.
Here is a second article on protecting domains. By Ross Dunn posted on SiteProNews, March 23, 2007. This site is also full of ads and the important part of the article is down towards the bottom under the title: “Protecting Your Domains”. It has some great tips. *Top
by Brad Hill (Indianapolis, Indiana: Wiley Publishing. Inc., 2006, 368 pgs.) Chapter 10: pg. 189-224.
See my review of chapter 10 which helps you get started with a WordPress blogging program. It is posted at my WordPress.com site. *Top
By Jeremy Del Rio, Esq. An article in Charisma Magazine , March 2007.
MySpace has become a cultural phenomenon among teens in America and among the twenty something. Jeremy Del Rio makes a plea in this article to reach out and minister to young people on MySpace. He says:
“Perhaps what we must do first is try to understand them by inhabiting their space and truly listen to them. Then we can move on to praying for them, forgiving them, restoring them, guiding them and loving them.”
A great post for Youth Ministers and Pastors to read and consider. *Top
I took a look at WordPress.com as a potential host and platform for starting a blogging ministry. In order to understand how it works, I set up a new website. It took me only 1hr 20 minutes to set it up as it now is. Actually I could have done it faster since all of my blogs use WordPress and I am familiar with the program.
Then I posted an article on the new site, an evaluation of Wordpress.com as a blogging host. Take a look, it looks pretty sharp for a ‘free’ site. *Top
Here is a good article by Donna Gunter, posted on Site Pro News. The site is full of advertising so it is somewhat hard to follow the post, but it is a great summary of beginning info. Site Pro is a commercial business site, but the tips given here are valid and equally helpful for those starting a ministry blog. *Top
Townhall.com offers to host ‘free’ blogs. Take a look at my evaluation of Townhall and the possible uses. Also the pros and cons of the platform and blogging tool. I created a blog at Townhall in 30 minutes. Actually it could have been done faster. It is easy to start and easy to use. It’s not all that impressive however, a very limited blogging tool for ministry. My evaluation is posted on my new Townhall blog. Check it out. *Top
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