We get it, there are a lot of moving parts to a website and why does it have to be so confusing? The good news is, we know about all these parts so that you don’t have to. This article will walk you through how to create the perfect setup from start to finish. Just follow the steps and your site will last a lifetime.
Do you have a domain?
A domain is what you type into a browser. It is your url. For us, our domain is thechurchco.com. If you don’t already have a domain. You can purchase a domain a hover.com. Hover is great for registering a domain. It is easy and affordable.
Do you have hosting?
No, good. With The Church Co we cover your hosting for you. Our servers are top rated and secure. We can handle anything that is thrown at us.
Yes, that’s ok. You can still use your hosting to handle your email or after you have set up your site with us you can cancel it.
That’s right no extra costs for hosting from us. Consider it our investment back into your ministry.
The Dream Set up.
All you need to have a great website is what is listed above but we’re about to get a little bit nerdy if you want to run your site like a professional that will handle large amounts of traffic.
CloudFlare is a great FREE service that adds an extra layer of protection to your domain as well as a cache (makes yours site faster). Signing up for a CloudFlare account makes it incredibly easy to launch your site on with us and we would highly recommend their service.
G Suite by Google for Email ($5 per user / discounts for non-proits)
G Suite by Google. Just go, go right now and sign up. G Suite by google allows you to have a custom email address on your domain and use all of the Google Apps to manage your email. For $5 a month per user you get access to all of GMAIL, INBOX, Drive, Calendar, Docs, Spreadsheets and much more. This is incredibly worth it. In fact, just take the money you are saving on hosting and use it to sign up for this service. Trust us, you need it. This the best way to have email on your own domain.
MailGun (Free up to 10,000 Emails)
MailGun is a reliable way to send email from your website. “But why would I need to send email from my website”. Great question. Let’s say you have a form on an event to manage your RSVPs you could have that form send you and email anytime someone fills it out with all of the details. Once you have signed up for MailGun you can enter the details under Settings > MailGun. The emails can come from your address and are a great way to get notifications.
MailChimp (Free up to 2000 Subscribers)
MailChimp is extremely good at managing your email list. Use any of their prebuilt templates and add custom images and text to let your members know of all the latest updates from your ministry.
Unsplash Photos (Free & built into The Church Co)
Need a great photo but just can’t find one you’ve taken? Check. We’ve built Unsplash directly into our platform. search for photos of any type and use them for free.
That is all for now. Check back as we will continue to update this post with the latest tech for churches and ministries. As aways, if you have any questions send and email to our support team and we will respond right away and assist you in any way we can.