Search results for: “good news”

  • What a day!

    I was having a good day. Really, my new toy arrived and the installation has gone very smooth. I had a good day at work and got a lot done.

    Then I got totally flattered by a post over on the MailChimp blog. (MailChimp is the third party email handler we use for the YMX newsletter)

    Not that they don’t use technology. Youth Ministry Exchange is taking full advantage of a bunch of MailChimp features to spread the word. Here are some things that impressed me:

    * They built an archive of all their past newsletters here. It’s a page they host on their website, then they use MailChimp’s Archive Generator to embed that list. It gets automatically updated whenever they send out a new issue. Learn more about MailChimp Archive Generators
    * They’ve created their own signup form, then pass the data over to MailChimp (insteading of using our default, hosted signup form). Our signup box designer is pretty nice, but it’s always nicer when you host your own.
    * On their signup form, they’re using MailChimp’s Interest Groups feature, which allow subscribers to sign up to receive only specific types of content. Learn more about MailChimp Interest Groups…
    * They’re using MailChimp’s HTML email designer, and they’ve really customized their newsletter design to fit their brand. The content in their newsletters is actually useful! Tips, free downloads, and commentary. Nice.
    * In their newsletters, they link to their blog, and to an RSS feed. More ways to keep your members updated.

    Wow. A Christian ministry getting mentioned as using a lot of technology. I love that.

  • Right to Work Michigan

    Right to Work StatesI just saw a commercial against legislation called “Right to Work.” (Here’s the “anti-right to work” to be fair.)

    From what I understand, the legislation will allow individual employees to decide if they would like to be in union or not. (If it’s a union shop) So let’s say you are a teacher… this legislation would allow you to opt out of the teacher’s union and remain being a teacher. Or if you work at a plant and would like to leave the union, this would allow you to do that and still keep your job.

    I can’t lie. I think this is a good idea for Michigan. Take a look at the map. Southern states are the ones attracting businesses. Even places like Boise, Idaho have made the list so there is hope for Michigan! Check out Forbes Magazines “Best Places for Business” list and you’ll see that almost all of the top 10 are located in right to work states. (8 out of the 10.)

    I’m not saying “let’s stop the unions” and I’m not a union hater. What I am saying is that there should be legislation that allows employees to chose what is best for them. Employees should have the ability to chose if they’d like to pay into a union, accept union benefits, or otherwise opt in or opt out without threats.

    Would right to work negatively impact unions? Probably. As I talk to people in my life who are in unions most would opt out if they could. The one protection they appreciate most, job security, hasn’t worked in Michigan or protected jobs. Companies simply haven’t been able to afford union workers and remain profitable in this new economy. There is a general assumption among pro-union people that the buying public is willing to pay more for products produced in union shops. Wal*Mart, Toyota, and Honda have blown that theory out of the water. The American people may say that they will buy “American made” or “union pride” products… but they don’t care. Consumers are driven by value, price, and how a product makes them feel.

    Why am I so suspicious of the “anti-right to work” ad campaign? Um, follow the money trail.

  • First Things First, How Most Mornings Start

    dawnI start each day pretty much the same way. Here’s a list of things I try to do in the morning. The days of grabbing a cup of coffee and reading the morning paper are long, long gone.

    1.  Download e-mail. This usually takes just a couple of seconds as almost everything I get is spam. Even if I get something compelling enough for a response I typically will wait until I am more awake. The only thing I’ll do right away (typically) is send out a prayer request if one was sent to me.
    2. Login to feedburner. Actually I login at least twice so I can check out the subscriber levels of YMX and my personal account. (With blog accounts for Kristen and I.) Here I’m looking for a spike in additions or subtractions. If it has spiked, I’ll update the YMX team.
    3. Login to Google Analytics. Since I’m managing about 20 websites now, this is my one-stop shop to see how everything is doing. (It doesn’t update live, so the morning is my first look at what happened yesterday.) Again, I’m looking for spikes and dips. For YMX, my blog, the church site, and any other site I’m paying special attention to I’ll look at the referral tab. I alway like to see how people are making it to my sites. The vanity search thing is sending us bucket loads of referrals lately. (People googling their name.)
    4. Check site rankings for my favorite search terms on Google. (No, I’m not checking out my name… I get emailed when that pops up anywhere on the internet!) But I like to know if there has been any shift in organic search terms I care about. In just the last 30 days Google has sent 4100 visitors to YMX… our number one referral. (Gospel.com is moving up quickly, love that site!)
    5. Google Reader time. I subscribe to about 100 blogs. My goal in the morning is to clear out the blogs… meaning I want to drop the number of unread things to 0. If it’s good I share it (appears on the left side of my blog), if it isn’t I don’t finish reading it. This is also my primary news source. So if there is something going on in the news I am depending on bloggers to cover it. This is also the source of my morning Bible reading, devos. (Check out RBC’s RSS page)
    6. Pop into YMX. That may surprise people but I only pop into the YMX forums a couple of times per day. I love having a great team of folks that keep the forums going! Patti is the forum-meister and the more I trust her, the better.
    7. Post on my blog. If there has been something on my mind or if one of these other steps brought something to mind that was compelling. I’m also becoming a bigger user of the draft feature, so sometimes I’ve got 8-10 posts that I want to work on when I get a chance. I also go through big “writing feasts” where I may write more posts in a day than I should publish… so I time them to release later.
    8. Publish stuff for YMX. I login to Google docs and see if there is something Amy wants me to publish. It takes me at least 20 minutes to publish an article, do the graphics, and pimp it out. If I’ve got time and it needs to get done, I’ll do it then. If I can’t swing it, it’ll wait until after work.

    How long does all this take? It depends on what I’m doing, how much time I have, and a lot of other factors. (Like getting picked by Megan to take her to school.) I can do all of this in as little as 5 minutes… or if I’ve got a lot of time, it can last all morning.

    What about your morning routine? What do you do?

  • 3 Things Big Name Bloggers Need to Learn from the Little Guy

     I have  a  mixture of blogs that I  read. Some of them, I am their only subscriber and others have thousands of  people whoBlog snob read their  stuff every day. Seth Godin‘s blog apparently has more readership than 95% of all magazines in the United States. In doing this every day I’ve made a couple of observations. You see, while these “blog celebrities” may be online moguls, they are generally not that famous. (Just making a couple hundreds bucks a day from Google to blog… or in Seth’s case, no money to blog as he refuses to have ads.)

    But there are a couple of things I don’t like about the big name bloggers. Even in the Christian world, big named bloggers take on an aura of superiority. They tend to communication that blog rules don’t apply to them when you get to be super big. Here’s three things that big named bloggers need to learn from small named bloggers if they want to remain on top. Because folks like me are getting annoyed and are going to drop you like a bad habit if you don’t straighten up and fly right.

    1. Leave comments on. I’ve noticed that once a blog hits about 1,000 subscribers they like to turn off comments and leave on trackbacks. (Some truly elite turn off both!) In other words, the blog owner wants you to send traffic to them and doesn’t want traffic to go to you. Once you turn off my ability to respond to your blog post it isn’t a blog anymore. Now you are running a consultancy or a business, but not a blog. Some say they don’t have time to respond to comments. They joy of commenting is that you don’t have to respond as your blog will take on a life of its own. I recently noticed a speaker from a conference on blogging who told his audience “If you don’t allow comments you aren’t blogging.” He is now only accepting trackbacks.
    2. Don’t forget you’re a human. One of the things I like about reading blogs is that you get a snapshot of a person’s life. Big name bloggers tend to stop writing personal thoughts, schedule snippets, and other stuff because they think it doesn’t pay well. (Yes, big named bloggers write with the purpose of drawing traffic and getting paid. The big trend now is to write the perfect eye catching subject line.)  One of the reason I am reading your blog, Mr. I Make $200/day on Adwords alone, is because I am curious about you. If you think I just want to read essays that aren’t good enough for your book, think again. Just be human.
    3. Ads are OK, just be upfront about what you are getting paid for. When I read a bloggers recommendation for a book, website, or any other product… I am automatically trying to figure out how that blogger is getting paid. (ebooks are the #1 culprit of this) Amazon affiliates, ad networks, and Google Adwords are all easy to spot. But I’m finding that a lot of these big named guys are getting paid to plug in about half their posts. (Or so it seems) That’s pathetic. Another thing I am noticing with big named bloggers is that they aren’t giving credit for their sources. Not only will they not link to a commenter, now they won’t link to their sources? Why is that? Oh yeah, because big name bloggers only want to link to things that increase their page rank and/or pay them.

    I’m a capitalist and I’m all in favor of new media and I’m perfectly fine with blogs becoming the most powerful medium on the internet. But I want to caution blog readers that while blogs may seem like citizen journalism, you have to be certain to ascertain a bloggers credibility.

    Do you know the ethical standards of journalism? Bookmark this page!

    Here’s the thing… most “big name blogs” are not journalist. They are marketers and they are profiteers. You have to use the same wisdom in reading a blog that you do in watching the news. At least in the news there is some editorial control. Blogs are like the old west of journalism… there are no sheriff’s in Blog County.

    No, I won’t name names. And no, I’m definitely not talking about any youth ministry blogger. In fact, the “big name” youth ministry bloggers that I read tend to be true gentlemen about all of this. Sure, some of them make money off their blogs… but they aren’t crossing the line. (yet!)

  • How do I get published?

    How do I get published?

    There doesn’t seem to be a more common dream among youth workers than the desire to get a book deal or to get published in a national magazine.

    Here’s a reality check: No one is ever going to contact you to offer you a book deal or to ask for you to write for a magazine.

    This is where YMX is unique in the ministry world. We want to help aspiring youth ministry authors, curriculum writers, and reviewers get to the “next level” by helping them develop a recognized name and find their writing voice.

     Developing a recognized name

    Yeah, I said it.  If you want to write a book, write articles, or publish curriculum you’ll probably need to do some work. It’s not like publishers are so bored in their jobs that they are just randomly looking at blogs, youth group websites, or your college papers. The reality is that the decision makers are busy… so you have to build a body of work to the point where you can make a pitch for your project. In other words, a publisher is gambling by publishing your work. Their gamble is that publishing you will make them more money than it will cost to produce your work. While all youth ministry publishers are in it to help youth workers… at the end of the day they have to pay salaries and cover expenses. So, if you want to get published at the next level you need to show that you already have an audience reading your stuff, using your stuff, and wanting your stuff now.

    Finding your writing voice

    I’ve had the pleasure to watch this process at YMX. The first couple of articles we get from people typically aren’t that great. They are full of passion and full of “stuff” that makes sense to the author but is hard to translate to a broader audience. What happens is that when an article is submitted it gets edited. And when an author reads the published article vs. what they have submitted they learn how to write more for what the editor thinks is palatable to a broad audience. The result is that by the 3rd article, we’re getting a better quality article/review/resource. And we are seeing that the new author is starting to get confident in their writing style… finding a voice. This is another thing that a publisher is going to want to see. They will want to see that your stuff is polished but they don’t have the time/money to help you get polished.

    So how do I get published? Here’s some ways to start today at making your writing dream a reality.

    1. Blog. The more you write, the more confident you get in writing.  Don’t just write about silly stuff or pass along links or the latest quiz to your friends. Find something to write about. If you really don’t have any ideas just pick a chapter of the Bible and write your reflections on a new chapter every day.
    2. Submit an article on something you are interested in. Write an article about something you are knowledgeable about to YMX. It doesn’t have to be long, 500-700 words is perfect. Another cool thing you can do is to ask people if you can guest blog on their blog. This will help you get used to writing for different audiences. Just like when doing speeches or preaching at churches, knowing your audience is half the battle. Once you get a few of these under your belt… you are ready to take on something tougher.
    3. Create a project that is outside what you know. Stretch yourself a little to write about something. This will demonstrate to yourself and others that you are diverse enough to write things that are beyond your experience.
    4. Ask for feedback. Once you get a few things published online, ask for feedback. How many people read my article? What would have made it better? How could I make that article into something that more people would have read?
    5. Ask for projects. I’ve never told a person “nothing” when they ask me for something I’d like to see an article on. When you ask me for a project idea and then you submit an article along those lines… that’s when I can see you are really getting into it.
    6. Be consistent and make deadlines. Nothing is more annoying than people who pitch an idea, get an assignment, and then blow a deadline. That is definitely not going to help you get to the next level.
    7. Start pitching ideas to new editors. This is the exciting step we see many writers at. They have written a few things for YMX, gotten solid feedback, and are now ready to draw on that experience to start getting paid gigs. So they submit their project ideas to youth ministry magazines, major Christian websites, their local newspaper, (small town papers are always hungry for good content) and maybe even another larger venue.
    8. Welcome to the world. When editors know your name and what you’ve got a body of work they are familiar with… they may just call you about a project idea they have been thinking about. Here’s a hint: Say yes and beat that deadline!

  • Snow is heavy in Romeo

    It’s November 26th and the snow is coming down heavy in Romeo. It’s one of those pretty snows too, the kind that is hard to hate.

    That isn’t really newsworthy, but it is always good to record the first heavy snowfall of the year. Though technically we got 2 inches on Thanksgiving… it didn’t happen in plain sight and we woke up to it. 

    My prediction: It will be 55 and warm on Christmas day.

  • Circles and Facebook

    FacebookI’ve spent a fair amount of time talking about Facebook this week. It’s truly amazing to me the connections I’ve been making.

    Kristen’s dad wrote a book called "Circles of Blessing" where he describes their missionary story in Indonesia, his dreams for one day reaching into Soviet Russian, and God’s annoying habit of doing amazing things because you are simply faithful to His Word and calling.

    Thanks to Facebook and taking some seminary classes I’ve been able to paint a beautiful picture of something God did simply because I was faithful to His Word way back in 12th grade.

    I really got on fire for the Lord in 11th grade while living in Germany. But some circumstances led to my
    coming back to the U.S. and re-entering the school that I grew up going to for my senior year. That’s where the story takes some twists.

    (more…)

  • Wanna be hip? Go GREEN

    Green_giantThe latest marketing trend is to go green. Meaning: Doing things that are good, or pseudo-good, for the environment.

    Terms that are popular along these lines…
    – Bio-anything
    – Renewable
    – Carbon Footprint (offset)

    Coming soon to a store near you is renewable anything, bio-everything, and stuff that has negative carbon impact.

    Even if you don’t buy into the global warming stuff (which I don’t) you can appreciate going away from wasteful sources of energy and resources and towards things that have less waste. Anyone who has traveled to a European country has seen little ways to eliminate packaging excesses or ways to save a little gas or heat a little less of a home. And anyone who has been in a developing country (until recently called a third world country) will see that our garbage becomes their garbage. While the United States is pretty good about hiding our wasted stuff [and Canada’s too] these developing nations simply have no way to hide the junk they produce and the junk they allow to be dumped there by Americans.

    Where is the church on this issue?
    Most churches are decidedly "anti-green." They simply don’t care about wasting stuff. Even worse, they are late on the bandwagon that "green" isn’t just about tree hugging wackos; it’s about normal people now, Christian and non-Christian alike, who want to make sure we don’t blow it for our kids. I really feel like being a Christian means that we need to be good manager of all that God has given us. I don’t think I want to associate myself with Greenpeace and other leftist nuts… but I am seeing and feeling a strong pull to become less of a corporate waster-of-crap.

    Here are a couple of things worth considering… because it’s little things that save a lot of energy.

    • Consider zoned heating. Kristen and I are constantly mocked for keeping our home a little cool in the winter, especially at night. We’ve installed (and are buying more of) a little space heater that is safe and runs on almost nothing. Check this out. By running these we can keep the bedrooms nice and warm and basically turn off our forced air heating system at night. What is the point of heating rooms you won’t be in all night? We live in a 135 year old house. The house was designed for zoned heating… it’s not bad, it’s good stewardship.
    • Consider driving less. I’m sick of people complaining about gas prices. If it continues to change people’s driving habits I hope a gallon of gas goes up to $5. There are two things attached to your stumps, they are called feet. You can even walk when the weather isn’t perfect and you are allowed to do it for transportation too. It may take a little longer but you’ll feel great. I know I live in Detroit and cars = jobs. But you don’t need 2-3 cars in one house. You don’t need an 8 passenger SUV for your 4 person family. You can carpool to work, school, church, small group, after school stuff. It may not be super convenient or super efficient all the time… but it is a good thing! I say this little phrase all the time and it saves me tons of gas and an extra car, "Can you drop me off at my house?" Most of our driving habits can be broken. It’s not that "you can’t" (which I hear all the time) it’s that "you won’t." If, for some reason, Kristen and I ever get enough money to replace our car… it’s bio-deisel or hybrid. The more of us that force this issue, the more the automakers will make. (Remember economics class?)
    • Consider canceling crap. We need to pressure the post office to stop giving us mountains of sale papers we don’t want. We keep a box of "burn pile paper" and you’d be surprised how much goes into it on a weekly basis. Something else that is a waste… the newspaper. I normally read 20-30 news stories a day and I haven’t subscribed to a newspaper in forever. Why? There is this wonderful thing called the internet. It’s better than a newspaper or magazine subscription any day. I can read it when I want to, where I want it delivered, and I don’t even have to throw it away.

    I know I’ve kind of gone off a bit here. The simple fact is that Christians need to start thinking about "how can I live a life glorifying to God that is about "less" and not "more." Using more does not equal God’s blessing! It often means we are bad managers of the resources God has given us. More than that… these are things that we are willing to lead the way on.

    Got any more things we should consider?     Comments are welcome!

  • The economy of hate

    The economy of hate

    I probably spend more time on the internet than anyone else I know. I’ll admit it, I’m a web dork. Let me try to spell out a trend I see on ministry websites, youth ministry sites, personal blogs, Facebook, and the rest of the social media/social networking map.
    If the news (Media 1.0) was subtitled “If it bleeds, it leads.” The citizen news (Media 2.0) could be subtitled “If it flames, it sells.”

    Here’s a simple fact about the internet: If you want the easiest way to draw traffic to your site/blog/ministry/church all you have to do is flame people. Start a site about how much you hate something and you’ll draw traffic.

    My definition of “flame” on the net:     To bad mouth for the sake of creating discussion and more bad mouthing without ever checking the source to fact check.

    Example: I’m on the pastoral staff at my church. In 5+ years of full time ministry I can only think of 1-2 times when someone came to me in public or private and bad mouthed me. (Rumor mill doesn’t count since that’s ignored) But on the internet it happens many times a year. Obviously this happens because it’s not face to face, it doesn’t seem “real” and it is thought that things written on the internet don’t count as much as things said in person. (Uh, they still hurt!)

    Why is this?     Here’s the way most stuff on the web works. I write about something and then the reader either talks about it or doesn’t. And people are more likely to link to or forward something that is dirty than they are something that is benign, informative, or encouraging. That’s just the nature of communicating in the new media. The result is that some people write purely to be read and since “flaming sells” they know that flaming people/ministries/churches will draw more notoriety, traffic, and ultimately income.

    Normal content + traffic = $1

    Hate content + traffic = $5

    That’s pretty much what it looks like. If your site or blog flames someone you’ll get more traffic. If you do it habitually you’ll grow like mad. Look at Digg.com for example. (Chris Garret talked about this today) The only time my stuff gets on Digg is if I either post it myself or if I say something considered flame worth.

    Another example: 18 months ago I wrote an article about why I don’t do retreats anymore. It wasn’t really a flame but it was slanted away from the camping industry. It got 4,000+ reads. Jason Raitz wrote the counter to that article… it only got read 1,000 times. A couple weeks ago we published an article called “Why most mission trips are a waste of time.” Forget the fact that the article was written 2 years ago… even though we’ve published pro-mission trip articles before… Noel’s article got mountains of traffic. (Compare the comments alone)

    So are you saying that all blog traffic is drawn to flame speech? Not at all… just among “normal content.” When you say something that is remarkable, the math looks like this:

    Remarkable content + traffic = $10+

    Which leads to my point… most people write hate/flame based content because they don’t have the guts/brains/skills to write something remarkable. In other words, it is easier to draw traffic with flame-worthy content than it is to draw traffic with remarkable content.

    Adam’s Law of Traffic: Write something remarkable and everyone will talk about it. Write about something you hate about someone and some people will talk about it. Write about normal stuff and only your mama will talk about it.

    (more…)

  • Perry Noble’s Rant: Amen

    PerryI’m sure most of us have felt how Perry Noble felt when he posted this today:

    I recently heard of a church in the area taking a stab at NewSpring
    DURING a worship service, saying that we allow people to dress any way
    they wish and that suits and dresses are not required, even frowned
    upon in our church. This comment was made to criticize us…but lets
    unpack it for a second. 🙂

    I hate this too. There is nothing worse than a church attacking your church. It’s just annoying and funny at the same time. Been a while since we’ve gotten this… but it comes and goes.

    I love his response.

    It’s time that Christians people that go to church
    STOPPED this crap! Dressing up does not make you godly…for many it
    simply means they are good looking hypocrites!!! The REAL question is
    how is your heart…are you and I doing what Jesus outlined in Matthew 22:36-40?  THAT matters!!!  (Once again please note they asked Jesus about what was most important…and He never mentioned a dress code!)

    Preach it Perry-man.

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