• The first step is to login by going to your site login page (www.YOURDOMAIN.org/login or www.YOURDOMAIN.org/sitename/login for Multi-ministry accounts) and add in your username (sitename) and password.
• That brings you to the ADMIN page - click edit site
• You can now click on add page or page list. Add page allows you to add a blank or a pre-formatted page to the site just click on the page, add the page name and the place you want it to appear in the menu and click add page
• At the page list you can rename, move (click on properties for the page) and change the order of the pages (click the reorder button). You can also click on the edit link to edit that page.
• Once you are editing a page you will see sections, by clicking the add button in the section you can add content components (text, images, links, etc.) under the section. You can add many components under each section. For existing components you can click on the edit link and change or add to the content of the component.

For more information on editing, login to your site, click edit site and click on the help tab and then on the tutorial links. There are many animated movies to help you learn how to use the editing tools.

1. Newsletter articles
2. Announcements
3. Calendar Events
4. RSS External Content Feeds

The News page is fairly complex and it is best not to edit the page if you do not have to. Instead, work with the page after you are logged in but have clicked the 'View Site' link rather than the 'Edit Page, link.

The Newsletters are articles while the announcements are meant to be more like the church bulletin for non-date-specific announcements, like a new staff member or a birth. Add the Newsletter article by clicking on 'Add Newsletter' when you are logged into the site editor. When you are editing the Newsletter page remember to add a short description at the bottom of the page template. This becomes the newsletter teaser on the News Page.

You should always add Announcements through the "add announcement" link on the News Page when you are in site edit mode. This will put the announcement short description and title on the News page and you can click through to the full announcement description. Do not add announcements on the Announcements Page - only add announcements by clicking the add announcement link on the News page.

The News page holds your last 3-5 (depending on how you set it up)announcements but you can see all of the users can see all of the announcements on the Announcements page. To change which announcements appear on the News page go to the page list and reorder the announcements. The last announcement on the list (the last one you entered) is the first announcement to show on the News page. To delete an announcement go to the page list and find the announcement under the announcements list and click delete (it will not let you delete the last announcement - it needs a place holder).

If you want to delete the announcement component on the News page just edit the page and delete the component and delete the title component as well. Then go to the page list and delete the announcements page. However, I suggest you keep it all, I think you will find it an easy way to keep everyone up to speed.

You enter Events through the calendar. Remember to make sure your hit 'view site' to take you out of page edit mode when you add events to the calendar. You make events show up on the news page by checking the "visible" button. Do not make recurring events visible - it does not work well.

To edit an existing calendar event you have to be in site edit mode so click the view site button. Then navigate to the calendar, find the event and click it, then click the 'edit this event' link on the event description page.

You can add RSS feeds for external news. CLICK HERE to learn more about RSS Feeds.

If you corrupt your News Page don't worry. Go to the Add Page interface and add another copy of the News page. All of the automatic content will be there. When you are satisfied with the page go to your page list, delete your old news page and then move your new News page to the correct menu location.

• You need a .JPG or .GIF file format
• All of the web pictures display at 72 dpi. If you upload a picture that is at say 150 dpi, it will be about twice as big on the website.
• Once the picture is ready simply edit your site and add a component with an image, it can be a Text, Image or Link component.
• Click the link that says "Click here to change this image"
• Hit browse and find the image on your computer
• Click "Open"
• Click "Upload"
• Resize the picture if you want to by clicking the "-Reduce" or "+Increase" links.
• Click "OK"

Most picture editing software has a 'save for the web' option under 'file'. If you size you picture in the editing software and then save for the web you will have the best results. If you do not have picture editing software we recommend Adobe Photoshop Essential

If need to resize multiple pictures at once you can use software like FastStone Image Resizer which can be downloaded from sites like CNET. Click on the download tab and search for FastStone Image Resizer. This is especially useful when preparing Multiple images into the image gallery.

The Multi-image upload Image Gallery component is an extremely quick and effective way to add pictures to your website. Once you master the methodology you will find you can upload up to 50 images in just a few minutes. By selecting the advanced file upload utility you can select multiple files for upload (up to 20). You control click on multiple images and these upload all at one time. A total of 50 images can be uploaded into the new multi-image components.

Another essential issue is to ensure you have the copyright or the material is not copyrighted. Sometimes it might appear you do have the copyright but actually when a user visits the site they will be asked for their copyright certificate. This is typically true if you use music from a commercial CD. Even if you are using your worship music on the site you still have to have a license to play the music on your website. The typical church music license does not have that and the licensing agency may charge you for every visitor to your site.

Automatically Play When Page Opens
Many visitors want to start sound files themselves but still some web sites open media files when the page opens. This can be useful if you have an announcement (maybe a welcome message or a special announcement) for the home page. Some webmasters like to add music to a page.

To have the file play when the page is opened, add a "Audio File" component: >Add >Audio and Video Multimedia>Audio File. Upload the file by clicking the "Browse" link and locating the file on your computer and clicking "Open". Check the box for Auto Play. Click "OK". WMA files can only be uploaded in the Plug-in player. Other types can be loaded into the Flash player. You can also set the player to start manually rather than when the page opens. You might want to make the player visible and size it to 45 high to say 75 wide so users can stop the music.

Play File When Clicked
You can use the Audio file and just not click the autostart option; make sure to leave your player "visible". You might have to put a text component underneath to say what the file is. If you are doing a list of audio files, like a sermon series, just use regular links. To create links to audio files that play when the link is clicked on (such as selecting a sermon to listen to): >Add >Links >Document/File Link. Click the button for "File" then select and upload the file from your computer. After you add the other elements of the component (link name for example), click "OK". If you use the text editor version 2 (recommended) you can create a link within the text, just highlight the text and click the link icon (a globe with a chain link on it) and select document / file link as your link type and select or upload your file. The simple text link is good for creating a table of sermons with the date, title, presenter and play link. If you want people to be able to download the file add a message that tells them to right click and select save target as.

Play on Click with Podcast
For Interactive Plan and above you can add a Media Library page from the add page function. This lists up to 50 media files and can take either audio or video files or both. The file can also be used to create a Podcast that a user can subscribe to and automatically download sermons to their PC or other Podcast receiver. To add a Media Library click on Media Library from the add page function.

When you edit the Media Library function you will see one tab for setting up the links on the page and uploading the files and one for setting up the Podcast. On the first tab set the player for audio only and to only show the text of the files if you are uploading audio files. Click the upload file button to upload your files. You can upload wav, MP3, and real sound files. Once the file is upload it is listed in a block format under the control window. Click on the bar to change the link name. Click the show Podcast option to show the Podcast link on the page and click the Podcast tab to set the title and descriptions for your Podcast.

Tips for File Compression
Good file compression is very important. I use software called Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio ($55 for this 'light' version at http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/product.asp?pid=454 ) to rip it off the CD convert from the CD format to Windows Media Audio (.wma) format. I save it at 28.8 kps, FM Mono quality for voice or FM Stereo for music. Another converter we have used successfully is Windows Movie Maker which is free and comes integrated with Windows XP or available for download at the Microsoft site. You will first have to rip off the file if it is on a CD using a program such as Windows Media Player.

To use Windows Movie Maker import your sound file using the menu on the left hand side (Capture Video>Import audio or music). Drop the file into the audio/music track. You can then crop it and adjust sound levels. You may have to create clips to do this (place you cursor in the audio track where you want to create a clip then click Clip>Split). Use the Finish Movie>Save to my computer function to save to a compressed .wma file format (make sure you have "show more choices" clicked in the movie setting section of the save wizard and select FM mono quality audio 32 kbps for voice or FM stereo for music).

1. Carefully fill in your description and keywords on your settings page (edit the site and click the settings button). Make sure your description is 30 words or less and that it is a description, not a mission statement. You do not have to repeat the title (Church or Ministry name). If you are a local ministry include the city and state. Include important keywords in the description like "Christian church in northwest Houston, Texas." Put your most important keywords first in the keyword box.
2. Search engines like Google claim they do not look at the meta-tags. That re-emphasizes the importance of putting key word content onto your site including keywords in the Page Title. It is our experience that using Google site map or analytics has very little effect on search engine listing.
3. Make sure your site title is filled in and includes your city and state if you are a local ministry - click on title/footer link in the site settings.
4. Follow all the directions in submitting the site to the search engines (from the Search Engine Submission button on the Admin page).
5. Submit your site in Yahoo! It is free. The 'suggest a site' is at the bottom of most pages.
6. Submit your site to the Open Directory Project. Go to www.DMOZ.com and click on the suggest URL. It is free as well. The appears to be less ability to respond to requests but try submitting your request anyway.
7. If you have a marketing budget you can try pay-per-click (ppc) Internet marketing. If someone searches for your category - you can pay to have your URL as a sponsored link. The first tier PPC engines are www.Overture.com and Adwords.Google.com - they are also the most expensive. Start small and evaluate whether the budget is well spent.
8. Make sure you are listed on local directories, the Chamber of Commerce site as well as denominational sites. You again might consider part of your marketing budget to pay up to say $100/year for listing on some of the local directories. Your marketing statistics (under site traffic from the ADMIN page) should show if you are getting referrals from these sites.

All site plans, allows you to set up business-class POP email accounts or receive email through a web interface webmail.churchsquare.com

Setting up accounts:

1. Log into your account and click on the Email Accounts link
2. Click the Add Mail Account link
3. Follow instructions to fill in your account name and password and click Create Account.

Get Your Mail

Regular Use:

• Use Outlook or Outlook Express to download your mail from the ChurchSquare servers
• Complete instructions are available by clicking the setup/help link on the email accounts page
• Follow the instructions carefully - we receive 100's of support calls regarding email but have yet to determine a problem is caused by our mail server
• Problems are usually related to set-up errors or network firewalls.

Travel Use:

• Go to webmail.churchsquare.com
• Enter your email into the first box, domain into the second box and password into the third
• Make sure you check on your account preferences. You will want to set the default to leave a copy of the email on the pop mail server if you usually use Outlook and also want to click the option to delete the trash folder when you log off
• This is one of the best web based systems available but it is still best suited for occasional use!

Enhance the Account

Accounts allow you to do the following:

Email Limitations

• To prevent you from being identified as SPAM we limit 25 emails in the to addresses
• Use the webmail for occasional use and set up Outlook for everyday use
• We offer the option to forward you email to another box but we highly discourage this process, many mail servers will not forward this type of email.

PayPal is well suited for Churches who do not have a merchant account (the ability to take credit card payments). Their rates are competitive and they enable ongoing charges, like a weekly or monthly donation.

To sign-up for your PayPal account, click this link:

Then click the sign-up for a new account on the right. Then click "business" and follow the directions.

Edit your site and click on your design manager and then on Header and Images. Click Custom Banner and you will see the window to browse your PC for you banner file.

If your version does not here are some choices for document conversion: