|
|
||
|
By
Chris Forbes - Webmaster MostImportantThing.org
The
site is now designed to be a space on the Internet that Oklahoma's
Christians can use to share their personal experience of knowing
Jesus and offer seekers a place to explore the gospel. The
site currently hosts more than 300 testimonies (called stories)
of everyday Oklahoma people. A few out of state people use
the site, but most of the people in the database are from the state.
We have also developed our own simple-to-use evangelism training
resources called Cross
Training.
The
audience for MIT is 25-54 year old Internet users in the state
of Oklahoma. (Youth and college age targets will be reached
through new sites that are under development.)
In
a first phase
of the re-launch of MIT, we added more content, videos and other
features. We improved the functionality of our testimony
database, making it possible to sort by city. In addition,
we started rotating the content on our front page and using
swapping banners and images to help our site maintain a fresh
look for each visitor. In phase
two MIT increased the functionality
of our site's administration tools, added a more lively design
and added more ways for people to respond to our site.
New eCards, eNewsletters and site features make getting to the
gospel and responding much easier.
MIT
has also begun to move toward a greater use of off-line promotional
resources and traditional advertising. Ads have been
placed in movie theaters since the Passion
Movie and will continue
for six months. We also will target online banner ads
on the state's more popular websites. The greatest promotional
tool to date has been the word-of-mouth
and viral parts of our marketing efforts. Witnesses
who have posted a testimony on the site are equipped with
print
cards that promote the site and allow them to invite people
to log on to the site and look them up by name. New
print cards with various designs are also being developed
to increase this effective strategy. Witnesses can also
now email the link to their stories to their friends or they
can send an eCard to invite a visit.
The
MIT site strategy is now a more direct-response
approach toward our site visitors. We are adding new
opt-in items such as a new email newsletter about "the
spiritual side of life." The
monthly newsletter delivers insights suited for seekers
through thought provoking ideas, links and opportunities
throughout Oklahoma to explore more about God.
Because
MIT is developed all in the Microsoft .NET, the site has
a unique ability to be re-skinned
(graphics, domains, content) for other purposes.
Our initial costs for development have made us capable
to develop an endless variety of new sites. Our
next sites (phase four) will be developed at a fraction
of our original development costs (less than 10% of
the original cost). MIT is edited completely
through easy-to-use User
Input Modules.
Non-technical people edit the site! This positions
us to be able to offer other states and web-evangelists
a scaleable
solution that is connected to a network of follow-up and
resources. We can now assist others on the web to
establish a locally-focused strategy that meets the needs
of new target audiences.
Since we
have moved to our locally-focused Oklahoma strategy,
we have increased our traffic by 150%, doubled the
amount of time people stay on our site, tripled the
number of testimonies in our database and yielded new
evangelistic contacts and decisions.
In addition, we are excited that we are now positioned
to help other ministries replicate our successes. |
||
|
One of the net's
central technologies has serious security vulnerabilities, according
to UK and US infrastructure protection agencies. The BBC reports
that anyone exploiting the loophole could cause widespread disruption
by subverting the way the Internet ensures data reaches its intended
destination. GO
TO |
||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||