Last week I began recruiting writers to rapidly expand the site’s content. This weekend I completed the bulk of my redesign using the Thesis Theme for Wordpress. I’ve kept the most popular devotional feeds displayed on the homepage with the newsPage plugin. I have also created an email newsletter to begin building a consistent reader base.

Check it out, link to it, and watch for promotions coming soon.

It’s an exciting development and that website continues to grow into a more professional project. I’m learning how to manage writers and edit fast growing blog staff. We’ve gone to a pay-per-post method of compensation.

The other big development for Ministry-To-Children is the new Facebook page. It has only been two weeks but over 500 people have became fans. This opens a whole new communication channel for the sites content.

Just last week, I updated the site to serve to host my sermons and adult bible teaching ministry. Most of what I do at my church is focused on children, and has its own website. So, I don’t expect to post more than once per month to the new site.

Either way, I enjoyed setting up the site. It might be a good example of what a ministry resume blog should contain. Plus, I love the look of the new theme.

• Transfer hosting from Wordpress.com to a self hosted installation of Wordpress
• Transfer his domain registration to the new host.
• Install and customize a Wordpress template
• Install and tweak plugins to fit his needs
• Consolidate his RSS subscribers to one feed burner account

It was a fun project and I was glad Trevin picked us to guide him through the transition.

Click here for details and to enter the contest.

On the marketing side, this will be a real breakout for Christian Book Notes. Terry has been writing some great content and the challenge is getting noticed in the increasingly crowded blogoshpere. We are planning several “giveaway” promotions to build momentum.

They are wrong.

Website directories still exist, attract users, and some even turn a profit. It’s true that the “general” directories can’t keep up with the growth and change of the internet. But topical niche directories, or regional specialist directories are still strong and even growing.

The software scripts that run these directories are definitely more complicated than Wordpress, but it’s nothing a few hour of instant coffee can’t overcome.

All this is to say. I’m building a directory of Christian websites. Right now, web development challenges are my recreation.  Plus, I think a directory can be relevant again if done well. So, check it out an add links to all your blogs.

One note – I just started this thing over the weekend. Most of my time has been spent in learning the script and tweaking the design. So, it’s still very skinny on links. You can help me out by adding some of your favorite sites.

Overall, it was easier than I imagined. The only hang up was customizing the forum appearance to better match the main website.

A few considerations:

• The success of forums depend on a large group of active readers. This is the main reason I held off until now to add them. But with several thousand unique visitors each day, the website seemed like it was ready to expand.
• Forums can be a great way for readers to contribute to the website. By asking and answering questions, the community created content expands the value of the site rapidly. Plus, bbPress can be set up to be very search engine friendly.
• To get the forums past the tipping point, I’m running a contest to encourage readers to register. Bottom line – if I can ‘t get readers to use the forum then they will not add value. So, giving away $60 in books from Amazon seemed like a good strategy. If it pays off, then the forums will get off to a strong start and have some momentum going forward.

The response has been very strong. So far, 65 bloggers have been approved. This is well beyond my initial goal.

When I think it over, it makes sense. What is one thing I can give away that can’t be bought? Targeted exposure for their blogs. As My Christian Blogs becomes a major website (hitting 400+ pageviews already & aiming much higher) it will send waves of traffic to the blogs I’m listing.

It’s a win-win situation.

In case you were wondering, I’m running the whole thing through a Google Reader shared clip right now. It’s easy to administer and doesn’t add any stress to my website load times.

How I Build The Meta Feed

It’s nothing fancy. Just a folder in my Google Reader titled “kummeropolis” that I’ve set to public so I could share a clip. 

What’s The Point

Mainly it’s to showcase the latest feed items across several websites. But I’m also hedging a few bets on search engine visibility. Here are a few factors that Google might be tracking, or atleast they should.

• Feedburner “reach” statistics show which items are actually displayed and clicked. So, it might be a good thing to get my feed itmes as much traffic as possible.
• I’ve read SEOs that think javascript links are now being valued. If so, then these clips are very handy links back to my sites through google itself.

Like everything about search rankings, it’s hard to isolate one factor for testing. But this is one example that I would do even with zero bot benefits.

This goes back to my gut level instinct for SEO. If I do my job (building better websites) and Google does their job (building better search) then everything will work out in my favor – eventually.

This makes the 6th property managed by Kummeropolis Media. The good news is that Terry will do all the writing, but I’ll be a silent partner to help with administration and promotions.

Later this Summer, Terry will begin some book giveaways. So, be sure to check out the new site and get his RSS feed.