This from Kirkdale Press:

Coming off its recent launch, Kirkdale Press is looking to bolster its all-star lineup by sounding a call for the next best-selling Christian fiction and non-fiction authors. Established and up-and-coming authors alike can submit queries for completed manuscripts, which Kirkdale Press is now accepting and reviewing for ebook publication. Kirkdale builds on Logos Bible Software’s 20 years of experience as the world’s leading publisher of electronic Christian resources and Bible study tools.

“I had no idea how to market my work … but Kirkdale does,” said Naomi Dathan, author of Whither Thou Goest, I Will Go, published by Kirkdale Press. “Now my book is being read all over the place, and I love it.”

Kirkdale Press prides itself on setting the industry standard for strong publisher-author relationships.

“We truly care about our authors,” said Kirkdale Press Manager Ryan Rotz. “And it shows as we guide them through the publishing process and give them the marketing skills necessary to build a following in the digital world.”

Published Kirkdale authors — from National Day of Prayer Task Force Vice Chair John Bornschein, who penned The Front Line, to fiction writer Lucie Ulrich — note walking away with a customized, one-of-a-kind experience.

“From acquisition, to editing, to publicity, every person I worked with was wonderful,” said Ulrich, author of Broken Vessels, a recently published title by Kirkdale Press. “As a new author, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but all of my questions and concerns were addressed, and I was given a great deal of encouragement.”

Kirkdale offers unique state-of-the-art features, such as tagged Bible references that allow users to click them and instantly read Scripture passages within their ebooks. When read via the dynamic Vyrso ereader app, Kirkdale titles can be integrated with the powerful and expansive Bible study tools and resources of Logos 4, which gives readers the ability to search through thousands of ebooks in seconds. Kirkdale books are also available through Kindle, Nook and other ereaders.

Does this sound like an opportunity you would be interested in?

PRESS START!

[via LOGOS]

For a company that believed that mobile computing was the future, why are they so far behind?

My biggest grip with it now? They made the Facebook Page App as a completely separate app which will cause confusion, annoyance, and more resources on the iPhone used up.

Here are some screenshots of the app in action:

You can download it from the Apple App Store for free.

What is your opinion of Facebook’s newest app?

I thought it would end up being closer, but the answer to the question, Which mobile OS do you use? (see results) was very clear.

This week, let’s talk about your church website!

This Week’s Facebook Friday Poll

What is your church website built on?

• WordPress
• Drupal
• Joomla
• My church has a website?

If you don’t see yours listed, Clover, static HTML, etc … , add it!

Take the poll!

The Results

Look for the results next week, right here!

So the one million dollar question for most startup ministries and low marketing budget businesses is, how do we get those likes so that we can get future content to them?

We have a list of five things that every Facebook page can do. If they have not done any of these things, we guarantee five hundred likes within the first month of completion, though actual outcome will vary with who your target audience is, how much energy and resources you will put into it, and what you have to offer.

1. Create An Engaging Facebook Page
   When you setup your Facebook page, you may not know what you were getting into, but you have something up at least. But if you want the likes, you have to do more than just post a status update once a week or a photo randomly.When you are frequently updating your page and posting quality content, your social media stock will rise significantly. No gimmicks or tricks will ever be better than this.The second tip under this point is to make fan-only content with a custom page tab. We will share in a later point what this content should be, but for now, know that you can manipulate the custom pages to hide its content from none fans, showing only an image that there is something more if only the user will like the page. When they do, that image will go away and that exclusive material will be available.
2. Share With All Your Friends
   This may seem obvious, but if your target is Facebook users to like your page and you have 500 friends, share with them to like your page. Now, we are not endorsing spamming your Facebook friends, that is a quick and easy way to get unfriend. But sharing the page once a month and inviting all your friends to big events is appropriate.At the same time, those that are connected to your ministry need to know about your page and may be your biggest fans in the beginning. All ministry staff, congregation members, or customers can be given a link to the page to like it.
3. Put It On All Printed And Digital Material
   If you are a blogger, post a Facebook icon with a link above the fold on your site. Do you sell products, put a small flyer in every sold item you ship out. Make sure emails have links in the signature, church bulletins have links, it is displayed prominently at your office, and on the announcement slides on Sunday.The rule is that a person needs to see something seven times in a short period of time to remember it. Frequency is important. If you are wanting to reach your goal, put the proper effort and resources forward and make it a priority.
4. Offer Something Worth Wanting
   To create a good Facebook page and share it with your friends will get you your initially 100 or so fans, but to sustain the engagement with new viewers and entice them to like the page, you have to offer something worth wanting. I have found two materials that are perfect for the Facebook social network: Facebook exclusive fan-only free stuff and engaging, daily or weekly photos.The Facebook exclusive, fan-only free stuff is exactly how it sounds. Maybe you write an eBook like I did or offer free video sermon material. Whatever it is, you can only find it on your Facebook page and it is only available to fans. That means no tweeting out a direct link, no posting it on your blog, and no pinning it to Pinterest. You do any of those things and you give the people a reason to go to those social networks and not like your Facebook page.The engaging photos are a fun addition, but it has to be of value. Simply posting a picture of your church is meaningless. Give them sneak peeks of projects coming up, photos that they can use for free on a sermon or worship slideshow, or Facebook exclusive content that people are dying to get their eyes on. People love to tag themselves in photos and that gives you another avenue to get the name of your page out there.
5. Use Facebook Ads
   The Facebook Ads system is top notch (that is how Facebook is shifting to make its money). Write up a great Facebook ad that highlights your page’s best features, add a photo to it that will get people to notice the ad (vibrant or contrasting colors), and point it to a page (NOT your wall) that will entice them to want to be a fan (fan-only content?).If you have laid down the perfect foundation for this page, you were sitting at maybe 150 fans. At that point, if you are in the United States, Facebook may reward you with a $50 gift to use their advertising system. If you have identified your target audience, have a successful page already, and put a creative and exciting ad together, you may reach that 500 fan goal in a week or two, if not 1,000 by the end of the month!

Having gone through this very process with my own blog’s Facebook page as well as consulting for a couple of people, I have been able to replicate the success with these five steps.

I HIGHLY encourage you to put the time into it. Not giving your due diligence is sure to lead to failure, but success will follow hard work and a great plan.

What Facebook Pages could you use this on? Share a link and you may get a few likes! ;-)

[Editor's Note: We giving away 5 copies!]

Earlier this week we reviewed the “Start” app by k5Software.

Start is a really slick browser built for the iPad. Oppose to the usual tablet browsing experience whereby the desktop browser has been adapted and ported to the tablet, Start is a browser built for the tablet in mind.

It’s packs-in some nice features, too:

• 1 click to create a PDF from a web page
• Tabbed Browsing
• Easily Mail screen capture of web page
• Supports Printing of web page
• Save web page to Pocket (Read It Later)
• Easily pin an image to Pinterest
• Share on Facebook
• Tweet links
• Opens MS Office documents and convert them to PDF.
• More to come!

You can learn more about the app here if you like.

Now, let’s get to the fun part!

The Giveaway!

We are giving away five copies of Start.

Here’s how to enter:

• Share this post on your favorite social network.
• Tell us which feature you like the most.

That’s it!

Will announce the winner soon, so enter to win, now!

How about we throw in a $20 credit towards your favorite app store?

Yeah.

Now we’re talkin’!

Most Memorable Moment Memorial Day Photo

This Memorial Day weekend, we will be accepting submissions for the Most Memorable Moment Memorial Day Photo Contest.

The photo can be taken with a gillion dollar camera, smartphone or any ol’ point shoot digital camera. Moreover, you’re allowed to use any kind of camera app — Instagram, Hipsamatic, etc …

• Theme: The Most Memorable Moment
• Enter By: Tuesday, May 29th @ 12-noon
• Email To: eric[at]churchm.ag

Voting will begin once all entrants are posted in the afternoon on Tuesday, May 29th. Voting will end and the winner will be announced Friday, June 1st. The winner will receive a $20 credit to their favorite app store (examples: iTunes, Google Play).

Ready, set, CLICK!

Any questions? Ask below.

[Image via ashley rose]

You may want to watch this a second or third time to really see it all …

Brilliant. 

[via This Is Colossal]

Some of my time is investing in their world, which mainly consists of being at the school for their extracurricular activities like sports, band, or other functions. This means I am around teachers a lot (in fact, I’m married to a teacher) and for some reason I have in my head that the typical teacher is boring and not fun. This video below changes that.

I am always in for a good laugh and this video from Abbey Kelley Foster Charter Middle School is amazing! Just try and watch it without smiling.

What hilarious video have you seen this week?

Did you know that,

“Almost 80% of independent workers will be stiffed by clients in their careers. Going after deadbeats takes time and money, so many freelancers have to walk away.”

If you’re a freelancer, this isn’t news, this just means you’re not alone!

Presented by the Freelancers Union, The World’s Longest Invoice website is a place for freelancers to add what they’re owed. Currently, the total is over $15 million in unpaid invoices.

If your a freelancer, add yours!

If you’re a ministry, non-profit organization or Christian business and haven’t paid your freelancer, get to it!

Take a look at The World’s Longest Invoice and imagine if you were stiffed these kind of bucks.

I’ve seen it a million times.

• A parent at the playground.
• A parent at the store.
• A parent at the ball field.
• A parent at the dinner table.

Between the meaningful gaze of a loving parent and the bright smile of a reciprocating child, a shallow interruption of a smartphone splashes between parent and child, disconnecting the connection between parent and child.

Yes, indeed. Facebook, Twitter, email and more. These attention takers are cued and ready to steal the most precious moments you have with your kids.

Don’t be that parent.

In a recent post for Time magazine, Dominique Browning argues kids know when their parents are paying them no heed (they’re no fools – the devices in ours hands give it away) and all these distracted adults are falling down on the parenting job. In fact, she laments the loss of the landline because we couldn’t take it with us, or go hands free without getting a crook in our necks. Even if hands-free technology has the sound of progress, it’s actually costing us our relationship with our kids, she suggests.

“[Cell phones have] become handy tools for avoidance, and it’s our kids who are getting the bad end of the deal,” she writes. “I’ve heard them begging their parents to stop, disconnect. I’ve watched children start to whimper the moment the mobile is picked up, off the dinner table.”

It’s cliche’, but true, kids grow up fast. If we don’t do something about our smartphone use now, it’ll be too late. I’m afraid our generation may be blinded by our own technology. It’s so shiny and new, and we haven’t properly evaluated the effects that it may have on our lives, let alone the effects it may have on our children.

I never want to be associated with the “throw away the television” kind of people. I’ve never liked being defined by what I was against, and I’m certainly not against using smartphones. I think they’re great! After all, I am the editor of a technology blog, so it would be nothing short of hypocritical for me to come out against smartphone use.

However, let’s be mindful of how often we check-in on our smartphone and take more time to check-in on our kids. Engage Twitter less and our children more. Consider turning it off and leaving it behind, before our kids have all grown and gone, and our only connection with them is through Facebook.

After all, if anyone should know how temporary the digital world is, it should be us.

[via The Globe and Mail | Image via shoothead]