From my experience in ministry and in web development, you can’t build something over night. You can create a framework and a structure very quickly, but adding people to the equation is a much longer process. I’m not talking about a huge one-time flash crowd. I’m talking about real growth over time.

When I was a kid I watched a mason build an entry way on my neighbor’s house. I would always get up in the morning and watch him work day after day. After a few days I got frustrated because it was taking him so long. He would mix up the mortar to be the perfect consistency, check his lines, place a new brick on top, check it with his level, tap on it a couple times, check it again, and then he’d go to the next brick.  He built that wall one brick at a time.

I have framed many ministry ideas on paper, and thought visualized it being a massive success the first week. To my disappointment, my dreams of a microwave audience never came true. Audiences are like that mason with his bricks, you build them one person at a time. The mason had a lot of bricks for sure in a pile, but they weren’t in the form that he needed them to be. They were not structurally sound or useful to the building until they were carefully and consistently built into the framework.

Consistency In Ministry

Consistency is the most important element of building an audience in ministry or on the web. At the inception of a ministry or even a website, if you miss one week plan on starting over from scratch. When I started a young adults ministry, we had over 20 people come the first night. I was ecstatic. For one reason or another the next meeting was canceled. The following week, we had less than 10 people.

My wife and I worked with less fortunate people near downtown Miami in Little Havana. We held a Bible study every week and we had a meal afterward. We saw many drug addicts turn their life to Christ. We also had an erratic schedule and I found when we missed one week, our audience went down to almost nothing.

Consistency is the most important tool when building an audience. It takes hard word and sacrifice, but in the end it’s worth it. Consistency builds trust, it creates well-traveled paths and even routines in people’s minds. When we follow through on a consistent basis, people will begin to trust you more and more.

“If you build it, they will come” is one of the most annoying cliche’s to me because it focuses on the building rather than the people. It infers the individual’s motivation for showing up is purely because of the framework. When we build individuals consistently, we are building an audience that doesn’t just show up for the framework, they are the framework.

Consistency With Technology

Mister Nifty started almost four years ago with a readership of about five people. It was disheartening at first, but I decided to keep adding resources and articles whether or not people read my blog. I began using Mister Nifty as a personal repository for ideas. I consistently added posts and I found when I wrote on a regular basis, my readership numbers started increasing. When I missed a week, the numbers went down. It mirrored what I experienced in ministry. Today, MN get almost 5000 hits per month which is not huge to corporate websites, but it’s big to me.

I’ve found if I’m consistent in implementing a technology solution, it becomes a success. For example when switching our school to Google Apps, no one jumped on board the first week. So, I decided to train on an individual basis and one-by-one people started buying into the solution until they knew more about the solution than I did.

Technology implementations that fail can be traced back to inconsistency in training and education of the people. Failed websites can be traced back to a lack of good consistent content and marketing. The bottom line is, if you want people to buy into what you’re doing, you have to buy into them first and do it consistently. If you want your page rankings to go up, consistently write good content. If you want a larger audience, consistently be genuinely interested in people and interact with them about your product or group.

You Can Do It!

Whether you’re in ministry or building a site. If you can maintain consistency, you will build something awesome. It might not happen today or even this year, but keep working at it. Remember that people are the bricks. Content, solutions, programs and ideas are the mortar that brings people together. If you build people, you won’t have to worry about the building.

Building An Audience is a post from: Mister Nifty

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1. FreeFoto: FreeFoto.com claims to be “the largest collection of free photographs on the Internet.” They’re available for offline projects as well, as long as you’re not using them to make a profit.
2. KAVEWALL: Look for images and textures in unique categories like tattoo, smoke, and food.
3. Digital Dreamer: Free, royalty-free stock images can be found here.
4. Free Photos Bank: This features a handful of the newest photos in their directory, so check back often.
5. Free Digital Photos: Find gorgeous, easy-to-download photographs in categories like animals, celebrations, home & garden, and lots more.
6. PD Photo: Browse through the categories and subcategories in this site’s database, most of which depict the urban and rural landscapes of the United States.
7. Visipix: Search over a million photographs and fine art pieces.
8. Cepolina: On cepolina, you can choose to save photos in up to five different formats.
9. DexHaus: A wide array of beautiful images are found on this well-organized site.
10. FreeStockImages.net: Chances are you’ll find whatever it is you’re looking for on this terrific site.
11. TurboPhoto: TurboPhoto has 10 categories keep the high res photos easy to find.
12. Yotophoto: An immensely popular site, Yotophoto is worth checking out.
13. Stockvault: Search by photo subject or by the newest and most popular photos on Stockvault.
14. Dreamstime: While most of the photos on this site cost a fee (some as low as $0.26/image), Dreamstime provides a few free stock photos.
15. Open Stock Photography: This site offers over one million images for you to download and use however you want.

Community-Powered Content

In addition to being a great source of images, these sites host forums, file sharing and other features designed to nurture community spirit.

16. Image After: Search tons of free photos on this site while meeting other photography lovers on the forum.
17. Unprofound.com: Use the images however you want, just make sure you let them know where you’ve published it!
18. Font Play: This site has nearly 10,000 free photos for you to use any way you want. Look under the “Guests” heading to search by your favorite contributor.
19. Studio 25: This attractive site lets you upload and search images.
20. Vintage Pixels: Share your archived photos with other users. Download images that work for your Web site or blog.
21. Abstract Influence: Search for the stock images you want while talking about photography with other visitors on the site’s forum.
22. amygdela’s atmosphere: This site hosts a forum and a blog, as well as tons of stock images.
23. Every Stock Photo: A forum and blog keep this stock image site fun and informative.
24. Photocase: The good people at Photocase are “prettying up the world.” Check out their great library of stock images.
25. deviantART: Provocative photos spawn great debates on the site’s forum.

Artists Welcome

It’s probably pretty safe to say that every stock image site on the Web needs the help of photographers to keep it running. The following sites, however, really cater to the needs of photographers, designers, and other artists even though they’re donating their photos for free.

26. Stock.xchng: Check out the gorgeous shots organized into lots of different categories, making your search as easy as possible.
27. Morguefile: Browse thousands of beautiful photos in this site’s archives, but don’t miss their job board either!
28. Woophy: This site organizes photographs by geographical location. Enter into their contest for a chance to win great prizes.
29. The NOAA Library: Breathtaking science and nature shots are available at this site. Don’t forget to check out the “Meet the Photographers” page which includes short bios and descriptions of the featured photogs.
30. Pixel Perfect Digital: Get tons of free stock images and read the latest in photography news.
31. Free Range Stock: Photographers are rewarded for giving away their pictures by getting a percentage of the site’s total ad revenue.
32. AMG Media: As long as you give credit to the photographer somewhere on your site, these images are yours for the taking.
33. Free Photographs Network: Submit photographs for others to see, or download some for your own use.
34. FreePhotos.com: If you’re a photographer, submit your best pictures for a chance to win cool prizes.
35. PhotoRogue.com: If you can’t find a picture of anything you want, go to PhotoRogue.com and make a request for whatever it is you’re thinking of. Photographers will take pictures for you — and it’s still free!
36. Graphicsarena.com: Submit your photos for consideration.
37. Fotogenika: Send in your photos for other visitors to use on their personal sites.
38. Image Temple: Send in your own photos to be included in this site’s gallery.
39. Flickr: Most of the photos on this site are not free, but a clever search will turn up some real goodies.
40. FreeLargePhotos.com: Downloaders must link their chosen photo back to the site, which gives the photographer credit.

Less is Sometimes More

Just because the sites listed in this section aren’t as expansive as some of the others on our list doesn’t mean they’re not worth checking out. Sometimes less can really means more, especially when it comes to narrowing down your search or coming across hard-to-find treasures.

41. Mayang’s Free Texture Library: Download high-res textures from this site, which has categories like architecture, buildings, plants, wood, and stone.
42. Liam’s Pictures from Old Books: Discover hard-to-find illustrations from old books, “most with multiple high-resolution versions.”
43. Texture Warehouse: Find interesting textures at this great site.
44. Free Stock Photos: Nature shots and religious themes are abundant at this free stock photography site.
45. BurningWell: Totally free images are organized into categories like animals, bugs, cityscapes, people, plants, and textures.
46. Design Packs: New images and themes are added monthly, so this site may not be a well kept secret too much longer!
47. Amazing Textures: This site is a web designer’s dream. Browse hundreds of high res textures and backgrounds.
48. Aarin Free Photo and Digital Images: These site boasts nearly 1,000 fantastic images for you to choose from.
49. Image Base: On Image Base, breathtaking photographs are organized in categories like nature, concept, people, and city.
50. Majestic Imagery: All the photos on this site were taken by the host.
51. diwiesign studio: All the images are free, but if you’re a frequent user, you might want to consider making a donation to this photo entrepreneur.
52. Zurb Photos: Photographer Bryan Zmijewski uploads his own images onto this site.
53. tOfz.org: Find urban images for free, but consider making a contribution to this artist’s cause.
54. LIGHTmatter: These gorgeous photos were all taken by the same artist, who also hosts the Web site.
55. Insect Images: Find all kinds of photos of creepy crawlers here.

Stock Images Plus

There is a lot more to legal stock images than just a bank of free photos. The sites in this section all go beyond being a basic stock photography resource by offering more services that will help improve your search for and use of stock images.

56. Creative Commons: This nonprofit site shows you how to license your images once they’ve been uploaded onto your site.
57. Free Images: This British site offers free images as well as wallpapers, desktops, and a section of ideas and tips that will help you customize your image experience, whether you’re a photographer or not.
58. Creating Online: This stock images site is an excellent resource for any new blogger or Web site developer. Learn about editing your images, hosting, domains, and more.
59. ArtFavor: Find stock images, fonts, sounds, flash clipart, and more, are all on this terrific site.
60. Geek Philosopher: Find hilarious and beautiful stock images side by side. Also check out the site’s blog and web hosting capabilities.
61. Gimp Savvy: In addition to finding great images, Gimp Savvy also gives tips on photo touchups, making a collage, and more.
62. Creativity 103: Find free abstract images and videos on Creativity 103.
63. Afflict.net: Search photos and textures while learning about images in the tutorials section.
64. One Odd Dude: Download photographs, wallpapers, textures, and more on One Odd Dude.
65. Discover: Search for your favorite subjects or web sites, and hundreds of free icons, stock images, and other designs will appear.
66. Photoshop Support: On Photoshop Support, browse photos, read the tutorials, and check out the great imaging tools.
67. AncestryImages.com: Search antique portraits and use the geneaology resources link to connect you to even more tools.
68. Free Media Goo: Download free stock images, audio, and video on Free Media Goo.
69. National Park Service Digital Image Archive: Check out beautiful pictures taken for the NPS. This site also provides a link to the NPS official site.
70. <New York Public Library Digital Gallery: Browse through thousands of prints, illustrations, and photos. Read the photographic services and permissions page for more information on downloading high-res files.

Miscellaneous

These image sites don’t necessarily fit into one particular category, but they’ve still got a lot to offer.

71. Backgrounds Archive: Find beautiful backgrounds for your desktop or MySpace page.
72. USDA Agricultural Research Service: The government’s Agricultural Research Service sponsors this “complimentary source of high quality digital photographs.”
73. Holy Land Photos: Poignant photos of the Holy Land are available here.
74. Stockcache.com: This site makes organizing your downloads easy.
75. Four Bees: Browse through the stock images directory, or download royalty free music and video on Four Bees.
76. Clipmarks: Search for free stock images with this handy tool.
77. Yellowstone Digital Slide File: These beautiful shots of Yellowstone National Park are available for use by the media and public.
78. Plants of Hawaii: Perfect for any botanist, this site has over 45,000 images of Hawaiian plants.
79. Microshots: This site specializes in microscopic images.
80. IN TEXTURE: Free stock textures are plentiful on this site.
81. Trip Album: This site is all in French, but the photos are divided into categories based on country, making it easy to figure out.
82. Orange Trash: Find pictures about Hungary on this Web site.
83. Public domain stock photos: Browse categories like backgrounds, food, nature, objects, and seasonal on this site.
84. BAJstock: Written in both French and English, this stock image site has tons of photos for you to use for free.
85. NWYK Stock Image Library: This hilarious site provides free images that capture the drudgery and playfulness of office life.

General

These stock image sites offer a wide range of photo subjects, perfect for casual browsing or a way to get ideas before you plan out your site.

86. Public Domain Photos: Check out these gorgeous pictures of animals, cities, landscapes, and more.
87. Bigfoto.com: Find photos of beautiful places all around the world, as well as fun shots in the Christmas, grafitti, or food categories
88. Photogen: Look through the Top 10 gallery to find the most popular downloads in a preview-friendly thumbnail format.
89. Free Pixels: Find free photos, logos, or other images on this site.
90. DHD Multimedia Gallery: Search through thousands of basic photos.
91. PIX: This site is so easy, you don’t even have to register to download.
92. Photo Rack: New photos are featured at the bottom of the page, so check back often to make sure you don’t miss anything great.
93. Free Stock Photos: On Free Stock Photos, each image comes with a description detailing its size.
94. Barry’s Free Photos: This is a great site for finding all different kinds of images for your Web site.
95. Cromavista: This site is all in Spanish but still easy to navigate if you’re not a native speaker.
96. IronOrchid: Several different categories allow for an efficient search on IronOrchid.
97. Image Blowout: Have fun looking through these unique photos.
98. FreeImages.com: Tons of categories and subcategories make searching for photos on this site simple.
99. ilovefreePhoto: This fun, attractive site makes searching for that perfect photo a little less frustrating.
100. Free Photo Station: Loads of great photos are all free on this site.

100 Legal Sources for Free Stock Images is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Tech Advice:

You will need to download the zip file containing the software.

Expand it to a directory on your hard drive.

Create a directory on your web server and upload the contents to that web directory. (I used a sub-domain – mailings.mydomain.com – ask your hosting provider for more information how to do this with your domain).

Once you’ve uploaded everything, you need to go to your control panel and find where you can add a MYSQL database. Get the server address, database name, user name, and password. You will need to add these to the config file.

Open the file called config.sample.php and find where you input the database information. Then save this file as config.php and upload it to your web directory.

Next, open your browser, go to: http://www.yourdomain.com/pommodirectory/install

The software will do an automatic install from here out. Have fun. Visit pommo.org for more information and support.

Free mass mailing software. is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Use Leafletter to create free mini websites! is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Basically, what SetDot does is allows you to create an event, invite people, and manage the invitations.  An invitation is sent to their email.  They can easily select to accept or decline.  SetDot keeps a tally of who has declined/accepted so you can plan better. Read posts with reasons why they cannot attend. SetDot provides you a virtual information spot where people can go and get all the information about your event. I personally put together an event with over a dozen people using this system and it worked seamlessly. You can use this to schedule your staff events, schedule a youth event, or even just get some people together for dinner. Check out the screen shot of a sample event that I created, and a sample email your invitees will receive.

A very cool way to manage your events and invitees! is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Sell stuff with your logo on your website! is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Get demographics on your zip code! is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Copying images from the internet without permission is STEALING. If you don’t know where your creative team is getting their images, check them out. Find out of they are using a pay site, or just scrounging images anywhere they can get them. If it is the latter, get them to stop, and do that by giving them this free resource and a good lecture. Your church could get in serious trouble if you are using someone else’s image without their permission. There have been multi-million dollar lawsuits over single images. For example, three years ago, our local Walmart was sued for 1 million dollars because they duplicated a professional photographers work. The photographer won hands down. Don’t think this can’t happen to a church. Use this free resource until you can get a photo budget for your creative team. Here are some stock sites I use (pay sites) that are extremely cheap. bigstockphoto.com stockxpert.com

Free high resolution photos for your promotions is a post from: Mister Nifty

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I recently updated our listing on Google Maps with our service times, website, and a brief description of our church. I was even able to upload up to ten images on the listing. What’s even cooler is that they allow you to create coupons that will be listed when people pull up your location. You can create a printable coupon for a free worship concert at your church or a free coffee at your weekly youth coffee house. The tools are there, they are free, and just waiting for you to use them!

Add your church to Google Maps is a post from: Mister Nifty

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RSS simply means “Rich Site Summary” or “Real Simple Syndication” for the common man. Simple huh? You’ve heard radio/tv shows are syndicated which means they are broadcast to a number of markets across the country and around the world from one home station/base. Your church can be syndicated too for free. Wouldn’t you like to get your message out to hundreds and thousands every time you posted something on your website? Wouldn’t it be great that every time you posted a sermon online, people get notified without ever visiting your website. Here’s how RSS feeds work.

1. Your website creates an file with all of the data from your website. It is called your RSS feed. Whenever you add something new, it adds it to the file.

2. Visitors using your site have what is called a WEB FEED AGGREGATOR. This sounds horribly complex, but it really isn’t. It’s just a program or web application that reads these feed files from websites. Visitors can subscribe to your site feed through their aggregator. Instead of visiting a dozen favorite sites per day, all the up-to-date information is piped into their aggregator, and they read it all under one roof.

3. Whenever you post something new on your website, it automatically updates on the aggregators that are subscribed to your feed. What this means, is you don’t just have a casual crowd coming to your website on a casual basis. You have a solid audience you can speak to with minimal effort. With a few clicks, you are able to speak your message whether audio/text/video to everyone following your site.

So, how do you use RSS on your site? It’s easy. There are two main ways to do it.

1. Integrate a content management site for your website. Usually these CMS softwares have RSS built into them. (i.e. Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, etc.) If you don’t know about CMS software, please read my introduction to dynamic websites and tutorial on installing a CMS through GoDaddy.

2. Create your own RSS feed and then upload it to your web server. This can be difficult for the non-techy person because it involves a bunch of back-end coding. However, there is a nifty solution for non-techy people who have static websites (i.e. built in FrontPage or Dream Weaver). Download the free program ListGarden that is a no-brainer way to create a feed file.

All you do is fill out the forms and hit create. You can even plug in your FTP or uploading information for your web server so that it updates your website whenever you add an entry. It’s a breeze. You can also create a HTML file that displays all of your posts even if people don’t have an aggregator, they can read it online. There are more detailed instructions at the ListGarden site. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me by adding a comment to this post. That way others can read my response.

One last thing, if you have MP3 files of your services, you can link them in your feed items and it will broadcast to all of your subscribers. It’s so nifty and free!

Here is a list of free aggregators you can use to start subscribing to websites!

1. Google Reader – My favorite because it integrates with Gmail. (online)

2. Netvibes – A cool interface that has a widget style page for all your different feeds. (online)

3. Bloglines – Very clean interface that allows you to do a ton of stuff with RSS feeds. (online)

4. NewsGator - Nifty corporate looking aggregator.

5. Check your Microsoft Outlook settings to see if your version accesses feeds. Also you can download Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client and use it as an e-mail/feed reader.

Broadcast your church! is a post from: Mister Nifty

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