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Coffey singing “All Ye”, a praise he wrote. This song and others are available on the praise and worship album from Coffey called the Inspiration. Have the best day and be encouraged.

Picking a domain name should be easy, right? Why, I’ll just use my business name. Not so fast, Sparky. A good bit of thought should be given to selecting a domain name.

A Cautionary Note

Picking a domain name is like getting married. You are going to have to stick with it till the bitter end. People that use your site will come to know it by the domain name. Repeat visitors will often simply type in the domain name to get to the site, better known as “type in traffic”. As an example, do you search for “Amazon” when you want to buy a book or do simply type in amazon.com? If Amazon were to change its domain name to Desert, there would be a lot of confusion. The same goes with your domain. Once you pick something, stick with it.

Your Choices

Well, the obvious choice is your business name, but it may not be the best. There are four significant issues to consider.

First, is there something about your business name that makes using it as a domain an unwise choice? This situation typically arises if you have a long business name or have plural words. “Halstatt’s Rip’n Marketing Campaigns, Inc.” is going to be a horrible domain name. Clients are going to find it difficult to type in such a domain name.

Double letter problems are a second issue that is entirely unique to the Internet. What if Sams Salon wants to use its business name as a domain? The “s” at the end of first word and beginning of the second can cause confusion. Is the domain name Samssalon.com or Samsalon.com? Confusing your users is a bad way to run a site.

The third issue concerns the nature of your site and search engine optimization. If you are shooting for a particular keyword phrase, you may be better off using that keyword phrase in your domain name. Google, for instance, looks at the domain name when evaluating a site. If the words in your domain name are spaced with dashes, many believe it will help in the ranking process. This is why you see so many xxx-xxxx-xxx.com domain names on the net. If your business focuses on a very specific area, strong consideration should be given to using relevant keywords in your domain name.

Finally, your domain name should end in “.com” and I don’t want to hear any argument or see any rolling of the eyes. The simple fact is that when people think of sites, they always type in .com. Yes, there are other extensions and .us, .net, .biz, etc., may seem unique, but it kills your traffic. Pavlov and his dog experiments had it right. People have been mentally conditioned to type in .com, so don’t select any other ending. If you do, a smart competitor will register the .com version of your name to get some free traffic. If you are really lucky, a porn site will do it!

Take a breath before you select a domain name. Like a spouse, it can be either a good or bad choice.

You know who I’m talking about. The dude who runs the sound board or set up your church’s website. He’s the guy everybody in the church thinks will “fix their computer” for free, and do it with a smile (don’t deny it, you’ve asked him for free help before).

But, does your church take him for granted? If you’re lucky enough to have a guy to do the kind of thankless work he (or she) does, then you ought to consider yourself lucky.

A friend and coworker of mine here at the church were talking about this yesterday. Pastors, leaders, if you want to keep that geek around for any amount of time, you really need to be more vocal with your appreciation of him. One of the most frustrating things about working in ministry is the fact that churches seem to be the only place where IT is still considered a “necessary evil”. Businesses spend weeks and even months determining the budget for IT. They pay their employees well, make sure resources are available so the IT guys can do their job, and don’t mind sharing some (or even just a little) credit with IT for their success as a business. Churches could take a page from the corporate book on this one.

If you want to ensure an unhappy geek, be sure to mention his name only when things are going wrong. That’s right, just ignore him for the 360 days of the year he keeps everything smooth, but when things are on the fritz, be sure to mention his name in front of the entire congregation. Believe me, you won’t have that free help for too much longer if all you do is complain.

If you want a good example of a ministry that treats IT with respect, you have to give it up to Bob Jones University. You may not like BJU, but they certainly don’t treat technology like a disease. They spend millions every year, not just maintaining their technological infrastructure, but progressively taking on new projects to make the school a better place to work and to learn, and you know what? It shows! Have a look at their website. Take a look at the services they offer their students. This last year alone, they’ve implemented an online class registration system called StudentCentral, they’ve expanded their student credit system to make nearly all their machines (laundry, snack, etc.) payable via an ID card, and of course added an online learning feature.

Churches need to realize not only the necessity, but the potential technology can offer. It’s not a necessary evil, it’s a resource God has given us to more efficiently fulfill the great commission and serve the born-again (I know, I’m not supposed to use Christianese…sorry).

But, if you’re still on the fence about whether or not technology is a necessity for the church, what if the following happened?

What if the guys who ran the sound board all got sick one Sunday? What would you do?

What if your website got hacked and porn links were put on there? Who would you call?

What if your domain registration ran out because you didn’t have a “geek”? What if that domain name was bought up by a porn company? It’s happened before. Are you seeing the importance of that geek yet?

What if you were doing all the finances on paper? What if there was a fire? No geeks, no backup.

Yeah, you need him just as much as he needs you. It’s important to remember, pastors, that your tech guy is just as much in the ministry as you are. Just because he doesn’t stand behind a pulpit and preach, doesn’t mean he’s not just as much serving that church. So the next time you see your resident geek, tell him thanks. He may not act like it, but he’ll appreciate it. He’s important, and you need to realize that. What he does is important, and if he were gone, you WOULD realize that very quickly.