There are lots of companies out there that offer exciting packages to churches or non-profits, and some of them are good for what they provide, especially if you want to hand over some of the things to an outside team. But, you can build your own setup for around $20 a year if you are up for it.
How?
Go get a free wordpress.com account. Wordpress is pretty much the standard blogging engine out there. It’s popular, has a lot of support, and is pretty solid. Like anything, it has its limitations. Wordpress.com actually limits a bunch of things you can do with it compared to the self-hosted version (which can be had pretty cheaply too), but for starting out, it’s easy to begin there.
You’ll need a domain name ($10/year from GoDaddy or NameCheap) and $12 so that your new Wordpress.com site is hooked up to that domain name. It’s an easy process - they’ll walk you through it.
You then pick a theme for your site - there’s a growing selection, from simple to more complex. Then, start creating your pages and posts. For the most part, you are on your way to having a solid functional website.
Bonus: Twitter and Facebook are integrated, so you can ping those social networking sites instantly with updates when you post.
By the way, another alternative is Tumblr, which I use to host nathanjhill.com, and as I recall, you don’t even have to pay to point your domain to it. Tumblr is a great option with its own set of strengths and limitations too.
What about media and stuff?
Setup a Youtube channel for free, and post your videos there. Not only does Google then handle all of your bandwidth, anybody on Youtube can also discover your organization with a search. Vimeo is an alternative too.
Use a free MailChimp account as your email marketing tool, if you want. It’s a great setup and is just plain fun to use.
Sign up for Scribd and upload documents that you might need to embed and share, like a PDF or Word doc and so on. Alternately, sign up for Dropbox, and share files you need through its online or desktop interface.
Get your Facebook page going, and give your clients/members the power to post pictures of your organization at work instead of building elaborate photo galleries that no one will care to browse.
If you want to host a podcast, you might look into something like Podbean, which has a limited but free account that can get you started. OurMedia also will host your files for free as long as they Creative Commons designated. BuzzSprout also has a decent free plan depending on your usage.
For a shared church calendar, use Google Calendar. It’s simple and can be shared in a bunch of different ways, even via collaboration.
Speaking of that, I think Google still offers a free/non-profit version of its Google Apps for organizations. Everyone gets email at your domain (i.e. minister@mychurch.org) and access to Google Docs/Calendar/Voice/etc. Go for it.
Finally, for e-commerce stuff, you can make some donation buttons with Paypal for nothing, or use a nice site like WePay as a giving portal. WePay also lets you setup simple stores to sell physical goods.
Is this going to be as nice as an integrated solution? Almost. You will have to work to setup all these pieces and figure out their own individual kinks. Your site won’t have as many options as building something by hand or self-hosting a Wordpress install. But on the other hand, it’s super cheap… and super cheap is awesome.
And if you do go for a paid webhosting account, I recommend BounceWeb or NearlyFreeSpeech (only pay for as you much as you use each month, often just a couple of bucks).
If you have questions about this or need a little more one-on-one advice, ask away.
