Basic instructions on setting up your free church, ministry or mission website at DiscipleWebs.com

1. Basic Website Building

2. Part 1: Getting Ready
Disciple Webs is…
• A Content Management System (CMS)
– Allows you to create a website & add content easily
without knowing HTML codes

3. Part 1: Getting Ready
DiscipleWebs.com is…
• A web-hosting company
– Offers free websites on a DiscipleWebs subdirectory
– Good for small churches, ministries and
missionaries

4. Part 1: Getting Ready
Disciple Webs provides…
• A support community of resources
– Setup your site for free
– Install free plugins and website themes
– No need to have your own hosting account
– Best option for small churches, ministries and
missionaries

5. Web Hosting
• Completely free at DiscipleWebs.com
– Can upgrade your site for a small monthly fee
– Professional hosting provided by a company with
more than 10 years experience in the industry
– You don’t have to worry!

6. Choosing a Site Name
• Make it strong
– Your own name
• Disciplewebs.com/michellewaters
– Your church or ministry name
• Disciplewebs.com/fbcpenley
• Disciplewebs.com/upsidedownministry
– Something easy to pronounce & remember
• Disciplewebs.com/nativemissions
– Can have your location
• This is your organization‟s home on
the web
– Your domain sits on the web host’s server
– Can register the domain at our parent site, TechGeekMinistries.com or an
independent domain registrar

7. Choosing a Domain Name
• Make it strong
– Your own name
• MichelleWatersOnline.com
– Your church or ministry name
• Svillebc.com
• TechGeekMinistries.com
– Something easy to pronounce & remember
• TripleCArchery.com
– Can have your location
– Must have a DW Pro account to use a domain name
• This is your organization‟s home on
the web
– Your domain sits on the web host’s server
– Can register the domain with DW or an independent domain registrar

8. Preparing to Install?
• No installation required!
• We take care of the hard stuff for you.

9. Welcome to Disciple Webs!
• This is your Disciple Webs dashboard

10. Main Controls
• Look in the left-hand margin
• Settings > General
– Add your website name / title
– Add a tagline (optional)

12. Other General Settings
• Change your time zone
• Format the date

13. Discussion Settings
• In the Settings tab, select Discussion
• Turn comments on or off

14. • Select which gravatar to show next to
people‟s comments

15. More Discussion Settings
• How do you want your name displayed
on the website?

16. More Discussion Settings
• Fill in your bio using keywords
• Always save your changes!

17. Writing Settings
• Copy & paste this list in the „Update
Services‟ field
– http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
– http://api.feedster.com/ping
– http://api.moreover.com/ping
– http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
– http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
– http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
• See the complete list in the workbook

18. Plugins
• Absolutely activate the Akismet spam
filter plugin
– Click on Activate
– If you have a key, enter it
– If you don’t have a key, sign up at Akismet.com

20. Additional Plugin Settings
• Simply follow the plugin directions or
recommendations for those additional
settings

21. More Plugins
• Don‟t overload your site with plugins
– Stick with the essentials
• Akismet
• WordPress SEO
– Add only the options you need
• Podcasting
• Paypal donations
• Community forum
• And more…

22. Changing the Appearance
• Click the Appearance tab in the left-
hand margin
– Choose the look – or Theme – for your site
– There are 3 pre-installed themes
– You can also choose a Pro Theme by upgrading your
account
• Pro themes may have additional features you must
configure

23. Changing the Appearance
• Once you choose a theme, click
Activate
• You can change the header graphic
now
– Click the Header link in the left sidebar
– The pre-loaded themes contain different header
images or you can upload your own
– Update & save your changes

25. Getting to Know Your Website
• Select All Posts from left menu

26. Getting to Know Your Website
• Remember to fill out your WordPress
SEO boxes (located underneath the
editor)

27. Changing Your HTML URLs
• Press wdit & write your page title as
you want it to appear
– Better for searchability
– Before:
– After:

28. Adding Images
• Photos & graphics lend more eye
appeal
• Use at least one per post
• Use only graphics/photos that are
public domain
– Or purchase from stock photo sites (Deposit
Photo, Big Stock Photo, iStock Photo, etc)
• Always look at the licensing
information before publishing

29. Adding Images
• Press Add Media
• Select an image from your Media
Library
• Or upload an image from your
computer
• Select “Insert into Post” or „Use as
Featured Photo‟
• Save your changes

30. Static Page or Latest Post?
• Static page = the page remains the
same
• Latest post = your most recent blog
post will appear on the home page
– Depending on how often you write, this could change
frequently
• Go to Settings > Reading > Front Page
Displays
– Select Static Page or Latest Post

32. Comments Section
• Select Comments in left menu
• Delete the default test comment
– Once you get real comments, you can approve
them, mark them as spam or delete them

33. Other Disciple Webs Features
• Pre-scheduling posts
• Activating more plugins
• Tweaking your CSS
• Activating audio or video plugins
• The best way to learn is through
practice

34. Ready To Get Started?
• Join us at DiscipleWebs.com: