I switched to the Standard Theme almost a year ago now and haven’t looked back. I love the simplicity and how easy the dashboard is to use. It’s got all kinds of built in goodies and it’s incredibly customizable. Check out the showcase tab if you’d like a view of what it can do. If you’re thinking about taking your blogging skills to the next level, this would be a great investment.

I ponied up the money for the the support licence and have learned a ton about WordPress through the support forums. I currently use this theme on 4 different sites!

I fully endorse the Standard Theme for you serious bloggers out there.

Other LTI posts kinda like this one:

1. New Look – The Standard Theme
2. Social Media 101 – Blogging first
3. Follower count…tooting my own horn?

I admire what these guys are doing with the 8bit network. They’re creating a community of individuals that work in various capacities of ministry.  Check out all their sites, including ChurchCrunch and ChurchCreate for a glimpse into what their doing and perhaps some inspiration.

So far I’m loving how easy the Standard Theme it is to use and tweak. I like the look and I like how customizable it is. I also love the forums, where I can get easy help. If you’re in the market feel free to purchase by clicking on the picture.

Other LTI posts kinda like this one:

1. Next Level Blogging? Standard Theme 20% Off!
2. Follower count…tooting my own horn?

Why? Blogging gives a face to your position and ministry, it connects you to like minded staff people and helps you sharpen your thinking as you write and collaborate with people who comment. It doesn’t have to be perfect, I’ve stopped and restarted a blog at least 3 times. The crazy thing is that I have friends all over the U.S. and Canada that I’ve never met in person and only know through my blog. It’s given me opportunities that I wouldn’t have had otherwise and has even helped recruit for our new staff team in Portland, Oregon.

How? There are plenty of applications out there to set up a blog with. I recommend if you’re brand new to try WordPress.com. It’s super easy, free to set up and has lot’s of templates to choose from. There’s a slight learning curve, but you can have the basic’s set up in a few minutes and a super tweaked template in a few hours. Other staff like blogspot.com (free), but I’ve gotten a little tired of it. By the way, you can always import posts into another blogging platform so don’t worry about the decision to much.

Best blogging tips:

• Content is king. If you have good content people will keep reading and engage with your blog.
• Make your post shorter than you think. This post is actually probably too long. The average length of visit on my blog is about 1.3 minutes. Shorten up those posts!
• Steady drip of content. Post regularly (whatever that means for you). This will help you gain regular readers.
• Write about what you know best! Find a niche and write. You’d be amazed at what people want to know about. People want to see behind the scenes of you and your ministry. Appropriate authenticity.
• Take you’re blog to the next level.

What’s keeping you from blogging? If you blog, what are you learning as you go?

Photo courtesy of Amypalko

Other LTI posts kinda like this one:

1. The power of social media (a case study)
2. Social Media in Ministry (NST 2010)
3. Most viewed posts from October

Other LTI posts kinda like this one:

1. Social Media 101 – Blogging first
2. Failure and other links
3. Why do I blog? Top 5 reasons.