Those of you who use email to communicate with your church (or potential supporters) it's very important to get them to take the first step.  Which is to open the email!

To get this to happen it's very important that your subject line is interesting and intriguing. EmailTrainer.com writes a great article on how to do this.

Here are his tips:

1. Short phrases
2. Immediate benefits
3. Value words
4. Emotional appeal
5. Specific value propositions

These tips can all so be used for writing titles for blog posts.  Enjoy the article.

I had an interesting inquiry via a phone call yesterday regarding policies for church websites. I've never had occasion to develop such a policy, although, I've had many thoughts on what one should include.

So I'm asking Church 2.0 readers: What policies do you have in place for your church website? If you don't have a policy, what would you include?

Consider the following to get us started:

• Content: What does and does not belong on the site?
• Privacy: How do you handle the publishing of names, phone numbers, birthdays, and other information that would pretty benign in your print bulletin, but may have different implications on the web?
• Children: What is your policy on publishing the names and/or faces of children and youth on your site? How about adults?
• Families: How do you keep families who may require stringent privacy due to touchy issues like custody battles and other such matters off your site, yet ensure confidentiality within the church?
• Access: Who should have access to publish on/manage your site? How is that determined?

Your turn. I'm looking forward to your comments.

One of the regulars in my RSS reader, web tech site ReadWriteWeb, has a series underway on Religion and Web Technology. To date they've looked at the work of LifeChurch.tv and the Shalom Hartman Institute. Based on parts 1 and 2, it looks to be an even-handed critique of the way these varied religious organizations of are harnessing the power of the web to reach people.

And don't miss the run-up posting - particularly the comic: Spirituality and Technology.