Aaron Paulus

Ministry Update - October 2011

2011-10-11T17:20:00.000-07:00

Hey Friends! It's hard to believe that summer is over and fall is already here. This past summer was a great season of ministry for us and it's so cool to see families and lives impacted in tangible ways. Marriages restored, relationships healed, passion for Jesus restored, and entire churches experiences the presence of God like never before. We as a family feel so privileged to be serving and giving our lives to kingdom work. We are also so incredibly grateful to our friends and partners who invest in our lives in so many ways through prayers, financial support, and just being there for us. We pray God's richest blessings on your life!

It's been a few months since we've updated many of you on what's been happening around our home and ministry So here are just some of the recent highlights and some ways you can be praying for us.

Life Action Celebrating 40 Years of Ministry
On August 27–28, Life Action hosted a 40th anniversary celebration for alumni and friends at our National Ministry Center in Michigan. Over 750 guests joined us. Aaron's media team was crazy busy producing various pieces for this events including videos, printed pieces, signs, banners, and other resources. It was an awesome weekend of remembering the work of God and hearing amazing stories about the life-changing impact that has come from God through the values, message, and mission on which Life Action is based. View photos and a video recap at http://www.lifeaction.org/40th

Launching a National Movement Called OneCry
August ended with Life Action introducing a new initiative called OneCry. It is a call for believers to rise up and fervently pray for God to send revival to this country; for apart from Him we can do nothing. This OneCry movement is something you've got to check out. Aaron's team coordinated the production of the promo video. Check it out at http://www.onecry.com. We are excited to see how God will move as we as a nation humble ourselves before Him. This new outreach will launch in February 2012.

60 Churches Set to Seek God for Revival
One of the awesome outreaches Life Action has is it's local church outreach. Each year, three teams travel throughout the country and spend between 4-14 days in churches leading them in seeking the Lord for personal revival in their lives, family, and churches. More than 60 churches are preparing for these teams this year and prayerfully anticipating God to work in their hearts and lives. You can find out if a Life Action team will be near you at http://www.lifeaction.org/conferences.

Check Out A Few Our Media Team's Recently Completed Projects
OneCry Movement Website & Promotional Video [http://www.onecry.com]
Digital Version of Our Revive Magazine [http://www.lifeaction.org/]

Family Update
This summer was a great summer for our family. We were able to spend some quality family time together and even attend Life Action's family camp. (Which if you've never done that, you really ought to, it's a blast!) The kids are growing up like crazy! Jonathan is 6, Annalise turned 4 in June, and Eliya will turn 2 in December. We are homeschooling Jonathan and Annalise this year and as you can imagine, it's both challenging and rewarding. We as a couple will be celebrating nine years of marriage this month. We are so encouraged to look back over these past year and see all God has done in our lives and our marriage. So grateful for a God who is actively working in our lives to make us more like Himself. Check out so many of our family photos on http://www.facebook.com/aaron.paulus

How You Can Pray
Appreciate so much all you who consistently pray for us as a family. Here are a few ways you can specifically pray for us:

Homeschooling takes quite the energy and effort but we feel at this point this is how God is leading us to school our children. We will take all the prayers we can get as we undergo this endeavor.
We are really praying for our kids right now that they would begin to understand the Gospel and embrace Jesus and His saving work.

Thanks for your partnership and friendship!

The Paulus Family

Ministry Update - July 2011

2011-07-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

Hey friends! Wanted to send y'all and update on what's happening with our family and ministry here at Life Action. Thanks so much to each of you who are praying for us and partnering with us in ministry through your financial support of our family. Such a blessing. We wish we could make one BIG road trip and visit each of you just to say thanks. Below are a few things that have happened over this past month. We appreciate your continued prayers for our family as we serve here at Life Action!

Aaron & Victoria
(Jonathan, Annalise, and Eliya)

Family Update
Jonathan: This summer Jonathan is playing the action-packed sport of t–ball. He absolutely loves it. His personality is to definitely swing for the fences every time he gets up to bat which either means he slams it to the outfield or slams the tee with his bat resulting in a bunt. He is all into his toy guns, pretend (stick) swords, and watching the old TV show Flipper. It's fun to watch him develop and become the person God created him to be.

Annalise: Turned four in June and wanted to do a little Princess party on the beach with her friends. She was super excited that she got a little "kitchen" for her birthday so she can now make daddy cookies. She is blessed to have lots of friends her age that are being raised in the way of Jesus. We are praying as she grows her eyes will be opened to the story of the Gospel and she will see her need for Jesus.

Eliya: Eliya is a year and a half old and the "perfect" baby we thought we once had is becoming not so "perfect". Guess that's just the infecting nature of sin. Eliya is very funny and loves making faces, painting her hair with her food, playing in the sand at the beach, and dancing to whatever music is playing.

Crazy Love - 30,000 Rednecks - And Our Sleepy Little Town

If you were watching NBC about a week ago you may have caught the live broadcast of the Red Bud Motocross in Buchanan, MI. Each year we have 30,000 crazy redneck fans converge on our town of 6,000 for the annual motocross event that gets nationwide attention. It's amazing how passionate people can be about a little dirt and gasoline. They all camped for 3 days in 90+ degree weather to yell "RED BUUUUD". I just finished the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan with our small group at church and I couldn't help thinking how Christianity would change if we all loved Jesus like these 30,000 fans love their racing. As a family we desire to live our lives in a way where our love for Jesus guides every decision we make in life, even if it might seem a bit crazy in the eyes of the world.

Family Camp Fun!
This past month we were able to attend one of Life Action's family camps with some friends. What a blast we had. It was a great time of being together as a family, enjoying family-centric activities, and listening to encouraging, biblical teaching. Best of all, two individuals attending camp that week came to know Jesus. How awesome is that. If you're located not too far from Southwest Michigan, I would highly recommend considering a week of family camp. You can learn more at www.LifeActionCamp.com and watch the promo video we produced for them here.

How you Can Be Praying For Us

As a family we are believing God for a few more financial partners to help us continue to serve here are Life Action. Our family is responsible for raising the majority of our funding and we are in need of some additional funding as our kids grow and our expenses continue to increase. If God is leading you to partner with us in this way, just shoot me an email back and I can send you some information on it.
Aaron has the opportunity to go to Houston the end of this month to attend The Response (http://theresponseusa.com). This is a great opportunity to connect with others who have a desire to see God revive our nation.

Your Prayers and Support This Month Have Enabled Us To:

Thanks for partnering with us through your prayers and financial support. As I serve in the media and communications area, here are a few of the projects and resources your funding is practically helping us produce:

Revive Magazine: Living Generously

2011-06-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

Just released the latest issue of Revive magazine this past week. Great topic on Living Generously, had to get this one out the door quick since it was so convicting. The cover turned out awesome. Love the concept of the water mysteriously flowing out of the hands. Think it truly captures the concept that you can't out give God. My Senior Designer Tom Jones totally rocked out on the design of this piece. Love every article he put together in this piece.

Would love any feedback on the design or content that anyone has. You can read the online version here: http://tinyurl.com/3cwp688

Ministry Update - May 2011

2011-05-24T10:51:00.000-07:00

Hey Friends! Just wanted to send y'all an update on what's happening with our family and ministry. We so appreciate each one of you praying and partnering with us as we serve here at Life Action Ministries. We are thrilled to continue to see how God is using this ministry to impact churches, families, and individual hearts for His glory. The last few months have been crazy busy both at work and within our family. God has been so good though and he continues to bless us abundantly. Here are some of the highlights and updates from the past month.

The Paulus Family

No More Painting!
We are so thrilled at God's provision in providing for us to get siding on our house. Our old wood siding was in need of painting (again) and we were not looking forward to spending significant amounts of time this summer painting. The provision of the siding was a direct answer to prayer and we are rejoicing over this!

Family Update
The kids are thrilled that the snow has finally all melted and they are able to play outside! They love the outdoors and spend hours everyday out playing with their neighborhood friends.

Jonathan: In the next week or so Jonathan will finish kindergarten. He is doing great at learning to read, add, multiply, and he just recently said all the books of the New Testament! He also just this week started his second year of t-ball. He loves playing baseball (and any other sport) and says he is looking forward to hitting "home runs".

Annalise: Turns 4 the end of June but already thinks she's Jonathan's age. She loves riding her little pink bike, playing with her dolls, and building ice cream stands with her legos.

Eliya: Is almost a year and a half and she is now up on her feet and walking about with full speed. She has quite the personality and keeps us laughing often. She seems to have such a loving personality and is quick to give hugs.

What is Aaron's Role at Life Action?
Great question! Currently Aaron is serving as the Managing Director of Communications for Life Action Ministries. Practically speaking, Aaron gives direction to the marketing, media, video production, internet initiatives, social media, and also overseas the in-house art studio. The purpose for this team is to use the various forms of media to (a) Strengthen the relationship with donors and constituents and (b) to deliver content and resources through proven forms of media. Aaron enjoys working in media and communications especially as he sees many lives impacted for eternity.

Some Time Away As a Couple
This month we were able to get away as a couple (yep, without kids) and spend some time in Florida together. It was a great time of relaxing, refreshing, and just being together! This is something we have tried to do periodically just to be able to focus on our marriage, evaluate where God has us in life, and be sure we are living intentionally (okay, we make sure we have some fun as well). We definitely enjoyed the beautiful Florida sunshine after such a harsh winter this past year. View some photos of our trip here on Facebook!

Your Prayers and Support Have Allowed Us To Tackle The Below Projects
Your prayers and financial support are enabling us to serve here at Life Action. As I serve in the media and communications area, here are some of the current projects and resources your funding is practically helping us produce:

Ministry Update - April 2011

2011-04-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone is having a great week! Wanted to drop you a quick update and let you know about some cool things that are happening through your partnership with us in ministry. March was super busy, but filled with some great opportunities to impact and change lives for the good. We so appreciate each of you who are faithfully supporting us financially and through your prayers. We would not be able to serve here without partners like you! Thanks for taking a minute to see how God is using you to draw people closer to Christ through reviving the spiritual lives of believers!

The Paulus Family

Casting a Vision of the Impact of Revival
Victoria and I spent three days in Asheville, NC meeting with friends and supporters of the ministry with the goal of casting a vision of the impact that revival can have on our culture and nation as well as updating our partners on the impact the ministry had during this past year of ministry. As the communications director, I gave an update on how we are impacting lives through media and resources. Some of the highlights from this past year through media were . . . 1) We had nearly 2.5 million visitors to our resource websites 2) 30,000 subscribers to our quarterly Revive magazine 3) we had 56,000 video downloads 4) more than 35,000 people are connected with us via Facebook. These are just a few of the way we are reaching and distributing content via media this past year. How exciting!

Leaders Gather to Seek God for Spiritual Renewal
Around 300 pastors and Christian leaders gathered this week for the Heart-Cry for Revival Conference in Asheville, NC. The conference began with a three-hour prayer meeting the first night and was followed by an additional three hours of prayer the next morning. Be praying for these pastors and leaders as they continue to seek God for revival in their own hearts, churches, campuses, and in our nation. The goal of this conference is to help ignite, equip, and commission ministry leaders in their passionate desire for God to bring spiritual renewal to the hearts of His people.

A Family I Met in Memphis. You've Got to Watch Their Story!
This past February I took a trip to Memphis, TN to talk with some individuals about the impact that Life Action Ministries had on their lives. I was really blown away at some of the stories I heard. Individuals who met Christ for the first time, marriages that were in distress that are now vibrant, and individuals that were just flat out dead spiritually that now have revived relationships with Christ. I wanted to share with you the story of this one family I was able to meet and interview on video. So cool. This is one story of the fruit of your partnership with us!

Family Trip to TN
We are currently wrapping up a ministry/vacation trip to Tennessee. The kids are enjoying the warm weather and being able to hang out with the grandparents as mom and dad head to Asheville to spend time with donors and friends of the ministry. It's always great to see friends and family in the area and to get a little time off to rest and relax.

How You Can Pray
Thanks so much for praying for our family as we serve here at Life Action. We are so blessed to have people like you praying and supporting us financially. As you are praying, here are a few ways you can specifically pray. 1) Through a set of circumstances God has provided funds for us to get siding on our home. We are so excited about this and the time it will save us painting almost every year! Praise the Lord for His provision. 2) We are going to be needing to replace our mini-van soon. We are beginning to look around for one and praying for the funds to help purchase it. 3) We are continually praying our children will understand the gospel and love God and others wholeheartedly. Thanks for your prayers!

Ministry Update - March 2011

2011-03-16T06:04:00.000-07:00

Friends and Ministry Partners,

Wanted to take a moment on this Wednesday morning to thank each of you for your partnership with us through your prayers and financial support. Our family frequently thanks the Lord for you and your faithfulness in helping to make our service here at Life Action Ministries possible. These past few months have been really packed with some awesome ministry opportunities and we have heard many reports of lives that have been transformed and re-aligned with the Jesus way of living. It's cool to think we all have played a small part in helping people experience a renewed relationship with Him.

The following are a few of the things that have excited me recently in what God is up to through this ministry.

Aaron & Victoria (and kids)

Revive Magazine is Having an Impact
As a Communications team one of the resources we produce each quarter is a magazine called Revive. The latest issue of Revive, released in March, addressed the biblical pathway for change. The demand for this subject has been strong with extra copies selling out in a matter of days to individuals, pastors and counselors stocking up on extra copies to use with others. Praise the Lord that revival truths providing real biblical answers for how to overcome habitual sin and to experience lasting transformation are spreading through Revive magazine. You can read this issue of Revive right here online.

Christian Leaders Seek God for Spiritual Renewal
April 4-7 Life Action will be co-hosting a conference for pastors and leaders on the topic of revival called the Heart-Cry for Revival conference. This yearly event brings over 200 pastors and leaders together to seek God for a revival among His people and His church. We are excited about the impact of this conference and how God uses this each year to spread the vision of what God can do through revival. If you would like to learn more about this conference you can at Heart-CryforRevival.com.

Telling the Stories of Changed Lives
The end of February Aaron headed down to Memphis to meet up with one of Life Action's local church teams to capture on video some of the things God was doing both in the church and in the lives of people attending the event. It was absolutely amazing to see how each evening more than 1,200 individuals came to the evening sessions with over 2,000 coming on Sunday morning. The stories I heard of God transforming power was amazing. Many received Christ for the first time, others reconciled with their spouse, many confessed bitterness and were able for the first time to forgive individuals who had hurt them, and on the stories go. While we were at this event, we captured just a fraction of the stories of changed lives. I wanted to share one of them with you in particular. You can watch it here.

Media Project: Understanding Revival

Over the course of the past months our team has been producing a series of videos to help individuals understand what revival is and why it is relevant to their life. We have produced a number of videos and distributed them through social media and other digital avenues resulting in the videos being watched over 1,000 times. You can check out some of the most frequently watched videos here:

Ministry Update - February 2011

2011-02-07T12:40:00.001-08:00

Hey Friends! Greetings from snow buried Michigan! What a January it has been both with crazy snowfall and neat opportunities to see lives impact for His glory. As far as the snow goes, this winter time we have had 91.5 inches of snow! The kids are absolutely loving it. One morning in January we woke up to a fresh 20+ inches of unexpected snow. I've attached a photo of what we had to dig our vehicles out of so those of you that live in the South could feel fortunate.

Here is a brief update on a few things happening:

Jonathan's Birthday
The end of January, Jonathan turned 6! Him and dad took a fun little trip to the ski slopes to spend some good father/son time. It was Jonathan's first time out on the BIG slopes and he did great. Jonathan's been practicing his snowboarding in our back yard on a rigged up "slope" and jump off our deck. Jonathan loves the outdoors and spends hours a day outside playing in the snow with his neighborhood friends.

Victoria's Birthday
This past Sunday, Victoria celebrated her 30th birthday! Woohoo! For her 30th, we were able to take a day trip to Chicago to do some shopping and eat at a fun Chinese restaurant! Jonathan, Annalise, Eliya, and I are so grateful for such a wonderful mother/wife!

Revive Magazine: Is Change Really Possible?
Aaron's team just completed the latest issue of revive magazine which is distributed to over 20k individuals. This issue is on the Topic of Change and takes a look at how to overcome the power of addiction. The topics in this issue have the potential to free so many people. Pray with us that God uses this resource in a great way!

Headed to Memphis
This Wednesday, Aaron is leaving for Memphis, TN to meet up with one of our revival summit teams which is at a church of 2,000. Aaron will be taking some video gear down to conduct some interviews of how God is working in the hearts and lives of individuals at this church. We'll share that with you once we get it produced. Thanks for praying for Aaron and the family as he is on this trip.

Reaching India Through Media
Our team here at Life Action Ministries is partnering with another organization to produce a weekly TV show in the country of India with the potential to reach over 10 million people. Aaron's team is developing the video graphics package for the program. We are excited to be able to help in the production of this and are excited about the potential it has to reach the country of India with the much needed message of spiritual renewal!

As always, thanks so much to each of you that are praying and/or supporting us financially each month. Your partnership with us in ministry is so encouraging and God is using your partnership to impact many for eternity.

We Appreciate Each of You,

Aaron & Victoria
Jonathan, Annalise, & Eliya

Steps to Live Video Streaming

2010-10-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

Looking to conduct a live video stream online? If so, you've come to the right place! Outlined in this blog post are the basic steps to successfully doing a live video stream. These are really only the basic steps to get you up and going. There are much more things to consider in order to optimize your live video stream for your audience. But hey, you gotta start somewhere.

Step 1: Capture
In the first step of live video streaming you will need to have a capture device such as a video camera, web cam, or a video feed from a switcher. Once you've got your camera rolling, you're ready for the next step.

Step 2: Encoding the Stream
Before you can encode your video stream, you will need to input your video feed into your encoding device. You can use a laptop as your encoding device if you have encoding software on your laptop, or you can go with a more proffessional encoding device such as a TriCaster. I have used both and both options work great. If you are using a laptop, you will probably need to convert your video feed input into USB so you can connect it to your laptop. I've used a device called a Canopus and it worked flawlessly for me.

Step 3: Bypass the Firewall
When you are prepping for your live video stream, if you will be doing the live stream from within a network you will most likely need to ask the network administrator to give you a direct internet connection without a firewall. Firewall's often will block your video stream from getting to the internet.

Step 4: Streaming Video Server
Once you got your feed going, you will need to stream it to a video streaming server on the internet. These are special servers that are setup to accept your live video feed and re-distribute it in real-time. There are a number of great options out there for doing this. Depending on how many viewers you are expecting you can spend anywhere from nothing to thousands of dollars a day. I have done both. Ustream.tv is a great free option. Watershed is a good intermediate option. Or check with your media server provider if you have one to see if they do live video streaming.

Step 5: Web Page Streaming Video Player
Now it's time to setup a live video player on your website to receive your live video stream coming from your streaming video server. I have had really great success with the free player called JW Player. I really wouldn't recommend anything different.

Step 6: Watch it Live Online
Wow, it's just that easy. Now you are ready to watch your live video stream online. If you find it skipping at all, you might need to adjust or reduce your live video stream quality so that the stream is a smaller file size and therefore requires less bandwidth to stream.

This is just some of the very basic steps in live video streaming. Please let me know your questions. I will expand this post with more details soon.

Zoner & Finch Music Video

2010-08-20T20:00:00.000-07:00

This year our organization's theme was "Imagine". We were asked to create an ice-breaker video to introduce the theme to our staff. So, to work my creative team went. Whether it's in our job description or not, we as a team are dedicated to helping create a culture that includes a little fun and laughter now and then. The following video we shot and produced in a day. Check it out.

Better Ideas Faster. How to Brainstorm More Effectively.

2010-07-19T08:19:00.000-07:00

For me, there seems to be no shortage of projects. The real challenge is being able to give adequate creative brainpower to each project, resulting in a well-executed, goal-accomplishing results. With an ever-increasing volume of work flowing across my desk, being able to creatively brainstorm efficiently and effectively is vital. Coming up with better ideas faster seems like a nice little cliche but it's actually possible with effective brainstorming. Directly from the HOW Design Conference, here are the highlights from a session and my additional thoughts on the topic.

Three Steps to Effective Brainstorming

Identify Your Goal or the Problem You Need to Solve
The very first step in effective brainstorming is to accurately identify your end goal or the problem you are needing to solve through your creative project. Asking questions like "What problem are we trying to solve" or "What is our end goal with this project" are super important. Starting with the right questions, will steer you towards the right answers. Once you identify your project goals, you can then begin thinking creatively outside the box, but inside your big picture goal.
Determine Your Brainstorming Foundation
Now, it's time for determining the foundation upon which you will brainstorm. So that you can brainstorm as efficiently as possible, you need to answer some basic questions. These questions will vary depending upon the project, but here are some basic ones you should probably consistently ask: What are the financial constraints of this project? What action do we want people to take after reading or watching this piece? What emotions do we want people to feel? What style of photography or graphical elements would be effective? These are just a few of the foundational questions that will help you brainstorming creatively outside the box but inside your strategy.
Brainstorming Methods
Once you've laid your brainstorming foundation and have set some navigational buoy, it's now time for idea generation (the fun part). When it comes to brainstorming, quantity breeds quality so encourage everyone to throw all their ideas, good and bad on that table. Asking the right ideation questions is important. Don't ask closed questions, ones that breed yes and no answers. Ask open ended questions that encourage involvement and idea generation. To jump start your thinking, here are a few methods for brainstorming.

Word Listing - List all the words related to your project. Then choose words that you think are most interesting and that best identify your projects stated outcome. Then think of words that are opposites that would create friction. These words will help shape the emotions, color palette, style, etc of your project. It works amazing and it's lots of fun.
Photo Inspiration - Google search or draw images that capture the inspire your creative thinking. Pay attention to photography styles, graphical elements, color, ideas, and emotion that can be communication through an image. A number of images together can inspire you towards a great idea and capture the look and feel you want a project to have.
The "Creative Drawer" - A great way to get inspired during brainstorming is to always be on the lookout for creative projects others have done. I keep a creative drawer and bookmark folder on my computer that has lots of creative things I have run across. Bits and pieces from various great ideas out there can inspire you or help shape your project. Pull a few pieces out of your creative drawer and throw them on the table to jump start your teams thinking.
Future Casting - For crazy creative results, remove all constraints! Start with what's impossible to pull off and begin brainstorming back to what is possible. Your likely to get some really creative, unlikely results.

There are many good ways to brainstorm and these are just a few of them. As a creative director, be sure to walk into your creative brainstorming meeting with a creative brainstorm plan. Know the questions you need to ask, and know how you are going to conduct your creative time so that you can come up with better ideas faster and more effectively and efficiently.

Selling Your Ideas to Clients and Bosses

2010-06-30T08:37:00.000-07:00

As an in-house creative director, I live to create, to problem solve, to listen to my clients and propose a solution that will accomplish their objective. While creative solutions can be tough to come by, convincing your client or boss of your idea can be even more difficult. In fact, it’s useless to have great ideas and be a creator if you can’t sell what you create. Let’s take a look at a few helpful things to help you sell your ideas to your boss and clients.

Before You Sell, First Listen To Your Client

Your client needs to know you understand their objective and project needs. If your client is sensing your not connecting with their objective, them you will never sell your idea to them. Listen first. Listen first. (Did I say that twice?) In order to effectively listen, you’ve got to ask the right questions, so here are some tips for asking effective questions:

Ask open-ended questions and not questions that only require yes and no answers.
Break your questions down into simple questions. Complex questions usually breed complex answers you’ll have to decipher.
Some of the best questions you can ask are follow-up questions. Don’t leave a question too soon.
One question that I should always be asking is: “What have I forgotten to ask you, or what else should I be asking you?” Some of your most valuable information can come out of this simple question.

Timing is Key When You Sell Your Idea

Timing is very important, don’t be too eager to present something. As creative’s, we often like to share our creative ideas while they are fresh on our mind and while we are stoked about them. We need to realize selling our ideas is about finding the optimal time for the decision maker, not us. You nee to setup a time with your decision maker when they are not burned out, pressed for time, or super busy. Finding the best possible time is your first step.

Five Ways to Improve Idea Presenting

Have a strong start to get them into the moment. A few ways you can do this include restating the objectives, stating a fact, using a quote, using a story, or just straight talk.
Keep your presentation simple and concise. Making your presentation digestible is key! Use simple language (maybe even have a few memorable lines), keep it simple, keep it concise. Consider this, in the Gettysburg address, two people spoke and only one speech was remembered: Edward Everet 13,500 2 hours, Abe Lincoln 272 words, 2 minutes. Enough said.
Help clients visualize your ideas as reality! Paint pictures with your words of your creative solution, paint the whole picture for them! You need to help your clients visualize how your idea is going to sell in the real world.
Slip in a little drama where appropriate. I think a good example of this was when Steve Jobs revealed the new Macbook Air out of a manila envelope.
Present the right amount of options! Three options is normally the right amount. There is not really as right answer to the order you present these, However, I would recommend you show them what they “think” they want first, then show them what you want them to have. “Show them something that BUILDS on their idea or what they think they want.” Show them how your idea builds on that!

Five Tips for Writing Killer Copy

2010-06-14T09:36:00.000-07:00

Copy writing for web-related applications is very different than writing for print. You probably already know that. In fact, you probably personally read content on the web very different than in a magazine.

It's important to realize that internet users are often multi-tasking or in a hurry. Most of the time, they are simply scanning pages instead of reading. In fact, the average person reads only 28% of the words on a web page on average. Knowing this, it's very important to learn how to convey your message effectively and present your content in a way that is useful, usable, and findable.

Here are five tips that will help you write killer copy for your website:

TIP 1: When It Comes To Copy, Remember Less Is More

Don’t overwhelm your readers with copy.
Cut all unnecessary words. Then, read your copy again, and cut more unnecessary words.

TIP 2: Your Audience Is Scanning, So Write Accordingly

Use headlines. These should be eight words of fewer.
Use subheads. These should be between twelve and fourteen words.
Keep paragraphs as short and concise as possible. Between forty and sixty words.
Bulleted lists should be used only when needed.
Numbered lists should be used for ranking only.
Hierchal headings are great for clarifications.

TIP 3: Use (Really) Simple Sentences. Here Are Some Guidelines

Verbs and nouns are your best friends.
Use adjectives and adverbs sparingly.
Too many commas make reading too complicated. Replace the commas with periods.

TIP 4: Avoid Using Jargon, It's NOT Cool

Be straightforward and clear in what you are saying.
Use common words that everyone understands.
Eliminate confusing by not using abbreviations.

TIP 5: Write Killer Headings and Get Their Attention

Headings should be as short, direct, and clear as possible.
Use words that tell me where I am going if I click here.
Use keywords in your headings.
Remember, headings are not about being clever, but about being clear.

Thirteen Commandments for Creative Brainstorming

2010-06-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

Creative brainstorming sessions can either be a very frustrating or rewarding time. I recently attended a session at the HOW Design Conference called "Caffeine for the Creative Mind." Here are thirteen commandments to consider during creative brainstorming sessions:

Have the right number of people in the room 5-7. Too many people in a meeting will make it ineffective.
Don’t surround yourself with other people just like yourself. Bring in a variety of different people to your creative meetings.
Never have surprise brainstorming. It’s vital to allow people time to think before entering a creative meeting.
Value the time of those in your meeting. An hour and a half is the maximum amount of time you spend in creative brainstorming.
Orchestrate ways to get fresh input into your brainstorming, but always meet in the same familiar place so you get familiar output.
Have something fun up your sleeve to spice up your creative meetings. Your goal is to break down the walls and get the creative juices flowing.
Take a shotgun approach to ideas. Have everyone put everything they think of on the table. It’s about idea germination.
Start the fire with a creative match. Have creative exercises at the beginning of your creative brainstorming sessions.
Bring in the play to work. As creative’s, work and play should be married.
Leave the judge at the door. During creative meetings, people need to not have a fear of saying stupid thoughts or ideas.
Creative meetings are not about problem solving as much as they’re about idea germination.
Capture residual ideas. Ideas are often unusable by themselves and will need to be built upon.
Encourage your team! This is the best way to encourage creativity in your next meeting.

2010 HOW Conference Quotes

2010-06-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

Just wrapped up the 2010 HOW Design Conference in Denver, CO. An absolutely inspirational creative conference with tons of practical take-aways to begin using right now in our interactive media department. Wanted to share a few of the great statements I captured during the conference. So, without further ado . . .

“Creativity is a habit, not a moment.”

“Think before you think.”

“It’s about the idea, not about you.”

“Brilliant ideas are often one step from absurdity.”

“Treat everyday like a museum day. Observe what’s around you.”

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% execution.”

“When you share your idea, you are more likely to do it.”

“Quantity breeds quality.”

“Think outside the box, but inside the strategy.”

“Starting with the right questions, will steer you towards the right answers.”

“Set impossible goals, get unlikely results.”

Driving Your Social Media Fans to Action

2010-05-10T14:07:00.000-07:00

Are you investing time developing social media for your organization or ministry but not sure how to leverage these efforts for impact. You're probably asking yourself if all the time you are spending interacting on Facebook and Twitter is actually worth the investment. If so, you're not alone. Let's take a look at some ways we as ministries and non-profits can begin to tie the development of communities and social networks to increased impact, involvement, and financial revenue.

1. Post Updates in Real Time
The beauty of social media is the ability to post immediate updates to your social media crowds. If your not using the social media outlet to update your donors and constituents, you need to start this now. Mailing newsletters and updates IS a thing of the past. Focus on brief Facebook posts and Twitter tweets focused on one topic. Be sure to spice it up by including an image or video clip as well. The iPhone is a must for doing this while your mobile (hey, I had to promote Apple somewhere).

2. Promote Your Offline Events Through Social Media
If your organization or non-profit hosts events, Facebook has an especially robust function for creating events and promoting them. Facebook events allow you to post pictures and event location information, while also inviting your fan base to participate. You also can message all attendees to remind them about the event or give special instructions. Creating a Facebook event page then gives you a landing page that will direct visitors to your blog and Twitter followers too.

3. Promote Your Email Lists Through Social Media
If you have an email list that you use to send out updates, conduct fund raising, etc. you can use your social media channels to drive your Facebook and Twitter followers to sign up for your email lists. Building your email lists gives you an additional way to communicate to your audience. Informing your audience through social media as well as email gives you more of a guarantee to reach them with information.

4. Push Your Content Through Social Media
If your ministry or non-profit regularly produces content, one great way to distribute it is through social media. Create a few teaser lines for the content and post it on twitter with a link back to your website to read the full content. Not only does this help drive traffic to your website, but it also creates the opportunity for individuals on Facebook and Twitter to re-tweet or post the content to their friends or followers. Posting your content through social media is a great way to drive traffic to your site.

5. Offer Exclusive Deals Through Social Media
If you have an online store, one great way to market is through your social media channels. Try offering a 10% off coupon or a buy one get one free deal exclusively to your social media crowd. Create a simple discount code and then be sure to track it to see what type of response you get. Also, giving fans and followers an incentive to follow you shows the importance you place on social media outreach.

I hope these suggestions help jump start your thinking about ways to maximize your social media efforts and have a greater impact. If you have other ideas on how to leverage social media as it relates to ministry and non-profits post your comments below.

(Parts of this post were inspired by a blog post I read at: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-easy-ways-to-drive-social-media-fans-to-action/)

Managing Social Networks

2010-04-26T07:08:00.000-07:00

As a media manager in a non-profit, one of the important things I do is leverage social media to communicate to our listeners updates, content, opportunities to get involved, and more! As social networking continues to expand, it can be more and more challenging to manage multiple social networks, until now. Hootsuite is a free online service that allows you to manage multiple social networking accounts, view what individuals are posting about your product or organization, keep tabs on pre-defined searches, post to multiple social networking accounts at one time, and more. Check it out and learn more at Hootesuite.com.

Live Video Streaming Equipment

2010-03-02T09:57:00.000-08:00

There are two great ways I have found to stream live video online. One option is totally awesome and gives you every tool you could ever want to produce a live online stream, but you gotta fork out some cash to purchase the piece of equipment. Option two costs virtually nothing and still does a knock out job. So here are my two recommendations.

NewTek TriCaster
I personally produce live video streams with the NewTek TriCaster. A totally rad piece of equipment complete with a built in switcher, transitions, overlays, record to disk while streaming options, and so much more. The quality you get from this piece of equipment is some of the best I have seen.

The process of creating live, network-style television can be very costly and require massive amounts of expensive equipment and a large crew of people. TriCaster changes all of that. In one lightweight, portable system (small enough to fit in a backpack), you have all of the tools, including live virtual sets on select models, required to produce, live stream, broadcast, and project your show.

If you are on a tight budget, the Tricaster may not be for you as it starts around the $4,000 mark. If you got the money though, I would totally recommend it!

Check it out: http://www.newtek.com/tricaster/

Flash Media Encoder
So if you are looking for a budget option for live streaming in a flash video format, I would highly recommend Adobe's Flash Media Encoder. Keep in mind, you have to have Windows to run the program (which stinks), but you can get amazing quality from this little piece of software. I have streamed to thousands at a time through FME and have had great results. Best of all, FME is totally free! You can download a copy here: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashmediaserver/flashmediaencoder/

In order to get an external feed into your computer you will need a converter to get it to convert into your USB port. I use a product from Canopus and have had great results with it. It's the Canopus ADVC 55. It converts RCA to USB through a little box. You can find it here.

So there is two great options for live streaming. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them!

Live Streaming Interactive Interfaces

2010-02-16T09:28:00.000-08:00

Live video streaming interfaces are continuing to become more and more interactive. Cool just a few years back was live, streaming video online. Now the expectations of viewers are much higher and the opportunity for social interaction online has skyrocketed.

With all the online social networking tools available, your online video stream page can now host things like live chat, Facebook integration, Twitter tweets, Youtube videos, and more!

Making the most of your live streaming interface is a bit more difficult than just slapping a few cool features on the page. Asking questions like "What will enhance the online experience for my users" and "What can I add that will not distract from the purpose of the online event" are just some of the most basic things to be asking. Some of the best online interfaces for live streaming I have found include:

Radicalis Conference by Saddleback
Granger Community Church
Life Action Ministries event streams (ok, maybe I am biased on this one)

Each of these interactive environments make great use of page realestate and offer some very cool interactive features which enhance the online experience for the user. I would highly encourage you to check each of the streaming pages out.

Hope this post is inspirational to you as you develop interactive streaming environments. If you have found another great interactive streaming page. Post a comment and let us know about it.

Live Video Stream Echo in JW Player

2010-02-01T13:36:00.000-08:00

Experiencing a audio echo during a live video stream? I did too and after searching for hours for a solution on the web, to no avail, I troubleshooted the issue and figured out what was causing the audio echo. Here is what I was experiencing:

There seems to only be an audio echo with individuals using certain versions of Internet Explorer.
If you pause the live video player the video stops but the audio does not . . . and there is no longer and echo which makes me think there are two audio tracks playing in the background. When you pause the video, it pauses the video track and one of the audio tracks, but the other audio track is still playing.
I am embedding the JW player on a page with a bunch of other code. Looks like when I embed it on a really simply page with little to no code, the problem goes away.

Here are some temporary fixes I have found to resolve the audio echo while streaming live video through JW player.

There is no audio echo when using Firefox or Safari.
There is no audio echo when you turn off the "compatibility view" in Internet Explorer. This can be done by going to the menu bar and clicking on "Tools" and then unchecking "Compatibility View".

Before I get on to the solution, here are a few technical notes about my live video stream . . . I was streaming in flash, using a tri-caster, I was using the JWplayer rtmp live video embed code.

I had a ton of scripts happening on my live stream page including Flickr photo streams, live chat, facebook commenting, facebook live chat, and more. Through a process of elimination, I found that the live video stream echo was happening because of the facebook apps I had embedded.

Interestingly enough, the live video stream echo was only occurring in Internet Explorer, not in Firefox or Safari. To make things more weird, it was only happening sparadically in IE. There was no rym or reason to which machines were getting an audio echo on the live video feed. After researching it a bit more, I found that it has a "Compatibility Mode" and when this is turned on, the echo happens.

I found that the reason the echo was occurring was because I had set the live video feed to auto start. Every time the feed would skip, the player would try to auto start the feed again, therefore creating multiple echos.

THE SOLUTION: Simply set the video to NOT autostart. With the auto start disabled, the video stream will not try to auto start on multiple occasions, therefore eliminating the audio echo.

If you absolutely must have your live video feed auto start, here are some other ways to eliminate the echo:

1) Instruct your viewers to use Firefox, Safari, or anything besides Internet Explorer. 2) Instruct them to turn off compatibility mode in IE. 3) Get rid of your facebook apps that are embedded on your page.

Hope this helps. Comments are always welcome.

Track Your Website Traffic in Real Time

2009-12-07T06:15:00.000-08:00

Feedjit has some pretty cool embeddable widgets that you will allow you and your viewers to watch your site traffic live on your site. It's as easy as a cut and paste to get it up and going and best of all, they have a free version or a pay version if you would like to totally customize it and take their logo off. Here are the four main embeddable widgets they offer:

Live Traffic Feed
Feedjit's live traffic feed shows statistics on your website in real-time. It shows which city and country your visitors are in, the website they arrived from, the page they visited on your website, and which external link they clicked to leave your site.

Live Traffic Map
Feedjit's live traffic map shows the geographic locations of the last 100 visitors to your blog or website on a small map. If you move your mouse over any point on the map the city and country for that visitor will be displayed.

Recommended Reading Widget
Feedjit's Recommended Reading Widget suggests other pages on your Blog or Website that may interest your readers. It does this using a sophisticated algorithm called Collaborative Filtering.

Page Popularity
This widget shows the most popular pages on your blog or website by analyzing your recent traffic patterns. It constantly updates as new visitors arrive on your website and maintains an up to date list of popular pages.

Best Flash Video Format for Live Streaming

2009-11-25T13:13:00.000-08:00

Looking to stream live video in a flash video format but not sure whether to use H.264 or VP6? After streaming many hours of live video, a clear winner has emerged. First, let's take a brief look at both the H.264 and the VP6 formats.

The TrueMotion VP6 is a proprietary video codec developed by On2 Technologies. This codec is commonly used by Adobe Flash, Flash Video, and JavaFX media files. VP6 is a high-quality, low bitrate video compression codec. The codec is free for personal/non-commercial use.

The H.264 codec is a state-of-the-art video codec developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group. The H.264 codec delivers stunning quality at remarkably low data rates. Ratified as part of the MPEG-4 standard, this codec gives you excellent results across a broad range of bandwidths. By the way, this codec is also free.

So as far as the best flash live video streaming format goes which is better? After doing some testing, there is a noticeably higher picture quality with the H.264 codec. I achieved a considerably better video and audio quality on my live video streaming using the H.264 codec. In order to get the VP6 codec to obtain the same level of quality as the H.264 I had to run the VP6 stream bit rate 40% higher than what I was running the H.264 stream at.

Bottom line, I would highly recommend the H.264 as the best flash video live streaming format codec I have run across. So next time you produce a live video stream using flash, get the best quality possible and use the H.264 codec.

Embedding Flickr Photo Slideshows

2009-11-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

If you would like to be able to easily embed a Flickr photo slideshow into your website, seek no further. FlickrSlidr is a new tool which makes it super easy. All you have to do is enter the URL of the user, photo set or group you'd like to embed, give it some tags and a description, set your width and height and you’ll receive the code to copy and paste right into your website.

To begin embedding a Flickr slideshow on your site, visit http://flickrslidr.com.

Personal Facebook Widgets

2009-11-20T12:01:00.000-08:00

One of the very cool things you can do to your personal website or blog is to embed Facebook widgets. Here are a few of the ones I have found to work well.

Profile Badge - Share your Facebook information on other websites.

Photo Badge - Share your Facebook photos on other websites.

Fan Badge - Show off your favorite Pages on your website or blog.

View these Facebook widgets at www.facebook.com/facebook-widgets/

How to Embed a RTMP Live Video Stream

2009-11-06T17:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, I thought I would put a quick post out on this since I spent over an hour combing forums and sites trying to figure out how to embed a live RTMP flash video stream. I was using the JW longtail player (which I would highly recommend) and was going through their setup wizard and still couldn't get the rtmp stream to work . . . so here is what I found out.

The information I was working with was my server and stream name:
Server: rtmp://video110.techwerks.tv/live
Stream Name: myStream

The main issue was I couldn't figure out how to specify in the code my stream name. Finally, I figured out that your "stream name" has to be included right after your server info like this as well as identifying the "type" of stream it is which in this case is "rtmp".

Here is the line of code that identifies the server and stream name:
rtmp://video110.techwerks.tv/live&file=myStream&type=rtmp

Once I figured this bit of code out, the JW player worked great. You can check out the full code on the page I setup at: http://www.lifeaction.org/hcclive if you would like to see it in action . . . just click on view source to check it out. Hope you find this helpful. Happy streaming!

Best Sites for Design Inspiration

2009-10-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

Every designer needs frequent inspiration. Here are some great sites for design inspiration. If you have some places you frequent for design inspiration . . . post a comment and let us know where those are!

http://www.webdesignerwall.com/
http://thedesigninspiration.com/
http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
http://www.noupe.com/category/design

Using Social Media to Boost Your Search Rankings

2009-07-16T08:36:00.001-07:00

Using social media to communicate to your audience can be very effective. However, there are other uses for social media that might be easy to overlook. One of those is focusing on using social media to boost your organization's search rankings. As you build followers through social media through consistent posts, tweets, social bookmarks, and more, each of these social sites are "spidered" by search engines resulting in better exposure of your brand.

If you are looking for ways to boost your search engine rankings through social media, you may want to consider the following options:

1. Take advantage of blogging. Blogging consistently, establishing relationships and links with other bloggers, and making your content easy to syndicate is all good for your search engine rankings.

2. Use social bookmarking. Offering quick links to social bookmarking (such as delicious) on your website is another way to increase your exposure. As links to web pages are saved, web crawlers find them resulting in more links back to your site which increases your page placement!

3. Use Facebook and Twitter consistently! Raise the visibility of your brand and engage with your audience on these popular social network sites. Doing this will create more buzz about your brand and create more links and conversation relating to your oraganization. This will create additional links back to your site in the popular search engines.

4. Tag photos and videos. Take some time to upload your photos and videos to popular places such as Flickr and YouTube. With this content in place, people who do searches for video or photos through Google will find you! Uploading your media is a great way add just another way for people to find you in search engines. (Just be sure the media you use isn't out of date and give you a bad image!)

These are just a few ways to use some of the more popular social networking sites to improve your search engine rankings. For more on this subject check out the August issue of the .net magazine which inspired this post.

A Disclaimer Worth Reading

2009-06-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

Finally, a disclaimer that is actually worth reading! Recently my old Macbook Pro battery swelled and look at what I found as the disclaimer:

"Dispose of properly (or Mother Nature's gonna whack us all!) This battery contains no Mercury, Venus, or Mars :>). Warning: To reduce the risk of fire or burns, avoid Sony or Dell laptops and do not disassemble, crush, puncture, or short the contacts. All Rights Reserved. All other brand names & trademarks belong to their respective owners."

Disclaimers are never really helpful anyways . . . glad to see some creative out there making good use of space and ink!

Communicating Through Social Networking

2009-06-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest ways to communicate to your constituents right now is by tapping into social networking. Most likely, more of your constituents than you might think are probably using Facebook and Twitter to stay in touch with friends, family, and follow things of interest.

As the media and communications manager for a national non-profit, one of the challenges I face is identifying natural ways to communicate to my audience. In other words, where is my audience currently going to stay in touch with people and things they care about? Answering this question helps me identify which outlets I need to be utlizing to get my message heard. Identifying and knowing your audience is a very important factor in determining which outlets to communicate through.

To be honest, I was initially skeptical that our audience 40-65 year olds would be familiar with, let alone connected to online social networking. But we decided to give it a try. We initially focused on brief ministry updates, prayer requests, links to new content, and announcements. We used our website to begin promoting having people "Follow Us" on Twitter and "Connect with Us" on Facebook. We also spent time following as many people as we knew on Twitter and making people aware of our social networking connections at conferences. Within three months, we had over 700 people following us on Twitter and over 400 on Facebook. The social networking trend for us continues to snowball with more than a 30% growth rate each month!

Communicating through social networking channels is a great way to naturally connect with your audience in an outlet where they are already listening. If your skeptical like I was, try taking it for a spin, it might just be the best way you ever communicate with your constituents.

Live Video Stream - Use iChat?

2009-06-18T17:31:00.000-07:00

If your thinking about doing a live web stream there are a ton of things to consider . . . things like streaming format, bandwidth, push vs. pull, encoders, kbs, and about a hundred other things. Over the last year I've done a few different streaming gigs setup to reach a few dozen people to larger ones reaching thousands at a time. Today however I was tasked to setup a live video stream from one location to an auditorium with large screens a few miles away. The challenge with this gig was we had only 48 hours to set it up and zero dollars to work with (gotta love those projects). After considering a few different options such as ustream.tv, windows media encoder, flash streaming, and others we decided to give iChat a spin and see if it could handle a live stream for over an hour.

Our setup was fairly simple and included a Sony DVcam video camera and two Macbook Pros. On the sending end we tied a direct audio feed into our Mac's mic input and plugged the DVcam in through a firewire port. Thankfully, iChat recognized the firewire and mic input immediately. On the receiving end we ran a feed out of the headphone jack and tied the projector into the external monitor output.

Surprisingly, the feed worked awesome! Great audio quality and relatively good video quality for the entire hour! The whole setup took us less than 15 minutes to setup and with the short time-frame we had to work with, it worked great!

Next time you are looking to do a live video feed from one location to another with limited time and resources . . . try taking iChat for a spin and see if it works for you!

Any other thoughts on streaming? Post your thoughts, suggestions, or input!

Clover - A Intuitive, Simple CMS (Only $1,000)

2009-06-13T07:16:00.000-07:00

With the thousands of Content Mangement Systems (CMS) available today, you could spend days weeding through the different options to build your site upon and end up confused, frustrated, and still with no CMS. Been there, done that. So, stop your searching and take a moment to check out CloverSites.com, an incredibly easy to use CMS that is cheaper to setup than most people's monthly house payment.

The upside is the price, the intuitive interface, the cool mp3 sermin player, and the online calendar. The downside is a lack of flexibility most larger churches and ministries would want. Plus, besides adding new pages to your site, you cannot customize the system at all. But, if you are looking for a cool, simple web presence, want to manage your own content without hiring out to expensive web programmers, this might ust be the perfect solution for you.

I have setup a number of sites and have helped a number of people setup sites on this CMS and found it to work great. I would encourage you to at least take a quick look at Clover to see if it might be the right CMS for you. Take Clover for a spin by visitng CloverSites.com.

If you have found a great CMS I would love to hear about it. Drop me a comment on here and let me know!