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God and Me! 3 (Ages 6-9)
God and Me! 3 (Ages 10-12)

Devotional books for girls

God and Me! 3 (Ages 6-9) and God and Me! 3 (Ages 10-12)

Packed with fun, Bible-based stories and activities that equip girls to grow closer to God and discover promises for their lives.

Available at any Christian bookstore or online through Legacy Express or amazon.

What Your Nonprofit Home Page Must Have

Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen reports that 17% web page views last 4 seconds.

That’s not a lot of time.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m web surfing, my index finger stays poised on my mouse, ready to click off a site that doesn’t grab my attention or answer my question.

Your visitors are the same way.

That’s why your home page is so important. Readers intuitively use certain criteria when visiting your site. Take steps to make sure your home page pulls in visitors and keeps them longer.

  1. A compelling hook. This can be a powerful statistic, a heart-wrenching story, or an outrageous trend that your organization addresses.
  2. A quick summary. Who are you? What do you do that makes a difference? What special niche do you fill or need do you meet? Visitors should be able to figure it out in 2 seconds.
  3. Clear navigation. Organize your information in a logical way for your readers – not for you. Navigation bars and box links should take visitors to key pages that interest them the most.
  4. A sign up box. According to entrepreneur phenom Ali Brown, 99% of your website’s first-time visitors will not contact you. Instead, they’ll click away and you’ll have lost them forever. But if you capture their names and email addresses with an enticing invitation in an obvious box, you’ll have them in your communication hopper for a long time.
  5. A Donate button. Make it easy for visitors who come to your site to give to do so. The Donate button should be above the fold and obvious.
  6. A third-party endorsement. A beneficiary testimonial, celebrity endorsement, membership logo from ECFA or Guidestar, or a rating from Charity Navigator builds credibility.
  7. Ways to engage. Link visitors to lots of volunteer opportunities and upcoming events.
  8. Social media links. Connect visitors to your Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages. Studies also show that home page video gets and keeps visitors at your site longer.

If you’re not already checking your web site’s analytic numbers, get started. You can sign up with Google Analytics for free and track numbers of visitors, what pages they visit, how long they stay on your site, and a host of other cool statistics. Use analytics to continually improve your site – especially your home page, which is the online gateway to your nonprofit’s wonderful work.

 

About the author
Kathy Widenhouse (www.kathywidenhouse.com) is a freelance development writer who specializes in producing materials for the faith-based, nonprofit market. She also provides strategic consultation to help nonprofits get their message out and get results. Kathy’s 90+ articles have appeared in more than 40 periodicals, and she has written 5 books.