Wow. I can’t believe it’s finally here, the newly redesigned Church Marketing Sucks and Center for Church Communications websites. Hats off to Ben Jordan and the team at BigBadCollab for a redesign that I think not only looks different, but feels different. A big thanks to Cynthia Ware and the board for pulling out the tent stakes and making this a reality, to Kevin Hendricks for his tremendous project management and of course to Brad Abare for giving us a vision to run with.
Free Echo Tickets
In celebration of our redesign we’d like to give away two tickets to the Echo Conference, coming to Dallas on July 28-30. Details on how to enter are below and we’ll do a random drawing on June 1 to determine the lucky winner.
It’s easy to enter and you can enter multiple times to increase your chances of winning. Here’s how you can enter:
- Post a comment on this blog entry.
- Post something about our redesign to Twitter, Facebook, your blog or whatever your preferred medium. Then come back here and post a comment with a link to wherever you posted something.
The Fine Print:
- We’ll enter your name in our random drawing once for every medium you use. That means commenting gets you one entry, tweeting gets you second entry and Facebooking (is that verb yet?) gets you a third entry—three chances to win Echo tickets. But you only get one chance for each medium—so tweeting 10 times will still only give you one opportunity to win.
- Comments must be posted to this entry by 11:59 p.m. PT on June 1 to be eligible. Don’t be late.
- We reserve the right to disqualify any entry for whatever reason we choose (i.e., if we’re offended by your Twitter post about how badly Kevin needs a haircut, we might decide you lose.)
- Employees and board members of CFCC and their immediate families are disqualified. We’re not sure why, but it sounds official.
That’s it. Thanks and enjoy the new design—it’s been a long time coming.
June 2, 2010 Update: Winners
The contest has now come to a close and we’re happy to offer congratulations to the winners of the Echo tickets:
- Micheal
- Scolliewag
See you in Dallas!
Ivan
May 24, 2010
I LOVE the new look. Just visited yesterday and WOO HOO HOO…you done got all gussied up!
Matt Holley
May 25, 2010
Love the new site design. The images are nice and clean and the vacuum in the top left looks great. Nice work!
Katharine
May 25, 2010
Looks great to me, but then again, so did the old site.
I thought people at the Episcopal Church LinkedIn group would want to know about ChurchMarketingSucks, so I posted a link there.
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=82226&discussionID=20805543&sik=1274785757468&trk=ug_qa_q&goback=.anh_82226.ana_82226_1274785757467_3_1.ana_82226_1274785757468_3_1
Johnny Laird
May 25, 2010
Lookin’ good guys!
Mitch Burk
May 25, 2010
The new design looks awesome guys!
Mitch Burk
May 25, 2010
Check out my tweet!
http://twitter.com/mitchburk
Mitch Burk
May 25, 2010
A cmsucks shoutout on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=13748334
Mike Martinez
May 25, 2010
Congrats guys! The new site is lookin good.
Mike Martinez
May 25, 2010
Here’s my tweet about the new site. http://twitter.com/meems0 Thanks for the opportunity for the Echo tix!
Paul Steinbrueck
May 25, 2010
Michael, nice job by you and others who worked on the redesign. And welcome to WordPress. I hope the migration wasn’t too much of pain.
One minor issue I noticed off the bat is that as I view the site in FireFox the last two words of the tag line wrap and are not on the same background as the rest of the tagline. In IE8 just “Christ” wraps.
And if I could add a suggestion, I would love to see threaded comments enabled. I’ve found the ability to reply to a specific comment is really helpful when it comes to facilitating good conversation on popular posts.
Dawn Nicole Baldwin
May 25, 2010
Great job guys! The sites are marinating in awesomesauce. You should be proud for a job well done :)
Michael Smith
May 25, 2010
Looks awesome!
2 links
Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/smithpho
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=613100956
Kelvin Howard
May 25, 2010
Nice work! Redesign looks great.
http://twitter.com/kelvinhoward
Thilani Grubel
May 25, 2010
The mobile site looks and works great – can’t wait to see it in Firefox!
Thilani Grubel
May 25, 2010
Tweet tweet: http://mobile.twitter.com/thilanigrubel/status/14696320023
Brian Richards
May 25, 2010
LOVE the new layout. So much more space for so much great content. Bravo on this incredible endeavor! Every facet of the site seems to be cover with care (even checked it out on mobile), so I don’t think you could have been any more thorough.
One request I do have, though, is for a slightly larger font size for single articles/pages and the featured article on the home page. Even stepping up a single point-size would make my tired eyes happy :) If it were me, I would just add this single CSS rule below:
.single .entry, .page .entry, #featured_content { font-size: 1.2em; }
If you wanted to keep the same leading maybe you would also want to add line-height:1.4em; … either way.
Don’t take this as criticism, though, the site is great just the way it is!. I’ve just grown accustomed to larger body copy on websites and am very fond of how much more readable it makes everything. In fact, it was only after reading this 2008 post from Wilson Miner that I started designing this way myself.
Lauryn White
May 25, 2010
Looks great, CMSucks team! Love the dimension in the new header and your use of images throughout. Very eye-catching.
Lauryn White
May 25, 2010
@laurynw: “Love the new look of @cmsucks. Check it out when you go there to read this post: ‘Why the Church is Losing to LOST’ http://goo.gl/r5xo”
http://twitter.com/laurynw/status/14700129587
Jonathan Blundell
May 25, 2010
very nice. nice indeed!
Carlos Lollett
May 25, 2010
Love the new design! Fresh and functional.
Good stuff.
Lauryn White
May 25, 2010
“One of my favorite sites just got an awesome redesign: http://70.32.74.241”
http://www.facebook.com/laurynwhite
Josh Burns
May 25, 2010
Love the new look.
Shaun Groves
May 25, 2010
Great job on the redesign guys.
http://twitter.com/shaungroves/status/14702808758
Josh Burns
May 25, 2010
I posted to
twitter: http://twitter.com/jburno
and facebook: http://facebook.com/jburns
Cleve Persinger
May 25, 2010
Nice refresh guys. I’m glad the overall look you guys established over the past six years stayed in tact.
Cleve Persinger
May 25, 2010
Tweet here:
https://twitter.com/persinger/status/14703490053
Lauryn White
May 25, 2010
“Check out the recently redesigned ChurchMarketingSucks.com — one of my favorite sites.”
http://www.linkedin.com/in/laurynwhite
Cleve Persinger
May 25, 2010
Facebook link here:
http://www.facebook.com/cleve
Jill
May 25, 2010
Great Job!
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1042391952
Anna Labedz
May 25, 2010
Nice, clean, easy to navigate – it’s a winner!
Antoine RJ Wright
May 25, 2010
The tickets and contest are nice, the site design even nicer. Very solid look and feel with this redesign. I’m jealous and challenged ;)
JD Jackson
May 26, 2010
Two thumbs up for the redesign!! Very clean and easy to navigate.
D. Goodmanson
May 26, 2010
Great work CMS team! Love the redesign and the steady flow of fantastic content!
erastos
May 27, 2010
the site looks great… thanks for all your work!
Clint
May 27, 2010
Love the information flow. great, well thought-out easy nav. CMS rocks.
Clint
May 27, 2010
posted at: twitter.com/clintribble
Mike
May 27, 2010
Liking the look… I know how much work that takes!!! Now take a Starbucks break, you deserve it!
Oh, and here’s my link: http://www.facebook.com/mm42883
Chase layman
May 27, 2010
Site design looks great guys
Aaron
May 28, 2010
Great job on the site, guys! Ben – fantastic work!
scolliewag
May 28, 2010
Great new site. Well done.
Kevin Reid
May 28, 2010
Superb work. I love it.
Chris Childs
May 28, 2010
You redesign doesn’t suck!
Randy Vaughn
May 28, 2010
Love the new look – well done!
LGC
May 28, 2010
Cool! Gotta go – got work to do!
Jonathan Tate
May 28, 2010
Love the new look! Im looking foward to winning the tickets to the Echo Conference. lol!
Creativebydesign
May 28, 2010
Love, love, love the new design! So much cleaner, sharper, & awesome!
giorgio
May 28, 2010
Waiting for the dust to settle but so far so good
Robin
May 28, 2010
One of my favorite sites getting a makeover… love it!
Robin
May 28, 2010
Woo hoo! http://twitter.com/rharper28
Robin
May 28, 2010
Sharing the amazingness on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/TheRobinHarper
Kristi
May 29, 2010
http://twitter.com/jandkschutter pick me:}
Adam
May 30, 2010
How’s this for coincidence: I’m Australian but I’m going to be in Dallas for one weekend and that’s the one! I hope that improves my chances. ;)
Loving the site, the redesign is nice (really like the wider main column for entries, much more readable), but I can’t seem to get rid of that footer, the X button is broken. (Using Safari on Windows XP.)
Adam
May 30, 2010
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sharplet/status/15075765239
Adam
May 30, 2010
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sharptastic?v=wall&story_fbid=131964120151898&ref=mf
Ben Cotten
May 31, 2010
Love the redesign! Nice work. Love the front page organization.
Ben Cotten
May 31, 2010
I spread the word. Hook a brother up! http://twitter.com/bencotten/status/15117230561
G. Samuel
May 31, 2010
I think the new design looks great and attractive. I think you are on the right track.
Erin Barclay
May 31, 2010
Nice work on the new site. Nice and clean. Easy to navigate!
Michelle Castle
June 1, 2010
Love the redesign!
Michelle Castle
June 1, 2010
http://twitter.com/michellecastle/status/15182690551
ZIONmedia
June 1, 2010
very nice. great info. great source. tickets please?
ZIONmedia
June 1, 2010
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Clarion-PA/Zion-Church/171664554184?v=app_2309869772&ref=ts#!/pages/Clarion-PA/Zion-Church/171664554184?v=wall&ref=ts
Julie Hartley
June 1, 2010
Love the redesign, love the information you send out…really would love to go to the Echo Conference:)
Julie Hartley
June 1, 2010
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/julieannehartley
kristin jackson
June 1, 2010
we NEED this :)
Joe
June 1, 2010
sad that your redesign looks like a million other sites out there
Micheal
June 1, 2010
Great new look! Love it!
Micheal
June 1, 2010
2 entries for ECHO:
http://www.twiter.com/michealfelker
http://www.facebook.com/michealfelker
Thanks for the opportunity!
Micheal
June 1, 2010
http://www.twitter.com/michealfelker
d’oh!
Mary Beth
June 1, 2010
Love the new look!
Mary Beth
June 1, 2010
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/mbstockdale?v=wall&story_fbid=101149513268104&ref=mf
Mary Beth
June 1, 2010
And twitter http://twitter.com/mbstockdale/status/15208521438
=)
Jim Gray
June 1, 2010
it’s about time that CMS site was given a new face!
Mark
June 1, 2010
Would love the tix.
Mark
June 1, 2010
http://twitter.com/mbushor
Mike
June 1, 2010
Redesign is attractive, if not groundbreaking. Footer with categories, archives and site nav is MASSIVE, not sure how I feel about that. Certainly a pleasing color palate, though.
Jim
June 2, 2010
I like the new site a lot but just out of curiosity is the cfcc ad network merging with the Beacon ad network?
jimmy :)
Brad Abare
June 2, 2010
@Jim We have not merged with the Beacon Ad Network. They simply lease a spot from us for the time being. However, we are considering some of the various options available. If there is a specific issue related to your question, please email me directly: brad [at] cfcclabs [dot] org.
Ryan
June 3, 2010
The new site looks great! Good job all.
John Keese
June 3, 2010
New design looks great, but the tagline (“The site to frustrate…”) is broken awkwardly over main container. The words “Jesus Christ” flow over in FF 3.6.3 and only the word “Christ” overflows in IE8.
Let me know if you need a screenshot or are unable to replicate this. Great design, but from one Web Designer to another, I thought you guys might like to know about this quirk.
Chris
July 9, 2010
I get an email today (7/9) touting your new web site design. When I click the link I get a homepage that hasn’t been updated in over 30 days??? What gives? Sorry, but your credibility in giving advice for excellent church communication took a hit with this blunder.
Kevin D. Hendricks
July 11, 2010
Chris, but the latest post on our homepage is from July 9. I think you’re looking at the wrong page.
Tim Hohm
July 9, 2010
NO, NO, NO! PICK ME!! http://twitter.com/RevTim
Kevin D. Hendricks
July 11, 2010
Little late, Tim. Sorry. Contest ended a month ago.