Instructions for Free Christian Sites on ionanet

Instructions & Info for Free Sites

Free Services Info

What Kind of Services I Provide
Free custom site design and hosting with a URL like http://ionanet.com/your ministry. A customized graphics set and banner plus other graphics within reason. Regular site updates, can be weekly if needed, but does not include redoing the whole site. Free site promotion on ionanet pages (there are about 2,000 of them!) and some mailouts.

What Kind of Services I Do NOT Provide
I don't do domain hosting and registration - I'm just not set up for it. If you need or have a domain, you'll need to arrange for a different host. The link at the top of this page is a great place to start. I can still provide all the other services for you and upload to your domain host.

Because of site security and integrity concerns, I can't permit you to upload files to ionanet, however, you can e-mail the material to me and I will take care of the rest.

In an effort to maintain ionanet's professional and philosophical consistency, I do not place counters on pages, use midi or other sound, movie or Flash files, etc. - these crash older browsers and slow page loading. Guest books are excluded because I simply don't have the time to constantly review them and remove the filth that they can draw; additionally, they lend and unprofessional air to a site.

Getting Your Free Services

How to Get Your Free Site
1. E-mail me about your ministry. List:

Name and kind of the ministry

Person in charge: name, address, telephone

Statement of faith, can be informal

Sort of things you want on the site

Briefly state why you need a free site

Site Content Info

What to Put on Your Site
Provide as much information about your ministry as possible, making sure visitors know why the site exists. Evangelistic material is an important part of any Christian site, and testimonies are always effective. You'll probably expand as you go along, but here are some suggestions:

News and info about your ministry and its people

Photos of you, any building, the ministry at work, etc.

Links to other sites and resources

Statement of faith

Devotionals, Bible studies, etc.

Praise reports

Support materials, inspirational pieces, etc.

What NOT to Put on Your Site
Your site is provided as a service to Christ - that's my ministry - and it's supported out of my own pocket with some help from banner ads and Partners, hence I don't permit the free sites I create to also place ads on the space. Some other taboos are:

Objectionable, unwholesome or inappropriate content

Violation of copyright, illegal use of materials

Offering goods or services for a fee

This is to be a ministry site, not a personal home page sort of thing. While it is a fine idea to include personal information about yourself and other workers in your ministry, this should be only a small facet of the overall site.

Hints on Preparing Site Content
The quality of your site not only reflects on you and your ministry, and also a reflection on ionanet, but more vital than that is the impact, good or bad, it has for the Lord. So be meticulous with your work. Pray as you check spelling, grammar, etc. and make sure what the site "says" is Biblical and honoring of God. Graphics, too, should be of good quality. sadly much of Christian clip art is primitive. I will be happy to, provide needed graphics, but if you have something you want on it, I can tweek it for file size and image quality if needed.

Sending Content Files

How to Send Files for Your Site
Sending materials is easy; just E-mail them! The simplest way is to include text for the site in the body of an e-mail. Because of previous virus problems, I never open document attachments, so do NOT send me a MSWord or other document. I can't open it. If you have done your text in such a program, simply copy it and paste it into an e-mail.

For graphics, you can e-mail them as attachments in jpg or gif format. I can also work with some tiff files, but not all. Or, if you have photos, etc. you want scanned, just send them snail mail and I'll scan and return them.

Validating Your Site

How to Keep Your Site "Alive"
Sites become stale if they never change or don't offer some reason for visitors to come back, so it's important to provide new info and updates to content, etc. to keep your site fresh. Your site will grow in popularity as people share links to it and revisit time after time. Here are some suggested "hooks" to keep the site growing:

Offer a mailing list - send out notes and inspiring material

Put up a weekly or monthly devotional

Maintain a "news" section about your ministry and other Christian issues

Offer spiritual support

Offer a prayer chain mailing list

Solicit e-mail input from your readers

Send update material via E-mail as above. If you plan a regular update, please let me know so we can schedule it around other sites I update weekly.

I have now deleted the Art4Christ site. Get Free Graphics here.
The Handmaidens site is still up but no longer active.
This is also true of the Web4Christ and Host4Christ sites.