It is fun when you find one or two other church tech blogs that you can add to your RSS feed. But how do you know what are the best ones out there? There currently are no proper ranking lists for church tech blogs. So we decided to have a little adventure and make our own. The first step, how do we rank them?
We wanted to put together a top 20 list formula that was as objective as possible and added little to no subjectivity to the project. The formula finds the most popular blogs on the Internet through a series of calculations.
How We Measure The Rankings
- Web Traffic
We believe that a significant weight of the ranking should come from the traffic that comes to someone’s blog. Advertisers measure it through impressions and visits, we simply look at the unique number of visitors that visit your site. At the same time, we do factor in Alexa rankings too, but it should be noted that this is but a study and has many fallacies in its measurements because they rely on the habits of only a small group of web surfers, making it very important that it is only a small factor in the overall ranking. - Google PageRank and RSS Readers
Web traffic is only a portion of the influence. We must remember to include the Google PageRank that is influenced by backlinks as well as those who still read your blog posts through an RSS feed. - Social Media
I do not know of a single blog ranking system that incorporates social media into its statistics, so we have found the top three networks (Facebook, Twitter, and Google+) and incorporated them into the formula. Not only is the size of the audience important here, but how active they are with their fans and followers.
It should be noted that this is not a fail-proof formula and we are fine with that. If we were like Klout or Marketing Grader by HubSpot and making a full-time income off of this, we would more thoroughly address this. Unlike these two sites that each look at several hundred data points, we are only looking at ten. After personally clocking more than 30 hours on this formula, running it by more than 20 other people for opinions and other research that might be vital, and doing several simulation tests, we feel that we have come to a great result!
What We Are Looking For
So now we need your help. We need to hear from you guys about some great church tech blogs to add to the search for the top 20 church tech blogs. What makes a site qualify?
- It must have a main blog component. We are not looking for companies to submit their website for free advertising.
- You must talk about your Christian faith somewhat frequently in blog posts. This can look like a lot of things including an integrative approach of technology or the web and your worldview or a practical approach to tech apps or social media guidelines for churches and ministries. It does not have to be affliated with a specific church or organization in any way.
- Your blog must focus on technology in some format. Technology is a wild array of topics including social media, web programming, blogging, technology security, iOS, and other accessories. If you are unsure if yours or someone else’s blog falls under this category, ask.
- No aggregate blogs.
- No social media networks like GodTube.
- No inappropriate content on the website.
How You Can Submit Your Site
If you want to submit your blog into the search for the top 20 church tech blogs,
- Leave your blog’s URL in the comments below,
- Your Twitter, Facebook and Google+ social media handles, if you use them,
- And written permission for us to add your site to the list.
Please also submit other tech blogs that you may not own, just note that we need their permission before we can officially add them to the list.
Bryan Chalker says
I write based on experience working within ministry/church design/tech field. On-staff and as a consultant.
Blog: http://www.bleedingtree.com/blog
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bryanchalker
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bryanchalker
Jonathan Malm says
I recommend Church Stage Design Ideas.com. 🙂
http://www.churchstagedesignideas.com
Brian Certain says
Jonathan blog is one of my personal top 10 church tech blogs out there. Great content and great idea starters
Jeremy Smith says
We are going to do another couple of these later, would this go under Tech Blogs or Church Creative Blogs?
Jonathan Malm says
potentially both? I mean it deals with technology and the creativity behind it…
Bryan Chalker says
+1 for Church Stage Design. Great blog 🙂
herbhalstead says
awesome idea!
I submit:
GeekRev.com – we write about the challenges of using tech in smaller churches.
website: http://geekrev.com
twitter: http://twitter.com/geekrevdotcom
facebook: http://facebook.com/geekrev
Consider this post to be written permission for ChurchMag to add my site to the list.
Antoine RJ Wright says
Mobile Ministry Magazine (MMM): http://mobileministrymagazine.com @mobileminmag
And since I run things there, you’ve got permission to add MMM to your listing.
Paul Clifford says
Not sure if it qualifies, but the Church Video Summer School series on my blog is certainly about church tech:
http://trinitydigitalmedia.com/blog
Mike says
I started blogging about faith, church, and technology back in 2006 and have been posting ever since. I am a pastor who loves technology and blogs about the issues that small rural churches face in utilizing tech. Here is my info. I would love to be included.
blog: http://www.faithengineer.com
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/faithengineer
twitter: http://twitter.com/faithengineer
Google+: http://plus.google.com/104335496057936940461
Joshua Poe says
Ran into faithengeineer.com this past week and has some great reads.
Robert Rouse says
My blog has a strong focus on data visualization and expansion of Bible search/exploration tools.
URL: http://soulliberty.com/
Google+: http://plus.google.com/111999035461015326746/about
Twitter: @soullibertyweb
Permission is granted to add it to your listing.
Sele Mitchell says
At christiandroid.com we discuss combining technology and faith in all different aspects of our lives.
Twitter – @christndroid
Facebook – ChristianDroidBlog
If you feel like this qualifies, then I would be happy for you to include it in your listings.
Nils Smith says
I blog about my experiences and experiments with Online Church as a Social Media Pastor at http://NilsSmith.com
Twitter- @NilsSmith
Facebook: http://facebook.com/NilsSmith
Ryan Wakefield says
Another +1 for the church stage design ideas .com.
CreativeChurch.com is focused on creativity but we will also blog about creative use of technology.
Jeremy Smith says
As I asked above, would this go under Tech Blogs or Church Creative Blogs?
Jeremy Smith says
As I asked above, would ChurchStageDesignIdeas.com go under Tech Blogs or Church Creative Blogs?
Brian Certain says
http://www.digitalworship.us
facebook.com/brian.certain
certaintx
I write about the process of leading from behind the curtain. I also talk about the how’s and why’s of Environmental projection.
Steve says
I’ll add Communicate Jesus to the list: http://www.communicatejesus.com. It straddles the tech/creative fence.
Twitter: @communic8jesus
James Cooper says
I’d recommend this blog by Vicky Beeching: http://www.cyber-soul.com/ Vicky blogs on a range of tech/social media topics and how they effect faith and how we live both online and offline.
Vicky’s possibly best known as a singer/songwriter/worship leader but she’s also a blogger, academic, Christian Theologian, ethicist, broadcaster and social media consultant. She’s currently a Research Fellow at Durham University in the UK.
I’ve asked Vicky and she gave me the ok to nominate her for the list!
Her social bits are:
http://www.twitter.com/vickybeeching
http://www.facebook.com/vickybeeching
Kevin D. Hendricks says
We don’t focus solely on technology, but we do talk about it quite a bit. So yes, you have permission to include us in your list if you like.
http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com
@cmsucks
facebook.com/churchmarketing (which isn’t going to win us any points!)
Jon Edmiston says
This is my personal blog on Church Tech
http://www.jonedmiston.com
Colleen says
I write for the Shelby Systems blog, which tries to cover details about our church software, some interesting things happening in the church/tech world, and inspirational or thought-provoking Christian ideas. Thanks!
Blog: blog.shelbysystems.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/shelbysystems and
http://www.twitter.com/ourarena (Arena is our browser and web-based software)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/shelbysystems
Google +: http://plus.google.com/u/0/b/115867468300559761150/115867468300559761150/posts
Allan Buckingham says
I really enjoyed the top 20 list and would be honoured to be included one day. I’ve recently started a church and technology blog at http://ChurchAndTechnology.ca
Twitter: http://twitter.com/AllanBuckingham/