Don't tell yourself that you're "bad at technology" when you're trying to fight bad technology.

Here are 3 signs you need to make a platform switch:

1) You dread & procrastinate making small changes

You need to change a date on your Events page and you haven't the slightest clue how to get there.

You know there's a way to change the color of the buttons on your homepage, but it's buried under a mile-high mountain of settings.

Dread & procrastination in and of themselves are signs that you're working with a tool that's actively making your job harder than it needs to be.

2) You're forced to pay someone to add basic features & new pages

You may choose to pay someone to do these things, and that's awesome - keep doing that.

I'm talking about when you're forced to pay a webmaster... when these basic tools are not available to you (and you want them).

It's 2023 - there are tools out there that put the power in your hands with highly intuitive platforms and plug-and-play pages.

3) You have restricted access to your analytics

If this is kept under lock-and-key to any extent, run far away! Especially if you run paid ads, you need to be able to track your site traffic.

You don't need to be a data analyst for basic analytics to be extremely helpful to you. You should own them.

Where should you go instead?

I like SquareSpace and Wix - not because they're necessarily the best options for religious institutions specifically, but because there's so much support out there to help you through sticky parts. A quick Google or YouTube search will solve almost any problem you come across.

Some of the more niche "church website builders" have such a (comparatively) small audience that it's impossible to find answers when you need them.

SquareSpace & Wix templates are also quite beautiful and fairly customizable - especially if you have a professional do the intitial set-up for you.

Adding pages or changing content is incredibly easy, and they integrate with other tools you're probably using (like an email service provider or Google Forms).

Until next Friday,