Part of my job is developing a web strategy for the division of Mission & Ministry at SLU. Recently we completed a project that pivoted around a site for the Lenten activities on campus this year. On short notice we got something up and running using Google Sites and I was able to train a few non-web folk to keep it up-to-date.
They kept the site running for all of Lent with over 5,000 visitors and daily updates. The project was a success and something that I’m proud of.
As it was nearing it’s end I started studying the analytics and noticed a trend. It quickly became apparent that the length of time on the site was exceptionally long due to the type of content being written. The average time on site was over four and a half minutes. Longer than any other site I’ve maintained.
I thought to myself, “Wow, these daily reflections would be about a page and a half if printed.”
And in fact I was correct.
Interested in brushing up my InDesign skills* I looked into self-publishing options and found Lulu.
Learning a bit about how to format my document, page numeration, margins and all the other fun elements of layout I created a 91 page soft cover edition of the Lent website. All 45 daily reflections seperated by the approprate weekly reflections. The end of the book even contains a list of all the Lenten pledeges that users submitted to the website.
I printed off 4 of these at about $6 a pop. Having enjoyed the professionalism and dedication during this project I gave them as gifts to the key members involved. I think they all liked them – as much as I did while creating it.
*The last time I used InDesign it was called Pagemaker. 🙂
