Placing Links for a Win-Win
by John Bookser Feister

(If you don't have time to read this now, please take note of the buttons on the right. They are free for the taking, for you to use on your Web site. Click on a button to pick up the html code.)

Dear Catholic Webmasters:

Some of you might wonder why St. Anthony Messenger Press is devoting so much energy toward Catholic webmasters. Our interest started not long after we began our Web ministry in 1996. AmericanCatholic.org was founded to extend the evangelization efforts of the Franciscans using new media. Our early bet was that parish Web sites would become an increasingly important way to reach people, and that parish webmasters would be time-strapped people hungry for great content. I think we were right. We thought if we offered you an easy way to post high-quality Catholic content, at no charge, you'd likely view it as a win-win: you get fresh content; we fulfill our goal of reaching more people through the Web.

Q U I C K S C A N

Parish Site of the Month
Worth a Click

We started by sending html code directly by e-mail, but that caused technical problems for some. So, a few years ago, we created our webmasters' page at AmericanCatholic.org, where webmasters can copy code and paste it directly onto their site. Just last year, as most of you know, we transformed the look of our e-mail newsletter and named it "Web Catholic," after the successful column that I wrote for St. Anthony Messenger in 2001.

Our effort has grown and changed over time, just like yours. Our primary goal has always been to help YOU provide a strong parish Web site to your visitors. One of the many surprises for us, though, is how YOUR linking to us helps us, too. Your placing a link to our site helps searchers find us because it makes our site more popular in the larger world of the Internet. It's another win-win: you provide your parishioners with reasons to come often to your parish Web site with features like "Saint of the Day" or "Minute Meditations"; and we also benefit from your link.

All of that is a long way of getting to my point this month. I'd like to encourage you to place one or more of our links onto your site, the closer to your home page, the better. Having one of our links on your home page, for example our Lent feature or AmericanCatholic.org, will help your visitors in their search for fine Catholic resources. Strenghthening our presence might help those who may never visit your site, those who are just searching for Catholic information anywhere on the Web. That serves the mission of the entire Church.

We're in this together! We appreciate your help by placing our links on your site. Let us know how we can serve you better!

John Bookser Feister
Editor, AmericanCatholic.org and sister sites

Next month: Pentecost: The Rest of the Story (by Julie Zimmerman)

Parish Site of the Month

St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish, Archdiocese of Los Angeles
This gorgeous, well-thought-out site has something for everyone. For those who want quick answers to their questions — "What time is Mass? Where's the bulletin" — there are easy-to-find quick links at the top of every page. And for those who want to linger and learn, there are pages that explain, invite and challenge, with everything from Scriptural quotations to book recommendations (a great idea!). It uses the story of St. Maximilian Kolbe throughout, which helps sharpen the parish's identity. Most parish sites tend to be either beautiful or useful. This is proof that a site can be both.

Worth a Click

PRAYING AND ACTING FOR PEACE IN IRAQ
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
The U.S. Catholic bishops have been, like Pope John Paul II, steadfast in their opposition to war in Iraq. This section offers resources to complement that opposition. There are prayer and liturgy suggestions, activities for different age levels, background information and a link to Catholic Relief Services.

LEARNING THE SONGS OF TAIZÉ
The Taizé Community
Taizé prayer, which originated in 1940 with a monastic community in France, is known for its simple structure of meditative songs, silent reflection, Psalms and candles. The songs are short chants of just a few words that express a basic reality of faith. The official Taizé site has dozens of songs that visitors can listen to in soprano, alto, tenor, bass, all four together or with guitar accompaniment, along with words and sheet music to the songs.

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