Keith Seabourn

“How do searchers find what they want online?” Tony Whittaker links to a very interesting article for those engaging in search engine optimization. The current issue of Web Evangelism Bulletin reports on a story from a search engine recent conference. Read the full article online.

The article reports some very interesting things. The study monitored volunteers as they performed tasks to identify products. Some of the findings I thought very interesting:

• Most people click on one of the top 3 listings.
• More than half click on the first sponsored link.
• People don’t usually start searching for brand names, but for products.
• 60% click on one of the first 3 organic listings (the natural search results which come from search engine optimization work).
• 85% click on one of the first 3 sponsored listings (the results which come from purchasing ad words).

The final two points are amazing to me. I would have expected people to prefer natural results more than sponsored listings. I do. Maybe it’s because this study was for product searches, not “quality of life” type searches (how do I raise teenagers, understanding Star Wars Episode III, etc).

I really liked the closing observation:

From time to time people type in same search string trying to get new answer.” It seems the only hope is for smarter search engines, rather than smarter users, she added with a smile

It seems that people trust frequent improvements in search technology more than improvements in their search techniques. It also means that even if you’re not in the top 3 results (natural or sponsored), keep working on it. You may be there when the same person searches for the same search string tomorrow.

What strikes you about this study?

[By the way, if you are not subscribed to Tony’s Web Evangelism Bulletin, why not? To join, send a blank email to mailto:bulletin-subscribe@web-evangelism.com.]

Weng Kong in Japan has launched an internet ministry plan with partner evangelical ministries to use the Narnia movie, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe which will be released next year. They expect it to be very popular in Japan.

Andrey in Ukraine is working with Alex in Ukraine, Eric in France, and Tom and Jerry in Hungary to produce a Russian language evangelistic website.

Kxxxxx in a country in the Middle East is encouraging every staff member build a personal evangelistic website. When they share their faith with someone, they will give them a card with their personal website address and encourage the person to visit the site.

Oumar in Mali has taught his campus director to use email to followup females he cannot meet with personally.

Hans in Germany has launched a project to create an evangelistic website for university students. See the English U.S. version at EveryStudent.com.

What do all these have in common?

Read our May newsletter online about MinistryNet: Budapest 2005. Sixty seven people from 27 countries came to Budapest, Hungary in April to interact with fellow web ministers as we explored how use the internet to engage people so we can help them with their relationship with God.

Soon after the conference, someone asked me, “Was MinistryNet a success?” I told them that the conference was a successful event, but to ask me again in a year if we had succeeded in mobilizing more internet missionaries who embrace timely communication tools to share the timeless message of John 3:16.

However, I don’t think the Lord intends for us to wait a year. In the past few weeks, I’ve heard these amazing stories from Oumar, Hans, Andrew, Weng Kong, and others. In the 12 weeks since MinistryNet, evangelistic outreach projects based on MinistryNet principles of internet ministry are exploding around the world. Amazing. God is so faithful in mobilizing laborers for the harvest.

I read this recently and thought it had some good practical advice for us all.

• Accept that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue.
• Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
• A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
• Remind yourself that birthdays are good for you: The more you have, the longer you live.
• Drive carefully. It’s not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
• If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague or silent.
• If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
• Never buy a car you can’t push.
• Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won’t have a leg to stand on.
• When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
• You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
• Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
• Don’t cry because it’s over: Smile because it happened.
• We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull; some have weird names, some have ragged wrappers, and all are different from each other but they all have to live in the same box together.
• Happiness often comes through doors you didn’t even know you left open.

Thanks to Sermon Fodder for these insights!
Keith

I read an interesting quote this morning.

American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot reflected in his journal: “When it comes time to die, make sure that all you have to do is die.” Source: WitandWisdom.

It’s an interesting thought. I remember reading biographies of early American heroes during my teen years. I was surprised that some would come to the end of their life and say something like, “If I could only life my life again, I would do it differently.”

I think this may be what Jim Elliot was reflecting on. When it comes time to die, there should be no regrets, nothing we wish we had said, nothing we truly wish we had done.

That’s my prayer today. That I’ll live my life so that when it’s time to die, all I have left to do is to die.

MinistryNet has begun. We launched last night. We have 67 people from 26 countries. Yesterday Kay and I went to church with Oumar from Mali, Jeengul from Kyrgyzstan and Richard from Singapore. We walked to the conference meeting last night with Kamel from Jordan and Eric from France. We ate breakfast this morning with Andrey and Ella from Ukraine, and talked about their 6 and 3 year old children.

Some of the MinistryNet participants are blogging several times throughout the day. You can check
http://ministrynet.blogspot.com/
regularly throughout the day to see what is happening, get summaries of what each speaker is saying, and pray for our time together.

Kay and I are so blessed to meet people from around the world, who are bound together by a commitment to spend their lives helping make sure everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus.