Jim Elliston

A graph for 2009...

Jim Elliston — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:49:09 -0700

>> I scanned this from my notebook at work:

For you indy music lovers...

Jim Elliston — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:01:18 -0700

in honor of the March Indy Music Month here at Conversant, I thought I'd share a blog that I dig. I ran across these guys on Vimeo interviewing some of my favorite artists as of late...

Check em' out: hardtofindafriend.blogspot.com. Also, if you don't subscribe to emusic, you really should.

Love,

Jim

Just because you can...

Jim Elliston — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:51:22 -0800

Doesn't mean you should.

I get the privilege of leading worship my church every other weekend. I've developed a bit of a pet-peeve after leading worship bands over the last bunch of years. I hate, hate, hate it when musicians are decent at one instrument that they play regularly (let's say an electric bass), then get some guts and play another form of the instrument (upright acoustic bass with a bow) on stage during a worship service. Normally what happens is a bit of a train wreck on stage... But hey, at least they look cool.

Unfortunately, I think this saying is beginning to apply more and more in the web world. It seems that with new capabilities and fads being created daily, there has become a rush and expectancy for websites to adapt to each new creation.

Here's the thing- I'm all for new ideas and tools. It's what keeps the web world innovative and constantly creating. But with these new tools being created daily, there is a growing responsibility of the website owner to determine what it is that their website is created for, and simply do that thing well.

I know that sounds like a simple concept, but you'd be amazed what's out there. When Ben and I were doing custom stuff through The Regime , a big part of our process with the client was to determine exactly what the burden of the website was, and do that thing the best we could. A lot of times, if we were to leave the clients to their own devices, their websites would be a marketing piece, a blog, forum, "new version of Facebook", and make breakfast for them in the morning.

I simply write this to encourage the website creators out there to ask the question, "What is the one major thing I want my website to accomplish?", and do that thing extremely well. It will not only make your visitors extremely happy, but it will also give you the peace of mind that you are accomplishing your website goals and don't have to chase every fad that pops up on the internet. Like I said... Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Oh yeah- one more thing while I'm on the subject. If you are a worship leader out there who leads worship with the guitar, just because you've learned 4 chords on the piano doesn't mean you should lead worship from it. I'm just saying...

Something New... Finally.

Jim Elliston — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:35:46 -0800

I know we're supposed to be talking about web stuff...

I was realizing this week after watching the Grammy's that I've been totally bored with music this year... If you work in front of your computer all day (especially those who work on creative stuff), you've realized there is really nothing new out there. Obviously you can trust Thom Yorke for genius, but with the exception of In Rainbows most new music this last year just seemed sterile.

Thanks to emusic, I was introduced Bon Iver early last year. In the midst of a world of hyper-consumption, there was something that I completely resonated with in his music. The short version of his story was that he basically went away to Northern Wisconsin in his father's cabin in the woods after a break-up with his band, girlfriend, and fighting a sickness. He spent his whole time chopping wood, and recording music on old, analogue recording equipment.

Needless to say, he manages to pull off on of the most amazing albums I've ever heard during his stay in Northern Wisconsin. He records all the instruments himself (you can hear the cabin floor creaking beneath him), and sings mostly in falsetto that conveys pain like nothing else. Bon Iver's album For Emma, Forever Ago has restored my hope in American music. So, thank you for your gift to music, Mr. Vernon.

I really think the beauty of his album is that in the midst of a dollar-driven, American Idol music business, a lo-fi gem like For Emma, Forever Ago can emerge as one of the best albums of the year. Their recent release of their Blood Bank EP is pure genius too.

I'm not sure why I decided to write about this... Maybe a mixture of frustration and inspiration. Either way, you should check it out. If you ever get a chance to see them live, you need too. My wife and I were able to see them at the Troubadour a few months ago (ironically, the same day Radiohead was in LA), and we were blown away.

So, be inspired.

//Jim

Websites and Preaching

Jim Elliston — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:03:41 -0800

Some might think the two crafts have very little in common... But I will be the first to disagree. After co-creating Clover as well as having the privilege of attending Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley with Francis Chan as the teaching pastor, I have realized the common DNA that makes great websites and great preaching. Drum roll please...

Caring about your audience.

I know, I know... You've heard it before. Maybe in seminary or from a mentor. The crazy thing is that, for as easy of a concept as this is, very few people actually do it. This is why sometimes in services you find yourself disconnecting with the pastor and thinking about what's for lunch or who's playing the football game at 1PM.

You'll see the same disconnect when browsing websites poorly created. So often in the web world we have programmers or designers who fancy a certain design style or web language, that when creating a site for a certain audience, have failed to ask the question "What is the best way to communicate to my audience?".

I have been reminded of the discipline of designing and programming for your audience for the past 6 years or so since attending Cornerstone Church and sitting under Francis' teaching. Each week Francis conveys the Word of God clearly, concisely, and in the language of the people. He jokes that he's the Dr. Suess of preachers. Maybe it's time there were less PhD's in pulpits and more Dr. Suess'.

I propose the same for website design. It's time that websites are created for people, not programmers. This begins with asking the question, "How do I communicate best to my audience?" Unfortunately, in both preaching and design, our own tastes and bents have a nasty habit of popping up and distracting us from our ultimate goal of communication. But know that when all is said and done, even if nothing is said beautifully, it is still nothing. So keep it simple, and remember your people.

//Jim

The Cost of Free

Jim Elliston — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:16:27 -0800

After checking into our hotel in Nashville for the NYWC (National Youth Workers Convention where we were exhibitors for our product "Clover"), I hopped in the elevator to cruise up to my room. The elevator hit floor #2, and as the doors opened I was engulfed in a sea of youth pastors. Apparently they were heading from floor 2 to floor 4 (which I thought was rather odd), and my floor was 5… Which gave me about 9 seconds to have a meaningful conversation with them.

One of the youth guys asked me if I was there for the YS conference… I told him I was, and that I was one of the exhibitors down in the exhibit hall. He asked who I was with, and I (proudly) mentioned Clover.

His next comment is what got to me a little bit. He asked, “What are you guys giving away?”

Although caught off guard by his annoying comment, I answered back, “We’re handing out inspiration.”

I was pretty pleased with my answer, but I was still a little frustrated with the interaction. Maybe it’s the nature of these conferences that have the tendency to make me question if it’s the best way to spread the word about your product.

There’s something that happens at these places that’s kind of reminiscent of a carnival… at least the portion of the carnival that your walk through super fast so that the carnies don’t make you feel ridiculous for not playing their “toss a nickel on a plate and win an over-sized doll” game that you will never actually win.

If you replace the “over-sized doll” with “free stuff exhibitors give away”, you have a typical exhibition. Unfortunately, a lot of times the product is the same as it is at the carnival- pretty much good for nothing.

In preparing for attending our first round of conferences a few months ago, we had a bunch of conversations about whether or not we were going to give away anything in order to get people to our booth. Conferences really made us think through our marketing approach. After hours of conversations, here’s what we determined:

“Free” always costs something. Always. Whether it’s handing out a crappy pen at a conference, or a 10% discount for every person named “Jerry”. The cost for the company is not necessarily the amount of money they lose giving the discount or buying the product they are giving away- what they really lose is the respect of their product.

Right out of high school, I went on a missions trip for 3 months on the Logos 2, a ship that sailed around distributing Christian books, Bibles, and educational curriculum to 3rd world countries (among other things). What was really interesting was that even though we could have easily given these books and Bibles away to the very poor men and women touring the book exhibition, there was a distinct choice that was made to have everyone pay something for the pieces of literature they wanted.

I remember asking one time why they made people pay money - that they had very little of - for Bibles. The answer was very simple: “People value what they pay for.”

We have created a product that is easily worth $20,000. We understand that most ministries cannot afford a $20K website, so we chose to offer a product at a price point any ministry can afford.

Part of the reason why we offer websites for $1000 rather than $999 is this idea of this concept of respect. We might be able to sell more with a price point of $999, but we firmly believe that people will respect the product much more if they have committed thousands of dollars rather than hundreds.

Maybe sometimes it’s worth selling your information for a chance of a free T-shirt or an iPod Shuffle. We can’t determine that for you. But for us, we decided early that we probably won’t sucker you in with a month of free hosting or a chance for a month of back-rubs from Ben. We believe that if you have looked for 5 minutes on the web for any sort of solution for your ministry’s web problem, Clover will emerge as the best, strongest, and most price-effective solution for you.

For those that need the free T-shirt or pen to entice you to purchase our product, Clover is probably not the right fit for you. We just make great websites. Nothing more, nothing less.

I really believe that the day is coming when the more honest you are about your product/ministry/self, the more respect and trust you will recieve. We are trying to model this with our little product and company, but plan on forever using this model in our lives. People are friends with people they trust.

//Jim

Design Standards

Jim Elliston — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:42:09 -0800

One of the more consistent issues I've seen in the Christian web design world (and artistic world in general) has been the "standards" we tend to use for what is good. In the Christian world, we tend to compare our art and creativity with other Christians who are doing the same thing. Unfortunately, a lot of times it's like playing sports at a small school. You know, those schools where you can be a half-way athletic person and play varsity football, basketball, tennis, lacrosse, golf, be chess team captain, voted prom king, student body president, and even most likely to succeed. I propose it's time we begin looking a little further outside our creative comfort zone. Here's a great place to start... As a church or para-church, the easiest (and maybe most obvious) place to look when searching for design ideas is at other church or ministry websites. This is why websites such as www.churchbeauty.com are so popular to churches. Instead of perusing sites like this (which are still good sites that fulfill a big need for churches), check out sites like www.strangefruits.nl. Anyone can tell the difference in design abilities between these two sites:

There's a whole big, bright world out there full of creative genius to explore. Let's not limit our designing to what works in our little community just because it's better than the other church sites out there. Explore strangefuits.nl and be mesmerized, discouraged, encouraged and blown away like we are every time we hop on it.

// Jim

Introductions.

Jim Elliston — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:03:56 -0800

Hey everyone.

We thought it would be great to start this blog out with some proper introductions. We wanted to let you know who actually makes up the voice of "The Regime".

We started The Regime (our custom design company - www.theregime.com) two years ago with clients made up of some big-name bands, some resaurants, a handful of tech clients, and some ministries. It was a good time, and in May we launched a second company called "Clover". Clover provides beautiful websites for ministries at a super inexpensive rate, as well as a custom CMS (content management system for the non-techies) that we wrote from scratch so that a 65-year-old church admin can create and update the website. You can check it all out (and even demo it) at www.cloversites.com.

Here are the writers on this blog:

Jim Elliston

After working full-time as the worship pastor at Cornerstone Church in SImi Valley for about 3-4 years, Jim felt called to step out of full-time ministry (or at least to not take a paycheck from the church anymore) and start designing Monday-Friday. For the Regime, Jim acts as the Art Director/Producer, and some other random non-important titles. We just hired a marketing guy and another designer for Clover, so Jim is currently trying to figure out what the heck he wants to do with Clover. For now, President/Co-Owner should suffice as a job title.

On a personal note, Jim is married to Sherry (wife of 6 years), and are parents to a chocolate lab named Nacho. They are currently looking into a "fairly" humane solution to Nacho's insessant barking while they are both at work. Here's what we're leaning towards: Dog Silencer Pro. Thoughts?

Ben Rugg

Ben's path to The Regime would sound random if God wasn't totally in control. Three days after graduating college with a (now useless) finance degree, he moved from the suburbs of Chicago to Hollywood to pursue a career in film. After figuring out that Hollywood was not where God wanted him, he started doing web design to pay the bills. A bunch of lucky breaks later, he had built a portfolio that allowed him the freedom to do pretty much anything in the world of freelance web design. He then used that freedom to tie himself down to Jim and form The Regime.

Because of that move to California, Ben met his wife, who happens to be perfect for him. A year and a half later, they've got two beautiful foster children and two awesome little cats (Edamame and Wasabi). Secretly, Ben plans to steal Nacho and give Jim the cats.

In regards to the content of "Beauty and Numbers", here are our promises:

1. We promise to be relevant: Old content on blogs is super boring...

2. We promise to speak our minds and be honest: That can be good and bad. Either way you will know what we are thinking.

3. We promise to not uselessly plug any of our company's services or products: Sometimes it might be applicable to a story or a principle (because our companies are built on the same principles we stand on), but we won't be "those guys".

4. We promise not to use jargon to make us sound smart.

That's all the relevant promises now... Or at least all that we can think of at this time. We were going to promise that this is going to be the dopest blog of all time, but that's yet to be determined. Although between you and me, it's pretty much a sure thing.