A web host is needed for any website. This is because a website has content (pictures, text, animations etc.) and that content needs to be:

1. Stored somewhere.
2. Accessible by lots of people simultaneously.

A web host does both of these things. And BlueHost has done these things successfully since I started with them back in 2010.

BlueHost offers unlimited sites, unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth. Pretty great if you ask me! Do note that BlueHost does have fair usage guidelines so if you are planning a massive site then you’ll probably need more robust hosting.

As a bonus, BlueHost offers one-click installs of many popular platforms including WordPress (which I run on all my sites).

As I said, I’ve never had an issue with BlueHost which is the best thing you can say about a web host! My sites have rarely had downtime and never for any significant period of time, and I’ve been able to grow and add sites on as much as I have needed.

BlueHost charges US$6.95 per month and at the moment that have a sale with hosting for US$4.95 per month. Definitely worth checking out!

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. Great Deals on the Cheap

If you haven’t heard yet, my first iPhone App, Group Games, has recently appeared on the App Store. Group Games is a database of over 100 group games. I’m really happy with how the App has turned out and I hope it will be really useful for people. In this post I’m going to talk through the App. But I won’t talk about how I made it, that may be for another post…

As I said, Group Games is a database of games. You can search for a game in one of three tabs.

1. List
2. Categories
3. Selector

The list is an alphabetic list of all the games. Great if you have used the App before and want to navigate straight to a specific game.

The games are also organised into 11 categories such as “Ball Games” or “Messy Games”.

Finally (and most importantly), you can use the selector. The selector allows you to input your group size, and the duration of the game you need and the selector will give you a list of games that fit your selection. Perfect for finding a game on the spot.

Group Games is currently at a special discounted price for a limited time only and is available on the App Store. You can also find out more about it by view this page on my site.

If you do download it and you really enjoy it, then there are a few things that you can do to help me out.

• Head over to calumhenderson.com/groupgames and ‘like’ it on Facebook, Tweet about it, and Pin it (there are buttons on that page).
• Give the App a review on the App Store.
• Rate the App on the App Store.

These things would all be a massive help!

Also, if you’re keen to review the App on your blog, then please let me know about it and I’ll consider sending you an App download code and a few extra codes for you to give away to your readers.

For now, head over to the App Store and download Group Games. I hope you find it helpful!

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. 10 Other Sites To Find Youth Group Games
2. Youth Group Games | Main Page
3. 9 Annoying Youth Group Games Never To Play On Camp

The social media site focussing on images has rapidly increased in members, so much so that it is now the 3rd largest social media site behind Facebook and Twitter (that’s right, way ahead of Google+). More so, in February, Pinterest generated more referral traffic than Twitter! That is to say that more people clicked on links from Pinterest than they did from Twitter. Wow. And all of this from a social media site that is only just coming onto the scene.

I must say that I’ve noticed similar trends on my blog. I’ve been receiving more referral traffic from Pinterest than Twitter, and I don’t even have Pinterest or a ‘Pin It’ button! Until now that is…

Recently I decided to take the plunge and create a Pinterest account. However, I then decided that I can’t be bothered maintaining another social media account and so have just left it there with barely any activity.

What I have done is add a ‘Pin It’ button to some of the posts on my blog, mainly those that are to do with my youth group games series. You’ll also noticed a ‘Pin It’ button on the landing page for my new iPhone App called ‘Group Games’ when it launches, but that’s for later.

My new sharing bar

For now, if you’re a user of Pinterest I hope you enjoy the ease of pinning on my site and if you’re not a fan of Pinterest, well, I completely understand.

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. Gary’s Social Media Counter
2. Lessons From An Amazing Social Media Campaign
3. An Amazing Social Media Campaign

Also, over the past 6 months or so I have also moved away from just writing on my personal blog and towards creating online content on a variety of properties (Free HD Countdowns, Practising Hospitality, ChurchMag).

These two things have led me to change the philosophy of what this website will be. It used to be a personal blog, but now it will be…

My Online Home

The homepage of my website (calumhenderson.com) will now display a grid (or something similar) with projects which I am currently a part of, and my blog has been relegated to a sub page (calumhenderson.com/blog). I’ll still write original articles on my blog, but I’ll also post links to other content there, so if you really want to know everything I write online, you’ll be able to find it.

I’ve also taken this as an opportunity to redesign my site to be cleaner and more professional, which I think I’ll prefer as I grow older and (hopefully) mature. And more specifically, redesign the main youth groups game page. Check it out below.

You may also notice two coming soon icons in the above screenshots. These are projects that I work on during the school holidays and I’m hoping to have one or both up pretty soon. Be excited! I think these are two of my most strategic projects to date so far. They’ll also both start with lots of content.

For now, I hope you enjoy the new look and feel of calumhenderson.com, I certainly do!

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. ‘Sweet Treats by Alice’ Website Design
2. Reading Paths in Design
3. How To Add A Hype Animation To A WordPress Site

I designed the website based on this free theme. It includes the following features:

• Homepage roundabout that has links to important pages.
• Mailchimp newsletter integration. (Sign up to the mailing list here)
• Custom designed contact form based on Contact Form 7.
• Downloadable menu that is also viewable online.
• Photo gallery.

I’ve once again had a great time designing this site and I look forward to designing more websites in the future.

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. Alice In Her Wonderland
2. I Designed a Website
3. Reading Paths in Design

I launched the site at the end of July last year and I’ve had fun creating a whole bunch of video countdowns. It’s taken up quite a bit of my time which has meant that I haven’t posted here as often, but I’m hoping that you guys that read this blog have found the countdowns to be useful in ministries that you run.

The site started off slowly (as was expected), but it has now gotten off the ground a bit and is seeing regular traffic, as well as an increase in Subscribers and Twitter followers. You can follow @freehdcountdown on Twitter, and if you do, you’ll receive a welcome message with a link to a welcome video that you can only see if you follow on Twitter. A little extra incentive to follow.

Below I thought I would share 3 of my favourite countdowns on the site so far. Would love to hear if you’ve used any of the countdowns, or if you’ve got any suggestions for countdowns in the future. Let me know in the comments.

This countdown has been one of the most downloaded countdowns. It’s also one of the few countdowns that I’ve created a soundtrack for. Check it out here – Green Blip Video Countdown.

The Handwriting countdown was one of the launch countdowns, made with an education audience in mind. It’s been one of the most viewed countdowns on YouTube, but hasn’t been downloaded very much from the site at all. Check it out here – Handwriting Video Countdown.

This is one of the most recent countdowns and I think it’s my favourite to date. It’s mesmerising from start to finish.Check it out here – Horizon Video Countdown.

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. Guest Posts At ChurchMag About Video Countdowns
2. FreeHDCountdowns.com Has Launched!
3. Guest Post At WorshipHouse Media

I’ve already written a few guest posts over at ChurchMag, and these next two make it 5 in total.

My Journey of Creation with iBooks Author

Just recently I created an iBook with iBooks Author. iBooks Author is a relatively new program and I wanted to share my experiences – the ups and downs – of using iBooks Author. I really enjoyed the process, and you can read about it here over at ChurchMag now.

A Great Screen Casting Tool That Comes FREE With Every Mac

If you’ve ever wanted to record your screen to demonstrate a website or a computer program and you have a Mac, then y0u’re in luck. QuickTime Player (the application with which you watch video files) allows you to create a screen cast. I’ve written about some of the features of QuickTime Player’s screen casting ability in this post. Read it here.

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. I Created An iBook
2. Guest Posts At ChurchMag About Video Countdowns
3. Want To Improve The Audio Quality In Videos Recorded On Your iPhone?

Let me just get this out there, mobile versions of websites frustrate me.

As someone who regularly views websites on either his iPhone or iPad, I’m used to browsing the web on the go. And I really like it, I like the ability to have the internet in my pocket. But I find it frustrating when I come across this.

Mobile Version of ProBlogger.net

6.4% of all internet usage is now on a mobile device (via Net Market Share), which may not seem like a lot at the moment. But some people are predicting that by 2015, mobile web usage will outweigh computer web usage (via Mashable).

A lot of websites are taking this to mean that they should care about mobile websites, which I whole-heartedly agree with. What I don’t agree with is their method of doing so.

Most websites think that the best way to appeal to mobile web users is to create a separate look for their website, just for mobile users, such as the above skin that many WordPress based blogs sport.

However mobile devices these days come with large touch-screen displays, that have the ability to display full webpages. When I’m browsing, I want to see the whole website, not some cut down version. For example, look at all that I’m missing out on from ProBlogger.net.

I would much prefer for this whole site to come up when I view it on my iPhone.

So I’ve disagreed with the current method of making a mobile “skin” for your website, a cut down version for mobile browsers. But what do I think the solution is?

Solution

Create the website from the ground up with mobile in mind.

I think that people need to stop thinking about creating a mobile friendly cover for their websites, they need to think about creating mobile friendly websites.

Mobile devices are very capable, and technologies (such as HTML5) exist that allow mobile friendly sites to have most of the features available to regular sites.

With mobile web expanding as it is, people should no longer think of mobile web as an addition, they should think of mobile as the web.

That’s just my 2 cents on mobile websites. For the time being any website that I create will be mobile friendly (to the best of my ability), and I’ll keep reading websites that I like even if they have a mobile skin that I have to turn off.

What do you think about mobile skins for websites, do you like them or dislike them?

No related posts.

I’ve been interested in writing an eBook for a while, but I’ve never known the right tools to use. I’ve thought about using Keynote, and exporting as a PDF, and I’ve thought about using Pages, and exporting as an epub file. But neither of those seemed to allow for easy integration of interactive features. Then came iBooks Author.

iBooks Author is a free program for Mac (available on the Mac App Store) that allows for easy creation of interactive books for iPad. The program is really easy to use, especially if you’ve had experience with Apple’s iWork suite of apps. The program is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor and not only allows for easy manipulation of text and graphics, but videos and animations too! Watch this video to find out more.

The downside to iBooks Author is that it’s creations can only be viewed on an iPad, and if you want to sell your creation, then you must go through the iBookstore. Now for an Australian this is an absolute pain. If I wanted to sell something myself (i.e. not through an aggregator or publisher), then I would need to get a US tax ID. To get a US tax ID I would need to physically mail paperwork to the US and work out quite complex international taxation laws. I would also need an ISBN for every book that I sold. Quite complicated compared to the simple process of selling something from my own website.

In the end, instead of creating something that I would sell, I decided to make something I would give away for free. This way I could still put it on the iBookstore, without having to worry about all the complicated stuff.

The final creation is the iBook pictured above, “The How and Why of Video Countdowns”. It’s a compilation of rewritten blog posts combined with some original videos and animations. It’s written to help people think through why they are using video countdowns, and how they can best use them. At the end, there is also a tutorial to help someone create their own video countdown.

If you would like to download the iBook, search for it on the iBookstore or click here. You can also learn more about it via the link below (Also click the link below if you don’t have an iPad and would like to download a PDF version).

~The How and Why of Video Countdowns~

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. An iBook And A Quicktime Player Over At ChurchMag

Incase you haven’t noticed, I really like video countdowns and I reckon they’re great. But far too often I’ve seen people use them badly. Number 1 mistake, having a video countdown that leads into someone speaking. This just doesn’t live up to the anticipation. Anyway, here are the 4 tips I gave.

1. Make sure the stage is clear
2. Use music
3. Start with a bang
4. Embed in the presentation

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. Guest Posts At ChurchMag About Video Countdowns
2. Gary’s Social Media Counter
3. Lessons From An Amazing Social Media Campaign