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The Pixel Punk Diaries |
Behind the Scenes of Life Teen Websites
Wow. Has it really been seven months since I last updated this section? Let me give you all an update on what's going on behind-the-scenes of lifeteen.com.
Lifeteen.com began as a website just for teenagers back in 2001, and as the website got more and more popular, many adults became regular visitors because they wanted to know what the teenagers in their youth group were talking about. So over the course of 2004 and 2005, we added several sections to lifeteen.com for these specific groups so they would have something for them to read.
By the end of 2005, we realized that the best solution is to create a new website just for adults in youth ministry. Priests, youth ministers, core members, music ministers, and everyone else would have a website where they could find useful information to help them be more effective at leading Life Teen at your parish. So we began work on YM.lifeteen.com in 2006 and launched the site a year later in April of 2007. You can visit the site to see our handiwork: YM.lifeteen.com.
...it's no longer "just the two of us" making these websites work, but a collaborative effort of everyone in the building. It's a big challenge to launch a new website, but it's an even greater challenge when you do it with fewer people. We used to have three guys working on lifeteen.com (me, Greg, and Adam.) Adam got a new job and moved with his wife to California at the end of the summer, which meant it was up to two of us to run our websites.
Greg has spent most of his time on lifeteen.com updating podcasts, features, and an occasional music review throughout 2007. I was not able to help Greg keep lifeteen.com loaded with fresh content because I spent all of my time in 2007 launching YM.lifeteen.com, and then each day making it more useful and easier-to-use.
Now all of the "grown up" content on lifeteen.com has slowly migrated over to YM.lifeteen.com. (These were the links on the top of lifeteen.com like "Conferences" and "Camps.") Plus, many members of the Life Teen staff who had nothing to do with the websites are now writing blogs for YM.lifeteen.com. So it's no longer "just the two of us" making these websites work, but a collaborative effort of everyone in the building.
What does this mean to you? Now that we have two websites with two unique groups of visitors going to their own website, we can refocus our content. We can make big decisions about lifeteen.com that we could never make before because we're not trying to please two different groups. So expect that throughout 2008 and 2009, lifeteen.com will become a more exciting online destination for teenagers.
Thank you for your prayers and patience!
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Matt Smith is the Director of Internet Ministries for Life Teen, an international Catholic youth ministry based in Phoenix, Arizona. He is the creative force behind Life Teen's cluster of websites that receive nearly 2 million visits a year. Since staring on MTV's "Real World" and MTV's "Road Rules Challenge", Matt has traveled the country speaking at colleges, universities, schools, and Catholic parishes.
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