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Donate button not working and some technical observations

JustAGuy

JustAGuy

Member
Male
Couple of house keeping questions:
• Clicked the "Donate" button and PayPal says, "This recipient is currently unable to receive money."
• Is Biblical Families setup as a non-profit so I can get tax deduction?

Technical observations:
• Not sure if it's intentional, but the search engine optimization on this site isn't very great - Although the key words (below) on the home page are good, there's no title tags.
• Looks like the forum software, phpBB, is out of date. Recommended updating it to insure no security issues. Your web host should be able to do this for you: http://www.hostgator.com/apps/phpbb-hosting
• I've been posting and received MySQL errors that there's too many connections. Suggest tuning your MySQL config file to disconnect threads that are open longer than 30 seconds and increase the number of available threads and/or upgrading your HostGator account to get more CPU time/resources.

Again, thanks for doing this board, it's been very helpful for me (and will be even more needed in the future)!
 
Re: Donate button not working and some technical observation

See the code below: the keywords area is great. The title area of <title>Biblical Families.org • Index</title> is terrible. Take some of the keywords and make them the title, something like, "Christian Polygamy | Polygamy in the Bible" Don't need the term "Biblical Families" in the title area because it's all thru the site so Google will automagically rank this site high for that keyword. This board will get a lot more traffic w/these changes (but not sure if that's desired? IMHO, I wish this site was easier to find - took me long time to find it).

Code: 
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en-gb" />
<meta http-equiv="imagetoolbar" content="no" />
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="polygamy, Bible polygamy, Christian polygamy, polygyny, scriptures about polygamy, Biblical marriage, plural marriage, plural marriages, Christian polygamy, husband of one wife, one flesh, adultery, Genesis 2:24, Lamech,  ">
<META NAME="Robots" CONTENT="Follow">
<title>Biblical Families.org &bull; Index</title>
</head>
content-language
 
Re: Donate button not working and some technical observation

Thx for the observations.

The staff member who best knows how to fix such things is traveling, but should be home soon.

Any further thoughts on improving the site? Bring 'em on.
 
Re: Donate button not working and some technical observation

If you want more people to come to the site, there's a lot more that can be done. There's every reason that this site could be the #1 search result for Polygamy in the USA. But some low hanging fruit:

• Change the title of the web site - it will help overnight.

• Upgrade the phpBB software, the new version is probably a bit more Google friendly.

• Sign up for a Google WebmasterTools account at following link and follow the steps to get biblicalfamilies.org registered. Google will analyze the site and give you all kinds of feedback/things to fix. https://adwords.google.com/o/KeywordTool‎

• Do reviews of current polygamy topics, especially "Polygamy USA" and "centennial park polygamy" and "polygamy laws" and other popularly searched terms. Use the Google sand box to determine which terms are popular. Might be better to do the reviews outside the phpBB area so that you can better control the title of the web page? (Google cares the most about the title (that's what shows up in the browser tab) of the web page.)

• Whenever posting outside biblicalfamilies.org, include in your sig line a link to this site. The more sites that link to this one, the better.

• The logo is pretty big at 127KB - suggest making a smaller one: http://www.biblicalfamilies.org/img/logo.png Nothing wrong with a big logo per se but if lots of people are pulling it down, it could slow the site down. Also, when this big image comes up at work it could be a privacy issue if your coworkers walk around the corner at just the right time.

• Do articles/reviews/op ed pieces on popular search terms. What's popular? List is below in the format of Subject - number of monthly searches. The higher the number of searches the better however, try to imagine what the person is looking for. What kind of person is this? Can this person be helped here? For example the term "polygamy dating site" gets 320 searches a month but is that someone that can be helped on this site? (would need to make a list of dating web sites and maintain it here) Does this site want more of those people here? The leadership can determine this. Don't chase everyone - get people to this site that can be helped here. Here's the list:


  • polygamous families - 320
    polygamous communities - 110
    what is polygamy - 5,400
    define polygamy - 3600
    polygamy definition - 4400
    is polygamy legal - 1,900
    polygamy porter - 1,600 Probably easy to get some volunteers here to do a beer review :lol:
    polygamy laws - 1000
    polygamy in islam - 1900
    history of polygamy - 590
    polygamy blog - 320
    bible polygamy - 320
    monogamy vs polygamy - 320
    polygyny vs polygamy - 390
    polygamy in utah - 880
    is polygamy legal in utah - 880
    bigamy vs polygamy - 480
    plural marriage - 1600
    plural marriage in the bible - 90
    polygamy dating - 880
    polygamy dating site - 320
    polygamy dating sites -260
    polygamy marriage - 390
    christian polygamy - 390
    polygamy in christianity - 210
    polygamist in the bible - 20
    polygamy in africa - 320
    arguments against polygamy - 210
    colorado city polygamy - 260
    polygamy in colorado - 50
    polygamy documentary - 260
    polygamy in texas - 170
    muslim polygamy - 260
    biblical polygamy - 140
    is polygamy biblical - 50
    biblical marriage polygamy - 20
    bountiful bc polygamy - 70 I wonder what this is?

Interesting to see there's more people searching for polygamy in Texas (170) than in Colorado (50) but I suppose that's primarily based on the population count in each state. But maybe people are searching for places to move that support polygamy? Hard to tell.

Thanks, JAG
 
Re: Donate button not working and some technical observation

Is the traveling staff member back?

Can I donate yet?
 
Re: Donate button not working and some technical observation

Thanks Mark for pointing me to the thread.

I am back, but still very much catching up, and don't find myself on the forums a lot, so please feel free to email me at nathan@biblicalfamilies.org.

Thanks for the suggestions JAG, there's a lot we want to do, to the website, and for the bigger mission, but time and funds are limiting factors. I would love to update to the latest phpBB, but we have a technical issue - it will take someone with better php skills a number of hours to make this happen. (Real short: the last guy modified our phpBB code to integrate the top menus, so an upgrade will need quite a manual effort to either not break, or remove that menu system. He's now unavailable.) Any takers?

He also did the big logo, but at least it does go away when you log in. (The snow background, no excuse, that's on me. Julie's been bugging me to change for months.)

We do run google ads, (and bing/yahoo) on many keywords, it is interesting how they have fluctuated over the last few years, the YFZ debacle caused a big spike - our "Sisterwives" ad currently gets the most hits. But we also have ads on "christian polygamy" and the like. We are open to some more SEO, but haven't had the time or skills. I would very much like to see us higher in regular search results, not just paid ads.

JAG, do you have any ability and interest here? If so, let's talk.

I'll fix the donate button soon, it should have gone to the Chase Quickpay page now (after you set it up, it's just like paypal to send), which you can find, along with a mailing address for checks:
http://www.biblicalfamilies.org/contact_us
Paypal insisted that we incorporate to continue with them, something that we are not yet required to do by the IRS, for our size - but that we do intend to do in the next 2 years.

Speaking of which, gifts to small (under $5k year, which we still are) religious organizations ARE tax-deductible, even without incorporation and 501c3 status:
http://chalcedon.edu/research/articles/do-churches-need-501c3-status/
http://501c3go.com/irs/irs-tax-deductibility/
We'll be happy to send you a year-end receipt.

(And please, let's not turn this thread into a discussion of the merits of 501c3. I'd like to see more 'how can we improve Biblical Families' - especially if it comes with volunteers!)

Thanks much, Nathan

(And yes, the Index page definitely needs an update!)
 
Re: Donate button not working and some technical observation

Thanks! The extra money lying around - yeah, there's just so much of it, I don't think I can get it out to you, it's just so heavy.... Hehe.

Has the staff considered forming a 501(c)(3) charitable org? Seems like if these guys can do it, http://www.lovemore.com/ then we could too?
 
Re: Donate button not working and some technical observation

Nathan7 - Wow, cool!

I'm fairly new here but would love to support what's being done. I develop in PHP and used to run an SEO business. I have a web site now on my own dedicated co-located servers averaging 2.5 hits per second (8MM/month). So I'm pretty experienced here - doesn't mean I'm any good at it, just experienced :-)

Thought you had to have a Charitable Tax ID to get deduction but I'll double check that, thanks for links.

I'm confident this site can get higher in the regular ("organic") search results - but the staff need to be prepared for what that will do to the site. It slows the site down, brings lots of lonely single guys looking to scam on women, you know, the regular.

On a personal note, I haven't yet talked to my wonderful wife about our involvement here so before I commit to anything we need to be on the same page (pun intended). So will get back to you.

Keep up the great work!

JAG
 
Re: Donate button not working and some technical observation

JAG - we definitely need to talk about SEO, when you are ready, and phpBB. Might need to prioritize talking with your wife, though! Email me if you want to talk about either, nathan@biblicalfamilies.org.

Thanks for the push on some of this - BTW, I just finally hooked up taking credit cards via Square Market (they rock, compared to Paypal), so folks have 3 options for donating (100% of which goes to keeping the website and ads going, and retreat costs):
Instant Transfer (send to donate@biblicalfamilies.org)
Credit Card
Mail a check

And now we're rockin' trees, not snow, just in time for Fall...
 
Re: Donate button not working and some technical observation

Sounds good and LOL, love the trees!

You probably know this but Square (and for sure Paypal) have charitable organization rates - just ask.

Might get better ROI on the advertising dollars on Facebook. And you can pick regions, age, gender, employment status, of who you want the ad to go to (not that any of that matters). But can't pick search term so it's kinda a buckshot approach. Well now that I've typed all that maybe it's a lousy fit. Anyway, I think the going rate on FB is like 19¢/click but that was like last year so not sure.

I'm out of state for a convention so may not get to post back here for a bit.
 
Re: Donate button not working and some technical observation

I wouldn't think Google webmaster tools would be a good idea for a site like this for privacy reasons. Using that gives Google access to the ip addresses of everyone that visits, what they click on etc. That is why it's free: it's a massive data mining machine. And some people here might not be keen on Google joining the dots automatically and knowing they visit here.

Of course, the US government probably keeps close tabs on sites like this anyway, they may already be able to join those dots That's no reason to make it easier for others to also though.

What would it take to move to https encryption on this entire site, or at least password forms etc?
 
Re: Donate button not working and some technical observation

Nathan7 said:
Paypal insisted that we incorporate to continue with them
Click to expand...
Does this mean I can't even email you a payment, or just that the PayPal folk aren't prepared to deal with it as a charitable contribution (e.g. waive or reduce their transaction fee, etc.)? PayPal's pitch has been that I could send money to anyone, anywhere with an email address.
 
Re: Donate button not working and some technical observation

FollowingHim: You're thinking of Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/ and you're right. And together w/you, I also recommend this site not use Google Analytics for privacy issues. Google Webmaster Tools on the other hand doesn't give Google access to anything (like everyone's IP's), it just tells you want Google thinks about the site, if it's having issues crawling the site, 404 errors, slow pages, etc - things that can be done to make the site better.

I'm not sure SSL will address the issue you're concerned with. If you can list exactly what the concern is, I can help tell you if SSL will remedy that. I can say I'm very concerned people will find out I'm on this board - I might get kicked out of my church, etc and while there may be a time for that, I'd prefer it to be strategic, instead of accidental. So I use a separate web browser to access this site (Opera) and in this web browser, I don't sign in to FaceBook, Gmail or anything else. And I use either Opera's private browsing tab (see links below) or I wipe everything when done. Most browsers have a "private browsing" tab, like Google's own Chrome web browser that has Incognito mode. But I like using a separate web browser.

It's really unfortunate to have to be so private, especially when my biggest concern is my church. Ugh.

http://help.opera.com/Windows/12.10/en/ ... ml#private

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95464?hl=en
 
Re: Donate button not working and some technical observation

I'm off topic but the USA government has everything, SSL or not. Encryption and SSL just slows them down a bit. If you're reading this message, they can get into your computer in a matter of seconds and look for anything they want. But why would they want to? What do they have to gain from getting my information? Can they make money from it? At the end of the day they're using all this info to arrest "bad guys" so they look good, so Congress will give them more money, so they can stay employed, and buy food for their kids.

I don't want to be surprised or disheartened or afraid our country's leadership is getting more controlling and Godless. I want to love them and pray for them anyway. Eventually they'll start putting us to death because we're Christians. That's ok, the food is better in heaven anyway :-)

The link below is a bit alarmist, but gives 5 pieces of advice for security: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/s ... rveillance
 
Re: Donate button not working and some technical observation

You can email a payment, just not with PayPal right now, please. PayPal says "anyone with an email address", but you have to create an account with them to receive the payment - and they put some really ridiculous hurdles up for us to continue to use our account at all (or create a new one), once they knew we were an "organization". Once we grow, we can consider this again, but really, we prefer our other options: the links below (and on the "Contact Us" page) will let you do it with Chase for instant transfers, or with Square for credit cards. And both options save us on the fees that PayPal would charge.

If it's really important that someone only use paypal, let me know, and we could probably stay under paypal's radar by using biblicalfamily@gmail.com (an email we already have), or something less obvious.

mystic said:
Nathan7 said:
Paypal insisted that we incorporate to continue with them
Click to expand...
Does this mean I can't even email you a payment, or just that the PayPal folk aren't prepared to deal with it as a charitable contribution (e.g. waive or reduce their transaction fee, etc.)? PayPal's pitch has been that I could send money to anyone, anywhere with an email address.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Donate button not working and some technical observation

The ssl question was a separate issue. I am mainly concerned about the potential content of our private messages and private forums, and not for any particular reason. We just have many people on here, each with their own unique lives and issues. It would be prudent to keep these a bit difficult for others to get at (nothings perfect of course), whether the other person is an upset relative or a government is irrelevant really.
 
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