Introduce Urantia Teachings to 20,000 People Per Month

Introduce Urantia Teachings to 20,000 People Per Month

by Jena Lassiter

Many of us have introduced the teachings to people we know. Our lives are richer because of our understanding of The Urantia Book teachings. Many of us believe that there would be more joy and peace in the world if everyone on the planet could see that our physical lives here are a part of a larger journey as spirit beings. I am so inspired by the teachings that I have tried to introduce the book to my friends and family hoping that they could experience a similar transformation.

Now we are in an age where people are finding information not just through conversations with family and friends but by “going online.” Just in the last hour, I’ve read or listened to the words of ten strangers and talked to zero friends or acquaintances. Whenever I have questions about anything, I will go to my computer or phone or tablet and look for an answer, rather than talking with people I know.

The Urantia Book Fellowship (The Fellowship) has around 20,000 people coming to its website every month (an average of about 500 site visitors per day). Thanks to someone’s insight several years ago, the Fellowship applied for and received a Google Ad grant for Google text ads worth $40,000 per month at no expense to us. We have used this grant to create Google Ads and are using nearly all of this grant every month. That is, we are “spending” around $40,000 every month with our ads.
Google Ads explained: wordstream.com/google-ads

Visitors are from all over the world but are mostly from the USA and are mostly under 45 years old. They spend an average of 30 seconds on the site and then leave. Many of us think they spend so little time on the site because most ads take them directly into The Urantia Book online. For the modern, young, site visitor, digging through the text they are directed to probably doesn’t meet their needs for their search. Websites today commonly contain beautiful images, some brief text, and videos. Can the Fellowship deliver content that better meets those search needs?

The Stepping Stones Program was created in 2021 with the goal of introducing the concepts of The Urantia Book to site visitors without the expectation that those visitors will read the book (although we hope to introduce the book where and when appropriate). Here’s our plan:

1. Create pages on our website that answer questions with Urantia-Book-based content, beautiful images, and videos.

2. Create a way for moderators who are Urantia Book readers to have fellowship with interested site visitors. 

3.  Create Google Ad Campaigns for each topic using targeted keywords.

Details:

1. Create pages on our website that answer questions with Urantia-Book-based content and beautiful images.  You can see all of our offerings as of November, 2021, at  urantiabook.org/Spiritual-Growth-Navigation/. 
   Include short videos of people sharing their truths about these topics without directly referencing The Urantia Book. Look for our first offering soon.

   1. Include longer videos that incorporate those “testimonial videos” with paraphrased quotes from The Urantia Book.

   2. As the site visitor goes deeper into the path, begin to introduce The Urantia Book as appropriate.

2. Create a way for moderators who are Urantia Book readers to have fellowship with site visitors. The idea is that we all grow through discussing our questions with one another. 

   1. These conversations will be through scheduled video conversations. (We hope to eventually offer a chat feature but are starting with video conversations first.)

   2. We hope to be able to direct some of the conversations to The Urantia Book when appropriate.

3. Create Google Ad Campaigns for each topic using targeted keywords to bring people to the pages we’ve created.
   Keywords explained here: ahrefs.com/blog/what-are-keywords/.

4. Measure the results of our campaigns and then modify as appropriate; try again.

We encourage content creators to use their creativity and passion to decide on the path of content they want to create for a new site visitor. We use mind-map tools (see mindmapping.com/mind-map) when possible to break down the content into bite-size pieces. We also encourage a focus on the audience they are trying to attract.   

The team working on the Stepping Stones Program recognize the sensitive nature of website exploration.  If people doing searches in Google click on an ad and get past initial mild interest and see relevant content, they may begin to openly explore the website. They may then even be inclined to return to our website later. Google Analytics gives us the ability to see what they clicked on and also see what page they left from. That knowledge can inform our improvement process.

A key feature is to create interaction early on, rather than just presenting something to read. When people start to engage with each other, spiritual growth happens. In fellowship we grow.  Links appear on the landing pages to move beyond initial images, videos, and words and enable the visitor to talk to someone. Moderators will be trained to listen and stay with concepts rather than leading with The Urantia Book specifically.

Training will be available so moderators will know how to truly listen and support loving interactions—to positively represent the Fellowship.  We are working with Urantia University International to help with the training of moderators. 

Topics being worked on currently are family, grief, spiritual growth, spiritual conversations, life purpose (Why are we here?), and life after death. 

The team working on the Stepping Stones Program believes that there is great potential for reaching thousands of new people every month with teachings from The Urantia Book. If you want to help we need:

1. People to create videos of themselves talking about our topics

2. Content creators; people to do the writing that will end up on the website

3. Conversation moderators to talk to people who want to talk to us

4. If you are among the more technical folk, we especially need Google Ad creators and people familiar with Google Analytics.

You can contact Jena Lassiter through the Contact Us link at the top of this page for more information about how to help.