TOPIC:

Evaluate my website
RLL.toastmastersclubs.org

Please & Thanks

Hello Gwyn;

First of all, great job on the website... :0)

1. First of all, be careful when underlining... Underlining usually means that it is a link
2. My suggestion for the home page... Maybe place the when, and where the meeting meets on the top of the page... Some people may not scroll down if they are too busy...
3. Have more members bios public with their permission and a photo. Great advertising technigue.
4. Maybe even have an officers page like I did on all of my club sites...

You especially want the officers to have their profile public and it is alright to make an officers page... You can even copy what I did, if you want... :0)

Place on home page, perhaps... Need directions, go to: Meeting/Directions page and make it a link that will create another page, so that they remain on this page... I hope that makes sense...

5. Maybe have a Newsletter page for PR person
6. Try making links tabbed and see how you like that... It makes it simpler if everything is at the top already...
7. Increase font size, maybe to 125%
8. Play with color, so everything is not white, but be careful... You do not want anything to bright or too dark so that no one can see... Example: If you make the side bar dark brown, you may want to make the letters white and bigger..

I don't want to overwhelm you, so that should be good for now... Great job though already! :0)

Linda

I agree with Linda. Great job! My comments...

What I like

1. You have photos with members in them on your home page.

2. You are doing some stuff with text formatting. Not all the same text format. (some variety is a good thing)

3. You have your club mission statement at the bottom of your home page.

4. You have a Google Map

5. You have a good selection of content / supporting pages.

Possible Areas for Improvement

6. Photo quality and date. Some of the photos are out of focus. Also, on your home page you have a photo from Sept. 30th. You can overdo it with photos. If you want to keep a lot of them, consider one or more photo slideshows or supporting photo pages (you already have one)--slideshows do not take up much space and they let website visitors view a number of photos if they choose to.

7. Home page: "Where: 180 Wellington Street West, 1st floor, Toronto" You could provide a link here to your Meeting Info / Directions page for people to get directions to your meeting.

8. Mission Statement. Including the Mission Statement is good, but it is kind of dry boiler plate. Do you also have an "elevator pitch" / verbiage of some sort that speaks to what is unique about your club and why someone should visit your club vs another one? (I am suggesting to keep the Mission Statement, but add some other text also.)

9. Agree with Linda on the colors... could use a little more work. Don't want too intense colors, but a lot of gray is kind of dull without something to contrast it.

10. Meeting Info page - An exterior photo of your venue here would be helpful to a first time meeting visitor. Should "Please Contact Us to get the Room." be "Please Contact Us to get to the Room." ?

11. Meet Our Members page - see if you can get your officers on there with photos and bios.

12. "RLL Easy-Speak Site" is a broken link.

13. Some of the things on your Public Menu should probably be moved to Members only. e.g., the DCP stuff. A website visitor will not know what that is--it will just be a distraction.

Overall, great website! Good luck with your new club!

In order to continue to have this forum section be useful into the future, we need to request that everyone contribute to it.

Therefore, we are implementing "Get an evaluation, give an evaluation." . Basically, we are requesting those who have received a website evaluation give a Toastmasters style website evaluation for at least one other club that has requested an evaluation in this forum section. (You get to choose which club website to do the website evaluation for.) Just post your impressions: things you like about the website, and areas for improvement. Everyone has something to offer... just trust your instincts.

My first impression: I know where this club is and when you next meet. I also see a photograph of the group. Nice.

I like that you have your charter information there. We are now more than four months later. As a first time visitor, without scrolling, clicking, etc. I am left with the impression that the site isn't current.

Meet Our Members
Obviously, more members need to participate. A space is needed between Joining and Toastmasters in your bio.

Club Officers
Nice.

Club Photos
Nice idea. Maybe it's me, but the photographs seem out of focus.

DCP
Nice page. I would put that in the members section.

FAQ
Nice. I like the length of it.

The LinkedIn link in the menu for the TI group will come up as private, I believe, for anyone not a member. I would not include it on the menu.

The mentoring link took me to YouTube. You can make that so it pops up at the site and the user is not taken away from your site. The video is a speech from the International Speech contest. I am not certain that is mentoring.

When I click the Easy Speak link I receive a "Hacking attempt." message.

Congratulations on chartering. I think you are off to a nice start. Keep up the good work.

Also, keep in mind that when you underline, some people will think that is a link and on some places you have a really bright blue on the page. You may want to darken that a little. You do not want to hurt anyone's eyes. People may not go back if it is to bright. Great job so far on the site thought! :0)

Keep at it...

Linda

Gwyn,

Too bad you don't have more profiles in Meet Our Members.

I would have every entry on the calendar linked to something, even if it were the Meeting Information/Directions page.

On your DCP page, you probably shouldn't have the path to DTM. Dedicate a page to the Path to Distinguished Toastmaster. I really like that you spelled out Distinguished Club Program and included the acronym.

I would make every mention of Contact Us in the pages a link to the Contact Us form.

Love the real club photos, untouched, real life shots of real members. Great!

I would rename the Mentoring link to "Link to Mentoring Video" so you don't surprise visitors with a jump to a YouTube video.

Your link to the Easy-Speak site results in a hacker attempt message. If it is for members only, it should be moved there.

The DCP history is not going to make any sense to a non-Toastmaster.

Thanks Everyone for the great feedback.Somehow did not make it back to this discussion, but have implemented a few changes and will keep working at it.

Hi Gwyn!

Apparently, there was a lot of WHITE in your original color pallet. Personally, there are a couple hues of blue (background, and in Meet Our Members) that seem pretty bright to me. The shade of blue in your "Social Media Links" menu is much softer on the eyes. It's more of a MEDIUM blue.

When I was first started working on our site's color, I went with colors already in the Toastmasters header. That way, everything has a uniform look. Though, some of THOSE colors were a bit too DARK. So, on the advice of several other webmasters, I went with something more of a medium shade, but it still looks like it BELONGS there. You want your colors to somewhat FLOW, so the eye will feel comfortable glancing around the page. Nothing too abrupt.

Apparently, you Easy Speak link is fixed, but you have a dead link in the generic social media button.

Nice Meeting Roles, FAQs and Club Officer pages!

You would probably be more effective with more photos of your club. Not just group photos or holding up awards, but ACTION photos. I am a big fan of photos showing Toastmasters delivering speeches. You have a few more pictures on your facebook (good job, by the way), that you could include on your website. Other group MEETING photos in facebook would be good as well. Social media is not just for your members to connect, but also to help DRIVE visitors to your site.

Keep at it. Good luck to you!

Blaine

Thanks Blaine....great feed back

Will work on it...

The link that is a dead link is an internal company link...we are a corporate, open club, only members of our company will be able to access it as it is on our intranet. 90% of our members are staff.
Do you think I should remove this link?

Hello Gwyn;

If it does not work and it is accessible to everyone, including outsiders, I personally would not add it or keep it on pages that only employees can view...

Linda

Qwyn, I like the fact that you display the club mission statement on your home page, but you should probably change it to the latest one from TI. The one you have is out of date.

Thanks
Now removed the link that was on our company intranet

Thanks. Fixed to the current TM club mission