TOPIC:

The "Evaluate Our Website" is not show on either of the clubs that I maintain.

Please check to see why this important page isn't showing.

Club 3318
Club 3761504

Karen Platts, DTM
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I think you misunderstand. It is a forum section in *this* support website. We did not add a page for that to the individual club/district websites.

If you want a Toastmasters style evaluation of your website(s), just post a forum message in the Evaluate Our Website! forum category (in this website) with your website address.

Please evaluate our website page.

I learned from reading some of the responses about creating a Distinguished Member page. I am now waiting on responses from my members. I have 4 DTM's, 2 that should be DTM's before June 30th, and 2 returning DTM in May.

I will greatly appreciate your response.

Karen Platts, DTM
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theevaluators.toastmastersclubs.org

I created my club's "Distinguished Members" page a few years ago. In the page, I intentionally try to include links to those member's social media pages and other relevant endeavors on the internet--this is "what's in it for them" (the member). For example, one of our Distinguished Members (Division Governor of the Year, soon to be a DTM) is an author, so I include a link to his author page on Amazon.

Attached is the synopsis page and form I created to introduce the concept to my club and collect the relevant information.

(The original doc is a Word doc, but I can only attach PDFs here, so I converted it--you should still be able copy/paste the text, though.)

Feel free to use as you see fit.

Will you please evaluate the rest of the website?

Thank you,

Karen Platts, DTM
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theevaluators.toastmastersclubs.org

Karen,

I am only looking at the website from a visitor point of view, just like everyone else.

Nice catchy poster on the home page. I would make the MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA REQUIRED a link to a custom page describing what the membership criteria is, like a FAQ. I notice that every entry on the calendar is admin entered. I would again link these to a page or to your Meeting Information\Directions page.

It is great that all of your officers are on the Meet Our Members page.

Kplatts wrote:

Will you please evaluate the rest of the website?

I will--please be patient. The overwhelming response to this evaluations section of the support website was unexpected--quite a pleasant surprise.

Now, from the Ambassador side:

I would add as many key words as possible to improve the search engine optimization.

Having the floater messages could be an enhancement to the website, I use them to provide up to date information on my sites and have them linked to either the contact us form (visitors) or the agendas (members).

I see that you are not using the agendas, which is one of the great tools of FTH2.

For a 1 year old club, you are doing well, just need more success stories, on custom pages, as soon as possible after they happen.

I like Google Analytics in addition to the counter so I can see what pages are being visited most often.

I am taking a look. I want to preface my comments by noting that since you are an Advanced Club, you are targeting a different audience, and you need focus the "messaging" of your website on that target audience.

Likes:

1. You are working with color, which is good.

2. I really like the colorful announcement with balloons. Very nice!

3. "The club concentrates on evaluators evaluating evaluators to build new skills and perceptions in the art of evaluation." Good!

4. Google Map - Good!

5. Phone # in contact us - Good!

6. Meet our members page - All officers listed with photos, all but one has a bio. Great!

7. Meetings listed on calendar. Good!

8b. Facebook page is current - Good!

Possible Areas for Improvement: (Just my opinion -- others may have a different opinion.)

Since you are an Advanced Club focused on evaluation, I am going to kick up the rigor a bit here.

8. You are using color, but I think you need to look at the overall color scheme a bit more. The white background seems a bit stark to me. The grey background on the home page seems a bit out of place to me. I do like the menu colors, but the podcast background seems a bit intense.

9. Banner - "The Evaluators". That's it? Why not "The Evaluators Advanced Club" or something more descriptive? "Advanced" anything sounds kind of cool to me.

10. Home Page - Could use some more content here in addition to what you have. I think the fundamental things you need to address in your "elevator pitch"/value proposition text is:

• a) Pointing out what an Advanced Club is and who is eligible to join ("MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA REQUIRED" is ambiguous and does not really cut it and will lead to confusion)
  and
• b) Why a person with a CC/CTM who is comfortable in a regular club may want to join an Advanced Club, let alone one focused on evaluation. In other words, what is special/unique about your club that is of interested to someone with a CC/CTM and why should they even care? What are they going to get by joining your club that they cannot already get in a normal (non-advanced) club? "The club concentrates on evaluators evaluating evaluators to build new skills and perceptions in the art of evaluation." sort of touches on it, but it could be expanded on and improved.

11. Home Page - After March 12th passes, what will be on your home page? (Not much?)

12. Home Page - Need one or more photos of actual members on your home page. If you have any of them getting awards or ribbons (accomplishment focus) even better. A slideshow could help if you have a lot of photos.

13. Home Page - Could use some links to supporting content/pages.

14. Home page - Link address to Meeting Info page or Google map. Put contact us form link after address. theevaluators.toastmastersclubs.org/?contactus

15. Home page - Mention anything you can brag about on your home page, with links to full page write-ups on supporting pages, where appropriate. (e.g., We have 2 Distinguished Toastmasters, and two more members will also be getting their DTMs soon. Click here to read more about them.) Do you have DCP award as a club? Mention that also.

16. Meeting Info page - needs work. You have two maps there... I don't know why. List your days/times you meet there also, Lastly, an exterior photo of your meeting venue would be really helpful to first time meeting visitors.

17. Contact Us form - I would suggest customizing the greeting to indicate that club membership requires a prior TM CC/CTM award.

18. You need some supporting pages: FAQs (pertinent to your club), Distinguished Members (Include Club Founder at top), Newsletters, Photo Gallery, Testimonials. "Effective Evaluations" (Since that is your focus, why not a public page dedicated to it?), etc. Since you are an Advanced Club, you likely have a lot of "sage wisdom" to offer regarding Toastmasters, Public Speaking, and Evaluations--your website should reflect that. You could have your members do some write-ups on public speaking and evaluations topics that you can convert into public pages.

19. Your Facebook page looks more current than your website. It does not need to be "either-or"... they can compliment each other. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of each and use each where they are strong.

Overall, you have a lot of good potential that you just need to have be better reflected in your website. Good luck!