TOPIC:

Our website is at 9501.toastmastersclubs.org/ for the Butterfly Tamers.

I like the pictures on the home page, but I wish I could tell from the home page what community you are in.

Having a waiting list because your club is at a maximum is a nice problem to have, but it would make me wonder why there is a maximum. maybe a FAQ page would offer some reason to the visitors.

It is great to see such a large number of bios on the Meet Pur Members page.

I like that you have the meetings on the calendar, but you should link them back to the meeting directions or contact form.

Having 3 members listed with phone numbers as contacts is great.

I would add some color to each page, enable the hit counter and add some custom pages or downloads.

That is the best Meet our members I have ever seen. The FB photos and info was current. Well done. Butterfly Tamers, what a great name. I think your website is a classic example of how less can be more. I ask my self the question, are there any features that put me off such as out of date photos, meet our members with only the TM decal, and the president doesn't bother to make his profile public. The answer is no. Every member of your committee has made their profile public.How did you manage that?I have one suggestion. Why not make a link in the members only menu to your Distinguished Club Program page on the New Toastmasters International web site. Then your members can really see how well you are doing. Less is more--Well done.
dashboards.toastmasters.org/ClubReport.aspx?id=00009501

Through my eyes:

Home Page -

1 I like your color scheme. It isn't to bright or loud and allows for comfortable viewing.

2 A nice picture of your officers, but would like to see a group picture of club members.

3 Tall Tale picture is out-of-date. I would remove from Home page and create a Photo page and add it there to be viewed by the public. In this way you will be able to add and delete pictures at will.

4 As a visitor I would like to see where you meet and how often from the Home Page. You could use the words "Location and Time" and add a link to your "Meeting Information/Directions" page for reinforcement of location and time.

Contact Us page

1 Really nice with 3 toastmasters to contact. This makes it easy for a visitor to contact at least one person on the list when he/she tries.

Meet Our Members

1 WOW!!! Excellent page. There is no partially completed information.

2 I like the color scheme. It it soothing to look at the members page.

Club Calendar

1 Love your club meeting date and where. I appreciate seeing where at the same time.

2 The fact that you show the meeting well into advance is another plus, but where is district information? It would be nice to see club, area and division contest mentioned, as well as, Spring Conference.

3 You could also add all TLI information for fast access for members to see all the dates for TLI's when it is time. It helps.

I enjoyed evaluating such a club as yours.

My comments...

Likes

1. Home page photo... Nice welcoming faces! Looks like a nice bunch of people.

2. "Learn to communicate more effectively, become a better listener, and increase your leadership potential by joining Toastmasters International today. You will also increase your self-confidence and tame those butterflies in your stomach in a non-threatening, friendly, and encouraging setting. Come and visit our club in Apple Valley, California and find out what it can do for you!" Excellent "elevator pitch" / value proposition! It tells me what I will get, it employs humor (butterflies) that ties in with your club name, and it is specific to your club. You should make this a more prominent part of your home page, as it really works for you.

3. The colors are nice subdued shades, but you should maybe use fewer hues. Don't feel like you have to use every color hue just because you can. Sometimes it is best to use more shades of fewer colors.

4. Google map on Meeting info page - good

5. Contact Us has phone numbers - good

6. Meet Our Members page - agree with comment above... best I have seen, also.

7. Club meetings are on calendar - good.

Areas for possible improvement:

8. "Membership is at capacity. Guests welcome; potential new members will be placed on a waiting list." This statement is at the top of your home page. I do not know what this means, and if I was looking for a club and saw this, I would immediately go to another website. This statement *kills* anything else I may see on your website. In essence, why should I even bother to come to a meeting or give you anymore of my time if your membership is at capacity and I will have to wait? You really need to look closely at this and figure out how you can possibly promote your club if you will not allow any more members to join.

9. Use fewer color hues... more color shades.

10. Put an exterior photo of your meeting venue on your Meeting Info page. Help the website visitor find your meeting more easily.

11. Upload membership application / guest packet to public downloads.

12. Upload Icebreaker speech to public downloads.

13. You need some supporting pages that you link to from your home page. Founders (bio) page, FAQs, A Typical Meeting, Member Login Help, etc.

Overall, a nice start! Keep going!

ggolike,

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.

Steve,

Why isn't the Thank You not appearing on my evaluations?

Karen

Because you cannot thank yourself, only other people.

By Way of Background
When evaluating your site, I looked at it with one major question in mind: Will the site grab the attention of potential guests and get them to a meeting? With the assumption that potential guests came to your site interested in learning more about Toastmasters and seeing if your club is one they would want to visit, I would expect that your home page* would:
A. Make it exceedingly clear that guests are welcome to visit the club.
B. Give (or link to) explicit directions for how to get to your meeting room.
C. Say something that distinguishes the club from other clubs in your area.
D. Demonstrate that your club is energetic, active, and vibrant.
E. Reinforces that your club will help them be better speakers and leaders.
F. Briefly describes what Toastmasters is all about.
G. Have embedded links to additional information about both the club and Toastmasters.

Aesthetically, I believe the home page should be professional-looking and appealing. With that, I expect the home page would:
H. Use headers that clearly delineate the topics being covered and make it easy on the eyes.
I. Not use any clip art, stock photos, or bad animations.
J. Not look like a ransom note (i.e., it should not have a lot of different fonts or different-sized fonts, lots of different colors, lots of centered text, that sort of thing).

*As our club’s webmaster for the last three years, I have found that having more information on the home page keeps people on the site longer, and then leads them to click more links. Using information from Google Analytics, I found that when our site had less information on the home page potential guests spent less time on the site and clicked fewer links. As a result, I believe it’s important to have more information, not less, on the home page itself. While it’s okay (and encouraged) to link to even more information in the menu, I believe the content of the home page itself should address each of the items mentioned above.

My Evaluation of Your Site
With all of that in mind and focusing exclusively on the content portion of the home page (since others here will likely provide a more comprehensive review of the subpages), here’s my evaluation:
A. You welcome guests, which is great, but I have to agree with Steve when he says you’re likely chasing them away with your notice that membership is at capacity. If I was seriously interested in Toastmasters, I would not at all be interested in visiting your club. But maybe that’s the way you want it?
B. No address. No directions. I know you’re in Apple Valley, but that’s all.
C. No real distinguishing characteristics except that you have a full club.
D. With the photos and with the note that you are at capacity, it’s clear that your club is active and vibrant.
E. Echoing Steve’s point, your “value proposition” is one of the best I’ve seen about Toastmasters. Interestingly, though, while you encourage folks to join TI, they can’t join your club. Maybe you can link them to a local club that they can join?
F. Again, your value proposition is very good.
G. No embedded links on the home page.
H. No use of headers, but that’s likely not necessary since the only content is the value proposition.
I. No use of clip art, stock photos, or bad animations, which is a real plus in my opinion.
J. The page doesn’t look like a ransom note, which again is great, but it is very simple and not particularly professional looking.

Overall Thoughts
Given that you are at capacity, I suspect that your site is intended to provide more utility to existing members (for filling out your meeting agendas and for providing member docs and support) than it is to snag new members. Even still, I believe you have great potential for beefing up your home page to attract new members or, in the event you don’t really want new members, to point them in the direction of other clubs in the area they can join. If you make a good impression with them now, when things are going good for the club, they may still be interesting in joining when you need new members in the future.

Hi Tony,
That is a very informative reply. I like your check list. I will use it. ai know you are not evaluating my web site but I found your insights univerasally applicable. Thankyou John Lovering. I will borrow ideas from your web site especially that easy link to the application form and the testimonials was a nice touch

Steve, Can you add pdf documents to the "Custom Web Pages" section, or do they have to go under the "Public Downloads" section? It appears to me that only images can be uploaded or downloaded. I am wanting to add a typical meeting/agenda to the Custom Web Pages section.

Gloria

Gloria, I hope you don't mind if I chime in here...

To add a typical agenda to our page, I took a screenshot of the agenda, then added it as a .jpg file to this page: www.talkofthetownti.com/What_Guests_Can_Expect.html. For better resolution, you can also save the agenda as a PDF, then convert it to a .jpg.

I hope this helps.

png files generally provide the sharpest detail, but at the cost of a larger file size.

In any case, I would probably just recommend doing what Tony is suggesting.