TOPIC:

"Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success."
Oh wait, this isn't my CC4 speech

Hello Toastmasters!
I created and manage the club website for IFIM Toastmasters Club ( ifim.toastmastersclubs.org ).
The site is mainly there is a showcase and reporting of everything that happened, is happening and will happen. We don't use it for sharing agendas or maintaining the club calendar, or anything of that sort as of yet. Everything happens through WhatsApp and Facebook.

Please take a look at our site and give me your feedback and suggestions.

Arindam,


One of the nice things about being evaluated by Toastmasters, is that should be able to expect honesty, given in a gentle manner.

Great cover photo! This is really a nice break from so many sites. Very nice use of group pictures of real members on every page rather than stock Toastmasters International photos. You have a lot of information that is very appropriate for each page.

Occasionally, check your site for broken links (You don't have any) by using something like www.brokenlinkcheck.com/

Your Know Your Toastmaster, Budding Stars and other pages are great! Very nice change, from many other sites.

On the Meet the members link, I would change Old Members to Previous Members.

As a visitor to the site, I am not sure that the Meeting address on the Home page is the same as the meeting location on the Meeting Information/Directions page. Maybe make them both read the same.

Your club calendar is up to date, but you can also link each post with your Meeting Directions page. The advantage of adding meetings using the agenda tool is that that link is provided. (Yes, you can use a blank agenda).

Try experimenting with some background colors on the website instead of plain white. Open the Admin Console, click on the Appearance Tab and choose some colors from the color selectors just below the website theme selector. Just be careful and don’t get too bold and go to overboard.

For the links to the District and other clubs, have them open up on a new tab so that no one has to use the browser history or back button to get back to your site. In the page editor, highlight the text, click on the link icon, click on the Target tab, click on New Window (blank).

I am not sure why you have a separate club officers page, when all of the officers can be listed on the Meet Our Members page by uploading the photos and making them public. The advantage is that as officers change, you make a change in Membership Management and that page is updated. Some bios would be nice as well.

Logging in as an admin (Ambassadors can do that to help you), you should add more keywords on every custom page you create, to boost your search engine optimization. Check our documentation for additional help with this.

Make sure your future events page is up to date, instead of out of date information.

I am looking forward to seeing your website in the future.

Let us know if you need assistance.

I am very impressed with your website. Great job! I agree with most of what Roger M. suggested, so I will not list any additional suggestions, but it sounds like your club is doing great things and I commend you for managing the website.Thank you!
Merrill J. Davies

Hi, Arindam!!

I can see that your club has a lot going for it. Your "Recent meetings" section and your Facebook page tell me your group is motivated, innovative, and also that you know how to use an image editor better than most. You've put a lot of time into your site, and it shows.

I'm going to give you a lot of little suggesations, because:
1) There aren't any big ones.
2) I get the impression that you are "idea people." I'll throw a lot of little ideas your way, and you can pick any that seem useful and run with them.

Ignore any and all suggestions that seem uninteresting; none are criticisms. Because you know how to work with images, I'll put more emphasis there.


Your first picture is clean, well thought out, and you've sized it to load fast; all good. You might center it rather than left-justify it, and crop off the distracting stripe on the top edge. (There are other minor places where cropping would make a better picture; a water bottle on your "About us" page stands out.)

Put a little description under each picture so a visitor knows what they're looking at, and add a little more, if there's room on one line. Under your home page image, you might try: "Our officer team: Ready to serve you", or whatever feels appropriate for your club.

A visitor to your site wants to know what you can do for them; you've answered it completely with a little article that stresses the importance of communication and leadership. You might consider a "Title" for your article across the very top of the page, right above the picture. It'll tell a visitor why they should read on, rather than click somewhere else. If you put something like "Speaking Confidence, Leadership, and Success" in as large a font as will fit, it not only heads your article, it puts in some major keywords that improve your visibility in search engines.

Another question a visitor has is, "Do you fit into my schedule?" Answer this quickly with your meeting time and location. Since it would interfere with your article, you might put it in your Main Heading field (That yellow stripe that's on the same line as the "Main Menu" heading.) You've already got something there, but you can make it more than one line long if you have lots to say. (In my club's site, it's a gluttonous three lines long.)

I can see from your first paragraph that you've learned how to use language that sells a product. (Since you're Business School students, I can only say... good job.) The use of "your" to make them part of it and the list of needs they'll have to meet are good. Since your goal is for a visitor to imagine themselves as part of your club, I'd suggest a switch from "your to "our". From the start, it makes it clear that they're also one of you, while still keeping them personally engaged. Also, look for ways to make that first paragraph crisp and tight; it may be the only thing some visitors will read, so make it easy to read it all. I think this says the same thing in about 2/3 of the word count:


To many, Public Speaking is a greater fear than height, ghost or death, yet Communication and Leadership skills are paramount qualities for an MBA/PGDM graduate. We NEED them for cracking the Group Discussions, Personal Interviews, excelling at our job, selling our product or service and working alongside our fellow corporates.


Sometimes we can shorten word count by rearranging phrases or sentences so that each bulds on the previous one.


If you want to make visitors picture themselves as part of your club, consider what they want. Most visitors check out Toastmasters because they want to succeed at public speaking, so show them people succeeding at it. Consider adding one or more pictures of people speaking at the lectern. While it's a hard shot to get, if the speaker is gesturing enthusiastically and the audience is leaning in or laughing, that picture screams success. Take lots and lots of pictures, and good ones will happen. It's a numbers game.

Since you have a lot of members and seem well along in using image editors, you might also consider a montage of a lot of close-ups of members at the lectern. If you learn the basics of using masks and layers in the editor, (one layer for each picture in the montage) you'll see that it's not too hard, though it takes time. It also shows that lots of people can succeed at speaking, and so can they.

Your "Recent Meetings" page is exciting. Again, good use of image editing, (no... excellent use! You're hiding your best work on a sub-page.) Your "New Feature!" items have me curious as to the details of what you're doing, and if you were not half-a-world away from me, I'd make special efforts to visit you. You seem to have lots of good ideas. If you could add just a few details, it would make a lively page even more so. Show off your cleverness; it's a strength that will bring more visitors.

Again, none of these are criticisms; you've got a fine page, and I'll be peeking in again in times to come.

Take care...

Wes B.