TOPIC:

Hello Everyone,

Our club, Greenhouse Toastmasters, recently had its one-year anniversary on being chartered (Woo-hoo!).

Despite this, our members are still fairly new to Toastmasters, and we would appreciate feedback regarding our website. What is something that we can improve upon that would attract more members or make the information on our website much more easily accessible to new visitors?

All feedback is greatly appreciated!

Overall, it is a pretty good start. You have some great content. You just mainly need to make it "pop" more to draw visitors in.

While your group photo and your video has color in it, much of the rest of the website is plain white. For an example of how color can really make a difference in a website, look at the following one: challengerstoastmasters.toastmastersclubs.org/

The video on the home page started before I realized that it was "below the fold" and I needed to scroll down. Therefore I missed seeing the beginning of the video. I would suggest either shutting off the auto-start for the video or delay it (if possible).

Switch to tabbed or accordion style menu for better use of space.

On your meet our members page, only the club pres and vp ed show. Suggest creating a simple template to guide users in providing bio content there. Goal is to only have 2 paragraphs max, one about them personally and one illustrating what they have gotten from Toastmasters.

Hello Steve,

Thank you so much for all that insightful feedback!

I went ahead and implemented all of those changes to the website. Would you please look at it again, and let me know if those items requiring attention were addressed properly? I have let the rest of the Club Officers know to input their information in the Meet Our Members section and to make it public.

Ok, I would recommend a different website background color. The green is a bit intense and does not really go well with the colors in the photos.

Hmm, what color would you recommend that I use to go well with the photos? I chose green because it went along with the name, Greenhouse Toastmasters.

You could use green, just use a more muted shade or hue. Remember that there is a whole spectrum of colors, hues, shades, etc.

We have had clubs use bright red backgrounds... (not recommended) Backgrounds are better if they are not competing with your foreground content... it is a case of using color, but making it more muted for things that you do not want to distract your website visitors.

Hello again!

I went ahead and made the background a lighter shade of green. Would this be a shade of green that isn't too distracting?

Also, aside from the background, how were my other updates to the website?

I definitely think the background color is better now.

I fixed your home page content for you to make it mobile friendly (it was not).

How did you make the home page content more mobile-friendly (for my future reference), and would you say that our website is much easier now for a newcomer to find what they want to find out about our club?

support.toastmastersclubs.org/2011-10-23...sive-mobile-friendly

How did you get your youtube video to be coherent on the mobile experience? My video hangs off the edge.

Cannot look at anything without a link. Today is not my day to read minds... :0)

LindaMann wrote:

Cannot look at anything without a link. Today is not my day to read minds... :0)

The link to the club website can be found in my signature block.

Roanoke85 wrote:

How did you get your youtube video to be coherent on the mobile experience? My video hangs off the edge.

I explained that in the cited thread. "Wrappers" must be used with iframes to make them mobile friendly.

Veeral, you have designed an engaging website.

A dew first impressions: I'm a bit confused by "Maybe become a millionaire." For me it does not relate to Toastmasters or to Greenhouse. Something like, "Plants your roots for success and bloom with us on Wednesdays at noon." I like to crop group photos. Most people don't care about seeing legs and shoes, they want to see faces. Also the public menu is intense. Perhaps a few of these (Toastmasters Contact List, How to Sign up for Meeting Roles, Logic and Biases, etc.) would be better suited to the Member's Menu.

I really appreciate the nice Guest Packet in the Downloads area.

Congrats on a great sight.

Arlynn wrote:

Veeral, you have designed an engaging website.

A dew first impressions: I'm a bit confused by "Maybe become a millionaire." For me it does not relate to Toastmasters or to Greenhouse. Something like, "Plants your roots for success and bloom with us on Wednesdays at noon." I like to crop group photos. Most people don't care about seeing legs and shoes, they want to see faces. Also the public menu is intense. Perhaps a few of these (Toastmasters Contact List, How to Sign up for Meeting Roles, Logic and Biases, etc.) would be better suited to the Member's Menu.

I really appreciate the nice Guest Packet in the Downloads area.

Congrats on a great sight.

Thank you Arlynn!

I have gone ahead and made the Public Menu smaller by moving some of the links to the Member's Menu.

The reason I said "Maybe become a millionaire" was because the man in the video on the home page, Dan Lok, used Toastmasters to develop his speaking skills to eventually become a millionaire in his business.