Toastmasters Magazine recently invited me to contribute an article on the importance of the club website, which appears in the February issue. That in turn led to an invitation to be interviewed on the official Toastmasters Podcast. I consider this a bit of a breakthrough for mainstream acceptance of the WordPress for Toastmasters project and the Toastmost.org club website hosting service — which I hope will lead to more club leaders considering the option.

I did take care to make most of my recommendations ones that could also be applied to a Free Toast Host website or one of the many other options. Of course, that didn’t stop me from recommending that people check out how their club website looks on a mobile phone browser (hint: a WordPress site will do much better at automatically adjusting to small screens). But I mostly behaved myself.

Let me know what you think of the article. — David F. Carr, DTM, david@wp4toastmasters.com

Here’s an excerpt.

Make Your Club Website a Marketing and Recruiting Asset

How to leave an inviting impression with online visitors.

Toastmasters know the importance of a first impression. However, the first impression a prospective member gets of your club often happens before they even visit their first meeting. It’s formed when they visit your club website.

Think about the things you invest your time and money in: You probably check them out online first. The question is: Is your website helping or hurting? Does it tell people what they need to know about Toastmasters and your club? Or does it feature obviously outdated information like a promotion for an “upcoming” event that happened a year ago? Does it talk about Table Topics® (insider jargon) without explaining the relevance of impromptu speaking practice?

Here are some ways to make your club website a better marketing and recruiting tool.

Read the rest of the Toastmasters Magazine article at toastmasters.org and tune in for the accompanying episode of the Toastmasters podcast.