The Toastmost.org club website hosting service associated with the WordPress for Toastmasters project has traditionally limited clubs to using a subdomain address, such as op.toastmost.org for Online Presenters. Until now, if you wanted to use your own web domain (www.myclub.com instead of myclub.toastmost.org), you had to set up your own WordPress website and be prepared to administer it yourself.

I am looking for a couple of volunteers to be the first to try a new option, which allows you to make your Toastmost-hosted website available at your own domain. I would continue to take care of the back end technical details and make all the same website functions available, but your club would get the branding advantage of using your own domain.

Because this requires some additional manual setup, I expect to charge an extra fee for it, still TBD. However, the first couple of clubs that volunteer to be beta testers for this new option will get it for free.

Details:

• You are responsible for registering your own domain through GoDaddy or one of its competitors. I will give you a few settings you will record with your domain registrar to “point” the domain to “point it” at the Toastmost service.
• You will get access to the same assortment of WordPress plugins that are available to other Toastmost.org sites. Currently, the only supported theme for club websites is Lectern, the one I had reviewed for brand conformance by Toastmasters International.
• In addition to your website, you will have the option of having email addresses associated with your domain.
• Clubs with established websites that volunteer for the beta program should be prepared for some disruption to the operation of their website when I “flip the switch” to turn on the domain hosting feature. I will do my best to make the transition as smooth as possible and can schedule it for an “off time” when members are less likely to be trying to access your site.
• If you want complete technical control over your site (and are prepared to take complete technical responsibility), you may still prefer to run the WordPress for Toastmasters software on your own, independent hosting.

If you’re interested, simply reply to this message with your contact information and your club website.