Domain Names for Toastmasters Clubs

The Why's and How's of Getting a Domain Name for Your Club Web Site

As the District webmaster, I've been getting about 10 questions a month about domain names for clubs from various club webmasters. So, I figured it's about time that I added an instructional page to the web site for this topic.

What Is A Domain Name?
You've probably launched a web site for your club and are hopefully hosting through District 26, since we offer hosting to you for free.

In fact, you probably promote your web site address in newspapers and flyers as:

www.D26Toastmasters.org/yourclubname.

Wouldn't it be easier to promote your club web site as www.YourClubName.org?

YourClubName.org is what is called a domain name.

What Is URL Forwarding?
Simply stated, when someone types in your domain name "www.YourClubName.org" you want the visitor to see your web site at www.D26Toastmasters.org/yourclubname right?

You can easily do this by adding a feature to your domain name called "URL Forwarding" which will send visitors to whatever location you add to the system.

Here is a Working Example of URL Forwarding
My Toastmasters club is the George Sutton club in Aurora. We host our web site on the district server. So, our address is this giant long thing that we can't fit on most things promotional! It is:

www.D26Toastmasters.org/georgesuttontoastmasters.

Yikes! So, we registered the domain name as GeorgeSuttonToastmasters.org and pointed it (using URL Forwarding) to our REAL web site address shown above.

The great thing is that when someone gets to that web site location after typing in GeorgeSuttonToastmasters.org, that's the exact location that appears in the address window. We made this happen by checking a box in the URL Forwarding area called
"Mask Domain."

How Much Does a Domain Name Cost?
Domain names are cheap these days. Registration for a .org is typically less than $9 a year and even less if you just pay in advance for 5 or 10 years. So, there should be no financial excuse to holding off from registering a domain name for your club.

It's the URL Forwarding feature with masking that sometimes comes with an extra price. I've seen domain registrar companies (the places where you register domains) try to charge up to $20 a year for re-directing domain names and masking. That's rediculous! It's such an easy function and there are plenty of registrars out there that offer free URL Forwarding and masking. That's what you want to look for.

We registered ours at BestDomainPlace.com which features a step-by-step visual tutorial showing how to start an account, register a domain name and use the URL Forwarding and masking feature. But, there are probably hundreds of quality domain registrars out there. Just make sure you go with a place that will actually register the domain name in your own name...that way you will be sure to own it.

What Type of Domain Name Should We Register?
Since your club is attached to a non-profit organization, go ahead and register a .org for your domain name instead of a .com.

What About E-mail?
Few Toastmasters clubs have an e-mail address that also includes their domain name. Contactus@YourClubName.org would be an example.

Personally, I think it's a promotional opportunity that is being missed and a time-saver that is being overlooked because:

1) An e-mail address with your domain name makes your whole club look more professional and more current in a technical world.

2) A general e-mail account protects your officer contact from getting his or her own personal or company e-mail exposed to the world.

3) It's faster to change. Think of all the places you need to have your e-mail address for your club. There's your web site, the District web site, the Toastmasters Intl site...plus any other promotional listing you might have out there. It could take you HOURS of time and follow-up to get those contacts changed in all of those places; and even longer for *some* web masters (not me of course-ha-ha) to make the changes for you on-line.

Wouldn't it be great to make just one change (the password to access the e-mail account for the new contact) and not miss even one e-mail from a potential club visitor even though your contacts have changed?

Expect an e-mail account that includes your domain name to be in the neighborhood of $10/year but that's a small price to pay if you consider the time you'll save.

In Summary
Clearly, registering a domain name for your club will help you on many counts. Most importantly, it will help your club appear more professional and be easier to promote whether in-person, on the radio, on the phone, at a promotional event, or on a business card.

With domain names as cheap as they are and even simpler to implement, there's no excuse and every reason to do it. Register a domain name for your club today and use the URL Forwarding feature with Masking to re-direct visitors to your existing web site.

Have questions about getting a domain name for your club?

E-mail the Webmaster

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