How to Create A Women's Group Online

Women love to communicate, that's a given. But often whether a woman works inside or outside of the home, time leftover for ourselves is limited. Create a spot online where women either locally or all over the world can connect and stay in touch.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Computer Access

1. Today there are many sites, some for free, some for a small fee that will let you create a little spot on the World Wide Web.
   
   Decide a few things first:
   
   Do you have money and content to put into a full website? Starting out most won't. Going with a free service such as Wordpress or Blogger can get you going with no money and still allow you to create a unique space.
2. If you already have a women's group that meets regular and is already established and you are simply looking to move it to the Internet, blogging is a great way to provide information, make announcements, maintain a message board.
   
   But if you are starting from zero, decide what your women's group will be about. Is it a book club, cooking club, knitting, wine, bowling, anything that will bring the women together. Sometimes groups are created because they are new mothers or because they are a group of women at the hot flash phase of their life.
   
   Decide what your's will be and then look to see if there is already a national organization. Often they will have a site online that can provide tips for starting your own.
   
   If not, don't worry, make it what you want it to be.
3. Creating a space online can be fun. Most free sites almost hold your hand through the whole creating process so that you don't need to be a computer wizard or Bill Gates to do it.
   
   You will want your website or blog to reflect the feel of your group. Lighthearted, perky, sexy, sporty, formal you name it, there are a ton of pictures and graphics that can help you obtain the feel you are striving for.
4. With so many choices of clip art, remember to stay on track. Don't clutter the site and use a font and colors that don't shock your visitors.
5. Groups Online Add links to your site that will enhance your subject matter or connect you to other women's groups online. If you do have a national organization be sure to link to them as well.
6. Widgets is a new way to provide content to your website or blog that might interest your women's group. Some are just for fun - want to kill some time playing pac man? Some are informational such as CNN, BBC, news organizations. And some are as simple as helping your group count down to a special date.
   
   Using HTML codes that all you have to do is cut and paste into your site, it is easy to add weather, books, and more to enhance your group.
7. There are many tools especially if you are a book club to use to enhance your site. GoodReads makes it easy to track books you are currently reading, books to be read and more. You can create your own "bookshelf" and the provide the codes for you to paste into your site.
8. Is your group wanting to make some money? While you won't strike it rich, you can add buttons, again cutting and pasting HTML codes from places such as Amazon.com and more where you will receive a small fee for those who "click" through your links at your site. Many of these simply require you register by filling out a form and they will provide the code you need to add to your site.
9. Using email, and snail mail, announce your groups website address or blog address. Want to recrute new women, create posters or business cards that you can easily pass out with your women's group information.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep it uncluttered
• Keep it easy to use
• Create a logo