In Wild Apricot, a Member is a type of Contact with additional member-specific information. Other contact types include donors, event registrants and anyone else (learn more about Wild Apricot Contact Database). All contact information is stored in one Contact Database. It is very critical to setup your contact and member fields correctly before adding your contact records. Nevertheless, it is possible, though can be challenging, to move your data between contact and member records once you populated your database.

Challenges in moving contact information to member records (and vice verse):

1. Since Member Fields and Contact Fields share the same database, field names have to be unique across Members and Contacts.
2. If you delete a contact field, the corresponding data for all your records will be deleted from the database.
3. If you add or delete contacts while moving fields across Members and Contact, your data will be shifted and not correspond correctly with your records.

Instructions for moving data from Contact records to Members records (and vice verse):

1. Save your existing database by exporting all your contacts into an Excel sheet. Use Wild Apricot export function.
2. Do not add or remove contacts while making database changes.
3. Delete the field you need to move from Contacts. Your data for this field will be deleted from the existing Wild Apricot database at this point.
4. Create the field in Members. Setup the membership properties for new field as needed.
5. Export the updated contact database. The fields will be setup correctly in this new database; however, the data for this field is missing from all records.
6. Copy data from the original database to the new database using Excel. Tip: use Excel copy and paste function for the entire column.
7. Import updated database to Wild Apricot overwriting existing records.
8. You should now have your Members’ data correctly. Verify this by examining your Members Contact Card.

Need help with your Wild Apricot customization? Contact webbright today! Webbright is a registered Wild Apricot Business Partner and a BBB accredited company.

Webbright Services, LLC recently applied and was granted a Better Business Bureau Accreditation with the Virginia State.

As a BBB accredited business we have been determined to comply with the BBB Code of Business Practices. We affirm that we meet and will abide by the following standards:

1. Build Trust. Establish and maintain a positive track record in the marketplace.
2. Advertise Honestly. Adhere to established standards of advertising and selling.
3. Tell the Truth. Honestly represent products and services, including clear and adequate disclosures of all material terms.
4. Be Transparent. Openly identify the nature, location, and ownership of the business, and clearly disclose all policies, guarantees and procedures that bear on a customer’s decision to buy.
5. Honor Promises. Abide by all written agreements and verbal representations.
6. Be Responsive. Address marketplace disputes quickly, professionally, and in
   good faith.
7. Safeguard Privacy. Protect any data collected against mishandling and fraud, collect personal information only as needed, and respect the preferences of customers regarding the use of their information.
8. Embody Integrity. Approach all business dealings, marketplace transactions and
   commitments with integrity.

Webbright is a Virginia-based web design and Internet marketing company serving small business and nonprofit organizations worldwide. To learn more about Webbright product and services, please visit our website at www.webbrightservices.com.

Wild Apricot is a membership-management software that allows groups and clubs to automate membership registration and renewal, fee payment, and e-mail communication. Wild Apricot uses membership fields to track any membership information (e.g., date of birth, hobbies, bio, etc). In addition to members, organizations may interact with other contacts such as donors and event registrants. As Wild Apricot enables online donation and event registration, it also stores these contact information (as well as its members) into its contact database. It is important to understand the difference between Wild Apricot membership fields and contact fields in order to customize the system for an organization.

Key differences between Membership Fields and Contact Fields:

(1)    Membership Fields appear in Membership Application or Member Profile only; Contact fields appear on all system forms (event registration, donor form, and membership application).

(2)    Membership fields can be setup with different member edit options (member access) including (a) member profile, (b) member application, (c) view only, or (d) no access- internal use only. Contact fields do not have member edit options.

(3)    Membership fields can be setup with different view options (others access) including (a) anybody, (b) all members, (c) selected membership levels, or (d) no access.  Contact fields have three view options: (a) anybody, (b) all members, or (c) nobody. (Note that fields which are setup to be accessed by anybody are available to search engines and will be indexed as such.)

A table comparison between Contact and Membership Fields in Wild Apricot

Need help with your Wild Apricot customization? Contact webbright today! Webbright is a registered Wild Apricot Business Partner and a BBB accredited company.

Wild Apricot automates membership management for organizations and associations including membership application, payment and renewal. Another advantage of using Wild Apricot is the ability to present and search member records- using a Member Directory- either by the public or by members only.  This article explains how to use Wild Apricot Member Directory to create a list of members based on Group association.

In Wild Apricot, you can create different Membership Levels for your organization (e.g., Silver, Platinum and Gold). A member can only belong to one Membership Level. If you have some members from different Membership Levels with something in common (e.g., Elite), Wild Apricot allows you to create a Group to track these members.

What if you want to create a list of members who belong to a particular group?

In Version 3.2, you could create a Member Directory to list members by Membership Levels only (e.g., a Member Directory for Gold Members). In Version 3.3 more options have been added for selecting records in a Member Directory including All Membership Levels, and a Saved Search. (Note, this feature is only available for Community subscribers and higher).  The ability to include selected members comes in handy for creating a member directory based on a particular Group.

How to create a Wild Apricot Member Directory for a Group of members from different Membership Levels:

1. Log in to your wild Apricot account as an Administrator.
2. Go to your Members tab and click on Advanced Search.
3. Use the search criteria to search by Group and any other field you like.

Saving an Advanced Search in Wild Apricot

4.  Give your current search a title and Save.
5.  Create a new web page for your Member Directory.
6.  Edit to the page Settings.
7.  Under Member records to include, select “From saved search” and pick your list.

Wild Apricot Member Directory Settings

The member directory created will include an updated list of your selected members.

What if you want your users to be able to refine the search even further (select from the above list by additional criteria)?

The Member Directory can be setup to allow Advanced, thus allowing users to refine the search even further. Another great feature in the Member Directory in Version 3.3 is the ability to specify which fields users can search for in Advance Search mode.  This is simpler and more attractive to users than looking at all available fields to search from. For example, if you record 20 membership fields for your members, it might make more sense to search by a couple of them only (e.g., name and location).

Need help with your Wild Apricot customization? Contact webbright today! Webbright is a registered Wild Apricot Business Partner and a BBB accredited company.

Webbright is proud to be a sponsor of the 50th anniversary of Sportsarama. Sportsarama is an annual fundraising event sponsored by Richland Sertoma Club in Columbia, SC. Approximately 5,000 Columbia Midlands parents, grandparents, teachers and students attend the preseason football scrimmages in August. Funds raised from this event go to:

• Camp Sertoma Tuition (6 Speech & Hearing Impaired or Underprivileged Campers)
• Columbia College Scholarships for Students in Speech & Hearing Curriculum.
• Sertoma International Foundation for the Speech & Hearing Impaired.
• For Participating High Schools to Support Leadership & School Spirit Activities.
• Camp Sertoma Foundation to ensue the future of our unique summer camp facility at the Clemson Outdoor Lab.

Find out how you can support Sportsarama and Richland Setoma Club.

Webbright is currently looking for a qualified intern to help with a new Inbound Marketing campaign. Webbright provides web design and Internet marketing services for small businesses and nonprofit organizations worldwide. We are looking for a bright student who can participate in blog writing and social networking projects. This is a virtual position; you can work from anywhere, any time as long as you have a computer and Internet connection.

This is a 16-week, part-time, virtual internship position. The intern should be prepared to work independently and remotely with minimum supervision. The Internship Supervisor will provide learning and direction. By the end of the program, the intern is expected to complete 16 online courses and receive an Inbound Marketing Certificate.

Responsibilities

• Create remarkable blog articles and other online content (video, white paper, etc.)
• Optimize online content for search engines.
• Promote content through social networks.

Requirements

Company is looking for an undergraduate or graduate student with interest in blogging and social networking. Excellent writing and communication skills are a must. The applicant must be able to learn quickly and work independently with minimum supervision. Applicants can be from any major; however, English and Business majors are most relevant.

“Where are you, bright star?”

If you think you’re the right person for this position, we invite you to fill-in the online application here.

Your organization website can be a great tool to improve member engagement and retention.  However, just like buying a treadmill won’t automatically result in getting fit, you need to create a strategic plan for engaging your members online.

Here are some ideas…

1. Fun Member Social

Members love to socialize. Why not give them the tools to socialize online using the organization’s website?

• Email Other Members: Members can login to their account, search for other members and send them emails directly from the website.
• Share Photos: Members can create photo albums and share photos within their member profile.
• Share anniversary and birthday with other Members: Members can choose to add anniversary and birthday information to their Member Profile and share it with other members.
• Share club or personal news: Members can share news in the Member News section.
• Learn about other Club Members: Members can browse the Member Directory and look up the Member Profile of other Members including any photo albums Members share.

2. Marketing Tool

Your website can be a great marketing tool to promote membership to prospective members and promote services and events to existing Members.

• Banquet Marketing and Planning: For organizations that offer banquet services, members can access banquet-related information from the website including menus, room description, and facility blueprint. The Banquet Director can refer Members to the website to get this information quickly and easily.
• Membership Marketing: Your website is loaded with Club information including dining hours and menus, membership benefits, classes and joining process, a list of reciprocal clubs and a very visual photo gallery.
• Event Marketing: Your event calendar can send automated email announcements to inform members of upcoming events.

3. Member Service

• Event Registration: Members don’t have to call during office hours to make a reservation! They can register to any event directly from the website anytime anywhere.
• Reciprocal Clubs: If your organization has special arrangements with other business partners, Members can look up this information easily online.
• Dining Information: Members can easily look up dining hours and menus using the website and the Club can easily change any of this information anytime.

4. Money Saving

Here is some tips on how you get the most financial return on your investment!

• Printing and Postage: Instead of printing newsletters and event announcement to every member, limit printed copies to few and make them available only in the club. Make the newsletter available online.
• Staff Overhead: The website has a lot of automated functions (event registration, event announcement and reminders) that can cut down on staff overhead for marketing, communication and support

Have you experimented with other ideas on improving member engagement? Let us know what worked for you and what didn’t by posting a comment here!

If you are a small business owner, a membership group or an individual looking to create a website to share information online, you might not have to hire a web designer or web developer and pay tons of money. After all, building a website involves many aspects including content writing, website design, graphic and visual design, hosting, domain name, search engine optimization.

Luckily, there are many online services that allow anyone to create a professional looking website with minimum technical knowledge.  Below is a list of some of these services.

What if you’re not the DIY (do-it-yourself) type, or you need assistance in advanced customization? You can contact Webbright Services and get some expert help!

Richmond- May 14 – Inbound Marketing University awards the Inbound Marketing Certification to Lamees Abourahma as part of its comprehensive Internet marketing training program (http://inboundmarketing.com).

This certification acknowledges Lamees’ proficiency in inbound marketing principles and best practices. These principles include: blogging, search engine optimization, social media, lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis.

Lamees is Bright Founder of Webbright Services, a Richmond, VA-based web design and Internet marketing provider for small businesses, nonprofits and member-based organizations.

Lamees joins an elite group of Inbound Marketing Certified Professionals. In total, 1,300 individuals have successfully passed the IMU program.

To complete the Inbound Marketing Certification, Lamees completed 16 in-depth classes covering each facet of inbound marketing and passed a comprehensive certification exam. (View the full list of classes: http://inboundmarketing.com/university/classes)

The courses are taught by a knowledgeable faculty of professors, including New York Times’ best-selling author Chris Brogan, Google’s Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik, Internet celebrity Gary Vaynerchuk, best-selling author and international speaker David Meerman Scott, and more. (View all professors: http://www.inboundmarketing.com/university/professors)

This certification is administered by HubSpot.

About InboundMarketing.com
InboundMarketing.com is an online community and certification program for marketers. The site’s content teaches a new style of marketing that emphasizes business uses of social media, content creation and search engine optimization for marketing. InboundMarketing.com is hosted and moderated by HubSpot, Inc. Register for InboundMarketing.com at http://inboundmarketing.com/user/register.

About HubSpot
HubSpot, Inc. provides Internet marketing software that helps businesses get found online, generate more inbound leads and convert a higher percentage of those leads into paying customers. HubSpot’s software platform includes tools that allow professional marketers and business owners to manage search engine optimization, blogging and social media, as well as landing pages, lead intelligence and marketing analytics. Based in Cambridge, MA, HubSpot can be found at http://www.hubspot.com. HubSpot’s free marketing tools can be found at http://grader.com.

Almost a year ago, my family and I relocated to Richmond, Virginia from Columbia, South Carolina. Since then, I registered Webbright as a Virginia Limited Liability company, partnered with Wild Apricot as a Solution Provider, created an Inbound Marketing strategy, and embarked on business development with E-Myth. Today, I’m very excited to share with you some of Webbright’s accomplishments and future outlook.

Vision and Strategy

My vision is (1) to provide outstanding web design and Internet marketing services for small businesses, nonprofits, and membership organizations. My vision is (2) to give back to society by using this business to grant scholarships and job opportunities to deserving college students. My strategy is (3) to systemize Webbright from its foundation to deliver consistent, outstanding experiences to every client, every time. My lead generation strategy is (4) to create and optimize “remarkable” content that is interesting to our clients and prospects, and promote it with search engine optimization (SEO), social media and email marketing (i.e., the Inbound Marketing concept of the very successful marketing company, HubSpot).

E-Myth and Business Development

E-Myth Revisited

After a couple of years of greatly enjoying working with a few small businesses and nonprofits, I wanted to grow the business to be able to serve more clients and increase Webbright’s revenue. Coming from a technical background without much business experience, I wasn’t sure how to do this! Per a friend’s recommendation, I read E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber. The E-Myth ViewPoint speaks of the distinction between working on your business and working in your business. It defines strategic work as shaping the business enterprise itself, and tactical work as producing and delivering products and services and performing the administrative work required to support the business.

On top of reading the book, last August I signed up for the E-Myth Mastery Impact! Program, a 10 to 12-month program that coaches small business owners on the E-Myth ViewPoint. Since then, I have been working with my E-Myth coach on developing Webbright’s Strategic Objective and many systems from the E-Myth Seven Centers of Management: Leadership, Money, Marketing, Client Fulfillment, Lead Generation, Lead Conversion, and Management. With an E-Myth business model and an Inbound Marketing strategy, I am confident Webbright is on its way to achieving its Strategic Objective and differentiating itself as a solid, preferable brand.

Webbright Partners with Wild Apricot

Wild Apricot is a Toronto-based company providing membership management software for nonprofit organizations since 2006. Wild Apricot has positioned itself as an affordable out-of-the-box solution for nonprofits looking for membership management, event registration, website CMS, and online payment. Over 15,000 organizations have signed up with Wild Apricot.

Webbright has partnered with Wild Apricot to provide added value services including graphic design and CSS customization, system setup, contact list transfer, online payment setup, etc. For organizations that don’t have the time or staff to setup and maintain a professional Wild Apricot system, Webbright provides a do-it-for-me systematized solution and great experience.

New Website and Blog

As Webbright is growing and changing, our public presence is also evolving. In February 2010, Webbright released its updated website with a fresh, new look along with updated company and service information. The new website is a great improvement over the old one because it is designed as an integrated channel of Webbright’s lead generation strategy instead of being an isolated online brochure. (Read this article to see how the new website improved performance). Part of this integrated lead generation strategy is a regularly updated blog, which features articles on web design and Internet marketing for small businesses, nonprofits and membership organizations. The blog is a great platform to grow our remarkable content, improve our search engine optimization (SEO), and support our Inbound Marketing strategy.

Bright Outlook

I am very fortunate to have had the chance to start a business that I am greatly passionate about. I am very excited to have E-Myth and Inbound Marketing as the foundation for this business and looking forward to a lot of innovations, wonderful partnerships, and great accomplishments.

Bright wishes,

Lamees Abourahma
Bright Founder
Webbright Services, LLC

Thoughts, questions, suggestions? I’d love to hear from you. Leave me a comment.