It was almost exactly a year ago today that Digital PTO first made an appearance online. At first, it was just a mess of graphics and exploratory code, but I knew from that first live preview that something great was going to come out of the jumble. Sign Up’s were closed, we were not expecting visitors for another 6 months, but this was our first glimpse of what was to come.

The next 6 months were a crazed race to the finish. Work days felt like work weeks, it was not uncommon to be sitting in front of our computers for 15 hours a day getting things ready for our launch in April of 2011. I am very thankful for the support of my wife and kids during that final push last spring. They were my rocks and foundations. I am also thankful for my employees who stepped up and picked up all of my slack while I put my energy into making Digital PTO the best product on the market. Thank you for being my cheerleaders and for encouraging me to keep pushing forward.

April of 2011 brought our first public launch, and on day one, the feedback was overwhelming. With 5 major trade shows in 6 weeks all across the country, we met some incredible people and received extremely positive reactions. I remember flying back one night from Houston after our launch and tears kept welling up in my eyes as I stared out the window of the plane thinking about how excited and grateful so many of these parent groups were. I kept thinking to myself, “This is what it’s all about. I have the greatest job ever.” And I do.

Thank you to the parent groups that have already put your trust into Digital PTO. You are over 500 schools strong at this point and growing on a daily basis. We are all so overwhelmed by the successes you have already seen and so excited to see what the future brings to all of our members. Thank you for being a part of the Digital PTO family. You are all so very appreciated.

Have a wonderful, safe and relaxing Thanksgiving everyone. We have all earned it.

Matt Sampson – Founder of Digital PTO

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As a PTA President myself, I see the inadequacies of our county and state leadership just as much as I did in our PTA before our website came along. They have websites, yes, but they are not easy to use and don’t have the information I want to have available in many cases.

Additionally, their communication is sporadic and often quite hard to read. Overall, they are doing a pretty good job, but a tool like Digital PTO can help take them to the next level.

Now that next level is free.

We have also seen that when multiple associated groups are all using Digital PTO, the learning and sharing between groups is astounding. Imagine adding the leadership groups into that mix as well. The possibilities are quite exciting.

To sum it up, if you are a leadership group with at least 30 chapters you reside over, we are offering you a free Premium Plan (yep, free!) forever. It’s really that simple.

If you or anyone you know is affiliated with the PTA on a leadership level, be sure to let them know about this incredible offer.

Here is the link with more info and application details:
http://digitalpto.com/compare-plans/free-program/

Thanks everyone and have a great remainder of the week ~

Matt Sampson
Digital PTO

Digital PTO Announces Free Premium Plans for District & State PTA Groups is a post from: DigitalPTO.com - Free Websites Specifically for PTO's and PTA's
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At Digital PTO we believe in the idea that every PTA/PTO should have a website so strongly, we provide websites at no charge for any PTA or PTO (or other Parent Group!) out there. Before Digital PTO launched, we spoke to countless schools that said a website was not in the cards because they were too expensive. Well, now there are no more excuses. PTA websites are free. And will always be free, forever!

OK, so a PTA Website is Free. So What?

I have personally spoken to a number of schools that not only didn’t have a website, but also could not understand WHY a website was even necessary. They have explained to me that very few people in their community are online. They have explained that no one on their PTA board knows how to use a website. They have explained to me that they (as the board member) do not use the web. And so on.

All of those claims may be completely accurate, but my response is always the same.

Let’s say you have a school of 500 families. Even if 90% of your families are not ever going to see your website, that still leaves 50 families that will have access to the information your PTA is promoting. Are you willing to give up 50 families worth of dues, donations, volunteer hours and more? So far, every school has responded with a clear “no.”

To make things even better, the computer era is not coming to an end anytime soon :). Every year more and more families are getting online, using email and creating a digital world for their needs and daily life. It’s a fact, the number of families in your community that have access to online content is growing annually, and it’s not going to stop any time soon.

You can always wait to start catering toward these digital families, but keep in mind that for the most part, the families that have computers and smart phones also potentially have some money that they would be willing to donate to the PTA. Or Time. Or both.

Don’t think that your PTA doesn’t need a website simply because of demographics or lack of computers in the community. It’s just not true. You need a website. At least if you want to be successful as a PTA.

OK. My PTA Needs a Website. Now What?

If you haven’t already signed up for a free PTA website with Digital PTO, that is the first place to get started. You can sign up in about 30 seconds right here: http://digitalpto.com/wp-signup.php

Once you have signed up for your free PTA website, the first steps are the learn how to use your new website (it’s easy!) and then to populate it with some content. At Digital PTO, we strongly believe in efficiency, so we have created a Quick Start Guide that will train you how to use your site and help you get some content set up as well! The quick start guide can be found at: http://quickstart.digitalpto.com/

Once you log into your website you will see that we have already populated it with some of the critical pages that you will want to include on your PTA website. Those pages include the Calendar, an Info (About) Page, a Contact Us page, a Volunteer page and a Join the PTA page. In our opinion, these are the most important pages to include on your PTA website, but are certainly not all you should include.

What Information should our PTA Provide Online?

As I mentioned previously, there are a few critical pages that every PTA should have on their website, but there are a lot of additional pages that can be added to your website as well. Let’s start with the pre-built pages first and then delve into some more advanced options.

Calendar: There are a lot of important things that should be included on your PTA website, but some sort of Calendar or list of events is toward the top for sure. It is important to have a location online that your families can visit to get a quick view of what’s going on at the school and with the PTA. Our Premium Members have access to two different Events Calendars (depending on their plan) that make adding new events a breeze, but even our free plan members should create some sort of list of upcoming events if nothing else. This is not the last time you are going to hear me say this, but be sure to UPDATE your website so that the data is current. There is nothing more discouraging than seeing information about a meeting that took place 5 months earlier (see example below).

Keep your website updated! Notice this "Pre Digital PTO" school has not updated their website since last May. This will be much easier with their new Digital PTO website.

Keeping your website updated is critical, but I’ll get into that more at a later time. As you can see from the website above, they have not updated anything since last year, so this is not an effective example of a PTA website. Not to worry though, Weber Elementary is now a Digital PTO member, so this website will be updated in the next few weeks!

The Info Page: An information page about your PTA is another important element for your PTA website. At the very minimum, this page should explain what your PTA does and who your PTA is. Schools with strong online presences will add additional pages (which I will get into later) to take this to another level, but at the very minimum one of your schools families should be able to come to your website and at least understand why your PTA/PTO is doing what you are doing and also who you are.

Personally, I think that the “Info Page” is where most PTAs fall short in their success. And it’s not simply the Info Page, it’s about marketing your PTA. Think of your PTA as a business in your neighborhood. It’s important to market your PTA so your community knows WHY it should support it. If your PTA is quiet and doesn’t promote itself, you are going to have a much harder time raising funds and finding volunteers than you would if your community was well informed. Would you spend money at a business you know nothing about and have never heard of? Probably not. The same holds true for your PTA.

Be proud of your PTA and promote it! Digital PTO was founded on a single statement: A Connected PTA is a Successful PTA. Promote your PTA as much as you can, without promotion, your PTA is not tapping into its’ full potential! More on this topic later..

The Contact Us Page: I know it sounds simple, but contact information is really important to provide to your community. It is important to set up some sort of method for communication with your PTA. Whether it is an email address of a board member, or an email address set up specifically for your PTA, you must allow people the opportunity to contact your group. More advanced PTAs will use the Premium Forms available with Digital PTO, but even providing a single email address is fine.

A Contact the PTA page allows the community to be in touch with you. I’ll warn you in advance that 95% of all emails you receive will be either praise or criticism. It is the nature of humanity. Allow people to express their feelings, and some of them will. :) Critical or in favor though, all of the communities feedback is important.

The Volunteer Page: As much as we all wish that the Volunteer page was the most visited page on your website, it won’t be, but it is still a critically important page to include. While not the most visited page on your website, the families that do visit this page are worth their weight in gold. Our Premium Members have access to a nice Volunteer form, but even free website can include some information and a way to contact you.

Volunteering for the PTA is cause for anxiety for many of your families, so taking the opportunity to explain the different volunteer opportunities and time commitments is a great way to ease a new family into the PTA without making them feel like they need to donate 50 hours a month. The Volunteer page is your recruiting page, so be sure to recruit well. Encourage participation, make it easy and stay organized.

The Join the PTA Page: Two different groups of people will visit your Join the PTA page. Curious families and families that are ready to support you. Be sure to cater to both. If you are a Premium Plan member, you have access to one or both of our Online Family Registration forms as well. Premium Plan Members have access to our basic Family Registration Form that collects family registration information in a database and allows you (as the admin) to download that data in bulk for reporting, directories, etc. Our Premium Plus Members have access to another Family Registration Form that adds the ability to collect payments in addition to integration with popular mailing list services like Mail Chimp. Both forms serve the same purpose though, and that purpose is to collect information. Your Join the PTA page replaces the clipboard and forms of yesterday. Even free members should have some sort of information on their Join page. We would also advise our free members to upload a copy of your registration form and link to it from the Join the PTA page so that your visitors can download your registration form on their own.

Don’t forget: It is important to tell people why it is important to join. As a card carrying PTA/PTO member, you know why it is important to join the parent group and get involved, but the majority of your school has no idea why they should join. It is your job to convince them. We have found that most families respond best to concrete examples and goals. Instead of listing “Fundraising Events” or “Help the School” be more specific. “We raise money as a PTA with your donations and our goal this fall is to raise $15,000 so that we can continue to give the school amazing experiences like: the carnival, fun fridays, etc, etc” By providing specific information potential families understand immediately what you do, why you are doing it and what your goal is. That is a pretty powerful sentence.

Be sure to let families know about any additional benefits you offer as a PTA as well. Discounts on Enrichment classes to PTA members? Inclusion and a copy of the school phone book? Free hotdog at the school carnival? Donate now so you don’t have to do “door to door” sales later this year? I think you catch my drift. Approach the page like you don’t know why you should join the PTA and write it from that Point of View. I can go on for days about promotion and technique regarding the Join the PTA page, but I will save those for separate posts.

Taking it to the Next level

I will continue writing on this topic in the near future and will start to cover deeper topics like Promoting your PTA Online, and working with Business Sponsors in addition to a number of other topics. After 4 years of researching the best and most effective ways to get PTAs online with websites, I am excited to continue to share what I have learned with you. If you have any specific questions, feel free to leave a comment in the comments section, we would love to hear from you.

Why is it important to have a great PTA Website? is a post from: DigitalPTO.com - Free Websites Specifically for PTO's and PTA's
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• Change the background color to anything you want, with two clicks. Prefer to upload an image? No problem, it does that too.
• Custom news post slider on the home page. Let it pick your most recent content, or specify exact pages and posts to include.
• Change the colors on the widget/side bar as well as the background of the news slider, again, with just a few clicks.
• Automatic Child Pages. When you assign a page as a child page, this theme will automatically add a link to the child page (with description and image!) to the parent page. It’s incredibly simple!
• Custom Header Graphic. Pick one of the pre-built ones or upload your own!
• Full support for Business Advertising. If you are a Premium Plus Member, you now have the ability to place your community and business sponsor ads directly on your website and they will automatically revolve randomly as the page loads. There are 4 different locations for ads.
• so much more.

A quick peek at some color variations

Below you will find a few quick examples of color variations on this new theme. Every color imaginable is available and at your fingertips. Here are a few examples that were created in just seconds with the Graphene 2.0 theme.

Complete Video Training Created

We know that you are busy, so we have created a comprehensive training library based on the Graphene 2.0 theme that will walk you through every step of its creation and save you a ton of “learning” time.

This is the most useful and comprehensive website training series ever created for PTA and PTO groups.

Follow along as our founder, Matt Sampson, takes a brand new Digital PTO starter site and transforms it into one of the greatest PTA websites ever created. Watch Matt take his schools’ PTA website to the next level in simple step-by-step chapters that will cover everything from selecting and customizing your theme all the way up to integrating business sponsors and advertising. Filled with helpful ideas that not only cover HOW to use your website, but go deeper with the WHY’s that are so important when motivating volunteers, keeping your community informed and more.

Access the training videos here!

We hope you will find these training videos extremely helpful in creating your own PTA website.

Two major releases for Premium Plus Members

In addition to this new beautiful PTA website theme, we are also introducing two new features for our Premium Plus Members, the Events Calendar Pro and Business Sponsor Advertising.

Our Premium Events Calendar Pro takes your calendar to a whole new level. With a beautiful design and clean presentation, this is the classiest PTA calendar you’ve ever seen. The plugin offers a calendar view, an upcoming events view, venue and organizer support, google maps, featured images and descriptions right on the calendar and more.

The Events Calendar Pro also features a number of sidebar widgets that allow you to feature certain event categories, event lists, mini calendars and more. To top it all off, Apple users will be able to subscribe to the PTA calendar with one click and it will automatically be added to their Apple (or iPhone) calendar.

This new calendar will be rolling out on new Premium Plans and any existing Premium Plans that would like to upgrade are requested to send us a quick email and we will take care of installing this calendar immediately for you.

Business Sponsor Advertising allows you to make even more money.

We have received numerous requests from parent groups about incorporating their own advertising into their websites. Ads for their local business partners, other organizations they support, etc. Today, we are please to announce that our Premium Plus members now have access to Business Sponsor Ads. The Ads module has been complete integrated with our new theme, Graphene 2.0. The ads work on all of our themes, but the Graphene 2.0 theme was built with these ads in mind. We offer 5 different locations to sell advertising including on the home page under every news summary, in the sidebar on every page, under full news posts, under full pages and also at the footer of your site at the very bottom. Each ad group can be combined as one or controlled with separate ad groups.

We hope you like the changes. We’re excited to see what you can do with them.

At Digital PTO, we spend every waking moment coming up with new and inventive ways to promote and enhance your Parent Group. We have been working on these new features for months based on our member feedback and our own ideas. We really hope you will like these new features that rolled out today.

As usual, if you have any questions, please let us know!

A new theme has arrived at Digital PTO and it is amazing. is a post from: DigitalPTO.com - Free Websites Specifically for PTO's and PTA's
Start your own Free PTA/PTO Website at DigitalPTO.com

Please note that while Paypal is a great option for some schools, traditional “Credit Card Payments” are always the most successful and widely used over paypal. Learn more about accepting credit cards here.

Watch the video in HD at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tFK29gK3eI

New Video Tutorial: Adding Paypal to your PTA/PTO Website is a post from: DigitalPTO.com - Free Websites Specifically for PTO's and PTA's
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Also, don’t forget to Like Digital PTO on Facebook for a chance to win a Free Premium Plan for your school!

Watch the Video in HD at http://youtu.be/Oqny3HAX3lQ

New Feature! Add a Facebook “facepile” to your Website is a post from: DigitalPTO.com - Free Websites Specifically for PTO's and PTA's
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Digital PTO and our team wish the Staff, Students and Community of Speegleville Elementary our absolute best and hope that this donation of a free annual plan is helpful. if you are a member of the Speegleville community, please consider joining their PTA.

If you are interested in helping out other schools in need, we highly suggest a visit to DonorsChoose.org. This is (in our opinion) the absolute best way to donate directly to schools and individual classrooms around the country.

Have a great week everyone.

Matt Sampson (CEO) & the Digital PTO Staff

Digital PTO Grants Annual Premium Plan to Speegleville Elementary after Devastating Fire is a post from: DigitalPTO.com - Free Websites Specifically for PTO's and PTA's
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The first year we introduced the concept of an email list and eliminating the paper news.

The second year, we asked families to register with the PTA on the computer vs the traditional paper form.

The third year we introduced online payments with online registration.

This year we are creating a seamless experience for our families as they register for school. With one stop parents can register and pay for school fee’s, register and join the PTA, sign up to have their photo taken for the Photo Phone Book, sign up for volunteer opportunities, browse this years selection of School Spirit wear and finally, kids can speak with the Principal and find out what teacher they will be with for the 2011/2012 school year.

One of the things that we are focusing on this year is promoting what the PTA has done in the past and what it will be doing in the future. In addition to the email that went out the day before, we made a quick Keynote presentation (mac’s version of power point) to display on the walls of the gym via borrowed classroom projectors. The effect was fantastic. It was almost like a PTA rock concert. Almost… :)

Below is the video that was playing on the walls. There is no sound, it’s just a looping slide show for effect. And it worked.

Great idea for School Registration Day. Videos promoting your PTA! is a post from: DigitalPTO.com - Free Websites Specifically for PTO's and PTA's
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All you have to do is ‘LIKE’ Digital PTO on Facebook and you’re in the drawing. Each time we have another 100 ‘likes’ we have another drawing. We’re at 248 as of right now, so our next drawing will be at 300. Keep in mind, we draw from the whole batch, not just the newest 100, so you will be automatically entered to win with each drawing!

Be sure to tell your friends, family, community and boards about this contest and get those entries in!

Amigos Por Vida – Friends for Life Wins a Free Plan! Are you Registered to Win? is a post from: DigitalPTO.com - Free Websites Specifically for PTO's and PTA's
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All you have to do is ‘LIKE’ Digital PTO on Facebook and you’re in the drawing. Each time we have another 100 ‘likes’ we have another drawing. We’re at 116 as of right now, so our next drawing will be at 200. Keep in mind, we draw from the whole batch, not just the newest 100, so you will be automatically entered to win with each drawing!

Be sure to tell your friends, family, community and boards about this contest and get those entries in!

We have a Winner! Congrats Ocosta PTO! Are you registered to win yet? is a post from: DigitalPTO.com - Free Websites Specifically for PTO's and PTA's
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