Name of your website?Thai Mueang Volunteers
Your name?
Chelsey
Your Location (city, etc)
Thai Mueang, Phang Nga
When did you start your website and why?
The TM Volunteer website was started in May 2007. We have been living in the community of Thai Mueang for over two years and have seen other organizations place volunteers in our area, leaving them with no support and some other serious issues. We decided to take this matter into our own hands, and started our own organization that would focus on the real important matters, the schools, kids and the volunteers experience.
Please give us a short summary of your website, business model, etc
We are a small, community-based organization in Thailand, with the aim of bringing English to the children of under-funded government schools in our local area. We want volunteers to come to Thailand and interact with the children in order to; improve their English skills, remove their fears of speaking to people of other nationalities and show them all the opportunities that are available to them. Our organization also stresses creative thinking and imagination. We want to the volunteers to create a fun learning environment that encourages the children to reach for every possibility. Volunteers will be living and working within the community, experiencing Thai culture and working with the local people, to bridge gaps between perceptions and differences. If anyone is interested please check us out at www.tmvolunteers.org.
What has been the most difficult part of creating and running your website?
The most difficult part of running our website would have to be the promotion. As a small organization with little funding and resources, we do not have the money to pay to have our site (www.tmvolunteers.org) named everywhere. That is why we thank those like you, for helping out 'the little guy'.
What has been the easist part of operating your website?
The easiest part of operating our website would be replying to the people who have seen our website and are interested. We just have trouble getting people to our website.
What was your biggest mistake?
Our biggest mistake was in the beginning when we started thinking too big, too fast. We realize now that we must get ourselves established first, before we start expanding.
Who maintains your website and why?
Up until now our website and has been maintained by the two us web-designing beginners. We have recently been offered some technical support from some Thai friends who are currently working on improving the image of our web page.
Tell us how your business has benefitted from your website?
Since we are an international volunteer organization, our website, www.tmvolunteers.org, is our first and only way to get our name out there. Once we are more established we will also be able to rely on word-of-mouth.
What are your views on ecommerce and the future of the internet?
We believe the Internet is the future of all communication. It already plays a huge part in connecting the world, and it will only grow bigger.
What are your views on Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
We have been reading about SEO for months and are still trying to apply some of the techniques we have read about. As I mentioned earlier, we are tech beginners and it is a slow process.
What are your views on Search Engines? Have they helped or hindered your website?
Search engines have definitely helped bring traffic to our site, but they have also confused us with all the different requirements for each one.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
The most successful aspect of promoting our website have been search engines and additions to blogs and forums.
What method has been least successful for promoting your website?
We have been having problems getting our link on other people's pages.
What would you like to see change with respect to the internet?
I guess we would like to change our understanding of the Internet, we can not get enough reliable information.
We would like to know other people's opinions on what would make them choose one volunteer organization over another?
We feel that personal aspect of our volunteer organization is the best thing about us, and makes us different from the larger organizations. We want to know what other people look at when choosing an organizations. Help us, help the kids.
What is your website address?
Thai Mueang Volunteers
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