You see these all the time on commercials or in print ads.  They are the www.dell.com/tv or www.sony.com/superbowl URLs that "big" companies use.  But they are very seldom used by chambers of commerce and business associations.

(note:  the links in this post are for examples only; they don’t really go anywhere)  J

These “shortcut" addresses can make it easy for your members to find information quickly.  Instead of directing a member to www.yourdomain.com/chamber/benefits/officedepot/signupform.htm you can send them to www.yourdomain.com/officedepot.   You can also set up subdomains like officedepot.yourdomain.com.

Your web master can easily set up directories and meta tag redirects to your landing pages. (there are some negatives to using meta tags, though.)  Or, your website host/domain administrator can set up a subdomain and tell the server where to direct traffic that types in that URL.

Use these shortcuts in your newsletter to drive traffic to your site....like, “for more information on the Office Depot discount program, go to www.yourdomain.com/officedepot.”  If you do this, though, make sure you actually have MORE information at the page listed.  There's nothing worse than reading an article in the newsletter, then going to the site to find "more" info, only to find the exact same article.

Use it for your Leadership program, your annual dinner, golf tournament, etc....anything where you need to get people to your site for a specific reason. "Buy tickets at www.yourdomain.com/dinner," etc.

If you place ads in local newspapers and business publications, drive people to "join today at www.yourdomain.com/publicationname.”  This implies that there is a special offer that can only be found at that page that could lead to new member sales. An added benefit is that you can track how many people typed in that exact URL or accessed a specific page using your website analytics program.  A note though: if you plan on tracking how many people typed in a page directly, then do not link to that page from other areas on your site.  This way you will know that "40 people visited our site after seeing our ad in the ABC newspaper." 

There are all kinds of uses for these shortcut addresses. They all make it easier for your members to use your website and find the information they are looking for. It can even help you improve member retention since members may receive more value from your website. And as more people use your site and find it valuable, you can find ways of increasing non-dues revenue from your website.  I have more ideas and examples than I could type here.  If you want to know more, feel free to email me at curt.moss@weblinkinternational.com.