We have revised the fee structure for bookings that come through our iFrame.

Why the change?

• We are always eager to get feedback from training providers using our services. A consistent message was our 10% commission was acceptable for new business but not for existing business coming from the training providers own websites.
• Our revised pricing structure has been welcomed by training providers using our iFrame and we hope it encourages more training providers to use it.

An example of a training provider using the iFrame can be seen here: iFrame use example

The lower fee also applies to people booking courses using the courses webpage link we give providers in the Course Advertising control panel. See image below:

This link can be used in the providers own marketing campaigns to make it easy for people to book places on a course.

It has been a very very busy couple of weeks and rather than try and cram it all into an email shot I have decided to write a longer article to help get into the detail of what has been going on.

PayPal and LeWeb ‘09

The BIG news is PayPal were so impressed with the work we have done with their new Adaptive Payments system (which lets customers pay the providers directly) last Friday they asked us to go with them to LeWeb in Paris on the 9th & 10th December to showcase the booking system on their stand. This is one of the biggest I.T. events in Europe and will give great exposure to the websites and all the training providers that are signed up to them.

PayPal did require us to make some small changes to the website, details of which can be found below.

New Features

• Bug Fixes - A number of bugs in the website have been fixed, thank you for those of you who have contacted us to tell us something is not working. It really helps us.
• Attach your own document to a Course Type - This allows you complete freedom in setting out what is involved in your course. This document can be downloaded by any visitors to the website looking to book a course.
• ‘What’s New’ – The booking sites now have a ‘What’s New’ section which displays Training Providers that have signed up and also new courses that have been published. It is a very basic system which just rotates through a list, any courses that you add and publish will be be put in the list and displayed at some point.
• Invoices – On your organisation details tab there is a link directly to our accounting package so you can see the balance of your account with Skillbook.
• Updated Terms & Conditions - During the review of the booking system, PayPal requested use to make a number of changes to improve the clarity of everyone’s role in the process. This has lead to us requiring providers to agree to a new Terms & Conditions before they are able to use the Course Management features.
• ‘Remember Me’ at login, you can now check a box so that the website remembers your login.
• Course Templates, rather than having to re-type the same details when creating a course you can do it once and make that course a template. Next time you want to create a course with those details you can select it from the ‘Template’ dropdown box.
• Unpublish a course, it is now possible to ‘Unpublish’ a course so that dates and venues can be changed. This can only happen if a course has no bookings on it.

Looking to 2010

We have invested heavily in the development of the websites in the last year and massive progress has been made with them although we do recognise there is always room for more improvement. There are still a number of features that we are going to add but our focus is going to switch to creating and executing an effective marketing campaign to get purchasers using the website. We will send out more information over the next few weeks about this.

Thank you to all the providers who are using the website and we look forward to brining you more business as our websites become more well know.

As of the 1st January 2010 we will require training providers to have a PayPal Business account to enable our booking websites to accept online payment for your bookings.

If you do not have a PayPal Business account please Signup for free using this link

Once you have an account you need to enter your PayPal email address in your organisation's profile in the Safety Training Network website.

Why the change?

It will allow the customer to pay the training provider directly which better for everyone involved.
1) You get your money immediately
2) It is clear to the Customer that they are training provider’s client
3) It shows that our service is only facilitating the booking

Why PayPal?

We looked at a wide range of payment services before deciding to use PayPal. Some of the reasons we decided on are as follows:
1) They are one of the leading online payment services
2) They have very competitive charges
3) They have excellent fraud detection systems
4) They offer advanced website integration services, enabling us to create a better customer experience.

iFrame setup tutorial

See the iFrame in action

What does the iFrame do?

The iFrame allows training organisations to have a little piece of code to put on their website, which acts as a portal between your site and our booking sites. The iFrame will list all the courses you have currently published to the booking sites, allowing the general public to easily book onto one of your listed courses. There is no maintenance involved, once you have it up and running it will automatically show courses you have published via Safety Training Network.

What are the benefits of the iFrame?

•    The iFrame is an easy way of enabling online bookings for visitors to your website.
•    Any places booked via our booking sites will automatically update the number of available places showing in STN, so there is no need to update this yourself.
•    Having up-to-date course information and a link to book places on the course shown on your website will increase the usefulness to your visitors, increase the level of traffic visiting your website, which in turn should convert into more bookings.

Signup Guide:

Download (6.9Mb)

Online Bookings Guide:

Download(1.7Mb)

Networking & Portfolio management:

Download(4.8Mb)

Storyboard Cartoon:

Download(2.0Mb)

iFrame Guide:

Download(1.4Mb)

Business Pro Guide:

Download(5.4Mb)

When you registered on the Safety Training Network website you are assigned a unique Id.

This looks something like this: STNCWCVL88

You can find out what your STN Id is by looking at your Personal Profile page and if you have registered an organisation you can look at your Organisation Details page.

This Id is then used by various services on the website. For example your own personal page is identified by this id:

http://www.safetytrainingnetwork.co.uk/organisation/STNCWCVL88

If you purchase a Business Pro subscription for your organisation you can customise this Id so it can better reflect your brand

http://www.safetytrainingnetwork.co.uk/organisation/Medicot