New Face of NACHI's Web Site!!

[Nick Gromicko]

It is a good idea. www.nachi.org/8th.htm is basically going to follow Mark's advice.

[Harry F. Johnson, II]

As a new member of NACHI, I must say that the website had a lot to do with my decision. I have done a lot of research. I have been to the other sites. I must admit that at first I did not understand NACHI's site. I wondered why NACHI's site was not like the rest. The more I looked and investigated, the more I returned to NACHI. The amount of information that is on this site can be overwhelming. With that said, being overwhelmed lead me to my decision.
NACHI members are not like the rest!
Why should the website be?

[jmichalski]

Except that the last 3 paragraphs of your post #13 go on to explain that it won't follow Mark's advice (the entire point of which is to make it something useful for and attractive to consumers).

[jmichalski]

Harry,

You are a good example of Mark's real point. You - an INSPECTOR - kept returning. The info is useful to you (and likely the price and ease of start up were also appealing). Everything about it is and always has been geared to attracting new members.

That is not a bad thing, after all, we are all here, so at one point or another that worked to build the org. And the org is not in business to attract consumers, it is in business to attract new ispectors to join.

Mark's point was that since so much was made of capping membership (I guess we don't need any more) and since the site is being changed, now is a good time to consider a change in focus t make this site more consumer-oriented. To offer info that is helpful to consumers and will cause them to return to the site the way you did.

This has been discussed at length before, and there has been no interest shown in changing that focus,and post #13 indicates that there is no interest in it now.

Depending on your approach, I think it's neither good nor bad, it just is.

[Humberto Carvajal]

I agree with you 100% Joseph. Very well put.

[Mark R. Long]

Originally Posted by jmichalski

Harry,

You are a good example of Mark's real point. You - an INSPECTOR - kept returning. The info is useful to you (and likely the price and ease of start up were also appealing). Everything about it is and always has been geared to attracting new members.

That is not a bad thing, after all, we are all here, so at one point or another that worked to build the org. And the org is not in business to attract consumers, it is in business to attract new ispectors to join.

Mark's point was that since so much was made of capping membership (I guess we don't need any more) and since the site is being changed, now is a good time to consider a change in focus t make this site more consumer-oriented. To offer info that is helpful to consumers and will cause them to return to the site the way you did.

That is exactly my point!

[Mark R. Long]

Originally Posted by gromicko

www.nachi.org/8th.htm will be more of what you are looking for. We have no choice. Consumers are just about done reading text. The world has gone video and we can't fight this trend. Hence yesterday's http://www.nachi.org/commercials.htm thread.

The world is full of consumer oriented sites. I should know, I control over 4,500 of them made up of 624 million webpages. Now there are only 50 billion webpages in the world. Do your math to figure out what percentage of the world wide web is under our control. No one person or company has a larger chunk of the internet.

Can't we preserve just one sanctuary for home inspectors? A place where inspectors can do inspector stuff www.nachi.org/success.htm free of pop ups, sales pitches, message board moderators, flashy graphics and banner ads?

I understand your desire to exploit the equity in our 165 million hit/year site to generate sale leads... but we've resisted the temptation of cashing enormous check$ offered by industry vendors to sell out to them this long... please help me be strong and resist too.

I agree with you. NACHI.org is not very consumer, REALTOR, or vendor friendly... let's keep it that way. This is our home.

First of all, let me clearly and emphatically state that in no way shape or form was I, or am I suggesting that we put pop ups, banner ads or sales pitches, etc. on the web site. I'm not sure where that came from. I hate those things with a passion. And no, I don't want you to sell out to vendors, either. I wasn't suggesting that at all.

All that I'm suggesting is, that in the process of creating the 8th wonder of the world web site, http://www.nachi.org/8th.htm , that some time is taken to re-think our Homepage, our front image, the face shown to the world at large.

Again, I'm not trying to promote ASHI as an organization (I chose to join NACHI, overall I like what NACHI has to offer, and I plan to stay with NACHI), but I personally like the image that ASHI projects on it's home page http://www.ashi.org/. Particularly if I put myself in the eyes/mind of a home/buyer/seller/homeowner, any potential user of home inspection services, I think that it far and away is more visually appealing and easier to navigate than NACHI's.

ASHI's front page is much "cleaner" concise and to the point. It immediately, clearly and concisely explains what ASHI is about and then promotes the hiring of ASHI inspectors. There are three clear distinct areas for the folks most likely to be looking at the site, HomeBuyers/Sellers, Real Estate Professionals and for the Home Inspection Profession.

As for your desire to retain a sanctuary for we home inspectors, I believe that can be easily accomplished by just keeping all that we inspectors have grown to love about NACHI's site within the Home Inspector button or within the Member's Log-in button, or in other various links. With a click, we can enter our sanctuary.

As for the Commercials http://www.nachi.org/commercials.htm that NACHI is now producing, I think that's great! It's a wonderful benefit for we inspectors! I wholeheartedly agree that many consumers prefer video over text. Real video can show and demonstate much more effectively than just plain test. Of course the commercials should be an integral part of NACHI's site as well as other individual inspector's sites. Again, back to ASHI's site as an example, the videos could and should take a prominent position of the NACHI Homepage, such as ASHI's virtual house tour now does on theirs.

Now, as for your position Nick, that you have no desire to make NACHI.org consumer friendly, "I agree with you. NACHI.org is not very consumer, REALTOR, or vendor friendly... let's keep it that way.", well I suppose I just don't understand that position. (Again, I don't want it to be vendor friendly, either).

As I pointed out above, I think that we can retain it as a home and sanctuary for home inspectors while at the same time making it just a little more visually appealing to home buyer/sellers, and even to Realtors. We already have this massive gorilla of a web site, why not fully utilize it to help promote the NACHI brand (or interNACHI brand) and along with it NACHI inspectors. I think that we can have our cake and eat it too.

As for your premise that because you own 4,500 different web sites we can keep NACHI.org just for we inspectors, I'm not sure that I buy that. When I do a google and/or yahoo search for Home Inspection or Home Inspector, it's http://www.nachi.org that comes up first, not one of the other 4,500 web sites. Again, why not make the most of that for promoting NACHI and we NACHI inspectors.

Now, if it's just a bit disconcerting or even rankling that I'm using http://www.ashi.org/ as an example of an image that I like, lets take a look at AboutNACHI . This comes close to what I'm talking about, (although I still prefer the layout of ASHI's site homepage). AboutNachi presumably was created primarily for the general consumer public, Home Buyers/Sellers and Real Estate agents. The problem is, as I see it, AboutNachi doesn't come up prominently on web searches, but NACHI.org does.

Why not take something like the homepage/face of AboutNachi and transpose it onto http://www.nachi.org, or the new http://www.nachi.org/8th.htm . You'd have a prominent focus for Home Buyers/Sellers, a spot for Realtors and the buttom for we Home Inspectors to click on to enter our Sanctuary. It's a win-win-win scenario in my humble opinion. I'd be happy with that! (Although, I'd prefer if the prominent photo of the geeky looking guy on the front be changed to perhaps a family picture ).
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[Mark R. Long]

Originally Posted by gromicko

It is a good idea. www.nachi.org/8th.htm is basically going to follow Mark's advice.

Then my work here is done!

[cgoyette]

The home page should get a face lift for the general public but the page as it is works well for US (Home Inspectors).


How about a home page for NACHI members? After you log in you get OUR stuff!


Curt

[Mark R. Long]

Originally Posted by mlong

Then my work here is done!

Well, actually, I decided that my work wasn't quite done!

See http://www.nachi.org/forum/f11/new-face-international-association-certified-home-inspectors-org-20459/ .