Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Changes To Pricing Plans

Moving forward with the changes we announced in the January newsletter, last night we released a number of updates to our pricing plans. As we discussed in the newsletter, we really struggled with this decision but, given the current economic conditions and general softness in the online advertising environment, feel it is necessary to ensure that we remain a viable service for our existing and future customers. With that said, we want to reassure you that we aren't going anywhere! These are preemptive changes we are making to ensure we will be able to weather this economic storm.

Last night we also released stronger moderation features for the Community News  and Events  modules as well as increased control over resident email notifications. Community administrators and content moderators now have complete control and final approval of news and events that are published to their HOA website. They also now have greater control over when residents receive email notifications.

Below are the new pricing plans as of 02/02/2008. The most significant changes were to the Free plan. If you are affected by these changes, we welcome you to continue to use the free service and have provided a special coupon code - UPGHOA01 - to save 50% off the first month should you choose to upgrade. However, if you feel that our service isn't a good fit for your community right now we certainly understand and hope you will keep us in mind if your needs change.

HOA Website Pricing Plans

*All paid pricing plans include content moderation and email notification features.

Ultimate Plan

  • Unlimited Residents
  • Unlimited Groups
  • 2GB Document Storage

Premium Plan

  • Up to 500 Residents
  • 10 Groups
  • 1GB Document Storage

Standard Plan

  • Up to 250 Residents
  • 5 Groups
  • 500MB Document Storage

Basic Plan

  • Up to 100 Residents
  • 3 Groups
  • 250MB Document Storage

We also still have the Free plan with up to 25 residents and 1 group but no document storage, email notifications or content moderation.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding these changes please feel free to contact me personally at mitch.rupp@rdcweb.com or by phone at 913.710.8103.

Thank you for your time and we truly appreciate your business.

Greater Control And Flexibility

Last night we released a number of changes that greatly increase the content moderation capabilities of our HOA websites.  Additionally these changes also provide community administrators and content moderators greater control over when residents are sent email notifications.

New Moderation Features

First let's look at the new moderation features. In the past, residents were able to post news and events directly to their HOA website. This was great because it removed barriers to getting them involved and helped to engage the community.

Unfortunately, it also enabled residents to email every other resident in the neighborhood without a filter. Needless to say, this made some HOA board members and property management companies nervous. 

Now residents are still able to add news and events but they are first routed though the community administrators  and moderators for approval. When residents post new items an email will be sent to administrators and content moderators notifying them that an item is pending their approval.

After following the link provided in the email notification, administrators and content moderators now have the opportunity to preview and edit news posts and community events prior to publishing them to the site. Once approved or "published" the items will then appear on the live HOA website

Optional Email Notifications

As administrators or moderators are approving the item they also have the opportunity to optionally notify residents of the news or events via email. Prior to yesterday this was the default behavior and there was no way to prevent the email notifications from being sent. We made these changes for two reasons.

First, not all news or events are important enough to interrupt the residents. Too much communication and residents become annoyed and start to tune it out. Not enough communication and residents are not engaged and participation declines.  Every community is different and we now enable you to find the right balance for your HOA website.

Secondly, these changes now allow administrators and content moderators to send residents email notifications when news or events are significantly edited. Previously, if a change was significant enough to warrant a new email notification the item would need to be deleted and the edited version re-posted as a new item.

We hope you enjoy the greater control you now have over resident email notifications and the content published on your HOA website. Both of these enhancements came directly from our feedback forum so please keep the ideas and votes coming. We are listening to you!

Thanks and we will see you 'round the neighborhood!