It is that time of month again! Below are the stats for the month of February 2008.
HOAInTouch.com is now helping 63 communities (+40%) in 62 zip codes (+37.78%) and 23 states (+43.75%) communicate more effectively with their residents and neighbors! We have also had zip code searches from 43 different states (+7.5%).
Applications Statistics:
Number of users: 161 (+26.77%)
Number of contacts: 230 (+29.94%)
Number of groups: 26 (+13.04%)
Number of news posts: 118 (+31.11%)
Number of community events: 145 (+36.79%)
Number of documents: 181 (+2.84%)
Traffic Statistics from Google Analytics:
Visits: 822 (+68.10%)
Unique Visitors: 600 (+80.18%)
Page Views: 3,175 (-0.19%)
Pages / Visit: 3.86 (-40.62%)
Time on Site: 3: 53 (-9.97%)
We continue to experience tremendous growth in our user base (+26.77%) and communities are really utilizing the community news (+31.11%) and events (+36.79%) features. We are very pleased with these growth numbers especially considering we are focused on local markets which are inherently more difficult to grow.
Not surprisingly, our site traffic isn’t necessarily following the same growth trend – and this is actually by design. When we set out to create HOAInTouch.com we didn’t want our users to have to constantly check and scour the website to stay informed. Who has time for that? Our goal was to enable them to stay current on the community without changing their current behavior.
This is why our Community News and Events features email the residents each time an item is posted. We include all the information in the email and also provide deep links directly to the content so they don’t need to login to view the news item in their browser or download the event to Microsoft Outlook.
Our visits (+68.10%) and unique visitors (+80.18%) growth supports that this is working. 80% growth in unique visitors is phenomenal and extremely exciting. More and more residents are finding the site useful and recommending it to their neighbors. We love to see this and added the Invite a Neighbor page last month to help spread the word.
Overall, February was a great month and considering it was only our third full month since we launched we are extremely pleased with our growth and how far we have come.
See you ‘round the neighborhood!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
February Statistics
Friday, February 22, 2008
Invite a Neighbor!
We had (another) small release last night in which we pushed out a new feature to the marketing site. You can now easily invite a friend, neighbor or board member to take a look at HOAInTouch.com.
Just click on the new Invite a Neighbor tab, enter their email address and click the Send button. Super simple. If desired you can also customize the message by modifying the text in the Message box.
This would also be a great way to invite your neighbors to sign up for HOAInTouch.com if your community is already setup!
Hope you find Invite a Neighbor useful! Thanks for stopping by and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!
Just click on the new Invite a Neighbor tab, enter their email address and click the Send button. Super simple. If desired you can also customize the message by modifying the text in the Message box.
This would also be a great way to invite your neighbors to sign up for HOAInTouch.com if your community is already setup!
Hope you find Invite a Neighbor useful! Thanks for stopping by and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Community Search Update
We had a small release last night fixing a couple minor annoyances and a small but important change to the Community Search results page.
Previously the only navigation option available on the results page was the Join Now! button. This was intentional and designed to streamline the sign up process.
Given the wide range of technical ability of our user base, we continually strive for maximum simplicity throughout HOAInTouch.com. Unless we absolutely have to provide multiple choices and/or navigation paths we choose not to in order to provide a more simple and intuitive interface.
For this reason we made the decision not to provide a link to the community website on the search results page. We feared that members of our communities that are less technically adept might be thrown off by this and have difficulty completing the registration process.
With that said, we have had a surprising number of requests to allow users to preview their community website before registering so we changed the name of the community into a link to their website. This link opens in a new browser window so that users can easily complete the signup process when finished with the preview. A screenshot of the change is provided below.
This change will also allow users already registered that have forgotten or lost the web address to their community to easily view their community website without signing in.
We strove to provide a balance between simplicity/intuitiveness and usability. I think we succeeded and hope you agree. Let us know what you think and keep the feedback coming – we are listening!
Thanks and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!
Previously the only navigation option available on the results page was the Join Now! button. This was intentional and designed to streamline the sign up process.
Given the wide range of technical ability of our user base, we continually strive for maximum simplicity throughout HOAInTouch.com. Unless we absolutely have to provide multiple choices and/or navigation paths we choose not to in order to provide a more simple and intuitive interface.
For this reason we made the decision not to provide a link to the community website on the search results page. We feared that members of our communities that are less technically adept might be thrown off by this and have difficulty completing the registration process.
With that said, we have had a surprising number of requests to allow users to preview their community website before registering so we changed the name of the community into a link to their website. This link opens in a new browser window so that users can easily complete the signup process when finished with the preview. A screenshot of the change is provided below.
This change will also allow users already registered that have forgotten or lost the web address to their community to easily view their community website without signing in.
We strove to provide a balance between simplicity/intuitiveness and usability. I think we succeeded and hope you agree. Let us know what you think and keep the feedback coming – we are listening!
Thanks and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Community Events
Today I would like to take a few minutes and examine the Community Events feature of HOAInTouch.com.
Community Events was the second feature we implemented in HOAInTouch.com (right after Community News) primarily because we knew how badly our own HOA needed it. Frequently there would be flyers for events posted on mailboxs that would either get:
1. Ripped off by the wind and litter the neighborhood or
2. Rained on, become illegible and look terrible.
Even if someone was able to read the flyer they rarely remembered to write it down once they made it back inside. Bottom line is the flyers weren't an effective tool in informing the neighborhood or getting the community engaged.
With these challenges in mind we went to work creating the Community Events feature. As always, our goal was to create a system that was simple and intuitive enough for anyone to use but useful enough to fulfill the goal of informing the neighborhood and increasing participation.
Viewing an event
When you view the dashboard for your community the next five community events are listed on the right hand side. You can also click the Calendar tab at the top of the page to view your upcoming community events.
From the calendar screen only the name of the event, location and partial description are visible. To view the event details user’s can either click the name of the event or the details link at the bottom.
In the event details page users are able to view all of the event information (event name, start date/time, end date/time, location and description), as well as add a comment (a great way to RSVP) or download the event to their local calendaring application (i.e. Microsoft Outlook) and set a reminder.
Adding an event
Adding an event is super simple and is much like adding an event to Microsoft Outlook or other calendaring application. Simply enter the name of the event, the start date / time, the end date / time, the location of the event and a short description. If it is an all day event (i.e. a holiday, garage sale, trash pickup, etc.) simply check the Add Day Event box.
Editing/Delete an event
If the user is authorized to edit an event, an edit link provided below the event description on the Calendar page.
The edit event page is almost exactly the same as the Add Event page with the exception of a Delete button. To delete the event simply click the Delete button and then click Yes when asked to confirm.
Event Notifications
When a community event is added to the system an email is sent to all users in the neighborhood that are subscribed to receive updates. This is a great feature because it enables users to stay informed without having to constantly remember to check the website. Instead they stay informed simply by checking their email – just like they already do every day.
By making it so easy for residents to stay in touch with the community you can increase community participation dramatically. Really that is what HOAInTouch.com is all about. Leveraging technology to increase communication and build a sense community in your neighborhood.
Thanks and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!
Community Events was the second feature we implemented in HOAInTouch.com (right after Community News) primarily because we knew how badly our own HOA needed it. Frequently there would be flyers for events posted on mailboxs that would either get:
1. Ripped off by the wind and litter the neighborhood or
2. Rained on, become illegible and look terrible.
Even if someone was able to read the flyer they rarely remembered to write it down once they made it back inside. Bottom line is the flyers weren't an effective tool in informing the neighborhood or getting the community engaged.
With these challenges in mind we went to work creating the Community Events feature. As always, our goal was to create a system that was simple and intuitive enough for anyone to use but useful enough to fulfill the goal of informing the neighborhood and increasing participation.
Viewing an event
When you view the dashboard for your community the next five community events are listed on the right hand side. You can also click the Calendar tab at the top of the page to view your upcoming community events.
From the calendar screen only the name of the event, location and partial description are visible. To view the event details user’s can either click the name of the event or the details link at the bottom.
In the event details page users are able to view all of the event information (event name, start date/time, end date/time, location and description), as well as add a comment (a great way to RSVP) or download the event to their local calendaring application (i.e. Microsoft Outlook) and set a reminder.
Adding an event
Adding an event is super simple and is much like adding an event to Microsoft Outlook or other calendaring application. Simply enter the name of the event, the start date / time, the end date / time, the location of the event and a short description. If it is an all day event (i.e. a holiday, garage sale, trash pickup, etc.) simply check the Add Day Event box.
Editing/Delete an event
If the user is authorized to edit an event, an edit link provided below the event description on the Calendar page.
The edit event page is almost exactly the same as the Add Event page with the exception of a Delete button. To delete the event simply click the Delete button and then click Yes when asked to confirm.
Event Notifications
When a community event is added to the system an email is sent to all users in the neighborhood that are subscribed to receive updates. This is a great feature because it enables users to stay informed without having to constantly remember to check the website. Instead they stay informed simply by checking their email – just like they already do every day.
By making it so easy for residents to stay in touch with the community you can increase community participation dramatically. Really that is what HOAInTouch.com is all about. Leveraging technology to increase communication and build a sense community in your neighborhood.
Thanks and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!
Monday, February 18, 2008
New Email Templates
Over the last few weeks you may have noticed a change in the emails recieved from HOAInTouch.com. Earlier this month we made quite a few updates to the templates we were using. The new templates are much, much cleaner and do a better job of drawing the focus where it needs to be - on the information about your community.
With the new templates we also provide more information. For example, the news and events notifications now include links to view the content in your browser or add comments. Also, the event notification now includes the date and location of the event as well as a link to add the event to your calendar.
Finally, we also updated the forgot password template. Previously this email created confusion for some users because the period ending the sentence occurred immediately after the new password. While gramatically correct, this caused some users to be unsure if the period was to be included as a part of the password or not. Now, the password is clearly set apart and should be much easier to use.
We worked hard to improve the usability of the emails and hope you like the new templates. Feel free to drop us a note and let us know what you think. Thanks and we will see you 'round the neighborhood!
With the new templates we also provide more information. For example, the news and events notifications now include links to view the content in your browser or add comments. Also, the event notification now includes the date and location of the event as well as a link to add the event to your calendar.
Finally, we also updated the forgot password template. Previously this email created confusion for some users because the period ending the sentence occurred immediately after the new password. While gramatically correct, this caused some users to be unsure if the period was to be included as a part of the password or not. Now, the password is clearly set apart and should be much easier to use.
We worked hard to improve the usability of the emails and hope you like the new templates. Feel free to drop us a note and let us know what you think. Thanks and we will see you 'round the neighborhood!
Friday, February 1, 2008
New Comment Notifications
Last night we released a new feature for HOAInTouch.com - new comment notifications. Now when a new comment is added to a news post or community event the author and any users that have added comments will receive an email notifying them that a new comment has been added.
Previously users had to remember to continually check the site to see if anyone had added comments which was a royal pain and not really conducive to facilitating communication. Hopefully these changes will provide a better means to engage the community. Let us know what you think!
Thanks and we will see you 'round the neighborhood!
Previously users had to remember to continually check the site to see if anyone had added comments which was a royal pain and not really conducive to facilitating communication. Hopefully these changes will provide a better means to engage the community. Let us know what you think!
Thanks and we will see you 'round the neighborhood!
January 2008 Stats
Quick stats update for the month of January 2008.
HOAInTouch.com now has 45 communities in 44 zip codes and 16 states! Angie has been pulling together a spreadsheet containing all of the different cities and states that we have communities in and/or have searched with their zip code. It is really interesting to see where all of the searches are coming from. From Alaska to Texas and Maine to Hawaii, HOAInTouch.com has had a zip code search from 40 different states so far. We will let you know once we have hit them all.
Now on to the stats.
- Number of users: 127 (+35%)
- Number of contacts: 177 (+42%)
- Number of groups: 23 (No change)
- Number of news posts: 90 (+50%)
- Number of community events: 106 (+125%)
- Number of documents: 176 (+107%)
And from Google Analytics
- Visits: 489 (-38%)
- Unique Visitors: 333 (-42%)
- Page Views: 3,181 (-33%)
- Pages/Visit: 6.51 (+8.92%)
- Time on Site: 4:19 (+30%)
First the good news. Community Events and the Document Library are taking off in a big way with both experiencing over 100% month over month growth. WOW! This is really exciting to see and hopefully it continues. Also of note, the average time on site increased by 30% which is also encouraging.
Visits and page views, on the other hand, went entirely in the wrong direction. However, it isn’t really as bad as it seems and was entirely expected. For one week in December we tried advertising on StumbleUpon and, while it certainly generated the traffic we expected, that traffic didn’t translate into new communities so we have pulled it – for now anyway.
Thanks to everyone for all of their interest and support. We finished 2007 building some great momentum and I am really looking forward to what 2008 will bring us!
See you ‘round the neighborhood!
More For Less
When we launched HOAInTouch.com a little over two months ago we started with an admittedly limited scope of understanding in terms of the varying sizes and types of homeowners associations. HOAInTouch.com really grew out of the recognition of problems our HOA - and similar HOAs in our area - were experiencing coupled with the lack of a viable solution in the market. We knew that if HOAs in our area were experiencing these issues then maybe we had an opportunity to help others around the country.
Two months later and nearly 50 communities strong we have come to recognize that, while there are literally tens of thousands of associations actively looking for a solution to these shared issues, unfortunately our pricing structure put help out of reach for a number of these communities.
Several of the associations we have talked to have expressed that they absolutely love the product and believe it could be of great benefit to their community but that it was either too expense or the limitations too constraining (i.e. not enough users without upgrading to the Unlimited plan) to be a viable option.
After careful consideration we are extremely pleased and excited to announce that starting today HOAInTouch.com will provide much more for much, much less. Below are our new pricing plans and as you can see we have drastically reduced the monthly subscription rates while increasing the number of users and contacts. Please visit our pricing page for more information on each of these plans.
Free – Yep, still free.
· 25 Users
· 25 Contacts
· 1 Group/Committee
· 50 MB Document Storage
Basic - $19.99/month
· 50 Users
· 60 Contacts
· 3 Group/Committee
· 250 MB Document Storage
Standard - $29.99/month
· 100 Users
· 120 Contacts
· 5 Group/Committee
· 250 MB Document Storage
Premium - $39.99/month
· 200 Users
· 250 Contacts
· 10 Group/Committee
· 1 GB Document Storage
Unlimited - $49.99/month
· Unlimited Users
· Unlimited Contacts
· Unlimited Group/Committee
· 2 GB Document Storage
Our hope is that these changes will make HOAInTouch.com even more accessible to the communities that need it most. Of course, all of our existing communities will be migrated to the new pricing structure and will see the reduced rates on next month’s statement.
We sincerely appreciate your support and welcome your feedback. Feel free to let us know what you think of the new plans or what you think of HOAInTouch.com in general. We value your thoughts and enjoy getting the opportunity to know our users a bit better..
Thanks and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!
Two months later and nearly 50 communities strong we have come to recognize that, while there are literally tens of thousands of associations actively looking for a solution to these shared issues, unfortunately our pricing structure put help out of reach for a number of these communities.
Several of the associations we have talked to have expressed that they absolutely love the product and believe it could be of great benefit to their community but that it was either too expense or the limitations too constraining (i.e. not enough users without upgrading to the Unlimited plan) to be a viable option.
After careful consideration we are extremely pleased and excited to announce that starting today HOAInTouch.com will provide much more for much, much less. Below are our new pricing plans and as you can see we have drastically reduced the monthly subscription rates while increasing the number of users and contacts. Please visit our pricing page for more information on each of these plans.
Free – Yep, still free.
· 25 Users
· 25 Contacts
· 1 Group/Committee
· 50 MB Document Storage
Basic - $19.99/month
· 50 Users
· 60 Contacts
· 3 Group/Committee
· 250 MB Document Storage
Standard - $29.99/month
· 100 Users
· 120 Contacts
· 5 Group/Committee
· 250 MB Document Storage
Premium - $39.99/month
· 200 Users
· 250 Contacts
· 10 Group/Committee
· 1 GB Document Storage
Unlimited - $49.99/month
· Unlimited Users
· Unlimited Contacts
· Unlimited Group/Committee
· 2 GB Document Storage
Our hope is that these changes will make HOAInTouch.com even more accessible to the communities that need it most. Of course, all of our existing communities will be migrated to the new pricing structure and will see the reduced rates on next month’s statement.
We sincerely appreciate your support and welcome your feedback. Feel free to let us know what you think of the new plans or what you think of HOAInTouch.com in general. We value your thoughts and enjoy getting the opportunity to know our users a bit better..
Thanks and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!
Friday, January 11, 2008
Small Release
We had a small release tonight that included a number of minor changes.
One of the more noticeable changes was a redesign of the tour page. Previously the tour page was just a long list of features with a short description for each one with some of the key features (i.e. Community News) including a short video. It wasn’t horrible but there were a number of things we didn’t like about this page and wanted to remedy.
So we decided to completely redesign it and I am really please with the way it turned out.
The tour page now presents each feature one at a time. This allows the potential customer to focus and really absorb the information instead of all of the features screaming for attention. This new design also provided us with a bit more room to describe the features in better detail and the page loads faster since we don’t have to present all the information at the same time. Plus the animation of the descriptions sliding in as you click on each feature is just plain sexy.
We have also been getting a LOT of feedback from our neighbors on how much they love the site. We didn’t want to keep all the kind words to ourselves so we rolled out a new Buzz page for some of the testimonials. We are always humbled to receive these compliments and it is really rewarding to hear how useful people are finding the site. Keep ‘em coming and we will continue too add them to our Buzz page.
Thanks and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!
One of the more noticeable changes was a redesign of the tour page. Previously the tour page was just a long list of features with a short description for each one with some of the key features (i.e. Community News) including a short video. It wasn’t horrible but there were a number of things we didn’t like about this page and wanted to remedy.
- For one, it contained so much stuff it was a bit intimidating. There was way to much information competing for the users attention.
- Also, since we crammed all of the features on to one page we didn’t have much room to elaborate. This resulted in many of the feature descriptions not really being all that descriptive.
- Some of our newest features, like the Groups & Committees and Document Library, were absent from the list.
- Frankly, it was a tad boring. Don’t get me wrong, it accomplished what it needed to but just barely.
So we decided to completely redesign it and I am really please with the way it turned out.
The tour page now presents each feature one at a time. This allows the potential customer to focus and really absorb the information instead of all of the features screaming for attention. This new design also provided us with a bit more room to describe the features in better detail and the page loads faster since we don’t have to present all the information at the same time. Plus the animation of the descriptions sliding in as you click on each feature is just plain sexy.
We have also been getting a LOT of feedback from our neighbors on how much they love the site. We didn’t want to keep all the kind words to ourselves so we rolled out a new Buzz page for some of the testimonials. We are always humbled to receive these compliments and it is really rewarding to hear how useful people are finding the site. Keep ‘em coming and we will continue too add them to our Buzz page.
Thanks and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Why Does My HOA Need A Website?
When talking to prospective communities during the sales cycle we sometimes get the question “Why does my HOA need a website?”.
The first couple times I fielded this question I was taken aback a bit because, to me, it just seemed so glaringly self evident that a community website was the solution to so many problems associations often encounter.
In my attempt to answer, I stumbled around a bit talking about all the great features in HOAInTouch.com and all of the specific issues it is meant to resolve. While all true and somewhat helpful to the conversation, after fielding this question a few times I came to the realization that speaking to specific features and issues really just clouds the discussion.
The reality is the essence of nearly any issue your HOA faces boils down to communication. The truth is your HOA doesn’t need a website. It needs a better way to communicate - a better way to bring people and information together.
Today's communities really need a better way to connect with neighbors and disseminate information. We think HOAInTouch.com is simply the best means to that end. Try us out and we think you will agree.
Thanks and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!
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