TOPS Home E-Zine

Issue #2 - January 2002

Inside TOPS Home:

1. TOPS Announcements: Monthly E-Zine
2. This Month on Special: The Cost Breakdown
3. Support: Adding Multimedia Files to Your Web Site 
4. Support: Address Book Search Tip
5. Features: Classified Ads
6. Helping to Overcome the Tragedy
7. Attachment: Vendor Forms and Suggestions

Monthly E-Zine

Welcome to the second edition of the TOPS Home monthly web site e-zine.  Our first edition was a great success.  I received many phone calls and emails requesting more information, as well as some suggestions for future e-zines.  Consequently, I thought it a good idea to invite everyone who receives this to email me at websales@topssoft.com with any questions, concerns or suggestions regarding this monthly e-zine, or any other aspect of the web site features.  Again, I appreciate the response I received from last month’s e-zine, and look forward to hearing from you.  Thank you for your continued support and interest in improving our services to you.

The Cost Breakdown

 “Do you think money just grows on trees?” is a question my father used to always ask. I now realize that if it does grow on trees, there are no money trees in this area. So we have to figure out other ways to pay for things. Let me give you a few scenarios on how to pay for a TOPS Community Web Site. 

The question is how can a management company sell these web sites to homeowner’s? Well, there are a few different ways to accomplish this. The least popular is to endure the costs without passing it to the homeowner’s. This way you have complete control of the web site and can offset the cost by selling classified ads.

Another way to pay for these sites is to pass the charge to the homeowner’s. Let’s take a small community with 100 units and figure out what the cost would be per home. A web site at $60.00 per month would cost each homeowner 2 quarters and a dime per month totaling $7.20 for the whole year. I can’t think of any other service this inexpensive that gives you so much!

The third and most profitable way for a management company is to up-charge the residents. Let’s take the same 100-unit association and give them a $60.00 web site for $100.00, which is $40.00 profit to the management company.  It comes out to be 1 dollar per month per homeowner or 12 dollars a year. The total profit to the management company for one association is $480.00 per year. Multiply that by 10 or 25 associations and your making $12,000.00 a year! Who needs a money tree when you ’ve got a money-making web site.

Adding Multimedia Files to Your Web Site

One fun effect that you can add to your web site is a downloadable sound or movie file. These are great for messages from the chairman of the board, meeting recordings, musical snippets, and more. You may add any kind of multimedia files, such as WAV, MP3, MID, QT, RAM, MOV, AVI or WMA. WAV or AVI files are the most universal, and therefore least likely to require an extra download or plug in. To add sound files to your website, perform the following steps:

 

1. Select the module you wish to upload the sound file to (such as Documents, or make a custom module such as Sound Bites).
2. Select or add the category you wish the sound file to be placed in.
3. Click Edit Documents in Category.
4. Click Add.
5. Enter a description of the sound file.
6. Select a document type (you must choose a type, although this only affects the display icon, and not the actual file type. I chose ‘text file’ for a more generic icon image.)
7. Click Browse, locate and select the sound file on your computer, and click Open.
8. Click Save New. Your sound file will now appear. To hear it, owners simply need to click on it, and the browser will perform the appropriate action.

NOTE: While WAV and AVI files are the most universal, they also have no compression, which means they tend to be extremely large in file size. If you have a long sound clip, you should look into an alternative format such as Real Audio (RAM) or MPEG (MPG, MP3).

Address Book Search Tip

When using the address book search function to search for a value containing an apostrophe character, such as O’Malley or Prince’s Street, type a double quote (“) instead of the apostrophe (‘). This will cause the search engine to correctly filter in the apostrophe character, and you will not receive an error message.

Classified Ads

I think most everyone would agree that we always look for things to save us time and make us money.  For instance, we invented the remote control to alleviate the painstaking process of getting up to change the channel.  We have microwaves so we can eat on the run and the electric drill eases the strain of having to use a screwdriver.  Essentially, the more convenient something is and the more cost effective it is the better.  So to this list of handy tools I want to add the classified ads.  Simply put, classified ads are beneficial to everyone.  The residents get up-to-date information and possibly coupons from local businesses, local businesses get great exposure, and your company gets to charge a monthly fee to feature these advertisements.  To make it even easier, a shoppers classified ad only needs to be entered once.  It is stored on the web site and can be removed or added with the click of the mouse.  Everyone wins!  Click on this link, to download a “Dear Vendor” and “Vendor Ad Order Form” to solicit vendors to place an ad.

Helping to Overcome the Tragedy 

Since September 11, 2001, the lives of all of us were changed.  Even now, many Americans still work to help the survivors of the tragedy as well as the families of those that were lost.  One such organization that has been around for many years is the American Red Cross.  So, in honor of the men and women who lost their lives due to this tragedy and those who still work to help the survivors and their families, TOPS Software has decided to donate a portion of every community web site sold to the American Red Cross until December 31, 2001.  This means that you receive all of the benefits and features of our web sites and at the same time help in the aid of those who need it.  Through your support of TOPS Software, together we can help support those who need it most. 

This Month's Attachment

For some great tips on how to get vendors to advertise on your site check out this month's attachment.  This includes money making tips, statistics, quotes, and plenty of great ideas!  If you would like another copy or cannot download from this e-mail please contact me at websales@topssoft.com.  This attachment requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.  This program may be downloaded for free from www.adobe.com. 

 

Did you know that TOPS Software will provide you with a free community web site  CD demo?  Follow this link to apply for your free demo today!

 

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About the Authors

Matt Meiklejohn is your TOPS Community Web Site Sales Representative
Andrea Drennen is the Director of Publishing and Standards at TOPS Software

 

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