If you haven’t downloaded our Hurricane Resource Guide yet, check it out at the AtHomeNet website and start creating an action plan for YOUR community today!

We have also created a new video about hurricane preparation hosted by our very own, Mike Curtis.  In the video, Mike will share with you how a community website can be the most helpful tool for communicating with your residents in the event that a hurricane affects your residents.

For more videos about AtHomeNet and our community websites, check out the AtHomeNet channel on YouTube!

Becky spending time with one of the seminar attendees.

As sponsors of the seminar, AtHomeNet’s Becky and Courtney interacted with various community members and enjoyed the lecture by Tim Sellers, the founding member of Sellers, Hinshaw, Ayers, Dortch and Lyons, P.A., based in Charlotte.  The goal of the seminar was to assist community board members in dealing with current and future issues within their communities.

While you prepare for the potential of a natural disaster and put action plans into place, you may also be concerned about how the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could come into play…

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has addressed these concerns with an informative fact sheet, Hurricanes and the Oil Spill.

While we hope a disaster never befalls your community and oil never washes up on the shores near your homes, we are committed to helping you prepare and providing unwavering support to you and your community in your time of need!

IS YOUR COMMUNITY PREPARED?

  To mark the beginning of hurricane season, AtHomeNet has created a resource guide containing a sample action plan, hurricane statistics and ways to efficiently communicate in the event of a hurricane or other natural disaster.

The guide is available on the AtHomeNet website and sent to areas commonly affected by these storms.  Each year from June 1 to November 30, coastal areas of the United States and nearby islands are forced to prepare for the potential of disaster.  Even though Hurricane Katrina devastated the southern US five years ago, the memory and the debt lingers.  This category 3 storm wreaked havoc on the Gulf coast causing billions of dollars in damage.

“We realized that there was a need in the community and association management industry for a communication guide that gave advice and information about preparing for hurricanes and other natural disasters,” noted Susan Sanders, CEO of AtHomeNet, Inc.  “Providing our clients with the tools they need to effectively communicate with their residents is our primary goal—this guide is an extension of that goal.”

The resource guide not only provides helpful tips, references and statistics, but showcases how a community’s website can be a comprehensive communication tool in the case of an emergency.  Community websites offer the ability to keep residents informed regardless of where they are, giving managers the ability to post status updates and photos, send email bulletins and other tools to provide up to the minute information and resources for their residents.

Download AtHomeNet’s Hurricane Resource Guide here:

http://www.AtHomeNet.com/Hurricane-Resource-Guide.asp

For more information, check us out online at http://www.athomenet.com/web-seminar.asp and sign up today!

Learn more about our FREE Administrator Training Course at http://www.athomenet.com/web-seminar.asp!

Did you know that we offer a FREE Administrator training course for new Admins?  Every Wednesday, we offer online training for our Administrators.  The course is instructed by an AtHomeNet Support Representative who works with our websites every day!

Using a demo website and internet conference software (WebEx), you can see how you can customize your community’s site while listening over the phone to the instructor.  The course lasts approximately one hour and is followed by a question and answer session, so you have the opportunity to learn even more about administrating your community or management company website.

To learn more about the Administrator Training course or to sign up, visit us online at http://www.AtHomeNet.com/Web-Seminar.asp! 

Courses are offered every Wednesday at 2pm EST and enrollment is limited, so sign up today!

Got questions?  Call us at 800.556.7852 or email Support@AtHomeNet.com!

If you’re not using the power of Search Engine Optimization on your website, your online marketing and visibility efforts may be falling short. Sure, there was a time when you were searching for a business or a service, or even a person, you’d flip through the phone book and put in a call. With the web being a one-stop shop for information as fast as it can show up on your screen, the ability to match information and websites to a person’s search or “search term” is what sits at the core of good online marketing, or to be technologically correct, Search Engine Optimization, or abbreviated, “SEO”.

In a nutshell, SEO is the active process of adding content on the front end (what visitors of your website see) and the backend (the source coding the internet’s site crawling technology reads) of your website designed to match your website’s content to the audience you are seeking…and vice versa.

It can range from adding the term “Free Peanuts in Atlanta” on a website operated by Planters, to making sure you have a link from your homepage to your “About Us” page. While internal linking, keyword insertion, content writing, and meta tag placement are all pieces to the larger SEO puzzle, a lot of SEO simply comes down to good writing skills and common sense.  A website that is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and has a clear path to what you want the visitor to do is a great foundation that will sit firmly at the base of good SEO.

To learn more about SEO and how it applies to community association websites, HOA websites, and management company websites, visit our website at http://www.athomenet.com/seo-help-center.asp and check out an introductory SEO Help video!

We started with a sit-down lunch and then jumped right into 4 tracks of 12 training courses on a variety of aspects of both the existing (A1) and the upcoming (Elite) AtHomeNet community and management company website service.  Classes covered topics for both the beginner and more advanced users as well as role-focused classes to help boards and committees as well as association managers.  

We were particularly happy to have one of our favorite speakers, Chip Yonkee, return for the 4th year in a row.  Chip is a client here in the Atlanta area and is the administrator of 4 AtHomeNet websites including one for his community, Tuxford HOA.  Chip is always a crowd favorite and does a great job of showing folks some neat things that he has done with his websites and some great lessons he has learned about how to get community buy-in and increase resident adoption of the website.  

For the first time this year we setup 3 “one-on-one” training stations that were staffed by some of our expert support folks so attendees could get some customized help, tips or training on any area of their particular website they wanted.  Finally, another new item this year was that we provided a 3-DVD “box set” to all attendees that had all 12 training classes pre-recorded so they could go back and watch any that they might have missed.  We had a few of the DVD sets left over and are selling them for $12.  If you are interested, click here.

Everyone from AtHomeNet had a great time meeting some of our clients and getting to talk with them face to face.  We already have some all new ideas for next year so if you didn’t make it this time, we hope to you see in 2009!

Each of the SME’s has created a class lasting between two and four hours. My class is all about community  web sites and how when used by a Community Association Manager they can be effective in reducing their workload at the same time as increasing communication to the owners.  My first class is September 20th -  I’ll let you know when registration opens so I’m not standing in front of room just talking to myself…after all, for once there really is such a thing as a free lunch, or at least a free continental breakfast along with some great education!

Today we officially started taking registrations for the AtHomeNet 2008 Training Camp.  Each year for the past 4 years we have invited our clients from all over the country to come spend a day with us learning and sharing.  We have educational sessions (12 this year) for everyone from brand new community website administrators to experienced pros who have been with us for years.  Lunch is included and you can meet and interact with other community website administrators as well as many of the AtHomeNet staff members (sorry, the security staff won’t be attending).   In addition to the group sessions, this year we will be adding some “one on one” booths where you can sit down with an AtHomeNet Support or Graphics Design expert and go over your website asking specific questions or getting suggestions on content, layout and graphics.

We always have a great time talking with clients at these events, many of whom we have never met face to face before so if you are a client we hope to see you there. (we even give away some nice gift certificates at the end)

The charge is $30 per person (all inclusive) and space is limited so if you are interested, click here to register to attend our training camp.

Here is a little video we did with some attendees at the 2007 Training Camp.