My head is spinning.....hardly know where to start....

[Frank DAngelo]

Hello all. I have not posted in quite awhile. I just returned from a 4 day H.I. Conference in Orlando, where I had the awesome privilege of meeting Dominic face to face. Dominic spoke on website optimization, the HIP software, etc.  It was great, but I came away feeling that while my home inspection skills and people skills are my long suit, I'm an Idiot when it comes to website stuff, etc.

I need a website. I have a few domain names saved through Go Daddy. I know the following things;

1) I want MY picture towards the top of the home page.
2) I want the navigation bar to be horizontal under the header. (None of HIP's themes seem to have this.... )
3) I want the cool "Text Me" feature in it.
4) I want Inspector Support Network and Recall check integration in it.
5) I want a local picture of my area in the header along with my picture, and a friendly dog with me too.
6) I want links to my business facebook, etc.
7) I want my logo prominent.
I want a "clean" modern look, not dark. (I REALLY like the inspection support network site, and Apple's site. )
9) I want it clean, simple, not cluttered.
10) I want to portray Professionalism, Trust, "I like this guy, he's who we want"
11) I want different pages, for radon, recall check, about me, Standards of Practice, Why you want a home inspection, etc.

Basically, all I know is that there is so much I don't know...

On top of this, I'm working on perhaps changing over from HomeGauge to using HIP....so I need to work a lot on customizing that. I think I can do that pretty well.....but I know that is a different forum..(sorry).

The conference was great. I learned what I want and what I don't want. Now I just have to learn how to make it happen.
If by chance I find it easier to build a site through GoDaddy, can it still be hosted by HIP...?  I'm sensing that to go with a company, be it GoDaddy, HIP, Ken Compton, etc you need to start with them.

I guess my question would be how much can I change one of HIP's templates, as I do not want it looking too "canned". Sorry for my long post....I'm just overtired and overwhelmed.
 
Thank you again Dominic......I learned so much.

Respectfully, Frank

[Dominic Maricic]

Hi Frank,

I'm glad you had a good time!


We only host sites that are created on our servers due to security issues. It's a huge job to maintain a server and make sure that any security issues are instantly handled at all times to prevent a breach. If we host sites outside our system we have to watch that too. To see the flexibility check out a few sites with the exactly same template that have been customized - http://www.vanguardhomeinspections.com/ http://www.queenshomeinspectorny.com/ and www.northlandhome.com (the default). There'stons of other examples, just click on the signature of inspectors here on the message boards.

Switching from HomeGauge to Home Inspector Pro is easy, just use our template converter!

[Frank DAngelo]

Thank you Dominic!

I will do more looking around at how much one can customize. I'm hoping I can ad MY picture, and a banner type picture on the top of my local cityscape instead of using the stock photos, etc. I do want to have you host my website, so I guess I just need to see if I can make my end product look like I want through customization.
Do you think after seeing my "wish list" it is do-able? I'm thinking it is.

I already started making my own custom template and saved it as "D'Angelo Template". I still have much more to finish it, so perhaps the magic converter tool is what I should use. I never heard of that. Not sure how I can take my template in homeguage on a windows computer and make a HIP template on a mac, but I'm guessing you might have a tutorial or a step by step instruction on how to do that.

When I re-opened HIP 3 today it first told me my trial expired, (after 2 days??),  but it still let me play with it after just clicking "ok". If possible, I want to do the conversation, migrate my HG comments and do an inspection with my own new customized template before I pay you for the upgrade from HIP2 to HIP3.

Sorry I missed you today. I was hoping to learn how to fix that batch photo thing on a Mac. I asked Michelle that if she saw you and if you were not busy to please pull me out of a session, as you were more important then any session.....but I'm sure she was busy and forgot.

Thank you for your helpful patience.  Respectfully, Frank

[Frank DAngelo]

As to the template converter, I'm thinking that since my Homeguage is only on my windows laptop, I would first need to load HIP3 on my windows laptop, try thre conversion, then somehow get that new template over onto my mac.

I'll probably schedule an appointment to get help on this, if possible. I'm guessing I'm not the first guy who wanted to convert from Homeguage on a windows laptop to HIP on a mac.....

Frank

[Dominic Maricic]

You can just email us the template too and we can help.

No, definitely not the first

[Frank DAngelo]

Thanks Dominic!  I just e-mailed you my most used HG template.

Thanks! Frank