When a series of home and auto burglaries hit the community of Seven
Oaks, Florida, last summer, Andy Denbo of EdgeLineTech.com responded
by launching a new website, SevenOaksWatch. The site’s main focus was
to gather information, keep residents informed of crimes in the
neighborhood, and possibly to help establish a community Crime Watch
Patrol.
Revamped with a members-only login system to ensure its users’
privacy, the website took off — and soon grew into a full-fledged
multi-purpose community membership website: MySevenOaks.com.
The Crime Watch Patrol was a success as well, and Denbo’s company used
Wild Apricot tools to build a separate website to help Crime Watch
Patrol volunteers communicate and schedule events and patrol time.
Now, with 370+ members generating an average of 10,000 page views
per month, the success of MySevenOaks.com has served as the inspiration
for MyMeadowPointe.net, a similar membership site created to serve the nearby community of Meadow Pointe.
To learn more, we contacted Andy Denbo with questions —
How did you spread the word to residents of Seven Oaks and Meadow Pointe about their new community websites?
The site grew from a list of about 25 email addresses of neighbors,
all the way to our current list of over 500 members from both sites.
People like a consistently updated site; and using mass email updates
and community alerts, we gained an average of 4 members a day by word
of mouth. One of our Member Sign-Up fields asks the user, “How did you
hear about us?” Most reply that they heard from a friend at the
community pool or from a neighbor at a party. It also helped us to
discuss the site with our Community Associations as well; this was
another connection that led to our success with the sites.
What did residents tell you about what they want from a community website and how they want to use it?
Our company has a good deal of experience in designing Community
Websites already; we simply used our expertise and applied it with the
technology offered from Wild Apricot to make the site a success. We
also know that the residents appreciate a well-designed site layout,
which is why our company makes use of CSS and other coding to make a
fine-tuned “theme” that fits the community and the people who reside in
it.
Can you describe MySevenOaks.com in terms of its features (public
and private), and how those features are being used by members?
The site allows non-members to browse a Classifieds area, learn
about the site’s history, and join for a new membership. We find that
restricting almost all content to members only converts to more
sign-ups.
Once a member signs up, they have access to tons of great features
that our Edge Line Tech design team has put together — from 3D visual
tours of the community, to forums and polls.
Our most popular feature is our Crime Alerts. In an emergency
situation, time is of the essence. If you have a burglary at your
home, or a stolen item, or even a missing child or pet, the more people
who know about it, the better. Our emergency alert system can notify
every resident member of our site within seconds.
We can dispatch email alerts to all our members to inform them of
situations, or breaking news that affects local residents. Also, an
e-bulletin is automatically posted in the forum so that members can
reply with any relevant information. This system has been used several
times with great success.
All members are permitted to send out alerts, and the alerts can include pictures, video, and more!
Who updates and maintains your community websites?
Our company, EdgeLineTech.com, does all of the behind-the-scenes
work on the site so that the residents do not have to bother. We do
allow certain board members from the community associations and members
of the Crime Watch Patrol to access the pages from
an administrative point of view, giving them the ability to add
content. Most of the updates are done by us, however, and we update
the sites at least once per day.
What about the cost of these websites — how is that covered?
This was a trick, but we decided not charge for member access, but
to sell advertisement space on the site. Using some resouces of our
company, we developed a way to sell banner-style ads that range from
$45-$90 per month, which generates a profit for the design team.
Charging for member access significantly reduces the number of
willing participants and frustrates homeowners. The key to a good site
is enough ads to generate revenue, but not too many to annoy users.
How do residents of these communities benefit from the membership websites?
The residents LOVE the sites. We have residents who donate $25-$50
at a time in thanks for it! We feel we have brought a way for everyone
in the community to feel aware of their surroundings. They always know
the upcoming events, the latest news, trends, and what to look out for.
People like being in the loop, and that is what they are with our community sites.
Here are some quotes from residents via the comment card we send out:
“Feel as if it keeps me up to date on an crime activity or other
neighborhood activity that my family needs to be aware of. As well, I
feel more tied into the community because I feel as if I know what is
happening around the entire community.”
“Feel the speed in which criminal activity and suspicious
activity is communicated is outstanding. I have even implemented some
of the home protection recommendations mentioned on the site just to
ensure my familes safety. I think before I started getting info from
this site I was more naive about the criminal activity in and around
all neighborhoods. Now I am more aware of my surroundings and the
people in them, which I think just leads to being a proactive member of
a community.”
“Very informative and keeps things in perspective. A very
important website for those living here in Seven Oaks. People should be
involved, and get to know what is happening, and the website serves
that purpose.”