Stephan Dzur ⋅ Tempe, AZ Network Technologies International ⋅ 10 years experience

Hi Nicholas,

I signed in using the test username and password. When I clicked on your task list, and then clicked on the "back" button (on page, not browser) it threw "An error has occurred. Please try again or contact us for assistance." and loaded a login form in the frame.

I was able to browse to "Home" and then update the checklist successfully. One observation is that the text style (blue, underlined) for the section headings (MORNING LOGIN, EVENING LOGIN; screenshot: http://imgur.com/CQKNa) is normally used for URL's, and deceived me into thinking I could click on it. Maybe change the color, or remove the underline? Otherwise the checklist updated fine.

I really, really like the business idea as a whole. On the technical side, the site layout is pleasing and easy to navigate. There are glitches, but after rounding those up it should be a solid offering.

Keep up the good work.

Athan Tsakonas ⋅ Granbury, TX Energy Future Holdings ⋅ 16 years experience

I was looking for the checklist and other items and couldn't find them. I was unable to launch the video.
Your business should do well, I know many who could be helped by such treatment.
You can contact me at athan.tsakonas@luminant.com. I'd like to help you out.

Tim Hudak ⋅ Alexandria, VA U.S. Marine Corps, Sergeant ⋅ 5 years served

Nick,

I have a web and social media business. Contact me if you ever need any Facebook apps or things along that nature, I'd be happy to throw anything pro bono your way that I can and lend any advice. www.focasocial.com

Nicholas Grimaldi ⋅ Aldie, VA U.S. Air Force, Captain ⋅ 6 years served

Alan, thanks for your comments. I have a business plan/marketing plan for the NY Recovery Home (NYRH), but have not done one for Amity Connect. The NYRH has been in business for over a year and is an in-residence recovery home (www.recoveryhome.com). In becoming smart on the recovery business, I learned the 12 step process; the importance of a daily checklist; and the reliance of "workbooks" in recovery. I began thinking that all of this could be online and thus AmityConnect was born. The two businesses are separate for sure. But, we are hoping AmityConnect helps us grow the NYRH as well. Conversely, we started using AmityConnect with our clients at the NYRH.

As far as our business model, we will gain revenue from "group" memberships; advertisements; and affiliate sales. Group members are places like the NYRH... who have in-residence programs and want to give their clients an outpatient/aftercare solution. I have briefings and other materials discussing our marketing plan/break-even strategy elsewhere. The main focus I have here was just on the site itself, not the business aspects of AC. Needless to say however, your points are very well taken and I appreciate them.

Tim, we are on our 6th phase of development, which will finalize within the week. I will start a phase 7 and that phase will include the changes you recommended. Thanks!

Angela, your comments are the comments I fear the most. I recognize the challenges with the to do list (there are a few other minor technical glitches that I'm aware of, but the to do list is the biggest), but we haven't been able to solve them. I use the to do list a lot and it works great... but, I have to either hit "refresh" on the page or drag and drop it twice sometimes to get it to work. For me, it's become no problem...but I can see how it would be a problem to our users. We will continue to work it and try and find a solution. I am glad you brought this issue up though - because I was hoping it would go away... and hope is not a very good strategy. :)

Stephan, thanks for your comments. The main issue we have is Angela's... and I going to continue to try and fix those glitches without moving up to Joomla 2.5 or 3.0.

Thanks again for your posts! I appreciate all the advice!

Regards, Nick

Alan J. Zell ⋅ Portland, OR Attitudes for Selling ⋅ 29 years experience

Nick, You didn't say if you had a business plan, but I'm assuming not (most who want to start a virtual business do not) because I did not see anywhere on your site what your program costs. How would you expect someone to sign up if they didn't know what the cost would be . . or if it was free?

Without seeing a business plan, we have no idea of what your marketing budget is. Having a virtal business is OK but unless you spend money in the "right' places, you site is a "well kept secret" until you create awareness that your business and its services exist. If you think(?) that you can rely on search engines to find you, it's fuzzy thinking. Your keywords, whatever they are" may be different from the keywords those looking for your services use. (Search engines are like taking ALL the yellow pages in the US and putting them into one place.)

Having a web site is not unlike having an office on the 29th floor in a business in a city your potential users have never been to. How do you get them from where they are to open (your site) the door and come into your business? That's what the marketing section of a business plan is all about.

Your business name does not indicate what your business does. 'Amity" has lots of meanings. If you wish to use "Amity" as part of your business name, fine, but it needs something to go with it like, "Amity Recovery Programs"

You use "nyrecovery/homes' for the video. Is it necessary that someone live in NY? And, do you offer homes where addicts can come for recovery help?

The other thing I didn't see on your site are your credentials/certifications for running an addict recovery program. If you have them, reference to them needs to be on your home page.

I suggest you go to SCORE for free consulting help. Go to www.score.org and to "find a local chapter" put in your zip code and you'll get a list of the clostest chapter(s).

Alan

Tim Hudak ⋅ Alexandria, VA U.S. Marine Corps, Sergeant ⋅ 5 years served

The top header might waste too much of your space (can you incorporate the login box below?) Also if you could incorporate more pictures on the front page you will raise your bounce / conversion rates. Nice video on the front page! Initially the front page feels dull.

Then I log in and BAM, it feels very warm. The buttons at the top are smooth and the information flow feels right. I immediately know how you will help my addiction by looking at those buttons and understand the methods more or less.

Anyway you can give the front page more of a logged in feel?

Stephan Dzur ⋅ Tempe, AZ Network Technologies International ⋅ 10 years experience

Hi Nick,

Glad to know the feedback was helpful!

If the only issue with the older Joomla framework is the broken internal "back" button, I wouldn't say it's worth the cost to upgrade. Only if it negatively impacts the user experience to a point where it makes it difficult to use the site would I look at changing it. I work in IT so I'm familiar with how difficult it can be to upgrade one package when a lot of other packages rely on it! It can turn into a dependency mess.

I guess a BLUF answer would be: If it is prohibitively distracting, then yes, upgrade. But if not (and I don't think it is), it's probably fine for now and could be re-evaluated later down the road.

- Stephan

Nicholas Grimaldi ⋅ Aldie, VA U.S. Air Force, Captain ⋅ 6 years served

Thanks for the replies!!

Athan, I'll be in touch soon.

Stephan, thanks for the feedback. I have put a request in to change the color of the font. Now, about the other hiccup you wrote about, where you received the error. The framework I am using is Joomla 1.5, which is now old. So, if you don't know - it would be the equivalent of using Window's XP. Windows XP still runs great on a computer, but Windows no longer supports XP with updates. They now only support the current versions of Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. They will soon stop supporting Vista as well.

In the same way, Joomla 1.5 is no longer supported by Joomla (this is a recent occurrence). It is my understanding that Joomla 2.5 has fixed some of the processing side errors, such as the one you faced.

If I were to upgrade, the costs would be very high because my site has many "custom" parts of COTS software (like JomSocial; AdSense; and many others). It would cost me at least 80% as much to upgrade as it did to build the site in the first place.

Here is my situation (see *note below): The Joomla 1.5 framework does have some errors to it like the one you saw. The most common error is when you have multiple accounts and switch from one account to another. The errors only occur infrequently (maybe 5% of the time) and happen with other popular sites (such as www.meetme.com).

Here's the 10k question: Do you think this is a must have improvement for the site at this time? I was expecting to upgrade only after we became profitable or already down the road of success - which we estimate would take 1 year.

My initial thought is to deal with the imperfection while looking for a low cost technical solution (with the assumption that there may not be a technical solution). Do you disagree and think the case for an upgrade weighs higher than I am currently placing it?

Thanks again! Regards, Nick

(*NOTE: I am not a technical person... so this is based on assumptions and what I do know from my layman's experience.)