Thanks for all your contributions to the home inspection industry.
Always an innovator, never an imitator.
HG rocks!!!
I think you are confused as this is the NACHI forum.
Not enough traffic to host one on your site anymore?
Can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen.
HIP is smart enough to host their own forum.
I don’t know about that Bob… the HomeGauge forum is now on a site that has 18 million unique visitors. 
The HIP forum isn’t that active. They could probably benefit by moving here too.
60,000 posts isn’t too shabby if you ask me! Our forum is 100% public to everyone to view and comment on and it’ll remain that way on the HIP site. It also has features that this forum doesn’t have that we require. I told Nick we’d be happy if he’d like to make a second one for us here but he wants it exclusive. I kind of doubt that Russell will pull his forum down completely and move it here either, but I could be wrong!
I find it interesting that the separate HIP threads started by users that demand more information about Home Inspector Pro are more active than this artificially created and thinly veiled marketing site which serves a individual vendor over the others for some hidden reason with agenda members can only guess at.
Definitely not something that makes NACHI or HG look good .
Russell 100% does not look good defending a product with personal attacks …
I think we all remember last week when all I did was ask how his customers of other associations feel about him moving his forum here as that is what was announced or perhaps that was not the truth and simply a marketing ploy in which case HG still gets a black eye for fibbing to its NACHI customers.
Hmmmm we will be watching.
How nice HG has a separate thread but if we are going to play this game be ready for criticism or keep this kind of forum on your own site as I do not use your product.
The NACHI forum sections should be for all and not just some minor vendor product being shoved at us.
The fact is more NACHI members use HIP than HG .
Dom writes:
It’s not too shabby at all.
Look, I’m thrilled to host the HomeGauge forum so I’m not “pitching” you Dom, but just for fun (I can’t help myself when it comes to analyzing a business strategy), let me reveal my thinking:
Your worst market would be a group of existing HIP users talking about the HIP software they already purchased to other existing HIP users on a HIP forum. It is absolutely impossible to sell an existing HIP user your software because… they already bought it!
In sharp contrast, InterNACHI is the perfect market for software vendors. Here’s why:
- InterNACHI has a lot of visitors.
- A higher percentage of those visitors are home inspectors.
- Most of those home inspectors are not existing HIP users. (Most of our visitors aren’t existing HomeGauge users either, but that’s exactly my point, they are potential customers).
- New inspectors need reporting software, but they almost all do something first before buying software. They take a home inspection course. Our industry takes courses first, buys software just before opening up for business, then does marketing. It’s the sequence nearly all inspectors follow. So if I were selling reporting software, I’d want to be where many inspectors are taking courses. That’s InterNACHI again.
- Most HIP users are similar to most HG users in that they are very happy with their respective software. This is why it is very rare for an inspector to switch from one to the other (you can’t teach old dogs new tricks). So what good to you are your happy users if most of them are on your forum telling other happy users how happy they are? They are all members of the same choir preaching to each other. Better to have them ALL out in your target markets. That’s InterNACHI again.
- A post about HIP on HIP’s site is fairly meaningless in terms of SEO. Google doesn’t give you much credit for a mention of you on your own site. A post about HIP on another site, even a site with less traffic and one less relative to home inspections is worth a little more in terms SEO benefit. A post about HIP on another site that has about the same traffic and one a little more relative to home inspections is even better in terms of SEO benefit. But every post about HIP on a huge, high-traffic site that is very inspection related has an enormous SEO benefit to HIP. That’s InterNACHI again. On a side note, it’s also why members get such an SEO boost by being members of the world’s largest inspection trade association with a 235,000 page website. SEO is all about getting much bigger, relative sites to link to and talk about you. It’s why our latest product, our custom video ads for members works so well to boost their respective member’s SEO. It’s the worlds largest inspection association making a video about a home inspector. Well, the same is true for boosting the SEO of industry vendors.
You are never going to believe me, but my analysis has come to the conclusion that the best business move you could make would be to shut your forum down immediately. It would force your existing, happy users to post on a much larger, higher-traffic site, one that many more of your potential customers visit. If you are afraid to do something so extreme, my advice would be to announce that your users can no longer get questions about HIP answered on your forum and that your forum is now solely dedicated to topics regarding sports, religion and politics. I’d announce that you only answer questions about HIP software and related services on InterNACHI’s forum.
I know, it sounds nuts. But my analysis is sound.
I totally agree that the InterNACHI forums is the best place for new members to learn about HIP. What’s great is that tons of InterNACHI members already use Home Inspector Pro and rave about it often. InterNACHI members are in large part what made Home Inspector Pro what it is today by discussing features and helping to shape the software.
There’s close to 5000 pages of content on InterNACHI that mention HIP(which means a lot more than that in posts).
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=site:www.nachi.org+“hip”+or+“home+inspector+pro”
It looks like guys are already talking about HIP plenty on here!
Hosting our own forums allows us to post large files which we can’t do here and have control of other features which we use. We also have private forums I need to run for franchises that use our software that are required a separate place to discuss templates & questions.
HomeGauge ran a private forum that only members could access before so the search engines couldn’t see it and removing it would have no impact on their rank. That’s not true for us as we kept everything open to everyone. I’m not willing to take the chance of losing the #1 spot on Google for the top searches inspectors use to find software.
Like I said, InterNACHI is awesome and the forums are the best. I’ve been told Russell hasn’t mentioned on his forum at all that he’s moving his forums here so I don’t believe it’s ever going to happen, but I could be wrong!
If you’d like to create a separate forum for the top software programs your members use I think it would be of great benefit to your users, but that’s up to you!
This HomeGauge forum is the hip place to be. 
He has created a top vendor location. I don’t want you to remove your forum Dom. I hope you keep it. But, eventually you will realize (just like the many features HG makes first) that I am right that you are not a social group. InterNACHI has that purpose and importance.
Thank you Dom for thinking about my day to day business practices. I don’t have time to monitor yours. Be sure and subscribe to the HG News Alert for important announcements. And yes Dom…you could be wrong.
Don’t cry Bob.
Bob,
You keep bringing this up about my reaction to you pooping on my welcome thread. All I said was to poop somewhere else. That you always like to put everyone down. That you must be in a miserable state of mind to want to do that. I reacted because I felt you were rude and inconsiderate. I actually answered your question about ASHI and in a friendly way. You just didn’t read. You did however apologize. I appreciate that very much. Now, if you will try to forget about it I will too.
Bob may not realize it but he is not doing a great job helping HIP. Nobody would want to associate with him and his attacks on another software. I can appreciate that he is a raving fan, but he should be less of a raving lunatic if he wants to help HIP out, especially on a thread about the competition.
Shhh…Nick please…don’t
Welcome Frank! Be sure and call us anytime, however many times you need.
Of course that goes for all HG users!
828-254-2030
I agree…Most of the time he is over zealous.
Those living in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones!
Yes just like the one they kept hidden from public view it is fun seeing all the complaints about their terrible mobile application for Apple products and false promises of it being fixed soon the last couple years.
HIP forum like NACHI is open to everyone and still spills over here with more views on NACHI than the thinly veiled and obvious marketing partnership HG is attempting in order to stop the bleeding of many jumping SHIP to HIP…:).
Bob why are you even in the HG forum?