That is exactly my point!
First of all, let me clearly and emphatically state that in no way shape or form was I, or am I suggesting that we put pop ups, banner ads or sales pitches, etc. on the web site. I’m not sure where that came from. I hate those things with a passion. And no, I don’t want you to sell out to vendors, either. I wasn’t suggesting that at all.
All that I’m suggesting is, that in the process of creating the 8th wonder of the world web site, http://www.nachi.org/8th.htm , that some time is taken to re-think our Homepage, our front image, the face shown to the world at large.
Again, I’m not trying to promote ASHI as an organization (I chose to join NACHI, overall I like what NACHI has to offer, and I plan to stay with NACHI), but I personally like the image that ASHI projects on it’s home page http://www.ashi.org/. Particularly if I put myself in the eyes/mind of a home/buyer/seller/homeowner, any potential user of home inspection services, I think that it far and away is more visually appealing and easier to navigate than NACHI’s.
ASHI’s front page is much “cleaner” concise and to the point. It immediately, clearly and concisely explains what ASHI is about and then promotes the hiring of ASHI inspectors. There are three clear distinct areas for the folks most likely to be looking at the site, HomeBuyers/Sellers, Real Estate Professionals and for the Home Inspection Profession.
As for your desire to retain a sanctuary for we home inspectors, I believe that can be easily accomplished by just keeping all that we inspectors have grown to love about NACHI’s site within the Home Inspector button or within the Member’s Log-in button, or in other various links. With a click, we can enter our sanctuary.
As for the Commercials http://www.nachi.org/commercials.htm that NACHI is now producing, I think that’s great! It’s a wonderful benefit for we inspectors! I wholeheartedly agree that many consumers prefer video over text. Real video can show and demonstate much more effectively than just plain test. Of course the commercials should be an integral part of NACHI’s site as well as other individual inspector’s sites. Again, back to ASHI’s site as an example, the videos could and should take a prominent position of the NACHI Homepage, such as ASHI’s virtual house tour now does on theirs.
Now, as for your position Nick, that you have no desire to make NACHI.org consumer friendly, “I agree with you. NACHI.org is not very consumer, REALTOR, or vendor friendly… let’s keep it that way.”, well I suppose I just don’t understand that position. (Again, I don’t want it to be vendor friendly, either).
As I pointed out above, I think that we can retain it as a home and sanctuary for home inspectors while at the same time making it just a little more visually appealing to home buyer/sellers, and even to Realtors. We already have this massive gorilla of a web site, why not fully utilize it to help promote the NACHI brand (or interNACHI brand) and along with it NACHI inspectors. I think that we can have our cake and eat it too.
As for your premise that because you own 4,500 different web sites we can keep NACHI.org just for we inspectors, I’m not sure that I buy that. When I do a google and/or yahoo search for Home Inspection or Home Inspector, it’s http://www.nachi.org that comes up first, not one of the other 4,500 web sites. Again, why not make the most of that for promoting NACHI and we NACHI inspectors.
Now, if it’s just a bit disconcerting or even rankling that I’m using http://www.ashi.org/ as an example of an image that I like, lets take a look at AboutNACHI . This comes close to what I’m talking about, (although I still prefer the layout of ASHI’s site homepage). AboutNachi presumably was created primarily for the general consumer public, Home Buyers/Sellers and Real Estate agents. The problem is, as I see it, AboutNachi doesn’t come up prominently on web searches, but NACHI.org does.
Why not take something like the homepage/face of AboutNachi and transpose it onto http://www.nachi.org, or the new http://www.nachi.org/8th.htm . You’d have a prominent focus for Home Buyers/Sellers, a spot for Realtors and the buttom for we Home Inspectors to click on to enter our Sanctuary. It’s a win-win-win scenario in my humble opinion. I’d be happy with that! (Although, I’d prefer if the prominent photo of the geeky looking guy on the front be changed to perhaps a family picture 
).
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Then my work here is done! 
The home page should get a face lift for the general public but the page as it is works well for US (Home Inspectors).
How about a home page for NACHI members? After you log in you get OUR stuff!
Curt
Well, actually, I decided that my work wasn’t quite done!