You haven’t heard from me since last week because on Thursday I sequestered myself so I could make many much-needed corrections to the website. For the first time since 2007, I gained access to the source code for our website. It has been frustrating to watch the website become more outdated for more than 6 months after we lost our web programmer while we continued in true prototype fashion to develop our company and services. All the while, the website continued reflecting only the status quo from last year. Last week I finally insisted that on getting access to the source code so I could make these changes myself. As soon as I got access (last Thursday), I hid myself away, ignored pretty much everything, and spent from early morning until very late at night, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday doing nothing but reverse-engineering the website and updating the content. All told, I logged just under 50 hours on this project in those 3 1/2 days.
Since we lost our main programmer, Caixun (Chinese programmer) many months ago, no work has been done on the website other than updating the news section from time to time and changing the video twice. Because we shifted gears last week to focus on sales of the Remote Agent license, and operation of GroupCallertm, I knew a number of modifications had to be made in the website IMMEDIATELY. If I didn’t make these changes, new prospects and customers would experience confusion when they view a website that talks about something we don’t even sell anymore; and that would result in many lost sales. We cannot press forward with our new Phase I campaign unless these changes are made. But our web programmers are gone. And Jeff didn’t have enough time to work on this project, nor is he an expert at web development. We don’t have any other web developers available right now. So the task fell on my shoulders.
Sadly, Caixun did not document his code very much. In fact, the only documentation I found inside the website code once I opened the source, was in CHINESE! In the absence of explicit instruction within the code showing what he’s doing, how he’s doing it, sources from which variables are pulled, links to tools and specialty software, etc., the task of updating the website becomes extraordinarily hard, even for the best web developers. It’s much more difficult for somebody like me, with limited web development skill. But at least I have “some” skill so I put it to the test.
Regardless of whether I do it or somebody else does, we must now reverse-engineer our own website in moving forward. Make no mistake about it, Caixun is a very talented and knowledgeable web developer. I hope we can re-hire him when we reach our first Phase I milestone of 400 paid and paying Remote Agents. I gained a very healthy respect for his capabilities as I read through the details of his coding during the past 4 days (and that’s about ALL I have done during my waking hours for those days). The website may seem simplistic to some who aren’t knowledgeable about such things, but in fact, the inner workings of the website are very sophisticated, and designed to withstand massive volume when the time comes. This is as it should be, and exactly what I expected. Not many websites have as much forethought and careful planning, nor are they assembled in such a fashion to operate efficiently at peak traffic times. However, the complex manner in which the pages, relationships of the functions and the functions themselves are pulled together makes it a daunting challenge to edit and update the website, even for full time web developers who are much more skilled than myself. Nonetheless, I accepted the challenge and I’m happy to report this morning that I accomplished most of the goals I set out to complete by today.
Completed Tasks
-
Remote Agent License Order Page Completed: The order page for the AMG has now been converted to list “only” the Remote Agent License for GroupCallertm instead of showing AMG Memberships.
-
New Title Bar: I created a new graphic image of the title to insert on this page: “…..Remote Agent License…..” which matches all the titles on other primary web pages. (You didn’t know that was a graphic image, did you?)
It matches the blue and the style on many other pages in this website. Not a bad job of copying from scratch, if I do say so myself … ha!
-
Wrote and Posted New Contract: There’s now a new contract linked to the RAL Order Page called the “Remote Agent License Agreement”. It’s nicely formatted and instantly pops up in a frame when you click on the link at the top of this page. (This is the order page or upgrade page that links to your Port Qualification Summary which is on the Welcome To The Member Area page.)
-
New Link In Port Referral Group Qualification Summary: The box on the Welcome To Member Area page titled “Port Referral Group Qualification Summary” now has a link titled “Buy Remote Agent License – Earn Ports”. Before the edit, the link said “JOIN” because it was referring to joining the AMG.
-
Finance Package Contracts Updated: All 4 contracts in the finance package were updated and posted online in our automated finance package online software. This is the section of the website following the link from the Remote Agent License order page that allows a prospect to choose between 8 different finance options. There are a total of 12 purchase options in three sections: Payment In Full, Financed With 25% Discount, Financed Without 25% Discount. All 12 contracts were edited, updated and embedded within this “signing” program on our website.
-
Contract Variables Updated: Each contract package has numerous places where information is inserted from the general program, or from the package deal selected. This would include items such as phone number and zip code and credit card information, to the total of payments, number of payments and amount due for each class of license (Standard, Silver, Gold, Platinum), in each of the 3 different categories. All variables in all 12 contracts were checked and updated to reflect the accurate amounts when a new Remote Agent is signing up.
-
New 1-Minute Slide Show Video: I wrote, recorded, produced and posted a new short intro video to our online broadcast website for re-broadcast through our own website.
-
Script For 1-Minute Video Inserted: I embedded the script (programming language) directly into our website software so it will broadcast this video through our website in the proper places. Now you can find it on the Home Page, the Sign-Up Page and from all Landing Pages.
-
Corrected Sizing Problem: You may or may not have noticed this, but for the past couple of months the home page has displayed incorrectly. There was white space on each side of the banner graphic at the top and all the way down to the bottom. In other words, it was too wide. Now that I had access to the website code, I was able to debug the problem myself and discovered it was because the home page video was too wide. Once I corrected the video display dimensions, everything was back to normal.
-
New Webinar Slide Show Video: The new webinar is substantially different from any other sales webinar we have conducted. And it’s MUCH shorter! For the first time, the presentation focuses on our own product, the GroupCalltertm, and minimizes the importance of the Port Referral Group and other benefits. This makes a much more clear and brief presentation that’s far easier to understand, still builds the value of the license to far greater than the price, and doesn’t burden the viewer with too much “information overload” which has been a common complaint about our presentation since the beginning.
-
Programming Language Embedded: After creating the video, I embedded the programming code right into our original source code so it would display correctly within the Member area. You should watch it if haven’t had the chance yet.
-
Updated “When will applications be deployed?” Page: In light of our new GroupCallertm system, an update was required to the page that sets forth official company policy with respect to “when” all these applications will be deployed. These updates were finally made over the weekend. Check it out if you want to update yourself on the official policy.
-
Payment Method Updates: In addition to credit and debit cards, we accept online bank account drafts, bank wires, personal checks and cash as payment for license fees. These are each tabbed sections within the payment area on the RALA (Remote Agent License Agreement) page. These tabs needed to be updated since we no longer sell memberships. The updates have been completed and are ready for use.
-
“Add Payments” TOC Updated: We haven’t updated the payment Terms and Conditions for almost 2 years. Whenever Clients add money to their account, they must agree to “terms and conditions”. The TOC page is now properly formatted, and pops up into a nice clear window instantly when you follow that link.
I’m happy to report the following tasks that I was able to reverse-engineer and complete since last Thursday night:
More Tasks For This Week
-
Update Policies and Procedures. In the past couple of months I have announced new policies in this blog but haven’t been able to update the official website with those policies. That will happen today.
-
Event Registration Page: Although we have an Events Calendar, we haven’t had a place where people could click a link and register for webinars. That problem will be corrected today. By the end of the day, you’ll see multiple links in the NEWS section of our home page providing a place to register for sales and training webinars, and a schedule of these online meetings for at least a month in advance.
-
Editing Change To Webinar Slide Show: I already got one great suggestion from our top sales Associate, Nathan Tyler, regarding the webinar slide show. I’ll make that change today before I move on with the GroupCallertm tasks below. His suggestion was “perfect” and confirmed some of the thoughts I had as I was producing it. This modification will shorten the 27-minute video to about 17 or 18 minutes. You should jump online right now and watch the longer one if you have the chance. If you miss it, that’s OK. I’m not wasting any time to get this task completed because I don’t want to re-visit these tasks anytime soon. I expect no changes will be needed to the online videos for months now.
The foregoing tasks took a monumental effort over the span of just 4 days, but it’s now done. Today, I’m doing a little “clean-up” work and completing a few more tasks:
There are still a few corrections to the website that are just beyond my pay grade. I’ve asked Jeff Wilson to make these corrections. They are important issues, but nothing the casual observer will notice. I’ll let you know once he gets them done. Then I’ll feel the website is completely updated.
Moving Forward With GroupCallertm
As soon as the three tasks above are completed (I expect that will be tonight sometime), I’ll move on to the big-kahuna task: Making GroupCallertm work. I’m really excited to begin this task because I know we’re in the last stages of preparation for launching the Phase I Marketing Campaign.
Formally launching GroupCallertm is an event I’ve worked hard to complete for the past five and a half years. Now, we’re finally on the verge of selling and using a proprietary web-based software system that belongs to us. What’s more is that this software will finally help us turn the corner from being merely a research and development firm, to a company in full production and creating bona fide sales volume that’s increasing every month. I expect we’ll start paying all our own operating expenses out of revenue (instead of capital or debt) for the first time in our history this summer. It’s a very exciting time.
The target date for our first “live” calls is Wednesday. Stay tuned to see if we’re able to meet that goal. I think we will …
I'm happy for what you have completed.
Posted by: certified financial planners jacksonville | January 20, 2012 at 08:38 AM