Ideas for ResidentAssistant.com

Paul,

Here is some stuff I was thinking of for the site... I realize this is A HUGE PROJECT, so whatever level of help or even just advice that you can give me would be much appreciated.

Dan O

Site Design/Structure

New, more attractive, easier to navigate layout (A few examples of content heavy but easy to navigate sites that I like are the microsoft.com site, statefarm.com, ... pretty easy to navigate, despite LOTS of info... interactive menus, etc)

Easy to update infrastructure/navigation

Specific features:

• Ability for users to rate & comment on programs (Like the book review features on Amazon.com)
• Forum (Like Esportbike.com)
• Poll for front page (easy to change, with ability to link to previous poll results)
• Ability to edit... I want to have a good amount of control over layout, design, etc...
• On a side note, I also own a domain called ResidenceHalls.com, and plan to make a very similar site to this one, so I would essentially want to make two similar sites.

Revenue generating features

• Subscription section? (Since these are students, maybe charge like a $10 or $15 fee for a subscription) - (or, do a "donation-based" membership like selfpromotion.com)
  • Expanded library of programs
  • Staff development activities
  • Downloads
  • Other bonus resources
  • *If the subscription model were used, the site layout and structure would remain the same, but added resources would be available for subscribers.
  • An example of a cheap subscription site is template911.com... THE PROBLEM I see with this is people sharing usernames and passwords (ie, one person on a staf of 22 gets the subscription and shares w/everyone)
• Easy to configure and track ad rotation system (currently, I use AdButler, which I could continue using... it just inserts one out of every 7 or so ads.
• Shopping cart for my own books/resources/products
• Continued affiliate relationships (ie, Amazon.com)

Site Outline:

Home Page

• Programs & Activities
  • Calendar
  • Teambuilders and Icebreakers
  • Staff Development Activities
  • Speakers and Presenters*
  • How to program
    • Various programming models
  • Programs
    • Active:
      • Social
      • Spiritual
      • Physical Health
      • Emotional
      • Leadership
      • Human Awareness/Diversity
      • Occupational/Life Skills
      • Intellectual/academic
    • Passive
      • Bulletin Boards
      • Door Tags
      • Floor/Building Themes
• Advice
  • Ask The Experts (ask me about this... I have a panel of "experts" around the country who have agreed to answer questions for RAs. I would like RAs to be able to submit a question, and then my experts would get an email informing them they had a new question, then they could simply log on and answer. Then again, perhaps this could just be a section of the message board.)
  • Mental Health Issues (CampusBlues.com Partnership)
  • Student Success (RealWorld University Partnership)
  • General RA Advice
  • Dealing with crisis
  • Building Community
  • Programming
  • Staff Issues
  • Personal Management (time management, etc)
• RA Humor
  • Ability to post stories (with approval)
  • Jokes
  • Cartoons
• Discussion Board (similar to ESportbike.com... perhaps the same software??)
• Resources
  • Res Life Store*
    • Books
    • Programming Resources
    • Other Residence Life Vendors*
  • Newsletter (ListBuilder.com)
  • Links
    • Categorized Links (COMPREHENSIVE)
  • Listserves
    • RA List
    • Professional List
• Careers
  • Careers in Residence Life (Partnership with ACUHO-I)
  • Graduate Programs in Higher Education*
  • Grad School Prep (GradSchools.com)
  • RA Resumes
  • Famous RAs
• Job listings*

*Revenue generating areas of the Site