Featured Project > OkanaganShuswap.com Redesigned, Redeveloped, Relaunched!

The main reasons for the redesign of the RE/MAX North Okanagan Shuswap website was to improve the visual impact of the communications piece, add new features to assist in recruiting new Realtors, improve Search Engine ranking results, upgrade the website's management system, and make it easy for potential clients to access information when it comes time to fine their ideal home or put their home on the market. Let's just say that after 6 years, it was time for a change.

The winning positive attitude that is fostered throughout the RE/MAX North Okanagan Shuswap organization is the primary way they maintain the 'edge' over their competition, making the company and the staff the best in the North Okanagan. That 'edge' needs to be felt through the way they communicate to everyone they do business with .- customers, staff, and associates.

Winners attract other winners, winners want to work with winners, winners want to learn from winners. By having this message felt through the design, software solutions and content within OkanaganShuswap.com, RE/MAX North Okanagan Shuswap can continually, quickly and efficiently foster, support and demonstrate their 'edge' over their competition.

Can a website hurt your business?

Believe it or not, the answer to that question is yes – absolutely! Like anything you own (house, car, computer, television, etc.), over time websites may need some freshening up, they may need an overhaul, or they may need to be replaced altogether. The reasons for this may be as follows:

The design is out-dated and hindering the delivery of the message.
The website may be inefficient and too costly to maintain and update.

There comes a point when a website could actually be hurting your business, not helping it. In today's competitive marketplace and ever-shrinking world, businesses must understand the benefits of having a good website. So, what is a good website? Here's 2 key factors to knowing you have a good website:

Good visual design. Website design that delivers your company's message without a viewer ever having to read a word within the website. Statistics show that a website has 2 seconds to capture the viewer's attention.
The ability to easily deliver new and updated information about your company on a regular basis. A static website that doesn't offer any new or updated information becomes stagnant and old very quickly. Your business needs viewers returning to your website, and returning viewers
have to have a reason to come back to your website.

If your business has a website, how will you know when the website is no-longer working for your business? Here are some questions you should ask yourself about your current website to find out if it is still delivering the benefits your business requires:

Is the site visually appealing? Can a new or redesigned site increase your company's profits? It's been proven that companies which use visual design as a tool to organize their message, making it focused, concise, and consistent often outperform their competitors.
How old is the website design? Good visual design should remain relevant, contemporary, clean and competitive for about 5 years, but in today's business world, design companies that know the benefit of their work can successfully argue that a design from 2 years ago is so... well... yesterday. If your website hasn't gone through a redesign in the past 5 years, your customers are expecting a change.
Are there broken links or missing text or images? Check your website in all of the major Internet browsers (Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer). If a website works well in IE only and not Firefox or Safari, this can be the kiss of death for your business online. Recent reports suggest that usage of both the Firefox and Safari is at an all-time high, while usage of IE is at an all-time low. It is estimated that on average, 30% of the viewers online are now using Firefox and Safari.
When was the last time your website was updated? How easy is it for you and your staff to add a new page of content, add a news story about a new product or service, or add a gallery of images from your latest project? At the very least, you should have new information about your business or industry to share with your customers added to your website every month. If you have to ask your webs designer for help every time you need to update your website then you should be looking into a content management system for your website. The money you save by
updating your website yourself will easily pay for the cost of adding the solution.
Last but not least, have you measured the traffic that is coming to your website? Can you see historical reports and measure growth or decline in website visits? Can you measure the average length of the visits to your website? Can you measure the number of pages viewed? How viewers found your website? Your website hosting solution may come with a website statistics feature and you may be able to get this information from there. Google Analytics is an excellent solution for measuring website statistics and once you have this solution added to your website you will be able to track all sorts of information. If you measure a decline in visits, return visits, length of stay, or page views, then it's time to set up a meeting with a website designer.

Bottom line, when you take the time to take a hard look at your website, you may find that the quality of the online presentation of your company - good or bad - might have a direct impact on your bottom line.

Ecommerce > Good News for Canadian Businesses With Ecommerce Websites.

CBC.ca issued a brief summary of a recently released Statistics Canada report on Canadian online spending.

DCM > November in Review

Is it just me, or did November just fly by? It wasn’t until I started to hear the Christmas tunes when walking through the mall that I realized that it was time to start thinking about my Christmas shopping. I say “thinking” because I, like many other procrastinators out there, wont actually start shopping until the 24th. But before I start looking forward to what I will be doing over the next month, lets talk about what has happened at DotCom Media over the last one.

First off, I would like to introduce our very own Dennis Powers, who is running the Downtown Kelowna Association board.

Dennis lived in Rutland in the early 80's, before his family moved to Vernon. During that time, Kelowna had a considerable impact on his life. Dennis eventually moved to Vancouver and built a successful career providing services within the media production industries there. With most of his family still living in the Okanagan, Dennis moved back to Kelowna with his wife and their two children, where he is now helping to create multi-media experiences on the Internet. Dennis' motivation for his involvement in DKA is to be a voice for young families within the association.

Second, we would like to congratulate Okanagan-Shuswap Re/max on their newly launched web site. This encompassing web site covers seven Re/max office locations and over two hundred realtors. Make sure you guys check it the interactive map on the homepage!

We are very excited to announce a new partnership with WorldSpec Testing Services. DotCom Media will be helping WorldSpec redevelop all aspects of their online training website; including logo design, website redesign and development, a new custom content management system, a comprehensive student management and testing system, and much more. The website redevelopment will allow WorldSpec to easily expand the courses available to their students, as well as give their students more access to a live person to answer any questions they may have throughout their training.

WorldSpec Testing Services is the only correspondence school qualified by the Canadian Government's National NDT Certifying Agency to teach/train to their high ISO standards. They offer Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) courses like Visual Weld Inspection, Ultrasonic Testing, Magnetic Particle Testing and more.

See everyone next month! Unless you are out at the mall on the 24th, I’ll see you then. Merry Christmas!