News
The challenge: get additional market exposure for an outstanding waterfront acreage and house for sale on Saltspring Island.
The solution: build a clean and simple, optimized site using the WordPress CMS. Highlight the best features of the unique location, the exceptional natural values of the property, and the benefits of the house, dock and boathouse with a rotating header area and an accessible gallery; configure it all so that the owner can update and upgrade the content simply and quickly, as time allows.
The site: waterfrontsaltspring.com Check it out!
Cedar Beach Resort, one of the largest resorts on Salt Spring, has gone live with Charles Buchwald & Friends. The newly revised site is a major upgrade and expansion of their former site, incorporating new photo galleries, interactive maps, contact forms, a revised and updated logo, online reservations, and a state-of-the-art Content Management System (CMS) allowing them to maintain and grow the site themselves.
With estimates of as much as 90 percent of travel planning taking place online, this family oriented resort was feeling the need to open up a clearer conduit between staff, customers, and potential customers. The former static, brochure-like site’s outdated look and feel, lack of functionality, and difficult maintenance had become liabilities. Outdated photos and information gave an inaccurate picture of facilities that have undergone significant renovations. After a thorough selection process, CB&F was brought in to make changes.
We created a flexible framework to show not only the updated facilities, but just as importantly the carefully cultivated family friendly atmosphere at the resort. The result is a site that can be easily and quickly kept current, and shows off the business to good advantage. Key communication channels are quick, easy and reliable, encouraging quality contact from returning and potential customers.
Check it out! And if you’re coming to Saltspring with your kids, and need a place to stay and swim and soak in the island atmosphere, be sure to contact the friendly folks at Cedar Beach Resort.
Charles Buchwald & Friends is providing 3 free web hosting accounts for Salt Spring community groups or charities in the month of July.
Just like our business customers, groups can host their website with Charles Buchwald & Friends for a year, including web pages, email, mailing lists, file transfer, and more.
Hosting is fast, very secure, easy to manage, and well supported by an enthusiastic and community-minded local business. It’s also carbon neutral.
Join groups including the Bandemonium Music Society, Salt Spring Community Education, WOLF Kids, and many others.
UPDATE: Save Our Surgery is the first recipient of hosting this month. Only 2 accounts left now.
As long time residents of Salt Spring Island and the Gulf Islands this is one of the ways we give back to the community and the people we love.
If you are a charity or a Gulf Islands community group, please contact us.
UPDATE: July applications are closed. 2 additional community groups have received donations, but will wait to announce their projects. Thanks, everyone, for another great month of small scale philanthropy!
CB&F has donated hosting to Save Our Surgery, a local Saltspring group working to affect change in policies governing use of the local Lady Minto Hospital.
According to the group:
In 2004, a new “state of the art” operating room was completed at Lady Minto Hospital, together with an excellent Central Supply Room to provide sterilization of instruments as required by the new standards.
This project was funded by the Capital Region District ($1.1 million), the Vancouver Island health Authority ($1 million) and, at the request of the VIHA, $780,000 from the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation.
Since July 2008 this state of the art operating room sits empty and unused.
Please visit their site to sign their petition, learn more, or obtain contact information.
After an extended renovation period, Lynda Monk’s Creative Wellness is live and online with Charles Buchwald & Friends.
Highlights of this project included:
- working with Lynda and her team to develop a custom WordPress theme incorporating the strong visual elements of the older site by Renee at earth spirit creations, to preserve the consistency of look and feel with Lynda’s existing print and digital assets
- using a variety of great WordPress plugins to increase the functionality of the site, from the sophisticated and customizable menu system, to the AJAX-powered client testimonials, to custom forms
- and most significantly expanding the control Lynda herself has over the site and it’s growing content.
Charles Buchwald and Friends is proud to be donating free hosting to Salt Spring Community Education. They have a great, active, friendly slate of classes of all kinds, including Photo Editing for Photographers. They are another one of our community’s wonderful non-profit, charitable societies. If you are on Salt Spring Island, check out their ever changing list of courses, lecture series and other learning opportunities.
We’ve added a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section to this site.
We’ll add questions and answers we get regularly… or feel free to ask about anything related to web design and development, online marketing, or software development and we’ll do our best to answer.
Thank you, Chris and Darlene Hobbs, for being such great clients for more than 6 years.
It’s been great to work with you and see the evolution of Sotheby’s Saltspring, and your site. It’s always a pleasure to see your enthusiasm for what you do, for our wonderful Island home, and sharing that with both locals and newcomers. Your openness to new ideas, and to find just the right solution, whether technical, procedural, or graphical has surely been a big part of the success of your busy, busy site.
Thanks for making me a part of your journey! I’m looking forward to seeing what we come up with next…
Charles Buchwald & Friends is proud to announce that we will be completing yet another site renovation. This one is for Salt Spring Island’s own Mouat’s Trading Company, parent to 5 stores, 4 restaurants and 22 Ganges rental properties. We have some innovative plans to help bring this successful company into it’s 104th year in the Gulf Islands, and we’re very excited about working with this cornerstone of the business community here on the island.
Working with Saltspring Community Education, Charles is offering two courses for the late Spring session:
- Photo Editing for Photographers
- Websites for Community Groups
Register for a course with a friend, and one of you gets 10% off!