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 The former static, brochure-like site’s outdated look and feel, lack of functionality, and difficult maintenance had become liabilities. Outdated photos and information gave an inaccurate picture of facilities that have undergone significant renovations.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.
CB&F is pleased to announce that Denise Okan of West Wind Translations has contracted with us to develop a web site for her growing business. The site will be in both English and German, with a possible Turkish version to follow. Taking advantage of the multilingual capabilities of modern CMS systems will be key to keeping this project accurate and efficient.
In a related note, Charles Buchwald & Friends is now offering translations services for web content!