Luxury Residence Club Resales (LRCR) is a professionally licensed real estate brokerage established specifically to serve Four Seasons Residence Club owners at Aviara and Scottsdale in Arizona. As a separate division, Luxury Residence Club Resales works exclusively with Four Seasons Residence Clubs, operating a highly-effective resale service for Residence Club owners.
The photographic material used on their website – which was recently transferred to the Your Web Department platform – conveys the sophisticated atmosphere associated with the Four Seasons brand. Here are a few examples taken directly from their website www.luxuryresidenceclubresales.com
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
It’s extremely gratifying for us when our platform is able to help experienced communications professionals integrate website design and building services into their offering. Conrad Ferguson & Associates provided this great testimonial on how they were able to transition to the Web with the help of Your Web Department.
About us
Conrad Ferguson & Associates was created in 2006 to use the power of design to help companies create powerful and lasting first impressions through effective communications.
We focus on the strategic direction, conceptual development, and management of execution of the full range of marketing and communications projects including brand identity, promotional collateral, corporate publications, advertising, newsletters, long documents (white papers, reports and proposals) and web media.
Our passion is transformational design: we love taking an outdated visual identity or an arsenal of poorly performing marketing tool and redesigning them so they will attract new customers and lead to increased sales. It’s not about making it pretty---it’s about making it work.
We choose not to specialize---over the years we’ve worked for clients in every business sector and on a wide range of communication challenges. Our portfolio demonstrates our ability to find a solution that is just right for our client regardless of their sector. And we love the variety!
As a seasoned creative director and communications designer, Laurelea Conrad has over 20 years’ experience working with Fortune 500 Companies as part of the leadership team at global PR companies, including Burson-Marsteller Canada and Hill & Knowlton Canada. It is this higher level thinking that separates us from so many other design firms who, while passionate about design, know far less about communication.
About working with YWD
Your Web Department has enabled us to enter the web design world by saving us from the myriad of frustrations and costs that occur when working with programmers who lack design sensibility.
YWD’s platform is designer-friendly. YWD’s support team is designer-friendly. And YWD’s pricing makes it affordable and easy for our clients. It’s been a win-win-win solution. I love the way YWD continuously works to improve the ease with which the program works and how much effort is put into developing online help tools, videos, blogs and updates.
Not only have we been able to expand our services to include website design and building, but it is wonderful to know we can always rely on YWD to help us when we get stuck. There is a lot to know with web design and building and I’m eternally grateful to have YWD and My WD!
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
We like to think that Your Web Department is a better a solution than Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal, but it is even better when our clients think so too. This great Top 10 list was created by one of our long time clients and partners, Monica Yother.
Monica Yother has been designing since 1987, in that time she has been a Marking Director, a Creative Director, won local and national awards for her work and most importantly she has helped improve her customer’s businesses through great design. Monica uses YWD for her website, www.my-designs.net and has used YWD to deliver about 15 websites for her customers.
Monica encourages her web customers to use YWD, this is why:
Learning curve is very small for anyone using the system, especially for clients once the site is built.
Forget about updating the software every week or so, YWD does it for you! Count the time you spend updating Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal, PLUS all the Plugins and Widgets…which brings me to the next point…
Plugins and Widgets…forget about them too! Not only can these cause conflict with each other (anyone building a site with freeware will know that at some point a plugin will conflict with something on your site and create another reason to update, deactivate, reactivate a plugin). When YWD updates or adds something to their software they also activate it in your site
Security. While nothing is 100% guaranteed in life, especially the security of a website, the chances of having your site hacked is hugely reduced with YWD for a couple of reasons. I’ve never had a site hacked or compromised in any way with YWD, while I’ve had several instances of hackers on Wordpress sites.
SEO is easier in YWD. Most of the time, when I pick up working on someone’s Wordpress site, they have added some SEO packages along the way, and while some are good, some are not…and unless you spend time researching it you won’t know.
Support, Support Support. I have been working with YWD for several years now, and I know that I can call them on the phone and talk to them. Yes, a live person. Wordpress does not have that option, and if you go with a theme builder (Woo, Headway, Genesis, Elegant Themes, Theme Forest, etc.) you will not get a phone call…and most times the questions you post in their crowded forums do not get answered. Though, to be fair, Woo has a pretty good team, but still, no phone call).
Support. I have to say it again. I feel confident that YWD has my back, so if I tell my client I’ll check on something for them and get back soon, I can keep that promise because I know that I can email or call support at YWD and get an answer.
I teach Wordpress workshops to people because I have built quite a few sites with it, and without exception, the ONLY reason people want to use it is because they want to update it themselves. However, I run into the situation ALL the time where a site has been built with some obsolete theme, or one that is super restrictive, and my client cannot make any changes. Not only that but they have already paid a good amount of money (way too much to install a theme without customization) so they are stuck again. This is not an issue with YWD in any way….you can change the design of the site anytime.
E-commerce does not have to be complicated, while I have not built a large catalog sales type site yet, I do have paypal integrated with one site and am about to build another site selling items.
$49 a month gets you: backups, support, stability and an ever-improving system …and most of all peace of mind. And that is priceless.
Check out some of the great websites that Monica has created for her customers:
Interested in working with Monica on your next design project? You can reach her at:
Gustavo Jabbaz started his digital career as a designer and then became a developer and these days spends most of his time as a digital marketer. A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for day-to-day operations, marketing and development strategy. He is who you talk to when you need support with SEO and/or Social Media. Gustavo Jabbaz on Google+ | Twitter
In 2012, instead of coming up with new answers, we changed the questions. We seriously asked ourselves “Who really needs us?”. We then investigated the ways in which we could actually help them.
We used to think that all businesses wanted a system in which they could create their websites by themselves. That’s true for some (including several of our clients) but what many really need is someone to help them do it. And frankly, more often than not, someone to just go ahead an do it for (or rather, with) them.
From that epiphany was born LiveBuild, where we build your business website – sharing all our years of strategy, marketing and design insights – while the you watches from your computer, make suggestions, etc. It’s taking off.
There is an alternative to good service: it’s called “kick-ass” service
Good features are cool and we have lots of them, but what people really want is someone on the other end that understands them and is able to help. Our team is small and we’re not perfect but we go the extra mile to solve our clients' problems. Really, we have an extraordinary bunch of people here working hard and long hours to make sure everything is running smoothly.
Whether it’s a small business having difficulties with their domain registrar or a designer who needs help designing a website for their own client using our platform, I can honestly say we care and try to do our best. And it’s starting to show, we get lots of positive feedback and word of mouth is making a difference.
No silver bullet
Social media is no panacea, yet it’s important. Let’s say you’re a professional runner; you need good running shoes. If yours are much heavier than your competitors and have a hole at the bottom you may still win, but it’s unlikely. Conversely, having the best running shoes in the world won’t make you beat Usain Bolt in the 100m dash.
But we decided to use our social media “shoes” more effectively since early in 2012, and have been following up on that ever since. By tweating and FB-ing about things that we believe matter to businesses and designers, we started to interact more frequently with them. By blogging more consistently we forced ourselves to research and be more up to date with the issues that are important not just for us but to our clients as well.
But that’s not enough. We also invested a lot of time in making our product and the services we provide much better and easier to use. By introducing YWD Looks we were able to significantly speed up the process of creating a professionally-designed website. By adding new tools to our Content Management System – Google Maps, Real Estate, 301 Redirects and many others – we made our CMS much more robust. And by being proactive in terms of our mobile-optimized offering we were able to satisfy an important need of our clients.
We are our clients
Your Web Department itself is a small company. We’ve been in business for a few years now and have many clients, and their numbers are growing. But we face competition, just like our clients do. We live in difficult economic times, and we understand how important it is for us that our clients succeed. And I hope they realize that too.
Honestly, there’s no better reward in our business when, through the website they have with us, clients are able to achieve their goals. Or when a designer gets new clients for themselves (and in many cases make a living) because they’re using our platform.
This happened several times in 2012 and we hope will happen even more in 2013.
And how about you?
I’d love to know from you – whether you’re one of our clients or not – if you think we’re on the right track. Visit our public website at www.yourwebdepartment.com and let us know if you like our message, our brand, our service. Please feel free to share your own stories here. And best of luck for you and your business in 2013!
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
Georgia Hardy Tours is a premium travel company that designs custom itineraries around the globe for discerning small groups, student travelers and educational institutions. What began as a company focused on school travel and March Break trips has grown to include student summer courses, AQ teacher courses abroad, museum tours and custom journeys to many of the world’s most exciting and exotic destinations.
They update their nicely-designed Your Web Department website regularly by themselves, including image galleries and videos. The excellent photographic material conveys the kind of unique experience that Georgia Hardy can provide.
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
Atec Signs is a full service and manufacturing company specializing in providing signs to the gaming, entertainment, retail, commercial, and industrial sectors throughout Canada and the US.
A client of Your Web Department, Atec's products include architectural lighting & signage, LED displays, program signage, pylons, street furniture and wayfinding systems – they're at the forefront of sign technology.
Their website interface is minimalistic and simple to navigate. It's also very fast and search engine-optimized, as are all Your Web Department websites which include the AT&T Performing Arts Center, The Toronto Design Exchange, PricewaterhouseCoopers and thousands of other business websites of all sizes throughout the world.
Here are a few examples of the great photographic work you can find throughout the Atec Signs website.
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
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