Mellon & Co. is pleased to announce the launch of the Olean Bethany Lutheran Church website.

As one of many non-profit projects undertaken this year, OleanBethanyLutheran.org provides a way for the Church to reach out to congregation members and the public alike with features such as an online monthly newsletter and updated prayer list.

The Mellon & Co. team is pleased to see organizations like Bethany Lutheran utilizing the internet to communicate and relate to its constituents. Building an online presence is a great way for churches and other non-profits to promote their mission and connect with audiences they otherwise may not have reached. Read more about Mellon & Co.’s dedication to social responsibility.

If you are a non-profit or know of a non-profit that could benefit from a website, contact Mellon & Co. today to learn about our non-profit discounts.

Mellon & Co. Re-designs Ellicottville.com for new ERA Vacation Properties

Century 21 Town and Country of Ellicottville has a new name, a new look and has added a few new friendly faces.

And they’ve topped it off with a new website.

Ellicottville.com has been redesigned by Mellon & Co. to represent the branding of the new ERA Vacation Properties, which includes the former Hunt ERA, Century 21 Town and Country and Ellicottville Concierge offices of Ellicottville, NY. Century 21 Town and Country acquired the other offices April 1 and will now operate under the name ERA Vacation Properties.

ERA Vacation Properties is owned by Bill Soffel. Serving all of Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties, the newly expanded company has started the process of integrating the former Hunt agents and vacation rental properties into the Ellicottville operation.

This integration can be seen on the new web site, which provides complete details and photographs of the agents’ vacation property listings along with a number of resources for both buyers and sellers. The site serves as a full-service real estate web site including property searches, mortgage information, and vacation rentals directory.

“Our focus is to brand ERA Vacation Properties as the premier real estate, vacation rental and property management company for Cattaraugus and Chautauqua Counties. Mellon & Co. understands our vision and has been instrumental in facilitating this mission,” said Joanna Dahlbeck, director of owner and guest services for ERA Vacation Properties.

The look of Ellicottville.com mirrors that of ERAvp.com, which represents the Chautauqua offices of ERA Vacation Properties. Both websites were designed by Mellon & Co. and top off a substantial list of websites developed by Mellon & Co. within the real estate industry.

Mellon & Co. has kicked off its Illustrate Your Story campaign by introducing new web sites for several organizations and individuals. Mellon & Co. donated an Illustrate Your Story web site to Nance Jackson, a local artist, preparing for Routes to Art, a Western New York open studio art tour. Additionally, the Gus Macker 3-on-3 basketball tournament, and the Olean Ancient Order of Hibernians, and Canticle Farm were approved to receive Illustrate Your Story web sites at no charge.

The sites may be viewed at www.nljackson.com, www.oleanaoh.org, www.oleangusmacker.org, and www.canticlefarm.org. For more information about Illustrate Your Story web solutions, visit www.illustrateyourstory.com.

The New York Concrete Promotion Council is “Innovative to the Last Drop.” That’s the message boasting its mission on its new corporate identity piece, created to help complete their campaign appealing to contractors and other stakeholders in using ready mix concrete. After several months of planning and design, Mellon & Co. has completed a branded folder design for the New York State Concrete Promotion Council (NYCPC). Lisa Stephen, president of the council, worked closely with Mellon & Co.’s art and marketing department to produce a new distribution folder to promote the use of ready mix concrete throughout New York State.

The council will use the promotional pieces to distribute information at seminars and home shows, as well as spreading the word to architects, engineers, home builders, developers, and home owners.

Mellon & Co. Celebrates Grand Opening of New Olean location with Remote Broadcast and New Service

Mellon & Co. invites you to celebrate the Grand Opening of its new location at 2438 Constitution Avenue in Olean from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, April 17.

We will be hosting a remote radio broadcast with The Mix 101.5 and offering a free computer diagnostic to anyone who drops off their computer during the broadcast. The diagnostic includes virus & spyware removal, cleaning and hardware diagnostic. That’s a $25 savings. So if your computer has been acting up, Thursday’s the day to bring it in!

We’ll also be giving away gift certificates for up to $100 off of computer service, offering some great deals on Dell & Lenovo computers, we’ll officially launch our newest service, Illustrate Your Story, and we’ll be selling hot dogs to benefit the Olean YMCA.

Mellon & Co. launched a new web site for the Cattaraugus County Arts Council last week. After working on the Routes to Art site, the priority became sprucing up the organization’s main site.

The layout, designed by the Arts Council’s executive director, was applied and programmed by Mellon & Co. Mellon EditPro, an intuitive content management system was applied to the site, along with a database to allow for members and community artists to upload their work for display on the site.

Visit www.myartscouncil.net to see the project… and if you’re an artist, sign up for your free account!

April 4, 2008

Mellon & Co. has launched a new service at IllustrateYourStory.com tailored to small businesses and others looking to get started on the Web with an affordable solution.

IllustrateYourStory.com offers business builder Web sites that come with three to five prebuilt pages in one of several design themes. Essential Web design elements are placed in fixed locations to keep the sites affordable, but each is fully customized to the brand of the business or organization they promote with a custom-designed top banner.

“We realize that not every business needs an elaborate, flashy Web site,” said Heidi Ofinowicz, director of marketing at Mellon & Co. “IllustrateYourStory.com is a service that allows even the smallest organization or business to take advantage of the unlimited marketing potential of the internet with a professional website that can grow with them.”

Each Illustrate Your Story Web site, developed with the end-user in mind, is built with the Mellon EditPro Content Management System (CMS). A CMS is a tool designed to allow for the creation, modification, organization and removal of information from a Web site.

The Mellon EditPro CMS was custom developed by Mellon & Co. to allow clients to easily make changes and edits to their websites. Changing around text and images is as easy as a click of the mouse. A browser-based application, Mellon EditPro allows Web site owners to make changes from any computer with an internet connection. No software downloads or purchases are required.

“We use the Mellon EditPro as the foundation of our websites,” said Jeff Mellon, owner of Mellon & Co. “It not only allows our clients to easily maintain their own Web sites, but also allows for future growth. Creating new pages, adding features such as photo galleries and flash animation, even e-commerce, are all possible on a site built with our CMS.”

IllustrateYourStory.com Web sites come with a number of available upgrades, including email contact forms, two varieties of photo galleries, Google directions and a catalog option.

They also come with basic search engine optimization (SEO), which is one of the most important elements of web marketing, according to Mellon & Co. SEO involves a number of different tactics with the main goal of increasing ranking on search engines such as Google and Yahoo!.

“SEO is a vital element in web marketing success. Every web site we develop has a marketing focus. We don’t develop a site without at least basic SEO, and the IllustrateYourStory.com Web sites are no exception,” said Ofinowicz.

To learn more or purchase an Illustrate Your Story web site, visit IllustrateYourStory.com.

Thier motto is simple, and delicious… “Kick your life up a notch through wine, friends, and fellowship.”

While Anne Conroy-Baiter and Eva Potter, proprietresses of S.W.I.L.L. (Several Wine Imbibers Liking Libations), have been busy kicking up Western New Yorkers’ social lives, Mellon & Co. has been busy kicking up S.W.I.L.L.’s e-commerce.

Developing an intuitive system, both on the user end and internally for S.W.I.L.L., was the goal. Mellon Cart was employed to allow S.W.I.L.L. to customize their online sales operations, manage inventory, and even manage content on their pre-existing Web site. Now S.W.I.L.L. customers are offered a wealth of new options for products and payment options, and S.W.I.L.L. gained many enhanced internal control and sales management tools. This project is sure make the ease and fun of wine tasting even greater for all S.W.I.L.Lers.

If you’re looking for something new and fun, and a little bit zany, definitely check out S.W.I.L.L. by visiting www.swillparty.com. There, you will be able to buy your own products to host your own wine party. S.W.I.L.L. also hosts local parties of its own every two months, on an e-mail invitation, first come first serve R.S.V.P. system. Getting on the list is the best way to go! Contact S.W.I.L.L. for more information.

Electric Beach is a multi-faceted company in the tanning industry. With locations throughout Western New York, Mellon & Co. was selected to create an integrated front for six locations.

The company consists of three major brands. Electric Beach and Advantage Tan are the tanning salon storefront locations. Open Sun is the retail division, specializing in state of the art tanning beds and equipment.

Mellon & Co. was hired to craft a campaign that can communicate the service end of the tanning business, but leave room to later integrate the sales division.

With a very clear vision of the image desired, Electric Beach had definitive involvement in the final look and feel of the site.  A very graphic interface, with flash integration, was the end result. The site may be viewed at www.oleantanning.com. The site also resides on location-specific domains: www.tonawandatanning.com, www.williamsvilletanning.com, www.ebtanningsalons.com, www.advantagetanning.com, www.amherstanning.com.

The Electric Beach corporate office in Olean, NY does a great job of promoting the different services offered throughout the company. With their existing advertising ventures, the new Web sites serve as a way to leverage media usage already in place.  Mellon & Co. is confident that success will continue to follow Electric Beach.

Mellon & Co. is always looking for opportunities to work with local and regional non-profit organizations and events. That said, Mellon & Co. has built a close relationship with the Cattaraugus County Arts Council, after working with Executive Director, Anne Conroy-Baiter on several projects. Additionally, Mellon & Co.’s Kate Wolcott is working closely with the Arts Council to build and promote its events and programs.

With this relationship, Mellon & Co. has facilitated the set up of Conroy-Baiter’s Web layout for the up and coming Routes to Art Open Studio Tour.

During the weekend of May 17-18 2008, 33 artists in Cattaraugus County and Northern Pennslyvania will open their studio doors for this self guided open studio. It is being managed by the Arts Council, and it is designed to showcase regional artistic talent from painters, photographers, sculptors, fiber artist, handcrafted jewelers, and potters. Visitors are welcomed to drive through the region to look at art, visit with the artists, and purchase art.

Mellon & Co. set up the artist database, search engine optimization, as well as content management solutions so that the Web site can be easily managed as a tool for Routes to Art year after year. The site may be viewed at www.routestoart.com.

Mellon & Co. will also be facilitating the Arts Council’s main Web site in the following months.