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There's a number of factors we take into consideration here at Mellon & Co. when developing search engine optimization strategies. One major factor is inbound links, also referred to as backlinks, or links from other websites pointing to yours.  

There is something for everyone! Visit Ellicottvilleny.com and find information on everything from Amish trails to area casinos and nightlife, exhibits and museums, and a variety of sports.

The Council on Addiction Recovery Education Services is reaching out to a local need—problem gambling. The CARE is a division of the Cattaraugus County Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, who recently approached Mellon & Co. to design a website to help people with gambling addictions. The website, “itsherenow.org,” is now live, and features a variety of statistics and resources for those in need of help, as well as others affected by the addiction. “Itsherenow.org” describes the various states of gambling addictions, including problem gambling, which the CCASA defines as gambling behavior that, “Causes disruptions in any major area of one’s life: psychological, physical, social or vocational.” The Council on Addiction Recovery Education Services seeks to help people with these behaviors by informing them on both the conditions they have, and how to get help. One of the site’s sections is a “Facts,” page, that links to various sub-pages, which include “Definitions,” “Signs,” “Effects,” “Youth Gambling,” and “How to Get Help,” pages. There is also a contact number listed on every main page of the site. Other site sections include pages dedicated to “Educators,” “Parents and Adults,” “Teens,” “Kids,” and a “Media Section.” These pages include lots of useful information for all ages. The page is designed and maintained by Mellon & Co. Working out of offices in Olean and Ellicottville, Mellon & Co. is a Marketing and Communications company that specializes in marketing, web-design, and technical services. Mellon & Co. is also a member of the Olean, Ellicottville, and Salamanca Chambers of Commerce.

In our last article, we considered the concept of going green, and how that largely involves the principle of reduction, in various senses of the word. It was noted that reduction begins with observation: observing how others are doing things, observing how we are doing things, and combining these observations to see how we can do things better. Today we will look at a particular type of office introspection, the waste audit, and how to conduct one. In layman’s terms, a waste audit is basically breaking down all your office’s waste, so that you can see what sorts of items compose the majority of your output. This lets you know where you are doing well, where you are falling short, and when considered astutely it will let your garbage tell you how you can do better. This is one case in which doing better can save your business a significant amount of money. For example, if you realize that a lot of your waste is composed of a recyclable material, say cardboard, you can concentrate more on recycling cardboard instead of simply trashing it. Not only is this environmentally friendly, it also cuts down on the garbage that you are paying to be taken away. Less garbage = smaller dumpster. Let’s begin by taking a look at the basic steps involved: 1. Plan Your Audit 2. Gather Your Waste 3. Sift through Your findings 4. Consider How You can do Better 5. Revise Office Conduct to Improve Now let’s consider each of these in closer detail: 1. Plan Your Audit As with anything, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Planning your waste audit is one of the most important steps in the process. Planning for an audit is not overly difficult, but it should take priority. The two major things you should consider in your planning are numbers and space. The term, “numbers” comes to mean several things. First, how many buildings are you planning to audit, and how many floors does each location consist of. For our purposes, we will consider auditing a small company’s single location, which has just a single floor. This way, you can see the basic process, which can then be adapted to a larger environment through teams of people if necessary. The second meaning of numbers here pertains to the number of people involved, on both ends of the audit. The more people you have working in the location, the more people you will probably need helping with the audit. For the case in consideration, if this single location has less than twenty people working in it, you will probably only need several people involved. There is a handy chart of estimations for size / auditors ratios at: http://solidwastedistrict.com/projects/waste_audit.htm. It is very important to consider not only how many people you have as auditors, but who is auditing, and when. These people will be sifting through what may be very confidential material. As much as we all know that items of extreme importance should be shredded before being discarded this is not always the case. Additionally, there is a personal privacy issue that needs to be considered. In the waste audit we are only looking at what sorts of materials are being discarded, and to what amounts. Although it may certainly be helpful to refine your search so that you can determine the specific location of a type of material (e.g., if paper is your leading waste, asking “Is most of this paper waste personal paper waste from workers, or is it from a corporate document?”), auditors need to be mindful of the fact that they are going through garbage. Even if it is the company’s garbage, issues of ethics should always be courted with care. The basic point is, make sure that you have an ample amount of people conducting the audit, and that they are trustworthy people. Space is also a factor for consideration. Walking through the entirety of your workspace can be a helpful step. It is sort of like the scientific method: Observe, make a hypothesis, and then test this. Look at your office, hypothesize over your weakest areas that lead to leading wastes, then conduct your audit to see. This also helps to look at the general workflow of your office holistically. Remember, waste efficiency is only one component of efficiency as a whole. We want to improve the entire process by improving each component. Planning also includes elements of time. First, you should plan your audit at an appropriate time. It is no help to conduct it at a time of the year or week when you know you have an atypical amount of waste. However, although you should probably notify your employees that a waste audit is being conducted, telling them when it is being conducted will probably not be beneficial, since it will probably affect their actions. Once you have determined how many people you will need, who will be involved, and when you will conduct your audit, you can move into planning the collection phase. 2. Gather Your Waste: There are basically two ways to go about collecting your waste. You could collect it totally unfiltered. While the idea behind the audit is to collect as naturally as possible, there is an alternative that is just as helpful: Filter down your disposal as much as possible beforehand. For example, after your audit is done you will probably want to separate your waste outlets anyway, and since you will need to separate them for the audit, you might just as well break down the areas for your wastes before you begin. For example, distribute different receptacles for your different wastes, so that all paper goes in one box, cardboard in another, only pop-cans in another, etc. When you do this, make following the intended procedure as easy as possible, while also making it as difficult as possible to diverge from the intended action. So, say you wanted to encourage workers to recycle paper as much as possible. Keep a recycling bin by the printer/copier, have them keep smaller bins by their desks, and then an accompanying bin large enough to collect their desk bin paper at several central locations. Or, say you wanted to reduce the amount of pop bottles going into the garbage; you could put out a bin with a top that has slotted holes, which are only large enough to let the bottles through. The slots, in particular, make it harder to just toss in other trash, such as gum or little bits of paper. By funneling these elements before your audit begins, you have already started the efficiency process—making it easier to focus on any one of the elements after the audit—and you have already separated the waste into its individual components, thus saving you work during the sifting. Regardless of whether or not you elect to separate the waste like this beforehand, it is important to keep track of where the garbage is coming from. Come up with some system to label the waste in terms of source (e.g., putting a label such as “Office paper,” or “Lounge paper” on respective bags), so that you can pinpoint your problem areas. The size of your company may facilitate entailing the cooperation of your janitors for this. However you choose to gather your waste, it all needs to be taken to one, secure location at one time, so that you have it all there in front of you. It should be secure in the sense that you will not have anyone but the auditors exposed to the waste. This is for their protection, as well as for securing the ethical distance mentioned above—you shouldn’t have the waste out there for just anyone to come in and rifle through. 3. Sift Through Your Waste Once you have gathered all your waste it’s time to examine it. As noted above, this should be done in a hermetic location. You should also take several sanitary measures, such as laying down plastic (a thin tarp, or garbage bags will work) over your work area. Every auditor should definitely be equipped with gloves, and a first aid kit and some form of strong disinfectant should be ready at hand. Some people even prefer to wear protective overalls, but this is left to your discretion. The next step is to carefully separate all of the elements into manageable sections. All the paper should be together, all cardboard, all bottles, all plastic, etc. Be as meticulous as possible. This will be much easier if you use the method of doing this beforehand prescribed above. Once you have the elements separated it’s time to weigh them all in, and then add the respective weights together for a sum weight, so that you can see the proportions of your contributing wastes. There are a number of ways to weigh the waste in, and keep track of it all. Some are simpler, such as this site’s audit form method: http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/wm/recycle/FACTS/ComRec.htm Others prefer to be a bit more meticulous, as with the procedures outlined here: http://www.cook.rutgers.edu/~envpurchase/basics_cycle_audits.htm Whatever method you prefer, the basic strategy is to weigh it all in, and keep track of the respective parts. This can be as simple as taking a scale from home, weighing yourself in, then weighing yourself holding a bag and subtracting your body weight. You should be meticulous, but without making this step any harder than it has to be. 4. Consider Now you should have a pretty clear idea of where your waste is coming from. Your challenge now is to look at how to reduce, recycle, and reuse. The ways to accomplish these three objectives are as innumerable as the circumstances in which they have to be accomplished. We will consider such objectives in articles to come, but for the moment, the Rutgers site that I linked above also has some very helpful ideas. 5.Revise The last step is just to change your conduct. Put whatever strategies you came up with during your consideration phase into practice, and conduct another waste audit at a later time to track your progress.

With the big green boom, it seems like everyone is going green—but what exactly does that mean? How do you go green with your business? Would you even want to if you knew what that would entail? You should; in the end, going green can save you and your company a lot of time, hassle, and money, in addition to all the altruistic benefits to the environment. You don’t have to be Bono to make this kind of commitment, though. Rather, in many instances going green may simply mean a clear look at different ways your company can conserve, in various ways, and taking active steps to make those conservations. Like any commitment, this sort of change begins with a vision. Vision, of course, entails image. What does this look like? To many people, the term going green conjures up an image of the ever-elusive paperless office. The question, of course, is how to make this passionate, paperless dream manifest. There are many ways to do this, but they all begin with lots of research, both introspectively, as well as externally. Read up on the matter. For the broad strokes, visit http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/how-to-go-paperless-bury-the-paper-before-it-buries-you.html. For a more in depth process analysis, check out http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/Jun2005/johnston.htm. Once you understand the fundamentals, take a close look at your company. Look at the overall workflow, and eliminate any redundancies. Look at any superfluous paper usage. Scan in old documents, such as invoices, and keep them digitally. Set a date, after which all primary copies of records will be digital, and all old records will have been digitized. The equipment and programming for these sorts of transitions, such as scanners, is cheaper than ever. Whatever you do, keep in mind that the manner in which the paperless concept will take form is unique to your company. If the idea of going paperless seems a bit daunting, don’t worry. Although one should not give up on the idea simply because it is difficult, paperless offices are not the only green ones. As mentioned above, practical strategies for going green do not necessarily entail clichés, so much as realistic, innovative ways of reducing in general. Reduction can be attained by any company, anywhere, regardless of size, product, or service. One leading example is Wal-Mart. Billionaire John Doerr, a partner in the renowned VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, cited Wal-Mart’s reduction efforts in a talk he gave at the Ted conference, which you can view at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/john_doerr_sees_salvation_and_profit_in_greentech.html. Doerr cites Wal-Mart as the largest private employer in America, and also as the largest private user of electricity. One might surmise that given Wal-Mart’s immense size, any sort of reformation would entail massive overhaul. Yet Wal-Mart, in the middle of its operation, committed to reduce its energy usage in existing stores by 20%, and usage in new stores by 30%. This was achieved through various innovative methods, including the addition of skylights to take advantage of daylight. There are two basic principles that can be observed from Wal-Mart. The first is commitment. It is not enough to say that something must, or will happen. If you want to save your company money, then you need to take the risk of saying that a certain action will be done by a certain date. This labels the idea as a priority, thus making it urgent. So set the goal, make the plan, and then make it happen. The second principle to be learned is innovation. Painting the roof white to keep the building cooler, using skylights—these are modifications that anyone take advantage of, but they are also specific to Wal-Mart’s needs, and ability to change. Reduction, in every respect of the word, begins not with a grandiose scheme to overhaul the entire company, but by looking at the things that you can feasibly change, one step at a time. Conduct a waste audit (which will be discussed later). Talk to a plumber about pressure reducers or flow constrictors for your water. These are just a few practical ways to conserve waste in your workplace. In the next article, we will start to take a look more specifically at ways you can accomplish this.

This accurate description of Integrated Marketing Communications, the words often heard when describing the field, are an important part of what we do at Mellon & Co. It may help our clients, and even prospective clients, to have a deeper understanding of our core philosophy: Marketing: It is a process. We measure the results of the process by number of customers, sales, amount of profit generated, etc. Marketing Communications (MC): This is an umbrella term for all communication avenues available for conveying marketing messages. These include advertising, public relations, sales promotions, direct response marketing, events, sponsorships, point-of-purchase materials, packaging, trade shows, customer service, and personal sales. MC is measured as the proportion of marketing dollars assigned to each avenue and the marketing return on investment (MROI) for each. Marketing Mix: The specific MC elements used by an organization, measured in marketing dollars and MROI. Brand: It is the total collection of perceptions and associations (good, bad, and indifferent) that differentiate an organization from its competitors. Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC): Another process. IMC is the organization, planning, and monitoring of marketing components and data to control and influence brand information, associations, and experiences. The goal is to incubate profitable relationships and dialog with patients and other groups. This is typically measured by internal and external surveys, focus groups, managerial accounting, trend analyses, referral indices, etc. [Source: audiologyonline.com, describing how they use IMC for their business model.] Read the full article.

Mellon & Co. announces the launch of a brand new Web site for Custom Creations Fine Jewelry. Based out of Olean, N.Y., Custom Creations takes your thoughts and designs your dreams, creating jewelry as unique as you.Custom Creations, a full-service jewelry store, sells jewelry for any occasion. The store’s owners Terry and Marianne Klein have more than three decades of experience in the industry. Terry holds certificates in diamonds and diamond grading from the Gemological Institute of America. Custom Creations currently employs three full- time bench jewelers, including Terry.The online store allows visitors to easily browse the shop’s unique collection of platinum bridal rings, wedding bands, Celtic jewelry, diamond fashions, birthstone jewelry, colored gemstone fashions and religious jewelry. For fun or some help making an important purchase, shoppers can click on the stone of the month feature, gift giving guide or jewelers’ tips.A secure shopping basket makes purchases safe and convenient. Shoppers can easily contact the store through an E-mail form or call the store directly for help.With Mellon EditPro, a content management system (CMS) from Mellon & Co., the Kleins have full access to the Web site. New items can be added and updated and orders can be processed with just a few clicks. An inventory system manages online purchases against in-store stock to help ensure all sales are filled and quality customer service is maintained. If you are shopping for that special someone or want to treat yourself, visit ccgem.net. For more information on how Mellon & Co. can help you, visit melonco.com. 

Mellon & Co. announces the launch of Daff Dry Good’s Web site at daffevl.com. Daff Dry Goods offers clothing, accessories and footwear from around the country, fitting for any cowgirl, cowboy or little buckaroo. Inspired by friendship and the Old West, mother-daughter duo and Daff’s owners Laura and Arlene Solly hoped to capture the American pioneer spirit and bring it to Ellicottville, N.Y. They invite you to visit the Web site or take a trip to Ellicottville, join their story and become inspired. As displayed on the user-friendly Web site, Daff’s offers quality goods from designer names. Women’s clothing and accessories feature Tasha Polizzi, Cripple Creek, Montana Leather, Patricia Wolfe and Scully. Collections of sportswear and outerwear include Icelandic Designs, Nomadic Traders, Patagonia, Royal Robins, Tianello Tencel and Wooly Bully Fleece. Men’s clothing and accessories feature Patagonia, Pendleton and Royal Robbins. Outdoor wear includes selections from Outback Trading Company, Scully and Cripple Creek. Children’s clothing showcases matching raincoats, backpacks, boots and umbrellas to keep little ones dry and looking stylish.Selected footwear styles for men, women and children feature Ariat, Blundstone, Born, Dansko, Earth, El Naturalista, J-41, Simple, Teva and UGG Australia. Visitors to the custom-designed Web site can shop with an easy-to-use shopping cart feature, purchase gift cards, follow Daff’s blog and register to join the mailing list. With a few clicks and simple E-mail form, visitors can contact the store with questions and comments. Mellon and Co. has equipped the Solly’s with Mellon EditPro, giving them easy access to all pages on the site with the content management system (CMS). Now, it’s easy to update content and feature new designers, items and events, like the March Midnight Madness Sale on March 7. Visit daffevl.com for more information or to see what Mellon & Co. can do for you visit melonco.com.  

It’s fair to say that here at Mellon & Co. we are jacks of all trades, so to speak. We’ve worked with banks, chambers of commerce, real estate agencies, manufacturers, retailers, restaurants and the list goes on. With each new industry we delve into, comes a new challenge. And each challenge brings with it a new opportunity to further expand our deep warehouse of unique and custom-built web tools and talents. The recent launch of the Cellofourte website highlights such an opportunity. A dynamic cello quartet based in Pittsburgh, PA, quickly on its way to the national scene, needed to upgrade its Wordpress-based website with a content management system-based web presence that they could easily manage on their own—a trend among many of our clients. The challenge? Media. As a band, it’s important for Cellofourte to tickle the senses of its fans. Highlighting its music was a must, of course, but showing off the unique style of Cellofourte was vital to capturing the true essence of a band that blurs the lines between rock and classical music. Video was also important. What band has made it big without being able to rock a live audience? And take it from us, Cellofourte does not disappoint a crowd. So we created a website at cellofourte.com that is truly a multi-media showcase of Cellofourte. A custom audio player can be launched from each page and travels with you so you never lose the music. A video page houses music videos and live performances and the photo gallery gives you a good look at the style of Cellofourte, allowing you to meet each one of the members. And the best part is that Cellofourte has complete control over each of the elements. Quick edits are a cinch, all thanks to the genius of our web developers in customizing our Mellon EditPro CMS to work with the band’s needs. Cellofourte blogs regularly and keeps fans up-to-date on where it will be rocking next, on both the website and in an email mailing list (that you can sign up for on the website, of course). We can’t forget to mention that Cellofourte has released its second album: Combustion. You’ll notice a striking resemblance between the album artwork and their new website. It’s a great example of integrated marketing, and the Mellon & Co. professional philosophy, at work.

The Ellicottville Wingate Inn approached Mellon & Co. with an interesting challenge. A top-rated business hotel in the bustling, ski resort laden community of Ellicottville, NY, the Wingate needed to preserve its online brand identity, while upgrading to a more user-friendly and functional layout. With this project, it’s what you don’t see that we are the most proud of. While we did add an animated flash banner that allows for crisper, rotating top-page images and tweaked some of the page layouts for ease of scanning, it’s the backend functionality that really makes the difference. We ported the site into our Mellon EditPro content management system, giving the Wingate the level of control it was looking for. With just an internet connection and a few clicks of the mouse, they can now showcase upcoming events and promotions, update outdated photographs, even in the flash banner, and easily add new features to keep up with ever-changing technology—without starting from scratch or breaking the bank. Other aspects of the Wingate Inn project included the integration of the Google Maps application and search engine optimization enhancements. All upgrades to the website position the Wingate to stay abreast of new technology, changing user needs and a dynamic online competitive landscape.

We’ve disappeared from the blogosphere for a little while, but boy have we been busy here at Mellon & Co.! We’ve gone live with a number of new client websites and over the next several entries we’ll be sharing some of those web design and web development projects with you. One of these web projects was for Cattaraugus County Bank (CCB). With 9 locations around Western New York – including Jamestown, Randolph and Salamanca – CCB has its roots in Little Valley, NY. While its history stems back over one hundred years, it needed a 21st century web presence. And that’s were we came in. A fresh, clean design, couples with solid, custom programming in CCB’s new site at www.ccblv.com. You’ll find our signature flash rotator at the top of the page, the beauty of which lies on the user end by allowing CCB’s webmaster to easily change out images without an ounce of flash programming knowledge. The bank can also easily change out the text on the website’s pages, without downloading or purchasing any additional software, using our proprietary Mellon & Co. EditPro content management system.    The Cattaraugus County Bank project also included our initial search engine optimization consultation and web hosting on our secure server. Of course, we kicked off the project with a thorough web assessment and web marketing plan to ensure a strategic focus and look forward to adding additional features to CCB’s website, including virtual tours of its branch locations.

The Council on Addiction Recovery Education Services is reaching out to a local need—problem gambling. The CARE is a division of the Cattaraugus County Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, who recently approached Mellon & Co. to design a website to help people with gambling addictions. The website, “itsherenow.org,” is now live, and features a variety of statistics and resources for those in need of help, as well as others affected by the addiction. “Itsherenow.org” describes the various states of gambling addictions, including problem gambling, which the CCASA defines as gambling behavior that, “Causes disruptions in any major area of one’s life: psychological, physical, social or vocational.” The Council on Addiction Recovery Education Services seeks to help people with these behaviors by informing them on both the conditions they have, and how to get help. One of the site’s sections is a “Facts,” page, that links to various sub-pages, which include “Definitions,” “Signs,” “Effects,” “Youth Gambling,” and “How to Get Help,” pages. There is also a contact number listed on every main page of the site. Other site sections include pages dedicated to “Educators,” “Parents and Adults,” “Teens,” “Kids,” and a “Media Section.” These pages include lots of useful information for all ages. The page is designed and maintained by Mellon & Co. Working out of offices in Olean and Ellicottville, Mellon & Co. is a Marketing and Communications company that specializes in marketing, web-design, and technical services. Mellon & Co. is also a member of the Olean, Ellicottville, and Salamanca Chambers of Commerce.

Mellon & Co. is pleased to announce completion and launch of Cornell University Cooperative Extension’s new Web site. The site launched in early June, and may be viewed at http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/allegany_cattaraugus. The team at Mellon worked closely with key individuals from Cornell to build an online platform that offers improved access to diverse information about the organization and how it serves its communities. Highlights of the site are informational resources including Cattaraugus-Allegany 4-H, agriculture, environmental opportunities, consumer science, and healthy living and wellness in the Southern Tier. There are also unique resources that residents of Cattaruaugs and Allegany can learn about on the Web site. These include gardening and and environmental destinations, such as Nannen Arboretum, a non-profit, volunteered based organization dedicated to providing home garden and natural resource education, test plots for research, and an opportunity for nature appreciation and leisure. Another vital resource is the Southern Tier Wellness Partnership, which provides information, education, and services surrounding diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and cancer. The Partnership provides resources and support to change the environment and policies that have become barriers for its citizens to lead a healthy lifestyle. These items, and many others, make Cornell University Cooperative Extension a unique and valuable resource to residents of Cattaraugus and Allegany counties. Working on the planning, design, and development of the web project was enjoyable and rewarding. For more information, visit the new Web site at counties.cce.cornell.edu/allegany_cattaraugus.

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.

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.

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 pleased to announce that they have launced a new Web site for M&M Enterprises of Salamanca, N.Y. (www.brookhaventownhomes.com), for its newest townhome development, Brookhaven, this week. The new Web site offers information for prospective buyers, including floorplans, directions, area information, photos, an online application, and more. Brookhaven is a brand new townhouse complex near the Seneca Allegany Casino. They offer 2 & 3 bedroom units that are spacious and well equipped. The properties come standard with lawn care, from the grass to tending to the flowers, and raking leaves and plowing snow. The complex is a great addition to our area. For more information, visit the site, or call Brookhaven at 716-945-6605.

August 16, 2007 – The Salamanca Area Chamber of Commerce has chosen Team Mellon to redesign its online identity.   The redesigned web site, www.salamancachamber.com, features a new logo and increased focus on the culture and history of the city.   “It was a delight to work with the fastest growing city in our area,” said Jeff Mellon, owner and operations director at Team Mellon. “It really was a complete makeover. The goal was to create a dynamic site that is able to evolve with Salamanca. Our team really pulled together to come up with an attractive design that highlights the features of the rising city.”   Team Mellon specializes in web development, design services, integrated marketing, and technology and computer management. More information about Team Mellon can be found at www.teammellon.com. The company will be unveiling a new look of its own in the fall.   The Salamanca Area Chamber of Commerce is a partnership of businesses and community leaders that works to enrich the quality of the economic and civic well being of its membership, business at large and the community as a whole.

For those who are new to Twitter, or the social web in general, it can be a little overwhelming. There’s lots of advice, services and proclaimed experts out there who make it even more overwhelming and confusing. Our intentions are to give you the straight talk: How can you, as a business person, use social websites like Twitter to promote your business goals?

One note before we dig in. Twitter is just one of an ever-growing number of online tools that you can use for business purposes. To really make social media work for you, you need to sprinkle your brand, your content, yourself and your company all around the web, on more than just a single website. Our intentions are to first highlight the ‘heavy-hitters’ and to get you started on platforms that you can’t afford to leave out of your arsenal of social media tools.

It’s also important to remember that Twitter is a tactic. It needs to be part of your larger communications and marketing strategy, not a replacement of it.

The Benefits of Becoming a Twitterfied Business

(Please excuse the not-so-clever Twitter reference. Just couldn’t resist!) Think about what you want to get out of Twitter. Despite Twitter’s proclaimed purpose of allowing “friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” Twitter is really a place for exchanging value – you get something that you need and offer others something of value in exchange. It’s a place of shared community and common interest.

You may choose to use Twitter for personal reasons – like communicating with friends, or maybe following your favorite celebs – and this is great. But from a business perspective, Twitter can offer a lot, including:

• Competitive Analysis. What perceptions are out there about your competition? What’s being said about them? Are they even being talked about?
• Brand Positioning. Face it: Chances are people are talking about your company, whether you’re initiating the conversation or not. If they are, you need to know about it. You need to start listening and contributing to the conversation.
• Industry Trending. Twitter is a place where thought leaders gather. What better way to stay on top of your industry than to follow and join in their conversations.
• Networking. Connect with like-minded people you have never even met and probably never will. It's the perfect place for people who cringe at the word "network" to showcase what they have to offer.
• Lead Generation. Find people who are in need of and are actively seeking the products or services you offer.
• Relationship Building. Don’t just find your prospects, get to know them and allow them to get to know you. Build even stronger bonds with existing customers.
• Customer Feedback. Reach out to your customers, on a personal level, and find out what they’re thinking. Two-way communication is key.

These are just some of the uses of Twitter for business. Every day, companies are discovering new benefits and ways to advance their business goals - one 140-character-or-less message at at time. The only way for you to know, is to get involved. Think about what it is you want to achieve on Twitter. For those who have yet to hop on the Twitter train, our next post will walk you through the step-by-step process of signing up.