Greetings, readers! Welcome to the Summer's End issue of ZooNews, from professional Web site design company Zoonini Web Services. I hope everyone's enjoyed their summer, no matter what crazy weather you might have been dealt in your neck of the woods.

As we gear up for fall in the northern hemisphere and that unmistakable "back to school" scent of fresh binders and multicoloured crayon packs pervades office-supply stores everywhere, it's a good time for business owners to ask ourselves, "Is my Web site ready for MY big season?"

Your peak time of year may not be back to school – it might very well be the Christmas/New Year period, springtime, or for many tourist-oriented businesses, summer itself. No matter when it is – or even if you're equally busy all year round – the waning days of summer can be a great time to map out a plan for ensuring your Web site is ready for your busy season.

Cast a critical eye at your site and take stock of how well it reflects your company's current offerings and abilities. Ask yourself:

• Do you have new products or services available that should be highlighted to make the site more relevant for visitors?
• Could you gather new testimonials from satisfied clients and customers to help turn visitors into buyers?
• Could new photos be added?
• Has the look-and-feel become dated or simply tired – could the design stand to be refreshed?
• Are you excited to start using some social media tools that can be tied into your site in various ways, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr?
• What marketing or advertising campaigns might help drive more visitors to your site?
• Is your site attracting the traffic it should via keyword searches on search engines – could more be done to optimize your site?
• Would you like to try blogging to provide regular updates to visitors and nurture a community of readers and commenters?

Try to think at least six months ahead to allow yourself enough time to develop your new content and have your site updated – without feeling under too much pressure to make a tight deadline.

As paper newspapers continue to die off, newspaper lingo finds itself being used in new contexts. One example is "above the fold" – employed in newspaper jargon to define printed content that appears literally above the traditional broadsheet's half-fold. On the Web, it refers to the valuable portion of screen real estate that can be viewed without making visitors scroll down. One thing to keep in mind is that, depending on the visitor's monitor size and resolution, one person's "above the fold" may be another's "below the fold"!

Got a technology term you'd like demystified in ZooNews? Send it to questions@zoonini.com.

We've launched two new interesting sites since the last issue of ZooNews. Our new online home for internationally exhibited, Montreal-based visual artist Dorothy Grostern features a clean look to keep the focus on her artwork. The bilingual site presents highlights from Dorothy's 25+ year career, and an online portfolio showcases dozens of pieces from her repertoire, including drawings, sculpture, paintings, and prints. We used the ZenPhoto gallery system to allow Dorothy to manage her own portfolio selections through an easy-to-use Web-based administration area.

The Leading Women project aims to help women of all ages find and develop their inner leader. The site was built using the WordPress content-mangagement platform to allow the project's founders, Janet Walkow and Christine Jacobs, to keep the site's resources and information up-to-date easily. It features a blog as well as Twitter and Facebook tie-ins to let them reach their target audience via several avenues.

Montreal has been hopping with a plethora of stimulating events around Web and social media. In July, I soaked up a weekend's worth of WordPress knowledge and inspiration at WordCamp Montreal. Not only did I meet other WordPress enthusiasts, I had the opportunity to hear two gurus speak – WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, and interface/experience designer Jane Wells.

Within the coming month, I plan to attend the Citizen Media Rendezvous (August 26) being organized by the National Film Board to look at the challenges of community collaboration and technology – and PodCamp Montreal (September 19 & 20), which dubs itself a "new media unconference." Thanks to the generosity of sponsors, both events are free – I hope to see some of you there!

If you find ZooNews useful, you might be interested in an upcoming Webinar I'll be giving in conjunction with WXN, the Women's Executive Network. On October 7 at noon ET, frequent collaborator Charlotte Riley and I will be presenting "Deadly Web Site Sins that Can Kill Your Business... And How to Avoid Them." It's free for both members and non-members of WXN, so register now to reserve your place!

À la prochaine,

kp
aka Kathryn Presner