British Columbia

November 21, 2009.

Mark your calendars! Santa has a busy schedule, on Salt Spring Island, on November 29th. He arrives, via floatplane (Salt Spring Air), at 1 p.m. Children are welcome to greet him at the floatplane dock! At 1:10 p.m., Santa travels aboard a Salt Spring Fire Dept Truck, and heads to Mahon Hall. From 1:15 to 3 p.m., free photos of the kids with Santa, at Mahon Hall. (Will also be Arts & Crafts activities, Cookie Decorating, big screen Holiday Videos (courtesy of Island Star Video), hot cocoa & goodies). Enjoy! (A non-perishable item or a donation to the food bank would be welcomed).

The IODE is celebrating 95 years of service on Salt Spring Island. So many groups have received help from the fundraising and generosity of the IODE membership, over the years. Don't know much about this group? Check it out! New members welcomed.

Mother Tongue Press launches the latest in their "artist series". This is the book launch of the second Unheralded Artists of B.C., with the opening of the show taking place on November 21st, today, at Mahon Hall. The show remains open until Nov. 28th, daily. Don't miss this, and be sure to speak with Mona Fertig about the impetus behind this series. You'll be glad you did!

At Fulford Hall, on Nov. 28th, enjoy an all-star old-time band, and one of the best callers in North America, for a night of dancing. Never been to an old time dance? You have a treat awaiting you! Admission is $10 at the door, music begins around 7:30 p.m., and Fiddleworks will be providing the concession for the evening. Have fun!

Moby's live music: tonight it's Jazz/Folk/Blues, with James Conway (8 to 11 p.m.), and Sunday it's Jazz (Wanda Nowicki and Friends) 7 to 10 p.m. Enjoy!

Don't forget Scrooge meets the Duke, tonight at ArtSpring, at 8 p.m., with a 2 p.m. show tomorrow, Sunday.

Yes, the Christmas Light Up Decorating Contest takes place again, with judging on Nov. 27th. Such talent on display in the shops and banks...a pleasure to wander the Village.

Salt Spring's newest gallery opens in Grace Point Square, on Nov. 27th, with open house on Saturday, November 28th (11 to 4). Artists in attendance - refreshments served. Called Starfish Gallery & Studio, the space joins J. Mitchell Gallery, Steffich FineArt Gallery, and Frankly Scarlett -- all gems in Grace Point Square. Enjoy dinner, too, at Bocados Bistro and Auntie Pesto's.

Chef's Creations and Live Music, every weekend, at the Harbour House Hotel Tonight, it's Vaughn Fulford and the Folke Fiendes!

Fulford Community Hall's Christmas Artisan Fair is Friday, Dec. 4th (5 to 9 p.m.), and Saturday the 5th, 9 to 5 p.m., and Sunday the 6th, from 9 to 4 p.m. Shop for gifts from Salt Spring's talented artisans, and enjoy fabulous food and decadent desserts, between browsings. Don't miss this, and don't forget to bring a donation for the foodbank. Appreciated!

Did you know that Calvin's Bistro has a 3 Course Special Dinner menu, for only $18.999, called November Blues? Enjoy! Offer expires on Dec. 5th, as Calvin's famous Traditional Christmas Menu starts on December 8th. Book for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve special dinners at Calvin's.

Today is also the Anglican Parish Christmas Bazaar, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at All Saints by the Sea, in Ganges Village.

Remember to tune into the local community radio station, too (check out the lineup of programming on their website (www.cfsi-fm.com) at 107.9 on your fm dial.

Yes, it's November, but there's lots to see and to do...enjoy!

ANNOUNCMENT!

We are so excited to have Brian Treliving on our team.

He brings to the team great ideas and energy! We are a month into this partnership with Brian and feel blessed to have him on board. The month has shown great success and that hasn't come without it's challenges.

Brian has shown tremendous resolve in what some would say were high stress situations. Let's face it! Real Estate can be stressful, with the longer hours and unpredictability of a negotiation, you never know....

But what I love about having Brian on our team is the way he has grasped our systems and models, both in Keller Williams Realty and in the Van Nes Group - and he's run with them.

Thanks Brian ~ it's great to have you as part of our team!

Katie :)

A few years ago I became familiar with a 2005 Port Moody report, "Moody Centre Commercial Market Assessment and Revitalization Strategy Gap Analysis".

The objective of this report was to provide an overview of the market position and redevelopment strategy for the retail component of the Moody Centre Commercial District, "...a relatively large and mature commercial district, which could be revitalized".

It confirmed untapped levels of demand that could easily support a huge retail infrastructure, much like what has been envisioned for Moody Centre at the "Western Gateway" ("The area extending along Albert Street/Barnet Highway from St. Johns Street to Short Street is often referred to as the Western Gateway to Port Moody. It is intended that the scale of redevelopment in this area will be reflective of its prominence as an entrance to the City." - Port Moody's DEVELOPMENT PERMIT GUIDELINES section 12.1 Development Permit Area 2 for Moody Centre).

Here are some revealing and disturbing excerpts from the Gap Analysis:

The (Moody Centre) commercial district does not have the scale or types of stores required to serve the retail needs of consumers. The majority of all residents' retail expenditures go outside the trade area to much larger destinations.

It is the food and service businesses that Moody Centre is well positioned to satisfy. There is over $30 million in potential supermarket sales available. This could support two supermarkets, or close to 50,0000 sq.ft. of supermarket space, yet there is not a single supermarket within the study area.

Moody Centre trade area could support a wide range of and scale of stores. The main problem with capturing the retail sales of this market is the presence of competitive stores nearby and the lack of anchor stores on site. One of the most important steps to increase sales would be to increase the local population by allowing more multi-family development.

If Port Moody residents shopped within their own city, the estimated demand shown here for the trade area could be more than tripled.

This last point is particularly poignant for the owners and residents on the west side of Barnet Highway. We have failed to market the untapped demand identified in this report, and almost 5 years later little has changed.

Today the Evergreen Line offers a once in a lifetime opportunity to integrate the existing neighbourhoods in the west end of Port Moody, "under-serviced" as they remain, which are ripe for revitalization and growth.

This Western Gateway area has been affectionately (although unofficially) identified as "Old Port" (in contrast to the built-out, "Newport") by many of those engaged in the ongoing OCP process and is seen as an excellent location from which to serve a large and underserved market.

According to draft OCP documents, "Commercial land use needs for Port Moody will be met through a number of strategies..." including, "...higher density mid-rise and high-rise mixed use development in nodes or clusters within Moody Centre." This clearly offers some hope.

The single most important issue is that the west side of Port Moody has no "Landmark" or anchor tenants. New residential development and retail located near an Evergreen station in this area is a potential answer, which would help integrate the western neighbourhoods and develop a distinct identity for the Western Gateway to Port Moody.

A great big thank you to KW Elite! I really enjoyed teaching Internet Lead Generation to the class today, you guys were great and thank you for your participation.

I wanted to share ---

We had a discussion today regarding what I would call Link Backs. I looked into this a bit more because I thought that there was so much more on this topic to explore. Sure enough I found many different definitions and explainations of what this means to link with another website. Here is some of what I found... to name only a few

A reciprocal link is a mutual link between two objects, commonly between two websites to ensure mutual traffic.

Multi-way linking is a technique used for website promotion whereby websites may create similar one-way links that each involves 3 or more partner sites. This provides each website with a one-way non-reciprocal link. This technique has evolved from reciprocal linking. The latest search algorithms have evolved to hold less favor towards websites that contain a high percentage of reciprocated links, and a higher favor towards websites that maintain a high level of incoming non-reciprocated (one way) links. How to filter out excessive reciprocal link schemes is even being mentioned in anti link spam patents.^[1].

The term multi-way simply refers to the fact that the link exchange is between 3 or more websites, however each link is singular by only pointing to one other website. Other means of linking that may increase your web presence may also include other indirect methods such as loading images, videos, content or RSS feeds from a third partners website.

Link campaigns are a form of online marketing and SEO. A business seeking to increase the number of visitors to its web site can ask its strategic partners, professional organizations, chambers of commerce, suppliers, and customers to add links from their web sites. A link campaign may involve mutual links back and forth between related sites, but it doesn't have to require the reciprocation of links.

So as a result of my research, I am on a mission to find websites in Canada dedicated to real estate, that are free to post in their Realtor Directory, and free to post my listings...

So far I've found these four websites, and they seem to be free, however the third one does require... YOU GUESSED IT! ~ A Link Back to their site! LOL

http://www.homezilla.ca
http://www.realestatechannel.ca
http://www.openrealestate.ca
http://www.snapuprealestate.ca

Any more suggestions...?

I am so pleased to announce that we have a new domain name for Tapadera Estates.

You may be wondering why this is so exciting... It just so happens that nearly two years ago I tried to buy www.TapaderaEstates.com and it unfortunately was not available. I looked it up and I'm not even 100% sure where it was owned/located.

BUT... Jennifer our wonderful Office Manager was online the other night... and found it was now available!!!!!

{Much to my mother's dismay ~ we were having a web domain purchasing spree!!!}

Do you ever get those!?

Lets all say it together....

We love buying Domain Names