This is an important notice to let you know of an upcoming ownership change for WebsiteDynamics, who hosts your website through CityMax.com. Of note is your billing will be switched to the new owners on August 9th, 2022 in advance of the official switchover on November 1st, 2022. More details are below.

Recently, WebsiteDynamics signed an agreement with our longtime internet service provider and business partner EZProvider Networks Inc. to buy WebsiteDynamics. EZProvider has been a great partner and great friend to us, and are also people we’ve trusted to help us keep our software running for over 15 years.

The goal of the transition is to be as seamless as possible. Our support staff Sean and Jerico will be moving to EZProvider to continue providing the service that you’re used to. Our entire staff wanted to thank you for choosing us to be your website host and we wish you the best in the future. We’re confident that EZProvider will continue to be a good home for you as they have been for us, often going above and beyond what is required.

Please read below for an introduction to EZProvider, how your website may be affected, how the transfer will take place, and FAQs.

Who is EZProvider Networks Inc. (EZP)?

We have been partners and friends with EZProvider since 2003, when we launched our first website builder. Although their name may be new to you, they have provided the backbone of our network for many years, and have been a pivotal part of our operations including assisting with server migration, advising on hardware implementation, helping us prevent and mitigate DDoS attacks, and advising us on network strategies. As such, they are already well-accustomed to our technology and all of our customer websites have already been hosted through their network for almost two decades. Given our long-term partnership, EZP is the only company we felt we could completely trust to take good care of our customers. Like MeZine, they are based in Vancouver, Canada. You can learn more about them on their website, https://www.ezp.net.

How will my website be affected?

The transition to EZProvider will be seamless. EZProvider is taking over all of our server infrastructure in place, so there is no technical transition happening whatsoever, and your website will not experience any downtime or interruptions. Sean and Jerico, our support team at WebsiteDynamics who have been with us for 10+ years each, will both be moving to EZProvider to continue offering the same great support you are accustomed to. Nothing else about your website will change as a result of the transition, and there is nothing you are required to do.

Are there any changes to billing?

Your website subscription will continue normally with no immediate changes to pricing or structure, and charges related to your website will still appear as WEBSITEDYNAMICS.COM on your credit card statement. However, as there is technically a change in who is processing your payments, customers may require their banks or credit card providers to re-approve their subscription charges, particularly customers located outside of Canada. If your website subscription payment is unexpectedly declined after the transition, please contact your bank and request that they re-approve charges from WEBSITEDYNAMICS.COM. If you experience any issues whatsoever with billing as a result of the change, please do not hesitate to contact our support team who will help keep your website active while the issue is resolved.

More questions?

Please contact our support team through the normal channels, or email us at customerservice@websitedynamics.com where we would be happy to answer any questions you have about the transition.

Final Thoughts

We feel incredibly fortunate to have hosted websites for tens of thousands of customers, many of which have been with us for a decade or more. We are a small company that started in the basement of a house, and at our peak, grew to 3 offices in downtown Vancouver. MeZine is not disappearing and will continue on with other products (https://www.wysimark.com). It is with excitement and hope that we are passing you on to EZP, and we know they will take excellent care of you. We are extremely grateful for each and every customer, and wish you all the best in the future.

We have now completed getting SSL certificates for all our paying customers. For any of your customers visiting your website, they will see the https:// in front of your web address. If you have a custom domain like mybusiness.com, your address will show as https://www.mybusiness.com. If you do not have a custom domain, your address will show as https://www.mybusiness.citymax.com.

If you have secure pages showing a warning (e.g. a “!” or “i” in a circle) in your browser even though the web address begins with https://, this means that you have mixed content on that page. Mixed content means that you are sourcing an image, video or part of a code (perhaps one you copied elsewhere for a special effect) that is not served through an https connection. We did run all pages through a mixed content page fixer to replace any sources that had an equivalent secure version of the same content available. In cases where no equivalent was found, the mixed content was left alone. If you are having difficulty fixing a page with mixed content, please contact Support with the webpage address.

We thank everyone for their patience.

Thanks to all of our customers who entered the Holiday Design Sweepstakes during the month of December 2016.

The winner was Martha Caceres, who will receive a full custom template for her website.

Keep your eyes on your Dashboard page for future contest opportunities!

Need a second website? Know someone looking to get online? Want some extra cash after the holidays? Citymax.com is running a referral promotion for any new sites for the month of December! Refer any new sites (Including your own!) in the month of December and you will get a $40 referral Bonus in Cash! Simply fill out the form with the name of the referred site and your own site. If the referred site is activated between December 1st -31st 2014 and the referred site stays active for 2 months, you will receive $40.

For Full Promotion Details please visit this page . For any questions related to the promotion, please email us at stockingstuffer@citymax.com

We are excited to announce that we have added PayPal Advanced to the list of supported payment processors within your shopping cart. PayPal Advanced will keep your customers on your site for the entire checkout process similarly to PayPal Payments Pro but at a lower cost to you.

For more information about PayPal Advanced and how it compares to PayPal Payments Pro and PayPal Standard please click here.

If you already have a PayPal Advanced account, you may start using it instantly by logging into your site, and selecting PayPal Advanced from the list of options in the Gateway section of the “Payment Processing” section of the “Edit Store” tab. For more details on setting up PayPal Advanced, check out our article on the topic.

Calling all website administrators, business owners and graphic designers: have you tried our Enhanced Templates yet? Have you checked them out, but not sure how they work? Are you using an Enhanced Template that needs some more work before it’s just right?

Join us LIVE this June for Enhanced Templates 101, our first-ever CityMax University class. A member of our support team will give a live demonstration of the Enhanced Template system, and you’ll also have the opportunity to ask questions about Enhanced Templates and website design, as we’ll be doing a Q&A session at the end of the presentation.

We’ll be hosting four live classes in the month of June:

Tuesday, June 10th – 10:00am PST / 1:00pm EST

Thursday, June 12th – 3:00pm PST / 6:00pm EST

Tuesday, June 17th – 3:00pm PST / 6:00pm EST

Thursday, June 19th – 10:00am PST / 1:00pm EST

We’ll be covering the same content in each class, but feel free to join us as many times as you need! We’ll also be archiving each class for later viewing for those who can’t make it to the livestream.

The link to the stream will be posted in a system notice on your dashboard on the day of the event. Hope to see you there!

We have recently received reports that a company who has previously attempted to scam our customers (link to previous blog post) is once again trying to fool users into paying for unnecessary or non-existent website services, or attempting to get users to switch to their website company.

This company has previously operated under such aliases as Dream Real Solutions, The Tech Department, and others. They are contacting CityMax customers via phone or email with a message similar to the one below:

“Our records indicate that you have missed your last appointment with us, and efforts to contact you by phone have been unsuccessful. There are mandatory updates for your website that need to be discussed urgently. Being that this is a time sensitive matter, please contact us immediately to schedule another appointment. We care about the success of your online business.”

We advise all of our customers to use caution if they receive an email or phone call of this nature. Calls from CityMax will always come from a 604 area code, and we will never call to sell you website upgrades or SEO services.

If you’ve received a call or email of this nature, we would appreciate any information you can provide to us as it helps us gather evidence against these types of scams. Please contact us at customerservice@websitedynamics.com or submit a support ticket with any details you may have.

Running an online business is, in many ways, similar to running a business with a physical storefront. However, it’s not always obvious how customer retention techniques from the “real world” can be utilized on the web. As a shopper, often the biggest reason I return to a store is because of a great experience with a sales representative. I know I’m going to get the same great service that I got last time, so I don’t even think about going anywhere else. With an online business, your website is your sales representative – so how can you give your customers an experience that will make them want to come back? Here are a few ways you can get your hard-earned visitors to return for a second or third visit.

Be Personable
Authenticity and integrity are what everyone wants when they’re shopping. What’s the hallmark of a lousy, underhanded salesman? Jargon, exaggerated claims, and deceptive practices can turn your enthusiastic shopper into someone else’s enthusaistic shopper. So how can we be personable and trustworthy online?

Everyone craves a personal experience no matter how they’re shopping. When writing about your products or your company, try to cut down on jargon and provide the necessary information in a concise manner. Smashing Magazine has a fantastic article on some common copywriting blunders that we highly recommend checking out.

Another great way to be personable with your customers is pretty obvious: put yourself out there! Many customers are still concerned about the safety of buying purchases online, and seeing that a website is run and maintained by a real person just like them will do wonders to ease their distress. A personal story, a photo of yourself and your staff, or simply utilizing an informal, casual tone when writing your copy will endear you to your visitors and turn them into customers.

Update Your Content
The concept here is pretty straight forward: if I decide to take a peek at the website I previously looked at or purchased from a few months ago, and the website looks exactly the same, what incentive do I have to dig through and see what might be new since last time?

This doesn’t have to be a huge overhaul of your website every few months, but something as simple as a refreshed home page is often enough to catch the attention of a returning visitor. If you’ve got new products, show them off! Having a sale? Your visitors should know about it! Gone above and beyond for a customer? Get a glowing testimonial and slap it right on the home page where everyone can see it! Your home page is by far the best place to focus on if you’re updating content, but fresh content everywhere is a recipe for success.

Even if you don’t have anything new to show off, update your content to showcase different things or emphasize different benefits of your product or service. All you need to do is catch their eye, and their curiosity will take care of the rest.

Utilize Social Media
It seems like the whole world is on Facebook and Twitter. If you and your business are not, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity for what is essentially free advertising to a captive audience.

Think of it this way: if I’m a web-savvy customer (and these days, everyone is) and I like what I see on your website – whether I buy anything or not – there’s a pretty good chance I’m going to check out your Facebook or Twitter page. If I “Like” your Facebook page or follow you on Twitter, I’ve now essentially signed up for you to advertise to me at your leisure, at no additional cost to you.

That’s not to say that you should bombard your Facebook friends and Twitter followers with advertisements, but when you have a new product to announce or are throwing a big sale, who better to get the word out to than people who are already interested in your products? Furthermore, your customers are one click away from sharing your posts with all of their own friends or followers. Now that’s word-of-mouth!

Customer Service is King
We could write a whole post about how customer service can affect your business, but let’s focus on two important concepts: make it easy for your customers to contact you, and underpromise/overdeliver.

Communication is critical for anyone making an online purchase. Sometimes, even if your website is rich with info about your products, a customer may have a question. Your customers will come up with things to ask that you never even dreamed of! Providing an email contact form that’s easy to find, at the bare minimum, ensures that no question goes unanswered. If you have the resources to offer more direct service, such as a phone number, go for it – your customers will thank you. Ensuring you reply as promptly as possible goes a long way to making your customers feel good about their decision to buy from you.

Simple communication is paramount to the post-purchase process as well. From shipping questions to feedback or support, your customers will want an easy way to get a hold of you once they’ve made a purchase. Be there for them when they need it, and they’ll be back.

The concept of underpromise/overdeliver is one that’s been around for as long as the sales and service industry has existed. The idea is simple: by carefully managing your customer’s expectations, you’ve set yourself to blow your customer away with a great product, great service, and great support. When you consider the alternative – failing to live up to the expectations you’ve set for yourself – your customers walk away feeling lied to. A classic bad example is your local telecom company; many of them offer great discounts or free bonuses up front to mask hidden fees or unexplained charges

So how do you do this? The number one rule is be honest. Never make claims you our your product can’t back up – it’s that simple. The second rule is to manage expectations. If your shipping takes five days, but your website quoted a ten-day delivery, they’ll be ecstatic when it shows up in six — and that’s one day longer than it was supposed to take! They got their product four days earlier than they were expecting, and they’re thrilled.

If you can give customers more than what they expect on a consistent basis, you’ll start building a loyal base of clients who will be back often.

We have received reports of customers receiving phone calls from companies or individuals claiming to be affiliated with CityMax. The calls appear to be coming primarily from the following phone numbers:

801-494-1477 (Salt Lake City, Utah)
425-296-0294 (Kirkland, Washington)

The callers, who may go by the name Dream Real Solutions or other names, may claim they are partners or subcontractors of CityMax. These individuals may try to sell website upgrade or SEO services, claiming action needs to be taken on your website. These calls are scams and are not from us, and we advise you to exercise caution if you receive any calls of this nature.

Furthermore, the claims the callers are making – for example, that your site needs to be “upgraded to HTML5” or moved to a different host lest you risk problems – are false.

Calls from the CityMax team will come from a 604 area code. We’ll never call to sell you website upgrades or SEO services.

If you have received a call of this nature, we’d love to speak with you. Please contact our support team with any information you have regarding the call.

UPDATE:

A big thank-you to everyone who contacted us to tell us your story about these scammers. The amount of information we received was quite overwhelming and very much appreciated. With your help, we have taken steps to stop the company from mentioning any association with us.

Please note that this doesn’t mean the company can’t contact you and simply represent themselves. Just be wary if anyone calls you and makes comments about your site that sound unusual or alarmist. You are always welcome to contact our support team to ask questions about anything you hear about your website.