WestsideRentals.com, Expanding and Redesigning a well oiled machine

Westside Rentals is a rather popular site in southern california, ranked 10,000 on the web, but I think ranked #1 in Southern California when looking for a good place to live. Or at least i’d like to think so. The site began as a small venture more than 10 years ago, and is now controlling not just the “west side”, but a lot of new areas such as San Diego, Century City, and my new home city… Pasadena. Although at first glance you might say… wow… what’s up with the 1980s design, you have to look past that and see it’s content value and the service it offers.

The owner of the company, Mark Verge, has proven to be not just a great visionary, but also a person that cares about the community around him… helping people, guiding entrepreneurs, and always encouraging ideas to enhance the site. As the Chief Information Officer for the company I learned a great deal, most importantly i learned that technology is not the hardest thing to manage in an internet business. It’s not the hardware or the programming that tends to be difficult… it’s the people and the expectation management that comes with it. In a company of 70 staff members, more than 8 offices, and a 24/hr operation I learned that sleep is a luxury. It probably explains why i’m writing this at around midnight on a Tuesday, but let’s not deviate from the subject. The point is that being a CIO of such a company is a life lesson, it’s an opportunity that tests you, and more important your management of multiple tugging forces.

When will the site be redesigned? Good question… but i’ll ask a question right back… why? Redesigning a site that works and operates smoothly is not a requirement, not when 100+ other tasks are pending in the pipeline. Will it bring more traffic if the site looks “pretty”? maybe… i’m not positive it will, in fact the reason we haven’t redesigned yet is because i don’t believe it will. I think a user appreciates simplicity and not a site that boasts a design that is marvelous but with 0 content to show for. We’ll strike a balance of design and content soon, but for now the machine is operating smoothly. Seven servers in the front end and two database servers in the back end are currently holding this site together, and pulling in enough traffic to feed a few mouths.

Believe me when i say it’s not just a site that provides apartment leads… it’s much more. Try it and see http://www.westsiderentals.com