Top 3 Mistakes Most Make When Choosing a Website Vendor

The purpose of this article to provide some assistance when choosing a website building company and to identify some of the common mistakes people make. With my role in Business Development, I encounter many different prospective clients with a wide variety of requirements. Many of those who wish to engage us as part of their website project lack the background knowledge required to make informed decisions.
Continue reading >

2011 Year in Review in Internet Marketing & Website Properties

2011 saw continued growth in the web. Reflecting on 2011, industry press was focused on social media and the mobile web. Search engines ramped up efforts to clean their search results of spam. We also had many patent issues, IPOs and M&A this last year. The big ticket news items below reflect major industry news, or news that directly affects Canadians on the web.
Continue reading >

Death to Website Redesigns Projects

Checklist before going live

This is a must-read before you flick that switch. There are several key pieces of information you should know before you make your new website live to ensure that traffic levels, sales or leads don’t disappear.
Continue reading >

Proposed dot-CA Rule Changes: Implications for Domain Registrations and Trademarks in Canada

Canada has prided itself on its multiculturalism, bilingualism and willingness to not just tolerate, but accept the cultures, conventions and customs of various other backgrounds. In following with this tradition, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), the organization that governs .ca domains, has proposed implementing French characters into .ca domain registrations. This change could have serious implications for Canadian domain owners, businesses, and trademark holders with a vested interest in their specific online domain name.
Continue reading >

Finding the right SEO Firm

1165439_seo_2

As the Internet industry continues to rise and become more popular, companies are looking for the most effective ways to advertise their site to increase their brand and sales. Many companies are trying to advertise on search engines, social media platforms, online press releases, etc. You are probably asking yourself, whatever happened to good, old-fashion television, newspaper and radio advertisements? The answer is in the question itself, with the phrase, “Old Fashion“. People these days get their information through new and more convenient forms of technology, such as smart phones and tablets, by accessing the Internet and online apps. 9th sphere wrote an article in February regarding a topic similar to this on Why SEO Deserves to Be on Your Marketing Budget.
Continue reading >

Is WordPress a CMS for you?

WordPress is one of the most popular open-source blogging software platforms online. It was built by a group of volunteer programmers who over the years have contributed to what it is today.  While the original intent of a blog served as an online journal, today people and companies are “blogging” with many different purposes. The purpose of this article is to highlight the pros and cons of using WordPress for your business website.
Continue reading >

Social Media and politics: Did social media predict Canada's Federal election winners?

The last Canadian Federal election was an interesting one, to say the least. It was also one that has radically changed Parliament – the NPD became the Official Opposition for the first time, the Bloc Québécois lost its party status in the House of Commons, the Green Party won their first seat, Michael Ignatieff of the Liberal Party lost his riding and the Conservative Party lead by Stephen Harper will hold the majority of seats.  Could we have predicted this outcome through online social media interactions?
Continue reading >

What kind of website design budget do I need?

website-design-budget

As my primary role in business development is speaking with prospects about their web or Internet marketing projects, inevitably the question “What is your website design budget range?” must be posed.  Many prospects feel uncomfortable providing a budget range.   For most prospects who have not been through a project like this before simply don’t know what they cost, while others feel that if they share their budget range, the vendor is going to try get as many of those dollars as they can.

Let’s explore some considerations for creating an appropriate budget.
Continue reading >

Canada’s Election 2011 Web Popularity Poll

The Canadian federal election is now underway.  Similar to the Toronto’s mayor web popularity poll conducted last December, we wanted to evaluate web popularity vs. a correlation to the leading candidate.  This effort is to answer the question: If positive web popularity was an indication of our next Canadian prime minister, who would win?
Continue reading >

2011 Internet Marketing Upcoming Events


events

When working in any type of industry and especially in Internet Marketing, we have to educate ourselves so that we can be the best of the best.

Are you a car mechanic? Every year new cars are built with new features that may fail and you have to learn how to fix them. Are you a lawyer? New laws are constantly being implemented and you have to be up to date so that you can help your clients. The list can go on and on, but the question is: how and where can you go to gain the knowledge to be the best in your industry? One way is to attend industry Events. There is no place better than a seminar or conference for listening to the leaders of the field giving out the tips and information you need to succeed in your job.


Continue reading >