Does your organization outsource certain parts of your business? The core of all businesses has to be done internally in my mind but tasks that are important to your business but not core and largely specialized are a good opportunity for an outsource model. We just got back from a meeting out East where we were meeting with a company that had the technical capabilities to partially duplicate what we could provide, but the owner was smart enough to notice that they would be using valuable internal resources that would be other wised used on their core business. Also the support that they would need to provide this area would definitely bog down their core business. So what did he do? He searched for a company that specializes in what he needed and called us in to present and discuss how we could make this work. At the end of the meeting it was quite apparent that this venture was mutually beneficial to us both. An outsource model allowed their company and Canada’s Web Shop (CWS) to do the following:
Archive for March 2010
Sometimes it makes sense to outsource?
Friday, March 26th, 2010Canada’s Web Shop Twitter Followers Mosaic
Friday, March 26th, 2010Here’s our Twitter followers mosaic.
Are you here? Not yet? Follow us!
Want something like this on your blog? Get your twitter mosaic here.
Have a great weekend.
Important ways employees can help the company they work for succeed?
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010Here are a few ways that employees can help their companies do better, specifically in tough economic times:
- Come up with ideas on how you could do your work faster and more efficient, possibly through new software, hardware or changes to internal processes.
- Come up with ideas on what changes could be made to make your working atmosphere better.
- Work hard and time efficiently everyday
- If you are a half an hour late work late a half hour
- If you have a personal appointment in your work day ensure it is either in the morning or late in the day, talk to your boss how you will make up the time.
[Firefox Extension] A Very Useful Google Shortcuts Toolbar
Friday, March 12th, 2010
I have to say that Google’s list of web services is growing at a rate that I personally can’t cope up. Until I found this Firefox extension – Google Shortcuts. It displays all of Google services as buttons just next to your address bar either as a single button with a dropdown of services or as a toolbar with the list.
The settings window lets you choose which services you frequently use and want to show.
It’s a very small extension that makes your life simple. You got to have it!
How Quick Hand Drawn Wireframes Can Save Time and Money
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010First things first, what is a wireframe? Wireframe: A basic visual guide used in interface design, to suggest the structure of an interface and relationships between its pages. Think of it as a detailed blueprint of a building, showing things such as fire escapes, rooms, and layout.
Wireframes over time have become the starting point for pretty much any custom website design/interface I make. There are many different options when it comes to making wireframes. You can use wireframe programs, mock them up in Photoshop, etc. the list goes on and on. But I find the best, and fastest way to get things done is to draw it out with a good old pencil and paper. With pencil and paper you can quickly make changes, write down notes and things along these lines. It’s both fast and easy.
Keys to building links to your website
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010Incoming links to your websites are like votes for your website. If there are competing websites and one site has 300 links and another site has 20, likely the website with 300 links will have better page rank and better Search Engine positions for certain terms. However there is an art to link building and below are some keys to follow when building links to your website:
- It is very important for your links to be built naturally, which means don’t go from 1 to 1000 in a day. Google looks for slow but steady link building that looks natural instead of artificial.
[Light Post Friday] How Did That Video Get Viral In 48 Hours?
Friday, March 5th, 2010So, you were wondering, how did that video get viral in less than 48 hours? Here’s how I think it happened (Disclaimer: I am making this up as I go. Ok, not really. I’m quickly researching things as I type.)
Here it goes… someone found this video somewhere, digitized it and uploaded it to Youtube (around October 15, 2009).
However, at that time, not much people knew what it was. It was also posted on Youtube swimming on a pool of millions of other videos. How can this be viral? Nope. Not yet. There are still some ingredients missing.
Internet Explorer 6: the end is nigh (hopefully)
Thursday, March 4th, 2010Have we seen the last of IE6? Google has dropped official support for Internet Explorer 6, and YouTube is close behind. It’s finally fallen behind Firefox in the web’s usage statistics. More and more developers are charging extra to add specs for IE6. Some people are even throwing funerals for the near-ancient browser (http://bit.ly/9ikjC1)!
No, we’re not out of the woods yet. Despite massive compatibility problems with the rest of the internet’s specifications, there’s still that last 20% hanging on, and it’s mostly for two quite understandable reasons.
I don’t get to stop learning when I graduate from University? I thought that was it!
Monday, March 1st, 2010Not everyone does online marketing? That’s not what I’ve been taught in marketing class, and communications class and every other business class that has groomed me for the world ahead. Students take today’s techniques for granted because we’re taught them in university like they’re common practices in every business. Imagine our surprise when we learn businesses must adapt to new techniques and may not have them incorporated into their strategies by the time our marketing professor plans them in a lecture.
Vancouver 2010 Web Site is Excellent
Monday, March 1st, 2010VANOC commissioned an awesome website for this historic event. Everything from the art to the technology is extremely well done. Here’s quick roundup of the noteworthy stuff.
Great layout, great design: The content organization and navigation is intuitive: find the sport, scores, venue, read the news, etc. It appears cluttered, but it’s got a lot to do! But more fun is the design. Notice the modern lineart used in the large backgrounds (peaking out the right side of the content) and through the header. The sport featured is random on the home page, and sport-specific on the sport portals. This original art is seen all throughout graphics at the venues and in associated advertising. Watch for it on the boards in the hockey and curling highlights we’ll be seeing for some time.





