Archive for October 2011
Friday, October 28th, 2011
In order to compete in any industry it helps to know what your competition is offering in the marketplace. As everyone knows Yellow Pages has entered into the online marketing world as they have seen the demand for their printed book in rapid decline.
We have been approached by a number of prospects that have entered into agreements with Yellow Pages that were not happy with the return on investment. In talking to these prospects the scary part was they did not seem to have a good understanding of what Yellow Pages was offering them. If asked they would say that it is search engine optimization. Then I would ask them what terms they were trying to gain ranking for in Google and Yellow Pages could give them certain terms. I would run a ranking report and the prospect’s site and it was nowhere to be found in the natural (organic) search results. Read more...
Tags: pay per click, return on investment, ROI, search engine optimization, yellow pages
Posted in Online Marketing | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
It happens so often; I’m discussing social media with a team member of an organization that is large, prominent, or both, and it comes out in conversation that the company in question is on social media, but does not have a social media policy. The first thing that I always reply to these people is “You need a policy, now!”
Social media presents a fantastic opportunity for organizations to become closer with their customers/leads and potential customers/leads. Conversations can be facilitated, feedback can be harnessed, and your company’s marketing efforts can be strengthened. However, in order to ensure that your social media presence is a benefit and not a liability, a social media policy is necessary. Read more...
Tags: policy, social media
Posted in Online Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
Friday, October 21st, 2011
John recently wrote an interesting article entitled “Is your (AdWords) campaign a donation to Google?” that touched on the issue of making a relatively small investment into an AdWords campaign, and not giving it the proper attention (and spend) it requires to drive leads or sales for your business. Those of you who read John’s article and decided to ramp up your AdWords efforts have probably met with an issue that always presents itself when a PPC campaign is being “fixed”: where do I start? Read more...
Tags: adwords, cpc, google, ppc
Posted in Online Marketing, Pay-per-Click | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
When you think about the services Search Engine Optimization companies offer, it is common to think only about search engine rankings. When you visit SEO sites, many talk exclusively about ranking in order to sell link packages. Don’t get me wrong, links are the unquestionable driver of search engine rankings. However, before you consider link building, forget about search engines for the moment and focus on your visitors needs instead. Read more...
Posted in Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
Having multiple servers feeding a single load balancer has big advantages: fault tolerance, SSL Offloading to name just two. But with the performance comes extra complexity. There are a few things you need to keep in mind when setting up your web application to “play nice”:
SSL Offloading and Apache’s point of view
In a typical SSL Offloading setup, your load balancer (or web proxy) serves all of the certificates to the public facing IPs, so Apache doesn’t need to know anything about SSL. This simplifies web-server setup, which is especially valuable when you’re managing a cluster of them behind a load balancer. Because the load balancer is the point of contact to the outside world, Apache is unable to handle a few things that are normally simple in a standalone setup. Read more...
Tags: apache, PHP, shttp, ssl
Posted in Web Development | No Comments »
Monday, October 17th, 2011
If you haven’t caught the buzz yet, Apple has made iOS5 available to everyone and anyone eligible to run it today. The next time you fire up iTunes, you should be prompted to install the new version of the OS.
I plugged in my iPad2 to get started with the upgrade but unfortunately got some errors. At first, the issue seemed to be with the backup process that Apple forces you to go through prior to the upgrade. But after some research, it turns out that the iOS upgrade “phones home” and because Apple wasn’t prepared for the upgrade, their servers became overwhelmed. The simple solution is to continue trying the upgrade until eventually you luck out and get an “okay” from Apple head command. Read more...
Tags: Apple, ios 5, ipad2, iphone
Posted in Just Launched, Technology, Tools, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »
Friday, October 14th, 2011
This is just a quick heads up if you haven’t been following the jQuery blog. jQuery has added two new functions: .on() and .off(). We’ve seen this syntax before in other libraries like YUI and it’s clear and concise. These new functions infer whether to use .delegate(), .live() or .bind() based on the parameters passed to it.
From the jQuery blog: Read more...
| Old API |
New API |
| $(elems).bind(events, fn) |
$(elems).on(events, fn) |
| $(elems).bind(events, { mydata: 42 }, fn) |
$(elems).on(events, { mydata: 42 }, fn) |
| $(elems).unbind(events, fn) |
$(elems).off(events, fn) |
| $(elems).delegate(events, selector, fn) |
$(elems).on(events, selector, fn) |
Tags: javascript, jquery, js
Posted in Web Development | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 13th, 2011
We’re starting the new (fiscal) year off right at Canada’s Web Shop by establishing and holding each other to a clear set of measureable personal goals. I’ve made a commitment to put down my copy of A Game of Thrones for the next 365 days, and stave of reading fiction all together. I believe we live in an age where anybody can become an expert on anything through self guided research. To advance through the endeavour of becoming an expert in what I do, I’ve set a goal to read one book per month on the topic of Usability and Web Design. In September I read the still-relevant title Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug. Read more...
Tags: design, don't make me think, Web
Posted in Web Design | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
If your website traffic isn’t great and online sales conversions are rare, investing in the services of a SEO consultant could be one of the most beneficial strategic decisions you ever make. Many businesses are now realizing the benefits of partnering with an experienced SEO Consultant. In the process their poorly performing websites have been transformed into valuable business assets that extend brand awareness amongst target consumers and generate significant sales revenues. Want to know what an experienced SEO consultant can do to help your business? Just pick up the phone and talk to me on (204) 889-1906. Read more...
Tags: experts, Online Marketing, search engine optimization, seo
Posted in Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »
Thursday, October 6th, 2011
It was a game changer.
Headed off to university in a few months, my dad was giving me the greatest graduation gift I could ever ask for: a laptop for school. It was 2004, and up until that point in my life, (save for a few experiences with Mac Classics at school,) I had been a PC guy. Looking at laptops in the London Drugs electronics section, I just wasn’t sure about the array of Sonys, Compaqs and HPs that presented themselves. Too clunky, too poorly constructed, too prone to failure a few months after purchase. The Powerbooks were a different story. Sleek and shiny silver, they were well constructed, well designed, and appealed to me in a way that the other black notebooks. I went with a 12″ G4, and never looked back. Read more...
Tags: Apple, Steve Jobs
Posted in Random Musings, Technology | 1 Comment »
