The Regina Business Blog

Google SearchWiki

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:01:00 +0000

So Google up and decided to add some interaction to their search results. I first read about it on Seth Godin’s blog when it showed up in my email this morning and then quickly headed over to TechCrunch to see their take on it. Google's offical SearchWiki blog post is here and it contains a demo video.

The jist of the changes are that users that are logged in to their Google accounts will be able to interact with their search results. You can vote the results up and down, but that will only affect your own personal searches. Other people can see the names of those who voted the result up and down, as well as comment on each result, but it won’t have a bearing on where a site shows up in the search for everyone else – for now.

In the future, I can see Google having the option of searching by user rankings only, but hopefully they don’t mess with the actual search. Google search wasn’t broken, so changes like this are certainly gutsy. I’m not a huge fan of the commenting, because most of it will end up being irrelevant, which I guess is why you can vote up and down the comments, but I’m still not a fan.

Seth Godin talks about people running to game the system, but I’m not so sure that will matter. I can search for a keyword pertaining to one of my businesses and rank it up, like if I searched for “diy sprinkler systems”. I could get a good feeling by moving my Sprinkler Daddy site up in my rankings, but it won’t affect how anyone else sees it.

What are your thoughts on the new Google interaction feature?

Here's my quick Google SearchWiki demo:

Do It Wrong Fast - Learn just enough, Apply it, Change it

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:16:00 +0000

A few different things all came together for me this morning while I was reading this article from Business Week that I found on Seth's Blog. There's a quote from an academic in there that really made me think about what Rich Schefren has been trumpeting with his new report, The Uncertainty Syndrome.

The quote was to the effect that Godin's books are a good read but they aren't backed by enough research to be proven. In my opinion, I'm glad that his books aren't backed with a whole pile of research (although I'm sure he obviously checks out his stuff before he just willy nilly writes a book on it). If he had time to research it thoroughly and provide lots of charts, graphs, and trend lines, I doubt the principles he's talking about would still be applicable.

In Rich's report, the aforementioned Uncertainty Syndrome, my biggest take-away was the fact that you should do it wrong fast. Only action can create clarity. Sure it's good to have a knowledge of something before you start implementing it, but you certainly don't have to be a world expert. Your goal should be to find something you think would apply well in your business and implement it as quickly as possible. If it doesn't (which it probably won't) you just make adjustments until you get it right. It's easier to keep an object in motion than to get something started from nothing.

If you think about it logically, it makes total sense. You could spend years trying to get something perfect before you launch, be it a website, a store front, or a piece of software. But it's all just hypothetical until you put it into action. Once you do, chances are pretty good that your perfect system isn't perfect and you'll have to make changes anyway. So wouldn't it be better to put up the imperfect website quickly and make the necessary changes along the way?

I've been trying to live by this philosophy for a while now. When we started Sprinkler Daddy, we didn't wait until we knew every in and out of underground sprinklers before we launched this past May. We found out the basics that we needed to know, put up the website, and learned what we didn't know along the way. There's always going to be situations that come up that I don't have an answer for, but that's why I surround myself with people that have the answers. My uncle has been in the irrigation for over 30 years and he still doesn't have all the answers, but that's ok, that's why they invented the Internet.

We're trying to take a similar trial by fire approach with our new online store at www.skweddingwebsite.com. Sure I've got a bunch of material coming from Stompernet this week (hopefully it gets here by then, been waiting a while for it) that's supposed to help me with the ins and outs of setting up an online store and making it profitable. I could have waited for it to come and then started building the store, but that just delays the inevitable. I know enough to get it functioning now, I can worry about optimizing it later.

So what are you putting off that you should probably be implementing right now instead? My challenge for you today is to find something you've been putting off and put it into action right now. Even if you fail, at least you know and you can stop thinking about it and move onto the next thing.

Onward SmallBiz - Your Business Strategy Behind Web 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:48:00 +0000

A few months ago I was interviewed by Mark Henricks for AT&T's Onward SmallBiz publication. Today I stumbled upon the article, so I thought I would share it with you at http://tinyurl.com/5zjuug.

I've done a few phone interviews for different publications and it's interesting to see how it translates into text. Kudos to Mark for capturing the essence of what I was trying to get at. My only beef is in the formatting of the article. What's with all the ????? ?

The only thing I would flip flop on is trying to pick one thing and do it well. While I still agree with this to an extent, I'm learning now that if you're going to dive into the world of marketing your business online, it's best to jump head first into a few things at the same time. There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to blog, create videos, send out emails, and update your Twitter status and Facebook page. Web 2.0 is all about applications that can be used in harmony, so why not create a video and throw it up on YouTube, post it on your blog, share it with your Facebook friends, send out an email, and tweet about it?

You just have to be willing to hustle a little bit.

Internet Marketing Tips | Solve Problems & Answer Questions

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:43:00 +0000

One of the biggest reasons people use the Internet is to search out information. It could just be for curiosity’s sake, but most of the time people search for a solution to an existing problem or an answer to an existing question.

That’s where your focus needs to be if you’re a small business trying to use the Internet as a marketing tool. Answering the questions and solving the problems that people are seeking out. And the way you do this is through content creation.

If you don’t want to pay directly for every visitor coming into your site, you’re going to have to give people a reason to come visit you. If you’re a business, answering the questions that customers ask you every day is a good place to start. Think of the most common questions you get in your store every day. Turn the answers into videos, articles, blog posts, or whatever you want. Spread those answers around the web and brand them with your business info. Pretty soon every time someone has a question about something that you sell, you’ll be the one providing all the answers. And when you’re the one with all the answers, chances are pretty good that people will turn to you when it’s time to buy.

Use Content to Become the Expert in Your Area

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:07:00 +0000

Nobody likes a know-it-all…until they have a question. The Internet is a great platform to spread your knowledge and become known as the expert in whatever area of business you’re in.

I’ve used online video to build one of our small businesses – Sprinkler Daddy, and now more and more people are coming to us when they have questions. Some people just want to find their own solutions and have no intention to buy anything from you, but others are looking to find an expert in an area and have them solve their problems for them. With all the tools available on the web, it’s easier than ever to demonstrate to people that you know what you’re doing and you should be the one they look to as the expert who can provide what they’re looking for.

LRS Consulting is a marketing consulting company in Regina, SK that helps traditional small businesses around the world use the Internet to communicate with their customers and market their products and services – whether they sell anything online or not. If your business is looking to start selling things online, just wants to use it to communicate with your customers directly and more effectively, or want help getting people to your website, visit us at www.lrsconsulting.ca, email sean[at]lrsconsulting[dot]ca or call 306-757-2677.

How To Get Traffic To Your Website - Talking About The Two Types - Organic and Paid Traffic

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 02:35:00 +0000

There’s basically two ways to get traffic to your website – organically and paid.

Paid traffic is simple to explain. You spend money advertising your site, whether it be through Google Adwords, banner ads, or traditional advertising mediums like radio, television, billboards, flyers, brochures, etc. The problem with this model is that if you don’t convert those visitors into customers, you’ll be sunk in a big hurry.

Organic traffic is traffic that comes from any unpaid source. The most common form of organic traffic comes from the search engines, and more specifically Google. Other organic traffic can come from anywhere online that people can click on a link that points back to your site. Some examples would include videos like this one with a link in the description or appearing on the screen of the video. Articles, blog posts, comments on other blogs, and Squidoo lenses are other ways to get links pointing back to your site. These links will help build your rankings in the search engines, but they also provide more ways for people to find your site. For example, this video is being hosted in about a dozen different places online. That means that each video I create adds another 12 ways that someone can find out about my websites online.

Remember, traffic isn’t just a number. Traffic comes from actual people sitting down at their computers and finding your website as a result of some sort of search for information. The next step is providing those people with whatever it is they were searching for in the first place.

2010 World Junior Hockey Championship Coming to Saskatchewan!

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:48:00 +0000

Hockey Canada is set to announce today that the 2010 World Junior Hockey Championship (aka the IIHF World U-20 Hockey Championship) will be held in Saskatchewan. The Saskatoon-Regina joint bid beat out bids from Manitoba and Halifax.

I for one couldn't have been happier this morning. When I woke up to the 6:00 sportscast this morning I thought my birthday had come a day early - that or I was dreaming. But I have to admit I never would have thought that Hockey Canada would ever have granted such a huge international tournament to little old Saskatchewan. Too much money to be had elsewhere goes the argument.

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm pretty proud to be from Saskatchewan and love promoting it to people all over the place. But even I thought it was a pipe dream to compete with the profit guarantees that could be made by centers with larger facilities. Boy am I glad I was wrong!

The momentum keeps rolling for Saskatchewan, and as we continue to show that we have the people and the dollars that can support sellout after sellout at world class events we only stand to see more of these great events.

Now let's not get caught up here in Regina complaining that we only get the non-Canadian pool. That would only reflect poorly on us here in Regina, and quite frankly Saskatoon deserves the Canadian games and the medal rounds because they can hold more than twice as many fans. To hold Canadian games in Regina would be an injustice as you would leave 5000+ fans without access to the live games.

Hey, we've got the Riders and thousands of people drive here from places a lot further than Saskatoon 9 times each summer. I for one don't mind the idea of driving 2 hours up the number 11 to take in one of the most electric hockey tournaments in the world.

My only question is how much will tickets be and when can we buy? I hope they put together a package that would give Regina residents who buy a package for the Regina games to also buy individual tickets for the Team Canada games in Saskatoon. Not sure on the logistics, but I'll be happy to take in the games in Regina as long as I get a shot to catch the Team Canada games in Saskatoon as well.

Good on the bid committee and our local politicians for putting together the winning bid. I for one am very grateful. Now let's not ruin this by complaining about things like where the games are played and who gets tickets - let's just be happy that the 2010 holiday season will be a hockey filled great time!

Joel Comm Drops My Name Into His Live Show

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:48:00 +0000

As you can see in the video below at the 46:53 mark, Joel Comm dropped my name into his live show this afternoon. Looks like I've finally stepped into the big time of Internet marketing!

Ok, so I only get a mention for knowing that Zoolander made the Blue Steel look famous - but hey, everybody's gotta start somewhere!

You can check out the archived video of the live show below or here if the embed doesn't work. Joel Comm does a live show every Wednesday at 1 PM EST. You can visit Ustream.tv or http://joelcomm.com/live.html to catch the show.

Who knows, you might just win a book like me!

Live .TV show provided by Ustream

Automated Voice Answering Services - They Suck

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:43:00 +0000

Seth Godin made a post yesterday about his frustrations dealing with Verizon's voice routing system and one point really hit home with me. Why do these voice answering services ask you to punch in your phone number, only to ask you for it again once you get through to a live person?

What a waste of time. The idea of voice routing is to save time and save money by automating some of the steps. If you don't use that information, you're wasting your time as well as your customer's time.

Just another example of how things fall through the cracks.

The Regina to Las Vegas Direct Flight Blunder

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:32:00 +0000

It looks like Westjet is set to announce a direct flight from Saskatoon to Las Vegas. The Regina Airport Authority seems stunned that they weren't allowed to put a bid together to get this flight to originate from Regina.

I don't know who is at fault, but I think we already burned that bridge. Remember last year when Westjet tried to get a direct flight from Regina to Las Vegas? The powers that be said that the times wouldn't work because the customs officers don't work early enough to handle the incoming flight from Sin City.

In business, you take the path of least resistance. If someone shuts a door in your face, you don't stand there waiting for it to open again, you look down the street to see if anyone else has their door open.

Hello there, Saskatoon.

I'm not sure if it's the Federal government, the Regina Airport Authority, or someone else, but somebody definitely dropped the ball here.

Westjet seems committed to Regina after announcing a direct flight to Toronto, but if we aren't interested in helping them out with customs officers, they won't be looking to expand direct flights to the U.S. anytime soon.

An Apology And A Case Study

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:06:00 +0000

My apologies for a lack of posts lately. We're busy launching a new service - Sprinkler Daddy - and it's taking most of my time these days.

What the whole process has done is allow us to conduct a little case study on all the internet marketing strategies that we've talked about using with small businesses. What we've found just verifies what we've always thought. This stuff works when you put it to work for you.

Let's backtrack for a moment. Sprinkler Daddy is a service we launched to sell professionally designed do-it-yourself sprinkler systems. Through the Sprinkler Daddy website (http://www.sprinklerdaddy.ca/) you can request a quote from us. Using our CRM software, we've created an auto-responder email that goes out automatically to everyone that requests a quote. That email contains the information people need to measure up their yards and provideus with a plan of their yard. People can then send in their yard designs and we'll rough out a design for a sprinkler system, allowing us to get an estimate for the job.

We have also used our CRM to create a questionnaire for people to fill out, answering most of the questions we need to know. The software is great for helping us automate a good portion of the business.

Online video has also been a very effective tool for Sprinkler Daddy. We've got very positive reactions about all the videos we've created that explain a bit about the process of installing your own sprinkler system. They also help walk people through the process of getting a quote. It keeps us from answering the same questions over and over again, and it makes things easy on our customers. It's a win-win.

Actually, it's a win-win-win because when we upload those videos to a bunch of different video hosting sites, we get a ton of quality backlinks to our website and we have numerous opportunities to turn up in search engine results.

We've also found that search engine optimization is much easier in an industry that isn't full of internet marketing and seo professionals. This is actually the case for numerous industries, especially those dominated by small businesses. Within a matter of days our website was listed on the first page of some key search terms. This led to our first quote coming only 3 days after our domain went live, without doing any sort of marketing. We also managed to close our first sale within a ten day window and receive a few new quote requests everyday.

We're not talking about early retirement here, but it is amazing how an idea can turn into a business in a matter of weeks with the help of the Internet.

P.S. If you are thinking about installing underground sprinklers, just enter your info at http://www.sprinklerdaddy.ca/ to get started.

More Noise About Saskatchewan

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:24:00 +0000

The cover story of the Globe and Mail's Report on Business this weekend was The New 'It' Province. Referring to Saskatchewan, the article goes on to talk about how Saskatchewan is about a lot more than wheat these days. The focus on the article was primarily on potash, oil and gas, and the rising population. You can read the whole article here.

At first blush, you might be tempted to think that the boom is only affecting natural resource based industries. After all, the money seems to be flowing in from oil and gas exploration and expansion in areas such as potash. But don't kid yourself into thinking that the only people that stand to benefit are the natural resource companies and the labourers that pull the stuff out of the ground.

Remember, those companies will also need accountants, sales reps, marketing managers, and HR personnel. And since those companies are set to do so well financially, they might just be able to pay quality dollars to attract quality people. But the impact won't stop there.

As more jobs are created, it is natural for more inmigration to occur. That means more construction and more growth. Home owners in Saskatchewan are already starting to realize the equity in their homes since the economy has started to soar. And when more money and growth starts to infuse the Saskatchewan market, that means people will have cash to spend on other things - perhaps they'll even buy something that you sell!

Last year we already started to recruit people from outside the province to come join us in the good times Saskatchewan is experiencing through Think Regina in Calgary. Next week Think Regina heads to Edmonton to continue the campaign.

As the article states, Saskatchewan's time is now. You're either in or you're in the way.

I also liked what NewsTalk 980's Dave Arnold had to say this morning (rough paraphase) - if people keep hearing these good things about Saskatchewan, they might not be able to ignore us any longer.

Happy boom time Saskatchewan!

Ode to Gary Vay-ner-chuk

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:16:00 +0000

So I'm swamped. Haven't posted to the blog for a while. I've got a backlog (if that's a word) of videos that need to be posted and we're trying to get about 5 or 6 different projects going right now. To top it all off, my wife Katlyn and I are off to Mexico on Saturday for just over a week to take in a friend's wedding and to take in some sun (I know, boo hoo, you're swamped and you're taking a vacation).

But all of that aside, I wanted to dedicate a post to a guy that everyone who reads this should make part of their day. Even if you don't care about wine, business, or the tech world, you need Gary Vaynerchuk in your life. If I'm feeling sluggish I just push the play button on one of his videos and his energy just picks me right up.

Red Bull's got nothing on Gary Vee.

I occasionally watch the Thunder Show, but was more interested in the whole idea of Gary through Rich Schefren. I was fasicnated with the idea that anyone with enough passion and smarts can use all the free tools available to broadcast that passion to millions of people and make a difference. That's why I was pumped to stumble upon http://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/ (Mott, link it up) where Gary has created a video blog to talk about business, and how technology can have a huge impact on it.

The best part about all the tools out there, whether it be a blog, YouTube, Facebook, or whatever is that they can be used in absolutely any industry, not just web based stuff. Heck, it's even better if it's not a web based business. There's less of a chance that there's an established competitor.

So bottom line - get to know Gary Vaynerchuk. He might be the catalyst to your pending success.

Here's a video below to get you started. It really resonated with me because I find myself doing a whole bunch of seemingly unrelated stuff (we have a marketing consulting company that runs a wedding website, helps small businesses with internet marketing, has an arm dedicated to restaurant marketing and we're starting a sprinkler business), but it's all stuff that I'm passionate about. I'm tired of people telling me I can only be known for one thing. I'm an entrepreneur, I'll get involved with as many different things as I want. I'll let you decide what you want to know me as.

Many people think of Gary as a wine guy. I prefer to think of him as an entrepreneur that's got a ton of passion and good ideas. Thanks to Gary for kickstarting my day. Enjoy.

Bacon Salt - The Product Is The Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:29:00 +0000

My favourite business author and blogger Seth Godin is always talking about the relationship between products and marketing. His stance is that the product should be the marketing. It's something that's built in.

So my ears couldn't help but perk up when listening to NewsTalk 980's John Gormley Live this morning. His guest was Dave (or was it Justin?) - the co-creator of Bacon Salt.

Yes. Bacon Salt.

The tag line you ask? Everything should taste like bacon. The header of their blog includes the title "The never ending quest to make everything taste like bacon."

This is the perfect example of a purple cow, and to go along with it they have a story worth telling (straight out of All Marketers Are Liars).

The two Bacon Salt founders were sitting around one night and someone said "Everything should taste like bacon". The next day when they sobered up they still figured it was a great idea so they started registering domain names and going through the paper work involved in starting a business and creating a product.

When it got to the point when they needed to pay for production, they needed to come up with $5000 and weren't sure how they were going to come up with the money. Well, fate was on their side because the next day they received a call from America's Funniest Home Videos saying that the video they entered had just won them $5000 and the cheque was in the mail. (The video is below).

Bacon Salt seems to be getting a ton of media exposure, and so they should. They've created something worth talking about. If you have the right story, a market will create itself because people will tell their friends.

If only we could all take a page out of Dave and Justin's book.

Building a Permission Asset

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:21:00 +0000

If you’re any good, your business probably has a lot of fans. These are the people that buy from you all the time and tell their friends how good you are. These are the people that you need to get permission to communicate with directly. And if you provide them with enough value, they’ll gladly give you their contact information. That’s permission based marketing.

There are a number of different ways to get permission from your best customers online. If you have a blog, let your readers subscribe to it via email or RSS feed. That way they know when you’ve made a new post. Start a preferred customer club to send your best customers special offers and discounts via email or direct mail. Build a subscriber base on YouTube. Start a Facebook group. Any permission asset you can build will help you effectively communicate with the people that buy what you sell.

That’s a huge deal.

Secrets to Building Your Customer List and Email Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:12:00 +0000

You can’t just slap a sign up form onto your website and expect great results.

People are getting bombarded with so many emails from their friends, family, and co-workers that they simply don’t want to see newsletters or marketing propaganda popping up in their inbox. Most people seem to be scared to give out their contact information for fear that they will never be able to escape the endless flood of email you might send them.

The thing is that most email marketing is all about you, the business. You want your customers email address so you can sell them more stuff. This just doesn’t fly with most people anymore. Sure you’ll have loyal fans that will want to receive everything you ever produce because they’re scared they might miss something, but that won’t be the norm.

To quote sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer, “People don’t want to be sold, but they love to buy”.

Use this to your advantage when you approach building your customer list and email marketing. The problem isn’t that people don’t want to buy what you sell, it’s that they don’t want to be sold what you sell.

The trick is all in the offer. Don’t make your email marketing and list building campaigns about you, make it about your customer.

So instead of getting people to sign up to receive your free email newsletter that will be filled with information about how they can buy what you sell, make them a better offer.

Make the offer about them.

When a customer buys something from you, tell them they’ve been chosen to receive $20 off their next purchase. Then provide them with a business card that includes the instructions they need to follow to receive their $20 gift by email. By signing up, make them aware that they’ll also receive more special offers by email up to six times per year.

That might get someone excited enough to fork over their contact information. It also shows that you are willing to treat your customers well in order to earn their business.

You are no longer a spammer. You’re the enabler that allows people to get a special deal on their favourite things.

Canadian Tour Coming To Saskatchewan

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:51:00 +0000

It's about time!

The Canadian Tour announced yesterday that they will be returning to Saskatchewan for the first time since 1984 with the playing of the Saskatchewan Open June 30 to July 6. Up for grabs is a $150,000 purse.

Thank you goes out to Darcy Bear of the Whitecap First Nation and everyone else involved in bringing the Canadian Tour to Dakota Dunes. It will be great for the local economy and will be a great event to attend.

Bear even mentions bigger things for Dakota Dunes, tossing around the PGA and LPGA as possibilities in the future. Let's take things one step at a time, but it never hurts to dream big.

This is a great thing for the province of Saskatchewan, and I hope the event is supported as well as every other event this province hosts.

For more information on Dakota Dunes, vist http://www.dakotadunes.ca/

To read the press release from the Canadian Tour, click here.

Marketing Tips - Be Real For Your Customers

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:26:00 +0000

By creating videos, posting to your blog, and responding to comments from your customers you become real to your customers. People are no longer buying from a company, they are buying from a familiar face.

Adam Hicks Wins Saskatchewan Student Entrepreneur Competition

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:49:00 +0000

Congratulations goes out to a friend of mine, Adam Hicks, who recently was crowned the Saskatchewan Student Entrepreneur Competition Champion for 2008. Adam started his company, Adam Hicks Painting Enterprises, in 2007. The company provides residential painting services under the College Pro Painters brand and he has also branched out to buying and flipping houses in the Regina market as well.

I've known Adam since high school and also took business classes with him at the U of R. He's probably one of the most intelligent people I know and always seems to have a new idea or project to work on. In addition to his business ventures, he's also working to put together Dancing With Regina's Stars April 26, 2008 at the Conexus Arts Centre. You can visit www.dancinregina.com for more information on that event.

To view the full press release put out by ACE Canada, click here.

There was also an article written by Braden Husdal of the Regina Leader-Post in today's paper. You can view it online here.

Congratulations Adam and good luck in Calgary at the regional competition on February 29th!

Marketing Tips - Talk With The People Who Are Listening

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:20:00 +0000

Advertising has become such a big part of our day to day lives. We are inundated with it, which is why we have all got so good at ignoring it. The other reason we've got so good at ignoring advertising is because we have become on-demand people. Internet marketing guru Rich Schefren calls this the Attention Age. Basically, people don't have time to do just in case learning because by the time they get around to applying what they've learned, they'll probably have to go back and re-learn it. That's a big time waste. With the Internet, people know that they don't have to pay attention to any mass media advertising because when they actually need information it will be available to them online and on demand.

Don't Want To Build Your Own Website? We'll Do It!

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:22:00 +0000

So just as we announce that we're starting a blog to help people build their own websites using the online web builder at OnlineWeb4u.com, we would also like let everyone know about our web design services at LRS Consulting.

If you want a website done quickly, professionally, and for a relatively low price, our web design services are for you. Watch the video embeded below to get a better sense of what our web design services entail (if you watch the video you'll realize that we put the emphasis on getting your website listed in the search engines to get you results rather than primarily on the design aspect).

Your Website Tips Blog Launched

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:13:00 +0000

We've had a web builder for a while now at http://www.onlineweb4u.com/ but haven't really done anything to market it so far. Right now we only use it to build and maintain websites for our small business clients. Hopefully that is all about to change.

We just started the Your Website Tips Blog at http://www.yourwebsitetips.blogspot.com/. The goal is to provide a bunch of tips that will help people build their own websites with our online website builder at http://www.onlineweb4u.com/. The web builder is extremely easy to use, but with a few helpful tips you can get a whole lot more out of your website. Hopefully people will find the tips helpful.

Again, head over to http://yourwebsitetips.blogspot.com/ to check out the blog in its infant stages.

An intro video for onlineweb4u.com is embeded below.

New Design for LRS Consulting Website

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:10:00 +0000

Hey all, just wanted to drop a note to say we just finished a redesign of the LRS Consulting website. We really tried to overdo it with video because really, who likes reading a bunch of text anymore? Anyway, the intro video for the site is embeded below. Head over to http://www.lrsconsulting.ca/ to check out the rest.

Barack Obama - The Web User's Next President

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:46:00 +0000

Need proof that the Internet is an effective marketing tool worth pursuing? Look no futher than Barack Obama's quest to become the next President of the United States.

A quick visit to his website demonstrates how well he has leveraged the Internet to promote his ideas during this campaign. He's a partial list of Internet tools he's using during his campaign:

his own website

Email newsletter

YouTube Channel

Facebook profile

MySpace Page

Flickr photos

Mobile updates

Twitter

Digg

A whole bunch more

He has leveraged the tools that people already used to get his message out in an impactful way. In the process he makes people talk about him. His web savvy audience has also just created a site called YouBama that allows users to upload their support videos to a site. The videos are then voted up and down alla digg style.

If you can use the Internet to market a product as important as a presidential candidtate, certainly you could find a way to use it to promote your business.

iStorez - The End of Retail Email Newsletters?

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Stefan) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:12:00 +0000

Erick Schonfeld has a post on TechCrunch about Internet startup iStorez. From what I can tell, the website takes all the html email newsletters that retailers send out to their subscriber base and puts them all in one place for people to browse online. The thought is to eliminate the massive amounts of email some people get in their inbox by aggregating the information in one web portal.

You can search for products by tag or by brand.

My question is how they are going to gather this information and legally republish it? (Kind of like how I stole the iStorez logo to use in this post). I mean retailers should be happy that someone has decided to give more circulation to their offers, but I don't think everyone will see it that way. Will the site just subscribe to every retail email newsletter known to man and have someone on their team dedicated to reposting them to the website?

Obviously iStorez won't stop retailers from using email newsletters, a marketing strategy that has proven effective, because the site wouldn't exist if their wasn't any email newsletters available to poach. It will be interesting to see if this concept catches on and what affect it will have on retail email marketing.