Last month, Webnames.ca introduced Video Marketing and we are pleased to announce a great opportunity for our customers to get a 90 seconds of video for the cost of 60 seconds in October!

When you book your 60 second video shoot before October 31st, you will receive a 30 second video at no charge*!


Ad, Profile, Testimonial

This great promotion allows you to try two video styles for the price of one. Use your 60 second video for a Profile of your business, and use your 30 seconds as an advertisement for one of your products or services, or a testimonial to help connect with your customers.



Learn more about Webnames.ca Video Marketing and book your shoot before October 31st!


Want a chance to win a video?

In support of Small Business Month, Webnames.ca has partnered with Small Business BC to offer a great contest for the month of October. We're giving you the chance to win a FastTrack WordPress website or a 30 Second Professional Video!

What is FastTrack?

FastTrack is Webnames latest Web Design program, giving you a fast, professional and affordable WordPress website for just $499!

Why Video?
Webnames has partnered with BBN3 to bring our customers video production that will help  you get found online, attract a new audience and increase SEO.

"Video views now account for nearly 7% of all consumer landing page behavior on small business websites - up 85% increase over 2009′s numbers."
-WebVisible, Q4 2010

Enter Now

Do you think you're ready to take the leap and bring your business online? Building a new website can seem like a daunting task. Between content, pictures, design, logos; all the while having to worry about things like SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Social Media, it can all be overwhelming. There are several steps you can take to help you better prepare for the experience and make it a bit less frightening.

Find the right domain name
First, check to see if the domain name you want to use is available. Having the perfect domain name for your website is very important as it gives you your online identity and it should not be overlooked. Check to see if your desired domain name is available, and register it right away.  You will also need hosting which you can register at the same time. Hosting is often included when you sign on to work with a web developer, however finding the best package for your needs is important as you may need multiple mailboxes, online streaming, blog capabilities etc. Webnames.ca has some great new plans available and you will get your domain FOR FREE. Know what your needs are to ensure you pick the right hosting plan.  Take a look at Webnames Hosting Plans.

What is the purpose of your website?
You should  have a clear idea of what your website will be used for, and what your visitors want from your website. Knowing your target market and how to meet their needs will help you choose the overall look and feel of your website.
Get an idea of what key components you want on your website (home page, about page, blog etc.). You will also need to consider things like eCommerce (will your visitors be purchasing from your site? If the answer is yes, how will you collect the funds?) Your decisions are not set in stone, but it is important to have somewhere to begin.

What is your budget?
This is an important one, as this will help to determine what kind of features you can have on your website. The more complex you want your website to be, the more time it will take the developer and this will lead to an increase in price. You may need to be flexible either with your website or with your budget to get exactly what you want, so keep that in mind.

Content, Content, Content!
If you want to have more than blank space on your website, you need to write some content. This is a huge portion of your website, and not something to be overlooked. You know your business better than anyone else and you need to supply your web developer with the content, don't expect that they will create it for you.Your content is also very important as it affects your Search Engine rankings. If you want to be found online, you want to be aware of the keywords that visitors will be using in an effort to find your business. Read more about SEO.

Images
Pictures are a huge part of making your website stand out. Ensuring your graphics are appropriate and communicate the concept of your company, service or product cannot be ignored. Do you already have photos ready to use for your website? Do you need to have professional photographs taken? Or are you planning to pay for stock images? Consider all your options and choose the best photos to better represent your online image and identity.

Who will design your website?
There are many design firms and freelance Web designers out there who can help you create your website. It is sometimes hard to tell one from the other and making the right decision can be a challenge.

A Freelance Web Designer/Developer
- May be more cost effective than a big design firm.
- May not have all of the resources needed for larger projects and continuity in relationship (if they move or go out of business) can be an issue.

A Professional Design Firm
- Often provides the most comprehensive set of skills, resources and services.
- Usually the most expensive option.
Make sure you take these items in to consideration before you get started on your new website. Although there are a lot of items to be aware of, choosing the right web designer to help walk you through it all can make all the difference.

Ready to start the Process?
Get the best of both worlds with a professional website at a great price! Webnames.ca has two comprehensive packages, FastTrack (starting at just $499) and Essentials ($1895) that will set you up with a great looking Wordpress based website.
Learn more about FastTrack and Essentials, and see which one is best for your business website.

Choosing Webnames.ca, you always know you are getting the highest level of service and the ease of knowing the job is being done right.

This great article was recently published by our friends at Small Business BC. It tackles a subject that many small businesses struggle with - how to make small, incremental improvements to an existing website that have real impact on search results and customer experience.


10 Ways to Improve Your Small Business Website
By Mark Tempest


How well is your website performing?  Many small business owners do well with their website through word of mouth and referrals, however, as we all know, Google can be picky about what it displays in its search results, and that's key to helping new customers discover your business.  Below are 10 quick tips of how you can improve your website for both search and your potential customers.
 

1. Make sure every webpage on your site has a unique Page Title that contains the keywords that you would expect someone to use when searching for the page or product. If you need some ideas about which words people might use to search for your business, use Google's Keyword tool to give you suggestions.
       
2. If you have an About Us page - make sure that the page title includes your company name e.g. About Small Business BC.
       
3. Include your company's full business name and address on every page in the footer of the website to increase your chance of being included in local search engine results and on Google Maps.
       
4. Make sure you have installed Google Analytics and use it.  Track a couple of key metrics about your website each month, such as how many people from your local area have visited and how many visits did the website receive from search engines?
       
5. If you want to be found locally for a specific service, make sure you put your location in the page title of the very front page of your website.  For example rather than "Acme Plumbers inc" consider "Vancouver Plumber: Acme Plumbers Inc" as potential clients will be searching for Vancouver Plumber, not your company name.

Read tips 6 to 10 and rest of this article on the Small Business BC website.

Small Business BC is a champion for British Columbia's small businesses and the province's premiere resource centre for knowledge-based business products and services.[Read More]
 

You've built your website, it's been working well for a while, but it's time for an update. Keeping your website the same for too long is like not updating the paint on your home. Eventually it starts to look outdated. Looking at your website as something that needs to be refreshed and updated is the best way to ensure you get the most out of your online presence.

A website re-build or re-design can be daunting and does take some level of planning to ensure it's a success.  Things that you need to consider are similar to the things that go into the design of a new website, such as target market, prioritization of goals, your overall image, etc. Here are some important steps to take when planning to update your website.


Assessment - What is currently working well on your site and what isn't?
If there are areas of your current website that are working well, and attracting clients, there is no use in changing it. Make sure you take a good look at the analytics of your site and any user feedback you have received. Make a list of the things that are working and make note of why they are working well. At the same time, take a look at the areas that are performing poorly and try to come up with ways that may help to improve them.

Goals - Think about what you are trying to accomplish
Having the best looking logo design, great graphics and a site that looks better than your competitors is great, however, if you do not have a website that aligns well with your overall business plan and goals, it makes no difference.
Ensure you have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with the website (more leads, sell more etc.). At this time take a look at some of your competitors to see what they are doing that works. This will help you get creative with things that could be used for your own website.

Targeted Content - Are there areas/pages you can remove?
Having an over cluttered website is common. Oftentimes by reviewing the information on your website, you can come up with ways to simplify it by either removing pages, or combining some. Think about your audience, how they are using your website and what information is crucial. Getting rid of any "extras" will only help your clients better navigate your site. Alternatively or in addition to this, you may find that other sections and pages need to be added as your business develops. Things like a blog or image gallery are very common today and can increase the traffic to your newly designed site.

Visual Appeal - Do your photos and images need to be updated?
Having photos on your website that are several years old can really date your website, even if the overall look of your site is current. Getting new photos taken can truly update the look of your site and give in an "instant facelift". If you are using stock photos, take a look at some new images. You can use the images as a way to completely alter your business's overall impression and image, or stick with your current overall feel. The images you use are an integral part of your website and are just as important as the overall design.

Priority - Is a full redesign right for you, right now?
If your website is working well for you, creating leads and supplying customers with the information they require, a full redesign may not be necessary. Perhaps your site might just need some design updates to keep it current and modern. Make sure you consider all your options before jumping in to a full re-design.

Qualifications - Working with the right re-designer
Creating a new design and re-designing are two different things. You want to ensure you are working with someone who has experience with re-designs as oftentimes re-designs are more complicated than creating a new design.  If your site is complex and you want to keep some areas of your site while removing others, you need someone with the experience to ensure the process is smooth.

Ready to start your re-design/re-build?
Webnames.ca is well equipped to help you with your re-design through the Essentials Program. Essentials is designed to help you whether you want to re-design an existing website or launch your business on the Internet.

Learn more about Essentials, and see how it can help you with your business website.

Webnames.ca is thrilled to launch our new hosting! We've re-tooled, re-vamped and re-jigged our platform and plans - and we're sure you are going to love the result.

Great news:

We have feature rich hosting plans starting as low as $4.95/month.

We also have the lowest start-up price for a complete plan - only $37.50!

This price gets you 6 months of hosting, 1 year of domain registration, premium business email, database, popular apps like WordPress, Joomla, ZenCart, plus much more!

Compare this pricing with our competitors - below are their entry start-up prices:

HostGator - $81.72 US
Canadian Web Hosting - $82.32 CDN
Netfirms - $83.40 CDN
Hostpapa - $95.40 CDN
Network Solutions - $95.88 US

So if you're starting a new website or want to move away from your current hosting company, Webnames.ca new hosting is a great choice.

More great news:

• All plans now have generous diskspace and bandwith
• The plan prices are now LOWER or the same
• We've included favourite apps like WordPress, Joomla, ZenCart, Drupal, plus more
• We've implemented a fantastic Plesk control panel, so configuring and managing your hosting will be much easier
• We have no minimum term! While there are benefits to signing up for a longer term on some plans (ie. free domain), you can also choose to pay month-to-month.  

Still more great news:

• We include a free domain on all plans that are paid for 6 months or more
• Our hosting comes with premium business email - that means 1GB of dedicated storage per account, IMAP, iPhone/Blackberry compatible and collaboration tools such as instant messenger, shared calendars, plus more
• Our servers and IP addresses operate 100% from within Canada
• We provide unlimited, one-to-one, toll free telephone customer support

And of course, like all of our services, you will be backed by the best customer support team in the industry.

Read our reasons why Webnames.ca is the right choice to be your host! 

View our 4 new and improved hosting plans, and check out our detailed comparison chart for the complete breakdown of what's included.

If you are currently hosted with Webnames.ca, please visit our migration page for more information about your new hosting plan.

Ready to get started? Call us toll free at 1-866-221-7878.

We are excited to announce that  Webnames.ca has launched a new and improved Shopping Cart!

Our streamlined new cart will make shopping faster and simpler. Some of its benefits include:

• Simplified domain registration and shopping (we've reduced the number of steps by half!)
• Ability to change terms, quantities and set auto-renewal options for both domains and services directly in the cart
• Apply global updates to all domains in the cart
• Add compatible services such as email and SSL directly in the shopping cart
• Enhanced bulk capacity - register hundreds of domains at one time with improved bulk handling
• Automatic crediting for unused time when you upgrade or change services
• Easily upgrade, downgrade or update the billing cycle of your service(s)
• Easier Registrant management  
• Realtime status updates for domain and service provisioning shown directly on the purchase confirmation screen

And remember we still offer:

• Some of the most flexible payment options around, including major credit cards, invoice, online banking and cheque, as well as pre-paid account credits for "money-free" purchasing

We Welcome Your Feedback

We're looking forward to a smooth transition, but if you experience any bumps or hiccups with our new system, we definitely want to hear about it!

Because one of our core values is to "always be improving" we welcome your feedback about our new cart, whether it's big or small, positive or critical. Webnames.ca is committed to continuously reviewing our processes to maximize efficiency, productivity and quality. We will do our best to resolve any issues you experience as promptly as possible as well as incorporate your suggestions for improvement.

And of course, if you require assistance using our new cart or have questions about the new features, simply call us directly.

Please send your comments to support@webnames.ca, or,
Call us toll free 1 866 470 6820 to share your feedback with a customer support representative.

We launched our Search Engine Optimization service last month and I wanted to give you a taste of what I learned from our (frankly) brilliant SEO consultants.

There are some fast and easy things you can do that should garner you noticeable improvements in your search engine ranking.

#1 quick win - The Title Tag.
Your website's title tag is the first piece of real estate that Google indexes. If it just says Benson and Sons you've given the engines nothing to work with and unless people already know about you, it doesn't say what you do. But if you say "Benson and Sons -Winnipeg Area Private Investigators and Bail Bondsmen",  you've told the search engines where you are and what your business does.

#2 quick win - Words, Words, Words 
Google loves words and primarily indexes words. Your landing page should have at least 250 words on it and some of those words must be the key search terms that you want to be found on. So for Benson and Sons I would suggest the landing page have something like this:

"Benson and Sons is a Winnipeg based private investigation firm that also specialized in bail bonding.

Our certified investigators and bondsmen are discreet and are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Bonds and investigations no longer need to be the embarrassment they once were! You can make inquires by phone, email, online or in person. Our process is simple. Once you contact us we will get back to you within the hour. We will listen to your problem and come up with a solution plan that can be acted upon quickly.

No bond is too high and no investigation too small.  Bail for a loved one falsely accused of being the Kissing Bandit? We've got you covered. Would you like us to find out who the real Bandit is?  Our state of the art undercover and online sleuthing will complement your solicitors work.

We take all manner of payment for our bond and investigation services - credit card, mortgage lien, high performance vehicles, estate jewelry and the like.

We service Winnipeg and southern Manitoba as well.  Call Benson and Sons today. Our satisfied customers all say the same thing "I have never had my bail bond and private investigation needs handled so quickly and efficiently".

Should you need us to work in any other province; we will gladly assist one of our many professional associates in those provinces who are certified bondsmen and investigators. At no time will we hand off the work to another company.  Your satisfaction is our only goal."

The key words that they would be found on would be : Winnipeg, bail, bond(s), investigator(s), investigation.

This block of text uses the key words organically.  It covered off what we do and our location. Both of these are essential to being found.

Our resident filmmaker Rami, shot to the first page of Google (from page 4) on the term Vancouver Cinematographer by changing his Title tag. It had been Rami Films Personal Portfolio and then became Rami Films Vancouver Cinematographer.

He also made sure that he peppered his blog posts with the two words and then added those posts to his blog roll on his main page at www.ramifilms.com.

Our SEO service consultants can help you figure out which words you should be trying to be found on. They can tell you how to use the description fields for your pages and the alt tags for your pictures.

They'll look at your competition and figure out what you can do to leap over them in the rankings. They'll teach you about links in and links out.

So give us a call today and we'll get you set up with a consultant ASAP. And if you want some snappy copy for your website we can help with that too! Just give us a call.

Building on its history of exceptional support for its customers, Webnames.ca is proud to announce our new professional services arm, Power for Small Business.


Under Power for Small Business, we are now offering a new service called Essentials, which provides clients with everything they need to succeed online, including:

• Custom designed website
• Web strategy
• Search engine optimization
• Twitter
• Website analytics
• Personalized training on the above applications

For small business owners, organizations and individuals, Essentials allows you to take the first critical step towards achieving your business goals.

We ensure that your website follows best practices; we teach you how to increase your website traffic and engage with your target audience; and we position you for continuous future growth.

Through our consultations, personal tutorials and documentation (all included with the program), we will train you how to maintain and update your website, as well as use social media effectively to each more prospects. And of course, if you would rather have us maintain your website for you, we have flexible and affordable maintenance options available.

Complete program information on Essentials, including customer feedback and additional services is available on our website.
 
It's an exciting time over here at Webnames.ca! Understanding your needs is what we've always done best and we developed the Essentials Program based on your feedback about wanting a complete online solution.
 

Call 1-866-976-9835 for a free Essentials consultation and find out how we can help you - in a brand new way!

There is big buzz on the internet these days about Geolocation.  Wikipedia says:
"Geolocation is the identification of the real-world geographic location of an object, such as a cell phone or an Internet-connected computer terminal. Geolocation may refer to the practice of assessing the location, or to the actual assessed location."

From an internet marketing and mobile marketing aspect, geolocation is about identifying where you are and then filtering data so you get information that relevant to you.

Mobile apps such as FourSquare and Yelp utilize the GPS information from your cell phone to make recommendations about businesses around you.

Services such as Groupon (the group coupon phenom) have you choose the city that you want to receive deals from.

In the old days (last year or the year before), the country code domain extensions were one way to experience geolocation. When you go to bell.ca or sainsburys.co.uk you know which country that company is providing services for. .ca also had the ability to break the name down into provinces - sk.ca, bc.ca, on.ca and so on.

Now here's what I was thinking - let's take geolocation in domain names a step further. Let's say I have a small business in Portland or Vancouver. I have my .com or my .ca but I want to dominate my market. It would be nice to refine my location even further by using city names. But typing joesflowers.vancouver or decksrus.portland would drive most users bonkers.

I suggest that we take all those delightful airport codes that we know and love, and turn them into high performing domain extensions. Vancouver is YVR and Portland is PDX and that would give us Joesflowers.yvr and decksrus.pdx. Neat!

If you want to be the king of coffee for St. Anthony's Newfoundland then coffeeking.yay is the answer. Farnborough UK is your estate agencies patch? Priemierestates.fab is just the ticket.

So SFOites, YYZ peeps and JFKsters, stand up and say "I ♥ my airport code" and maybe ICANN will listen.

(Image: We borrowed this terrific image of airport code patches from the super cool SternLab. Read the related blog post here.)

Webnames.ca listens to customer feedback and is always striving to be better at what we do and help you manage your online presence effectively. Below are answers to some frequently asked questions that keep coming up in conversations with you.

Too Many Passwords in General?  Try Password Safe

Password Safe is free online, which we've mentioned in previous posts, I am mentioning it again because customers keep telling me about the difficulties they're having managing multiple passwords  It allows you to store all your passwords securely.  All you really need to remember is the password for the tool itself.  Once logged into Password Safe, you can access all the details you stored by name.  It even has a feature that will auto populate the fields so you don't need to type them.

Managing your Webnames.ca Services Passwords

Email - If you ever forget the password to your Webnames.ca Emails, there is a place in the Webmail settings where you can enter another email address.  The next time you forget your email password, you can go to Pronto Webmail and click "Forgot your Password?", your password will then be sent to the alternate email account you specified.

Webhosting - If you forget the password to your Webhosting, there is now an option on your Webhosting Tab in your Webnames.ca account, that will re-send the password.

If you want help setting this up, call us!  We're more than happy to guide you through it over the phone. 1--866-221-7878.

How Many Websites Do I need?

With Webnames.ca Webhosting, you can have one hosting plan, with several domains that are forwarded to it.  For example, if yummybonbons.ca is hosted, and yummybonbons.com points to the .ca, the domains can all be forwarded to the home page or even to different sub-folders.  Webnames.ca forwarder also allows you to grip the domain, which will keep the domain name showing in the address bar instead of the destination sub-folder (yummybonbons.ca can be forwarded to sweetsweetcandy.com/FR/, when gripping is used the address bar will show http://yummybonbons.ca so in effect, you can have a website under both names.  **Note that some websites require features that are only available with specific plans.

With Webnames.ca Web Builder you can only have one website per plan. Some customers have mistakenly purchased our GOLD Web Builder for extra pages, their intent being to have half of their website in French (with Web Builder having the language built in, you can only choose French or English, not both).  If you are looking to have a bilingual site, I suggest getting two separate domains and a smaller Web Builder plan, it will not only cost less, but also be clearer for both your English and French speaking customers. 

When You Outgrow Web Builder

Webnames.ca Business Standard Hosting: For a lot of individuals, organizations and small businesses Web Builder is a great website solution; we realize however that sometime people want more flexibility and are eager to learn how to manage their own websites, taking advantage of the vast resources and tutorials available online.

If this is your case, we've been reccommedning Webnames.ca Business Standard Hosting with a fresh install of WordPress.  If you get decide to purchase that hosting package we will install WordPress for you free of charge.  After WordPress has been installed it is up to you to manage it. For ideas, how-to's and cupport, you can check out the extensive WordPress forums. http://wordpress.org/support/

For more information about the above Webnames.ca services, try our comprehensive FAQ section. If your question isn't answered there, don't hesitate to call us at 1-866-221-7878.

Digital Influence Index identifies Canadians as social media savvy but cautious about information found online

Study by Fleishman-Hillard Study

Consumers across the globe are embracing the Internet as a primary source of information, but Canadians are unique in their use of digital and social media. The 2010 Digital Influence Index, released in Canada by Fleishman-Hillard in conjunction with Harris Interactive, reveals that Canadians have high online engagement but a lower level of trust in the Internet.

The study also measures several key aspects of consumers' use of the Internet, from media consumption patterns, to the degree of adoption of various digital behaviours, to involvement in social networking. Now in its second year, the Index has expanded to include 48 per cent of the global online population, spanning the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, China, Japan and Canada.

"Canadian consumers are comfortable yet cautious when it comes to using the Internet," said David Bradfield, senior partner and global chair of Fleishman-Hillard's digital practice. "We lead the world in social networking and call the Internet our most influential source of information. There's a gap though. While consumers migrate online, marketers aren't making the move to digital fast enough. They need to realign their marketing and communication programs or risk irrelevance in the consumers' mind."

The Digital Influence Index reveals the following key insights that set Canadian consumers apart from the rest of the world:

1. Internet Most Influential Medium: The Internet is the most important and influential form of media consumed by Canadians. Compared to the 37 per cent of Canadian consumers who say that newspapers are important to their lives, 52 per cent say that the Internet is most important. 
2. Canadians are Sociable: Sixty-nine per cent of Canadian consumers have a Facebook account, compared with the 47 per cent average across the seven countries. Though Canadians embrace social media, they are cautious about its use and how much they reveal about themselves.  
3. Canadians Seek Accuracy: In Canada, consumers are more likely to identify and follow a couple of trustworthy sources for the most accurate information on the Internet.
4. Cautiously Trusting: Canadians are most likely to seek advice from others when making a decision and value conversations with friends, families and co-workers when it comes to decision-making.
5. Twitter Know-how: Consumers in Canada are the most knowledgeable of microblogs but have low levels of trust in companies that microblog.
6. Pay to Play Doesn't Pay-off: Consumers call into question the truthfulness of an article written by a blogger if the blogger was given a free sample or was paid by a company.
7. Adopting Mobile Behaviours: Canada has a relatively low level of adopting many mobile digital behaviours compared with other mature markets (U.S., U.K, France, Germany and Japan).
8. Where to From Here: Although the Internet is already considered an influential medium, only 24 per cent of Canadians believe that it will have a greater influence on their decisions in the next two years.

Download a complimentary copy of the Digital Influence Index white paper and read in-depth analysis on global insights.

View video commentaries from some of the sector experts at Fleishman-Hillard Canada.

About the Digital Influence Index
The Digital Influence Index is a joint venture between Fleishman-Hillard and Harris Interactive. The project was designed and led by Fleishman-Hillard's digital research group, a team within the agency's network focused on providing research that supports the digital transformation of communications. Analysis and insight development was conducted in partnership with Harris Interactive.

The fieldwork for this study was also conducted by Harris Interactive through a comprehensive, 15-minute online survey among a representative sample of 4,243 Internet users in China, the United States, Canada, Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

This work took place between December 2009 and January 2010. Respondents to the survey were recruited from the various panels managed by Harris Interactive across the markets surveyed.

The data was weighted to online population targets, including those based on age, gender, education, region and Internet usage. Further weighting was applied to the analysis of the combined results to reflect the online population sizes in each country.

The Digital Influence Index was constructed by factoring in both consumption of a medium and the importance consumers attach to that consumption. Respondents were allowed to give various media a score out of 100 for the amount of time they spend on them and then rate how important this time is to their decisions. Consumption and importance were each scored out of 100 to produce a percentage score for each and a total score out of 200. This latter score is halved to produce a combined percentage score that sums up the influence of the medium.

About Fleishman-Hillard
Fleishman-Hillard Inc., one of the world's leading strategic communications firms, has built its reputation on creating integrated solutions that deliver what its clients value most: meaningful, positive and measurable impact on the performance of their organizations. The firm is widely recognized for excellent client service and a strong company culture founded on teamwork, integrity and personal commitment. Based in St. Louis, the firm operates throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Latin America through its 80 owned offices. For more information, visit the Fleishman-Hillard website at www.fleishmanhillard.com.

About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is one of the world's leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215 countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us - and our clients - stay ahead of what's next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

The first time I saw a QR Code was about a year ago on a photo of a realtor's lawn sign that was posted on Flickr.  I thought it was interesting but didn't understand what a QR Code was or could do.

It's amazing what a year can do for the popularity of a piece of technology.  We're beginning to see them everywhere.

QR Codes are the square shaped barcode thingys that you have been seeing in newspapers and on other print material. They are a 2D barcodes that hold information on the vertical and the horizontal. Regular barcodes hold 20 digits, these bad boys can carry loads more information than that.

If you scan them with your Smartphone they tend to return information from the other side of URL.  Your phone scans the URL and then launches your browser and takes you to the piece of information the code was advertising.

Our office in downtown Vancouver is in the historic Gastown area.  The Gastown Blog and the Gastown Business Improvement Society have teamed up to provide historical information on the buildings in the neighbourhood via the QR 2 code.  

The building next to our offices has a code in the window and all you have to do is scan it and it gives you the history of the building. 

This is such a fabulous idea.  Imagine you are in Milan and you see some beautiful building that you would like to get more information about but your Italian is "poor".  You just scan the code and get linked to a podcast perhaps or an English version of the historical society's website. DIY walking tours!

I like the QR 2 code for real estate - rental, sales and leases.  You walk by a For Lease sign on an office building.  You scan the code on the sign and it brings up the dot tel for the building that gives you rates, space available etc.  You scan the code on a For Rent sign and it shoots you off to the Craigslist posting with prices and pictures. You scan it on a For Sale sign and the virtual tour loads in an instant.

You can pay your restaurant bill via the code and phone these days (not everywhere but soon - soon).   I'm sure somebody has already thought of linking them to review sites so I can make intelligent decisions when I'm buying a camera or a netbook or some such.

What uses would you put them to? Send us any cool uses you have already seen.  This bandwagon needs a parade!

Image - Webnames.ca's .TEL GIft Card QR Code

A WordPress Newbie Sets up her First WordPress Website!

Here at Webnames, we are bullish for WordPress.  We're helping any and all of our customers get their webhosting set up so it can take a Wordpress install.

My personal website was done in WordPress but I had the help of our web designer to get it up.  So yesterday I thought I might take a stab at setting up a WordPress site myself and making it rock with cool plugins.

I had Max help me with webhosting database setup and the initial php configuration for WordPress.  The webhosting set up was a little tricky and thankfully Max knew all the best practices for the .php edit (to avoid getting hacked). (By the way, Webnames.ca provides free, managed WordPress installs to its webhosting customers.)

Download the latest version of WordPress from www.WordPress.org. Edit the wp-config-sample.php  (call support for help) and save it as wp-config.php and then FTP the contents of the downloaded WordPress folder up to your new website.

WordPress prompts you for a couple of things like a password and Blog Name and then you're ready to download a theme.  I picked the Constructor theme and downloaded it while on my new site.  It self installed - so that was easy.

Now I wanted to add my Twitter stream o' consciousness.   I chose to "add new" in  the plugins menu item and searched for Twitter.  A bunch of options came up, I reviewed them and "installed and activated" one of them.  I edited it so it used my Twitter account and then I previewed my web site.  Nothing. Hmmm.

Now I was reduced to reading the readme for the plugin.  Turns out I need to "add the widget to the sidebar". Hmmmm.  But I downloaded a plugin.  How was I supposed to turn a plugin into a widget?  After much Googling and head scratching it turned out that the plugin was already a widget.

So I went into widgets and dragged the Twitter widget into the section called sidebar.  I previewed my web site and my twitter feed was there!  But it was unattractive.  I went back to the well and downloaded a new twitter plugin called Xhanch that also was a widget ( I catch on fast), dragged it into the sidebar, deactivated the old widget/plugin and then I had a much more attractive twitter feed.

With my new love of plugins/widgets I downloaded one for Delicious (smartly called Delicious for WordPress) and it put itself in the middle of my blog.  Which was weird. I had to move it to the sidebar and I would really like it to go somewhere else but I don't know where or how to get it there.  So I need to work on that bit of it.

I added a page (easy) and then installed my .tel contact info as an iframe.  That was easy as it was just a piece of code that was on the Telnic website that I plopped on the new page. It came up perfectly.

Inserting a video seemed like the next cool thing, so I downloaded a non widget plugin called Smart YouTube, and read the readme on how to use it. I found a YouTube video I wanted to embed, followed the instructions and the video popped up like magic.  I was totally into the WordPress swing.

Then I couldn't think of anything else to do other than change the colours, which I did and then promptly changed back as my new choices hurt my eyes.

From stem to stern my fiddling around took about an hour and half and I got a tricked out and I must say, somewhat ugly website.   But fixing the look will be what the next hour and half will be for!

Resources:

Here are some "Best of WordPress Plugins" lists from 2009 and 2010 that  you might want to check out when planning your WordPress Blog or Website:

Business 2.0 - 30+ Must Have WordPress Plugins

Mashable - 20 of the Best SEO Plugins for WordPress

Site Sketch 101 - The 15 Best WordPress Plugins to Use in 2010

 
 

The BBC recently posted an article about the first .COM registration way back in 1985. To put this in perspective, 1985 was the same year 'Back to the Future' was released.

The first .COM domains registered were:

1. 15-March-1985 SYMBOLICS.COM (Their Wikipedia page is a great snapshot of the era.)

2. 24-April-1985 BBN.COM

3. 24-May-1985 THINK.COM

4. 11-July-1985 MCC.COM

(The first .CA registration was completed on January 12, 1988 and the very first registration was upei.ca for the University of Prince Edward Island.)

It made me wonder, what was the Internet like back then?

Now granted I am a PC user, who is slowly getting pulled by the modern sleekness of Apple products, but most of my experience in on PC/Windows. I can remember using Windows 3.1, in the 90's, and I had a beat up old second hand computer yellowed by dust and the last owner's cigarette smoke. I didn't even have Internet on it, although I was told it could do Email. All I cared about were the wonderful pixelated games!

The Internet itself is said to have been born in 1980, and the first web browser to be released in 1993, in Illinois USA, was called Mosaic.

Then Internet Explorer arrived in 1995.

So how did people use their domains in 1985?

I couldn't find any screenshots of this at all, so I asked John Demco, co-founder of Webnames.ca and the man who created .CA for Canada. As John explained it, when this all started people didn't have webpages, they mostly used the domain name itself for email, remote login, FTP usage, and FTP listing. Many people still use domains exclusively those reasons.

The Internet is relatively young (younger than I am!), yet nowadays we expect so much from it. When I can't find a wireless connection for my iPod touch it's like a dead robot to me. The Internet gives it life. We put so much energy into making the Internet dazzle and perform magic tricks to make us oooooh and awwww!

Will the Internet have a midlife crisis? It turned 40 last year and some say it already has hit midlife as evidenced by of its growing of security concerns and legal barriers. The Internet wants to be everything, or does it? Wherever it ends up, today my awe comes from looking back at the path it took to get here!

I'm asked to speak to small businesses frequently at a variety of technology or entrepreneurship events. A frequently overlooked, but important thing I always mention is to have an effective email strategy. People are typically surprised when they hear this. After all, how strategic is sending and receiving communication? Below are some do's and don't's when setting up your company email.

1) Don't use Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or your ISP's email service as your business email. I cringe every time I see on someone's business card yourcompany@hotmail.com or yourcompany@ISP.net.

Many companies, in particular micro-businesses and small businesses use Gmail, Hotmail or their ISP's email service for business email. This looks unprofessional and gives the impression of a very small or even fly-by-night business.  

2) Do use your domain name for your email. Set up an email like yourname@yourcompany.com or .ca. You miss out on a great branding tool by not using your business name for email, in fact, you are actually promoting someone else's brand instead of your own. Why advertise for Google or Hotmail when you can advertise your own company?

3) Do set up multiple email accounts to organize your business, and where desirable, appear larger than you are. For example, info@yourcompany.com, sales@yourcompany.com, president@yourcompany.com, finance@yourcompany.com and support@yourcompany.com. All of these emails can be forwarded to the same person (or multiple people) but this gives the impression of sophisticated operation.

4) Do set up multiple email accounts to help determine your HR needs and business bottlenecks. Small businesses typically don't have the resources to implement sophisticated tracking systems to monitor what types of enquiries they get. The sole proprietor or business owner typically answers all the emails and by the end of the month, has no idea what kept them so busy. By setting up a separate email address for each division of your company, it is a great way to track types of questions you get from customers.

At the end of the month, just tally up the number of enquiries to each email account and you will know what area of your company kept you most busy. Over time, you can determine where your next hire should be or where you should make improvements in your operations.

5) Do use an automated signature. If you are typing your name, title and contact information every time you send an email, stop wasting your time. Most email programs have an automated signature function. You can include messages about a current promotion, new product or service, links to your blog or twitter and even a small image of your logo for branding purposes.  

6) Do determine if IMAP or POP email is best for you.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) allows you to access email on a remote mail server. Essentially, if you access your email from multiple computers or locations regularly, you may want to consider IMAP. If your computer is stolen or damaged, your email is still on the mail server. The disadvantages of IMAP are that email is not available when you are offline and if you are storing all your past emails on the mail server, it can start to eat up disk space.

POP (Post Office Protocol)  downloads all new messages on the mail server onto your computer and deletes them from the server. POP's advantages are that email is available when you are offline and because email isn't stored on the server your disk usage on the server is less. The main disadvantage of POP is that you cannot access your email from another computer. You may want to couple POP with use of webmail as a work around.  
 

Promotion: Save 50% off new email accounts at Webnames.ca until March 31, 2010. Webnames.ca email also includes great business features such as shared calendar, shared contacts, instant messaging and more [learn more].  

If you need help with your email setup, please contact the Webnames.ca support team at 1-866-221-7878 or email them at support@webnames.ca.