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| Faq's |
What
Forms of Distribution Do You Have?
All Avenues of Distribution
are utilized.
Color Hard Copy of Pages or Sites, Short Form Copy
for Direct Delivery, and Information Packages are
Available especially to those who have yet to gain
access to the Internet. We can mail or courier the
information depending on the nature of the request.
Facsimile is still a big player in receiving information.
Once we have a customer receiving faxes from us, We
take great pains to ensure the information being sent
has been ok'd by the business and from a communication
aspect is in short form. Blind E-mail sends are being
more widely used to service our subscription base.
As our customer base is Steadily growing, we ask that
if you have a change of E-mail address to please notify
us! The majority of Web-Pages & Sites we list all
have Met-Tags, Search Engines or Key Words Employed,
A combination of Hyper-Links networking Pages & Sites,
along with our Revolving Banner Banner Program make
us and businesses more & more available to the global
village. It's like having a TV Advertisement with
all the information on your business (24) twenty-four
hours a day! Promotions can be "tailor made" to suit
the needs of your business, either on its own or with
other companies. We can target market an area locally
or on a much larger scale. See our Advertising Section
for more information on these services.
Can You Give Me Some Concrete
Demographics?
"Our Network started in Edmonton...
Now Our Scope is Global"
Information sent is directed to staff members in the
offices of Over 7000 businesses, companies and organizations,
big or small. That's just for The Edmonton Area. The
businesses are pre-screened and asked how they would
like to receive our sends. This number takes a significant
jump when you add in the number of visits to our site!
We pull tracking results of the number of visits to
Our Site. They are very encouraging as we have yet
to install the new met-tags and re-register with the
search engine companies. Bi-monthly, we receive approximately
46,000 requests. 1569 Servers recently accessed The
Edmonton Bulletin Site alone! Our "What's New Page",
obviously book-marked gained 28, 492 hits! This proof
positive that our promotional sends are working! The
Main Page recorded an additional 1583 visits. This
does not include the number of requests from the nine
individual sites we list. We know that they are good
producers and the majority do link back to our site.
In future, many of them will be changing over to our
new server system with the auto tracking features
and we will be able to get some more figures from
those sites. In fact, based on the popularity of these
businesses, and the size of these sites, we would
not be surprised the number of visits recorded would
range anywhere from 3000 to 10,000 visits per month.
Now that's impressive! And that's the original format
we have had since 1997. We estimate that with the
New Formats and the launching of Bulletin International.com
The traffic volume to triple by 2001. With this, we
factor in the Province of Alberta, our penetration
into British Columbia, Across Canada, into The United
States and now Overseas! Businesses are Approaching
us from all over the world. Sweden, Estonia, Italy,
Australia, Japan, And The West Indies.
What can you do for my business?
From a Customized Marketing Approach, to The Internet,
we create designs to complement and promote your business.
This largely depends on what kind of results you're
looking for… We can do it in concert with all three
of our businesses. Our primary goal is to provide
an excellent service at a great value, saving you
big bucks and translating our efforts into increasing
your market share or securing your existing client
base. A promotion involves an e-mail send to our growing
subscriber base, with fax-out, or color hard-copy
drop of the information depending on the subscriber's
preference. We recommend, Minimum, the linking up
of your Page or Site to "Our Directory". This is a
very valuable tool as the latest stats indicate: 90%
of businesses being found on the Internet are located
by hyperlinks on other web-pages, 65% by friends &
referral, 64% via promotion, 57% by directories. You
will notice Our Directory Service covers all the bases
by promotion, hyper linking and the networking of
Businesses. Ready to get on board??? "CONTACT
US"
We have ownership concerns,
what can you do for us?
Many businesses are coming to us as this is a growing
area of concern. When a business first gets into Web-Page
or Site Creation, the issue of ownership does not
come into play until a disagreement arises. Buy this
time some serious problems can develop and a business
can quite possibly end up loosing their investment.
We can empathize with you about this, as we have been
through this ourselves as a business and understand
fully what rights you have legally.
Please feel free to examine the following information
as it spells out some very excellent points on the
subject. As a point of interest, the best way to approach
this, is with a very cool head. The seriousness Of
ownership is strong enough that you may need to "Contact
Us" immediately with your concerns. Experience dictates
that swift well-planned action is your best defense.
Ownership & Legalities on the Internet. This is becoming
a very scary area. We have had to protect many businesses
and their sites. In fact, the lion share of our business
is securing ownership. We did some digging and lots
of consulting with our lawyer. He is James Swanson
and can be found on our directory. James has written
many papers and thesis on the topic and is a world
leader in this area of expertise. Site ownership has
many sides. Largely, the owner is the author. The
person who put together the information that goes
on the site. I've rubbed shoulders with a number of
webmasters in the past Brad Holman is our Webmaster.
We have an agreement and have developed a strong working
relationship. He's our diamond in the ruff and a great
asset to our business.
Highly Confidential and Sensitive!
On the registration of Domain names, people are becoming
very in tune with Site Ownership Issues. Consultation
costs on these matters are at a premium of 150.00
US per hour. Relax, our costs for specialty work and
consulting are very affordable.
In the efforts of building good relationships with
current customers and new ones we do many extras as
your finding out. People know we are good, we just
like to continually prove the point!
Out of courtesy I viewed the "who is", on numerous
sites and I recommend you do some comparisons. The
way to do this is to go into www.networksolutions.com
and click into their "who is" on the top of their
tool bar. Go to the search window and insert your
companies domain name. Now what I am about to show
you is very important. Your Company Domain Registration
should have the following done correctly:
Registrant: This information should be solely under
the company
Administrator: This is the controlling interest of
the site itself and must be solely under the company
Technical: This is the only place the people maintaining
your site should appear.
Billing Contact: Indicates who is paying for the domain
registration.
The rest of the information indicates what company
server your business is on.
There is no immediate concern if your company is on
a good footing with the business maintaining your
site. However, if they occupy the Administrator information
on this document, which means that even though your
company may be the Registrant & Billing Contact, the
Administrator is in control of your site. Technically
they own the Web-Site and are you would be advised
to do some checking! That's why the deal may have
been too good to refuse when they offer to build or
take over the management of a site.
My recommendation is that your company make copies
of the site to protect itself. Hire someone to do
it independently or internally. Then when necessary,
move to make changes to the domain registration. Feel
free to check us out! For example http://www.autoworldrepairmall.com,
you'll also want to check out the start of this site
as it has an Intro-page and the Main-page shows the
look of things to come. The site loads fast and will
become completely interactive. Hyper-linking right
from the text makes for quick navigation and communication.
This is a good one to bookmark as like our own sites,
we are continually doing improvements and upgrades.
How
do I know "My Site" is being seen?
Browser Access: The reason I why many may not able
to view a site with their computer is, because the
browser needed has to be the newest one. There is
a serious problem with this. First off, in order to
view the site with all its graphics and animation,
people will have to know which browser to download
and even still may not do it. As a result the full
features of the site will not be seen by the customer
and they may just click off and go to another site.
Good site development will include access by the seven
most popular browsers available. Most people and businesses
in 2000 upgraded to a 4.7 Netscape or a 5.0 Explorer
Browser. There are still many using 3.0 & 4.6 Netscape
Browser versions because of familiarity and comfort.
Many are happy with these browsers and will not make
a change just to see a site. Therefore, Its up to
us to make sure everyone can view your information.
This is where the real skill comes in creating a Web-Page
or Site. It is nice to be considered a class project,
utilizing the latest technology, but as you can see
from the information above, you have to know what
people are in fact using out there!
Tracking: We have a cobalt server system that allows
us to pull the number of visits to pages on our site.
This is a very useful tool, in-fact we can provide
you with access codes to get these results at you
own convenience. This is a good source of information
and provides an accurate hit count, out-dating other
less reliable counting systems.
Increase in Walk-in, E-mail & Phone Traffic are good
indicators that people have found you on-line.
Talk to your Staff: In many cases, we have proven
a Page or Sites worth by asking the staff if they
have Received any business off the Internet.
What
is your take on search engines?
"Some interesting tid bits!"
Search engine companies all have different use modes.
The best way to learn how to use engines Are by going
into a site like Alta Vista or msn.com and learning
how each of their systems work. The good thing is
you learn how to search and utilize the engine to
its maximum.
Did you now? Search engine submission is a touchy
business. First, your site should have met-tags attached.
These are the words that you want people to find you
with. WE recommend the submission to the top ten companies
in this field because of the usage. Yahoo is a category
engine and requires the submission of categories like
you would find your business in the Yellow pages.
Yahoo should be one of your top ten choices.
Frequency of Submission is becoming a serious problem.
If the job is done for you properly, the first time,
you will not need to re-submit, until maybe some serious
changes are done to your site. You can submit engines
for special pages on your site in addition if you
like. The problems arise when webmasters in charge
continually submit. This is not a good thing and is
unfortunately commonplace in the industry. This is
serious enough that a business could eventually become
black listed and dropped from the service. Keep in
mind that this is a free service and the search companies
ultimately will select which engines they want to
carry.
Site Loading Time: Search companies time the loading
of sites by line connection, and if the sites first
page is not up within thirty (30) seconds, the site
may be dropped without notification. This is why many
sites have an Into-page created. Intro-pages done
properly have little background yet have a nice effect
or animation, they can even have a timed entry into
your main page.
What
means do you use to promote your business?
The Business-to-business approach is the most
effective. These businesses have been contacted and
look forward to receiving our publication. "You introduce
the information to a companies key people and they
can share it with their personnel!" Wherever possible,
businesses expressing interest in our marketing approach
and those effected by our door-to-door canvas, are
very receptive to a one-on-one presentation. The presentation
allows us to talk about the businesses we are representing
and to show our work. This opportunity allows us to
learn more about each business, whom to direct future
information and in what form the information should
be received. Subscription to receiving information
fromThe Edmonton Bulletin or Bulletin International.com
is FREE!
More and more people are gaining access to the Internet,
this is continually increasing our e-mail distribution
on a daily basis. Plus, e-mail is quickly replacing
the fax machine, everything can be sent in full color,
there's no sacrifice of quality, and no more unwanted,
wasted paper!
Block Buy Advertising is a concept introduced for
2000. Providing the ability to look at various modes
of promoting business. Collectively as a group of
for example (12) businesses, we can go for Newspaper
Ads, Television, Radio, Billboards, etc., and ask
for a group rate. Much more effective, than going
it alone. This allows smaller business the opportunity
to advertise and larger ones better buys!
Recommended Links are now included with each Web-Page
or Site we maintain or create. Recommended links provide
connections to other user-friendly pages and sites
without having to type in a new address. Also designed
to increase traffic and activity, these links function
as an important part of our networking process and
are utilized by 95% of those searching the Internet.
Key Names/Search Engines are submitted on a businesses
behalf to bring people directly to their page or site.
Search Engines are utilized by 85% of people browsing
the Internet. The proper way of getting on with The
Search Engine Companies is to first install Met-Tags
to your page or site, then to submit them via your
Web-master. We provide this service and recommend
the submission to the top five to ten Search Engine
companies. There are a number of things to consider
before you proceed and we would be happy to assist!
For More
Information See "PROMOTE
YOUR BUSINESS", and "ADVERTISE"
I
am concerned about E-Commerce in Canada, how are we
doing in this area?
We appreciate you concern on this matter! Quite frankly,
Canadians are experimenting with various forms of
E-Commerce. In-fact Our Webmaster was involved with
the early stages of E-Commerce Sites. We are happy
to report that huge gains are being made in this area.
I've managed to sit in on numerous discussions on
this subject, round tables, even lectured as a Guest
Speaker at the Student Business Conference with Grant
MacEwan Community College. The Conference was at the
Shaw Conference Centre in the spring, and I found
that this is still a very New area and requires more
attention. Upon further investigation of the E-Commerce
options available, Unless a business is willing to
spend some serious dollars, they may be out of luck.
The Business utilizing The more elaborate forms of
E-Commerce are in wholesale and supply businesses
with their inventory On-line. One of our clients is
developing a global shopping mall and the E-Commerce
Programs used Is amongst the best in the industry
offering real-time purchase of services with merchant
account and shopping cart included, with the set-up
of five (5) products or services. We found that the
program We are offering is a great value and becomes
a part of the Customers Page Program or Web-Site!
In other-words, like everything we do for our clients,
they are in control of and own the work outright!
Some of our businesses have applied simple but effective
forms of E-Commerce from the start. Many are updating
their Pages & Sites in this respect. We will be introducing
more variations of E-Commerce built for the businesses
we are servicing. Sites and Pages to watch for are
Dr. Fireplace, Alberta Whirlpool & Spas, A&H Flowers,
Garneau Flowers (current), Michael Anthony Jewellers
Guy Randall.Com and theonlyshop.com
Make sure you join our "Mailing List" so we can keep
you up-to-date!
Can
I expect to see results right away?
There are many factors that
determine a Page or Sites activity.
In some cases you may see a quick response, in most
cases it is a matter of exposure for your business.
This is why we renew Listings, Banner Support, Page
& Site design yearly. Hosting for a year will give
us an indication on how well your information performed
on our site and if the desired results were met. At
this point we have to look at our participation and
what we can recommend to improve your activity. Businesses
that initial took a Listing or AD may now want to
build a Web-page or Site. Others with Pages & Sites
already built may want to consult on the design and
explore advertising possibilities. This could be the
case whether we are doing the work for you, Or it's
in someone else's hands. In many cases we have seen
some decent work. In others, you notice the lack of
professionalism and see what FREE, Do IT Yourself
Kit, or Home Made can really mean. We have found Pages
& Sites where, Even the contact information has been
left out! Depending on the workload you have and the
procedure needed to process an information request
or an order would depend on what contact information
is offered and where its' directed. This solves That
problem. There is nothing more frustrating to a user,
that directly effects the productivity of a Web-page
or Site than not being able to contact you with ease.
The true value one's efforts are much appreciated
when the work is done professionally, By someone in
the business 24 hours a day. The real test is in custom
design and creation. To get the full scoop on page
and site effectiveness, check out these areas of our
site, WEB-SITE DESIGN, SERVICES, ADVERTISE, PROMOTE
YOUR BUSINESS. Every business or organization has
different needs.
If at this point you feel your questions have yet
to be answered, "Contact
Us!"
How
much can we expect to pay for your services? What
do I need to get started?
This largely depends on where you're at…as you can
see, we offer many services and will do our up-most
to accommodate your needs.
Do you already have a Web-page or Site? What are your
expectations? We recommend that you take a good look
at all our site has to offer! Make some notes as to
the areas and features of the site that interest you
the most. Go to our "Contact Page", and E-mail us
all the details. If you can also provide us with some
background information about your business, this will
allow us to assist you better! We will be happy to
send you a custom outline with costs. Please include
if you have been referred by a business or in contact
with one of our associates.
We look forward to doing business with you!
Thank you for choosing our services, "Contact
Us!"
Are
you looking for more Webmasters and Graphic Art Designers?
Over the period of time we have been in business,
a certain quality and standard is required. There
are also some strict guide-lines to follow in the
Designing of Sites and Pages. Web-Design & Graphic
Art is all handled by our Web-master. We have an agreement
with him and this will have to be respected.
As we grow, the need for additional talent in this
field will be acquired by his business.
If you have education in Web-Design, Creation & Graphic
Art, we will keep note of your abilities if this is
an area you will like to pursue.
We
welcome any further questions you may have!
Please forward them to: faq@edmontonbulletin.com
We look forward to doing business with you!
Please feel free to contact us for any additional
information.
e-mail: sales@edmontonbulletin.com
Tel/Fax: (780) 457-0799 |
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