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Do
you like our new look (website)?
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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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