tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34291802011-07-07T21:54:08.667-07:00Not to mention stunning stats, odd observations and veteran verdicts.Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.comBlogger411100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-21050344535816895812009-11-19T08:39:00.000-08:002009-11-30T16:37:39.417-08:00

Whatever email marketing solution you choose, you should definitely consider whether you want to do A/B testing for your campaign. A/B testing measures the response to emails with different subject lines. This approach is a long-standing mainstay of direct marketing, and for good reason. Sometimes just a small change to a marketing message can significantly increase response. But, without trying

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-68342317279499324662009-10-19T08:37:00.000-07:002009-11-30T16:56:43.883-08:00

Email campaigns and newsletters are an effective way to stay in touch with existing customers and build your business. A well-known and popular online email marketing service is Constant Contact. But, while it has name recognition, it’s not the only option available. Two other online services getting attention and positive reviews are Campaign Monitor and MailChimp. Our client Dan McCormick, of

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-50573694723012631552009-09-22T11:11:00.000-07:002009-11-30T17:01:12.274-08:00

Does this sound familiar? You stare at your keyboard, searching vainly for the symbol you need to display an amount in Yen, British Sterling, or Euros. Frustrated, you decide it’s just easier to spell it out. Or, perhaps you open up your web browser, Google for some currency converter website, cut and paste the appropriate character into your document and then to reformat it to match the typeface

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-44418424853603107112009-08-17T15:06:00.000-07:002009-11-30T17:05:30.404-08:00

It’s estimated there are now more than 70 million websites and over 19 billion web pages on the Internet. For web surfers, finding the information they seek in this vast universe of data demands the use of search engines such as Google or Yahoo. It’s a credit to the programmers who code these search engines that most of the time, when you perform a web search, the key words you choose will

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-36076491661250506602009-07-12T10:34:00.000-07:002009-11-30T17:07:41.640-08:00

A Yellow Pages ad has been a pre-ordained part of most companies’ advertising budgets for decades. But with local search capabilities becoming more refined every day, it’s a good time to re-assess your need to be locked into a print ad in a book that’s declining in use. The big search engine companies have recognized local search as the final frontier for contextual advertising. For purely

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-32979046439680226652009-06-03T22:35:00.000-07:002009-10-30T10:38:53.549-07:00

A couple of new search engines made a brief appearance in the media spotlight before everyone went back to Googling for their answers. Here’s what they hope to achieve and why Google remains the one to beat. Bing – Microsoft’s Bright Idea Hoping to be a big part of the burgeoning local search market, Microsoft’s new search engine is called ‘Bing’ (supposedly the sound of the ‘eureka’ light-bulb

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-74642971834018515362009-05-22T10:43:00.000-07:002009-10-30T10:48:01.731-07:00

2008 was a year characterized by change. It seems the roller-coaster ride will only continue in 2009. Our uncertain future has everyone seeking stability, trust, and value in business dealings more than ever. You can respond positively to this economic and market turmoil by highlighting the ways your company embodies those characteristics. It takes courage to maintain, or even increase, your

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-11489132084486946812009-04-11T16:12:00.000-07:002009-10-30T10:41:46.843-07:00

Use these guidelines to keep your spelling consistent with common practice. Website or web site? The single word form (website) is now the standard, accepted spelling, per the 11th revision of the Concise Oxford Dictionary (July 2004). PDF or pdf? Use lower case .pdf when the extension is attached to a file name, but PDF (all caps) when generically describing a file in Portable Document Format.

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-18734605043449846862009-03-18T09:58:00.000-07:002009-10-30T10:37:52.796-07:00

Have we made a difference in your business? If so, we’d love to toot our own horn… by promoting you. We are always looking for new content to add to the case studies section of the Mastermynde website. Concrete examples of previous projects are an effective way to educate prospective customers about the methods we use and reasons we are successful. It’s also a great way to profile our clients and

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-69170464254730860402009-02-16T09:54:00.000-08:002009-10-21T15:59:30.463-07:00

Letting your customers help you by doing a little data entry for you is a good strategy. A good place to start is with a contact form on your website. It’s simple, low-cost, and easy to add to any website. It lets your customers enter their own data into your system, making it easier to transfer those leads through to your contact management system, as they move from enquiry to prospect to

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-8083114617216703052009-01-08T22:44:00.000-08:002009-10-21T15:58:28.191-07:00

The rise of online social networks has turbo-charged the benefits of doing business with people you know. It’s easier than ever to connect with like-minded individuals through common interests… and then progress to a business relationship outside of the interest group. Your social circle can also become willing partners in your marketing efforts, provided you understand how to make social

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-7008520101764769452008-12-03T22:32:00.000-08:002009-10-21T15:55:10.761-07:00

In a previous post we recommended LinkedIn as a valuable tool for anyone who can benefit from a network of quality contacts. If you haven’t yet created a LinkedIn profile, you may be missing out on lucrative opportunities. If you’ve taken the first step and created a profile, here are a couple of fast, easy things you can do to maximize the benefits LinkedIn offers. 1) Import your contacts from

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-76923627730688528532008-11-20T22:31:00.000-08:002009-10-21T21:24:07.391-07:00

One way Google and other search engines rank search results is by counting how many links point to a particular website. The ranking system also considers the relative popularity and content of the pages linking to you. These factors help sort the results of a search, putting the most visited (and linked to) sites first. The reason for this is the logical assumption that sites with lots of ‘

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-24110856109271514952008-10-12T15:26:00.000-07:002009-10-21T15:52:20.865-07:00

The online measurement of customer behavior is revolutionizing marketing. With the right tools you can gain valuable insights about your customers and create effective, measurable strategies to increase profit. One of the most important metrics is your website’s ‘conversion’ rate. When we talk about conversion rates, we are referring to how many visitors to your website take a specific action.

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1364292878398206232008-09-10T09:05:00.000-07:002009-10-21T15:49:27.271-07:00

An effective means of marketing is through online networking. Among the most popular ways to do this is the website Linkedin. This service is essentially a Facebook for businesses. Professionals and companies create online profiles and members then use their network of associates, clients, and suppliers, to ‘link’ to a network of trusted contacts. With over 34 million members already and a new

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-81851686763682052922008-08-15T22:20:00.000-07:002009-10-30T13:42:07.144-07:00

Getting new clients is great. Getting existing clients to buy additional goods or services is even better! Selling to an existing customer can be up to twelve times less expensive than getting a new account. With new prospects, you have to stand out enough to pique their interest. You have to make your case and establish a relationship of trust with them. Finally, you have to set up the account

Chris Keamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16066661430057952612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-76019005719955417802008-07-21T19:30:00.000-07:002008-07-21T19:32:58.619-07:00

I just read this incredible article about social surplus and it's quite inspirational.Here's a quick excerpt:Let's say that everything stays 99 percent the same, that people watch 99 percent as much television as they used to, but 1 percent of that is carved out for producing and for sharing. The Internet-connected population watches roughly a trillion hours of TV a year. That's about five times

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-16036081028035116632008-07-12T23:18:00.000-07:002008-07-12T23:20:08.341-07:00

This is just a quick reminder to audit your pages for tracking code from time to time. I just realized that the blog wasn't being tracked! This is not a big deal for me, however on a typical B2C website the more complete your statistics the better you can make strategic marketing decisions.

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-74568408949655998642008-05-01T21:13:00.000-07:002008-05-01T21:20:31.575-07:00

Not that it matters, but it appears that the mastermynde.com website is back to a PageRank of 6. And oddly, many other pages that have been on the site for a long time are now unranked. This highlights that PageRank is not the only thing to concern yourself with when looking for link partners.

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1907789300130486012008-04-22T21:38:00.000-07:002008-04-23T13:07:03.503-07:00

This article at 37signals.com very much resonates for me. It is an entertaining summary of Osmo Wiio's theories about human communication.How often have you felt that the following could apply to your communication?"If a message can be understood in different ways, it will be understood in just that way which does the most harm."Go read the article now, it's worth it.

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-59695115273212565672008-04-20T15:24:00.000-07:002008-04-20T15:29:20.807-07:00

My friend and client Alex Curylo makes an interesting point, which is that many many many blogs fly under the radar and have few if any cross references on the web. I'm sure this is partially due to few people understanding how to properly promote themselves, others not caring, and of course general Signal-to-noise ratios.I'm inspired to start posting again, thanks Alex!

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1158044401252821652006-09-11T23:40:00.000-07:002006-09-12T00:00:01.310-07:00

I look at a lot of websites.I do web marketing for my clients and I've personally done cross-linking research for dozens of clients. This is how many websites I have looked at (solely doing this work!) expressed as a math equation:(for the sake of the equation let's express dozens as 36)36 clients X (10 to 30 key phrases) X 30 top ranking sites = 10,800 to 32,400That is a lot of websites.Here is

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1157350558406451852006-09-03T23:14:00.000-07:002006-09-03T23:15:58.420-07:00

I'm looking for a junior web person - if that is you or someone you know, get in touch. See the linky-link for more details.

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1156989071238812382006-08-30T18:50:00.000-07:002006-09-03T01:53:20.376-07:00

This article is intended for the layperson.With business in general becoming more global and with the number of businesses offering any given product or service growing it is important to differentiate yourself from your competitors.You can differentiate yourself in many ways. You can offer the highest quality, the cheapest prices, the best support,... You can value ethics, shareholder profit, or

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1150345158305728542006-06-14T21:16:00.000-07:002006-06-14T21:19:18.316-07:00

I know it's been ages since I posted last - I have no defense except for my wife's pregnancy and our move to Vancouver Island. :)I can't promise I'll be posting much in the near future, I've been told babies are time consuming - but I'll do my best.In other news, I've been listed in the top four positions for "vancouver web design" on google for some time now.

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1138323455507263272006-01-25T20:42:00.000-08:002006-01-27T18:10:27.730-08:00

I use a variety of online tools and software to help manage the web marketing process.I begin by using Digital Point's excellent Keyword Suggestion Tool to generate a list of key phrases. I use Advanced Web Ranking to track search engine ranking positions (SERPs) and to determine linking opportunities and do competitive analysis. I'm currently investigating Link Assistant to see if it will help

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1130871173978952742005-11-01T10:43:00.000-08:002005-11-01T10:52:53.990-08:00

It looks like Google Local is now open for business in Canada. (I find the process of submitting your business a bit strange.)Step 1: search for something with a locale specific phrase (e.g. vancouver web design)Step 2: click on one of the local resultsStep 3: scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Information for Business OwnersStep 4: add your businessStep 5: wait for an envelope in the

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1124399128591161202005-08-18T13:04:00.000-07:002005-08-18T14:05:59.716-07:00

I use a neat little service called RSS Digest to link to an RSS feed of my del.icio.us bookmarks. (You can see this in the blog sidebar) RSS digest essentially allows me to automatically publish a third party RSS feed on my site.In essence RSS Digest allows you to easily syndicate third party content without any technical tinkering.Be careful though, it is always best to ask for permission before

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1124133405303512952005-08-15T11:44:00.000-07:002008-01-02T12:51:58.814-08:00

It seems I have a constant stream of friends and acquaintances who are becoming independant contractors or starting to supplement their income with contracting work.As a result I am always answering questions about staying organized and my general business practices.One of the most common questions I get is about how I manage and track my time. I'll get into time management in another post as

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1123283164864490082005-08-05T15:36:00.000-07:002005-08-05T16:06:04.870-07:00

Well... it was bound to happen sooner or later. Mastermynde is back to #8 for Vancouver Web Design on google, if only for a day.Many of my clients are willing to link back to my site and my theory is that as their fortunes rise, so do mine. It seems quite fitting that our fates are tied together. For some of them, the first link to their site is from my home page.

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1112055211021349932005-03-28T01:11:00.000-08:002005-03-28T19:05:18.516-08:00

I've recently started inviting everyone I've worked with professionally to join LinkedIn.com, a business networking tool that is a nice mix of simple functionality and smart design.The idea is essentially that your network of business contacts can help each other (and you) to land jobs and grow your businesses. This seems eminently practical to me! If I've worked with you and like working with

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1109560471286032202005-02-27T18:59:00.000-08:002005-02-27T19:14:31.286-08:00

My experiments in search engine optimization have led to the realization of an astonishing possibility... Anyone who is meticulous and has enough time on their hands should be able to rank well for any decent adequately targeted term. My experiment was for "vancouver web design" and I think I spent about 10 hours on it. I sat at #8 on google for a couple of days and have now slowly slipped down

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1108535181823126652005-02-15T22:18:00.000-08:002005-02-15T22:26:52.323-08:00

In astounding news, Mastermynde is ranking around #9 on google.com and google.ca for "vancouver web design"... at least... sometimes.Like, from my home.But not from my office...Searchgal and I were talking about this and our theory of the day is that Google is doing some IP filtering.Anyone else have any other anecdotal evidence about this sort of thing?

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1107073214548964012005-01-30T01:13:00.000-08:002005-01-30T00:21:29.320-08:00

What is the point of having a blog if you don't update it regularly? Alright, still no incredibly noticeable changes in my rankings for the terms I'm targeting for my own site, but I'm seeing definite success with a number of clients. My theory is that the web design companies I'm competing against are much more savvy about internet marketing than the companies competing with my clients.

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1101494319842412012004-11-26T10:30:00.000-08:002004-11-26T10:38:39.843-08:00

Mastermynde dropped to 193 on Google for Vancouver Web Design last week, but has since partially recovered and is back up to 89. I just did some research around local geo-specific business directories and will be adding Mastermynde as appropriate. Other than that, haven't done any on-page optimization yet. Regardless of google rankings, traffic from search engines has gone up and my daily

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1100586664158831122004-11-15T22:12:00.000-08:002004-11-15T23:12:46.536-08:00

I've been doing further promotional activities including becoming a member of some social groups, like Meetup.com's Vancouver Web Design group and Vancouver Graphic Design group, Clubzone.com : Vancouver Nightclub Information as well as other misc. directories like Xemion. We'll see what impact this has on the experiment. PS. No significant movement in the search engine rankings yet, but

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1099702682047597232004-11-05T16:45:00.000-08:002004-11-05T16:58:02.046-08:00

I entered a fugue state about two hours ago and am only now back to normal, prompted primarily (I believe) by loud music. Still sitting at about the same place for Vancouver Web Design, and am working on SEO for this, that, and the other thing. The imprecise science appeals in much the same way as messing around with colour palettes, but it's much more quantitative. The next step involves

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1099092431798127122004-10-29T16:01:00.000-07:002005-05-14T10:39:22.680-07:00

I'm attempting a search engine marketing experiment of my own.Digital Point's Keyword Suggestion Tool is reporting an aggregate number of 202.2 searches a day (6150.25/month) for "Vancouver Web Design" across the Wordtracker and Overture networks.Google's AdWords Traffic Estimator says I'd need to spend $15.71 USD a day (or $477 USD/month) to show up #1 across the AdWords network, at an estimated

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1098917747085606502004-10-27T15:55:00.000-07:002004-10-27T15:55:47.086-07:00

Aloha to friendster, LinkIn, Orkut, etc. See the right hand nav and add yourself to my social networking circle.

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1098665918717796302004-10-24T17:58:00.000-07:002004-10-24T17:58:38.716-07:00

I'm getting my little sister hooked up with a blog. I'm curious if it will actually be useful for her or not, but it's been fun setting it up. :)

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3429180.post-1098376583143993042004-10-21T09:35:00.000-07:002004-10-21T09:39:57.003-07:00

Messing about with blogger today because Donna is heading to france and might want to blog it.

Leif Jasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17815861928416235529noreply@blogger.com0