How to
Search on Search Engines
Type the following combinations in Google
(or other engines) search bar to limit your search. Pay attention to
spacing, must be used precisely. Limit your search to the following:
Web page title
allintitle:seo ottawa
intitle:seo ottawa
Web pages that contain link titles with your
desired term
allinanchor:seo ottawa
Website or Domain
site:whitehouse.gov “global warming”
site:edu “global warming”
File type
filetype:ppt site:edu “global warming”
Definitions
define:pixel
define:“due diligence”
Specify exact phrase
“tom bates”
“what you're looking for is already inside you”
Exclude or require a word ('minus'
or 'plus' with no space after)
proliferation -nuclear
seo +internet marketing
Source:
Research quality web searching from U of Berkley
About
Search Engines
How do Search Engines Work?
Search Engines for the general web (like all those listed below) do not
really search the
World Wide Web directly. Each one searches a database of the full text
of web pages selected from the billions of web pages out there residing
on servers.
When you search the web using a search engine, you are always searching
a somewhat stale copy of the real web page.
When you click on links provided in a search engine's search results,
you retrieve from the server the current version of the page.
Some of the major search engines are
Google,
Altavista,
MSN,
Excite,
Hotbot,
Infoseek,
Lycos,
and Webcrawler. Note
that Yahoo is a
directory, not a search engine. The term Search Engine is also often
used to describe both directories and search engines.
Search engine databases are selected and built by computer robot programs called
spiders. Spider is that part of a
search engine which surfs the web, storing the URLs and indexing the keywords
and text of each page it finds. For example, Google's spider, also referred to
as a "crawler", is named
Googlebot. Although it is said they "crawl" the web in their hunt for pages to include, in
truth they stay in one place. They find the pages for potential inclusion by
following the links in the pages they already have in their database (i.e.
already "know about"). They cannot think or type a
URL or use judgment to "decide" to go look something up on the Internet.
If
a web page is never linked to in any other page, search engine spiders cannot
find it. The only way a brand new page - one that no other page has ever linked
to - can get into a search engine is for its URL to be sent by some human to the
search engine companies as a request that the new page be included. All search
engine companies offer ways to do this.
After spiders find pages, they pass them on to another computer program for
"indexing." This program identifies the text, links, and other content of the
page and stores it in the search engine database's files so that the database
can be searched by keyword and whatever more advanced approaches are offered,
and the page will be found if your search matches its content.
Some types of pages and links are excluded from most search engines by policy.
Others are excluded because search engine spiders cannot access them. Pages that
are excluded are referred to as the "Invisible
Web", i.e. what you don't see in search engine results. The Invisible Web is
estimated to be two to three or more times bigger than the visible web.
(Source: University of Berkeley)
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According to
Wordtracker (2005 info), three search engines get roughly 70% of all traffic, with the
following distribution among them:
-
Google gets 47.0500%
of all search engine traffic
(approx. 268 million a day).
-
MSN gets 9.0000%
of all search engine traffic
(approx. 51 million a day).
-
Yahoo engine gets 12.7700% of all search engine
traffic (approx. 73 million a day). Yahoo gets 12.7700% of all search engine
traffic (approx. 73 million a day).
The table below shows only the engines included in the Wordtracker system; who they
power, and who powers them. Pay per bid engines other than Overture have not
been included.
Search Engines
Relations
|
Included Engine
|
Main Results From
|
Powers
|
|
AllTheWeb |
Yahoo! Search Marketing, Yahoo |
None |
|
Altavista |
Yahoo! Search Marketing, Yahoo, Open Directory |
None |
|
Google |
Open Directory |
Lycos, AOL, Ask, Hotbot, Dogpile, Netscape, Alexa |
|
HotBot |
Ask, Open Directory, Google |
None |
|
Lycos |
Looksmart |
None |
|
LookSmart |
Inktomi |
Lycos |
|
MSN |
Yahoo! Search Marketing |
Dogpile |
|
Open Directory |
None |
Lycos, Altavista, Google, Netscape, Alexa, AOL, Hotbot |
|
Ask |
Google |
Lycos, Dogpile, Hotbot |
|
Yahoo |
Yahoo! Search Marketing |
Altavista, Alltheweb, Dogpile |
|
Yahoo!
Search Marketing |
None |
Altavista, Alltheweb, Yahoo, MSN, Dogpile
|
Useful Resources
The following resources describes the relationships between the search
engines, directories, and pay-per-clicks, so you can understand why we chose
some engines for the competition eearch but not others:
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Search Engine Links
-
International
Directory of Search Engines
An international directory of search engines featuring links to search
engines from 195 countries and 38 territories around the world. You may
use either English, French, Spanish, or German when using Search Engine
Colossus. Global, country, and subject based search engines are listed.
-
Search
engines statistics
Although sometimes outdated, this site nevertheless
offers good information about search engines. Find reports on how various
search engines rank in terms of size, freshness, change over time,
database overlap, unique hits reports, and dead links report.
Google
has the largest
database of web pages, including many other types of web documents
(e.g., PDFs, Word, Excel, PowerPoint documents).
-
Excellent information about search engines from
UC
Berkeley
This is an excellent source for information about
search engines. Consider reading some of their tutorials.
-
Service that
monitors search engines and directories
Most of the site's content is offered free to the public.
-
Poodle Predictor
See your pages the way search engines do.
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Working with Google
-
Webmaster Tools from Google
An
absolute must read for everyone. Note that Google
offers great features to help you analyze your own
site (how many internal links, external link, page
rank, crawl problems, etc.), if you verify that you
are, indeed, the owner of the site. To do that, all
you need is to copy and paste on your home page a
verify meta tag Google will generate for you. Highly
recommended!
-
Google guidelines for selecting an SEO consultant
Another
absolute must read.
-
SEO
basics from Google
This
page is an excellent summary of the SEO basis from
Google. An absolute must to read.
-
Google Tools - NEW!
Ever wonder where all those cool tools are stored on
Google and how to keep track of them? Well, simply
take some time to explore this page and bookmark it!
You can also type 'Google tools' in the search box
on Google.
-
Check your page ranking on Google and Yahoo
This is an excellent free service not affiliated
with Google. To use it, you would need a
Google API key, which is sent to you by email
free of charge. The whole process only takes a
minute.
-
Inside AdWords
In July
2005, Google has created "Inside AdWords". This new blog provides you
with the most up-to-date information about AdWords improvements, news,
and tips in one location. Their product team updates the site
frequently, so you'll know what happens when it happens.
Note,
for AdWords high click-through-rate (CTR) does not mean high quality
of a landing page.
In
2007, Google introduced a new type of AdWords - Pay-per-action advertising.
Here is
Google AdWords
Guide in pdf.
-
Google Pay-per-action FAQs
- NEW!
Pay-per-action
advertising is a new pricing model that allows you to pay only for
completed actions that you define, such as a lead, a sale, or a
pageview, after a user has clicked on your ad on a publisher's site.
You'll define an action, set up conversion tracking, and create ads
that publishers in the Google content network can then choose to place
in new
ad units on their site.
-
Google Sponsored Links
Use Google Sponsored links to see what keywords your competitors are
buying.
-
Google
Suggest
As you type, Google will offer keyword suggestions
and you will immediately see how many search results each of them will
generate. Very cool!
-
Google
Analytics
Keep an eye on what's new at
Google Analytics.
-
Track your visitor-to-user conversion rate free
Before you can track your visitor-to-user conversion rate, you need to sign up for Google's AdWords (you would need to do
this anyway).
Conversion tracking
feature allows you to track how many ad clicks convert to purchase,
sign-ups, page views and leads – free of charge. You will get AdWords
conversion data right down to the keyword level in your reports and this
is information that can help you better measure your return on
investment. For detailed information about this new AdWords feature,
please
read Google AdWord FAQ or
take Google AdWord demo.
-
Google's tutorials and guides on how to use AdWords
As always, for best results if you have any
questions, consult with search engines themselves. This page contains
great information and will help you get maximum ROI from your AdWords
subscriptions.
-
How to Use Gmail as a Business Diary and More Tips
- NEW!
Want to be run your business on the go?
Want to be organized and stay organized in ONE
place? Want to be fast yet efficient? Want to use
convenient tools? Then this tutorial is a must.
Highly recommended.
-
Googling to the max
New web page and one-hour course on using
Google
and Google's many features effectively. Google is
widely recognized as the best general web search engine. The course
teaches how to use Google really well, taking advantage of its features
and negotiating around its weaknesses.
-
FAQs about Google's
spider
This is an excellent page that gives you all you need to know to
understand how Google works.
-
The Googlerankings Search Engine Optimization link directory
Some of the
best Search Engine Optimization (SEO) links on the Web, sorted by
categories (tools, tips, blogs and forums) and ordered by our preference
and their Google PageRank.
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Selecting Keywords
-
Keywords
analysis and competitive analysis tools -
NEW!
Keyword analysis
and competitive analysis tools have become very popular and very much in
demand. In 2008, a monthly subscription runs at $80 on average. But
there are plenty of excellent free tools available that, if used in
combination and consistently, would generate fantastic results without
any subscriptions.
-
Search Engine Position Checker by Keyword
Check your site's position on search
engines for specific keywords. This tool checks the first 50 results
only. Check out other tools there.
-
Select smart keywords for your own SEO campaign
This free tool is provided by Google and is very
helpful for selecting keywords. Type your keywords, and the tool will
return synonyms and variations. This tool
helps you get ideas for new keywords that
can help you plan your SEO campaign.
-
Wordtracker tool for targeted keyword selection
Wordtracker is famous in the SEO circles
(although definitely not for this
"keyword research guide" (pdf)
that you are offered to download free of charge after you've
made a purchase). Wordtracker is
considered the best keyword selection tool on the market, as it allows
you to analyze and predict performance of your potential keywords. Wordtracker is indeed a
simple sweet tool to use. The best value of this tool is that it
actually shows you the number of times users typed particular keywords
in the last 90 days. The tool is subscription based, so you can login
to your account from anywhere you want. They offer a free trial,
but the trial version is not very helpful, since you can't practice
with Google. If you are working on a small project, purchase a one-day
subscription, it only costs a few dollars. We recommend using Wordtracker together with
Google's Suggest and
Google Keyword Tool as well as
Google
Sponsored Links that shows you what companies buy ads on
Google Adwords for the keywords in question (all free).
-
Google
Suggest
As you type, Google will offer keyword suggestions
and you will immediately see how many search results each of them will
generate. Very cool!
-
All
you need to know about AdWords directly from Google
It is best to learn about AdWords directly from Google. Note that it will take
you approximately 5-6 hours to go through all lectures and associated quizzes.
But these lectures will also help you if you decide to become a
Qualified AdWords Professional, a lucrative designation offered by Google.
We recommend joining the program, as it offers good financial incentives. Please
note that you will need to satisfy a number of requirements, but none of them
are challenging. You need to know how AdWords work and you need to make sure
that you spent US $1,000.00 on AdWords in the last 90 days, either on your own
account or for your clients. There is also an online multiple-choice exam that
you need to pass by getting at least 75% answers correctly. If you've used
Google Adwords yourself and reviewed a few lectures posted in the
AdWords
Learning Center, you will have no problem passing this exam.
-
Keyword Density Analyzer
Be patient and check all your static pages, one by
one. You can use this tool to check your competitors as well.
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Evaluating Your Links and
Measuring Link Popularity
-
Check your site's Page Rank (PR)
Google updates its PR every 3-4 months,
it seems. Use this free tool to check your rank. Keep in mind that even
sites like Yahoo only get 9 out of 10. Anything over 3 is good. 5/10 is
excellent!
-
Yahoo Site Explorer
Yahoo offers this great tool that lets you
explorer your site and your back links. More detailed analysis, you will
need to authenticate your site by pasting a meta tag on your home page.
-
Analyze and
check quality of your pages
Free online service from Ottawa-based Watchfire
that lets you test single pages of web
content for quality,
accessibility, and
privacy issues. Enter a URL in
a search box and see how many outgoing links it contains, how many
broken links, how many spelling mistakes, etc. A great tool!
-
Niche Watch
- NEW!
A beautiful free tool to analyse your own
site and your competitors'.
-
Analyze your
pages and links
A great free tool to
see how many pages are linked to you, how many links to others you have, how many
pages of your site have been indexed by Google.
-
Build links by buying them from reputable brokers
-
Measure your
link popularity
A free service that lets your measure page
popularity. Simply type your domain name and see what sites are pointing
at you.
-
Google's
webmaster portal
An absolute must read for
everyone. Note that Google offers great features to help you analyze
your own site (how many internal links, external link, page rank, crawl
problems, etc.), if you verify that you are, indeed, the owner of the
site. To do that, all you need is to copy and paste on your home page a
verify meta tag Google will generate for you. Highly recommended!
-
Compare your site's
popularity with other sites
This site lets you compare the popularity of your site (measured in
number of links) against three other sites, or verify how effective your
chosen keyword combination is.
-
Analyze and
check quality of your pages
Free online service from Ottawa-based Watchfire
that lets you test single pages of web
content for quality,
accessibility, and
privacy issues. Enter a URL in
a search box and see how many outgoing links it contains, how many
broken links, how many spelling mistakes, etc. A nice tool!
-
Analyze your
links
A great free tool to
see how many pages are linked to you, how many links to others, how many
pages indexed by Google. Also this back link checker is pretty accurate:
http://www.iwebtool.com/backlink_checker?
-
Measure your link
popularity free of charge
A free service that lets your measure page
popularity. Simply type your domain name and see what sites are pointing
at you.
-
Google's
webmaster portal
An absolute must read for
everyone. Note that Google offers great features to help you analyze
your own site (how many internal links, external link, page rank, crawl
problems, etc.), if you verify that you are, indeed, the owner of the
site. To do that, all you need is to copy and paste on your home page a
verify meta tag Google will generate for you. Highly recommended!
-
Compare your site's
popularity with other sites
This site lets you compare the popularity of your site (measured in
number of links) against three other sites, or verify how effective your
chosen keyword combination is.
-
Check your links and indexed pages directly with Google
If you are not a tool person, simply Google the required information
by using a few formulas shown in the 'result' column.
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Tracking Site
Statistics
-
Google
Analytics
As of May 3, 2005, Urchin is part of Google.
As always with Google, stylishly designed,
Google Analytics has a very intuitive sleek interface that
brings joy even to the eyes of the most demanding users. All you need to
have to get access to Google Analyics is a gmail account. You don't need
to have an AdWords account, but if you do have an AdWords account, Google
Analytics will be incorporated within to provide you with all sorts of valuable
stats on your site.
-
Yahoo
Site Explorer
A very convenient tool, especially
for checking your back links. Since Google's tool for checking back
links is not reliable (link:www.domain.com), it only displays a small
number of links that actually exist, Yahoo Site Explorer will give you a
better idea of how many back links you actually have. A back link is an
external link pointing to your site on a page-by-page basis. It is
probably the most important factor for high SEO ranking.
-
Web
analytics and management tools
This is a list of priprietory
web analytics tools. Note that in our experience, small and medium sized
businesses seldom need to resort to expensive tools. Google Analytics is
usually enough, and it is free. If you really need more information, use
www.sourceforge.net:
search for "web logs" and select
from hundreds of free programs.
For very detailed breakdowns and very
particular slicing and dicing, consider the following providers:
-
Did-it’s Maestro
-
Atlas One Point
-
SearchIgnite
-
Webtrends
-
Hitbox Professional
-
Omniture
-
Core Metrics
-
Traffic analysis by
Alexa
This is a sweet free tool. Use it for your own site and to analyze your
competition. We also recommend downloading their famous toolbar, it is
also free.
-
Evaluating Web pages: Techniques to apply &
questions to ask
This page presents an excellent method of evaluating web pages, but it can
also be used in relation to any other written document. Learn how to develop a "healthy
skepticism" and recognize real quality. Take a look
at the
top right corner, they even provide a check list in .pdf format, which is very
handy, indeed!
-
WebsiteGrader
Excellent site analysis reports, but as with all tools, certain
entries are questionable.
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Free Web
& SEO Tools
-
iWebTools
Search Engine Positioning and Other Great
Tools. One of our favourite resources. Fantastic collection of various
free SEO and Internet Marketing tools that actually work. They
also see back links at affordable prices.
-
Joomla
Free open-source content management system.
It can be used for everything from simple websites to complex corporate
applications. Additional inexpensive add-on components are also
available: CRM, email management, real estate management, and many
others - all for a nominal price. Joomla is known to have the largest
support community.
-
Sourceforge.net
This is the world's largest
development and download repository of open-source code and
applications. If you have some programming knowledge, this resource
would save you incredible amount of time and money. For site statistics,
search for "web logs" and select from hundreds of free programs.
-
phpBB.com
Create and add a fully-loaded forum to your
website in a matter of minutes and free of charge. phpBB2 is the
successor to the highly popular phpBB opensource bulletin board system.
Re-written from the ground up to be even more flexible, secure and
feature packed than its predecesor. phpBB 2.0 features all that was good
about phpBB 1.x; one-click install, multiple language packs, simple and
intuitive user interfaces, support for BBCode and powerful
administration features. It extends this offering complete customisation
through a powerful template system, fulltext based searching, advanced
permissions system, powerful modularised administration controls,
multiple database support, new moderator functions and much more. phpBB
is released free of charge.
-
SnipURL
Shorten your URLs to make them look presentable.
-
Web scripts free to download
Large selection of scripts that can be used to quickly
implement various web components, such as weblogs, website stats, scheduling systems,
etc.
-
Free blog software
WordPress is a semantic personal publishing
platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. It
has a nice looking interface and offers a lot of features. WordPress is
free to download.
-
Build a professional
website in a matter of minutes
This site provides unbelievable links.
Follow those links, and you will find all you need to build a
professional website with dynamic content in a matter of minutes (if you
are a techie, of course).
-
Complete Web building library
A collection of free HTML, CSS, JavaScript, DHTML, XML, XHTML, WAP, ASP,
SQL tutorials with lots of working examples and source code.
-
Web application information for complex sites
This page contains information that is an
absolute "must read" if you are thinking of launching a complex
dynamic website or deciding to re-design an existing one (e.g. online
sales, banking, bidding, posting, auction, etc.). In addition, we also
recommend this page if you are simply looking for quality
information about web applications, their types, life cycle,
methodologies and customization issues.
-
Test and manage your pages and links
Free online service from an
Ottawa-based Watchfire
that lets you test single pages of web
content for quality,
accessibility, and
privacy issues.
-
Create web-based
surveys using ready-to-go components
This website allows you to create web-based
surveys quickly and easily.
A basic subscription is totally free. It's
a great option for individuals, students, and anyone who doesn't need
the advanced features. Basic subscribers are limited to a total of 10
questions and 100 responses per survey. Pay $120 per year and add as
many questions as you want.
-
Zoomerang
This website allows you to conduct more sophisticated online surveys and
polls. Basic service is free. Upgraded service is $599 per yet, but it
seems to be worth it, as it lets you
export the results of your surveys into
spreadsheets and business reports; brand your survey to enhance your
professional look; save your data indefinitely; deploy an unlimited
number of surveys to ensure you reach all your customers or
constituents.
-
Free
web conferencing service
For teleconferencing, use
+1-218-936-6666 (U.S. telephone number) free of charge. Note that long distance charges
will apply. But you can buy a phone card at your nearest gas station and
use it for North American calls. A $5-dollar card will usually give you
over 300 minutes (we use Apple). If you are doing online training, buy a
phone card for each user and send them PINs by email. This will keep
your teleconferencing costs down, at the negligible level.
-
Free online
meeting or webinar
tools
This site provides free web conferencing
tools that are just as good as WebEx or GoToMeeting. For a full service
with all features, they charge $9.95 per month, but their standard
package is free. Note that you
will need a teleconferencing service (see the link above).
-
Free SEO tools
A great resource of simple free SEO tools
to help you analyze your and your competitors' back links, site maps,
keyword density, page ranking and much more. This
free
SEO tools for competitive analysis is our favourite.
-
Free SEO
tools from Google
Even if you are very busy, we recommend that you review this resource
carefully. It will save you hours of hours and thousands of dollars
spent on SEO conusltants.
-
Collection of free SEO tools
A very large collection of free SEO tools. Highly recommended.
-
SlideShare.net
SlideShare.net is website where people can upload their Powerpoint
presentations (also works with Open Office and PDF files) to share with
the world. The site is very slow, so be patient.
-
27 SEO tools every marketing person should use
Those are really good useful tools. All free. In addition,
these tools are very useful as well:
·
Site Analyzer
·
PageRank Checker
·
Search Engine Position Checker by Keyword
·
WebsiteGrader
·
Useful SEO tools from SEOChat
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Blogs and Social Media
Cool Web 2.0 Apps
-
http://clipmarks.com/ - you can
clip the best parts of web pages
-
-
http://www.blinksale.com
- easy online client invoicing, integrated with Basecamp
-
-
-
http://www.viddler.com - a
web application that lets you upload, enhance, and share digital video
quickly and easily inside your web browser.
-
http://www.popuri.us - check
your website statistics on Alexa, Google, Technorati - all at once,
very neat!
-
http://www.domainlogbook.com
- similar idea to popuri.us, domainlogbook lets you track your domain
statistics and performance
-
http://www.ejschart.com
- holy beauty! Javascript Charting application that uses AJAX to
create zoomable, clickable, navigable charts.
-
http://synapselife.com/ -
collection of 5 sweet and useful apps: People, Calendar, Lists &
Ledger, Favorites and Feeds. Account sign ups are free and all the
applications are accessible from any mobile device or cell phone.
-
http://www.senduit.com/ -
upload your file, send a link to share with others, set expiration
time.
-
http://www.slimtimer.com
- easy time tracking and reporting, liberation from time sheets.
-
http://www.snap.com/about/shots.php
- appends sleek-looking previews to your links on mouse-over (used on
this page). Totally free.
-
http://www.openlaszlo.org/
- an open source platform for creating zero-install web
applications with the user interface capabilities of desktop client
software. OpenLaszlo programs are written in XML and JavaScript and
transparently compiled to Flash and, with OpenLaszlo 4, DHTML. The
OpenLaszlo APIs provide animation, layout, data binding, server
communication, and declarative UI.
-
http://www.tripwiser.com -
itinerary building site for U.S. and Canadian travel, AJAX-powered,
drag-and-drop scheduling, online reservations, shared reviews,
interactive online encyclopedia.
-
http://wikkidapps.com/
- best reviews of cool Web 2.0 apps.
-
http://mashable.com/ - thorough
reviews of social networking sites and tools
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Affordable Templates:
Websites, Newsletters, Logos
-
Template Monster
This website is very well-known. It offers a good collection of
professional looking website templates at good prices. Some of them
are too "rich" in colors and layout, but some are very good. The only
problem is that they have a huge network of resellers and virtually
every company offering website templates through Google and other
search engines (except the ones listed below in this section) is using
their library. So your best option is to make a 'unique' purchase of a
template, in which case the price jumps from $70-ish to $2000-ish.
However, if your budget permits, we recommend doing so, if you need a
good looking site to be up and running quickly. Alternatively, you can
buy a template and then customize it to make it different (we
recommend not using any Flash unless you are in the Entertainment or
similar type of industry). At the very least, you can use their color
schemes to provide examples and guidance to your graphic designers.
-
The Template
Store
This site offers simple customizable templates for $20
Canadian,
ideal for small businesses and independent consultants. The site also sells
good corporate
identity items, such as logos, business card templates, and letterheads.
The templates are very easy to modify and enhance. You only need to know
the very basics of such web publishing programs as Dreamweaver or
FrontPage (for simple modifications, they are very similar to Word or PowerPoint).
-
Template
Central
Apart from website templates, they offer
logos, PowerPoint presentation templates, images, Word templates, etc.
We find that their logos are overpriced for the type of models
presented and their buttons are very old-fashioned. But overall, they
nonetheless offer a great collection of templates, which you can
download and customize either yourself or with the help of a graphic designer.
You can also order a customized template from them for under $500
Canadian, but be prepared to be very patient and pay a top price for every stroke they make on a keyboard.
-
Stock Layouts
This website offers a decent collection of Newsletter, Brochure and
Flyer templates made for print for under $200 Canadian. The desktop
versions are all under $20. Once again, change a couple of colors by
using a color palette, replace one or two images, copy and paste your
own content - and you have a professional newsletter, brochure or flyer
ready.
-
Smarter Templates
This website offers a wide range of templates, from business cards to
newsletters to logos to websites, and more - all for a one time fee
under $70 Canadian. We found their website template collection to be
decent, although somewhat too rich in color and design layout, for our
taste. A few of their Outlook templates look very professional. We also
liked their brochures. We were not impressed with their logos and
corporate identity templates. Overall, access to all their categories
for a small one-time fee is undoubtedly a great value.
iStock Photo:
Stock Photos and Images
This website offers a rich collection of stock photography. Some of
the images are ready to be used, while others may require a bit of
customization work. If you know Fireworks, Photoshop or even Paint at a
basic level, you can already enhance and customize all of your web and
marketing materials quite easily. Alternatively, supplying the required
images to your graphic designer and giving them specific instructions on
how you'd like the images to be modified (adding shading, color
transition, oval borders or other enhancements) should also help you cut
costs.
Getty Images:
High Quality Photos and Images
One of the largest providers of imagery,
photography, and other graphic components and related services. But keep
in mind: everyone uses this resource!
Flickr
One of the largest social networking sites on the net specializing in
photos and images. Free to upload, free to share, free to download.
Images & Photography Portals:
These portals are less known that iStockPhoto and Getty Images, so you
have fewer chances of stumbling upon another website with your top
image. In our view, quality, creativity and presentation are also higher
at these portals. Prices range from $50 to $1550. To cut costs, search
"royalty free" images and photos only.
Below is a
list of design agencies who supply quality templates based on Joomla
(one of the most popular FREE content management systems). Purchase the
template you like from one of the portals below and order customization
of it. Many of these portals provide customization services. This way, you can get a $15K
site, fully loaded with all modern features, for a few hundred dollars.
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Affordable
Graphics and Web Design
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Elance
This site is an excellent source for companies of any size. More
expensive than Global Mart, Elance works like eBay.
Buyers post their projects free of charge, service providers reply to
them by posting their bids. The longer the bidding
process, the larger number of providers you would have available to chose from. However, be
prepared to engage in lengthy email communication, which can be quite
time-consuming and
frustrating. For a small business owner, the best way to get a high
quality web presence is to purchase a
website template
and a
logo and then post a project on Elance asking for a website template
and logo customization. Given that conceptual work is what costs the
most, the template enhancement should not cost you more than $200-500,
and you can get a really unique and highly professional look.
For a medium business, this site can produce an exceptional quality of
work with 50-70% savings, based on North American or Western
European standards. Make sure to read all customer reviews
on a given
provider, before selecting them as a final bid winner. Overall, a great value
for your time and money!
-
Usability
Issues
Before you begin your website design, it if important to familiarize
yourself with one of the most important factors for your future
conversion rates, i.e. the factor of usability. This blog offers very
valuable and interesting information, and it is a pleasure to read as
well.
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Affordable
Web Hosting
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Hostingplex
This is a Canadian company based in Toronto. You
can host up to three different domain names (i.e. three websites) for
less than $4 per month with 5000 MB disk space and and 100 GB space.
This is the lowest hosting price we know of. However, don't expect a
red carpet treatment. They put a 100% customer satisfaction icon on
their front page, but over the phone they don't bother, they told us
that they "don't baby sit" their customers. Heck, I guess we just have
to find someone who does or is at least smart enough not to tell you
that they don't. The link below is one example.
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SiteGround
Although it
is not scientific, but the word is that it matters for SEO purposes
where your site is hosted (they say that if your market is in the
States, it is best to host your site in the States). For USA-based
hosting, we recommend
SiteGround.
They offer fantastic features, excellent prices, accommodating support
service, and their data center is in Texas.
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DreamHost
This is a very old USA-based hosting company, they go back 1997.
Great prices, great features, good reputation.
-
Easy Hosting
This
is also a Canadian company based in Toronto. Their hosting starts at $6 per month for simple websites.
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Small Business Tools &
Startup Resources
Top tools selected and reviewed by users NEW!
Fantastic list of tools for all sorts of
purposes, from free webconferencing to free course management to free
movie editing software.
Marketing Wisdom from Marketing Sherpa (pdf)
This is a 50-page PDF document created by 99 marketing agencies and
contributors. The study was sponsored by WebTrends in 2004. Must read
for marketing.
Business and Marketing
Plan Samples
Writing a plan is a tedious and time
consuming work. But you don't need to start from scratch. Save yoursef a
lot of time and effort by using an existing template. This website
provides a great collection of business plans, marketing plans, cash
flow analysis and reports - free of charge. Got of 'samples', select the
type of plan you need, and then select the type of business you are in.
Modify existing information to reflect your business situation.
Free
web conferencing service
For teleconferencing, use
+1-218-936-6666 (U.S. telephone number) free of charge. Note that long distance charges
will apply. But you can buy a phone card at your nearest gas station and
use it for North American calls. A $5-dollar card will usually give you
over 300 minutes (we use Apple). If you are doing online training, buy a
phone card for each user and send them PINs by email. This will keep
your teleconferencing costs down, at the negligible level.
Free online
meeting or webinar
tools
This site provides free web conferencing
tools that are just as good as WebEx or GoToMeeting. For a full service
with all features, they charge $9.95 per month, but their standard
package is free. Note that you
will need a teleconferencing service (see the link above).
Hidden treasures of Power Point. Things you wish you knew
Have a nice presentation?
Add your voice, a few buttons, post it on your website, and you have a
self-running online seminar. You can add capabilities to collect user
feedback, add button controls and other perks with a few mouse clicks.
Read a few
more pages about some advanced features and transform your online
presence in a matter of minutes. Take a look at
these diagram templates and check out free ClipArt and Templates
at
Microsoft Office
Name your
business, product or website
Excellent free tool to help you
find the right name for your business, product or website. We also liked
their voice recognition software that liberates you from typing and lets
you use your vocal cords (not good for cubicles!)
Write a good business plan
Easy-to-read, concise, and clear step-by-step guide on how to write a
winning business plan. Excellent information provided by the government
of Canada.
Startup kit from a pro
Tools for your virtual and physical office. Albeit its 2005 publication
date, this is still a great resource.
Incorporate your
business in Canada
This is a paralegal company widely used by lawyers in Canada as an
outsourcing resource. Since 1995, Canadian Entrepreneurs and businesses
have been able to Incorporate, Register Trade Name or Sole
Proprietorship, order NUANS reports and name reservation reports,
and complete Annual Return filings and Corporate updates using Arvic.
This company provides excellent customer service.
Raise
start-up capital
The Ottawa Capital
Network assists in creating efficiencies in the capital market through
programs aimed at educating the entrepreneurial community, creating
linkages among the investment community and providing knowledge and
support to the business community. The Ottawa Capital Network (OCN) is a
program of OCRI’s Entrepreneurship Centre. OCRI is a not-for-profit
organization that builds on the strengths of the region to advance
research and development, lifelong learning, professional development
and community infrastructure.
Find a free
service in exchange for your own
This is a free
bartering website based in Canada (Ottawa). The goal of this service is
to help small business owners get their businesses off the ground on a
shoe string by exchanging skills, services, and goods with each other.
The site supports posting, search, account management features, email
notifications, and messaging.
Create a blog quickly
A blog is a personal website where you
share your thoughts, hobbies, and other things that matter to you with
your readers, free of charge. Having been around for a few years, blogs
are now becoming more and more popular and are being used by both small
and medium businesses as marketing vehicles. If you are interested in
starting a blog, this site offers a simple 3-step solution: create an
account, name your blog and choose a template for it. We find their
templates suitable for individual consultants and small businesses.
Discount Computer Gear
Here you will find a
small sample of unique products that will make life easier and more fun.
Products from lightweight laptops, high quality sound systems,
accessories and programs to make your computing experience both
enjoyable and productive.
Take care of your taxes
This
site provides very useful information related to Canadian income taxes.
Use their tables to play various scenarios, whether you are an
independent proprietor or own a corporation.
Find local
services in Ontario
Directory of
businesses in Ontario.
-
Popular
links for startups -
NEW!
·
PR
Market
yourself online
-
NEW!
Create a few paragraphs
describing your main business advantages or services and send this
information to the outlets below. Your will get fantastic results and
can spend as little as $0.00 (zero). Make sure your paragraphs are well
written.
Email Campaign Management
Systems
-
Vertical
Response
This system has an excellent interface and a very intuitive flow. The
features and capabilities are superb and yet extremely easy to use.
They offer cross-reference tracking with Google Analytics and
Salesforce.com, which is a great added bonus. The best program I've
seen so far. They are also the most economical. You pay only when you
send a campaign, there are no monthly fees. For 5000 email addresses,
the cost is around $30. One issue we discovered with them is they do
not support heavy HTML code. Emails with heavy HTML code get corrupted
on delivery. So if you are using VerticalResponse, create simple
designs, with no gradient effects, layered images, nested tables, etc.
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iContact
Their interface is also nice and quite intuitive. Monthly fees start
at $9.95. They provide good HTML support. Our heavy HTML format with a
lot of fancy gradient backgrounds and layered images did not get
corrupted.
-
GotMarketing, now
Campaigner
Canadian email management system. Quite good, but not as
cost-effective as Vertical Response or iContact.
-
Constant Contact
The interface is less intuitive than in other email management
systems, and the cost is higher, but it is still a good service. They
offer decent templates, which can save you a lot of time and effort.
-
Groupmail
Reports say that their support for heavy HTML code is fantastic. But
it comes at a price. This system is best suited for businesses who
rely on email marketing heavily.
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Glossaries
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Calculator
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Anna
Tulchinsky 
