Seattle-based Optify, operating albeit pretty stealthily right now, is the newest player in the SEO game. VC Brian Goffman, most recently with the Madrona Venture Group, has raised $2.75 million so far from Madrona and several angel investors. Exact details aren't yet being shared by Optify, but their general premise is SEO marketing software offered to medium-sized companies like car dealerships and medical service companies.
"Our theory is that search marketing ... is very difficult for anyone except for experts in the field. And what we are going to do with our software is make this a much simpler process for marketers and make it much more of a self-service type of product."
Goffman insists that Optify is offering a unique product, however, by offering do-it-yourself SEO software rather than SEO consulting services.
"In my experience, when you see an area that's got a lot of consulting dollars being spent, you'll often find a big opportunity for software to simplify the process."
Goffman calls himself an "entrepreneur at heart" which made the move from VC to entrepreneur easy (though he admits that there is definitely a "sense of urgency" being on the entrepreneur side of the equation. Sign up at their site for more information on the beta as it is released. Their product is expected to go live next year.
Turning content into customers. [more]
Calgary Technologies 9th Annual Tech Showcase packed the house last night at the Alastair Ross Technology Centre (ARTC). This year’s event highlighted over 40 local Technology Companies, and proves that even during turbulent global economic times, Calgary’s technology sector is diverse, growing, and always up for a party!
This year’s Tech Showcase had a new attraction – Pitch Corner. Six exciting companies took centre stage to show off who they are, what they do, and why it’s cool. Each company had 7 minutes to deliver their presentations, which included demos, graphics, prototypes, bells, whistles, and even some PowerPoint. Democamp Calgary’s fabulous Sarah Blue MC’d the Pitch Corner, and helped presenters keep their cool amid some interesting technical challenges.
Presenters included:
Also new this year, the soothing sounds of Jazz! As you sipped a glass of chewy Shiraz, or in my case a cold Traditional Ale, the Rick Climans Jazz Trio could be heard above the noise of the 400+ attendees. There were some great networking opportunities (Calgary’s Mayor, Dave Bronconnier, even made an appearance!) and I’m sure there are many people scrambling this morning to follow up on the contacts made last night!
Calgary Technologies Inc. (CTI) works with entrepreneurs to help them accelerate the success of their technology company, and looks for... [more]
Share the web as YOU see it! You can add notes, drop speech bubbles, place stickers and more on top of any web page and share your Tynt with... [more]
Psyko Audio Labs is developing headphones for computer and console gamers. The technology delivers highly accurate directional audio so that you... [more]
Our goal is to inspire the world to learn. But that inspiration must start with you. Be inspired. And let that inspiration flow through everything... [more]
Lyal Avery of Vancouver's OutCome3 is a Techvibes Guest Contributor.
With capital access and first-round raises frozen solid, it's tough to be a startup. On October 9th, Sequoia Capital gathered their portfolio companies, stating that now is the time to slow the startup burn and do everything possible to stay afloat - a far cry from the chants of "grow! grow! grow!" heard a year ago. However, all is not lost, as a new breed of startup moves to excel: businesses based on cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-action (CPA) advertising.
Cost-per-click and cost-per-action advertising lets companies create immediate revenue streams, free from account receivables. When revenue flows from day one, it's easier for startups to adapt to challenges. Naysayers cry that online advertising budgets are being slashed left and right, but Google's recent earnings show that CPC and CPA are still thriving. (However, second-tier providers aren't doing as well, which may be due to a need for consolidation in market.) The answer is simple; with shrinking advertising budgets, marketers are moving away from 'spray-and-pray' advertising to venues with measurable returns, such as CPC and CPA. Time for that sweet, sweet radio money to start flowing in our direction. And this is far from the banner glut of the early 2000's; these two types of advertising are based on real sales.
Suite101.com, a startup monetized through cost-per-click advertising, is a great example. Peter Berger, President of Suite101.com, said, "Overall monetization per impression is down a few percent [...] but to a much lesser degree to CPC." Berger continues, stating that overall revenues were increasing due to growth in traffic.
When compared with most startups in these times, Suite101.com is accomplishing something incredible; revenue growth! While consumer trends may push online purchases down, increased budgets for CPC and CPA advertising could create higher margins for advertisers fighting for the remaining sales. Vigilant startups are poised to reap great rewards, so long as they build business models that funnel remaining interested users into sales.
Outcome3 is a Vancouver-based, online marketing company that specializes in search engine optimization, paid search advertising, site analytics,... [more]
Acquisio, the Montreal based provider of agency-oriented pay-per-click (PPC) management software, just announced it will host full support for Microsoft adCenter. Previously, clients had to log out of Acquisio's software and use adCenter separately, but now it is available in Acquisio's reporting engine, bulk editor and campaign optimizer.
Acquisio co-founder Marc Poirier said the company also hopes to integrate more search engines and ad networks in future, with Ask.com, Business.com, Facebook and shopping comparison engines being the most heavily requested integrations.
For previous Techvibes coverage of Acquisio, click here.
Acquisio Inc. is a SaaS (software as a service) company that offers a pay-per-click (Google Adsense, Yahoo! Search Marketing, etc.) management... [more]
Notably this week we have the return of WIN BC's Mobile Monday in it's "new season", and the first Vancouver Internet Marketing Meetup, hosted by Outcome3.
MoMoVan - Mobile Monday Vancouver
Masters of Digital Media Information Session
Vancouver Internet Marketing Meetup
Techvibes Media Inc. is pleased to announce our sponsorship of Ideas on Tap - a casual business networking event for Tech professionals in Vancouver.
Industry veterans likely recall Ideas On Tap from back in 1999 when IDEApark ran it at the Yaletown Brew Pub - check them out on Google circa-2001. During the Dot-com bubble, Ideas On Tap was the place to network with the high-fliers of the Tech community and pitch your new ideas. The must-attend event attracted huge crowds to witness elevator pitches where contestants had 60 seconds to win votes from the standing-room only crowd from atop a milk crate.
As a hyper-local technology blog that covers 8 cities across Canada and Seattle & Portland in the Pacific Northwest, it’s great to see successful initiatives like Ideas On Tap reborn in the local marketplace.
Techvibes’ office overlooks the Yaletown Brew Pub, so our coverage of the event will be as hyper-local as it can get. This time around, a new wave of tech professionals - social media marketers and bloggers – will join other fans of the tech community to make this event a success.
Congrats to the folks at 6S Marketing for re-inventing Ideas On Tap and bringing it back to Yaletown- it will be great way for people to connect and share ideas over a beer every 3rd Thursday of the month.
6S Marketing Inc. is a leading Vancouver Internet marketing company with hundreds of clients, both large and small, across a wide variety of... [more]
Last April at the Canadian Innovation Exchange in Toronto I took in all the company presentations and one stood out as solving a problem and being a huge time saver. Montreal-based Acquisio presented their software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that offers pay-per-click (Google, Yahoo!, MSN) management software designed specifically for advertising agencies. The company was founded in 2003 as a search engine marketing agency but after building software tools for its own use saw a opportunity to package it up for others.
Turns out the search engine marketing industry likes what they're doing. Vancouver's very own Alexandre Brabant of eMarketing101 is using Acquisio to manage PPC campaigns and is endorsing it online.
During the last few months that I have been using the tool and going through my own learning curve, I must say that Acquisio has help me save a lot of time in managing PPC accounts and I am now able to provide stellar reports to my clients.
Congrats to Acquisio for solving a real-world problem and impressing one of Vancouver's best.
Acquisio Inc. is a SaaS (software as a service) company that offers a pay-per-click (Google Adsense, Yahoo! Search Marketing, etc.) management... [more]
It's Day 2 at the IMC and we were graced with a panel of five experts on writing for the web. You can check out the highlights from each of the panelists below!
Crawford Kilian, author of "Writing for the Web 3.0"
Make it quick, and make it count. That's the key to good online writing according to Crawford Kilian. Now if only it was as easy as it sounded! We all know it's not, so here are some quick tips he gave out:
Avoid exformation - Information you don't need to write because your readers already know it. Example: If you write an opt-in technology newsletter, you don't need to waste time explaining that IT means Information Technology.=
Know your reader base - Tech people like fancy long complicated Latin words, not regular folk. So make sure you understand who your reader base is. If it's mixed think about creative ways point your readers to the right kind of text.
Short sentence and paragrpah structure - No sentances longer then 20 words, and aim for a max of 6 lines of text. Note that says lines, not sentances. Paragraph breaks are like mini coffee breaks for our eyes! Everyone likes a nice break.
Don' waste hot spots - In other words don’t bury info in middle of your paragraph. Try your best to keep important points at the start and end of your paragraphs. Avoid starting paragraphs with words like "that's, then, and the." If you use one of these you wasted your prime paragraph real estate. Try to put a compelling power word at the start when possible.
Elizabeth Southall, Powerhouse Copy
"Create killer landing pages that pull leads and sales from the Internet like a vacuum cleaner on steroids."
With an awesome title like that how can you not check this out? So without further delay here is a quick overview of Elizabeth
Six main elements every landing page needs
Your website is top of your online sales funnel, and just like real life “You don’t get a second change to make a first impression," says Elizabeth. So to help you make a good first impression make sure you have these six things on your landing page:
Jim DeLaHunt, Jim DeLaHunt & Associates
Jim is an expert on websites in multiple languages. His presentation revolved around awareness of multi-language issues. Many people don't consider how later implementing multiple languages causes a lot of problems. What happens to your site design? Does our Japanese market care about the same things as your English market? What about your SEO?
Don't think you need to consider multi-language for your site? Well in a domestic based seminar here in Vancouver we had 9 prime languages and 6 sub languages among the 30 attendees. The world is closer then ever.
Tom McNamara, McNamara Communications
Who are the decision makers among your clients and are you speaking to them? Tom McNamara's job is to make sure you can confidently say yes to that question. For example, a business to business website that sells software needs to appeal to the money holders and the IT department. You might have a great money saving program, but if you can't impress the IT department odds are it's going to be shot down.
Tom's solution? In this situation you might want to consider directing people to specific landing pages designed just for them. Buttons labelled "IT Professionals click here," are great ways to drive traffic right to what they need to see.
Monique Trottier, Boxcar Marketing
As a local online writing expert, Monique gave us 5 quick common news letter taboos that are all too common.
In closing she left us with the quote, “be brief, brilliant and gone, don’t waste peoples time!”
Boxcar Marketing is an internet marketing company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The principals are Monique Trottier and James... [more]
This afternoon's session is on search engine optimization. Below is a quick recap of what the panelists say makes them tick or ticked.
Rodney Bartlett, Reachd, is our friendly moderator.
Gary R. Beal, Stickyeyes
Bill Barnes, Enquiro
Omar Al-Haijar, Magnet Search Marketing
Lyn Wilson, 6S Marketing
Ellerton Whitney, Earthbound Media Group
Alex Brabant, eMarketing101 and SEMPO Canada
6S Marketing Inc. is a leading Vancouver Internet marketing company with hundreds of clients, both large and small, across a wide variety of... [more]
Most companies have a website. A lot of individuals & companies have blogs. Yet, very few of them have traffic or make money out of their online... [more]
Erin Colbert of HubSpot recently presented on Website Grader, which is a tool that generates a quick SEO report and offers a grade on your site's performance.
TechVibes gets a 95.7 out of 100.
You can run your own report at WebsiteGrader.com, run a report for your competitor's site or run a report for your site and set a competitor comparison by entering their URLs. For prosperity sake, I saved the TechVibes report as a PDF.
With some of the report elements, you need to have a basic understanding of SEO in order to make a good judgement about whether to follow the suggestions or not. For example, their suggestions about heading tags, meta data, and images require some background knowledge and understanding of these elements' relevancy. But the information on incoming links, date last crawled, and social bookmark links are interesting, general business information.
If you think your site sucks, this is a good "freak out your boss" tool.
