Category Archives: B2b

B2b, Internet, Online, Services, Traffic, Web Marketing

Intouch Marketing, Inc. A Leading Provider Of Internet Marketing Solutions, Has Just Launched The Next Major Development In The Home Business Marketplace – Auto Business Builder

Intouch Marketing, Inc. a leading provider of internet marketing solutions, has just launched the next major development in the home business marketplace — Auto Business Builder. This is a major breakthrough in true passive income generation and wealth building.

autobusinessbuilder

For decades millions of home business distributors have searched long and hard for a truly hands free turnkey passive income generation opportunity. Many providers have claimed to deliver such a system but upon further review most have always fallen far short.

Over the last two years Intouch Marketing decided to fulfill the long held dreams of network marketer’s world wide. Bob Cefail, President of InTouch Marketing, made a fateful decision about how they would develop the ultimate home business. “I decided that no one had really listened to their prospects”, said Cefail. “Most people want to OWN an internet business not be employed by it doing every job”.

What the president of Intouch Marketing was getting at was that franchise owners of a McDonalds aren’t interested in cooking hamburgers, mopping floors or handling the cash register. The owner wants his franchise to earn income for the franchisee in a passive manner. In the same way, many business opportunity prospects are seeking a miniature version of a McDonalds. They don’t want it to cost too much yet still churn out a regular steam of profit.

The general outline of a true hands free system would involve these elements. First, such a system would utilize a state of the art business generation web site. Next, this system would generate prospects that are directed to the web site. The service would include a professional closing team that handles all sales activities. Lastly, such a program would possess a service designed to up sell additional business opportunities to the paid subscribers gained through the system

Intouch Marketing is uniquely qualified to develop such a system having generated over one million prospect visits to home business seekers web sites during the past seven years. The company also is considered by many to be a premier developer of internet lead generation sites and is the inventor of the video based mini-web-infomercial web site application. Intouch Marketing by announcing the launch of the Auto Business Builder service hopes to show all home business seekers that they can truly be successful.

Via EPR Network
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B2b, eCommerce, Internet, Services, Shopping, Social Networking, Web 2.0

Sir Alan Sugar Voted Most Inspiring Business Figure In The Country

BT Tradespace, the business social networking website, has revealed that Sir Alan Sugar has been voted the most inspiring business figure in the country, according to a recent poll conducted with BT Tradespace users.

The 62-year-old founder of Amstrad and star of The Apprentice scored 34 per cent in the vote, well clear of Naked Chef Jamie Oliver, who came in second with 25 per cent.

Ivan Croxford, general manager of BT Tradespace, said: “People admire how Sir Alan rose from a humble background and relate to the no-nonsense style he shows during his TV appearances.

“He speaks in a language the public can understand and is very focused on what the consumer wants.

“He is a good illustration of how business people have crossed into mainstream popular culture and The Apprentice has definitely helped raise his profile and popularity.”

Users of the 350,000-member BT Tradespace site also voted Victoria Beckham into joint third with lastminute.com founder Martha Lane Fox (both 11 per cent), pipping Marks and Spencer executive chairman Sir Stuart Rose.

The result is further evidence of how the former Posh Spice has transformed herself from a pop singer into a global entrepreneur with fashion, cosmetic and women’s accessory lines.

Ivan Croxford, general manager of BT Tradespace, said: “Victoria Beckham has proved to be a very shrewd businesswoman with a keen sense of what consumers want.

“She has skillfully combined her celebrity status with a drive and determination which has helped to take the Beckham brand in completely new directions.”

Croxford added: “The survey choices show how the celebrity and business worlds sometimes overlap.

“Leading business figures are becoming household names and showbiz personalities are increasingly pursuing business ventures to exploit their star status and enhance their income.

“Sir Alan Sugar epitomises this trend and is a good illustration of how businesspeople have crossed into mainstream popular culture.”

Other stars featured in the poll include Kate Moss, Myleene Klass and Gary Barlow, each of whom received 3 per cent of the vote.

About BT Tradespace
BT Tradespace.com is a 350,000-member social networking for businesses online community which enables businesses to set-up their own free website to sell products and services and connect with other people effectively – both building business and customer relationships.

Via EPR Network
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B2b, Dedicated Servers, Hosting, Internet, Secure Hosting, Services

Virtual Private Server / VPS Hosting By AvaHost

AvaHost has just launched VPS hosting, virtual private servers which offer a fantastic alternative to shared hosting, with pricing as low as 14.95 per month. This allows clients to enjoy the benefits of having control over hosting, right down to full root access.

AvaHost is a shared and reseller hosting service which has now expanded to offer a brand new product, VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting. As many users are looking low cost alternatives to shared hosting, this new product offers four different levels of hosting to meet user’s particular needs.

Users may choose from the four tiers which begin at 256MB of Mb to 1024 Mb. Guaranteed RAM will range from 128 MB to 512 MB. Offered disk space will begin at 10 GB going up to 40 GB and data transfer will start at 300 GB and go up to 1200 GB.

All four tiers offer users full SSH root access, unlimited domain, development tools, the ability to install your own software, free DNS hosting, dedicated IPs, the capability to have your own DSN servers, reload and reimage OS, boot, shutdown and reboot commands, and to install can compile custom software. This new product also offers custom MIME settings, website access statistics, support for .htaccess, Cron job support, sendmail support, customizable error pages and access to both raw logs and error logs.

The goal of AvaHost is to offer users an easy, low cost method to exceed the strict confines of shared hosting. One of the most engaging features of this new product is full root access, no matter which tier a user chooses. This allows for personal adjustments including the installation of custom software and network services. All VPS hosting accounts are hosted on Dual or Quad Xeon servers running the Linux operating system, which are well known for offering high performance and dependability.

Everyone who chooses VPS via AvaHost, will be given a bonus package for webmasters worth more than $1300.00. This includes templates, graphic package, banner templates and a large assortment of quality eBooks with full Resale Rights.

AvaHost has established themselves a strong contender in the web hosting industry, offering topnotch products and prides themselves on excellent customer service. With the launch of the new VPS product, AvaHost proudly states, “We devote ourselves to small to medium businesses and the personal user and with our the introduction of our new VPS we are proud to continue our commitment of offering the best technology at prices everyone can afford, in fact we offer a 60-day Money Back Guarantee so that every client can feel confident in choosing us.”

You may visit http://www.avahost.net to see more details regarding AvaHost’s VPS and read the details of each of the four VPS tiers.

Via EPR Network
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B2b, B2C, Internet, Online, Services, Website Localization

Foreign Translations, Inc. Launches Spanish Language Version of Website

Foreign Translations, Inc. has announced the launch of its new Spanish website, http://espanol.foreigntranslations.com. The new layout is specifically targeting Spanish speakers who have a need for translation services. The website will facilitate Foreign Translations, Inc.’s desire to reach the Hispanic market in the United States, Mexico, South America and other Spanish speaking countries of the world. Foreign Translations, Inc. values its multilingual customer base and appreciates the fact that they would like to conduct business in their own native language. This website works to accommodate them.

With the Hispanic population growing to 42 million in the United States, Foreign Translations, Inc. http://espanol.foreigntranslations.com believed that it was the right moment to provide those who are not native English speakers the opportunity to navigate its website as easily as those that do speak English. Visitors to the website will be able to read about Foreign Translations, Inc. quality assurance and guarantees, request quotes, and read about its translators, and processes and pricing. As with every project completed by Foreign Translations, Inc., it makes certain that it surpasses the standard requisite. With this, Foreign Translations, Inc. ensured that all of its company material, f r o m brochures to proposals, is translated into Spanish. As a result, its Hispanic clients are guaranteed to receive all company information in their native language. They will also have a native Spanish speaker available by phone if they need to speak with a live person. According to CEO, Ken Zwerdling, “We have developed a business model where the entire customer experience (keyword search, website, colors, navigation, checkout, company brochures, proposals and even customer service) is in the native language of the requestor.” Zwerdling says, “We are excited to have the opportunity to work with the entire Hispanic population of the world.”

When creating the new website, http://espanol.foreigntranslations.com, Foreign Translations, Inc. determined to develop a new and unique site, rather then just translate its current English website. A great amount of time was devoted to researching preferences in the Spanish market, and customizing it for the Hispanic market. Everything f r o m the color schemes to the images were selected based on how well the Hispanic market would receive them and connect with the company. Other key features of the new site are the ease of navigation so that visitors can quickly download the web pages, and the research behind identifying a hosting provider that would ensure fast connectivity. Foreign Translations, Inc. also extensively researched cutting edge Search Engine Optimization and Multilingual Search Engine Optimization techniques and practices to ascertain that the Spanish language website will be identified by the global Spanish search engines, including research regarding commonly misspelled Spanish words. According to Internet Marketing Director Daryl Woods, “The success of the website starts with the research and paying attention to every little detail. Researching, developing, and implementing the rules of persuasive architecture, copywriting and calls to action combined with search engine marketing and optimization, give our website the groundwork for success.”

About Foreign Translations, Inc.
Foreign Translations, Inc. (www.foreigntranslations.com) is an 11- year old foreign language translation, interpreting and website translation firm headquartered in Greenville, SC. We offer translation services for a wide range of projects: f r o m technical manuals, legal contracts and marketing collateral to financial statements, training manuals, e-learning courses, websites, medical journals, software, policy and procedure handbooks, and newsletters. With more than 1,500 native translators located in over 30 countries, we frequently translate documents ranging f r o m 1,000 words to over several million words in all the major languages of the world. In addition, we provide interpreters for depositions, trials, and conferences. We also offer a full range of Multilingual Desktop Publishing Services in any format and of any size. The company holds General Services Administration Contract (“GSA”) with the Federal Government.

Via EPR Network
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Abuse, B2b, Domain Names, Hosting, Internet, Online, Services, Web

Fasthosts Warns Businesses Not To Copy Others Website Material

Fasthosts Internet Ltd, has warned UK businesses not to be tempted to copy material from other companies’ websites.

This warning comes off the back of findings by the web hosting provider which showed that there was an 89% increase in the number of content disputes reported to its in-house Abuse Department from April 2008 to April 2009. The problem varies from the occasional image being used, right through to entire website designs being replicated. The practice can lead to consumers becoming confused, or even being misled into purchasing from the wrong company.

In many of the cases Fasthosts investigated, the offending businesses stated that they did not realise that copying items of online material could land them in trouble.

A recent Fasthosts’ commissioned survey of 152 UK businesses also found that ‘web envy’ can be a real temptation for time-stretched business owners, with 39% admitting they are presently envious of the website of a closely competing business. Additionally the survey showed that 1 in 4 companies are actually considering reducing their use of external website design services in order to cut costs despite the average company only rating their own website at just 6 out of 10 for effectiveness, yet aiming to treble its online revenue in 2009. At a time when there is a huge amount of pressure on small business owners’ to maximise their use of the web, the temptation to take shortcuts by duplicating material from other companies’ websites can sometimes prove overwhelming.

Steve Holford, CMO Fasthosts Internet, said: “Particularly in a challenging economic climate, business owners may be tempted by the quick-fix of copying another firm’s work. Replicating material for commercial use often breaches copyright. Always obtain permission before using anybody’s website material.”

Significantly, the Fasthosts survey also found that 10% of participants had at least one item of their own company website copied by a third party between March 2008 and March 2009. The issue actually proved to be twice as common as cyber-squatting or other online security breaches. As a result Fasthosts is advising all affected users to contact the offending website hosting provider who should then intervene on their behalf.

Holford added, “Website envy is not new, but the tough economy appears to have led more companies to act unfairly upon it. Businesses will gain a better foothold on the Web and earn most value through a regular output of their own compelling material, and applying time to their website in small manageable steps”.

About Fasthosts
Fasthosts is the UK’s number one web hosting company. Based in the UK and operating 24×7 from their dedicated UK data centres, Fasthosts keeps over 1 million domains running smoothly and ensures over 6 million emails are delivered safely each day. All Fasthosts services can be self-managed through the award winning Fasthosts web-based control panel that provides customers with unparalleled online control, enabling them to manage hosted services including domain name registrations, shared web hosting, business-class email, dedicated servers, software-as-a-service, internet merchant accounts, reseller web hosting and unlimited broadband. Fasthosts’ highly successful reseller channel has recently been rated Number 1 for reseller hosting by industry portal Web Host Directory.

Via EPR Network
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B2b, eCommerce, Internet, Services, Shopping, Social Networking, Web 2.0

BT Tradespace, The Business Social Networking Website, Has Marked Its Second Anniversary By Signing Up Its 350,000 Member

A recent review of the site found that there has been a 400% year-on-year growth over the past year, with an average of up to 500 members joining each day since the launch.

In the past two years, nearly 3,000 different communities have been set up by BT Tradespace members to share information and expertise. The most popular BT Tradespace communities include a group for people who run home-based businesses and a community where new or seasoned entrepreneurs can leave advice, ask questions and share top tips.

The site is a dynamic online community for sales and marketing and offers a comprehensive directory of SME products and services. It allows members to use the latest social media tools – podcasts, videos and blogs – to promote themselves and engage with customers, partners and suppliers.

Free and easy to join, BT Tradespace also offers a secure and safe online marketplace trading platform where consumers can buy goods.

Ivan Croxford, general manager, BT Tradespace, said: “These figures show that social networking is not just a passing consumer fad, businesses are embracing it too, because of the obvious benefits it holds for companies of all sizes.

“The internet opens up a global marketplace for SMEs, helping them to compete and prosper in times of mounting economic difficulty. BT Tradespace offers a fantastic platform to exploit the full potential of the web by encouraging an ongoing open and honest dialogue with customers, colleagues, suppliers and partners”.

BT Tradespace research shows that three quarters of smaller companies see the web as a strategic business tool, and 45% make a quarter of their sales online. Social networking extends this playing field by offering SMEs the opportunity to compete with bigger firms, connect with niche audiences and target local markets.

Croxford explained: “The success of BT Tradespace reveals that companies are now realising that to prosper in the digital age, they must embrace the opportunities offered by the web and start using social networks to their full advantage”.

BT Tradespace member Tabitha Potts, who was voted runner-up as ‘Mum-Entrepreneur of 2009’ at the Women’s Business Mastermind Awards, believes the site has been an invaluable tool for trading and marketing her company. She said: “I have had 10,000 hits on my BT Tradespace page and some of these have clicked through to my main site generating sales.

“The site has a very nice clean interface and I regularly blog and upload videos. This has worked wonders for my search engine rankings so customers can find me much easier on the Internet.”

Lyn and John Hill created a Tradespace page to support their online business HedgePig, commented: “After just one month using the service, our BT Tradespace site had received over 1,600 hits. This corresponded with our main website, seeing a substantial rise in visitors and sales, resulting in a monthly turnover increase of around 20 per cent. We now feel confident in taking our business to the next level and offering a wholesale business-to-business service.”

Businesses can get free advice on how to build a successful online presence at the week-long BT Business Experience event being held from 29 June to 3 July 2009. The event taking place in central London is specifically created to show businesses how the very latest technology and business thinking can help them manage their costs, market their business more effectively and make them more competitive especially in the current environment.

About BT Tradespace
BT Tradespace.com is a 350,000-member online community, that enables businesses to sell products and services and connect with other people effectively – both building business and customer relationships.

Via EPR Network
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B2b, Domain Names, E-mail, eCommerce, Hosting, Internet, Links, Online, Secure Hosting, Services, Social Networking, Web, Web Design & Development

BT Business Has Launched The Online Starter Kit, A Service Designed To Help Small Businesses Promote Themselves Online

BT Business has launched the Online Starter Kit, a service designed to help small businesses promote themselves online, offering a professionally-built web site and profile in the BT business networking community for £199 including 12 months of web hosting*.

web design packages

For the first time BT Business has brought together all of the essential ingredients for creating an online presence into one low cost bundle. For businesses looking to combine this with their broadband commitment, the Online Starter Kit is also available at just £5 per month with BT Business Total Broadband Option 3.

The bundle includes a web site design consultation and professional web site build, logo design, advice around web site copy and keywords, web hosting, domain based webmail and a BT Tradespace profile – all designed to work together to boost a business presence on search engines such as Google.

One in five small businesses don’t have their own web site, despite £78 billion – 25% of UK retail spend – in this year projected to come from online sales. According to BT Business research the vast majority that do are also not getting the most out of their websites or using them effectively to attract customers. Just one in over 3,000 web sites use keywords in the content they post on their sites, despite the use of keywords increasing the chances of search engines picking up web pages. 42% have websites with bad pages containing broken or invalid links**.

“Every business needs an effective online presence that works well with search engines, but this can sometimes be a daunting step for start-ups,” said Jerry Thompson, Director Business Products and Online. “By bringing everything together in one low-cost bundle BT is helping small businesses take the vital steps to getting online hassle-free. 20% of small businesses now also use social networking sites to win new business, so getting your company web site to work more effectively with social business networks such as BT Tradespace is becoming more and more important.”

BT Tradespace is a dynamic online community for sales and marketing and offers a comprehensive directory of small business products and services. It allows members to use the latest social media tools – podcasts, videos and blogs – to promote themselves, engage with customers, partners and suppliers and sell goods to consumers over a secure and safe trading platform.

* Based on 12mths contract. The Online Starter bundle costs £199 ex VAT. This comprises monthly costs of £5 per month ex VAT for a web hosting service plus a one-off cost of £139.
** Conclusion of an investigation of 70,000 websites released by BT Business in March 09.

About BTTradespace.com
BTTradespace.com is a 350,000-member online community, which enables businesses to sell products and services and connect effectively with other people – in order to build business and customer relationships. BT Tradespace provides social networking for businesses and free website set-up.

About BT
BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

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B2b, Events, Internet, Web, Web Design & Development

WordPress Now – A New Premium WordPress Theme Company

The aggressive market of WordPress themes has recently seen the addition of a new premium theme provider, WordPress Now. The company is currently offering three unique WordPress themes with prices as low as $49. WordPress Now will be releasing a new theme on a weekly basis to keep a “fresh” selection of themes available to their customers.

wpnow

At midnight (12:00AM U.S. EST) on June 5, 2009, the company released the WordPress Now website to the public. At that time there were three premium themes available for purchase, including Bloom, Triumph and Elements.

The prices of WordPress Now’s themes are set at an extremely competitive bracket against similar themes f r o m other providers. Four different price points come with each available theme; branded single-use, branded multi-use, unbranded single-use and unbranded multi-use, each caters to different customer needs. Mr. Lee Cooper, Project Director of WordPress Now says that “There is a choice for everyone, whether you need the theme for one website or twenty five. And if you don’t want our logo branded on the website, all you have to do is purchase one of the unbranded options.”

“Our themes come with many features to enhance the functionality,” says Mr. Ryan Maffit, Lead Web Developer. “We want to satisfy an appetite that many of our customers have. Most seek a theme that makes their website unique, and all of our themes have features that make that possible.”

The design of WordPress Now and all of the themes is headed by Mr. Jesse Wingert. Previously a freelance graphic designer, Mr. Wingert has spent the last eight years practicing and exercising his skills with web designing. He says, “To some, having to design a new theme every week would seem like a burden, but I find it especially exciting. It is a great way to use my creativity and skills to their full potential. To stand back and look at your work succeed brings one of the greatest feelings to artistic people like myself.”

As for releasing a new theme every week, Mr. Lee Cooper said, “Most weeks will see a new theme released f r o m WordPress Now. Some weeks may see two new themes, some may see none. But in a 52 week period, we plan on releasing 52 different themes.”

WordPress Now has a development blog and social networking pages such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, which offer different ways for customers to keep track of what the developers are working on. For now though, we can only wait and see what the company has up its sleeves for their future theme releases.

Those interested in more information about WordPress Now can visit their website at http://wpnow.com.

Via EPR Network
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B2b, B2C, Events, Internet, Online, Searching, Services, Web, Web Directories, Web Marketing

FoundLocally.com Media Inc Has Released A New MovingInCanada.com Web Site, Which Already Attracts Over 50,000 Unique Visitors A Month

The site has expanded and improved community information about hundreds of communities and thousands of neighbourhoods across Canada. Information is integrated with Google’s maps and relevant Realtor.ca MLS listings. The site also provides powerful search tools to find local realtors, builders, and movers, accessing the thousands of businesses and individuals that have added themselves to FoundLocally.com’s free directory, but keeping users close to MovingInCanada.com’s local real estate and community information.

movingincanada

“We wanted to make this site more relevant to the home-buying and moving experience. Over the past year MovingInCanada.com has more than doubled the number of communities and neighbourhoods covered, and the re-design makes all that information more accessible” says Mark Ruthenberg, the website’s General Manger. “Consumers are using the Internet not just to shop, but to decide with whom to do business. They are doing their ‘due diligence’ research online before calling a real person, and are much better informed consumers. MovingInCanada.com continues to evolve to help with that process.”

The new MovingInCanada.com has integrated data from sister site FoundLocally’s free listings business database. The site search integrates more than business descriptions and web links, but news, savings, jobs, and events like realtor open houses posted by those businesses. Before, this information was just a link to FoundLocally, but is now seamlessly built into MovingInCanada. Consumers can now search by business category and community/neighbourhood and compare descriptions and other features, even reviewing a business’s website, to help them make key buying decisions.

Builders, realtors, home stagers and movers can add themselves to their local free listings directory, and are included in both FoundLocally and Moving in Canada with a single listing.

The site has added coverage of the entire Greater Toronto Area (“GTA”), with new detailed information about neighbourhoods in Oakville & Burlington, Mississauga & Brampton, Etobicoke, North York, Toronto, Scarborough, the York Region, and Oshawa & Durham Region. We have also added more information about outlying areas and “bedroom communities” for fast-growing cities like Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Sudbury. We have also added more information about resort communities in the Okanagan & Shuswaps areas of BC and the Canadian Rockies, popular with vacation home buyers as well as year-round residents and retirees.

We have also notice a significant portion of visitors are from outside Canada, looking to move to Canada, so MovingInCanada.com has added content relating to the immigration process.

About FoundLocally.com Media
FoundLocally.com Media Inc. is a Calgary-based company that creates community information portals, and provides web design and web marketing services. It also runs TransCanadaHighway.com (about travel along the world’s longest highway), and MovingInCanada.com (about real estate & relocations). The FoundLocally web sites are represented nationally by 24/7 RealMedia, the nation’s largest interactive ad agency.

Via EPR Network
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B2b, eCommerce, Internet, Services, Shopping, Social Networking, Web 2.0

BT Tradespace And Libersy Aim To Help Small Businesses Capture Business Opportunities From Social Networking

BT Tradespace is introducing a new online booking and payment system, BT Book It Now, aiming to help small businesses capture business opportunities f r o m social networking.

bttradespace

Based on the Libersy online booking software, Book It Now is available for free to all BT Tradespace members. It is the first e-commerce solution for companies in the service industry, such as hairdressers, restaurants, sports clubs and consultants, to integrate the PayPal payments system directly into an online bookings platform within a social network environment.

With 74 per cent of all service bookings made in the evenings, BT Book It Now aims to provide businesses with the tools needed to serve their online customers round the clock. Customers can log-on at their convenience and check for available times, book appointments and pay instantly using the system.

“Social commerce is clearly on the rise and we are always looking for ways in which we can help the BT Tradespace community make the most of this upward trend,” said Ivan Croxford, general manager at BT Tradespace.

“It’s not only important to be able to display your services, it’s also vital to interact with your customers. BT Book It Now is just one of many value added services that we aim to introduce for members to help them do just this and we’re delighted to partner with Libersy on this particular one.”

“BT Book IT Now offers a unique online system for UK consumers and businesses,” said Karin Loeffen, founder and creator of Libersy. “Businesses can use the booking system to obtain more clients, use their time more efficiently and increase their revenues through BT Tradespace and PayPal. For small businesses it’s often difficult to take time off, because they fear missing opportunities. Thanks to this system, that’s now a thing of the past.”

Book It Now is available f r o m BT Tradespace in three packages, free, basic and advanced. The basic package gives customers the additional ability to support a range of services and accept full or partial payments for them.

With the advanced package, customers can select different staff and rooms and businesses can tailor information that they request f r o m customers to their needs. They can also create a link to their booking system on their own web site and third party search portals as well as on their BT Tradespace profile with the “Book It Now” button.

About BTTradespace.com
BTTradespace.com is a 350,000-member online community, which enables businesses to sell products and services and connect effectively with other people – in order to build business and customer relationships. BT Tradespace provides social networking for businesses and free website set-up.

About BT
BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale. In the year ended 31 March 2009, BT Group’s revenue was £21,390 million.  British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York. 

Via EPR Network
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B2b, B2C, Events, Internet, Online, Searching, Services, Web, Web Directories, Web Marketing

MyCityToronto.com – Toronto’s Business Directory

Finding businesses in Toronto and the GTA has never been easier. Using a PDA handheld device, mobile phone or computer one can quickly and easily find businesses close to where they are on MyCityToronto.com, an online Toronto business directory.

This Toronto business directory is organized such that visitors can easily find what they are looking for as well as the directions to the business premises should they want to visit. Some of the businesses represented on the directory include restaurants, home furnishings, home exterior and interiors, automotive services, electronics, women’s and men’s fashion and many more.

The directory has many other features that the visitor can plug into. The social networking site includes articles, blogs, videos and arcade games. This allows potential customers to socialize and interact with other consumers to swap ideas as well as experiences on MyCityToronto.

In addition to the entertainment that can so easily be enjoyed on one’s mobile phone or PDA device, visitors can also find directions to various places or businesses registered on MyCityToronto. All one has to do is find the business they want to visit and click on the map button. The directions and map to the business establishment will be quickly downloaded.

Tourists and other visitors traveling through the GTA can use MyCityToronto to find places to eat or stay the night as well. The Toronto entertainment scene and night life is full of places one can enjoy. Using their mobile phone or PDA handheld device, anyone can easily log on to MyCityToronto and find a fun spot to have a good time.

The best thing about using MyCityToronto is that there are only 24 main categories to choose from. This makes it easier to quickly find what one is looking for. In addition, each category only has 16 businesses to choose from. Once again this makes the process of choosing an establishment to visit much simpler and with the touch of a button the directions and map are easily accessible too.

SMART technology makes the pages very light and quick to download. Visitors can view the different commercials featured on the Toronto business directory prior to choosing to work with or visit any business listed on the directory. Advertising banners are showcased on a rotating basis and clicking on them will quickly lead the visitor to the establishment’s website where he or she can quickly review the services offered.

Each business represented on MyCityToronto has a premium digital storefront that provides information on the company, what they do and how they can be of service to potential customers. When it comes to making a choice of which business to go with, these come in handy. The articles and blogs provided give even more information on services provided and allow the consumers to make informed purchases at all times. If you need to find anything in Toronto, you will find it on MyCityToronto.com.

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B2b, B2C, Internet, News, Online, SEO, Services, Social Networking

Bigmouthmedia Unveils British Business Top Social Networking Executives

A new bigmouthmedia survey has identified the UK market’s biggest business users of online social networking tools.

Following extensive research, Carnival Cruises’ John Heald and On Holiday Group CEO Steve Endacott have been revealed as the business leaders trading in Britain that have most readily adopted services like LinkedIn, Facebook and twitter as part of their essential marketing tool kit.

“Social networking may have become one of the most talked about trends in the online world, but until now there has been little hard evidence showing to what extent the business community has embraced these tools. Our research shows that while many leading executives are now deriving measurable benefits f r o m this rapidly developing channel, some of the UK’s most prominent organisations have failed to get to grips with this important trend,” said Lyndsay Menzies, bigmouthmedia Chief Operations Officer.

While the social media has been one of 2009’s most hyped phenomena, little evidence exists as to what extent businesses are deriving benefits f r o m the plethora of available services. In order to gauge real-world attitudes to the tools, bigmouthmedia assessed the online networking performance of 50 CEO’s & senior marketing executives selected f r o m the FTSE100 and the Sunday Times Fast Track 100.

Carnival’s Senior Director John Heald emerged as the clear winner in the FTSE100 category. He uses a combination of Facebook and blogging to reach out to past, present and future customers.

“The internet has changed the way that people want to communicate with companies, and even the FTSE100 has to come to terms with that. Customers have become accustomed to a certain level of transparency and informality in their dealings with business and even large-scale enterprises need to adjust their marketing strategies accordingly.”

Heald’s use of social media proved to be a relative rarity amongst the FTSE100 executives sampled. Only 25% of them engage in any form of online networking, compared to 80% of senior players f r o m Fast Track companies.

Topping the table f r o m the fast growth companies listed in the Fast Track 100 is On Holiday Group CEO and founder Steve Endacott. The former MyTravel chief employs a range of tools including Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter, Plaxo and Xing to promote his travel company and believes that they are an essential part of the modern business toolkit. “I believe that these are tools every business has to get to grips with. There’s a generation of consumers growing up with social media, and unless you truly understand the culture there’s a real danger of losing touch with them,” he said.

LinkedIn emerged as the senior executive’s networking tool of choice. Half of those surveyed use the service, while 80% of the FTSE100 managers that engage in online networking use it as their only application.

“Social media is simply about listening and interacting with your customers, using channels that many staff will already be familiar with, such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Digg. It is common sense, and it’s perhaps unsurprising that the majority of the FastTrack companies are ahead of the curve in this respect,” commented Econsultancy’s Chris Lake.

“What’s needed is a shift in mindset. Firms should embrace customer feedback and act on it. By engaging with customers you increase satisfaction, which is a proven way of generating repeat business and referrals. Why wouldn’t you want to do that? “

About bigmouthmedia 
Founded in 1997, bigmouthmedia is Europe’s largest independent digital marketing agency. With a team of over 200 staff located across 13 offices in 10 countries on 3 continents, the company maximises exposure for major brands online through a variety of fully integrated digital marketing channels: Search engine optimisation, PPC, Online Media Planning, Affiliate marketing, Social Networking, Brand Monitoring, Online PR and Web Analytics. The bigmouthmedia on Twitter, bigmouthmedia on Mobile Twitter and bigmouthmedia on friendfeed services provide constant up to date digital marketing news to ensure subscribers are fully informed and aware of all industry developments.

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B2b, Internet, Online, Security, Software

The New Next Generation Security Features Ensure Your Data Is As Secure As The Gold In Fort Knox

“Over the last decade, web based threats have become a major cause of concern for businesses globally. Built on our years of intense research on web based security, the Next Generation Security Features on the Proactive Protection module provide strong and powerful preventive measure against such attacks. Unlike the traditional ‘reactive’ way of handling threats, Next Generation is ‘Proactive’ and can be used by anyone”.

– Sergey Rizhikov, CEO of Bitrix, Inc.

As web based threats continue to increase, your data is vulnerable. In fact, data security features significantly influence the choice of a Content Management System. After all, your data is precious as gold to you, right?

Bitrix Inc., a leading CMS and Intranet Portal development company, today announced the new Next Generation security features on its suite of web based applications, including the Bitrix Site Manager and the Bitrix Intranet Portal. The Next Generation security add-ons are additional layers of security features that mitigate web based threats and allow portal owners to freely host content and media on their portals, without any fear of security breach.

Part of the Proactive Protection module, these cutting-edge technical and organizational measures allow combating malicious programs that have either been identified or those that are still unknown.

The new module includes number of tools:

Web Application FireWall (Proactive Filter) protects the system from most known web attacks. The filter recognizes dangerous threats within incoming requests and blocks intrusions accordingly. The Proactive Filter is the most effective way to guard against possible security defects in any web project implementation (XSS, SQL Injection, PHP Including etc.)

One-time Password Technology (OTP) empowers the standard authorization scheme. It requires a physical hardware token such as Aladdin eToken PASS, ensuring that only the authorized have access to the administrator panel.

Security Panel with Security Levels allow choosing a security level appropriate for your web project. This ensures only relevant individuals have access to relevant parts of the portal.

Authorized Sessions Protection. Most web attacks are designed to steal an authorized user session data. However, Authorized Session Protection makes such session hijacking ineffective since they cannot access the browser session.

Activity Control protects from DDoS attacks and bots.

Intrusion Log. All events occurring in the system, including the unusual or malicious, are logged. This gives the administrator the power to discover attacks and intrusion attempts while they occur, so he can riposte immediately and prevent intrusion.

IP-based Control Panel pages. This type of protection strictly regulates secure networks from which the users are allowed to access control panel. By specifying restrictive IP ranges, only specific nodes in the network can access the control panel.

Stop Lists contain parameters used to restrict access to a site and possibly redirect to a specified page. Any visitor matching the stop list criteria (e.g. an IP address), will be blocked.

Script Integrity Monitor verifies script integrity for any changes. Only authorized script changes will be accepted.

Phishing Protection protects from scripts attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

The Proactive Protection module is included in all the edition of Bitrix Site Manager (except for Start) and Bitrix Intranet Portal.

You can test the new functionality online in the Bitrix Intranet Portal Virtual Lab and Bitrix Site Manager Virtual Lab or download the 30-day Trial versions of Bitrix Site Manager or Bitrix Intranet Portal.

Users with the copies of the software with active updates period can get all the updates through the SiteUpdate system for free.

 

Bitrix Intranet Portal Virtual Lab:
http://www.bitrixsoft.com/products/intranet/demo.php#tab-demo-link

Bitrix Site Manager Virtual Lab:
http://www.bitrixsoft.com/products/cms/demo.php#tab-demo-link

Bitrix Intranet Portal Trial:
http://www.bitrixsoft.com/products/intranet/demo.php#tab-trial-link

Bitrix Site Manager Trial:
http://www.bitrixsoft.com/products/cms/demo.php#tab-trial-link

Proactive Protection:
http://www.bitrixsoft.com/products/cms/features/proactive.php

 

About Bitrix
Bitrix, Inc. specializes in the development of content management systems and portal solutions for managing web projects and multifunctional information systems on the Internet. Bitrix specialists, by their considerable efforts and skill, developed the Bitrix Site Manager software—a standalone application that provides complex web solutions. This software tech-corp was established in 1998 by a group of IT specialists. Bitrix continues to hold a leading position in the web development market, always offering high-standard solutions to its clients and partners.

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Advertising, B2b, Contextual, Internet, News, Online, SEO, Services, Web, Web Marketing

Bigmouthmedia Extends Collaboration With Microsoft Germany

In the wake of a successful collaboration with Microsoft Germany, bigmouthmedia, Europe’s largest independent digital marketing agency, plan to extend the 2B-Found Project by offering a range of SEO tools to the software giant’s sales network. Providing a range of services to the manufacturer and its partners, the new framework will afford access to a set of analysis and optimisation modules designed to help members fine tune their websites for search engines.

bigmouthmedia

“Having worked with Microsoft for the last 18 months, we have developed a very strong relationship with them. It is the next logical step to extend our collaboration. We are very excited to be working more closely with Microsoft and look forward to developing 2B-Found further. For their part, Microsoft are pleased with the results and to have the recommendation of such a major software player is a fantastic endorsement,” said Lyndsay Menzies, Chief Operations Officer at bigmouthmedia.

The deal follows the success of bigmouthmedia’s search engine optimisation campaign promoting the Microsoft Dynamics brand across Germany. Since launching in early 2008 the team promoting the software manufacturer’s enterprise products has achieved rapid results, doubling the percentage of search engine traffic to the Dynamics site.

“These results have exceeded our expectations. Bigmouthmedia has quickly and clearly increased our traffic and the visibility of our Microsoft Dynamics brand, so we have therefore decided to expand our cooperation further and make the know-how of the company’s SEO experts available to our distribution partners”, said Antje Reichelt, Audience Marketing Manager at Microsoft Dynamics.

The Microsoft Dynamics brand is one of the world’s largest providers of enterprise software. Distributed through partners, its products are used by 300,000 corporate clients across the globe.

“Following our collaboration, Microsoft Dynamics is now showing a significantly greater proportion of prominent placements in search engine rankings. In just a few months we have been able to reach the first places in searched terms at Google for Microsoft’s most important keywords, a ten percent increase in comparison to its competitors,” said Isabell Wagner, Managing Director of bigmouthmedia Germany.

“We are pleased that project’s success means the continuation of our cooperation, which means that Microsoft’s partners will also now benefit from our services.”

About bigmouthmedia
Founded in 1997, bigmouthmedia is Europe’s largest independent digital marketing agency. With a team of over 200 staff located across 13 offices in 10 countries on 3 continents, the company maximises exposure for major brands online through a variety of fully integrated digital marketing channels: Search (SEO, PPC, Online Media Planning, Affiliate marketing, Social Networking, Brand Monitoring, Online PR and Web Analytics. Bigmouthmedia also provides up to date daily digital marketing news to ensure clients are fully informed and aware of all industry developments.

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B2b, Entertainment, Internet, Online, Services, Software, Web, Web 2.0, Web Design & Development, Web Images

Logo Design Made Easy With Laughingbird’s Popular Logo Creator Software

The impressive software suite, “The Logo Creator,” by Laughingbird Software (www.laughingbirdsoftware.com) allows people of all skill levels to design unique logos for their businesses. The logo maker software also lets business owners make page headers and buttons, and other design features needed for websites, corporate material, and more.

logo design

The Logo creator software offers an easy-to-use interface, and a large number of design options, perfect for corporate logos for small business ventures or the entrepreneur wanting to sell logos to interested clients. The logo package is affordably priced as well, allowing anyone to create eye-catching designs in a short amount of time. Its wide array of features and reasonable price have made The Logo Creator the #1 best selling logo maker on the Internet.

The Logo Creation Suite 5.0 includes logo software packages that can be purchased online and downloaded instantly. Each logo set can be used on its own, or in combination with another package to make the process of designing a logo, and other graphic elements, straightforward and quick.

The logo sets available include the Alphabet Logo Edition, Web 2.0 Logo Edition, Corporate Logo Creator, Entertainment Logo Edition, Mascot Logo Collection + Mascots2Go Collection, Sports Logo Edition, Real Estate Logo Edition, Travel Logo Edition, Church Logo Collection, and The Mega Pak Collection. Other products include the Business Card Creator, the Presentation Creator, the Ad Creator, the Web Graphics Creator, and the Avatar Creator.

The Corporate Logo Creator lets individuals create unique corporate logos for websites, blogs, and businesses. The package includes more than 80 professional templates ready to be personalized by adding custom images. Or use one of the 200 built in logo objects that come with the software to put together a logo, header, or button in a matter of minutes.

Essentially, the Logo Creator Corporate Logo Edition makes it possible to add as much or as little detail to the logo design as required. Business owners and webmasters can work at their own pace and build a logo that represents their company’s vision perfectly.

For more information about The Logo Creator, contact Laughingbird Software or visit http://www.thelogocreator.com.

About Laughingbird Software: Since launching in 1998, Laughingbird Software has been a top player in the realm of software and design. The Logo Creator Software is the company’s most popular product, receiving accolades from consumers and industry professionals across the globe. Laughingbird Software creates logo maker software products for small and large business owners, such as the Corporate logo creator, which makes it easyfor anyone to achieve professional results for an affordable price.

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B2b, Dedicated Servers, Domain Names, E-mail, Hosting, Internet, Secure Hosting, Services

Innovative New Reseller Platform By Fasthosts

Fasthosts Internet Ltd, a leading UK web host, has launched a brand new reseller platform for its UK reseller partners. The solution offers a highly effective platform for structuring and performing a reseller hosting operation.

Reseller Platform

The Fasthosts Reseller hosting package delivers access to a range of customisable web solutions including hosting, domains and email products at discounted reseller rates and features unlimited web space and bandwidth. Presently, new resellers will benefit from a 6 months free offer, allowing them to build their reseller business with no subscription costs. Fasthosts’ new platform sets a new standard in enabling resellers to develop a profitable business in this growing sector.

Reseller web hosting offers a highly profitable business opportunity for IT professionals and entrepreneurs. Resellers can combine re-branded white-label web solutions with their own services, such as web design, programming or IT advice, to create tailored services for niche markets. Users earn recurring profits on items they sell, can set their own price points and may charge for free elements such as unlimited web space, website traffic and email accounts.

Fasthosts’ new reseller platform provides a market-leading level of usability, transparency and control for a reseller. It also offers a high degree of freedom as resellers can create a customised package for each end customer, design and create their own range of packages or simply resell Fasthosts’ off-the-shelf packages. This flexibility means resellers can tailor their services closely to customers’ needs and remain competitive.

Fasthosts’ Reseller Control Panel has been re-engineered to reduce administration for resellers and improve efficiency. The custom branding tools enable resellers to customise their customers’ control panels, webmail and SiteBuilders.

Stephen Holford, Chief Marketing Officer, Fasthosts Internet said “We are focused on making sure our resellers can grow a successful and profitable business, even in this tough economic climate. Our service enables them to not only create their own brand, but also create their own packages. The new platform itself is designed to satisfy the technical needs of a demanding hosting provider and also inspire the complete beginner”.

Fasthosts’ philosophy is designed to free resellers to achieve the best possible business model, with both Linux and MS web hosting, a comprehensive range of domain name registrations and award winning MS Exchange email packages for resale. Other reseller web hosting providers can place limits on web space per end customer and levy expensive charges for bandwidth used. Fasthosts removes these risks with its unlimited web space and bandwidth. While resellers are free to make whatever charges they wish, Fasthosts’ resellers will never face their users being cut-off or unexpected charges from their provider.

In recent months, Fasthosts has promoted reseller hosting as a low risk and profitable way to develop an IT related enterprise. Recent research conducted by the company showed that 80 per cent of companies that begin to resell web hosting in addition to their regular products or services earn a profit from the practice within 1 year. By offering web solutions, many can bolster their revenues and prolong client relationships.

Holford added, “As a reseller hosting specialist, Fasthosts aims to deliver its resellers unrivalled support and innovation in equal measures”.

About Fasthosts
Fasthosts is the UK’s leading web hosting company. Based in the UK and operating 24×7 from their dedicated UK data centres, Fasthosts keeps over 1 million domains running smoothly and ensures over 6 million emails are delivered safely each day. All Fasthosts services can be self-managed through the award winning Fasthosts web-based control panel that provides customers with unparalleled online control, enabling them to manage hosted services including domain registrations, shared web hosting, business-class email, dedicated servers, software-as-a-service, internet merchant accounts and unlimited broadband. Fasthosts’ highly successful reseller channel has recently been rated Number 1 for reseller hosting by industry portal Web Host Directory.

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B2b, Internet, Online, Services, Web, Web Marketing

Using Web Copywriting To Attract The Right Customers

Good web copywriting can ensure that readers become loyal customers. However, it isn’t just about writing the reasons why your business is better than competitors. There is a lot of preparation to go which will help your writing speak to your readers in the most effective way.

web copywriting

This article will show you how you can create personas for potential clients, which are a useful tool on the road to creating copy which readers can relate to. By putting yourself in your customers’ shoes, you will find that effective web copywriting is easier.

When it comes to web copywriting, you have to ensure that you are using language that is appropriate for your audience.

This means before beginning your writing, you should spend some time identifying your main audience. You don’t need to survey your current customers – just a little common sense will come in handy.

To help make your writing really speak to the people that visit your site, you should try to develop identities for potential clients. Your clients will vary depending on your industry, so don’t be afraid to experiment with the personas you create.

For example, an online investment guide will be geared towards businesspeople with a secure amount of disposable income. You could develop an appropriate persona for a potential client by:

• Searching for pictures based on your client base. This could be anything, such as “businessman”, “sports fan”, “scientist” or “amateur cook”. The possibilities are endless.
• Thinking about your customers’ goals. Businessmen may want a healthy return on investment, while an amateur cook may want a healthy recipe using forgotten things from the back of the freezer.
• Judging your readers’ knowledge of the subject. If they are an amateur, a cook may be attempting a romantic meal for the first time and will need simple, step-by-step instructions. A scientist will obviously be able to cope with much more technical language and jargon.
• Filling in your example customers’ background. This could include giving them a name, age and short biography.

Once you have this information, print your profile along with the most appropriate picture. If you have this beside you as you write, you fill find your web copywriting becomes more geared towards the sort of client that is likely to become a loyal customer.

When you are writing, you should also ensure that you know what is most likely to impress your target audience.

Few people buy into unjustified claims and hype. Be sure to support what you say with testimonials from satisfied customers, as well as facts and figures to show the benefits of your business.

The tone of voice is also very important, and this will change depending on your audience when you are writing online. Whoever your customers are, they will be most likely to buy from a site that speaks to them in a way they can relate to.

Empathise with your readers, relate to them, and you will find you are attracting the customers you want.

For more information visit MediaCo (UK) Ltd’s web site at media.co.uk/copywriting/.

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B2b, Dedicated Servers, Domain Names, E-mail, Hosting, Internet, Secure Hosting, Services

Survey Finds 1 In 3 UK Businesses Have No Time To Improve Website

A new survey of 145 UK businesses by Fasthosts Internet Ltd, a leading web hosting company, has revealed that whilst 69% of firms realise certain aspects of their website may require attention, 32% repeatedly neglect making the changes in favour of spending the time on other aspects of the business.

Fasthosts Internet Ltd

According to the survey, the average small company rates their website at 6 out of 10 for effectiveness, but also aims to treble the income generated by their website during 2009. The research suggests a clear discrepancy between business owners’ online ambitions and how much time they currently invest.

As their shop window to the world, the majority of UK companies recognise that having a web presence is a vital aspect of modern business. However, 27% are unhappy with their website design and a further 25% are concerned that their website does not allow feature sufficient methods to communicate with customers. The research also showed that 1 in 10 businesses would like to replace their website entirely.

Whilst there are plenty of products and services on the market to help enhance business websites, 1 in 3 owners admit to being floored by a lack of time. During the first quarter of 2009, a further 32% of business owners repeatedly sidelined changes to their website. The figures are alarming in contrast to the tough targets the same businesses have set themselves for online activity this year. 71% aim to increase their overall visibility on the Web during 2009, while 55% aim to grow the size of their website and 22% intend to begin online advertising.

Currently, the average business earns 10% of its total sales revenue as a direct result of its website, but in 2009, businesses are hoping to increase this income to 21%-30% of total sales revenue.

Steve Holford, CMO Fasthosts Internet, said: “In challenging economic conditions, business owners are more stretched for time and resources than ever. However, it is important to remember that often the simplest improvements to a website can make a noticeable impact on sales conversion rates. Even a modest business website must receive regular attention to fulfil its potential.”

Fasthosts’ research suggests that UK businesses risk missing their online targets unless they can prioritise the work that their websites require. The issue is further supported by the fact that 26% of respondents admit that tough operating conditions has either already led or may lead them to cut-back on external consultants such as web designers or IT advisors.

As UK online spending continues to snowball, business owners clearly recognise the value in investing in an online presence. 94% believe that every size of enterprise should have a website, and 79% would not wish to go back to the days of solely off-line trading.

Holford added, “Businesses can often find the Internet to be as challenging as the high street. However, a big flashy website is not a prerequisite to achieving online sales growth. With a realistic online strategy and a consistent commitment of time and resource, every enterprise can better achieve their online potential this year.”

 

About Fasthosts
Fasthosts is the UK’s number one web hosting company. Based in the UK and operating 24×7 from their dedicated UK data centres, Fasthosts keeps over 1 million domains running smoothly and ensures over 6 million emails are delivered safely each day. All Fasthosts services can be self-managed through the award winning Fasthosts web-based control panel that provides customers with unparalleled online control, enabling them to manage hosted services including domain name registrations, shared web hosting, business-class email, dedicated servers, software-as-a-service, internet merchant accounts and unlimited broadband. Fasthosts’ highly successful reseller channel has recently been rated Number 1 for reseller hosting by industry portal Web Host Directory.

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Advertising, B2b, Contextual, Internet, News, Online, SEO, Services, Web, Web Marketing

Bigmouthmedia Reports That Further Changes Unveiled By Google To Its International Trademark Policy Could Cost The World’s Major Companies Millions In The Short Term As They Struggle To Protect Their Brands Online

While not unexpected, Google’s decision to allow anyone to bid for trademarked keywords in a total of 194 countries including Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Russia is widely predicted to lead to price rises in the markets affected. However, evidence from the UK – where the policy change was first rolled out in 2008 – indicates that while bidding on some brand terms could increase by as much as 500% in the short term, the impact is unlikely to be permanent.

“While dropping trademark protection didn’t send costs skyrocketing to the extent many feared in the UK, during the initial scramble to bid on competitor brand terms we saw cost-per-click (CPC) prices rise by an average of 400-500%. Those levels proved unsustainable in the long term however, and we would expect any spike in keyword prices to normalise within a matter of weeks, “said Lyndsay Menzies, Chief Operations Officer at bigmouthmedia.

“Our international offices have been working with such a system in the US and UK for years and we know how to deal with it, but the news is likely to precipitate changes in some international markets as brands move budgets about within digital channels to maximise return.”

Bringing the new territories into line with its North American and UK businesses, Google will now allow open keyword bidding on all terms in 194 countries worldwide. This means it is now possible for more than one advertiser to appear in the list of sponsored links that appears after a user has typed in a search query using a trademarked term.

Experience from the UK indicates that successful legal challenges to the rule changes seem unlikely, although commentators will note that Google has yet to relax restrictions in France, Italy or Germany, where copyright laws are particularly robust.

While bad news for major brands, the move is likely to be good news for smaller competitors looking to close the gap. The announcement is also likely to have a profound effect on all affiliate partners, with the ability to bid on competitor keywords greatly increasing the scope and range of their operations.

“While brands might be tempted to bid on competitor keywords in the newly opened markets, Google’s rules mean that while they are allowed to bid on brand terms they can’t use them in their advert copy, something that frequently results in a low quality score and a high average CPC. They are also likely to experience poor conversion rates, because the fact of the matter is that if a customer searches for a particular brand name, that’s the one they’re interesting in buying,” said Robin Richmond, bigmouthmedia’s Head of Pay Per Click (PPC).

“Google’s revised rules will add new layers of complexity to the search landscape though. Look at affiliate marketing and PPC: many brands restrict their affiliates from brand bidding but these policies may now need to be reviewed if they wish to protect their real estate from direct competitors.”

About bigmouthmedia 
Founded in 1997, bigmouthmedia is Europe’s largest independent digital marketing agency. With a team of over 200 staff across 12 offices in 10 countries, the company maximises exposure for major brands online through a variety of fully integrated digital marketing channels: PPC and search engine optimisation, Online Media Planning, Affiliate Marketing, Social Networking, Brand Monitoring, Online PR and Web Analytics. Bigmouthmedia also provides up to date daily digital marketing news to ensure clients are fully informed and aware of all industry developments.

Leading the digital marketing strategies of a third of the UK’s most trusted brands, bigmouthmedia services over 300 big-brand customers globally including: Hilton, British Airways, Tesco, Air Berlin, Barclays, Sky, British Telecom and Wall Street Institute.

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Advertising, B2b, Internet, News, Online, SEO, Services, Web, Web Marketing

Bigmouthmedia Has Been Named The UK’s Number 1 SEO And PPC Agency In The New Media Age Marketing Services Guide 2009

Widely regarded as the definitive guide to Britain’s digital marketing landscape, the NMA league table is ranked on income, with bigmouthmedia’s range of big brand client wins, cross-channel expertise and experienced management team cited as being key to the company’s industry-leading status.

“Like every industry the search sector has faced a lot of challenges recently, but despite difficult economic circumstances the blend of effectiveness and measurable ROI that online marketing provides is still proving a winning combination,” said Lyndsay Menzies, bigmouthmedia’s Group Chief Operations Officer.

“There are many factors behind our success, but the most important is the dedicated, skilled and passionate bigmouth team that underpins everything we do.”

Highlighting the international expertise offered by bigmouthmedia’s offices in the UK, US, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, France and Spain, New Media Age attributed the company’s success to an unequivocal impact on clients’ bottom lines: “The increased investment in search during the recession reflects the drum beaten by specialists and search pioneers over the past decade: that it’s an incredibly effective, cost-efficient and wholly trackable marketing discipline.”

Citing the latest available research, the guide’s editors expect to see further growth in the year ahead. According to the recently published 2009 UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report, half of Britain’s senior marketers are set to increase their online budgets over the next 12 months.

The 2009 guide pointed to bigmouthmedia’s retention of British Airways’ combined PPC and SEO campaign – together with winning both the Sky and Europcar accounts – as the highlights of another successful year for the UK business. Editors also noted the launch of the agency’s Online PR division and a raft of high profile executive appointments.

About bigmouthmedia 
Founded in 1997, bigmouthmedia is Europe’s largest independent digital marketing agency. With a team of over 200 staff located across 13 offices in 10 countries on 3 continents, the company maximises exposure for major brands online through a variety of fully integrated digital marketing channels: Search engine optimisation, PPC, Online Media Planning, Affiliate marketing, Social Networking, Brand Monitoring, Online PR and Web Analytics. Bigmouthmedia also provides up to date daily digital marketing news to ensure clients are fully informed and aware of all industry developments.

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