Lion’s Lair: And the winner is…
Yup, our first annual Lion’s Lair event is now over and I watched as did hundreds and hundreds of other Hamiltonians, as $100,000 was handed out to three lucky winners this past Wednesday evening at a huge gala at Carmen’s! And what a wonderful event it was! But who won, you ask?
The contest winners were intoduced by Dr. Nick Bontis of McMaster who used just about every bit of his boundless energy to talk up all the 10 finalists…and when he announced the winners the 500+ of the gala attendants were waiting with bated breath – and here’s the winners!
VeloCity Venture Fund – Apply Now!
If you read this blog, you will already know how much I LOVE the whole Velocity entrepeneur model up at the University of Waterloo.
So, I thought maybe that I should blog here today, that their current new round of funding window is closing this Friday…so you need to get on top of that right away!
Here’s the post from them on their own blog –
It’s the start of a new term here at VeloCity, and that means there’s a new round of funding available for uWaterloo student startups. Last term 18 fantastic teams competed in the VeloCity Venture Fund Competition for four chances at $25,000, mentorship, incorporation and office space. This term we’re upping the ante. Four funding opportunities, four incorporated companies, and space for four companies in our workspace at the VeloCity workspace in the Communitech Hub.
Before you apply, there are a few key things to consider:
- Only businesses with at least one founder a uWaterloo student (or less than 12 months since you graduated) can apply
- The current stage of your business is irrelevant. Applicants’ projects can range from idea to profitable business
- You do not have to be involved in tech to apply – any business idea is welcome
- This is not a loan – you will never have to pay us back! Just remember the little people when you’ve made it
- It’s not just about your idea/business. Team dynamics, personality, passion, and motivation all play a big part in scoring the $25,000 jackpot
- Current students, you must use the following term as an co-op term.
- Your applications must be in by September 16th at noon!
Bring you’re A-game uWaterloo, we’re only funding four companies if they prove themselves worthy!
And as usual, my final comments here are – are you listening McMaster??? – as this is a model that any university would be proud to follow, eh!
Online Marketing Program: 1.1.4 Images
Not all images are created equal.
The right image on a web page can capture attention, inform, and even persuade your site visitors to convert to become more than a lead….to become a client or customer.
The right image can communicate who you and your company are more quickly and powerfully than words alone can do.
The wrong image, however, can confuse, annoy, and even repel your visitors.
Google Buys Reviews via Zagat Buy!
Okay, so you’re thinking that if reviews are truly the “power” behind the successful Local Search rankings, then you need reviews and we’re talking quality and quantity, right? Right!
And looks like Google itself agrees with you, cause as of this morning, they just bought Zagat the well known, respected, review machine that’s been around for more than 30 years.
Online Marketing Program: 1.1.3 Content
Web content is the textual, visual or aural content that is encountered as part of the user experience on websites. It may include, among other things: text, images, sounds, videos and animations. In Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville write, “We define content broadly as ‘the stuff in your Web site. This may include documents, data, applications, e-services, images, audio and video files, personal Web pages, archived e-mail messages, and more. And we include future stuff as well as present stuff.”
2012 Search Marketing Report from MarketingSherpa is Out!
Yup….I’ve been awaiting this one now for a few weeks, as it usually comes out in full summer and after a quick read of the TOC, I’m not going to be disappointed again this year! Again, the firm is using almost a couple of thousand different agencies, company, firms and SMBs to track just what the whole search marketing channel is all about – and the numbers are surprising in some areas for sure, eh!
The superb marketing mavens over at MarketingSherpa have again published their annual 2012 Search Marketing Report and it’s the kind of item you need to read if any of the following questions might be of help to you…
Online Marketing Program: 1.1.2 Navigation
Continuing our new Online Marketing Strategy Program…so welcome and today we look at navigation — what is undoubtedly one of the most critical aspects of Web site design – and in my book, arguably the most important.
No matter how good a site looks, and no matter how much useful information it offers, if it doesn’t have a sensible navigation scheme, it will confuse visitors and chase them away.
Remember – users either think “easy” – or – they “vote with their feet and walk!”
Friday SEO PotPourri: Weekly ReCap of Great Items!
Okay, I will admit this right up front…with alligators all around us here in the SEO swamp, we’re trying to finish off some great online marketing tactics for various clients by month’s end…and we’re behind – just a bit, mind you…but our time to broach content on all things SEO wise today is limited!
That said….we did notice the following great pieces by acknowledged SEO practitioners online this week or so…and wanted to share….there’s been some great new strategies and tactics opened up out there…and this is our top three!
Online Marketing Program: Website Foundations ~ 1.1.1 – Usablity Testing
Okay, you’re working on your site design, and the navigation and how the user is expected to use the site looks pretty easy to use, right? Well, have you tested that user interaction?
Thought not….I’m always surprised at how many clients coming to us have not tested their own site at all. You or your web team developed the user interface, so you know how things work…so what’s the problem? Sigh…the problem is that you know the interface but your users don’t. And they’re the ones who NEED to know the navigation, the forms, the hierarchy….they need to intuitively grasp what needs to be understood to work their way through your site….to arrive at a buying decision…else the site – and all your hard work and effort and cash are lost!
A Website Audit: The Beginnings of an SEO Campaign
Every SEO worth her salt will tell you that any successful SEO campaign is based on the cornerstone of onpage optimization. However, when it comes to what onpage SEO techniques really work, there are 8 opinions for every 5 experts. When your business is at stake, you can’t just do something to optimize your site and hope that it works. You need to be completely confident that everything you do will help your rankings. Moreover, you need to be dead-sure, that you’ve done every single thing on the SEO checklist and your website is optimized across the board.
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