Just uploaded a new video I produced for www.joinafranchise.com

In Abbotsford BC and my Daughter in Law, Rebecca, invited me to visit the Neat Freakz Vacuum and Kitchen supply store in the heart of Downtown. I met with the owner, Remco, and we discussed his success in Abbotsford and his loyal following of vacuum system clients as well as the kitchenware and cooking classes. Cooking classes? yes, they invites chefs and local ‘foodies’ to come in a fully functional, interactive, kitchen to learn from some of the best local chefs. Great idea and is really popular. Sometimes they sell out within a day of the announcement of the event!

Remco would like to take Neat Freakz and it’s concept to the next level, so I have been asked to help them grow their online presence and gain a new loyal following.

I look forward to the challenge and to the future success of Neat Freakz.

Kind Regards,

Larry J Clark

Had the privilege of meeting with the principles, Bruce and Gaius,  yesterday at Action Furnace here in Calgary. They have an excellent reputation in the Calgary area for furnace repairs and replacement and are looking at developing a new presence for the Calgary hot water heater division.

In a very competitive market in plumbing and heating in Calgary, Action Furnace asked if Websmart can develop a new online presence to increase their reach in the marketplace and we will be creating a new site, video campaign as well as other strategies to help Action dominate on search engines.

We look forward to working with Bruce and Gaius and I know they will be the next ‘big’ player in the Calgary hot water tank repair and replacement market.

A nice to know fact is that Action Furnace has a “Free Furnace Friday” every year and gives away 10 or so new furnaces to needy Alberta residents who would not otherwise be able to afford them. Now that is integrity!

Give Action Furnace a call to discuss your furnace or hot water needs at 403-288-4004

Kind Regards,

Larry J Clark

Just completed two new video’s for clients here in Calgary.

This one was for the new site www.calgarystampederodeo.com which caters to Calgary Corporate Events with authentic “Rodeo” theme including bull riding! Girletz Ranch has over 100 years of history!

Click on the image below to see the video!

Below is the video which we did for Courtyard Landscape in Calgary. Overview of Company’s services including landscape construction, lawn maintenance, retaining walls and patios, landscape design, irrigation and snow removal. Ray (owner) is a great guy and does a outstanding job for his clients. Here is the new video:

Click on the image below to see the video!

Allow Websmart to produce your next Corporate video and promote it online!

Kind Regards,

Larry J Clark

A client sent me an article he found online that stated that as of Thursday last week, Google has announced they had changed their algorithms to penalize “content mills” that have been operating for past 3-5 years. What is a content mill? Basically it is Companies online that make money from ad’s so they hire free-lance writers and overseas companies/people to write quick articles with little or no substance, and blast the content onto the internet to try and control placement on search engines.

Google really was the own worst enemy as Google was the one to announce years ago that they were going to reward people who post ‘quality content’ . Well as you can imagine, companies and individuals found ways to circumvent the system and put duplicate and useless content online tagged with keywords to manipulate searches. Google makes money from ad’s. So it really needs it’s customers to have a pleasant search experience online and find relevant and quality content on what they are searching for. Why Google made the change was, they were getting numerous complaints that ‘customers’ were clicking on first page results on Google only to find pages of useless content and numerous ad’s.

As someone who emphases to my clients…good quality content rich websites that has relevant information for searchers, this is a real blessing. No more trying to compete with ‘writing mills’ . I also tell my clients that you need to do NEW content every month to stay on top of searches and so that Google can see that you are serious about your online business and care about providing useful information for people to find.

Good for Google. They are listening.

Kind Regards,

Larry J Clark

Had a great meeting yesterday with my new client, Panorama Hills Animal Hospital.

In this very competitive world, getting your Veterinary Clinic established and found online can be a daunting task. Dr. Khaira and his staff is dedicated to providing quality animal care for his clients in North Calgary and has an excellent facility in the North West in Panorama Hills. Dr. Khaira specializes in laser surgery and laser rehabilitation for all his animal patients which accelerates healing time and is less invasive that tradition surgery methods.

I have met all of his staff and they are great people and highly trained. I look forward to working closely with them all in the next few weeks and helping them establish their online presence.

Panorama Hills Animal Hospital is located at Unit 410- 1110 Panatella Blvd. NW Calgary and their main number is 403-277-9111

Visit them today!

Larry J Clark

Did my second visit to DaDe Art and Design Gallery today but this time it was to sit down with the owners, Darcy and Greg, and discuss their marketing and online presence.

If you have not had the pleasure yet of stepping into the Gallery, you are missing out on a Calgary treasure. DaDe ( pronounced DADE like Dade County) is located in the heart of Inglewood in a converted auto garage that has been updated with new glass roll doors and sleek loft appeal finish. The real visual is the art and furniture. Everything from antique to modern including the ‘hip’ bullfrog brand furniture which is an exclusive of DaDe. I also appreciated that Darcy and Greg feature select Calgary artists and their works in the Gallery and host receptions for them as well. Address is 1327 9 Ave. S.E.

I will be helping them with their online presence as well as expanding their marketing reach within Calgary and beyond. DaDe is much a well kept secret and now need to be exposed to the world. Look forward to working with them both.

Kind Regards,

Larry J Clark

There are really only 2 competitors out there when it comes to free online classified ad’s for the most exposure. I have been using both for quite awhile now and I will explain the what the benefits of each is as well as the downfalls. Here we go…

Craigslist is the most established of the two and is is independently owned, so is not overly ad driven or does not have the annoying ‘feature ad’s’ that are on Kijiji. Craigslist also has more categories in which to target your ad’s to your prospective clients. Both Craigslist and Kijiji are Geographical meaning they are set up for specific regions and Cities so ad’s can be added to your specific area or Region. Great for the garage sale items! The downfall of Craigslist is the erotic section still available in Canada, you cannot pay for a better position, you cannot renew your ad for 48 hours (depending on how many people post in your category, your ad could be on page 4-5 in no time), and that they allow people to ‘flag’ your ad if they feel it has been mis-categorized. This just happened to me where I had actually posted business products for sale in the Business category and someone flagged them ALL! Yup, gone within minutes. Craigslist will not respond if you complain that your legitimate ads are flagged, so you have to deal with the people who have nothing else to do but flag ads. More about this when I conclude.

Kijiji on the other hand has some great features. One, it is very popular and I have had great results for selling domains. Kijiji also has a ‘hit’ count on the bottom of your ad so you can see how many people have clicked on your ad. Great for research as well as you can look at other ads or products and see what people are interested in based in ‘hits’ to the ad. Kijiji is owned by Google so it is ad driven. The good news is that it offers the poster a free ad, or the the opportunity to purchase a “position” in a category. For as little as $1.99, you can ‘bump up’ your ad on the page so it doesn’t disappear down the pages. With ad’s being a revenue stream for Google, allot of ads on one page is annoying. Kijiji allows you to delete and re-post your add at any time but the downside is you will spend time doing this frequently as it has a tenancy to drop your ad quickly due to the amount of people posting. I guess this is good for Google as they get more people to buy positions. I have been testing this lately and will post my results in a subsequent post.

Let me conclude with my personal opinion…I am loosing patience with Craigslist for their lack of concern for over zealous ‘flaggers’ who are bored and flag ads for removal, even of they are legitimate. Not sure how to fix this but it makes me not want to spend time posting ads. If Craigslist allowed paid ad’s like Kijiji, this could be eliminated. Spam is an issue with Craigslist as well and they will check your ad to make sure you do not have a live email address in your post as spammers will get you! Not an issue with Kijiji so much. So, I will lean more to Kijiji and it’s features as it is all about getting results for your efforts and so far, Kijiji win hands down

To your selling success,
Larry J Clark

I took the time to drive out to Bragg Creek yesterday to meet with Shana Kirton, owner of the Mr. Buho Sportswear and Active wear store. What a great little store! Located right at the four corners of Bragg Creek, it is a great spot. Stocked full of affordable leisure and warm weather clothing, the selection was outstanding. Quality pre-washed cotton this stuff rivaled what I was paying over a $100.00 for at half the cost!!  The Mr. Buho line was developed in Mexico and is very popular in the Riviera Maya Region.

Was I there to shop…nope. I was there to meet with Shana and discuss their online presence on their new website www.mrbuhostore.com

I wanted to discuss where they are now with their website and goals and where they wanted to go. There is huge potential for them not only selling the clothing online but also in Franchising their model. I have some great ideas that I will share with them next week and I know I can help them get to the next level of success.

Take the time to take the drive out to Bragg Creek…you won’t be disappointed.

Kind Regards,

Larry J Clark

I review allot of websites and web pages, and I always get asked” what do you think?” I usually do have a first impression of the design, graphics etc. but inevitably comes down to does the website convert? That is the operative question.

Conversion basically means that once a potential customer is viewing your site, are they doing what you are asked them to do. What I mean by that is, every website MUST have a ‘call to action’ where you are asking this potential client to do something. You may want them to sign up for a newsletter, special offer or just contact you for more information. You may just want to qualify that person by sending them deeper into your website to more detailed pages targeted at your client demographic. Here are some ‘call to action’ conversion goals:

1. Tell your viewer to click on a button (contact us, go here, get this)

2. Have video on your index (main site page) for viewer retention and at the end of the video, direct them to a page that has an offer or more specific information.

3. Lead the potential customer through a process that makes them go deeper in your site to eventually see an offer to buy or call you.

4. Envision your website like a funnel, where you have general information on your main page and get more into detail and qualifying the further the prospect goes.

5. ALWAYS have contact now information on every page of your website and make it easy for your your viewers. A email link button, simple contact form with minimal effort required to fill it out, and/or a phone number.

You can have the best looking site on the web, but if that website does not convert viewers to customers, all you have is an expensive business card.

To your conversion success…

Larry J Clark
www.websmartsolutions.com