Here is a great clip I just caught from Boxcar Marketing blog showing Monique Trottier talking about eMail Marketing newsletters. In the 9-minute segment Monique shares with Leo her top tips for creating an effective email newsletter. And she knows what she’s talking about because she’s the force behind the Underwire newsletter: full support for non-techies. The clip was shot as part of the Lab With Leo Show:

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English translation will follow.

L’agence de marketing electronique Skooiz de Montréal rapporte sur son blogue une histoire asser invraisemblable. En effet, le chirurgien plastique français, vient d’être radié de l’ordre des médecins pour cause de « détournement de clientèle ». Le docteur en question mettait les noms de ces confrères médecins dans les balises Meta de son site web, technique qui lui permettait de ressortir en très bonnes positions sur les moteurs de recherche.

Si vous prévoyez utiliser cette technique pour attirer du traffic de vos competiteurs sur votre site, vous savez maintenant ce qui vous attend.

The Montreal Search Marketing agency Skooiz reports on its blog a very interesting story. A French doctor, has just been banned from his Doctor accreditation association because he was using his competitors search terms in the Meta tags (meta description & meta keywords tags). He was accused of directing clients to his website that were not rightfully his. If you were thinking about using this technique, known as Spamindexing, to drive more traffic to your site, be careful about what could happen.

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It is with great pleasure and excitement that I announce a new Search Engine Marketing project with DiamondsWest.com to sell their discounted diamonds & engagement rings in the Vancouver area. As part of my role, I will be working closely with Niel “Diamonds” Westman, owner of DiamondsWest.com and diamonds expert.

If you are looking for the best prices for diamonds & engagement rings, look no further and visit DiamondsWest.com today. If you want more information about diamonds or exquisite engagement rings, please contact Niel Westman at . 

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Boris Mann

Boris is a great man. Last weekend, while he was part of the stellar organizing committee of Northern Voice Conference 2008 on Personal Blogging, he celebrated his birthday. Of course we sang happy birthday, although I must admit, all these personal bloggers gathered for the occasion are better in blogging than singing. Nevertheless, we all appreciated the intense presence of Boris during the conference. He is so generous of his knowledge of everything that happens online. A quick get together with him and you will see that his passion is contagious. You will want to do more online just because he said so.

I had the pleasure you celebrate my last birthday with him. Boris was kind enough to give me the best gift an SEO guy can ask for: a Link. Of course I would do the same for you bud. You know how much I like you. So for those who are wondering what Boris does, please take a look at Boris Mann Consulting Services: Vancouver Internet Marketing Expert, Social Media Blogger, Drupal Specialist & Entrepreneur. Is this link love or what? You can also find a lot on his personal & professional blog about Social Software, VoIP, Home Networking, Web Development and Mac related items. Please let me know how much you like the packaging of your birthday gift. I could do a little more wrapping if you like. Enjoy responsibly.

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For those who were wondering, Le National won against CFOX last Thursday, February 14. 7-1 was the final score although I heard it was not reported as such on the air of CFOX the next morning. It does not really matter because the point of the hockey game was to give money to BC Children’s Hospital. As such, we are proud to report that the collective personal donations from the francophone community was $1,880. That’s the actual number that should be remembered. We will do better next year. Une image vaut mille mots:

Le National: Winner against the Mighty Fox (CFOX) on February 14, 2008

Here is the link to all the pictures of Le National de Vancouver French hockey team.

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The Molson Canadian CFOX Hockey Club plays LE NATIONAL, Vancouver’s French community hockey team Tonight, February 14! What better way to celebrates Valentines day but to give some money to the kids. All proceeds from ticket sales go to raise money for the BC Children’s Hospital Oncology Unit. We are asking for a minimum $10 donation for this great cause (note that a tax receipt requires a minimum $20 dollar donation)

Get there early to mingle with the crowd and be entertained!!! The PUCK DROPS at 8:15pm.

Le National: Vancouver French Hockey Team

Here is the address:
Canlan Ice Sports North Vancouver
2411 Mount Seymour Parkway

Contact Karl or Alex for more details if you want to attend.
Karl - 604.551.7437
Alex - 778.371.9988

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It is Valentines day and for the occasion, James, chief punk of Adhack, created a little assignment for his alphanauts (those are the people part of this secret society) to come up with an ad that reflects romance, sex or both.

The DIY (Do It Yourself) ads came in quite fast so here they are:

** Chocolate Love:
http://adhack2.com/public/detail/2444-1177
** M & Ms Valentine’s Ad --
http://adhack2.com/public/detail/2443-1177
** Potted Love --
http://adhack2.com/public/detail/1952-1177

Have a favourite? Share it! Email a link. Show it to friends. Blog it. Add it to your Facebook / MySpace page. StumbleUpon it. Digg it. Let the world know!

But now, Adhack is opening this up to even more lovers. Yes, that is right! Adhack is opening the gates to Adhack Alpha. Therefore, if you are in love, or think love is a good thing, here is what you can do:

1 - Invite friends to join Adhack. We’ve created a welcome page so they get the skinny: http://adhack2.com/public/welcome

2 - Make an ad. We’re getting more interest all the time. So we’re going public. Nuts to this ‘private alpha’ business. We’ll rock with what we got.

And public means we’ll be selling the ads. You may make some scratch. You may earn glory. You’ll only know if you make an ad.

3 - Official AdHack Materials, like a Press Release, below, if you need to describe AdHack to anyone.

Have any other suggestions? Contact James at

Here is some more about Valentines day, Chocolate, Sex and everything in between:
Chocolates and Sex in Valentine’s Day Advertising
(http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/2/prweb699003.htm)

Chocolates for your love on Valentine’s Day? Some people say chocolate is an aphrodisiac. But according to research, 6 out of 10 women prefer chocolates to sex. Can this be true? AdHack, a community of designers, photographers and creators, is spicing things up this Valentine’s Day with a racy advertising for chocolate lovers.

Vancouver, BC (PRWEB) February 14, 2008—Chocolates for your love on Valentine’s Day? Some people say chocolate is an aphrodisiac. But according to research, 6 out of 10 women prefer chocolates to sex. Can this be true?

Perhaps the Scots know best. According to the Scotsman, they prefer sex over chocolate.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features/Sex-and-the-Scottish.3766459.jp

Is it because European advertising is sexier than North American advertising?

If Valentine’s is about love, romance and feeling sexy, why are the advertisements so boring?

Love is never boring.

That’s why the AdHack community decided to spice things up this Valentine’s Day.
AdHack is a community of designers, photographers and creators who are pushing the advertising envelope.

Have a look at the “Chocolate Love” ad created by AdHack member Giant Ant Media.
http://adhack2.com/public/detail/2444-1177

The Assignment:
Create an ad for the best romance item ever received.

The Chocolate Love Ad Concept:
Giant Ant Media says “Pretty simple. We wanted to make a connection between chocolate and romance, and chocolate as an aphrodisiac but without using people. By using the chocolates, the video is still racy, which we wanted, but not crude and still retains a ‘cuteness’ about it. This video could work as an ad for a chocolate company (Purdy’s/Lindt), or even for a brand that sells ‘romantic’ goods (Oh My/Kama Sutra).”

“Chocolate Love” is a short, stop-motion animation, shot on a light box. 367 Frames.

See for yourself: “Chocolate Love” ad by Giant Ant Media
http://adhack.com/chocolate-love-on-valentines-day/

About AdHack
AdHack is a web-based marketplace for advertising creative. Anyone can create an ad. Anyone can buy an ad. AdHack acts like an eBay for ad creative, connecting ad buyers and ad creators. Learn more on the public site at http://www.adhack.com

AdHack is currently in a private alpha rollout. For more information contact James Sherrett: 604-788-1502 or

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I am proud to announce the start of a new project for eMarketing 101 that we call QuickLearn (the site is coming). QuickLearn is a training series for business professionals to bring them up to speed in all areas of Internet Marketing. We bring you straight to the point of what you need to know so you can implement sound web strategies with confidence. The first seminar is this month on February 19 in the evening and I hope you can make it. It will be all about Search Marketing 101 and how to drive more traffic to your site. I will be the speaker so listen up. Here is more info about it:

Do you want to attract more visitors to your website? (Of course you do!)

Register Online for the QuickLearn business training series: Search Marketing 101.

Search Marketing 101
Presented by Alexandre Brabant of eMarketing101
Hosted by Monique Trottier of Boxcar Marketing

When:
Tuesday, February 19
6:30-8:30 pm
at Boxcar Marketing offices, suite 302, 70 East 2nd Ave.
(corner of Main and Quebec)

How Much?
Cost: $120

Search marketing is one of the cheapest, most cost-effective ways to promote your company and drive qualified leads to your website. Most people find search engines to be a mystery. How do I get my website to rank higher in search listings for key phrases related to my business, products or services? Should I consider paying for advertising placement on search engines?

Effective search marketing and optimization is the key component to any successful online presence. If you are unsure of how search works, how to integrate search into your existing promotional campaigns, or why search is important to your business--this is the session for you.

Register Online Today!

For more information or to register in person, contact Monique Trottier at:
(778) 837-9012 or

Feel free to pass around. Thanks!

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In my true 101 style, I want to recommend a new book for everyone that just started in the area of blogging. The release of the book, Blogging for Dummies, coincide this month with a blogging event this month (Northern Voice) on Feb 22-23 which you should attend if you want to know more about blogging.

New to blogs? Check out Blogging for Dummies, 2nd Edition.

Susannah Gardner of Hop Studios and Shane Birley of Left Right Minds are the authors of Blogging for Dummies, 2nd Edition (published by Wiley).

I know Susie personally since she is the one who has worked on my website. As such, I am especially delighted to know that they have used my site as an example in the book of what a “dummy” (yes, that would be me) can accomplish with little supervision. What can I do without my geek friends? Therefore, besides the fact that they are my friends, I would recommend this book regardless. (I did not read it yet)

Here is some more info about the book from Monique of Boxcar Marketing:
Susannah and Shane offer expert tips for new bloggers and bloggers looking for ideas and resources on improving their blog. The book includes explanations in plain English, quick information for techies and non-techies, tear-out cheat sheets and top 10 lists.

Blogging for Dummies, 2nd Edition is a great resource book for business and personal bloggers.

What’s the promise?
Discover how to create and maintain visitors to your blog, protect your privacy and your job, deal with spam and inappropriate comments, find your voice, and use your blog to promote your business.

Check it out for yourself and start blogging. It is addictive.

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It is with great pleasure and excitement that I announce that my plan to start teaching Search Engine Marketing locally is progressing. Recently, the Masters Of Digital Media Program of the Great Northern Way Campus in Vancouver has decided to hire me to teach their students how to build a Search Marketing plan for the school and the program as part of their curriculum.

Megan Cole has introduced me to the directors of the masters of digital media program and so far, I have taught the students how to build a cost efficient Pay Per Click (PPC) program. The students put all the pieces together which does facilitate the process. I will keep you posted on how well they progress in the next few weeks. If you want to know more about Masters of Digital Media Program in Vancouver (BC) Canada, please communicate with Megan Cole at Megan{at}MeganCole{dot}org or visit their website.

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According to anecdotal evidence, there is a lack of workshops and training sessions in Vancouver (BC) Canada dedicated to getting business professionals up to speed on different aspects of online marketing. As such, Monique Trottier from Boxcar Marketing and myself have prepared a survey to know more about what you think such an training program should include and when it should take place. As a result, please take a minute to answer the survey. We can’t wait to hear your feedback.

Here is the link to the survey.

About QuickLearn
QuickLearn is for business professionals looking to hone their skills, or get up to date quickly, on online marketing.

We are offering 2-hour sessions for small groups of 5-10 participants.

Each session will focus on a specific aspect of online marketing, for example, Get Started with Search Marketing, Get Started with Business Blogging, Understanding Web Stats, Improve Your Website Design, and Attract More Visitors.

If you are interested in QuickLearn, take our survey.
Click Here to take survey

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Here is a great clip I just caught from Boxcar Marketing blog showing James Sherrett talking about Boxcar Marketing’ personal technologist service. It was shot as part of the Lab with Leo show.

James Sherrett on Lab with Leo Show

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Cossette Communications Group and Cossette Media Vancouver announced recently that Omar Al-Hajjar has joined the company as director of search marketing for the Vancouver (BC) Canada office. His responsibilities will include managing and developing search marketing campaigns for national and BC-based clients while “evangelizing” search marketing throughout the Cossette group of companies.

With a strong track record in search engine optimization (SEO), Al-Hajjar’s background includes helping companies in the financial, entertainment and software industries deliver successful pay-per-click marketing campaigns. His most recent position was director of online operations and marketing at MogoMoney.com, where he was responsible for a $3.5-million annual internet lending portfolio that achieved double-digit growth in under a year.

“This was a very difficult position to fill,” says Tim Monaghan, VP Media Director for Cossette Media. “We wanted to ensure that the successful candidate had the expertise demanded by our clients, and matched the values and culture of Cossette Media.”

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For those who are curious about this question, here is the answer to the number of employees at Google as of December 31, 2007. This information was released at the same time that Google Announced Fourth Quarter And Fiscal Year 2007 Results.

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Compete.com is a new Web Analytics tool that I really like which allows you to measure your competitors traffic. Until recently though, I was not aware of its limitations for Canadian websites. I think you will be as disappointed as I am to learn that compete.com is not capable of evaluating site’s traffic for multi-level domains, such as .bc.ca or qc.ca, which we are all familiar with in Canada. I have also been informed from a Company rep that the tool only tracks traffic from U.S. internet browser population, which is also a major drawback.

Therefore, if you try to assess a Canadian site’s traffic with most of the traffic naturally coming Canada, the results might be distorted. Apparently, they are aware of the issue of reporting on multi-level domains and they are working towards a solution. I am hoping they will include Canadian users population in the next version as well. Don’t you worry, I will keep you in the loop as soon as I hear more about it.

Here is an international example between HelloBC.com and BonjourQuebec.com, 2 similar sites in scope and purpose

More on Compete.com
Compete.com allows you to compare your site’s traffic against your competitors. Get competitive metrics (ie. traffic) for every site on the web - powered by the largest pool of online consumer behavior data in the industry (but no Canadian). Compete.com considers themselves the best in the industry.

For more information on Compete.com, please contact Andy Kazeniac:

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