Take that, Undergrad.

By in Rants

Well it was a long battle – 6 years to be exact – but I have just finished writing the last exam of my undergrad. I couldn’t have asked for a better exam to end it with – or a better day for that matter considering it was warmer today than it has been all Spring. I will be graduating on May 26 with my BComm with majors in Marketing Management and Marketing Logistics.

So what’s next you ask?

I am spending the summer in Halifax before moving to London, Ontario and working with [insert any company name that wants to hire me in London (email me if you're reading this, potential employer)]. Now that I am entering the “real world” I will also be developing some ideas that have been in the works for far too long. Exciting times are definitely ahead.

Naturally, I’ll be roaming the world of the internet more now that I’m not stuck studying, so expect some more blogging, a new design, and much more interesting content.

Read full story · Comments { 3 }

Blog

By in Rants

It seems you are looking for my blog.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Survived another round

By in Rants

The second round of the 3rd annual trumped competition came to an end yesterday, with 8 of the original 47 teams advancing on to the final round.

This final round is sponsored by Molson Canadian and will see the eight teams design a series of events, promotions, and the Molson rock tent activities for the Halifax Rocks concert this summer.

Should be a good one.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Need your help!

By in Rants

You may or may not know but I am competing in the 2009 Trumped Competition hosted by Saint Mary’s University. It saw 47 teams compete through the first round in which our team raised over $1,300 in two weeks for the Canadian Cancer society through a variety of methods.

Only 24 teams are left competing in the second round which has everyone creating an advertising campaign for Pinky’s Ice Cream. Our task was to develop a campaign with a billboard and radio ad, targeted at 15-25 year old Haligonians. We are still developing our radio ad but we your help (and vote!) for our billboard.

20% of our mark for the competition comes from people voting for our billboard. So please, take some time to visit the voting page here: http://www.pinkys.ca/trumped/ and vote for Team 2.

As soon as our website (www.whatsyourflavour.ca) and radio ad is done you can check our the ad on the website. But for now we need your votes for our billboard.

Help us win this competition. Vote now! for Team 2.

Thanks.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Debating on a small business? – don’t turn your passion into work

By in Online Business

You hear so many people say it. Take what you’re passionate about and turn it into a business.

Don’t listen to them.

If you’ve already done it, it probably won’t take you long to realize how quickly that passion disappears.

I’m not saying don’t be passionate about your work, or don’t start up a job around something you’re good at and enjoy doing. There are great benefits to loving your work, especially if it involves a 40 hour per week commitment.

What I am saying is that if you decide to start a small business to supplement your income, don’t turn your passion into that business.

For example:

You love kayaking, and are good at it. You do it almost year round to relax and escape. It’s something you can count on being there to make you feel good and relieve any stress you may have. Naturally, when you’re debating on what type of small business to start, the first thing that pops into your head is something involving kayaking. Not only that, but when you ask the local small business center, they even recommend it as a good idea.

Avoid this temptation. There are a couple reasons I say this. Firstly, you are narrow minded when it comes to running your passion-business. It doesn’t matter what the market research shows, or what people tell you; because it’s your passion, you will always think there’s a need for the product or service you’re offering, even when it might not be worth your time. If there’s only enough customer base to break even, or worse lose some money – back the hell up. Remember that the goal of this small business was to supplement your income, not to show people that you’re a good kayaker. Lets be honest, they don’t care.

Secondly, – and I think more importantly – you’ll lose your passion. You’ve now associated the one thing that gives you total relaxation and allows you to escape all your stress, with work. Oops, that sucks. I guarantee you it won’t take long before you become unmotivated with the business, and even start to become frustrated with kayaking in general. Even if you do manage to continue to enjoy kayaking, every time you hit the sea in your kayak, you’ll be thinking about all the things that “need” to be done. It will no longer be an escape. Now you’re stuck without a passion – that is, something you love doing outside of work.

It’s important not to lose focus on the reason you are starting the small business – to supplement (and perhaps replace?) your income. Do something that makes money. Don’t destroy your passion.

More to come on how to pick a good small business idea in a future post.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Separation of life, work, and school

By in Personal Development

It’s tough. Especially for those who decide to work part time throughout university. But it’s so important if you want to actually succeed in all three.

I have a few tips that I’ve found helpful for balancing the three.

Separate email. Use a different email for work, school, and personal. This can easily be done by using your school’s email address for school, your work email for work, and picking up a gmail account for personal use. Also, check these separately or you’re defeating the point of having them separate. If you’re setting aside a day to study, don’t be tempted to check your work or personal email. Your midterm is your first priority that day, mom and the boss can wait.

Don’t use your room to study or work. Your room is your sanctuary, use it for personal reasons only – a place to sleep, unwind, read for pleasure, have sex, listen to music, etc. Don’t bring work or school into your room. This is extremely hard for most people, especially students who have their desk set up in their rooms. Lets be honest, grabbing that Advanced Physics book and trying to study for your midterm while laying in bed will not only prove unsuccessful, but it will also take away from the quality of your sleep. The same goes for working long hours on the desk beside your bed, and then trying to roll into bed and fall asleep, you’ve created a work atmosphere in your room that’s going to take away from the quality of your sleep.

Lastly, take 5 minutes the night before and identify the three most important tasks for the next day. It doesn’t matter if they are personal, work, or school related, just write these tasks down on a small piece of paper. Circle the most important task – the one that if you got nothing else done that day except that task you would feel you had a successful day. Make this task the first thing you do when you wake up. It could be calling regarding apartment rentals, writing your ethics paper, or taking care of an important customer inquiry.

These are just a few things to help with the separation. I’ve been very much following Timothy Ferriss on lifestyle design, and I recommend both his book and blog to those who are looking at becoming a little more effective and efficient.

Read full story · Comments { 2 }

It’s a good time to be young…

By in Rants

On Friday, it finally happened. I was directly affected by the loosening economy. It skewed my well crafted vision for next year and I’m pretty sure a few more grey hairs popped out. I was stressed. For a day.

I’m young and finishing University. I don’t have a debt (other than that life-long, trip-a-year debt to my parents to pay them back). My money (what money?) isn’t tied up in the volatile market. I don’t have dependents that are tying me to a certain location or time.

Essentially the only influences on me are the positive ones I love and choose to be there.

So with resume in hand and opportunity in mind I wrap up my final term at Dal and get ready for next year. To all other students out there in the same situation: Don’t listen to the media. Don’t sweat the economy, it’s an opportunity for you.

Read full story · Comments { 2 }

The TLD debate: .com vs .ca

By in Online Business

EDIT: I have since wrote a much more in depth post about choosing a domain name that talks about everything you will need to know, such as exact match domains, branding strategy, and the infamous TLD debate. Check it out here.

—

Since I’ve started taking an interest and consulting in the internet marketing and search engine optimization industry a common question I’m asked is whether to purchase a .ca or a .com domain name for a business.

No doubt that the choice you make with your domain name is important for marketing your business online. When it comes to choosing a TLD (Top Level Domain: .ca, .com, etc.) many people run into the issue of availability: mycompany.com is taken, should I register the .ca, or find another .com? What effects does this have in my search engine results?

As you may have noticed when you visit google.com it usually forwards you to google.ca. So you must know who your market is. Are you offering a product or service only to Canada? Only to the US? What if you want to market your product and service to both Canada and the US?

From my experience I’ve noticed three things that determine whether or not you are displayed in the country-specific google pages and how google weighs your site for each page.

Firstly, your TLD. Naturally, a .ca domain will appear in the google.ca search results, while a .co.uk will appear in the google.co.uk, and a .com/.net will appear in the google.com results.

Next, where your website is hosted plays a part as well. If your domain is hosted on a Canadian IP address, it will appear in the Canadian results, same goes for American hosted sites showing in google.com.

Finally, your company address listed on your website. If you have your company address listed on a contact page on your website this seems to play a part in where it gets displayed.

So, taking my site – www.websavers.ca – as an example. We can look at the keyword “shoutcast hosting” for 3 google search pages.

1. Canada Search Results:

The Canadian (google.ca) page displays our result as #2 – given more weight because of its .ca and less competition for keyword in the google.ca search results. (Note #1 is a .com but lists a Canadian address in their contact info)

2. America Search Results:

The American (google.com) page displays our result as #21 – given weight due to the fact that the site is hosted in the US, but with more keyword competition.

3. UK Search Results:

The UK (google.co.uk) page displays our result as #97 – weighted very low due to tld, no UK address and not being hosted in the UK.

As always, these are just my conclusions from experience, and an examples. Google is a mysterious being and you can’t guarantee much when it comes to search marketing.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Happy Holidays

By in Rants

It’s been far too long since I’ve been active online, so I will take a moment to wish all a Happy Boxing Day, and 5th day of Hannuakkah. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day, and that Santa treated you well.

We spent a portion of the day keeping my little brother company at work – from noon until five. For those who know what our usual Christmas Day is like could only imagine the length of time it took us to complete.

Side Note: I’m writing this post on my new Aluminum Macbook. Sexy it is – but more to come on that later.

Happy Holidays!

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Mountain Dew Commercial

By in Rants

If you’re looking for a bit of humour during exams:

I’m not a fan of Mountain Dew, but this made me want to go out and give it another shot.

Read full story · Comments { 1 }