Feed items
Welcome back to those, like us, who have returned from their Christmas Holiday to start a new business year. Although 2011 ended with more shakes (which experts say could last decades!) we hope that 2012 will be more positive for those businesses that managed to make it through 2011.
The added stresses of a year full of earthquakes has meant the Christchurch Women’s Refuge has been busier than ever. Every year at this time, the call goes out for donations of gifts suitable for families who find themselves needing the support of Women’s Refuge over the Christmas holiday period.
Search Engine Optimisation for Canterbury Businesses
Many companies are cutting back on print advertising and questioning the return on investment for print directories, with more and more searches being performed online. Search Engine experts, Optymise, are offering Christchurch website owners a special online marketing package to help them through these difficult times.
Hot PJ has spent the last ten years occupying historical buildings in the City Mall. We moved into the former Shades Hotel over the new year 2000, thumbing our nose at the Y2K bug. Our next space was in the lovely Old Weekly Press building, affording prime viewing of the Busker’s Festival. Late 2010 we began a move into the earthquake strengthened (yeah, right!) Cashel Suites in the Whitcoulls Building… so we keenly felt the loss of the heritage buildings that surrounded us.
From time to time there seems to be a rash of hacked sites appearing on the web. If you are running an application to manage the content of your site, like a content management system, this can be the area the hackers will target, injecting malicious code into your website’s pages in order to use it for spamming or phishing attacks.
In an update to our post “Foray into the Red Zone“, on the 9th July were were able to try again to gain access to our office in the Whitcoulls Building.
So far 2011 has gone by in a blur of natural and weather related phenomina, which has interrupted and changed our business and personal lives. Out of necessity has come adaptability, not a bad thing when it comes to business, but for many the struggle is ongoing, with no quick fix in sight.
These events have been a catalyst for the big questions, forcing many of us in business to examine what it is we do, why and how we do it… and if we want to continue doing it.
On Thursday morning I donned a borrowed hardhat and high viz vest, and joined a small group of business owners escorted in to the CBD Red Zone. Three months after the February quake, it was the first time Hot PJ had official access to try and retrieve what we could from our remaining office in the Whitcoulls Building.
Why is marketing important?
This is a question a lot of small to medium sized businesses ask. Experts say the average person takes less than two seconds to decide whether to read your advertising material or not. The ‘sale’ or ‘no sale’ decision is largely made when a person first looks at it. So, your first impression is absolutely critical to the success or failure of your business.
SEO guru and friend, Kalena Jordan of www.ask-kalena.com and Search Engine College fame, shared with me her copy of Search Marketing Standard recently, a US publication which always carries quality articles to help website owners better leverage their online marketing.
I have over fifteen years experience in systems and network configuration and support. For most of that time I have been working with Open Source Software, and believe that Open Source software provides the best solutions for business, educational and personal use.
