My Salesforce.com Billing Issue – Rant

Last year I signed up for the most basic service from Salesforce.com. At the time it was $99. A few months back I get an email reminder that my credit card on file has expired and that I need to update this information.

As I consider if to update or not I find out that this service is now worth $60 a year. Yet, the amount I’m being charged is $99. Understandably, I call to see if I’ve been upgraded without my permission or what. No, they just failed to let me know that the service was now $39 less.

I voice my objections to my account executive and she produces a new “quote” (that’s how Salesfoce.com sells you the service, they produce a quote, you accept it.).  I check a couple of weeks later because my work situation is a bit crazy, only to find out that it has expired and that I can’t approve it.

Meanwhile, I keep getting reminders to pay for the $99 fee – a frustrating reminder that I’m being overcharged – really, really frustrating!

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Web Designers Directory for Canada

Promo at WebDesignersDirectory.ca

Today I’ve decided to showcase a new resource for web designers in Canada, the Web Designers Director for Canada.

As part of the launch, everything on the directory is free – listings, articles and everything to showcase your company within the directory is free, including ads.  If you’re a web designer or cater to web designers in Canada, this is get some free exposure.

The directory showcases the follwoing ads for web design and web design related ads:

• Banner
• Leaderboard
• Small Square
• Sponsored Link

You can check how the look on the Banner Options section.

IMC Vancouver 2010 Thoughts

IMC Vancouver just happened...

Last week the Internet Marketing Conference Vancouver happened. I was able to attend a few sessions, the keynote by Guy Kawasaki, and a couple of after parties. Overall, I’m going to give IMC Vancouver an “good” rating this time around, here’s why:

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Baidu vs Google Stock Growth

If the stock market is any indication of a search engine’s success, then I suggest we start paying attention to Baidu, the most popular Chinese search engine.

Today, while looking at Google’s stock performance, fantasizing going back in time and investing in Google’s IPO at $85, I came across a very interesting trend. Baidu’s performance looks very similar to Google a few years ago.

This is from 2005 to 2007…

Stock growth for Baidu, Google and Yahoo! (2005 - 2007) . Google Finance.

and this is 2009 till today… (more…)

SEO Campaign Fail, Funny

This is really funny.  I was doing some seo research and I came across search result that read “Why my SEO campaign failed? Part 3: Common Link Structure mistakes …” Click on it and it takes you to an Error page with “Server Not Found”

…point well made

***Clicking on this search result:***

***Takes you to this error page:***

I thought I’d share that with you guys.

Trying Out SocialScope On My BlackBerry- A Social Media App

I got it, you?

Today I finally got an ivitation to try SocialScope, a mobile application for Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Flickr.

Their tagline is “A Mobile Inbox for your Social Networks”…  okay.

This is SocialScope on my phone.

I applied for the invitation months ago. It’s long enough that when I saw the email, I thought it was Spam.

But I installed the application and I’m giving it a try. So far so good.

The look is slik and pretty straight forward. The ability to organize the different social media I use in tab-like icons is also pretty good.

I still like Foursquare’s interface better, though. But for twitter, SocialScope is my new pal.

Marta Turek from Enquiro at Vancouver SEM Meetup

On our last Meetup Marta Turek, a Search Marketing Strategist at Enquiro, presented on the measurability of PPC when it comes to B2B.

You might find by reading my previous posts that I always come out with something valuable from any presenters. This time two very different things impressed me about Marta’s presentation: her perspective on the matter and her ability to communicate a complex and confusing topic in such a clear and logical way.

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Mailchimp for Vancouver SEM Meetup Communication

Last week I used Mailchimp, a popular email service provider, to send a newsletter-type  email to the Vancouver SEM Meetup group.

This idea came about while thinking a better way to communicate with the group’s members. Mailchimp offers pre-designed formatting, tracks clicks, opens, and a ton of other information I thought I could take advantage of… Here’s what happened. (more…)

Major Update: New Job!

Tomorrow I officially start my new role as Internet Marketing Specialist at Snap Technologies (www.snaptechmarketing.com).

Though there’s much I need to learn about the company, last year Snap Technologies was featured as one of the top IT companies by the Burnaby Board of Trade and this year they were nominated for Burnaby Business Excellence Awards and also figured as one of the fastest growing companies in BC.

Yes, I’m very happy to have joined the Snaptech team!

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Adobe Acquires Omniture!

Omniture is now part of Adobe!

Imagine a PDF document with some kind of cookie that could tell you how many times it has been opened! Sounds cool right? Well, it could happen soon. Adobe (the ones behind Acrobat, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, ColdFusion and a bunch of other cool software) has officially acquired Omniture (the web analytics software).

(The information release letter is bellow)

Though I’m not sure about the possibilities, Adobe and Omniture make a very exciting combo – in theory anyway.

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