Posts Tagged ‘Fredericton New Brunswick’

04
Sep
2009

Yorkville University

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About Yorkville University
Located in Fredericton, New Brunswick Yorkville University offers post graduate level education for professionals, their website needed to reflect their status as a premier online learning solution provider.

Open Source Solutions
Yorkville University makes use of several powerful Open Source solutions to help manage their multiple campus locations as well as several online initiatives. From WordPress powered websites and intranets to osTicket technical support solutions and Moodle classroom solutions, Yorkville University makes the most of great tools to quickly develop and deliver quality products to students around the world.

Online Learning
In addition to creating a striking website using open source content management tools, Yorkville University also features a rich online classroom environment utilizing the popular Moodle classroom support tool which allows students from around the world to participate in online discussions, classes and assignments.

Technical Support
To enhance the online experience for staff and students, Yorkville University features a highly integrated online support tool capable of tracking and managing technical support requests from thousands of students around the world.

Website Marketing
Using WordPress to power the universities core website, the school is able to focus on delivering quality education instead of fighting with complex content management tools. Our implementation of WordPress was designed to make the site easy to manage and rapidly updatable.

Visit Yorkville University online.

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Posted in Web Design, christopherross.ca

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31
May
2009

Twitter Channels for Fredericton, New Brunswick

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The city of Fredericton is a small provincial capital tucked away in the trees of central New Brunswick, about an hour from the Maine border but otherwise fairly isolated from the hustle and bustle of the world so how do local tourism operators promote themselves and let people know how great this is as a vacation destination?

http://www.getawaygraphics.com/twitter-channels-for-fredericton-new-brunswick/

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Posted in getawaygraphics.com

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07
May
2009

How to lose Twitter followers quickly

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how to lose twitter followers How to lose Twitter followers quickly imageOK so as most of you know, I’m no Twitter expert. In fact, I’m completely useless when it comes to Twitter but I have figured out a few things in the past couple weeks and here’s the big one that I’m going to share with you … if you want to lose followers quickly, spam them.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with people making money online and promoting their businesses but you have to do it in moderation.

Take for example Canadian Affair (@CanadianAffair), pictured to the right. They’re an airline which flies directly from my little city of Fredericton New Brunswick to London and they do it really cheap, so I decided to start following them on Twitter but since following them all I ever get from them are sales pitches. Sure I signed up for them and they’re sending me something but not what I was hoping for, luckily Twitter lets me stop following them pretty easily as well.

So what would I recommend a company like this promote on Twitter to keep me happy and make money using Twitter? Actually it’s pretty simple, what I was hoping for was:

  • last minute seat sale information, they could have even gone a step further and let me follow just my local airport
  • flight tracking details
  • special offers
  • tourism information about destinations they visit

In short, the problem with following Canadian Affairs is that like many businesses they misunderstood the most basic element of online marketing, it’s about me … not them.

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Posted in Twitter

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30
Apr
2009

Photography in Fredericton New Brunswick

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jarrah in fredericton Photography in Fredericton New Brunswick image

While I’m not actively pursing photography as a career anymore, I still love taking photographs of interesting people when they’re passing through town.

This was one such case where a Suicide Girl happened to be in town and we spent a bit of time shooting.

My rather meager online photography portfolio can be seen at modelmayhem.com

Photography in Fredericton New BrunswickPhotography in Fredericton New BrunswickPhotography in Fredericton New Brunswick

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Posted in Photography

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24
Apr
2009

Isaac’s Way Restaurant

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isaacs way Isaacs Way Restaurant image

I recently had the pleasure of finishing up a new website for the wonderful people at Isaac’s Way Restraurant, located in the heart of Fredericton New Brunswick. The restrauant has a large involvement in the local community and runs an onsite art auction to support local charities as well as many contests in the comminity. It was critical when putting together the site to ensure staff had the ability to easily update the website and change menu items, art pieces as well as blogs with minimal effort.

isaacs homepage 300x300 Isaacs Way Restaurant imageThe site uses WordPress as a content management solution with a host of plugins to help ensure the website is an effective tool for the business owners. In addition to standard anti-spam and caching scripts, the site also features full integration with Twitter, automated keyword suggestions and search engine optimization techniques, Google sitemaps and the Simple Image Grabber to help keep pictures fresh.

Objectives

As with all websites I work on, the site was built around the business objectives and uses a simple design to help communicate the warm family friendly nature of the restaurant, the cheerful staff and the wonderful menu but the real question I asked myself as I scanned dozens of restaurant websites around the world was … why do people come to a restaurant website?

Here’s what I came up with:

  • To gain a sense of the establishment and the food at the restaurant
  • To find out about employment or partnership opportunities
  • To learn about special deals, contests and selection
  • To get contact information, location and parking details

isaacs directions 300x300 Isaacs Way Restaurant imageWith that in mind, I wanted to ensure the visitor had easy access to the physical location of the restaurant and included the Google map tool as an insert on their website. The map tool from Google is a self contained application linking directly to Google’s website. By using it on the webpage, visitors may access standard features such as the Map, Satellite or Terrain maps (as well as Street View when it is available) but more importantly they will also gain access to the Get Direction feature or be able to link the restaurant to local hotels and convention centers.

Throughout the website I’ve included links in both the sidebar and footer to the directions page to ensure visitors are always capable of finding the business quickly and easily.

You can visit Isaac’s Way restaurant online at http://isaacsway.ca.

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Posted in Web Design

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17
Apr
2009

Fredericton Web Design

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I can appreciate that not everybody in my sleepy little town can afford to hire a top tier marketing agency or print fantastic brochures but everybody deserves a great website, which is one of the reasons that I get so upset when I look around at the state of websites here in Fredericton.

As a business owner, I think it’s time for everybody in the city from tourism to retail and services to look at their own website and ask themselves some basic questions:

  1. Has my website been updated in the last month?
  2. Does my website reflect my business objectives?
  3. Is my website meeting my marketing requirements?
  4. Does my website link to other Fredericton businesses?
  5. Am I proud of my website?

As I’ve written throughout my website, the purpose of a website is to market yourself and your business so if you’re not able to answer those five basic questions in a positive manner, perhaps it’s time to hire a local Fredericton web designer to help you build a better website?  Here are some great local, Fredericton web design firms you can call to help build a great website (in no particular order):

What to look for in a website designer

When you’re looking to hire a website designer, be sure to ask for a few basic things to ensure that the website project goes smoothly.

  1. Ask for references, web designers are notoriously cranky … make sure you can work with the person you’ve hired.
  2. Look at their previous projects, do you like the style and creative energy they’ve put into it? Chances are, your website look and feel similar in the end.
  3. Do your research by seeing how well their clients appear in Google. For example, if you’re a local car dealership search Google for other dealerships the web designers built to see how it ranks.
  4. Shop around and get quotes from at least three web design firms before making your selection to ensure that you’re getting the best value for your dollar.
  5. Ask your design team if they really have the time, experience and expertise to build your website. Remember, your marketing project shouldn’t be a learning curve for them.

Get a second opinion, it’ll save you in the end

As a consultant, I often help non technical businesses make sense of their online marketing solutions. If you’re moving forward on a web marketing project why not give me a call and let me help you work with your web design team here in town? I offer small and medium sized businesses a fresh set of eyes to review web projects and help ensure your site meets international standards, meets deadlines and comes in under budget.

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Posted in Blog Posts

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30
Mar
2009

Saturday was Skirt Day!

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Today I’m going to take a break from writing about building better websites or HTML shortcuts and celebrate with a certain amount of awe and relief the greatest day in the Canadian calendar, Skirt Day.

Now for those of you who don’t know about Skirt Day (and I am sure there are millions of you) it’s a little like Easter in the sense that it doesn’t have a set day. In fact it comes to different parts of the country on different days but this year in my sleepy little town of Fredericton New Brunswick it came on Saturday, March 28th. Also like Easter, Skirt Day is the celebration of new beginnings and fresh hopes.

 

Skirt Day in New York City (photo by bnittoli)

Skirt Day in New York City (photo by bnittoli)

Skirt day is, simply put the first day of spring that you step out of your local coffee shop and  notice all the women are wearing skirts for the first time since Thanksgiving.

It’s a magical day and before anybody gets all high-and-mighty that it’s a sexist holiday, Skirt Day can be celebrated by women too. Every woman knows the day I’m talking about … you look out of your office window and men simply look better, they’re jackets are off and suddenly for the first time in months you can see hope again … that’s what Skirt Day is all about.

Now, as wonderful as Skirt Day is … today we have freezing rain so I’m not going to celebrate too much but, here’s hoping that pretty soon all the snow will be gone, bikes will be out and we can all enjoy a BBQ in the summer heat.

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Posted in Blog Posts

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20
Aug
2007

Web Design Services in Fredericton New Brunswick

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Fredericton New Brunswick is located on the Saint John River in Eastern Canada, about an hour East of the State of Maine. It is home to both me and my business as a web consultant and graphic designer. From this sleepy little town, I create and consult with business and government leaders from around the world to produce exciting websites using on standards based design.

What separates me from others is my desire to integrate the best into my clients websites. I use local talent here in my region as well as global resources to bring the best talent together to create exciting and in depth web designs. My design theory assumes each of my clients is look for some basic things:

  • Compatibility both now and in the future. To accomplish this, I build every website using string xHTML and CSS based design. This allows me to create dynamic, flexible web solutions which are usable across multiple platforms and computer systems. For example, with 16.7 million Nintendo™ Wii™ consoles on the internet today, is your website compatible with it’s interface?
  • Expandability to grow with your needs. A website is great but if it can’t grow with you and react to your needs it’s worse than useless, it can damage your carefully crafted business image. That’s why when I build a website for clients here in Fredericton or anywhere in the world, I build with a three stage plan designed to account for what you think you need, what I know you need and what neither of us can assume you need.
  • Attractive design to appeal to your market. One of the beautiful things about Web 2.0 design is our ability to separate the design (or site skin) from the code. This allows us to view web page content as nothing more than words on a page, where the design is separated and applied after the content is developed. With with flexibility it allows a single web page such as mine to be formatted for multiple mobile devices such as phones or hand held computers.
  • Growth to build new customers. Building websites is not a low cost endeavour and therefore it stands to reason that when you hire somebody like myself to build your website, you’re looking to grow your business. Using standards based design and the best tools from companies such as Adobe, I build websites designed to grow and increase your productivity.

Building websites in Fredericton is no different than building websites anywhere in the world except that my small studio benefits from cost savings, excellent access to air travel to primary markets and access to amazing artists, exceptional programmers and dedicated testers.

Further Reading

If you would like to read more about standards based design and how it can help your business reach your audience please visit some of these links:

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Posted in Web Site Advice

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