CMD.COM.MY

Jan Geirnaert — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:13:04 +0000

I just got this email from the Domain Registry :

“We have received some queries in regards to websites ending with .my. .my DOMAIN REGISTRY has published an FAQ which aims to shed some light on complaints concerning “.my” based websites. These are namely the types of complaints that can arise in relation to “.my” based websites (i.e. website whose address ends with “.my”, for example: www.festive.com.my) and the proper authorities/agencies/parties to lodge a complaint with, including .my DOMAIN REGISTRY, if the public so wishes. To access the FAQ, please go to www.domainregistry.my/faq.php?id=115

We have received some queries in regards to websites ending with .my.

.my DOMAIN REGISTRY has published an FAQ which aims to shed some light on complaints concerning “.my” based websites. These are namely the types of complaints that can arise in relation to “.my” based websites (i.e. website whose address ends with “.my”, for example: www.festive.com.my) and the proper authorities/agencies/parties to lodge a complaint with, including .my DOMAIN REGISTRY, if the public so wishes.

To access the FAQ, please go to http://www.domainregistry.my/faq.php?id=115

Please do not hesitate to email domreg@domainregistry.my or call us at 03-8991 7272 should you have any further enquiries.”

Sixty percent of the advertising revenues of Google Belgium come from foreign SMEs.

Jan Geirnaert — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 10:22:28 +0000

Sixty percent of the advertising revenues of Google Belgium come from foreign SMEs.

More than half of the Belgian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) do not have a website. Sixty percent of sales from Google Belgium, market leader in the sale of keywords on the Internet, is therefore achieved through foreign SMEs who will advertise their products in Belgium. This is stated in Le Soir.

The figure is in stark contrast to that of other European countries, where an average 80 percent of sales from the Internet giant thanks to local companies is realized. “Belgium is the only country in Europe where more than half of the purchase of keywords is done by foreign companies,” said Julien Blanchez, marketing director of Google Belgium.

Because the Belgian companies give them free rein, foreign companies can undisturbed play on the Belgian market. The Flemish market is attacked from the Netherlands, the Walloon Market from France.

Translated via Google Translate

Source : http://datanews.rnews.be/nl/ict/nieuws/nieuwsoverzicht/2010/08/20/belgische-kmo-s-afgetroefd-in-google-advertenties/article-1194798979962.htm

More SME Companies should use Cardscan… and follow up on their leads online, via email or chat… And how I do it.

Jan Geirnaert — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 03:56:07 +0000

On and of I tend go to business and consumers fairs here in Kuala Lumpur once in a while. Just to see who is there, what they are offering, how they do it… what is out there…

It strikes me that very few companies really follow up on their leads. Not even via SMS or a Phonecall. E-mail seems like the last thing they will use… So far my disappointment..

So I wonder why do I give my business card to them, why don’t they write down what they ask. I believe this has to do with the current Malaysian SME Business culture, where quotes are not easily send out via email. Maybe they are a bit tired of sending out quotes, or it’s just not done. It could also be that the way of having to enter the acquired data/business-cards on the expensive fair is not done due to using old methods (book and paper). I think there is an open market here.

Speaking for myself, I know it’s a lot of work to follow-up on leads but that part is very important if you want to be seen as somebody who takes the prospect/suspect serious…

Also what is the point in being present on a fair if you never engage in a dialogue with your suspects/prospects after the fair… I am not talking about spamming them, I am talking about dialogue, find out what people want, who they are, qualify the lead.

Maybe the use of fast technology/cardscanning into email/text will help in this process…

www.cardscan.com – they have some local dealers in KL, Malaysia, I have seen them on different fairs. It’s a good product, I can totally recommend it. Scan your cards, email your suspects, to make them into qualified prospects.

And no, I did not get paid to say this. But I would not mind putting up some paid advertising for Cardscan on the right side of this company blog

Automation and efficiency starts with simple but effective steps. Currently I use the Cardscan Executive. It links nicely to Ms Outlook 2007. I recommend to run it under Windows XP Pro (currently trying to get it to work properly under windows Vista) and there is even a plugin for the Blackberry.

Summary : when I run around on a fair (since nobody, but really nobody emails me back, or maybe after 3 months…) here is what I do :

I take pictures of all products that interest me. visual memory of the interesting things
all businesscards and brochures and the directory of the exhibitors goes into to one box
all the acquired cards are scanned into the cardscan database
interesting contacts are emailed and more questions asked. if an email link cannot be setup I don’t this is a very healthy company on the level of email/online interactivity… we are 2010, reminder !
if the contact is a qualified lead it goes into a filemaker pro database and the business process or quoting, figuring out what people want starts there. this is tracked in details. it’s a lovely system
in the outlook folder I have boxes also prospects-malaysia, fair-xyz, containing the leads that come from that fair
if needed with a handy software called Mail List King MLK is used to do some emailing, but we don’t spam people. No point in that.
Finally, some of the contact enter willingly their email in our online subscription system on our wordpress based blog.

This is how a small company with little resources can do as much as a big one (who also does not email me back by the way).

Next step is of course how to learn to do proper calling, processing of online orders, talk, sell to people over the phone. Etc.. Basically my conclusion is that if it works for me, it can for anybody else. Focus on follow-up, good service and enhancement of what and how you do things and keep the costs low.

Will SEO make sense in a few years from now ?

Jan Geirnaert — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 06:56:57 +0000

I think it will, just ask the companies we have done it for where they would be today without some form of SEO,SEM and related internet marketing.

Good video by Google Matt Cutts on the topic below. Also don’t confuse social media marketing with Search Engine Optimization..

Cool Malaysian Product domain names released and available for registration/buying.

Jan Geirnaert — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:04:58 +0000

Here you go, we consider these domains valuable if you are in the business of these products/services. The reason to register them is so you would achieve a top position in google/yahoo/bing and other search-engines with these product-names. Customers search mostly for products and brand-names, not company names…

Price : 55RM per registration. Free forwarding included for 1 year. Contact sales@cmd.com.my if interested.

scarves.com.my
metalpens.com.my
leathergifts.com.my
crystalawards.com.my
carstickers.com.my
calenders.com.my

Have a nice online and offline day.

CMD

Online Advertising on the rise in Malaysia.

Jan Geirnaert — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:43:29 +0000

“Advertising expenditure (adex) in Malaysia breached the RM3.5 billion mark for the first time in the first half of 2010, according to Carat Media Services (M) Sdn Bhd. The figure marked a year-on-year growth of 22 per cent, said the company using data sourced from Nielsen. Month-on-month adex growth stood at six per cent, at RM681,000 from RM644,000 previously, Carat Media said in a statement today. “Of significance is Internet adex growth of 81 per cent between May and June 2010,” it said.

source : http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/20100817150500/Article/index_html

Get your website found in the online jungle…

Jan Geirnaert — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 06:32:38 +0000

Meaning if your website has a poor visibility, it probably means that the right people cannot find you online. Does this picture ring a bell ?

Our point is that you could be present online, but if you are not visible, you won’t get any conversation going, far from getting leads and inquiries…

We can assist you in getting a good visibility with the right keywords. Contact us to have a chat on this.

We can you some simple to understand hands on examples of top positioning in google/yahoo/bing for real companies in Malaysia.

sales@cmd.com.my

What are we doing lately ?

Jan Geirnaert — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:40:50 +0000

Here is a quick list…

registration of multiple domains; the market is surely growing in Kuala Lumpur, Klang Valley
got Top position in google for “SEO Batu Caves” Not sure if the Batu Caves needs SEO
www.no1.com.my in preparation, our facebook page has 88 fans already. Out of the blue…
cycling to deal with office stress…
French Art Website for Art Affair Cannes 2010 : www.artaffair2010.com launched.
finetuning our SEO / WordPress system and skill-set… a never ending story.
Art Gallery website : www.gallery-artemotion.com being built. Based on Joomla system.
Premium Gifts News Blog : www.yvmarketingnews.com launched.

Paypal accepts payments in Ringgit Malaysia (RM). Malaysia Boleh!

Jan Geirnaert — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:03:14 +0000

If you have been reading or searching online what is said about Paypal in Malaysia, then you will have noticed that Paypal in Malaysia offers now more features than before. In a nutshell : Paypal accepts payment in Ringgit Malaysia (RM). You can also withdraw this PayPal money directly to any Malaysia local bank account. I have a summary on it here.

Does your company or business use twitter ?

Jan Geirnaert — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:22:48 +0000

One would be almost a fool not to see the advantages of having a twitter.com account. And you have such an account, start tweeting the news and link it to your blog and website. People that are interested in you or your company will follow you and recommend, relist, retweet you to their own community. Call it the online word of mouth.

If you think your staff will waste time on twitter.com, well don’t worry, get the biggest tweeter in your company and make that one into the house tweeter and blogger and come up with a monthly slideshow on the benefits of twitter for your business. If there is not benefit (I doubt that), then you will soon find out…

Eitherways, don’t just talk about it but get it now at http://twitter.com

I don’t want to read all this, I got no time or I would not understand it anways. just get it done for my company, we will pay you a reasonable fee.

Or continue reading and learn how we did it.

Twitter according to WikiPedia : “Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. While the service itself costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees.” source : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

I have setup a number of accounts myself for www.cmd.com.my, I will call these community content boxes. Within minutes people (some are spammers and twitter zombies, I know…) started to follow us. This really works.

Here are our twitter ID’s : www.twitter.com/CMD_COM_MY (main CMD company account), twitter.com/malaysia_seo (our SEO related project in Malaysia), twitter.com/seokualalumpur (seo in Kuala Lumpur related info), twitter.com/CMD_E_Commerce (our Cubecart / E-commerce / E-catalogs related projects), twitter.com/cmdblogs (business blogs by CMD, blog related info, we currently use wordpress)

Then we have setup some product/service related accounts (you cannot put everything into one twitter, it will get too full, unfocused). This is to stick to the topic at hand within a twitter account.

This helps to keep things where they belong.

Then I proceeded with making some categories to classify the information in our twitter list.

My own twitter ID is http://twitter.com/jangeirnaert alias http://twitter.com/tropicaljantie but I don’t use that for business related matters. Better keep your personal twitter and company twitter separated.

Last thing use tweetdeck.com to manage multiple twitter accounts and keep spammers or twitter zombies out with truetwit.com. This will keep twitter spam out… and make users authenticate themselves.

So far my twitter tip for today.

Related top postings on twitter for business :

4 Ways Companies Use Twitter for Business – ReadWriteEnterprise Gartner released a report today that highlights the different ways that companies are adopting Twitter for business use.
50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business
How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business | Copyblogger
62 Ways to Use Twitter for Business – WebWorkerDailyTwitter for Business FAQ Twitter is still a scary, untamed frontier for many businesses.
Twitter for Business FAQ. Twitter is still a scary, untamed frontier for many businesses