Compelite

In-house vs Outsourcing for your IT Support?

2008-04-14T11:35:00.007+08:00

As technology becomes more standardised, reliable and simpler to maintain, law firms should re-examine their IT support costs. It has been customary for many to have in-house technical staff for rapid response when needed, but now with low cost redundancy servers and advancements in hardware and software, the blue screen and network downtime are finally becoming a thing of the past (or at least should be if you have the right IT team). This means firms can realistically expect to outsource IT without worrying about being seriously inconvenienced should mishaps occur.

Studies show that there is an increasing trend to outsource, and law firms are leading the trend. So does outsourcing IT mean you are compromising? Far from it! Actually outsourcing allows law firms to concentrate on what they do best whilst your IT partners do what they do best. Below are some common areas where outsourcing your IT makes perfect sense.

Cost Savings
As you only pay for time used, outsourcing results in significant savings. Also, setting fixed costs for projects allows better budget control.

Better service quality
As IT is now handled on a client/service provider basis, service tends to be better than that provided by in-house staff.

Keeping up to date
Technology changes rapidly, and outsourcing providers will have greater appreciation of developments in other industries and be able to determine which emerging technologies can be beneficial to your firm.

Better Risk Management
Risks are reduced as the IT partner will have prior knowledge and experience on projects and only offer proven working solutions. Not only will they have far more real-world experience in many industries they will also be better at mitigating the risks involved in handling delicate tasks like upgrades and security management.

Hiring and Training services
For projects that must be handled in-house, top professional IT outsourcing companies can assist in hiring and training staff to ensure they have the appropriate skills. This training can be conducted on the job, with IT outsourcers providing secondment arrangements where their staff can work at your location.

Economies of scale
Most small firms simply can not afford to match the in-house support services that larger firms have, limiting what can be done, and when. A good outsourcing firm will have the resources to start immediately. Outsourcing also helps small firms act "big" by giving them the economies of scale, efficiency, and expertise that large firms enjoy. Sometimes far better solutions due to less internal bureaucracy...

Local outsourcing partner
When outsourcing is mentioned one often thinks of working with staff in developing countries like India. However effective outsourcing can be done locally so you have a familiar faces in the office, it's also good to know who you are working with. Choosing the right partner is the key to success. Never forget to consider the following questions:

How good is the company's infrastructure?
What is the quality of its workforce? How qualified and experienced are the employees you will be relying upon?
How successful has the firm been in handling projects in the past?
Who are they currently working with and for how long?
How confidentially or discreetly will the company be able to carry on your work and what are their security policies?

Once you have satisfied yourself on these counts your firm can unhesitatingly go ahead, outsource and benefit from it...

Garry Smith is Managing Director of Compelite Limited, an IT services provider with a wealth of experience helping law firms in Asia implement cost effective outsourced IT solutions.

Featured Website - SquareFoot.com.hk

2007-10-31T15:44:00.005+08:00

In our Featured Website section this month, we take a look at http://www.squarefoot.com.hk/. Launched in late 2007 but already a popular stop for those looking for middle to high end property, http://www.squarefoot.com.hk/ provides visitors with detailed listings of residential property for sale or rent in Hong Kong, Kowloon, New Territories and Outlying Islands.

As usability and clear presentation of information are critical to the success of a website of this nature, Compelite worked very closely with the client to develop a layout design which was practical, efficient and attractive. But there was also another perspective to consider. As the property agents who list their properties on the website are also important, their feedback and suggestions we taken into consideration as well.

Striking the appropriate balance between form and function, while satisfying the needs of the various stakeholders was an involved process, and the design went through many adjustments and refinements before final approval. All throughout Compelite’s design team worked in close concert with Square Foot’s management team to ensure that the end result was just right.

Of course, a property portal needs more than a great look and feel - it needs an array of applications designed to make the process of home hunting simple, efficient, and yes, even fun. Building on Compelite’s existing CMS system framework, several custom designed modules were created with both the end user and the administrative users in mind. These include:

Property Search Tools

View the property and area details
Contact the property agent directly from the website
Search expansion feature gives users one-click function to find more properties with similar details, in the same building or from the same agent

Property Management Tools

A specially modified Content Management System was created to make it easy for property agents to upload individual or bulk property listings, minimizing the administrative work involved in keeping their listings up to date.
Reporting tools provide information to the agents detailing how many views their properties received, which were clicked on, and requests for more information/view appointment.
Scheduled expiration of property listings, with one-click listing extension for properties which are still on the market.
User management feature allows property company to add multiple representatives, and specify which properties each are responsible for.

Whether your need is for a basic ‘brochureware’ web page, a full scale portal with custom programmed applications like Square Foot, or for something in between, Compelite can provide solutions to match your needs and your budget. We’d love to discuss your requirements with you - please call us at 2524 3303 or send an email to info@compelite.net.

Yahoo Search Marketing Panama Upgrades

2007-06-04T15:11:00.000+08:00

Yahoo is extending the reach of its Panama Pay Per Click System throughout Europe over the coming months. Up until now, it had only been launched in the US.

The promise to improve geographic targeting will bring much relief to those who use Yahoo's current system.

Panama also promises quicker approval time, allowing ads to be shown quicker. Previously, this took between 1 and 3 days, compared say to Google AdWords where you can have ads showing within 15 minutes of signing up for your account. Panama will now be in par with Google on this front.

Panama will use the feature of ad testing (much like Google's existing feature), whereby ads will be rotated evenly, and tested simultaneously for best performance. Those performing better will be shown more often.

A Visible Quality Index will be implemented (again much like Google's Quality Score) to ensure that advertisers who optimise their accounts and provide users with a quality experience (Google's term), will achieve a higher Quality Index. This will ensure that they achieve a higher ad position at a lower cost in comparison to their competitors.

The new system has been developed so that it can evolve with market trends easily. Hopefully, when Panama has been released worldwide, it will offer the ability to target multiple countries from one log in account. As it stands now, users must create separate accounts for the countries they wish to target. Not only is this frustrating, but also extremely time-consuming and costly as each account must be managed individually.

Find more information on the Yahoo! Europe Panama Upgrade here.

SEO or PPC or BOTH?

2007-05-31T12:33:00.000+08:00

Many people assume that if they are appearing in the organic results (through Search Engine Optimisation - SEO) in search engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN that there is no need to use the respective Pay Per Click (PPC) systems such as Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing or Microsoft adCenter.

This assumption is wrong.

Recent results carried out by Google show 3 major statistics:

AdWords: 1000 impressions will recieve on average 10 clicks in top position
Organic: 1000 impressions will recieve on average 20 clicks in top position
BOTH: 1000 impressions will recieve on average 60 clicks in top position

These results show that you can double your traffic by being at the top of results in both PPC and organic listings.

What must also be taken into consideration is the syndication that takes place when PPC is deployed. When opted into the search network in Google AdWords for example, your ad will be syndicated across seven other search engines including Lycos, Netscape, Alexa, Ask, Hotbot, AOL and Go. Yahoo Search Marketing have a similar system spanning Altavista, Alltheweb, Yahoo and Dogpile.

Therefore, taking this into consideration, it is important to be at the top in both the organic results (through SEO) and the sponsored results (through PPC Management) to get the most traffic to your website.

What is more important is to have a fully optimised PPC account to get the best Return On Investment (ROI). Google has the most advanced PPC system and the widest reach on the internet, therefore Optimisation is a must. Unless you are making use of all the features available to you in your PPC account, you will lose money as you will be paying top price for the top position. With a fully optimised PPC account, you can increase your quality score, resulting in a higher position with a lower Cost Per Click (CPC). Our PPC techniques page shows all of the functions in Google AdWords that you should be using to get the best ROI. If you are not using these functions, then contact us for a quote on PPC Management to maximise you Return On Investment.

Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance

2007-05-29T18:31:00.000+08:00

Compelite take pride in the fact that they have followed respectable eMarketing practices since introducing their eMarketing system to the public over 6 years ago. The Australian Spam Act 2003, which came into force on April 10th 2004 had no affect on Compelite's eMarketing system, as all rules set forth, were already being adhered to. Therefore with the introduction of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance (UEMO) to Hong Kong on 1st of June 2007, we can proudly say that we have one of the first eMarketing systems in Hong Kong that fully comply with the regulations of the new ordinance. Having said that…

Hong Kong’s promises to enact an anti-spam law have finally come into realisation with the release of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance (UEMO).

It should also be noted that these UEM’s (Unsolicited Electronic Messages) apply only to messages that are sent by someone residing in Hong Kong; to someone residing in Hong Kong.

Due to commence in two phases, with phase 1 beginning on the 1st of June 2007, we will see the end of spam messages with the purpose of advertising, promoting or offering any goods, services, business opportunities sent via:

Pre-recorded voice messages sent to telephones
Text messages sent via SMS
Multimedia messages sent via MMS
Faxes or
eMails

Phase one, due to be deployed on the 1st of June 2007, will consist of the following parts:

Part 4 of the UEMO includes fraud and other illicit activities related to the sending of multiple commercial electronic messages including:

falsifying header information in sent emails
using a false identity when registering electronic addresses or domain names that are used to send multiple emails
falsely representing to be the registrant of an email address or domain name that is used to send multiple emails.

Offenders to the above activities will be liable to an unlimited fine and/or imprisonment up to 10 years.

Part 3 of the UEMO includes the use of dishonest techniques to increase the number of recipients, including:

Supply, acquisition or use of email address harvesting software or harvested address lists for sending multiple emails without the consent of the recipients
Automatically generating email addresses to send unsolicited emails
The use of automated techniques to register for 5 or more email addresses to send multiple emails
Relay or retransmission of multiple emails to deceive recipients of the source of these messages.

Offenders to the above activities will be liable to a fine of up to HK$1 Million and/or imprisonment up to 5 years.

Individuals may also take out civil action against those who commit these unsolicited activities, due to any loss or damage caused under the UEMO.

Phase two is due to be deployed by the end of 2007. This involves the ability for members of the public to register their phone, fax and SMS/MMS numbers in a do-not-call register.

The following article was recently published in the South China Morning Post:

Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill ignores cold calls
Telesales escape curbs under anti-spam law
Main provisions of the legislation

Commercial e-mail, SMS, fax or phone calls must include sender’s identity and information allowing receiver to unsubscribe
Senders must keep unsubscribe request for seven years
Senders have 10 days to remove subscribers upon request
Do-not call register to be set up
No misleading subject headings
Penalties range from HK$100,000 to HK$1 million in fines and five years in jail
Appeal board to be set up
Overseas e-mails exempt
Employees’ spam action can be blamed on employer

Cold calls from telesales agents plying goods and services have been excluded from an anti-spam law passed yesterday – an exemption which the government says could save tens of thousands of jobs.

Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Joseph Wong Wing-ping said commercial activities involving person-to-person telesales were estimated to amount to HK$7.2 billion. To restrict this under the anti-spam law would affect the livelihoods of sale agents.

But he pledged the bureau would closely watch these activities and would not rule out the possibility of taking future action to regulate them.

The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill – aimed at stemming spam e-mails, text messages, pre-recorded calls, faxes and video and audio messages – was passed in the Legislative Council yesterday.

The bill covers unsolicited electronic messages from businesses advertising, promoting or sponsoring goods or services, taped phone messages, and unsolicited messages with a Hong Kong link included – meaning messages sent from registered addresses or numbers in Hong Kong or to local numbers.

E-mails from overseas addresses cannot be included as no international protocol for dealing with such messages exists.

The law also includes a provision under which people can sign up to a “do not call” register and anyone who contact people on the register can be prosecuted.

People who send spam e-mail or enable others to do so may face fines ranging from HK$100,000 to HK$1 million and up to five years in jail once the law is enacted. The section of the law covering the sending of spam e-mails will become effective on June 1. Other aspects will come into effect by the end of this year.

Legislator Wong Ting-kwong proposed an amendment to include person-to-person calls in the bill, saying it was unreasonable for cold-callers to do business at the expense of the “innocents…. When you receive a letter, you can choose not to open it. But with cold calls, you pick it up without knowing it is one”, he said.

However, bureau chief Mr. Wong said it was “technically” difficult to collect evidence for the prosecution of person-to-person cold calls.

The legislator’s motion for an amendment was vetoed after two thirds of the voting members backed the government’s bill.

Randall Davidson, chairman of the Hong Kong Direct Marketing Association, welcomed the decision not to include cold-callers in the bill.

We don’t feel that person-to-person calls came under the definitions of the bill,” he said, adding that his association members did not usually use recorded messages in marketing campaigns.

"They have a terribly low response rate and everyone, including our own members, consider them a nuisance.”

In an earlier submission, his organization, along with the Call Centre Association, estimated that more than 400,000 people relied on phone contact to promote their products and services.

The Consumer Council, which previously submitted views on the bill to Legco, had pushed for cold-calling to be included under the provisions of the bill.

A spokeswoman for the consumer watchdog, Rosa Wong Wan-ming, said the bill was not proactive enough.

“But it [does] take steps to combat the problem of spam,” she said. “We hope the effectiveness of this legislation can be reviewed after a period. If it’s not working, we hope more proactive steps can be taken to amend the situation.”

When the new law comes into effect, you may report any unsolicited messages to OFTA (Office of the Telecommunications Authority) via the form found on their website here: http://www.ofta.gov.hk/en/enq_help/uem.html. This form will also be obtainable through a fax-on-demand service (call 2961 6333, press 3 for English then 9 for ‘Information by Fax’).

For further information regarding the UEM, you may visit the OFTA website at www.ofta.gov.hk or call their hot line on 2961 6333 (press 3 for English then 4 for UEM matters).

Competitive Edge Dynamics Registration System

2007-05-21T14:25:00.000+08:00

Competitive Edge Dynamics Ltd. have chosen Compelite to implement their Customer Registration System, which allows users to register and log in to their system when placing orders etc.

Compelite offer a wide range of web applications, including customised applications built to your specific needs. Several of these applications include Content Management Systems (CMS), eMarketing, on-line surveys, event registration, and web monitoring.

Pay Per Click Management

2007-05-21T13:31:00.000+08:00

Due to popular demand, Compelite have expanded their expertise in Pay Per Click (PPC) management, and now offer Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter management.

Although Google offer the most advanced PPC system on the market, we have decided to expand our services to include Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter so that we can offer our clients a wider range of services.

Yahoo Search Marketing have recently upgraded their PPC system in the US to their new Panama ad system in order to better compete with Google AdWords. Although Yahoo started the PPC systems that we see today (formerly called GoTo, then Overture, then Yahoo Search Marketing), we now see them continuously playing catch up with Google. Their lastest addition has been their ad ranking system which closely resembles Google's Quality Score system.

Microsoft have also recently updated their ppc system from MSN adCenter to Microsoft adCenter, as well as updated several aspects of their tools available.

Alexa Traffic Rankings

2007-05-14T10:58:00.000+08:00

www.Alexa.com is a popular traffic ranking website among the Search Engine Marketing industry as well as among those who are concerned about their online ranking.

As stated on the Alexa website: "Alexa computes traffic rankings by analyzing the Web usage of millions of Alexa Toolbar users."

Many users however get confused as to what this traffic ranking actually means. What Alexa is doing is comparing your site's traffic (the number of visitors to your site) with that of all the other websites in the world.

Also we must take note that the traffic that it measures is only traffic from those who have the Alexa toolbar installed. Because of this there will be a bias towards more technical sites getting ranked higher, as more technical users use this toolbar. Alexa states:

"The traffic data are based on the set of toolbars that use Alexa data, which may not be a representative sample of the global Internet population."

Alexa, therefore is not a very reliable tool when comparing your website to the world. Perhaps a better analysis would be to compare your website to those of your direct competitors in your own field. Take for example:

Compelite Limited - Alexa Ranking of 227,693
Jump Web Services Limited - Alexa Ranking of 412,963
Agog Digital Marketing Strategy - Alexa Ranking of 860,550
Flying Tiger Web Design - Alexa Ranking of 2,254,795
Fluid Design and Marketing - Alexa Ranking of 3,302,708
Rebound Internet Services Limited - Alexa Ranking of 4,018,912

This way you can see a much better analysis of your Traffic Ranking in comparison to your competitors. If you notice that your ranking has dropped significantly, check the ranking of your competitors to see if the trend is the same.

One must also take note that Alexa states:

"Generally, Traffic Rankings of 100,000+ should be regarded as not reliable because the amount of data we receive is not statistically significant"

Therefore you should really only look to Alexa as a reliable tool when your Alexa Ranking is well withing the 100,000 mark.

A more important measure of Website Ranking is where your website appears when someone searches for it in either Google, Yahoo or MSN. If you type "web design hong kong" into Google, we would expect to see Compelite on the first page.

This means that your website is highly visible, and there is a good chance that users will click on it if it appears on the first page of search engine results. Check out Compelite's Search Engine Marketing (SEM) services and get your website listed where the clients are clicking!

Choosing the Right SEO Company

2007-05-11T12:48:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, a popular Search Engine Optimisation company in Australia was penalised in Google for spamming their index by using Black-Hat SEO techniques to artificially boost their rankings. The major technique they used was a link-building technique that linked their websites to other irrelevant websites. When doing a search for the sites that link to them in Google (please copy and paste the link into your browser to see the example - we have purposely avoided linking to these sites so that Google will not relate our sites with those listed):

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=GGLJ%2CGGLJ%3A2006-47%2CGGLJ%3Aen&q=link%3Awww.foundagency.com.au&btnG=Search

...It can be seen that there are many irrelevant sites. Take one for example, HIT RADIO. On this site you can find their links page:

http://pub44.bravenet.com/freelink/show.php?usernum=3743912404&cpv=1

...which links to a load of irrelevant sites. These sites and their link pages are often referred to as Link Farms and are something that you want to avoid at all costs.

It is extremely important to choose the right Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) company and more importantly one that uses 'white-hat' SEO techniques.

White-Hat SEO techniques are those techniques encouraged by Google. These are ways to optimise your website without spamming search engines. See our list of White-Hat SEO techniques used at Compelite.

Black-Hat SEO techniques are used to artificially boost ranking by using spamming techniques.

The company mentioned above risks their website being banned in search engines and also all of their client sites risk being banned as they, no doubt, will be inadvertently using the same techniques to increase their rankings. This is why it is extremely important to find an SEO company that is open and honest with you about the techniques that they use.

You will find all the techniques or factors that Compelite look into when performing an SEO campaign on our Search Engine Optimisation Techniques page. We also list all the techniques used when managing your Pay Per Click campaign on our Google AdWords Techniques page. When choosing a company to Manage your AdWords Account you should also make sure that they are qualified as a Google Advertising Professional. This will ensure that they can offer you the best management and Return on Investment (ROI).

Any SEO company that is extremely secretive of the SEO techniques that they use, should be avoided or at least investigated more meticulously. Those that are open and thorough in their explanations can be trusted and researched to a point of understanding that can be trusted.

Google has a recommendations page when selecting the right SEO Company to work with. You can find that page under their "My sites ranking in Google" section.

Establishing Web Presence

2007-05-08T11:28:00.000+08:00

When looking to establish a web presence it is very important to ask yourself what you need, and equally as important to find a company that can provide you with everything in that list. It is not good enough to go to one company for web design, another for emarketing, and yet another for search engine optimisation. All aspects of a website tie into one another and so too do all aspects of programming a website.

All to often we see clients coming to us for search engine optimisation (SEO), after having their site designed by another company fully in flash or javascript, when one of their main priorities was to be visible in search engines. Flash is one of the worst programming techniques to use when website visibility in search engines is paramount. Yet because the company that designed the website specialises only in flash web design and not in search engine optimisation; when asked by the client will my website be search engine friendly the company replies, "yes, just wait two or three months". Or they compare with other flash websites "Cartier, Nike and Adidas all use Flash and their websites are extremely visible". Yet what they can't tell their clients is why these websites are so visible.

One ranking factor used by search engines as a guage of website ranking, is sites linking in to your website. You can use this as a factor in your search engine ranking, but keep in mind that this is only 1 of over 100 different aspects that all join together to boost your overall ranking.

By typing "link:www.yourwesitename.com" into Google, Yahoo or MSN you can see how many other websites link back to you. Lets start with the first example given above - Cartier. Cartier have 376 websites that link to them. See for yourself by typing "link:www.cartier.com" into Google. This is quite a good amount. Of course the more websites linking to you the better. I should also point out that it is best to have one-way incoming links. This means that you should not link back to them. These are the most valuable links to have.

In comparison to Cartier, Nike and Adidas are way ahead. Adidas have 2,330 incoming links to their website, and Nike have 3,090. Another aspect to note is how these links are gained. Since Nike, Adidas and Cartier are such large brands, they gain their incoming links organically - people link to them with out them asking and therefore, incoming links are build continuously at a steady rate. This is by far the best way to build incoming links.

Compare this with many of the packages found on the internet, many of them utilising black-hat SEO techniques (SPAM techniques), which offer link-building campaigns and the like for US$20 (or something along these lines). These companies should not be trusted when it comes to building incoming links as they more often than not use SPAM techniques such as linking to link-farms, sites setup purely to build reciprocal links. They link to you, you link to them. Sometimes you will stumble across these sites and wonder how on earth you found them. Many of these companies have now been banned from the search engines as algorithms become more advanced.

Relying on incoming links to build your website ranking, if you have a flash website can take years upon years. It is best to work on building your companies recognition in the industry and let incoming links build themselves. This will result in the best link strategy. Getting back to establishing a web presence, consider the following items when building your website:

eMarketing - Update your clients regularly. Design, send, track, archive and manage your communications through events, surveys and/or newsletters.
CMS - Content Management System. Keep your website up-to-date simply.
Graphic Design - Will you require a corporate identity, brochures or adverts?
Web Applications - Tools to simplify your common tasks, such as 360 appraisals, photo uploaders, graph updates etc.
Search Engine Marketing - SEM - Get your site listed in the top 20 positions of all the major search engines through search engine optimisation (SEO) or Pay Per Click (PPC) Management.
On-Line Promotions - Benefit from high volume traffic of other websites such as Geoexpat or asiaxpat.
Live Website Monitoring - Monitor who visits your website with the ability to chat to them live, as well as use valuable statistics that reflect your marketing techniques.

If the company you are with cannot provide you with all the services that you need, then you are quite frankly with the wrong company. The most important aspect of building a web presence is to choose a company that can both understand and implement all of your needs and desires, not to mention suggesting other options that you may not have thought of. Compelite strive to offer their clients the best service available, that is why they look at every aspect of web design and development when building your online web presence.

Guardian Trust Company Website

2007-04-30T15:35:00.000+08:00

Compelite have been chosen by the Guardian Trust Company Limited to create their new website design complete with content management system (CMS).

Guardian Trust Company, LTD is one of a select few companies licensed by the government of Nevis to provide trust, corporate and financial services. The principals of the company and its advisors have extensive knowledge of all types of offshore services.

Compelite specialise in simple, timeless designs with functionality, speed and style. Compelite design websites for all levels and all budgets.

Diebold Pacific eNewsletter

2007-04-30T15:19:00.000+08:00

Compelite will be carrying out the newsletter graphic design and layout production for Diebold Pacific Ltd. this month.

Compelite has proven solutions which make it easier to create, distribute and also get valuable feedback – including who read them and which links they visited. This will help improve future editions and direct specific company information and marketing towards interested recipients.

Search Engine Optimisation vs. Pay Per Click

2007-04-30T10:09:00.000+08:00

Over the years we have seen varying trends between the popularity of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and the Pay Per Click (PPC) model. But where are we today?

SEO has been steadily gaining trust once again, compared to when it was highly abused in the past, due mainly to poor Search Engine Algorithms. Search Engine Algorithms have since improved tremendously and we are now seeing results that were the sole purpose of the invention of Search Engines. After all we must remember that Search was never intended to generate traffic for commercial websites. For example, “Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Note that this says nothing to the tune of providing the best free advertising medium.

We have seen a consistent trend recently of an increase in Blogs and generally useful information (take for example, wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit). Commercial websites appear to be dropping lower and lower in the search engine rankings. This tells us what the future may hold. I suspect that we will see a total shift where commercial websites will no longer be a candidate for SEO. Rather PPC will be the advertising medium of choice, providing the most valuable positions in search engine rankings for commercial websites.

This begs the question, where does that leave the small contenders who cannot afford either an SEO campaign (which most likely will not be applicable compared to the competition) or a PPC Advertising Campaign? Well this is a question that will need to be answered by the top search engines, as we move in this direction day by day. Perhaps these less fortunate companies are better off by relying less on search engine results and more on their own marketing campaigns such as eNewsletters that are sent directly to their own registered users. WhosOn could be another option in monitoring the performance of marketing campaigns and the like. WhosOn is a tool which will show you who is using your web sites in real time, as well as give you and your visitors the ability to chat to each other. This tool will also give you all of the statistics that are available to you through Google AdWords' own monitoring program, Google Analytics. Try Whoson now with a Free 1 Month Trial!

Meanwhile Google AdWords is paving the path as the most sophisticated PPC model on the market. Google is one of the only companies that has invested nearly nothing in promoting its ad program, rather spending their time and money on technological innovation. This is one major reason why they are way ahead of the rest in the same arena, and why advertisers put so much more trust into Google AdWords – Because they have a model that promotes itself through word of mouth and results that you can trust. Google also continues to make constant minor changes to its PPC model to provide consistent advances in technology, as well as the best possible services available for its users.

With the consistent decline in the click through rate (CTR) of banner advertisements and the like, it is not difficult to see why PPC ads are so popular. Banner ad CTR’s often fall below 0.1%, and are continuing to do so. Compare this to PPC CTR’s, which can often be up to 100 times better when optimised efficiently by a Google Advertising Professional.

What I find upsetting in this area of Google’s Advanced PPC model is that advertisers believe that they are fully capable in managing their own PPC accounts. While this may be the case in some circumstances, most advertisers simply do not have the time or the expertise to fully manage a Google AdWords account in order to capitalise on performance and results.

Almost everything can be measured in a Google AdWords account, providing the advertiser with a wealth of information, compared with lesser advertising techniques where you must simply be content with lots of traffic that may or may not convert into sales. With Google AdWords you can measure conversion rates and do something about them if they are below your expectations.

With a Google Advertising Professional at the reins, they can check every item that is available to them through the AdWords platform to provide the best CTR’s, and ultimately the best Return On Investment (ROI). Successful deployment of an AdWords account involves making use of all of its features, repetitively, as new advertisers enter the market and old ones leave. The PPC market is ever changing, and so too must your account to keep up both with the changes in the number of advertisers and in the trends by prospects searching for your products and/or services throughout different times of the year. Also you will excel over your competitors who are managing their own campaigns, not knowing/using all of the features available in their Google AdWords account.

Cathay Pacific Airways In-flight Safety Cards

2007-03-31T16:02:00.000+08:00

Compelite have been chosen by Cathay Pacific Airways to design their new in-flight safety cards.

Compelite possess the expertise and passion required to steer your ideas into a fully realised campaign. From corporate identification and communications packs; business cards, letterheads and other stationary items, to advertisements, flyers and brochures which will give you a consistent identity in all your communications.

ABN AMRO eMarketing

2007-03-31T14:08:00.000+08:00

ABN AMRO have chosen Compelite to implement their eMarketing solutions. Compelite's eNewsletter system is a fully powered mailing engine which allows you to control the email content and appearance without any programming or HTML knowledge.

ABN AMRO are the global banking group for your business and private financial needs.

Hong Kong Anti-SPAM Law

2007-03-08T15:13:00.000+08:00

See our latest update on the Hong Kong Anti-SPAM Law here.

It is no exaggeration to describe eMarketing as a revolution for the marketing industry. For the first time, it gives businesses of any size the ability to publish to the mass market, making it easy to get the word out and drum up new business, whilst getting your brand in thousands of mailboxes. You can even track to see how successful the e-mail was with statistics to tell you who opened the e-mail and which links they clicked on! They can even track if you forwarded it to a friend. All this gives valuable feedback in order to see which services, products or articles are best received by your clients… But is it legal?

Hong Kong has promised plans to enact an anti-spam law at some time, to crack down on companies that send unsolicited e-mails. Consensus is that Hong Kong will follow most of the policies laid down by the Australian Spam Act 2003, which came into force on April 10th 2004. Many documents on these policies can be downloaded from www.acma.gov.au under the internet section.

Just last month a Hong Kong firm, Transcom Internet Services was sued for HK$11,000 by an individual located in Britain, for sending SPAM Junk email. We expect that in due course, more cases such as this will appear and Hong Kong will be forced to bring in their own Anti-Spam Law before things get out of hand.

Here at Compelite, we have already addressed these issues and our systems comply with the Australian Anti-Spam standards, as we believe they are likely what the Hong Kong standards will follow.

Here are some basic recommendations to make sure your eMarketing system does not land you in trouble:

You must clearly identify the person or organisation that sent or authorised the sending of the message
You must clearly identify the person or organisation that you are sending the message to (no undisclosed recipients)
You must include a functional unsubscribe facility (not type your e-mail or reply with REMOVE as your subject)
You must not acquire, use or borrow e-mail harvesting software
You must have one of two forms of consent, express or inferred
You must be able to substantiate receipt of consent

Find more information about our eMarketing System or contact us.

QAS Multimedia Presentation & Trade Show Booth

2007-02-27T15:43:00.000+08:00

QAS Aviation International Limited have continued their services with Compelite. Their trade show booth and multimedia presentation was a great success. Thanks to Compelite, their booth at the Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition was unique and their message was received loud and clear.

QAS Aviation International is a team of Aviation Safety Management professionals providing the aviation industry and its customers with contemporary, practical and professional Quality and Safety related business solutions.

Concept Creations eNewsletter Template Designs

2007-01-31T16:19:00.000+08:00

Concept Creations, an innovative food and beverage management company in Hong Kong have chosen Compelite to design their eNewsletter Templates.

The Philosophy behind Concept Creations is to continuously contribute to the nightlife that defines Hong Kong. Soda. Loft9. Mink. The Groovy Mule.

Cainsoft Corporate ID & Communications

2007-01-31T15:54:00.000+08:00

Cainsoft chose Compelite to register their domain name and provide hosting this month along with supplying them with a corporate ID & communications package.

Cainsoft is a software development and consulting firm serving the wealth management and investment management industries.

Compelite provide fast, reliable web hosting and e-mail solutions with web based tools to help you get the most out of your website and e-mail.

Avnet Asia

2007-01-31T15:43:00.000+08:00

Avnet Asia have been very pleased with the services offered at Compelite. They started with Pay Per Click Management service in Google AdWords and continued on to create a corporate eCard (Avnet eCard) and also use our eMarketing System.

Avnet Electronics Marketing serves electronic original equipment manufacturers (EOEMs), electronic manufacturing services (EMS) providers, and electronic component manufacturers (ECMs) throughout North America, Brazil, Europe, Middle-East, Africa and Asia, through focused business units, distributing electronic components from leading manufacturers and providing associated services.

Asmara Graphic Design

2007-01-31T15:22:00.000+08:00

Asmara Far East Limited, a garment agent, have chosen Compelite to create professional, corporate brochures for their rapidly expanding business in Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and China.

Compelite can cater for all your needs in Graphic Design, from corporate identification and communications packs; business cards, letterheads and other stationary items, to advertisements, flyers and brochures which will give you a consistent identity in all your communications.

Allen & Overy - London Office - eMarketing

2007-01-31T14:48:00.000+08:00

Allen & Overy have been so pleased with their eMarketing system in Hong Kong that they have decided to use it in their London office also.

Compelite is at the cutting edge of the latest electronic newsletter technology. While your company may already send out eNewsletters in large files such as PDFs or small plain text files, Compelite has proven eMarketing solutions which make it easier to create, distribute and also get valuable feedback – including who read them and which links they visited.

Allen & Overy are an international legal practice with approximately 5000 staff, including some 450 partners working in 24 major centres worldwide.

YWCA eMarketing System

2007-01-30T15:47:00.000+08:00

Hong Kong Y.W.C.A. have also chosen Compelite to carry out their eMarketing.

The purpose of the Association is to advance the spiritual, mental, physical and social welfare of women, to promote their growth in Christian character and to cultivate Christian spirit of fellowship and service.

Berry Brothers & Rudd eMarketing

2007-01-30T15:35:00.000+08:00

Berry Brothers & Rudd have gone with Compelite to create their successful eMarketing campaign. Compelite's system is a fully powered mailing engine which allows you to control the email content and appearance without any programming or HTML knowledge.

Berry Bros. & Rudd is Britain's oldest wine and spirit merchant, having traded from the same shop for over 300 years. The business was established in 1698 by the Widow Bourne at 3 St James's Street, London. Today members of the Berry and Rudd families continue to own and manage the family-run wine merchant.

New Google Adwords Management Accounts

2007-01-30T11:42:00.000+08:00

Saffron Cruises, Saffron Marina, Avnet and Vakaadoo have chosen Compelite to create and manage their Pay Per Click account in Google AdWords.

Compelite's Search Engine Marketing Manager is qualified as a Google Advertising Professional and will create and manage your Google AdWords account using Compelite's Pay Per Click Management Techniques to get the best Return On Investment (ROI).