In the past you may have received a letter in the mail similar to the one below stating that your domain is about to expire and it's time to renew. These look so official that many people’s initial reaction will be write a cheque or send over their credit card information to keep their domain name, but 99% of the time your domain is hosted with another provider and may not even be close to expiring! This company is looking to grab your business and charge you a premium to boot.

First thing to do is log onto whois.net and see who you are currently registered with – this report will also provide you with information regarding the creation and expiration dates for your domain:

If all is good, then there’s nothing to worry about! If you are getting close to your renewal date, compare prices first. You don’t have to pay the $40/year that they advertise, many companies offer domain hosting and average prices are $15-$25/year. If you ever have any questions or need recommendations feel free to contact us anytime, and we’ll get you going in the right direction.

I remember traveling around Turkey while only knowing about 30 words in the language; it was enough to get by, but definitely not enough to hold any meaningful conversations. I ran into a cousin of mine (who himself only knows about 50 words in English) and he promptly invited me to dinner, and would not take no for an answer. I was gearing up for an awkward evening of hand signing and polite smiling, but a little while after we arrived, we decided to log onto Google Translate – a free web application accessible anywhere in the world. It was amazing how the evening flowed from that point on! We took turns typing in what we wanted to say and reading the translation, and although we weren’t able to philosophize or delve into the inner workings of Tolstoy, it was great to be able to joke around and chat with him.

So how does it work? Google searches through hundreds of millions of documents that have already been translated by human translators and detects patterns which it then applies to the sentence you are working with. But keep in mind that since machines are generating the translations, not all will be perfect. The more human-translated documents Google can find, the better your chance of getting an accurate output.

This system can also be applied to your website with the Google Translator Tool. It is an excellent way to open up your market to a wider audience and expand to different countries. Of course it’s always best to have the site proof read to make sure there are no major errors, but its overall functionality is extremely useful. There are tons of tools out there so look around and see which one will suit you best.

Check out the Google Translator Tool in action: primextelecom.com/

Link: http://www.findyourbeach.ca/Home.aspx

I have to say, one of my favorite campaigns out in the world right now is Corona's 'Find Your Beach.' While maintaining consistency with it's overall beach message, it has found a great way to target Canadian consumers by letting them choose their Beach Profile.

Here in Canada we may not have white sandy beaches from coast to coast, but our scenery is absolutely breathtaking in it's own right. With it's picture campaign using imagery from the ocean cliffs of Nova Scotia to the mountain-scapes of the Rockies, to the classic tropical shot over-looking turquoise waters, Corona finds it's way to your heart every time.

In addition to the interactive capabilities of the website, giving you the ability to determine your Beach-Inspired Identity by answering a few questions, it also offers social media links, contests, event listings and wallpaper downloads for your computer (to remind you of life outside the office). It is a great source for everything Corona. You can even personalize your backdrop of the site with your favorite beach shot. Overall, amazing campaign that really hits home.

Seriously, can you imagine a world without email? We have it at home, at work, on our phones…it’s everywhere. Some of us may try to escape its clutches, but in reality we are inundated with it. From it’s beginnings as a communications tool for University academics, it has grown into an extension of how we communicate with those around us – some of us even prefer it over anything else. I am definitely guilty of sending an email to the person who is sitting right behind me rather than turning around and actually using my voice, but that’s the beauty of email’s convenience. Plus with the invention of ‘emoticons’ I can still send them a smile! ;-)

Take a look at the history of email over these past 40 years to see how we got from there to here.

DPI stands for dots per inch. In our marketing/printing world, 300 DPI is specifically used to create sharp beautiful images at a specific size. Many misunderstand that if the digital file does not say 300 DPI that the file is too small or it is less sharp; however, it all depends on file size. While DPI is important, the more important measure of a digital file is the pixel dimensions. The combination of the DPI and pixel dimensions determines the actual printing or document size. Look at the example below to help clarify the difference

Image 1: The image displayed opens in Photoshop as a 72 DPI image but look at the pixel dimensions and document size.

Image 2: Now this is the same image as above displaying 300 DPI. Notice that the pixel size has not changed but only the document size. If it is big enough for the project you are working on, it’s good to go!