Trust Point #1:
The Quality of Your Website Matters

The internet is a very impersonal place, but it can also be a very dangerous place – especially if you aren’t technically inclined as most of the young generation seems to be these days. The quality of your website is the first thing a visitor sees and experiences. Here are a few things you want to pay close attention to in your website:

1)      Your site theme: Generic themes look cheap and worse yet, they dilute your identity. Why would anyone want to do business with 100 websites that all look like they were cut using the same cookie cutter?

2)      Use your logo: Make sure you stamp your own logo in high resolution in your banner. If you have been around for a long time, there is a good chance this one thing will help build trust.

3)      Fix broken links: Monitor your website using Google Webmaster tools and address 404 (not found) errors by creating appropriate redirects to the page you think a visitor should find.

4)      Speed is important: With tens of thousands of competing websites the last ting a visitor is going to do is wait for pages to load – no matter how good of a deal you may provide. Get a quality web host, you won’t regret it.

5)      Write quality, unique content: Do not copy and paste word for word from another website – your rankings will tank and your customers won’t find you. Furthermore, the content you generate reflects back on your persona and identity, two important factors to gain trust.

Trust Point #2:
Make It Easy to Be Contacted

The number one thing that infuriates website visitors is when they cannot contact you. It doesn’t matter what it is about, if you make it hard for a visitor to reach out they will take that as a sign that you do not care about their business.

1)      Add a phone number: If you are worried about a relentless stack of phone calls maybe you aren’t doing something right. You should be confident in making your phone number available to your visitors, and at the very least your customers.

2)      Your address is important: For small startups that work form their homes that are uncomfortable adding their address to the internet, get a PO box. But seriously, if you have a registered business at your address people can already find you. An address can be a deal breaker when a visitor is already unsure about whom you are.

3)      Use contact forms: Sure, it’s easier to simply give out your email address but not everyone wants to copy and paste or write it down – instead use a contact form that visitors can conveniently fill out and post a message quickly to your email inbox.

Trust Point #3:
Don’t Fake It

Ok, so this one probably goes without saying but I am going to say it anyways. Liars always get caught, and when they do they are either going to have to fess up or look even dumber trying to back pedal.

I believe that every business should be as transparent as they can be, without divulging all their trade secrets (of course). The more honest you are, the easier it will be to maintain a consistent identity from web to phone to personal contact.

Besides, it’s always harder to try and be something than to just be yourself. It saves time, energy and an overwhelming buildup of self-resentment. It might even save you an expensive lawsuit one day.

So at the start of 2012 we built a roadmap that included taking the time to redesign and upgrade our website and I am proud to announce that we’ve just completed this project.

During the process of rebuilding our website we asked a lot of our clients and colleagues what they thought of Genex Marketing – who we were and what they found most interesting about us. The one resonating response was they liked to see the work we have done in the past. Bearing this in mind, we put most of our projects at the forefront with our service pages being secondary.

We hope you like our new website and that you find it easy to use. As always we appreciate your feedback – positive or negative so don’t hesitate to let us know what you think.

It introduced a new concept to me which I found totally fascinating and a fun and exciting new way to look at designing a brand. The idea is to see your company not as simply an entity but rather to fully personify it by visualizing and creating a character to embody in human terms what your company really is. This simple mental exercise can help you to visualize in a different way how to authentically craft your message and avoid sounding impersonal.

This got me thinking that likewise, as I can use this simple visualization practice to better get to know about how a company and their message might relate to the world, likewise perhaps I can use this practice to help communicate a bit about some of the fonts that I deal with often as a designer which are often times obscured by non-designer types.

When you use a font, I really do feel that you are invoking a character to speak on your behalf. This is my attempt to articulate some of these characters and the kind of effect that they have on the reader.

Here at Genex Marketing, we work with the wordpress platform almost exclusively and have found it time and time again to be the most easy to use and capable of any available website management software available at this time.

WordPress is an open sourced project and so there are thousands upon thousands of custom plugins available to add just about any sort of custom functionality to your website.

Here are a few examples of plugins that we’ve found very useful in developing sites for our clients:

Shopperpress, The Best WordPress E-commerce Plug-in Available To Date

We’ve worked with several different e-commerce solutions over the years, and have found Shopperpress to be hands down the best. Shopperpress easily plugs into your wordpress content management system and allows you to add products easily, with multiple images, descriptions, sale pricing and much more. This plugin offers all the advanced functionality that you might expect from a fully dedicated e-commerce software right on your wordpress site. Average users can operate this software easily and effortlessly allowing your e-commerce management experience to be very painless and straight forward.

Upcoming Events Plugin

The upcoming events plugin offers users the chance to see your upcoming events and uses google maps to show exactly where the event takes place. This plugin allows you to creatively display upcoming events throughout your site and automatically hides past events.

Orbit Slider Plugin

We often use the orbit slider plugin to display featured content on sites which can be flipped through at the push of a button or cycled though on a timer. Our homepage on this site is a good example of an orbit slider in action. This can really add some extra oomph to your homepage to help drive your customers around your site.

Facebook and Social Media Comments Plugin

We can plug your site right into Facebook through this plugin which will give the user the ability to comment using their Facebook, Twitter, Google or WordPress logins.

Facebooker Plugin

This plugin allows you to post your newly created posts to your Facebook feed from your WordPress content management system. If you would rather not login to Facebook and deal with that world, but yet want to reach the potential market that Facebook offers, this is definitely the plugin for you.

We are currently seeking a self-motivated and ambitious graphics designer to build website layouts and designs to each project requirements. While no HTML or CSS coding skills are required, preference is given to anyone that also has experience in these areas.

Design projects will vary from full site designs to designing smaller elements within an existing website.

A candidate must possess the following skills and attributes:

1. Expertise in Adobe Photoshop and website layouts and design
2. Ability to illustrate and draw in Adobe Illustrator and/or Photoshop
3. A strong understanding of how visitors interact with websites
4. Ability to work on your own with little direction
5. Strong communicator that is not afraid to ask questions or voice concerns
6. Dedicated to client satisfaction
7. Must take pride in one’s own work
8. Ability to give accurate quotations on a per project basis (based on scope of work (time) and project requirements)

Currently, all positions at Genex Marketing are contract and home based. This means that compensation is paid on a per-project basis that utilizes your own hardware and software resources from the comfort of your own home. No travel or face to face meetings required.

While most positions are initially being offered as contract only, we expect many of these positions to be offered as part and full time roles moving forward.

To apply for this position, please send your resume and related work experience, portfolio and cover letter ATTN: Chris Botterill at jobs@genexmarketing.com.

Note: We are alway on the lookout for skilled contractors so please don’t hesitate to send us your resume. We keep them on file for 4 months.

Required immediately we are looking for a coder / programmer that specialized in PHP and the WordPress content publishing platform.

Projects you will be responsible for managing will range from small PHP fixes to full fledge plugin development projects. Almost all work will be related to WordPress or WordPress plugins.

A candidate must possess the following skills and attributes:

1. Expertise in PHP
2. Expertise in WordPress and WordPress themes
3. Expertise and a strong understanding in WordPress plugin development and management
4. Ability to work on your own with little direction
5. Strong communicator that is not afraid to ask questions or voice concerns
6. Dedicated to client satisfaction
7. Must take pride in one’s own work
8. Ability to give accurate quotations on a per project basis (based on scope of work (time) and project requirements)

Currently, all positions at Genex Marketing are contract and home based. This means that compensation is paid on a per-project basis that utilizes your own hardware and software resources from the comfort of your own home. No travel or face to face meetings required.

While most positions are initially being offered as contract only, we expect many of these positions to be offered as part and full time roles moving forward.

To apply for this position, please send your resume and related work experience, portfolio and cover letter ATTN: Chris Botterill at jobs@genexmarketing.com.

Genex Marketing is currently looking for a PSD (Photoshop format) to WordPress (template) expert.

Projects you will be responsible for managing will range from converting entire website PSD layouts to WordPress templates (themes) to small PSD to XHTML conversions that will be embedded in WordPress pages and posts.

A candidate must possess the following skills and attributes:

1. Expertise XHTML, CSS and PHP (all versions)
2. Expertise in WordPress and WordPress themes
3. Expertise and a strong understanding in commonly used WordPress hooks and functions
4. Ability to work on your own with little direction
5. Strong communicator that is not afraid to ask questions or voice concerns
6. Dedicated to client satisfaction
7. Must take pride in one’s own work
8. Ability to give accurate quotations on a per project basis (based on scope of work (time) and project requirements)

Currently, all positions at Genex Marketing are contract and home based. This means that compensation is paid on a per-project basis that utilizes your own hardware and software resources from the comfort of your own home. No travel or face to face meetings required.

While most positions are initially being offered as contract only, we expect many of these positions to be offered as part and full time roles moving forward.

To apply for this position, please send your resume and related work experience, portfolio and cover letter ATTN: Chris Botterill at jobs@genexmarketing.com.

SUMMARY

Genex Marketing specializes in the development of unique websites using WordPress as-a-CMS. We are looking for a self-motivated individual as a website rollout specialist.

This position requires the successful applicant to upload and setup WordPress themes, add content (pages and posts) as well as finalize coding (HTML, CSS and PHP) as per project requirements. You will be the final person in a website development process that passes through a planning, design and coding/splicing process.

You must have previous website design experience and a keen eye for detail as you will be responsible for ensuring the final design of the website is consistent and functioning properly.

REQUIRED TECHNICAL SKILLS & EXPERIENCE (In order of importance):

1. Expertise with HTML
   1. Must be intimately familiar with HTML.
2. Expertise in CSS
   1. Must be able to write highly optimized CSS code.
   2. Inspect & diagnose problems with existing CSS.
   3. Capable of writing CSS that is cross browser compatible.
3. Expertise in PHP
   1. Must be confident in working with PHP and writing code.
   2. Must be familiar with the WordPress codex and be confident in using common and core PHP functions used in WordPress.
4. Expertise in WordPress, themes, plugins & widgets
   1. Must be confident in managing themes, templates (and child themes).
   2. Must have an understanding of how plugins work, how to write simple plugins and how to modify existing plugins.
   3. Familiarity of popular WordPress plugins is an asset.
   4. Must be capable of modifying widgets (HTML/CSS/PHP) as necessary
   5. Familiarity and understanding of how insert clean, well formatted text and media in pages and posts.
5. Basic knowledge of Apache web server & Linux is an asset
6. Must be creative and pay attention to detail
   1. While you will not design or do the initial coding of themes, you will be responsible for tweaking and updating the theme to ensure all common HTML elements fit the sites’ color scheme.

DO YOU POSSESS THESE ATTRIBUTES?

While this position currently does not require you to interact directly with the client and customers, it still requires strong communication skills and pride in one’s work:

• Self-motivated; ability to work on your own with little direction; problem solver
• Must be able to read and write English
• Strong communicator that is not afraid to ask questions or voice concerns
• Capable of articulating problems or concerns; patient
• Dedicated to client satisfaction; work towards the customers goals
• Must take pride in one’s own work
• Ability to complete projects on time; capable of working with tight deadlines
• Ability to give accurate quotations on a per project basis in some cases (based on scope of work (time) and project requirements)

MORE ABOUT THIS POSITION & WHAT IT ENTAILS

Currently, our development process starts with a professional designer that creates mock-ups of the website in Photoshop (we also create logos and other creative elements when necessary.) Once a design is approved, we chop and splice the Photoshop design and code it into HTML. After this has been completed we convert the HTML files into a WordPress template. While all of this is happening, content is being written that is to go into the website.

Now, this is where you come in – you will be responsible for:

• Uploading and installing WordPress at a designated server using FTP.
• Installing the theme we provide to you
• Adding all the content we provide you
  • Text / pages / articles / etc.
  • Photo galleries, portfolios, etc.
• Adding / modifying functionality of the website:
  • Creating new template files for specific pages, including writing or modifying PHP functions to server each template’s purpose
  • Writing small plugins (if necessary) to help clients manage custom coded elements (if necessary)
  • Setting up and configuring plugins and widgets and testing them out.
  • Adding, modifying and optimizing CSS and HTML.
• The final step is to get sign off from the customer.

While we currently have a pretty good system in place for rolling out consistent websites (in how they are coded and function administratively) we love new and innovative ideas. While we will provide you with samples of how other sites have been setup previously, we are willing to listen to new ways you think may be better to work with.

WAGE / COMPENSATION

This position starts as contract only, and is paid PER PROJECT COMPLETION. Payment is made through PayPal, and if made once the client has signed off. It’s important to realize that while many projects are simple and straight forward, there are some projects that require multiple revisions – that is part of this job. There will also be some jobs that require more coding than others to serve a specific purpose.

Where applicable, we will pay you for extraneous work that is outside the scope of the regular website roll out. For example, writing a new plugin form scratch would be billed to the client, and therefore compensation would be provided to you.

Almost every job we do does not require heavy PHP coding. The bulk of your time will be in setting up new template files, coding new CSS, adding content and finalizing the actual look of the site. Most PHP coding is already completed in the chop phase.

We pay $100.00 per WordPress website completion. In most cases, a qualified individual should be able to complete a project in 2-5 hours or less. For the first few projects it may take longer as you become familiar with the process.

Nearly every project will have a 96 hour – 4 business days (Mon-Fri) deadline. We do not work weekends.

Currently, you can expect 4-10 projects per month. As we roll out our design services we forecast this number will go up dramatically in the coming months. Potential for additional work is also available as smaller projects come through, or, plugin development is required.

This job is perfect for someone looking for unsupervised work & flexibility in work hours. Freelancers, part time workers and even full time workers may find this type of work appealing.

We only want people that like what they do and that thrive on challenges. If this sounds like you, then we’d love to hear from you.

HOW TO APPLY

Please send a resume, related work experience and why you are qualified for this position to jobs@genexmarketing.com. Please note that only qualified candidates will be contacted.

QUESTIONS?

Please send an email to info@genexmarketing.com if you have any other questions.

One Touch Sites

Industry / Background:
Website hosting, website design

Solutions Provided:
Custom web design, website development

Customer Feedback:
Awaiting feedback.

The Challenge

OneTouchWebsites.com may seem like a direct competitor to Genex Marketing; however, they are more focused on providing simple website solutions to individuals and small businesses without a lot of customization. They required a website that was focused on presenting the various types of websites they build on an industry by industry basis.

The Solution

We built out a complex web system that is simple and easy to use. Not only is the main website easy to update and tweak, but it is also very easy to manage the various customers that they do business with.

The Results

OneTouchSites.com is currently in beta, but look for its full launch very soon.

East Kootenay Driving Academy

Industry / Background:
Driving school, driving instruction

Solutions Provided:
Custom web design, Corporate ID Package

Customer Feedback:
Awaiting feedback.

The Challenge

As a new business, East Kootenay Driving Academy already had a distinct idea in mind of what they wanted to see in their logo and visual identity. They provided a few ideas and samples as well as a detailed description of what they wanted and we were to start from there. They also required a simple website that would provide information about their classes and service offerings.

The Solution

We built out a couple of visual variations on what they had asked for and successfully delivered exactly what they were looking for. We built out from there and created their business cards, letterhead and other print materials and then designed a simple website that is easy to navigate and use.

The Results

They have had great feedback on their logo design and visuals so far. The website looks and works great and has help them acquire several leads since launch.