2015
Happy Canada Day 2015
We wish everyone an amazing time and hope you will enjoy your BBQ, Fireworks, Parade or whatever else you have planed to celebrate. Have a good time and Happy Canada Day.
One Person’s E-Trash is Another Person’s Treasure
Electronic waste is the fastest-growing segment in an already unsustainable waste stream. While it currently represents only 2% of the trash in landfills, it contributes 70% of overall toxic waste.
We know that we are all dependent on technology. When was the last time you went a day, even an hour, without checking your phone, email, or flicking on the TV?
We also know that hardware has an expiry date, or at least a perceived one. Think about all of the electronic equipment you have owned: what did you do with it when you upgraded?
Maybe you even still have it in a drawer somewhere—most people do. Only 20% of cell phones make it to a recycling facility, so where do the rest of them end up?
While we don’t have the answer, we do have a solution. The Electronic Recycling Association (ERA) specializes in taking unwanted electronics, fixing them up if we can and repurposing them for a surprisingly large secondary market. Much of what we recover is then provided to deserving local charities at no cost, allowing them to better allocate funding to program development as opposed to purchasing computers. We have convenient recycling depots across Canada where anyone can drop off their old cell phones, computers and other electronic items for free. We even have next-day pickup services for larger quantities or corporate donors.
What about data security? A reasonable concern; information security is one of the main reasons electronic equipment does not get recycled or reused. There are numerous solutions to this concern. When you provide equipment to the Electronic Recycling Association, you have the option to select a data destruction process to protect your intellectual property and sensitive information. This can be either data wiping through the use of industry leading data erasure software or physical data destruction using one of our AmeriShred harddrive shredders. We also provide a certificate of destruction that guarantees all data has been completely removed and/or destroyed and is now irretrievable.
You have options when it comes to disposing of your electronics. There are countless recyclers who offer electronic recycling services. Unfortunately, the majority of these organizations are mandated only to recycle electronics rather than consider the reuse potential, thereby eliminating the possibility of reuse by individuals and organizations unable to afford new items. The Electronic Recycling Association’s primary course of action is to evaluate every item we receive for remaining productive life. Once confirmed, items that can be reused are refurbished and prepared to be redeployed into the marketplace. In the event items do not exhibit any reuse potential, they are sent to one of our accredited recycling partners for final recycling.
An extra value-add is the ERA’s commitment to the community. Reusing computers means we have the ability to donate them to deserving organizations operating within our community. Since 2004 the ERA has donated thousands of computers and other electronics to people in need. This activity compels community goodwill and encourages the community at large to be more cognizant about the environmental impact of improperly disposed electronics. By giving the ERA your old equipment, you will be helping us support the community and protect the environment, all while freeing up space in your home or office.
The Electronic Recycling Association accepts nearly all electronics: old desktop and laptop computers, monitors and TVs, servers, cell phones, smart phones, printers and toner cartridges, cables and accessories, stereo equipment, mp3 and other handheld music devices. If you aren’t sure whether or not we accept an item please contact ERA for confirmation.
Our goal is to make it easy for people to get rid of their old computers and other unwanted items. Contact ERA today to arrange a convenient pick-up or drop-off at 1.877.9EWASTE (1.877.939.2783) or info@era.ca, or visit ERA’s website http://www.era.ca
Promoting your business online: SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Todays topic in our series Promoting your business online is certainly a more complex one and we feel it might be a good idea to start with some basic information. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is what you need to do to get your website found on platforms such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, to name a few.
Depending on who you are talking to the opinion on what kind of work is involved varies. Some will see the implementation of keywords in your website, listing your business on search engines and some other more technical aspect as what SEO is about. Others might see everything to drive traffic to your site as SEO.
Beside the definition there are also many different ways to actually get your site up in ranking and there are even reasons why you may not want to do it. Yes this may sound strange, but you may not want to increase the traffic to your site and we will try our best to explain why.
Lets say you are selling products on your website you also manufacture. The traffic to your website is decent but not amazing. Now imagine the traffic to your site suddenly increases so much that the amount on orders you are receiving exceeds your production capacity. Soon you will find yourself in the unfortunate situation that you can not satisfy your customers anymore. They start to leave bad reviews all over the internet and the entire experience did hurt your business more than it helped.
A much better approach is to increase the traffic to your website slowly so that you have time to adjust and to decide if you need to hire more people and invest in new equipment. This is why you may want to consider getting help from an agency or hire someone to help you in this regard.
Now the problem is that anyone can call themselves SEO Expert and the unfortunate truth is that there are so many bad once out there. To find a good one is very important. We therefore encourage you to shop around before you decide who should support you and we hope some of the following tips will help you in your decision.
- Be sceptical if someone promises you to get you on top of every search engine in just a few weeks.
- A good agency will not only explain what they want to do, but also involve you in the decision process as much as you want
- A good agency will explain everything in terms you understand and will try their best to secure you feel included and be able to ask any question you may have
- A good agency will provide you with a long term plan and will inform you if adjustments are needed
- We here at teccrab will secure you have access to your Google Analytics Reports so you can check your traffic anytime you want. Even if other agencies prefer to use a different software to track the traffic to your website, you should get frequent reports regardless.
We had the unfortunate experience to meet some business owners who got burned by some “experts” who promised them to be on the 1st page on Google. This may sound strange but we as well get frequently Emails from “experts” who tell us our site needs help and promise us to be on the 1st page of Google. They claim to have analyzed our site meticulously without realizing we offer SEO services as well.
The problem as we see it is that good agencies have not only to comped with those “experts” but also get harmed by their business methods. We had clients who raised their eyebrows the moment we mentioned SEO, just because they get flooded with junk Emails. An even bigger problem is when you trust your website to the wrong SEO expert. Because it can be much more dangerous than trusting a bad printer or designer for example. Even if you have to pay for an awful designed website, a brochure or business cards you probably won’t be out of business. Trusting the wrong SEO expert can put you on the so called Blacklist and getting your domain off this list is very time consuming and to repair the bad reputation you may have received online can cost you even more.
Good agencies and experts will support your business with so called white head SEO. They will inform you about changes and advise you what to do. The process to increase the traffic to your site will be managed in a way that is beneficial to your business. A good agency will become a valuable partner you can trust.
We offer free consultations and encourage you to take our offer and compare it before making a decision. To learn more about us please feel free to check out the following links:
http://teccrab.com – Web
http://blog.teccrab.com – Blog
http://twitter.com/teccrab – Twitter
http://facebook.com/teccrab – Facebook
http://plus.google.com/+teccrab – Google Plus
http://www.youtube.com/user/teccrab – YouTube