Wisam Abdulla – Online Marketer + Entrepreneur

Wisam Abdulla

Follow me as I conquer the internet, one inspired project at a time.

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Sunday Favourites #3

Sunday Favourites

I missed last week. It looks like this is turning into a bi-weekly thing instead of weekly. I was busy with VANCOUVER STARTUP WEEKEND, also known as best weekend in a while!

Here is what’s good:

    • Social Buzz: Social Buzz is a local events calendar that is generated based on what people are talking about on social media. This is what my amazing team and I created last weekend at Vancouver Startup Weekend. Sign up for early beta and check out my pitch below!
  • GrowLab Demo Day: “On Tuesday November 29th, GrowLab will be hosting a group of investors in an invite-only event to present the results of 4 intensive months of work with our first group of companies. Afterwards we are inviting the startup community to meet and network with our entrepreneurs and their backers.” 

    Should be interesting to see how far the teams have come in four crazy months!

That’s all I have for now.

Be disruptive.

 

 

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Sunday Favourites #2

Sunday Favourites

Hopefully, no one noticed that I missed Sunday Favourites last week. Things have been hectic.

Here is what’s been lighting my fire this week:

  • Vancouver Startup Weekend: “No Talk, All Action. Launch a Startup in 54 hours. Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate and inspire individuals, teams and communities. Come share ideas, form teams and launch startups.” There’s still tickets available for designers and waitlist spots available for developers. I’m super excited!

That’s all I got for this week.

Stay foolish.

 

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Sunday Favourites #1

Sunday Favourites

My very lovely friend, Rachel Scott, has a wonderful creative blog with a weekly feature called Friday Favourites. In the feature, she shares interesting stuff she discovered that week. I really like the concept, so I’m stealing it. Haha.

Here is what’s been lighting my fire this week:

  • Playground Sessions: Piano lessons meet web 2.0 – web-based learning software paired with video from YouTube piano star, David Sides. You learn how to play the piano by playing along with Sides to your favourite songs on a keyboard connected to your computer while the software gives you real-time feedback. Public beta opens on November 1st, I’m picking up a keyboard today!
  • 7 Ways To Build A Brand From Scratch: I discovered Playground Sessions while reading this interesting article from Fast Company. Playground Session is the creation of Zag New York, a unit of global advertising agency BBH. Zag dubs itself a brand invention business. They research niches with brand lag, areas with high consumer activity but low brand activity, and then create brands in the space. I think it’s very interesting to see an advertising agency start creating brands, instead of just helping brands. To be successful today, it’s so important to have a strong brand, it’s not just about great product anymore – you need both. Who can create a brand better than advertising agency?
  • Assistly: As some of you know, I’m working on a new startup. One of our core promises is to provide incredible customer service. To help with this, I’ve been looking for a web-based customer support software. Assistly connects to all of your different service channels (email, facebook, twitter, live chat, etc), and brings all of your service/support conversations into one gorgeous dashboard. I’m just starting to dig around in it but it’s so cool so far that I thought it was worth a mention.
  • Hacked!: A compelling long read from The Atlantic that shows why you really need to be using two-factor authentication everywhere you can. I currently use it on Facebook and GMail (just imagine how devastating it would be to have either of those accounts hacked). For Facebook and GMail, whenever you log in from an unrecognized device (public computer, etc.), a text message with a security code is sent to your mobile phone. You are required to enter the security code, along with your password, in order to log in. This simple extra step can prevent virtually all unauthorized access, even if your password is compromised.

Alright friends, that’s all I have for this week. I hope you liked this first installment of my Sunday Favourites. I’d love to hear feedback/suggestions for next week!

Stay hungry.

 

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Beyond SEO: Breaking into International Markets

SEO

One of my clients sells aftermarket forklift parts in Canada and the US. They want to start selling globally. Based in Canada, and already selling to the states, Mexico and South America seem like a natural starting point, due to relative proximity and, supposedly, low competition (according to their informal research). Since yours truly has brought them some (I’m being modest ;) ) success breaking into the US market through online strategy, they came to me for suggestions. I’ve quickly discovered that breaking into international markets will take a lot more than online marketing magic.
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Tumblr VS WordPress VS Posterous

Web

Interested in blogging? Not sure where to start? Here is a comparison of three of the most popular personal blogging platforms.

Prior to launching my blog, one of the first decisions I had to make (aside from choosing a domain name) was what platform to use. There are many options, but I’m going to look at the three I’m most familiar with: Tumblr, WordPress and Posterous.

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Feeling inspired? Work!

Inspiration

This past summer, I read Rework by the guys over at 37Signals (GREAT book, incredible company). One of their pieces of advice has changed the way I work. They suggest (and I agree) that, “inspiration is perishable”. What I took from this is, if you’re feeling inspired, work! Have a great business idea? Pull out a notebook and start writing down your thoughts, or better yet, start building. If you sit on it, your enthusiasm will fade and your idea will remain just an idea.

Here’s the excerpt from Rework:

Inspiration is perishable
We all have ideas. Ideas are immortal. They last forever. What doesn’t last forever is inspiration. Inspiration is like fresh fruit or milk: It has an expiration date. If you want to do something, you’ve got to do it now. You can’t put it on a shelf and wait two months to get around to it. You can’t just say you’ll do it later. Later, you won’t be pumped up about it anymore. If you’re inspired on a Friday, swear off the weekend and dive into the project. When you’re high on inspiration, you can get two weeks of work done in twenty-four hours. Inspiration is a time machine in that way. Inspiration is a magical thing, a productivity multiplier, a motivator. But it won’t wait for you. Inspiration is a now thing. If it grabs you, grab it right back and put it to work!

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