Salt Lake City-based franchising company AlphaGraphics is in the midst of a major expansion effort and has its sights set on El Paso.

The company, which provides marketing and visual communications solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses, plans to open its first El Paso location in the next six months to a year, said Art Coley, senior director of franchise development.

The company hopes to have three to four El Paso stores, all of which will be franchises, within three years, he added.

"The shortest and simplest way (to describe us) is we are a solution provider," Coley said. "We provide marketing and visual communications for small- and medium-sized businesses. What does that mean? Everything from Web sites, e-mail campaigns, direct mailing, printing services for business cards and letterheads.

Customer Surveys: A Powerful Link Building Tool

One of the most effective link building tools I use is a customer survey. Surveys are usually written from a customer service standpoint: companies want to know the opinions of the people who buy from them and crave feedback on how they're doing. Honorable intentions for sure but in today's link marketing, it's less about where customers stand and more about where they're going.

In the past, I provided a general questionnaire to the company that contracted my linking services, then pulled demographic information from the site's web logs. Using web logs is still a viable tactic but I've come to understand that today's Internet is different and I need to adapt what I do along with it. The explosion of Web 2.0 and social media type sites is changing the way we work and the way I market for links.

Putting a stop to spam!

It's proving to be a good year for consumers who are fed up with being hit from all sides by spam - marketing messages they neither asked for nor want. The latest "leave me alone" tool to come our way are new regulations - effective from Wednesday - which make it compulsory for companies which send SMSes within South Africa to give consumers an easy opt-out. All you have to do is hit reply, enter the word "Stop" and then send. Standard SMS rates will apply. The regulations have been introduced by industry regulator the Wireless Applications Service Provider Association (Waspa), to spare consumers having to go through the process of lodging complaints on the Waspa website. .

Customer Surveys: A Powerful Link Building Tool

One of the most effective link building tools I use is a customer survey. Surveys are usually written from a customer service standpoint: companies want to know the opinions of the people who buy from them and crave feedback on how they're doing. Honorable intentions for sure but in today's link marketing, it's less about where customers stand and more about where they're going.

In the past, I provided a general questionnaire to the company that contracted my linking services, then pulled demographic information from the site's web logs. Using web logs is still a viable tactic but I've come to understand that today's Internet is different and I need to adapt what I do along with it. The explosion of Web 2.0 and social media type sites is changing the way we work and the way I market for links.

Auto insurance without car

You might not have a car, but that doesn't mean you don't need auto insurance.

Take Sandy, a Baltimore resident who occasionally rents a car but finds insurance from rental agencies cost-prohibitive.

She writes in an e-mail: "I usually rent a car about twice a month for a day or a weekend, sometimes longer. The loss damage waiver offered by the car rental companies often costs as much as the rental fee - and sometimes even more. I know that many credit card agreements provide insurance coverage for car rentals, but this does not always mean full coverage. Is there a policy available from any insurance company that would provide coverage on a yearly basis for people in this situation?"

Auto insurance without car

You might not have a car, but that doesn't mean you don't need auto insurance.

Take Sandy, a Baltimore resident who occasionally rents a car but finds insurance from rental agencies cost-prohibitive.

She writes in an e-mail: "I usually rent a car about twice a month for a day or a weekend, sometimes longer. The loss damage waiver offered by the car rental companies often costs as much as the rental fee - and sometimes even more. I know that many credit card agreements provide insurance coverage for car rentals, but this does not always mean full coverage. Is there a policy available from any insurance company that would provide coverage on a yearly basis for people in this situation?"

Harte-Hanks Launches New Web Platform www.citdb.com to Make Tech Contacts Easily Available to Emerging Marketers

Harte-Hanks, Inc. (NYSE: HHS), a worldwide direct and targeted marketing company, announced today the release of an e-commerce platform designed to provide small and emerging technology marketers and sellers easy access to technology contacts across North America, Europe and South America. The new site, http://www.citdb.com, allows technology companies with small marketing budgets to search and select contacts from the Harte-Hanks Ci Technology Database (CiTDB), a source of rich installed technology content from 700,000 business sites on three continents.

CiTDB.com users can focus their search on a very specific geographical area or market sector, and rent a list of contacts they want, entirely online by credit card. The data made available are name, company, mailing address and telephone number based on the user's query, but without the location's technology profile information that is only associated with a full CiTDB subscription.

CATA Named #1 Transit System in North America

The Capital Area Transportation Authority (CATA) has been named the best transit system of its size in North America by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).

CATA was ranked #1 in the competitive 4-30 million passenger trips category. This category includes 106 transit systems. APTA gives out the Outstanding Transportation System Achievement Award annually to honor transit systems demonstrating exceptional efficiency and effectiveness. Transit systems are judged on services and programs, safety, operations, customer service, financial management, attendance and employee costs, advancement of minorities and women, marketing, policy and administration, and community relations.