This is the next installment of a monthly Welding Resources series. Rather than providing one narrative article detailing a specific tip, procedure, or issue, these Welding Resources posts are meant to serve as a consolidated list of the top online resources for the given topic. Introduction For this month’s welding resources column, we’ll be discussing welding safety gear- a follow-up topic to a previous month’s column on safety resources. General Welding Tips, Resources Welding Safety Tips MORE >>

Although there are significant design enhancements with the new site design, I consider these two as the most significant improvements: Mechanics Lien & Preliminary Notice Resources. For years, Zlien has lead the industry in providing free and useable mechanics lien and preliminary notice resources. must admit, however, navigating all of these resources was cumbersome. The problem was caused because the site’s resources grew by the day, but there was no overarching organization to them. The best part about all of these forms?  Now, it is. MORE >>

Any of you following me for any length of time know that I typically will avoid “branding&# campaigns. do this because I need to make sure that every dollar of your money I spend comes back to you dressed up like a $2 bill. That means less television and radio and more direct mail and online marketing. But a question I got during a phone consult last week is one I often get from contractors large and small, so I thought I would share it with you:  “My construction company does so many things, what should we concentrate on?” Now you just need to focus your marketing. For example. MORE >>

Other useful resources are Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools but my favorite service is statcounter.com.  Web-based marketing allows for an incredible collection of data and information.  Constant Contact and other email service providers, for example, provide extremely detailed and granular reports:  We can see how many people are opening the emails, when, and (most significantly) who is reading what! This tool allows me to see into the source, direction, and level of interest in each of our corporate websites. Best of all, most of these tools are free. MORE >>

As I prepare for my upcoming Construct Canada presentation on architectural, engineering and construction strategic alliance best practices , I’ve discovered some intriguing and appealing presentation resources that go beyond the traditional PowerPoint slides. Prezi’s is designed in the “freemium” marketing model — the basic tool and resource is without charge but it is public on the Internet, so hardly is the best option to prepare internal corporate presentations.  I’ll write more about polleverywhere.com later.). MORE >>