Happy New Year from the Team at 4PM!

At the start of a new year, it's good to reflect on what's been learned and what's the best way to move forward.

Whilst many 4PM clients have been feeling the economic squeeze, it's very encouraging for us to note that more and more companies are increasing their focus on the Web and how it can improve their business's prospects.

4PM has made some changes to how it does business too, with an improved Website - www.4pm.ie - and a new range of services, all designed to help our customers maximise their Web potential.

We have many new ideas in the pipeline and some exciting projects to launch in the coming months.

The 4PM team continues to expand, with experts in all areas of Web design and development. We look forward with confidence to 2009 and to being of assistance to our clients.

4PM would like to like to wish all our clients and friends best wishes for an exciting and dynamic 2009.

Gary Byrnes

Why now is the perfect time to put your business on the Web

When we're contacting potential customers about 4PM's Web design and development services, it's amazing to hear that because the economy is uncertain right now, it's best to put off building a Website until things improve. WRONG! There are many reasons for taking the plunge and embracing all that the Web has to offer. Here's a few...

• People are shopping around before making any purchase and Google is the main tool they use. If you don’t show up on Google search results, you are out of the loop.
  
• The Web is the cheapest and easiest way for potential customers to find you and for you to advertise yourself.
• The Web is not only useful for reaching your local market, it opens up the entire global market for your business.
• When your Website goes live, it’s a great reason to put out a press release and get some free publicity.
• Your Website will quickly pay for itself through increased sales.
• Businesses that embrace the Web’s potential can stay in touch with customers more easily and survive any  future downturn.

To find out more about how 4PM can help you turn adversity into competitive advantage, call us today on (01) 497 7705 or email info@4pm.ie.

Gary Byrnes, 4PM

4PM Breathes New Life into Antiques

4PM's Antiques Manager content management system is the easy way for antique dealers to unlock the Web's incredible potential.

4PM has an extensive client base and strong track record in Websites for estate agents and other property specialists. We took this experience and developed our CMS to suit antiques, resulting in a powerful tool that allows dealers to quickly and easily upload their latest items to their Website. Any information that goes with the images is fully-searchable, resulting in a user experience that is immediate, relevant and useful.

For not much more than the cost of attending a single trade show, antiques dealers can get a custom-designed 4PM Website, complete with classy design, CMS and training, so ongoing maintenance costs are virtually zero.

To celebrate this new service, 4PM is offering HALF-PRICE HOSTING for 3 years, plus substantial discounts on design fees.

To take your antiques business to the next level, save on marketing costs and, most of all, reach a truly global market for your items, get in touch with 4PM today.

To see an example of a Website for Patrick Howard Antiques, one of Ireland's leading antique dealers, check out the link on our homepage, at www.4pm.ie

Gary Byrnes

Whiskey in the Jar at IFRA Expo 08

4PM, European distributors of AdLizard, the revolutionary software that bridges print and Web media, enjoyed a highly successful presence at IFRA Expo 08.

In true Irish spirit, the 4PM team brought some classic Irish whiskeys to share with the thousands of top newspaper buyers from around the world. Great interest was shown in AdLizard by dozens of news titles, all focused on making the transition from print into digital as smooth as possible.

Luckily, AdLizard solves so many problems in dealing with advertising copy efficiently and quickly, 4PM is confident that a number of IFRA Expo contacts will soon be partners.

Enjoy a piece of IFRA Expo legend by watching John Kennedy, 4PM Managing Director, extolling the virtues of Irish whiskey to the IFRA video reporters.

4 Billion Trees Can’t Be Right!

Apparently we cut down 4 billion O2-making, CO2-trapping trees each year to meet our insatiable demands for paper. With something like 464 million newspapers printed and sold each day (Source: Guardian.co.uk, June 5, 2006), it’s easy to see how the carnage in the forests soon adds up.

The growing range of E Ink devices on the market, such as Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s eBook will be joined in early 2009 by the eReader (pictured), from German-based company Plastic Logic. All these devices share the ability to display content traditionally confined to paper media. The potential benefits are enormous, including better use of resources, zero waste and instant access to content.

The eReader has a touchscreen a full 8.5 X 11 inches in size and is thinner than a notepad. The reader supports a full range of business document formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Adobe PDFs, as well as newspapers, periodicals and books. It has an easy, gesture-based user interface and powerful software tools that will help business users to organize and manage their information. Users can connect to their information either wired or wirelessly and store thousands of documents on the device.

So, will the eReader help humankind to make the leap from traditional ink and paper to E Ink? How will this transition affect newspaper publishers? It can only be a revolution. 4PM has one solution: AdLizard allows newspapers to gather advertising online, then distribute it via paper or online titles. Contact 4PM today to find out more about preparing for the E Ink revolution.

See a movie at www.cnn.com/ecosolutions

Visit the eReader maker’s Website at www.plasticlogic.com

IN THE CURRENT ECONOMIC CLIMATE, WEBSITES AND SEO ARE THE MOST COST EFFECTIVE MEANS OF REACHING ANY CUSTOMER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

6 November 2008

RE: New 4PM.ie Website 

4PM grows and so does our website! 4PM is an Internet solution and management company that helps businesses to structure, manage and deliver information and services online. In recent years, 4PM has diversified its activity from a strong property base, innovating in new markets and creating new Internet solutions for companies in different sectors.

The content on 4pm.ie has expanded and lets viewers easily discover all of our products and activities online. For example, Website design, hosting solutions, SEO* (Search Engine Optimisation) and hardware. 4PM has also launched new applications, such as CMS** (content management systems) adapted for specific activity sectors (Property, Antiques, Fashion) and which can be personalized for each company adding new features and adapting the corporate identity.

4Pm Managing Director John Kennedy says: “4PM is confident of strong growth through 2009, thanks to our range of innovative Web technologies and the changing demands of the market, specifically:

Using SEO technology and original content, Website owners can be confident of being towards the top of Google search results;

 

CMS means that Website owners can update Websites themselves without having to pay their Web designer or any other third party;

 

Websites will be increasingly relied upon by State bodies as the most efficient and cost effective means of disseminating information to the population;

 

4PM's skills in design and programming ensure that we can complete all of a company's design requirements, from Website to logo to brochure, all in-house, keeping costs to a minimum and guaranteeing consistency;

 

4PM’s AdLizard technology offers newspapers the ability to combine print and Web for the easy creation of advertising, both off- and online.

 

We invite you to get started by visiting www.4pm.ie or by contacting us on 01 497 7705 so that we can discuss your requirements further.”

 

Ends.

 

*Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of editing and organizing the content on a Webpage or across a Website to increase its potential relevance to specific keywords on search engines and, as importantly, ensuring that external links to the site are correctly titled and plentiful.

**A CMS (Content Management System) is a computer application used to create, edit, manage, and publish content in a consistently organized fashion. The content managed may include computer files, image media, audio files, video files, electronic documents and Web content.  CMS is the next big thing in Websites.

Obama's Victory and the Web

Barack Obama's victory in the US presidential election has broken the mould in many obvious ways, but it has also thrust the Web to the fore as a political tool.

Obama embraced the Web, while rival McCain remained mired in the prehistorical and annoying technology of automated phonecalls. Obama was thus able to connect with the young voters who have grown up with the Web and who use it more than, for example, TV.

Obama also maximised his ability to raise funds, by allowing credit card donations through his Website. All those $50 donations added up to substantially more than McCain's donations from business and old money.

In another example of the Web's rise to power, all the news sites maximised their use of interactive Web technologies to cover the vote counting and made it clear that Web-delivered news can beat the pants off TV and newspapers. The US election has taken the Web media to the next level and media consumers have said "Yes, this is better."

Then we had the bloggers. Political bloggers in America seem to have overtaken newspaper pundits in terms of audience and it was heartening to see more bloggers being interviewed on TV than old-school journalists.

Finally, during the long lead up to the election, the Web - through a link-up between CNN TV and YouTube - enhanced democratic participation by allowing voters to pose video questions to the candidates on the live TV debates.

From almost every perspective, Obama's victory has meant as much for the Web as it has for democracy in America. God bless the Web!

Gary Byrnes, 4pm.ie