After an exciting month, our “Save a Chicken, Win an iPad!” contest wrapped up today!

Over the course of the contest, 358 people entered on the CityMax.com Facebook page and today our President & Chief Evangelist, Dean Gagnon, pulled the winners’ names out of the bucket!

Since we had so many excited entrants, we decided to throw in one extra bonus prize. Now, let’s get to the results!

Our runner-up winner is…

Barbara White of Vancouver, BC!

Barbara wins a free CityMax.com website, domain, and hosting for one year. Congratulations!

And now, drum roll please.

The grand prize winner of the Apple iPad is…

Eco Candle Company of Appleton, Wisconsin!!

Founded by Shelley Nystrom of Wisconsin, the Eco Candle Company wins a 16GB iPad with Wi-Fi and 3G capabilities. A flock of chickens will also be donated in Eco Candle’s name to Heifer International. This plucky flock of chickens will help an impoverished family in Tanzania.

A big congratulations to our winners and a huge thank you to everyone for entering the contest and for sharing so many positive comments on our Facebook page!!

You probably already know all about Facebook. You might even be thinking, why should I care about Brenda’s late night out or what Tommy had for lunch?

The answer: with over 400 million active users (50% of them logging on every day), businesses big and small are using Facebook Pages to connect with customers and enhance their relationships.

When you consider that the average user has 130 friends, you can quickly see that Facebook provides an unparalleled opportunity for businesses to engage and network.

With that in mind, we’ve decided to launch the CityMax Facebook Page - better late than never, and we want to hear what you have to say! Go to www.facebook.com/CityMax and hit the “Like” button to start contributing to the conversation.

Why connect with us on Facebook?

1. access to special promotions and offers,
2. the chance to promote your own website, and
3. the opportunity to leave and ask for feedback.

To celebrate our launch, we’ll be giving away an iPad! To enter, simply join the page and tag yourself in a “Save a Chicken, Win an iPad” photo.

The CityMax.com Facebook page has a “Favorite Pages” section – that spot is reserved for all of our customers’ Facebook Pages (which is why you should create one for your business!).

One example of a great Facebook Page is CityMax.com customer Classic Shaving – their page has an impressive 1,505 “Likes” (formerly known as “Fans”).  Their page offers special discount codes, and allows customers to ask questions and leave comments.

With the growing importance of “Likes” in 3rd party websites and its use in search engine optimization, we recommend that all online businesses have a Facebook Page. To get started on your own page, click here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php.

Last night, BCBusiness Magazine hosted a gala dinner to announce their picks for the 2009 Best Companies to Work for in BC, and CityMax.com placed 2nd for companies with under 100 employees!

The criteria for the Best Companies to Work for in BC is an organizational-wide employee survey measuring satisfaction in key areas, including leadership, work culture, and employee engagement. The data is compiled by BCBusiness Magazine and MindField Group to determine the winner.

“We are very pleased to be named the second Best Company to Work for in BC,” said Dean Gagnon, our Chief Evangelist and President. “One of the goals in our Painted Picture is to make CityMax.com the best, most fun and healthiest workplace in the world. This extraordinary achievement is a direct result of the tremendous efforts from our entire team.”

In the words of BCBusiness Magazine:

“There’s a fine line between work and play at CityMax.com, and staff and management wouldn’t have it any other way. The decade-old website builder’s bright and airy Gastown office is filled with whimsical touches motivating the mostly 20- and 30-somethings clicking away in casual open-concept pods. For added incentive, there’s the six-foot MVP trophy, the Wheel of Fortune laden with possible prizes and the candy jar stuffed with lottery-style tickets…”

Read more: http://www.bcbusinessonline.ca/bcb/sponsored/best-companies-2009/2009/12/03/citymaxcom#ixzz0Xzf5G2i4

Here are a few photos from the event!

Huge congrats to all the other Best Companies, both in the under 100 and over 100 employee categories! Keep up the good work!

We’re upgrading our blog! You’ve been asking us for more business advice, so we listened. The newly enhanced CityMaxBlog will be bring you more articles filled with direct advice on how to make more money in your online business. From marketing trends to public relations, check back often for a variety of helpful how-to pieces from our team and guest bloggers.

Remember, you can always let us know what you’d like to see more of, just send us a message on Twitter - @CityMax (http://www.twitter.com/CityMax).

Did you have a great Halloween? Sure hope so!

We had a little competition going on over here with our pumpkin carving contest – 3 teams, 3 designs, one winner.

The pumpkins, in order – team 1 (bats), team 2 (CityMax ghoul), and team 3 (Mario).

Team 1 took the prize, because what you can’t see in this picture is the flashing light and smoke (dry ice) pouring out. Way to go Team 1!

Who would you have voted for? Let us know on Twitter - @CityMax!

Are you feeding the search engines the right info to help your ranking?

Meta tags are one of the hidden elements in the code of your web pages that search engines look for your keywords. By including your keywords in your Title, Description, and Keyword tags, you tell the search engines that those words are hot topics on your website. The best part is, with the CityMax website builder you don’t have to mess with any code to make it happen!

To change the tags on your small business website, just click ‘Internet Marketing’ when you’re editing a page. You can then customize the Title, Description, and Keywords tags for that specific page.

We’ve got some pretty big plans for CityMax over the next while. In fact, we’ve actually written up our “Painted Picture”, which is a vision of where we see ourselves going in the next few years!
Down the road you’ll be able to do much more than just make a website with the CityMax website builder. You’ll be part of a community of successful entrepreneurs, exchanging advice, getting access to special offers, and maximizing your own small business website.

Click here to read our Painted Picture!

New to CityMax? When you sign up for a free trial, take advantage of our helpful Web Coaches!

CityMax Web Coaches are there to make sure you’re on the right track as you’re learning to make a website. They can help you figure out what you want to do with your site and give you some tips for making it happen.

To schedule a Coach Call, click the banner on your trial website toolbar!

I’m the newest addition to the team here at a CityMax!
You might have already seen me on the new CityMax.com website. That was my first assignment – I even got to do a little video to introduce the website builder. It was my first “starring role”!
Anyways, my job is pretty much to give you the inside scoop. You know… all the things that you want to know to get the most out of your website builder!

On this blog, you’ll find out about all the great features you have right at your fingertips, just waiting to help you grow your business.

You’ll also start to see me around the website builder, helping you get the most out of CityMax, through introductory and “how-to” videos.

Well, that’s pretty much it for now. I can’t wait to share some of our “in-house info” with you!

Thank You for your business, collaboration and loyalty for the last 10 years.
What started as a simple goal (to give small business owners the tools to get their own websites) turned into the invention of the first dynamic easy website builder and, eventually, tens of thousands of loyal, active, and passionate entrepreneurs.

Like any good internet company, it started with a handful of zealots working all hours to create something really cool.  The dot com crash tested us.  Then a handful of passionate geeks joined and gave us the energy to take the company to the next level. Since then there was no turning back.  One by one, we built a team of empathetic and talented young professionals that really do care about you and the success of your website.

Being one of the online innovators and leaders over the last ten years has meant that we’ve had some great success and a few stumbles along the way. Thank You so much for sharing the highs with us and for your patience when it was required.

As we head into 2009, I’m very excited to let you in on a secret.  In the next days, weeks and months, CityMax will be transformed with:

• A new, improved website builder
• New, improved support
• New, improved communication between you and CityMax
• New tools
• New servers
• New training and education
• New exclusive offers from some very cool customers

Over the last year, you’ve seen us quietly make a number of fundamental changes, like the Account System, that have enabled us make these improvements possible.

The most exciting part is the new “let’s do it” attitude that has swept over the team.  They’re determined to make CityMax more than just your website builder. They’re committed to providing all the tools, education and support you need to make your website a success.
Almost a year ago, the team committed to a new plan, to doing things differently and to doing whatever it takes to make it happen.   During these meetings, the team developed CityMax’s Vision, which has guided us in everything we’ve done ever since:

CityMax Vision

• CityMax.com fuels the entrepreneur’s dreams online and is the vehicle that brings those dreams to reality.
• By empowering the entrepreneur, our team, and our community with easy tools and education, we help make the imaginable possible.
• Our long-term goal is to have a community of 1 Million entrepreneurs that trust and depend on our builder, tools, and education by 2015.
• CityMax.com is where great people make great things happen.

Finally, I would like to introduce Max.  He’s a tiny bit of each one of us here.  He’s passionate about your success and believes in you.  He lives the CityMax Vision and will be cheering you on in the background.   You will get to know him well over the weeks ahead and I think you will grow to love him like we have.
At that, I will turn this blog over to Max and talk to you again as a guest blogger every now and then in the future.”

Thank You once again for your business.

Dean H Gagnon
Chief Evangelist & President