Sitemasher Buzz

Vote for Sitemasher at CEO World 2008 Web 2.0 Awards

2008-12-19T10:35:00.000-08:00

Sitemasher has made CEO World Magazine's "short list" of Top Publishing & Content Management web application for it's 2008 web 2.0 award!

After scrutinizing the web for Web 2.0 sites both new and old, CEO World Magazine developed a “short list” of over 25 sites in each category. The jury was formed by 15 top Internet and Web 2.0 experts from US, India, UK, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Australia, Sweden and South Africa.

The websites were evaluated by majority of votes based on ten main criteria:

Content
Authority
Navigation
Design
Accessibility
Innovation
Business sense and growth expectations
Degree of competition mix in their market
Team
Traffic type: blog, wiki, Services using tags, Mash up based on Google / Yahoo / Live.com maps, Feeds and social networking sites etc.

VOTE for Sitemasher today and read more here!

Sitemasher Has New Digs

2008-12-12T14:56:00.000-08:00

Sitemasher, a Vancouver startup company, has just moved into its new office to accommodate a growing “Masher” team. Since Sitemasher moved into its first office on West 5th Avenue and Burrard Street, Sitemasher’s staff has more than doubled, increasing from ten employees in December 2007 to twenty-six employees in December 2008.

“It was definitely time to move from our 1,900-square-foot office into a more suitable space. We were practically sitting on top of each other!” says Ron Moravek, Sitemasher’s Chief Executive Officer. This led Ron and Curtis Terry, Sitemasher’s Chief Financial Officer, on an exhaustive hunt throughout Downtown and Westside Vancouver. They were on a mission to find an ideal spot for the Mashers.

After lots of searching, Ron and Curtis found and secured Sitemasher’s new 6,000-square-foot office, located at 326 West 5th Avenue (near Cambie Street). “We have ample room to stretch out while working hard and also have some extra room to have fun. We plan to set up Sitemasher’s Xbox game room, a yoga area, and other fun stuff,” says Courtney Inman, Sitemasher’s Miss Everything (who, by the way, always does a great job getting the Mashers excited about company events).

Here are a few Masher memories of the old office:

“At least I can lean back in my chair now that I am not in the hallway.”
Josh, Project Manager
“I’ll miss being in the scrum pit. Now I have to act like a real manager with my own office. Maybe I should move back in?”
Eric Dorgelo, VP, Product Development
“I will not miss the expensive parking. It’s way better here at our new office.”
Curtis Terry, Chief Financial Officer
“I loved the plastic fold-up tables – it gave a true startup feeling. Also, it was nice being so close to each other. I believe the learning environment was great (via osmosis).”
Shannon Yelland, Online Marketing Manager
“I’ll miss the fantastic coffee at Elysian. But the new location means I can get a lift to work – you can’t beat being chauffeured right to the front door first thing in the morning!”
Caragh Smyth, Technical Writer
I’ll miss dropping mice on Arash and hearing woman-like screams!”
Ron Moravek, Chief Executive Officer
“I’ll miss the smell of popcorn from the Fifth Avenue Cinema.”
David Weavers, Web Developer
“I’ll miss the boarding shops on West 4th Avenue. But I guess that is a good thing, because I’ll save some money now.”
Pat Alec, Web Developer
“I'm really missing the Elysian Cafe since our move. I'm in serious good-coffee-at-work withdrawal.”
Sean Calder, Senior UI Developer
“The old office was better for sharing knowledge, because we sat so close to each other, and it was good for peer review and extreme programming. The good thing about the new place is that it gives me room to breathe and some silence. I like the new place because there are some things yet to be discovered!”
Tanzim Saqib, Programmer
“The old place seemed like a family environment – like one big family in a very small apartment.”
Jeff Sani, Network Guy

Sitemasher's New office:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

About Sitemasher
A complete website solution. One online platform. Sitemasher provides a fully managed, hosted website solution that seamlessly integrates a website building and publishing environment, a content management system (CMS), analytics, and search engine optimization (SEO)…all within a single platform.

Sitemasher on Get Connected

2008-12-11T15:15:00.000-08:00

Today is Sitemasher "Girl in Your Shirt Day"

2008-12-09T09:10:00.000-08:00

Sitemasher Moves up on Techvibes Vancouver Startup Index

2008-12-05T08:36:00.000-08:00

Sitemasher has moved up 5 spots in the last month from 23rd to 18th on Techvibes Vancouver Startup Index!

Techvibes is a hyper-local technology blog, events calendar, job board, and company directory across a growing network of 11 cities - Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo, Victoria, Seattle, Portland, and Denver-Boulder. Our unique mix of content and functionality has helped grow the Techvibes global community to over 50,000 members over the past six years.

The Techvibes Start-up Indexes are a monthly ranking of local start-ups based on an average of Alexa and Compete rankings.

The criteria for companies to appear on the list:

Located in or around the specified city or area.
Less than five years old
Not a public company
Is a tech company (either hardware, software, web application/service, or mobile)

The Index is intended as a jovial comparison of local companies. Comprehensive traffic data is difficult to obtain, and neither Alexa or Compete’s numbers are perfect; we average them to smooth out bias.

See how Sitemasher ranks up to other Vancouver startups here.

Start-Up of the Week on Babeofbusiness.com: Sitemasher

2008-11-17T08:52:00.000-08:00

Crystal Williams, a diehard entrepreneur interviews Shannon Yelland, Sitemasher's online marketing manager.

Crystal's blog called Babeofbusiness.com is all about "A Little Business Know-How from the Chick in the Skirt…"

"Building, maintaining and optimizing great Web sites takes time, effort and experience. It also takes some special tools and software – which usually have to be researched and bought from multiple sources. At the end of the day, it can be a time-consuming and expensive process – researching, buying, installing and using - for freelance Web designers and small businesses relying on limited resources and personnel. But don’t get down in the dumps just yet."

Read more at www.babeofbusiness.com.

Sitemasher Launches Partner Program

2008-10-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Website Platform Enables Designers To Boost Revenue and Reach New Markets

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – October 28, 2008 – Sitemasher’s new online website platform puts the focus on the website and not the programming and IT development needed to create it. Today, Sitemasher goes one step further in letting professional web designers be web designers and not IT people by launching a partner program aimed squarely at firms focusing on website design, development, and brand marketing and consulting. With Sitemasher’s website building platform, partners will be able to earn more revenue by speeding the design and development process and to access new markets by maximizing the skills of the entire team.

Sitemasher changes the game in building and managing websites. Traditionally a sophisticated, interactive site requires several people, including a designer, developer, back-end IT administrator and a project owner, to implement a full project. But the Sitemasher website platform enables designers to create pixel-perfect, full-featured custom sites that can be implemented easily without programming and IT integration.

“Sitemasher lets us focus on what we do best. My team is now not constrained by the need for mechanical processes such as CMS setup,” said Erik Themmen of Level2wo, a marketing & creative agency with offices in Miami, Atlanta and Boston. “Now my designers are free to design, and our IT staff can focus on finding new, creative ways to use technology.”

Sitemasher’s partnership program has three tiers depending on the number of websites published by the website design firm. Benefits of the program vary by tier and include listing as a partner on the Sitemasher partnership page, customer leads, a free subscription for the design firm’s website, varying levels of support, and volume discounts or commissions.

“We strive to help design, development and marketing firms find ways to make money faster. Most are artists and designers at heart, not technologists. By removing the technology side and giving them powerful design tools, our partners can increase revenues, profitability and even reach out to new markets,” said Sitemasher Vice President of Marketing Nicole Denil.

Pricing and Availability

All versions of Sitemasher include the fully hosted website builder, content management, analytics and search engine optimization, as well as the hosting of the published websites. Pricing starts at $99/month per website for the basic subscription that allows up to three users to build and manage the website. The Standard version allows up to five users at $249/month, and the Premium package is $699/month for unlimited users. Read more on pricing here.

About Sitemasher

Established in 2007, Sitemasher (www.sitemasher.com ) provides a fully managed, hosted website solution that seamlessly integrates website building, content management, analytics and search engine optimization (SEO), all within a single platform. Sitemasher can be found at www.sitemasher.com.

Sitemasher helps raise awareness of Waste Reduction Week in Canada

2008-10-22T15:56:00.000-07:00

Did you know that it's Waste Reduction Week (http://www.wrwcanada.com/) from October 19 – 25th, 2008 in Canada?

“If you are heading down to buy a coffee, grab a portable mug from the kitchen or what the heck, grab a regular mug!” says Courtney Inman, Sitemasher’s Miss Everything (HR, Recruiting, and Office Management).

Courtney reminds Mashers on a daily basis that they should cut down on paper coffee cup consumption. Every little bit helps, so think twice about your daily habits and daily consumption

So what should you do for Waste Reduction Week in Canada?

Courtney challenges the Sitemasher gang (and anyone else) this week to:

Grab a mug from the kitchen before heading down to the coffee shop to reduce consumption of take-away cups.
Recycle the itty bittiest pieces of paper i.e. receipts, post its, etc. Every little bit counts!
Spread the word –email your friends, blog & twitter about Waste Reduction Week.

What Sitemasher does on a regular basis:

Uses 100% post consumer waste office paper.
Has a Mashcycling depot where we can not only recycle blue bin products, we also have the opportunity to recycle light bulbs, batteries, plastic bags, & old electronics.
No more big plastic bottles for Sitemasher…we already took the Tap Water Pledge. Read more here.
Recycled marketing material…from our biodegradable trade show signage to our recycled paper business cards.

Want to share what your company does for Waste Reduction Week? Please feel free to comment below.

Sitemasher has taken the pledge at Design Can Change

2008-10-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

Sitemasher (www.sitemasher.com/) has taken the pledge at Design Can Change (www.designcanchange.org/), a non-commercial initiative aimed at bringing together the design community and making system-wide changes to how our work affects the planet.

"Sitemasher is creating a new era of website development, but we also want to be part of a new era of businesses that think about their impact on the environment. We are not Mother Earth’s guardians by any means, but we aspire to be, one Masher step at a time,” says Courtney Inman, Sitemasher’s Miss Everything (HR, Recruiting, and Office Management).

How does it work?
Design Can Change offers a simple framework for bringing sustainable practice to design studios. There’s nothing particularly strict about the effort – it’s really just a set of guidelines that gets the ball rolling.

Why should I care?
The risk that global warming presents is huge and its impact can be devastating. As the main contributors to this crisis, we all have a major responsibility.

How Sitemasher is acting on its pledge on sustainable practice

Sitemasher took the “tap water pledge” to drink tap water rather than bottled water. Did you know that Vancouver has awesome, delicious water…from the tap? Read more here.
Sitemasher has a Mashcycling depot conveniently located in the kitchen that enables employees to recycle plastic bottles and containers, metal and tin containers, aluminum foil, glass, all paper products, electronics, batteries, light bulbs, and plastic bags.
Sitemasher uses green office supplies ordered from Sitemasher’s local office supplier, Frogfile. Green products (such as office copy paper that’s made up of 100 percent post-consumer waste), green delivery, and great service!
Sitemasher uses green cleaning products for its dishes, counters, floors, and carpets.
Sitemasher uses energy savers such as energy-efficient light bulbs and power bars to kill phantom power. And because Sitemasher couldn’t get the BC Hydro Cheerleaders to encourage Mashers to turn off the lights, we now have “Yahhhh to turning off the lights!” reminder signs.
Mashers like to think green when they party at company events outdoors…from recycled napkins to biodegradable cups, cutlery, and plates.
Sitemasher is open to suggestions for continual learning and growth. We have an improvement list and would love to keep adding to it, so please send us an email message with your suggestions to Courtney@sitemasher.com.

Sitemasher challenges you or your company to join the pledge! Visit http://www.designcanchange.org/ and read about the effort. The site will answer many of your questions and recommend ways to start addressing the issue. If you feel the initiative makes sense, then why not sign the online pledge?

PLEASE DO NOT PRINT THIS PAGE. It looks nicer on your screen and you can help save a tree!

Want to share what your company does for sustainability or let us know that you've taken the pledge? Please feel free to comment below.

Sitemasher Launches Free Website Design Contest

2008-10-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

Invites Students and Professionals to Showcase Their Design Skills Using Sitemasher’s Online Platform

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – October 8, 2008 – Sitemasher’s newly released online website platform unleashes the design process from the complexities of coding. To encourage both students and professionals to experience this design freedom, Sitemasher today launched a free website design contest that rewards the best in design, usability, functionality and ease of maintenance.

The Sitemasher Website Design Contest, which runs through March 1, 2009, is a professional development opportunity for those looking to prove themselves in the fast evolving design market. Tools like Sitemasher change the rules for website building, making it fast, easy and inexpensive to develop and manage highly interactive websites. Participants in the contest will get an opportunity to showcase their skills by tapping into the power of this new platform, which combines an intuitive website builder, content management, analytics, search engine optimization and website hosting in one powerful online tool.

“At Sitemasher, we foresee a day very soon when folks strive to prove themselves as ‘mashers’ – ones who have mastered our platform and are able to deliver sophisticated, pixel perfect websites in record time,” said Nicole Denil, Sitemasher’s vice president of marketing. “Our goal is to give the design community the power and performance of high end, high cost tools but in an affordable, much more manageable manner. Our online platform automates the complexity of building and managing a website so the emphasis can be on delivering a killer website in less time and less cost.”

Website Design Contest Details
Sitemasher created the Website Design Contest to recognize excellence among design students and design industry professionals in implementing powerful websites using Sitemasher.

Design students will receive a cash prize for education and an award they can use to grow their career and resume.
Design professionals will receive a cash prize and an award to promote their excellence in design and proficiency with Sitemasher.

To enter the free contest, participants simply visit www.sitemasher.com/website-design-contest.

Websites will be judged by a panel of experts and will be scored on the following:

Design: Judged based on overall visual concept, an intuitive navigation scheme and a high quality of execution.
Usability: Judged based on basic techniques such as label links and images that enhance usability throughout the design.
Functionality: Judged based on the extent participates maximize multiple media types and promote user interactivity.

About Sitemasher
Established in 2007, Sitemasher provides a fully managed, hosted website solution that seamlessly integrates website building, content management, analytics and search engine optimization (SEO), all within a single platform. Phil Calvin, chief technical officer, began developing Sitemasher in 2006. Ron Moravek, chief executive officer, joined the new corporation in August 2007 along with Curtis Terry, chief financial officer and chief operating officer for Sitemasher, both from Electronic Arts, Canada. Eric Dorgelo, vice president of development, joined the team from Rockwell. Nicole Denil joined Sitemasher from Microsoft Corporation. Eric Carlson became the sole venture capitalist and partner in December 2007.

Sitemasher to reduce developers' cutting, pasting

2008-10-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

Briony Smith (07 Oct 2008) has written a story on Sitemasher at ITWorldcanada.com

A Vancouver startup launches a hosted offering that simplify the work that goes into designing Web sites and content management systems. It's also putting its money where the cloud is
Web site development service Sitemasher went live Monday with a new service geared toward making developers’ lives a little easier.
“We wanted to take the complexity out of Web sites,” said Sitemasher’s CEO, Ron Moravek. “Usually you have to deal with the CMS, the hosting, and the design."
Sitemasher instead offers developers a hosted solution that makes the more annoying parts of Web design less hideous. The browser-based system offers a simplified design structure, along with a completely integrated CMS. Said Moravek: “The CMS maps in real time as you go along, building in the roles and permissions as well.”
The drag-and-drop feature updates the schema easily, while the software-as-a-service functionality cuts down on maintenance time, courtesy of fast updates. “We talk to a lot of companies that employ armies of people who just cut and paste all day long, but this allows you to cascade the information to all your networked sites,” said Moravek. This keeps the designer and key developers in the equations, but cuts out costly and unnecessary coding staff who man the Dreamweaver or SQL, he said.

Sitemasher's Innovative Website Platform Goes Prime Time After Extensive Community Testing

2008-10-06T08:30:00.000-07:00

All-in-One Online Web Site Development and Management Platform Enables Collaboration Throughout the website Lifecycle

To help simplify the website development and management process, Sitemasher today introduced the full availability of its online website platform. Unlike other systems on the market, Sitemasher combines an intuitive website builder, content management, analytics, search engine optimization and website hosting in one powerful online tool. This tool and workflow enables everyone involved with the design, launch and maintenance of a website to collaborate easily throughout the project lifecycle.

Sitemasher is built around the four primary roles in advanced Web design and development: the business or site owner, site designer, information technology expert and marketer or content person. Traditionally, players in these roles operate in their own spheres causing problems as a site moves from vision through development. Sitemasher creates a collaboration platform with an intuitive interface that makes the most cutting-edge website elements simple to implement and update.

Website designers and developers can increase profitability by implementing designs without having to worry about technical requirements on the back end. They can also deliver more value to customers by reducing implementation time and cost, as well as providing analytics and websites that are optimized for search engines. Website design firms can assign customers the ability to manage their own content through user roles.

“Nearly 80 percent of the design and development process is repetitive. We’ve automated most of that process, leaving the design and IT teams free to innovate and add business value,” said Nicole Denil, Sitemasher’s vice president of marketing. “Tools today either cater to large companies with significant IT staffs or individuals who don’t need dynamic, interactive websites. We’re focused on making it easy for site designers and owners to take a site from vision to implementation in a matter of days.”

“As a growing firm looking to maximize productivity, Sitemasher’s suite of tools could help us significantly streamline our Website design and development process,” said Chris Ramaglia, web development project manager at Discovertec. “We can deliver more business value to our customers while reducing implementation time.”

The new Sitemasher platform features the following benefits:

Single platform – Sitemasher covers the entire lifecycle of websites –site builder, integrated CMS, analytics, SEO, all in a scalable hosted (SaaS) environment. The integrated environment allows an extremely rapid development, implementation, and content management.
Powerful Interface – The building environment is a professional, pixel perfect builder for fully customized sites with the ease of use of a drag-and-drop, WYSIWYG tool.
Reduced back-end coding – Design elements such as form creation automatically create a database, thereby eliminating the need for complicated coding to accomplish simple tasks.
Collaboration – All of the stakeholders (designers, marketers, website owners, and the IT teams) can all access the site 24x7 in a collaborative way, speeding time to implementation.
User roles and workflows – The site owner can easily set user roles to work with the corporate workflow, giving users the permissions to update the site content or design based on their skills. So a marketer cannot make accidental design changes to a live site while trying to update content.
Site analytics and SEO – Sitemasher’s SEO friendly platform and SEO toolset makes it easy to layer in meta tags and other elements of SEO without repetitive coding for each page. It also enables site owners to easily see what programs are working and to easily make any necessary adjustments.
Managed hosting – Sitemasher hosts the tool as well as the website through its partner Peer1. This provides all tools with the latest infrastructure, security, and hosting requirements, including software maintenance, updates, and upgrades.

The Sitemasher tool is the result of years of research, development and implementation from a team that has a unique understanding of online communications. The Sitemasher executive team all played key roles in such companies as Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Citrix, Rockwell International and a host of other high-profile and innovative technology leaders. Sitemasher first became available in April 2008 when it was opened as a beta version.

Pricing and Availability
Sitemasher is available online at http://www.sitemasher.com/. Introductory pricing starts at $99 a month for a basic account that includes two users and a single published domain. A $249 a month program includes up to five users as well as the ability to set different roles, and a $699 a month program allows for unlimited users.

About Sitemasher
Established in 2007, Sitemasher provides a fully managed, hosted website solution that seamlessly integrates website building, content management, analytics, and search engine optimization (SEO)…all within a single platform. Phil Calvin, chief technical officer, began developing Sitemasher in 2006. Ron Moravek, chief executive officer, joined the new corporation in August 2007 along with Curtis Terry, chief financial officer and chief operating officer for Sitemasher, both from Electronic Arts, Canada. Eric Dorgelo, vice president of development, joined the team from Rockwell. Nicole Denil joined Sitemasher from Microsoft Corporation. Eric Carlson became the sole venture capitalist and partner in December, 2007.

PEER 1 Powers Sitemasher, New SaaS Web Site Development Solution

2008-10-06T08:00:00.001-07:00

Customized Web Hosting and Virtualization Support are Key to Success of Advanced Web Service

VANCOUVER, BC – October 6, 2008 – Through the creation of a highly tailored managed hosting solution, PEER 1 Network Enterprises, Inc. (TSX:PIX) helped enable the launch of Sitemasher, a revolutionary Web site development service that combines ease of use with the power that enterprise users demand. Sitemasher provides a fully managed, hosted Web site solution that seamlessly integrates the Web site building and publishing environment, content management system (CMS), analytics and search engine optimization (SEO), all within single platform.

Sitemasher provides a rich, technical framework that gives businesses the tools and services to create their own data-driven web applications without programming. This unique, practical approach has enabled the company to grow quickly with more than 2,000 customers since beta-testing began in April. PEER 1’s ability to deliver a creative solution to the client’s needs mirrors Sitemasher’s own business model, and is credited by Sitemasher as being integral to its successful launch.

“When we researched hosting companies, PEER 1 was the only one that was willing to put together a customized solution that was a fit for us,” said Sitemasher CEO Ron Moravek. “They have one of the most extensive and highest performing networks in the world and are well respected for this. No one else could provide us the solution for our cloud computing that we needed, but PEER 1 stepped up and made it work. PEER 1 provides us with the ability to offer our customers scalability, reliability, and load balancing so they don’t have to worry about exceeding their limits if business is good.”

Sitemasher differs drastically from its competition because it doesn’t focus on one area of the Web site lifecycle, such as design, content management, or maintenance. Instead, it takes care of the entire lifecycle of a Web site, and delivers this function as a service. As a result, businesses can take control of their web presence without compromising on enterprise-level necessities.

“As we look toward the future of the hosting industry, we see customizations, such as the solution we created for Sitemasher, becoming more prevalent,” said Robert Miggins, senior vice president of business development for PEER 1. “The ability to channel our powerful network to support and enable virtualization, is key for the growth of forward-thinking tech companies like Sitemasher, and helps them carve out a niche in the Web 2.0 space.”

PEER 1 is one of the only hosting companies offering all three types of web hosting services under one roof; dedicated, managed and co-location. These extensive services are supported by PEER 1’s world class, geographically diverse network, which includes 15 data centers in major cities across North America and POPs in Europe.

Before even bringing their product to market, Sitemasher has been the recipient of several awards: Red Herring finalist for top-50 Canadian IT companies, Microsoft Canada “Blue Sky” Award, and a selected participant in Microsoft’s prestigious Accelerator Program.

About PEER 1
PEER 1 believes in the limitless opportunity of the Internet, and the business growth potential it provides for its more than 10,000 customers. As a leading online IT infrastructure provider, PEER 1 offers a reliable high performance Internet network supporting scalable managed hosting, dedicated hosting through the ServerBeach brand, and co-location solutions. Backed by its 100 percent uptime guarantee and 24x7x365 FirstCall Support™, PEER 1 ensures customers' online presence is always fast, always available. Since 1999, PEER 1 has grown to include 15 state-of-the-art data centers in North America and points-of-presence in Europe. The company's headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and the stock is traded on the TSX under the symbol PIX. For more information visit: http://www.peer1.com/.

About Sitemasher
Established in 2007, Sitemasher provides a fully managed, hosted website solution that seamlessly integrates the website building environment, content management system (CMS), analytics, and search engine optimization (SEO)…all within a single platform. Phil Calvin, chief technical officer, began developing Sitemasher in 2006. Ron Moravek, chief executive officer, joined the new corporation in August 2007 along with Curtis Terry, chief financial officer and chief operating officer for Sitemasher, both from Electronic Arts, Canada. Eric Dorgelo, vice president of development, joined the team from Rockwell. Nicole Denil joined Sitemasher from Microsoft Corporation. Eric Carlson became the sole venture capitalist and partner in December. For more information visit: http://www.sitemasher.com/.

Media Contacts:
For PEER 1
Abigail Faylor
425.452.5497
afaylor@webershandwick.com

For Sitemasher:
Nicole Denil
305.733.4275
nicoleD@sitemasher.com

Sitemasher is Attending Launch Party 5 for it's One Year Anniversary

2008-09-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

Launch Party is a lively mixer for the entrepreneurs, techies and marketers responsible for making Vancouver the hottest start-up city in Canada.

Sitemasher was one of the selected start-ups back in December, 2007 to demonstrate at Launch Party 2 and it also won the most votes during the night of the event. Sitemasher provides a fully managed, hosted website solution that seamlessly integrates a website building and publishing environment, a content management system (CMS), analytics, and search engine optimization (SEO)…all within a single platform.

Maura Rogers, one of Launch Party’s organizers invited Sitemasher to give a quick update during its Anniversary Party (Launch Party 5) on September 18, 2008.

Join Samson Mow, Director, Operations and Business Development between 6 and 6:30pm– he will be sharing milestones that Sitemasher has reached.

You will also be able to check out the new start-ups:

Clarity Accounting - an online accounting software created for small businesses and self-employed professionals.

Make Five - make a top 5 list for anything. Then discuss, share and connect through your interests.

PeerFX - an online peer-to-peer currency exchange

Tagga - a mobile bookmarking platform that lets anyone create, find or store information on and off the web using their mobile phones.

Urbantastic - helps you discover local events that match your interests.

Zinepal - Select content from your favorite blogs, websites or RSS feeds and create your own magazines (zines) that you can read online, print, or share with friends.

Where: Unwine'd, 1180 Howe Street, Vancouver.

See more details at: www.launchpartyhq.com

Visit Sitemasher at TechCrunch50 DemoPit

2008-09-08T10:50:00.000-07:00

Sitemasher is excited to be joining many other early stage start-up companies that were invited to the DemoPit at TechCrunch50. The DemoPit is happening for three days, Monday September 8th - Wednesday September 10th, 2008 at the San Francisco Design Center Concourse.

Visit Sitemasher at table 58 on Wednesday September 10th.

In addition to 50 great new products and the DemoPit, techCrunch50 is assembling an amazing line up of speakers and a panel of expert advisors to spark lively discussion and debate during the conference.

Demo participants were part of the original applicant pool for the conferences 50 companies being launched; and not charged to exhibit in the DemoPit. Sitemasher could not be considered as one of the 50 due to it's previous launch and public unveling prior to this event (which was a prerequisite).

Read more and view floor map here: http://www.techcrunch50.com/2008/conference/demopit.php

If you have suggestions after viewing our demo, feel free to use suggestion box here.

About Sitemasher
Sitemasher provides a fully managed, hosted website solution that seamlessly integrates a website building and publishing environment, a content management system (CMS), analytics, and search engine optimization (SEO)…all within a single platform.

About TechCrunch
TechCrunch, founded on June 11, 2005, is a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies. In addition to covering new companies, we profile existing companies that are making an impact (commercial and/or cultural) on the new web space. TechCrunch is co-edited by Michael Arrington and Erick Schonfeld.

Sitemasher is Named a Finalist for the Red Herring Top 50 Canada Award

2008-08-28T16:46:00.000-07:00

Sitemasher is Honored Among This Year's Most Promising Private Technology Ventures in Canada

C-Level Executives and Venture Capital Leaders Join for Second Annual Conference in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, September 15-17, 2008.

August 26th, Montreal, Quebec, Red Herring Magazine has named Sitemasher a finalist for the "Red Herring Top 50 Canada" award, a prestigious list honoring this year’s most promising private technology ventures in Canada. The Red Herring editorial team used an intensely competitive process to select the most innovative companies from a pool of over 300, leaving 100 finalists vying for this prestigious award. The names of all 100 companies short–listed as finalists for the "Red Herring Top 50 Canada 2008" can be found online at: http://www.herringevents.com/canada08/Canada50.html

For over 10 years, The “Red Herring 100” awards, open to private technology companies, are given to the top 100 tech companies, based upon technology innovation, management strength, market size, investor record, customer acquisition and financial health. Adding to the success of our yearly North America 100, Europe 100 and Asia 100 events, Red Herring Canada will provide an opportunity for the Top 50 companies to deliver their message at the Red Herring Canada Conference in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, September 15-17, 2008. Throughout several months leading up to the announcement, hundreds of companies in the telecom, Web 2.0, software, hardware, biotech and energy related industries sent their submissions to qualify for the award.

The nominees are rigidly evaluated on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their ecosystem. This unique assessment of potential is measured by a review of the actual track record and standing of a company, allowing Red Herring to see past the “buzz” and make the list an invaluable instrument for discovering and advocating the greatest business opportunities in the industry.

About Red Herring
Red Herring is a global media company uniting the world's best high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine; an online daily technology news service; technology newsletters, and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider's access to the global innovation economy, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy. For more information, visit http://www.redherring.com/

About Sitemasher
Established in 2007, Sitemasher is a SaaS-based platform for building, managing, and optimizing sophisticated websites. Phil Calvin, chief technical officer, began developing Sitemasher in 2005. He was intent on transcending traditional website building platforms and Web content management system (CMS) solutions by providing an integrated, search-engine friendly platform to address the entire website lifecycle. Ron Moravek, chief executive officer, joined the new corporation in August 2007 along with Curtis Terry, chief financial officer and chief operating officer for Sitemasher, both from Electronic Arts, Canada. Eric Dorgelo, vice president of development, joined the team from Rockwell. Nicole Denil joined Sitemasher from Microsoft Corporation. Eric Carlson became the sole venture capitalist and partner in December.

Sitemasher in Business in Vancouver

2008-08-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

Recently, Ron Moravek was interviewed by Curt Cherewayko from Business in Vancouver - published on August 19, 2008:

Video game company co-founders take career leap into Internet space

Duo’s Sitemasher wants to move web development from server room to boardroom

Two Relic Entertainment founders have left the video game industry to venture into the entirely different world of website optimization.

Ron Moravek and Curtis Terry, who left Relic after it was acquired by THQ Inc. (Nasdaq:THQI) in 2005, formed Sitemasher Corporation, last November.

With a staff now of 26 at its Vancouver headquarters, Sitemasher is launching a commercial version of its website optimization software this fall, following a year of development and pilot projects.

It hopes to make website development code obsolete in much the same way that Windows made consumer need for the MS-DOS command prompt obsolete after its release.

Although most progressive companies have at least a rudimentary website, Moravek said not every company knows the programming language that operates its site.

“Businesses are moving their whole world online,” said Moravek.

“Whoever can take the voodoo out of websites and enables businesses to go online more easily... could be really successful.”

CTO Phil Calvin is the chief architect behind Sitemasher’s technology. He’s best known as the founder of Motivus Software, a remote access marketplace company that Citrix Systems acquired in 2004.

Read the full story on BIV's interactive site here.

Or preview the full color story here (JPG image).

Join Sitemasher at Web 2.0 Expo in New York

2008-08-07T15:46:00.000-07:00

Sitemasher is excited to be attending and exhibiting at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York. This event is happening September 16-19th, 2008 at the Javits Center.

Web 2.0 Expo was launched to connect the builders of the web with the brightest minds, hottest ideas, and most valuable tools - and with each other. New York has long been where the world's biggest industries go online, and as Web 2.0 grows up and gets serious, the time is right to convene the East Coast web communities under the umbrella of the next generation web. It's time to come together to learn, share and network. And it's time to celebrate the size, power, and innovation of the East Coast web industry.

Web 2.0 Expo is for the builders of the next generation web: designers, developers, entrepreneurs, marketers, business strategists, and venture capitalists, people who have experiences to share and a passion for learning - the hot new thing, lessons from failures, innovations and inspirations, and the practical applications of all of the above.

Download map and visit Sitemasher at booth #1544 - check out our innovative SaaS product for building, managing, optimizing, & hosting sophisticated websites - without the need for programming.

Read more on Web 2.0 Expo in New York here...

Sitemasher up 25 Spots in Canada's Start-up Index

2008-08-05T12:20:00.000-07:00

Sitemasher is up 25 spots in Canada's Start-up Index on Techvibes.com website. In August 2008, Sitemasher placement is 111th out of 306 Canadian Start-ups. Last month, Sitemasher placement was 136th.

The index ranks Canada tech start-ups based on an average of Alexa and Compete traffic rankings. City lists and other details are available on the Start-up Index page.

The criteria for companies to appear on the list:

Located in Canada

Not a public company

Is a tech company; either hardware, software, web app/service, or mobile

Read more on Techvibes blog post "Canada Start-up Index - August 2008".

Sitemasher to Unveil Sitemasher Site Network

2008-07-31T11:56:00.000-07:00

We’ll be unveiling our newest addition to the Sitemasher product family – Sitemasher Site Network – in the near future, so I’d like to explain the concept. Sitemasher Site Network allows you to network multiple websites in order to share assets among the sites without duplicating pages, graphics, styling, and so on.

What problems does Sitemasher Site Network solve?

Over the past few months, I’ve met with countless companies that deal with not only the pain of managing their corporate parent website, but also the pain of updating their many regional websites. There is duplication of information and assets among websites, and maintaining all of that duplication is burdensome.

Any company with several websites has to look for ways to let information flow or be inherited from the main corporate website (the parent site) to the many sub websites (the child sites). Now think about that – can you imagine trying to keep pace with hundreds of websites instead of just one? Tools such as WordPress and RSS feeds enable companies to share articles, and some companies use custom XML or data-entry tools to make changes to user interfaces, and so on. However, these complex, custom systems are often cumbersome, and merely sharing articles is pretty limiting.

So we shared the concept on Sitemasher with early adopters and asked them to give us their “wish list” in order to change the way multi-site companies run their online businesses. Here’s what they said:

What if I could have parent pages from a corporate website that could share site assets (logos, movies, forms, graphics, styling, and content) to related child websites?
What if I could publish or update any kind of content to any number of websites in real time, through a system of parent-child sites?
What if I could make all of these changes without having to make changes to multiple sites?

The solution!

Sitemasher Site Network allows the corporate parent site to create several common assets just once – such as advertising, branding, forms, search functionality, and labeling – and then publish these common assets to the libraries of all the child sites. The child-site creator can then create their customized website from a blank canvas and simply place the parent-site assets onto the page where they see fit.The critical point here is that once placed, the parent site is still connected to the child site and can update the assets at any time. And if you look at the breadth of an offering like this, you can do something as simple as I described here – publishing a connected library – but you can also create parent templates with locked assets that only the parent site can change. Plus, the number of sites you can publish to is virtually unlimited.

Coming soon

Sitemasher Site Network will be available in the Sitemasher product by late August 2008.

Have questions or want to be influential in this product’s feature development? Then send an email message to Ron Moravek, Sitemasher’s CEO, at Ron@sitemasher.com.

Sitemasher Attends Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference

2008-07-10T12:40:00.000-07:00

The Sitemasher crew (Phil, Ron, and Nicole) attended the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WWPC) to discuss Sitemasher's recent entry into the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program with Microsoft's Emerging Business Team.

Sitemasher was invited to join the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program as a result of winning the Microsoft Blue Sky Innovation award. The program is designed to accelerate the success of high-potential software startups around the globe by providing access, guidance, and support for the Microsoft platform. Accelerator companies are selected to join the program based on their innovation, high growth potential, funding, platform decision, and strategic importance to Microsoft.

Microsoft is really excited to have Sitemasher within the portfolio of high-potential startups, according to Dave Drach, Managing Director of the Emerging Business Team at Microsoft.

Because Sitemasher's product portfolio is aligned with Microsoft strategy, there is ample opportunity for partnering, so after discussing business plans with Dave, the crew from Sitemasher moved on to talk to potential partners.

As Ron explained, “It's really invigorating to have Microsoft and partners get excited about Sitemasher's mission. It seems like everybody that builds, manages, or owns a website can relate to the problems we're trying to solve. Having that kind of response at an event like this is huge! The Microsoft team and partners were really enthusiastic.”

Sitemasher Launches Comic Strip to Illustrate Website Pains

2008-06-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Sitemasher's "Web of Pain" addresses struggles with traditional website design and content management systems.

Sitemasher takes a novel approach in debunking the myth that building and managing websites has to be painful by spoofing traditional methods in its comic strip "Web of Pain," officially launched this week.

Meet Sam, Ned, Vinny and Zoe, four characters who are in constant conflict trying to get websites built, running, and updated … yesterday! ... replicating an all-too-common scenario that plays itself out in companies worldwide on a regular basis.

When he began formulating the idea for the Vancouver start-up company, Phil Calvin, chief technical officer, decided that implementing and owning a website shouldn't have to be so hard, and he set out to solve that dilemma with the Sitemasher product.

The comic strip is a way of addressing common frustrations website designers, developers, and owners experience as they spend days, weeks, months, and in some cases years building and maintaining websites. The characters of "Web of Pain" embody the day-to-day obstacles that occur when building and managing websites.

"Through our 'Web of Pain' characters, we try to convey the pain of all the individuals involved in the website lifecycle….from the website builder struggling to produce better websites faster and less expensively to website owners trying get the most of their IT investment," said Ron Moravek, chief executive officer.

Sitemasher will be updated with new comic strips biweekly with the intent of not only giving people a chuckle when they identify with the four stereotypical characters, but also driving potential customers to Sitemasher's website to try the pre-release version of Sitemasher or simply sign up to receive future comic strips.

Asked why Sitemasher went with a subtle marketing approach versus a more traditional style, Nicole Denil, vice president of Sales and Marketing commented, "We wanted to make solving website pain pertinent yet fun. Most people can relate to the pain around building or owning websites, so we wanted to make those pains come to life through our characters."

This subtle marketing method has caught on. Microsoft and IBM have taken similar approaches, with their focus less on technology and more on the people who use the products. "With the landscape changing on how people engage in technology, more decision-making power lies in the hands of the people who actually use the software," Denil said. "Not only does our cast of characters act in the strip, but they are now part of the Sitemasher crew … we consult with their personas even while we build our product."

The comic feed has different ways for the user to subscribe; via an RSS feed, a comic widget that is embeddable into multiple platforms such as MySpace, Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, iGoogle, LiveJournal, Tagged, Multiply, Freewebs, Netvibes or a widget available via Facebook's application directory.

Sitemasher is asking readers to submit real-life web pain stories that could be used for future episodes and they can win prizes.

To view or sign up to receive the "Web of Pain" comic, visit www.sitemasher.com/comic/ .

The comic strip launch closely follows Sitemasher being chosen by Microsoft for its Blue Sky Innovation , which recognizes leading innovation developed on a Microsoft-based platform. Sitemasher was elected from more than 100 submissions by independent software vendors (ISV) across the country, recognized for its unique SaaS-based delivery model, broad market appeal and its integrated web offering. ISVs were judged on the unique use of technology, the real-life challenge they are solving and the market potential.

About Sitemasher
Established in 2007, Sitemasher is a SaaS-based platform for building, managing, and optimizing sophisticated websites. Phil Calvin, chief technical officer, began developing Sitemasher in 2005. He was intent on transcending traditional website building platforms and Web content management system (CMS) solutions by providing an integrated, search-engine friendly platform to address the entire website lifecycle. Ron Moravek, chief executive officer, joined the new corporation in August 2007 along with Curtis Terry, chief financial officer and chief operating officer for Sitemasher, both from Electronic Arts, Canada. Eric Dorgelo, vice president of development, joined the team from Rockwell. Nicole Denil joined Sitemasher from Microsoft Corporation. Eric Carlson became the sole venture capitalist and partner in December.

Microsoft Canada recognizes Sitemasher’s innovation with Blue Sky Award

2008-06-06T06:30:00.000-07:00

Sitemasher’s skies became brilliant blue today when Microsoft Canada announced the Vancouver-based start-up company as the winner of the inaugural Blue Sky Award recognizing leading innovation developed on the Microsoft-based platform. Sitemasher was elected from more than 100 submissions by independent software vendors (ISV) across the country.

“Our winner and finalists were recognized because of their true inspiration in driving innovation forward,” said Mark Relph, vice president of the Developer & Platform Evangelism, Microsoft Canada. “We are thrilled with the response to this award and hope that it helps stimulate many more years of technology innovation in Canada.”

Sitemasher Corporation was recognized for its unique SaaS-based delivery model, broad market appeal and its integrated web offering. ISVs were judged on the unique use of technology, the real-life challenge they are solving and the market potential.

“Taking our solution to market with Microsoft is very strategic for us,” said Nicole Denil, Sitemasher’s vice president of sales and marketing.

Sitemasher Corporation will receive a customized engagement plan including software and business development resources, public awareness, and exposure to additional Microsoft-based resources both in Canada and Redmond.

“We are extremely excited about winning this award and look forward to the value it will bring to our business,” said Ron Moravek, CEO, Sitemasher Corporation. “We’re thrilled to be part of Microsoft’s Partner program.”

For more information about the award, visit Microsoft's Blue Sky Award Website.

Other news about this award posted at: From the Northern Edge of Microsoft: Sitemasher wins inaugural Blue Sky Award: and From the Northen Edge of Microsoft: Announcing The Winner Of The Bluesky Award

Sitemasher Presented to Delegates in China and Well Received

2008-06-04T10:32:00.000-07:00

Sitemasher was very well received in Beijing. As part of the trade mission headed by Premier Gordon Campbell, Sitemasher attended the Beijing Technology Summit which showcased leading Canadian technology companies from their respective industries.

Samson Mow, Sitemasher’s Strategic Alliance Manager presented to an audience of over 120 delegates from China’s high tech sector and government, along with BC government officials. Some of the companies and organizations we met with in Beijing included China Netcom, Baidu, Digital China, and the Internet Society of China. These meetings have led to further discussions which we hope to grow into cooperative endeavors in the near future.

Sitemasher was also present for the official opening of the BC Canada Pavilion which is now open until the end of the Beijing 2008 Olympics and serving to introduce the best of BC and Canada to an international audience.

Sitemasher would like to thank the BCTIA for organizing this event and the BC Ministry of Economic Development for spearheading this initiative.

View more pictures on this event on Sitemasher's Flickr Album.

Microsoft recognizes Sitemasher among 3 companies with cutting-edge solutions

2008-06-03T06:22:00.000-07:00

Sitemasher’s skies became brilliant blue today when Microsoft announced it selected the Vancouver-based start-up company as one of three finalists for an independent software vendor (ISV) Innovation Award from a field of approximately 100 candidates. The winner will be announced at Microsoft’s ISV Leadership Summit on Thursday, June 5.

Microsoft Canada’s inaugural Blue Sky Award recognizes significant, exciting, cutting-edge solutions developed on a Microsoft-based platform. The award, open to ISVs yet to achieve Certified or Gold Certified Partners status, was designed to help recognize innovation by creating a forum for leading Canadian software developers to showcase their creativity, contribution, and technology advances.

Entrants were judged on the unique use of technology, the real-life challenge they are solving, and the market potential.

Microsoft will provide the recipient with a customized engagement plan to support software development, including software and business development resources, public awareness, and exposure to additional Microsoft-based resources both in Canada and Redmond.

In developing the award, Microsoft Canada is recognizing innovation by creating a forum for leading Canadian software developers to showcase their outstanding achievements.

When introducing the award program in March, a Microsoft Canada Co. spokesman said, “People are the lifeblood of today’s businesses – their passion and ideas have the power to part clouds and create a world of limitless opportunity. The Blue Sky Award is designed to celebrate their innovation and the leading-edge applications they inspire.”

For more information on the Blue Sky Award please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/canada/bluesky or click here to view the award information video.