Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

MyEcoVille is an innovative, value-packed, and affordable web-service that enables you to deliver your own environmental website to residents in your town, community, state, or province. It is offered as a template, meaning that some features can be changed (such as the content), and some features are common for all subscribers. The development costs are spread among many clients which keeps the subscription cost very low.

The MyEcoVille community is growing fast! MyEcoVille subscribers are primarily staff from ENGOs and different levels of government who generally do not have website/technical backgrounds, and who seek a solution to promote and deliver recycling and sustainability information online to local residents.

MyEcoVille is very cost competitive. The modest price can also be offset by advertising and sponsorship. Some clients even make money from their MyEcoVille site!

MyEcoVille packs a lot of valuable features into an impressive package at a very low price. MyEcoVille can even become a revenue generator. It is offered as a template, meaning that some features can be changed (such as the content), and some features are common for all subscribers. The development costs are spread among many clients which keeps the subscription cost very low compared to the high-cost of custom website development including on-going maintenance costs of a custom website.

Each MyEcoVille subscription includes dedicated maintenance services such as site hosting and data back-up.

All MyEcoVille sites have some common elements including the main navigation menu, central community illustration which also serves as a navigation feature (which can be customized), and banner.

You get to control the pages of your site and all content, which is customizable, using a robust content management system. You can edit and update pages, and your site content, at anytime. High profile real estate is reserved for the placement of your logo. You can also add images to your site, videos to the shared Eco-Video library, and much more (see Why Use MyEcoVille?).

Yes. Our talented team will design and add custom elements (or icons) to the illustration (or replace icons). The most popular element to customize is the government building.

The cost of a custom element or icon design is determined by the complexity of the image. An approximate cost is $500 USD, or less, per custom icon.

A Content Management System is a web application that allows you to edit web page content without needing expert knowledge. The content management system that MyEcoVille uses is called WebGUI.

No. WebGUI is web-based. While viewing any page on your MyEcoVille site, simply log in as an Administrator and you can start using WebGUI through your browser. The WebGUI interface will appear on the left hand side of your screen.

No. Some of our clients choose not to include advertising.

Some MyEcoVille subscribers receive financial support from a public grant program or a private sponsor. In these cases, the MyEcoVille subscriber chooses to profile the logo of the supporting organization on the top right-hand corner of the MyEcoVille site. The grant or Sponsor pays for the MyEcoVille subscription fee, and gains business value through sponsorship recognition.

We won’t post any affiliate ads (to generate revenue) on your site that you don’t accept.

If, however, you agree to have Google ads on your site (to generate revenue) we have the ability to control only the types of advertisements (not specific advertisers) that are posted. We choose only ads for environmental products & services that may be of interest to the visitors of MyEcoVille.

Basic advertising consists of a vertical column of Google ads, or an affiliate ad, that is placed on the right-hand column on each page on your site.

The upper-right hand corner on each page is reserved for profiling a site Sponsor if you choose this option. This space (also called real estate) can generate revenue equal to or greater than the cost of your First Year Set-up and Subscription Fee, and offers significant business value to the Sponsor through sponsorship recognition.

Please see our Pricing page for more information about selecting advertising or sponsorship to receive MyEcoVille at no direct cost and/or to generate revenue.

There are many advertising revenue opportunities. Consider local businesses, events, or organizations that would gain value from exposure to a community of environmentally-minded people. You may also consider tapping into non-profit or public sector organizations that have a mandate to support environmental education. Remember though, advertisers care about traffic (number of visitors to your MyEcoVille site), so it’s in your interest to promote MyEcoVille to your audience. This will deliver your message to more people, and will make your MyEcoVille site more valuable to prospective advertisers.

If you would like, we can also take care of arranging advertisers for environmental products, services, and organizations.

There are many sponsorship revenue opportunities. Consider businesses or organizations that would gain value from exposure to a community of environmentally-minded people. You may also consider tapping into non-profit or public sector organizations that have a mandate to support environmental education. Remember though, Sponsors care about traffic (number of visitors to your MyEcoVille site), so it’s in your interest to promote MyEcoVille to your audience. This will deliver your message to more people, and it will make your MyEcoVille site more valuable to your Sponsor.

Talk to us about finding a site Sponsor, to generate revenue and cover the cost of your MyEcoVille site, if this option interests you.

Each procurement process is unique, but we have had a lot of success in having MyEcoVille considered as a sole source offering. We have supporting documents handy, to give your Purchasing Manager, if you would like to pursue this option.

We have recently completed a beta project with a school division to design and develop the first MyEcoSchool site! In the university and college community, we are considering developing a similar web-service. Please contact us if you would like to learn more about these offerings, and we will be happy to call or email you.

Re-TRAC is a widely-used Recycling and Solid Waste Data Management System developed and delivered by Emerge Knowledge Design Inc. Re-TRAC enables governments including municipalities, counties, regional districts, states and provinces, and federal agencies, universities, colleges, school divisions, and businesses to efficiently collect and organize recycling and solid waste program data on-line and instantly generate program performance analysis.

For more information, please visit http://www.emergeknowledge.com/retrac_features.html.

MyEcoVille and Re-TRAC are integrated to enable a MyEcoVille subscriber to easily upload and publish selected reports from their Re-TRAC system on MyEcoVille to present to the community. Report examples include Community Recycling Trends and Environmental Benefits of Recycling (using the WARM model), and many more. More info is available on the Integrate with Re-TRAC™ page.