The other blue train in town

Move over Thomas the Tank Engine, there’s another blue train in town—Bluetrain Inc. to be exact. The brainchild of Bryan Smith doesn’t pull cargo or carry passengers like Thomas because, for this particular engine, it’s all about making connections.

Specializing in search engine optimization and Internet marketing, Bryan explains the process as the fine tuning of websites to rank higher on search engines like Google and Yahoo, thereby generating more on-line visits for his clients.

“While most casual ’Net surfers don’t care about the order in which results are returned, for Internet companies that often live and die by the number of users they are able to attract, the goal of getting the highest ranking possible is not only desirable but a necessity,” explains Bryan.

The idea for developing such a service began formulating when Bryan was participating in an AIESEC student exchange program to Romania in 2001. He moved to Bucharest for 10 months to work for a company that was pioneering text message voting.

“I loved it so much, that I said to myself when I started my own business, it had to be in the field of IT.”

When Bryan returned to the U of A, he did an internship with SMART technologies and graduated from the School of Business. Having honed his marketing and sales skills, he went to work for Micralyne, a renowned local nanotechnology firm. During his job interview, however, he was up-front about his future plans… regardless of opportunities for promotion, he was going to launch his own company within five years.

True to his word, this February, Bluetrain Inc.—named for those traditional blue web links we all click-on—was born.

The 29-year old is optimistic about his company’s future. With only one percent of websites currently search engine optimized, explains Bryan, Bluetrain is on track for growth. Maybe, one day, it will be just as well known as its fictional counterpart. √

Photo by Teresa Wallsten