George Dubec’s Top Ten Internet New Year’s Resolutions for 2008

1 – Establish a budget and develop a twelve month online marketing plan for your website

2 – Establish the KPI (key performance indicators) to track your online marketing campaigns and conversion rates

3 – Make sure you have a recent back-up of your website

4 – Make sure all the prominent pages of your website are optimized for search engines

5 – Build as many quality links as possible to your website

6 – Assign a top level person in your company to manage your website

7 – Plan on updating the information on your website frequently to insure that you will be providing fresh, relevant content for the search engines to spider

8 – Make sure you are properly registered on Local Search on all the major search engines

9 – Consider developing a version of your website for mobile applications (.mobi)

10 – Find out how you can take advantage of social online networking by using blogs, chat rooms, myspace, youtube, discussion groups, news forums, bulletin boards

If you are not able to follow through with the above resolutions for the upcoming new year then you should call experts like WebStream Internet Solutions to help you with design, programming, hosting, online marketing or any of your technical needs at 888-932-2333. Remember that your website is an extension of your business. Most companies are not taking full advantage of their websites! Demand more from your website and consider it an important sales and marketing tool. Make sure that your website is making you money versus costing you money.

George Dubec's Top Ten Personal New Year's Resolutions for 2008

It’s important to take control of your personal life no matter what kind of business you are in or career you have. I am the Sr. VP of Sales and Marketing for WebStream Internet Solutions and I work almost sixty hours per week and sometimes I am in the office seven days a week. Not only do I take care of customers but I write for my blog and produce and host a weekly radio show, “The Internet Business Hour” which is now broadcast in over sixty markets. I make sure that I have the time to balance my life properly with family, children, work, social time and most importantly fitness and health. I may be sixty one years old but I am operating like someone in their thirties. By proper planning you can accomplish everything you need to and want to.

1 – Earn more money to save more money and give more money
Just remember that you won’t ever own anything. You are just using it. Money is like oil, it just helps you slide through life easier!

2 – Spend more time with your family and especially your kids
Your kids are more important than you! Take responsibility for their actions and their lives. You are their real teacher.

3 – Get organized
Find out how to prioritize your time and maximize your efforts. If you are watching TV more than a couple of hours a week then you are not using time wisely.

4 – Exercise a minimum of five (5) times per week (at least for an hour per day)
You really should set a goal for seven (7) days a week for a hard workout at least one hour per day. Workout more and eat less!

5 – Appreciate what you have (enjoy life)
Especially if you live in America. Most of us are living better than the greatest Pharoahs of Egypt.

6 – Eat as healthy and as little as possible
Eat to live not live to eat! Eat less and workout more!

7 – Help others (give without expecting anything in return; you must first give to get)
If you really want to help someone, do it because you want to and not because you are going to get something back. Your reward is your good deed.

8 – No matter what happens learn to say, “So what !!”
In the grand scheme of things nothing is all that important. Being centered and in control of your personal universe is the key.

9 – Become more disciplined, moral, ethical and respectful
When you have a choice to make it’s simple, do what is right and just. Always respect yourself, your parents, your body, your country, other people and especially the earth! Once you lose respect for any of these then you are lost! Learn to say thank you privately and openly to others constantly.

10 – Be careful what you let into your mind (listen to your inner self only as you already know what’s right for you)
Don’t except things on face value. Everyone is trying to get you to see things their way. Find out the background of those that produce the books, music, movies, TV shows and other material that you are exposed to before you let them into your mind.

Bonus Resolution: Try to make yourself better every day in every way!
Make your body look better, work harder on your relationships, get more fit, learn to speak better, write better, be more creative; spend time making more money. Life is a process of never ending self improvement!

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The bottom line of life is that you’re born, you procreate, then you die! Approximately 150 years from now no living human today will still be alive!

2008 is almost here, and you have probably started thinking about your New Year’s Resolutions.

My list above is a jump start for you. So put check marks to as many of the above as possible, even before 2008 starts.

DO YOU WANT TO FEEL GOOD IN 2008?
The better I look, the better I feel!
The harder I work, the better I feel!
The more I workout, the better I feel!
The more money I make, the better I feel!
The more people I help, the better I feel!
The more I learn, the better I feel!
The more I spend time and work with my children, the better I feel!
The more I am thankful, the better I feel!
The better I feel, the more I want to feel better!PS: Who needs Prozac!

Increase E-commerce Conversions

“Better Product Images Are Worth A Thousand Calls to Action”

Having the best possible product images will do wonders for your conversion rate. Research indicates that product images are a major factor in converting visitors. In fact, 83 percent of eBay shoppers skip listings without images, while sites with image galleries get 15% more activity and those with so-called super-size photos show a 24 % spike in sales. A better photo wins every time.

Skimping on the quality of product images and using manufacturer-supplied images is common. To see a great example of product images used well, check out TigerDirect.com. Not only do they show multiple product images; they also redline the features for their visitors. The extra effort is worth it.

George Dubec – Selected as 2008 Internet Advertising Competition Awards Judge

As a past Web Marketing Association (http://www.webaward.org) judge for 2006 and 2007, George Dubec has been invited to participate as a judge for the 2008 IAC Awards. They are expecting a record number of entries from around the world and are grateful for industry leaders to continue to support this worthwhile program.

Judges help set the standard of excellence for online advertising development. Industry leaders have a responsibility to share their expertise to improve what is expected from online advertising and marketing to reward those who are executing creative and marketing strategies effectively.

2008 IAC Awards Call for Entries

The Web Marketing Association is launching its sixth annual Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards. The IAC Awards are the first and only industry-based advertising award competition dedicated exclusively to online advertising. The Competition Web site is located at www.iacaward.org and the deadline for entry is January 31, 2008.

The Internet Advertising Competition Awards are open to all organizations and individuals (advertising and interactive agencies, corporate marketing departments, etc.) involved in the process of developing Internet advertising. Entries may be submitted online at www.iacaward.org. The deadline for entry is January 31, 2008 and will be judged on creativity, innovation, impact, design, copywriting, and use of the medium.

George Dubec, Sr, VP of Marketing and Sales for WebStream Internet Solutions is regarded as an industry leader and Internet Marketing Specialist. He is also the “Voice of the Internet” based on his broadcast radio show “The Internet Business Hour”, which plays in over sixty markets. The show has been on the air now for over six years and has become an industry standard.

If you would like to contact Mr. Dubec, email to gdubec@webstream.net or 888-932-2333 # 222.

32 Important Search Marketing Acronyms

1. BL = Backlink
2. CPC = Cost Per Click
3. CSE = Comparison Shopping Engine or Custom Search Engine (Google)
4. CSS = Cascading Style Sheet
5. DC = Data Center
6. DMOZ = Directory - Mozilla
7. HTML = HyperText Markup Language
8. IBL = Inbound Link
9. IPB9 = Internet Business Promoter
10. LSA = Latent semantic analysis
11. LSI = Latent Semantic Indexing
12. OBL = Outbound Link
13. ODP = Open Direcrory Project, See DMOZ
14. OWBL = One way back link
15. PPA = Pay Per Action
16. PPC = Pay Per Click
17. PR = PageRank
18. RI = Regular index
19. RSS = RDF Site Summary, Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndication
20. SE = Search Engine
21. SEM = Search Engine Marketing
22. SEO = Search Engine Optimization (Optimisation)
23. SERP = Search Engine Results Page
24. SI = Supplemental Index
25. SSE = Yahoo! Search Submit Express
26. SSP = Yahoo! Search Submit Pro
27. SWL = SiteWide Link
28. TBPR = Toolbar PageRank
29. TR = Trust Rank
30. VIPS = Visual-block Page Segmentation
31. WP/WP4 = Web Position/Web Position 4
32. XML = Extensible Markup Language

FREE WebStream Seminar

WebStream Internet Solutions
Presents:
George Dubec

“Sell Your Products and Services Online”

FREE E-Commerce Seminar
Thursday – December 6, 2007
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
at WebStream Corporate Offices

Let George Dubec, industry expert, provide valuable information to help you sell your products and services to a local, regional, national or international market. Learn how your website can make money and generate revenues.

FIND OUT:

• How to develop an online sales and marketing plan
• How to design a website that is E-commerce enabled
• How to optimize your E-commerce website for search engines
• How to set-up an easy to use, effective shopping cart
• How to establish a sales oriented Opt-in E-mail program
• How to establish Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
• How to offer sales and feature items on your website
• How to set-up an Affiliate program
• How to get links from other related sites
• How to economically process credit card transactions online
• How to offer incentives and promotions to buy your products and services
• How to get more targeted traffic to your website interested in buying your products and services

LOCATION:

WebStream Corporate Offices
356 SW 12th Ave.
Deerfield Beach, FL 33442

RSVP (LIMITED SEATING):

WebStream Internet Solutions
(888) 932-2333 / (954) 730-7127
info@webstream.net

SEO Tips to Live By

1. Choosing your Keywords

• A research done by Entireweb 31% of people enter 2 word phrases into search engines, 25% of all users look for 3 word combinations and only about 19% of them try their luck with only a single word.
• Do not choose a keyword to optimize your website for that you don't have the slightest chance of ranking good with because of the fierce competition.
• Do not choose a keyword that nobody looks for.
• Do not choose a keyword that does not relate strongly enough to your content.
• Only use generally popular keywords if you do not need targeted traffic.
• Do not use words that may get your site filtered or banned from search engines.
• Do not use images with filenames or ALT tags ( Alt attributes of IMG tag ) that may get your site filtered or banned from search engines.
• Only use dynamic pages when the functionality demands it.
• Use lots of relevant content, well laid out into separate pages.
• For best results optimize one page for one keyword.
• Do not post half-finished sites.

2. HTML Content

Title Tags

• The title should not be any longer than 70-100 characters, including spaces. ( Google - DMOZ )
• The title should bot be any longer than 60 characters. ( scrubtheweb.com )
• The title should not begin with the domain name. It is often considered as spam.
• The domain name shouldn't be repeated in the title. It is often considered as spam.
• Do not use the same filename as the title tag, or the same filename as the domain name. It is often considered as spam.

Meta Description Tags

• Shouldn't be any longer than 25-30 words ( DMOZ ).
• Shouldn't be any longer than 100 characters ( Google ).
• Shouldn't be any longer than 150 characters ( scrubtheweb.com ).
• Shouldn't be any longer than 200 characters ( searchenginewatch.com referring to Google ).

Meta Keyword Tags

• Shouldn't be any longer than 268 characters ( AltaVista ).
• Shouldn't be any longer than 378 characters ( searchenginewatch.com referring to Google ).
• You should not use words that are not present in the body of the page.
• Redundant characters will not hurt overall results, however words after the first 300 characters rarely do any good.
• Start all keywords with capital letters. ( Relevant only on alphabetical listings )
• Separate keywords with the ", " ( comma, space ) character combination. ( Most search engines use either character as the separator ).
• You may use phrases as well.
• You should not use any word, not even within phrases more than 3 times. It is often considered as spam.

3. Content

• The text on the page should contain the keywords right at the beginning of the page.
• Do not overuse keywords. Neither keyword should take up more than 12-24% of the entire body text. It is often considered as spam.
• Do not use too much content right on the front page. Both loading time and redundancy of additional words used will reduce the chance of showing up in relevant searches

4. HTML Code Page

• In case your website uses a language different than the default of the search engine which your target audience prefers, or your website uses special characters unique to that language, make sure to implement the proper HTML codepage tag.
• Unicode versions of special characters ( HTML encoded characters ) are more or less impossible to look up in most search engines.

5. Search Engine Basics

• Search engines operate by funds as well. Funds are collected either from selling advertisement placement, selling listings, or both. When a search engine company sells out the area above the search results as advertisement space, and displays only relevant results based on what the users were looking for, most people will be mislead by the placement of such links, and choose them instead of the actual results.
• Search engines that operate by funds generated by selling listings will not show your website within the results regardless of its relevance, unless you sign up for their service.
• You may be listed for free even on fee based search engines by getting your site listed on either of the directories the search engine company buys information from. However, such directories such as Yahoo.com and DMOZ.org are moderated based on relevance and content, thus getting listed on their websites may take some time and efforts.
• Most search engines rank your website by relevance, which is measured by the thresold of keywords.
• Some search engines, such as Google.com as well, will sort even relevant sites by their popularity, measuring the page rank by the actual links leading to the site. Also, the text or ALT TAG text accompanied with these links will influence the keywords the website is shown in the listings for.
• Some search engines will consider a website more and more popular when they are clicked on the results page. These inlude AltaVista.com.

Website Objective

Your website isn't and shouldn't be designed for “YOU.” It should be designed for your customers and users. What do your customers want to see on your website? What is the objective of your website? Who is the target market for your website? "You are not the user."

Website designers and developers spend far too much time on things that matter little to the customers. You need to communicate clearly; provide information the users want; and offer simple page design and navigation. Also if you have an E-commerce site, you need a unique selling proposition and an enticing “call to action!” Your website should be an online sales and marketing tool for your business and not a “work of art!”

If your website is not effective and getting the results you want, then you need professional help!

Thanksgiving Holiday!

I will be traveling to Indianapolis and Ohio to be with my family over the Thanksgiving holidays. I will be visiting my sister, niece, nephew, brothers, son, daughter and grandkids. Plan on going to the Cleveland Browns vs. Houston Texans pro football game on Sunday over the holiday weekend. I will be back the following week to provide more valuable information about online marketing and getting targeted traffic to websites.

We are planning an E-commerce FREE seminar at WebStream’s corporate office on Thursday, Dec 6th. Keep checking back for more detailed information or call WebStream at 888-932-2333.

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Inspiring Quotes on Appreciation and Gratitude for this upcoming Thanksgiving

"We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have"
~ Frederick Keonig

"Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams"
~ Ashley Smith

"The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one"
~ Oscar Wilde

"Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can - there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did"
~ Sarah Caldwell

"Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well"
~ Voltaire

"Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition"
~ Alexander Smith

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them"
~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year - and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!"
~ Anthony Robbins

"There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread"
~ Mother Teresa of Calcutta

"The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness"
~ Dalai Lama

"There is no such thing as absolute value in this world. You can only estimate what something is worth to you”
~ Charles Dudley Warner

"If you can read the above, thank a teacher!"

Happy Thanksgiving to all !!!!

The Digital Age is Upon Us

- Over 1.1 billion Internet users worldwide, 275,000 new users per day (within 18 to 24 months 1.8 billion users)

- Over 200 billion online purchases

- 40 billion E-mails per day (within 18 to 24 months --- 70 billion E-mails per day)

- 169 million cell phones sold in USA last year

- $2 billion dollars per year being spent on streaming media (18 to 24 months it will increase to $12 billion dollars per year)

- MySpace has 100 million users (230,000 new users per day)

- YouTube has a million visitors per month

- Over 100 million websites

- Over twenty billion web pages (over 5 million new pages are uploaded daily)

- 175,000 new blogs per day

- Internet Ad spending in the USA totaled $16.8 billion dollars in 2006

- 7.4 billion searches on search engines and directories per month worldwide

WebStream Seminar

WebStream Internet Solutions
Presents:
George Dubec

“Local Online Marketing for Your Business”

FREE Local Online Marketing Seminar
Tuesday – November 13, 2007
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
at WebStream Corporate Offices



Let George Dubec, industry expert, provide valuable information to help you market your business in your local area whether you have a website or not. Get more local business before your competitors do!

FIND OUT:
- How to develop an online local marketing plan
- How to design a website that is effective for the local market
- How to optimize your website for local search engines
- How to establish an Opt-in E-mail program
- How to establish Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
- How to get more targeted local traffic to your website
- How to market online without a website
- How to create links with other local businesses
- How to use Pay Per Click campaigns for local search

LOCATION:
WebStream Corporate Offices
356 SW 12th Ave.
Deerfield Beach, FL 33442

RSVP (LIMITED SEATING):
WebStream Internet Solutions
(888) 932-2333 / (954) 730-7127
info@webstream.net

WebStream Seminar

Biz to Biz Expo

Presents George Dubec

"How to Get Targeted Traffic to Your Website"

Tuesday - November 6, 2007

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

at

Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Airport

1825 Griffin Road

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

(SE corner of I-95 and Griffin Road)

Find out how to get the kind of visitors who will be interested in your online products and services. Learn how to make your website into an effective sales and marketing tool. Have a website that will make you money instead of cost you money!

DEMAND MORE FROM YOUR WEBSITE!

*Free Admission
*Plenty of Parking
*Everyone is Welcome to Attend
*Showcase your Business to Hundreds
*100+ Business Exhibitors
*Business Card Exchange

OVER A THOUSAND ATTENDEES

Reservations for table space still available
For More Information Go To http://www.biztobiznetworking.com/
Or Call WebStream @ 954-730-7127 / info@webstream.net

George Goes to Las Vegas

I will be doing a presentation for Courier Magazine’s Special Delivery 2007 conference in Las Vegas from November 1st thru the 3rd. My topic will be “The Fundamentals of Online Marketing.” I look forward to discussing how to get more targeted traffic to websites and increase conversion rates into more leads and more business for website owners. I have over ten years experience working with all size companies and specialize in developing twelve month online marketing plans.

Without a plan most business owners and website owners try a multitude of things to get more traffic to their websites. Sometimes this results in more traffic but not more business. The idea is to get those that are interested in the company’s products and services to visit the site. Targeted traffic is the key!

It’s important to look at a website as a sales and marketing tool for the business. It is an extension of the business and sometimes it is solely an online business. Demand more from your website and make the commitment to have your website make you money instead of cost your money!

I will not be posting to my blog until I return on Nov 5th.

SPECIAL NOTE: I will also be presenting at the Biz to Biz Expo on Tuesday, Nov 6th from 6 pm to 7 pm at the Sheraton, Fort Lauderdale Airport in Florida. The topic of discussion will be “How to Get More Targeted Traffic to Your Website!” Call 954-730-7127 or visit http://www.biztobiznetworking.com

Website Check-up Questions

Answer YES or NO to the following questions:

1. Are you getting what you expect from your website?

2. Is your website costing you money or making you money? What is your ROI (return on investment)?

3. Is your website an effective sales and marketing tool?

4. Are you getting targeted traffic to your website?

5. Have you established KPI (key performance indicators)?

6. Do you have a twelve month online marketing plan in place?

7. Do you know what your conversion ratios are: visitors to sales, visitors to sales leads, visitors to shopping cart, shopping cart to sales, etc?

8. Do you know who your target market is?

9. Do you have a monthly online marketing budget?

10.How much time do you or your staff or anyone else involved with your web project have available to spend on weekly online marketing efforts?

11. What is the objective of your website?

12. Does your website Home Page readily explain what you do, what are your products or services, what are the benefits of using your products and services and what separates you from your competition?

13. Is your site search engine friendly: robot .txt files, 404 error pages, site maps, developed with CSS templates, text navigation links, clean URL’s?

14. Is your website SEO (search engine optimized)? Are all your pages being indexed by the major search engines?

15. Has your site fully SEO (search engine optimized) with a main topic for every prominent page that integrates your target search terms into your Page Titles, Meta Tags, Alt Tags on images and visible page text?

16. Do you monitor and track your visitor statistics on a regular basis?

17. Do you know which sites and search engines provide you with the most traffic?

18. Do you know your link popularity and that of your competitors?

19. Do you track the source of all reported errors in your site statistics and fix them promptly?

20. Do you know which keywords your site was found for in the search engines? Have you conducted keyword research to determine what search terms your target markets are looking for so you can optimize for them?

21. Does your site contain zero broken links? Do you check for and fix broken links regularly?

22. Have you created and submitted an XML sitemap to Google Sitemaps?

23. Have you created and submitted a sitemap to Yahoo Site Explorer?

24. Have you checked to see if your site meets Google's Webmaster Guidelines?

25. Do you check your key performance indicators (KPI) a regular basis and establish your conversion ratios?

26. Is your site easy to navigate?

27. Do you encourage feedback from your site visitors and provide an easy way for them to provide such feedback?

28. Are there at least 250 words of text on your home page to satisfy search engines?

29. Does your site readily display a visible, text-based site map to aid user navigation?

30. Does your site properly utilize your page real estate by following a conventional layout and position important items based on eye tracking studies?

31. Do you have an ongoing link building campaign to secure more incoming links to your site and improve your site's link popularity?

32. Does your site have a high percentage of repeat visitors?

33. Are the majority of your visitors staying on your site for more than a minute or two?

34. Does your search engine referrals and site traffic grow each month?

35. Does your website provide a “call to action” to offer a reason for your visitors to contact you, leave an E-mail address or buy your products or service?


Unless you can answer YES to all of the above, your website is not working hard enough for you and needs some work. Get with some online marketing experts to help you establish how to do it and how much it will cost!

Free SEO Tools

Here are some tools I have gathered up that may be convenient to you if you want to check your web standings.

The following list is some of the tools that WebStream’s SEO staff uses to analyze and evaluate websites before we perform SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) work for a site:

1. Alexa --> Web Traffic Indicator / Related Link Finder / Incoming Link Finder --> Find out where you and your competitors rank amongst over 100 million websites. Also find out who links to you and related links in your business category. Great resource for link building programs.

2. Link Popularity --> Find out how many prominent linkbacks you have to your website. You can also check and compare your competitors' link popularity.

3. Spider Simulator --> See what the search engine robot spiders pick-up when they come to your web pages.

4. Keyword Position Ranking --> Select a keyword or keyword phrase and see if you rank in the top 30 with the major search engines.

5. Cool SEO Tool --> Great SEO tool for ranking and competitive analysis plus other SEO information.


If you would like me to perform a website evaluation of your present site either call (888-932-2333) or email your request.

Keywords and Keyword Phrases Increase Visitors, Rank Higher and Decrease Marketing Budget

In Web Development, Keyword Themes Stack the Odds in Your Favor

Don't think of the search engine as having millions of entries per keyword or phrase. Understand that there are 1,000 entries and that's it. The rest exists in a black hole in space that will not be seen in time to earn you a dollar or a visitor.

Looking at the results for any key phrase, the statistics tell us that there are, for example, 489,876,431 entries. On closer review, we can verify that 489,876,431 entries are never listed on the major engines. There are in fact only 1,000 entries listed for a search.

If you aren't in that first 1,000 of those millions of reported search engine statistics, your site has no search engine representation. That means it is impossible for anyone to find your site except those to whom you specifically give the address, totally defeating the purpose of having a web site in the first place.

The keyword theme helps us overcome the outrageous odds stacked against our sites.

Using specific search engine optimization formulas in our initial web development, we can produce several related key phrases that effectively boost our placement in search results. Not only can we be sure to be among the 1,000, using this strategy fully should get your site in the top 25 within 30 - 45 days or sooner.

Web development’s ultimate goals are to accomplish the following:
-Inform and convert visitors to leads or sales
-Attract search engine robot spiders from as many engines as possible
-Get high rankings for a particular keyword or keyword phrase

By applying proper keyword themes, you can decrease your online advertising and marketing expense. Use the following tools to help in developing your keyword selection and themes –

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Seminar Turnouts

I received a great turnout at my last two Online Marketing Seminars. We had packed houses with individuals and business owners looking to find out how to get more targeted traffic to their websites. I went over the “Ten Commandments of Online Marketing” and “The Fundamentals of Online Marketing” with the groups. We also spent a a considerable amount of time on link building. The three most important things you can do as a foundation for online marketing is –

1 - Properly optimize your site for search engines with keyword rich content, alt tags, meta tags and header tags

2 – Make your site search engine friendly with robot .txt files, 404 error pages, text link site maps, Google site maps plus use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for design

3 – Build as many quality links back to your site as possible

Then follow-up by developing a twelve month online marketing plan with an established budget and available in-house man hours. It is critical that you have a good stats program and the ability to track all your marketing campaigns. Online marketing is like “paddling a canoe upstream.” The harder and faster you paddle the greater your progress, but if you stop you will go downstream real fast! Online marketing is a process that never stops as there is no “magic bullet” for success, just a commitment with a plan in place and constant tracking and monitoring your efforts.

WebStream Seminar

WebStream Internet Solutions
Presents:
George Dubec
“How to Optimize and Market Your Website”

Online Marketing & Link Building Seminar
Tuesday – October 2, 2007
6:00 pm – 8:00 pmat WebStream Corporate Offices

Let George Dubec, industry expert, provide valuable information to help you develop an Online Marketing Plan for a new web project or an existing website and help you get more targeted traffic.

FIND OUT:
- How to develop a twelve month online marketing plan
- How to design a website that is search engine friendly
- How to select effective keywords
- How to optimize your website for search engines
- How to establish an Opt-in E-mail program
- How to develop a link building program
- How to use blogs, newsletters, press releases and RSS feeds
- How to establish Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
- How to get more targeted traffic to your website

LOCATION:
WebStream Corporate Offices
356 SW 12th Ave.
Deerfield Beach, FL 33442

RSVP (LIMITED SEATING):
WebStream Internet Solutions
(888) 932-2333 / (954) 730-7127
info@webstream.net

WebStream Seminar

Biz to Biz Expo
Presents George Dubec
Internet Marketing Specialist / Radio Show Host

"How to Get Targeted Traffic to Your Website"

Seminar with George Dubec is 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Tuesday, September 25th, 2007

5:00 PM - 8:00 PM

at

Boca Raton Marriott Hotel

5150 Town Center Circle, Boca Raton

From I-95, Exit Palmetto Park Road West, Right on Military Trail

"Find out how to get the kind of visitors who will be interested in your online products and services. Learn how to make your website into an effective sales and marketing tool. Have a website that will make you money instead of cost you money! "

Demand more from your website!

*Free Admission

*Plenty of Parking

*Everyone is Welcome to Attend

*Showcase your Business to Hundreds

*100+ Business Exhibitors

*Business Card Exchange

OVER A THOUSAND ATTENDEES

Reservations for table space still available!

For more information go to http://www.biztobiznetworking.com/

Or call WebStream @ 954-730-7127 / info@webstream.net

How to Get Indexed by Google Within 48 Hours

Once you launch a new website it could take some time until Google visits your web pages. Even if you submit your website to Google through their regular submission form, it usually takes weeks until Google visits your site.

Here are three (3) things you can do so Google indexes your web page within 48 hours and not within weeks:

#1: Get a link from an existing site

Links are very important for high rankings on Google. The more (quality) links you have from related sites, the higher Google will rank your pages. A fast and easy way to get a link to your website is to join a forum that is related to your website. Participate in the discussions and sign your posts with your name and a link to your website. Don’t spam the forums. Only participate in an online discussion if you really have something worthwhile to say about the topic. If you post in a well known forum then Google will quickly pickup the link to your site.

#2: Create a blog

Google likes blogs and some blogs are indexed very quickly. Use Google's Blogger.com service to set-up a blog that relates to your business. Write a few posts and add a link to your website in your blog posts. Google will quickly index your Blogger blog and navigate the link to your site.

#3: Get as many links as you can

The more high profile, high rated websites that link to your website, the sooner Google will find your site. Initiate a link building program to get as many linkbacks to your site as possible. If you use all of the methods listed above, it's very likely that Google will index your website within 48 hours. Links from other sites will ensure that Google finds your website more quickly. The more links that point to your website, the more likely it is that Google will find your site. In addition, you will get higher rankings if many other pages link to your site. If you want to find out how to start a link building program contact me as soon as possible.

The Art of SEO

By: Jill Whalen

As much as Google *pretends* to like SEOs by inviting us to parties at the Googleplex and posting on SEO forums, the bottom line is that they don't like us -- or rather, they don't like what we do. Google wants to find the best, most relevant sites for the search query at hand all by themselves. Perhaps someday they will actually be able to do that, but for now, they still need our help, whether they like it or not.

Unfortunately, unscrupulous SEOs have given Google good reasons not to like us. Because of search engine spammers, Google is constantly changing their ranking criteria and is always on the lookout for the telltale signs of SEO on any given site. It's not a huge stretch to say that they may even downgrade the sites that they believe have been SEO'd.

If you think that having your keyword phrases "in all the right places for SEO" is a good thing, think again! You're essentially telling Google, "Hey look...my site has been SEO'd!" To which they reply, "Thanks so much for letting us know... ZAP ... see ya later!" Doesn't matter if your site is the most relevant (in your mind) to the search query. Doesn't matter that you've placed your keyword phrases strategically throughout the site. That's actually the thing that may become your downfall.

Stuff that worked like a charm for many people in the early years of SEO may actually hurt rather than help now. As to what might trigger an SEO "red flag," my guess is that it's a combination of things. Like, if you have a certain number of traditional SEO factors on any given page, those may set off some Google warning bells (otherwise known as a spam filter).

Some of the traditional SEO formulaic elements that you may have been taught to use include putting the keyword phrase:
· in the domain name
· in the file name
· in the Title tag
· in the Meta description tag
· in the Meta keyword tag
· in the image alt attributes
· in an H1 (or any H) tag
· as the first words on the page
· in bold and/or italics or a different color o multiple times in the first paragraph or twice on the page o in the copy in every single spot on the page where it might possibly make sense to use it, and o in all the hyperlinks pointing to a page.

If you put the same keyword phrase in many of those spots, you might very well trigger a spam filter. Since it's difficult to determine how many and which combinations of those things might trigger the filter, the best advice I can give you is to do your SEO without any particular formula in mind. That's how I've always done it and it's always worked because every site is unique and has different SEO needs.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to describe this type of SEO to others, as people are always looking for the magic formula. For as long as I've been doing SEO (over 12 years now), I've had it in the back of my mind that I wouldn't want to tip off the engines that my sites were SEO'd. This is one of the reasons I've never used keyword-rich domain names or file names. That's probably the most obvious SEO thing you can do.

The most important aspect to being a good SEO is creativity. You shouldn't worry too much about the specifics of putting keyword phrases here and there, and again over there. Not every page needs an H1 heading with keyword phrases in it. If your page isn't designed to use H1 headings, you don't need to change it to use one just for SEO purposes. And many images don't really and truly make sense with a keyword phrase in their alt attribute (alt tag). Don't force one to be there just for the search engines.

Most importantly for Google (and for your users), when it comes to your page copy and how you use your visible keyword phrases, less is definitely more. Please don't read my Nitty-gritty report and then put the same keyword phrase in every single available spot on your page that you can find. My report is supposed to help you think about a few places you may have missed because you weren't thinking about being descriptive when you originally wrote the copy. You can definitely have too much of a good thing.

A first paragraph on a page that has, say, 4 sentences, should not have 10 instances of your keyword phrase. It will look and sound dumb. I know that I have stressed this in my conference presentations and in our High Rankings seminars, but no matter how many times I say this, people don't quite grasp the importance of working this way. If your copy reads poorly to a human, and does not come across as natural professional copywriting, the search engines won't like it either.

When you do SEO, you don't follow a guidebook. Think like a search engineer and consider all the possible things they might have to combat both now and in the future. Always optimize for 3 or 4 or even up to 5 phrases, and spread them out throughout the entire page. Never, ever, ever think that it's the first paragraph that matters and stuff 'em all in there. There should be an equal distribution throughout the entire page, and you should never use the phrases so much that you hear them constantly when you read it.

If you've done it right, an everyday user should not have any idea that a page has been SEO'd. A trained SEO should be able to spot what your keyword phrases are, but it shouldn't be glaringly obvious. Last, but not least, hire a professional copywriter to work on the important pages of your site. This is the best investment you can make for your site and your business.
Even if you don't want to hire an SEO, you absolutely MUST hire a professional copywriter. You need someone who really and truly understands target audiences and how to speak to them about the benefits of what you offer. You can easily teach someone like that the SEO writing part.

Hope this helps to give you some ideas on how you might get out of formula-SEO mode and start doing more creative SEO. More than ever, SEO is much more of an art than a science. The science is only a small portion of it.

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CEO and founder of High Rankings®, Jill Whalen has been performing search engine optimization since 1995 and is the host of the free High Rankings Advisor search engine marketing newsletter, author of “The Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines" and founder/administrator of the popular High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum. In 2006, Jill co-founded SEMNE, a local search engine marketing networking organization for people and companies in New England.

Free Link Building Seminar

Presented By George Dubec

Tuesday August 28, 2007
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

WebStream Corporate Offices
356 SW 12 AVE
Deerfield Beach, FL 33442

Find out how to get the kind of visitors who will be interested in your online products and services by building links from other related, high traffic, popular sites with high Google Page Ranks. Learn the latest link building strategies and techniques to help you increase your link popularity so that you will get better search engine rankings. The search engines use many criteria to index your website and high link popularity is a 60% factor in getting a top 10 listing.

Types of link building discussed:
· Content Links
· Reciprocal Links
· One Way Links
· Directory and Search Engine Links
· Banner Links

FREE ADMISSION & LIMITED SEATING!

RSVP BY CALLING WEBSTREAM@ 888-932-2333 / 954-730-7127
OR EMAIL INFO@WEBSTREAM.NET

SEO Questions and Answers

What is a Search Engine?

A search engine is an online database of websites that allows Internet users to search for information contained on websites listed in the database by "Keywords" and “Keyword Phrases.” Keywords and Keyword Phrases are words or string of words used when looking for information on a specific topic. For example, the words "grad schools" would likely be used when looking for information on continuing post-secondary education. Each search engine has slightly different behaviors and characteristics. Search engines use a robot spider that patrols the Internet through navigation links looking for new websites, web pages as well as new content on websites. The robot spider has been programmed with an algorithm based on established ranking factors which is used to index the new information properly. It is best to be positioned within the top (3) pages (top 30) on the search engines Free, Organic or Natural search listings. Research shows that over 60% of searches take place on the Natural listings versus the Pay Per Click (PPC) or paid listings. Google is the largest and most well known Search Engine.

What is a Directory?

A directory is a search tool much like a search engine but with a few major differences. Directories tend to employ human editors to review and rank websites submitted to their database. Yahoo! is the most well known example of a directory. Most directories catalog websites based on a variety of topic categories such as Business and Economics, or Arts and Culture. Most directories request payment before assigning a website review to one of their editors. Payment will also expedite the review process.

What is (PPC) or Pay Per Click?

Major search engines and directories offer Pay per Click rankings. Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing as well as other major search engines allow webmasters and website owners the chance to purchase placement through an auction system, bidding on keywords and keyword phrases. The average cost for a click through is about $1.45. Depending on how many bidders want a particular keyword or keyword phrase the cost per click could be more or less. Also a maximum amount per month can be established so the customer doesn’t spend more than their budget allows. It is also suggested to attach a stats program to track the click thru’s, such as Google Analytics.

Is there a simple solution to top placement?

There is no simple solution to obtain high search engine rankings. It is desirable to be listed with the top (3) pages (top 30 listings) in order to get the best visibility. Search engine optimization is time consuming work and requires a healthy knowledge of how the Internet functions and how search engines operate. The basic elements of top placement include longevity of the site at about 10% / proper optimization of the website and prominent web pages 30% / linkbacks from high traffic, high ranked, related website 60%. It also takes a long period of time, sometimes months before favorable listings can be seen.

Are not all search engines the same?

Each search tool has its own unique characteristics and criteria. As businesses, each search tool has found ways to make its service slightly different from other search tools. For example Google uses over 200 ranking factors to decide where a website should be indexed.

Will my website stay at the #1 position once my website is indexed there?

Search Engine rankings fluctuate frequently, however, if your site is properly maintained by search engine specialists, month to month, then it is likely that the movement will be confined to within the top10 positions. Periodically the search engines reindex the listings in their database, with the latest information, to keep the listings fresh, up to date and relevant. Also the search engines periodically change their algorithms to reflect new criteria used to index sites. The famous “Google Dance” is known for “shuffling the deck,” changing website positions to reflect the latest information and algorithm changes.

My website did not get accepted last time I submitted to the search engines... why?

Search Engine listings are not guaranteed to everyone who launches a website on the Internet. Search engines are for-profit businesses and have the right to refuse to list any site for virtually any reason. If done properly most sites can get listed on search engines. It is important to cover all bases and all necessary elements are present before submitting the finalized site to the search engines or directories. That is why new websites should be reviewed by SEO professionals before being launched.

How long does it take to see results?

It can take between 2 - 12 weeks or longer to see results, depending on each search engine. Sometimes it can take longer if you don’t follow industry standard SEO procedures. To get in the top (3) pages (top 30 listings) requires proper optimization along with extensive link building which can take months if at all.

How does the Search Engine find websites?

There are two ways a search engine can find a website to add to its database. The first and most direct method is to accept submissions from website designers, optimizers or website owners. Most search engines have a "submit your URL" section inviting submissions from website owners. The second method of finding websites is that search engines send a "spider" to follow each and every link on, off, and through websites which in turn link to other websites. If you have links from other sites then your site eventually will be found.

What is a "Spider"?

A "spider" is an electronic robot that travels the web examining websites in order to add them to a search engine database and rank them according to the specific ranking criteria for that search engine. Most search engines use spiders to quickly and efficiently canvass the web for information. The spiders will periodically come back to your site once indexed in their database. That is why it is important to constantly refresh your content, because the spiders will stop coming to your site if your content remains the same. One should add new content as frequently as possible as well as refresh their websites at least every six months to a year.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of making websites search engine friendly. The process often involves minor modifications to, or additions of, several standard elements of a website such as: keyword rich content, meta tags, alt tags, header tags as well as robot .txt files and site maps.

What do you mean by Search Engine Friendly?

We use this term to describe a website that has specific elements added or modified to attract and please search engine spiders or live directory editors. In other words don’t structure your site to obstruct the ability of the search engine robot spider to navigate your site such as: frames, flash pages, splash pages with no relevant content, “dirty URL’s,” no site map or Google site map, not using proper programming code and not using good web page format.

Why might I need to have extra elements added to my website?

A search engine spider is an automated program that electronically probes every URL submitted to its database. As the spider is a computer program, it is designed to look for and rank very specific items on each page it probes. If those elements are present, the spider computes a higher ranking than it would if those elements were not present. Each page needs to be properly optimized to have the best possible chance for a favorable listing.

If these elements are so important, why didn't they get added when my site was originally designed?

Most website designers don’t know or have the experience to properly optimize the web pages. Also they don’t want to charge you extra dollars to take the time to properly optimize each page because you may decide the project is too costly. In most cases the site designer is a highly skilled and creative person whose job is to put your ideas on the web. Again more often than not, the designers have not received extensive training in search engine optimization and don't think about it while pursuing a cool looking design. Search engines are also constantly changing their ranking criteria. They do this to prevent gross manipulation of their search tools. Often, website designers are not fully up to date with changes taking place with the search engines. It is critical that if you are using website designers to create your site that you bring in SEO professionals during the development stage to save you time and money. It would also be to your benefit to find a design firm that also understands and knows SEO practices, so all the necessary elements can be factored in the beginning.

Why don't I just do the work myself and save money?

You can do the work yourself. You will need to first get a good understanding of SEO practices and procedures then continuously update your knowledge of how the various search engines work and the constant changes in the way they work. This is time consuming and takes a lot of time. You should also know that if you make a mistake in optimization and submission, it can take months to find the mistake and fix it, resubmit the site and obtain the search engine ranking you want. It is also possible to get banned from a search engine if you use the wrong SEO techniques.

Future of Online Marketing and Ad Spending

Private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson forecasts that spending on Internet advertising will reach almost $62 billion in 2011, becoming the U.S.’s leading ad medium.

Veronis Suhler Stevenson’s ‘21st Communications Industry Forecast’ was released this week and the forecasts project that U.S. online advertising will grow by more than 21 percent per year, reaching $61.98 billion in 2011. This will see U.S. online advertising overtake U.S. newspaper advertising, which falls slightly behind with $60 billion, in 2011. The shift in advertising spend isn’t limited to the U.S. Online advertising spending is expected to overtake newspaper advertising this year in both Sweden and the U.K.

"We are in the midst of a major shift in the media landscape that is being fueled by changes in technology, end-user behaviors and the response by brand marketers and communications companies," said James Rutherford, executive vice president and managing director at VSS.

Television, cable and satellite will continue to command the biggest share of U.S. advertising budgets and are forecast to reach $86 billion in 2011, according to the forecast.

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It’s important for today’s business owners to consider shifting their budgets to include more Internet marketing and advertising. I recommend that every website have a twelve month marketing plan in place to attract targeted visitors. In other words, visitors that have an interest in your products and services. There are so many different online marketing strategies and programs that it’s important to seek the advice of SEO (search engine optimization), SEM (search engine marketing) and Internet professionals to help develop a plan and obtain information as to what all is available. Things are happening so fast that the average business owner cannot possibly be aware and keep up with all the new marketing trends, products and services.

Call me at (954) 730-7127 ext. 222 or email me to discuss a marketing plan for your business!

Google Dance Affects Website Traffic

The most recent Google Dance has already affected many websites, with some online businesses seeing a radical change in their search engine positions. For websites that rely heavily on search engine traffic, this has had a significant effect. A recent algorithm change by Google has resulted in the loss of a significant amount of web traffic, as much as 25% for some websites.

Many online businesses use a variety of tools to try to predetermine when the next Google Dance is about to commence, and time their website updates accordingly. Regular updates to their algorithms are carried out, says Google, to continually improve their user's experience.

During the month, Google sends out robots (spiders) to crawl the web and archive every website it finds. These archived websites will be presented in the next update of the Google index (database). The update process is initiated every 30 days or so, although on some occasions there have been more than 30 days between updates.

Now if you're familiar with Google you know they have 3 main www servers online, which are as follows:
http://www.google.com/ - The main address, the true Home Page of Google.
www2.google.com - Thought to be a test server.
www3.google.com - Thought to be a test server.

Nobody outside of "Google" truly seems to know the purpose of the www2 and www3 servers; many people have come to the assumption that they are test servers. During the update, which takes several days, the 3 Google servers display different results. While the results vary from server to server, they are said to be "dancing", hence the name "Google Dance".

The www2 & www3 servers are the ones most closely observed during the Dance, there are actually 10 Google Datacenters involved! By paying attention here will provide for a slight enhancement in the detection of the "Google Dance.” The tool listed previous is the only tool (that I know of) to provide the 10 Datacenters option.

Online Marketing Seminar - What a Turn-out!

There was a standing room only crowd at my Online Marketing presentation at the Biz to Biz Expo in Boca Raton, Florida on July 17th followed by a packed house at the WebStream Data Center for my Internet Marketing seminar on July 24th. I will be presenting at the next Biz to Biz Expo in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, Aug 21st and will be holding an in house seminar at the WebStream Data Center on Tuesday, Aug 28th.

Keep checking my blog and my website for more details or E-mail me for information!

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Some comments from attendess from my last presentation at the WebStream Data Center:

“Boy, I wish I had talked to George Dubec when I first started my web project. I could have saved so much time, thousands of dollars and a lot of headaches. It is invaluable to be personally mentored by George, a nationally renowned Internet Marketing expert.” - J.C. – Boca Raton, FL

"I want to thank you for hosting such an informative seminar! I learned so much about the internet last night that I simply never knew. The timing is perfect, with Webstream beginning work on my site as we speak! I was very impressed by Webstream’s new office and facility (I have never seen a server room like that before!) And it was a pleasure to finally meet Diego in person. I am confident that I have chosen the right company to build, host and market my website! I look forward to working with you and attending more seminars!" - Lorraine

"I wanted to thank you for hosting the Seminar. I found it extremely beneficial and I would be more than willing to help promote this event in the future. If you had the space, I would like to see all 600 of our members attend." - Ryan Diamond – Deerfield Beach, FL

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If you want your website to “make you money” and not “cost you money” then you need to consult with me. I will break down your project into its fundamental elements and show you how to establish the right marketing campaigns that will bring targeted traffic to your site; then be able to rate and track your results. The bottomline is to turn your website into an online sales and marketing tool that provides a high conversion ratio which will in turn give you a large return on your investment (ROI).

This is your chance to make it happen with personal one-on-one help. “Demand more from your website!” Call me now!

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF ONLINE MARKETING

I. Define your target market: international, national, country specific, state specific, local or a combination thereof.
-Percentages of the market in each category

II. Decide on the purpose of your website.
-Provide information
-Sell products and/or services
-Company or product branding
-Generate leads
-Other

III. Establish a monthly or yearly budget for online marketing.

IV. Develop a twelve month online marketing plan.
-Adjust your marketing plan approximately every month based on web traffic and your conversion rate.

V. Designate a point person in house to be responsible for plan follow-up and monitoring progress.

VI. Establish a relationship with a reliable, experienced outside resource (web design, SEO or marketing firm) to partner with to help and assist in implementing your online marketing plan.

VII. Properly optimize a new website or restructure an existing website for optimization and integrate or add all the appropriate online marketing features and functions necessary to go along with your online marketing plan.
- It’s important to create an online sales and marketing tool versus just a website.
- Consider the sales and marketing elements first, then design the website around them.
- On your Home Page you must describe exactly what you do and what separates you from your competition.
- "Why should anyone do business with you?"

VIII. Make sure you have a comprehensive web statistics program in place to track your web traffic.
- Create a Ground Zero Report to use as a base reference for your online marketing efforts.
- Check your web rankings regularly (Alexa ranking, Google page rank, link popularity, search engine rankings).

IX. Make sure you have a plan to track your conversion rate (sales, leads, requests, etc.) based on the amount of web traffic you are getting.

X. Check your statistics and track your conversions on a regular basis to analyze how your website is doing.

*NOTES:
1 - The online marketing process is an ongoing and dynamic effort. There is no "magic bullet!" It’s like "paddling a canoe upstream, if you stop you go downstream real fast!"
2 – Make sure your online marketing efforts are properly coordinated with your offline marketing efforts.

Google Remains the “900” Pound Gorilla of Search

RESTON, Va., July 16, 2007 – comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of activity across competitive search engines. In June 2007, Google Sites maintained its spot atop the rankings with 49.5 percent of the U.S. search market. Yahoo! Sites captured second place with 25.1 percent of U.S. searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (13.2 percent), Ask Network (5.0 percent) and Time Warner Network (4.2 percent).

Check out the June U.S. Search Engine Rankings from comScore:



*Americans conducted 8.0 billion searches online in June, up 6 percent versus May and up 26 percent versus June 2006.

*Google Sites led the pack with 4.0 billion search queries performed, followed by Yahoo Sites (2.0 billion), Microsoft Sites (1.1 billion), Ask Network (403 million), and Time Warner Network (341 million). Despite declining in search market share in June, both Google Sites and Yahoo! Sites enjoyed increases in search query volume.

*Microsoft Sites experienced a significant increase in search query volume (up 36 percent) and search market share (up 2.9 share points) in June, due in large part to Live Search Club, a program launched by Microsoft in late May to engage and reward users of Live Search.


If you want to find out how to get favorably ranked on Google go to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. If you need help, don’t hesitate to call me at 888-932-2333 #222.

WHAT IS BETTER – SEO OR PPC?

Most commercial websites work best if both SEO and PPC are used. The exact percentages depend on your goals.

Pay per click advertising (PPC):

Advantages:

-You get instant results, you will start getting traffic immediately and not months later.

-PPC ads are perfect for time limited offers such as holiday sales and promotional events.

-You can stop your ads at any time.

-PPC ads make it easy to test a variety of keywords and landing pages.

-PPC ads also work with websites that are not favorable for good search engine rankings, such as frame structures, FLASH sites and dynamic pages.

-PPC ads allow you to bid on a many different keywords and keyword phrases, including misspellings and other variations that you cannot display on your web pages.

-PPC allows you to control your marketing budget.

-You decide where your keywords and keyword phrases are to be displayed on the search engines.

Disadvantages:

-PPC advertising can become very expensive if you bid on the wrong keywords or if you don't calculate the maximum bid price correctly.

-Click fraud can be a problem. Not all visitors are potential customers.

-You will get increased traffic but may not get sufficient conversions to sales or leads because the traffic is not targeted specific enough.

-Your sales may not be enough to offset the cost of the ads.

-More search engine visitors tend to favor and thus click-thru the organic listings.

Search engine optimization (SEO):

Advantages:

-Traffic through organic search engine listings has minimal reoccurring cost once the initial expense and up-front work has been completed.

-After the site has been optimized and you have achieved favorable listings, you can then use your online marketing budget for other programs.

-A large volume of visitors and click-thrus to your site won’t cost you money.

-Search engine optimization offers long term results that don't require constant financial spending.

-Link building, which is part of search engine optimization, will also get targeted traffic from other websites to yours.

-Optimizing your site properly will also make it more user friendly.

-More search engine visitors tend to favor and thus click-thru the organic listings.

Disadvantages:

-SEO is very time-consuming both up-front and ongoing.

-SEO may require that you redesign your site and/or reprogram your code to make your website search engine friendly.

-You must constantly update and refresh your content to keep your search engine listings high.

-You must constantly continue to build links to your site to maintain or increase your link popularity.

-It will cost considerably more money to optimize your site properly when being developed than it would otherwise.

-It will cost additional dollars to restructure and reprogram your site if you decide to properly optimize an existing site.

-You have no choice as to where your keywords and keyword phrases are to be displayed on the search engines.

Search engine optimization delivers lasting results and it costs considerably less in the long term. However, you must make sure that you optimize a website correctly to get high search engine rankings.

Pay per click advertising and search engine optimization both contribute to the success of your website. If you use a combination of both, you can get many new visitors and customers without spending a fortune. The key is to track your conversions to make sure you are getting a favorable Return On Investment (ROI). You must generate more revenue than you are spending on SEO and PPC to make it worthwhile.

Fundamentals of Online Marketing

The following outline will help you establish your basic needs before you start an online marketing program:

I – Twelve month online marketing plan based on:

- What is the objective of your website?
- Who is your target market?
- How much in-house time do you have to devote to online marketing?
- What is your budget?

II – Key Performance Indicators (KPI):
- What stats need to be monitored?
- What web traffic indicators are to be used?
- What conversion rates are to be evaluated?
- Ground Zero Report with all the KPI’s established (tracking and stats data for existing sites).

III – Tracking software and tools:
- What will be used to track and analyze information for the KPI’s?

IV – Competitive analysis:
- Find out what other websites in your business category are doing.

V – Online marketing work responsibility:
- Establish a point person in the organization responsible for the website marketing.
- Assign in-house work.
- Assign outsource work.

VI – Evaluate information and data:
- How often and who is going to analyze data (KPI’s) and make recommendations and adjustments to twelve month marketing plan?

It is highly recommended that you meet with professionals to put together a proper marketing plan and establish how you are going to track and evaluate your website success.

Welcome to my Blog!

Hi, I am George Dubec (http://www.georgedubec.com), Sr VP of Sales and Marketing for WebStream Internet Solutions. I have been in the Internet business for over ten years, starting as one of the founding partners of WebStream Internet Solutions back in 1997. We started the business mainly for web hosting and then expanded into programming and web design for our customers. Within three years we had thousands of customers in over fifty countries. We have been in business for over ten years and now have customers in over two hundred countries. Over the last five years we have developed and specialized into online marketing to help our new and old customers get more targeted traffic to their websites and more importantly get a higher conversion rate for leads and sales.

We also have a broadcast radio show, “The Internet Business Hour”, that has been on the air since 1999. We started locally in South Florida and we are now in over sixty markets throughout the USA. The show covers all aspects of doing business on the Internet. I produce and cohost the show with Kerry Brewer, President of Webstream Internet Solutions. The topics include: web design, web hosting, web promoting, Internet statistics, news, E-commerce as well as special guest interviews. The show has been playing for over eight years and "The Internet Business Hour" is now considered the "Voice of the Internet."

Our radio show is broadcast in Florida as follows:

SOUTH FLORIDA:
Thursdays – WSBR 740 AM – from 10 pm to 11 pm (EST)

Fridays – WWNN 1470 AM – from 3 pm to 4 pm (EST) -OR- WSBR 740 AM – from 10 pm to 11 pm (EST)

LIVE WEBCAST:
You can also hear a live webcast, anywhere in the world, by going to http://www.theinternetbusinesshour.com and clicking on the “LISTEN LIVE” banner.

Now that I have started my blog I am going to share cutting edge insights into doing business on the Internet. I want to educate the public about the Internet, as I believe that an educated business owner is going to wind up with a better web presence for his business. The more you know the better decisions you will make concerning your online efforts. Also many individuals and business owners are confused, perplexed and frustrated about the Internet. They have asked too many friends, neighbors and associates for advice, but have come up empty handed. This leads to plenty of misinformation that creates poor choices. Well if that’s the case then you are at the right place at the right time. I plan on bringing the right information, latest statistics and professional tips to help you keep up in CyberSpace. Keep checking back to my blog on a regular basis to get the latest industry news and information. If you would like direct help or have any specific questions don’t hesitate to call me at 954-730-7127 #222 or e-mail gdubec@webstream.net.

The Importance of Fresh Content in Redesigning Your Web Site

Deerfield Beach, Florida – June 19, 2007 – WebStream (www.webstream.net) has always been a leading proponent of building an SEO-friendly web site. It is ever so important today however, when redesigning your site, that you take into consideration a number of key factors relative to the search engines. When factoring in search engine findability, not only is relevant content important, but fresh content is the key to higher relevancy.

One way to accomplish this when working on a web site redesign is to write your own content. That is one sure way to ensure that you have unique and original content. The search engines like fresh and original content. It takes more effort on your part, but the facts prove out that original and fresh content is one of the best ways to boost your web site’s popularity with the major search engines.

In order to take dual advantage of human and search engine logic, keep your content down to text blobs of 300 - 400 words or less. This is called “chunking” - small blobs of text that can be easily read and digested by the visitor, as opposed to a long chapter or story-like challenge that most visitors will not read when surfing a site. Another important factor in creating your own original content is to carefully “wrap” the text around your primary and secondary key words and key phrases. You may also want to add freshly created text content to your alt-tags as well. In addition, by not periodically updating your site, you will turn off repeat visitors with stale content.

If you do not have the time, or the creative spark, you can always hire a professional copywriter who will take your ideas, products or services and create compelling content. You can also re-print article on your site, providing that you have gotten permission from the original author. RSS news feeds are a simple and cost-effective way to “pull” relevant industry news into your site by targeted categories, providing fresh content for the search engines when you do not have the time to create the content yourself.

Founded in 1997 with headquarters in Deerfield Beach, Florida, WebStream is one of the oldest and largest web hosting and marketing companies and is a leading provider of comprehensive business Internet services specializing in the business-to-business market in over 200 countries and every U.S. state. WebStream offers a wide range of Internet solutions, including high-speed web hosting, streaming and hosting solutions, co-location services, e-commerce services, web design/programming and search engine optimization and online marketing. WebStream also offers an Affiliate Reseller Program that is available worldwide.

For more information on redesigning your web site, or to request a design consultation, call Toll Free, 1-888-932-2333, or email info@webstream.net.