I am at an Internet Marketing conference in Las Vegas this week called http://www.PubCon.com.  I ended up misplacing my paper version of the schedule and I  was trying to find the online version of the conference agenda and I just googled “pubcon”.

The top listing is a paid Ad from a company called Teknicks and they were looking to expand their prospecting for their company. (I like this)

Typically I would admire this for not only as a way to build brand, but also engagement from their clients and prospects…and at 5 cents a click it is pretty cost effective.

Notice I said “typically” because this time they made a mistake…and it is a very common issue…

They ran an ad without testing the landing page, so their clicks are going to a broken landing page.

I just let them know on twitter…so hopefully they will fix it and get the ROI that they were expecting from this technique.  Good luck guys.

It is really important to recognize that even SEO / PPC professionals make mistakes, measure twice and cut once. 

There are some changes to the 4HWW that will impact you.

One is that the location for the meetup has changed by popular demand to somewhere more central. The new address is
3934 Murphy Canyon Road Suite B-200 San Diego, CA 92123

We will NOT be having a meetup on the 9th because I will be at http://www.pubcon.com – The Internet Marketing conference in Las Vegas.
We will be having on on Wednesday the 16th at the new location.

Please watch the video for more info…

Thanks,

Brad

As I have mentioned before Google+ is here! This is Google’s version of Facebook.

So far, Google isn’t allowing the masses to get in. They are running an exclusive invitation only deal.

I however have secured some invitations.. So, if you’d like one, please do the following:

• Fill in the form below
• Like the Webheat Facebook Page - http://www.facebook.com/webheat
• If you have twitter – please send a tweet Tweet mentioning @bslavin is hooking you up with a Google+ account with a link t0 my fan page – http://www.facebook.com/webheat
• Then email me at GooglePlus@webheat.com with your Twitter & Facebook addresses / or message me on facebook.

I’ll be happy to get one to you within a few hours.

You will be asked to opt-in to my list so that I can send you updates and your invitation. I hope this makes sense?

These are first come first serve. I can only send a limited number of invitations each day. But as soon as I can invite you I will

I know I just sent you an email last week but I also know that having good information ahead of the masses can have a beneficial impact on your business.

A perfect example of this would be with my own business…three months ago my business partner Jeff and I pivoted the direction of our company based purely on our observations of the changing market and a response to our customers needs. We shifted from a “done for your Internet Marketing” product to a more strategic needs based consulting and coaching role for our clients and since the switch business has been booming. While we do still handle the nitty gritty side of SEO and Internet Marketing, with our enhanced strategic roles – our impact in our clients business can be far more impactful.

You’re going to be fascinated when you find out that you can have accountability in your internet marketing no matter what tactics are being used to bring in traffic, leads and sales. Imagine what it would be like to have a partner who could act as an online coordinator to interpret reports, project manage, maintain accountability and help with subcontractor management. We reshaped our business by responded to the changing marketplace.

But enough about me at the top here is some actionable information for your business.

• Google made some big moves last week that are critical to your online success. I am going to focus this quick message on only two topics. Google+ (The brand new Google Social network to compete HEAD 2 HEAD with Facebook)
• Google Panda Update (Changing the dynamics of search optimization completely. Google Panda – while I hinted at the newest Panda update last week – this video (recorded by one of the top experts in SEO from seomoz) outlines the industry wide shifts and the massive impact that Panda has had.

If you are involved at all online take the ten minutes and watch this video right now. It dispels some of the current technique and puts into perspective elements like site design, unique content and usability as part of the SEO conversation. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-googles-panda-update-changed-seo-best-practices-forever-whiteboard-friday Additionally did you know that Google has HUMANS reviewing sites and that human review plays a massive part in your ability to rank well in competitive industries.

A few of the questions that they ask about the sites that they are reviewing include:

• Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?

For a full list of questions that YOU SHOULD BE ASKING YOURSELF directly from Google – http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html

I’d like to show you how to take responsibility for your sites. It is more than just look and feel, functionality and content. If you don’t pay attention, Google is going to pass you by.

Google+ as a response to Facebook and other external pressures Google has released their own social network called Google+ http://plus.google.com Currently the site is in invitation only mode but as an early adopter I have a preview account and I must say – google+ is pretty cool.

While there is no active advertising but I am sure that this is coming down the pipe. This may not be relevant to you, but here is a perfect opportunity to start developing a plan to market on Google+. The sooner you understand this new social momentum the sooner you will be able to benefit from using it.

One of the things you are really going to love about Google+ is unlike Facebook, where all your connections are all seen as “friends” and the default security profile is to share everything with everyone. The new tools provided for making connections and sharing are now very flexible. These new features and tools all have great new names like Circles, Sparks, Hangouts, Mobile, Location, Instant Upload, and Huddle. You can check out this video to understand a little more…

Space is limited right now – BUT if you are interested in a google+ invitation head to my site at http://www.webheat.com fill in the contact form and be SURE to include your email address. And I promise that as more invitations get freed up I will add you to my list.

Don’t reply to this email, go to the site and fill out the form. I hope that you found this informative and helpful. Remember watch the Panda video and see how it impacts YOUR CURRENT STRATEGY.

We provide Internet business strategy, consulting and coaching for local businesses. Here is my quick update on some trends for June 2011.  I discuss the new  Google +1 button, LinkedIN IPO, Google Offers, Quora, Google Wallet, Facebook Advertising, Google Business Photos. The entire video is about 20 minutes but it’s not important that you watch the whole thing, what’s important is that you watch the parts that you are interested in.

Quora the question and response site and some information about business building on Facebook with Facebook Ads.

The new Google +1 button, Google Wallet and Google Offers – personally this section is my favorite to talk about, Google seems to respond and pivot to new business ideas.  Granted they don’t often create the ideas but they do tend to add credibility and muscle to the marketplace.

Google Business Photos – If you have a local business that has an interior that customers should see, like a gym, a bar, restaurant, massage, tire store or any other retail establishment. Check out this section.

I recorded this quick video about Google Offers.  The question that should be on everybody mind is – why did they do this just before an anticipated IPO from Groupon?

Could it be that they offered to buy them just a few month back and were refused?

Is it time to rethink bidding on your competitors keywords?

I have been noticeably quiet in the last few months with my Search Engine updates because quite frankly the major news media has been doing a great job keeping people informed.

You may have heard about the J.C Penny scandal in the New York Times  , the Overstock.com blunder with back-linking and the paid linking woes over at Forbes.com.  Each one of these actions got the websites penalized but you probably have not heard about the changes to the Pay-Per-Click rules as upheld by the courts…

I could go into a really long story about the background and the impact of this new ruling but bottom line – the court ruled that buying ads based on a competitor’s name isn’t a violation of trademark law. While most businesses affected by these types of bids don’t think that they are “fair”, the floodgates are about to open on competitive bidding.

If you think that this is something that only the mega corporations should be concerned about, think again.  Imagine a scenario that your potential customer types in your business name expecting to find your website, now the first result can be a competitor making an offer to lure business away from you.  An excellent example is a law firm bidding on the name of their competitor that does a huge amount of advertising.  Typically the cost to bid on a trademark or business name is pretty cheap, less than $1 and now you can target these consumers with a better offer for a similar product.

The action item here is two fold:

1. Be defensive; make sure that you have at least a small minimum bid with Google and Bing for your business names and trademarked terms. Point these clicks to your site and in the advertising copy say something like “Trademarked Term Official Site” so that consumers know that you are the authority site.
2. Be offensive…if targeting the momentum of one of your competitors by bidding on their brand terms, business name or trademarks would buy you some additional customers, go ahead – play the game.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention if your website suddenly shifted in rankings the past two weeks it’s because Google did an update.  You can read about the financial impact at CNN.com.

It should not come as a surprise that local search results have become more and more important in recent months, but today’s change by Google comes as a shock to all of us.  When we typed “San Diego Injury Attorney” into a Google search this afternoon, (October 26, 2010) we were surprised that the local maps section had gone from 20% of real estate on the 1st page of Google to 80%.

In addition to the Google Maps section now taking up 80% of real estate for geographic targeted search terms, we also see that Google has also enabled a scrolling Map on the right side.  The map will scroll down the screen over the pay per click ads on the right side of screen.  This week we saw the addition of the ability to select the location for your results on the left side of the Google search and this expanded local maps takes the importance of Google maps a GIANT step forward.

What this means for your business is that paying attention to Google’s guidelines for Search Engine Optimization is more important than ever.  Click Here to make sure that your website and internet marketing strategy are in line with Google’s rules:

Google SEO Guide 2010 http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

Even though Google’s precise formula (‘algorithm’ for all you techies) maybe the world’s best kept secret, there are certain actions that have shown to produce results in a comprehensive internet marketing strategy for a business with a physical location office:
1.    Create a Google Places Page:  Google.com/places
2.    Get Reviews for your Google Places Listing from Satisfied clients
3.    Understand the most important keywords for your business by doing keyword research:  https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
4.    Configure Google Analytics to understand the RESULTS of marketing efforts:  Google.com/Analytics

Google is always improving their business with updated features such as the Local Maps update today, be sure to continually improve your business and stay on top of Google’s formula for online marketing success

I have had this problem plaguing my video's lately…I have an external mic plugged into my video camera and when I record the audio it comes out as a mono vs. stereo channel.  I know that there are some very sophisticated ways that I can handle it in pre-processing but I had already recorded it as a mono track.

I came up with a quick way to emulate a stereo audio track in iMovie and wanted to share the how-to.  

1. Basically you export the audio via aiff
2. Import it into audacity
3. Duplicate the mono channel into two stereo channels
4. Assign the left and right channels
5. Export and then import into iTunes
6. Detach audio from the live clip in iMovie
7. Attach the new "stereo" clip to your movie

Having a stereo track makes a huge difference in the perceived quality of a movie.

Google has always focused on offering people the most relevant results.

Location is one important factor they used for many years to customize the information that you find. For example, if you’re searching for great restaurants, reliable chiropractor, dentist or any other service business you probably want to find ones near you, so they use location information to show you places nearby.

Yesterday Google moved the location setting to the left-hand panel of the results page to make it easier for us to see and control your preferences.

With this new display we’re still getting the same locally relevant results as before, but now it’s much easier for us to see our location setting and make changes to it.