If you’ve messed around with creating a web page, odds are you’ve used tables. Tables are a great way for someone who is new to web design to start laying out their HTML. I know that’s where I started. While they can get the job done, tables were not designed to be the backbone of web page layout. The table element is meant to be used for displaying tabular data (hence the name). Time to learn some CSS!

What is CSS?

CSS stands for “cascading style sheet.” Think of it like this . . . there are two main properties to your web page. On one hand you have the HTML. Your HTML is responsible for the content of your website and has NOTHING to do with the visual representation. On the other hand you have your CSS file which tells your web browser how to display the content. Check out csszengarden for an excellent visual representation of this idea. Here you can see the work of advanced web designers applying unique CSS files to one common HTML document. Notice how each example contains the exact same content, but is displayed in a vastly different manner through the use of CSS.

Separating content and design is extremely important. One of the most frustrating things on the web is waiting for a web site to load. If I’m browsing the web and find myself stuck loading a page, chances are I close the window and find someplace else to go. So if you want to drive traffic to your site, you want to make it load as quickly as possible. This is where using CSS really shines! Browsers are much quicker at applying CSS properties to an HTML document then reading through HUGE table layouts. CSS files are also cached (stored) on the user’s computer which means it only has to be downloaded once. So if your web site has more than one page that references the same CSS file, load time is almost instantaneous.

Using CSS also addresses the issue of getting listed in search engines. The cleaner and more organized your web page is, the easier it is for search-engines to read and rank your site. If you have completely identical sites, in terms of content, where one is designed using a bulky table-based layout and the other using CSS, search-engines can make a more educated guess as to what the CSS based web page is about, and thus will receive a higher ranking and more search traffic.

Switching over to CSS layouts is a very important step in website optimization. While it can be pretty intimidating at first, it is a giant leap in the right direction. I highly recommend checking out the web tutorials found at Lynda.com to get started. If you’re more advanced with CSS, alistapart.com is a great site to learn more about professional techniques and web standards.

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In general, the Internet and online communities have skyrocketed to success with no plateau in site. Why is it that some online ventures, such as Virtual Trade Shows (VTS), have not been able to ride the Internet’s coattail to success, no matter how hard they try? VTS aren’t even attempting to take over the live shows that currently flourish; they simply want to co-exist with the advantage of being a 24-7-365 resource. Seems like a great addition for exhibitors internet-savvy enough to make a smooth transition, but for others it remains an alien concept to be kept as far away as possible.

The minimal success of VTS is generally attributed to these arguments:

• Loss of face to face interaction
• Inability to touch or see a demonstration of the product
• Lack of technical knowledge

These are the same arguments so many people used to criticize e-commerce and social networking sites when they were starting out. Fault must lie somewhere within this critique because it has been proven wrong previously. People have learned to shop, network and conduct business meetings online; they even prefer it in many cases. If these cons are seemingly invalid, then what’s the problem…?

There are some great advantages to exhibiting and attending a Virtual Trade Show. Besides the fact that they are engaging and intriguing to new users (its like you are playing SimCity, check out Second Life that lets you go so far as to pick out whether want to wear a suit or jeans for your virtual meeting with Google), they are cost efficient and a huge time saver. Detailed reporting is available of exactly what each attendee is doing, your conversations are recorded and you can monitor what other products attendees are interested in. This means exhibitors don’t have to go back to their office and spend hours deciphering scribbled notes about who they talked to. ROI is tracked and marketing is targeted to people in a buying mindset, mirroring the benefits of online advertising. VTS are significantly cheaper than attending a live event, in fact the total cost is typically cheaper than just the shipping cost for a regular show. There are no travel fees, no hotels, and no food/entertainment costs. In addition, virtual shows are not affected by weather, you can talk to more than one person at a time, international attendance is easier and attendees can linger anonymously and take their time learning about a product. In sum, the person spending the money to attend these shows should be a huge supporter. That’s if the amount of traffic and recognition actually rivaled the live events.

So, what needs to happen to make this work? I personally think that the only groups capable of positively impacting this product are the large trade show producers. These producers, such as The Nielsen Company and Reed Exhibitions, control everything in the realm of conventions. Without their support attendees and exhibitors are not going to feel comfortable investing their time and energy in VTS. There are two major roadblocks in getting the major trade show companies to support the combination of their live events with a virtual companion. The first problem is, the advantages that exist for the exhibitors and attendees do not hold true for the producers. Instead they will loose a great deal of profit if people start deciding they can send less people to the live trade shows and spend less on advertising at the shows. Second, large trade show producers are deathly afraid of the Internet. Most of them are years behind where they should be when it comes to their websites and online advertising. If they have a site where you can find the dates, location, a contact, some pictures and a description they are happy. If you can register online and get some sort of newsletter updates they think their website is the best it needs to be. Many of the trade show producers will be completely at the mercy of the VTS developers.

While virtual trade shows generally have not produced a large profit the future is definitely looking brighter, and so it is not time for them to give up yet. After five years of dismal results, the largest VTS company Unisfair, finally boasted a 350% growth in 2007. This month also marks the first acquisition of a VTS. Worldwide Business Research, who produced over 200 live trade shows last year, acquired the company eComXpo, a VTS for e-Commerce marketers.

My prediction:  Virtual Trade Shows will eventually team up with major trade show producers to find a happy medium. 

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World, we’d like to introduce you to Monolingual.

What is Monolingual you ask?

“Monolingual is a program for removing unnecessary language resources from Mac OS X, in order to reclaim several hundred megabytes of disk space. It requires at least Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Panther) and also works on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).”

It’s a very simple to use, open-source program that Josh has convinced many of us Wpromoters to utilize. It goes through every program you have installed on your system and removes the languages you have requested to be deleted.

Around the office, a few of us have saved anywhere from 200 megabytes to 3.2 gigabytes!

So, if you’re running a little low on space, feel free to give Monolingual a spin!

More Mac Tips:

Leopard’s Hidden Features & Secrets (lifehacker.com)

RAM & Macs (Houston Chronicle)

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The United States, in all its glory, is seriously starting to lag behind other countries in the quality and quantity of internet service being provided. As the leaders of the free world, one would assume this would be a bread and butter thing for us to champion, considering we created the internet in the first place. Why then, when faced with the facts and numbers, are we so terribly behind? One might argue it’s mostly a financial situation. For us to be able to “upgrade” our internet capabilities, it is going to require large scale improvements and renovations to a backbone that is decades old and in serious need of some lovin’. If we don’t do this, and do this soon, we are going to quickly find ourselves trailing far, far behind.

When looking at any sort of data, it is honestly just scary. Japan leads the world with fastest internet available. They have the fastest and lowest unit costs for broadband, according to recent data from the OECD. In the land of the rising sun, you can enjoy costs per megabit per second over four times lower than that of the US. This kind of information is just downright troubling to me, considering I work in an internet related business and probably wouldn’t be able to function as a civilized human being without access to the internet. What is worse yet is that this data could possible make people theorize, “Well, maybe Japan just really has their internet situation on lockdown.” Unfortunately, this is not the case. The US ranks a pathetic 15^th place in this department, with countries like France, Korea, and Sweden nestled in second, third and fourth place (respectively).

To take matters to an even more frightening place, all one would need to do is compare the above data to the fact that we have the largest amount of total broadband subscribers. As of June 2007 the US led all countries surveyed in terms of broadband subscribers with over 66.2 million. The second closest amount of subscribers was in Japan with about 27.2 million. You are trying to tell me that the people who have the fastest and cheapest internet also have less than half the amount of subscribers than we do? While I know that the US is a lot larger a country and that an obvious disparity will be present, the gap just seems far too staggering. My God in heaven, there is something just wrong with this picture.

I’m not quite sure what it is going to take to get the changes we need, but I do know that we are in desperate need of them. If our country wants to remain on top of things, we are going to have to either independently find ways to beef up the internet capabilities we have, or someone is going to need to foot the bill so we can start getting the ball rolling. We are in the middle of the internet age and the time is nigh to start acting like it.

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Being new to the SEM industry, I was intrigued to learn Pay Per Click has a sister, Pay Per Call, who is attracting a great deal of attention within the mobile advertising industry. Whether the younger sister proves to be the more attractive one is yet to be seen.

In short, Pay Per Call is self-explanatory: advertisers pay for phone leads instead of click leads. On March 19th, 2007, mobile advertising giant Medio announced a partnership with Ingenio, a major leader in the Pay Per Call market. As of now Medio has inked deals with cellular carriers T-Mobile & Amp’d for their mobile pay per click services. As the two coalesce, they will offer Pay Per Call advertising on a mobile level. While this all sounds exciting, in my humble opinion, the partners are facing huge obstacles in tapping into this market.

As is with Pay Per Click, the idea is to use highly targeted keywords to reach as specific of an audience as possible. With PPC II, users will be delivered text ads that contain a title, description (sound familiar?) and a phone number. When the user calls the number Ingenio has provided them with, the advertiser is charged a bid rate for the call. While this is a GREAT solution for small business owners without a website, I see three main problems with this strategy.

Number one: when that water pipe burst in your house last night, did you hop on your Amp’d cell phone, get online, and search for a plumber? I think not. If you did, aside from being a huge dork, you probably hopped on your Blackberry or I-phone and searched Google. Let’s see: Medio vs. Google? Number two: the bid rates per call make your neighbor’s home business keyword bids look like chump change. At $2 - $20 per call, those leads better be converting. Number three: PEOPLE DON’T LIKE MOBILE ADS. Released in 2007, ‘Universal McCann conducted a survey among 9,500 people and found that 61% of respondents rejected ads on mobile TV & Internet services.’

While I am in no way, shape, or form opposed to serving niche markets through innovative technology; I do not see PPC II stealing the Beauty Pageant crown from her sexy older sister anytime soon.

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I think this is super scary.

As reported today in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal, wireless carriers are moving towards making GPS available to its customers, for the purposes of tracking the whereabouts of their friends in “real-time.” Wow.

Yes, I know, global positioning system technology in cell phones is nothing new - I use it to get driving directions on my phone when I am lost (this happens a lot). I think it’s great. All I have to do is say where I am and it tells me how to get where I’m going. Lovely.

The problem? I don’t want everyone else to know.

On one hand, I see a value in people-tracking. There are definitely those five to ten people I will talk to on any given night, the ongoing text messages saying “Are you on the Westside?” or “We’re at the beach to the left of the pier, come meet us.” But what about the fact that technology is not fool-proof?

No, technology is not fool-proof. I know I’m not the only one out there who has had their personal lives disrupted and relationships challenged by the voicemail that was never received, the email that never actually sent, the revealing text message accidentally sent to the wrong person, or the Facebook message posted on your wall that you didn’t want him or her to see but nevertheless forgot to adjust your privacy settings. In some cases, user error or sheer coincidence is to blame - in many others, the confusion is a result of a technological error.

Keeping this in mind, making people-tracking widely available to cell phone users opens up the possibility for big time trouble. I know the wireless industry is aware of this, and the potential for major problems is largely the reason behind them having waited so long to launch the service. Still, the steps the carriers are taking to make the technology safer, i.e. limiting its use to those 14 years older and above, reminding users during the first few weeks that the service is on and they are being tracked, making tracking possible only among those who have purchased the service, and allowing users to turn the service “on” and “off” just aren’t cutting it.

What happens when you “forget to turn it off” or accidentally give access to someone you frankly wish you hadn’t?

I know there are some out there who may think I’m “small-minded” and that I just don’t “get it.” And while I believe that people-tracking is exceptionally useful in some situations, i.e. making a film on a rugged location, camping with a large group of people, or taking the kids to Disneyland, I wonder if we aren’t making things more complicated as we adopt new technology, both on and offline.

Combine the advantages and pitfalls of GPS and other wireless technology with the benefits and downsides to online social networking (downsides including the Mystalking and Facestalking phenomena), and we know more about our personal network than we ever have before. Still, without a context from which to interpret the virtual and digital footprints of our friends and loved ones (and in many cases, there isn’t one), who is to say we aren’t driving ourselves crazy with a bunch of information we just don’t need to know?

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Photo courtesy jason shellen

Kids’ Internet usage has always been a hotly studied topic. How familiar are children with navigating the Internet? How user-friendly are websites for the young ones? Can kids distinguish the difference between sponsored search results and organic search results? More interestingly how do kids use search engines to discover new information?

The photo from this post comes from a story featured on Digg.com in which two kids made a poster for their dad after his last day working at Google.

Unarguably, Google is the most powerful search engine on the web today, but to young googlers, its simplistic design and lack of visual appeal and interactivity are probably turn-offs. Since it’s very unlikely that young kids are familiar with complex search operands, what tools or methods are available for them to learn how to better refine their search queries?

SortFix

This is where SortFix.com comes in. SortFix is a metasearch engine that recently began receiving more hype. What’s interesting about SortFix is its drag-and-drop interface, which brings back interactivity and learning at the same time.

After typing in a term from the SortFix home page, the engine breaks down your results and displays “Power Words,” which can be sorted into baskets. The concept is very simple: if the searcher likes a term, add it to the “Add to Search Basket,” if he doesn’t, then add it to the “Remove Basket.” The idea behind this is that refining your search and filtering out words is as quick as clicking and dragging; no additional typing is needed.

How you can benefit from SortFix

Go give SortFix a spin. SortFix makes search fun and somewhat interactive, especially for the young ones. What’s interesting about this is that people unfamiliar with search can start using modifiers and growing into better Googlers searchers. SortFix displays results from Google, Yahoo! and DMOZ, all accessible from separate categories. If Google was a bike, Sortfix would be its training wheels.

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My name is Aaron Kronis and I work for Wpromote in the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) division.

I just arrived home to Los Angeles late last night after spending the past three days in Austin, Texas for the SXSW Interactive Media conference.
I was there to film an episode of ‘RockStartup‘ after winning a contest from Shoemoney and Izea.

Everyone was there from all the major (and minor wannabe) companies, where the right application just might take off, if launched properly. I learned about several interesting new companies and met a lot of people from different, well known groups. One of the funnier things I was asked to do (prior to receiving the prize money and hotel key) was to wear a white t-shirt and ask all the bloggers to sign it with their sites and get their business cards after having them do something for the show, like beat box or something similar.

This was where I got a whole bunch of business cards from the folks in the ‘bloghouse’ located in a room accessible only by a secret elevator in the convention center, separated from the other normal elevators. Hey, it’s not every day that someone like Guy Kawasaki pays a woman he knows twenty bucks to find out who I am and write on me!

(photos by Jeremy Schoemaker)

Being involved in the SEO side of things, I’ll discuss some of the things I’ve noticed lately about the ‘movers and shakers’ in the industry. As I meet new people who are in the world of blogging, SEO and blog monetization, it occurred to me to start paying attention to what sites people actually use. Comparing the business cards of the many people I met showed that a lot of the serious folks are all using several things along with different types of cards. I saw a lot of ‘moo cards’ showing up lately (the smaller ones that look like a stick of gum):

1. flickr
2. AIM
3. twitter
4. skype
5. linkedin
6. their own blogs
7. gmail
8. facebook

One of the newer things I found out about at this conference was ‘utterz.com‘ - a service that allows you to blog from your mobile phone by emailing a picture, then making a phone call and leaving a voice message that will end up on your blog in a single post, providing both actions take place within ten minutes of each other.

I also was able to sneak into a session where the artist Moby was discussing his music licensing for film and television. I learned that he is very philanthropic in his ways with a FREE site for film students to use his music called mobygratis.com that doesn’t charge anything for licensing for students, unless the film makes money, in which case the royalties go to the Humane Society. He was an entertaining speaker and seemed like a good person, which can be hard to find in the dying, cutthroat music industry.

All in all, it was very interesting to meet a lot of these blogger types and rock out with them. Along with the Izea film crew for RockStartUp, we even got to attend a Rock Band (the video game) party at club Six.

photo by Leora

I was happy to sing and enjoy the event VIP style, with open bar and lots of music and blogger types in attendance, along with the owner of the Mavericks.

Until next time,

Your friendly neighborhood Rockstar SEO

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Last night, Entretech honored ten** distinguished, emerging companies in the Los Angeles area at the 5th Annual PriceWaterhouseCoopers Entretech Entrepreneurship Awards. Among the companies recognized was Wpromote, which received only the second Entrepreneurial Spirit Award in the five years that the ceremonies have been held.

Located this year at the Jonathan Town Club in Downtown Los Angeles, the Entretech Entrepreneurship Awards were created to honor deserving tech firms in the Los Angeles area that have demonstrated success and promise in the ever-expanding field of technology. The finalists for the awards were all innovative and impressive and, without sounding too cliché, I was flattered that Wpromote was chosen to share space with them on the same docket. Truly, we were proud to have been in attendance, much less to have received an award from this remarkable consortium.

In actuality, this award belongs to Michael Mothner, our fearless founder and sassy CEO, whose actual entrepreneurial spirit begot Wpromote in 2001. However, being fearless and sassy every day is no short order, and so Mothner had accidentally scheduled his relaxing trip to Cabo San Lucas on the same day as the awards ceremony. Choosing between accepting an honor at the Jonathan Club and going to an exclusive resort in Cabo: these are the tough decisions that Mothner faces that separate him from the pack of ordinary CEOs.

As Mothner would not be able to attend the presentation, he decided to send Michael Stone, Wpromote’s VP of Sales, and yours truly, the VP of Client Services. You might think, “Wow, what an honor,” and you wouldn’t be wrong; I thought, “Wow, free dinner!” and jumped at the opportunity. On Wednesday, the day before the presentation, Mothner let Stone and me know that we would be presenting a slide show that he had made a week earlier detailing Wpromote’s brief but exciting history since its inception in 2001. “Oh, and, by the way,” Mothner added, “you only have five minutes, so cut out a few slides and go ahead and try to be entertaining.”

Thanks, buddy. Noted.

Thursday, the day of the awards, was spent penned up in my office with Stone, deciding how to slice and dice Mothner’s original speech and how to feign charm in front of what would be an intimidating collection of wealthy and powerful ladies and gentleman. As soon as we decided we were close enough, we sent in the PowerPoint to Entretech and got back to real work. The hard part was seemingly behind us.

At 5:30, we arrived at the Jonathan Club, dressed to the nines and ready to rock. The valet took Stone’s keys and we strutted cavalierly through the doors of the Jonathan Club. Crossing over that threshold was a lot less like entering an esteemed establishment, rather, a lot more like entering a time machine. The Jonathan Club, much like Ron Burgundy’s apartment, contained many leather-bound books and smelled of rich mahogany. Gold leaf was, in a word, prevalent. Cell phones, considered gauche, were not allowed on the premises. It didn’t look like a place where exceedingly wealthy individuals would gather; it looked like a place where they would gather only on “special” occasions. Needless to say, it’s a heck of a club they have over there and I was beginning to feel intimidated.

Undaunted by just about everything, Stone decided to check in with the host of the event to make sure that they knew that:

a) Michael Mothner would not be there,

b) Stone and I would both be presenting,

c) our PowerPoint presentation had been received.

The answer to these questions were, “No,” “No,” and “I don’t know, check with the AV guy.” The AV guy’s answer, unsurprisingly, was “No.” Luckily, our handy-dandy wallet-sized USB card, courtesy of the kind folks at Google, had the presentation on it, along with the MP3s for All that Remains’ epic metal album “The Fall of Ideals.”

“You can just go ahead and ignore that,” I said to the AV guy.

After we got everything squared away with our PowerPoint presentation, we tried to explain the situation that Michael Stone and I would be presenting in Mothner’s stead. Due to an email mix up, we were told that only one of us would be allowed to present. Translation: one of us was going to have to learn the other’s half of the speech. Stone drove us, so that responsibility fell on me.

Awesome.

As we schmoozed the audience, I couldn’t help but think about the new lines I would have to learn. As dinner was served, I was too busy reading Stone’s notes to enjoy what I’m sure was a very expensive cut of steak. My tie felt tighter and so did my chest as my heart pumped away in nervous anticipation. We received word that the Belgian consulate would be presenting our award. Stone replied, “Great! I love their chocolate.” I just looked at this as one more reason to be nervous.

Dessert came and it was some sort of tasty berry pecan tart crumble cake that I was still too jittery to eat. It was seemingly delicious and it was served with a piece of chocolate covered in gold leaf. See? I told you: prevalent! Maybe this was a good omen, because the host then approached us and whispered, “I’m so sorry, but the Belgian consulate will be introducing you with your company’s story, so there is no need to present. Is that alright?”

I’ve never said, “Yes” so quickly in my life. The only thing that I’ve ever done more quickly, in fact, was eat that dessert in front of me right after having said “Yes.” With my nerves now at an all time low, I was content to sit back and enjoy the rest of the evening which was highlighted by presentations from some unbelievably interesting LA-based tech firms.

The award winners besides Wpromote were:

Start Up: Under $1 million:

The Rubicon Project. Fascinating technology that aggregates every content network out there and dynamically chooses the best ads for content-rich sites, providing the most relevant choices for users and maximizing ad revenue for the site.

Emerging: Between $1 and $8 million:

Zag. Innovators in the field of buying cars. Not a lead-gen company, but a direct buyer to dealer interface that makes the process of purchasing a new automobile less of a risk and less of a hassle.

Growth: Over $8 million:

eHarmony. Right, like you don’t already know these guys.

All in all, it was a wonderful night and we are truly indebted to the good folks at Entretech for their generosity toward, recognition of and faith in Wpromote. We were incredibly honored to be included and proud to represent all of the hard-working people at Wpromote who make opportunities like this a possibility. Go team, go!

**The Finalists were, in alphabetical order: Calando Pharmaceuticals, Central Desktop, EdgeCast, eHarmony, Green Dot, Nami Media, the Rubicon Project, Vantage Media and Zag. Wpromote’s award was received in a separate, unique category.

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With power comes responsibility.

Or at least that is what Google would like us to think.

Don’t get me wrong - I applaud Google’s announcement that they are partnering with the city of San Francisco to provide the homeless with free voicemail and a lifelong telephone number. And even if the feelgood move is little more than a PR stunt (and I’m using that term loosely) to make Google seem more friendly in the eyes of the public, which as of late has become increasingly aware of Google’s ability to screw them by sharing information without their consent, I believe any organizations who poll resources for the greater good are doing something right.

The free voicemail offering for SF’s homeless community arrives thanks to an innovative partnership between Project Homeless Connect and Project CARE (Communications and Respect for Everyone), the non-profit initiative of GrandCentral Communications, which Google acquired last summer. What’s the plan? GrandCentral will host the technology, and Project Homeless Connect will work to raise awareness of the program in the homeless community and get people to sign-up.

“We’re firm believers in the power of technology to improve the daily lives of individuals and communities as a whole, and we recognize that access to phone and voicemail services is one way that Google can help San Francisco’s homeless stay connected with family, friends, social workers, health care providers, and potential employers.” - Craig Walker, Senior Project Manager, Google (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/project-care-in-san-francisco.html)

In theory, once a homeless person signs-up for the free voicemail and phone number, he or she will have a better chance at success. And while a phone number and voicemail service would certainly make it easier for a person to connect with the outside world, simply throwing freebies out there is no