The new header was a layered Photoshop image that consisted of three sliced images. One of the images was converted to Flash so I could place banner ads in the header.

As is the case with anything when coding, I ran in to an issue.

For whatever reason, there were some funky spacing issues when I nested the three files in to a table. The regular .jpegs aligned fine but the Flash file seemed to have a mind of it’s own. What’s weird is the files seemed to look good when tested in Safari and IE7 (it’s weird because Internet Explorer is usually the bain of my web existence) but Firefox was creating the problem. Well, after some soul searching and code changes, I found A fix that worked for me.

To anyone who is experiencing spacing issues when embedding Flash files in to a table, give this a whirl.

td object, td embed {
vertical-align: bottom;
}

Enjoy!

Internet Explorer and the NBA Draft?

Now, I’m a moderately creative kind of guy but I’m still perplexed at figuring out how the NBA Draft and Microsoft’s recent browser, Internet Explorer 8 are even remotely related.

Oops, I just did the search again and it appears as if Google has removed adwords ads for the search “NBA Draft”.

Back to work.

Digg has long been a fan favorite for SE Marketers because of the credibility that search engines give to content and backlinks that are contained within their articles. The Google version, appropriately named “What’s Popular”, is reserved for use by iGoogle users and will use some serious math to calculate how content is displayed. The content comes from Google’s arsenal of services (for example: iGoogle user submissions, YouTube and Google Reader). iGoogle users can rate trends, giving them high or low marks and higher rated articles stand atop their respective categories.

Currently, the “What’s Popular” concept is merely a gadget on an iGoogle users desktop and there is no indication that Google (or any other search engine for that matter) will give weight to top rated articles but it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to think that Google would give weight to top rated content that’s featured on their product.

Adding to the mystique is the possibility that Google will kick the gadget up a notch and make it a full fledged site that will go nose-to-nose with Digg.

In an e-mail released yesterday, Google explains the following:

Hello,

We’re writing to let you know that on May 5, 2009, Google
Checkout’s transaction processing fees will be changing. We’ll be
transitioning from our 2.0% + $0.20 per transaction rate to a new
tiered fee structure, where the rates will vary depending on the
dollar amount of your monthly sales processed through Checkout.
The rate you’ll be charged beginning on May 5, 2009 will be based
on your sales processed through Checkout during the month of April
2009. Each month thereafter, we’ll continue to use the prior
month’s sales volume to determine your transaction processing
rate. For more details about the new rates, please visit
http://checkout.google.com/seller/fees.html

We’ll also be discontinuing the AdWords free transaction
processing promotion on May 5, 2009. Any AdWords transaction
processing credits accrued during April 2009 will be applied
towards transactions that occur on May 1-4, 2009.

Fees are the same for all payment types (Visa, MasterCard,
American Express, and Discover) and there are still no monthly,
setup, or gateway fees. For cross-border transactions, there will
be an additional 1% fee assessed per transaction. To learn more
about Google Checkout fees, please visit
http://checkout.google.com/seller/fees.html

Google is committed to the continued growth and development of
Checkout and to helping merchants increase sales by driving more
leads and higher conversions. Advertisers who use Checkout have
the opportunity to display the Checkout badge on their ads, which
has proven to be an effective way to differentiate ads and attract
user interest. Checkout users click on ads 10% more when the ad
displays the Checkout badge and convert 40% more than shoppers who
have not used Checkout in the past.

I wanted to pass along an excerpt of this interview that I received in my e-mail between a representative from Small Business News and one from an internet marketing representative that works for InfusionSoft.

While a great part of the interview was centered around an upcoming seminar hosted by InfusionSoft, two very important questions were asked that are completely relevant to what we do and how we can help you at imSAM.

Q: How important is it for a small business to be on the web?

A: My feeling is that if you’re not on the web, you don’t exist. I know that sounds harsh, but think about it. People rarely use phone books anymore. People throw out their junk mail. And telemarketing is the most annoying thing around. The consumer is now in control and he goes looking for what he wants on the web. If you want to grow your business and have sustained growth, you must have an active web presence. Putting up a static, brochure-like site that doesn’t get updated for months does not constitute “being on the web.”

Q: How important is it for a business to have a blog?

A: Having a blog is important for two reasons. The first is that blogs are content and linking machines and search engines love content and links. If you’re continually producing content on your blog, you’ll get more search engine traffic. The second reason is because the Internet initially made business very impersonal. People crave personal connections and they find those connections with blogs. If I can get to know a person or a business through a blog, I’m much more likely to do business with them.

I think these two statements speak volumes about a) the importance of having a presence on the web and b) the importance of having that site updated on a consistent basis. Often, and much to their dismay, small business owner’s will either forgo having an online presence at all OR they’ll have an incredibly attractive site that never gets updated. In either case, you’re missing out on eyes that could potentially convert to customers. At imSAM, we are poised to provide you with services for both at an attractive price.

Contact us today to find out more about having a web site developed for your small business.

The GDrive is yet another attempt by Google to dismantle industry-leading Microsoft as the - well, the industry leader. As a service, the GDrive has the potential to top Gmail (Google’s e-mail product) as the second place tool on Big G’s belt. (Their search engine service is #1).

So what exactly is this magical product?

GDrive is basically online storage in which the Google servers will have enough capacity to hold the entire contents of your hard drive. It will also come with expanded features such as the capability of booting up your computer from the online drive to load Google’s operating system.

If you’re not following where this is going. Imagine having the ability to start working on a project at home and then heading up to your corner Starbucks. With GDrive, you can open up the document that you were working on at home, continue to work on it at Starbucks and when you return home, the changes you have made to it have already been made to your PC at home. It is, of course, a long overdue weapon in Google’s potent arsenal of online tools and has the capability of changing the landscape for those owning home or small business personal computers. It will also have the ability to establish Google as a legitimate threat in an industry where Microsoft has been king for so long.

The GDrive is set to launch in 2009.

Google, for the longest time has been leading the charge against search engine optimization and this is just another attempt at trying to eliminate it altogether.  They’ve long held the position that SEO should not exist. It is their belief that everything should just be “natural”.

The problem that a lot of SEO guru’s have with this shift is that, if they are successful, it is possible that we will see a lot of mom and pop sites with no business ranking in search engines, crawling their way to the top.  Fortunately, this has been a competition between Google and search engine optimists for some time and when Google changes their algorithm, the industry always adjusts.

If you’re not sure what anchor text is, below is an example taken from the Wikipedia page discussing anchor text.

Anchor text usually gives the user relevant descriptive or contextual information about the content of the link’s destination. The anchor text may or may not be related to the actual text of the URL of the link. For example, a hyperlink to the English-language Wikipedia’s homepage might take this form:

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">Wikipedia</a>

The anchor text in this example is “Wikipedia”; the unwieldy URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page displays on the web page as Wikipedia, contributing to clean, easy-to-read text.

So, in short, anchor text basically is the text that users select when following a link to another page or site.

The theory behind using anchor text initially was that it would tell search engines what a specific site was about and how “relevant” it was when stacked side-by-side against similar sites.  When you visit imSAM from another site, you might click on a link that says SEO guru or affordable web design for your small business.

The reason search engines are even considering removing it from their computations is because of link spammers.  You’ve likely seen sites that have tens, hundreds or maybe thousands of anchor-texted links that look like such.

buy cheap viagra online
buy viagra online
cheap viagra
online viagra
…and the list goes on and on.

In reality, I’m not wholly opposed to this shift as link spamming is at the very least, annoying and on its best day, completely out of control however the impact of such a dramatic shift will have a negative affect on sites whose optimization campaign relies on this practice.

We’ll continue to watch this and other shifting trends in the search engine marketplace and adjust as necessary.

No get back to work!

Social networking sites have become a more affordable way to advertise your business and with the rising success of Facebook over the last couple of years, small business owners have an additional method of generating leads for their business.  By targeting specific keywords on the profiles of Facebook friends, you can buy ads that will automatically display on that members profile.  It’s instant leads and now, Facebook is offering a $25 credit for those that are interested.

Here are some additional stats that I found on Facebook.

• Facebook has more than 150 million users
• Facebook is the 4th most visited site on the web
• 84% of Facebook users are under the age of 35
• 48% of users return each day
• Users spend an average of 25.2 minutes on Facebook per day
• Facebook sees 61.3 billion page views per month
• Facebook is the #1 photo sharing site
• 3 times more people are invited through the event application on Facebook than www.evite.com

It is noteworthy to point out that not everyone has had a positive experience with Facebook ads when compared to Google’s very popular alternative, Adwords.