DEAR Visitor,

I am writing this newsletter from sunny Southern California, San Elijo State beach... How cool is that!  It's vacation, but I still have to get some work done.

Last time we introduced our first newsletter and promised some useful image editing / resizing tips.  Below is a full tutorial on how to re-size a whole directory of images with one click (after you set it up) with the totally free image software FastStone Viewer.

One of the most common difficulties my clients run into when working on their own websites is getting an image sized correctly for the space it will occupy on their website, in their newsletter, newspaper ad, etc.  We'll begin with an assumption that by now you know how to download a digital image from your camera and put it somewhere on your computer where you can access it.  You will need to know at least this much to follow this tutorial.

1.  First make sure you have downloaded and installed the following free software: Fastone Image Viewer .  If you haven't, it only takes a few minutes... Click the link, download and install the software.  Trust me; if you want to re-size and watermark all or a bunch of your images with one click, learning this will save you a lot of time! The program is one of the few programs out there that is very well written, relatively easy to use and completely free without spyware, popups, adware and the like.

2.  Once you have installed the software, just follow the instructions below:

a.  

b.  Once you have found the folder and can see your images in the tumbnail view, use the shortcut (Ctrl + A) to select all of the images in that folder.  Alternately, you can use the file menu under "Edit" then select all.

c.  Next use the shortcut (F3) to go to the resize window.  This will show you a list of the images you selected in the previous step.

d.  After this step, click on "Advanced Options"

e.  If you don't want to put a watermark on your image / photo, you can skip to f.

f. Click "OK" when you are done with Advanced options and then click "Convert".

When the processing dialog finishes, just click "Done".

g.  Now you should be back to your thumbnail screen.  Go ahead and navigate to the new folder "resized" that you created and sent your images to.  Double click an image and you will see the enlarged version of your image (with a watermark, if you chose to ad one).

h.  Note:  If you move your mouse around this screen, different tools will highlight.  You will want to move your mouse to the top right of the screen.  Follow the instructions below to get back to the thumbnail view.

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If you have a website, you should definitely subscribe to Google Analytics.  This is one of the most useful, free Internet traffic analyzing tools in existence right now.  With Analytics connected to your site you will know exactly how much traffic you are getting, where it is coming from (search or direct). If it was a search, which words were used, and even how long your visitors are spending on your site.  Google Analytics is a must have!

If you want to sign up for Analytics, Go to Google and search "Analytics".  If you do not have a Google account, you will want to get one.  Use the sign up form directly from the Google analytics page.  It is best to sign up with a username and password that you won't mind sharing with your web design guru, becuase more than likely you will need some help getting the code set up on your site..  Once you are signed up and have your account, the easiest thing to do next is to forward your login info to your web design guru and then relax...  You'll be able to analyze your site before you know it!

Search engine marketing is one of the keys to getting your site noticed, but it depends on your business and your market, whether or not it is the most important.  If you are doing e-commerce and are running an online shopping cart, and you are going to rely on Internet search traffic as your primary source of revenue, then of course getting found by Google, and Yahoo is going to be the most important aspect of your online marketing.  An all out SEO campaign begins with your website, but doesn't end there.  There are many companies out there that will promise you the number one position on Google, but beware; there is never a guaranteed spot on any search engine other than a paid spot, i.e. Google AdWords or something similar.  

Adwords is a Google pay-per-click keyword campaign where relevant keywords are chosen and then bid on.  It depends on how many people are after those keywords, how much you will pay-per-click.  For very popular keywords with a very high instance of searches, you could wind up paying more than $1.00 every time some one goes to your site from a paid link.  This will get you lots of traffic, but it can get very expensive.  The only way I would ever suggest this to a client would be if they had such a unique offering, that conversions (sales) would be a very high percentage of the targeted traffic.  The foundation of course is your website, and the uniqueness of what you are offering.

At last check, Google is around 85% of search engine market share, meaning 85% of the folks looking for something us Google to find it, so it makes sense to optimize your site specifically for what Google is looking for.  "Content is King" is one of Google's motto when it comes to determining the relevance of your website in the free part of their search.  whether you are on the first page or lost somewhere in the middle, largely depends on content.

Content

Content as it is looked at by Google is based on specific analytical and matching criteria.

1. Metatags - there is a metatag in the heading of each web-page that is hidden from the average visitors view.  These tags were created specifically for search engines and used to be all that was used when generating a search.  As with any good thing, people took advantage and spammed the search engines with irrelevant words just to get their sites on the top of the list.  Google was the first to work around this and make these metatags much less relevant, but if used correctly, they can still be useful.
    
   1. Keywords - a list of not more than 25 relevant words (too many is considered "search engine spamming").
   2. Title - The title of the page should use words that match some of the keywords chosen.
   3. Description - The description of the site is what show's up as the site summary when someone searches and finds your site.  It is what they read before they ever click on your link.  This should be well written and use every key word you have chosen to focus on.
       
2. Content - Here is where you will make or break your site.  The above 3 metatags are a good foundation to use when creating the rest of the content in your site and will help significantly if those tags match the actual content of your site. If you want to be flashy (i.e. a flash home page), with lots of graphics and spinney things, you might get some attention, that is IF you can get anyone to find you, but it can be difficult for Search Engines to find readable content on a flash page. It is best practice to create a home page that is attractive with normal html (text) content that can be read easily by any search engine.  
   
   
3. Search Engine Spam - it is important to be aware of what this is.  Google considers quite a few factors to be search engine spam
   
   a.  Hidden text or links
   b.  Misleading or repeated words
   c.  Page does not match Google's description
   d.  Cloaked page
   e.  Deceptive redirects
   f.   Doorway page
   g.  Duplicate site or pages
   
   Any of the above can be reported to Google as search engine Spam and if Google decides to investigate a site and determines the site is using inappropriate practices, Google will then remove a site completely from even showing up in a search.  This can be very hard to undo.  
   
   This is what many of those companies who promise you a top listing do.  One of the primary ways to spam a search engine is to create content that is hidden from the visitors view that is rich with thousands of repeated keywords by blending text into a background so that it can not be seen.

If you have questions about this or anything else, please feel free to contact us.