That’s right! eSource Development has been working on our first training series for several weeks now. Finally, we are ready to announce that

SEO Launch Secrets will hit the market on March 11th, 2010.

What’s in SEO Launch Secrets:

• Over 90 minutes of video instruction
• Comprehensive workbook with all video screen shots
• Downloadable forms and worksheets (.PDF)
• 24/7 access to our Training Videos

And as an added bonus, you will receive $20 off your copy of SEO Launch Secrets by filling out the coupon request here!

This series will teach you how to drive quality traffic to your site by using tried and true Internet marketing methods without resorting to ‘Black Hat’ tactics. Even if you do not have a website or a product, SEO Launch Secrets will show you, step by step, how to get the word out and become a search engine powerhouse site. The videos and workbooks detail everything you need to know to make your online business a success.

Visit our Training page for more information

What you will learn!

The number one mistake most website owners make when trying to improve search engine rankings, preventing them from ever showing up on the first page of Google. This mistake is made by more than 99% of all website owners.

How to boost your rankings by simply changing just one optimization factor. Applying this simple technique is like using steroids to enhance the visibility of your website, drastically improving your Google rankings. This secret revealed to you in this SEO Launch Secrets.

The proper way to develop in-bound links to your website. If you know the importance of link building, but currently do not apply this simple technique to every inbound link, then they are virtually USELESS from Google's perspective.

On-page optimization factors that really matter when you're looking to improve search engine rankings. If you're still hung up on the concept of keyword density, then this method will change your thinking forever!

The most important factor for improving Google rankings. This secret is known by all the top webmasters and is the reason why they're websites are outranking 99.9% of all other websites on the Google search engine.

The difference between on-page optimization and off-page optimization and how you can leverage this knowledge to optimize for Google. Using these techniques in combination are like a 1, 2, punch that can literally skyrocket you to the front of search engine lists.

How to determine the best keywords for generating traffic to your website. See exactly how leading Webmasters find popular keywords with little or no competition, generating tons of traffic quickly and easily.

The best way to find link partners. When searching out link partners, top Webmasters know exactly who to ask. Generating links can be beneficial to your website but only if you're targeting the right websites! This guide shows you a quick and easy way to instantly determine the best link partners for your website.

The secret technique you can apply today that will instantly improve search engine rankings and propel your website towards the first page of Google for selected keywords. This method has a viral effect that continues to work while you sleep!

A powerful 'off-page optimization' method that can generate hundreds of links to your website in less than 48 hours! These links provide the right kind of "votes" that Google looks for when ranking your website - instantly improving search engine rankings.

Plus much more!

There are a lot of sites and links out there that claim to give you FREE software, only to find that the site or page really meant that the download is free, you still have to pay for a key or something to unlock and use the software. Want proof? Here’s a Google search on “free game software” with the results:

Notice how the links taunt you with “FREE” but are then followed by “download?”

If you click on those links, you’ll find that they will list software that is free to download, but you’ll quickly notice a price column indicating how much it cost to actually use the product, not just download it.

Download.com and brothersoft have made tons of money getting people to their site this way. But those customers, once screwed, learn the lesson and seldom return.

Is there a better way to do it?

As Sarah Palin would say, “You Betcha!” Take Jing, for example. It is by far and away the best video capture, screen capture, and narration software for home users out there… and it’s actually FREE! Now, the free version has some limitations and a PRO version is available, but for the average home user, this program is a must have! It sure beats Windows Snipping Tool. It allows you to place arrows, text, highlights, and boxes on your screen capture and save it to any format. In fact, I did the screen capture for this article using the product.

There is a 5 minute limit on video, but that’s more than enough for someone to start the recorder, show something on their screen with a little narration, and send it to friends or family. You can narrate and animate slide shows or webcam screens.

The reason it’s free? It’s from the same people who make Camtasia Studio, the professional video capture and screen recording software. It does cost money, but at $299 it’s still a bargain. Our training videos and presentations were all done with Camtasia Studio, and it even comes with a 30 day trial. I’m not providing links to it here since I don’t want any of our subscribers to think we are a reseller or make money off of pushing the product. I will, however, provide a link for the free, non reseller Jing here.

Well, here it is, Saturday morning. I got Mystery Science Theater playing (Episode 509 “The Girl In Lover’s Lane"), which features one of my favorite character names, Big Stupid (aka Bix Dugan). Anyway, I use that time to also catch up on my favorite blogs while sipping the overpriced hot brown water they label as ‘coffee’ at QuickTrip. It was during my routine blog perusal that I caught someone describing a fellow gamer as a ‘Grognard’. Their reasoning for doing so was simply based on the fact that the person was over 40 and grumpy. I couldn’t believe this gross misrepresentation of the term and immediately went to the Internet’s most fervently accurate resource, Wikipedia. Again, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. The term to which an entire generation of gamers gave their Saturday nights defining was being besmirched and misused by the kids of today. Since I am a 40+ year old ‘semi-Grognard’ myself, I will attempt to set the record straight.

“Grognard’ is a French word meaning ‘grumbler’, or one who complains incessantly. This is not to be confused with the French term “Gronarniue’ which means “Drop your rifle and run.” The term made it’s way into the gaming world around the early 80’s, but it did not mean ‘grumbler’. After all, everyone who plays tabletop RPG’s or PC games is a grumbler. We love to bitch about anything and everything. Therefore, to call a fellow gamer a ‘grumbler’ was basically just calling them an average gamer.

The term ‘Grognard’, in proper gaming circles, refers to a person who annoyingly claims to know every rule and strategy for a given RPG, but never actually plays the game. They spend their time sitting around the table lecturing everyone else about how stupid their previous move was or how they are mismanaging their army’s resources, yet never put their grandiose knowledge to practical use.

For our gaming group, that person was Kevin. He wasn’t always that way. He played most Games Workshop and other tabletop RPG’s quite well, and for many years. But then, something snapped. He fell into a sullen world of negativity and second guessing. He would still join us for gaming night, but would just sit there like a lump lamenting the idiocy of the current player’s move. Many a times people would challenge him to actually put his reputation on the line and do battle, but he would refuse citing some fear of the government tracking how well you strategize at RPG’s and warning that a black, windowless van would swoop you up on the way home and have you organizing black-ops for the CIA.

I was just kidding about that last part, he wasn’t that nutty. I actually do miss Kevin, who moved away about 10 years ago. I think every gaming group requires a bit of a Grognard in their midst. I believe it helps the group bond and become more cohesive and dependent, while also providing the group with a reason to argue (as if we needed a reason).

I’ve been involved in Internet marketing, to varying degrees, since 1995. Although that sounds like a lot of experience, it pales in comparison to the throngs of true Internet marketing professionals who make their living based on placement, clicks, and keywords. Not to say I don’t know what I’m doing, but as with any profession, there are always tips and tricks that are passed down and learned and subsequently shared with others. In my case, AdWords is something that I have avoided until recently and thought I would share some of the things I found out during my trials and tribulations.

Let’s start with a couple of basic introductions. AdWords is a Google tool that allows advertisers to pick key words or phrases that will trigger their ads to appear. There are many tools that assist with generating effective keywords, and those will be covered in another posting. Once you choose your trigger words and write a small ad or banner, you then place bids on those words and phrases which indicate the maximum amount you are willing to pay a display medium (website, Google search results) per click on that ad. The more popular the word or phrase, the more expensive it is. Your ads are displayed on Google search results and websites that subscribe to Google AdSense placement. “What is that?” you ask. Well, look at the websites you visit, even esourcedevelopment. AdSense ads are a great way for website owners to make a few cents every time someone clicks on the ads displayed on their page. It also fills the page with relevant information which makes your site more professional and attractive to site visitors.

In our example, let’s say we have a product that is a credit card protective sleeves. I know, it’s a BS product, but it will work for purposes of this demonstration. We create a landing page for people to order our product from and have registered the name creditcardprotector.com (if that site really exists, I better get a little some-some on the back-end). Then you must go to google.com/adwords. If you already have a Google ID, like for Google checkout, you can use that. Setting up your account means that you provide a credit card for billing and have access to the keyword placement tools.  After that, we got our product, we got our site page, we got our Google AdWords account, now all we need is visitors!

First thing, let’s think up some keywords to use in our AdWords campaign. Don’t get all excited and start throwing out every word that is even remotely associated with your product because you will go broke. Your daily AdWords budget limit will be met immediately with no quality clicks to show for it. “But, gee, Al,” you may be thinking to yourself, “Isn’t the goal to get people to click?” Yes, it is, but we want quality clicks, not quantity. There are 5 basic keywords and variations you want to use:

”PRODUCT NAME”
“PRODUCTNAME”
”PRDUCTNAME COM”
”PRODUCT NAME REVIEW”
”PRODUCT NAME SCAM”

And that’s about it! Using our example product, we might create keyword phrases like:

”credit card protector”
“creditcardprotector”
“creditcardprotector com”
“credit card protector review”
“credit card protector scam”

Notice the quotes around the phrases? They aren’t just for this example, you want to place quotes around all of your keyword phrases. Why? Again, because without them you will go broke. Without the quotes your ad will show (and be clicked on) by any schlep searching for “credit card,” “review,” or “scam.” I can hear it again… “But Al, as long as people are clicking, isn’t that good?” NO. Bad dog. No biscuit. Remember, our goal is quality, not quantity. Some guy looking for a low interest credit card may see your ad and think “What the heck is a card protector,” only to click off your site after seeing what it is and thinking “Oh…OK.” Sure, you may get an occasional sale, but wouldn’t you rather have a click-through from a guy that is actually searching for “credit card protector?”

In part 2, we will actually set up these words in our Google AdWords account and set daily limits and bids for each phrase.

For the last couple of years I’ve been writing web applications and desktop software using mapping technologies. A couple of years ago when these projects started we had to make a choice between Google Maps and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth (now called Bing Maps). At the time, Google had a much more restrictive licensing model than Microsoft. The websites and software we were developing required a subscription to plot and view the data, but free users could use the map in any way intended without requiring the user to log in or enter an email address. Google also had restrictive limits on the number of hits that your account could absorb. We went with Microsoft’s Virtual Earth and it has worked very well for us over the years and Microsoft was very forthcoming and open about their licensing and how we intended to use the technology.

Skip ahead a couple of years and I have started to look at Google and Bing again. This time it is for a site that will feature new home information and mapping. Like I said, Bing has worked well for us over the last couple years providing aerial maps for 3 web sites and 1 desktop application, so we have no real reason to switch other than to ensure they are able to provide the services we need.

I started by checking Google Map’s licensing strategy, which was the deal killer for us a couple of years ago. It seems they have relaxed a lot of the per day restrictions (or eliminated them altogether). They have the same daily limit on geocoding addresses (providing the lat / long for a given street address), but the imaging is not restricted by hits. This means that you can provide the maps for your website visitors or for your applications without worry.

But wait, there’s more. Both Microsoft and Google have restrictions against charging for using the maps. In other words, you can’t use Google or Bing on a website that charges simply for using the map. You can provide basic functionality of the maps for use on your site and charge for overlays, plots, or other data that you provide. As an example, I designed a site that allows users to view Bing Maps and use all the features of it as provided by Bing. However, the customer provides data for overlays, boundaries, and plots that is proprietary to them. For that data to be displayed on the map, there is a charge. After a few calls to Microsoft, the client was able to get a clear and concise answer regarding the rules and regulations regarding Bing Maps, and the custom overlay charge was fine by them… Again, as long as users could freely use the Bing Maps general functionality as provided by Microsoft without paying for anything.

The one negative Bing has going for it is the abysmal default pins. Granted, I never use them and create custom PNG’s for the maps, but Google makes such a nice, simple pin that it would make my time spent developing the site a little less as well as providing an already well recognized image on the screen. People see it and immediately think “Oh, there’s one of what I’m looking for” instead of “What’s that gelatinous blob trying to say?”

Both offer 3d views, or Bird’s Eye View as Bing called it. They are both reasonably accurate with the plotting of geocoded points, but examples of mistakes are documented and lamented all over the net on both sides.

My Ratings:

	Google Maps	Bing Maps
Data
Developer Resources
Documentation
Browser Support
Accuracy

Right now Google gets a little more exposure since Orbitz, Redfin and Trulia are all using the current version of the API on their websites. But Bing has made some serious inroads in the last year by providing more up to data data and a more relaxed licensing strategy.

I’ll have to admit that when I first saw this I thought it was incredible. It’s like the huge touch screens of Star Trek TNG. I’m an old school Dungeons and Dragons player from days of old (late 70’s, early 80’s). There are still factions that meet at community gaming centers and stores that still play the old fashioned way with miniatures, maps, paper and pencil. But will this concept change that?

Surfacescapes Demo Walkthrough from Surfacescapes on Vimeo.

The big advantage of the large surface game is that specifics, ranges, inventories, etc. can all be accessed with the touch of a finger. Pretty cool, right? Well, I would have to argue that while it may appeal to the ‘shiny object’ crowd, the old school methods will still be the dominant ones. Why? For the simple reason that having to reference the mountains of books to determine, in the most precise of detail, the effects or abilities of a class, spell, or Boss is half the fun. The research and interpretation is where the fulfillment of D&D lies… That and the imagination!

Now I’ve been tabletop RPG’ing since High School and I can tell you that some of the cerebral fulfillment of the games comes from outsmarting an opponent who doesn’t know the rules as they pertain to their situation or has misinterpreted them, which usually leads to a half hour of looking up the ruling in question and arguing with the DM to get your way. Sometimes, a slap-fight ensues. With the surface method, everything is at your fingertips. You can immediately assess the situation and have the game determine the best option.

Take for example the simple method of range determination as demonstrated in the video. Have you ever played a tabletop RPG and pre-measured a range attack? OMG – You will be banned from the store quicker than your Manna burn rate can be calculated. Not physically banned, but the shame you feel for being labeled and ignored by your fellow type A mouth breathers might as well mean exile. There are rules, protocols, and sometimes rituals that accompany these games, and there’s good reason for it. It’s the interaction with fellow carbon based life forms that makes playing D&D and every other RPG (Games Workshop, etc.) worth while.

I can see this method being useful when your playing a single player game like Diablo or the many other solo RPG’s out there. I think the surface method would be a fantastic vehicle for those types of games where the pomp and circumstance of the group environment are not required. Plus, lugging around those 18 books is the only exercise I get!