FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
16 CFR Part 255
Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”) is adopting revised Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (“the Guides”). The revised Guides include additional changes not incorporated in the proposed revisions published for public comment in November 2008. See 73 FR 72374 (Nov. 28, 2008).

http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005endorsementguidesfnnotice.pdf

This has good and bad issues associated with it. So read carefully and examine their examples at the end of the document.

Why 2010 Will Be A White
Knuckle Ride For Web Marketers
By Titus Hoskins (c) 2009

Next year may just prove to be one of the most challenging times for pursuing online or Internet marketing on the web. It may just be a watershed moment for many marketers struggling to keep abreast of all the different factors which have come into play in recent months. Most of these changes will stem from two main sources for potential upheaval: the first being the New FTC (Federal Trade Commission) Guidelines regarding Testimonials and Endorsements and the second being “ALL” the recent changes within Google.

Actually, we already have the new FTC Guidelines which came into effect on Dec. 1st of 2009, but how these new rules are enforced will play out in the coming year as test-cases are brought to court. Basically, these new rules call for absolute disclosure and full transparency regarding Testimonials and Endorsements when a product or service is being offered for sale. Any business (monetary) relationship between the endorser and the company must be made known to the potential buyer. Obviously for those in online or affiliate marketing this could have a great impact if these new rules are strictly enforced. Just imagine all the website owners and bloggers who slap a few banners or affiliate links on their sites to cover hosting or operating costs… will they now have to disclose all these business arrangements?

For professional affiliate marketers and the companies/products they’re promoting, these new guidelines could cause potential headaches and/or legal ramifications since a general blanket disclaimer on their sites will no longer be suffice. To help solve this problem, many of the major companies are now placing an “affiliate” tag on all their banners and making it obvious a business relationship exists with its affiliates. In addition, many online marketers are placing additional disclaimers, affiliate seals and in other ways making it known certain links are indeed affiliate links and a relationship does exist with the product and/or services being promoted.

With these new guidelines, another big issue is email marketing, one of the major marketing techniques of most online marketers. Will a full disclosure be necessary for every email sales pitch? Savvy web marketers know the key to increased sales is in the “follow-up” and the “cookie-ing” of potential buyers; how will the new Guidelines affect this very effective marketing practice? How all these new rules or guidelines play out will make next year a very interesting one for marketing on the web.

Despite this, perhaps the greatest cause for upheaval in the coming year will be Google. There are countless reasons why Google will be a major game changer in 2010 for online marketing. Ever since Bing and more recently the potential Bing/Yahoo competition, Google has gone into complete overdrive, implementing new changes and debuting new programs like there was no tomorrow.

First, we have Google Caffeine which Google is introducing (full force) early in the new year. Google Caffeine, which is a major overhaul of its search engine, will no doubt cause many a marketer some sleepless nights as the total fall-out becomes evident. Other Google updates in the past (Florida Update comes readily to mind) have wreaked havoc on many top ranking sites, but this time Google is doing things a little differently and have even given webmasters a beta version of the new search engine. Still, rightly or wrongly, many online marketers are bracing themselves for the full impact of Caffeine. Will it mean smooth sailing or a stomach sickening roller-coaster ride for marketers and webmasters?

Second, we have the introduction of “Real Time” search which will be featured in Google’s SERPs. This will make the social media sites like Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace… much more important. Again, the implications for online marketers could be enormous since many can now reach the first page through a different route. Will it also mean more “Real Time” spam? But more importantly, will it mean a greater marketing opportunity for the online marketer who exploits it?

Third, we are seeing Google moving more and more towards “Visual Search” with the introduction of Google Goggles for mobile phones. Just take a picture and you get the Google results instantly – no typing, just point and click. Just envision countless clueless teenagers or more importantly helpless shoppers suddenly being empowered with knowledge and wisdom. Could do more for education since the invention of the printed word and the info-commercial combined. Talk about scary! But will the implications for web marketing be just as revolutionary and enlightening?

Fourth, Google has made it known through its spokesperson Matt Cutts, that site-loading times will be a ranking factor in the new improved Google. Also, proper and correct page coding will also be more important if you want your site to be at full advantage. Broken links will be a big “No-No”, while linking out to important related sites a big plus. All this is only logical, Google’s main product is and has always been its search results, anything which improves those results and provides a more pleasing experience for the Google user should be front and center. Obviously, one way for Google to stay on top, is to provide the best search results to its users.

Fifth, in order to please the end-user, Google is also moving more towards “Personalized Search” which will make SEO and ranking in the top spot for your chosen keywords a total nightmare for many professional SEOs and online marketers. If everyone can choose their own top results, isn’t SEO more or less, a lame duck? Again, the ramifications of personalized search will further play out in 2010, but will professional marketers like what they see?

Finally, while no one would argue Google is King of the Hill when it comes to online search, will all these new changes strengthen or weaken Google’s grip? Will the combined Bing/Yahoo be able to give this giant some much needed competition? Or will Google’s main competition come from an unlikely source, such as big name multi-national corporations who are moving their operations online. Can these big-name keyworded domains start directly pulling in the majority of the web’s traffic, making all search engines secondary? As people become more web savvy, will they go directly to what they’re looking for on the web, bypassing the search engines altogether – including the mighty Google? Such a scenario could have greater consequences for the affiliate marketer since a direct line to a company’s site or product will obviously mean less sales for the online marketer, who really works in coordination with the search engines, either through organic search or PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising in these same search engines.

Overall, the new FTC Guidelines and recent changes to Google, will make next year one of the most interesting times to be pitching anything online. Throw into this the full effect that a combined Bing/Yahoo might bring to the table, and you have the recipe for a tumultuous white knuckle ride, until the dust finally settles and marketers make adjustments like they always do. Until then, hold on because things will probably get a little hectic for many web marketers before we see the light at the end of the tunnel.

About The Author
The author is a full time online affiliate marketer. His livelihood is derived from & dependent upon search engine marketing & daily monitoring of targeted keywords, mainly within Google. He runs numerous sites, including: Free Marketing Tools & Internet Marketing Tools
Titus Hoskins Copyright 2009. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

2009 – Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Nutrocker

2007 – Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Christmas Eve in Sarajevo

Interlinking web pages

One of the more interesting aspects of the web page ranking is based off the idea of linking your web pages based off your keywords. The use of hyperlinking (Using HREF text links to direct to another web page of your site) allowing your visitors to quickly click on a link to get to another web page offering them information about that keyword phrase.

The interlinking of web pages tells the search engine spiders that the phrase you are using describes the web page or offers more information about the keyword that is hyperlinked. Thus increasing its usefulness as an indexing element.

Example:

I write about search engine optimization on my web site. So the keywords I want to be found for would be South Florida search engine optimization. By text hyperlinking to another web page, this linked keyword allows the search engine to index it with a higher value.

You can hyper link with images, but they are not as effective as a text link for optimization. This is an example of a hyperlinked image that links to the same web page for search engine optimization.

Always select your best keyword phrases to link to interior pages.

Good luck!

-=Smitty=-

If there is an image on the web page, there should be an alt tag to describe the image.

Alt Tags are used to provide a text based descriptions for images on a web page. To add text to the alt tags – enter the text between the parenthesis

example:

< img src=”images.jpg” width=”50″ height=”50″ alt=”This is part of optimization” >

There is a secondary aspect of the alt tag – it is used to provide information for the image for the sight impaired as a verbal description that gets translated into sound.

Although this too has been a point of abuse by many web site owners, the importance has diminished over time with this feature, but it is still a good practice and will also help with W3C compliance.

-=Smitty=-

Depending on the nature and the size of the website. A sitemap is important to get all your web pages indexed, or at least found.

What is a Sitemap?

A Sitemap is nothing more than the list of all your active web pages.

Why use a Sitemap?

Easy, it allows the search engine spiders to index every web page that you want found. Also it allows your visitors to locate a web page quickly.

Be sure to have a link to your sitemap page from the main page. Then be sure to have a link to the sitemap on every web page.

Google Caffeine And The New Ranking Factors
By Titus Hoskins

Google Caffeine is the name given to Google’s “Next Generation” search engine, which it will use to rank and index all the pages on the wonderful world wide web. According to all indications, this is not just another one of Google’s infamous Updates, but a major “Overhaul” of its index and algorithm – the complex formula and calculations Google uses to rank all web pages, including yours

The Complete Story…

Do you have a Graphics menu? With Javascript code?

As a follow up from my previous post. Graphic image menus are attractive and can do well, but I feel a text based menu system using CSS does a much better. Why? Because a graphic image even with an Alt Tag, does not carry the same weight as a text based hyperlink in the eyes of the search engine algorithms.

Again, Javascript menus do not always get spidered, you must test them before releasing them on to the web. If you do have a graphic based menu, as useful strategy, I would add a text menu at the bottom of the web page. They are simple to setup and provide the hyperlinks in case the graphic based menu is not getting spidered.

-=Smitty=-

CSS and Javascript are terrific web building tools when used correctly.  However, they can cause problems with search engines spider bots.

The first and foremost issue is that CSS and Javascript information should be placed is a separate file. I have two reasons for this. The first is to clean up the web page and the second is to make it easier for the search engine spider to index a web page.

When CSS is found imbedded in a web page – it makes the header much longer and more involved. The quicker the spider can get through your web page without interference or complexity, the better. Also You do not want to focus on CSS, but the actual text on the web page. The search engine spider is looking for content, not code (although the CSS code and comments will be indexed if found in the web page).

The same is true with Javacsript. The spider has to dig it’s way through the code. Now here is the kicker, if the code is written is a way that appears confusing to the search engine spider bot, the bot will stop reading the file and move on. I have seen this so many times with Javascript menu systems. This is a disaster, because the menu links are not indexed – they never find the rest of the website. So the only page that gets indexed or should I say that only a portion of the main web page will be indexed. All the rest of the website is lost and not submitted to the search engine.

If you have a Javascript menu – test it with a search engine simulation to see if the hyperlinks are being followed.

http://www.smittysholdings.com/SpiderSimulator/index.php

http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php

If you find that there are problems consider changing it or if you can’t (or won’t) I suggest adding a text menu in the footer or a text hyperlink to a sitemap

Good luck!

-=Smitty=-

This information came in recently from Google…