Google has been releasing many different services based on offline marketing. They have been testing their magazine & newspaper print ads with select advertisers and publishing companies. There have been rumors of Google releasing a service to place commercials on TV channels. Now Google has decided to start offering services to let advertisers place commercials on popular radio stations - Audio Ads .

This new service was spotted as an advertisement while searching through Google and it looks like it's in a BETA stage and only accepting a few elite advertisers. From the looks of it, Google plans on offering their advertisers the ability to:

• Select from hundreds of radio stations across the U.S. to run your audio ads
• Target your customers by station type, demographics, and time of day
• View online reports that show you when and where your ad played
• Listen to real-time recordings of your ads as they were played on the radio

Up until now, many webmasters have been utilizing online marketing via Pay-Per-Click and advertisements to bring traffic to their websites. This can usually be because webmasters enjoy knowing where the traffic came from.

When receiving traffic from offline marketing, Google Analytics will always display the referrer as "Direct". So how would you be able to tell if they came to your website through offline marketing methods like Google Audio Ads? Simple, just put up a poll which checks the origin of traffic. If none is given, the poll is shown to the user. It could be through a pop-up as well, which will get their attention.

This way, you can get a good idea of where your visitors are coming from and how they heard of your website.  I think Google Audio Ads would be great for webmasters who run a website based off of a social community, like forums, pligg and such.

If you're interested, feel free to give them a call at their following departments:

New York: 212-994-4956

Atlanta: 404-487-9000

Chicago: 312-840-4153

Los Angeles: 310-694-2519

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I know we have all made typos, it happens.  When it is on your own personal project…you fix it and move on.  When it's on a clients project…you risk giving the wrong impression.  You risk the client thinking you might not be as professional as they thought.  

So…what do you do?  Well.  Spell check is nifty.  Almost everything has it.  There is also this incredible tool, it's been a trusted resource for centuries and can give you the confidence to say, "Yes it is spelled n-e-c-e-s-s-a-r-y!"  I'm talking about the dictionary.  It's simple, we all know how to use it and we even have an online version to make our life even simpler.  

Dictionary.com has a Dictionary, Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, and Reference section.  It's like your very own virtual library.  

So, when in doubt about the spelling of a word, or when you are trying to prove that you are right, check out dictionary.com.

P.S.  Don't bother checking for typos in my article on typos. LOL  I double spell-checked it already   

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While many of you are fond of using whatever works to a degree, there are those times when reigning yourself in a bit is in order before doing some things, that tied together, or seperately, can hurt you, your clients, or your network(s).

A quick rundown of a number of the things that may not be in your best interest that are simple to spot.

• Hidden text
• Major Keyword stuffing
• Duplicating sites to interlink.

Now we all know about these things, and there are far more than I have listed here, but sometimes we just can not refrain from using them. When it gets extremely dangerous to do so is when you do all of them at once. The reason for this post was due to running into such a network this morning while searching for a place to get my youngest daughter a pair of primigi shoes that she wanted. To me, a seasoned search optimizer, it seemed as if what they are doing is just insanely obvious and bordering on just plain dumb. Same content, same color scheme, same whois info, same host, even the same template in some cases. You decide for yourself:

http://www.kidsnshoes.com
http://www.usansites.com
http://www.kidsnsites.com
http://www.kidsnfashion.com
http://www.kidsnjumpingjacks.com
http://www.kidsntoys.com
http://www.kidsnfootwear.com
http://www.newenglandnsites.com
http://www.sandysshoes.com
http://www.kidsshoewarehouse.com

Keep in mind this is a small sampling of websites this marketer is using.

This has been a public service rant by yours truly.

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The DMOZ Open Directory Project is one of the largest human-edited directories on the web. Two months ago the DMOZ Directory was down for nearly ten days and disallowed any editors to login and approve/deny any websites submitted to the directory. AOL claims that it was a hardware failure and after a few days they were able to scrounge up a recovery of the DMOZ data that was lost.

However, they did not allow new submissions since they were still trying to recover lost data. Well it seems that the Open Directory Project has opened it's doors to new submissions. They lost their previously queued data, so the editors have empty categories. If you have nothing better to do, go and give them sites to review!

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White space is the space within a design where no text or graphics appears.  And despite the name, the space does not have to be white. 

White space in a design can lead your visitors eyes to the important part of your design, give the eyes a chance to rest OR just strengthen your design by giving more power to what is on the page.  Sometimes less is more, you do not have to cram as much "stuff" as possible into your site.  

A website needs to convey your message quickly and if it's just overflowing with everything you want your visitor to know about you and your site, you are bound to overload their mind.  And that means a quick hit to the "back" button or they will just close the window.  

When designing your site, ask yourself if things are starting to get too cluttered and add white space to remedy that.  If it looks empty, you might need less white space.  Balance is the key here.  Just be honest with yourself, or possibly get some opinions from people you trust to be honest about whether your site design is too busy or not. 

The new trend is to go towards more white space.  It makes your visitors slow down, read the information, and absorb it better.  Maybe after a few years of having massive portal sites crammed down our throats…a little extra white space isn't such a bad thing.   

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