The Podcast Explosion: Feeding the Beast.

by Galina Arlov and Robert Lachman

Podcasting is a technology whose time has come. Though it may use some of the same technologies as (RSS ) blogging, it’s a completely different beast when it comes to Search Engine Optimization.

Podcasting – like the Web, e-mail, file sharing and peer to peer networking – is quickly changing how information can be shared in cyberspace. Podcasts are basically informational radio shows covering a wide spectrum of interests (there are also video podcasts), that can be downloaded onto your iPod or computer. This allows you to listen where you want: at home, on the train, in the car or even at the gym. It is also a great way to get your message out to the world, whether it be advertising your business, your newest song, that short story you just finished or the outrageous comedy routine you worked on for so long. There is no censorship, no FCC, and no radio executives to tell you what to say. Podcasting is all about self-expression, so if you have something to say and want a place to say it, with podcasting, you can start your own radio show from home. All you need is a computer, a microphone and a point of view and you’re on the air.

A Brief History of Podcasting

In 2004, former MTV vee-jay Adam Curry was looking for a way to syndicate a radio show over the Internet, so, after four years of development with (technical help from Dave Winer the author of the language that created RSS feeds), Curry invented a small application called iPodder to help people easily download RSS enclosures into their MP3 players. (Podcasting works with any MP3 player.)

Curry released his code into cyberspace and other developers immediately went nuts improving it. Eventually, he launched the iPodder site so people could download his program and subscribe to the thousands of podcasts listed there. Podcasting was born and the rest is history. Since then other sites like Juice offer similar software, iPodder is still the most well known.

“As consumers we’ve been trained to think the only way you can fill your mp3 player is by either ripping your CD collection to it, or by purchasing music tracks from a few vendors,” states Curry on his iPodder site. “In reality you can fill up your audio files that contain anything you can record. A show, a lecture, weather report, love letter … just like weblogs there’s no limit to your creativity. And now … you too can enjoy podcasting your audio to a potential audience of millions.”

Narrowcasting vs Broadcasting

Podcasting is actually narrowcasting, which is distinctly different from broadcasting. Since the birth of radio, and especially in the early years of television, the three major networks (NBC, ABC and CBS) sought the widest audience possible by dominating the airwaves. As independent stations, videotape and cable channels became more popular, viewer’s options grew and the domination by the big three networks declined.

“Narrowcasting” or “niche” broadcasting (that is, broadcasting to a specific demographic) is how broadcasters and advertisers have created the vast wasteland we now know as “cable.” Even the major networks have been forced, by market considerations, to “narrowcast” to specific groups of people with their programming.

The same goes for radio. A radio station’s livelihood depends on sending (some might say “pushing”) its message to the widest possible audience.

Podcasting is the most individual form of narrowcasting yet, allowing people to express themselves or advertise their product to small groups. One of its drawbacks however is, the more listeners you get the bigger the drain on your resources and bandwidth. Though this is not necessarily a bad thing understand, the amount of money and resources necessary to maintain a subscriber base of 100,000 would break most of us, because the technology isn’t up to it yet. In other words your server would crash. Multiple servers could probably help, but if you’re that popular, you should be either on TV or the radio anyway.

Technical challenges

The challenge for online advertisers and publishers is to consistently find new and interesting ways to capture and hold an audience by using distribution methods like Flash Video, e-zines and now … Podcasting. Optimizing podcasts for Search Engines presents a whole new set of complexities for web designers, like Voice Recognition and the new spoken word search engines.

David Ives of TVeyes, Inc. created the spoken word search engine, Podscope , which specializes in word recognition and word-spotting solutions. TVeyes Inc. started out working in the defense/intelligence field and remained “under the radar.” The company has now gone more public, partnering with AOL and Yahoo. Ives launched Podscope in 2005 and currently indexes more than 50,000 podcasts, 75% of which are audio, 25% video blogs. Ives believes that Meta data alone is not enough and devised Pinpoint Audio that allows users to listen to a 10 second snippet containing particular keywords. He also thinks this technology will also help advertisers place ads within the best section of the podcast. Podscope has a search box for podcasters and uses RSS feeds, subscriptions and alerts and will soon power podcast searches at AOL.

We at Valor Cross Media have noticed that actually finding podcasts can be more of a task than producing the content itself. There are a few ways to find podcasts on-line. Yahoo and the iTunes site offer fairly simple access to the podcasting world. If you have iTunes on your computer just go to the podcast directory and you will find video and audio podcasts categorized by topic. With Yahoo, you need to have some idea what you’re looking for. To find something specific go to the Yahoo site and click on “Audio” above the search bar, input your podcast search topic and the search engine will take you where you want to go.

But what’s available? And why would you want to go there?

Podcasts deal with topics ranging from science to religion, music to comedy and celebrations of life from the sublime to the everyday. In fact, any topic you can find online is probably being podcast.

Here’s an example of some of the podcast sites available.
NASA has five different podcast programs in the Science section of the iTunes podcast site, two of them have video feeds, but there are scores of other scientific podcasts as well.

There are numerous Education sites, from popular podcasts like Natalia Worthington’s “A Spoonful of Russian” to a 12-part lecture on The History of the Byzantine Empire by Lars Brownworth. History lectures, languages, even a site called “A Moment with the P.O.E.T.S” explaining how podcasts work can all be found among the hundreds of education sites available.

“The Area 51 Show” is one of the most popular comedy podcast sites, but there are hundreds more. Many have explicit ratings, but it is comedy, and it’s a podcast, so who cares?

The technology section has 10 sub-categories including podcasts on information technology, computers, developers, gadgets, technology news and even … podcasting.

One of the largest podcast sites on the web belongs to the music community. There are hundreds of sites from all over the world that either podcast radio format shows or offer an alternative way for independent musicians to promote their stuff. It’s all pretty awesome.

Other podcasts feature arts and entertainment (including book and movie reviews), food (with chefs offering culinary ideas, and more), public radio, audio blogs and politics. It’s a new world out there and it’s time to tune in!

How to get started with your podcast

Search Engine Optimization is how you prepare your podcast to reach the maximum amount of subscribers and/or consumers on the web. Here are seven important tips on maximizing your podcasting experience from Amanda Watlington from Searching for Profit (web marketing consultants):

Give the podcast a good title

Optimize your sound files (using ID tags)

Use a separate landing page for the audio content – use a different landing xpage for each new episode

Optimize these landing pages

Provide subscription information on each landing page

Build correct and valid feeds (RSS 2.0, iTunes, Yahoo). Validate your feeds (iTunes does not distribute, you have to build an iTunes feed). Then, submit your feeds.

Use RSS editors and feed managers such as feedburner, RSS editors or FeedForAll and ensure your RSS is valid.

Valor Cross Media suggests: Optimize your sound – ID tags used for exporting. You can add a variety of ID3 tags with iTunes which gives you a bit more flexibility in customizing genres and even incorporating artwork. One of the big bonuses of using iTunes is how you can create custom genres. Choose File- Get Info- Info and enter your genre there. You can also go to the MP3 in your iTunes library and single click the Genre column and edit the genre name. When you return to the Info window later, you will see your custom genre offered as an option on the Genre drop-down menu.

Creating podcasts is fun and relatively easy, so try it. It’s just another great way to get your message out there, whatever it may be. If you don’t know what you’re doing (ie. most of us) it’s best to bug your webmaster or, if you don’t have a webmaster find someone who understands RSS and podcasting.

Happy Podcasting!

Books on podcasting we recommend. click here

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About The Author: Galina Arlov is a E-Business Professional with 15+years work experience working for Fortune 400 companies and an acclaimed writer on technical matters, she has written extensively on the subjects of W3C Compliance, Macromedia Flash, Quark, IDesign and professional e-Business Development. Galina is a founder and owner of Valor Cross Media a Creative Web Site Design Services company located on Upper East Side in New York City. For more of her articles, and information on ValorCrossMedia Services go to www.valorcrossmedia.com or call 212 288-1866. If you have questions about this article please write to articles@valorcrossmedia.com

About The Author: Robert Lachman is an award-winning writer, reporter and copywriter covering New York State politics for the Hudson Valley’s premiere political magazine The Citizen. He writes movie reviews for Poughkeepsie’s entertainment magazine Pulse, and technology issues for Valor Cross Media and other sites on the web. For more of his articles and WordOne copywriting services visit his website at www.virtualwordone.com or call 845 758-9346 for more information.

The Voice Of Podcast Search

By David Utter

Metadata won't be enough for fulfilling user needs with podcast search; the next generation of that search will feature voice recognition.

Speak up! Do you have a podcast now? Have you integrated any pre-roll or sponsorship mentions to monetize it? Give us a shout at WebProWorld.

Podcast search offers a different challenge for potential advertisers and the publishers who want to find sponsorships, Chris Richardson reported from SES Chicago; he said monetization will come from finding people willing to exchange cash for a mention during a show, similar to how radio advertising works right now.

Voice recognition - that's the future of podcast search as seen by Blinkx co-founder and CTO Suranga Chandratillake, during the SES Chicago session on Podcast Search. 20 to 30 words to describe a podcast that's twenty to thirty minutes long aren't enough to index a podcast properly. Transcripts help greatly, given current technology, but few podcasts offer them.

Joe Hayashi from Yahoo's podcast team (he's a senior director of product management) noted how his company has used tagging to make searching for podcasts easier. Richardson noted this seems to play off of the approach they've taken with photo-sharing site Flickr.

Feedburner CEO Dick Costolo said his company looks past search submission for podcasts, but he did recommend that podcasters promote one feed for search, include metadata, and ping those search services when updates become available.

Costolo felt podcasters should worry more about location and distribution than making money from their podcasts.

As far as SEO goes, Amanda Watlington from Searching for Profit dished out a few tips on podcasting and search optimization:

- give the podcast a good title
- optimize the sound files - tags have meaning
- use a separate landing pages for the audio content (use a different landing page for each new episode)
- optimize these landing pages
- provide subscription information on landing pages
- build correct and valid feeds, (RSS 2.0, iTunes, Yahoo) validate your feeds (iTunes does not redistribute, you have to build an iTunes feed) - submit your feeds
- optimize your sound files (ID 3 tags)
- use RSS editors and feed managers (feedburner, RSS editors, FeedForAll) ensure your RSS is valid

Richardson observed, "It seems being found is almost more of a task than producing the content itself."

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About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Recruiters for MSN or Data Miners, Part II

by Galina Arlov

Since the publication of Recruiters for MSN or Data Miners on WebProNews
I have been contacted by several search engine professionals who in turn have been contacted by Microsoft and interviewed by Kenexa (read a letter below).

Also, since the unveiling of Microsoft’s adCenter Incubation Lab Team (adLab for short), being set up in Beijing, staff writer for WebProNews Jason Lee Miller, in his new article Microsoft To Google: It’s On says, “Being in the shadow of another company is certainly not something Microsoft is used to … the adLab team in Beijing consists of letters-after-their-names scientists with specializations in data mining, information retrieval, statistical analysis, artificial intelligence, auction theory, visual computing and digital media."

One has to wonder about all the questions that Kenexa asked on behalf of Microsoft and the homework assignments they wanted various SEO professionals to perform (see a PDF of the MSN homework assignment and MSN sample client data). Were they actually hiring people for MSN or gathering research materials for the data mining adLab team in Beijing? With the government listening into our phone calls and search engines like Yahoo and AOL caving into government pressure, anything is possible.

Another question arises: how ethical it is to pick the brains of independent SEO professionals without compensating them for research information that will surely go towards the development of another multi billion dollar enterprise for Microsoft? Hey Microsoft! We’re on to you!


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UPDATE JANUARY 12, 2006

Microsoft To Google: It’s On!

Jason Lee Miller
Staff Writer
Published: 2006-01-13

Microsoft is planning to release an assault on the search advertising industry this coming June, according to the Associated Press. Pulling from the Chinese research leg of the company, the Beast of Redmond aims to add highly targeted and contextual next-generation search marketing technology to its weapons cache to continue its bout against the new nemesis found in Google.

Being in the shadow of another company is certainly not something Microsoft is used to. Sure, Sony gave the software company a proper thumping with PlayStation 2, a hard lesson that propelled an aggressive dropping of Xbox 360 gamer bait in time for Christmas. "In time for the holidays" was a strong left hook to Sony's chin before the tech giant could throw out the monstrously high-tech PlayStation3. Microsoft is hoping an early attack put a crack in Sony's glass jaw.

Microsoft's new plan of action smacks of a similar counterattack strategy. In the search marketing business, it's been a losing battle for second place. Not realizing the early importance of search technology, Gates and company outsourced their afterthought to Yahoo!'s Overture Services. As their share of the search market has gone from bad to worse, dropping by as much as eight percent in recent years, that strategy has proven ineffective.

Though some have speculated a stronger relationship with Yahoo! is forthcoming, the relationship is scheduled to come to genial close in June. It appears that's when MSN will make its push for at least second place, if not able to over come a strong memetic force in Google.

The AP reported that 25 percent of sponsored links come from Microsoft's recent testing of adCenter and that in June that percentage will grow to 100.

Yesterday, Microsoft unveiled its adCenter Incubation Lab, shortened to adLab for the time constrained, a joint-effort between MSN's adCenter and Microsoft Research that has given way to a state-of-the-art laboratory in Beijing. adLab has "a mission to research and incubate advanced technologies for MSN adCenter, designed to provide advertisers with rich targeting capabilities based on audience intelligence information and give consumers a more relevant online experience."

That relevant online experience includes advertising across several platforms from blogs to search to video all aimed at targeting a precise audience. Microsoft demonstrated some of these technologies at their recent adCenter Demo Fest.

" These prototypes hold the promise to change online advertising dramatically in areas such as paid search, behavioral targeting and contextual advertising. Also shown were projects addressing areas of incubation in their earliest stages of investigation, such as ad bar-code readers, social network mining, and video and large-display ads," said Microsoft in a statement.

The adLab team in Beijing consists of letters-after-their-names scientists with specializations in data mining, information retrieval, statistical analysis, artificial intelligence, auction theory, visual computing and digital media.

One of the more interesting highlights of the adLab was the discussion of video hyperlink ads that detect products shown on TV and allow an instant referral to information about the product.

So basically, as Mike Meyers is making fun of product placement in Wayne's World, a Doritos hyperlink could appear in future syndicated showings, taking would-be customers to information pages as well as where Doritos can be bought.

"The exciting work being shown at adCenter Demo Fest and the new Microsoft adLab reflects Microsoft's commitment to innovation in the field of ad products," said Tarek Najm, general manager of adCenter at Microsoft.

"The Microsoft team of top researchers in this field is unsurpassed and certain to produce compelling advances that will impact and ultimately change the game in online advertising."

And if they can make good on those promises, the game just might be changed.

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Here is the account of the interviewing process as told by Nadir Ganush.

I was contacted about a month ago by a Recruiter from Kenexa. I was not looking for a job at that time, but since my resume was on Monster, they contacted me. I was surprised that my CV was picked for a MSN job by Kenexa so I did some research online using keywords such as "Kenexa msn" and found Galina's article.

Galina’s interview was conducted the same way as mine. The man who called asked more questions about how I manage my clients and the methods we used, but hardly any regarding my experience.

I didn't really feel comfortable with the recruiter, but I replied to his questions by giving fake data anyway. He asked me questions like ‘how much my clients pay us, what was the maximum budget I have ever managed’ etc. In short, many of his questions had nothing to do with a job interview.

After the phone interview, he told me I would be contacted by a member of the Staffing team at MSN. The MSN guy then sent me a test that was focused on pay-per-click. I sent him the test back and he replied to me saying that now, I will be put in relation with someone from the MSN adCenter team. At that time, I had no idea of the job description besides the short MS word document received form Kenexa.

Then a woman from the adCenter team called me for a 45 minute interview. The interview didn't last more than 2 minutes. She asked me "So, why are you interested in a position with us?"

I said something like "Well, I was not looking for a job with MSN, but since I have the opportunity to work for you, I'm very interested.
It will be a great move in my career and I will be happy to be part of your team. But, quite frankly, I don't have enough information about the job so I'd like you to tell me more"

She was surprised that I asked her that question. I tried to get more information from her, but she said she couldn’t answer my questions and I had to talk to the guy who sent me the test. I told her that he only asked me to fill out the test and didn't introduce himself as a recruiter, so I didn't ask him. She suggested I call him and then she would get back to me. I called the guy twice, left voice messages, but he never returned my calls. Nobody else has, either.

Pretty weird for a recruiting process from MSN isn’t it?
As of today, I still don't know if this interview was an alibi to get information from Internet Marketing companies or if it really was a job interview.

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The accounts below are our personal experiences and are in no way intended to harm any individual or any particular company. If you have experiences of your own we would be glad to hear them.

Thank you for reading.

Using Flash To Improve Website ROI

By: Miller Pontius

To use Flash or not to use Flash, that may no longer be the question.

For years we've been telling clients to restrain their Flash impulses because, though the technology is admittedly cool, it doesn't add value to the typical website. During that time we looked at Flash as something graphic artists learned to do so they could not only control the look and feel of a site, just as they do a brochure, but also attempt to control the visitor's path through the site. "Bad web design," we said, because the medium "demands that the visitor control the visit." All still true, the way most designers continue to use Flash anyway. BUT (and we're eating a baby crow here) we now believe that Flash can be added to pretty much any website to improve the site's "selling characteristics" hence it's longer term conversion rate.

Why have we changed our thinking? Three reasons:

1. The popularity, expense and even necessity of pay-per-click advertising has brought the quest to improve conversion rates to the forefront.

2. The spread of broadband has given virtually any web user who wants it the ability to view large files without succumbing to boredom.

3. The improvement in the way Flash handles video files has created one multimedia platform of choice.

The buzzword is "conversion" - meaning that percentage of a website's visitors who take a desired action. As the price of traffic continues to rise - whether you are paying an optimization firm to help you with search engines or you are conducting a pay-per-click campaign on Google or Yahoo, the need to squeeze the most out of every marketing dollar rises with it. For that reason, JI embarked on a program to use multimedia to increase response. Simply put, the competition for attention means that you need to start finding more and better ways to convey your message and thus make the most of every site visitor.

The spread of broadband Internet access, while not quite reaching the growth predictions of many industry luminaries, has now reached the point where most businesses and a large percentage of households can get some value from multimedia content. No more waiting forever for a video file that's so jerky that calling it a novelty is the nicest thing one can say. Today we can pick appropriate spots to write, show and tell your story so that it adds to the personality of the site and helps to separate you from the competition.

While always an interesting way to combine text and images, though not a practical one if you want your site to be found in search engines, Flash has dramatically improved the way it handles video files. The end result is that video files can be substituted for still images and play seamlessly - now combining motion, text and sound without breaking the bandwidth bank.

The idea is to build once - use many times. Simple. Say you run a real estate company and you're looking for something to do to set your site apart from the competition, something effective yet affordable. So instead of the ubiquitous virtual tours, you build a little application that combines photos, maps, text and even sound (a narration, perhaps). After you build the first one, new listings can be added quickly and inexpensively (think hundreds, not thousands).

Now think what you could do with video instead of stills, or using a voice over instead of just sounds. Say you're in a service business and therefore the show and tell part is not as simple. How about an interview - giving yourself or your spokesperson a chance to sell that service? You do it in person and you do it over the phone, why not online? The cost is modest, especially considering the mileage you can gain.

Think about it. We're not suggesting a new website here, not even a minor facelift. This type of multimedia content can be produced independently and just linked to your site. It can, in some cases, even be emailed to a prospect list. Here's an example of a small Flash production that could reside on any appropriate website.
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About the Author:
Miller Pontius is a partner in Just Imagine, Inc., which specializes in developing website content, as well as marketing and managing websites. He is also co-founder of Ulanji, Inc., developer of a proprietary content management platform.

W3C Compliance & Macromedia Flash

A Creative Solution to Validate Pages Containing Macromedia Flash and Work Around XHTML Specifications for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

by Galina Arlov

Remember the “Good Housekeeping Seal?”

W3C is the World Wide Web Consortium seal of quality assurance for your website, providing guidelines to insure your website will look and function properly, regardless of the browser, resolution or device that you use. In other words it assures your website is clean of bugs and glitches and can be successfully listed on all search engines.

Everyone needs a properly functioning web site that performs well in the SERP’s (search engine result pages) for business practices. According to the SEO experts at Beanstock, many examples of their sites perform better after they were brought into compliance with W3C standards

After reading the above mentioned article I decided to do some light housekeeping on our own website http://www.ValorCrossMedia.com. It was time to dust off the cobwebs and bring it up to W3C compliance standards to enhance SERP performance.

Valor Cross Media specializes in Creative Web Services such as Online Advertising, Search Engine Optimization, Marketing and Flash Video presentations for the web so SERP performance is a top priority for our business.

To my surprise it was easier said than done. I could not validate our home page for hours.

‘HAH!’ I thought. ‘I have 15+ years of design experience, 10 exclusively online, so I should be able to do this. After all, it is only cleaning up the markup, changing some attributes, right?’

It was back to the drawing board and a few hours on Google doing research.

I finally came up with an article titled “Flash Satay: Embedding Macromedia Flash While Supporting Standards.” on Macromedia.com

“Flash Satay’s” author Drew McLellan, in an article originally published in “A List Apart" writes, "embed" is not part of the XHTML specification and will prevent your page from validating. It is used by Netscape and similar browsers for displaying Flash movies. Parameters are passed within the element as name/value attribute pairs."

McLellan goes on to say, “Netscape created the "embed" tag as a way to embed plug-ins and players in web pages. The "embed" tag is not part of the XHTML specification, and although some browsers other than Netscape do support it, it’s not compliant with the standards, so you shouldn’t use it.”

‘O.K,’ I thought, ‘So there are some obstacles, but we’re getting closer to solving the problem. Our home page contains an embedded Macromedia Flash movie. The solution is to clean the markup and change some attributes.’

In a follow up to the Flash Satay article McLellan also states:

“Flash has built in security measures which make life really tough. If the Flash player thinks the movie is being loaded from a different domain to that of the page in which it is embedded, it gives up and does nothing. It would also seem that it’s very easy to confuse the Flash player into thinking that this is the case. Flasher, beware!”

Hours later after cleaning up the markup and changing attributes, I thought my page was finally ready to be validated for W3C compliance. I found it worked fine in Netscape and Mozilla but when I tried it in Internet Explorer (IE) it stopped dead in its tracks.

Was it a security measure in the Flash Player that stopped the movie or the Internet Explorer setting up rules of their own?

All of a sudden memories of Netscape vs. IE back in the early 90s, when I started out as a web designer, flashed through my mind. Remember how CSS was only viewable in IE back then?

I decided that until the browsers, Macromedia and Microsoft, decide to play together I had better find a creative solution to get the job done.

I dusted off an old browser detection and redirection script found on NetMechanic.com that simply detects the browser and redirects your page. The script is useful when you modify it to redirect users to a page optimized for their particular browsers. While you’ll have to spend time optimizing your individual pages for different browsers, the script itself is very easy.

Finally, I created two separate pages; one optimized for IE, which is validated with the W3C seal for CSS and a second page optimized for browsers like Netscape, Mozilla, etc. to be validated for the XHTML specifications which they support. The java script detects the browser and redirects to an appropriate page. To see an example of this, try opening www.ValorCrossMedia.com in Mozilla browser and then try it in IE. You will see the difference in the seal underneath the Flash movie, though the pages remain the same.

The best part is they are both W3C compliant.

If you have comments, suggestions or creative solutions of your own in reference to this article please drop us a note or visit our blog http://www.valorcrossmedia.com/blogger.html

We’ll be glad to hear from you.

If you would like to find out how Valor Cross Media can help you please
call 212 288-1866 or write to galina@valorcrossmedia.com

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About the Author
Galina Arlov is a Creative Director for Valor Cross Media.

A special thanks to Robert Lachman for www.VirtualWordOne.com for his editing skills that helped to bring this article to life.

Adding Flash Video To Dreamweaver 8

By Tom Green

Sometimes you just have to wonder how the guys at Macromedia do it.

For example, web video is suddenly all the rage thanks to Flash Professional 8, those wonderful people at On2 and Sorenson and the folks at Adobe who provide the video editing software. It is enough to make a web developer's head spin. Suddenly we are confronted with putting web video in our web pages because clients see the neat stuff the "Cool Kids" over on the Flash side of the street are doing and we get caught with a "Me too!" The guys at Macromedia must have anticipated this because they did something with Flash Video in Dreamweaver 8 that is rather amazing; they made it even easier to use. Best off all, it is free.

Prior to the release of Dreamweaver 8, the Flash Video Kit for Dreamweaver MX 2004 was a spending decision on your part if you wanted to add Flash video to your pages. Mind you, the "Kit" included a copy of Sorenson Squeeze Lite and it is still an integral FLV creation tool if you didn't purchase either Studio 8 or Flash Professional 8. The Video Kit is now bundled with the application and is even better than the retail version of the Video Kit.

Tip: You can't create a FLV in Dreamweaver 8. That can only be done in Flash Professional 8 or using Sorenson Squeeze Lite from the Flash Video Kit. This tutorial will assume you have been handed a FLV file.

Seriously, all you need to get into the video game is a FLV and the ability to click a mouse. Here's how:

1. Open Dreamweaver 8 and create a new page.
2. Click the mouse and select Insert > Media > Flash Video...

When you release the mouse the Insert Flash Video dialog box opens. This is where the process of adding a video to your Dreamweaver 8 page starts.

3. Select the Video Type pop-down menu.

This is your first decision: Is the video to be streamed from your web site or through a Flash Communication Server or a Flash Video Streaming Service? Your choice will actually change the look of the dialog box because a Streaming Video requires either an RTMP address and an instance name for the video. If you don't have a Flash Comm or FVSS account choose the Progressive Download option.

A Progressive Download isn't as bad as it seems when you first encounter the term. The video usually starts playing after a second or two of the video loading into the Player. This takes slightly more time than the other option which starts playing immediately.

4. After you select Progressive Download click the Browse button and navigate, using the Select File dialog box, to the location of the FLV file you want to include in the page.

The video will appear in the URL area of the Insert Flash Video dialog box. Your next decision will contain an extremely pleasant surprise if you are familiar with the Video Kit.

5. Click the Skin pop down and select a skin.

If you used the Video Kit, the first thing you will notice is there are now 9 styles to choose from. Just keep in mind each skin has a minimum video width associated with it. As you can se in the image below, each skin contains specific features ranging from simple Start/Stop buttons to volume controls. What is even more interesting is these skins can be customized. The process of doing this is well beyond the scope of this article because it is rather complex. Still, the ability to add you client's logo to the player is available.

Having chosen the skin, you really don't have much more to do. Click the Detect Size button and the video's dimensions are pulled from the FLV's metadata and applied to the size of the player.

Finally you have to decide whether or not to select the "Auto play" and "Auto rewind" buttons. Selecting them, when you have controls seems a bit redundant but, if you want the movie to start playing as soon as it loads, select "Auto play".

The last choice is whether you want your visitors to obtain the latest copy of the Flash Player which, as of this writing, is Flash Player 8. Selecting this adds a detection script to your page and, if the user doesn't have the Flash 8 Player, he or she is redirected. This step is both optional and customizable. Deselect it and the detection script isn't added. If you do select it, you can either use the message or add one of your own such as, "You don't have the stuff. How about we go get it." or something like that.

When you click OK to close the Flash Video dialog box, two swf files - one is the player and the other is the skin - are added to the directory where you saved the page. They must be uploaded to the server for the video to play properly.

Finally, can you change your mind - switch the skin or the FLV, or change and of the settings after you create the player? The answer is yes. The video will appear on your page as a gray box with a FLV icon in the middle. Click the video and the Property inspector will change to reflect the values in the Flash Video dialog box.

Conclusion:

The Flash Video feature of Dreamweaver 8 is a solid hit on Macromedia's part. It is both feature-laden and simple to use. If you can make a menu selection and click a mouse, you too can add Flash video to your Dreamweaver 8 pages.

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About the Author:
Expertise: DWMX, FWMX, FlashMX, FreehandMX, DirectorMX, Photoshop, Illustrator, Audition, AfterEffects, Premiere, InDesign and Acrobat. Workflow and integration of the tools in the MX Studio with an eye to working smarter not harder. Contributions: Teacher, Lecturer, Author, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer. Multimedia Instructor at Humber College's School of Media Studies in Toronto. Author of "Director 8 with Shockwave Fast and Easy" for Prima Tech, "Building Web Sites with Macromedia Studio MX" and "Building Dynamic Web Sites with Macromedia Studio MX" for New Riders. Team Macromedia Member for Fireworks MX 2004.

W3C Compliance & SEO

by Dave Davies

From reading the title many of you are probably wondering what W3C compliance has to do with SEO and many more are probably wondering what W3C compliance is at all.

Let's begin by shedding some light on the latter.

What Is W3C Compliance? The W3C is the World Wide Web Consortium and basically, since 1994 the W3C has provided the guidelines by which websites and web pages should be structured and created. The rules they outline are based on the "best practices" and while websites don't have to comply to be viewed correctly in Internet Explorer and other popular browsers that cater to incorrect design practices, there are a number of compelling reasons to insure that you or your designer insure that the W3C guidelines are followed and that your site is brought into compliance.

In an interview with Frederick Townes of W3 EDGE Web Design he mentioned a number of less SEO-related though very compelling arguments for W3C-complaince. Some non-SEO reasons to take on this important step in the lifecycle of your site are:

· Compliance help insure accessibility for the disabled.

· Compliance helps insure that your website is accessible from a number of devices; from different browsers to the growing number of surfers using PDA's and cellular phones.

· Compliance will also help insure that regardless of the browser, resolution, device, etc. that your website will look and function in the same or at least a very similar fashion.

At this point you may be saying, "Well that's all well-and-good but what does this have to do with SEO?" Good question.

We at Beanstalk have seen many examples of sites performing better after we had brought them, or even just their homepage, into compliance with W3C standards. While discussing this with Frederick he explained it very well with:

"Proper use of standards and bleeding edge best practices makes sure that not only is the copy marked up in a semantic fashion which search engines can interpret and weigh without confusion, it also skews the content-to-code ratio in the direction where it needs to be while forcing all of the information in the page to be made accessible, thus favoring the content. We've seen several occasions where the rebuilding of a site with standards, semantics and our proprietary white hat techniques improves the performance of pages site-wide in the SERPs."

Essentially what he is stating is a fairly logical conclusion, reduce the amount of code on your page and the content (you know, the place where your keywords are) takes a higher priority. Additionally compliance will, by necessity, make your site easily spidered and additionally allow you greater control over which portions of your content are given more weight by the search engines.

Examples

The Beanstalk website and the W3 EDGE site themselves serve as good examples of sites that performed better after complying with W3C standards. With no other changes than those required to bring our site into compliance the Beanstalk site saw instant increases. The biggest jumps were on Yahoo! with lesser though still significant increases being noticed on both Google and MSN.

As we don't give out client URLs I can't personally list off client site examples we've noticed the same effect on, however we can use W3 EDGE as another example of a site that noticed increases in rankings based solely on compliance.

So How Do I Bring My Site In Compliance With W3C Standards?

To be sure, this is easier said than done. Obviously the ideal solution is to have your site designed in compliance to begin with. If you already have a website you have one of two options:

1. Hire a designer familiar with W3C standards and have your site redone, or

2. Prepare yourself for a big learning curve and a bit of frustration (though well worth both).

Resources

Assuming that you've decided to do the work yourself there are a number of great resources out there. By far the best that I've found in my travels is the Web Developer extension for FireFox. You'll have to install the FireFox browser first and then install the extension. Among other great tools for SEO this extension provides a one-click check for compliance and provides a list of where your errors are, what's causing them and links to solutions right from the W3C. The extension provides testing for HTML, XHTML, CSS and Accessibility compliance.

Other resources you'll definitely want to check into are:

· CSS Zen Garden

· A List Apart

· Holy CSS ZeldMan!
(Frederick lists this one as one of the best resources for the novice to find answers. I have to agree.)

Where Do I Get Started?

The first place to start would be to download FireFox (count this as reason #47 to do so as it's a great browser) and install the Web Developer extension. This will give you easy access to testing tools.

The next step is to bookmark the resources above.

Once you've done these you'd do well to run the tests on your own site while at the same time keeping up an example site that already complies so you can look at their code if need be.

To give you a less frustrating start I would recommend beginning with your CSS validation. Generally CSS validation is easier and faster than the other forms. In my humble opinion it's always best to start with something you'll be able to accomplish quickly to reinforce that you can in fact do it.

After CSS you'll need to move on to HTML or XHTML validation. Be prepared to set aside a couple hours if you're a novice with a standard site. More if you have a large site of course.

Once you have your CSS and HTML/XHTML validated its time to comply with Accessibility standards. What you will be doing is cleaning up a ton of your code and moving a lot into CSS, which means you'll be further adding to your style sheet. If you're not comfortable with CSS you'll want to revisit the resources above. CSS is not a big mystery though it can be challenging in the beginning. As a pleasant by-product you are sure to find a number of interesting effects and formats that are possible with CSS that you didn't even know were so easily added to your site.

But What Do I Get From All This?

Once you're done you'll be left with a compliant site that not only will be available on a much larger number of browsers (increasingly important as browsers such as FireFox gain more and users) but you'll have a site with far less code that will rank higher on the search engines because of it.

To be sure, W3C validation is not the "magic bullet" to top rankings. In the current SEO world there is no one thing that is, however as more and more website are born and the competition for top positioning gets more fierce it's important to take every advantage you can to not only get to the first page but to hold your position against those who want to take it from you as you took it from someone else.

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About the Author:
Dave Davies is the CEO of Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning, Inc. He writes with years of experience in SEO and Internet Marketing. A special thanks go out to Frederick Townes of W3 EDGE for his help with this article. W3 EDGE provides W3C-compliant web site design for their clients. To keep update on new SEO article be sure to visit the Beanstalk blog regularly for up-to-date SEO news.