Good Flash, Bad Flash

I love Flash. I love the creativity. The look, and feel of a flash enabled website. But..............and I get this question constantly (as I did about 30 minutes ago). Web Crawlers for search engines do not pick up on the Flash files. So if your interested in website traffic, try not to program in flash (or at least offer the visitor a choice between viewing your content in either HTML or Flash on your landing page). If you NEED to have Flash, then make it it a flash "light" site. Also, in general, a heavy Flash site loads slowly which may piss off or alienate a visitor who is in a rush to get information. If they click back quickly to where they came from (a web search) your web logs will probably not count that click on your sites page. If you do offer an HTML version make sure you use robots.txt file on the Flash side so your website isn't indexed twice. Its just good "best practice".

I can go on and on and on but I'm just too tired at the moment ;)

First Post

Welcome to my blog! I'm using this blog as a "marketing exercise" to keep up with my skills. I think it is imperative for any business, service, or consulting to own a blog. I plan on posting mostly Marketing musings and ramblings when inspiration hits me. Use it any way you like. Post comments. Interact with me. I respect other peoples opinions. This is my personal blog. The views expressed on these pages are mine alone and not those of my employer. I will (hopefully) provide coverage of my skill set area (Marketing, Economics, Media observations, random thoughts). My current focus is in the SEM area. I love Online Marketing and anything related to it. My current position, at a well-known Hi-Tech company located in the Silicon Valley, is Director of Marketing OPS.

To set expectations, I plan on posting to my blog once or twice a week. I am super busy with my current job and personal life that I don't want to have that "monkey" on my back to post everyday. If this blog becomes real popular, and i get fired up to write every day, then so be it.

I get so many questions about Online Marketing, Site Optimization and website design from friends I thought this would be a great central place to refer them instead of answering questions over and over again. I'm also thinking about publishing a book and will try out a few of my ideas on chapters I have written and gain feedback. So I hope you enjoy reading my blog and rss feeding. Feel free to email me with any questions or comments or whatever crosses your mind in relation to Online Marketing because I dig it!

-Jack