When clients ask me about “Flash” I usually cringe. Not only is Flash bad from a search marketing perspective, but studies show that the majority of visitors tune it out.

Look to sports apparel retailer Patagonia as an example. Patagonia found that good ol’ HTML worked far better and “showed a 30% higher sales conversion rate.???

Of course Flash has its place, but do you want to win design awards and massage your ego or make more money?

Normally I wouldn’t write about the release of a new toolbar. Afterall, there seems to be a new one put out daily. But this one is from MSN - launched today to compete with Google and Yahoo. Another move in what will surely be a long game of Chess.

And yes - it blocks pop-ups!

Ever wondered where Search Engines get their listings? Search Engine Marketing expert Bruce Clay has put together a great interactive chart mapping search engine relationships. Watch for this to change significantly in the coming months when Yahoo shows Google the door!

Wowzers! Jupiter research pegged online sales this year to reach $65 billion and to grow at a 17 percent annual clip from now until 2008, when online sales will reach $117 billion. That means that online sales will account for about one in every twenty dollars spent by consumers, although other Jupiter research indicated the firm believes as much as 30 percent of sales will be influenced by the online medium.

Want to learn more about shopping cart software and how it works? Maybe you just need a refresher course? Whatever the case - Dr. Ralph from Wilson Web has put together a great introduction to shopping cart software. Breaks down the basic functions, payment gateways and more.

Once a company realizes the value of search marketing the next question they must ask themselves is whether they should outsource their search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns.

Inc.com has some tips to help you decide what is best for you.

We’re very happy to extend congratulations to one of our clients and friends - Ann Thinghuus. Ann is a brilliant young abstract artist from Vancouver and her website, www.annthinghuus.com, has been named one of Taschen’s favorites in his recent book “Tachen’s 1000 favorite websites“.

Think chatting teens and lonely prison inmates are the only ones using the Internet? Think again! Senior citizens age 65 and older were the fastest growing age group online according to a recent report by Nielsen//NetRatings. More than 25 million adults over the age of 55 were online last month.

The Internet is not a fad or hobby! It’s a gargantuan economy touching every demographic and shifting the face of society. If older adults are part of your target market the Internet must be part of your marketing mix. Ignore this or accept that they will ignore you.

Well…we’ve officially jumped on the BlogWagon and started our own Blog! If you’re asking yourself “What in Sam Quinton is a blog?” - don’t dispair. The concept is simple really.

- A blog is basically a regularly updated online diary or journal filled with commentary and relevant links.
- The activity of updating a blog is “blogging.”
- One who keeps a blog is a “blogger.”

Although love-hungry teens and the techno-elite have been blogging for awhile, we believe that blogging is also valuable for businesses and has rising importance as a medium of communication.

We’ve dubbed the ten24 Media blog “Online Intelligence” and we hope that it will help us stay in touch with you, our Clients and Friends. Each week we’ll filter through magazines, newspapers, and press releases to find the Internet stories that matter most - so you don’t have to.

We encourage you to check back often so you can stay up-to-date on the latest happenings and turn knowledge into profit!