Using Humor as a Weapon of Mass Distraction

by Carl Weiss


Being an Internet authority means speaking in front of groups of business people from time to time.  Whether the topic du jour is related to search engine marketing, blogging for business, social networking or the ins and outs of pay-per-click matters not.  What is a certainty is that as soon as the presentation is finished I will find myself buttonholed by someone who wants to know the secret of success online.  It’s as if my dissertation was meant to be an appetizer and the real meat and potatoes of online marketing could only be revealed to those bold enough to corner me after the fact.  “Okay, you got me.  If you really want to generate a million clicks, this is what you have to do...” As much as I wish there were three-magic-beans that could magically transform a stale web presence into a rock star, for the most part there is no such animal.  (As I like to point out to a number of people, I am a technician, not a magician.)

That being said, the closest I have come to pulling a rabbit out of my hat during my presentation revolves
around a real rags to online riches story involving a product that I would say was least likely to succeed: The Orabrush.  Invented by a tinkerer by the name of Dr. Bob Wagstaff, the Orabrush is not a toothbrush.  It’s the world’s first tongue brush.  After spending tens of thousands of dollars to invent, manufacture and promote the Orabrush, all that Doctor Bob had to show for his efforts was a $40,000 hole in his pocket and about a hundred orders.  (At $3 per unit, you do the math.)

With his business circling the drain and time running out he was desperate to find a way, any way, to turn the tide and produce some sales.  This is where Jeffrey Harmon, a local college student entered the picture.  After listening to Bob wax poetic about the virtues of the Orabrush coupled with the fact that he had little left to spend on additional marketing, Jeff came back with what we in the marketing business refer to as a Hail Mary.

“Why not create and post a funny video on YouTube,” Jeff said.

“How much will that set me back?” Dr. Bob asked.

“Five hundred bucks.”

While I wasn’t there to witness the conversation, from experience I can tell you the thought process going round and round in Dr. Bob’s head...”Let’s see, I’m down forty grand and the Indians are circling the wagon.  What to do?  What to do?”

As you guessed, any shot is better than no shot at all, so Bob gave Jeff the green light and they created the first Orabrush promo on YouTube. (Below is an excerpt from their website to tell you the rest.)

Why read when you can watch our TV Show?

Shot in a makeshift studio in the neighborhood pool hall (listen closely and you can hear the balls cracking in the background), the video went viral, rocketing to 16 million views. After the explosive reaction to their first video, Harmon took on the role as Chief Marketing Officer and began creating regular webisodes, introducing new characters like Morgan, the dirty tongue. Harmon then used YouTube video ads to reach more people and grow their fan base. The “Cure Bad Breath” videos built a loyal following, and their YouTube channel grew to nearly 40 million views.

After two years, Orabrush had sold more than a million tongue cleaners to people in 40+ countries. The Orabrush brand became so popular that local pharmacy managers began contacting Orabrush directly, citing requests from customers who had heard about the brand online. This fall, Walmart began carrying the Orabrush tongue cleaners in its 3,500+ stores across the United States. And this week, CVS/pharmacy has added the Orabrush tongue cleaner to more than 7,000 stores across the country. That’s a lot of tongue cleaners!

It is indeed, Bob.  In fact the OraBrush has done so well that it became the third most viewed channel on YouTube, after Apple Computer and Old Spice.  It appears that tongues weren’t the only things cleaning up with Orabrush.  So was the company.

Of course, Cinderella stories and one trick wonders are as rare as catching lightning in a bottle, am I right?  While using humor to sell can work for the big guys, such as Aflac and their Duck or the Geico Gecko, it is next to impossible for a small business person to use these tactics to break out of the herd.  Or, is it?  To that I have three words of advice: Dollar Shave Club.

A real David and Goliath story, it revolves around a tiny Santa Monica company with five employees that wanted to get into the razor business.  Their opponents, none other than Gilette, owned by the $13 billion behemoth Proctor and Gamble, not to mention Schick and Bic.  Between the three they control nearly 80% of the market.  Unlike Dr. Bob at Orabrush, the president of Dollar Shave Club, Michael Dubin, did not invent a revolutionary shaver.  No, his website simply offers to ship to the consumer their choice of twin blade, four blade or six blade razors every month.  In fact with the exception of their six-blade razor which they claim “Comes from the future and lives in outer space,” their product line offers no flashy bells or whistles with any of its products.  So what made them think they could compete with the Fortune 500?

Have you seen the Dollar Shave Club video?

As much a comedy routine as an advertisement, the Dollar Shave Club’s YouTube video has garnered nearly 13 million hits.  While the company won’t say how many people have signed up for the club, an authoritative source told me that within the first few weeks the site had generated more than twelve thousand members.  That’s after the video had created only a couple million hits.  So who knows how high the number is by now.

The video, which only runs about a minute and a half, shows the president of the company riding a forklift, playing tennis (badly) and dancing with a guy in a bear costume, among other antics.  Far from being afraid of going too far, the titling above their video reads, “Our Blades Are F***ing Great!”  Well, I don’t know about that, but their results were certainly great.

So now you can see that with a little imagination, even major markets can be cracked by the use of humorous video campaigns.  So why aren’t more companies taking a whack at it by creating outrageous videos in order to sell their products?  It can’t be the cost.  Remember the Orabrush got into the game for a paltry $500.  In fact, the beauty of YouTube is that if you generate enough views, not only doesn’t it cost anything to air your webisodes, but Google will actually pay you.  (For the past few years YouTube has had a Channel Partner program that pays their top producers based upon the amount of traffic generated.)

The trick is to do like Orabrush and keep banging away at it.  Throw a few dollars in the hat and sponsor your videos.  Embed them in your blogs and social posts.  If you have a pet, use them as talent.  (Have you seen how many views funny cat and dog videos generate?)  Just get into the game and tap into the world’s most powerful superstation.  (Did you know that YouTube generates 4 billion video views per day or that they stream more video content in a year than all three major networks have streamed in 60 years?)

All I can say is that if you own a business and aren’t tapping into this free marketing resource than you are F***ing Crazy.  Now let me see, where did I leave that razor?

Carl Weiss is president of W Squared Media Group, a cutting edge online marketing company in Jacksonvlle, Florida.  You can also see him on YouTube and listen to his radio show on Blog Talk Radio.

The Best of the Best in 2013

By Carl Weiss

With Christmas only a day away, that means that New Year’s Eve can’t be far behind.  So as a little something extra for your Christmas stocking I thought a little retrospective on some of the topics we covered this year would be in order. 

Our Top 10 List

As far as our listeners were concerned, cybercrime was a hot topic.  In 2013 we produced a number of episodes on the many faces of cybercrime, including Bringing Down the Bitcoin Bandits and Chinese Hack Attack, both of which explored the ramifications of the dark side of the internet such as multimillion dollar black market websites and state sponsored hacking.  If you have been keeping a weather eye on the newsfeeds lately then you know that everyone from major retailers (Target) to banking institutions have been targeted by hackers recently.  Since these crimes are so hard to prosecute this only leads hackers into more brazen acts of online piracy that is only going to escalate in 2014.

Of course, our online privacy isn’t only being compromised by the bad guys it is also getting eroded

Google Appliance as shown at RSA Expo 2008 in San Francisco. It was only a computer case with no parts inside.-Daniel A (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 from every corner of the web.  Google has been the subject of a number of international lawsuits from governments who say that the world’s most powerful search engine is taking liberties with the way it collects and disseminates information gleaned from people surfing the web.  The NSA has also been accused of overstepping its rights in the way that it collects data from the web as well as cellphone providers.  If anything these accusations are not going to go away any time soon and it won’t be long before a number of other online providers are pulled into the fray. (For more details, check out Is Privacy a Thing of the Past in the Cyber Age?)

Speaking of Google, 2013 saw the unleashing of The Humdinger Called Hummingbird, the most extensive algorithm update in the past 12 years.  Unlike most of the updates commissioned in the past which were targeted toward people trying to game the system, Hummingbird represents a sea change in the way that Google ranks sites.  Gone are the “Set it and forget it days,” when website owners could commission a new site every three years and expect it to climb onto page one with little effort.  Nowadays Google demands the full multimedia treatment, where things like blogging, social networking and even video content plays a large part in who gets onto page one.  They have also made Google+ a nexus where everything from Google Maps and reviews to Google Local has been rounded up and placed under one roof. 

That doesn’t mean that Google is the only entity who has been making major changes.  Facebook has also been busy tweaking the way their social network does business by adding video ads to the mix.  They have also made running a Facebook contest not only easier but cheaper.  In fact, they are giving them away at present.  (If you want to learn how go to How to Run a Facebook Contest for Free.) 

Other social nets including LinkedIn and Twitter mad our top ten list this year with Leveraging LinkedIn and Trick or Tweet covering many of the latest features added to these networks. 

Lights, Cameras Viral Video

YouTube also was wildly popular with listeners this year.  Both our Send in the Clones and Candid Camera for Everyone episodes covered the good, the bad and the ugly sides of the world’s largest superstation.  With 4 billion videos streamed per day in 2013, YouTube broadcasts more televised content than all the other stations on the planet rolled into one. 

2013 also saw the introduction of a number of new technologies, that we covered in Next Tech, including Google Glass, smartwatches such as Pebble and Samsung, and the rise of the 3-D printer.  (Did you know that they are planning on sending a 3-D printer to the International Space Station?)  As wearable technology becomes ever more prevalent it won’t be long before we are all forced to compete with everything from enhanced humans (A Borg in Every Boardroom)  to office automatons (Birth of the Bionic Man).   In January 2014 we have already scheduled an episode called Putting Your Best Bot Forward that will introduce you to the latest in bipedal robots that recently competed for a $2 million prize sponsored by DARPA.

So if you think that 2013 complicated your life by introducing a number of “out there” technologies, all I can say is fasten your seat belts because 2014 will test your sense of the incredible in more ways than you can imagine.

Carl Weiss has helps clients deal with technology on a daily basis.  He is president of W Squared Media Group, a digital marketing agency based in Jacksonville, Florida.  He also owns and operates Jacksonville Video Production, a digital video production company. 

The Scariest Sites Online

By Carl Weiss

Want to see something really scary? Well you don't have to prowl the streets on Halloween in order to see the kind of things that give you goose bumps.  All you have to do is trawl the Internet's backchannels for an hour.  Once there you will discover creepy crawlies galore, including a search engine designed for and by hackers, a black hat (not cat) convention in Las Vegas and ghost sites that will creep you out. Below is our list of the top 10 scariest sites on line.

10.  What Happens in Vegas

Around since 1997, the Black Hat Convention held yearly at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas is the place where hackers hang their hat.  Interested in learning how to carry out cyber-spying on cellphones?  No problem.  Want to know what it takes to bypass traditional malware detection measures.  Piece of cake.  This convention is a veritable candy store where everyone from security experts to nerds looking to take down a small government come to hone their skills.  After the now defunct Silk Road website the black hat convention is one of the scariest in-your-face threats to cyber security that is not only officially sanctioned but wildly popular.  To quote the BlackHat.com site,

“Black Hat USA is the show that sets the benchmark for all other security conferences. As Black Hat returns for its 16th year to Las Vegas, we bring together the brightest in the world for six days of learning, networking, and skill building. Join us for four intense days of Training and two jam-packed filled days of Briefings.”

9. Don’t Want to Wait for the Movie?

Then read the book, Hacking for Dummies, now in its 4^th edition.  Why travel to Vegas when everything you need to start hacking can be found online?  This book is designed to show you the ins and outs of what it takes to get started as a hacker. 

As an information security professional, your toolkit is the most critical item you can possess — other than hands-on experience and common sense. Your hacking tools should consist of the following (and make sure you're never on the job without them):

·         Password cracking software, such as ophcrack and Proactive Password Auditor

·         Network scanning software, such as Nmap and NetScanTools Pro

·         Network vulnerability scanning software, such as GFI LanGuard and QualysGuard

·         Network analyzer software, such as Cain & Abel and OmniPeek

·         Wireless network analyzer and software, such as Aircrack-ng and CommView for WiFi

·         File search software, such as FileLocator Pro and Identity Finder

·         Web application vulnerability scanning software, such as Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner and WebInspect

·         Database security scanning software, such as SQLPing3 and AppDetectivePro

·         Exploit software, such as Metasploit

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/hacking-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

8. Want to Know How the World Will End?

Just in case the specter of cyberterrorism doesn’t put the fear of God into you there’s a website called Exit Mundi, that catalogs dozens of ways in which the world as we know it could meet its end.  Everything from asteroid strikes to gamma ray bursts, to nuclear terrorism, to a drug that would render the human population certifiably insane (too late) is described in detail on this site.  So if there isn’t enough stress in your daily grind, here’s the place to help you ring the bell the next time you get your blood pressure tested.

http://www.exitmundi.nl/exitmundi.htm

7. Alien Abduction Sites

UFOs: Seeing Is Believing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As if we don’t have enough problems on Earth, there are sites that show you how to deal with threats from
 beyond the solar system.  We’re talking alien abduction here and there are a number of websites devoted to this phenomenon.  Googling “Alien Abduction Sites,” returned 7,580,000 results.  So despite government denials, this is a hot topic.  Scanning the first few pages of the results I noted everything from a wiki where you could share your abduction recollections(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_abduction) to the International Center for Abduction Research, http://www.ufoabduction.com/ which offers information that offers "Straight Talk About UFO Abductions" 

If the threat of being abducted by aliens causes you to lose sleep at night, fear not, because there is a website called http://www.stopabductions.com/ that shows you how to make a “Thought Screen Helmet,” designed to foil those insidious intergalactic interlopers.

6. Ghost Sites

Wikipedia defines a ghost site as “A Web site that remains live but is no longer updated or maintained or only done so very infrequently.”  However, if you Google the term you will find tons of sites more inclined to Ghost Busters than webmasters.  Included is everything from http://topparanormalsites.com/ that lists everything from ghost hunter sites to occult and paranormal investigation sites.  There was also listed on the first page of the search a spooky website that hit close to home, literally.  JAXHistory.com listed a number of spooky things such as UFOs over Jacksonville to something called the Florida Skunk Ape, which is purportedly “The Southernmost Bigfoot in the USA.”

http://www.jaxhistory.com/Jacksonville%20Story/Ghosts,%20Monsters,%20and%20UFOs.htm

5. The 20 Scariest Street View Sightings

Mashable collected the 20 scariest sightings posted on Google’s Street View that includes everything from what looks to be the climactic scene from the Alfred Hitchcock blockbuster “The Birds,” to a bizarre group of Japanese citizens who were spotted as they walked down the street sporting pigeon heads. (Don’t ask.) https://www.google.com/#q=scary+sites+on+google+maps

4. Seeing is Believing

If you think that Google Street View has cornered the market on weird things that happen every day you’re wrong.  There are literally millions of websites and videos that show everyone just how weird the world really is.  One site called http://www.abovetopsecret.com is a collection point for bizarre-but-true stories that get little attention from the media.  A recent headline includes, “Melting Starfish and Odd Orca Behavior in the Pacific Ocean,” that quotes a Seattle biologist that describes some of the bizarre changes in the sea life in the area that alludes to the fact that since the Fukushima Reactor meltdown in 2012 that the environmental impact to the Pacific Ocean has been nothing short of catastrophic.  The blog also states that, “There are other reports of seals with what appears to be radiation burns on their skin and Polar Bears showing signs of large hair loss.”

3. Conspiracy Theory Sites

Of course, conspiracy theory sites thrive online.  This can make it tough to weed out the chaff from the wheat.  For every site that purportedly sheds light on some facet of society that could turn around and bite us, such as the recent revelation that the NSA has been spying on the phone calls, internet searches and financial transactions of millions of American citizens, there are also sites that purport that the top 3 conspiracy websites crashed at the same time that the government shutdown took place, thus proving that they are owned and operated by either the CIA or the NSA.  Love them or laugh at them, there are conspiracy theory sites that claim to prove or disprove everything from government mind control to the New World Order.  So if you want to go there, here are a few hot tips.  But I’ll deny I sent you there if questioned by the authorities.

16 Conspiracy Theories That Turned out to be True http://www.trueactivist.com/16-conspiracy-theories-that-turned-out-to-be-true/

I Want to Know http://www.wanttoknow.info/conspiracytheories

Disclose TV’s Camp FEMA American Lockdown which details the recent legislation that attempts to legitimize the use of internment camps to detain citizens in the event of an uprising or civil unrest.

http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/155614/Camp_FEMA_American_Lockdown__FULL_MOVIE__86_min/#ixzz2j80svCye

2.  Cooking Show Gone Bad

The Halloween episode of Man Cave Munchies purports to show viewers how to prepare “a dish that’s so easy it’s scary.”  However the intro to the show depicts the host as a meat cleaver wielding ghoul that could put you right off your diet. Check it out if you dare. http://youtu.be/n1bLP1VffBM

1.      The Scariest Site of Them All - https://www.healthcare.gov/
You think that a meat cleaver wielding zombie chef is scary?  This is nothing when compared to a site that has put the fear of God into hundreds of millions of citizens of the USA.  This government owned and operated site starts off with the innocuous motto, “Find Health Care Coverage that Works for You.”  Then it stubbornly refuses to let the majority of people sign up, much less find coverage of any kind.  Worse yet, for those who either refuse to sign up or just plain can’t sing up, there is the threat of a stiff monetary penalty.  While the press refers to this system as Obamacare, I think a more appropriate term would be ObamaScare.

When he isn't scaring people, Carl Weiss is the president of W Squared Media Group, a digital marketing agency based in Jacksonville, Florida.  He is also co-host of Working the Web to Win, an online radio show that airs every Tuesday at 4 pm Eastern.

Working the Web Gundam Style

by Hector Cisneros

Many of you may recall that earlier this year the YouTube video Gundam Style caught the imagination of millions of people worldwide by going viral. As a marketing professional I endeavor to understand why such marketing events take place. I ask myself several questions, such as, "What is the special spark that makes a video, podcast or eBook go viral?" "Where does spark that causes a post to go viral get its start?"  "Who influences the play and the spread of a viral message?" 

What Puts the V in Viral Posts?

Let's start off by defining what constitutes a viral post. A viral post is one that gets passed beyond your friends, followers and social network connections. It travels beyond your network and direct circle of influence. It's what happens when your message takes on a life of its own.

Facebook defines a viral post by comparing it to Organic Reach and Paid Reach. Here is what Facebook lists as their definitions:

§  Organic reach: The number of unique people who saw your post in Newsfeed, ticker or on your Page.

§  Paid reach: The number of unique people who saw this post through an ad

§  Viral reach: The number of unique people who saw this post from a story published by a friend. These stories can include liking, commenting or sharing your post, answering a question or responding to an event.

In order to go viral a post needs to either be entertaining, funny, compelling, or it must provide useful information that most viewers/readers need or want. 

Keeping an Eye on Trends

Viral posts are often tracked by the various social networks. These tracked posts constitute trends. You will often 

Photos on the 1-18-08.com viral marketing website (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

hear the phrase that a video is “trending.” Trends are often grouped or aggregated via special markers. The most common is the hash tag (# symbol), which was started by Twitter. Hash tags are now used by most social networks including Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pintrest and Instagram. To use a hash tag, just add the # symbol in front of the word you want to be grouped and tracked. An example is; "Check out this video on #Viral Social Media, it's great.  Please RT and share." You normally only use one hash tag per post since using too many hash tags is considered poor form.

Video is more likely to go viral than any other type of post. In fact video is five times more likely to be clicked on than any other type of post. These statistics vary from network to network but video is king in the viral realm. Video with text is followed by pictures with text, then audio with text and text only posts. Facebook statistics show that videos are ten times as likely to be shared than links alone and photos are five times as likely to be clicked on than links alone.

What Elements are Necessary?

Next let's look at the elements that all viral post have in common. When ever possible create a short video to go with your post. If you aren't willing create a video make sure you have a compelling picture or audio file to go with it. As stated earlier videos have the highest click through and share rates.

Use Hash tags on all your posts. Follow accepted norms when using hash tags and make sure they are used the same way on all your posts. Also add hash tags such as #viral and #whatshot to connect to other items that are trending. Also remember that you are not limited to publishing your post only once. I normally post a subject three to four times in a week if I'm trying to start a trend.

The elements of your post should be friendly, familiar and resonate with the general public, not just a select few. Posts need to be designed so they can be safely viewed at work or in mixed company. These types of posts will go viral the quickest. 

Examples of Videos gone Viral.

One exceptional example of viral video in action is the YouTube video series commissioned by Old Spice. If you are 

Image via CrunchBase

looking to start the viral ball rolling, there are a number of tried and true techniques that you can employ. Having a sexy model tell your story has been known to produce a large audience.  Doing something hysterical with your product then illustrate it with a compelling image or story. The Hamsters used in the Soul videos were a cute and funny way of connecting with the public. Cute babies or cats performing silly or stupid tricks coupled with a catchy phrase can be very effective. It's even OK to be a little creepy.  Many of the viral videos that really take off use music and dance at the center of their themes. The Thriller prison video comes to mind and of course the Gundam Style dance craze.

Not every post has to be funny or useful in order to go viral. It's ok to pull on people’s heart strings. Telling an emotional inspiring story is a great way to get people to pay attention to your plight. Your post must either be entertaining or useful to the general public. It's OK to ride the wave of some new trend. You can jump on the band wagon and follow someone’s 

The inmates dancing to "Thriller" in their YouTube video (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

coat tail. After Gundam Style came out, dozens of imitators soon followed. Many famous video music artists are emulated in funny ways. These videos don't get as many views as the original but many do garner thousands of hits. Your job is to either add your message as a preview or post trailer to the video the public is coming to see. Video that garner lots of views can pay big dividends in the way of pay per click revenues.

Most of the videos, audios and eBooks that have gone viral were shared because their originators asked that they be shared. If you don't ask, you have a 40 percent less chance of being shared. Share your post with as many people as possible. Especially share your posts with influential followers and leaders in your industry. This includes celebrities. Also make sure you send it out to the news media. One good news story on your post and you're off to the races. Don't forget to use free PR posting sites whenever possible.

Your Road Map to going Viral.

Now let's look at a road map you can use to get you next post to go viral. First create a list of influential followers so you can personally message them to share and repost your message. Make sure you use a hash tag and leave space for others to add their comments.

Create four types of posts, one video with text, one with a picture and text, one audio and text and one text only. Make one of them the focus of the four. I would make it the video post as it is the most likely to go viral first.

Decide what your video, audio or eBook will contain. Remember it must have intrinsic value. It has to be funny, entertaining, compelling, emotionally charged or provide useful information that people need or want! Create a list of what’s needed to create your video, audio or eBook.

If this is your first try, create an eBook full of useful information. You can share important information you have gleaned from your industry. You can answer important questions that customers most often ask. This is the easiest type of eBook to create. Now create a teaser video that provides a few of the elements from your eBook as the focus of your campaign. Find a compelling photo and create an audio from the video. Also make sure you provide a URL address where viewers can go to get your eBook.

If you're good with video or audio create that type of content as the primary piece. Just remember this is not a commercial. Your video, podcast or eBook is a soft sell at best. Even if you create an eBook as your first project you should still create a short video to go with it. Videos have the highest viral rate and it will lead people to your free eBook which in turn leads them to you. Create your video, audio or eBook and run it by some friends or coworkers who will be somewhat objective. Tweak whatever problems they point out.

Make sure that you embed ample backlinks to your website/landing page or whichever web property you want visitors to find. Also make sure these landing sites are designed to either generate leads, phone calls or sales. I often see well designed viral efforts foiled because the landing site was not setup for converting visitors. Check out "The Evolution of Internet Advertising" and "Is it Still Possible to Make Money Online?" for more details.

Post it to as many social networks as possible. Start with the top five; YouTube, Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn. I would also add Pintrest, Instagram and Picasa, especially if your product is very visually oriented or requires some assembly or has special operations. If you have a blog write several blog posts about it. Spread these blog posts out over several weeks. Make sure you especially ask your friends and family to share, retweet and repost your message. Send your message to your list of influential followers. Appeal to their needs and make sure you thank them personally in advance for sharing your message. Again use uniform hash tag convention and leave room for their 2 cents. Create several PR posts for your video or eBook. The press can help your post get found. There are many free PR sites. See my article "Using Press Releases to Promote your Business" for more tips and details.

Hector Cisneros is a partner, COO and social media director for WSquared Media Group based in Jacksonville, FL. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. He is also the co-host of Blog Talk Radio’s “Working the Web to Win,” where he and Carl Weiss make Working the Web to Win simple for every business. Hector is a syndicated writer for EzineOnline and is an active Blogger, (including ghost writing) and he is a published author of two books, 60 Seconds to success (on sale at Amazon and B&N) and Internet Marketing for the 21st Century which you can get free by clicking on the link at WSquaredMediaGroup.com. He is an active Boy Scout Leader, enjoys family time, loves the outdoors, reading and the creative process of designing effective internet marketing solutions for his clients.