Where were the grownups from Brentwood, Pa.?

As president of a high school sports website -- www.sportsink.com -- I was appalled at the story of the three students from Brentwood, Pa., who jumped onto the basketball court in banana suits to mock the opposing team, which was comprised primarily of African-American athletes.

Where were the supervising adults? I've seen fan interaction between student sections get loud and obnoxious, but school administrators typically are quite visible at high profile games and generally will step in before anything gets really out of hand.

Of course there's the issue of freedom of speech, but in any environment, there are limits and ramifications. This was racist hate speech, pure and simple, and shouldn't be tolerated in schools.

The folks in Brentwood should be asking some questions about the proper supervision at these events and what the school is going to do to make amends and prevent it from happening again.

Here's the story.

When you get a chance, check out SportsInk.com, which covers 46 high schools in Summit, Medina and Portage counties.

Interested in starting your own high school sport site? Get details at Sports Reporting Technologies

Making the most of your website contact forms

My pet peeve about having to give too much information in doctor's offices turned into a column about "5 Tips for Making the Most of Your Contact Forms" for SiteProNews.

For assistance in making your website and contact forms more user friendly, contact Pilot Fish SEO at 877-799-9994 ext. 2104.

It's 2011: Are you budgeting for SEO?

78% of businesses interviewed by BtoB magazine said they plan to increase their online marketing budget in 2011.

Search engine optimization should be high on any company's list in order to get your website in front of prospects who use search engines to research products and services.

Read more about the survey: Include SEO in your 2011 marketing budget

Effective SEO video

Here's a video created from an article I wrote on justifying the costs for effective SEO. It's called "Effective SEO no walk in the theme park."

The reason I titled the article and video "Effective SEO" is because there are so many scam artists out there touting low-cost services as SEO. For the average person trying to sort through the knowledgeable professionals in the field and the ones who will provide a very basic level of service, it's like walking through a minefield.

So, for assistance with an "effective SEO" program, contact Pilot Fish SEO at 877-799-9994 ext. 2104.

New high school sports CMS aids newspapers, radio stations

One of the difficulties of the newspaper industry, which has been suffering from plummeting circulation during the last 10 years, is being able to commercialize an online product.

The issue isn't having the content. Rather, I believe, the issue is presentation of the content and most newspaper chains lack of financial flexibility to invest in an online product that will generate value for their company.

I've spent the last several weeks reviewing newspaper websites and many offer nothing more on their site than they do in print. Additionally, what is available really isn't developed for Internet -- it's just a cut-and-paste job from the print property.

Internet users have become accustomed to wanting a rich, multi-media experience when they go online and, until newspaper sites find a way to deliver that, it will be difficult to create a revenue stream from their websites.

That's where Sports Reporting Technologies comes in. We've just opened up for licensing our SPORTSITEWARE(TM) CMS platform for covering high school sports. It enables journalists with little technical ability to operate a full multi-media site including news stories, photos, audio, video, game schedules, results and stats.

The system also can be used by entrepreneurs interested in starting their own high school sports site.

Read more about our high school sports reporting website CMS.

What's effective SEO worth to you?

I could have titled this blog item "What's SEO worth to you," but that would ignore all the scam artists out there that offer to provide SEO services for a ridiculously low price. Problem is, the results bear out the effort they put into it and by the time the client figures that out, they are long gone.

We are occasionally asked to compete with other "SEO" firms for specific projects and I cringe at the process. Too often, the client is looking for the lowest bid and not paying attention to the details about what they're actually going to get. We usually end up getting the client anyway, perhaps a year or two later, after they realize that the methodic program we outlined, priced higher than the SEO vendor who originally won the project, in retrospect sounds more sensible than the quick-fix they were promised by the other guys.

Effective SEO is not a quick fix, it requires skill and talent, and it can be expensive. I wrote a more extensive article about the expense of SEO for the website SiteProNews. You can read it here: Effective SEO No Walk in the Theme Park

Thanks University of Akron soccer team: LeBron who?

After taking a beating by the Miami Heat at home on Dec. 2, the Cleveland Cavaliers face the dubious task of challenging them on their home court tomorrow night. That first match-up wasn't pretty and sent the Cavs into a tailspin, with six straight losses after that (actually, maybe we should blame Boston for the current losing streak, it might make us feel better).

So, things don't look good for tomorrow night.

For many of us in Akron who have been true wine-and-gold Cavs fans, we're ready to exorcise ourselves from the LeBron James mania. See column I wrote on the topic the day after the Heat wave.

That's where the University of Akron and its national championship men's soccer team comes in. The third-seeded Zips beat No. 1 seeded Louisville 1-0 in the national championship on Sunday. Once we clear out all the snow, we'll plan that ticker-tape parade.

Congratulations to the team and Coach Porter. LeBron who?