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Just a little background first, if you don't mind. (If you already know what Helicopter Links is and know about our free listing offers, please skip down to the 3rd paragraph.) Helicopter Links is an online international directory of helicopter companies, suppliers, services, manufacturers, magazines, trades shows, organizations and museums. Since buyers use directories when they are in the buying process, we offer sellers the opportunity to advertise directly to buyers on our website. However, what some of you may not know is that Helicopter Links also offers one free listing to any helicopter related company, supplier or service—worldwide and has other free listing offers. Third (3rd) Paragraph: With all that said, there is something that many business owners and corporations do not know. Many sales people contact Helicopter Links each year asking for a free listing since their company does not advertise. The owners or heads of marketing departments don't even know their sales people are going above and beyond to help increase the sales for the companies they work for. The salesperson will tell me, over the phone, that the business owner or corporation simply does not advertise even though the salesperson knows that advertising is important for most businesses. They are very concerned about their company's lack of proactive marketing and they tell me this inaction is hurting their sales numbers. "We really would like some help to make our jobs easier and for our employers to at least give us a fighting chance!" they tell me. And I obviously agree and sympathize with these sales people. I usually tell them my advertising horror story which took place about 16 years ago when I was a salesperson. Before I worked for the yellow pages, I worked selling industrial equipment in a small branch office in San Diego (three people on staff including the boss) which was part of a large manufacturing company based in Los Angeles. One day I asked my boss why we were not advertising in the trade magazines? Even before I worked for the yellow pages, I knew it was important to advertise!! He responded to me, "Well we could, we have $8,000.00 allocated each year for advertising but I never do it. I just add that money back into the sales figures and it makes our sales numbers look higher at the end of the year to the corporate office." I was shocked. My boss was actually a very smart guy and I really respected him for his business savvy, except when it came to advertising. I didn't want to argue the point with him, so I dropped the subject but it was still very difficult for me to believe that "making the sales numbers look higher" was his best reason for not advertising. — Recommendation For People Requesting A Free Listing — I recommend that advertising people (usually the business owner or for large companies, it's the top people in the marketing communications department) contact us to make sure your free listing corresponds to your top advertising and marketing goals. While one free listing is good for your company's search engine optimization and is good to help make Helicopter Links a more complete directory; unfortunately, one free listing is not actually advertising. Which is why I also recommend that business owners and marketing communications departments call us to discuss our various advertising options, as Helicopter Links can tailor an advertising program for your company on our website.  Directory advertising helps your company have a more complete marketing mix of advertising tools helping to promote and brand your company. Our free listing offers are here: www.helicopterlinks.com/freelistingoffers Please contact me by phone or email and let's discuss advertising! -By Mike Hampson, owner, Helicopter Links Phone: +1 (858) 413-7074 staff@helicopterlinks.com Helicopter Links Website: www.helicopterlinks.com Helicopter Links Facebook (For worldwide helicopter industry news): www.facebook.com/HelicopterLinks Helicopter Links Twitter (For worldwide helicopter industry news): www.twitter.com/HelicopterLinks

We are offering some free tips on having a complete website and here's why: Helicopter Links offers one free link to every helicopter related company in the world and is staffed by web designers and graphic designers. We review each company website before approving them to be listed on Helicopter Links and therefore have seen many websites in many languages from different countries from around the world. We see websites based in the USA which don't say USA on their contact page. We see the same problems from websites in every country not listing their country of origin. This is an awareness and common courtesy issue. Internet users know the web is worldwide, know that anyone can visit a website, and that many companies do business internationally and potential customers need to know if they are visiting a website in the right or wrong country or have a need to know which country they are based. So, our below website tips (it's more of a short book) are not only from our web design training but from our experience in seeing many incomplete company websites in the helicopter and aviation community. Our tips get a little detailed but we hope our tips help your company website to be more complete and useful to your current customers and new customers. Do you have a website? Having a website is a good first step! If you have a website, you are doing better than some businesses! If you don't have a website, getting a small one page website (at least) is recommended and is extremely useful for current and new customers to contact you. You have a website.  When building or updating a website, imagine that some people who visit your web site will have never heard about your company. The horror! We've seen many companies write about their company as though the only people viewing their website are those people who know their company intimately. Not good. It's better to have your website written for those in mind who don't know your company. Imagine a person who by accident or on purpose finds your website. Are you making it easy for the person from another country, a new customer or a person new to your industry, to understand the function of your company, its services offered and where it's based? A well written company website will even help current customers know more about what you offer and might help you increase sales from your customer base. Even if you sell only locally, it's better to make a company website with a worldwide audience in mind. What if a new customer is from outside your local area or based internationally? There's a good chance this will ultimately help your company grow. Look at competitor websites for ideas. Look at any well made website for good ideas to help make your website complete. Websites need to be truthful. Statements such as, "We are the only company that..." or "We are the best company that..." raise a red flag. State was is true. Is your website current? Is your website current? Is the copyright on your website dated from several or more years ago? Is the copyright over 10 years old? Best to update and review every web page on your website at least once a year. Remember, websites are different than typing on paper. Before computers, we abbreviated things to save space due to limited space on a piece of paper and we underlined words because we had no other way to emphasize words. Today, we don't need to abbreviate words on websites, there is plenty of room and we use bold, italics, color, font size and font type to highlight important words.  Are there other good reasons not to abbreviate words? Not everyone knows what you think is the is an accepted abbreviation. Mfg, mfgr, manf, mfr, mtfr these might be considered by various people as correct abbreviations for the word "manufacturer"?  What about people in other countries? Do they recognize these abbreviations as being correct? ("Mfg" can stand for Molded Fiber Glass, Mixed Flowing Gas and With best regards (in German, that is, Mit Freundlichen Grüßen). If the word manufacturer is spelled differently in a foreign language, then an English abbreviation will be meaningless to people and translation websites will fail for the internet user. Best to use acronyms as little as possible for the same reasons above. What are some good reasons to use acronyms sparingly? Many people in the business world know what FYI, TBD, and RFQ means but not everyone knows what these mean! If someone doesn't know what FYI stands for, they might think it means, "F... You Idiot!". FYI means, For Your Information. TBD means To Be Determined. And RFQ means Request For Quotation. However, even commonly used acronyms might have multiple meanings.  For each individual web page on a company website, we'd recommend to spell out the acronym first, then follow with its definition, example: RFQ (Request for Quotation). Then in all other instances on that web page, okay to use the acronym.  The same is true for abbreviating cities, states, provinces and countries. Who in the United States knows what NSW means? (NSW means New South Wales and is the name of a state in Australia.) How many people outside of the United States knows that GA is the abbreviation for the state of Georgia? Why abbreviate cities, states, provinces and countries on any website when it's extremely easy to write them out and will end the confusion and frustration. Never underline any words on a website for emphasis, we bold or italicize. The only underlined words on websites are live links. FYI: We never underline words on paper anymore, with computers, we bold our fonts or italicize now on paper. If you still underline words on paper, it's time to get out this bad habit. The computer is not a typewriter. We never underline a web address on paper now because you can't click on a piece of paper. (That is, until we have this technology, which will probably occur someday.) Is your website written for the person who doesn't know your company? Is your website written for the person who has never heard about your company? (You know your services well, but does your website explain this to a potential new customer?) Does your website explain what industries it serves? A well written website will say it serves the helicopter industry. If you say you sell to the aviation community but don't elaborate, why would a helicopter operator stay on your website? Better to explain that you serve the helicopter community only or that you service both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. If you service fixed-wing only, why not say this so you are not wasting the time of helicopter operators and vice versa.  Do you note that you serve the general aviation community, small, medium and large businesses including airlines, governments and militaries? Explain what you do. Do you work on UAVs? It's good to help people know if they should be on your website or not. If you work on helicopters and fixed-wing but only have pictures of fixed-wing aircraft on your website, then how to people know, for sure, you work on helicopters?  If you have a picture of an large passenger airliner jet on your website, how do people know you work on small private aircraft? Pictures tell the story well. Multiple pictures of different types of aircraft and rotorcraft are better than one picture of a passenger jet. Why allow people to turn away from your website because they are under the wrong impression you don't or can't service their needs? Do you list all your services? Is your website complete. Do you have an "About", "Contact", "Products and Services", "Industries served or Expertise", "News", "Events", "Media" and "Gallery" links? Is it easy for people to find your social media links? "Careers" and "Investor Relations" are usually for larger companies. Why a photo gallery? This helps for many reasons. It helps customers understand what your company does. If high resolution pictures are available, it helps any member of the press to print pictures of your company products in print magazines. All high resolution pictures can be made into low resolution pictures by the press for website publication. As a web designer for several web sites, I know that few people write to companies asking questions. With an FAQ page, having three or four questions is not enough. A good FAQ web page has a complete list questions to help those people who don't know about your company and to learn about your company. The "About" page: The "About" page is about your company. Not about the owner. If you want to highlight one or more employees, that's on another web page sometimes called "Team Members". Or if the company is explained in the first paragraphs of the "About" page, then the "About Team Members" can follow.  We've seen many companies listing their company name, address and contact information in the "About" section of their websites. This is actually the wrong place to list this type of information. Your company name, address, phone, fax number, email addresses, etc. belongs on your "Contact" web page. If your company logo is an acronym, it's best to explain what the acronym means on the "About" page. This helps people understand your company. If the acronym is out of date but still used and has a new meaning, it's still best to explain it's original meaning, then explain it's updated meaning and how you prefer to have your company referred to. This helps people understand what your company is about and helps people write it correctly by the press, customers and others. This explanation would best be made in the first paragraph of your "About" page. The "Contact" page: It might seem hard to believe but many businesses don't list their full business name or business address on the contact page. There are businesses which have zero contact information on their "Contact" web page.  Most people who need to call, email or need the address of a company will visit their contact page, and when basic contact information is missing, it makes it extremely frustrating for the internet user. We've seen many websites which only have a contact form on their "Contact" page. This is frustrating for people who want to call your company. Now here's a reminder to write out your company's full official name on your "Contact" page. Why? We've seen many company web pages which do not have the official name of their company spelled out in text form online, they just rely on their logo at the top of their web page. This is very confusing to people who don't know, for sure, the name of your company. It's not a good practice to assume that everyone knows exactly how to spell out your company name. There are a variety of company logos and we've seen many company logos use an acronym but their company name is several words.  It's better to type your official company name as text with your full businesses address including city, state and country, phone numbers and email address. If you have a physical and mailing address, they can both be listed. This will eliminate a lot of confusion.  If you have multiple offices, the headquarters should always be noted and easy to find. If multiple company locations are listed by city or country, best to have your headquarters listed at the top. More tips: Is your phone number, name of company and address at the top or bottom of every web page? Are you making it easy for people to call you? A buyer might leave your site since it's not easy to find out how to contact your company. Are the words on your website text and are your inks in text? If yes, they can all be translated. If any link or web page is an image, they can't be translated. Do you have PDF brochures on your website? If yes, they cannot be translated by the average internet user. Do you really want PDFs on your website which can't be translated? Are you updating your site or is your admin doing this? This is a trick question. The best method for updating your site is with a writer, web designer and graphic designer. If you are a very small company, then you can usually find a person who is a web designer and graphic designer. If you can't afford a writer, then it's important for the business owner to take responsibility for ensuring that each web page is edited, spelling errors are corrected and to make sure the writing is as grammatically correct and easy to understand as possible. Are all your graphics current? Are your images clear and crisp? Do you know that all web images need to be at 72 DPI? Are your pictures so small that you can't see them?  Do you know that you need both "ALT" and "Title" tags on each of your images. When you scroll across each of the images on this blog entry, you'll notice the words now appear as text. This text can now be translated even though the graphic cannot be translated. A web designer knows what "ALT" and "Title" tags are. Are you testing your website for functionality and testing it on multiple browsers? More tips. How's your logo? Not good? Not sure if it's good or not? If you don't know much about logos, it's best to get in touch with a graphic designer and ask if you have a good logo. If not, this is a project that should eventually be worked on.  Have you paid a skilled graphic designer for a good logo? Good logos should cost in the range of thousands of dollars. Why? Your logo needs to last for years and your logo represents your company. A logo needs to be made for print, web, for faxing, color, and black & white purposes. There is more to logo making, than a business owner just saying, "I need a logo for my company." If you are being quoted a small amount of money for a logo, you might just get what you pay for. A not so good logo. Do you answer the phone with a "Hello?" or "Repair Shop" or a voice mail system (which many people are tired of and people might simply hang up) or does every employee answer your phone by saying a standard polite and friendly phrase like this, "Hello, ABC Company, this is John, how may I help you?" I hope these tips are helpful and I hope it might be apparent about the value of hiring a talented web designer, graphic designer and a writer. There are plenty of reasons to employ a good web designer. For small companies, a web designer and graphic designer can be one person, if they have the necessary education and experience. Thinking that an administrator has the necessary skills to be in charge of the office and believing their responsibilities include the creation and updating of your website (and for creating graphic design projects) is naive and will only hurt your company from moving forward in a healthy and progressive way. -By Mike Hampson, owner, Helicopter Links.

Helicopter Links is one of the few webpages available, and possibly the only website online which lists up-to-date website listings for sixty-eight 68 helicopter manufacturer's whose companies are currently in-production, available for production, plus start-up and research companies. We revise this list throughout the year as new information becomes available. Helicopter Links is involved in the helicopter industry by attending helicopter trade shows, staying up-to-date by reading industry publications and is in contact with all major helicopter manufacturers. In the last several years we have also written articles about several helicopter manufacturers and have written several articles on strategies for marketing a helicopter company/supplier in the helicopter industry. As of December 2013, Helicopter Links has media partnerships with 14 helicopter trade shows, which means we help promote these trade shows on our website and social media pages. Many of the trade show ads on our website and Facebook trade show graphics are made pro bono. Here is Helicopter Links list of 2014's helicopter trade shows on our website. Some other interesting web pages on our website include a list of helicopter magazines, helicopter associations and organizations and helicopter museums. Helicopter Links has over 71 sections for helicopter companies and related industry links such has helicopter offshore companies to helicopter repair to helicopter components and spare parts. Please see our full listing of sections on Helicopter Links Site Map. During 2012, we had over 74,000 visitors and over 86,000 clicks on companies listed on our website. For 2013 (January - December 27), we had over 88,000 incoming visitors and over 109,000 clicks on company links. Buyers are using Helicopter Links to find sellers. Helicopter Links does accept advertising and a company advertising in one or more sections on Helicopter Links will be discovered by more buyers searching for sellers. Helicopter Links also has a one free listing offer for every helicopter related company around the world. Our current advertisers are seeing an increase from over 50% to over a 600% increase in clicks on their advertising verses those companies with only one free listing on our website. If your helicopter company or helicopter supplier/service company is looking for more new business sales, to gain more their share of our 109,000 outbound clicks for 2014, to retaining current customers and to further market and brand your company online to the helicopter industry, please contact Mike Hampson, owner, at +1 (858) 413-7074 or staff@helicopterlinks.com for details. We are located in San Diego, California, USA.

The Changing Face of Russian Helicopters By Mike Hampson Russia - July 8, 2013 - Before the Russian government created Russian Helicopters on August 16, 2007, there were several Russian helicopter plants — including Mil and Kamov — each with its own website. Consolidation of these enterprises into one holding company was completed some time ago, but their individual websites remained online until March 11 of this year, when they were taken down to focus attention on Russian Helicopters’ consolidated website, www.russianhelicopters.aero. If you haven't seen the Russian Helicopters website, it’s worth a look. With an attractive modern design highlighting the company’s new name, logo and slogan (“Experience and Innovation”), the website is comprehensive and easy to navigate. The quality of Russian Helicopters’ online presence mirrors the quality of its products, which are appreciated around the world for being well-built, rugged and reliable. I recently had the opportunity to interview Roman Kirillov of Russian Helicopters about the Russian Helicopters website, and how it reflects the company’s broader approach toward integrating its legendary brands. Question. What is the thinking behind the formation of one Russian Helicopters company? Answer. Consolidating all of the Russian helicopter design and construction enterprises into one holding company makes great sense from a commercial point of view. By bringing together some of the world's most famous and most respected helicopter manufacturers, we were able to create a powerhouse capable of competing in the global marketplace. Russian-made helicopters are operating in more than 100 countries around the world, and account for about 14 percent of global helicopter fleets. Last year we were by a long way the market leader in Russia, also taking 14 percent of the market share of sales worldwide. Together we are much stronger, and are able to benefit from synergies between the strengths of our brands. Question. How has restructuring and putting all the Russian helicopter plants under one organization improved Russian helicopters? Answer. The great advantage of combining all of Russia's helicopter manufacturing assets into one company is that we have created a company that is more than the sum of its parts. Russian Helicopters today is a global powerhouse that offers the full cycle of helicopter manufacturing, from design and testing to the actual build and then subsequently the after-sales maintenance and service. We have achieved significant economies of scale, and are able to offer an unrivaled model range of helicopters, particularly in the medium class. Furthermore we are able to benefit from combining the expertise of some of the world's best-known design and manufacturing companies. An obvious example of this is the National Helicopter Building Centre that has been established outside of Moscow based on the Mil and Kamov bureaux. With our position of global strength in terms of sales we are also able to think globally regarding other aspects of our business too, this means areas such as after-sales service, where we are rolling out a global network of centers to provide maintenance and upgrade services to Russian built helicopters wherever they are flying in the world. Question. How did Russian Helicopters come up with the new Russian Helicopters branding, identity, logo and slogan? Answer. The Russian Helicopters logo is a simple and striking design that reflects what the company does. A modern company active in today's global marketplace. The slogan "Experience And Innovation" characterizes the company's activity: the companies that make up Russian Helicopters draw on more than 60 years of expertise in the design of modern and progressive helicopters by using the latest innovative technologies and cooperating with international partners. Question. Tell me about your new logo, what was the reasoning and inspiration behind this new logo? Answer. The logo is a dynamic and powerful reflection of Russian Helicopters that retains the recognition we have built up over the years while creating a new brand with a forward-looking, clean and modern style. It combines a circle and three helicopter blades, using asymmetry to create a dynamic effect. The typeface used for the name Russian Helicopters is the same as that in the logo of our parent company, Oboronprom, which creates a visual link between the two enterprises and strengthens the recognition of the brand. The color scheme used is also the same, for similar reasons. Question. When did Russian Helicopters actually launch their new website? Answer. The site was launched in 2010. Question. Tell me about the new Russian Helicopters' website and its purpose? Answer. The new website aims to be a single resource for operators of Russian Helicopters, potential customers and eventually investors, providing information about our company and our products and services. We are striving to meet the standards expected from a leading global company; this includes communication with all current and potential stakeholders in our business and anyone with an interest in Russian helicopter manufacturing. The Russian Helicopters website is continually being updated to reflect current trends. It is very popular with users from around the world, and is available in three languages — Russian, English and Spanish. Question. Have the names Kamov, Kazan, Mil, etc. gone forever? Will these names (and corresponding logos) ever be used again on newly made Russian helicopters? Answer. The names have certainly not gone forever. Russian Helicopters is extremely fortunate to be the owner of brands that can without exaggeration be described as legendary in the world of helicopter manufacturing. So it would be foolish, not to mention almost insulting, to the history of those great names to try to reinvent the wheel by creating something entirely new. We are very proud of our history, and will continue promoting Mil, Kamov etc. under one brand. Visit Russian Helicopters' website: www.russianhelicopters.aero Mike Hampson is the owner of Helicopter Links (www.helicopterlinks.com) based in San Diego, California, USA. Vertical Magazine's article.

Many businesses have or want a website but with the internet being so big and vast, how does one direct traffic to your site? There are multiple ways to gain more web traffic such as search engine optimization, relevant links to your site, articles, blogs, social media and directories to name a few.   When the correct search terms are used, many businesses would prefer their website to appear on the first page of Google's search results, this is called having your website search engine optimized. The question one needs to ask is, "How does your company website perform when applicable search terms, such as these below, are typed into search engines?" You can try the Search Engine Optimization Test: In any search engine, copy and paste the search phrase and see where your company, if applicable, is listed in the search results, you will also see that Helicopter Links is listed near the top every time. helicopter manufacturers helicopter engine manufacturers helicopter airframe manufacturers helicopter commercial operators helicopter offshore operators helicopter external load companies helicopter utility operators helicopter air charter companies helicopter logging companies helicopter agricultural companies helicopter fire fighting companies helicopter tour companies helicopter filming companies helicopter service centers helicopter repair stations helicopter engine repair helicopter airframe repair helicopter electrical components helicopter components and spare parts helicopter avionics helicopter windows helicopter completions helicopter painting helicopter stc helicopter safety clothing helicopter ground handling equipment helicopter trade shows helicopter museums helicopter magazines helicopter associations When typing in specific search words (or search phrases), if your company is not listed on Google's first page of search results, what really are the options? One option is to hire a search engine optimization firm to increase your website's relevance on Google, one could hire a staff of web designers and writers to improve your website's search engine ranking and there are Google Ads which can redirect people to your website. However, how many people are willing to click on Google's paid advertising links? I would think a very low percentage.  Helicopter Links is another option because it is a worldwide helicopter industry online directory and is free to use by anyone and is search engine optimized. Then the question is, are people willing to click on banner ads on Helicopter Links website? The answer is yes. For example, on Helicopter Links homepage (www.helicopterlinks.com) during 2012, one advertiser's banner ad received 45% of the clicks when compared to their text ad (located alphabetically within a white border) which received 55% of the clicks.  Helicopter Links offers one free listing to any helicopter related business and also a variety of categories where any helicopter related businesses can advertise at very affordable pricing. Please contact us and to discuss your company's advertising needs and see how we can help drive more traffic to your website. Please call Mike Hampson, Owner/Principal at +1 (858) 413-7074 or email staff@helicopterlinks.com.

I recently had a telephone conversation with an aviation news editor. He never heard of HelicopterLinks.com but he liked the idea and he gave me some time over the phone. I explained that Helicopter Links has been online for 10 years as a hobby site and is an online international directory of helicopter information. In 2011, Helicopter Links expanded to 70 categories, increased to include over 2,800 company links, added outbound tracking and became a small business in September. I continued by sharing that outbound tracking reveals that Helicopter Links sent an estimated 29,000 referrals to all rotorcraft manufacturers (including gyrocopters) around the world. This is no small feat We then exchanged several emails. In one of my emails, I suggested if helicopter manufacturers would advertise throughout more categories on Helicopter Links, they'd receive even more web traffic. Don't helicopter manufacturers want more web traffic? In his next email, the Skeptical Editor responded to me by saying this: "Yes, of course helicopter companies want increased traffic from their customers. But do they know that they are getting views from potential customers or are they just curious people who never will spend money in the helicopter industry? That's certainly a challenge." My response to his question was to ask what site would have more qualified buyers for the helicopter industry than a helicopter directory site? Although every web site has a certain amount of traffic that arrives by accident or has lookie-loos, Helicopter Links is a reference site for anyone seeking goods, services and information in the helicopter industry. If I took the Skeptical Editor's statement seriously, it would be similar to someone trying to make the case that all helicopter manufacturer's web sites have no value because what buyer goes online to purchase a turbine OEM helicopter with a 10%-off coupon and a credit card? Helicopter Links' job is not to make the sale but to publish helicopter manufacturers, companies, suppliers and services. Advertising on Helicopter Links is not only part of a successful marketing mix, branding campaign and sales program but it also is a part of search engine optimization. It's a link (or links) from a helicopter-related web site to a helicopter business-related site. How many new people enter the helicopter industry every year? An easy-to-use helicopter reference site is a big help in this situation. How many people are dissatisfied with online searches? For many, Helicopter Links is a useful time-saving business tool. Ads do many things. Ads say, "Hey, look at me!" Ads spark interest. Ads help buyers find their trusted brands or highlight products with a future need for the buyer. Helicopter Links is sort of a helicopter dating service, if you will. For more information, please contact Michael Hampson, Owner, Helicopter Links at +1 (858) 413-7074 or staff@helicopterlinks.com or see: www.helicopterlinks.com/advertise.                                                      ### About Helicopter Links Based in San Diego, California, USA, Helicopter Links is an online worldwide directory of helicopter manufacturers, commercial operators, suppliers, services, trade shows, air shows, magazines, organizations and museums providing over 2,800 helicopter related companies in 70 categories, listed by category and then by continent. Helicopter Links does not require a membership or login to use or to purchase advertising. Helicopter Links Free Listing Offer Helicopter Links continues to offer our one-free-listing in one category for any helicopter related business, company or organization. All helicopter trade shows, helicopter air shows and all helicopter conferences are the only organizations which receive multiple free listings on Helicopter Links. Give us a call or send us an email and let's get your company or organization listed! Home page: www.helicopterlinks.com Site Map: www.helicopterlinks.com/sitemap Advertising Information: www.helicopterlinks.com/advertise

Hi. I wanted to update everyone. Helicopter Links, an online worldwide directory of helicopter information, has been online for 10 years. In 2011, Helicopter Links expanded to 70 categories, now has 2,800 links, added outbound tracking and became a small business in September 2011. In 2011 alone, Helicopter Links sent an estimated 29,000 referrals to all rotorcraft manufacturers (including gyrocopters) around the world. To kick-off 2012, we are offering a "Buy One Year, Get Second Year Free" advertising promotion. With this offer, we will provide two 12 month tracking reports and a third 2 year trend analysis report. Offer ends February 29, 2012. If this sounds like something your company might be interested in discussing, please let me know. Mike Hampson/Owner Helicopter Links 1286 University Ave, #209 San Diego, California, 92103 USA +1 (858) 413-7074 staff@helicopterlinks.com www.helicopterlinks.com

Did I thank everyone for being a Facebook Fan? Did I think all of you who use Helicopter Links? Thank you, I really appreciate it. Did I mention that even though Helicopter Links has been a hobby site for over ten years, we became a small business in September 2011? For years, Helicopter Links used to be (about) a 10 page web site with several hundred links but in 2011, I greatly expanded our helicopter site to 70 helicopter categories with over 2,800 links. The plan is to move forward and continue to represent the entire international helicopter community on our free-to-use, easy-to-use, no-login-required web site. We have a one-free-listing policy for any helicopter related business. We also accept paid advertising as well, for banner ads and for multiple listings. If you have a suggestion for a helicopter company as a free listing or you would like to explore your advertising options: Please call +1 (858) 413-7074 or email me: staff@helicopterlinks.com Thanks, Mike Hampson/Owner Helicopter Links San Diego, California, USA To visit Helicopter Links: www.helicopterlinks.com

In the last several days, I added several new search terms for the Site Map. In addition, I made some internal coding changes to improve the aesthetics of the Site Map. These important changes are beneficial to anyone searching for the company they need. There will be several new sections added to the site in the next several months. The new sections will be Helicopter Rescue Training, Helicopter Ditch/Escape Training, Pilot Supplies and EMS Operators.

We just issued a new press release www.helicopterlinks.com/media offering "free multiple listings" for any helicopter trade show, helicopter air show or helicopter conference on Helicopter Links, for 2012. This news release also details some of Helicopter Links incoming and outbound web statistics and other information about Helicopter Links. Our Helicopter Trade Show / Air Show / Conference page can be found here: www.helicopterlinks.com/shows Helicopter Links main web site: www.helicopterlinks.com

Helicopter Links currently lists over 25 helicopter specific trade shows, air shows and conferences around the world. We'd like to have our Trade Show web page as complete as possible. From January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011 we are showing that we had over 7,400 visitors to our Trade Show web page. In addition, we had over 2,100 people click-through on the various links on our Trade Show web page to find more information. People use Helicopter Links to find information. As far as we know, Helicopter Links is the only web site where helicopter trade shows, air shows and conferences are listed on one web page, by continent, making it easy for anyone to view these world wide with one click and a scroll of the mouse. In addition, our Trade Show/Air Show page is the only web page where we offer multiple free listings. If you are part of an organization which produces helicopter trade shows, helicopter air shows or helicopter conferences, please send us an email and we'll list all your helicopter events on our Trade Show/Air Show page at no charge. Would you like your organization to be part of our growing web site? staff@helicopterlinks.com Our main page: www.helicopterlinks.com

I'm pleased to announce that the entire site has been updated for continuity, spell checks and coding for Search Engine Optimization. The continuity standards help make all categories on Helicopter Links to have the same look and feel. Optimum Search Engine Optimization is something all web designers strive to achieve. For those who don't know, Search Engine Optimization is actually a continual process. Our recent updates will help improve the search engine optimization of the entire site. The other important update on our site is that the coding has been updated on every page. This will allow the translation of text to be seen as intended. We've also updated Helicopter Link's Site Map to make it easier to find information. Updating our Site Map will be one of our ongoing goals of having an up-to-date and relevant site map. To visit: www.helicopterlinks.com

All advertisers with affiliate marketing programs are welcome to contact Helicopter Links. Contact + 1 (858) 413-7074 or email staff@helicopterlinks.com Web site: http://www.helicopterlinks.com

To Business Owners and Marketing Staff: Helicopter Links is offering Introductory Pricing for 2012 - 2013. Purchase advertising for 2012 from our Introductory Price list (PDF available) and receive 2013 advertising at no charge. Contact + 1 (858) 413-7074 or email staff@helicopterlinks.com Web site: http://www.helicopterlinks.com

It's been busy here at Helicopter Links. Missed posting on this blog for November. However, October was fun being in Beijing, China, on vacation. Now December is here. I was able to update the site while in China, that was good. Facebook was still blocked in China, as well as Wikipedia and YouTube. However, Yahoo email was working and I was able to email my Facebook posts to a friend in San Diego and he helped me update the Helicopter Links Facebook Fan page from San Diego. I recently sent a press release to the helicopter industry concerning our web statistics but after it came out, I realized the press release did not have enough information. So, early next week (if all goes as planned), I'll be sending out a more detailed press release with more information about our incoming and outgoing web statistics. I've been continuing to update the site in November and will be updating things over the weekend. I will also be adding a page concerning our incoming and outgoing web statistics. We are glad about this because we are seeing that we send a lot of traffic to the entire helicopter industry. We use Google Analytics for our web statistics. This is considered the Gold Standard of web statistics. We also use another web tracking company to track the outbound traffic from our site. So, we have detailed information concerning how many people are clicking on any company listed on our site. We welcome all companies to call +1 (858) 413-7074 (San Diego, California, USA: PST) or email us staff@helicopterlinks.com for quote. Helicopter Links will help your company achieve it's marketing and sales goals.

We found a coding error on our site which can only be seen when using Google Translate (it might also occur on any translation website, not sure). If you are using the site in English, you'll never see the error. We are fixing it now. To check out what we are doing. Go to the home page or any commercial helicopter operator section and use the translate tool (in the upper-right hand section of our site) and the website content should stay stable. Pages which have not been upgraded yet, when using Google Translate, you'll see the content section will become one large paragraph. If you go back to English, once there, refresh your browser to reset the content of the site, so it looks normally. Our goal is to make our site as easy to use as possible by anyone in any country. This was the main focus for our site layout and will continue to be our major reason for any upgrades to our site. Usability and readability. One of our next upgrades will be to have the background white with gray text. Not sure when we will do this, either by year end or next year.

I just uploaded our latest site map revision. I think you'll like our upgrade. A new section for Helicopter Accessories was just created yesterday and just re-reformatted (probably not a word) tonight. Helicopter accessories can be found on our site map, in two different ways. One, you can simply go under A and look for the list of helicopter accessories we highlight. Or two, our Helicopter Links web site allows you to browse the A-Z sections of the site map to help you find your current (or new) helicopter accessories supplier. We've cross referenced many words in our site map hoping to make it easy to find information. For instance, if you are looking for uniforms, someone might look under clothing. However, another person might look under uniforms. So, we have a clothing listing in the "C" section of the site map which links you to the uniform web page. If someone looks in the "U" section of our site, they'll find a uniform listing linking to the uniform web page. Let us know if our site map makes it easy for you to find information or feel welcome to provide us with other comments. Thanks.

It's never too early to start planning for the world's largest helicopter trade show in the world, HeliExpo 2012. HeliExpo 2012 is February 11-14, 2012 held at the Dallas Convention Center in Dallas, Texas, United States of America. (Reminder: The exhibit hall is open February 12-14, 2012. Sunday - Tuesday. For those who are only interested in attending the trade show floor area.) Regulars Know The Routine If you are planning to attend, it's about that time to start booking flights and hotel rooms for HeliExpo 2012. The regulars know what to do. Are You New To HeliExpo? For those who love helicopters and are new to HeliExpo, you'll have an experience you'll soon not forget. The exhibit hall is open February 12-14, 2012, Sunday through Tuesday. Not only does the showroom floor have typical trade show booths but many of the booths include real helicopters, in the flesh. There are also static displays around the perimeters of the show room floor. During HeliExpo 2011, they also had free helicopter rides. Hopefully this will happen again at HeliExpo 2012. Talk about anticipation. Freebies! Many freebies are given away at the show including full color helicopter posters, pens, helicopter calendars and magazines. Make sure to bring an extra suitcase and if you have a poster tube you can get your posters back home in good condition. Here's the Blick website detailing their well made PVC poster tubes with shoulder strap. See: http://www.dickblick.com/products/alvin-ice-tubes They also have about every helicopter magazine available at no cost! You can grab one or two or a stack full of your favorite helicopter magazines. Look for the long magazine rack against the wall when you first enter the showroom floor. You probably have to make 2-3 trips from the show floor back to your car or hotel room, there are that many freebies. Some More Tips For Newbies For those newbies on a budget and driving to Dallas, you can buy a one day pass. Be sure to get there a good 1 or 2 hours prior to opening to get your pass. The lines will be long. And if you have a have a valid student ID, you can get in for a big discount. If you are a helicopter fanatic the HeliExpo is worth the time and money spent. See Helicopter Association Internationals's website for more details.

Here are some more updated pages on HelicopterLinks.com: Uniforms, Clothing, Helmets, Headsets Components Spare Parts Manf/Dist Components Spare Parts Repair/Overhaul Avionics Manf/Distrib Avionics Repair and Overhaul Attorneys Consulting, Planning, Management Services Electrical Battery Manf/Dist Electrical Battery Repair/Overhaul Heliport Equipment Ground Power/Ground Equipment Instruments Gauges Manuf/Dist Instruments Gauges Repair/Overhaul Hardware Engines Manf/Dist Engines Repair/Overhaul Testing Equipment/Centers for Excellence Electrical Battery Manf/Dist Electrical Battery Repair & Overhaul STC, Engineering Firms, Composites Airframe and Aerostructure Manf/Dist Safety Audits/Inspections Tools and Maintenance Stands Electrical Battery Manf/Dist Financing and Leasing Fuel, Oil, Lubricants and related equipment Survival Equipment Transmissions Hydraulics Manf/Dist Navigation and GPS

A needed spell checked was made for the entire site today. We also cleaned up the words at the top of each category, making HelicopterLinks less wordy, more to the point and easier to use. We still have a couple of categories on the site we hope to finish this week.