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When everyone is playing the same game, your execution is critical. Your store is like their store, your bread is like their bread, so we care very much about the care and skill you put into your product or service.
Of course, that still matters, but the revolution of the web means that the way you go to market, the structure of your offering, the model of your business--these are sufficient to cause you to lose, regardless of how you play the game. (And able to give you a huge post if you plan right).
Sam Walton was a huge success, largely because he developed a new retail strategy, not because he was better at running a store than anyone else. Local bookstores are in trouble, not because they don't work hard or care a lot, but because they are saddled with expenses that used to be smart (rent for a local storefront) in a world where they are merely ballast.
Running a business with the wrong strategy in the wrong place at the wrong time is possible, but it's an uphill battle. The alternative is to think very hard about your model, your costs and the benefits you offer to the people you'd like to serve.
You could change from a product to a service offering, from free to expensive, from low service to high service, from storefront to web, from large to small, from spam to permission, from acquiring new customers to delighting old ones, from wide open to invitiation only, from dirty to green, from secret to transparent, from troll to benefactor, from custom to mass, or for any of these, vice versa.
Not changing your strategy merely because you're used to the one you have now is a lousy strategy.
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Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
Posted: 22 Jul 2012 09:14 PM PDT At long last, everyone is willing to wave the white flag on a Greece exit from the eurozone. Please consider German Vice Chancellor 'Very Skeptical' Greece Can Be Rescued. German Vice Chancellor Philipp Roesler said he's "very skeptical" that European leaders will be able to rescue Greece and the prospect of the country's exit from the euro had "lost its terror."Greece Behind on Asset Sales, Spending Cuts, Deficit Targets Adding additional details to the above story, Bloomberg makes a nice understatement with Greece Back at Center of Euro Crisis as Exit Talk Resurfaces Greece retakes its position at the heart of the European debt crisis this week as its creditors assess how far off course the country is from bailout targets, raising again the specter of its exit from the euro.Will Defeat Be Snatched From the Jaws of Victory Once Again? The ducks for a Greece eurozone exit are lined up once again. Admittedly, every time the ducks had been lined up for default previously, defeat has been snatched from the jaws of victory. I say that because Greece really does not belong in the euro. Of course, no other country belongs there either because the euro was fatally flawed from the beginning and the sooner this mess goes down the toilet the better off Europe will be. Comparatively Speaking I was asked earlier today if I thought Greece would recover if it returned to the Drachma. My answer was something along the lines of "At least it has a chance". For comparison purposes, Greece has no chance of a meaningful recovery in the euro. In that regard, there is absolutely no point in any further delays, something I correctly said three years ago as well. In the short-term Greece is likely doomed either way. In the long-term Greece has a chance once it rids itself of the shackles of the euro. Hyperinflation may be Greece's destiny, but if so, I see no point in delaying it. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
IMF Seeks to Halt Aid to Greece; September Bankruptcy Awaits; Dominoes Will Fall Posted: 22 Jul 2012 10:08 AM PDT According to Der Spiegel, the IMF Wants to Stop Aid to Greece as soon as the ESM is up and running in September. At that time Greece would become bankrupt. This is a Mish-modified translation from German: The patience of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with Greece comes to an end: According to to information obtained by SPIEGEL, senior IMF officials told EU leaders in Brussels that the IMF was no longer willing to provide additional funds for Greece.Dominoes Will Fall I picked this story up from Roel at Automatic Earth. Here are some interesting point of view from Automatic Earth that I generally agree with. It'll be a lot of fun seeing the IMF, and European leaders, try to deny the article and its implications. From what I understand, they want to wait until the ESM is effective, and then dump Greece. The article may trump any such intentions. Some things only work in secret, and once Pandora's box is open, they no longer do.There's more in the AE article including a discussion of the resignation of Peter Doyle, former division chief in the IMF's European Department, who, upon resigning, shared a few of his thoughts on the fund: "After twenty years of service, I am ashamed to have had any association with the Fund at all..." Everyone Prepared to Pull the Plug DW has a bit more information in IMF to provide no new funds to Greece In an article published on its website, Spiegel cites unnamed senior European Union sources in Brussels who told the news magazine that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had signaled it would not contribute to any further aid for Greece.Many signs suggest that everyone is finally ready to pull the plug on Greece. Hundreds of billions of euros have been wasted in the last three years attempting to stop the unstoppable. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
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A Look at Full and Partial Feeds in an Increasingly Mobile World Graywolf's SEO Blog |
A Look at Full and Partial Feeds in an Increasingly Mobile World Posted: 21 Jul 2012 07:28 AM PDT As of July 2012 I no longer recommend using this tactic, as it creates too many low quality links to your website I’ve long stated that I prefer full feeds over partial feeds. Now that I’ve spent the past few weeks using an iPad, I feel even more strongly that full feeds are the way to go and that offering partial feeds is an obstacle to getting your posts read by as many people as possible. As use of blackberries, iPhones, iPads, android, smart phones, and other Internet consumption appliances increases, I think it’s time that publishers rethink the use of partial feeds … When I encounter a partial feed, it’s problematic because I have to send it through a middle service provided by Google. Google actually scrapes the content and provides a “light” version. You can see an example at this URL or the screen shot below. As use of blackberries, iPhones, iPads, android, smart phones, and other Internet consumption appliances increases, I think it’s time that publishers rethink the use of partial feeds. Providing content that has barriers to consumption isn’t a smart long term solution. I think it’s time for publishers to rethink using partial feeds as consumption habits change … The next biggest argument is that the posts will get scraped. Getting scraped sucks but, to be honest, it’s a non issue most of the time since Google is pretty good at figuring out the original. They aren’t perfect, but they are right more often than they are wrong. Lastly in most cases getting scraped works to your advantage. Another solution would be to turn full feeds into a revenue-generating opportunity. You could offer partial feeds for free, and publish full feeds using a subscription model. Give each subscriber a unique feed that redirects to the full feed published at a secret URL. If the subscription is expired redirect to a partial feed. Change the full feed secret URL every month to eliminate people sharing or getting access when the subscription expires. Concerned about people republishing? Embed a unique identifier in each feed in the form of a tracking bug. Its not a perfect or foolproof solution, but it’s a big step forward. I think it’s time for publishers to rethink using partial feeds as consumption habits change and devices allow content to be read in new ways. Publishers have to adjust and make changes. PS: I’ve read a lot of reports about mobile consumption and, unless you are delivering rich media, you should consider providing a “lite” or “mobile” version. If you view this website on an iPhone, iPad, blackberry, or even a Wii, you’ll see a slightly different version. I use the wptouch plugin with some custom user agent settings, and it works pretty well. ![]() Related posts:
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This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review. |
WordPress SEO: How to Use RSS and Scrapers to Build Links Posted: 21 Jul 2012 02:12 AM PDT As of July 2012 I no longer recommend using this tactic, as it creates too many low quality links to your website When you run wordpress or any other blog for that matter, chances are your blog is getting scraped, and re-used without your permission. In this post I’ll show you how you can use this to your advantage to build links with the anchor text of your choice. The first step you need to take is to make sure you are publishing a full feed. I know this sounds counterintuitive, as publishing a full feed will actually encourage more people to scrape your feed, but that’s exactly what you want to happen. Next you’ll need the RSS Footer plugin from Joost de Valk. By default the plugin links back to your home page with the name of your blog, and back to the individual post with the post title as the anchor text. This helps the search engines figure out who is the source of the blog post. However you can take this plugin to a whole new level by also adding in links to different parts of your blog (or another website) with the anchor text that you put in. Initially I used this plugin in test mode to help me rank for the term [seo blog]. Once I had established that worked as proof of concept it was on to something more competitive. I’m now using it help me rank for the phrase [seo consultant]. Some important aspects of using this strategy, you don’t want to leave the anchor text, links, or surrounding text in place to long, you want to change it somewhere between every 30-90 days. This helps your backlink profile look more natural, and helps the scrapers from filtering out your links with pattern matching. Second go ahead and use it to build links for commercial terms, but don’t be greedy about it. Stuffing it full of 30 links pretty much shines a big spotlight on what you are doing, keeping it down to to 2-4 links keeps it from attracting too much attention. ![]() Related posts:
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This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review. |
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