luni, 16 martie 2015

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics


Women Reveal What They Really Think About Everything

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 12:07 PM PDT

Have you ever wondered what kind of thoughts really go through a woman's mind? Well, you're about to find out.














This Man Makes Six Figures A Year Pretending To Be Alan From The Hangover

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 11:40 AM PDT

Thaddeus Kalinoski let himself go after his marriage fell apart and he began to notice something strange. He looked in the mirror and realized he looked just like Zack Galifianakis' character Alan from "The Hangover." He then left his job in Philadelphia and headed for Las Vegas. Now he makes over $200,000 and parties with beautiful women every single day.

Which one is which?





Thaddeus met the cast of The Hangover

Fight for Your Right to Compensation with a Personal Injury Lawyer [Infographic]

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 09:24 AM PDT

This is an infographic about personal injury law and how you can protect your rights to compensation. Personal injury refers to injuries incurred to the body, emotions and mind.

Click on Image to Enlarge.

9 Simple Tips For Making An About Us Page That Works For Your Brand - Moz Blog


9 Simple Tips For Making An About Us Page That Works For Your Brand

Posted on: Sunday 15 March 2015 — 23:28

Posted by Ben.Austin

For too many online companies the About Us page is the elephant in the room, and often the most awkward thing to write. It's a shame because analytics often shows the page as one of the most frequented on any website. Imagine a ceremonial elephant adorned in his embellished head plate, raising you above your competitors. This could be your About Us page if you show it the care and attention it deserves.

The good news is your about page doesn't require several hundred pounds of vegetation on a daily basis, nor is there any real need for expensive antique rhinestones. 

The bad news is crafting the perfect about page is easier said than done. Many find it difficult to strike the right balance between selling themselves to their customers and driving them away with a self-focused approach, which helps explain why the pages are so often neglected. 

At Absolute, we're looking to revamp our entire website over the coming months, and in particular we'll be focusing our attention on our about page. We recognize that our page is currently a little on the dull side and while we are researching the topic, I thought it would be great to share nine great, easily applicable techniques we picked up from some of our favorite About Us pages from around the web.

Start by talking about your audience, not yourself

Human nature dictates that we are, first and foremost, concerned with our own problems. While some of us may give to charity or volunteer in our spare time, when it comes to searching for products or services online, we're all about ourselves and what a brand can do for us.

Blog Tyrant is a great example of a blog that is focused on its visitors. The first thing you see when you land on their about page is a video titled "About Me and You." The text that follows is then split into two sections, "About Me" and "About You (The Tyrant Troops)."

blogtyrant.jpg

Image Source: www.blogtyrant.com

If this frank, upfront style doesn't suit your company there are more subtle ways to become more customer-orientated.

  • Dedicate your opening sentence(s) to your audience's challenges and objectives. Starting with the very reason they come to your site in the first place is a good way to demonstrate that you have their needs in mind. In our case, for example, it might be a good idea to acknowledge the difficulties marketing managers have in finding an agency that combines creativity with the essential technical skills, which can sometimes be overlooked.
  • State the facts: If you're still finding it hard to strike a happy medium between highlighting your selling points and plain boasting, then simply present your readers with the facts. This could be anything from your client retention rate to the amount of new products you offer each month to the number of awards you've collected. No one can argue with raw figures.

Let your customers do the talking

When you are thinking of trying out a new hairdresser, dentist or even a fish and chip shop, you don't base your decision on what they say about themselves. You turn to those around you. By including a few glowing (and up-to-date) customer testimonials on your about page, you can create a hub of information.

  • Be sure to include the customer or client's full name and any relevant details that could add credibility to your testimonials. Better still, include photos of your customers, if possible. It all helps to build trust in your brand.
  • Include customer-focused awards and accreditations. Perhaps you were voted your area's favorite provider of security products in 2013, or maybe you are part of some authoritative bodies or organisations within your industry. Exploit the instinctive human need to seek reassurance from our peers.

Include different forms of media

Make your about page a feast for the eyes by considering the use of photos, timelines, videos or infographics. If people are going to seek and find your about page, it makes sense to capture their attention for as long as possible, and this is precisely what Moz does. Their timeline incorporates strong image and design while still providing visitors with the key information they need.

mozstoryresized.jpg

Image Source: www.moz.com

  • Photos don't necessarily need to be of each individual team member. Although individual head shots do help prospective customers visualize your company, head shots of management, photos of you in action at a fundraising event or even images from a work night out (preferably ones that aren't likely to spark legal action), can all add character to your brand.
  • Videos are a great way of entertaining those with particularly short attention spans and can sum up the feeling of your company in a matter of seconds or minutes. If you don't have extensive time or resources in this area, Vine videos are a great way to add something different to your about page.

Tell your story

Even if your brand doesn't have an interesting story, you can still tell a story. Focus on the things that make you human.

That's precisely what a client of ours, ITS, has done with their About Us page. Unfortunately it's not something we can take credit for personally, but it still embodies everything a great story should have. It starts at the beginning, documenting their modest founding, in 1981 as a 150 square foot shop, all the way to modern day, with plenty of photos along the way. It's great to see the quality of the photos changing through time, almost like a family scrapbook. Customer ratings and social icons make this page even stronger.

it-saboutusresized.jpg

Image Source; www.its.co.uk

  • Don't be afraid of where you have come from. If, eight years ago, your headquarters happened to be your CEO's conservatory, celebrate it. The more that people can identify with you the more trust they'll place in your brand. We have become so desensitized to marketing that a company needs a personal touch to set it apart.
  • You don't have to tell people everything. If you have been established for 80 years, people don't want to read a year-by-year account of everything that has happened in that time. Therefore, filter information accordingly, mentioning those key elements of human interest, but keep tales of new windows or a change of paper suppliers to yourself.

Include your address and contact details

Many people are still hesitant when it comes to parting with their money over the Internet and are thus keen to know you aren't simply looking to fleece them to make a bit of extra cash.

  • If you don't want to disclose your full address, at least state your city or town. Potential customers are not so likely to get in touch if you're less than forthcoming about your location. After all, what else might you be holding back?
  • Make certain your contact details are up to date. It sounds obvious, but having an out-of-date telephone number or email address could not only lose you a sale but might also send alarm bells ringing.
  • Your contact details should also include social handles and skype details if applicable.

Cut out the jargon

Writing in acronym-infested jargon might make you feel clever at the time, but it's boring and it's cold. People won't remember you. What they really want when they land on your about page is to learn, in simple unambiguous terms, precisely what you do.

  • Write conversationally. There is no best way to write. The style you adopt will depend on your company, but make an effort to write in a way that makes your content, and your site, feel accessible and friendly. The Adventurists site offers a great example of this. Their about page serve its intended purpose and is quite enjoyable to read. More to the point when they talk about "mobile phones tagged with twattery about which restaurant serves the best mocha-latte-frappeshite", you find yourself agreeing with them, even if their greater aim of getting youto cross the sub-continent in a three wheeled lawnmower powered tin isn't likely to happen anytime soon.
  • Don't name your about page some obscure name like, Our Ethos, or The Journey. People are looking for an About Us page, so give them one. Come up with a name that is too vague and people may miss you completely.

Ask for other peoples' opinions

Don't be afraid to ask employees, friends, peers, even clients, what makes you stand out as a business. When you have worked somewhere for a long time, it is tough to see your brand the way customers might see it. An objective opinion can help. 

  • When you have decided on what makes you stand out, be sure to make this a focus.
  • If your peer search becomes more like soul-searching because you find there is actually nothing different about your company, despair not. Don't try and force something that isn't there. Instead, turn it around and focus on what makes your audience unique.

Make sure it reflects your company

In our quest for the perfect about page, we came across some really extravagant examples. Some had really impressive videos, special features or high tech designs. All of those examples were extremely applaudable, but will only really work if this fits in with the rest of your website, your industry and your company as a whole. It's easy to lose sight of who you are in your mission to create the best page possible.

  • Even if your website isn't overly visual, you can still include photos, just make sure they follow the same format as the rest of your website. If your site focuses on boxy shapes and bold colors, then keep this theme running throughout your images. Just as with your marketing, the key is to be succinct. Maintaining a consistent look and feel automatically gives your brand more authority.
  • The same goes applies for tone. Remember, in today's multi-platform society, your website may not be someone's first interaction with you, with visitors often reading an article or coming across a tweet beforehand. In that sense, an about page is almost like a meeting point, an amalgamation of everything that makes your brand who you are.

Test it!

There is no magic formula for about pages. If there were, you probably wouldn't be 2,000 words into this blog. A good way to treat the process of creating such a page, then, is as a work in progress.

  • Don't be afraid to make amendments. Spend a fair amount of time checking your analytics for traffic volumes, bounce rate and visit duration on the page. Tweak the odd sentence, add images, chop them out, introduce a video, etc, based on what the data tells you. 
  • Make sure the page is accessible across all devices. It makes no sense to spend all this time creating an amazing page that is only visible to a small percentage of your audience, which is roughly what will happen if you ignore mobile and tablet users. Whether you have responsive design or a dedicated mobile site, test the performance of the page continually. 

Of all the pages we looked at, our favorite is the one below, from Macmillan. Their About Us section is actually split into different pages, but the initial page makes use of video, explains briefly and simply what they do, includes contact details, testimonials and, most important, thanks people for their continued support. 

Those readers who then want to learn more, as undoubtedly many will, can do so via links directing them to images of the team, as well as facts, figures and corporate partnership details. It might not be as flashy or as up to date as some, but it's what best represents them and that's the point.

macmillan_aboutusresized.jpg

Image Source: www.macmillan.org.uk


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Seth's Blog : The one who makes things worse

The one who makes things worse

Every committee or organization has at least one well-meaning person who is pushing to make things more average.

"On behalf of the masses, the uncommitted, the ones who don't care, we need to dumb this down, smooth out the edges and make it more average. We need to oversimplify it, make it a bit banal, stupid even. If we don't, then some people won't get the joke, won't be satisfied, or worse, complain."

And, by amplifying the voice of the lizard brain, he gets under our skin and we back off, at least a little. We make the work a little more average and a little worse.

This is the studio executive who demands a trite plot, with the usual stereotypes and tropes, played by the usual reliable actor types.

This is the record producer who wants the new song to sound a whole lot like the last song.

This is the NGO executive who fears that the new campaign will offend some minor donors...

Yes, it's true that the remarkable, edgy stuff we wanted to make wasn't going to be embraced by everyone. But everyone is rarely the point any more.

In the service of honest communication, perhaps the one who makes things worse should acknowledge that this is what he does for a living. That way, if we want things to be a little more average, we'll know who to ask.

       

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duminică, 15 martie 2015

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


Massive Brazil Protests: Hundreds of Thousands Demand President Rousseff Resign

Posted: 15 Mar 2015 11:42 AM PDT

Protesters in 16 Brazilian states and the capital took to the streets of Brazil today demanding the resignation or impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. They are upset over inflation, austerity, and Rousseff's involvement in the Petrobras scandal.

For background, see my March 5 post Brazil Succeeds Beyond Wildest Dreams in Winning "Currency War"

In every Brazilian state, people have had enough, Hundreds of Thousands March in Brazil to Protest Rousseff.
The largest protest occurred in Sao Paulo, with 240,000 people as of 2:40 p.m. local time, according to its military police. Protests occurred in cites of 16 states and the federal capital, according to O Globo website. Its TV network reported 45,000 protesters in Brasilia, 20,000 in Belo Horizonte, and 20,000 in Belem, citing the military police of those cities. No violence or vandalism were reported.

Higher taxes and increased prices for government-regulated items like gasoline are rankling Brazilians as the biggest corruption scandal in the nation's history ensnares elected and appointed officials. The approval rating of Rousseff's government has plummeted since she won a close re-election last October. Today's protests are the largest since June 2013 demonstrations in which more than a million people decried deficient public services and demanded an end to corruption.

The president will meet at the end of the day with ministers from her political coordination team to evaluate the protests, Agencia Estado reported.

The demonstrations were organized by activists on social networks including Twitter and Facebook, as messages reached citizens via WhatsApp. Protesters nationwide sported canary-yellow shirts, sang the national anthem and waved flags. In Rio, where the march snaked along Copacabana beach, one banner with Brazil's flag read "Beloved Country," while another said "Military Intervention Now!"

Today marks the 30th anniversary of Brazil's return to democracy after a 21-year military dictatorship.
Real vs. US Dollar



Since July, the Real has fallen from 2.20 to the US dollar to 3.25 to the US dollar. That's a decline of 35% in less than a year.

Ironically, in March of 2012 and previously in 2011, Brazilian officials were complaining about the strength of the Real. See Brazil Succeeds Beyond Wildest Dreams in Winning "Currency War" for details.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Seth's Blog : Double and half (freelancer math)

Double and half (freelancer math)

Successful freelancers need to charge at least double the hourly rate that they'd be happy earning doing full time work. (In many fields, it's more like 4 or 5x).

And they need to spend at least half their time getting better at their craft (and helping the market understand and appreciate what they do).

Your mileage may vary, but one sure route to becoming an unhappy freelancer is charging just enough and hoping that the low price will keep you busy all the time. 

[If you're a freelancer with a career or marketing question, I'm recording a course on this topic and will be including reader questions as part of it. The form is open until tomorrow, Monday, at midnight. Thanks.]

       

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sâmbătă, 14 martie 2015

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


How Long Before Cash is Banned?

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 10:42 PM PDT

A regular reader who I trust 100% has been traveling in Italy for a month. She has this report on cash vs. credit cards.
Hi Mish

I've been in Italy for a month. It's quite amazing how many places ask you to pay cash. Even at hotels, they would like you to pay your €1000+ bills in cash. And people 'wonder' why these countries always get into trouble.

CNA
Cards Not Appreciated

In essence, CNA just confirms two things we already know.

  1. Italy, Greece, and other club-med states want to crack down on rampant tax evasion.
  2. Businesses resist.

What's the Real Problem?

Is the problem really tax evasion, or is the problem that taxes are so freaking high on so many things, in so many ways, that everyone hides income every chance they can?

There are already limits on cash transactions. I wonder ... How long will it take for cash transactions to be banned entirely?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Return of the Buggy Whip; Streetcar Named Imprudent

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 10:30 AM PDT

Detroit, fresh out of bankruptcy, wants to waste $137 million on a streetcar project that will cost $45 million per mile to implement.

Detroit is not the only city to recently hop on the nostalgia bandwagon. For example, USA Today reports Atlanta, other cities see a streetcar renaissance.
ATLANTA – Once upon a time this city was crisscrossed by electric streetcars. At the peak of streetcar travel in the mid-1920s, some 800 streetcars covering 200 miles of track carried 97 million passenger trips a year. The story was the same around much of the nation: More than 800 other cities also had streetcars.

By the end of the 1940s, streetcars were virtually gone from Atlanta and before long, from the American landscape.

Now, streetcars are coming back to Peachtree Street — and to many other American streets for that matter.

Tucson's $196 million Sun Link Streetcar Project, recently named the Public Works Project of the Year by the American Public Works Association, will operate on a 3.9-mile route between downtown and the University of Arizona when it begins service in late July.

In late summer or early fall, Washington, D.C., will open its $135 million, 2.4-mile H Street streetcar line. It's expected to provide more than a million rides in the first year and help revitalize a once-thriving retail district in the nation's capital.

Construction began in April 2012 on Seattle's First Hill Streetcar, a 2.5-mile, $134 million line expected to begin service in the fall. The streetcar will run between Occidental Avenue in Pioneer Square and Denny Way in Capitol Hill, serving 10 stations along South Jackson Street, 14th Avenue South, Yesler Way and Broadway.

Streetcar projects are in various stages of design or development in more than a dozen other cities, including Dallas, which plans to open a line from Union Station downtown to Oak Cliff in early 2015; Salt Lake City, where Mayor Ralph Becker's administration is pushing a plan for a streetcar in the central business district downtown, and Kansas City, Mo., which announced last month that it had selected a vendor to operate and maintain its planned two-mile downtown streetcar line.
St. Louis Streetcars

Also consider St. Louis is not alone in resurgence of streetcars.
In 2002, the Tampa region opened its TECO Line, on which streetcars cruise a 2.7-mile path — past the Florida Aquarium, cruise terminals and the Tampa Bay Times Forum — between downtown Tampa and historic Ybor City.

St. Louis, waiting to move forward with its own trolley concept, is far from the only city with plans on paper or wheels already on rails.

A heavy infusion of federal dollars is fueling the efforts. St. Louis received a $24.99 million grant in 2010 for the Loop Trolley, to run from the University City Library to the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park.

But the resurgence faces growing pains. Questions dogged the Loop Trolley's early management, and a pending federal lawsuit seeks to stop the project. In Cincinnati, the city is considering halting construction.

And some critics point to markets such as Tampa to suggest that once completed, new lines aren't exactly teeming with passengers.

"There is no evidence that ridership is very significant or that you are going to attract very many riders," said Randal O'Toole, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington. He asked whether cities are "just building Disneyland rides to make yuppies happy."

O'Toole questioned the wisdom of plowing so much government money into "obsolete transportation systems." The modern-day version of the urban streetcar, he added, costs significantly more than buses to operate per mile and doesn't even reach the speeds of their long-ago predecessors.
Detroit's Nostalgic Desire

Bloomberg reports Detroit's Desire Is Named Streetcar in Transport Revival.
Electric streetcars may roll Detroit's streets again after 60 years in an attempt to use mass transit to resuscitate the bankrupt auto capital.

Seventeen corporate and philanthropic donors will pay about two-thirds of $160 million to build and run a 3.3 mile (5.3 kilometer) line from downtown north to the New Center district. Groundbreaking is July 28, a 2016 opening is planned and, while streetcars won't erase Detroit's symbiotic relationship with the internal combustion engine, backers say they'll enliven an area that's attracting residents and jobs.

To some, a streetcar conjures not a revivifying force, but the folly of the People Mover, an elevated train built in 1987 that loops 2.9 miles around downtown. It was left with lower-than-expected ridership after plans flopped for a larger, regional rail system.
Another Burden

Streetcars are "a terrible idea" that will benefit property owners and not low-income Detroiters who don't live near the Woodward Avenue corridor, said George Galster, professor of urban affairs at Wayne State University.

He said there's no guarantee that the cost of operating the streetcar won't fall on the city, which a year ago filed the largest U.S. municipal bankruptcy, an $18 billion case.

"All the city of Detroit needs is another expensive boondoggle," Galster said.

M-1 Rail was awarded a $25 million federal grant, and it's asked for another $12 million. The project will proceed with or without more government money, Cullen said in a June 18 statement. The project allocates $20 million to operate the line for 10 years or until it is turned over to the regional transit authority.
Streetcar Named Imprudent

Design World gets the last word with Streetcar Named Imprudent.
City politicians are funding a streetcar project traversing a mere three miles and slated to cost $137 million, or a little over $45 million per mile, not counting the inevitable cost overruns.

Detroit isn't the only city rolling out a streetcar project. At least 16 other U.S. cities have trams in the works and many more have publicly stated their streetcar dreams. But Detroit's project is mysterious. Its promoters seem oblivious to advances in automotive technology, showcased just down the street from them at the NAIAS, that could easily make streetcars and similar forms of mass transit obsolete. And it increasingly looks as though obsolescence could strike just as many streetcar projects now on the drawing boards are ready for their first passengers.

Tour the displays at NAIAS and you get an idea why: Driverless, connected vehicles could well form the basis for an energy efficient way of moving people around. Consider how a commuter might head home from work a few years from now. An empty car will roll up as he or she leaves the office. Time in the car will be spent doing Facebook posts or watching TV rather than driving. That's because the car will contain no steering wheel. The journey home will be faster than what's possible today though there will be more cars on the road. And the car will deliver its occupants to their doorstep, not to a tram station. With that accomplished, the vehicle will head off to wait for other riders.

The hardware is already in place to make this vision of driverless commuting a reality. The equipment needed for a car with no driver looks a lot like the equipment used for parking-assist systems found in high-end vehicles today. It basically consists of electric power steering and brakes, a computer, and a variety of sensors. The part of the puzzle that still needs development is the software. But the required programming is rapidly being perfected. Cars in Google's Self-Driving Car project, for example, have already logged nearly 700,000 autonomous miles. Google claims it should have remaining software issues fixed by 2020.

Meanwhile, Toyota has been testing driverless vehicle technology on roads in Ann Arbor, Mich. for the past two years. Also in Ann Arbor, the University of Mich.'s Transportation Research Institute has equipped 2,800 cars with wireless technology for communicating with each other and with traffic lights. It plans to instrument 9,000 more this way in 2015 and eventually expand to 20,000 vehicles. The goal is safer travel, fewer traffic delays, and a better understanding of how to automate vehicles.

Unfortunately, the main attraction of streetcar projects seems to be federal subsidies. Municipalities asking for these funds generally justify them by citing benefits such as better mobility and economic stimulus for the local economy. Trouble is, these scenarios usually assume streetcars will compete with vehicle technology pretty much the way it is today, not the way it is likely to evolve as automation increasingly eliminates drivers.

The reality is that trams and trains make sense only in areas characterized by high population density—think New York City, San Francisco, Atlanta, or a similar megalopolis. A survey of the Detroit landscape might bring to mind several phrases to describe the view, but "high population density" would not be one of them. As connected car technology progresses, let's hope that even the dullest politicians will be able to see that streetcar projects are likely to be losing propositions.
Political Desire to Waste Money

Streetcars make no economic sense, and they haven't since 1940. And with driverless cars five years away, Detroit ought to be looking forward, not back.

Buggy whips would actually make more sense. No one could possibly waste over $100 million on them.

Then again, never underestimate politicians' desire and ability to waste as much money as possible on useless pet projects.

For more on driverless vehicles, please see Driverless Cars and Trucks: Who Wants One? How Many Jobs Will Vanish?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Seth's Blog : Magic and irrational

Magic and irrational

Today is Pi day, the 14th day of the 3rd month of the fifteenth year... 3.1415

Pi is our most famous irrational number. Not irrational in the sense that it's a foolish argument, a form of wishing for one thing while doing another. No, pi is irrational in a magical, beautiful sense. It can't be cropped off and fit into a box. The closer you look at pi, the more you see, forever.

And that sort of irrational magic is at the heart of our best work. Meeting spec works fine as long as you're the only person who has to meet spec. But in any competitive environment, fitting into a box does us little good.

To be transcendent and irrational is to always have a few more digits to spare, to demand that you not be rounded off and filed away. To be human.

       

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