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joi, 22 mai 2014
America's great outdoors
President Obama Goes for a Walk
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How Our Agency Survived Year One
How Our Agency Survived Year One |
How Our Agency Survived Year One Posted: 21 May 2014 05:17 PM PDT Posted by Bill.Sebald There are some things in life you don't truly understand until you experience them. I was given plenty of parenting advice when my son was born, but it only took me so far. Nothing prepared me for the first time our baby decided to roll over… right off the bed onto the floor (luckily we had a pile of laundry serving as a cushion). If you've never been a parent, you simply don't have a lot of personal experience to draw from. It's a complete trial by fire, full of missteps, emotions, and anxiety. In a way, starting Greenlane was a similar experience. Greenlane Search Marketing, LLC is my startup boutique SEO agency. It started in 2005 as a sole proprietorship consulting practice. It was my baby, and I had to let it grow up. Now it's a partnership between myself and a long-time colleague Keith Urban (not the singer). However, differing from the parenting example, I did have some practical experience to guide me this time. I ran an SEO department in a major digital marketing agency. Regardless, it became very clear we didn't know a thing about truly running an agency. We were new parents. What to expect when you're expectingWe expected to be busy. We knew we'd make mistakes, and we thought we had a solid business plan in place. In the end we were busier than expected, made more mistakes than we care to admit, and our plan fell apart on a weekly basis. But I'm proud (and relieved) to say we're successful. We have a great staff of smart SEOs and digital marketers. We have happy clients. We have a great network of people to tap into. We're profitable, targeting half a million in fee revenue by the end of 2014. We survived year one, where 25% of startups crash. We're on yet another phase of growth, with our legal and taxation items well managed, our employment under control, and the company as a whole being positioned to overcome year two. For me, that's an enormous win. Specifically, what was our secret? Hell if I know. But I think it's this fuzzy formula: Take what you hear, mixed with what you've experienced in life, multiplied by your best guess, and divide by quick, brave decisions. But we also had a motto, one that became our backbone: "Always make it better!" Making it better for you and your clientsThis is a post about some of the more conceptual, "outside the normal" things we implemented to constantly improve our company from the start. These are based on my life experiences and recent business victories. My hope is that this will serve as fodder for your own company, even if you're not the proprietor. This post is not about tax management, or accounting, or filings—this is about the day-to-day behavioral things that can make your digital marketing company a great place to be, to the benefit of you and your clients. And to sprinkle in a little fun, since I said life experience fed into many of our first year decisions, I'll supplement each section with something from my own awkward photo album. On to the tips… #1 - Think about your group experiences For those who played team sports, remember when your parents said, "One day this will make you better at your job!" Go tell them they were right. Working as a team is an invaluable skill, improved only through experience and introspection. We've all engaged in group experiences, from grade school to our earliest jobs. Everyone has some kind of group or department participation to draw on. Maybe it's as simple as cub scouts, a yearbook committee, or in my case, a rock band. Additionally, we've all either seen—or have been—the flunky in the group, doing the least amount to make the group as a whole succeed. There's also the opposite—a "Johnny-Come-Lately" who shows up with good intentions but sticks a giant crowbar into the gears, grinding progress to a screeching halt. We've seen the drama and anger that comes from personalities that just don't mix. Nothing slows down momentum more than an unfocused crew rowing in different directions. An agency is no different. You will always have bosses, clients, and employees that behave or think differently than you. You simply need to learn how to overcome. Someone once told me you can't be a boss and a friend. I've never disagreed with something so hard in my life. A friendship presents an amazing bond of trust. At Greenlane we've carefully selected co-workers who we enjoy being around. We all have different talents and roles in the company, but you see virtually no instances of "pulling rank" over anyone else. There's a respect that drives each of us to do a good job for each other. It creates more open and creative dialogue. If you don't feel like you have anything to prove, you can more easily pause, listen, and learn. We don't want to let each other down, but we all feel empowered to counter an idea without fear. The best idea wins, and our clients (as well as ourselves) become more educated. We've nurtured a really powerful environment. The bigger your group, the harder this is, but certainly not impossible. We take the same approach with bringing on clients. We call them partners—a term I took from an old gig. Just as we are being paid to help businesses be successful, their actions have a lot of bearing on our success as a vendor—not to mention our own happiness. I'll often tell a prospective partner, "just as you're auditioning us, we're auditioning you too." That could come off cocky, but any prospects we lost for that statement were probably not going to last in the long run. In fact, I ask all prospective clients to first read our website, where we openly talk about the kind of clients we're looking for. About two-thirds return super qualified, with the remainder vanishing forever. Those that return often say, "you are exactly what we're looking for." It's a bit like online dating. I wish we could say we've never lost a client due to poor performance. We have. Two of them actually. But in retrospect, this provided good lessons on where we needed to improve. In one case it was due to never being on the right wavelength to begin with, and the other was simply based on poor communicating. We largely (and swiftly) pivoted internally to make sure we never make those mistakes again. As a company, we were all just rowing the wrong way. Catching it early allowed for a very quick adjustment. By the way, I'm well aware that some internal hierarchies don't allow you to have a say on the clients that come in. While that is unfortunate, it is also common. But what's to stop you from climbing the totem pole and pleading your case? The TL;DR tips:
#2 - The people you meet could become important I'm often asked how we perform lead generation. Our primarily lead source is our network. Keith and I are very lucky in that regard, both coming from the big agency world. Big agencies seem to organically create seedlings that go off to start new companies or work with other established businesses. From former clients to former co-workers, developing serendipity every chance you get, should be a 24/7 goal. You never know when someone you've met will hit it big. If you leave a good impression, they may invite you to their next party. Digital marketing is one of those rare industries. There are millions of lawyers and accountants, as well as designers. There are relatively few SEOs, PPC experts or affiliate marketers. Make the right impression and your name will get passed around quickly. If you have a bad reputation, or are generally unliked, the word spreads just as fast. I've picked against vendors for my clients (or when I worked in-house) simply based on how phony they came off. I'll probably have this put on my tombstone because I say it so much, "Perception Is Reality." Let that one sink in. It doesn't mean "fake it," but be genuine and supportive. I wrote a post that I still think about often. It was called " Create Your Own SEO Serendipity." I don't know how, or where, or why I started doing it, but I've been in the "serendipity" game for a long time. "Karma" might be a possible synonym. Building up your network is one part of the puzzle, but building it so you're memorable is a whole other piece that may require a bit of introspection on your end. In hindsight, I spent my entire professional career mirroring my personal life—be good and helpful to everyone you meet. Sure you get burned if others take advantage, but when a referral comes in from an old colleague, I'm thrilled. It's that warm feeling that makes "doing business" pretty damn fun. The TL;DR tips:
#3 - Hire people smarter than you Around 2009, I remember the CEO of GSI Commerce said this at a company meeting I attended (paraphrasing)—"I built this company by hiring people smarter than me." This off-hand comment was a real wake-up call for me. He's since sold his company to eBay, and moved on to restart something new. If this tip helped make someone a billionaire, there must be something to it My partner and I didn't read many business books. Personally, I tried, but rejected most of them. I stubbornly refused to buy into some of the concepts. However, there were a few where I recognized common threads. Books like Good to Great, How To Think Like A CEO, The Outsiders, and The Corner Office didn't have a "fake it until you make it," or "kill or be killed" lesson. Instead, they highlighted leading by example, taking calculated risks, being human, and learning from everyone around you. We candidly tell our prospects that we hire people with unique experience for the sole purpose of supporting the clients. We reveal that Keith's background is in data and analytics, Mike's is in design and development, Jon's is in PR and outreach, and so on. We're not all experts at everything. We're very clear that any of our team may work on an account dependent on a given strategy. It's honest and realistic, and goes over well with prospects. Meanwhile, in the office, we have a lot of co-mingling, where each teammate may join another to work out a specific problem. I'm the old dog in the group, but I'll tell you the honest truth—I learn something every day from this team. The client wins, my company improves, and my own personal development grows. What more could anyone want out of a job? The TL;DR tips:
#4 - Don't be so serious Keith and I don't need to remind ourselves why we took this risk. It's fun every day. Business is a game, and we're enjoying our time on the field. No more toxic relationships, no more loss of control, and no more sitting in the "peanut gallery" watching other people do it wrong. Be serious enough to hit your deliverables, make your marks count, and help your clients win. But why not do it with a smile? I've always heard that working in marketing and advertising is one of the most stressful jobs you could have. It doesn't have to be. We didn't build our company with a textbook or a degree. The more I experience, the more I see most people in our field didn't follow a rule book either. Great businesses are managed by CEOs who take chances, with varied personality traits and levels of intelligence—something school doesn't necessarily teach anyway. For years I thought I'd have to be an "American Psycho" type business-genius with an MBA, a big vocabulary, a clean haircut, and a country club membership. I have none of those. In the end, I honestly believe we were guided by our own experience, serendipity, and common sense. It's been a great ride so far, with a lot more learnings—and laughs—to be had. Besides, if the business folds tomorrow, at least I achieved the biggest thing on my bucket list. So there's that. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! |
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Tips & resources to help you pass the Individual Qualification (IQ) exam
Tips & resources to help you pass the Individual Qualification (IQ) exam | ![]() |
Tips & resources to help you pass the Individual Qualification (IQ) exam Posted: 22 May 2014 01:04 AM PDT The Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) is awarded on completion of a 90 minute open book exam. It is used to provide proof that you have a certain level of expertise in Google Analytics – a printable certificate is available to successful entrants. The exam:
I took the exam recently, so I wanted to share some tips and resources that helped me to prepare for (and pass!) the exam. Top tips:Lock yourself away from distractionsWhether you're doing this at work or at home, the best thing to do is find a quiet spot away from any distractions. You can pause the exam if you like, but try not give yourself too much of a break so that you can keep your revision fresh in your memory. Pause the examYou can do this as often as you like. You only get 90 minutes to answer 70 questions, but pausing it will give you time to think about the questions and dig into your GA account to come up with the right answers – this is also great practice, as you're more likely to learn from the experience. While pausing the exam does cause the question you're on to disappear, there's nothing stopping you making a mental note or writing down the question (I guess you could even take a screen-shot, not that we're condoning this!). Keep your resources separateOpen your resources in a separate window (or browser) to avoid losing track of the exam – you could lose valuable time if you have to keep flicking through tabs to find it. Check your answers thoroughlyThis may sound like an obvious one, but make sure you leave some time to run through your answers at the end. It's easy to misinterpret a question, especially when several of the answers can appear to be almost exactly the same. You can mark any questions that you are unsure about as you go, making it easy to go back and give them some more thought at the end. You can also cross off any answers that you want to eliminate, allowing you to focus on the other potential answers. Top ResourcesGoogle Analytics AcademyI would recommend working through both the Digital Analytics Fundamentals and the Google Analytics Platform Principles courses. They are free and will help bring you up to speed on most topics that are covered in the exam (as well as providing extra resources throughout the lessons) via a set of video walk-throughs from Justin Cutroni, a Digital Analytics Evangelist at Google. The fundamentals course is designed for people who have little or no experience with GA, but I would still urge you to flick through the units – you may end up missing the answer to one or more exams questions that are covered here. The courses consist of several units (6 for the Fundamentals and 4 for Platform Principles), made up of between 1 and 6 lessons. Each has a short video to talk you through the lessons and a few multiple choice questions that you can answer at the end. You can then take a final assessment at the end of each course, with questions that are presented in a similar format to the actual exam, and (in my case) even includes some of the same questions. While the videos are easy to digest, I would also recommend taking some notes – if not to use in the exam, then to help you process and grasp the concepts covered. Useful blog postI would also recommend reading through the following blog post – in his post, JATIN SHARMA references some other useful posts which are also worth a read. How to Pass the Google Analytics IQ Exam in Two Days: Zero to Hero Once you’ve passed…You can print your certificate as proof, but also create a link to share with others (great for your LinkedIn account) that provides details of the certificates that have been awarded, along with dates of when exams were taken and when the qualifications expire. For details on how to set a link to your individual qualification, check out the 'Google Analytics Proof of' article. To see what this will look like, here's a link to my qualification details. Good luck – If you’ve covered everything then you have nothing to worry about – you're ready to head over to google.starttest.com and ace this exam! Please share your experiences and let me know if you have any other tips or useful resources that helped you to pass. The post Tips & resources to help you pass the Individual Qualification (IQ) exam appeared first on White.net. |
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miercuri, 21 mai 2014
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
Sarkozy Calls for "Profound" EU Overhaul Led by France and Germany; Farage "Earthquake" Posted: 21 May 2014 10:36 PM PDT In a last minute push to win votes in the European parliament elections, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy Calls for "Profound" EU Overhaul led by France and Germany. In a clear bid to rally voters to his centre-right UMP party, which is under threat of losing in France to the anti-EU National Front, Mr Sarkozy broke a two-year virtual silence on political issues to issue a ringing defence of the need for the union to preserve peace in Europe and beyond.Power "Only" Over Industry, Agriculture, Trade, Competition, Energy and Research Excuse me for asking but other than immigration, what is left? Better yet, what drastic cuts in EU power is Sarkozy proposing? More questions abound. Why should the EU control, agriculture when France is the primary beneficiary? Then again, that question has an obvious answer. "Profound" Overhaul Nonsense Sarkozy is in fantasyland if he thinks Malta, Cyprus, Luxembourg etc, will vote to cede power to France and Germany. To change the treaty, every nation will have to sign it. Even if nations did cede power to Germany and France, what is it France and Germany agree on other than the need to agree? Not budgets, not stimulus, not a banking union, not retirement age, not work hours, and not the role of the ECB. Farage "Earthquake" The Financial Times reports Mainstream parties braced for Farage phenomenon Nigel Farage has predicted "an earthquake", and by the time polling stations close at 10pm on Thursday night, his UK Independence party may have achieved what had once seemed incredible – it might have won a nationwide election.These elections should be fun. Results will be in shortly. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com 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. |
Is There a Shortage of Skilled Workers? My Own Personal Experiences Posted: 21 May 2014 10:35 AM PDT Given all the media hype about the severe shortage of skills in the US and the need for more education and training, inquiring minds may be interested in alternative views. I offer my own personal experiences at the end of the discussion. For now, please consider a viewpoint on the alleged shortage of STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) workers by the National Review: What STEM Shortage? The idea that we need to allow in more workers with science, technology, engineering, and math ("STEM") background is an article of faith among American business and political elite.My Own Personal Experiences I worked 20 years in mainframe computer programming after graduating from the University of Illinois with a degree in civil engineering. I have been through more bank mergers than one could imagine. I was an assistant vice president at Harris Bank when Bank of Montreal bought them out. I did not like the cultural change so I left and became an independent consultant. My first contract was at Chase. That job ended when Chase and Chemical merged. Soon thereafter, I was at First National Bank of Chicago which became First Chicago, then First USA, then Bank One, now Chase. I was there though Bank One. I was on a project at US Bank in Minneapolis involving a merger or sale of a Piper Jeffrey trading system. 911 hit at the end of the US Bank contract. I was out of a job for over three years. In that timeframe, Countrywide Financial put out an ad only mainframe geeks could possibly understand. The job required IMS, CICS, COBOL, DB2, and Assembly Language experience. They also wanted banking and credit card experience. There are an extremely limited people in the country who can genuinely profess proficiency in that skill set. To this day, I wonder if the job even existed because I could not get an interview. I never worked in programming again. I am often accused of not knowing what it is like to be desperately in need of a job. Believe me, I do know. I started my blog out of desperation, hoping someone would discover me and hire me as a writer. It never came to that. Even the Motley Fool turned me down for an opening they had. After all, I had no experience and no related degree. Calculated Risk, who I met on Silicon Investor created the first template for my blog. Barry Ritholtz at the Big Picture promoted me early and often, and John Succo convinced Todd Harrison at Minyanville to take me on as a "professor" (an honorary term for frequent contributors). So here I am, with thanks to numerous others who influenced me along the way. I picked up debt deflation ideas from Australian economist Steve Keen. Michael Pettis at China Financial Markets taught me nearly everything I know about trade, and Pater Tenebrarum at the Acting Man blog taught me nearly everything I know about Austrian economics. I met Pater under a different name on Silicon Investor in 2001. Shortage of Skills? There are hundreds-of-thousands of skilled programmers, engineers, chemists, lawyers, etc., out of work or working in jobs that make no use of their college degree. That does not stop the Obama administration, the education industry, and even the Fed from promoting education and training as the solution to what ails us. Please consider a few snips from a speech made today by William Dudley, President of the New York Fed: What Kind of Jobs Have Been Created During the Recovery? Firms often change the way they utilize workers and the mix of skills they employ during recessions and recoveries. The weakening demand during recessions forces firms to look for new ways to be more efficient to cope with hard times. These adjustments do not affect all workers equally. Indeed, it's what we typically think of as middle-skilled workers—for example, construction workers, machine operators and administrative support personnel—that are hardest hit during recessions. Further, a feature of the Great Recession and indeed the prior two recessions, is that the middle-skill jobs that were lost don't all come back during the recoveries that follow. Instead, job opportunities have tended to shift toward higher- and lower-skilled workers.The idea that a "middle-skilled" person can go back to school at age 40, take a few classes and become a java programmer, an engineer, or a chef, and land a meaningful job in that field is nothing but hope-filled hype. Perhaps 1 out of 100 make some use of their training. The rest just end up deeper in debt. Fed-induced boom-bust cycles that benefit the already wealthy at the expense of everyone else, and debt-overhang, including student debt that exceeds $1 trillion, are the major problems today, not the alleged shortage of skills. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com 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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