| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
miercuri, 23 ianuarie 2013
A Fireside Hangout with Vice President Biden
Announcing Moz's 2012 Metrics, Acquisition of AudienceWise, & Opening of Our Portland Office
Announcing Moz's 2012 Metrics, Acquisition of AudienceWise, & Opening of Our Portland Office |
| Announcing Moz's 2012 Metrics, Acquisition of AudienceWise, & Opening of Our Portland Office Posted: 22 Jan 2013 07:29 PM PST Posted by randfish 2012 was an amazing year at SEOmoz. We grew tremendously in members, revenue, and employees; finally raised a second round of funding; added some cool features to PRO; and acquired three companies (though, until today, we've only publicly talked about two of those). In this blog post, I'm going to cover our 2012 numbers in some detail and tell you about our very exciting, final acquisition of the year, AudienceWise. The blog post is broken into several sections for those who'd like to jump around:
Moz's Acquisition of AudienceWiseI first met Matthew Brown along with his partner-in-crime at Define, Marshall Simmonds, in Xiamen, China. I was with my grandfather, Si, speaking at SES Xiamen, and the NYTimes' SEO team was hosting us for dinner. I still remember my Grandfather commenting that he'd been a subscriber to the Times for 50 years, and it was about time they took him out to dinner :-) Since then, Matthew's gone on to start his own consultancy, AudienceWise, with Tim Resnik, former CEO of a gaming startup and a tremendously accomplished marketer & data junkie. Both have been frequently involved in the Moz community - Matt spoke at Mozcon two years ago and will again. Tim and he are both quiet lurkers on the blog, but with this transaction, I expect that to change a bit. Over the past couple years, we've talked extensively about recruiting them to the SEOmoz team. They were on our list of potential acquisitions for our failed funding round in summer 2011, and part of the "use of funds" we spoke about with Brad Feld in our April 2012 round. Matt and Tim are really here at Moz to help us scale our in-house marketing and product expertise. Both have built software products in the past (Matt worked with Marshall on SearchCLU, Tim on an online poker subscription service) and have tremendous depth-of-knowledge in the fields of both inbound and paid marketing. We have a lot of phenomenal talent at SEOmoz, but only a few of us are deep into the fields of SEO, social media, content marketing, email, CRO, etc. Matt and Tim are here to help serve as mentors and as internal-consultant experts to our entire team, a role that I've been far too busy to fill effectively the last 18 months. The AudienceWisers have been by the Mozplex several times, but in their first official visit as employees, they impressed a lot of folks on our team and have already jumped into a ton of projects. For example, Tim is working on visiting our rankings data & how we'll build reports for rankings going forward, and reviewing a big secret project that I'm not allowed to talk about on the blog. Meanwhile, Matt's working with Erica to head up our search for great Mozcon speakers, co-piloting the 2013 ranking factors work with Dr. Matt Peters (as an aside, doesn't Matt & Dr. Matt sound like a good sitcom title?), helping with the new version of the Mozbar, working with the product and engineering teams on the web classification system, and much more. I particularly loved the email Matt sent on the allstaff thread welcoming him and Tim: Some notes on the acquisition:
I'm sure that Matt & Tim would love to hear from you and are happy to take questions in the comments of this post, so feel free to leave them, and please join me in welcoming them to the Moz team! The Opening of Our Portland Office (aka Mozlandia)We Mozzers have long loved Portland from our perch in the Emerald city. We visit on weekends to sample their insanely weird and tasty food carts and restaurants. We stay extra nights after conferences to tour their far-too-cool-for-Seattle clothing stores. We rant jealously about their much lower cost-of-living and their lack of a state sales tax (which adds to the retail goodness). And, of course, we poke fun at their hipsterdom. In fact, after watching three seasons of Portlandia, and experiencing the magic that city has to offer, we could no longer resist its pull. Starting in April of this year (probably, maybe May or June depending on lease details), SEOmoz will be opening only its second office ever in Portland, Oregon, nicknamed "Mozlandia." We've already created a poster of our own: Pictured from left to right: Peter Bray (FollowerWonk), Matthew Brown and Tim Resnik (AudienceWise), Galen Huntington (FollowerWonk), and David Mihm (GetListed). I'm pretty sure this picture alone means our Portland office is going to be an amazing place to work (honestly, Galen looks WAY more "Portland" than his counterpart in the IFC photo). We'll start recruiting more formally soon, but in the meantime, feel free to check out any of the open positions at Moz, many of which teams may be open to staffing in Portland. We will continue to offer our $12,000 referral and signing bonus for software engineering positions in both cities. 2012 Moz FinancialsIt was a good year for the company financially, despite our focus being on a lot of other issues. We ended the year at $21.9mm in revenue - nearly doubling from 2011's $11.4mm. I think 2012 and 2013 are going to go down in our history as "investments in the foundation" years. After our funding round closed in April, we spent the vast majority of the year building products that have yet to launch (stay tuned), building up recruiting and onboarding processes, bolstering our product and team with acquisitions, experimenting with how to handle a much larger big data product (Mozscape - sadly most of our efforts to dramatically grow size & increase freshness in 2012 failed, but we believe we now know enough to have success in 2013), and managing culture at a mid-size company (which went pretty well and led to some nice kudos like Seattle's Best Place to Work). Below is a look at overall product revenue growth from 2007-2012: More than 90% of total revenue comes from SEOmoz PRO subscriptions, with additional contributions from the SEOmoz API (these are combined in the "product revenue" chart above). Mozcon tickets sales and DVD sales are not included in this graph, nor is consulting revenue, which ended in 2009. I did, however, want to show our expenses for 2012, compare them to 2011, and break them down by category so you can get a better sense of what's in our costs (and see how we're spending that fancy VC money!). I didn't have a great way to show this as a visual graph (pie charts over time are funky - I guess I could have done the stacked graph, but they're also funky), yet the chart conveys the data pretty well: There are a few interesting takeaways from the above:
Some spikiness from viral content skews the trendline a bit, but in general, we're seeing healthy growth from every channel. If you have questions about this stuff, feel free to ask in the comments and myself or Sarah Bird (our COO) can answer. 2012 Employee & Customer Growth DataThe financials tell part of the story, but a few other data points felt interesting to me and may be to you as well. First up is our growth in employee count from our first year as a software company to today: The chart shows headcount of full time employees at the end of each year. We've obviously had a ton of growth here in 2012, and we're budgeting to add another 66 team members in 2013 (though a lack of new office space may slow that down). What amazes me the most is how well our culture has managed to handle this growth. I feel better about the persistence of TAGFEE and the other cultural aspects at SEOmoz today than I did when we were at 50 people, 25, or 5. To be honest, that's not what I expected. I thought things would get invariably harder and worse at this scale, but given the trend, I'm incredibly optimistic about 150, 250, even 500! Though, I know all of those will take incredible effort to succeed. Next is our customer growth: 18,731 was the final count of paid PRO subscribers on Jan. 1st, 2013 (our historical numbers for prior years were less precise, hence the rounding). It's pretty remarkable and truly humbling to have nearly 20,000 paid customers using our product. But we know that we've got a long way to go. In 2012, we had four pretty severe incidents and several smaller ones where critical customer data like rankings, crawl info, or Mozscape index updates were missing or late. We launched a few cool features at the end of 2011 and very beginning of 2012 (social analytics, historical link analysis, universal SERPs tracking, and custom reports) but with the exception of Followerwonk (which is a huge addition to PRO, and continues to develop new features itself), it was a very quiet year for features. 2013 is going to be very different. Our first major launch since Wonk is only a few weeks away, and spring should see the start of many more. We also have an entire team of five engineers, under the leadership of Shawn Edwards, focused on uptime and reliability. The levels of unreliability we've had in the past are unacceptable, and the speed of product improvement is, too. In our reviews for each other this month, Sarah and I were chatting about a large release we've been working on since late 2011, and Sarah told me, "If we haven't launched by June, we should both fire each other." I couldn't put it better myself. This year, we need to kick ass for our customers and be more deserving of the incredible support and growth you've enabled for our team. January 2013 marks my 11th anniversary working in this job (prior to 2004, I worked with my Mom, Gillian, at the web design/marketing company that would become SEOmoz). I've never been more amazed by what the company's accomplished than I am today, but I know every day from now forward presents the challenge to all of us at Moz - to prove we're worthy of the fantastic things we have (customers, revenue, investors, supporters) and to not be trapped by the mistakes of the past, nor fall prey to the pitfalls of the future. Matt & Tim will be a huge help, as the teams from FollowerWonk and Getlisted have been already. Mozlandia is going to be an exciting new experiment for us. And 2012 was a great year, but honestly, I can't wait for 2013 to get going, and for us Mozzers to be able to show all of you what the remarkable team we've built can do. 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! |
| Posted: 22 Jan 2013 04:27 AM PST Posted by Justin Taylor This post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc. Disclaimer: This is a supplemental post to the Mozinar “Designing for SEO: Improving Site Visibility and Enhancing UX.” Justin Taylor answers Q&A from the Mozinar and expands on the question that was asked most frequently by listeners. "Why do websites that look great nearly always have SEO that sucks?"This is the question I set out to answer during my recent Mozinar about designing for SEO. To be a true king of the SERPs, you are, of course, going to need more than a well-designed, search-optimised website. You are probably going to need a ton of social mentions, quality links, citations and co-citations, etc. The problem with these ranking factors is that they are difficult to accomplish in volume and generally require a lot of work to achieve, and, subsequently, the vast majority of websites don’t have them. You can, however still achieve big wins with great design and on-page optimisation Whats the problem?The problem is simple. Websites that look amazing typically offer little opportunity for on-page optimisation and conversely pages that are well optimised will often compromise the design and user experience. This creates a chicken and egg scenario - what is the point in having a website that looks great if it can’t be found? And is there any point of being easy to find if the website isn’t engaging? How can we build sites that look amazing and are engaging, yet still maintain SEO performance? Enter the webfontWebfonts from the likes of Google, Font Deck, Typekit, and Fonts.com have been around for a couple of years and offer a great way to give a website style without compromising crawlability. They form the fundamental structure and underpinning of any well-designed, well-optimised site. To add visual impact, designers will add graphical elements to websites such as banners and calls to action. These elements are usually created as images so the designer can use gorgeous fonts, add type effects such as drop shadows, gradients, and a whole host of other treatments that form part of the designers toolkit. Websites need these kind of graphics, as they make websites engaging, they improve the UX, and they make the user much less likely to bounce. Take the graphic below, as great as it looks there is too much information to include within an Alt-tag. Also it is difficult to emphasise and prioritise the information within an alt-tag as it is just plain text. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Seth's Blog : On behalf of yes
On behalf of yes
Yes, it's okay to ship your work.
Yes, you're capable of making a difference.
Yes, it's important.
Yes, you can ignore that critic.
Yes, your bravery is worth it.
Yes, we believe in you.
Yes, you can do even better.
Yes.
Yes is an opportunity and yes is an obligation. The closer we get to people who are confronting the resistance on their way to making a ruckus, the more they let us in, the greater our obligation is to focus on the yes.
There will always be a surplus of people eager to criticize, nitpick or recommend caution. Your job, at least right now, is to reinforce the power of the yes.
More Recent Articles
- A legend in my own mind
- Exactly the same vs. exactly different
- Interesting?
- Possession aggression
- With great power comes great irresponsibility
[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]
Don't want to get this email anymore? Click the link below to unsubscribe.
| Your requested content delivery powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. +1.978.776.9498 |
marți, 22 ianuarie 2013
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
| Posted: 22 Jan 2013 02:05 PM PST To the victor, belongs the spoils. Had former French president Nicolas Sarkozy won reelection, he certainly would not be under investigation for illegally funding his campaign, nor there would be an investigation regarding his involvement in fraudulent arms sales to Pakistan. Perhaps Sarkozy wants to escape such charges, or perhaps he wants to move for tax reasons, but regardless of why, the latest political scandal is Sarkozy's plans 'to dodge new 75% French tax rate by moving to London with wife Carla and setting up £1bn private equity fund' Nicolas Sarkozy is preparing to move to London to set up a billion pounds plus investment fund, it was claimed today.France Abuzz Over Sarkozy Plans The Telegraph reports France abuzz over Nicolas Sarkozy 'London private equity fund' claim On Tuesday night, France was rife with speculation – hotly denied [Not Really - at least by Sarkozy - Mish] that Nicolas Sarkozy plans to set up a £800 million private equity fund across the Channel in London.Sarkozy Neither Confirms, Nor Denies Story Notice that Sarkozy did not confirm anything in the Mediapart article, but did not deny anything either. Minc's statement "He has a thousand contacts and hasn't made up his mind about what he wants to do" is certainly plausible. So is his statement "Nicolas Sarkozy doesn't need me to meet the world's biggest funds." Neither is a denial of anything. Evidence suggests Sarkozy is indeed planning a move to the UK, probably for multiple reasons. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
| Posted: 21 Jan 2013 11:52 PM PST The federal Minimum wage in the US is $7.25 per hour. Ten states have higher minimum wages with Rhode Island clocking in 50 cents higher at $7.75. Costs to the employer are higher of course, even if the employer ducks benefits by using part-time workers. For starters, employer contributions to Social Security are 6.2% of hourly wages which adds another 45 cents to employer costs. That brings employer costs up to $7.95 per hour minimum, not counting training costs, vacation (if any), sick-time disruptions, and other such costs. Of course, employers must also factor in the cost of Obamacare. Small businesses do not have to provide health-care, but under employer responsibility provisions of the affordable care act, businesses that employ more than 50 workers will pay a steep penalty in 2014 if they don't. Click on the preceding link to see a nice flow chart of the penalty process. What IF? What if companies, small or large, did not have to worry about Obamacare? What if they did not have to worry, about training, sick-leave disruptions and weather-related disruptions? What if companies only had to pay $3.00 per hour, rivaling wages in China? Meet Baxter  Baxter - The Automation Robot MIT Technology Review discusses Baxter in Small Factories Give Baxter the Robot a Cautious Once-Over. Chris Budnick, head of Vanguard Plastics, a small injection-molding operation in Southington, Connecticut is considering the use of Baxter for one process that is not yet automated: stacking and packing textured, plastic cups, which Vanguard sells for 2 cents apiece to a medical company. It currently costs Budnick $9.00 an hour to have a staffer from a temporary agency to do the job. Budnick is now considering Baxter to replace that agency job. Let's tune in to the MIT story for additional details about Baxter and the job Baxter will replace. Baxter was conceived by Rodney Brooks, the Australian roboticist and artificial-intelligence expert who left MIT to build a $22,000 humanoid robot that can easily be programmed to do simple jobs that have never been automated before.60 Minutes Discusses Baxter Inquiring minds are listening to a 13 minute video on 60 Minutes that discusses "The Age of Robots", and Baxter. Link if video does not play: 60 Minutes on Robots Please play the video. It's well worth your time. 60 Minutes Quotes and Idea
Email Exchange With Friends Here is an interesting Email exchange I had with a few friends, one of which sent me the MIT article. "Bob" writes "Buy American is a big theme with the robotics guys. My future son-in-law won't even buy his tux from a Hong Kong tailor. He refuses to buy anything from China. They view themselves as abolishing Chinese slave labor by making it uneconomic." "John" responded "What do those people then do to feed themselves?" "Bob" replied "The easy answer is that it isn't our duty or problem to keep a slave state prospering and fed. You are not going to wipe out China's slave labor overnight. If China's elite sees that its low wage slave labor will no longer reap profits, they will do what other slave masters have done: educate its people so that they can compete in an economy where there are no slave conditions." In Praise of Cheap Labor "Mish" says, I fail to see where the above line of thinking goes. We have come to a point where the minimum wage is 200% too much. How does hiring Baxter at $3.40 per hour prevent slave labor in China? Is no job better than some job? Baxter is a hugely deflationary force. Increasing the minimum wage only exacerbates the problem. Oddly enough, Paul Krugman agrees, or at least he once did before he became the "Conscience of a Liberal". Want proof? Please consider In Praise of Cheap Labor; Are Bad Jobs at Bad Wages Better than No Jobs at All? Taxing Robots Cannot Work Economist Paul Krugman and others are now pondering heavy taxes on robots. Is that the answer? How can it be? Paying more people to do nothing (or to do jobs robots can do cheaper) cannot possibly solve anything. Such practices encourage the birth of more people when there are fewer jobs to be had. Two Realities Either technology creates jobs long-term or it doesn't. I believe it does, and on that score I am an optimist (I just cannot say when it will happen). Let's assume I am wrong. Then taxing robots to meet some artificial living-wage standard can hardly be the answer. Encouraging the birth of more unneeded, unproductive people is a sure-fire way to start a major war. In either reality, Krugman is wrong. Fed Cannot Win a Fight Against Robots The problem is not that wages are too low. Rather, the problem is expenses are two high. The remedy then is certainly not higher minimum wages (which previously encouraged more outsourcing and now encourages more robots), but rather making the dollar go further. In that regard, it's a mad world in which the central bankers and the Keynesian clowns are both hell-bent on forcing wages and prices up, when every attempt to do so accelerates the use of more robots. There is nothing wrong with falling wages provided costs fall as well. Who (other than Keynesian clowns and misguided union activists) does not want lower prices? Moreover, falling prices as a result of increasing productivity over time is the natural state of affairs. For example, one farmer today produces as much goods as 100 farmers a few decades ago. Certainly the price of agricultural goods is up over that time frame, but far less than the corresponding increase in money supply and credit (the true measure of inflation). Robots an Invincible Force Central banks are powerless to stop the advance of technology. Robots in particular are an invincible force. Resistance is futile. The Fed, central banks, and governments around the globe need to embrace technology and its deflationary forces. Otherwise, the result will be a sad combination of fewer jobs, rising population, higher prices, and a ultimately a major war. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com I am hosting an economic conference in April, in Sonoma. Please click on the image below for details. "Wine Country" Economic Conference Hosted By Mish Click on Image to Learn More  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Postări
