joi, 21 martie 2013

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics


Social Farting [Video]

Posted: 21 Mar 2013 06:14 PM PDT



Canada's Ministry of Health has released an unorthodox anti-smoking PSA.

"If you only fart with friends, you're not a farter. You're just a social farter and that makes it OK."


The Evolution of Lindsay Lohan's Mugshots

Posted: 21 Mar 2013 05:32 PM PDT

Yesterday, actress Lindsay Lohan struck a pose for her fifth mugshot in just five years. She seems to be busier getting busted than actually acting lately! Poor LiLo. Will you ever get it together?

July 2007


November 2007


July 2010


September 2010


October 2011


The new mugshot:


Girls of The Israeli Army - Part 4

Posted: 21 Mar 2013 02:16 PM PDT

Spring Break on South Padre Island, Texas

Posted: 21 Mar 2013 01:24 PM PDT

South Padre Island, Texas, is known as the trashiest Spring Break destination and encourages excessive drinking on the beach with bars charging as little as $9.50 per cocktail. Interestingly there are approximately 60 daily casualties as a result of drink, drugs and accidents.























































LinkedIn - Revolutionizing the World of Recruiting [Infographic]

Posted: 21 Mar 2013 12:24 PM PDT

LinkedIn is the social media enigma, the one social media site that seems to have a profoundly stronger impact on companies than it does on its users. For people looking for jobs, LinkedIn is still just one part of a very difficult process. But for recruiters? It's a gold mine. It is changing the world of recruiting, and the metamorphosis is just beginning.

Click on Image to Enlarge.
LinkedIn - Revolutionizing the World of Recruiting

SEO Blog

SEO Blog


Why You Need To Use Google Authorship

Posted: 21 Mar 2013 12:02 PM PDT

If you were to walk into a bookstore and see two books with similar covers, only one was written by John Grisham and the other by an unknown writer, which would you pick up? If you are like the average individual, you would probably pick up the one by the...
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Ways In Which Your Company Should Generate Sales Leads

Posted: 21 Mar 2013 12:00 PM PDT

It is vital in today's day and age that your company is attaining as much exposure as possible online. Once your company is recognised, it has the chance to hugely prosper. Sales leads are vital to the growth and success of any one company and there are steps that can...
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How The Top Brands Are Winning At Social Media

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 08:06 PM PDT

If you follow a certain brand in social media and you are glad you did, then they are either: connecting with at least one of your interests or passions, entertaining you using their engaging personality or providing interesting or vital information to you. If you are an owner of a...
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Black Hat or White Hat SEO? It's Time to Ask Better Questions

Black Hat or White Hat SEO? It's Time to Ask Better Questions


Black Hat or White Hat SEO? It's Time to Ask Better Questions

Posted: 20 Mar 2013 07:38 PM PDT

Posted by Dr. Pete

Since the Wild West days of the late 1990s, SEOs have been grouped into two camps – the “black hats” and the “white hats”. Over time, these distinctions have become little more than caricatures, cartoon villains and heroes that only exist in our individual imaginations, usually embellished to suit our marketing agendas. Even when grounded in specific tactics, “black” vs. “white” is a lot like “conservative” vs. “liberal” – the definition changes with the year and every person you ask, and that definition almost always comes loaded with assumptions and judgments.

Unfortunately, too many business owners still choose their SEOs based on the hat they wear, even when that hat only comes out on sales calls. So, I’d like to ask some better questions. There are real strategic and tactical differences behind what we often think of as “white” and “black” hat SEO, and those differences are what you need to understand to make the right choices for your own business.

This Isn’t About Ethics

While we generally think of ourselves as “white hat” here at SEOmoz, I’m going to put ethics aside temporarily for this post. I will assume that, when we say “black hat”, we’re not talking about outright illegal behavior (like hacking into someone’s site). We’re talking about willfully violating Google’s rules to improve your ranking. While I do believe there are ethical implications to cheating the system and harming search quality, this post is intended to be an honest look at the real choices you face when choosing an SEO path.

(1) High-Value or Low-Value?

The first question is – are you going to pursue “high-value” or “low-value” tactics? I don’t want to replace one hopelessly vague duality with another one, so let me define my terms. By “value”, I mean the value that these tactics provide to site and search visitors. We sometimes call low-value tactics “spam”. It’s not usually illegal and it’s not always even unethical (depending on your point of view), but it’s always done specifically for SEO purposes.

Here’s an example – linking all of your client’s sites back to your own site with keyword-loaded footer links. I wouldn’t call this unethical, but it doesn’t add value and, frankly, it’s just too easy. Google knows this, and they naturally devalue those links now (in extreme cases, they might even penalize the target site).

Ironically, “low-value” tactics are often considered to be a value to people who are trying to gain ground as cheaply as possible. Practically, people often underestimate the time these tactics take and overestimate the return on investment. Low-value tactics tend to fade quickly. As Google gets more aggressive, low-value tactics are also getting riskier (see Question #2).

There’s a more fundamental problem, though, in my opinion – low-value tactics don’t build anything toward the future. Once they fail, and they usually do, you have to start over and chase some new low-value tactic. Here’s an example – let’s say you get links back from all of your clients in low-value footer text, and your one-way link network looks something like this:

Simple link network - SEO only

Link “juice” is flowing, and all signs are green. Then, one day, Google pulls the plug on this particular low-value tactic. What are you left with?

Failed link network

You’re not left with much, because these links never had real value beyond SEO. Imagine, though, that those links carried not only authority (in green), but traffic (in blue):

Simple link network - SEO + Traffic

Now, let’s say Google changes the rules, and you lose the ranking power of those links. The links still have value, because they’re still carrying visitors to your site:

Partially failed link network

The picture may not look exactly the same, and the traffic quantity and quality have changed, but you’re not dead in the water. I know I’m oversimplifying this, but I just want to make the point perfectly clear.  If you play the game purely for SEO, and you lose, you lose everything. If you build something of value that actually attracts visitors and then the rules change, you’ve still built something.

(2) High-Risk or Low-Risk?

The second question you need to ask yourself is: How much risk are you willing to accept? Don’t just smile and nod and tell me about how you’re a “risk-taker” – I’ve heard plenty of people tell their SEO companies to “Go for it!” only to be reduced to sobbing in the corner when their strategy crashed and burned months later. This is a time for brutal honesty. Can you live with the risk of a severe penalty, including being totally removed from the Google index?

High-risk SEO is like high-risk investing – yes, there can be high reward, if you know what you’re doing, but for every 1 winner at this game there are 99 companies that close their eyes, cover their ears, and whistle their way into disaster. If what you’re hearing from your SEO company sounds too good to be true, ask more questions.  As Paddy Moogan’s recent post pointed out, your risk is not someone else’s to take.

To make matters worse, I think that many so-called “black-hat” tactics, and even some gray-hat tactics, are much riskier than they used to be. There was a time when, if you played the game too hard, you got a slap on the wrist and had to start over. You’d be set back a few weeks, but you’d also have made a lot of money in the months leading up to that. I’m not saying it’s right, but let’s at least be honest about the past.

Fast-forward to 2013, and look at an update like Penguin – almost a year after the original Penguin, we’ve still heard very few public recovery stories. The ones I’ve heard in private have almost always involved a massive culling of links (the good with the bad, in many cases) and took months. That’s months with major revenue loss, and this is from big agencies who have resources and connections that many business don’t have access to.

Even semi-innocent tactics have been hit hard. Fairly recently, you could spin out a bunch of city/state pages with a few long-tail keywords and do pretty well. Was it a high-quality tactic? No, but it’s hardly the essence of evil. Worst case, Google would start ignoring those pages, and you’d be out a few days of work. Then, along came Panda, and now your entire site can suffer for quality issues. The price of mistakes is getting higher, and Google is getting more punitive.

I’m not here to tell you what to do, but this is not just a “white-hat” sermon. I’ve studied Google’s movements a lot in the past year, and I sincerely believe that the risk of manipulative tactics has increased dramatically. I also believe that it’s only the beginning. So, if you’re going to play the game, make sure you can afford to lose.

It's almost important to understand that every tactic carries risk, especially if you fail to diversify. When I hear a company say "Our clients are never affected by updates, because we only use Google-approved methods!", then I know that company has only been in business for six months. Sooner or later, white-hat or black-hat, the rules will change. You could be sparkling white and still get hit by things like paid inclusion, SERP layout changes, SERP feature changes, etc. The time for SEO hubris is over.

(3) Short-Term or Long-Term?

Finally, I think you have to consider whether you’re in this for the long haul or just trying to make a short-term play. For example, let’s say you’re building an affiliate site to sell accessories for the Samsung Galaxy S4 (which was just announced while I was writing this post). The smartphone market moves fast, and as an affiliate in this space, you’re facing a few realities:

  • You probably don’t have a lot of money to invest up-front
  • You need to get your traffic rolling quickly
  • Your peak opportunity may only last 6-12 months

Again, I’m not making a moral judgment, but this is a very different kind of business situation, practically speaking. You may not have time to build epic content or spend six months building up a social following, and the consequences of getting burned a year from now may be fairly small. So, if you know your business is short-term, you can take risks that other people can’t.

The problem, I think, is that too many long-term businesses think this way: “I can’t afford to spend money”, “I don’t have time to get moving”, “I need results now!” So, you dive into low-value tactics to get moving quickly and cheaply. Even if you never get smacked down by Google, the reality is that these tactics tend to be short-lived – they fade or burn out, and you’ve got to start again. So, you’re constantly in a cycle of chasing the next low-value trend.

This may be attractive at first, to get out the gate, but over time I think it’s a losing proposition. If you never build anything that lasts, you’re always stuck making repairs. If you invest early, those investments tend to pay out, and you can build on them. I’ve seen this so many times with content over the past few years – I invest in a piece that doesn’t quite live up to my immediate expectations (traffic-wise, social-wise, etc.), and I’m about to throw in the towel, when weeks or months later, it takes off and just keeps running. Once it’s running, you get to go along for the ride. Without that investment, you’re always pushing.

So, What’s Right for You?

I can't tell you how to run your business. I just want you to ask yourself (and your vendors) the hard questions. Are "low-value" tactics actually saving you money? How much risk are you really willing to take? Is your #1 priority to get up and running quickly and cheaply, or are you trying to build a real, long-term business? If the best your provider can do is show you their hat, and they can't help you answer these questions, then move on – it doesn't matter what color that hat is.


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Take a Peek at the President's Trip to the Middle East

The White House Your Daily Snapshot for
Thursday, March 21, 2013
 

Take a Peek at the President's Trip to the Middle East

It's President Obama's second day in the Middle East, during the first foreign trip of his second term. While in the region, he's met with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and today he addressed the Israeli people from Jerusalem, where he spoke about the future of the region: "That is where peace begins – not just in the plans of leaders, but in the hearts of people."

See photos and videos from President Obama's trip to the Middle East.

President Barack Obama is greeted by Israeli President Shimon Peres and members of Hora, a local children's dance troupe, upon his arrival at the President's residence in Jerusalem, March 20, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama is greeted by Israeli President Shimon Peres and members of Hora, a local children's dance troupe, upon his arrival at the President's residence in Jerusalem, March 20, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog:

President Obama Tells Israeli People: The U.S Is Proud to Be "Your Strongest Ally and Your Greatest Friend"
The first stop on President Obama's trip to the Middle East marks the first time the President has visited Israel since taking office, and comes as its citizens celebrate the 65th a
nniversary of a free and independent State of Israel.

Reaffirming the Incredible Bond Between the United States and Ireland
President Obama holds a bilateral meeting with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny at the White House before heading to the Capitol for a St. Patrick's Day Luncheon.

Health Care Law 3rd Anniversary: Paying for Quality Saves Health Care Dollars
On the third anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius lays out some of the ways in which the health reform has lowered costs.

Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

3:20 AM: The President views the Dead Sea Scrolls

3:35 AM: The President visits a technology exposition

5:15 AM: The President participates in an official arrival ceremony

5:30 AM: The President takes a photo with his delegation and President Abbas and his delegation

5:40 AM: The President holds a restricted bilateral meeting with President Abbas

6:25 AM: The President and President Abbas meet for an expanded working lunch

7:15 AM: The President and President Abbas hold a joint press conference

8:25 AM: The President and Prime Minister Fayyad tour the Al-Bireh Youth Center and watch a youth dance performance

8:50 AM: The President holds a roundtable with Palestinian youth

11:00 AM: The President delivers remarks to the Israeli people WhiteHouse.gov/live

11:00 AM: The Vice President joins New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to discuss the importance of passing commonsense legislation to reduce gun violence

12:00 PM: The Vice President delivers remarks at the 2013 Irish America Hall of Fame luncheon at the JW Marriott Essex House hotel

12:10 PM: The President meets with U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv and U.S. Consulate General Jerusalem staff

2:10 PM: The President delivers remarks at a dinner hosted by President Peres

WhiteHouse.gov/live Indicates that the event will be live-streamed on WhiteHouse.gov/Live

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