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miercuri, 15 iunie 2011

President Obama in Puerto Rico: More Than Just History

Your Daily Snapshot for
Wednesday, June 15, 2011

President Obama in Puerto Rico: More Than Just History

Learn more about the trip and see more photos.

President Barack Obama, with Governor Luis Fortuno, First Lady Luce Vela de Fortuno and Rep. Pedro Pierluisi, listen to traditional, instrumental song played by children, on the Interior Patio at La Fortaleza, the official residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, June 14, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

What Makes a Good Corporate Blog Graywolf's SEO Blog

What Makes a Good Corporate Blog

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 10:16 AM PDT

When I talk with new, existing or potential clients about blogging or content marketing strategies, many of them are confused about how to run a good corporate blog. How do they write about things that customers and potential customers will find interesting or link worthy without being too salesy or too pushy. In this post, I’ll take a look at what I consider to be some bad examples and, more importantly, some good examples.

they educate me or make me want to experience something without hard selling me the way a timeshare salesman does …

It’s no secret that I play in the travel space myself and for a few clients, and I read quite a few travel blogs. In my example, one of the worst travel blogs comes from Orbitz. They have post after post filled with nothing but self referential sales posts. Do people want travel deals where they save money? Absolutely. But let’s be honest: the Orbitz posts are hardly deals. IMHO they are a textbook 101 case of brands abusing authority status and wrapping links around unexceptional, thin content.

What’s an example of a good travel blog? British Airways. What makes it good? Posts like this about historic bars in Amsterdam. They do an excellent job of highlighting the reasons why I would want to travel to Amsterdam and what will be interesting and exciting to see when I’m there. Simply put, they educate me or make me want to experience something without hard selling me the way a timeshare salesman does.

It may be easy to romanticize travel to places like Paris, but what if you sell an informational product? Some of my favorite informational blog include 37 signals, GTD Times blog, Evernote, and Trendwatching. In the case of the first three, they mix in posts about life/work organization, optimization, and productivity with some very light selling. Another important aspect of these blogs is the real life examples, case studies, or uses. There’s an old saying, “let one thousand flowers bloom”: in this case, it means that when you let your customers use your products in ways you didn’t expect or intend, sometimes you get amazing results. For example, I doubt Evernote thought a street food cart vendor would use their product when they built it, but the cart vendor did, and Evernote featured it on their blog.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What if you sell a product, a completely boring, unsexy product like flour? Look at what the folks at King Arthur Flour do on their blog. It would be easy to write simple product descriptions and maybe offer a coupon or sale for the product. Instead, they take an educational approach. One of the core concepts of the blog is recipes and showing people how to cook better. Flour is primarily a baking product; however, look around the blog and you can see that they talk about all sorts of recipes, even ones that don’t include flour … like ice cream.

So what are the takeaways from this post on What Makes a Good Corporate Blog:

Use your company blog as a way to reach your customer, not just sell to them.
Use your blog to teach your customers about what they gain by using your product or service.
Show them how your product or service can make their lives better or easier.
Tell a story, don’t just pitch your product.
Don’t be afraid to showcase unusual or unexpected uses.
Educate and inform first, sell as a secondary function.

photo credit: Country Boy Shane

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What Makes a Good Corporate Blog

Seth's Blog : Giving umbrage

Giving umbrage

Funny how umbrage is always taken, but rarely given.

"I can't believe the item they sent me was navy blue! I ordered light blue! I will never, ever buy from them again and I will tell all my friends."

Like little kids begging mom for a treat after a skinned knee, the newly empowered consumer feels compelled to share every slight, no matter how small or how imagined.

The thing is, consumers are complaining to the wrong companies about the wrong things.

Organizations that shut out consumers, politicians that don't listen, companies that are willfully isolated--these folks aren't the ones that get yelled at. So we yell at the few companies that are actually trying and actually listening, rewarding their goodwill with a good public flogging.

It's the long-term ripoffs, the business models built on misleading people and the subtle but serious health and financial threats we ought to be whining about instead.

But, apparently, it's more fun to concentrate on the trivial and give it a good loud vent.

• Email to a friend •

marți, 14 iunie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Wave of Violent Protests, Rioting, Bombings Hits China; Expect More Riots When China's Credit Bubble Pops, Exposing Mountains of Fraud
Small Business Optimism Dips Third Month; Business Owners Cite Lack of Customers, Inflation as Problems; Keynesian Claptrap from Summers
ECB Governor Christian Noyer Warns "Default Would Mean Financing the Entire Greek Economy"; 10-Year Yields at Record High; Emergency Session Underway
Inflation Accelerates in China: CPI +5.5%, Food +11.7%, PPI +6.8%, Fixed Asset Investment +25.4%; Peak Oil Will Slow China

Wave of Violent Protests, Rioting, Bombings Hits China; Expect More Riots When China's Credit Bubble Pops, Exposing Mountains of Fraud

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 09:15 PM PDT

Protests are not uncommon in China. However, most protests have been in rural areas where farmers have had their land stolen by bureaucrats and property developers. The last few weeks have been different. Several large urban areas have seen protests against corruption.

Please consider Wave of Unrest Rocks China

A wave of violent unrest in urban areas of China over the past three weeks is testing the Communist Party's efforts to maintain control over an increasingly complex and fractious society, forcing it to repeatedly deploy its massive security forces to contain public anger over economic and political grievances.

In the latest disturbance, armed police were struggling to restore order in a manufacturing town in southern China Monday after deploying tear gas and armored vehicles against hundreds of migrant workers who overturned police cars, smashed windows and torched government buildings there the night before.

The protests, which began Friday night in Zengcheng, in the southern province of Guangdong, followed serious rioting in another city in central China last week, plus bomb attacks on government facilities in two other cities in the past three weeks, and ethnic unrest in the northern region of Inner Mongolia last month.

Antigovernment protests have become increasingly common in China in recent years, according to the government's own figures, but they have been mainly confined to rural areas, often where farmers have been thrown off their land by property developers and local officials.

The latest unrest, by contrast, involves violent protests from individuals and large crowds in China's cities, where public anger is growing over issues including corruption and police abuses.

Protests in China have been occurring at an increasing rate. This is in spite of the fact the Chinese economy has been growing at 10% a year for a decade.

What happens when China's growth slows to 4%?

Chinese Stock Market Fraud

While pondering implications of slowing growth in China, please consider The big fraud in Chinese stocks by Jim Jubak.

For years, investors in Chinese companies have used the reputations of outside auditors, institutional investors and global investment banks as a proxy for reliable financial reporting. Maybe the disclosed data wasn't always easily understood, transparent or accurate but if a Big Four international accounting firm like Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu signed off on the audit, a big institutional investor like JPMorgan Chase (JPM, news) owned a couple of million shares and an investment bank like Goldman Sachs Group (GS, news) had underwritten the company's initial public offering, the financials had to be OK, right?

Apparently not.

That's what's so depressing, disturbing and disorienting about the fraud recently uncovered at Longtop Financial Technologies (LFT). The company's books were audited by Deloitte, and Longtop still managed to lie about the $332 million in cash it claimed on its balance sheet.

This was no penny stock that duped only unsophisticated individual investors. JPMorgan Chase owned almost 2 million shares that were worth $62 million as of March 31. FMR, which owns the Fidelity mutual fund family, had $261 million invested. Maverick Capital, a hedge fund with $20 billion under management, owned $177 million of Longtop Financial Technologies shares. The lead underwriters on Longtop's 2007 IPO had been Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. In 2009, Morgan Stanley was the lead manager of a sale of more shares.

Since March, more than two dozen companies based in China have disclosed auditor resignations or accounting problems, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC has launched a task force charged with examining accounting at overseas companies listed in the United States.

In other words, Longtop Financial Technologies isn't a bad apple in a barrel of otherwise sound fruit. Instead, it's symptomatic of a big problem that has tainted an entire sector. And because China is too big an economy and too promising a stock market to simply ignore, investors need to figure out how to deal with the problem.

Longtop Financial Daily Chart

Longtop stopped trading May 18. Jubak describes the fraud in great detail in the rest of his post.

Expect Mountains of Fraud

Fraud and credit bubbles go hand-in-hand.

When things are booming, everyone is willing to look away. That's what happened with the US housing bubble as well. Greenspan then Bernanke were both in denial, as was the NAR, real estate flippers, and everyone who stood to profit from the bubble on the long side.

China is currently in the midst of an enormous property bubble and credit bubble, yet some serious cases of fraud have already popped up.

As soon as the Chinese credit bubble implodes, and it will, look for mountains of fraud in the Chinese stock market and the Chinese property market to come to light. Also expect the Chinese Copper Ponzi Financing Trade Gone Wild will implode.

As long as the stock market, the job market, and housing prices hold up, China may be able to contain social unrest. " When China's credit bubble implodes, things will likely be anything but "contained".

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Small Business Optimism Dips Third Month; Business Owners Cite Lack of Customers, Inflation as Problems; Keynesian Claptrap from Summers

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 10:40 AM PDT

In spite of all the yapping about banks not lending to small businesses, only 8% of businesses report getting loans is a problem. In contrast 25% say getting customers is the number one problem. An increasing number of owners cite rising inflation as a problem.

Please consider Small Business Optimism Dips Lower in May

The Index of Small Business Optimism fell 0.3 points in May to 90.9. This month marks the third monthly decline in a row. The proximate cause is the fact that 1 in 4 owners still report weak sales as their top business problem. Consumer spending is weak, especially for "services," a sector dominated by small businesses. the index makes clear that optimism is moving in the wrong direction: a recession-level reading for an economy fighting its way through a recovery. Also, inflation is a growing concern now with 1 in 10 citing this as their most serious business problem meaning cost side pressures coming in the "back door," not rising food prices at home.

"Corporate profits may be at a record high, but businesses on Main Street are still scraping by," said NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg. "Washington is throwing misdirected policies at the problem, offering tax breaks for hiring and equipment investment, but acting surprised when they don't bear any fruit. The failure to understand why small-business owners are not hiring or investing has resulted in a set of policies that have not been very effective, and Main Street is suffering. The icing on the cake: the growing debt, large deficits, threats of higher taxes, regulations being spewed out by state and local administrations, and the uncertainty of the new health care law—is it any wonder that optimism is down?"

Highlights From NFIB Report

Over the next three months, 13% plan to increase employment (down 3 points from April, down 5 points from March), and 8% plan to reduce their workforce (up 2 points), yielding a seasonally adjusted net negative 1% of owners planning to create new jobs.
Only 5% of the owners view the current period as a good time to expand
Fifty percent of firms reported making capital expenditures over the past six months, and the percent of owners planning capital outlays in the next 3 to 6 months fell 1 point to 20%, a recession level reading.
Sales are down; the net percent of all owners (seasonally adjusted) reporting higher nominal sales over the past three months lost 4 percentage points, falling to a net negative 9%, with more firms with sales trending down than up.
92 percent reported that all their credit needs were met or that they were not interested in borrowing. Eight percent reported that not all of their credit needs were satisfied, and 49 percent said they did not want a loan. Three percent reported financing as their #1 business problem
The "feedstock" for inflation continued to grow, with the number of owners actually raising average selling prices reaching a net 15 percent, seasonally adjusted. Thirty-one (31) percent reported raising average selling prices, double the percent cutting prices which suggests that average price levels will be rising, and that is "inflation."
The Federal Reserve protests the notion that QE2 liquidity is driving commodity prices as liquidity scours the world to find a higher return than that offered by banks, but there is a strong correlation between Federal Reserve purchases and commodity prices.

Misguided Policies

Why would you want to expand or hire new employees if your problem is lack of customers?

The answer is you wouldn't and neither will small businesses. Yet Obama attacked the problem in January of 2010 with a $33 billion tax credit proposal.

The administration is floating the idea of tax credits once again on the assumption that Republicans may go for tax cuts. However, tax credits to spur hiring were bad policy in 2010 and they are still bad policy today.

Keynesian Claptrap from Obama's Former Top-Economic Advisor

More government spending and stimulus cannot possibly fix a problem that includes too much government spending and misguided stimulus efforts. Yet that is what Lawrence Summers suggests in How to avoid our own lost decade

This is no time for fatalism or for traditional political agendas. The central irony of financial crisis is that while it is caused by too much confidence, borrowing and lending, and spending, it is only resolved by increases in confidence, borrowing and lending, and spending. Unless and until this is done other policies, no matter how apparently appealing or effective in normal times, will be futile at best.

You have to be a Keynesian nutcase to believe more spending is the solution to problems caused by too much spending. Such policies have never cured one problem in history, yet proponents of such policies never learn.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

ECB Governor Christian Noyer Warns "Default Would Mean Financing the Entire Greek Economy"; 10-Year Yields at Record High; Emergency Session Underway

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 09:24 AM PDT

ECB Governors are pouring on the sap once again today. Mario Draghi, likely the next ECB president opposes steps that aren't "purely voluntary." The irony being there is no such thing at this point of a "pure voluntary" restructuring.

Meanwhile Christian Noyer, warns that a default would mean "financing the entire Greek economy."

Emergency Session Underway as Yields Hit New Record High

Please consider Euro Finance Chiefs Race to Avert Default

Yields on 10-year Greek bonds climbed to 17.46 percent today, a record in the 17-nation euro-area's history, before an emergency session of finance ministers in Brussels.

Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker, who leads the group of euro-area finance ministers, said before the meeting that "all options" will be considered regarding Greece. Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter told reporters that members of the group still differ on a bailout model.

ECB Governing Council member Mario Draghi reiterated that the central bank opposes any steps that aren't "purely voluntary." The "cost of a default would exceed the benefits" and a "default would not address the root causes of the crisis," Draghi told lawmakers in Brussels at his confirmation hearing for the ECB presidency.

Christian Noyer, another ECB Governing Council member, said any attempt by euro-area governments to adjust Greek debt that resulted in a default would mean financing the nation's entire economy.

"Our position is extremely simple: if there is a solution that avoids a risk of default, it seems suitable," Noyer told journalists in Paris today. "If you can't find it, it's better to avoid touching the debt. If despite everything you try to reduce the debt and you provoke a risk of default, you'll have to finance the entire Greek economy."

No other sovereign nation is graded as low as CCC by S&P, a spokesman said by e-mail. Moody Investors Service cut its rating on Greece to Caa1 on June 1, leaving only Ecuador as a worse sovereign risk.

Greek 10-Year Government Bond Yield

The market as well as the S&P have priced in a default. The only people not to recognize a default is coming are the ECB, the IMF, and Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister who is running to head up the IMF.

In spite of what the ECB and IMF says, the world will not end when Greece defaults.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Inflation Accelerates in China: CPI +5.5%, Food +11.7%, PPI +6.8%, Fixed Asset Investment +25.4%; Peak Oil Will Slow China

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 12:13 AM PDT

I keep repeating that those looking for "inflation" where by prices or by credit expansion, need to look at China, not the US. Please consider China's Inflation Accelerates to 5.5%

China's inflation accelerated to the fastest pace in almost three years in May and industrial production rose more than estimates, sustaining pressure for a further interest-rate increase.

The 5.5 percent annual gain in consumer prices matched the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. Production rose 13.3 percent, exceeding a median 13.1 percent forecast. Fixed-asset investment quickened, according to statistics bureau data released in Beijing today.

Food prices rose 11.7 percent from a year earlier as pork and vegetable costs surged.

Inflation has exceeded the Chinese government's 4 percent target each month this year as companies including McDonald's Corp. boost prices. Still, the pace remains the slowest of the so-called BRIC nations, with the latest data showing annual rates of 6.6 percent for Brazil, 9.6 percent for Russia and 8.7 percent for India.

China's producer prices rose a more-than-estimated 6.8 percent in May and non-food inflation accelerated to 2.9 percent, the fastest pace in at least six years, today's data showed.

The increase in industrial output compared with April's 13.4 percent expansion from a year earlier. Retail sales, which are boosted by inflation, rose 16.9 percent after a 17.1 percent gain in April.

Fixed-asset investment excluding rural households expanded 25.8 percent in the first five months of the year, up from 25.4 percent in January-through-April.

Peak Oil Will Slow China

Fixed investment in China is soaring even though infrastructure projects make little to no economic sense. The result is exactly what one would expect: inflation.

However, what cannot go on won't.

Please consider the energy bulletin article China's Energy Future by Robert Rapier.

China uses about two barrels a year of oil per person. In the United States we use 23 barrels of oil per person per year. If China's usage grew to the U.S. equivalent, it would be 85 million barrels a day, which is about the total consumption of oil for the world.

There will be a major disaster long before China consumes anywhere close to that amount. Yet China bulls insist China will keep growing at the same rate. Peak oil says it's not remotely possible.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Damn Cool Pics

Lioness tries to eat human baby at the zoo
War On The Table
Dogs and Sprinklers
Famous People Without Their Signature Facial Hair
Huge Tuna
Taiwan Weather Girls
25 Ugly and Disturbing Animals
Celebrities at Gas Stations
The Walton Sextuplets: Then and Now

Lioness tries to eat human baby at the zoo

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 04:40 PM PDT

Trent the baby nearly ended up as a mid-afternoon snack for Angie, a 400 pound lioness at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Luckily, a thick wall of glass protected little Trent from Angie's jaws and also gave Trent's dad a prime view of the whole adorably scary situation which will no doubt get a mention in this year's Christmas card.

War On The Table

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 04:06 PM PDT

All the models presented at the exhibition "War on the Table" at the Museum of Fine Arts located in Yekaterinburg are handmade. These great models are of German and Soviet WWII vehicles. A lot of small details were meticulously collected together by their authors to impress the visitors. Both adults and children will definitely get pleasure from seeing these small works of art.

Source: wtgm.livejournal

Dogs and Sprinklers

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 01:32 PM PDT

On a hot summer day, there is nothing that a dog likes better than a lawn sprinkler. A dog can have more fun with a lawn sprinkler than anything else. It will provide them with a lot of exercise and also keep them cool. Looks like they are having a blast!

Dog trying to drink from a sprinkler in a park. enjoy.

Famous People Without Their Signature Facial Hair

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 12:45 PM PDT

Ever wonder what ol' Honest Abe looked like without his epic neck beard? Well, stop wondering and check out this BuzzFeed post, which compiles pictures of 15 famous folks both with and without their facial hair. Here are just a few:

Tom Selleck

Abe Lincoln

Fidel Castro

Louis CK

Burt Reynolds

Dr. Phil

Zach Galifianakis

George Lucas

Nick Offerman

ZZ Top

Pat Morita (Mr. Miyagi)

Che Guevara

Luciano Pavarotti

Chuck Norris

Weird Al

Huge Tuna

Posted: 14 Jun 2011 12:32 PM PDT

For 35 year-old local fisherman Eli Saban of Ashdod fishing day ended in a state of shock. Amateur fisherman caught a rare tuna weighing about 150 kg. According to experts, from the Japanese fish market in Tokyo, the fish can be sold for 125,000 dollars. Such a high price due to the fact that this kind of tuna is used only for expensive sushi. So If you caught this tuna and sold it you would probably be able to buy a supercar. So Don't miss them.

Taiwan Weather Girls

Posted: 13 Jun 2011 09:13 PM PDT

Are you having a good weekend? Celebrate this lazy Sunday with Kitty. Maybe a movie later. Meow!

25 Ugly and Disturbing Animals

Posted: 13 Jun 2011 09:00 PM PDT

Who knew there were so many unattractive animals in the world? I would not recommend taking very many of these animals as pets, or at least not showing them off to too many people.

Source: ktla

Celebrities at Gas Stations

Posted: 13 Jun 2011 07:20 PM PDT

Yeah, they do that too… themselves.

Kim Kardashian

Jessica Alba

AnnaLynne McCord

John Mayer

Mischa Barton

Ryan Phillippe

Janice Dickinson

Katie Price

Ellen Pompeo

Scott Disick

Leona Louise

Audrina Patridge

Christian Slater

Breckin Meyer

Vanessa Hudgens

Balthazar Getty

Heather Morris

Phoebe Price

The Walton Sextuplets: Then and Now

Posted: 13 Jun 2011 05:50 PM PDT

The Walton sextuplets were born in Liverpool, England on 18 November 1983 and were the world's first all-female surviving sextuplets, and the world's fourth known set of surviving sextuplets. The children are Hannah, Luci, Ruth, Sarah, Kate and Jenny.

The children were born to Graham and Janet (born 1952) Walton who had been trying to have children for several years and had just been accepted as potential adoptive parents before their thirteenth attempt at fertility treatment bore spectacular results. The children grew up in the family's seven-bedroom home in Wallasey, Merseyside.

But now, after spending much of the past decade out of the limelight to live more privately, the 27-year-olds are all keen to stress their individuality. Two of the sisters, who were born within four minutes of each other on November 18, 1983, are now brunettes. And while the other four still have their blonde locks, there are three different shades between them.

The siblings have also struck out in different directions for their careers, with some working abroad and others taking jobs in the UK. Yet four still live in the eight-bedroom family home in Wallasey, Wirral, with parents Graham and Janet, a fifth will be returning this summer and the sixth lives just down the road.