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sâmbătă, 15 septembrie 2012

The True Power of Evergreen Content - A Case Study

Posted: 14 Sep 2012 03:24 AM PDT

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.

Th True Power of Evergreen Content - A Case Study

There is a very good chance anyone reading this is already familiar with the concept of evergreen content; or content that is perpetually relevant. Most of us have experienced at least one piece of content that holds timeless in the usefulness of its information.

Creating content that is just as useful five years down the road as it was the day it was published is not easy, but it’s possible.

Think of content that is more or less the opposite of news, from a pure informational standpoint this content offers value that will not diminish... at least, not much.

What Makes Content Evergreen?

Evergreen Content Grows It needs to provide information that is not likely to change in the near future, a reference point if you will. When thinking of examples, immediately I think of some ‘How To’ posts:

Certainly these may be very different in 50 years (perhaps even 10 years?), but they offer long term value in terms of information.

These opportunities do not exist within every niche; however, evergreen content doesn’t need to be timeless to be evergreen, at least not in my opinion; it simply needs to stand the tests of time.

I believe if a piece of content is created that is still useful 1+ years later, even if not completely accurate anymore, it can be deemed evergreen – especially if it's related to technology.

Part of building evergreen content is updating it so it stays current and relevant for as long as possible.

Think of:

Now think of a pine tree with no sun or water -- the needles turn brown, become brittle, and eventually fall off and the tree dies. Sustainable content is no different; it requires maintenance to stay alive, to remain useful.

Each of the posts above are updated as soon as new relevant information becomes available to allow the content to better serve its purpose.

When the information starts to grow old (or weak) spend the time, put in the research, and update what is outdated... this is not always possible, but in many cases you can repurpose your content to still serve a valid need.

In this post I hope to provide you with a close look at the true impact of creating evergreen content. We will explore an evergreen library from someone who has put creating evergreen content into practice.

Putting Content to Work For You

Jason Acidre continually leverages his library of evergreen content to consistently acquire new traffic to his website. He has been able to continually send new traffic to his posts years after their initial publication through a combination of inbound marketing channels. The information is researched, accurate, and relevant to his target audience.

This is also a two-way street.

In return for providing value to his audience, Jason gets to reap the benefits of continuous traffic and brand authority growth.

Similar to the above examples, here are some of my favorite pieces of evergreen content:

If you look at Jason’s posts you will notice a plethora of comments, high social share counts, and a natural profile of inbound links. This is due to the specific set of benefits factors offered from his content:

Life-cycle: Pre-established content so all new visitors after initial publication are greeted with existing authority signals: comments, social shares, and high search engine rankings.
Links build on themselves; evergreen content is a source for continued reference and will continually be linked to.
Larger citation potential from press channels if content is in under-served or under-saturated industry
Reference point for future citation on additional articles on same topic or closely related context
Brand establishment and awareness

To consistently drive traffic to evergreen content depends on:

The amount and quality of referring links (particularly linking pages that are also ranking for keywords that have substantial monthly search volume).
If the content/page is ranking for keywords that are generally searched by your target audience.
The page’s ability to attract new traffic through social shares (which mostly involves the title and the body of the content – if it’s compelling, relevant and up to date – as well as the visibility of the social sharing buttons).

Here's an example of one of Jason's posts from last year about eCommerce SEO strategies (first published on March 15, 2011) which has generated 4,556 unique pageviews in the first year:

eCommerce SEO traffic

The content is still continuously attracting natural links to it even after a year… in large part due to

the visibility from readers who have shared the content via social networks and
blogs that have linked to it (even a recent link from SEOmoz).
Google has continually sent search traffic to it as its PA has grown over time.

The traffic to this post nearly doubled in the first 18 months (from March 15, 2011 to August 15, 2012) reaching 8,527 unique pageviews; primarily due to the three factors mentioned above...

eCommerce SEO Strategies Post Traffic 18 months

Whether your traffic is search or referral driven, true evergreen content will continue to organically attract links as it continues to provide value to new readers.

New Traffic to Old Content from Social Shares

Depending on the authority and influence of the people sharing your content, a simple social media share can send large spikes in traffic.

Look at the traffic to this post published a year ago (August 30, 2011) that came six months later when someone shared the link on Pinterest:

Pinterest Traffic Spike

In the above case the largest acquisition of traffic came six months after the post was first published, showing that evergreen content can continue to drive massive amounts of new traffic months or years after they are published.

For instance, another one of Jason's older posts, which also ranked well earlier in 2012 for the search phrase "link prospecting," hit the wire with some momentum; generating 1,796 unique pageviews in its first 30 days.

Traffic First 30 Days

In the following 60 days the post continued to generate impressions at about a 50% reduction, but maintained some momentum, creating another 1,259 unique pageviews:

90 Day post traffic

Continued Ranking Improvements Mean More Traffic

Sometimes when a piece of content adds enough value it will snowball, so as the word spreads, it gains links and popularity and in return increases in search rankings, and traffic continues to build...

In the case below unique pageviews to the post increased by 41.74% in the period from three to six months after publication over the first three months:

Second quarter traffic increase

Link Momentum & Scrapers

Link velocity depends greatly on exposure, as Jason puts it:

"The initial wave of links usually depends on the impact on different social media networks. I have posts that receive 20+ natural, earned links within their first week of publication, like this, this, and this.

I believe the amplification of natural links depends on the exposure received through different traffic channels like social networks, communities and forums, blog/newsletter mentions, and organic rankings."

Here is a chart (extracted with the help of Ahrefs) that shows the link graph for the eCommerce post mentioned earlier:

Link velocity chart

One important item to note on this chart is that the link spike in May 2012 was due to content farms scraping a post from SEOmoz that linked to Jason's post from March 2011.

He believes that "the key" to evergreen content "is to make sure you can continue to satisfy visitor's expectations."

What About Comment Velocity

Comments are often used as a measure of audience engagement, so how do evergreen posts fair in continuing to generate comments?

In Jason's case, they do pretty well.

The majority of comments are received within the first 30 days, but his posts tend to continue to attract comments for the life of the post. Here is an example where the ratio of comments from the first 30 days compared to the next six months is 43:22. Still pretty good...

Social Share Velocity

Share velocity depends greatly on the type of post and the channels it is distributed across.

Using the two posts mentioned before as examples, the 'SEO for eCommerce' post out-performed the 'Link Prospecting' post receiving over 200 retweets in the first two months, since this post was able to gain links that sent traffic from a large number of sources (including SEOmoz).

The link prospecting post still did well, receiving over 100 tweets in the first month, but only around 60 in the second month.

*Rough estimates based on data from Topsy

Evergreen Content for Conversion

Evergreen content has not only helped Jason build his traffic and his brand, it has had a direct impact on his SEO consulting business.

For instance, the eCommerce SEO post assisted with the generation of approximately 14 new service leads, converting readers into prospects at a rate of 1.35%

Evergreen content conversion rate

In Conclusion

Evergreen content is powerful for building a brand, building an audience, and building a business.

Looking at the big picture, evergreen content can be used as a foundation for an overall content strategy to create sustainable traffic, brand growth, and increase the authority of your website.

A big thank you to Jason Acidre for being my study subject and sharing so much of his time and data with me.

Thank you for reading and please share your thoughts in the comments.

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Carrying on the Work of Our Fallen Heroes

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Carrying on the Work of Our Fallen Heroes

President Obama speaks about the tragic loss of four of our fellow Americans who were serving in our diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya. These Americans represented the best of our country; without people like them, we could not sustain our freedoms or security, or provide the leadership that the entire world depends on.

During this time of turmoil in many different countries, the President makes it clear that the United States has a profound respect for people of all faiths, but as Commander in Chief, he will never tolerate efforts to harm our fellow Americans and will ensure that those who attack our people find no escape from justice. Now, we must carry on the work of our fallen heroes by making our country stronger, our citizens safer, and the world a better and more hopeful place.

Watch President Obama's weekly address.

President Barack Obama tapes the weekly Address in the East Room of the White House, Sept. 14, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Sonya N. Hebert)

Weekly Wrap Up

Fallen Diplomats in Benghazi, Libya: On Tuesday, four Americans lost their lives after an attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya. Today, President Obama, Vice President Biden and Secretary Clinton went to Andrews Air Force Base for the Transfer of Remains Ceremony, which marked the return to the United States of the four brave Americans who were killed in the attack.

At the solemn ceremony that honored the fallen diplomats—Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods, Sean Smith and Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens—President Obama paid tribute to four patriots who served their country and share a “fundamental American belief that we can leave this world a little better than before.”

Earlier this week, President Obama, with Secretary of State Hilary Clinton standing alongside, condemned the attack, which he called "outrageous and shocking" in a statement from the Rose Garden.

"We're working with the government of Libya to secure our diplomats," he said. "I've also directed my Administration to increase our security at diplomatic posts around the world. And make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people."

Afterward, President Obama and Secretary Clinton visited the State Department, where the President reiterated again his solidarity with America's diplomats stationed around the world.

For more information:

Read the President’s full remarks from the Transfer of the Remains Ceremony.
Read more about President Obama’s statement on the attack in Benghazi, Libya.
Read President Obama’s remarks on the deaths of U.S. Embassy staff in Libya.
Watch the video of President Obama discussing the attacks on Benghazi, Libya.

September 11 Remembrance: On Tuesday, President Obama and the First Lady marked the eleventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks. They began the day at the White House, observing a moment of silence on the South Lawn just after 8:45 a.m., around the time the first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. Afterward, they traveled to the Pentagon, where the President spoke at a memorial service in honor of those who died there, as well as in New York and Pennsylvania.

Vice President Biden marked the anniversary by traveling to Shanksville, PA, where he delivered remarks at the Flight 93 National Memorial Commemorative Service to honor the passengers and crew who died there 11 years ago. The Vice President told the families who lost loved ones that day that the heroism of their husbands, wives, sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers would never be forgotten.

Team USA Visits the White House: Today, the President and First Lady welcomed the 2012 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams to the White House to honor their participation and success in this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. President Obama told the athletes that they “could not have been better ambassadors and better representatives for the United States and what we stand for.”

For more information:

Read more about Team USA's visit to the White House.
Check out the photo gallery of the First Lady at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Read more about the First Lady’s experience at the Olympic Games.

Rosh Hashanah: At sundown this Sunday, the Jewish community will celebrate the start of the new year. Watch President Obama’s Rosh Hashanah message.

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Seth's Blog : Six audiences

Six audiences

You get what you focus on. Focus on nothing, and you won't get much.

The successful organization can be focused on any of these constituencies (a partial list):

The sales force
the stock market
potential new customers
existing customers
employees or
the regulators.

Many companies are sales-force driven. When the salesforce is happy, the CEO is happy.

Others organizations are driven by the daily (or hourly) stock price. The company is run to please Wall Street.

You can choose to focus your best work on attracting new customers. This evangelical growth model is going to change your pricing and your product development efforts too.

Contrast this with the organization that puts a priority on delighting existing customers. This will refocus a non-profit on doing work that gets existing donors to up their commitment, for example. It changes the way you talk (more depth) and what you make.

Pleasing employees, of course, might help with any of these constituencies, but also changes how you make difficult decisions.

And finally, if the lawyers have enough sway, you might make your hardest decisions around what you think a regulator will say.

There are also ego choices, like focusing on the media or your neighbors or the competition. And political choices, like focusing on what makes one department head happy... but those are much harder to turn into successful enterprises.

Every organization chooses its own audience, and that choice is based on the architecture of the industry, the mindset of the boss and the history of how you got here. But don't doubt that it changes everything you do.

• Email to a friend •

vineri, 14 septembrie 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

ECRI's Lakshman Achuthan Says US in Recession Now; That Makes Three of Us
House Approves Sweeping, Warrantless Electronic Spy Powers; "The Program"; Are Your Emails Being Monitored? Mine Likely Are
Reader Comments on Italy's Insane Labor Rules

ECRI's Lakshman Achuthan Says US in Recession Now; That Makes Three of Us

Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:34 PM PDT

Lakshman Achuthan, CEO of ECRI says the US recession started in June.

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Lakshman Achuthan, chief operations officer of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, talks about the U.S. economy. Achuthan speaks with Tom Keene and Sara Eisen on Bloomberg Television's "Surveillance." Julian Callow, chief international economist at Barclays Capital, also speaks.

In the interview above, Julian Callow at Barclays made the statement he did not think the US was in recession because the unemployment rate was trending down.

Callow is clearly not digging into the numbers and/or Callow simply fails to understand how the household survey even works (and it is the household survey that established the unemployment rate).

Yes, Virginia, It's a Recession

Ironically, two consecutive horrendous household surveys following months of weak regional Fed manufacturing surveys was enough for me to say on September 7, 2012 Yes, Virginia, It's a Recession.

Quick Notes About the Unemployment Rate

US Unemployment Rate -.2 to 8.1%

This month the number of people employed fell by 119,000.

In the last two months, the number of people employed fell by 314,000!

In the last year, the civilian population rose by 3,695,000. Yet the labor force only rose by 971,000.

This month the Civilian Labor Force fell by 368,000.

Last month, those "not" in the labor force increased by 348,000 to 88,340,000, another record high.

This month we set another record high with a whopping 581,000 dropping out of the labor force. If you are not in the labor force, you are not counted as unemployed.

In the last year, those "not" in the labor force rose by 2,723,000

Over the course of the last year, the number of people employed rose by 2,347,000.

Participation Rate fell .02 to 63.5%;

There are 8,031,000 workers who are working part-time but want full-time work, a decrease of 215,00. This one the only bright spot in the report.

Long-Term unemployment (27 weeks and over) was 5.033 million a decline of 152,000 (likely an artifact of the decline in the labor force).

Were it not for people dropping out of the labor force, the unemployment rate would be well over 11%.

Over the past several years people have dropped out of the labor force at an astounding, almost unbelievable rate, holding the unemployment rate artificially low. Some of this was due to major revisions last month on account of the 2010 census finally factored in. However, most of it is simply economic weakness.

In response to that weakness the Fed responded with Panic! and I repeated my statements on employment and unemployment.

I am going to reiterate my belief that the household survey tends to lead and today's panic suggests the Fed believes that as well.

Here are two key Household Survey figures.

In the last two months employment dropped by 314,000.

In the last two months the labor force fell by 518,000 while those not in the labor force rose by an amazing 929,000!

Household Survey Data

click on chart for sharper image

In the last year, the civilian population rose by 3,695,000. Yet the labor force only rose by 971,000.

Those not in the labor force rose by 2,723,000 to yet another record high 88,921,000.

That is an amazing "achievement" to say the least, and one that has the Fed in panic mode.

That Makes Three of Us

John Hussman announced on September 10, 2012 in Late-Stage, High-Risk "I continue to believe that the U.S. joined an unfolding global recession, most probably in June of this year."
Lakshman Achuthan stated on September 13, 2012 he thought the recession had started (not just one was coming)
I stated the same thing on September 7, 2012 but that does not necessarily make me first. I have not seen everything this group has said, and there could be others as well.

Regardless, it's a small group, and if I am wrong I am in good company. We may not know for another six months. It's in the hands of the NBER.

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

House Approves Sweeping, Warrantless Electronic Spy Powers; "The Program"; Are Your Emails Being Monitored? Mine Likely Are

Posted: 14 Sep 2012 09:35 AM PDT

Is the government watching your emails?

They are probably watching mine. The House just approved extending an eavesdropping bill another five years. The National Security Agency is collecting a staggering amount of Americans' conversations, but only examining a small slice of them, or so they say.

The bill specifically allows eavesdropping without cause, if the government believes the conversation is with someone who lives outside the US.

Since I exchange emails with people from all over the world, the government probably has a huge file on "Mish".

Worse yet, the Government's amazing interpretation of "out of the country" applies to anyone in the country as long as the government is doing so on grounds they are looking for al-Qaida.

So if you are Muslim, Jewish, or in any other targeted religious or ethnic group, everything you do or say is probably in a government file somewhere.

"The Program"

The New York Times Op-Ed "The Program" shows a video from The filmmaker Laura Poitras profiles William Binney, a 32-year veteran of the National Security Agency who helped design a top-secret program he says is broadly collecting Americans' personal data.

I have been detained at the border more than 40 times. Once, in 2011, when I was stopped at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and asserted my First Amendment right not to answer questions about my work, the border agent replied, "If you don't answer our questions, we'll find our answers on your electronics."' As a filmmaker and journalist entrusted to protect the people who share information with me, it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to work in the United States. Although I take every effort to secure my material, I know the N.S.A. has technical abilities that are nearly impossible to defend against if you are targeted.

The 2008 amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which oversees the N.S.A. activities, are up for renewal in December. Two members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, both Democrats, are trying to revise the amendments to insure greater privacy protections. They have been warning about "secret interpretations" of laws and backdoor "loopholes" that allow the government to collect our private communications. Thirteen senators have signed a letter expressing concern about a "loophole" in the law that permits the collection of United States data. The A.C.L.U. and other groups have also challenged the constitutionality of the law, and the Supreme Court will hear arguments in that case on Oct. 29.

Laura Poitras is a documentary filmmaker who has been nominated for an Academy Award and whose work was exhibited in the 2012 Whitney Biennial. She is working on a trilogy of films about post-9/11 America. This Op-Doc is adapted from a work in progress to be released in 2013.

Loopholes Widened, Warrantless Electronic Spy Powers Approved

Wired reports House Approves Sweeping, Warrantless Electronic Spy Powers.

The House on Wednesday reauthorized for five years broad electronic eavesdropping powers that legalized and expanded the George W. Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program.

The FISA Amendments Act, which is expiring at year's end, allows the government to electronically eavesdrop on Americans' phone calls and e-mails without a probable-cause warrant so long as one of the parties to the communication is believed outside the United States. The communications may be intercepted "to acquire foreign intelligence information."

The government has also interpreted the law to mean that as long as the real target is al-Qaida, the government can wiretap purely domestic e-mails and phone calls without getting a warrant from a judge. That's according to David Kris, a former top anti-terrorism attorney at the Justice Department.

The government does not have to identify the target or facility to be monitored. It can begin surveillance a week before making the request, and the surveillance can continue during the appeals process if, in a rare case, the secret FISA court rejects the surveillance application. The court's rulings are not public.

The vote was 301-118 in favor of passage, with 111 Democrats and seven Republicans voting no.

According to one former Justice Department official, the FISA Amendments Act gives the government nearly carte blanche spying powers.

The National Security Agency told lawmakers that it would be a violation of Americans' privacy to disclose how the measure is being used in practice. The NSA said the "NSA leadership agreed that an IG (Inspector General) review of the sort suggested would further violate the privacy of U.S. persons."

Got That?

Please read the last paragraph above carefully.

Spying on people is not an invasion of privacy, but somehow disclosing the number of people being spied upon, as well as how they are being spied upon is an invasion of privacy.

Any legislator voting for this preposterous act is unfit for public office in my opinion. Trashing the US constitution in this manner is not acceptable.

Addendum:

Note to All Facebook Users: If you have not yet voted for your favorite charity (it costs nothing to vote), please do so. Chase is giving away $5 million to charity, and I have a cause that I support.

Please click on this this link: Facebook Users, I Have a Favor to Ask, then follow the instructions.

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

Reader Comments on Italy's Insane Labor Rules

Posted: 14 Sep 2012 12:31 AM PDT

In response to Why OMT Cannot Possibly Solve Anything; Italy's Insane Labor Rules, I received a nice email from reader Andrea who is from Italy but now lives in France.

Hi Mish,

I read with great interest your post on this topic and as you can imagine (probably expect) I have some comments to offer.

Your article is totally correct except for minor, insignificant details.

Amazingly, the Wall Street Journal report you cite actually underestimates (yes, under!) the burden of bureaucracy that Italian entrepreneurs have to deal with, and the time they spend with it.

Italian entrepreneurs are heroes. They have many problems:

Very high cost of energy

Lack of infrastructure (bad roads for example)

Massive bureaucracy

Civil justice system completely dysfunctional (I do not have exact figures but the average delay to end a civil judgement is much above the European average)

Public administration pays invoices with huge delay

High pressure from criminal organizations in some parts of Italy

Lack of financing

Very complex and sometimes contradictory laws

High level of corruption within public administration and politics

Article 18, a section of the Workers Statute makes layoffs for economic reasons very, very difficult and it is applicable to companies that have 15 or more employees.

This is a major reason why Italian companies have so few employees. The other one is that Italian company are mainly family run.

However, there is a workaround (be aware that Italians always have workarounds!) and the workaround explains the preponderance of micro-companies.

Many people today are hired with temporary contracts. With "projects contracts" the worker is not on the payroll of the company: rather the worker appears as a "consultant", hired for a certain period and has (in many cases) his "VAT number" to invoice the employer.

Contract work has much lower social protections and is widely spread among the youngest people.

That said, Italians entrepreneurs are heroes, because most of the small ones in the most competitive and unprotected environments put mortgages on their homes to get financing to make their companies survive during this period.

Despite the business-hostile environment, Italy is the third leading exporting country in Europe, behind only Germany and France.

Germany Exports
France Exports
Italy Exports

Put Italian entrepreneurs in a business-friendly environment and they will create great companies and great value, as they did after WWII.

Best regards,

Andrea

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

Damn Cool Pics

Top 5 Most Amazing Feats of Ancient Engineering [Infographic]
GoPro Camera Stolen By A Seagull
Funny Video Game Photos

Top 5 Most Amazing Feats of Ancient Engineering [Infographic]

Posted: 14 Sep 2012 11:20 AM PDT

Want to build a giant stone structure? That's no problem thanks to today's heavy equipment and modern building practices. But imagine the work that went into building some of the engineering wonders of the ancient world. Engineering Management show us five of the most amazing feats of ancient engineering.

Click on Image to Enlarge.

Top 5 Most Amazing Feats of Ancient Engineering

GoPro Camera Stolen By A Seagull

Posted: 13 Sep 2012 07:47 PM PDT

French tourist Nathalie Rollandin was filming the sunset over the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, when suddenly, a thieving seagull snatches her camera and flies away with it.