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luni, 27 iunie 2011

Seth's Blog : A relentless race to the bottom

A relentless race to the bottom

They're shutting down Jimmy Wang's store. Shutting down a succesful little business.

Walgreen's is moving into town, my town, a town with three or four small drugstores and plenty of places to buy stale cookies, thank you very much.

I've written about Brother's market before, an anchor in my little town. The only place to get hand-picked fresh food, pretty much, and the sort of market you could imagine moving to town just to be near. Remember those little markets where they actually care about the produce they sell? In a world filled with bitter cash register jockeys, Brother's was different. A smiling face, a family member mentioned, a don't-worry-about-the-pennies sort of interaction.

I've probably shopped there a thousand times, and every single time it brought a smile to my face.

The problem is that while Brother's was in a race to the top, a race to create more and better interactions, Walgreen's is in a race to the bottom. They exist to extract the last penny from every bit of real estate they can control. That's the deal they made with their shareholders.

The landlord who owns this land lives in another state. He doesn't care. He can ignore the protests and the petitions.

And Walgreen's won't even notice the community outrage. We can write letters or call or boycott the new store (or all their stores) and the local manager, the local region manager, the state-level manager, the head of store operations--none of them care, of course, because it's just a job to them.

Real estate is the soul killer here. You can't have a beloved local market and a public drugstore chain occupying the very same spot. Pundits like me can talk all we want about being remarkable, about leading and about making connections, but when a public company wants your spot, when it can extract a few extra pennies per square foot, you lose.

The internet has opened the door for millions of businesses to do things differently, because there are other assets now, assets that can transcend location. Your permission to talk to customers, your reputation, your unique products--you can build a business around them online. But that doesn't work so well if you depend on local (and leased) real estate, if you're selling watercress or radishes, apparently.

One by one, store by store, the chains expand, earning a few more dollars a share and further insulating themselves from the communities they used to serve. No, my neighbors and I don't need another drugstore, we have plenty. That's not going to change Walgreen's mind, and it's not going to help Jimmy and his team, either. My heart goes out to them. Thanks for everything you did for our community, guys.

The race to the top continues. It's just a lot harder if you have a landlord.

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Robert Sheinbein Talks About LinkWheels Graywolf's SEO Blog

Robert Sheinbein Talks About LinkWheels

Posted: 27 Jun 2011 07:12 AM PDT

The following is a sponsored post for Linkwheel.

For today’s post we’re going to be talking to Robert Sheinbein of LinkWheel.net, Hi Rob for my readers who don’t know you can you tell us a little about yourself and experience in the world of internet marketing.

Hi. I’m Robert Sheinbein, and I have a host of websites that deal with various aspects of the internet. Some of my best-known sites are Oilchange.com (which is a premium website design company), ekonline.com, and SEO services like linkwheel.net and madcontent.com. We’re based out of Canada, and have offices in the USA and in India. We have been into the creative side of the internet for quite a while now, and clients have always asked us if we can also help optimize their websites. That is how we got into SEO, and both our SEO sites are leaders in their own niches.

SEO is a complex discipline, in your opinion, what are some of the top things that site owners should focus on right now?

You’re absolutely right! We have worked with many clients over the last 2 years. Sadly, we see that most of these people don’t have an idea about SEO. They just come up and say ‘If I pay you this much, can you get me onto the first page of Google?’. Their on-site optimization is shabby, and a significant percentage of these websites will never rank. People should understand that a website is an asset. Like any other asset, it should build with time, and the value should enhance. Starting a new website just because it costs just $10 won’t serve a purpose. Site owners should have their home work done right. The exact keywords they want to focus on should be a part of their on-page strategy. Once the site is indexed by search engines with those keywords, whatever else is done off-page will yield results. And people should be very wary of SEO which ‘brings your site to page #1 instantly’!! Once a Google ban comes, like the Google Panda Update, it is effectively the end of the website!

It’s also important that anyone involved in SEO stay abreast of current changes, like the recent Panda update. When we spoke initially you mentioned how LinkWheel made some changes to your product can you tell my readers what some of those changes where and why you think they where important.

We have been building LinkWheels for several years. LinkWheel.net has been #1 on Google for over 2 years now, and like I said earlier, we worked with thousands of sites. All this while, we have been fine-tuning our offering to get best results for our customers. After the Panda Update, we decided to revamp everything on our site, and we rebuilt our existing packages from the ground up. So compared to three months ago, nothing on our site is the same! We have decided to give extra teeth to our packages, and you will now notice a much more rounded SEO package – with Web 2.0 properties, Article Submissions, Press Releases, Social Bookmarking, Videos, and Backlinks. And we have noticed that the results are much more pronounced now. Like always, we only use unique content written by people in-house, and the Panda update has only vindicated our strategy to stick to unique content. Earlier, people came to us to buy a LinkWheel, and went elsewhere for other SEO services – or they tried to do it themselves. But now, these are inclusive packages targeting all areas of optimization.

In the early days of SEO people where concerned with on page tactics, then we moved to off page tactics and link building, where do you think things stand now.

Good that you brought this up. I feel the real mistake we all did was to move completely away from on page strategies. When off page really took off a few years ago, everyone quit the on page bandwagon and shifted to sites which got put up in a few hours, and then paid consultants to get them to the top of search engines with off-page strategies. It could be possible to come ahead on search engines, but that result won’t stay – especially after the Panda update. Even if people use WordPress or any other readymade tool to launch their website, they should make sure that they first focus is on-page. If that is done well, the off-page results will be much more pronounced, and will last longer.

While search engines may be looking for additional signals, links are always going to be part of the ranking algorithm, what are some link building aspects or tips you think will be effective and have the most influence on increasing rankings.

You’re right. Link Building will always remain one of the most integral aspects of SEO. But building links just for the sake of a number isn’t going to cut it any more. Experts already know that just backlinks are not going to work. Sadly, many SEO companies choose to hide that strategy from their customers. Building backlinks on auto pilot will fade out. We’ll go back to the old days once more – where links are created by hand. Either on blogging platforms, or directories, or bookmarking sites, or on blogs as comments. Niche is the ‘in’ thing, and the next big thing will be local search. So backlinks relevant to the niche will be ranked much higher. It is a good trend that we are moving away from quantity to quality. For instance, our Orbit Package comes with about 75 direct links, and is worth much more than several thousand ordinary backlinks. The results are much better, and are almost permanent in nature.

Let’s switch gears to social media for a moment, while there’s lots of talk about social media in general the two biggest sites everyone talks about are Twitter and Facebook. How important do you think it is to integrate them into your overall marketing strategy.

Social Media has become mana for most of the businesses today. With time, it’ll settle down, and something else will come up But you’re right – integrating FaceBook and Twitter into a marketing campaign is absolutely necessary. Every business owner wants a connect with his visitors and customers, and there is no better way to do that. And since both of these (and YouTube) are viral, they are very real sources of genuine traffic. The good thing is that most businesses today have the presence of mind to use these tools. But creating accounts is not going to be enough – especially for new-age businesses which thrive online. It is necessary that they spend quality time on them too.

Let’s look into the future, what do you think are some things that are on the horizon that will have a big effect on the internet marketing industry and people should be paying attention to?

Local Search is going to become big. Online Businesses will see that they will be competing with businesses from the real world – in real time! So gearing up for that should be the way forward for all entities online. The online traffic will get more meaningful. People will start spending higher monies online, and partnerships will pave the way forward. Integration with all kinds of convenience options – including payment gateways, shopping carts, logistics sites, and Social Media is going to decide which sites will make it and which will go out of business. With regard to SEO, several gray practices will get weeded out. The future search position leaders are going to be websites which use genuine white hat practices. So if sites are still stuck with their old SEO consultants who tell them that buying a million backlinks is the way forward, it is time for them to change their SEO provider

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions today, since you’ve been kind enough to spend your time answering them, why don’t you take this opportunity to tell people about your company, and the services you offer

It has been a pleasure! I hope your visitors will find this information of some use. And yes, the two pillars of SEO continue to be top quality content, and high quality backlinks. Our websites www.madcontent.com and www.linkwheel.net cater to both those needs respectively. We always work hard to keep our offerings very competitive, and we firmly believe that SEO budgets should not get out of hand! People should spend wisely, and calculate their ROI on SEO spending. Our prices are very good! In addition to that, we have a special offer for visitors of Wolf Howl – pick any package from www.linkwheel.net, and just enter the code ‘20SPECIAL‘ while checking out. That instantly activates a 20% discount! We look forward to helping your visitors get ahead on SERPs. Cheers!

The preceding has been a sponsored post. Find out more information about sponsored posts.

photo credit: Photospin

Andrew Wise of SEOLinkWheelers Talks About the Panda Update The following is a sponsored post. For today’s post we’re...
We Don’t Need Less Robert Scoble We Just a More Filtered and Relevant One Vanessa recently spoke about Twitter By Phone, Now With Default...
Hey Robert Scoble and Seth Godin Did You Forget Something So Seth Godin and Robert Scoble talk about a video...
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Thanks to This Month’s Sponsors May 2011 I’d like to say thanks to the people who sponsored...

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Robert Sheinbein Talks About LinkWheels

Photo of the Day: President Obama greets the troops

Your Daily Snapshot for
Monday, June 27, 2011

Photo of the Day: President Obama greets the troops

President Barack Obama jokes with military personnel along a tarmac rope line before boarding Air Force One at Pittsburgh International Airport in Pittsburgh, Pa., June 24, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Seth's Blog : Writing naked (nakeder than Orwell)

Writing naked (nakeder than Orwell)

Here are Orwell's rules, edited:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. You don't need cliches.

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do. Avoid long words.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active. Write in the now.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. When in doubt, say it clearly.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. Better to be interesting than to follow these rules.

The reason business writing is horrible is that people are afraid.

Afraid to say what they mean, because they might be criticized for it.

Afraid to be misunderstood, to be accused of saying what they didn't mean, because they might be criticized for it.

Orwell was on the right track. Just say it. Say it clearly. Say it now. Say it without fear of being criticized and say it without being boring.

If the goal is no feedback, then say nothing. Don't write the memo.

If the goal is to communicate, then say what you mean.

My best tip is this: buy a cheap digital recorder. Say what you want to say, as if the person you seek to persuade is standing there, listening. Then type that up. Simplify. Send.

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duminică, 26 iunie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

French Bank "Partial" 70% Greek Debt Rollover Proposal is Complete "Voluntary" Insanity
Geithner Says Taxes on Small Business Must Rise So Government Doesn’t Shrink; Mish's Five Point Alternative Proposal
China Rebuilds San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Pledges More Support for European Debt, Fuels Latin-America Debt Rally by Financing Ecuador Budget

French Bank "Partial" 70% Greek Debt Rollover Proposal is Complete "Voluntary" Insanity

Posted: 26 Jun 2011 04:45 PM PDT

Supposedly we are to believe that a rollover of Greek debt would be voluntary.

Bear in mind that that rating agencies have said such rollovers would constitute default. Nonetheless, and in a preposterous attempt to avoid reality, French Banks Said to Offer 70% Greek Government Debt Rollover

French banks, including BNP Paribas (BNP) SA, have told the French government they are willing to partly roll over maturing Greek government bonds in a bid to avoid a default by the debt-laden nation, three people familiar with the plan said yesterday.

Under the proposal discussed in recent days between the French Banking Federation and the French Treasury, bondholders would re-invest about 70 percent of Greek sovereign debt maturing from mid-2011 to mid-2014, said one of the people directly involved with the talks.

Fifty percent of the redemptions would go into 30-year Greek securities, with the remaining 20 percent invested in a fund made of "very-high quality" securities that would back the 30-year bonds, that person said. The proposal may be altered, he said. All three people spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are ongoing and private.

The idea of a voluntary rollover of Greek debt is in and of itself ridiculous.

Now, French banks want to roll over 70% of the debt, dumping the rest of it it for whatever prices they can get, and have that rollover be considered voluntary.

Is this preposterous or what?

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

Geithner Says Taxes on Small Business Must Rise So Government Doesn’t Shrink; Mish's Five Point Alternative Proposal

Posted: 26 Jun 2011 03:30 AM PDT

Sometimes you see a headline so silly you have to wonder if it is really accurate. Please consider this headline of an exchange between first-term Rep. Renee Ellmers (R.-N.C.) and the Secretary of the Treasury: "Geithner: Taxes on Small Business Must Rise So Government Doesn't Shrink"

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the House Small Business Committee on Wednesday that the Obama administration believes taxes on small business must increase so the administration does not have to "shrink the overall size of government programs."

The administration's plan to raise the tax rate on small businesses is part of its plan to raise taxes on all Americans who make more than $250,000 per year—including businesses that file taxes the same way individuals and families do.

Geithner's explanation of the administration's small-business tax plan came in an exchange with first-term Rep. Renee Ellmers (R.-N.C.). Ellmers, a nurse, decided to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010 after she became active in the grass-roots opposition to President Barack Obama's proposed health-care reform plan in 2009.

When Ellmers finally told Geithner that "the point is we need jobs," he responded that the administration felt it had "no alternative" but to raise taxes on small businesses because otherwise "you have to shrink the overall size of government programs"—including federal education spending.

Mr. Secretary, You are Wrong

Ellmers ended the exchange with this statement "Mr. Secretary I would just like to close by saying, On behalf of the business owners in North Carolina and across the country, you are wrong".

Geithner worries we may have to "shrink the overall size of government programs."

Good grief. The first and foremost thing this country needs to do is dramatically shrink the overall size of government. The way to do that is easy:

Slash military spending by at least 33%
Cut wages and benefits of government employees
Reduce the number of government jobs
Get rid of needless programs including the department of energy, HUD, FHA, and the department of education
Scrap Davis-Bacon and all prevailing wage laws that drive up expenses for federal, state, and local governments

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

China Rebuilds San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Pledges More Support for European Debt, Fuels Latin-America Debt Rally by Financing Ecuador Budget

Posted: 26 Jun 2011 02:34 AM PDT

China has its fingers in nearly every aspect of global financing as the following articles show.

San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Now Made in China

The New York Times reports Bridge Comes to San Francisco With a Made-in-China Label

At left: The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The replacement eastern span is on the right, with the city of San Francisco beyond. Photo by Jim Wilson/The New York Times

SHANGHAI — Talk about outsourcing.

Next month, the last four of more than two dozen giant steel modules — each with a roadbed segment about half the size of a football field — will be loaded onto a huge ship and transported 6,500 miles to Oakland. There, they will be assembled to fit into the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge.

The project is part of China's continual move up the global economic value chain — from cheap toys to Apple iPads to commercial jetliners — as it aims to become the world's civil engineer.

The assembly work in California, and the pouring of the concrete road surface, will be done by Americans. But construction of the bridge decks and the materials that went into them are a Made in China affair. California officials say the state saved hundreds of millions of dollars by turning to China.

"They've produced a pretty impressive bridge for us," Tony Anziano, a program manager at the California Department of Transportation, said a few weeks ago.

On the reputation of showcase projects like Beijing's Olympic-size airport terminal and the mammoth hydroelectric Three Gorges Dam, Chinese companies have been hired to build copper mines in the Congo, high-speed rail lines in Brazil and huge apartment complexes in Saudi Arabia.

In New York City alone, Chinese companies have won contracts to help renovate the subway system, refurbish the Alexander Hamilton Bridge over the Harlem River and build a new Metro-North train platform near Yankee Stadium. As with the Bay Bridge, American union labor would carry out most of the work done on United States soil.

The new Bay Bridge, expected to open to traffic in 2013, will replace a structure that has never been quite the same since the 1989 Bay Area earthquake. At $7.2 billion, it will be one of the most expensive structures ever built. But California officials estimate that they will save at least $400 million by having so much of the work done in China.

There is much more in the 2-page story including protests by US steelworker unions and charges of poor-quality Chinese steel.

As a testament to the the current sad state of US manufacturing, the project director claims "Most U.S. companies don't have these types of warehouses, equipment or the cash flow. The Chinese load the ships, and it's their ships that deliver to our piers."

China Pledges Continued Support for European Debt

The Wall Street Journal reports China Pledges Continued Support for European Debt

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Saturday said China will continue to buy euro-denominated bonds to support Europe, in China's latest public endorsement of the efforts to contain a potential debt crisis in the common currency area.

"China has been a heavy investor in the euro sovereign-debt market," Mr. Wen said at a news briefing. "We have bought a lot of euro bonds over the past years and we will continue to support Europe and the euro."

"China is ready to seize the opportunity together with its European partners, tackling challenges and driving development to support the quickest possible recovery of the global economy and stable growth," he said.

Analysts believe about two-thirds of China's reserves is invested in dollar assets, mostly Treasury debt. Chinese officials have said frequently in recent years that they want to diversify their holdings, but there are few other asset classes that can absorb investments on such a huge scale.

In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said China will double its trading volume with the country to US$20 billion by 2015. China will also establish a European logistics and transport hub in Hungary, in line with Hungary's earlier hopes to become a European hub for China as a logistics and commercial distribution center.

"Talks today showed that China indeed would like to transport through that hub," Mr. Orban said.

Debt Rally in Latin America Fueled by China

Bloomberg reports China Lifts Latin America's Best Debt Funding Ecuador Budget

Ecuador's bonds are rewarding investors with the best performance in Latin America as Chinese loans and higher oil prices boost confidence in the economy two years after the country defaulted on $3.2 billion in debt.

Ecuadorean dollar debt has returned 13 percent this year, compared with 5.2 percent for Latin American sovereigns on average, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Yields on bonds due 2015 fell 238 basis points, or 2.38 percentage points, this year to 9.59 percent. Similar maturity Brazilian bonds yield 1.9 percent, down 97 basis points from the end of December.

Loans from China that Ecuador says will reach at least $3 billion in 2011 and the government's forecast for oil revenue to exceed the budgeted amount by $601 million are reassuring investors that South America's seventh-biggest economy will keep servicing its debt, said Richard Francis, an analyst at Standard & Poor's in New York. Government investment and consumption are driving the economy's 12th straight year of expansion, he said.

"China is providing substantial financing that's letting the government invest a lot more," Francis said in a telephone interview. "This year and next year there's no problem."

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

Seth's Blog : The ethics of sunscreen

The ethics of sunscreen

Here's a perfect test case for thinking about consumer marketing and ethics. (I'm more interested in the structure of the problem than I am in sunscreen in particular). The question is: should a company do whatever it can to make a short-term profit, or should it work to do the right thing?

Sunscreen has no purpose other than to avoid both a burn and skin cancer. It doesn't bring social status, the joy of application or any placebo benefits with it. It either delivers a medical benefit or it doesn't.

For a decade, sunscreen marketers have been arguing with the FDA about labeling and formulation rules. Largely, they've been pushing for less regulation, particularly in labeling. While this is going on, more than 80,000 people have died of skin cancer in the US.

There are plenty of ways to rationalize false marketing claims (hey, at least they'll use something...) but it's pretty clear that marketers have done little to educate the public about what's going on (did you know that 95% of the radiation that hits us is cancer-causing and skin-aging UVA, the kind that SPF has no relevance to?)

New regulations were recently announced, though it's not surprising that many think the regs were watered down as a result of lobbying.

It turns out that in the US, sunscreens have been extraordinarily over-hyped, with variations being called 'waterproof, 'full spectrum' and 'effective' without being any of these. You need to use a lot more, and a lot more often, than the labels currently indicate. Marketers would prefer a magic bullet, as it's easier to sell, but sunscreen doesn't work that way. It's not easy to make an effective sunscreen, and so competitors with lesser products have hyped them with false or irrelevant claims. (SPF 120 anyone?)

Here are the two questions that occur to me:

How can consumers look at this example and not believe that the regulation of marketing claims is the only way to insulate consumers from short-term selfish marketers in search of market share, marketers who will shade the truth, even if it kills some customers?

and

Why aren't ethical marketers (of any product) eager to have clear and well-defined regulations, creating a set of honest definitions so that they can actually do what they set out to do--make a difference and make a living at the same time? If you're busy competing against people willing to cut corners, I'd think you'd want the rules to be really aggressive, clear and obvious.

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luni, 27 iunie 2011

Seth's Blog : A relentless race to the bottom

A relentless race to the bottom

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Robert Sheinbein Talks About LinkWheels Graywolf's SEO Blog

Robert Sheinbein Talks About LinkWheels Graywolf's SEO Blog

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Photo of the Day: President Obama greets the troops

Seth's Blog : Writing naked (nakeder than Orwell)

Writing naked (nakeder than Orwell)

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duminică, 26 iunie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Seth's Blog : The ethics of sunscreen

The ethics of sunscreen

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luni, 27 iunie 2011

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