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luni, 6 septembrie 2010

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

Posted: 05 Sep 2010 04:31 PM PDT

Today, I want to share two pieces of advice that are particularly useful to certain types of business - and will be exceptionally quick to implement. I've also created a free download that might help some people implement one of these ideas even more quickly.

About two years ago, I made a recommendation to a client in the UK, and I've just seen it used by a hotel in the USA. If your business offers public computers with internet access - such as those in hotel lobbies, libraries, etc - this is for you:

Tip 1: Put up a sign, next to your public computers, with a call to action; typically this could be something like 'Find us on Facebook' or 'Follow us on Twitter'.

Here's such a poster in use, at the Ledgestone Hotel in Yakima. (Click the image to embiggen.)

Sadly, it doesn't look like the Ledgestone is doing much with their Twitter account; this probably disappoints people who go to their page, and so they don't end up with as many followers as they could do. Remember - getting people to your Twitter page (or Facebook, or whatever else you're asking them to do) is only the first stage - there has to be something there for them when they arrive.

The second tip is more for people who offer wi-fi - this could be all manner of hotels, conference venues, airports, aeroplanes, train stations, coffee shops, etc. For places that offer free wi-fi, this can work even better:

Tip 2: You control the first page visitors see after logging on to your wi-fi. Don't waste this with a dull message; make the page interesting, and put some calls to action on there.

People have probably logged on to do something - but many will welcome a distraction - particularly if you keep the request brief. Create a nicely styled, but simple page, and add a couple of message on there. Some examples could include:

Follow us on Twitter / Like us on Facebook: you could incentivize this, for example: if you're a coffee shop, then offer a free latte to new followers
Sign up to our email newsletter: this will only take them a second if you make sure the form is right there on the page, and again this can be incentivized
Don't forget to check in on foursquare: ideal for almost any location, and this is as good a time as any to remind them to check in
If you're enjoying your stay, please review us: particularly useful for hotels, where online reviews can increase visibility; I'll go into a little more detail about this below.

There can be some issues with sites noticing that a lot of people from the same IP are visiting, particularly when it comes to review services. Local search expert David Mihm advised me that he's heard Yelp in particular does try to filter our multiple reviews from the same IP, and that TripAdvisor's fraud rules do include clauses that might get you into trouble (such as offering incentives for people to write reviews is not permitted.)

I'd recommend that there are two steps around this type of issue:

Try to appeal for reviews only from people who already have accounts on those sites (e.g.: "If you're a Yelp member, please review us here...." or "If you have a Google account, please leave a review here..."
Make this 'post-wifi-login' page available on the public internet; review sites should be able to recognize that lots of people are being referred to your page from the same URL - if it's public then they'll be able to visit that page, and should figure out what is going on.

I've built a quick free template for you to to download as a starting point. You can visit the file, or download it, by clicking this link: free wifi login CTA page.

(That was created based on a template from LayoutGala; I'm not going to add any licence to it, other than use it however you want. You should change the image that are in it to be local files at the very least.)

Honestly, it doesn't take long to print off a couple of small posters (or even to publish a nice wifi login page) so I'll hope to see social-media CTAs cropping up all over the place soon. :)

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Seth's Blog : Design with intent

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Design with intent

Neat idea, free PDF... will differently make you think. HT to Lucas.

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Seth's Blog : Whatever happened to labor?

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Whatever happened to labor?

Not Labor with a capital L, as in organized labor unions. I mean labor as in skilled workers solving interesting problems. I mean craftspeople who use their hands, their backs and their heads to do important work.

Labor was a key part of the manufacturing revolution. Industrlalists needed smart, dedicated, trained laborers to solve interesting problems. Putting things together took more than pressing a few buttons, it took initiative and skill and care. Labor improvised.

It took thirteen years to build the Brooklyn Bridge and more than twenty-five laborers died during its construction. There was not a systematic manual to follow. The people who built it largely figured it out as they went.

The Singer sewing machine, one of the most complex devices of its century, had each piece fitted by hand by skilled laborers.

Sometime after this, once Henry Ford ironed out that whole assembly line thing, things changed. Factories got far more complex and there was less room for improvisation as things scaled.

The boss said, "do what I say. Exactly what I say."

Amazingly, labor said something similar. They said to the boss, "tell us exactly what to do." In many cases, work rules were instituted, flexibility went away and labor insisted on doing exactly what they had agreed to do, no more, no less. At the time, this probably felt like power. Now we know what a mistake it was.

In a world where labor does exactly what it's told to do, it will be devalued. Obedience is easily replaced, and thus one worker is as good as another. And devalued labor will be replaced by machines or cheaper alternatives. We say we want insightful and brilliant teachers, but then we insist they do their labor precisely according to a manual invented by a committee...

Companies that race to the bottom in terms of the skill or cost of their labor end up with nothing but low margins. The few companies that are able to race to the top, that can challenge workers to bring their whole selves--their human selves--to work, on the other hand, can earn stability and growth and margins. Improvisation still matters if you set out to solve interesting problems.

The future of labor isn't in less education, less OSHA and more power to the boss. The future of labor belongs to enlightened, passionate people on both sides of the plant, people who want to do work that matters.

That's what Labor Day is about, not the end of a month on the beach.

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Tip 7: How to create link-worthy content

Hello

Here are some tips on creating webpages that other website will want to link to—to save you from having to do loads of legwork requesting links.

Read it online at
http://www.seobook.com/learn-seo/linkworthy-content.php

Cheers,
Aaron Wall

P.S. Did you know my private coaching club, "SEO BOOK CONFIDENTIAL", is an exclusive insiders group of some of the most influential and successful SEOs in the world? We quietly generate literally millions online for our clients and our own businesses——so can you imagine what it'd be like having us take a look at your SEO project?

Well here's the best part: inside the "SEO BOOK CONFIDENTIAL" forum, you'll be able to post all your problems and questions. You'll get specific advice from me and all the other top-level SEOs in our exclusive club. (Some of these guys charge upwards of $500 per hour... plus, even if you had the money to hire them, they're booked solid, so you couldn't anyway).

You'll also get the best of my free tools, exclusive premium tools, time-saving tutorials and cutting edge tips.

To discover more about our friendly community of SEOs——and how you can be getting one-to-one advice from us in the next five minutes——follow this link:
http://www.seobook.com/4973.html

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duminică, 5 septembrie 2010

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Hooked on Prescription Drugs - Half of US Took at least One Prescription Drug in Previous Month
Sunday Funnies 2010-09-05 Voting Trends
Driver's License Facility, State Lawmakers Face Eviction Over Nonpayment of Bills by State of Illinois
Dissolving Cities - Is this the Way Out?

Hooked on Prescription Drugs - Half of US Took at least One Prescription Drug in Previous Month

Posted: 05 Sep 2010 01:10 PM PDT

Here is an interesting article on Bloomberg regarding prescription drug usage. The study is from 2008. Please consider Prescription Drug Use Rose to Include Half of Americans in 2008.

Almost half of Americans took at least one prescription drug per month in 2008, an increase of 10 percent over the past decade, a U.S. study found.

One of every five children ages 11 or younger took at least one medication each month in 2008, led by asthma and allergy treatments, according to the survey released today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among those ages 60 or older, 37 percent used five or more prescriptions per month.

The most common medications for adolescents were treatments for attention-deficit disorder, a condition in which people have trouble paying attention and engage in impulsive behavior.

For adults ages 20 to 59, antidepressants, including Eli Lilly & Co.'s Cymbalta and Pfizer Inc.'s Zoloft, were the most-used drugs. Cholesterol-lowering medications, including Pfizer Inc.'s Lipitor and AstraZeneca Plc's Crestor, were the most common drugs taken by people ages 60 and over, with 45 percent of those in that age group on such therapies.

$238 Billion Industry

Prescription drug were a $234.1billion industry in 2008. The number is certainly higher today. Are pharmaceutical companies interested in curing anything or just treating the symptoms?

Throughout grade and high school, I do not recall any kids with attention problems. How is it that attention-deficit disorder is now so widespread? Are kids today different? Why?

I do not like the way drugs are advertised. Is anyone else with me on this?

What's up with the "ask your doctor about the purple pill" campaign? What does the color have to do with reasons to take a pill. The most annoying thing about the ad are versions that do not even say what the drug is for, they simply stress the color purple, telling you to ask your doctor about it.

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

Sunday Funnies 2010-09-05 Voting Trends

Posted: 05 Sep 2010 12:37 PM PDT

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

Driver's License Facility, State Lawmakers Face Eviction Over Nonpayment of Bills by State of Illinois

Posted: 05 Sep 2010 09:01 AM PDT

The state of Illinois is sitting on $4 billion in unpaid bills. Some of that is to hospitals, some to schools, some of it is internal transfers, but a lot of it affects the lives of real people who need the money to pay their bills.

For example, please consider Libertyville driver's license facility may be evicted

Stephen Martin, whose family owns the Brookside shopping center on the 300 block of Peterson Road that houses the Secretary of State office, has sent a letter to state officials saying he wishes to terminate the lease agreement because of the long-overdue payments. Martin said the state owes him nearly $43,000 in back rent and expenses.

It's not the first time the state has fallen behind on payments for the facility, which opened in 1987, Martin said. Payments were six months overdue by the time a check was cut in December, and this past April the state owed Martin four months worth of rent when it finally paid.

If the state doesn't pay up this time, Martin said, he will go to court and begin eviction proceedings.

The delinquent rent checks are symptomatic of the state's ongoing financial problems. The comptroller's office has $4.3 billion in unpaid bills in its system, spokesman Alan Henry said this week.

Several state lawmakers have faced eviction because of late payments; just this week, state Rep. Sandy Cole of Grayslake temporarily began working out of her house because her office was shut down.

Without a doubt, Illinois is bankrupt.

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

Dissolving Cities - Is this the Way Out?

Posted: 05 Sep 2010 12:43 AM PDT

Some cities in California are so bloated in debt and other problems they are considering dissolution. Mercury News asks is this The End of Half Moon Bay?

Between budget losses and lawsuit payments, Half Moon Bay's financials have become so dire that if a local sales tax measure doesn't pass this November, officials say they may have to disincorporate.

City leaders have been using the "D" word for a few weeks now as they try to persuade voters to pass Measure K, a one-cent sales tax increase that would help the city balance its budget with an extra infusion of $1.4 million per year for the next seven years.

Dissolving Half Moon Bay -- handing the city's budget, operations and services to San Mateo County -- would be an absolute last resort, but the city may not have many other options left, City Councilman John Muller said.

At first glance, disincorporation could save taxpayers some money: no more city administration to support. Police services would be contracted out, and the county would cover planning, building and public works projects from its offices in Redwood City.

City Manager Michael Dolder admits disincorporation is one of the options on the table now. The City Council already cut $900,000 from the current budget -- including half its employees -- and imposed furloughs on those who remain. Some of the cuts were needed to pay for the Beachwood lawsuit settlement, a $15 million burden the city will shoulder in bond payments for the next 20 years.

Disincorporation is so rare in California that it's almost without precedent. The last city to do it, Cabazon in Riverside County, had fewer than 2,000 residents and no functional government to speak of when it voted to give up cityhood.

The process is so complicated that county officials said they don't know what kinds of services the Board of Supervisors would choose to provide or how much they would cost.

One thing is certain: disincorporation is not a bailout. The county would lay claim to revenues, including Half Moon Bay's property taxes, sales taxes and hotel taxes, but not its liabilities. Today's Half Moon Bay residents would be required to assume the debt burden of Beachwood bond payments, which would likely be added as a lien on their properties, according to Assistant County Controller Bob Adler.

D Is for Disincorporate

The PropZero blog writes California Cities: D Is for Disincorporate

City officials in Half Moon Bay say the municipal budget is such a mess that it may make sense to disincorporate and turn the place over to San Mateo County

Consider Los Angeles County which has 88 cities, many of which it clearly does not need. Several of the smaller cities seem to exist as personal playgrounds for families or particular businesses. Those municipalities -- the now famous Bell just one of them -- have extensive histories of municipal corruption. If such cities were to go away, would they be missed?

A side note: unions have revived legislation in Sacramento that seeks to prevent cash-strapped cities from declaring bankruptcy (Municipalities would have to get permission from a labor-dominated commission first). The consequence of that legislation, were it to pass, might well be to promote more disincorporations -- that is, the shutting down of cities -- since bankruptcy would be all but off the table.

Simple Solution

Unions have revived measures to prevent municipal bankruptcies, but hopefully the governor would veto such asinine legislation were it to actually pass. I doubt there would be enough votes to override the veto.

The problem with disincorporation straight up is that it leaves the debts intact.

Instead, I propose Half Moon Bay file bankruptcy, wiping out its debts, or at least sending them to bankruptcy court. Then Half Moon Bay can disincorporate, saving itself the problems of dealing with a local police force and its pensions.

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

Seth's Blog : Your smile didn't matter

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Your smile didn't matter

If you worked on the line, we cared about your productivity, not your smile or approach to the work. You could walk in downcast, walk out defeated and get a raise if your productivity was good.

No longer.

Your attitude is now what's on offer, it's what you sell. When you pass by those big office buildings and watch the young junior executives sneaking into work with a grimace on their face, it's tempting to tell them to save everyone time and just go home.

The emotional labor of engaging with the work and increasing the energy in the room is precisely what you sell. So sell it.

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Tip 6: An easy way to get great links

Hello

In today's lesson we discuss some great techniques for easily building quality links, and how to get the anchor text you want!

Read it online at
http://www.seobook.com/learn-seo/link-building.php

Cheers,
Aaron Wall

P.S. This article offers background information on link building
http://training.seobook.com/link-building

P.P.S. Did you know my private coaching club, "SEO BOOK CONFIDENTIAL", is an exclusive insiders group of some of the most influential and successful SEOs in the world? We quietly generate literally millions online for our clients and our own businesses——so can you imagine what it'd be like having us take a look at your SEO project?

You'll also get the best of my free tools, exclusive premium tools, time-saving tutorials and cutting edge tips.

To discover more about our friendly community of SEOs——and how you can be getting one-to-one advice from us in the next five minutes——follow this link:
http://www.seobook.com/4973.html

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luni, 6 septembrie 2010

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

Seth's Blog : Design with intent

Design with intent

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Seth's Blog : Whatever happened to labor?

Whatever happened to labor?

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Tip 7: How to create link-worthy content

duminică, 5 septembrie 2010

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Seth's Blog : Your smile didn't matter

Your smile didn't matter

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Tip 6: An easy way to get great links

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