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miercuri, 16 martie 2011

Did You See President Obama’s Education Speech?

Good afternoon,

On Monday, President Obama gave a speech on education reform, addressing challenges that need to be tackled if we're going to out-educate the rest of the world. In a global economy that's more competitive and connected than ever before, we need to invest our time and resources to ensure our Nation's children are ready for the jobs of the future. As you'll see, the President laid out how we can all work together to ensure that every child gets ahead:

If you haven’t heard of "No Child Left Behind," reach out to a teacher you know, and ask about it. This major education legislation has inspired heated debate since it passed in 2001, and most experts agree it needs to be improved.

The President's speech on Monday details reforms to the legislation that will ensure we not only leave no child behind, but also that we help every student get ahead, including:

A flexible and focused accountability system that promotes shared responsibility, college and career readiness, and rewards achievement.
Support for reform and innovation at the state and local level that will empower both principals and teachers.
New efforts to drive resources and reform to the Nation's persistently low-performing schools and those with the greatest achievement gaps, and to ensure there is a great teacher in every classroom and a great principal in every school.

You'll also hear the President talking about the importance of a bottom-up strategy for reform. We need to get the best ideas bubbling up from states, educators, and parents across the country, and then replicate them in places that need help.

That's why I asked for Americans' ideas on education reform last week, and the feedback has been terrific.

Thousands of responses show broad consensus that the responsibility for our kids' educations begins at home – that parents are taking the time to expand on the lessons learned in the classroom and that teaching fundamental values is irreplaceable. As Wilbur from Nebraska put it:

What works for any school is a high level of involvement by both parents and teachers. Technology is great but the level of involvement by parents and teachers make great schools. The plan should be how to get parents move involved in their children's education.

As the President said in his speech, over the next 10 years, nearly half of all jobs will require something more than a high school diploma. In the long run, there is no better economic policy than one that invests in our children’s future. Nickolaus from Virginia points out:

Students spend too much time sitting and listening to lectures, and they have too little time doing hands-on projects with modern tools and diagnostic systems. America's future depends on hands-on engineers and technologists, and we need to do more to encourage students in these fields.

When we finish reviewing all of the comments, we’ll post a follow up on the White House website. In the meantime, I hope you’ll take a few minutes to watch President Obama's speech.

Sincerely,

Melody Barnes
Director of the Domestic Policy Council

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Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: How You Can Help

Your Daily Snapshot for
Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: How You Can Help

The United States is continuing to do everything in its power to help Japan in the wake of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11, 2011. USAID is coordinating the overall U.S. government efforts in support of the Japanese government’s response.

Learn more and find out how you can help.

Photo of the Day

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden greet Susannah Flanagan, daughter of Frank Buckles, at Arlington National Cemetery Memorial Chapel in Arlington, Va., March 15, 2011. Buckles, the last surviving American World War I veteran, passed away on Feb. 27, 2011, at his West Virginia home. He was 110. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Traffic Down From Panda Update – Diversify Your Traffic Sources Graywolf's SEO Blog

Traffic Down From Panda Update – Diversify Your Traffic Sources

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 07:56 AM PDT

Recently Google had an update and some webmasters were significantly impacted. Google has had many big updates and will have many more. If your rankings are soured by an update you may become angry at Google. IMHO that is just not the smartest or most profitable approach.

May I suggest you take a more productive step and diversify your traffic flow. This can also increase the quality signals of your website which will decrease your chances getting soured over a Google update. My network used to rely on Google for 95% of its traffic. I have personally done these items and now over 50% of my network traffic is from non-Google sources and my Google referrals have increased.

Start an Email Newsletter

By sharing valuable information and/or special offers via a newsletter you develop a traffic stream that is not dependent on Google. Also it boosts toolbar usage and mentions of your site in Gmail which I don’t think anyone would complain about.

Embrace Social Sites

Social sites can deliver great amounts of traffic. It can help you retain your current audience and attract new visitors. Build out your facebook page, regularly post useful tidbits on twitter, share photos on flickr. Google is using data from social sites in their ranking algorithm and incorporating these social sites into universal serps. Plus sharing photos on flickr with a creative common license can actually gain backlinks.

Embrace Google Universal Serps

I know this is supposed to be about relying less on Google for traffic but this is a great opportunity. Google News, Images and Shopping results are often given great placement in Google search results. You can significantly boost your traffic by having your site included in these sections. If you have a bad Google search update your site may no longer rank #1 in search but can still receive significant traffic from being listed in the universal parts of the serps.

Cross Promotion

This is a very old concept and this is actually how people discovered websites before search engines even existed. Find many relevant and complimentary websites and cross promote each other. If you are a USA florist exchange banner ads with a Canadian florist. This helps users who need to send international flowers and it also helps to boost your link popularity which everyone loves. If you sell used cars then cross promote with a local mechanic website. If you are an SEO consultant then cross promote with a graphic designer or e-commerce specialist. If you ever lose your rankings you can still survive by getting traffic from your network of relevant cross promoted websites.

There are other ways to diversify your traffic which will help to protect your business model and also help your Google rankings. If you are creative and plan ahead you should hopefully avoid having to deal with bad rankings after a Google update. Whatever you do just try to be as productive & profitable as possible.

Greg Niland is a veteran SEO consultant and affiliate marketer with over 14 years of experience. He is a moderator at WebmasterWorld.com, a show host on WebmasterRadio.fm and President of Internet Marketers of New York.

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Traffic Down From Panda Update – Diversify Your Traffic Sources

SEOptimise

Google Analytics Location Tracking Changes: Where Has London Gone?

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 06:53 AM PDT

One of our clients' sites had a sudden drop in traffic from London. After the 25^th of February, all London traffic – paid, organic and direct – had dropped by nearly 45%. There wasn't an obvious reason. There hadn't been any changes to the PPC campaigns or search rankings. It didn't look seasonal; there was nothing similar in previous years. Google announced that it was updating location targeting in AdWords earlier in February, but the list of affected locations didn't include London. The site's total traffic had increased slightly, so why would London's be down?

After a little while cross-referencing half-term dates and glaring at search term reports, I looked to see if any other towns or cities had been similarly affected. And while London's traffic had nearly halved, that Kensington's traffic had increased by over 20,000%. Lambeth was up by over 140,000%.

For those unfamiliar with London's geography, here are the same places in the map view from AdWords:

Other areas within London such as Sutton, Potters Bar and Croydon had similar increases in traffic.

It seems that Google has been redefining London. Or rather that it has become better at recognising which district a visitor is from; Kensington, Lambeth and the other areas were not new to Analytics, but only had a handful of visitors recorded before the 25^th.

What does this mean? It's a reminder that location names are ambiguous. Ignoring cities of the same name outside of England, 'London' can refer to Greater London (which covers over 1,500 km²), the City of London (a mere 3km²), or something in between. It apparently means something else to Google. This isn't all new; the London district of Teddington has been separate since August 2007. And it's not just London; Edgbaston, a district of Birmingham, has been separate since 2009.

If you want to monitor traffic from an area in Analytics, you need to make sure Google has the same idea of where the area is. Same for targeting an area with an AdWords campaign. And you need to keep an eye on the data in case it's not the traffic which is changing, but the area you're looking at.

Seth's Blog : Kraft singles

Kraft singles

Here's a ubiquitous food that succeeds because it's precisely in the center, perfectly normal, exactly the regular kind. No kid whines about how weird they are.

If you're Kraft, this is a good place to be. Singles mint money. My friend Nancy worked on this brand. It's a miracle.

If you're anyone else, forget about becoming more normal than they are, more regular than the regular kind. That slot is taken.

Most mature markets have their own version of Kraft Singles. The challenge for an insurgent is not to try to battle the incumbent for the slot of normal. The challenge is to be edgy and remarkable and to have the market move its center to you.

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miercuri, 16 martie 2011

Did You See President Obama’s Education Speech?

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: How You Can Help

Traffic Down From Panda Update – Diversify Your Traffic Sources Graywolf's SEO Blog

Traffic Down From Panda Update – Diversify Your Traffic Sources Graywolf's SEO Blog

Start an Email Newsletter

Embrace Social Sites

Embrace Google Universal Serps

Cross Promotion

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SEOptimise

Seth's Blog : Kraft singles

Kraft singles

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miercuri, 16 martie 2011

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Cross Promotion

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