Central Perk

luni, 29 octombrie 2012

The Hope of a Link: Mashable Content Analysis

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 07:57 PM PDT

The holy grail: A link from Mashable.

Don't kid yourself. We all want one. They are a content powerhouse with a mind-blowing community. Moz has that type of community, but Mashable touches on everything from kittens to major trends in the economy and technology. If it's interesting to the Internet community, they'll publish a about it. Their domain authority and homepage authority is a whopping 96. Of course we all want a link.

The first thing any reputable SEO would tell you is that you need two things before you can even begin hoping for a link from Mashable:

Great content - it has to be beyond good by this point, it must be great
A relationship with Mashable

I'm not going to claim that those two things are absolutely necessary, but I would agrue that you need to know more about Mashable before you go pitching your content to them. Well, I've done some of that for you, and today I'll teach you how to do it for other sites as well. This is Advanced Content Analysis ... starting ... now.

The Brain Child

The idea to do Advanced Content Analysis on Mashable came from a conversation Carson Ward and I had one day about getting a link from them. He made the quip that all you really need to do is write a post along the lines of "7 Ways to Do X." I laughed because it's sort of true (list posts do well), but then asked myself:

"How many of Mashable's posts are lists?"

Once I dug into how to get the titles of as many posts as possible, I realized just how much more data was available and how much deeper the analysis could really go.

Data Process

I thought I'd pull six months of Mashable posts; that is, until I started pulling the data and realized they put out almost two thousand posts a month. TWO THOUSAND. Holy content, Batman. Two thousand posts and one month was plenty for my analysis. If anyone wants to do more, I'd love to hear about six months of data.

I used three tools to pull the data necessary for analysis: ImportXML for Google Docs, SEOTools for Excel, and Microsoft Excel.

ImportXML

To gather the post titles, I used ImportXML for Google Docs. The linked guide will tell you more than I ever could about how to scrape content from a site using ImportXML. For those that are curious, I've included the formulas I used for Mashable. If you just want to see the forumlas in action, here is a document that is read-only for you to investigate.

The first important part is the page to scrape. You want to get to the blog/site's archive pages. For Mashable, you can access them by hitting "next" on their homepage. This gives us the page to scrape. A1 below is where you input the page number you want to scrape. This forumla is cell A2 for me -- you'll need to know that in a minute.

=CONCATENATE("http://mashable.com/page/",A1,"/")

Below that, you can complete the import. These three take up A3, B3, and C3. As previously mentioned, once I pulled the titles, I figured I'd just keep going. The URL is important for the things you can pull using SEOTools, so be sure to add that one. The date and comment number was important for in-depth analysis. The number of comments along with social metrics are the only real "success" metrics you can pull externally. I mean, unless Mashable wants to share the traffic numbers with me for each of the posts ... no? Dang.

Titles: =importxml(A2,"//a[@class='headline']")
Post URL: =importxml(A2,"//a[@class='headline']/@href") (muy importante)
Date, Author, Comment Count: =importxml(A2,"//p[@class='byline clearfix reviewer vcard meta']")

Side Note: Dear tech guys and gals at Mashable, sorry, I crawled tons, and others might, too. Though that is probably like .001% of your server traffic. :)

From here, you simply copy and paste into an Excel sheet, and keep going (change the page number in A1) until you get the number of posts you want.

SEOTools

This is my new favorite tools for a number of reasons, not least of which is the ability to use Regex in Excel. Are you excited, too? Well, it can also return social metrics using a URL, return the canonical URL, and so much more. If you haven't downloaded it, please do. And donate. This thing is worth it.

Alright, so I promise not to bore you, but I used SEOtools to do a few things:

Download the Facebook shares (Twitter wasn't being nice when I tried, but it's possible)
Return True/False if the post title included markers like Infographic or Video. Mashable is nice and gives us a marker in the title if the post is about something big like that.
Return True/False if the post title included a number. More on this later.

Microsoft Excel

This section is all in Excel. I did one more thing and checked to see what day of the week the post was made live. That's made simple with a formula like this:

=TEXT(WEEKDAY([@Date]), "ddd")

The [@Date] references the cell in the table with the date.

Content Analysis

Now I have the data, it's time to learn some stuff about Mashable and their content. After de-duplication (they post weekly recaps of videos, etc.), I analyzed 1,159 posts. Below is a look at the content types from what I could tell. Other includes smaller types like Audio and just plain text posts.

mashable post type breakdown

It looks like in the last month Mashable has preferred Vvdeos over infographics, which is something to keep in mind when deciding what content to develop and pitch. But this is just in terms of the number of posts. We have answered our original first question: how many of Mashable's posts are lists? 13% in the last month (in the chart above I am referring to "# Posts"). Nothing to cough at, but not as many as Carson and I figured. But what about performance of these posts? What days are they posted? And for that matter what about video and infographic posts? On to dataland we go.

Lists, Infographics, and Video Posts -- Oh My!

How well do they perform? I'm picking on these because they are the content types that we all harp on so much. The results for comments on the post types and Facebook metrics. The most suprising find here is that while video posts have more shares and comments, there is a higher number of list posts. I think this has more to do with traffic and brand building than actual engagement. I theorize that if we could see average unique visitors to these posts, that lists would have a much higher view rate. Reason: people are lazy and just want to skim for data. Lists work well because they are easy to skim and give people information in just a few seconds. One day I'd love to see a study in which Mashable looked at the new visitors from a list post and watched how often they came back to Mashable, and compare that to other post types. THAT would be fascinating.

Now to the more fun stuff - days of the week. This has little consequence in my book, but it's fun to look at.

Days of the Week Analysis Mashable

Above is the average for the site overall in the last 30 days. Fun factoids:

Mashable posts less on the weekends, but the audience is more active in comments and sharing. Weekend numbers are similar to Tuesdays. Tuesday is apparently the day that Mashable audience members are bored at work. <Runs and Hides> But more likely, there are just fewer posts those days. Averages run higher when you have a smaller base.
Monday is the big post day. No surprise to me there.
Wednesday and Thursday are when intereaction drops off.

What about by post type? How many are posted on each day? It turns out that the videos and lists are posted more on Mondays, and infographics on Wednesdays. Why do you think this happens? I have my theory, but I'd love to hear yours on this one.

Type by Day Mashable

How did these content types perform per day? Let's just look at the "lists" category for this part as we are getting pretty deep, and this post was originally about lists.

Remember my theory on boredom on Tuesdays? *points like Vanna White at the chart above* See?!?!?!? The count of total shares and comments back my theory up. Even though there are fewer posts on Tuesdays, they got more interactions on average. Huh. Maybe this is why we post on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Distilled. Will and Duncan are smart cookies. (No, really, I doubt that had a ton to do with it, but Will or Duncan can correct me later.)

Final Thoughts

Content Analysis is much easier with tools like ImportXML and SEOTools for Excel.
You should consider doing this with the content on your blog or a competitor. What's really working for them? Back up your analysis with hard core numbers of interaction with the audience, not just what you see them doing. Don't get inspiration (see I didn't say copying?) from something that isn't working.
Post awesome stuff on Tuesday.
Develop great videos for Mashable, as infographics are on the way out.
List posts get attention, but not as much interaction.

What else did I miss? This isn't fully scientific, but it is fun and gives us much more data to help make decisions than we might have had before. Take everything above with a grain of salt, pull your own numbers, and see for yourself.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

Preparing for Hurricane Sandy

Your Daily Snapshot for
Monday, October 29, 2012

Preparing for Hurricane Sandy

As Hurricane Sandy continues to bear down on the East Coast, federal teams are working with state and local officials to prepare for days of severe weather in communities stretching from North Carolina to Maine. Forecasts from the National Hurricane Center suggest that a huge area of the United States could be affected by high winds, heavy rains, storm surge, and snow – all of which could produce widespread power outages.

Yesterday, President Obama traveled to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to get briefed on those preparations. He met with FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, FEMA Deputy Administrator Richard Serino, and the FEMA regional directors. Dr. Rick Knabb, the director for the National Hurricane Center, joined the meeting by video conference.

If you're in the path of the hurricane, make sure you're following the latest FEMA guidance.

President Barack Obama receives an update on the ongoing response to Hurricane Sandy at the National Response Coordination Center at FEMA headquarters in Washington, D.C., Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, right, and Richard Serino, FEMA Deputy Administrator, are seated next to the President. October 28, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Seth's Blog : Association

Association

Who you hang out with determines what you dream about and what you collide with.

And the collisions and the dreams lead to your changes.

And the changes are what you become.

Change the outcome by changing your circle.

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duminică, 28 octombrie 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Multigenerational Households On Rise; Boomerang Students Return Home; What's the Impact on Housing Demand?

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 01:49 PM PDT

According to a study by the U.S. Census Bureau Multigenerational households on rise in U.S.

More than 4.3 million, or 5.6 percent, of the 76 million family households in the U.S. today are multigenerational households, or families living together that include a grandparent, parent and children as well as other family members, according to a study by the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

Multigenerational Families

3.7% in 2000
4.0% in 2010
5.6% in 2012

There was only a gain of .3% in the 10 years between 2000 and 2010, but a gain of 1.6% in the next two years.

That small 1.6% increase represents a decrease in demand of 1.216 million homes.

However, those survey results are for three generations and thus do not include all the kids graduating from college, with no job, and moving back home.

Boomerang Students Return Home

Boomerang kids with no jobs returning home has an even greater impact on housing demand. CNN Living discusses the "boomerang" effect in College grads and their families learn to live together.

More than half of college graduates move back home, sociologist Katherine Newman wrote in her book, "The Accordion Family: Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents, and the Private Toll of Global Competition," based on surveys conducted worldwide.

And many of them are finding it isn't as painful as it sounds, she said. By setting ground rules and establishing expectations on both sides, parents and their adult children are learning to live together.

"People anticipate it will be more complicated than it turns out to be," said Newman, dean of the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. "It's remarkably smooth for most families."

Perhaps that's because it's such a common phenomenon. A Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. census data found that the share of Americans living in multigenerational households is at its highest level since the 1950s.

Overall, 39% of adults ages 18 to 34 say they either live with their parents or moved back in at some point in recent years, according the report. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, 53% said they live at home or moved in temporarily, compared with 41% among adults ages 25 to 29, and 17% among those ages 30 to 34.

For adult children, part of the fear of returning home has to do with being torn away from their social circles. But, thanks to social media, especially Facebook, they're staying in touch with more friends from different times in their lives, Newman said, and finding that others are moving back home, too. The Pew report found that among adults ages 25 to 34, 61% said they have friends or family members who have moved back in with their parents over the past few years because of economic conditions.

Boomerang Generation OK Living With Mom

The Pew Research Center notes The Boomerang Generation Feeling OK about Living with Mom and Dad.

If there's supposed to be a stigma attached to living with mom and dad through one's late twenties or early thirties, today's "boomerang generation" didn't get that memo. Among the three-in-ten young adults ages 25 to 34 (29%) who've been in that situation during the rough economy of recent years, large majorities say they're satisfied with their living arrangements (78%) and upbeat about their future finances (77%).

To be sure, most young adults who find themselves under the same roof with mom and dad aren't exactly living the high life. Nearly eight-in-ten (78%) of these 25- to 34-year-olds say they don't currently have enough money to lead the kind of life they want, compared with 55% of their same-aged peers who aren't living with their parents.

One reason young adults who are living with their parents may be relatively upbeat about their situation is that this has become such a widespread phenomenon. Among adults ages 25 to 34, 61% say they have friends or family members who have moved back in with their parents over the past few years because of economic conditions. Furthermore, three-in-ten parents of adult children (29%) report that a child of theirs has moved back in with them in the past few years because of the economy.

A Pew Research analysis of Census Bureau data shows that the share of Americans living in multi-generational family households is the highest it has been since the 1950s, having increased significantly in the past five years. Adults ages 25 to 34 are among the most likely to be living in multi-generational households: In 2010, 21.6% lived in this type of household, up from 15.8% in 2000 (the vast majority were living with their parents). The share of 25- to 34-year-olds living in multi-generational households was at its lowest in 1980 (11%) and has risen steadily since then, spiking upward since the recession started in 2007.

The Pew Research survey found that among all adults ages 18 to 34, 24% moved back in with their parents in recent years after living on their own because of economic conditions.

According to the survey 40% of 18- to 24-year-olds currently live with their parents, and the vast majority of them say they did not move back home because of economic conditions (in fact many of them may have never moved out in the first place). Among those ages 25 to 34, only 12% currently live with their parents, but another 17% say they moved back home temporarily in recent years because of economic conditions.

Overall, 39% of all adults ages 18 to 34 say they either live with their parents now or moved back in temporarily in recent years, but there is considerable variance by age. Among 18- to 24-year-olds more than half (53%) live at home or moved in for a time during the past few years. Among adults ages 25 to 29, 41% live with or moved back in with their parents, and among those ages 30 to 34, 17% fall into this category.

2010 Census Population Numbers

What's the Impact on Housing Demand?

According to data from Table 2 (above) of the 2010 Census, there are approximately 62.65 million people in the 20-34 age group.

If 24% of them are currently living at home for economic reasons, that represents a potential 15 million houses, apartments or condos. Wow.

However, the survey results are based on those who moved in "for a time during the past few years". It does not detail those currently living at home due to economic reasons.

On the other hand, the survey does not reflect households doubling up, friends sharing houses or condos, sisters or brothers sharing houses, etc.

Thus, a precise impact is not at hand, but it appears to easily be in the millions, and that is on top of the 4.3 million three-generational households as noted in the first link.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

"Wine Country" Economic Conference Hosted By Mish
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Poll Shows Overwhelming Support for Secessionist Candidates in Catalan Election

Posted: 28 Oct 2012 10:44 AM PDT

Secessionist Candidates are about to dominate the next election according to recent polls in Catalonia.

My friend Bran totals the polls up this way.

Corvergencia and Union goes from 62 seats to 65 or 66 (Independence)
ERC aumenta from 10 to 16 (Independence)
SI from 0 to 4 (Independence)
ICV-EUiA pasa from 10 to 12-14 (Moderate - more federalism , not rule out independence)
PSC drops from 28 to 18 (No independence)
PP drops from 18 to 17 (No independence)
Ciutadans from 3 to 6 (No independence )

Moreover, although the PSC is against secession, the party wants to amend the Constitution to recognize the right of Calatanes decide.

The leader of the PSC, Pere Navarro, has said that his party is a third way between the "centrality of PP and Artur Mas reckless prophecy "of independence.

Navarro wants to recognize the right of the people to decide. In light of his statements likening independence with recklessness, I have to ask "decide what?"

Here is the count as I see it.

It seems there are 85-86 solid votes for independence, 12-14 votes wavering, 23 solid no votes, and 18 no votes yet supporting some sort of constitutional reforms.

The score is 85 minimum for independence vs. 55+- other, even if you count the ICV votes as No independence.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Seth's Blog : The bell curve is moving (mass geekery)

The bell curve is moving (mass geekery)

We've got more nerds than ever before.

Rogers famously described the ways products are adopted:

On the left, geeks and nerds and people who love stuff because the new is new and edgy and changes things. All the way to the right, the laggards, the ones who want to be the last to change. And in the middle, the masses, the ones who wait for the new idea to be proven, cheap and widely adopted. Most people are in the middle, and a few are on either edge. (Note that in every area of interest, different people put themselves into different segments. You might be a shoe geek but a movie laggard).

Marketers work to change the market. And for the last thirty years, marketers have been working to turn people into geeks, into people eager to try the new. And it's working.

There are more and more people lining up to buy the new gadget, more exploring the edges of the internet, more willing to engage in ways that were seen as too risky just a generation ago.

In addition to an ever increasing amount of media and advertising about what's new, the products and services themselves are designed to draw us in. It used to be that a car nerd would buy a new car every year while the laggard could wait a decade quite happily before upgrading. Today, because our software connects, the upgrade cycle is built in. Like it or not, the new version (or the new TOS or the new interaction style) is about to become part of your life.

The cultural implications here are significant. We now live in a society with more people more willing to change more often. And that means your customers are restless, and more likely to walk away if you don't treat them the way nerds want to be treated. Amaze, delight and challenge...

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luni, 29 octombrie 2012

The Hope of a Link: Mashable Content Analysis

The Hope of a Link: Mashable Content Analysis

The Brain Child