sâmbătă, 27 aprilie 2013

SEO Blog

SEO Blog


Seven Amazing Tips For Combining Public Relations And SEO

Posted: 27 Apr 2013 01:19 AM PDT

PR and SEO tend to go hand-in-hand more than ever now days. The key is to make the most out of both for particular events ranging from media coverage to conferences you attend. We've put together a list of the top ways to maximize both PR and SEO at the...
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Top 10 SEO Tips For 2013

Posted: 27 Apr 2013 01:14 AM PDT

Search engine optimization is undoubtedly one of the most fast-changing industries which doesn't seem to slow down. Techniques that you used effectively for your website promotion a year ago may turn to be worthless today. Thus, it is crucial to stay abreast of the freshest changes in this sphere. In...
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4 Easy Ways To Get Free Traffic To Your Website

Posted: 27 Apr 2013 01:07 AM PDT

There are one million and one ways to get free targeted traffic. I’m just going to touch the basics here. There are so many free manuals about getting traffic, that it would be a waste of time to spend too much effort on this subject. Forum Posting If you join...
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Why SEO Needs High Quality Content

Posted: 27 Apr 2013 12:07 AM PDT

We've heard the phrase a million times- that content is king. But do you know why? Content you create and publish on your website can also be very helpful for SEO purposes. Anything that goes on your site text/copy, videos, and images, even podcasts and news, are all parts of...
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3 Simple But Very Effective Email Marketing Tips

Posted: 27 Apr 2013 12:03 AM PDT

As with most forms of online marketing, there are some very advanced and technical strategies you can use to maximize the results you get from email marketing. While those strategies are definitely worth pursuing once you hit a certain point, it can be overkill during the earlier stages of establishing...
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Social Authority Now Has A Free (and generous) API

Social Authority Now Has A Free (and generous) API


Social Authority Now Has A Free (and generous) API

Posted: 26 Apr 2013 02:47 AM PDT

Posted by @petebray

You read that right. Social Authority now has an API. And it's free. And you can grab a ton of data (i.e. you can query for data on up to 500,000 Twitter users per day). That's a whole lot to be excited about!

What is Social Authority?

Social Authority is our transparent, business-focused metric that measures influential activity on Twitter. We introduced it a few weeks ago, and we love how it's adding real value for our Followerwonk customers.

One of the biggest benefits of Social Authority is that it helps drive engagement tactics; namely, who is best going to ricochet your message around their network when you @mention them. Our score helps find those standout prospects to engage by analyzing your social graph, comparing your relationships with others, and tracking your new (and lost) followers.

Social Authority also augments content strategy. We're upfront that our metric is based on retweets. At core, we're measuring a person's activity on Twitter (that is, the content they produce), rather than the person herself. This means that those with high Social Authority are producing content that gets noticed and retweeted. As such, finding those with high Social Authority in your industry (and looking carefully at their tweets) offers insight into what content works well for your audience.

Mashing it up

At Moz, we're all about giving our customers data that they can use in creative ways for their specific purposes. And with Social Authority, it's no different. We think that our score can be useful in all sorts of unique ways, and as a foundation for new metrics, too.

As I've mentioned before, the key in social often comes down to this little puzzle. Here's a quick little example.

Namely, we need to find influential people who are likely to listen!

Finding these people is often tough. Folks who are influential, pretty obviously, have a lot of folks trying to get their attention. This means that it's hard for you to break through with your message to them.

We've helped this situation in Followerwonk by computing an overall "engagement rate" for a lot of the top Twitter influencers. Quite simply, on mouse over of many users, we'll tell you that user's @mention rate (what percent of his timeline consists of leading @mentions of others), RT rate, and URLs in tweets rate. Those folks with 0% @mention rate... well, you're not likely to get through to them.

How do you get around this issue? Well, here's what I do.

I create a useful comparison between competitors. I bring up the list of followers shared by all three (because these folks are likely to be super attuned to my message). I download the data into Excel.

This download will include the Social Authority for all users, as well as the other engagement metrics for many users. What I like to do is the following:

Namely, I create a new column that is simply the sum of Social Authority and percentage @contact rate. This produces a score between 1 and 200. I like to do this because it's a simple way to find users who have both high engagement and influence.

Of course, this is a simple example of how we use Social Authority. We're eager to see what you come up!

But that means you need access to the data beyond just Followerwonk. Here's where the API comes in.

Cue the API...

One of the early struggles we had at Followerwonk was the need for a large amount of influence data. We needed influence metrics on pretty much every user on Twitter! That data wasn't easily available, and it's one of the reasons why we developed our own metric.

With that in mind, we want to make this data available to all. For free. And generously.

Here's how to get started with our API:

  1. Get your access credentials by clicking on the link in the top section of our Social Authority page.
  2. Read the docs on how to use the API.
  3. Do a simple test to get someone's Social Authority. You can learn how here.

After that, you're all set! You can do 20,000 calls per day day, requesting up to 25 users per call. That works out to a daily limit of 500,000 users. Hopefully that's enough for all your needs (and if not, contact us and we can see what we can do). 

Here are some areas you might consider as you start thinking how you'd use Social Authority:

  • As a low-cost alternative (or complement) for any current use of other 1 to 100 scores like Klout or PeerIndex.
  • As the foundation for other metrics that might use Social Authority as an input.
  • As a supplement to any software that you develop that surfaces Twitter users in any capacity.
  • As an Excel add-on with the ability to quickly grab scores for your own spreadsheets.

A quick example

I've written a little Chrome extension to give an example of how to use the API. You can download it and play around with our API. (As I said, it's really rough!)

Once installed, you can mouse-over any Twitter name on any other Web page. Once you do, you'll see a small hovercard that reveals their Social Authority. In the example below, I'm browsing the SEOmoz team page for our Help Team Leader, Aaron Wheeler:

Notice the little blue hovercard? It reveals Aaron's Social Authority by making an API call behind-the-scenes.

This has immediate value. As you start to browse the Web, you can quickly get the Social Authority of any Twitter user mentioned on blogs, news articles, and so on. It's a great way to opportunistically judge the value of any referenced Twitter user.

Of course, this is a very basic example. (And we invite you to fork that quick code to come up with something even better.)


We're eager to see how you'll use Social Authority, and we'd love to help you develop even more robust applications that make use of it. To share your feedback, please feel free to comment or to contact me directly (tweeting me @petebray is a good way) if you'd like any help or advice.

Please let us know where you integrate, and any other changes you'd like to see in the comments below. Cheers!


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Weekly Address: Time to Replace the Sequester with a Balanced Approach to Deficit Reduction

The White House Saturday, April 27, 2013
 

Weekly Address: Time to Replace the Sequester with a Balanced Approach to Deficit Reduction

President Obama says that because Republicans in Congress allowed a series of harmful, automatic budget cuts—called the sequester—to take effect, important programs like Head Start are now forced to reduce their services. After travelers were stuck for hours in airports and on planes this past week, members of Congress passed a temporary band-aid measure to stop the cuts that impact airlines — but they must do more to stop cuts to vital services for the American people. That’s why it’s time for a balanced approach to deficit reduction that makes smarter cuts and reforms in the tax code while creating jobs and strengthening the middle class.

Watch this week's Weekly Address.

Watch this week's Weekly Address

White House Science Fair: On Tuesday, President Obama welcomed our country’s youngest scientists and innovators for the 3rd Annual White House Science Fair. More than 100 students from more than 40 states joined the President for the all-day celebration. The President toured the fair and even hopped on a bicycle-powered, emergency water-sanitation station developed by high-school students Payton Karr and Kiona Elliott of Oakland Park, Florida.

The President launched the White House Science Fair in 2009 as way to help encourage science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.  In December of 2012 the Administration announced a goal of one million new STEM graduates in the next decade, and the President’s plan works for educational opportunities and support for women and underrepresented minorities.

Teacher of the Year: On Wednesday, the President invited the state and national teachers of the year to the White House. Jeff Charbonneau from Zillah, Washington received the honor of the 2013 National Teacher of the Year. Over a decade ago, Zillah High School did not have a single engineering class and a struggling science curriculum, but 11 years ago Charbonneau returned to his hometown to teach at Zillah High School determined to change this. Today, science enrollment is up and students are graduating with college-level science credits. The President thanked all of the educators for their hard work and commitment in the classroom.

I want you guys to know that the country appreciates you. The kids appreciate you. The parents appreciate you.  What you do matters.  It's critical to our success as a country, but most importantly, it's critical to those kids themselves.  I cannot think of something more important than reaching that child who maybe came in uninspired, and suddenly, you've inspired them.

Texas Memorial Service: On Thursday, President Obama delivered remarks at a memorial service for emergency first responders killed during the tragic explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas. The President praised the people of West for their unity and their ability "to stand tall in times of unimaginable adversity." The President provided comfort to the people of West and amid recent crisis, he assured West the country shares their pain.

Today our prayers are with the families of all who we've lost -- the proud sons and daughters of West whose memories will live on in our hearts.  Parents who loved their kids and leaders who served their communities.  They were young and old, from different backgrounds and different walks of life.

George W. Bush Presidential Library: On Thursday, the President and the First Lady traveled to Dallas for the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library. President Bush was joined by former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, as well as former First Ladies Roslyn Carter, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush. President Obama thanked President Bush for his service and love of country, while also pointing out his personality.

"He knows who he is," said President Obama. "He doesn't put on any pretenses. He takes his job seriously, but he doesn’t take himself too seriously. He is a good man."

Amir of Qatar: On Tuesday, President Obama welcomed Hamad bin Khalifa al- Thani, the Amir of Qatar, to discuss issues covering commerce, trade and education. The two leaders also talked about the urgency to end the slaughter in Syria and finding a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The President thanked Qatar for their friendship and says he looks forward to working with Qatar for many years to come.

National Park Week: Last Saturday marked the start of National Park Week, an annual tradition celebrating our country's great natural beauty and cultural landscapes. By being involved, you can help preserve the beauty, history and values of America and protect national parks for future generations.

There are national parks located in and around America's major cities, including San Francisco, New York CitySanta MonicaChicago, St. Louis, Miami, San Antonio, Baltimore and Washington, DC.

Take a look at the National Park Week event calendar and plan your visit for today!

Bombings in Boston: Last Friday, the President addressed the country after the capture of the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing. President Obama vowed to find more answers and ensure the American people are safe.

All in all, this has been a tough week. But we've seen the character of our country once more. And as President, I'm confident that we have the courage and the resilience and the spirit to overcome these challenges -- and to go forward, as one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

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Seth's Blog : Competence vs. possibility

 

Competence vs. possibility

As we get more experienced, we get better, more competent, more able to do our thing.

And it's easy to fall in love with that competence, to appreciate it and protect it. The pitfall? We close ourselves off from possibility.

Possibility, innovation, art--these are endeavors that not only bring the whiff of failure, they also require us to do something we're not proven to be good at. After all, if we were so good at it that the outcome was assured, there'd be no sense of possibility.

We often stop surprising ourselves (and the market) not because we're no good anymore, but because we are good. So good that we avoid opportunities that bring possibility.


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vineri, 26 aprilie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


Jim Chanos: China: The Edifice Complex - Wine Country Conference Presentation

Posted: 26 Apr 2013 12:25 PM PDT

Jim Chanos' speech, "China: The Edifice Complex", is available at Wine Country Conference Speaker Presentations.

Click on the link and scroll down to find the correct video. Allow 45 minutes or so for viewing.

The videos are the actual presentations, and we are making a couple of them available each week for three weeks.

John Hussman's presentation "An Unstable Equilibrium" was posted last week.
My Presentation "A Brief Lesson in History" is also available as are my "Opening Remarks".

Speaker presentation material, Yahoo! Finance media interviews, and associated articles on Advisor Perspectives are now available online at Wine Country Conference Speaker Slides.

If you enjoy the videos and slides please consider making a Donation to the Les Turner ALS Foundation. Specify "Mish Campaign" on the donation to earmark funds for research.

All told, we raised nearly $500,000 for ALS research, subject to final audit. $100,000 of that came from a very generous matching donation from the Hussman Foundation.

Thanks again for a successful 2013 WCC and we look forward to many more! The 2014 conference will raise money for autism research and programs.

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

Moving Ahead with "Pension Progress"

Posted: 26 Apr 2013 11:22 AM PDT

Buried in a transportation bill that President Obama signed on July 6, 2012, was a change to make it appear pension plans are better funded than they really are.

The bill was called Map-21 "Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act".

Here is a catchy logo and stated goals.



Supposedly the three core principles of the bill are:

  1. Raise the bar to enter the industry and operate on our roads;
  2. Hold motor carrier and drivers to the highest safety standards to continue operations; and
  3. Remove the highest risk drivers, vehicles, and carriers from our roads and prevent them from operating.

MAP-21 took effect October 1, 2012. Budget is $561 million in fiscal year (FY) 2013 and $572 million in FY 2014 for the Agency's administrative expenses and grant programs.

Pension Progress?

So what does this have to do with pensions? Nothing of course (except for the fact that this is another one of those bills that you have to pass to see what's in it, and more importantly how the bill works in real life.)

Buried in the Text of Map-21 is SEC. 40312. PENSION FUNDING STABILIZATION.

"(I) IN GENERAL- If a segment rate described in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) with respect to any applicable month (determined without regard to this clause) is less than the applicable minimum percentage, or more than the applicable maximum percentage, of the average of the segment rates described in such clause for years in the 25-year period ending with September 30 of the calendar year preceding the calendar year in which the plan year begins, then the segment rate described in such clause with respect to the applicable month shall be equal to the applicable minimum percentage or the applicable maximum percentage of such average, whichever is closest. The Secretary shall determine such average on an annual basis and may prescribe equivalent rates for years in any such 25-year period for which the rates described in any such clause are not available."

No one reading that would likely figure out the implication (at least without a great deal of effort). However I can give you a real life example.

Implications of the Bill

Reader Mark writes.
Hello Mish

I wasn't aware that the federal laws had been altered to make the pensions seem more solvent.

Apparently there is a new federal law, MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st century Act), that changes how pension plans are allowed to project future earnings/liabilities based on the interest rate calculation period.

Attached is a recent notice we received as plan participants, and how our pension plan magically improved due to the law.

Mark
Map-21 Real Life Progress Report



click on image for better view

Details

  • This company went from being 77.80% funded to 90.93% funded.
  • This company had a shortfall of $713 million but it's now $249 million.
  • The company's minimum contribution dropped from $197 million to $123 million.

How did this magic happen?

Easy: Prior to Map-21 pension plans had to determine liabilities based on a 2-year average of interest rates. After Map-21 companies could use a 25-year average of interest rates. As a result, companies get to contribute less when interest rates are low.

I would like to point out this is precisely when companies ought to be contributing more! It is extremely difficult to meet plan assumptions when corporate bond yields are in the gutter.

Ain't "Transportation" Grand?

Here's two more questions: What was the "real" purpose of this bill? Did it have anything to do with transportation?

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

Consumer Prices Dip Another .9% in Japan; Will It Take Until 2015 for Japan to Experience Price Inflation?

Posted: 26 Apr 2013 01:11 AM PDT

In spite of fact the Yen is down about 12% on the year, consumer prices in Japan are still falling and some are already clamoring for still more monetary stimulus.

Please consider Bank of Japan Sees Inflation Nearing Target in 2015.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food slid 0.5 percent in March from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said today. The median estimate of 25 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 0.4 percent decline. Overall prices dropped 0.9 percent. The BOJ this month said that it expects prices to keep declining for "the time being."

Eisuke Sakakibara, an ex-Finance Ministry colleague, has predicted Kuroda will fail to achieve the 2 percent price goal, and former BOJ board member Atsushi Mizuno sees the central bank hitting a "wall of reality" as bond purchases escalate risks of a market bubble.

Policy makers may come under pressure to expand stimulus should prices continue to drop.

"It's unrealistic -- they won't be able to reach their target in two years, or even in five," said Masaaki Kanno, chief Japan economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo and a former BOJ official. Extra easing may be needed as early as October, when the BOJ releases new price forecasts, he said.

Policy board members themselves are divided over the outlook for inflation, with some anticipating that consumer prices won't even rise at half the rate they set as a target this month. While the highest of their projections for fiscal 2015 is for a 2.3 percent consumer-price gain excluding the tax increase, the lowest is 0.8 percent.
Belief Bubble?

This is really quite stunning. It seems no one believes the Bank of Japan can do anything to stop prices from falling. JPMorgan chief Japan economist thinks Japan will fail to hit price targets for another 5 years!

Wow. This is precisely the kind of sentiment one sees at the end of trends. Nearly everyone thinks the trend will last forever, and nothing can stop it.

Instead, I suggest Japan will eventually succeed in spades and will be extremely unhappy with the result once it happens.

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