miercuri, 16 octombrie 2013

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics


It's Not Happening Here But It Is Happening Now

Posted: 16 Oct 2013 07:21 PM PDT

Good ad campaign by Amnesty International - It's not happening here. But it is happening now.






Robert Forstemann Huge Legs

Posted: 16 Oct 2013 07:06 PM PDT

If a gold medal could be handed to the Olympic athlete with the largest thighs, German cyclist Robert Forstemann would lead the pack.























Most Extreme Weather [Infographic]

Posted: 16 Oct 2013 06:21 PM PDT

The news is packed with stories of extreme weather from around the globe, but are we experiencing the worst of the worst now? Looks like the last century has seen some real doozies.

Click on Image to Enlarge.
Most Extreme Weather
Most Extreme Weather by The Air Conditioning Company

Top 21 Rad Radiators

Posted: 16 Oct 2013 06:10 PM PDT

It's that time of year again: leaves are falling, stodgy food is calling and there's no chance of drying your washing on the line. Best crank up the central heating, then. After a long summer of standing still, looking boring and being cold, it's time for your radiators to continue standing still and looking boring whilst they dry your clothes and creak creepily when you're trying to get to sleep. But hang on – who said radiators had to look boring? None of the designers who created these beauties, that's who. Forget the dull eyesores that are stuck to almost everyone's walls: this is art. If you thought radiators were all plain white oblongs, our list of the coolest radiators on the planet says you're wrong. Here goes…

Like a Bra






His 'n' Hers

 

This Little Piggy


View Entire List >>


Growing Sales Without a Sales Team: The Power of Distribution

Growing Sales Without a Sales Team: The Power of Distribution


Growing Sales Without a Sales Team: The Power of Distribution

Posted: 15 Oct 2013 04:20 PM PDT

Posted by AndrewDumont

Early on, we made the decision not to grow a sales team at Moz. We're not anti-sales, per se, it's just that it does't fit our culture. We believe in practicing what we preachâ€"inbound marketingâ€"not interruption selling.

Consequently, that provides a bit of a problem for a B2B SaaS business like Moz. Growing through traditional inbound channels is immensely powerful, but at a certain scale, maintaining linearity in growth through content, social media, and search becomes difficult. Working with the role of Business Development at Moz, it's my job to find those channels that will introduce growth at scale in a predictive way.

Which brings me to distribution.

Just over two years ago when I started at Moz, we began to ponder a simple question: If we offered an extended free trial on Moz (45, 60, 90, or 120 days) to select partners, could it move the needle on growth?

Before we'd be able to answer that question, however, we needed a few assets. The first was what we call a "partner page" internallyâ€"a lander that factors in a coupon code at check-out and offers a soft entry point from a third-party site. An example of that can be found below, which was shown in a recent partnership we launched with Get Startup Tools. It should be said that this is not an ideal partner page. There's much to be tested in the way of alternate text length and incorporating partner logos, which have proven to bump conversion in relevant studies.

Next, we needed to find something to provide our partners with value outside of the extended trial period that they'd be offering to their community through the distribution. This brought us to the concept of a "perks page," a collection of top web services that we could offer to Moz subscribers at discounted price, in a sense offering what we were looking for in return. With these two assets in place, were were ready to go.

Moz Perks

Which brings me back to the question I teed up for myself originally. Yes, it could move the needle on growth, but how much? Let's take a look. Below is a breakdown of free trials and paid conversions that have come directly from the distribution channel since January of 2012.

(click for larger version)

Looking at these numbers, however unsophisticated the graph may be, it begs another question: Sure, the numbers are growing, but do they perform as well as organic free trials, or do they churn out at a higher rate? Below is an analysis of just that, comparing conversion rates and churn of organic trials versus distribution trials, broken down by month in their subscription.

(click for larger version)

As you'll notice, month 0 and 1 are much higher than organic, but it then regulates out to something more manageable, a rate very similar to that of organic. Oddly enough, when we looked at trial length and the corresponding conversion rate, it didn't increase with length. Out of a fairly large sample set of 45, 60, 75, 90, and 120-day trials, the 60-day trial performed best by far. Counterintuitive, to say the least. From a holistic view, the conversion rate was lower, but not by an insane amount.

(click for larger version)

Now, back to that needle. How much revenueâ€"real moneyâ€"have distributions brought in? As of August 1st, 2013, we generated roughly $139,788 in revenue on a monthly basis through the distribution channel, or $2.3M in revenue since the channel was created in January of 2012.

(click for larger version)

Not bad. But I haven't even brought up the most amazing part of distribution: acquisition cost. Each one of these users that came through our partners via distributions came to us with $0 in acquisition cost, which is why step two of the legwork I mentioned was so darned important. By offering value back to our partners through their inclusion in our perks page, all of the numbers listed above were acquired without a rev-share or acquisition cost. The only spend was in the form of an increased operating cost from the extended trail. The hottest of damns.

That's all and well for Moz, but how can you apply it to your business? Well, regardless of your business, it's definitely worth adding to your tool belt as one of your 21 tactics, but it's typically best-suited for SaaS businesses like Moz.

If you're a service provider, you'll likely have to get a little bit more creative. Though it's not a direct corollary, the closest comparable in the service world would be a partnership with a software product like Moz, wherein Moz becomes a recommendation engine for new clients. You can see this in practice through our partnership with Distilled. For most software companies, they don't want to derail focus from the product through consulting work, so there's a lot of value to be added in becoming that missing consultation piece.

Regardless, the same concepts apply. Provide value and receive value; that's the nature of any partnership. Yet for some reason, partnerships typically aren't thought of as a growth channel in the inbound marketing mix, when they can clearly have an impact.

Hell, in this example, they even build links, if you're into that sort of thing.

A huge thanks to Alyson and Kurtis for making all of this data possible, both for our internal analysis and for the sake of this post, they employed some serious mySQL-fu.


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!

Seth's Blog : "I don't get it"

 

"I don't get it"

Who is teaching us to look deeper?

If you read a blog post, and it begins with an analogy about car dealers, is your instinct to say, "well, I'm not a car dealer..." and then jump to the next post?

When you see something working (or not working) in the marketplace, something you don't understand, do you stop to figure out why it's working (or not working)? Or is it easier to change the attention channel and get back into line?

I've discovered (the hard way) three rules for writing a blog post that will spread:

  • Don't use unfamiliar words or concepts.
  • Avoid subtlety.
  • Try not to challenge deeply held beliefs.

Education, politics, marketing, tourist attractions--they all seem to work better when we keep people moving, behind the velvet rope, input & output, cause and effect, this then that. When the masses conform to the system we've built, the system works a whole lot better.

But who wants to be a cog in that machine? While playing it safe might work, where does it get us?

The best opportunity you've got to grow and to make an impact is to seek out the, "I don't get it," moments, and then work at it and noodle on it and discuss it until you do get it. Analogies and metaphors are your friends. Dense lyrics, almost indecipherable prose, mysterious successes--these are the places where you will leap forward.

I know there is now an infinite amount of media to choose from, an infinite number of experiences to have. But if you skip over the ones that aren't spoon fed to you, all you'll end up with is eating from a spoon.

       

More Recent Articles

[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]

Don't want to get this email anymore? Click the link below to unsubscribe.




Your requested content delivery powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. +1.978.776.9498

 

Add More Traffic to Your Website

Increase Your Website Traffic Today. Get the website traffic you need today quickly and affordably. Our traffic network generates over 15 million unique visitors and over 50 million page impressions daily!
SubmitStart Sponsor Update. Unsubscribe from this list.


AddMoreTraffic
Increase Your
Website Traffic Today


Get the website traffic you need today quickly and
affordably. Our traffic network generates over 15
million unique visitors and over 50 million page
impressions daily!


LEARN MORE











High Exposure
Give your site the exposure it needs with high quality, targeted traffic. Our network of over 10,000 web properties can deliver millions of hits to your site.



Targeted Traffic
We can provide your site with extremely targeted traffic from regions and countries all over the world.



Increase Sales
So are you ready to start making more money from your website? Get started today and buy your traffic package from AddMoreTraffic.





15 Million Visitors Daily 100% Human Traffic
50 Million Impressions Daily Fast Delivery
Free Traffic Targeting Secure Online Payments





LEARN MORE



Sent to e0nstar1.blog@gmail.comwhy did I get this?

unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

SubmitStart · Trade Center · Kristian IV:s väg 3 · Halmstad 302 50 · Sweden

marți, 15 octombrie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


VAT Increase Backfires in Spain, Supermarket Sales Plunge 7.2%

Posted: 15 Oct 2013 10:54 AM PDT

The nannycrats in Brussels and the IMF keep pressuring Spain to hike the VAT and Spain does every time. The results are easily predictable.

Via translate from El Econimista, please consider VAT Rise is "Catastrophic"
Anged, the "Association of Large Distribution Companies" suffered a 7.2% drop in sales through August, the biggest drop in sales since the crisis began. Anged companies include El Corte Ingles, Carrefour, Auchan, Tesco, Ikea, Media Markt, Leroy Merlin and Toys R'Us.

Employer, Alfonso Merry del Val, said the increase in VAT has been "catastrophic".

Data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) show that sales in supermarkets were down  7.2% through August and the crisis is deepening.

Apart from the increase in VAT, the Anged president was particularly critical of the rate that some regions have tax supermarkets activity. "It's a revolutionary tax. If not corrected, 18,000 jobs and more than 200 million of investments per year are in grave danger of disappearing," he said.
VAT History

Inquiring minds may wish to revisit my September 5, 2012 post: Spain VAT Hike Largest In History; Stunning Ineptitude Will Make History Books

IMF Recommendation

Given the stunning "success" of the 2012 VAT hike, the safe thing to do is expect more "success". And sure enough, just five days ago the IMF proposed Spain hike the VAT again.

Via translation from Libre Mercado, please consider IMF recommends Spain to raise the VAT
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Wednesday that Spain has room "to better raise taxes" and increase the scope of VAT in order to increase revenue. Michael Keen, director of IMF fiscal affairs, said during the presentation of the Fund's fiscal report that Spain "has not used too much VAT tax" to increase income and has the potential to improve the "composition" of the excise tax.
If Spain hikes the VAT, we can expect still more "success".

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

Decisive Victory by Le Pen's Eurosceptic National Front Party in Local Election Stirs Fear in Mainstream French Parties

Posted: 14 Oct 2013 10:59 PM PDT

Two recent events regarding Marine Le Pen and her eurosceptic party have the nannycrats in Brussels worried. The first occurred in early October when Marine Le Pen's Eurosceptic "National Front" Party Took Lead in France National Poll.

Yesterday, a huge victory by the National Front in a local election had the nanmnycrat alarm bells ringing.

Please consider French far-right victory stirs fear among mainstream parties
A local council by-election in a small town in the sleepy hinterland of France's Côte d'Azur would not normally be the stuff to shake national – much less international – politics.

But a decisive victory by the National Front (FN) in Brignoles on Sunday night has set alarm bells ringing in Paris that the far-right party, led by Marine Le Pen, will repeat the feat more widely across the country in municipal elections in March.

Just as ominous, not just for mainstream parties in France but across the EU, is the prospect that the vote signals a much-feared surge by the populist right in European elections due in May.
Fingerpointing

The bickering, finger-pointing and blame-placing events in the wake of the election are rather amusing.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault blamed the FN's win over the centre-right UMP on its leaders "who didn't lift a finger to defend their candidate".

Jean-Francois Copé, the UMP's president, responded that Mr Ayrault should "come to his senses", saying the result was caused by President François Hollande's "calamitous" Socialist government, which backed the Communist candidate in Brignoles.

Both parties are afraid that the FN's campaigns against crime, immigration, Islam, the EU and globalisation are striking a chord with voters at a time of double-digit unemployment and deep disillusionment over the ability of the traditional parties to deal with the country's problems.

"The FN poison contaminates a whole country and all its politics," commented Libération, the leftwing newspaper.
Poisoned Policies

Those looking for poisoned economic policies should look no further than the policies of socialist president Francois Hollande. Here are a seven prime examples.

  1. October 10, 2013: Law of Career Security: France's Minister of Digital Economy Orders Telecom Companies "to be Virtuous and Patriotic" and to Use Alcatel-Lucent to Prevent Layoffs
  2. October 3, 2013: France Vows to "Save the Bookstores", Fixes Price of Books, Bans Free Shipping by Amazon
  3. May 17, 2013: Hollande Asks ECB to Engage in Japanese Style Currency Debasement
  4. March 22, 2013: Hollande Announces 20 "Confidence Shock" Measures to Support Home Building
  5. January 28, 2013: France "Totally Bankrupt" Says Labour Minister; Inappropriate or Inaccurate?
  6. October 31, 2012: "Google Law" Yet Another Warped Policy by Hollande; Government Motors French Style
  7. June 8, 2012: Hollande About to Wreck France With Economically Insane Proposal: "Make Layoffs So Expensive For Companies That It's Not Worth It"


Eventually Will Come A Time

Let's flashback to November 23, 2011, to my statement Eventually, Will Come a Time When ....
Eventually, there will come a time when a populist office-seeker will stand before the voters, hold up a copy of the EU treaty and (correctly) declare all the "bail out" debt foisted on their country to be null and void. That person will be elected.

Le Pen may be too early, and France may not be that country, but the time will come.

Greece, Finland, Germany, Belgium, and even France are possibilities. All it will take, is for one charismatic person, timing social mood correctly, to say precisely one right thing at exactly the right time. It will happen.
Le Pen was too early in 2011 and 2012. She may be too early still. And France may not even be the right country. But ... "All it will take, is for one charismatic person, timing social mood correctly, to say precisely one right thing at exactly the right time. It will happen."

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