marți, 3 decembrie 2013

How to Build Your Own Mass Keyword Difficulty Tool

How to Build Your Own Mass Keyword Difficulty Tool


How to Build Your Own Mass Keyword Difficulty Tool

Posted: 02 Dec 2013 03:15 PM PST

Posted by MartinMacDonald

Despite keywords being slightly out of fashion, thanks to the whole (not provided) debacle, it remains the case that a large part of an SEO's work revolves around discovering opportunity and filling that same opportunity with content to rank.

When you are focusing on smaller groups of terms, there are plenty of tools to help; the Moz Keyword Difficulty Tool being a great example.

These tools function by checking the top results for a given keyword, and looking at various strength metrics to give you a snapshot as to how tough they are to rank for.

The problem is, though, that these tools operate on the fly, and generally only allow you to search for a small amount of keywords at any one time. The Moz tool, for instance, limits you to 20 keywords.

But I need to check 100,000 keywords!

By the end of this tutorial you will be able to visualize keyword difficulty data in a couple of ways, either by keyword:

Or by keyword type:

Or by category of keyword, spliced by specific position in the results:

So what do we need to do?

All keyword difficulty tools work in the same way when you break them down.

They look at ranking factors for each result in a keyword set, and sort them. It's that simple.

The only thing we need to do is work out how to perform each step at scale:

Step 1: Get URLs

My preference for scraping Google is using Advanced Web Ranking to get the ranking results for large sets of keywords.

Quite a few companies offer software for this service (including Moz), but the problem with this approach is that costs spiral out of control when you are looking at hundreds of thousands of keywords.

Once you have added your keyword set, run a ranking report of the top 10 results for the search engine of your choice. Once it's complete you should see a screen something like this:

The next step is to get this data out of Advanced Web Ranking and into Excel, using a "Top Sites" report, in CSV format (The format is important! If you choose any other format it makes manipulating the data much tougher):

This presents us with a list of of keywords, positions, and result URLs:

So now we can start harvesting some SEO data on each one of those results!

My preference is to use the fantastic Niels Bosma Excel Plugin and the MajesticSEO API to access their Citation Score metric.

Equally, though, you could use the SEOgadget Excel tool alongside the Moz API. I haven't tested that thoroughly enough, but it should give you pretty similar results if you are more used to using them.

Step 2: Analyze results

Now that we have a nice result set of the top 10 results for your keyword list, its time to start pulling in SEO metrics for each of those to build some actionable data!

My preference is to use the Niels Bosma Excel Plugin, as its super easy and quick to pull the data you need directly into Excel where you can start analyzing the information and building charts.

If you haven't already done so, you should start by downloading and installing the plugin available here (note: It's for Windows only, so if you are a Mac user like me, you'll need to use Parallels or another virtual machine).

In the column adjacent to your list of URLs you simply need to use the formula:

=MajesticSEOIndexItemInfo(C2,"CitationFlow","fresh",TRUE)

This formula gives you the CitationFlow number for the URL in cell C2. Obviously, if your sheet is formatted differently, then you'll need to update the cell reference number.

Once you see the CitationFlow appear in that cell, just copy it down to fill the entire list, and if you have lots of keywords right now would be a great time to go grab a coffee, as it can take some time depending on your connection and the number of results you want.

Now you should be looking at a list something like this:

Which allows us to start doing some pretty incredible keyword research!

Step 3: Find opportunity

The first thing that you probably want to do is look at individual keywords and find the ranking opportunity in those. This is trivially easy to do as long as you are familiar with Excel pivot tables.

For a simple look, just create a pivot of the average citation score of each keyword, the resulting table creator wizard will look something like this:

Of course you can now visualize the data just by creating a simple chart, if we apply the above data to a standard bar chart you will begin to see the kind of actionable data we can build:

This is just the beginning, though! If you create a pivot chart across a large dataset and look at the average citation score for each position, you can see interesting patterns develop.

This example is looking at a dataset of 52,000 keywords, and taking the average score of each site appearing in each position in the top 10 results:

As you can see, across a large dataset there is a really nice degradation of strength in the top 10 results, a real vindication that the data we are looking at is rational and is a good indicator of how strong you need to be to rank a given page (providing the content is sufficient and focused enough).

You really want to splice the data into categories at this stage, to identify the areas of quickest opportunity and focus on building content and links towards the areas where you are likely to earn traffic.

The below chart represents a comparison of three categories of keywords, sorted by the average Citation of the results in each category:

From this we can see that of the three keyword categories, we are likely to rank higher up for keywords in the "brown widgets" category. Having said that, though, we are also able to rank lower down the page in the "blue widgets" category, so if that has significantly more traffic it might prove a better investment of your time and energy.

There you go!

We have created a homebrew keyword difficulty tool, capable of analyzing hundreds of thousands of URLs to mine for opportunity and guide your content and linkbuilding strategies!

There is so much you can do with this data if you put your mind to it.

True, scraping Google's results strictly speaking is against their Terms of Service, but they have a habit of using our data, so lets turn the tables on them for a change!


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Panic Stations! A Case Study on How to Handle an Important Page Disappearing from Google

Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:33 AM PST

Posted by steviephil

Picture the scene...

You wake up, grab a shower, throw on your Moz t-shirt (and other clothes, presumably...), boil the kettle, pour yourself a cup of coffee, switch on the ol' laptop, let your daily rank checks complete and then slowly run through them one by one...

...Yep...

...Yep...

...Ooo, that's nice...

...Uh-huh...

...Yes! Great jump there!...

...Yep...

...Ye- Wait, hold on... What? Lots of red, all across the board? Rankings have either dropped multiple pages or dropped out of the top 100 results entirely?!

Uh-oh. It's gonna be a looong day....

This happened to me recently with one of my clients. Their homepage - their main page as far as rankings were concerned - had mysteriously vanished from Google's index overnight, taking with it a lot of page one rankings, as you can see from the world's saddest and perhaps most unnecessary GIF image below:

This was also the first time that it'd happened to me. Granted, I've consulted on this type of thing before, but usually when it's happened to someone and they approach me asking what's happened afterwards. However, this was the first instance of it where I was discovering it for myself and it was happening under my watch, affecting one of my clients.

This post runs through the steps that I took to resolve the issue. I acted methodically yet swiftly, and in doing so managed to get the homepage back in Google's index (and - with it - its former rankings) in less than 12 hours.

I accept that this is one of those articles where you probably won't even need it until it happens to you. To be honest, I was in that exact situation - I pretty much knew what to do, but I was still a bit like "OMG OMG OMG, whowhatwherewhenwhy?!" in trying to find an article to just double-check that I was doing everything I could be doing and wasn't overlooking anything obvious.

So... Are you ready? Here we go!

Check if it's just that page or all pages on the site

I primarily use Link Assistant's Rank Tracker (with Trusted Proxies) for my rank checking needs, with Moz PRO's rank checking as a backup and second opinion. Rank Tracker allows a 'URL Found' column, which revealed something to me instantly: other pages were still ranking, just not the homepage. Additionally, where a ranking had seen a drop of a few pages (but was still ranking within the top 10 pages/100 results), a different page was ranking instead - in my client's case, it was things like the Services, Testimonials and Contact pages.

This suggested to me that it was just the homepage that was affected - but there was still a way that I could find out to be sure...

Use the 'site:' operator to check if it's still in Google's index

My next step was to use Google's 'site:' operator (see #1 here) on the domain, to see whether the homepage was still in Google's index. It wasn't - but all of the site's other pages were. Phew... Well at least it wasn't site-wide!

Even though I had a feeling that this would be the case based on what Rank Tracker was saying, it was still important to check, just in case the homepage was still ranking but had been devalued for whatever reason.

Now that I knew for sure that the homepage was gone from Google, it was time to start investigating what the actual cause might be...

Check 1) Accidental noindexing via the meta noindex tag

In my experience, this is usually what's responsible when something like this happens... Given that the option to noindex a page is often a tick-box in most CMS systems these days, it's easy enough to do. In fact, one of the times I looked into the issue for someone, this was what was the cause - I just told them to untick the box in WordPress.

In order to check, bring up the page's source code and look for this line (or something similar):

  <meta name="robots" content="noindex">  

(Hit Ctrl + F and search for "noindex" if it's easier/quicker.)

If you find this code in the source, then chances are that this is responsible. If it's not there, onto the next step...

Check 2) Accidental inclusion in the site's robots.txt file

It seems to be a somewhat common myth that robots.txt can noindex a page - it actually tells search engines not to crawl a page, so it'd only be true if the page had never actually appeared in Google's index in the first place (e.g. if it were a brand new site). Here's more info if you're interested.

To be honest though, given what had happened, I didn't want to assume that this wasn't the cause and therefore I thought it would be best just to check anyway.

But alas... The site's robots.txt file hadn't changed one iota. Onto step 3...

Check 3) Penalty checks

Given that this was my client, I was already familiar with its history, and I was already adamant that a penalty wasn't behind it. But again, I wanted to do my due diligence - and you know what they say when you assume...!

I jumped into Google Webmaster Tools and looked at the recently added Manual Actions tab. Unsurprisingly: "No manual webspam actions found." Good good.

However, let's not rule out algorithmic penalties, which Google doesn't tell you about (and oh lordy, that's caused some confusion). As far as Pandas were concerned, there was no evidence of accidental or deliberate duplicate content either on the site or elsewhere on the Web. As for those dastardly Penguins, given that I'm the first SEO ever to work on the site and I don't build keyword anchor text links for my clients, the site has never seen any keyword anchor text, let alone enough to set off alarm bells.

Following these checks, I was confident that a penalty wasn't responsible.

Check 4) Remove URLs feature in Google Webmaster Tools

Another check while you're in your Webmaster Tools account: go to Google Index > Remove URLs and check that the page hasn't been added as a removal request (whether by accident or on purpose). You never know... It's always best to check.

Nope... "No URL removal requests" in this case.

It was at this point, that I was starting to think: "what the hell else could it be?!"

Check 5) Accidental 404 code

On the day that this happened, I met up with my good friends and fellow SEOs Andrew Isidoro (@Andrew_Isidoro) and Ceri Harris of Willows Finance for a drink and a bite to eat down the pub. I ran this whole story by them along with what I'd done so far, and Andrew suggested something that I hadn't considered: although extremely unlikely, what if the homepage was now showing up as a 404 (Not Found) code instead of a 200 (OK) code? Even if the page is live and performing normally (to the visitor), a 404 code would tell Google that that page "don't live here no more" (to quote the mighty Hendrix) and Google would remove it accordingly.

Again, it was worth checking, so I ran it past SEO Book's HTTP header checker tool. The verdict: 200 code. It was a-OK (pun fully intended - it's a good thing that I'm an SEO and not a comedian...)

Ok, so now what?

Testing the page in Google Webmaster Tools

Now it was time to ask the big boss Googly McSearchengineface directly: what do you make of the page, oh mighty one?

In order to do this, go to Google Webmaster Tools, click on the site in question and select Crawl > Fetch as Google from the side-menu. You should see a screen like this:

Fetch as Google screenshot 1

Simply put the affected page(s) into it (or leave it blank if it's the homepage) and see what Google makes of them. Of course, if it's "Failed," is there a reason why it's failed? It might also help to give you an idea about what could be wrong...

Asking Google to (re)index the page

Once you have done the above in GWT, you're given this option if Google can successfully fetch the page:

Fetch as Google screenshot 2

I decided to do just that: ask Google to (re)submit the page to its index.

At this point I was confident that I had done pretty much everything in my power to investigate and subsequently rectify the situation. It was now time to break the news, by which I mean: tell the client...

Inform the client

I thought it best to tell the client after doing all of the above (except for the 404 check, which I actually did later on), even if it was possible that the page might recover almost immediately (which it did in the end, pretty much). Plus I wanted to be seen as proactive, not reactive - I wanted to be the one to tell him, not for him to be the one finding out for himself and asking me about it...

Here's the email that I sent:

Hi [name removed],
I just wanted to bring your attention to something.
I conduct daily ranks checks just to see how your site is performing on Google on a day-to-day basis, and I've noticed that your homepage has disappeared from Google.
Usually this is the result of a) accidental de-indexation or b) a penalty, but I have checked the usual suspects/causes and I see no sign of either of those occurring.
I have checked in your Webmaster Tools account and Google can successfully read/crawl the page, so no problems there. I have taken appropriate steps to ask Google to re-index the page.
I've done all that I can for now, but if we do not see everything back to normal in the next couple of days, I will continue to research the issue further. It's likely the case that it will recover of its own accord very soon. Like I say, I've checked the usual signs/causes of such an issue and it doesn't appear to be the result of any of those.
Just to check, have you or your web designer made any changes to the website in the last couple of days/weeks? If so, could you please let me know what you have done?
I know it's not an ideal situation, but I hope you can appreciate that I've spotted the issue almost immediately and have taken steps to sort out the issue.
If you have any questions about it then please do let me know. In the meantime I will keep a close eye on it and keep you posted with any developments.

(Note: In this instance, my client prefers email contact. You may find that a phone call may be better suited, especially given the severity of the situation - I guess it will be a judgement call depending on the relationship that you have with your client and what they'd prefer, etc.)

He took it well. He hadn't noticed the drop himself, but he appreciated me notifying him, filling him in on the situation and explaining what action I had taken to resolve the issue.

* Recovery! *

Later on the same day in the evening, I did another quick check. To my surprise, the homepage was not only back in Google, but the rankings were pretty much back to where they once were. PHEW!

I say "surprised" not because of my ability to pull it off, but with how quickly it'd happened - I expected that it might've taken a few days maybe, but not a mere few hours. Oh well, mustn't complain...!

The real (possible) cause...

So what did cause the deindexation? Well, another suggestion that came from Andrew while we were down the pub that I'd stupidly overlooked: downtime!

It could've been an unfortunate and unlucky coincidence that Google happened to re-crawl the page exactly when the site had gone down.

I hadn't added the site to my Pingdom account before all of this had happened (something that I have since rectified), so I couldn't know for sure. However, the site went down again a day or so later, which made me wonder if downtime was responsible after all... Even so, I advised the client that if this was a common occurrence that he should maybe consider switching hosting providers to someone more reliable, in order to reduce the chance of this happening all over again...

Preparing yourself for when it happens to you or your clients

In order to make sure that you're fully on top of a situation like this, make sure that you're carrying out daily rank checks and that you're quickly checking those rank checks, even if it's a quick once-over just to make sure that nothing drastic has happened in the last 24 hours. It's clear to say that if I hadn't have done so, I might not have realised what had happened for days and therefore might not have rectified the situation for days, either.

Also, having a 'URL Found' column in addition to 'Ranking Position' in your rank checking tool of choice is an absolute must - that way you can see if it's a particular page that's affected if different pages are now the highest-ranking pages instead.

Anyway, I hope that this case study/guide has been useful, whether you're reading it to brush up ready for when the worst happens, or whether the worst is happening to you right now (in which case I feel for you, my friend - be strong)...!

Also, if you'd do anything differently to what I did or you think that I've missed a pivotal step or check, please let me know in the comments below!

Did you like the comic drawings? If so, check out Age of Revolution, a new comic launched by Huw (@big_huw) & Hannah (@SpannerX23). Check them out on Facebook, Twitter and Ukondisplay.com (where you can pick up a copy of their first issue). Their main site - Cosmic Anvil - is coming soon... I'd like to say a massive thanks to them for providing the drawings for this post, which are simply and absolutely awesome, I'm sure you'll agree!


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Seth's Blog : The tribe or the person?

 

The tribe or the person?

A parade of tourists is going to walk past your store today. Each is a separate opportunity for you to tell a story, to engage, to make a sale.

A connected community of readers is going to read what you wrote today. A cultural shift will occur among a small group of people because they will share, discuss and engage with each other about what you wrote.

Here's the key question: are you trying to change an individual or are you trying to incite/inspire/redirect the tribe?

Direct marketers traditionally deal with separate events. Each catalog, each clickable ad is a unique transaction. In the world of separates, the simple test makes sense. You don't pollute the pool when you try different transactions or different products with different people.

If you focus on individuals (and many marketers do) then the rule is: treat different people differently.

On the other hand, many marketers deal with culture. You put something into the world and it won't work until it 'catches on'. The goal is to catch on with the herd. Catching on isn't a 1:1 private transaction. It's a group phenomenon, a place where you don't get a second chance to make a first impression. The simple test makes no sense here--it's either good enough to spread or it isn't. There aren't as many distinct threshholds, because the culture shifts or it doesn't.

When I ran Yoyodyne years ago, all of our email campaigns were aimed at the person. It was before significant online sharing, and we could measure one by one how people responded to our work.

At the same time, our backers and our clients were very much part of a tribe. We needed to change the way an entire industry thought, not merely make one sale at a time. It took me a while to realize that I had to market differently when I was trying to change the way the group thought—treating the tribe using individual-person thinking almost always backfires.

Or consider two non-profits. One wants to change only those it serves and those that fund it, one transaction at a time. Those are person effects. The other wants to change society, the culture, the way philanthropists think--those are tribal effects.

Many marketers, particularly bootstrappers and freelancers, rarely have the resources to invest in tribal effects, particularly among customers (as opposed to funders or employees). They don't have the resources or the leverage to make unmeasured investments that one day will pop into a change among the entire tribe.

The flip side, if you seek to change the culture (or a tiny tribal element of the culture), your timeframe and what you measure have to be focused on the conversation, not the individual.

If you're tracking landing pages and conversions and even market share, you're probably in the business of working at the person level. The more difficult, time-consuming, unmeasurable work involves creating ideas that spread among the tribe you target.

To change the culture, change the conversation.

       

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luni, 2 decembrie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


Debt Deflation in Spain: Record 4.7% Decline in Household Credit, Business Lending Down 10%

Posted: 02 Dec 2013 08:01 PM PST

Kiss any notion of a Spanish recovery goodbye.

Via translation, El Pais reports Household credit suffers record fall in October despite the rescue.
Credit in Spain continues to show signs of weakness, year and a half after the Troika bailout.

Statistics from the Bank of Spain show that household credit fell 5.2% in October to 793.940 billion euros. If we look at the evolution of the cash flow of borrowed money, the net change in assets is a decrease is 4.7%.

In October, the credit borrowed to buy homes fell 4.7%, maintaining its rate of collapse, to 614.860 billion euros. Lending to businesses fell 10% in October, to 1.081 trillion euros.

In both cases, the amount of money borrowed is at its lowest level since 2007.

Debt Deflation?

Precisely!

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

Expect the "Practically Virtually Impossible"

Posted: 02 Dec 2013 01:44 PM PST

The collapse of Spanish housing left the banking system with as much as 51 billion euros of deferred tax assets(DTAs), mostly from 2011, that can be used against future profits for as long as 18 years.

Because the DTAs depend on future and unknowable profits, the DTAs cannot be fully counted as core capital. To get around Basel capital rules, El Diario reports Spain Guarantees 30 Billion in DTAs.
Multimillion dollar losses banks have generated billions in tax credits in just two years. The official estimate is that the sector hoards 51 billion in such tax advantages.

The government now guarantees 60 percent of the DTAs, some 30 billion euros over the next fifteen years. To make full use of the DTAs banks will have to generate 100 billion euros in profits. If sufficient results are not achieved, the state will have to come to the rescue with public debt, charged to the taxpayer.

Why 100 billion? Because corporate tax takes 30% of the profits of the company. Sources of Finance estimate that at least multiply by 3.3 the DTA to get the benefits that would be necessary to consume these benefits. And then, as always, a lot of fine print.

According to finance minister Luis De Guindos, it is "practically virtually impossible" for taxpayers to be at risk.
The "Practically Virtually Impossible"

The article contains an analysis of various banks including Bankia, CaixaCatalunya Bank, and Santander.

The fine print is critical because some of the banks have no hope of using the DTAs. Rather, they will auction them off in a raffle.

I suspect we will not have to wait until 2029 for the "practically virtually impossible" to happen. Will the eurozone even hold together that long?

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

"Emerging Market Slowdown to Last for Years"; Comments from Saxo Bank Chief Economist

Posted: 02 Dec 2013 11:00 AM PST

Citing a need for structural reforms, Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, the world's third largest Fast-Moving-ConsumerGoods (FMCG) company says the emerging market slowdown is here to stay.

Before diving into the report on Unilever, let's take a look at the definition of FMCG corporations.
Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) or Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) are products that are sold quickly and at relatively low cost. Examples include non-durable goods such as soft drinks, toiletries, and grocery items. Though the profit margin made on FMCG products is relatively small, more so for retailers than the producers/suppliers, they are generally sold in large quantities. FMCG is probably the most classic case of low margin/high volume business. Many of the players on the retailer side such as Walmart, Carrefour, Choithram, Tawseel, Sheel, Walgreens or Metro Group and supplier side are among the largest and most recognized global companies.

Fast-moving consumer electronics are a type of FMCG and are typically low priced generic or easily substitutable consumer electronics, including mobile phones, MP3 players, game players, and digital cameras which are of disposable nature.

Global leaders in the FMCG segment include Johnson & Johnson, Colgate-Palmolive, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Henkel, Kellogg's, S.C. Johnson, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Beiersdorf, Mars Inc., Heinz, Nestlé, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, L'Oréal, The Coca-Cola Company, General Mills Inc., PepsiCo, Mondelēz and Kraft Foods.
Slowdown Here to Stay

Bloomberg reports Emerging Market Slowdown to Last for Years
Unilever (UNA) Chief Executive Officer Paul Polman said the economic slowdown in emerging markets is here to stay as many countries need to enact structural reforms to adjust to new conditions after the boom of recent years.

"They are still relatively stronger economies, but still fragile," Polman said. "And you see that growth coming off now a little bit, obviously not being helped either by lower demand coming from Europe and the U.S. This will last a few years. And it will only be corrected if some of the reforms have been made in these places."

"I am always surprised that I am the one who sort of has to announce there's a slowdown in emerging markets," Polman said, speaking Nov. 29 at a reception where he was awarded the 2013 World Wildlife Fund Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal for Unilever's efforts to reduce environmental damage.

"Emerging markets are clearly decelerating, but will always grow faster than the developed world," said Jon Cox, an analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux in Zurich. "Unilever is the emerging market play -- given 60 percent of sales are there, what Polman says on them has a lot of weight."
More on FMCGs

The World of CEOs cites Unilever as the third largest FMCG. Here is a list of Leading FMCG Corporations and the products they have.

Comments From Saxo Bank Chief Economist

Steen Jakobsen, Saxo Bank chief economist pinged me with these thoughts on emerging markets as well as countries in need of structural reform.
Unilever is THE EMG company of the world. In the equity space, EMG earnings should come under some pressure and soon.

Likewise and probably a better play is to short the French luxury makers and CAC40 direct. Short Luxury and short France. Both trades are definitely high on my 2014 list.
A quick look at the CAC40 (the France stock market index), shows the CAC40 includes companies like L'Oréal (personal products), Groupe Danone (a food products corporation), LVMH (clothing and accessories), and Carrefour (food retailers and wholesalers).

France is also a country with uncompetitive labor costs and a huge need for numerous structural reforms.

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

Battle for $15 minimum Wage; Should Companies Pay Workers More? Wal-Mart a Savior or a Pariah?

Posted: 01 Dec 2013 11:55 PM PST

On Friday, Salon reported Breaking: Massive Black Friday strike and arrests planned, as workers defy Wal-Mart.
Defying the nation's top employer and a business model that defines the new U.S. economy, Wal-Mart employees and allies will try to oust shopping headlines with strike stories, and throw a retail giant off its heels on what should be its happiest day of the year. By day's end, organizers expect 1,500 total protests in cities ranging from Los Angeles, Calif., to Wasilla, Alaska, including arrests in nine cities: Seacaucus, New Jersey; Alexandria, Virginia; Dallas; Minneapolis; Chicago; Seattle; and Ontario, San Leandro, and Sacramento, California.
On December 1, the New York Times reported Wage Strikes Planned at Fast-Food Outlets.
Seeking to increase pressure on McDonald's, Wendy's and other fast-food restaurants, organizers of a movement demanding a $15-an-hour wage for fast-food workers say they will sponsor one-day strikes in 100 cities on Thursday and protest activities in 100 additional cities.

The movement, which includes the groups Fast Food Forward and Fight for 15, is part of a growing union-backed effort by low-paid workers — including many Walmart workers and workers for federal contractors — that seeks to focus attention on what the groups say are inadequate wages.

The fast-food effort is backed by the Service Employees International Union and is also demanding that restaurants allow workers to unionize without the threat of retaliation.

Officials with the National Restaurant Association have said the one-day strikes are publicity stunts. They warn that increasing pay to $15 an hour when the federal minimum wage is $7.25 would cause restaurants to rely more on automation and hire fewer workers.

On Aug. 29, fast-food strikes took place in more than 50 cities. This week's expanded protests will be joined by numerous community, faith and student groups, including USAction and United Students against Sweatshops.
Fight For 15

Inquiring minds are investigating the Fight for 15 website. Here is a snip.
Stand with striking Chicago fast food and retail workers!

We, hundreds of fast food and retail workers, went on strike at 30 stores in the Loop and the Magnificent Mile to demand $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation. Employers like McDonalds, Whole Foods, and Sears are raking in enormous profits while workers like us, mostly adults with families, don't get paid enough to cover basic needs like food, rent, health care and transportation.

We are risking our jobs as we continue to stand up and say ENOUGH. And we need everyone who supports us to join us. It's time to give every worker a chance to survive and thrive – and strengthen Chicago's economy.
Applicants a Mile Long

Whenever Wal-Mart opens up a store it gets tens of thousands of applicants for a couple hundred openings. People want the jobs.

Here's the deal. If you don't like the job, then don't take it.

It really is as simple as that.

Should Companies Pay Workers More?

The economic illiterates think companies should be forced to pay $15 per hour. Is it even possible?

Let's do the math.

Wikipedia
reports Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world as well as the biggest private employer in the world with over two million employees.

In its last annual report, for the 12 months ending January 31, 2013, Wal-Mart had $16.999 billion in net income.

That sounds like a lot of money, and it is, but not as much as you might think. I do not have a breakdown in headcounts, pay scales, or number of part-time employees, but let's assume that half of the 2 million workers make $8 an hour (75 cents above above minimum wage) and work 30 hours a week.

$15 an hour would be an increase of $7 per hour. $7 multiplied by 30 hours per week, multiplied by 52 weeks a year, multiplied by 1 million workers is $10.92 billion, well over half Wal-Mart's profit.

There would also be a large number of full-time employees making above $10 per hour but less than $15 per hour.

Bump up those employees to $15 per hour and the company would not even be profitable at $15 per hour minimum. Moreover, sales would plunge at Wal-Mart, as would sales at McDonald's and Wendy's.

The pressure to automate would be great, and marginal stores would surely close. Yet, prices across the board would soar, and so would yields on US Treasuries (and of course interest on the national debt would skyrocket).

Then, how long would it take to discover that $15 was not a "living wage"? Less than a year?

Wal-Mart a Savior or a Pariah?

The idea that raising the minimum wage to $15 would fix anything is ridiculous.

I am not totally unsympathetic to the plight of those struggling, but I am totally unsympathetic about minimum wages because the problem is the Fed, not minimum wage laws.

Cheap money coupled with rising minimum wages encourages investment into automation as opposed to hiring of individuals. Cheap money also drives up costs of goods and services.

And given that cheap money primarily benefits those with first access to it (the banks and the already wealthy), it is not surprising that people are struggling.

Rather than protest Wal-Mart (a company that does the world a service by providing over 2 million direct jobs and millions more indirect ones), people ought to be protesting the Fed.

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

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics


Chinese Female Bodyguard Training

Posted: 02 Dec 2013 10:45 AM PST

Female bodyguard training course in China.
















'Fast and Furious' actor Paul Walker dies in car crash

Posted: 02 Dec 2013 10:20 AM PST

On November 30, 2013, Paul Walker and his friend Roger Rodas left an event for Walker's charity Reach Out Worldwide. Shortly after leaving Roger Rodas lost control of his red 2005 Porsche Carrera GT and crashed into a light pole and tree in Valencia, Santa Clarita, Californa. The vehicle burst into flames. Both men died at the scene. R.I.P.















How to Teach Your Cat to Poop in the Toilet

Posted: 02 Dec 2013 09:27 AM PST

He didn't know what to make of the lasagna tray of pine chips at first



We moved the litter box by it and added some of his "product" to the pan.





He figured it out.



We cut bigger and bigger holes in the center of the pan (the pine litter is flushable) over 2 weeks time til it was gone. 



Now mommy and daddy don't buy litter and nobody can tell a cat lives here, we're odor free. 

Via aperfectmentlegen.imgur.com

7 of the Planet’s Coolest Bike Safety Innovations

Posted: 02 Dec 2013 08:46 AM PST

Throughout the world, more and more people are taking to two wheels instead of four. Cycling improves fitness levels, saves money, reduces fuel emissions and is less hassle than public transport. What's not to love? Well, riding a bike can be a risky business, which is why clever people all over the planet are coming up with ways to make it safer. We've hunted down some of the most amazing inventions and initiatives that aim to make cycling safer. From invisible helmets to portable pole-dancers, these videos highlight the most exciting and interesting developments for cyclists right now.

1. The Cuddling Cops

In Denmark, cycling is big news. Danish commuters ride their bikes whilst eating breakfast, smoking or precariously carrying cups of coffee. But bike helmets aren't popular in the Scandinavian nation, mainly because people fear they will mess up their hair. Vanity comes before safety, so capital city Copenhagen has come up with a novel way of spreading the safety message – along with a little love. If Copenhagen cops spot cyclists with bare heads, they pull them over, give them a cuddle, brief them on the benefits of protecting their heads, issue them with a brand new helmet – and send them on their way. See the warm arm of the law in this beautiful video.


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