Central Perk

luni, 23 mai 2011

Do You Take Responsibility for Your Website’s Quality? Graywolf's SEO Blog

Do You Take Responsibility for Your Website’s Quality?

Posted: 23 May 2011 04:18 AM PDT

The following is a sponsored post.

The situation used to be: one day, your website enjoyed healthy traffic and profitable conversions; the next day, traffic was decimated – along with your ability to make money online.

It took precious hours or days to work out what had happened, then work out why and then plan how to get your livelihood reinstated: your website had incurred a Google penalty, but no-one had informed you or explained why.

Either in response to user pressure or as a natural development of customer service niceties, Google has begun to release more information to those who have flirted with the wrath of the algorithm and lost.
What a penalty means

There are two types of penalty: automated, where the search engine algorithm has detected Black Hat or quality issues, incurs a short, pre-determined penalty (for example, a 50-place drop for 30 days); a manual removal from the Google index for a more serious issue means that an issue has to be fixed and resubmitted before Google makes it visible for inclusion in search results. In both cases it takes time to recover previous rank positions for keywords.

Until recently, there was no confirmation whether a penalty was automated or manual. Webmasters would frantically scour their websites for issues to fix, resubmit their sites, and wait. And wait.

In the meantime, companies keen to maintain their traffic invest more money into Google AdWords. Ouch: unfortunately for Google, this gives wiggle-room to rumours it is purposefully cloaking the penalty issue in order to profit from it.

However, the process has become more helpful: now, when a website incurs a manual penalty or ban, a message to webmasters indicate, loosely, why.

It’s not much and it doesn’t help those with an automatic penalty (who still might have to hang around hitting the resubmit site button) but it is still potentially time-saving – it means webmasters can make an educated decision about how serious the penalty is and how to fix it so that the Google algorithm will accept it for re-indexing.

Risk assessment

You can avoid all this palaver if you accept responsibility for the calibre of your website: you play in Google’s ballpark so you should adhere to their quality guidelines, which are there for your benefit.

There are a number of in which ways businesses risk getting a ban: naivety, intentionally using black hat techniques, or just sheer bad luck. Causes range from having a DIY website, falling prey to the tactics of rogue SEO companies, to having your content plagiarized by a phishing site or competitor.

If your business relies upon its internet presence for a sizeable percentage of profit, you need to run a risk assessment to ensure you don’t fall into a costly and painful penalty trap.

If you have a hands-on role with the online side of your business, acquaint yourself with Google’s webmaster and AdWords guidelines; you should also take an interest in the help forums.

Google is trying to create a useful, intuitive environment for internet users by raising the bar on quality, especially with its Panda/Farmer update earlier this year: the user experience is vital to its ethos. Therefore, your website should enhance the user experience – it should look good, have clarity, be original, navigate and load well. It should not use any techniques to trick either the user or the search engine – such as keyword stuffing, invisible text or secret (doorway) pages.

The best way to achieve website quality – avoiding penalties, enhancing user experience – is to hire an online marketing company. The accessibility of the internet lulls people into a state of over-confidence but ask yourself if you would tackle your troublesome plumbing, electrics, plastering, loose roof tiles or gas leaks. A good agency is like an insurance policy – risk of a penalty is minimal, while their expertise will give you a much better return on your investment.

The ideal agency will be transparent about its services, will offer regular reports, have a portfolio available for perusal, will not tie you into a long-term contract and you will own all the work they undertake on your behalf.

Small business owners can read more internet marketing tips and do a risk assessment on their vulnerability on the Adrac Ltd blog.

Adrac Ltd is a full service internet marketing agency specializing in search engine optimization (SEO),pay per click, link building, web design, branding, public relations, copywriting and back end design.

The preceding has been a sponsored post. Find out more information about sponsored posts.

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Do You Take Responsibility for Your Website’s Quality?

Deepest Condolences for Missouri and the Midwest

Your Daily Snapshot for
Monday, May 23, 2011

Deepest Condolences for Missouri and the Midwest

In the wake of yet more terrible storms, this time in the Midwest, the President called Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to personally extend his condolences and to tell all of the families of Joplin affected by the severe tornadoes that they are in his thoughts and prayers. The President assured the governor that FEMA will remain in close contact and coordination with state and local officials.

President Barack Obama talks on the phone with Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, during his visit to Dublin, Ireland, May 23, 2011. The President and Gov. Nixon discussed the deadly tornado that touched down in Joplin, Mo., Sunday night. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Seth's Blog : Underextended

Underextended

There is a lot of fear associated with 'overextended'.

Take too much financial risk, expose yourself to the vagaries of the market and you'll end up strssed, bankrupt and overextended.

Stretch your knee too much in the wrong direction after a long swim and the doctor will tell you that the ligaments are overextended.

Brands that get greedy and put their names in too many places in too many ways (as Tiffany's did a generation ago) get overextended and take a long time to heal.

But what about the more prevalent, more insidious and ultimately more damaging notion of being underextended?

The factory-mindset encourages every worker to protect his time and his effort. Don't volunteer because they'll never give you any slack. Don't push harder because you'll only exhaust yourself. Don't let them speed up the line because it will never slow down again...

It's true: in a commodity business, productivity only increases as the result of more effort, and that effort is rarely compensated.

We see one organization after another, left unchecked, pushing miners or laborers or bureaucrats to exhaustion, all in the name of enhanced productivity.

Here's the thing: creative work seems to be an exception. In fact, the exhaustion from overextending yourself creatively is some of the best exhaustion you will ever feel. An organization that provides a platform for people to push into their fear will produce both better work and a better workforce.

No, we don't need more TPS reports. Yes, we need to figure out how to push ourselves until we're creatively overextended.

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duminică, 22 mai 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme Chants the "Better Way" Mob

Posted: 22 May 2011 10:05 AM PDT

I have devoted a fair amount of coverage recently to protests in Spain, Italy and other places. The US has seen massive protests in Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, and now Oregon.

The protests in the US and Europe have a common theme "gimme gimme gimme".

Everyone wants something, and they want to take it from someone else to get it. In the US, the SEIU is right at the top of the list in wanting to pick the pockets of everyone else for their own self-serving benefit.

Misguided SEIU Oregon Protest

Please consider Thousands storm Oregon's capitol steps rallying for "a better way"

Taking to the steps of the state capitol in Salem on Friday, thousands of state workers, union members and advocacy groups rallying for alternatives to budget cuts, wage freezes and furlough days in Oregon.

At least 36 busses carried people in to Salem from communities across all corners of Oregon. Many rally members say they're tired of making concessions while corporation and wealthy Oregonians "aren't paying their fair share."

Most of the participants in Friday's rally were state workers on an unpaid furlough day, one of 10 the state is forcing employees to take this year to help balance the budget.

SEIU Mob in Oregon

Untenable Wages and Benefits

Public union members want to preserve the status quo, just as they do in Greece and Spain.

Well the status quo is broken, and proof is easy to find: Public union wages and benefits have bankrupted many cities and states. The way to fix the problem is to get rid of public unions not increase their power.

Protesting the Wrong Thing

Please consider this email I just received from "LT"

Mish,

The biggest problem I have with the protests in Europe is that they seem to be protesting the wrong things.

In Greece, for example, the nation has been floating on an unsustainable tide of government spending for public- and quasi-public-sector jobs and pensions, and also for entitlements. A huge segment of the Greek population gets some or all of its money from the various layers of government.

It seems to me that much the protesting is against the prospective loss of the national free lunch, because the Greek public knows their artificially-supported lifestyles will disappear down the drain and Greece will be back to being the third-world country is was 30 or 40 years ago.

That is why the Greeks are protesting against austerity measures. They should be protesting against bailouts and state guarantees of debt that will saddle them and their children with a lifelong bill, but for now it just seems like a standard leftist rant in favor of socialism and statism.

The PIIGS should default on their unsupportable debts AND cut back their wild spending to get back on solid ground financially, but the protesters seem to have little appetite for the second part of that equation.

Cheers,

LT

Austerity Measures Needed

LT has the right idea, not just about Europe, but about misguided protests in the US as well. Austerity measures are needed, but the bailouts of banks at taxpayer expense are not.

The SEIU and their Greek counterparts want no part of the pain. Unfortunately untenable wages and benefits helped wrecked Greece and they have bankrupted many cities and states in the US.

So, yes there is a "better way". The "better way" is to stop the bailouts of banks and stop handouts to unions as well.

The Better Way

Implement Rand Paul's national Right-to-Work proposal
Scrap Davis-Bacon and all prevailing wage laws
Get rid of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD, and the FHA
Stop the bailouts of banks at the expense of taxpayers
Implement Paul Ryan's Voucher Proposal for Medicare (see Who's Right on Medicare Reform, Ryan and Rivlin or Obama and Gingrich? for details.)
Reduce military spending substantially
Stop attempting to be the world's policeman
Kill the student loan "debt-slave" program
Pass a Balanced Budget Amendment
Audit the Fed then end the Fed

That is the better way. It will be difficult to pass those measure because each proposal has a mob of naysayers and constituents all clamoring "gimme gimme gimme".

We need a leader willing to spell out the serious situation the nation faces, what must be done about it, and the sacrifices that must be made for the nation to get out of its hole.

President Obama is clearly not that leader. Indeed he fails on every point.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Conspiracy Garbage on Zero Hedge

Posted: 22 May 2011 01:08 AM PDT

Day in and day out there are a number of excellent articles on the site Zero Hedge. Moreover there are a number of authors on the Zero Hedge site that consistently write excellent article after excellent article.

I will even volunteer a name in that latter category. Bruce Krasting writes consistently good articles. Krasting is one of the reasons I read Zero Hedge.

However, I am sick of people who take every idea and make a conspiracy out of it. Enough is enough.

I draw the line with this inane defense of Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Was Dominique Strauss-Kahn Trying to Torpedo the Dollar?

I will not excerpt the article so as to introduce cherry pick bias.

Instead I suggest the number of people that have stepped forward speaks for itself. This is not a case where the accused is accused out of the blue by a single person. This is a case where there is a massive amount of pre-existing information.

Moreover, and more to the point I agree with Mike Whitney, the author of that piece of nonsense, that Dominique Strauss-Kahn deserves a fair trial.

Everyone deserves a fair trial. However, "fair trial" does not mean trumping up sheer idiocy and conspiracy nonsense in his defense.

Moreover, as long as we are discussing "fair trial" I would like to point out one simple fact. It is a crime to make false accusations. To presume the innocence of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, presumes his accuser is guilty of a crime.

Perhaps she is. Perhaps not. However, no one needs to grasp at straws in defense of DSK as Mike Whitney did.

This is one of the problems of aggregation sites. There is not a consistent point of view. One day one author says stock market will rise, the next day another author says the stock market will fall.

We are supposed to believe both?

Zero Hedge consistently trumps up the idea "you heard it here first". Given that various authors on the Zero Hedge site express wildly contradictory opinions, the idea "you heard it here first" is undoubtedly true by definition.

If you want to be an aggregator, then be one. But don't express an aggregation as a "call".

Worse yet, every extreme point of view from hyperinflation to deflation, from attacking DSK to Defending him is all portrayed on Zero Hedge with the same "it's going to happen" mentality.

Here's the deal: If you throw up enough conspiracy garbage, some of it bound to happen, no matter how ridiculous it is.

DSK may be found "not guilty" but let's stop the nonsense that DSK was setup because he was trying to "Torpedo the Dollar".

Not everything is a conspiracy, and right at the top of the list is Whitney's "Torpedo the Dollar" theory. In fact, given the Fed clearly wants a lower US dollar, the idea that the US would setup someone in the opposite direction is blatantly preposterous.

Aggregation sites that accept every piece of complete silliness offered, are subject to this kind of scathing attack.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

sâmbătă, 21 mai 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

80 Percent of Greeks Oppose More Austerity; Tens of Thousands Defy Spain's Protest Ban; Greece, ECB Deny the Obvious; IMF in Denial Regarding Portugal

Posted: 21 May 2011 01:41 PM PDT

The words for today are the same as the words for last week and last month: defy and denial. Let's consider a few examples.

Campers in Spain Defy Protest Ban

The New York Times reports Tens of Thousands in Spain Defy Protest Ban

Tens of thousands of demonstrators across Spain continued sit-ins and other protests against the established political parties on Saturday. They did so in defiance of a ban against such protests and ahead of regional and municipal elections on Sunday.

About 28,000 people, most of them young, spent Friday night in Puerta del Sol, a main square in downtown Madrid, the police said. They stayed even as the protest ban went into effect at midnight under rules that bring an official end to campaigning before the election in 13 of Spain's 17 regions and in more than 8,000 municipalities.

Fueling the demonstrators' anger is the perceived failure by politicians to alleviate the hardships imposed on a struggling population. The unemployment rate in Spain is 21 percent.

Beyond economic complaints, the protesters' demands include improving the judiciary, ending political corruption and overhauling Spain's electoral structure, notably by ending the system in which candidates are selected internally by the parties before an election rather than chosen directly by voters.

As the campaign ban came into force at midnight, many of the Madrid protesters stuck tape across their mouths to signal that they would continue the demonstration, even if ordered to be silent. "The voice of the people can never be illegal," read some of the banners, while others argued, "We are not against the system but the system is against us."

Papandreou and ECB Deny Restructuring Under Discussion

No matter how many times the ECB or the Greek prime minister "reject" restructuring, the market insists otherwise. Once again, and for the umpteenth time Greek PM, ECB officials reject debt restructuring with the bond market making fools of both of them every step of the way.

"Debt restructuring is not under discussion," Papandreou said in an interview in Sunday newspaper Ethnos.

Greece has no other option but to follow through its fiscal plan, ECB governing council member Ewald Nowotny told Greek newspaper To Vima Saturday. "For the ECB, the line is one and clear: you have to implement the commitments you have made."

Greece is considering deeper cuts in public sector wages and further tax increases on a range of products and professions to qualify for more aid, Greek newspapers said Saturday.

The plan may include scrapping bonuses to civil servants and employees in state-run companies, newspapers Ta Nea and Isotimia reported, without citing any sources.

The government may also lower or scrap tax-free thresholds on property holdings and the self-employed, raise consumption taxes on soft drinks and certain fuel types or shift a range of products to a higher VAT-bracket, other newspapers said.

Papandreou vowed Saturday to take any measure necessary to secure more funding for his country. "Greece must convince everyone of its determination," he said.

Eighty percent of respondents told pollster MRB they refused to make any further sacrifices to get more EU/IMF aid, an MRB poll for paper Realnews showed.

The same poll shows Papandreou's ruling Socialist PASOK neck-and-neck with the opposition conservatives, with both parties scoring 21.5 percent each. In the previous MRB poll in April, PASOK had an 1.8 point-lead.

But Papandreou warned that any failure to push through the plan might lead the country straight to default. "At the moment, it does not seem as if Greece can cover its 2012 borrowing needs... from the market," he said in the interview.

80 Percent of Greeks Oppose More Austerity

The party that wins the next Greek election just may be the party that rejects more austerity measures. Regardless, it is not mathematically possible for Greece to grow its way out of this problem soon if ever, by more austerity measures.

Greece is in recession now, Italy is headed there, and as much as Greece needs serious reforms in it public service sector, the short-term effect of taking those measures would be rising unemployment and more capital flight.

Moreover, Greece has a huge productivity disadvantage with Germany and France and to fix that disadvantage would require lower wages. To top it off, Papandreou wants to raise property taxes, consumption taxes, and self-employment taxes.

Papandreou's 7-Point Proposal

Higher property taxes
Higher value-added (consumption) taxes
Higher taxes on self-employed
Still lower government spending
Still lower wages
Still lower benefits
Selling Greek assets

Bear in mind Greece is already in recession. Yet somehow that proposal is supposed to get Greece out of trouble and growing again in 2 years. Quite frankly it is preposterous to suggest such nonsense and the bond market knows it.

Greece 10-Year Government Bonds

Greek 10-year government bond yield hit a new high on Friday, 16.57%.

IMF Denial on Portugal

Please consider IMF approves $36.8 billion loan for Portugal

Fri May 20, 2011 8:56pm EDT

The International Monetary Fund on Friday approved a 26 billion euro ($36.8 billion) loan for Portugal to help the country recover from a debilitating sovereign debt crisis, saying it would immediately disburse 6.1 billion euros to ease investor concerns over the euro zone member's debts.

The IMF said in a statement that total financing to Portugal in 2011 will include about 12.6 billion euros from the IMF and another 25.2 billion euros from the European Union. The funding is part of a joint IMF/EU 78 billion euro ($110 billion) bailout package.

"The financing package is designed to allow Portugal some breathing space from borrowing in the markets while it demonstrates implementation of the policy steps needed to get the economy back on track," the IMF said in a statement.

The financial package was calibrated to allow Portugal to stay out of the market for medium- to long-term bonds for slightly more than two years, IMF Mission Chief Poul Thomsen said.

Under the agreement, Lisbon will have to carry out steep spending cuts, raise taxes, reform its labor and justice systems, and embark on an ambitious privatization scheme.

Raise your hand if you believe Portugal's problems are over.

My quick count shows zero hands are in the air. That concludes our "Deny, Defy, or Crucify" segment (bonus points to anyone who can name the song containing that exact phrase without looking it up).

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Seth's Blog : A marketing lesson from the apocalypse

A marketing lesson from the apocalypse

If you're reading this blog, then the world didn't end, at least in my time zone.

How does one market the end of the world? After all, you don't have a big ad budget. Your 'product' is something that has been marketed again and again through the ages and it has never worked. There's significant peer pressure not to buy it...

And yet, every time, people succumb. They sell their belongings, stop paying into their kid's college fund and create tension and despair.

Here's the simple lesson:

Sell a story that some people want to believe. In fact, sell a story they already believe.

The story has to be integrated into your product. The iPad, for example, wasn't something that people were clamoring for... but the story of it, the magic tablet, the universal book, the ticket to the fashion-geek tribe--there was a line out the door for that. The same way that every year, we see a new music sensation, a new fashion superstar. That's not an accident. That story is just waiting for someone to wear it.

And the some part is vital. Not everyone wants to believe in the end of the world, but some people (fortunately, just a few) really do. To reach them, you don't need much of a hard sell at all.

Too often marketers take a product and try to invent a campaign. Much more effective is to find a tribe, find a story and make a product that resonates, one that makes the story work.

That's the whole thing. A story that resonates and a tribe that's tight and small and eager.

I hope you can dream up something more productive than the end of the world, though.

• Email to a friend •

Beagle learns how to catch a ball

Posted: 20 May 2011 09:59 PM PDT

Beagle trying to catch a ball!! Cute, well done Purin!!

45 Rare Photos Of Bruce Lee

Posted: 20 May 2011 09:37 PM PDT

Bruce Lee died in 1973, but he is still considered to be the most influential martial artist of modern times.

Bruce Lee, formerly known as Li Zhenfan, Chinese-American, was Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement.

Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco, California to parents of Hong Kong heritage but was raised in Hong Kong until his late teens. Lee emigrated to the United States at the age of 18 to claim his U.S. citizenship and receive his higher education.

It was during this time that he began teaching martial arts, which soon led to film and television roles. And Here Are Some Rare Photos Of Bruce Lee The Legend Master of Martrial Art

These are rare photographs from the actor's collection that show us a different side of Bruce Lee and his family life.

50 Signs That The World Is Ending

Posted: 20 May 2011 09:13 PM PDT

In case you didn't know, on May 21st the world is ending, at least that's the case according to the bible-hugging kid-touching religious crowd.

Rapture commence!