Central Perk

vineri, 24 ianuarie 2014

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Retail Sales Cannibalization
Emerging Market Contagion Spreads; Argentina, Venezuela, Turkey Roundup; 50% Tax on Internet Purchases
Anecdotes From Home Depot Employee

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 07:40 PM PST

Retail firings continue. Today, Wal-Mart announced a 2% Reduction in Sam's Club Employees to thin middle-manager ranks.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) is laying off about 2,300 employees at its Sam's Club warehouse unit to help thin the ranks of middle managers in its weakest stores, marking the club chain's biggest round of job cuts in four years.

Nearly half the job cuts at Sam's Club will target salaried assistant managers, and the remainder will be hourly employees at underperforming stores.

"Over the years, we've migrated to a top-heavy structure in our management," said Sam's Club Chief Executive Rosalind Brewer, in an interview. "What this does is align the number of assistant managers to the sales of the club and to where our growth areas are."

The cost-cutting moves come as Ms. Brewer aims to better compete with brick-and-mortar rival Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) as well as to take on online membership clubs like Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) Prime service. She seeks to double revenue and turn it into a $100 billion business, roughly the size of Costco.

J.C. Penney Cutting 33 Stores and 2,000 Jobs

The Sam's Club cuts are fresh on the heels of this announcement: J.C. Penney cutting 33 stores and 2,000 jobs

J.C. Penney Co. is attempting to right-size itself by closing 33 under-performing stores around the country and eliminating 2,000 positions, the retailer said Wednesday.

The Plano, Texas, company said it hopes the effort will save $65 million a year beginning this year.

Units getting the ax will finish shutting down in early May.

Macy's to Lay Off 2,500 Employees

Also recall this announcement earlier this month: Macy's to Lay Off 2,500 Employees Amid Cost-Cutting

In the same breath as it announced a "successful" holiday season, Macy's Inc. said it would lay off some 2,500 employees as it attempts to achieve $100 million in savings a year.

In addition to the workers losing their jobs, some associates will be reassigned or transferred, the retailer said. Not all open positions will be filled.

Customer Cannibalization

Let's now return to the lead story, Sam's Club. "CEO Brewer aims to better compete with brick-and-mortar rival Costco as well as to take on online membership clubs like Amazon Prime service. She seeks to double revenue and turn it into a $100 billion business, roughly the size of Costco."

Is that remotely possible? If so how?

The only way it is possible is via reducing prices and costs to the bare bone and taking customers away from Amazon, Macy's, J.C. Penny and its own parent company, Wal-Mart.

The deflationary repercussions are enormous.

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

Emerging Market Contagion Spreads; Argentina, Venezuela, Turkey Roundup; 50% Tax on Internet Purchases

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 11:02 AM PST

Argentina Institutes 50% Tax on Internet Purchases; Emerging Market Contagion Spreads; Argentina, Venezuela, Turkey Roundup Yesterday, Argentina devalued the Peso hoping to halt further declines in its currency reserves. Markets had seen this coming as charts of the Peso vs. the US dollar show.

Peso vs. US Dollar One Week

Peso vs. US Dollar One Month

Peso vs. US Dollar Five Years

In the past 12 hours the peso fell as low as 8.164 to the dollar but currently sits at 7.164. Using the current close of 7.164 as our reference, here is a summary.

In the last week the peso fell from 6.643 to 7.164.
In the last month the peso fell from 6.362 to 7.164.
In the last five years the peso fell from 3.07 to 7.164.

The 5-year decline is over 50%.

Emerging Market Contagion Spreads

Bloomberg reports Contagion Spreads in Emerging Markets as Crises Grow

The worst selloff in emerging-market currencies in five years is beginning to reveal the extent of the fallout from the Federal Reserve's tapering of monetary stimulus, compounded by political and financial instability.

The Turkish lira plunged to a record and South Africa's rand fell yesterday to a level weaker than 11 per dollar for the first time since 2008. Argentine policy makers devalued the peso by reducing support in the foreign-exchange market, allowing the currency to drop the most in 12 years to an unprecedented low.

Investors are losing confidence in some of the biggest developing nations, extending the currency-market rout triggered last year when the Fed first signaled it would scale back stimulus. While Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa were the engines of global growth following the financial crisis in 2008, emerging markets now pose a threat to world financial stability.

"The current environment is potentially very toxic for emerging markets," Eamon Aghdasi, a strategist at Societe Generale SA in New York, said in a phone interview yesterday. "You have two very troubling things: uncertainty about the Fed policy, combined with concerns about growth, particularly in China. It's difficult to justify that it's time to go out and buy emerging markets at the moment."

Venezuela Reserves

In Venezuela, the government devalued its currency for airline tickets and incoming foreign direct investment on Jan. 22. International reserves are at a 10-year low.

Turkey Reserves

The lira plunged to a record 2.3224 per dollar and also declined to an all-time intraday low of 3.2069 per euro. Turkey's central bank refrained from raising benchmark rates this week, fueling concern that it will be difficult to finance current-account deficits.

Turkey holds about $33 billion in foreign reserves, excluding deposits from commercial banks, only enough to cover 1 1/2 months of imports, according to Citigroup Inc.

Argentina Devaluation

Yesterday, Bloomberg reported Argentina Devaluation Sends Currency Tumbling Most in 12 Years

50% Tax on Internet Purchases

The BBC reports Argentina restricts online shopping as foreign reserves drop

Argentina has introduced new restrictions on online shopping as part of efforts to stop foreign currency reserves from falling any further.

Anyone buying items through international websites will now need to sign a declaration and produce it at a customs office, where the packages have to be collected. The procedure will need to be repeated for every new purchase.

Argentina's reserves of hard currencies dropped by 30% last year.

The government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has introduced a number of restrictions on transactions with foreign currency.

Items imported through websites such as Amazon and eBay are no longer delivered to people's home addresses. The parcels need to be collected from the customs office. Individuals are allowed to buy items up to the value of $25 (£15) from abroad tax free every year. Once the $25 level is reached, online shoppers in Argentina need to pay a 50% tax on each item bought from international websites.

One resident of Buenos Aires, who gave his name as Martin, described the tax as "crazy".

But he told the BBC: "The real problem is that the item is received in customs now instead of at your home. Each time you go to customs, you need to spend three or four hours.

Food Price Controls

Earlier this month, Reuters reported Argentine peso at new lows as food price controls take effect

Argentina's peso slid to an all-time low on Tuesday as supermarkets froze prices in a deal with the government aimed at shielding poor families from one of the world's highest inflation rates.

The year-long price fix on 200 basic food products signals continuation of President Cristina Fernandez's interventionist policies even as polls show her image has been battered by 25 percent inflation, falling reserves and electricity shortages.

Tight currency and trade controls, as well as last year's state seizure of Argentina's top energy company YPF have taken a toll on confidence, while the electricity grid, ailing from lack of investment, fails to keep air conditioners humming at the height of the Southern Hemisphere summer.

The supermarket price freeze is the biggest policy move yet by fledgling Economy Minister Axel Kicillof, a leftist academic appointed in November.

Widely discredited official figures put inflation in the 12 months through November at 10.5 percent, while private economists say Argentine inflation is running at more than 25 percent annually.

Argentina is meanwhile struggling to attract the tens of millions of dollars it needs to develop its Vaca Muerta shale formation. Lying beneath the Patagonian plains, the Vaca Muerta (Dead Cow) field is estimated to hold 661 billion barrels of oil and 1,181 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

It could be one of the biggest formations of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.

Black Market Purchases Will Soar

Price controls and currency pegs at ridiculous rates cause black markets. With the additional 50% tax on online purchases, expect black market trade to soar.

Ag Connection

Argentina gets what little foreign reserves it has, being the number 3 soybean and corn supplier, as well as its top provider of soymeal animal feed and soyoil, used in biofuels.

Soybean Monthly Chart

Corn Monthly Chart

Soybean prices are still well above the 2009 lows, but are also far below the highs of a year ago. The price of corn is far below the highs of a year ago, and nearing the 2009 lows.

These trends are heightening the already huge problems of emerging market exporters.

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

Anecdotes From Home Depot Employee

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 09:19 AM PST

In Target Drops Healthcare Coverage for Part-Time Workers I implied Target was disingenuous in its claim it would not reduce hours because of Obamacare.

No Reduction in Hours?

Target claims there will be no reductions in hours worked. The only way I believe that is if Target already reduced hours, well in advance.

The huge, ongoing discrepancy between Household Survey employment, and the Establishment Survey jobs report suggests just that.

Although I do not have proof or even anecdotes from Target employees, I did receive an interesting email from "Pat", a Home Depot worker.

Hi Mish,

As a part-time employee of Home Depot (HD) for almost eight years now, I can affirm that every part-time worker at HD has had a cap of 29 hours placed on their work schedules. This occurred over a year ago, with no fanfare or announcement. Before the change we part-timers could count on more than 30 hours during the busy spring and summer months. Full-time jobs are only available if someone leaves the store, and sometimes not even then.

Although the store I work at seems to be doing well if one looks at sales (rewards are based on 1/2 year performance), it does not 'feel' like it is doing well...and I have not been able to determine exactly what has changed.

As a relatively new subscriber to your blog it has been good to read of what is going on economically around the globe. Much of what you highlight is not mentioned in the media I follow, so it fills a gap. Thanks!

Pat

One email from one reader is not proof of anything. Heck, anecdotes in general do not constitute legitimate data. That said, I have received stacks of similar emails over the past year, all saying the same or similar thing.

I even received an email from the owner of 50-store regional chain who said he was going to reduce hours (because he had to).

Yet, Obama and mainstream media do not see (or admit) this happened.

I maintain there is genuine supporting data for my thesis. For details, please see Employment vs. Jobs Discrepancy - December 2013 Data.

Inquiring minds should also be interested in a related post Tsunami of Retail Store Closings and Downsizings Coming; Expect Layoffs and Shorter Hours.

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

Damn Cool Pics

Why Dog Is Man's Best Friend

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:22 PM PST

What does the color of your car say about you? [infographic]

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:03 PM PST

Though car color seems like a random flight of fancy, there is research to show that one's preference for certain shades can predict aspects of one's personality.

See what your car is saying about you (leaving out, of course, the gestures you are or are not doing out the window to the jerk who just cut you off in the snow).

Click on Image to Enlarge.

Via Motorclick.

How to Earn the Amplification of Influencers - Whiteboard Friday

Posted: 23 Jan 2014 03:17 PM PST

Posted by randfish

Marketing your products or services can be incredibly difficult when your target audience isn't already listening to what you have to say. In those cases, influencers have an amazing ability to amplify your message and boost your brand. The only problem? They're (rightfully) quite picky about what they share.

In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand shares his tips for winning them overâ€"an algorithm of sorts, to help you rank higher on the list of their priorities.

For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Today I'm going to talk a little bit about influencer marketing in particular. I know I've heard skepticism from many marketers, especially sort of hardcore SEO folks who are going, "Well, influencer marketing through things like Twitter or Facebook or Google+ or outreach, these kinds of things, is this really necessary? Why am I doing it? My customers are not necessarily on these platforms. They are not necessarily influencers. What's the point?"

I'll try and walk you through that.

So first off, your target customers do exist somewhere, and they might be very hard to access. They could be not on any social networks, and even if they are on social networks, they might not follow you on those places. They're not subscribed to your blog or to the places where you guest post articles or the places that are mentioning you right now. But, and this is a big one, they do have ways of getting information. They have ways that they're learning about whatever professional or personal interests they have, and that usually leads into some form of influencer.

Now, even before the Internet existed there were journalists and writers and thought leaders, and those have continued in the web era and certainly have evolved dramatically and become a much bigger field in the era of social media. But these influencers, these people who write for big publications, own their own properties, have a big following, they're almost certainly directly or indirectly influencing this group of customers that you're trying to reach. You need only figure out who they are and how to reach them.

The interesting thing about influencers is they need new, unique content to share all the time. All the time, every day influencers wake up, and they're thinking to themselves, "Gosh, what is it that I'm going to share today? How am I going to continually grow my brand and add value to my audience and be on the leading edge? Because if I'm not, I'm losing out in relevance to someone who is building that audience."

These folks definitely, to almost 100% definitely use social media. At the very least, they're using Twitter, which is sort of an interesting one because Twitter is used, according to the latest Pew Research, by only around 19% or 20% of online Americans. But for the influencers group, it's 99 out of 100, and the reason being because Twitter is really a platform for influencing, growing influence, gaining that thought leadership and authority.

So even folks who are very old school, sort of old media folks, they have Twitter accounts, and they are using them. They do use other networks, things like Facebook. Certainly Pinterest has some following there, networks like Google+. But Twitter is sort of the primary one, which is interesting because Facebook, of course, is much bigger than Twitter in terms of your general population.

These influencers have two special powers. Number one, they can amplify social reach to your audience. Meaning, if you share something on a Twitter, a Facebook, a LinkedIn, a Google+, a Pinterest, a Reddit, a StumbleUpon, whatever network you might be using, the influencers on those networks have the ability to help amplify that reach. You might reach your audience of a few dozen or a few hundred. They'll help it reach thousands, many thousands, potentially hundreds of thousands or millions.

Secondarily, they can provide links, mentions, and other kinds of signals that search engines use to rank sites higher. Meaning that even in the rare case where your target audience is not following anyone, is not paying attention to any of these influencers and search is the only channel that they use to discover information, influencers can still help you by helping you achieve these signals that will help your site, your content, your pages rank better in search, which means your target customer will find them.

The trick is this is a very, very picky audience. Nine times out of ten, when they are exposed to content, they're going to go, "No. Not good enough. I don't know who this person is. I don't care about this. I'm not helping it go anywhere." So you have to get good at earning that amplification, and that starts with answering the question: Why? Why will influencers share your content, your post, your brand? Why? If you can't answer this question, all of this influencer targeting and marketing is going to become useless, because these people are incredibly picky.

There are a few big keys to this, and I've tried to enumerate them. Actually, I'm going to show it to you in an equation form. So essentially, the likelihood of earning an influencer's amplification is related to things like the personal connection that you have with them. That can be direct, which is often less likely. As a marketer working for especially a small and midsize brand, chances are that your direct connection to large groups of influencers might be small. But indirect connections work too, and this means if you know someone who knows them, if you can get a friendly introduction, much like you would to a potential investor or a business partner, that can open the door.

If your work makes them look good. You see a lot of influencers who share content and material that makes either themselves or their brand or company, if they work for a brand or company, look good. So those types of ego baiting can be successful at times. It's tough if it's too overt or too flashy or not credible enough. But it can work.

If the sharing that you're requesting that they do, the linking, the amplification of whatever kind can bring them large amounts of their own amplification. So if I say, "Hey, Seth Godin, I'd really love it if you shared this on your blog." I know that when Seth does share something on his blog, it will also go out to many, many people on Twitter and over other social networks. Well, if Seth believes that that's likely to earn his blog and his Twitter account a much larger audience, then he's more likely to say yes and to want to engage in that activity.

Third, if your work is their work. If your work is their work. Meaning, rather than simply saying, "Hey, I made this. What do you think of it," if you say, "Hey, can I get some data, some feedback, some material from you, and I'd like to transform it, modify it, turn it into something even more useful, valuable, interesting," now you have a real hook because they've contributed to that work. Surveys are obviously a great way to do this. Data collection is a great way to do this. There are many other forms too.

Then the last one, if your work provides credibility or additional support, either anecdotally or data-wise, for one of their goals or beliefs. These influencers are trying to accomplish things. They have beliefs that they share. They have goals that they're trying to accomplish professionally, usually, or personally, and if you have information that can help them, you can win.

So this is represented in the algorithm I've got here. Very, very simplistic algorithm. The likelihood is related to the relevance of your work to their audience, the value to their own personal brand, the opportunity they have to earn that extra amplification, the benefit to their goals or beliefs, plus some measure of the quality of the outreach you're actually doing times the personal relationship connection.

The better personal relationship connection you've got, the more mediocre it's okay for your outreach be. You can have a very simplistic message if it's coming directly to them and you're already friends in real life. It's easy, right? Somebody emails me and says, "Hey, Rand, can you share this," and it's my investor, Brad Feld, I'm going to be like, "Yes, I will do that for you." Of course I will. But if somebody cold emails me and I've never heard of them before, well it's very unlikely. So there's a relationship between these two that's special.

If you take this and you find these people and you're able to earn this additional amplification, your content of all kinds can do much more to reach your target customers.

All right, everyone, hope you've enjoyed this edition of Whiteboard Friday. We'll see you again next week. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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Time for Guest Blogging With a Purpose

Posted: 23 Jan 2014 02:46 AM PST

Posted by jennita

Dear Readers, before getting to the meat of the post about how to make guest blogging work for you and not end up looking like a spammer, I'd like to tell you a little story. A story about when Matt Cutts single-handedly changed the course of my day. The story goes a little something like this...

It was a chilly, yet calm Monday afternoon in the Moz office, as I was having lunch at my desk and watching over all the Moz social channels (a task I rarely do these days, as we have a team of awesome ladies who usually does it). As I was checking my personal Twitter feed though, I saw a tweet from Matt Cutts pointing to his latest blog post, "The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO."

New blog post: The decay and fall of guest blogging http://t.co/P0BnRufnKQ
â€" Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) January 20, 2014

Quickly I jumped over to read the blog andâ€¦ BOOM, this was the first paragraph:

Okay, I'm calling it: if you're using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time it's become a more and more spammy practice, and if you're doing a lot of guest blogging then you're hanging out with really bad company.

"Oh dear," I thought to myself. "My day just got a whole lot more interesting."

It didn't take long before people starting asking questions about whether sites like Moz and our YouMoz blog would be in danger. People were unsure as to what exactly his post meant.

Was he saying there was going to be an algo change, as Rand predicted in last week's Whiteboard Friday? Was he saying that all guest blogging was dead, or that all guest blogging had become spammy? Did he mean that all links in guest posts now should be nofollowed? Essentially, the SEO world got its crazy on.

http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/blogs/2010/04/tgif-gif-41/

Immediately I was fielding all sorts of questions, from how Moz discourages spam links in guest posts, to how it'd be crazy to ban us from Google. There were also lots of jokes going onâ€¦ you know, things like letting Keri (our YouMoz manager), stay longer on her vacation.

But I digress; let me get back to Matt's blog post. In it, he also has this to say:

"Ultimately, this is why we can't have nice things in the SEO space: a trend starts out as authentic. Then more and more people pile on until only the barest trace of legitimate behavior remains. We've reached the point in the downward spiral where people are hawking "guest post outsourcing" and writing articles about "how to automate guest blogging.

"So stick a fork in it: guest blogging is done; it's just gotten too spammy. In general I wouldn't recommend accepting a guest blog post unless you are willing to vouch for someone personally or know them well. Likewise, I wouldn't recommend relying on guest posting, guest blogging sites, or guest blogging SEO as a linkbuilding strategy."

I giggled at the "this is why we can't have nice things in SEO" line. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'd heard it phrased exactly that way before. But what really caught my eye was this, "We've reached the point in the downward spiralâ€¦" Waitâ€¦ hadn't Rand said the exact same thing three days ago in his Whiteboard Friday? Waitâ€¦ wasn't it called "Why Guest Posting and Blogging is a Slippery Slope???" Of course, others caught on to this as well.

@CyrusShepard @Moz did @randfish speak to @mattcutts last week before doing the WBF as it is strangely right on topic?
â€" Cauze Marketing (@CauzeInbound) January 20, 2014

But the point really isn't about how Rand can see the future; it's about how Matt wasn't actually saying anything we didn't already know. Right? No, seriously.

Ok, ok, so maybe it wasn't totally obvious to everyone, or else the post wouldn't have been written, eh? So how do you proceed if you were using guest posting as a link building strategy? (By the way, guest posting is a tactic, not a strategy.)

Guest post with a purpose

As with anything, you don't want to be out there trying willy-nilly to get your posts on every blog for the sole purpose of building (probably bad) links. It's important to have this tied to your business and marketing goals, as you would with any other tactic. SEO is only one piece of the larger strategy, and if you focus solely on writing posts for link building purposes, you're missing out on a ton of other possibilities, such as:

Branding, branding, branding
Build credibility in a specific niche
Increased traffic (oh, HELLO)
Exposure to new audiences
Community building!
Authorship: The more legitimate posts you write and connect to your Google+ account, the more likely your lovely face will show up in the SERPs.

Imagine if you were to focus on writing an amazing blog post, with actionable information, relevant to the community of the blog you're pitching. No, reallyâ€"you should do that. Believe me, that's how you're going to get a post on YouMoz. :)

As Sir Dr. Pete (I added the Sir, because he's older than me ;) ) so eloquently stated today in an internal thread about this very topic, "You've got to make sure you're not a one trick link-building pony. I mean, any time you base 80% or more of your link profile on one tactic/gimmick, you're going to eventually be in trouble. The problem isn't guest-posting, it's abuse." People, the doctor has spoken.

But how, you ask? How do you ensure that you don't come across as spammy or a "one trick link-building pony?" For this, I'd like to introduce you to Everett Sizemore. He's an Associate here at Moz, and mostly focuses on helping out in Q&A. But in his real job, he's the Director of R&D, Special Projects, and Moonshine over at seOverflow. (Hey Everett, how does one go about getting an amazing job title like that, anyway??)

Over the past few days we've had some email discussions about guest posting. We discussed how Google might determine a post is spammy, how they'd determine one was legit, and ways in which SEOs and all the other online marketers out there should be guest blogging legitimately.

Well, Everett had the answer that we all agreed was the best answer, so now I happily present to you...

Everett's tips on how to be a better guest poster

He stated that seOverflow wasn't panicking in the least because they were changing their internal guest posting guidelines to now include language like this:

Develop a relationship with the publisher outside of "guest blogging platforms" in order to customize the relationship better.
Pitch a series of content instead of one "guest post".
Describe yourself as an "expert contributor" not a "guest author", explain the difference if you have to, and explain to the publisher why this is better for their site.
Don't contribute to sites that want to publish your content under a general "guest author" account. Always insist on your own contributor/author account, and markup with rel author.
Work with authors who have Google profiles to which they can add contributor to links. If they don't have one, help them get one.
Go back to the same authors for similar content to develop them as experts in a specific niche (e.g. if John Smith did an article for a client on PBX solutions and you have need for another piece of content about VOIP, office phone systems, etc... go back to John Smith again)
If the resident authors don't have their bio below/above every post then our content shouldn't have one either.
Stop thinking about links. Think about traffic and exposure instead. Links are fine if they are relevant, but don't let a nofollow policy keep you from contributing to a major site with lots of traffic in the clients' niche.
Track the right metrics, which starts with aligning our goals with the clients'.

Everett also said this in the email:

With that said, this 'tactic' is taking a back seat in our arsenal of options in any content marketing strategy. Our goal these days is to find the influencers in any niche and pay an expert to write expert-level content, no matter where it gets placed, to help further our clients business goals, primarily through online customer acquisition driven by good content.

That's good stuff right there. Essentially, be a real person, write posts with purpose beyond just building links.

How can guest blogging sites stay credible?

Since we're on the subject, let's talk about sites like the Huffington Post, Tech Crunch, Smashing Magazine, and even the Google Analytics blog. All of those sites, along with our own YouMoz and Moz Blog, allow guest posts. One thing that's common across all of these sites is that they have rigorous editing. They simply don't allow for just anyone write a post about anything. They read through posts for accuracy, to ensure that links aren't simply "link drops," and to ensure focus on actual, good, helpful content.

But let's say you allow guest posts, but you're not quite as strict about things right now? Here are a few tips to make sure your blog stays credible, even with guest posts:

Ensure that the content is original. We use both Copyscape and Small SEO Tools to look for plagiarized content.
Make sure the author is a real person. Have people create an account on your site and link it to their Google+ page. This ensures that you're getting real people, verifiable on their Google+ and other accounts.
See if they've participated in the community before. This is another good way to make sure they know the type of content that your community likes.
Double check the links. Now, many links are legitimate and make perfect sense, but be sure to click through to each one. Do you really want to "validate" that page? Only allow links with a purpose.

This list is really just the beginning. For a more thorough review of a good way to allow guest posts, check out Keri Morgret's post about how to guest post on YouMoz.

Guest blogging isn't dead

Let me wrap this up by stating again that guest blogging isn't dead by any means. But being a Spammy McSpammer only caring about links, and not caring about real content, community building, branding, and all those other great benefits... is dead.

#199

Featured

#199

As the White House gets ready for Tuesday's State of the Union, it's been a busy week at the White House: The President announced important reforms to the National Security Agency and new measures to prevent sexual assault. He also honored Martin Luther King with a service project at DC Central Kitchen, signed the 2014 appropriations bill into law to fund the government, and hosted a conference of mayors.

Watch the 199th episode of West Wing Week:

vineri, 24 ianuarie 2014

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics

How to Earn the Amplification of Influencers - Whiteboard Friday

How to Earn the Amplification of Influencers - Whiteboard Friday

Video Transcription

Guest post with a purpose

Everett's tips on how to be a better guest poster

How can guest blogging sites stay credible?

Guest blogging isn't dead

#199

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

vineri, 24 ianuarie 2014

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics

How to Earn the Amplification of Influencers - Whiteboard Friday

How to Earn the Amplification of Influencers - Whiteboard Friday

Video Transcription

Guest post with a purpose

Everett's tips on how to be a better guest poster

How can guest blogging sites stay credible?

Guest blogging isn't dead

#199

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

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