Central Perk

miercuri, 27 iulie 2011

Seth's Blog : Celebrating Zig Ziglar

Celebrating Zig Ziglar

Zig saved the day. With his relentless generosity, corny stories and down-home wisdom, Zig Ziglar invented modern motivational speaking, and touched the world. He touched my world, that's for sure.

We have very different backgrounds, we're from different generations and we have very different styles, but I'm in his debt. In my dreams, I hope that I will help and inspire a small fraction of the millions of people that Zig has over his fifty year career.

He contributed two giant tools to those of us in business: the notion of listening, over and over, to educational and motivational tapes, and the idea of writing down your goals, committing to them, in writing.

Twenty years ago, when my business was flatlining, Zig spoke up. For hours and hours every day in the car (on cassettes that literally melted from overuse), Zig poked and prodded and encouraged and mostly called my bluff. I remember the long drive home from yet another failed sales call, an hour or two that could have been spent planning on how I was going to quit--instead, Zig was helping me plan how I was going to stick it out.

Fifteen years later, in one of the highlights of my speaking career, he and I did a gig together in Milwaukee. It was Zig, me and Gerald Ford. I can now admit that backstage, the two of us ignored the President and just talked and talked. It's hard for me to overstate how much I owe him. How much so many of us do.

What a thrill, then, to publish a new version of his classic Performance Planner, updated for a new generation. You can buy the four-pack right here. We didn't print many copies, so I apologize if they don't last long...

Recently side-lined by an injury, Zig's no longer able to actively spread the ideas that have helped millions of people accomplish their goals. I'm privileged to be able to bring some of those ideas to you today. I hope you'll give the workbook a shot, and share the other three copies with your colleagues. If you do the work, if you actually write in this planner, the results will be significant.

Thank you for everything, Zig.

• Email to a friend •

SEOptimise

Top 20 WordPress Plugins – 2011 Edition

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 04:02 PM PDT

Tonight I was delighted to be invited to speak at the London Blog Club and presented about the WordPress plugins which I find most useful.

Here are the slides from my talk:

20 Top WordPress Plugins – 2011 Edition – Kevin Gibbons, London Blog Club

If you have any questions on this please let me know in the comments or on the meetup.com page.

Google Webmaster Tools: A Beginner’s Guide to Installation

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 06:25 AM PDT

In recent weeks I have set up Google Webmaster Tools for a number of different clients, some of whom wanted some documentation on how this could be done.

Based on that document I have decided to publish this very basic beginner's guide for those who are unfamiliar with the set up process of Google Webmaster Tools.

What is Google Webmaster Tools?
Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) is a free and easy way for webmasters to view their own website the way that Google sees it. GWT is a free tool that can be used for websites of all sizes, and features information such as:

Which of your pages are included in Google's Index
Any errors encountered while crawling your site
Search queries that list your site as a result
Which sites link to yours
And more

This guide covers how to set up GWT in seven easy steps, from creating an account to adding and deleting users and associating your Google Analytics.

Step 1 – Google Account
To set up Google Webmaster Tools you will need to register for a Google account. If you have access to any of their other products such as Analytics, Gmail or Google Places then you will already have an account.

If you don't have an account, you can associate your work email address with a Google account to take advantage of their products by clicking here.

Step 2 – Register for Google Webmaster Tools
Visit Google Webmaster Tools, and register for a Google Webmaster Tools Account, and sign in.

Step 3 – Add Website URL
Once signed in, you’ll be able to add your website address by clicking on the "Add a Site" button, typing the address and clicking "Continue". When entering your domain, you can either add the top level domain (www.example.com) or you are able to add folders if you would like to target a specific area of the site. This is particularly useful if your site is split into regions or country codes and to target different international markets (www.example.com/folder1/folder2/).

Once you have clicked "Continue", you will automatically be taken to the verification screen to choose your verification method.

Step 4 – Verify Website
GWT provides you with four different methods of validating your website, including uploading an HTML to the root server, adding a meta tag to the homepage, linking to Google Analytics and using DNS. Choose the one that is most suitable to your needs.

Upload HTML File to Server
GWT can provide you with a blank HTML file with a specific code attached to it that associates with your account. You can easily download this by clicking the link "this HTML verification file". Once you have downloaded this file, you need to upload it directly to the root file of your server then click "Verify" to confirm the placement has been made. Once verification has been made, you will start to see some data population and you can move on to step 6.

If you need to verify at a later date then you can move on to Step 5 when you are ready to verify the account.

Add a Meta Tag
GWT provides you with a meta tag that needs to be added to the <head> tag as an alternative method to adding the HTML file to the website. This meta tag just needs to be copied from GWT (shown below) and added to the homepage of the chosen website. Once this has been implemented, click the "Verify" button to start catching data (move to step 6). If you are not in a position to verify the account, click "Not Now" and come back to Step 5 when you are ready.

Link to Google Analytics Account
GWT provides you with an easier way of verifying your site if you use Google Analytics through the same Google Account that you have set up. If you are using two different accounts, for GWT and Google Analytics, then this option will not work. SEOptimise recommend that you use the same account for all Google products and if it's a business account, create a central account for the entire business. To verify the Google Analytics account, click "Verify". Once verified move on to Step 6.

Add DNS Records to your Domain
This option is for those who can sign in to a domain registrar or hosting provider and add a new DNS record. When you choose from the drop down menu (as indicated below), GWT provides instructions. After following the instructions, you need to verify that this has been completed correctly by clicking the "Verify" button. If this works, move on to Step 6; otherwise repeat the instructions or choose another method of verification.

Step 5 – How to Verify Once Method has been Implemented
If you were unable to verify at the time of setting up GWT, then you can verify it at a later date. When logging in to GWT, you will be presented with the websites that you have set up and a link to "Verify the Site" underneath the Manage heading. Click the "Verify this Site" link.

You will be presented with a similar screen as discussed in Step 4, where you need to choose your validation method. The validation method that you choose on this occasion needs to be the same as what you had originally chosen when setting up GWT.

Example: If you had originally chosen to add a HTML file to the root, then you need to reselect the HTML file verification.

Step 6 – Manage Users
GWT allows the administrator of the account to provide access to multiple users by adding them to the Verification Details via the "Manage" link as you log in to the tool.

Once you have clicked the "Manage" link, you will be directed through to the Verification Details page, where you will be allowed to add/edit/delete the users who have access to the data via their own Google account.

To add a new user, click the "Add an owner" button and enter their email address. This will only work for users who have a registered Google Account, so if they do not currently have one please refer them to step 1.

If you would like to remove any users who have been previously added then just click the "Unverify" link.

Step 7 – Associate Google Webmaster Tools with Google Analytics
If you use Google Analytics to track your website, then GWT allows you to import some data into the Google Webmaster Tools interface to add extra value to your data. This option will only be available if your Google Analytics account is associated with the same account that GWT is set up on. To add Google Analytics to your profile, click "Manage" and select "Google Analytics Profile".

After you select "Google Analytics Profile", you will be redirected to the Google Analytics page within GWT, where you can select the Google Analytics account/profile that is relevant to the website. Using the tick box, select the profile relevant to your account and click the save button; this will begin to insert data direct from your analytics account. If you haven't got Google Analytics but would like to create an account, click "Create Google Analytics Account".

So if you followed all the steps correctly you should now have fully installed Google Webmaster Tools account that will have data about your website populating the dashboards soon.

I hope you found the Google Webmaster Tools: A Beginner’s Guide to Installation useful. If you have any comments on the guide I have provided or on Google Webmaster Tools in general I would love to hear from you, either below or on Twitter @danielbianchini.

Seth's Blog : Now you are a celebrity

Now you are a celebrity

That means that... There are people who don't know you... and who don't like you.

Specifically, there are people who don't know your work, who haven't taken the time to understand your point of view, who nonetheless have had to draw a conclusion about who you are and what you do.

"I don't like Angelina Jolie."

"Which movie didn't you like?"

"Oh, I've never seen any of her movies. I just don't like her."

More positively, celebrity, particularly social media celebrity (which more and more of us have every day) earns you trust and access and an audience. Your twitter followers or friends of friends on Facebook are more likely to cut you slack because you're not a stranger.

But it's unreasonable to expect only the upside. There are now people in the world who don't know you and who don't like you. Sorry.

• Email to a friend •

marți, 26 iulie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Jefferson County Alabama Hires Bankruptcy Firm; Record Municipal Bankruptcy Coming; Death Spiral Swaps and JPMorgan Fraud Revisited
New Record Low: Only 6% of Voters Think Congress is Doing a Good Job
Business Owner Rant Sums Up How Many Feel About Deficit Impasse: "Are all of You Completely Crazy?"

Jefferson County Alabama Hires Bankruptcy Firm; Record Municipal Bankruptcy Coming; Death Spiral Swaps and JPMorgan Fraud Revisited

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 04:36 PM PDT

At long last, and in what will be the largest municipal bankruptcy in history, Jefferson County Alabama is poised to file bankruptcy, but only after county officials attempted to stick it to taxpayers one last time.

Please consider Alabama's Jefferson County Hires Bankruptcy Lawyer Kenneth Klee and Firm

Jefferson County, Alabama, which may vote in two days to file a record U.S. municipal bankruptcy, hired attorneys who represented Orange County, California, when it sought protection from creditors in 1994.

County commissioners voted 5-0 today to retain Kenneth Klee and his Los Angeles firm Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern LLP. The commissioners have scheduled a July 28 meeting in which they may decide to seek bankruptcy protection, extend negotiations with creditors on restructuring more than $3 billion of sewer bonds or approve a settlement.

Creditors including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and bond insurer Syncora Guarantee Inc. haven't responded to a county proposal to reduce its debt obligation to about $2 billion, while raising sewer rates by 8 percent for the next three years, commissioners said. The county will likely enter bankruptcy if creditors don't respond this week, they said.

"My constituents are saying pull the trigger," Commissioner Sandra Little Brown said at a meeting.

The county, home to Birmingham and more than 658,000 residents, has been under fiscal stress for more than three years after a sewer-bond refinancing collapsed during the credit crisis. Its woes intensified when the Legislature refused to act after a court struck down a local occupational tax in March. The tax generated about a quarter of Jefferson's general-fund revenue, and losing it forced officials to put more than 500 employees on unpaid leave.

Previously, debt holders and companies that insure the bonds proposed refinancing as much as $2.4 billion and raising sewer fees more than 25 percent for at least three years.

Commissioners have said they will reject any proposal that requires them to raise sewer revenue by 10 percent or more.

Death Spiral Swaps

This sad saga should have ended three years ago. It has been so long ago now that most have probably forgotten about the fraud involving JPMorgan that is at the center of the saga.

Flashback April 12, 2008: Jefferson County Death Spiral Swaps

The Largest U.S. Municipal Bankruptcy Looms in Alabama. What caused this mess is an interest rate swap Jefferson County officials entered into when they financed a $3.2 billion sewer cleanup. For weeks county officials claimed they would work things out, but that is increasingly unlikely.

Fraud Involving JP Morgan

Flashback May 23, 2008: Fraud, Antitrust Investigation Involving JPMorgan, Jefferson County

Jefferson County Alabama is back in the news with a Fraud probe involving JPMorgan.

On May 22 Bloomberg reported JPMorgan Swap Deals Spur Probe as Default Stalks Alabama County.
Like homeowners who took out mortgages they couldn't afford and didn't understand, Jefferson County officials rejected fixed- rate debt and borrowed instead at rates that varied with the market.

The county paid banks $120 million in fees -- six times the prevailing rate -- for $5.8 billion in interest-rate swaps. That was supposed to protect the county from rising rates for their bonds. Lending rates went the wrong way, putting the county $277 million deeper into debt.

Bankers who worked for New York-based Bear Stearns Cos. and JPMorgan when Jefferson County bought its swaps have been told they might face criminal charges under an antitrust investigation of the municipal derivatives industry, according to records filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc.

On April 30, the SEC sued Larry Langford, the former county commission president and now Birmingham's mayor, for fraud in allegedly accepting $156,000 from a local banker while refinancing the sewer debt.

JPMorgan, Bank of America, Bear Stearns, and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. charged Jefferson County about $50 million above prevailing prices for 11 of the interest-rate swaps the county bought between 2001 and 2004. None of the fees were disclosed to the commissioners, records show.

Porter, White & Co., the Birmingham-based financial advisory firm later hired by the county to analyze its swaps, said the banks raked in as much as $100 million in excessive fees on all 17 of its swaps.

At least four JPMorgan bankers who worked for the bank at the time Jefferson County deals were done, including Douglas MacFaddin, the former head of municipal derivative sales, have been told by the U.S. Attorney's office that they could face criminal charges, records show. MacFaddin, who was fired in March, couldn't be reached for comment.
Clear Case Of Fraud

I am not an attorney but the facts presented suggest there is a clear case of fraud. Jefferson County should walk away from those deals and/or sue JPMorgan for fraud and antitrust violations.

JPMorgan for its part would be smart to absolve Jefferson County of those deals because there is no way for it to win. Even if JPMorgan won a lawsuit vs. Jefferson County, the county could simply declare bankruptcy.

County Officials Stick it to Taxpayers

Jefferson County should have declared bankruptcy three years ago.

Instead they opted to stick it to taxpayers with a 10% fee hike. Moreover, they passed a local occupational tax that thankfully the courts struck down.

It is amazing what lengths politicians are willing to go to blatantly screw taxpayers even in clear cases of fraud.

Striking Similarities to Greece

Parallels to Greece are striking. Greece should have defaulted 3 years ago. Via preposterous can-kicking exercises, all of which screwed taxpayers, EU officials prolonged the taxpayer agony as well as increased the total pain.

Greece defaulted anyway.

Now, unless Jefferson Country officials and JPMorgan come up with an agreement to screw taxpayers once again, this sad saga is finally headed where it should have been three years ago - bankruptcy court.

How many JP Morgan bankers were convicted in criminal court of fraud?

How many tens-of-millions of dollars of taxpayer money did Jefferson County waste in these last three years?

I do not have the answer to that but I can answer this pertinent question: "How many JPmorgan bankers were convicted in criminal court of fraud?"

The answer is none.

Straight from a SEC press release, please consider J.P. Morgan Settles SEC Charges in Jefferson County, Ala. Illegal Payments Scheme

Washington, D.C., Nov. 4, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and two of its former managing directors for their roles in an unlawful payment scheme that enabled them to win business involving municipal bond offerings and swap agreement transactions with Jefferson County, Ala. This is the SEC's second enforcement action arising from Jefferson County's bond offerings and swap transactions.

J.P. Morgan Securities settled the SEC's charges and will pay a penalty of $25 million, make a payment of $50 million to Jefferson County, and forfeit more than $647 million in claimed termination fees.

The SEC alleges that J.P. Morgan Securities and former managing directors Charles LeCroy and Douglas MacFaddin made more than $8 million in undisclosed payments to close friends of certain Jefferson County commissioners. The friends owned or worked at local broker-dealer firms that performed no known services on the transactions. In connection with the payments, the county commissioners voted to select J.P. Morgan Securities as managing underwriter of the bond offerings and its affiliated bank as swap provider for the transactions.

J.P. Morgan Securities did not disclose any of the payments or conflicts of interest in the swap confirmation agreements or bond offering documents, yet passed on the cost of the unlawful payments by charging the county higher interest rates on the swap transactions.

"The transactions were complex but the scheme was simple. Senior J.P. Morgan bankers made unlawful payments to win business and earn fees," said Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement.

Glenn S. Gordon, Associate Director of the SEC's Miami Regional Office, added, "This self-serving strategy of paying hefty secret fees to local firms with ties to county commissioners assured J.P. Morgan Securities the largest municipal auction rate securities and swap agreement transactions in its history."

According to the SEC's complaint filed against LeCroy and McFaddin in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, the two former managing directors demonstrated in taped telephone conversations that they knew the payments to local firms with ties to county commissioners were designed to obtain business for J.P. Morgan's broker-dealer and affiliated bank. LeCroy and MacFaddin referred to the payments as "payoffs," "giving away free money," and "the price of doing business."

J.P. Morgan Securities agreed to settle the SEC's charges without admitting or denying the allegations by paying $50 million to the county for the purpose of assisting displaced county employees, residents and sewer rate payers; forfeiting more than $647 million in termination fees it claims the county owes under the swap transactions; and paying a $25 million penalty that will be placed in a Fair Fund to compensate harmed investors and the county in the municipal bond offerings and the swap transactions.

And so here we are, where we should have been three years ago, minus the fraud convictions, minus the fact these entire deals should have never have transpired in the first place, and minus the fact these deals should have been immediately negated in entirety once the fraud was exposed.

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

New Record Low: Only 6% of Voters Think Congress is Doing a Good Job

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 10:32 AM PDT

The latest Rasmussen Reports poll shows Voter approval of Congress has fallen to a new low. Here are some of the findings.

Just six percent (6%) of Likely U.S. Voters now rate Congress' performance as good or excellent. Last month, Congressional approval ratings fell to what was then a record low with eight percent (8%) who rated its performance good or excellent.

Sixty-one percent (61%) now think the national legislators are doing a poor job, a jump of nine points from a month ago.

63% of Mainstream voters think Congress is doing a poor job, just 44% of the Political Class agree.

The majority of voters are worried the final deal will raise taxes too much and won't cut spending enough.

Only 11% of voters believe this Congress has passed any legislation that will significantly improve life in America. That ties the lowest ever finding in nearly five years of surveys, last reached in January 2009. Sixty-nine percent (69%) think Congress has not passed any legislation of this caliber, a six-point increase from June and the most negative assessment ever. Nineteen percent (19%) are not sure.

Politicians think they are doing a far better job than they are. Unfortunately it is damn hard to get rid of politicians in gerrymandered districts in a two-party system.

For more on how voters feel, please see Business Owner Rant Sums Up How Many Feel About Deficit Impasse: "Are all of You Completely Crazy?"

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

Business Owner Rant Sums Up How Many Feel About Deficit Impasse: "Are all of You Completely Crazy?"

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 08:45 AM PDT

Here is a video rant with no answers from a self-proclaimed "average guy". Nonetheless, the video adequately conveys the frustration that many feel regarding the nation debt and the debt ceiling impasse.

He asks a few questions of the president and Congress, the first being "Are all of you completely crazy?"

Link if video does not play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SGyVNippvA

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

miercuri, 27 iulie 2011

Seth's Blog : Celebrating Zig Ziglar

Celebrating Zig Ziglar

More Recent Articles

SEOptimise

SEOptimise

Seth's Blog : Now you are a celebrity

Now you are a celebrity

More Recent Articles

marți, 26 iulie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

miercuri, 27 iulie 2011

More Recent Articles

More Recent Articles

marți, 26 iulie 2011

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

Subscribe to