Central Perk

miercuri, 27 iulie 2011

White House Office Hours: We Answer Your Questions Live

Your Daily Snapshot for
Wednesday, July 27, 2011

White House Office Hours: We Answer Your Questions Live

This week, the White House is holding office hours to answer questions directly from the public, live via Twitter. The first session was with the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, Brian Deese. Follow @WhiteHouse for the latest updates or submit a question using the hashtag #WHChat.

Check out yesterday's questions and answers and see the full office hours schedule here.

Infographic: Where does our national debt come from?

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog.

Americans respond to President Obama's speech by phone, email - and twitter
Throughout the day, we've seen reports that Congress' switchboards and websites have been overwhelmed by Americans responding to what President Obama said last night. At this end of Pennsylvania Avenue, we've noticed a bump in messages from Americans – email is coming in at nearly 5 times the normal rate.

Baseline Basics
The CBO releases its analysis of the debt ceiling extension and deficit reduction plan that the House of Representatives is considering. Jack Lew, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, discusses our opposition to this bill as the President explained in his address to the nation.

Deficit Crisis: State and Local Officials Call for a Balanced Approach
Following the President's address on the deficit crisis, Governors and Mayors from across the country are speaking out in support of compromise

Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

10:00 AM: The President and the Vice President receive the Presidential Daily Briefing

10:30 AM: The President meets with senior advisors

1:30 PM: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney

Indicates event will be streamed at WhiteHouse.gov/live

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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 •

miercuri, 27 iulie 2011