About Me 0069: February 2011

Monday, February 21, 2011

Making Easy Money

Coming to a station near you any time soon?Photo: Tim GilliamPresident Obama doesn't seem
like he's going to let this high-speed rail thing go, making it a centerpiece
of the infrastructure section of his State of the Union Address last night:

Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80 percent of Americans
access to high-speed rail. This could allow you to go places in half the time
it takes to travel by car. For some trips, it will be faster than flying --
without the pat-down. As we speak, routes in California and the Midwest are
already underway.

Sounds great, if you're a
high-speed rail fan. But last fall's midterm elections exposed GOP opposition
to Obama's plan to bring fast train service to all regions of the country. As a
gubernatorial candidate, Republican Scott Walker of Wisconsin made opposition
to a Milwaukee-Madison high-speed route a centerpiece of his campaign. After he
was elected, he
handed the feds back $810 million that would have funded the line, on the
grounds that it would be too expensive for the state to run. It was a move
echoed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's rejection of funds for a regular-speed
rail tunnel under the Hudson River (Christie is fighting hard not to repay money the feds already spent on that project).

And in California, which
ended up getting some of that Wisconsin money, there's been controversy over the first phase of the state's own HSR project, with detractors calling it "a train to
nowhere" and farm communities worried about the impact on available land.

So it's notable that Obama
doesn't seem to be backing down from his push to make HSR part of his legacy.
That 80 percent figure is pretty aggressive.

The president also hammered
away at the need for the need to continue upgrading and repairing the
transportation infrastructure we already have:

So
over the last two years, we've begun rebuilding for the 21st century, a project
that has meant thousands of good jobs for the hard-hit construction industry.
And tonight, I'm proposing that we redouble those efforts.

We'll
put more Americans to work repairing crumbling roads and bridges. We'll make
sure this is fully paid for, attract private investment, and pick projects
based [on] what's best for the economy, not politicians.

Obama's
stance was cheered by Transportation for
America (T4A) a coalition group calling for a reform of the nation's
transportation system. At the same time, the group's statement also acknowledges the difficulty of
getting projects funded. From the statement released by T4A's executive director, James Corless, today:

We were thrilled to hear the President come right
out and say that investment in transportation and other infrastructure is
central to rebuilding and growing our economy. An upfront investment in the
most-needed, clean transportation projects is a great opportunity to create
near-term jobs and lay the groundwork for the future economy.

He acknowledged that money will be tight and we
have to make the best of use it. That requires fixing the 20th century
infrastructure -- our crumbling roads and bridges -- as we build out the
infrastructure for the 21st. That certainly includes
high-speed rail, but it also means helping communities get moving on
long-planned networks of light rail, street cars, rapid buses, and making
progress on road reconstruction to make our streets safer people walking,
biking and driving.

The President's vision for infrastructure is not just about
near-term construction jobs. It is, as he said, about growing new businesses,
livable neighborhoods and dynamic regions that can attract a young and mobile
workforce and compete with our international competitors. It's about the jobs
associated with new transportation technologies
and manufacturing modern transit vehicles, everything from real time
information systems to make our highways and transit corridors smarter, to the
new rail cars being built today by United Streetcar in Oregon that can breathe
new life into our cities and suburbs.

T4A's Equity Caucus, which focuses on
the needs of poor, working-class, and minority Americans, had this to say:

[O]ur inadequate, outdated,
and underfunded transportation systems are keeping too many struggling
Americans -- young and old, rural and urban -- from fully connecting and
contributing to the national economy.

Millions of Americans
rely exclusively on public transit, walking, or biking to get to work, to the
doctor's office, to school, and to the grocery store. Nearly 20 percent of
African American households, 14 percent of Latino households, and 13 percent of
Asian households live without a car. Fifteen percent of Native Americans must
travel more than 100 miles to access basic services.

Smarter transportation
investments can unleash the under-realized economic power of communities across
America.

All this comes in the context
of a transportation reauthorization bill that has been stalled for the past year and a
half in Congress -- and that was when the Democrats controlled both the House and the
Senate. With Republicans now in control of the House, things are bound to get more complicated. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), the new Republican chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the House, had this to say about the president's call for more infrastructure spending (via Transportation Nation):

After the Administration derailed a major six-year transportation
bill in 2009, it is encouraging that they are now on board with getting
infrastructure projects and jobs moving again. However, just another
proposal to spend more of the taxpayers’ money, when we have billions of
dollars sitting idle tied up in government red tape, will never get our
economic car out of the ditch.

We’ve got to do more with less to improve our infrastructure in a fiscally responsible manner.

Central to all future
discussion about infrastructure enhancement and repair will be the question of
money. With lawmakers avowedly against raising the gas tax, finding the cash to
build new systems -- or to stop the proverbial crumbling of the old ones -- is
going to be the biggest problem.

You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got.
Set them free at the break of dawn
'Til one by one, they were gone.
Back at base, bugs in the software
Flash the message, Something's out there.
Floating in the summer sky.
99 red balloons go by.

Panic bells, it's red alert.

There's something here from somewhere else.

OK, so what have we learned from all this gibberish? Well, for one thing, we've learned that Nena is HOT (and still is)! I saw her at a club in Amsterdam around the time of that video and I was totally in love with her - had no idea what she was saying but I loved the way she said it. Who knew the lyrics were deep as well?

As for B-B-B-Bennie and the Fed? We (and he) have learned nothing at all. The overriding theme of the minutes were along the lines of "Inflation, what inflation? I don't know nothing about no inflation. Hey Dudly - Do you see any inflation?" "No, I don't see no inflation boss." "Yellen, do you see any inflation?" "No, sir Ben, no inflation here." "See, there's no inflation - you guys must be mistaking us for some other country - now here's a Trillion Dollars, go buy yourself something nice and tell 'em Uncle Ben sent you."

Yes, according to the Fed, everything will be just fine if they just keep buying TBills at the current pace (about $120Bn a month) to supplement our $140Bn a month deficit habit. This works just about as well as making sure and addict has enough money for more heroin every day but - what the Hell? No one wants to have the Fed act responsibly and the Fed certainly doesn't want anyone to think anything is actually wrong.

This is probably why, despite mentioning the word "inflation" 7 times in their 4 paragraph official statement on January 26th and despite 42 mentions during the meeting, the Fed's official stance is "there is no inflation and the inflation that you think there is isn't our fault." You know, there is no fountain of youth either but, somehow, when I sit down and have a two day meeting that generates a dozen pages of minutes, the term "fountain of youth" doesn't come up 42 times and, when I issue an official statement, I don't mention it 7 times. Do you know why? Because it ACTUALLY doesn't exist.

We tend not to have 2 day meetings discussing things that don't exist. We do have two day meetings PRETENDING we have problems under control. Companies do this all the time. Ben would not know this because he has never run a company and neither have the majority of Federal Reserve Members. What they run, at the moment, is a printing press where they can redistribute the nation's wealth with the stroke of a pen to whoever they choose and, not surprisingly given their origin, they choose to distribute our wealth to their own Member Banks who use it like JP Morgan, to play the stock market and ring up $19Bn worth of trading profits in 2010 as they run the price of - well, everything, up 50 to 100% - destroying millions of lives and toppling governments in the process.

I will let Karl Denninger have the last word with "Bernanke's Outrages Exposed" and leave it at that as I could go on all day. If you have a few minutes though, I would suggest watching this entertaining video that follows up on the topic of Newspeak we talked about on Monday as so much of the language we are now hearing from our politicians, policy makers, corporations and their media mouthpieces is now couched in so many layers of BS that you do need a degree in semantics just to figure out what they MIGHT be saying (also see "Superfreakonomics"):

Also being featured today at Philstockworld is "How to Fake an Economic Recovery" and Russ Winter's observations on the sudden and sharp decline of Chinese exports that JUST MIGHT indicate a small leak in the Global ship of state. Also, a new favorite of Members is David's "All about Trends" section, where he posts a mid-day update with charts to watch on the market. I don't usually mention what's on in our own site because I can't mention everyone but, while I'm on the subject: Tyler has a great post analyzing the credibility of Steve Jobs' latest cancer scare (hitting AAPL this morning), Mike Snyder sums up what is wrong with the US economy in 10 charts and, most germane to this morning's conversation, Surly Trader has a post simply called "The Commodity Bubble," which features this chart:

This is a perfect spot to move on to discuss the CPI, which came in this morning at "just" 0.4%, which is 33% more than expected (and how many times have we heard that this week) by those same expert analysts the Fed likes to consult with. Actually 33% is the closest they've come all week to predicting anything. Not so lucky on the core CPI, which was 100% over the 0.1% predicted at 0.2%. Food prices are "only up 0.7% in January, which is quite a break after those 50% gains we can see on the chart (if we are going to believe the BS government measurements, of course, as they are still just 1/3 of the Billion Price Index we discussed on Monday).

But investors need not worry because inflation is a no-show in the one place it would bother us - or the Fed. The beautiful sheeple got paid - get this, you will love it - 0.1% LESS in January than they did in December! Isn't that great? Labor costs are higher than most commodity costs for most corporations so this is a win-win where we pay people less AND they come to work hungry and alert and extra productive for fear of losing their jobs and starving like 10% of their neighbors. Oh it's good to be the boss!

Even better, jobless claims are UP again, back over 400,000 to 410,000 with continuing claims rising slightly but still "just" 3.9M as we no longer consider the other 10M people who lost their jobs to be "in the workforce." I mean, come on already - it's been over 2 years since the crash - get a job! The peasants are indeed revolting in Libya, Bahrain and Yemin today with riots and tear gas everywhere. This is good news for TASR (got 'em), who just got a nice, fat, international order yesterday for their "crowd control" devices.

This is all great news for investors as Global chaos and high unemployment at home means: MORE FREE MONEY - and that's what it's all about, right? The Fed is telling their banks to be ready for renewed recession and 11% unemployment on the same day they are releasing their minutes telling the American people how great things are and those banks are once again pouring Billions of Dollars into the same toxic securities that tanked the economy back in the olden days that no one seems to remember (so last decade now) and Fitch is preparing to downgrade states like Illinois, Nevada, Massachusetts and Minnesota, who are unlikely to clear their new hurdles for A paper. .

Cotton broke $2 and is looking to go hyperbolic, 1,000 companies are having their employment records audited in a hunt for illegal immigrants, BOE's Andrew Sentance breaks with Mervyn King and says the "outlook for inflation is too optimistic" and later we will hear more BS from the Fed's Lockhart and Evens, who will both be speaking about the economy at luncheons, which will come after the 10am Philly Fed Report and before the release of the Fed's Balance Sheet at 4pm.

Lots of fun stuff we can ignore today!

Crazy Bennie pic courtesy of William Banzai7

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Thursday, February 17, 2011

Im Making Money

In his New York Times column complaining about Huffington Post and the new economics of content competition, I think David Carr makes two understandable but fundamentally fallacious assumptions about news and media: that the value in journalism is in content and that making content must be work. Because that's the way it used to be.

In their op-ed the next day in the New York Times complaining about copyright losing its hardness, Scott Turow, Paul Aiken, and James Shapiro extend the error to entertainment, assuming that content is entertainment and content is what content makers make.

Not necessarily.

Pull back to view the true value of these things: information, knowledge, enlightenment, amusement, experience, engagement. Content can be and has been a vessel to deliver their worth. But it is not the only one. That is the lesson of the internet -- indeed, of Huffington Post itself. I have argued that the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, the BBC, and other media should have but never would have started the Huffington Post because they, like the gentlemen above, still see content as value in itself and further believe that content is their own franchise (granted by their control of the means of production and distribution). So the benefits of content cannot come from others -- bloggers, commenters, citizens, amateurs -- as new wine in new casks. They instead want to put their old wine in the new skins (witness The Daily).

That is why old media people are missing new opportunities. It's not about the content (stupid). It's about the value.

We can be informed now by many means: by our neighbors telling us what they know, enabled to do so by the net, at a marginal cost of zero, doing so not because it is work (and work must be paid) but because this is what neighbors do for each other. We can be entertained by many means: by clever people making songs and shows and telling stories because they love doing so and because they are compensated in attention rather than royalties (and that attention may well lead to money when they can finally detour around the gauntlet of old media's closed ways to find audiences on their own).

Why do people write on Huffington Post? Because they can. Because they give a shit. Because they like the attention and conversation. Because they couldn't before. Why do they sing their songs on YouTube? Same reasons.

Is there still a role for the journalist, the professional, the artist in this? Perhaps. I think so. That's why I am teaching journalism school. But I'm not necessarily teaching them to make content. That is now only one of many, many ways to meet the goals of adding value to information, time, and society. Some of my entrepreneurial journalism students are, for example, creating businesses that will use data to impart information; they will add value by gathering and analyzing it and making it possible for you to find the intersecting points that matter to you. Other of my students are creating platforms for you to get more value out of your own data. Others are creating platforms for people to connect around interests and make and find their own value. Others are finding new ways to sustain reporting and the making of content. They are all valid if they bring value.

If you concentrate on the value, not the form -- content -- then the possibilities explode.

Turow et al shut down the idea that opening up information can yield greater value that protecting it. Sharers are...

... abetted by a handful of law professors and other experts who have made careers of fashioning counterintuitive arguments holding that copyright impedes creativity and progress. Their theory is that if we severely weaken copyright protections, innovation will truly flourish. It's a seductive thought, but it ignores centuries of scientific and technological progress based on the principle that a creative person should have some assurance of being rewarded for his innovative work.

No, I'd say rather that there are more ways to open up value. If Wikipedia were copyrighted by a publisher, it never would have become Wikipedia because it would be owned, not shared. We now have a new means to collect value rather than merely to own content.

I remember at the DLD conference a few years ago when Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales defended himself from a ninja-knife-wielding Jason Calacanis over paying people to contribute to online resources. Calacanis, like Carr, called it work. Wales instead likened it to a pickup game of basketball. Viewed from a distance, basketball certainly looks like work; they sweat enough. So why don't we demand that they be paid? Why aren't we lamenting the loss of a marketplace for their value? Because that's not where the value is. It's in the fun.

Granted, what's done with that fun -- how it is exploited -- is relevant. If I start charging admission to watch you play basketball -- it is great content, after all -- or if I put sponsors' banners on the court -- you did draw an audience -- you might want a cut. If you can get it -- if you can show that there aren't a million competitors for court time in an open marketplace -- great! But what if the gate or the ads merely support my ability to provide free court time to you or free uniforms to your town-team kids? The economics are not necessarily sweat = work = product = pay. Neither is it any longer true that owning the expensive means of production and distribution assures a return on that investment. There are other expressions of value.

The truth is that Huffington Post recognizes the value of professionalism. I've lately recalled Arianna Huffington talking with Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger in London a few years ago when he -- with native irony, in front of his reporters -- asked why the hell she was hiring reporters, who are a pain in the ass to manage and expensive to boot. Because their stories get more traffic, she said. They add value. That's why she has editors and curators. They add value. That's why she has technologists who make the Huffington Post such a social experience. They enable value.

That's what I'm teaching my entrepreneurial students: add value. And be efficient: take advantage of the free exchange that is already happening -- the free and open platforms and the information that now easily passes on them. Then put your precious resources where you most add value. Do that before you even think of extracting value. There are the new economics of what we used to think of as content.

MeFites, my roommate is a mid-twenties free spirit who is a lovely spirit, generous to a fault, but has very little respect for others' things. When she moved in, I set the tone for our household to be one of sharing; I wanted to frequently share my dinners with her. I made it clear that things I own in common areas are fair game (kitchen stuff, etc). I've specified what is mine, what I choose not to share, what is NOT fair game for her use.

I love this roommate, but since the beginning, there has been major boundary crossing. My things go missing. My food, shampoo, mouthwash, household cleaners get used up. Worst of all, when I can't find things, she turns white and tells me they are at "so-and-so's house" and rushes off to get them.

When she ruined my good towels by using them at the school, she said, "Why do you need good towels anyway?! We're so spoiled in this country!" implying I was being selfish and materialistic. Guilting me for expecting my roommate to exercise normal, healthy respect for others' property.

I've had at least four "boundary clarification" talks with her. I have expressed that while I am happy to let her use my things IN OUR HOME, they are NOT to leave the house without my permission. I have clearly stated, "Hey, I am the one who gets to decide whether you use my belongings. You don't get to decide for me."

After a major episode when she lent my sewing box out to one neighbor and our vacuum to another, I set a tangible boundary to keep my things safe and put a lock on my bedroom door. But she STILL is taking things to the school where she works...things she presumes are "No big deal." My grandmother's rolling pin. My only nice set of dinner napkins (both now ruined or gone.) I've told her the next time I find something missing, rent will go up $50 a month for each missing thing (and that's in addition to her replacing what's gone.)

She offers me her food, to use her clothes or hair products, etc. "any time" which is lovely and generous and selfless...buys little presents, has offered to lend me money, helps and cleans up around the house, etc...and I genuinely like her as a person, but I'm really struggling with how to deal with this. In some ways, I feel like I'm dealing with a stubborn, incorrigible, spoiled teenager.

Please note: right now for various reasons, I cannot ask her to move out, so please help me come up with solutions to the situation I'm presently in.

Since being laid off, I have been seriously underemployed and barely paying the bills. I'm starting a new job next month so this stress will lighten soon, but in the last few months with her using up the little I have, it has been very difficult. Knowing she might be sneaking my shampoo and eating the food I bought for myself has been threatening my sense of well-being. I realize deep mistrust has set in.

I've said and done all the constructive things I can think of. But clearly, she doesn't "get it." Healthy boundaries and grownup considerations.

Can anyone help? I'm at my wit's end.
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Recently businesses have expressed concern over excessive regulations that have made conducting business ever more expensive, often with limited justification.

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Busted: Fox News Fakes CPAC Presidential Straw Poll Bizarre deception by Fox News via boingboing, running the 2010 crowd noise booing Ron Paul's 2011 win.

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Recently businesses have expressed concern over excessive regulations that have made conducting business ever more expensive, often with limited justification.

Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg to Meet With ...

Why is Fox News Trashing Ron Paul ? | The Big Picture

Busted: Fox News Fakes CPAC Presidential Straw Poll Bizarre deception by Fox News via boingboing, running the 2010 crowd noise booing Ron Paul's 2011 win.

bench craft company sales

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Recently businesses have expressed concern over excessive regulations that have made conducting business ever more expensive, often with limited justification.

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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

web site promotion internet marketing

SEO in the niche of web hosting and domain name registration

In this article we`ll try to generalize our practices in promotion of companies that provide web hosting and domain registration services.

We will talk about such questions:

Analysis of hosting / domain name registration market and finding potentially advantageous promotion directions;

Features of keywords selection in the conditions of SEO-pressure

Definition of promotion strategy

Methods of getting links

Features of different queries groups conversion depending on geography

Typical problems that interfere sites conversion and ways of their solution

Market analysis and competitive researches. Finding potentially advantageous promotion directions

First of all, it is necessary to note that a large traffic in the niche of web hosting is deceptive. If you look at Google AdWords Keyword Tool data you will find out the following picture:

In fact, there are about 400-500 visits from the 8th– 9th place for a query “hosting” per month. It`s necessary to consider this and other points while planning hosting project promotion, because information about a large amount of queries in the Google AdWords Keyword Tool is “stuffed” with endless positions checks. As the market of hosting projects and domain name registrars is extremely competitive, you have a great chance to invest money, work and time in promotion of such queries that are stuffed and do not bring traffic and sales, and after all you can incur losses and even remain disappointed in the search promotion at all. The same can be said about domain name registration.

In fact, there are about 500-600 visits from the 5th – 6th place for a query “domain” per month.

That`s why, in our opinion, it`s better to begin promotion of hosting project or domain name registrar with finding active competitors in the search marketing niche and define their strategies. For this purpose we can recommend a wonderful tool – SemRush.

So, we need to find competitor sites in our niche, which are actively engaged in the Internet marketing. We just type highly competitive query corresponding to the topic in SemRush and find sites that are ranked well for it:

Now we need to make cleaning, i.e., remove irrelevant sites from the list. In this case, obviously, Wikipedia must be removed from the list. After checking a few queries important for you in the same way, we will receive a “crossed” list of sites. Sites from this list have good rankings for many queries in this subject, so they should be examined primarily.

Lets take a site hostgator.com as an example:

The example shows that, firstly, the number of search queries for which the site “hostgator” is shown has an explicit trend to growth. It reflects the efforts made by the owners of this project to increase its visibility in search engines.

After selection of queries that bring maximum traffic to the project according to SemRush, we get an approximate keywords list which can be used to start promotion.

Making the list of necessary keywords, let’s see whether it is a good idea for us to «meddle into a fight» for these keywords. You should consider such factor, as SEO-pressure, for this purpose.

Features of keywords selection in the conditions of SEO-pressure

You can use different tools to estimate a competition for the selected query. A plug-in for FireFox called SeoQuake is one of convenient free instruments.

Let’s type a relevant query interesting for us, e.g., business hosting:

You can see that some strong sites are present in SERP, and some of them have got from several hundreds thousand to millions of backlinks and even more. The competition in SERPs is about to be really strong, so I would like to repeat: you should select a semantic core very carefully. Moreover, there are sometimes artifacts in SERPs, and learning them is possible only from experience. Let’s take the query “ecommerce hosting”. This query is high frequency in subtopic «hosting for ecommerce sites», it has about 12 thousand searches per month in exact match worldwide:

We can see that the trends of search don’t show any sudden jumps or drops.

The target audience for these queries is in the U.S. and UK – the most creditworthy regions in general. However, traffic for such query from the American Google Top5 – Top6 is about 1-3 persons a day, with natural drops on weekends; it gives us about 40 people a month. A conversion rate for these queries is extremely low. Of course, promotion for this queries is acceptable only with the purposes of improving positioning and brand awareness, but as for sales it isn`t effective.

Let`s take a query “reseller web hosting” which has next data from Google KeyWord Tool worldwide, for comparison:

The query brings twice more traffic from the 4th-5th places having twice smaller amount of searches in exact match according to Google KeyWord Tool! Conversion rate of this query is also quite high. At that, Google Insights give the following data:

At the same time the great part of traffic and transactions comes from the U.S. and UK users despite of the fact that the site holds comparable positions also in Google.co.in.

All of these patterns are also true for domain name registrars.

It’s impossible to know this information without experience in promoting a site for such queries or without trying PPC advertising in exact match. There are a lot of keywords like these, so you should constantly monitor all queries in the aggregate estimating of the effectiveness of each one.

You can also “pull out” perspective keywords making the analysis of the backlinks text anchor to sites of competitors who are actively engaged in search marketing. You can use special tools, for example, CS Yazzle or SEO SpyGlass by LinkAssistant, either manually using Yahoo! Site Explorer.

To estimate a real traffic on a query you may also try PPC in exact match.

The following method can be used to estimate keywords efficiency. The initial necessary data is:

Position for a keyword;

Traffic on it;

Estimated number of searches from Google Keyword Tool in the exact and phrase match for the world and top regions;

Quantity of page views;

Time spent on a site;

Bounce rate;

Conversion rate.

Microsoft Excel counts a parity of all these factors with the help of formulas and allows realizing efficiency/inefficiency of each keyword visually.

Perspective traffic, quantity of searches per month (data of Google AdwordsKeywordTool) and conversion data for each query are marked with green color. Indicators exceeded the average indicators for the site to the worse are marked with red (bounce rate, number of pages reviews).The percent of conversion which vastly differs to better from the average indicator for the site is marked with yellow color in the last column (Conversion rate).

Using this technique allows tracking the most convertible requests and receiving greater outcome from a client’s site.

Selection of promotion strategy

Based on our experience in promotion of projects in the niche of hosting and domain names registration we can say that the most high-frequency, convertible and competitive queries are in these topics exactly.

Shared vs VPS vs Dedicated

If to compare an earning power of dedicated servers sale (VPS) and earning power of shared hosting sale you will come to the conclusion that in general virtual (Shared) hosting sale is more profitable: one dedicated server sale brings around 200$ of income, at the same time sale of the same server “cutted” on virtual (Shared) hosting allows to earn much more (~100×5$), even with the consideration of the increasing load on a support.

However, traffic in Shared hosting subtopic is much less than in dedicated server subtopic. People interested in such things, according to our observations, come by queries like “cheap hosting”, “cheap web hosting”, and the quantity of such searches is very small because Godaddy and Hostgator take away the lion’s share of these customers, mainly due to type-in traffic.

In this case, it seems to be a good decision to perform promotion in the VPS and Dedicated sector.

Many companies, apparently, have come to the same conclusion: promotion for queries of “shared” group is much easier, than for queries related to dedicated servers.

Specialized kinds of hosting

As we have noted above, low-frequency traffic brings rather small part in general traffic and conversion; therefore, in our opinion, it`s better to begin promotion for high-frequency keywords with addition low – and mid-frequency keywords, which give a great bulk of sales and target traffic on a site. However, if your hosting site sells “exotic ” types of hosting, such as hosting with support of Zen Cart or Django, then such low-frequency, long-tail keywords can justify themself at the initial stages of promotion.

A cost of their promotion to the Top-10 is small, and similar “exotic hosting” is usually searched by people who understand the subject well and thus type long queries in search bars.

Eventually, when the site starts to rank well for competitive queries, it makes sense to “collect” low-frequency “long tail” of queries in subjects, not to miss this small piece of the market.

Also I would like to notice that promotion for keywords like “hosting” and “web hosting” is extremely difficult process due to high competition (though these keywords begin to “sell” beginning from top-20!)

Methods of getting links

The basis of search optimization are at the moment:

keyword research;

texts and meta tags optimization according to the keywords;

adding backlinks with correct “anchors” (with right reference texts).

As we have already noted, hosting sites have a large number of backlinks. How do they receive so many backlinks? This is obvious, that reviews and comments at forums will never help to collect tens thousands of links. Four main methods used in this theme should be picked out. Some of them are typical for other niches and some of them have unusual “boom” exactly in hosting and domain subjects.

Link exchange (the proper way)

Links buying (the smart way)

Getting links through its own affiliate program.

Conversion of search traffic

Let’s look at the comparative analysis of search traffic conversion in various regions (sample of more than 90.000 sales for “domain names” and more than 2000 sales for the “hosting” market):

So, what are your big Internet marketing plans for the New Year? Will you be investing more in social media? Will you start blogging? Will you take a more proactive stance with self-promotion? Whatever your online marketing plans, the end goal is likely to attract more people to your website in the hopes that the influx of new eyes will translate into new customers, new leads and new opportunities for your business. However, you won’t be able to do any of that if your Web site is turning people off, instead of turning them on.

Below are some very common reasons SMB Web sites fail to attract customers and how to avoid falling prey to them.

1. There’s no conversion path in place.

One criticism of many SMB sites is that they don’t include a clear conversion path for their customers. If you want customers to take a certain action, you need to create a funnel intended to guide them to do that. Simply stringing together a number of content pages won’t necessarily put someone on the path to buy. Your conversion path may be as simple as a solitary landing page paired with a call to action, or as complex as an entire microsite. Either way, you are in charge of designing the flow of your website. Creating a clear conversion path not only helps customers feel more comfortable on your site, it also gives you clear data to track so that you can see where people are abandoning, where they’re engaging, etc. The more data you have to act on, the better you can design your site to attract new customers.

2. There’s no sign of life.

Customers are discriminating. You can bet that when they land on your website they’re going to kick the tires a little to see if they can trust you. They’re going to check your copyright date to see if it lists 2011 or 2006. They’re going to look for old statistics or other signs you haven’t taken the time to update your content. They’re going to check your company blog to see how often it’s updated, if you reply to commenters, if people are talking back, etc. They’re going to look for signs that you’ve created a dynamic website, instead of one lying around in stagnant water. Before your customers get there, take a look around yourself. Would you hang out with you?

3. It’s all about you.

Customers don’t head to your site to hear how awesome you are. They’re there because they have a problem they need you to fix or a question they need you to answer. Your website should be designed to help them quickly achieve whatever it is they came for. Too many references to “I” in lieu of “you,” too much sales talk instead of helpful information, and too much of you not addressing their fears/wants/desires will turn people away from your brand, not on to it. Your customers don’t care about you–they care about how you can help them.

4. People can’t find you.

If you’re finding that customers aren’t interacting with your website at all, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself.

Is it accessible? With more and more users searching via mobile devices and on the go – is your website mobile accessible? If it’s not, users trying to find you may hit a dead end. There’s nothing worse than trying to find your accountant’s website while on the road and finding out his site only renders in Flash and won’t load on your phone. Not that I’m talking from experience.

Is it properly SEO’d? Have you made it easy for users and search engines to find your content? That means using the right keywords, linking properly, making your site super crawlable for spiders, and staying away from common SMB SEO mistakes.

Sometimes before you can see more traffic, you have to break through the obstacles preventing you from seeing any.

5. There’s no POD.

If you want to attract people, you have to give them more of you. You have to stand out from the crowd and show them something that they’ll want to align themselves with. Take a look at your own site – what are you showing potential customers? I don’t mean the graphics or the videos you choose to incorporate (don’t forget to SEO those, too!), I mean the experience that you’re creating. Are you using your site to set yourself apart, or do you come off like everyone else? Are you talking to customers in their own language or filling your pages up with buzzwords and jargon? The more powerful a POD (point of differentiation) you can create, the better you’ll attract the right customers to your brand.

If you’re finding it difficult to attract leads via your website, it may be time to ask yourself some hard questions. Before you can fix the problem, you first have to identify it. What are some struggles you’ve had attracting new leads? How have you fixed the problems?

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Michelle Malkin » CBS News reporter Lara Logan sexually assaulted ...

CBS News reporter Lara Logan sexually assaulted, beaten in Cairo; Update: Unhinged NYU fellow attacks Logan as “war-monger”

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The full list: The Twitter 100 - Its 200 million users share 110 million messages a day - and if ...

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Friday, February 11, 2011

Business Making Money

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autosport.com - F1 News: Kubica vows to return this season

Robert Kubica is convinced he will return to the Formula 1 track a better driver once he has recovered for the injuries he picked up in last weekend's rally crash, as he insisted he 'must' get back this year.

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autosport.com - F1 News: Kubica vows to return this season

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Horse Tracks -- Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee.

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autosport.com - F1 News: Kubica vows to return this season

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Horse Tracks -- Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee.

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autosport.com - F1 News: Kubica vows to return this season

Sony to search PS3 hacker's computer PlayStation 3 News - Page 1 ...

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Horse Tracks -- Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee.

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Horse Tracks -- Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee.

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If you're a freelance writer, or thinking about becoming one, then you know that writing is the easy part. Finding places to pitch your writing, eg, marketing it, takes up the bulk of your time.

Well, there are a few ways on the Internet where you can start making money right away - as in, within one week. Following are three.

1. Write for Pay Sites (3 Reviewed)

A. AssociatedContent.com: My favorite write-for-pay site. The beauty of writing for this site is that you write what you want and get paid for it - anywhere from $3 to $40 for a minimum 400-word article. They also accept videos for payment.

The reason I like this site is: 1) as mentioned above, you write what you want. No editor guidelines to follow, writing about subjects that you have no interest in and/or tons of research to do. 2) No minimum pay out to reach (many sites have a minimum you have to reach before you get paid); and 3) Fairly quick turnaround time They usually take 5-7 business days to read your submission and make you an offer.

If you have a hobby, a subject you are passionate about, or a subject you want to take the time to write about - for whatever reason - simply set up an Author's account with them (it's FREE!) and submit.

NOTE: On rare occasions, your article will be rejected. However, the editors usually leave a note explaining why and you then have the chance to make changes and resubmit the content. As I said, to be rejected is rare, but on the few occasions I have been, I always rewrote and usually got a higher than normal offer by acting on the editor's suggestions.

Since I've been a freelance writer for over a decade and had a large library of content, I made a couple of hundred dollars in a few week's time by submitting previously published material.

Didn't I mention that the material you submit doesn't have to be original? You will be paid less for it, but as it's already written and has probably been used for other purposes, it's like free cash. They pay more for original material and material that they specifically request (new topics are emailed from the administrator each Friday).

B. WriteForCash.com: With WriteForCash.com, it takes them up to two weeks to review your article, and more often than not, you will have to make some revisions before your article will be accepted.

Also, it takes them up to three months to get your article on the web. Another drawback of this site is that they own the copyright to the work (eg, you can't resell the content) and you have to choose from topics they list on which to write.

To their credit, the list of topics can be wide-ranging and they pay from $10 to $15 per article. But, if you have a hankering to write about, for example, the World Cup, and it's not on their list, you won't get paid for it.

C. Constant-Content.com: With this site, you basically put your articles up for bid, setting your own price. However, a lot of writers there offer their articles for free, which diminishes your chance of selling one - especially if it's in the same genre. Further, you have to keep your price pretty low to sell articles - anywhere from $1 to $5. Although, this can increase if you write for high-paying genres, eg, finance, technical, etc.

On the upside, you can resell content here. So, if you are going to write an article anyway and sell it elsewhere, you might as well post it here. However, another drawback is that you won't be paid until your account hits the $50 mark. Realistically, this can take months, especially if you are only posting one or two articles a week and selling them for $2 or $3 each.

There are tons of ways to sell your writing online; these three sites are just to get you going and/or supplement what you may already be doing.

2. Start an Article Directory: This takes a bit more work, but is very simple to start. What do people look for on the Internet - information - lots of it!

To start an article directory, all you have to do is put up a simple website and start soliciting writers to submit their articles to you - free of charge. Most article writers are promoters of something - e-books, seminars, software, workshops, etc. They are constantly looking for free and/or low-cost exposure.

Soon, you can have hundreds of pages of content. How will you make money? Add Google ads (details below). Every time someone clicks on one of the ads, you make money.

Many article directories take articles on many subjects; some specialize. Only you can decide which is right for you. I personally prefer niche directories because as the web expands, I think users will revisit a directory that carries quality information on a specific topic more often than one that carries a lot of articles on everything. Even if you separate them out by category, I find the "all inclusive directories" too overwhelming. Again, it's up to you.

The real key to making money with an article directory is promoting it and getting good, quality articles for your site. To get excellent articles, surf the web using key words on your subject. Once you find an article you like, contact the author (most will have their contact info in the resource box at the end of the article) and ask them to regularly submit articles to your directory. They will almost always say yes.

Once your directory has been indexed by search engines, many will start sending you articles automatically. This is when your site should really take off. Once you have a few hundred articles in your directory (and this can literally take as little as a few weeks if you put in the time), slap those Google ads on each page, and voila - you have hundreds of pages of content carrying ads that, each time they're clicked, is money in your pocket.

NOTE: There are many article directories online where you can automatically pull articles from to get started. Do a Google search for "article directory" and about 3.5 million (yes, million!) results pop up.

Article Directory Software: If you want to put out a little money, you can purchase software that will completely automate this process for you. Do a Google search for "article directory software" and close to half a million results come up. With most of the software you can choose to buy and install yourself, or have the publisher install it for you. Note: You have to be a real techie if you choose to go the self-install route.

Before starting an article directory, I recommend taking several hours and doing some reading on the subject. While it's a relatively simple concept, it can be a lot of work up front - but can pay huge dividends over the months and years to come.

To learn more about getting those Google ads you see on many websites, go to Google.com. Click on "Advertising Programs" (a plain text button right under the search box). Then click on "For Web Publishers: Google AdSense". Finally, click on "What is AdSense? Quick Tour". The program will be explained in detail and you can have it up and running in about 5 minutes.

3. Start a Blog: This is becoming old hat, but is still new and fresh enough that if you have a passion for something and can target a highly defined niche, you can start a blog on it, add some Google Adsense ads, and turn it into a few hundred bucks a month without too much effort. Want to make more? Like anything in life, the more time you commit to it, the more your income will rise.

There's even a new website, Scoopt.com, that acts as a blog literary agent. What do I mean by this? Specifically, they "help you license your blog for both commercial and non-commercial use." In essence, they help you sell your blog's content. See full details at their site.

Blogs are no longer just for ranting about your last bad relationship or the bad dye job your colorist did on your hair. They are professional outlets for making money now.

To read a case study of how a personal interest can be turned into a popular, moneymaking blog, go to ProBlogger.net and do a search of their site for ""Back in Skinny Jeans". The article should pop up. It's very, very interesting reading.

FYI, to start a blog, go to blogger.com, create an account and start blogging away. It's FREE!

SUMMARY: These are not get-rich-quick schemes. My mission at InkwellEditorial.com is to help creative and editorial freelancers earn a decent living. I will never promise you that you will "make thousands a month by just doing x", as many will. Don't believe the hype.

I have been in publishing since 1987, and have been a freelancer since 1993. Believe me, I've heard about and tried so many different programs. The only way to make money is to consistently plug away at something. It takes time and effort, effort and time. The good news is that if you are determined to make a living as a creative professional, the Internet makes it easier than ever. And, it can be done "relatively" easy if you choose effective methods and consistently implement them.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

about internet marketing

Affiliate marketing is easy once you find the tactics that work for you. The time it takes to become a master depends upon your learning abilities and also your problem solving abilities. There are no rules carved in stone. Everything changes very fast, so you need to change your strategies, too, every day. One method that was extremely great two years ago and you read about it in an e-book might not work today, or might work differently.

The pitfall of most e-books is that they are only listing the general processes and don't give you a step-by-step guide to affiliate marketing. Since there are literally hundreds of tactics to be successful, it would be a very long book to cover every single method. That's why those so-called gurus are only writing about their favorite methods, which would possibly not be the methods that you can utilize the same way.

Not every method will bring in the same results, so you will need testing. You must choose one that is the most appropriate for your personality, and abilities, too. Loads of people find some traffic generation techniques boring or too complicated. That is why about 90% of people starting with Adwords will fail, because they don't like testing and analyzing the keywords. If you are this kind of person, don't even go there, or you will end up losing money instead of making affiliate revenue. Although, if you are a person who loves sharing and communicates easily, social networking would be your best method.

Prior to spending much money on ads, it is always useful to test an offer on free traffic. I started to apply this rule long ago and it has already saved me a lot of money. If I am sending out a free solo e-mail for my list, for example, and it turns out to be a success, I might consider buying e-zine advertising and advertise that way. But if not, I can still do split-test campaigns, therefore maximize conversions prior to paying for traffic.

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BOOM! NBC Nightly News Posts Highest Ratings In 6 Years

NBC's coverage came out 1.471 million viewers ahead of ABC "World News" and 3.944 million viewers ahead of CBS "Evening News" -- which isn't that much of a surprise, considering "Nightly News" has come out ahead of those two for the ...

Walmart to offer Verizon iPhone 4 starting tomorrow | iLounge News

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BOOM! NBC Nightly News Posts Highest Ratings In 6 Years

Walmart to offer Verizon iPhone 4 starting tomorrow | iLounge News

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BOOM! NBC Nightly News Posts Highest Ratings In 6 Years

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BOOM! NBC Nightly News Posts Highest Ratings In 6 Years

Walmart to offer Verizon iPhone 4 starting tomorrow | iLounge News

iLounge news discussing the Walmart to offer Verizon iPhone 4 starting tomorrow. Find more iPhone news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Raven's James Bond now 20 months old? News - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

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BOOM! NBC Nightly News Posts Highest Ratings In 6 Years

Walmart to offer Verizon iPhone 4 starting tomorrow | iLounge News

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Raven's James Bond now 20 months old? News - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

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BOOM! NBC Nightly News Posts Highest Ratings In 6 Years

Walmart to offer Verizon iPhone 4 starting tomorrow | iLounge News

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Raven's James Bond now 20 months old? News - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

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BOOM! NBC Nightly News Posts Highest Ratings In 6 Years

Walmart to offer Verizon iPhone 4 starting tomorrow | iLounge News

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Raven's James Bond now 20 months old? News - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

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BOOM! NBC Nightly News Posts Highest Ratings In 6 Years

Walmart to offer Verizon iPhone 4 starting tomorrow | iLounge News

iLounge news discussing the Walmart to offer Verizon iPhone 4 starting tomorrow. Find more iPhone news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Raven's James Bond now 20 months old? News - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

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Look, I started where you may be right now, buying all the hottest courses, ebooks and marketing information that was available and reviewed. I had invested thousands of dollars, probably more like tens of thousands, over a period of 3 - 5 years in the beginning. I still invest in my continuing education to this day, but I spend less money and I do it mainly just to stay on top of the "latest" strategies as they surface. Surprisingly enough, that will lead you to secret #2 revealed in this post.

You know what? I am just going to reveal a bunch to you in this article...

Ok, let's get to the good stuff, shall we?

Secret #1 - The Reason Why
The main reason why you should quit investing in e-books and courses is going to blow your mind...

You only use about 5 percent of what you know to grow a successful internet business!

That's it. And the really scary thing is...that's all you need to grow a successful internet business. It also means that you should stop trying to learn everything about Internet Marketing, business building, marketing, etc... and just use what you do know to get started...or keep building your internet marketing enterprise now. Quit buying another e-book, and another...and another...trying to learn more.

Instead, focus on the 5 percent of the techniques etc... that offer you the most leverage. That's the key folks...leverage. If you keep trying to learn, you're taking time away from the progression of your business. Contrary to most of the poor advice given out there, education is only an investment if it directly contributes to the growth of your business in both the short and long term.

Please read the above statement again...and again...and again...it will have a huge impact on your future.

Now read into that statement a little...notice how I pointed out both short and long term...because as the old saying goes, unless you take action on your education...it wasn't an investment, rather it was an expense. Plus, I would challenge that you already know all you need to know to create, grow, and manage a successful internet marketing venture.

Even if you're a complete newbie...sometimes learning "bad habits" and garbage from what's available out there can do more harm than good. On top of that, by simply starting to take action and making the mistakes that you will make online, you can actually get to positive results much faster than by spending way too much time reading a course. This also applies to you seasoned veterans out there...as you probably invest way too much time at your level on information...rather than leverage.

Secret #2 - Going against the grain...and spending way less on education...investing more in your future.

This secret has multiple parts.

I stated above that I found a surprise while trying to keep up with the "latest" in marketing online, investing less of my hard-earned dollars into education (which is important when properly done). That surprise is...

Internet Marketing, and marketing in general, still boils down to the same core concepts...that if mastered...make the rest almost rubbish!

Stay with me here, just hear me out. I will start by asking you a question...

How long does it really take for you to take a marketing "tactic", apply the core principles of marketing (that you already know) to it, and put it to use?
Come on now...be honest with yourself and me here.

How long does it really take to understand that Google's algorithm changes all the time, so be on the look out for the "slaps" etc...when using Adwords...and apply the core concept of providing searchers (people) with good value (which Google restates in everything it puts out, but hardly anyone seems to "get it")?
If Google's focus is on visitor value, shouldn't yours be as well?

* But really, how long does it take for you to understand the Google slap, especially if you use the knowledge you already have, along with some common sense and logic?

* Do you really need another e-book on your hard drive to "convince" you that there is in fact a Google slap, and that people should be the crux of your marketing, and not the search engines themselves?

You see, without people, all of the little software gadgets and tactics that you can learn mean absolutely nothing...so it wouldn't matter if it were the "latest secret system"...if you don't stick to core principles. Now how long in physical time does it really take to understand all of that? Not long huh?

Marketing and business is really not rocket science:

* Write how you would be written to.
* Sell as you would want to be sold to.
* Solve a problem for your market as you would solve a problem yourself (big secret).

Look, you are going to attract those people that you would naturally attract with your personality, resources, and talents, period. If you spend efforts trying to learn something to attract people that you won't naturally attract...that's wasted time. Time which we don't have to waste, right? Life is too short.

Internet Business, like any other business, revolves around people. People are the reason your business exists...no matter what business you're in. You can't dispute that. All the other stuff...and I do mean stuff because that's all it is...is rubbish if you don't operate your business for people. And you, as a person, attract the type of person that you want, naturally.

That core concept, which leads to "find out what your market wants, and sell it to them"...is what all of this boils down to. You don't need courses to tell you that in 431 different ways. Just use your instincts, logic, and common sense from there...take your "lumps" and learn from your mistakes...and you're all set.

Quit paying for the "illusion" of business...and get down to business!