A co-worker shared with me an article she came across today on SEO at SearchEngineLand.com. I found it to be a fantastic tool for teaching the fundamental elements of SEO and plan on using it as a teaching asset for developing my staff.
Here’s the full article: http://searchengineland.com/introducing-the-periodic-table-of-seo-ranking-factors-77181
I don’t use Safari, unless I have to… which usually means only when using Apple services like the iOS Developer Center so I can access my Apple Development account for making iPhone Apps (which I believe will soon too be obsolete).
The bottom line is that there is nothing special about Safari when compared to Firefox or Chrome (or even clunky IE).
What we don’t need is more browsers. We need less browsers and more standards, so that websites and web applications can function and appear the same across all platforms. By retiring Safari, it’s one less thing the tech industry has to worry about, which saves us all time and money.
Here’s an article about retiring Safari that I agree with 100%:
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/07/09/is-it-time-for-apple-to-shut-safari-down.aspx
I just spent about five minutes giving Google’s new voice search feature a trial run. If you go to http://www.Google.com you see a small grey microphone in the search box:
If you click the microphone icon, and your microphone is working (on your phone, laptop or PC), you’ll get a prompt that says “speak now” with a little volume indicator.
After you stop speaking for about two seconds, Google will convert your spoken word into a text search query and return the results. It works really well for common words… however, I tried “Dan Soschin” several times and got “dance ocean” and “dance solutions”… I tried “Daniel Soschin” and still had no luck. So much for having a unique last name!
Here’s a recent article by MediaPost with regards to the salaries of search marketers:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=153254&nid=128327
What I have found is that retaining search marketers can be a challenge compared to other specialties due to:
In order to retain a superior search marketer, you have to address all three of these issues directly and aggressively.
1. Pay competitive salaries and benefits. This is not a position that you want to farm out to an agency (no one knows your business as well as you do). I’ve spoken about bringing search in-house at SES Chicago. It’s a big deal. If you skimp in other positions, don’t in this one. You’ll need to offer decent raises, bonuses and other incentives. If you can offer incentive based compensation based upon laddered MBO targets, that’s even better. For example, offer a bonus of $X dollars if 75% percent of the target is hit; offer 2X if 100% is hit, and offer 3x if 125% is hit.
2. Search has evolved into more than text ads. You have remarketing, display, sitelinks, streaming audio, video pre-rolls, and so much more… Not to mention new networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Make sure your search marketers have the opportunity to try/pilot campaigns using these technologies so they keep learning new things and stay excited about their field.
Additionally, make sure your search marketers go to one or two conferences per year to learn from others and learn new skills. Of particular importance are analytics. You want your search marketers as analytical as possible. Invest in training with regards to analytics, analysis, Excel, etc., whenever possible.
3. Entry and minimal-experienced candidates can often suffer from the a commodity-like nature of “creating ads and campaigns, and managing bids”. Therefore, retaining and growing less experienced talent can be even more challenging as there is less holding them to the profession than their more experienced counterparts. In these instances, you want to create and emphasis professional development and provide overall marketing training in the areas of not just analysis and search marketing, but also writing for the web, lead generation, nurture marketing, and so on. This will help build a well-rounded marketer who can then focus on search marketing as a specialty.
Above all else, remember that if you invest in your staff, they will invest in their careers with you.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=153247&nid=128337
What’s interesting is that Facebook advertisers are not necessarily sticking around… the article alludes to a “test and learn” phase. What I’m seeing among certain Facebook advertisers is ad saturation and ad burn-in… so an initial campaign does well, but over time (even with new creative), the campaign returns begin to decline. Facebook will need to improve its advertising products or offer better fraud detection to retain advertisers over the long run.
Bidding on a competitor’s keywords to trigger your search ads is a strategy that I discourage because it can often lead to an escalating “arms race” whereby your competitors will begin to bid up your keywords in retaliation. Thus, you start a war… and are you really positioned and funded to outlast the competition?
Instead, refocus your time, money and energy on optimizing your campaigns and being a neutral player. This way you can avoid the lawsuits.
Read what 1800 Contacts has been doing over the past few years – suing just about everyone. How much has it paid to its attorneys and employees to pursue these? $50 million? How about putting that money towards sales and marketing. Would it be in a better position having spent that money on legal pursuits or sales and marketing? What do you think?
Here’s the article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=153210&nid=128337
In this article by Morgan Brennan for Forbes.com, he states that:
“With a low rental vacancy rate of 4.5%, average rent in New Haven is up $57 over last year to $1,504 per month, exceeded only by notoriously pricey markets like New York City, San Franciscoand Boston. It would actually be cheaper for residents of the Elm City to buy: The median price of a single- family home is $223,672; at 10% down with a 30-year mortgage at 4.9%, that would translate into monthly mortgage payments of $1,435 per month, $69 less than the average rent.”
However, you cannot currently obtain a mortgage (conventional 30-year fixed) for only 10% down. If you can, please point me to the bank that will issue such a loan. If you only put 10% down, you need PMI, which would add at least $150 more per month.
Here’s the article: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/best-and-worst-cities-for-renters.html
Dan Soschin 