The science of selecting keywords

You can just write and hope - affectionately known in a former life as "spray and pray" or you can know what to do, how do to it and what to expect. More importantly you can know what to do if what you expect does not occur.



It's "just SEO" ...

Amplify’d from activerain.com

The science and reward of selecting the right keywords

"I am number one on Google", she proclaimed proudly.

"For which keywords are you number one?" I had to know.

Of course we all know what is coming, "For my name!"

Which is? "Alavedia Vaazteroves."

Sure, that's a silly intro yet it does paint the picture. Unless our very fictitious Alavedia has some celebrity chances are Alavedia Vaazteroves skews very low in Google search results. Which, for the purpose of this very short article, is our only concern.

Read more at activerain.com

 

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Silver lining in real estate recovery?

We've all talked about the bottom. We have asked, "is this the bottom?" Sometimes we have even been overheard to say, "this has got to be the bottom!"



The graph shows the dramatic decline in new home sales. Recent activity has been just as unstable as the graph portrays.



So, are we at the bottom? Was February the end of the (obviously) largest dip in new home sales since data collection began?

Amplify’d from money.cnn.com

New home sales hover near all-time low

The Census Bureau reported an annual sales rate of 300,000 new homes in March. While that was an 11% increase from February's all-time low of 270,000, new home sales remained near the lowest levels recorded since the government started tracking the data in 1963. Read more at money.cnn.com

 

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A serious competitor to iPad in Nook?

Barnes and Noble sure hopes so. With Android 2.2 it has plenty of computing experience to get the job done. And with Barnes & Noble pushing it the user base just may jump precipitously!

Amplify’d from www.zdnet.com

Nook Color gets official update to make it a real Android tablet

There has been quite an active community around the Nook Color and hacking it to get full Android 2.2 on it with support for the Android Market. It actually has gotten to the point that this process was quick and easy with an option to even run Android right from a microSD card. However, it was never a fully authorized solution so it is great to finally see Barnes & Noble release the official update for Android 2.2 and applications.

See more at www.zdnet.com

 

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How do you know when you are succeeding?

Funny. I can tell you how to find out when you are succeeding but only you can tell when you are truly succeeding. We read and hear so much theory we forget to rely on what really matters: achieving goals.

Amplify’d from thekencook.com

Quantifying success: Only you truly know when you are succeeding

A few days ago there was a post by Yet Another Social Media Guru who was giving a formula for success via social media marketing. His list included a few “dos” and “don’ts” but it never really dealt with the heart of the matter: what are your goals? In his short and elementary post he included a “do not” that many do and from which they enjoy a great amount of success. In his encounter with this author away from the post he did not quite admit his goal was to “get more comments and likes” but certainly alluded to that result. So this poses the question which begs to be answered: what are your goals and how do you measure them? Read more at thekencook.com

 

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Awaiting sentencing for $3 billion fraud

Having been in the mortgage banking industry for years we used to wonder, "how in the world can (insert other company name here) close this loan?" We would with great regularity deny a loan only to have the agent or borrower let us know later they closed at this broker or that broker or some other lender. From looking at the files we knew there was no way they were good loans.



What's that old saying, what goes around comes around? Farkas is not the only actor he's just one who has been caught and prosecuted. You can ask almost any loan officer in any city who they think was "crooked" back during the boom and if they all say the same names you may want to start sniffing.



I'm still totally blown away there hasn't been similar news about a certain country wide lender which was huge during the boom.



Well, Virginia, now we know how they were closing all those loans we would not approve. In reality they were not doable loans which we passed on. Amazingly, at the time, we were the bad guys for turning them down.

Amplify’d from www.ocala.com

After the verdict: What's next in the Farkas case

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- It took only a day for a jury to return guilty verdicts against Lee Farkas. Now the former Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. chairman must wait considerably longer to find out his sentence.

Farkas, 58, will find out July 1. He faces a possible life term behind bars if given the maximum penalty for what prosecutors said was a $2.9 billion fraud scheme that toppled major financial institutions.

See more at www.ocala.com

 

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Managing online reputation

This article was originally directed at medical professionals, primarily doctors, but has some very good directives. The bullet points, with the exception of discussing in the stream with (patients) customers, is excellent advice for everyone.



It's worth the 3 minute read.

Amplify’d from www.boston.com

MDs online: Navigating soci

al medi

MDs online: Navigating social media

Google yourself: Conduct regular audits to find out what patients can see. Do your political contributions or old photos from college pop up? Are rating sites publishing your name and office address, and is it correct? What are others saying about you? Who shares your name, and what impact could their information have on how people (mistakenly) view you?

Manage your image: Control the message by creating your own content, including a professional biography that patients can find through a search. Read more at www.boston.com

 

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WordPress.com hacked (again)

Look - nothing is 100% secure. One of the biggest reasons to host your own WordPress installation (http://relt.us/host) is because when WordPress.com gets hacked the entire site gets hacked - your site becomes vulnerable.



Chances are the hackers won't care too much about your WP install on your self-hosted account. Not to mention you have total control over what your WP can do - as in you can install your own plugins and you're not just limited to what Automattic allows you to access.

Amplify’d from threatpost.com

WordPress Hacked, Source Code Stolen

Servers belonging to Automattic, which makes the popular Wordpress blogging software, say that their servers were hacked and that the company's source code is believed to have been "exposed and copied," according to a company blog post Wednesday. Read more at threatpost.com

 

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More interesting Facebook: Is it peaked?

Earlier today I wrote about some interesting Facebook talk from over at Tech Crunch where the storyline seemed to imply Facebook is toast. http://ht.ly/4yNKd



Now here is this infographic from Ignite data posted in a Mashable article about winners and losers. Guess which column defines Facebook?



Weigh in at http://ht.ly/4yNKd for the quick, one question reader poll.

Amplify’d from mashable.com

The Winners & Losers of Social Networking [INFOGRAPHIC]

The course of social media never did run smooth — not for long, anyhow. And for some Web 2.0 companies, it’s running less smoothly than ever.

It goes without saying that Facebook is the network du jour, but even though the reigning champion’s user stats keep soaring, social networking as a whole might be leveling off. Nevertheless, there are still scores of other highly competitive social sites that are waxing and waning; and different networks and apps are more popular in specific geographic areas, with certain genders or age groups and even among various social classes. Read more at mashable.com

 

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The economy of the mortgaged family

These numbers really are not too surprising. They bring out facts you may not have already know and lead to some clues about how long it will be until the US housing market recovers or at least begins to look more positive.



For people to sell one home and buy another today is a challenge born out in these statistics: If you have to bring money to the closing when you sell just to cover the difference between payoff and sales price you may not have enough to purchase a new home. If you do a short sale you damage your credit for at least 2 years or longer depending on your situation.



Read this full article for some good insights from the statistics channel.

Amplify’d from www.marketingcharts.com

Mortgage Difficulty Rates High, But Decreasing

A new Harris Poll finds that fully 22% of people with mortgages are having difficulty meeting their mortgage payments, including 7% who are having “a great deal of difficulty”. Furthermore, 21% of those with mortgages are “underwater” in that they think their homes are worth less than the amounts that they owe.

Middle Class Most Likely to Be Underwater

Looking at income demographics among homeowners who say they are underwater, the highest percentage (27%) is found among what could be considered lower middle class homeowners with an annual household income of $35,000 to $49,999. The next-highest percentage (24%) is found among middle class homeowners one income level higher (24%). Read more at www.marketingcharts.com

 

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Is Google really ready for Facebook war?

We know Google wants to be Skynet and what anarcho-capitalist wouldn't? The question is are they really ready for the war? Facebook is an unconventional giant. They prove regularly the petulance of youth, even if that is an exaggeration, as they make decisions with seeming disregard for their users. The question is does Facebook know how to fight conventionally or will a war with Google mean a new giant called Foogle where Larry Page ends up as nothing more than a face-puppet for the new, dominant force?

Amplify’d from www.computerworld.com

Google CEO Page homes in on social networking

Memo to Google workers is said to tie employee bonuses to social success

Facebook, with more than 500 million users, is the largest social networking site in the world. That alone is a threat to Google, which wants users to spend their time on Google sites. Read more at www.computerworld.com

 

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YouTube to broadcast the Superbowl?

http://thekencook.com - not beyond gimmicks so visit and subscribe to win stuff!



Not likely to see big time pro sporting events on YouTube any time soon but is this a step in the direction that puts players like YouTube, Hulu and Netflix in the top spots where NBC, ABC and CBS dominated throughout the 20th century?



The better question, and please share the answer if you have one, is "how can citizen journalists monetize their efforts by producing and publishing content?"

Amplify’d from news.yahoo.com

$100M Revamp Will Make YouTube a TV Competitor

"We're entering a new phase in the evolution of television. Phase one was broadcast. Phase two was cable, and now this third phase is 'connected TV,'" Sterling said. "Netflix, Hulu and YouTube, possibly, are the aspiring CBS, NBC and ABC of this new connected-TV era."

YouTube also rolled out what it's calling YouTube Next. The new team will take on the task of driving content development and helping YouTube content partners grow and monetize their broadcasts. Read more at news.yahoo.com

 

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Housing prices to continue falling?

And how much wealth has been lost on paper due to values declining? We'll never know exactly. Even if we did I am not certain I would appreciate hearing.



What does this mean for the real estate industry? The mortgage industry? The building industry? What about the economy as a whole?

Amplify’d from www.cnbc.com

No Spring Break in Housing: Prices Likely to Keep Falling

Housing prices will not get a Spring bounce and will actually fall during the industry’s historically best season as buyers continue to wait for that elusive “housing bottom,” according to surveys and analysis by two top Wall Street firms. Photo by:Seven_Null7 Reduced Price Read more at www.cnbc.com

 

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Cloud storage for free

Cloud storage for free

Can’t decide how much memory to get on your pad or slate computer? Wonder no more, here’s 5 GB for free …

Amazon Cloud Drive

You have probably heard of DropBox. In fact I have pushed it for a long time as a favorite and I have the 50 gig account (which is completely full). Now at the same time I have had an Amazon S3 account since December 30, 2007 where I have stored massive amounts of data for about $5 per month – First 1 TB / month of storage used $0.140 per GB. In my case that’s about 35 GB.

If I switched to reduced redundancy the price goes down even more – First 1 TB / month of storage used $0.093 per GB so about $5 per month for 50 GB. Compared to DropBox that’s about 1/2 price … sort of.