Tuesday, March 29, 2011

foreclosure statistics

A few years ago, the Internet experienced a video revolution. As broadband access expanded and more people began uploading content, video became an expected resource for consumers. Businesses could get more mileage out of television commercials and engage users by linking to video reviews of its products.

A year ago, we saw evidence of small and medium-sized business increasing budgets for video content – to be used both on their homepages and in advertisements. In 2009, 19% of businesses polled were using video (up from 5% in 2008) and I’m willing to bet that number will be much higher in the 2010 report that should come out later this month.

Now, as technology has become more affordable and increasingly mobile, we’re able to experience virtually anything online. As such, local search engines are evolving into master content synthesizers to meet the needs of consumers and advertisers alike – offering video and photos, local advertising deals, user reviews, QR codes, maps and directions, etc.

Consumer expectations of local search engines have never been higher. Users want to see photo and video reviews of a company’s products, read what other people have to say, and even take a virtual tour of your store or restaurant before they visit.

The same is true of small- and medium-sized business owners looking to find a competitive advantage. Local search engines are offering more dynamic content than ever before to users and it’s up to search marketers to help business owners feed that content.

It’s interesting to see how video content has changed since the advent of YouTube. Instead of traditional video advertising, we’re seeing new technology that lets users look around your business from their own home. Soon, we’ll be able to find virtual creations of almost any environment online – and those virtual tours are being integrated with current deals and other advertising promotions to drive traffic to your business.

Recently, a company called EveryScape partnered with Bing and YP to offer digital advertisers a new local search solution – virtual tours. For example, YP360 will let a user step inside a restaurant in Baltimore while they’re still on the train. They can choose a place and even set a reservation, all within the same application on their phone.

Google Earth has gone indoors and local search engines are responsible for bringing this detailed and vivid content to users while keeping it simple and accessible. And the business case for offering this new content to users and advertisers alike is clear as local advertising is expected to grow to $16.1 billion this year, up from $13.7 billion in 2010.

Even more, mobile phone advertising spending is expected to be more than a billion dollars in 2011, up 48% from 2010. Local search engines like YP and Yelp! are seeing over 20 million visitors a month, many of them accessing via mobile phones.

This is a great opportunity for local search engines and advertisers to embrace this new technology and get ahead of the pack. Effective local advertising goes beyond building a social networking presence and listing in directories – you have to make sure your content is engaging. In the online world, the savviest local search marketers who use this technology well will have the most successful campaigns.

I recommend that any business owner or local search marketer read up on the latest digital advertising solutions and consider offering your customers virtual tours of your products or store. To set your business apart, you need to stay current with the best that local search has to offer.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: Locals Only

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: Locals Only

Surface Encounters

Report: NFLPA to soon begin paying players

The NFL Players Association will reportedly begin paying players in need from its lockout fund beginning April 15.

Surface Encounters

Murder Victim's Parents Sue Facebook Over Crime Scene - AOL News

The family of New York murder victim Caroline Wimmer has filed a civil suit against Facebook and others, including ex-EMT Mark Musarella, who posted a graphic picture of their daughter's body to the social networking website.

Surface Encounters

News Effects | HiLobrow

News videographer Dan Chung's footage of the tsunami devastation is moving, literally and morally. Shot on assignment for the Guardian, the work has attracted a good deal of attention—and no small amount of criticism, ...

Surface Encounters

In February of 2007, 83.24 percent of users visiting TechCrunch did so from a Windows machine. One year later, in February 2008, the stranglehold remained firm at 80.44 percent. In February 2009, the number was at 74.04 percent. Last year, it was 61.59 percent. And this year? The number of people visiting our site from Windows machines dipped to 53.84 percent.

The writing is on the wall.

Look at those numbers again for a second. In four years, Windows share among TechCrunch readers has fallen 30 percentage points. That’s incredible.

The knee-jerk reaction in the comment section will likely be something like “it’s because you guys cover Apple so much”. But the fact of the matter is that Macintosh share, after rising for three of those four years, fell last year as well. It’s the mobile devices — specifically the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices — that are eating away at Windows.

In fact, if the trend over the past four years continues at about the same pace, in two years, devices made by Apple (Macs, iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads) will surpass devices that run Windows as the top visitors to TechCrunch. And depending on how popular the iPad 2, iPhone 5, and OS X Lion are, it could easily happen next year.

Here are the broken down numbers:

Feb 2007

Windows: 83.24%

Mac: 13.59%

Linux: 2.51%

Feb 2008

Windows: 80.44%

Mac: 15.15%

Linux: 2.97%

iPhone: 0.77%

iPod: 0.15%

Feb 2009

Windows: 74.04%

Mac: 20.48%

Linux: 3.01%

iPhone: 1.60%

iPod: 0.28%

Android: 0.09%

Feb 2010

Windows: 61.59%

Mac: 28.62%

iPhone: 4.07%

Linux: 3.49%

Android: 0.87%

iPod: 0.53%

Feb 2011

Windows: 53.84%

Mac: 27.64%

iPhone: 6.72%

iPad: 3.44%

Linux: 3.28%

Android: 3.06%

iPod: 0.62%

While even the last batch of stats shows that Windows still has a nice cushion over number two, Mac, if you add the Apple products put together, it’s a different story.

Feb 2007: 13.59% Apple products

Feb 2008: 16.07% Apple products

Feb 2009: 22.36% Apple products

Feb 2010: 33.22% Apple products

Feb 2011: 38.42% Apple products

In the four year span, Apple has added 25 percentage points to their share among TechCrunch readers. That nearly all of the 30 percentage points that Windows lost in that same span (Android’s growth pretty much fills in the rest).

So it currently stands at Microsoft’s 53.84 percent versus Apple’s 38.42 percent. Again, a big year for iPad, iPhone, and Mac could mean a changing of the guard as soon as next year. But unless something drastic changes, you can be sure that Apple will be dominant among TechCrunch readers in two years.

The latest rumors have Windows 8 showing up sometime in mid/late 2012. But the fact of the matter is that Windows 7, much more widely praised than the disaster that was Vista, hasn’t helped Microsoft buck this trend among our readers. Perhaps they’re only hope of gaining back share at this point is Windows Phone. So far, that hasn’t been going too well. Nokia should help that, but will it be enough to offset the Windows losses?

Humorously, Microsoft’s best hope for not falling to Apple may well be Android. If Google’s platform continues to make gains, it could prolong Apple passing Microsoft.

But again, Apple has iPhone 5, iPad 2, and OS X Lion on the immediate horizon — all within the next few months. And then there’s the very real possibility of another iPad in the fall.

The iPad 2 and iPhone 5 are likely to push the Apple share forward immediately. But don’t sleep on OS X Lion either. The early indications are that Apple has indeed made it much more iOS-like. That means millions of iPad/iPhone/iPod touch owners who have traditionally been PC users, are going to feel a lot more comfortable on a Mac than ever before.

And a new PC-to-Mac data migration system built in to Lion will only help that.

OS X Lion is going to feed off of iOS users, and vice versa. And the Mac ecosystem is going to continue to expand. Just as happened in the browser world with Chrome taking over, a transition is happening among TechCrunch readers in the ecosystem space. The numbers don’t lie. And Microsoft better pray that our readers aren’t leading indicators of overall trends in the space — which is exactly what you have been in the past.

Dirty Percent

Tuesday, 1 March 2011

It’s not hard to make the case that Apple’s new in-app subscription system offers numerous benefits to users, developers, and publishers. But whatever those benefits, they stem from the mere existence of these new subscription APIs. What’s controversial is the size of Apple’s cut: 30 percent.

No one is arguing that Apple shouldn’t get some cut of in-app purchases that go through iTunes. And, if Apple were taking a substantially smaller cut, there would be substantially fewer people objecting to Apple’s rules (that subscription-based publishing apps must use the system; that they can’t link to their external sign-up web page from within the app; and that they must offer in-app subscribers the same prices available outside the app).

The reasonable arguments against Apple’s policies seem to be:

Apple should be taking less, perhaps far less, than 30 percent.

Apple should not require subscription-based apps to use the in-app subscription APIs. If it’s a good deal for publishers, they’ll choose to use the system on their own.

Apple should not require price-matching from subscription offers outside the app. Publishers should be allowed to charge iOS users more money to cover Apple’s cut.

Apple should consider business models that simply can’t afford a 70/30 revenue split.

Let’s consider these in reverse order.

Apple Should Consider Business Models That Can’t Afford a 70/30 Revenue Split

Apple doesn’t give a damn about companies with business models that can’t afford a 70/30 split. Apple’s running a competitive business; competition is cold and hard. And who exactly can’t afford a 70/30 split? Middlemen. It’s not that Apple is opposed to middlemen — it’s that Apple wants to be the middleman. It’s difficult to expect them to be sympathetic to the plights of other middlemen.

Some of these apps and services that are left out might be ones that iOS users enjoy, though. This is the leading argument for how this new policy will in fact hurt users, and, as a result, Apple itself: it’ll drive good apps off the platform. Frequently mentioned examples: Netflix and Kindle. For all we know, though, Netflix may well be fine with this policy. Apple would only get a 30 percent cut of new subscriptions that go through the Netflix iOS app, and that might be a bounty Netflix can live with in exchange for more subscribers. Keep in mind, too, that Netflix and Apple seemingly get along well enough that Netflix is built into the Apple TV system software.

Kindle, and e-book platforms in general, are a different case. For one thing, Kindle doesn’t use subscriptions. Kindle offers purchases. Presumably, given Apple’s rejection of Sony’s e-book platform app last month, Apple is going to insist on the same rules for in-app purchases through apps like Kindle as they do for in-app subscriptions. If so, something’s got to give. The “agency model” through which e-books are sold requires the bookseller to give the publisher 70 percent of the sale price. So if the publisher gets 70 and Apple gets 30, that leaves a big fat nothing for Amazon, or Barnes & Noble, or Kobo, or anyone else selling books through native iOS apps — other than iBooks, of course.

But leaving aside the revenue split, there are technical limitations as well. The existing in-app purchasing system in iOS has a technical limit of 3,500 catalog items. I.e. any single app can offer no more than 3,500 items for in-app purchase. Amazon has hundreds of thousands of Kindle titles.

Something’s got to give here. I don’t know what, but there must be more news on this front coming soon. I don’t believe Apple wants to chase competing e-book platforms off the App Store.

Apple Should Not Require Price Matching

Why not allow developers and publishers to set their own prices for in-app subscriptions? One reason: Apple wants its customers to get the best price — and, to know that they’re getting the best price whenever they buy a subscription through an app. It’s a confidence in the brand thing: with Apple’s rules, users know they’re getting the best price, they know they’ll be able to unsubscribe easily, and they know their privacy is protected.

Credit card companies insist on similar rules: retailers pay a processing fee for every credit card transaction, but the credit card companies insist that these fees not be passed on to the customer. Customers pay the same price as they would if they used cash — which encourages them to use their credit card liberally. (Going further, many charge cards offer cash back on each purchase — they can do this because the cash-back percentage refunded to the customer is less than the transaction processing fee paid by the retailer.)

So the same-price rule is good for the user, and good for Apple. But Matt Drance argues that Apple could dissipate much of this subscription controversy by waiving this rule:

The requirement that IAP content be offered “at the same price
or less than it is offered outside the app,” combined with the
70/30 split, means developers must make less money off of iOS by
definition. They can’t price their IAP content higher to offset
the commission, nor can they price their own retail content lower.

If I am interpreting this correctly, I can’t bring myself to see
it as reasonable. […] I think a great deal of this drama could
go away if Apple dropped section 11.13 while keeping section
11.14: Your prices on your store are your business; just don’t
be a jerk and advertise the difference all over ours.

And I agree with him. Yes, the same-price rule is good for users and for Apple, but waiving this rule wouldn’t be particularly bad for users or for Apple, either — and it would give publishers some freedom to experiment.

I suspect one reason Apple won’t budge is that their competitors — like Amazon — insist on best-price matching.

Apple Should Not Require Apps to Offer In-App Subscriptions

I’m sympathetic to this argument, too. “If you don’t like our terms, don’t use our subscription system.” But it has occurred to me that this entire in-app subscription debate mirrors the debate surrounding the App Store itself back in 2008 — that 30 percent was too large a cut for Apple to take, that it shouldn’t be mandatory, etc. The same way many developers wanted (and still want) a way to sell native iOS apps on their own, outside the App Store, many publishers now want a way to sell subscriptions on their own, outside the App Store.

The fact is, the App Store is an all-or-nothing affair. You play by Apple’s rules or you stick to web apps through Mobile Safari. This alternative is no different for periodical publishers than it was (and remains) for app developers in general. A lot of these demands boil down to a desire for more autonomy for native iOS app developers. Apple has never shown any interest in that.

There’s one striking difference between the subscription controversy today and the App Store controversy in 2008: with subscriptions, Apple is taking away the ability to do something that they previously allowed. There was never a supported way to install native apps for iOS before the App Store. Subscriptions sold outside the App Store, on the other hand, were allowed until last month.

Apple Should Be Taking Less, Possibly Far Less, Than 30 Percent

Another difference between the App Store itself and in-app subscriptions is that with apps, Apple hosts and serves the downloads. Apple covers the bandwidth, even for gargantuan gigabyte-or-larger 99-cent games. The OS handles installation.

With in-app subscriptions (and purchases), however, the app developer is responsible for hosting the content, and for writing the code to download, store, and manage it. So — one reasonable argument goes — given that Apple is doing less for subscription content than it does for apps (or for music and movies purchased through iTunes), Apple should take less of the money.

Taken further, the argument boils down to this: that for in-app subscriptions and purchases, Apple is serving only as a payment processer — and thus, a reasonable fee for transactions would be in the small single digits — 3, 4, maybe 5 percent, say. More or less something along the lines of what PayPal charges.

Apple, I think it’s clear, doesn’t see it this way. Apple sees the entire App Store, along with all native iOS apps, as an upscale, premium software store: owned, controlled, and managed like a physical shopping mall. Brick and mortar retailers don’t settle for a single-digit cut of retail prices; neither does the App Store.

Seth Godin argues that Apple’s 30 percent cut is too big to allow publishers to profit:

Except Apple has announced that they want to tax each subscription
made via the iPad at 30%. Yes, it’s a tax, because what it does is
dramatically decrease the incremental revenue from each
subscriber. An intelligent publisher only has two choices: raise
the price (punishing the reader and further cutting down
readership) or make it free and hope for mass (see my point above
about the infinite newsstand). When you make it free, it’s all
about the ads, and if you don’t reach tens or hundreds of
thousands of subscribers, you’ll fail.

Godin’s logic strikes me as questionable. For one thing, he freely switches between a newsstand metaphor (arguing, perhaps accurately, that the App Store is too large for publishers to gain attention from potential readers in the first place — you won’t read what you never notice) and the economics of subscriptions. But subscribers are the opposite of newsstand readers. Newsstand readers are buying a single copy, often on impulse. Subscribers are readers who are already hooked, and who know what they want. Put another way, the size of Apple’s cut of subscription revenue — whether it were higher or lower — has no bearing on the “attention at the newsstand” problem.

Second, the problem facing traditional publishers today is that circulation is falling. Newsstand sales and subscriptions are falling, under pressure from free-of-charge websites and other forms of digital content. The idea with Apple’s 70-30 revenue split is that developers and publishers can make it up in volume — that people aren’t just somewhat more willing to pay for content through iTunes than other online content stores, they are far more willing. The idea is that Apple has cracked a nut no one else1 has — they’ve created an ecosystem where hundreds of millions of people are willing to pay for digital content. Thus, potentially, publishers won’t just make more money keeping only 70 percent of subscription fees generated through iOS apps than they are now with 96 percent (or whatever they’re left with after payment processing fees) of subscription fees they’re selling on their own — they stand to make a lot more money.

I’m not guaranteeing or even predicting that it’s going to work out that way. I’m just saying that’s Apple’s proposition.

Godin’s assumption is that iOS in-app subscriptions won’t significantly increase the number of subscribers. If he’s right about that, then he’s right that Apple’s 30 percent cut will prove too expensive for publishers. But Apple’s bet is that in-app subscriptions can dramatically increase the number of subscribers. Consider the app landscape. Apple’s 30 percent cut didn’t drive the price of paid apps up — the nature of the App Store drove prices down. It’s a volume game.

The App Store itself proves that Apple might be right. Like with app sales, in-app subscriptions won’t work for every publication. But it could work for many. It really is possible to make it up in volume.

And if a 70-30 split for in-app subscription revenue doesn’t work, the price will come down. That’s how capitalism works. You choose a price and see how it goes. I’ll admit — when the App Store launched in 2008, I thought Apple’s 70-30 split was skewed too heavily in Apple’s favor. Not that it was wrong in any moral sense, but that it was wrong in a purely economic sense: that it might be more than developers would be willing to bear. Apple, clearly, has a better sense about what prices the market will bear than I (and, likely, you) do.

Competition vs. Anti-Competition

One last argument I’ve seen regarding these in-app subscription rules is that it’s further evidence of anti-competitive behavior from Apple. That makes sense only if you consider iOS to be the entire field of play. Apple, though, is competing at a higher level. They’re competing between platforms: iOS vs. Kindle/Amazon vs. Android/Google vs. Microsoft, and in some ways, vs. the free web. Why should publishers make an app rather than just a mobile web site? For happier customers and more money.

Sony has a platform for e-books. Amazon has a platform for e-books. Barnes & Noble has a platform for e-books. Apple has a platform for e-books. But Apple is the only one which allows its competitors to have apps on its devices. And Apple is the anti-competitive one? I’m no lawyer, but if the iTunes Music store hasn’t yet been deemed a monopoly with Apple selling 70+ percent of digital music players, then I doubt the App Store will be deemed a monopoly for a market where Apple has never been — and, according to market share trends, may never be — the top-selling smartphone maker, let alone own a majority of the market, let alone own more than a single-digit sliver of the phone market as a whole. As for ruthless profiteering, consider that Amazon, with their e-book publishing, originally took the fat end of a 70-30 revenue split with authors.

One question I’ve been asked by several DF readers who object to Apple’s new in-app subscription and purchasing policies goes like this: What if Microsoft did this with Windows, and, say, tried to require Apple to pay them 30 percent for every purchase made through iTunes on Windows? To that, I say: good luck with that. Microsoft couldn’t make such a change by fiat. The whole premise of Windows (and other personal computer systems) is that it is open to third-party software. Apple couldn’t just flip a switch and make Mac OS X a controlled app console system like iOS — they had to introduce the Mac App Store as an alternative to traditional software installation. If Microsoft introduced something similar to the Mac App Store for Windows, Apple would simply eschew it. If Microsoft were to mandate an iOS App Store-like total control policy for all Windows software, they’d have a revolt in their user base that would make Vista look like a success.

iOS isn’t and never was an open computer system. It’s a closed, controlled console system — more akin to Playstation or Wii or Xbox than to Mac OS X or Windows. It is, in Apple’s view, a privilege to have a native iOS app.

This is what galls some: Apple is doing this because they can, and no other company is in a position to do it. This is not a fear that in-app subscriptions will fail because Apple’s 30 percent slice is too high, but rather that in-app subscriptions will succeed despite Apple’s (in their minds) egregious profiteering. I.e. that charging what the market will bear is somehow unscrupulous. To the charge that Apple Inc. is a for-profit corporation run by staunch capitalists, I say, “Duh”.

If it works, Apple’s 30-percent take of in-app subscriptions will prove as objectionable in the long run as the App Store itself: not very.

Surface Encounters

Surface Encounters

Ask yourself, what are my company’s core capabilities? If your answer is simply, restating the product you sell, you are most likely incoherent. The coherence premium is a high level strategy used by some of the largest (and most profitable) corporations in America. Companies that are “coherent” can define 3-6 capabilities internally that differentiate them within their industry, build a deep workable strategy focused on “winning,” and develop product portfolio based around their capabilities.

What makes the coherence premium such an interesting topic? The fact that companies who are “coherent” are healthier, more profitable and better set up for long-term growth. Coca-Cola, a poster child for coherence, (almost 100 on the Coherence Capabilities Score) sees on average 20% higher earnings before interest and taxes than profiled companies with a Coherence Capabilities Score of less than 20.

Take Wal-Mart for instance, they’ve aligned all of their capabilities:

Aggressive vendor management

Expert point-of-sale data analytics

Superior logistics

Rigorous working capital management

Simple, but to the point, Wal-Mart understands their internal capabilities, which stretch from logistics all the way to IT. Capabilities should be specific enough that they exact a point of where you stop competing and start excelling your industry. A more thorough example of a capability would be, “A company’s ability to use customer-data mining to develop new products.”

Benefits

Strengthens a Companies Competitive Advantage

Companies are Better Prepared For The Future

Produces Efficiencies of Scale

Aligns Strategic Intent and Day-To-Day Decision Making

Steps

1. Ways to Play- learn how your company provides value and the way you will face the market.

Are we investing capabilities that matter to the way we play?

Are we clear about the way we choose to create value in the marketplace?

2. Capabilities System -determine your 3-6 core capabilities.

Have we defined how these capabilities work with our system?

Do all of our businesses draw upon this superior system?

3. Build a Strategy For a Balanced Portfolio – Build your future growth and product initiates to maximize your core capabilities.

Have we found our product and service “sweet spot”

Are new products and acquisitions determined on the way the fit within our capabilities system?

Understanding your core capabilities and becoming coherent is not necessarily the easiest thing to do. Your capabilities should be assessed with a healthy mix of both internal and external information and careful thought. All of this is worth the hassle; coherent companies consistently reap more profits, are better prepped for the future and place themselves atop their industries by innovating.

Recognizing Women's History Month, New Deal 2.0 tells the surprising story of how women became citizens -- and how their economic lives have evolved along with their rights. Allida Black urges action on UN Resolution 1325, which ensures equal citizenship for women across the globe.

The monumental elections of Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia), Roza Otunbayeva (Krygyzstan), Dilma Rousseff (Brazil), and Prime Minister Julia Gillard (Australia) and the game-changing appointments of Dr. Michelle Bachelet as Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UNWomen and Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State proved that women can govern, run preeminent human rights organizations, set international policy, and place women at the center of diplomacy, development, and peace.

But the question remains -- if women can be president, why can't they be citizens? Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and in rights." Yet it took another twenty years after its signing to get the international conventions on political and civil rights and on economic, social and cultural rights -- and, in the United States, another twenty plus years for Congress to adopt legislation ensuring women's political and economic rights. It took another thirteen years for the United Nations to ratify (without the support of the United States) the Convention to End All Forms of Discrimination against Women. And in 2011, the US House of Representatives and other foreign governing bodies still toy with legislation essential to women's identities, ranging from limiting access to reproductive health services and marriage to crafting sentencing guidelines that treat girls and women as felons and charges those that have abducted and abused them with misdemeanors.

In a 1946 column, written before she joined the UN Commission on Human Rights, Eleanor Roosevelt urged women to "call on the Governments of the world to encourage women everywhere to take a more conscious part in national and international affairs, and on women to come forward and share in the work of peace and reconstruction as they did in the war and resistance." More than fifty years later, at the dawn of a new century, the UN Security Council -- pressured by a well-organized international women's lobby, Hillary Clinton, and other stateswomen and embarrassed by the rampant use of rape and genital dismemberment as tools of war -- adopted Resolution 1325. It urged "Member States to ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict."

Now ten years later, the campaign -- indeed the struggle -- to enforce this resolution rages across the United States as much as it does across Egypt or the Congo or Afghanistan.

It is tempting to construct this resolution narrowly -- to see it as a tool of armistice rather than reconstruction, as a vehicle to protect women rather than empower them. To do so, to paraphrase Albus Dumbledore, would be to do what is easy rather than what is right.

UN1325 is on the front line in the campaign for women's citizenship. It is a battle to ensure that economic, social and cultural rights cannot be divorced from, or considered separately from, political and civil rights. It is the struggle to reclaim democracy promotion away from post-Cold War politics, self-interested development and the campaign against terror and place it at the heart of citizen participation.

Just as important, it is a campaign to ensure women's rights as citizens as much as it is a campaign to force governments to act responsibly to all its citizens. While equality and human dignity have no sex, policy designed without taking stock of gender differences often perpetuates discrimination.

As Eleanor Roosevelt would say, both citizens and governments must "recognize that the goal of full participation in the life and responsibilities of their countries and of the world community is a common objective" and one "which the women of the world should assist one another" in achieving.

This post originally appeared on New Deal 2.0.

Surface Encounters

Small Business News: Social Media Brand

What is your social media brand? Do you have one? Sure, many small business owners and entrepreneurs are coming around to the enormous importance of social.

Surface Encounters

Surface Encounters

Surface Encounters

Small Business News: Social Media Brand

What is your social media brand? Do you have one? Sure, many small business owners and entreprene...

Surface Encounters

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The day his fans have been waiting for has arrived, but Lupe Fiasco doesn't appear to be basking in the glow of his latest album, "Lasers."

The Chicago lyricist's third studio album comes after his critically and commercially successful offering, "The Cool." After some delays - and even scheduled fan demonstrations demanding the record's release - "Lasers" eventually leaked a couple of weeks before the official March 8 release date.

In a candid Q&A compiled from two interviews with New York Magazine, the 30-year-old rapper, born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, was asked about his hopes for "Lasers."

"To be blunt, I don't really give a [crap]," Fiasco said. “I've grown very distant from the business, very numb to it...I don't really care about the success anymore. I don't really care about the fame. Three, four years later, I look at my bank account statements, and I haven't made any money with my record label. You start to think a little bit differently about your motivations and why you're doing what you're doing."

Despite his bold claim, Fiasco insists that there is no longer any ill will towards his label, Atlantic Records, calling their current relationship "copacetic." Hopefully, he went on, "we'll get through the rest of our contract without too many big hiccups."

Label issues aside, Fiasco has a different problem with the industry: a lack of creativity.

"I’m guilty of it, too," he admitted. "Hip-hop today — talking solely about the commercial space — it’s the same producers, sound, over and over again. The artist with that particularly poppy song is given the first look as opposed to that ethereal, weird artist with the brand-new music."

Take, for example, the Grammys win that had Beliebers targeting their wrath towards one Esperanza Spalding. "The person who wins Best New Artist is this really abstract left bass player," Fiasco said, "[b]ecause it’s about who’s making music, who’s making something different. Justin Bieber sounds just like everybody else, to be honest. He’s the homie; he’s dope. But he’s no different than Sean Kingston, Usher."

Does Fiasco have a point? If you picked up his album, let us know what you think of it in the comments. To hear more on the latest in pop culture, check out the Hollywood Hangover podcast.

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News FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny Pictures

Fox News is hard right heroine. They love pushing stories, even with only an ounce of truth and a pound of spin, to their audience. However, it is basically the only opposition voice people on the far right have besides talk radio. ...

Out This Week – 01/04/2011 News - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Out This Week – 01/04/2011. ... Latest Videos. Shift 2 trailer gears up for launch [5] 25 March, 2011. Latest News. Shift 2: Unleashed delayed by a week [16]. Shift 2: Unleashed nets Pagani Huayra [19] ...

Search News & Headlines Around the Web - March 28, 2011 #SEWatch

Here's a roundup of today's other search news and headlines from around the web, sorted by category....

Monday, March 28, 2011

SEO Services Vancouver For any Better Marketing Solution

When you start your own website there are lots of ways you will have to sell it off and one of the best ways is to use Search engine optimization Vancouver if you happen to be in that area. The SEO or search engine optimization services will be the top way of getting good visitors to your website and therefore making more sales.

Now, you should know that you won't use SEO service if you're no internet business - but then again, if you don't have an online presence if you are an offline business, then you will not make it very far.

It's a well known fact that if you are planning to make it within the offline world you must have an online business. This really is something that all people are learning the hard way. Something that you should also know is that it is not as simple as just setting up the website and leaving it to complete its things.

You can do this in all sorts of ways, but these companies usually make use of multiple techniques to create an ideal marketing technique online. You will be able to employ these phones write articles for you, post on forums and blogs, create meta data and meta descriptions, cleanup the code, add alt tags to the images and much more.

It is very important that you do this because otherwise the organization you have worked so hard for could end up losing the money. When you have an internet site that you want to create, then you'll also employ the services of an SEO company, which means search engine optimization company. What this company does is actually go ahead and take best parts of your website, check the code, create keywords and write various articles and documents to ensure your website is placed close to the top of the list for the major search engines like google.

As a result the Search engine optimization company cannot only increase your traffic, but also make sure that your website is fully optimized for the search engine spiders that will be brought to it. These spiders are used to analyze your website and place it in certain positions determined on certain keywords.

If you wish to make use of the SEO services Vancouver then all you've got to complete is find the top companies. It is through these that the SEO gets done effectively and efficiently. With so many SEO companies to choose from you need to be sure that the one you are going for is reliable. You should be able to request a failure of what you want, and also the company should also have the ability to let you know know long they've been operating for. This will limit the list to reveal the top ones.

Search engine optimization Provided by Different Vancouver Web Companies

The Vancouver SEO company services are extremely good for business growth because they provide quality services. If you are planning to produce a website for your internet business, then you have arrived at right article as I is going to be explaining below how SEO Vancouver company services can increase your website ranking and make it popular.

Before that, you need to know what Seo is. It's not that complicated and i am sure you're going to get a grasp of it after reading my article. The main goal of SEO is to have more traffic to your website and audience. It is a good decision to choose a Vancouver SEO company that specializes in this kind of work, so that your website can be listed in search engines like google.

There isn't any reason for you using a website with no website ranking at all while you won't have any business and profits to outlive. It's a very tough atmosphere out there because there are so many internet business people just like you, who want their share of pie. You have to be familiar with the fact that nearly 85% of world wide web traffic could be got from web sites.

Whenever a user types inside a keyword or keywords for which he/she really wants to know in different sites, these use crawlers to get websites using the relevant content and index them based on algorithms. It's not necessary to worry about the algorithms which these sites use as that isn't important.

To appear in the first page of the google listing, you will need to hire professionals and experts who can do the needful to keep your site one of the good books in these websites. These professionals can optimize your site content to ensure your website gets more traffic.

When the traffic gets high, it is a sign that you are obtaining a service that will enable you to get more revenues. SEO Vancouver company do the following to make your website appear within the first page of search engine results.

Use keywords which are popularly used on search engines like google on your website content.
Have a web design for the website that is simple because top sites are allergic to flash and weird designs.
Submit your site to directories.
Submit your site to directory websites.
Postings on blogs and forums with back-links for your websites. This is considered as an effective way to get increased traffic to your website as many internet users use blogs and forums.

SEO Vancouver company also perform site diagnostics that is an important part in online optimization as research and analysis on finding keywords may be the method to begin a SEO campaign. So, be sure you select the right SEO Vancouver company.

Are you searching for more information regarding SEO Vancouver? Visit http://www.seo4vancouver.com/seo-services.asp today!

What to anticipate When Hiring a Roofing Contractor

When it comes time to repair or substitute your roof, it can be a daunting job to find somebody that is actually qualified to do the job. There are many roofers available, but the ones who'll do a congrats for a sensible cost aren't frequently easy to find. If you are in the market for a contractor, use the tips below for interviewing as well as hiring the right one.

Interview as well as Discussion

The majority of roofing companies provide totally free consultation services. This is particularly essential, since it gives them a chance to assess what your homes roof needs, and it provides you with an opportunity to evaluate all of them. As with all businesses, trust your intuition concerning the individuals a person allow up on your roofing. No matter exactly how great the contractor's reputation or recommendation, he or she should begin by presenting you with a business card. If the contractor arrives looking as well as talking in an less than professional manner, chances are that the task he's going to perform may also be less than professional. This is not to express that you should expect contractors to reach in suits. They is going to be hiking in your roof, so the majority of is going to be dressed in denim jeans as well as function footwear or even athletic shoes. If the contractor appears to be interested in speaking on their cell phone while on your roof compared to he is in analyzing your roof's requirements, which may be another indication that he's not the one for the job. For your legal safety, be certain that the actual contractor has adequate liability insurance coverage.

Roof Assessment

Anticipate the contractor will be rising on your roofing. In fact, any service provider who not need to go up on your roofing to judge the problem ought to be immediately reduced. Those who're seriously interested in their own work may either make a drawing of your roof's surface area and mark trouble spots onto it because they go through their assessment, or even they will take photos or even video clip from the surface area while they're up there. This is a very essential action, because it allows you to see just what the troubles are as well as know how they will be fixed.

Estimate

The next step will be the created estimate. The contractor will require away their calculator and are available track of an itemized estimate. Some contractors goes out to their vehicle or even van and write down the actual suggestion, while some will crunch the actual amounts to do the job prior to you. Once you are because of the proposal, ensure that you understand exactly which items is going to be used, just how long the task will take and if you will find any extra or concealed expenses that may occur throughout the repair from the roof. The contractor should be able to solution all of these concerns with ease and forewarn you associated with a extra expenses that might be sustained should the roof's ethics be damaged within.

After you have received several created estimates from roofing contractors, assess what every organization or even service provider is willing to provide for the price. Do not always low cost the highest bid, because occasionally the greatest bid will in reality function as the service provider who does the task properly. Additionally, be wary associated with prices for bids which are significantly less than other people. They might be using substandard items or perhaps be untruthful concerning the possibility of hidden expenses. Above all, trust your intuition as well as opt for the service provider who makes you feel quite comfortable about handing over your hard earned money.

Seven Uyghurs Sentenced to Death

2011-03-23

Critics of the sentences say China has politicized the robberies as acts of terrorism.

AFP

A Uyghur man walks past armed Chinese security forces in Urumqi, July 17, 2009.

Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have ordered the executions of seven ethnic minority Uyghur men convicted of "violent" crimes, official media said on Wednesday.

The death sentences were handed down by the Supreme People's Court in recent days, according to state media in the regional capital, Urumqi.

The men were accused in connection with three separate attacks late last year in the Silk Road city of Kashgar, according to the news website Urumqi Online.

According to another website, the Xinjiang-based Tianshan news site, Aimaiti Tuheti, Yiming Dawuti, and unnamed "others" killed a security guard at a pedestrian mall as part of a failed Aug. 7 robbery attempt.

In a separate incident on Oct. 12, it said, Nuermaimaiti Aobulikasimu and 11 others broke into a house, bound and killed the couple living in it, and took their possessions.

It said the group also broke into the homes of two brothers, robbed them, and killed six people in a Nov. 11 attack in Kashgar.

The report gave no information about the victims or the schedule for the executions.

Three of the men were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, a sentence that is normally commuted to life imprisonment in China's judicial system.

They were convicted of deliberate homicide and armed robbery by the Kashgar Intermediate People's Court in the first instance.

'Strike hard' campaign

A Han Chinese resident of Urumqi surnamed Yang said a reference to "terrorism" in official news reports on the case showed that it was being politicized by the authorities, who have launched a series of "strike hard" campaigns in Xinjiang following deadly ethnic violence in July 2009.

"There is an implied political meaning; that they were somehow engaged in separatist activities or ethnic divisions," said Yang.

Exile Uyghur groups said the trials had been conducted behind closed doors, with scant opportunity for public scrutiny.

"The entire process against these men, from the trial through to the judgment, was opaque," said Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress.

"There was also very little reasonable evidence to convict them on a legal basis, because all the evidence came from one side of the case," he said.

"We strongly condemn the Chinese government for continuing to pursue their policies of ethnic division," said Raxit.

"We are also strongly opposed to the death penalty in this case."

Earlier cases

Last month, the Supreme Court sentenced four Uyghurs to death for alleged involvement in an Aug. 19 bomb attack in Xinjiang’s western Aksu city.

The World Uyghur Congress pointed to concerns over lack of transparency in those cases too.

The Aksu blast left eight people dead, including two of the bombers, and 15 wounded after a man riding a three-wheeled vehicle threw explosives at a group of uniformed patrolmen. Four Uyghurs were arrested shortly after the attack.

State media characterized the cases as acts of terrorism and unrelated to longstanding ethnic tensions between Uyghurs and Han Chinese in the region.

Exiled Uyghur dissident Rebiya Kadeer has warned that attacks like those in Aksu will continue to occur until Beijing addresses the underlying source of tension in the region.

Millions of Uyghurs—a distinct, Turkic minority who are predominantly Muslim—populate Central Asia and Xinjiang.

Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness despite China's ambitious plans to develop its vast northwestern frontier.

Those frustrations erupted in July 2009 in deadly riots that left nearly 200 people dead, by the Chinese government's tally.

At least 26 people, mostly Uyghurs, were sentenced to death in the aftermath of the riots, many of whom have been executed, according to state media.

China is believed to execute more people each year than the rest of the world’s countries combined, although the government does not publish official figures.

Rights groups say Beijing may execute as many as several thousand prisoners annually.

Chinese authorities blame Uyghur separatists for a series of deadly attacks in recent years and accuse one group in particular of maintaining ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

New training scheme

China on Wednesday also announced a training scheme which places ethnic minority graduates from Xinjiang in work elsewhere in China.

Governments of the destination cities will spend 450 million yuan (U.S.$ 69 million) for the program, while Xinjiang will spend 400 million yuan (U.S.$ 61 million), the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The program targets some 60,000 jobless college graduates in Xinjiang, around 80 percent of whom are from ethnic minorities, and 60 percent of whom are women.

However, some commentators see the move as an attempt to assimilate non-Han Chinese into mainstream Chinese culture.

"From the point of view of ethnic minorities, the graduate work scheme is really taking the cream of youth from the minorities and using them to 'further cultural development,'" wrote one ethnic minority user on a popular microblogging service.

"In fact, the culture that is being advanced is Han culture, and this group of young people will have been totally brainwashed," the microblog update said.

An Urumqi resident surnamed Li agreed.

"They have run senior high school schemes like this before during the past few years," he said.

"Whether it's high-schoolers or graduate training programs, these are measures that are aimed at thought control and brainwashing, and the 'Partification' of their education," he said.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Wikileaks and the Uyghur People

through holly on December Twenty, This year
Henryk Szadziewski, Supervisor, Uyghur Human Rights Project

Whether it had been actually in doubt, info obtained by the whistleblower website, Wikileaks, has confirmed Chinese language government worries over it's ongoing control of the location it phone calls Xinjiang, which is also referred to as Eastern Turkestan. The leaked wires from U.S. diplomats demonstrate the degree that Chinese authorities attempt to convince government authorities worldwide to adopt it's stance upon issues impacting Uyghurs. The wires additionally show the actual U . s . States' concerns as well as sights concerning the on going repressive steps in the region.

Most lighting of Chinese government pressure are the wires directed to Chinese anger, or even the specter of Chinese language ire, over the discharge of Uyghur detainees within Guantánamo to 3rd nations. A December 29, 08 cable applies exactly how Chinese Helper Foreign Reverend Liu Jieyi met using the U.S. Ambassador in order to The far east to tone of voice Beijing's powerful competitors associated with launch to any kind of nation apart from China, which when the Ough.Utes. did indeed accede to this request it would "avoid injury to bilateral relations and to co-operation ‘in important areas'". Furthermore, a Feb 2009 cable explains how the Chinese Ambassador in order to Kyrgyzstan, Zhang Yannian, regarded the actual possible discharge of Uyghur Guantánamo detainees as "an unfriendly act towards us" along with a "slap in the face". The U.S. federal government stood company in not really liberating the actual detainees in order to The far east illustrates the extent of the politicized nature of the Chinese judicial program. Genuine issues over terrorism tend to be easy to understand, but in the U.S. government's view the detainees might probably face do-it-yourself torture and execution if they returned in order to China

Chinese language government pressure in regard to the actual Uyghur Guantánamo detainees wasn't just applied to the actual U.Utes. federal government, but additionally in order to New Zealand and a number of European governments which were considering resettlement. Albania, Indonesia and Finland, as well as European Union fellow member says all have the symptoms of paid for the brunt associated with Chinese government disappointment. Regarding Germany, that was at first prepared to think about two Uyghurs upon solely relief reasons, Uyghur Guantánamo instances had been much less preferable to additional detainees because of the unwanted effects accepting Uyghurs would have on relations along with The far east. The May Eight, '09 cable relates how "German Ambassador Erina Schaefer documented that Indonesia experienced knowledgeable China of the U.S. ask for to accept a few Uighur detainees held at Guantánamo and had been subsequently warned by China associated with ‘a large burden on bilateral relations' in the event that Germany had been to simply accept any kind of detainees".

The diplomatic wires also discuss the unrest within Urumchi, the actual regional funds, in This summer '09. A July 13, '09 cable television discussing mass incidents in China states:

"Ethnic riots such as those in Xinjiang July 5-7 and in Tibet within March of 08 differ markedly in source and nature through mass occurrences, XXXXXXXXXXXX emphasized to PolOff [Political Officer] on XXXXXXXXXXXX. Each existing serious problems for the actual Party, XXXXXXXXXXXX stated, but the Party management wouldn't hesitate to open fire on Uighurs or Tibetans when they considered this necessary to recover purchase. Mass occurrences present a different kind of threat, he said, since the management is ‘afraid' to fireplace on Han rioters for fear of sparking huge public outrage that will change from the Celebration."

This is a relaxing opinion, particularly when one views evidence offered in two reports launched this year by the Uyghur Individual Rights Task (UHRP) and Amnesty Worldwide which detail eyewitness accounts from the use of lethal reside fireplace towards Uyghur protestors in This summer 2009. Additionally, the actual declaration that fireplace would not be deployed towards Han Chinese language protestors has resonances for the various strategy used by Chinese protection forces in Urumchi in order to Han Chinese language protests within Sept 2009. During those protests, after that Party Assistant, Wang Lequan, addressed protesters, that had required he let them know regarding federal government responses in order to security issues. A similar request to satisfy using the Celebration Secretary by Uyghur protesters within July was not met.

The broader consequences of the unrest also noticed a brief discussion about the impact it would have upon Iran-China relationships, and on relations along with Australia following Globe Uyghur Our elected representatives Leader, Microsoft. Rebiya Kadeer, talked in the Nationwide Press Membership in Canberra in August 2009. Within the second option case, the Chinese federal government "privately warn[ed] a significant Australian financial institution that sponsors the nation's Press Club to use its impact to block a Kadeer talk there".

The U . s . States' issues about the situation in the Uyghur area are available through in the cables. In a dialogue on policy path within Tibet, Ough.S. officials explain that it'll end up being not possible with regard to Chinese language frontrunners to consider the softer collection "if they appear like doing this under worldwide pressure". The cable television dated April Sixteen, 2008, one month following the episode of unrest in Tibetan regions, also relayed the actual declaration "that domestic balance continues to be leadership's top priority above all else, meaning there'll ‘almost surely' end up being no rest of the current hard line upon Tibet or in places such as Xinjiang." The info included in the cable television additionally sheds gentle on the severe sensitivity with which the Chinese federal government sights territorial ethics, and also the possible spill over associated with unrest through Tibet.

The prospect associated with solutions to tensions within Tibet and Xinjiang as a result of civil society tend to be discussed inside a Feb 24, 2008 cable. While suggesting which China's financial success will increase its potential to deal with democratic change, the actual cable additionally talks about exactly how Chinese language frontrunners begin to see the usefulness associated with "a limited expansion associated with civil culture, including improvements in the rule associated with law along with a more powerful role with regard to authorized religions, NGOs, non profit organizations along with other stars within places that contribute to sociable stability and do not challenge Communist Celebration guideline." This can be a notable alternation in thinking, which has observed Ough.S. authorities market the notion which Chinese financial development, as well as economic relationships with The far east will bring about a steadily democratic culture; nevertheless, more faith appears to be placed in a grassroots movement compared to one which starts in the top levels of the Chinese federal government. Nevertheless, the cable television concludes which "[i]n areas for example Tibet as well as Xinjiang, the fear of separatism results in tighter limitations on the development of civil culture." This method is viewed as counter-productive by the recognized, who suggests that the U.S. federal government "should still express...serious issues more than Beijing's human privileges report as well as appeal to China's developing consciousness that higher respect with regard to individual privileges, religious freedom and also the rule of regulation assists to advertise the development and sociable balance that The far east seeks in addition to to enhance China's international image." Such a technique might consider substantial diplomatic abilities thinking about "China's paranoid fear the Usa privately encourages regime alter as well as ‘separatists' in Taiwan, Tibet as well as Xinjiang".

The cables offer understanding of the every day business of diplomacy that is hardly ever afforded to everyone, and it is interesting to note the quantity of function carried out behind closed doors on Uyghur issues. The significance of the part of the United States like a keep track of of Uyghur individual rights problems in personal discussions is made obvious, as well as contrasts with its sensible open public position. The staff of the Uyghur Individual Rights Project is well aware of the pressure the Chinese government exerts on Uyghur activists; nevertheless, the facts of Chinese language federal government stress on it's counterparts is actually illustrative of the diploma which Chinese authorities make an effort to suppress contrary narratives. With increased facts to come through Wikileaks, concerns over Uyghurs may not grab the head lines, but the cables have get rid of brand new gentle on the documentation associated with human privileges conditions within the Uyghur region.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Seo And Marketing with articles Will Place Yourself on The First Page

Seo and article promotion are two of the strongest strategies that you can use in promoting your website and get the revenue and success that you need for your online business. These two things have been around for any really very long time already nevertheless they still still be really effective. In fact, these have helped a lot of people free themselves in the traditional means of money-generating options of society.

In the following paragraphs, I will be showing the ways on what it is possible to properly execute seo and marketing with articles for the betterment of one's business web site. Additionally, I will even be discussing different points that you must consider when you are using these two online marketing strategies to market your website and acquire customers. Even though marketing with articles and Search engine optimisation have been around for a long time already, you have to know that the trends and preferences as to how they are performed are continually changing, which is why you have to keep yourself up to date with these things through the help of Search engine marketing forum sites so that you can quickly adjust and learn how to make your strategies more effective.

In the past article marketing to different web-sites was once so simple yet the effects they produce for web-sites really was powerful. However, things have changed a lot today. These days submitting the identical article to various websites is no longer a good idea because engines like google have now changed to some huge extent in the way they rank pages. They will no longer rank contents that are identical like they utilized to in the past. This is the most effective samples of changes that happens to internet marketing trends. This change has given birth to wide plethora of methods that online marketers are using today. The majority of web marketers now produce articles and distribute them in really popular article directory sites and await site visitors to make their pages. Perhaps that most reliable Search engine marketing strategy that you can use. Aside from being effective, and also this provides favorable outcomes frequently. The only problem with this particular strategy is how the caliber of traffic that you will get using this won't be so good if you do not do proper market and keyword research beforehand and rehearse in-links. You need to attend to these two things before you decide to submit your articles so that you won't find yourself losing large amounts of targeted traffic. This means that you have to practice good amounts of diligence if you want your advertising initiatives to work.

Other than articles, you may also use blogging, which is another really powerful kind of online marketing strategy today since it is highly favored by google and yahoo. In this technique, you are able to choose to create a single blog site that specifically targets your chosen market or else you can give rise to other blogs which can be labeled as experts inside your niche.

Learn effective Vancouver search engine marketing techniques on the Vancouver SEO website.

Roofing Contractors Vancouver Washington

There are several things to take into consideration when looking for a roofing contractor. Value, experience, and referrals are a handful of the things you'll likely be concerned about. Keep reading for even other great ideas.

Finding a Roofers

Before searching for a roofing contractor, be sure you have a common idea of the task that you need to did. By no means do you have to be a professional. If you have a new Roof Certificate, read it extensively to find the information regarding your existing roof. If you don't have a Ceiling Certificate, talk about documents signed during shutting to locate your Roof Inspection sheet. These files should provide everything you need to know about your roof. Ahead of contacting a roofing contractor, you need to have a list of requirements and features to help you make a decision exactly who is suitable for your roofer project. Be sure to write down every single potential roofer contractor's answers along with check all of them against the other. If there are any mistakes, be sure to take note this and take this into consideration when creating a final selection. There are no surefire ways to choose a roofing contractor, in case you take take to the info provided, your odds of a successful roofing project tend to be greatly improved.

One of the best methods for finding a roofing contractor is by word of mouth marketing. Try inquiring a friend or relative that has had roofer work done, and has been satisfied with the job. Get the name of the enterprise and his or her contact data. If you have no word of mouth referrals, try out first hunting in the cell phone book and internet-based. A large advertisement or expensive website just isn't necessarily an indication of the high quality of work, but sometimes be a great tool for measuring the amount of time and dedication they have used in their respective profession. In addition, try locating current worksites and appearance at the roofing work that is done or perhaps in the process of staying finished. If you are visually pleased, ask the house manager to the name from the roofing contractor along with their make contact with information.

Research

When looking for any roofing contractors, it's imperative to 1st do the background research. While looking in the phone book or on the Internet is a suitable destination for a find a company, finding relevant information on these kinds of businesses will probably be found in a number of other areas. 1st, check with locations like the Bbb, city, condition, and region public records, and also local licensing agencies. Question your roofing contractor if they are a part of any roofer associations. These types of precautions may mitigate your current risks. Also ask them what sorts of roofing they will specialize in. Additionally ask your roofing contractor about any extended auto warranties they offer on their installed roofs. Find out what safety measures they choose to use avoid harm done to other parts of the home by simply workers. Products such as gutters, exterior siding, and chimneys are near the coast proximity and thus susceptible to random damages.

Be sure all of this info is included in your published contract. Determine if you need a roofer permit and/or authorization from your house owners association ahead of time. These people will let you know who's responsible for obtaining these permits and permissions. If it is the duty of the roofer, also have that included inside your contract. Whether it is your responsibility, get explained permits and also permissions collated with the estimated covering project and still have it plainly posted or perhaps readily available.

Certification and Recommendations

Roofing Companies are not necessary to be certified in all says. Contact community licensing organizations that control general construction contractors for a list of demands. Once you have attained the requirements, build a list of in depth questions to ask your own potential roofer. This simple record should immediately help you to weed out the qualified from the dodgy roofing installers. Qualified companies should be able to quickly answer questions or tell you that they should do further research ahead of giving the definitive solution.

Even if any roofing contractor provides all essential licensing, you must ask to see pictures of completed roof covering jobs and also speak to happy clients. Possess a list of concerns handy to ask recent clients, such as the mother nature of the work, timeliness, and overall satisfaction. Be sure these are recent clients along with cross reference if possible. When it comes to commercial covering, make sure that the roofing contractor is actually bonded. Looking at these references is another extra measure of stability to limit the list of potential roofer contractors.

Search engine optimization Through Content creation

Content creation can be a very powerful kind of Search engine optimization on your company web-site. Quality written articles be capable of enhance your websites SERP and add quality for your company website. Writing informative keyword rich articles is essential in gaining new backlinks to your business website. Articles can and may be written on topics which might be unique for a business or industry. The articles can discuss an array of issues and ideas in your industry. Articles offering your reader using a resource are always just about the most popular and quite a few likely forms of articles that will result in backlinks aimed at your web.

Focus your posts on the potential readers or customers. Search engine optimization articles should address real questions which can be asked by current or best buyers. Each article you are writing for you personally company will include detailed analysis and Search engine optimization keywords which can help associate your internet site using the content contained in the web site. Focus your articles on approximately 3 keywords , nor stray at their store. Consistency is important when writing Search engine optimization articles. If you are currently talking about Vancouver Search engine optimization make certain your always reveal information highly relevant to the keyword.

Give every one of your Search engine optimization Articles an engaging Title that may encourage people to read and bookmark your posts. Ideally, the articles you are writing will end up as links using their company websites which are similar to yours. This alone will help boost the power of each link and can aid in increasing your SERP. Make sure you end each article using a keyword anchored link (see Easy Small Business Search engine optimization). This link will increase your rankings in the search engines as well as other major search engines like yahoo to the keyword connected to the link. Submit the articles to a submitted article directory and Voila! Before you know it, your website could be on the first page of Google.

Many thanks for reading. Can't wait to talk to your Seo articles!

Vancouver Search Engine Optimization Company Aims For Google Places With Complete Success

When we type in a search term hunting for a business of their local area, they will find that Google places and Google maps is showing listings of local businesses. It's very eminent for them to be optimized and listed on this first page should they desire to generate business. Vancouver SEO companies should be educated in this field for their clients.

There seems to be a lots of new Vancouver SEO companies starting up, simply because the necessity is there. Finding a search engine firm containing the client's best interest at heart could be tedious. The number of keywords will they optimize for? What are keywords as well as the corresponding search volume? Do they know how to optimize for Google places? And the like. Search engine optimization may be the business of landing at the very top and Maxim Edge will get you there.

"My wife i started our Vancouver Seo agency by accident. We've got learned with the school of hard knocks and trial and error how to utilize the web to market any business. We began with the website, then your competition, and then of course building quality back-links to push an online site up inside rankings. It isn't pushing a button and watching how are you affected type of business. It will require a lot of effort, a great deal of research and a lot of commitment. We work tirelessly for our clients so we are very satisfied with a high retention rate." Randy Neale says.

For extra info on Michael, a Vancouver SEO company, please visit their website today at seo4vancouver.com

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Portraits of Uyghurs

In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the northern-western part of China, the land of Xinjiang is the least populated province while it covers close to a sixth with the country's territory. Getting resisted during centuries the Han Chinese domination, Xinjiang, or Old East Turkestan, fell under the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is mainly Uyghurs and Turkic - speaking System.

Muslim mainly, the Uyghurs have a very good religious identification that, in specific, enabled them to keep a solid difference towards the Chinese invader. In fact, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a excellent civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.

While in their own historical past, the Uyghurs successively adopted Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before lastly changing to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., therefore opening the way to the Islamization of the whole Central Asia.

Under the influence of the beliefs which they taken on, Uyghur People used successively, and at times in a competing way, a large number of written forms (turco-runic, brahmi, tokharien, soghdien) before developing their own graphic system.

The coming of Islam was a great modification simply because it was followed by the absorption of the Uyghur land in the enormous Turkic and Islamic Kingdom. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used nowadays.

If their writing, their language and their religion mark a real difference with the culture of Chinese Han, Uyghur People also differ from their characteristic, so aspect of Central Asia's people. A matt skin, eyes representing a whole pallet of colors, from black to deep blue, features pointing out to the Mongolian, Turkish or Uzbek origins of these men and these women.

For a few years, China has integrated the proper identity of these remote people, although they represent only 9 million population - a trifle for this particular large region. Thus, the Uyghurs are now part of the fifty six ethnic minority groups having been well-known in an official way by China.

This law allows these people a few rights in a country where their difference is very often repressed. Therefore, Uyghur people escape the "single child policy" and their language is known as the second official language in Xinjiang.

The integration of the Uyghurs and their culture in the People's Republic of China, however, looks quite illusory. The presence of natural sources in Xinjiang, and its area with locations well-known as very sensitive, clearly encouraged the government to accelerate the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the more significant responsibility work opportunities.

In reaction to this true will to assimilate the Uyghur people into the Chinese culture, an independent party like East Turkistan Islamic Movement(ETIM) was born in the early 1990.

Asserting more freedom, but primarily the acceptance of their true identity, this movement was severely repressed by the power authorities in location Xinjiang.

The situations of September 11, 2001, were the perfect occasion for the Chinese government to justify true reprisals: they declared the "Uyghur freedom fighters" as dangerous terrorists linked to Al Quaida because of their Muslim origins and their proximity with Pakistan and Afghanistan... However, the terrible repression which followed did not calm down the anger. The Uyghur population continues today to proudly keep their identification and their civilization , even though they become a minority on their own land.

To get more information and facts about the Uyghurs, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com

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