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How to Build a Strong and Powerful Business During a Recession

If you are watching the news, you are seeing daily stories about how another government institution is in financial trouble. And while I despise the phrase “too big to fail,” it is true that governments are actually, “too important to fail.” At home and in business, we don’t have the luxury to be “too big” or “too important” to fail, so we must be more responsible and either reduce spending or increase revenue. Unfortunately, most politicians feel like they are exempt from having to reduce spending, so they are inclined to always seek methods to increase revenue, which makes our jobs harder when managing our personal or business budgets. While politicians tend to put too much focus on increasing revenue, small business owners tend to put too much focus on reducing spending. Bring Balance To The Force, Young Skywalker yes During a recession, most business owners pull the reins on advertising budgets, fearful of what tomorrow might bring… Those who remain fearful have forgotten what made them the success they are today. They have forgotten that they have a God-given talent to overcome the incredible obstacles in their paths

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How to Build a Strong and Powerful Business During a Recession

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How Should Webmasters React to Google Fresh? – A SPN Exclusive Article

It’s been an extremely busy year for the good folks at Google, not only did they roll out the game-changing Panda Updates, but now they have increased the stakes by implementing Google Fresh. This recent algorithm update is based on the Caffeine architecture introduced by Google a year ago and supposedly makes Google’s listings much fresher. On the Official Google Blog where this new Update was announced, Amit Singhal states: “We completed our Caffeine web indexing system last year, which allows us to crawl and index the web for fresh content quickly on an enormous scale. Building upon the momentum from Caffeine, today we’re making a significant improvement to our ranking algorithm that impacts roughly 35 percent of searches and better determines when to give you more up-to-date relevant results for these varying degrees of freshness.” However, in an update, Singhal explains this measurement of 35% only applies to where at least one result was affected by the changes. In reality, this update only “noticeably” impacts 6 to 10% of searches. “Update 11/7/11: To clarify, when we say this algorithm impacted 35% of searches, we mean at least one result on the page was affected, as opposed to when we’ve said noticeably impacted in the past, which means changes that are significant enough that an average user would notice. Using that same scale, this change noticeably impacts 6 – 10% of searches, depending on the language and domain you’re searching on.” Regardless, Google Fresh will be influencing what sites/pages get listed in the top spots in Google. Already, these fresher listings are popping up for keyword searches where products or services are constantly changing or evolving such as in consumer electronics

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How Should Webmasters React to Google Fresh? – A SPN Exclusive Article

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Too Much Traffic? Too Many Leads? Try Search Engine Optimization

Yes, you read the title right. My company recently performed extensive search engine optimization on a client website, and the results were staggering. Within a month, organic search traffic had dropped by over 60%. Inbound leads from organic search had dropped by over 50%. And the client was absolutely thrilled with the results. So when is less organic search traffic better? And when are fewer leads from organic traffic better? Less traffic from organic search traffic can be better when the site attracts the wrong kind of traffic, and fewer leads can be better when the site attracts the wrong kind of leads.

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Too Much Traffic? Too Many Leads? Try Search Engine Optimization

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Active Google+ users drops by 60pc

According to new figures released by data analytics company Chitika, social networking newcomer Google+ has lost 60 per cent of active users since it launched to the general public in late September. After an impressive 1,200 per cent increase in traffic over the first few days following its public launch, numbers have since slumped. “The data shows that, on the day of its public debut, Google+ traffic skyrocketed to peak levels. But, soon after, traffic fell by over 60 per cent as it returned to its normal, underwhelming state. It would appear that although high levels of publicity were able to draw new traffic to Google+, few of them saw reason to stay,” Gabe Donnini from Chitika said . However, looking at the numbers from a different perspective paints a different picture. While Chitika reports a 60 per cent decline in traffic , Forbes contributor Time Worstall took a second look at the numbers , calculating this decline from the initial 1,200 per cent surge, which ultimately, still translates to a 480 per cent increase in traffic . Despite being one of the fastest-growing social networks of all time – with a reported 25 million unique visitors in its first month – industry insiders speculate that most users simply want to see what all the fuss is about

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Active Google+ users drops by 60pc

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Facebook launches iPad app

Finally, social networkers have a better way to connect with friends on their tablet computers. Users can now take to their touchpads with the hotly anticipated addition to Facebook’s mobile services- the Facebook iPad app – yet another way to spend time stalking/looking through photos of friends. The app has been a long time coming for iPad users, with much speculation that the new app would launch at the F8 Conference in September. Software Engineer Leon Dubinsky took to the Facebook blog to highlight some of the app’s new features. He wrote: “With the iPad app, you get the full Facebook experience right at your fingertips. It’s a fun way to keep up with friends, share photos, chat and more. “Photos really shine on the iPad. They’re bigger and easier to flip through, like a real photo album

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Facebook launches iPad app

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That First Impression: Title Considerations

While it certainly isn’t as much work as crafting the body of a superior article, selecting a title for a piece is definitely an important element of the entire process of content creation. The title of an article is a multifunction web tool, providing opportunities for engagement with the reader and search engine in equal measure. Putting some thought into the title and how best to leverage its effects will help title choices provide a solid return on investment instead of burdening an otherwise good project needlessly. Making Wordplay Work The necessity of a good title is rather self evident if one plays a small game. Borrowed from Christopher Hitchens’ autobiography, Hitch 22, the game basically goes like this: Pick a popular movie title and change it just slightly to get a “title that didn’t quite make it” — Quiet of the Lambs, American Pastry, Mister Zhivago, the American Samurai and such all demonstrate the importance of getting things just right. A small change can eliminate the value of good wordplay or an entertaining twist of phrase in favor of something more bland and pointless. To that end, try to put some thought into the title

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That First Impression: Title Considerations

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Viral Marketing Buzz: How to Capture Your Market Online

Viral marketing is still one of the most prolific marketing tools you can use to grow your business. If you employ it in the correct manner, it has the power to take you from obscurity to the “talk of the town” in a matter of days. If you are not sure what viral marketing means, it is a real simple concept. Viral means that it is something that gets passed from person to person and that spreads very quickly, much like a cold virus. Instead of making everyone sick though, you get your product or service spreading out everywhere instead. One perfect example of this concept is YouTube. How many times have you shared a funny video with someone

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Viral Marketing Buzz: How to Capture Your Market Online

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Amazon enters tablet wars with Kindle Fire

Amazon is shaking up the battle for tablet supremacy with the introduction of the Kindle Fire. Not content to stick with e-readers, the online behemoth introduced a tablet to the Kindle range, much to the excitement of many industry insiders and analysts. Announced at a New York press conference yesterday, the Kindle Fire was joined by two new revamped readers, the Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G, but it’s the Fire that’s really fanning flames. The Fire, with its new cloud-accelerated web-browser Amazon Silk, claims to offer speedy web access as well as email, Amazon Whispersync, Amazon MP3 Store, Kindle Book Store and TV download app Amazon Prime. Reactions have been predictably mixed, with some hailing it as a killing blow to the iPad’s hold on the tablet market and others claiming it will barely be able to make a dent. Price is being widely cited as a being a crucial part of Amazon’s marketing plan

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Amazon enters tablet wars with Kindle Fire

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What Is A Security Certification?

Sometimes it seems like everything in our lives today rotates around the internet. It does not matter if you are talking about your home life or work life. It does not matter if you are talking about paying your bills online, shopping or working with colleagues who are not located within the same facility. Everything revolves around the internet. The natural result from the internet explosion is that the fields of security certification and security training have also exploded. People sometimes get very confused about the certification process as it relates to computers and the online world. That is because people do not know a lot about the details; they just hear stories about how the internet is a bad place. As the internet has become more popular, it also means hackers have spent more time and money on trying to find easy ways to cause problems.

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What Is A Security Certification?

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Yahoo! says bye-bye to Bartz

Carol Bartz has been fired from Yahoo! as chief executive officer. She will be replaced by Yahoo!’s chief financial officer Tim Morse, effective immediately. In a press release , Yahoo! said: “The Board of Directors has appointed Timothy Morse interim chief executive officer, effective immediately, replacing Carol Bartz, who has been removed by the Board from her role as chief executive officer.” “The board is commencing a search for a permanent chief executive officer and expects to engage the services of a nationally recognised executive search firm to help it identify candidates for the position as expeditiously as possible.” Bartz was named CEO in 2009, taking over from Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang, but her tenure was marked by struggle and, despite job cuts and a management team shake up, the company was unable to regain lost ground against search giant Google . Rumours about a potential management switch-up began circulating in Silicon Valley months ago and came to a head at Yahoo!’s annual shareholder meeting in June. When asked to address reports that Yahoo! was looking for new leadership, chairman Roy Boystock denied rumours and reiterated that the board was “very supportive of Carol and the management team.” Following the news of her departure, Yahoo! shares jumped 6 per cent in after-hours trading, an increase of 81 cents to $13.72 According to the New York Times , Bartz sent an email to employees informing them of her departure: “I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo!’s chairman of the board. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward.” After rejecting a $44.6 billion cash-and-stock offer from Microsoft to buy the search engine in 2008, rumours are beginning to circulate about Yahoo! putting itself up for sale hot on the heels of Bartz’s departure. According to the Wall Street Journal , a company insider said Yahoo! is “open to selling itself to the right bidder.” The board of directors is expected to initiate a strategic review to evaluate the company’s current situation and discuss the possibility of acquisitions and partnerships in future

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Yahoo! says bye-bye to Bartz

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