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July 21, 2012
What About Quality? The Internet, You, Me and SEO.
Me? Color me silly and short-sighted. But I don't have the first clue about leveraging this blog, my firm, my business or my life with SEO (Search Engine Optimization). An maybe it shows. But what we present here in words and images at WAC/P? is either good and worthwhile--or not good and worthwhile--and people who like quality (hopefully, we offer some; we wish we had more time to write/post) will find us. We are not going to "game" it. We'll stick to those guns. Here's some encouragement for fellow travelers:
1. An August 2010 piece by Frances McKenna of the well-regarded re: The Auditors. It's called "Do It Yourself SEO" and appeared in Sundayed.
2. A piece yesterday in Forbes (where McKenna also writes) by Forbes contributor Ken Krogue entitled "The Death of SEO: The Rise of Social, PR, and Real Content." Excerpt from Krogue:
The bottom line is that all SEO efforts are counterfeit other than one: Writing, designing, recording, or videoing real and relevant content that benefits those who search.
Posted by JD Hull at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)
July 17, 2012
In the Huffington Post: Back from Berlin, Tan, Ready & Rested, Bennet Kelley is All Over Mitt Romney.
Internet lawyer, Georgetown fan, radio host, network television guest, political commentator, Hull McGuire of counsel, writer, columnist and Renaissance man Bennet Kelley has returned from his tour of Germany to hit the ground, as usual, running. At his regular column in the Huffington Post, see Mitt Romney: The "Us the People" Candidate. He begins with the can-do energies and positive direction he sensed last week in Berlin which do seem to contrast with the current American angst:
While the ghosts of fascism and communism are never far away, Berlin today is booming and Germans are confident and proud. In contrast, a recent Rasmussen poll showed that a plurality of Americans believe that our best days are behind us -- something that would seem unthinkable to what we have called our "Greatest Generation."
These are different times and it seems that the notion of "We the People" is over. Unlike World War II, where citizen and soldier each were vital to the war effort, in the last decade we have fought our two longest wars yet no sacrifice was ever asked of the citizens. Far from it in fact, as we cut taxes during wartime for the first time in our history.
And about Mitt Romney. Me? While I do think that Mitt Romney is one of the better presidential candidates the GOP has ever produced from the standpoint of sheer talent and managerial ability, Romney is perhaps uniquely unsuited to govern the U.S. now: a time when more Americans are suffering economically than they have at any time since the 1930s. Romney is, by personality, education and upbringing, one of the most sequestered and insulated major political figures we have seen in some time. He is not a bad man. But he makes even the entire Bush family seem almost working-class and possessed of a common touch in his obvious in inability to connect with anyone outside of his family and a small circle. Mitt Romney will never feel your pain, folks. He's simply not wired that way.
Bennet has other problems with Mitt Romney--which are less important to me but far more important (and less metaphysical than my sense of Romney, the human being) in the scheme of this year's election. They are the very issues the Democrats will drive home in the next few months:
the perfect candidate for "Us the People" as he hides his money in overseas tax shelters and Swiss bank accounts since "only the little people" pay taxes after all. That such a person could be elevated as nominee of a party reflects the fact that today sacrifice is a dirty word.
Consider for a moment the fact that, during World War II, Ford and General Motors converted their factories to military production to help with the war effort. This would be anathema to Romney and his fellow vulture capitalists at Bain who purchased American businesses, sold off their assets and then shipped jobs overseas.
Romney survived a GOP nomination process that clearly defined who was not included in the Republican definition of "Us" -- African and Hispanic Americans, Muslims, gays, women and the poor. Romney's economic proposal contemplates more tax cuts and other benefits for "Us" with the cost and burden to be borne by the poor and others not fortunate enough to be "Us."
Posted by JD Hull at 04:01 PM | Comments (0)
Yesterday's USA Today: Gains in the services sector lead "uneven job recovery". This is news?
The front page USA Today article is far from comprehensive and might have better defined "services" industries--it ignores, for example, the growth of products-based businesses with large and profitable services components--but it does report some interesting numbers about jobs currently in services versus "non-services":
More than 70% of jobs lost in service industries have returned three years after the recession's end, while only 15% of jobs lost in manufacturing, construction and other industries that produce goods have come back. The analysis is based on Labor Department data from January 2008 — when total U.S. employment peaked — through last month.
And about the services businesses of accounting and law:
Accounting firms, for instance, have regained 87% of the jobs they lost. The industry is benefiting from growth in start-up businesses, as well as new financial rules and U.S. company expansions abroad, says Scott Moore, a senior manager for the American Institute of CPAs.
Legal services, by contrast, have regained just 17% of their lost jobs.
As litigation waned in the recession, many firms had to charge fixed, rather than hourly, fees, slashing revenue, says Hal Sirkin, a senior partner at Boston Consulting Group. Law firms are also relying more heavily on temporary legal professionals to handle investigations, says Charles Volkert, head of Robert Half Legal, a staffing firm.
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IBM: a products-based or services business?
Posted by JD Hull at 01:39 AM | Comments (0)