SEO Service Successfully Ranks over 1,500 Websites to the Front Pages of Google- Marketers Lining up for their Services

Ribbun.com has separated themselves from the pack with big-name clients that have received real results from their services

(EMAILWIRE.COM, July 08, 2011 ) Rajasthan, India -- Boasting over 1,200 clients and ranking more than 1,500 websites, Ribbun.com has become one of the most respected search engine optimization companies on the internet. They are now celebrating their first year of successful SEO services, and according to their website, they intend to smash their past successes with another year of successful online marketing.
According to a recent study by Google, people are seeking out reputable SEO services in record numbers. In an ever expanding market of highly competitive websites, ranking well in the search engines is an absolute must for online success.
For the most part, internet marketers know the importance of search engine optimization. But they often make critical mistakes when selecting their SEO service. Despite popular belief, one SEO service is not like the other, and choosing the wrong company can lead to wasted time, lost money, and even a website that is blacklisted from Google.
Needless to say finding a good company is absolutely essential. But with the number of fly-by-night SEO services that have been popping up all over the internet often times it’s like finding a needle in a haystack.
Ribbun.com has separated themselves from the pack with big-name clients that have received real results from their services. They implement a field tested SEO service that cuts through all the fluff and empty promises of their competitors. They use strictly white hat methods to pull their clients’ websites to the front of the search results, and they have run hundreds of successful SEO campaigns: “We are dedicated to providing you higher ranking in search engines and creating your sole brand image through top notch viral marketing campaigns,” says the website.
Some of their services include:
*Keyword Research
*Keyword Competitive Analysis
*Title Tag optimization
*Meta description and Meta keyword tags
*Manual Directory Submission Services
*Approved Article Submission
*Video Creation Services
*Bookmarking Services
*Link Wheel Creation
*Press Release Submission
Ribbun offers link building services that center on the largely misunderstood concept of the “linkwheel;” or linking websites systematically for the optimal “link-juice” from their campaign. This method has allowed them to get fast results with extremely competitive pricing and it has earned their clients top spots in Google for their respective niches.
To learn more about Ribbun, or to see some of their special deals on SEO packages, please visit: http://www.ribbun.com/

Home > News By Company > Ribbun

SEO Service Successfully Ranks over 1,500 Websites to the Front Pages of Google- Marketers Lining up for their Services

Ribbun.com has separated themselves from the pack with big-name clients that have received real results from their services

 

(EMAILWIRE.COM, July 08, 2011 ) Rajasthan, India -- Boasting over 1,200 clients and ranking more than 1,500 websites, Ribbun.com has become one of the most respected search engine optimization companies on the internet. They are now celebrating their first year of successful SEO services, and according to their website, they intend to smash their past successes with another year of successful online marketing.

According to a recent study by Google, people are seeking out reputable SEO services in record numbers. In an ever expanding market of highly competitive websites, ranking well in the search engines is an absolute must for online success.

For the most part, internet marketers know the importance of search engine optimization. But they often make critical mistakes when selecting their SEO service. Despite popular belief, one SEO service is not like the other, and choosing the wrong company can lead to wasted time, lost money, and even a website that is blacklisted from Google.

Needless to say finding a good company is absolutely essential. But with the number of fly-by-night SEO services that have been popping up all over the internet often times it’s like finding a needle in a haystack.

Ribbun.com has separated themselves from the pack with big-name clients that have received real results from their services. They implement a field tested SEO service that cuts through all the fluff and empty promises of their competitors. They use strictly white hat methods to pull their clients’ websites to the front of the search results, and they have run hundreds of successful SEO campaigns: “We are dedicated to providing you higher ranking in search engines and creating your sole brand image through top notch viral marketing campaigns,” says the website.

Some of their services include:

*Keyword Research
*Keyword Competitive Analysis
*Title Tag optimization
*Meta description and Meta keyword tags
*Manual Directory Submission Services
*Approved Article Submission
*Video Creation Services
*Bookmarking Services
*Link Wheel Creation
*Press Release Submission

Ribbun offers link building services that center on the largely misunderstood concept of the “linkwheel;” or linking websites systematically for the optimal “link-juice” from their campaign. This method has allowed them to get fast results with extremely competitive pricing and it has earned their clients top spots in Google for their respective niches.

To learn more about Ribbun, or to see some of their special deals on SEO packages, please visit: http://www.ribbun.com/

Contact Information: 

Ribbun

Vikas Singal
Tel: 917665553555
Email us Source  http://www.emailwire.com/

Web Wisdom: Localized Search Is Your Friend

A few years ago, just about when the worldwide recession was grabbing the headlines, the way search engines work changed in a way that handed independent retailers, or any business primarily selling local, a huge bonanza.  Your company has either been taking advantage of what is known as the “localized search algorithm” phenomenon, or you have been losing out on a potentially game-changing business opportunity.  The good news, it isn’t too late to get started. Here is how localized search algorithms work:
I’m writing this article near downtown Chicago, and if I googled, “Thai restaurant,” my search results would actually be quite distinct from those that I would get if I went into an Internet café on the city’s far north side. Similarly, if I googled (or did my search in Safari , Bing, Yahoo etc.) something like “stationery” or “women’s clothing boutique,” or any similar retail item that your business might be selling, my search results will help me find you, if I was in close proximity.   What this means is that in your location you have more than a fighting chance to be just as visible as a large chain or box store.  Search engines are not doing this because they favor your type of business model, rather they want everyone searching to find exactly what they want with the least fuss and bother, placing the items you retail on the same level playing field (search-wise) as any other business in your location.  (Note: This is good news for independent retailers on how localized search algorithms impact online marketing, but is not always great news for global companies in the B2B space.)

A To-Do List to Make Localized Search Algorithms Work for You

How can you make localized search algorithms REALLY work to your company’s advantage? Here’s a short to-do list:
1) Search engine optimization service plans must begin with getting your company listed EVERYWHERE.  That will mean getting you listed with search engines that rate local companies too.  Years ago that might have taken some time and would have required some outside help.  Today, there are services where you pay once and spend a limited amount of time to get listed everywhere in your location.  Because such one-stop services exist, even if you are enlisting an outside search engine optimization consultant to help you, this involves minimal time and minimal cost.
2) Use very targeted AdWords tests in the locations you are trying to draw customers from, to ensure that your approach to web and design is really working before you spend a lot of time and money on further website optimization efforts.
3) Make full use of ALL the free services that are out there to help you gain local visibility, such as Google Places, a subject that is deserving of more discussion and will be the next focus of the ongoing “Web Wisdom” series.

Amy Munice is president of ALM Communications, now also d.b.a. Global B2B Communications, www.globalb2bcommunications.com and Web and Design Science, www.webanddesignscience.com, a marketing/public relations firm that both givess guarantees and fully integrates high-powered artificial intelligence search engine optimizers for lead generation and online sales, into all communications strategies. Contact Ms. Munice at info@globalb2bcommunications.com, or 773-862-6800.

Source http://independentretailer.com/

Formic Media Team Achieves 100% Google Analytics Certification

Portland, OR, July 08, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Formic Media, Inc., a local search engine marketing agency focusing on small business, is pleased to announce that its entire team is now Google Analytics certified. Understanding the importance of proper certification, The Formic Media account team decided to become one of the first agencies in the country to achieve 100 percent certification.

In order to earn Google Analytics certification, each team member had to complete the seventy (70) question test, with questions covering topics from ecommerce tracking to reporting. In order to pass the certification exam, each team member needed to score above 80%.

“I’m very proud of the team for setting an aggressive goal and achieving it,” stated Kent Lewis, President and Founder of Formic Media. “Due to the complexity of the analytics platform, and the size of the team, the accomplishment is truly remarkable.”

The entire Formic Media team has already become Google AdWords Qualified Individuals, in addition to becoming a Google AdWords Certified Partner. The Google Analytics certification helps round out the Google certifications.

“We know the important role that analytics, specifically Google Analytics in the small business world, plays in our industry and what we do, so it was important to ensure everyone became Google Analytics certified,” stated John McPhee, Account Director. “Our next goal is for the account team to finish the two remaining Google AdWords tests.”

The Formic team regularly discusses Google Analytics, AdWords and other search engine marketing topics at relevant events, on the Formic blog, in industry articles and speaking engagements, including Formic’s own monthly seminar series. Formic’s work also speaks for itself, as outlined in the case studies and testimonials available on the website.

About Formic Media, Inc.
Headquartered in Portland, OR, Formic Media, Inc., is a search engine and social media marketing agency specializing in providing small and emerging businesses with a host of online marketing services, including: search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) management, social media marketing and website design & development. Formic aims to help localized businesses, whether new or established, build their online visibility and generate a return-on-investment (ROI) through effective online marketing tactics and services. Current Formic clients include Aurora Law, Barre3, Cycle30, Diane Morgan Cooks, Heathman Lodge, Rasmussen BMW, Red Lion on the River and thinkProducts. For more information, please visit www.formicmedia.com.

Contact Information

Formic Media, Inc.
John McPhee
503-517-9059
johnm@formicmedia.com
http://www.formicmedia.com
Source http://www.pr.com/

Systems integrators could take stake in police agency, says IT chief Gordon Wasserman

Systems integrators that were paid billions to supply police computer systems could take a stake in the agency managing their contracts when it is privatised next year, police IT chief Gordon Wasserman has told Computer Weekly.
Gordon Wasserman, who was responsible for police technology under the Thatcher government, was this week appointed to a Home Office board overseeing the creation of a private company to manage police IT. Wasserman said he proposed the idea while working as advisor to Home Secretary Theresa May.
"There might be private sector involvement, of course, because the private sector will be providing big systems, as they do now," said Wasserman.
"The Police National Database (PND), the Ident systems are all provided by private suppliers," he told Computer Weekly just days after the Home Secretary announced her intention to privatise police technology quango, the National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA).

"They might decide to take a stake. These are all issues to be discussed with the owners, that is, the police service, " said Wasserman.
"Capgemini are enormous players in this game," he said when asked whether Logica might have the greatest stake on a privatised NPIA in respect of its holding the contract to run the PND.
"Northrop Grumman are enormous players in Ident area. Capgemini are the biggest outsourcers because they run all of the MET system. Logica provide one application, that's all.
"They are major players here. This is big, big stuff. And you know we spend £1.2bn a year. There are lots of companies involved in this," said Wasserman.
Theresa May told the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) summer conference on Monday more police procurement should be aggregated into large contracts to get "economies of scale". May said these should be managed by a private company in which police will have a majority stake, but in which private companies could become shareholders.
Such contracts are already aggregated by the NPIA, in addition to managing police technology, such as the Police National Database (PND), the Ident fingerprint database and the auto-numberplate recognition data warehouse.
The NPIA announced in April 2009 that Logica won a £75.6m contract to run the PND. On 29 April 2009 it sent official notice to the European Commission of a £600m, 10-year contract awarded to Logica to build and operate the PND. An NPIA spokesman said it had not signed a £600m contract with Logica, but merely reserved budget for future use.
The NPIA holds contracts in excess of £600m a year, said Georgina O'Toole, an analyst with TechmarketView. Those include NPIA framework contracts, but excluded another £600m of police IT contracted by individual forces. May spoke of all £1.2bn as potential for a privatised NPIA.
Computer Weekly asked Wasserman whether introducing a profit motive into the administration of police technology would undermine its public-service ethos.
"I can't tell you very much because we haven't started the work yet," Wasserman responded. "We are not in the business to make money, we are in the business to serve the police more effectively. It's not going to be making a profit to declare a dividend."
A Home Office spokesman speculated that a privatised NPIA might only be allowed to make a profit if it saved enough money for tax payers. The matter would be decided by a board. Home secretary May said this board would comprise Gordon Wasserman and Ailsa Beaton, the CIO of the Metropolitan Police and ACPO IT lead. Ailsa Beaton presented Wasserman's ideas on "the future of police IT" to the ACPO Cabinet on 11 May.
At Wasserman's request, Computer Weekly took the matter further by e-mail, asking what justification he had given for allowing the police technology agency to turn a profit. However, Wasserman did not answer.
Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, warned that the cost of the PND was a £5.6m "burden" on police forces that was likely to grow.
"This was unplanned expenditure at a force level," Hugh Orde said, warning it might lead to thousands of police officers losing their jobs.
But the NPIA said ACPO was party to PND funding decisions, because it sits on the NPIA board along with the Home Office, the Association of Police Authorities and chiefs of police.
Moreover, said a spokeswoman, police forces routinely pay to use computer systems that, like the PND, were managed by the NPIA. Fees for using the PND only became applicable since the PND was launched in April.
The Home Office could not say whether the privatised NPIA would still receive Home Office funding, the absence of which would leave only private capital and increased fees to local forces as sources of income, though the Cabinet Office recently told industry it was considering plans to sell access to government databases.
Lord Wasserman returns to public life in Britain after 15 years in the US, where he worked as technology advisor to the New York Police Department, chaired a sci-tech response to the September 11 attack, and ran a private technology consulting firm advising police forces.
Source http://www.computerweekly.com/

Home sick

By Mark Hasiuk, Vancouver Courier

Despite millions in government funding, addiction recovery homes in Vancouver operate without clear definitions of success while Welcome Home, a private abstinence-based facility in Surrey, says it measures success in sobriety 

The face of recovery. Bright. Smiling. Hopeful.
Nick Runowski, a handsome 28-year-old with blue eyes and matching blazer, can't help but smile. "I have my life back. I feel feelings. I have emotions. I have my family back in my life. I have mentorship, fellowship. I'm probably living a better life than 90 per cent of people out there."
Runowski took his first drink at 13. Adding cocaine and OxyContin to the mix, he graduated from user to dealer. In Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, he dealt drugs to feed his addictions. His life was dark, his future bleak. Until Oct. 15, 2009, when he walked into Welcome Home, an abstinence-based residential recovery home straddling the King George Highway in Surrey.
He's been clean and sober ever since.
Last fiscal year, the provincial government spent $1.3 billion on mental health and addictions services. In this era of harm reduction, high-profile initiatives (the Insite supervised injection site, the methadone maintenance program) seek to mitigate the effects of drug abuse (disease transmission, drug-related crime) while the concept of abstinence-based treatment fades from public consciousness.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health, through Vancouver Coastal Health, helps bankroll five addiction recovery homes in Vancouver. The homes operate in a bureaucratic nebula with limited oversight, relative mandates and anecdotal evidence of success. And all five homes embrace varying degrees of harm reduction, where addicts may continue using drugs while in residence.
Conversely, Welcome Home's strict abstinence-based approach sets clear guidelines: no drugs, no alcohol, no exceptions. Success is measured in sobriety. Among Vancouver's government-funded recovery homes, there's nothing like Welcome Home.
Back at the Welcome Home cafeteria in Surrey, Nick Runowski shakes his head and reflects on his new life without drugs and alcohol. "It was very tough for the first few months," says Runowski, who was born in Vancouver but raised in Surrey. "This is not just a recovery house, it's a life-skills academy."
Founded in 2009 by millionaire businessman John Volken, former owner of United Furniture Warehouse, the facility accommodates 22 recovering addicts (20 men, two women) who live in five houses on King George Highway near 72nd Avenue. They work across the street at Welcome Home's Costco-style general merchandise store.
Except for a $387 registration fee, the program is free, funded by revenue from the store and The John Volken Foundation. Welcome Home has never applied for government funding.
Bound by strict protocol, program participants (known as students) must remain on site. Furlough passes are earned. Contact with the outside world--phone, Internet--is strictly regulated. There are no drug counsellors at Welcome Home. Policy springs from a non-profit board of directors comprised of businesspeople, physicians and others. Students rely on each other for therapy. Peer-to-peer sessions explore the roots of addiction--past trauma, insecurity, egotism--and foster friendships based on mutual respect and reliance. Anyone caught drinking or doing drugs is expelled from the program.

According to Runowski, there's no other way. "Addicts are the greatest manipulators. That's the nature of the beast. If it's provided, than they'll use it. But it doesn't mean they're going to get any foresight or help."
Abstinence and Vancouver. Those two words rarely conjoin.
"We are the closest to it," says Brenda Plant, executive director of Turning Point, a large, leafy 22-bed recovery house at Cambie and 13th Avenue.
She's right. While Turning Point allows clients to use drugs such as Valium, OxyContin and morphine, unlike Vancouver's other four government-funded recovery homes, it does not allow methadone. (Note: Lax regulation and oversight plague the methadone program, which does not include mandatory drug treatment or counselling.)
According to Plant, the province provides less than 10 per cent of Turning Point's budget, although most clients draw some form of income assistance. Every year, an official from Vancouver Coastal Health reviews and renews Turning Point's contract. However, the "review" seems incomplete.
Like other recovery homes, Turning Point struggles to maintain contact with clients after they complete their minimum three-month residential stint. According to Plant, she successfully tracks roughly half of Turning Point's former clients. Of that half, she says, 85 per cent are clean and sober one year after entering the program. But that figure is based on "self reporting" from recovering addicts. "So we're absolutely taking it at their word," Plant says.
Subsequently, during yearly contract discussions with Vancouver Coastal Health, Plant does not supply success rates. Due to the changing nature of addictions recovery, including the popularity of harm reduction, uniformed definitions of success don't exist. "In the old days, success was measured by three months after graduation, you're still sober," says Plant. "Because we understand that lapses and relapses are part of the recovery process, that's not a great indicator anymore."
If you think the process seems flaky, you're not alone. Plant is frustrated with a lack of accountability in the recovery industry. "Give us benchmarks or help us set benchmarks or outcomes," she says. "We are talking about people lives. We are talking about the most vulnerable part of our population. God, somebody hold us accountable--because the clients can't."
Plant also worries about unlicensed facilities throughout the Lower Mainland that receive no government money. A recent story in the Surrey Now newspaper spotlighted poorly managed homes in Surrey where addicts receive a bed, and little else, while home operators make big money. "And there's no board or authority figure holding them accountable for what kind of programming they're doing."
The Central City Lodge is a 22-bed recovery house at 415 West Pender in the heart of Vancouver's drug-infested Downtown Eastside. It's a 90-day residential program. Harm reduction rules. Clients may use methadone and other prescription drugs.

Unlike Turning Point, which receives a minimal amount of government funding, Central City is basically owned by taxpayers. The province supplies 94 per cent of the Central City budget.
So how's it going?
That depends on your perspective. According to manager Barbara Keith, Central City offers stability to addicts and helps them integrate back into society. But tracking addicts, who've only spent three months in residence, is challenging. While Central City includes voluntary aftercare, many former clients fall off the radar. "We don't do follow-up, in that we go out and track people down and find out how they're doing."
Moreover, according to Keith, while in the program, clients split time in residence and on the street. "They're in programs, in group, in the morning. But they have the afternoon free to go to the community."
But that's a pretty rough neighbourhood. When they leave the facility, how do you know they're not doing drugs?
"They're not in jail, here."
The Courier contacted all five government-funded recovery homes in Vancouver including Together We Can, a recovery home on Kingsway and the Salvation Army's Homestead, a women-only 24-bed house at Oak and 57th. Only New Dawn, an East Side recovery home owned by the Chrysalis Society, refused to cooperate for this story.
Jennifer Canning, executive director at Homestead, acknowledges the need for standards and success rates. According to Canning, she's on the case. "We're currently working out a plan of how we quantify if a woman has been successful, with the understanding that success for every women is going to be different."
So what's the province say about all of this? How do provincial officials, who dump millions each year into the recovery industry, gauge success? And what about comments from Brenda Plant and others, who complain about a lack of accountability in the recovery industry?
Despite repeated interview requests, Mike de Jong, B.C.'s Minister of Health, refused to comment on this story. David Ostrow, CEO of Vancouver Coastal Health, also refused comment. However, addiction experts have raised concerns. According to an August 2010 article in B.C. Business magazine, Benedikt Fischer, interim director of SFU's Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction, is baffled at the province's approach to addictions recovery. "In B.C. we're not terribly good at measuring the impact of any of the programs," said Fischer. "I have no idea how [health ministry bureaucrats] make policy decisions when they have no information."
Meanwhile, back at Welcome Home in Surrey, things are less fuzzy.
"Places like this, total abstinence, help people get a life, become the best they can be," says founder John Volken. "What good are you to society, or yourself mainly, if you're an addict?"

Born in Germany, Volken arrived in Canada in 1960. He speaks in soft tones with a slight German accent, and despite a neatly cropped grey beard, looks much younger than his 70 years. When asked about his dramatic shift from furniture to addictions recovery, Volken points to his Christian faith and the responsibility of wealthy people. "Some guys put their money in art or other things, I put my money in this."
According to Volken and others who promote abstinence-based recovery, there are several problems with most recovery homes in British Columbia. For starters, the length of commitment, typically three months, is far too short. Addicts require more time in residence to heal and grow. Welcome Home, for example, requires a minimum two-year commitment. "Short-term programs for drug addicts," says Volken, "simply don't work."
But that's easy for Volken to say--he's a millionaire whose deep pockets help pay for two-year commitments. Considering the current state of government-funded addictions treatment, is Volken's model, based on similar facilities in Europe, transferable? Could taxpayers help fund Welcome Home-style facilities around B.C.?
Maybe, maybe not. But according to Volken, at the very least, existing recovery homes could incorporate Welcome Home principles (abstinence, heavy emphasis on personal responsibility) while millions spent on harm reduction experiments (the supervised injection site) help pay the bills. Volken's a strong critic of harm reduction philosophy. "Those who really know about addiction, those who want to free themselves from addiction, are against this harm reduction."
Since 2009, hundreds have entered Welcome Home in Surrey and a sister facility in Seattle, which is also funded by Volken's foundation. The majority have been expelled or left voluntarily before graduation. Like other recovery homes, Welcome Home struggles to track former clients. But despite the high dropout rate (more than 50 per cent), Volken says the abstinence-based approach benefits anyone who enters the program. "We leave a footprint on all who come here. Even if they're just here for a couple of weeks. They see something healthy, something good." Now more than two years in, the program is beginning to produce graduates--a combined 25 from both facilities so far.
Whatever you're thoughts on abstinence-based recovery, there's no denying its transformative impact on Nick Runowski. He'll be two years sober on Oct. 15. He's been given a second chance on life. You can see it in his eyes. "I thank God, I look forward to each day. I've changed completely and I'm still growing. If you told me two years ago I'd be where I am today, I would have never believed it."
mhasiuk@vancourier.com

On the Bookshelf: The Oracle of Omaha

How investing guru Warren Buffett snowballed his success. 

The success potential of Wall Street was a peculiar thing to young Warren Buffett. He already knew about money and had been pursuing it since he was old enough to count. But his infatuation with the New York Stock Exchange escalated at age 10, when he first stepped onto the trading floor gallery just one year after it was opened to the public.

Amid the shouting and scribbling, the experience was alluring. But as Buffett traipsed through the Stock Exchange floor and into the dining room, he found one compelling reason to make his home there. It was 1940, and most companies were slowly recovering from their financial losses from the Great Depression. But in the Stock Exchange’s dining room, there was a man hired for the sole duty of rolling cigars. Buffett didn’t want to smoke them, explains Alice Schroeder in The Snowball: Warren Buffett and theBusiness of Life, the first authorized biography written with Buffett’s cooperation. “But working backward, he saw what hiring a man for such a frivolous purpose implied. To justify the expense must mean that, even while most of the country wasstill mired in the Depression, the cigar man’semployer was making a great deal of money….That day, as he beheld the cigar man, a vision of his futurewas planted.”
For Buffett, now arguably the most famous and successful stockbroker in the world, the business of making money became his life’s calling. The Snowball chronicles his business deals and life experiences since before he could even remember. His father was a Republican congressman who uprooted the family from Buffett’s beloved Omaha, Neb., home to Washington, D.C., just as Buffett was starting to struggle in school.
The Buffett household was stern. “Politics, money and philosophy were acceptable topics for dinner-table discussion at the Buffett house, but feelings were not…. Nobody in the Buffett household said ‘I love you’ and nobody tucked the children into bed with a kiss,” Schroeder writes. And so, from an early age, Buffett spent his time away from home doing what he knew best—making money.
The lessons Buffett learned early extend through his business deals today. Many of his business principles were established long before he developed a “career,” depending on when you believe a career can actually start. He was an entrepreneur from the age of 6, initially as an esteemed gum seller. He sold gum in packs of five and made 2 cents on each pack. When one woman asked if she could buy one piece, Buffett told her: “We don’t break up packs of gum. I mean, I’ve got my principles.” Little Buffett started selling big from the beginning.
Chewing gum made its way into selling cartons of Coca-Cola (a stock which much later became one of Buffett’s biggest “bargain buys” in the late 1980s). At 13, Buffett filed his first income tax. His savings account had hit $1,000 from his many childhood jobs.
Two years later, in 1946, Buffett had saved about $5,000, which by 2007 numbers is equivalent to about $53,000. He had increased his paperboy business, but added to it a pinball machine business and an unethical stint in stealing golf balls from Sears and reselling them. Although he says in The Snowball, “I should have diversified my theft,” in retrospect, Buffett knew it was wrong.
He went on to start a partnership at a young age and began trading stocks. He felt that others treated him as inexperienced, but Buffett looked at every dollar as $10. He was determined to make money in the stock market.
Normally cautious and unwilling to risk his portfolio, Buffett dumped three-quarters of his portfolio into Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO) stocks in 1950, believing the company was a win-win. Buffett scoured Moody’s Manuals and was known for his unparalleled researching before making any decision. He knew he was onto something with GEICO. Today, GEICO is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., of which Buffett is chairman and CEO. In September 2008, Berkshire shares were noted as being the highest-priced shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Throughout Buffett’s home life, too, money prevailed. The main message Buffett and his wife Susie presented to their children, says author Schroeder, is that money is important. Buffett was even known to write his kids checks for $10,000 with a bet that he would sign the checks if he weighed a certain amount on a certain day. They tempted him with sweets, but he never had to sign those checks
That was the extent to which Buffett interacted with his children. Susie was sometimes referred to as a single mother because Buffett was married to his job.
As he climbed the ranks to CEO of several companies, his thousands turned into millions and eventually billions. Many big-name companies then and now are businesses that Buffett either once owned or now owns large sums of stock in; Berkshire’s biggest holdings today are in Coca-Cola, American Express, Wells Fargo, Procter & Gamble and the list goes on, according to market resource Morningstar.
Buffett became friends with a young man named Bill Gates in the early 1990s. Buffett didn’t have a computer and was convinced he didn’t need one. “I don’t know what it’s going to do for me,” Buffett says in The Snowball. “I don’t care how my stock portfolio is doing every five minutes. And I can do income taxes in my head.” Later, Buffett finally bought a computer.
Gates became like a “third son” to Buffett. They were both at the top of the list for the world’s richest man, but Gates was finding a way to give back. Buffett, who never had a personal interest in charity, thought he should give his money to someone who would love giving it away. Buffett had amassed $42 billion in net worth in 2006 according to Forbes, and that same year announced that 85 percent of his Berkshire stock (then worth $37 billion) would go to several charities. Much of it went to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “He was giving away his money without leaving a trace of himself behind,” Schroeder writes.
Buffett often explained his business practices in relation to a snowball: With a little hard work as you trudge up the hill, your fortune will grow with time. But the $37 billion gift—a significant portion of his snowball—didn’t have his name on it. “He had spent all his life rolling up the snowball as if it were an extension of himself; yet he would establish no Warren Buffett Foundation, Buffett hospital wing, no college or university endowment or building with his name on it,” Schroeder writes. “No major donor had ever done such a thing before.”
But if anyone watched his snowball carefully, it was Buffett. It grew into the largest reserve of riches the world has ever seen. “You’ve got to be your own wet snow, in effect,” Buffett tells Schroeder. “You’d better be picking up snow as you go along, because you’re not going to be getting back up to the top of the hill again. That’s the way life works.” For now, it looks like Buffett’s at the top of his hill.
Source http://www.successmagazine.com/

Can you rent out your home to Olympics visitors and make a fortune?

With millions of Olympics visitors searching for accommodation in 2012, we look at whether homeowners can make a packet by renting out their properties

 Homeowners will be hoping they, too, can strike gold at the Olympics. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

For those lucky enough to live anywhere near the Olympic site there's one big question: can I rent out my home for thousands of pounds and head off on an expensive holiday on the proceeds?
With the opening ceremony just over a year away, and lettings agents reporting the first expressions of serious interest from those looking to rent homes near to the action, Guardian Money has been asking whether there is serious cash to be made. Or are homeowners hoping for a bonanza heading for disappointment?
A whizz around the internet reveals plenty of households hoping to cash in. Owners of some – frankly, very ordinary – homes within walking distance of the Olympic Park in Stratford are asking as much as £5,000 a week. Even one-bedroom flats are being marketed at £1,500 a week.
The big question is whether they are going to get it. Joanna Doniger, who has let Wimbledon homes to tennis players for two decades and is an expert on the short-let market, predicts some homeowners will make some serious money, but others will be out of luck.
The owner of the Chelsea-based agency Accommodate London is offering the same service for 2012, and says it is already getting busy.
"We've been taking calls from media organisations and others who are going to be in London for the Games and are looking for homes to rent. There have also been lots of inquiries from people hoping to rent out their homes; however, we won't be taking them all on."
She says that to stand a chance of being suitable, a home will have to have certain features. A power shower, Wi-Fi, flatscreen TV and a high standard of decoration are a must – as is proximity to the Stratford site on foot or via public transport.
She predicts early house rentals will mostly go to people working in jobs connected to the Games – TV crews, journalists and the like. Individuals tend to book much later.
"Some groups will want to take a house for as much as four to six weeks. Potential renters will have to ask themselves whether they are prepared to be away for that long."
She predicts a three-bedroom family house very close to the stadium will rent for around £3,000-£4,000 a week. "We've let out a four-bedroom refurbished property near Victoria Park for more than £5,000 a week," she says.
If Wimbledon is anything to go by, she says, there will be a rush of bookings at the last minute from normal visitors leaving it late to find a bargain.
Those thinking of renting out their homes have two options: pay an agent specialising in short-term lets, or do it yourself. Agents will typically charge a commission of 10%-15% plus VAT. The advantage is that they provide a contract and, crucially, collect the money from the tenant.
Those looking to avoid paying commission tend to put their home on one of the many websites that have sprung up – such as Rentduringthegames.com, londonrentmyhouse.com and 2012homerentals.com. Fees to use the websites typically vary from £25 (to list a property) to £150. Usually you can upload pictures and full details. It is up to the householder, to agree a price, collect the rent and deal with the client.
Most homeowners trying to find customers were this week asking for a 50% deposit upfront and for the balance to be paid prior to the keys being handed over. This looks to be the major hurdle of going down the DIY route. After all, how many people would be prepared to send a £1,000-plus deposit to a stranger in the expectation that they will honour a rental a year later?
Rob Mearns, who set up rentduringthegames.com from his base in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, says there are currently 310 properties on his site. The average house is listed at around £3,400, or £900 per bedroom. Flats are typically being offered at around £1,300 per week.
"We are starting to see a much higher demand – website traffic is up over 620% since January, and I suspect the demand will just get much, much higher the closer we get to the Olympic Games," he claims.
Jo Selby of east London agents Alan Selby & Partners questioned whether those with long-established and happy tenants would want to go to the trouble of finding short-term Olympic lets, unless they just happen to have a vacancy at the time.
Others have questioned whether families have really considered what it entails. Cupboards and wardrobes will have to be emptied and personal possessions removed. The house will have to be spotlessly clean, and there is the cost/aggravation of finding somewhere else to stay.
Lastly, don't forget the taxman will want his share of the income you generate. Homeowners who decide to let their homes will also need to check with their insurers, as most household policies do not cover commercial rents. And your mortgage provider may have something to say on the matter, and will have to be notified.
During the 2000 Games in Sydney, a late scramble for accommodation drove up rents, especially near the Olympic village, to as much as 10 times normal rates. However, even as the Games started, lots of homes were still available.
Source http://www.guardian.co.uk/

3 Washington initiatives appear likely to make ballot

Initiatives that would privatize the state liquor system, make it harder to toll highways and reinstate training requirements for home health-care workers all appear likely to make the November ballot.

By Seattle Times staff

OLYMPIA — Initiatives that would privatize the state liquor system, make it harder to toll highways and reinstate training requirements for home health-care workers all appear likely to make the November ballot.
The backers of all three measures turned in more signatures than they're expected to need to meet the state requirement of at least 241,153 valid signatures of registered voters. The deadline for turning in petitions to the secretary of state was Friday.
Sponsors of the liquor-privatization initiative, I-1183, estimate they turned in more than 350,000 signatures. Anti-tax activist Tim Eyman says he turned in around 327,000 signatures for the tolling initiative. Backers of the home health-care measure turned in more than 340,000 signatures.
I-1183 would close state liquor stores and sell their assets, including the liquor-distribution center. It would allow private stores to sell liquor and create licensing fees for sale and distribution of liquor based on sales revenue. Costco is the main backer, providing most of the more than $950,000 in cash and in-kind contributions raised so far.
The initiative would require private retailers who get licenses to sell liquor to pay 17 percent of their gross spirits revenue to the state. Proponents say that would generate millions of dollars for the state, but have not calculated how much yet.
A group called Protect Our Communities has formed to fight the initiative, arguing it's no improvement over a liquor-privatization measure backed by Costco last year.
Critics attacked last year's measure by saying it would have led to thousands of stores selling liquor. The state currently has 323 contract and state-owned stores. Opponents contend the new measure would still cause a proliferation of stores selling liquor.
I-1183 backers disagree. They estimate around 1,500 stores would be eligible to sell liquor. Those stores would be required, for the most part, to have at least 10,000 square feet of retail space, supporters say.
I-1125 would require the Legislature, not the state Transportation Commission, to set tolls, and mandate that a toll on a particular road or bridge be used only for construction, operation or maintenance of that project. Tim Eyman is the sponsor, and Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman the main financial supporter.
I-1163 would require background checks and training for long-term-care workers and providers. It essentially would reinstate a measure approved by voters in 2008 that was delayed by the Legislature because of budget shortfalls. The measure is sponsored and financially backed by the Service Employees International Union.
The Secretary of State's Office plans to begin checking signatures July 18.
For the second year in a row, an initiative to legalize marijuana appears to have fallen short in its signature-collection drive.
Staff reporter Andrew Garber contributed to this story, which includes material from The Seattle Times archives.

Challenges Creating Compelling SEO Content in the Enterprise

The firm I work with recently issued organic search rankings for the world’s leading high-tech marketers using the patented Covario SEO Audit Score™ system.

We took a look at how well Fortune 500 high-tech companies optimize their landing pages for specific keywords, so that they play a critical role in giving their brands optimal search engine visibility for high-traffic terms and phrases.

Within the overall scoring system, there are sub-scores for content, technical quality and linking. We found that those high-tech marketer websites with Content Audit Scores above 75 (out of 100) also had an average Google organic rank of 12. That’s page-two results, folks. Naturally the lower the Content Audit Score, the lower the rankings in the search engines for the high-tech sector.

Needless to say that the high-tech sector is teeming with marketers who know more than a thing or two about building lasting brands online. Many global brand marketers understand that organic search is a powerful branding channel when people are conducting product research. This size of enterprise almost always has SEO programs in place that follow what SEO best practices practitioners preach.

So why is it that the larger the enterprise the greater the challenges they face when it comes to creating search engine and people friendly content?

It’s because SEO is different for large companies as opposed to smaller businesses. Yes -- similar tactics are used to optimize websites for small business and big businesses alike, but on a different scale, of course. Enterprise level websites create more problems for SEO practitioners not just because they are bigger, but because they add layers of complexity into each channel of their online marketing processes.

For example, larger enterprise-level websites tend to have some, if not all of the following issues to overcome.

SEO implementation hurdles due to:

·                                 Suboptimal content management systems (CMS)

·                                 IT resource challenges

·                                 Untrained and/or third party personnel

·                                 Budgeting limitations

·                                 Millions of pages; much of it duplicate or very similar content

·                                 Multiple countries and languages with multiple entry pages

·                                 Flawed attribution data and/or limited analytics programs

·                                 Multiple stakeholders with divergent strategies

·                                 Multiple service providers with divergent priorities

Most online marketers and/or IT staff members for larger businesses have also had some history with SEO. That is to say that most, if not all, Fortune 500 firms have tackled major or minor SEO initiatives over the past few years. Consequently, each enterprise’s marketing structures, technical processes, business priorities, and overall SEO knowledge can be quite different from one enterprise to another – even within in the same industry.

All of this adds up for making the race toward SEO success a marathon more so than a sprint for big businesses. But attaining SEO success doesn’t have to be this challenging, especially when it comes to creating compelling, search engine-friendly content. If some measure of accord can be fostered between key stakeholders around business and marketing goals, then the path toward winning the first leg of a SEO race to higher rankings is not far very away. You just have to be willing to separate the whole from it parts.

What the heck does that mean?

Let’s take a look at a “normal” SEO initiative for a large enterprise. What usually happens is … A senior executive signs a contract with a SEO agency and hands off steerage to a VP of marketing or sometimes IT. The VP in turn hands off the SEO program management to a director, who is also the up-line for the in-house SEO manager. The SEO in-house manager will work with the organization’s personnel and other third-party agencies for tactical implementation of SEO recommendations as made by the SEO experts at the agency.

This is a recipe for failure, especially when dealing with a mature enterprise that has implemented multiple layers of SEO recommendations over the years. Nowhere in the process does a conversation occur about who controls the content on the websites, on the microsites or blogs, in its press releases, in Twitter and on Facebook, or at Flickr and YouTube -- let alone if the enterprise is willing and able to flex business processes in order to improve content quality of its individual online entities.

Otherwise what usually happens is that the SEO consultancy invests time and money to produce some great content that goes through to the online marketing team for approval and then hits the public relations department’s filters for branding continuity, and next gets reviewed and edited by the legal team, only to secure sign-off and some last-minute tweaks from a middle-manager who sends the content to an off-shore IT department only to stand in line for being added to the website during the next round of IT updates.

Three months later the phenomenal SEO content sees the light of day; however, it’s not what you wrote. It’s been compartmentalized and broken down into being the same-old plain vanilla piece of nothing that is now duplicated across the enterprise’s websites in 22 countries in 18 languages.

This is the problem with enterprise level SEO campaigns tasked with creating competing, search engine-friendly content. This is why the real potential for producing SEO success lies in optimizing the communication of expectations of SEO goals up and down the different parts of an enterprise’s online marketing ecosphere.

Search engine success for larger enterprises is attained when SEO goals are wholly aligned with the enterprise’s business and marketing goals, and then entirely communicated throughout the many layers of the business line. All SEO agencies need to do to affect this type of paradigm shift is to bring the concept of the content creation processes into the conversation from the get-go, as opposed to waiting until it’s done-gone.
Source http://searchenginewatch.com/

L.A. Management Company’s Marketing Services Retained by Prominent New York Cosmetic Practice

Charlotte, NC, July 08, 2011 --(PR.com)-- L.A. Management Company, a marketing firm specializing in website development, online marketing, social media management and video production, has been retained by Prasad Cosmetic Surgery to provide strategic marketing services including web site development, search engine optimization (SEO), social media management, email marketing and video distribution.

With two New York City area locations, Prasad Cosmetic Surgery was founded by renowned cosmetic surgeon Dr. Amiya Prasad and provides facial rejuvenation and hair restoration solutions. Dr. Gary Hitzig, a nationally known hair restoration surgeon and researcher recently joined the practice. Dr. Hitzig is the first medical doctor to successfully clone hair using the FDA-approved Acell wound healing power. Doctors Hitzig and Prasad have recently received world-wide attention for their Acell injection treatment that helps regenerate hair in men and women in the early to moderate stages of hair loss and stimulates collagen for facial rejuvenation.

About L.A. Management Company
L.A. Management Company specializes in online marketing, video production, multimedia production, website development and optimization and social marketing. The company has won numerous Telly Awards, one of the most prestigious awards in advertising, film and video production for their multimedia work. For more information, visit lamanagementco.com or call (704) 560-6274. Join L.A. Management Company on Facebook at facebook.com/lamanagement.

Contact Information

LA Management Company
Lou Amico
(704) 560-6274
la@lamangementco.com
www.lamanagementco.com
Source http://www.pr.com/

Billig SEO Norwegian Company Provides Lowest PPC management Pricing

by Matt Fave on Jul 8th, 2011. Published under PRC Business News.

(press release distribution) Billig Seo in English inexpensive search engine optimization announces  the lowest pay per click management and advertising solution for your Google and Yahoo sponsor advertisement.  Billig SEO at billigseo.com is a well established Norwegian company located  Trondheim, kingdom of Norway.
Experts at billigseo.com offer organic search engine optimization services and search engine marketing management in order to help small businesses to be able to afford their pay per click management. Billig SEO specialist have passed Google Adwords exam and have been workin on several pay per click for certain businesses in clothing, health and sport niches.
We have been serving many businesses in Scandinavia and would like to offer our affordable PPC pricing at only 500,- Norwegian kroner per day per ad management.
Recently Google revealed a dramatic algorithm update to its search engine aimed at down ranking and low quality portals and spam web pages, specifically content farms. I actually have not seen anything as there are still people who steal my content and put their website’s URL in them and call themselves true SEO professionals. It is annoying to see your content is rehashed and fed through Google alerts. I am so close to wipe that website off the internet for good, then if i do it, what would be the differences between me and the content this content thief?  Anyway!
There has been lot of discussions and controversy over the Google update on webmaster forums and portals. With such major changes to the search results, it is important to understand what the update is all about and what you should do about it. With our PPC management you do not have to be worried about anything, because we help you to drive in traffic at lowest pricing.
Website : http://billigseo.com

At Rainbow’s end, cleanup begins

Efforts to spruce up Gifford Pinchot after gathering expected to last a month

  

Photo by Zachary Kaufman

Rainbow Family gatherer Kalea “Cake” Holden, 18, of Seattle, eats a can of cold chili that her friends left behind before she leaves the Gifford Pinchot National Forest on Thursday. Holden says that she plans to go to the Oregon Country Fair next before heading home.

By Ray Legendre
Columbian Staff Writer

GIFFORD PINCHOT NATIONAL FOREST — With a rolled-up lavender yoga mat in one hand and a can of cold chili in the other, Kalea “Cake” Holden departed the forest she called home the past week.
If not for the need to make money and a desire to attend the upcoming Oregon Country Fair, the 18-year-old Seattle resident said Thursday morning she could have stayed at the Rainbow Family Gathering in Skookum Meadows “forever.”
“Just because we’re leaving the forest doesn’t mean we’re leaving the circle,” she assured after eating a scoop of cold chili. “We’ll bring the magic with us.”
Bearing their scant camping supplies and abundant warm memories, Holden and thousands of other Rainbow Family participants left Gifford Pinchot National Forest on Thursday, the Rainbow Family Gathering’s final day.
Forest officials estimated 20,000 attended the seven-day event. The vast majority left before Thursday, officials said.
The Rainbow Family Gathering started in 1972. The nonprofit organization does not have official leaders or members. People from across America and Canada journeyed to Washington last Friday to celebrate nature, pray for peace and enjoy the harmonious vibes found at the event.
Several hundred campers will remain behind to clean the Skookum Meadows area where the Rainbow Family gathered. They will fill in trenches used for latrines, plant flowers and reseed the grass and remove trash.
Dozens of black trash bags rested atop one another near the camp’s entrance. The bags would be hauled to a local dump, campers said.
The entire cleanup process will take about a month, campers estimated.
Forest officials are taking a “wait and see” approach to the cleanup, said Ken Sandusky, an assistant spokesman with Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
On Thursday morning, a thick campfire smell filled the unseasonably cool air throughout Skookum Meadows. Campers’ breath was visible when they spoke. Snow remained in some areas off the trail. Unlike in earlier days, no campers walked around naked.
Cars along the route to the camp were caked in dust from other cars driving past. Skamania County sheriff’s officials said the limited parking space near the campgrounds led to quite a few collisions during the weeklong event.
Campers without rides held up cardboard signs Thursday with destinations like Portland, Seattle and beyond written in permanent marker.
Near the camp’s information booth, Micah Williams relaxed in a chair, content in the knowledge he was not leaving anytime soon. The 24-year-old Eugene, Ore., resident wore a green plush top hat over his short blonde hair, a brown zip-up hoodie and dirt-stained khakis. He amused himself by greeting women in a pirate voice reminiscent of Capt. Jack Sparrow.
Williams got serious when asking passer-by for donations for garbage collection. He is one of the people participating in the cleanup.
“If once per year I have to clean up trash in the woods to have an awakening moment, I’ll totally do it,” Williams said. Being away from city life reminded him how important simplicity was, he added.
Williams briefly smoked marijuana from a small pipe. After he puffed, he offered it to others who walked nearby.
Marijuana use was standard at the festival, most campers agreed, but Williams and others denied reports of rampant drug use on the campgrounds. If campers had a “bad trip,” Williams noted, other campers kept them company at the medical area.
Skamania County Sheriff Dave Brown said his deputies had found heroin, acid and LSD in people’s vehicles following traffic stops. Brown said he also talked with campers who had been offered acid.
Three or four assaults were reported, Brown added. Campers said violent outbursts were followed by meetings where the fight’s participants talked out their differences in a constructive manner.
Jade Wan, 20, of Kenhorst, Penn., sat on the ground next to Williams. She took a break from her job working with special needs adults to attend the Rainbow Family Gathering. She planned to stay longer to aid in forest beautification efforts.
Wan said her favorite moments during the gathering were playing with children and participating in musical numbers. The classically trained violinist criticized outsiders’ opinions that all campers were “pot-smoking hippies.”
“Society has developed a block against what is real and what is not real,” Wan said. “This is real. This is the ground and the Earth.”
Jeremy Miller, 32, of Shasta Lake, Calif., said his faith in humanity had been restored during the four days he spent on the campgrounds. Miller, the singer in a reggae band called New Social Remedy, said he hoped to spread the love he received at the camp when he returned to “Babylon.”
“It’s a place where you collect your energy, charge it up and bring it back to wherever you’re from,” Miller said of the Rainbow Family Gathering. “I’m sad to leave.”

Home prices climb but may soon peak: surveys

 CTV.ca News Staff Average house prices continue to climb in Canada, but recent steep increases may give way to a less frantic market by the end of the year, according to a new study released Thursday.
Royal LePage's House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast noted sizeable year-over-year increases across all types of housing in the second quarter of 2011.
But it said prices may be at their peak in many cities, saying current dramatic increases are simply unsustainable.
"In many of Canada's regional markets, we saw house prices appreciate at a significantly faster rate than wages and salaries, and this trend cannot continue indefinitely," Royal LePage President Phil Soper said in a release.
"We expect price gains to moderate considerably in the latter half of 2011, which should reduce the stress associated with purchasing a new home."
Royal LePage expects 2 per cent fewer houses to be sold in 2011 compared to last year.
"Looking ahead to 2012, signs are pointing to stability for Canadian home owners and new buyers," said Soper. "We believe we are past the period of peak house price appreciation."
Sopher did note, however, that certain neighbourhoods in Vancouver and B.C.'s Lower Mainland could continue bucking the trend, citing international investors as the main factor driving prices up in those areas.
Royal LePage forecasts that Vancouver home prices will be an average of 15.4 per cent higher at the end of 2011 than they were the year before.
Toronto's year-over-year average home prices are expected to rise a comparably minor 6.4 per cent in 2011, with the volume of sales decreasing as few owners decide to sell and fewer new homes are available.
The Royal LePage survey looked at seven standard types of housing in 250 neighbourhoods across the country. It expected most residences to end the year valued about 7.7 per cent higher than they were at the end of 2010.
On average, it found:

• detached bungalows rose 7.5 per cent to $356,625
• two-storey homes rose 6.1 per cent to $390,163
• condominiums rose 3.5 per cent to $238,064

Also released Thursday was the Statistics Canada New Housing Price Index, which averages the prices of new homes across the country. It rose 0.4 per cent in May over April, buoyed by the country's highest monthly increase in Regina, at 1.7 per cent. This was followed by 1 per cent in Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Ont., and 0.9 per cent in Toronto and Oshawa, Ont.
The notable increase in Regina comes as the cost of land, building materials and labour continues to rise in that city.
Meanwhile, developers in the Ontario cities that saw prices rise cited market competition as the driving factor.
While seven of the 21 urban regions surveyed reported no change in new home prices between April and May, Ottawa-Gatineau saw prices drop significantly, with some builders offering discounted pricing or free upgrade packages to help push flagging sales.
When comparing last May to the same month in 2010, Windsor and Victoria led the cities where prices dropped, with new homes costing an average of 4.4 per cent and 1.7 per cent less than a year ago, respectively.
On a year-to-year basis, the national index rose 1.9 per cent, with the largest gains in St. John's (4.7 per cent), Toronto and Oshawa (4.3 per cent each).
With files from The Canadian Press
Source http://ottawa.ctv.ca/