Alberta Business Marketing

For many of us, the idea of a changing climate is just that, an idea, something vague, distant and unfortunately irrelevant. For Ursula Rakova, climate change is much more. It is the source of a disrupted life, a community displaced, a paradise lost.

Ursula Rakova is Executive Director of Tulele Peisa was born on Han, the main island of the Carterets, a small island in pacific southwest in Papua New Guinea. Her story starts with:
“Once upon a time, we lived in a paradise in the Pacific. It is a paradise no more.”
Ursula falls silent, recalling in her mind the beauty she once new.

From December to March, ocean seas wash over the atolls and homes devastating the islands. Areas where traditionally farming has been done are covered with salt water. Over 50% of land area has vanished. Ursula showed me in a laminated photo showing how her island home has been split in two and there is now a four minute walk across permanent salt water to the other side of the island.

“My grandmother passed land to my mother and then it came to me. Ten years along the line I would love to pass on this island to my daughter, but I will not be able to do that.”
“We have lost our staple crop, swamp taro. People are hungry and survive on a steady diet of fish and coconuts.”

The residents of the Carteret islands are the worlds first climate refugees.

They must leave home, not just for vacation, but to make a new life for themselves.

The mission of the organization Ursula Rakova heads, Tulele Peisa is now to relocate residents to a new island and restore some sense of community. Thus far, they have raised enough funds to relocate five families.

Sun Comes Up

Jennifer RedFearn is documenting the Carteret Islanders community wide relocation of 3000 people in a movie production currently filming. The film is called Sun Come up.

Jennifer has invested in sharing the story of the Carteret Islanders journey out of personal interest. Funds for Adaptation strategies are only part of the equation. As she says, “It’s an issue of culture, dignity, human rights.”

Ursula Rakova isn’t asking world leaders to listen just for herself and her community. By mid-century it is estimated that 250 million people will be displaced by climate change. How will the world pay for that?

When asked what actions she would like world leaders to take, Ursula Rakova doesn’t hesitate,

“Agree to cut to 350 ppm. Right NOW.”

Listen to Dan Box dream trip audio report on the Exodus from Cartaret Islands

As world leaders get set to gather in Copenhagen this December, contact your representative and encourage them to pursue a robust deal that is fair, ambitious and binding.

What else can you do for the Climate?

TimeForClimateJustice.org has a few suggestions that really do add up to make a big difference. If you have any other ideas, please comment.

1. The Three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Try buying less, and reusing and fixing things when you can instead of buying new.
2. Buy organic and local. There’s a better chance the food was grown in an eco-friendly way, and if it’s locally grown, it didn’t have to travel that far.
3. Pay attention to packaging. When out shopping, try to go to stores that keep packaging to a minimum. Also, take reusable bags to the grocery store.
4. Ditch bottled water, which has a huge carbon footprint and is shipped many miles, when drinkable water comes right out of the tap.
5. Energy-proof your home. Think about small upgrades: make sure all of your windows close properly and that the attic in your home is properly insulated. This also allows you to save money on energy bills. Many governements are providing subsidies to homeowners who tackle such projects. Check with your provincial/state/national representatives.
6. Sign up, when and if possible, to a green energy supplier, who will supply electricity from renewable sources (e.g. wind and hydroelectric power) – this will greatly minimize your carbon footprint contribution from electricity.
7. Unplug your electronics: Most electronics still use some energy even when turned off. This ’standby mode’ or ‘phantom load’ drains up to 10 percent of electricity used in most homes.
8. Replace any incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs or light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Fluorescent light bulbs are more expensive but last 8 to 15 times longer than an incandescent bulb.
9. Use surge protectors to make it easier to unplug lots of things at once when you leave a room.
10. Regulate your home temperature: Move your thermostat two degrees cooler in winter and two degrees warmer in the summer.
11. Dry clothes on a clothes line instead of in a dryer. Whether electric or gas, less use of any energy to heat air to dry your laundry is less energy consumed.
12. Use a low-flow showerhead and faucet aerators to conserve water.
13. Use the bus or a train rather than your car.
14. For short journeys either walk or cycle.
15. Purchase a carbon offset family plan and become carbon neutral.
16. Consider subscribing to my climate change blog at Climate Café.

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This is the online version of the SMM Newsletter. It offers a highlights summary and a selection of the most popular posts written by Barry Welford (online name BWelford) during the past month.

Monthly Highlights

The Google Bombshell

The biggest news item this month was the bombshell that Matt Cutts delivered in an SMX conference in Seattle that rocked the SEO world. Danny Sullivan described why SEO experts were so incensed in signaling that Google Loses “Backwards Compatibility” On Paid Link Blocking & PageRank Sculpting. The key points that emerged were:

1. Google for over one year had not revealed that it had reversed a significant search algorithm policy which it had previously recommended.
2. Non-of the major SEO experts had spotted this feature was no longer working (and apparently had missed others according to Cutts).
3. Clients had therefore paid for SEO effort that was without effect.

A new domain for BPWrap

The blog BPWrap has now been transferred from a subdomain of the Cre8asite Forum’s website to its own domain, www.BPWrap.com. Using a 301 permanent redirect, visibility and ranking in Google keyword searches have been maintained without interruption. The toolbar page rank indicator is updated infrequently so does not yet show a rating for the new domain.

If you have linked to BPWrap posts, it would be appreciated if you would update the URLs. If you wish to transfer a WordPress blog to a new domain successfully, then please contact us.

A new domain for Local Business Online Smart Tips

This SMM mobile website is now to be found at www.lbost.com. The Internet world is increasingly going mobile. In some parts of the world, the mobile web is now much more active than the traditional Internet. Your traditional website is almost guaranteed to be unsatisfactory when viewed on some mobile device. If your most savvy customers might be checking you out via their iPhone or Blackberry, then you should carefully check your mobile presence. Contact us for assistance on this.

Top Twelve Posts

We hope you will find this round-up of a dozen of the most popular posts instructive and in some cases thought-provoking. You can receive an e-mail version of this if you prefer. In that case, please subscribe via the field in the middle of the right sidebar.

SEO Clients Deserve NoFollow Discounts – 06/24/2009 SGL

Google now say PageRank Sculpting and the use of the NoFollow tag on hyperlinks is ineffective. SEO clients have paid to have such work done.

A URL Shortener For Maximum RTs (ReTweets) – 06/22/2009 OBB

StumbleUpon has introduced a new URL shortener that displays the blog post within a frame that maximizes the possibility that the post will be retweeted.

SEO Gets Simpler In 2009 – 06/19/2009 BPW

PageRank sculpting has largely been downplayed as a useful technique by Google. This still leaves important issues to address in SEO.

10 Reasons For Editing Your Published Blog Posts – 06/18/2009 SEP

Editing previously published blog posts is very effective in improving the value to readers and optimising search engine visibility.

Canada Text message rates have huge markup – 06/17/2009 SGL

Testimony before the US Senate suggests that Canadian text messaging fees are way above the cost. This has stifled the demand for these services.

Blog Comments And Google – 06/15/2009 OBB

Based on recent discussions on pagerank sculpting and the nofollow tag, the wisest course seems to be to limit the number of comments on a blog.

Google Mobile gives search by voice whatever your accent – 06/15/2009 SGL

Search by voice and transit directions comes to Google Maps with a whole host of new features. You can now search Google Maps for Android using your voice,

Retirement Planning – Pensions Galore – 06/14/2009 SMm

While UK pensioners, particularly those abroad with frozen pensions, have a hard time making ends meet, the politicians have all the pensions they could wish for.

Tweet Tips For Max ReTweets (RTs) – 06/11/2009 SGL

By carefully crafting the tweet signaling a new blog post with hashtags, the number of retweets can be significantly increased.

PageRank Calculation – Null Hypothesis – 06/09/2009 BPW

PageRank as it applies in the Google search algorithm may possibly be calculated in two phases. Phase 1 calculates PR for all URLs: Phase 2 applies filters and tags.

Avoid WordPress Duplicate Content Problems With Google – 06/03/2009 BPW

WordPress is an excellent blogging software but can produce many web pages with duplicate content. This can be avoided by using the right robots.txt file.

With A Little Help From My Friends – 06/03/2009 SSc

By establishing a good reputation in social media, it is possible to have friends assist in publicising new blog posts.

If you need creative help or ideas for important blog posts for your own blog, why not check out the new SMM Title-Plus Service. You will be amazed how little it costs.

Barry Welford

Footnote: If you are looking for more information on how to run your business more effectively, why not check out these Top Selling Business Books from Amazon. This is an affiliate link but if you do buy a book the small commission does help to underwrite a small part of the cost of providing these newsletters and blog posts.

Related Posts

• October 15, 2008 — SMM Newsletters Take A New Format (0)
• June 15, 2009 — Blog Comments And Google (7)
• May 31, 2009 — BWelford’s Monthly Round-Up For May 2009 (0)
• April 26, 2009 — Google Profile – Yes Or No (12)
• March 31, 2009 — BWelford’s Monthly Round-Up For March 2009 (0)

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

BWelford’s Monthly Round-Up For June 2009

Tags: Danny Sullivan, Matt Cutts, newsletter, SMM
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If terms like URL shortener or RT are unclear to you, then you may be missing the next major trend in social media.  The last major trend which is still active is Twitter where, as Collective Thoughts suggested you can create your own Social Bites – (which are) Like Sound Bites But Different

We are all used to “Sound Bites” – a short few seconds of words which are normally taken out of context to create sensational headlines. Few people realise that speech writers have for years worked on developing speeches to include a couple of perfect “sound bites” for use by others. Of course while some social media is audio based we are much more likely to rely on humble text to create a “social bite”.

What Is A Social Bite? – A social bite is a short piece of text to describe an article, post or idea which is easy to understand and easy to distribute through viral networks. A social bite must still carry the post’s message and goal but in a way that quickly impacts with users. The Perfect Social Bite has two parts, the hook and the line.

The hook are the words within the message – the thing to grab attention. This is doubly important as the hook will have no context once it has left the site. For example a hook is unlikely to reference the site so must be compelling, so that someone would visit the page without knowing where they were going.  The line is simply the url, sometimes this will be the page url but more likely to conserve space a url shortening service would be used. This compounds the need for a good hook as the only other potential reference to the site will be hidden.

Done well, social bites can be very effective, so the Twitter stream now seems to have more social bites than mere status messages as in  ( … off to feed the dog. )

If you are unaware of ReTweeting, then this is the next big buzz item in the Twitter world.

A ReTweet is based upon the word Tweet.  Tweet is slang used in Twitter that means whatever message you post up on Twitter is considered a Tweet.  Hence a ReTweet is a Tweet that is re-copied that begins with either a RT or ReTweet.

Techchrunch wrote a post on how ReTweets are viewed as a proxy for Authority in the Twitter world.  This means that the more Retweets you gain from other Twitter users based on the article you have written or have found and submitted to the Twitter world, will prove that you are an Authoritative expert in Twitter.

Your tweeting efforts therefore should be focused on creating social bites that will receive the maximum retreats.  That is where the choice of URL shortening can be important..  Lee Odden did a fine survey and review of URL shorteners and covered the following URL shorteners:

• cli.gs    
• budurl.com
• tinyurl.com
• zi.ma
• bit.ly    
• twurl.nl (aka tweetburner)
• is.gd
• snipurl.com (aka Snurl Snipr Sn.im)
• poprl.com
• ad.vu (aka adjix)
• tr.im

He found that cli.gs was the most used and certainly it has many fine features including powerful analytics.  One of its most useful features is that it can be used in a plugin by Joe Dolson (WP to Twitter) that automatically creates a tweet when a WordPress post is published.

One URL shortener that was not included was that created by Digg.  It has received some adverse reactions since it puts the original post within an iFrame that is part of the Digg online presence.

Another one that is just now in beta might appear to be similar in ‘framing’ the original post.  However I go along with Pallab in saying that su.pr from StumbleUpon is Awesome.

Like Digg, su.pr also frames the contents of the target webpage and displays floating toolbars which is what make su.pr so awesome. The sidebar automatically highlights other popular content from your website(s) and encourages the reader to further explore. Not only that, su.pr also provides the option to retweet your message, and share the link on Facebook. Other options include the standard thumbs up and thumbs down buttons and option to stumble through the URL submitter’s favourites.

That ReTweet (RT) option is highly visible in the top right corner and should maximize the chances of getting even more RTs.  If you want to see what it looks like just check out the URL in the following social bite.

StumbleUpon is one of the more effective social media in bringing website visitor traffic, so this URL shortener should be a most useful complement.

Related articles by Zemanta

• StumbleUpon’s Su.pr URL Shortening Service Is Now In Private Beta (250 Invites) (techcrunch.com)

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

A URL Shortener For Maximum RTs (ReTweets)

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Summary

Given recent Google pronouncements with respect to the nofollow tag and PageRank sculpting, it is prudent to limit the number of comments that blog posts receive and methods are discussed to do that.

Introduction

Blog authors often agree to differ on the subject of comments.  Some feel it is essential to have a dialogue going with their readers through comments.  Others are turned off by all the spam comments that can often be added and so avoid comments.

An additional issue with respect to comments is whether comment authors should be allowed to have a link back to their own websites.  WordPress by default inserts a nofollow tag on such links, given the risks of spam entries.  Those who feel commenters should be allowed to have a link can use a WordPress Dofollow plug-in which removes that nofollow tag.

Google has then made this subject more complex by suggesting that paid links should be flagged with a nofollow tag since they should not influence search engine rankings..  Some SEOs have then decided they would use the nofollow tag to modify the PageRank flow within their website: this was labeled as PageRank Sculpting.  A Google comment at the SMX conference in Seattle ten days ago has now further thrown everything into confusion.

PageRank On Comments May Evaporate – Matt Cutts

The Matt Cutts comment that sparked this discussion, as reported by Lisa Barone, ran as follows in the You&A With Matt Cutts session:

It seems like you supported PageRank sculpting a year ago and now it seems like you don’t support it anymore. Why is that and will it become a negative indicator?

No, it won’t hurt your site. You can do your links however you want. You can use it to eliminate links to sign in forms and whatnot, but its a better use of your time to fix your site architecture and fix the problem from the core. Suppose you have 10 links and 5 of them are nofollowed. There’s this assumption that that the other 5 links get ALL that PageRank and that may not be as true anymore (your leftover PageRank will now “evaporate”, says Matt.). You can’t shunt your PageRank where you want it to go. It’s not a penalty. It’s not going to get you in trouble. However, it’s not as effective. It’s a better use of your time to go make new content and do all the other things.

Andy Beard has clearly stated what is needed.  In asking Can Comments Kill Your PageRank?

I do have some thoughts though:-

1. I think we need a strong statement that external links with nofollow would not cause PageRank to evaporate.
2. Nofollow is a simple solution for user generated content and comments, but if it has any effect of PageRank disappearing, we are going to lose the links on tons of blogs totally.  It would be a sad day that an action by Google reduced the interlinking of the web.
…
5. Links that lead to pages blocked with robots.txt and other hanging pages really need to be nofollowed. I think we need to know that in that situation PageRank wouldn’t normally evaporate, but I can understand why that might not be confirmed.

As yet, there has been no clarification on this issue from Google.

Webmasters Handle Comments Differently

It is interesting to note that Webmasters do handle Comments differently.  Michael Gray with his latest entry, The Big Fat RSS Lie, adopts what seems to be his normal policy in displaying, Comments on this entry are closed.

On the other hand, the Daily SEO Tip blog actively seeks comments from as many as possible, as with the latest post:Let’s Create the Ultimate List of Keyword Research Tools by Ann Smarty.  This seems to be the approach that most blog writers adopt.

PageRank Null Hypothesis Suggests Limit Comments

What is the best policy given what Matt Cutts had said.  One possible line of reasoning is set out in a post on a PageRank Null Hypothesis.  This would suggest that all links are included in a first phase PageRank population.  This means that the more links one has from a blog page (including comments), the lower PageRank contribution that each outlink carries.  This argument might suggest avoiding comments to limit the number of outlinks.

Conversely, comments often add useful content that is of interest to readers.  The resulting post and comments then has more content which may rank better in keyword queries.  This suggests that it may be better to have a balance allowing a number of comments but cutting these off after a certain time.

Avoiding PageRank Comments Problems

Given the above, the Comments Policy on the SMM blogs has been changed.  To capture worthwhile comment content while avoiding the more spammy comments, comments are now closed off after 21 days.

In order not to lose the possibility of useful comments after 21 days, the Google Friend Connect Social Bar has been added to the bottom of every SMM blog post so that visitors can comment there.  Such comments would not be part of the Web page content for search engine ranking terms but it does mean that other visitors can read the further comments.  Hopefully this gives the best of both worlds.

Here is a short video introduction to the Google Friend Connect Social Bar:

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

Blog Comments And Google

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This is the online version of the SMM Newsletter. It is a selection of the most popular posts written by Barry Welford (online name BWelford) during the past month.

We hope you will find this round-up instructive and in some cases thought-provoking. You can receive an e-mail version of this if you prefer. In that case, please subscribe via the field in the middle of the right sidebar.

Social Media Is An Oxymoron – 05/29/2009 SGL

Social Media is an oxymoron since social deals with individuals and media are often mass media. Twitter exhibits both types of behaviour.

Stronger Titles Or Headlines For More Visitor Traffic – 05/28/2009 OBB

A new service is available from Lyndon Antcliff on stronger headlines and content for link-building. SMM offers a Blog Post Title-Plus service.

Alarming Debt For Canadians – 05/26/2009 SMm

A CGA survey of 2013 Canadians in November 2008 shows an alarming increase in household debt to cover living expenses rather than for assets.

Arial Font No Longer – 05/25/2009 BPW

For improved legibility on the screen, Verdana is an improvement on Arial, which has a slightly cramped look. Both are sans-serif fonts.

U.S. Credit Card Industry Faces Much Greater Regulation – 05/20/2009 SMm

In both the US and Canada, new legislation for credit cards will bring much needed changes to stop abuses. Credit card borrowers are naturally very happy.

Giving Your WordPress Blog An Elegant Face – 05/20/2009 SSc

The standard out-of-the-box WordPress Blog has a series of blog posts on the home page. A single post and a popular posts list is more elegant.

Being Asked Beats Asking – 05/18/2009 OBB

Seth Godin suggests you should be very careful in planning how you ask someone to do something. Much better is to get them to do the asking.

Multiple WordPress Loops For A New Blog Look – 05/17/2009 BPW

Using two loops within a WordPress blog can allow more user-friendly layouts such as one post followed by a list of most popular posts.

Using Analytics to Spot Problems with your Website – 05/15/2009 DIR

Analytics can be the performance instruments on any website in removing problems and in helping a continuous improvement process to better achieve goals.

Do you trust your people enough to let them talk to customers? – 05/08/2009 BPW

Brian Kalma, Zappos, encourages a corporate climate where employees are encouraged to dialogue with customers in social media and it shows in sales increases.

Time For A Mobile Website – 05/07/2009 SGL

Mobile devices need websites specifically designed for them to maximize the usability and the revenue generating potential of this growth sector.

10 Reasons Why Visitors Do Not See Your Calls To Action – 05/06/2009 SSc

Visitors may not arrive at your website or may not see the Calls To Action. This is a list of 10 reasons why the website does not produce results.

If you need creative help or ideas for important blog posts for your own blog, why not check out the new SMM Title-Plus Service. You will be amazed how little it costs.

Barry Welford

Footnote: If you are looking for more information on how to run your business more effectively, why not check out these Top Selling Business Books from Amazon. This is an affiliate link but if you do buy a book the small commission does help to underwrite a small part of the cost of providing these newsletters and blog posts.

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

BWelford’s Monthly Round-Up For May 2009

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