Finding a good SEO in Naples

Sometimes it can be tricky trying to find a good SEO person or company. Usually the best way to go about finding a quality SEO is to just go but the search results. I mean think about it, if the SEO can't get themselves #1 for "naples seo" in Google, then what makes you think they will be able to rank your website for the terms you want?

Let's say you don't need local SEO done, you need national SEO done, meaning you want to rank nationally for a given search word or phrase. I would say to open up google and search for "SEO". The first couple results aren't going to be SEO companies but once you go down the list a few spots you should run into an SEO company or two. Now if that company is ranking for the term "SEO" then you can pretty much be assured they know what they're doing. You don't get on the first page of Google for SEO if you don't know what you're doing. Just be advised that getting ranked for a national search term like that is gonna cost big bucks.

Google Sidewiki entry by Barry

GetAFreelancer Hits 1 Million Users, Switches Name To Freelancer.com

Posted By: admin

–>by Robin Wauters on October 7, 2009

If the Internet has made one thing crystal clear, it’s that physical borders and geographical distance are no longer necessarily an absolute barrier for conducting business.

More and more companies are getting accustomed to the idea of being able to do business with companies on the other side of the world using nothing but digital communication means, or to have entire business units or projects led by teams made up of people located all over the globe.

Hence the popularity of services such as oDesk and Elance, websites where you can outsource given projects to registered programmers, designers, writers, legal experts and whatnot. Another player in this market is GetAFreelancer, an Australian company that’s been offering freelance jobs online since it was founded back in 2004.

Today, the company is announcing that it has changed its name to the far better-sounding and undoubtedly more memorable Freelancer.com. They bought the domain name from a private individual who used to run a magazine called Computer Freelancer over 15 years ago, for a ’six figure sum’. All in an effort to increase its visibility and profile.

GetAFreelancer CEO Matt Barrie tells us that the site recently hit a big milestone and now boasts over 1,000,000 registered professionals and businesses from 234 countries and territories worldwide. Over 475,000 jobs have been posted on the website to date, for a sum of over $43 million.

Not too shabby for a bootstrapped venture.

in reference to:

"GetAFreelancer Hits 1 Million Users, Switches Name To Freelancer.comPosted By: admin
–>by Robin Wauters on October 7, 2009




If the Internet has made one thing crystal clear, it’s that physical borders and geographical distance are no longer necessarily an absolute barrier for conducting business.
More and more companies are getting accustomed to the idea of being able to do business with companies on the other side of the world using nothing but digital communication means, or to have entire business units or projects led by teams made up of people located all over the globe.
Hence the popularity of services such as oDesk and Elance, websites where you can outsource given projects to registered programmers, designers, writers, legal experts and whatnot. Another player in this market is GetAFreelancer, an Australian company that’s been offering freelance jobs online since it was founded back in 2004.
Today, the company is announcing that it has changed its name to the far better-sounding and undoubtedly more memorable Freelancer.com. They bought the domain name from a private individual who used to run a magazine called Computer Freelancer over 15 years ago, for a ’six figure sum’. All in an effort to increase its visibility and profile.
GetAFreelancer CEO Matt Barrie tells us that the site recently hit a big milestone and now boasts over 1,000,000 registered professionals and businesses from 234 countries and territories worldwide. Over 475,000 jobs have been posted on the website to date, for a sum of over $43 million.
Not too shabby for a bootstrapped venture."
- GetAFreelancer Hits 1 Million Users, Switches Name To Freelancer.com « Bonita Web Design (view on Google Sidewiki)

Expand Your Horizons with a Sanibel Condominium

Sanibel Real Estate

Many people are faced with a dull and regimented life, spending their days following a routine that doesn’t really lead to anywhere or amount to anything. Prospects can change however, especially if those prospects involve a good Sanibel condominium.

What is your daily routine? Some people have a severely restricted routine that it’s almost laughable if not pitiable. For example, a student would have himself woken up in the morning by his alarm clock. He spends the next few minutes thinking about the comfort of bed and why he needs more sleep. Only to be bribed or cajoled out of bed by his mom and rushes to gulp down a coffee and breakfast in order to be in time for school. At school he listens to the teacher talk and talk. After school, he goes home where he eats his dinner and readies himself for the comfort of bed where he dreams of swimming freely in the oceans beyond the limitations of the neighborhood. This is a serious case of need for break from the numbing routine.

An employee could be experiencing the exact same thing except that he has his work in place of school. It’s a sad thing because most of these guys only have their weekends for fun and games and it’s never enough. There are inevitably additional projects or overtime that encroach on this precious free time. So they won’t have the spare time to travel to the beach and enjoy the sunset.

Living in a Sanibel condominium puts an end to all that drudgery and allows much more time for fun and games. Sanibel is best known for its beautiful beaches and sub-tropical climate. You can enjoy the feel of soft white sand beneath your feet as you play a swift game of volleyball with your buddies. Or you could spend your time relaxing and removing yourself from the stress of work by having a day building sand castles, shelling, or having a romantic stroll along the shore.

If you really want to have options, then you should know that most condos are situated within the center of the area, providing access to virtually every amenity. You could rent a bike and start riding all around town using the many trails available. You could play tennis in the nearby courts or enjoy a round of golf in one of the many courses around. There are more golf courses in Florida than in any other country so you’re spoilt for choice.

After a tiring work-out or an exhausting game, it’s time to refresh and recharge your batteries with a nice meal from any of the restaurants in the town. What you choose do to with your time is entirely up to you. There is something for every taste here, so there is no excuse not to visit.

You can’t possibly be chained to a dull routine when you live in a Sanibel condominium with all the choices spread around you. The main problem is going to be deciding what to do!

IRAN: Ahmadinejad’s Predicament and Iran’s Political Crisis

Analysis by Farideh Farhi*
Daniel Saltman

HONOLULU, Hawaii, Aug 10 (IPS) - With the confirmation of his re-election by Ayatollah Khamenei and his oath of office taken, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will begin his second term facing much steeper challenges than any of Iran’s previous second-term presidents.

In fact, despite the proclaimed support of 24 million Iranians, his government is by far the weakest post-revolutionary government. Ironically, it is this weakened position that tempts him to be a force of constant agitation and confrontation.

Challenges facing Ahmadinejad include open hostility from a large section of the Iranian elite which Ayatollah Khamenei characterised in Ahmadinejad’s confirmation speech as "angry and wounded"; highly charged criticisms of his appointments and policies from within the conservative ranks; continued civil disobedience; a public mood that has turned from mostly inattentive and apolitical to concerned and angry; general unhappiness among the clergy about the harsh crackdown; and a much more hostile international environment.

All this is on top of serious economic woes that he was unable to address during his first term - as he had promised to do in his 2005 campaign.

Prior to the June election, Ahmadinejad had indeed attempted to implement a value-added tax on the sale of goods and introduce legislation to overhaul Iran’s over-bloated subsidy system - replacing it with more targeted cash subsidies to the poorer strata of society. These measures plus gradual price increases in utilities and fuel prices were meant to lower the government’s fiscal burden.

But, merchants resisted the implementation of the value-added-tax. His so- called Economic Transformation Plan was also roundly rejected prior to the campaign season as the conservative-controlled Majles - worried about the legislation’s inflationary impact and its unreliable or exaggerated data - chose to delay the discussion till the post-election period.

The political crisis that has ensued has effectively pushed economic concerns to the side, and brought to the forefront once again a whole set of political civil rights issues emphasised during former President Mohammad Khatami’s reformist era.
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Ahmadinejad could pursue his economic agenda while at the same time attempting to reduce political tensions generated by the election and its aftermath. This would entail a coordinated effort with other centres of power - including the office of the Leader and the Judiciary - to address some of the serious breaches of citizens’ rights that have occurred, finding those responsible for them, and putting in place mechanisms that would ensure against their repetition.

But Ahmadinejad’s personality - and the paranoid outlook of the security- oriented circles that surround him - make it unlikely that he will choose that route for fear that any sign of weakness will only worsen his predicament. The decision to put on trial past officials en masse under conditions that lacked the slightest trappings of due process is already an indication against such a conciliatory approach.

In foreign policy, Ahmadinejad’s approach to Iran’s unprecedented turbulences is likely to deem the best defence a strong offense.

In reaction to his polarising approach, efforts to influence, control or dislodge him will come from all corners of Iran’s political spectrum - making his already erratic managerial style even more haphazard and shifting, adding to his difficult position.

Foremost among his woes is popular protest combined with unprecedented cracks at the top of Iran’s political apparatus that show no sign of subsiding. For the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic, a president is faced with a combination of popular mobilisation and a squeeze from the top.

Squeeze at the top has always been a predicament of the office of Iran’s president, caught between non-elective institutions - robustly equipped with their own independent and often shadowy security and economic appendages - and a rancorous elected Parliament, whose only assertion of power in the Iranian political system can come in the form of confronting or harassing the president on domestic issues.

But the persistent social mobilisation from below is bound to make the squeeze at the top even more difficult to manage because of the intensity of pressures coming from challengers, critics, and even avid supporters.

Ahmadinejad’s supporters are already calling for more heads to roll over election events, demanding that some of the most celebrated figures of the Islamic Republic - including Mir Hossein Mussavi, and former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani - be put on trial for their collusion with external powers to stage a Velvet Revolution against the Islamic Republic.

Ahmadinejad’s challengers - riding on popular sentiments that have gone beyond indignation over election fraud and turned into an even more visceral outrage over the harsh crackdown in the streets, torture and deaths in prisons for which no one is willing to take responsibility - have already turned their movement into one pursuing an end to the arbitrary rule of Iran’s many shadowy instruments of repression.

The strategy of this Green Movement, according to Mussavi, will be inspired by a "slogan that in its expansiveness includes the largest number of Iranians both inside and outside of Iran." There is persistent emphasis on the political and civil guarantees in the Islamic Constitution that "have remained vanquished" and the insistence that those engaged in the crackdown "are the ones that are breaking the structure" of the Islamic Republic.

This constitutionalist approach is deemed the most effective in creating further cleavages between the government and its conservative critics.

Ahmadinejad has never been very popular even among conservatives, but recent events have created further worries among them about his ability to manage the tide of protests and letting them subside.

To be sure, similar worries exist regarding Ayatollah Khamenei - whose wholehearted support of Ahmadinejad has effectively transformed him, in the public mind, as the real source of the harsh crackdown. However, as the chief executive officer of the country, Ahmadinejad is the one who ultimately has to face the brunt of criticisms regarding the way popular protests are confronted, prisoners treated, and civil rights undermined.

In any case, he is a much easier target to attack without being accused of questioning the foundation of the Islamic Republic.

In trying to find a Modus Vivendi to placate popular anger against his presidency, Ahmadinejad’s first task will have to be the selection of a team that can reach an agreement about how to deal with the situation. And this may not be an easy task, as one of his weaknesses as a leader has always been his inability to work well with people outside of a very close circle of friends.

In his first term he had to spend almost nine months trying to get approval for key ministers in his cabinet. And by the end of his first term, close to half of his cabinet had been either sacked or had chosen to resign. He also changed the heads of key institutions such as the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) several times, and at the end managed even to antagonise the most hard-line of his ministers at the Intelligence and Culture and Islamic Guidance ministries.

This is why two major conservative organisations - Followers of Imam and Leadership Line and Society of Islamic Engineers - have already issued unprecedentedly harsh letters warning Ahmadinejad against obstinacy, not listening to anyone, and having delusions about the extent and depth of the support he has been given. Instead they called upon him to avoid "confronting the clergy," and to rely on the views of "Majles and Leadership" in choosing his cabinet.

Ahmadinejad’s options are limited. He can acknowledge his weakened presidency, over-see a cabinet whose individual members will contest his policies, and head an administration that is conflicted from within. Or he can try to try to act resolutely by picking fights with almost every political force in the country - in which case his behaviour will be the source of heartache for everyone who for ideological reasons or for fear of reformist resurgence ended up supporting him in the election.

*Farideh Farhi is an Independent Scholar and Affiliate of the Graduate Faculty of Political Science at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.

(END/2009)

President Obama returns to Chicago

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio - President Obama left the Cleveland area and an afternoon of health care reform events for two Democratic National Committee fundraisers in Chicago, where he struck a defensive and at times defiant tone about his top priority.

After touching down in his home city for the third time since taking office, Obama first attended a $15,200-a-person dinner at the Lincoln Park home his campaign fundraiser Penny Pritzker, where he took a shot at the media for what he deemed its "lack of sustained focus on the facts" concerning health care reform, which he said "makes it very difficult" for him.

Then he moved on to an event at the Hyatt Regency, where he defiantly told a crowd of about 750 donors, "We are going to pass health care reform in 2009."

And he used the backdrop of the street-fighter politics that define his home city to fire back at his Republican critics — one of whom, Sen. Jim DeMint, he said has told the GOP that defeating health care reform would “break” Obama.

Let me tell you something," Obama said. "I'm from Chicago. I don't break."

Obama tried to put the best face on the setback to his reform plans he was dealt Thursday, after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's announcement.

"So even though we still have a few issues to work out, what's remarkable about this point is not how far we have left to go, it's how far we've already come," Obama said.

"I understand how easy it is for folks in Washington to become consumed by the game of politics."

He did his fair share of criticizing Washington and "the status quo" on health care, and declared the country to be "at an unmistakable crossroad."

"There's some in Washington who want us to go down the path that we've already traveled for the last decade or so," Obama said, "the path where we just throw up our hands and say, 'Oh this is just too tough.'"

Earlier Obama worked a room of over 100 people and posed for pictures at Pritzker's home, where guests nibbled on gazpacho shooters and watermelon salad.

He told the donors that opposition to his health care reform bill "gets on my nerves. It frustrates me that we'd even be suggesting the status quo is the best we can do."

He also praised his administration, saying that it had "reset relations not just with Russia" but with the world.

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"Anti-Americanism is no longer fashionable," he said.

He made similar statements at the Hyatt fundraiser, where he also credited his administration with being able to "pull the economy back from the brink."

The Hyatt event was billed as a "Welcome Home" reception, where Obama met the coach and quarterback of the Chicago Bears — Lovie Smith and Jay Cutler — as well as retired Chicago Bulls point guard B.J. Armstrong and Tracy McGrady of the Houston Rockets.

"I'm honored to be a part of the welcoming group to welcome home my favorite son," Smith told the crowd. "I have the audacity of hope that the Chicago Bears will someday be visiting the White House giving the president a Chicago Bears football to toss around on the South Lawn."

Obama was basking in a sports glow after his favorite baseball team pitched a perfect game, and said somebody asked him which was a bigger deal: the White Sox's perfect game or the Dow going over 9,000.

"And I said I promise you, I promise you, a perfect game," Obama said. "That's big."

The president wrapped himself in the hometown welcome. Some of the first words he spoke during remarks at the Hyatt were, "It's good to be home."

"It has now been six months since Michelle and Sasha and Malia and Marian Robinson, my mother-in-law, said goodbye and moved into a nice little spot in Washington, D.C.," Obama said. "And we arrived there at an incredibly difficult moment in this country's history."

At one point in his remarks a woman yelled, "Give 'em hell, Barack."

Obama reiterated his pitch that "health insurance reform" is not just about the uninsured — although he said helping them is "a moral imperative" — but about lowering costs and increasing quality for Americans who have coverage.

The two events are expected to raise as much as $3 million for the DNC.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25368.html#ixzz0MD2bUFIz

Goldman’s Outrage

How the Wall Street giant used your money to make $3.4 billion in profits.

They will never admit to this at Goldman Sachs (they don’t really fess up to much over there at the Big G) but in the fall of 2008, just after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy gave the world a lesson in systemic risk, Goldman, the world’s greatest risk taker, was finished too.

That’s right, it was toast. Finished. Kaput. Until, that is, the firm that was built on wheeling and dealing in some of the most esoteric investments the world of high finance had ever seen, needed a government bailout to stay afloat, which included $10 billion in cash from the Treasury Department (granted by its former CEO, then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson) and more importantly, full access to the Federal Reserve’s discount window to be a commercial bank.

Goldman Sachs, which was bailed out by the federal government, is now using the bailout to resume some of the same risk-taking activity that got it in trouble in the first place.

Goldman, of course, is a commercial bank like no other. You won’t confuse Goldman with the ol’ Bailey Building & Loan. It has no customer deposits—which are what the access to the discount window was first set up to protect—and you won’t be getting a toaster or a debit card from Goldman Sachs anytime soon.

But being a bank has its rewards. With full access to the discount window, Goldman can now borrow cheaply and massively from the Fed in a pinch, and because of that access, it can borrow more cheaply in the credit markets. It’s a loophole that has allowed Goldman to turn back the clock and once again resume much of its risk-taking activities, only this time it’s being financed by the American taxpayer.

There are, of course, many urban legends about Goldman and how it uses its clout in Washington and in the financial business (both Paulson and another former CEO, Robert Rubin held the Treasury secretary post) to advance its allegedly nefarious corporate agenda.

Recent reports have the firm gaming the energy markets, creating the dot-com bubble, and the subprime-debt crisis that took down Wall Street, and then for a time benefitting from its implosion when it “shorted” subprime-related investments, a trade that allowed the bank to profit from the downward spiral. (Hell, I’m sure there are people who also believe Goldman was somehow behind the swine-flu epidemic to corner the market on drug stocks.)

Some of these stories have a basis in fact and some don’t—I’ll leave it up to the reader to figure this out—but what is true is equally disturbing: Goldman Sachs, which was bailed out by the federal government, is now using the bailout to resume the many of the same risk-taking activities that got it in trouble in the first place.

The question I have, of course, is why is the Obama administration, which has decried corporate greed whenever it’s politically feasible, allowed Goldman all the advantages of a bank, when it is really a big hedge fund?

The Treasury Department won’t say and it’s obvious why Goldman is doing what it is doing: Money, and lots of it. The firm announced Tuesday morning that net income for the second quarter was $3.44 billion, while its biggest rival, Morgan Stanley, is likely to announce a quarterly loss.

And it all comes down to risk, or to be more precise, how much risk Morgan is willing to take on the taxpayers’ dime compared to what Goldman Sachs is now taking. Morgan Stanley’s CEO John Mack, chastened by the firm’s own near-implosion last year when it too was forced to become a bank, has radically reduced the amount of borrowing, or “leverage,” Morgan is taking in trading. People inside the firm say it’s difficult to meet client demands without borrowing money.

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“We just can’t get anything done,” said one senior Morgan Stanley executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Borrowing to finance trades amplifies gains, but it also amplifies losses when trades go bad. During the first quarter of 2009, Morgan borrowed just $11 for every dollar it had in capital (by comparison during the Wall Street boom, firms borrowed as much as $35 for every dollar in capital), while Goldman borrowed a significantly higher amount—close to $15 for every dollar it has in capital. “Our leverage is the result of risk-taking on behalf of our clients,” Goldman spokesman Lucas van Praag says about the strategy.

And keep in mind this is only for the first quarter. Goldman’s second-quarter leverage is likely much higher given the fact that interest rates have remained remarkably low. Those low interest rates have had another benefit—it has allowed Goldman to make winning bets in the bond markets (bond prices rise when interest rates fall), the same place that decimated Wall Street in 2007 and 2008.

Of course, there are lots of reasons for Goldman’s success. The firm has amazing intellectual capital; some of the smartest people in the world of finance work there. It also knows how to game the system better than any firm on the face of the earth. Case in point: In mid-September 2008, when the world was crashing following Lehman’s bankruptcy, Goldman held $13 billion in highly risky mortgage bonds known as collateralized debt obligations. These bonds were insured by American International Group, which itself was about to go bankrupt.

Without that insurance, Goldman itself would have imploded because the bonds would have been marked down to just pennies on the dollar. The rescue of AIG was supposed to prevent a large-scale crash of the financial system, but it also prevented a crash of Goldman Sachs, which bought those crappy CDOs from Merrill Lynch, which was forced to find a buyer (Bank of America) because it too held the same sludge.

The Goldman purchase of the Merrill CDOs is proof positive that the geniuses at Goldman screw up like everyone else. And I don’t buy van Praag’s spin on the firm’s famous hedges that minimized its losses because the smart money in the markets didn’t at the time. Goldman’s shares were in a freefall, bottoming out at around $50 in the fall of 2008, compared to close to $235 just a year earlier.

Now with all the government help, Goldman is marching its way back up to $235 a share—trading at around $150 Monday—by embracing much of the same risk that nearly led to its demise. It would be nice, though, if the next time Goldman losses money taxpayers didn’t foot the bill.

Leaked Best Buy Memo Hints at Windows 7 Upgrade Pricing

Engadget has gotten its hands on what it is calling “a leaked internal memo” which outlines Best Buys plans for the roll out of Windows 7. In addition to giving us the timelines for free upgrades, it also spells out pre-order plans, and a look at the new pricing model. The memo which describes Windows 7 as “Vista that works”, will first be made available for pre-order by customers on June 26th.

Home Premium upgrades will start at $49.99, while the professional edition will be sold at $99.99. These prices (if true) are significantly more reasonable than Vista upgrades which started at $129.95 for Home Premium, and $199.95 for Business. Pre-ordered copies won’t ship until the official October 22nd launch date, but at least this guarantees you the pricing shown above.

In addition to pre-order sales, Best Buy also outlined its “Technology Guarantee Program” which will allow people who obtain copies of Vista after June 26th to receive a free upgrade. According to the memo, this will apply to both new PC sales, and retail copies bought separately. If this is true, this might be a good way to upgrade your PC to Windows Vista for next to nothing in the months leading up to 7’s release.

The moral of the story here is that if you were planning on buying a new PC from Best Buy, you should probably hold off until June 26th. If the contents of the memo are legitimate, this will likely be a painful lesson for Best Buy who will probably find it much more difficult to sell new PC’s for the next couple of weeks.

So, what do you think of the new upgrade pricing?

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