Content Optimization – Strunk and White – Omit Needless WordsArizona SEO Arizona SEO.

thanks electrospray

It never ceases to amaze me how bad salespeople are at their jobs. To be fair the vast majority of them are setup for failure due to a number of things: improper training, a terrible product, poor pricing for their market, and unreasonable expectations created by their marketing people.

Recently I was shopping around for a service to help one of my clients. I called 3 companies and had a great experience with all of them. I was given the information I was looking for and made sure I could follow up with that same person once my client made their decision before getting off the phone.

When I called the 3rd company everything changed. The first thing the representative told me was that before they gave me any pricing I would have to give them something. In this case that something was my clients information. I was told that this would prevent them from getting ‘shopped’. I was taken quite aback by this for a few reasons:

1. I don’t give out my clients information until ready to purchase.
2. I am already giving you something: my time to call you about your service.
3. I could easily give you false information and still get what I want.
4. They already had some prices listed on their website.
5. This product is an off the shelf service so you should be able to quote me right away.

Normally I would proceed with the 3rd step but the attitude that this salesperson gave me told me something else:

• I don’t do business with people I don’t like.

So for all salespeople out there and all your super duper training and neat presentations you should remember a few things:

1. People buy from people they like.
2. The customer isn’t always right, but the customer always pays.
3. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
4. People don’t buy on price.

Guess what? You are going to be shopped, thats why they call it shopping. Get used to it. If your service is legit then you should be fine with giving out information. Within 4 sentences with this salesperson every aspect of relationship building was gone and I was fuming, so I hung up the phone and recommended their competitors. Oh and this wasn’t a $50 sale it was for $5000.

Be nice.

by orkboi

We have all been there: trying to get the report done for school or work and hitting the wall of no ideas and nothing to say. Here are 5 Reasons why I am not writing enough:
5. Windows – Not the OS but the glass kind. I suggest spray paint.
4. Day Dreaming – That vacation you took 5 years ago isn’t writing anything.
3. Phones – Your buddy from softball has nothing to contribute.
2. Lunch – The waitress has no idea what you are talking about.
1. Facebook – Likes do not create functional paragraphs.

This was brought to you by someone experiencing total writers block hoping that by writing something stupid it will get him to write something that will pay the bills. This person did not get a useful degree in college, probably something like Humanities. He could use a beer.

sleazy sales results in retarded support

Earlier I wrote about my distressing problem of my iPhone 3G dying while trying to update it to the new operating system iOS4. I had taken the all but bricked phone into Apple’s Genius Bar for a look and was told that my only option was to replace it. As luck would have it they have a new iPhone coming up for sale this Thursday. This left me not only sad that my treasured iPhone was died, but also because I felt that I was being manipulated, which I only enjoy when I am the manipulator.

So I posted a little description here and the Internets talked back and this time with useful information sans pornographic images or penis enhancing pills. The oddly named Sringspam suggested that I try DFU mode and see if that helped. I googled DFU iPhone and found this helpful article on Device Firmware Update (DFU) and now I have installed iOS4 and have a working iPhone 3G.

Step One
Open iTunes and connect the iPhone to your Mac.

Step Two
Press and hold the Home button and the Sleep/Wake button at the same time.

Step Three
After exactly 10 seconds release the Sleep/Wake button. Continue holding the home button until you iTunes pops up a message telling you that it has detected an iPhone in recovery mode.

The iPhone screen will remain black while it restores.

NOTE***: It may take a few attempts to get your iPhone into DFU mode. Generally, I hold down both buttons then release the Home button just before I think the Apple logo would appear. If you are still holding both buttons down and you see the Apple logo you are holding them down for too long!

I am still pretty annoyed that the Apple Genius I talked with did not suggest this at all and instead only pointed me towards getting a new phone. Reminds me of working at Godaddy having to sell 3 Traffic Blazers and 2 Stealth Rays everyday to hit quota. I had thought higher of Apple but it turns out they have shitty support training just like everywhere else.

iOS4 kills iPhone 3G

I woke up this morning with minimal goals and expectations for the day. Besides getting some work done I was also looking forward to updating the operating software of my iPhone 3G to the latest version known as iOS4. After updating iTunes to version 9.2 I checked to see if there was a new version of the iPhone software available, which there was, and I selected to update the phone’s software.

Then things got ugly and dead very quickly. As iTunes began the inevitable process of backing my phone up, something it had just done 5 minutes ago, my iPhone powered down. I pushed on the power up button, which fell off like a degenerates tooth a few months ago, well stub and got the Apple logo, but no more.

I turned the phone off by holding the power and home buttons at the same time for a few seconds and let it sit quietly for a while. I then pushed the power button on again and got the Apple logo but no further. I did this process at least 20 more times to make sure. Panic was well entrenched at this point.

So I made an appointment at the local Apple store and went in to see what the Geniuses down there could do. After looking at it for 2 seconds the Genius let me know that it was toast and would need to be replaced. Of course I am out of the warranty period so that means $200. Or I can get a new iPhone 4 for $199 on Thursday as long as I spend $18 with AT&T.

As I sit here now the phone is connected to my computer via USB cable with the Apple logo staring at my face. Every 10 minutes or so it seems to power down and reboot only to stay at the same spot as before. I am open to suggestions besides buying a new phone, because if thats what it takes then I am getting off iPhone and AT&T and going Android probably with Verizon.

Come on people of Arizona with brains and spines still in your body. Its time to get involved and active, or just move the fuck out of the state and give up. Which is it gonna be?

So is it “hopeless??” No. Goddard must work harder than he’s ever worked in his life to overcome the white-right. Hispanic turnout must be mobilized. The real enemies of the working class need to be identified. Arizonans need to understand how the “conservative” elected leaders have repeatedly failed them, how the policies of the right have been tried with disastrous consequences. Good luck finding penetrating, muckraking or balanced coverage from most of the local media, but maybe social networking can get some young people to offset the reliable senior and LDS vote. And start building that bottom-up infrastructure as the right did. Still, I know people such as Kyrsten Sinema and Chad Campbell who have been working at this for years. I’m not telling them anything they don’t know.

The sad reality is that the left has nearly disappeared from America. Barack Obama holds down a center that is far to the right of historic American politics. But further right still are the ever more radical and dangerous cadres of reaction. More states will catch the Arizona syndrome. In November, we’ll see how badly.

Rogue Columnist: The Arizona syndrome.

I was dumb enough to tell Chase to take a hike a few years ago when he mentioned Authority Labs‘ plan for world domination.

Now he is blowing up. This review Using Authority Labs for “Local Pack” Rank Checking; My Review Search Engine Journal covers some of the latest stuff whoever is involved there now is doing.

If you havent taken a look at Authority Labs for tracking whatever the hell it is that you call SEO then I weep for you.

Plus they just got pimped out on some SEO webinar I just heard about from a friend on Twitter.

My question is: will they have the balls to mention this with headline intact? XOXOXO

Conservative Fiscal Debate

A friend posted this on Facebook today which lead me to craft a response. It ended up getting me all worked up so I felt I should post it here instead.

The premise is an article from Daniel Klein on The Wall Street Journal arguing that all Liberals are silly cry babies who need to shut their mouths and follow along with the brilliance of Economists. In the article he cites a study for Zogby International survey that he and Zeljka Buturovic printed in the May issue of Econ Journal Watch, which conveniently enough Mr Klein is the editor of. (I will also note that the Wikipedia page for Mr. Klein is curated by Mr. Klein which is a violation of Wikipedia policy, but that’s just me being a meanie.)

Back to this groundbreaking survey of 4,835 American Adults which is clearly an excellent representation of the 260+ million Americans in 2008 USA. Here are the questions that Klein and Buturovic used to lead to the cleverly titled WSJ Article – Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? (Because 5th graders have these questions down pat…)

1. Mandatory licensing of professional services increases the prices of those services (unenlightened answer: disagree).
2. Overall, the standard of living is higher today than it was 30 years ago (unenlightened answer: disagree).
3. Rent control leads to housing shortages (unenlightened answer: disagree).
4. A company with the largest market share is a monopoly (unenlightened answer: agree).
5. Third World workers working for American companies overseas are being exploited (unenlightened answer: agree).
6. Free trade leads to unemployment (unenlightened answer: agree).
7. Minimum wage laws raise unemployment (unenlightened answer: disagree).
8. Restrictions on housing development make housing less affordable.(unenlightened answer: disagree)

via Daniel Klein: Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? – WSJ.com.

All examples above are heavily weighted in favor of making conservatives look like geniuses since everything is slanted against government regulation. Of course in Economics the most important virtue is the miraculous ability of the Free Market to perfect itself on the fly. Therefore all of these questions are setup to favor the Free Market world view.

If we have to frame all of this in terms of the mighty word of the Economists lets be sure to put the words of the OG Monetarist himself Milton Friedman. When he talks about the social responsibility of business “to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits…(through) open and free competition without deception or fraud.” Its that whole ‘deception or fraud’ part there that throws a whole lot of nastiness into the mix huh? Of course we can trust businesses to police Greed since it is only individuals who succumb to that Sin, right?

<cough>Enron.</cough>

I especially enjoy to subtle religious connotation with the use of ‘unenlightened’.

Deeper Look at the Questions:

1) Mandatory licensing of professional services increases the prices of those services (unenlightened answer: disagree). Yes the old Price versus Cost ambiguity. Too bad most normal people look at price and cost as the same thing leading to a bias here for liberals who tend to look at things more holistically and thus get stumped by the slick slight of hand or tongue in this case. Having all food workers qualified to handle food reduces the chance of me getting sick, thus reducing the cost of me suing that business. See also doctors, stock traders, or commercial truck drivers.

2) Overall, the standard of living is higher today than it was 30 years ago (unenlightened answer: disagree). What an awesomely vague question. What ‘standard’ are we talking about? The fact that average wages continue to fall while inflation continues to rise is what most liberals are concerned with.

3) Rent control leads to housing shortages (unenlightened answer: disagree). Odd that the first rent controls where enacted because of housing shortages during WWII. This is an incredibly ambiguous question and can easily be argued either way.

4) A company with the largest market share is a monopoly (unenlightened answer: agree). Another very ambiguous question here by using ‘largest market share’. Part of the definition of being a monopoly implies that said company does indeed have the largest market share. For an Economist this answer should be – ‘depends on additional factors not presented in this question.’ So an answer of ‘disagree’ should be just as uneducated.

5) Third World workers working for American companies overseas are being exploited (unenlightened answer: agree). Again so ambiguous that answering anything but ‘depends’ is the wrong answer. There are Third World workers working for American companies who are being exploited. Lets also mention that ‘exploited’ requires definition here as well.

6) Free trade leads to unemployment (unenlightened answer: agree). Huh? When all those manufacturing jobs went to China over the last 20+ years the factories that closed didn’t cause unemployment? Again ambiguous.

7) Minimum wage laws raise unemployment (unenlightened answer: disagree). Another biased question. It only leads to unemployment if employers were exploiting workers in the name of profit requiring regulation of minimum wages to ensure that American companies are not exploiting American workers.

8) Restrictions on housing development make housing less affordable.(unenlightened answer: disagree) Yes once again the Ambiguinator strikes again this time in the guise of ‘affordability’. Sure if there are no restrictions on housing development then the initial cost of building a home will be lower. However once it is discovered that the developers missed a proper soil impact study and all the concrete pads crack and shift after 5 years leading to a lawsuit that settles out of court for the initial homeowners that savings is wiped away. How about the longer term effects of resource management?

In fairness to Mr. Klein I hate Economist and Economics with a fervent passion. The ‘science’ of Economics is riddled with convenient biases in favor and support of Free Market policy. If I were able to live on the assumptions Economists take for granted I would always be buying everything at the lowest cost possible and only when the supply and demand for said good were in total equilibrium.

To me this article and study are a great example of how well Conservatives and the Right are at framing the conversation so that they win. It does nothing to increase or enhance debate other than to stick out your tongue and blow a giant raspberry. Mr Klien closes with this cherry:

Adam Smith described political economy as “a branch of the science of a statesman or legislator.” Governmental power joined with wrongheadedness is something terrible, but all too common. Realizing that many of our leaders and their constituents are economically unenlightened sheds light on the troubles that surround us.

Fantastic way to close here. Yes the current economic disaster we are experiencing is not because of corporate greed. Its because those silly uneducated liberals keep putting up regulation that forces corporations to find other ways of being greedy. This reminds me of Sara Palins recent remarks about the Deepwater Horizon Accident being Environmentalists fault because they force oil companies off of wildlife sanctuaries. Following this reasoning it sounds like we should just let the corporations run the government, Facism FTW!

My proposal is that we come to terms with the fact that the world is not black and white, that the Free Market does not exist, and that we use a mixture of Market Economics with a Humanistic approach to viewing the world. Life is more than Profit?

Rogue Columnist: Second time around?.

Solution ideas:

Repeal SB 1070.

Elect Terry Goddard governor.

Throw out the Kook majority in the Legislature.

Raise taxes on the rich and, if the Growth Machine ever revives, enact a real-estate transfer tax and a tax on long commutes.

Stop all residential development outside existing urban footprints (and the extravagant planning maps of Buckeye, Surprise, Maricopa, et al, are not existing footprints). For one thing, there’s not enough water.

Establish a real state commerce department employing best practices to attract high-wage jobs.

Build out the Phoenix Biosciences Campus on a speedy schedule to include a hospital, large med school, pharmacy school and private-sector research facilities. Add a full-court press to lure biomed manufacturing from California.

Eliminate GPEC. Let the cities go their own ways.

Fund the public schools and universities to compete at top levels.

Establish real infill incentives along the light-rail line.

Put a premium on shade, including enhancing and reclaiming the shady oases in central Phoenix.

Reform the tax structure so cities aren’t so dependent on sales taxes.

Create a climate-change emergency plan now and begin acting by, for example, building intercity rail, commuter rail, light rail, streetcars and an integrated, easy-to-use transit system.