foreclosure listings

Another day, another honking big funding for another online start-up (and yet another broken embargo too!).

It’s like Groundhog Day in Silicon Valley as usual.

Today, Cambridge, Mass.-based HubSpot wins tech’s version of the lottery, grabbing $32 million from Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures and also Salesforce.com.

It is unclear what the valuation for HubSpot is now, although it is likely high given it has raised $65 million now.

HubSpot makes marketing software for businesses, who use it to find prospects and generate leads, along with tools to analyze the process. It claims it has “4,000 customers, over 50 percent market share, five million leads managed, and 70 million page views tracked monthly.”

The Series D financing included HubSpot’s existing venture investors–General Catalyst Partners, Matrix Partners, and Scale Venture Partners–and part of it will be used to cash out existing shareholders. In previous rounds, the start-up has raised $33 million.

Here is the official press release:

Sequoia, Google Ventures, and Salesforce.com Invest $32 Million in HubSpot

Marketing Software Company Attracts New Strategic Investors

CAMBRIDGE, MA–(Marketwire – March 8, 2011)–Today, for the first time ever, Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures and Salesforce.com all invested together in one company, providing HubSpot with a Series D round of financing through a $32 million investment. HubSpot provides all-in-one marketing software used by over 4,000 businesses to get found by more prospects, convert them into leads and sales, and analyze the entire marketing process.

“The fundamental way that people shop, learn, and buy has changed radically in the last few years. HubSpot helps transform the way businesses market from outbound marketing (cold calls, email blasts, and direct mail) to inbound marketing (Google, blogs, social media, mobile, etc.),” said Brian Halligan, co-founder and CEO of HubSpot.

Sequoia Capital has a long history of partnering with founders to help them build long-term, multi-billion dollar companies, including Google, LinkedIn, AdMob, YouTube, Yahoo!, Apple, and Oracle. “We back companies that are transforming their industries,” said Jim Goetz, General Partner at Sequoia Capital. “HubSpot is the emerging category leader in the SaaS marketing sector. Their customer base exceeds that of all the other relevant marketing software companies combined, including Eloqua, Marketo, Genius, and Manticore.”

“Today, every company needs to succeed in search, social, sales, and marketing–I can’t think of a more powerful trifecta than Google, Salesforce.com, and HubSpot. With 4,000 customers, HubSpot is already a clear marketing leader–now, with this new infusion of capital and recognition by Google’s venture arm and Salesforce.com, HubSpot has a great opportunity to separate itself from the pack and become the leading marketing platform in the small and medium business space,” said Brent Leary, co-founder of CRM Essentials.

Google Ventures Partner, Rich Miner (formerly co-founder of Android) said, “We agree with HubSpot’s belief that search engines, social media, and mobile devices have fundamentally changed how businesses should market themselves. We’re thrilled to support their efforts to help thousands of small and medium businesses reach potential customers.”

Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot commented, “We founded the company based on a simple premise: Businesses want an easy-to-use, complete and integrated marketing platform that helps them get more leads and customers. We plan to use this new capital to further invest in this ambitious vision and further our existing lead in the marketing software category.”

A few years ago, the Internet experienced a video revolution. As broadband access expanded and more people began uploading content, video became an expected resource for consumers. Businesses could get more mileage out of television commercials and engage users by linking to video reviews of its products.

A year ago, we saw evidence of small and medium-sized business increasing budgets for video content – to be used both on their homepages and in advertisements. In 2009, 19% of businesses polled were using video (up from 5% in 2008) and I’m willing to bet that number will be much higher in the 2010 report that should come out later this month.

Now, as technology has become more affordable and increasingly mobile, we’re able to experience virtually anything online. As such, local search engines are evolving into master content synthesizers to meet the needs of consumers and advertisers alike – offering video and photos, local advertising deals, user reviews, QR codes, maps and directions, etc.

Consumer expectations of local search engines have never been higher. Users want to see photo and video reviews of a company’s products, read what other people have to say, and even take a virtual tour of your store or restaurant before they visit.

The same is true of small- and medium-sized business owners looking to find a competitive advantage. Local search engines are offering more dynamic content than ever before to users and it’s up to search marketers to help business owners feed that content.

It’s interesting to see how video content has changed since the advent of YouTube. Instead of traditional video advertising, we’re seeing new technology that lets users look around your business from their own home. Soon, we’ll be able to find virtual creations of almost any environment online – and those virtual tours are being integrated with current deals and other advertising promotions to drive traffic to your business.

Recently, a company called EveryScape partnered with Bing and YP to offer digital advertisers a new local search solution – virtual tours. For example, YP360 will let a user step inside a restaurant in Baltimore while they’re still on the train. They can choose a place and even set a reservation, all within the same application on their phone.

Google Earth has gone indoors and local search engines are responsible for bringing this detailed and vivid content to users while keeping it simple and accessible. And the business case for offering this new content to users and advertisers alike is clear as local advertising is expected to grow to $16.1 billion this year, up from $13.7 billion in 2010.

Even more, mobile phone advertising spending is expected to be more than a billion dollars in 2011, up 48% from 2010. Local search engines like YP and Yelp! are seeing over 20 million visitors a month, many of them accessing via mobile phones.

This is a great opportunity for local search engines and advertisers to embrace this new technology and get ahead of the pack. Effective local advertising goes beyond building a social networking presence and listing in directories – you have to make sure your content is engaging. In the online world, the savviest local search marketers who use this technology well will have the most successful campaigns.

I recommend that any business owner or local search marketer read up on the latest digital advertising solutions and consider offering your customers virtual tours of your products or store. To set your business apart, you need to stay current with the best that local search has to offer.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: Locals Only

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Apple advertises its products as magical. They’re at the intersection of “technology and the liberal arts,” Steve Jobs said today. Something that moves your heart, not just your lust for technology. Will consumers still buy that in 2011?

The big picture question of the day is whether Apple has done it again. With the original iPad, Apple crushed its rivals, taking more than 90 percent of the tablet market in 2010 and selling more than 15 million units. Jobs predicted today that 2011 will be the year of the iPad 2. Based on what I have seen today, I think he’s mostly, but not entirely, right.

Competitors will discover that Apple has a lot of inherent financial advantages, including being a low-cost leader. That may not sound intuitive, but I believe it has to be true. It is selling so much volume of its products that it can get discounts on parts and manufacturing services that no one else can get.

When it sells its products in stores, it also doesn’t have to give away 20 percent of the margin to a retailer. That is a huge financial advantage. Carriers are also willing to subsidize the costs of Apple products in a way that they won’t with other tablet vendors. All of these things may explain why the Motorola Xoom, a very cool product, is selling for $800 while Apple has priced its new devices at $499 to $829, (and dropped the price of the old iPad to $399). Apple has also left very little room for rivals here, since it has signed up both AT&T and Verizon. Perhaps there is room for rivals to sell $199 machines, but users probably aren’t going to like them.

Those are reasons why any cool Apple mobile product could beat other rivals. But Apple has also done some smart things with the iPad 2. It has created another rev of its microprocessor, the A5, which has two cores, or computing brains. And it has nine times faster graphics than its old A4 chip. Since Apple designs this chip itself, it doesn’t have to give away much margin to a chip design firm. It only has to give a small margin to a chip manufacturer such as Samsung to make the chips.

Apple has also custom-designed the A5 to run Apple applications on a device with a 10-hour battery life. Apple should have an edge there, as it won’t sell the A5 to rivals. But if this is an advantage, it isn’t likely to last long, as Nvidia is being very aggressive with a new quad-core chip that it could sell to any Android rivals.

The design of the iPad 2 is where Apple has more advantages. The iPad 2 will have faster web-browsing with a new version of Safari. It has two cameras that will inspire a lot of video and photo-related apps. The availability of the Mac applications — iMovie, Garage Band, and Photo Booth — on the iPad 2 will make a lot of users happy. More interesting features will come with new releases of the iOS, or Apple’s operating system in the fairly near future.

There are some users who won’t like the restrictions of Apple’s ecosystem. If they want universal serial bus (USB) and SD card ports, they are out of luck. Apple didn’t change the resolution of its screen either, leaving it at 1024 x 768. Competitors could add these options and put emphasis on them as selling points. (Critics are disappointed that Apple did not improve the display, but that’s a big cost issue others have too).

Apple has also made great improvements in the feel of the product. It’s 33 percent thinner, 2 ounces lighter, and it has a wonderful new screen cover that doubles as a stand for the device. (It wakes up the device when you peel it back and it has micro-fibers that clean the screen when the cover is on).

Now here is why Jobs is not entirely right. Apple has come up with a stunning machine at prices that the competitors will have a hard time beating. But it is almost inevitable that Android-based tablets will gain market share on Apple.

So far, I don’t see the Android machine that will beat the iPad 2. But the potential is there, given ingredients such as Android 3.0, Nvidia Tegra 2 chips and other fast microprocessors, and 4G LTE. The latter is the main weakness in Apple’s armor.

LTE is fast, with a minimum speed on Verizon at around 12 megabits a second and actual speeds running much higher than that now. Getting access to 4G LTE is as big a benefit as having access to lots of cool apps, from my point of view. Right now, the timing of the still-young LTE technology means that Apple cannot yet put it into its mass-produced, lowest-cost tablet computers.

If LTE costs come down sometime soon, then Apple can launch a new version of the iPad to incorporate the technology. But it’s not a simple upgrade, as it means that the hardware of the machine — including the radio chip — has to change. And for now, LTE chips are larger than their 3G equivalents, so the heat dissipation and product size are affected. In other words, LTE can force Apple to redesign the iPad.

Apple can do that. But Android tablet makers might be able to move faster than Apple directly into the 4G LTE tablet market. If they do that, then they will have found a scenario where they could steal a march on Apple. Apple is not likely to let that gap last for a long time, but it might be enough for Apple to lose some share this year.

Apple’s leadership position in this market will be hard to beat, but the collective weight and reach of Android rivals could erode it. And here’s a sobering thought: If Apple eventually winds up with only 30 percent of the tablet market, it could still be No. 1, and its place as the largest technology company in the world will not be at risk.

Check out Apple’s overview video on the iPad 2 and Jobs’ comments on technology and the liberal arts below.

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With few surprises, techies were underwhelmed with Apple’s iPad 2 announcement, but I’m confident that consumers will be thrilled with the product. Apple already had a massive lead in the consumer tablet market it created, and these “underwhelming” upgrades should keep the company comfortably ahead. Apple has given competitors an opening by sticking to 3G, and it did not further pressure them with a lower entry price point or higher-resolution display. However, Apple has three critical advantages.

1. Brand: When consumers are thinking about tablets, they say they are buying an “iPad,” not a “tablet.” The iPad was already the category and volume leader, and the iPad 2 builds on that. In this respect, Apple actually benefits from the crowd of new tablets hitting the market. If there were only one or two strong competitors, consumers would be able to weigh the pros and cons of each offering, but with dozens and dozens of options hitting the market over the next few months, decision paralysis can set in and many consumers will throw up their hands and make the “safe” choice: the iPad.

2. iTunes: The iPad is still the only tablet on the market with a huge digital marketplace for movies, TV shows, and music. Some competitors are taking steps in this direction (e.g., Samsung’s Hub), but iTunes remains a significant competitive advantage.

3. App Store: If all you want to do is browse the Web and check e-mail, any tablet will probably suffice. However, Apple has an enormous lead in purpose-built apps. The Android ecosystem is strong and app availability should improve significantly over time, but the iPad 2 is considerably more versatile than any of its competitors right now, and it appears unlikely to lose its lead any time in the near future.

So if you are competing with Apple, what should you do? Rather than copying Apple’s products, copy its old advertising tag line and Think Different.

Apple’s brand is focused on creative types (or those who aspire to be), which is why it spends so much effort creating things like GarageBand. Competitors should target IT managers, knowledge workers, outdoorsy people, or some other group and build software and hardware combinations better suited to those use cases. Of course, this will take imagination and the ability to tie hardware, software, and services together to build unique experiences. There are some companies thinking outside the box (HTC and RIM have clearly differentiated products on their roadmaps), but for the vendors who are trying to out-Apple Apple… good luck. Here are some pointers, you’re going to need them:

• Based on Apple’s financials, it is clear that the iPad with WiFi is Apple’s volume product and 3G versions are merely gravy. Why is the competition only targeting the gravy?

• iTunes remains a significant competitive advantage for Apple – I cannot easily explain to novices how to get a movie onto the XOOM. Rivals need an “iTunes” of their own, but having one just achieves parity with Apple, so partnering is an acceptable approach. However, half measures are not enough; digital media stores must include movies (including rentals) and TV shows and music. If multiple partners are used, the tablet vendor still needs to provide a common interface and single account/billing relationship.

• Nintendo has a significant base of game developers targeting the 3DS; if you cannot muster equivalent resources (for gaming, media playback, or some other use), adding 3D to your tablet is just a gimmick.

• Apple’s rivals can compete on 4G, higher-resolution displays, or a lower price. Even speed is a potential differentiator from a technical perspective; NVIDIA has quad-core processors sampling this month, so rivals could build even faster tablets for this holiday season. However, I must still caution vendors that all of these factors are irrelevant if consumers do not want your product.

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Surface Encounters

Ask yourself, what are my company’s core capabilities? If your answer is simply, restating the product you sell, you are most likely incoherent. The coherence premium is a high level strategy used by some of the largest (and most profitable) corporations in America. Companies that are “coherent” can define 3-6 capabilities internally that differentiate them within their industry, build a deep workable strategy focused on “winning,” and develop product portfolio based around their capabilities.

What makes the coherence premium such an interesting topic? The fact that companies who are “coherent” are healthier, more profitable and better set up for long-term growth. Coca-Cola, a poster child for coherence, (almost 100 on the Coherence Capabilities Score) sees on average 20% higher earnings before interest and taxes than profiled companies with a Coherence Capabilities Score of less than 20.

Take Wal-Mart for instance, they’ve aligned all of their capabilities:

• Aggressive vendor management


• Expert point-of-sale data analytics


• Superior logistics


• Rigorous working capital management

Simple, but to the point, Wal-Mart understands their internal capabilities, which stretch from logistics all the way to IT. Capabilities should be specific enough that they exact a point of where you stop competing and start excelling your industry. A more thorough example of a capability would be, “A company’s ability to use customer-data mining to develop new products.”

Benefits

1. Strengthens a Companies Competitive Advantage


2. Companies are Better Prepared For The Future


3. Produces Efficiencies of Scale


4. Aligns Strategic Intent and Day-To-Day Decision Making

Steps

1. Ways to Play- learn how your company provides value and the way you will face the market.

• Are we investing capabilities that matter to the way we play?


• Are we clear about the way we choose to create value in the marketplace?

2. Capabilities System -determine your 3-6 core capabilities.

• Have we defined how these capabilities work with our system?


• Do all of our businesses draw upon this superior system?

3. Build a Strategy For a Balanced Portfolio – Build your future growth and product initiates to maximize your core capabilities.

• Have we found our product and service “sweet spot”


• Are new products and acquisitions determined on the way the fit within our capabilities system?

Understanding your core capabilities and becoming coherent is not necessarily the easiest thing to do. Your capabilities should be assessed with a healthy mix of both internal and external information and careful thought. All of this is worth the hassle; coherent companies consistently reap more profits, are better prepped for the future and place themselves atop their industries by innovating.

Preview of Final Result

 

Resources

• PT Sans Bold – FontSquirrel


• Free App Icons for Developers – WebAppers

Step 1

Open Photoshop and create a new document that is 1200 x 1200 pixels, 72 dpi, and RGB Color. Fill the layer with white. (Ctrl+Backspace or Delete)

Step 2

Now create a rectangle for the header and fill it with a white-grey color, then use the colors on the image for the “Gradient Overlay”. Our search and logo will eventually be part of the header.

Step 3

Create a new rectangle above the previous one, with attributes as shown below. The following drop shadow effect creates a look of a 1 pixel stroke which does increase the look of that simple bar. Note: this step creates a horizontal line.

 

Step 4

Now add the “Gradient Overlay” layer style with the hex codes indicated.

Step 5

Add a white 1 pixel stroke. The following stroke of 1 pixel will divide the grey shadow effect. It’ll eventually work as a divider.

Step 6

Make one more rectangle in the middle-right zone, and fill it with white and add a 1 px stroke as indicated – it will be our search box.

Step 7

One more rectangle should be created and filled with blue. Set the inner shadow as indicated below, this will be our search button. This blue works great in combination with grey, white and light-grey. Blue will be the major contrasting color we use as we work through this template.

Step 8

Add the Gradient Overlay details to the button with the details from image.

Step 9

Add a 1 px stroke to the button with the color indicated. Take a look at the first and the final result of the button so you can see the difference all these details made.

Step 10

Now add this drop shadow effect for the text placed in the search box, using PT Sans Bold. This will be the final step in creating your search button. You may want to try other fonts, but the PT Sans Bold is really good for this small button.

Step 11

Make another fill under the header section, this will be the navigation area. Here we will place the navigation links of our template.

Step 12

Write your navigation links using a dark-grey color, then add a white “drop shadow” effect. The effect used for the navigation links is the same used for the search button.

Step 13

With 1px vertical line, make divisions between each links. The lines should be black and will really increase the beauty of the navigation area.

Step 14

Over the home section, make a fill with the blue and then add a Gradient Overlay style as indicated.

Step 15

Copy the Home link, this time color it white and add a drop shadow effect.

Step 16

Create a big, grey zone under the navigation, it should be about 30% of the layout. This will be the background for the featured area.

Step 17

Now create a big, white rectangle and add some shadow with the details shown. A big stock image, a big headline and some text with another great button will be added.

Step 18

Add a any dummy image you want to that featured area. Be sure it covers more than 80% of the area. The one I chose is from a stock website.

Step 19

Add some text to it, use the PT SANS Bold font and make the font big.

Step 20

The remaining area should be filled with grey, in it we’ll place some text. This is really a secondary area which describes the image, the services, the company itself, or whatever you’d like.

Step 21

Place some blue-colored text which will be the title of the information below. Use the details in the image for Drop Shadow style.

Step 22

Add some dummy text. This could be some important information or whatever you’d like.

Step 23

Create another grey area under the featured zone, where we will add some text and icons later. Add the details as stated on the image. Mostly, the icons will promote the services offered by the company behind the website.

Step 24

Continue by adding a Gradient Overlay style for the last rectangle we have created in the anterior steps.

Step 25

Now we are adding titles and icons, as well as some divisions. The icons can be found in the resource list at the beginning of the tutorial. Be sure to choose your icons and text thoughtfully.

Step 26

At the border of both zones, create a small circle and fill it with dark brown color. Add some inner shadow as stated on the image.

Step 27

Continue by adding a drop shadow layer style. It is another small detail, but it really makes that button zone minimalistic, nice-looking and well designed.

Step 28

To finish, add a Gradient Overlay effect.

Step 29

By using the Custom Shape Tool (U), create an arrow in both circles. Now add the details shown on the screenshot.

Step 30

Continue by adding some Color Overlay for the arrow. It should also be a blue color because otherwise, it will not fit the contrast and the colors used on the whole template.

Step 31

Add a video screenshot in the free space and place a title for it. For this template, I have used a simple screenshot of a YouTube widget.

Step 32

Add the text “Product Highlights” and “Case Studies.” Let the text under the “Product Highlights” be links so you could showcase some friends’ websites or resources you admire/promote.

Step 33

Finish it by creating another form for e-mails, place all kind of other information, and whatever you’d like.

Step 34

Don’t forget to make a relevant/small footer for our template. If you have paid attention, you should know how to create the same effect as below. 

 

All done! If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to drop a comment. I hope you enjoyed this whole tutorial!

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People Making Money Online

At first it was just an experiment. Blake Crouch, a mystery and suspense novelist, was not lacking for a traditional book publisher. His last few novels were put out by St. Martin’s Press and he has a literary agent dedicated to selling the rights to his work. But early last year, intrigued by success stories with Amazon’s Kindle store, he decided to release a collection of his short stories as an ebook without the aid of a publisher.

Though sales started off slow — maybe a few hundred a month — within the last two months he’s been averaging 5,000 purchases a month. With his 70% cut from Amazon, that means a $2.99 ebook has generated upwards of $10,000 a month, money that bypasses a traditional publisher completely and goes straight to his pocket. Five thousand sales a month, he told me in a phone interview, “is far more than I’ve sold traditionally.”

Crouch is among a growing list of authors who are forgoing the traditional publisher route to sell their work directly to consumers. Though self-publishing is nothing new — it has long been referred to as “vanity publishing,” typically a disparaging term — the rise of the ebook market has allowed authors to eliminate the high infrastructure costs of a print product. A typical print run of a few thousand books can cost a vanity publisher a hefty five figures, whereas the actual publishing of an ebook (not including the production costs) amounts to virtually nothing.

The ebook also allows authors to skip over other hurdles, including the very cold reality that most offline retailers won’t stock a self-published book on their shelves. Though online retailers like the Kindle and Nook stores can still give preferential treatment for major publishers, they’re able to provide a wide swath of inventory from the long tail.

Sales

Recent figures released by Amazon indicate that its ebooks are now outselling their print counterparts. Most the top sellers in the Kindle store also have print editions, but there are dozens of “indie” authors who are selling thousands of ebooks a month without a print version. Most the authors I spoke to for this article noticed a drastic increase in sales in the last few months, but none of them knew exactly why. “Something happened after the new year,” Crouch said. “I don’t know if it’s because more people purchased ereaders or what. But in January sales almost doubled what they were in December, and it was just a huge upswing.”

A paranormal and erotic romance author named Tina Folsom had tried for years to land a literary agent and traditional publisher to no avail. Almost on a whim she decided early last year to begin uploading some of her novels to various ebook platforms. Sales, at first, were slow — perhaps only a few hundred a month. But then suddenly in October she sold over a thousand titles. In December it jumped up to 11,000, and in January she sold 27,000 ebooks (February, a shorter month, clocked in around 22,000).

But why did sales increase so drastically?

“I’m not 100% sure,” Folsom told me in a phone interview. “There were certainly different levels [of sales] at the beginning. I started making better covers for my books, so that made a big difference. My blurbs describing my books had a really good hook, and that certainly helped. I went around a lot of blogs as well, approaching paranormal romance blogs or vampire blogs to try to get my books reviewed, because obviously there are very few sites that will actually review self published books.

“So it took awhile to get some people interested. It started rolling a little more in October or so when I started seeing a little more of an increase. By December I already had people emailing me asking when I had the next book coming out in the series. It sounded like people were already waiting for the third book and when the third book came out, the next day my sales doubled, which was surprising. I hadn’t thought it would go that fast.”

The work involved

Just because the cost of distribution has been eliminated doesn’t mean that there isn’t real work involved in creating a finished ebook product. Most print publishers spend months producing a book, a process that includes revision, copy editing, formatting, jacket copy, and cover design. Eliminating the publisher from the equation means the author has to take on all these burdens.

“With ebooks you’re there from the ground level, and it is very taxing,” Crouch explained. “You have to have it formatted. I work with a wonderful cover artist who does all the cover art for my ebooks, and he’s worked on developing a brand with me over the last year. It was a no brainer for him to do this. And then there’s a lot of metadata in terms of loading all these to the various platforms; it’s not just Kindle, it’s Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Sony, and the Apple iBooks store. There are the library lending programs, which I’m just starting to explore. It is a lot of work and there is definitely a place for someone to come along in the ebook revolution and step in and assist writers.”

Some of these indie authors are successful enough to “farm out” a lot of the production work to other people. Folsom pays a person to illustrate her covers, and not only has she hired a copy editor to line edit her upcoming books, but the editor is also going back and editing her already-published titles for errors. Up until recently she had split her time between writing, editing, and her day job, but she quit the day job and the production assistance she farms out allows her to spend most of her time writing.

Pricing

One point of contention for many indie authors is pricing. Amazon allows authors to choose their own prices, giving them a 70% royalty on all ebooks sold over $2.99 and taking a much steeper cut for books sold for less than that. This has created two factions: those who price their books above $2.99 and those who set the marker extremely low at, say, 99 cents. Both Crouch and Folsom think the 99 cent authors are not only devaluing their own work, but other ebooks as well.

“I hate that,” Crouch said. “I think you can sell a lot of books at 99 cents, but I don’t necessarily think you’ll make new fans. I think a lot of people buy this new technology and just cruise the top 100 [sellers], and at 99 cents that’s total impulse; you might just pick up 30 titles. Whether or not they actually read those is a real question. I price most my longer work, like novels or short story collections, at $2.99 or higher. I will price my individual short stories at 99 cents because that’s a fair price and it’s a gateway to the rest of my work. I can’t justify selling my novels for 99 cents.”

Folsom takes a similar approach, pricing her short stories at 99 cents and her novels much higher. In fact she goes above the $2.99 threshold, charging between $4.99 and $5.99. But whatever the price, there’s little doubt that the author’s cut will be much higher than what he or she would receive with a traditional publisher; in most cases a writer will only see 10-20% of the cover price. At 70%, Folsom will take home upwards of $4.20 for ever copy sold.

What about the publishing houses?

So where does this leave the traditional publishers? Will companies like HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster be able to lure these indie authors under their wings? Crouch seemed ambivalent on this question, saying his agent is still shopping around his proposals to the New York houses.

“The royalty rate right now for ebooks that publishers are offering is 25% and that’s horrendously in favor of the publisher, because ebooks are pretty much becoming the preferred format of reading,” he said. “That’s a huge downgrade in royalty rate. I really can’t see a scenario where I’d be involved with a traditional publisher unless the terms were pretty stellar, honestly. They’d have to be really fair.”

I asked whether a publisher would allow the author to keep the e-rights so that it could produce a print product, but Crouch was highly doubtful. “I’d love to do that, but up until this point no publisher has even considered giving any author the e-rights. There are authors walking away from book deals right now under that very deal point. They want to keep the e-rights and the publisher doesn’t want to give them. And of course they don’t want to give them; e-rights are the most valuable subset of a book property right now.”

Folsom was more blunt in responding to how she’d deal with the very same publishers who had rejected her work in the past. “They would have to pay me a very high amount,” she said. “We’re not even talking a low six figure income. If they wanted my three-book vampire series, a quarter of a million dollars wouldn’t even do it, because I can make more than that in a year on those three books. ”

This is not to say steering clear of the big publishers doesn’t cause complications. So far, Folsom has not been able to sell the foreign rights to her work, meaning right now she can only market her books to an English-speaking audience. “We cannot get anyone to buy our foreign rights. I’ve emailed agents, tons of them. The response I get is, ‘Well, if you’re not also interested in selling your US e-rights, then I can’t represent you.’ I’ve even contacted foreign rights agents directly who don’t deal with domestic issues and even those are rejecting us. They say if they can’t go to a publisher abroad and say that you’ve been published with Random House, or Penguin, or wherever, then they’re not going to be interested.”

Without the collective bargaining power of a major publisher, an indie author may also have less clout with those companies distributing their books. Folsom told me that Barnes & Noble’s Nook store unexpectedly ceased offering free sample chapters for self-published erotica novels last week. This means that a potential reader could no longer read a few pages of the author’s work before deciding whether to purchase it. The effect on sales, Folsom said, was devastating; she saw a 35% drop overnight. So far, Barnes & Noble has not explained why this option has been removed for indie authors, but erotica published by traditional publishers has remained untouched.

Most the indie authors I’ve come across sell the overwhelming majority of their ebooks on the Amazon Kindle, but for some reason romance writers have found success on the Nook. Folsom sees the majority of her sales coming from there. According to a recent CNET article, the Nook has captured 25% of the US ebook market, a fairly sizable chunk in a niche with a growing list of competitors. Despite predictions that the iPad would wipe out Kindle sales, the authors I interviewed said they weren’t seeing significant revenue from the Apple device.

***

Whenever an article appears touting the success of a few self-published authors, there’s a certain amount of pushback from critics who seek to ground us in reality, pointing out that the overwhelming majority of writers who self-publish don’t see significant sales. Perhaps this is where the big publishers can still fit in by separating the wheat from the chaff. And a lower barrier of entry for the ebook market means a lot more chaff than ever before.

“Amazon’s Kindle store is overloaded right now with a bunch of folks who think they can publish their high school diary and make a lot of money,” said Crouch. “And that stuff flops down. My concern is it’s going to be harder to find the good stuff, and I think there’s going to have to be some kind of push, whether it’s a writers collective or whether this is spearheaded by agents or distributors who can group known quantities together and brand them with some logo that denotes quality. Just to give the reader help in sorting through all of the millions of books that are infiltrating the Kindle system.”

But those who have found the sweet spot in sales are not looking back. In a widely circulated blog post, author Joe Konrath meticulously detailed his history with traditional publishing, listing the painstaking efforts he made to sell as many print copies of his books as possible. He traveled thousands of miles, gave up sleep, hounded booksellers, and threw himself at every person who would potentially buy his book. The account is exhausting just to read. All that changed, however, with the rise of the ebook. What used to take eight weeks to sell 5,000 books took him only a few days on the Kindle store. With this success, he has vowed to put all the promotional sweat work behind him. He’ll no longer attend conventions, book signings, or even grant interviews to journalists.

Sure enough, when I contacted Konrath for this article, his response was polite but firm; “I’ve stopped doing interviews,” he wrote. Most book authors would jump at the chance for free publicity, but true to his word, Konrath would not bite. With the huge market the Kindle store had created, he no longer needed people like me. He now has one job and one job only: to write fiction.

1. RedState: A “Nerve Center” of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

Well, this will make you feel good.

The kids over at Media Matters are gearing up to lose their 501(c)(3) status I’m guessing as they go headlong into a new mission to destroy Fox News and Newscorp.

Along the way, the Politico tells us Media Matters has given up stalking everyone except Fox and a handful of conservative websites it considers the “nerve center” of the vast right wing conspiracy.

RedState is one of those websites. Truth be told, fundraising seems to be the whole purpose behind this Politico article. Couple it with the fawning piece about the Media Matters guerilla pundit training program where they are trying to get people on Fox News and you have the makings of a “we need money” PR blitz with the help of Media Matters friends in the press.

I think we should fundraise off this news!

It is rather funny. In the Politico, the story is about Media Matters making it their new mission to destroy Fox. In the Washington Post, the story is about how Media Matters is training lefty pundits to get on Fox.

But the key takeaway is that we now know that by being a RedState user you are seen as part of the nerve center of the vast right wing conspiracy. Consequently, you, as part of the community, have an obligation to be on your A-game.

I hope you will consider beefing up your constitutional skills by participating in Hillsdale College’s free online town hall on April 16, 2011, at 10:00 a.m.

You’ll learn how our economic liberty has diminished and how we can get it back under the U.S. Constitution.

You can watch all or part of it. But most importantly, you can make sure what you believe. You really have no excuse given how easy Hillsdale College is making it.

For more information and to register for the event, go here.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Defense Secretary: No National Interests In Libya. Hillary Clinton: Yeah, But Libya Is The Same As 9/11

I don’t watch the Sunday talk shows because rarely is anything of substance discussed or revealed on them. I suppose fifteen years ago they set the tone for the upcoming week’s media coverage, but today they are a superfluous exercise that has little value beyond providing a subsidy to the hair spray industry.

Sometimes, though, an interview comes along that is so disastrous that it has to be commented upon. Today’s joint appearance on Meet the Press by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was just one of those occurrences.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. US Allies With Al Qaeda In Libya

As we’ve noted over the past weeks, we know precious little about the alleged “rebels” on whose behalf we’ve intervened in Libya.

Now a little more information is available.

“In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited “around 25? men from the Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some of them, he said, are “today are on the front lines in Adjabiya”.”

This is probably only a shock in the office of Samantha Power. Throughout the Iraq war Libya was the second leading source of foreign fighters and suicide bombers. That they should be driving the train on the insurrection in Libya should be unsurprising to anyone allowed to develop national policy. Should be, but apparently the Obama Administration’s foreign policy — or domestic policy for that matter — is nothing more than a series of unpleasant surprises.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Arming Libyan Rebels

The Libyan operation would have nearly a comic opera quality were it not for the fact that people are needlessly getting killed because of the fecklessness of the Obama Administration. As we pointed out yesterday, our motive for going into Libya has absolutely nothing to do with establishing a less repressive regime, the rebels are happily engaged in the slaughter of their enemies and carrying on a campaign of ethnic cleansing to force black Africans from Libya, than with one particular twit, Samantha Power, trying to prove a particular academic version of BushLiedTM.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Proud DNC Affiliate, Reuters Describes The Libyan Coalition

“Obama is committed to partnering with other countries rather than going it alone as did his predecessor George W. Bush, which both broadens and complicates the decision-making process.”

- Inner Party Truth-Organ, Reuters. (HT:New York Times)

Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic read this purgative and quickly needed a lavatory in which to up-chuck. His nausea is understandable. His restraint in castigating such rampant dishonesty in the service of such a small and petty POTUS, was not as commendable as he thinks. This fraudulent garbage deserved a stronger, more virile rebuke. Goldberg offered the following “suggestion” to the proud media organ of The Democratic National Committee known as Reuters.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. The Chicken & The Egg: London unions school Madison mobs on anarchy

Today, England’s trade unions and their friends on the Left had a massive demonstration on the streets of London. It devolved into ‘madness‘ as anarchists hijacked the demonstration, breaking in windows, assaulting police, and generally causing mayhem. Union leaders were not displeased.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

7. Wisconsin GOP Investigates Illegal Political Activity, Makes the Left Angry

If there is a key difference between conservatives and liberals it is their view on the rule of law. Speaking in broad termsliberals believe that a person is not accountable for their actions if their cause is just or if they have the “right” background or the “right” politics. So not a peep is heard about the clown car that is the Ninth Circus but the left goes crazy about the benign appearances of Justices Scalia and Alito. Cass Sustein and Goodwin Liu can hold legal opionions that not only put them outside the mainstream of American jurisprudence but also on the fringe of American society and no one says boo. John Yoo, on the other hand, was excoriated for writing an opinion attempting to define “torture.” Union thugs, the New Black Panther Party, and anti-globalization crazies should not be prosecuted. Tea parties, on the other hand, are dog whistle calls for anti-government violence and should be suppressed.

Probably no where is this attitude more on display than in academia. Case in point is the case of University of Wisconsin professor William Cronon, recently elected president of the American Historical Association and Democrat party hack.

Please click here for the rest of the post.



bench craft company reviews

The Funniest Fox <b>News</b> FAILS (PICTURES)

News bloopers are some of the best ones, especially when the flub involves a hilariously erroneous chyron or graphic. Fox News has had some of the funniest FAILS the Internet was able to capture, and we've corralled all the best ones ...

Obama Birth Certificate <b>News</b> | Digital <b>News</b> Report

Digital News Report – Although the Obama campaign produced a birth certificate in the run-up to the last general election, there are still questions about President Obama's birthplace. ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: Creative Marketing Secrets

Marketing for your small business can be part art/part science. But however you would describe it, it is the key to both getting new customers and keeping the.

Search engine optimization Vancouver For A Better Marketing Solution

 

When you start your own website there are lots of ways you'll have to sell it off and one of the best ways is to use SEO services Vancouver if you be in that area. The SEO or seo services will be the top way of getting more visitors to your site and therefore making more sales.

 

Now, you need to know that you will not use SEO service if you're not an online business - however, if you do not have an online presence if you are an offline business, then you will not allow it to be very far.

 

It is a well known proven fact that if you are planning to really make it within the offline world you must have an online business. This is something that all people are learning the hard way. One thing that you should also know is the fact that it's not as simple as just establishing the website and leaving it to complete its things.

 

You can do this in all sorts of ways, however these companies usually make use of multiple techniques to create an ideal marketing technique online. You will be able to employ these phones write articles for you personally, post on forums and blogs, create meta tags and meta descriptions, clean up the code, add alt tags to the images and much more.

 

It is very important that you simply do this because otherwise the company you have worked so hard for could end up losing all the money. If you have a website that you want to produce, then you will also employ the services of an SEO company, which stands for search engine optimization company. What the corporation does is basically go ahead and take best parts of your site, check the code, create keywords and write various articles and documents to ensure that your site is placed near the the surface of the list for that major search engines.

As a result the SEO company can not only increase your traffic, but also ensure that your website is fully optimized for that search engine spiders that'll be introduced to it. These spiders are used to analyze your site and put it in certain positions determined on certain keywords.

 

If you want to use the Search engine optimization Vancouver then all you've got to do is find the top companies. It's through these that the SEO gets done effectively and efficiently. With so many SEO companies to select from you have to be sure that the one you're going for is reliable. You ought to be in a position to request a failure of what you want, and the company should also have the ability to tell you know long they've been operating for. This can narrow down the list to reveal the top ones.

 

Search engine optimization Provided by Different Vancouver Web Companies

The Vancouver SEO company services are very good for business growth because they provide quality services. If you are planning to create a website for the online business, then you have arrived at right article when i is going to be explaining below how Web optimization Vancouver company services can increase your website ranking and make it popular.

Before that, you should know what Seo is. It is not that complicated and I'm sure you will get a grasp from it after reading my article. The main goal of SEO is to get more traffic to your website and target audience. It is a good decision to select a Vancouver SEO company that specializes in this sort of work, which means that your website can be indexed by search engines.

There isn't any point in you using a website without any website ranking at all as you won't get any business and profits to outlive. It is a very tough atmosphere out there as there are so many online business people exactly like you, who desire their share of pie. You must be aware of the truth that nearly 85% of internet traffic could be got from internet websites.

Whenever a user types inside a keyword or keywords for which he/she wants to know in various sites, these use crawlers to get websites using the relevant content and index them according to algorithms. It's not necessary to be worried about the algorithms which these sites use as that is not important.

To look within the first page of the google listing, you will need to hire professionals and pros who can perform the needful to keep your site one of the good books in these websites. These professionals can optimize your website content to ensure that your site gets increased traffic.

When the traffic gets high, it's a sign that you are obtaining a service that will enable you to get more revenues. SEO Vancouver company do the following to create your website appear within the first page of search results.

Use keywords which are popularly used on search engines on your website content.
Possess a web design for the website that is simple because top sites are allergic to flash and weird designs.
Submit your website to directories.
Submit your website to directory websites.
Postings on blogs and forums with back links for your websites. This is considered as a very effective method of getting more traffic aimed at your website as numerous online users use blogs and forums.

SEO Vancouver company also perform site diagnostics which is an important part in online optimization as research and analysis on finding keywords may be the way to begin a SEO campaign. So, make sure you select the right SEO Vancouver company.

Are you looking for more information regarding SEO Vancouver? Visit http://www.seo4vancouver.com/seo-services.asp today!

 

What to anticipate Whenever Hiring a Roofing Contractors

When the time comes to correct or substitute your roof, it's really a challenging task to find someone who is actually competent for the job. There are many roofers available, but the ones who'll do a congrats for a reasonable cost are not frequently simple to find. If you are in the market for a service provider, make use of the ideas beneath for meeting with as well as hiring the correct one.

Job interview and Discussion

Most roofers offer free consultations. This is especially important, because it gives them a chance to assess exactly what your homes roof needs, also it provides you with a chance to assess them. As with all of businesses, believe in intuition about the people a person let up on your roof. No matter how great a contractor's status or even recommendation, he ought to start by showing a person having a company greeting card. If a contractor arrives looking and speaking in an less than professional method, most likely the task he's going to perform will also be less than professional. This is not to express that you ought to anticipate companies to arrive within suits. They will be climbing in your roofing, so the majority of is going to be dressed in denim jeans as well as work footwear or even athletic shoes. If the contractor seems to be more interested in speaking upon his mobile phone during your roof compared to he is in analyzing your roof's needs, that may be another sign that he is not the main one for the job. For the lawful safety, make sure that the service provider offers sufficient liability insurance coverage.

Roofing Assessment

Anticipate the contractor is going to be rising on your roof. Actually, any kind of contractor who not want to go up in your roof to judge the problem should be immediately discounted. Those who are seriously interested in their work may possibly make a sketching of your roof's surface area as well as mark trouble spots onto it because they go through their assessment, or even they'll take photos or even video clip from the surface while they are up there. This is a very important action, since it enables you to observe just what the troubles are and understand how they'll be fixed.

Estimate

The next step would be the created estimation. The service provider will require away their calculator and come up with an itemized estimation. Some contractors will go out to their own truck or van and write up the actual proposal, while others will crisis the actual numbers for the job in front of you. Once you're given the proposal, make sure that you understand which products will be used, just how long the task will take and if there are any extra or even hidden costs that could occur during the restore of the roof. The contractor should be able to solution all of these concerns effortlessly and forewarn a person of any extra costs that might be sustained should the roof's integrity be broken within.

After you have received a few written estimations from roofers, evaluate what each organization or service provider is willing to provide for the price. Do not necessarily low cost the greatest bet, because occasionally the greatest bet will in reality function as the contractor who does the task correctly. Also, be wary of prices for bids which are significantly less than others. They may be utilizing substandard products or perhaps be unethical about the chance of concealed costs. Most importantly, believe in intuition and opt for the actual contractor that makes you feel most comfortable regarding handing more than your hard earned money.

 

Seven Uyghurs Sentenced to Death

2011-03-23

Critics of the sentences say China has politicized the robberies as acts of terrorism.

 

AFP

A Uyghur man walks past armed Chinese security forces in Urumqi, July 17, 2009.

Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have ordered the executions of seven ethnic minority Uyghur men convicted of "violent" crimes, official media said on Wednesday.

 

The death sentences were handed down by the Supreme People's Court in recent days, according to state media in the regional capital, Urumqi.

 

The men were accused in connection with three separate attacks late last year in the Silk Road city of Kashgar, according to the news website Urumqi Online.

 

According to another website, the Xinjiang-based Tianshan news site, Aimaiti Tuheti, Yiming Dawuti, and unnamed "others" killed a security guard at a pedestrian mall as part of a failed Aug. 7 robbery attempt.

 

In a separate incident on Oct. 12, it said, Nuermaimaiti Aobulikasimu and 11 others broke into a house, bound and killed the couple living in it, and took their possessions.

 

It said the group also broke into the homes of two brothers, robbed them, and killed six people in a Nov. 11 attack in Kashgar.

 

The report gave no information about the victims or the schedule for the executions.

 

Three of the men were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, a sentence that is normally commuted to life imprisonment in China's judicial system.

 

They were convicted of deliberate homicide and armed robbery by the Kashgar Intermediate People's Court in the first instance.

 

'Strike hard' campaign

 

A Han Chinese resident of Urumqi surnamed Yang said a reference to "terrorism" in official news reports on the case showed that it was being politicized by the authorities, who have launched a series of "strike hard" campaigns in Xinjiang following deadly ethnic violence in July 2009.

 

"There is an implied political meaning; that they were somehow engaged in separatist activities or ethnic divisions," said Yang.

 

Exile Uyghur groups said the trials had been conducted behind closed doors, with scant opportunity for public scrutiny.

 

"The entire process against these men, from the trial through to the judgment, was opaque," said Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress.

 

"There was also very little reasonable evidence to convict them on a legal basis, because all the evidence came from one side of the case," he said.

 

"We strongly condemn the Chinese government for continuing to pursue their policies of ethnic division," said Raxit.

 

"We are also strongly opposed to the death penalty in this case."

 

Earlier cases

 

Last month, the Supreme Court sentenced four Uyghurs to death for alleged involvement in an Aug. 19 bomb attack in Xinjiang’s western Aksu city.

 

The World Uyghur Congress pointed to concerns over lack of transparency in those cases too.

 

The Aksu blast left eight people dead, including two of the bombers, and 15 wounded after a man riding a three-wheeled vehicle threw explosives at a group of uniformed patrolmen. Four Uyghurs were arrested shortly after the attack.

 

State media characterized the cases as acts of terrorism and unrelated to longstanding ethnic tensions between Uyghurs and Han Chinese in the region.

 

Exiled Uyghur dissident Rebiya Kadeer has warned that attacks like those in Aksu will continue to occur until Beijing addresses the underlying source of tension in the region.

 

Millions of Uyghurs—a distinct, Turkic minority who are predominantly Muslim—populate Central Asia and Xinjiang.

 

Uyghurs say they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness despite China's ambitious plans to develop its vast northwestern frontier.

 

Those frustrations erupted in July 2009 in deadly riots that left nearly 200 people dead, by the Chinese government's tally.

 

At least 26 people, mostly Uyghurs, were sentenced to death in the aftermath of the riots, many of whom have been executed, according to state media.

 

China is believed to execute more people each year than the rest of the world’s countries combined, although the government does not publish official figures.

 

Rights groups say Beijing may execute as many as several thousand prisoners annually.

 

Chinese authorities blame Uyghur separatists for a series of deadly attacks in recent years and accuse one group in particular of maintaining ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

 

New training scheme

 

China on Wednesday also announced a training scheme which places ethnic minority graduates from Xinjiang in work elsewhere in China.

 

Governments of the destination cities will spend 450 million yuan (U.S.$ 69 million) for the program, while Xinjiang will spend 400 million yuan (U.S.$ 61 million), the official Xinhua news agency reported.

 

The program targets some 60,000 jobless college graduates in Xinjiang, around 80 percent of whom are from ethnic minorities, and 60 percent of whom are women.

 

However, some commentators see the move as an attempt to assimilate non-Han Chinese into mainstream Chinese culture.

 

"From the point of view of ethnic minorities, the graduate work scheme is really taking the cream of youth from the minorities and using them to 'further cultural development,'" wrote one ethnic minority user on a popular microblogging service.

 

"In fact, the culture that is being advanced is Han culture, and this group of young people will have been totally brainwashed," the microblog update said.

 

An Urumqi resident surnamed Li agreed.

 

"They have run senior high school schemes like this before during the past few years," he said.

 

"Whether it's high-schoolers or graduate training programs, these are measures that are aimed at thought control and brainwashing, and the 'Partification' of their education," he said.

 

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Copyright © 1998-2011 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.

 

Wikileaks and the Uyghur

through holly on December 20, 2010
Henryk Szadziewski, Manager, Uyghur Human Rights Project

Whether it were ever uncertain, information acquired by the whistleblower web site, Wikileaks, has confirmed Chinese language government worries over it's continued control of the region this calls Xinjiang, which is also referred to as Eastern Turkestan. The leaked wires from U.S. diplomats show the actual degree to which Chinese authorities make an effort to convince governments worldwide to adopt its stance upon issues impacting Uyghurs. The actual wires also show the U . s . States' issues as well as sights regarding the on going repressive steps in the region.

The majority of lighting of Chinese language government pressure would be the wires directed to Chinese language frustration, or the specter associated with Chinese language ire, over the release of Uyghur detainees within Guantánamo to 3rd nations. The Dec Twenty nine, 08 cable television relates exactly how Chinese Assistant International Minister Liu Jieyi met using the U.Utes. Ambassador to The far east to tone of voice Beijing's powerful competitors associated with release to any country other than The far east, which if the Ough.Utes. do certainly accede for this request it would "avoid harm to bilateral relations and to cooperation ‘in important areas'". Furthermore, the Feb 2009 cable describes how the Chinese Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Zhang Yannian, regarded the feasible discharge of Uyghur Guantánamo detainees because "an unfriendly act toward us" along with a "slap within the face". The U.S. federal government was company in not really liberating the actual detainees to China demonstrates the actual degree from the politicized character of the Chinese language judicial system. Legitimate concerns over terrorism tend to be easy to understand, but in the U.S. government's observe the detainees might most likely face do-it-yourself torture as well as execution when they came back to China

Chinese federal government pressure regarding the Uyghur Guantánamo detainees was not just applied to the actual U.S. government, but also to Brand new Zealand along with a handful of Western government authorities that were considering resettlement. Albania, Germany as well as Finland, as well as European Union fellow member says all have the symptoms of borne the brunt associated with Chinese language government disappointment. Regarding Germany, that was initially prepared to think about 2 Uyghurs upon solely relief reasons, Uyghur Guantánamo instances had been much less better than additional detainees because of the unwanted effects accepting Uyghurs might have upon relations with China. The Might Eight, '09 cable relates exactly how "German Ambassador Michael Schaefer documented that Germany experienced informed The far east of the U.Utes. ask for to simply accept some Uighur detainees kept from Guantánamo and had been consequently warned through The far east of ‘a large load upon bilateral relations' if Indonesia were to simply accept any detainees".

The actual diplomatic cables also talk about the unrest within Urumchi, the actual regional capital, in This summer 2009. A This summer Thirteen, '09 cable talking about bulk incidents within China says:

"Ethnic riots such as those in Xinjiang July 5-7 as well as in Tibet within 03 associated with 2008 differ markedly in origin and nature through mass occurrences, XXXXXXXXXXXX stressed in order to PolOff [Political Officer] on XXXXXXXXXXXX. Each existing serious problems for the Party, XXXXXXXXXXXX stated, but the Celebration management wouldn't hesitate to spread out fire upon Uighurs or Tibetans if they considered this essential to restore purchase. Bulk occurrences pose another kind of threat, he said, since the management is ‘afraid' to fireplace upon Han rioters with regard to anxiety about causing huge open public outrage that will change against the Celebration."

This is a relaxing viewpoint, particularly when 1 views evidence presented in two reports released this season by the Uyghur Human Privileges Project (UHRP) and Amnesty Worldwide which fine detail eyewitness accounts of the utilization of deadly live fireplace towards Uyghur protestors within July 2009. Additionally, the observation which fireplace would not be used against Han Chinese language protestors has resonances for the various strategy taken by Chinese protection forces in Urumchi to Han Chinese language protests in Sept 2009. During individuals direct orders, after that Celebration Assistant, Wang Lequan, addressed demonstrators, that had required he inform them about government reactions to protection issues. A similar ask for to meet with the Party Secretary by Uyghur demonstrators within This summer was not met.

The actual wider consequences of the unrest additionally saw a brief discussion about the effect it might possess on Iran-China relationships, and on relationships along with Sydney after Globe Uyghur Our elected representatives Leader, Ms. Rebiya Kadeer, spoke at the Nationwide Push Club in Canberra in July '09. In the latter situation, the Chinese federal government "privately warn[ed] a major Australian bank that sponsors the nation's Press Membership to use it's impact to bar a Kadeer speech there".

The actual United States' concerns concerning the scenario within the Uyghur region are available via within the wires. Inside a dialogue on policy direction in Tibet, U.Utes. officials explain that it'll be not possible for Chinese frontrunners to adopt the much softer collection "if they look like doing this below worldwide pressure". The cable out dated April 16, 08, 30 days following the outbreak associated with unrest within Tibetan areas, also relayed the actual declaration "that domestic stability remains the leadership's top priority above all else, which means there'll ‘almost surely' be no relaxation from the present difficult line on Tibet or perhaps in places like Xinjiang." The info contained in the cable television also storage sheds light about the severe sensitivity with which china federal government sights territorial ethics, and the feasible drip over associated with unrest through Tibet.

The prospect associated with solutions to tensions in Tibet as well as Xinjiang arising from civil society tend to be debated inside a February 24, 08 cable. Whilst recommending that China's financial success increases its resistance to democratic change, the actual cable also talks about how Chinese language frontrunners see the effectiveness of "a restricted growth of municipal society, such as enhancements within the rule associated with law along with a stronger part with regard to authorized religions, NGOs, charities and other actors in areas that contribute to sociable balance and don't problem Communist Party rule." This is a significant change in considering, that has observed U.S. officials market the idea that Chinese financial development, as well as economic relationships with China will bring about a steadily democratic society; however, much more belief appears to be placed in the grassroots motion compared to one which starts from the best quantity of a Chinese language government. Nevertheless, the cable proves which "[i]n areas such as Tibet as well as Xinjiang, driving a car associated with separatism leads to tighter limitations on the development of municipal culture." This approach can be regarded as counter-productive through the official, who shows that the U.S. government "should continue to express...serious issues over Beijing's human privileges report and attract China's growing awareness which greater respect for individual privileges, religious independence and also the guideline associated with law will serve to promote the very improvement and sociable balance that The far east looks for in addition to to enhance China's international picture." Such a technique would take considerable diplomatic abilities considering "China's paranoid concern that the United States secretly encourages routine change as well as ‘separatists' in Taiwan, Tibet as well as Xinjiang".

The cables offer understanding of the actual daily business associated with diplomacy that's hardly ever afforded to the general public, and it is interesting to notice the amount of function carried out behind closed doors upon Uyghur problems. The importance of the part of the us as a keep track of of Uyghur human rights problems in personal conversations is made clear, and contrasts with its tactful public stance. The staff of the Uyghur Individual Rights Task is actually comfortable with pressure china government puts upon Uyghur activists; still, the facts associated with Chinese federal government pressure on it's counterparts is illustrative from the degree which Chinese language officials attempt to suppress contrary narratives. With more facts to come from Wikileaks, concerns more than Uyghurs may not get the actual head lines, however the wires possess shed new gentle on the documentation of human rights problems in the Uyghur area.

 

Search Engine Optimization And Article promotion Will Place You On The 1st Page

Search engine marketing and article marketing are a couple of the strongest strategies that can be used to promote your internet site and get the revenue and success that you desire for your online business. Those two things have been around for a really long time already nevertheless they still still be really effective. In fact, these have helped many people free themselves from the traditional methods for money-generating options of society.

In this post, I will be showing the ways how you are able to properly execute seo and marketing with articles for the betterment of one's business enterprise web site. Additionally, I will even be discussing the different points that you have to consider when you are using these two online marketing strategies to market your website and acquire customers. Despite the fact that article promotion and Search engine marketing have been established for a long time already, you have to know that the trends and preferences as to how they are carried out are continually changing, which is why you have to keep yourself up to date with these things through the help of Seo forum sites to enable you to quickly adjust and discover ways to make your strategies far better.

In the past marketing with articles to different web-sites was once so simple yet the effects that they produce for web-sites really was powerful. However, stuff has changed a great deal today. Currently submitting the same article to several websites is no longer advisable because engines like google have now changed to a huge extent in the manner they rank pages. They no more rank contents which are identical like they used to in the past. This is among the best types of changes that occur in internet marketing trends. This change has given birth to wide plethora of methods that web marketers are using today. The majority of online marketers now produce articles and publish them in really popular article submission sites and await targeted traffic arrive at their pages. Perhaps that most reliable Seo strategy that you can use. Aside from being effective, this provides positive benefits on a regular basis. The only issue with this particular technique is the caliber of traffic that you'll get using this won't be so good unless you do proper market and keyword research beforehand and rehearse in-links. You need for attending these two things before you decide to submit your posts so that you won't wind up losing considerable amounts of targeted prospects. Because of this you need to practice good levels of diligence if you want your advertising initiatives to function.

In addition to articles, you can even use blogs, which can be another really powerful type of online marketing strategy today because it's highly popular with the major search engines. On this technique, it is possible to choose to develop a single blog site that specifically targets your chosen market otherwise you can give rise to other blogs that are labeled as experts inside your niche.

Learn effective Vancouver seo techniques in the Vancouver SEO website.

Roofing Companies Vancouver BC

There are numerous things to consider when looking for a roofing contractor. Price, experience, and also referrals are a handful of the things you will likely be concerned about. Please read on for even other great ideas.

• Finding a Roofing Contractors

Before searching for a roofing contractor, ensure you have a general idea of the project that you need to do. By no means is it necessary to be a professional. If you have the Roof Certificate, read it carefully to find the specifics of your active roof. If you don't have a Roof Certificate, talk about documents closed during concluding to locate your homes roof Inspection linen. These papers should give you everything you need to be familiar with your roof. Ahead of contacting a roofing contractor, you have to have a list of specifications and features to help you choose exactly who works for your roof covering project. Be sure you write down every potential roofing contractor's answers and check these people against the other person. If there are any inacucuracy, be sure to be aware this and also take this into consideration when generating a final decision. There are no straightforward ways to go with a roofing contractor, in case you take pay attention to to the data provided, your chances of a successful roofing project are usually greatly increased.

One of the best methods for finding a roofers is by word of mouth. Try requesting a friend or relative who has had covering work completed, and had been satisfied with the work. Get the title of the company and their contact data. If you have not sure of mouth referrals, test first seeking in the cell phone book and internet based. A large advert or fancy website just isn't necessarily a sign of the top quality of work, but could be a great tool regarding measuring just how long and commitment they have placed in their respective profession. Additionally, try finding current worksites and look at the covering work which is done or perhaps in the process of staying finished. If you are visually pleased, ask the home manager to the name from the roofing contractor along with their contact information.

• Preliminary research

When looking for a new roofing contractors, it really is imperative to first do your background research. Purchasing in the yellow pages or on the web is a suitable destination for a find a company, finding essential information on most of these businesses will be found in many areas. Initial, check with areas like the Better Business Bureau, city, state, and region public records, and local accreditation agencies. Request your roofer if they are a part of any roofing contractor associations. These kind of precautions will mitigate your current risks. Furthermore ask them what forms of roofing they will specialize in. Furthermore ask the roofing contractor regarding any warranties they offer on their installed roofs. Find out what precautions they decide to use avoid damage done to the rest of the home simply by workers. Products such as gutters, house siding, and fireplaces are near the coast proximity and so susceptible to random damages.

Make sure all of this facts are included in your published contract. Find out if you need a roofing permit and/or agreement from your homeowners association beforehand. These agencies will let you know that is responsible for acquiring these allows and permissions. If it is the obligation of the roofing contractor, also have this included within your contract. When it is your obligation, get said permits and permissions collated while using estimated covering project and also have it clearly posted as well as readily available.

• Certification and Recommendations

Roofing Companies are not needed to be certified in all states. Contact local licensing companies that control general design contractors for the list of requirements. Once you have obtained the requirements, create a list of detailed questions to ask your potential roofing contractor. This simple listing should right away help you to weed out the certified from the untrained roofing companies. Qualified contractors should be able to very easily answer questions or perhaps tell you that they should do even more research ahead of giving any definitive reply.

Even if the roofing contractor features all essential licensing, you need to ask to see pictures involving completed roof covering jobs and speak to fulfilled clients. Possess a list of concerns handy ought to recent clients, such as the character of the employment, timeliness, and total satisfaction. Ensure these are current clients and also cross research if possible. In the matter of commercial roofing, make sure that the roofing contractor can be bonded. Checking these references is another added measure of security to define the list associated with potential roofing contractors.

Search engine optimization Through Content creation

Article writing could be an extremely powerful form of Search engine optimization on your company web site. Quality written articles are able to increase your websites SERP and add quality in your company website. Writing informative keyword rich articles is essential in gaining new backlinks for a business website. Articles can and will be written on topics which are unique in your business or industry. The articles can discuss an array of issues and ideas with your industry. Articles that provide the various readers which has a resource will always be one of the most popular and quite a few likely types of articles which will cause backlinks to your website.

Focus your articles on the potential readers or customers. Seo articles should address real questions which can be asked by current or past clients. Each article you're posting for you company will include detailed analysis and Seo keywords which can help associate your website with the content contained in the web site. Focus your articles on around 3 keywords and do not stray from their website. Consistency is important when writing Seo articles. If you're writing about Vancouver Seo make certain your continue to talk about information relevant to the keyword.

Give every one of your Search engine optimization Articles an engaging Title that can persuade folks to learn and bookmark your articles. Ideally, the articles you are writing find yourself as links off their websites which can be just like yours. This alone may help boost the power of every link and will help increase your SERP. Make sure you end each article having a keyword anchored link (see Easy Small company Seo). This link will help to enhance your rankings online and other major search engines like yahoo to the keyword coupled to the link. Submit the articles with a submitted article directory and Voila! In no time, your site could possibly be about the first page of Google.

Appreciate your reading. Can't wait to see your Seo articles!

Vancouver Seo Company Aims For Google Places With Complete Good results

When people type in searching term looking for a business within their local area, they'll find that Google places and Google maps is showing listings of local businesses. It's very eminent to enable them to be optimized and from this first page should they desire to generate business. Vancouver SEO companies should be educated of this type for their clients.

There will be a lot of new Vancouver SEO companies setting up, simply because the need is there. Finding a search engine optimization firm that has the client's best interest at heart could be tedious. The number of keywords would they optimize for? What are keywords along with the corresponding amount of searches? Do they learn how to optimize for Google places? Etc. Seo could be the business of landing at the very top and Maxim Edge provide there.

"My wife i started our Vancouver SEO company by accident. We now have learned through the school of hard knocks and learning from your errors how to utilize web to market any business. We began with all the website, then the competition, and then of course building quality back-links to push an online site up in the rankings. It's not pushing control button and watching what goes on type of business. It will take a lot of effort, a lot of research and lots of commitment. We strive for our clients so we are very pleased with a high retention rate." Randy Neale says.

For added information on Michael, a Vancouver SEO company, please visit their website today at seo4vancouver.com

The Uyghurs from East Turkistan

In the center of the desert landscapes of Taklamakan, in the north-west part of China, the province of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is a very least populated province while it covers close to a sixth of the nation's area. Getting resisted while in centuries the Han Chinese domination, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Old Eastern Turkestan, fell under the Chinese Han control in 1949. From then, its population is generally Uyghurs and Turkish - speaking System.

Islamic most importantly, the Uyghur people have a deep religious identification which, in particular, permitted them to protect a solid difference towards the Chinese invader. Definitely, the Uyghur Kingdom of Mongolia knew a brilliant civilization, until its absorption by the Mongolian Empire in the XIIIth century.

During their history, the Uyghur People successively adopted Shamanism, Manicheism, Buddhism and the Nestorianism before lastly changing to Islam when the Arab conquerors beat the Chinese in year 751 BC., as a result starting the way to the Islamization of the entire Central Asia.

Under the influence of the religions which they adopted, the Uyghurs used successively, and at times in a competing way, a great number of written forms (turco-runic, brahmi, tokharien, soghdien) before developing their own unique graphic system.

The arrival of Islam was a great change simply because it was accompanied by the absorption of the Uyghur areas in the enormous Turco-Mongolian and Islamic Empire. Thus, the descendants of Genghis Khan progressively replaced their writing by a Arabo-Persan alphabet, still used nowadays.

If their own writing, their own language and their religion mark a real big difference with the tradition of Chinese Han, the Uyghurs also differ from their aspect, so characteristic of Central Asia's people. A matt skin, eyes representing a whole pallet of colors, from black to deep blue, features going out to the Mongolian, Turkish or Uzbek roots of these men and these women.

For a few years, China has integrated the proper identity of these remote people, though they represent only 9 million people - a little for this kind of large country. Thus, Uyghur people are now part of the 56 ethnic minority groups having been known in an official way by China.

This particular law allows these people a few rights in a country exactly where their big difference is very often repressed. Therefore, Uyghur people escape the "single child policy" and their language is known as the second official language in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The integration of the Uyghur people and their culture in China, however, seems very illusory. The presence of natural resources in Xinjiang, and its proximity with nations well-known as sensitive, highly motivated the government to increase the sinicization of this area. Million of Han thus came to settle in this new Chinese eldorado, monopolizing the higher responsibility jobs.

In reaction to this true will to assimilate the Uyghurs into the Chinese culture, an independent party like East Turkistan Islamic Movement(ETIM) was born in the early 1990.

Saying more freedom, but specially the recognition of their true identity, this movement was seriously repressed by the power authorities in location Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The situations of September 11, 2001, were the perfect occasion for the Chinese government to justify true reprisals: they declared the "Uyghur freedom fighters" as dangerous terrorists linked to Al Quaida because of their Muslim origins and their proximity with Pakistan and Afghanistan... However, the terrible repression which followed did not calm down the anger. The Uyghurs population continues today to proudly maintain their identity and their culture , though they become a minority on their own territory.

For further information about the Uyghurs, you can visit a Uyghur website called Uyghur News at http://www.uyghurnews.com