* If you think otherwise, do you care to debate the following video?
“Perhaps the only lessons learned by the banks in the crisis is that the rules don’t apply to them.” Ain’t that the truth. The video is completely accurate:
Richard M. Bowen, former chief underwriter for Citigroup’s consumer-lending group, said he warned his superiors of concerns that some types of loans in securities didn’t conform with representations and warranties in 2006 and 2007.
“In mid-2006, I discovered that over 60 percent of these mortgages purchased and sold were defective,” Bowen testified on April 7 before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission created by Congress. “Defective mortgages increased during 2007 to over 80 percent of production.”
The following is a guest post by Jim Kukral.
Google knows this. Now you do as well. Easy always wins. Take a moment and picture your website or your blog or your product or service in your head right now. Now, think of Google’s. Which one is easier? No, you’re not a search engine, you’re probably a small business owner with a variety of products services, entrepreneur with a business idea, or blogger . But the comparison remains because regardless of what it is you do easy will always win.
When you think of labor day what comes to mind? For me it is these 2 thoughts
- lower earnings because few people are online today
- since almost nobody is online, any hours worked today are me getting ahead of the market
Working hard & working long hours can almost be a disease…the web makes it easy to be addicted.
But for every person who is putting in hard work trying to help people there is another person selling image.
No, not like that, but in the good way! 
The following is a guest post by Jim Kukral highlighting one of the most fundamental tips to succeeding online.
Have you ever really taken a step back from all the technical SEO stuff and thought about why Google wins? The real reasons why they have mass-market share and why they continue to dominate? It’s time you should, because once you understand how to start thinking like Google, you can finally begin to go beyond just ranking better, but also how to be a master Internet marketer so you can get more sales, leads and publicity.
Does the thought of selling fill you with dread?
If you see yourself as a technologist, or marketer, then selling may not come easy to you. But we all need to sell something, even if it is just our opinion! If you’re a consultant of any description, it comes with the territory.
So it pays to know a few techniques. Luckily, sales isn’t something you have to be born to do – it does not require supernatural charm, charisma, a hide as thick as an elephant, and a superhuman drive.
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics – Disreli
We get presented with graphs and statistics every day. “Most SEOs think keywords in the title tag is an important ranking factor.” “Spending on search to rise by $10b”. Ever get that feeling that what you’re being presented with sounds plausible, but the conclusion just doesn’t make sense?
Here are a few common ways people try to pull the wool over your eyes with statistics. Some you’ll be familiar with. If you’ve got more, add ‘em to the comments 
One of Wordnet’s definitions for slave is “someone entirely dominated by some influence or person; ‘a slave to fashion’; ‘a slave to cocaine’; ‘his mother was his abject slave.’”
Amongst that definition of the word, it is no stretch to say many Americans (and indeed the United States) are debt slaves. We encourage it in virtually every aspect of our lives: consumerism, taking on debt to buy a new car or house, education which requires a decade or more of solid employment to pay for, even when it sometimes prohibits employment:
Excellent Penn & Teller program on multi-level marketing. BTW, NSFW. Those who are easily offended, shouldn’t watch it. Any of it. Not one minute…..
As Penn & Teller rightly point out….
Easy Money Is BS
These multi-level marketing schemes aren’t limited to home parties for sex toys, BBQ accessories, and household cleaners, of course. They are rife on the internet. If you’ve spent any time in internet marketing circles, you’ll have seen hundreds, no doubt.
Worst business ever.
Anyone who has been an SEO consultant knows that SEO is often bolted-on as an after-thought.
Which is, of course, the worst way of doing SEO.
Part of the problem is that SEO is often thought of, by clients, as a fix. It is a fix applied to solve the unforeseen problem of not showing up in search engine result pages.
Whilst some businesses get it, we know most never will. But this fact is to your considerable advantage if you build and run your own sites
It’s bad enough having to compete with Google’s engineers.
But to win the search game, you need to out-compete your competition, too!
Back in the dark, distant past – around the turn of the century – there was an “us” vs “them” mentality in search. “Us” being webmasters, and “them” being search engines.
Back then, in those simple times, in-the-know webmasters gathered in dark forums to discuss and share cunning strategies to crack the algorithms. There was a time when the postings of the secretive GoogleGuy were a big deal. Imagine – a search engine rep actually fraternizing with the enemy! How strange was that!
