The wind industry continues to develop, and the need for educated and experienced workers grows. We decided to take a closer look at one college that has developed a program to meet this need. In 2003, Iowa Lakes Community College in Estherville, Iowa, became the first wind energy degree program in the state.

Through a series of grants and partnerships, Iowa Lakes has been able to develop their program and grow from the first class of 15 to today’s enrollment of almost 200.

“We have grown from one lecture room and one lab to four lecture rooms and six labs,” says Dan Lutat, the Wind Energy and Turbine Technology program director.

Lutat largely attributes the program’s success to the individuals that make up the faculty.

“We are fortunate to have a team of instructors that are here because they want to be, and because they want to have a positive impact on something that’s good for America,” Lutat says.

Iowa Lakes offers two degree options. The first option, a one-year program, requires three semesters and offers a Diploma in Wind Energy. The second option, the two-year program, requires five semesters of work, and the students receive an Associate in Applied Science degree. While attending the program, students receive training in wind turbine operation and maintenance jobs.

The type of turbines the program focuses on are industrial turbines, typically 1.5 MW and higher. Knowing that not all of their students will work at a wind farm, Iowa Lakes teaches a variety of other related skills such as construction, siting wind farms, controls and data automation. Some of Iowa Lakes’ students move on into engineering fields with an emphasis in wind.

“The skills we teach transcend the size and design of the turbines, preparing students with a solid core of basic skills to enter the wind industry with,” Lutat says.

Firsthand experience is often the best way to learn a concept. For this reason, Iowa Lakes has one fully functional wind turbine and a nacelle on a short tower. The working turbine is a Vestas 1.65 MW turbine that students use for climbing experience. The nacelle is a prototype Vestas V-90 and is used for training and labs. Iowa Lakes will soon acquire a Gamesa G-87 nacelle which will also be installed on a short tower.

Most students are getting jobs right out of the program, according to Lutat.

“The job market is optimistic for wind energy technicians, and those students that assertively apply themselves will find a place in a growing industry,” Lutat says. 

With six years of growth and no signs of slowing down, the future for Iowa Lakes Community College and its Wind Energy and Turbine Technology program looks promising.

“As we evolve our training methods, new tracks to our wind energy program are likely to emerge, providing a comprehensive learning pathway for wind industry workers,” Lutat says.

Photo by Fotolia/sculpies 

04/26/2011

North Salem NY Real Estate Chart of the Day | North Salem Luxury Homes

 

This has been our CHART OF THE DAY on Case-Shiller day for awhile now…

Once again, housing declined sequentially, as the year-over-year decline in home prices has gotten worse, according to the just-released Case-Shiller survey.

For the 20-city composite index, prices fell 3.3% in the month.

 

Full Story

North Salem Luxury Homes

Apr 26, 2011 10:12:11 PM | Weblogs

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Apr 26 2011

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Be Wary of SEO Companies that Contact You First

Google says it flat out in their SEO Webmaster Guidelines, “Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.” There are plenty of disreputable and black hat SEO practitioners that are scrounging for clients. They’ll say anything they want to get you to hand over your carefully allocated SEO funds. Some of them may actually do a small amount work, however shoddy or black hat it may be. Oftentimes you’ll find you end up hiring another SEO firm to clean up the mess of the first one. The really bad ones will just take your money and run without even faking an attempt at doing SEO for your company, disappearing into the void of online anonymity.

One of the biggest giveaways that someone is trying to scam you is when they contact you out of the blue. Hopefully, most people know by now that the Nigerian government isn’t looking to deposit $100,000 into their bank account and recognize those emails for what they are – a con. Unsolicited email isn’t considered a viable marketing tactic, so most reputable companies don’t touch it with a ten foot pole. Opt-in email marketing, like when you give your favorite store your email address so they can send your special offers, is a much more successful and respected approach. Just like you don’t trust random e-mails selling miracle weight loss pills, don’t trust an unsolicited e-mail from an SEO services provider.

Many of these less-than-scrupulous SEO providers (or SEO con men) find companies that already have a contract with a white hat SEO company. Their biggest selling point is trying to convince you that you are vastly overpaying for your SEO services. They’ll say,

“We can do the same things as your current SEO provider for less than half what you are paying now! And we don’t get paid until you are ranking first for all of your keywords! And we guarantee our results! And we’ll handle your social media! And…”

Like a smooth talking used-car salesman trying to pass a lemon off for a Ferrari, SEO con men will do whatever it takes to convince you to leave your current SEO provider for them.

The simple truth is that good, white hat SEO providers don’t need to go begging for business like that. Their business is built on a solid reputation, the satisfaction of clients and referrals brought in from happy customers. They don’t have to resort to unsolicited e-mails and underhanded tactics to win business.

Think about it this way. How often does your company randomly contact potential clients? Not those that current clients have recommended you reach out to, not people you met at conferences or tradeshows, not people who connect with you on social networking site. How often does your company reach out to companies or individuals that have no idea who you are or why you would be e-mailing them? Probably not very frequently, right? Being known as a “spammer” when it comes to getting clients severely damages your reputation and devalues your brand. You don’t want to annoy or anger potential clients, especially ones you have no business contacting. Why would good SEO companies and consultants behave any differently?

The bottom line is that you should treat any SEO provider that contacts you first –unprompted and uninvited – with some serious reservations. Google, the behemoth of search engines and the main reason SEO exists, even admits that they get spam messages saying “Dear google.com,

I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories…” Clearly spammers don’t discriminate when they’re trying to get business.

If you’re looking to hire an SEO provider, you have to do your research. Talk to other businesses you work with and see who they use for their SEO services and why. SEO often has a bad reputation because SEO con men are waiting to take advantage of uninformed business owners. Read the Google Webmaster Guidelines about SEO. Those are the hard and fast rules of SEO and a reputable SEO provider should know that. Good SEO companies should be able to provide you with client referrals and recommendations. Do you own research on a potential SEO provider. See what kind of information pops up about them when you start digging around online. If you start to notice red flags, time to walk away and make sure you’re not missing your wallet.

Written By:

Nick Stamoulis | Search Engine Optimization Journal | @NickStamoulis

Nick Stamoulis, a search engine marketing industry veteran, is the President of search engine marketing company, Brick Marketing. Nick Stamoulis also writes daily in his SEO blog, the Search Engine Optimization Journal and publishes one of the largest SEO newsletters with over 125,000 opt-in subscribers.

More Posts By Nick Stamoulis

• http://twitter.com/mmhemani Moosa Hemani

  Nice Topic Nick… the title remember of my agency days where i see lot of emails on our clients email addresses that says ‘We see that you are not on top 10 rankings with your desired keywords and we can do something that will take you to higher rankings and blah blah blah… GUARANTEED’ 🙂

  I think by now most of the companies (at least ethical) companies understand that there email are not going to do wonders with your website but it is very much possible that they hurt your rankings and can kick you our of the search engines…

  I think by now Spammers should realized that this bullshit is not going to work any more…

  I really enjoyed reading this one! Thanks for sharing.

• http://twitter.com/markstrefford markstrefford

  Great post! I have a particular spot in my heart for those who send you SEO spam email from a Gmail account. If you can’t at least go to the bother of registering a domain name, then I’m really not even going to think about it any longer than it takes my hand to hit the delete button!

  If you are looking at an SEO company, I think it’s always a good idea to see where they rank in Google as well as their clients!

  Mark.

• Anonymous

  REFERRALS!

  I don’t directly market my business, I don’t have sales people and I don’t care about my site’s search rankings. And guess what- we’re busy!

  That said, unfortunately, SEO email spammers are often successful. But any company who falls for that kind of BS probably isn’t one I’d like to work w/ anyway.

• http://www.unmemorabletitle.co.uk Andrew Nattan

  Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

  “Unsolicited [contact] isn’t considered a viable marketing tactic, so most reputable companies don’t touch it with a ten foot pole.”

  Says who? I receive unsolicited messages from charities, banks and companies I trust – whether via email, telephone or post. Direct marketing like this isn’t a signifier of poor quality, any more than owning a Twitter account makes you an online marketing expert. I’ve worked for companies who use unsolicited email. Hell, I’ve spent months working on marketing campaigns for companies who know not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and they’ve all been reputable.

  “Hopefully, most people know by now that the Nigerian government isn’t looking to deposit $100,000 into their bank account and recognize those emails for what they are – a con.”

  Reductio ad absurdum. If I’d written a blog post about the time I spoke on the phone to someone dodgy and as such would advise clients to avoid anyone insisting on a telephone conversation, I’d be laughed out of town. The medium ISN’T important. The service is.

  “How often does your company randomly contact potential clients?”

  Every day, if you’re good at what you do. Passive marketing DOESN’T WORK. It’s not a matter of “if you build it, they will come.” Because they won’t come. So you need to reach out to clients. Through marketing. When you place an advert in a newspaper, run a TV or radio ad, pay for AdWords, call someone, email someone or write a letter to someone, you’re contacting potential clients.

  And how come that’s randomly contacting someone? You’ve just said all these sinister companies target existing SEO clients. That’s not random. That’s targeted.

  “Good, white hat SEO providers don’t need to go begging for business like that. Their business is built on a solid reputation, the satisfaction of clients and referrals brought in from happy customers.”

  That’s the sort of circle-jerk thinking that only an SEO can come out with.

  I’ve got friends in dozens of industries – from plumbers to lawyers. They don’t know what SEO is. And people in their industry aren’t passing on referrals. How often do you tell your competition how to drum up business?

  SEO isn’t in the public consciousness. Yet. So until it is, you need to aggressively sell your product. The same way every product in every other established industry has done.

  Or, Nick, do you honestly advise clients to sit back and hope that people will start actively searching for their products – when people don’t know that those products exist?

• http://www.unmemorabletitle.co.uk Andrew Nattan

  You’ve made more sense in that comment than the entire original post managed.

  If someone’s emailing you from gmail, they’re dodgy. If they’ve got a company email address leading to a reputable, well established website, they’re probably OK.

• Adam Maywald

  This is a completely BS post Nick.

  So, what you’re saying is, just because we want to “grow” our business, we can’t do outbound calling, email marketing or any other form of “outbound prospecting” as that makes us look like a “used car salesmen”.

  Billion dollar companies were built on their call centers. Does that make their product bad?

  Cold-calling, email marketing or any other form of outbound prospecting has nothing to do with the QUALITY of the companies work. It has EVERYTHING to do with growing the business.

  Referrals are nice, but their gravy. We provide a great service AND we do outbound calling – that doesn’t make us snake-oil-salesmen. If I wanted to stay a one-man shop (so to speak), then just working referrals would be all I’d need. But I don’t, but that doesn’t mean the quality of my work fails.

  Having said that, and as you did state, you should always vet any SEO company you work with, regardless if they’ve contacted you or if they’ve been referred to you.

• http://www.zippycart.com Zippy Cart

  Some good points in this article. Regardless of how the person gets in touch with you, if they start spewing too-good-to-be-true promises at you, that’s when you know to walk away. Most times those promises are in the e-mail itself, so that can save you some time…

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(AP) – Home prices are falling in most major U.S. cities, and at least 10 major markets are at their lowest point since the housing bubble burst.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index showed home prices declined in 19 metro areas from January to February and 11 markets experienced faster price declines compared with the previous month.

The index, which was released Tuesday, fell for the seventh straight month. It is slightly above the level hit in April 2009, the lowest point since the bubble burst. Analysts expect the March index will fall past the low point.

High unemployment, stricter lending rules and fears that prices will fall further are among the reasons why few people are buying and selling homes. A record number of foreclosures are forcing down home prices in most metro areas, and prices are expected to keep falling through this year.

“There is evidence that potential sellers are holding their properties off the market, waiting for housing prices to stop falling,” said Bricklin Dwyer, an analyst at BNP Paribas.

Detroit was the only market to show a monthly gain, although the Motor City is one of five cities where home prices are now below their January 2000 levels.

Prices in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Ore., Seattle and Tampa are all at their lowest point since 2006 or 2007, at the height of the housing boom. The cities with the steepest declines from January were Minneapolis, San Francisco, Chicago and Miami.

In many depressed markets, a significant percentage of buyers are investors and private equity firms looking to cash in on cheap real estate.

The housing sector is struggling even while much of the economy is recovering slowly but steadily. Some of the worst declines in home prices are in cities hit hardest by unemployment and foreclosures.

Foreclosures are expected to rise to 1.2 million this year as many banks revisit thousands of foreclosure cases, spurred into action by federal regulators who have ordered top-to-bottom reviews of how foreclosures were carried out over the past two years.

“It’s hard to sell when buyers have the leverage and foreclosures continue to create a gap between distressed sale prices and non-distressed sale prices,” said Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse Securities. More than 90% of homeowners say it’s a bad time to sell their home, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers.

The Case-Shiller index measures sales of select homes in those cities compared to January 2000. For each of the 20 metro areas it studies, the index provides an updated three-month moving average price. By measuring the sales price of the same homes over time, the index attempts to gauge true market values.

©Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.