Category Archives: Bedford Corners NY

Bedford Corners Real Estate finds “The First Company to Hit One Billion Monthly Unique Visitors: Google” | Search Engine Journal for Bedford Corners NY real estate

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Google: The First Company to Hit One Billion Monthly Unique Visitors

While the world of web technology is far more about loyalty, revenue, and a few other less-than-easy to track metrics, Google has nevertheless earned some bonus points for being the first in one easily tracked category: monthly unique visitors (or MUVs). While Facebook has been growing rapidly, with a 30% growth rate in the last twelve months that threatened to hit the billion user point before Google could make it, Google did cross the finish line first. May of 2011 was the first month that Google is estimated to have seen more than a billion unique visitors.

The unique visitors statistic is provided by comScore, who uses a panel of approximately two million users and extrapolates the global data from the information provided; this happens in much the same way as other global statistic tracking, including television sweeps. While comScore did provide information on Google’s overall search share and other relevant data oriented specifically toward search (including the impressive 12.2 billion searches figure and the current 63.3% of search market share), the most notable data includes more than Google’s search sites.

Beyond the core Google search (Google.com and its various localized versions), the comScore figures examine the unique monthly visitors on a variety of other sites – including YouTube, Google’s second most popular property, and other major sites such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Android-associated websites. In the race to the company with the most popular properties, it wasn’t Facebook – despite its intense growth – who was right on Google’s heels. Rather, Microsoft’s various properties came in a fairly close second, with over 900 million unique visitors in May of 2010.

via searchenginejournal.com

Bedford Corners NY Homes reads “An investor mindset to beat the market | Inman News” for the Bedford Corners NY Real Estate market

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An investor mindset to beat the market

Book Review: ‘The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor’

Book Review
Title: “The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor”
Author: Howard Marks
Publisher: Columbia Business School Publishing, 2011; 200 pages; $29.95

This is a do-it-yourself, consumer-education-and-empowerment-oriented media age. There is a constant flow of simplifying, demystifying tips and how-to guides for those looking to take more control over their personal finances. For some subjects, that makes sense.

But while there is certainly a market for books that break some complex money matters down to eighth-grade level, the fact is that other topics simply cannot be rendered so simple, in good faith.

This is the premise of Howard Marks’ new book, “The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor.” In fact, the first point Marks makes is his position that there are actually 18 or so “most important things” when it comes to investing for market-beating returns, all of which must be managed at the same time to achieve success.

Marks makes plain from the jump his belief that successful, above-average investing is just not simple, and his belief that “those who try to simplify investing do their audience a great disservice.” Marks also makes clear that this book is not intended to be a how-to guide, but rather a statement of his investment philosophy, a fundamental way of thinking about investing that facilitates good decision-making and the avoidance of money-losing pitfalls.

(If, by chance, you’re wondering what makes Marks, who is the chairman and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, qualified to bestow such advice, consider these words of Warren Buffett: “When I see memos from Howard Marks in my mail, they’re the first thing I open and read. I always learn something.” Yes, that Warren Buffett.

After very little introductory ado, Marks gets straight on with it, drilling through 20 chapters of his most important things and thoughts on putting them all together to achieve superior results.

This book is deep — not “surface level” at all — as are the thinking styles, viewpoints, understanding and priorities it demands readers take in the course and scope of their self-education and investment decision-making processes. It is not at all about math tricks, rules of thumb or algorithms; instead, it is all about acquiring the edge over average investors by taking different approaches and going much, much deeper than the ordinary, simplicity-seeking, highly computerized investor does.

Marks makes no bones about admonishing readers to carry out what he calls “second-level thinking”: starting up the process of analyzing a stock where others leave off, then going several steps further, going “deep, complex and convoluted” to answer a dozen or more questions that average investors rarely, if ever, take the time to consider.

Marks applies this level of depth and unconventional thinking to such matters as market efficiency (and the lack thereof); value investing; understanding, recognizing and controlling risk; market cycles; how to avoid mistakes through mindset management (minimizing the impact of greed and fear, among other powerful emotions; contrarianism; opportunism and more.

Is this the most user-friendly book on investing? No. Does it contain oodles of tips, tricks and sidebars with bullet lists of “million-dollar musts”? Not even close. But if you’ve decided, as I have, to invest the work and effort it takes to be serious, involved and proactive with respect to your investment decision-making and retirement planning, it provides a very deep, rich understanding of the elements that can power you to above-average results.

Will the results of an intense program of self-study and assertive investing results in returns that are worth the extra time and extra work? Only time will tell, but one way to look at it is to consider Marks’ own words: “only if your behavior is unconventional is your performance likely to be unconventional.”

Tara-Nicholle Nelson is author of “The Savvy Woman’s Homebuying Handbook” and “Trillion Dollar Women: Use Your Power to Make Buying and Remodeling Decisions.” Tara is also the Consumer Ambassador and Educator for real estate listings search site Trulia.com. Ask her a real estate question online or visit her website, www.rethinkrealestate.com.

    via inman.com

    Bedford Corners Real Estate asks “Are You Selecting Your Keywords for the Right Reasons? | Search Engine Journal” for the Bedford Corners NY real estate market

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    Are You Selecting Your Keywords for the Right Reasons?

    Keyword research has, and always will be a major part of SEO. It’s a vital part of any effective SEO campaign and ensures that all the time and money you invest is going in the right direction.

    Far too often people underestimate the importance of spending enough time researching potential target keywords, and instead rush to get started on the optimisation – after all, the sooner you get to work optimising the sooner traffic is going to come right? Not necessarily…

    The main aim of keyword research is to find out which keywords are going to be the most profitable for your SEO campaign based on the amount of time you have to invest. Considering this, there’s a few different key metrics you want to be looking at that often get overlooked.

    Traffic Volumes

    This is the obvious one. Keyword research is often performed to find out which keywords people are looking for, and which ones they aren’t. The amount of searches on a phrase is a good indicator of popularity, and can help you remove any keywords that probably won’t drive any traffic to your site.

    It’s important to try and get figures from a few different keyword tools, as this can help to give a more varied view on traffic figures to help give you a better understanding of what you are more likely to receive.

    Competition

    Most people are driven by traffic volumes, without properly considering the competition on the keyword. It’s a lot more beneficial to be position 1 on a term that has 1000 monthly searches than page 2 on a term that gets 5000.

    Make sure you properly research the competition before getting started on the optimisation. Not just a quick check, make sure you look at link volumes, on page optimisation and other important metrics to help you gauge the competitiveness of the target keyword. This can help you assess the amount of time it will take to gain rankings based upon the resources you have and make much more informed decisions.

    Relevance and conversions

    Another important factor to consider is the relevance of the keyword to your business. Is the most popular keyword really relevant to what you offer? What are the chances that someone searching for that keyword will convert into a sale? Rather than targeting the broadest phrases in your industry, have a look to see if there are niche keywords that are more relevant – the chances are these will have less competition and a higher conversion rate.

    A lot of people will be mislead by traffic figures, without considering the competition or relevancy. The result is that a lot of time and money is invested trying to reach a larger audience, only to bring the same results as a smaller, targeted SEO campaign that focuses on the more relevant and effective keywords.

    This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try and target the keyword with the highest searches – as long as it’s relevant and rankings are achievable you’re on to a winner.

    via searchenginejournal.com