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Down to Earth Markets in Chappaqua | Chappaqua Homes
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Category Archives: Chappaqua
How Google Authorship Will Impact Search and Content Marketing | Chappaqua Real Estate
In the summer of 2011, Google announced the support of authorship markup as a way for authors to verify content they’ve created and become authorities on specific topics. Early adopters quickly realized the benefits of the new tag and implementation has continued to grow since its release. Google says authorship is here to help searchers find great content which will improve the searcher experience.
Recently, Google officially announced updating its algorithm to look at signals including authorship markup to help it provide searchers with in-depth articles in their results.
To listen to what Matt Cutts has to say regarding how Google will evaluate the use of authorship markup moving forward you can watch this YouTube Video.
#1. Improving Search Quality
In the Webmaster Help Video, Matt said that while he continues to support anonymity, “if we know who the real world people are who are actually writing content, that could be really useful as well and might be able to improve search quality.“
Matt’s comments lead us to the question….”should we use a pen name to anonymously represent an author, and how could this decision affect authorship as a signal? ” 
#2. Content Marketing: Anonymity & Authorship
Modern online marketing campaigns continue to recognize and adopt content marketing as an integral part of an online marketing strategy which has increased the amount of content created and published every day. For some, this is a confirmation of long-held theories – for others, it’s a new starting point.
According to 2013 research study by the Content Marketing Institute, 86% of B2C marketers use content marketing and on average, 55% of consumer marketers plan to increase their content marketing spend. This upward trend also applies to B2B marketers, which on average are spending 33% of their marketing budgets on content marketing – up from 26% last year.
Moreover, the majority (54%) say they will increase their content marketing spending in the next 12 months.
Latest Teatown Lake Reservation News | Chappaqua NY Realtor
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Enjoy a guided tour of Wildflower Island, Teatown’s unique two-acre sanctuary that is home to over 230 species of wildflowers and shrubs native to our area.
Recapture your camp days and reconnect with former camp friends at Teatown’s first camp alumni event! The event is free of charge and open to all camp alumni who have aged out (age 15 and over), counselors and their families. A pizza truck will serve food, beer and soda. Live music will add to the festivities, as well as guided hikes along the Teatown trails.
14 Social Media Tools Used by Marketing Pros | Chappaqua Realtor
Are you looking for social media tools to get more out of your marketing?
Are you wondering what tools marketing pros are using successfully?
We asked fourteen well-known marketers to share the latest social media tools they’ve been using.
Discover how you can use these tools to help you to get more out of your social media marketing.
#1: Mention
Todd WheatlandMention was developed as a user-friendly replacement for Google Alerts. They’re a textbook example of how to build a platform by doing one thing better than anyone else.
As well as being an absolute joy to use, it captures so many more, ahem, ‘mentions’ online than any other platform I’ve used that it’s become my #1 go-to social mention reference tool.
There are many clever things behind the way Mention is set up. They’ve taken the Apple approach to clean and simple UI to give you great functionality as a default and the power to modify settings to really hone in on what’s important to your circumstances.
Mention provides clean and simple functionality.
Apart from doing a fantastic job of identifying online mentions, some of my favorite features are:
- Simple controls to turn specific sources off—but still be able to monitor them in the spam folder in case you mis-classify something.
- Default alert emails that take you straight to source, rather than forcing an extra step by taking you to the Mention platform.
You can see how many online mentions you have in the left-hand column.
Of course, with success, they’re quickly adding features—including an enterprise-level offering—that will make them seem increasingly like a lot of the more established players in the social tools space. So far though, they’ve done a great job of maintaining simplicity and delivering on their core offering.
Todd Wheatland, head of thought leadership at Kelly Services.
#2: Addvocate
Jay BaerMy favorite new social media tool is Addvocate. I like it so much, I invested in the company and joined their board.
Addvocate solves a very common problem in social media, which is the need to decentralize your messengers. Almost always, the employees in your company have more social connections (combined) than the company does for its official social media outposts.
Thus, smart companies need to find ways to ask employees to occasionally share relevant information on their personal accounts. Amber Naslund and I wrote about this in The NOW Revolution, and recommended a “message of the day” email that is sent to all social media–active employees.
Addvocate takes that concept and makes it much, much better. Employees install a simple browser plugin that enables them to receive content recommendations from a centralized marketing team, while also enabling them to recommend content to the marketing team and to one another. The marketing team then gets detailed statistics showing which employees are sharing content on social, how many clicks and engagement actions each employee is generating, etc.
Addvocate enables you to share content with colleagues.
It’s an incredibly easy-to-use, remarkably inexpensive (just a few dollars per month) social media tool that removes the pain of teamwork and content sharing/distribution. I use it constantly to share potential topics for inclusion in our daily email newsletter.
Jay Baer, founder of Convince & Convert
read a lot more…
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-tools-used-by-pros-today/
Economist Of Doom Ordered To Remove Penthouse Hot Tub | Chappaqua Real Estate
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Economist and NYU professor Nouriel Roubini is known for exactly two things: predicting the financial crisis of the last decade; and throwing orgiastic parties jam-packed with models. The latter claim to fame might be harder to keep up, now that the Department of Buildings has ordered the so-called Dr. Doom (future nickname: Party Pooper?) to remove the hot tub he bought for the renovated, tricked-out rooftop. Apparently, according to the official DOB complaint slapped down in February, the heavy hot tub makes the building shake and vibrate and compromises its structural stability. One would think that his packed rooftop ragers would do that no matter what, without any help from the Jacuzzi. The Post reports that the economist also has to remove the new wooden deck, a propane gas grill, and an extra room he built up there, which houses a bar and a bathroom. In 2010, Roubini bought what was then the East Village’s priciest apartment, a 2,700-square-foot triplex with cantilevered staircases at the top of Brick House Condominiums, after it had been PriceChopped by about $2M to $5.5 million. The hot tub may not have been the smartest move for the man who has said beautiful women love him for his brains, but in the end, it only incurred a $600 fine. And one anonymous source remarked: “Knowing him, he’ll just move the hot tub inside.” Party on, Nouriel.
read more…
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/09/03/economist_of_doom_ordered_to_remove_penthouse_hot_tub.php
Foreclosures Distort Home-Price Measure | Chappaqua NY Homes
The housing bust obviously depressed the real estate market, but a new study shows that a big jump in distressed sales during the worst of the downturn may have exaggerated swings in at least one key measure of house prices.
Federal Housing Finance Agency
economists William Doerner and Andrew Leventis examined markets in Miami and Tampa, Fla., to gauge the impact of bank-owned property and short sales on the FHFA’s house price index.
The findings, released in a new paper: distressed sales dragged the index down as housing bottomed out and now are boosting numbers a bit.
“The presence of distressed sales in the standard HPI had a depressing effect on measured price changes. In more recent periods, when distressed sales comprised a shrinking percentage of real estate transactions, the Working Paper reveals the opposite effect. As the ‘weight’ of distressed sales on the standard index decreased in recent periods, the depressing effect lessened over time. This meant that the price appreciation observed in the standard FHFA index was somewhat above what the distress-free measures reported.”
The FHFA’s index is one of several measures that the industry and economists use to gauge the health of the real estate market. The latest data, released July 23, showed that house prices appreciated a seasonally adjusted 0.7% in May from the prior month — the 16th consecutive increase. The report reinforced views that the housing market is rebounding.
The study by Messrs. Doerner and Leventis doesn’t change that. But it does point to some distortion in the index through boom-and-bust cycles.
In the late 1990s, for example, distressed sales in the Miami and Tampa markets tended to price about 10%-15% less than normal sales. As the housing boom accelerated, the discount shrank to 5% and 10%. But from 2007 to 2010, that figure jumped to near 30%.
“In recent quarters, with the onset of the recovery and rising home prices, such discounts have become slightly more modest. In the first quarter of 2013, for instance, the average discount was about 25%,” the authors write.
The paper cautions that the results for Miami and Tampa might not be duplicated in areas that experienced a less dramatic crash or saw fewer distressed sales.
White Plains Commuters: Prepare For New Train Schedule On Harlem Line | Chappaqua Real Estate
A new Metro-North train schedule goes into effect for all Harlem and Hudson Line customers Aug. 19 so track repairs can expand and continue on the Bronx Right-of-Way Improvement Project, the railroad announced.
The new schedule includes changes on the New Haven, Harlem and Hudson lines.
On the Harlem Line, the 8:03 a.m. local train from Mount Vernon West to Grand Central will be restored. The New Haven Line’s 7:35 a.m. train from Port Chester to Grand Central also will be restored, as well as the 8:30 a.m. train from New Rochelle to Grand Central.
This schedule will remain in effect through the fall until the improvement project is completed. The schedules for trains on the Hudson, Harlem and New Haven lines will be adjusted between two and 10 minutes to more accurately reflect travel times, the release said.
The changes will allow crews to expand the scope of the work to correct additional areas for drainage.
“Further inspections, aided by the use of new technology, such as ground-penetrating radar, have indicated additional areas not visible at the surface where drainage needs to be improved,” a press release said.
Metro-North said it is working to improve the reliability of its service and to address delays. The railroad said the new schedule changes are necessary to restore the three trains that were cancelled July 1.
Track work for improvement program, which began July 1, is being conducted to about 6 miles of track in the Bronx, used by the New Haven Line and the Harlem Line in the Bronx.
Additionally, schedule changes include special shuttle bus service to and from Tremont and Melrose stations. Customers may take buses to Fordham for train service. Buses will operate on a half-hourly basis during peak periods on weekdays and hourly during off-peak periods and weekends.
White Plains Commuters: Prepare For New Train Schedule On Harlem Line | The White Plains Daily Voice.
New-home sales plummet | Chappaqua Real Estate
After hitting a five-year high in June, new-home sales plummeted in July, according to data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Sales of new single-family houses in July dropped a seasonally adjusted 13.4 percent month over month to an annual rate of 369,000, but were up 6.8 percent from a year before, according to the Census Bureau.
The median sales price of a new home sold in July was $257,200, the report said. The report added that the seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of July was 171,000, representing a supply of 5.2 months at the current sales rate
read more…
http://www.inman.com/wire/new-home-sales-plummet/#sthash.cSmX6asa.dpuf
A DIY Solar Expert Shares His Wisdom | Chappaqua Real Estate
Gary Reysa is a DIY solar expert and regular contributor to MOTHER EARTH NEWS. He’s been tinkering with solar projects for nine years, and he gathers data for every project he builds. We thought you’d like to learn more about the person MOTHER EARTH NEWS turns to when we have questions about home solar projects.
How did you become interested in solar power projects?
I’ve been interested in solar heating projects for quite a while — a lot of people were experimenting with solar in the ’80s, and I always found that interesting but didn’t take on any projects at the time. When we retired to Montana in 2000 — and faced the prospect of bills for 1,800 gallons of propane for a heating season — I thought it was time to get busy on some solar heating!
I’ve found solar thermal projects to be not only helpful on energy bills, but also interesting from a technical and design point of view. There are lots of opportunities for innovation in this field. It’s a great area for “garage inventors,” and I encourage people with an interest to give it a go.
What was your first homemade solar project?
The first real solar project was the thermosyphon solar heating collector for my barn. (Read about it in Build a Simple Solar Heater.) The simplicity, effectiveness and short payback of this heater got me hooked on doing more.
Whenever you build a solar project, you record data and analyze efficiency. How did you develop the knowledge required to do that?
I guess this comes out of a long career in engineering at Boeing. If you can’t measure how well version A of a design does, you don’t know where to go with version B — measuring results is the real key to improving a design. The physics and measurements of solar thermal applications tend to be pretty simple and easy to understand, which is nice.
You have tons of information about solar projects on your website, Build It Solar. What’s your favorite project?
I guess if I had to pick a single project, it would be the solar shop heater. It’s just a set of glazed doors outside of my shop’s overhead door. To let solar heat and light in, you raise the overhead door, and to keep this from being a huge night heat drain, you lower the insulated overhead door — nothing could be simpler.
The combination of solar heating and outstanding lighting that you get from this simple design transforms the shop into a great place to spend time. People look at me strangely when I pick this project as my favorite, but I really appreciate simple things that work well.
What do you think is the most important material on your website?
I have a program called The Half Plan, which is an easy and cost effective way to cut one’s energy consumption and carbon emissions in half (or more). When I read about trillion dollar programs to implement carbon sequestration for coal-fired power plants, I realized that simply not using the energy in the first place is less costly, is less technically risky, and pays a big dividend in saved fuel costs. And, it’s easy to do — we just all need to get busy and do it!
Have you ever built something that didn’t work?
Oh, if I had a nickel for every failure!
Prototypes that don’t work are the way you get to designs that do work. But, you have to set them up so that you learn from each try — this goes back to measuring results.
Do you also experiment with photovoltaic (PV) or wind-generated electricity?
I’m putting in a PV system right now. I’m doing all the work myself and learning a lot — it’s a fascinating technology. From my perspective, the negatives are that there is not much room for innovation and the payback is still not very good.
Why do you prefer to work with solar-heated air and water projects?
Read more…
http://www.motherearthnews.com/print.aspx?id={72E669F8-B0E3-4EE7-9E05-E5B8B370E495}#ixzz2dSTmj6vf
Teatown Lake Reservation News Update | Chappaqua Real Estate
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