Israel Warns Media: Don’t Board Gaza Flotilla | Breaking news and opinion on The Blaze

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is threatening to bar international journalists from the country for years if they board ships attempting to breach the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

A flotilla of Gaza-bound ships is due to set sail soon, perhaps this week.

On Sunday, Israel’s Government Press Office issued a statement calling the flotilla “a dangerous provocation” and an “international violation of Israeli law.”

It says participation in the flotilla “is liable to lead to participants being denied entry into the state of Israel for 10 years” and to additional sanctions.

Israel imposed the blockade in 2007, after Hamas overran Gaza.

Israel eased a land blockade after a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last year. The naval blockade remains intact.

via theblaze.com

Hmmm.

What pilots see as they approach Offutt AFB in Nebraska | Breaking news and opinion on The Blaze

Offutt Air Force Base (home of the 55th Wing – aka ‘The Fighting Fifty-Fifth’) is just south of Omaha, NE on Hwy 75. As pilots approach the landing strip from the north, they are greeted with a special message from a local soybean farmer.

The message is carved into the field.  It may be difficult to read at this distance, but when the plane gets closer to the runway, the words become quite easy to read.

According to several reports, the farmer uses a GPS system to direct him as he cuts the letters for the words.

A quick check of the Internet myth-busting site Snopes.com has confirmed that this is not a scam.

Additionally, Google Maps displays a new message that was snapped some time earlier this year.

So who is the patriot person behind this mile-long Thank You note?  The Air Force found out.

Two fields are used to communicate these thank you notes. One is located at the intersection of US Highway 75 and Nebraska Highway 370 and the other is located at Ft. Crook Road east of Offutt. Both fields belong to local farmers who allow Chris Shotten to show his appreciation to Offutt’s population.

Shotten and about a dozen volunteers from the Superstore where he works, gather in the fields and using 500 stakes and 3,500 pounds of flour, they spell out the message.

How does the Air Force feel about it?

“Team Offutt is grateful to Mr. Shotten for his ‘thank you’ message,” said Brig. Gen. Donald Bacon, 55th Wing commander. “Our aircrews see this every day. This being my family’s third assignment to Offutt, I find this very indicative of how this wonderful Bellevue community makes our military members feel welcome.”

via theblaze.com

Very cool!!!

GoDaddy Nears Sale to KKR - WSJ.com

Private-equity firms KKR & Co. and Silver Lake Partners, along with a third investor, are nearing a deal to buy GoDaddy Group Inc., a closely-held company that registers Internet domain names, for between $2 billion and $2.5 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

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GoDaddy's ads touted the 'GoDaddy Girls,' including racer Danica Patrick.

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An announcement of the sale could come as early as next week, although a deal hasn't been signed yet and the people cautioned that an agreement may not be reached.

Private equity and venture capital firm Technology Crossover Ventures is also a minority investor in the proposed deal for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based GoDaddy, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

The Wall Street Journal reported in September that the company had hired boutique investment bank Qatalyst Partners to shop the company to potential buyers.

GoDaddy.com, the company's flagship web property, is the world's largest registrar of domain names. The site also sells e-commerce, security and other services to people and businesses looking to manage their online presence. Customers pay GoDaddy monthly fees, which brings the company steady cash flow—an attraction for buyout firms.

GoDaddy was founded in 1997 by Bob Parsons, who continues to be the company's owner and chief executive. It is known for its edgy advertising, including Super Bowl commercials and ads featuring different "Go Daddy Girls" including race car driver Danica Patrick. Mr. Parsons would continue as CEO, one of the people familiar said.

TPG Capital and General Atlantic, were told the auction was off, people familiar with the matter said at the time.

The New York Post earlier reported the news of KKR's interest in the company.

KKR, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures are all savvy tech investors. KKR and Silver Lake were co-investors in chip maker Avago Technologies Ltd., which they took public in 2009, reaping handsome returns for their fund investors. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Technology Crossover Ventures has invested in companies including Groupon Inc.

via online.wsj.com

Cool.

Daily Wrap-up: Round 2, Travelers Championship - PGATOUR.COM

CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) -- Nineteen-year-old UCLA star Patrick Cantlay shot a course-record 10-under 60 -- the lowest PGA TOUR round ever by an amateur -- to take a four-stroke lead Friday in the Travelers Championship.

The low amateur last week in the U.S. Open, Cantlay tied the tournament record set by Tommy Bolt when the event was played in Wethersfield in 1954.

Cantlay birdied the final two holes at TPC River Highlands to reach 13 under. After shooting a 67 on Friday morrning in the rain-delayed first round, he had eight birdies and an eagle in the afternoon.

D.J. Trahan (62), Webb Simpson (65) and Taylor Vaughn (66) were tied for second.

Cantlay just completed his freshman year at UCLA, and has said he plans to stay until he earns his degree.

Four players have shot 61s at the TPC River Highlands course. The last was Kenny Perry in 2009.

An amateur hasn't won a PGA TOUR event since Phil Mickelson in the 1991 Northern Telecom Open in Arizona

via pgatour.com

Yahoo!!!!

PayPal Says Mobile Payments To Hit $3 Billion - Digits - WSJ

PayPal says it will process $3 billion in mobile-device payments this year, up from the company’s previous projection of $2 billion.

The online payments service, which is owned by eBay, had projected last fall that it would process $1.5 billion in 2011. It raised that projection by half a billion earlier this year before releasing the latest figure Thursday.

“Every week I look at the numbers, I get a sense of surprise,” said Laura Chambers, PayPal’s head of mobile. She says the increased mobile transactions are due to more smartphone adoption and familiarity with PayPal.

The $3 billion in mobile payments can be broken down into two categories. The first is individuals using PayPal’s mobile app to transfer money to each other. The company doesn’t make any money on this feature, except for cross-border transactions that carry a small fee.

The second category is people completing purchases on mobile online-commerce sites using PayPal. The company collects a fee for each sale through PayPal.

Chambers declined to say how much of the $3 billion estimate came from which category.

The service also says it now has eight million users and is seeing $10 million a day in mobile total payment volume.

PayPal has helped power the growth of eBay, which has struggled to turn around its core marketplace business. The payments service grew 23% in the first quarter and accounted for $992 million, or nearly 40%, of eBay’s revenue. EBay CEO John Donahoe has said PayPal could become the company’s biggest business in a few years.

But PayPal faces challenges from competitors that include Google and Square, as well as credit-card companies. Google last month launched Google Wallet, which is designed to let people pay for items using smartphones.

EBay last month sued Google over its mobile-payments system, alleging that the Internet-search giant used PayPal-developed trade secrets.

Google has also said that it won’t allow outside developers, such as PayPal, to create products for Google Wallet until later.

Chambers said that in the mobile-payments industry, the people that matter “are the customers and merchants” and that any solution from Google “that’s going to be too closed isn’t going to work for them.”

via blogs.wsj.com

Fascinating.

US Opens Reserves to Release 30M Barrels of Oil

The price of oil plummeted by nearly 5 percent on Thursday after Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the U.S. will release 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

But Republicans in Congress lined up to slam the move, linking it to the need for more drilling in the U.S.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said, “I am appalled but not surprised that the president views his falling poll numbers as a national crisis.”

And committee chairman, Rep. Fred Upton said, “It’s hard to believe that the Administration would rather tap into our emergency supply than support legislation to produce and develop North American supplies, which will create American jobs.

“Releasing our reserves to calm the market is emblematic of an Administration whose energy policy is irrational and counter-productive.”
Upton said 30 million barrels is exactly what could be produced in a month from Alaska’s Outer Continental Shelf.

The move is part of a worldwide effort aimed at stabilizing prices. The rest of the world will release another 30 million barrels over the next 30 days.

The Obama administration hopes that the move will bring prices down at the pump as the summer vacation season gets into full swing. The immediate effect was to bring the price of a barrel of West Texas intermediate crude down by $4.71 a barrel to $90.89.

The concerted move by 28 countries in the International Energy Agency (IEA) has been prompted by an interruption in the world supply caused by Middle East turmoil, Chu added.

“We are taking this action in response to the ongoing loss of crude oil due to supply disruptions in Libya and other countries and their impact on the global economic recover. As we move forward, we will continue to monitor the situation and stand ready to take additional steps if necessary.”

The Energy Department said fighting in Libya alone has led to a loss of 1.5 million barrels of oil per day from global markets. Most of that is light, sweet crude.

“As the United States enters the months of July and August, when demand is typically highest, prices remain significantly higher than they were prior to the start of the unrest in Libya,” the department said in a statement.

But GOP members said the answer to high gas prices lies in more drilling, not releasing oil from the reserve. Louisiana Sen. David Vitter said, “We need long-term, expansive domestic energy measures.”

And House whip, Kevin McCarthy called the move “pathetic” saying the reserve should be used for national emergencies “not as a political tool when a President is feeling heat over high gas prices.”

“Simply releasing 36 hours-worth of oil does not constitute an energy plan,” McCarthy added.

Even the Democratic Chairman of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee criticized the move. Sen. Jeff Bingaman said the plan would have been “more timely” if it had been put into action when Libyan supplies were first cut off.

Commodity strategist John Licata told Newsmax.TV that the oil release was premature as it is too early to say whether Gulf oil production will be hit by hurricanes this year and because the situation in Libya has not justified such a move.

It is the third time that oil has been released from the Reserve since it was set up in the mid-1970s to give presidents an emergency response to disruptions in supply. George H.W. Bush’s administration released 17 million barrels at the outbreak of the first Persian Gulf War in 1991 and George W. Bush released 21 million barrels after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The IEA said the oil loss has become “more pronounced” as fighting has continued. Executive director Nobuo Tanaka said, “I expect this action will contribute to well-supplied markets and to ensuring a soft landing for the world economy.”

The New York Times said talks on the current release have been going on behind closed doors for weeks. The move comes three weeks after Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., urged the president to make such a move.

“Most presidents don’t want to, and this president doesn’t want to. They want to save it for a true national emergency – like, God forbid, a Middle East war, or whatever it happens to be,” Durbin said at the time. “But I’m worried.”

Prices at the pump had already started to drop before the move. By Wednesday they were down to a nationwide average of $3.61 said the AAA, down 9.75 percent from its $4 mid-May high

The Obama administration said it would consult other countries – both oil consumers and producers – to decide whether more oil should be released later in the year.

The Reserve currently is the world’s largest stockpile of government-owned oil, with a record 727 million barrels stored in caverns along the Gulf of Mexico coast.

via newsmax.com

Huh?

Rowling Conjures Up Potter E-Books - WSJ.com

LONDON—After years of refusing to release her boy-wizard books in electronic format, Harry Potter mastermind J.K. Rowling is finally taking the digital plunge, launching an online store that will sell Harry Potter e-books directly to consumers and a social-networking site designed to keep the Potter magic alive.

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British author J.K. Rowling

The free-to-access site, known as Pottermore, launches for the first million users on July 31 and opens to the general public—with the online e-book store—in October. Once the online store opens, the full Harry Potter series will be available as e-books in multiple languages, compatible with any electronic reading device.

Ms. Rowling has made a bold move in going direct to consumers to sell her e-books, instead of relying on online retailers like Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc.'s iBookstore. Whereas publishers for other authors often own both the print and digital rights for books, Ms. Rowling owns the rights to the digital versions of the Harry Potter books herself. The digital rights aren't held by her U.K. publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, or by Scholastic Inc., which owns the U.S. print rights.

Bloomsbury said in a statement Thursday that it would be receiving a share of the revenues derived from e-book sales in Pottermore's online store.

Pottermore is a full-on Harry Potter online universe that allows readers to join a Hogwarts house and travel through the first Harry Potter book, while collecting points and playing games. Perhaps the biggest draw is the extra material that Ms. Rowling has written and unearthed from her notes, which gives intense Potter fans much-desired background and explanations about key characters, places and plots.

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"I'll be sharing additional information that I've been hoarding for years about the world of Harry Potter," Ms. Rowling said in a Thursday press conference in London. "I can be creative in a medium that didn't exist back in 1990 when I started writing the books."

Ms. Rowling has built the Potter franchise into a behemoth since the first of her seven Harry Potter novels was published in 1997. The series—the final installment of which was published in 2007—has sold more than 450 million books world-wide, and spawned an eight-part film franchise for Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. that is about to wrap up. The series is also featured in "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" area at the Universal Orlando theme park. In 2010, Forbes magazine estimated Ms. Rowling's net worth at $1 billion.

Now, Pottermore is Ms. Rowling's next step toward keeping the franchise alive and vital beyond the book series.

Users can travel through the first book in the series—"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"—and Ms. Rowling will then gradually reveal the online ecosystem tied to the subsequent six books over the course of a few years. Digital editions for all seven books, however, will be available in October.

"I'm phenomenally lucky that I had the resources to be able to do it myself," Ms. Rowling said Thursday. She said she can ensure that everyone is getting the same experience by interacting directly with consumers.

"There was really no other way to do that for the fans or for me than to just do it myself," she said.

That's one of the reasons Ms. Rowling warmed slowly to the idea of putting Potter online. But she downloaded an e-book for the first time this year and said she realized their power, ease and usefulness.

"E-books are here, and they are here to stay," she says. "I still love a print and paper book, but I think you can enjoy both."

Pottermore has been in the works for two years. Users will have to give their e-mail addresses to register for the Pottermore site, meaning that Ms. Rowling will theoretically be able to contact a millions-strong database of avid Harry Potter readers directly.

The site is supposed to give obsessed fans exactly what they crave: More Potter, straight from Ms. Rowling's notebooks. Though she says she won't be writing any more books in the boy-wizard series, Ms. Rowling is emptying her extra material in various places on the site.

For example, she says she had been keeping the back story of Professor McGonagall—headmistress of Hogwarts—for years expecting to use it, but never found a place for it in any of the books. Ms. Rowling has handed over 18,000 words of additional content so far, but says she will write more for the site as well.

Sony Corp. has served as a primary partner in building the site. Once the online store goes live in October, Sony will be selling Pottermore branded products alongside the Harry Potter e-books, a spokeswoman for Sony said. Those could include Pottermore branded Sony e-readers, as well as other Harry Potter-specific electronics or software products.

via online.wsj.com

Cool.

How to turn your kids into entrepreneurs - WSJ.com

How do you get kids ready to become entrepreneurs?

Journal Report

Read the complete Small Business report.

The classic answer, of course, is the lemonade stand: Encourage your kids to start a homespun business instead of just bugging you for money. But entrepreneurs and educators say the real solution goes much deeper than that. There are crucial psychological traits an entrepreneur needs to succeed, they say, and parents should help kids develop them at every opportunity.

Here's a look at those attributes—and how to foster them.

Adventurous

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Paul Hoppe

Parents should urge kids to explore their environment—and don't let them get too comfortable, advises Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot Inc. and owner of the National Football League's Atlanta Falcons. That means urging them to ask questions constantly and develop an inquiring mind. For instance, "get them the right kind of toys—in which kids must figure out for themselves what to do," he says. And "on vacation, try different restaurants outside their comfort level."

Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay Inc., agrees that exploration and inquiry are crucial lessons. "Our kids seem to thrive in situations that engage their curiosity and allow them to explore and discover the world around them on their own terms," Mr. Omidyar says.

In his own childhood, he was immersed in both Persian and French culture thanks to his parents' backgrounds. "Being exposed to and learning about these cultures taught me early on that there are different ways to think about any single situation, and that you don't always have to do things the way they've always been done," Mr. Omidyar says.

Dependable and Stable

Pramodita Sharma, a visiting professor at Babson College and director of the school's STEP Global Project for Family Enterprising, also advises parents to help their kids develop an inquiring mind. But she says a couple of other traits are just as important: conscientiousness and emotional stability.

Parents should insist that kids deliver high-quality work at the promised time, whether it's chores, homework or extracurricular activities. And parents should model good behavior, demonstrating control when emotions run high. They should also urge their children to take steps such as waiting to respond when they lose their temper.

Observant

Parents should help kids recognize that their world is full of business opportunities, and finding them just takes some careful observation and creativity.

Christine Poorman, executive director of the Chicago office of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, which provides an entrepreneurship course for at-risk youths, says students are encouraged to walk around their communities and evaluate business needs. One student found her neighborhood's bodegas and hardware stores didn't have an online presence, so she created logos and websites for them.

Real-estate magnate Sam Zell also puts a high value on teaching curiosity and observation. An entrepreneur, he says, is always "seeing problems and then seeing solutions."

Sometimes those problems aren't as obvious as they look. "When I was 12, my parents moved from Chicago to the suburb of Highland Park," says Mr. Zell. Every day, "I would go into the city by train after school to attend Yeshiva school. I noticed that under the L track, they were selling Playboy magazines. I would pay 50 cents apiece for them and then bring them home to the suburbs to sell to my friends for $3—it was my first lesson in supply and demand."

Team Player

Sports can be a great classroom for entrepreneurial values. Mr. Blank says his six children, who have all played a variety of sports, have had to learn how to deal with setbacks and how to move past losses. "Sports teach how important teamwork is. The germ of the idea for Home Depot was with Bernie [Marcus] and me, but we also needed the ability to get other people excited about the idea—to get in the game, so to speak," he says.

Related Video

A child born with an extraordinary gift in the arts or intelligence can be difficult to raise. Kelsey Hubbard talks with WSJ's Sue Shellenberger about some of the challenges parents' face encouraging their kids without squashing their potential.

His son Joshua is captain of his eighth-grade soccer team, he says—a role that will help the boy learn about leadership and inspiring others, as well as playing his own position.

"Not winning every game and teamwork—these are all good lessons for entrepreneurship," Mr. Blank says.

Solitary pursuits can instill good values, too. Jim Koch, founder of Boston Beer Co., found climbing mountains a good building block in becoming an entrepreneur. "Climbers are a lot like entrepreneurs. They are willing to put themselves in a risky situation and then once there they become careful and cautious and try to reduce and eliminate the risk," says Mr. Koch, who taught mountaineering for Outward Bound in British Columbia in the 1970s.

Lead by Example

In the end, many entrepreneurs say the most valuable thing you can do to teach your kids about entrepreneurship is to practice it yourself.

For Mr. Blank, his parents were his biggest influence on his becoming an entrepreneur.

"I saw living examples of entrepreneurs," he says. "My dad was 39 years old when he started a pharmacy wholesale business. He passed away at 44 when I was 15. My mother, who was 37 at the time, had no business experience but was a risk taker in her own way. She grew the business and later sold it to a larger pharmaceutical firm."

For Scottrade founder and chief executive Rodger Riney, the entrepreneurial model was his grandfather, who owned several small businesses in Hannibal, Mo., including a fertilizer plant, cemetery, grain elevator, insurance firm, alfalfa plant and trailer-rental business.

His mother's lessons in the Golden Rule were another big inspiration. "I paid attention to that and tried to treat people the way I wanted to be treated, and that later translated into how I wanted to treat my customers," Mr. Riney says

via online.wsj.com

Yes, it can be learned, but must be a passion.

Over the past year, we've learned plenty about Bubba - PGATOUR.COM

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Bubba Watson's emotional win at last year's Travelers Championship (with wife Angie) turned out to be the first of several big moments.

Jun. 20, 2011
By Craig Dolch, PGATOUR.COM Contributor

In the last 12 months, Bubba Watson's career has come farther than one of his mammoth drives.

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Inside the Field
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Entering last year's Travelers Championship, Watson had yet to win in more than 120 starts on the PGA TOUR, had contended in a major just once and never had represented the U.S. since turning professional in 2001.

Nor had he been in an all-boys musical band or to the White House, for that matter, but more on that later.

When Watson shows up at TPC River Highlands to defend this week's title, it's amazing, almost incredible, to think of the transformation Watson's career and life have undergone in the past year.

"It's going to be different," Watson said. "Something new, something I've never experienced before. It will be neat to get back and remember some of the good shots, remember being six back starting Sunday. It's going to be a learning experience. Hopefully, I can calm down and play some good golf."

Watson has plenty to be excited about. His emotional playoff victory over Scott Verplank and Corey Pavin at TPC River Highlands -- Watson broke down in tears afterward because his father, Gerry, was battling lung cancer -- elevated Watson's game to a new level. Six weeks later, he almost won his first major, losing to Martin Kaymer in a playoff at the PGA Championship.

That near-miss earned Watson a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, where he got his first taste of international competition at the highest level, and helped him finish a career-best 15th in the FedExCup. It also set the stage for a brilliant 2011 season.

Watson is one of only two players on the PGA TOUR with multiple victories this year (he won the Farmers Insurance Open and the Zurich Classic of New Orleans), and he also made it to the semifinals of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. Watson is second in the FedExCup standings, 38 points behind leader Luke Donald.

So much of this progress can be traced to that magical Sunday afternoon a year ago. The joy of finally winning. The emotion of realizing he had accomplished his goal while his dad was still alive (Gerry died in October). And the realization the one person who had been holding Bubba Watson back was, well, Bubba Watson.

"Outside the ropes I was the fun-loving Bubba that my wife married," he said. "But inside the ropes I was just really immature, really thinking that golf owed me something. I thought I was better than I was. Thought I should be winning. My dad's situation really helped me, really showed me that golf means nothing."

Watson confided at last month's Media Day the person he used to idolize growing up was the late Payne Stewart. Not just because they liked to stand out on the course (Stewart with his knickers and Watson with his pink shaft on his driver), but because they both had to go through an attitude adjustment during their careers.

"I heard stories ... I heard he was bad in the '80s, I guess angry, not as friendly," Watson said. "(He) changed his life around, though -- became a man of faith, Christian man. He changed his life around and I got to see that. That's who I looked up to. I really didn't care what his record was, how many times he won, lost, what he won, I was just looking at him as a man and that's who I followed."

To show you how far Watson has grown as an individual, we should point out he's actually won three times this year. You probably didn't hear about his third title. It came in the men's club championship of the Old North State Club in New London, N.C. When Watson and his wife, Angie, joined the club a few months ago, he had just one request: He wanted to play in the men's club championship.

Not because he wanted to beat up on a bunch of high-handicappers. But because he thought it would be a perfect way to meet his new club members. No shock that Watson won with rounds of 66 and a club-record 63 (that included a 28 on the back nine). But he won more than a trophy -- he also won over a bunch of new friends.

"I thought it was great that he played," Ron Swanner, a local bank chairman and the club's defending champion, told the Charlotte Observer. "Some people felt it wasn't fair, but if he wants to take a weekend away from the glamour of the PGA TOUR and do this, well, it shows what a real person he is."

Watson also showed a far different side of him with last week's release of the Golf Boys video of "Oh, Oh, Oh," a musical, uh, number performed by Watson and fellow PGA TOUR pros Ben Crane, Rickie Fowler and Hunter Mahan. (Some may say a "no" needs to be placed in the middle of the name of the song.) In the video, Watson is dressed in overalls, looking very much like a Bubba.

It's probably no coincidence that Stewart was also in a band comprised of pro golfers, Jake Trout and the Flounders, which also included Peter Jacobsen, Mark Lye and Larry Rinker. The good news is every time someone watches the Golf Boys video, money is raised for Crane's foundation.

Watson's penchant for giving back also explains why he wore the camouflage pants at last week's U.S. Open. He participates in the TOUR's "Birdies for the Brave" program, because his dad was a lieutenant in the Green Berets' Special Forces during the Vietnam War. No doubt this was one of the talking points when Watson, Phil Mickelson and Davis Love III got to visit with President Obama last week.

Yes, life has changed plenty for Watson since he left TPC River Highlands last year. Lucky us.

via pgatour.com

Very cool.

McIlroy to take break until next month's British Open - PGATOUR.COM

LONDON (AP) -- Rory McIlroy has returned to Britain, basking in his record-breaking U.S Open triumph and ready for a three-week break before he returns to the course to look for a second straight major victory.

The 22-year-old Northern Irishman flew into London's Heathrow Airport Tuesday morning and is set to make a triumphant homecoming to his native Holywood, near Belfast, either late Tuesday or on Wednesday.

McIlroy has pulled out of the French Open, which starts in Paris from June 30, and will not play again until the British Open at Sandwich, southeast England from July 14-17.

After the celebrations, McIlroy intends to relax with his family following his first major victory -- an eight-shot win at Congressional on Sunday.

via pgatour.com

Good for him.

The Leveraged Lifestyles of the Rich - The Wealth Report - WSJ

It isn’t just the “Real Housewives” who are over-leveraged and living large. Even after the economic crisis mowed down many of the indebted rich, the wealthy continue to borrow to support their lifestyles.

Everett Collection

Teresa Giudice, of ‘The Real Housewives of New Jersey’

In a column in the Washington Post, market strategist Barry Ritholtz said many of today’s bankers, lawyers and doctors have become so dependent on their ever-increasing salaries that they become slaves to their jobs.

“The big banks, investment shops, law firms and accountants have learned how profitable it is to have ‘golden handcuffs’ on their best employees. These highly-leveraged, debt-laden wage slaves will work harder, put in longer hours and stay with the firm longer than those debt-free workers.”

He added that “overleveraged employees do not leave to work at a new start-up or a smaller, more family friendly competitor.”

This is true to an extent. But the wealthy don’t need their companies to encourage spending—the larger culture of wealth and spending does it for them. According to data from Moody’s Analytics, the top earning 5% of Americans now account for 36% of consumer outlays. More incredible, this group (with an average income of $342,000 in 2008) have the lowest savings rate in the country: 1.4% compared with more than 8% for the rest of the population.

That means that people earning more than $300,000 a year save less than one fifth as much as the bottom 40% of earners.

Yes, there are plenty of thrifty “Millionaires Next Door” among the wealthy and high-earners. But the statistics suggest that the financial crisis and recession has barely effected the highly leveraged lifestyles of the wealthy.

Do you think today’s high-earners use leverage to support their lifestyle?

via blogs.wsj.com

Who woulda thunk it?

McKinsey Report: Obamacare Will Cost Taxpayers Additional $400 Billion

A new report from McKinsey & Company, which says the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — a.k.a. Obamacare — will cost at least $400 billion more than expected over the next 10 years, has created controversy since its release earlier this month.

 

According to the report, the implementation of the plan will cause employers to shift away from providing health insurance to a vastly greater degree than expected. “Our research suggests that when employers become more aware of the new economic and social incentives embedded in the law and of the option to restructure benefits beyond dropping or keeping them, many will make dramatic changes,” the report says.

 

Though the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that only about 7 percent of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) will have to switch to subsidized-exchange policies in 2014, McKinsey says its early-2011 survey of more than 1,300 employers across industries, geographies, and employer sizes found that “45 to 50 percent of employers say they will definitely or probably pursue alternatives to ESI in the years after 2014.

 

“Those alternatives include dropping coverage, offering it through a defined-contribution model, or in effect offering it only to certain employees.”

 

Obamacare proponents and some members of the press, however, point out that McKinsey has thus far refused to release details on how the study was conducted.

 

“It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the study was embarrassingly bad — maybe it was a skewed sample, maybe the questions were leading, maybe there was no real data at all,” economist Paul Krugman writes in The New York Times.

 

“The important thing is that this must not stand,” Krugman continues. “You can’t enter the political debate with strong claims about what the evidence says, then refuse to produce that evidence.”

 

On the other side of the debate, former senior advisor to President George W. Bush, Karl Rove, wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “Perversely, ObamaCare both drives up the cost of insurance with mandates and rules while making it attractive for companies to dump the increasingly more expensive coverage and pay a lesser fine. There will be huge ramifications for the country’s finances if more workers lose coverage than was estimated.”

via moneynews.com

The debate continues.

Blacks Picket The NAACP | Personal Liberty Digest

For a moment, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Thousands of residents of Harlem, a New York City neighborhood, had taken to the streets to protest the NAACP. And yes, virtually every one of them was black.

What was it all about? Apparently, a huge number of parents in Harlem believe the quality of education their children are getting is more important than the color of the skin of their teachers. They were demanding better schools — even if that meant a bunch of black teachers lost their jobs.

You won’t be surprised to learn that many of our inner-city schools do a terrible job of educating the young people entrusted to them. More than half of the children who start first grade in inner-city schools drop out before they graduate. Many of those who do make it through 12 grades can’t read above a see-spot-run level. Nor can they do such simple math as making change for a purchase of a Big Mac and fries. No wonder the graduates of inner city schools are virtually unemployable.

Officials in New York City decided to do something about this sorry situation.  They announced plans to close 22 of the worst-performing schools in the city. That was enough to get the teacher’s union riled up. But what really put the union on the warpath was when those same city officials said they would permit charter schools to operate in some of the buildings that would soon be vacant.

But charter schools don’t hire members of the teacher’s union. They don’t guarantee teachers jobs for life or steady increases in pay and benefits every year, no matter how badly the teachers do their jobs. Charter-school teachers get paid based on results — not on tenure or political clout.

Of course, all of this is completely unacceptable to the United Federation of Teachers. No wonder union members went ballistic when they heard about the plan. They were simply protecting their turf. After all, the teachers’ union had demonstrated for years that for them, jobs were job one. Political clout ran a close second. Children’s education was not worth worrying about.

This situation is nothing new. Many years ago, the most powerful leader the teachers’ union ever had, Albert Shanker, was honest enough to admit: “When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of schoolchildren.”

Hey, he who pays the piper calls the tune. I get that.

And that, my friends, explains why the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has aligned itself with the United Federation of Teachers. The NAACP cares more about the jobs of black members of the teachers union — and in New York City that’s a lot of jobs, folks — than they do about the education of children.

So now you understand why thousands of black parents took to the streets of Harlem last month. Will they make a difference? Not if Hazel Dukes, president of the NAACP in New York, has her way. Dukes said the parents “can march and have rallies all day long… We will not respond.”

The teachers’ union and the New York State chapter of the NAACP have filed suit to stop the city from closing those 22 schools or allowing any charter school to operate in any building occupied by a traditional public school.

Will the officials stick to their guns? Or will they cave from the pressure brought by two of the most powerful entities in the State: the teachers’ union and the NAACP?

I wish I could predict a happy outcome. But I suspect that, once again, the right thing to do will be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.

Meanwhile, what sort of education are the children in your area getting? What percentage of kids who enter the first grade graduate from high school? And of those who do, how well can they read, write and do basic arithmetic?

It’s been a long time since Why Johnny Can’t Read was a national bestseller. But the problem and the solution to the problem haven’t changed. Fire bad teachers. Pay good teachers more. Get the politicians and bureaucrats out of the way.

And if you really want to see some positive changes in our schools, end the monopoly by union thugs and their political buddies. Open up education to competition. Give more money to those who do a better job and less to those who don’t or can’t.

Sure, there would be weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth from one end of this country to the other. But it wouldn’t come from most students, since they know they are being used by people who really don’t give a hoot about them.

Until next time, keep some powder dry.

–Chip Wood

via personalliberty.com

We can only hope the NAACP loses this one.

Canada Turns Away Obama’s Old Pal, 1960s Domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers | The Blaze

Bill Ayers is a proud radical. Mr. Ayers admits to co-founding the Weather Underground, a group whose members set off bombs at banks, the home of a judge, the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol building during the 1960s. In order to avoid arrest, Ayers and several of his fellow “Weathermen” had to live in hiding for over a decade. He surfaced in the 1980s with companion (and the mother of his children) Bernadine Dohrn.

Oddly enough, it was on September 11, 2001, the New York Times printed a story about Bill Ayers, quoting him about the bombings that his group orchestrated:

”I don’t regret setting bombs,” Bill Ayers said. ”I feel we didn’t do enough.”

Is it any wonder that Canada has turned Ayers away for the third time in recent years?

For the record, Ayers was slated to deliver the keynote address to the Worldview Conference on Media and Higher Education. The group hosting the event, Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA), is not very pleased with that officials turned their Keynote speaker away, but Canadian Law clearly forbids entry into the country to persons involved:

“in criminal activity, in human rights violations or in organized crime.”

The conference organizer  and President of the OCUFA, Mark Langer, delivered the best quote related to the story as he compared an admitted terrorist bomber to America’s most successful Domestic Designer:

“I am disturbed by the apparent inconsistency in the enforcement of Canada’s border, in the past, we have admitted Martha Stewart, a convicted felon.”

As of this writing, Mr. Ayers has reportedly hired attorneys on both sides of the border between Canada and America, in hopes of breaking through the legal impasse in time to deliver tomorrow’s keynote address.

via theblaze.com

Good for Canada.

Video: SEIU Officials Throw Out Member Questioning Union’s Ballot-Counting Practices | The Blaze

It‘s been a longstanding mantra of Glenn Beck’s: he doesn’t have a problem with union members, but rather thinks it’s the union leaders who are warping the unions. And he’s also been encouraging people to stand with courage. This video may provide proof of both.

Mariam Nojiam, a state worker for the Department of Motor Vehicles and SEIU member, became suspicious when she happened on vote-counters who were apparently breaking the rules pertaining to an internal union election.

Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey sets up the clip (since Mariam caught everything on her cell phone):

The SEIU held an election by mail for an internal election — for which it apparently uses the same kind of secret ballots that they want to deny workers with Card Check. By SEIU’s own rules, those ballots are supposed to arrive via US Postal Service, with postmarks to note the date so that the counters can verify they arrived before the deadline. One SEIU observer noticed counters opening large envelopes of ballots with no postmarks at all on them — and when she tried to protest, the other SEIU officials in the room pushed her out the door.

Here’s the video:

But wait, Morrissey has the best part:

For a final irony, the SEIU’s spokesman insisted that Nojiam’s protest was irrelevant, because the rules state that a challenge has to come from one of the candidates. How’s that for convenient, eh? The union apparently has no problem breaking the rules to count batches of apparently invalid ballots, but when it comes to someone catching them at that game, the SEIU insists on full compliance with the rules on protests.

“It’s about time that they [union officials] be responsible and transparent to their members,” Mariam told CBSSacramento.com.

At least she took a stand.

via theblaze.com

Aha...

Groupon, Facebook, Google Woo Small Businesses for Local Ad Deals - WSJ.com

SAN FRANCISCO—To win in the fast-growing digital-advertising market, Web companies such as Facebook Inc., Google Inc. and Groupon Inc. are increasingly battling over mom-and-pop businesses such as SF Chinatown Ghost Tours.

Over the past year, Cynthia Yee, proprietor of the San Francisco walking-tour company, has been overwhelmed with calls from websites including Groupon, LivingSocial Inc. and kgbdeals, which provides discount-coupon deals sold on Facebook. All ask her to participate in their deal-of-the-day offers, in which sites typically sell vouchers for 50% or more off goods and services at local businesses.

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Stu Woo/The Wall Street Journal

Cynthia Yee says daily-deal offers have brought an influx of customers to her San Francisco walking tours.

Over oatmeal one recent morning, the 65-year-old Ms. Yee was explaining how salespeople from those websites were calling nonstop when her cellphone rang. "Hello?" she said. She jotted down a phone number. "That was another one," she said after hanging up.

The blitz has worked. In the past 18 months, Ms. Yee said she has run promotions on at least seven different deal-of-the-day websites. That included three on Groupon, which in its most recent sale sold 1,700 vouchers for her narrated tours of Chinatown for $12, half off the regular price of $24. Ms. Yee paid no upfront money, though Groupon took a $6 cut from each sale. She earned about $25,000 from all the daily deals combined.

Ms. Yee, who has run the weekend tours for seven years, said she used to consider it lucky when 10 people showed up. Now there are as many as 90, so she hired two additional guides to help her.

For years, the $130 billion U.S. local-advertising market has largely eluded Internet companies. Now the daily-deal business model has given Web firms a new shot at the marketing dollars of the nail salon and coffee shop around the corner. The scramble to tap businesses like Ms. Yee's is a hallmark of Silicon Valley's new Web boom, with high-tech sites like Facebook, Groupon and others duking it out for these low-tech merchants.

More

• Banner Ads and Other 'Local' Flops

In their pitches, Internet companies tout their ability to make deals work for the businesses. "We wanted them to know that we offer some of the fairest and quickest payment terms in the business," said Dana Palmer, a sales manager for kgbdeals who was present for the phone call with Ms. Yee. The firm sold 400 Chinatown tours two months ago after putting the deal on Facebook and its own site.

"There has been no clearer way to guarantee customers" than deals, said Emily White, Facebook's director of local initiatives, which began offering daily deals in April.

Hundreds of daily-deal imitators have sprung up since Groupon, which filed for an initial public offering earlier this month, and LivingSocial started popularizing the model three years ago. They include online giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon.com Inc., as well as Yelp Inc. and OpenTable Inc. Newspapers such as the Houston Chronicle and Miami Herald have also gotten into the business.

Consumers are now spending more time researching products online before they buy them in stores. This gives tech companies new opportunities to take a cut of the brick-and-mortar action. "The deal format is an easy one for consumers and merchants to understand and drive traffic," said Stephanie Tilenius, vice president of commerce and payments at Google, which earlier this month started testing daily deals in Portland, Ore.

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Whether the daily-deal model is sustainable remains unclear. Chicago-based Groupon said in its IPO filing that it had a loss of $413 million on revenue of $713 million in 2010 as the company aggressively ramped up hiring.

Margins for daily-deal sites could also shrink because of increased competition. Groupon has traditionally taken 50% of the revenue from the deals it sells on its site, but it might have to take less as Facebook, Google and others ramp up their services, said David Sinsky, data product manager for Yipit, a website that aggregates daily deals.

Patrick Albus, chief executive of kgbdeals U.S., said his company's average margins haven't declined. "Fair revenue splits are definitely sustainable for the kgbdeals business model, and many of our repeat merchants agree with us," he said.

Analysts caution that there are also few incentives for businesses or customers to use one daily-deal service over another. If the same deal is offered on several sites, consumers have little incentive to choose one site for another. Many of the deals sites say their greatest asset is their brand name and their ability to control the quality of their offers.

Rodney Fong, president of San Francisco's Wax Museum at Fisherman's Wharf, for one, is a convert to the daily-deals model. Just three years ago, he said the museum spent a quarter of its marketing budget on newspaper ads. Now it spends almost nothing on print ads, shifting its focus to daily-deal sites. "I'm sold on it," Mr. Fong said. He said he didn't yet have data on how the deals affected attendance, but said they have been successful enough that the museum is looking to pursue more such offers.

At SF Chinatown Ghost Tours, Ms. Yee is beginning to turn down some of the sales pitches from daily-deals promoters. "They were getting out of hand," she says.

via online.wsj.com

Interesting.

Backspin: Frazar, Mavs have a lot in common - PGATOUR.COM

There were some parallels between the FedEx St. Jude champ and the Dallas Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki on Sunday night.

Neither had ever won a title before.

Both reside in Dallas.

Both are in their 13th year in their respective leagues.

Both reached the mountaintop after a long, often frustrating journey.

"I wanted to send a text to Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd and those guys and say I know right now exactly how you feel," an exhausted Frazar told me via cell phone from his hotel room about an hour after the Mavericks won its first NBA title and some six hours after he won his first PGA TOUR title after defeating Robert Karlsson in a playoff.

"All the years of hard work, and criticism; the years of not knowing where you stand and questioning who you are as a person or a player. And to all of a sudden find yourself on top, I know how [they] feel. I'm not equating winning a TOUR event to winning the NBA championship, but there are parallels."

And surely Nowitzki must know how Frazar, a native and resident of Dallas as well as a diehard Mavs fan, feels. The super forward finally got his own trophy (or two if you count his Finals MVP award) after 13 years in a league in which he'd reached the NBA Finals just once.

For Frazar, it took 355 starts before he could hoist his hardware.

There was a time when Frazar, much like Nowitzki, looked as though he'd never get that opportunity -- whether it was earlier this year when he talked about quitting after this season, or when he dunked his approach shot in the water on the indolent to lose a one-shot lead on Sunday.

But Frazar bounced back, telling himself and his caddie that he was going to get up and down on the 18th to force a playoff, which he did before winning on the third extra hole. And he did so knowing, at least in the back of his mind, that his major medical exemption was running out in a couple of weeks and perhaps his career right along with it.

"As time went on, here was this unattainable beast," said Frazar, who also jumped more than 100 spots to 40th in the the FedExCup standings with the win. "I realize 13 years ... it should not have been that hard. I put in on a pedestal for so long. I idealized it so much where it made it difficult to function."

That inability to function -- sometimes literally, like when Frazar blew out his hip last summer and endured the fourth major surgery of his career -- nearly ended his career .

Earlier this season, Frazar talked about hanging up his spikes after this year if things didn't turn around. But recent encouragement from family and friends -- like former TOUR executive vice president Rick George, now the chief operating officer of the Texas Rangers -- is what ultimately helped Frazar on Sunday.

I asked Frazar what his overwhelming thought was now that it had all sunk in and he said, "Just a sense of accomplishment. It's been a long, long time in the making."

The same could be said for the Mavericks.

via pgatour.com

Way to go Harrison.

The Rise Of Mobile Marketing : Marketing :: American Express OPEN Forum

June 10, 2011

Look around you. How many people have their noses in their cell phones? Wouldn't it be great if they were looking at your ads on their screens?

According to comScore, there are now 74.6 million U.S. consumers with smartphones, and an April study by Ipsos OTX for Google found that people do respond to mobile ads. Four in five smartphone users browse the Web on their devices, and three-fourths use mobile search. The study found that 42 percent of users click on mobile ads they see on smartphones, and, of those, 49 percent go on to buy something or convert somehow, whether that's visiting the advertiser's website later or calling the business on the spot.

Research firm BIA/Kelsey forecasts U.S. Mobile advertising to reach $2.9 billion in 2014. But you don't need to be a million-dollar company to hop on, nor do you need a trendy ad agency. For $30 on your credit card, you can have a mobile site and do mobile advertising tonight.

A year ago, Google launched AdWords for Mobile, but you need to provide your own mobile website. With the proliferation of different-sized screens and operating systems, this is too much of a challenge for many SMBs. Two new services from MerchantCircle and Where take away those headaches by automatically translating your website for mobile displays while providing simple interfaces for launching mobile campaigns.

MerchantCircle is an online network of local businesses that provides free pages that companies can modify or personalize. It recently launched the Merchant Mobile App, which, in addition to providing the ability to update pages via an iPhone, also lets them offer coupons and daily deals.

Gino Orfitelli, owner of ePRO Computer Repair in Southington, Connecticut, says he runs his business almost completely on his iPhone, getting on the computer only in the evening when he returns from working at clients' locations. "Most of the traditional avenues, like print, radio, TV or coupon books, don't work for my business model," Orfitelli says.

He uses the mobile app to keep his website content fresh and at the top of search engine results. He also sends out coupons and marketing e-mails via the mobile interface—MerchantCircle automatically formats these to match consumers' devices.

"Everything we create, we think about the mobile device as a major entry point," says Darren Waddell, vice president of marketing and product management at MerchantCircle. "The simplicity of the whole thing is exciting. Instead of doing marketing stuff when they get home, now business owners can steal time waiting for an appointment or whatever, and take a couple of minutes to update their status or send a coupon."

Where, now part of eBay's PayPal division, launched a merchant services portal in April that allows local businesses to claim and enhance their listings for free. When you create your page, it is automatically translated for mobile devices, as well.

Arik Keller, senior director of product for Where, says the service provides a "very simple, elegant rendering of your business information."

Next, you can use the portal to create ads or offer two types of deals: a "buy-it-now" limited-time offer, or a coupon that consumers can purchase to use later. (PayPal will become the payment mechanism for these down the road.) There are three tiers of pricing for campaigns, starting at $30 payable with a credit card.

Combining location with time-sensitive offers is the best strategy for mobile advertising, according to Jed Williams, program director for the social/local media advisory service of BIA Kelsey.

"It's an obvious choice for restaurants and retail, those that might want to run a clearance sale or have dynamic inventory or perishable goods that need to be moved quickly," Williams says. While there isn't a strong business case for every company, he notes that, "If I'm out looking for lunch, [mobile advertising] can not only push me a recommendation about a lunch place but also about other things to do in the area."

Combining mobile ads with mobile payments could greatly increase the effectiveness of mobile ads, according to Keller.

"People will start buying things before they walk into the store down the street. They'll buy the $20 voucher for pizza when they're two miles away," he says.

Says Keller, "You probably see that half the people in your store are on the phone, so you know mobile is a channel you need to be thinking about. This is a very measurable way to advertise something about your business."

Consumers have become very willing to divulge their locations in return for value, according to Williams, and the success of Groupon has created a paradigm shift. "As mobile adoption continues to accelerate, consumer expectation of their interaction with brands will change. They will expect to be able to find and consume content, even from local brands, the same way they do on the desktop. Suddenly just getting an e-mail in the inbox won't be enough," Williams adds

via openforum.com

Interesting.

Politico Issues Correction After Palin Camp Bashes Authors for ‘Making Up’ Quote | The Blaze

News outlet Politico has been forced to issue a correction after two authors incorrectly attributed a damning quote to her in an opinion piece.

In an article that pits Palin vs. Rep. Michele Bachmann, authors Paul Goldman and Mark J. Rozell appear to catch Palin slamming Bachmann. Here it is in context, which is the third paragraph in the article:

Palin’s bus tour had some of the hallmarks of a primal scream: “I built this constituency, not Bachmann, not anyone else.” Looking at it through her eyes, she has a point.

That’s a big deal. Considering the piece, that would appear to be the start of a word war between the two Tea Party favorites. But there’s just one problem. Palin never said it.

“An absurd opinion piece in Politico includes a quote attributed to Governor Palin that is a total fabrication and yet is deliberately written to appear as if it is a legitimate direct quote,” Palin’s camp said in a statement on her website. “By any standard this is unacceptable even for an opinion piece. This puts us in mind of a real quote of something Governor Palin actually did once say to the media: ‘Quit making stuff up.’”

Politico must have heard the Momma Grizzly’s roar. If you go to the piece now, the quotes have been removed and a statement appears at the end:

Palin has not yet responded to the correction. But I’m not sure she has to

via theblaze.com

Amazing.

Fox's Kilmeade: 'Talk Network Serves Core of People's Lives'

Fox News personality Brian Kilmeade is featured in a cover story in Talkers Magazine, sharing his thoughts on his fellow broadcasters and other topics.

Brian Kilmeade: "Treat people with respect regardless of title." (Getty Images Photo)

Kilmeade co-hosts the morning show “Fox & Friends” on the Fox News Channel and hosts his daily radio talk show, “Kilmeade & Friends,” on the Fox News Radio network.

In an interview with Talkers Magazine Editor and Publisher Michael Harrison, Kilmeade discussed the most important lessons he has learned during his career.

“Treat people with respect regardless of title,” he said.

“Put in the effort, judge yourself on your own performance without comparing your progress with a peer on your channel or any other station. Come to play every day.”

Kilmeade said his most important broadcasting influences include David Letterman, Johnny Carson, Howard Stern, John Tesh, and Rush Limbaugh, who “moves a story or issue forward while making every hour entertaining.”

Comparing his current posts with his earlier jobs in sports broadcasting, Kilmeade said: “Unlike sports, I really sense the news and this talk network serves the core of people’s lives.

“In reality, jobs, taxes, war and elections have a direct impact on how our audience lives rather than what jersey they choose to wear on Sundays. There is just so much more on the line. The newsmakers I get oftentimes affect world history.”

What Kilmeade likes best about his radio show, he disclosed, is having his fellow Fox anchors and reporters stopping by regularly, including Bill O’Reilly, Geraldo Rivera, and Neil Cavuto.

He also likes “the access to newsmakers and players who stop by almost daily,” mentioning recent guests Michele Bachmann, Karl Rove, and John Boehner and adding: “I just don’t know if there is another show that can boast of that kind of access.”

via newsmax.com

Good advice.

8 Reasons Every Ecommerce Site Should Get Serious About Video

6 days ago by Yaniv Axen 39

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Yaniv Axen has served as the CTO of SundaySky since cofounding the company. He manages technological concerns for strategic customers, directs the patent application process for SundaySky’s solutions and facilitates key partnerships.

The truth about doing business online today is that for many companies, increasing market share requires winning customers from competitors. Using online video to build business is one tactic that has been rapidly gaining popularity in the past few years. It delivers benefits that include personalization, competitive advantage and cost-effectiveness.

Below are seven ways video outperforms static web content in the ruthless competition for market share.

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1. Video Attracts New, Relevant Search Traffic

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No conversation about ebusiness is complete without discussing search engine optimization (SEO). An ebusiness cannot gain on a competitor until consumers know it exists and can easily find it through organic search. Today, ebusinesses that utilize video assets are at an advantage, since Google is structuring its search engine results to reward sites that include video. According to Forrester, any given video in an index of searchable keywords has a 50 times better chance of appearing on the first page of results than any given text page.

To better promote their video investments and derive the greatest SEO rewards, ebusinesses are making videos more accessible to visitors, scaling videos to reach long-tail keywords, and automating video production in order to have video available as soon as new products are introduced.

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2. Video Assets Can be Easily Syndicated

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Online video is usually channel agnostic. By syndicating video properties to multiple sites — including YouTube, the second largest search engine today — ebusinesses extend their reach to innumerable eyeballs. In addition to traditional channels, online video plays equally well via mobile networks, TV, and in-store screens. It is a cost-effective way to maintain brand consistency and strengthen consumer awareness.

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3. Videos Encourage Sharing

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Videos are far more likely to be passed and shared than text-based pages. Additionally, a video thumbnail on a social media platform — Facebook, for example — grabs more attention than static text and often results in more comments, more “Likes,” and more traffic to the brand’s website. When you like or share a video link, a thumbnail appears on your wall and is also seen by your friends.

According to a study from YouBrand, pictures and video within Facebook get engaged with and clicked more often than just text and questions.

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4. Video Engages Site Visitors

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Video provides a familiar user interface for site visitors. When videos are properly produced, they captivate the user. Instead of the need to navigate, scroll and click to access information, the video is a one-stop shop for information. It takes less energy than the hassle of reading and the user is engaged until he or she is ready to follow an embedded call-to-action. Today’s automated video production platforms easily enable this flow, in many cases directing visual and auditory calls-to-action that guide the viewer to a shopping cart.

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5. Video’s “Halo Effect” Drives Conversions

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Video can give customers an in-depth view of a product or a demonstration that quells any hesitancy they might have about purchasing online. The peace of mind the customer gains from the video seeps into the way he or she feels about the brand and website overall, building trust and credibility. This is essential to gaining market share, especially for businesses that sell products with a lot of competition.

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6. Video Increases Customer Loyalty

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Video newsletters are more likely to attract consumer attention. By some estimates, the open rate for a video newsletter is two to three times higher than for a text-based newsletter. While many brands compete for consumer attention with the latter, those who employ the former stand out from the crowd. These video communications can be personalized for each recipient with individualized greetings, references to previously purchased items, or offers based on shopping history, geography and segmentation.

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7. Video Creates Online Personalization

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By improving and tailoring the customer experience, online retailers in every sector have increased customer loyalty, conversion rates and average order price. The quality of online personalization continues to rise and in many cases can rival or outperform the “live” shopping experience. This is a key factor in gaining market share, since consumers increasingly shop online but still express a desire for the personal touch and the social aspects of in-person browsing.

When prospects go to a store, they get recommendations and help from in-store staff who point them to relevant products. Video delivers this experience online, with far less variability and chance. With new technologies that offer personalized video created on-the-fly, ebusinesses can bridge the gap between live and virtual experiences.

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8. Video Production Costs Are Falling, ROI Is Rising

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Online video clearly has an impact on competitive advantage. But is it feasible for most ebusinesses? Thanks to today’s automated video production technology, the answer is “yes.”

Two decades ago, the market struggled to replace the labor-intensive process of website management. Today we hardly think about the steps required to update or add web content: Images and text are now template-based, database-driven and easy to manipulate.

Video production is experiencing a similar change. While many website owners once fought the limitations of manually produced videos — including slow production times and prohibitive costs — today’s solutions tend to be automated, cost effective and high quality. With relatively little human intervention, online video production can increase a business’s competitive advantage while creating a better shopping experience for the user.

via mashable.com

cool.