Driving In Traffic

Dreamed of Changing the World and Going to Switzerland? You-Tube can help

You Tube is now giving aspiring world changers a chance to present their issue at the World Economic Forum.

Olivia Ma says, "This is the third annual "Davos" program YouTube has done with the World Economic Forum, and this year we're sending a citizen to this year's annual meeting in Davos to advocate for his/her pet cause on a panel of world leaders at the World Economic Forum. This is the first time a regular citizen will be on stage in a meaningful capacity at Davos and we want to make sure there's a great person up there."

Here's the official YouTube blog link with more info: http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2009/12/one-week-to-make-your-pitch-to-attend.html

Wanna know more about the Davos Debates:

Calling all Humanitarians...

The Charles Bronfman Prize is looking for a few good Humanitarians. 

The Charles Bronfman Prize is an humanitarian award of $100,000. It celebrates the vision and talent of an individual or team 50 years of age or under, whose humanitarian work has contributed significantly to the betterment of the world. Its goal is to bring public recognition to young, dynamic individuals whose Jewish values infuse their humanitarian accomplishments, provide inspiration to the next generations.

Over the last few years, Bronfman Prize judges have considered hundreds of qualified nominations from around the globe -- young women and men whose diverse range of humanitarian efforts includes ground-breaking applications of medicine and science, education, human rights, conflict resolution, community development and compassionate care.

       

What They Are Looking for:

                     

• Today’s heroes who serve as an inspiration for the next generations.
• Next generation leaders who have a vision for change that will better the world in a meaningful way;
• Nominees who have created a mechanism for acting on their vision in ways that deliver measurable results; and,
• Nominees who exhibit innovation, leadership and impact in their chosen field.
• Individuals or teams, not organizations. We want to hear about the individuals who created the visions on which the organization is based.
• Nominees who are 50 years of age or under by December of the year of nomination

So if you know someone who is a good candidate for the Bronfman Prize, please visit the website for nomination information and forms.

SEO Tip: Four Places Where You Should List Your Website

One tenet of search engine optimization is that a site's rankings are influenced greatly by the number of sites that link to it.  Seems easy enough, right?

Well, unfortunately many are duped by unscrupulous "SEO Gurus" that use spam postings on blogs and sham sites to drive up the number of links to a site.  This tactic certainly works, but I would advise against it.  Afterall, your company's good reputation is the hardest thing to achieve and also the easiest thing to lose.  All it takes is for a link to your company or its logo to be placed next to an advertisement for a porn site and you are "screwed"  (all puns intended).

If you are a do-it-yourself kind of person, there are a few places where it is worth the time to list your site.  Here they are:

DMOZ Open Directory Project

The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. Listing your business is free and easy (link on upper left-hand side of each page).  Many of the search engines routinely cruise DMOZ for new sites that have been added.  The downside of the human-editing process is that your listing will not appear immediately.  You will need to give it a few days to a few weeks to appear.  But geez... its free and you can list in multiple area if appropriate for your business.

Kudzu.com

As a subsidary or Cox Enterprises, Kudzu.com is a great platform and well advertised in the local markets it covers.  Kudzu has both free and paid services.  The free service includes a basic listing and allows customers to leave reviews, which are becoming more and more important in the marketplace.  If you want to optimize your rankings within Kudzu and add photos and videos of your work, the $75/month package is within some small businesses advertising budget.

Flugpo.com

This is a relatively new business listing site that adds a social networking spin to things.  I like that they clearly post their code of conduct for their network participants additionally their FAQs provide a clear explanation of what to do when the code of conduct is violated.

Joint Win-Win 

This is a specialized listing site that focuses on companies that donate at least 8% of their gross revenues to charity.  I realize that not everyone can use this site, but I love the idea and thought it worth including.  With Cause-related marketing and the desire of consumers/customers to buy and do good growing in popularity, this free listing service makes a lot of sense.

Photo by Afferent Rapture

St. Benedict's Podcast

I've been working with St. Benedict's Episcopal Church to improve their web presence.  I have been working on getting a podcast up and running.  I even spent several hours designing the logo. 

They have decided to have two types of programs. 

• Meditative Moments:  which are short (5-6 minute) episodes that are designed to be inspirational and stress reducing.
• Sermon Cast:  these are broadcasts of sermons that are given during their Sunday worship.  They hope for these to be used by members but also allow people interested in the church to hear the types of topics that are discussed and hopefully be less hesitant about coming to church.

So it is with great pleasure that I say that we finally launched it.  It is called St. Benedict's E-Cast. Click here to check them out or you can listen directly from their site.