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The Chinese Connection

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china-flag.gifThe Seattle Times columnist Peter Navarro blames the American business schools for not preparing business executives to deal with ethics in a corrupt and totalitarian global-business environment like China.

Moreover, he calls for much bigger discussion about how to engage economically and politically with China.

Such inadequacy has resulted to moral breakdown which was clearly demonstrated by Yahoo! when it helped the Chinese government put business journalist Shi Tao and pro-democracy blogger Wang Xiaoning behind bars for 10 years.

Navarro also cited that other American companies like Skype, Cisco, Google, and Microsoft are helping China censor the Internet.

I just want to add one important factor causing this moral breakdown – greed. With its online population surging and so many ongoing developments, the Chinese market is very profitable. Sharing little information in exchange for bigger deals is very tempting for many profit-driven companies.

Originally posted on November 19, 2007 @ 12:44 pm

EatonWeb to remove PageRank metric

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new media newsThe EatonWeb blog directory, the Web’s oldest directory which uses a combination of metric factors to determine the value of a website, is planning to phase out PageRank (PR) as one of its measure, in the next 12 months.

Apparently, it no longer believes that PR is a precise indicator of site importance.

In fact, we believe that PageRank epicycles are chinks in the Google armor and that Google needs to make a major strategical decision going forward to preserve its influence in the webmaster community.

EatonWeb is not alone in this argument. Aaron Wall of SEOBook thinks PageRank is the wonkiest stat of them all since it is only updated about once in every 3 months. Moreover, some bloggers are now paying more attention to their Alexa and Technorati rankings.

How about you? Do you think removing PR is a good move or will it spell disaster for EatonWeb?

Originally posted on November 16, 2007 @ 1:39 pm

10 practical tips to boost your LinkedIn profile

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new media newsHaving a LinkedIn profile is quickly becoming a necessity among job seekers for many headhunters and HR representatives are turning to social networks to get the best candidates.

However, it is not enough to create a simple profile and hope that companies will check your account. With more than 14 million members, you need to be aggressive and proactive to catch the eyes of potential employers. The key, my friend, is personal branding.

Fortunately, LinkedIn is offering 10 tips to improve your personal profile:

  1. Don’t just cut and paste your resume. Instead, describe your experience and abilities as you would to someone you just met. And write for the screen, in short blocks of copy with visual or textual signposts.
  2. Use specific adjectives, colorful verbs, active construction (“managed project team,” not “responsible for project team management”).
  3. Write a personal tagline. That line of text under your name? It’s the first thing people see in your profile. It follows your name in search hit lists. It’s your brand.
  4. Write a 30-second description, the essence of who you are and what you do, and use it in the Summary section to engage readers. You’ve got 5-10 seconds to capture their attention.
  5. Point out your skills. Also: particular abilities and interests, the personal values you bring to your professional performance, even a note of humor or passion.
  6. Explain your experience. Help the reader grasp the key points: briefly say what the company does and what you did or do for them.
  7. Add websites that showcase your abilities or passions. Then edit the default “My Website” label to encourage click-throughs (you get Google page rankings for those, raising your visibility).
  8. Make a point of answering questions in your field, to establish your expertise, raise your visibility, and most important, to build social capital with people in your network.
  9. Get recommendations from colleagues, clients, and employers who can speak credibly about your abilities or performance. (Think quality, not quantity.)
  10. Build your connections. Connections are one of the most important aspects of your brand: the company you keep reflects the quality of your brand.

Originally posted on November 19, 2007 @ 1:43 pm

Online consumer electronics spending grows to $22.5 billion

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cea.pngOver 14 percent of the nearly $160 billion spent on consumer electronics (CE) over the previous 12 months was spent online, up from 5 percent in 2005, according to a study released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). According to The State of CE Retail, CE products follow only books and clothing as the items most frequently purchased online. Desktop PCs, wireless phones and digital cameras emerged as the most popular CE products for online shoppers. The study also reveals that consumers are pleased with their online and in-store experiences.

A vast majority of consumers gave both the online (89 percent) and in-store (80 percent) experiences ratings of good or excellent, marking an increase for the web and consistent ratings for store-fronts. In particular, the brick-and-mortars demonstrated strong improvements in product information, wait times while in line and salesperson knowledge. Survey results show that selection and convenience are seen as primary benefits of purchasing consumer electronics online.

The growth of online purchasing also creates opportunities for traditional CE retailers. The study reveals that brick and mortar retailers are the most commonly visited sites by online CE shoppers. In addition, more consumers go online to research and compare prices and then buy in the store (47 percent) than vice versa (17 percent). A growing number of consumers (11 percent) are even going online and then picking the item up in the store, creating additional selling opportunities in the process.

Originally posted on November 19, 2007 @ 1:17 pm

Kaboose acquires the largest online parenting club in the UK

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new media newsKaboose, the largest independent family-focused online media company in the U.S., has acquired Bounty.com, a leading family destination and parenting club online in the UK, for $140 million.

The acquisition of Bounty.com is expected to complement Kaboose’s other sites like BabyZone, ParentZone, AmazingMoms and TwoPeasInABucket.

Hopefully, this will give the Toronto-based company a better fighting chance against established players in the family-friendly demographic like Nickelodeon, Walt Disney, and J&J’s BabyCenter.

However, both parties declined to deal with the media until the equity-refinancing deal for $115 million is completed.

Why $140 million? Bounty.com is not only the largest parenting club in the UK with 2.4 million members but also the largest database of young families in Europe. Not to mention its strong partnerships with leading multinational companies like P&G, Unilever, J&J, and Kimberly-Clark.

Originally posted on November 16, 2007 @ 12:39 pm