Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Stocks to Watch: Shutterfly, Zynga, Ascena Retail Group and More

By Corrie Driebusch and Drew FitzGerald

Among the companies whose shares are expected to actively trade in Fridays session are Shutterfly, Zynga and Ascena Retail Group.

Eastman Kodak said it agreed the proposed sale of its Kodak Gallery online photo services business to Internet-based personal publishing service Shutterfly for $23.8 million. Shutterfly shares surged 15% to $30.90 premarket.

Zynga late Thursday said it would introduce a new platform to allow people to be able to play the companys popular titles on Zynga.com instead of relying on social networks such as Facebook. Shares of Zynga jumped 3.9% to $15.04 premarket.

Ascenas fiscal second-quarter earnings jumped 50% as the apparel retailer posted stronger same-store sales, led by its Justice brand. Shares jumped 8.5% to $42.25 premarket after the company easily beat earnings and revenue expectations.

Flow Internationals fiscal third-quarter profit more than doubled as the maker of water-jet machines saw continued strength in its standard segment, though its advanced segment continued to post lower sales. Shares jumped 8.1% premarket to $4.28.

Foot Lockers fiscal fourth-quarter earnings rose 42% as innovative apparel and footwear merchandise led to stronger consumer demand, helping the retail chain report higher same-store sales and expanding margins. The companys fourth-quarter results easily topped Wall Streets expectations, though Foot Lockers stock fell 1.3% to $29.13 premarket as there may have been expectations same-store sales would have risen even higher than the 7.5%-increase reported.

SciClone Pharmaceuticals said it will discontinue the development of a drug to treat oral mucositis after a study did not yield positive results. The pharmaceutical companys shares dropped 8.2% to $4.15 premarket.

A123 Systems reported preliminary 2011 revenue that missed the battery developers November estimates amid a series of fourth-quarter charges. Shares fell 5.3% to $1.80 premarket.

Columbia Laboratories plans to reduce its work force by 10 employees to 14 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday rejected a co-developed product intended for pregnant women. Shares jumped 12% to 75 cents premarket.

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Stocks to Watch: Shutterfly, Zynga, Ascena Retail Group and More

The issues surrounding the Sappi site are not so clear cut, Muskegon chamber chief says

MUSKEGON -- Many have responded to the call for the city of Muskegon to use "eminent domain" to take the former paper mill property from its new private owner with outrage. While Lakeside and Bluffton neighbors and environmentalists have issues over environmental cleanup and plans for industrial redevelopment of the 120-acre site on Muskegon Lake, some among them call for a public taking of the property.

The main pro-business organization in Muskegon is not ready to immediately jump on private property rights argument many MLive commenters have voiced. Northc9r is typical among those arguing the point.

You people are the same ones that would scream bloody murder if the city claimed eminent domain to take your property, as would I, but you're ok with it when someone else holds the deed and you have your own agenda.

I've posted it before regarding this but I hope you get the living **** sued out of you for trying to take away property rights!

And then muskdem wrote:

Are you people freaking kidding me? You want the city to take this man's property because you want more condos and offices? ... Are you now willing to pay him fair market price (plus a fair profit for his investment and work completed) for this property and pay for environmental cleanup of this property? ... I am appalled at the attitude of this citizens group, that any other day would scream about government interference. Eminent domain has been abused too many times . What if it was your house they wanted, so an abortion clinic or medical marijuana facility could be opened, for the greater good of society? And your local government was in favor of it. So back off, shut up, and let this man run his business in a profitable manner and create some much needed jobs, since you were not lining up to do so.

But Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce President Cindy Larsen has another take. She and her organization are not taking a specific position in the debate over whether the city should rezone or use "eminment domain" on the former Sappi Fine Paper property now owned by Melching Inc.

But as the difficult public policies on the Sappi property get debated and a private property owner such as Doug Melching makes his way through the demolition and redevelopment process, Larsen would offer up the guiding principles of "sustainability" that are embraced by many businesses today.

"The principles of sustainability have to apply," Larsen said of the Sappi issue. "Progressive companies today make these their principles."

The sustainability philosophy is built on the "triple bottom line." A successful business must be built upon economic prosperity that comes with profits, environmental integrity and social justice.

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The issues surrounding the Sappi site are not so clear cut, Muskegon chamber chief says

FMS Freeport Maine Singles Dot Webs Dot Com – Video

01-03-2012 22:47 A Non Profit Free Singles And Entertainment Website Filles With Things To Do, So Come On Down And Take A Look What Do You Have To Loose A Few Min Of Your Time To See, We Have Lots Of Entertainment Adding More Everyday Like New Releases Movies And Some TV Popular Sitcoms as well as chat, Music&IPod, Games Vault, Video's, The Freeport Room, And So Much More, Check It Out fmsfreeportmainesinglesDotwebsDotCom it's the place to be to have Some Fun! Jay keith Owner Creator Jan 1st 2012

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FMS Freeport Maine Singles Dot Webs Dot Com - Video

Incentive Solutions Group of Companies Launches New SEO Division, OnPageOne

ATLANTA, March 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --The Incentive Solutions Inc. (ISI) Group of Companies, which includes Incentive Solutions, Loyaltyworks and Axiom Meetings, is pleased to announce the launch of OnPageOne, the newest addition to its corporate portfolio. OnPageOne is an Internet marketing firm that specializes in helping businesses flourish online.

OnPageOne will focus on providing businesses with affordable solutions to boost their search rankings by providing a variety of different optimization services. The company's initial offerings include:

Steve Damerow, CEO of the ISI Group and OnPageOne says, "The ISI Group of Companies has been very successful in growing in a down economy through the use of very sophisticated, organic, non pay-per-click search engine optimization. We're taking the basic principles that made us successful and we're offering them in an affordable package to our existing clients and others. The response has been overwhelming. It provides very good ROI, and allows us to further service our clients through a single point of contact."

The company has already launched its Web site at http://On-Page-One.com.

Hire Heroes USA

Prior to its official launch, OnPageOne recently had the chance to donate its services to Hire Heroes USA, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating job opportunities for US military veterans, and their spouses, through personalized employment training and corporate engagement. While OnPageOne's parent company, ISI, made a generous monetary donation to the charity, OnPageOne was given the incredible opportunity to donate its services by doing HHUSA's Web site search engine optimization. Damerow says, "We're very pleased to provide not only financial support but actual product support utilizing our systems to help further the objectives of hireheroesusa.org."

About The ISI Group of Companies

ISI is an Atlanta based incentive marketing company. Founded in 1994 by Steve Damerow, ISI now develops and manages full-service online point-based incentive programs, group travel incentives and meetings, prepaid card reward solutions, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

ISI started as an incentive travel company, and shortly after, added card reward solutions to their product portfolio. In 2009 ISI acquired Loyaltyworks, a leading provider of channel incentive and sales incentive programs with over 30 years of experience. In 2010, in an effort to expand its travel division, ISI partnered with Axiom Meetings.

Through this collective of companies, The ISI Group looks forward to providing their clients with full-service, comprehensive solutions that fulfill their business needs.

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Incentive Solutions Group of Companies Launches New SEO Division, OnPageOne

7 Steps to Measure SEO Like Paid Search

The way clients view SEO has evolved and grown-up a lot over recent years. SEO measurement now needs to ensure that the key performance indicators (KPIs) from campaigns are based around return on investment (ROI) and revenue. While previous SEO metrics such as rankings and traffic are still a good indicator of SEO success, they arent a clear measurement of performance at a business level.

The table above highlights what Ive found to be a common issue with reviewing SEO performance; the metrics arent in-line! If key decision makers are looking at business metrics to manage their search marketing budget - we need to understand the value of SEO based on the same goals.

SEO metrics are great indicators to show if a campaign is on track, but its not what a marketing director or CMO really needs to analyze performance or justify budgets and their decision to hire you!

The paid search model has been understood by decision makers for years. Despite the percentage of organic clicks being much higher than paid, the ROI of PPC is much easier to measure making it less of a risk and easier to justify and scale budgets.

Having an agency background, Ive found that client-side SEO is now commonly run by either a search-savvy marketing manager, or in many cases a dedicated search team. Of course, each of these clients will need to justify costs and pitch for SEO campaign budgets from their own board. This means you have to show that if your client increased spend by an extra $10,000 per month on SEO what can they expect to see in return?

Using the PPC model its easy to predict, you can review past performance average cost-per-click (CPC), cost per conversion and overall ROI. But if you analyze what you spend on SEO costs in a similar way, theres no reason why you cant find your SEO CPC, CPA and ROI calculations. Its just harder to predict the uplift in organic traffic generated via SEO activity and to put a long-term value on this - whereas in PPC, when the budget dries up, so does your traffic.

If you assess budgets in a consistent way to the PPC model, you may find that it costs you $1.00 per click on PPC and your equivalent SEO CPC is $0.50. So then you know you should invest more in SEO!

Alternatively, if SEO is more expensive than PPC put your budget where it works better for you in paid search instead. But at least its a balanced analysis.

One of the major problems with SEO budgets is that no one knows how much they should be spending, whereas in PPC we track ROI so closely that we can scale campaigns to the point that youre squeezing as much profit/revenue out of a campaign as possible. With SEO were not quite there yet.

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7 Steps to Measure SEO Like Paid Search