It’s another beautiful Sunday,
Let’s start the week with a look back
…and some Link Love!
This was a packed week for me, and definitely for the global economy. We now have our new president elect in Barack Obama… who edged rival candidate John McCain in a thrilling display of America’s desire for policy change in hard times. Congratulations to Mr. Obama, and best of luck as we head into some pretty dynamic markets that are in desperate need of repair after the recent (and ongoing) economic debacle. But let’s hold off on that news, and swing back into the groove with some linkage for the best articles on the net last week:
- Tushar Dhoot – NoFollow vs. DoFollow: Back Link Study
- Mom Gadget – When you don’t know what to do…
- Cash Tactics – Pay Per Click Case Study: Stats Recap and Going Forward
- Click Consultants – Don’t Cut the Long Tail Short!
- Striking Up – The Five Mistakes People Make when Starting a Business
Some good material all around this week. Tushar Dhoot released his pretty effective NoFollow v. DoFollow case study… which was pretty effective to look at blogging preferences. I had to include this post from Mom Gadget, a blog I don’t normally track, because it is a compelling story of a lady who saved herself from financial crisis with her blog. Cash Tactics put out the sixth part of their case study on PPC marketing… something I’d definitely recommend checking out. Derek at Click Consultants 
talked about the mistakes people make with long-tail keywords. Finally, Striking Up (a new blogger) wrote a pretty nice article on mistakes and “semi-mistakes” that people often make when starting a business.
Stock Market News
As previously stated, this week was a historical one in terms of politics and social history. To think that America was almost completely race-segregated just a few decades ago… and now we have our first African-American president in history. A good show of democracy all around, as John McCain conceded gracefully and Barack Obama politely complimented his former competitor.
Getting back on track, the United States economy is still in the garbage can, as earnings announcements continue to come in from major firms domestically an abroad. There have been a lot of mixed results, and because of this fair share of downward pressure on stock prices. We didn’t spend much time at all basking in the glory of a successful election, and actually traded down (the two worst days since 1987) Wednesday and Thursday following Super Tuesday.
Ending the week up 2.85% on the Dow was a helpful boost coming into the weekend, but there were many weaknesses in leading indicators that came out last week. Employment readings came out very negative, as an estimated 157,000 jobs were lost in October alone (biggest decline since November 2002). This came on the back of a higher-than-expected decline in employment, now revealing an unemployment rate at 6.5%. In addition, Britain and Europe lowered their interest rates dramatically on recession fears that have been expanded after terrible U.S. retail sales numbers and a forecast for economic contraction. Back to work! 
Blogosphere News and Updates
As I said last week, the second ever Blogging Idol is now under way. This contest run through DailyBlogTips.com has been successful and widely talked about in the blogging 
universe. Another pretty interesting event that has gone on this week was the Ad Tech conference in New York City. I don’t absolutely love conferences (or anything close), but it’s fun to check up on the industry by following these. One of my good buddies Max from MoneyBites.com has had continuing coverage of the event, so check it out!
A lot of bloggers put out their earnings releases for October this week, which was definitely interesting to see. I have yet to do so because of work constraints, but should be getting around to it early this week. This month was rough for me, as OIO Publisher crashed and I had to restart all of my blog ads… something that 
is never fun to do. I’m trying to re-market my advertising services in general because of this. I did, however, see things partially offset by in influx of premium blog reviews that I ran. We’ll get more into that later.
A couple of bloggers (names remain anonymous) have been focusing far too much on promoting their own affiliate products, and I feel like this is hurting the overall community. I understand doing paid reviews time and again, heck, I do them too. But really, we shouldn’t be selling each other out for a chance to make a few sales off people that fall for products you launch at them. I have no problems making a logical tie in to a product… but doing this every day is a major problem, and it begs the question… “why do i still read your blog?”
The Week In Focus
This week, I am going to put out some more interesting content. I’ve had certain posts in the draft phase for awhile, and definitely have things to address. Of course, I need to get out my earnings report so you guys can track my performance. Other than that, I’ve had a few case studies started that I simply need to complete 
before I am comfortable with releasing them. In jest, I have a lot of material… and simply need some more time to punch out the details so you can enjoy all I have to say.
I actually spent this weekend on a service trip (of sorts) raising money for kids with cancer. The organization is called THON (from “Dance Marathon”) and you can donate to the project if you have a few bucks on their official website THON.org. Make sure to put in that you are donating for the “Nittany Lion Fund” THON organization if you do happen to make a small donation. It’s always good to spend some time working charity events to assist those that need our help. So if you decide to drop even $1 into the collection pile, a big thank you.
Stay classy, and stay BULLISH on the net!
-Jimvesting
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THANK YOU VERY MUCH for linking to my blog.
It’s great to see that my blog is getting recognition from one of the bigger blogs on the web.
Once again, great recap of the week and I look to see more from you in the future!
- Trevor
I’m curious how/why OIO Pub ‘crashed”. I don’t use it myself, but does that mean you lost all info, had no back up of details, etc. ?
I’m looking forward to the two case study articles. Thanks for pointing them out.
…and good for you on the charity work!
Cheers!
Jay
I’m curious 2
Cheers!!!
I’m looking forward to your earnings report as well! I just subscribed, keep up the great posts.
congrats to Barack. Hopefully, he can solve all of the mess we are in right now.
Thanks for the mention! I always love your Sunday Link Loves because they’re like a consolidated blogging report for the week.
Cheers!
WOW! I am waiting for your earning report
Earnings reports are always fun and inspiring
Congratulations to Barack from here in Australia. According to most news reports he was the preferred candidate for the rest of the world.
Dave
Hmm Ya a big Congratz to Barack Obama.He is an able president for America.And Jim The Stock Market in India is slowly raising day by day.I hope It returns to its original position
The Mom Gadget blog is mind blowing! Thank you for linking it here.
Yeah. Obama was the preferred candidate. Now its his duty to take America out of the crisis.
Tushar Dhoot’s post on “NoFollow” vs “DoFollow” has motivated me to change my blog to DoFollow. I think that should be the default setting anyway.
Thanks,
Dave
I don’t really know whether dofollow should be default. It;s probably attracting a lot of spammers.