How Do You Measure Productivity?

Before we speak of measuring productivity, we must define it. Productivity is how much work is output per unit of time that is input into the system.

In its simplest format, you could represent productivity as the following equation.

Work
----- = Productivity
Time

Measuring productivity is useful in careers where you bill per hour or portions thereof, like lawyers or accountants. However, productivity measures have a place in every office. With productivity software, you may see exactly where the time is input and how much work is produced.

You may take it further and look into productivity performance, patterns and trends in performance over time that you may easily recognize. When you identify time-stealing tasks, you may want to optimize the task, cross train workers, or split the task into component parts for a team to complete.

This software is not spy ware. It does not track keystrokes or generate logs of data to be used to embarrass your workers. It is a tool to be used to increase productivity. Like all tools, you must first learn to use it. Think of the groups of which you are a member when you work. Perhaps you are in charge of website maintenance, producing reports on Internet sales, and tracking abandoned shopping carts.
  • In the first position, or group, you may use FrontPage or other web authoring software.
    • The software knows you are doing web work when, for example, you open FrontPage, use the FTP client or access the CPanel.

  • For the sales reports, you use a spreadsheet and you may want to know how long it took to set up the report and how long it took to produce the graphical representations for your report.
    • Excel may be the cue that you are doing a sales report. You may have to add a keyword so the program recognizes that you are doing graphics and not crunching numbers.

  • The last task may entail analyzing web logs with the shopping cart software.
    • Use of the web logs or shopping cart software would signify you are now working the abandoned shopping cart portion of your job.
With the MeasureProductivity software, you may associate certain software tools and/or keywords with your different groups (roles). However, you do not need to specify keywords and software programs before you use program. Just install the software and let it run in the background for a while. Then you can tweak the associations the system has established between your roles and the software you use.

From the reports the software generates, you may see where you are spending your time and how productivity increases or decreases over time. You may develop a productivity standard for these tasks that will let you plan your work more effectively. If you see that working with logs is a problem as they are being accessed, you would schedule this task for Friday afternoon. If you do your best critical thinking in the morning, you would examine the logs then.

You can identify training needs and necessary software or capital acquisitions using this software. If it takes one hour to setup the report and two hours to generate the graphs, you may need better software, more training or a reference manual.

Eventually, you should be able to state what the productivity standard is for each task, whether performed by you or someone else. On the other hand, your employee may use the software to show that tasks assigned consume more time than in their work week.


Hillary in My Contacts List?

The youth vote is turning out for early primaries. The youth vote is the vote of the future, so political strategists should take heed of their current media habits.

In Politics, Web Surpasses TV for Under-30 Voters - Advertising Age - Campaign Trail
A survey by SS&K and Advertising Age of close to 2,000 New Hampshire voters just ahead of this year's primary showed that 40% of adults visited a candidate's home page on the web. And one in four visited a candidate's profile on one of those newfangled social networks.
One interesting finding is that 26 percent of those surveyed, regardless of age, visited a candidate's profile on a social-networking site (36 percent of those under 30 and 15 percent of those over 30).

The article stresses the important of television to the race, but I think the Internet may be closing the gap. Why would I listen to a debate when I can check their voting records, find their stance on controversial subjects, read and compare their environmental policies online?


Blog Your Blessing : Dreams

dreams in the sunset
We grow great by dreams.
All big men are dreamers.
They see things in the soft haze of a spring day
or in the red fire of a long winter's evening.

Some of us let these great dreams die,
but others nourish and protect them;
nurse them through bad days till they
bring them to the sunshine
and light

which comes always t
o those who
sincerely hope
that their
dreams
will come true.


Woodrow Wilson
28th President of USA



To all the dreamers who participate in Blog Your Blessing Sunday. May all your dreamsl come true. . .

The Blue Panther Experience is host for Blog Your Blessings Sunday. Visit the website and grab the blogroll code, add it to your blog, and leave a comment on Blue Panther Experience. Next Sunday, post your blessing. We are of all faiths, creeds and races, so everyone is welcome. Join us on Sunday as we blog our blessings.

Tags: ,


Is there a DO NOT TEXT list?

If there is not a do not text list, there soon will be. Cell phone service providers and users are spending a lot of time having charges reversed from spam text messages.

CTV.ca | Text-message spam proves costly for cellphone users

It figures! While huge cell phone companies and mega-media agencies are still trying to figure out how to utilize the cell phone platform for advertising, the spam marketers have it wired and are carrying on with business as usual.

You Are Getting Hungry for Sushi . . .


In the next stage of non-traditional advertising, Canada's Yuzu Sushi gives us spare tire advertising. Considering how long we sit in traffic, this may be an effective advertising method. If nothing else, you should be hungry for sushi after sitting behind this Jeep at a red light.

What is next? I have a 27' travel trailer with a flat roof. I could monetize my road trips if I have any takers. LOL

Via Fumada Estratégica




Blog Your Blessing : Love


I still believe that LOVE is the most durable power in the world.
Over the centuries men have sought to discover the highest good.

This has been the chief quest of ethical philosophy.
This was one of the big questions of Greek philosophy.
The Epicurean and the Stoics sought to answer it;
Plato and Aristotle sought to answer it.

What is the summon bonum of life?
I think I have an answer America.
I think I have discovered the highest good.
It is LOVE.

This principle stands at the center of the cosmos.

As John says, "God is love."
He who loves is a participant in the being of God.
He who hates does not know God.


From Paul's Letter to American Christians
written by
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute



The Blue Panther Experience is host for Blog Your Blessings Sunday. Visit the website and grab the blogroll code, add it to your blog, and leave a comment on Blue Panther Experience. Next Sunday, post your blessing. We are of all faiths, creeds and races, so everyone is welcome. Join us on Sunday as we blog our blessings.

Tags: ,


Comcast Caught Crippling User Accounts

An investigation by Associated Press caught Comcast secretly inspecting online communications and crippling users' ability to share information with one another.

The FCC has launched an investigation into this gross violation of Net Neutrality. If they do not act soon, large telephone and cable companies could control what you do, where you go and what you watch online.

To learn more, visit this URL to find out more and to send a loud message directly to the FCC. Do it while you are still allowed the bandwidth to do so.

Network Neutrality is not an ideal, it is a necessity. Who would you trust to decide what you may say, how you share videos and pictures with others? Keep the 'net free.

G@@GLE is the new SNAFU

Patrick Altoft over at BlogStorm.co.uk did a little research, found out that paid links are alive and well, even after the big page rank smack down.

Paid Links: More effective than ever

. . . (around 80% for some sites) looked like they might be paid links that appeared to pass Page Rank. . .I can’t say . . . they are paid links but neither can Google. They have to make a judgement call . . .

He ends his post:
If all your competitors are getting good results from buying links, you cannot afford to wait for Google to do something about it.

Okay, what is G@@GLE supposed to do now? They penalized bloggers who were transparent with sponsored links and paid reviews. It was very easy to find these bloggers. Each sponsored post was identified as such. Paid to blog programs were freely blogged about in posts and forums. Paid links were in the sidebar under the easy-to-find heading of SPONSORS. The blogs were decorated with disclosure policies and paid to blog badges.

The honest, transparent bloggers were smacked down, hard. G@@GLE would like to think they stamped out the paid to blog industry, crushed the business of paid links, and halted page rank passing with their almighty algorithm. What they have done is driven everything undercover, into the dark side. What will arise will be a different beast all together.

G@@GLE still has the "rat your friends and enemies out" procedure for reporting paid links. Maybe that will work. Maybe they do not care. If the paid links pass page rank, then the Adsense ads will do well on the SPLOGs. Once someone reports the SPLOG, the owner just moves on to another niche website, posts crap and scrapped content, monetizes it with Adsense and sells links on the side.

In the meantime, bloggers who had quality content and high-ranking blogs before they ever wrote a sponsored post or accepted a text link ad, have been stripped of page rank. If they are willing to do everything G@@GLE requires, which includes stating that that they were wrong and so sorry, and ask for reinstatement of their page rank, G@@GLE may forgive and forget. If not, the blog's page rank remains at zero, even if the blog has quality incoming links and backlinks, syndicated content and is well read.

Does anyone else have a problem with this?

Tags: , , ,

As the Domain Turns : More on David Airey

David Airey is a nice man and a great designer with a very informative blog. His life was fairly normal until a few months ago.

He ran a wonderful contest with awesome prizes, but G@@GLE smacked him for his wording of entry requirements. They also found a paid link to an unrelated website. OMG! G@@GLE smacked his page rank and basically cratered his business. He did everything they suggested and had his page rank reinstated. Whew . .

What an adventure! Thank God the holidays came and David got to take a relaxing vacation. You will not believe what happened next!

I will let David tell you. . .

My rollercoaster relationship with Google | David Airey :: Graphic and Logo Designer


Free Diamond Earrings!

goldsmithjewelry.comMy Preciousssssssssss


Goldsmith Jewelry is giving away a beautiful pair of 1 carat total weight diamond stud earrings to one lucky blogger who writes about the official launch of the *NEW* Golfsmith Jewelry website:

One blogger is guaranteed to receive a pair of diamond earrings that are featured on the website and described below.

The earrings sell for $1,518 and are 14 karat gold. Each earring is set with a half carat diamond that is graded as I or J color with I1 clarity and an excellent cut. (big hunking diamond with good color, clarity and cut).

The winning blogger can choose any one of the following diamond stud earring styles, All the diamonds are I-J in color and are I1 clarity.

  • 14K White Gold 1.00 Carat 4-Prong Diamond Stud Earrings
    • This is a pair of beautiful 14K white gold 1.00 carat total weight diamond stud earrings.

  • 14K White Gold 1.00 Carat Princess Diamond Stud Earrings
    • This is a pair of beautiful 14K white gold 1.00 carat total weight princess cut diamond stud earrings.

  • 14K Yellow Gold 1.00 Carat 4-Prong Diamond Stud Earrings
    • 14K yellow gold 1.00 carat total weight diamond stud earrings.

  • 14K Yellow Gold 1.00 Carat Princess Diamond Stud Earrings
    • 14K yellow gold 1.00 carat total weight princess cut diamond stud earrings.

Well, now you know and you may enter as well. Thjs is a great contest with a wonderful prize. May the best blogger win.

Blog Your Blessing : War No More

Every culture on Earth has a prayer for peace.

Why is peace so hard to achieve?

War no more.

Peace.

Jewish Prayer for Peace

Come let us go up the mountain of the Lord,

that we may walk the paths of the Most High.


And we shall beat our swords into ploughshares,

and our spears into pruning hooks.


Nation shall not lift up sword against nation--

neither shall they learn war any more.


And none shall be afraid, for the mouth of the

Lord of Hosts has spoken.




The Blue Panther Experience is host for Blog Your Blessings Sunday. Visit the website and grab the blogroll code, add it to your blog, and leave a comment on Blue Panther Experience. Next Sunday, post your blessing. We are of all faiths, creeds and races, so everyone is welcome. Join us on Sunday as we blog our blessings.

Tags: ,


Microsoft in feeding frenzy

This week, Microsoft announced the acquisition FAST Search & Transfer for $1.2 billion. It appears that the software giant Microsoft may be trying to define its new identity as a major player in the ad serving, social networking, digital marketing and advertising game, as well as keeping its big four search engine status.

Read Aaron Goldman's post on Search Insider » Blog Archive » Did Microsoft Just Pull A FAST One?
In the past few months, Microsoft has been on a tear, signing a $500 million multi-channel deal with Viacom and inking a deal for CNBC to be its exclusive third-party ad reseller. And with its $240 million investment in Facebook and $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive last year, it's clear Microsoft is not satisfied with mere organic growth.
How Microsoft is going to turn these diverse entities into one cohesive strategy for the future is your guess.


workingassets.com says stop pimping prejudice

If you are sickened by the assault on Hillary Clinton since she dared to display humanity and exhaustion on the campaign trail, please take action and sign a petition to stop pimping prejudice. Whether you are a Clinton fan or not, the the feeding frenzy of the media on the video of Hillary Clinton in tears at a small New Hampshire roundtable of voters was over the top.

"Can Hillary Cry Her Way Back to the White House?" was the headline of an article in the NY Times by Maureen Dowd on January 9. The buzz was picked up by other sources that evening and snowballed into a hate campaign.

There is real news to report. Tell the press to find it.


Advertising and Marketing Industry Diversity Job Fair

The Second Annual San Francisco Advertising and Marketing Industry Diversity Job Fair will be held Tuesday, February 12, 2008. While all advertising professionals as well as undergraduate and graduate students are welcome, the Diversity Job Fair is mainly held to find viable candidates in minority ethnic groups, females and GLBTs. Register here.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008
2-530 pm
Academy of Art University
79 New Montgomery Gallery
77 New Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

Two weeks later, the job fair will move to New York City. Find information on the Second Annual Advertising Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference in New York City on February 27, 2008. Also planned is a fair conference in Chicago in March. During Advertising Week in September, attend the second Experienced Hire Diversity Recruiting program.

If you have minority status and advertising is your game, you should attend one of these events. You will be able to interview with leading advertising agencies and marketing firms in one place on one day. It is a wonderful opportunity.

Kevin Federline will Return to SuperBowl

Kevin Federline is gaining recognition on his own merit. Federline, known as the father of Brittany Spears' children and for his appearance in the 2004 Super Bowl half-time show that exposed Janet Jackson's breast to the world, will return to the 2008 Super Bowl.

Click to read: Kevin Federline Finally Finds Some Success - Advertising Age - MediaWorks

New market research from Cymfony on the 2007 Super Bowl advertising spots found that the ad for Nationwide Insurance, during which Mr. Federline rapped about fame and fortune then slipped into working in a fast food restaurant, generated about eight times the buzz as the other Super Bowl ads. The other celebrity ads featured Jessica Simpson singing for Pizza Hut and a Sheryl Crow advertisement for Revlon.

The research makes for interesting reading. Reasons given for the success of the advertisement are the controversy surrounding how Federline represented fast food workers (he issued an apology later) and the fact that he was able to make fun of himself, which was unexpected.

The buzz is that the half-time show for this year's Super Bowl will feature Justin Timberlake and Carmen Electra, representing Pepsi and Hershey's, respectively. I wish him success.


Blog Your Blessings : Maps

Maps give us a sense of place

You will probably think me strange, blessing maps. Maps help us find our way when we are traveling through new lands, but they also provide pathways to our past.

Maps are useful tools--whether you are tracing your future journey across the city or the state, or discovering that the road you travel every day traces the same path followed by an ancient people.
The subject of history is the life of peoples and of humanity. To catch and pin down in words--that is, to describe directly the life, not only of humanity, but even of a single people, appears to be impossible. -Leo Tolstoy
However, the maps remain for centuries. -CyberCelt


The Blue Panther Experience is host for Blog Your Blessings Sunday. Visit the website and grab the blogroll code, add it to your blog, and leave a comment on Blue Panther Experience. Next Sunday, post your blessing. We are of all faiths, creeds and races, so everyone is welcome. Join us on Sunday as we blog our blessings.

Tags: ,

Year of the Search Engine

Seems like 2008 will be the year of the search engine. Today, all of the blog posts I have read are about optimizing everything from PDFs to videos to text links to site maps. The following article on SearchNewz on how to Sculpt Your SERP Description is worthwhile.
In other words, to a certain degree you can sculpt how the search engines describe your page. All it takes is good a meta description, a good opening sentence with quality on-page content and some simple instructions to the spiders.
I found this article to be helpful in describing the different methods used by the search engines to list your site in search engine result pages (SERPs). The article is not too long and provides tips you will find useful.