Welwyn Biography Series (8 vols.)

Night-time journeys to avoid pursuing soldiers, exile, the public excommunication of King Charles II and his principal ministers for their crimes against God and his church, arrest and the gallows—these are all part of the dramatic story of Donald Cargill.

Set in Scotland in the colorful days of the Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, when to preach without license from the Crown was an offence punishable by imprisonment, banishment and even death, this book tells the story of one of the most noted and loved preachers of the day, who defied the king and Privy Council and was in consequence branded 'rebel and traitor' for refusing to acknowledge their jurisdiction over the church. Cargill was prepared to face years of privation and constant danger, and ultimately death itself, rather than surrender the rights of Christ alone to be Head of the church.

No King but Christ is a challenge to faithfulness and a striking testimony of the grace of God which enabled Cargill to face a violent and cruel death with the words: 'The Lord knows, I go up this ladder with less fear and perturbation of mind than ever I entered the pulpit to preach. . . Farewell, all relations and friends in Christ; farewell, all acquaintances and all earthly enjoyments; farewell, reading and preaching, praying and believing, wanderings, reproaches and sufferings. Welcome, joy unspeakable and full of glory. Welcome, Father, Son and Holy Ghost! Into thy hands I commit my spirit.'

Maurice Grant is the son of a Free Church of Scotland minister and is an elder of Free St. Columba's Church, Edinburgh. He is a graduate of Glasgow University and is employed in the Scottish Office.

View the original article here

5 Tips for Content Marketers on Google Places Optimization

Local and mobile search is being used more frequently by customers on their smart phones and other devices now more than ever.  As local search becomes more and more prevalent, marketers must ask themselves what can they do to incorporate this marketing strategy into their arsenal.

According to a recent release by ComScore, nearly 3 billion search queries contain local terms each month.  For companies that have a local presence, top visibility on local search is essential or that traffic will simply go to competitors.  Google Maps is one of the most frequently used local search destinations and even comes standard on many devices including the iPhone.  Google Places provides a great opportunity to begin marketing on a local level to your potential customers.

A best practice approach to local online marketing will greatly increase your chances of success.  The Google Places optimization tips listed below will help you create or modify your Google Places page to become more relevant to both search engines and potential customers.  I’ve also included suggestions on how this .

It is important that your Google Place profile contains the same information as any other profiles your company may have online. Google Place pages create another opportunity to build trust and consistency as part of your marketing strategy. Be sure to audit your other profiles and answer each question as consistently as you can.  There are some additional ways you can create consistency on your profiles such as:

Linking: improve searchability by linking your additional profiles togetherImagery: utilizing the same imagery on multiple place pages will create consistencyBranding: consistency in naming and referencing your brand is extremely important

*Content Marketing Tip: Go back to basics.

Are you using the same contact information for each of your social profiles or business pages?Do each of your social profiles or business pages reflect your current management team or employees?

Have you ever heard the expression “better off safe than sorry”?  Take the same approach when setting up or editing your Google Places profile.  There may be questions that you consider irrelevent but could ultimately have an impact on how you are found online.  Make sure that you are filling out all standard information including:

Company NameAddressPhone NumberWebsiteEmail Address

Adding additional elements to your page such as photos or videos are also an opportunity to optimize your content and share a little bit more about your company with your prospective clients.

*Content Marketing Tip: Take an audit of your other local and social based marketing initiatives.

Have you completed each profile to the best of your ability?Can you repurpose some of your existing content for your Google Place page?Brand focused images used on other social profiles can be repurposed for your company Google Places page.

User generated content can be a very powerful optimization tool.  Actual customers may be using additional or different keywords or phrases to describe their experience with you.  Reviews also add validity to your statements and information written by your company.  Nothing speaks higher of a company than the testimonials of it’s customers.  I would recommend encouraging customers or clients to participate or simply urge them to visit your page and see what they think.  Some additional ways that you could encourage interaction would be:

Posting video testimonials on your Google Places pageEncourage clients to upload photos of themselves at your establishment or with your team

*Content Marketing Tip: Moderate, moderate, moderate.

Are you currently moderating comments on your blog, website, or social profiles?Are you making a point to interact with your potential customers online?

Including relevant and purposeful keywords in your Google Place profile is a strategic way to increase optimization.  However, you will want to avoid over stuffing your description with keywords or utilizing keywords in your business name that are not relevant to your offering. Do your research up front utilizing your analytics account to determine what keywords are appropriate for your business.

*Content Marketing Tip: To create an effective strategy you must research, implement, and adapt.

Use keywords in your file names to improve optimizationUpdate your information frequently to provide fresh content

Do not be afraid to add details about your service offering, solutions, or products that will help your customers find you.  A simple analysis of your google analytics account can tell you what keywords users are searching for to find your company.  Do your best to use those descriptions in your company overview and specialities area.

Think of what your customers will be looking for and provide imagery or documentation that will show your expertise.

The example included above separates this company from their competition.  I would venture to say that of the companies that came up in my search this for “Tire Repair, Minneapolis” their profile was the most consistent and complete.  Instead of having to further investigate on the company on their website I was given adequate information which would led me to contacting them immediately.

*Content Marketing Tip: People want to know how your solutions solve their problems.

When appropriate provide an explanation of the problems that your services, solutions, or products solve.Be aware of what your customers need and tailor your message to meet that need.

An optimized Google Places page is a marketing tactic that does not take a lot of effort but can have a very large impact on your searchability.  As with any online marketing strategy it is important that you present factual and consistent information for your customers or clients.  If you are ready to get started or make some change to your existing profile be sure to visit Google’s Getting Started page which will help you through the process.  Do you have an idea of how many of your customers have found you on Google Places? If so have you encouraged them to interact with your page and share feedback?

View the original article here

A to Z Internet Marketing News: Happy Birthday TopRankBlog!, 2012 Marketing Predictions, Social Disasters, Cashing in on XMAS

Curious to find out what 2012 could have in store for online marketers?  This presentation from DreamGrow shares 21 predictions on what 2012 could look like.

Highlights include:

Social CRM making inroadsSocial media influencing more salesSocial commerce on mobile devices

“Nielsen: Top Web Destinations, Social Networks and Video Sites in 2011”  As 2011 comes to an end, Nielsen released a review of the top online destinations, social media sites, and smartphone devices.  It is no surprise that Google was the most visited U.S. Web Brand and Facebook was still the leader among social networks and blogs.  Via Nielsen.

“Facebook $100 Billion IPO in 2012: What the Future Holds for the Social Media Powerhouse” 2012 is positioned to be one of the most important years in Facebook’s short history.  While going public and planning a $100 billion IPO for 2012 are on the horizon, additional surprises are in store for Facebook users in the coming year.  Via Mashable.

“Ocean Marketing vs. Penny Arcade: Paul Christoforo PR Disaster Goes Viral” Documented via email and enacted on numerous YouTube videos, this might be one of the most reprehensible exchanges in the history of customer service. A PR/Marketing contractor representing N-Control, a maker of modified game controllers for hardcore gamers and disabled people has been accused of insulting a customer, plagiarism, extorting a past client and shady SEO practices. Could it get any worse? Yeah. Domestic abuse.  Via International Business Times.

“Social media, rumors might have fed melee at MOA”  On Sunday December 25th it was rumored that rappers Lil Wayne and Drake were going to be making an appearance at Mall of America in Bloomington, MN.  In the afternoon mayhem broke out involving more than 200 young people, one of the most serious disturbances at the mall in over 15 years with 10 people arrested.  Via StarTribune.

“Top 5 Most Common Networking Mistakes”  Good networking is an art and a science.  While some people may not have an innate networking skill this article points out basic mistakes and how to avoid them.  Via Inc.

“Pinterest: Crazy Growth Lands it as Top 10 Social Site”  Pintrest has grown 4,000% over the past 6 months marking it as the number 10 social media site.  While most traffic comes from California and Texas, Pinterest also receives unusually high traffic from states like Utah, Alabama, and Tennessee.  Via cNet.

“Instagram Becomes the Largest Mobile Social Network” In the past two months Instagram has added over 2 million new users.  While currently only available on iPhone, Instagram is poised to outpace Foursquare, the largest mobile focused social network available today.  Via Social Fresh.

“Google+ may reach 400 million users by end of 2012”  Google+ is on average adding 625,000 new users per day.  While the numbers are reflecting total users not active users, there is no denying that Google+ is growing.  Via LA Times Blog.

“Final Christmas Push Propels U.S. Online Holiday Spending to $35.3 Billion, Up 15 Percent Versus Last Year”  Spending reflected in this report takes into account the first 56 days of the November – December holiday season.  It is said with certainty that Cyber Monday 2011 ranked as the heaviest spending day of the season for the second year in a row.  Via ComScore.

“A Dispute Over Who Owns a Twitter Account Goes to Court” How much is a Twitter follower worth?  In a world where social media influence can mean the difference between a new customer and a fruitless cold call, one company thinks it’s worth a lot.  The question remains, can a company claim ownership of an employee’s social media account, and what does that mean for employee’s posting during work hours?  Via NY Times.

“YouTube Slam Begins Video Clip Battles for Users’ Votes”  Each week YouTube will put user submitted videos head-to-head to battle it out on screen.  Users will be asked to submit a vote for their favorite video.  This contest is designed to keep visitors on YouTube for longer periods of time and deepen their connection to the site.  Via BBC.

Ken Horst – “Google Will Change Web Marketing in 2012”
Google has designed a new method for websites to structure data so that its crawler can pull better information. These plans revolve around metadata that will allow Google to access more rich data about a topic.  This may be a wakeup call for marketers and web masters to start looking at the new data and plan for the deployment of the new code in order to improve or maintain rankings.  Via Harvard Business Review.

Emily Conley – “The 22 Best Infographics We Found in 2011”
This is a compilation of some of the best infographics released in the past year.  I thought this was a pretty cool trend feature to reflect on the past year and gear up for 2012!  Via Co.Design.

Alexis Hall – “77 of Top 100 Brands Now Have Google+ Pages”
This article from Marketing Land discusses the fast adoption of Google+ by businesses, since its launch on November 7th.  According to BrightEdge’s December SocialShare report, 77 of the top 100 brands now have Google+ pages. This adoption rate will likely continue to increase in 2012 as big and small businesses begin to leverage Google+.  Via Marketing Land.

Ken Horst – “Will Clever Sense Help Google Become The Perfect Search Engine?”
Google is beefing up its voice search capabilities with the recent purchase of Clever Sense.  Similar to Siri for Apple, Google’s new voice search app will remember things it learns about the user so that future search results are even more targeted.  As more people use voice search on their mobile devices, online marketers will need to learn what it takes, other than location, to acquire a high ranking in the SERP.  Via Search Insider.

We’ve celebrated our 8th year of blogging this week. Thank you to everyone who has subscribed, shared, linked, commented and reached out over the  years. It’s an honor to be a part of such an amazing community and in this world of information overload, we appreciate your attention a great deal.  Thank you!

From the entire team at TopRank Online Marketing

View the original article here

A Manual of Palestinian Aramaic Texts

A Manual of Palestinian Aramaic Texts gathers together Palestinian Aramaic texts of various sorts and varying lengths from the last two centuries BC and the first two centuries AD (roughly 200 BC to AD 135). It presents the kind of Aramaic used in Palestine during this period. Discussions of the language of Jesus in recent decades have been legion, and much of that discussion has been based on texts that are of questionable relevance. The authors’ purpose in gathering the Palestinian Aramaic texts of this period is to illustrate what should be the background to that discussion.

The texts are of diverse character: a few of them are biblical (revealing the form of the text in this period); a number belong to the so-called intertestamental literature of Palestinian Jews; some of them are letters, contracts, or business documents of different sorts, reflecting various elements of Palestinian life of that period. The last part of the collection of texts presented here comes from ossuaries or tombstone inscriptions and often contains no more than a few words or names. Indeed, it is not at all easy to decide whether such texts are really written in Aramaic (and not in the Hebrew of the day). They are included here only to the extent that they have something in them that may indicate an Aramaic relationship.

A Manual of Palestinian Aramaic Texts provides the text of these documents (often with emendations and restorations, to the extent that these are possible), a translation of the text, a brief introduction, and a bibliography of secondary literature on each of the texts. A glossary of the texts completes the collection.

Title: A Manual of Palestinian Aramaic TextsAuthors: Joseph A. Fitzmyer and Daniel J. HarringtonPublisher: Editrice Pontificio Istituto BiblicoPublication Date: 2002Pages: 373

Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. is professor emeritus at the Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. He has taught New Testament, its Semitic background, and Biblical languages at Woodstock College, University of Chicago, Fordham University, and Weston School of Theology. In 1984 he was awarded the Berkitt Medal for Biblical Studies by the British Royal Academy. He has authored over twenty books. He is co-editor of the New Jerome Biblical Commentary.

Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. is Professor of New Testament at Weston Jesuit School of Theology. In addition to serving as editor of New Testament Abstracts, he teaches courses in both the Old and the New Testament. His research focuses on biblical interpretation in antiquity, modern biblical interpretation, and the relation between exegesis and preaching. He has written over thirty books.

View the original article here

Hebrew Audio Pronunciations

Hebrew Audio Pronunciations is an invaluable addition to Logos Bible Software 4—whether you’re a pastor wishing to incorporate Hebrew into your sermons, or a seminary student needing to bone up on your vocab. Hebrew Audio Pronunciations features thousands of lemmas from the Hebrew Bible, pronounced by Hebrew experts and integrated into your favorite morphological database. Whether you’re a pastor wishing to incorporate Hebrew into your weekly sermons, or a seminary student needing to review vocab, Hebrew Audio Pronunciations will prove itself an invaluable addition to your library.

For years, Logos users have marveled at the usefulness—and usability—of our Greek Pronunciation Addin. With its seamless integration with our Greek Bibles, it quickly became an invaluable component to original language studies. Now, Logos brings the same convenience and quality found in the Greek Pronunciation Addin to our Hebrew language resources. This parallel functionality with the Greek Addin makes Hebrew Audio Pronunciations ideal for pastors and students wishing to take their study of the entire Bible deeper than ever before.

Hebrew Audio Pronunciations will be integrated with such popular morph databases as the Westminster, Anderson Forbes and the WIVU. It doesn’t matter which of these morph databases you use, the lemmas will be pronounced. Moreover, the Aramaic portions of the Bible will be pronounced as well, allowing you full access to the complete Tanakh.

The Hebrew language offers many unique challenges—Hebrew has more forms of words, more vocabulary than Greek, and Hebrew words themselves are very difficult for the casual scholar or student to pronounce. Hebrew Audio Pronunciations allows you to meet these challenges with confidence.

Hebrew Audio Pronunciations will only be available for Logos 4. The CD-ROM option is no longer available. If you placed a pre-order for the CD-ROM, it has been changed to a download.

View the original article here

A to Z Internet Marketing News: Tacky Social PR, Can You Measure Up, Is Sales #1?, Sharing 2011, Email/Social Become One

A new infographic recently released by Clearspring provides a good overview of social sharing in the past year.  I especially liked the breakdown of shares by social media platform.

Facts You May Not Know You Didn’t Know:

73% of the top 10 shares were related to death & disasterTwitter makes up 52% of sharing in JapanGoogle sharing declines by 8% even with the addition of the +1 button

“Google follows Currents launch with activity-recommendation tool Schemer and face recognition on Google+ Econsultancy” If you want to try out the new location based tool recently released by Google, get in line.  Currently in beta testing mode “Schemer” is an online application that allows users to make plans and explore suggestions for things to do.   In addition to launching new services Google+ is also putting it’s best face forward with a facial recognition feature.  Sounds like Google’s been busy!  But will it pay off in the end?  Via Econsultancy.

“Should you Post Press Releases in Social Media?”   We’ve all read them, and some of us may be guilty of writing them.  Dull and sometimes self serving press releases hit the inbox of reporters and news wires on a daily basis.  Some professionals have even begun using social media platforms to re-share the same information.  However, is a social media channel the right place for sharing a news release?  SPOLIER ALERT: The jury is still out.  Via Forbes.

“Marketers to Integrate Social Media and Email in 2012” It is no surprise that companies are continuing to invest in social media and email marketing strategies.  What you may find surprising is that over 68% of people surveyed are planning to integrate their social and email campaigns in 2012.  Overall, marketing budgets for 2012 appear to be on the upswing with 51% planning to increase marketing budgets in the new year.  Via MarketingProfs.

“The Social Media Measurement Imperative: Building Business Value” eMarketers recent interview with Irfan Kamal from Ogilby & Mather provides some good insight into measurement of online initiatives.  Irfran says that “we are measuring just because we can measure, instead of measuring what we need to measure.”  Moral of the story, the easiest data to collect may not be the data that truly has an impact on your bottom line.  Via eMarketer.

“2012 B2B Marketing Predictions – Will Marketers Leave Sales Behind?”   From the looks of 2012’s predictions it appears that marketers may be getting so caught up in digital marketing that sales are now taking a back seat.  It may be too early to tell but I hope that companies plan to focus on the convergence of sales and marketing, not one or the other as a stand alone solution for increasing revenue.  Via B2B Marketing Insider.

Were there any other newsworthy items you read this week and would like to share with our readers?  Also, what are some of your marketing predictions for 2012? Enjoy your weekend!  We’ll see you next week.

View the original article here

Future Trends: 2012 Online Marketing & Technology Predictions

What does 2012 hold in store for online marketing? The acceleration of innovation in online technologies and the ways we can discover, consume and engage with information can be a challenge to keep up with. But as digital marketers that are more than shiny object opportunists, seeing future trends is exactly what we need to do in order to anticipate our place in the digital universe.

It’s not just about where you can sell stuff to people right now, but next month, next year, 5, 10 or more out.  That’s why I think the concept of discovery, consume and engage is so important, because it transcends ideas like “social network” or “search engine” and focuses more on consumers and technologies. Will we be using a search engine like Google in 5 years? Will we be using desktop computers in 5 years? What will future social networks look like? Answers to those questions are answers to the future of marketing and customer engagement.

Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon and plenty of other large companies are innovating at amazing speed to gain control of our attention. Some are doing it through devices, some through content, others through infrastructure. A handful of companies have had a huge impact on what we do online and at the same time, new companies, start-ups and individuals are creating amazing solutions. What are you doing to see the bigger picture and what it means for your business?

Rather than jumping sequentially from one thing to the next, marketers should consider developing adaptive models that allow for rapid assimilation of new technologies and trends. As it stands, companies may adopt early with some risk, move with the crowd giving up first mover advantage or wait and see until it’s too painful not to change. The ramp up time to evaluate and adopt new technologies and trends is expensive. As an example, over $100 billion has already been invested in social business and that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the next 5 years as companies implement enterprise collaboration platforms and social technologies.

In order to survive and thrive, I think more companies are going to evolve their ability to adapt more quickly, tune in to trends and data more efficiently and at the same time have the infrastructure and partnerships that will allow them to evolve and innovate at greater speed.

From a practical level, the new internet no longer exists on your computer as consumers and content shifts to tablet devices and smartphones. The search experience has not only become distinctly different for consumers through user innovations like Siri, interface and back-end changes but also for marketers trying to play Google’s game in achieving top search visibility.

Imagine how many more changes there will be in technology as well as with consumer behaviors in the coming year. Here are 7 reports and infographics outlining key technology, social business and digital marketing trends for 2012 and beyond.

Envisioning Emerging Technology. At the heart of the fast changing digital ecosystem of mobile, internet and information is technology. 10 years ago not many marketers could have predicted the ubiquity of tablet devices and smartphones we see today. What’s in store for the next 20 years. Or 30? This smart data visualization from Michell Zappa charts future technologies like artificial intelligence, interfaces and robotics through 2040 on several dimensions including relative importance and consumer impact. Virtual Reality life forms anyone?

2012 Social Business Developments. What’s the future of business? Social Business. Here are 12 social business predictions from Dion Hinchcliffe of Dachis Group covering the move of social to mobile, marketing consolidation, budget and operational aspects of social business and some keen insights on social business applications.

“It’s a Social World: Top 10 Need-to-Knows About Social Networking and Where It’s Headed. Globally, social networking is the most popular activity online according to a new study from comScore. The impact of Facebook and microblogging have had a profound impact on how brands and consumers connect and engage around the world. Any company doing business globally would benefit from reading this report that covers social media usage, adoption and trends.

Mobile Outlook 2012 (pdf). Mobile predictions finally came true in 2011 and companies have invested significantly in mobile websites, apps, advertising and integration with local and offline promotions. The future of mobile is even brighter as outlined in this report from Mobile Marketer including Mobile payments, Advertising, the continued effectiveness of SMS, mobile social media and search.

B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends (pdf). The second annual survey from Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs tapped over 1,000 B2B marketers and shows continued investment in content marketing as well as its uses and intersection with other channels like social media. This report provides useful insight for B2B marketers to gauge where their peers are investing, challenged and applying best practices content marketing in 2012.

Digital Marketing Budget Trends for 2012. What are the lowest cost but most effective online lead generation tactics? Where are companies investing in their marketing for the coming year? 6smarketing assembled a great collection of digital marketing budget trends ranging from overall digital marketing spend to online advertising and mobile marketing.

Internet Statistics Compendium North American Edition.  This isn’t a report or infographic on future trends, but a collection of statistics compiled by Econsultancy regarding: Affiliate Marketing, Internet Advertising, Web Analytics, Social Media, Search Marketing, Mobile, Email Marketing, E-commerce, Customer Experience and Technology Adoption. Part of seeing future trends is having a baseline of data on what’s happened in the past. This report, which is one of many you get with a paid Econsultancy subscription $495, is a useful compilation of that kind of data.

View the original article here