————————————

I was at Disney enjoying with my family.

For the first time my wife wanted to come on a ride together with me. She approached a Disney employee and asked “is it OK to leave my stroller here. It’s Dark?”

He answered “No problem I’m here”. Lo and behold when we got off the ride the stroller wasn’t there!

We ended up waiting outside in the cold and rain until the security guard came.

He basically told us that these things happen and maybe it will show up.

He made us carry our children across the park to file a lost and found claim and then to the Police station to file a claim.

We were then led to the guest services (all while holding our children in hand) and made to wait until a manger came.

He basically said there is nothing he could do and we should wait, maybe the stroller would show up. We went home and called lost and found the next morning.

They gave me the guest claims number. I was promised a call back that day. Never received one.

I then called myself and received a very flippant, by the book type of answer. He didn’t even let me finish my story before he cut me off!

It seems that Disney has no interest in helping only to collect the huge admission costs and make lots of money off of families!!!!

————————————

If any of our readers can help find someone in Disney who can help, please contact me directly at samm AT five block dot com.

Along the way we see some interesting things…
Search for Philip Morris and one result looks like this:

Note the word Logo in the title…
it’s there because the Alt tag on the first image on the page contains that phrase.
My advice: don’t use the word logo in your alt tag of your logo – it may become your site’s title.
Not sure what this new system is giving Google…

seriously.

1) Some kids got to the center area of the shul several minutes early (non-procrastinators)
- of these, some seemed to have chosen a strategic spot (planners)
- others just plopped themselves down anywhere (followers)
2) Playing the odds
- most kids went for the prime area where there is maximum candy and maximum competition. (Competing for the #5 spot)
- some stayed on the periphery, probably figuring there would be less competition (Choosing a market Segment to dominate)
3) Some kids had a plan of how to maximize their take (businessmen)
- Partnerships with other kids (corporate types)
- Using other objects to catch the toffees (inventors)
4) When the candies started to fall
- some waited for the candies to fall into their hands (9-5 job getter)
- some got down on the floor and searched for the sweets after they were already on the ground (eyes open for better opportunities)
- some tried to track the trajectories of specific clusters of falling treats and plan accordingly (entrepreneurs)
5) When all candies had fallen..
- Some kids actually threw some of theirs – (conspicuous consumption)
- Some kids shared their candies with people who didn’t get as many (philanthropy)
- Some kids horded their candy but kept quiet about it (The millionaire next door)
- Some kids flaunted their candy but didn’t share (not my kid, I hope…)

Interestingly it doesn’t end there…

6) Spending
- Some kids ate all of their candies within a few minutes (instant gratifiers)
- Some rationed them out slowly (rationers)
- Some went outside to compete in a game of throwing candies closest to a set point (gamblers)

Not sure of the pedagogical or scientific ramifications of any of this – but I did spot one or two kids who I may want as summer interns in a couple of years…..

As I mentioned on Rand Fishkin ‘s post a few days ago, we started doing some testing of Google +1.

We tested buying packages of 30, 50, 70 +1′s using Fiverr.
We also tested a system on http://www.plused.net in which you +1 a bunch of sites (in rapid fire from their site) and other people return the favor. We used this to add tens of +1′s to several webpages.
We also tested getting REAL +1′s from a modest group of people who actually like a page.
We did our tests on pages we wanted to move up as well as ones we wanted to move down.

Conclusions so far -
- Google figured out that the rapid fire +1′s and the bought ones were fake and, they actually removed them from the count.
So we saw he numbers go up to say 60, and then the next day they were down to 10 again.
They could be seeing a large group of users with common +1′s and ruling them out. They could also be looking for rapid fire +1′s.
In any case, our conclusion is that Google has at least a basic system for identifying fake +1′s – which is good to know.

We did not see any evidence of fake +1′s causing a page to move in either direction in the SERPs.

We did see a possible connection between the real +1′s and a ~15% bump in traffic for a site receiving 2,500 visitors/day.

That’s it so far – we will keep you posted!

To my surprise I found that at this reputation management conference they did not yet have a single speaker who would be talking about taking control of ones Google results – sounded like an opportunity!
I have thought that my company Five Blocks (http://www.fiveblocks.com) should consider getting into the Australian market and offering Reputation Management services to corporate clients there – probably via local PR and Crisis Management firms in Sydney or Melbourne.
So I contacted the company running the conference IQPC and found that at least at this stage they would be interested in having me speak only as a sponsor of the event (so I would need to pay) – which is a foreign concept to me – usually if you have something that the conference needs – they should be paying you! or at least comping you some passes to the conference.

So here’s my idea, assuming they don’t decide to sign me up…

It has been my experience that the majority of the people attending a conference like this will be Googling the event at least a few times between when they first hear about the event and when they actually attend (or more often choose not to attend).

I imagine that if I SEO and PPC a page with a catchy title and a short video-lecture – maybe something like “Teaser of Star Speaker of the IQPC Reputation Management Conference” I could probably get some people’s attention – maybe the conference would decide it was worth having me speak. Who knows…

In any case, if it works, I think it could be an excellent way to reach your target audience without having to walk in through the traditional channel!

I’ll keep you posted…

In case you wanted to know why those damn Israelis are not particularly concerned when you condemn them for fighting back against the Hamas, the Hezbollah, and other terrorist groups hellbent on Israel’s destruction… Here’s why:

NYDailyNews.com: Subhuman Hamas terrorists target children, attacking a yellow school bus with a high-tech missile

So what’s the big deal – terrorists attack a school bus. Par for the course – what do you expect?

The big deal is where the hell is the UN? No time to condemn this war crime?
Or is it really okay, because Israel is the victim…

food for thought.

Now is when he is starting to make decisions about what type of person he wants to be.
Which friends will he choose? Which of his talents will he decide to utilize? How will he get past the inertia that keeps him from achieving more?
While these are his decisions I feel it is my responsibility to guide him and help him understand the options.
[Translation: If you mess around in 7th grade and get lower grades, you will have a hard time getting into the high school that you want to go to in 9th grade]

I don’t think telling him what I think he needs to do will ultimately be the best plan – so here is my thinking at this stage:

And if all of that fails I am planning to use bribery. (Is that so bad?)

Interesting that the script calls for each character to have one really strong power – but otherwise they are normal.

Something about their fascination with regular people who have superpowers, made me think – my kids have superpowers too!

I started to explain to my kids that each of them (and us) has superpowers just like the people in the show.
- I have one kid who can make anyone smile anytime with no effort
- One can remember the details of everything better than a computer
- Another is super-creative and can envision things he’s never seen

And my adult friends – almost all of them have recognizable super-powers too:
- Some have superpowers in investing – they always make money
- Some help people solve even really tough issues
- Some are able to keep calm in every situation
- Some can eat 3X as much as me and stay thin as a stick

This requires a bit more thought… but my initial thinking is that teaching kids (and adults?) to recognize their own superpowers and then thinking about the best way to use them (and perhaps it’s even a responsibility to do so!) should give them a real feeling of empowerment. And if that doesn’t work, they can still wear the cape.