Eva’s Village Reports Dramatic Increase of Needy in Anti-Poverty Program
Posted by Edan Shertzer on Mar 24, 2009
Eva’s Village, (http://www.evasvillage.org), Paterson, NJ, reports an increase of more than thirty percent in numbers served at Eva’s Kitchen. Eva’s Village is actively seeking support for anti-poverty programs stressed for resources during the current economic recession.
Paterson, NJ (PRWEB) March 19, 2009 — Eva’s Village, Paterson, NJ, feeds up to 400 daily in New Jersey soup kitchen built to accommodate 250.
The Legal Services of New Jersey Poverty Research Institute reports that poverty in New Jersey is the highest among surrounding Northeast states and higher than the national average. Nowhere is this more evident than in Paterson, a city with the proud past of being founded by Alexander Hamilton as the center for The Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures.
Today, Paterson ‘manufactures’ have been replaced by one of the highest rates of inner city poverty in the state. Anti-poverty programs like Eva’s Village provide an important bulwark in the fight against the hunger, homelessness and addictions characteristic of inner city poverty, but the current Wall Street crisis has created a corresponding crisis on the streets of Paterson.
A very high percentage of people living in poverty in major cities work for a living, but at minimum wage or lower pay. These jobs simply do not provide enough money to sustain workers or their families. Sister Gloria Perez, Executive Director of Eva’s Village says, “Over the past year, the number of homeless and working poor visiting Eva’s Kitchen, the soup kitchen operation of Eva’s Village, has grown by thirty percent or even more.”
In a bright, modern facility built to seat approximately 230, Eva’s Soup Kitchen has long served up to 300 hot meals every day of the week. But recently, the need has grown dramatically, and now an additional seating to accommodate more than 400 people daily is commonplace.
Sister Gloria says, “We are seeing more of the working poor every day, and one man told me he comes here for his own one meal per day so he can feed his children at home; I’ve been at this a long time, but that just that breaks my heart.”
Despite their own concerns about finding funding during a severe recession, Eva’s Village continues to expand their comprehensive anti-poverty programs, including: thousands of meals provided by Eva’s Kitchen to the poor, Eva’s Village shelter residents, residential addiction treatment clients, new Hope Residence of St. Frances for Women and Children (created to assist mothers more commonly required to give up their children to foster care), Eva’s Medical and Dental Clinic Eva’s Job Readiness Center, and soon, fifty units of affordable housing.
Donna Marie Fico, Chief Marketing Office at Eva’s Village, cites the support of private charitable foundations, government grants, New Jersey businesses and thousands of dedicated private donors as encouragement. Ms. Fico says, “It is not only important to ask for increased help, but to let donors know that Eva’s Village acts responsibly so their money makes a significant difference in the lives of the poor”. She reports that as one of the most respected, progressive and effective anti-poverty organizations in the state of New Jersey, Eva’s Village receives high marks for efficiency, including a Four-Star rating by Charity Navigator indicating that Eva’s Village “Exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its Cause” (Charity Navigator).
For more information on Eva’s Kitchen and the many other programs provided by Eva’s Village, email Donna Fico, Chief Marketing Officer at Donna.Fico(at)evasvillage.org or call (973) 523-6220 Ext. 230.
Originally a New Jersey soup kitchen, Eva’s Village was founded in 1982 by Msgr. Vincent E. Puma in response to the increasing incidence of homelessness in his Paterson, NJ parish. But Msgr. Puma soon realized that a soup kitchen was not enough. With the generous support of thousands of donors and private and government grants, Eva’s has grown into the most respected anti-poverty program in New Jersey, with a four-star (maximum) rating by Charity Navigator, an independent non-profit monitor.
Donate to Eva’s Village NJ Charity or for more information, go to http://www.evasvillage.org call 973.523.6220, email Donna.Fico(at)evasvillage.org or write to: Donna Fico, Chief Marketing Officer, Eva’s Village, 393 Main Street, Paterson, NJ, 07501.
The PPC Bottom Line
Posted by Edan Shertzer on Mar 24, 2009
Nowadays, the temptation for any business to undertake a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign, however expensive, is very, very strong. And why not? Google and a handful of other powerful search engines have gradually risen to near omnipresence in the online world. It seems like every day more and more people are throwing hundreds, sometimes thousands of their hard-earned dollars into the search engine fire pit, stoking the flame. If everyone else is doing it, why shouldn’t you?
The problem here, of course, is that the logic of the crowd is often just as fallible as the logic of the individual. Make no mistake, our purpose here is not to discourage pay-per-click campaigns. Au contraire, we’re all for it. What we want to warn you against is, with no foundation in search engine marketing (SEM), simply throwing your money away as kindling to the great PPC blaze. The truth is that, for many people, this fire gives out light, but no heat.
The number PPC campaigners should be most concerned with is their ROI, i.e. their return on investment. This seems to make sense intuitively, but you’d be surprised to discover how many people give precedence to such factors as unique clicks and page impressions. These factors are indeed important, but they don’t make you money. The ROI, in turn, is dependent on translating your PPC ads into conversions — into new leads and new sales. Roughly defined, a “conversion” is any action that results in a successful sale or in the generation of a new lead. Thus, PPC campaigns are not run for the sake of advertising, they’re run for the sake of increasing your conversions. This is business 101: if you’re spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a PPC campaign, but that campaign is barely returning enough money to cover its own cost, let alone to show a profit, then that campaign is not right for you. Don’t succumb to the PPC hype or to the peer-pressure; look at your conversions, and make your decisions accordingly.
Are Your Keywords Deceiving You?
Posted by Edan Shertzer on Mar 20, 2009
ALERT: your PPC keywords might be deceiving you! Scan the following scenario and decide whether it accurately applies to you: a while back, to generate more traffic and business to your website, you decided to undertake a pay per click (PPC) campaign. You thought carefully about your keywords — you consulted your own industry knowledge, you did some research — and you settled on what seem to be solid and popular terms, terms that you hear thrown around all the time in your line of work, terms that logically indicate your services but also smack of industry buzz.
Time goes by and, happily, your impressions seem to be going up, up, up. But for some strange reason, these impressions aren’t translating into conversions.
What, exactly, is going on?
In most cases, the answer is simple: you chose popular keywords all right. The problem was that they weren’t popular for your industry.
Take the following real-life example. An IT computer maintenance and services company recently chose the keyword “exchange” for its PPC campaign. “Exchange”, of course, is a common truncation in the IT industry of “Microsoft Exchange Server”, which the company deals with all the time. Though the company’s impressions were skyrocketing in the wake of its new campaign, it wasn’t seeing much improvement in terms of conversions. Why? You may have already guessed the reason: the company may have wanted “exchange” to refer to some esoteric Microsoft product, but all of the new traffic it was receiving was created by people more interested in “currency exchange”, a term that is also commonly abbreviated as simply “exchange”. Even though the company carefully labeled itself in its ads as dealing with IT and computer support, a good chunk of its advertising budget was lost on people who less interested in computer help and more interested in how many Danish krones to the dollar.
So, if your impressions are surprisingly high but your conversions are disappointingly low, it might be time to replace your old PPC keywords with ones that are more industry specific. Try this simple test: go to a search engine, type in the keywords you’re interested in, and see what companies/industries pop up. You might just discover that your keywords have additional meanings you were not taking into account.
One Easy Way to Increase Your Inbound Links
Posted by Edan Shertzer on Mar 10, 2009
To move up the search engine ranks, two basic developments need to take place: you need to build your site’s content, and you need to increase the number of inbound links that lead back to your site. These twin developments are the bread and butter, the yin and yang, the Laurel and Hardy, if you will, of SEO. Skimp on one or the other, and your site is likely to do a turtle’s crawl up the ranking instead of the more desired rabbit’s leap. (Then again, slow and steady wins the race….) the true key to efficient optimization is balance — if your site has lots of inbound links but is short on content, you should focus on adding new pages and creating new original material; on the other hand, if your site has tons of content but almost no inbound links, you might want to spend some time bolstering your linking strategy.
This week’s SEO Tip is aimed toward all you Laurels out there, you who have a website that’s strong on vertical depth but light on inbound links. Our tip here is so simple, it’s practically obvious. First, go to your favorite search engine and type in those keywords you’re interested in using for your own site. Find out who your competitors are, and check what inbound links lead back to their site. To do this, you’ll need to copy and paste your competitor’s URL into your search bar, and insert the word “link:” in front of it. (Yes, the semicolon is there on purpose.) As an example, type in “link:www.salemglobal.com” into Google, and perform a search. You’ll see that Google locates about 160 sites that link back to www.SalemGlobal.com. These sites consist of a combination of directories, marketing sites, blog posts, press releases, and more. Of course, all of SalemGlobal’s inbound links were compiled over a long period of time — in fact, as a matter of policy, it can take Google a month or longer before it officially recognizes certain inbound links and rewards their destination website — but, it’s worth repeating, when it comes to link building, slow and steady wins the race.
Perform this process for one of your competitors, and analyze the pages that are linking back to their site: can you find any relevant business directories, industry blogs or online professional associations that could sponsor your link as well? Of course, you’ll find that not all of these links were put up for free — older and more established sites can charge hefty sums to place links on their pages. Linking strategy is hence a game of diligence, but also of discretion.
If you have any more questions on linking strategy, don’t hesitate to contact us! After all, that’s what we’re here for. Call us at (212) 993-5828, or shoot an e-mail to raphis@salemglobal.com. Happy linking y’all.
Video Sharing — More Than a Quick Laugh
Posted by Edan Shertzer on Mar 3, 2009
Many, if not most, people use YouTube primarily for recreational purposes. Got a moment to spare? Why not check out rare footage of the world’s best waterskiing squirrel? Nothing good on the tube? YouTube webisodes are a dime-a-dozen. Of course, in recent times, YouTube has become an attractive and very legitimate resource for those interested in more serious-minded pursuits. The video sharing site saw heavy use in last year’s presidential campaigns, and is now a popular public forum for political commentary, product advertising, and niche vlogging.
To the businessman or woman, or at least to the most sophisticated ones, YouTube and other popular video-sharing sites (e.g. Revver, Metacafe, Yahoo Videos) are also important business accessories. Essentially, YouTube offers you a free and relatively easy opportunity to broadcast your business to the staggeringly huge, locust-like audience that roams this and other online video vendors. Really, to those interested in using online media to promote their business, video sharing sites are simply gateways to airing their own commercials.
Visit SalemGlobal’s YouTube Channel, and see how we chose to promote ourselves and our clients using short, carefully branded videos. Some pointers to keep in mind when uploading your own new video: First, be sure to include a URL back to your website in the accompanying text — it’s user friendly, and indicates a conscientious linking strategy. Second, keep the description of the video short! All video vendors place restrictions on the number of characters you can use for a description, don’t exceed it, you’ll get caught off mid-sentence. And third, if possible, either download or purchase video editing software that allows you to insert information into the video itself. The goal is to familiarize your viewer with your business name and service as quickly as possible, so be concise, and don’t forget to have a little fun with it, too.
Eva’s Village Presents, “How to Reduce Your Income Taxes and Eliminate Estate Taxes”
Posted by Edan Shertzer on Mar 2, 2009
Eva’s Village (www.evasvillage.org), Passaic County, NJ - one of the most respected anti-poverty programs in New Jersey is hosting a series of free seminars on how to reduce income taxes and eliminate estate taxes.
Attend a free seminar and learn how to reduce your income taxes and eliminate estate taxes.
On Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 6:00 pm, Eva’s Village will host an income tax reduction and estate tax elimination seminar at The Madison Hotel in Morristown (www.TheMadisonHotel.com), New Jersey. Additional seminars will be held on Tuesday, May 12th and Thursday November 19th all at 6:00pm at the Madison Hotel in Morristown, NJ.
These seminars will be presented by Yale Levey, a nationally recognized teacher, tax specialist and consultant. The seminar will share strategies to control your wealth, even after death!
You will learn how to:
Eva’s Village hosted a series of these seminars in 2006-2007 which were very well attended due to the valuable information presented. Here’s what past attendees had to say:
“Thorough and complete as it relates to my life’s purpose and goals”
“Good information, well-presented”
“Very lively and easy to follow”
Seats are free, but limited: call today to reserve your seats at one of these free events, hosted by Eva’s Village and The Madison Hotel.. CALL 973-523-6220 ext. 235.
Originally a New Jersey soup kitchen, Eva’s Village and homeless shelter was founded in 1982 by Msgr. Vincent E. Puma in response to the homeless problem in his Paterson, NJ parish. But Msgr. Puma soon realized that a soup kitchen was not enough. With the generous support of thousands of donors and private and government grants, Eva’s Village has grown into the most respected anti-poverty program in New Jersey with a four-star rating (maximum) by Charity Navigator, an independent non-profit monitor.
Eva’s Village is a non-profit, comprehensive, social service agency. Their mission is to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, treat the addicted and provide medical care to the poor with respect for the human dignity of each individual.
Donate to Eva’s Village NJ Charity now, or for more information, go to www.evasvillage.org, call 973.523.6220 ext. 230, email Donna.Fico (at) EvasVillage.org or write to: Donna Fico, Chief Marketing Officer, Eva’s Village, 393 Main Street, Paterson, NJ, 07501.
People Capital Secures Investment from Radcliff Group Inc.
Posted by Edan Shertzer on Mar 2, 2009
People Capital, (http://www.People2Capital.com) developer of Innovative Peer-to-Peer Student Loan Platform, Secures Investment from Radcliff Group Inc. New peer-to-peer private student loan service utilizes a unique scoring system to predict a student’s potential. Education finance revolutionized.
People Capital, developer of an innovative peer-to-peer student loan platform, announced today that it had secured a second financing round from Radcliff Group Inc., a New York based private equity firm. The funding will be used to enhance People Capital’s Human Capital Score(TM), a model that provides a true measure of the creditworthiness of a student, and to develop its next-generation peer-to-peer (p2p) lending platform to provide improved access to private student loans.
Warren Serenbetz, Jr., CEO and President of Radcliff Group, stated that, “People Capital offers a truly unique approach to education financing, combining traditional and innovative approaches that produce an attractive yet safe lending scenario for students and the individuals and institutions that invest in their educations.”
“Our peer-to-peer lending platform brings a unique solution for students to finance their college educations. It leverages our cutting-edge research into developing a credit risk assessment methodology based upon students’ potential, rather than merely their credit payment history,” said People Capital Founder and CEO Thomas Shelton. “Our unique Human Capital Score means that we can underwrite students without credit history by being able to project individual income levels and ability to pay. Traditional methods ignore a student’s potential. Based on research coming out of The Wharton School Insurance Department, we incorporate merit data such as GPA, standardized test scores, college and major to provide a true and unbiased, data-driven measure of the economic value of an education. Our credit assessments will allow lenders to make credit risk decisions based on the true potential of the borrower.”
Poised for funding the 2009 academic year, People Capital has formed a world-class team of professionals including veterans of the student lending, consumer finance, credit ratings and new media industries. A more detailed business plan is available to qualified investors and institutional partners.
People Capital was founded in 2008 by a team of world-class talent with backgrounds in student loans, consumer finance, credit ratings and new media to develop the next generation of credit risk management and funding for student financing. Our patent-pending Human Capital Score(TM) can underwrite students without credit history by being able to project individual income levels and ability to pay. We incorporate merit data such as GPA, standardized test scores, college and major to provide a true and unbiased, data-driven measure of economic value of an education. Our peer-to-peer (p2p) lending platform allows students to finance their college educations through improved access to private student loans. Website: http://www.people2capital.com
Founded in 1986, Radcliff Group Inc. has a long track record of in investing in businesses that redefine their industries. Most notably it acquired an interest in Interpool, Inc., an international container leasor, and assisted management in building the enterprise into one of the preeminent container and chassis leasing companies in the world. Since 2007, Radcliff Group has actively sought new private equity opportunities.