Health Insurance Reform: Bravo Barack; KO Kay Lazar

September 11, 2009

I’d like to appaud Barack Obama for Wednesday night’s eloquent and powerful speech on health insurance reform–and the Globe’s Kay Lazar for her excellent elucidation  of his points as they relate to the difficult situation faced by small businesses in Massachusetts.  Relief in State Health Plan Sought, Boston Globe, 9-11-09./

Much as I appreciate the Massachusetts Health Initiative requiring  health insurance for all,  not being able to join other small businesses or organizations in order to bargain with health insurers has has forced me and many of my colleagues to pay a very hefty price.
 
As an independent consultant pf a certain age,  I’ve had to pay nearly $10, 000 a year for health insurance. I’m fine with paying for insurance; eight years ago, Blue Cross  helped me through a  health crisis and I’ve been fine ever since.
 
But I don’t understand why, unlike other states, Massachusetts prohibits small businesses and the self-employed  from grouping together to bargain with insurers on behalf of individuals of different ages and categories of risk.  Nor do I understand why I should have to pay so much more than others just because, during economic ups and downs of the last decades,  they’ve managed to hold onto full time jobs.  

I wholeheartedly support the Obama plan–which incorporates the strengths of the Massachusetts initiative and omits the weaknesses. And  I wish Governor Deval Patrick success in his attempts to change the 1996 law Lazar mentions in order to give small businesses in Massachusetts the bargaining power they need to gain a much needed financial lift.
—Anita Harris, President
Harris Communications Group of Cambridge, MA

HarrisCom blog is a publication of the Harris communications Group, a strategic public relations firm providing writing, media relations, and thought leadership services for organizations and companies in health, science, technology, energy and environmental fields.

We also publish New Cambridge Observer.

 

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How to write a winning blog for SEO

September 3, 2009

At the September  meeting of the Cambridge Search Engine Optimization Meetup Group Chris Baggot of  Compendium Blogware, advised a tech savvy group of 72 that key words and multiple pages are crucial to winning high blog rankings on search engines like Google and Bing.  

Group members interrupted Baggot  numerous times with questions. (They didn’t want to believe that Compendium’s platform, which focuses on providing many pages, each with its own keywords, could work better than WordPress). But Baggot held his own. 

Key takeaways:

  • Eighty  percent of activity on the Web is search–by people who are looking for solutions to particular problems– using keywords.
  • Bing, and, now, Google, are increasingly using content, as opposed to links, in ranking the importance of particular posts. 
  • Domain names don’t matter: blog titles, and keywords do
  • Have as many focused blog pages as possible–hundreds, if you can, each with its own main keyword
  • For consultants: tell stories of problems you have solved
  • Search engines “like” frequency and fresh pages; write short but often
  • Blogs should be 100-150words; if you have to more say, write another post
  • Include a call to action–give people a way to go forward: have an offer; ask them to sign up for something

Ohmygosh I’m over 150  words!

Here’s my call to action:  Contact me  at harriscom@harriscom.com if you need communications strategy,   media outreach, Web structure and content, a WordPress blog or writing for any medium about almost anything.

–Anita M. Harris

Harriscomblog  is a publication of the Harris Communications Group of Cambridge, MA.   We also publish the New Cambridge Observer. Copyright:  anita m. harris, 2009

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