Sam Allardyce has been sacked as England manager after 67 days in the job, Sky Sports reported on Tuesday.
Allardyce, 61, was caught up in a newspaper sting in which he is alleged to have met a bogus consortium of Far East businessmen seeking advice on the Premier League's billion-pound transfer market.
During meetings with undercover reporters from The Daily Telegraph, Allardyce is reported to have criticized his predecessor Roy Hodgson, referring to him as "Woy" and saying he "hasn't got the personality" for public speaking.
Former Bolton Wanderers, West Ham United and Sunderlandboss Allardyce took charge after Hodgson resigned in June following England's 2-1 loss to Iceland, and has managed only one competitive game to date - a 1-0 World Cup qualifying victory over Slovakia on September 4.
The Daily Telegraph has footage claiming to be from a meeting in August between Allardyce and two undercover reporters purporting to be from a Far East firm.
In the video, Allardyce explains to the two men how they might "get round" rules regarding third-party ownership of players, which was banned by FIFA last year and has been outlawed in England's top flight since 2008.
Allardyce used the example of Enner Valencia, a player he claims was owned by a third-party when he brought him to West Ham from Mexican club Pachuca in 2014.
"It's not a problem... we got Valencia in. He was third-party owned when we bought him from Mexico," Allardyce said, before acknowledging that his registration had to be purchased outright before moving to the Premier League.
The newspaper alleges that Allardyce reached an agreement worth £400,000 to represent the fictitious firm to Far East investors and be a keynote speaker at certain events, though he makes it clear than any arrangement would need FA clearance.
The 61-year-old is then claimed to have criticized predecessor Roy Hodgson and his assistant Gary Neville for England's Euro 2016 exit to Iceland, while he brands the FA's expensive rebuilding of Wembley as "stupid".
Allardyce has yet to respond to the allegations, while FA chairman Greg Clarke says he wants all the information surrounding the issue to be assessed. An FA meeting is understood to be taking place on Tuesday.
"I want all the facts, to hear everything from everyone and make a judgement about what to do," Clarke told The Daily Mail.
"Natural justice requires us to get to the bottom of the issues before we make any decision. It is not appropriate to pre-judge the issue. With things like this you have to take a deep breath."
The 2sec brand & music have gained much ground in the African music scene with their 2016 debut single “Follow me Solo“.
The Afro fusion twin duo collaborated with the rapper Phyno to produce a remix as a sequel to the prior. This official remix was produced by DJ coublon.
Listen & Download “2sec Ft. Phyno – Follow Me Solo (Remix)” below:-
Slim Music Records (SmR Ent) Present her Talented Artiste, “Flourish Flex” and here is a brand new single from him titled “Oleku” which was Produced by Dre San.
A video posted by Desmond maximus (@desmondscepter) on
The fireworks have faded, the champagne bottles are lined up for recycling, and those midnight text messages you didn’t mean to send but did anyway are fading into memory – or so you hope.
2016 is here and with it a chance to start the new business year with a bang. Your goals are set, your team is pumped, and you’re already hitting the ground and running.
But what has changed since last year? How will the world of online marketing look in this new year? And what opportunities should you be aiming for in the year ahead?
All this week we’re looking at the most important digital marketing trends for 2016. Whether in the domain of SEO, online video, blogging, or social media, our four-post series will explain what you need to know about the year ahead so you can deploy your marketing resources efficiently, effectively, and hit those goals.
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The first blogs appeared in the late 1990s meaning that, in 2016, blogs are moving out of their awkward teenage years and entering a more mature stage. Much has changed over those two decades and, indeed, much continues to evolve in the blogging world today.
Some of the most popular blogging platforms have only emerged recently. For example, Medium is a daily destination for millions of internet users and the blogging platform of choice for a growing group of individuals and businesses. Just four years ago, Medium didn’t exist.
Also forcing change on the world of blogging are the social networks that, in recent years, have evolved from narrowly-focused content aggregators and sharing sites into elaborate content management systems of their own. Whether microblogging on Twitter, or posting long-form content on Facebook using a much-improved Notes feature, the line between social sharing and blogging has been significantly blurred.
Blogging, too, has also continued to evolve from a leisure activity one might engage in to share a passion or record their personal hopes and dreams and towards a legitimate career choice for talented content creators. While ‘blogging’ might have only been entered on a resume under ‘Hobbies and Interest’ in 2006, in 2016 it is just as likely to be found under ‘Work Experience’ on the same document.
But where is all this change leading?
And what other changes can we expect to see on the blogging landscape in the 12 months ahead?
Here are the five trends that will impact significantly on blogging in the year ahead, and how smart content marketers can take advantage of each to deliver value for their readers, grow their audience, and use their corporate blog to develop more and better leads.
Trends in Blogging #1: The End of the Blogger
How can you have a blog without a blogger? The simple answer is ‘you can not’, but that is exactly what we’ll see in the year ahead. Not fewer people blogging, but fewer people describing themselves as bloggers. Instead, we’ll read more and more about influencers.
This makes sense. Bloggers today are not simply writers looking for an outlet. Instead, they draw together text, images, online video, knowledge of pop culture and trends, business savvy, powerful and extensive social networks, and the skills to bring all of this to bear in a dynamic zeitgeist to deliver value for their audience, advertisers, and themselves. “Blogger” just doesn’t seem big enough to corral this diverse skill set, and when outreach is your career and your focus is on adding value, “influencer” seems so much more appropriate.
For those who see their blog as a tool by which to monetize their network, ‘influencer’ might be a synonym for ‘gun for hire’. For others with established distribution platforms and channels for their work – for example, television, books, or film – might see their blog as a chance to influence sales and conversions elsewhere. For those who will spend much of 2016 running for elected office in the United States, their blog is nothing less than a blatant appeal for influence upon the votes of millions of Americans.
And all of this suggests that 2016 might sound the death knell for the blogger and the arrival in force of the influencer.
Trends in Blogging #2: Size Matters
The size of the post, that is.
With more people than ever getting their information online, blog posts and articles need to cut through the noise and deliver real value. And frankly, it’s the rare 200-word piece that is going to be as useful to the reader when faced with competition from extensive, data-backed 2000 to 3000-word pieces.
Orbit Media Studios surveyed more than 1000 leading bloggers and found that the average length of a post in 2015 was 900 words, an increase of 100 words or more than 10% over the year before. As marketing expert Ann Handley has said, “To thrive in an over-saturated content world, you’ll need to constantly write or produce (and syndicate) content with depth. Longer posts, more substantive content that people find useful and inspired.”
In 2016 you can expect to see this trend towards longer posts and more substantive articles continue. ‘Click bait’, thanks to the efforts of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and other search engines and content aggregators, is likely to die out, and low-value ‘listicles’ are likely to go the same way.
For companies and even individuals that are looking to bring in qualified traffic this coming year, there will be a greater emphasis on the length of the article being published as well as its value. While size isn’t going to be the be-all-and-end-all of blogging, it will be an increasingly important element in proving value, seriousness, and expertise to curious visitors.
Trends in Blogging #3: The End of Comments
Let’s call this one the ‘reverse Instapundit’.
For many years Professor Glenn Reynolds’ blog Instapundit was known for two primary reasons: first, a link from the blog could send enough traffic to crash all but the most well-prepared sites with an ‘Instalanche’ of readers; and second, the blog was one of the few high-profile blogs that did not have a space for readers to comment on posts.
More recently, though, Reynolds has not only brought a suite of co-bloggers on board, he has also opened up the posts for comments by readers. The site has always had a large audience, and now that audience has more of a reason to stick around.
For most sites, though, there is reason to believe that 2016 will see the end of comments on blog posts as we have known them for the last 15 years. The reason? It’s not complicated, it’s social. In simple terms, comments are not what creators want to spend their time managing, and they are not where readers want to have their conversations.
Comments on blogs require either active moderation on the part of the owner, or an acceptance that the discussion underneath a blog post will quickly devolve into the cesspool of disagreement, name-calling, and abuse. For readers, too, there is a big disadvantage in commenting on many blogs. Not only is it one more password/login combination to recall or record, it is a conversation that is limited on an internet that is not.
This is why in 2016 we’ll see the conversation move to the social sphere, perhaps entirely. Want to make a comment on a blog post? Cite the URL and share it on Twitter. Blog owners will encourage comments on Facebook, either using a dedicated comment/conversation plugin, or syndicating their posts entirely on the big blue social network.
The conversations will continue, but they won’t be the comments we’ve come to know.
Trends in Blogging #4: Great Graphics
Just as, by year end, we’ll be referring to bloggers as influencers, we’ll also stop thinking about blogging as a text-based communications medium. While the trend is not towards the disappearance of text altogether – there is really very little that is as fast, convenient and efficient at transferring an idea in an asynchronous way than text – we will see bloggers and influencers use text less and graphical elements more.
In a sense, this move towards blogging with graphics and images mirrors a wider trend online towards graphical content. Social networks have long reported that content, status updates, and shares that include an image are viewed, shared, and engaged with at far higher rates than text-only content. And the growth of social networks and billion dollar companies founded on image sharing alone (think Instagram and Pinterest, or Shutterstock and Flickr, for example) suggest there is power in not saying a word, so to speak.
In 2016 this trend will see graphical content (including high-resolution images, infographics, design elements and icon sets, and images designed for sharing on social networks) come to the fore. Instead of images being secondary to a post or a writer seeking relevant images for their post in the wake of its drafting, images will become a more central feature of the blog post, with the trend towards Tumblr-style image-blogging expanding.
And here’s a prediction. The best content will combine two trends in blogging: great graphics and longer posts. Nobody wants to wade through a wall of text on a screen, and long slideshows are equally unpopular. But the combination of long form text with high-quality images that support and augment that text will be near irresistible.
Trends in Blogging #5: The Era of Engagement
In the past bloggers would brag about their traffic. The key statistics were unique visitors and page views, and the bigger the numbers, the better the blog. When your numbers climbed high enough you’d try and monetize, selling a bit of your screen real estate to AdWords or a display ad serving company. Times were good for high-traffic blogs, but there was trouble ahead.
As content creators realized that advertisers preferred eyeballs above all else, they started doing whatever they could to build massive audiences, no matter how temporary. Click bait, hate bait, listicles, low-value content, slideshows, memes, and sometimes just flat out content appropriation – OK, content theft – all reared their ugly heads. Traffic spiked but users were left unsatisfied – and advertisers, too. What was a win-win was now trending lose-lose.
Luckily, in 2016, this will start to turn around
The most important metric for bloggers in the year ahead will not be their traffic or their page views. It will be their engagement rates. Can the blogger attract readers – no matter the size of the audience – and keep them on the site? Can the blogger create a community, giving readers something to come back for other than just fresh writing and attractive images? Can a blogger press publish and be rewarded with Twitter shares, Facebook posts lauding the content, and the launch of dozens of discussions on social media? And can the blogger remain at the center of all of this?
Whether a small but dedicated niche audience or a community of hundreds of thousands of committed devotees, what will matter for bloggers in 2016 is the engagement rate of that audience – the higher, the better.
Conclusion
Blogging isn’t going anywhere and will continue to evolve in its role as one of the most important content creation, publication, and distribution strategies for businesses and individuals online. The trends in blogging outlined here are the most important in terms of their impact on the blogging landscape in 2016, but they are far from the only trends impacting bloggers and blogging generally.
Once you have your phone, all you need are the right tools and some knowledge, and you can create an excellent blog.
Here are some suggestions that may prove useful:
Creating A Micro blog
More and more bloggers are finding that the majority of their readers engage with their posts via mobile devices. This is good news for bloggers; since when bloggers use mobile devices to access posts, they are usually looking for just small chunks of text to read. That means bloggers can reach a wider audience with bite-sized bits of content designed for mobile use that supplement their regular full-length posts.
The most important thing in a blog is to communicate daily. It is true that longer blog posts tend to perform better overall than small bits of information, but micro-blogging is growing in popularity, and when combined with social media, it is a big hit.
Use mobile apps
Apps are essential for running a great blog on your mobile device, and there are hundreds available. When you need to update your blog, track analytics, post photos, link to social media, or perform any number of small changes to your blog, using a mobile app can help ease the process.
Most bloggers recommend using the following types of apps:
Blogging platform apps: Whether you use WordPress, Blogger, or another platform, having the app downloaded on your phone should be your first step when mobile blogging.
Text editor: To make sure you don’t lose your work inside your blogging app platform, it’s recommended that you use a text editor app like Google Docs, which instantly saves your work as you type.
Photo editing: Most of your photos will be taken with a professional camera and edited on a computer, but when you want to snap a quick photo on your phone, a good photo editor like Pixlr Express can make your life easier.
Social networking: Have various social apps downloaded on your phone, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and any other relevant network. You might also choose to use an app like Buffer, which controls all of your social networks within one platform.
Analytics: You have to know how your blogs are performing daily, and traffic and data analysis apps like Google Analytics will tell you everything you need to know.
Find a good text editor
As mentioned previously, a good text editor is essential for running a good blog through your phone. You can always compose your blog posts in the blogging platform app, but these apps aren’t notorious for having great text editors. They are more focused on the function of the blog itself than the text editor, which means it can have glitches in essential functions, like backing up your post or running spell check.
A good text editor app, such as Google Docs, Sublime Text, Notepad, and Vim allow you to write and edit text without risking lost work. Many of these apps also offer coding capabilities, which allow more web design-savvy bloggers to publish their posts on their custom websites.
Send posts through email
An up-and-coming form of blogging is email blogging. Essentially, bloggers collect emails from their readers and send an occasional blog post through email. This offers an exclusive look to subscribers on your latest posts. Most people check their email on their phones daily, so they are more than likely to see it through email than through your blog.
If you use WordPress, you can also adjust your email settings so that it automatically posts to your blog. The platform offers a unique address that can be used to type a blog post through your email and have it publish on your blog. This can be useful, since email offers many of the spell check and draft-saving features of a text editor, and it is easy to access on your mobile device.
Use mobile-optimised photos
All of these tips are great for posting text to your blog, but as you well know, if you don’t have photos, your post won’t perform well. As a general rule of thumb, your photos must beoptimised for mobile use before posting through your phone.
Many bloggers employ the use of photo portfolio sites like Flickr. This photo-sharing site will automatically resize and optimise your photos for responsive use, so when you publish a blog post through your email or your blogging platform app, the photos won’t have any problem transitioning from small screen to large and vice versa.
Blogging almost entirely through your mobile device once seemed impossible, but now, it’s a simple process. As long as you have the right tools, you can work effectively from anywhere without the hassle of a larger device.
The Nigerian Communications Commission has written the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, demanding the transfer of the initial N50bn paid by MTN Nigeria Communications to the regulator’s account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, disclosed this in Abuja on Monday while answering questions from journalists at a press conference to mark the one year anniversary of his coming on board.
The NCC boss, who said the money had been lodged in a recovery account opened by the OAGF with the CBN, added that it needed to be transferred to the NCC account before it could be moved to the Consolidated Revenue Account of the Federal Government.
The commission had imposed a fine of N1.04tn on MTN Nigeria Communications Limited in October 2015 for failing to disconnect 5.2 million improperly registered subscribers from its network. After initial negotiations, MTN went to court.
However, in a twist, it withdrew the case out of the court and paid N50bn through the OAGF to show the government that it was ready to embark on full negotiation in a bid to settle the matter out of court.
There appeared to be crack in the government’s handling of the matter when the Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, denied that his ministry and its agencies took part in the negotiation and subsequent receipt of the money.
When the government and the NCC eventually entered into fresh negotiations with MTN, the fine was reduced to N330bn spread over a period of three years. The initial N50bn paid by the company was regarded as the first instalment.
Danbatta said MTN had since paid another N30bn, which means that the company has so far paid N80bn, with an outstanding balance of N250bn.
The NCC helmsman also said that the regulator declined a request by MTN to acquire the spectrum being used by Visafone even though it approved the acquisition of 100 per cent shareholding in the company by MTN.
The nation’s chief telecom regulatory officer argued that the acquisition of Visafone’s frequency could perpetuate MTN’s dominant position in the Nigerian telecommunications market, adding that the NCC would subject the request to a public inquest.
Danbatta also said that MTN would roll out services on the 2.6MHz spectrum acquired through a bidding process.
He said, “In the recent wireless broadband frequency bidding process for the 2.6MHz spectrum by the commission, MTN Nigeria Limited emerged the winner of six slots. The licensing of frequency in this slot has suffered several setbacks until recently when six slots out of 14 made available by the commission were allocated for immediate deployment of 4G-LTE services.
“By the rollout plans for this service as provided by the winner, broadband services on this frequency spectrum will be available in the last quarter of 2016.”
He added, “We have initiated processes for licensing of more broadband services on the 5.4GHz spectrum band. We have opened the process for the allocation of frequencies in the 70/80GHz band (e-band).
“Approval has been given for the deployment of 4G Long Term Evolution Technology by NATCOM Development and Investment Limited, which has launched the first Voice over LTE call on February 25.”
Danbatta also announced that the country’s broadband penetration had reached 20.95 per cent.
“Equally, on the percentage of Internet penetration, the country has reached a milestone of 47.44 per cent, second to South Africa on the continent,” he said.
On unsolicited text messages, Danbatta said the NCC had constituted a task force to verify the compliance of telecoms operators with the directives issued to them.
He said the regulatory agency would not shy away from sanctioning operators found wanting
– President Muhammadu Buhari has said that past looters of the treasury are behind militants in the Niger Delta – Buhari said the looters recruited the militants to sabotage the oil infrastructure – The president said the nation loses millions daily due to activities of the militants
Those who looted Nigeria’s treasury in the past are behind the militants in the Niger Delta region, says President Muhammadu Buihari.
President Buhari said past looters of the treasury are behind the resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta region, stressing that they are the reasons the nation is battling recession. According to him:
“Those who stole Nigeria dry are not happy. They recruited the militants against us in the Niger Delta, and began to sabotage oil infrastructure. We lose millions of barrels per day, at a time when every dollar we can earn, counts. It is a disgrace that a minimum of 27 states, out of 36 that we have in Nigeria, can’t pay salaries.
In a statement by his special adviser media, Femi Adesina, President Buhari was speaking to top rate Nigerian professionals based in the United States of America, whom Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora Matters and International Relations, described as “15 of the best people God ever created”. The professionals were in New York to meet with the Nigerian President. Top flight aeronautics engineers, physicians, I.T experts, a Judge, a top policewoman, entrepreneurs, an Import Specialist at Customs and Border Protection, professors, two straight A students, and many others. The parley provided President Buhari opportunity to bring them up to speed on how and why Nigeria got into trouble, with an assurance that with all hands on deck, including the best brains in the Diaspora, the country would bounce back in the shortest possible time.
“I am very pleased with this meeting,” President Buhari stated. “Wherever you go in the world, you find highly competent and outstanding Nigerians. They not only make great impact on their host countries and communities, their financial remittances back home also help our economy, particularly at a time like this, when things are down.
“We got into trouble as a country, because we did not save for the rainy day. For example, between 1999 and 2015, when we produced an average of 2.1 million barrels of oil per day, and oil prices stood at an average of $100 per barrel, we did not save, neither did we develop infrastructure. Suddenly, when we came in 2015, oil prices fell to about 30 dollars per barrel.
“I asked; where are the savings? There were none. Where are the railways? The roads? Power? None. I further asked; what did we do with billions of dollars that we made over the years? They said we bought food. Food with billions of dollars? I did not believe, and still do not believe.
“In most parts of Nigeria, we eat what we grow. People in the South eat tubers, those in the North eat grains, which they plant, and those constitute over 60 per cent of what we eat. So, where did the billions of dollars go? We did a lot of damage to ourselves by not developing infrastructure when we had the money.
“Talking of our military, they earned respect serving in places like Burma, Zaire, Sudan, Liberia, Sierra-Leone, and then, suddenly, that same military could no longer secure 14 out of 774 local governments in the country. Insurgents had seized them, calling them some sort of caliphate, and planting their flags there; till we came, and scattered them.“We raised the morale of our military, changed the leadership, re-equipped and retrained them; USA, Britain, and some other countries helped us, and today, the pride of our military is restored.
“Boko Haram ran riot, killing innocent people in churches, mosques, markets, schools, motor parks, and so on. And they would then shout Allahu Akbar. But if they truly knew Allah, they would not do such evil. Neither Islam, nor any other religion I know of, advocates hurting the innocent. But they shed innocent blood, killed people in their thousands. Now, we have dealt with that insurgency, and subverted their recruitment base.”
“But I prayed so hard for God to make me President. I ran in 2003, 2007, 2011, and in 2015, He did. And see what I met on ground. But I can’t complain, since I prayed for the job. In the military, I rose from 2nd Lieutenant to Major-General. I was military governor in 1975 over a state that is now six states. I was head of state, got detained for three years, and headed the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), which had N53 billion of that time in Nigerian banks.
“God has been very good to me, so I can’t complain. If I feel hurt by anybody, I ask God to help me forgive. He has done so much for me. “After 16 years of a different party in government, no party will come and have things easy. It’s human. We need quality hands to run Nigeria, and we will utilize them. I will like to welcome you home when it’s time. But I’ll like you to be ready.”
All the Nigerian professionals pledged to contribute their quota towards re-launching their fatherland to a new dawn.
playSam Allardyce (BT Sport 1)
playEnner Valencia (Kevin Quigley )
playRoy Hodgson
