Idea For Cooling Down Home During Summer
Where I live, during the summer time, it can get really hot inside. I have a slab roof, and this seems to just drink up the heat and transmit it inside. So usually when I get home on a typically hot summer day, it feels really hot inside, and it is a most uncomfortable feeling.
A mind like mine naturally is inclined to come up with a solution to this problem. And I have an idea that I want to try some day. That’s correct, I haven’t tried it yet, so I don’t know how well it works. But I post my idea here in case someone wants to try it before me and report back on the kind of results achieved.
Since the main cause of the problem seems to be with the heat from the sun being absorbed by the concrete roof, then if I could reflect the light/heat hitting the roof, then it should help. Seems logical to me. So there are a couple ways I have thought of to do this.
One is to place a big mirror on the roof to cover its surface area, or use several small mirros. This should reflect most of the light and prevent most of the heat from being transmitted through the roof to the inside. The problem I have with implementing this, is that it seems to be somewhat expensive. It also seems to come with certain risks. For eg. I would have to ensure that the glass cannot be easily moved, lest a strong gust of wind lift a fragment off and deliver it to a passerby or some other innocent person. So while I think the idea should work beautifully, it has challenges in being implemented. This brings me to the alternative idea.
The second approach I thought of, would be to paint the roof white. I don’t think this would be near as effective as the former idea, but I believe it should have some noticeable effect. As one should know, white reflects more light than any other colour, so this should reduce the heat transmitted through the roof. To supplement this method, I thought maybe throwing some glitter on to the paint would produce even greater cooling.
I hope someone tries any of these ideas. I’ve toyed around with them for a couple years now, but still have not put them to the test. If I manage to do any though, I’ll report back to let you know how effective it is.
Tags: cooling home, summer heat
Introduction To DoFollow and NoFollow
In certain circles, especially among those who are into search engine optimisation (SEO), the terms dofollow and nofollow often come up. If you are new to building and/or promoting websites, you probably have no clue what this refers to. But if you seriously want your site to get maximum visibility, you need to be aware of what these terms mean.
What is DoFollow and NoFollow?
The terms dofollow and nofollow refer to either links or sites. It is really links that are properly nofollow or dofollow. Websites are said to be dofollow or nofollow depending on the type of links they allow. I’ll explain this some more, but let us first understand what a nofollow link is.
As just about everyone knows, a link is basically some text that is encapsulated in certain html code which tells what the text links to. Now the html code allows some attributes to be set, one of which is nofollow. Specifying nofollow for a link basically is a message for search engines, to inform them that they should not use this link to affect the ranking of the target site. You see, a page’s ranking in the search results is to a large extent dependent on the external links which point to that site. So when you create a nofollow link to some site X, you in effect prevent site X from getting any benefit in the search results.
Note that specifying nofollow has no effect on a user’s experience in clicking on the link. Also, some search engines take nofollow literally, and do not even follow the target of the link when it does it’s crawling. However, others might indeed follow the target, but will just not let this link count towards a site’s page rank. So it is still possible to get your site indexed (that is, to be recognised by the search engine) with a nofollow link to your site.
Now that you understand nofollow, perhaps you can guess what dofollow means. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, understand that there is no attribute or tag in the html code that specifies dofollow. What we refer to as dofollow links, are simply links that do not carry the nofollow attribute or tag. Dofollow is simply a term to refer to the opposite of the effect of nofollow. In other words, if a link is said to be dofollow, then it means that the target will benefit in how the search engines rank their results. Therefore, the more dofollow links pointed to your site, the better your site will rank in the search engine’s results. For eg. with adding enough dofollowlinks, you could move from page 20 in the google results to page 1.
With the above in mind, a site is considered dofollow if it allows you to contribute to the site, whether through comments or otherwise, without making your links nofollow. And conversely, a nofollow site is simply a site that makes the links you post nofollow. Sometimes sites might make certain sections dofollow while leaving some as nofollow.
Why Nofollow?
One of the first questions that might come to mind when encountering the concept of nofollow, is why would anyone want to do this? You would think that if you’re going to refer to another site, it is only fair to give that site the benefit of improved search rankings. Well one of the intentions of this html specification for links, was to reduce the amount of spam that plagues sites, especially blogs. Blogs generally allow readers to post comments where one is generally allowed to include a link. Spammers have taken advantage of this to build their backlinks to improve their standing in the search engines’ results pages. So this is one of the reasons why blogs now by default tend to make the links in comments nofollow.
Another reason for the introduction of the nofollow attribute, is to prevent your reputation to be passed to questionable sites. If you link to such a site without the nofollow, you are in effect saying that you approve of that site. This can have adverse effects on you, as Google for example frowns on such sites, and may penalise your own site. This is another reason why blogs make comments nofollow by default. There can also be times when you want to expose a scam site and provide a link to it to demonstrate a point. However, you wouldn’t want to be passing your reputation to it in this case, so this would be a good time you would want the use of nofollow.
Aside from the purposes behind nofollow, SEO experts have promoted another use for it. There is a theory that suggests that the number of outbound dofollow links on a page reduces the power of that page to affect the ranking of other pages it might link to. This link power might be better served in promoting other internal pages of your site. Whether or not this is true, the fact is, that people believe it. Therefore, SEO experts have advised on keeping the number of non nofollow (or dofollow) links to a minimum.
Another reason one might use the nofollow is to be able to link to one who might be a competitor, without lending weight to the competitor’s page rank.
Why Dofollow?
Since dofollow invites spam, and could weaken your page’s link power, then why do it at all for external sites? Well there are a number of reasons one might want to do this. One good one, is that while it invites spam, it also encourages comments on your site. Comments can be good in that they add content, and they indicate that your blog is active and visible, which encourages your readers to come back and participate. Since you have control of which comments get posted, you can simply ignore the spam, and only allow those which add value to your site.
Another reason to go with dofollow, is that it indicates goodwill. When people recognise that you’re giving credit where it is due, they will more likely reciprocate and give you dofollow backlinks. Also, since people are constantly trying to build their dofollow resource list, you will tend to get linked to more often. Even though a number of these links will be nofollow, you’re still benefiting since these are still links that can bring you direct traffic. In short, dofollow will tend to increase your web traffic.
In my next post I will explain how to check for nofollow or dofollow. And in another post, I will provide a resource page for dofollow sites.
Beware Raz-Captcha WordPress Plugin
I was looking for a plugin to add a captcha on my wordpress blog’s registration page. I’ve been getting too many bots registering to my site and cluttering my mailbox and my true list of subscribers. So I decided it was high time I dealt with this. Hence my search for the captcha plugin.
While searching the wordpress plugin resource page, I came across a plugin called raz-captcha. The description said it did just what I wanted and more. I was primarily looking for something that would put the captcha on the registration page, but this plugin claimed to not only do this, but also place one on the login page. Great!
So I downloaded and installed the plugin. I went to the set up page and selected the options I wanted. Then it was time for the moment of truth. I logged out and went to the registration page. Yes! It worked! Ok so all is well, and I’ve gotten rid of those bots…
Well not quite so fast. For now it was time for me to log back into my blog to do some work. So as normal, I clicked the login link, but to my chagrin, I get a blank page. Nothing! I refresh and still nada. So how the hell am I supposed to get back into my site?
Fortunately I know what I am doing. Now if this ever happens to you, you can try doing what I did. You will need to login to your hosting server. That’s what I did. Then I navigated to the plugin directory and renamed the raz-captcha.php file. I went back to my site and the login page was up. So I logged in and went to the plugin page. My intention was to deactivate the raz-captcha. But before clicking the deactivate link, I went back to the plugin directory on the hosting server, and renamed the plugin to what it was originally. Then I deactivated the plugin and deleted it.
Maybe the plugin works for a different version of wordpress (I think I’m using 2.7), or it could be an incompatibility with my theme. So beware the raz-captcha plugin. Proceed with caution.
I ended up going with the CYC plugin. It doesn’t seem to have the option to put the captcha on the login page, but the bot registration was what I wanted to eradicate, so this will do.
Tags: cyc, raz-captcha, wordpress plugin
Google Key Words for building unique web traffic
In this post I will address some more the matter of google key words for getting web traffic. In the prior post on getting unique web traffic, I mentioned that I wanted to flesh out certain points. That is what I’m trying to do here.
I advised taking a strategy where you focus on getting ranked in the search engines with key words that are not too competitive. Competitive does not only mean that the key words are very popular. It also has to do with how hard it would be to have your site outrank the other sites that also rank in the search results for these specific words.
In this post I will introduce you to the google key words tool which will assist you in choosing key words. In another post, I will explain how to tell how difficult it would be to obtain a better page rank than the number one result of this search query, or than any of the other sites in the search results.
The google key words tool is really meant for advertisers, to aid them in selecting the key words they want to target for displaying their ads. Nevertheless, this free tool can be very useful even if you’re not an advertiser.
All you do is enter a key word, or phrase into the google tool, and hit the button. You will then get a list of various key words related to what you entered, with some statistics associated with it. By default, there are two columns displayed which show statistics related to the traffic volume per month for these set of google key words. I would suggest you filter the Match Type to Exact to get a more accurate indicator of the kind of traffic you can expect from these key words. You can also see other statistics by selecting the available options in the Choose columns to display selection box.
Now if you see a very high traffic volume, then it is very likely that these key words are very competitive to rank for. So you will want to set your sights somewhat lower initially. Remember, the idea is to tap into some of the traffic available by managing to get your site ranked well for key words that do have some traffic. Once you can do this, then you can repeat it for other google key words, and steadily build your web traffic, not just traffic, but unique web traffic.
Ok, so now you have a tool to help you decide on key words you can target. What you now need to be effective, is the knowledge for how to check if you have a chance of ranking well with these google key words. That is what I will explain in another post to come soon. So stay tuned…
Tags: building web traffic, key words, seo
Unique Web Traffic To Your Website -You can get it!
Everyone wants to get traffic to their website, if they have information or knowledge to share. In this post, what I want to focus on, is not just getting traffic, but getting targeted unique web traffic.
The importance of this should be clear. For while repeat visitors to your site is important, to expand your reach, what you really need is unique website traffic that is targeted.
I am going to look at a couple ways of achieving this goal. The first requires time, dedication and careful planning. The second requires some amount of money.
Perhaps the best way to get unique web site traffic is through the search engines. This not only gives unique visitor hits, but also targeted traffic. You want targeted traffic because this increases the likelihood that the visitors are interested in what you have, and will benefit from what you are offering.
So how does one go about getting search engine traffic? The solution is easy to say, but difficult to implement. Simply put, you need to get your page/site ranked on the first page of the search results and the closer it is to number 1, the better. And how does one get her page ranked this well in the search results? Well it is a combination of multiple factors, but there are two that are key and will take you a long way. These are, key words, and backlinks. Backlinks are links from other sites to yours.
I have elsewhere addressed the importance of backlinks or incoming links, and how to get such links, so I won’t reiterate here. On the matter of key words, you need to decide which words you want your page ranked high for when the search engine user enters them in his query. Now there is a strategy to this. You want to select key words where you can compete in. Chances are, if you targeted the key words, ‘make money’, you will not be able to get your page ranked near the top because there are already many sites targeting these same words, and which already have a solid base of backlinks which will make it very difficult for you to out do them.
It is best to choose key words that are not very competitive, yet are likely to be searched by more than a few people. Naturally you would not expect to get as much traffic from ranking high in this search phrase, as you would if you could rank high in the popular search phrase. However, do this enough times for different pages of your site for the less popular key word searches, and your trickle of traffic will eventually coalesce into a steady stream or even river of healthy unique and targeted web traffic.
The second way to get unique web site traffic, would be to pay for it. For example, there is google adwords. You pay google to have your ad shown when certain key words are found in the content of web pages. This is an effective way to generate the traffic you want. So if you have money for this activity, why not try it? Yahoo also has a similar adword model. So does kontera.
Aside from the adword models, there are a number of sites that make it their business to funnel targeted traffic to your site. You basically decide how many unique visitors you want and then you pay for the package that will meet that target. Do some research into this if you’re inclined to go this route.
So having looked at the two main ways of increasing unique web traffic to your site, you can see that the easier and quicker route to take for results, would be to pay for it. However, if you cannot afford to do that, you can invest the time and effort needed to increase your ranking in the search engine results. And of course, you can combine these two methods when it makes sense.
I intend to add future posts that will flesh out some of the points made here.
Tags: adwords, backlinks, building web traffic, seo
How To Lose Weight -the simple and sure way!
Are you one of the many fat women who wants to lose weight? Well you’ve come to the right place. I’m going to give you some very simple, but effective instructions, that if followed, will bring you down to size and have you losing weight quickly, and even keeping it off. Guys, don’t worry, this will work for you too, so keep on reading.
before my simple weight loss steps
Ok, first thing. Just forget all those schemes and programmes and diets you see advertised especially in infomercials. All you really need to do is stop eating and drinking. That’s right, stop eating and drinking. At least for a day.
What this does is cause your stomach to shrink so that you’ll feel full for eating less. Make sure you don’t over eat after you’ve gone to the trouble of shrinking the stomach. So when you begin to feel full, stop eating. Because you’ll end up eating less, you’ll tend to lose weight.
Once you’ve followed the above instructions, repeat it maybe a week later. Just make it a regular interval until you’re satisfied with the results. So stop eating again for at least a day (ie. 24 hours), then eat amounts to match the reduced size of your stomach.
As your stomach gets smaller, you’ll realise that you don’t have too much space to spare, so you’ll need to make sure that what you eat counts. In other words, you’ll find that you better eat nutritious stuff, otherwise you’ll get full on fluff, and find your health deteriorating.
Ok that’s it. Follow my method and you’ll lose the fat. You can speed things up by combining this procedure with some exercise. You’ll definitely lose weight when you do these things, and morph into the nice body you desire.
after my simple weight loss steps
Tags: fat women, Health, losing weight
The Healing Wonders of Herbs -a look at burdock
Burdock is another herb I wish to highlight. The root is used in the treatment of a host of ailments and is reputed to be one of the best blood purifiers around. It rapidly purges the blood of toxins. Liberal consumption of the tea will clear almost any skin disease. Burdock is one of the chief herbs used in treating gout, rheumatism, syphilis, gonorrhea, canker sores and leprosy.
Tags: burdock, healing, Health, herbs, skin care
The Healing Wonders of Herbs -a look at chickweed
The first herb I want to highlight is called chickweed. Chickweed is a blood purifier, restorative and energizer. It is a superb remedy for colds, bronchitis, pleurisy and weakness of the bowels.
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Tea made from the herb is soothing and is excellent for almost any type of internal inflammation. In fact it is touted to be a remedy for some cancer complaints. The tea or a poultice of the herb is also used externally to clear up skin eruptions and diseases.
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I can recall an incident some years ago that triggered my view of chickweed as a miracle herb. I had noticed that a small area of skin below my right knee had the appearance of some fungal infection. My mother had prepared some chickweed tea earlier that day and I remembered her always saying that chickweed was great for skin problems. So I went and drained a bit of the chickweed from the tea she had prepared and placed it on the infected spot. I covered it with a band aid. Several hours later I removed the band aid and the chickweed. Lo and behold, the appearance of the skin was normal. No hint at all of any fungal infection. Miraculous results!
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This herb may be a bit of an annoyance to some, as it is a diuretic, and a mild laxative, meaning consumption of this herb will see you making more frequent trips to the bathroom. But take comfort in knowing that it is a process that is ridding your body of toxins. Chickweed is a must have for every homeÂ
Tags: chickweed, healing, Health, herbs
The Healing Wonders of Herbs -a look at rosemary
The next herb that has proven useful to me is rosemary. Similarly to chickweed, it is great for coughs and colds. It is a wonderful treatment for nervous conditions and can cure headaches caused by nervousness. It is good as a mouthwash.
Many will be interested to know that this herb actually eliminates bad breath, even chronic cases. The tea is excellent for this because it tackles the root problem of bad breath, which actually has its genesis in the stomach and not the mouth. Regular mouthwash will keep a person’s breath fresh for a few hours at most. Rosemary tea will leave you with fresh breath up to as many as several days. Try it. You have nothing to lose.
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Finally, this herb can be used as the last rinse for the hair after shampooing, as it is strengthening to the hair roots.
Tags: healing, Health, herbs, rosemary
The Healing Wonders of Herbs -Introduction
Herbs are generally deemed to be therapeutic and of great curative value to man. However, many of us are not aware of their healing properties. There are an abundance of herbs that are useful for various ailments. I have had experience with a few and I wish to share with readers the tremendous health benefits that can be gained from some herbs that I have been using over the years.
In this series of articles I will highlight various herbs and their health benefits for your consideration. I won’t necessarily go into the specifics of correct dosages and frequency of use, but these are important points that you should research before integrating into your diet.
Now apart from the incredible medicinal value of these herbs, another nice thing about them is that they tend to be inexpensive and will likely not burden your pocket.
Tags: chickweed, healing, Health, herbs
Building Web Traffic -Getting backlinks
Now that we understand the importance of backlinks to your site, let us explore some of the ways for getting backlinks.
Perhaps the easiest is if you already have another website that has some amount of visibility, then you can simply add a link on it to your new site. Try to make the link relevant to your site though. If you must start from scratch, then you can try the following:
1. Visit forums that have some relevance to the content of your site. Post on the forum and interject a link to your site when it is appropriate. Don’t violate the rules, and don’t spam. Make sure your post is relevant, and linking to your site is seen more as adding value than simply trying to advertise your site. Or instead of trying to include the link in the main body of your forum submission, include it in your signature and profile (if there is a profile facility).
2. Find sites that are related to yours in terms of content or service, and make a request to the webmaster to do a link exchange. This means you will include a link to the other site on yours, and he/she will in turn link to your site from their own.
3. Make comments to posts on various sites/blogs and where appropriate include a link in your comment. Usually you are given the opportunity to specify your website along with your name when making the comment. Be aware however, that quite often when you include a link in a comment, the link is a nofollow link so won’t be counted towards your page rank by search engines. Webmasters do this is to cut down on spam. But a link out there in your comments still can be useful, as someone reading it might just decide to check out your link, especially if your comment is sensible and relevant.
4. Alert sites like Digg, Reddit, and Stumbleupon of your page(s). Each of these sites basically allows you to share your content with the world. The way they work, is by submitting a title and a little description of what your page/site/article is about. Your entry is then visible to the thousands of others browsing these sites, and they may either rate it good or bad. The more good ratings you get, the more visibility your entry gets. Now, keep in mind that even if your entry doesn’t get anywhere in terms of popularity on these sites, it still helps you because the search engines love these sites, and you’ll quickly become more visible in the results of search engines like google. Bear in mind that if the site is a nofollow site, then it won’t do much to increase your ranking in the search engines. However, even with the nofollow sites, it does seem to help in getting your site indexed, in case your site is not yet indexed.
5. Bookmark your site. Bookmarks count as incoming links. There are sites that actually allow you to store your bookmarks online. This can also be good for getting backlinks to your site. Join up with a site like del.icio.us (or delicious.com) and add bookmarks to the sites you want promoted. Search engines are able to see these bookmarks, so it can possibly improve your search rankings. However, these bookmark links could very well be what are called nofollow links, which means that they don’t carry weight in terms of page rank. In another post I will explain how you can determine if a link is a nofollow link.
(You can see more example sites that allow link sharing by putting your mouse over the Share/Save icon at the bottom of this post).
If you have any other ideas, please do post them in the comments, or even do your own post submission.
Tags: building web traffic, getting backlinks, getting incoming links, seo
Building Web Traffic -the importance of incoming links
There are basically a few ways that people will come to your site.
1. Entering your website address directly into their browsers
2. Finding your website in a search engine
3. Clicking to your site through some link found on another site
The first of these requires that one knows your web address, or that you have a domain name (like realestate.com) such that one might just try entering the term they want info on. This can be a difficult way of getting traffic if you’re not fortunate enough to have one of those nice domain names.
So really the main ways of generating traffic would be through #2 and #3. Now it is possible to get indexed by a search engine so that others could possibly find your site, without having any other sites linking to yours. However, it generally takes longer to get indexed without some link reference from another indexed source, and it is also not likely that you would get a good page ranking from the search engine’s results without some links to your site.
It is therefore most important that your site gets incoming links (also called backlinks) from other sites if you want to grow your web traffic. The more links you have directing people to your site, the higher the chance that people will visit your page. But not only that, it also stands to increase your ranking in the results of search engines. Naturally you want a good ranking, because people don’t tend to look beyond the first page in the search engine’s results.
What is also important, is the quality of backlinks. Not all pages are equal. Some pages have a better standing with the search engines, and so getting a link from one of these pages to your site, will carry greater weight than if you got a link from a page that is also struggling to get attention.
It should be abundantly clear by now the importance of getting incoming links (backlinks) to your site in order to build your web traffic. In the next part of this series we will look at ways of getting such incoming links.
Tags: incoming links, web traffic
Attention Women! Know Your Limits!
Good day all.
What I want to share here is some advice for you women, to help make your relationships with men not just work, but thrive. As an expert in men-women relationship matters, I think you would do well to listen and learn from what I have to say. This is a site about learning, after all.
My advice is to know your limits. As simple as it sounds, it is one of the keys to successful relationships. Here is a short video that demonstrates this better than I could explain in words. Enjoy!
Well women, I hoped you enjoyed this, and I hope you let it sink in. You may thank me later when you reap the fruits.
Tags: advice for women, know your limits
Getting Rid of Stretch Marks -Does TriLastin Work?
Someone I know has these unbecoming stretch marks, and was wondering if there is anything outside of surgery that could remove them. Apparently the suggested solutions like cocoa butter and snail slime do not work, or are not very effective, especially for long standing stretch marks.
I started doing some research on this and I came across a product called TriLastin System 2. Based on testimonials and before and after pictures (on the site selling it), it seems to be effective. But anyone selling a product usually finds a way to make it seem like something to buy. So my challenge is to find objective testimonials.
One problem is that there is an affiliate programme associated with TriLastin System 2, which offers a supposedly nice commission. This is not a problem to the seller. But for the buyer who wants to make sure she is reading real honest testimonials, it can be somewhat difficult to attain this confidence. Since the product is not cheap, and one has to use it for some months to see real effects, one naturally would want to really know that TriLastin System 2 is not a waste of time, that it is really worth it to get it now.
So to assist my friend, and others who are in a similar situation, I am requesting those of you who have used TriLastin System 2 to post here your experience with it. Does it really remove stretch marks?
Since this site is not attempting to sell TriLastin System 2, it can be an objective source for testimonials. Please do not put a link in your responses to your affiliate site for the product. These posts will be removed so as not to compromise the objectivity of the testimonials posted here.
So if TriLastin System 2 worked for you, post here and help others to share in the joy of stretch mark free skin. And do let us know how old your stretch marks were. If this product is a waste, help others to avoid making the mistake of getting it. Thanks!
Tags: healthy skin, removing stretch marks, skin care, trilastin, trilastin to remove stretch marks
The Solar power Michael Harvey/Earth4energy SCAM!
I was recently doing some investigating into how I could possibly reduce my electricity bill, and I decided to look into solar power. Now I had always heard that it takes an exorbitant amount of money to install a solar system that would be useful. So imagine my surprise when I came across the Michael Harvey (earth4energy) offer, where supposedly one can reduce their electricity bill by 80% by following Harvey’s do it yourself solar power setup, and for less than $250!
Reading the offer, with all the testimonials and the wild promises, made my mouth water. Of course anything sounding so good, sets off the scam alert warning in my head. So I decided to search for “michael harvey scam” and “earth4energy scam”. The interesting thing is, even in these results that came back, there was still a lot of positive things being said. Sites that supposedly were exposing it as a scam turned out to be endorsing it. However, a keen reader of these sites would realise that these folks are basically just trying to sell the product and benefit from some kind of affiliate or mlm system. It’s obvious. So many different sites pushing it, and people just giving these great testimonials where at the end they give you a link to purchase the manual.
The truth is, many if not most of those who are promoting earth4energy simply have not tried it themselves. They simply see a product that has high commission rates, and decide to get a piece of the pie. I have been learning a lot of stuff about internet marketing recently, and I participate in forums where people admit that they write reviews of products that they’ve never used. One person even gave tips on how to do that.
You should also be aware that one of the scammers set up a site with the url earth4energyscam, where they basically say it is not a scam. What a joke! Don’t believe it.
These crooks must be exposed. Here is one site that you should really check out if you still feel you might be missing out on something. Michael Harvey Scam
For those of you promoting this product without ever trying it out, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Put a stop to it, and do some honest business. It is time to put an end to this earth4energy scam.
If you genuinely feel or know that it is not a scam, then post your comments to that effect, either here or at the link above. It is time these people are exposed thoroughly!
Tags: earth4energy, michael harvey, scams
The Richest Man in Babylon
I recently read the book The Richest Man in Babylon. I had seen it around and heard of it before, but just never bothered to make an effort to acquire it. Oh how I wish I had read it years ago!
The little book is truly a very inspiring piece of work. It is essentially a compilation of stories, which are all somewhat related, set in the ancient city of Babylon, that all contain lessons of the principles that are foundational to wealth building. In each story, a character who has managed to acquire vast amounts of wealth is found in a position to impart these principles to the common man who would love to have the secrets to riches.
Here are some of the principles taught in the book. I post these not for the sake of trying to make reading the book redundant, as what I place here is no substitute for the book. But this is to help reinforce in my mind these important points while imparting some of the lessons to you.
Probably the most fundamental point stressed throughout the book, is to set aside at least one tenth of your income just for savings. This should not be touched for living expenses or luxury spending. Rather, this should be saved and eventually used to make investments. We must find a way to live only on 90% of our income. The 10% allocated for savings must not be compromised.
As stated above, the savings you accumulate should eventually be used to make investments. But be very cautious with the money and where it is being placed. Seek advice from those who have the specialised knowledge to guide you in your decisions. I could have saved a lot of money had I followed this.
While we’re on the path to achieving wealth it makes sense to hone our skills which we use to attain an income. Becoming better generally means more opportunity to increase our income, which would accelerate our progress, as we would be able to save more and therefore invest more.
We should be willing to work hard and do a good job. Again this will open up opportunities, as we become respected. It also contributes to our personal growth, making us better people, which will serve to empower us on the path to true wealth.
Do not procrastinate in doing what is good for you. Sometimes we get the chance to make very good investments, but because we delay in making a decision, the opportunity passes us by. Be cautious, yet be bold!
Finally (for now), debt must be seen as an enemy to be conquered. It must not rule us. So avoid debt, and when in it, taken firm measures to get out of it.
What I summed up above, is not the totality of lessons and principles taught in the book. But they are key to building lasting wealth.
Importance of Context: A lesson from buying furniture
Often times people make statements which when quoted elsewhere, sounds like something different from what was originally said or meant. This happens when words are taken out of context. We’re all familiar with this, and probably even had it happen to us.
But it is well worth noting that context doesn’t only relate to words, and it must never be ignored.
I went to the store to buy furniture the other day. I had someone pick out a set for me beforehand, one that was comfortable to sit in, and was of a colour that matched the destination room. So context as far as colour was concerned, was taken into consideration.
When I went I sat in it to make sure it was comfy, and I verified that the colour was appropriate, and then I paid for it. But when it was delivered later that day, it was immediately apparent that the sofa set was too bulky for the room. It took up too much space, and it just didn’t belong.
My failure was to ignore the spatial context. In the store, everything looked fine. Of course, the item was set out in a spacious area, making it difficult to realise that the furniture set would have a proportion issue in the target area.
Eventually I had to return the sofa set and take a more expensive one. A lot of trouble and disappointment could have been avoided by simply paying attention to the context in which the furniture was displayed and compare it to the context that it would be taken to.
Context really does matter, regardless of whether we’re dealing with words or a physical setting or something else. So remember to consider the context!
Tags: buying furniture, importance of context, learning from experience
Avoiding Duplicate Content
One way to get traffic to your website is through search engines. The ideal is to have your site appear at the top of the search results, or near to it, when a search is done for the key words related to your site. So it is important that we don’t do something to cause the search engines to penalise our sites, and make our ranking way down in the list.
This means we should be aware of what search engines don’t like. One of the things you can get punished for, is having a lot of duplicate content at your site. This must be avoided if you want to have any chance of getting a nice page rank.
Now if you build your site using something like WordPress, you could easily find yourself inadvertently duplicating content multiple times over. This is because it is easy to have different links (or URLs) to one particular post. For eg. if you post something to multiple categories, then you will have different links for each category. This is also a problem for archived posts, and your tags could potentially be a problem too.
So what to do about this?
In the case of posting to multiple categories, you can alleviate the problem by showing only excerpts on the category pages, and by ensuring that none of your category pages have all or most of the same posts listed.
The solution really though is to include some meta code in the header of your pages, to specify “noindex, follow”. So in your header you’d include:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow">
The “noindex” part of this tells the search engine not to index your page, so if you have duplicate content there, it won’t be counted against you. The “follow” part tells the search engine you still want the links on this page to count towards page ranking. There is a “nofollow” option that would say you don’t want any of the links on this page to contribute to the page rankings for the targets of these links.
If you’re using WordPress, this can easily be done by just modifying your header.php file to include code like the following:
<?php if(is_home() ¦¦ is_single() ¦¦ is_page()){
echo ‘<meta name=”robots” content=“index,follow”>’;
} else {
echo ‘<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,follow”>’;
}?>
If you’re averse to tampering with the code yourself, an alternative, and attractive option is to simply install the All in one SEO plugin. When you do that, you can specify “noindex, follow” for categories, archives, and tags.
Oh, in case you’ve also installed the Google XML Sitemaps plugin, you’d want to see that categories (probably), archives and tags are not included in the generated sitemap. (You can specify this in the plugin options).
If you have other suggestions, please do comment!
Tags: duplicate content, page rank, search engine, seo, traffic, wordpress
Write Down Your To-Dos At Start Of Day
This seems like such an obvious thing to do. I’m sure most people acknowledge the wisdom of it at some level. Yet I’m also fairly certain that most do not practice it. Read the rest of Write Down Your To-Dos At Start Of Day »
Tags: getting the job done, keeping focused, personal development
The Coming Economic Crisis
Perhaps you’re thinking it’s already here, so what do I mean “coming”? Read the rest of The Coming Economic Crisis »
Tags: economic crisis, inflation, peter schiff