the reason why we date a tennis player

1. They always looking for a good opportunity to come up.

2. They can do it with two people or four. As for me, I prefer two.
In addition, they can play singles and doubles. Use one hand or two. Whatever it takes.

3. They have good hands and have strong hip flexors.

4. They do it for unlimited minutes in many different postitions and they don't mind if they sweat.

5. They like to be on top of their game.

6. They grunt when the action heats up.

7. They have the endurance to last 3 hours ... straight!

8. Women wear tiny skirts and tank tops for easy play. Men wear shorts to hold the balls.

9. They play it long and hard. Of course, they want it easy, but hard is good too.

10. They play the court until they score...

this article quoted from top-10-reason.com

Search Engine Optimization tips

How to find associated terms through Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)
Techniques to find strong / associated keywords

Search engines have their own internal language used for ranking aggregate search terms, acronyms or plural or associated terms. If you are looking for the most effective use of keywords for your meta tags such as your titles or descriptions in your web pages. Here is a quick and easy method to find strong secondary terms to augment your keyword density or variations to broaden the exposure of your search engine results.

In order to find associated terms use the ~ (tilde) sign before a word in a search engine to see other associated words in bold.

For example go to Google and type in a keyword you are researching proceeded by the ~ (which is typically located at the top left series of buttons before the 1 on your keypad). Make sure you use shift to get the appropriate character.

We used the term ~url

For example let's use the term URL otherwise known as Uniform Resource Locator when you use Google. You will see the words that are highlighted are not just the term URL.

The results for the search are here<

Other associated keywords for this term are also highlighted such as:

• Website
• Web Site
• Link
• Address
• Urls
• Uniform Resource Locator
• Universal Resource Locator

So, the next time you want to find strong, relevant keywords that already have an inherent association with terms you wish to optimize, this is a great seo tip.

How to determine if a keyword is worth pursuing?

SEO Strategies | Keyword Analysis

This is a continuation from a previous SEO Tip. "Find what your looking for with more relevant searches" located two SEO tips down on this page.

Meticulous keyword analysis is a process that should proceed any strategic SEO campaign. The process of identifying and determining the right keywords to optimize your web pages for are what allow you to rank competitively for keywords and key phrases that receive high search volume in search engines.

Ranking for specific terms is more of a science than wishful thinking. Through clearly defined methods, it is possible to research a term and rank in the top 10 results using tactical off page link building and website promotion strategies. Many of which you will find in this search engine optimization strategies section.

*For example, when keywords are located in the title, description and header tags of a web page, then that means that those pages are directly competing for those keywords. Let's find out specifically how many pages are really competing for any given term using Google.

1. Open Google in a browser.

Encase the keyword your researching inside of quotes for the sake of the demo, let's use a term we have already optimized for our business like "local seo company" for example.

After typing in "local seo company" at the time of this search the response was. Displaying Results 1 - 10 of about 2,980,000

• The quotation marks around the search query make the results specific to pages with high relevance with that search term.
  
  
• FACT: You are not actually competing with 2,980,000 pages for the term local seo company.

2. Now, to see how many actual pages you have to compete with to rank competitively for your key phrase, scroll down to the bottom of the search page on Google and continue to click the last number on the right. until you reach the end of the pages. If it asks you to repeat the search with the omitted results included. do so and continue to click the last result to the right until you reach the end.

See diagram below


Keep clicking the last result until you cannot go any further.

*Typically you will see 10 pages of results, so click the last number 10 in this instance and continue to do this until you reach the end of all the pages for that search term. After reviewing this tip, you will note that this term only had 20,600 pages competing directly (but after scrolling down and clicking the last result until we go to the end of the results) shows this term only has 162 pages on Google competing for the term.

So, in this instance for the term "local seo company" The next page went to 16 and I clicked it. The number of total results for pages using this term was 162. Not bad compared to 2.9 million pages right? In a later tip, we can get into the ratio to determine the number of searches to the number of competitive pages to really arrive at strategic keyword SEO analysis. But we can't give away all of our techniques just yet.

Care to see who is #1 for Local Seo Company in Google? What about the long form Local Search Engine Optimization Company <>

One added bonus to SEO is, when you optimize an abbreviated form of a word, you typically get the optimization for the long form. Optimize for SEO and you also are optimized for search engine optimization for example, or any part of the words that comprise the acronym. Based on the competition for the search term, if you want rankings across the board, then your back links will have to take this into consideration, but that is another SEO tip altogether.

When to consider alternate key phrases...

If there are more than 50,000 pages competing for a key phrase / term after you perform a search " in quotes", then you may wish to targeting another variation of the term or keyword. Think of it as the old one - two punch, first you get indexed, then after your website gets some traction in the search engines, you then change your content and meta tags to the desired (high traffic ) term, build more links and then wait for the page to be spidered again. Otherwise it's like trying to beat someone who started optimizing a term months or years ago with thousands of back links with anchor text for that term. As you ad 10 they add 20 and so on and so fourth, in which case, that may not be a winning battle, but a slightly different strategy for a hybrid key phrase could be yours alone to dominate if you beat others to the punch.

So, the moral of this tactic is not to be deceived into thinking you could never rank for relevant keyword combinations, if you see less than 100,000,000 results for a keyword (without quotes), you shouldn't be intimidated with a PR4 site or above. A simple on page change to your tile and meta tags could land you in the top 10 alone, adding targeted back links to the mix , makes it a matter or time.

The more specific the better, but even garnering traffic from a search term that receives 20-100 search queries / visitors a day, you can see how being in the top 10 can impact you traffic and conversion if 10-15 of those people (who are already looking for that product or service) just happened to grace your pages every day due to your digital real estate in the top 10.

Do this with 10 pages on your website with each page optimized for 3-4 competitive key phrases, now all of a sudden you see spikes in traffic 150 - 200 unique visitors a day, who are searching for the very topic your pages are centered around. This is how to generate the right kind of website traffic which if harnessed properly with a list generation campaign, can become and invaluable and cost effective marketing strategy with your only cost being, the investment in time for the effective keyword research. The pay-off, tons of free traffic. Don't have the time? Let us handle it...

Depending on the competition for that term, top 10 results can take anywhere from a few weeks and 20 to 30 back links to several months (and several hundred back links) to achieve the needed digital velocity to quantify the appropriate response from search engine algorithms. The link popularity gleaned from the sources that link to you, the age and page rank of those URL's, the anchor text they use in web page and how focused and concise your pages are determine what value they receive from search engines. Like most strategies in SEO, they are constantly evolving, synthesizing and arriving at systematic hybrids to keep up with the ever changing algorithms. But the very fabric of the web and basis of achieving top 10 results is ultimately links, links, links.

Want to know how to get your website indexed fast and free without using search engine submission software or the add url page in search engines?

"Need a way to get your website indexed quickly without using a submit url form or expensive automated software", try Craigslist.org. Placing a link on a high traffic website with a high page rank is one of the fastest ways to get your site listed in the major search engines (usually within 48-72 hours) There are a number of high traffic 1.0 and 2.0 website's that create the patterns online that invariably develop into fads, buzzwords, or marketing behemoth's (U-Tube, My Space, etc) and search engines know this and pay particular attention to website's with lots of unique visitors and colossal traffic. Instead of getting indexed every few weeks, they are visited from web spiders several times a day to take a new snapshot of the web for their site. If you happen to have a solid back link on such a site, then guess who's coming to dinner? probably a hungry spider.

No offense to little miss muffet, but In order to sow your online curds and whey, write a brief summary in an appropriate category on your website with targeted keywords about the products or services you offer. Somewhere in the body copy make sure that you include a link to your site in http://www.mysite.com format, give it a great title and that's it.

You title should be relevant considering it is how your visitors will find you, so be as specific as possibly using compelling yet brief optimal terms. Also make sure that you don't use duplicate content from your website, otherwise your pages could get swapped out in the view of the search engine and those pages could appear in place of YOUR site. In the case of two pages with the same content, the higher page rank site almost assuredly wins.

High page rank site such as Craigslist.org get indexed several times in a day, utilizing this method your site is generally crawled, spidered and indexed within 48 hours after the posting has made it's way to the top of the category. The on page content is not as important as the links, so don't overdo it or you could end up on a spam list and inevitably do more harm than good. We utilize this method for introducing new pages to a website. Creating a few fresh high page rank links works wonders and after a week, the piggyback advertisement disappears and all that remains is your site which typically gets the link juice from the boost.

It is important to remember that even if you utilize this method to expedite indexed or pull pages out of the supplemental index (after changing the title, description and on age content to something more unique). That a well devised link architecture is imperative for ensuring that your site is spidered completely to reflect any other changes you may have performed to your site. So this is not a solution to all problems, just another useful tool for search engine optimization.

this article was quoted from seodesignsolutions.com

Dealing With Annoying People Tips

We can't choose our friends. We don't go around consciously asking ourselves if the people we meet are worthy of our friendship. In fact, friendship usually strikes when you least expect it.

You don't even have to know that person to enjoy their company; sometimes a common denominator is enough to serve as a bond. But what do you do if the guy turns out to be the most irritating person you've ever met? There are better solutions than simply throwing him overboard.

Allow me to introduce...

the mooch

This is the guy who has a very close relationship with his money. Actually, he's so attached to it that he won't even use it. He'll borrow money for a table dance, he'll pretend to have lost his wallet when the bill arrives, or he simply won't be there when it's his turn to buy the next round of drinks. He always claims to be broke and constantly tries to get others to provide for him.

Solution: If it's getting out of hand, start by letting him know that you are on a tight budget too and that you can't afford to keep covering for him. If that doesn't do the trick, your only option is to take a stand. Let him know that you've reached your generosity quota and that the stream has run dry.

the showoff

This guy is not necessarily the opposite of the Mooch, but at least he won't be asking for money. This guy will never cease to brag about what he has, what he's done, or with whom he's done it. He'll demand that you pay attention to his stories, actions or possessions.

Solution: Fundamentally, he's insecure and that's why he needs you to seem interested. For him, the only way to be worth something is to surpass others in the fields where he can indeed outshine them. So you can brush him off and tell him how you feel about this annoying habit of his, but it will hurt his feelings. Do so only if he isn't a good friend otherwise.

the motor mouth

The great thing about being a man is that we can be among our male friends and not have to talk about anything irrelevant. But there are guys who suffer from this troubled personality. They talk and talk and talk and never shut up. They'll tell you about their leaky faucets, marital problems, and painful hemorrhoids. You really don't need that much information.

Solution: The easy solution is to nod and say uh-huh every once in a while to show that you're listening. Whilst you do this, think about what kind of hamburger you're going to order or how you're going to manage your next mortgage payment. Since the motor mouth is harmless, doing this will get you through the torture without making him an enemy.

the rumor mill

This annoying person will usually wind up being a woman, as guys are by and large not known gossips. Similar to the Motor Mouth, the Rumor Mill elevates yakking to an art form, by only talking about others.

Solution: Dealing with this person must be done preemptively. You have to squash the rumors before they can be used by this person as ammo and never give this chatterbox any personal information that could be spurred into gossip about you.

the bloodsucker

Also known as a Leech in some circles, the Bloodsucker is one of the most infuriating personalities out there. No matter what you say to him, you're his best friend. He's absolutely convinced that you care about him as much as he cares about you. Remember Bill Murray's character in What About Bob? This guy is needy and will literally suck the life out of you.

Solution: Things can get worse when he decides to follow you around. It can even fall into the realm of stalking. If things get out of hand and he starts to seriously intrude on your personal life, set him straight. Let him know that you don't feel the same way and that he should respect your privacy and your space.

the opportunist

This person has an agenda. He may hang around you, pretend to be your friend, but deep down he is playing an angle. Perhaps he has his eye on your girlfriend or maybe he just likes to come over to your house and use your satellite TV system.

Solution: What you can do is shroud yourself in secrecy, and not let him know what's happening in your life so that he can't take advantage of it. If things go south, simply exclude him from your inner circle.

the incredible hulk

Okay, you might not actually know a guy that turns green and beefs up when he gets a paper cut. But I'm sure you know somebody who gets extremely angry, extremely fast. This guy has a temper and it might only take an ill-received comment to trigger it. This guy is dangerous because he can often get himself into more trouble than he can handle -- and take you along for the ride.

Solution: Tell him he should chill out (okay, in nicer terms) and that nobody did anything to warrant this kind of attitude. As well, don't take his outbursts personally.

the thug

The proverbial bully has a huge inferiority complex. He'll make jokes about you, get you to do things for him without any possibility of reward, and amuse himself with your pratfalls. He doesn't necessarily have anything to brag about so he'll entertain himself by tormenting those around him.

Solution: You have to realize that the Thug feeds on weakness. Like any other living organism, if you take away the nutrients, he will die. When you first realize that the person is a bully, take an immediate stand. They are like those old toy cars that drove around on their own but changed direction when faced with an obstacle. As soon as you identify the signs, set him straight and tell him you're not a pushover.

the knower of all things

Some folks are just so cocky that they think they know everything. In fact, and I'm sure you'll agree, they're the ones who are most often wrong. The reason is they are so sure of their own invulnerability that they never bother to check the facts. Only, you watch the Discovery Channel and know that aliens did not build the pyramids.

Solution: Never say: "you're wrong." Don't sink to the depths of the am-too/are-not variety. Tell him that you disagree and why. Point out explicit reasons with verifiable evidence that refute his position. Do so politely and without taking pleasure in it -- not noticeable delight anyway.

now what?

Finally, you'll realize that these stressful people can be dealt with and even remain your friends in the process. When exasperated, take a deep breath, take a break from their company, and imagine yourself elsewhere. And if all else fails, do like Mr. Costanza and yell to the entire world "serenity now!"

source from : askmen.com

Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic

A considerable portion of my consulting time has recently revolved around the optmization of corporate blogs (or the addition of blogs to revamped sites). As usual, I find a pattern emerging in the strategies that need attention and the pitfalls that must be avoided. So, rather than charging $400 an hour to give advice on the subject, I thought it would be valuable to share many of the most common pieces of advice here on the blog (business part of Rand fights with open source Rand, but loses, as usual).

1. Choose the Right Blog Software (or Custom Build)
   The right blog CMS makes a big difference. If you want to set yourself apart, I recommend creating a custom blog solution - one that can be completely customized to your users. In most cases, WordPress, Blogger, MovableType or Typepad will suffice, but building from scratch allows you to be very creative with functionality and formatting. The best CMS is something that's easy for the writer(s) to use and brings together the features that allow the blog to flourish. Think about how you want comments, archiving, sub-pages, categorization, multiple feeds and user accounts to operate in order to narrow down your choices. OpenSourceCMS is a very good tool to help you select a software if you go that route.
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2. Host Your Blog Directly on Your Domain
   Hosting your blog on a different domain from your primary site is one of the worst mistakes you can make. A blog on your domain can attract links, attention, publicity, trust and search rankings - by keeping the blog on a separate domain, you shoot yourself in the foot. From worst to best, your options are - Hosted (on a solution like Blogspot or Wordpress), on a unique domain (at least you can 301 it in the future), on a subdomain (these can be treated as unique from the primary domain by the engines) and as a sub-section of the primary domain (in a subfolder or page - this is the best solution).
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3. Write Title Tags with Two Audiences in Mind
   First and foremost, you're writing a title tag for the people who will visit your site or have a subscription to your feed. Title tags that are short, snappy, on-topic and catchy are imperative. You also want to think about search engines when you title your posts, since the engines can help to drive traffic to your blog. A great way to do this is to write the post and the title first, then run a few searches at Overture, WordTracker & KeywordDiscovery to see if there is a phrasing or ordering that can better help you to target "searched for" terms.
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4. Participate at Related Forums & Blogs
   Whatever industry or niche you're in, there are bloggers, forums and an online community that's already active. Depending on the specificity of your focus, you may need to think one or two levels broader than your own content to find a large community, but with the size of the participatory web today, even the highly specialized content areas receive attention. A great way to find out who these people are is to use Technorati to conduct searches, then sort by number of links (authority). Del.icio.us tags are also very useful in this process, as are straight searches at the engines (Ask.com's blog search in particular is of very good quality).
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5. Tag Your Content
   Technorati is the first place that you should be tagging posts. I actually recommend having the tags right on your page, pointing to the Technorati searches that you're targeting. There are other good places to ping - del.icio.us and Flickr being the two most obvious (the only other one is Blogmarks, which is much smaller). Tagging content can also be valuable to help give you a "bump" towards getting traffic from big sites like Reddit, Digg & StumbleUpon (which requires that you download the toolbar, but trust me - it's worth it). You DO NOT want to submit every post to these sites, but that one out of twenty (see tactic #18) is worth your while.
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6. Launch Without Comments (and Add Them Later)
   There's something sad about a blog with 0 comments on every post. It feels dead, empty and unpopular. Luckily, there's an easy solution - don't offer the ability to post comments on the blog and no one will know that you only get 20 uniques a day. Once you're upwards of 100 RSS subscribers and/or 750 unique visitors per day, you can open up the comments and see light activity. Comments are often how tech-savvy new visitors judge the popularity of a site (and thus, its worth), so play to your strengths and keep your obscurity private.
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7. Don't Jump on the Bandwagon
   Some memes are worthy of being talked about by every blogger in the space, but most aren't. Just because there's huge news in your industry or niche DOES NOT mean you need to be covering it, or even mentioning it (though it can be valuable to link to it as an aside, just to integrate a shared experience into your unique content). Many of the best blogs online DO talk about the big trends - this is because they're already popular, established and are counted on to be a source of news for the community. If you're launching a new blog, you need to show people in your space that you can offer something unique, different and valuable - not just the same story from your point of view. This is less important in spaces where there are very few bloggers and little online coverage and much more in spaces that are overwhelmed with blogs (like search, or anything else tech-related).
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8. Link Intelligently
   When you link out in your blog posts, use convention where applicable and creativity when warranted, but be aware of how the links you serve are part of the content you provide. Not every issue you discuss or site you mention needs a link, but there's a fine line between overlinking and underlinking. The best advice I can give is to think of the post from the standpoint of a relatively uninformed reader. If you mention Wikipedia, everyone is familar and no link is required. If you mention a specific page at Wikipedia, a link is necessary and important. Also, be aware that quoting other bloggers or online sources (or even discussing their ideas) without linking to them is considered bad etitquette and can earn you scorn that could cost you links from those sources in the future. It's almost always better to be over-generous with links than under-generous. And link condoms? Only use them when you're linking to something you find truly distasteful or have serious apprehension about.
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9. Invite Guest Bloggers
   Asking a well known personality in your niche to contribute a short blog on their subject of expertise is a great way to grow the value and reach of your blog. You not only flatter the person by acknowedging their celebrity, you nearly guarantee yourself a link or at least an association with a brand that can earn you readers. Just be sure that you really are getting a quality post from someone that's as close to universally popular and admired as possible (unless you want to start playing the drama linkbait game, which I personally abhor). If you're already somewhat popular, it can often be valuable to look outside your space and bring in guest authors who have a very unique angle or subject matter to help spice up your focus. One note about guest bloggers - make sure they agree to have their work edited by you before it's posted. A disagreement on this subject after the fact can have negative ramifications.
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10. Eschew Advertising (Until You're Popular)
    I hate AdSense on blogs. Usually, I ignore it, but I also cast a sharp eye towards the quality of the posts and professionalism of the content when I see AdSense. That's not to say that contextual advertising can't work well in some blogs, but it needs to be well integrated into the design and layout to help defer criticism. Don't get me wrong - it's unfair to judge a blog by its cover (or, in this case, its ads), but spend a lot of time surfing blogs and you'll have the same impression - low quality blogs run AdSense and many high quality ones don't. I always recommend that whether personal or professional, you wait until your blog has achieved a level of success before you start advertising. Ads, whether they're sponsorships, banners, contextual or other, tend to have a direct, negative impact on the number of readers who subscribe, add to favorites and link - you definitely don't want that limitation while you're still trying to get established.
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11. Go Beyond Text in Your Posts
    Blogs that contain nothing but line after line of text are more difficult to read and less consistently interesting than those that offer images, interactive elements, the occassional multimedia content and some clever charts & graphs. Even if you're having a tough time with non-text content, think about how you can format the text using blockquotes, indentation, bulllet points, etc. to create a more visually appealing and digestable block of content.
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12. Cover Topics that Need Attention
    In every niche, there are certain topics and questions that are frequently asked or pondered, but rarely have definitive answers. While this recommendation applies to nearly every content-based site, it's particularly easy to leverage with a blog. If everyone in the online Nascar forums is wondering about the components and cost of an average Nascar vehicle - give it to them. If the online stock trading industry is rife with questions about the best performing stocks after a terrorist threat, your path is clear. Spend the time and effort to research, document and deliver and you're virtually guaranteed link-worthy content that will attract new visitors and subscribers.
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13. Pay Attention to Your Analytics
    Visitor tracking software can tell you which posts your audience likes best, which ones don't get viewed and how the search engines are delivering traffic. Use these clues to react and improve your strategies. Feedburner is great for RSS and I'm a personal fan of Indextools. Consider adding action tracking to your blog, so you can see what sources of traffic are bringing the best quality visitors (in terms of time spent on the site, # of page views, etc). I particularly like having the "register" link tagged for analytics so I can see what percentage of visitors from each source is interested enough to want to leave a comment or create an account.
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14. Use a Human Voice
    Charisma is a valuable quality, both online and off. Through a blog, it's most often judged by the voice you present to your users. People like empathy, compassion, authority and honesty. Keep these in the forefront of your mind when writing and you'll be in a good position to succeed. It's also critical that you maintain a level of humility in your blogging and stick to your roots. When users start to feel that a blog is taking itself too seriously or losing the characteristics that made it unique, they start to seek new places for content. We've certainly made mistakes (even recently) that have cost us some fans - be cautious to control not only what you say, but how you say it. Lastly - if there's a hot button issue that has you posting emotionally, temper it by letting the post sit in draft mode for an hour or two, re-reading it and considering any revisions. With the advent of feeds, once you publish, there's no going back.
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15. Archive Effectively
    The best archives are carefully organized into subjects and date ranges. For search traffic (particularly long tail terms), it can be best to offer the full content of every post in a category on the archive pages, but from a usability standpoint, just linking to each post is far better (possibly with a very short snippet). Balance these two issues and make the decision based on your goals. A last note on archiving - pagination in blogging can be harmful to search traffic, rather than beneficial (as you provide constantly changing, duplicate content pages). Pagination is great for users who scroll to the bottom and want to see more, though, so consider putting a "noindex" in the meta tag or in the robots.txt file to keep spiders where they belong - in the well-organized archive system.
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16. Implement Smart URLs
    The best URL structure for blogs is, in my opinion, as short as possible while still containing enough information to make an educated guess about the content you'll find on the page. I don't like the 10 hyphen, lengthy blog titles that are the byproduct of many CMS plugins, but they are certainly better than any dynamic parameters in the URL. Yes - I know I'm not walking the talk here, and hopefully it's something we can fix in the near future. To those who say that one dynamic parameter in the URL doesn't hurt, I'd take issue - just re-writing a ?ID=450 to /450 has improved search traffic considerably on several blogs we've worked with.
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17. Reveal as Much as Possible
    The blogosphere is in love with the idea of an open source world on the web. Sharing vast stores of what might ordinarily be considered private information is the rule, rather than the exception. If you can offer content that's usually private - trade secrets, pricing, contract issues, and even the occassional harmless rumor, your blog can benefit. Make a decision about what's off-limits and how far you can go and then push right up to that limit in order to see the best possible effects. Your community will reward you with links and traffic.
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18. Only One Post in Twenty Can Be Linkbait
    Not every post is worthy of making it to the top of Digg, Del.icio.us/popular or even a mention at some other blogs in your space. Trying to over-market every post you write will result in pushback and ultimately lead to negative opinions about your efforts. The less popular your blog is, the harder it will be to build excitement around a post, but the process of linkbait has always been trial and error - build, test, refine and re-build. Keep creating great ideas and bolstering them with lots of solid, everyday content and you'll eventually be big enough to where one out of every 20-40 posts really does become linkbait.
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19. Make Effective Use of High Traffic Days
    If you do have linkbait, whether by design or by accident, make sure to capitalize. When you hit the front page of Digg, Reddit, Boing Boing, or, on a smaller scale, attract a couple hundred visitors from a bigger blog or site in your space, you need to put your best foot forward. Make sure to follow up on a high traffic time period with 2-3 high quality posts that show off your skills as a writer, your depth of understanding and let visitors know that this is content they should be sticking around to see more of. Nothing kills the potential linkbait "bump" faster than a blog whose content doesn't update for 48 hours after they've received a huge influx of visitors.
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20. Create Expectations and Fulfill Them
    When you're writing for your audience, your content focus, post timing and areas of interest will all become associated with your personal style. If you vary widely from that style, you risk alienating folks who've come to know you and rely on you for specific data. Thus, if you build a blog around the idea of being an analytical expert in your field, don't ignore the latest release of industry figures only to chat about an emotional issue - deliver what your readers expect of you and crunch the numbers. This applies equally well to post frequency - if your blog regularly churns out 2 posts a day, having two weeks with only 4 posts is going to have an adverse impact on traffic. That's not to say you can't take a vacation, but you need to schedule it wisely and be prepared to lose RSS subscribers and regulars. It's not fair, but it's the truth. We lose visitors every time I attend an SES conference and drop to one post every two days (note - guest bloggers and time-release posts can help here, too).
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21. Build a Brand
    Possibly one of the most important aspects of all in blogging is brand-building. As Zefrank noted, to be a great brand, you need to be a brand that people want to associate themselves with and a brand that people feel they derive value from being a member. Exclusivity, insider jokes, emails with regulars, the occassional cat post and references to your previous experiences can be offputting for new readers, but they're solid gold for keeping your loyal base feeling good about their brand experience with you. Be careful to stick to your brand - once you have a definition that people like and are comfortable with, it's very hard to break that mold without severe repercussions. If you're building a new blog, or building a low-traffic one, I highly recommend writing down the goals of your brand and the attributes of its identity to help remind you as you write.

Best of luck to all you bloggers out there. It's an increasingly crowded field to play in, but these strategies should help to give you an edge over the competition. As always, if you've got additions or disagreements, I'd love to hear them.

this article is taken from click here

Skateboarding trick

An inward heelflip

A skateboarding trick, or simply a trick is a maneuver performed on a skateboard while skateboarding. Learning and perfecting new tricks is the major goal of many skateboarders, for whom most of the time spent skateboarding is spent on tricks.

Types of tricks

Nearly everything one can do on a skateboard outside of normal riding falls in to the following five categories:

Freestyle tricks involve balancing on some other part of the board than all four wheels, such as two wheels or one wheel, the tail of the board, or the edges on either side. Various ways to flip and manipulate the board in and out of these stances were invented in the earliest years of skateboarding and these form the basis of freestyle skateboarding.

Aerials involve floating in the air while using a hand to hold the board on his or her feet or by keeping constant and careful pressure on the board with the feet to keep it from floating away. This class of tricks was first popularized when Tony Alva became famous for his Frontside Airs in empty swimming pools in the late 1970s and has expanded to include the bulk of skateboarding tricks to this day, including the Ollie and all of its variations.

Flip tricks are a subset of aerials which are all based on the Ollie. The first such trick was the Kickflip. You can spin the board around many different axis, and even combine several rotations in to one trick. These tricks are arguably most popular among street skateboarding purists, although skaters with other styles perform them as well.

Slides and Grinds involve getting the board up on some type of edge, rail, or coping and sliding or grinding along the trucks or board. When it is primarily the board which is contacting the edge, it's called a slide; when it's the truck, it is a grind. Grinding and sliding skateboards started with sliding the board on parking blocks and curbs, then extended to using the coping on swimming pools, then stairway handrails, and has now been expanded to include almost every possible type of edge.

Finally, lip tricks are done on the coping of a pool or skateboard ramp. Most grinds can be done on the coping of a ramp or pool as well, but there are some coping tricks which require the momentum and vertical attitude that can only be attained on a transitioned riding surface. These include Inverts and their variations as well as some dedicated air-to-lip combinations.

Many types of tricks can be combined together, and finding new combinations and variations is often stated as the reason that skateboarding keeps its appeal amongst its followers.

Competitive skateboarding is primarily judged on the difficulty and success of such tricks.

Naming conventions

As with all recreational activities, skateboarding has its own vernacular and slang. Most of the names of standard tricks were made up by the person that invented them, and to some extent they reflect what the person was thinking about the trick at the time. The names range from descriptive (kickflip) to silly (Ho-Ho plant) to intentionally provocative (shove-it, sex change). The earliest tricks were often named after the person that invented them (Andrecht after Dave Andrecht; Ollie after Alan "Ollie" Gelfand; Elguerial after Eddie Elguera). The origins of some trick names are obscure, either because the inventor didn't name the trick or intentionally gave it an obtuse meaning based on an inside joke that was never shared. Some tricks have more than one name, likely because several people independently invented the same trick around the same time and gave it different names, or because the original name was lost.

Most newer tricks are invented by combining existing tricks together rather than creating something completely new, and the naming reflects that. For example, when Danny Way became the first to do a Kickflip in to an Indy, he simply called it a Kickflip Indy rather than come up with a completely new name. Most other combinations of tricks follow suit, though occasionally very complicated tricks prove to be too much of a mouthful and are thus given a unique name. For example, Andy MacDonald made up a trick that could be accurately called a Nollie Heelflip Varial Body Varial Slob Air, but he called it a Salad Shooter. The Caballerial, named after Steve Caballero, is a combination of two tricks, the Fakie Ollie and the 360.

Similarly, when a new trick is invented by changing an element of existing trick rather than adding to it, skaters often simply put the names together. For example, Tony Hawk did the first 720 from fakie grabbing Mute, but he didn't bother to use the terms "fakie" or "Mute". He simply called it a 720. However, when he tried something new by grabbing with the other hand, he called it an "Indy 720" because the trick combined the elements of an Indy and a 720 together, changing the original meaning of 720 in the process. This is a source of confusion among skateboarders, as it often becomes difficult to remember which variation of a trick was done first and exactly how it was performed.

Another source of debate is the varying styles of performance of a trick and whether variations of style warrant giving a trick a new name. Skaters can be seen engaging in heated debates on internet forums over what exactly constitutes giving a certain trick a certain name, or whether it should be called something else entirely. Other skaters simply don't care, and ignore such debates.

In any event, skateboarding has a large dictionary of terms, and there is no place to find them all defined accurately. As stated above, the definitions are often subjective. For new skateboarders, the large amount of new words to learn can be daunting, and it can be argued that this is part of a new skateboarder's initiation in to skateboarding's unique culture.

Stances

In modern skateboarding there are two types of stances; one of which is naturally adapted by the skater. These two stances are "Goofy", and "Regular". Goofy refers to standing on the board with the right foot forwards, while Regular refers to standing on the board with the left foot forwards.

These stances have an inverse relationship in the direction of both the flip, and the spin, with which tricks are performed. It is important to note that tricks are named differently depending on the stance of the skater. As mentioned above, an inverse of a trick in "goofy" would be the same as the trick done in the "regular" stance. When a skater skates in the opposite stance to which they are naturally adapted, this is called "switch stance" or more simply "switch". "Fakie" refers to when a skater is moving in the opposite direction, but maintaining their natural stance, and "nollie" refers to when a skater is in their natural stance, but their footing is positioned so that their front kick on the nose of the board, and the back foot is near the back bolts.

The term "Mongo", refers to a stance in which a skater keeps his back foot on the board and pushes with his front foot. It is considered by some to be bad form, but is nevertheless widely practiced.

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brainstorming technique for problem-solving, team-building and creative process

Brainstorming with a group of people is a powerful technique. Brainstorming creates new ideas, solves problems, motivates and develops teams. Brainstorming motivates because it involves members of a team in bigger management issues, and it gets a team working together. However, brainstorming is not simply a random activity. Brainstorming needs to be structured and it follows brainstorming rules. The brainstorming process is described below, for which you will need a flip-chart or alternative. This is crucial as Brainstorming needs to involve the team, which means that everyone must be able to see what's happening. Brainstorming places a significant burden on the facilitator to manage the process, people's involvement and sensitivities, and then to manage the follow up actions. Use Brainstorming well and you will see excellent results in improving the organization, performance, and developing the team.

See also the new advanced 'Kaleidoscope Brainstorming'© technique

N.B. There has been some discussion in recent years - much of it plainly daft - that the term 'brainstorming' might be 'political incorrect' by virtue of possible perceived reference to brain-related health issues. It was suggested by some that the alternative, but less than catchy 'thought-showers' should be used instead, which presumably was not considered to be offensive to raindrops (this is serious…). Happily recent research among relevant groups has dispelled this non-pc notion, and we can continue to use the brainstorming expression without fear of ending up in the law courts…

brainstorming process

1. Define and agree the objective.
2. Brainstorm ideas and suggestions having agreed a time limit.
3. Categorise/condense/combine/refine.
4. Assess/analyse effects or results.
5. Prioritise options/rank list as appropriate.
6. Agree action and timescale.
7. Control and monitor follow-up.

In other words:

plan and agree the brainstorming aim

Ensure everyone participating in the brainstorm session understands and agrees the aim of the session (eg, to formulate a new job description for a customer services clerk; to formulate a series of new promotional activities for the next trading year; to suggest ways of improving cooperation between the sales and service departments; to identify costs saving opportunities that will not reduce performance or morale, etc). Keep the brainstorming objective simple. Allocate a time limit. This will enable you to keep the random brainstorming activity under control and on track.

manage the actual brainstorming activity

Brainstorming enables people to suggest ideas at random. Your job as facilitator is to encourage everyone to participate, to dismiss nothing, and to prevent others from pouring scorn on the wilder suggestions (some of the best ideas are initially the daftest ones - added to which people won't participate if their suggestions are criticised). During the random collection of ideas the facilitator must record every suggestion on the flip-chart. Use Blu-Tack or sticky tape to hang the sheets around the walls. At the end of the time limit or when ideas have been exhausted, use different coloured pens to categorise, group, connect and link the random ideas. Condense and refine the ideas by making new headings or lists. You can diplomatically combine or include the weaker ideas within other themes to avoid dismissing or rejecting contributions (remember brainstorming is about team building and motivation too - you don't want it to have the reverse effect on some people). With the group, assess, evaluate and analyse the effects and validity of the ideas or the list. Develop and prioritise the ideas into a more finished list or set of actions or options.

implement the actions agreed from the brainstorming

Agree what the next actions will be. Agree a timescale, who's responsible. After the session circulate notes, monitor and give feedback. It's crucial to develop a clear and positive outcome, so that people feel their effort and contribution was worthwhile. When people see that their efforts have resulted in action and change, they will be motivated and keen to help again.

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10 Things To Do When You Need New Ideas Fast!

1. Breathe and get into state!
You are a genius. You have a human brain that is more powerful than any known computer. Stand up, walk around and get into the mindset and physiology of someone who is confident, creative, and quick-witted. Notice how a confident person breathes, how they occupy their body and space, how they move with flair. You are a genius, so move, breathe and act like one! It’s easy for someone like you to generate ideas – you are an Ideas Person!

2. Draw a mind-map!
Grab some coloured pens and paper. Draw a circle in the middle and write your challenge inside it. Let your brain start making connections. Draw branches out from the central idea. Using coloured pens note your subsequent thoughts. Use little drawings where you can. This is an idea map you are creating. Let it flow from one thing to the next.

3. Get some ingredients!
To cook a tasty dish, you need to mix different ingredients together. It’s been said that all creativity is the act of putting old things or old ideas together in a new way. For ideas within a specific field, look at the old ideas within that field or related fields. Ask how you can put them together in a different way, a new format or perhaps the opposite way. If you are just looking generally for ideas, then you can reach out and let anything be the thing that starts off your creative idea storming process. Just look to combine the old in new ways…

4. Grab a friend!
When you combine minds, the ‘computing’ power grows exponentially and is more powerful than the sum of its parts. The truth is that you only need 1 brain to get creative – yours! However, it’s a lot more fun when you utilise the spare brainpower of friends and workmates. The extra stimulation of their thoughts and ideas could be just what you need to trigger The Ultimate Idea that changes your life forever…

5. Don’t be yourself!
Take on a role. Do your thinking as James Bond, Napoleon Bonaparte, Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein or Dolly Parton! You are an immensely creative being. By acting as someone else, you free yourself to access other parts of your mind. Try it – if nothing else it’s fun!

6. Close your eyes!
Shutting your eyes immediately transports you into the world of the subconscious – and you can tap into its extraordinary non-stop thinking power. Associate closing your eyes with elevator doors closing – as soon as you close your eyes, you start going down into the depths of your subconscious and unconscious mind. Here you can access million dollar ideas with absolute ease. Allow yourself to relax, make the journey down and think about your challenge at a deep inner level. Return when you are ready, feeling refreshed, renewed and ready to fire up your ideas.

7. A little Divine Inspiration!
Here’s an energy exercise much favoured by the hottest Hollywood stars. Imagine that there is a golden circle of light right in front of you – this is your spotlight – your place to shine! Step inside that circle of light and feel the energy and confidence that it gives you. Ask your Higher Self, God or the Supreme Intelligence of the Universe to fill you with energy, inspiration and ideas. Imagine a little door or vortex opening at the crown of your head – your crown chakra – and then a beam of bright white light shining down from the universe and into the top of your head. This is an incredibly powerful beam of positive energy and information that should rock you to your shoes! Soak in the good feelings of being saturated by this loving positive helpful energy … Close the crown chakra and step out of your golden circle when you are ready and get on with your tasks.

8. Rob a bank!
Grab sackfuls of quality ideas from an ideas bank and run with them! There are various idea banks on the Internet, as well as thousands of blogs, message boards and chatrooms where ideas are mooted. You can also get books full of ideas. Let’s say you are looking for an idea for a new business. You could go to Amazon, order a copy of something like the “Entrepreneur's Ultimate Start-Up Directory: 1,350 Great Business Ideas!” and you could plunder that bank of ideas directly or indirectly by letting it stimulate you or by recombining its ideas into more formats.

9. Milk your brain!
Milk will only flow from a cow when its teats are squeezed under pressure. It’s the same with your brain! To milk your brain for a bucketful of crème-de-la-crème ideas, you have to squeeze your brain and put it under pressure. The way you do that is to create a target, a deadline, a reward and a forfeit. Let’s say you set the target as 10 workable ideas, to be set down within 20 minutes. If you succeed, the reward is you spend $20 on yourself; if you fail, you give the $20 to someone who doesn’t deserve it and that you don’t like. Everybody is different, so set up a rewards and forfeit scheme that motivates you.

10. The Inquisitive Inquisition!
The brain is a stimulus and response bio-machine. The best way to stimulate it is to ask questions. Questions awaken your creative responses. Remember, the meaning of your communication is in the response you get. So, if you are getting lousy answers, you need to ask better questions. Interview and interrogate your brain to get the flow of ideas you want.

Be the master of your mind. Practice the martial art of Cando and you’ll find you can do anything!

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