Archive for February, 2010
February 28th, 2010 by Clifton Hatfield
Links are so important
Why Links Are so important?
Probably the word that associates best with Web is “links”. That is what hypertext is all about – you link to pages you like and get linked by pages that like your blog. Actually, the Web is woven out of interconnected pages and spiders follow the links, when indexing the Web. An example of this is the Google spiders crawling the webpages across the Web. If not many sites or blogs link to you, then it might take ages for search engines to find your blog and even if they find you, it is unlikely that you will have high rankings because the quality and the quantity of links is part of the algorithms of search engines for calculating relevancy and this will effect your blog’s search engine results position SERP.
Inbound and Outbound Links
Put in layman’s terms, there are really two types of links that are important for SEO – inbound and outbound links. Outbound links are links that start from your blog and lead to another one, while inbound links, or backlinks, come from an external site or blog to yours, e.g. if anydomain.com links to mydomain.com, the link from anydomain.com is an inbound link for mydomain.com.
Backlinks are very important because they are supposed to be a measure of the popularity of your blog among the Web audience. It is necessary to say that not all backlinks are equal. There are good and bad backlinks. Good backlinks are from reputable places – preferably from blogs or sites with a similar theme or content. These links do boost search engine ranking. Bad backlinks come from suspicious places – like link farms – and are something to be avoided.
If you are not heavily backlinked, don’t worry – buying links is an established practice and if you are serious about getting to the top, you may need to consider it. But before doing this, you should consider some free alternatives. For instance, some of the good places where you can get quality backlinks are reputable Web directories like Open Directory Project or Yahoo Directory. Continue Reading
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Tags: anchor text, backlinks, hyperlinking, inbound links, internal links, linking, links, outbound links, search engine optimization, search engine results position, seo, serp, web crawlers
Posted in Blogging, Blogging, General, Promote Yourself | No Comments »
February 11th, 2010 by Clifton Hatfield
Ok, I just had my mind blown away. I am reading about quantum mechanics and the observer problem that occurs on the sub atomic scale. And I began to think about the question, “If a tree falls and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” However, because of the observer problem in quantum mechanics we can never be sure that the tree has even fallen. The simple solution is to check that the tree is in fact lying horizontal in a rested prone position. But, now the tree has been observed, which will remove it from waves of possibilities into a state of lying at rest. Therefore, the tree has both not made a sound, and at the same time, made a sound. Assuming, of course, it did actually fall. But again, neither can be measured until someone is there to observe it which will always result in a single conclusion.
If that is still confusing you, think about this. Do you know what state this Note was in before you checked it? No, you don’t. Why? Because you hadn’t observed it yet. What happens to this Note when you leave this page? You don’t know…at least not for sure. Therefore, this Note will be in all of it’s possible states at the same time…that is until you return to the page. It will then collapse to one of its possible states.
Please continue reading… Continue Reading
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Tags: observer, possibilities, quantum mechanics, quantum physics, superposition
Posted in General, Things that interest me, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
February 10th, 2010 by Clifton Hatfield
Things have really changed through the decades of message delivery. From the short stint with the Pony Express in the late 1800s to today’s standards of near instant delivery to anywhere in the world…with an internet connection of course. Yet, another important part of messaging has quickly fallen apart as we become less likely to slow down during our busy schedules. How to write a proper email.
Pony Express circa 1860
How to write a proper email
Real quick, I will go over seven rules of common email etiquette.
- Learn to use the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: properly. If the email is directed for one person, place their email address in the To: field and if you want anyone else who is indirect (FYI-ers), place their email addresses in the Cc: field. Since the Bcc: is unethical, avoid using it.
- Why would you reply to all..all of the time? If you receive an email that was also addressed to several people, do not hit the ‘Reply to All’ button unless the reply contains information necessary for all parties to read. If everyone starts clicking the ‘Reply to All’ button, quickly over a hundred emails will be sent essentially to the wrong people.
- Do not act like the key got stuck. Meaning, if you are typing a message of great importance, you do not need to finish it off with a string of exclamation points. If it is so important, convey it in the message and not the punctuation.
- Drop the pretty. Not only for the reason that fancy fonts and pretty colors can be annoying when reading an email, especially on a professional level, but because not all email clients will display those pretty little additives in the same way as your email client. That, of course, is a recipe for a messy unprofessional disaster. Stick with plain text emails. Continue Reading
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Tags: business etiquette, email, grammar, how to
Posted in Blogging, General, Network Marketing, Promote Yourself, Social Networking | 1 Comment »
February 9th, 2010 by Clifton Hatfield
“I’m sorry. It’s my fault. How do I make it right?” -Randy Pausch
Three simple phrases that can mean the world of a difference if delivered improperly. Push your ego and stubbornness aside and realize your mistake when you make one. Think about it like this. If you never make mistakes, how can you make yourself a better person? You have to admit and realize that you did something wrong, apologize for your mistake, and find out what it is you need to do in order to make it right. Never skip the last step because it is the most important. Without righting your wrong, you are lost in direction and bound to make the same mistake twice.
The former Conde Naste Portfolio says that most of us were taught that offering an apology, when we make a mistake, is good enough. But offering the right apology is not as simple as saying, “I’m sorry” because if not done correctly, the problem will continue to grow and worsen.
Apologizing after a mistake that was made or an argument that has happened, does not show signs of weakness or even guilt. In fact, it’s just the opposite. It will show your peers that you are strong enough to take responsibility for your actions and you are prepared to take the necessary steps to improve the situation. Even if the mistake was not your fault, a sincere apology is a step in the right direction and will say a lot about your character, business and personal. Continue Reading
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Tags: anger, apology, CMU, personal development, randy pausch, the last lecture
Posted in General, Promote Yourself | 2 Comments »
February 4th, 2010 by Clifton Hatfield
I am sick of the F word. It’s everywhere I go. It’s at work, at the grocery, and even in the school yards. The problem is that many people are walking around with good, if not great, ideas in their head but they lack the will to make the ideas happen. “In a battle between two ideas, the best one doesn’t necessarily win. No, the idea that wins is the one with the most fearless heretic behind it.” Seth Godin Why? Fear. That’s why.
The F word and what it’s all about.
Fear is an emotion that is embedded into our nature. We may feel it the most when faced with the potential of change or chance of criticism. That’s why it can be so difficult for you to challenge the status quo because you fear the change. It’s only natural but you can do something about it.
So how do you overcome such a fear? Think your way out of the fear. You will never be able to completely remove the emotion but you can drown it out with the story of success about your innovative idea and how it will impact the industry and influence the market. Continue Reading
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Tags: fear, ideas, seth godin, the f word
Posted in General, Promote Yourself | 3 Comments »
February 3rd, 2010 by Clifton Hatfield
If you pay any attention while interacting on the web or more so if you have dealt with the workings of WordPress, you have probably come across the term ‘slug’. What the heck is a slug? A slow slimy creature that leaves a GUI gooey trail anywhere it goes? No, err not on the web at least.
A slug is a few words that describe a post or a page. Slugs are usually a URL friendly version of the post title, but a slug can be anything you like. Slugs are meant to be used with permalinks as they help describe the content at the URL.
Example post permalink: http://cliftonhatfield.com/blogging-tools/
The slug for that post is “blogging-tools“.
What are slugs good for?! There are at least a couple great reasons to use slugs for your permalinks. Continue Reading
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Tags: blogging, friendly url, permalink, search engine optimization, seo, serp, uri, url, what is a slug, Wordpress News
Posted in Blogging, Blogging, General, Wordpress News | 4 Comments »
February 3rd, 2010 by Clifton Hatfield
"...thus perfection is an illusion."
I am sure you have heard this before or maybe the more common phrase, “There’s no such thing as perfect.” They are perfectly right when saying that.
Let’s imagine we live in a world where perfection is an obtainable goal and can actually be accurately measured. Now picture how incredibly boring everything would be with the large lack of imperfection. That might sound pretty cool at first but what happens after you have reached the peak of perfection? Where else could you go?
I suppose you could become perfect at something else but unless you are perfect at everything, you are still imperfect…thus perfection is an illusion.
Back to reality. Rather than chasing an unobtainable carrot of perfection, decide to set your goals on something just as valuable and completely reachable, excellence. Excellence can be measured by your own standards and reached with your own determination. So with one foot in front of the other, strive for excellence in everything you do and you will become someone of value.
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Tags: be more valueable, excellence, perfection
Posted in General, Promote Yourself | No Comments »
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