Mylot-A Place to Share, Learn and Maybe Earn by Risa Attrell

Today I would like to talk about a place called Mylot. Mylot is quite a bit like Yahoo Answers except for a few major differences.

Just as in Yahoo Answers, Mylot is a website where people come and ask questions and anyone can come and answer. (You must register first before you participate.) But that’s about where the similarities begins and ends.

In my personal experience, I find the people an Mylot are much more pleasant than the people on Yahoo Answers. That is not to say that there aren’t many nice people on YA.

But the difference that will stand out in most people’s minds is that Mylot actually pays a little for your participation.

It’s not a lot of money. Expect pennies per post. But if you enjoy participating in discussions, asking and answering questions, then the little bit of money is an added bonus.

Whether the pay even covers the electric bill for keeping the computer on, is something I’m not sure about. Perhaps that depends on how fast you can type, how long your responses are, and how quickly you can find discussions you’d like to respond to.

If you choose to sign up and participate, it would be nice if you would sign up under me :)
http://www.mylot.com/?ref=RisaAttrell

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How to Create Anchor Text in Microsoft Word

Okay guys. Here's a quick tip for today. Are you wondering how to create anchor text, also known as hyperlinks?

Oh, you don't know what hyperlinks/anchor text are?

Well, I'm sure you've noticed that on many websites, some of the words are in blue and when you click on that word, it takes you to another website, or another page. That word is called a hyperlink. (or anchor text)

Now why is this important? It is important because search engines think hyperlinks are very important. The more hyperlinks you have pointing to your website, the better your website ranks in the search engines. Or so I've been led to believe anyway.

But some people don't know how to create them. That was me until recently. I tried doing a search online about how to create hyperlinks. I found complicated instructions that told me to type all kinds of hard to remember stuff, and as much as I tried it didn't work anyway.

Forget all that hard to remember stuff.

Here's a trick incase you didn't know. And I bet I'm not the only one who didn't know. You can create hyperlinks very easily in Microsoft Word. (At least in my version anyway.)Just do as follows.

First save your document.

Then highlight the words or phrase you want to turn blue and become your hyperlink.

On top of your screen you will see an icon that looks like a link in a chain. Click it, and a window will open asking which website you want that word or phrase to link to. Type in the website URL-and dont forget to start with 'http://wwww.'

Now before you click 'okay', wait a few seconds, because it may take a few seconds for the URL you typed in to also appear in a box underneath titled 'path.'

As soon as you see your URL also appear in the 'path' box, click 'okay' and you're done.

The Keyword Myth by Risa Attrell

Dont get me wrong. I'm not saying that keywords and keyword phrases are not important. But if you're counting on ranking high in the search engines just by using keywords and keyword phrases that are popular in your industry, i'm afraid you're in for much disapointment. Sprinkling your website text and your titles with popular keywords is not enough. It may be a good idea, but it's just not enough.

Everybody else in your industry and their brother want to be on the first page with the same keywords! And they are all sprinkling THEIR website with the same keywords. Can you all be on the top page?? Figure it out for yourself.

Think about this concept before you shell out tons of money to some SEO scam-artist. Is someone promising you that for thousands of dollars he/they can get you on the top page for some popular keyword phrase for your industry? How many other people does he make this exact same promise to? Can all those people be on the top page? Or maybe someone can really get you on the top of some keyword phrase. But does that mean that anyone searches with that phrase? Maybe it just isn't a popular phrase.

All this is not to say there aren't any good and honest SEO experts. I'm just saying be careful. Very careful.

If you want to promote your website and your business, you better do someting more than just put in the right keywords and then relaxing. Sorry Charlie, but there are no free rides. You're going to have to do some work, and quite possibly spend some money. (And I don't mean spend money on an SEO vampire)

For starters, put your website URL on all your print publications-flyers brochures etc. Whether 100 people see your URL on your print publication or 10 people see it, it may not be much, but it's at least 10 more people that know about it that didn't know about it before. And maybe if they like your website, they'll tell their friends. Also, make use of social networking sites and social bookmarking sites. Write articles about your industry online and submit them to places like Ezine-post a link to your website on all your articles. This will give you some backlinks, not to mention that anyone that reads your article and likes it may very well click on the link to your website-and hopefuly buy your product. And last but not least, consider investing in adwords.

Oh, and by the way, don't forget to put that popular keyword in your title




This article may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author. If you would like to buy this article for your website, blog or print publication, please email the author at risaattrell@ymail.com

How We Learn to Spell by Risa Attrell

Are you a good speller? Even if you don't think so, chances are that you can spell many many words.

Of course you can spell those common little words like if, and, the, we, me, etc etc. I bet you can spell even bigger common words like rain, house, camera, table, and so forth. Hey, I bet you can even spell many big 'hard' words like 'though', 'through' and even that funny word 'laugh' The list is endless. Did you ever think of all those words that you can spell? Let me ask you- HOW did you learn to spell so many words??

I know! It was Ms Jones your teacher in the 3rd grade, right? She's the one that gave you those lists of spelling words to study. You went home, recited aloud the spelling of those words 500 times, much to the annoyance of the rest of your family who was forced to listen. Then you were given a spelling test the next day, and you did well. And that is how you know how to spell all those words you know. Right?

You know how untrue that is! Nobody learns how to be a good speller from memorizing a list of words for a spelling test. For the most part, we learn to spell in two ways, namely reading, and writing. The more we read, the more we get familiar with how words look. Then if we see a common word misspelled, it looks funny to us. Without having to analyze each letter of the misspelled word, we know right away that the word just looks wrong to us. Take a look at the following sentence:

My frend and I injoy going owt.

How long did it take you to notice which words are spelled wrong? Did you have to look at every letter? Or did some words just jump out at you as not looking right? You know how words are supposed to look because you read. If schools want children to be good spellers, they should forget the word lists, and just encourage the kids to read. Think about this: How long will they remember the spellings of those words on the list? How long did you remember the words Ms Jones gave you in the 3rd grade? (Or whatever your teacher's name was)

The other way children learn to spell is by writing. That is if their teacher insists that they hand in work with proper spelling. This forces the child to ask an adult for help in spelling the words they don't know, or at least to consult with their good ol' spell -check

It is my strong opinion that for the most part spelling as a separate subject is a useless waste of time. That time could be better spent doing more reading and more writing. The only place I see spelling as a separate subject, as having any benefit, is perhaps in teaching our children those spelling rules such as " 'I' before 'E' except after C, except as in 'ay' as in 'neighbor' and 'weigh.'

And now I will put this article through a spell check.

Risa Attrell is the author of a booklet called FUN WAYS TO HELP CHILDREN IMPROVE THEIR READING SKILLS, available at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/33543

This article may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author. If you would like to buy this article for your website, blog or print publication, please email the author at risaattrell@ymail.com

How To Get Followers On Twitter-brief comment for today

Well I suppose many people on Twitter already know this little trick, but for those who don't know it yet-it's incredibly easy to get followers on Twitter. All you have to do is follow others. The more people you follow, the more will follow you.
Well have a nice day everyone! Going back to Twitter to tell everyone to check out this wonderful brief comment for today!

WATER-The Almost Free Cure-All

The following article is for general information purposes only and is not a subsitute for your physicians recommendations

How much money are you spending on vitamins, minerals, natural remedies, and or medications to cure conditions like being overweight, getting leg-cramps and a host of other conditions?

Consider this: Water, yes water, can be an excellent remedy for many different conditions. And while you are drinking water to address whatever your problem is, your body will be getting numerous other benefits as well. Below are just some examples of the benefits of drinking water:

Drinking water helps you lose weight.
It helps prevent leg-cramps. (For leg cramps, eat a banana as well for potassium.)
It helps aid digestion
It is good for your complexion

You should be getting about 64 oz of water every day. That is eight 8oz glasses of water a day.

Many people don’t think about water when something goes wrong. When people are having trouble with leg cramps for example, they’ll go to the store to find some remedy, or take some supplements. There is nothing wrong with supplements, but the first thing people should try is drinking more water. Water is almost free unless you count the water bill.

The same is true of digestive problems, weight problems and skin problems. Before running for the drugs or supplements, try increasing your water intake.



This article may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author. If you would like to buy this article for your website, blog or print publication, please email the author at risaattrell@ymail.com

The One Trick You Must Follow When Writing a Press-Release

If you just wrote a book, or have a new product, chances are that you want to put out a press-release. And chances are the reason you want to put out a press-release is because you want to generate sales for your new book or new product. But if you want people to pay any attention to your press-release, listen up! I have a secret to tell you. There is one trick you must follow if you want your press-release to get any attention.

The trick is, don’t let on in your press-release that you are after sales. Make your press-release sound like all you want to do is report the news about your new book or new product. Or new website, or some award your company just received, or whatever it is.

Why is this important? What’s so terrible if people realize that your press release is trying to drum up business? The answer is, everyone is sick and tired of advertisements! Everyone is sick and tired of hype! We’re all bombarded with it day and night. How do you feel when you see the likes of “New revolutionary product X-will help you lose 20 lbs a week!…”, and “Get our ebook for just 35 dollars and you’ll be on your way to riches…”? Well, all of your potential customers feel the same way. If you want to make your potential customers click X as soon as they take one look at your press-release, all you have to do is make your press-release look like an advertisement. The minute you sound like you’re saying “Buy my book,” you risk the effectiveness of your press-release.

Of course you want to convey in your press-release that your book or your product is good. But you must do that without sounding like a commercial.

How do you let everyone know what a great product you have without sounding like a commercial? Well, number one, avoid adjectives that yell ‘hype.’ Adjectives such as great, fantastic, one of a kind, and so forth. Also, avoid explanation marks or use them very sparingly. Certainly never use more than one exclamation mark at the end of a sentence, like this!!!

Instead, in a matter of fact tone, simply tell what benefits people may get from your product. And don’t make the whole press-release talk about benefits. Talk about other things in your press-release that readers would find interesting.

For example, suppose you wrote a book about how to lose weight in a healthy way. When you write your press-release, don’t say “This is the greatest book on earth-read it and you will lose weight in no time.” Instead, make it interesting by telling people why you wrote the book. Tell them how you were getting disgusted with all the unhealthy diets people are trying. Then go on to describe something about how your book is different. But when you do this, remember never use the word ‘I.’ Always write in the third person.

Let’s say your name is Larry Jones. Your press release might sound something like this:

…, but when Larry became weak and almost fainted after trying one of those fad diets, he got disgusted. He realized people need proper information about health and weight-loss. That’s when he began what became five years of intensive research into diet and exercise, resulting in his new book …

This is how you can keep people interested in your press-release, speak of the benefits, and sound like you’re just telling a story, without sounding like a commercial.


This article may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author. If you would like to buy this article for your website, blog or print publication, please email the author at risaattrell@ymail.com

Fancy Spaghetti and Meatballs

In a previous blog article, titled Cooking Shortcuts, I wrote about how to make cooking easier. But what if you're in the mood to cook something fancy and tasty?

Here is a 'recipe'... well it's not exactly a recipe,since I wont give exact amounts or tell you exactly how long to cook things. But you'll get the basic idea.

In a frying pan, fry some sliced onions. When the onions are brown, add some fresh garlic cut in peices. Garlic burns very quickly in oil, so don't leave the garlic there for too long before you add a good amount of tomatoes cut into medium size pieces. You can use fresh tomatoes, or you can use canned tomatoes. It is good to have the cut tomaotoes prepared in advance, so that you can pour it in soon after adding the garlic. Let the tomatoes simmer for a while, and then pour tomato sauce on top.

Now make some little meatballs and put it in the tomato sauce. Cover and let cook. Not sure how long to cook it for. Use your own judgement.

About 15 or 20 minutes before the meatballs are ready, make spaghetti in a separate pot. Then strain the spaghetti and pour the tomato sauce mixture on the spaghetti. Mix well, serve and enjoy!

This article may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author. If you would like to buy this article for your website, blog or print publication, please email the author at risaattrell@ymail.com

Hey, that's funny. The bottom of my latest blog post says that I posted it at 3:31am. Ha ha! How can I tell everyone that I know anything about helping insomnia if I'm on the computer at 3:31am??
But that wasn't true. It was not 3.31am. It was more like 6am or maybe even 7 or later. Maybe my computer clock is messed up? Well have a nice day everyone. And a good night too :)
(I wonder what time it will say I posted THIS message)

Waking in the Middle of the Night?

Do you suffer from insomnia?

Some who have insomnia can't fall asleep when they go to bed. And some fall asleep easily, but then they wake at some unearthly hour and THEN they can't fall back to sleep. Of course, they suffer with severe tiredness the next day.

I am dealing with this problem and have discovered some helpful ideas.

Avoid Going To The Bathroom

For starters, you might think this is totally crazy, but if you wake up at night,do your best to avoid going to the bathroom. (That is of course unless your doctor has told you otherwise) I used to get up at night and go to the bathroom, until I read an article on the internet (forgot the URL to that article) that the bladder is like a baby. If you keep going to a crying baby every night, the baby will keep waking at night. But if you ignore the baby, he will eventually learn to sleep through the night. The same with the bladder. If you keep answering your bladder's call every night, it will wake you up every night. But if you ignore it, and go back to sleep, it is less likely to wake you up at night.

Don't get too hung up on the baby analogy. It is just an analogy. I'm not recommending that mothers ignore their newborns at night. And I'm not getting involved here in the controversial issue as to whether it's okay or not to let an older baby cry at night. I am only stating that this is a good analogy to waking up at night to go to the bathroom.

You might think it's impossible to fall back to sleep when you have to go to the bathroom so badly. But this article that I read said it's not true that it's impossible. Just don't tell yourself that it's impossible. As I remember it, the article assured that you will not have an accident, but if you're really afraid, get one of those adult diapers, but don't go to the bathroom. Just go back to sleep.

I have tried this, and while I can't honestly say that I've never given in and gone to the bathroom, in general I find this very effective.

Don't Twist and Turn

Along with the above, I find that if I wake at night, I have a much better chance of falling back to sleep if I just lay very still and quiet in a relaxed position. The idea is to avoid twisting and turning, and or rolling over on my back and staring at the ceiling with all kinds of thoughts racing through my head.

Don't Look at the Clock

Another thing I find very helpful: If you wake up at night DON'T look at the clock!! That is the worst thing to do. Here's the scenario:

You wake up at night, and you look at the clock. It says 3:30am. You immediately become very aggravated and think angrily "Not THIS again!! There goes another shot day tomorrow..!!..." and on and on your angry thoughts go. The aggravation alone is enough to keep you from falling back to sleep.

Instead of looking at the clock, if you wake up at night, and you see it's still dark, just relax and ignore it-and ignore your bladder too. Just stay lying in a relaxed position, and calmly tell yourself "Don't worry-yes I see it's dark outside, but who knows? Maybe it's not 3 o'clock in the morning-maybe it's 5:30 or 5:45 and it's not so bad. Let me just think about something relaxing..." Before you know it, you just might fall back to sleep.

And one last thing. Try not to drink too much before going to bed.




This article may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author. If you would like to buy this article for your website, blog or print publication, please email the author at risaattrell@ymail.com

Cooking Shortcuts by Risa Attrell

Below you will find some cooking shortcuts. No, this is not a list of easy recipes. Rather, it is a list of ideas and suggestions that will make whatever you’re cooking for dinner a little easier, and will hopefully inspire you to think of your own ideas.

Forget The Eggs
Eggs have cholesterol and they cost money. People use eggs where they don’t really have to, because they believe it serves as a glue to make things stick. They therefore add eggs to ground beef when making meatballs, or dip the chicken in eggs before breading it, to make the breadcrumbs stick to the chicken. But this is not necessary.

Ground beef has a sticky quality on it’s own. While your meatballs may hold together better if you add eggs, (and flour) if you make your meatballs small, and compress each meatball in your hand into a tight ball before dropping it in boiling water, they should stick together. Furthermore, if you work directly from the package of meat when forming your meatballs, you will save yourself a bowl to wash. If you add eggs and flour to your meat, you will need to use a bowl, and thus will end up with a dirty bowl to wash. You can still spice up the meatballs to give it flavor, and if you pour tomato sauce over the whole spaghetti and meatball dish, it will taste pretty good.

A word of caution though. Don’t try this when making meatloaf. If you try to serve your family meatloaf without eggs and flour, they will think that you just spiced up some ground beef and stuck it in the oven; and they would be right.

You can also make breaded chicken without the eggs. Though this time, you don’t get to save yourself a bowl to wash. True, the breadcrumbs will stick better with the eggs, but if you just rinse each piece of chicken in water and then dip the wet chicken in the breadcrumbs, it will stick. You’ll save your family from the unnecessary cholesterol, and you will save yourself time.

2. Don’t Boil the Lasagna

You might think you need to boil the lasagna noodles before making the lasagna. But actually you can get ‘No Boil Lasagna’ in your supermarket. And here’s a secret: Even if the package isn’t labeled No Boil, you still don’t have to boil it. Instead, create the lasagna as you usually would, but with raw lasagna noodles. The trick is to add a generous amount of sauce between each layer. The lasagna will cook and become soft in the oven if there is enough sauce between the layers. And make sure you add sauce on top as well.

3. Use Frozen Vegetables

I’m all for fresh vegetables. And I love salad! But this is about making dinner preparation easier. We all have times when we are busy, tired, or both, and just not up to spending too much time in the kitchen. Here is where frozen vegetables come in to the picture. Your freezer should be stocked with frozen broccoli, frozen cauliflower, and whatever other vegetable your family enjoys. When you need to make an easy meal, you just take the frozen vegetables out of the freezer, put some in a baking pan, and pop it in the oven shortly before dinner. I have even heard that frozen vegetables have more vitamins than fresh vegetables, because it is frozen fresh with all the vitamins in it, while vegetables left unfrozen lose their vitamins over time. Whether this claim is accurate or not, I’m not sure, but I’m sure frozen vegetables have nutritional value. So use them when you need an easy side dish.

4. Use Canned Soup

I bet you didn’t need me to tell you this one. And it needs no explanation.

5. Use Disposables

Obviously, this one will save you time, not money. If you want to save yourself time from washing dishes, pots and pans, then use disposable everything. Disposable plates forks, spoons and knives. And disposable baking pans. (Sadly we still don’t have disposable pots.) If this is too expensive, at least use disposable baking pans. There is nothing harder and more annoying than having to stand and scrub a baking pan. I won’t comment about the theory that cooking with aluminum increases the risk of Alzheimer’s. I don’t know much about that subject. You can make your own decision about that. I am merely pointing out that baking in a disposable baking pan will save you the time of rubbing and scrubbing a baking pan.

This article may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author. If you would like to buy this article for your website, blog or print publication, please email the author at risaattrell@ymail.com

Making Kitchen Cleaning Easy by Risa Attrell

If there is one thing that we homemakers know it's that the hardest room in the house to keep clean and orderly is the kitchen. That's because the kitchen is where meals are constantly being made, which continuously makes the pots and pans dirty. Likewise it is the place where the family eats and takes snacks, which constantly creates dirty dishes, and crumbs of food. Even when we make the kitchen sparkling clean, it doesn't take long for the work to get undone. What can we do to make this job easier?

Keep It Brainless
You may not believe this, but to a large extent the difficulty in keeping the kitchen clean and orderly is not in the work itself, but in the thinking about it.

"What??" you think. "What is there to think about cleaning the kitchen? It's not rocket science!" Well that's true- it's not rocket science. But I bet you think about it more than you realize. Imagine your kitchen needs cleaning. There are dirty dishes in the sink and on the table, the floor needs sweeping, the counters need clearing and washing. What is the first thing you do when you walk in? Chances are the first thing you do is sigh and think to yourself "Okay, what should I do first? Should I clear the table, or should I wash the dishes?..." And after you do the first task, whatever that is, you look around again and think "Now what should I do next?..."
Does this sound like you? If you don't think so, pay attention next time you clean your kitchen. Pay attention to your thoughts. You may be surprised to discover that you think about it more than you realize. Believe it or not, it is this thinking that makes the job difficult, not the actual cleaning.

Think about it. How hard is it to wash the dishes? You may find the work boring and tedious, but is it really that hard? Well, I guess it is if you left the dirty dishes sitting there for a while without soaking it, which is a dumb thing to do in my opinion. But otherwise washing dishes is not that hard. Neither is clearing a table, or clearing the counter, or any of the other jobs that you do to keep your kitchen looking nice and pleasant. So what's so hard about it? What's hard is that when you start the job, you feel overwhelmed by all the different things you have to do.

The answer to this is to 'Keep It Brainless.' That means you should have an order to which you clean the kitchen, and you stick to that order every day. You can make whatever order works best for you. In a short time you will learn this order by heart and will not need to consult a written list. As soon as you enter the kitchen, instead of thinking about it, you will head straight to job #1. Then when you're finished with that, you will begin job #2, and so forth. No more thinking about it. Your kitchen will be done before you know it. If you keep up with this routine every day, I bet you will find that your kitchen is neater over-all, and that you find it much easier to clean.

So Which Order Is Best?
I'm not sure there's a best order for everyone. You may have to experiment to find what order is best for you. But I can offer a suggestion.

I would recommend that you always put away the groceries first whenever there are groceries to put away.

Then clear the table if it needs to be cleared.

Right after that, wash the dishes. The dishes are very important to put at the top of your list. Sometimes you may be too tired to take care of everything, so at least take care of the groceries and the dishes, so the food doesn't spoil, and you don’t have to start washing the pots just before you make dinner.

Next, sweep the floor, followed by washing the stovetop, and then clear and wash the counters. Lastly is the sink. Then mop if necessary.

That's my suggestion, but you may find that a different order works for you. The important thing is that you get into a routine so that you don't have to think about it.

All this of course doesn't apply to the 'deep cleaning.' Having a routine that you don't have to think about won't make the jobs of scrubbing the oven and the fridge easier. But at least when it comes to overall appearances, working without thinking is the easiest way.




This article may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author. If you would like to buy reprint right to this article, please email risaattrell@ymail.com