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