You spend most of your day at work. Why not make some friends while you're there?

You won't just have more fun — you'll be happier and work better. Gallup research shows that developing close friendships at work boosts employee satisfaction by almost 50%.

And while we don't always choose our friends with career success in mind (company happy hour, ahem), there are some people in the workplace whose friendship can actually make us perform better on the job.

Whether or not you want to spend time with them after work, it would behoove you to develop at least a pleasant rapport with them.

Here's our top five:

1. The IT Manager
When your computer freezes, your emails disappear, or you can't for the life of you remember your password, there's only one person to turn to: the IT manager.

They may or may not be someone you'd actually hang out with outside of work, but make sure they're your buddy on the job.

Between making sure your computer won’t crash just before a big deadline and having the power to see everything you've ever done on the Internet, this is someone whose good side you definitely want to stay on.

And this means more than just smiling when you ask them for help. Be friendly even when you're not having a Windows crisis! Strike up conversations in the kitchen, find out where they're from, ask them what they're doing over the weekend. Be their friend and when the company orders a new MacBook Pro — and they get to choose who gets it — you'll be at the top of the list.

2. The Veteran
Chances are there's someone at your company who's been there longer than you. She knows the processes inside out. She's connected to all the right people. She was there when the company still offered free snacks, for goodness sake. She's your go-to gal for any question you have that you'd rather not ask your own manager.

But beware — all veterans were not created equal. Some are more willing to help than others, and it'll take some time and research to pinpoint your match. The veteran you want to make friends with is the one who has been most welcoming since you first started, the one who is patient and has always been comfortable answering your questions. Ideally, she's someone whose company you actually kind of enjoy, and who you have other things in common with. You don't want her to feel like your friendship is a one-way street. 3.

3. The Cross-Department Crony
No matter how much you love your job, there are always things you need to vent about. And while it's helpful to talk to others who share your job function — and therefore your specific grievances — sometimes this kind of relationship can be dangerous territory. You might end up feeding off of one another's negativity or reinforcing their biased opinion. And what happens when one of you gets promoted? Talk about awkward!

A safer shoulder to cry on is one that belongs to someone who works in an entirely different department. They may be able to give you a more objective perspective on your situation than someone who’s deep in it with you. They're far enough removed from the situation and most importantly, your own boss. And finally, they may confess to you their frustrations with their own crazy department, which will make you feel better about yours!

4. The Office Manager/Receptionist
She keeps the stock room ... well ... stocked. She plans company outings and makes reservations for your business trips. Above all else, she makes sure the whole organization stays afloat. Don't you want to stay afloat with it? Get your office manager’s good side and, hopefully, she'll look out for you where she can. The secret is most office managers get a little tired of being ignored. Often, people only talk to her when they need something. Be a better friend than that! Go to lunch with her. Make her job easier by cleaning up after yourself. Refill the coffee maker when you've taken the last cup (you know you should be doing this anyway, right?).

Get to know your office manager above and beyond what she can do for you, and who knows where you’ll end up.

5. Your Work Best Friend
Need to someone to cover for you when you have to leave the office a little early? Looking for a colleague to bounce crazy ideas off of? Someone you trust to share gossip with (you just can't hold it in anymore!), your work best friend's got you covered. According to Vital Friends author Tom Rath, people who have a “best friend” at the office are seven times more likely to be engaged in their work.

Your best friend is the person who you are absolutely closest to and, unlike the other friends on this list, you will probably spend a significant amount of time with them after work.

This type of closeness can be great for your productivity, your stress level, and your overall happiness — but it can also be dangerous if you have a falling out. Work hard to nurture this friendship but be prepared for the consequences if for some reason it doesn't work out.

By Tania Khadder for Excelle

Soyannaise is fast becoming the new mayonnaise. Here’s how to make it – and start a business with it.

Soyannaise is a breakthrough in the health-food industry. A soy-based cream, it can be used as a spread, dressing or dip and is very easy t prepare. It can also be a viable business venture because you can supply the product to so many restaurants and stores that need it for their salads and healthy sandwiches. Because these stores are targeting the health-conscious, soyannaise is perfect for them.

Producers that intend to supply restaurants and stores with soyannaise must first contact the store’s purchasing officer or manager, who normally would require samples. One or two bottles for sampling should be presented to them along with some chips, sandwiches, and salads that the target customers could sample the product with.

Aside from being a healthier alternative to mayonnaise and other high-cholesterol dressing, soyannaise is very easy to prepare. All you need to do is mix the following ingredients in a blender.

250 g sterilized tofu

250 ml soy milk

1/8 cup calamansi extract

2 tablespoons minced garlic

2 tablespoons chopped white onions

2 tablespoons honey

All of these ingredients are available from supermarkets and public markets. Blend all of them until the mix becomes smooth and creamy. The longer you blend them, the better. This is because the mixture becomes creamier and thicker and bubbles are prevented from forming.

It is best to use sterilized tofu for soyannise, for it makes the product last for 7 to 10 days when refrigerated. If other types or tofu are used, the product would last only one ot two days when chille. And if you use ordinary tofu, you can’t have the smooth texture typical of mayonnaise, and since the mixture would last only for a day, it must be consumed immediately.

Aside from original garlic flavor, other flavors can also be sued for soyannaise, like pesto or hot-chili soyannaise. (To make pesto soyannaise, cook fresh basil in olive oil and blend it with other ingredients listed above). Try to experiment with other flavors so you can have unique products to offer to stores.

This recipe yields about 500ml of soyannaise for a total cost of only around P120, including your overheads. You can bottle the soyannaise for retail at P150 per 250ml, giving you a 100 percent profit margin. But if you are planning to supply it to stores, it would be better to invest n your own label and packaging.

Also, it’s advisable to have your soyannaise tested and registered with the Bureau of Food and Drugs; later, you can also try getting halal accreditation for it. Making these additional steps and investments is needed if you want to commercialize your product and have a good fighting chance against similar products in the market.

By Mishell M. Malabaguio

MANILA, Philippines – A Filipino has received international recognition for his innovative effort in educating poor children.

Efren Peñaflorida, who started the “Kariton Klassroom” to bring education to poor children, has been named CNN Hero of the Year, the cable news network announced yesterday.

According to the CNN website, Peñaflorida was selected after getting the highest number of online votes, which reached 2.75 million in seven weeks.

The 28-year-old teacher from Cavite City bested nine other contenders from different countries.
Peñaflorida received the award from actress Eva Mendes at the conclusion of “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute” held at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood on Saturday night in the US.

He received $100,000 cash to continue his work with his group, Dynamic Teen Company, according to CNN.

The cash prize is on top of the $25,000 bonus that Peñaflorida received after he was included in the top 10 CNN Heroes.

“Our planet is filled with heroes, young and old, rich and poor, man, woman of different colors, shapes and sizes. We are one great tapestry,” Peñaflorida said in his acceptance speech before an audience of about 3,000.

Peñaflorida urged the crowd to “be the hero to the next one in need.”

He also called on them to “serve well, serve others above yourself and be happy to serve.”

“As I always tell to my co-volunteers... you are the change that you dream as I am the change that I dream and collectively we are the change that this world needs to be,” Peñaflorida said.

As a child, Penaflorida chose education over gang life in Cavite City and vowed to create a way for other children to make the same choice.

Peñaflorida said he was occasionally bullied and beaten by street gangs, which prompted him to decide to come to the aid of street children and rescue them from poverty and neglect through education.

Peñaflorida created a program that brought books to children in slums and on the streets, and the 10,000 members of his Dynamic Teen Company have brought reading, writing and hygiene to 1,500 youngsters.
“My message to children of all races, please, to embrace learning and love it for it will embrace and love you back and enable you to change your world,” Peñaflorida said.

Peñaflorida’s group was first recognized after it won the Bayaning Pilipino award for its heroic work in bringing education to poor children in Cavite.

Since 1997, more than 10,000 volunteers are now helping in educating more than 1,500 kids in depressed areas in Cavite.

The group later launched the “Kariton Klassroom,” an innovative way of bringing the classroom to the children in the depressed areas.

The pushcart classroom is now complete with teaching aids, blackboards and even folding tables and chairs to allow children to sit and read materials provided in a mini-library – a far cry from the humble effort of loading the books and school supplies in large plastic bags.

Peñaflorida now earns a living as a public school teacher in Cavite but still continues his pushcart classrooms on weekends where volunteers have started teaching the street urchins of Manila.

Peñaflorida recalled that he and other volunteers had to endure discrimination and even being branded as “trash collectors” with their pushcarts whenever they carry out their noble mission.

The public, however, took notice of Peñaflorida’s ingenious way of bring education to poor children by nominating him to the CNN’s list of heroes for this year.

Peñaflorida was a member of Club 8586, a youth group in Cavite that financed his elementary and high school education.

When CNN early this year announced its annual search for Heroes, Club 8586 nominated Peñaflorida.
CNN’s Blue Ribbon Panel sifted through 9,000 nominees from over 100 countries, and soon narrowed down its choices to 28. On Oct. 1 (Oct. 2 in Manila), CNN announced its top 10 finalists for its Hero of the Year. Peñaflorida made it.


A brief moment of triumph

Peñaflorida said his inclusion in CNN’s Top 10 “gave Filipinos a breath of fresh air, a brief moment to cheer and celebrate,” since the Philippines was still reeling from the weeklong floods and devastation wrought by storms “Ondoy” and “Pepeng.”

During gala night, the top 10 CNN Heroes, chosen by a blue-ribbon panel from an initial pool of more than 9,000 viewer nominations, were each honored with a documentary tribute and introduced by a celebrity presenter, according to the Web site. Each of the top 10 Heroes received $25,000.

The finalists were selected by a panel that included former US secretary of state Colin Powell, Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Turner. The winner was chosen online by the public, with nearly 3 million votes cast.
The presenters during gala night included Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Neil Patrick Harris, Pierce Brosnan, Dwayne Johnson, Mendes, Randy Jackson, Greg Kinnear, George Lopez and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Grammy Award-winning artist Carrie Underwood, R&B crooner Maxwell and British pop sensation Leona Lewis performed during the gala event.

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper hosted the event that would be shown on Nov. 26, at 9 p.m. EST on CNN.
Before the announcement of winners, Peñaflorida told ABS-CBN that if Filipinos wanted to see change, they should start within themselves.

After receiving the honor, Peñaflorida said more poor and uneducated children will benefit from the award.
He said 90 percent of the cash grant would go to Dynamic Teen Company and the remainder would go to the Church.

“Nothing for me. I was here to represent the poor children (of the Philippines),” Peñaflorida said.
He added the several politicians who have started courting him after making it to the CNN’s top list would not make a difference.

Peñaflorida vowed to continue his work and offer himself as an example of an underprivileged kid who fell victim to violence driven by poverty and yet found a way to lift himself up.

For him, seeing the smiles of the children who rush to meet him when they spot his humble pushcart is enough reward for his efforts.

The Caviteño teacher could be hailed as another icon like boxing legend and seven-world titleholder Manny Pacquiao to many Filipinos.

But for Peñaflorida, as this year’s CNN Hero of the Year, the real heroes are the volunteers of Kariton Klassroom.

“And of course, for the Lord that allowed me to receive this award. He is the reason why I am here,” Peñaflorida said. 

- (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)

Heart disease is a leading men's health threat. take charge of heart health by making healthier lifestyle choices. 

For example:

    *  Don't smoke or use other tobacco products. Avoid exposure to secondhand smoke.

    * Eat a healthy diet rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fiber and fish.

    * Cut back on foods high in saturated fat and sodium.

    * If you have high cholesterol or high blood pressure, follow your doctor's treatment recommendations.

    * Include physical activity in your daily routine.

    * Maintain a healthy weight.

    * If you choose to drink alcohol, do so only in moderation. Too much alcohol can raise blood pressure.

    * If you have diabetes, keep your blood sugar under control.

    * Manage stress.

All dads have their own daily glitches. But with their busy schedule, endless obligations, and multi-tasking duties, these tiny blunders can be absolutely justified. So moms, teens and kids, let’s try to do our part and make dad’s life extra easier with these small efforts that will mean a world of difference to them.

1.    ORGANIZE HIS CLOSET. Spare him the hassle moments of finding that right pair of socks. Arrange his ties, socks, and hankies according to colors and prints.

2.    DADDY TRAY. Don’t blame him for always losing his keys. Keep all his necessities handy by assigning a tray near the door for dad’s daily necessities such as car keys, eyeglasses, pen and charger.

3.    DO THE CAR WASH. Give dad a rest on weekends by doing the car wash yourself or volunteer to drive it to the nearest car wash in your neighborhood.

4.    UPDATE HIS CALENDAR. Help dad keep track of important errands and occasions by keeping notes of important dates such as license renewal, doctor’s appointment, cable shows, events, birthdays and even warranty expiration dates for his gadgets.

5.    STUFF HIS CAR. Stack his car with useful necessities such as umbrella, road maps, flashlights, plastic bags, jumper cables, multi-bit screwdriver, blanket, first aid kit, towel, duct tape, rag, etc. All these may come handy in sudden emergencies.

6.    DIGITIZE HIS MUSIC COLLECTION. The tech age is coming full-swing but some dads will never find it easy to let go of his cd collection. In your spare time, rip his cds one by one and save it in his mp3 player, iPod or hard drive. He will highly appreciate this especially with his old-time favorites and rare to find cds.

7.    DAD-FRIENDLY KITCHEN. Some dads will always have a hard time finding their way around the kitchen. So make sure all his needs in the kitchen are all stacked and organized at least in one exact space or portion. Allot a corner in the kitchen or the fridge for his coffee mugs, vitamins, power drinks and food supplements.

8.     DAD’S READ. Buying his reading materials regularly can be a tiring chore for dad. Make it more efficient for him by applying and availing a daily and monthly subscription of his favorite newspaper and magazines.

9.    SITE UPDATES. Update dad with new internet sites, blogs and other online discoveries that you know will highly interest him and even be useful for his daily errands. Just email him the links and everything will be a click away from his computer.

10.   SEND HIM A SALE BUZZ. Dad’s rarely keep radar on sales and promos so they always end up buying some stuff with the most unbelievable and unreasonable prices. So the next time you shop or spot an ongoing sale of a car store, men’s clothes and other men stores, give dad a buzz so he can visit the store in his own spare time.

Back in 1999, Robert G. Hagstrom wrote a book about the legendary investor Warren Buffett, entitled "The Warren Buffett Portfolio". What's so great about the book, and what makes it different from the countless other books and articles written about the "Oracle of Omaha" is that it offers the reader valuable insight into how Buffett actually thinks about investments. In other words, the book delves into the psychological mindset that has made Buffett so fabulously wealthy. (For more on Warren Buffett and his current holdings, check out Coattail Investor.)

Although investors could benefit from reading the entire book, we've selected a bite-sized sampling of the tips and suggestions regarding the investor mindset and ways that an investor can improve their stock selection that will help you get inside Buffett's head.

1. Think of Stocks as a Business
Many investors think of stocks and the stock market in general as nothing more than little pieces of paper being traded back and forth among investors, which might help prevent investors from becoming too emotional over a given position but it doesn't necessarily allow them to make the best possible investment decisions.

That's why Buffett has stated he believes stockholders should think of themselves as "part owners" of the business in which they are investing. By thinking that way, both Hagstrom and Buffett argue that investors will tend to avoid making off-the-cuff investment decisions, and become more focused on the longer term. Furthermore, longer-term "owners" also tend to analyze situations in greater detail and then put a great eal of thought into buy and sell decisions. Hagstrom says this increased thought and analysis tends to lead to improved investment returns.

2. Increase the Size of Your Investment


While it rarely - if ever - makes sense for investors to "put all of their eggs in one basket," putting all your eggs in too many baskets may not be a good thing either. Buffett contends that over-diversification can hamper returns as much as a lack of diversification. That's why he doesn't invest in mutual funds. It's also why he prefers to make significant investments in just a handful of companies.

Buffett is a firm believer that an investor must first do his or her homework before investing in any security. But after that due diligence process is completed, an investor should feel comfortable enough to dedicate a sizable portion of assets to that stock. They should also feel comfortable in winnowing down their overall investment portfolio to a handful of good companies with excellent growth prospects.

Buffett's stance on taking time to properly allocate your funds is furthered with his comment that it's not just about the best company, but how you feel about the company. If the best business you own presents the least financial risk and has the most favorable long-term prospects, why would you put money into your 20th favorite business rather than add money to the top choices?

3. Reduce Portfolio Turnover
Rapidly trading in and out of stocks can potentially make an individual a lot of money, but according to Buffett this trader is actually hampering his or her investment returns. That's because portfolio turnover increases the amount of taxes that must be paid on capital gains and boosts the total amount of commission dollars that must be paid in a given year.

The "Oracle" contends that what makes sense in business also makes sense in stocks: An investor should ordinarily hold a small piece of an outstanding business with the same tenacity that an owner would exhibit if he owned all of that business.

Investors must think long term. By having that mindset, they can avoid paying huge commission fees and lofty short-term capital gains taxes. They'll also be more apt to ride out any short-term fluctuations in the business, and to ultimately reap the rewards of increased earnings and/or dividends over time.

4. Develop Alternative Benchmarks
While stock prices may be the ultimate barometer of the success or failure of a given investment choice, Buffett does not focus on this metric. Instead, he analyzes and pores over the underlying economics of a given business or group of businesses. If a company is doing what it takes to grow itself on a profitable basis, then the share price will ultimately take care of itself.

Successful investors must look at the companies they own and study their true earnings potential. If the fundamentals are solid and the company is enhancing shareholder value by generating consistent bottom-line growth, the share price, in the long term, should reflect that.

5. Learn to Think in Probabilities
Bridge is a card game in which the most successful players are able to judge mathematical probabilities to beat their opponents. Perhaps not surprisingly, Buffett loves and actively plays the game, and he takes the strategies beyond the game into the investing world.

Buffett suggests that investors focus on the economics of the companies they own (in other words the underlying businesses), and then try to weigh the probability that certain events will or will not transpire, much like a Bridge player checking the probabilities of his opponents' hands. He adds that by focusing on the economic aspect of the equation and not the stock price, an investor will be more accurate in his or her ability to judge probability.

Thinking in probabilities has its advantages. For example, an investor that ponders the probability that a company will report a certain rate of earnings growth over a period of five or 10 years is much more apt to ride out short-term fluctuations in the share price. By extension, this means that his investment returns are likely to be superior and that he will also realize fewer transaction and/or capital gains costs.

6. Recognize the Psychological Aspects of Investing
Very simply, this means that individuals must understand that there is a psychological mindset that the successful investor tends to have. More specifically, the successful investor will focus on probabilities and economic issues and let decisions be ruled by rational, as opposed to emotional, thinking.

More than anything, investors' own emotions can be their worst enemy. Buffett contends that the key to overcoming emotions is being able to "retain your belief in the real fundamentals of the business and to not get too concerned about the stock market."

Investors should realize that there is a certain psychological mindset that they should have if they want to be successful and try to implement that mindset.

7. Ignore Market Forecasts
There is an old saying that the Dow "climbs a wall of worry". In other words, in spite of the negativity in the marketplace, and those who perpetually contend that a recession is "just around the corner", the markets have fared quite well over time. Therefore, doomsayers should be ignored.

On the other side of the coin, there are just as many eternal optimists who argue that the stock market is headed perpetually higher. These should be ignored as well.

In all this confusion, Buffett suggests that investors should focus their efforts of isolating and investing in shares that are not currently being accurately valued by the market. The logic here is that as the stock market begins to realize the company's intrinsic value(through higher prices and greater demand), the investor will stand to make a lot of money.

8. Wait for the Fat Pitch
Hagstrom's book uses the model of legendary baseball player Ted Williams as an example of a wise investor. Williams would wait for a specific pitch (in an area of the plate where he knew he had a high probability of making contact with the ball) before swinging. It is said that this discipline enabled Williams to have a higher lifetime batting average than the average player.

Buffett, in the same way, suggests that all investors act as if they owned a lifetime decision card with only 20 investment choice punches in it. The logic is that this should prevent them from making mediocre investment choices and hopefully, by extension, enhance the overall returns of their respective portfolios.

Bottom Line
"The Warren Buffett Portfolio" is a timeless book that offers valuable insight into the psychological mindset of the legendary investor Warren Buffett. Of course, if learning how to invest like Warren Buffett were as easy as reading a book, everyone would be rich! But if you take that time and effort to implement some of Buffett's proven strategies, you could be on your way to better stock selection and greater returns.
by Glenn Curtis

     As you have hopefully discovered from this course, search engines pay attention to numerous factors before giving it a high ranking and generating significant traffic.

     When trying to reach top search engine positions it’s a must to take care of the off-page data the spiders are able to collect about your pages. Generally, page presence in directories, link popularity and keyword theme affects position more than all the on-page factors put together. Building good link popularity for your Web pages is a technique that is sure to win.

     Nowadays, good link popularity is the core element of the "off-page" factors. Your work with links MUST constitute a key part of your Search Marketing strategy. We recommend that you spend 50% of your time working on website optimization efforts towards building high quality link popularity.

     Remember that the greater the number of links from other sites pointing to a website, the more popular the website and therefore the higher quality resource for search engines. Our next lessons clearly explain everything about links and their quality. Link building strategies and techniques are also profoundly depicted herein to help you raise Web page link popularity.

     Please note that quality of the websites linking to you overrides the quantity. Thus it is better to have a few quality sites linking to your site unlike a few hundreds of spammy sites or link farms. The use of link farms (Web sites set up with the sole purpose of increasing the link popularity of other sites by increasing the number of incomming links to those sites. They are typically made up of long lists of unrelated links. Some link farms are created as networks of sites that contain numerous links to one another) is frowned upon by search engines and will only succeed in getting your site banned or penalized. The best quality links come from high ranking pages and those that have some relation to your own site.

     Building links can be time consuming, frustrating and sometimes ending up with little or no results. But this is unavoidable if we wish to establish PageRanks; we must build links. There are additional link sources and content distribution techniques to get links. In later lessons we tell you how to do this with the help of article/press release marketing.

     When properly applied blogs, forums and RSS feeds can also raise the amount of traffic to your website and assist in acquiring inbound links.

Read more »

Keyword marketing

Choosing relevant and effective keywords for your website and each Web page is a fundamental step of the whole search engine marketing strategy. Here it is very important to perform advanced keyword analysis and focus on terms with a high number of daily searches and low competition. There are special indexes which can help determine the best keywords for your business and website.

Tuning the pages

This starts with populating the contents of the website with your best keyword and going through HTML elements, optimizing navigation and menus. This topic will provide an overview of all the necessary tasks to implement on your website in order to obtain high search engine rankings.

Optimizing site structure

This area covers topics such as optimization of site architecture, choosing a proper domain and file names and creating a search engine friendly site map. A site map is a very valuable and effective means of guiding both spiders and visitors to your relevant content.

Website submission

The next step explains how to effectively submit your site to search engines, directories as well as the vital principles of a pay-for-performance strategy. The final step here is verifying the success of submission.

Auditing and improving the website

It's a common situation to improve Web pages content and navigation for optimization purposes but forget about the visibility and usability problems these changes may cause. Auditing the website will help to identify these problems, clean up the mess and eliminate any weak points.

Working around specific optimization issues

This part of the course is devoted to optimization advice about Flash sites, graphic-heavy sites, JavaScript and other problem technologies for search engine spiders. Here you'll get a proper picture of search engine demands in order to make specific Web pages search engine compatible.

Picking out Keywords

When someone uses a search engine, they type words into the search box to find what they are looking for. These words are referred to as keywords or key phrases. 

Keyword selection is what any optimization mission starts with. The rule of thumb is to start off with keyword research even before you start compiling the content for your pages. However, it is not always possible, and the most common situation is when you've got a website needing optimization and the content is already in place. 

As we cannot make a site appear on top when people search for any word (and it isn't worth trying to), we want our site to appear among the first search results for the terms most relevantly reflecting our business

In this Step, you will learn: 

1. Basic guidelines for keyword selection 
2.The many ways to obtain keyword suggestions 
3. Parameters and ways to estimate the potential of every keyword / key phrase.

The algorithm to perform a keyword job is as follows:

1. Figure out the strategic keywords you want to start off with.
2. Conduct preliminary keyword research. Get a list of keyword suggestions for each page.
3. If necessary, select or change the domain name and the names of the pages of your site according to the obtained results.
4. With the data obtained at step 2, perform your advanced keyword research and complete the list of keywords you will use for optimization on each of your pages.

As a result, every page of your site must have 1-3 exact keywords / key phrases associated with it. You may want to print out this scheme and make it your checklist while working with keywords.

Defining your Niche and Audience

To start with our keyword research, we will first figure out which segment of Web surfers we want to find our site, and subsequently, which terms will most likely bring these visitors to us. 

Unfortunately, today it's not enough to figure out the keywords that make up the essence of your business. If the industry is competitive (such as, for instance, Web hosting and Web design), there are lots of sites competing to be on the top for these terms. Luckily, Web surfers have become more and more conscious of the need to make their search specific – people who are serious about their search look for "Los-Angeles Web hosting" or "Linux Web hosting" instead of just "Web hosting". Therefore, it gives a bit more variety to optimizers. 

Therefore, generic keywords are usually not the best approach. As a rule, it's better to focus on niche keywords related to your product or service. 


There are highly specific keywords that people don't search for often but when they do, getting that traffic is very important since these visitors are targeted and will most probably convert into customers. On a regular basis, these are things like actual product names (e.g. Samsung SyncMaster 757 monitor). If someone searches for the specific name of a product, there is a high possibility they are looking to make a purchase. So, those keywords can bring serious profit. If you are running an affiliate site or an online store then this can be very important. For instance, your site deals with selling office and computer desks. You want it to be on the top when people enter into search boxes "office desks" and "computer desks". These are your strategic keywords for the whole site. Each page of your site can have (and should have) its own strategic keywords, depending on the content. 

For instance, one page deals with "high-end office desks", the second one with "glass computer desks", etc. It makes a lot of sense to optimize each page separately for different strategic terms. This means targeting each page to a specific search term that relates to the overall theme of your site. In our example of computer desks, we'll target each page to a suitable market that is looking for a certain kind of computer desk. Thus, we'll be competing with fewer websites on the same keywords, and our pages will be optimized for terms people actually use when searching. This will also bring much better results than optimizing your whole site for "computer desks". 

The next thing to point out is local targeting. For example, if you're optimizing a Web development site whose owner is located in Sydney, Australia, using keywords such as "Web development Sydney" or "Web development services Australia" will make search engines refer most people from this location to your site because lots of people tend to search services or products locally.

So here are main points you should remember from this lesson:

1. Strategic key phrases should always consist of at least two words (but it's even better to have 3-5 words, as that's the average length of a search phrase).
2. Start with finding the most general terms characterizing your business, then break into more specific ones and optimize each page for the most specific term characterizing this page.
3. Where possible, make your decision in favor of a product name.
4. If possible/applicable, optimize one or several pages for localized terms.

At this step, you can step away from this course for a moment and try to figure out one strategic keyword or key phrase for your own home page and several other pages of your site.

Preparing to Research Keywords and Getting Suggestions

After defining your strategic keywords and key phrases, it's time to start your preliminary keyword research. Ideally, this step should forestall domain name selection, copywriting and content compilation, so that you can create content with the exact keywords for each page already in mind, and then form your domain name and file names based on this initial keyword research. The aim of the preliminary research is to assemble a core base of keywords with the highest potential, so you can use this material when selecting the domain name and creating the file structure for your website. More importantly, this research creates a basket of keywords which form the basis for a latter stage of advanced investigation where you will need to pick out the keywords to actually use in optimization. 

As a result of this step, a list of keywords is expected which contain from 5 to 20 keyword suggestions for EACH of your Web pages. 

The preliminary research consists of getting keyword suggestions and evaluating each keyword against two basic parameters, Competition and Daily World Searches, thus allowing selection of optimal keywords. 

Keyword suggestions can be obtained by using one of the many free and paid tools and web-based services, as well as by extracting them manually from the top-ranked pages. In whichever case, you start with one strategic keyword or key phrase and then get many.
 

For free tools/services, you can check out www.goodkeywords.com or the Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture)keyword suggestion tool (http://sem.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/searchenginemarketing/). Among the most popular paid tools we could mention is WordTracker (www.wordtracker.com).
 

It's also a good idea to see how and on which keywords your competitors position themselves. Go to a search engine, like Google, and type your starting strategic keyword in the search box. It will show up with a list of results. Open the first ten results in your browser, right-click somewhere on the page and select "View HTML (page) source" (this menu item may slightly vary depending on the browser you use) 

Now look for the keyword Meta tag (this where you will see every search term they are targeting): 



This should be in the first few lines of the page source. If you don't see it then ignore this page, go back to the search results and pull up the source of the second page in the list.
 

In the Content section of this tag are all the search terms and keywords that this page is targeting. Actually, this may make a good addition to your own list of keyword suggestions.
 

Daily World Searches. It is virtually impossible to count how many times people search the Web daily for "ice cream" or "stock quotes". Most search engines keep this information secret for commercial reasons. However, some search machines, especially Meta-search engines, offer you the so-called "live searches" statistics, i.e. they tell you how often a word has been searched on the engine during a specific period of time. The most trustworthy suppliers of the "live searches" data are MetaCrawler-MetaSpy (www.metacrawler.com), Lycos (www.lycos.com), and Entireweb (www.entireweb.com). Additionally, Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) (http://sem.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/searchenginemarketing/), one of the most popular and powerful commercialized search engines, has its own keyword suggestion tool with monthly searches information.
 

The Keyword Suggestion Tool of Web CEO that we will use processes the information obtained from a total of 37 sources. It then approximates the total number of world searches for the given search phrase made on all search engines of the planet, including Google (although the source data is not obtained from Google directly, of course).


Daily World Searches is a very useful piece of information: the higher this index, the more visitors this keyword will refer to us if we optimize for it. Remember this factor as most important for the keyword research operations.


Competition. Most SEO tutorials will tell you that "Competition", or "Supply", refers to how many sites are given out by the search engine for a certain search term. For instance, if you open Google, type "digital camera", and it finds 129,000,000 results. 129,000,000 will be your "competition" the theory goes, because your site must outplay them all to appear in the first 10 results.


Sean Burns, the author of "Rankings Revealed" (www.webmastersreference.com) has an interesting point of view. He claims you actually have to outperform only 10 sites (the current top-ranked ones) to achieve the desired result. Here are his words: 

"Basically, the number of competing pages is something that you should try to ignore. I can tell you how many competing pages there are for any keyword without even doing a search - 10. Your goal is to get in the top 10 for each and every keyword you target so that is the only "supply" figure that you need to focus on." 

Nevertheless, Mr. Burns further agrees (along with many) on the point that your actual competition is generally made by all sites which are optimized (intentionally or not) for your strategic key phrase.
 

Although the numerous sites that appear to be your competition are not necessarily optimized for your keyword, they WILL stand in your way because they are full of relevant content and the search engine considers them important, therefore they've got high rankings. That's why terms with low competition are advised as more preferable. 

For the moment, we will consider the "supply" our raw Competition figure, as it will do for our preliminary research. Later, in the course of the advanced investigation, we will refer to many other parameters.


Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI). Actually, this isn't as monstrous as it sounds. Developed by SEO expert Sumantra Roy (the author of LinkExplore software, www.linkexplore.com), it crowns the preliminary research by combining the data about Competition and Daily World Searches. 

The formula for KEI is KEI = (DS^2/C) = (DS/C * DS), where DS is the number of daily world searches and C is the competition. The KEI ranges from 0 to over 400. 

•  < 0.001 = Poor keyword 

• 0.001-0.010 = Good Keyword 

• 0.010-0.100+ = Excellent Keyword

So, the actual aim of our preliminary research is to obtain a list of keyword suggestions based on our initial strategic keywords and then determine the ?KEI? for each of them. The higher the KEI, the more traffic this keyword will theoretically have, since the competition is low and the daily searches number is high. With the KEI, we will select from the best five to twenty suggestions for each of our pages.

So here are main points you should remember from this lesson:

1. The aim of preliminary keyword research is to compile a list of keyword suggestions for every page of your site, based on the one strategic keyword you had in the beginning.
2. Focus on terms with a high number of daily searches and preferably low competition, without damaging the relevance.
3. KEI - Keyword Effectiveness Index - will help you determine the best suggestions possible with the help of a keyword suggestion tool.

Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, never before seen outside of Israel, have been touring different museums in the United States, such as in the Natural History Museum in San Diego, California, and the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington. They provide a glimpse of the amazing accuracy of the transmission of the text of the Old Testament through the millennia.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are collectively composed of some 900 documents that contain, besides other religious literature, sections of the entire Hebrew Bible except for the book of Esther. The scrolls range in date from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D.

When these manuscripts were discovered in various caves of the northwestern region of the Dead Sea close to Qumran, a site most archaeologists believe was a community of Essene Jews, scholars wondered how many discrepancies would be found between them and the Old Testament text used for the translation of our modern Bibles, a text whose oldest copies date to the 10th century A.D. More than 1,000 years elapsed between the two versions. How well would they conform?

Incredibly, when the versions were compared, researchers found that they uncannily matched - virtually word for word. For example, the Dead Sea Scrolls containing the entire book of Isaiah, some 26 feet long, was compared to the 10th-century version of the Masoretic Text, which is the basis for our modern Old Testament. The researchers found it to match in virtually every instance.

Notes Bible scholar Gleason Archer:" Even though the two copies of Isaiah discovered in Qumran Cave 1 near the Dead Sea in 1947 were a thousands years earlier than the oldest dated manuscript previously known (A.D 980), they proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95 percent of the text. the 5 percent of variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips on the pen and variations in spelling... They do not affect the message of revelation in the slightest" (A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, 1947, p.25).

This is the greatest contribution the Dead Sea Scrolls have made t biblical scholarship. They have confirmed the reliability of the Old Testament text we now possess in our Bibles. " Critical scholars," states Garry Brantley, " questioned the accuracy of the MT [Masoretic Text], which formed the basis of our English versions of the Old Testament, since there was such a large chronological gap between it and the autographs [original documents]. Because of this uncertainty, scholars often 'corrected' the text with considerable freedom.

"Qumrun, however, has provided remains of and early Masoretic edition predatin the Christian era on which the traditional MT [Masoretic Text] is based. A comparison of the MT [Masoretic Text] to this earlier text revealed the remarkable accuracy with which scribes copied the sacred texts. Accordingly, the integrity of the Hebrew Bible was confirmed, whisch generally has heightened its respect among scholars and drastically reduced textual alteration" ("The Dead Sea Scrolls and Biblical Integrity," Reason & Revelation online journal, April 1995, ApologeticsPress.org).

In fact, the Masoretic Text we possess today has been found to be more carefully transmitted than the Dead Sea Scrolls version! When compared, the largest Isaiah Dead Sea Scroll was found to have more spelling errors- and this generally the case when comparing the Masoretic Text and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

What about the New Testament text? How accurate is it? From the thousands of ancient copies or portions of copies known, 98 percent of the New Testament texts agree. The variations that do exist are mostly spelling errors or scribal additions that are easily discarded.

As the great text scholar Sir Frederic Kenyon noted after examining both the Old and New Testament texts (and it holds true even more so today), " The Christian can take the whole Bible in his hand and say without fear or hesitation that he holds in it the true word of God, handed down without essential loss from generation to generation throughout the centuries" (Our Bible and Ancient Manuscripts, 1939, p.23).

In 1964, Israeli archaelogist Nahman Avigad purchased a seal engraved in ancient Hebrew script with letters YZBL - the name Jezebel. Professor Avigad, along with other, thought it might be the official seal of the Queen Jezebel of the Bible, but since the location and date of the item's discovery were unknown, there was no way to link it to the infamous queen.

However, a recent investigation by Old Testament scholar Marjo Lorpel of Utrecht University in the Netherlands indicates that the seal, housed for years in the Israel Museum, likely did belong to the murderous monarch.

The seal's large size indicates that its owner was quite important, as does the fact that ir was carved from opal, a semiprecious stone. " It's twice as big as normal seals and also the iconography is very nicely engraved," she explained.

Further, " the lotus [located below the Horus falcon] was a symbol of gender definition and refers to a female owner [while] the winged sun disk was a well-known symbol of royalty in and outside Israel."

Other icons on the seal, such as the Horus falcon and twin cobras, symbols probably adopted from Egypt, also reinforce the object's connection t a monarch, Dr. Korpel observed.

By process of elimination, she concluded that the biblical queen was the only plausible owner. Her complete analysis was published in a volume of the scholarly Journal for Semitics.

The biblical books of 1 and 2 Kings portray Jezebel as an influential ruler who manipulated her husband the 9th-century-B.C. Israelite King Ahab, using deceit and murder to accomplish her goals. The daughter of a Phoenician ruler, she married Ahab as part of a political alliance and determined to convert both him and the kingdom of Israel to the worship of the deities of her former country.

After slaughtering true prophets of God, she also attempted to kill Elijah. In accordance with Elijah's prophecy, she met a violent end and her corpse was devoured by dogs.

After learning of Dr. Korpel's research and conclusions, Hebrew University professor Hagai Misgav said he believed that the Israel Museum and Israel Antiquities Authority possess many more artifacts that may carry unnoticed historical clues. "not all the artifacts have been thoroughly examined," he noted. " There are many discoveries waiting to be made."

by: mario seiglie, tom robinson, scott ashley

Yes, Windows 7 didn't even hit the market until Thursday. But that hasn't stopped a fog of myths from enveloping the newest version of the much loved--and much hated--PC operating system from Microsoft.

[Slide Show: The Best of What's New in Windows 7.]

The software giant hoped that wide exposure to Windows 7 would help smooth its entry. Microsoft let millions of consumers and professionals download test versions of the operating system. And by a wide margin, testers have found the new system to be the best yet from Microsoft. Version 7 is leaner, more useful, and prettier than past editions--a worthy effort to update the Windows world.
Still, the fictions are legion. Much of it is innocent confusion that accompanies any major software release. Some of it arises from Microsoft apologists trying to bury the botched release of Windows Vista, sniping Apple fans who want the Mac to continue gaining market share, or diehard techies who revere free Linux software.

[Why some analysts argue that Linux is better than Windows or the Mac.]

With so much misinformation swirling, we've sorted through seven points that are confusing consumers:

1. It's only a minor update to Vista. Overstated, but there is some truth. With Win7, Microsoft had the luxury of going back to basics. Vista was a massive effort to update the core of Windows. The edition following Vista didn't have to be as ambitious. Programmers could focus on the edges of Vista, reducing its hardware-hog tendencies and annoying security nags. But Microsoft went further, adding consumer-friendly functions to paint Windows 7 as an upgrade. HomeGroups greatly simplify home networking, libraries organize jumbled collections of files, and multifinger power makes touch screens more powerful. Aero Peek allows users to roll over 10 or 20 open windows in a flash, proving that Apple isn't the only company that can make computing easier and more fun.

[Even the name suggests that Windows 7 is a return to basics.]

2. Vista users need to upgrade. The Vista launch was painful. The system nagged consumers with unnecessary security concerns, didn't support enough of the hardware that plugs into PCs, and was too bloated to run decently on some hardware advertised as "Vista ready." But most Vista users are past those problems. If they have a system that's working well, Windows 7 offers nothing that's compelling enough to make the switch. Upgrading an operating system costs users in dollars, time, and frustration. Vista is a good operating system--one that's secure and stable. Windows 7 offers nifty new features and runs more quickly. Gamers and power users would appreciate the bump in speed. But most users wouldn't notice a big difference as they surf the Web, write E-mail, and maybe edit a photo or two.

[Microsoft hopefully learned its lessons in the dismal mistakes of Vista's launch.]

3. Windows XP is still better. WinXP ran faster than Vista on many, if not all, computers. It also was more compatible with existing equipment, particularly scanners, printers, and other peripherals. But Microsoft spent years working to make Vista's core more stable and secure, and the company succeeded. Buggy software that runs on a Vista PC is much less likely to cause problems with the rest of the system, resulting in many fewer "Blue Screens of Death." Windows 7 has all those benefits of Vista while also running as fast as, if not faster than, Windows XP. Another consideration is that some companies that make PC hardware and software have already stopped making versions for XP. That trend will accelerate if Win7 proves to be the hit that is promises to be.

4. Windows XP users can't upgrade. It's true that Microsoft has not made it easy to move from WinXP to Win7. If installed over Vista, Win7 will transfer software, settings, and data. Not so with Windows XP. All is not lost, however. XP users can find third-party software that eases the transition. "PCMover Upgrade Assistant" ($30) from LapLink preserves most software, settings, and data when users upgrade their XP machine to Win7, what's called an "in-place upgrade." No need to copy files to an external drive or to reinstall programs. There can be hiccups. Installed programs might need to be reactivated with a call to the manufacturer. But it's relatively painless. And WinXP users qualify for the upgrade prices that Microsoft offers for Win7, rather than having to buy a "full" version.

5. It's too expensive. The price of Windows 7 may seem unreasonable, considering it is a derivative of Vista and Microsoft is charging nearly as much for Win7 as it does for Vista. The Home Premium version, which is what most consumers will want, costs $119 for upgrading to Win7, versus $129 for Vista. The discount seems particularly thin when viewing Win7 as a fix to Vista's problems. But happy Vista users don't have much reason to upgrade (see No. 2). For Windows XP users, the upgrade cost is fair. Plus, for homes with multiple PCs, which seem to be a majority these days, Microsoft is offering a Family Pack that will upgrade three PCs for $150. That's a good deal for homes that can use it.

6. The initial release will be a mess. It's always safer to wait for new software to get tested in the market, and for Microsoft to release the inevitable fixes. But the pedigree of Windows 7 suggests that the problems will be fewer this time. Many bugs and hardware issues were worked out with Vista. For example, Microsoft worked to make sure that hardware drivers for Vista will also work for Win7. Problems will undoubtedly crop up, but they're unlikely to affect the core of the operating system, which also remains largely true to the battle-tested Vista. Win7 at the start seems to be one of the least risky system upgrades to make.

7. Mac users should abandon Apple. The Mac is still the standard for a computer that "just works." Apple has more control over the end product because it also assembles and sells the hardware. The Mac system is also more secure, if for no other reason than that a smaller market share makes a smaller target for criminals. Windows has to run on any batch of hardware that a maker or user throws together. That's one reason Windows requires more tinkering. But Windows also comes from a culture that is more influenced by techies who like tinkering and think everyone else does. Macs cost more. But they also benefit from the aura of success that surrounds the iPhone and iPod. Windows 7 may cut into the momentum behind the Mac, but it alone is unlikely to reverse Apple's gains.

A DIFFERENT VERSION..... HAVE A LAUGH!!!!!

TO ALL FOLKS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1950's, 60' s,  70's  and early 80's !!

First, some of us   s urvived being born to mothers who did not have an OB-Gyne and drank San Miguel Beer while they carried us.

While pregnant, they took cold or cough medicine,  a te Linunod, balikutsa, bukhayo  and didn't worry about diabetes.




 

Then after all that trauma, our baby cribs were made of hard wood covered with lead-based paints, ang uban kay duyan nga habol gihigtan ug pisi nga inigtabyog ug kusog ma pakong intawon ta sa bongbong. 




 

We had no soft cushy cribs that play music, no disposable diapers (lampin lang sa General Milling nga naa'y faded picture nga nag-salute), and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, no kneepads, wala pa gyu'y break ang bisikleta.




 

As children, we would ride in hot un-airconditioned buses with wooden seats (Bisaya Bus nga pultahan puros ang kilid, Corominas Bus nga senimana ang brake), or cars with no airconditioning & no seat belts   (karon kay Minibus na nga nindot kaayo ug sounds or Ceres Bus nga bugnaw ug aircon)




 

Riding on the back of a carabao  on a breezy summer day was considered a treat. (karon; ang mga bata wala na kaila ug Kabaw)




 

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT bottled mineral water sa Nature Spring or Viva, or Absolute Mineral water (usahay gani, straight from the faucet or poso or Tabay!)




 

We shared one soft drink bottle with four of our friends, and NO ONE actually died from this. Or contacted hepatitis.




 

We ate rice with star margarine, bahaw nga gibutangan ug asin ug mantika sa baboy, drank raw eggs straight from the shell,  and drank sofdrinks with real sugar in it (dili diet coke or Pepsi Max), but we weren't sick or overweight kay......




 

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!




 

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and get back when the streetlights came on. Syatong, Bato-Lata, Bagol, Dakop-Dakop, Tago-Tago, Ngita'g Kaka.




 

No one was able to reach us all day ( wala pa'y uso ang cellphone) . And yes, we were O.K.




 

We would spend hours building our wooden trolleys (katong bearing ang ligid) or Karitong Kawayan nga karaang tsinilas ang giporma nga ligid and then ride down the street , wala ma'y gidungog nga naligsan atoh!  After hitting the sidewalk or falling into a canal (sewage channel) a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves with our bare & dirty hands .




 

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 100 channels on cable, no DVD movies, no surround stereo, no IPOD's,  no cell phones, no computers, no Internet, no chat rooms, and no Friendsters. ........ ...WE HAD REAL FRIENDS and we went outside to actually talk and play with them!



 
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no stupid lawsuits from these accidents. The only rubbing we get is from our friends with the words..sakit bai ? pero kung kontra gani nimo ang imong kadula,,,,singgitan lang dayon ug..Mayra,Gabaan!



 
We played marbles (jolen) in the dirt , washed our hands just a little and ate Pan Bahug-bahug & Bagumbayan (recycled bread man diay to kay wala mahalin!) We were not afraid of getting germs in our stomachs.



 
We had to live with homemade guns (giporma nga kahoy, gihigtan ug garter ug lastiko) , saplong , tirador ug uban pa nga pwedeng magkasakitay. Pero lingaw gihapon kaayo ang tanan.

We made up games with sticks ( syatong ), and cans ( Bato-Lata )and although we were told they were dangerous, wala man gyud to'y actual nga nabuta bah, bukol lang nuon sa agtang naa.



We walked, rode bikes, or took tricycles to a friend's house and knocked on the door or batoon ug gagmay nga bato ang bungbong, or just yelled for them to jump out the window!



 
Mini basketball teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't pass had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Wala pa nang mga childhood depression ug damaged self esteem ek-ek ra na. Ang maglagot, pildi.  



 
Ang mga Ginikanan naa ra sa daplin para motan-aw ra sa duwa sa mga bata, dili para manghilabot ug makig-away sa ubang parents.



 
That generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, creative thinkers and successful professionals ever! They are the CEO's, Engineers, Doctors and Military Generals of today.  



 
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.



 
We had failure, success, and responsibility. We learned from our mistakes the hard way.



 



 



 
You might want to share this with others who've had the luck to grow up as real kids. We were lucky indeed.  



 
And if you like, forward it to your kids too, so they will know how brave their parents were.



 
It kind of makes you wanna go out and climb a tree, doesn't it?!






PS - The big letters are because your eyes may not be able to read this if they were typed any smaller (at your age? Duh!).