Do you have a website?  If you do then you need to know a little about SEO, and who better to learn it from than the experts with Google.    Matt Cullen talks us through the Dos and the, “They did what?s”  er I mean Don’ts of Search Engine Optimization on real sites. (also its very cool that they have an interactive transcript you can try out as well as Closed Caption turned on with the video)

Give it a try and beef up your own SEO!

Lyndi

Image courtesy of flickr/CharlotteSpeaks♥{Charlotte.Morrall}

Mashable has declared June 30th for the first time Social Media Day! Hurray, media is in full force and shareable! It’s social! Here are two of my most used social media sites:

www.facebook.com – its fun to learn more, become more acquainted and keep up with friends, family and associates who post pictures and info. While you can comment on what they’ve mentioned you should still call them on occasion, because not everyone puts there private info and happenings online. It helps keep you connected. You can put photos, videos, posts and its a hub of social activity!

www.twitter.com – you can talk to anyone who also has the service in real time. They can also get your message later, they may not respond… but you can say it directly to them. You only get 144 characters to make your point, so it helps you get clear on what you want to say and prioritize. Twitter is also like an chat room that’s open for the world read. Plus Google likes it!

What are you favorite social media sites and why?

Every business owner needs to know who their audience is.  Your business needs to speak the language of the community and feel their pain and help solve their problems.   To more effectively do that its great to know a few interesting facts about the kinds of folks who are listening to your message.  That’s where demographics come in.  Who is your ideal customer?  Age, family, religion, education level?  Any number of factors can help you figure out who your clients are.  Where they’re hanging out and what they’re concerned about.  If you don’t know who they are here is a great tool to check out and if you’ve been online a while you’ll have enough history to glean a few fun facts about your community.

I’ve never used this service, I’m not an affiliate for them, but I did find the information they’ll share very interesting and they’ll do a complimentary search for you and you can search your competition over at www.quantcast.com you can also see who your audience is and what other sites they may likely have an affinity for.

Here is the report for www.franklincovey.com. Some interesting facts about the community Franklin Covey attracts as suggested by QuantCast are that their customers are more likely to be women without children under 17 years old with an annual income of $60k-$100k+ that they’ve graduated college and are probably Caucasian and are 35 years of age or older.

Don’t think that those women are the only people who purchase from Franklin Covey, they’ll sell almost anyone their products and services.  However by knowing who is likely to purchase from them they can streamline their advertising dollars and focus on where to spend their time looking for their clients.

Quantcast also suggests that the individuals who visit FranklinCovey.com would also like stores like Office Depot, shoplocal.com Staples, then under hobbies they have listed Joann Craft Stores and Micheal’s Craft Stores.

Now that you’ve figured out who your community is, figure out where they’re hanging out.  Now go hang out there, too!

Lyndi

Tony Robbins has some great points in this video about how little things do make a difference and how affirmations helped him make greater impact.

The important thing about affirmations is that you must FEEL it, the emotions that go with it make all the difference.  It tells your body that your serious, just like when you write your goals down it, that signals to your mind and subconscious that your serious about those goals.

Here are Tony’s incantations:

Here is the replay to the Earthquake Teleclass!  I hope you find some useful information for you and your family.  The handouts are also attached as well as a Bonus!  Some special info for the children in your life.

Right Click and Save As the File, zipped it up with a .exe extension, so it should just open itself when you double click or you’ll just need to unzip it.

Earthquake Teleclass March 2010

Blessings!

Lyndi

It’s recently come to my attention that I could be going about this weight loss thing all wrong. I cook with olive oil, I use lean protein and only buy whole grains. I even rinse off the fat from ground meat before I add it to other parts of the meal. I try to have a bowl of fruit filled on the counter and usually it has bananas. I love veggies. I don’t use margarine though because its too close to plastic and even the flies want nothing to do with it..so I use butter, but sparingly. I could be addicted to dairy. Mmmmmm dairy. I do my best to be reasonable with it too. Watch my portions and don’t get all my calories from liquids. I drink water! Yet loosing the lbs. still elludes me.  I thought maybe I wasn’t getting enough calories because on “The Biggest Looser” they talk about needing enough calories to run your body.

Dietician Zonya Foco said on one of her PBS episodes that our sugar acuity is too high, speaking of folks in the US.   I took that to heart.  She even went over some things that had “hidden” sweeteners (hidden like you wouldn’t think it’s full of sugar.) Surprisingly to me the stir-fry mix I was using and the bottled spaghetti sauce I like both had a sweetener!   I got rid of the stir-fry mix, turned out the sweetener was high-fructose corn syrup.  I kept the spaghetti sauce, because while I was surprised sweetener was in there I use the whole wheat noodles and rinse the meat or use lean chicken and it was actual sugar that was added.   I even did what Zonya suggested and flavored my water with a touch of juice rather than drink full sugary juice. I noticed though that the concord grape juice I like has high-fructose corn syrup in it.

Two weeks ago I found Jorge Cruise talking about belly fat and I half heartily listened while he was on the Today Show.

Holy smokes! I totally have yogurt for breakfast with a banana! (not all the time, but I was thinking it was good for me, low fat, having fruit!)  Then this article came out yesterday from Princeton (click here if you want to go to the original article):

A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain.

— Hilary Parker March 22, 2010

A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.

In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States.

“Some people have claimed that high-fructose corn syrup is no different than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain and obesity, but our results make it clear that this just isn’t true, at least under the conditions of our tests,” said psychology professor Bart Hoebel, who specializes in the neuroscience of appetite, weight and sugar addiction. “When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they’re becoming obese — every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don’t see this; they don’t all gain extra weight.”

In results published online March 18 by the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, the researchers from the Department of Psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute reported on two experiments investigating the link between the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup and obesity.

The first study showed that male rats given water sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup in addition to a standard diet of rat chow gained much more weight than male rats that received water sweetened with table sugar, or sucrose, in conjunction with the standard diet. The concentration of sugar in the sucrose solution was the same as is found in some commercial soft drinks, while the high-fructose corn syrup solution was half as concentrated as most sodas.

The second experiment — the first long-term study of the effects of high-fructose corn syrup consumption on obesity in lab animals — monitored weight gain, body fat and triglyceride levels in rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup over a period of six months. Compared to animals eating only rat chow, rats on a diet rich in high-fructose corn syrup showed characteristic signs of a dangerous condition known in humans as the metabolic syndrome, including abnormal weight gain, significant increases in circulating triglycerides and augmented fat deposition, especially visceral fat around the belly. Male rats in particular ballooned in size: Animals with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained 48 percent more weight than those eating a normal diet.

“These rats aren’t just getting fat; they’re demonstrating characteristics of obesity, including substantial increases in abdominal fat and circulating triglycerides,” said Princeton graduate student Miriam Bocarsly. “In humans, these same characteristics are known risk factors for high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, cancer and diabetes.” In addition to Hoebel and Bocarsly, the research team included Princeton undergraduate Elyse Powell and visiting research associate Nicole Avena, who was affiliated with Rockefeller University during the study and is now on the faculty at the University of Florida. The Princeton researchers note that they do not know yet why high-fructose corn syrup fed to rats in their study generated more triglycerides, and more body fat that resulted in obesity.

When male rats were given water sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup in addition to a standard diet of rat chow, the animals gained much more weight than male rats that received water sweetened with table sugar, or sucrose, along with the standard diet. The concentration of sugar in the sucrose solution was the same as is found in some commercial soft drinks, while the high-fructose corn syrup solution was half as concentrated as most sodas, including the orange soft drink shown here. (Photo: Denise Applewhite)

High-fructose corn syrup and sucrose are both compounds that contain the simple sugars fructose and glucose, but there at least two clear differences between them. First, sucrose is composed of equal amounts of the two simple sugars — it is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose — but the typical high-fructose corn syrup used in this study features a slightly imbalanced ratio, containing 55 percent fructose and 42 percent glucose. Larger sugar molecules called higher saccharides make up the remaining 3 percent of the sweetener. Second, as a result of the manufacturing process for high-fructose corn syrup, the fructose molecules in the sweetener are free and unbound, ready for absorption and utilization. In contrast, every fructose molecule in sucrose that comes from cane sugar or beet sugar is bound to a corresponding glucose molecule and must go through an extra metabolic step before it can be utilized.

This creates a fascinating puzzle. The rats in the Princeton study became obese by drinking high-fructose corn syrup, but not by drinking sucrose. The critical differences in appetite, metabolism and gene expression that underlie this phenomenon are yet to be discovered, but may relate to the fact that excess fructose is being metabolized to produce fat, while glucose is largely being processed for energy or stored as a carbohydrate, called glycogen, in the liver and muscles.

In the 40 years since the introduction of high-fructose corn syrup as a cost-effective sweetener in the American diet, rates of obesity in the U.S. have skyrocketed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1970, around 15 percent of the U.S. population met the definition for obesity; today, roughly one-third of the American adults are considered obese, the CDC reported. High-fructose corn syrup is found in a wide range of foods and beverages, including fruit juice, soda, cereal, bread, yogurt, ketchup and mayonnaise. On average, Americans consume 60 pounds of the sweetener per person every year.

“Our findings lend support to the theory that the excessive consumption of high-fructose corn syrup found in many beverages may be an important factor in the obesity epidemic,” Avena said.

The new research complements previous work led by Hoebel and Avena demonstrating that sucrose can be addictive, having effects on the brain similar to some drugs of abuse.

In the future, the team intends to explore how the animals respond to the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in conjunction with a high-fat diet — the equivalent of a typical fast-food meal containing a hamburger, fries and soda — and whether excessive high-fructose corn syrup consumption contributes to the diseases associated with obesity. Another step will be to study how fructose affects brain function in the control of appetite.

The research was supported by the U.S. Public Health Service.

———-

So it’s official, I’m looking out for the sugars in products now and avoiding high-fructose corn syrup.

Sometimes we forget, get caught up in our own mess and we forget to be grateful.  It sure seems our problems are tailor made for each of us.  Take a minute today and remember to focus on what you do have and what you can do!  Watch this inspirational video from Nick Vujicic.

Never Give Up, Nick Vujicic in a School

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW579icDRSA

If you’d like to know more about Nick check out his website: http://www.attitudeisaltitude.com/

Great tips!  Thanks Harmony!

My mother-in-law is a wonderful woman and she sent me the “2010 Handbook” and now I’m sharing it with you!

Health:

• 1. Drink plenty of water.
• 2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
• 3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants..
• 4. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy
• 5. Make time to pray.
• 6. Play more games
• 7. Read more books than you did in 2009.
• 8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
• 9. Sleep for 7 hours.
• 10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:

• 11. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
• 12. Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
• 13. Don’t over do. Keep your limits.
• 14. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
• 15. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.
• 16. Dream more while you are awake
• 17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need..
• 18. Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with His/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
• 19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others.
• 20. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
• 21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
• 22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
• 23. Smile and laugh more.
• 24. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree…

Society:

• 25. Call your family often.
• 26. Each day give something good to others.
• 27. Forgive everyone for everything.
• 28. Spend time w/ people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
• 29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
• 30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
• 31. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.  Life:
• 32. Do the right thing!
• 33. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
• 34. GOD heals everything.
• 35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change..
• 36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
• 37. The best is yet to come..
• 38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
• 39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

Last but not the least:

• 40. Share this with everyone you care about, I just did.