I have been doing everything in my power to keep my Alexa Ranking stats to move up for the past couple of months since the new year started. A friend has advised me that the best way to help my stats to move up is to actually write about the Alexa Ranking system. He advised this because of the following:
The traffic rank is based on three months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of Alexa Toolbar users and is a combined measure of page views and users (reach). As a first step, Alexa computes the reach and number of page views for all sites on the Web on a daily basis.
The main Alexa traffic rank is based on the geometric mean of these two quantities averaged over time (so that the rank of a site reflects both the number of users who visit that site as well as the number of pages on the site viewed by those users)
If you noticed, the rank is very dependent on the Alexa Toolbar users and unfortunately even if your number of readers may not have decreased but if they dont have the toolbar with their system you wont get credited. The only people that would ever have the desire (even the know how) to install the Alexa Toolbar would be webmasters and internet cyber geeks. What they are mostly interested in are data such as the one am writing about now about the Alexa Toolbar. That is the reason why my advisor recommended writing about Alexa.
I have done extensive research in the past and am ready to talk about it today and I do hope that what ever data that you find here with me is useful for you, especially those that are venturing into the market of the virtual highway.
Let us start with the Pros and Cons: Pros
It helps advertisers and webmasters determine the real marketing potential of your site. Blogs and ordinary websites get ranked the same way
Useful tool to compare against a competitor’s site to measure marketing efforts and popularity
As opposed to Google's PageRank, the lower your ranking number, the better.
It helps Webmasters and advertisers see the true marketing potential of your Web site. The better your Alexa rank, the higher they will be willing to bid to buy advertising space on your Web site.
Personal pages or blogs are taken into consideration and ranked in the same manner as regular Web sites. They will even get a distinctive mark (*)
Given that Alexa ranking offers you information about your Web site, it is a good tool to have in view of search engine optimization.
Cons
Fairly small sample size of audience (those that have the Alexa toolbar installed) to measure marketing efforts
Due to the small sample size, there are millions of websites that may get a lot of traffic but are not ranked by Alexa
Subdomains are not ranked separately, and neither are subpages within a domain. The overall traffic is calculated for the top-level domain only.
Many people feel that Alexa traffic can be “played” to therefore show inaccurate results.
Here are some of the best ways to quickly improve your Alexa Ranking:
Download and install the Alexa toolbar and then surf your own site.
Place the Alexa widget on your Web site. It will entice the visitors to check it out, and you know, each click counts.
Write useful, quality content, mostly webmaster-related. Promote it on webmaster forums and on social networking sites. The idea is to get as many computer and Internet savvy people as possible to visit your site, since the probability that they will have the Alexa toolbar installed is high.
Write posts on your blogs and articles about Alexa. You will get links to your pages that will help improve your ranking.
Tell your friends about the Alexa toolbar, have them download and install it on their computers, and then tell them to visit your site.
Use Alexa redirect. This means placing http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect? in front of your Web site's URL. Thus, Alexa will even take into consideration clicks on redirected links even if the visitor does not have the Alexa toolbar.
Whenever you post on webmaster forums, include your site's URL in your signature. It is very likely that most webmasters have the toolbar installed, and there's a great probability that they'll visit your site.
Finally if you still feel that you need more help on the Alexa Ranking Toolbar here is a video tutorial that has helped me a lot in my own quest to increase this rather volatile statistic.
By the way since I noticed that most of my traffic comes from those that use Firefox 2 - 3 I would like your help to help us as it is only now that Alexa has finally noticed and made a toolbar that was once only exclusive for IE users. With this toolbar you will be able to see the traffic ranking based on alexa of every website and link that you visit to see its popularity in more ways than one. :)
I love mayo a lot and in times where economic crisis is the talk of the town nothing beats making your own stuff at a fraction of the cost of what you would normally spend on. Best thing of all it is organic. :) So for today I would like to show you how I make my own mayo from scratch and you have to understand that this recipe is just your basic mayo - the beauty of it is that once you learn to the basics you can start playing around with the ingredients and add your own little concoction to the mix.
Ingredients:
* 2 egg yolks * 3/4 teaspoon salt * 1/2 teaspoon powdered mustard * 1/8 teaspoon sugar * Pinch pepper * 4 to 5 teaspoons lemon juice or white vinegar * 1-1/2 cups olive or other salad oil * 4 teaspoons hot water
Preparation: Beat yolks, salt, mustard, sugar, pepper, and 1 teaspoon lemon juice in a small bowl until very thick and pale yellow. (Note: If using electric mixer, beat at medium speed.) Add about 1/4 cup oil, drop by drop, beating vigorously all the while. Beat in 1 teaspoon each lemon juice and hot water. Add another 1/4 cup oil, a few drops at a time, beating vigorously all the while. Beat in another teaspoon each lemon juice and water. Add 1/2 cup oil in a very fine steady stream, beating constantly, then mix in remaining lemon juice and water; slowly beat in remaining oil. If you like, thin mayonnaise with a little additional hot water. Cover and refrigerate until needed. Do not keep longer than 1 week.
Here's a video tutorial for those that love to watch how it's done by the experts:
With all that done you should have your mayonnaise ready to eat. Don't forget to refrigerate it first before using :)
And just as an added bonus here are some other uses for mayo that you never would have thought possible: 1. Mayonnaise can be used as a natural hair conditioner. Massage a quantity of mayonnaise into your hair, much in the same way as a normal post-shampoo conditioner. Cover your head with a shower cap and allow the mayonnaise to remain on your hair for several minutes. Rinse thoroughly and the result should be shinier and softer hair.
2. Use mayonnaise as a facial cleanser. Apply a layer of mayonnaise as you would a deep cleansing facial soap. After 15 or 20 minutes, wipe off the mayonnaise and rinse your face thoroughly. The oils and salt of the mayonnaise will restore moisture and remove impurities.
3. In case of a sunburn emergency, apply cold mayonnaise to the affected area. The coolness of the mayo will reduce the pain and the oil will provide much-needed moisture.
4. Some physicians are now recommending the use of mayonnaise to combat head lice infections. Certain strains of head lice have become very resistant to the traditional chemical treatments, but leaving mayonnaise in the hair overnight with a shower cap will cause the lice to suffocate and die. Comb out any remaining nits with a fine tooth comb and repeat the process seven days later.
5. Lubricate stubborn rings with mayonnaise. If a ring becomes too tight to remove, try applying a generous amount of mayonnaise to the entire finger, especially under the ring itself. Mayonnaise is very slippery, so it should reduce the friction well enough to allow removal of the ring.
6. Remove bumper stickers and residue with mayonnaise. A layer of mayonnaise applied to the remnants of a bumper sticker should soften the paper and dissolve the glue after several minutes.
Who would have guessed that mayo was much more than just a simple taste enhancer. ;) till the next time. xoxo
I am featuring something very sacred this time around. The Maleldo - a reenactment of the crusifiction of Christ here in the Philippines in the City of San Fernando every Holy Week (Easters).
The History of Maleldo:
The re-enactment of Christ’s crucifixion that is practiced each year in the City of San Fernando originated in 1955 with the staging of “Via Crusis” (Way of the Cross), the only Kapampangan piece on the passion of the Christ written by an amateur, Ricardo Navarro.
It was first performed during the Holy Week fifty years ago by an amateur volunteer artists of Barangay (barrio) San Pedro Cutud, who like the rest of the Filipinos during that period, had time on their hands because work or exertion on those holy days was taboo.
It was only in 1962 that the barangay first witnessed an actual crucifixion during the play. The Christ was potrayed by Artemio Anoza, a resident of nearby Apalit town and a quack doctor who dreamt that he would become a religious leader and full-fledged healer. Wanting to realize this dream, he volunteered himself to be crucified as a sacrifice.
Since then, not a year passed without an actual crucifixion taking place during the re-enactment that has now been joined in by many penitents as a “panata” or vow of sacrifice.
In 1965, the role players and the penitents were invited to perform the sacrifice outside the barangay, this time in Betis, Guagua. The occasion caught national interest and subsequently became an international tourist attraction.
Through the years, Rolando Navarro passed on the family tradition he began to his son Ricardo and then to his grandson Allan Navarro who is the present director of the street play Via Crusis.
Every Good Friday is the time that you should be in Cutud, San Fernando Pampanga as this is where thousands of people come to witness this sacred rite. To help you find your way around there here is the map of the place for your reference:
Here is a video of what you can expect to see once you get there tomorrow:
If you want to know more about this rite come and visit the City's Website:
I have been doing quite a bit of research about this particular topic for many reasons. One important reason though is that a friend of mine is struggling to do everything in her power to save her baby's life as her child is affected by a rare disease known as biliary atresia. There are many treatments available for children with this affliction but none have proven to be very successful about in treating this disease - except with the hope of stem cells. I normally don't tackle a very sensitive issue like this as a lot of controversy surrounds this particular topic but I'll try to present this as neutrally as possible.
Here are the things that I have found out about stem cells.
Let us start with six facts about stem cells: There is no "ban" on human embryonic stem cell research in the United States. This has been arguably the most muddled point in the entire debate. ESC research goes on at labs throughout the country, with no legal barriers to prohibit such research or the private financing of it. The federal government has funded ESC research to the tune of $130 million dollars since 2001, and the U.S. continues to be the international leader in the field. Out of all peer-reviewed research papers published from 1998 through 2005 on original human ESC research, scientists from the U.S. published by far the most, 125 of the 315.
We are a long way away from therapies derived from embryonic stem cells. James Thomson, the first scientist to derive stem cells from a human embryo, made this point clearly just a few weeks ago: "I don't want to sound too pessimistic because this is all doable, but it's going to be very hard." He added, "those transplantation therapies should work but it's likely to take a long time." Leading British stem cell expert Lord Winston has been even more blunt: "I am not entirely convinced that embryonic stem cells will, in my lifetime, and possibly anybody's lifetime, for that matter, be holding quite the promise that we desperately hope they will."
There are currently no controlled human clinical trials underway for ESC-derived therapies. By contrast, there are currently some 1200 clinical trials underway associated with human adult stem cells (ASCs). While most treatments derived so far from ASC research apply to blood-related diseases, the broader application of ASCs for a more diverse array of maladies is likely within several more years.
The human embryo has at least some degree of special moral status. "We believe most would agree that human embryos deserve respect as a form of human life. . . ." So said President Clinton's National Bioethics Advisory Committee, speaking of ESC research. The committee was willing to support the use of "excess" embryos from assisted reproduction clinics, but only if their use was necessary to advance life-saving research. It did not endorse the creation of embryos by cloning or other methods for use in research involving their destruction.
Standard embryology texts insist that from the zygote (single-cell embryo) stage forward there exists a new living member of the species homo sapiens. Surely we can all agree that the human embryo possesses the active potential to develop by an internally directed process towards maturity, and that this is morally significant.
There are non-controversial alternatives worth exploring. It is increasingly clear that there are non-embryo destructive research alternatives that hold out the promise of providing sources of stem cells with properties equivalent to, or nearly equivalent to, embryonic cells. Such alternatives include, among others, the reprogramming of ordinary somatic (body) cells, the derivation of stem cells from amniotic fluid, and (assuming that it can be shown that the product is not an embryo), altered nuclear transfer.
Concerns about embryo destruction are not only religious. Charles Krauthammer, a former member of the President's Council on Bioethics, lucidly articulated this point in a Washington Post column: "I don't believe that life -- meaning the attributes and protections of personhood -- begins at conception. Yet many secularly inclined people such as myself have great trepidation about the inherent dangers of wanton and unrestricted manipulation -- to the point of dismemberment -- of human embryos. You don't need religion to tremble at the thought of unrestricted embryo research. You simply have to have a healthy respect for the human capacity for doing evil in pursuit of the good."
While the search for cures is an important motive behind ESC research, it is clearly not the only motive. Most scientists acknowledge that ESCs will not provide therapies for many years, if ever. Their therapeutic potential is, at best, speculative. They cannot be used now, even in clinical trials, because of their tendency to produce tumors. So it comes as no surprise that many scientists now admit that their primary interest in pursuing ESC research lies not in the hope for direct cell transplant therapies, but in the desire to enhance basic scientific knowledge of such things as cell signaling, tissue growth and early human development.
Here are the Basic Research data that I have uncovered about stem cells: Stem Cells are the Body's Basic Building Blocks Stem cells have two unique qualities: they can copy themselves for an unlimited period of time and they can grow into all of the body's different cell types
When a stem cell copies itself, each of the two new cells can either remain a stem cell or become another type of cell such as a muscle cell, a blood cell, or a brain cell.
Some stem cells grow into organs, bones and tissues of the body, but other stem cells work in its immune and repair systems. Called "adult" stem cells, they create replacement cells for those that are lost because of injury, disease or the normal wear and tear of aging.
Adult stem cells can be used for research and treatment, but most researchers believe that "embryonic" stem cells have much more potential to study, treat and cure diseases.
Not all stem cells are alike. Adult stem cells are called "multipotent." This means they can turn into several different kinds of cells within the same basic cell type. For example, adult stem cells found in bone marrow can turn into all of the different types of cells found in blood. Research on adult stem cells has been funded for over 40 years and many successful therapies have been developed.
Embryonic stem cells are called "pluripotent." This means they can turn into all of the body's cell types except egg and sperm cells. Embryonic stem cells were first discovered in 1998 and research on them has not yet been well funded. Scientists believe that the potential of embryonic stem cells is even greater than adult stem cells.
Embryonic stem cells are blank, unspecialized cells found in the interior of a blastocyst. A blastocyst is a mass of 150 or so cells that is smaller than a period at the end of this sentence. It develops approximately 5-14 days after an egg is fertilized.
Scientists have been able to get stem cells to grow into complex cells with special functions, like the cells of the pancreas that produce insulin or heart muscle cells.
A research process called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), sometimes referred to as "therapeutic cloning", allows scientists to produce embryonic stem cells without using sperm to fertilize an egg. In this process, there is no implantation in a uterus and therefore no pregnancy.
Using new tools like somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), scientists hope to make cell lines that are specific to a patient and/or a disease. This will help them study diseases in a powerful new way and help them discover better treatments and cures.
Stem Cell Research is Developing Breakthrough Cures & Offering New Hope
Life-saving stem cell treatments are already successful and in widespread use for some diseases. For example, bone marrow transplants use stem cells to treat leukemia.
Stem cell research could lead to treatments that save millions of lives and improve the quality-of-life for millions more.
Scientists are working on a wide range of stem cell-based therapies. They have created "tissue patches" for burn victims. They have grown islet cells that produce insulin to treat diabetes and healthy brain cells to ease the symptoms of disorders like Parkinson's disease. They have genetically changed cells and then used them to deliver healing or protective agents to injured or diseased areas of the body.
Broad Consensus Exists in Support of Stem Cell Research Stem cell research has strong support by many notable groups including the American Medical Association and the National Health Council.
68% of Americans support embryonic stem cell research. 55% of Texans favor medical research using embryonic stem cells. 70% of Kansas voters want to allow SCNT research in Kansas. 63% of Missouri voters approve of embryonic stem cell research. 64% of Americans support federal funding of research on chronic
In Summary of what I have been able to uncover so far here is what most researchers believe about stem cells and their use in the medical field: Stem Cells and Human Development Stem cells have enormous potential in health and medical research but to fully harness this potential, scientists are studying how stem cells transform, or differentiate, into the diverse range of specialised cells that make humans what they are today. Because diseases such as cancer or conditions such as birth defects are thought to occur because of problems in the differentiation process, an understanding of the development that happens in normal cells will help scientists treat the developmental errors that can occur.
Stem Cells and Cell-Based Therapies Another potential application of stem cells is to form cells and tissues for medical therapies. Currently, it is donated organs and tissues that are substituted for damaged or dysfunctional ones. Sadly, the number of people awaiting a transplant is much higher than the number of available organs. Transplant waiting lists are enormous and many people die awaiting transplants. Stem cells offer a viable source of replacement cells to treat diseases and can potentially reduce the morbidity and mortality for those awaiting transplants. Some of the areas that stem cells can benefit include:
* Parkinson's disease * Type I diabetes * Arthritis * Burn victims * Cardiovascular diseases
By directing stem cells to differentiate into specialised cell types, there is the exciting possibility to provide a renewable source of replacement cells for those suffering from diseases.
The potential to reverse diseases is also not a foreign one. For example, a patient who has suffered from a heart attack and sustained heart damage could have the damaged tissue replaced by healthy new muscle cells. The destruction of brain cells in conditions such as Parkinson's disease can hopefully be reversed with the replacement of new, healthy and functioning brain cells. Even more promising is the potential to address genetic defects that are present from birth by restoring function and health with the introduction of normal healthy cells that do not have these defects.
Burn Victims Burn victims tend to endure an enormous amount of pain from their wounds as well as frustration from the challenges of healing. Instead of donor tissues being donated, stem cells could be used to produce new and healthy tissues. This is essentially similar to therapies already being used, such as bone marrow transplants, where stem cells create different specialised blood cells. Scientists aim to locate and remove specific stem cells from a tissue and then trigger them to differentiate outside of the body before transplanting them back into the patient to replace damaged tissues. In burn victims, a very small piece of the skin can be progressively grown, allowing doctors to cover a burn that is often much larger than the original size of the skin piece.
Stem Cells and Drug Testing Stem cells have an important benefit for the pharmaceutical field. New drugs can be tested on stem cells to assess their safety before testing drugs on animal and human models. For example, a cancer cell line could be created to test an anti-tumour drug. If the conditions can be perfectly replicated, testing drugs could provide very accurate results.
The current benefits of stem cell usage are already well documented and it is expected that continued research will pave the way for new treatments. For those suffering from serious diseases, stem cells offer hope for effective treatment or perhaps even a reversal of the disease. Time will confirm the full success of stem cell therapies and continued research should teach us more about using stem cells to treat
Finally here is a video from a notable source to help clear things up a little bit more about Stem Cells.
Introduction to stem cells
Finally everything about stem cells that you were afraid to ask (this one is a pretty long but quite the most informative video on Stem Cells)
Hope this all helps you out and that in due time things will look better for all of us in terms of health. Till the next time. xoxo
I have decided to go a little lighter on Tech Tuesday by presenting a rather hilarious but cool animation from CollegeHumor.com -- CollegeHumor.com was founded in 1999 by two high school friends from Baltimore, Maryland who went to different colleges as a way to share all of the pictures, videos, and links their friends would IM and e-mail each other.Now, CollegeHumor is the #1 comedy site on the internet. We showcase hilarious original videos, articles, contests, and interactive features, as well as pictures and videos submitted by fans like you. Our in-house writing and production team powers CH Originals, which delivers original, TV-quality comedy videos multiple times a week. -- about a cell phone reunion. I have been laughing a lot and been playing over and over again. I would want to say more about it but I wouldn't want to spoil the fun of this technological mayhem for you. So without further delay simply click on play and enjoy the Cell Phone Reunion:
Aside from Britney who was last year's most searched singer for 2008, another singer has been making waves with almost as much controversy - Lindsay Lohan. Lindsay Dee Lohan (born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, model, and pop singer. Lohan started in show business as a child fashion model for magazine advertisement and television commercials. At age 10, she began her acting career in the soap opera Another World; at 11, she made her motion picture debut by playing identical twins in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap.
Lohan rose to stardom with her leading roles in the films Freaky Friday, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Mean Girls and Herbie: Fully Loaded, Her subsequent roles include appearances in A Prairie Home Companion and Bobby, In 2004, Lohan launched a second career in pop music yielding the albums Speak (2004) and A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005).
Lohan's personal life has been a frequent subject of celebrity and tabloid journalism.
If you want to know more about Lindsay Lohan Here is a collection of sites that can help you get started:
Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.
I have decided to make a compilation of the Online SEO Tools that I used to help propel Empty Streets 1027 to how it is now with all of you. Each of these websites have their respective pros and cons of course and I strongly encourage that you experiment. Nothing really beats a good old fashioned trial and error approach for I believe that it is only through mistakes that we ever truly learn and get better. :) So with that being said here is the list to use and experiment with. My last piece of advice for those venturing into the field of SEO Marketing - Have fun with this and eventually things will work out and that the only true failure is when you give up.
SEO Tools
SEO Browser: See your website as the search engines see it.
Lynx Viewer: Snapshot of what the search engine sees when it spiders your pages.
Spider Simulator: Simulate how a search engine spider moves through your site.
Spider Viewer: See what search engines see when they crawl your site.
MonitorThis: This tool allows you to subscribe to 20 different serach engine feeds at the same time.
Site Explorer: See which pages are indexed and who linkes to them.
MindSet: Tweak your search results to be more or less commercial... in real time.
Copyscape: Allows you to see if your web content is being utilized anywhere else on the internet. Great tool to see if your copywritten material has been stolen.
SEOMoz Trifecta: Measure the number of sites that link to you and number of times your brand is mention on the web.
Visual PageRank: Allows you to view all the links alone with pageranks on a certain page.
Site Link Analyzer:A tool that returns a table of data containing outbound links and related anchor text.
Marketing Research Tools
SEO/M Tools
Customer Focus Calculator: Analyzes text on your pages to determine if your text is customer focused.
WordTracker: Research actively searched-for phrases within your industry.
WordTracker vs. Overture: View keyword search volume comparisons between WordTracker and Overture.
Niche BOT: Keyword research tool that helps you find the terms that produce the highest amount of traffic. Lets you drill down to dig deep and find niche phrases as well.
Metrics Market: How much traffic are you getting compared to your competitors?
Yahoo Tools
Keyword Selector: Allows you to retrieve Overture search volume for up to 50 keywords at one time.
MSN Tools
Search Funnels: See what people search for before and after your keyword.
, del.icio.us
