Clipmarks | phatmommy's clips

Why You Should Delete Your Blog's Date-Based Archives

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:07:50 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: Get rid of those date archives. They're useless and they can cause duplicate content issues which messes up your page rank.

Clip Source: www.blog4seo.com

However lots of bloggers are still falling into a major SEO and usability trap - date based archives. When was the last time you visited a blog and browsed their date based archives?

Date based archives are not just useless from a usability point of view they don't help your SEO either. As well as possible duplicate content issues if you publish full posts in your archives the main issue is that the pages are full of unrelated content. If you group all your posts about the iPhone together on one page Google can see that the page is related to the iPhone and each post will rank higher because of it. When you group 30 posts from January 2006 together on a page Google just sees it as a page of unrelated content.

Tags: wordpress, blogging, page-rank, seo

21 Things To Remember

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 06:33:35 GMT

clipped by: Sorgalim
clipper's remarks: 19. Success is getting up one more time.

20. Now is the most interesting time of all.

21. When things go wrong.....don't go with them.

Clip Source: mail.google.com

1. No one can ruin your day without YOUR permission.

2. Most people will be about as happy, as they decide to be.

3. Others can stop you temporarily, but only you can do it permanently.

4. Whatever you are willing to put up with, is exactly what you will have.

5. Success stops when you do.

6. When your ship comes in.... make sure you are willing to unload it.

7. You will never have it all together.

8. Life is a journey...not a destination. Enjoy the trip!

9. The biggest lie on the planet: When I get what I want I will be happy.

10. The best way to escape your problem is to solve it.

11. I've learned that ultimately, 'takers' lose and 'givers' win.

12. Life's precious moments don't have value, unless they are shared.

13. If you don't start, it's certain you won't arrive.

14. We often fear the thing we want the most.

15. He or she who laughs......lasts.

16. Yesterday was the deadline for all complaints.

17. Look for opportunities...not guarantees.

18. Life is what's coming....not what was.

Tags: remember, things, success, opportunities

US Poll Reveals Frightening Attitudes About Internet

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:02:52 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy

Clip Source: www.readwriteweb.com

To summarize: an alarming percentage of respondents are open to brain implants that allow them to access the internet with their minds and that allow their children's locations to be tracked, they think government censorship of online video content is acceptable, the internet makes them feel closer to God and less close their significant others - but their own identities on the internet are not very important to them. This is frightening stuff.

24% of respondents said the Internet could serve as a replacement for a significant other

"How likely would you be to implant a device into your brain that enabled you to use your mind to access the internet if it could be done safely?" 11% of respondents said they were very or somewhat likely to do so.

More than half of respondents believe that internet content, like video, should be controlled in some way by the government.

Tags: internet

27 Skills Your Child Needs to Know That She's Not Getting in School

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:07:35 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: Excellent article from Zen Habits!

Clip Source: zenhabits.net

When you got out of high school, did you know everything you needed in order to survive in life, let alone succeed?

That’s a part of life, you might say, learning these lessons. But it’s also possible to prepare your child a bit before they go out on their own, and if we can’t get the schools to teach these skills, then let’s do it ourselves.

What follows is a basic curriculum in life that a child should know before reaching adulthood. There will probably be other skills you can add to this list, but at least it’s a starting point.

Tags: children, education, homeschooling, learning, mommy, parenting, life skills

A PR professional addresses mommy bloggers

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 15:18:21 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: David makes some good points. It's NOT personal and serious mommy bloggers need to realize that and get over it. Set the rules - your personal blog advertising policies - and stick to them. Then stop complaining about it.

Clip Source: itsnotalecture.blogspot.com

We're accustomed to pitching mainstream media - it's their job to consider what PR flacks have to say, and it's not personal. We apparently haven't figured out yet that you're not mainstream media - you're a mom with a million things to do, and your blog is your outlet, your means of self-expression, and your connection to a larger community. To you we're essentially a cross between telemarketers and spammers. To us we're just fishing for a placement, and your blog is more relevant to us than we are to you.

First, you have to decide if you want us to contact you at all.

If you don't, the first thing to do is put a note in your "about this blog" section of your sidebar that says something like, "sorry, I don't accept solicitations from PR professionals asking me to write about their products on my blog."

Make sure the flacks understand the rules of your blog.

Tags: bloggers, blogging, moms, mommy, adveretising, pr

The Fallacy of Public Schooling

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:03:22 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: Read this article!!

Clip Source: www.fee.org

When parents send a child to a tax-funded school, they sacrifice their autonomy to alien interests. The state has goals of its own that are distinct from those of parents. Parents are able to economize by availing themselves of a “free” school, but the bargain is Faustian. The child is subjected to indoctrination outside parental control. The price of tax-funded schooling is that parents give up their children to become instruments of the state.

Instead it is clear whose interests are being advanced. Fifty-four years ago the writer in Young America was moved to emphasize in italics that era’s apparently high tax rates. Since then the average tax burden has doubled. Yet, as one of my acquaintances has commented, “Americans today are in a stupor.” In other words, the tax-supported school system has triumphed. Americans are behaving exactly the way those who govern desire them to behave.

Tags: children, education, freedom, homeschooling, parenting, school

Stupidly Simple Tip to Boost PR and SEO

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 20:33:09 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy

Clip Source: iffect.net

However, here is one simple tip that I really think will boost your Page Rank and SEO, giving you more ‘authority’ in the search engines.

Now here’s the thing; if the blog you’re commenting on has removed NoFollow, and your comment link now possesses ‘Google Juice’, is it wise to always point to your homepage? According to some SEO experts, we should be deep-linking at every opportunity. With Google continually working on producing more relative results, they know that an article on any given keyword, will generally give the searcher what they’re looking for a lot better than a homepage. For that reason, their algorithms are designed to pull up articles with links pointing directly to the article.

Therefore, wouldn’t it be an idea to replace the link to the homepage in the comments section, to one of your best articles? Of course, you’d change the article you’d point to every few weeks of commenting or so, to spread the weight.

Tags: blog traffic, blogging, page rank, commenting

Mom Blogs Rule!

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 01:01:13 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy

Clip Source: www.entrepreneur.com

Overall, as a hot demographic, moms spend more than $2 trillion a year, so they definitely have the purchasing power. BlogHer counts more than 400 family and mom-related blogs right now, and growing. "Moms are the ultimate internet networkers, "said Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer.com. They pass along shopping tips and product picks in the ideal word-of-mouth network.

Blog-ad firm Blogads reported that the average consumer on mommy blogs is a 29-year-old female with an average income of $70,000 a year, who spends four hours a week tapping into these blogs--basically, she's a marketer's dream consumer.

Tags: blogging, parenting, moms

Super explanation of homeschool socialization...

Fri, 11 May 2007 04:18:42 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy

Clip Source: www.roanoke.com

Yes, I do mean socialization. Far from being a drawback to home schooling, as the myth would have it, socialization is actually one of home schooling's greatest virtues.

Like their public school counterparts, home school students have plenty of opportunities to mingle with their peers. They belong to organizations like Boy Scouts and 4-H. They participate in sports. And many are involved in church youth activities and volunteer work.

But unlike public school students, who spend the greater part of each day almost exclusively in the company of people their own age, home school students, whose days are often spent in the company of people of various ages, are less likely to depend on their peers for validation of their choices and values.

Tags: homeschooling, children, socialization

The Effect of Soda on Your Body

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 12:56:46 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy

Clip Source: frostfirepulse.com

What happens if you drink a can of Coke right now?

First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.)

20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat.

40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream.

45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain.

>60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

Tags: health

Finding Your Identity

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:50:19 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: Interesting read about answering the question, "What should I do with my life?"

Clip Source: www.fastcompany.com

Of course, addressing the question, What should I do with my life? isn't just a productivity issue: It's a moral imperative. It's how we hold ourselves accountable to the opportunity we're given. Most of us are blessed with the ultimate privilege: We get to be true to our individual nature. Our economy is so vast that we don't have to grind it out forever at jobs we hate. For the most part, we get to choose. That choice isn't about a career search so much as an identity quest. Asking The Question aspires to end the conflict between who you are and what you do. There is nothing more brave than filtering out the chatter that tells you to be someone you're not. There is nothing more genuine than breaking away from the chorus to learn the sound of your own voice. Asking The Question is nothing short of an act of courage: It requires a level of commitment and clarity that is almost foreign to our working lives.

Tags: work, job, identity, career

Schools Smother the Learning Fire

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 12:18:54 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy

Clip Source: whyhomeschool.blogspot.com

People keep trying to tweak public education so it will be better. It isn’t working. I don’t think it will really improve as it is currently structured. After millions, or maybe billions, of man hours invested in trying to fix public schools, maybe it is time to think out of the box and acknowledge that we need something fundamentally different. Maybe it is vouchers, maybe it is charter schools, maybe something else. But public schools haven’t changed their basic nature in a long time. Every year hundreds of thousands of children graduate from high school who are functionally illiterate.

I don’t believe that public schools can nourish a love for learning. By the very nature of forcing children to learn with everyone else, each child’s fire is often being smothered.

Tags: education, homeschooling, school

Rethinking Homework

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 03:10:16 GMT

clipped by: showket

Clip Source: www.alfiekohn.org

Rethinking Homework

By Alfie Kohn

Daily homework is the rule in most schools. Why not make it the exception?

After spending most of the day in school, children are typically given additional assignments to be completed at home. This is a rather curious fact when you stop to think about it, but not as curious as the fact that few people ever stop to think about it.

It becomes even more curious, for that matter, in light of three other facts:

1. The negative effects of homework are well known. They include children’s frustration and exhaustion, lack of time for other activities, and possible loss of interest in learning. Many parents lament the impact of homework on their relationship with their children; they may also resent having to play the role of enforcer and worry that they will be criticized either for not being involved enough with the homework or for becoming too involved.

Tags: school, homework, education

Socialization?

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 04:58:52 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: This is a great comment to a super post. When people ask homeschoolers about "socialization," they may not realize that school socialization is really indoctrination. Homeschoolers have no problem learning to be sociable (interacting with other people), but they often do not fit the "mold" of good little cogs of the state. This trait may make them seem like misfits. But the issue is not that they are socially inept, it's that they are individuals.

Clip Source: gottsegnet.blogspot.com

All that said, I see a quantum shift approaching in education.. with such easy access to information today, institutional schooling is quietly shifting from government-provided education, to government-sponsored day care with educational activities provided. But if you want to be the best of the best, you'll still need to resource yourself through tutors, family, and para-school activities. If you can't afford those privileges, you're stuck in the big warm safety-net of indoctrination.

Tags: education, freedom, school, homeschooling

When Parenting, Act - Don't React

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 11:05:29 GMT

clipped by: phatmommy
clipper's remarks: Lots of good tips in this article for handling - better yet, avoiding! - a "Mommy Meltdown."

Clip Source: family.go.com

"Yelling is usually a sign that a parent has no strategy," says Thomas Phelan, a clinical psychologist in Glen Ellyn, Illinois

Samalin and Phelan recommend drawing on these following strategies when your kids are driving you up the wall:

Clip Source: family.go.com

"I," not "you." Avoid attacking your child with "you" statements"You are such a slob!" or "You'll never learn." Instead, think in terms of "I": "I don't like picking clothes up off your floor every day" or "I get upset when we're not on time." These are less hurtful and inflammatory.

Recognize what the problem is. Is it really your child's messy room? Or are you sleep-deprived? Feeling overwhelmed at work? Mad at your husband or mother or boss? Be aware of when you are more vulnerable to anger and resist the urge to transfer negative feelings to your child.

Tags: parenting, temper, discipline