Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Mean Moms

I will greet this day with love in my heart. For this is the greatest secret of success in all ventures. Muscle can split a shield and even destroy life itself but only the unseen power of love can open the hearts of man and until I master this act I will remain no more than a peddler in the market place. I will make love my greatest weapon and none on who I call can defend upon its force... my love will melt all hearts liken to the sun whose rays soften the coldest day. - Og Mandino


HAPPY MOTHER'S DAYTO ALL THOSE WONDERFUL, CARING WOMEN WHO GIVE OF THEIR TIME, EFFORT AND LOVE!

My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.- George Washington - 1732-1799, First President of the USA

Mean Moms
Someday when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a parent, I will tell them, as my Mean Mom told me:

I loved you enough . . . to ask where you were going, with whom, and what time you would be home.

I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover that your new best friend was a creep.

I loved you enough to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your room, a job that should have taken 15 minutes.

I loved you enough to let you see anger, disappointment, and tears in my eyes. Children must learn that their parents aren't perfect.

I loved you enough to let you assume the responsibility for your actions even when the penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart.
But most of all, I loved you enough . . . to say NO when I knew you would hate me for it.

Those were the most difficult battles of all. I'm glad I won them, because in the end you won, too.

And someday when your children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates parents, you will tell them.

Was your Mom mean? I know mine was. We had the meanest mother in the whole world!

While other kids ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal, eggs, and toast.

When others had a Pepsi and a Twinkie for lunch, we had to eat sandwiches.
And you can guess our mother fixed us a dinner that was different from what other kids had, too.

Mother insisted on knowing where we were at all times. You'd think we were convicts in a prison.

She had to know who our friends were, and what we were doing with them. She insisted that if we said we would be gone for an hour, we would be gone for an hour or less.

We were ashamed to admit it, but she had the nerve to break the Child Labor Laws by making us work. We had to wash the dishes, make the beds, learn to cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry, empty the trash and all sorts of cruel jobs. I think she would lie awake at night thinking of more things for us to do.

She always insisted on us telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. By the time we were teenagers, she could read our minds and had eyes in the back of her head. Then, life was really tough!

Mother wouldn't let our friends just honk the horn when they drove up. They had to come up to the door so she could meet them. While everyone else could date when they were 12 or 13, we had to wait until we were 16.

Because of our mother we missed out on lots of things other kids experienced. None of us have ever been caught shoplifting, vandalizing other's property or ever arrested for any crime. It was all her fault.

Now that we have left home, we are all educated, honest adults. We are doing our best to be mean parents just like Mom was.

I think that is what's wrong with the world today. It just doesn't have enough mean moms!
- Author Unknown

If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders. - Abigail Van Buren

Be a love pharmacist: dispense hugs like medicine - they are!- Terri Guillemets

Have a Fantastic Week and remember to make every hour in your life - HAPPY HOUR! - Mr. Positive

Thank you for this post to Jim Gentil Mr. Positive.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Organic Search Engine Results Vs. Paid For Search Engine Placement

I read this great article today on why Organic Search Engine Placement is better than Paid for Placement. I am not saying that you SHOULDN'T do paid for placement - only that I think Organic search engine placement is more effective and gives you more visiblity.

The author of the article, Lee Odden, did some research and here is what he found:

  • iProspect did a study (pdf) on this in 2004 (scroll to page 16 and 17) “Across the 4 search engines - Google, Yahoo! MSN and AOL — 60.5% clicked on a natural (or “organic” or “algorithmic”) search result, while 39.5% clicked on a paid search advertisement.”
  • A recent study by iProspect and Jupiter Research shows that 2/3 of users click on the first page of results.
  • The Enquiro eyetracking study is always useful.
    A study by OneUpWeb (pdf): “…search users are up to 6X more likely to click on the first few organic results as they are to choose any of the paid (PPC) results.”
    Jupiter: ” Algorithmic listings in search indexes generate an estimated six of seven commercially natured search referrals”
    2007 Marketing Sherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey
    Chris Dohman pointed out this post from SEO Book citing data from Jupiter (5 out of 6 commercial purchases which originate from search originate from the free (or organic) side) and from Atlas on PPC stats.

You can read the full article here: http://www.toprankblog.com/2006/09/organic-versus-paid-search-results/

I would love to hear what you have to say!

Thanks,

Char

Real Estate Website Design, Real Estate Search Engine Optimization