Tag Archives: iPhone

Finally Reaching Below Average

Though I’ve been recording my workouts for over a year, it wasn’t until I started using the Multi-Year application on my iPhone that I started to see some more improvements. I installed this application a few weeks ago and have been using the Big 6 program.

Once installed, the Multi-Year asked a few questions: weight, height, age, diameter of the wrist and diameter above the ankle. It uses these various measurements to determine where to start. A long read through the website will tell you want it does with all that information. No worries. Let’s go.

Being 6’5″, 215, and 45 years old, my strength pretty much sucked. For many days, the charts showed be below above average. Not fully sure what that mean (see long website pages for that). I charged my macros, thanks much to My Fitness Pal, and my strength started to climb and my body fat percentage slowly dropped. So did the pounds. Within two weeks, I was done nearly 5 pounds. When the weight started to come back on a bit, it was all muscle. This past week my body fat percentage dropped before 21% for the first time. Excitement.

Having returned to weight lifting more than a year ago, it is quite wonderful to finally be up to below average. My new charts looks like this:

photo photo 2

 

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Content Is King

Lifesize Religious King Statue with Spear
Lifesize Religious King Statue with Spear (Photo credit: epSos.de)

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), there are two main ways to go: do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you. The techniques used by either path are the same, though the professional may have access to more tools and options. Create content all over the Internet that points back to your site. Use the proper keywords the right number of times and SEO will be yours. Spam them too much and Google will ignore you.

Many people go at the keywords with reckless abandon. They use Google’s Adword Keyword tool and make list and after list of good keywords. They do all the can to work these keys words into articles to make them look like Search Engine Optimization wizards. They create content that seems odd and fantastic. They forget a key element.

Content is King.

In the early days of Internet marketing, it was easy. Find several blog sites and copy the same article to them all. Perhaps change a few words here or there, but that was about it. Post the article and let the search engines find them. Leads poured into business opportunities and people made money. People also complained and Google struck back: the infamous Google slap! Leads dried up overnight. Adword accounts were closed. The money makers had to find a new way.

The content makers realized they needed to create a few different versions of the same article. Someone figured out to use a formula to the paragraphs of the article and them made a routine to randomly swap them out. Those posted all over the Internet lead to hit rates climbing again. Come across one of the pages though and they were not humanly readable.

Google got smarter. Along came Panda.

More and more, the search engines look at context, as well as, the content. Does the content flow? Is it human readable? Is it duplicated? Is it just greeking? With each update, both Google and Bing learn the context. Along cam mobile and raised the bar again. Google search on an iPhone is not only optimized for text, it is also optimized for time and place. Google knows where you are and what the time is. In the same spot it may return different first pages depending on if it is 10am or 6pm. Your content needs to reflect such changes.

Content, after all, is King.

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A Return To Harbin Park

Path in Harbin Park
Path in Harbin Park (Photo credit: BrainMuffin)

Harbin Park in Fairfield, Ohio is an interesting place. It is a city park, yet doesn’t feel like one as it is bigger than most. While it contains the typical basket ball and volleyball courts and covered picnic pavilions, it is also a target rich environment for Geocaches. It was this outdoor past-time that first lead me to Harbin Park on a regular basis. It is photography that brings me back.

Star Wars and Home Brewing Day (May, 4th) beckoned many to the outdoors as it was the first warm Saturday of the year. The passing clouds and wind kept one from being too warm and many took advantage. It was time to take advantage and shoot some video. Several people had been sending questions via YouTube and it was time to answer some.

Many ideas flowed through the brain: depth of field, rear curtain flash, HDRI. Which would survive the truth of the situation? Which would be forgotten? What new ideas would arrive once there and walking around? Oh the possibilities.

The first two videos are up on YouTube: Photography in Harbin Park – Intro and Being on the Path – Harbin Park. While walking down a wide path, a new opportunity came about. It was time to get the iPhone out to discuss how to get a blue sky. This is one of the most common questions asked of me. So, here’s the demonstration.

Visit the videos and enjoy. More editing is to be done and more videos will follow. Send your questions in. It is time to learn and explore photography. It is time to explore your own Harbin Park. It is time to get out and see the world through the lens.

Have fun!

 

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Conference In Phoenix

Customers are Ignoring You
Customers are Ignoring You (Photo credit: ronploof)

Last week I attended the AAA Marketing/IT conference. It is an annual conference to cover ideas and trends going on in the world of marketing and information technology. This year, the conference was held outside of Phoenix near Chandler. The Wild Horse Resort held host.

The last conference was held 18 months ago in Boca Raton, Florida. The main message then was social, social, social. Twitter and Facebook  were becoming good and powerful tools by which to push marketing messages. They are new ways to reach current customers and a new audience. For technologists, the social sites can be a headache with their increase in network traffic. Nearly every workshop was related to using social, leveraging social, accessing social and using social.

Time frames on the Internet move quickly. The short 18 months between conferences have lead to the latest trend: mobile. The discussion of mobile in all its facets was the main idea of the conference, repeated over and over. Experts from Google spoke on using mobile to reach the younger customers and the importance of knowing what kind of device is being used to access your website and what time of day it is. Adaptive design is a must on your website. If customers have a bad mobile experience on your site, it is very difficult to get them back.

The use of a mobile application is another way to access the customer. It must allow the user to be flexible and use it in ways intuitive to them. Make the customer work too much on using your mobile application and they will remove it. It too needs to take location and time of day into account. It must adapt. It must keep their attention.

The age of mobile is here. Smartphone sales have outpaced desktop computers for the last few years. This year, the number of smartphones on the Internet will be greater than number of desktop computers. More and more of your customers will access your web site from mobile devices of various types: phones, tablets and phonelets. They come in different sizes and every user on them expects to use your site within the proper context of their device.

Get mobilized or get left behind.

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Is Your Website Mobile Ready?

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 21:  The 'QR Code Garden...
LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 21: The ‘QR Code Garden’ at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show on May 21, 2012 in London, England. The prestigious gardening show opens to the general public on May 22, 2012 and features 14 show gardens which range from ‘New English’ design to modern topiary gardens. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

iPhones and Androids are great phones. The have all manner of Internet driven applications, including fully functional browsers. Users can visit websites and look at your content, albeit on a small screen. They pinch and expand and scroll to see your site. The site designed and created on large computer screens. The website that isn’t mobile ready and is not mobile aware. The site that annoys your customers. They leave. You lose sales.

You need to get your site mobile ready. You are losing customers to your competition that is mobile ready. More than half of the users who have a bad mobile experience with a business will not recommend them. Are you in a position to lose so many customers because you are not mobile ready? Get with the times and get your site mobile ready.

And there is more you can have in your adds. No doubt you have seen those funny images called QR codes. Those are easily scanned by modern phones and lead visitors to your website. Oh yeah, the same website that is not mobile ready. The same website that is annoying visitors and causing them to leave. The same website that is losing you money. Get mobile ready.

It is time to have your site overhauled to be mobile ready. It is time to get your own iPhone app, yes one that is yours and is in the iTunes store. It is time to take your business into the 21st century. Mobile ready website. Mobile ready customer experience. Mobile ready sales. The future is now. Get mobile ready.

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