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Archive for May, 2011

10 Best Ways to Promote Yourself Online

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

When you’re trying to establish a professional identity, you need to be savvy about the various networking sites online and how they work. These are the places that people look these days when trying to find out more about a person. Each of the social and professional networking sites have different strengths. Understanding what those are, will help you in creating your online image.

  1. Facebook – Most people have a personal facebook page. If you are a professional in the arts or in business for yourself, you should also have a facebook page that focuses on you as the professional. It’s easy and its free.
  2. Linkedin – This is the premier business professional network site. Whether you are self-employed or a lead employee in your company, you should be listed and connected on Linkedin. It is the place where you make contacts with most anyone in the business world.
  3. Twitter – Creating a following on Twitter can bring you a surprising amount of recognition. This little sound bites called Tweets are the marketing tool of today.
  4. MySpace – Although MySpace is not in the news the way Facebook is today, it still is one of the largest social networks on the Web. You don’t want to overlook this opportunity. Make sure your information is available and up to date on your MySpace page.
  5. Ezine Articles – Posting Ezine articles about your niche can be a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field and also drive traffic to your website or blog.
  6. Manta – Manta is a directory listing of businesses and individuals in business. It ranks high in search engines and is free to join. Just another simple way to get your name noticed.
  7. Google Profiles – Where better to tell the world who you are, and what you want them to know about you, than right on Google itself. Fill in your information and allow Google to assist you in self-promotion.
  8. Social Harbor – This site will do the promotional networking for you. With a paid membership, they will make sure that you have profiles set up on all the major networking sites, and that they are all consistent.
  9. Visible Me – Visible.me was formally known as Naymz. It is a personal branding site that will assist you in establishing yourself consistently across the Web and also help you to connect with other members of their free service.
  10. Xing – This is a business and professional networking site established in Europe but with a very global outreach. If you’re looking to establish new connections within the global business community, this site provides you with a very large membership to draw from.

These are just the top ten sites for promotion on the web. There are plenty of other sites that target niche markets that you should also consider, as you attempt to establish your personal and professional brand.

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10 Types of Videos That YouTube Should Simply Ban

Sunday, May 15th, 2011

Youtube videos can be very entertaining. Beautiful music, funny humor, amazing video captures of unexpected situations. But there are a few types of videos that really should be banned from the Youtube site for the sake of the rest of us.

  1. Infomercials – Really? Does anyone really want to watch super long commercials on the internet? By choice? Save the space on the internet and confine them to the television set.
  2. Boring rants – One person sitting in front of a video camera talking about nothing. What is the purpose of this? If it was funny or interesting, engaging in some way, that would be fine; but usually it isn’t. It’s just somebody who is bored that is willing to sharing his boring life with the rest of us.
  3. Miss-matched music – If you’re going to add background music to your video, at least pick something that fits the video. And if you’re adding still pictures behind music… make sure the pictures don’t continue on for 3 more minutes after the song is finished. These types of things should remain in the original practice folder on your computer, not be uploaded for the world’s displeasure.
  4. Videos of TV – Puhh-leeease! We’re very happy to know that you love that TV show, but uploading this to Youtube is not the way to share your joy. Start a blog and WRITE about it. Don’t waste video on it.
  5. Song Parodies – Of the thousands of these out there, there may be a handful that are worth watching; the rest are just ‘more of the same’. Song parodies are not unique. And parodies of parodies? Now that is just uncalled for.
  6. Animal Sex – Turtles seem to fascinate people, for some reason, there are way too many of those. But to make it simple, just ban the entire category, OK? Go visit a zoo or a barnyard, if that’s your thing.
  7. Teenagers making out – So you’re impressed that you can get a girl to mesh her lips with yours on camera. I know it does seem like a big deal at the time, but you teeny boppers all look alike. Post the video on your facebook wall if you like, but spare the public of Youtube.
  8. Dogs driving cars – Small dogs driving cars, large dogs driving cars, you can find them all on Youtube. And we all believe that the dogs are driving cars down the street. I’m afraid not.
  9. Videos of computer screens – This is similar to the video of the television screen, though maybe one step further into the idiot zone. If we are on the internet, we can find and view whatever it is you have found and are viewing. Join Stumbleupon and share the site. It’s much simpler.
  10. Graduation speeches – Yes, we know that you are SO PROUD of your valedictorian son/daughter; and that speech was pure genius. Save it for your next summer party and show it to your guests. They’ll be thrilled!

You probably have your own list of unnecessary wastes of Youtube’s cyberspace. Or…maybe, this is your list of favorites. To each their own, I guess.

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Ten Fastest Humans Who Did Not Use PEDS

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

Today, and back through the annals of time, the title of “World’s Fastest Human” has been  revered, valued as highly as a claim to royalty.  Does anybody remember who the King of Norway was during the 1930′s?  Probably not, but ask which American athlete almost single-handedly took over the 1936 Summer Olympic Games Games, ostensibly a showcase for Hitler’s Germany, and the name “Jesse Owens” pops right out.

The cheetah is the fastest mammal on the planet, capable of short bursts in the 70mph range. Human sprinters, particularly 100-meter runners like Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, today’s “Fastest Human”, reach speeds of nearly 30mph.  In the animal kingdom, that ranks us at about #30, comparable to house cats.  For reference, the wildebeest clocks in at 50mph, an elk can hit 45mph, and  then, of course, we have the Mongolian Wild Ass, capable of hitting the 40mph mark.

Top sprinters can live like royalty, too, and competition is fierce for the coveted spots among the elite.  Hundredths-, even thousandths-, of-a-second, can be the razor-thin difference between riding the bus, and flying first-class.  In order to gain the extra inch, and cut off a nano-second, athletes go to extraordinary lengths, some legal, others not-so-legal.

Performance Enhancing Drugs, or PEDS, are nothing new in the world of sports.  Strychnine was used, with approval, in the 19th Century, to aid struggling Olympic marathon runners make it to the finish line. Ancient Greeks also used strychnine and hallucinogens to increase endurance.

Today, however, we have tried to establish a level field for competitors, after substance use and abuse warped that competition. Subsequent testing programs, along with severe penalties, have only slowed the use of these various substances.

Many great athletes, sprinters among them, have achieved great feats without the use of PEDS. So, which of our famous speedsters has retained the innocence we demand? We will discount un-founded rumor, presuming innocence til proven guilt, because no modern runner eludes the wide brush of innuendo.

  1. Usain Bolt: The aptly named Usain “Lightning” Bolt, current world-record holder, and reigning Olympic 100 metre champion, with a personal best time of 9.58 seconds.
  2. Asafa Powell: Powell held the world title for almost three years, lowering his own record twice, with a best time of 9.74.
  3. Tyson Gay: Gay has been running in the shadows of Bolt and Powell for a number of years,though he does own the second fastest 100 metre time in history, a blistering 9.69.
  4. Leroy Burrell: Twice set the world record, recording a 9.85 in 1994.
  5. Carl Lewis: Lewis ran 9.86 in 1991, and won 10 Olympic medals, for running and long-jumping.
  6. Calvin Smith: A contemporary of the more famous Carl Lewis, Smith was, nevertheless, one of the world’s top sprinters in the 1980′s, setting a world record 100 metre time of 9.93 in 1983
  7. Jim Hines: The first man to break the ten-second barrier, and he set a record time (9.95) in 1968, a record that stood for almost 15 years, until Smith broke the mark in 1983.
  8. Charles Greene: Greene ran in the same race that saw Jim Hines win, in record time, in 1968. Greene also dipped under ten-seconds in that race, in Sacramento, California. The race,known as “the Night of Speed”, also saw Ronnie Ray Smith, who finished third, break the til-then elusive ten-second mark.
  9. Bob Hayes: Known as “Bullet” Bob, Hayes set a 100 metre mark in the 1964 Olympics, and then went on to a Hall of Fame football career with the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys
  10. Jesse Owens: In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Owens shined, winning four gold medals, which greatly annoyed Adolph Hitler, who had counted on the Olympics to be a triumphant display of Aryan supremacy.

We don’t know how much faster humans can run, but, doubtless, we will continue to idolize the                  great runners, whoever they are.

And the King of Norway from 1905-1957? He was the illustrious King Haakon VII.

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10 Tips for Speed Reading Beginners

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

According to speed-readers.com, the average reader is able to read approximately two words per second, or 120 words per minute.  But with practice, readers have been able to increase their reading speed to upwards of 1,000 words per minute.  The following is a list of 10 ways reading speed can be increased, while not missing any important information.

1. Skim the whole text first: Take a few minutes to get to know the lay-out of the reading material.  If you are reading a book, read through the Table of Contents to learn what the main ideas of the material will be.  Think about what you already know about the information you will be reading, so as to make connections with the text as you read.  Speed-reading should not reduce your comprehension of the text.

2. Read the last sentence of the first paragraph: Typically, this sentence is called the “thesis sentence,” which is a one sentence summary of the main point of the paper, or chapter, if reading a book.

3. Read first sentence of each paragraph:  This sentence is called the “topic sentence” and the following sentences in the paragraph will contain supporting material or examples.  Reading this sentence will determine if you need to read the rest of the paragraph or if you can skim the content, or skip ahead.

4. Read the first and last sentences of the last paragraph: Typically, the last paragraph will summarize the whole chapter.  It is the “conclusion.”  Read the last paragraph to determine if you have noted all the information, or if you need to review content for an important point you may have missed.

5. Do not speak each word as you read: eyes can move faster than the mouth, in speed reading the less movement, the better.

6. Read everything written in Bold Print, ALL CAPS, italics, or underlined:  If the author of the article thinks the information is important enough to use some unusual format to make it stand out from the rest of the printed page, then the information is important.  Read it.  If  the information jumps off the page, it will be quick and easy to read.

7. Read all numbered or bulleted lists: Lists are another technique writers use to convey a lot of information in an easily accessible way.  Lists are quick and easy to read since they do not have to follow grammatical rules of sentence structure.

8. Read all the sidebar information: Here again, is information that is supportive or repetitive of the text.  It is also noticeable and easily accessible, and can oftentimes be a replacement for reading the text.

9. Read graphs and picture captions:  Because people learn in many different ways, writers often include graphs or other visual supports of the information they are trying to convey.  These are all excellent ways to reinforce the information from the text to ensure comprehension.

10. Instead of reading each word at a time, practice reading whole sentences at a time: When we learn to read be start by recognizing letters, then syllables, then whole words.  Most people do not stop there, but continue to read by seeing phrases, or small groups of words that make up an idea.  Draw this technique out to include whole sentences by using peripheral vision and reading speed will increase.

If you are really interested in speed reading, you could go back through this list, read only the bold print (which is also a numbered list).  Everything else is supporting information as to WHY reading those particular parts of any text is important.

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