Monday December 10th, 2007: Issue #869
As you probably realize, I love words. I’m particularly interested in where words and expressions come from and I often look up ones that catch my attention.
There is one word that I have had no luck finding an origin of - maybe you know the answer and can put me out of my misery!
The word in question is ‘yay’.
Not the ‘yay’ that youngsters seem to use all the time instead instead of ‘hooray’, but the ‘yay’ that Americans, and sometimes Canadians, use to mean ‘this’ or ’so’.
As in the expression, “it was yay high”, or “the fish was yay long”.
There is a phenomenon in linguistics called recency, where when we hear a new word or expression we automatically assume it has just been invented - when it has actually been around for a long time, but just hadn’t got to us yet.
Perhaps yay is something like that for me - new to my consciousness, but actually a word that has been in use for ever!
Or, I suppose I should say, ‘for yay long.’
Any ideas?
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I’ve written a new piece of software that I plan to sell very soon. It is really useful for article writers, website builders and content creators of all kinds. If you are at all concerned about on-page SEO, it will be useful to you.
Before I make this available for sale, I’m putting it through its beta test phase, so I thought what better than to offer it for Kickstart readers to use for the next few days.
And hopefully, you’ll let me know any problems or bugs you come across.
The program is called the Keyword Hacker LSI Tool (for now - a better name is probably needed) and it will analyze a keyword or phrase that you input and come up with lists of words that the search engines expect to see on pages optimized for that term.
It is much easier to use than explain!
You can access the tool at http://www.keywordhacker.com/lsiplus/
Below is an article I’ve written that explains why a tool like this is particularly useful.
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How to write 3D articles
Writing articles is a great way to generate traffic, develop links, build a reputation for yourself and create content for your websites. With a little practice and a clear understanding of what you are trying to communicate, article writing is easy.
Every article should start out as a keyword or phrase. The theory (and practice) is simple: find a keyword within your niche topic that people actually use in the search engines, but that doesn’t have a whole lot of websites competing for it. Tat way, you stand a better chance of ranking higher than average when your article goes online.
And the higher your article can rank, the more likely you are to get traffic.
Unfortunately, most people who are starting out writing articles tend to write what I call two-dimensional articles. Articles that, if they were photographs, would be in black and white.
What I mean by that is that novice article writers (and quite a few more experienced writers too) tend to focus on the niche and the specific keyword so closely that their article has no depth.
It’s a sad truth, but two-dimensional, black and white articles are a bit more than shallow - they are boring.
Many PLR articles tend to suffer from this problem.
The search engines have long declared that their intention is to supply searchers with the most relevant and interesting web pages and so they went looking for ways to identify what makes one article dull and boring and another rich, colorful and, in my terms, 3D.
Some time ago, Google and its competitors paid a lot of money for an algorithm that would allow them to do just that - and at the same time immediately identify web pages that are more likely to be interesting in their niches than others. The algorithm is called Latent Semantic Indexing - LSI for short.
Very briefly, the theory behind LSI is that for any keyword you start with, there are a whole lot of other words that, in natural communications, tend to be used in the same context.
For example, if your keyword was ‘horses’, it would be natural to expect to find words such as equine, show, breeds, riding, pony, stallion, racing, thoroughbred and training someplace on the same page. Yet so many article writers are so focused on their basic keyword that they don’t think to expand their writing in such collateral directions.
Having paid top dollar for the technology to seek out web pages that have good LSI terms, you can bet that the search engines are applying it. And website builders who have an understanding of on-page SEO are realizing that they need to apply it too.
How can you tell which words are related to your search term, from an effective LSI standpoint? Beyond that, having found a list of LSI words, what weight should each be given?
The search engines are not about to tell us what their algorithm is in any detail, but we can draw inferences by reverse engineering the way they index sites.
I’ve written a program that analyzes the on-page content of sites that appear at the top of the SE listings for any given keyword or phrase.
First it checks each indexed page for the number of words on that page and the number of times the selected keyword appears. Then it AMAlgAMAtes the data from all of the pages and creates a list of the most commonly appearing words - words that appear, on average, at least once on every indexed site.
From this, we can infer that those words are likely to be ones that the search engines think are ‘related’ to the primary keyword. In other words, we can get a list of LSI words, with their appearance weight, from which we can select a few to use in our articles. And in so doing, we’ll add the required color and three- dimensionality that may otherwise be lacking.
My Keyword Hacker LSI tool is still in beta, but can be accessed (free) for a short time at http://www.keywordhacker.com/lsiplus/
Another thing that often confuses article writers is how many times their keyword should be used. All kinds of figures are quoted, from 0.5% of the total word count right up to 10% or more. But which figure is correct?
Surprisingly, they are both correct. Another benefit of the Keyword Hacker LSI tool is that it can show you at a glance the weight of keyword density that the search engines seem to like to see, for each individual keyword.
This is important because there is no set figure. The optimum density changes from keyword to keyword. For example, my program shows the average keyword density for the target search engine’s top ten listings. While this is by no means a categoric density recommendation, it does provide a guide to the SE’s expectations for that particular niche.
The following results for a diverse list of keywords and phrases demonstrates the point:
acne treatment 0.7%
dog training 0.9%
horses 1.8%
credit card 2.5%
muffins 2.9%
acne 3.9%
chocolate 4.8%
cat 5.2%
Broad terms - like acne, chocolate and cat - seem to need a much higher on-page keyword density than narrower niches like acne treatment in order to be ranked well.
The Keyword Hacker LSI Tool allows you to find just the right words to make your articles and web pages stand out from the crowd.
When you’ve finished writing your masterpiece, run it through my other Keyword analysis tool at http://www.keywordhacker.com to see just how well you’ve done in crafting the ultimate three-dimensional article.
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I like to keep up to date with the latest ebooks that are coming out and even though I can often get hold of a review copy, I often prefer to spend my own money. Yes, I’m strange like that.
Yesterday was one of those days.
I’d been getting several ‘recommendations’ (more like virtually identical sales messages) from various email marketers. You can’t really call most of them newsletter writers any more, can you.
Anyway, after ignoring most of these messages, I finally allowed my curiosity to get the better of me. It was a wet and windy Sunday afternoon, so I was looking for a distraction.
The book that they were all going on about in such lurid and hyped up terms was called ‘The Baby Boomer’s Guide to Online Income’ by Nick Marks.
Frankly, I really didn’t much like the sales page and was within a hair’s breadth of hitting the back button, but I persisted and bought the book.
[Note: if you buy the book too, there is a free DVD offer on the download page. I'd advise you to ignore it. It may be a very good DVD, but the page you had to enter your address details into crashed my computer. Be warned! You don't need to get the DVD to get the book, and although the DVD is free, there is a p&p charge.]
So what do I think of the book?
Well, I AM making a recommendation here. But not in the lurid, ‘you must buy this book to discover the greatest secrets ever’ way that so many others have done. Let’s aim for a bit of balance!
I printed the book out and took it to bed with me last night - much to Delia’s annoyance. She knows that when I bring printed out ebooks to bed, the light will be on for ages. Either I’ll fall asleep reading the dreary prose, or I’ll have to read every word right to the end. Either way, the light disturbs her sleep.
I have to tell you that ‘The Baby Boomer’s Guide to Online Income’ was a disturbing book.
Delia didn’t get me to put the light off until two in the morning. But I stayed awake and read right to the end.
The author, Nick Marks, seems to have decided to aim his book at the baby boomer market. People my age and up who are recently retired, or on the verge of stopping work. I don’t really understand why he has done that as the information in it is suitable for anyone, of any age. So please take the title with a pinch of salt.
Who should be reading it? Newcomers to the world of Internet marketing. It is, fair and square an ebook for complete newbies.
And despite the hype, it is a very good one at that. It isn’t all that long - 54 pages - but it covers all the basic concepts that you need to understand before embarking on the journey towards building an online income. If you are still wondering what all this Internet marketing stuff is all about, no matter what age you are, this book will be very useful to you.
Anyone who is already up and running should steer clear though, because you won’t learn anything new. That’s not a criticism, however. There is a big market for books for newbies that are well written and easy to understand.
2008 is just around the corner and if you are intrigued by the idea of making money online, but have found it all baffling up to now, Nick Marks’ book could be just what you need to set your new year off with a bang.
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An Inspirational Thought
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You can foresee the future.
You don’t need a crystal ball or a set of tarot cards to see into your own future. All you need is a set of expectations.
If you expect good things to happen to you, generally they will. If you generally expect bad things to come about, then they will too.
In a survey carried out by Dr Richard Wiseman for his book ‘The Luck Factor’, a very strong correlation was found between people who are either demonstrably lucky or unlucky and whether they believed that good or bad things would happen in their lives.
The more they believed and expected good fortune, the more they got it - and vice versa.
Positive or negative expectations are not an ingrained personality trait that your are born with - they are acquired habits.
Habits, however deeply entrenched, are able to be changed if you have the will and the belief that a better way is possible.
If you are a ‘negative expector’, start out by changing small areas of your thinking.
Instead of thinking, ‘Oh, I’ll never get a parking space’, just for once go out with the absolute belief that you will find a spot. More often than not, you will - and you will be well on your way to changing your negative thought habits.
It is absolutely true that we make our own luck - so why on Earth would you want to make it bad?
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Who do you know who would love Kickstart Today?
Don’t keep it to yourself - send them to
http://www.kickstartdaily.com today!
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The Quote of the Day
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George Bernard Shaw said,
“Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.”
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Today’s Power Thought
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Imagine this conversation at the water cooler:
“Hi, how are you?”
“My shoulder’s playing up today. It’s very sore.”
“I know, my knees are in a terrible state. I can hardly climb flight of stairs without they send shooting pains right up my legs.”
“Yes, I think its from when I played tennis a the weekend, my left shoulder locked up and hasn’t been the same since.”
“And my right ankle is starting to ache as well now, I guess I’m just wearing out.”
“Have a good day.”
“See you later.”
Does it sound familiar? We all do that - think that our aches and pains are far more interesting than the other person’s.
And isn’t it irritating when you are talking to someone who does that to!
The conversation above is what is called a 50:50 dialogue.
Each participant spends 50% of the time talking about themselves. 2 x 50% is 100% - nothing left over for listening.
In any conversation between two people there is the opportunity for you to have 50% of the time (unless you know some very self-obsessed people, in which case they will tend to monopolize if you let them). How you use your 50% determines how well thought of you will be.
That is worth repeating: how you use your 50% determines how well thought-of you will be.
Imagine your 50% being broken up into five equal parts.
Now, when you are next having a conversation, consider this formula:
3+2=10/10
If you can make three parts of your five be about the other person and the other two about anything else (you, football, the weather, work, anything at all) you will get 10 out of 10 as a conversationalist.
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Fascinating Facts
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The jellyfish, known as the Portuguese Man-of-War can grow so large that its stinging tentacles reach a mile in length.