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Any marketer knows that online marketing, social media and search engine optimization are constantly changing, ever evolving, tools. That is why online media specialists exist. It’s our job to stay abreast on the latest methods in online marketing and make them part of our client’s programs, while also continuing to maintain the fundamentals marketing strategies that work.

That why I’m writing my little Wordpress series, it’s not about the constantly changing factors or the continual quest of debunking the Google search engine algorithm, its about the fundamentals. The fundamentals always work, as long as they are done correctly. Wordpress and web development is no huge secret. Wordpress has the one of the best user bases ever and the fundamentals are  FREE (Click and Read People).

Six Fundamental Things You Should Know

1. XML Sitemaps - Site maps tell search engines what information on your site is crawlable content. The latest version of Wordpress does it for you automatically on your .wordpress.com blog.

2. Excerpts - What is that funky field under the post box? Well, that’s were you can put a summary of your article. Think of it like a title, a keyword rich, yet targeted sentence about what your post is all about. It displays when someone links to the post. If you don’t include it, it will be the first 55 characters of your post.

3. Validations - .Wordpress.com blogs are already SEO ready. But let’s say you have used Fantastico to install Wordpress and you have integrated 3rd party plug ins to add some nifty features like HeadSpace, Event Calendar, CurrencyX and a language translator. Well, you need to make sure the code validates or it could prevent search engines from moving through your content.

4. Alt Tags - If your site doesn’t have much content or is image based, keyword rich alt tags and image tags are essential.  They make your site more accessible and provide search engines with more searchable content. You can tell if you have them my putting your mouse over an image and seeing if a description pops up.

5. Linkage Love - Blogrolls, pings and track backs are integrated into Wordpress. Basically, if you link to it, it should like to you. And what you link to should have good page ranks and Alexa rankings too. Some sites are newer than others - like this blog itself - so do your homework and look at the content. You can see who links to you by typing in your nifty Google bar link:www.YourSite.com.

6. Site Submission - Contrary to popular belief, monthly submission services are a bit of a scam. $49-99 per month for submission? Ummm, you can do it yourself. And there are also good free services. If your blog is structured correctly, there is not need for paid, monthly services, it does it automatically with all the tools above. These services don’t help you place higher in search rankings.

C. doesn't bat an eyelash when I quit my third job in two months. I tell him, I tell myself, I'll find another job, pronto. Piece of cake. Nothing to worry about. And oddly, I don't worry.

Together, we went online and applied for a Pell Grant to pay the rest of his tuition, which would mean I could take the fat bankroll I've saved for that purpose and buy groceries. The application is so easy I'm shocked it took us this long. That was just two weeks ago and his college already contacted him and told him he should have money by the end of the month.

One morning I sit down and invent a resume that says I am bright shining star of the food service industry and the best damn waitress and/or cocktail server your upscale establishment could desire, and then I go downtown and paper all the nice restaurants and hotel bars. One bar manager tells me to come back after the 4th of July. Everyone else says they'll call me. I'm waiting.

Late one afternoon my phone rings with an out-of-town area code and I pick it up and the guy who introduced himself is the public face of the biggest and most elusive of the institutions whom I have contacted on behalf of Dayjob Project and importunately demanded money. I have been in and out of touch with this man for a year. He has requested documents. I have sent them. I have waited. I have called. I have talked to secretaries and interns. I have waited. I have called again. I have left messages. Now he is on the phone with me and he's using words like "awesome" and "perfect." He's telling me my project is great, and needs to be done, and he's saying "I think we have everything we need to move forward" and he's telling me about the Process. The Process is long, and involves a lot of other people doing things, while I just sit tight on my little ass and wait for a decision. This will take until, oh, say November.

At which time they might or might not send me what I've always wanted: a big bag of money.

A big bag of money means the project can go on. If there is no money, I do not know what I will do. I don't seem to be worried. The project will go on, or maybe it won't. But probably it will. It has momentum, now. A lot of people want to see it happen. I myself will go on, regardless. I always go on.

I find I'm not scared, not at all. This little boat is on the ocean now and the only thing to do is make for the far shore. There is no point in thinking about how deep the water is, or what might be down there. The water is deep and the monsters are down there whether you think about it or not.

I only worry because I am not alone. If it were just me I would have quit dancing a long time ago. I would sleep in someone's garage and live on tortillas like I did when I was twenty, and it would be OK. But C. didn't ask for anything of this, and he trusts me, and I don't want to let him down.

I tell him that we're going to be poor for a while. I tell him I'll do my best, but times are tight. Like he doesn't know already. He does the shopping; he knows the grocery budget is half what it was at the beginning of the year. But I want to know that he knows. I want him to tell me it's OK. I want that so much.

"So you get it, right?" I want to know. We are in the car on the way home from somewhere. C. is driving. I am talking. "You don't mind that we're going to be poor?"

We pull up at a red light, which is good because he can take his eyes off the road and look at me. "How poor?"

"Poor."

"Poor like 'I might have to drop out of school and sell a kidney so we can afford medicine' kind of poor?"

"Poor like 'we might have to eat a lot of beans' kind of poor."

The light turns green. He turns his eyes back to the road. Quietness. He smiles. He reaches over and gently squeezes my thigh.

"Baby, baby, baby," he says. "Baby, you know I love beans."

TONY MEYERS FROM CHURCH POINT, LOUISIANA dragged a starved mare behind a trailer until her hooves were nearly ground away.
TONY MEYERS FROM CHURCH POINT, LOUISIANA wrapped the mare's halter in barbed wire.
TONY MEYERS FROM CHURCH POINT, LOUISIANA shot this same mare in the face.
Not in the brain, mind you, not to even to kill her, but in the nose, to increase her agony.
TONY MEYERS FROM CHURCH POINT, LOUISIANA then ran over this mare with his trailer.
TONY MEYERS FROM CHURCH POINT, LOUISIANA then left this mare for dead.

Sidenote: what the hell is this broken, can't-be-fixed raging person named TONY MEYERS FROM CHURCH POINT, LOUISIANA doing with a gun???
Scary, scary thought.

If you happen to Google your name, TONY MEYERS FROM CHURCH POINT, LOUISIANA, perhaps you will see this post.Read the rest here.

I-muse wrote this. Read it.

Davka has the van I wish I'd been living in for the last two years instead of this Astro. It's an Econoline 150 with the 4.9. Practically the same gas mileage I get with way more space. She got it from a guy who got it from ...

...until the first time I went to Stephanie McMillans page, Minimum Security. These are anti-civ comics at their finest, or maybe at their only. Everything she writes (draws?) is so true, awesomely sarcastic, and funny at the same time. The first time I clicked, she had great ...

“Aw,” She says. “Poor baby girl, you've worked yourself half to death.” “Mmhmm,” I nod sleepily, I have worked every day since I got to Alaska. It's noon and I have to get up, even though I just got here and fell asleep in the driveway a few hours ...

I'd played with strap ons before, but was never really impressed until a lovely experience I had in San Francisco recently. My friends strap on harness was made specially for her, and our anatomy is similar enough that the base of the dildo rested exactly on my clit, pushing ...

“I think that's the number one most valuable life skill, running,” I say as I flop down on her bed. She's a stripper from the rain forest who came to Alaska to get away from an abusive man, but now she wants to go back. I'm proud of her for ...

540_Kendall__O2007carcasswolfbear.wmv

(Ahem. Ladies and Gentlemen who may be at work at, say, a Catholic school or something: there follow some pictures of breasts, among other things. You may not want to scroll down until you go home or otherwise free yourself of such strict wage slavery.) Look, it's like bunk ...

I didn't write anything yesterday. Or today. I meant to write something after work, but now I just want to go to sleep. Here's something I wrote a while ago, kind of un refined. “Hey! It's her! It's fucking her!” I leaned out the window long enough ...

So, dear readers, I am asking for your advice, networking, and questions, and I'm going to throw it all into one post. 1. Do you read a magazine/website/anthology/whatever where my writing would fit? I want some quick credits to put in a book proposal, but slow responding markets that give ...

I just walked into a parts store, rattled off the VIN of the new van and asked what the engine was, what the transmission was, if I could put a transmission from a 2 speed diesel F350 pick up in it. The guy behind the counter didn't blink, he ...

(Paraphrased from voicemail): Do you realize that people are constantly responding to your critique of gay marriage with personal attacks -- your critique isn't personal like that and they don't really know much about you I mean at least I don't think most of them do but they get really personal, on some of these sites it goes on and on like someone on AlterNet who was calling you a slut and things like that?

I used to be a slut, but then I was a whore for so long, and now I'm just tired.

But Kayti’s right -- I'll take critique any day, night, or even morning, but what is up with all these personal attacks? I'll definitely take any response over no response, or wait -- is that true? I guess what's true is that I'm kind of used to it by now, sometimes it's even kind of amusing, but why oh why the low-grade personal bullying -- what do you think?

The entire evening she’s been flirting with me. We’re friends so I knew she’s known for sleeping with women and not calling. Not a problem with me seeing as I already have a partner who will be calling me tomorrow. She is away so she said I could play.

My friend, the flirt, she follows me into the bathroom and we slam into each other’s mouths it seems. We move to a stall and I pull down her pants and lift her onto the back of the toilet tank. I bury my face into her sex. God, she tastes good. I’m fucking her with my mouth so hard that she inches up the wall higher and higher. I lift her thighs over my shoulders and I feel like I am being smothered by her pussy. I am loving every moment of it. She comes violently and lays limp atop my shoulders, my hair entangled between her fingers, and my face dripping of her.

After taking a moment to compose herself, she hops down and pins me against the bathroom stall door. She kneels before me and lifts my skirt up, tucking it into my waistband and out of the way. She kisses my pussy through my lace panties, first softly and sweet, then harder and forcefully. So forceful that, when she pulls a knife from her back pocket I am almost scared. Almost. She takes the knife and slices my panties off, tucking them into her pocket for keeps. Pulling my shirt up, she traces each of my nipples softly with the tip of the knife, and then pulls it down towards my navel, slightly breaking the skin.

She puts the knife away and places her fingers on my clit for a moment before she plunges 3 fingers into my slick cunt. She’s finger-fucking me hard against the stall door; I can feel it bend with each thrust. I plead for her to add another finger and she does, much to my delight. I want all of her inside me. As I climax I can feel the walls of my pussy clamp down over her fingers so hard that it’s difficult for her to keep them inside me. I can see the muscles in her forearm flex as she struggles to keep from slipping out. I grab her neck and bite down hard to keep from screaming, trying to maintain as much privacy as one can whilst fucking in a bar bathroom stall. Coming down from coming, I untuck my skirt and slip my feet back into my heels, which must have fallen off sometime during our encounter,

When I slip out of the bathroom stall, another woman enters and I try to stifle the smile crossing my face.

• I want to go home. At least I brought my Klonopin w/ me. Took one a minute ago, hopefully it will help. Back to the hospital at 11. #
• The irony is not lost on me, of my dad being in the VA Hospital on July 4 w/ them saying they can’t do anything bc of the holiday weekend. #
• @jenbrock i was thinking of u, i remembered u said that. it’s beyond frustrating, i wonder what can be done #
• Rusty is picking up lunch for us from krystal. I’m at a hospital & eating *worse* than usual. :p #
• Replaced all the lightbulbs in my parents’ house w/ curly-cue flourescents. #
• I guess it’s bad form to whine about getting a bad chai, considering all the other circumstances. #

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[This is a post from: Being Amber Rhea]

Over the last few days I’ve been getting a lot of spam in the comments. I just deleted 287 of them. While I’m working on the problem, if your comment doesn’t show up a few days after you post it please leave another one. It could have gotten lost in the gigantic pile of spam that is currently my “comments to moderate” section. Thanks.

• Astarte’s Circus: A Call to Inaction (tags: feminism sexism racism race women awesome important Reference)
• Fimoculous.com - internal - Rex Is Talking To Himself Again “I’m not trying to make some grand point about Tumblrs being the future of literature, but I don’t like this reactionary voice on the internet that wishes to turn everything into bland, impersonal, ‘boredwithit’ blog junk.” (tags: blogging socialmedia annoying)

[This is a post from: Being Amber Rhea]

Coyote started on again. He came to a camp. He inquired about the location of the chief's camp. Someone told him, "See that tipi over there with the reddish smoke flap? That's where the chief lives." Coyote went over there. He entered the tipi. A woman was in there. He...