In context, when you want others to accept you for who you are, you also need to accept who they are. Some friends can be rude when correcting you - tactless with their words.
By shrugging off an opportunity to grow, regardless of this person's character, motive or choice of words, it will be your loss. It is your perspective that counts. When you accept your friend's correction, you also give your friend a seat of importance in your life. It is also a means of telling him, you have the right to tell me what needs to be corrected. Doing the opposite, leaves a connotation that we're just 'good time' buddies. Don't cross the line. Humility is accepting your weaknesses. Charles Stanley, in his book Relationship Principles of Jesus, also made me reflect that the trait or attitude we despise from other people is the same exact attitude that we possess. Similarly, if I may I add, it may also be true that the reason why you dislike someone is because you're jealous of that person: you wish you had something she has or you hope to be in the position she is in. I didn't want to believe this either when I first heard it from a Bible Study. But based on personal experience, I encourage you that once you feel a tingle of dislike in your heart, take it as a warning to check your heart. It might just be you who is in the wrong. Grab every opportunity to learn. Be humble.Thursday, March 29, 2012
The Evidences of Humility
Monday, March 26, 2012
Linkbuilding Factors | Linkbuilding Levels | The Different Levels of Linkbuilding
Thursday, March 22, 2012
We have killed God
Religion is banned in debates. Christianity is frowned upon by the world. God has been killed by atheists.
This entry has been inspired by Ravi Zacharias’ podcast: “The Search for Absolutes in a Pluralistic Society”
The German philosopher Nietsche wrote this story in his book Die fröhliche Wissenschaft(Gay Science)
Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market-place, and cried incessantly: “I am looking for God! I am looking for God!” As many of those who did not believe in God were standing together there, he excited considerable laughter. Have you lost him, then? said one. Did he lose his way like a child? said another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? or emigrated? Thus they shouted and laughed. The madman sprang into their midst and pierced them with his glances.
“Where has God gone?” he cried. “I shall tell you. We have killed him – you and I. We are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is it not more and more night coming on all the time? Must not lanterns be lit in the morning?
Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we not smell anything yet of God’s decomposition? Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whosoever shall be born after us – for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto.”
Here the madman fell silent and again regarded his listeners; and they too were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern to the ground, and it broke and went out. “I have come too early,” he said then; “my time has not come yet. The tremendous event is still on its way, still travelling – it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time, the light of the stars requires time, deeds require time even after they are done, before they can be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than the distant stars - and yet they have done it themselves.” It has been further related that on that same day the madman entered divers churches and there sang a requiem. Led out and quietened, he is said to have retorted each time: “what are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchres of God? God is dead. We have killed Him.”
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Reverse SEO
Search Engine Reputation Management is getting increasingly popular these days. These are times when free thought and opinion is honored by the search results in blogging platforms, forums, social networks, etc. Because of this, companies that commit mistakes (who doesn’t?) can face grave consequences in having bad reputation results in the search engines. Reverse SEO is exactly for managing these negative search engine results.
When a bad Reputation pops up
You won’t really know when one of your employees or high level staff will do something stupid. You won’t really know if or when your product will fail. You won’t really know if an unreasonable, irate customer will walk in your door. You won’t really know if that customer knows how to do SEO. You won’t really know when you’re gonna get a bad reputation in the search engines. What you need to know is what to do when this happens.
How you can put it down
There are different ways and approaches that you can do in order to put a bad reputation in the search results down. There’s the ‘strategic’ method and the ‘grinding’ method.
Strategic
1) Tell Google
If something goes wrong, the first thing you can do is to check if there is anything against Google guidelines in the entry. If there is, you can report them to the big daddy of search and have that entry de-indexed. Here’s Google’s ‘against the guidelines’ list:
- My confidential, personal information is appearing in search results (e.g. name, address, phone number, medical records)
- A piece of content I am concerned about has already been removed by the webmaster but still appears among the search results
- I have found a site that is engaging in suspicious behavior
- I would like incorrect or inaccurate information to be removed from search results
- My full name or the name of my business appears on an adult content site that’s spamming Google’s search results
- A page appearing in Google’s search results is violating my company’s trademark rights
- One or more pages on my site have been removed due to a legal complaint, and I would like them restored.
- I have a legal issue that is not mentioned above
2) Settlement
There is arguably nothing more fulfilling than being reconciled with a brother. Reaching a mutual agreement between the offended party who owns the bad reputation and the company itself can sometimes be the best and easiest way to remove a bad reputation from the web. It can be accomplished in 3 easy steps:
- Contact the webmaster
- Ask for a meeting – be at your best
- Negotiate for a compromise between both parties
This is usually done in the form of monetary settlements. Since the company has incurred personal, (and sometimes emotional) damage to the customer, there can be high demands from the offended party. If the bad reputation is affecting the business and the brand in a negative way, take care of it.
Weigh it out. Are the demands of the customer weightier than the damages incurred of the bad reputation? If it’s a no, then give in to the demands. Don’t think about it anymore – just do it. Every second, there are 3 billion searches happening globally. Why take a risk? Who knows if .1% of those searches could be about your brand?
Friday, March 16, 2012
SEO Hacker Team
Ever wondered about who the people behind SEO Hacker are? I’ve been trying to get this out for a while but we haven’t been able to take a complete photo shoot until now. So without further ado, I would like to introduce to you the God-sent people who have helped SEO Hacker become what it is today.
Austin Takahashi is the team mascot, singer, dancer, performer, DJ, entertainer, philosopher, movie critic extraordinaire – you name it. He can be anything. But for now he’s primarily our blog manager. Takes care of all our blogs like they were balloons. If it doesn’t make sense, that’s probably his soul. Follow him at @autitakahashi
Robert Cipriano with his suave looks and demeanor is a guy who will see through in finishing the work assigned to him. He is a born-again Christian and is passionate in sharing God’s Word through his Internet Christian Radio Station, Truth-on-air. He’s in charge of SEO Hacker’s Linkbuilding campaigns.
Richmond Ibasco is not what you will call a typical programmer. He is a guy who knows how to have fun in his own definition of the word. And lots of it. He is the lead back-end developer and programmer of SEO Hacker. A programming genius and hard-core gamer. Don’t let the good-boy looks deceive you.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
The Prosperity Test: How God blessed me Triple in 16 days | Tithing | Testimony
Just recently, I’ve been struggling to give my tithe to God – because I will be going negative. I’ve had this bad habit of waiting 3 months until I give God 3 months worth of my tithe. I’m not saying that it’s a sin to do so. All I’m saying is that it’s much better if I give God my tithe the moment I get my income for the month. This is my testimony about tithing and God’s great financial blessings to me.
This entry has been inspired by God’s blessings in my life – His molding of my character, and His recent prosperity test for me. To you oh Lord, I give my greatest thanks and praise. May this entry always glorify you!
And for the month of February, I’ll be going negative if I do give my tithe to God. Bad budgeting.
You see, I’ve been supporting campus missionaries. And there’s this specific campus missionary that I give a sizable amount to. My support for this person is charged via credit card. On November 2011, I cut that specific credit card due to bad service. What happened was, my support for that campus missionary got cut too – 4 months behind as of February 2012. I was only able to transfer the billing to my other credit card on Feb 2012.
That money isn’t mine. I pledged it to God to give to that campus missionary. Because it was 4 months already, it was an even bigger amount. I knew that I’ll be going negative on March’s credit card billing. I asked God if my support to that campus minister could be considered as my ‘tithe’ – apparently God said ‘NO’. Little did I know that God’s ‘No’ is because He wants to bless me more than that.
Let’s roll back a little bit – where I am now
I’m an internet marketer and SEO specialist. Right now I’m the proprietor and managing director of SEO Hacker – an internet marketing company. We offer a wide variety of best-quality services and we prove our worth by applying our internet marketing strategies to our own website. Right now we have 10 wonderful full-time workers (including me!) and a lot of part time writers and are looking for more people!
The company was started by God in my life through helping me test and experiment with this blog, God and You. I was not born rich. My family is not rich. I had no money to start a business. No capital at all – ZERO. And yet, God started the company with me from doing freelance SEO work – to signing contracts with big name clients. God is my provider.
The company earns a good amount each month and I get to keep a portion for myself – enough for me to spend for myself, my dates with my wonderful girl, my family, etc… It was a blessed amount. It was also more than enough for me to give and support other people in need. Which, I believe, God has called me to. And to top it all off, I get to save a fair amount at the end of each month.
All these blessings were brought to me by God just like that in the year 2010 when I graduated college. He just provides!
But last year (2011), I had no new contracts to boost up my savings and earnings even if I worked hard for them. Strange. Still, I gave my tithe to God and my support to other people.
But February 2012 was different – I was going to go red.
I didn’t want to go red.
I want to get married this year – and, I can humbly and honestly tell you that I’m VERY far off financially.
How Foursquare affects SEO | Foursquare Optimization
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, are among some of the many social media outlets that affect SEO. However, what many local businesses don’t know is how Foursquare can also aid in their SEO efforts.
This entry is a guest post by Alexis Tate
Foursquare emerged in 2009 and was deemed the “new Twitter” in 2010. A social media outlet specifically created to allow users to “check-in” to their favorite restaurants, stores, etc., receive deals, and share their check-ins with friends, Foursquare is yet another free social media tool to be used by businesses to better their SEO and overall sales.
Here’s how Foursquare works:
- Users create an account and check-in to the places they go.
- Participating businesses offer deals and discounts to those who check-in as well as specials to those who are “regulars.”
- Users’ check-ins not only get shared with their Foursquare friends, but to all of their Facebook friends and Twitter followers if they opt to do so.
Foursquare encourages not only sharing, but brand loyalty. It’s truly a win-win situation for those businesses and customers that choose to participate.
Apart from the impact sharing and customer incentives will have on a business’ online presence, Foursquare affects SEO in a very simple way: Businesses with Foursquare profiles get indexed and crawled by Google. This means that it could directly affect business’ ranking on search engines.