This song just came on my playlist, putting a big smile on my face. It really represents my feelings for Mike, at least when I’m not mad at him 😉
Author: marga (Page 14 of 158)
I just got an offer from someone I suppose works for a search engine optimization (SEO) company offering to pay me $40 to advertise on one of my web pages. I get these offers from time to time, but this time I decided to inquire a little bit further and find out exactly what they wanted from me. It turned out that they wanted me to place 3 links on my Cantabrian cheesecake recipe page. That, in itself, was pretty weird, as I can’t imagine that page gets many visitors, but what was weirder was the actual links they wanted me to include. They were to websites for building birdhouses! Two of the websites, moreover, where government websites (I guess park departments must encourage birdhouses). Now, this puzzled me as I was sure that government websites would not be paying for links, specially from irrelevant pages like mine, so I decided to do a bit of investigation. This is what I found out:
– Nobody knows exactly what Google’s algorithm for listing websites is, but one factor is how many other sites link to that one site.
– The “quality” of the site where the link is matters, Google gives more weight to websites that it deems “legitimate” (i.e. not created for the sole purpose of linking to other sites).
– The word it links from matters too. In this case, the SEO seller asked me to add the words “cottage cheese” to my description of queso fresco and link to the one commercial birdhouse site from the word “cottage”.
– Google, however, does not assess the relevancy of the link to the subject matter of the page. In other words, Google won’t notice/care that the link to a page on building birdhouses came from a recipe page.
– If Google catches you buying or selling links, it will penalize you by not having your website show up at all or in the first few pages of search results.
I still don’t quite understand how this person actually found my Cantabrian cheesecake page (what word could she have been searching for that would have led her to that page?). In any case, I thought this was interesting to share.
About a year ago, I decided upon a whim to become a Pastafarian. Then I forgot all about it, but not before my amazingly smart kids decided to create representations of our newfound deity: The Flying Spaghetti Monster. The one on top is the one conceived and made by Mika (8 years old at the time) all on her own. She chose the materials, she figured out how to make it, etc. The latter is a derived worked that Camila and I put together. A comparison of the two will bring the deep theological question to mind: how many meatballs does the FSM have? One big one or two small ones? We promise not to make our differences over the issue break our family apart.
For years, I used to get the most horrible foot ache whenever I walked any sort of distances. It didn’t matter what type of shoes I wore. Then, almost a decade ago I discovered Teva sandals, and then shoes, and I have wore nothing else since. The problem with Teva is that the shoes are very expensive, usually in the $70-90 range. While they are well made and last a long time, I do walk a lot – so a pair of shoes won’t last me more than a couple of seasons. An additional problem is that the shoes are rather ugly – some newer styles are cute, but not as comfy as the traditional ones. Still, I’m just not ready to pay full price for Teva’s so I’ve resorted to buying them at online discounters. Note that these usually sell either discontinued styles or returns.
The best discounter I’ve found is Sierra Trading Post. I’ve gotten several pairs of shoes from them and the shoes have always been in brand new condition. Shipping is quick and efficient. Prices are great, in particular when you use a discount code. On the minus side, if you do have to return your shoes, you will have to pay shipping -which can be about $8. So make sure you know what your size is – not all Teva sytles are consistent.
Amazon.com sometimes has great deals on Teva as well. However, they usually only have these great deals in unpopular sizes or colors.
This time, I as looking for Pretty Rugged Leather sandals in a size 8. The newest model retails for $80, even last year’s model sells for close to that at most retailers. The only retailer that had them for a reasonable price ($40 + shipping) was 6 pm.com. I was very uncomfortable about ordering from them because they get terrible reviews, but the prospect of saving 50% off finally got me and I did. Fortunately, the shoes I received were fine. They were clearly a return, they had been tried on and all the packaging material was not there, but they were in perfect condition.
For those interested, 6pm.com is the sister company to Zappos.com, an online shoe store that is known for great customer service, quick and free shipping both ways and no-hassle returns. 6pm apparently sells the shoes that are returned to Zappos.com. The problem is that Zappos has a great return policy, you can return your shoes up to a year after you buy them, and clearly people return shoes after they’ve used them quite a bit – and these very used shoes can find their way into 6pm, as one shopper/blogger documented on her blog. Fortunately, that did not happen to me, but beware before buying from them. Also note that you have to pay return shipping.
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