Blog of Life & Business Persuits
About Archived
I have been preaching Mint.Com to friends and family for about a year now. This video maps out exactly why I use Mint and why I trust their free service.
Use Mint for budgeting:
The security of Mint:
View more Mint Videos here: http://vimeo.com/mint
Welcome, I am excited that you happened upon my website one way or another. My name is Jerad Hill and I do the following.
This website showcases my passion which runs all over the place at times but serves as the catalyst for what inspires my life and my work.
I have websites set up for my specific lines of work. Feel free to visit them or choose from one of the categories above to continue on through my blog.
Thank you for taking a moment to see what I am up to. If I can be of any help in the future, please feel free to contact me.
Jerad Hill
Google now offers customizable profiles which show up in search engines when people search for you by name. This is an excellent way to enhance your image whether you are promoting yourself as a service provider or simply wanting to impress your future boss. The Google Profiles are set up in a similar way that your profile on most social networks are displayed. This profile will display information about you so you need to make sure the information you put into it is consistent with who you really are and also with the other profiles you have online.
My Google Profile is located at: http://www.google.com/profiles/hill.jerad
When creating a new website to promote a product you need to think about how people are going to find this website. A huge factor in the performance of a website is how it was coded and how the content was written. Below are some basic tips on website SEO.
1. Meta Tags
Unique META titles, descriptions and keywords for all of your pages. Each page should have it’s own unique title and description. The keywords should match words that are used in the content of the page.
2. Sitemaps
Create an HTML sitemap for your website. A sitemap is a single page that includes links to the pages of your website. This helps the search engines find those pages. It is often that the search engines only crawl the first page of a website. You can create a Google Sitemap here. You can hand feed that sitemap to Google in their Webmaster Tools section. https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools\
3. Long Tail Keywords
Target “Long Tail” keywords or Keyword Phrases as opposed to short one or two word keywords. If your app is a sports app using the word “sports” as a keyword is not a good plan of action. Doing a search for something so general will not result in your website showing up. Now using a long tail keyword such as “basketball final 4 iphone app” would perform much better and direct the kind of traffic to your website that you are looking for. Long Tail keywords are less competitive and much more in line with the way the average individual searches using the web.
4. Text Modifier Tags
In the body of your website use underline, strong (bold) and italics tags for the keywords that you are trying to get noticed by the search engines. For example if your long tail keyword was “basketball final 4 iphone app” then in the body of your website while describing your app you would bold, underline or italicize the words basketball, final 4 or iPhone App. This is just an example. Only do this with your keywords and only do it once per word so your page does not look annoying to it’s readers. I would suggest doing this only to the keyword phrases you want to focus on for each page.
5. Header Tags
Add emphasis to the titles on your web page by using H1 and H2 header tags. Use H1 for your main title for the section and include some of the keywords in that title that are relevant for that page. Under that you can do a subtitle and use H2 tags to add emphasis to the other keywords that you could not work into your title. You can read more about H1 Header Tags here.
6. Image Alt Tags
Describe your images with the use of the alt tag. This will help search engines that index images to find your pages and will also help readers who use text only web browsers. This is especially important to do with your screen shots. Learn more about image alt tags here.
7. Make sure your website validates
If your website validates then it will be easier for the search engines to load it and rank it.
W3 HTML Validation Tool
W3 CSS Validation Tool
There are many more tips and tricks for good SEO which I will write on more in the future. I often write about what has worked for me on my personal blog, feel free to check that out also.
When I read, listen to podcasts, attend seminars and talk to personal coaches the term empowerment always comes up. Whether it be empowering ourselves or others the word seems to be on the tongues of many. I recently attended the GiANT Impact Seminar led by John C. Maxwell and all of the speakers mentioned the word. I typically take a lot of notes and this seminar was no exception. The speakers were top leaders in our World today and they had some real gems to share with us. If I had to boil down many of the good points made at this seminar to four points here is what they would be.
1. Be Self Aware
Know who you really are. We all have an idea of who we think we are but it is not always the way others see it. Get some 3×5 cards and give them to your friends. Tell them to write down the first 10 words they can think of that describe you.
2. Have Clarity
Get clear about what you really value and stick to them. Post them on your wall, your website, your business card. Make sure they are visible and most importantly that you stay accountable to them.
3. Get Motivated
Find out what motivates you and what drives that motivation. Surround yourself with what motivates you to accomplish goals.
4. Have Support
Build a support team around you. Ask friends, family or co-workers to hold you accountable and check in with you. Give them permission to put you in check if they see you are getting away from your goals or values.
On occasion you may want a blog category not to show up in your blog menu. Many themes now a days are including settings you can change to remove categories from menus but if you end up having to hard code it in here is what you need to do.
Open up the header.php file located inside the folder for your wordpress theme. You will need to replace the #3 in the code below with the id number of the category you wish to not include in your menu. If you categorize your entry in more then one category your category will still show up in the blog listing if your theme shows which category each entry is in. If you want to exclude more then one category simply add a comma after the first category number and enter the next category number with no spaces.
This will not remove the category from the frontpage. To remove the category from the frontpage check out my blog on Excluding a Category from your WordPress Frontpage.
On occasion you may write a blog entry that you do not want on your front page but do want under a category. Many themes now a days are including settings you can change to remove categories but if you end up having to hard code it in here is what you need to do.
You will have to create a category that you are going to place these entries into.
Open up the index.php file located inside the folder for your wordpress theme. You will need to replace the #3 in the code below with the id of the category you wish to not include on your front page. If you categorize your entry in more then one category then you will need to not include that category also in which you simply add a comma after the first category number and enter the next category number with no spaces.
This will not remove the category from the menu. To remove the category from the menu check out my blog on Excluding a Category from your WordPress Menu.
I love this, very well written and explains why we design.
Originally found on: http://accidentalcreative.com/manifesto/
It sounds competitive doesn’t it? Knowing that in this world today we need to constantly demonstrate our value to this world is resulting in just as much bad as it does good. It is stressful to have to think that every day. I know that I am always one step away from being forgotten about by some. Things come at us so fast from so many different directions that the only way that we can assure we remain in the minds of others is to make sure we are constantly adding value to their lives. We are that way as consumers, we are no longer loyal. I changed banks twice in 2008, nobody used to do that. The one who adds the most value wins. In the blogosphere who is paid attention to? The one demonstrating the most value to their readers. On Twitter who is talked about most? Need I answer that question…
It is a tall order to deliver every day, to make sure that each and every time you have something to say it is somehow benefiting someone, and what if you can not figure out what to say, you risk losing people by not saying anything at all. It’s no wonder depression is the leading cause of so many illnesses that incapacitate people. You either deliver or you diminish.
I however find it extremely invigorating. Though I struggle to come up with ways to add value every day I know that by simply listening to people I am adding enough value to stay afloat. I did not used to be a very good listener and sometimes I still catch myself failing when it comes to be attentive to the needs of others. I was at Starbucks on Easter, my wife had to work, and a homeless guy came up to me asking me for change so that his wife and himself could get something to eat. I usually offer up any change that I have in my pocket with out even thinking but that is all I did this time. I gave the guy the fifty cents I had. After he had left and was out of my sight I thought about how it was Easter and how much it must suck to have to be begging for spare change on Easter of all days. I should have given him everything I had in my wallet, which was $374. He needed it more then I did and it was freaking Easter for crying out loud. Can you tell that I was convicted?
Whether it be something as simple as adding value to someone’s life that is not asking much of you or making sure that your clients or customers are being fed by the knowledge you have you must constantly demonstrate your value to this world. The day you give up is the day the world gives up on you. Those who go unnoticed and pass away with out a tear being shed chose to keep their value to themselves. We all have value, more value then could be demonstrated in a lifetime, we just have to figure out what it is and put a tap in it so we can offer it up to others. Adding value means that you will always be offering of yourself to others through all facets of life.
A few books I suggest giving a read:
Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends
The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea
April 4th marks the first completed year of my marriage. Time goes by so fast, it seems as though we just got married but at the same time I feel like I have known my wife my whole life. (Slideshow at the bottom)
This last weekend we got out of town. Mallory had never been to Las Vegas so being that I have been there several times and knew my way around I thought it would be perfect. Only being able to get away for three days I wanted to make sure we could experience as much as possible in the three days. Mallory and I both left our laptops at home (can you believe it?), the only technology we had with us was my iPhone and our TomTom.
We left Friday from Modesto at 5am, we drove. Modesto to Las Vegas is an 8 hour drive. I had only slept one hour because my desk seemed to have had a dump truck of todo’s fall on it at the last minute. I planned to sleep for the first part of the drive but Mal ran out of steam quickly so we stopped in Kingsburg where I drove the remaining distance.
We arrived at our hotel, The Wyndham Resort at around 1:30pm, they allowed us to check in early. We tossed our stuff in the room, cleaned up and headed down to the strip to see some sights. I always park the car when I am in Las Vegas and use the Taxi. I always see people pulled over, getting in fender benders or sitting in traffic forever. If I can offer the world one bit of advice, Always Use A Taxi In Las Vegas!!! The traffic on the weekends and when large Expos are going on is horrible. The Taxi drivers know the short cuts to get you where you need to go. For example, to drive from our hotel to Treasure Island (TI) in traffic using the main streets to get there would take 15-20 minutes. Keep in mind our hotel is less than 5 miles from TI. The Taxi driver got us there in under 8 minutes and it cost us $8, I tipped the driver $2. Total cost of avoided headache = $10 USD.
I am always amazed by how much has changed between the time I last visited. I am often in Las Vegas once a year for a conference or convention. There is always construction going on and new excitement being created all the time. Mallory and I spend the rest of the afternoon shopping and walking around the shoppes in the hotels. I never go to Las Vegas with out spending some time at the Fashion Show Mall. Mallory was amazed as am I always by the detail that goes into everything these hotel casinos do. Once we decided we had spent enough money shopping and decided dinner needed to come next we went back to our hotel to get cleaned up.
Our first desire was to eat at The Cheesecake Factory (TCF) but when we arrived there was a line which would have resulted in over an hour wait. The old location of TCF was in The Venetian so we headed in that direction and found the Grand Lux Cafe (GLC) in it’s place. The food was nothing short of amazing. Though it was 8:30pm by that time we were glad we waited. After we finished eating we needed to walk off some of the food coma that was attempting to take over our bodies. We wanted to go dancing and were dressed for it so we took off in search of a club to check out. On our way into TI we were given some free passes into their night club. Unfortunately we got into line a bit to late and we probably would have waited an hour had we not given up and went to a lounge bar instead. Mal and I are not used to waiting to get into clubs. We have some good friends in the bay area who promote and are always getting us on the list and in VIP. I think our patience for getting into clubs was a bit skewed. After hanging out at the lounge for a while we walked around for a few more hours, got back to our hotel around 1:30am and spent some time in the jacuzzi where we met some interesting guys from Michigan.
Being that I was operating on one hour of sleep the prior night and three hours of sleep the night before that, I wanted to sleep in a bit. Our plans for Saturday was to doing some time by the pool, which we did from about 11-2pm. We enjoyed lunch at our hotel, which does not have much to offer as far as food goes but what food they do have was good. Our single bedroom suite had a full kitchen, stove, refrigerator and was fully stocked with cook wear and dishes.
Saturday night we made plans to see the Cirque Du Soleil show Mystere which was nothing short of amazing. Mallory was very involved in dance through out high school and her first few years in college. She was amazed and completely captivated by the performance. Prior to that we ate dinner at TCF which made me happy. Notice in the images below that I had cheesecake with dinner both nights. Turns out that the GLC is owned by the same owner as TCF. Before waiting in line for our show we walked into Kahunaville which is known for it’s bartenders who put on an amazing show. We were just trying to kill some time before our show started and wound up having a great time and met some cool people. After the show was over we walked around for a while and went back to our hotel to retire for the evening.
Sunday we woke up earlier than we should have, checked out of our hotel and drove down to the Grand Canyon to do the Skywalk tour. This was something we had only decided to do the evening before, so it was not part of the plan. It feels good to be spur of the moment sometimes! Along the way we stopped off at the Hover Dam which is always pretty amazing. Based on the flier and the website for the Skywalk Mallory and I assumed we would be able to drive right up to it, buy a ticket which was promoted on their website for $29.99 and walk right onto the Skywalk. Let me walk you through exactly what you should expect if you want to do the Skywalk:
The first surprise was when we finally thought we were close to the Skywalk we had to turn onto a dirt road which was very rocky and drive on that for 13 miles. Thirteen miles of rocky dirt road in a Volvo S40. After putting our poor car through more than I had intended we arrived at their reservation. I say reservation because Grand Canyon West is not actually part of the State Park. The crafty named Grand Canyon West is the name of the Hualapai Indian Reservation which consists of a bit over one million acres on that side of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The entrance was guarded with a few checkpoints to drive through. My first thought was wondering why their staff guiding us through had to be dressed like Army rangers but I blew it off as them just wanting to appear like they are tough and important. We parked and went into the terminal to get a ticket for the SkyWalk. At this point we were still assuming that the cost would be $30 each and a short bus would take us up the hill to the SkyWalk. To our surprise the cost was quite a bit more. Turns out the Skywalk is just part of the whole experience. You have to pay $55 per person to get the tour, if you want to do the SkyWalk, it’s $32.99 more per person. All in all we ended up paying close to $200 for both of us before we had tickets and climbed on the bus. When we were presented with the cost we were blown away. We had no idea it was going to cost us that much, their website was misleading. We had driven so far that it would have been dumb of us not to pay the money and do what we had set out to do. Because we were not planning on driving into the middle of nowhere we had not purchased snacks or water, we did that before boarding the bus. We wanted to make sure we had something because we had no idea what to expect.
The SkyWalk was simply amazing. Here is a video that shows a bit of the experience. The SkyWalk however has a building attached to it now which makes for a nice place to put on your little slippers they make you wear. The beginning of the video shows the drive you must make, just imagine it being 13 miles and no soundtrack other than your poor car driving over dirt and rocks. You can see the photo I took below which shows what the SkyWalk looks like currently.
Now that I have done it, I have to say it was worth the $200 for both Mallory and I to experience walking out into the Grand Canyon. There was a lot more to the tour than just the SkyWalk. I could tell there were many people who drove all of the way out there just for the SkyWalk and did not really care about the Hualapai reservation, though it was interesting I was not to happy that I had to pay for it. They also had helicopter tours and a myriad of other things to spend your money on. You are not allowed to take anything with you onto the SkyWalk. You actually have to walk through a metal detector. Their expressed fear is that you may drop something on the glass but it is also their way of keeping you from bringing a camera so they can charge you a minimum of $20 for a photo. If you want a digital copy of your photo it’s going to cost you over $100.
The Skywalk was the first of three stops along the bus tour. The bus would drop you off at one site and when you were ready a bus would pick you back up and take you to the next. Buses come ever 15 minutes, however they only go to the next stop. My first thought was to just do the SkyWalk and leave but it was not that easy, there were a few more stops they wanted to drop you off at in hopes you would spend money on food and Hualapai trinkets. Thankfully after the second stop the bus took us back to the terminal, we were willing to sit on the bus and bypass the third stop at this point.
My final thoughts about the whole Hualapai experience: I enjoy history and love to experience it when it is part of my plan. I will go as far as saying that it was partially my fault for not calling and asking questions about the possibility of hidden costs of having to take a tour of other things. Most people do not have time for that. Like me, most will go online, see how much it costs and how far away it is. I felt like the Hualapai experience was forced down my throat. I wanted to see the Grand Canyon and walk out into it on a glass walkway. If they had an option just to do the SkyWalk that was $200 for both of us I would have done it. I really did not care about the rest of the stuff going on there and having to pay for it just made me want to care even less. Regardless of it all, the SkyWalk was simply amazing and it one of those things you need to experience in life. However it is not something you can do in a few hours. Driving there will take forever, the tours will take time and driving home will take even longer because traffic in the evening is horrible. Traffic will be better in 2010 when they finish the new bypass over the Hoover Dam.
We left the reservation, I mean Grand Canyon West at around 2:30pm and began our 12 hour drive home. On highway 15 and the 58 junction we experienced crosswinds of over 70MPH which I’m sure sandblasted the paint on the Volvo down to a nice matte finish. We arrived home last night at 2:30am.
Overall we had an amazing time this weekend. As always I wish I had brought more than just my Canon G10 with me. Though I have been to Vegas many times and the Grand Canyon (almost died) before as well (a whole story in it’s self, ask if you want to know), I experienced new things and Mallory many new things. We had a blast and are already dreaming of what to do for our next little getaway. I feel recharged and ready to take on this weeks tasks!
Last Wednesday about 50 Modesto locals collectively showed up at Hero’s Pizza to socialize and network. Those in attendance ranged from homemaker Moms to Presidents of large companies in our area. All of us had one thing in common, we all used the social network called Twitter. If you are unsure as to what this thing called Twitter is, watch the video titled “Twitter in Plain English“. The event was called The Modesto Tweetup (@modestotweetup) and was only advertised by word of mouth through Twitter itself. Less than a week before the event Lloyd Gomez (@lloydgomez) did some graphics for posters and a quick tee shirt design. Income generated from the shirt sales went to support the March of Dimes. I witnessed quite a few people including myself purchasing shirts. In fact I am wearing mine as I write this!
Using PeopleBrowsr.com we linked up 2 laptops to big screens which displayed tweets live on the screen so we could experience the reach a group of local twitter’ers have all at the same time. My laptop (pretty mac) and Daniel’s laptop (meh Dell) (@danielversola) ran the screens. Naturally, I brought a camera and took pictures which are available on my Flickr account.
This Tweetup was the 3rd in succession for Modesto, the first two were impromptu dinner gatherings. The success of the 3rd Modesto Tweetup spurred @lloydgomez, @danielversola, @BDUBweitl and @jeradhill (me) to start planning right away for the 4th Modesto Tweetup which is scheduled for May 20th at Hero’s Pizza in Modesto. The purpose of the Tweetups are to get together for networking and socializing. Our goal is to always have a philanthropic connection to each gathering such as our support of the March of Dimes at the Tweetup last week.
It will be exciting to see what happens at the next Tweetup. If you are a Twitter user, please make sure to follow @modestotweetup so you know what is happening. If you would like to get involved, feel free to contact me, we would love to hear your ideas.
See you on Twitter. Follow me at http://twitter.com/jeradhill
