Breath -- five minutes can change your life | Stacey Schuerman | TEDxCha...

Being a Grandad

I think I've finally graduated as a Grandad! During my regular chores I found myself humming 'Baa Baa Blacksheep'. The thing is I can remember the words !!!not sure whether it is a worrying development or just how it is. I am happy with the latter justification and am off to practice Incy Wincy Spider' 

How books can open your mind | Lisa Bu

Best Ted Talks 2015 - Draw your future - Take control of your life

Banned TEDTalk about Psychic Abilities | Russell Targ

As a keen follower of 'TED Talks' I came across this video recently. I have always been fascinated by this subject since I was at university and spent many an evening (in the pub) discussing strange events with my friend and colleague, Bob Rickard. Bob was quite an expert in paranormal activities and unexplained events and as the founder and early editor of 'The Fortean Times' he has written a great number of articles and books about this subject, (primarily based on the works of Charles Fort), containing articles about, for extreme example, 'Falls of Frogs' from the sky, (100's of them!)

The interesting thing about this talk is that the speaker is a hard-nosed physicist and his talk is based on personal as well as recorded experiences, with surprising results. Plenty of food for thought. Judge for yourselves, as always any comments below add to the debate. Happy viewing.

House Rules!

Just an amusing item seen whilst whiling away the time in a DIY store. The thing which took my eye (and the reason for buying it) was the reference to 'running in the house'. As the grandfather of a two year old with boundless energy I thought it wise to introduce him to some health and safety issues. 

10 mile walk

10.00am Off along the banks of the Wansbeck, to the coast and up to Newbiggin thence through the Queen Elizabeth Country Park and back home. 10 miles, 2 1/2 hrs good stretch, beautiful country/seaside, minus calories, plus diminishing size 😇

8 Things to Remember When Starting Any Blog

1  Start your blog on the right platform.  There are many companies out there where you can start a free blog but no matter who they are and what services they offer it would still best to choose the number one writing platform which is WordPress.com.

A blog can be started either by signing up for free or by getting your domain which will make your blog unique. This will insure that you can now start building your house.

2  Choose the template which will fit your personality and business.  You can choose many different templates and view these templates before you install them on your WordPress.com website. This can save you a lot of time later and you won't have to change your whole site around if you are happy with the correct template and sometimes the keyword here is simple is best.

3  Choose a template which is not complicated and will work for your business as well. I have to admit that this is indeed the easiest way for anybody to start a blog.

4  Get the main elements together on your blog.  A few pages must be created and then added to your menu in your back office. This includes about us page, home, contact us, privacy policy, income disclaimer if needed. The privacy policy can be created for free online.

These pages important and it will tell your audience more about your business and what type of services you are offering. Not only is it fun to create your blog, but it is all about your personality as well.

WordPress.com is not a difficult site to work with and in time you will do it with eyes close.

5  Add content that is relevant to your site.

Adding content is the best way to add more value for your subscribers. The most important thing is to give them more than what they are asking for. We are not all writers but if you don't have the time to add content it can always be outsourced.

6  Spend time on a regular basis to update your content.  There is nothing worse than going to a site and the author just seemed to have abandoned his site. It isn't always true that the biggest sites are the most popular. The one thing that they do that we can really learn from them is that they make sure that they are consistent.

7  Learn more about SEO methods.  Unfortunately, we were not born with all the knowledge in the world. Spending time on doing research that can help your site is a definite investment and one that you can always use to improve your site.

It is only the beginning that is the hardest, but learning how to optimize your site will not only bring your site more traffic, more sign ups but most definitely build your community or your list.

8  Focus on what you do know and not what you don't know.  There will be technical things that you don't understand at first, but this is not a problem. This will only be an indication of how many things you will still need to learn.

The internet is filled with free source offering information on any topic or subject that you might acquire or need. Spend your time wisely and focus on what you still need to learn before things will change around for you.

Finally, no matter what you do never give up!  Build a blog or website can be overwhelming at first and the wonderful thing about the mind is that we remember by practice on a regular basis. These are simple things to remember, but very important if your blog is going to be successful.

I had to redo my template in the beginning and this took me three months. Now I do understand that if I had this knowledge in the beginning, it would have changed my world around.

Learning one thing every single day will improve your life and your blog. In the beginning you might not see results and it is only temporary. The main thing to remember is to do what 90% of marketers will never do and that is sticking it out until you are happy with the end results.

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