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We are all going to die

Posted on by Aaron D. Vail Posted in Ramblings, Religious, Soap Box — No Comments ↓

We are all going to die

Benjamin Franklin said that the only thing to be certain of is Death and Taxes. I disagree. Taxes are not certain. When a government changes by revolution, taxes are not certain. But Death is without argument certain. So that brings up the question. What happens when you die?
Are you going to heaven? Yes? Why? Because you have been a good person? Well, let’s look at that.
Have you ever told a lie? I have. And it’s safe to say you have too. So what does that make us? That’s right, Liars!
Have you ever stolen anything? Download mp3s or movies from the internet without paying for them? Stolen money from your parents when you were a child? Taken anything that did not belong you you? If you still say No, well you just admitted that you are a liar. So what does that make us? Stealers? not the right word, (Sounds to much like a Football team in Pittsburgh) The right word would be thieves.
Have you ever looked at another person with lustful thoughts? Had sexual thoughts towards anyone other than a spouse? I would find it very hard to believe with today’s society that anyone could say no. The Bible says that any man that looks at another with lust has committed adultery in his heart.
Have you ever looked at another with hatred? Or hated someone? The Bible says that if you hate someone you have committed murder in your heart.
So that makes us lying, thieving, murdering , adulterers at heart. According to the Ten Commandments, we’ve broken 4 of them. So with that said, would God allow us in heaven even though we’ve sinned? The Bible says no. For if we have broken one of the “Laws” we have broken them all. And it also says that sin separates us from God.
OK so we’re doomed? No, God sent his only son, Jesus Christ to be our sin offering. To take our sins from us and wash us clean. To be our intercessor, to step in on our behalf and cleanse us of our sins. The Bible says that sin is death, but by raising from the dead, Jesus overcame death and sin. OK, some I’m in the clear? Not yet, Those whom follow Jesus are those whom Jesus washes clean. By excepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior then we are given the gift of salvation. we are saved from death and from our sins.
How does one accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior? Well let’s look at the Bible for that. Mark 1:15 says Mark 1:15 NIV “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Acts 17:29-31 NIV “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
So repent and believe. Not accept Jesus in your heart, not just surrender to Christ that he is Lord and Savior. Not give Jesus a try. Not fill the God shaped whole in your heart.
Repent, Jesus died for our sins.  We are sinful people. We must strive to not sin. Now does that mean that we must be perfect? There is only one who is perfect, and that is Jesus Christ. Praise God that he is merciful and gracious with us! When we stumble we have God’s grace that will cover us, does that mean we can continue in sin, heavens no. Romans 5 and 6 explain this in great detail. As we read and study God’s word (the Bible) we grow in the Lord.

My Testimony

Posted on by Aaron D. Vail Posted in Ramblings, Religious, Soap Box — No Comments ↓

My Testimony

     Growing up I had always saw that there are generally 3 sides to an individual. They were emotional, mental, and physical. Emotional tied to matters of the heart examples being love, hate, like, trust and such. Mental tied to matters of the brain examples being reasoning, deduction, and other thought processes. Physical obviously being tied to the body.
I grew up a Roman Catholic and was educated through the Catholic school system. This didn’t really teach me anything spiritual. I remembered religion classes simply being history, mostly church history. Catholics did this, they did that. And that was basically it. Very little talk about Jesus Christ except around Christmas and Easter. And that was more historical perspective.
Then there was the Old Testament. Up until several years ago when I actually started reading the Bible, I thought the Old Testament was just the Book of Genesis. Yes that’s right. The Old Testament started with Adam and Eve and ended with Joseph in Egypt. I was missing a lot.
So with my Catholic up bringing, not knowing really anything about God. Seeing going to church as a task that was never explained, just something you do. And then with the news of some Priests being pedophiles. I didn’t see a need to go and I ended up growing very cold towards the Church. And I was like that for a long time.
Then my sister started acting weird. She starting being unavailable on Sundays. Then I come to find out that she was going to church. Deborah? Going to church? Ok. She’s prone to do weird stuff. Then she started talking about it. A lot. Ok, Deborah. Good for you. You found God. Great. You’re excited about it, great. Ok this is getting old. Stop pushing God on me. I actually told her that. Several times in fact. I went as far as telling her that if she mentioned it any more I would not talk to her any longer. And for a long time we didn’t talk.
Then comes Christmas. And Deborah gave me a gift that I was confused by and offended by. She gave me a Bible. A King James Version Gift and Award Bible. I asked her what it was for. She responded that I might find it useful someday. Useful? For what? SMACK! I hit her in the head with it. Now there’s a use.
Now I had gone back to school. A Catholic University none-the-less. And Catholic schools require religion classes. My first religion class was Catholic Traditions. That was fun. Someone who has an argumentative side and disenchanted with the Catholic Church studying Catholic Traditions. I dug up the Bible that Deborah gave me and started arguing with my teachers based on what scripture said. Using the Bible to prove how wrong Catholicism is. Looking back it was weird. Here is an unbeliever using the book of believers against what I thought were believers.
Then something strange happened. I realized something was missing in my life. That there was a piece of my life that wasn’t getting any attention. There is a spiritual side of life. So there are those who are emotionally sick, those who are mentally sick, and those who are physically sick, there I was spiritually sick. What can I do about it?
Well I was not about to go to the Catholic Church, or anything like it. At this point in school I was studying Eastern Religions. Hinduism? Nah, I don’t quite see animals like elephants or cattle the spiritual center of the universe. Buddhism? Nah, there was more to spiritualism than just enlightenment. Shinto? I didn’t understand that one at all. OK, let’s look at western religions. Islam? Um. No. for a few of reasons. One, terrorism gives it a bad name. Two, Jihad, which the Muslim faith seems to be pivoting around, is not one of the “five pillars of Islam”. Three, it is my understanding that the Koran says early on the Jews and Christians are “of like cloth” and to be respected, then later in the Koran, any non-Muslim is an infidel and must die. Sounds a little double minded to me. Judaism? Well no. One I’m not born a Jew, and I also don’t see them practicing their faith, at least the way the Tenauch says they should. Christianity? I’m not going back to the Catholic Church. Then there’s “New Age”, well I dig new age music. I know not the same thing. But let’s look into Scientology. So one day I went to check it out.
Scientology. Oh boy. It started out all nice. They’d ask what kind of issues I was facing in life. Then they’d say for this issue we have this course that costs $4000. And for that issue we have this course that cost $1500. But to be able to take those courses you have to take this other course that’s $850. Um, yeah I see what they’re after. What a joke that was.
So I get home, and just as soon as I walk in the door. My phone rings. It’s Deborah calling. “Hey Aaron, ummm do you have plans this Sunday?” I replied, “No”. Deborah continued, “Well, this Sunday there’s going to be a barbeque, with softball and volleyball. Would you like to come?” I said, “Sure”. Then Deborah pressed on, “Well it’s at a park near church right after service.” Long Pause “Would you like to come to service? It’d be…” I cut her off, “Sure”. Followed by a long pause she replied, “Great!”
It was September 1st 2002. I walked into this school where church service was being held, hoping that it was something different. Something that was not hypocritical like the Catholic Church. Well it was different. Very Different. I could see myself, how wrong I had spent my life. My only response was to repent and believe.

History Of Vail-Industries.com

Posted on by Aaron D. Vail Posted in Business Round Table, Internet, Ramblings, Technology — No Comments ↓

History Of Vail-Industries.com

Vail-Industries.com was registered on May 12th, 2001. The most common question I get is, “What is Vail-Industries.com for?” Well there is no way to truly describe what it is.
It has started out simple as a learning platform. Actually the learning platform started several years before Vail-Industries.com started. The learning platform started on an old Compaq Deskpro 6000. I installed a server operating system and tinkered with it until it ran “smoothly”. As I inherited (explained shortly) more computer equipment I slowly began to expand my network. I shortly had 3 “servers”, 3 laptops, and 3 “desktops”. I had set up one of my servers as a proxy server with a dial up modem. My entire network was up and running on a BLAZING 28.8 Kb Modem (for you kids, the little b means bits not Bytes {for you math folks that’s an average [factoring in packet loss and the stop bit] 7 bits per Byte, so one Megabyte would take roughly five minutes}) When I was unemployed, I would start and email to about 300+ contacts and it would take about 2 or 3 days to send.
Wow that was slow. Yeah it was. But then this new technology came out for Home internet access. It was called Digital Subscriber Line (just DSL these days). Instead of it taking 6 minutes to download a 3.5″ floppy, I could so it in mere seconds. And I had a static IP to boot! SWEET so I can receive email on top of sending it. That is SO AWESOME! I have my very own unique email address! It was advail@adsl-196-11.29-196.dsl.pacbell.net! Now there was a mouthful! Things kind of just ran with this for a couple of years. I actually got pretty good at giving my email address over the phone!
As time went by I wanted to learn more about DNS and Firewalls. Well to do both properly as well as set email up right, I needed a domain name. Everyone I knew at the time had at least one. So what do I pick? I wanted something with my last name but not my first. Ok, simple enough, right? WRONG! Any instance with just my last name was already taken except vail.org. And I don’t know about you but I would not qualify as a “not-for-profit”. At least in my head I wouldn’t, my wallet says otherwise. Ok so just my last name wouldn’t work. Let us add something business oriented with the possibility of expansion and not locking me down to a single industry. Well Vail Enterprises was taking (again in everything but .org). Hmmm. Multiple Industries…. Hmmm…… Vail Holding? Nah to Stock oriented…. Multiple Industries??? Industries? Hey I know! Vail-Industries.com! And an Icon is born! (If you would consider dried up bubble gum permanently pressed into the pavement as icon, the Vail-Industries.com would qualify too!)
istory Of Vail-Industries.com - VI-logo1-new.pngIntro:
It was tough for me to get all the pieces working write. Firewall – boy that was fun… DNS – Conceptually it was pretty easy to understand. Implementation was painful. The mail server piece? At this point, it was pretty straight forward. Getting all the pieces working? well that took about 2 months to learn the ins and outs of it… the toughest part was getting my non-routable IP’s (internal IP Scheme) to stop broadcasting as the IP address for the internet. But I got it working…
A little bit on the logo. Why look like that? Well I was living in a pipe dream when I did it. But it was the Dot Coms. Pipe Dreams were a common place of residency for people I knew. What I was thinking was that if Vail-Industries.com actually took off and did something that produced mass quantities of financial gain. I wanted something that would look elegant on a wall, hence the gold and platinum. But I also wanted something that was rough around the edges, alluding to my past. Like I said, pipe dream!
Anyway, after working on it day and night for 2 months, I didn’t really want to touch it anymore… It was running and “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. After several months of being asked when I was going to put up a website. I finally gave up and put this up, just to quiet people:

Welcome to Vail Industries
History Of Vail-Industries.com - constr38
We are under massive reconstruction… hopefully fixed tonight

“Tonight” never came. For many years I updated the website around the page, but never really got away from it. It ended up becoming a joke. (And yes I kind of put it here to have it continue its legacy)
I finally wanted to do something cool with the website. Something that would make me more functional and more sell-able. And having been a computer consultant for so many years, sell-able was important. Especially since the “Dot Com” bubble burst. Everyone was struggling to find a Job. The market had become flooded with people. It was so bad in the San Francisco Bay Area, that there were actual job postings for Custodial Engineers (Janitors) that required College Degrees. Staying in the Information Technology sector was a serious challenge. People went from making $150,000 a year to $35,000. Who would have thought that those pipe dreams we were living in would turn out to be pipe bombs that would eventually explode?
So I needed to do something. Something that made my resume available upon request. Something that allowed me to mass email my resume to contacts when needed. Something that would advertise that I am in fact knowledgeable in my field. OK, great. Intro ASP and CoolMenus4.
ASP gave me the functionality I needed. The ability to set up a web based mass mailing engine that relayed off of my mail server, it worked pretty well. But I needed something that was snazzy for when recruiters visited my website to request a resume. Well CoolMenus 4 (by dhtlmcentral.com) would do the trick. After tweaking CoolMenus to pull the menu settings from an Access DB, and setting a security level that ran in conjunction with cookies. I had something that would allow recruiters to request my resume in MS Word, PDF, or raw text (yes I actually get a lot of requests for just text.) Everything was working for the most part (minor problem with on of my menus but I restricted access to it as it was for me only anyway).
Eventually Vail-Industries.com moved, from San Francisco to eventually end up in Saint Petersburg, Florida. That was in 2005. Life in Florida has been great! The website however, got neglected. All that time at the beach or playing in the Sun, there wasn’t time to maintain the website. Then in Late 2007, I decide to add more personal content. I added streaming audio content with matching text that is based on date the page was loaded. I wanted to add the ability for the page to reload at midnight thus updating the content for the next day. That’s when I noticed the problem.
Somewhere along the line, IE6 was updated and CoolMenus 4 stopped working properly. I searched and searched and tested and tested. IE 5.5 (and older), Opera, FireFox, Mozilla (Yes they still have a separate browser from FireFox), and Netscape Navigator all worked. IE 6 and IE 7 all failed with “script errors”. And after searching I found many people were having the same problem, and no solution that I could find.
So there’s a problem, after spending several weeks searching for a fix and coming up with nothing. I decide to abandon CoolMenus 4. It appeared that dhtmlcentral.com had updated their website. They used this service that is based off of Joomla! which is a Content Management System.
This Website was updated to run on Joomla! Joomla runs on PHP, MySQL, and Apache Web Server. (It can be configured for others but I decided to go with their recommendations because of portability across platforms.) Each Piece by itself was easy. Getting them all to talk together was a bit of a challenge initially. I would like to take this opportunity to warn people that PHP states all of its extensions are disabled by default. However, with my install of PHP 5.25 everything was enabled by default, and I had to go in and disabled everything not needed.
The site remained Joomla for a long while. I actually got good enough tweaking it that it got me a part time, temp job doing development on another website. Which was fine for a while, until it ended. It was finely time to do something with the site. My income was extremely limited (almost nonexistent). I started researching what I could do with Vail-Industries and I had joined Solavei (which recommends WordPress for blogging).
As I looked at what I needed to do for SEO and getting the site properly searched, my Joomla setup with my fancy frontpage landing page (no good for SEO, not bad, but not good) just wasn’t going to cut it. So I had a choice, redo the whole thing in Joomla, or something else. I started looking into what “extensions” I would need to really boost the sites unique hits. All the good ones cost money. And in some cases, a lot of money. So what other choices are there?
I looked into WordPress. A majority of the “plugins” that I would need are free. Ok so far so good. It’s easy to set up, and easy to have content changing on the “frontpage” (it’s default :D). The thing that sealed the deal for me was that I could write blogs and update the site directly from my phone through a WordPress App (developed by WordPress). I have written a couple of articles that I about the ease of WordPress from various aspects and I decided to post a blog about the history of Vail-Industries.com.

So Welcome to Vail-Industries.com! Enjoy

Social Commerce

Posted on by Aaron D. Vail Posted in Business Round Table, RippLn, Solavei — No Comments ↓

Social Commerce

What is Social Commerce and what does it mean for you. The social part of the concept is nothing new. It’s probably as old as time. It happens everyday, every hour, every minute, and even every second. And unless you live in a cave with internet access with a personal boycott against all of the social networks, you are a part of it.
The Social aspect of social commerce, is simply something you do every day. When you share your opinion on items like cars, cell phones, healthcare products, chocolate, or coffee as just a few examples, you are basically promoting products you believe in. I have been a part of it on both sides, offing my opinion as well as asking for one. The largest purchase I have recently made was a car, I asked a few people their opinion on a car and most recommendations where for Hyundai with a couple for Honda. Now when it was time for us to shop for a car, those opinions from those whom I respect had more value than what the car salesman was telling us. So, we ended up buying a Hyundai, and I would agree with my friends assessment of the vehicle and the brand. It is not a Mercedes, or a Hummmer, or a Sherman Tank for that matter, but for the price paid for the vehicle, I believe it has the best return value.
The idea behind social commerce started many years ago. Except it wasn’t called social commerce, it was called a Tupperware Party. The idea behind Tupperware is simple this. When you went to a party, saw the products and even purchased and used a few of them, you would probably see the value returned on Tupperware was pretty good. You would attend another party, buy some more Tupperware and in the process become a loyal Tupperware consumer. Who else would be a better spokesperson to your friends and family about Tupperware? Some actor or actress so far removed from the product that gets paid thousands or even millions for an endorsement, or you a loyal consumer who uses and likes the products? Tupperware saw that you the loyal consumer would be! So they decided to encourage your endorsement, by monetizing your sharing. When you hosted a Tupperware Party, you would receive a percentage of the sales at that party. Enter the commerce part of social commerce.
Some say Social Commerce is simply reviews from customers, but I think it’s more involving. The definition on the internet of social commerce limits it to online activities. However, being social is limited to the internet. Social can be face to face. My take on it is Social Commerce is Network Marketing with out the High Pressure Sales.
Now there are a number of businesses that claim that they are social commerce and there are a number that actually are for social commerce. Some of the businesses I have reviewed. Of those, I have join forces with a couple because I see a future with them. Not just a future with me, but a future overall as a company. At least at the time of this post, from a distance I never would have seen what happened to Hostess coming, but after review mistakes have been made and directions that companies go can change.
The companies I have joined forces with are Solavei and RippLn. I will have articles for each company shortly. But if you don’t want to wait for the coming articles check out my websites below.

For my Solavei Business:
Solavei Social Commerce
– 4gPhoneFreedom.com		 For my RippLn Business:
RippLn Social Commerce
– RipplesAroundTheWorld.com

Setting Up Google Analytics

Posted on by Aaron D. Vail Posted in Advocare, Business Round Table, Internet, Solavei, Technology — No Comments ↓

Setting Up Google Analytics

Setting up Google Analytics is relatively straight forward. Start by visiting Google Analytics. It will look similar to this. click on Create an Account.
Setting Up Google Analytics 1 Google Analytics

If you already have a Google Account, great. Simply log in with it. If not, create one here. Setting Up Google Analytics 2 create Google account

Once logged in, this should be the page that is up. Click Sign Up. Setting Up Google Analytics 3 google analytics after login

Now this screen, fill in as much details as possible. Make sure Web site is selected. I use Classic Analytics For Site Name, I recommend the “Business Name”. For the domain name I filled in just domain.com instead of www.domain.com because my sites are visited through domain.com. The choices for Industry Category are very limited. The choices are Automotive, Business and Industrial Markets, Classifieds and Local, Consumer Packaged Goods, Education and Government, Finance, Healthcare, Media and Entertainment, Retail, Technology, and Travel. Generally I select what ever it is that closely resembles the site. Sometimes it’s a stretch but it’s the closest one. Fill out the Time Zone information and we are almost done setting up Google Analytics. once everything is filled out click Get Tracking ID.Setting Up Google Analytics 4 google analytics setup 1 Of course, here is the End User License Agreement. Setting Up Google Analytics 5 Google EULAOnce you click Get Tracking ID and accept the EULA, a page like below will be displayed. I apologize this one is “blacked out” but I needed to secure that data. All of the blacked out areas content is site specific data.Setting Up Google Analytics 6 google analytics complete Now we need to go to the website. For WordPress, there is a plugin for Google Analytics. The one I like is called Google Analytics for WordPress. It’s developed by Yoast. The same people that developed WordPress SEO, which in my opinion is the best free SEO Plugin. Once the plug-in is installed and activated, simply set it to Manual and copy over the UA number from the last page on Google Analytics setup up. Setting Up Google Analytics 7 Google Analytics in WordPress Click on Update Google Analytics Settings and after a couple of days you will start to see data collected even if it is just you visiting the site.

Tracking Site Popularity

Posted on by Aaron D. Vail Posted in Advocare, Business Round Table, Internet, Solavei, Technology — No Comments ↓

Tracking Site Popularity

So now that SEO is setup, and now it’s time for tracking site popularity. There are two tools I recommend, JetPack for WordPress and Google Analytics. Both of them offer some very useful information.
With the JetPack for WordPress, it’s a simple as install the plugin, register for a WordPress.com account, and activate the plugin. Once the plugin is activated, you have access to all kinds of awesome tools to help with your site. But for the purpose of this article we are focusing on Site Stats. Just under Dashboard, there will be a link for JetPack. If it has not been linked with a WordPress.com account, do so now. Once JetPack is linked, click on JetPack and there will be an expanded menu showing site stats. Select it.
Tracking Site Popularity Luanch Site Stats
Once Site Stats is selected, This will be displayed.
Tracking Site Popularity Site Stats Daily
It gives a great day by day overview of how many hits you get, and where they came from, or better yet, how they got there. Which is a huge change from the “old fashioned” hit counters.
Tracking Site Popularity counter
And If a broader longer term scope is needed simply click on overview.
Tracking Site Popularity Site Stats Overview
This gives you a month by month breakdown on hits.

Now for the data on how they got there. Site Stats only give me two days of data, today, and yesterday. Is there another way to get more data for tracking site popularity, without having to check Site Stats every day? Why yes there is, Google Analytics. With Google Analytics, you can track the same data and so much more. My personal favorite report is Demographics, though I do not believe it to be entirely accurate. I work in Tampa, FL., I live in St. Petersburg, FL., but when I access the site through the company I work for, Google Analytics detects me at Windermere, FL. which is near Orlando, FL.. Orlando is in Central Florida, where as Tampa is West Coast. Here is a Dashboard I set up.
Tracking Site Popularity Google Analytics Dashboard
Setting up Google Analytics will come in the next article. Posted the following day.

WordPress SEO Settings

Posted on by Aaron D. Vail Posted in Advocare, Business Round Table, Solavei, Technology — No Comments ↓

WordPress SEO Settings

I have found it easier to do WordPress SEO Settings as apposed to what I have tried in Joomla. Granted my understanding of SEO (which stands for Search Engine Optimization) is pretty limited at best. A simple way to explain it is that search engines implemented a rating system to help sort out how data should be returned. Current data would score higher than a blog posting from 10 years ago. Of course there are numerous factors which make SEO difficult for me to grasp, as I would rather spend my time working on site improvements then learn all the intricacies of SEO.
There has got to be an easier way. Should I spend weeks learning about SEO when I could be writing more articles increasing my exposure? Should I just right my articles and forget about being SEO compliant? Will the lack of SEO affect my exposure? What can I do?
Yes, the lack of SEO will affect how my site is found. Yes there is posting on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ that will increase exposure, but that will be limited to friends, followers, business contacts, and circles. Search Engines will increase exposure to new people. So SEO is required. But how? I don’t want to spend weeks learning about SEO, has someone done the work for me?
I learned early on about SEO is that content must be updated. Stale content has an adverse affect on SEO. So should I keep my site Joomla or switch to WordPress? With Joomla, it wasn’t easy keeping my content from going stale especially since I couldn’t easily update the site from my phone. But WordPress allowed for site maintenance from Android and iPhone. So I switched to WordPress, to help with the stale content issue. But what about the rest of SEO?
So, I was looking into the WordPress plugins and found WordPress SEO by Yoast. Now I generally don’t plug plugins, but this one is awesome. This plug in makes WordPress SEO Settings so easy. It uses a simple score card that helps. I will use this article as an example.
Once the plugin is enabled and setup is pretty straight forward. I followed the tutor and the recommendations in it for the initial part. But where it gets fun is in the articles or posts. What helps WordPress SEO settings is the grading “light” above the publish button which starts like this WordPress SEO settings status grey.
Once you have an idea for your article. The first thing I recommend is using the Google Adwords Keyword tool.WordPress SEO Settings Google Adwords. The account is free initially, and becuase I only use it for the keyword tool, I never have to pay anything. You only need to pay if you use it to actually create ads. This is how you get there after your account is created. Its under Tools and Analysis and select Keyword Tool.
WordPress SEO Settings Google Adwords keyword tool
The phrases I use to search is basically the keywords from the title. In this case, when I started writing this article the title was “WordPress and SEO”. I changed the title becuase the Page Analysis detected a stop word. Not that it’s a bad thing, but I wanted to make this particular article as SEO Friendly as possible. This is a partial screenshot of my results from the Google AdWords.WordPress SEO Settings Google Adwords Results
Once the list is created fill in the General tab below the article in the WordPress SEO by Yoast section.01 WordPress SEO Settings general tab
Now Set the focus keyword to match the title, and leave the SEO Title as is. If you set up the intial WordPress SEO Settings like the recommended settings the SEO Title should state the the Title and the Domain Name. I like it like that. Now to the tough part, the Meta Description. What I recommend is finding ones with Low Competition and the Local Monthly searches are low. The tough part is finding some that are in the low thousands. If the Search result is in the millions it takes a lot of work to get on the first page. Let alone the top ones. But the low thousands it’s not so much work. Now you can select the Results in the low hundreds but with that there will only be a few hundred searchs that your article will show up on, and that doesn’t guarantee a click. So yes, selecting keywords for Meta Description is a gamble. There are no guarantees that you site will be selected. But back too settings.
Now write your article. One of many things to keep in mind when writing you article and WordPress SEO Settings, is to repeat your focus keyword setting from time to time. This is one of the WordPress SEO Settings that is “graded”. Once 300 words (not characters) have been entered, Save Draft. Clicking on Page Analysis will show you what you need to change and how you rate on SEO. WordPress SEO Settings page analysis tab
The only thing I have found that I can’t seem to get past is the one that states “The keyword doesn’t appear in the first paragraph of the copy, make sure the topic is clear immediately.” I have it in the first paragraph but it appears to me if I remove the header the the first paragraph one turns green, but then another one about a sub-header turns red. So I guess it’s one or the other. Everything does not need to be all green. This article just happen to work out that way. A good indiecator is the SEO Check button over publish. If It’s green, you should be good to go.WordPress SEO Settings status green
Now the Article is set up for SEO. Is the work done? Not really. The article is all set, but there is more work to due. The biggest one I think is posting links to your new article on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks of course after you published your article. This can be set up automatically with using the JetPack for WordPress, particularly the Publicize feature. And of course publicizing your domain name on other forums helps SEO as well through what is called back-links. What I have done is modified my signature to include all of my domain names related to the forum I am posting on. I wouldn’t put my wife’s jewelry site on a mobile phone forum but I would include 4G Phone Freedom. This covers all about all I know about WordPress SEO Settings.

Revamped

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Revamped

Yes, I have revamped again. I guess I love tweaking the server to get maximum performance out of it.

My latest big change was to convert my main WordPress site to a multisite configuration. Mainly for plugin and theme management since I use basically the same plugins across the board. Instead of having to log into all six sites for updates, I just log into one now.

I had an issue during setup. On the primary or “parent domain” I could login no problem, but my “children domains” were stuck at log-in. OK Not really stuck, the log-in would get redirected back to itself. Here’s how I did it. I followed the instructions here for beginning of the setup. Then I installed the WordPress MU Domain Mapping plugin. and thoroughly followed the instructions there. I then added one of my spare domains (when registered I got the .info for free) fuelupwithadvocare.info. I started troubleshooting the site with this reference. Got further along. But I still couldn’t get past the login for Dashboard. I tried the Android App and was able to post (couldn’t access the Dashboard there either). The instructions did not specify adding the other domain into the Domain Mapping: Domains as a new domain. I haven’t found anything that specifies what a SITE ID is and where to get it. So I just started at 1. The Parent Domain is not required (or so i think as it’s not listed after adding) but after adding it. It works.

And so far there was only one problem I found. That is favicons. Initially all favicons used are that of the host site. But there is a plugin that fixes it. Network Favicons did the job. I just made a few changes to allow for multiple sites to use the same template and have there own favicon.

 function network_favicon() {
$ADVSite_URL = site_url();
$ADVNSite_URL = network_site_url();
$ADVFavIcon = $ADVNSite_URL.'favicon/'.trim($ADVSite_URL, 'http://');
$ADVFavIcon2 = ABSPATH.'favicon/'.trim($ADVSite_URL, 'http://');
$template = get_bloginfo('stylesheet_directory');
$dir = get_stylesheet_directory();
if( file_exists($ADVFavIcon2 . '/favicon.ico') ) {
echo '';
} elseif( file_exists($ADVFavIcon2 . '/favicon.png') ) {
echo '';
} elseif( file_exists($ADVFavIcon2 . '/favicon.gif') ) {
echo '';
}

}

And no the ADV in the variable names isn’t vanity, years ago I started doing that to avoid stepping on any global variables that are declared. Now I need to stop tweaking and start writing, now that my site has been revamped again. And no I am not switching back to Joomla, though I might set up a subdomain for drupal, to see what that’s like. But I am loving my WordPress!

Software Licensing Policies

Posted on by Aaron D. Vail Posted in Business Round Table, Technology — No Comments ↓

Software Licensing Policies

I have run into a number of software licensing policies. Some good, some bad, and some just downright frustrating. Here I am going to express my views on various policies, and of course this is open for discussion.
Now I understand the reasoning behind licensing and the changes that companies have made in licensing and license validation. Back in the day, when home computing was like the wild west, as long as a copy of the software media was in hand, software could and most times would be installed. So, someone would purchase a copy of Microsoft Dos 4.01, install it on their home computer and then turn around and make copies of the installation media for friends and neighbors. Yes, there was a page that popped up (several pages actually), but it was all 100% unadulterated legalese. We were Techs, it might as well be Greek. No one really read it. Side note, I think hieroglyphics would have been better. This spawned companies like Microsoft to start changing their software licensing policies.
The first big change was Novell requiring a “special” disk during install containing a “key” basically unlocking the software for install. Microsoft ran with this idea and built in the requirement for “cd keys” in their installers. Initially they were just numeric, until word got out that all 1’s would bypass that. Then alpha-numeric keys became the standard. Simply handing out the key with the software allowed for install. Now Microsoft uses a 25 character alpha-numeric key with a “phone home” ability (darn E.T.). Once you do the install and enter the key, the machine checks over the internet if that key has been used before. All this to make sure that people that are using the software actually bought a copy of it. This “phone home” technique is used by Microsoft, Apple, and Adobe (I am sure there’s others but I don’t know who).
Now there are other methods that some companies use for software licensing policies. Most of which is because companies do not have the resources or desire to police the computer world. My personal favorite is related to Open-Source. The software is generally free to download and install, and there are usually two support avenues, Pay-Support which is how the company makes money, and/or Community Support, which is usually a forum of like minded individuals who share their problems and resolutions with each other.
Another commonality in software licensing policies is offering restricted versions of software as free, with pay for upgrades. Now this is the part that I find a little frustrating. Software can be classified as either client or server (I know over simplified, but just go with me for the sake of argument). The restrictions are also broken down into two categories, either limit the number of users or limited functionality. Yes there is a limit in times of usage, but that is a demonstration, I do not consider that a valid example of software licensing policies. Now the combination of software class and restrictions is where it gets interesting. I believe (and it’s a shame others don’t agree) that the class should determine the restriction. Client side software should limit functionality if there is a retail copy available, because there is most likely only one user on that computer anyway. However, for server side software, if a retail version is available, the number of users should be the only thing limited.
What brought this to my attention has to do with the “Request More Info” link above. Basically I was setting up a CRM (Contact {or Customer} Relationship Manager) using SugarCRM. The goal was to have a visitor fill out the form, log their info and have them automatically receive an email with some content and as well as me letting me know I’ve had a new visitor. I’ll see if I can explain the SugarCRM software licensing policies accurately.
I was using SugarCRM because they had an Open Source free version. Now that free version was limited in functionality. More functionality is available with every level of the software. The part that I needed to have the emails sent is the workflow component. That component is in every version except the free one. The paid versions are subscription based, which depends on both the functionality needed and the number of users accessing the server. And the amount paid covers one year, now I don’t believe the software would turn off after a year, I believe that support is no longer available.
So being frustrated with the software license policies, that I would have to pay per user when it’s functionality that I want, I decided to go elsewhere. So I looked into a variety of CRM options on Source Forge. I found vTiger. It had all the functionality that I need. It’s not a pretty, but it works! And they do have a retail version. So their software licensing policies are more inline with what I consider good practices.
In closing, if you are a software company, check your software licensing policies. If the company wishes to license per user and there is a free version, limit the free version by users alone. How can I determine if I want to buy software if I can’t use the whole thing. If your software licensing policies don’t do this, thank you!

Solavei Vision

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http://www.4gphonefreedom.info/2013/01/15/solavei-vision/ – Solavei Vision

This is the vision behind Solavei. The purpose behind everything being done.
Watch it, and let me know what you think.

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My son loves it!

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http://www.4gphonefreedom.info/2013/01/14/my-son-loves-it/ – I guess I’ve become “one of those parents” But this video is just so darn cute!

And He is SO HAPPY that his NetFlix is paid for buy his parent’s phones!

The Solavei Compensation Plan

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http://www.4gphonefreedom.info/2013/01/14/the-solavei-compensation-plan/ – Solavei – Compensation Plan

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My Business Beliefs & Tae-Kwon Leep

Posted on by Aaron D. Vail Posted in Advocare, Business Round Table, Solavei — No Comments ↓

This is about my business beliefs & Tae-Kwon Leep

OK. I am involved in multiple Direct Sales Businesses, mainly AdvoCare and Solavei. I am looking into other opportunities as well. I am looking at generating at least my income level on each stream of residual income.Now, one thing I have noticed is that a number of “big players” in one of businesses are big on “pay for training” that are basically Webinars.  Now The other business does trainings that they bill for, but these trainings are Live, In-person trainings, so there is a cost for the facility rental, staff expenses, and so on. Webinars if done a particular way can be completely free. Yet they charge $50, $100, $150 for.
And they charge their down-line to. My problem with that is, my up-line profits when my business grows. So to spell it out, my up-line is trying to make money off of me from the very beginning. Now I should clarify, my immediate up-line is not like this, he helps when he can.
Intro Tae-Kwon Leep. Back in 1987 a Canadian comedy group called the Frantics, released a skit called “Boot to the Head” (Script below). This will continue after the script. I highly recommend reading it as it pertains to the rest of this post.

Master: Approach students.  Close the circle at the feet of the master.  You have come to me asking that I be your guide along the path of Tae-Kwon Leep, but be warned.  To learn its ways, you must learn the ways of your own soul.  Let us meditate on this wisdom now.
 
Ed: Uh sir… sir… ooo!  ooo!  Sir!

Master: Who disturbs our meditation as a pebble disturbs a pond?
 
Ed: Me.  Ed Gooberman.
 
Master: E… Ed Gooberman.
 
Ed: Yeah.  No disrespect or nothing, but like how long is this going to take?
 
Master: Tae-Kwon-Leep is not a path to a door, but a road leading forever towards the horizon.
 
Ed: So like, what, an hour or so?
 
Master: No, no.  We have not even begun upon the path.  Ed Gooberman, you must learn patience.
 
Ed: Yeah, yeah, patience.  How long will that take?
 
Master: Time has no meaning.  To a true student, a year is as a day.
 
Ed: A year?!  I wanna beat people up right now!  I got the pajamas.  Ha..yo…wa… wooo!
 
Master: Beat people up?
 
Ed: Yeah, just show me all those nifty moves so I can start trashing bozo’s.  That’s all I came here for.  Yo-as-ta-ta-shah!  Pretty good aye?
 
Master: The only use of Tae-Kwon-Leep is self defense.  Do you know who said that?  Ki-lo-knee, the great teacher.
 
Ed: Yeah, well the best defense is a good o-fense.  Do you know who said that?  Mel, the cook on Alice.
 
Master: Well, umm… Tae-Kwon Leep is the wine of purity, not the vinigar of hostility.  Meditate on this truth with us.  Ahhh…. ohhhhh….
 
Ed: Listen shrimp, now are you gonna show me those nifty moves, or am I gonna start waping the walls with you?
 
Master: Ed Gooberman, you fail to grasp Tae-Kwon Leep.  Approach me so that you may see.
 
Ed: Alright, finally some action.
 
Master: Observe closely class.  Boot to the Head [boom].
Ed: Ow, you booted me in the head!
 
Master: You are lucky Ed Gooberman.  Few novices experience so much of Tae-Kwon Leep so soon.
 
Ed: Ow, oh, my head.
 
Master: Now we continue.
 
Ed: Hey, hey, I wasn’t ready!  Come and get me now, come on, are you chicken?
Master: Boot to the head [boom].
Ed: Ow!  Okay, now I’m ready, come on, try it now.
Master: Boot to the head [boom].
 
Ed: Mind if I just lie down here for a minute?  Ow.
 
Master: Now class, we shall return to our…
 
Student 1: Master.
 
Master: It is wrong to tip the vessel of knowledge student.
 
Student 1: Many apologies master, but I feel Ed Gooberman is not wholly wrong.
 
Master: What do you mean?
 
Student 1: I want to boot some head too.
Master: Have you learned nothing from the lesson of Ed Gooberman?
 
Student 1: Yes master, I have learned two things.  First, that anger is a weapon only to ones opponent.
 
Master: Very good.
 
Student 1: And get in the first shot.  Boot to the head [half a boom].
Master: You missed.
 
Student 1: Uh, yeah, well …
 
Master: You to shall be honored to learn a lesson.
 
Student 1: Ya know, I can… you don’t have to ya know… I gotta be going….
 
Master: Boot to the Head [boom].
 
Student 1: ooo…ya.. ehh… ooooogggg… awwwwww
 
Master: Can anyone tell us what lesson has been learned here?
 
Student 2: Uh, yes master, not a single one of us could defeat you.
 
Master: You gain wisdom child.
 
Student 2:  So we’ll have to gang up on you!  Get him now!
Master: Boot… [boom]… boot to… [boom]… ht.. [boom], [boom], [boom] [boom] [boom], [boom] [boom]… [boom]
 
Master: And now class, let us rejoin the mind to the body, and gaze into the heart of the candle in meditation.  Ahh… owwww….
 
Students: ahhh… oooooowwwww…..
Master: Very good, class.

Now you are probably asking yourself what does this have to do with business? Well a number of things. First, Sun Szu’s Art of War has been required reading at most major business schools for a very long time. Why? Valuable business lessons can be gleaned from it. Boot to the head, has a number lessons that can be gleaned as well. Second, in sales, it is always important to realize the personality types of those you are working with.
Now for this post, I am going to use the personality types of expressive, driver, analytical, and amiable. There are other classification names, but the grouping is generally the same, and these are the ones I am most familiar with. Everyone is a combination of these types, having a primary (or more dominant one) and a secondary, and maybe a sprinkling of a third. The majority of those successful in direct sales are usually primarily drivers with a secondary of expressive. Does this mean you have to be a driver to be successful? No, just don’t expect the same results as a driver.
I would say that Mr. Gooberman, or Ed, is a driver-analytical. He wants results and he wants them now. But the results are based on technique. Did he make the right choice with Tae-Kwon Leep? No, he should have picked something else.
On the flip side, the Master should have been a little more investigative and probably not let Ed sign up.
How does this apply to me? Well being in the computer industry for 19 years, I would think that I have a strong analytical personality type. With that being said, I am not exactly comfortable with doing something new without a firm understanding how. An example would be when I went skydiving (accelerated freefall, not tandem). At the jump school, they started training us @ 8:30 in the morning, and it kept going till we jumped @ 4 in the afternoon. And even then, I was a little apprehensive.
Now this training, that I have paid for. I must admit I have been thoroughly disappointed in the training. I know what I need. I know what I have. I am tired of what I call “Fluff”. Motivational speaking is one thing, but when “training” is nothing but psychology, then I have a problem.  My idea of training is more how to. When I end up sitting through “training” that is nothing but personal psychology, I end up feeling like Ed Gooberman. What I want is someone to show me those nifty moves, so I can sign people up right now, and all I get is a boot to the head.
One of the books that I learned a lot from in regards to business is “Behind the Golden Arches”. The book covered the multiplication of McDonalds franchises through duplication. Almost every McDonald’s you go into is the same, same menu, same decor, same uniform, and for the most part the same prices. And there’s a reason, you as the consumer is just as comfortable walking into a McDonald’s in St. Augustine as you are in San Francisco. And what works in St. Augustine works in San Francisco. And the power of duplication has made McDonald’s the model for franchising. How does that apply to Network Marketing? Simple, through leadership as well as parenting, it is better to say, do what I do. And as part of looking towards leadership for guidance, it’s easy to emulate what they do.

That being said my immediate up-line is someone worth emulating, someone worth following. His goal is to help me and others build the business, because he see’s that as my business grows, so does his. Further “up the chain”, there is a person that charges for “training”, and either misses that as my business grows so does his, or he doesn’t care. Money I’ve spent on training that I believe is overemphasized on psycho-babble “fluff”, could have been better spent on other resources for marketing. I, am going to follow MY leader, and filter some of this stuff from my down-line. I believe that being goal oriented and orienting myself to the goals of my down-line is what’s needed. I do not think a down-line should feel like Ed Gooberman, now it might happen, but all I say is bring it to my attention and I’ll do what I can. We should help each other in helping each other, that way we grow as a group! I’m going to be investigating some things I can set up as part of team building, maybe set up some sort of “round table”, so WE can talk WITH you, not me talking AT you.

Stephen Baldwin – I Am Solavei

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http://www.4gphonefreedom.info/2013/01/09/stephen-baldwin-i-am-solavei/ – Stephen Baldwin – I Am Solavei

Stephen Baldwin, personally my favorite Baldwin Brother, shares his take on Solavei.

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Trying to understand SEO open for comments

Posted on by Aaron D. Vail Posted in Technology — No Comments ↓

Trying to understand SEO open for comments

I am trying to understand SEO, and this discussion is open for comments.For those of you that don’t know, SEO is Search Engine Optimization. Basically, when Al Gore created the internet, search engines developed “bots” that scrubbed the internet indexing the contents of pages they came across. Since then it became indexing keywords. Now that nearly everyone is on the internet, and a lot are providing content (all of which is true), search engines needed a way of optimizing the content, so that old content doesn’t show up first, like my results from a medical examine 10 years ago, but more relative content all the while removing “spam” from the results as well to help curb “phishing”. That is my overall understanding of it.
I know there are a lot of blanks. But for me, my issue is not so much what it is, but more how to make my site work with SEO, and get me higher on the search results list.
My site is running on WordPress with the Google XML Sitemap plugin. This plugin is supposed to be the best for SEO, and I’ve got it configured right (really simple to configure) but I couldn’t fine a spot on WordPress to setup MetaTags. And I thought MetaTags were needed for SEO. Is it the tags on the post? Or is it somewhere else? Am I missing something? So I doubt I will get responses from Google searches, but Facebook responses would be just fine. As long as I get it resolved.

*** UPDATE ***
I have since switched out my SEO plugin to WordPress SEO by Yoast. Not difficult to set up, definitely go through the tutorial. Though I am still trying to understand SEO, and would like to reiterate that this is still open for comments. One of the tools I recommend (and the WordPress SEO by Yoast gives you a direct link to it), is the Google AdWords Keyword Search tool. It neatly breaks down the phrase you may want to use for a keyword and then makes recommendations on like phrases and rates them based on search results.

Bring Your Own Phone (BYOP)

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http://www.4gphonefreedom.info/2013/01/07/bring-your-own-phone-byop/ – Solavei – Bring Your Own Phone (BYOP)

As far as I know, any GSM phone will work. As long as it meets 2 requirements, it is unlocked and it will operate on T-Mobile’s frequencies. Some phones will not be able to enjoy the 4g speeds because the phones themselves are limited…

Earn Money with Solavei – Quick Compensation Overview

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http://www.4gphonefreedom.info/2013/01/06/earn-money-with-solavei-quick-compensation-overview/ – Earn Money with Solavei – Quick Compensation Overview

This is a short overview of the compensation plan. It gives you everything you need to know to get started in Solavei.

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I Am Solavei

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http://www.4gphonefreedom.info/2013/01/05/i-am-solavei/ – I Am Solavei

I love this commercial! I have sat in meetings similar to this, listening to vendors pitching their wares. And a few times, I wanted to say “Sorry, but no thank you.” Never had the opportunity though. And this ad is so true, the power behind Solavei is YOU!…

Great Service, Great Price, Great Opportunity

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http://www.4gphonefreedom.info/2013/01/05/great-service-great-price-great-opportunity/ – Great Service, Great Price, Great Opportunity

You have a cell phone. Who doesn’t? Ok, my wife’s grandmother doesn’t, yet. But we’re working on it. But today, I’m going to break Solavei down a bit.
Being former T-Mobile customers, we had the typical…

New Sim Card Price

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http://www.4gphonefreedom.info/2013/01/04/new-sim-card-price/ –

Kick off 2013 with a new SIM card price
We are kicking off 2013 with some great news! The Solavei SIM card will cost new members only $9! It’s a $20 savings off the original price. Share with your friends and family and give them the opportunity for financial freedom in 2013!
So now…

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