ContentAscent.com

A to C

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:21:55 +0000

active voice: The bane of hack writers and not-so hack too, some things simply are said best in the passive voice, like this sentence, for example, where "things" is the subject and "are said" is the verb, which acts upon the subject. In an active voice construction, the subject acts upon a verb. In the passive, the subject is acted upon by the verb. For far more years than I have been alive, countless stringers-together-of-words have been corrupted by the persistent little Strunk & White, which offers a weak and incomplete, at best, treatise on active versus passive voice. The skilled writer prefers the active voice in most constructions because it lends conciseness, focus, impact, and clarity. Passive constructions, although typically more wordy or awkward than the active voice, imply a different connotation or emphasis.
affiliate marketing: If I am interested in a topic you talk about on your blog, for example, then you might put a link to a popular book somewhere that I would be sure to see. Then I click the link, buy the book, and you get a little commission.
analytics: Measuring everything, especially what you can control, like click throughs, page views, conversions, unique visits. If you can optimize it, then you should measure it.
AP Style:The guide book used by writers who write according to the Associated Press’ interpretation of rules for consistency in presentation (look, feel, subjective writing judgement calls).
airal: Arguableythe most popular type face font in existence. Characterized by the absence of serifs (the little feet at the bass of each leg of the capital letter “A” for example. Well-suited for small lettering or poor resolution, not so well-suited for reading at length.
Automattic: The name of the online kingdom that started with WordPress (the most popular blogging/CMS platform on the web) and that has grown ever since. Named (sort of) after 20-something genius founder Matt Mullenweg.

B2B: If business to consumer is good, then business to business is immeasureably better from the aspect of scale. B2B is the holy grail (no rhyme intended, but I’ll take it).
B2C: The realm of the mom and pop, which is becoming ever-more important as government seeks to make big business pay more than its fair share. Germany leverages small jobs exemplarily
benefits: that which benefits the customer. Too often marketers lapse into talking about features as if they are benefits. The trick is to consider a feature in terms of how it would benefit the customer.
Bible: The Holy Bible, God’s Word, Jesus–all synonyms for the truth, the absolute final authority on right and wrong; listed here because nothing is more important, more enduring, more worthy of study.
Blogger: Google’s blogging platform, which is still popular but not so much so as the venerable WordPress.
blogging: web-logging or "blogging" as everyone knows it… the good thing is connecting with new friends and business contacts and reconnecting with old ones. The bad is that it’s all in writing.
branding:
your name on anything you can print it on–pens, coffee mugs, t-shirts, bumper stickers, and the tote bag, which is perhaps the most enduring of any such stuff.
Brazil: Brasileiros (Brazilians) actually spell it with an "s," not "z" (Brasil). Anyway, the land mass of this nation that takes up most of the eastern part of the south-americann continent, is actually greater than that of the continental states of the USA. Se fala português lá (Portuguese is spokenn there). Although more socialist than a garden variety American conservative would be comfortable with, this nation’s government is progressive, and its economy is slated to overtake many other countries’ economies in coming years. One should do well to partner with the Brazilians.
BuddyPress: Enables publishing of multiple blogs under one WordPress install. Similar to WordPress MU (mass user), which was integrated into WordPress 3.0.

caffeine: key ingredient in the elixirs favored by coders, designers, night-owls, and silly people who know better and really should just go ahead and get some sleep; powerful diruetic (makes you pee and makes you thirsty).
Chicago Manual of Style: The writers bible for subjective style issues. Now in its 16th edition, this exhaustive reference is the go-to for really everything to do with the expansive gray area beyond the rules of writing, even (or especially) writing for the web.
China: The dragon of the East; the most populated country in the world; land of endless fascination, history, and potential. Too bad it’s communist, but partnering with even one Chinese person, even an immigrant to USA is an exceedingly good idea. I know. I have done so.
church: Like the Bible, if church is a part of your life then it permeates everything you do. Church does not start with a fancy-dressing, slick speaker in a fashionable building up the street. Church starts in the heart of the man of the house.
Cloud: The idea of resources that are based off-site and in the imagined cloud that the internet in general comprises. For example, iPhone users install apps. from the app. store, which resides somewhere in the cyber "cloud" of the internet.
CMS: Content Management System, of which WordPress is the most popular. Gone are the days of having to hand-code everything if you want a web site. Just use a ready-made environment that takes care of the web presentation of your content and keeping it all organized. Thus, you are free to concentrate on writing (in my case), illustrating (again, in my case), photography, music, or whatever it is you’re good at.
consistency: One of the four fundamentals of health, consistency must be the rule in regard to execise, rest, and diet. If you leave out (neglect) any one of the following: exercise, rest, diet, or consistency, then health falters.
conversion: Getting someone to visit your site is only the beginning. A conversion is a visitor who has engaged you (bought something, registered, in other words, done something more than just read and then move on). The effective search engine marketer measures conversions as fundamental analytics.
copyright: how you keep others and how others keep you from copying text, images, sound or video files, or anything else you can put on a website or in a document. Some are really wacky. None are good to break.
copy writing: if content (copy) is king, then writing is god. Cool pictures or sound files, etc. are accessory to the text that frames them. Before all else come text. Call it what you will: copy, etc.
Creative Commons: online community where writers, photographers, graphic artists, musicians, etc. sell their wares and allow them to be shared. Just be careful of copyrights.
CSS: Cascading Style Sheets; the code-efficient, near-pixel perfect means by which designers control web presentation and (in large part) behavior.
CXO: Coined by Tom Peters, stands for Chief Executive Officer. To me, it’s a clever title, but not as friendly (appoachable) as my preferred "Chief Buzz Officer," which is my own humble invention.

D to F

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:48:40 +0000

Delicious: Formerly the difficult to remember "del.icio.us" (or something similiar), now simply the word. Social bookmarking; powerful; very worthwhile leveraging. Why? The more persons who bookmark your site on "Delicious," the more favorable the SEM impact.
Design: The hardcopy page, web page, direct mail, t-shirt or other branded stuff, email, and on an on–all project an image, whether professional, hack, or something in between. It all sends a message about your image, how attentive to detail you are, how much a potential customer should believe that you care about such crucially important areas.
Digg: Social bookmarking site (like "Delicious").
dollars: Although the Euro may be the preferred currency nowadays, that can all change for the better. I have faith that every (truly patriotic) Ameican believes in the certain return of the strength of the dollar and the respect that our great nation once had as the most beloved and respected place on earth.
domains: "ContentAscent.com" is the perfect domain for me because it embodies everything that I aspire to be as a writer in this modern internet age.
dried fruits and veggies: The handiest way to get your essential daily servings of these most crucially important foods. If you don’t eat right, you don’t feel good, and if you don’t feel good you cannot push yourself to the extremes of productivity that the ‘net-based customer takes for granted that you will deliver.

EBSCOhost: one of the most expansive collections of research databases of recent and not-so recent knowledge available; fundamental source of authoritative, credible content for the resourceful writer.
eCommerce: the default means by which the modernized, connected business does business and optimally leverages customer relations management (CRM).
Ecwid: Russian-made shopping cart system, which is also offered as an easily-implemented plugin in WordPress. Cloud-based. The only problems with Ecwid (as of this writing in late August, 2010) are that (1) it causes the page on which it resides to load really slowly due to server-based (PHP) scripts that must run and (2) it forces the buyer to leave your site upon paying. These two bugaboos are too fundamental to overlook. Otherwise, Ecwid would be my #1 recommendation for a shopping cart solution.
eMail 2.0: Twitter is the new email. It’s instantaneous, pervasive, and simple.
Euro: The world’s new currency, the $US is no longer preferred, given the choice. Considering the way that things in Eurpose are going, however, anybody could guess how everything may change.
Excel: Microsoft’s one-time default spreadsheet solution for all the world has (arguably) been replaced by Open Office’s "Calc." Not just well-suited to doing calculations, it is ideal for creating, manipulating, and sorting lists.
exercise: One of the four fundamentals of health, exercise must be moderate, consistent, and long term. If you leave out (neglect) any one of the following: exercise, rest, diet, or consistency, then health falters.
extending WordPress: The newest version of WordPress, 3.0, is way cool, extensible, cross-browser centric, and easy to use. Extending WordPress with plugins or themes makes it even more so.

Facebook Flash: Facebook supports Adobe Flash and, thus, cool animations like the gallery carousel on the home page of ContentAscent.com.
faith: evidence of what is not seen, certainty of what you hope for (Hebrews 11:1 paraphrased). Faith takes guts. Having guts takes faith. A walk of faith is not for the cowardly or weak. One who faces one’s humanness (weakness) is made strong through faith in God.
fax: (817) 303-9014 is the fax number of ContentAscent.com. I contend that the fax machine may never go away, at least in concept. A need for a signature will always exist, as will the need for the convenience and expediency that the humble fax affords.
features: noteworthy capabilities or functionalities that may be interpretted as benefits to the customer. Too often marketers lapse into talking about features as if they are benefits. The trick is to consider a feature in terms of how it would benefit the customer.
Feedburner: Sign up to the buzz at ContentAscent.com (refer to plugins Feedburner, podPress, more)
Firefox: the most popular browser in use. It renders code predictably, unlike Internet Explorer, is extensible, and stable.
Float (CSS): Fundamental box element property that is essential to positioning in online designs.
French: I know that a person’s first language is that person’s mother tongue, but in my case I’m not so sure that I could think of English in such a way. My dream is to live in Paris for long enough to remove English as a barrier to understanding or being understood in French.
friends: All the fame and fortune in the world are worthless in comparison. You can’t buy friends, not real friends. What about when I am gone? My oldest friend in the world, Alan Lafitte, went home to Heaven on my birthday, September 21, of the year 2010, and the whole church filled up with people like me, who thought that they were his best friend. I can only hope to win such love from so many.
fun: May I never forget what happens to Jack if he gets no play.

G to I

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:49:17 +0000

God: Omnipotent, supreme Creator and Ruler of all existence without beginning or end; Living Lord and Heavenly Father; the first Person of the Holy Trinity; my personal Friend; the One True Redeemer and Healer; the One Whom I live to worship freely, zealously, joyfully; the One Who inhabits my praises of Him; Author of the Holy Bible; the One who gives purpose to everything I do; the One who gives me hope, faith, breath.
Gallucci (Giovanni):
GIMP: GNU Image Manipulation Program; open source version of Photoshop. This free alternative to the gold standard Adobe software is sufficiently capable and then some for mere mortals like most of us. Open source stigma notwithstanding, GIMP is just plain good software, much like Open Office. I highly recommend GIMP.
GoDaddy.com: Only the best host on the all of the internet. If the personality of the guy at the top trickles down, then Bob Parsons is one super person. Customer support, knowledge, professionalism, resources, flexibility, products, depth and breadth of coverage–all are reasons that I am a GoDaddy fan. After suffering through many other ultimately disappointing hosts, GoDaddy is precisely the opposite.
Godin (Seth):
Google: The secret to optimizing for Google SERPs lies not with Google Analytics, which has latency of–what–days? Woopra, however, gives you analytics real-time.
grid hosting: ContentAscent.com is hosted with GoDaddy.com’s grid hosting, meaning simply that the actual files (.php, .html, .css, .pdf, .png, etc.) reside not on one computer but on a "virtual" computer that actually spans the resources of a number (or grid) of computers. In things computer-based, redundancy is a beautiful (reliable, fast) thing.
gut: The nervous system of the body actually has two brains: (1) the brain in your noggin and spinal cord and (2) the equivalent mass of nervous tissue (nerves) in your gut. Thus, the notion to "trust your gut" or to "feel something in your gut." Trust it. You get that for good reason.

Height (CSS): Fundamental box element property that is essential to online layout design.
Helpfulness: The new "Web 2.0" way of thinking. The pendulum has swung back from the notion of hording all that you can learn and earn to build your own kingdom. Seminars, groups, and a community of sharing have given birth to WordCamps, Meetups, social networking.
Holy Spirit: Third Person of the Holy Trinity; ever-present counselor dispatched by Jesus upon His ascention; the One Who enters the heart of any person without exception, but only upon invitation, to clense that person of all sin and to cover that person with His (Jesus’) presence, so that God sees that person as holy, not a sinful, by seeing Jesus’ blood (the Holy Spirit) that covers everything. Crucial to note is that the sinner is made holy only through repentance of the inborn sinful nature and obedience to God. This act of truth, submission, and utter honesty renews the mind (soul), body, and spirit, draws any person willing to do so closer to God, and must be entered into daily.
humility: The attitude demonstrated by the web’s most successful. An attitude of humility works well ove the ‘net because its purveyors understand that we all can learn, profit, benefit from each other.

iMindMap:
India:
Internet Explorer:
interpreting:
invention:
Israel:

J to L

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:49:33 +0000

Jerusalem:
Jesus:
Jihad:
joy:
jpg:

kindness:
knowledge:

life:
Link partners:
LinkedIn:
local installation of WordPress:
localization:
logo:

M to O

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:49:52 +0000

marketing:
matte:
mind mapping:
MODx:
movies:
MU:
music:
MySpace:

networking:
nutrition:

OneNote:
open source:
optimization:
Orkut: Most popular social network in Brazil. Go to "m.orkut.com" to get it on your iPhone or iPad. You must have a Google account first. Then your "gmail" address will show as your user name when logged in.
outsourcing:

P to R

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:50:09 +0000

P2 theme:
Peters (Tom):
PHP:
plugins:
png:
Portuguese:
prayer:
probiotics:
profit:
PURL:

quality:
QuickTime:

real (Brazilian curency):
relationships:
research:
rest:
résumé:
RSS:

S to U

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:50:46 +0000

scripts:
security:
SEO:
SERPs:
shopping cart:
skill:
social networking:
SSL:
stress:

templates:
time management:
Time font:
tithing:
translating:
trust:
Twitter:

UHB devices:
understanding:
updating:
UVP:

V to Z

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:51:15 +0000

video:
virtual server:
vocabulary:

water:
web 2.0:
whois:
widgets:
width (CSS):
wit:
wmf:
Word:
WordCamp:
WordPress:

XHTML:
x-axis (graphics):
x-factor:
XXL (size):

Yahoo:
y-axis (graphics):
Yenn:
YouTube:

zest:
z-index (CSS):
zulu time: In aviation, time starts at the prime meridian at zulu time, which to me seems like a fitting last topic for this series of posts. Reset your thinking by ending your day, but don’t do so online. Get a life!

Seers/Sage on Google SEO

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:39:10 +0000

Seer/Sage on Bing

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:40:17 +0000