I don’t mean ‘when you grow up’ – I mean what do you
want to be, right now?

Do you want to be a writer?
Do you want to be an entrepreneur?
Do you want to be successful?
Do you want to be popular?
Do you want to be an authority in your field?
What do YOU want to BE?

I’m sure that every single one of us has a list in our
heads of things that we want to be – and a much longer
list of excuses why we aren’t or can’t.

Well think on this for a second:

You are what you are.

You ARE what you ARE.

If you want TO BE a writer, for example, you will
remain wanting TO BE a writer for as long as your mind
keeps ‘writerdom’ in the future tense.

The day you stop saying I WANT TO BE and starting I AM
is the day that the future arrives in the present, and
the day that you become your dream.

When you say ‘I AM a writer’ you no longer have the
luxury of all those excuses. They stop mattering. The
only thing that matters now is how you will find the
time and inspiration to write. And if your mind accepts
the idea that a writer is what you now are, it will
also accept that it has to help out with all the
trimmings. opportunities will open up for you so that
you can sit down to write, ideas will start to flow,
inspirations will start to arrive from places you
didn’t even think possible.

Writing is a concrete example, but how does it work for
the more abstract concepts like success and popularity?

Just the same! Once your mental process has brought the
desire from the future (I want to be) to the present (I
am) your subconscious brain starts to shape your
behaviors so that they fit the concept that you are
manifesting.

That is not to say that you adopt a ‘fake it until you
make it’ approach, but that you start to see the world
through the eyes of one who is where you want to be.

A popular person sees the world differently to an
unpopular one and behaves accordingly. That behavior
reinforces the popularity and so the attribute gets
stronger.

The same with success. How often do we say that success
breeds success? It really does – successful people see
the world as a pool of opportunity and have no qualms
about wading in to take what is theirs. By adopting
that mindset, you can soon be wading with the best of
them!

So today, think about what you want to be. Then instead
of just wanting, start being.

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Do meta tags in your web pages give you SEO advantages?

Is it true that keywords and description metatags are a joke and that anyone bothering to put them on their web pages is wasting their time?

In Internet marketing, and particularly SEO, you should be very wary of anyone who makes categorical statements. Especially when those statements are about Google.

The fact is that nobody really knows.

What IS ‘known’ is that Google SAY they don’t take any notice of the keywords meta tag. I emphasize SAY because Google have a track record of saying one thing and meaning another. It really isn’t in their interest to tell you what they really take notice of in ranking web pages.

Having said that, there is probably little or no actual Search Engine Optimization benefit to spending a long time crafting a keyword-stuffed meta tag. There MAY be a benefit, however, in simply putting one or two primary keywords in there. Why? Because even if none of the search engines use the data today, who is to say that they won’t use it tomorrow. Algorithms change all the time and we generally have no idea what is making a difference at the margin.

And if someone comes up with real proof in two years time that pages with keyword meta tags on them rank better you would kick yourself if you’d assumed that putting it on the thousands of pages you may have built by then was ‘a joke’. Especially as that joke takes such little time and effort to tell.

A search on the term ‘keyword meta tag’ will find you all kinds of ‘experts’ who suggest that both the keywords and the description meta tags are a waste of time. That is patently false because you can prove that Google are reading the description tag – that’s where they prefer to get the snippet they use to describe your page in their listings.

There is no evidence that the description tag gives you any ranking advantage, but it sure as anything helps to draw attention to your page wherever it does get ranked.

It seems that Google prefer to use the description meta IF it includes the primary keyword for the page. If not, they will pick a random snippet from you page text that does include the keyword or phrase – as far as possible.

This can lead to some weird listings – as we all know.

To some extent you can control that by crafting a good description meta – one that includes your primary keyphrase and, in a natural writing style, common derivations of it.

As I said at the beginning, anyone claiming to be an ‘expert’ on what Google do or don’t do, and who gives you concrete, black & white instructions about what will or won’t rank your pages is stretching their own reputation thinly and quite probably is looking to sell you something.

And, although I’m not trying to sell you anything, I include my own observations in that disclaimer as well.

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We live in a world that is obsessed with putting people in boxes. We have tests, questionnaires and examinations for everything.

Yet what do all those tests actually prove?

Do those boxes we are shoved into really define who we are? Or do they place artificial boundaries around us that become impossible to break out of?

David Ogilvy, an advertising copywriter who was universally regarded as a genius at what he did once was asked to take an intelligence test.

He was a bit surprised to find that he wasn’t a genius after all. In fact, according to the test, he was barely able to think at all!

If he had been asked to take this test at the beginning of his career, he would have had no career. A great talent would have been stifled.

I heard another story yesterday from a lady who coaches gymnasts. She had a young disabled girl in her class who wanted to do rythmic gymnastics with clubs. The girl was told that because of her disability this was impossible because she couldn’t throw and catch them.

But, unlike most of us, this little girl didn’t listen to the people who told her it was impossible. She did it anyway. She practiced and practiced and eventually could throw both clubs high in the air with one hand and then catch one in each hand as they came down.

They said it was impossible, but she did it anyway – despite being blind.

There must be many of us who have been told categorically that we can’t do something because we fell short on someone else’s scale, yet know in our hearts that we CAN and MUST do it anyway.

When you KNOW who you are – when your heart is telling you that your destiny lies in a certain direction – don’t let anyone else shove you in a box that doesn’t fit.

Like a jack-in-the-box, your spring will simply wind tighter and tighter until it either snaps or you burst through the lid.

I’m all for breaking out of the lids of artificially created boxes – how about you?

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