Template design when you begin

Personalisation of a blog's templateis quite important for most people when starting, including myself. I am now beginning to undestand that it should not be my main priority when thinking of attracting good readers towards my noted scattered thoughts. The most important thing to try to get people to scan through your blog and share their thoughts with you is to start writing about something that is meaningful. This does not always mean to concentrate your essays on things that only you care about. You have to be able to interest people on their level of thought.

Obviously I believe that somebody who writes for the masses without individuality is not somebody to be considered highly of respect. On the other hand I also know that many people who have shocked the world with something so extravagant have quickly gained a nice share of followers and triumphed. Speaking for myself I believe that there must be a certain degree of compromise with what you want to transmit to the world and the intelligence to realise if anybody cares about what you are saying. The daily calibration of this strategy will certainly attract people who will not only look forward to your next posts but that will actively participate in the development of your ideas.

" That's fresh" - George Tsigourakos

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Asian cinema series

Since I was quite small I have been a very big affiliate of cinema; so have most people you can say. I guess the difference is that I watched movies constantly. Whenever I was not studying, playing tennis, practising piano or being mischievous, I was watching movies. The habit pretty much died down when I came back to live in Spain. Back when I was in England we were fully signed up to Sky service so I had access to anything and everything all the time. Back in Pamplona we didn't　and regular TV sucked so my interest decreased to an almost zero.

Once again I travelled to live in the UK, to Loughborough especifically. Once there, apart from being immersed in a complete free environment of personal fulfillment, there was something called DC++. It was a sort of napster network program that you would use within the University radius and it gave you access to anybody who would want to share their file there. So again I was caught up in the habit of watching anything and everything that was available. This came incredibly useful on after going out days when we would enjoy the beer-pizza-movie plan in student halls.

Through watching an incredible amount of movies you get to appreciate certain aspects that are nowadays decreasing at constant speed. With this I am obviously refering to the low quality of todays movies and the wrong direction they are taking. This will probably be discussed some other day. In this post I want reivindicate the less known but much higher quality of asian cinema. For many years, while big productors were laughing over at the other side of the world, asian cinema has been cultivating many features of their on-screen performances. We have seen but the tip of incredible star actors and directors that have gone through their ranks as only the ones that sign up for american movies are actually recognised.

In this Asian cinema series I will cover movies that I have long enjoyed and wish to share it with more people. I can say with certainty that I have already tried this with many friends, the ones who gave asian cinema a chance, ended up loving it, mostly. The rest of people who didn't want to listen, well I guess you are stuck with what you have, and everybody knows that's far from anything good.

" Even with my eyes wide open I can't see a thing" - Zatoichi

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Important places to sign up your blog

This post is going to include most of the places that I sign up to in order to get my blog accounted for. They are also important for other people to discover your blog. Within them you might also get to find a blog that you like.

1- Technorati - (will cover this later on too)

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Queciudades , Nice search application

I was reading through a great spanish blog, Bitelia and I came across this nice search engine called "Que ciudad es".

When you enter the website you can see that it has a nice and simple design. Personally I wouldn't have chosen a complete black background, but it has to be said that the combination with the rest of colours is perfect at so.

The website consists of a search box and most popular tags, with a small description of what the site is below. You can enter any street or city within the the search box and instantly you will be displayed with a good amount of information that is arranged in a very neat way. First of all, you get the location in google maps followed by a more detailed view in Microsoft Visual Earth. At the side of the page you are then provided with relative information that you may be interested in knowing such as the weather, petrol stations, location of important establishments etc.

I believe it still has a long way to go to better the actual search engine but I believe that the idea is a great one and this could be a very used website in the upcoming future.

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8 - Meta tags, which is better?

I have two pieces of code from different sources tha are supposed to be good for seo:

1 -

<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title><LINK REV="made" href="mailto:rincon.rise@gmail.com"&gt;<meta content=’The exploration of Kaizen. The strategy for continuous improvement in life and business’ name=’description’/><meta content=”kaizen, improvement,self-help,business, life′ name=’keywords’/><meta content name="author" CONTENT="Javier Rincon"><meta content=’INDEX, FOLLOW’ name=’robots’> </meta>

I can't remember the source of this.


2 - To replace this:

<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

With:

<!-- Start Widget-based: Changing the Blogger Title Tag --><b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'><b:section id='titleTag'><b:widget id='Blog2' locked='false' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog'><b:includable id='comments' var='post'/><b:includable id='postQuickEdit' var='post'/><b:includable id='main' var='top'><title><b:loop values='data:posts' var='post'><b:include data='post' name='post'/></b:loop> ~ <data:blog.title/></title></b:includable><b:includable id='backlinkDeleteIcon' var='backlink'/><b:includable id='feedLinksBody' var='links'/><b:includable id='backlinks' var='post'/><b:includable id='status-message'/><b:includable id='feedLinks'/><b:includable id='nextprev'/><b:includable id='commentDeleteIcon' var='comment'/><b:includable id='post' var='post'><data:post.title/></b:includable></b:widget></b:section><b:else/><title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title></b:if><!-- End Widget-based: Changing the Blogger Title Tag -->

Source has been taken from Search Marketing Blog Online

Are these bits of code exclusive, which one works better? What are the actual visual and hidden results behind them?

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7 - Webmaster tools, enter metatag

In order for Google to rightly crawl and provide you with the information in Webmaster tools, you need to insert a little bit of code just after the opening head tag. Modifications have been made

<meta name="verify-v1" content="C5KCvU3M5XtAy1e8w2/Jk2bfooMe2XyUjjMmE6pU=" />

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6 - Google Analytics code

I have just added the following code from Google Analytics just before the "body," tag. My accound number has been replaced with XXXX

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXX");
pageTracker._initData();
pageTracker._trackPageview();
</script>

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5 - Blogrush

Signed up to Blogrush, its pretty new but see how it is. I inserted this piece of code just before the endof the body tag:

<script type='text/javascript'><!--blogrush_feed = "16162715";//--></script><script src='http://widget.blogrush.com/show.js' type='text/javascript'></script>

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4 - Create a feed for others to follow, Feedburner

Once you are thrivingly shouting your opinions at the world, I know, nothing can stop you, well maybe if you need to take a big crap, NO, not even then! Imagine somebody now enters your blog, he/she reads a few posts and thinks they are of quality. He/she thinks that they are of enough quality that they would actually like to read every new post that you decide to write on your blog.

The thing is that from what I have heard, life is a busy business. These people already like a handful of other blogs and to enter each blog's page everyday to see if a post has been written can be very tiresome, next to impossible.

The solution to this is an RSS feed. You need to create an rss feed on your page that will let these great readers of yours to sign up to your blog. The result is that whenever you post something new, it will appear on one of their preferred readers, be it googlereader, myahoo etcc.

So now, sign up to Feedburner and follow the instructions within it. At some point you will have to insert a piece of code within blogger html widget to create that rss feed link. Now do it!

This is mine: http://feeds.feedburner.com/riseofrincon

" Feedburner is a plugin" - some guy in a forum

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3 - Hide the nav bar

A simple bit of code to hide the nav bar from blogger that idly sits at the top. Put this code after the second b:skin tag:

#navbar-iframe {   display: none !important;}

It is also better for SEO reasons.

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2 - Looking for templates

This is something that almost drove me crazy. I was searching and searching for templates for a very long time. At some point I would find something that I liked but wheneer I implemented it I would then find that there was something wrong with it. I would then look for another one for ages, and the same would happen. I would then repeat this process for a high number of iterations.

At some point I did find a template that I did like, then started making changes to it like a madman. Adding html code here and there, adding a search bar etc. When I started to look into other SEO matters I realized that because of this custom template made by Ronald Buddha the III, tips that were aimed at more custom structured html would not allow me to apply them. And so I reverted back to a simple yet nice looking template and started trying to focus on the content.

When I get settled down again in Malaga and get myself a new MacBook Pro, I can then get myself a copy of dreamweaver and design myself a very nice looking and SEO compatible web page.

For the time being, no secret but to view around templates here

“Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success” - Napoleon Hill

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1 - Blog from scratch

When I started out to retake this this blog, I was faced with some tasks that while not difficult, were just annoying to do. This section of the blog will account for every change that I do in this blog in order to make it the next super sensation, to make it seem like there is a meteorite heading at your computer screen.

I believe that many of us want the quick way to accomplishing things. In the case of blogs, many people want to get rich but other people just want to be heard out. These in many cases are the people that end up making a living out of blogging. Why? Because they come out with genuine material. The sweat that actually goes into making the blog can be related to old medieval knighthood, or they are just really f**king good at redirecting traffic.

The fact is that there are great site out there that tell you do this with your blog, do that, but none of them are actually placed on a proper timeline. This section aims to do that, and at the same time I can keep a diary of changes I make in my template just in case I have to back engineering my way back into certain places.

“Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success” - Napoleon Hill

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Finally, band recording!

After quite a long time with the "I would like to, but I'll do it another time" feeling, my friend and I have finally taken the step to go ahead and have a proper recording session. The fact is that we have been sweating for the last few days and my fingers feel like they are going to fall off. We have been practising everyday for a few days and I think that we are 99% there. Reality is that every time we have had any gig, we have never been nowhere near prepared for it. As a result of this condition, we STILL ended up playing an amazing event. The explanation for this is what I want to name "intrinsic guitar chemistry". For some reason, when we play together, cool things come out.

Why haven't we recorded anything or played in massive gigs if "we are so awesome"? Trying to prioritise, firstly I would say that studing at university, and secondly I would have to say that is a lie. Whenever you really love something you will always find the time for it. I guess my answer to this is that I never realised how much I actually did love it. Other plans and other less important but cover shiny things got me distracted along the way. And the same is for many other things in my life, including piano, tennis, rock climbing, technology etc. Others at the top of my list would include peeling potatoes with a spoon and painting cathedrals while upside down and holding an egg with my left foot.

The fact is that this last year has been an eye opener for me and I have retaken many of my more important lost interests. So most importantly, very soon we will have a cd recording, some artwork and a foreword by George Foreman.

Stay tuned!

"The past is a great place and I don't want to erase it or to regret it, but I don't want to be its prisoner either" - Mick Jagger

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The importance of setting Goals

The change from school to university is a bigger leap than many people might think, especially if you move into another country and you are living on your own. For many people, such as myself, it grants them a great and unique opportunity to do what they always would have without the correct influence of parents, nothing but party!

I believe my personality always inclined towards this kind of person. During my years in school, I achieved amazing grades; always top of the class, never missing a comma. Yet my good results were always still criticised due to a lack of commitment to the given activity. I had a lot of parental pressure to achieve high standards and any grade below the A range were customary punished. Thus, I had direct personal goals that I had to achieve, including "not to get punished". In reality, my aim was not to get good grades, but the consequence of avoiding parental scolding evolved into an directly networked goal, "to get good grades".

In 2002 I started attended University. I applied for a 5 year MEng course in Systems Engineering with a year work placement in between. I left home and came to the UK. I discovered new things, met some new people, but most importantly I was now living on my own. The great distance between myself and my parents granted me a lot of leverage, their control methods were ineffective once more, I could literally do what I wanted to do. And thus, my direct goal of "not to get punished" got so watered down that my directly networked goals disappeared. You can imagine what was going to happen once this new life style was in place.....to be continued

"For me, goals are my road map to the life I want. They have helped me accomplish things I once thought were impossible." - Catherine Pulsifer

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What the ..!!

Due to strange coding performed by myself, some very bad things started happening to the blog. I have had to reset it completely and equip it with a new simple layout.

I have tried uploading the new layout but I have been getting problems. I will have a look this weekend when I have some time so be patient.

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Blog SEO

Learning SEO

I have started to seriously explore SEO capabilities within the limited reaches of this blog. I have realised I am further away from this tech medium than I ever thought.

I have decided to give it ago during the next few days or couple of weeks. I can say that I am picking it up quite quickly but I guess that will be shown in results soon enough, if not, well failure is not an option.

By following a methodical approach, or a full blown scattered offence, I am sure that daily improvement will be shown within Rise of Rincon. If anybody has any good advice on how they started in this world, don't be too greedy and let me know.

“With Heaven's aid I have conquered for you a huge empire. But my life was too short to achieve the conquest of the world. That task is left for you” - Genghis Khan

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Time to rise

It has been a very long time since I got to write anything in this blog. I will not descend into deep details over why this has been so. But I will list a few of excuses of the many that have prevented me from sharing with you what has been happening in my life. Here they are:

1- Finishing my university degre

2- Finishing my university degree

3...to 95- Finishing my university degree

96 - Trying to get a job

97- Playing guitar, piano and collectable of instruments made from household utensils.

98- Working a family business project.

99- Reading like a maniac.

100- Being lazy.

I have been inflated with a renowed motivation for expanding my blogging experience. The reason behind it is very simple. Years ago, I always knew what I wanted to accomplish. It was a given that I was going to succeed in life at any area I dedicated myself to but I didn't know how I was going to get there.

After going through a series of personal alterations, I have gained more perspective and thus the ability to see higher up from the valley. Now, not only do I know where I have to get to, I also know what I must do in order to safely arrive there.

As the days go by, it no longer is a question of will I make it to the top, nor how or when that overruns the melancholic sentiment of lost time. The time has come where a statement arises, solid and unbreakable where I assert " I will morph into the answer for the same questions I ask myself, as nobody will ever be at both sides of the sword I handle, but me."

The time has come to rise.

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