A Relaxing Birthday

Jennifer Foresythe,
our angelic masseuse

On Tuesday I turned forty. The Big Four-O. The end of my youth. Middle-aged. The beginning of the long, slow decline. Over the hill and picking up speed.

One of the things that Lisa and I did on my birthday was to go to Bellanina, a local day spa, to make use of some massage gift certificates that we had. We got the certificates at the Chamber of Commerce member reception put on by Dynamic Edge a couple of months ago.

It's a pretty nice way to spend my birthday afternoon.

After filling out some paperwork, our host led us upstairs to a massage suite. On several placards in the hall were indications that it would be frowned upon to be using your cell phone. This was a quiet area, designated for peaceful contemplation and stress-free relaxation.

The original plan had been that we would get our massages simultaneously, but due to a scheduling glitch, we had to go one at a time. I think the measure of good customer service is often not only how well a business treats its customers, but also how well it recovers when an unexpected problem crops up.

Bellanina did a great job in this respect. After apologizing profusely, they offered to bring up a complimentary tray of snacks for us. A few minutes later, I was ensconced in the sitting room while Lisa was getting her massage. I had a delightful array of cheese, crackers, and fruit before me and a nice cool glass of sparkling cranberry juice in one hand. Our masseuse, Jennifer Foresythe, made sure that I was comfortable before she went to give Lisa her massage.

I tell you, just the atmosphere was enough to sooth any residual stress I might have been experiencing over it being my birthday. I actually dozed off for a while.

When it came my turn, Jennifer did just an amazing job. One of the hallmarks for me of a great masseuse is the ability to apply enough force so that you can really feel it down deep in the muscle without tipping over the threshold into actual pain. Jennifer was spot-on in this area.

After getting my massage, while waiting to check out, I had the curious sensation of being simultaneously so relaxed that I could take a nap and so energized that I felt like I could take on the world. Great job, Jennifer!

Reflecting on my birthday, I guess we have some sort of psychological need to recognize these mileposts in our lives, but there's so much baggage associated with turning forty that I could easily have sunk into a depressive funk from which I might not have recovered until I hit forty-one.

Instead, I had a pretty darned good day.

I don't feel forty (or at least the way you are supposed to feel when you are forty). I still feel like I'm in my early thirties -- maybe younger. I'll consider feeling old next year. For now I'm having too much fun.

So, how old do you feel?

Writing News and Taking a Break

Just a couple of quick announcements:

1. I just got an email in my inbox today, letting me know that I had been upgraded to "Platinum" status on EzineArticles.com. The way this works is that you have to submit ten articles as a "Basic" member and have them approved. At that point you can request to become a Platinum member. The benefits are that you can submit an unlimited number of articles and you will supposedly get priority approval on any new articles. As a Basic member you are limited to only ten articles and the response time on approval for me, at least was between six and eight days.

I'll let you know if the approval time is any faster for me now.

2. I'm on vacation this weekend. Lisa and I are up in Toronto to see Cirque du Soleil -- something we do every other year or so. As such, my posts might be a bit sporadic until I get back.

Until then, have a great weekend. I know I will!

So, where did you go on your last vacation?

Helium Follow-Up

OK, after my initial foray into the world of Helium -- an online repository for writers and publishers of articles -- I must say that I am intrigued. I'm still not entirely happy with the site, given its somewhat limited editing capabilities. Perhaps that will be addressed in the future.

What I do like is the community rating system.

When I submitted my article the other night, it was to a topic which had nine other articles already under it's rubric. At the time, I was rated 6 out of 10. Apparently it gave me the benefit of the doubt that I was in the middle of the pack as far as writing quality. The site then presents pairs of articles to those who volunteer to rate them. Each person is asked to read both articles and indicate which they think is better. Obviously, the one which is deemed to be superior rises in rank, while the lesser article drops lower.

The system presents articles from random titles, so an author can't go in and easily game the system to push their own article higher.

When I checked back today, my article had risen to 2 of 10 (not bad!). Out of curiosity, I checked out some of the articles to see to what kind of quality I was being compared. The article at #1, was quite well written. It was short and succinct and its author used a list structure which made everything quite clear and readable. I certainly didn't mind coming in second to that.

Then I looked at the lower end of the range. For every good quality that #1 possessed, #10 seemed to decide to do the opposite. It was long, unfocused and rambling. The author chose to use poor grammar and "creative" spelling. Where the first was authoritative, the last was amateurish. In checking with the other pieces, each seemed to be positioned about where I would expect them if I were to try to arrange them myself.

I guess the upshot for me is that Helium is not only yet another article submission site, but it also acts as a fairly impartial judge of ones writing style in the marketplace of ideas.

So, have you checked out any article submission sites?

In Search of You

Andrew Miller
The Finder's Keeper

This was a banner month in my participation in the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce as an Ambassador. Last week I delivered a welcome bag to Dan Kotwicki of Dakotech, Inc. Yesterday I had the rare opportunity to deliver a second bag. This time it was to someone who can really help you be found -- Andrew Miller of Your Search Advisor, LLC.

Andrew and I met at the local Panera Bread for our chat. We spent part of the hour talking about the numerous benefits of Chamber membership, but then spent most of the rest of it talking about his business and what he does for his customers. What does he do? I can tell you're dying to know.

He helps you be found.

Andrew works on websites, but he doesn't work on the beautiful pictures and great layout like a web designer, nor does he focus on the back end programming and database support, like I do. What he does is work with you to craft your whole Web presence, from the content of your site, to your profile and positioning on the numerous social networking services around the Net. He does this all to make it easier for other people to find you.

I've dabbled a bit in the search engine optimization (SEO) area myself, but compared to what he can do for you, I would be ranked somewhere between "pathetic newbie" and "rank amateur." If you want to know more about how to make yourself more visible on the Web, you should definitely get in touch with Andrew.

When I asked him about the most difficult part of what he does his answer was pretty much what I expected. The main challenge is simply managing client expectations. In the world of SEO and SEM (search engine marketing), nothing happens quickly. It can take months for any adjustments you make to be reflected in your position in the search engine results. Especially in the "I want it now" world of the Internet, the capacity for patience can be a bit hard to cultivate.

So, the next time you are at a Chamber event, keep your eye out for Andrew. If you want to know why you can't break into the first page of search results, he probably has an idea or two.

So, when you "google" your name, on what page do you appear? How did that happen?

Helium - Another Writing Venue

I've mentioned here that I've started submitting some of my articles to EzineArticles.com. I figure that it's a great opportunity to get my name out on the Web, share some of my knowledge and experience, and potentially boost my position in the Google search results for "Greg Peters" (right now I only have one entry on the first page -- my Amazon.com profile).

I've sent in ten of my articles so far. As of this writing, seven have made it through the editorial process and have been approved for public consumption. The thing is, with EzineArticles.com, when you sign up as an author, you are only given the "Basic" package, which means that you can only submit ten articles. Then you have to wait to see if those articles are good enough for them to declare you a "Platinum" member with unlimited submissions.

So, while I wait for that process to drag on, I figured I would check out some of the competition in the online publishing world. Today I played around a bit with Helium.

Helium is a site which accepts article submissions and publishes them immediately (kind of). A secondary aspect of the site is to present articles with the same topic side-by-side in order that the better of the articles will be rated higher. As more people select a particular article, it rises in the rankings. The ultimate goal, of course, is to have the highest rated article in a given topic.

In general, I like the concept. I just have one or two issues with the implementation.

First, the article can only be straight text. I often like to use italics or bold to show emphasis or define logical structure in my writing. Helium doesn't allow either of these, let alone sub- or superscripts, strike-through, color, or hyperlinking.

The second issue, and this is a big one for me, is that you are somewhat constrained to write to existing topics (or "titles" as they put it). The general idea is that you search for a title about which you would like to write and add your article under that title. While I haven't actually tried it, I get the impression that Helium looks dimly on the idea of creating new titles. As much as possible, they want to have multiple articles under each topic so that their rating service can sort them out.

I've submitted one of my networking articles, just to see what would happen. I'll check back in a few days to see if it has changed position. Right now I'm 6 of 10 in my topic of choice.

Wish me luck!

So, what article submission services have you used?