In his report Brian covers the following topics hoping to enlighten you about the topic of SEO.

• Why SEO Copywriting Still Matters
• How Search Engines Work
• Why You Have to Spoon Feed Search Engines
• The 5 Essential Elements of Keyword Research
• How to Create Cornerstone Content That Google Loves
• Five Link Building Strategies That Work
• Five Areas to Focus On for Effective SEO Copywriting
• Why Writing for People Works for Search Engines
• How to Make SEO Copywriting Simple

If you are new to the topic of SEO do sit down and take some time to go through it. Not only will it help you create content online but you will be surprised that you can use the knowledge for writing resumes, assignments and even love letters! :)

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Sunrise by fourto.blogspot.com

1 – Aligned the body of the blog to the center instead of left. This made reading easier in my own opinion. Now I can choose to add another sidebar on the left later on.

2 – Changed the content fonts to improve readability. Previously the fonts were serif fonts, making the contents look packed and cluttered. Plus running Cambria on Chrome & Firefox didn’t really look that good so Calibri was my next choice.

3 – Sorted out my categories. I realized that my blog was neither here nor there. I took a little time reflecting on the things I wanted to write more about and finally I divided my blog into 4 main categories:

a. inspireMe™ – this category is about my life experience and motivating others to achieve success in life

b. eatgod™ – will mainly focus around food reviews and any other food related information

c.  Stuf - I will use this category to highlight information on technology and gadgets

d. WordPress - this category will have all my tips on WordPress

e. Blog – and this section is where everything else goes until I set up a category for it

Next on the list is what I hope to complete by end of the month.

1 – Add another sidebar to the theme. Yes, I personally think one measly sidebar is never enough. Don’t really know if two sidebars would be better but I’ll give it a shot!

2 – Clean up the code. The bbv1 theme IMHO is really all over the place and not really user friendly. I’ll do some cleanup to ease editing in future. Hmm I might even publish the code in the future. We’ll see!

3 – Add a static home page. I think a static page with greetings would be great rather than have all my categories bunched into one page.

4 – Clean up some of the older posts. Like the Sungai Ara trail post ….it has been that was since I ported to WordPress so it really does need a makeover.

5 – Add browsing through category feature. The navigation links now browses through all posts which is confusing for readers.

6 – Highlight current category. Current state is that the category list on the header does not indicate which one you are in.

So I guess there’s still lots to improve on my blog. The possibilities for it are endless. It depends on what I to do with it. For the time being I’ll just have to build my blog one post at a time :)

*Updated – 18th April 2010

Back in January I was basically travelling back and forth KL to my hometown every 2 weeks to prepare for Chinese New Year. My mom had a list of things for me to do and the first was to plaster up the kitchen wall cracks. Well I wouldn’t really call it a crack because the extension wall actually detached itself from the main building leaving a 1-inch gap. I checked with the hardware shop if there was anything I could do to fix it but all of them suggested I tear down the wall and rebuild it with reinforcement rods extending from the main building. There was nothing much I could do in such a short notice and a limited budget so I picked up a tub of wall plaster and plastered away! Luckily the wall was leaning outwards so if it collapsed at least no one will be in the way. Another plastering project was doing up the internal walls of the house as the cement layer was coming off. This was another major project as well but good ol’ plaster had to do for now.

this wall really cracks me up

Next up was painting the wooden sliding door. The current color was a tinge of milky blue. Mom liked a slightly brownish tone to the door so we went over to the hardware shop and picked out the color cappucino. Within 2 hours the door was done. Mom helped out of course, else it would have taken me at least another 2 more hours.  I also managed to paint the wall behind the altar. I gave it a nice layer of glossy rose so that the smoke stains were easier to come off.

the multi-coated wooden sliding door

cappuccinno? too much creamer i suppose :p

On a different weekend, I found out that there were left over paint from the previous paint job on the external wall. I gave the wall a nice new coat and also replaced the numbers. It was kinda tough getting my hands on the new numbers though. Somehow there was a shortage at the hardware store. Seemed like everyone else was doing the same thing as me :) The mailbox got a new gold trimming as well. I was contemplating between using the water based gold paint or the 24K gold spray. According to the shop assistant, the water based gold paint does not fade to darker tint later – a common trait when painting your stuff with gold paint. The 24K gold spray however was supposed to have a better finishing which did not turn out as well as I thought it would. Since I was on a gold rush, my mom got me to paint the two golden frogs at home which were used as Feng Shui ornaments. The frogs were given the water based gold paint treatment. Can you spot the difference in the finishing?

yes, i had a hand in this (pun intended)

frog king gets a new paint job for the year of the tiger

In between trips back home, a few more events occured. One of my buddies Adrien came back from the United States after flying there for his Masters. He’s now an engineer designing large capacity engines for the shipping industry.

For the second time around, a stray dog came to the house looking for shelter on a rainy day. People say these kind of dogs bring good luck if they stay on their own will so I opened the gates, let the dog in and gave it some char siew which was part of my dinner. After consuming the char siew the dog left! So this must be one of those con-dogs? :p The earlier stray dog was actually a shih-tzu mix and was taken in by my neighbour. The bushy dog is now a handsome, well taken care of shih-tzu.

I also broke my glasses one day after sleeping on it and had to find a replacement lens. Luckily it was just on one side else it would have costed a bomb. I had to wear contacts to work for one whole week before getting the replacement and believe me, contacts, astigmatism and computer screens don’t mix together very well. At the end of the working day my eyes were all red, tired and watery from all the strain. One funny thing about wearing contacts after such a long time was it took me nearly 45 minutes to put it on the first day! I also had to re-adjust my perspective as everything seemed bigger. I felt like I was driving a Camry instead of a Corolla and the 20 cent coin actually felt like a 50 cent coin!

My girlfriend also came down for a job interview, TWICE. She actually got the job but the pay did not match the job requirements so she had to let the offer slide. It was a pity the job paid too low for the amount of extra tasks the job required. I guess there is a better offer out there waiting for her ;) We managed to spend more time together on the weekends when she was here. We tried out some food spots which I would love to blog about later. One funny incident happened during our food expedition and it took place at Steven’s Corner, OUG. I had a plate of nasi lemak and my girlfriend ordered the roti telur cheese, finished it and we were just chilling out. We spotted the waiters serving claypot after claypot to customers and curiosity got the better of us.

I questioned one of the waiters on what was in the claypot and he said, “Kari kepala ikan, manyak sedap. Mau? (Fish head curry, very delicious. You want one?)”

We just finished our meal so I declined as we couldn’t finish such a large pot. The waiter then said, “Angkat kicik punya la. (Take the small serving)” while making the shape of a bowl in one of his hands. My girlfriend and I agreed and 15 minutes later the fish head curry came in a claypot the size of a helmet! Questioning the waiter on the large serving, he said, “Ini manyak sikit sahaja. Boleh habis punya. (This is just a small quantity. You can finish this.)” and this time he gestured on how shallow the claypot was. Shaking my head in disbelief, we knew we were conned and took our own sweet time to devour the pot of fish head curry. Lesson learnt – do not trust what the waiter tells you.

Chinese New Year week was fantastic as my family and I ended the Ox year with a feast during reunion dinner. This year my mom and I managed to get a new table which was slightly larger than the old one. Mom wanted a marble table but there weren’t any nice ones within our budget so we opted for a Formica table instead. We bought 4 new stools as well to compliment the table and also to cater for the growing family :) I managed to meet up with a few ex-classmates as well and to no surprise everyone was still the same as they were back in secondary school!

It was really nice to have my loved ones around me all day. My move to KL was definitely the right choice. I get to see my family more and most important of all I get to spend more time with my girlfriend. I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with my girlfriend every day during my break and it was really fantastic! Coming back to KL at the end of the holiday was tough. I miss her being around me all the time. I guess I’ll have to wait till the next time I go home :)

Happy Chap Goh Meh and HUAT AH!!!