“If there’s one message I have stressed more than any other over the last few years,” writes Bill Taylor at Harvard Business Online, “it is that it is not good enough to be pretty good at everything. The most successful companies, products, and brands have figured out how to become the most of something—not just adequate, but downright amazing.”

And if he’s has gotten any pushback, he continues, it’s from people who insist there isn’t anything spectacular about their company. Not everyone can be Apple or Facebook or Nike or Google, they reason—some products and services are simply boring or prosaic.

Au contraire, responds Taylor. And to make his point, he tells the story of the spectacularly designed, seven-story garage built by Robert Wennett in Miami Beach, Florida. “I first heard about 1111 Lincoln Road when I attended the American Express Luxury Summit in Park City, Utah,” he notes. “That’s right: Executives from some of the world’s most exclusive brands were discussing the beauty and originality of a parking garage thousands of miles away. If that’s not moving from adequate to amazing, I’m not sure what is.”

The structure not only looks great, it has redefined what a parking garage can be. “The top two floors were designed to both hold cars and host events,” says Taylor, “and they rent for as much as $15,000 per night.”

The Po!nt: Try wrapping your head around the concept of a garage that hosts high-end charity functions, wine tastings and weddings and you’ll see why Taylor believes your company can—and should—be amazing.

Source: Harvard Business Online.

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If you’re like me you are on complete information overload. With today’s technology, there are many ways to market your business. There is something new every day. LinkedIn, Squidoo, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Articles, Blogging, Email Marketing, and the list goes on and on.

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You’re probably wondering what the blazes is popular about a link! Well, in a word – plenty! Link popularity refers to the ranking assigned to your website by the search engines, and it determines the ranking your page gets when keywords are entered into a search engine. So, you’re probably wondering, how do I make my link popular?

Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking to sites that have links to their pages from related, quality sites. It’s a simple formula, but a very important one. Google created the system, and now virtually all the most popular search engines employ it to rank your web pages in their indexes.

The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will be to achieve link popularity, but without achieving this step, it is almost certain your site will never rank highly on any search engine. But don’t be discouraged; there are tried and true ways of achieving link popularity using the most competitive keywords.

There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is that just linking up with a large number of other websites will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have quite the opposite effect. This is particularly true when pertaining to websites that are nothing more than “link farms” – pages containing line after line of indiscriminate links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against your website if you are associated with a link farm, so steer clear of them!

The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site you are linking to. Never link to a page you have reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing you want your website to appear as is indiscriminate and cheap. Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link popularity, if not completely destroy it.

So let’s get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link popularity and improve your rankings to stellar status on all the popular search engines.

The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as Open Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is business-related, you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and despite the fact that it will cost you around $300 a year, it will be money well spent. If your site is non-commercial, the listing will be free, but it will take time and follow-up to actually get it listed. Open Directory is gives you a free listing whether you are business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make a lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site listed.

You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of appropriate category, and this just takes some common sense. For example, if your company ships Alpaca wool from an Alpaca farm located in the middle of Nowhere, Tiny State, do NOT submit your listing to “Retailers from Nowhere, Tiny State.” BIG MISTAKE! All you have to do is look a little deeper – and submit your listing to the “Fine Alpaca Wool” category. You will not only associate yourself with culture and quality, but you will be listed in a national category.

The next step after you have attained directory listings is to locate other quality sites that will increase your link popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase, but your customer base may also be expanded. You want to avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful to your site’s visitors. Let’s look at the Alpaca Wool site example. Linking up to a site that sells knitting supplies would be helpful to your visitors, and the chances of the knitting supply site wanting to link up to your site are also greater. By linking to a related site that will be relevant to your website’s traffic, you are increasing both of your site’s business prospects – and both of your sites’ link popularity.

Not all sites want to link to other sites, so you will have to do some research when you are looking for possible linking partners. Google is an excellent starting place for your search. Make sure you enter keywords that you think quality customers will also enter to find your own site. Remember, your criteria are quality, highly ranked, non-competing websites that have a links or resources page. Go to these sites and objectively assess them. Look at the quality of the product, the graphics, and the ease of use. Then check out the other sites they are linked to, and determine if your own site would fit in with the crowd.

When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must set out to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a link on your own links page to their site. This is an essential first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances significantly of their reciprocity. After you have added their link, you must contact the webmaster of their site. Since this is almost always done by email, you want to make sure it is immediately clear that your message is not junk mail. This requires that you tell them right off the bat that you have added a link to their page on your site. A hook like this almost always insures the reader will read on.

Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much you appreciate their website. Make sure you emphasize that you have actually visited their site, and that their site is not just a random pick. Give them the address of your links page, and ask them to check out the link for themselves. It’s a good idea to mention that they will not only benefit from the increased traffic your website will direct their way, but you will also increase their link popularity. Briefly, explain why link popularity is so essential, but do this in a sentence or two so you don’t sound like a professor! Finally, tell them you would greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on their own links page to your website.

Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as you can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant sites, be sure to check these website frequently to see if they have added a link to your page. Give it about a month, and if no link appears, try another charming email. Then give it another month, and if your site is still absent from their links page, it’s time to remove their link from your own links page. The only time you want to pursue a link further than this is if you believe a site is crucial to your link popularity and your business needs. Just remember to keep all your communications complimentary and cordial.

Then set up a schedule to check your ranking in search engines frequently to see if your link popularity has improved. This is not achievable in the blink of an eye. It will take some time and a good deal of work. There is no way around the labor-intensive quality of improving your link popularity, which is why search engines regard it with such importance.

By the way – make sure you have a beautiful, streamlined site or you will never persuade anyone to link up to you. Be prepared to keep plugging away at this process, as long as it takes, until you achieve link popularity stardom!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I was initially put off by the name of the product, the term “Magic” has been used overused on marketing products and to be honest, all of them disappointed me.

But, something about the sales page of the Magic Seo Book enticed me to purchase, I felt like a bug attracted to a light bulb, I couldn’t help myself.

I felt guilty inside because I promised myself to not spend more than $100 this month on internet marketing products, and I already passed that mark before the purchase!

Anyhow, after I purchased, I was disturbingly shocked.

There was a download page filled with a never ending list of bonus products… I have no idea how I missed that description on the sales page.

However, besides that, the information in the Magic Seo Book was absolutely astonishing.

There were techniques in there that I have never heard of in my life, and it also came with bonus source code that will make implementing the techniques as easy as 1-2-3.

Overall, I’ll rate this product a 9.99/10. I don’t believe that anything can be perfect,
but I’ll tell you that the Magic Seo Book is the closest thing to a perfect internet marketing product.

This one is definitely a keeper and I’ll be referencing back to it for the rest of this year.

Updated: Wednesday, 23 Feb 2011, 8:11 AM MST
Published : Wednesday, 23 Feb 2011, 7:35 AM MST

Facebook is a very popular website, but would you want your potential boss looking at your postings and pictures?

You could be forced to turn over your password when applying for a job.

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Joe Wilkes

Since most kids have hummingbird metabolisms that adults can only envy, it’s easy to often give kids a free pass and let them eat whatever they want. But eventually, those metabolisms slow down, and the pounds settle in. Also, because physical activity appears to be decreasing nowadays, and processed-food intake is increasing, kids aren’t burning calories the way their parents might have when they were kids. And even if the kids aren’t getting fat now, they are establishing eating habits that they will take into adulthood. As parents, you can help foster a love for healthy eating and exercise that will last your kids a lifetime—which will hopefully be a long one (check out Shaun T’s Fit Kids™ Club for help with fostering a love of exercise in your child)!

I can remember the often contentious family dinners with my brother and parents that could turn into standoffs. Eating is always a classic power struggle wherein a kid tries to finally locate their mom’s and dad’s last nerve. There are numerous strategies you can use to mitigate this. Let your kids help with the selection and preparation of the food. If they picked out the veggies at the farmers’ market and helped cook them, they might be less inclined to feed them to the family pet. Also, try to promote eating vegetables and healthy food as being its own reward. By offering dessert as a reward for eating vegetables, you create a system wherein unhealthy food is a treat and healthy food sucks.

Someday, your children will realize that caped men in tights and sponges who live under the sea might not have their best interests at heart when it comes to food, but until then, here are some of the worst foods you can try to keep them away from, and some healthy replacement ideas. And for the overgrown children among you, the alternative snacks might even tempt you.

Note: The following recommendations are for school-aged children. Infants and toddlers have different specific nutritional needs that are not addressed in this article.

1. Chicken nuggets/tenders. These popular kids-menu items are little nuggets of compressed fat, sodium, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and in some form, chicken. Depending on the restaurant, chicken might not even be the first ingredient. Oftentimes, the nuggets or tenders are made of ground pieces of chicken meat and skin, pressed into a shape, flavored with HFCS and salt, and batter-fried in hydrogenated oil (the bad, trans-fatty stuff). Then, as if that isn’t unhealthy enough, you dunk it in a HFCS- or mayonnaise-based sauce. With all the fat, salt, and sugar, it’s easy to understand why they’re tasty, but the nutritive value weighed against the huge amount of calories and fat consumed is incredibly lacking. Even healthier-sounding menu items like McDonald’s Premium Breast Strips (5 pieces) pack 630 calories and 33 grams of fat, more than a Big Mac, and that’s before you factor in the dipping sauce.Instead: If you’re cooking at home, grill a chicken breast and cut it into dipping-sized pieces either with a knife or, for extra fun, cookie cutters. Make a healthy dipping sauce, with HFCS-free ketchup, marinara sauce, mustard, or yogurt. Let your kids help make the shapes or mix up the sauce. Try cooking without breading, but if you must, dip the chicken breast in a beaten egg, and then roll it in cornflake crumbs before you bake it. It’ll be crunchy and delicious, but not as fatty.
2. Sugary cereal. I can remember as a child feeling horribly deprived when I would go to friends’ houses for overnight visits and be treated in the morning to cereals with marshmallows that turned the milk fluorescent pink or blue. But now I can appreciate my mom and her unpopular brans and granolas. True, they didn’t have any toy surprises in the box or any cartoon characters on the box, but they also didn’t have the cups of sugar, grams of fat, and hundreds of empty calories that these Saturday morning staples are loaded with.Instead: Read the labels and try finding cereal that is low in sugar and high in fiber and whole grains. Remember, “wheat” is not the same as “whole wheat.” Also, avoid cereals (including some granolas) that have hydrogenated oils, artificial colors, or chemical preservatives. Add raisins, sliced bananas, berries, or other seasonal fruit to the cereal for extra flavor and nutrition. Again, letting your child help design a healthy bowl of cereal from choices you provide will get you a little more buy-in at the breakfast table.
3. Lunch meat and hot dogs. Kids love hot dogs, bologna, and other processed meats, but they are full of potentially carcinogenic nitrates and nitrites, sodium, saturated fat, and artificial colors and fillers. A study in Los Angeles found that kids who ate 12 hot dogs a month had nine times the risk of developing leukemia.¹ And more health risks are being discovered all the time. Leaf through any research about kids’ nutrition, and you’re bound to read about the bane of the cafeteria—Oscar Mayer’s Lunchables. These and similar prepackaged lunches are loaded with processed meats and crackers made with hydrogenated oils. These innocent-looking meals can boast fat counts of up to 38 grams. That’s as much fat as a Burger King Whopper and over half the recommended daily allowance of fat for an adult.Instead: Get unprocessed meats, like lean turkey breast, chicken, tuna, or roast beef. Use whole wheat bread for sandwiches; or if your kid’s dying for Lunchables, fill a small plastic container with whole-grain, low-fat crackers; lean, unprocessed meat; and low-fat cheese. This can be another great time to get out the cookie cutters to make healthy sandwiches more fun. For hot dogs, read labels carefully. Turkey dogs are usually a good bet, but some are pumped up with a fair amount of chemicals and extra fat to disguise their fowl origins. Look for low levels of fat, low sodium, and a list of ingredients that you recognize. There are some tasty veggie dogs on the market, although a good deal of trial and error may be involved for the choosy child.
4. Juice and juice-flavored drinks. Juice, what could be wrong with juice? While 100% juice is a good source of vitamin C, it doesn’t have the fiber of whole fruit, and provides calories mostly from sugar and carbohydrates. Too much juice can lead to obesity and tooth decay, among other problems. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests 4 to 6 ounces of juice per day for kids under 6, and 8 to 12 ounces for older kids. Juice drinks that aren’t 100% juice are usually laced with artificial colors and that old standby, HFCS, and should be avoided. Your best bet is to make your own juice from fresh, seasonal fruit. You won’t have to worry about all the additives, and it’s another way you can involve your kids in the cooking process. Let them design their own juice “cocktail.” And if you were even considering soda, perhaps a refresher course from Steve Edwards’ Nutrition 911 series is in order (see “Nutrition 911, Part VI: The Worst Food on the Planet” in “Related Articles” below).Instead: Water is still the best thirst quencher. Explain the importance of good hydration to your kids, and set a good example yourself by carrying around a water bottle. Get them used to carrying a small bottle of water in their backpack or attached to their bike. If they’re very water averse, try water with a splash of fruit juice in it. But just a splash. The idea is to get kids used to not having things be overly sweet, overly salty, or overly fatty. The other great beverage is milk. Filled with nutrients, calcium, and protein, growing kids need plenty of milk, though not so much fat. Choosing low-fat or skim milk will help ensure that they get their milk without becoming a cow.
5. French fries. High in calories, high in fat, and high in sodium—and unsurprisingly, the most popular “vegetable” among kids. They offer virtually none of the nutrients found in broccoli, carrots, spinach, or other veggies not found in a deep fryer. And the fat they’re fried in is usually trans fat, the unhealthiest kind for the heart. To top it all off, studies are beginning to show cancer-causing properties from acrylamide, a toxic substance that is created when starchy foods like potatoes are heated to extreme temperatures. In some tests, the amount of acrylamide in French fries was 300 to 600 times higher than the amount that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allows in a glass of water.²Instead: Vegetables like baby carrots, celery sticks, or other crudités are great options, but if potatoes must be had, there are some options that don’t begin with melting a brick of fat. A scooped-out potato skin with low-fat chili and a little cheese can provide lots of fiber and vitamins, with even higher amounts if the chili has beans. You can also try making baked fries, using slices of potato with a light brushing of olive oil. Or, the classic baked potato could be a hit, with yogurt dip or cottage cheese instead of sour cream and butter.
6. Chips (potato chips, Cheetos, Doritos, etc.). These are full of fat, oftentimes saturated, and way more sodium than any child or adult should eat. Some chips also have the acrylamide problem discussed under French fries. Also, watch out for innocent-seeming baked and low-fat chips that contain olestra or other fake fats and chemicals that could present health issues for kids.Instead: Kids gotta snack. And in fact, since their stomachs are smaller, they aren’t usually able to go as long between meals as adults. Cut-up vegetables are the best thing if you want to get your crunch on, but air-popped popcorn and some baked chips are okay, too. You can control how much salt goes on the popcorn, or experiment with your child using other potential popcorn toppings like red pepper, Parmesan cheese, or dried herbs. Try making your own trail mix with your child. They might be more excited to eat their own personal blend, and you can avoid certain store-bought trail mixes, which sometimes contain ingredients like chocolate chips and marshmallows that don’t lead kids down the healthy snack trail.
7. Fruit leather. Many of these gelatinous snacks like roll-ups or fruit bites contain a trace amount of fruit but lots of sugar or HFCS and bright artificial colors. Don’t be misled by all the products that include the word “fruit” on their box. Real fruit is in the produce section, not the candy aisle.Instead: If your child doesn’t show interest in fruit in its natural state, there are some ways you can adulterate it without sacrificing its nutritional value. Fill ice-cube or popsicle trays with fruit juice or freeze grapes for a healthy frozen treat. Or buy unflavored gelatin and mix it with fruit juice and/or pieces of fruit to make gelatin treats without the added sugar and color (another good time for the cookie cutters!). Serve some raisins, dried apricots, apples, peaches, or other fruits that might give you that chewy, leathery texture without the sugar.
8. Doughnuts. These little deep-fried gobs of joy are favorites for kids and adults alike, but they are full of fat and trans-fatty acids, and of course, sugar. Toaster pastries, muffins, and cinnamon buns aren’t much better. The worst thing about doughnuts and these other pastries, aside from their nutritional content or lack thereof, is that they’re often presented to children as acceptable breakfast choices. These delicious deadlies need to be categorized properly—as desserts, to be eaten very sparingly. And you can’t have dessert for breakfast.Instead: Honestly, a slice of whole wheat toast topped with sugar-free fruit spread or peanut butter isn’t going to get as many fans as a chocolate-filled Krispy Kreme, but at some point, you have to stand firm. You be the cop that doesn’t like doughnuts. Doughnuts—not for breakfast. Period.
9. Pizza. In moderation, pizza can be a fairly decent choice. If you order the right toppings, you can get in most of your food groups. The problem comes with the processed meats like pepperoni and sausage, which add fat and nitrates/nitrites (see lunch meat and hot dogs above); and the overabundance of cheese will also provide more calories and fat than a child needs.Instead: Make your own pizza with your kids. Use a premade whole wheat crust (or whole wheat tortilla), an English muffin, or bread as a base. Then brush on HFCS-free sauce, and set up a workstation with healthy ingredients, like diced chicken breast, sliced turkey dogs, and vegetables that your child can build his or her own pizza with. Then sprinkle on a little cheese, bake, and serve. If your child gets used to eating pizza like this, delivery pizzas may seem unbearably greasy after a while.

¹ Peters J, et al. “Processed meats and risk of childhood leukemia (California, USA).” Cancer Causes & Control 5: 195-202, 1994.

² Tareke E, Rydberg P, Karlsson P, et al. Analysis of acrylamide, a carcinogen formed in heated foodstuffs, J. of Agri and Food Chem. 2002;50:4988-5006.