I’m no spammer, as my recent attempts to promote my Blackhat Fish contest post proves.

I thought I’d pop in to the other contestants’ posts and leave a comment linking to my post, but you know what? It’s hard to come up with comments that include links and don’t look like spam! Plus most of the comments are moderated so I doubt they’ll get approved.

And apparently some blogs don’t support html tags in the comments. I’d been using the url in the post but I think that “http://www.myhappycrazylife.com/blackhat-fish” looks stupid in a comment. On the other hand, the blogs I tried to use html code in didn’t support it so my comment looks even stupider. I’m used to looking stupid – it happens on a daily basis – but I was so hoping to look halfway competent among the pros. (Sigh.)

Oh well, what can you do when you’re a guppy swimming among sharks. At this point I just hope I don’t get eaten!

You’re probably wondering what “Blackhat Fish” means, right? What about SEO, do you know what that is? If you have a blog or a website, especially a business website, you need to know about SEO!

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it’s the strategies that help your site come up at the top of the SERPS. That means Search Engine Result Pages. Don’t worry I didn’t know it at first either. Of course you know why you want your site/blog to come up at the top of the SERPS – so visitors come to you instead of competitors!

Want proof that SEO works? Google search “wipe solution recipes”… Go ahead, I’ll wait for you! Yup, that’s my page in the #1 spot. Now try “seo training”… the #1 spot there is GNC Web Creations, owned by Cricket who taught me everything I know about SEO.

So how do you take your site or blog to the top of the SERPS? It’s easy, just follow the steps below! I promise to explain about Blackhat Fish too, but if you can’t wait you can learn about blackhat fish now.

First pick ONE page of your site and make sure it’s about only ONE topic. For instance, if my site sells fish: blackhat fish, orangeboot fish, redvest fish, etc, I want each type of fish on a separate page. Why? Because the blackhat fish page will attract the targeted traffic that is looking specifically to buy blackhat fish!

Next choose a keyphrase like “blackhat fish” that tells what the page is about. You need one that is specific, yet something that people actually search for. This keyword tool can help.

Now the fun starts! Start making changes on your page to optimize for your keyphrase:

1. If this is a brand new file you’ll want to name it using the keyphrase, but if it’s an existing file don’t rename it if it’s already been indexed. My filename would be “blackhat-fish” so the URL would be “http://www.myfishsite.com/blackhat-fish.htm.”
2. Title your page with the keyphrase. My title is “Blackhat Fish”.
3. Put in a description meta tag that includes your keyphrase, like “We offer hard-to-find Blackhat fish plus everything you need to care for your Blackhat fish pets!”
4. Add the keywords meta tag: “blackhat fish”. Many sites stuff this tag with every keyword imaginable, but that just dilutes the strength of your chosen keyphrase. Kinda like too much ice dilutes your lemonade.

So far my code looks like this:

Now we start working on the content of our page!

5. Use your keyphrase in the heading tags in your content. Think of your page as an outline like you learned in gradeschool. H1 is the main topic, H2 are subtopics of H1, H3 are subtopics of H2, etc. Try to use blackhat fish – or your own keyphrase – in each heading, but in a natural manner.
6. Use your keyphrase within the content of your site. A good balance will include your keyphrase often while keeping the text readable for your visitors. Check this keyword density tool to see how you’re doing – try for 3-7%.
7. While you’re writing content, try for around 1000 words on your page. I know, I know, that’s a lot of words to come up with! But that’s what Cricket recommends and she’s never steered me wrong.
8. Add alt tags to your image code, using your keyphrase. Alt tags are part of image code that tell visually impaired visitors what the image is. They also display in place of your image if the code is broken. On a photo of a blackhat fish I’d put “Blackhat Fish Swimming”.
9. Speaking of images, be sure to name your image files using your keyphrase. Like “blackhat-fish-swims.jpg”
10. Next add title tags to your link code, using your keyphrase. Title tags help visitors know where a link is going. BUT the tricky thing about title tags is that they benefit the page the link GOES TO. So I’m not going to put “blackhat fish” on the blackhat fish page, I’ll put it on the pages that LINK TO the blackhat fish page. Got it?

This is what my content code looks like:

The final content will look something like this: But the headings won’t be wonky. These are set to the blog so they’re kinda weird… just pretend they’re not.

Blackhat Fish

< - Image alt tag. I don't have a photo of a blackhat fish so it's displaying the alt tag. Cool, huh?

Blackhat fish make fantastic pets! Your child will love having one of our
blackhat fish as a pet.

Blackhat Fish are Easy to Care for

Your child will learn a sense of responsibility caring for her blackhat fish.
Clean their tank once a week and feed them daily, that’s it!

Blackhat Fish are Entertaining

Watch your blackhat fish for hours! Feed them Blackhat Fish Food for healthy growth. < - This link really works, but it leads back to this post. You can still click it if you want.

Finally, to improve your site’s position in the SERPS you need incoming links. That’s where my promise to tell you about Blackhat Fish comes in. There’s a month-long SEO contest going on to see who can rank a blog post highest using the keyphrase “blackhat fish”. Most people are writing something silly about blackhat fish, but I wanted to write something helpful for you as well as enter the contest. That’s why I wrote this huge post using “blackhat fish” in my examples. It’s not just the contest, I really do want you to improve your SERP rankings. But to be honest, I also hope that you’ll link to this blackhat fish post from your blog or links page as a thank-you… and to help me with the contest!

I truly hope you learned something from me, but for the complete who, what, where, when, how and why join Cricket’s classes – they’re fantastic and FREE!

And please, please link to this Blackhat Fish post so I don’t look like a total fool among all the professional SEO-ers in the contest! Use this URL: http://myhappycrazylife.com/blackhat-fish/
Thank you soooo much!

OK quick, grab your purse (wallet for you guys) and tell us what’s in it. NO CHEATING! You can’t put anything in or take anything out. I DARE YOU!

Here’s my list:

• Wallet with 3 checkbooks – family, diaper, childcare – debit card, tons of membership and buy 12 get 1 free cards, all 6 kids’ immunization records, insurance and dental cards, CPR and First Aid certification cards, business cards, various coupons – good and expired.
• Change purse with a little cash, change and a bunch of stickers from the past continuing education meetings I’ve attended.
• A zippered pouch with lip primer, four lipsticks, two lip balms and two glosses.
• My cell phone. The new one Teacher got me for my birthday!
• Two pair of sunglasses; one pink one silver with rhinestones.
• My personal organizer, a twin to Teacher’s.
• Three packs of my new favorite gum: Orbit. One in Maui Melon and two in Mojito – yum! Plus another partial pack of my previous fave: Icebreakers.
• My iPod. Purple of course.
• A pen, until one of the little boys steals it.
• Two hand lotion samples I got as freebies with WAHM purchases. WAHMs are the best!
• A handful of cough drops that are getting soft with age – gross!
• My set of keys: house, van, other van door and backthe dead one, parents’ house key, church outside key, church/school inside key, high school music wing key, Directors get keys to such places! five grocery store membership cards, little light, briefcase key, and four unknown keys I’m hanging on to just in case I need them.

That’s it for me… What’s in YOUR purse/wallet?

Kermit sure had it right when he sang “It’s not easy being green…” Of course, if you’ve seen Sesame Street recently you’ll know that Oscar sings it too, but in my mind it’ll always be Kermie’s song. Teacher and I are discovering just how challenging it is to be green as we try to “greenify” our family.

A loooooong time ago we started going green by using cloth diapers, but that had more to do with being poor than with the environment. More recently we’ve made changes to provide a more healthy home for ourselves and our children, and to help the environment. The fact that we save money is an added bonus!

First we traded chemical cleaners for baking soda and white vinegar. I was always worried about one of the kids getting into a cleaning cupboard by accident, but now I don’t worry so much. To be honest, it took a little while to get used to the sour scent of vinegar when I cleaned, but now the smell means “clean” to me. I could go on and on about how wonderful baking soda and vinegar are, but that’s another subject.

Then we decided to switch from plastic and paper bags to reusable bags. One of the co-ops I’m a member of had some produce and string EcoBags leftover from a co-op. I bought some without telling Teacher – I wanted to surprise him. The same day that the EcoBags arrived in the mail Teacher came home from the grocery store with a bunch of their reusable bags – for less than 1/2 the price I paid for my EcoBags! Mine are much cuter though… at least the string bags are, the produce ones are kinda boring. We’ love our reusable bags! They’re really easy to use… as long as when you bring them into the house filled with stuff, you remember to take them back out to the van before Teacher goes to school so you can use them again. And when you get to the store you need to remember to bring them inside the store instead of leaving them in the van. But once you get the hang of those two little things you’ll be good to go!

Of course nothing can be too easy… remembering to use our new bags caused a new problem – we used up all our plastic grocery bags. I know that sounds like a good thing, but we use plastic grocery bags a lot in our house. They line the garbage cans in all four bedrooms and three bathrooms, not to mention they’re perfect for blow-out diapers and sending the clothes that were a casualty of the blow-out diapers home with daycare parents. Trust me, you do NOT want to be out of plastic grocery bags when facing a 10 month old’s blow out!

The grocery stores used our bags without a problem, but we didn’t get such a warm reception at other stores. Some cashiers forgot to use them until our items were already in plastic. Then they’d put the plastic bag inside our cloth bag – what’s the sense of that?! Then there were the cashiers that gave us The Look when we asked them to use our bags. You know The Look – the one that lets you know without a doubt that you’re just plain nuts. Yeah, I can handle The Look, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy it.

The most recent green thing we’ve done is switching to cloth napkins. This was my brainchild, but Teacher has been sweet enough to go along with it. One day I counted up how many paper napkins I was going through a week with the daycare – it was over 60 napkins, not counting our family’s use! From that moment I was obsessed with the idea of switching to cloth diapers, but being as thrifty cheap! as I am, I didn’t want to buy them when I could easily make them. I decided to use knit fabric because it would be thicker than woven, yet wouldn’t pill like flannel. And one of my favorite co-ops had really cute knits really cheap so it wouldn’t cost a ton to make the switch. But when push came to shove I decided I really didn’t want to take time out of my diaper sewing to make napkins, so Gretchen of Small Wonders Wipes agreed to serge them up for me – at a reasonable rate. The resulting cloth napkins are adorable and the daycare kids love them – they even fight over who gets to fold them for me!

Of course, not everyone is as excited about our green-ness as we are. Teacher and I recently had my whole family over to celebrate Angel Face’s birthday. My whole family is Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Jon, Uncle Mike, Uncle Mike’s wife, and their two boys. We put the cloth napkins out for dinner, and when my sister-in-law asked for napkins and one of the kids pointed to the cloth ones. OK, I admit they’re a bit unusual, being kid-themed. Eventually we’ll get “real” ones for family use, but for now this is it. She looked at them and said “Ohh Kaay…” in The Voice. You know The Voice – the one that lets you know that you’re crazy no matter what words are being said. I wonder what she’d say if she knew the girls and I use cloth pads? But that’s a topic for another time…

It sure isn’t easy being green!