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Thirteen Things Thursday

I saw the above post title on another blog a while ago, I can’t remember where. I’m a sucker for alliterations sooooo today is a perfect time to copy this cute little theme.

Rather than hit you with another Throwback Thursday (which I was really tempted to do), I made a list of Thirteen Things I thought about this week. There is no rhyme or reason, just thirteen things that came to my head. Because who made the rules? :)

Thirteen Things Thursday on Strong Like My Coffee  Stronglikemycoffee.com

1.) Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy

This online article is so extremely relevant to everything I have been feeling lately. And according to the article itself, so have the millions of other millennials. It has been shared over 700,000 times on Facebook. I have a feeling I’ll be checking out more posts on this website. Please, if nothing else, read this article. And don’t let the stick-figure-illustrations fool you, this message is golden.

Right away when I saw Happiness = Reality – Expectation I knew I would connect with this article. I say this all time time, but I have very high expectations of myself and of others. The author hits the nail on its head when he points out that our generation has an “inflated view” of oneself and unrealistic expectations, as well as the trend of inflating our success on social media to inaccurately compare lives with each other.

2.) My Hulu Queue is building up!

Watching TV is a rare event these days…..I log maybe 90 minutes of tv shows a week, which I’m not complaining about. Usually by the time I cook dinner, eat, clean up, shower, work on homework, work on work, squeeze in some exercise, get ready for the next day, type up a blog post and check out Instagram, I’m beyond exhausted and ready for bed. I can’t wait to catch up on my favorite TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy, The Voice, the new show Secrets & Lies, and Nashville.

3.) I think I went overboard with “Treat Yo’self Tuesday”

Sushin, Suja Juice, Diet Lemonade and Quest Bars make me happy (Stronglikemycoffee.com)

These are a few of my faaavorite things….

4.) The 10 Secrets of Well-Balanced Women

Okay, another article. Sorry for the over-link-ing. It’s worth it though! This list of necessities hits home as it points out our natural craving for connective relationships and stimulating mental activity. I can personally attest to the fact that a lack of connective relationships and a sense of community are detrimental to your health. And I love the comment “No you will not turn into a puddle of mush by recharging with your magazine”! For those of us who are constantly tackling the to-do list, taking time to unwind can make us feel guilty or lazy. *You probably will, however, turn into a puddle by “recharging” with 5 episodes of Netflix on the daily. Moderation! :)

5.) I blog-post binged on this entire website Elle & Company.

I spent some time researching how to grow a blog into a business as well as how to work with companies for sponsored blog posts. If you are a blogger, you can find a ton of very useful information here!

6.) Starbucks has a new S’mores flavor bottled frappuccino.

I haven’t tried one yet but I’m tempted ever since this new flavor caught my eye at the grocery store a couple weeks ago. Has anyone tried it yet?

7.) Researching Fitness Tracking Watches…HELP.

Long Run Garmin Time (stronglikemycoffee.com)

I’m researching and comparing fitness tracking watches. My Garmin is 5 years old and the size of a computer on my wrist so I’m thinking of upgrading. So much of the technical information is over my head.  I want the basics: likes, dislikes, glitches. Do you use one? What do you like about it? (I think I would like one with a heart rate monitor.)

8.) Playing with the new Comic Book theme on PicMonkey was my form of “playtime” today.

Do not judge me…but when you spend a few hours per week maintaining a blog, new photo editing features are “fun.” I always use the website PicMonkey because it is free and simple for a not-so-techy person like me. They have cute little pictures and themes to add to pictures, the most recent of which is a Comic Book theme. I’m not an actual comic book reader, but the speech bubbles and narrative labels were pretty fun for pictures so I had to play ;)

Comic Book Picture Editing StrongLikeMyCoffee.com

9.) It’s Baseball Season! And my whole marketing class knows it.

Typically I am very good about silencing my phone during class and work. Yesterday though, I failed. My afternoon marketing class had an exam. Two minutes in, the SportsCenter app on my phone sends me an alert about the score on the Yankees game. “Doo-doo-dooo….Doo-doo-doooo” (That’s my effort to type out the special SC ringtone..hah). My classmates and teachers all turn around. The boys probably thought That ESPN sound came from you?!? And the girls probably thought WTH kind of lame ringtone is that?! After I announced the score to my curious teacher, we carried on with the exam and the Yankees won. ;)

10.) People rarely give random compliments anymore and so when a stranger called me “Sweetie” in the grocery store, it kind of made my day.

Not much to elaborate on this one…I guess we can all remember to give more compliments?

11.) My iPod has over 2,000 songs on it but I keep playing the same 4 over and over.

And one of them is this:

Yes it’s dramatic. But then again, so am I.

12.) How do you entertain yourself on long car rides by yourself?

Friday and Monday both started with six-hour car rides. Aside from the obvious (music + coffee) how do you keep yourself from getting bored with your thoughts? I can manage to keep myself mentally occupied while I log 7 hours a week on the treadmill….but struggle with finding enough to think about during a few hours in the car. Maybe it has to do with the endorphins..?

13.) I have another blog, it’s called KenzieAlyse.com

Ok this is a bit of shameless self-promotion but my digital marketing course is really focused on first-hand experience. Because of this class, I’ve created a “professional” blog, Twitter Account, Facebook community page and other projects. If you’re interested in more marketing content, feel free to check it out :)

Thirteen Things Thursday Blog Post on Stronglikemycoffee.com

Not going to lie, coming up with thirteen things was not that easy. I struggled after about seven or eight so I’m sorry if some were a bit random. Think I’ll bring back #TBT next week.

OK your turn, TELL ME SOMETHING. :)

How My Blog Became the #1 Result on Google

Good morning!

Today I’m popping in to share something from my digital marketing work. I’m in the final weeks of my last semester before I graduate with a degree in Marketing and a certificate in Promotions and Marketing Communications in May. One of our course assignments is maintaining a professional web page; KenzieAlyse.com is basically a marketing-themed online portfolio of my education and experience, and not necessarily related to my Strong Like My Coffee.

But I did feel like my latest post would be appropriate to share here since many of you have your own blogs! :)

How I Became the #1 Result on Google

Do me a favor. Open up a new tab and navigate to Google. Search for “Healthy College Blog” or some variation thereof. You will be greeted with 124 million results. The very first of which is Strong Like My Coffee, a WordPress blog just like this one.

Strong Like My Coffee is my personal blog that I created and have updated for the past three years. (Go ahead, take a look if you care to!) It began in July 2012 as a personal outlet to keep my own recipes, workouts, and healthy habits.

I was ecstatic when it reached 100 followers in one month. Little did I know that over the next year, a few posts would become ‘viral’ on Pinterest drawing in almost 300,000 readers.

how to use seo; search engine optimization; blogging tips; blogging tools; digital marketing; the mkt 450 experience

When Google finds a million matches for the key words in the search bar….how does it decide which page gets the glorified top spot? Chances are, readers will not look beyond page three of the search results. Have you ever thought about how much data is on the internet for nearly every topic under the sun? That is why “SEO” is such a hot term right now and digital marketers are seeking out new strategies to compete for their search result status.

We don’t pay Google. We don’t bake the Google-bots cookies. We don’t respond to those spam emails offering SEO consulting for a low, low fee of $299. It is not random.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is a set of techniques that allow you to prevail over your ‘competition’ in the search results. Optimization techniques ensure that search engines crawl your site and attach your site to certain key words.

My Experience with SEO:

  • The trick that has been the most successful for Strong Like My Coffee in becoming the #1 health and fitness college blog is providing links to your website on external sites. The more other people share and reblog your page, the higher your ranking.
  • Take advantage of social media platforms. The most useful platform for me was Pinterest. Pinterest displays one image from your post that is linked to your webpage. A user who clicks on the image is taken directly to your site via a link. Pinterest’s advantages are the widespread audience who will see each “pin” and the increased number of external links to your website with each “repin.”
  • Include your website URL in the signature line of any email correspondence. (This link will carry on in any forwarded versions of the conversation.)
  • Update your webpage consistently. New regularly-updated content is rated higher on search results. Maintaining your page regularly with content that contains the key words you are optimizing for will increase your ranking.
  • Lastly, USE the tags and description boxes. Insert the key phrases that you think users will search for to find your content. This helps the search engines understand what each page is about when they place your site on the search results.

How to Optimize your website for Search Engines (Stronglikemycoffee.com)I hope you found some useful information with these. I am no expert myself, so if you have any tips of your own you would like to share, feel free to leave a comment below! (Leaving comments on other blogs with your web address is also an effective networking tool that increases your search engine visibility!)

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