#one day of productivity vs weeks of despair

[kaffeekatze]

dude it feels like it's been decades since i've drawn personal art and it's so much fun.

i'm very late but i feel like finally honoring the best 2 characters pokemon has ever brought to us with drawings

[yaboylevi]

KS [1] Thanks for the swift reply! I'd like to go private but I don't have a tumblr account, honestly don't feel like doing one if you don't mind. If you don't feel like talking about snk anymore, I understand! If it only causes you bitterness, why bother? I still do it just because it doesn't and it's going to end soon anyway. Regarding your reply, yeah I too meant that the bird was Eren's conscience or connection to nature and not him literally, I just didn't have enough space XD [...]

Hiii...it’s been almost 3 weeks I am so sorry. But between real life being absolute torture, and finding respite in stuff different from snk, I completely forgot to come back to this. I really do not enjoy talking about snk, so I was really overwhelmed by your messages (that I didn’t even receive in full, and that’s one of the reasons why I’d prefer to move the conversation elsewhere - but I don't really wanna have conversations about snk atm anyway. ‘cause you see, I agree 100% with you, it sounds like I wrote these messages myself, but at the end of the day they just remind me of how much I’ve come to dislike the series...so, not really productive, or healthy for my mindset right now (i repeat, real life is just...trying to kill me apparently)).

Anyway, so I’ll just reply quickly to your messages, because you spent a lot of time typing them up, but yeah...this is not the best place or moment to have such long discussions about snk, I believe.

[2] I was wondering more on the implications to that, because thinking about it, I remembered many scenes in the anime's past seasons with birds flying, and it got me thinking if it really was all decided from the start? Maybe by some superior entity? I hope like you that little Ymir isn't just a plot device and has a role to play together with Zeke. I hope this isn't the last we see from Eren pov as well becuase those shots of little him saying 'this scenery' really worried me. [...]

I was thinking birds, besides a white one possibly meaning hope and a black one usually connected to death, are part of nature, just like all things connected through paths. Titans are connected to nature, there has been a lot of discussion about this in fandom for years, so yeah. Also, hope = freedom & life, death = despair. It all plays on the dichotomy that is Eren: he doesn’t want to kill but he doesn’t want to die either. I wonder if one of the morals of the story will be that death is just part of a natural cycle, hence you can be free in death too (but I hate this, because it’s really negative if applied to SnK).

Re-reading some stuff also made me hopeful about this not being the last of Eren’s pov, as far as explanations go. Like, there is clearly more (Liberio, for example, the WHT, etc). As for child!Eren, I think he is totally disconnected from reality, hence he doesn’t see what’s happening, and if he is, he’s also trying to convince himself that, like 19!Eren said in chapter 121, as a child he would take freedom away from people who tried to take his freedom away with little to no remorse - of course, it isn’t the case for adult!Eren, as we saw multiple times.

[3] I just hope we get to see more from him, like War Hammer titan and King Fritz memories, and there's more with Historia as well. I don't really care about shipping so I don't mind if we get EH or if Eren is the father, at least it would make sense for the pregnancy thing to be this dragged out. I just found the Armin/Annie conversation really baffling? What with the timing and the tone of the chapter? What was the point of that? To make us feel sad for Armin if Annie dies? [...]

I feel a couple, in particular a couple with Eren, would be too out of the blue and ruin Eren’s character (and the other party of the pair). Besides, romance has never been part of Eren’s character arc. If it’s just to follow the shonen manga’s trend of the protagonist ending up with [insert female character], then this will finally put snk in the trash bin for me.

I was watching a japanese youtuber’s analysis about the latest chapter and he said something very interesting about the Annie/Armin scene: just like we have child!Eren being happy vs adult!Eren despairing, their little talk repeated the same 2 povs: childhood vs adulthood. Armin’s ““declaration of love”” felt really childish and, as Annie rightfully pointed out, was that really the time for it? People are getting crushed and Armin thinks about such innocents stuff? You could say it’s the same dichotomy of hope - despair, beautiful - cruel, innocence - what Armin later admits: he is not innocent, he also killed people and children in cold blood, ever since the beginning of the story.

I personally don’t think either of them will die, but as the youtuber pointed out, usually these romantic overtones bring one of the pair to their death (I was pleased he brought up as an example yumihisu ahah), so I get why you might speculate as such.

[4] And Eren's pov got me really confused. I kind of understand what the author was going for and I agree with your analysys about his inner conflict and desperation but to me it came out of nowhere? Like you said, it doesn't really make sense for his character. This is what we get by having his thoughts hidden for so long though. At the start of the manga we got those moments where we could see he was somewhat twisted but then he grew out of it and was pretty normal, and now all of a sudden[..]

I think the inner conflict has been there, always throughout the story and in Eren as well, but for me, the problem lies elsewhere, in the sense that there is still no connection (or good enough transition) between “i don’t want to kill people but since i don't wanna die i guess i’ll kill them”. We’re talking about Eren, who wanted to die because people died because of him...who got so angry about being unjustly threatened with death, who stood up against bullies, against all sorts of injustice because he strongly believes in the intrinsic right of being free (WHICH IS THE RIGHT TO BE ALIVE). I get it that the other side wants them dead, but it still feels stupid that he would convince himself to kill the innocent majority, suddenly refusing half of what he has always believed in. If Isayama is going for “hey look, isn’t this tragic? What despair pushes people to do?” like UGH it’s just so annoying, because WE KNOW, snk is ALL about that, but what bothers me in this case, in particular, is, if Eren gets no redemption at all, then fuck off @ this story. See, I’m getting angry.

[5] he has like regressed to his childhood self? If he really hates doing all this, why does he do it? And I think you're right about Eren being demonized by the narrative: the writer made possible only 2 options and forced Eren to choose the rumbling and to him to be the psycho final villain, what with all those exaggerated expressions and shadows to draw him. If he was going with that from the start he should have done it constantly throughout the manga. And I won't even talk about [...]

And yes, the point is Eren changed throughout the story!!! For god’s sake!! Then all that progression was just so that Eren had a more nuanced view of the world so that he could suffer for this choice in particular? Wow, I didn’t know I was reading Tokyo Ghoul...... /s

[6] the predetermination stuff. Did Eren really surrender to the future he saw? Is he really just there in his titan sleeping and wallowing? LOL If Armin turns out to be the hero who can change the future... bleargh. I probably dislike the alliance as much as I do because the narrative is so biased in favour of them. I put my hope in Zeke for that! Please! Let him be the key if Eren is defeated! On the other hand I think it's not so obvious that he will lose as well. on that point, [...]

This is the last one I got, I’m sorry. Anyway, idk if it’s predetermined, or just like, the moment you think of something, the future changes. That would explain how Eren blames himself for this future: only because he dared think of this, then it happened. In any case, I doubt Armin ends up being the hero, I think it’ll be a group effort...remember Isayama was impressed by GotG’s ending....

Finally, Zeke, my lovely bitch, where are you??!?!?!?

He’s late to the party like a true queen.

[shemakesmusic-uk]

TRACK BY TRACK BREAKDOWN: Getaway Car EP by charly haze.

Dutch London-based electropop sensation charly haze shares her debut EP Getaway Car via Kartel Music Group. The 5-track EP includes new single ‘Getaway Car’, as well as previous singles ‘Tanlines’, ‘California, 2am’, ‘Backfire’, and a dreamy rendition of Don Henley’s ‘The Boys Of Summer’.

The Getaway Car EP was written over the course of three years between 2017 and 2020, after a traumatic brain injury caused by a severe car accident put charly’s life on hold. Specialist treatment brought her to the US, where the concept for her EP was born. Inspired by the Californian Summer, charly captured both her recovery and travel experiences to create a raw and honest collection of songs, that feature painfully relatable lyrics featuring cars and driving as a thematic throughline that punctuates the EP.

Borrowing influences as wide as ‘80s pop, modern alt-pop and synthwave, the EP is a kaleidoscopic journey across the music that inspired charly as a singer, songwriter and producer. This is easy to observe in latest eponymous single ‘Getaway Car’, a collaboration with writer/producer David Westmeijer (The Brahms). Inspired by electronic acts such as The Blaze and ford. and layered with lush and dreamy pop vocals backed by a pulsating and irresistible synth bass line, ‘Getaway Car’ is charly at her most infectious and accessible.

We asked charly to do an in depth track by track breakdown of Getaway Car for us. Read it below.

Tanlines

‘Tanlines’ was my very first single that came out last year in April, exactly 3 years after my car accident. Recovering from a traumatic brain injury, I spent most of the time at home, only going out for therapy/groceries/a walk. I felt very isolated and to stay positive I tried to capture past travel experiences into songs, nostalgically longing for that careless freedom that would hopefully return some day. I had to meditate a lot and visualising warm, sunny places really helped to calm my brainwaves, and it gave me hope for the insecure future. Specialist treatment brought me to the US, after which I did a roadtrip through California. I’ve included lots of footage from this trip in the music video.

The song explores that feeling when Summer is over but you’re not ready to let go just yet. The tan lines are starting to fade from your body and daily life is calling. People cross paths at certain moments and places in life, but some things just won’t last due to various reasons and circumstances. ‘Tanlines’ is about embracing those fleeting experiences, as they nevertheless become meaningful memories.

My favourite part of the song is the bridge, where I stacked loads of dreamy harmonies together.

Backfire

Even though all my songs are autobiographical, ‘Backfire’ is my most personal song to date, as it stares right in my soul and I’m sharing my most vulnerable thoughts. It’s about battling the brain injury (whiplash), and the emotional rollercoaster that was the recovery. It captures the contrast between the darkest days of despair and the fighting spirit; losing control over your body and doing whatever it takes to regain it. However, it is not a sad song; the emphasis lies on perseverance, courage, and invincibility.

For the music video I wanted to tell the story with my body and the affected parts of my body (back, neck, shoulders), so I teamed up with an amazing contemporary choreographer, trained (via Zoom) for 6 weeks and shot the music video in front of a green screen in my living room. A visual artist added loads of crazy background and I’m so proud of how the video turned out.

California, 2AM

As we’re halfway through the EP now, you might have noticed that cars and driving are a thematic throughline in the lyrics. ‘California, 2am’ describes the ambiguity of a stormy love affair, using metaphors of a car chase to convey the all too relatable head vs heart dichotomy (“I see your conscience in the rear-view mirror”). It’s very cinematic, starting off with a spoken word intro, followed by a dreamy sexy verse before the thundering synths and beat kick in. The ‘80s darkwave-inspired backdrop is full of pulsing arpeggios, sinister synth melodies and a driving guitar riff, balancing between sensuality and bitterness.

This fling was doomed to fail from the beginning, but I liked the thrill of it and thought to myself, ‘what’s the worst that can happen?’ My life had been on hold for 2 years and when you’ve been at such a low point, apparently your standards go down too (lol). Sometimes you just have to jump in that car, enjoy the ride for as long as it lasts, before it eventually crashes. I made a retrowave kinda video (again, in front of a green screen in my living room).

The Boys Of Summer

I made a slow, dreamy, synth version of one of my all time favourite ‘80s songs, ‘The Boys Of Summer’ by Don Henley. I initially discovered the song when I was 10 years old, but being a ‘90s kid it was actually DJ Sammy’s trance cover, not the original! It was the composition and the lyrics that just really grabbed me, that blue post-summer feeling, which is a recurring theme in my own songs as well.

During the first wave of the pandemic, I went back home to The Netherlands for 5 months. Over Summer I rented an apartment in Amsterdam, which was the first time I was back there for a longer period of time since I moved to the UK. I moved away in 2019 straight after my US treatment. As soon as I recovered, I left everything behind to get a fresh start, so I never really got to make up for lost time with my friends. This Summer was full of quality time, which left me feeling a bit heavy-hearted and questioning my decision to move away. But like with holidays, you’re seeing with rose coloured glasses and you filter out all the negative things that made you leave in the first place. For me, that’s what ‘The Boys Of Summer’ is about; a nostalgic reflection on past experiences and decisions made.

I brought a very basic recording set up to the apartment I was staying in, just a tiny midi keyboard, my laptop and a mic, and I started crafting the cover with a basic beat and chords. I wanted to bring the ‘female’ perspective to the song, so I played around with the vocal melodies, adding more variety and adlibs, and added loads of verby harmonies on it. I topped the synth-tinged soundscaped with a sax solo, because hey, it’s an ‘80s inspired power ballad! I did another super lush music video from home, no green screen this time, but I turned my bedroom into a romantic, dreamy pink/purple filmset.

Getaway Car

‘Getaway Car’ is the title track and new single from my EP. It was written in one day during a writing session with Dutch writer and producer David Westmeijer. This was pretty special for me, because I don’t do lots of writing sessions with strangers. I was back in The Netherlands for Christmas and stayed in an Airbnb in Amsterdam for a few days. It felt bittersweet being back in the city where I lived for 10 years, noticing how much I had changed since I left, leaving all the bad brain injury stuff. I forgot street names, I got used to walking everywhere instead of cycling, it just didn’t feel like home anymore. I was reading a book about English idioms, and I stumbled upon the expression ‘to carry a torch’, which is about unrequited love for someone. During my whiplash recovery, I was stuck at home and couldn’t enjoy the city, so it felt like the city no longer loved me and it was time to move on to new beginnings.

The production is inspired by electronic acts such as The Blaze and ford. and is drenched in melancholia, yet full of calmth and acceptance. In order to heal and grow, sometimes you need to take the dive and start over, even though it hurts to leave people and places behind that you deeply care for.

[redberrieswebdesign]

5 Tips To Grow Your Business Through Website

A business website is a fantastic and powerful tool. However, getting results takes time and effort! You must build it for success if you want to make your website work and help your business to grow.

Here's a list of easily actionable website tips to help you gain more traffic and drive more conversions. Let's get started!

Expectations of New Website vs. Reality

One of the biggest mistakes that we see with the new sites is not content or design. There is no brand-new website like a seasonal thoroughbred flying out the gates. More like a new foal, eager to run and play but with wobbly legs impaired.

Here are some of the most common website expectations we hear:

Your website will appear immediately in the results of Google

Also, for your business name, your site comes first.

Your search results will look exactly like you want

As soon as it is launched, your site will start to traffic

Site equals to Leads.

The reality of launching a new business website is as follows:

Because Google is extremely busy and owes you nothing, you must inform it that your site exists (and what it is about).

For a long time, if other businesses with the same name have older websites, they will likely come up first.

Even if you use Yoast SEO to optimize your content, Google now rewrites meta descriptions regularly to better match a search result.

You can buy instant traffic through advertisements, but you must earn it through search engines, social media, and backlinks.

You must use design and content to guide a visitor through the conversion journey on your website.

Time and effort are, indeed, a pain. And if you're a business owner, you probably don't have the time to devote to it. So, have you considered hiring a web design agency or a digital marketing agency?

Website suggestions to help your business grow

1. Get Your Site Indexed As Soon As Possible

Remember how we said Google owes you nothing? This is correct.

When Google gets around to it, it WILL index your website. Consider the number of websites on the Internet – over 1.7 billion. Google's bots have their hands full, crawling all those sites for changes and new content.

Connect your website to Google Search Console and use the URL inspection tool to speed up the indexing process.

2. Emphasize the User Experience

It doesn't matter if you have fantastic content and did an excellent job of content optimization if your website is a pit of despair.

If you want your website to help your business grow, it must be simple to use. We frequently see websites with far too much text, far too many menus (or menus with far too many options), heavy images that cause slow page loads, and confusing navigation.

Consider what your customer needs to do when they visit your website and then provide the simplest, most obvious path to that goal. That is an excellent user experience. The easier it is for someone to use your website, the more likely they are to convert. Your search position is also affected by user experience, including mobile-friendly, page speed, and on-site user behavior.

3. Boost Website Traffic

More website visitors equate to more potential leads or sales. So, it stands to reason that one of the most effective ways to use your website to grow your business is to drive traffic to it. However, just because you have a website does not mean that people are aware of it or will find it.

4. Boost Website Conversions

This one may appear to be self-evident... Conversions equal business expansion. Many websites, however, are not properly designed to drive conversions. And not everyone knows exactly how to boost conversions!

5. Consolidate Your Marketing Channels

There are numerous advantages to having a business website. People can look into your company 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They can learn about your company, research your products, and make purchasing decisions using their preferred device and location.

Finally, another useful function of a business website is that it unifies your marketing channels. Your website is the ultimate destination, whether you use content marketing, email marketing, social campaigns, Google Ads Management, influencer marketing, or a combination of many elements.

Keep in touch with Red Berries – A web Development and Web Design Company In Dubai to keep yourself updated on emerging issues in the Digital industry, web design and development. If you have any questions, require any help or you are looking for a Digital Marketing Company In Dubai then, contact us today!.

[somethingvaguetheband]

Statement on the release of music by PTERODACTYLS, White Buffalo, and Graveyard School

April 5, 2021

Now available for the first time on Spotify/Apple Music are three EPs I recorded long ago: PTERODACTYLS (2008), White Buffalo (2011), and Graveyard School (2018).

A little about each album:

Graveyard School’s “Mope Rock Manifesto” (2018) is not necessarily only an album. It’s a philosophical statement, a sonic encapsulation of a worldview that was within me at the time of recording. It was a summary and conclusion of an attitude towards the world that I decided has ceased to be productive for me. Namely, a fashionable hopelessness, an angst, a certain kind of chic despair. I call it that because I have learned it is impossible to be a nihilist all the time. When I realized my philosophical practice needed to be something I could turn on and off, since, after all, it’s difficult to be a misanthrope and yet work in customer service or in education or be a parent, I decided to conclude moping around and feeling tragic, though I still considered it a valid practice. After the election of DJT, and on the verge of graduating college, I realized you need to have some hope and goodwill, even if, ironically, those industries (education, the job hunt) wither it down. It was a decision I was arriving at towards the conclusion of my college career, and the demand to enter the workforce and job hunt community, and the looming birth of my first son.

I had taken a long break from music, beginning in fall 2011 and the conclusion of the White Buffalo EP, and my relocation to Los Angeles and the beginning of my undergraduate work; and Graveyard School is my return to music after a 5-year break from songwriting, where instead I focused on poetry, fiction, and academic essays. As a result, the GYS music and lyrics are infused with more mature subject matter and themes than previous releases. Therefore, I see the album as my graduate thesis on existentialism and postmodernity in the face of Donald Trump’s program of hate. The deconstructionist attitude I harbored all throughout college, shifted into hope and a need for structure with the birth of my son, who makes an appearance on the album. With this event in mind, I realized having to change diapers or grab a wink of sleep whenever you could made it impossible to mope around at a loathsome hole in the wall somewhere in Hollywood and stay out all night, or romanticize suicide, or wear all black every day as an aesthetic and ideological attitude.

Writing for “The Mope Rock Manifesto” began in spring 2016, where I wrote “The Decline,” which ended up becoming a Something Vague song (coming soon), first, and then proceeded to write a new song every day that week. This flurry of inspiration resulted in “My Chorus Crush,” “Imp of the Perverse,” “Smoking in the Rain,” “Give Tomorrow a Chance,” and “Prince is a Gemini.” I sat with these songs in various forms of completion until July 2017, when I formed a band to perform some shows in Los Angeles and the Coachella Valley. In late November, early December, Graveyard School recorded a demo, and my baby was born, and I graduated college all within the same week. These events are all connected, and the GYS EP speaks to all those events.

With a new lineup in tow, we began recording The Mope Rock Manifesto in April 2018, and I ended up leaving Los Angeles, and the band broke up throughout the process, which culminated in October 2018, and the album was released the same day as my son’s one-year birthday in December 2018.

I consider The Mope Rock Manifesto as the culmination of my Sturm und Drang period, and I am desperately trying to finish the trilogy, so I can put a nail on that coffin for good, knowing full well that GYS may never return or play shows again. However, recording and release of Volumes II and III of the Graveyard School trilogy stalled as a result of the band’s breakup and me shifting my focus to Something Vague.

With SV, I have recently finished writing two EPs titled “Fantasy Pieces” and “Year of the Rat,” the latter takes the themes in GYS and responds in a different way. Instead of despair and hopelessness, the theme on “Year of the Rat” is retribution, rage, and aggression.  

I see the PTERODACTYLS (yes, it’s written in all caps) EP “The State of CA. vs. PTERODACTYLS” (2008) as a prologue for GYS’s “The Mope Rock Manifesto” (2018).  Somewhere in between, both stylistically and chronologically, lies the White Buffalo EP (2011), a release on which I don’t sing on but play guitar and wrote all the songs for. I consider the 2011 White Buffalo EP as the commencement (which ironically was released the same month as my College of the Desert commencement) of my sturm und drang period. It is a miserable, melancholic, and dramatic set of songs, and I consider it my farewell to the Coachella Valley, as I released the EP and moved away one month later. That was ten years ago, and I have not been in the Coachella Valley (where I was born and raised) for more than a week at a time, a fact that sometimes is hard to believe because 10 years ago all I wanted to do was move away, and now I find the place somewhat tolerable and hard to leave whenever I visit.

Having concluded releasing old music (PTERODACTYLS, White Buffalo, and Graveyard School), my focus is now on the upcoming Something Vague LP which will be released as two separate EPs, “Year of the Rat” and “Fantasy Pieces,” which look back and tip their hat to all the releases that came before but also looks forward to a new sound, a more aggressive, psychedelic, and visceral attitude. Thank you all for your support.

“Year of the Rat” tracklist: 1. Diesel Eyes 2. Fertile for Dictatorial Regimes 3. A Solid Phalanx of Opposition 4. Descent into the Maelstrom 5. Mr. Turbopump 6. Proletariat Power-up Kit

“Fantasy Pieces” tracklist: 1. New Technology 2. The Decline 3. Glasgow 4. El Regalo 5. Amsterdamage (2021) 6. Disco Fashionista (2021) 7. John Keats

Music links: PTERODACTYLS on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/10vgMF8N8Q01uQStsnxIOv?si=tYxRFKr2SV25ScBM50bHmQ

White Buffalo on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7gEqZZzkAmL0TPXeFasaGx?si=ryWeCox6QkCy111HE11aqQ

Graveyard School on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/74NU5UngYOlVVnj1ihsSzx?si=qi-wyGStQne8ibV0bp-SYQ

-Andy Blade

[5axismachiningchina]

Cool Low Price Line Milling Machine China Factory images

Posted from 5 axis machining China blog

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Check out these low price line milling machine china factory images:

That Was the Year That Was – 1979 Image by brizzle born and bred 1979 For the first time in history in 1979 a woman Margaret Thatcher is elected Prime minister in the UK. As technology becomes smaller Sony released the Walkman a worldwide success costing 0 which at that time was a significant amount of money. Also the first Snowboard is invented in the USA. The bombing by the IRA in England continues with Lord Mountbatten and three others assassinated. Following the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini Iran becomes an Islamic Republic and 63 Americans are taken hostage in the American Embassy in Tehran on 4th November.

1979 the Britain Thatcher Inherited

The Conservative Party appointed her as their leader on 11 February 1975. She was the first woman to head a British political party, and went on to become the country’s first female Prime Minister in 1979.

Britain wasn’t a country gagging for modernization in 1979 so much as one in a state of nostalgia-tinged denial: a country still traumatized by the retreat from empire and the loss of its global economic clout, symbolized by its humiliation at the hands of the International Monetary Fund three years earlier. A generation on, and the political and economic debate is still tinged as much by the nostalgia as the modernization.

In the “Winter of Discontent” in 1979, almost half of the hospitals in the U.K. were accepting only emergency patients. Household rubbish collection stopped. Petrol shortages loomed as flying pickets of transport workers blocked refineries. And it was the coldest winter in 20 years to boot.

One of Margaret Thatcher’s first political battles after becoming Prime Minister in 1979 was with the unions and Red Robbo in Birmingham.

The British Leyland era at Longbridge became a byword for wildcat walkouts, union militancy and industrial chaos – and helped clear the path to political power for Margaret Thatcher. Just two years after the arrival of hardliner Michael Edwardes, the diminutive South African car chief who took on Red Robbo and the unions at Longbridge, she was voted in as Britain’s first woman Prime Minister. The former Communist works convenor was drummed out of Longbridge after 38 years in November 1979 – within six months of Thatcher’s ascent to power.

The mood of the country had changed dramatically.

Robinson was sacked by BL for putting his name to a pamphlet that had criticised the BL management. A strike ballot opposing the dismissal was held but was thrown out by an overwhelming 14,000 against to just 600 in favour. It was the end of the road for Red Robbo at Longbridge and a watershed in industrial relations in the West Midlands car industry. Significantly, in her memoirs, Thatcher later described Robinson as a ‘notorious agitator’.

The BBC had once claimed that between 1978 and 1979 Robinson was credited with causing 523 walkouts at British Leyland, costing an estimated £200 million in lost production. The BL-style disruption had spread across the nation, and the so-called Winter of Discontent in 1978-79 saw 29.2 million working days lost, with bodies left unburied following a gravediggers’ strike and uncollected rubbish piled high in the frozen streets, when dustbin workers walked out.

It was in that climate of lingering industrial chaos that Margaret Thatcher came to power the following spring.

In his last newspaper interview at the time of the closure of MG Rover in April 2005, Robinson, who is now in his 80s, told the Mail: “Edwardes wanted to reduce it to a small motor company and closed 13 factories, but he never made a profit. “I grew up with the company, joining as a toolmaker at 14 in 1941 and loved my time, both as an ordinary worker and then convenor. “But when Edwardes took over the writing was on the wall. Shutting plants down was not the way to go.”

He described his Red Robbo tag as a badge of honour.

The backdrop to the industrial climate which saw Sir Michael Edwardes – and his spiritual political leader at Number 10, Mrs T – defeat Red Robbo is described in Gillian Bardsley and Colin Corke’s history of the famous Birmingham car factory, Making Cars at Longbridge. The authors wrote: “The formation of British Leyland in 1968 created the fourth biggest motor manufacturer in the world, a formidable player in terms of jobs, finance and exports, something no Government could afford to ignore.

“BL dominance of the home market evaporated as Ford strengthened and imports grew in volume, including the rapidly improving products of Japan.

“The company changed its name to Rover Group in 1986, officially banishing the last vestiges of British Leyland, though it would prove more difficult than this to wipe these words from the British consciousness. “Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Prime Minister elected in 1979, would certainly not be fooled by a change of name. Nevertheless in 1988 she sold the Government’s unwanted shareholding in Rover Group to British Aerospace.”

Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, head of the WMG manufacturing arm of Warwick University, who was an industrial adviser to Mrs Thatcher for much of her period in office, said: “She came to the fore at a time when the perception of Britain as an economic entity was very low.

“I can’t think of anyone else in recent history who was so single-minded in her determination to turn Britain round. Today we are enjoying the fruits of what she put in place. “She gave power to young people and the working class. She ensured that Britain escaped the image of being strike ridden and suffering a lack of competitiveness.”

All had disappeared forever by the time Mrs. Thatcher left the stage in 1990, many of them succeeded by privatized versions of the same companies that have come to be every bit as bitterly resented, for various reasons.

1979

Population: 56.27 million

Gross domestic product: £199.22bn

Average household income per week: £248.96

Average house price: £83,169

Life expectancy: men, 70.33 years; women, 76.41 years

Britain in 1979

The average house cost £13,650, and inflation was 17%. Sony launched a portable cassette player called a Walkman, marketed in the US at 0, and McDonalds introduced Happy Meals. Mother Theresa won the Nobel peace prize, China ordered its citizens to have no more than one child, and smallpox was eliminated.

Britain’s trade unions entered 1979 in a state of deep discontent at Jim Callaghan’s attempt to control soaring inflation by limiting pay. But while graveyards were locked and civic squares piled high with uncollected rubbish, popular culture offered merciful release. Britons watched home-grown favourites Are You Being Served and Last of the Summer Wine, and indulged in the comparative glamour of American imports Dallas and Charlie’s Angels . For most of 1979 they were unable to read the Times, which did not appear for almost a year owing to an industrial dispute.

The Clash released London Calling and Pink Floyd released The Wall, while Off the Wall became Michael Jackson’s breakthrough solo album. 1979 was also the year the performer had what is thought to be his first cosmetic surgery, after breaking his nose while dancing.

The release of the Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight in October 1979 was credited with heralding the birth of hip-hop. Sid Vicious died of a heroin overdose while on bail for the murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. Kramer vs Kramer was the year’s top-grossing movie in the US, and Alien and Apocalypse Now were also in the top 10, with The Muppet Movie.

Punk and new wave dominated the music scene, with Ian Dury & The Blockheads’ ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’ and Blondie’s ‘Heart Of Glass’ two of the year’s first number one singles. Joy Division’s debut album Unknown Pleasures – an aptly dark, brooding picture of despair – was released in June. Amid the gloom, the television schedules were packed with what would become Britain’s most affectionately remembered comedy series. New episodes of Fawlty Towers, Yes, Minister, Terry and June, Minder, and To The Manor Born were all screened throughout the year. The two Hollywood blockbusters Alien and Mad Max proved hits in cinemas, propelling their stars Sigourney Weaver and Mel Gibson into the 1980s A-list.

1979 was a unique year for Top of the Pops, which saw the show record its highest audience of 19 million viewers and in which physical format singles sales hit an all-time high of 79 million. 1979 is maybe the most diverse year ever for acts on Top of the Pops with disco at its peak, new wave, 2 Tone, reggae, rock, folk and electro records all making the top five.

Original interviews with Gary Numan, Nile Rodgers, Woody from Madness, Jah Wobble, Chas and Dave, Janet Kay, Linda Nolan, Jim Dooley, Secret Affair, the Ruts, Legs and Co and many others tell the story of an exceptional year.

In the year that the ‘winter of discontent’ saw continuing strikes black out ITV and TOTP reduced during a technicians strike to a narrator introducing videos, the show also found itself the site of conflict backstage. TOTP’s old guard of 70s MOR acts had their feathers continually ruffled by new wave bands, as the Skids spat at the Nolan Sisters backstage and Generation X urinated off the roof onto the Dooleys.

Elsewhere in the corridors of TV Centre, in preparation for playing their single Death Disco, Public Image Ltd demanded their teeth were blacked out in make-up to appear ugly while Gary Numan remembers the overbearing union presence which prevented TOTP artists moving their own microphones without a union technician and the Musicians Union trying to ban him from the show for his use of synthesizers.

The most popular musical styles of 1979 were 2 Tone, reggae and disco. The latter saw Nile Rodgers, the man of the year, score four hits with Chic as well as writing and producing a further four hits with Sister Sledge, Sheila B Devotion and Sugarhill Gang, who appeared with what would prove to be the first ever rap hit.

Jamaican and UK reggae artists scored continual hits through the year and then watched as the Police notched up three hits with white reggae and the label 2 Tone revived the 60s reggae style known as ska. In November, in what is remembered as the 2 Tone edition, all three of the label’s new acts – Madness, Specials and Selecter – appeared on one historic night and took the show by storm, with Madness capping off their performance of One Step Beyond by leading a ‘nutty train’ conga through the studio.

The Murder of Earl Mountbatten

2015 – The Irish police have been accused of failing to fully investigate IRA terror suspects responsible for the Mountbatten killings in 1979, along with other terror attacks. A Westminster source has made clear his suspicion that the Irish authorities were fully aware of who caused the death of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the Queen’s cousin. But the source continued that the motivation to investigate past terrorist attacks had dissipated following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

The agreement gave those suspected of attacks an amnesty, the source told the Sunday Telegraph, in a secret deal for peace. The source added that ‘of course’ the Irish knew who had committed the murders, as they were ‘very good at gathering intelligence’ but were not successful when it came to taking the cases to court.

The revelations have emerged in the lead up to the ground-breaking first official visit by the Prince of Wales – the murdered Earl’s great-nephew – to the site of the attack, to be made this week. Prince Charles will visit the scene of the murder in the fishing village Mullaghmore, Co Sligo, as part of a four-day tour of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Only one man has ever been convicted over the Mountbatten killings, the now 67-year-old bomb-maker Thomas McMahon. But as he was 70 miles away in police custody – and therefore unable to detonate the bomb – when the boat was blown up it is clear that at least one accomplice managed to escape justice. A bomb packed with 50lb of explosives was stashed aboard the Earl’s boat, Shadow V, in August 1979.

The bomb was detonated when the boat was about 200 yards from Mullaghmore harbour, as it was being taken out to sea. It is certain that the bomb was detonated by an accomplice keeping watch, and not by an automatic timer, because it was not certain when the group of passengers would board the boat. Two teenage boys were also killed in the explosion, the Earl’s 14-year-old grandson Nicholas Knatchbull and 15-year-old Paul Maxwell, a local boat hand.

The 83-year-old Dowager Lady Brabourne – who was also aboard the boat – died from shock and internal injuries the day after the attack. Mountbatten’s daughter Lady Brabourne and her husband Lord Brabourne were both injured but survived the blast, as did their son Timothy, Nicholas’ twin brother. McMahon served 18 years before being released in 1998 under the Good Friday peace agreement. But a spokesman for the Irish police – known as the Garda – has insisted that the case remains open while urging any members of the public who may have information about the killings to come forward.

Onlookers have insisted that the Westminster sources claims, along with the upcoming visit of Prince Charles, should inspire a renewed urgency within the investigation.

The source insisted that the Garda was in fact aware of names of those suspected of carrying out the Mountbatten bombing, as well as other terror attacks. But he continued that they failed to act on that knowledge as a result of an ‘amnesty’ struck up as a result of the Good Friday Agreement, signed by the British and Irish governments.

IRA suspects received what have become known as ‘comfort’ letters from the British government, it has previously been revealed. The letters reassured suspects who had not yet been prosecuted and were ‘on-the-run’, that they were not being pursued for any specific offence. The ‘comfort’ letter controversy emerged after the trial of John Downey collapsed last year. Downey had been charged with the murder of four soldiers in the Hyde Park bombing in 1982, but had received a ‘comfort’ letter while he was on the run.

The source insisted that as a result of this covert amnesty, the authorities did not pursue those suspected of carrying out these notorious attacks. Although Charles’ visit comes 36 years after the bombing, it is believed that he has wanted to visit the village for some time. The Prince of Wales – accompanied by the Duchess of Cornwall – will arrive on Tuesday, when they fly to Galway for a reception at the city’s university to celebrate the area’s links with Britain.

They will later attend a private dinner hosted by the Irish president, Michael D. Higgins, in Lough Cutra Castle in South Galway. On Wednesday they will attend a service of peace and reconciliation at Drumcliffe church in Sligo.

Car bomb kills Airey Neave

Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Airey Neave killed by a car bomb as he left the House of Commons car park. The bomb, said to be highly sophisticated, exploded as Mr Neave began driving up the exit ramp shortly before 1500GMT. Emergency services were on the scene in minutes. The 63-year-old Conservative MP, known for his tough line on anti-IRA security, was taken to Westminster Hospital where he died from his injuries. So far two groups, the Provisional IRA and the Irish Natonal Liberation Army, have claimed they carried out the killing.

It is not yet known when the bomb was attached to his car but investigators believe a timing device and trembler – which detonates the bomb through movement – were used to ensure the bomb went off as Mr Neave was leaving the Commons. The area around Parliament Square was immediately closed as police began a full-scale search of the premises. Despite increased threats to the safety of MPs not all cars are checked fully as they enter the car park. Gilbert Kellard, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said Mr Neave was aware of the dangers and was "happy and content" with his security.

Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher led tributes to Mr Neave saying: "He was one of freedom’s warriors. Courageous, staunch, true. He lived for his beliefs and now he has died for them." Prime Minister James Callaghan said: "No effort will be spared to bring the murderers to justice and to rid the United Kingdom of the scourge of terrorism."

The killing is thought to have been timed to coincide with the start of the election campaign which was announced yesterday. Mr Neave was a close adviser to Mrs Thatcher, he led her campaign to become the Conservative Party leader and headed her private office.

Teacher dies in Southall race riots

A 33-year-old man has died from head injuries after a bloody battle broke out between police and demonstrators in Southall. The fighting began when thousands of protesters gathered to demonstrate against a National Front campaign meeting. The extreme right-wing organisation had chosen Southall Town Hall to hold its St George’s Day election meeting. The area has one of the country’s biggest Asian communities.

Police had sealed off the area, and anti-racism demonstrators trying to make their way to the town hall were blocked. In the confrontation that followed, more than 40 people, including 21 police, were injured, and 300 were arrested. Bricks and bottles were hurled at police, who described the rioting as the most violent they have handled in London. Among the demonstrators was Blair Peach, a New Zealand-born member of the Anti-Nazi League. A teacher for special needs children in east London, he was a committed anti-racism activist.

During an incident in a side street 100 yards from the town hall, he was seriously injured and collapsed, blood running down his face from serious head injuries. He died later in hospital. Witnesses said his injuries were caused by police baton blows. Martin Gerrald, one of the protestors, was nearby Mr Peach at the time. "Mr Peach was hit twice in the head with police truncheons and left unconscious," he said. "The police were wielding truncheons and riot shields. It was a case of the boot just going in – there was no attempt to arrest anybody."

Another witness, 24-year-old Parminder Atwal, took the injured teacher into his house and called an ambulance. He said, "I saw a policeman hit a man on the head as he sat on the pavement. The man tried to get up, fell back and then reeled across the road to my house." The Anti-Nazi League claim Mr Peach bore the brunt of a "brutal" and "excessively violent" police baton charge.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said it was impossible to comment on the death until a full-scale inquiry had been completed.

Thorpe cleared of murder charges

Former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe has walked out of the Old Bailey a free man, after a jury cleared him of the attempted murder of Norman Scott. Mr Thorpe, who resigned as leader in 1976 amid allegations that he had had a homosexual affair with Mr Scott, hailed his acquittal as "a complete vindication".

Mr Thorpe and three other men were charged with conspiracy to murder, after the bungled assassination attempt of Mr Scott on a deserted moor in Southern England.

All were found not guilty. It took the jury 15 hours of deliberation spread over three days to reach its verdict. Mr Thorpe was also acquitted on a charge of inciting one of his co-defendants, David Holmes, to murder Mr Scott.

The trial lasted 31 days but Mr Thorpe’s ordeal began when he was charged last August. Although he was found not guilty, the case has probably ruined Mr Thorpe’s political career. As the verdict was read out he sat motionless. Afterwards he leant over to give his wife a long kiss.

Speaking later he said: "I have always maintained that I was innocent of the charges brought against me and the verdict of the jury, after a prolonged and careful investigation by them, I regard as totally fair and a complete vindication."

He added that he would be taking "a short period of rest" away from the glare of publicity.

Jeremy Thorpe’s political career was indeed ruined by the case.

Mr Thorpe had risen to prominence in 1967 when he became leader of the Liberal Party, but stepped down in 1976 as Norman Scott’s allegations about their relationship surfaced. At the May general election, shortly before the trial began, the voters of north Devon threw him out of the Parliamentary seat he had held for 20 years.

In 1999, two decades after disappearing from public life, Mr Thorpe published his memoirs in which he asserted that he never had any doubt about the acquittal of all the defendants on trial. Not long after the trial, Thorpe was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and retired from public life. For many years, the disease was at an advanced stage. In 1997 he visited the Liberal Democrat party conference, where he was given a standing ovation, and he attended the funeral of Roy Jenkins in 2003.

In 1999, Thorpe published his memoirs, In My Own Time, describing key episodes in his political life. He did not shed any light on the Norman Scott affair and never made any public statements regarding his sexual orientation.

On 4 December 2014, Thorpe died at his home in London of Parkinson’s disease, aged 85.

David Steel, who succeeded him as party leader, said: "He had a genuine sympathy for the underprivileged – whether in his beloved North Devon where his first campaign was for ‘mains, drains and a little bit of light’ or in Africa, where he was a resolute fighter against apartheid and became a respected friend of people like President Kaunda of Zambia."

1979 The Yorkshire Ripper Murders

4 April – Josephine Whitaker, a 19-year-old bank worker, is murdered in Halifax; police believe that she is the 11th woman to be murdered by the Yorkshire Ripper.

Police found in the wounds of Josephine Whitaker traces of milling oil used in engineering shops. Unfortunately, they also found traces of a similar oil on one of the envelopes from Sunderland sent by a man claiming to be the Ripper, but who turned out to be a hoaxer. This gave the letters an added credibility to the claims contained in them. They also found pinhead traces of metal particles in Josephine Whitaker’s wounds (possibly from when Sutcliffe sharpened the screwdriver into a bradawl). The police thought the killer might be a skilled machine tool-fitter, or an electrical or maintenance engineer, or a skilled or semi-skilled worker with engineering or mechanical connections.

2 September – Police discover a woman’s body in an alleyway near Bradford city centre. The woman, 20-year-old student Barbara Leach, is believed to be the 12th victim of the mysterious Yorkshire Ripper mass murderer.

Barbara Leach’s roommates were concerned when she still had not returned late Sunday night and called the police. The following day at 3:55 pm, while engaged in a police search of the area to find the missing student, Police Constable Simon Greaves found her body where Sutcliffe had hidden it in Back Ash Grove, about 200 yards from where she had left her friends. Her wounds, similar to the wounds received by Josephine Whitaker, clearly indicated to the police that the Yorkshire Ripper had struck again, and as in the previous murder, not in a red-light area.

1979 Timeline

5 January – Lorry drivers go on strike, causing new shortages of heating oil and fresh food.

10 January – Prime Minister James Callaghan returns from an international summit to a Britain in a state of industrial unrest. The Sun newspaper reports his comments with a famous headline: "Crisis? What Crisis?"

15 January – Rail workers begin a 24-hour strike.

22 January – Tens of thousands of public-workers strike in the beginning of what becomes known as the "Winter of Discontent".

1 February – Grave-diggers call off a strike in Liverpool which has delayed dozens of burials.

2 February – Sid Vicious, the former Sex Pistols guitarist, is found dead in New York after apparently suffocating on his own vomit as a result of a heroin overdose. 21-year-old London-born Vicious (real name John Simon Ritchie) is on bail for the second degree murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, who was found stabbed to death in a hotel room on 12 October last year.

9 February – Trevor Francis signs for Nottingham Forest in British football’s first £1 million deal.

12 February – Over 1,000 schools close due to the heating oil shortage caused by the lorry drivers’ strike.

14 February – "Saint Valentine’s Day Concordat" between Trades Union Congress and Government, The Economy, the Government, and Trade Union Responsibilities, marks an end to the "Winter of Discontent".

15 February – Opinion polls show the Conservatives up to 20 points ahead of Labour, whose popularity has slumped due to the Winter of Discontent.

22 February – Saint Lucia becomes independent of the United Kingdom.

1 March – Scottish devolution referendum: Scotland votes by a majority of 77,437 for a Scottish Assembly, which is not implemented due to a condition that at least 40% of the electorate must support the proposal.

Welsh devolution referendum: Wales votes against devolution.

Conservative candidate David Waddington retains the seat for his party in the Clitheroe by-election.

National Health Service workers in the West Midlands threaten to go on strike in their bid to win a nine per cent pay rise.

17 March – Nottingham Forest beat Southampton 3-2 at Wembley Stadium to win the Football League Cup for the second year running.

18 March – An explosion at the Golborne colliery in Golborne, Greater Manchester, kills three men.

22 March – Sir Richard Sykes, ambassador to the Netherlands, is shot dead by a Provisional Irish Republican Army member in The Hague.

28 March – James Callaghan’s government loses a motion of confidence by one vote, forcing a General Election.

29 March – James Callaghan announces that the General Election will be held on 3 May. All of the major opinion polls point towards a Conservative win which would make Margaret Thatcher the first female Prime Minister of Britain.

30 March – Airey Neave, World War Two veteran and Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, is killed by an Irish National Liberation Army bomb in the House of Commons car park.

31 March – The Royal Navy withdraws from Malta.

April – Statistics show that the economy shrank by 0.8% in the first quarter of the year, largely due to the Winter Of Discontent, sparking fears that Britain could soon be faced with its second recession in four years.

4 April – Josephine Whitaker, a 19-year-old bank worker, is murdered in Halifax; police believe that she is the 11th woman to be murdered by the Yorkshire Ripper.

23 April – Anti-Nazi League protestor Blair Peach is fatally injured after being struck on the head probably by a member of the Metropolitan Police’s Special Patrol Group.

1 May – The London Underground Jubilee line is inaugurated.

4 May – The Conservatives win the General Election by a 43-seat majority and Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe is the most notable MP to lose his seat in the election. Despite losing the first General Election he has contested, James Callaghan is expected to stay on as leader of a Labour Party now in opposition after five years in government. Among the new members of parliament is John Major, 36-year-old MP for Huntingdon and Thatcher’s successor.

8 May – Former Liberal Party leader and MP Jeremy Thorpe goes on trial at the Old Bailey charged with attempted murder.

9 May – Liverpool win the Football League First Division title for the 12th time.

12 May – Arsenal defeat Manchester United 3-2 in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, with Alan Sunderland scoring a last gasp winner in response to two United goals inside the last five minutes which had seen the scores level at 2-2.

15 May – Government abolishes the Prices Commission.

21 May – Elton John becomes the first musician from the west to perform live in the Soviet Union.

Conservative MPs back Margaret Thatcher’s proposals to sell off parts of nationalised industries. During the year, the Government will begin to sell its stake in British Petroleum.

24 May – Thorpe Park at Chertsey in Surrey is opened; it becomes one of the top three most popular theme parks in the country.

25 May – Price of milk increases more than 10% to 15 pence a pint.

30 May – Nottingham Forest F.C. defeat Malmö FF, the Swedish football league champions, 1-0 in the European Cup final at Olympiastadion, Munich. The only goal of the game is scored by Trevor Francis.

7 June – European Parliament election, the first direct election to the European Parliament; the turnout in Britain is low at 32%. The Conservatives have the most MEPs at 60, while Labour only have 17. The Liberals gain a 12.6% share of the vote but not a single MEP, while the Scottish National Party, Democratic Unionist Party, Social Democratic and Labour Party and Official Ulster Unionist Party all gain an MEP each.

12 June – The new Conservative government’s first budget sees chancellor Geoffrey Howe cut the standard tax rate by 3p and slashing the top rate from 83% to 60%.

18 June – Neil Kinnock, 37-year-old Labour MP for Islwyn in South Wales, becomes shadow education spokesman.

22 June – Former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe is cleared in court of the allegations of attempted murder which ruined his career.

5 July – The Queen attends the millennium celebrations of the Isle of Man’s Parliament, Tynwald.

12 July – Kiribati (formerly Gilbert Islands) becomes independent of the United Kingdom.

17 July – The athlete Sebastian Coe sets a record time for running a mile, completing it in 3 minutes 48.95 seconds.

23 July – The government announces £4 billion worth of public spending cuts.

1 August – Following the recent takeover of Chrysler’s European division by French carmaker Peugeot, the historic Talbot marque is revived for the range of cars previously sold in Britain as Chryslers, also taking over from the Simca brand in France.

9 August – A nudist beach is established in Brighton.

10 August–23 October – The entire ITV network in the UK is shut down by a technicians’ strike. But Channel Television remains unaffected.

14 August – A storm in the Irish Sea hits the Fastnet yacht race. Fifteen lives and dozens of yachts are lost.

Disgraced ex-MP John Stonehouse is released from jail after serving four years of his seven-year sentence for faking his own death.

24 August – The Ford Cortina receives a major facelift.

27 August – Lord Mountbatten of Burma, his nephew and a boatboy are assassinated by a Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb while holidaying in the Republic of Ireland, the Dowager Lady Brabourne dying the following day in hospital of injuries received. He was an admiral, statesman and an uncle of The Duke of Edinburgh.

Warrenpoint ambush: eighteen British soldiers killed in Northern Ireland by IRA bombs.

30 August – Two men are arrested in Dublin and charged with the murder of Lord Mountbatten and the three other victims of the bombing.

2 September – Police discover a woman’s body in an alleyway near Bradford city centre. The woman, 20-year-old student Barbara Leach, is believed to be the 12th victim of the mysterious Yorkshire Ripper mass murderer.

5 September – The Queen leads the mourning at the funeral of Lord Mountbatten of Burma.

Manchester City F.C. pay a British club record fee of £1,450,000 for Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Steve Daley.

8 September – Wolverhampton Wanderers set a new national transfer record by paying just under £1,500,000 for Aston Villa and Scotland striker Andy Gray.

10 September – British Leyland announces that production of MG cars will finish in the autumn of next year, in a move which will see the Abingdon plant closed.

14 September – The government announces plans to regenerate the London Docklands with housing and commercial developments.

21 September – A Royal Air Force Harrier jet crashes into a house in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire killing two men and a boy.

25 September – Margaret Thatcher opens the new Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre, the largest indoor shopping centre in Britain, after its final phase is completed six years after development of the huge complex first began.

October – Statistics show a 2.3% contraction in the economy for the third quarter of the year, sparking fresh fears of another recession.

11 October – Godfrey Hounsfield wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Allan McLeod Cormack "for the development of computer assisted tomography".

23 October – All remaining foreign exchange controls abolished.

27 October – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence.

28 October – Chairman Hua Guofeng becomes the first Chinese leader to visit Britain.

30 October – Martin Webster of the National Front is found guilty of inciting racial hatred.

November – British Leyland chief executive Michael Edwardes wins the overwhelming backing of more than 100,000 of the carmaker’s employees for his restructuring plans, which over the next few years will result in the closure of several plants and the loss of some 25,000 jobs.

1 November – The government announces £3.5 billion in public spending cuts and an increase in prescription charges.

5 November – The two men accused of murdering Lord Mountbatten and three others go on trial in Dublin.

9 November – Four men are found guilty over the killing of paperboy Carl Bridgewater, who was shot dead at a farmhouse in the Staffordshire countryside 14 months ago. James Robinson and Vincent Hickey receive life sentences with a recommended minimum of 25 years for murder, Michael Hickey (also guilty of murder) receives an indefinite custodial sentence, while Patrick Molloy is guilty of manslaughter and jailed for 12 years.

11 November – Last episode of the first series of the sitcom To the Manor Born on BBC1 receives 23.95 million viewers, the all-time highest figure for a recorded programme in the UK.

13 November – The Times is published for the first time in nearly a year after a dispute between management and unions over staffing levels and new technology.

Miners reject a 20% pay increase and threaten to go on strike until they get their desired pay rise of 65%.

14 November – Vauxhall launches its first-ever front-wheel drive car – the Astra range of hatchbacks and estates – to compete in the growing family hatchback sector. It replaces the traditional rear-wheel drive Viva saloon, which had been produced in three incarnations since 1963. Initial production of the Astra will take place at the Opel factory in West Germany, with production set to be transferred to Britain by 1981.

15 November – Minimum Lending Rate reaches an all-time high of 17%.

Art historian and former Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures Anthony Blunt’s role as the "fourth man" of the ‘Cambridge Five’ double agents for the Soviet NKVD during World War II is revealed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the House of Commons; she gives further details on 21 November.

21 November – Six months after winning the General Election, the Conservatives are five points behind Labour (who have a 45% share of the vote) in an MORI opinion poll.

23 November – In Dublin, Ireland, Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.

4 December – The Hastie Fire in Hull leads to the deaths of 3 boys and begins the hunt for Bruce George Peter Lee, the UK’s most prolific killer.

7 December – Lord Soames appointed as the transitional governor of Rhodesia to oversee its move to independence.

10 December – William Arthur Lewis wins the Nobel Prize in Economics with Theodore Schultz "for their pioneering research into economic development research with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries".

Daredevil Eddie Kidd performs an 80 ft jump on a motorcycle.

14 December – Doubts are raised over the convictions of the four men in the Carl Bridgewater case after Hubert Vincent Spencer is charged with murdering 70-year-old farmer Hubert Wilkes at a farmhouse less than half a mile away from the one where Carl Bridgewater was murdered.

The Clash release post-punk album London Calling.

20 December – The government publishes the Housing Bill which will give council house tenants the right to buy their homes from the following year. More than 5 million households in the United Kingdom currently occupy council houses.

Inflation rises to 13.4%.

The largest number of working days lost through strike action since 1926.

Dame Josephine Barnes becomes first woman president of the British Medical Association.

The first J D Wetherspoon pub is established by Tim Martin in the London Borough of Haringey.

The band Spandau Ballet begin to play under this name.

Scottish Gaelic service Radio nan Eilean established in Stornoway.

New plant species, Senecio eboracensis, the York groundsel, is discovered.

A record of more than 1.7 million new cars are sold in the United Kingdom this year, with the best selling car, the Ford Cortina, selling more than 190,000 units. Ford Motor Company enjoys the largest share of the new car market, following in second place by British Leyland, the former Chrysler Europe brands (now owned by Peugeot) in third place, and Vauxhall in fourth place. Foreign brands including Datsun, Renault and Volkswagen also prove popular.

1979 in British music

23 February – Dire Straits begin their first American tour, in Boston.

27 March – Eric Clapton marries Patti Boyd, ex-wife of Clapton’s friend George Harrison.

31 March – In the Eurovision Song Contest, UK representatives Black Lace finish 7th.

2 April – Kate Bush begins her first and, to date, her only live tour.

6 April – Rod Stewart marries Alana Hamilton.

1 May – Elton John becomes the first overseas pop music artist to perform in Israel.

2 May – The Who perform their first concert following the death of drummer Keith Moon. The band performed with new drummer Kenney Jones.

11 August – Led Zeppelin play their last ever British concert at Knebworth in Hertfordshire.

21 August – Cliff Richard achieves his tenth UK No.1 and the first for over 11 years.

August – Brotherhood of Man members Martin Lee and Sandra Stevens marry.

26 November – Bill Haley & His Comets perform at the Drury Lane Theatre in London in a command performance for The Queen. This was Haley’s final recorded performance of "Rock Around the Clock".

The Welsh Philharmonia becomes the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera.

Richard Rodney Bennett becomes a resident of New York City.

Arthur Oldham founds the Concertgebouw Orchestra Chorus in Amsterdam.

Number one singles

"Y.M.C.A." – Village People "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" – Ian Dury and the Blockheads "Heart of Glass" – Blondie "Tragedy" – Bee Gees "I Will Survive" – Gloria Gaynor "Bright Eyes" – Art Garfunkel "Sunday Girl" – Blondie "Ring My Bell" – Anita Ward "Are ‘Friends’ Electric?" – Tubeway Army "I Don’t Like Mondays" – The Boomtown Rats "We Don’t Talk Anymore" – Cliff Richard "Cars" – Gary Numan "Message in a Bottle" – The Police "Video Killed the Radio Star" – The Buggles "One Day at a Time" – Lena Martell "When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman" – Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show "Walking on the Moon" – The Police "Another Brick in the Wall Part II" – Pink Floyd

1979 in British television

2 January – BBC2 broadcasts the first in Michael Wood’s groundbreaking history documentary series, In Search of the Dark Ages.

28 January – Thomas & Sarah, a spin-off of Upstairs, Downstairs premieres on LWT. It runs for only one series.

24 March – Tales of the Unexpected, an Anglia Television series based on the short stories of Roald Dahl, makes its debut on ITV.

3 May–4 May – BBC1 and ITV broadcast coverage of the 1979 General Election. The election is won by the Conservatives and sees Margaret Thatcher become the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

6 August – Technicians at Thames Television go on strike following a long-running dispute.

10 August – The whole of the ITV network except the Channel Islands is affected by a technicians’ strike for eleven weeks.

27 August – Lord Mountbatten was murdered by IRA bombers. His death set a record audience for a news bulletin, as 26 million viewers watched the coverage on BBC1. Strike action at ITN led to the record viewing figures.

2 September – Subtitling of television programmes on Ceefax begins.

25 September – Robin Day presents the first edition of the long-running political debate programme Question Time on BBC1. The programme continues to air to the present day.

24 October – On ITV’s first night back on the air after the strike, Quatermass, the fourth and final serial featuring Professor Bernard Quatermass, begins its run on the network.

11 November – Last episode of the first series of the sitcom To the Manor Born on BBC1 receives 23.95 million viewers, the all-time highest figure for a recorded programme in the UK.

1 December – BBC2 unveils the first computer-generated television presentation symbol in the world. US broadcaster NBC unveils their first computer-generated symbol later that year.

BBC1

18 January – Blankety Blank (1979–1990, BBC1 1997–1999, ITV 2001–2002) 18 February – Antiques Roadshow (1979–present) 9 June – The Paul Daniels Magic Show (1979–1994) 25 September – Question Time (1979–present) 30 September -To the Manor Born (1979–1981, 2007) Shoestring (1979–1980) 24 October – Terry and June (1979–1987)

BBC2

28 September – Friday Night, Saturday Morning (1979–1982) 16 October – Not the Nine O’Clock News (1979–1982)

ITV

3 January – The Book Tower (1979–1989) 6 January – Dick Turpin (1979–1982) 14 January – Thomas & Sarah (1979) 25 February – Worzel Gummidge (1979–1981) 11 March – Agony (1979–1981) 24 March – Tales of the Unexpected (1979–1985; 1987–1988) 15 April – End of Part One (1979–1980) 10 July – Sapphire & Steel (1979–1982) 12 July – Shelley (1979–1992) 25 September – Once Upon a Time (1979–present) 29 October – Only When I Laugh (1979–1982) Minder (1979–1994; 2009)

[kangacav69]

Edens Garden Blends Compared To Young Living

All of our synergy blends are created or overseen by robert tisserand. The edens garden team can be reached via telephone or email.

Plant Therapy / doTerra / Young Living oil comparison

Whether fighting human trafficking, rebuilding communities in nepal, tackling critical issues in uganda, or helping our local community, we drive change by recognizing potential where others see despair.

Edens garden blends compared to young living. Young living oils have a pretty high standard since they control their product from the botanical seed all the way to distilling the oils. Be first to leave comment below. Eden garden oils compared to young living;

Codes (7 days ago) eden gardens is a boutique supplier of essential oils, all of which are therapeutic grade and are guaranteed to be 100% pure. Eden garden oils compared to young living However, the amount of each oil used must differ as the fighting five blend has a slightly more distinct eucalyptus smell rather than the strong clove/cinnamon notes of both yl and doterra blends.

Edens garden vs do terra and young living. They also have certified aromatherapists on staff to help customers. And all are gc/ms tested to ensure quality and safety.

The buying practices can often be a source of contention with essential oil fans, but the 3rd party testing should help put any worries to rest pertaining to purity and quality. Obviously, the main differences between edens garden vs doterra oils are their source buying practices and the overall cost of the final products. To this end, edens garden rotate their stock every two weeks to make sure each batch is fresh.

Edens garden vs young living essential oils blends cross reference my choice for non mlm essential oils shelemah edens garden vs young living essential oils blends cross reference eden s garden essential oil blends comparison chart our two nests. Hopefully it can offer you some assistance if you are looking for a similar blend from a different company. I used their oils every day, with my kids, and i loved talking about them with friends.

Both blends are thicker than the eden’s garden blend. Edens garden oils vs young living; Although they have had complaints about the purity of their oils and had to clarify their claims under fda pressure, they continue to be one of the biggest names in the market.

As far as edens garden goes, they want to keep it simple, which shows when you look over their website. They list their 3rd party test results showing all oils are pure. So you put all the oils in the recipe into a 5ml bottle, then use the appropriate amount of drops for your application.

Edens garden blends compared to young living; Plant therapy and edens garden are great brands. The recipes given are for master blends.

Doterra on guard smells identical to the young living thieves blend. This stands for effective, dedicated, educated, natural, and safe. I no longer felt yl® was right for me for 5.

Required fields are marked * post comment. * the names young living, thieves and valor are owned by young living essential oils, llc and have no relation to rocky mountain oils llc. The results of these tests can be found on each oil’s product page.

Gary young, young living foundation we work every day to empower underserved communities by offering a hand up, not a hand out. If you have a favorite young living or doterra blend, learn which plant therapy oils would be right for you!. I’m glad you asked why i’m throwing out some of the best essential oil brands available.

Their oils are all thoroughly tested in batches before they are put into edens garden bottles. When formulating synergies we cover as many areas as possible. They do this in their own farms.

The company follows their standard e.d.e.n.s. Even though one uses lemon and one uses orange you could never tell the difference. The oil itself was exactly like the young living blend.

A curated collection of 100% pure essential oils, edens garden’s synergy blends are balanced down to the very last drop. A few blends may have slightly different formulations (i think this may be due to patent laws), but eg has worked just the same for me as my yl oils have. Edens gardens’ equivalent to thieves oil uses the exact same 5 oil ingredients:

Cinnamon, clove, eucalyptus, lemon and rosemary. It offers fast responses to customer inquiries. Perfect as gifts and for anyone who appreciates quality aromas, eden gardens selection includes over 130 pure single oils, as well as dozens of their own unique blends.

All our essential oils are 100% pure, free of any fillers, synthetics or harmful chemicals. Exquisitely crafted for specific purposes, these bottled blends include essential oils that contain the therapeutic and medicinal properties necessary. And to tell you what company i use now.

I compared a few oils with young living and found edens garden oils to be extremely competitive in terms of quality. Your email address will not be published. They were one of the first companies whose products we used.

Young living oils are ok but triple the price of other brands. They have also failed some 3rd party testing. The trademarks young living®, r.c.®, raven®, digize®, dragon time®, abundance®, theives®, joy®, panaway®, gentle baby®, white angelica®, purification®, stress away®, valor®, peace and calming®, as well as the goods affiliated with these trademarks, are the property of young living oils, llc and are not in any way related to revive.

There other brands that compete with edens gardens essential oils. Here is a brief comparison between edens garden, young living, dōterra and mountain rose herbs. In the end, doterra got a 6 in their score and eden’s garden got a 1.25 based on the top 6 factors to consider.

Edens garden coupons & promo codes 2020 + free shipping. They both have the distinct cinnamon and clove smell. See more ideas about oils, essential oils, essential oil recipes.

For those of you who are specifically interested in comparing edens garden and young living, this article here is a direct comparison of edens garden vs young living essential oils. Some of you may know, i was a young living® lover. Edens garden, plant therapy, doterra, & young living.

Let me just tell you. Eden’s garden offers a similar program called “aroma notes” but only has a fraction of the savings potential based on larger purchase amount milestones (roughly less than 10% in savings opportunity with purchases) in summary. Edens garden oils edens garden essential oils doterra essential oils natural essential oils young living essential oils essential oil blends natural oils natural health healing oils.

In this post i have compared 4 different essential oil brands: Since the very first time i got an essential oil (lavender was my first) i have wondered why it had this odd edge to the fragrance that kept it from being entirely pleasant to the smell.

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[gethealthy18-blog]

How to Make Cold Process Soap

New Post has been published on https://healingawerness.com/news/how-to-make-cold-process-soap/

How to Make Cold Process Soap

As the long-term effects of antibacterial soaps become more widely known, people are turning to more natural alternatives. This movement has resurrected the art of soap making. If you are new to making soap you are in for a real treat! It can seem like a daunting undertaking at first but it is such a rewarding process.

No farmer’s market would be complete without the beautiful array of homemade soaps. It is wonderful to support these local vendors but if the price-tag is out of reach for you, don’t despair. You can still ditch the antibacterial soaps by making your own homemade cold process soap!

How Is Soap Made?

Soap is a chemical reaction that occurs as a result of mixing an animal or vegetable fat with a base (sodium hydroxide). This chemical reaction is called saponification.

Merriam-Webster defines saponification as “the hydrolysis of a fat by an alkali with the formation of a soap and glycerol.” OK, so what does that mean?

Each fat has a unique combination of triglycerides. Triglycerides are compounds made up of a single molecule of glycerol and 3 fatty acids. Each combination requires a different amount of alkali to complete the saponification process. The alkali in soap-making is sodium hydroxide, also called lye.

The lye is mixed with water to create a basic solution. This solution is then mixed into your fats. As they are combined and begin to react, the glycerol molecule is separated from the fatty acids. The fatty acids then react with the hydroxide ions in the lye solution. This is saponification.

The two resulting products of the saponification process are glycerin, which is wonderfully moisturizing for the skin, and soap. No lye remains as it has all reacted with the fats to create a completely new substance.

Worried About Lye?

As I covered in-depth in this post, it isn’t truly possible to make soap without lye in some part of the process. Lye is the necessary agent for saponification and any true soap, even one you buy, is made with it. You can purchase a pre-made soap base but it is much less budget friendly.

Cold Process Soap vs. Hot Process Soap

The method you choose is a matter of personal preference. This post is to teach you about cold process soap but you can take the same recipe and use the hot process method instead.

Both of these methods begin in the same way. You make a lye/water solution and mix it with the oils to begin saponification. To make a cold process soap you would incorporate any additives and pour it into the mold as soon as it reached trace (more about trace later).

For hot process soap you would let the soap batter “cook” in a slow cooker on the lowest heat to accelerate and complete saponification. Then you would stir in your additives and mold it.

Cold process soap takes 4-6 weeks to completely saponify and be ready to use. In theory, hot process is ready to use immediately. However, it is wise to let it sit a week or so to harden a bit. This will make it last considerably longer.

I have made soap both ways and I like each method for different reasons. Cold process soap is easier to pour into the molds so if you are trying to use a mold with a design or pattern I would recommend cold process.

I like hot process for my everyday soaps (especially because I don’t always get them made on time, *ahem*), so it is great if I am in a pinch and need soap, like, yesterday.

Both methods are great and in the end you get the same result, soap! If you would like to try hot process you can try my recipe for basic slow cooker soap.

Ingredients for Making Soap

The most basic ingredients you will need are water (distilled is best), lye (sodium hydroxide), and some type of animal or vegetable fat (such as olive oil or tallow). These three ingredients are essential and it is wise to use a lye calculator to accurately determine the ratios needed for proper saponification.

There are countless combinations of oils you can come up with for a soap recipe. Each fat or oil has it’s own impact on your finished product. Some are great cleansers while others are more gentle and moisturizing. Some make large bubbles as opposed to others that create a low lather.

You can use all of one type of oil or a mixture of several different ones. A pure olive oil soap, also called castile soap named for a region in Spain, makes a very gentle bar of soap. A pure tallow soap has high cleansing ability and makes a great laundry bar.

I personally like to use at least two different oils to give the soap a bit more character. With a blend of oils it is much easier to achieve the qualities you are desiring in a soap.

Some of the most popular soaping oils are:

coconut oil

olive oil

castor oil

cocoa butter

mango butter

sunflower oil

sweet almond oil

jojoba oil

If this will be your first time making soap, a good place to start would be to use olive oil, coconut oil, and castor oil. This combination will give you a mild soap with a good lather and these oils are easy to come by. We will use these oils in the instructions below.

Optional ingredients can be added to customize your soap recipe. Essential oils added after trace are a natural option for giving your soap a lovely scent. Clays add a silkiness to the soap that is especially good for shaving. Sea salt soap (do not use dead sea salt) is exfoliating and detoxifying.

Ground coffee, oatmeal, and botanicals like dried lavender flowers or herbs give a nice texture to the soap. For a natural colorant you can try adding mica powders, cocoa powder, turmeric, or spirulina.

As you learn more about soap making you can even experiment with alternate liquids such as goat milk, herbal tea, or even beer.

Working With Lye

Lye is used to make all soap. Even melt and pour soap bases were originally made with lye. There is a common misconception that soap is not natural or healthy if it is made with lye. This simply isn’t true. It is necessary to use lye to achieve the chemical reaction, but you can be assured that when done correctly, no lye remains.

In fact, most soap is “super-fatted.” This means that there is extra fat worked into the recipe so that there is no possibility that any lye will remain. This also makes the bar more moisturizing. A good rule is to superfat by 5%.

I would guess that working with lye is the greatest deterrent for people who are thinking about making soap. I can understand how this would be a stumbling block but if you know and follow proper safety measures, you shouldn’t have any problems working with it.

Lye safety measures

Wait until children are in bed. Making soap is not an activity to do with children. Watch out for pets as well. Children and pets can cause distractions or spills.

Wear long sleeves and protective gear including safety glasses and rubber gloves.

Make sure your workspace is free of clutter that could cause a spill. Also, remove anything that could be ruined if a spill were to happen.

When the lye and water are mixed it will create fumes. Do this step in a well-ventilated area or even outside. I prefer to do it outside so I have no concern about fumes and then if I were to spill (I haven’t yet) it would not be in my house.

Always add lye to the water. DO NOT add water to lye. It will create a caustic eruption! The adage in the soaping world is “snow floats on the lake.” It MUST be done in this order.

Hopefully these safety tips serve to make you feel more comfortable working with lye. The first time is a bit nerve-wracking but once you have done it you will see that it is not so frightening!

Soap Making Supplies

I have a set of tools I keep just for soap-making. It is not absolutely necessary to keep them separate but it eliminates any possibility of not getting your tools clean enough for food preparation.

Non-reactive pot or slow-cooker for warming oils

Heavy plastic pitcher or quart mason jar for mixing lye/water

Second jar or disposable cup for measuring lye

Infrared thermometer or 2 candy thermometers

Mold (this one will fit this recipe)

Digital scale

Stick blender

Spoon

Spatula

Safety glasses and rubber gloves

Lye – I have purchased lye online and also at a local hardware store. (Try a smaller store as the large chain stores do not typically carry it.) You will have to ask an employee for it.

White vinegar for final cleanup

[embedded content]

Basic Cold Process Soap Recipe

Ditch the antibacterial soap and make your own beautiful cold process soap at home.

Cook Time 1 hour

Resting and Curing Time 29 days

Servings 12 bars

Author Katie Wells

Ingredients

Instructions

Prepare your mold. Wood molds will need to be lined with freezer paper or wax paper. Silicone molds are ready to use as is. You can also use any box if you line it with freezer paper, wax paper, or a thick garbage bag.

Put on protective gear, place a glass jar on the scale, and tare the scale.

Pour distilled water into the jar until it reads 12.54 oz.

Set aside.

Put a second jar on the scale and tare the scale.

Carefully pour lye into the second jar until the scale reads 5.09 oz.

In a well-ventilated area or outside, slowly pour the lye into the water.

Stir the mixture until the lye is dissolved. It will become quite hot so be careful if you need to move it.

Let this mixture sit and cool to between 100-120°F.

While the lye is cooling, measure all other ingredients EXCEPT the essential oils and warm them together in a pot or slow-cooker.

Once they are melted, remove them from the heat and let cool to between 100-120 degrees. I use the infrared thermometer about every 5-10 minutes to test the temperature. This works really well, but a candy thermometer placed in each container also works. If one is cooling faster than the other you can put your oils back on the heat source or the lye/water mixture in a warm water bath to slow the cooling process a bit. Ideally, you want the lye/water and the oils to both be between 100-120 degrees and within 10 degrees of each other.

When the temps match, slowly pour the lye/water into the oils.

BEFORE you turn your stick blender on, make sure the blade is completely under the mixture or you will splash it everywhere. Use the stick blender to bring the batter to a light trace. It should be slightly thick and resemble cake batter.

If using, add the essential oils now.

Blend essential oils in by pulsing the immersion blender a few times. This should bring the mixture to a medium trace. You can tell when you have reached a medium trace by lifting your blender up out of the mixture (in the OFF position) and observing how the drips behave. They should leave a trail or “trace” on the surface. If you don’t use essential oils, just pulse your blender a few more times to bring it to medium trace.

Pour the soap batter into your prepared mold, using a spatula to get it all out. Remember that the soap is not fully “cooked” yet at this point and could still irritate your skin so you should still be wearing your gear.

Put the mold somewhere it can sit for 24 hours.

Place an upside down cardboard box over the soap and cover with a towel. If your house is warm the towel may not be necessary.

Let sit for 24 hours.

You can now remove your soap and cut it. This recipe in the silicone loaf mold makes about 12 bars weighing approximately 4.5 oz each, but you can cut them whatever size you like.

Stand the bars up in a dry area with an inch or so of space in between to allow for air circulation and let them sit for 4-6 weeks. This will allow the soap to complete the saponification process. The soap will also lose some of its water during this time making the bar harder. The harder the bar, the longer it will last.

Notes

Soap Making Clean-up:  Rinse the jars and any supplies that had lye or soap batter in them well, with running water. I have washed the tools two different ways. You can pour some vinegar in a sink filled with hot soapy water and wash them in there, or you can wash your well rinsed dishes in the dishwasher.

A Note About “Trace”

Most soap recipes tell you to blend the lye/water and oils together until you reach trace. What this means is that you will need to blend until there is no separation left in the mixture. If the lye/water and oils are not completely mixed, your oil will separate in the mold and leave pockets of lye.

When your mixture has reached a light trace it will resemble cake batter. A medium trace is more like pudding but still pourable, and a thick trace holds its shape. When you have gone as far as a thick trace, your soap will likely have to be spooned into the mold.

Have you made your own soap? Share your favorite recipe!

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/77388/cold-process-soap/

[jamieclawhorn]

How to survive the NEXT market meltdown

Last week was a healthy reminder that equity valuations can move swiftly downwards without there being one single catalyst. When investors are already skittish about rising interest rates, Brexit and a host of other potential obstacles, it doesn’t take much to generate a stampede for the exits. 

Don’t despair if you found it tough. Here are a few recommendations for how to cope when Mr Market’s mood next sours.

Don’t panic

Learning not to panic-sell your holdings is hard, especially with 24/7 news coverage and photos of exasperated traders hunched over their terminals on Wall Street. We are, after all, programmed by evolution to follow the herd in times of apparent danger. Resisting this predisposition when cherished paper profits are getting smaller by the day is easier said than done.

But here’s the thing: nobody on this earth knows for certain which direction the market will head over the short term. Indeed, Friday’s rally, while not enough to erase the losses over the preceding few days, goes to show how quickly sentiment can reverse.

With this in mind, checking your portfolio every five minutes is nothing more than a recipe for stress. So, switch off physically and metaphorically and learn to see uncertainty as simply a part of investing. If this sounds too hard, it’s worth recalculating how much risk you’re prepared to take in the pursuit of growing your wealth and the amount of time you’re willing to stay invested.

Personally, the most I do in such a situation is check whether anything about the companies I’m holding has changed. If not, I stay invested and use the time that could have been spent worrying doing something more productive (or worrying about something else).

Remember that this is all normal

While plummeting markets can be difficult to endure, it’s vital to remember that they happen more often than you think.

As behavioural finance expert Daniel Crosby notes in his book The Laws of Wealth, the US stock market experienced 123 corrections (where stocks fall 10% in price) between 1900 and 2013. That’s more than one a year. Even more severe bear markets (where stocks fall 20%) happen every 3.5 years on average. 

When you understand the regularity of such events, not to mention their very limited ability to impact on a person’s ability to grow their wealth over the long term, it’s easier to take them in your stride. 

Keep a watchlist

So, we shouldn’t fear falling markets. Actually, we should learn to embrace them. Just ask Warren Buffett. 

The Sage of Omaha once remarked that only those who intend to sell in the near future should be happy to see the value of their holdings rise. Everyone else — those who intend to remain invested for at least the next five years — should rejoice when they fall since sinking share prices offer better value. Taking this advice on board, it’s always worth having a list of quality companies you’d buy if they suddenly went on sale.

Of course, it’s no use having a watchlist if you don’t have the cash to eventually pounce. That’s why keeping some powder dry is also recommended. Since interest on cash balances in stocks and shares accounts are often laughably low, this money could be retained in an easy access account elsewhere and then transferred across when needed.

Are You Prepared For Brexit?

Following Brexit, fear and indecision could hurt share prices in the coming months. That’s why the analysts at the Motley Fool have written a free guide called “Brexit: Your 5-Step Investor’s Survival Guide”. To get your copy of the guide, click here now!

More reading

3 potential pitfalls facing investors who are saving for retirement

The Lloyds share price slides nearly 15% year-to-date, but could it be time to load up?

Aviva vs Imperial Brands: which is the superior FTSE 100 dividend stock?

Dump your cash ISA! These FTSE 250 dividend stocks could protect your savings more effectively

Forget the cash ISA! This FTSE 100 dividend stock should set you up for a significantly wealthier retirement

Paul Summers has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

[sandiegojobsondemand]

The Way to Become A Freelancer?– Part 3

Together with the shift from being ‘a employer’ into ‘being your own boss’, a great deal of people are choosing to be freelancers.

Here are a few hints to be a successful freelancer.

Use more than Only a spreadsheet to keep track of your financing

Freelancers do not have the luxury of a organization’s accounting group or HR department, so it is especially important that they stay on top of their own financing. Dedicating a block of time each week to making sure your finances remain up-to-date.

Utilizing a simple Excel spreadsheet to keep track of your finances may cause headaches. She advocates  GoDaddy’s bookkeeping services ($9.99 a month) or Intuit’s Quick Books (starting at $18.86 per month). These programs can allow you to keep tabs on your income and expenses, in addition to compute just how much you owe at self-employment taxes that are quarterly. If you do not keep detailed track of your financing, you could get hit by a bigger tax bill than you ever anticipated.

Have continuous Customers and a anchor gig

Regardless of what your profession, prioritize jobs which are more than buys, and establish relationships with clients or supervisors which are easy to work with. Try to get an “anchor gig,” a part-time job which will function as a trustworthy source of monthly income. This can allow you to prevent a scramble for jobs to pay the bills, giving you some reassurance.

Be cheerful

When you are a freelancer, you are more of a business owner than you are a worker without societal advantages. Believing that I am the CEO of my very own little company helped me to understand my areas of activity and to focus my energy on what ultimately matters most for a company: to create value and to create revenue.

As a freelancer, you are responsible for the entire value chain from lead generation and earnings, to operations and bookkeeping, to client service and overall strategic direction of the business enterprise. Letting one of the places slip your attention for too long may lead you into a critical situation that affects your existence. That is both the beauty and the problem of being a freelancer.

Customer acquisition is crucial to maintain your pipeline of jobs filled. When you start out as a freelancer (or better) , spend 80-90% of your time coming potential clients. A possible client is everybody on somebody that may know somebody that could purchase your services or your community that could purchase your services. Strategy them through email, through social networks ( no, not only Facebook but LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora, your site, Medium and others) or at networking events. Talking to folks about you and what you do is crucial. For freelancers, a random conversation with a new client can turn battle, self-doubt and existential fear in an great opportunity. I try to spend on client acquisition at the once weekly.

Make Smart

Since you’re now competing with millions of freelancers in the market, you have to be at the cutting edge and tap into your creative soul. This should come naturally, as your skill set is currently unique. Your task starts with establishing your providers along with your profile.

Don’t attempt to copy the web pages of different freelancers. You should, nevertheless, study your competitors carefully, attempt to understand how your offering is different and operate on your distinctive selling points. As an independent employee, there is absolutely no boss to dictate what you need to do, and there aren’t any brand guidelines which determine the manner of your demonstration. It is all about your wisdom, your talents and your ability. Take a bit of paper and draw out the idea of your support you are producing for your clientele and how you can communicate this that you do.

When looking for new jobs, attempt to approach the job from a different perspective. Instead of thinking of how you can find companies which are looking to operate with a freelancer, then approach companies which are currently looking for somebody to take on tasks. They’re just not aware however that their best choice is really a freelancer — you!

Be Determined

All of the love of operating from home with all the kitty on your lap aside, by now it probably happened to you that being a freelancer is mainly running a little business with one being the CEO, COO, CTO, CMO, CFO and most interns. There’s likely one principle which most freelancers will agree on: you have to hustle. As running a startup with multiple people filling several roles, running your freelance business is a marathon with euphoric moments and stretches of both despair and helplessness.

And when the latter comes, you have to be ready. Before making the choice to freelance, think carefully about why you want to do it and examine how operational your motivation is. Personally, I do not think you should freelancer for any other motive than private and/or expert development (which may also mean financial advancement naturally but mathematically speaking it usually means the opposite, at least at the start).

A development mindset is a fantastic tool which I found very helpful when running behind prospects for days without shutting even one of these. Even though the financial component of tough patches in a freelancer’s life is extremely troublesome, the toughest of all may be the emotional effects of the rejection. Don’t have a “no” for the evaluation of your abilities and self-worth. Carol Dweck’s theory of adjusted vs. growth mindsets assisted me to understand the inspirational losses I had been experiencing when facing long phases of success. I developed a healthier approach to difficult scenarios and watched them as a opportunity to learn and grow.

Don’t Prove yourself

Since I already mentioned previously, you are a part of a worldwide growing group of people who confront similar challenges. Join with this group. Other freelancers know the challenges you are going through because they’ve been around and know a couple war tricks which you may use for your battles.

So, place and befriend some freelancers. Furthermore, just as with each other challenging situation, one of the most essential tools to keep you going is friends and loved ones. Even though they may not understand every one your challenges, they’ll support you no matter what.

A Great reputation travels farther than your job

There’s not anything more significant than to show there is a real man behind the title. As an instance, I provide assistance and information to a few creatives, giving them honest advice about how to proceed with their professions.   You are interested in being approachable and friendly when you give an impression on other people’s work. A fantastic reputation travels farther than the campaign that’s history six months later.

You will work with surprising clients

My most memorable highlights involve meeting great people and clients. Everyone has a different story to tell and each project is different.

Rotate your clients

When you quit working for a normal client, you think it’s the end of earth. You need to discover a replacement — it could be somewhat anxious at first. But you want to rotate your clients to be certain to keep producing great work. New clients always come.

Look after your wellbeing

A huge lesson I’ve heard is to look after your health and wellbeing. I am an all-or-nothing individual and that I can easily spend my entire seven-day week working 18 hours each day. Sooner or later you will crack and need twice the opportunity to completely recover.

The goal posts are moving…

I think any creative individual — especially those responsible for steering the jobs — must be a great deal more flexible than ever before. We want extra abilities that move beyond the work name, in addition to unparalleled understanding to make a project and its final result bulletproof.

Be ready to evolve — fast

You have to be ready to be versatile and ready to evolve at speed. I’ve seen people fresh out of uni with one undeveloped illustration style wondering why they need a second job at a coffee shop. Trends and styles come and go. You have to be compatible — but without losing your soul.

Be transparent with your clients

As a freelancer, then your company is just you running it inside out. That. Be the title and face of your company, because your company is you.

From a client’s perspective, if I were to employ you to present a service, I’d want to know who I am giving my money. Be sure to inject who you are into your own brand. You can shape that you’d like, however, the key is to be more personable.

Also be in conversing with them, transparent. Describe just how your process works, if they’re going to employ you. Show your curiosity about their company and thembreak down what they can expect by working with you step-by-step. This helps build confidence and trust and may be what seals the deal at a project.

Compose, write, write

This is definitely the most important suggestion I can give one to take your freelancing and that is to write. I do not care if you do not think you are a good writer. Writing is your doorway to getting your name out there, having clients find you, and also to really grow yourself as freelancer and a person.

Personally, I do not think I am a writer that is fantastic, and you can imagine how I felt about my writing. It comes with practice. I owe everything I’ve achieved to my own writing.

Concentrate on the today

So that that you do not trip whilst looking at the ending 14, watch your feet. Exactly where you wish to be one day, so focus on what you can do now to end up there, you know. On envying the ones they hope to be many freelancers get hung up.

If you would like to get a trusted client base, a product which may help enhance your income, or if you do not need to have to rely on one client to make a living, then what are you doing today to make that happen?

Make a list with tasks which you can easily finish by the end of the day to day. Progress is progress, and the more quickly you will get there if you start taking it one step at a time on your objectives.

Divide your income for taxes and savings

Then start dividing savings and your income if you are seriously interested in freelancing. For each dollar I earn that is business I split it up

12% of Business (for business-related expenses)

16 percent of Business Taxes (this can save my bum when it comes tax period)

12% of Personal Savings

What’s left goes into my own checking for living costs

It is what works for me, although I am not saying that this is the way split and to handle your financing. What’s significant here is putting a minimum of 16 percent of each dollar. It is the idea of an employer. You will then use this savings to cover what is due when it comes tax time. (I recommend paying quarterly, and that means you are not dealt one big payment in April.)

Financial Truth

Unless you are on a contract, there is no paycheque. This will make it difficult to plan you are business and personal financing. Consider using a mortgage! Smoothing out the typical boom and bust payment arrangement is vital.

Boost your prices

I met a possible client that, after agreeing to hire me, stated, “I nearly did not call you, you are too cheap to be really very good at what you do.” That piece of honesty that is rare had a huge effect on me. How much business had I lost this manner?

‘Boost your prices’ is information which you will hear a great deal, but it can be hard to put this into actions. The understandable fear is you will price yourself from work. You will. However, there are two things

Will increasing your prices really bring you more enquiries?

Is your job which you will lose out on the sort of work which you would like?

I’d indicate that the answers are no more and yes. An increase in the amount of quality prospects, although in my experience I’ve noticed a drop off at the complete amount of people. This usually means I spend time on the ‘is it possible to build me Facebook for 500’ more and enquiries time on the endeavors with budgets.

Then everybody loses, if you are competing on price . You are going to end up being stressed and resentful of their budget, and your client is going to be disappointed by the dashed job. In addition, your portfolio will never have anything decent in it, so therefore making it tough to entice the clients.

You are now an expert in your niche, which means that your prices should reflect that.

Think about just how much you must earn as an expert and work out your prices from that point.

Don’t feed the monster

Low-budget function leads to garbage. O touched this cycle earlier. There’s somewhat more to it.

The idea behind this is that you would not get to the stage where you had to have work. You have been there. The end of your project is coming and you’ve got nothing lined up. There appears A project on your inbox. The funding is tight and your project isn’t well thought out, but you’ve got bills to pay so that you take it.

The project proves to be worse than you ever envisioned. It drags on and you have long since lost any kind of gain. To make matters worse, while you’re at the center of it your dream client calls with a project starting next week. You need to turn it down.

You could have obtained that dream job if you may have held out without a work.

OK, so perhaps your dream job would not have come together. The point is however that it is worth it to be picky. You won’t acquire work.

The client isn’t necessarily wrong

This ‘clients are almost always incorrect’ mindset is a dangerous one. The client is becoming out of control. I believe that it’s time.

YOU are the web developer/design (or alternative industry) specialist. You have to be directing the process. Including  structuring the project in a manner in which the client ‘buys in’ into the decisions, and controlling the sort of feedback which you receive.

Conclusion

Freelancing is a great way to follow your enthusiasm and make a living, however, there are differences between outsourcing fulltime and working for private enterprises. The great news is that most have walked in your mind on how to be a successful freelancer, and there is a wonderful deal of information out there — and what you can do in order to get the absolute most.

As a freelancer, then is a whole lot of information on the market, especially in the web market. Before, some may be new, you will most likely have heard a few of the tips. They’re not the greatest, or most significant, they are the ones which have left a positive difference in my own career. I am hoping they can work for you.

By recognizing that the common regions that freelancers have a tendency to discover challenging, and creating solutions which enable you to overcome these barriers, you are going to really help yourself dive into the pool as a freelance specialist and emerge ahead.

Above tips aren’t be-all and the end-all for freelancing, but I really wish I understood these if I got started. I’ve seen some development, since I’ve put these suggestions in my work process, and that I hope you were able to pick at at some value.

Source

How To Become A Successful Freelancer?- Part 3

from Sandiego jobs on demand http://www.sandiegojobsondemand.com/the-way-to-become-a-freelancer-part-3/

[junker-town]

Arsenal vs. Leicester was a terribly played and absolutely beautiful Premier League opener

Seven-goal thrillers beat perfectly executed soccer any day.

It’s been nearly a decade since the Premier League was the best soccer league on earth. Year after year, its teams are shown up on the continent. But the unrestrained speed and ambition that Premier League teams play with is what makes the league the world’s most popular sports entertainment product, and that ethos was perfectly encapsulated in Friday’s league opener between Arsenal and Leicester City.

Arsenal’s record signing Alexandre Lacazette scored after just two minutes. Shinji Okazaki equalized two minutes after that. Leicester took the lead, then Arsenal equalized, then Leicester regained the lead. That inspired Arsene Wenger to make three crucial substitutions; all of the players who came off the bench contributed to the Gunners’ comeback and eventual 4-3 win.

The game was, by the standards of any coach or calcio connoisseur, bad soccer. Arsenal and Leicester were both truly amateurish in their set piece defending. But good soccer is boring; poorly executed, borderline unprofessional soccer is much more fun. And it doesn’t get any more fun than what we got to watch on Friday night.

What on earth is this Arsenal defense?

Wondering how the Gunners conceded three times at home? Once you see this lineup, it will not be surprising! Through a combination of factors — injuries, a suspension and bad transfer strategy — Arsenal fielded this defense on Friday night.

It’s time… for the first time this @premierleague season, here’s our team #AFCvLCFC http://pic.twitter.com/JRbPWYQKTo

— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) August 11, 2017

If you are unfamiliar with these players, Rob Holding is a young player with about half a season’s experience, Monreal is a left back who has played some emergency central defense, and Kolasinac is very much an attacking left wingback who has probably never played central defense in his life.

The result was bad spacing like this.

And bad set piece defending like this.

This defense, incredibly, got wackier in the second half. With Arsenal down a goal, Wenger brought on Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey, shifting into a back four in the process. With Holding coming off, that four-man defense featured no actual central defenders.

Arsenal reshuffle means they now have a midfielder at right-back, a right-back at left-back and two left-backs at centre-back.

— Tom Williams (@tomwfootball) August 11, 2017

Arsenal somehow defended better after making this switch. Still, Wenger will be hoping he can play Per Mertesacker and Shkrodan Mustafi next week.

The comeback was incredible

Wenger’s substitutions were unorthodox, and his team looked doomed to get eaten up by Leicester’s potent counter-attack. A partnership of Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey doesn’t do much to stop the ball in midfield, which could have been a huge problem with the defense behind them. Alexandre Lacazette — the Gunners’ club-record signing who scored two minutes into his Premier League debut — was pushed to the left wing.

Against a Leicester team on top of its game, Arsenal probably would have been outplayed. But thankfully for Arsenal (and fans who had no dog in the fight), Week 1 is essentially an extension of preseason. And Leicester, like their opponent, was not ready to defend wave after wave of set pieces.

The equalizer came off a second ball in after a corner. Leicester defenders lost sight of Aaron Ramsey, who was left wide open thanks to a pick by his fellow substitute Theo Walcott.

Just two minutes later, the winner. Once again, someone scored from a corner. This one was a bit more conventional, and it came from Olivier Giroud, a man who scores a lot of these big late-game goals with his head despite constant criticism of his finishing.

Emirates Stadium erupted. The same fans who were mocking Arsene Wenger and booing bad touches just five minutes earlier were suddenly cheering louder than they had at any point in the previous season. From utter despair to optimism in the blink of an eye.

This game was the best the Premier League has to offer. It showcased why the highest level of soccer isn’t always the best soccer. And it was an absolutely perfect opening match.

[ardigtalmedia-blog]

AdWords and AdSense Affect SEO Rankings h5

AdWords and AdSense Affect SEO Rankings?

 Every business at some point will want to advertise and in this Age Digitally makes sense.

You may disagree now – preferring other alternatives like blogging, online networking, or even simple word-of-mouth – but ads are still effective in grabbing an audience’s attention today.

You have plenty of options when it comes to advertising: from TV ads to billboard displays.

However, one thing you should really invest on is online advertising – starting with AdWords. Additionally, for those Publishers who wanted for a share of profit they can partner with Google’s AdSense to help spread relevant ads.

ADWORDS VS. ADSENSE: THE DIFFERENCE

To put it simply: AdWords serves up the ads for the advertiser (that’s you!), while AdSense distributes the ads to relevant places on the Web or placed by publisher on his niche blog and etc.

Back in ancient times, marketers hardly had a choice if they wanted to promote their products or services. Traditional options such as TV, radio, print, or display advertising are often too expensive. Thus, smaller businesses had to rely on positive reviews and word-of-mouth while they scrape enough funds for real publicity.

Times have changed since then.AdWords and AdSense by Google has become a complementary parts of Google’s advertising program.

AdWords is a program designed FOR BUSINESSES or called as Advertisers so they can create and control their own ads. These are displayed on Google search results (SERP), partner websites with AdSense, or the Google Display network. You can opt to pay based on per thousand impressions on your ad (known as CPM) OR per click (more commonly called CPC).

A popular misconception with AdWords is that your ad will appear #1 on search results. That’s NOT true. Google displays ads based on its relevance to a user’s query. In the above example, we typed in ‘SEO in Los Angeles’ and got several ads related to our search. These appeared at the top or the right-hand side. AdWords is great if you want to focus on local

SEO or boost brand awareness in your locality.

AdSense on the other hand, is FOR PUBLISHERS (site owners, bloggers, etc.) who want to make money from their content. They must first signup and submit their website to Google for approval. After which they will receive a code to display related ads. They earn a percentage of what the advertiser pays to Google each time someone clicks an ad on their website.

If you’re new to AdSense, please take the time to review their guidelines and best practices.

While Google encourages maximum exposure and suggests you put one ad above the fold, they highly advise against misleading users. Avoid deceptive labels, or mimicking your site’s formatting so it doesn’t look like ads.

Ads are ads and should stay that way. In fact, they should be labeled as Advertisements or Sponsored Links so as to avoid confusion.

CAN I USE ADWORDS AND ADSENSE TOGETHER?

Good question.

While it’s not prohibited, it can be a bad thing if used for the wrong reasons.

For example: say you have a digital marketing blog that offers news, tips, and commentary about everything related to search and online branding. However, you’re not getting much money despite running AdSense. So you decide to use AdWords to drive more traffic to your site. Bad move.

Google employs stricter rules when it comes to people who want to manipulate their system. In general, putting AdSense on your landing page is NOT allowed. Also, aggressively placing ads or using irrelevant keywords in AdWords can get you banned. Instead of contemplating on how to use both together, focus your efforts on how to maximize one service to reach your goal.

I HAVE ADSENSE AND ADWORDS. DO I STILL NEED SEO?

Here’s the thing: even if you are already running AdWords or AdSense, you should still perform search engine optimization strategies to cater to organic rankings. Why? People choose organic results 94 percent of the time than ads. If you’re not on the first page of Google (or other search engines), don’t expect to get as much traffic or clicks.

If you currently have an SEO campaign but want to start an AdWords or AdSense project, go ahead. It will NOT affect your organic rankings whatsoever. In a digital marketing sense, these two campaigns are actually different. So if you run both, you’ll need to measure two progress reports and look at two varied results.

 AdWords and SEO

The guys at Media Two Interactive conducted an experiment on this theory and came up with a pretty interesting outcome. During the first 8 weeks, they implemented an AdWords only campaign. On the following 8 weeks, they turned to SEO. After 16 weeks, they found out that their target site still received positive amount of traffic – even when the AdWords campaign was turned off.

Why is that? SEO tactics help us reach out to specific audiences through relevant keywords, content, and customized social media interaction. Google’s system recognizes this as a smart targeting approach and rewards websites accordingly.

Important Note! Just because you’re an AdWords customer doesn’t mean you’ll get preferential treatment .

AdSense and SEO

What about AdSense? Won’t Google prefer your website because technically, you’re a partner and you’re helping them generate more income? On the contrary, bad AdSense practices can lower your rankings. For example: if you’re running AdSense on your pages and you basically filled them with ads, there’s a good chance you won’t rank as high because users won’t engage with your content.

No one likes ‘in-your-face’ promotion – and search engines know this. Stick with the proper AdSense guidelines and continue ethical SEO efforts to reap optimum results. If you happen to get suspended or banned, don’t despair. As mentioned, AdSense campaigns are treated separately from SEO; so you will still rank regardless of what happens to your account.

WHICH IS BETTER: PPC OR SEO?

 That would depend on your business goal. Are you aiming to boost brand awareness or to get more sales?

Digital marketing experts (myself included) recommend utilizing both PPC and SEO campaigns. However, there are instances when either one would work better. For example: if you’re a start-up, you may want to go into PPC first to increase awareness for your brand. PPC can reach more audiences in a day (when done right) because ads are placed on relevant places on the Web.

On the other hand, if you’re aiming for long-term results, it’s best to switch to SEO. Search engine optimization combines links, social media, content, and mobile experience to help websites rank on SERP. Over time – even after the campaign is over – you will see that all efforts are paying well in terms of traffic.

CPC Strategy has an awesome infographic that explains these two concepts well:

Siteber recently created aninfographic that highlights the benefits and disadvantages of SEO and PPC:

 HOW CAN I LEVERAGE BOTH?

Although these services DO NOT directly affect your organic rankings doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give them the time of day. You could opt to launch either an AdWords campaign to complement your SEO efforts. It’s your choice.

Phil Frost from Main Street ROI suggests running AdWords before starting SEO so you’ll know which keywords would be profitable. Aaron Wall from SEO Book on the other hand, recommends integrating on- and offline marketing techniques to get the most bang for your buck. Big brands such as Go Daddy and Budweiser have been doing this year in and year out as they compete for attention during Super Bowl ads.

CONCLUSION

Whether you will use AdWords or AdSense, bear in mind that it all boils down to WHAT you want to achieve online and remember it does not affect your online rankings, therefore use it accordingly. The reason why most businesses fail is because they were not clear about their goals. Write them down, be specific, and talk to a professional about your plans (when necessary).

Many SEO services these days offer free consultations, so do take advantage of that.

Written & Taken,from Al GomezFounder SEO EXPERT PA

[unanimousblogposts256]

9 Killer SEO Tips and Tricks Worth $1K or More

The world’s best online businesses do two things really well:

First, they put huge amounts of time and effort into dominating search engine results.

Second, they offer unique, convincing sales pitches to their new visitors.

But you’re probably thinking:

“How do I dominate search engine results?”

If you’re a small fish in a big pond, it can seem impossible – but don’t despair.

I’m going to share with you the 9 SEO tips and tricks our experts use every day to rank small businesses at the top of their industries. And I’m also going to include the estimated lifetime value of these tweaks.

Hint: you might be surprised how much money you can make from a small change.

1. Get a Google Plus page.

Estimated Lifetime Worth: $20,000 [Whoa – why is that number so big?]

Google+ isn’t a very popular social network in comparison to Facebook – but that doesn’t matter.

It has incredible SEO value – and for just one reason:

When you connect your Google+ page to your website, your face is shown next to all of your search engine results.

33% of people click on the top result of Google. Why? Because it’s the easiest to click on. It shows up first, and likely has a catchy enough headline to be interesting. Why not give it a click?

But when you add faces into the mix, that all changes. Take a look at this:

 Moz.com might be ranked 3rd, but look at that face! That’s a clickable result.

Here’s how you can make that happen:

Step 1. You need a Google+ account. If you don’t yet have one, get one now.

Step 2. Go to your Google+ profile, and click About->Links->Edit

Step 3. Go to the “Contributor to” section, and add a link to your website. This tells Google that you write articles for that website, which will allow them to include your face in search results.

Step 4. Make sure you have a Google+ profile picture – and make sure that it is a photo of your face. Only face pictures are allowed, and Google can tell what is/isn’t a face (they’re very wise).

Step 5. – Verification. In order to prove to Google that you’re the real owner of your site, you need to put a link to your Google+ profile somewhere on your website. Hint: you should add this to the bottom of all of your pages (ex. “Join us on Google+”).

And that’s it! Within a few weeks, you should see your face popping up in search results.

 2. Get a Google Places page.

Estimated Lifetime Worth: $10,000

If you’ve read a little bit about SEO, you’ve probably heard one word over and over:

Local, local, local.

Google is moving more and more towards local search, and most people don’t know how local SEO works: that means you have a huge opportunity.

And the best part is: this SEO trick will work even if your main business site ranks terribly in search engines.

Here’s an example:

Local results show above most regular results – regardless of how good the actual website is.

So how do your improve your Google Places ranking? It’s actually pretty simple:

1. Make sure you have more positive reviews than your competitors do

Any time you have a chance at a testimonial, make sure it gets posted to your page. Most businesses have no idea about this, and have NO reviews. Even 5-6 good-star reviews may be enough to secure a top spot

2. Make sure your address is posted on your website, and on as many social media sites as possible

Each time Google can pair your business name with your business address, it means you’re more likely to be located at that address (these are called “citations”).

The best way to get more citations is to sign up for social media accounts like Yelp, Angie’s List, and any other site that will allow you to list your address. It’s that simple!

Pretty easy, right?

And since the Google+ page is unrelated to how your site is ranked – you can get top rankings fast, even if your site isn’t doing so well.

QUICK PIT STOP: How are we getting these estimated value numbers?

We’re guesstimating, a bit – but these are very close to profit numbers we see for all of the businesses we work with. How?

A well-performing SEO page can bring in several new customers each week. Doesn’t sound like much, right? When you add it all up, it’s pretty impressive.

With a $100 product, if a page brings you 1 sale a week, that’s $5,200 a year. When you start crafting several pages at a time, you’ve got an impressive income stream on your hands. That’s the power of search, and that’s why SEO tips and tricks like these can be so valuable.

 3. Check your internal link structure.

Estimated Lifetime Worth: $10,000

Backlinks from other websites are a big part of any SEO strategy – but that’s not the only type of link that makes a difference.

Links on your own pages make a difference, too – and a small shift can do wonders for improving your rankings.

1. Choose a poorly performing page on your site 2. Drive more links to it on your other pages

Also, Google rewards pages that are what they say they are. Each page’s content should match its title and keywords as well as possible (this is especially important for eCommerce stores like Shopify).

4. Make sure you’re speaking Google’s language

Here’s a quick checklist to make sure all of your pages are Google-friendly.

1. Are your main headings in <H1> tags? 2. Are your subheadings in <H2> and <H3> tags? 3. Does the title of your page contain your keywords? 4. Does the main heading on the page contain your keywords?

5. Do competitive research, and don’t be afraid to steal.

Est. Lifetime Value: $15,000+

Most business owners make one huge SEO mistake when they’re first starting out:

They try to do everything from scratch.

But why reinvent the wheel when you have an excellent model for how to rank highly in your niche: your top competitors.

I’m going to show you how to profitably spy on their SEO habits, and you won’t believe how easy it can be.

Note: this is only for websites that are ranking poorly in search engines.

Step #1:

Do me a favor. Type in a popular keyword phrase for your niche, and see who the top three or four results are.

Click on one of their websites, and look at it closely.

Take note of the structure of the page. What does their headline say? How long is their text? Do they have lots of links in the text of the page?

Now comes the important part: we copy what they’re doing. Not the text of their site, of course, but the structure.

Make sure your page has approximately the same word count (preferably longer), contains the same keywords, has a very similar heading, and a similar title tag, too.

Important: Do NOT steal the text/content from their pages. Google knows all and will penalize your site!

Find the most successful of your competitors, and take notes on everything. What is their text like? What is the tone like? How about their layout? Title tags? What makes the site good? What about their color scheme?

Don’t be afraid to copy. Some of the biggest websites you see are probably there because someone knew how to copy someone else.

By the time you are starting to see some more traffic, you should have a better idea of how to really make it yours.

Within a few weeks, you should see an improvement in your rankings. It’s not a permanent strategy, but it’s a great way to launch your site and start getting real traffic.

5. Make a few videos and put them on YouTube.

Est Lifetime Value: $1,000

Google loves to rank Youtube videos highly.

In fact, videos are 50x more likely to show up on the 1st page of Google vs. traditional text pages.

Even if your website isn’t hitting the front page, your YouTube video just might.

So how do you get your video to rank on the first page of Google?

1. The more views, comments and likes the better 2. A video title that matches the keywords you’re looking to rank for 3. A reasonably long video (usually 5 minutes or longer)

Make something entertaining, interesting, or really useful – something sharable.

6. Write ‘definitive guides’ to things.

Estimated lifetime value: $5k per effective guide (that is not an exaggeration, either)

Want to know a secret that SEO professionals discovered a long time ago?

The secret to getting a lot of backlinks to your site is: Make your site irresistibly informative.

And almost nothing is as informative as a how-to guide. Especially one that’s authoritative, and easy to use as a reference.

If you can manage to write something truly useful, people will share your guide. Write a “Bible to…” something, or “The Encyclopedia of…”. Make it sound authoritative.

If you can manage to offer something that’s not found anywhere else, then your chances are even better of getting some shares and thus traffic.

 7. Claim your free backlinks.

Estimated lifetime value: $1,000

Some SEO tips and tricks are tough to wrap your head around, this one’s a no-brainier.

Sound Cloud and various other web platforms allow you to link to your website from a profile, and yes, these do count toward your back links.

Not as much as, say, a link from Harvard or Sony, but any little bit counts. Sometimes a few little back links like that can push you up a page on Google’s search results.

You can find a list of 17 platforms that allow you to link to your website here

8. Steal back links from your competitors.

Estimated lifetime value: $2,000

will be really helpful, because you can check where your competitors are getting their back links, among other things.

It’s not a bad idea to try to get to know the owners of those websites linking to your competitors.

Sometimes a little interest in what someone else is doing can go a long way. Introduce yourself to website owners.

Tell them how much you like their new articles about selecting a lawnmower or about how Facebook is ruining civilization as we know it, or whatever. A little praise can go a long way. Then ask for a link.

You might hear no or nothing at all a few times before you hear yes, but don’t get discouraged.

9. Connect with bloggers in your niche on social media.

Estimated lifetime value: $1k per successful relationship

Building on the last tip, reach out to bloggers who would find you relevant. Introduce yourself.

Give them some commentary on what they do. Once again, show interest.

If you can manage to get some people writing about you, it can be a huge asset to your business.

The catch is that this is probably the most time-consuming and difficult step. It can take weeks or months to get some bloggers to care. Reserve this one for after you’ve done the other

[lenaglittleus]

The Difference Between Active and Passive Eating

We all know that breaking old habits is tough. I had a hard time getting back into the habit of exercising daily after I’d let it slip away, citing the hectic, energy-sapping lifestyle of a chef as the culprit and rationalizing my lack of motivation with excuses like, “I’m on my feet all day at work. That’s all the exercise I need.”

The truth was, I was fooling myself, and as time went on, I felt the effects: lower energy, higher stress, an expanding waistline, stiff joints, just to name a few. At first I thought I needed more rest, but that wasn’t it. The answer was more activity, good activity, the kind that gets your heart pumping and stretches and tones your muscles.

So, I started doing my sister’s program, 21 Day Fix. The first few weeks were brutal. I couldn’t keep up, had to modify often, felt drained afterward and had a hard time being on my feet when I was working. I thought about quitting because it felt like my lifestyle couldn’t support this much energy expenditure, but I had committed to 21 days and I was going to give it a chance.

Man, am I glad I did. By week three my body seemed to get the message: it was going to have to keep up. The soreness started to subside. It was there, but in a good way. My energy level shot up, and I found myself feeling much lighter on my feet while working. I was focused, had less stress, and was sleeping like a bear (something that had eluded me for quite some time, and which I’d also been blaming on the stress at work).

Looking back on it now, that two-week struggle seems so tiny in comparison to all the benefits I’ve been reaping since, and I’ve learned something, or perhaps re-learned something about perspective. In a very short period of time, a thing that had seemed so daunting was transformed into something I woke up looking forward to. The 30-minute workouts I’d derided as “feeling like an hour” suddenly had me saying, “wait, I’m done already?”

What had changed? Sure, my body had grown stronger. The body is an amazing machine, and the transformations it’s capable of with just a few weeks of dedicated exercise are remarkable, but it was more than that. Not only had my body accepted the change, my mind had embraced it as well. I had fought through the inevitable failures, uncovered untapped capacities, and through committed repetition I’d begun to succeed. The success was euphoric, and it brought me back for more. In short, I’d formed a new habit.

I’m sure many of you have committed to at least one of Beachbody’s many, fun and effective exercise programs, so you know the kind of change I’m talking about. That’s why I’m writing to say that the struggle, the inevitable failures, the perseverance and euphoria of uncovered potential, all the agony and ecstasy of lifestyle change doesn’t end with your workouts. I’ve heard Autumn say “You can’t out exercise a bad diet” so many times it’s become a kind of mantra.

Research suggests that what you put into your body isn’t just as important as your exercise, it’s more important! If you want to transform your body and improve your overall health and well-being, what you eat is more important than how often you work out, and that means shifting from passive eating to active eating. In short, it’s time, once again, to form a new habit.

What Is Passive Eating?

What do I mean by passive eating? Passive eating is when take what’s put in front of us and put it into our bodies without asking questions.

Let’s look at how we got to passive eating. World War II saw massive advances in the industrial production of foods of convenience. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers needed rations, and that meant food had to be produced quickly and cheaply. It had to be non-perishable and ready-to-eat. While all of this was great for the war effort, it wasn’t so great when that approach was transferred to the home front.

Once the war ended, the market highly-processed convenience food dried up, and the companies that made turned to the average American. And while they did save people time and money, it was at the expense of our nation’s health and well-being. Here we are, 72 years later, fighting another war, the war on obesity. Our nation is suffering from alarming rates of not only obesity, but all its related degenerative diseases. Heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, you name it. Many experts believe it can be traced back to our modern diet, riddled with salt, sugar, saturated fats, and preservatives and stripped of so much of its natural fiber and nutrients, served up in ridiculous portion sizes that are totally out of balance.

The 80’s saw a so-called food revolution, with food-processing companies marketing new “healthier” versions of the same old junk food. The formulas were simple, take the fat out and replace it with sugar and call it “fat-free.” Or take the sugar out, replace it with a manufactured, indigestible chemical and call it “sugar-free.” But America’s health kept declining and its waistline kept growing. What’s worse, we got discouraged. It seemed there was no point in trying. You could hear it in people’s expressions, “Everything gives you cancer,” “It’s all gonna kill you eventually”; it’s easy to fall into despair when you try to change for the better only to find out you’ve been duped. But there is an answer, and it’s really quite simple: America needs to get cooking again.

How to Take a More Active Approach to Your Diet

There’s only one way to really know what’s going into your body and that’s to prepare it yourself, but just like it doesn’t take hours a day in the gym to get in shape, it shouldn’t take hours in the kitchen to prepare a healthy, balanced, unprocessed, whole-food-based meal.

You do, however, have to commit to the process of cooking. Like Autumn always says, “If you want something you’ve never had, you’re going to have to do something you’ve never done.” Sure, there’s rice in the supermarket that’s ready to eat in five minutes, but there’s not much left in it that’s worth eating anymore.

That can of soup is pretty convenient, but have you read the list of ingredients? If the first ingredient after water is corn syrup, it’s not soup, it’s hot tomato candy. Gross! Everything is better when it’s homemade, even if you’ve never cooked before. With a little guidance, a little time, a healthy dose of commitment and some tolerance for failure early on, even if you’ve thought of yourself as a “terrible cook.” you can learn to make healthy, delicious, homemade meals that don’t take all day in the kitchen or empty your wallet.

Autumn and I firmly believe in that truth, and it’s our experience of that reality that lead us to create Fixate. It’s not like a lot of cooking shows that are designed mostly for entertainment and “food-porn,” where people watch and say, “that looks good,” but rarely make any of the recipes. We wanted a show that’s practical, that would help real people on real schedules prepare their meals on a regular basis.

Just like Beachbody’s realistic and achievable approach to physical fitness has helped millions of people change their perspective on exercise, unlock their potential and move from a passive to an active lifestyle, our cooking show is designed to give you those same results in the kitchen. It just requires a reasonable amount of commitment, perseverance, and patience to achieve results that will pay you back ten-fold.

I’d like to wrap up by saying one more thing. Autumn always talks about how you shouldn’t treat your workouts as something to just get through. Rather, you should see them as a moment you take out of your busy day to spend some time on you, a moment to leave the stress behind and enjoy some well-deserved self-care.

It’s exactly the same with cooking. Preparing a healthy dish with the natural, whole ingredients that nature intended is a beautiful thing. It’s a moment to focus on you, on nourishing your body and your soul, to connect with and be grateful for the gifts that nature has provided. Grasp it, indulge in it, for that moment let the worries of the day slip away. Be in the moment and let the outcome take care of itself, and you’ll find yourself not only preparing healthy, delicious, successful dishes, but also looking forward to the next one.

from News About Health https://www.beachbody.com/beachbodyblog/nutrition/active-vs-passive-eating