Online Writing Tip: Install the Alexa Traffic Rank Widget in 5 Easy Steps

In an earlier post, I recommended the adding of the Alexa widget in your blog in order to boost your Alexa ratings. While this may not be the only parameter for improving a site's importance in the online community, it will surely have an impact on your blog's Alexa Traffic Rank.

You can install the Alexa widget in 5 easy steps:

1. Go to www.alexa.com's webpage

2. Click Site Tools or type www.alexa.com/siteowners

3. Click the Alexa Site Widgets

4. Choose between Alexa Site Stats Button or Alexa Traffic Rank
Button

5. Copy the html and put it on your site

You will have to wait for about 2 weeks or 1 month before you can see any significant improvement in your ratings. By the way, the Alexa Traffic Rank is regularly updated; hence, you should not be surprised upon seeing the fluctuating figures in those widgets.

Puto and Bibingka from Mahaplag, Leyte

Bibingka and puto are two of Mahaplag's native delicacies. If you happen to reach this part of Leyte, you should give them a try. You will easily spot these rice cakes as vendors sell them on the streets of this little town in Leyte.

Bibingka

Puto

Neatly packed in plastic wrappers, these food products are ideal as pasalubong (homecoming gift) or as baon (snack while on travel).

Enjoy your breakfast with Mahaplag's version of bibingka and puto.

Online Writing Tip: How to Improve Your Blog's Alexa Traffic Rank

Probably, you already know this little secret among bloggers and online writers -- that there's one best way to improve a blog's Alexa traffic rank (TR). If you still don't, then this post is for you.

No, I'll not be talking about back links nor about quality content. Instead, I'm telling you now to put the Alexa widget in your blog. Wait after 2 weeks or 1 month and you will see favorable results for your site. Some bloggers say that this tool makes it easier for Alexa to monitor the traffic coming to your site. Without it, Alexa will not recognize the activities in your blog.

To get a smaller number for your blog is what you should aim for, i.e., if you care about your site's performance. If you don't, it's not really a problem.

It will take a little while before you'll achieve a 6-digit or a 5-digit TR (new blogs usually have 7-digit or 8-digit figures). Google's Alexa rank is 1; Yahoo's rank, 4.

You will notice that after receiving a dramatic change in your blog's TR, it will reach a plateau. I actually had this feeling that my blog would stay forever at 2,443,794, but I was wrong. Now it has a 2,394,919-Alexa TR.

The most important thing for you to do is to take the first step in improving your site's ranking by getting the Alexa Traffic Widget.

Waray Tutorial: The Other Meaning of Pinya

To Filipinos, pinya is generally known as pineapple; however, there is another meaning of pinya that's familiar to Waray speakers. Let's take a look at this folk song I learned from San Roque, Northern Samar.

www.healthprivatecare.com

I

Ako magtatanom sin lemon

Sa iyo libong bayai

An im asawa kay kita

An magpipinya.
II

Ako magtatanom sin lemon

Nga waray dahon

Natudok in maagahon

Naghahanap sin kamatayon.

Loose translation:

I

I will plant a lemon tree

In your backyard.

You leave your husband

So we can be lovers.
II

I will plant a lemon tree

That has no leaves

A lemon tree that grows at dawn

Searching for death.

I recorded the song and uploaded it to youtube. Yes, that's the link to the song. Actually, it has a chorus, but I didn't include it in this post as well as on youtube. Perhaps I will, in the future. Anyway, if you're from Samar or Leyte, you must have heard this song before; hence, you know the part which I omitted. [(Update: You may listen to this song from this link PINYA: A Waray Folk Song (With English Translation)]

To the Warays, pinya may refer to the fruit or to a lover. In Samar, it is common to hear such statements as "Si Maria, pinya ni Mario" (Maria is Mario's lover) or "Magpinya si Maria ngan si Mario" (Maria and Mario are lovers). A couple is magpinya when engaged in an adulterous relationship. They are NOT magpinya if both parties are single and unattached.

Image source

Back to the song: it reflects the playful nature of the Warays and their fondness for symbolism in their language. The last four lines allude to a man's erection and to the sex act. The leafless lemon tree is, apparently, a phallic symbol.