Did you know as of April 11, 2007 there was no longer a need to manually submit your sitemap to search engines? Last fall, the major search engines agreed on a sitemaps format. You can now add a simple line to your robots.txt file and let the engines know where your sitemap document resides on your site.

Just include the following line in your robots.txt file and you should be all set:
Sitemap: http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

Robots.txt has traditionally been used in a more prohibitive fashion - by telling search engine spiders where not to go on your site. This latest sitemaps implementation of robots.txt however is telling the spiders where TO go.

Remember, sitemaps are important and in the long run will help improve your website visibility in search results.

If none of this makes any sense to you - don't sweat it - just pass it on to your webmaster!

via Jayde

Yesterday I was trying to combine two audio recordings using the free downloadable software called Audacity. I knew I had done something wrong when I played my audio and got the "Alvin the chipmunk" problem.

What's that? If you grew up watching 1960s TV cartoons you'll know who Alvin the Chipmunk is. Otherwise, let me explain. Alvin the Chipmunk was this character who talked so fast that he was unintelligible. And really annoying.

So how to solve the Alvin the Chipmunk problem? I know enough about audio editing to figure out that it must have something to do with the bit rate (that one of the recordings was at a different bit rate speed). But try as I might, I couldn't figure out how to adjust it correctly.

Enter the ever helpful Audacity support team and forum. I sent a question and received this reply within an hour. Wow! What great service. And I think it's all volunteers, unless I'm mistaken.

Gale Andrews wrote:

Say you have an mp3 recording and you want to cut several minutes out of it, or you want to remove some of the "ums" and "you knows". Sound difficult? Not at all. It's actually pretty straightforward using the free downloadable software called Audacity.

Here's an article that shows visually how to edit audio using Audacity.

If you prefer a written tutuorial on how to edit audio using Audacity, follow these step-by-step instructions written by coach Bob Janes in response to a query on the Coachtalk discussion list.

1. Open Audacity and use File | Open to open the file you want to edit.

2. Go to File | Export as WAV and save the file with a different name so that you don't mess up the original. (NB if you want to save here or later as an MP3 file then you'll need to download the Lame MP3 Encoder from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows and tell Audacity where to find it)

3. In the main window you'll see some wave forms to the right - probably two if it's a stereo recording; to the left of each wave-form is a scale; and to the left of that a box with the file name and some descriptive info.

4. Go into the top left corner of the top wave form and your cursor will turn into an I bar, click close to the start of the wave-form. A vertical line will indicate the point in the wave -form that you clicked.

In Part 3 of my interview with Olympic Champion Lori-Ann Muenzer, we talk about her new book One Gear No Breaks and the documentary of the same name. Lori-Ann was 38 years old when she won a gold medal in cycling at the Athens Olympic Games, and she's overcome many obstacles in her quest for excellence. In addition to her new book and documentary, Lori-Ann has started a motivational speakers business featuring inspiring Canadian women from the sports, music and media industries. Image courtesy of 1GNB, Barney and Oscar films.

Barbra: Lori-Ann, I can’t let you go today without asking you about your book “One Gear, No Breaks.” Tell us about it.

Lori-Ann: That was an amazing experience. Steen Madsen, my coach and training partner is good friends with Karl Wilberg who is one of our best criminal lawyers here in the city (Edmonton). They were talking. He said that Karl probably should write my story because he does a lot of writing in his spare time.

Barbra: and then...?

Lori-Ann: So Karl and I started talking about it. We decided to move forward with that project. It was an incredible experience because after the Olympics I was working, doing speaking, doing appearances plus I was training fulltime and I was racing. On top of that, we were doing the documentary with Karl’s younger brother Chris.

I was spending six to ten hours every week from October until January with Karl. We were writing the book, “One Gear, No Breaks.” So it was an amazing journey because we started off going down this one path.

First Karl cross-examined me, then he interrogated me and then he interviewed me. The reason I say that is he is a criminal lawyer, so he has that courtroom training.

It was incredible. We’d start off at point A and I was thinking this is straight down the road and we’re going to get to point B. Next question we’d start into that question. Well, that wasn’t the case. We’d start off and then I would say something that would tweak him and he’d say, Hold on, we’ve got to back up a little bit. What about this or what were you thinking or what were you feeling? Where in the world were you traveling and how did things go?

This is Part 2 of my interview with Lori-Ann Muenzer, who won a gold medal in cycling at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Recently Lori-Ann retired from competition and she’s written a book and also started a new business. That’s what we’ll be talking about today. Images courtesy of PureMomentum.ca .

Barbra: Did you run into any roadblocks in setting up your business, Lori-Ann?

Lori-Ann:Roadblocks as in which?

Barbra: Let’s see, if I was starting a motivational speakers business, some of the roadblocks that I would run into would be, how do I get in contact with these people or how do I get my message out? Even setting up the website. How did those things go for you?

Lori-Ann: They went pretty well. It's not hard to get women to contact me. There’s not a shortage of that. It’s really getting out and promoting them. Getting the women that are onboard to talk about Pure Momentum, to get people to come to the website or to contact me to potentially book a speaking engagement. I think those are the hardest challenges.

Barbra: So have how you handled that?

Lori-Ann: I think that really comes down to networking, getting out there, being visible, being heard, and just driving the interest to my company, Pure Momentum.

One good thing is that I’ve been in the media for years. I retired at the end of October, so there was a lot of media around that, which was really great, it was really positive. And then just being involved in the community in different events, that really helps. They see you’re in the media again. Whether it’s television, it’s radio, it’s print. I think that really helped.

But of course with having a business it's all about finding the balance. You don’t want to do too much in one area and not enough in the other. Sometimes it seems like a juggling act or sometimes it seems like you’re putting out fires all the time.

Barbra: What has been the biggest help in achieving that balance?

Barbra: This is Barbra Sundquist from www.homebusinesswiz.com. I’m here today with Lori-Ann Muenzer who is a Canadian cycling record holder, two-time Olympian, and gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Lori-Ann has also been at the podium at countless world championships, world cups, and Commonwealth Games.

What’s really inspiring about Lori-Ann is that she was the underdog going into the 2004 Olympic Games and she ended up winning the gold medal in the sprints. Oh, and for anyone who thinks that you have to hang up your dreams when you turn 30, I’ll let you in on just one little detail. Lori-Ann Muenzer was 38 years old when she won that gold medal.

Recently, Lori-Ann retired from competition and she’s written a book and also started a new business. That’s what we’ll be talking about today. Lori-Ann, I’d like to welcome you and tell you that as a fellow Canadian, I remember watching you on television win that gold medal in Athens and it was so inspiring.

Lori-Ann: Awesome. Thank you.

Barbra: I understand that you’ve started a motivational speakers business. Can you tell us about that?

Lori-Ann: As a result of winning the gold medal in Athens in 2004, I had a lot of requests for speaking and appearances, that sort of thing, and from that is where Pure Momentum has grown from.

Barbra: So your motivational speakers business is called "Pure Momentum". I like that!

Lori-Ann: Thanks! I wanted to do something a little bit different, something that hadn’t been done before. Being the mature age of 38 and winning a gold medal, it kind of put things in a little bit different light because a lot of people think or have thought that to be successful or to win a gold medal, it’s usually the younger kids that get to do it. So my business is about what happens when you decide to defy expectations and you do something a little bit different.

Barbra: Tell us more about how your business works.

Ever wonder where the term "freelancing" came from? Collis from North x East explains:

"In medieval times when knights roamed the land and fighting was done on horseback with a long pole known as a lance, the mercenaries of the time were referred to as ‘free lances’.

Today freelancing typically refers to writers, designers, programmers and so on. Freelancers are people who offer their services to employers without a long term commitment to them. They often charge by the hour, day or job and are essentially one person businesses."

Collis provides lots of practical advice about freelancing in A Comprehensive Guide to Starting Your Freelancing Career.
via ProBlogger

Here is an excerpt from Thomas Leonard's article Top Ten Ways to Simplify Your Life. It may seem shocking to the "people pleasers" among us (and I count myself in that group), but boy is it refreshing!

Wean away consuming people!

Part of simplifying is to simplify your personal Rolodex. I've found that it works to identify the 10 most important people in my life and focus on them instead of trying to juggle my very large Rolodex.

The first to 'go' were the people who were perhaps very nice and helpful but who needed me more than I wanted to be needed. Sometimes it's tricky to identify them because they are often very, very special in many ways, but if you're drained after spending time with them, and you can't fix the problem, it's probably time to wean them away. There ARE terrific people you'll be meeting who won't drain you. It's that important.

When Thomas wrote "it's that important", I can't imagine he knew how prescient those words would turn out to be. Thomas J. Leonard died an untimly death four years ago at the age of 47. He was my teacher and mentor, and I still dip into his writing regularly to be reminded of his uncommon wisdom.

Click here to read the entire Top Ten Ways to Simplify Your Life article.