Score!

Regulars to Abarim Publications will have noticed two things. First, we haven't updated our blog in three years, and second, suddenly the main website at www.abarim-publications.com looks super mega snazzy. Believe it or not, one has to do with the other.

Every webmaster is hooked on stats (a website's statistics, such as visitor and pageview counts), but stats can be misleading. Zarathustra only had one convert when he died, but now more than half the world is Zarathustrian or thinks along those lines, and Paul once said that his life would have been worth it if he had made only one convert. Whether Abarim Publications has actually made a convert no one knows, but it's certainly encouraging to see so many people visit us and "like" us (people actually started "liking" our Facebook page, which has been dead for the same three years. We're resurrecting it along with this blog).

This morning I checked our Alexa rank before I could stop myself, and lo and behold, Abarim Publications is among the 100,000 best performing websites in the United States, and among the 300,000 best in the whole world. And to put that somewhat in perspective, there are about 1,000,000,000 registered domain names, of which 25% are active. That means that (1) there are about 250,000,000 active websites in the world, and (2) Abarim Publications belongs to the top 0.2% of best performing websites in the world. We're not exactly the next Facebook, but we have thousands of people reading our stuff every day. And that ain't hay.

Particularly tickling are close to two dozen references to Abarim Publications on Wikipedia on topics ranging from the photoelectric effect to the names Hebron and Rebekah. Also groovy are five books-in-print, which refer to Abarim Publications as one of there sources. Here they are:

• Un-American Activities: Countercultural Themes in Christianity, by Tom and Kim Wilkens (Fairway Press, 2009)
• The Truth about God, 2012-2022 Ascension, and Who We Really Are, by Theresa Talea (iUniverse, 2012)
• The Muslim Discovery of America by Frederick William Dame (BoD, 2013)
• By Faith - Isaac, by Elsa Henderson (WestBow Press, 2013)
• Pilgrimage in the Holy Land: Israel, by Paul John Wigowsky (AuthorHouse, 2013)

One is glad to be of help.

Share buttons: A vote for me is a vote for you

There are several ways through which visitors may land on a site, but visitors to Abarim Publication’s main website largely come through search engines. If someone types in the search string “Chaos Theory” or “Israel meaning,” chances are excellent that they’ll end up reading our articles, but if someone types in “Julia meaning” chances are excellent that they’ll end up at any of the other popular name sites.

From one of those "other"name sites

These other name sites are largely constructed from copying each other over and over, and somewhere at the bottom of it lies one or two old baby-name books that someone, long ago, typed over and turned into a website. And that results in dozens of name-sites that simply list the commonly accepted meaning of a name, without proof or reference or even the slightest hint at how these meanings are formed. And some of them are plain wrong.

At Abarim Publications we painstakingly research the names we translate, delve into etymology and derivation structures. We list texts that use the roots of the name we’re talking about in narrative sentences, and we list possible alternative meanings. In short: our articles are much more informative and much more stimulating.

But someone who types in the search string “Julia meaning” sees an enormous list of websites that all offer articles on the meaning of that name. Search engines keep track of people’s behavior while searching. They check if a person stays on a page or moves right along, whether the person types in the same search string again (indicating that the previously viewed page didn’t satisfy) or goes somewhere else, only to return at that one really good page.

All this helps search engines to determine which page is generally accepted as a better page, and subsequently places this page higher in the search results. And sure enough, our articles on the meaning of Biblical names usually come floating to the top (that means the top 5 in search results) after some time.

But another way to determine how well a page caters to the needs of visitors is by looking at how many times this page is shared on Facebook or any other network. Google has even launched a little +1 button through which visitors can indicate that the page they’re on should be higher up in search results.



Share button scorse of the Biblical Name Vault entry-page



Here at Abarim we humbly believe that our articles serve the needs of searchers much better than those un-articles on other websites. And so we believe that we deserve lots of shares, likes, thumbs-up and plus-ones. We generally dislike shameless self-promotion, or enticement to endorse without quality in return, but we’ve taken the bold step to place a “please click here”-text underneath the submit buttons on all our name-articles. Let’s hope it’ll make a difference. We’ll leave it there for a few weeks to see if there is a positive result. If not, we’ll remove it.

But in the mean time, folks, check out our wonderful Biblical Name Vault and hammer away at those precious buttons!

Carla Anne speaks of the Scarlet Cord

Carla Anne Coroy - a gifted storyteller and teacher with contagious enthusiasm for life - explains what the story of Joshua and Rahab has to do with Easter:

"Hang on! Isn’t the Easter story in the New Testament? Isn’t the Easter story about Jesus? What do Joshua and Rahab have to do with Easter?"

Check out Carla Anne's cheerful blog:

http://www.carlaanne.com/2011/04/the-scarlet-cord/

And Abarim Publications begat Sitelinks

Sitelinks are links to other pages on a website that may appear under the search results of that site. These links are generated automatically, and not all sites have them. A site, you see, has to be groovy and important before Google automatically generates Sitelinks. Apparently, Abarim Publications is doing so well that Google recently generated Sitelinks for us. How groovy.

Genesis 24:2(a) – The Unnamed Servant

Last January, the blog called Pondering Scripture - an Uncommon Commentary, published an exiting survey on the similarities between the work of the Holy Spirit and Eliezer, the trusted friend of Abraham. This crisp and well-written article is well worth having a look at. Find it here:
http://ponderingscripture.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/genesis-242a-the-unnamed-servant/

118118 whts the first line of bible - kgb answers

At the curious site of KGB answers, someone curiously enough, asks: what is the first line of the Bible? One would think that it's easier to Google this conundrum than to post a question about it - and it sadly indicates which degree of Biblical ignorance is common in our world. KGB agent Melissa comes to the rescue and refers the asker to Abarim's article on Genesis 1:1, In The Beginning:

Why Did the US President Pick The Name BARAK?

On the aptly named forums of Lunatic Outpost, someone wonders why Barak Obama picked the name Barak, as his real name is Barry. Member Mia comes to the rescue with a link to Abarim's article on the name Barak. One can only hope that this quenches the argument.

Why do/have a lot of Catholics leave/left the Catholic church ...

On Yahoo Answers someone posts the question: why do so many Catholics leave the church. The winning answer is:

Most likely? They never truly learned what the Church taught and offers.
If they really understood what the Church is, and what she gives; they never would have left her.

One of the losing answers is a raving paragraph on the mysteries of quantum mechanics, teleporting and an infinite amount of universes. And of course, this person believes that religion is bunk, the universe is random, and there is no purpose to any of it. But most audaciously, they list Abarim Publications' celebrated introduction on quantum mechanics as a source of their lunacy. The only just element of this post is that it received a generous zero percent of the votes cast. Good.