#Build a sales plan

[pjclarke]

Truth of the matter

Truth of the matter

Operators have received conflicting opinions that confused the situation more. Critical supposition offered supplies a wide range of problem-solving alternatives. Naturally, these solutions come with no guarantees and a price tag. The truth of the matter is that no one can provide easily applied sound solutions without proper direction. Then, also a chief ingredient and frequently overlooked…

[nordsea-horizons]

🍄fleamarket🍂

[grplindia]

Immediate Hiring Business Development Manager SALARY - 40to 60k PM JOB LOCATION - Delhi & Gurgaon INDUSTRY - Building Materials, Tiles, Door and Windows Exp- Minimum 3Years Call Now @ 8188998866 , 8188998899 ( WhatsApp) Email your Resume rajeevgrpl@gmail.com

[binayahp]

Why is Enqlave at Al Furjan one of the top-rated Residential Buildings Dubai?

Aqasa Homes Developers, a leading property developer in Dubai is expanding their portfolio with Enqlave at Al Furjan Dubai." Enqlave by Aqasa promises to elevate the living experience with innovative features, creating an outstanding residential space. Aqasa Enqlave is designed for those who value modern living and seek a unique address in Dubai. The launch of their brilliant residential project in Al Firjan Dubai bring relief to many, offering a lifelong address that matches sophisticated tastes. The Enqlave at Al Firjan, Residential Building Dubai is garnering massive interest from potential buyers.

Let’s explore the Aqasa Enqlave at Al Firjan community Dubai, which comes in Top Dubai Projects. This project offers numerous benefits tailored to the modern family's needs. It showcases a premium and meticulously planned development that could become a permanent home for residents.

Facts:

Offers premium 159 units

G + P + 10 Residential floors

Offering 1br, 2br & 3br Premium Apartments

Expected completion is Q3 - 2026

A Flexible 50/50 Payment Plan

Suitable for Everyone:

Whether you're a bachelor, a working professional, or part of a family, Aqasa Enqlave offers an opportunity to immerse yourself in the beauty of its surroundings. This address exemplifies bold design concepts and innovative features, making it a top choice for all types of buyers.

Bedroom Details:

Studios | 386 - 389 Sq. Ft. | AED 550,000

1-bedroom apartments | 739 - 1,138 Sq. Ft. | AED 900,000

2-bedroom apartments | 1,079 - 1,980 Sq. Ft. | AED 1,400,000

3-bedroom apartments | 1,701 - 2,203 Sq. Ft. | AED 2,100,000

Premier Amenities and Services:

Enqlave Aqasa Dubai offers a premier living experience with meticulously curated amenities. From vibrant outlets to serene green parks, sparkling swimming pools, cutting-edge gym facilities, and lush gardens, every detail is tailored for resident satisfaction. Whether indulging in a rejuvenating spa or vibrant clubhouse gatherings, diverse offerings cater to every lifestyle. Embrace an active, fulfilling life in a thriving community at Enqlave Aqasa Dubai.

Amenities:

Beach Access

Cycling Path

Dining Outlets

Gymnasium

Health Care Centre

Kid's Play Area

Parks and Leisure Areas

Restaurants

Supermarket

Swimming Pool

Full Bosch kitchen appliances

Kohler and Geberit fittings

Apple Home Automation System

Location Benefits:

Situated in the prestigious Al Furjan Dubai, this new address enjoys a prime location within an upscale and exclusive community. Boasting numerous advantages, it's the perfect place to live.

Al Furjan Dubai Facts:

Strategically nestled within Discovery Gardens adjacent to Al Furjan, offering prime accessibility.

Directly linked to Gardens Boulevard and Garn Al Sabkha Street for seamless travel.

Immediate access to major highways E11 Sheikh Zayed and E311 Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road, ensuring efficient connectivity.

Enjoy convenient movement within the community due to its fantastic proximity and well-planned infrastructure.

A stone's throw away from renowned educational institutions like The Winchester School, Arcadia School, Dubai British School, and various nurseries.

Ibn Battuta Mall, boasting over 500 shops & restaurants across 512,000 Sq.m, is just minutes away.

Convenient access to four operational metro stations and multiple bus stations for hassle-free commuting.

Experience the unparalleled benefits of JLT, ranked as the Best free zone globally for nine consecutive years, accommodating 24,000 registered businesses.

Discover the allure of Dubai Marina, Bluewater Island, and Jumeirah Beach Residence in close vicinity.

Access JAFZA - Jabel Ali Free Zone, the world's largest free trade zone, hosting over 9,500 global companies, for unparalleled business opportunities.

So, what are you waiting for? Contact us at +971 54 998 8811 and grab your unit

[across-stars]

going to see the phantom menace tonight...

...very excited, I've never actually seen any of the prequel movies in cinema lol

[thelonesgroup]

Barriers in Your Business

If your business is not where you want it to be, it is because one or more barriers are keeping you from achieving this new level of success. Many business owners feel stuck at one point or another, but they don't take the time or have the perspective to determine the cause of the gridlock.

If you know a more-successful business is in your grasp and want to breakthrough, here are 5 steps you can take to begin to remove those barriers:

Step 1: Know Where You Are Going

It is difficult to determine the obstacles if you don't even know where you are going. Is your goal to sell x number of units or increase your income by y? Is it to achieve a certain level of sales that results in an award? Is it being able to afford the dream vacation you have always wanted? What is your expectation for success?

Start by writing down the end goal or goals. Don't go crazy - just start with a maximum of three goals.

Step 2: What Is your Current Status?

This helps you determine how far you need to go. If success if just around the corner, a tweak or two or a focused period of sales focus might help you break through. However, if you are at the beginning of the journey, then you are going to need a prolonged action plan.

Step 3: What Does the Path to Your Goal Look Like?

Let's look at some examples at this point:

BUSINESS #1

Goal: 30 sales per year Current Status: 20 sales per year. This business needs to increase their sales by 50% in order to achieve their goal. Path Forward: They have determined their best way to get from current status to goal is to ramp up their communication with their past clients for new business and referrals. This agent does not currently run any campaigns for their past clients so adding a monthly mailing campaign to the 250 people in past client database should definitely have impact. In addition, they are adding a client appreciation event. Business Needs:

Monthly Mailing Campaign to database of 250 past clients including templates, research, print and mail capability

Client Appreciation Event including plan, event venue, menu, system of invitation, RSVP, program, etc.

BUSINESS #2

Goal: $300,000 gross income Current Status: $250,000 gross income for 2023. This business needs to increase income by 20%. Path Forward: They have determined the best way to get there is to maintain the current campaigns, but add a lead generation campaign to get a few more transactions. They are going to send letters to neighborhoods that have seen homes sell very quickly. Business Needs:

Letter content that can be updated per neighborhood

Preprinted letterhead and envelopes

Postage

BUSINESS #3

Goal: Dominate a neighborhood Current Status: Have periodic sales in the neighborhood, but are not the go-to agent. The agent is receiving some of the sales, but to dominate, 30% or more of all sales would need to go to the agent. Path Forward: In order to dominate, the agent needs to be more visible. There are only two ways to do that - time or money. The agent can spend their time by holding open houses, helping host community garage sales, generating content on a community social media pages, creating local videos, hosting community events OR they can spend their money on a community-specific mailing campaign - or both! Business Needs:

A time- or money-based campaign

Step 4: Identify the Barriers

Now that the needs from point A to point B have been established, now it is time to identify the barriers and see if there is a way to overcome the barrier, is there another path forward that avoids the barrier, or is the goal not achievable with the path and barriers? For example:

Big Sur, California is no stranger to landslides and bridge damage that cuts off that community. In 2017, there were months in which the only way in or out was to take a hike through the woods. If you wanted to go to Big Sur, there were two big barriers to you getting there. Accessing via sea was also not possible due to the cliffs. If one is not an apt hiker and able to carry in one's supplies, then that is a barrier that is insurmountable and a new destination should be chosen.

With that, let's take another look at those businesses.

BUSINESS #1 needs to develop a Monthly Mailing Campaign for their past client database and will be adding a Client Appreciation Event. After doing some digging, the agent determines that having a company take care of the entire campaign including research, stats, printing, and mailing, will cost about $1000 per month. The agent is not tech- or research-savvy, so it is easy for him to make the decision to make that investment. It is hands-off and the materials are high-impact. He has determined there are no barriers here because he is surrendering and has the funds for this investment.

As for the Client Appreciation Event, he has identified a barrier. He can't figure out an event that will appeal to all of his past clients. He has young families as well as seniors who won't go out at night and busy retirees. He is willing to make an investment, but he wants to use his time or money wisely. The barrier is that there isn't a one-size-fits-all event!

That is - until he talks to his business strategist. She recommends an out-of-the-box solution to focus an appreciation event around PETS! Most of his clients have a dog or a cat. Therefore, he opts for a pet-friendly holiday photo shoot! Barrier overcome!

Let the Professionals Guide Your Business Marketing This Year

Check out our LeadMagnet program or email solutions@thelonesgroup.com for more info.

BUSINESS #2 has determined they will be sending letters to neighborhoods that have seen very fast sales. They need letter content that can be updated per neighborhood situation. They had AI create a letter that they are going to edit. They need to get some letterhead and envelopes printed and have an estimate from a local printout, so mark another task off that list. Their barrier is they don't know how they are going to get addresses and print labels - that is their biggest barrier to implementing this campaign.

How many times have we run into a situation like this - we don't know how to do one aspect of a big project and it stops us from making forward progress?

Is this a barrier that can be overcome? Of course! They can:

See if there is someone in the office that knows how to do this or can do it for them.

Can someone at the company they are using to print the letterhead help or provide them with a resource?

What about a title company?

This barrier can be overcome! Now let's look at...

BUSINESS #3 wants to dominate the neighborhood and will need to implement a time- or money-based campaign to get there. Now, unlike Business #1, they don't have cash for someone else to handle a mail-based campaign and they don't have the tech skills to do it on their own. Lack of money is a barrier. Therefore, we need to see if we can take the time path to get there.

This agent has determined that, as a former teacher, providing content in front of a class is a skill they can definitely utilize. They are going to develop a number of classes on everything from first time homebuyers, buying an investment property, downsizing, getting your home ready for sale, creating great curb appeal, and a state of the market class. This plus holding open houses and serving on several of the more-fun-focused HOA committees is the way this agent is going to connect.

Another barrier conquered!

Step 5: Implement!

Now that you have identified barriers and how you might overcome them, there is no holding you back! Don't be afraid to do this exercise multiple times as you tweak your goals and determine additional paths for achievement. Constant improvement will get you there!

By Denise Lones CSP, CMP, M.I.R.M. The founding partner of The Lones Group, Denise Lones has over three decades of experience in the real estate industry. With agent/broker coaching, expertise in branding, lead generation, strategic marketing, business analysis, new home project planning, product development and more, Denise is nationally recognized as the source for all things real estate. With a passion for improvement, Denise has helped thousands of real estate agents, brokers, and managers build their business to unprecedented levels of success, while helping them maintain balance and quality of life.

[stock-tips-india]

[hsmagazine254]

How To Keep Your Pet Safe During Natural Disasters, Including El Niño - H&S Pets Galore

How To Keep Your Pet Safe During Natural Disasters, Including El Niño: Preparing For The Worst Natural disasters, including events like El Niño, can pose significant challenges for pet owners. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to ensure the safety and well-being of your beloved pets when faced with the uncertainties of Mother Nature. Understanding The Risks: Before disaster strikes, identify…

[palipunk]

Israeli Caterpillar bulldozers are so symbolic of settler violence and brutality towards Palestinians; they are literal death machines. D9 bulldozers are sold by Caterpillar Inc., based in the US, and are equipped with armor and can be fitted with machine guns and grenade launchers. The nickname for these machines in Israel is "Doobi" - meaning teddy bear.

In 2004, Human Rights Watch called on Caterpillar to suspend bulldozer sales to Israel because of their use in the demolition of Palestinian property and infrastructure. Caterpillar makes military specifications for the D9 and sells them to Israel as weapons under the U.S Foreign Military Sales program, upon arrival, they are armored by Israel Industries Ltd. Before Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, D9s were used to demolish over 2,500 Palestinian homes in Gaza, most being in Rafah where the Israeli Government tried to expand a "buffer zone" along the border with Egypt. This was almost 20 years ago.

During these demolitions within Gaza, Rachel Corrie, an American activist who had been protesting against these home demolitions across the occupied territories, was buried with dirt by an Israeli bulldozer and repeatedly run over. Israeli military sources blamed her and the other activists who were protesting the demolitions, the IDF investigations found themselves not to blame, and no charges were brought for her murder (In the aftermath of her death, Israeli soldiers made fun of her through Facebook communities called "Rachel Corrie Pancakes and Fun", so no justice, the IOF murdered her and then laughed about it).

A federal lawsuit was filed against (which was later dismissed) Caterpillar on behalf of Rachel Corrie's parents and four Palestinian families that had members who were either killed or injured by these bulldozers trying to demolish their homes (including children). The CCR's lawsuit was "on behalf of these families charges Caterpillar, Inc. with aiding and abetting war crimes and other serious human rights violations on the grounds that the company provided bulldozers to the Israeli military knowing they would be used unlawfully to demolish homes and endanger civilians in Palestine. "

And again in 2018, more human rights groups condemned international construction firms (Caterpillar, JCB, and Liugong) for their roles in the destruction of Palestinian villages - Khan al-Ahmar was a small bedouin village in the West Bank that was planned to be razed and bulldozed for a new road for Israeli settlements, but due to international outcry, postponed the eviction. However, in Sur Baher, several Palestinian homes were demolished by bulldozers after a long legal battle that ruled in favor of the IOF. Israel often uses the guise of 'security' as a justification for these demolitions, but ultimately they are used to make way for settlements.

Massafer Yatta is another Palestinian village that has been under threat of Israeli demolitions for years now and was greenlit for destruction. Bulldozers crushed the village's school and destroyed the homes of 121 families in the area. The Palestinians who had their homes crushed by the bulldozers were forced to live in caves (which they were forbidden to even renovate), it is a decision between leaving their land and community or trying to build a new home that will be demolished by Israelis.

Palestinians throughout the West Bank know that the arrival of a bulldozer means the same thing time and time again: "You have 24 hours to flee, or we will shoot you." There are countless towns/villages/communities that have faced demolitions by the IOF throughout the decades of Israel's existence, I couldn't even begin to name all of them here.

In cases of public infrastructure, bulldozers were used to crush the main water pipelines of Al-Auja. The iof forced their way into the village and welded-shut the sole pipeline which supplies water to more than 1,200 people and used a bulldozer to crush it beneath the land. This is part of a larger history of Israeli oppression, specifically in regard to stolen water, which is supplied to Israeli settlements (it also forces Palestinians to buy water directly from Israel).

Outside of home and public infrastructure demolitions, the military bulldozers are also used in Israeli raids. In August this year (2023), the IOF raided Nablus in the Balata refugee camp, accompanied by a military bulldozer that destroyed several homes. I can't even pick a date for raids in Jenin refugee camp, which has been raided continuously this year and years before, but Israeli bulldozers have been filmed tearing up streets in Jenin and leaving them in rubble, making the roads unusable.

The Armenian quarter is not safe from settler encroachment either, as demolitions in the West Bank continue, real estate companies have sent in settlers and bulldozers to steal land belonging to Armenian Church property and Several Armenian families. Settler attacks have continued on the Armenian community and Palestinian Armenians have been getting arrested for defending themselves from these mobs.

And now, we have not only gotten the confirmation that these D9s will be used in Gaza but images, testimonies, and videos of them being used on Gazan homes and infrastructure. They are also being used to crush Palestinians to death just as Rachel Corrie had been in 2004, just as those Palestinian families had been in 2002-2004, and (extreme trigger warning for mutilation of a corpse) videos are circulating of Israelis flattening already deceased Palestinians with bulldozers out of pure contempt for us. Almost 20 years since Israel demolished thousands of homes in Gaza (not even including the genocidal bombings campaigns and the blockade Israel has placed on Gaza for years), now they're back destroying anything in their path.

I will repeat: these bulldozers are death machines and are designed to be so. Caterpillar is complicit, the US is complicit, and both are actively benefiting from the mass murder and displacement of Palestinians. Keep your eyes on Gaza but also remember the Armenian Quarter and the West Bank, all of Palestine is under threat of demolitions.

[theshayariphoto]

नेटवर्क मार्केटिंग से पैसे कैसे कमाएं, How to Earn Money from Network Marketing.

नेटवर्क मार्केटिंग नेटवर्क मार्केटिंग एक व्यापारिक प्रणाली है। जहा आप अपने नेटवर्क को उपयोग करके अपने उत्पादों और सेवाओं का प्रचार करते हैं। साथ ही नए सदस्यों को अपने बिजनेस में जुड़ाते हैं। इस तरीके में आपकी मेहनत और सामर्थ्य के हिसाब से आपकी कमाई को बढ़ाया जा सकता है। नेटवर्क मार्केटिंग एक व्यवसाय होने के साथ साथ एक संवाद का माध्यम भी है। जो आपके निर्माणात्मक और वित्तीय स्वतंत्रता का माध्यम बन…

[devonellington]

Thurs. July 27, 2023: Just When You Take The Risk of Happiness

image courtesy of Arek Socha via pixabay.com Thursday, July 27, 2023 Waxing Moon Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Venus, Chiron Retrograde Rainy, hot, humid. Flood watch Catch up on the latest about the garden over on Gratitude and Growth. Just when you think you get a little ahead, it’s all destroyed. Today’s serial episode is from Legerdemain: Episode 106: Necessary Medical Attention Shelley…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Google’s enshittification memos

[Note, 9 October 2023: Google disputes the veracity of this claim, but has declined to provide the exhibits and testimony to support its claims. Read more about this here.]

When I think about how the old, good internet turned into the enshitternet, I imagine a series of small compromises, each seemingly reasonable at the time, each contributing to a cultural norm of making good things worse, and worse, and worse.

Think about Unity President Marc Whitten's nonpology for his company's disastrous rug-pull, in which they declared that everyone who had paid good money to use their tool to make a game would have to keep paying, every time someone downloaded that game:

The most fundamental thing that we’re trying to do is we’re building a sustainable business for Unity. And for us, that means that we do need to have a model that includes some sort of balancing change, including shared success.

https://www.wired.com/story/unity-walks-back-policies-lost-trust/

"Shared success" is code for, "If you use our tool to make money, we should make money too." This is bullshit. It's like saying, "We just want to find a way to share the success of the painters who use our brushes, so every time you sell a painting, we want to tax that sale." Or "Every time you sell a house, the company that made the hammer gets to wet its beak."

And note that they're not talking about shared risk here – no one at Unity is saying, "If you try to make a game with our tools and you lose a million bucks, we're on the hook for ten percent of your losses." This isn't partnership, it's extortion.

How did a company like Unity – which became a market leader by making a tool that understood the needs of game developers and filled them – turn into a protection racket? One bad decision at a time. One rationalization and then another. Slowly, and then all at once.

When I think about this enshittification curve, I often think of Google, a company that had its users' backs for years, which created a genuinely innovative search engine that worked so well it seemed like *magic, a company whose employees often had their pick of jobs, but chose the "don't be evil" gig because that mattered to them.

People make fun of that "don't be evil" motto, but if your key employees took the gig because they didn't want to be evil, and then you ask them to be evil, they might just quit. Hell, they might make a stink on the way out the door, too:

https://theintercept.com/2018/09/13/google-china-search-engine-employee-resigns/

Google is a company whose founders started out by publishing a scientific paper describing their search methodology, in which they said, "Oh, and by the way, ads will inevitably turn your search engine into a pile of shit, so we're gonna stay the fuck away from them":

http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf

Those same founders retained a controlling interest in the company after it went IPO, explaining to investors that they were going to run the business without having their elbows jostled by shortsighted Wall Street assholes, so they could keep it from turning into a pile of shit:

https://abc.xyz/investor/founders-letters/ipo-letter/

And yet, it's turned into a pile of shit. Google search is so bad you might as well ask Jeeves. The company's big plan to fix it? Replace links to webpages with florid paragraphs of chatbot nonsense filled with a supremely confident lies:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/14/googles-ai-hype-circle/

How did the company get this bad? In part, this is the "curse of bigness." The company can't grow by attracting new users. When you have 90%+ of the market, there are no new customers to sign up. Hypothetically, they could grow by going into new lines of business, but Google is incapable of making a successful product in-house and also kills most of the products it buys from other, more innovative companies:

https://killedbygoogle.com/

Theoretically, the company could pursue new lines of business in-house, and indeed, the current leaders of companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Apple are all execs who figured out how to get the whole company to do something new, and were elevated to the CEO's office, making each one a billionaire and sealing their place in history.

It is for this very reason that any exec at a large firm who tries to make a business-wide improvement gets immediately and repeatedly knifed by all their colleagues, who correctly reason that if someone else becomes CEO, then they won't become CEO. Machiavelli was an optimist:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

With no growth from new customers, and no growth from new businesses, "growth" has to come from squeezing workers (say, laying off 12,000 engineers after a stock buyback that would have paid their salaries for the next 27 years), or business customers (say, by colluding with Facebook to rig the ad market with the Jedi Blue conspiracy), or end-users.

Now, in theory, we might never know exactly what led to the enshittification of Google. In theory, all of compromises, debates and plots could be lost to history. But tech is not an oral culture, it's a written one, and techies write everything down and nothing is ever truly deleted.

Time and again, Big Tech tells on itself. Think of FTX's main conspirators all hanging out in a group chat called "Wirefraud." Amazon naming its program targeting weak, small publishers the "Gazelle Project" ("approach these small publishers the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle”). Amazon documenting the fact that users were unknowingly signing up for Prime and getting pissed; then figuring out how to reduce accidental signups, then deciding not to do it because it liked the money too much. Think of Zuck emailing his CFO in the middle of the night to defend his outsized offer to buy Instagram on the basis that users like Insta better and Facebook couldn't compete with them on quality.

It's like every Big Tech schemer has a folder on their desktop called "Mens Rea" filled with files like "Copy_of_Premeditated_Murder.docx":

https://doctorow.medium.com/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself-f7f0eb6d215a?sk=351f8a54ab8e02d7340620e5eec5024d

Right now, Google's on trial for its sins against antitrust law. It's a hard case to make. To secure a win, the prosecutors at the DoJ Antitrust Division are going to have to prove what was going on in Google execs' minds when the took the actions that led to the company's dominance. They're going to have to show that the company deliberately undertook to harm its users and customers.

Of course, it helps that Google put it all in writing.

Last week, there was a huge kerfuffile over the DoJ's practice of posting its exhibits from the trial to a website each night. This is a totally normal thing to do – a practice that dates back to the Microsoft antitrust trial. But Google pitched a tantrum over this and said that the docs the DoJ were posting would be turned into "clickbait." Which is another way of saying, "the public would find these documents very interesting, and they would be damning to us and our case":

https://www.bigtechontrial.com/p/secrecy-is-systemic

After initially deferring to Google, Judge Amit Mehta finally gave the Justice Department the greenlight to post the document. It's up. It's wild:

https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-09/416692.pdf

The document is described as "notes for a course on communication" that Google VP for Finance Michael Roszak prepared. Roszak says he can't remember whether he ever gave the presentation, but insists that the remit for the course required him to tell students "things I didn't believe," and that's why the document is "full of hyperbole and exaggeration."

OK.

But here's what the document says: "search advertising is one of the world's greatest business models ever created…illicit businesses (cigarettes or drugs) could rival these economics…[W]e can mostly ignore the demand side…(users and queries) and only focus on the supply side of advertisers, ad formats and sales."

It goes on to say that this might be changing, and proposes a way to balance the interests of the search and ads teams, which are at odds, with search worrying that ads are pushing them to produce "unnatural search experiences to chase revenue."

"Unnatural search experiences to chase revenue" is a thinly veiled euphemism for the prophetic warnings in that 1998 Pagerank paper: "The goals of the advertising business model do not always correspond to providing quality search to users." Or, more plainly, "ads will turn our search engine into a pile of shit."

And, as Roszak writes, Google is "able to ignore one of the fundamental laws of economics…supply and demand." That is, the company has become so dominant and cemented its position so thoroughly as the default search engine across every platforms and system that even if it makes its search terrible to goose revenues, users won't leave. As Lily Tomlin put it on SNL: "We don't have to care, we're the phone company."

In the enshittification cycle, companies first lure in users with surpluses – like providing the best search results rather than the most profitable ones – with an eye to locking them in. In Google's case, that lock-in has multiple facets, but the big one is spending billions of dollars – enough to buy a whole Twitter, every single year – to be the default search everywhere.

Google doesn't buy its way to dominance because it has the very best search results and it wants to shield you from inferior competitors. The economically rational case for buying default position is that preventing competition is more profitable than succeeding by outperforming competitors. The best reason to buy the default everywhere is that it lets you lower quality without losing business. You can "ignore the demand side, and only focus on advertisers."

For a lot of people, the analysis stops here. "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product." Google locks in users and sells them to advertisers, who are their co-conspirators in a scheme to screw the rest of us.

But that's not right. For one thing, paying for a product doesn't mean you won't be the product. Apple charges a thousand bucks for an iPhone and then nonconsensually spies on every iOS user in order to target ads to them (and lies about it):

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

John Deere charges six figures for its tractors, then runs a grift that blocks farmers from fixing their own machines, and then uses their control over repair to silence farmers who complain about it:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/31/dealers-choice/#be-a-shame-if-something-were-to-happen-to-it

Fair treatment from a corporation isn't a loyalty program that you earn by through sufficient spending. Companies that can sell you out, will sell you out, and then cry victim, insisting that they were only doing their fiduciary duty for their sacred shareholders. Companies are disciplined by fear of competition, regulation or – in the case of tech platforms – customers seizing the means of computation and installing ad-blockers, alternative clients, multiprotocol readers, etc:

https://doctorow.medium.com/an-audacious-plan-to-halt-the-internets-enshittification-and-throw-it-into-reverse-3cc01e7e4604?sk=85b3f5f7d051804521c3411711f0b554

Which is where the next stage of enshittification comes in: when the platform withdraws the surplus it had allocated to lure in – and then lock in – business customers (like advertisers) and reallocate it to the platform's shareholders.

For Google, there are several rackets that let it screw over advertisers as well as searchers (the advertisers are paying for the product, and they're also the product). Some of those rackets are well-known, like Jedi Blue, the market-rigging conspiracy that Google and Facebook colluded on:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue

But thanks to the antitrust trial, we're learning about more of these. Megan Gray – ex-FTC, ex-DuckDuckGo – was in the courtroom last week when evidence was presented on Google execs' panic over a decline in "ad generating searches" and the sleazy gimmick they came up with to address it: manipulating the "semantic matching" on user queries:

https://www.wired.com/story/google-antitrust-lawsuit-search-results/

When you send a query to Google, it expands that query with terms that are similar – for example, if you search on "Weds" it might also search for "Wednesday." In the slides shown in the Google trial, we learned about another kind of semantic matching that Google performed, this one intended to turn your search results into "a twisted shopping mall you can’t escape."

Here's how that worked: when you ran a query like "children's clothing," Google secretly appended the brand name of a kids' clothing manufacturer to the query. This, in turn, triggered a ton of ads – because rival brands will have bought ads against their competitors' name (like Pepsi buying ads that are shown over queries for Coke).

Here we see surpluses being taken away from both end-users and business customers – that is, searchers and advertisers. For searchers, it doesn't matter how much you refine your query, you're still going to get crummy search results because there's an unkillable, hidden search term stuck to your query, like a piece of shit that Google keeps sticking to the sole of your shoe.

But for advertisers, this is also a scam. They're paying to be matched to users who search on a brand name, and you didn't search on that brand name. It's especially bad for the company whose name has been appended to your search, because Google has a protection racket where the company that matches your search has to pay extra in order to show up overtop of rivals who are worse matches. Both the matching company and those rivals have given Google a credit-card that Google gets to bill every time a user searches on the company's name, and Google is just running fraudulent charges through those cards.

And, of course, Google put this in writing. I mean, of course they did. As we learned from the documentary The Incredibles, supervillains can't stop themselves from monologuing, and in big, sprawling monopolists, these monologues have to transmitted electronically – and often indelibly – to far-flung co-cabalists.

As Gray points out, this is an incredibly blunt enshittification technique: "it hadn’t even occurred to me that Google just flat out deletes queries and replaces them with ones that monetize better." We don't know how long Google did this for or how frequently this bait-and-switch was deployed.

But if this is a blunt way of Google smashing its fist down on the scales that balance search quality against ad revenues, there's plenty of subtler ways the company could sneak a thumb on there. A Google exec at the trial rhapsodized about his company's "contract with the user" to deliver an "honest results policy," but given how bad Google search is these days, we're left to either believe he's lying or that Google sucks at search.

The paper trail offers a tantalizing look at how a company went from doing something that was so good it felt like a magic trick to being "able to ignore one of the fundamental laws of economics…supply and demand," able to "ignore the demand side…(users and queries) and only focus on the supply side of advertisers."

What's more, this is a system where everyone loses (except for Google): this isn't a grift run by Google and advertisers on users – it's a grift Google runs on everyone.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/03/not-feeling-lucky/#fundamental-laws-of-economics

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

[dhrubo-organization]

Content Marketing Strategies for B2B Companies

In the world of business-to-business (B2B) marketing, content reigns supreme. More and more B2B companies are using content marketing to reach their target audience, increase brand awareness, and generate leads as a result of the growth of digital marketing. An effective content marketing strategy can be hard to develop and put it into practice. The essential elements of an effective content…

[shopifyagencies]

Why should business people opt to rely on Shopify e-commerce solutions?

It’s a dream to have your own online business. But are you a bit flustered about how to create a mass presence in this comparative web world? Surprisingly with the help of tools, apps and expert guidance, you can create one without any hassle. But the question here is who can give that leverage and wide popularity. Speaking of which, Shopify e-commerce solutions come to the forefront. Of course, you will discover a few significant pointers that vehemently support why you should opt for Shopify.

All in one Hub

Shopify is a powerful eCommerce solution enabling business owners to create online stores. Indeed they can sell their products and services with complete ease. It is an all-in-one platform that provides everything a business needs to create a successful online store. Here you can get all sorts of features right, From designing and developing the store to managing inventory, processing payments, and shipping products. Thus having Shopify keeps you in the front seat always.

Designed for the business of all sizes and genres

With Shopify, you can excel in your business quickly. It is because Shopify offers coverage for all sorts of industry and niches. From large setups to start-ups, all can have Shopify as their selling platform. Even different packages are there to create online stores that too in a personalised way. Of course, it is designed to meet all sorts of typical requirements of the clients.

The Interface is easy to use

Those planning to use Shopify for the first time have this apprehension that it might demand a bit of technical or programming language. However, that is not the case with Shopify at all. Shopify uses an interface that is designed for all kinds of users. It comes with inbuilt themes and templates, allowing you to customise the look of your online shop.

Easy management of inventory

Once you are done with the shopify store setup, the next thing that might bother you is managing the online store. Well, with Shopify, that again becomes an easy chore; you can easily stock, enlist and display products.

Final Thought

Thus, With Shopify Ecommerce Developer, you can relax but simultaneously have your own business. So please don’t waste time and go for it.

[horse-head-farms]

🪼slime-kisser Follow

all these posts like “don’t shop at boatem they support cannibalism” “the evil empire is a crypto scam” “don’t buy at octagon they’re trying to destroy the fabric of the universe” where the FUCK else am I supposed to shop????

🐠xbcrafted Follow

may i recommend horse head farms? we sell a variety items for agreeable prices and have alternate payment plans which mean you don’t have to spend a single diamond! you can find us via the nether hub <3

🪲yeswingsforlife Follow

do NOT shop at Horse Head Farms! Their items are incredibly overpriced (you can find grass, logs, etc for better prices) and this “alternative payment scheme” is actually signing an IOU. If you don’t know what that is, IOU stands for “I Owe You” and is a legal document that, when possessed, someone can force you to do anything. Literally anything. LegalKnight does a great video going into detail about it. According to this article, Horse Head Farms have just invested in building an auction house, possibly to sell off the IOUs they’ve acquired, so scummy CEOs could force you to work at their companies. Not to mention, their owners are incredibly sketchy, xBCrafted regularly tweets conspiracy theories and Hypnotizd invests in crypto

😵‍💫hypnotizd Follow

youre wrong actually, i have had nothing but brilliant service at Horse Head Farms. IOUs arent sketchy theyre normal pieces of paper. #shoptoday

🪲yeswingsforlife Follow

… you’re literally one of the owners

🐸cottagecoreliving Follow

to answer the original question, here’s a list of more reputable businesses that you can support instead!

Tays Trees

HIVE-DR8

Joe Hills’ Flower Stalls

Big Eyes

🥚dragon-tegg Follow

hey not to derail this post or anything but is anyone going to mention how OP literally fetishises slime hybrids???

( 7,067 notes )

🌃elytramoments Follow

hate when i crashland in the lava biome

🐶renrobert Follow

you mean the nether

🌃elytramoments Follow

i do not

#i think it’s a national park or something #idk its like this for miles #its near boatem

( 15.4k notes )

👁️big-eyes Follow

This weekend at Big Eyes we are having a #SALE of up to 99% OFF! EVERY item has a discount! Don’t waste your diamonds, shop at Big Eyes!

😍sexy-papa-k Follow

sweetfaces! we are going into debt! please buy ❤️❤️💕❤️🍆😭😭😭❤️ -papa k

👁️big-eyes Follow

kerlais why woudl you reblog on that account

😍sexy-papa-k Follow

we need all the reach we can get bubbles! ❤️😝❤️❤️🍆💕 -papa k

( 14 notes )