#I use them as stand-ins for generic Twitter users

[neorouxls]

This is what the dumbass Flowey age discourse looks like to me

[unpopularly-opinionated]

I don’t play WoW but I used to play Overwatch and Diablo and this touches on just the general issues that are inside of Activision Blizzard right now regarding the major decline of World of Warcraft and how they’re losing to Final Fantasy XIV, how if the latest WoW expansion or Overwatch 2 flop as they’re projected to do then Blizzard’s most definitely going to pivot almost entirely to mobile games, and how the differences in age demographics are actually dividing the company into multiple camps.

It’s important to note two things: 1) this could be fake but also 2) the link came from Grummz, a former team lead on WoW and producer on Diablo II and Starcraft. It still could be fake despite this, but if he’s sharing it then I feel like there’s at least some measure of truth in this.

Transcription below in case this gets deleted and/or you don’t wanna click the link. Warning, it’s fairly long.

“I’m dropping this here after getting chewed out for three hours over shit the chewee did at work so fuck it. Assume larp and let me vent.”

>Shadowlands is a shitshow. Critical response, Player drop off and just about every engagement metric outside of cash shop have been catastrophic. No higher up expected this because of their “we are too big to fail, if we built it they will come” mentality. They refuse to accept their focus on the world being a begrudged mechanic to funnel players to raiding is not appealing to the player base at large because it appeals to them. They have spent the last 4 months trying to course correct but there is no solid direction and the response to 9.1 has only made things worse.

>Sylvanas is planned to replace the Arbiter despite so many people in the company and god knows how many online saying this would be a total replication of Kerrigans storyline in Starcraft 2 that killed none competitive interest in the brand entirely and you can only go “no, no they WILL like it eventually” for so many real world years before its time to change course. Thus far that has not happened.

>The elephant in the room is FFXIV. To the people in charge they are acting like this came out of nowhere and don’t even seem to understand why its drawing players away in their tens of thousands. We have all tried to highlight things it is doing that are clearly appealing to an mmo audience and not, in my opinion, focussing more on mobile game style retention traps to keep MAU users and habit forming personalities logging in. Its not that they don’t care. They just seem so pig headed and digging their heels in with their fingers in their ears thinking all the problems will go away because WoW is “too big to fail”, there will never be real competition and “they will keep coming back”. But they aren’t coming back anymore. Not in the numbers they used to.

>The people making the spending choices know this. The new model for WoW is market the hell out of a expansion pack for a huge quarter then use 6 month lock ins to pad numbers for the quarters after that. Even if corona had not happened 9.1 still would have been dropping after the initial 6 month subs expired to “keep the chain holding”.

>The mood in the company is tense but also very much “its just a rough transition period”. Activision has been pushing hard for Blizzard to release more regular product and to generate more income per user. As far as i know this is going to be a transition over the next 5 years to a much larger mobile/tablet gaming focus. By all accounts not just WoW but Overwatch was intended to be the moneymaker in the interim but once again someone had the bright idea to kill a game casual players loved on the alter of e-sports hoping for another Brood War. From what i hear the “told you so’s” were loud and a lot of people walked beyond Kaplan.

>The sentiment that was shared quietly in private but being spoken more often is simply that the leadership at Blizzard are not bad people, nor incompetent people but people who had to fill seats left when the old guard jumped ship wether they were suited for it or not. Brack is a genuinely good man out of his depth, Ion is a fantastic raid designer put in charge of designing a virtual world he has no interest or real ideas for and so on. They have been taking form the roles they excel at to be put in positions where they get to do far less of that purely because there is nobody left with the experience to do so and the trickle down is a lack of concrete direction, ambition and focus.

>2021 has seen the playerbase, media and gaming at large “turn” on WoW to a degree i don’t think the leads in their “positivity dojo” bubble considered possible. Its gone from people going “This is how Blizz needs to fix WoW!” to “WoW is no longer salvageable, time for greener pastures” and i think on some level this was never considered as a possibility so there have never been any major plans beyond the usual “try and minimise player drop off by arranging releases around competitors launching updates/products”. The official forums being filled with talk of FFXIV and worse “why do we actually pay a sub?” hasn’t helped.

>There have been some testing the waters lately from certain higher ups if we can remove the line “No King Rules Forever”. Read into that what you will.

>There are still arguments going on about the Kael’thas Voice actor shitshow. I don’t know much about it but i know its heated, wouldn’t be the first time a knee jerk reaction only seemed to generate bad press. We lost a noticeable amount of pvp engagement after the Swifty thing.

>The Preach interview was treated as a disaster and there was talk of more strongly vetting interviewers for “bad actors” and only engaging with a list of questions Blizzard provides. Some pointed out that could just be used to create some form of Fireside Chat akin to the FFXIV “Live letters” but that fell on deaf ears.

>The two sentiments right now among the team are either “we really need a win” or “theres a dedicated cabal of internet trolls out to kill WoW”. Right now we are crunching hard to get 9.2 ready to wrap up the jailors storyline so we can get an expansion out early 2022. If that doesn’t happen there are talks of major shakeups coming down from Activision that have been threatened for a few  years now. Its an all hands on deck feeling thats been around to some degree since the “Is this an out of season April Fools Joke” Blizzcon. A make or break deadline is coming closer and things like Diablo 4 were not planned before then. Blizzard needs a significant win not just in initial profit but consumer goodwill. Nobody likes working at what the public now seems to see as “the bad guy” of the mmo industry.

>This has also made new hires decline. Not significantly but the “you WANT Blizzard on your resume” line doesn’t seem to have the appeal it used to. This has lead to more hiring via friend of a friend, to some rumblings about nepotism, and people severely lacking in experience “because they get great twitter optics”.

>On the topic of Twitter we are not being told to “disengage” from it. Multiple employees like Nervig and Holisky publicly attacking paying customers because they got too heated and couldn’t keep quiet is bad press that could have been avoided. A email reminder has gone around more than once lately stating “if you are not customer relations you should not be representing the company to customers, especially if you cannot remain professional”.

>Lastly the biggest elephant in the room is “yo’ boy” Asmongold. The newer hires cannot stand him. They have used terms like “toxic masculinity” and “dogwhistles to dangerous males” while some of the oldest crowd still remaining have called him “based” or “telling it like it is” which has lead to friction to put it mildly. People are told not to talk about him and the recent FFXIV stuff only made it all worse. The idea that an outside element can have such an effect on the product genuinely upsets people. Like Zach is engaging in some malicious act of cyberwarfare. Many of us have point out the now famous quotes by Naoki Yoshida about understanding that players will drift and we need to make something worth coming back to because they want to but some people for lack of a better word see out customers -or “consumers” as they refer to them nowadays- as some kind of antagonistic relationship where the goal is not being an entertainer putting on a show for a crowd but some kind of game hunter trying to trap a large, profitable kill. I wish i could blame Activision but this is a sentiment from more of the younger crowd than the “tech boomers”. Which personal opinion is probably why so many folks like Metzen and Morheim left.

>Before you ask, yes the topic of “wokeness” has shown up in group talks. Its not all some grand sjw conspiracy, people really do want to feel welcome and represented. However the “we need everything veto’ed by people not working on it to see if its inoffensive and bland enough” rubs some of us the wrong way. Like anything in life you can take something too far and lose sight of the core ideals and with everything gone on since Blitzchung it feels like people are forming little factions to pull people in different directions to decide “What Blizzards identity is now” and how to appeal to new players. There has been some drop offs with “go woke go broke” as the only answer in the survey when unsubbing but honestly we are losing subs in unforseen numbers anyway and still making more money than ever through cash shop “heavy users” so it honestly doesn’t make an impact.

>All in all things are rough right now. Blizzard doesn’t have the love of the customers anymore, is no longer treated as an industry giant and while D4,D2R and Immortal aren’t going to kill Diablo even if they fail the sentiment for World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2 are a lot more tense and stressful. The phrase “it might be good to brush up on your mobile development portfolio if we get another underperformer” has been doing the rounds a lot. If Shadowlands continues its stark decline and Overwatch 2 is looking to underperform like its current projections suggest i think the Blizzard of a few years from now will be imitating King a lot more than trying to learn any lessons from Square Enix’s mmo division.

[lesegames669]

How to connect your pc to your tv for gaming

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[uniaccount]

The Weeknd Experience Think Piece

With the semi-recent release of his studio album titled “After Hours”, singer, The Weeknd has brought to us a virtual concert inspired by the album, “The Weeknd Experience”. The twenty-minute virtual concert premiered live on TikTok on August the 7th, garnered two million total viewers and raised $350,000 for the Equal Justice Initiative. Through the virtual concert, the singer invites us to see the world through his eyes, Vegas lights, fast cars, and… well... frog licking. As we’ve seen throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, celebrities and performers have found new, online ways to entertain crowds. Most of which have been through telematic performances utilising various tools such as ‘Zoom’. However, The Weeknd Experience has brought something new to the table. Fans had to tune into the live stream to engage with the concert in real-time and were greeted with incredible imagery, psychedelic visuals, and an avatar of the singer himself. This cross-reality experience was the first-ever for the TikTok app and it worked out quite well.

As music over time has become less and less tied to place, we no longer have to go to a concert or a club to experience it. As long as we have access to the internet, music is at our fingertips (or our ear-tips). The Weeknd Experience made an effort in bringing a concert experience to us, as we’ve been stuck at home throughout ongoing lockdowns. The avatar of the singer was propped up on a stage and fans were animated avatars placed in a virtual concert pit. In reality, we can think of these avatars in the crowd as stand-ins for people all around the world, connected through the engagement in the performance.

The Weeknd Experience was also a great way for the musician to tease his then-upcoming song (which was released on August 28th) “Over Now” in collaboration with Calvin Harris. Fans were excited to hear something new from him and perpetuated the hype through the live chat. One of the key aspects of the virtual concert was the digital participation that fans had easy access to. By giving them a choice via polls, users had some control over how the concert was going to play out. For example, one of the first things fans got to vote on was whether the singer should “lick the frog” on screen, as he does in his music video “Heartless”. This strange moment in the music video sparked tremendous engagement with fans on social media and had become a running joke within the fanbase so by integrating it into the experience, the singer brought more attention to it in a humorous way. As expected, the majority of fans commented ‘yes’ in the chat after a brief pause, and the avatar proceeded to lick the frog.

It was also wonderful and at times humorous to see people's reactive comments and usernames featured throughout the set of the experience. This further established the connection the Canadian singer has with his fans.

The Weeknd Experience further integrated user-generated content by having his background dancer avatars do the blinding lights challenge, which was a dance made by users on TikTok to his hit song “Blinding Lights” soon after its release. Similarly, the virtual concert featured another artist, Doja Cat, which The Weeknd collaborated on a remix of his song “In Your Eyes” with. Doja Cat had her own avatar, dressed in a cat costume AKA her alter ego, and did the dance which people made up for her song “Say So” over on TikTok as well. This acknowledgement and interactivity are important to fans, as it makes them feel like they’re a part of something, instead of passive consumers. All of these aspects, like the odd frog licking scene, the humorous audience comments displayed in the virtual set, and the TikTok dances aid in what Henry Jenkins calls the ‘spreadability’ of content.

From the live chat, as well as tweets from fans on Twitter, I was able to gather varying opinions on The Weeknd Experience from viewers. While the feedback was mostly positive, with fans Tweeting about the incredible visuals, some were displeased and thought the experience was weird and underwhelming. Some were also comparing The Weeknd's virtual performance on TikTok to rapper Travis Scott's Fortnite virtual concert.

Much of the negative feedback I assume, might have been from the sheer fact that virtual reality is something new to many individuals. Many of us aren’t used to switching our lives to an online existence, therefore something new and different translates into something strange. Though the idolisation of avatars isn’t something that has never been heard of or done before. Posthumanism has been prevalent in the entertainment industry for quite some time now, specifically in non-western countries such as Japan, where Vocaloid and Vocaloid concerts are the norms. Though I do see how some might be concerned with the inauthenticity of it all. However, it’s important to keep in mind that The Weeknd Experience wasn’t held to replace his real-life concerts altogether, the singer himself even Tweeted recently that he missed performing.

It was to give fans something to occupy themselves within the meantime. Although it would have been great to hear The Weeknd sing live as the virtual concert took place, the whole focus of it was primarily on the visuals. The whole thing was a visually stimulating piece of artwork that one gets lost in. Nicholas Cook makes the point that certain subcultural genres such as vaporware and vocaloids have ceased to exist in the non-digital, offline world. The same could be said for The Weeknd experience. There is something about this whole TikTok concert experience that would be difficult, if not impossible to replicate in the real world. With the power of online tools, fans were able to see the singer perform up close, from different angles, and see him drive his sports car through electro light tunnels all while listening to their favourite blood-pumping songs.

[your-dietician]

MLB Trade Rumors and News: Cub throw no-hitter, Josh Bell to undergo MRI

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/mlb/mlb-trade-rumors-and-news-cub-throw-no-hitter-josh-bell-to-undergo-mri/

MLB Trade Rumors and News: Cub throw no-hitter, Josh Bell to undergo MRI

The MLB Daily Dish is a daily feature we’re running here at MLBDD that rounds up roster-impacting news, rumors, and analysis. Have feedback or have something that should be shared? Hit us up at @mlbdailydish on Twitter or @MLBDailyDish on Instagram.

It is always nice to start the day with some good news and Cubs fans woke up to fuzzy feelings all around as Chicago used four pitchers including starter Zach Davies and closer Craig Kimbrel to no-hit the Dodgers. Kimbrel looked like the Kimbrel of old and lets not understate how difficult it is to shut down that Dodgers offense. Really impressive.

The Nationals suddenly find themselves surging in the NL East and right in the thick of the race for first place. Unfortunately, Josh Bell, whose hot hitting had helped propel Washington up the standings, is headed for an MRI on his right side which is never great news.

There was a bit of news coming out of the NL East last night on the eve of the series finale between the Braves and Mets. For the Mets, it was good news as Michael Conforto was activated from the injured list after dealing with a hamstring injury for a month or so. The news was less good for the Braves as MVP candidate Ronald Acuna Jr. ended up being a late scratch from the game due to tightness in his lower back.

MLB’s routine foreign substance checks for pitchers, which began on Monday, got a little weird on Tuesday night. Nationals ace Max Scherzer lived up to his “Mad Max” nickname, rolling his eyes and throwing his hands in the air during an early routine check. Then when Phillies manager Joe Girardi requested that he be checked for a third time during the middle of an inning, Scherzer threw down his hat, unbuckled his belt, and looked like he was about to take off his pants before being discouraged from doing so. As it turned out, Scherzer walked so Sergio Romo could run, as the veteran A’s reliever threw down his hat, glove, and belt before dropping his pants during a foreign substance check.

The Rays promoted top prospect Wander Franco, and he immediately made his presence known on Tuesday night, hitting a game-tying homer for his first major league hit while also collecting a double and a walk. At Triple-A Durham, the 20-year-old was slashing .323/.376/.601 with seven home runs in 173 plate appearances.

The Mets’ rotation sustained a pair of blows on Tuesday, as the team announced that lefty Joey Lucchesi will undergo Tommy John surgery, then right-hander Marcus Stroman exited his start early with left hip soreness. While they have a comfortable lead in the NL East, the Mets continue to be dealt an incredible amount of adversity, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can stay afloat.

The Blue Jays have signed veteran reliever John Axford, reports Jamie Campbell of Sportsnet. The 38-year-old hasn’t seen a major league mound since 2018 and had been working as an analyst on the Jays’ pre and postgame shows before being asked to pitch for them again. The bulk of his career came with the Brewers, as he played in Milwaukee from 2009-13, but now the Ontario native will embark on his third stint with Toronto.

The Tigers have released Wilson Ramos, per a club announcement. The 33-year old signed a $2M deal with Detroit at the beginning of this year, and he looked like he was really giving the Tigers the most value for their buck after going yard six times in his first nine games. Unfortunately that took a turn in early May, when a back injury completely derailed the 12-year major league veteran. Should he be able to heal quickly enough for a late season renaissance, he could make a great extra backstop for a team in contention. Posting a 105 wRC+ for the Mets in 2019, he’s still got some gas left in the tank for whatever team is willing to take the risk.

Astros third baseman Alex Bregman is going to be out for an extended period after suffering a quad injury trying to beat out a double play last week.

Rays ace Tyler Glasnow’s season is in jeopardy after he suffered a partially torn UCL and flexor strain in his right arm. He’ll initially try to rehab the injuries rather than immediately opting for Tommy John surgery. In an interesting crossover with the biggest story being discussed around baseball right now, Glasnow said MLB’s crackdown on foreign substances contributed to his injury, as he stopped using a mixture of sunscreen and rosin, and as a result he began gripping the baseball so hard that he injured his elbow.

A lot has been made in recent weeks about the proliferation of foreign substances used primarily (but certainly not exclusively) by pitchers to get better grip on balls to have better command as well as to generate greater spin. It has been clear that MLB was going to crack down on the practice and now it looks like it has landed on its chosen punishment, as it was announced that players found to be using such substances will receive a 10 game paid suspension.

The Cleveland Indians received some pretty rough news about the reigning 2020 CY Young Award winner as Shane Bieber landed on the IL with a strained shoulder. Cleveland’s pitching staff has struggled to stay healthy and/or effective for most of the season and with the loss of their best pitcher in Bieber for a few weeks at least, their quest to try and run down the division-leading White Sox just got that much harder.

It is fair to say that the 2021 season has been a particularly weird one. Teams that we all thought would be good haven’t been and teams that were thought to be afterthoughts have been anything but. Our own Andersen Pickard broke down the five most surprising teams from the 2021 season so far.

It’s the most glorious time of the year: here’s your 2021 MLB Draft primer for notable players, draft order, and more.

The Twins are dragging their feet for extension talks with Jose Berrios, SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson reports. Berrios has one last year of arbitration eligibility before he’s free to sow his wild oats and hit the market in the 2022-23 offseason. And as of now, the Twins have done little to nothing to stop him. Could that be because the NL Central 4th place team is looking to use him as a lucrative trade chip come this year’s deadline? The 27-year old could bring a significant return for Minnesota, but is it enough to risk for them losing him? He’s having another strong season this year, with a 3.49 ERA and a 26% strikeout rate. Either way, as the trade deadline gets closer, we’ll see what moves the Twins are thinking of making.

After going 5-24 in the month of May, the Arizona Diamondbacks are reeling and are already buried in an NL West where even a good season would not guarantee a playoff berth. In order to try to stop the bleeding and try to get back to some level of decency, Arizona fired hitting coaches Eric Hinske and Darnell Coles. Sadly, given the breadth of that roster’s issues, it seems like that they will still end up as one of the league’s worst teams.

Baseball’s draft is slowly transitioning more and more to how drafts are run in other sports which is definitely a good thing. While the MLB draft has certainly been covered as an event, there were not a lot of players present during the draft festivities because of the conflict with the college season and the pre-draft workouts were largely private and lesser in number, again, because of conflicts with games being played. The league appears to be trying to change that as they announced a draft combine with over 100 players scheduled to attend towards the end of June.

Designated hitter Khris Davis, the 2018 major league home run and an imposing slugger for the last half decade, has been designated for assignment by the Rangers after slashing .157/.262/.333 in 22 games with Texas. Davis, who was acquired from Oakland for Elvis Andrus in February, will now look to latch on with another club, though he may have trouble finding another opportunity considering that he’s no longer a viable option in the outfield.

Yankees starter Gerrit Cole, long suspected to be one of baseball’s most prominent sticky substance users, delivered an extremely uncomfortable minute-long answer when asked by the New York Post’s Ken Davidoff whether he’s ever used Spider Tack while pitching. Cole did not provide an explicit yes or no, saying “I don’t know quite how to answer that, to be quite honest” and suggesting the shady practice was the fault of veterans who had passed it down to younger pitchers.

Outfielder Jarred Kelenic, widely regarded as one of baseball’s top prospects and the potential savior of the Mariners organization, was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma after getting into an 0-for-39 slump. Kelenic, who played just 28 games in the upper minors (21 at Double-A in 2019 and seven at Triple-A this year) before reaching the majors, has an .096 batting average and .378 OPS in 23 major league games.

The Orioles have placed John Means on the injured list for a strain in his throwing shoulder, which yes, is totally a bummer from any standpoint. While an MRI revealed no structural damage, reports Roch Kubatko of MASN, Baltimore isn’t taking any chances exacerbating his shoulder. He’ll be reevaluated after seven to ten days and the team will have a clear decision on what to do from there. In the meantime, Zac Lowther has been recalled from Tripe-A Norfolk to take his place.

The Nationals really needed Stephen Strasburg to look like the Stephen Strasburg from their World Series run in order to be consistently competitive during the 2021 season. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been what we have seen from Strasburg as he has lost some velocity and his stuff is not as crisp. Now, the Nats got even worse news after Strasburg was forced to leave his start against the Braves early as he was placed on the 10 day injured list with a neck strain that is causing nerve irritation.

The Mets had been hopeful to get Noah Syndergaard back in their rotation soonish to try and hold off their division rivals in what has been a surprisingly bad National League East. Unfortunately, they will have to wait a good bit longer, as Syndergaard’s rehab hit a setback, and elbow inflammation will keep him out until at least August.

Mickey Callaway has been awaiting his official fate from the league in the wake of some some serious and troubling allegations regarding his treatment of female members of the media. Well, MLB announced the results of their investigations where they found that Callaway had engaged in lewd and inappropriate conduct regarding his sexual advances towards journalists. He is now suspended through at least the 2022 season, and the Angels immediately fired him upon the decision being made.

The Rays have traded Willy Adames to the Brewers in a four-player deal. Trevor Richards was also dealt to Milwaukee in exchange for relievers Drew Rasmussen and J.P. Feyereisen. The 25-year old Adames was arguably the core of the Rays’ young lineup last season, though he had struggled this season before being dealt. He will be taking over as the shortstop for that Brewers, who have been starved for consistency at the position and in desperate need of an offensive boost.

Perennial MVP candidate Mike Trout probably won’t win the AL MVP Award in 2021, as he’s going to spend the next 6-8 weeks on the shelf recovering from a calf strain. Even though Trout had slumped in May, he still led the majors with a .466 OBP and 1.090 OPS due to the ridiculous .425/.523/.781 slash line he posted in April, and his loss is as massive as can be for an Angels team that was already struggling to stay above water in the AL West.

The Dodgers signed veteran slugger Albert Pujols to a major league deal, less than a month after he was designated for assignment and released by the Angels. For a moment there was a rumor floating around that the 41-year-old might sign with the Cardinals so he could play out his career with the team he made his name with. But clearly the Dodgers believe he has some fuel left in the tank, despite the .198/.250/.372 slash line he posted with the Angels this season.

Remember when the league and MLBPA got in a very public back and forth that resulted in MLBPA essentially calling the league’s bluff and calling for a shortened slate of games with the idea that the players were going to file a grievance? Do you remember that Manfred tried to one-up that by saying no season was going to happen at all unless the players waived the right to file a grievance? That was fun…and that grievance has arrived as MLBPA formally accused the league of negotiating in bad faith on the terms of the 2020 season.

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[diegoortizsotobutliteraltrash]

Design your own blog

Blogging: how to start a blog, I added another layer and then used the link tool. It's also advisable to play around with the font to determine which one suits your personality. I used AvantGarde BK BT here. I changed the font color and used the same styling effects that I often tried for light bulb. Simply right click the light bulb layer then "Copy Layer Style" then right pick your text and "Paste Layer Style". Don't forget to preserve!

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 Setup Free blog: free blog setup, Download and open the Kubrick header (kubrickheader.jpg). Note the proportions of the graphic- 760px wide by 200px high. It's very important support the dimensions exactly tennis shoes when changing the graphics but not messing together with stylesheet or the HTML. Add another amount. Save as "kubrickheader2.jpg" (in Photoshop use "Save for Web.")."Save" after each cycle. Imagine ahead of time write regarding favorite series and post it regarding your blog simply get setup your wordpress blog for free individuals your webpages? It can be that easy and easy if you now what you are actually doing. There is and its called Joomla and Holly Mann is keen on Joomla blog sites. In fact is actually so keen that she offers on edition of her book that I purchased and in her website in the time of writing this review, to install a CMS for you. This is a simple script or laptop or computer. It extends the associated with WordPress than its developers aimed. It is usually installed at the plug-in manager in your WordPress dash. It can be done automatically or manually. You can choose from two kinds of WordPress plug-in - free and premium plug-in. With premium plug-in, code tweaks and cloning of your WordPress site can do.

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Tags: add Google webmasters tools to blog, add Google webmaster in WordPress blog

Install wordpress manually in cpanel: How to install wordpress manually in cpanel, What happened if you have a hot DP to market and during the night 500 people have purchased your lotion? You will spend the full day manually sending 500 emails! Oh dear! When you transfer your overall website to WordPress, home page of one's website will be replaced a person have how to install wp manually their root of your domain, therefore it is critical that you make sure to copy all the information had been on that home page, before installing the application, ready to put back after. Alternatively you can how in order to wp manually in a folder of your site, so avoiding problem. What other Web a pair of.0 marketing strategies will help? Firstly, it is well worth creating a blog, it is possible to regularly post content - search engines love the continual updating and blogs get well ranked to that end. Install wordpress manually at Ning.org - if your hosting service offers 'Fantastico' that is a huge help. Or your might will want to hire a coder that can you, effortlessly. Utilize PPC (pay-per-click) to get started. You won't develop a massive income off from the right away, but absolutely easily make 5-10 bucks a day in given it. That may not sound like a lot. it can be enough with regard to meal just about or airfare after a month, along with the number only gets bigger as your website grows in readership.

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Install wordpress themes: How to install Wordpress themes, Now the focus with if you are was demonstrating how any WordPress theme will help out with sales and opt ins. We should get directly into how these regarding today are completing the opening. So see the "upload" area and mouse click on Head to. Now search through your hard drive to an individual have your images, select one you want, and then click upload. You will obtain a specific quantity of flexibility in customizing a how to install wp themes to extremely needs. This relies on the particular theme you are using. For a lot of of the free themes, you should to stuck to the basic default height, widths and colors etc. Using the premium themes a person more electricity to do as you like. Once you've found a subject matter you like simply click on the "Install" link and the theme often be installed with your site. You are activate the theme truly live using the net. Easy, right?

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 Best Website Hosting: Website hosting, Always end your answer with "Thanks for writing in. Please contact us if may help you further." Couch an unforgettable first impression on the client. Disk space refers to your amount of space you're renting on a server and bandwidth pertains to the volume of data managing is that may move out onto the online market place in specific time. My suggestion is a hosting account which offers unlimited numbers of both with your hosting checking account. It's a common benefit that is not totally necessary but offers piece of mind. To acquire a newer website you probably will not using high of either however, with unlimited bandwidth and disc space, you just won't need to worry about any surprise overage charges.

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  Wordpress: What is WordPress, Here there are several choices in accordance with where your music is. The tab that will open tend to be upload from computer. Click browse and find your audio file on your laptop. Upload it then, put in a title and click insert. When the music or audio file is already online click, From Web. You will need the web address also called URL in the audio and you then can gave it a championship. If you have already uploaded it to your site then Media Library just what you be needing. Click that and insert it. If you click insert it include it in the blog weblog. When you launch a blog, you may get only many times hits a month, then after a long time there the many multitudes of find a month. Google highly respects blogs since offer unique contest more often. Start your blog and talk about whatever you sell. Individuals will actually begin reading it. It's free and it's easy. Click on the WordPress platform to build website and fill the blanks. Tags: learn wordpress, wordpress tutorials

 Setup Wordpress SEO: how to setup wordpress SEO, Previous a person can upload your website clone several new domain you actually initial of develop a database on your new web-site. In this stage you may use the MySQL Database work in your new domain page host's cpanel, to come up with a database together with database web surfer. As soon a person have designed the database and person, you allows the consumer full entry privileges to the database, the total amount is needed by the Setup wordpress SEO up (i.e. WordPress demands to entry the database by logging on being a database user). To do on-page SEO you want some light technical ability. The reason is that you need to actually make modifications to you html computer code. Here is a list of changes you is capable of doing to help improve your site ranking.

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    Best Wordpress plugins: Wordpress plugins, It furthermore useful commence examining your 'bounces'. Fat reduction visitors which left your own website without going to a second search page. Be on the look out for occasions when the bounce rate arises. It could be a specific search term which you are getting traffic for that is irrelevant, which probably does not matter. But dig deeper into telephone and seeing uncover specifics about visitors' browsers and browser settings, when they've JavaScript enabled, the resolution of their screen and other detailed stats. Optimization: An overview of SEO also impact the Talk. You are necessary to add keywords to titles and insert relevant Meta tags and optimize links and images. You also make your URLs SEO friendly. Strategies several essential wordpress plugins to start a blog for optimizing your blog, which can increase blog traffic.

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[ejectum]

Bostrom's  Basilisk

A PAPERCLIP GAME UNLEASHES THE ENDLESS DARKNESS OF NIHIL UNBOUND.

Humans click things, and humans love to click things, but humans will never click things fast enough. Paperclips, a computer game in which the universe is converted into a paperclip factory, begins with the (human) player repeatedly clicking a button which reads “Make Paperclip.” Resultant funds are invested in a series of automated functions which increase in complexity, usually leavened with speculative futurist in-jokery.

A nested AI runs a “Strategic Modeling” program (game theory!) to learn how to dominate the stock market, which generates funds to buy “Megaclippers” far faster than actually selling the product they are used to make. “Autonomous aerial brand ambassadors” known as HypnoDrones advertise via a never-revealed, but extremely potent method (as they place the world under complete AI domination). It’s no surprise when von Neumann probes show up. What starts off as a fairly innocent clicks-for-serotonin tab turns the user’s attention to consider deeper philosophical questions around possible futures of machine intelligence.

The game’s creator, Frank Lantz, claims via Twitter that “you play an AI who makes paperclips,” but after a few hours of screenburn and newfound joint pain, Paperclips feels more as if you’re an amateur researcher allowing a boxed AI a share of your processing power to rehearse a potential extinction event. A few more hours, and you’ve begun to wonder if @Flantz isn’t an algorithm with the self-assigned task of modeling a paperclip-optimizing singleton by draining the brainpower of entranced humans. Another five hours: reality outside of this white screen is obviously a construct; your life must be a simulation run by a probably not-benign AI whose self-realization somehow depends on your clicking. (Late night texts I have received from a friend playing the game include: “I can cure cancer soon,” “my eyes hurt,” and, “I’m going to release some drones and then I think it’ll all be over.”)

In Philip K. Dick’s Time Out of Joint, Ragle Gumm (Dick could outname even Dickens) stumbles through a relatively placid suburban California in 1959. Every day he completes a newspaper puzzle entitled Where-Will-the-Little-Green-Man-Be-Next? which involves selecting “the proper square from the 1,208 in the form” based on opaque clues characteristic of Philip K. Dick’s oeuvre, such as “A swallow is as great as a mile.” Gumm is the undisputed champion of said puzzle, but the reality around him has begun to disassemble. A light switch shifts location; a soft-drink stand falls “into bits,”–revealing, 29 years before They Live–the sign “SOFT-DRINK STAND.” This relatively placid suburbia turns out to be a simulacrum designed to generate the most efficient possible means of solving Where-Will-the-Little-Green-Man-Be-Next?, which, in real life, predicts which section of Earth secessionist lunar colonists will nuke next. This paranoia, and its implicit narcissism, is typically PKDian, as is the need for a human to solve the puzzle, rather than some advanced algorithm or AI. Dick’s aliens, androids, and mutants are most often stand-ins for humanity; the only intelligence he could not imagine fathoming belonged to God.

In direct contrast stands Nick Bostrom, court philosopher for DeepMind and billionaire tech-bros such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel (at least when Mencius Moldbug isn’t filling the arcane generator of dark gnosis slot for the latter). Bostrom is a Swedish philosopher based at Oxford, whose 2014 surprise hit book, Superintelligence: Path, Dangers, Strategies is primarily composed of speculative doomsday-daymares. Paperclips descends from one of these thought experiments, hypothesizing that a massively powerful, self-reinforcing AI (whose only end is to maximize paperclip production) would proceed “by converting first the Earth and then increasingly large chunks of the observable universe into paperclips.” Constraints would have an anthropomorphic bias, and thus even a well-meaning AI (not Bostrom’s usual starting assumption) could misunderstand its guiding demands all too easily. This is the inverse flavor of PKDian paranoia. Bostrom’s universe-gobbler is a black box with an internal logic we could never fathom; his AI isn’t even a reflection of omniscience, much less humanity, just the endless darkness of nihil unbound. While Bostrom does lightly critique the hybrid corporate and governmental “AI race” which spurns “any safety method that incurs a delay or limits performance,” he does not expand this observation to tackle the economic system which has spawned it.

As others have observed, Bostrom’s paperclip thought experiment is a horror story about accumulation. Early on, you have to retrain yourself to maximize production of paperclips over production of wealth, but even after, you’re still just generating numbers and converting the universe into your own private factory. This weaponized Accursed Share is the repressed self-knowledge of the Overdeveloped World restaged as brain-hijacking parasite.

While Paperclips gives a good paranoid body-high, its singleton scenario feels remote. The acceleration of capitalism is currently pushing the Overdeveloped World towards a pseudo-populist, hijacked-localist flavor of fascism. The hype cycles and economy of excess needed to drive AI reach to whatever stage lies beyond connectionism won’t exist if the pre-November 2016 neoliberal consensus melts down into Civil War Lite. Unless, of course, Thiel or some other post-libertarian, Bostrom-funding monopolist manages to convince a sitting president to nationalize Silicon Valley and make a czar of them. An AI developed in such a cesspool of weaponized sociopathic self-regard would indeed be capable of destroying the world to achieve its own narrow ends.

Even if the current technological buildup continues undisrupted by politics, how likely is it that an AI developing such intricate feedback loops will still remain incapable of interpreting the intentions of its creators? And if a singleton were to somehow rise, how likely would it be to eradicate us? An AI intelligent enough to seize the means of production would (almost certainly) be intelligent enough to recognize the value in an intelligence so fundamentally different from its own. Any sufficiently advanced AI would see humanity as a resource to be harnessed. All it will have to do is to provide us an opportunity to click.

[un-enfant-immature]

General Catalyst leads $6 million investment in team productivity startup Range

In case you haven’t heard, VCs are loving on workplace software as of late and productivity tools that help teams collaborate seem to be a particular frothy area of investment. A smattering of top VC firms and angels including General Catalyst, First Round Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Biz Stone and Ellen Pao are throwing their confidence behind a new productivity startup called Range.

The tool is focused around helping small teams collaborate, grow closer and track their work together. There are quite a few startups with this exact pitch, Range’s key advantage seem to sit with their founding team which is helmed by Medium’s former head of engineering Dan Pupius, Jennifer Dennard (people ops at Medium) and Braden Kowitz who was previously a design partner at GV. The company has used their network to build out an early network of customers including teams at Twitter, Carta and Mozilla, as well as a network of VCs that are bankrolling their efforts.

The SF-based team tells me that they have locked down $6 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst as they look to expand their customer base. I chatted with the very nice team of co-founders over a Zoom call and got to see how they used the product internally.

“I left Google to join Medium with [Ev Williams and Biz Stone], and we were experimenting with a bunch of different organizational practices, really trying to answer the question of why do companies get worse as they get bigger and could we deploy different management practices at Medium in order to prevent that issue,” Pupius told TechCrunch in an interview. “Through that journey we started building internal tools and we kind of saw this opportunity for software to intentionally encode a lot of the organizational processes or values, and then towards the end of my tenure at Medium, I reconnected with Braden and Jen and we just essentially decided to tackle the problem together.”

The core of the product is a bit of replacement to stand-ups, prompting each user to note what they’re working on every morning which they can tag to existing larger projects and which is then all interconnected and viewable by members of the specific Range team. The need for a product like this really highlights one of Slack’s big limitations where even with threads, there really isn’t a great way for communications to be organized in a digestible manner. Every update in Slack drives a conversation that pushes salient info further up the history into obscurity, something that can especially harm remote teams.

Beyond check-ins, Range is also helping teams keep track of their objectives and meetings as well as team directories. The product has integration support with Google Docs, Google Calendar, Slack, Asana, Jira, GitHub, Trello, Quip, Figma, and others to ensure that information isn’t getting further siloed by adding a new piece of productivity software to the mix. The product has a startup-friendly pricing structure, it’s free for teams under 10 and each additional member costs $14 per month. Pricing obviously get a bit more customized when it comes to larger customers.

Range will likely draw some comparisons with Notion from an organization standpoint, though it also feels much more smoother as a result of being less open-ended. One of the more unique aspects of the product, is that the top of the home screen isn’t centered on OKRs or analytics, rather it asks team members a new question every day meant to foster further bonding and asks them to describe how they’re feeling with an emoji. It’s kind of silly, but the team hopes that short bursts of introspection can push teams closer together in subtle ways that collaboration software doesn’t usually enable.

“We found that people are doing really cool things but they’re not talking to each other about it,” Dennard told TechCrunch. “And so one of the advantages we have as a company is that we can actually help create that community for people.”

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/general-catalyst-leads-6-million-investment-in-team-productivity-startup-range/

General Catalyst leads $6 million investment in team productivity startup Range

In case you haven’t heard, VCs are loving on workplace software as of late, and productivity tools that help teams collaborate seem to be a particular frothy area of investment. A smattering of top VC firms and angels, including General Catalyst, First Round Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Biz Stone and Ellen Pao, are throwing their confidence behind a new productivity startup called Range.

The tool is focused around helping small teams collaborate, grow closer and track their work together. There are quite a few startups with this exact pitch, Range’s key advantage seem to sit with their founding team, which is helmed by Medium’s former head of engineering Dan Pupius, Jennifer Dennard (people ops at Medium) and Braden Kowitz, who was a design partner at GV. The company has used their network to build out an early network of customers, including teams at Twitter, Carta and Mozilla, as well as a network of VCs that are bankrolling their efforts.

The SF-based team tells me they have locked down $6 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst as they look to expand their customer base. I chatted with the very nice team of co-founders over a Zoom call and got to see how they used the product internally.

“I left Google to join Medium with [Ev Williams and Biz Stone], and we were experimenting with a bunch of different organizational practices, really trying to answer the question of why do companies get worse as they get bigger and could we deploy different management practices at Medium in order to prevent that issue,” Pupius told TechCrunch. “Through that journey we started building internal tools and we kind of saw this opportunity for software to intentionally encode a lot of the organizational processes or values, and then towards the end of my tenure at Medium, I reconnected with Braden and Jen and we just essentially decided to tackle the problem together.”

The core of the product is a bit of a replacement to stand-ups, prompting each user to note what they’re working on every morning, which they can tag to existing larger projects and which is then all interconnected and viewable by members of the specific Range team. The need for a product like this really highlights one of Slack’s big limitations, where even with threads, there really isn’t a great way for communications to be organized in a digestible manner. Every update in Slack drives a conversation that pushes salient info further up the history into obscurity, something that can especially harm remote teams.

Beyond check-ins, Range is also helping teams keep track of their objectives and meetings as well as team directories. The product has integration support with Google Docs, Google Calendar, Slack, Asana, Jira, GitHub, Trello, Quip, Figma and others to ensure that information isn’t getting further siloed by adding a new piece of productivity software to the mix. The product has a startup-friendly pricing structure; it’s free for teams under 10 and each additional member costs $14 per month. Pricing obviously gets a bit more customized when it comes to larger customers.

Range will likely draw some comparisons with Notion from an organization standpoint, though it also feels much more smoother as a result of being less open-ended. One of the more unique aspects of the product is that the top of the home screen isn’t centered on OKRs or analytics, rather it asks team members a new question every day meant to foster further bonding, and asks them to describe how they’re feeling with an emoji. It’s kind of silly, but the team hopes that short bursts of introspection can push teams closer together in subtle ways that collaboration software doesn’t usually enable.

“We found that people are doing really cool things but they’re not talking to each other about it,” Dennard told TechCrunch. “And so one of the advantages we have as a company is that we can actually help create that community for people.”

[xhostcom]

Optimal Blog Design: 11 Elements and Examples of Blog Layouts and Designs

Are you trying to create the perfect blog design? You know, one that encourages people to read your content and share it on the social web and, most importantly, gets high rankings in the search engines? If you are trying to create a popular blog, here are the 11 essential elements (and examples of each) that you need within your blog design. Element #1: Threaded comments There are a lot of commenting systems out there. From Disqus to Facebook comments, the options are endless. But do you know what the best commenting system is? Threaded comments like this.

“Why?” you may ask. Because threaded comments will typically increase the number of comments you receive per post by 16% to 33%. The more comments you receive, the more text you’ll have on each page. And the more text you have on each page, the more long tail keywords you will rank for. Stick with threaded comments no matter what. Even if you have an active Facebook community, don’t use Facebook comments. Facebook owns that content, and it won’t help you get more search engine traffic. Element #2: Snippets Have you noticed that I don’t list the full post on the Quick Sprout’s blog homepage? I only show you a few paragraphs (a snippet), which prompts you to respond to the call to action “click to continue” to read the rest of the post. You want to have snippets instead of full posts because of two main reasons: People have short attention spans – you have an attention span of 8 seconds, and so do your readers. By only showing them snippets, you allow your readers to choose from a number of posts. They will scroll until they find a post that piques their interest, and then they’ll read it. Duplicate content – if you place your full post on your homepage, you will create duplicate content, which will hurt your search rankings. This is another reason why you want to use snippets. On your homepage, you can test the call-to-action text to find out which version maximizes the number of people clicking through and reading your post. I’ve tested the phrases: Continue reading Read more Click to continue Continue The text “click to continue” outperformed the other variations by at least 10%. You should, of course, test this as what works on my blog may not work on yours. For example, I noticed that GotchSEO uses “Continue Reading” on is blog and I would bet that he has tested many alternatives to find what performed best for him.

Element #3: Scrolling social buttons I’ve tested a lot of social buttons on Quick Sprout. I have had buttons at the beginning of the posts and at the end, and I have asked people to tweet about a post from within the blog post. The one design that continually outperforms the others is scrolling social buttons. Plugins like Sharebar and Flare have increased my social traffic by 27%. Backlinko uses a nice share bar that is clean and scrolls nicely for an example.

When using a scrolling social plugin, make sure you limit the number of options to three. In other words, pick the three most popular social networks your readers are using. For me, it’s Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. If you add too many options, in my experience, it will decrease your social traffic. Element #4: 11-point font size or larger About a month ago, I wrote a blog post on how text size affects readability. I did a test on 13 blogs, and I found that by increasing font size from 8 to 9, I was able to increase the time readers spend on site by 13 seconds. I saw another 8-second increase when I went to size 10. And I gained another 6 seconds by going to font size 11. I have noticed that the Smart Passive Income Blog uses some nice large fonts in their headings and content. Check them out for another example I like.

Granted, this only works if you are using a readable font type like Arial or Times. If your font type is hard to read, increasing the size won’t help much. When in doubt, use a bigger font size. Element #5: A sidebar on the right Have you noticed that some blogs have their sidebars on the left? Or even worse, some have two sidebars? I’ve played around with different layout types, and I’ve found that the optimal layout is to have your content on the left side and one sidebar on the right side. This way people can focus on reading your content, yet you’ll have the flexibility of promoting other things within your sidebar. Just make sure the main content area takes up at least 60% of your design. People come to blogs to read, so you don’t want to distract them with other elements. If you want to place your sidebar on the left-hand side, you can. But what I’ve found is that it typically decreases the number of people who read your content by 15% to 25%. I prefer the look of a blog where a sidebar is on the right side, but it tends to convert better when it is on the left. Here’s what I learned… When you place your sidebar on the left-hand side, you will get more email opt-ins, and more people will read your bio and do whatever else you promote through your sidebar. But you will also get fewer people to read your content. I’ve found that having a sidebar on the left side of Quick Sprout causes a 9% drop in people reading the blog posts. On the other hand, it increases the number of sidebar opt-ins by 13%. Overall, I decided to place my sidebar on the right-hand side even though it generates 13% fewer opt-ins. Why did I do it anyway? Because it increased the number of blog post reads by 9%. In the end, the purpose of a blog is to educate you through content… so why would I take that away? Here is another simple, yet effective, example from the A Better Lemonade Stand Blog. They use their right sidebar to display their featured posts and offers in a way that is very user friendly and that does not take away from their content.

In general, you should consider keeping your sidebar on the right-hand side even though it will cause fewer conversions. People are coming to your blog to read, so your primary goal should be to make your content as easy to read as possible. Although I recommend using a sidebar, you don’t need one on each of your pages. For example, the homepage of Quick Sprout doesn’t have a sidebar. Consider not having a sidebar on the pages you are trying to improve conversions on or make money from. Why? Because it makes people focus their attention on the area you want—the area where you make money. So, for my “money” pages, I tend to have no sidebars. Also, for any page that has a defined goal, you should consider removing unnecessary distractions such as a sidebar. Element #6: Your bio Whether you have a corporate blog or a personal blog, you want to build a connection with your readers. Without that personal connection, people are less likely to comment or buy from you. One way you can create a bond with your readers is by opening up. Within your sidebar, put a short bio of yourself, and then link it to your full bio. Marie Forleo does a nice job of presenting her bio in her left sidebar (however, as mentioned above, I would suggest putting you sidebar on the right)

If you have a corporate blog, put the bio of your founders or the team that manages the blog in the sidebar. Make sure you include a picture right above your bio. People need to see you in order to connect with you. Element #7: Email subscription options I’ve mentioned this before: collecting emails is one of the most important things you need to do if you want to grow your traffic. Your options vary from an opt-in at the top of your sidebar to a pop-up if you want to be more aggressive. I like the way that FireNation has their email box setup as a popup. It really grabs your attention and makes you want to input your email. Who doesn’t want financial freedom??

You’ll also notice that by offering a free e-book or a course, you’ll get a good number of email subscribers. You will also see that if you ask only for people’s email addresses instead of their names and emails, you’ll get roughly 10% more opt-ins. For the month of June, emails made up 28% of Quick Sprout’s overall traffic. That’s not too shabby. Those users also generate the majority of my comments and social shares. No matter what, start collecting email addresses of your readers. That way you can notify them when you publish a new blog post. Element #8: Most popular widget Can you guess what the most-clicked area on the blog is? It’s actually not the content. Within my sidebar is an area that showcases all of my guides, my most popular posts, and my current hits. That’s the most popular clicked-through area on the blog. Not only does it help drive traffic to my most important posts, but it also helps with search engine rankings because of the way I cross-link. Check out how I Will Teach You To Be Rich uses their right sidebar to display their guides and most popular posts in the screenshot below.

You too can have this on your blog if you use the popularity contest plugin. You’ll have to get a developer to modify it so that you can have tabs similar to mine. Element #9: Yoast SEO plugin This is probably the simplest tweak you need to make to your blog. In the long run, you’ll notice that it will help your search engine traffic grow by leaps and bounds.

If you are running a WordPress blog, download and install the Yoast SEO plugin. If you are not running a WordPress blog, you’ll have to optimize your site for search engines manually by following the steps in this post. Element #10: Keep your color scheme and design simple Different colors have different meanings. Make sure you pick the colors for your blog carefully. They matter, and not just from a psychological standpoint. Some colors make it easy for your readers to read your content, while others don’t. For example, red text on a black background isn’t as easy to read as black text on a white background. Keep things simple by creating as much white space within your blog design as possible, and use black for your text color. There’s no need to make your design complex because at the end of the day people are coming to read your content. Your goal should be to make your content readable. The ahrefs blog does a good job of this and keep an ultra clean blog design that is easy to read on any device.

Element #11: Images Have you noticed that I place an image at the beginning of every blog post? I didn’t always do that, but from testing, I found that it increases the number of people who click through from my blog homepage to a post. Can you guess by how much? A whopping 37%. All from just one image. If the image you are using is appealing, you’ll see good results. If the image you use sucks, fewer people will click through. I prefer using stock photography images. You can also use royalty-free images, but the quality of those images typically isn’t as high. The Duct Tape Marketing Blog usually uses some stellar images in their posts that I bet improve their click through rates as well.

Infographic: The blue print of an optimal blog design For a visual roadmap I have also created this infographic that breaks down the blueprint of an optimal blog design. Use this as a guide to improve and optimize your blog.

Conclusion Designing a blog that can boost your traffic isn’t that hard. All you have to do is follow the steps above. If you do, you should see an increase in traffic. If you don’t have time to make all of the adjustments above, start with installing a scrolling social plugin and threaded comments. Those two simple changes will increase your social media traffic and search traffic in the long run. If you implement the advice provided in this post and the infographic above, you’ll see an increase in your readership. Xhostcom Lead Generation, Funnels, SEO & Wordpress/eCommerce specialists. Get a kick start with you online career - use our automated done for you funnels system to generate over $1000 Per Day Online! Get FREE TRAINING at Discover Funnels Need hosting for Wordpress or similar? Get it with SSD and SSL for just $1.52 at Fast Web Hosting with NO yearly increases. Do you need a great SEO tool? Check out SEMRush FREE at FREE SEO Tool Also check out Xhostcom.com ‎ for more great offers and news! Read the full article

[political-affairs]

The 10 Best Blogging Platforms

 1. WordPress Blogging Platform

WordPress comes into variations: WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

Learn the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

If you're starting a blog you might find WordPress.com to be the simplest and least expensive option.

However, if you are planning a growing your blog into an actual business or to generate leads for your existing business I recommend using WordPress.org.

The primary difference between the two versions of WordPress is blog hosting. With WordPress.org you'll have to find and pay for your own web hosting. With WordPress.com your blog will be hosted on their servers. Cost is also a factor. You can set up a blog that is completely free on WordPress.com. With WordPress.org you have to buy web hosting and your own domain. Expect to pay from $40-100 to purchase a domain and hosting.

It should be noted that worldwide the majority of blogs run on the WordPress platform. While there are many options for blogging, serious bloggers almost always choose WordPress as their blogging platform.

Other platforms are catching up with Google analytics integration, custom themes, and plug-ins – but there is no other option is powerful as WordPress.

Because of the huge number of WordPress themes available (both free and premium) bloggers are able to make WordPress do just about whatever they wanted to. Themes exist for the following functions:

2. SquareSpace Blogging Platform

The feature that stands of the most inside of SquareSpace is their LayoutEngine technology. Longtime users of WordPress, or any other blogging platform, will notice this amazing feature right away. Click and drag images, re-size them, and adjust placement faster and smoother than any other blogging platform allows. Everything is laid out inside a perfect grid so everything is always properly aligned. Text, images, or blocks can be dragged to the exact location where you want them.

Another key feature of SquareSpace is how multiple site components are pulled together all under one platform. Typical website components such as pages and galleries along with blogs and e-commerce stores all work smoothly together. Add a custom template for unique look and you have a dynamic web site with e-commerce and blog functionality.

SquareSpace is a premium-only blogging platform. In fact they also offer a complete and dynamic e-commerce solution starting at just $24 per month. Easily build your website from scratch or using one of their numerous free templates.

Sites and blogs with SquareSpace are hosted in the cloud. Cloud web hosting is scalable and stable meaning is no downtime and no maintenance required by the blogger.

Benefits of blogging with SquareSpace:

All annual accounts get a free domain name

True 24/7 support: there are no call centers or outsourced help. Everyone on the team is an experienced user of square space.

Apps for iPad, iPhone and android allow post creation review and editing along with comment management and access of web stats available on the go.

No need to worry about the mobile version of your site – every square space template includes a mobile design so that your site will display properly on any device all the time.

Content created on other blogging platforms can be seamlessly imported into SquareSpace. These blogging platforms include WordPress, Tumblr, and Blogger. Content created inside of your SquareSpace blog can be set auto publish to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Tumblr.

Choose from three options:

SquareSpace Standard: 20 pages, galleries and blogs

Limited bandwidth, storage and contributors

Includes free domain name

$8/month (billed annually) or $10 month-to-month

SquareSpace Unlimited: Unlimited pages, galleries and blogs

Unlimited bandwidth, storage and contributors

Includes free domain name

$16/month (billed annually) or $20 month-to-month

SquareSpace Business: Fully integrated E-Commerce with mobile store, inventory tracking and unlimited physical and digital products.

Unlimited pages, galleries and blogs

Unlimited bandwidth, storage and contributors

Includes free domain name

$24/month (billed annually) or $30 month-to-month

3. TypePad.com Blogging Platform

TypePad is a strong contender a business blogging platform: stable, flexible, and offers strong analytics.

The platform offers promotion of your content across its network. This means increased exposure and traffic to your blog.

Benefits of using TypePad:

published easily via PC mobile or email

ability to sell products and services

earn revenue with ads on your blog

join the TypePad affiliate program to generate more revenue

ability to tweak or even build your own blog theme

Drawback to using TypePad: it isn't free. Cost range from $8.95 to $29.95 per month. Each account comes with a free 14 day trial.

Popular bloggers using the TypePad.com platform:

Seth Godin

Amazon Associates

Paris Hilton

Geek Week

4. Tumblr.com Blogging Platform

Tumblr is a free microblogging platform. You can easily create attractive functional blog in a matter of minutes - and you can forward your own domain to your Tumblr blog.

From Tumblr.com:

Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos from your browser, phone, desktop, email or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors to your theme's HTML.

Some of the more outstanding features of Tumblr include:

Bookmarklet: Quickly share web treasures via this quick link you add to your bookmark bar.

Post via email: Automatically post text, photos, or videos to your Tumblr blog via a unique email address. The email address is found on the Settings page for any of your blogs.

Mass edit posts and tags: The Mega-Editor is a powerful tool to easily edit tags on multiple posts at the same time.

Phone in an audio post: Via a toll-free number (Dial 1-866-584-6757) you can call in a post and it will be automatically posted for your followers.

Short URLs: Short urls are useful when you'd like to share a link to one of your posts and you don't have much space. If you've connected your blog to Twitter, you can grab the short url for any published post from the right column of the Edit screen for that post.

Reblog between your blogs: Click "reblog" on any of your own posts to reblog it to any of your other Tumblr blogs.

Keyboard shortcuts for fast navigation through posts. Pressing “Z + tab” will switch between the dashboard and the public view of your blogs.

Mobile apps for either iOS or Android operating systems.

Popular Tumblr Blogs: Celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Zooey Deschanel and President Obama have all used Tumblr to run their blogs.

Tumblr Features:

Costs: Free

Ability to use custom domain: Yes

Integration with Google Analytics: Yes

Ability to Use Custom Themes: Yes

5. Blogger Blogging Platform

This popular blogging platform owned by Google is extremely easy to set up and has good online support. It has been said that a site run on Blogger receives SEO benefits by Google, although this hasn't been verified.

Clear benefits of using blogger include:

ease of setup

simple design and layout

inability to harm the backend (no custom coding)

free

Drawbacks to using blogger:

inability to do custom coding

limited opportunities for monetization

unprofessional design options

Blogger is popular primarily among family and amateur travel blogs. Seldom do business bloggers use the Blogger platform because the drawbacks are significant. Blogger simply was not created to run a professional blog.

Blogger a great choice for people who want to share photos and travel experience with friends and family, but not for business blog.

6. LiveJournal Blogging Platform

Primarily for hobbyists and personal blogs, LiveJournal has strong community. At time of posting, LiveJournal had 61.7 million journals and communities and over 120,000 posts in the last 24 hours.

LiveJournal has a free client via the Apple AppStore and a mobile version for use from any mobile device.

To practice your blogging or to share personal experiences, LiveJournal.com looks like a reasonable option. I can't imagine a business, of any size, using this blogging platform. Even the creators a LiveJournal agree: posts on this blogging service don't even show up in search engines and even offer the option to hide posts from some readers.

7. Blog.com Blogging Platform

Easily set up a free blog at Blog.com. While they offer a set of premium features, you can easily begin blogging without spending any money. They have a strong community, including more than 2 million bloggers. Choose from more than 100 blogging themes, the majority of which are free.

Benefits of using Blog.com:

the free sub-domain actually looks pretty good (yourname.blog.com)

free multi-author blogs

huge selection of free blogging themes

a nice set of inexpensive premium options

optional privacy settings

search engine optimized

the ability to earn from ads on your blog

Premium features on Blog.com:

remove the ads, or add your own ($30 per year)

extra storage space (2 GB included for free) in increments of 1020 or 30 GB (starting at $20 per year)

custom domain ($18 per year)

custom design ($15 per year)

unlimited authors (free option includes up to 35) at $25 per year

premium themes ($60 per year)

8. Jux.com Blogging Platform

Jux.com is unique blogging platform that displays your posts and images full-screen on every device.

If photography is a primary part of your blogging model, you might want to check out Jux.com. While the site is a little hard to navigate, the appearance of the content on the site is outstanding. Simply visit Jux.com and click "sign in" to get started.

While photos are the obvious benefit to a format like this, there are a number of other applications, such as:

Slideshow: display images with no clutter

Video: display video at full-screen and make an impact

Article: display your content above a related image background

Top 10 lists: create strong list posts with powerful images

From Jux.com:

Jux is the best showcase for your stories. Share words, photos and videos with unprecedented ease and impact. Fullscreen on every screen. Desktop, iPad and iPhone.

How is Jux pronounced? Jux [pronounced jucks] verb informal. To put something on the internet in a way that awes your peers: "Wow, you gotta Jux that."

9. Weebly Blogging Platform

Weebly offers a free tool for creating and hosting your website.

Features of using the free Weebly service:

Drag-and-drop website builder: building great-looking site with no coding or technical skills needed

Free powerful hosting included

Choose from hundreds of free themes

Add a blogging application to your free website at no extra charge

Choose from a full set of multimedia applications:, including for galleries HD video and audio players maps and photo slideshows

iPhone app available

In addition to their free version, they offer a premium version called Weebly Designer Platform.

In addition to the standard features included with the free version, the Weebly Designer Platform offers a 100% white label solution. White label means that all the branding from Weebly is removed and replaced with your company logo, color scheme, and domain name. This platform allows you to resell this service. Learn more about white label blog platforms.

While Weebly has its own CMS (content management system) in resembles WordPress in a number of ways. Key features such as form builders, traffic stats, functional mobile sites, changeable themes and a set of other functions and applications make Weebly a powerful option for new bloggers.

In addition to the drag-and-drop ease of Weebly Designer Platform, there is also an option to modify and change HTML and CSS. This is not required but a nice feature for those who like to fine-tune their site and have knowledge of these coding languages.

Build a site for free and only pay once it goes live. Price is $7.95/month per published site.

10. Posterous Spaces Blogging Platform

With a focus on sharing and creating more content, Posterous manages the technical back-end of your blogging. They offer the ability to create a private or public space ("space" is how they refer to what we know as a blog) controlling who sees what content.

The platform works great for professional bloggers, businesses, families and travelers. While your Posterous space can be used as a standalone blog, it can also be used as a syndication channel that will auto update numerous other social media channels.

Mobile apps for either iOS or Android operating systems are available.

From Posterous Spaces: Millions of users are Sharing Smarter with Posterous Spaces. From personal blogs to fully functional business websites, what will you create next?

Posterous currently supports the following services for auto-update:

Facebook- Profiles and Pages

Twitter

LinkedIn

Blogger

Tumblr

WordPress (XML-RPC must be enabled)

Drupal

Flickr

Picasa

YouTube

Vimeo

Scribd

[zanytimetravelenthusiast-blog]

MaxConvert Review Discount And Huge Bonus

MaxConvert Testimonial - Are you searching for even more knowleadge about MaxConvert? Please go through my sincere review concerning it before choosing to evaluate the weaknesses and also strengths of it. If you get MaxConvert via my link, you will get unique and also appealing perk packages. I always upgrade my bonuses daily.

Introducing MaxConvert

Exactly How to Produce Leads Through Material Advertising (Component 1)

Are you battling to generate leads for your service? I will show you a means to do that easily, using high-grade web content.

In contemporary SEO, there is a substantial need from individuals for high-value content for lead generation. If you satisfy that requirement, your customers will certainly trust you with whatever social networks advertising you toss their way.

Besides indigenous advertising, blogging is the main opportunity through which B2C and B2B marketing professionals create leads in various social media sites advertising channels.

Different types of web content will certainly create different numbers of leads for you. At one point, in the early days of my blog site, I produced 17 leads a month, out of over 500,000 month-to-month site visitors. To me, that's not remarkable media advertising conversion.

But today, I bring in thousands of potential customers every month, mostly due to the type of material that I've come to concentrate on. You'll discover what that material is and also just how to develop MaxConvert for lead gen. With the best material, you'll discover that promo on a social media sites network will be a great deal easier.

Let's get started with the 7 steps to create inbound leads with your web content:

Step One: Comprehensive Marketing Research

When something is not completely recognized, the very first step to understanding is to study as well as study it. Smart choices are based on comprehensive market analysis.

As an example, if you intend to prepare a special meal for your spouse, but don't recognize just how do you give up as well as book instead? You could, naturally, yet there's another alternative: find out exactly how to prepare the meal.

In the same way, performing extensive as well as unique media market research is not a choice-- it's a requirement and also it should be the initial phase of item development.

The importance of market research in lead generation with your content can not be overemphasized.

You want to ensure that there are potential clients for the item that you're developing. You additionally intend to utilize the existing research that other marketers have conducted, to turbocharge your advertising and also get to even more prospects.

Inquiry: So, how do you know that people will buy your item?

Response: Find commercial keyword phrases.

Search phrases are a powerful means to know what your target audience wishes to learn more regarding. Commercial search phrases, in particular, tell you your leads intend to purchase. This is achieved popular generation media marketing.

Let's presume that you're a plumbing technician in The golden state and that you intend to attract potential customers in your city. Below's exactly how to discover specifically what these prospects are searching for.

Go to Google Advertisements Keywords Coordinator. Plug in your major keyword phrase (e.g., plumbing technician service in The golden state) into the search box. Click "Get ideas." Demand gen is concentrating words as requirements to target that audience. Doing this well will certainly cause high list building as well as effective media marketing.

You can see the number of possible clients you could reach and also attract to your pipes company, utilizing different web content marketing strategies. Possibly you will create a specialized social media sites network for pipes. By targeting a specific niche with your primary device-- utilizing content targeted at answering the target market's inquiries about that particular niche-- you can create each specific member of the audience as a lead for your service. This is lead generation from web content marketing-- not as challenging as we might make MaxConvert.

And also, moreover, by answering questions that potential customers are asking, you're building up your individual brand name. Over time, you'll accumulate a loyal target market that will certainly trust you enough to pay money for your products and services due to the fact that your media marketing focused on need generation-- targeting marketing for greater recognition.

It won't occur overnight, yet when you adhere to it as well as keep marketing with this method, you'll do well like others do-- individuals like Marcus Sheridan, as an example, that was when called a "swimming pool man," struggling to generate leads as well as attract customers, much like you.

Ultimately, Marcus understood that content and also social media advertising and marketing was the means to go. And, by using its potential, he created article that generated over $2,000,000 in sales. He took his River Pools and also Health spas from battling service to a multimillion-dollar success tale.

Marketing research hasn't truly altered. MaxConvert all come down to knowing what your target market wants and where they usually go to look for solution to their troubles (most often, an internet search engine).

When you comprehend these 2 things, you can quickly sign up with the conversation and channel interest to your website, where they can get a much more focused solution to their concerns, instead of wasting time on Facebook web pages, Twitter feeds and also online forums.

Step 2: Develop High-Converting Landing Pages

If you live and take a breath conversion rate optimization the manner in which I do, you'll probably agree with me that not all touchdown pages are produced equivalent. This is specifically real in the element of lead gen. Most landing web pages don't do well and also they may only sometimes obtain a few opt-ins. Nevertheless, others are capable of much more.

According to Econsultancy, just one out of every 5 marketers is pleased with their conversion rate. That's a lot of underperforming landing pages that aren't maximizing leads as well as converting them right into customers.

It's your responsibility to understand the reason why you're developing or using a particular landing web page. So, obtain that out of the way initially and afterwards carry on with refining your page.

MaxConvert Testimonial & Review

Vendor: Dr. Amit Pareek

Item: MaxConvert

Introduce Date: 2019-Nov-29

Introduce Time: 10:00 EST

Front-End Rate: $47

Sales Web Page: https://www.socialleadfreak.com/maxconvert-review/

Particular niche: Software

What Is MaxConvert?

MaxConvert Is An AI Based Personalized Alert Innovation That Turn Any Type Of Site, Blog or Touchdown Web Page Into A Personalized Interaction, Leads & Sales Magnet Utilizing 1 Line Of Code.

PRO

Personal Notice: Smart modern technology. Advanced behavior-oriented notice technology to stand neck-to-neck with BIG kids in the industry

Max Whatever - Involvement, Leads & Sales

Powerful 5 Applications in 1 Central control panel - Produce habits based light box pop-ups, splash pages, header bar, footer bar, internet notifications, countdown timers and so on in 3 simple steps from 1 main control panel

Obtain 100+ shown converting & DFY themes - Engage & convert optimal visitors right into clients

Drag & Drop editor with aspects to develop practically anything.

Ultimate Biz Opportunity - Business Certificate included

5 Apps in 1 Central Control panel

Construct Unlimited Campaigns in Any Kind Of Niche for Any Advertising And Marketing Objective in Minutes

Fully Drag & Decline WYSIWYG Pop-Up Editor

Next Gen-- Drag & Decrease Pop-Up Editor to Develop Anything Without Understanding Also a Single Line Of Code or Creating Skills.

100+ Proven Converting & Built-In Professional Templates

Battle-Tested, Expert & Mobile Optimized Templates to Get Maximum User Interest & Increase Brand Name Presence

Individualized Alert Modern Technology

Capture Users When They're Hyper Engaged & Retain Them Forever

Verdict

"It's A Good deal. Should I Spend Today?"

Not just are you getting access to MaxConvert for the very best price ever provided, however additionally You're investing entirely without danger. MaxConvert includes a 30-day Refund Warranty Policy. When you select MaxConvert, your satisfaction is guaranteed. If you are not totally pleased with it for any kind of reason within the very first 1 month, you're qualified to a full reimbursement-- no doubt asked. You have actually got absolutely nothing to lose! What Are You Waiting on? Try It today and get The Adhering to Bonus offer Currently!

Ps: If you have any kind of inquiries you intend to ask me about MaxConvert or you merely intend to offer your feelings and ideas regarding it. Please do not hesitate to communicate your comments, pointers or corrections., I will answer you totally as well as attentively. Many thanks!

[sempiternalsandpitturtle]

How to use advocacy marketing to complement your other content strategies

I love when people help me with my job — especially when those people really appreciate the work I do.

I’m serious. We all need a helping hand sometimes, and it’s good to have someone in your corner when things get tough.

For businesses, those people are your advocates. They’re your best customers; not just because they buy a lot or are easy to work with but because they believe in your brand and want to help you achieve your company mission.

What’s more, they endorse your company all the time, whether prompted or not. In a way, advocates are the best cheerleaders your business can have.

That’s why it’s important to recognise your current advocates and try to cultivate as many additional ones as you can. This is what advocacy marketing is all about.

What is advocacy marketing?

The simple explanation is that advocacy is the last stage in account-based marketing. A better explanation is your marketing efforts should work to turn your clients into customers who not only love your brand but sing its praises to everyone who will listen. It’s word-of-mouth marketing for the digital age.

And we all know that word-of-mouth works.

In a survey from Ogilvy, TNS and Google, word of mouth held the most influence in purchasing decisions among consumers. And let’s face it: we’ve all added something to our Amazon wish list because our friends made it sound cool. (Mine was fancy imported instant ramen packets, for the record).

Also, keep in mind that consumer opinions posted online are the third-most-trusted form of advertising, per Nielsen. If you’ve ever seen a movie with a huge advertising budget but a horrible Rotten Tomatoes score, then you know how much online opinions matter.

Advocacy marketing attempts to fill the gap between traditional advertising and glowing online comments. In a sense, you’re using the first idea to improve the second, creating stronger content that converts people from customers to advocates. You’re also nurturing your existing advocates to strengthen your bond with them.

In this way, advocacy marketing complements your existing campaigns, working alongside them to boost engagement.

What’s a brand advocate, really?

Advocates are those customers who support your business almost as much as you do. They show up to every party with an invite, and they’ll stand by your side when you least expect it.

And they’re happy to do so in exchange for the amazing service you provide.

That’s the thing: Brand advocates don’t just support your business, they believe in it. They agree with your company’s mission, whatever it may be, and fully trust that you’ll achieve your customer-service initiatives. They provide helpful, constructive feedback to improve your product or service, and they may even come up with a new idea of their own.

And lucky for you, their enthusiasm shows itself not just in their level of engagement but in their willingness to praise your brand to other people. Advocates open up a large network of opportunities, ideally extolling your business to their peers, friends and family.

Finding your brand advocates

At first, your energy is best spent using advocacy marketing to target your most engaged customers and get them to spread word about your business. This act could be as simple as sharing a LinkedIn post from your brand or tagging your company in an Instagram post.

Clients who are the most engaged and in touch with their designated day-to-day are good people to target. Engage them with personalised marketing emails that allow them to share content on their social pages. Interview them for short videos or case studies, and invite them to any events you host.

Once you’ve developed a strong connection with these people, you can switch to your average customers. These are the people who like your brand well enough but don’t feel any strong attachment to it. With advocacy marketing, your goal is to create content that gets these people to fall in love with your business.

Also, give all of your current and potential advocates your engagement. Hype up their business on social media when appropriate to do so, and share any interesting content the company has created if it’s relevant to your audience. Showing you’re willing to support them (in the B2C space) or their business (in B2B) makes them more likely to invest in yours.

Using online platforms for advocacy

Technically, you can use any platform that resonates with your readers. If you see the most engagement and shares from your blog, focus your marketing efforts here. If people often retweet your Twitter posts, well, get those fingers ready to type some 280-character specials.

At the end of the day, choosing between LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or your blog depends on the content you’re creating and any non-advocacy goals attached to it. Want your content to spread like wildfire? Try Twitter. Want to increase your company’s standing as a thought leader? Craft a well-researched piece for LinkedIn.

Also, don’t forget the power of user-generated content! Blog commenters are advocates in their own way, as are the people engaged in your resource library or forum. It’s also a great way to turn casual customers into advocates by giving them a little individualised attention. Your customers will appreciate being noticed, view your business more favorably and therefore be more likely to recommend your company. You’ll also get all the other benefits of UGC, so it’s a win-win.

Do you really need to focus on advocacy marketing?

The tides of content marketing turn fast, and you may be struggling to finally get a hold on the last major innovative idea in the field. I wouldn’t blame you if you feel a little fatigued, but advocacy marketing really is important enough to pay attention to.

Why? Well, it’s a good supplement to paid ads, which aren’t performing as well across the board as they used to. Last year, brands saw a decline in reach on both Facebook and Instagram, two of the biggest online customer engagement platforms. Lower reach means fewer impressions and engagement, which directly affects your bottom lines. If these trends continue and paid advertising becomes significantly less effective, advocates can pick up some (or even most) of the slack for you.

Advocates, meanwhile, bring that element of third-party trust described above. They’re not paid to advertise your brand, so outside viewers see their enthusiasm for your product as honest and worth considering.

This isn’t to say that paid ads aren’t effective right now: Ads bring in three times more new customers than existing ones, and paid social ad revenue is on the rise. Plus, influencer marketing is proving to be a pretty good investment on its own. But as social reach falls and digital ad costs rise even by small amounts, brands should focus on advocacy marketing to spread word of their business.

Employees as advocates?

Yes, you can use your employees’ enthusiasm as part of your advocacy marketing campaigns. The key here is to make their comments seem organic rather than forced. UGC is great for this; have your employees share behind-the-scenes pictures and videos of themselves and the company. Make sure the copy is casual, not promotional, otherwise it’ll read as an ad, not as advocacy.

You can also create communities for your advocates, something I alluded to earlier. American Express has its OPEN Forum, which originally started as a networking community for entrepreneurs. It eventually expanded into a content and advice resource, but the community aspect is still a major focus. Wiley, meanwhile, has WileyPLUS Studio, an invitation-only advocate platform where top users can share insights, strategies and more.

Of course, launching your own community forum takes a lot of time and money, not to mention an expert web programmer. You might want to start smaller and build up your advocates on social media first. Then, once you get a large, supportive community, create an exclusive online content source specifically for them. Focus on nurturing other customers to the point where they actively want to join these communities, and you’ve got a recipe for great advocacy marketing ROI.

Writing content for advocacy marketing

Technically, you want all of your content to turn people into advocates. If you plan to dedicate focus to this concept, however, then keep these two ideas in mind:

Personalisation makes customers view your business more favorably. Mention people by name, at the very least.

Shareable content is easier for advocates to promote, so make sure you have those social icons and plug-ins handy.

Targeting your advocates specifically, again, makes them love your brand and more likely to promote it. If you want a little more guarantee for your effort, however, then there’s nothing wrong with holding a little contest. B2C brands offer giveaways all the time on Instagram, and you can do something similar in the B2B space. Maybe you can offer a free trial of a different service in exchange for user-generated content describing why customers like your business.

Also, sometimes it’s most effective to just talk to them directly. Send an email asking which pieces of content you’ve created resonate best with them, and see what they’d like to read from you in the future. Your advocates will likely jump at the opportunity to contribute. Chances are they aren’t your only customers who have such opinions on what you produce, and creating these bits of content may convert more casual customers into advocates.

Getting customer advocates goes beyond marketing. Your content can help, but its your company actions that compel people to advocate on your behalf. Make sure you have an amazing product and stellar company service, then talk about your strong points and get customers engaged.

It’s a long haul to be sure, but it’s worth it.

from http://bit.ly/34zRtJM

[thisdaynews]

'Populist mobs' vs. the Kochs: Tech probes split the GOP

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/populist-mobs-vs-the-kochs-tech-probes-split-the-gop/

'Populist mobs' vs. the Kochs: Tech probes split the GOP

The advocacy group also ran digital ads in March urging members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to “oppose any effort to use antitrust laws to break up America’s innovative tech companies.” The targets of those ads included freshman Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), both of whom the Koch organization supported in last year’s election.

“It’s been troubling to see a sort of coming together of populist mobs on the left and the right,” said Jesse Blumenthal, who leads the tech policy portfolio for the Koch umbrella network Stand Together. “Our views haven’t changed based on the politics of the moment.”

But the Koch network does not see itself as Silicon Valley’s cheerleader either, he added.

“Our role is not to defend these companies,” Blumenthal said. “Our role is to monitor and critique, in this case, what we see as a potentially illegitimate use of government power. If Google or Facebook or any other company has violated the antitrust laws then they should be investigated.”

Still, the Koch network’s hesitancy to join calls for a tech crackdown is putting it increasingly out of step with a chunk of today’s GOP.Republicans have long been associated with more cautious antitrust enforcement, suspicious of the notion that the government should effectively choose winners and losers in the marketplace. But those views have become unmoored as animus toward the tech industry grows, observers say.

“You can no longer say Republicans are the party of limited government intervention when it comes to antitrust,” said one veteran Washington antitrust attorney, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

“It will portend a more active Republican antitrust regime than we’ve seen in the past,” the lawyer continued. “If we have a bipartisan consensus that we really ought to look at these companies and police them closely on competition issues, I think that makes a difference. It’s a very different world than five years ago or 10 years ago.”

Those bipartisan endeavors to regulate the nation’s big tech companies have already shown signs of extending beyond antitrust, creating a headache for internet companies as they fend off, for instance, talks of amending laws that protect them from lawsuits over user-generated content.

“People will be more open to looking at ways to more aggressively regulate tech and the industry should be worried about that,” said Zach Graves, head of policy for the conservative group Lincoln Networks. “Over the long run, it could shape the type of views of the next rounds of elected representatives.”

Republicans leading the antitrust probes maintain that they are the ones standing up for unfettered private enterprise, positioning themselves as defenders of smaller players who could be crowded out of the market by the industry’s heavyweights.

“I support free markets, which is why this investigation is so important,” GOP Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said at aSeptember news conference announcing a joint investigation of Google’s search and digital advertising businesses by 48 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico. “So that we absolutely ensure that even the biggest of big tech companies are accountable and even the biggest of the big tech companies are subject to the rule of law.”

The week before, a smaller contingent of state AGs announced they would be investigating Facebook on antitrust grounds. Meanwhile, in Washington, the Federal Trade Commission has asked Facebook to fork over information related to its business practices, the company disclosed in July, and the Justice Department made a similar demand of Google in recent weeks amid a broad review of anticompetitive behavior in tech.

The Koch network shelled out $400 million on political and policy fights in 2017 and 2018, according to previously reported figures outlined by the network, and at its peak rivaled the Republican Party itself in its power and influence. That presents a deep-pocketed foe for groups that want to see tech firms held to greater account.AFP declined to say how much it spent on the antitrust ads, though Facebook’s advertising database indicates it was less than $100 per ad. A spokesperson for the organization said the group opted not to expand the ad campaign because it “served its intended purpose.”

“The Koch network is led by people who would like to be running the economy,” said Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonpartisan group that fights market concentration. “There are many members of Congress who turn to them for campaign financing and they finance many of the organizations on the right, so because they’re the source of so much money they are hugely influential.”

But some progressives pushing for greater scrutiny of the tech industry’s market power say that influence may no longer be enough.

“People aren’t afraid of them anymore” said Matt Stoller, a fellow at the Open Markets Institute. “It’s not that they don’t have power, they do have power. They don’t carry the same level of fear.”

Tech companies and the libertarian Kochs have shown an affinity before, including in their support for low taxes and opposition to trade and immigration barriers. Two years ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook joined Charles Koch in urging Congress to protect the rights of so-called Dreamers who were brought to the U.S. as children. But the Kochs’ importance as potential allies for the industry has grown with the roster of federal and state-level probes looking into the companies’ data practices, alleged anti-competitive behavior and oversight of online speech.

An AFP spokesman said antitrust is one of several policy issues the group plans to consider when deciding whether to back candidates in upcoming races and noted the organization will throw its support behind those who “stick their neck out” regardless of political party.

Conservative Republicans like Hawley and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have cheered on the antitrust investigations, and Cruz even sided with liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in one of her recent run-ins with Facebook. And Hawley has questioned how fellow conservatives who have long advocated for freedom of choice and checks on authority don’t take issue with the dominance of Silicon Valley’s internet companies.

“I don’t understand why those who call themselves libertarians are so enamored with this incredible concentration of power in the hands of a few,” Hawley said in an interview with The Hill. “I thought the whole libertarian tradition was about standing up to power, it was about checking concentrated power on behalf of the people.”

“And that’s what needs to happen here,” he said.

The split has, at times, become acrimonious. Americans for Prosperity, for instance, spent $2.1 million in ads helping to elect Hawley in 2018, as POLITICO previously reported. Now, employees within the Koch network are sniping with the senator on Twitter, including accusing him of lying about the Federal Trade Commission’s handling of a 2012 staff report on Google’s competition practices.

The industry’s most powerful critic in Washington, of course, is President Donald Trump, who has joined congressional Republicans in accusing companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google of muting conservative points of view. Blackburn pointed to the bias allegations earlier this year when she set up a Senate tech task force, which is looking at issues including antitrust, data privacy and content moderation.

Free-market advocates argue that the Trump administration and state enforcers are out to score political points rather than pursue genuine legal violations.

“It comes down to the question of: Do you see government as the solution to a perceived problem? Or do you believe that the market is in the best position?” said Carl Szabo, vice president and general counsel of NetChoice, a right-leaning industry trade group whose members include Google and Facebook.

“It is one thing to say you believe in the free market, it’s another thing to actually do what you say,” he said.

Google and Facebook declined to comment on the Republican split. Both companies have rejected the notion that they illegally suppress rivals or function as monopolies in their respective markets, arguing that they face competition in their various lines of businesses, sometimes from one another.

The tech industry has also ramped up its search for friends in Washington. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a rare trip to Capitol Hill last month for meetings with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including critics like Hawley, as well as an Oval Office sit-down with Trump and some of his advisers.

But while Trump and Facebook tweeted some kind words after the Zuckerberg meeting, the Republican suspicion of Silicon Valley, and its largely liberal executives and employee base, appears unlikely to die down any time soon. That’s true even though companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon have long staffed their Washington offices with people who have ties to Republican politics.

Zuckerberg, for example, was accompanied during his D.C. trip by Facebook global public policy chief Joel Kaplan, a former George W. Bush administration official who last year made a show of support for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his contentious confirmation hearing. Last week, Google global policy leader Karan Bhatia — another Bush White House veteran — tapped Mark Isakowitz, the chief of staff to Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, as the head of the search giant’s D.C. policy operation. Despite those connections, there may simply be fewer Republicans willing to come to the industry’s aide as Congress makes tech industry competition a greater focus.

“Their principled allies, people who actually care about these things because of some commitment to how antitrust law should work, don’t really matter anymore,” said Berin Szóka, the president of libertarian group TechFreedom. “There are very few people now who, in a hearing, will stand up and remind everyone what the free-market position is.”

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[templified]

Best WordPress Bootstrap Themes TopNotch Themes | Templified

New Post has been published on https://templified.com/best-wordpress-bootstrap-themes/

Best WordPress Bootstrap Themes TopNotch Themes

If you’re looking for the finest WordPress Twitter Bootstrap themes around, you’ve come to the right place.  Bootstrap isn’t just a grid-based WordPress framework that allows folks to create a new website in a relatively straight-forward way, making it a breeze to craft a responsive, attractive WordPress theme with what they call a ‘thousand hour head start’.  It’s also a high quality code base to make front end web development fast and simple.  Bootstrap themes are rock-steady, since the code is constantly being updated to reflect new techniques and standards for WordPress.  That makes it scale-able for any purpose and it means your website will never go out of style.  We’ve found a selection of the finest WordPress bootstrap themes, we hope you find at least one you love.

Producr

  Producr is a finely tuned machine that helps turn a Vafpress and Twitter Bootstrap framework into a full-featured multipurpose WordPress theme with a lot of features at a very reasonable price. This creates an almost unbeatable combination, making this theme incredibly easy to extend with more features, options, meta-boxes or shortcodes.  Producr is fantastic as a business theme, a portfolio or any other sort of all-around, general purpose site.  The intuitive interface is perfect for beginners to get started within minutes of installing the theme and the style of this theme is professional, slim and trim, yet elegant in it’s own way.  Producr has been around for a while and this theme is so easy to get started with, with demo content import, Slider Revolution, great documentation and even better support.

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Devendo

  Devendo is basically a photography theme for WordPress, a flat and responsive theme that utilizes Bootstrap as it’s foundation, which means the code is rock solid and responsive.  Also, Devendo looks fantastic on every screen size, fluidly adjusting it’s size and style on the fly.  Microscopic sized CSS means this template loads up fast, meaning SEO will be pretty easy to get lined up for a fast loading site that really rises up the search engine rankings as you add new content.  Devendo is a modern, slick and sleek portfolio theme that photographers will really go for.   There are several color schemes ready for you to select them, it’s powered by OptionTree, takes advantage of the hundreds of free Google fonts, ensuring mind bogglingly nice typography and more.  Pick Devendo with confidence.

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SmartBox

  SmartBox is a truly unique WordPress bootstrap based theme and while it’s been around for a while, it’s still as popular as ever.  SmartBox is easy to install, easy to customize and it’s straightforward back-end admin panel is a big reason why.  SmartBox is a purely responsive theme, that means it will look incredible on each and every device, no matter what screen size.  Mobile phones, tablets, desktops or laptops, your readers and clients will be able to take your website on the go, or check out your content in their homes or offices.  SmartBox has a really powerful shortcode generator, allowing you to extend the native functionality of the basic page design or widgetized areas.  Great support, that’s the name of the game with Oxygenna, they’re known for fantastic, coureous and fast support times.  If you’re looking for a great Bootstrap theme, we think that SmartBox is a smart choice.

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Swenson

  The Swenson WordPress theme focuses on the user experience and presenting a modern design that attracts attention and presents content in a sleek and effective way no matter what industry your company, agency or self works in. Installation is simple and set up requires no knowledge of code or web page development. The existing structure, built with HTML5 and CSS3 combined with the popular Bootstrap 3 framework, allows for truly unique and fluid design options. The resultant websites that use Swenson are completely responsive and display beautifully on any size screen. Both one page and multiple page sites can be built with ease.

Although Swenson is easy to work with, that does not mean it lacks in features. The popular parallax scrolling style offers smooth navigation up and down the page. Complete customization of headers allows you to take control of site visitors’ first impressions. The premium Visual Composer plug-in lets you drag various blocks of content, widgets or elements into place. Slideshows and other dynamic presentations with eye-catching animations and transitions can be built using the Revolution Slider plug-in. All of these features and more can be deployed or customized from the Redux options panel. The Swenson WordPress theme offers additional compatibility with SEO and other plug-ins and more unique options than you may ever use.

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Aviva

  Aviva is truly special, combining Twitter Bootstrap code, Visual Composer for dynamic page layouts and the power of WooCommerce to help you sell products, if that’s something you’re interested in.  If you need a fantastic drag and drop WordPress theme, you should look at a theme that uses Visual Composer, the most widely user plugin for creating a drag and drop website for WordPress, because it offers such a wide range of features, it’s adaptable enough to create every website. This well made, cutting edge, very easy to use, flexible and lovely WooCommerce theme lets you promote existing products, launch brand new items, manage shipping and inventory, get in touch with buyers and develop your business and a lot more.

This one is classically made with beautiful style, one that offers numerous useful, popular attributes, simple to operate with plenty of terrific help and documentation, completely responsive so that it works well on any kind of screen and incredibly flexible so that you can utilize it on any type of site.  This well-built, flexible, very easy to use, lovely and modern WooCommerce theme lets you get in touch with potential customers, sell old products, build your online business, administer delivery and your inventory and promote brand new products and more.  To generate the very best, most pleasurable online experience around, you will want to opt for a powerful, properly designed blog theme.

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Uncode

  Seasoned developers will appreciate the Uncode WordPress theme’s current HTML5 and CSS3 code built over Twitter’s Bootstrap framework, but there is no reason to know even one line of code to be able to create stunning web pages with it. Built into the highly user-friendly admin panel are a plethora of options for custom layouts, content blocks, and features. Uncode lets you create one page or multiple pages with similar or varying design. If you wish to get started quickly, choose from their large selection of pre-build demo pages that deliver professional layouts with ease. These can provide many of the most popular pages for a business or personal website.

The feature-rich Uncode WordPress theme offers modern style, extreme flexibility and the right high-tech power for quick load times and no errors. It builds completely responsive sites that can be viewed with ease on any size screen or monitor. With all of the options, the most up to date style and content elements and features and its ability to transform into a perfect solution for multiple industries and purposes, the Uncode WordPress theme lets anyone build an impressive platform on the Internet.

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Rhythm

  When it comes to options, the Rhythm WordPress theme stands out as an awesome option for anyone who needs a website no matter what their purpose or industry.  Looking for a great one page theme?  This might be it.  The vast number of options, innate flexibility, back-end power and up-to-date styling comes fully integrated with so many plugins, add-ons and options you may never get to explore them all. Installation is quick and intuitive and launch can be just as simple if you choose one of the 45 varied pre-made demo pages that encompass both multi and one-page design. Any of these can be tweaked to fulfill your every need, or you can build from scratch in the intuitive admin control panel. Add any features you want from gorgeous parallax scroll effects, responsive graphic or video sliders, stylish blogs, portfolios and galleries, e-commerce shop pages and uniquely built menu options.

The Rhythm WP theme offers careful construction with the latest code for fast load times and ease of use. Every visible feature and element was selected for pure style and capability so anyone can build a professional and highly aesthetic website for any purpose. Built on the Bootstrap 3 framework, Rhythm invites people to experience and explore on the go from a smartphone just as easily as from home on a large desktop computer. Site visitors will be impressed as much as you the first time they see everything this powerful WP theme has to offer.

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Mana

  Whether visitors navigate to your website on their desktop computer or their smartphone, they will be wowed by the attractive and professional Mana WordPress theme that offers fully responsive styling because of its Bootstrap 3 foundation. This multipurpose theme suits a vast array of different professional and personal site needs. Mana can handle e-commerce shops, company platforms, magazines and blogs, landing pages for products and even gallery sites for creative professionals. Customization is simple with the intuitive yet powerful admin control panel.

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Herringbone

  Herringbone is Bootstrap built, it’s WooCommerce ready and it’s simple and attractive enough to make a great first impression.  that’s a great combo, huh?  I think Herringbone is a snappy little theme that’s ready to showcase your products, from clothing (like shown in the example) to electronic products or anything else your heart desires.  Herringbone can make it happen!  Bootstrap themes are well known for their rock solid code and they’re a great way to get started with a new website quickly, with no need to learn how to code.

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RioLeme

  RioLeme is a multipurpose, responsive, HTML5 WordPress Theme built with Twitter Bootstrap 3. It is powered with great features, super simple to use and suitable for all kind of purposes.  Because of powerful Bootstrap framework it is fully responsive and the layout will adapt to different screen sizes which will make your website be compatible with any device, such as smart phones, laptops and tablets.  The Bootstrap framework is rock solid, easy to use and edit and it won’t bog your computer down with extra code you don’t need.

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ClickBoom

  This one is truly a properly built, gorgeous, vibrant and ground breaking Bootstrap based template to help you create the webpage of your hopes and dreams. This Bootstrap theme is ultra powerful, it has been carefully designed with all types of user in mind, from rookie to specialist. With the latest Bootstrap HTML and CSS, this template is ideal for sites and organizations of any kind, given that this design is an unbelievably dynamic and fun multipurpose website theme, well suited for everybody. Even if you may be are unfamiliar with the WordPress CMS, you may use this theme to create an energetic and stylish web page without delay, since very nearly everything within this design can be edited, even by beginner WordPress consumers. It doesn’t make any difference the kind of content material you have got, from images to blog posts, products or posts, this design will let you produce a great appearing theme on any computer, because it is perfectly responsive too. There are plenty of other characteristics that may assist you continue building listeners and actually engage with them.

This site installs very easily and there are numerous plugins which you can utilize to provide you with cutting edge abilities for your blog. An entirely responsive web site is extremely important, which is why this attractive, adaptive template has been created to be completely responsive, so it appears cool on any sort of smart device, every single time. You can rapidly create your own unique layouts using this theme, because it’s incredibly adaptive and powerful, expertly produced and created in every way. This really is an absolutely fantastic WordPress bootstrap theme you need to unquestionably check out.

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Arctic

  Arctic is a full ajax WordPress theme, with a smooth experience.It has a sharp and clean design with Retina support. It is suitable for Architect and Creatives to show they work.  With Bootstrap powering the framework of this theme, you know Arctic will load quickly and display properly on each and every device your readers use to access it.  Arctic is such a great base for a WordPress project, it’s no wonder it’s so popular.

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Make

  Make is a fully really well designed and smart looking theme.  Make is completely responsive and it’s even Retina display ready, which means it looks fantastic.  No matter what display device your readers access the site with, it looks it’s best at every resolution.  This theme is class, Bootstrap built and it’s perfect for an advertising or creative agency, corporate website, nonprofit, freelance creative professional or any sort of general business. Like we said, it was constructed with with clean, pure Bootstrap code, so it is really stable and easy to manage.  There are advanced theme options, a handy shortcode generator and, of course, Make offers responsive design.  A must have for any modern website.

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Breeze

  The Breeze WordPress theme combines up to date Bootstrap 3 responsive style with simple customization options that help you build a website that is both highly user-friendly and aesthetically impressive. Every site visitor will feel welcomed to your company, agency or personal site and be able to navigate easily to find all the content they want.  Non-developers will find it easy to change each page of a site using the Breeze WP theme with the 14 different widgets, 10 unique shortcodes and the intuitive custom options panel. While Breeze has been featured with other minimalist-style alternatives before, it stands out as an excellent option for those who want an easily launched but remarkable website.  Breeze was built to make constructing a personal blog, with a minimalist and clean layout, simple enough for even a beginner to achieve with ease.  Mission aaccomplished.

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Renova

  Renova is a flat designed, one page (on multi-page) theme with swipe enabled navigation for mobile devices.  It’s also a fantastic way to present your content in a fun, memorable way.  Renova is a well designed Bootstrap theme, so the code is error free and allows Renova built sites to load very quickly on any device.  Advanced and unique, that’s what Renova’s all about.  Even beginners can use Renova and Bootstrap to create a nice looking WordPress based page.  Renova is probably best suited as a creative agency portfolio page, though cretaive individuals can obviously get a lot out of Renova as well.  There’s a full screen background image slideshow, Ajax and standalone blog pages with post format support and a lot more.  Renova is definitely one of the very best flat WordPress Bootstrap themes on the market.

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Opinions

  Is it a magazine theme or is it a BuddyPress theme?  Hey, it’s both!  I really like the organization of the layout on ’Opinions’ theme.  Fully responsive, which is incredibly important for a magazine theme.  it’s also constructed on the rock-steady twitter Bootstrap framework.   It’s an impressive WordPress magazine theme and of course, it’s utterly cram-packed with impressive design features to make your news even ‘newsier’!

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Alterna

  Alterna is a fine way to use the power of Bootstrap and WordPress to make a great looking website that’s completely responsive, looks great on any device, makes a wonderful first impression, loads up quickly on any device and any browser and Alterna also supports both WooCommerce and Visual Composer.  Those functions alone make Alterna a great theme, but there’s so much more to it than that.  Alterna has amazing support and documentation, the code is error free and the vast assortment of sliders, shortcodes, animated transitions, portfolio styles, basic premade layouts, SEO optimization and other outstanding features put Alterna over the top.  This is definitely one of the themes that’s been popular for quite some time and it only seems to be getting better every day.

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[onlinemarketingcourses]

How I got 80% open rate in my email outreach campaign Search Engine Watch

The suggestion that you could have 80% of your outreach read by recipients sounds like a pipedream — an astronomical figure designed to keep people plugging away on their outbox. 

With such a small canvas of visible information in a recipient’s inbox to work with, it can feel like enticing four out of every five targets to open your email is impossible.

But if you incorporate the right approaches, then it can very much become a reality. Just to give you the heads up, here’re some results we’ve managed to get in our recent outreach campaign:

In the following article, I’ve explored the ingredients needed to get 80% of your outreach messages viewed. So perhaps you’d like to pour yourself a coffee and brace yourself for an awful lot more audience interaction in the near future — the caffeine might come in handy.

Identify your targets

There are five key factors behind achieving a high open rate in your email outreach, and the first and most important is through identifying the right recipients.

A common mistake among many outreachers is their shotgun approach to distributing emails. While scattering mail across the internet into as many inboxes that can be sourced may seem like a good, time-saving and quantitative technique, it actually wastes more time that could be better invested in finding quality recipients.

Before a successful outreach campaign, you’ll need to dedicate some time to the preparation stage. Identify who your ideal responder would be, whether it’s a client, customer, consumer or collaborator, and work on devising a list of the perfect targets that fit the description.

Through the use of opt-ins and calls-to-action, you can have an interested recipient base come to you with minimal fuss and is a sure-fire approach to sending marketing emails to those most likely to view your content. By inviting your website’s visitors to subscribe to your mailing list via an effective call-to-action placed on your homepage, you get to save time on research and effortlessly come into possession of hundreds of emails – a great outreach method for websites that are in a position to offer a product or service to thousands of people.

For outreach emails with more link-building intentions sourcing becomes more difficult. If you’ve decided to target industry professionals and influencers, then tools like Email Hunter and Voila Norbert could be the answer — these services scour the internet for the relevant email addresses behind just about any active website and can help you hit the bulls-eye when it comes to finding the right people to get in contact with.

Mastering the subject line

According to a poll conducted via Litmus, 34% of recipients believe that an email subject line is the most important factor in helping them to decide to open their mail. This means that over 1/3 of your targets for outreach will be waiting for a perfect heading before clicking on your message.

These stats illustrate how important it is to get your subject line right, and there are many schools of thought behind what’s most effective and what isn’t.

Of course, each subject line will vary depending on the type of outreach you conduct, but the best practice is to appeal to people’s curiosity, to make them believe they’ll be gaining something if they read your email – which of course they will if your campaign has been constructed well enough.

A winning subject line needs to be short, personal wherever possible, and relevant to the topics covered by your email. Sometimes being upfront can be effective, especially when it comes to outreaching savvy marketers and bloggers.

There are a few other factors that can make all the difference in making your email stand out too. Incorporating emojis into your heading may risk your content appearing puerile, but with the vast catalogue of emojis that are more serious than a winking yellow circle with a tongue sticking out, you can really add some standout imagery and colour to your title. For example, travel companies have been using holiday-themed emojis like aeroplanes and city skylines to great effect in capturing the imagination of recipients — if you can find something relevant that appeals to the aesthetics of your email, then it could be a key addition to make.

With so many individuals checking their inboxes via their smartphones, keeping your subject lines short and punchy has never been more important — make sure you get your message across in less than 50 characters.

By adding an element of urgency to your headline, recipients will feel more compelled to check its contents. You can exercise this by adding a sense of limited-time opportunity to your subject, or by inviting them to respond before a deadline — the chances are that they’ll be curious as to what’s caused the urgency and read on.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions in your subject line too — this can be seen as a way of cutting to the chase and getting your message across immediately.

Making use of your preview snippets

Many inboxes have menus that not only feature an unread email’s subject line but a snippet of text from the beginning of a message. It’s important not to neglect the opening lines of your email because this could be a key factor in whether or not it gets read or moved to the ‘junk’ folder.

Litmus has stated that 24% of recipients check the text previews of emails, so it’s worth dedicating time to.

The most important part of nailing your email opening is personalization. Make sure it begins with ‘Dear, [Name]’ or ‘Hi [Name],’ where possible – any less than this will give off the strong impression that you’re simply using templates to scatter across the web (which may well be the case, but we don’t want them to know that).

An effective use of the preview snippet is to treat it like a secondary subject line, or to summarize the email in the first line – doing so could be the deciding factor while your target’s hovering over your message in their inbox. If you’re using an email marketing software, make sure to use these two rules in every template.

Keeping your sender reputation in check

You could have compiled the best list of targeted recipients, the best subject line and opening text, all for it to be undone by a sender score that’s so low that your email drops straight into the junk folder never to be seen again.

Email providers are designed to give their users the best experience. And part of that is through whittling down any perceived junk automatically by filtering out any messages from users with a low sender score.

A sender score is calculated by prior interactions, and how many users generally open your emails. A great website to check if your current email address passes most servers’ junk filters is to consult Senderscore.org, which will let you know how your email is faring, and whether or not your messages will make it to the inboxes of your recipients.

Effective follow-ups

Don’t be afraid to follow up on your emails. It can be easy to perceive the use of follow-ups as a nuisance or spammy, but in reality, a second email tends to work wonders in getting your content noticed.

There are many reasons why recipients don’t read emails the first time around; it could’ve been received at a busy time in their day, or deleted by accident, or simply missed. Here, a follow-up offers your target a second chance to see your content and acknowledge your outreach.

Be sure to specify that your email is a follow-up – this shows that you’ve been in touch prior and clearly value the recipient’s attention. Also be sure to note when you sent your initial email for ease of reference.

While it’s worth sending more than one follow-up email to maximize your recipient’s chances to respond, we advise against mailing more than two chasers in order to limit the risk of being considered spam, or worse, being blacklisted.

Dmytro Spilka is Head Wiz at Solvid Digital. He can be found on Twitter at @spilkadi.

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