#Where all the guts of the process and the image sources are exposed | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

evolutionsvoid · 7 years ago

Photo

With a name like "Ghost Eater," it is really hard to talk about anything else besides this strange creature's hunting behavior and diet. If you bring up the species name to anyone, they aren't really going to be interested in hearing about its preferred habitats or method of reproduction. Regardless, I am at least going to talk about some of the other facts about Ghost Eaters, because they are important too! Ghost Eaters can be found in a wide variety of habitats, mainly because they spend most of their lives underground. Things like vegetation and weather conditions don't affect them too much, as they live deep in the soil. Though I said they could be found in a lot of places, that doesn't exactly mean you can find them everywhere you look. Ghost Eaters are a rather rare species, their numbers sparsely scattered across the continents. What keeps their population so low and spread out isn't fully known, but some guess it is a combination of food availability and pressure caused by superstitious cultures. Ghost Eaters have two phases: hibernation or hunting. They spend a large chunk of their life simply sleeping within the earth, slowly feeding off the gut load they procured from their last hunt. They slumber quite far below, making it difficult for surface predators or attackers to find and harm them. This sleep can go on for long periods of time, from months to years, and even decades! They will hibernate until their stomach gets light and hunger gnaws at them once more. This awakens them and drives them to the surface, using their claws and harden skulls to burrow through the earth at startling speeds. At this point, they are in their more active phase. They are on the hunt for food. Of course you can already guess what these creatures eat, as their names make it quite blatant. They do eat other things, though, not just spirits of the dead. It seems that Ghost Eaters do not feed on physical food like we do, but instead on energy sources. Their strange anatomy and organs somehow are capable of gaining nutrients or energy from things like mana and spiritual residue. While a hunger for mana means that they could go after magical artifacts or mages for food, such sources are often quite hostile and dangerous. Most magic tomes or ancient staves are guarded by wizards and the such, and they aren't about to let some worm-creature swallow their precious equipment. So with that, Ghost Hunters rarely try to feed on such things. Instead, there is another source of food that is much easier to catch and less likely to fry them with a fireball, and that is ghosts. Ghosts, spirits, poltergeists and the such are things beyond my field of study, so I cannot tell you much about them. As far as I know, they are some energized remnants of dead people that somehow still exist within our world. Some say they are true wandering souls, while some claim they are merely copies or echos of the real person brought to life by some outside force, but I am not any of them. I got no clue what they are, so I am going to stick with what I know, and that is that ghosts produce and exude some kind of energy that can satiate a Ghost Eater's hunger. With that, Ghost Eaters hunt for these spirits, looking to swallow them whole and trap them within their stomachs. This brings up another strange thing about Ghost Eaters, as they are somehow capable of interacting with this phantasms. While the rest of us could walk through a ghost like it was made of fog, this species' biology always them to treat spirits like they are physical beings. To them, ghosts have the consistency and structure of cobwebs, their forms made up of strands of energy, soul, whatever. This allows them hunt these spirits, and it also keeps them from phasing through their digestive system. Food is no good if it can escape from your stomach!

To make this strange creature even more bizarre, it has organic mechanisms that aid it in catching ghostly prey! First is their senses, which are somehow capable or "smelling" spirits, even if they are invisible. Something about the energy they exude is visible to Ghost Eaters, and they can track it like a hound following a scent. The next is their strange "lures." These come in different forms, but Ghost Eaters have a glowing structure on their heads or mouths that paralyze nearby spirits. The most common variety of lure is found on the roof of the Ghost Eater's mouth, dangling right before its expansive gullet. Ghosts who look at this bizarre light will be entranced and frozen, unable to flee from the approaching predator. Other lures may be on prehensile tendrils, used like some kind of fishing pole. When their prey is stunned, the Ghost Eater will move in and snare the spirit with its flexible fangs. These teeth are not like ones found in most fleshy things, as they can move and bend at will, allowing them to reach out and hook phantasms. Like a duster removing cobwebs, these bendy teeth will stab into a spirit and entangle them. Multiple fangs will move in to prevent escape, and then they will start to pull the trapped prey towards the throat. There, the ghost will be sucked in and sent into its flexible stomach. Since they cannot phase through a Ghost Eater, they will be stuck in its belly and sapped of energy, which is an excruciatingly slow process. Though it varies between spirits, most will last for several years before they finally fade out, and they are unfortunately alive and aware the entire time. If you ever encounter a Ghost Eater, you will probably hear muffled wailing and crying coming from its body. These creatures hiss and gurgle, while their victims do all the screaming. So when a Ghost Eater goes on the hunt, they will come to the surface and "sniff" out the scent of spirits. Most of the time, the trail will take them to cemeteries or catacombs, where the dead lay and the ghosts play. The creature will hurry towards the source of the smell and then burst violently from the ground. This dramatic entrance is meant to startle and surprise, giving the beast the chance to attack. What also helps is the fact that most spirits have long ago accepted that they cannot be affected by the physical world. It will take them some time to acknowledge that this species is one of the exceptions, and by that time it will have already deployed its hypnotic lure. With haste, the Ghost Eater will scarf down every phantasm it can catch and then quickly return down below. It seems that these creatures despise being hungry, as well as being exposed on the surface. Once it fills its stomach with victims, it will burrow back down below and return to its slumber. Apparently the wailing coming from their stomach doesn't trouble their sleep. Obviously Ghost Eaters are quite the oddity, and no one really knows what to make of them. Some cultures love them, especially those who see ghosts as false images of the dead or demons taking on familiar forms to tempt innocents. A Ghost Eater coming through the town's cemetery will consume all the troublesome poltergeists and evil spirits, which allows peace to return to certain villages. Others hate Ghost Eaters, as they see spirits as real souls and people. A grieving widow who has found the spirit of her partner will not be too pleased when one of these creatures bursts from the ground and swallows their loved one. To these societies, Ghost Eaters are seen as agents of devils, coming from the underworld to devour lost souls and those who still seek paradise. Spirits eaten by these monsters are believed to be dragged down below to suffer for all eternity (which isn't exactly wrong). If a Ghost Eater emerges around these villages, it will be hunted down and slaughtered, its stomach sliced open to release the trapped souls. Some people kill these creatures for other reasons. Ghost Eaters can swallow and feed off of magic artifacts and weapons, which is tempting to adventurers and mages. Those who hunt them will cut their bellies open and hope that some powerful relic comes spilling out. Others attack them to use their body parts for ingredients, as their special biology makes for powerful potions and spells. Necromancers and those who use souls and spirits will track down Ghost Eaters to use the plethora of resources resting in their guts. All of this is probably why Ghost Eaters hate coming to the surface. The other thing about this species is that no one really knows where they come from or how they breed. It is strange to think that a creature with such a bizarre diet could have formed naturally. This has led to the theory that Ghost Eaters were either created spontaneously or intentionally through magical means. Certain tales claim that Ghost Eaters were brought to life after a decades long war left the landscape littered with corpses and wandering spirits. These vengeful ghosts turned against the living, and so these beasts were made to stop this menace. Some think that a non-human race created them in order to steal souls to use for maniacal purposes, with the blame being pointed at demons, fairies or dryads. In my eyes, these creatures' origins have to have some type of magic involved. Perhaps they were originally a normal, natural species before some ancient mages altered them into this new form. There is too much purpose in their design for it to be coincidence. How would such a species develop on its own? I feel that someone had to make these things, and it would be interesting if we ever figured this enigma out. I know who I would go to for some insight! I would talk to the faeries, as their magical connections would have some knowledge in these matters. The problem, though, is that I would have to convince them not to execute me on the spot, which we all know would never work. Bad enough that I am a dryad, but to start inquiring about their magical ways would definitely make things worse. Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian

#monster #creature #ghost #ghost eater #art #drawing

9 notes · View notes

multiverseforger · 5 years ago

Text

The Batman Who Laughs is a version of Batman from Earth-22 of the Dark Multiverse. In that reality, the Earth -22 Joker learns of Batman's identity as Bruce Wayne and kills most of Batman's other rogues, along with Commissioner Gordon. He then subjects thousands of Gotham City’s citizens to the chemicals that transformed him, subsequently killing several parents in front of their children with the goal of turning them into a combination of himself and Batman. When Batman grapples with the Joker, it results in the latter's death as Batman is exposed to a purified form of the chemicals that gradually turn him into a new fusion of Batman and the Joker, one with Bruce Wayne's intelligence and physical strength and the Joker's psychopathy and warped, sadistic sense of humor. The process proves irreversible by the time Batman discovers what is happening to him. The Batman Who Laughs proceeds to take over Earth-22, killing off most of his allies and turning his son Damian Wayne into a mini-Joker and recruiting the children infected by the Joker Toxin as his "Rabid Robins". The Batman Who Laughs seems to be the leader or second-in-command of Barbatos' Dark Knights and recruits the other members.[2]

After arriving on Prime-Earth (Earth 0), the Batman Who Laughs takes control of Gotham and oversees events at the Challenger's mountain. He distributes joker cards to the Batman's Rogues, giving them the ability to alter reality and take over sections of the city.[3] Accompanying him are Dark Damian and three Rabid Robins, having intended to destroy all of reality by linking the Over-Monitor to Anti-Monitor's astral brain. The Batman Who Laughs is defeated when the Prime Universe Batman is aided by the Joker, who notes the alternate Batman's failure to perceive this scenario due to still being a version of Batman.[4]

While assumed dead, The Batman Who Laughs is revealed to be in the custody of Lex Luthor, who offers him a place in the Legion of Doom.[5] At some point during the formation of the Legion of Doom, Joker met with Lex Luthor and advised him not to bring the Batman Who Laughs into the group. The Batman Who Laughs talks to Lex Luthor about the worlds beyond the Source Wall as Joker listens in.[2]

The Batman Who Laughs eventually resumes his attack on Batman, drawing in a string of alternate versions of Bruce Wayne to taunt his counterpart as he prepares for a mass assault on Batman. As an additional asset, the Batman Who Laughs is allied with the Grim Knight, a version of Batman who uses guns and turned his Gotham into a military dictatorship. With no other way to stop his other self, Batman is forced to 'accept' a twisted 'transfusion' from the Joker that begins to turn him into a variation of the Batman Who Laughs, attempting to fight it down while relying on the psychosis of the technically-treated James Gordon Jr. to try to predict his foe. When the Batman Who Laughs draws in a version of Bruce Wayne who has not even lost his parents yet, Batman is able to defeat his other self by luring him into a confrontation in the Waynes' graveyard, with Alfred subsequently using a transfusion from the other Bruce to restore Batman to normal before he is sent home and the Batman who Laughs is locked up in the Hall of Justice dungeon. However, his serums did manage to infect Shazam, Blue Beetle, Donna Troy, Hawkman, Supergirl and Commissioner Gordon, (the latter was infected during issue 7 of The Batman Who Laughs miniseries by Scott Snyder).

A year later, The Batman Who Laughs is still locked up in the Hall of Justice, but with the help of his new Secret Six he begins to set his plan in motion. He starts by having Commissioner Gordon lead Batman and Superman to the cave under Crime Alley where King Shazam will infect Superman. Later, Superman appears seemingly "infected" (with Batman listening in). making their way to the Hall of Justice weapons room. The Batman Who Laughs tells Superman that he plans to infect the world with his serum. He then makes an off-handed comment to Clark that his plan will be like the destruction of Krypton and Lois and Jon won't survive. Superman attacks The Batman Who Laughs, seemingly blowing his cover. However, the whole thing was revealed to be an illusion by Batman, with The Batman Who Laughs praising him saying that he had a similar system on his own world. The Batman Who Laughs' next step is having Scarab (the infected Blue Beetle) hack the Fortress of Solitude and Batcave computers. As this is happening, he begins taunting Clark saying that they were all evil inside and that he will soon know, but as Superman is about to be infected Supergirl catches the tainted Batarang and is unwittingly infected (as the batarang was designed to infect Kryptonians). As the Legion of Doom signal shines in the sky, The Batman Who Laughs muses to himself that he is on a collision course with Lex Luthor, but isn't too concerned because as he puts it, "Batman always wins."

In the "Watchmen" sequel "Doomsday Clock", the Batman Who Laughs is among the villains who are analyzed by Doctor Manhattan when Guy Gardner uses his power ring to show the constructs of villains that they have faced.[6]

During the "Dark Nights: Death Metal" storyline, The Batman Who Laughs becomes Perpetua's lieutenant. Aided by an army of evil Batmen from the Dark Multiverse called the Dark Knights (consisting of Baby Batman, Batmansaurus Rex, Batmobeast, Castle Bat, and Robin King), they enforces her rule. When Wonder Woman decides the best cause of action is to make the first Anti-Crisis following a talk with Wally West, she is confronted by the Batman Who Laughs, whom she proceeds to gut with an invisible Chainsaw of Truth. Though dead, the Dark Knights set to work to unleash the Batman Who Laughs’ true plan; preparing the body of the final Bruce Wayne.[7] This body happens to be Batmanhattan, a version of Bruce Wayne who copied the formula that created Doctor Manhattan.[8] At Castle Bat, the Dark Knights succeed in transferring the Batman Who Laughs’ brain into Batmanhattan, an action that may have repercussions if Perpetua were to find out. After Perpetua warns the Batman Who Laughs of the beings like her who may sense her actions (worried they might destroy her), he proceeds to wipe out the remaining Dark Knights with the exception of Robin King. The Batman Who Laughs then shifts into a new form called the "Darkest Knight" exclaiming that he knows Diana plans to remake the Multiverse, he however wants to make "52 Planets of Nightmares".[9] The Darkest Knight and the Robin King break into Valhalla Cemetery. Knowing that they are after Wally's power, Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, and Wally West run with the Darkest Knight giving chase.[10] Barry, Wally, and Jay team up with Kid Flash and the rest of the Flash family to outrun the Darkest Knight and his army of Dark Multiverse Flashes in order to reach the Mobius Chair.[11] After some convincing from Wonder Woman who traveled back in time to the "Infinite Crisis", Superboy-Prime shatters the Crisis worlds, saving Batman and Superman in the process, and directs all energy to Wally. However, it does not work. Before they had a chance, the Darkest Knight rigged the Mobius Chair so it would always direct the power to himself. And now he has everything he needs to remake the Multiverse in his own image called the Last 52.

0 notes

poop4u · 5 years ago

Text

What You Need to Know About Meat Alternatives in Your Dog’s Food

#Poop4U

The post What You Need to Know About Meat Alternatives in Your Dog’s Food by Elizabeth Anderson Lopez appeared first on Dogster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Dogster.com.

Kangaroo, alligator and crickets, oh my! Duck and bison aren’t the only exotic proteins dog food manufacturing wizards have been working with in recent years. While nutrition is an evolving science, the reasons for alternative proteins largely fall under two camps: food sensitivities and being more environmentally friendly.

Food sensitivities

“If a dog has a specific protein allergy or sensitivity to something like chicken or beef, these alternative proteins can really help,” says Lindsay Meyers, BS, CVT, product development and veterinary channel manager for Primal Pet Foods in Fairfield, California. “We always encourage our customers to get to the root of the problem, which is gut health. We encourage our customers to find a few proteins that their pet does well on. We intentionally used pork bone broth as the base of our Elixir products to ensure that our beef- and poultry-sensitive pets could enjoy their benefits.”

It all starts with taking a novel approach to your dog’s food. “Often the first step is to try a diet that excludes the most common pet food ingredients,” says Molly Mulcahy, vice president of brand marketing for Stella & Chewy’s based in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. “A novel protein is a protein source that is not commonly found in pet foods and ideally that your pet has never been exposed to before. There is no set definition of a ‘novel protein,’ but the less common its use in pet foods, the more preferred. Venison, duck and rabbit are examples of novel protein sources.”

Whether it’s an allergy or sensitivity may be unknown, but there is at least one theory. “It may be that dogs have increased food sensitivities because, in some cases, we have them eat the same diet with little variation for years,” says Holly Ganz, PhD, CEO of AnimalBiome in Oakland, California. “Because bacteria living in the gut help to process and digest food, this lack of variety in the diet may reduce the complexity and resilience of the community to perturbations like antibiotics or infection. Having a wide range of proteins available in commercial pet foods will give us more opportunities for food rotations that will likely help to maintain and restore gut health.”

Speaking of variety, for some owners that is reason enough to introduce less-common protein sources. “There are a lot of great arguments for pursuing a rotational diet for your dog,” says Anne Carlson, CEO and founder of Jiminy’s in Berkeley, California, which uses crickets for protein. “By rotating their foods, you’re giving them an opportunity to reap the benefits from other sources of proteins, different vegetables and so on. Kind of like how we eat different foods to get all our nutrients.”

Photo: Getty Images

Environmental factors

In 2019, the British Veterinary Association (BVA) was reported as suggesting owners consider insect-based diets as being more environmentally friendly. Simon Doherty, former president and current senior vice president of the BVA, based in London, explains some of the global impact. “Over the last few years, there has been an increased public appetite to know where animal-based products come from and how they end up on both our and our pets’ menus,” Simon says. “Rightly so, questions around the health and welfare of the animals involved and how the whole process impacts the environment are often top of the list.”

Those issues resonate in North America, as well. “We felt there was a better way to feed our pets, help the environment and save the lives of farmed animals,” says Florian Radke, CMO for Wild Earth based in Berkeley, California. “Our Clean Protein Dog Food has all the protein and essential nutrients that dogs need — without any animal products and a fraction of the environmental impact.”

Anne from Jiminy’s adds: “Cricket protein provides the nutrition that our dogs need, and it is sustainable and humane. We talk about the sustainability a lot: less land, less water, almost no greenhouse gas emissions. …How’s that for reducing your carbon pawprint?”

Photo: Getty Images

Meat-ing of the minds

Dogs need meat to thrive. Or do they? “The key to successful nutrition in all pets is balance. While it is possible — though challenging — to keep dogs healthy on a plant-based diet, these diets can cause dogs to be deficient in important amino acids,” according to Megan McGlinn, VMD, medical director of the ASPCA Animal Hospital in New York City. “It is important to have dogs on these types of diets closely monitored not only with regular veterinary examinations, but also standard lab work, as well.”

Work with your veterinarian to determine what is right for your dog — which may be very different than what is right for you.

“We welcome pet owners taking an interest in the sourcing and ethics of their pet’s food, but owners should be mindful of projecting their ethical beliefs onto their animals and this resulting in an unbalanced diet,” Simon of the BVA says. “It is important to remember that when feeding our pets, a nutritionally balanced diet is essential. Owners should take expert advice to avoid dietary deficiencies and associated disease, as it is much easier to get the balance of nutrients wrong than to get it right.”

Simon continues, “We are not suggesting that insect-based protein should necessarily replace feeding cats and dogs meat, but it could be an option to explore for pet food in the future. We welcome further research and understanding in relation to insect farming and the role that insect products can play in animal nutrition.”

According to Anne, crickets could, in fact, replace meat. “Our cricket protein is a complete protein with all of the essential amino acids,” she says. “Jiminy’s partnered with Iowa State [University] to take a deep dive into digestibility, and the great news is that the cricket protein scored as high as chicken and beef. It’s a high-quality, digestible protein source for our dogs.”

Florian of Wild Earth has an additional take on resources. “Fungi proteins like yeast require way less resources than raising insects for food.”

Holly adds: “Plant-based proteins and fungal- based proteins have been found to have complete amino acid profiles, and have similar bioavailability and digestibility as proteins. We have found that the Wild Earth dog food and treats increase diversity in gut bacteria, a likely response to this novel food. Still, many people prefer to feed their dogs an animal-based protein. If you are concerned about environmental impacts of meat production, you could rotate these foods in on ‘Meatless Mondays’ or use them as treats.”

The other F word

Food trends come and go in the pet world, as well as human (aspic, anyone?). But manufacturers are confident these alternative proteins are here to stay. Anne uses another human food as an analogy. “We are at the beginning of a journey that will take us down a path similar to the one that sushi took,” she says. “Sushi is now a ‘normal’ option as we think about lunch or dinner.”

According to Florian, “The consumer mindset is changing, and people care about the impact their purchase choices are having. We believe that this is just the beginning of a true consumer revolution and not just a trendy fad.”

Lindsay reports that Primal’s exotic line has been growing steadily for almost 20 years and has not slowed down.

“We believe it’s consistent with an overall shift in pet parents wanting best for their animals and becoming more educated to find it; we don’t think this is a fad,” Molly of Stella & Chewy’s says.

Some countries have already proven the longevity of alternative proteins for both people and pets. “Insects are a highly sustainable protein source that are used by people in other places that don’t have the same entomophobias that some of us have,” Holly of AnimalBiome says. “In Namibia, I ate fried mopane worms, a delicacy throughout Southern Africa.”

“Insect-based ingredients are already commonly used in UK aquaculture and poultry feed with black-soldier flies and yellow mealworms among the most common in commercial production,” BVA’s Simon says.

You may be able to try some similar treats for yourself, sans passport. T-Mobile Park (which used to be called Safeco Field) in Seattle has scored a home run serving up toasted grasshoppers at Mariners baseball games since 2017. In 2019, restaurant Evel Pie in Las Vegas started serving its Canyon Hopper pizza, which consists of lime- and garlic-roasted grasshoppers.

What to look for

OK, you’d like to consider proteins beyond beef and chicken. But what should you look for? “[Be] sure the company manufacturing it is diligent about nutritional balance and bio-availability,” Lindsay of Primal Pet Foods says. “It’s our responsibility to provide our carnivorous house companions with the amino acids, vitamins and minerals that they need to thrive.”

Not surprisingly, protein is a focus. “Science shows that the digestive system of dogs (and humans) doesn’t care where the protein comes from,” Florian of Wild Earth says. “It matters that the protein is complete, high quality, bio-available and easily digestible.”

AnimalBiome’s Holly also stresses a close look at protein. “I recommend that you look at how much protein is in the diet and select one that has less than 35% carbohydrates. This will help support beneficial gut bacteria in dogs and help to prevent them from becoming overweight.”

Toto may have had only one kind of dog food available, but those days are long gone. Today, many pet parents are looking at different protein sources — for reasons as diverse as the proteins themselves. Talking to your veterinarian and doing research to determine the right one may take longer than clicking your heels three times, but it’s always worthwhile to

Poop4U Blog via www.Poop4U.com Elizabeth Anderson Lopez, Khareem Sudlow

#poop4u #cute dog #dogs of tumblr #puppy doggo #doglover #doggrooming #my doggo #dogmeme #blog

0 notes

socialoligarchy-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Lel Kekistan: How Meme Culture Shifts Right

By now, you probably have an understanding of what “trolling” is. The act of doing something provocative in order to incite a specific, usually negative, emotion for comedy. This can range anywhere from mild teasing in YouTube or Facebook comments all the way to actively using slurs and calls of genocide in place of comedy punchlines. The major method of dissemination for these jokes is through internet memes. Memes today are similar yet completely different from the concept of memetic ideas popularized by Richard Dawkins in the 1970’s, and a proper understanding of the modern usage is needed to contextualize the negative effects they can lead to in young people. Rather than the term being used to describe any sort of idea that changes from person to person, a meme today is essentially any kind of joke told via text or image online, often with a combination of the two. These images are spread by users across platforms and chatrooms, and are usually changed by the process and the context. In this paper, I aim to explore how the culture of internet users, typically (though not exclusively) young, white males, who create and consume memes has been influenced by right-leaning political thinkers and online personalities, and to argue that, while memes aren’t bad as a whole, they aren’t entirely safe either, and that people need to be careful about the content in them.

This is a topic often discussed by various other YouTube personalities, such as Natalie “Contrapoints” Wynn and other online personalities in her genre of content. I’ll do my best to link to all of the video essays I pull concepts from when they occur. Because of the nature of online personalities, I will only be using the names of people who have publically released their names in association with their online work. If I refer to someone just as their online handle, it is because I couldn’t find their real name.

The more visible reason that memes can be harmful is that they can cause people to normalize extremely harmful material that preys on bigoted opinions and views. This phenomenon is spoken about in the YouTube video “The PewDiePipeline: how edgy humor leads to violence” by the content creator NonCompete. The video discusses why another online personality, PewDiePie (Felix Kjellberg), was mentioned by the shooter of the Christchurch Massacre, and how someone could progress through stages of life to come to the point that the shooter did.

In the video, NonCompete uses a modified version of the Pyramid of Discrimination, a visual guide to how someone rationalizes and normalizes sexual harassment and abuse. He extrapolates the idea to fit ideological violence into it as well, adapting it to a broader scale than just harassment. In context, the diagram is used to show how Kjellberg, who has had om controversies surrounding him and jokes he’s made, is an influence that encourages young people to more right leaning stances. The specific issue with Kjellberg is that, in the past, he has made several jokes by using nazis symbols and repeating anti-semitic call lines (more specifically, paying for two Indian men to dance on stream while holding a sign that said “Kill All Jews”).

The big idea behind the pyramid is that no one starts out as a zealot for any sort of group or a bigot against any group, but it’s a progression that people go through after a set of factors is introduced to them for long enough. In the case of Kjellberg, and meme culture in general, are setting up the first two layers of the pyramid; “Attitudes & Beliefs,” which is where things like subtle racism or homophobia exist, and “Cultural Microaggressions,” which are little actions that follow the beliefs established in the first layer exist. By making jokes about killing Jewish people, it makes it easier for people to look away from those who would actually advocate for such heinous things, because it leads to the thought, “Surely they’re joking too, right? And even if they’re not, they aren’t bad because of it, since this thing I saw wasn’t bad, and it was the same thing.” This is how normalization begins, since the person exposed to the rhetoric begins to see the action as normal, rather than a social break. This is made even more severe once people are convinced that calling out said behavior is wrong, since that implies that an action they perceive as normal is wrong, and that far too harsh of accusations are being levied against a creator they like.

The knee-jerk reaction to people calling you, or someone whose content you like, a nazi or similar insult is to push back against it, which can lead to someone going even further up the pyramid, since it encourages them to seek out people of a like mind, who won’t ridicule or lecture them over the things they like. This is the cycle that leads to extremism; a person likes something edgy, other people push back and makes the person uncomfortable, and then that person goes deeper to try to stay comfortable.

This style of indoctrination is not wholly unintentional, as there are groups out there who will actively look for people, usually young, white men, who are disillusioned with the world and scapegoat other people, such as illegal immigrants or feminists, as the source of their woes. These groups, like web forums known as 8chan or Stormfront, are places welcoming to people further along the pyramid. This is where edgy memes become a lot darker, a lot more pointed, and more focused on their goals than other places on the internet.

This is where something more insidious happens, and it’s the second reason that memes can be harmful. Perhaps you’ve heard of various things, like a comic frog or the “Okay” emoji, being called hate symbols and thought to yourself, “that can’t be, that’s something I’ve seen many times, and it has this perfectly normal, other connotation to it. How could that possibly be anything else, especially a symbol of hate?” That is a simple and intentional reason; it has been a long standing tradition of far right and extremist groups to co-opt a common place symbol, often one designed to invoke peace, and use it for their own deeds. This is most notably seen with the german swastika, which was a common symbol through the world, particularly in India. The act of c0-opting is known as “dog whistling,” since it’s meant to be a sound or a cry that only a few people can hear and that everyone else will miss.

Memes become a breeding ground for this kind of coded symbol, as done with the two examples above and several others, because most people just see the image as a joke or a reference and it becomes an easy cover for if one gets called out for using said symbol. In a hateful way. The user can just claim it was a joke or reference, and that the person who called them out is the crazy one for believing that a mundane symbol could be anything bad.

The solution to all this is tricky, as there will always be people who are disparaged by something, and there will always be people read to take advantage of those who feel disparaged against. However, it is not impossible, and the best way to do it is to talk to people before they’re able to move further up the pyramid. Since the gut reaction to someone aggressively telling you that you’re views are evil and false is to push back against them, it is important to discuss with the person calmly and to not belittle them for what they believe. To get someone to back down from the pyramid is a fair bit harder than keeping them from it in the first place, but again it’s not impossible. It can be done with enough discourse, and some levels of legitimate force both physically and socially. There are arguments to what method works the best, and which has it’ own merits and demerits. The main camps are to physically fight back when you see the behavior in public, such as punching big name leaders, and the other is to exclusively use discourse and conversation in order to bring the person back. Both have their place, I feel, and both work for different circumstances.

Decrypting the Alt-Right: How to Recognize a F@scist | ContraPoints

"Are Traps Gay?" | ContraPoints

The Darkness | ContraPoints

Incels | ContraPoints

The PewDiePipeline: how edgy humor leads to violence | NonCompete

PewDiePipeline 2: How to Shut it Down | NonCompete

Lyons, Matthew N. “Ctrl-Alt-Delete: The Origins and Ideology of the Alternative Right.” Political Research Associates, www.politicalresearch.org/2017/01/20/ctrl-alt-delete-report-on-the-alternative-right/?print=print#sthash.Qc6pbEu0.dpbs.

Heikkilä, Niko. “Online Antagonism of the Alt-Right in the 2016 Election.” European Journal of American Studies, European Association for American Studies, 31 July 2017, journals.openedition.org/ejas/12140.

Kelly, Annie. “The Alt-Right: Reactionary Rehabilitation for White Masculinity.” Latest TOC RSS, Lawrence and Wishart, 15 Aug. 2017, www.ingentaconnect.com/content/lwish/sou/2017/00000066/00000066/art00006.

0 notes

sublimotion · 7 years ago

Text

The Benefits of Collagen & Gelatin

http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png

We’ve been fielding many questions about collagen lately so we thought it would be helpful to write a blog article on this popular supplement and it’s counterpart, gelatin. Touted for their ability to heal everything from our gut to our joints, while improving our skin, hair and nails, you’ve probably seen gelatin and collagen used interchangeably. While they’re similar, there are some key differences. We will explore the benefits, indications, and what you need to be aware of when choosing these supplements.

HOW THEY DIFFER:

COLLAGEN can be compared to a scaffolding that provides structure, elasticity and strength for our connective tissues, specifically: bones, tendons, cartilage, hair, nails, skin, and the lining of our digestive system. Collagen is the predominant protein in our bodies and in the tissues of the animals we consume. When we cook down these animal proteins (typically when making a broth), the collagen breaks down into gelatin.

Eating raw collagen in the form of tough ligaments and connective tissues are not only difficulty to consume but highly unenjoyable. So in order to best break down and absorb collagen, it is put through a process to extract the essential nutrients so that they easily metabolized in our system. The most common form is referred to as completely hydrolyzed collagen or collagen peptides.

GELATIN, is cooked collagen, and is the form of collagen found in bone broth. The partial hydrolyzing and drying of the bones and tissue is what forms gelatin powder. Because gelatin has not been broken down into individual peptides, its protein structure elicits an adhesive quality, causing it to gel when cooled. This is how Jell-O gets its signature jiggle, and why gelatin has many culinary uses such as thickening gravies and sauces, making marshmallow, fruit snacks, jams, etc..

If you take gelatin and hydrolyze it even further, breaking the amino acid strands into individual peptides (though the amino acids themselves still intact), you are left with completely hydrolyzed collagen, which can be easily digested and absorbed by the body. This is the form that is most commonly found in collagen supplements, both in capsules or powder.

Simply put, the differences between collagen and gelatin come down to how they’re processed. The processing method is what gives collagen and gelatin different textures. Whether you choose gelatin or collagen comes down to how you want to use it and which form of your body responds best to. That being said gelatin can be harder to digest for some and at higher doses may cause digestive distress.

WHAT THEY HAVE IN COMMON:

Collagen and gelatin are similar in terms of their benefits because they contain the same amino acid profile. Amino acids are the “building blocks” of proteins that play a key role in our health and well-being. The most predominant amino acids that comprise collagen are glycine and proline. Glycine and proline not only give connective tissue throughout the body its strength and durability, but they are also anti-inflammatory, which benefits our systemic health in many ways.

BENEFITS – The Research:

(Compiled by Dr. Dori Engel, ND in Toronto)

Joint Health: Collagen can regenerate the synovial fluid that cushions joints, repair and rebuild cartilage weakened through overuse, impact and stress – thereby reducing joint pains & reversing degeneration – its natural gel structure is the element that allows joints to glide & move without pain. (Bruyere O, 2012) In people with Rheumatoid arthritis, it decreases swelling and pain in tender affected joints. (Trentham DE, 1993) (Barnett ML, 1998)

Osteoarthritis: This is another area where this product has been studied extensively for both treatment and prevention. (Crowley DC, 2009) Collagen can help combat your genetic predisposition to degenerative diseases. (Bello AE, 2006)

Sports Performance: It’s not only for the old and deteriorating. Many studies have been done on healthy, young athletes. The results show that collagen supplementation can reduce the incidences of pain from repetitive use in otherwise healthy individuals and reduce the risk of joint deterioration in this high risk group. (Clark KL, 2008) (Zdzieblik D, 2017)

Skin health: By increasing collagen levels, skin cells are repaired and renewed and skin looks firmer & smoother. The appearance of cellulite & stretch marks are reduced. (Oba C, 2015) (Proksh E, 2014)

It improves elasticity, barrier integrity & hydration in sun exposed skin too. (Yoon HS, 2014) (Inoue N, 2016)

Hot tip – Although collagen is present in many topical beauty products, it is of mild benefit in this form as does not we can’t absorb it sufficiently through the skin. It must be ingested to get the ultimate benefit. Save your money for the powder; don’t spend it on the creams!

Bone Health: Osteoporosis is when bone mass is lost more rapidly than is typical. People over the age of 70 generally have decreased bone density and increased risk of injury. Hydrolyzed collagen stimulates chondrocytes – human cartilage producing cells – preventing age-related bone density reduction. (Bello AE, 2006)

Digestive Health: Leaky gut or Intestinal hyperpermeability – This protein soothes the gut lining, reducing inflammation and healing damaged cell walls, sealing & regenerating the tissue that lines the GI tract. Long term effects include being able to digest more foods and absorb nutrients more efficiently. (Koutroubakis IE, 2003)

Hair Health: Actual reduction and reversal of hair loss – 180 days of collagen supplementation in women with thinning hair resulted in improvements in hair volume, scalp coverage, shine & thickness. (Glynis A, 2012)

LIFESTYLE FACTORS:

Our body’s collagen production begins to slow down as we age, causing the tell-tale signs of aging, such as wrinkles, sagging skin and joint pains. Collagen content in human skin decreases by 1% per year beginning in our 20s. Sun exposure, smoking, stress, lack of sleep, high blood sugar, diabetes – all of these decrease collagen and make the collagen that we are left with less pliable. Some autoimmune disorders can also target collagen, lending to a decrease in the amount of collagen secreted, or to the secretion of dysfunctional collagen (called keloid formation – thick scarring).

Foods both high in vitamin C and sulfur contain nutrients that are essential to collagen production. Omitting or limiting sugar is helpful in preserving collagen, as sugar destroys collagen and elastin.

SUPPLEMENT ADVICE:

Beware that not all brands are the same. Since collagen and gelatin are procured from animals, it is essential that it is organically raised and ethically sourced. Look for grass-fed, organic, hormone-free beef or chicken sources. Also, many collagen and gelatin supplements are not well absorbed based on how they are processed. My favorites are:

Great Lakes Hydrolysate – powder (mixes in hot or cold water) sourced from 100% grass-fed bovine. Look at recipe ideas on their website.

Arthred by Allergy Research Group – ethically raised bovine (powder) sprinkle it on oatmeal, blend it into smoothies or bulletproof coffee.

JS Collagen by Pure Encapsulation – chicken sternum cartilage (capsules)

The last two are available through our online dispensary, Fullscript.

When it comes to gelatin, the chemically-made and vaguely fruit-flavored packs of gelatin you typically find in the supermarket aren’t going to provide you with the health benefits of real gelatin. I would recommend Vital Proteins gelatin, made from non-GMO, grass-fed bovine.

And don’t forget, in addition to supplements, you can also get collagen and gelatin in your diet the original way: by drinking bone broth. The simmering time of the bones (up to 24 hours) allows collagen and gelatin to be released into the broth.

Collagen is safe during pregnancy and breastfeeding. It’s safe for kids, the elderly and people with chronic health conditions. There is no risk with long term use. It is a whole food product – so it’s more food than supplement or protein powder. It is an animal product however, so not suitable for vegetarians.

CONSIDERATIONS:

While there are many health benefits to taking collagen and gelatin; keep in mind, thinning hair, brittle nails, GI distress, joint pain, etc. could point to an underlying health concern. Work with your health team (we’re happy to assist you here at HCH) to further assess and address any underlying condition that may be contributing to your symptom picture.

Bone Broth Recipe:

The best bones to use are those from pastured animals, as they will yield the most gelatin-rich, mineral dense and flavorful stock with far less toxins. To get bones to make your stock: Save leftovers from a roast, ask around at your local farmer’s market or inquire with a local butcher.

Any vegetables and flavourings can work.

3-4 lbs bony chicken parts (necks, backs, breast bones, wings).

4 qts cold water

2 Tb apple cider vinegar

1 onion, 2 celery stalks, 2 carrots

4 whole cloves garlic

2-3 pieces of sliced fresh turmeric or ginger or both

Place bones and vegetables in a large pot.

Cover with water. Add apple cider vinegar. Let stand for 20 minutes to 1 hour. This acidic solution helps release the nutrients from the bones.

Bring to a gentle rolling boil. Remove scum that rises to the top, discard.

Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 8 to 24 hrs.

Let cool, strain the stock carefully.

Drink hot mugs of it or pour into glass jars and store in the fridge or freeze for later consumption.

[Read More ...] https://www.hosmerchiropractic.com/blog/benefitsofcollagen/

#infrared sauna #health

0 notes

gardencityvegans · 7 years ago

Text

The Benefits of Collagen & Gelatin

http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png

HOW THEY DIFFER:

WHAT THEY HAVE IN COMMON:

BENEFITS – The Research:

(Compiled by Dr. Dori Engel, ND in Toronto)

It improves elasticity, barrier integrity & hydration in sun exposed skin too. (Yoon HS, 2014) (Inoue N, 2016)

LIFESTYLE FACTORS:

SUPPLEMENT ADVICE:

Great Lakes Hydrolysate – powder (mixes in hot or cold water) sourced from 100% grass-fed bovine. Look at recipe ideas on their website.

Arthred by Allergy Research Group – ethically raised bovine (powder) sprinkle it on oatmeal, blend it into smoothies or bulletproof coffee.

JS Collagen by Pure Encapsulation – chicken sternum cartilage (capsules)

The last two are available through our online dispensary, Fullscript.

CONSIDERATIONS:

Bone Broth Recipe:

Any vegetables and flavourings can work.

3-4 lbs bony chicken parts (necks, backs, breast bones, wings).

4 qts cold water

2 Tb apple cider vinegar

1 onion, 2 celery stalks, 2 carrots

4 whole cloves garlic

2-3 pieces of sliced fresh turmeric or ginger or both

Place bones and vegetables in a large pot.

Cover with water. Add apple cider vinegar. Let stand for 20 minutes to 1 hour. This acidic solution helps release the nutrients from the bones.

Bring to a gentle rolling boil. Remove scum that rises to the top, discard.

Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 8 to 24 hrs.

Let cool, strain the stock carefully.

Drink hot mugs of it or pour into glass jars and store in the fridge or freeze for later consumption.

[Read More ...] https://www.hosmerchiropractic.com/blog/benefitsofcollagen/

#infrared #health

0 notes

archiebwoollard · 7 years ago

Text

20 Conversion Optimization Tips for Zooming Past Your Competition

Conversion optimization (CRO) is one of the most impactful things you can do as a marketer.

I mean, bringing traffic to a website is important (because without traffic you’re designing for an audience of crickets). But without a cursory understanding of conversion optimization—including research, data-driven hypotheses, a/b tests, and analytical capabilities—you risk making decisions for your website traffic using only gut feel.

CRO can give your marketing team ideas for what you can be doing better to convert visitors into leads or customers, and it can help you discover which experiences are truly optimal, using A/B tests.

However, as with many marketing disciplines, conversion optimization is constantly misunderstood. It’s definitely not about testing button colors, and it’s not about proving to your colleagues that you’re right.

I’ve learned a lot about how to do CRO properly over the years, and below I’ve compiled 20 conversion optimization tips to help you do it well, too.

Conversion Optimization Tip 1: Learn how to run an A/B test properly

Running an A/B test (an online controlled experiment) is one of the core practices of conversion optimization.

Testing two or more variations of a given page to see which performs best can seem easy due to the increased simplification of testing software. However, it’s still a methodology that uses statistical inference to make a decision as to which variant is best delivered to your audience. And there are a lot of fine distinctions that can throw things off.

Image source

There are many nuances we could get into here—Bayesian vs. frequentist statistics, one-tailed vs. two-tailed tests, etc.—but to make things simple, here are a few testing rules that should help you breeze past most common testing mistakes:

Always determine a sample size in advance and wait until your experiment is over before looking at “statistical significance.” You can use one of several online sample size calculators to get yours figured out.

Run your experiment for a few full business cycles (usually weekly cycles). A normal experiment may run for three or four weeks before you call your result.

Choose an overall evaluation criterion (or north star metric) that you’ll use to determine the success of an experiment. We’ll get into this more in Tip 4.

Before running the experiment, clearly write your hypothesis (here’s a good article on writing a true hypothesis) and how you plan to follow up on the experiment, whether it wins or loses.

Make sure your data tracking is implemented correctly so you’ll be able to pull the right numbers after the experiment ends.

Avoid interaction effects if you’re running multiple concurrent experiments.

QA your test setup and watch the early numbers for any wonky technical mistakes.

I like to put all of the above fine details in an experiment document with a unique ID so that it can be reviewed later—and so the process can be improved upon with time.

An example of experiment documentation using a unique ID.

Tip 1: Ensure you take the time to set up the parameters of your A/B test properly before you begin. Early mistakes and careless testing can compromise the results.

Conversion Optimization Tip 2: Learn how to analyze an A/B test

The ability to analyze your test after it has run is obviously important as well (and can be pretty nuanced depending on how detailed you want to get).

For instance, do you call a test a winner if it’s above 95% statistical significance? Well, that’s a good place to begin, but there are a few other considerations as you develop your conversion optimization chops:

Does your experiment have a sample ratio mismatch?

Basically, if your test was set up so that 50% of traffic goes to the control and 50% goes to the variant, your end results should reflect this ratio. If the ratio is pretty far off, you may have had a buggy experiment. (Here’s a good calculator to help you determine this.)

Bring your data outside of your testing tool.

It’s nice to see your aggregate data trends in your tool’s dashboard, and their math is a good first look, but I personally like to have access to the raw data. This way you can analyze it in Excel and really trust it. You can also import your data to Google Analytics to view the effects on key segments.

This can also open up the opportunity for further insights-driven experiments and personalization. Does one segment react overwhelmingly positive to a test you’ve run? Might be a good opportunity to implement personalization.

Checking your overall success metric first (winner, loser, inconclusive) and then moving to a more granular analysis of segments and secondary effects is common practice among CRO practitioners.

Here’s how Chris McCormick from PRWD explains the process:

Once we have a high level understanding of how the test has performed, we start to dig below the surface to understand if there are any patterns or trends occurring. Examples of this would be: the day of the week, different product sets, new vs returning users, desktop vs mobile etc.

Also, there are tons of great A/B test analysis tools out there, like this one from CXL:

Tip 2: Analyze your data carefully by ensuring that your sample ratio is correct. Then export it to a spreadsheet where you can check your overall success metric before moving on to more granular indicators.

Conversion Optimization Tip 3: Learn how to design your experiments

At the beginning, it’s important to consider the kind of experiment you want to run. There are a few options in terms of experimental design (at least, these are the most common ones online):

A/B/n test

Multivariate test

Bandit test

A/B/n test

An A/B/n test is what you’re probably most used to.

It splits traffic equally among two or more variants and you determine which test won based on its effect size (assuming that other factors like sample size and test duration were sufficient).

An A/B test with four variants: Image source

Multivariate test

In a multivariate test, on the other hand, you can test several variables on a page and hope to learn what the interaction effects are among elements.

In other words, if you were changing a headline, a feature image, and a CTA button, in a multivariate test you’d hope to learn which is the optimal combination of all of these elements and how they affect each other when grouped together.

Image source

Generally speaking, it seems like experts run about ten a/b tests for every multivariate test. The strategy I go by is:

Use A/B testing to determine best layouts at a more macro-level.

Use MVT to polish the layouts to make sure all the elements interact with each other in the best possible way.

Bandit test

Bandits are a bit different. They are algorithms that seek to automatically update their traffic distribution based on indications of which result is best. Instead of waiting for four weeks to test something and then exposing the winner to 100% traffic, a bandit shifts its distribution in real time.

Image source

Bandits are great for campaigns where you’re looking to minimize regrets, such as short-term holiday campaigns and headline tests. They’re also good for automation at scale and targeting, specifically when you have lots of traffic and targeting rules and it’s tough to manage them all manually.

Unfortunately, while they are simpler from an experimental design perspective, they are much harder for engineers to implement technically. This is probably why they’re less common in the general marketing space, but an interesting topic nonetheless. If you want to learn more about bandits, read this article I wrote on the topic a few years ago.

Tip 3: Consider the kind of experiment you want to run. Depending on your needs, you might run an A/B/n test, a multivariate test, a bandit test, or some other form of experimental design.

Conversion Optimization Tip 4: Choose your OEC

Returning to a point made earlier, it’s important to choose which north star metric you care about: this is your OEC (Overall Evaluation Criterion). If you don’t state this and agree upon it up front as stakeholders in an experiment, you’re welcoming the opportunity for ambiguous results and cherry-picked data.

Basically, we want to avoid the problem of HARKing: hypothesizing after results are known.

Twitter, for example, wrote on their engineering blog that they solve this by stating their overall evaluation criterion up front:

One way we guide experimenters away from cherry-picking is by requiring them to explicitly specify the metrics they expect to move during the set-up phase….An experimenter is free to explore all the other collected data and make new hypotheses, but the initial claim is set and can be easily examined.

The term OEC was popularized by Ronny Kohavi at Microsoft, and he’s written many papers that include the topic, but the sentiment is widely known by people who run lots of experiments. You need to choose which metric really matters, and which metric you’ll make decisions with.

Tip 4: In order to avoid ambiguous or compromised data, state your OEC (Overall Evaluation Criterion) before you begin and hold yourself to it. And never hypothesize after results are known.

Conversion Optimization Tip 5: Some companies shouldn’t A/B test

You can still do optimization without A/B testing, but not every company can or should run A/B tests.

It’s a simple mathematical limitation:

Some businesses just don’t have the volume of traffic or discrete conversion events to make it worth running experiments.

Getting an adequate amount of traffic to a test ultimately helps ensure its validity, and you’ll need this as part of your sample size to ensure a test is cooked.

In addition, even if you could possibly squeeze out a valid test here and there, the marginal gains may not justify the costs when you compare it to other marketing activities in which you could engage.

That said, if you’re in this boat, you can still optimize. You can still set up adequate analytics, run user types on prototypes and new designs, watch session replays, and fix bugs.

Running experiments is a ton of fun, but not every business can or should run them (at least not until they bring some traffic and demand through the door first).

Tip 5: Determine whether your company can or even should run A/B tests. Consider both your volume of traffic and the resources you’ll need to allocate before investing the time.

Conversion Optimization Tip 6: Landing pages help you accelerate and simplify testing

Using landing pages is correlated with greater conversions, largely because using them makes it easier to do a few things:

Measure discrete transitions through your funnel/customer journey.

Run controlled experiments (reducing confounding variables and wonky traffic mixes).

Test changes across templates to more easily reach a large enough sample size to get valid results.

To the first point, having a distinct landing page (i.e. something separate and easier to update than your website) gives you an easy tracking implementation, no matter what your user journey is.

For example, if you have a sidebar call to action that brings someone to a landing page, and then when they convert, they are brought to a “Thank You” page, it’s very easy to track each step of this and set up a funnel in Google Analytics to visualize the journey.

Landing pages also help you scale your testing results while minimizing the resource cost of running the experiment. Ryan Farley, co-founder and head of growth at LawnStarter, puts it this way:

At LawnStarter, we have a variety of landing pages….SEO pages, Facebook landing pages, etc. We try to keep as many of the design elements such as the hero and explainer as similar as possible, so that way when we run a test, we can run it sitewide.

That is, if you find something that works on one landing page, you can apply it to several you have up and running.

Tip 6: Use landing pages to make it easier to test. Unbounce lets you build landing pages in hours—no coding required—and conduct unlimited A/B tests to maximize conversions.

Conversion Optimization Tip 7: Build a growth model for your conversion funnel

Creating a model like this requires stepping back and asking, “how do we get customers?” From there, you can model out a funnel that best represents this journey.

Most of the time, marketers set up simple goal funnel visualization in Google Analytics to see this:

This gives you a lot of leverage for future analysis and optimization.

For example, if one of the steps in your funnel is to land on a landing page, and your landing pages all have a similar format (e.g. offers.site.com), then you can see the aggregate conversion rate of that step in the funnel.

More importantly, you can run interesting analyses, such as path analysis and landing page comparison. Doing so, you can compare apples to apples with your landing pages and see which ones are underperforming:

The bar graph on the right allows you to quickly see how landing pages are performing compared to the site average.

I talk more about the process of finding underperforming landing pages in my piece on content optimization if you want to learn step-by-step how to do that.

Tip 7: Model out a funnel that represents the customer journey so that you can more easily target underperforming landing pages and run instructive analyses focused on growth.

Conversion Optimization Tip 8: Pick low hanging fruit in the beginning

This is mostly advice from personal experience, so it’s anecdotal: when you first start working on a project or in an optimization role, pick off the low hanging fruit. By that, I mean over-index on the “ease” side of things and get some points on the board.

It may be more impactful to set up and run complex experiments that require many resources, but you’ll never pull the political influence necessary to set these up without some confidence in your abilities to get results as well as in the CRO process in general.

To inspire trust and to be able to command more resources and confidence, look for the easiest possible implementations and fixes before moving onto the complicated or risky stuff.

And fix bugs and clearly broken things first! Persuasive copywriting is pretty useless if your site takes days to load or pages are broken on certain browsers.

Tip 8: Score some easy wins by targeting low hanging fruit before you move on to more complex optimization tasks. Early wins give you the clout to drive bigger experiments later on.

Conversion Optimization Tip 9: Where possible, reduce friction

Most conversion optimization falls under two categories (this is simplified, but mostly true):

Increasing motivation

Decreasing friction

Friction occurs when visitors become distracted, when they can’t accomplish a task, or simply when a task is arduous to accomplish. Generally speaking, the more “nice to have” your product is, the more friction matters to the conversion. This is reflected in BJ Fogg’s behavior model:

Image source

In other words, if you need to get a driver’s license, you’ll put up with pure hell at the DMV to get it, but you’ll drop out of the funnel at the most innocent error message if you’re only trying to buy something silly on drunkmall.com.

A few things that cut down on friction:

Make your site faster.

Trim needless form fields.

Cut down the amount of steps in your checkout or signup flow.

For an example on the last one, I like how Wordable designed their signup flow. You start out on the homepage:

Click “Try It Free” and get a Google OAuth screen:

Give permissions:

And voila! You’re in:

You can decrease friction by reducing feelings of uncertainty as well. Most of the time, this is done with copywriting or reassuring design elements.

An example is with HubSpot’s form builder. We emphasize that it’s “effortless” and that there is “no technical expertise required” to set it up:

(And here’s a little reminder that HubSpot integrates beautifully with Unbounce, so you’ll be able to automatically populate your account with lead info collected on your Unbounce landing pages.)

Tip 9: Cut down on anything that makes it harder for users to convert. This includes making sure your site is fast and trimming any forms or steps that aren’t necessary for checkout or signup.

Conversion Optimization Tip 10: Help increase motivation

The second side of the conversion equation, as I mentioned, is motivation.

An excellent way to increase the motivation of a visitor is simply to make the process of conversion…fun. Most tasks online don’t need to be arduous or frustrating, we’ve just made them that way due to apathy and error.

Take, for example, your standard form or survey. Pretty boring, right?

Well, today, enough technological solutions exist to implement interactive or conversational forms and surveys.

One such solution is Survey Anyplace. I asked their founder and CEO, Stefan Debois, about how their product helps motivate people to convert, and here’s what he said:

An effective and original way to increase conversion is to use an interactive quiz on your website. Compared to a static form, people are more likely to engage in a quiz, because they get back something useful. An example is Eneco, a Dutch Utility company: in just 6 weeks, they converted more than 1000 website visitors with a single quiz.

Full companies have been built on the premise that the typical form is boring and could be made more fun and pleasant to complete (e.g. TypeForm). Just think, “how can I compel more people to move through this process?”

Other ways to do this that are quite commonplace involve invoking certain psychological triggers to compel forward momentum:

Implement social proof on your landing pages.

Use urgency to compel users to act more quickly.

Build out testimonials with well-known users to showcase authority.

There are many more ways to use psychological triggers to motivate conversions. Check out Robert Cialdini’s classic book, Influence, to learn more. Also, check out The Wheel of Persuasion for inspiration on persuasive triggers.

Tip 10: Make your conversion process fun in order to compel your visitors to keep moving forward. Increased interactivity, social proof, urgency, and testimonials that showcase authority can all help you here too.

Conversion Optimization Tip 11: Clarity > Persuasion

While persuasion and motivation are really important, often the best way to convert visitors is to ensure they understand what you’re selling.

Stated differently, clarity trumps persuasion.

Use a five-second test to find out how clear your messaging is.

Conversion Optimization Tip 12: Consider the “Pre-Click” Experience

People forget the pre-click experience. What does a user do before they hit your landing pages? What ad did they click? What did they search in Google to get to your blog post?

Knowing this stuff can help you create strong message match between your pre-click experience and your landing page.

Sergiu Iacob, SEO Manager at Bannersnack, explains their process for factoring in keywords:

When it comes to organic traffic, we establish the user intent by analyzing all the keywords a specific landing page ranks for. After we determine what the end result should look like, we adjust both our landing page and our in app user journey. The same process is used in the optimization of landing pages for search campaigns.

I’ve recommended the same thing before when it comes to capturing email leads. If you can’t figure out why people aren’t converting, figure out what keywords are bringing them to your site.

Usually, this results in a sort of passive “voice of customer” mining, where you can message match the keywords you’re ranking for with the offer on that page.

It makes it much easier to predict what messages your visitors will respond to. And it is, in fact, one of the cheapest forms of user research you can conduct.

Using Ahrefs to determine what keywords brought traffic to a page.

Tip 12: Don’t forget the pre-click experience. What do your users do before they hit your landing page? Make sure you have a strong message match between your ads (or emails) and the pages they link to.

Conversion Optimization Tip 13: Build a repeatable CRO process

Despite some popular blog posts, conversion optimization isn’t about a series of “conversion tactics” or “growth hacks.” It’s about a process and a mindset.

Here’s how Peep Laja, founder of CXL, put it:

The quickest way to figure out whether someone is an amateur or a pro is this: amateurs focus on tactics (make the button bigger, write a better headline, give out coupons etc) while pros have a process they follow.

And, ideally, the CRO process is a never-ending one:

Conversion Optimization Tip 14: Invest in education for your team

CRO people have to know a lot about a lot:

Statistics

UX design

User research

Front end technology

Copywriting

No one comes out the gate as a 10 out of 10 in all of those areas (most never end up there either). You, as an optimizer, need to be continuously learning and growing. If you’re a manager, you need to make sure your team is continuously learning and growing.

Conversion Optimization Tip 15: Share insights

The fastest way to scale and leverage experimentation is to share your insights and learnings among the organization.

This becomes more and more valuable the larger your company grows. It also becomes harder and harder the more you grow.

Essentially, by sharing you can avoid reinventing the wheel, you can bring new teammates up to speed faster, and you can scale and spread winning insights to teams who then shorten their time to testing. Invest in some sort of insights management system, no matter how basic.

Full products have been built around this, such as GrowthHackers’ North Star and Effective Experiments.

Image source

Tip 15: Share what you learn within your organization. The bigger your company grows, the more important information sharing becomes—but the more difficult it will become as well.

Conversion Optimization Tip 16: Keep your cognitive biases in check

As the great Richard Feynman once said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”

We’re all afflicted by cognitive biases, ranging from confirmation bias to the availability heuristic. Some of these can really impact our testing programs, specifically confirmation bias (and its close cousin, the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy) where you only seek out pieces of data that confirm your previous beliefs and throw out those that go against them.

Image source

It may be worthwhile (and entertaining) simply to run down Wikipedia’s giant list of cognitive biases and gauge where you may currently be running blind or biases.

Tip 16: Be cognizant of your own cognitive biases. If you’re not careful, they can influence the outcome of your experiments and cause you to miss (or misinterpret) key insights in your data.

Conversion Optimization Tip 17: Evangelize CRO to your greater org

Having a dedicated CRO team is great. Evangelizing the work you’re doing to the rest of the organization? Even better.

Spread the word about the importance of CRO within your org.

When an entire organization buys into the value of data-informed decision making and experimentation, magical things can happen. Ideas burst forth, and innovation becomes easy. Annoying roadblocks are deconstructed. HiPPO-driven decision making is deprioritized behind proper experiments.

Things you can do to evangelize CRO and experimentation:

Write down your learnings each week on a company wiki.

Send out a newsletter with live experiments and experiment results each week to interested parties.

Recruit an executive sponsor with lots of internal influence.

Sing your praises when you get big wins. Sing it loud.

Make testing fun, and make it easier for others to join in and pitch ideas.

Make it easier for people outside of the CRO team to sponsor tests.

Say the word “hypothesis” a lot (who knows, it might work).

This is all a kind of art; there are no universal methods for spreading the good gospel of CRO. But it’s important that you know it’s probably going to be something of an uphill battle, depending on how big your company is and what the culture has traditionally been like.

Tip 17: Spread the gospel of CRO across your organization in order to ensure others buy into the value of data-driven decision making and experimentation.

Conversion Optimization Tip 18: Be skeptical with CRO case studies

This isn’t so much a conversion optimization tip as it is life advice: be skeptical, especially when marketing is involved.

I say this as a marketer. Marketers exaggerate stuff. Some marketers omit important details that derail a narrative. Sometimes, they don’t understand p values, or how to set up a proper test (maybe they haven’t read Tip 1 in this article).

In short, especially in content marketing, marketers are incentivized to publish sensational case studies regardless of their statistical merit.

All of that results in a pretty grim standard for the current CRO case study.

Don’t get me wrong, some case studies are excellent, and you can learn a lot from them. Digital Marketer lays out a few rules for detecting quality case studies:

Did they publish total visitors?

Did they share the lift percentage correctly?

Did they share the raw conversions? (Does the lack of raw conversions hurt my case study?)

Did they identify the primary conversion metric?

Did they publish the confidence rate? Is it >90%?

Did they share the test procedure?

Did they only use data to justify the conclusion?

Did they share the test timeline and date?

Without context or knowledge of the underlying data, a case study might be a whole lot of nonsense. And if you want a good cathartic rant on bad case studies, then Andrew Anderson’s essay is a must-read.

Image source

Tip 18: Approach existing material on CRO with a skeptical mindset. Marketers are often incentivized to publish case studies with sensational results, regardless of the quality of the data that supports them.

Conversion Optimization Tip 19: Calculate the cost of additional research vs. just running it

Matt Gershoff, CEO of Conductrics, is one of the smartest people I know regarding statistics, experimentation, machine learning, and general decision theory. He has stated some version of the following on a few occasions:

Marketing is about decision-making under uncertainty.

It’s about assessing how much uncertainty is reduced with additional data.

It must consider, “What is the value in that reduction of uncertainty?”

And it must consider, “Is that value greater than the cost of the data/time/opportunity costs?”

Yes, conversion research is good. No, you shouldn’t run blind and just test random things.

But at the end of the day, we need to calculate how much additional value a reduction in uncertainty via additional research gives us.

If you can run a cheap A/B test that takes almost no time to set up? And it doesn’t interfere with any other tests or present an opportunity cost? Ship it. Because why not?

But if you’re changing an element of your checkout funnel that could prove to be disastrous to your bottom line, well, you probably want to mitigate any possible downside. Bring out the heavy guns—user testing, prototyping, focus groups, whatever—because this is a case where you want to reduce as much uncertainty as possible.

Tip 19: Balance the value of doing more research with the costs (including opportunity costs) associated with it. Sometimes running a quick and dirty A/B test will be sufficient for your needs.

Conversion Optimization Tip 20: CRO never ends

You can’t just run a few tests and call it quits.

The big wins from the early days of working on a relatively unoptimized site may taper off, but CRO never ends. Times change. Competitors and technologies come and go. Your traffic mix changes. Hopefully, your business changes as well.

As such, even the best test results are perishable, given enough time. So plan to stick it out for the long run and keep experimenting and growing.

Think Kaizen.

Image source

Conclusion

There you go, 20 conversion optimization tips. That’s not all there is to know; this is a never-ending journey, just like the process of growth and optimization itself. But these tips should get you started and moving in the right direction.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://unbounce.com/conversion-rate-optimization/20-conversion-optimization-tips-for-zooming-past-your-competition/

0 notes

maxslogic25 · 7 years ago