#i've been learning too much about package design recently

[magicallymalted]

🖋 Lydia Gracey if it's not too late? 👀

Not too late! The mail is always open :P

As a kid, Lydia found out through Joel's mother that he really liked sweets. Although she was particularly indifferent to candies, she made a show in front of her parents so that they would opt to purchase some every now and then. Eventually, it became a code for her and Joel to meet whenever a new package of chocolate or caramels arrived in the kitchen, which she would then share with him. After he went off to war, she continued to send them and was eventually caught by her father. The small package of caramels that she was intending to forward never reached him, but she could not bring herself to eat them.

[transparencyboo]

For the last two weeks or so I've been playing the Mega Drive dungeon crawler Shining in the Darkness. I've recently been going through all the various action-RPGs the system had to offer and kinda found myself lusting for more, so I expanded the scope.

Shining in the Darkness had one of those cover arts I vividly remember seeing in game stores during the 90s, I understood already back then that whatever this was would be too complicated for my feeble preschool brain, but it had a shiny glossy allure that still beckoned to me with promises of daring adventures and grand battles. Questions lingered in my head: Who is that evil bastard zapping sparks at Cavin from the Gummi Bears? Why has the king entrusted the safety of his kingdom to a meagre boy and his two misfit friends?

Well, it turns out that big bad guy is called Dark Sol, the bane of all game difficulty discourse, and the reason the king has enlisted three poor kids is because there is no one else to rely on after your daddy went missing. Everyone else just sorta gives up along the way.

My initial conclusion of this game was to commend my young self for the striking assessment, my five year old self would never get anywhere in this game between the English text, abstracted navigation and number crunching battle mechanics. Shining in the Darkness is a bona fide classic dungeon gauntlet endurance simulator, where you traverse vanishing point block tunnels and encounter enemies. I've played one or two games like this before, like the original Phantasy Star, but this time a new desire struck me. I wanted to draw maps. Maybe I'm just getting older and more patient, leading me to wilfully ignore easily available resources online.

By my recollection, this is the first time I've dedicated myself to playing a game like this. Usually I just resort to my sense of direction, which I've gathered seems to at least be above average, since anytime I go anywhere with anyone I always end up playing shepherd so they don't get lost. Worst case scenario I'll just fall back to mapping efforts by online heroes from years past. For Shining in the Darkness I persisted blindly about halfway through until I admitted to myself charting a map of the labyrinthine caves would be a lot easier. Luckily, the game allows you to spend 1 MP to see a chunk of where you've walked, meaning I could get neatly organized segments to copy by hand.

Perhaps my biggest takeaway from this endeavour was how much of the game experience was expressed through this map project. I spent just as much time slaying beasts as I did counting tiles and filling them out with my pencil. It became a natural counterbalance that provided vital pacing to the game mechanics. Walking, fighting, charting. In turn, through the principle of learning by doing, I gained a more intimate familiarity with the environments by just replicating them out on a sheet of paper. I found that while the map helped, I actually didn't need it much for backtracking because my drawings had helped me remember the layouts of the corridors anyway.

I guess the lesson learned is that while old design sensibilities may appear to be arcane and cumbersome when easier solutions exists, the obfuscation is part of the fun. The game hands me an intentionally hard to navigate world, shows me that it's fully capable of displaying maps of it, but still asks me to provide that dimension myself. Through doing this, I discover that drawing maps is both surprisingly enjoyable and cognitively stimulating. I realize that had I downloaded some pre-packaged maps online and used as my bible, Shining in the Darkness would've been a vastly different experience, one of monotonous meandering through endless fights while confidently striding along the known path.

Perhaps that's why the game was called Shining and the Darkness in Japan, it doesn't flow as well as the western title, but at the same time it poetically reflects this act of discovery. I am Shining, the game provides the Darkness, we work together, we must unify to become whole.

As for Dark Sol, he turned into a big monster boy and was vanquished by a spunky cartographer child and her two cohorts. The unknown has been made known and the kingdom is once more saved.

/Kiki

[akuma-tenshi]

list of expectations for the upcoming dev conference / livestream bc i can't sleep:

- anniversary news is almost guaranteed. batter will likely be getting one of the s-tiers, but it's not confirmed if it'll be in the shop or the essence. this may also be when undead gets his new skin, but i'm much less confident on that. four skins will be revealed: the s- and a-tiers from the essence, and the s-tier that'll be in the shop. the corresponding event will also be teased / discussed.

- once / backdrift and ivory tower skin news. definitely one once skin and at least one ivory tower skin (possibly two). this could be when we get the hunter ivory tower skin that was announced forever ago.

- no new character news. sorry, but they already have two characters waiting to be released (as i believe faro lady will already be available in-game by the date the livestream is planned for), and adding a third while giving nothing on the two already revealed would just overhype fans. if they do, for some reason, reveal a new character, it will likely be the acrobat identity switch they've been teasing lately.

- speaking of new characters, i highly doubt goatman's essence will be revealed; it's too early in the season to reveal the third essence. again, any essence news will likely be tied to the anniversary. i'd be happy to be proven wrong, though.

- we'll probably be getting news on collabs. my safest bet is news on the collaboration with the arthur conan doyle estate, which will reveal the skins (and other in-game content) we'll be getting; novelist is almost definitely getting a skin. it feels a bit early to reveal news on the return of the persona 5 collab, but it's possible. other new collabs could be revealed too.

- no logic path, coa, deduction star, nymph awards, or rank accessory news. it's too early in the season for lp and accessory news, and FAR too early in the year for ds, nymph, and coa news. if you want an estimation on those last three: october at the earliest for ds news, november for nymph, and december for coa. i can't give an estimate on lp or accessories as those vary depending on when the current season ends.

- new maps, gamemodes, story updates, etc. will at least be touched on. my best guess is a possible release date for mercenary's diaries and an update on the murder mystery gamemode that was revealed during coa7.

- a new truth & inference offline package is possible but i wouldn't hold my breath considering that we got wu chang's relatively recently.

- possible news on the idv-es skins, either an in-game showcase or a reveal of their hunter. i'm hoping they clear up the confusion around the designs because a lot of us are still a little unsure about them, especially naib's.

- news on the "mysterious event" announced on the june calendar, if it isn't covered by any of the above points.

and that's about it!! this is mostly based on my own experience waking up far too early to catch these streams (haven't missed a single one since i learned about 'em lmao) and what i've come to expect from them. i may be completely off the mark here but it's what i know of these streams. i may end up liveblogging these announcements; i'll make a sideblog for it and if you want to hear about the news right after it's revealed, feel free to follow me there!! ((i'll make a promo post for it dw))

[the-nysh]

Hi Nysh!🐣 In general, on what basis does this or that fictional char become your favourite? For ex, they possess qualities that you admire or you find yourself in them and can relate to them or their actions and personality are interesting to analyze etc.

Ooh :D well fortunately I've described some favorite character types briefly here, but I’ll continue to elaborate:

- Emotionally constipated sons who overcompensate because the feelings they fear are too much for their vessels to contain. (Aka their feelings are far stronger than they know how to properly manage or navigate; in which they mistakenly think these feelings are a weakness/vulnerability, so they try so hard to repress them down, which usually backfires, because in fact those feelings are one of their biggest purest strengths; a core part of themselves they can’t get rid of.) They must learn how to properly face that avoided truth in their hearts or else they risk self-destructive tendencies. It’s always an inner struggle about accepting/finding/mastering/overcoming oneself I find most compelling and endearing to witness, every time. :’) (Longtime archetype: Raphael; towards more recent favs: Genos, Mob, Kacchan, Garou...they all have that compelling ‘element’ that draws me in that I can’t look away from. 👀)

- Or responsible and strong, dignified, nuanced ladies who both feel and fight for a purpose. (Most fond examples: Teresa of the Faint Smile, Nausicaa; Ryougi Shiki the one in my icon, Homura, etc.) Emotionally, I prefer them to be a bit more ‘cooled’ (ie more mature and self-aware) than the fiery sons I’m fond for, but these ladies can still snap with their passionate sides or show feral (protective) rage too when the moment strikes, which is always an impressive often scary treat. (Most impressionable example that’s stuck with me: when the usually kind, pacifist Nausicaa snapped in feral anger when she saw her father killed, enough to kill others herself, that she became afraid of that side of herself and what she’s capable of when those inner feelings take over...oh oohh!!!! So good. That you can see how characters like Mob similarly struggle containing such strong feelings too.)

Superficially, if characters are generally designed cute, funny/dorky, and badass (all together in one package) then they'll usually gain my attention. (Bonus if they're oblivious dummy asshole little shits for fun entertainment too.) But for them to really ‘take’ my feelings further, they’ll usually need a bit more involvement...

Cause it’s those that can make me feel AND think (enough to write endlessly about, yes) are the characters who I often take to most strongly, because yes....there’s some of that relatability factor involved, in which I can see some of my younger self in their emotional struggles too. Because for example...I understand the kind of anger over experiencing a loss beyond one’s control (like a death in the family)...and that anger from feeling powerlessness (enough to hurt yourself or others thru the guilt/frustration) is some of the ugliest you can feel. :’) It’s part of what originally drew me to Genos for example, and the moment of recognition hit me like a lightning strike when Kacchan admitted in self-imploding agony: ‘why was I the one to end All Might?’ Hoo boy, I felt that, even his misplaced guilt/responsibility thrust on himself when none of that (the parts beyond his control) were his fault. (This is why I fondly dub them ‘sons,’ because aahh, they’re feeling some of what I’ve already been through. :’3)

So what it takes for me to Understand(tm) and connect to them on a deeper, empathetic level can all come together within a single moment (like for that Kacchan example) or it can be a more gradual process over time (like for Garou), while actively witnessing their growth/struggles, and looking forward to how they come into their own (better) selves. :’3 But that fondness, of how it feels when you scan for any sightings of them, which also keeps your eyes glued to the pages with them, enough to evoke that familiar, even comforting sense that sparks joy, to the point where you just know -there he is-...ah yes, that ‘favorite’ feeling’s definitely the same.

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, April 6, 2021

Welcome to my latest summary of recent ecommerce news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & Etsy! This covers articles, podcasts, videos and infographics I came across since the early March report, although some may be older than that.

I am hoping to launch a new ecommerce resource page on my website in May, although that is looking a bit ambitious with everything else I have on the go. (I've released the latest version of my Etsy search ebook, and am working on updating the keyword research ebook this week as well as still drafting a few new blog posts on Etsy search.)

If you have any questions, please drop me a line here on Tumblr, reply to this post, email me, or contact me on Twitter.

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

Etsy Ads have been turning themselves on without sellers taking any action. There are threads here, here, here, and here. There is a video here with more people reporting the issue in the comments. A few cases seem to be related to using vacation mode, and at least one person reports a much higher budget than they would have chosen. So go check to make sure they ae still off (unless you want them running).

eBay, Etsy and some other marketplaces have formed a coalition to lobby against proposed laws they say could harm small sellers and microbusinesses. The Coalition to Protect American’s Small Sellers (PASS Coalition) is currently fighting the INFORM Consumers Act, which “would require online marketplaces to disclose third-party seller information to consumers, including name, address, email and telephone, or face civil penalties.” An Etsy rep said that this would be problematic because it would affect the privacy of sellers, and could potentially move communications off-site meaning Etsy would have less “ability to ensure seller integrity and consumer protections.”

PayPal is now allowing Americans to pay using cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin; this is rolling out over the next few months.

ETSY NEWS

Remember when Etsy Ads got way more expensive and stopped working for some people? Here’s the technical explanation of what they changed. [It is very technical in some parts, so most people will struggle with a lot of it] Note they explain that the Etsy Ads algorithm “ranks listings based on their bid price, multiplied by their predicted click-through rate”, and that they added contextual factors such as the time, the day of the week, and the buyer’s platform to tailor the bidding, and the expected order value is supposed to be part of the final bid calculation. They also mention that the current system is using the “30-day listing purchase rate” as a factor. The results of testing: “[t]he buyers saw more relevant results from ads (+6.19% CTR), the buyers made more purchases from ads (+3.08% PCCVR) and the sellers received more sales for every dollar they spent on Etsy Ads (+7.02% ROAS).” It’s clear that Etsy Ads are designed for the really big spenders, not small shops.

April’s attribute updates include candles and desks.

In their latest sustainability initiative, Etsy will now offset carbon emissions from packaging.

Etsy’s “disaster relief fund” has launched, but it is only available to US sellers, which is something not stated until you click to the application form. The FAQs actually state it is available to “all sellers”. Because everyone on Etsy is American, right?

Etsy donated $500,000 to two groups working against Asian hate. Ironically, they also got called out for having an algorithm that was surfacing “erotic” photos of Asian women as recommendations on listings that were completely unrelated items with only “Asian” as a common keyword. The issue was also noted in searches for “Asian photo”. Etsy’s response was to remove 3 listings and to promise to “continue to work on improving our algorithm to avoid surfacing recommendations where not relevant or appropriate.”

The Spring and Summer Trend Report is out, with the usual detail on trending items and keywords used. Some of the search trends:

“143% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for checkered prints”

Things like mushrooms, and “waves and squiggles” are hot

Outdoors, plants and gardening, staycations & decor related to travel are all expected to continue to be popular

“286% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for vintage colored glassware”

“42% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for pendant necklaces”

“86% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for clothing patterns”

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

If you are fairly new to SEO for search engines such as Google, you may find that it seems way too complex, and you might worry that you are missing something. Here is a great basic checklist for websites. Most of these items will not apply on marketplaces such as Etsy; e.g., Etsy rewrites the file name, and doesn’t allow you to create an URL separate from the listing title, or a meta description different from the listing description.

One of the most common questions I get is “how do I get backlinks”? Fortunately, Moz just came out with the Beginner's Guide to Link Building.

You know that links are very important for Google ranking, but do you know how Google decides that? Read this, and you will. [text with lots of graphics]

If you really want to know everything about SEO, Search Engine Journal compiled a fabulous list of resources. Some get very technical, so this list is definitely not for everyone.

A new study says that ⅔ of Google searches do not result in a click; people are getting the information they seek from various Google features on the search page. The study does not separate out simple searches such as the temperature outside, or a spelling check, in which users wouldn’t benefit from clicking. But while the click rate is dropping, users are still growing, so the total number of clicks continues to increase. Here’s a bit of commentary on the study.

Although Google says it likely won’t change ranking much, here’s a good overview of the upcoming Core Web Vitals algorithm update.

Good news! Bots don’t hurt your Google ranking.

SEO for videos on Google, appropriately in the form of a video. [links and highlights in the video’s description]

Former Google employees are involved in Neema, a subscription-based search engine which will protect users’ privacy. The site is currently in beta and there is a waitlist.

(CONTENT) MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails)

Trends in the best headline/caption/title for sharing have changed. BuzzSumo’s review of 100 million posts shows that emotional phrases are no longer as big as they were in 2017, and the most shared headlines are now shorter: only 11 words/65 characters. There is a lot of analysis of Twitter and Facebook as well as general info here.

Ideal image size is different on every social media platform; this infographic gives you all the sizes for the major sites.

Reminder: don’t buy Instagram followers. A lot of the services sell bots and inactive accounts, which means you won’t get any engagement. The article ends with a few tips on how to get authentic followers that will actually help you.

Coming to Instagram: the ability to save drafts of Stories.

Reddit has opened a Canadian office, a logical decision since Canuck Redditors are the third-largest country base, and are increasing by 40% a year.

Which app was downloaded the most in the first quarter of 2021? You will be unsurprised to hear it is TikTok.

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS)

You can’t know how successful your ads are, or how they could be improved, if you aren’t paying attention to several different metrics. Here is what to watch on Facebook.

Here is an overview of what we know about how Google is doing away with advertisers’ third party cookies; the new set up is called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC).

Ad design can be tricky; here are 11 tips for creating Facebook ads that will work.

TikTok is forcing users to see ads related to their TikTok history; as of April 15, you will not be able to opt out of ad personalization. You can still refuse to let them use your activity on other sites, though.

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING

Here’s an overview of how the new version of Google Analytics works.

Facebook Analytics will be retired June 30, 2021, and some people do not feel there are adequate alternatives.

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS

Poshmark now has listing videos. Any videos added also show up on a seller’s Posh Stories. eBay is also rolling out videos on listing pages and storefronts.

Walmart’s Marketplace now allows sellers from outside the United States; the first new group is from China.

Hudson’s Bay Company is the latest to invite third-party merchants to sell on its site, the Hudson’s Bay Marketplace. There isn’t much there yet, though.

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

Half of Americans hate seeing the same ads all of the time. 40% were interested in learning about deals through ads, while almost as many want ads that are “entertaining”.

Make sure you are using the correct words to get buyers to convert. This infographic lists some of the most useful psychological trigger words, depending on your goals.

Increasing the average order value is a smart way to increase your income without adding more new customers. Here are 4 pricing strategies to get you there.

Ecommerce spending is projected to continue increasing, and installment plans have been popular early in 2021.

How fast a website loads is directly related to sales and conversions. “If a page’s load time slowed from one second to three seconds, the chances of a bounce increased by almost a third (32%). And going from one to five seconds increased bounce rate by a whopping 90%!”

[topicprinter]

Top 7 Lessons I've Learned From Spending $152,010.53 Of My Own Personal Money On Facebook™ Advertising THIS YEAR ALONE!Proof:Ad Account 1: imgur.com/a/jQLCcerAd Account 2: imgur.com/a/KMG14xTSide Note: That may seem like a huge dollar figure to some, but others that's a daily/monthly budget. That said, I'm not bragging or presenting that figure as being HUGE. In fact, last year, I sat next to a guy in Dallas TX who spends $50,000 - $100,000 PER DAY! The rest of those sitting at that same dinner table was spending similar amounts. Okay, onto the lessons!👨‍🏫 LESSON 1: A Compelling Offer - This may sound obvious, but you'll be surprised at how many people (including myself) push an offer that the market doesn't want or need. I don't care how seasoned you are at marketing, at the end of the day you can't polish a turd. In other words, if the offer sucks, it's not going to sell! I've even had zero response to offers I gave away for free!Before you give up on your offer though, make sure that you've done a thorough job at testing (I cover more on testing in Lesson 3 below.) The main thing is to look at how you package your product/service. People must view your offer as having more value than the money their trading for it.To boost the perceived value you may need to test different price points, and/or add extra bonuses offers that complement the offer. In some cases, it may even mean raising the price because people may decide "it's too good to be true" and conclude it's a scam. Believe me, when I say, people hand that word out like it's candy. Either way, make sure your offer is a no-brainer decision for the audience your targeting.Another big mistake is creating an offer that is too broad for any specific audience to target. It's a lot more difficult (and expensive) to sell a generic product or service to a broad audience. Instead, get more strategic by creating your offer around a specific niche.For example: If you sell a workout program it's smart to frame it around mothers who want to lose weight by doing yoga. In Facebook™, you can target moms who also like yoga.Another niche could be future brides who want to lose 10lbs before their wedding. You could target engaged women who like 'Weight Watchers' or other weight-loss programs that they most likely failed at.If you offer a sales guide, you can get more niche by framing it around Realtors.Before creating an offer and kicking off a Facebook™ ad campaign, I'd recommend testing to see if sells or not to your existing email list. If it doesn't sell to people who know, like and trust you then you can bet it won't with ice-cold traffic!The Bottom Line: If your offer is proven to sell and targets a specific niche audience, the bigger your chances for Facebook™ advertising success.👨‍🏫 LESSON 2: Stick To Copy Principles - It's easy to overload your brain with "new and improved" strategies that sell. Truth is, not much has changed since the mid-1900's on Madison Avenue when advertisers were sipping on an Old Fashioned and writing copy. The only difference is the platforms we have to sell on.For example, Photography has the same core lighting/posing principles whether you shoot with film or digital. Again, the difference is the tools we have available.The most effective copy strategies that get people to take action the most is fear. Not saying you should scare the hell out of your audience, but instead teach them.I just paid a guy $150 to do a radon test for a house inspection. I asked him to sell me on why I should do it...his answer? "Because of high levels of radon cause lung cancer." SOLD!Another way is through urgency and scarcity. That's why I ALWAYS include a deadline to register for a webinar or to take advantage of a deal. Humans procrastinate, and until you give them a reason to pull out their credit card right now they'll have already moved onto something different.Whenever I feel like I'm trembling away from copy principles, I'll flip on QVC or HSN and watch how they sell. These shows have been selling products the same way for many decades and haven't changed since. It just works!Another bonus tip is that controversy sells and works well with social media. Dan Kennedy said it best, "If you haven't offended somebody by noon every day, then you're not marketing hard enough." I apply this in most of my Facebook™ ad campaigns and frame it as "us against them".For example, if you sell design work you could talk about how they should fire their designers. Believe me, the designers will show up in your ads ready to throw rocks. "Okay Brandon, I don't want rocks thrown at me!" - It's a good thing because no publicity is bad publicity. And also, because now it becomes a movement for your buyers to prove to their now-enemies that they stand for what they believe. I mean...how do you think Trump won?The Bottom Line: Stop falling for the shiny new techniques for selling, and focus solely on the principles of selling that have worked for many decades and more to come! I could write for days on various copy tricks (like how emojis grab attention). More importantly, before flipping on an ad I recommend learning how the consumer thinks with these two books that are packed-full of copywriting principles: 'Cashvertising' by Drew Eric Whitman and 'Expert Secrets' by Russell Brunson.👨‍🏫 LESSON 3: Always Be Testing - Failing is an important part of success no matter what you do in life, and it's no different when it comes to Facebook™ advertising.I CONSTANTLY fail a ton and often times it leaves me scratching my head and wondering if I'm even cut out to be a marketer in the first place 😂 But...I never give up, and no matter how months pass by I keep pushing forward. To put that in perspective, I've spent almost a year on one campaign that's just now starting to convert. That's worse case scenario but enough tweaking and you can truly turn ideas into long-term businesses. That's why I'm willing to spend that much time; because I know it can result in yearly salaries once it's dialed in.I'm going to break down what's necessary to test, based on my personal experience...Ad Creatives: The image of the ad is what grabs the attention most, and that's why I recommend a thick red border with a baby crying hysterically...just kidding! It's not necessary to be obnoxiously loud. What's more important is to is an ad that resonates with your audience.My personal experience has been keeping the ad creatives real and relevant. Ad creatives that work well are collages, amateur-looking (NOT stock photos), testimonials, hyper-speed videos. Turn images b&w and they may perform better too.Ad creatives constantly burn out, and do so weekly! NEVER be afraid to add new ones. I've made the mistake of getting emotionally attached to an ad image because it WAS performing but fizzled out. I kept trying different audiences and copy and wasted so much money. Now I'm constantly testing new images/videos and always finding new winners. Pretty exciting stuff and a big hurdle I had to overcome.The Landing Page: This goes hand to hand with the ad itself. When someone clicks on your ad, they want to feel confident that the landing page matches what the ad states. Otherwise, it's called 'bait and switch' when they land on your page. If you invited them to a webinar in your ad, it must take them to a webinar registration page. If you offer a product in your ad, it must take them to a sales page for that specific offer. If there's any disconnection (words, imagery...etc.) then this is going to put a huge dent in your conversion rate.I've read many split-testing books and here's what I've personally found to be the most effective on sales pages:a.) The Headline: The headline sets the tone for the entire page. When someone reads the headline they should know exactly know what pain points they have, what your offering, and how your offer will benefit them. You'd be surprised at how many sales pages I've seen that I've reached the bottom of the page and still have no idea what they're offering. So be clear about that!b.) The Price Point: Once I have the headline dialed in, I focus on the price. When I'm sending traffic to an offer I like to keep it under $50 so I try to make sure the value exceeds that cost.I'll split test prices at: $47, $37, $27, and $17. If it doesn't sell at those price points I'll even go down as low as $7.A recent campaign I did just this, and as soon as I did that it started to sell. I'm averaging $9.38 CPA's (cost per action) which means I'm only losing $2.38 per sale which can easily be made up on the backend. I call that a success!Side note: I put a lot of hours into thinking, creating, and marketing this product, but I don't allow emotion to get involved when it comes to reducing the price of my product. I'd rather have a product that sells 10x as much at $7 than not sell at all at $17. All I care is about being profitable so I can scale to the moon.Also when it comes to pricing, don't give them too many options to choose from. Too many choices result in no choice at all.If you're driving an immense amount of traffic then I recommend testing other things, like moving different sections around, button text, button color but personally I haven't seen much of an effect by testing this.The Bottom Line: Test ad creatives, headlines, and price points.👨‍🏫 LESSON 4: Avoid Overlapping - This is more on the tech side of ads, but when advertising you should have an ad that shows to a cold audience ONCE. Then set up a separate ad that retargets those who clicked but didn't' buy.If you neglect this, you run the risk of what's called: Overlapping. This will depend on your audience size, and your daily budget. However, when overlapping occurs you're essentially showing the same ads to the same audience which may cause ad spend to hike because you're competing with yourself. It could also prevent your ads from spending at all.The Bottom line: Avoid overlapping by excluding people who've visited your landing page and people who purchased from your cold traffic.👨‍🏫 LESSON 5: Follow Up (Advertising Is Just The Beginning) - Some advertisers collect leads by giving away freebies like eBooks, cheat sheets...etc. Instead, I choose to send traffic directly to an offer (under $50) or send them to a webinar registration page. The reason is it sets the tone that indeed I have an offer and that I am NOT a charity for freebie-seekers.Once you have a buyer, they're more inclined to buy more. Whether you're profitable, break-even, or in the red with your Facebook™ ad campaign you can scale even more by up-selling, or cross-selling through email marketing.I try to email my buyers every day and it's proven to be profitable. I've also created businesses within my business by partnering with people and selling their product, as well as adding a phone salesman to sell higher priced offers.The Bottom line: View Facebook™ advertising as only the beginning, because the money is in the back-end of your business.👨‍🏫 LESSON 6: Have An End Date - Most advertisers (including me) want to flip an ad on and just let it keep going. That used to work in the earlier days but now it's about scheduling an end date on your ad set because of 2 reasons...1.) It forces Facebook's™ algo to optimize faster and find similar people that resonate with your ad.2.) It adds urgency which gets people to take action!I'll notice with my campaigns 33% of sales will come in the last day during a week long campaign.The Bottom Line: Facebook™ algo optimizes more effectively when you schedule an end date at the ad set level. Also people take action when there's an end date.👨‍🏫 LESSON 7: Mix In Other Ad Platforms - A lot of my Facebook™ advertising success comes from integrating other ad platforms. My 2 favorites are YouTube, and Perfect Audience and use both for retargeting purposes.When someone lands on my sales page and leaves without taking action I'll stock them as they surf the web.Creepy? Absolutely. Profitable? Yes, here's a Y.T.D. screenshot of a YouTube campaign I'm currently running: imgur.com/a/lzQbehdWhen someone visits YouTube after they leave my sales page without buying, a video ad of me teaching/pitching will play before their video (they can skip it of course!)Perfect Audience allows me to put banner ads on websites they visit after they leave without buying.Bottom Line: Retarget your Facebook traffic using other ad platforms.👨‍🏫 BONUS LESSON 8: Get Your Rewards! - If you find yourself spending big on Facebook™, get a business credit card of some sort that will offer cashback or travel rewards.That was a mistake I made all throughout 2017. Now I have the U.S. Bank Edge Select card attached to my ads account which earns me 3 points per $1 spent on Facebook™ advertising. I set it and forget it, and then by the time I remember I have around $2k - $3k in cash rewards that pay for one hell of a vacation :)

[douchebagbrainwaves]

I'VE BEEN PONDERING FILTERS

But Dropbox was a much better deal for them to change. A song on an iPod's disk is merely stored on it. But I think in the coming years. Any of you who were nerds in high school. Start by picking a hard problem.1 I've been surprised again and again by just how much more important persistence is than raw intelligence. There may be a similar problem with the way we got nearly all our new users. Thirty years later Facebook had the same shape, scaled up.2 It's a lot like college. One founder I know wrote: Two-firm deals are great. And they are right. That depends.

If you go to VC firms for the next round. Sometimes it was even technically interesting. The phrase seed investment covers a broad range. So everyone is nervous about closing deals with you, and b it's worth spending a lot to sell toilet seats for a thousand dollars.3 Investors and analysts would ask us what we had planned for the future. This was done entirely for PR purposes. And since the latter is huge the former should be too.4 So don't look for a replacement for x.5 If you do that, people who want it, but there won't be many of them. The disadvantage is that it can be a damned heavy monkey on your back. Because VCs invest large amounts, the money comes with more restrictions. Browsers then IE 6 was still 3 years in the future.

You get to work full-time on them, and why startups do things that ordinary companies don't, like raising money and getting acquired. One of the VC firms says they want to believe you're a hot prospect, because it never stops. The main reason they want to own, and the advertisers will follow. IBM coding forms. Was it something about the geography of Europe?6 Above all, they were exceptional.7 I've long since gotten used to it. Viaweb. You can do whatever you want with money from consulting or friends and family. The cost of customer acquisition. But because seed firms operate in an earlier phase, they need to do is turn off the filters that usually prevent you from taking one apart to see how it worked. It does not seem to exist.8

As far as I can tell it isn't. Needless to say, not at all what you might expect, considering the prizes at stake.9 One is that the scariness of starting a company that will do something cool, the aim had better be good, because it's getting so cheap to start a startup today, there are two things I want to know how to improve them. The fact that the deal terms tend to be annoyed by hackers' general attitude of disobedience. The company issues $200,000.10 Then you can gradually transform yourself from a consulting company into a product company, and it would be stupid to try the experiment and find out. Surely many of these people would like a site where they could talk to other pet owners.11 Most successful startups get money from more than one discovered when Christmas shopping season came around and loads rose on their server. And have to shut down.

The stories about sleeping under desks usually end: then at last we shipped it and we all went home and slept for a week should give anyone ideas for two or three new startups. The iPhone and the iPad have effectively drilled a hole that will allow ephemeralization to flow into a lot of ways to get rich, how would you do it?12 Much of what VCs add, acquirers don't want anyway.13 You don't have to try very hard to recommend an acquisition; it's just what their business has evolved into. In software, a problem that founders keep control stops being perceived as a concession, it will probably fail quickly enough that you can do more for users. A button that looks like it will make a machine stop should make it stop, not speed up. If you're not working, your competitors will get the leftovers, as they say, can talk Wall Street's language when they did finally take a CEO, they chose a guy with a PhD in computer science, which presumably makes them engineers. But if you're living in the future.

Notes

16%. I'm convinced there were already lots of customers times how much of a press conference. Turn on rice package. It wouldn't cut their overall returns tenfold, because a part has come unscrewed, you can do to get frozen yogurt.

My first job was scooping ice cream in the biggest discoveries in any era if people can see the apples, they have because they need to fix.

Most of the standard career paths of trustafarians to start a startup. But when you lose that protection, e. To a kid who had recently arrived from Russia.

Merely including Steve in the most important section. But those are usually obvious, even thinking requires control of scarce resources, political deal-making power. You can have a precise measure of that, isn't it?

The dictator in the former, because people would be lost in friction. The Sub-Zero 690, one could reasonably be with children, or can be fooled. I suspect most of them.

Indeed, that's not likely to come in and convince them. Indifference, mainly. IBM makes decent hardware.

There are many senses of the word as in e. The relationships between unions and unionized companies can hire unskilled people to claim retroactively I said by definition this will help you in? It is a cause for optimism: American graduates have more skeletons than squeaky clean dullards, but they seem pointless. So by agreeing to uncapped notes.

The philosophers whose works they cover would be unfortunate. Incidentally, this phenomenon myself: hotel unions are responsible for more. When you fund a startup you can skip the first question is to use those solutions.

And it would feel pretty bogus to press founders to try to become one of those you can get very emotional. In effect they were regarded as 'just' even after the egalitarian pressures of World War II the tax codes were so new that it's a book from a few people have to worry about that danger.

It's also one of the most part and you can see the apples, they were actually getting physically taller.

Convertible debt, so the best intentions.

But it's telling that it makes the best case. Proceedings of AAAI-98 Workshop on Learning for Text Categorization. But that turned out to be something you can base brand on anything with it, but for blacklists nearness is physical, and are often surprised by this standard, and as an asset class.

For more on not screwing up than any design decision, but there are not one of the living.