On average, what is the total MONTHLY amount that you spend on dining out*?
*(This doesn't only count going out to restaurants, but also stuff like picking up fast food to bring home, getting a coffee on the way to work, getting a premade sandwich from a grocery store deli during lunch, buying a quick snack from a convenience store or food cart whilst walking somewhere, ordering a pizza or any other food to be delivered to your home, etc.)
*(If you often dine out in groups/as a household: calculate and divide the costs so that you get a Per Person average. This is for YOU individually, NOT the total household/group costs)
(I'm sure polls similar to this have been made before (very common topic), I just haven't personally seen one that I can remember, so, I was curious to do my own! I was discussing this with a group of people today and it was very interesting to see how widely the number varied between individuals. :0c )
(Reblog for bigger sample size if you can, and feel free to explain your answer in tags if there's anything extra to add!)
i mean this in the like... nicest way possible, but there is no way to post your writing and/or art on the internet without running the very high risk of it getting scraped, whether you post it on tumblr, pillowfort, or ao3. sites being 'anti ai' does not mean your art cannot be scraped. it is simply almost impossible to prevent, much less guarantee that. I'm not saying this to be a pessimist or to stop people from being rightfully pissed about this. it sucks. massively so! but if the idea does in fact bother you that much, you should know that moving sites won't fix the issue. ao3, as far as we know, has been scraped/is getting scraped. you can set your fics so that only logged in users can access them, but it only makes scraping one step more difficult, and by no means impossible and the otw has stated this clearly.
which, again, this sucks! i don't have a great solution either!! but tumblr is relatively honest, at least, when it tells you that it cannot prevent, only discourage it. ao3 said the same thing. any site promising you otherwise is, to the best of my knowledge, lying to you.
RECENT SEO & MARKETING NEWS FOR ECOMMERCE, March 2024
Welcome to my roundup of SEO and marketing news and useful resources for ecommerce businesses, March edition. There is a lot going on with Google, and some really strong marketing pieces this time around, so let's get right to it.
SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES
Google launched both a core algorithm update and spam updates on March 5, with the spam update ending on the 20th. Core updates now include the Helpful Content algorithm. In early observations, Etsy and Reddit both picked up visibility in the UK.
The Helpful Content algorithm updates late last year destroyed a lot of sites’ Google traffic. Avoid the things they had in common. You can read the full study here.
Ecommerce sites were some of the biggest losers in Google visibility in 2023, with Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Etsy, Target and Best Buy in the top 10 of sites whose Google appearances slipped.
New to Google SEO? They’ve revamped their SEO starter guide for people like you. And if you are more advanced and want to learn how to optimize your website product pages, this is a good overview.
This lengthy article on backlinks for ecommerce websites covers pretty much all the angles, including the really difficult ones.
Reminder that if you want to rank on Google for a search term, you need to look at what is already ranking, and make decisions based on that content. [video and transcript] This works for most search engines, not just Google.
Yes, Google crawls “high quality” content more often. I used to refer to this as Google thinking the page is “interesting”, so I guess I will need to change my wording...
While Google sends the most traffic to websites, people spend a lot more of their online time elsewhere. Market where people are, not just where your stats say they came from.
Sadly, Google has stopped providing caches of website pages in its search results. While you can still see the caches of some pages by using the Google search
Cache:[page link]
as in cache:https://cindylouwho-2.tumblr.com
that will eventually stop working as well. Bing still provides caches, but unfortunately both it and the Wayback Machine do not crawl often enough to give really recent results most of the time.
Missed Google news in February? Here’s your update. And just in case you are really behind, here is January.
Not Google
Unsure if your website has enough good backlinks? Bing Webmaster Tools will now tell you if you don’t.
Yandex - the top search engine in Russia - was sold by its Dutch ownership group to a consortium in Russia.
SOCIAL MEDIA - All Aspects, By Site
General
A US study of social media use found that the most popular site was YouTube, with 83% of adults using it. Two-thirds of American adults use Facebook, while TikTok is up to ⅓ of the US population.
Because they do change periodically, here are the latest image and video sizes recommended for the top social media platforms. [infographic]
Bluesky is now open to everyone - it was previously invite-only.
Facebook (includes relevant general news from Meta)
Meta has introduced several changes to its Ad options, applying to Facebook and Instagram.
Meta had a great 4th quarter in 2023, with revenue, users, and earnings per share up. “Fast-growing upstarts Temu and Shein, which originated in China, have been pouring money into ads on Facebook and Instagram. Li said on Thursday that revenue from China-based advertisers accounted for 10% of sales for the year and 5 percentage points of growth.”
Instagram
An updated post on Instagram's algorithm and how it works.
Instagram is still beta testing longer Reels for some users.
If your account is a brand account, you can now run ads on Instagram with coupon codes right in them. (Some Facebook users can already do this.)
LinkedIn
Among other recent changes on LinkedIn, the algorithm is now looking to boost important content longer than just the first day or two after publication.
Pinterest
Pinterest has its own stats package, called Pinterest Analytics, but only for “Business” accounts. They show how many people clicked on the outgoing links, how many people saw your pin on their screen, and much more. Here’s everything you need to know.
Reddit
Reddit successfully launched on the stock market this past week, but questions remain about how this will change the site.
Google is paying Reddit to scrape its content through the API instead of from the web.
Snapchat
Snap was a little later than most tech companies doing layoffs recently, waiting until February 5 to let 10% off staff go.
Threads
Threads is so new that the algorithm is bound to change a lot in the next year, but for right now, here is how it works.
TikTok
There is an overwhelming amount of info out there on the US attempt to either ban TikTok or force its sale, and much of it is incomplete, so I will let you Google to your heart’s content if you want to learn more. If you are relying on TikTok to drive sales, this would be a good time to make sure you diversify your promotional strategy.
You can now track trending terms on TikTok through the Creator Search Insights section. “Creator Search Insights will highlight frequently searched topics, which creators can organize by category (for example, tourism, sports, science) or tailor to their content type with the “For You” option. Additionally, creators can filter for “content gap” topics, which are highly searched but have relatively few videos on TikTok covering them.“
TikTok may be testing a photo app, which would obviously compete with Instagram.
Twitter
What? Twitter may have lied about its Super Bowl ad performance? I’m so not shocked.
Tumblr
Tumblr will be selling data access to AI companies.
YouTube
This is a pretty decent article on YouTube SEO.
(CONTENT) MARKETING (includes blogging, emails, and strategies)
Small and micro-businesses need an email list. An email list is:
portable (unlike most social media followers or marketplace buyers)
is available to almost everyone, as we all need at least one email address if we are online
less susceptible to the whims of algorithms (unlike SEO, marketplaces, social etc.)
I keep seeing people argue that no one opens emails, but the chart in the article above is proof that is still wrong.
(My blog email list averages close to a 70% open rate, depending on the topic and the time I send it. My jewellery email list - which I hardly ever send to - still has an over 30% open rate. My click rates are well above the industry averages, usually 30 to 40% of all recipients for the blog list. These are much better numbers than social, and astronomically better than my clickthrough rate on Google and other search engines.)
Gmail and Yahoo both changed how they handle bulk emails such as newsletters in February. Here’s what you need to know on the basics, including authenticating yourself so your email gets through.
Find out how to get people to read all the way to the end of your content.
Get ready for April marketing with 5 topical ideas. National Handmade Day is April 6.
We should all think twice before deciding to use AI to create content. “Circa 2024, generative AI does not produce new ideas or even develop its own conclusions. Rather, it regurgitates information that it has indexed.”
Not convinced? Here’s another article. “AI-generated content represents the literal “average of everything online.”
ONLINE ADVERTISING (EXCEPT INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL MEDIA AND ECOMMERCE SITES)
Google Ads can now be tracked in Google Analytics 4.
Both Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising were up in the 4th quarter of 2023.
STATS, DATA, TRACKING
Google Analytics 4 tracks organic traffic differently than the previous version. Here’s how to figure it out.
BUSINESS & CONSUMER TRENDS, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE
I’ve probably posted this specific article before, but it is worth another read: how to communicate with customers. For example, “Mirroring your customer’s tone lets them know you’re on their side. If a customer is formal, for example, hold back on the LOLs. If they’re more casual, relax your tone.”
According to a US study, Generation Z is skewing the traditional marketing funnel. “Per Archrival’s data, 77 per cent of Gen Zs and 79 per cent of millennials in the US are actively seeking style inspiration at least monthly, with almost half of those looking for style inspiration on social media. When asked where they learn about new brands, products and experiences, video reigns supreme: YouTube is the most popular platform with Gen Zs, followed by TikTok, then Instagram.”
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Unleashing the Power of Facebook Marketing: Best Strategies for Success
In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, Facebook continues to reign supreme as a powerhouse platform for businesses looking to connect with their target audience, build brand awareness, and drive sales.
Crafting an effective Facebook marketing strategy is essential for staying ahead in the competitive online market. Here, we explore the best strategies to make the most of your Facebook marketing efforts.
Create a Compelling Business Page: Facebook Business Page is the foundation of your online presence. Optimize it by providing complete and accurate information, using high-quality visuals, and incorporating your brand's unique personality.
Regularly update your profile and cover photos to keep your page fresh.
Content is King: Develop a content strategy that resonates with your audience. Use a mix of engaging text, eye-catching visuals, and videos. Experiment with different content types to see what works best for your target demographic. Consistency is key, so establish a posting schedule and stick to it.
Leverage Facebook Ads: Facebook's robust advertising platform allows you to reach highly targeted audiences. Utilize Facebook Ads to promote your products or services, boost posts, and drive website traffic.
Experiment with different ad formats, such as carousel ads, video ads, and slideshow ads, to see what generates the best results.
Harness the Power of Video: Video content has become increasingly popular on Facebook. Utilize live videos, tutorials, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and storytelling to engage your audience. Facebook's algorithm often favors video content, leading to higher reach and engagement.
Engage with Your Audience: Actively respond to comments, messages, and reviews on your page. Encourage discussions, ask questions, and run polls to foster a sense of community.
By engaging with your audience, you build trust and loyalty, which can translate into customer retention and advocacy.
Run Contests and Giveaways: Create excitement and boost engagement by running contests and giveaways. Encourage users to like, share, and comment for a chance to win. This not only increases your reach but also creates a buzz around your brand.
Utilize Facebook Analytics: Regularly analyze Facebook Insights to understand the performance of your content and ads. Identify trends, track key metrics, and adjust your strategy accordingly.
This data-driven approach ensures that you're making informed decisions to optimize your Facebook marketing efforts.
Implement Retargeting Strategies: Make use of Facebook Pixel to track website visitors and retarget them with relevant ads. This helps re-engage potential customers who have shown interest in your products or services, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
Collaborate with Influencers: Partnering with influencers can significantly expand your reach.
Identify influencers whose audience aligns with your target demographic and collaborate on sponsored content or promotions.
Stay Updated on Algorithm Changes: Facebook's algorithm evolves, impacting how content is displayed in users' feeds. Stay informed about algorithm changes and adjust your strategy accordingly. Currently, meaningful interactions and quality content are prioritized, so focus on creating content that sparks genuine engagement.
Conclusion:
Mastering Facebook marketing requires a combination of creativity, consistency, and adaptability. By implementing these strategies, you can unlock the full potential of Facebook as a marketing powerhouse, driving brand growth and achieving your business objectives. Keep refining your approach based on data and feedback, and watch as your brand flourishes in the dynamic world of social media marketing.
While butterflies often steal the spotlight, moths play a crucial role in pollinating silently.
Moths are night pollinators and play a crucial role in the ecosystem. Let’s appreciate every moth be it a majestic or the tiniest one.
Discover the stunning Atlas Moth and its incredible impact in just 60 seconds! Watch my latest YouTube short for a glimpse into the life of this majestic creature.
What is the Digital Marketing Future in Bangladesh..?
Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing is an online based Marketing system. Digital Marketing is very essential for all online businessmen. Without Digital Marketing no on can increase business identity or brand value.
Digital Marketing has many sectors. Social media marketing, search engine optimization, Email marketing, YouTube Marketing are the part of digital marketing
Social media marketing is a great way for small businesses to reach potential customers and grow their brand. Here’s a quick guide to get started:
Pick the Right Platforms
Focus on platforms where your target audience is most active. For example, Instagram is great for visual brands, while LinkedIn is perfect for B2B.
Create Simple, Engaging Content
Share valuable and visually appealing posts like product photos, tips, or behind-the-scenes content. Keep it short and relevant to your audience.
Post Consistently
Develop a posting schedule and stick to it. Regular posting helps keep your audience engaged and improves your online presence.
Engage with Your Followers
Respond to comments and messages to build trust and loyalty. Interaction shows your business is active and cares about its audience.
Run Ads on a Budget
Social media ads are cost-effective and allow you to target specific demographics. Start small and track the performance of your ads.
By following these steps, small businesses can effectively use social media marketing to build an audience, increase brand awareness, and grow their customer base.
What is the Future of Digital Marketing of the World?
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing, also called online marketing, is the promotion of brands to connect with potential customers using the internet and other forms of digital communication. This includes not only email, social media, and web-based advertising, but also text and multimedia messages as a marketing channel.
Digital Marketing Future
The future of digital marketing is constantly evolving and being shaped by emerging technologies, changing consumer behavior, and the need for innovative strategies. As we peer into the horizon of 2025, it's evident that the digital marketing landscape will undergo remarkable transformations.
RECENT SEO & MARKETING NEWS FOR ECOMMERCE, JULY 2024
If you are new to my Tumblr, I usually do these summaries of SEO and marketing news once a month, picking out the pieces that are most likely to be useful to small and micro-businesses.
You can get notified of these updates plus my website blog posts via email: http://bit.ly/CindyLouWho2Blog
or get all of the most timely updates plus exclusive content by supporting my Patreon: patreon.com/CindyLouWho2
TOP NEWS & ARTICLES
There is a relatively new way to file copyright claims against US residents, called The Copyright Claims Board (CCB). I wrote more here [post by me on Patreon]
After a few years of handwringing and false starts, Google is abandoning plans to block third-party cookies in Chrome. Both Safari and Firefox already block them.
When composing titles and text where other keywords are found, it can be useful to have a short checklist of the types of keywords you need, as this screenshot demonstrates. While that title is too long for most platforms and search engines, it covers really critical points that should get mentioned in the product description and keyword fields/tags as well:
The core keywords that describe the item
What the customer is looking to do - solve a problem? Find a gift? Feel better?
What makes the product stand out in its field - why buy this instead of something else? Differentiating your items is something that should come before you get to the listing stage, so the keywords should already be in your head.
Relevant keywords that will be used in long tail searches are always great add-ons.
What if anything about your item is trendy now? E.g., sustainability? Particular colours, styles or materials/ingredients are always important.
SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES
Google’s June spam update has finished rolling out. And here is the full list of Google news from June.
Expect a new Google core update “in the coming weeks” (as if we needed more Google excitement).
Google’s AI overviews continue to dwindle at the top of search results, now only appearing in 7% of searches.
Despite Google trying to target AI spam, many poorly-copied articles still outrank the originals in Google search results.
Internal links are important for Google SEO. While this article covers blogging in particular, most of the tips apply to any standalone website. Google also recently did a video [YouTube] on the same topic.
Google had a really excellent second quarter, mostly due to the cloud and AI.
Not Google
OpenAI is testing SearchGPT with a small number of subscribers. Alphabet shares dropped 3% after the announcement.
SOCIAL MEDIA - All Aspects, By Site
General
New social media alert: noplace is a new app billed as MySpace for Gen Z that also has some similarities with Twitter (e.g., text-based chats, with no photos or videos at this time). iOS only at the moment; no Android app or web page.
Thinking of trying out Bluesky? Here are some tips to get the most out of it.
Facebook (includes relevant general news from Meta)
Meta’s attempt at circumventing EU privacy regulations through paid subscriptions is illegal under the Digital Markets Act, according to the European Commission. “if the company cannot reach an agreement with regulators before March 2025, the Commission has the power to levy fines of up to 10 percent of the company’s global turnover.”
If you post Reels from a business page, you may be able to let Meta use AI to do A/B testing on the captions and other portions shown. I personally would not do this unless I could see what options they were choosing, since AI is often not as good as it thinks it is.
Apple’s 30% fee on in-app ad purchases for Facebook and Instagram has kicked in worldwide as of July 1.
Facebook is testing ads in the Notifications list on the app.
Meta is encouraging advertisers to connect their Google Analytics accounts to Meta Ads, claiming “integration could improve campaign performance, citing a 22% conversion increase.”
Instagram
The head of Instagram is still emphasizing that the number of DM shares per post is a huge ranking factor.
LinkedIn
Another article on the basics of setting up LinkedIn and getting found through it.
You can now advertise your LinkedIn newsletters on the platform.
Pinterest
Pinterest is slowly testing an AI program that edits the background of product photography without changing the product.
Is Pinterest dying? An investment research firm thinks so.
Reddit
If you want to see results from Reddit in your search engine results, Google is the only place that can happen now.
More than ever, Reddit is being touted as a way to be found (especially in Google search), but you do have to understand how the site works to be successful at it.
Snapchat
Snapchat+ now has 9 million paying users, and they are getting quite a few new personalization updates, and Snaps that last 50 seconds or less.
Threads
Threads has hit 175 million active users each month, up from 130 million in February.
TikTok
TikTok has made it easier to reuse your videos outside of the site without a watermark.
TikTok users can now select a custom thumbnail image for videos, either a frame from the clip itself, or a still image from elsewhere.
Twitter
You can opt out of Twitter using your posts as data for its AI, Grok.
YouTube
YouTube has new tools for Shorts, including one that makes your longer videos into Shorts.
Community Spaces are the latest YouTube test to try to get more fan involvement, while moving users away from video comments.
(CONTENT) MARKETING (includes blogging, emails, and strategies)
Start your content marketing plans for August now, including back-to-school themes and Alfred Hitchcock’s birthday on August 13.
ONLINE ADVERTISING (EXCEPT INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL MEDIA AND ECOMMERCE SITES)
Google Ads now have several new updates, including blocking misspellings.
Google’s new Merchant Center Next will soon be available for all users, if they haven’t already been invited. Supplemental feeds are now (or soon will be) allowed there.
STATS, DATA, TRACKING
Google Search Console users can now add their shipping and return info to Google search through the Console itself. This is useful for sites that do not pay for Google Ads or use Google’s free shopping ads.
BUSINESS & CONSUMER TRENDS, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE
The second part of this Whiteboard Friday [video with transcript] discusses how consumer behaviour is changing during tight economic times. “People are still spending. They just want the most for their money. Also, the consideration phase is much more complex and longer.” The remainder of the piece discusses how to approach your target market during these times.
Prime Day was supposedly the best ever for Amazon, but they didn’t release any numbers. Adobe Analytics tracked US ecommerce sales on those days and provides some insight. “Buy-now, pay-later accounted for 7.6% of all orders, a 16.4% year-over-year increase.”
MISCELLANEOUS
You know how I always tell small business owners to have multiple revenue streams? Tech needs to have multiple providers and backups as well, as the recent CrowdStrike and Microsoft issues demonstrate.
If you used Google’s old URL shortener anywhere, those links will no longer redirect as of August 25 2024.