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ca1e70-deactivated · 5 years

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a list of my entirely way too niche headcanons ive actually implemented for everyones imagination:

name options ive used and refuse to retire: david elizabeth strider (sometimes i dont feel like being a douche to others and saying thats not his name), harley davidson strider, and david james strider for the sake of simplicity

im not gonna tell yall the like. oc exes ive given him bc thatll take eighteen years.

i dont rlly have an explanation on the ghost thing besides the fact he just can? ive occasionally pulled from family ghost stories and experiences bc i somehow got landed with family members who lived in a haunted house for a decade and enjoy scaring me with all the stories (including the time my cousin literally died on the kitchen floor from a bronchial spasm and one of the friends that was over asked my aunt later what was up with the old man she saw in the corner of the room that night - my cousin is fine btw shes just a huge bitch and a third grade teacher and i dont like her)

whether or not hes done drugs is based on absolutely nothing besides how im feeling in that moment. either hes the designated driver and sober friend forever or he got fired from his job after doing a line at work during graveyard with some random customers theres no inbetween (this absolutely happened @ waho. if dave works at waho hes a mess of a person and thats on the diner itself.)

ok look i hc dave w/schizophrenia besides when i was 14 i had a hyperfixation with learning about it and then at 16 was prescribed a medication and had side effects so wack my therapist genuinely thought 14 yr old me was onto something and its a weird way to cope with the idea that lady put in my head that i might “develop it in my twenties” which i turn 20 this year and i havent been able to stop obsessing and panicking over the prospect so PLEASE dont come in my inbox calling me ableist im not out here all harley quinn in suicide squad with the voices ok hes medicated, he goes to therapy, the hard fast delusion that lil cal was nearly sentient and informed bro of every single thing dave did no matter how asinine it was is no longer a debilitatingly affecting him ANYWAYS

i actually use the chicken/egg farming family pretty often just because its hilarious to me to give dave like. an actual mom and dad. hes literally an uncle to like three different kids he just never visits because they make fun of his skinny jeans and he hates one of his (incredibly bare-bones ocs all of them) brothers who threatened to bash his head in with a little league bat after dave broke his star wars lego set apart on accident (but not rlly) so their parents were like “why dont you stay with your brother in the big city for a lil while champ” and then they just never picked him back up? and thats on favoritism

the other one is that his name is actually david reed and hes the middle child of a family of three who literally live the standard golden retriever white middle class life only they went to disney land or something equally as dumb one year when dave was like 6 and he wandered off so bro literally just went “huh free game” because frankly he was an idiot who thought maybe i should take this kid home because its real dangerous in parking lots and then it was too late to NOT have it seem like a kidnapping and thats why daves never had a summer job, seen his birth certificate, or gone to school. but vaguely remembers what kindergarten was like and having a pet dog and calling someone mom as a kid.

im not making a bullet point about his sex life headcanons just use your imagination and acknowledge the fact bro essentially worked within the sex industry and i enjoy putting dave through trauma as a catharsis

i stopped doing this one usually but if he did go to school hes been in percussion since fifth grade and played the drums in his high schools jazz band as well as various edgy teenager garage bands he likes to pretend dont have a youtube presence and that hes absolutely never been shirtless in front of plenty of his classmates because he wore a hoodie to a show like an idiot. idk occasionally ill put him in an actual band he doesnt hate but keeps separate from his lil turntechGodhead internet persona (which i will ALSO touch upon in a sec) until they wind up getting looped into a tour with some bigger named band that has a show in *insert beta kid here*’s city and hes gotta come clean solely so he can visit his online friend. sorry derseasterous thats the one time weve ever run into each other and i made him have a crush on one of his bandmates i was in my anti-daverose phase where i made dave a hoe and also didnt want to admit i still loved the ship all these years later

i hate it so much but you know the whole vr loli trap voice shit that was popular a while ago? hes fucking baller at it for some reason. he did it as a joke while talking to bro and they both about shat their pants. if im feeling real ambitious, hes got a separate soundcloud solely dedicated to doing dumbass rap covers or making his own but in the voice under the pseudonym elizabeth “beth” davids that he will never admit is his. well, he will, but hes gonna be really fucking embarrassed about it. irony or not.

talking abt seperate soundclouds and stuff ive always had it where turntechGodhead was his like. essentially internet fucking persona facade shit he used because we all had that phase where we wanted memorable urls and stuff but also didnt want to totally ignore the nagging fear of people finding you in real life, until it turned into real life ppl finding you on the internet. so he also has basically an adjacent set of social media under the same name but its just a boring username i havent decided on so everyone he knows irl doesnt mix up with what hes made for himself as TG and the people he knows as TG dont know what highschool he goes to. (this occasionally comes with the territory of ppl on parp being pissed that daves “lying” or “hiding things” from his friends as if he was doing it out of spite instead of just keeping embarrassing tagged photos and videos from football games or when he ate shit at the skatepark from fucking with his “rap career”)

every once in a while i get on a kick where hes just german. like, i just replace houston texas with hamburg germany and have him apply to a university in whatever state is applicable for whoever im chatting with and it goes from there? sometimes he moved when he was little and went through the whole visa thing, sometimes he didnt go through the visa thing, sometimes hes a dual citizen because of family and shit, its all dependent on what suits the situation best.

one that ive been fucking with for a while but hardly break out (until recently with like 5 roses in the span of one day hell yeah) is that he has a neighbor at the end of the hall who is like a thousand year old witch lady that hes basically adopted as his mother figure in lieu of not having one and shes totally cool with it, especially bc when she kicks the bucket she fully plans on giving dave all her occult stuff so her figure-skating coach and realtor daughter doesnt sell it at a garage sale and lets it all go to waste. she also once brought rose up by name in a conversation without any prompting of her existence which dave didnt realize for days, and then one time cryptically stopped and stared at an empty space in the wall, went “she has potential, you know.” then looked at him sitting on her kitchen counter with a smile “lots of it” and hes thought about that weekly ever since. (it is important to note one of the occult items he leaves her is literally her own personal book of shadows shes been filling out for decades its like a 600 page leatherbound book dave has no idea what its used for but the sheer amount of homemade spells and etc in it is like. gonna murder rose the second this chick gets her hands on it i promise you.)

theres the standard strife shit? im not rlly gonna get into those theyre all basically cookie cutter bullshit. its just standard bro and dave abuse talk. i like to inclulde the whole 24hr live cam up in the apartment that definitely watches dave in every room besides his own and the bathroom, but that quickly delves into the prospect of middle-aged men stalking him online and basically sexually harassing him in his own god damn home by talking about how they can see him just trying to take his shoes off in the living room after getting home and frankly? its not one of my best takes! but once you throw it into the headcanon bin, its there forever.

he actually really does do something with his photography but not enough to warrant anything exciting, but he has his own branding for it and regularly takes pictures of his friends or anything else he thinks is moderately interesting enough to take pictures of, but those are just thrown into shoeboxes under his bed in favor of posting genuine shots because he wants to keep his image intact and blurry photos of jade smiling in the tree they climbed up together while bec paws at the base of it while whining isnt exactly something he wants the whole world to see.

i also pretty often but him into either paleontology OR i put him down as trying to become a mortician because he thinks handing roadkill once he graduated from museum giftshop specimens to doing his own taxidermy on the side has prepared him enough to perform an occasional autopsy and start embalming real human corpses. (sometimes i put my own desires in and make them his bc i have to project at some point and put him through the same EMT course i dropped out of bc it was one semester and he already has pretty decent first aid skills, but he definitely didnt expect it to be as fucking wild at times as it is, but whats he gonna do? get a job back at waffle house? the company hes working for just offered to pay like half his associates in paramedicine tuition and hes already got all his pre-recs done when he started for paleo. at least its a stable job and hes got the ability to be compassionate in the moment)

im running out of things that ive done to the poor kid. OH

hes not a virgin he had a girlfriend all four years of high school (shes also one of his optional and designated exes plz keep up) and their relationship ends in one of two ways: she dies in a car accident a week before their high school graduation, or she stops talking to him entirely a week after their high school graduation until a couple years later she gets into (guess what) a car accident with her current wife/girlfriend and dies which leaves behind their daughter. who just so happens to also be daves daughter. her name is hannah and i love her like my own but no one ever likes her and thats on the conditioning of dirk. does dave end up taking her in? yes. shes awesome and the first time he takes her to the park to like run off some fucking steam she disappears for two minutes and dave is moderately terrified until she comes back holding a dead baby squirrel and thats the moment he realizes huh maybe things really do be genetic.

ok at the bottom of the list im gonna add the couple of times hes been a camboy which usually coincides with the live apartment cam thing and the amount of people in his dms calling him hot or whatever, but typically its more of a started the day he turned 18 and basically dipped around 20 in favor of showing up randomly with no warning to complain about a video game dick in hand because it gives him an outlet that wont annoy his friends bc this is the fifteenth time hes had a lot to say this week about a certain boss battle and also the comments fuel his ego and daddy issues.

the last one wasnt the bottom but literally unless its explicitly proven otherwise every time anyone rps with me there is the underlying fact dave strider was a goalie on his high school lacrosse teams all four years and (shocker another one) definitely had the hots for one of his teammates like major hots like first gay experience hots. like it was painfully obvious that teammate also liked him back hots. like one night at a team sleepover one of the other guys was like can yall just makeout and get it over with were fucking tired and dave really had the balls to be offended and ask what the fuck they were talking about while literally sitting halfway in the mans lap bc for some reason they had to share the same chair.

he is also guilty until proven innocent of being the worlds biggest loner outside of that sports team and even though hes literally a jock he still opts to eat his lunch alone in the hallway or something like that and has a tendency to leave girls on read, but bc hes got an in with the rest of the jocks hes basically drug around to plenty of parties and since hes conventionally attractive enough and popular in the aloof way that he is, hes got plenty of tagged insta posts and twitter directs and snapchat streaks going.

THESE WERE ALL NO GAME AND DONT INVOLVE SHIPS BC I LIKE TO KEEP MY OPTIONS OPEN AND THEYRE LITERALLY ALL BASED OFF RPS IVE DONE I HOPE YALL JUDGE ME ACCORDINGLY

#theres probably so many more i mean #ive been on parp for at least 5-6 years now #ive been on cherubplay probably the same amount of time #and my memory is totally shot to fuck but these are just what i know ive done in the last YEAR #or thought were wild enough to remember #i put it under a read more bc frankly its really fucking long #and i dont want this to represent me entirely #these are also heavily situational based and not like. emotion or reaction based much?#some of them are #i guess i could rename this to like. things ive done on parp #but theyre technically still headcanons a lot of them can coincide with whatever #so theyre not very specific situations #anyways #this took me an hour

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cmc-alumni · 6 years

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19TH STREET, Manhattan

In mid-September 2008 I embarked on my first Forgotten mission after a brief, but horrendous battle with a stomach flu of some kind that struck on September 11th, of all dates, a couple of hours after a meal of baked chicken and boiled frozen vegetables. (Even now, in mid-October, your webmaster hasn’t returned to frozen corn, beans or peas, but I know I have to eventually for the sake of health; I have been depending on salads for vegetative intake). So, I opted for a relatively brief hike on 19th Street, which I had found interesting some monhs back and filed a mental note to revisit. Not only did I find interesting architectural elements, but also some oblique references to my own life, as we’ll see…

The Joyce Theatre, at 8th Avenue and 19th, is a 472-seat dance performace venue opened in 1982 in the renovated and remodeled Elgin Theatre, opened in 1942, that had come on hard times in the 1970s as a porno palace — the renovation was suprvised by architect Hugh Hardy, whose Radio City Music Hall tour I attended — he revived RCMH as well — as part of Open House NY in 2008.

Your webmaster is not a ballet or modern dance fan, but I note the theatre because it is named for one of the founders of one of my workplaces. Joyce Mertz-Gilmore along with her parents, Harold and LuEsther Mertz, founded Publishers Clearing House, the premier direct marketing company in the country, in their basement in Sands Point, NY, in 1953. photo: wikipedia

The Joyce Theatre exists in great part due to the philanthropic efforts of LuEsther Mertz.

Directly across the Joyce, on 8th Avenue and 19th, was a Blimpie where I would get lunch once a week while employed at an international-language typesetter, ANY Phototype, on West 29th. In June 1990 I acquired one of my worst-ever stomach flus (until this year) at that Blimpie. Look, it made me remember the place. It was decorated unusually: it was filled with house plants.

I’ve only been in the Peter McManus Cafe, at 7th Avenue and W. 19th, once — in 1993, I had just gotten out of class at the School of Visual Arts, went in and called a friend to meet me there, whence we went to see The Fugitive, the Harrison Ford version. (I had a splitting headache that day.)

McManus looks as if it has been here forever, but it isn’t nearly as old as, say, the Old Town Bar or the granddaddy, McSorley’s Ale House. It has been owned and operated by the McManus family since it opened in 1936.

Looking south on 7th Avenue toward the old Barney’s. Several new residential towers have appeared on this stretch in the last few years (not at the fever pitch of 6th Avenue in the West 20s, though). Dominating the landscape is the new Coke bottle-green-glass-clad Yves Chelsea tower at West 18th. The penthouse will go for $10M, at least it was going to before all the Wall Street hotshots, bankers, and ill-advised real estate buyers tanked the economy.

Speaking of the economy, the last time your webmaster was out of work, all my unemployment check arrangements were handled electronically and there was less of a need to cut up paperwork before throwing it away. Nevertheless there will always be a neeed for scissors and shears, and that’s where Griffon came in. According to faded ad historian Walter Grutchfield, the Griffon Cutlery Works was founded by Albert Silberstein in 1888 and was located here on West 19th between 1920 and 1968. As you can see from the link the ad was in much better shape in 1986, and time is gradually taking a toll.

Note the palimpsest at the bottom. The company changed from “Works” to “Corporation” in the 1940s and painted over Works with Corp. Both are showing up now.

This sign is also an “example” of unnecessary quotation “marks.” They’re all over the place.

Pinking shears, by the way, are shears with jagged edges, used to cut thick cloth.

2008, meet 1908 along the south side of West 19th just east of 7th Avenue.

The Henry Siegel-Frank Cooper Dry Goods store, built in 1895 and in business until 1914, is the largest of the 6th Avenue Ladies’ Mile emporia, containing 15.5 acres of floor space. It used to have a clock tower as well as a large fountain, since removed and placed in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles. A ramp from the old Sixth Avenue El (razed in 1938) allowed passengers to walk directly into the store from the platform on the 18th Street side. This is Beaux Arts at its most Beaux.

The store pioneered the use of free samples, female salespersons, and air conditioning as customer inducements, and one of its mottoes was “Everything Under The Sun.” Industrialist/barbed-wire king John Warne Gates once made a bet with financier J. P. Morgan that the boast was just rhetorical. Gates asked a floorwalker if the store sold elephants, whereupon he was directed to the toy department; Gates responded that he meant a real elephant. The representative asked him what color, Gates responded “white” and the answer was “we’ll let you know the delivery date.” A few weeks later Gates received a telegram informing him his order would be arriving the next day at the docks: an albino elephant shipped from Ceylon. Gates paid Morgan the bet and donated the pachyderm to the Central Park Zoo.

I see something new every time I pass or enter the Siegel-Cooper building. For example, here is one of the intertwined S/C’s that flank the arched entrance.

All 4 corners of West 19th and 6th are held down bu beautiful buildings of varying beauty and fame. On the NW corner (above right) is the Simpson-Crawford Building, constructed in 1900 and home to the titular store until 1915. The store popularized the phrase, “if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it” and indeed the store eschewed the use of sales tags.

A Greek Revival building on the NE corner (above right) is home to a Sports Authority. Paragon, on Broadway between East 17th and 18th Streets since 1908, is the big sports dog in the area.

At the SW corner (left) we see the first Benjamin Altman Building from 1876-1906, whereupon the store moved to a massive building that filled an entire block between 5th, Madison, East 34th and East 35th Streets, where it was in business for the following 83 years. Altman opened his first store at 3rd Avenue and east 10th Street in 1865.

At a time when real estate has gotten so prohibitively expensive that even big retailers like Barnes and Noble are forced out by high rents (as they were from their 6th Avenue and West 22nd Street location in 2008) it’s comforting to know that Apex Tech is still holding down the corner plot on West 19th. The school offers training in automotive, refrigeration, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, welding and auto repair since 1961.

Throughout the 1980s, when local channels 5, 9 and 11 were independently owned and showed mostly reruns and movies, the Apex tech commercials featuring the mustachioed Apex Tech Guy were a staple. His catchphrase was “Now, I can’t call you…”

Naturally, he doesn’t utter the famous phrase in this vintage Apex tech spot, but you get the idea…

A couple of midblock views between 5th and 6th Avenues. 35 West 19th, on the right, now home to Sala, a Spanish restaurant, is notable for being the longtime home of The Magickal Childe, ostensibly an occult bookstore but also featuring hexerei of the weird such as voodoo dolls, herbs used in potions, tarot cards and wicca (not witchcraft to devotees) paraphernalia. The Charmed girls would have fit right in.

The Cluett Building at 22-28 West 19th runs right through the block to 19-23 West 18th. The name of the building stirred a memory. Walter Grutchfield: The building was constructed in 1901/02 as the New York headquarters of Cluett, Peabody & Co. of Troy, NY. They were collar manufacturers and created the Arrow brand of detachable shirt collars. According to the Free Dictionary, “About 1905 the company began an advertising campaign that featured an idyllic young man wearing an Arrow shirt with the detached collar… Hundreds of printed advertisements were produced from 1907 to 1930 featuring the Arrow Collar Man. The fictional Arrow collar man became an icon and by 1920 received more than 17 thousand fan letters a day.”

I had to reach deep in the ForgottenArchives for this: Cluett, Peabody was a name I heard frequently in youth; both my grandmother and my mother (who I indicated, at left, in the photo of a company gathering that I’d estimate was from the early 1950s) worked at the Troy, NY company in the 1940s and 1950s.

Free Dictionary again: In the early 1920′s Cluett, Peabody & Co. began manufacturing their shirts with attached collars in response to consumer demand and became the most successful company in the U.S. at that time. Their sales increased to 4 million collars a week and arrow shirts with attached collars were being exported to foreign ports such as Jakarta, Indonesia, Java and the Belgian Congo. The Arrow Collar Man campaign ended in 1930 having been one of the most successful advertising campaigns in history.

My mother, of course, is the most attractive woman in the picture.

The Flatiron Lounge at 37 West 19th takes its name, of course, from the famed Fuller (Flatiron) Building at 5th Avenue, Broadway and 23rd Street.

I’m rarely in Sam Flax but only because I fear that when I’m in here, I’ll spend too much. Flax is second only to Pearl Paint in providing art supplies and everything necessary for putting pen or brush to paper. I hope its locale between 19th and 20th Streets west of 5th Avenue isn’t closing.

LEFT: Idlewild Books, a new travel book store, has become one of my new favorites (especially since the ForgottenBook is displayed prominently within). “Idlewild” was the old name for John F. Kennedy International Airport. Good luck, though, in the shadow of the Barnes and Noble flagship at 5th and East 18th.

At the SE corner of 5th Avenue and West 19th is the Arnold, Constable Building, yet another former department store.

Jim Naureckas, NY Songlines: Nine West, Victoria’s Secret are in former department store (1869-1914) that took up the entire block from 5th to 6th avenues; founded by Aaron Arnold and son-in-law James Constable, it offered “Everything From Cradle to Grave.” Mary Todd Lincoln was a frequent customer, as well as Carnegies, Rockefellers and Morgans.

Another Constable building can be found on Canal Street.

Briton Arthur Arnold opened a dry goods store in 1825 and took on James Constable as a partner in 1842. After the firm thrived for over a century, the last Arnold Constable store, at 5th Avenue and 40th Street, closed in 1975. (The comma, like the New York Times period, has disappeared along the way, so latterday customers thought an Arnold Constable was the original shopkeeper.)

Two narrow 1900-era towers flank West 19th Street at 5th Avenue. The building on the right was the longtime home of Weiss & Mahoney Army & Navy store and the former locale of the 5th Avenue Presbyterian Church (1852-1875). Your webmaster’s first job out of school was in 150 5th Avenue, a block away on 20th.

A pair of great escapes on East 19th between 5th Avenue and Broadway.

ABOVE: ABC Carpet, SE corner Broadway and East 19th, formerly W&J Sloane Furniture. RIGHT: contrast 35 and the Modernist 37 East 19th. 35 was the residence of Horace Greeley, editor, abolitionist and politician, from 1850-1853.

LEFT: NW corner Park Avenue South and East 19th, new tower tries for a Starrett-Lehigh vibe but doesn’t quite get there; I prefer the Doric-columned neo Renaissance apartment building at 105.

The American Woolen Building actually is entered on 221-227 Park Avenue South (marked with a ram’s head), while this, at 102-104 East 19th, is the freight entrance.

I’ve always loved the corner apartment building at 81 Irving Place and 123 East 19th — it’s festooned with dozens of terra cotta gnomes. And more gnomes.

For this 14-story apartment house, architect George Pelham, one of New York’s most active apartment-house designers, exploited the requirements of the zoning law to create an exuberant design [in 1929-1930] with dramatic setbacks and a striking rooftop pavilion surrounding the water tower. The building, planned with 107 small apartments, is faced with brick, often laid in intricate patterns to add excitement to the facades. The building is ornamented wth beige terra-cotta detail of a very high quality. Terra-cotta features include columns, balconies, and gargoyles embellished with animal heads, monsters, and other fanciful detail. NYC Architecture

The figure below right seems to be influenced by cartoonist R.F. Outcault’s 1890s creation, the Yellow Kid.

East 19th changes character, rather abruptly, for the block between Irving Place and 3rd Avenue and transforms itself into a tree-lined, suburban-style stretch dotted with small brick buildings, carriage houses and cottages. The tone is set by the ivy-covered NE corner building. Pete’s Tavern is one block south of here at East 18th.

In the early 20th Century the creative community had a great presence on this block, which was home to actresses Theda Bara, Dorothy and Lillian Gish, Ethel Barrymore and Helen Hayes; playwrights, authors and activists F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Reed, Emma Goldman and Eugene O’Neill were visitors.

There’s some riotous terra cotta tilework on the north side of the block; much of it is the work of architect Frederick Sterner and artist Richard Winthrop Chandler.

146 East 19th was home to painter George Bellows from 1910-1925, a man who lived the high life. “I went there in the evening a young girl and came away in the morning an old woman,” as Ethel Barrymore once said. Bellows, along with Edward Hopper, studied under Robert Henri at the NY School of Art and became a luminary in the modernistic Ashcan School. Possibly Bellows’ most famous painting was his depiction of Luis Firpo (“The Wild Bull of the Pampas”) knocking Jack Dempsey through the ropes in the first round in a 1923 fight. Dempsey recovered to KO Firpo in the second round. Artist Eric Joyner does a takeoff on Bellows’ vision in The Final Blow.

At 226 3rd Avenue on the NW corner is a terrific painted sign for the Piccolo restaurant.

The block of East 19th between 3rd and 2nd Avenues is dominated by the rather forbidding Mother Cabrini Medical Center, originally Columbus Hospital. Andy Warhol was treated here when he was shot by Valerie Solanas in 1968.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917), the first US Citizen to be canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart and established 67 orphanages throughout the USA , South America and Europe. Since 1931 her preserved remains have been displayed at Mother Cabrini Shrine in Fort Washington in upper Manhattan on a street named in her honor, Cabrini Boulevard.

Some bits of an increasingly retreating Little Old New York in the easternmost segment of East 19th, between 2nd and 1st Avenues.

We’ve already seen an item on 19th Street that reminded me of my mother. Here’s one that reminds me of the old man, who worked at Stuyvesant Town from 1955-1988 as a custodian. The apartment complex was constructed in the 1947 by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; Peg Leg Pete, the Director-General of New Amsterdam, lived in this site on his farm in the late 1600s. It was championed by Robert Moses as part of his slum-clearance program in mid-century. When first opened, the complex would not rent to African-Americans, and the discrimination was held up in court. “Stuy Town” reversed the policy several years later. For many years, though the project didn’t have the necessary wiring for air conditioning, the waiting list for an apartment was quite long. The list was abolished when Met Life set about converting and upgrading the apartments to market rents beginning in 2006. Your webmaster foolishly never asked to get on “the list”, though Stuy Town would no doubt be trying to get my rent stabilized self out if I lived there now!

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aaronsniderus · 6 years

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Government Shutdown Avoided, Consumer Sentiment Jumps – Market Update

I hope everyone had a great weekend! A bunch of family I hadn’t seen in a while was in town, and the cherry on top was that my basketball team snapped a three-game losing streak heading into their matchup with their crosstown rivals this coming Saturday. I’m feeling pretty good for a Monday.

There’s also reason for optimism in the markets. The second government shutdown in less than a month was avoided. There was also hope for a resolution of trade talks with China. Let’s jump in.

Headline News

Quicken Loans Home Price Perception Index (HPPI)

Homeowners and appraisers were further apart on opinions of home value for the third consecutive month in January. Homeowners overvalued their homes by an average of 0.47% across the country.

There are signs that home prices in the West are starting to moderate. Just a year ago, appraised values in San Francisco were coming in 2.11% higher than homeowner estimates. Now, these same estimates are less than 1% higher than appraised prices.

Despite this, homeowners in the West were still nearest to appraised value in their estimates, overvaluing their properties by just 0.37%. Meanwhile, the South and Northeast were close on each other’s heels, overestimating property value by 0.46% and 0.47%, respectively. The Midwest lagged the field, overvaluing homes by 0.62%.

Looking at the city data, Boston has the hottest market in comparison to homeowner expectations. Appraisals are coming in an average of 2.76% higher than the best guess of area homeowners. The Windy City is on the other side of the scale, but at 1.87% below homeowner estimates, they’re steadily moving closer to harmony. Riverside, California, homeowners had estimates closest to the button, undervaluing properties by just 0.02%.

Quicken Loans Home Value Index (HVI)

Home values were up 0.65% on the month and have increased 5.35% since January 2018. Home values are still on the uptick, but the rate of appreciation is slower than it was in December. This might be helpful to buyers who are looking for prices to level off slightly.

On a regional basis, the South was the hottest market, having seen values rise 1.34% on the month and 6.84% annually. Next was the Northeast, up 0.59% and 4.74% since January 2018. Meanwhile, values in the Midwest were down slightly, dropping 0.08%. They’re still up 4.42% on the year. Finally, home values are down 0.38% in the West, rising just 3.27% yearly.

MBA Mortgage Applications

Despite the average rate on a 30-year fixed conforming mortgage falling four basis points to come in at 4.69%, mortgage applications were down 3.7% overall. Refinance applications were down 0.1% while applications to purchase fell 6%.

The MBA attributes the weakness in the report to concerns about the American and world economies, although continued workforce strength still has the association expecting a strong purchase season.

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

In the first of two major inflation reports released on back-to-back days this week, prices on the consumer side were flat in January. On the year, overall prices have only risen 1.6%, down from a 1.9% pace of appreciation in December.

Energy prices were down 3.1% overall and 5.5% at the gas pump. On the year, energy prices are down 4.8% with gas prices dropping 10.1%. This has had a major effect on the overall inflation rate, which is up 0.2% on the month and 2.2% on the year when food and energy were taken out.

Transportation costs were also down 1.3%, which is blamed on weak energy prices. Even those seeing gains only saw small increases. Prices for housing, medical care, food and new vehicles were each only up 0.2%, while the price for used cars rose 0.1%.

Other categories mentioned included education, up 0.3%. Prescription drugs and communication costs were both flat. The only area that saw a serious pickup was apparel, which had a 1.1% monthly rise. Still, prices in that category are only up 0.1% on the year.

Jobless Claims

The Department of Labor reported a 4,000-claim increase in weekly jobless claims last week, settling at 239,000. The four-week average of initial claims was up 6,750 to come in at 231,750. The four-week average has been higher due to the effects of the government shutdown.

However, claims from federal employees were down more than 5,500 last week and the impact on weekly numbers does appear to be waning.

On the continuing claims side, these were up 37,000 last week, checking in at 1.773 million. The four-week moving average of continuing claims went up 11,000 to 1.75 million.

Producer Price Index (PPI)

Prices were flat for consumers, and costs fell on the producer’s side of things, down 0.1% on the month of January. As with the consumer number, the price drop could be traced back to cheap energy, where prices were down 3.8% for producers.

When food and energy were taken out, prices were up 0.3%. In addition to the drop in energy prices, there was also a dip in the cost of fruits and vegetables.

In the final breaking out of subcomponents, producer inflation was up only 0.2% when excluding food, energy and trade services. The latter, which tracks activity by producers at the wholesale and retail level, was up 0.8% in January after falling 0.1% in December.

Other categories of note included automobiles, which were up 0.5% in January including a 0.3% gain for light trucks. Construction saw a 0.6% cost uptick after being on the south side of inflation for the last couple of months. Finally, prices for cigarettes and computers were each up 0.4%.

Retail Sales

In a major miss, retail sales fell 1.2% when finally released for December. This data had been delayed due to the government shutdown. The expectation had been for a 0.1% increase in sales. It would’ve been even worse if cars didn’t have a strong month, as sales were down 1.8% when automobiles were taken out. When taking out cars and gas, sales were down 1.4%. Finally, the declines were broad-based. A control group meant to help take out some of the categories that are more prone to fluctuation was down 1.7%.

Outside of cars, the only major group to exhibit a gain was building materials, up 0.3%. Sales at non-store retailers – think e-commerce sites – were down 3.9% in what was apparently a disappointing holiday shopping season. Sales for apparel fell 0.7% and department stores fell off 3.3% on the month. Sales at restaurants were down 0.7% on the month. A 5.1% downturn in gas sales definitely didn’t help things.

Total sales growth for the year was down almost 2%, coming in at 2.3%, the lowest rate since late 2016. Some would say this is a harbinger of recession, but it’s hard to say how much these numbers were affected by furloughs and layoffs from the government shutdown. Consumer confidence and spending are the lowest they’ve been in two years, so it’s something we’ll be keeping an eye on.

Industrial Production

Industrial production didn’t have a good month in January. Led by a 0.9% fall in manufacturing, overall production was down 0.6%. There was also a sizable 0.6% decrease in the space being utilized in factories, with them using just 78.2% of their total.

Vehicle production was down 8.8% in January in contrast to recent sales numbers. Factories do switch over in December for the new model and it’s probably taking time to get back up to speed. Business equipment manufacturing was also down 1.5% in January, though.

Utilities were up 0.4%, with mining up 0.1%. Despite being on the low end of improvement in January, mining is up 15.3% on the year.

Consumer Sentiment

In a bright spot, consumer sentiment did increase in preliminary numbers for February. Sentiment was up 4.3 points to come in at 95.5. The end of the government shutdown definitely helped.

Expectations were up 6.3 points to come in at 86.2, which is just slightly below where it was before the shutdown. Meanwhile, the current conditions reading increased more than a point to 110. It’s still the lowest reading this portion of the index has seen since August of last year.

Consumers are signaling that they don’t expect prices to rise very much anytime soon. Inflation expectations over the next year were down 0.2% at 2.5%. Over the next five years, inflation is expected to rise just 2.3%, which is down 0.3% from the last reading.

Mortgage Rates

Over the past couple of months, mortgage rates have consistently been trending lower. In fact, data collected by Freddie Mac shows that fixed rates were generally lower last week than they were at the same time a year ago.

It’s a great time to lock your mortgage rate right now because rates are looking really good despite a strong labor market. Usually, when the economy is this healthy, we would expect to see higher interest rates. If you’re in the market to purchase or refinance, it’s a great time to take advantage before rates pop back up.

The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage with 0.4 points paid in fees was down four basis points to 4.37%. Last year at this time, the rate was 4.38%.

Meanwhile, the average interest rate on shorter-term 15-year fixed loans fell three basis points to come in at 3.81% with 0.4 points paid. A year ago, the rate was 3.84%.

Finally, the average rate on a 5-year treasury-indexed, hybrid adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) with 0.3 points paid was down three basis points to check in at 3.88%. This is up from 3.63% last year.

Stock Market

The stock market had renewed optimism for a trade deal between the U.S. and China. As a result, stocks were up on Friday. Stocks had also been buoyed last week when a government shutdown was averted as President Trump signed the bill put forth by Congress to provide long-term government funding. He’ll attempt to provide funding for border security measures through the declaration of a national emergency. This isn’t what either side wanted, but at least the government is operating.

Finally, energy prices were up on Friday for the first time in a while as the price of a key oil benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, was up 2.2% to $55.59 per barrel in futures trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 3.09% on the week after finishing Friday at 25,883.25, up 443.86 points to end the week. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 was up 29.87 points to finish at 2,775.60, up 2.5% for the week. Finally, the Nasdaq finished at 7,472.41, up 45.45 points on Friday and increasing 2.39% over the previous five-day span.

The Week Ahead

Monday, February 18

The stock and bond markets as well as many banks are closed today in observance of Presidents Day and George Washington’s birthday. Quicken Loans is open.

Tuesday, February 19

Housing Market Index (10:00 a.m. ET) – The National Association of Home Builders produces a housing market index based on a survey in which respondents from the organization are asked to rate the general economy and housing market conditions. The index is a weighted average of separate diffusion indexes, including present sales of new homes, sales of new homes expected in the next six months and traffic of prospective buyers in new homes.

Wednesday, February 20

MBA Mortgage Applications (7:00 a.m. ET) – The mortgage applications index measures applications to mortgage lenders. This is a leading indicator for single-family home sales and housing construction.

Thursday, February 21

Durable Goods Orders (8:30 a.m. ET) – These are based on new orders placed with domestic manufacturers for factory goods.

Jobless Claims (8:30 a.m. ET) – New unemployment claims are compiled weekly to show the number of individuals filing for unemployment insurance for the first time. An increasing trend suggests a deteriorating labor market. The four-week moving average of new claims smooths out weekly volatility.

Existing Home Sales (10:00 a.m. ET) – Existing Home Sales tallies the number of previously constructed homes, condominiums and co-ops that were sold during the month. Existing homes (also known as “home resales”) account for a larger share of the market than new homes and indicate housing market trends.

There’s not much market moving data coming this week outside of durable goods orders. The biggest event this week is the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee. We don’t cover that in a great deal of depth here because it involves parsing meeting dialogue for highly technical economic details. However, if the market has any reaction to insights that come out of the meeting dialogue, we’ll have the movements covered.

Economics and mortgage data aren’t always the most exciting topics. Not to worry! We’ve got plenty of home, money and lifestyle content to share with you if you subscribe to the Zing Blog below. This week, we thought we would highlight some ways you can turn your bathroom into the spa of your dreams. Have a great week!

The post Government Shutdown Avoided, Consumer Sentiment Jumps – Market Update appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans.

from Updates About Loans https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/government-shutdown-avoided-consumer-sentiment-jumps-market-update

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mikebrackett · 6 years

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Government Shutdown Avoided, Consumer Sentiment Jumps – Market Update

There’s also reason for optimism in the markets. The second government shutdown in less than a month was avoided. There was also hope for a resolution of trade talks with China. Let’s jump in.

Headline News

Quicken Loans Home Price Perception Index (HPPI)

Homeowners and appraisers were further apart on opinions of home value for the third consecutive month in January. Homeowners overvalued their homes by an average of 0.47% across the country.

Quicken Loans Home Value Index (HVI)

MBA Mortgage Applications

The MBA attributes the weakness in the report to concerns about the American and world economies, although continued workforce strength still has the association expecting a strong purchase season.

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

Jobless Claims

However, claims from federal employees were down more than 5,500 last week and the impact on weekly numbers does appear to be waning.

On the continuing claims side, these were up 37,000 last week, checking in at 1.773 million. The four-week moving average of continuing claims went up 11,000 to 1.75 million.

Producer Price Index (PPI)

When food and energy were taken out, prices were up 0.3%. In addition to the drop in energy prices, there was also a dip in the cost of fruits and vegetables.

Retail Sales

Industrial Production

Utilities were up 0.4%, with mining up 0.1%. Despite being on the low end of improvement in January, mining is up 15.3% on the year.

Consumer Sentiment

In a bright spot, consumer sentiment did increase in preliminary numbers for February. Sentiment was up 4.3 points to come in at 95.5. The end of the government shutdown definitely helped.

Mortgage Rates

The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage with 0.4 points paid in fees was down four basis points to 4.37%. Last year at this time, the rate was 4.38%.

Meanwhile, the average interest rate on shorter-term 15-year fixed loans fell three basis points to come in at 3.81% with 0.4 points paid. A year ago, the rate was 3.84%.

Finally, the average rate on a 5-year treasury-indexed, hybrid adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) with 0.3 points paid was down three basis points to check in at 3.88%. This is up from 3.63% last year.

Stock Market

Finally, energy prices were up on Friday for the first time in a while as the price of a key oil benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, was up 2.2% to $55.59 per barrel in futures trading.

The Week Ahead

Monday, February 18

The stock and bond markets as well as many banks are closed today in observance of Presidents Day and George Washington’s birthday. Quicken Loans is open.

Tuesday, February 19

Wednesday, February 20

Thursday, February 21

Durable Goods Orders (8:30 a.m. ET) – These are based on new orders placed with domestic manufacturers for factory goods.

The post Government Shutdown Avoided, Consumer Sentiment Jumps – Market Update appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans.

from Updates About Loans https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/government-shutdown-avoided-consumer-sentiment-jumps-market-update

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baxtonme · 6 years

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Top Casuarina Homes Designer and Best Coolangatta Electrical Contractor Provides Affordable Services on the Gold Coast

Casuarina Homes Featuring as Designer Dream Projects Says Local Contractor

Casuarina may still be a relatively quiet spot, but the beachfront setting is attracting developers and private individuals with an eye for luxury modern design says Gold Coast Electrician, EJ Barnes. In fact, the electrical contractor, who has been responsible for the execution of dramatic lighting designs at many of these designer properties, is in awe at some of the projects in which his business has participated.

“They’re private homes,” says EJ, “but everything about them is cutting-edge. We’re talking palatial residences that feature everything of the very best.” According to EJ, many of the builds are investments: “You’ll complete the project, and before long, you’ll see the place on the market as the premium coastal property in the area.”

One project, in particular, really stands out for Barnes. It features a space-age style overhang and seems to more closely resemble a spaceship than a building. The double-storey home features floor to ceiling glass and a swimming pool that spans the length of the property.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Barnes, “and I wasn’t surprised to hear that it attracted interest from all over the world when it hit the market.”

Barnes is especially proud that many of the images you’ll see of this much-publicised property are evening shots. Still, he thinks he could have predicted the photography preference. After all, the lighting is a striking feature, and his company was responsible for its installation. “It looks great by day,” he says, “but I’m especially pleased with the night-time look. It’s stunning.”

It wasn’t only the lighting that occupied Barnes and his team. The all-mod-cons home features zoned air conditioning, CCTV, and Google Home Automation. Now, the burning question is where the buyer will come from. the house is currently advertised for sale at close on $4million with an alternative price listed in bitcoins – a futuristic touch that some may still call a leap of faith given the currency’s volatility.

“I don’t think it’ll be a guesthouse,” says Barnes. “There isn’t really enough parking for that. As to who’ll buy it – all I can say is that they’ll need to be very wealthy indeed.” After finding the property online, we’re inclined to agree. After all, few properties can boast as much publicity, professional photography, or videography – or an estate agent ruining his dry-clean-only suit in the lap pool for the sake of a sales video.

Meanwhile, Barnes is quietly proud of EJ Electrical Work’s role in the construction of one of the most-talked-about properties in Australia. “We’re trusted with premium projects because we’re brilliant at what we do,” says Barnes. “It’s as simple as that.”

Despite a string of prestigious projects, Barnes keeps his feet on the ground. His company is there to help every client that contacts it. It could be something as simple as breaker that keeps tripping – or it could be the electrical works for a shopping centre, an architect-designed house, or your (much more down-to-earth) home renovations.

“We love looking back on amazing projects like this one,” says Barnes, “but at the end of the day, it’s satisfied customers and a job well done that matter most.”

If you’d like to put the company responsible for electrical works at a multi-million-dollar designer home to the test with your broken light-switch – or a massive improvement project, you’re welcome to get in touch, says EJ. Contact EJ Electrical Works via its website, or give them a call on 1300-DIAL-EJ, that’s 1300 342 535.

Syndicated by Baxton Media.

Top Casuarina Homes Designer and Best Coolangatta Electrical Contractor Provides Affordable Services on the Gold Coast was originally published on Baxton

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we-johnnygonzalez-blog · 6 years

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5 Real Examples of Advanced Content Promotion Strategies

Posted by bsmarketer

Content promotion isn’t tweeting or upvoting. Those tiny, one-off tactics are fine for beginners. They might make a dent, but they definitely won’t move the needle. Companies that want to grow big and grow fast need to grow differently.

Here’s how Kissmetrics, Sourcify, Sales Hacker, Kinsta, and BuildFire have used advanced content promotion tips like newsjacking and paid social to elevate their brands above the competition.

1. Use content to fuel social media distribution (and not the other way around)

Prior to selling the brand and blog to Neil Patel, Kissmetrics had no dedicated social media manager at the height of their success. The Kissmetrics blog received nearly 85% of its traffic from organic search. The second biggest traffic-driver was the newsletter.

Social media did drive traffic to their posts. However, former blog editor Zach Buylgo’s research showed that these traffic segments often had the lowest engagement (like time on site) and the least conversions (like trial or demo opt-ins) — so they didn’t prioritize it. The bulk of Zach’s day was instead focused on editing posts, making changes himself, adding comments and suggestions for the author to fix, and checking for regurgitated content. Stellar, long-form content was priority number one. And two. And three.

So Zach wasn’t just looking for technically-correct content. He was optimizing for uniqueness: the exact same area where most cheap content falls short. That’s an issue because many times, a simple SERP analysis would reveal that one submission:

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...Looked exactly like the number-one result from Content Marketing Institute:

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Today’s plagiarism tools can catch the obvious stuff, but these derivatives often slip through the cracks. Recurring paid writers contributed the bulk of the TOFU content, which would free Zach up to focus more on MOFU use cases and case studies to help visitors understand how to get the most out of their product set (from the in-house person who knows it best).

They produced marketing guides and weekly webinars to transform initial attention into new leads:

They also created free marketing tools to give prospects an interactive way to continue engaging with their brand:

In other words, they focused on doing the things that matter most — the 20% that would generate the biggest bang for their buck. They won’t ignore social networks completely, though. They still had hundreds of thousands of followers across each network. Instead, their intern would take the frontlines. That person would watch out for anything critical, like a customer question, which will then be passed off to the Customer Success Manager that will get back to them within a few hours.

New blog posts would get the obligatory push to Twitter and LinkedIn. (Facebook is used primarily for their weekly webinar updates.) Zach used Pablo from Buffer to design and create featured images for the blog posts.

Then he’d use an Open Graph Protocol WordPress plugin to automatically add all appropriate tags for each network. That way, all he had to do was add the file and basic post meta data. The plugin would then customize how it shows up on each network afterward. Instead of using Buffer to promote new posts, though, Zach likes MeetEdgar.

Why? Doesn’t that seem like an extra step at first glance? Like Buffer, MeetEdgar allows you to select when you’d like to schedule content. You can just load up the queue with content, and the tool will manage the rest. The difference is that Buffer constantly requires new content — you need to keep topping it off, whereas MeetEdgar will automatically recycle the old stuff you’ve previously added. This saved a blog like Kissmetrics, with thousands of content pieces, TONS of time.

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He would then use Sleeknote to build forms tailored to each blog category to transform blog readers into top-of-the-funnel leads:

But that’s about it. Zach didn’t do a ton of custom tweets. There weren’t a lot of personal replies. It’s not that they didn’t care. They just preferred to focus on what drives the most results for their particular business. They focused on building a brand that people recognize and trust. That means others would do the social sharing for them.

Respected industry vets like Avinash Kaushik, for example, would often share their blog posts. And Avinash was the perfect fit, because he already has a loyal, data-driven audience following him.

So that single tweet brings in a ton of highly-qualified traffic — traffic that turns into leads and customers, not just fans.

2. Combine original research and newsjacking to go viral

Sourcify has grown almost exclusively through content marketing. Founder Nathan Resnick speaks, attends, and hosts everything from webinars to live events and meetups. Most of their events are brand-building efforts to connect face-to-face with other entrepreneurs. But what’s put them on the map has been leveraging their own experience and platform to fuel viral stories.

Last summer, the record-breaking Mayweather vs. McGregor fight was gaining steam. McGregor was already infamous for his legendary trash-talking and shade-throwing abilities. He also liked to indulge in attention-grabbing sartorial splendor. But the suit he wore to the very first press conference somehow managed to combine the best of both personality quirks:

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This was no off-the-shelf suit. He had it custom made. Nathan recalls seeing this press conference suit fondly: “Literally, the team came in after the press conference, thinking, ‘Man, this is an epic suit.’” So they did what any other rational human being did after seeing it on TV: they tried to buy it online.

“Except, the dude was charging like $10,000 to cover it and taking six weeks to produce.” That gave Nathan an idea. “I think we can produce this way faster.”

They “used their own platform, had samples done in less than a week, and had a site up the same day.”

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“We took photos, sent them to different factories, and took guesstimates on letter sizing, colors, fonts, etc. You can often manufacture products based on images if it’s within certain product categories.” The goal all along was to use the suit as a case study. They partnered with a local marketing firm to help split the promotion, work, and costs.

“The next day we signed a contract with a few marketers based in San Francisco to split the profits 50–50 after we both covered our costs. They cover the ad spend and setup; we cover the inventory and logistics cost,” Nathan wrote in an article for The Hustle. When they were ready to go, the marketing company began running ad campaigns and pushing out stories. They went viral on BroBible quickly after launch and pulled in over $23,000 in sales within the first week.

The only problem is that they used some images of Conor in the process. And apparently, his attorney’s didn’t love the IP infringement. A cease and desist letter wasn’t far behind:

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This result wasn’t completely unexpected. Both Nathan and the marketing partner knew they were skirting a thin line. But either way, Nathan got what he wanted out of it.

3. Drive targeted, bottom-of-the-funnel leads with Quora

Quora packs another punch that often elevates it over the other social channels: higher-quality traffic. Site visitors are asking detailed questions, expecting to comb through in-depth answers to each query. In other words, they’re invested. They’re smart. And if they’re expressing interest in managed WordPress hosting, it means they’ve got dough, too.

Both Sales Hacker and Kinsta take full advantage. Today, Gaetano DiNardi is the Director of Demand Generation at Nextiva. But before that, he lead marketing at Sales Hacker before they were acquired. There, content was central to their stratospheric growth. With Quora, Gaetano would take his latest content pieces and use them to solve customer problems and address pain points in the general sales and marketing space:

By using Quora as a research tool, he would find new topics that he can create content around to drive new traffic and connect with their current audience:

He found questions that they already had content for and used it as a chance to engage users and provide value. He can drive tons of relevant traffic for free by linking back to the Sales Hacker blog:

Kinsta, a managed WordPress hosting company out of Europe, also uses uses relevant threads and Quora ads. CMO Brian Jackson jumps into conversations directly, lending his experience and expertise where appropriate. His technical background makes it easy to talk shop with others looking for a sophisticated conversation about performance (beyond the standard, PR-speak most marketers offer up):

Brian targets different WordPress-related categories, questions, or interests. Technically, the units are “display ads, but they look like text.” The ad copy is short and to the point. Usually something like, “Premium hosting plans starting at $XX/month” to fit within their length requirements.

4. Rank faster with paid (not organic) social promotion

Kinsta co-founder Tom Zsomborgi wrote about their journey in a bootstrapping blog post that went live last November. It instantly hit the top of Hacker News, resulting in their website getting a consistent 400+ concurrent visitors all day:

Within hours their post was also ranking on the first page for the term “bootstrapping,” which receives around 256,000 monthly searches.

How did that happen?

“There’s a direct correlation between social proof and increased search traffic. It’s more than people think,” said Brian. Essentially, you’re paying Facebook to increase organic rankings. You take good content, add paid syndication, and watch keyword rankings go up.

Kinsta’s big goal with content promotion is to build traffic and get as many eyeballs as possible. Then they’ll use AdRoll for display retargeting messages, targeting the people who just visited with lead gen offers to start a free trial. (“But I don’t use AdRoll for Facebook because it tags on their middleman fee.”)

Brian uses the “Click Campaigns” objective on Facebook Ads for both lead gen and content promotion. “It’s the best for getting traffic.”

Facebook's organic reach fell by 52% in 2016 alone. That means your ability to promote content to your own page fans is quickly approaching zero.

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“It’s almost not even worth posting if you’re not paying,” confirms Brian. Kinsta will promote new posts to make sure it comes across their fans’ News Feed. Anecdotally, that reach number with a paid assist might jump up around 30%.

If they don’t see it, Brian will “turn it into an ad and run it separately.” It’s “re-written a second time to target a broader audience.”

In addition to new post promotion, Brian has an evergreen campaign that’s constantly delivering the “best posts ever written” on their site. It’s “never-ending” because it gives Brian a steady-stream of new site visitors — or new potential prospects to target with lead gen ads further down the funnel. That’s why Brian asserts that today’s social managers need to understand PPC and lead gen. “A lot of people hire social media managers and just do organic promotion. But Facebook organic just sucks anyway. It’s becoming “pay to play.’”

“Organic reach is just going to get worse and worse and worse. It’s never going to get better.” Also, advertising gets you “more data for targeting,” which then enables you to create more in-depth A/B tests.

We confirmed this through a series of promoted content tests, where different ad types (custom images vs. videos) would perform better based on the campaign objectives and placements.

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That’s why “best practices” are past practices — or BS practices. You don’t know what’s going to perform best until you actually do it for yourself. And advertising accelerates that feedback loop.

5. Constantly refresh your retargeting ad creative to keep engagement high

Almost every single stat shows that remarketing is one of the most efficient ways to close more customers. The more ad remarketing impressions someone sees, the higher the conversion rate. Remarketing ads are also incredibly cheap compared to your standard AdWords search ad when trying to reach new cold traffic.

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There’s only one problem to watch out for: ad fatigue. The image creative plays a massive role in Facebook ad success. But over time (a few days to a few weeks), the performance of that ad will decline. The image becomes stale. The audience has seen it too many times. The trick is to continually cycle through similar, but different, ad examples.

Here’s how David Zheng does it for BuildFire:

His team will either (a) create the ad creative image directly inside Canva, or (b) have their designers create a background ‘template’ that they can use to manipulate quickly. That way, they can make fast adjustments on the fly, A/B testing small elements like background color to keep ads fresh and conversions as high as possible.

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All retargeting or remarketing campaigns will be sent to a tightly controlled audience. For example, let’s say you have leads who’ve downloaded an eBook and ones who’ve participated in a consultation call. You can just lump those two types into the same campaign, right? I mean, they’re both technically ‘leads.’

But that’s a mistake. Sure, they’re both leads. However, they’re at different levels of interest. Your goal with the first group is to get them on a free consultation call, while your goal with the second is to get them to sign up for a free trial. That means two campaigns, which means two audiences.

Facebook’s custom audiences makes this easy, as does LinkedIn’s new-ish Matched Audiences feature. Like with Facebook, you can pick people who’ve visited certain pages on your site, belong to specific lists in your CRM, or whose email address is on a custom .CSV file:

If both of these leads fall off after a few weeks and fail to follow up, you can go back to the beginning to re-engage them. You can use content-based ads all over again to hit back at the primary pain points behind the product or service that you sell.

This seems like a lot of detailed work — largely because it is. But it’s worth it because of scale. You can set these campaigns up, once, and then simply monitor or tweak performance as you go. That means technology is largely running each individual campaign. You don’t need as many people internally to manage each hands-on.

And best of all, it forces you to create a logical system. You’re taking people through a step-by-step process, one tiny commitment at a time, until they seamlessly move from stranger into customer.

Conclusion

Sending out a few tweets won’t make an impact at the end of the day. There’s more competition (read: noise) than ever before, while organic reach has never been lower. The trick isn’t to follow some faux influencer who talks the loudest, but rather the practitioners who are doing it day-in, day-out, with the KPIs to prove it.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

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adambstingus · 6 years

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A Sugar Scientist Reveals 6 Ways To Kick Added Sugar Out

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The Food and Drug Administrations new recommendation that Americans eat no more than 10 percent of calories from added sugar is a giant leap in the right direction, according to sugar scientist Laura Schmidt of the University of California, San Francisco. But confusion about the difference between added sugar and naturally-occurring sugar, as well as the way foods are marketed and labeled, have created a food environment in which people arent quite sure how much added sugar theyre actually eating — much less how to strategize ways to lower those numbers.

Naturally occurring sugar refers to the sugar that naturally comes in whole foods — say, the fructose in whole fruit, or the lactose in milk. Added sugar is the extra sugars and syrups that are added in the manufacturing of a food, like the white table sugar added to fruit to make jam, or the brown sugar in cookies and other baked goods.

Joining the World Health Organization and the American Heart Association, the FDA made its 10 percent recommendation for added sugars in order to help folks avoid developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity, which affects about one-third of American adults and roughly one in five children and teens.

In theory, it’s a great guideline, Schmidt explained. Practically, it means youre going to have to figure out how much is best for you. The AHA says the 10 percent rule converts to no more than 100 calories of added sugar, or six teaspoons, for women, and no more than 150 calories of added sugar, or nine teaspoons, for men.

For kids, those numbers are even lower. Preschoolers should eat no more than four teaspoons (16 grams), and children ages 4 to 8 should eat no more than three teaspoons (12 grams) a day. Finally, pre-teens and teens should eat no more than five to eight teaspoons (20 to 32 grams) of added sugar a day.

Unfortunately, the average American eats much more sugar than whats currently proposed about 16 percent of daily calories come from added sugar, according to the FDA, and its really easy to go over the limit considering a normal treat like a 12-ounce can of soda has 10 teaspoons of added sugar. Thats more than any person should consume in one day.

But if we can all get ourselves off the sugary drinks, we would be lowering our total sugar consumption, on a population level, by almost half. Dr. Laura Schmidt, sugar scientist

At TEDMED, a three-day conference focusing on health and medicine, we asked Schmidt, a professor of health policy, how we can cut down on sugar intake and create a healthier world for ourselves and our children.

Strategy 1: Stop buying sugary drinks.

Youve probably already heard this, and the rest of the U.S. is getting the message, too. Sales of soda are down more than 25 percent over the last 20 years, and sales of orange juice are down 40 percent since the late 90s. Schmidt says this should be the first step for anyone who wants to cut down on their added sugar intake: draw down slowly, and then use diet drinks if you have to in order to kick that final soda out of your life. As for juice, Schmidt suggested theres nothing healthier for kids than a piece of fruit and a glass of water.

For many people that can mean a lot of craving, and it can be hard, Schmidt said. But if we can all get ourselves off the sugary drinks, we would be lowering our total sugar consumption, on a population level, by almost half.”

Strategy 2: Get it out of your environment.

Schmidts research roots are in alcohol addiction, and she first began to get interested in the impact of sugar on diets when she learned one of the top reasons for liver transplants is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a condition linked to obesity and diabetes — not alcohol abuse. Consequently, although the research is out on whether sugar truly is an addictive substance in the traditionally scientific sense, Schmidt isnt afraid to use for sugary foods the same public health tactics she learned studying alcohol addiction.

That means people who struggle with added sugar consumption should clear their pantries of sugary offenders and commit to stop buying them in the first place.

“We call it harm reduction in addition treatment, Schmidt explained. “If I were an alcoholic, I dont spend a lot of time in bars. If I have a soda problem, then I dont have it in my house, and I try to avoid contexts where its highly available. Practically, that means if you have the financial means, shop at a farmers market or supermarket, not corner store bodegas where sodas and other junk food are front and center of the display.

Strategy 3: Delay age of first consumption for kids.

Another principle straight out of addiction treatment is to delay the first time a child has a food or drink with a lot of added sugar, Schmidt explained.

The goal should be to delay the age at which a kid first has a soda.

The goal should be to delay the age at which a kid first has a soda, Schmidt. And a child does not need juice its better to give kids whole fruit or maybe blend fruit up in a smoothie.

The theory behind this tactic, just like the principles that encourage parents to delay a teens first cigarette, alcoholic drink or sexual experience, is that the child grows up enjoying the way they feel without that cigarette and beer, or makes more mature and informed sexual choices as a young adult.

Schmidt said this idea shouldn’t be taken overboard — say, by telling all the parents in your social circle not to offer your kid soda — because it makes your child a pariah and that drink forbidden fruit. But your house, where kids spend most of their time, should be the healthiest environment it can possibly be.

Strategy 4: Be wary of foods that come in boxes, bags and cans.

Lets say youve kicked sugary drinks out of your kitchen and your everyday meals. The next step, said Schmidt, is to start hunting for that hidden sugar, usually found in highly processed foods that come in boxes, bags and cans. The more youre cooking from raw ingredients like whole foods, the less youre eating what Schmidt calls organijunk — snacks labeled organic, healthy or fortified with vitamins and nutrients, but full of hidden sugars.

Manufacturers have figured out that mothers know if sugar is in the first three listed ingredients, they dont buy it, Schmidt said. Now they just put 10 different kinds of sugar in the product.”

Be suspicious if a products ingredient list is long, she continued. Unless youre reading ingredients that you yourself would put in a homemade dish, dont buy it.

Strategy 5: Build a supportive community that cares about healthy eating.

Schmidt is impressed at how Crossfits company leadership united against selling sugary sports drinks at their gyms after an impartial review of the scientific evidence. She said she doesn’t know too much about the exercises that make up CrossFits core program, but she wishes other organizations — say hospitals, schools or workplaces — could have the same sense of responsibility toward community members.

Thats whats cool about what CrossFit did; they said, if were about health, lets look into this and actually decide whether we should be advocating Gatorade for our people, Schmidt said. Thats where I think the health sector needs to go; the hospitals need to stop giving unhealthy food to patients, because its our responsibility.

In the same way, she said, you can create a community that celebrates healthy choices in your school, church or parent-teacher associations.

As a sociologist Ive always been told real social change comes from civil society, she concluded. When you look at these organized entities, together they could get together and form a social movement — and thats when Washington starts to listen.”

Strategy 6: Get politically active.

You might not think attending political meetings or donating to campaign finance reform causes is part of a healthier diet, but in fact these steps are actually the most vital to create change on a national level. Politicians often don’t make the decisions that are best for the health of their constituents because theyre in the pockets of big donors from the food industry, Schmidt explained. The sooner we can pass campaign finance reform, the sooner politicians can get back to advocating for the health of their communities instead of looking for ways to do their jobs while still appeasing their donors.

A special 2012 analysis by Reuters noted that some of Big Foods greatest lobbying accomplishments include getting Congress to declare pizza a vegetable so it could remain on cafeteria menus, defeating soda taxes in dozens of states and killing a plan to make foods marketed to kids healthier.

The first thing we need to do is put pressure on our elected officials to stop taking money from corporations, and lobby our government agencies — the [National Institutes of Health], [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and every health organization — to stop, too said Schmidt. A lot of this is public information, so we should be using that to call people out.”

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/a-sugar-scientist-reveals-6-ways-to-kick-added-sugar-out/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/181562985312

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allofbeercom · 6 years