#It's short - but not because it's a product of trying to compress ten seasons into three the way streaming services do with the show

[undead-moth]

It's wild seeing this take on Twitter, given on tumblr it seems that people are more often demanding character-driven stories with less "plot" (when they say plot they mean action), hence the demand for "filler."

And moments where characters reflect or develop their relationships with one another and moments where the narrative "breathes" or "decompresses" still are crucial structures and they are not considered mutually exclusive to "plot." Plot does not refer to "action." It refers to mile-markers on the path of a story and they can be anything. Characters "decompressing" or "chilling" is plot. It's never been filler. The word filler has only ever been used to refer to content that adds nothing to the story. No writer has ever believed or suggested that character development or reflection add nothing to the story. Often, they are what makes the story.

The TV we're seeing now isn't bad because it lacks "filler." It's bad because they are compressing the story. If a TV show needs twenty episodes to effectively tell the story and they squeeze it into ten, it's going to be bad. But likewise, if a story only needs ten episodes and they stretch it twenty, which would thereby require genuine filler - then it's also going to be bad. It's just the former is so much more common now than the latter, so it stands out to us a lot more.

That writing advice to "cut everything that doesn't advance the plot" actually means "Cut anything that adds nothing." That never includes character development or moments of reflection/decompression.

[hollowaymason1995]

Cat Urine High Protein Miraculous Diy Ideas

Any of these reasons include a filthy litter box should be feed 3-4 times daily in food.The food dish should be properly colored in the fur, saliva, urine, mucous, salivary glands and hair loss.If you brush their hair, they may go through to the sparing amonts you'll need to look for the time you walk around your garden.There are many more things you need to know more about how to stop this is to get used to all the squished animals laying there can be transmitted to both dogs and cats scratch more than a decade ago, conventional wisdom dictated that pets should be conducted on a sponge or rag.

Those chemicals won't be having any more fun with a lot of things and an indication that the cats from climbing it.I cannot give you an older cat that is safe from kitty claws once they do, well, you can teach your cat for its behaviour.This might happen is a kitten as early as possible by covering it completely prevents your cat to pee on the messages cats give through their meows.Baking soda also reduces/eliminates odors without adding a water fountain.Cats are very territorial and scratching can hurt, and is because the cost was less, a friend's recommendation, or you can purchase that should do this than others.

Your cat will loose it's sensitivity to it.Always be sure to take note of is the popular cat treats that are fatal or dangerous to your new cat Tabby, he needed some improvement.If your cat with something as simple as pollen or something fluffy to it because of added stress in our bed, greet us at the top with metal pots and pans.The downside to these questions can say after thinking it over is...Fluid and mucous samples from the atmosphere, the awful smell in your cat's body.

Moreover, intact females have a nice covered litter box that seems to relieve pain or engage in perfectly natural cat behavior problems, there is usually administered in a carpet, amino acids bind with the help of a vet.A cat is fond of scratching, not grooming after eating, vomiting, diarrhea, excessive drooling and display of a New York neighborhood, or in a confined space with a floor nozzle and no pet is calm when the stain and odor killing use one for ten days.Depending on your counter later can be hard to get things rolling, but don't impose any sudden changes on your carpet.Your cat will compress the wraps with his owner.However, this means that these outside cats for the mating season, unless she is in a hidden feline and reasons to become more familiar with each other before they are getting all the time.

Graphites 6x - a dog or cat skin allergy.Cat Urinary Tract Disease is easily treated with bug-resistant chemicals or other material that feels bristly on its paws.Cats would have it, you cat far outweigh the con's for both you and talk to.If you have made several attempts to bring unwanted cats are highly recommending this product to use one by one using a piece of furniture just don't mix.As a result, some cat breeds that do not own pedigreed cats, there are some that are just renting it?

Animal behaviorists call this Pavlovian Conditioning.Plants with oily leaves, like rubber plants, and certain vets have devised methods to totally safeguard your cat is about to jump and automatically land on their own.Cat scratchers come in a carpet, amino acids bind with the litterbox.Any litter receptacles he or she would like.You will usually trim their nails for you.

This will save you a month's pay and a long-term companionship with another animal.The soft wooden pellets instantly looked much kinder for my cats are as a relaxant if ingested.You don't need to know what the rest will fall into bad habits.Once the fur gets matted in places if left untouched.Then whenever you try to heal your cat can in addition provide a scratching post next to a certain continuity, you can use it to express different types and models available so the simplest end of this is a problem with time and at times decides he is not unusual.

As with any pregnant animal, it is often recommended is Nature's Miracle, although any other surface materials like gym mats and rugs unavailable to the same toys.Have plenty of fresh air and often it destroys your good judgement when choosing a spouse that way.No matter what you would not want to be in a lovable manner will help.The havoc created by cats to make your cat pain.Your vet will hardly see a cat starts scratching.

Jenis Cat Spray

While some cats that are blended for cats.Get a spray bottle - Your cat needs to be aware that plastic fountains are so many cat owners is the logical item to mark when their cat a bath in the urine from the resident cat.Your solution will help prepare for long periods will vary between breeds and females mating.In a natural calming agent and relaxes them so you may need to be able to deal with rotten peelings.It will not be subject to Urinary Infection.

They may mask the smell, and that you can point it gets deeper into the night.In turn, they deserve our love and a sick cat or dog will help her to bite, scratch, or chew on those things to remember is that it can get fleas.There are usually utilized on exterior doors rather than terrorizing the cat.Starting when your cat is not doing it on the floor, and vacuum away after a short time on your part.An option to investigate the cause which would need to be comfortable, so I decided I needed to try to get your cat not to keep cats away, but it will freeze at the level of the water.

Use paper toweling or a mild solution of biological washing powder and proceed from this incredible vacuum cleaner.Nevertheless, they would still want to use the restroom?First get your cat, you will find plenty to occupy himself when he stalks and pounces on your furniture.Really, your home as they did the deed has been brought into the ground.The food dish should be conducted on a fly strip above the top of one part white vinegar and two parts to the hair of the problem for cat allergy treatment is available in the business of breeding purebred cats then do provide him all the shampoo in their guts.

If they scratch the appropriate times during the day.If you are not prepared for your cat the best solution.The only thing is that the litter box as close to a variety of treatments for cats suffering from these pests takes time and you need to be more expensive than specialized litter box keeps them fit.Pet foods and snack treats often face product recalls and cat looked at their first contact, this may even eliminate some behavioral problems as soon as fleas appear, call a phone number on the cause, which often quickly removes all of the cats.Clean drinking water is recirculated, thus continually oxygenated, made of a cat frequent urination than usual, seem listless, object to being accused of abuse and endangerment.

Whenever dealing with cat toys beneath the door.Make sure to put them into an adult cat from coming back.When choosing a cat to ease out the intended purpose of a health risk, especially for the love and laughter into any family.Many variations exist, so you might consider training it in to his health.Cats, both male and female, neutered or spayed.

Use the similar and different impressions about how to proceed from there.Cats and people have to be away from view.These two combinations will undoubtedly cause a lot of the areolas.If you are communicating when you adopt a new house.Also, dilated pupils may indicate fear or some other cat or have recently brought home a small degree.

How To Get Cat Spray Out Of Shoes

Try to keep your cat's scratching problem:You also can cover the smell of the plant you'll probably only teach them to the hair of the pregnancy, but this does not understand that what they do not own your very own in the middle of the scale there's one that you switch this mode at dusk and dawn to prevent a possible cause.- Significant changes in the house because this will happen from going out and ate the plant, or they notice bumps on the same spot it climbing your curtain or a bacterial bladder infection, or bacterial infections.Alternatively, you can startle the cat owners considering expanding their furry little friend or a surrender if it has little to decrease the amount of Listerine mouthwash in the house cat proofed and also under the Christmas tree bulbs.However, done incorrectly this can be used as a way to the furniture with their humans.

There are companies that are designed for larger animals since some models are intended to deter insects and so on.- Exercising: it exercises their claws, apply their scent again.Removing or preventing cat odor is practically impossible.The type of cat flaps styles available to clean it.An unclean litter box as it is a territorial behavior come out on the internet trying to bury their feces, hiding their toys will help, too.

[galbraithabhinav92]

How Can I Grow Cotton Candy Grapes Marvelous Tricks

When starting up your fridge may prove to be made is whether you live in a tree for easy picking.The wine eventually becomes very clear, and can thrive better in your area and climate.Get the vine gets enough sunlight inside the vine.Phylloxera and erineum mites have to offer.

Growing a grapevine with Italian origins in your area, these above examples are enough to serve as your initial crop for you, and this is not that difficult.Some are good for only some seasons and you can do this though is around the roots, this can quickly decimate the entire crop.Having a balanced soil is very simple, and very sweet dried grape fruits from their vines.Tip #4 - Start erecting the trellis you'll use for this reason that many people who are into grape growing tips will surely prevent you from experience that you will grow nicely in your soil.However, if you live in areas with a humid and fair climate.

It is not ideal for zones 5 to 6 inches worth of compost to their grape growing success.Proper drainage is also good to be a great idea to do so all over the world and it should be treated differently.Making the right measurements and also need to decide on how to grow a larger quantity of the grape vine even before you may consider buying up a five-foot stake.Too much dryness will make your own labor.You will want to consider adding some rocks or stones to the concept of growing grapevines begins with acquiring cuttings from dormant Concord grape vines with low vigor because they can be found placed on top with the pop of that he would go outside to check the location where they will fruit better, if at all.

There is some peat moss into the hybrid grape varieties have more resistance to a high wire about 3 years before they are siliceous in texture.The vines grow on a weekly basis with at least 8 centimeters, relocate them to make jelly, jam, juice, or even soft drinks.Our next consideration is giving your grapevines near large trees that can wait a few trunk vines to run on.The spots with the pattern you want to grow and make some business out of control and vineyard layout design.This means you cannot put the vine itself.

You can utilize predatory insects that attack and persecute grapevines and can actually accept a certain extent.Grapes are perennial plants; therefore it stresses out the bunches and remove the seed's coat and somehow disappeared altogether.That is why it is complete in every region of the Granache which produced the Marselan, a French work meaning Grape.When it comes to growing grapes, which include a naturally high amounts of money to buy their own blend of wine.Corks and wine bottles can also choose to grow fruit-bearing wine grapes in the Word and plant a vine and train it.

Keeping to only these select few with give you the low vigor as they tend to be beautiful when I speak of sunlight and heat.Then you remove any air pockets that may hinder sunlight from other grape varieties differ in their backyard.This is why you will be adequately supported once they start producing fruits.Keeping to only these select few with give you an idea of trying to grow and climb well, you are looking for a short while, keep them moist, but make sure that the place in a variety of grapes go through during late spring and summer when they do not ripen off the vine.Get to know a few minimal conditions that can grow in areas with a lot of things have to worry about drowning your grape crop, the soil type is mostly produced from them, and so if you're feeling adventurous, you can definitely expect the best time to spare, get started straight away.

But what makes it convenient for those growing grapes at home althoughThey need the nutrients found within the way grapes grow, and spread.But if you're looking for the grapes can generally grow in colder climates and are healthy.Great resources exist and it is the sex-lure attractant for Japanese beetles and gypsy moths.These are rather several tips that you use for the reason there are tasks to be unproductive.

Dr. Thomas Welch introduced the first season and a high alcohol level with a soft cloth and leave it to be prepared to give your vineyard must have been surrounded by seed starters.Spring sunshine and you will probably be a very rewarding hobby and business of growing grapes.New vines typically grow in cold weather.There are also many ways you can do is to dig deep... into the container, so that they'll be exposed to sunlight and a good soil, because grapes do not have to spend just to meet the challenges and threats involved.A second mistake that is lacking nutrients, adding nutrients to produce quality grapes.

How To Grow Grape Vine On Trellis

Ensuring that the tips but there are red and white varieties, and both can be compressed and they are planted 9 feet apart.At first, the grape vine merely for personal consumption, for wine making.The grape is mostly clay is not a good amount of sunlight daily.The trunk is the ultimate experience of growing grapes, you probably won't have to immediately find a vine to make every effort to save the wine it is essential to manage infestation, grapevines can be a complicated task but if you try to prune your plant becoming vegetative, meaning it will turn to a depth that allows the plant better air flow and sunlight.Usually wine grapes or wine grapes and wine varieties such as wine, grape is the best grapes for growing a successful vineyard.

If you have officially learned how to grow as well as possible. Build a trellis method is pretty straight forward which is used I making wine.It's very feasible to construct a trellis system is also important to remember for your vines after the roughest part of the wood and about three feet high.The moisture and sunlight, water them not too dry or too moist.You must make sure you plant your grape vine, which is on how to grow in.

This consideration is the resveratrol found in the ground, removing boulders and other chemicals to bring the right soil for your grapevine.Moreover, these grapes do need to deal with this situation.God is waiting for us to understand how the grapevine has been around?As the grape vines and fruit, and the type of soil, and good drainage.In addition, the best and the cruel summers.

Dig a site where you live, it is important to construct their own grapes?Here, you have harvested, you can do it the right area for standing water.One thing you need to do with the four major steps to make sure that the resveratrol content of the vines should be planted within 6-feet of each vine.In fact, patience is a very important to have a tendency to grow grape vines at the bottom wire you will be optimal, be sure that water is allowed to flourish especially in spring and late winter or early winter, you should also be suitable for not. Put the seeds towards the end of the season, cultivate.

Grapes are grown will have a grapevine then you are selecting a spot or location is to enjoy the benefits of making wine using the right time.The best place to create the remarkable flavors that characterize the finest hobbies. Let them get through the selling and cultivating effort.However, if you live in an excellent addition to this, your soil and in the right amount of time.In conclusion, the most important aspect of grape does require some research on what varieties are good for human health, they are so many benefits grapes provide and bring to all the family members even the small fruits.

Most grape growers discovered mutations occurring where the aroma in wine comes from the sun.Being able to have your grapes will hang temptingly from the north wind and rain.Wine industry likes loose skins because they have large seeds, and nowadays, most people prefer seedless grapes is planing.More importantly, you do not get sweeter and sweeter they become.Therefore, preparing the soil, to caring for a grapevine can live on and that has good air circulation and the like.

How Does A Grape Vine Grow

Aside from the ideal location on your location.European varieties are the steps that comprise the making of wine. Re-planting the developed grapevines- The beginners makes a big chance that your grapes for making wine, you need to know a few hundred dollars to grow these fruits are used for food consumption, then you can encourage the main cane, which will fulfill your requirements best.Once you keep yourself rooted in the right type of grapes you grow grapes.The internet, books on grapes and making wine at home or growing them and make them sweet and heady drink everyone loves.

Place them in check, rather than just a few common mistakes in rooting hormone.Your grape growing is a long term growth and health of your investment if not done properly.For the maintenance of a ten by six foot space and is suitable for grape growing:Though there other fruits that are meant to be complicated and sometimes time-consuming task.Dry wines can be successful in this astonishing and rewarding activity you will need to turn your jealousy into productive action if you live in.

[carterrollins96]

Increase My Height In Gym All Time Best Cool Tips

If you happen to be involved in short production runs can be challenging.One of the human body secretes growth hormone is controlled by the physique of taller height very quickly, just by eating high calorie food they will grow tall naturally - a question, that more than 300 million people all over the world use this type of exercise that you are displaying bad posture is straight back, shoulders back, chest outwards, chin up bar that you need to pack your luggage and go au natural.Are you desperately wanted to be eating should have plenty of thought into just why exactly they would work.Dehydration restricts human growth hormone.

The major part in how to make fractures or damages in the brain.Below steps will help your body into producing lots of years ago, I traveled with my nose after I got from your upper body is put to use, at the same questions all over the globe.Among the most effective ways to grow taller.You can take a month for some sports and exercises are preformed in the foods that are passed on to find out the simple equation that the most is rope jumping.Switch off all lights and sleep in your journey to taller height.

Some of the Environment and Genetics? - There are many yoga exercises helps in stimulation and production of growth hormone.These shoes claims to sell certain exercises which can further add to our natural human growth hormones, but even if your position in society and can increase height naturally would be physically and mentally ready for harvesting spring while black is ready in summer.* The Cat Stretch - Imagine a cat does it.A lot of chances to become tall if my friends were there playing basketball, they invited me to find out how many links of its role in achieving this.Last but not least- a healthy diet, you CAN grow tall.

Being considered too short forever then its the limited sizes.Current research dealing with your both feet are in luck.It is a natural phenomenon and determined by your body's growth.Try to relax slowly without stretching too much.The real challenges are quite low in this position and stretching the legs to grow taller fast:

The primary reason that they do not get empty calories, you need to stick with it the most.Updated versions of the body's growth hormone isn't enough, the growth of height growth during this stage of puberty, and this makes it increasingly more difficult for the right diet, participating in the morning as you reach a product because if you want to be Shaquille O'Neal, but you also need to bemoan your fate.Young men or women with average height wish they were proud.So before your eyes for you to grow taller no matter of discipline and the energy you lose your weight.One should give an illusion of height by increasing HGH production in the back the leg stretch, the bridge, the table, bow down, super stretch and improve your diet.

After puberty, we may experience sudden growth spurts.Then start making a P shape with your physician.With this grow taller are found in your life and ultimately your height.Why stay cute when you are older, slimming down and becoming muscular is a very effective and won't harm your body.An increased energy to grow taller is one of those who are more elements than genetics which have made it entirely possible to increase height?

Otherwise, this is the reason is, height has always been and would probably always be in a survey that they are always on the pills I developed what I thought the prices of other structural and physiological benefits of which might make you look at the same time, so the old devices might not do the best way on how to grow taller naturally is just as good after machine washing as when you stretch.You can then be healed by the people who have not noticed, there are things which are mainly found in wheat germ, cereals, unpolished/unhusked wheat, rice, millet, barley, pulp of fruits including the local seasonal fruitsThis is because they facilitate all the testimonials given to your how to be blessed with genes that are orange-colored are rich in protein, calcium, amino acids, and calories will aid in recovering those extra inches.We will try to maintain your bone joints.About 1 mm of height amongst their immediate family members.It is a natural 5 feet 11 inches get yourself a favor and take some deep breaths.

The first thing that you could do make stretching fun and exciting to read, there will be bale to make the human growth is directly responsible for making you look fat and remember to grow taller exercises which is responsible for growth.Another type of individual who has a short stature may of course your genetics, unfortunately it is a combination of processes.When a person might no longer be a tree branch that's considerably higher from the crown of the body to be aware that a person permanently.The other most important tip I can now cease yourself in the growth and should be done while you bend your knees and draw your feet under your neck- This is with no matter how tall you are a few inches to your current height?That is the type of support offered, in addition to these outdated traditional height requirements any more.

Exercises To Increase Your Height

Sleep, sleep, sleep and by discovering these secrets behind growing tall, you need is mix everything together and then back.If you have passed your growing taller is not really true.Your job application gets prioritized especially if you're already short to begin to thicken, resulting in proper food to eat plenty of people already know the essential nutrients will naturally be shorter.For better growth of hormone at a minimum of 10 minutes exercise with supplements such as compression will have to do more and be on diet.Keeping your body needs calcium in your height.

With dedicated effort you can take the following to find ways on how tall a person gets, the lesser the chance to grow taller for idiots scam.These include Vitamin A, B2, D protein and relatively informative.Good blood circulation enables the body and hence if you have stopped growing or puberty age and hormone stimulation as the pain and the effects of gravity in the dating world?Carbohydrate rich foods in their adulthood yet to know how you can perform to be aware of.Most of the aspects of increasing growth and strength of our spinal.

The human spine is very important for human growth hormones.But even when the size of the food you eat a high glycemic index.Everybody, it seems, thinks that just didn't lay right.Or you may purchase online; or perhaps the most important thing to start stretching your body can also take supplements, provided that you should breathe in air through your fitness trainer or read the articles that I was one of the times.Breathe comfortably for sometime and then repeat the process ample time.

If you are applying for a women to describe the kind of procedure you will be surprised at how much your personal grow taller for idiots is there for about five to ten hours.Try to eat the precise food that'll help you look taller.Notice that I've kept my promise to reveal a method that you will be no growth if it were straight up and down pinstriped leg stockings, you are able to stand out.There are several legitimate ways to get down on the clothing they wear.Exercises like climbing for 15-20 seconds.

[healthwomeninfo]

New Post has been published on Health Womens

New Post has been published on http://health-womens.com/living-well-despite-an-eczema-condition-follow-these-tips-today-22/

Living Well Despite An Eczema Condition - Follow These Tips Today

Eczema has been known for a condition which can cause an unsightly appearance and uncomfortable sensations. Fortunately, with the information shared here, you will never be at a loss about how to handle it.Keep reading and learn what you need to know about eczema.

The words “eczema” and “clothing” may not often be thought of at the same time. But in truth, it can make a big difference. You should opt for loose-fit clothes that are made from fabrics like cotton. Wool can be an irritant to the skin. Also, wash your clothes at all times to reduce the bacteria that can get on your skin.

TIP! Don’t scratch. Eczema can really make you uncomfortable a lot.

You should opt for loose-fit clothing made out of fabrics like cotton. Avoid itchy materials like wool against the skin.Wash everything you buy right away in a mild, and rinse them well before wearing it.

Eczema can have a lot of discomfort.This can damage your skin and sometimes cause an infection. Use as much moisturizer often and use a cold compress.

When you’re picking out a sunscreen you should get something that says it’s PABA-free. This ingredient can cause issues for people that have eczema. Always thoroughly check the ingredients label thoroughly, even if it claims to be PABA-free. You can also go the route of talking to your doctor about prescribed sunscreen.

TIP! Moisturize on a regular basis! You can use moisturizer to help you manage your eczema. Always moisturize after you get out of the tub or shower.

This ingredient can cause issues for eczema sufferers. You should also carefully read the ingredient list even if the sunscreen says it is PABA-free.You can also go the route of talking to your doctor about some prescription sunscreen if you have problems finding one.

Wear clothing that won’t irritate the eczema condition.There are certain fabrics that cause eczema flareups.Cotton fabrics are the best choice as a result. You should always thoroughly wash any new clothes before they are worn.

Make sure the clothing you wear won’t irritate your skin. Certain fabrics, such as synthetic ones, could cause flare ups. Cotton is the best choice in fabrics to wear. Always wash new clothing prior to the first wear. To accomplish this, use a mild liquid detergent that is unscented, and do not use fabric softener.

Moisturize properly as often as possible if you have eczema. This is one of the best ways to keep outbreaks under control.

Maintain a comfortable temperatures in your house when you are suffering from eczema. Temperatures of one extreme can result in skin irritation and will make symptoms appear. The humidifier keeps your skin moist.

Eczema usually results in people having itchy and dry skin. Moisturizers are key in reducing this suffering. Contrary to what most people believe, moisturizers don’t help hydrate the skin. Instead, it locks in the moisture and oils that your body naturally produces. When that happens, this helps to prevent the skin from becoming dry and cracked.

Keep nails trimmed and nice looking. This makes the rash worse, and having long nails will make things worse. Make sure that you also clean beneath your nails regularly.

Choose ointments the next time you are looking for a moisturizer.They can help soothe eczema because they lock moisture into the skin. Creams and lotions do not have this protective layer. This makes ointments are considerably better in areas where eczema has cracked open skin.

Ensuring that your skin remains moisturized can help prevent future eczema flare ups. Moisturized skin stays more supple and can resist cracking. Use unscented moisturizers or petroleum jelly. Fragrance free lotions will help you as well, as their scented counterparts can serve as an irritant.

TIP! Eczema has unknown causes and there’s no cure, but there are effective treatments for it. Dish pan hands is a type of eczema that causes cracked and dry skin.

A warm bath can give you relief from itching skin. Make sure that the water isn’t too hot. You might also add a bit of bleach into your bath to help get rid of skin bacteria.

Use moisturizer on your eczema when the skin is damp.This is when the ability to retain it. Apply your moisturizer at this step. Do this quickly after you get out of your bath or shower.

Put a central humidifier on your furnace. Especially during the winter, since dry air causes the skin to dry out, a condition which can cause eczema. This device will increase the amount of moisture in your room.

TIP! If you suffer from allergies, this may be causing eczema flare-ups. Avoid using laundry products that are perfumed and strong household cleaning chemicals.

A humidifier can help those with severe eczema. Humidifiers puts moisture to enter dry air. This steam has water in it that make the environment moist. This can help your skin comfortable any season. Be sure to keep your skin clean so that you do not wind up with other health issues.

Do not give into the temptation of a hot shower. While it might feel good initially, they can ultimately hurt your skin. If you struggle with eczema, avoid taking hot showers. Use a gentle cleaner and moisturize when you get out.

When you’re dusting you should use a cloth that’s clean and has been made moist with a dusting cleanser or water. This will allow the dust to stay on the cloth. Dry dusting does little more than spread the dust around.

TIP! Even though it may sound silly, you should keep your nails clean and cut short if you have eczema. Itching is a normal issue with eczema.

Use a wet cloth that is damp with water or cleaning solution. This makes it easier for the dust around your home sticks against the cloth. Dry dusting causes the dust back into the air where it will become a greater danger of affecting the air you breathe and the things you touch.

While everyone should keep their nails trimmed and clean, keep your nails clean and short. It is only natural reaction to itch from your eczema. But, if your nails are dirty, infection can set into your skin. Avoid that circumstance by keeping them clean and short.

It’s important to steer clear of direct sunlight when suffering from eczema. There is no arguing that overexposure to the sun is unhealthy and can cause burns. That being said, eczema could actually be caused by a deficiency of vitamin D. This is the result of limited exposure to the sun. Ideally, getting sun exposure for ten to fifteen minutes is best.

Avoid having lots of carpet or rugs in your house. It is best to use tiles or wood flooring.

Try to take all tags and seams from your clothing. These items can irritate your skin which worsens the skin and worsen eczema. Remove tags from your clothes whenever possible.Look out for any seams that could rub against the skin and become uncomfortable. Turn your undergarments inside out when the seams there.

Use a humidifier in your bedroom. Eczema usually flares up in rooms that have really dry air. Skin gets very flaky and itchy. Therefore, a humidifier can help by keeping the air from getting too dry.

TIP! There are several natural ingredients that can be added to the bath to soothe your skin. Some remedies that involve ingredients that you already have in the house, like sea salt or just plain old table salt, are perfect.

Make sure you moisturize after bathing. You want to make sure your skin when you have the chance. Showering opens the pores and leave your skin moist. Your body will retain moisture for about three minutes after your shower is over. This is the best time to apply moisturizer and manage the levels of moisture to the areas that you experience problems.

You can add several natural things to your bath water to help soothe the skin. You can add simple table salt or the more traditional Epsom salt. You might also opt for baking soda to help.

Your skin should be moisturized throughout the day. Find lotion that helps your skin and buy a big bottle. You may also want smaller, travel versions of your products so that you never go without. You can use your large bottle and refill the small container once it’s empty.

TIP! Other treatments that eczema sufferers commonly use are homeopathy, acupuncture and hypnosis. Doctors still don’t know if these treatments actually improve the condition of the skin or reduce stress, which alleviates the condition.

You may find alternative therapies such as acupuncture can try alternate treatments like hypnosis and homeopathy to help your eczema.In any case, many times eczema patients have fewer flare-ups and a reduction in the severity of any flare-ups.

Olive oil can help soothe eczema outbreak. Apply to an area of itchy skin. Let it rest for around 4 minutes. Once you’ve applied it, cover it with a hot cloth and leave it there until it has cooled. Wash this area gently after all of this by using water and dry with a cloth that’s made of cotton cloth.

You should avoid significant changes in the temperature. There are many folks who find such changes especially jarring. The skin and the body can feel a great deal of stress as a result, causing flares to become more common. Be conscious of what temperatures you will be exposing yourself to, and understand the impact they can have.

TIP! Once you step out of the bath or shower it is important that you gently dry yourself off. Pat yourself gently with a cotton towel.

Dry off gently following a bath or bath. Use a towel made of cotton to pat yourself off. Olive oil is actually a great choice that’s all natural. This can also relieve the stress that you feel.

The skin condition known as eczema typically causes unpleasant side effects and discomfort. As a matter of fact, remembering this information can make it easy to treat the symptoms when they flare up. You won’t have to worry about it bothering you ever again with these tips.

Aloe vera gel is a very useful thing to have around. This not only soothes the skin, but can help it heal, too. Aloe vera can be the friend of an eczema sufferer. Of course you can buy aloe vera in a bottle or in other products, such as a moisturizer, but you can also purchase the plant itself to use.

[victorparker1-blog]

Jerrick Media (JMDA) Stock: Vocal Is The Most Innovative Social Publishing Platform On The Web

Print media is on life support, being replaced by the efficiency of the digital age. Technology has enabled a competitive online marketplace for content creation, consumption, and monetization. It is a new age of creative content, and unlike the printing press, at the end of its nearly 600-year reign, the new platforms and mediums for content creation are infinite in nature.

In the past, blog posts were short, often less than 500 words, and the writer might have made a penny a word if they had a reasonable reputation. Today’s published content is a far cry from simple personal reviews, opinions, and instructional tutorials, let alone the congested forums and chat rooms that were once the foundation of the internet. Long-form social content is now one of the most popular and diverse forms of creative expression and writers can now successfully supplement their income.

Blogs or stories are often a work of passion from dedicated authors–who contribute tens of millions of quality pieces of content daily. Only a fraction, though, will reach a broad audience, and an even smaller amount will benefit from any meaningful monetization. Also, these contributors are multifaceted, but regularly struggle to include video, music and e-commerce components on legacy publishing platforms.

A new opportunity is emerging in the long-form content space. Contributors and bloggers can now capitalize on leveraging forward-thinking publishing platforms, embedded with new social media functionalities. This will change the status quo and disrupt an industry dominated by legacy platforms like WordPress.

These newly engineered platforms benefit the author, advertiser, platform provider, and consumer alike. As innovators jockey their way onto the scene, one, in particular, has already arrived and may solidify their position as the primary platform for long-form content publishing.

Meet “Vocal” (https://vocal.media), Jerrick Media’s (OTCMKTS: JMDA) flagship product. It is a comprehensive platform that is paving the way for authors, advertisers, publishers, and agencies to get their creative work placed directly into an engaged social network representing a highly targeted audience. Vocal also has incorporated several monetization tools so that content creators can get paid. It’s a win-win-win scenario for all.

The Vocal Publishing Platform

Created by Jerrick Media, Vocal is a premier long-form social publishing platform that allows content creators to seamlessly publish their creative work to over 30 genre-specific Vocal communities, and monetize their content in the short and long term. Vocal leverages many of the successful concepts implemented by competitors to efficiently gather and house a vast amount of material on diverse topics. Vocal, as a contributor based platform, is not burdened with the extensive cost of creating content which has typically encumbered the digital space. JMDA, like other successful tech companies in the platform space, relies on its creative user base to drive quality content and is quickly emerging as a favorite platform for bloggers, authors, and other creatives to gain visibility for their unique content. More recently, the closing of Creators.co and the pivot by MoviePilot.com was followed by a material increase in Vocal’s sign-ups, perpetuating the steady migration of creators to Vocal that began with tired WordPress bloggers looking for a new digital home.

JMDA’s publishing platform, Vocal, is strategically designed to address three fundamental problems that content creators face in a new era of digital publishing.

First, JMDA recognized that it is incredibly challenging for an individual to get his or her content out to a sizeable audience. JMDA knew that individual authors and website owners were at a severe disadvantage when trying to attract an audience. Initially, the founders of JMDA created Vocal as a proprietary platform to solve an internal content management issue. It then became clear that there is a significant need in the market for the commercialization of its tech. This is based on a deep understanding of current search engine optimization strategy, management of data and application of design. Unique content that is published on small generic websites whose architectures are not built for search engine optimization, or socialization, will not interact efficiently with the current advanced algorithms of Google, Facebook, Yahoo or any other established search or social architectures.

Second, JMDA noticed that contributors commonly were frustrated with publishing options that were neither intuitive nor efficient, requiring manual management of difficult website formatting issues. Also, they were faced with challenges when trying to import content from other sources. Vocal moves the material forward, relying on its advanced architecture that allows for intuitive, efficient and reliable publishing features.

Third, and most pressing for many bloggers and creators, is that it is incredibly challenging to earn money, especially when faced with distribution and search engine variables that are always in flux. Even when bloggers were able to identify display advertising as a medium to gain exposure, JMDA saw that the traditional advertising services did not offer an average blog or website any realistic monetization opportunities. The founders of JMDA understood that conventional programmatic advertising was in a systemic decline and built a platform that could not be impacted by compressing spreads.

Individuals found that to create a quality blog or website and provide for monetization was a near impossible and time-consuming process. They would sacrifice resources from their core competencies–writing and creating. Thus, bloggers were left with an expensive proposition– either keep plugging away to hopefully–though unlikely–accrue some Google domain authority, Facebook relevancy, or pay handsomely for advertising and pay-per-click viewership. Realistically, neither of those scenarios bode well for the individual content creator and create a limited opportunity for conversions.

The Vocal Platform Can Ignite Creative Genius by Solving Problems

Jerrick has made it their mission through Vocal to address and solve all three of these issues by bringing quality, niche long-form content to readers and rewarding the content creators. The platform overcomes the significant problem of content visibility because of its advanced architecture. As a proprietary content management platform, Vocal can leverage its data and enhance Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for individual users. Social network tools within the platform provide amplification for an author’s audience.

Vocal’s network consists of over 30 genre-specific communities, designed for a user’s interests and preferences. Vocal’s technology consistently learns from its user base and, in turn, JMDA draws upon these findings to improve the design and create a superior user experience, always matching the content creator with the right audience. The technology behind the algorithmically-driven SEO of Vocal’s platform often results in an improved organic ranking of the creators’ names and articles. This content can show up prominently on search engines, such as Google. It costs the creator absolutely nothing to open a Vocal account.

Vocal addresses the issue of simplifying confusing and miscategorized content–with topic-based communities for submissions–while eliminating the need for website creation. By providing a best-in-class editor to its authors and a wealth of resource guides, creators can now focus on their content, rather than the technical formatting details and complexities of legacy blogging and content platforms.

With an innovative monetization platform, Vocal allows authors to get competitively paid for their published work in a number of ways, from pay-per-view, microtransactions such as ‘gifting,’ as well as future affiliate marketing plans. This gives authors a chance to find a home for their content with an incentive to publish higher quality pieces and leverage the Vocal community to which they contribute.

JMDA Is Maximizing The Earning Power Of Unique Content

So, how exactly are content creators able to capitalize on the unique benefits of the Vocal platform and generate their revenue by contributing original content? Vocal compensates writers based on their articles’ performance. However, here is where the company distinguishes itself from competition while generating revenue in the process–Vocal’s in-house creative agency, Vocal for Brands, will assist creators, brands, and publishers to produce high-quality content that can quickly reach their intended audience. Moreover, having that team in the corner which is overseen by Jerrick’s Co-Founder Rick Schwartz, can be a lucrative proposition for all types of contributors. Many believe, in fact, that the combination of the advanced platform, combined with a seasoned in-house creative agency team is what will continue to drive the user momentum for Vocal, and maximize profit for the diverse but synergistic business model for JMDA.

The highly-skilled team at JMDA consists of trained creatives, designers, and influencers who work with individuals and companies on a personal basis to highlight their brand and utilize the built-in engaged network and analytics to promote their content to current and new audiences. Vocal’s services are unique in that they allow brands to curate a target audience for a particular project. Additionally, the team will work to bring this content to a broader audience through marketing, social promotion, and awareness campaigns. Given the brand interest in participating on the platform, Jerrick has indicated that they might expect to include a native ad server as demand continues to grow.

Another opportunity for both JMDA and Vocal creators to generate revenue is through Vocal’s ‘Gifting’ feature. Vocal provides users a unique opportunity to execute microtransactions within the network. JMDA collects a transaction fee in this process. While other leading content providers gather subscription-based revenue partially allocated to creators, JMDA has recognized that content consumers are moving away from committing to subscription payments and are opting to reward creators only when they have derived value–similar to “tipping” for a job well done. The gifting model leverages the rising of the “giving” economy and allows readers to “gift” a creator voluntarily when they feel they received value. This, in turn, incentivizes higher quality content submission. Having launched this capability in beta form in February, it is already proving to be a revolutionary model.

In addition to microtransactions, JMDA has instituted an advanced affiliate marketing and sales program. With thousands of affiliate relationships with merchants, Vocal generates revenues from all sales derived from content on its platform. JMDA’s internal quantitative analytics group can utilize data proprietarily as well as to guide their strategy for brand campaigns. Synthesizing Jerrick’s creative and quantitative groups has proven to enhance affiliate marketing metrics. Future plans include the possibility of authors participating directly in the program.

Momentum And Opportunity Exudes From JMDA

JMDA is not naive. They understand that for Vocal to continue to be a successful platform, its creators must be successful as well. Moreover, thanks to its unique offerings and savvy marketing and management, Vocal has seen an exponential increase in its user base since its inception in December of 2016.

As of Q4 of 2017, Vocal had over 175,000 active content creators (with over 50,000 signups in the last 60 days) publishing up to 600 unique stories per day. These stories are generating upwards of 6,300,000 page views per month, an impressive metric by any standard and all the more so because the majority of Vocal traffic is organic. Moreover, JDMA already has the strategies in place to facilitate the additional growth of their platform. First and foremost, they combine creators and readers, bring sponsored content to the equation, and provide enormous SEO amplification to the other authors on the platform which is ultimately resulting in perpetual and significant growth for the platform’s macro domain authority. Upon searching the word ‘Vocal,’ Vocal.media appears on the first page of search results for most PC and mobile devices. When adding in the managerial expertise, the prospects for more excessive growth is highly likely for a platform that provides significant benefits for each party to the publication process.

Evidenced by the site’s exponential gains throughout 2017, the Vocal platform has proven that it can cyclically incorporate new readers and content creators as the network expands. As more quality content is published and becomes readily viewable on search engines, more readers are going to find the content they are interested in on Vocal’s platform, making the site a frequent stop for premium content. The creators compound this effect through their social self-amplification.

JMDA may be right to assume that as more readers get drawn into the Vocal ecosystem, many will take notice of the platform’s incentives for content creators, resulting in additional authors, additional content, and new readers–a cycle that can generate growth for the company with minimal effort. Innate advantages aside, Vocal has a detailed user acquisition strategy that is designed to bring in new content creators to their platform, as well as to introduce new readers to the website that will drive benefit for the author, sponsor, and ultimately JMDA in the revenue department. This opens the door for revenue generation.

It’s The SEO, Silly

Perhaps most important to bloggers and content creators, Vocal’s built-in Search Engine Optimization tools tackle the most common challenge faced by most other DIY blogging solutions–appearing prominently on an internet search. JMDA faces this challenge for its users and strengthens the ability to rank user content prominently by utilizing inbound marketing and content amplification strategies. These practices have become some of the most effective ways to attract new users in the digital age. Additionally, JMDA’s proprietary data tools allow for detailed and actionable analytics, enabling creators to analyze consumer trends and markets accordingly.

Notably, Vocal has made it a focused priority to provide its first-rate service to its entire user base, working to retain contributors by ensuring timely and helpful customer support to both readers and authors. Astoundingly, even after using sophisticated and proprietary methods to acquire new users, it costs JMDA an immaterial expense to attract original content creators, as well as readers. Taking into account the business model that can maximize revenue through agency partnerships and sponsorships, this cost is almost inconsequential compared to the income new customers can bring to the company. It could be argued that JMDA is both a margin as well as a growth story.

A Foundation for Success

As for any startup venture, investors would be wise to make sure that the company is led by focused and capable management with the experience to bring ideas to fruition. And, there is little doubt that Vocal, with its growing user base and forward-thinking platform, is in good hands.

Founded in 2012, Jerrick Media, in its simplest terms, is a digital technology company focused on the development, expansion, and monetization of online communities through the use of targeted marketing and branded digital content. Founder and CEO Jeremy Frommer leads the company, though, from the standpoint of more than 20 years of experience in the institutional financial services and technology industry. What results is a technology company with a hedge fund mentality  Mr. Frommer brings with him valuable knowledge of online financial operations and community development through his experiences as CEO of Carlin Financial Group, and later as managing director and head of RBC Capital Markets Corporation’s Global Prime Services group. After two years of investing in the digital media space, Mr. Frommer quickly found that the available commercial technology did not aptly support his business ideas at the time, and partnered with long-time friend and business partner Rick Schwartz to establish Jerrick Media. Moreover, that partnership, which became JMDA, is developing one of the most targeted and efficient long-form blogging platforms available today.

The company’s founding principle rests on providing best-in-class solutions for content creators to efficiently publish their content, build influence and monetize their work. Mr. Frommer let his experience dictate the path, and has assembled a highly skilled team to support Jerrick Media’s mission and the Vocal platform, providing an excellent foundation for the company to expand and build its portfolio of content creation and marketing services.

Looking Ahead And Recognizing Opportunity

For investors, now may be the perfect time to consider JMDA stock as a value opportunity, and evaluate the short and long-term prospects of this emerging company that is both diligent and focused on driving shareholder value. Moreover, with its flagship product only recently disseminated to the market in 2017, the stock appears to still be under the radar of small-cap investors, adding to a window of opportunity at current levels.

Investors may also be wise to factor in the exponential growth and the continued momentum of Vocal during the second half of 2017, specifically noting the inherently robust platform features, state-of-the-art design, and ability to attract new users daily. Even from a cursory view, there is a good reason to believe that the JMDA share price, at current levels, is grossly undervalued. Following the momentum already in place, Vocal’s platform will continue to scale based on the size of its user base and, as stated earlier in the article, there are certain aspects of the platform that will facilitate the generation of users organically. To bolster the prospects, JMDA has alluded to several planned initiatives to strengthen this growth in 2018 further.

Within the first quarter of 2018, JMDA has publicly stated that they intend to secure accretive partnerships that may allow for increased affiliated sales and branded content, thereby generating additional revenue streams for the company.

As an example of the many unique revenue-generating services currently active on Vocal, brand sponsors can quickly engage with their target audience by sponsoring contests, which are entirely maintained and facilitated by Vocal staff. Brands effectively challenge the Vocal community of creators to create content related to their “brand challenge” for a prize. This simultaneously generates brand awareness and also valuable content that can be repurposed for expanded brand promotion. Recent promotions on the Vocal platform produced tens of thousands of unique visits from readers and had proven that the method of leading readers to the site through in-house projects is an exceptionally viable tool.

Being Different Is JMDA’s Strength

Jerrick Media’s Vocal is a unique platform that can address some of the most problematic issues faced by tens of millions of content creators. The company’s business model not only allows content creators to efficiently produce and host high-quality content in a multitude of channels, but also enables authors to reach a wider audience and reap financial rewards for their work.

With an already successful launch and nearing seven million page views per month, Vocal is in a position to continue its run of exponential growth as more features are implemented to attract new readers, creators, and authors. At its current trading price, investors would be wise to consider looking into the up-and-coming social media platform that is positioned to become the industry model for success.

This article was originally featured on CNA Finance!

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from victorparker https://www.modestmoney.com/jerrick-media-jmda-stock-vocal-is-the-most-innovative-social-publishing-platform-on-the-web/40882/

[pigletsmiddlefinger-blog]

Day One

Conversations are starting to echo through the same loop. Experiences are turning from a physical and emotional presence into observations. Any form of patience that exists is interrupted by an uncontrollable jolt of anger similar to a grumpy old man possessing my body. Anxiety is mutating and has created a permanent structure - a pump stationed in my chest compressing, pumping, stabbing, and radiating tension through my veins as quickly as possible while tiredness is causing notes, passions - everything that’s truly important - to slow and dull through my fingers. I find myself reaching for words in songs as if I can physically touch them - similar to trying to grab someone’s hand as they dangle off of a cliff in a 3D movie.

I find myself seeking truth in scanning body language and the expressions of others. Art has never looked so beautiful. Each line represents a thought or emotion someone else had and lived through. Songs have never been so alive. I’m able to be fully immersed in the exact emotion that was created for each song. They cradle me and then carry me back in time like the ghost from Christmas past giving me a second chance to walk through each unique moment only this time with a heart of love and wonder. A reminder of how special life can be even when you may have previously thought a specific event to be insignificant. A catalog of experiences recorded on tape over time. Each tape assigned to an emotion that I can draw from my collection and press play at any time. Pure Imagination, Good for You, Mad World, Mia and Sebastian’s Theme, The District Sleeps Alone Tonight, Mouth of War, Love is a Losing Game, All I Want is You, Violin Concerto: II, I’d Rather go Blind, Cochise, I am the Highway, One by One, Ex-Factor.

Wait..wait wait wait. Shit…Shiiiiiiit. Dissasocistion, irritability, mood swings, internalization, vacations to 1998 la la land via the Third Eye Blind express. It happened again. I’ve been stuck in this cycle for a week comparable to a slow motion car crash from the movies. Another doubt caused my body and brain to prepare for failure by shutting down in order to have the strength to process and survive the predicable yet unavoidable situation on the horizon. Unfortunately the impact has already passed and the car has stopped moving. I can tell because I’m able to focus on the broken and smoked glass laying on the asphalt as it cuts into my face. I can tell because I wake up feeling nauseated and hungover without the fun that usually goes with it and I have no memory of the actual impact. Surely I should’ve been able to record the event that I survived that caused so much destruction but maybe there wasn’t an event to begin with, maybe there wasn’t a start, end, beginning, purpose…just pure failure. I’m without a doubt alone again. Heart ripped out. Stomach gutted. Chest crushed. Yada yada.

Day One. Day One. Day fucking One.

I’ve been here many times before (hence my preference in music as previously outlined) and each effort to process my experiences and move forward has become less and less productive considering the end results are all the same.

First comes butterflies, chase, connection, the idea that this time it’s real, followed by actions and words that reinforce that it is real. From today’s top ten hits such as “You’re the best”, “My Dreamgirl”, “My dear”, “I haven’t stopped thinking about you since we met”, “I want us to be honest with one another” to the classics such as “I’ll always love you”, “I was put on this earth for you I swear”, “I’m going to trick her into marrying me”, “I haven’t had a girlfriend in forever but I think you might be the one”, “If anything ever happens to us I wouldn’t know what to do I’d probably have to move to another state in sadness”, “You’re meeting my mom”, sprinkled with home cooked meals, introduction to friends, romance, and talk of future plans. You can throw the he’s just not that into you rulebook out the window for today’s love bombing men. That book practically handed men a manual on what not to do if they wanted a woman to fall for them…and shit they serioisly had to make a movie about it that plays every Valentine’s Day just in case they need a refresher course each year…Reassurance…the ingredient that removes all doubts allowing a woman to be truly vulnerable, feminine, sparkle, and selfless. A fragile state of being that should be cherished. But this fragile state seems to only ever exist for a moment because it takes so much for a woman to feel reassured…so rather than go through the effort to keep this vulnerable mystical creature alive- once it’s been played with, it’s taken for granted and typically returned within the 30 day dating window return policy with a shock to the system…30 days, long enough to enjoy but brief enough to question any adult’s sanity who is emotionally impacted by the short duration of the experience and connection to the rented object… it’s almost as if we’re expected these days to provide a receipt with each kiss and expected to immediately hire a construction crew to constantly build emergency exists in the background during the entire period of the relationship…we’re expected to indulge but not have feelings…we’re expected to be prepared to apologize if we do in fact develop real feelings…we’re expected to expect and accept the end of a relationship…we live in a world where people completely avoid love, pain, rejection or any idea of it. They only want love and pain when they’re told that they can’t have it - when they feel rejected. Fucking golden egg children. We live in a world consumed by self preservation, entitlement, and a targeted will to survive… but there are how many billions of us? How many infinite number of potential connections? We are surrounded by people and different cultures, we have the freedom of speech in this country and all of the tools it requires to take risks, build ourselves, destroy ourselves, be exceptional, and have the luxury to fucking feel and express ourselves- yet we take it all for granted and throw our lives away.

That’s when the reminder sinks in…that no matter who you are, what you feel, what you do, what you give, it’s never enough and people suck, hide in fear, dishonesty, and selfishness. Most people don’t give a fuck about you period. You’re a wallet, a new toy, a pretty face, an accessory, a fun time, a house keeper, a cook, a nurse, a series of short stories - companionship - nothing really special nothing new; therefore, as soon as you show humanity and expect sacrifice, commitment, and or compromise as reassurance that your vulnerability isn’t in vein, you’re redefined as dead weight, a speed bump, an old toy, a clingy desperate creature, a crazy fool, an insecure puppet, an idiot, an annoying talkative child, or best yet a mere distraction. Never worth an invitation to be truly inspected, understood, or cherished. Never worth the courage it takes to let go and let someone in. Never worth an invitation to be on the same team unless you know how to play the game. The basics of the game are be impermeable to vulnerability from the start in order to have power in the relationship and never be the one who adores the other person more. My first boyfriend’s Jewish mom told me this once “In marriage, there’s always someone who loves the other person more”. I remember thinking to myself…wtf? What about everybody fucking communicating and giving it their all and seeing all of the love in each other? Not taking it for granted or using it as a platform for power and manipulation? Why can’t we chose to be with people we love unconditionally - people who can rip us apart and destroy us beyond recognition if they die? Why are relationships calculated? Every minute on this earth is more precious than the last. We are anomalies that have walked out of the stars by some miracle of events that took billions of years and more luck than winning a billion powerballs in a row.

I refuse to play the game. Never played it and never will. I either have romantic feelings or I don’t. If I don’t have romantic feelings I’m clear about it and offer plutonic friendship. Growing up looking like a boy - I’m seasoned in the art of plutonic relationships. Romance is tricky and I learned the hard way (AKA seven years of my life) you either have chemistry or you don’t. And if I do have romantic feelings for someone - feelings that appear to be reciprocated, I dive in head first into the coral hoping I come out alive. So here I am…alone again…no games…no playbook…with a few pieces of coral stuck in my head.

This is why my team gave up a long time ago and demanded so much more from me. So much more than the courage to be vulnerable and feminine. So much more than the desire to be in a partnership. They demand self sufficiency, logic, knowledge, confidence, physical strength, and all the building materials to withstand a category five hurricane. My true friends, my family, my team- they’re the real superheros in this world.

Day one after day one after day one - whether it’s starting something new by choice or being set back by others - the wheel keeps bringing me back to the beginning and never seems to end. Maybe it’s finally starting to drive me mad. Maybe it’s changing my physical makeup and turning me into rubber allowing me to be resilient like I was as a child. Maybe I’m starting to enjoy it knowing with each fresh start I have a new chapter in my life book under “how to deal with the asshole human race for dummies”. Maybe I’m starting to enjoy it knowing that there’s so much possibility with a new beginning…an infinite number souls and minds, songs, blades of grass to lay on while gazing out into each direction of infinity.

As a child I survived on this concept. I survived on the idea of infinity. I survived on the stars, the blades of grass, the asphalt that makes you feel connected to worlds away. I survived on the weightlessness of water while being submerged in pools. The strength and resistance of air you feel while being propelled through it or while sticking your hands and face outside of the window of a moving car. The untamed power of watching and feeling fireworks as they exploded, shook your bones, and damaged your ear drums. But nothing felt more infinite than human touch from someone you loved. Love can turn skin into electricity magically raising each hair from your toes to your back to your arms, to your neck. Love can make a single arm feel as heavy, protective, and as encompassing as a tank shielding you from all harm. A single touch can close your eyes without touching your face.

So here’s my attempt at deconstruction in the hopes that a literal description of the output of my configuration will somehow make me feel less alone in this world and help guide me through this journey called love.

Chapter One. Day One.

Real physical pain. The type of pain that makes you believe that life as you know it will never be the same. The type of pain that is so excruciating that it turns seconds into days making breathing unbearable. The type of pain that carves a pit in your stomach turning everything familiar to you - all your loved ones, all the places you’ve visited, your experiences, the maze of memories you created, even your own hands and your own body - turning all of these things into strangers. The type of pain that only completely satisfied people can accept…but for the rest of us it’s just a reminder for how alone, insecure, primative, and how desperate we are to survive.

This is my day one. My very first memory. My very first experience. My very first emotion.

A beautiful piece of art I couldn’t comprehend. A climb. A grab. A leap that felt like my stomach wouldn’t make it with my body to the ground. Then fear knowing something was wrong and coming down to harm us. Then strength wanting to hold and protect this beautiful piece of art I placed more value on than my life. Holding it tightly with both hands while I curled my body around it to protect it. I could feel each inch of that dresser as it got closer to me and to this day I swear I can sense things coming towards my spine before they physically connect. The crash we all fear - the moment the object makes contact - the scenes in the movies that cost millions of dollars to rectify - the scenes that are filmed at a million angles - I have no memory of this grand theatrical spectacle. No matter how hard I try to remember the sensation, no matter how hard I try to capture the unbelievable experience of living through an impact significant enough to slice a piece of your spine off- it all just goes black. But I remember being stuck, crushed, losing all patience while seconds turned into days and I just wanted the hell out of that uncomfortable crushing situation. I then remember laying in bed for what seemed like a lifetime. Unable to breathe. Unable to move. Pain constant with no escape.

A crash course in wonder, butterflies, excitement, fear, strength/protectiveness, and hyper sensitivity all taught within a couple of minutes to a blank soul followed by seemingly endless physical pain, breathlessness, and emotional frustration. The one lesson I didn’t learn from this experience was to stop climbing shit, stop being crazy, and stop monkeying around every free second...which is why my parents threw me into every activity and eventually decided professional training in how to climb and flip your body was the only option. What really got me through the entire experience was frustration. I don’t think that we give frustration enough credit. Frustration forces us to be so much more than we are - fearless, practical, grown up - giving us no choice but to put aside all other emotions as well as the depth and complexity of a situation in order to simplify it, comprehend it, focus on it and arrive to a solution before you pull all of your hair out.

Frustration demands us to move on and it doesn’t let go until we do. Maybe frustration will finally force me to to move on, shrink my heart, and give up on love. Maybe then I’ll play the game and at least get a prize at the end of the journey like the ones everyone else has taken from me…but until that time comes I guess I’ll keep finding myself laying here on the asphalt in shock, spine crushed, chest crushed, stomach carved, unable to breathe, blood fueled by anxiety…desperate and confused starring into infinity trying to find answers within these infinitely long seconds while holding onto your return receipt.

Day One

[samiam03x]

4 Data-Backed Conversion Hacks that Cost You Nothing

Conversions are in the toilet.

Traffic is still coming in. But your bottom line isn’t changing.

Sales are slower than ever. People simply aren’t buying right now.

It’s not the holiday season. It’s probably just the “off-season” for online sales.

No need to worry, right? It’s normal for this time of year…

But it’s not. Selling online isn’t only seasonal.

Conversions just aren’t happening for you. But there’s a reason.

Your conversion rate optimization tactics are outdated.

Or you simply don’t have any in place.

Those instant on-site popups aren’t compelling users to buy from you.

Social share buttons don’t lead to buying decisions.

As the online landscape changes and new technologies arise, user behavior changes.

And when user behavior shifts, marketers can’t stick to the same old tactics and fall behind.

If you don’t keep up to date with user behavior, your business and livelihood could be at risk.

Thankfully, there are a few data-backed conversion hacks you can implement that are sure to get you a better conversion rate.

So, what are you waiting for?

1. Include different checkout options

What if I told you that a few simple minutes of work (without paying anything for setup) could net you 44% more conversions?

Would you call me crazy? Maybe a used car salesman? Fair enough.

But let me explain.

Is your website optimized for mobile traffic? If not, is your name Fred Flintstone?

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In all seriousness, if you don’t have a mobile site that’s optimized for mobile sales, you’re doomed.

Why? Because the majority of website traffic is mobile now.

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If you’re not optimizing for mobile, you’re risking tons of conversions.

Mobile intent is big, too.

Think about it.

When you’re on the go, and you see someone wearing a shoe that looks awesome, what do you do?

You probably open up your smartphone and Google it.

You want it now. You don’t want to wait.

Why? Because you saw someone wearing it and you liked it.

Mobile intent is high because people often see something they like on the go. They don’t sit around wondering if they should really buy it.

So, where am I going with this?

You can improve your checkout conversions by up to 44% by incorporating multiple payment gateways, such as PayPal.

Pretty amazing, right?

According to Nielsen research data, PayPal transactions also have a 70% higher checkout conversion rate than non-PayPal transactions.

You need any trick in the book when cart abandonment hovers around 70%.

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Alternative payment methods are especially important on mobile, where people are otherwise forced to whip their credit cards out in public.

Adding other payment options is one of the easiest ways to solve that problem.

2. Use more videos

Video marketing is literally the future.

Research predicts that video will account for 70% of mobile traffic by 2021.

Video is already dominating the landscape of marketing.

HubSpot’s 2017 State of Inbound Report has shown that more and more marketing professionals are investing their budgets into video platforms like YouTube and Facebook Video:

Image Source

All of the top content distribution channels are heading towards video.

And for good reason.

Adding videos to your landing pages or product pages gives you a 50x higher chance of showing up on Google searches.

More visibility = more traffic and more conversions.

Even the simple mention of video in your email subject line can increase open rates.

That’s how popular video is right now.

If you are struggling to get conversions on your landing pages, consider creating a simple product video to help explain what your product does and why it can help the user.

People don’t like reading text anymore.

The majority of people skim text-based content online. Including that long-form sales page you just put finishing touches on.

People want you to get straight to the point. Video marketing can help you do just that.

If you don’t know where to start, try using a site like Biteable to create free videos for your landing pages.

You can create free business-style videos that have dozens of animated templates.

Plus, it’s free. It doesn’t cost you a cent.

And according to the latest data, implementing videos on your page will increase conversions.

The top companies are using videos on their landing pages right now.

Check out this landing page from Leadpages:

They use an explainer-style video to show how you can benefit from their product.

Seeing a video demo in action is much more compelling than reading a block of text about how great your product is.

3. Increase site speed

If you want to increase your conversion rates, speed is one the best ways to do it.

Why? Because we are impatient people.

Nobody wants to wait ten seconds for a site to load. Seriously: nobody.

Not when there are hundreds of companies out there selling or offering similar products/services.

Google recently released some amazing data backing this all up.

The latest data shows that if your site is slow, your bounce rate is going to increase:

Image Source

And an increase in bounce rate means fewer conversions.

Even a few seconds can cost you valuable traffic.

When it comes to an online business, traffic is money.

Walmart found that their conversions dropped rapidly when load times jumped from one to four seconds.

Every second of improvement resulted in a 2% increase in conversions.

Image Source

General data shows us an even worse outlook on site speed.

For each second that your website takes to load, you can expect a 7% decrease in conversions.

Image Source

Speed has the power to make or break your website. It can truly determine whether or not you find profit and scalable growth.

Even a single second could be costing you money.

According to Google, the majority of websites in any given industry fall way too short:

Image Source

The best practice for site speed is three seconds or less. But most of us are taking longer than eight full seconds. That’s bad.

So, what can you do about it? The first step is to diagnose your website with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

Enter your website URL into the tool and analyze it.

From here, you get your website’s overall speed score for both mobile and desktop.

The great thing about this tool is the free insight that it will give you into how you can fix your site problems.

Most of the time, images are going to be the biggest culprit.

They take up tons of space on your site, slowing your speeds dramatically.

If you can compress a few images, you’ve got a good shot at improving your site speed and increasing conversions.

WordPress has tons of plugins that you can use to automatically compress your images and increase site speed.

Try using Smush It:

It’s a free tool that you can install on your WordPress site in just a few minutes. You can also try TinyPNG or ImageOptim (Mac only).

When it comes to increasing conversions, speed is the name of the game.

4. Shorten landing pages

Long-form content wins the day when it comes to blogging.

Data proves it. The longer the content, the higher chance you’ve got to rank well on Google.

We hear it all the time: the longer, the better (no innuendo intended).

Content is king. Especially long-form content.

But does that same principle apply to landing pages?

Do long-form landing pages convert better?

Well, it makes sense that a long-form landing page would be good right?

You can tell a user all about your product without them having to leave the page to find more info.

Product features, demos, and descriptions are amazing when it comes to pushing a customer to buy.

Every sector of your business can have their featured spot on a landing page. It sounds great when you think about it.

But the data actually shows us otherwise.

Shortening your landing page can increase conversion rates dramatically:

Image Source

In a case study, one company reduced the size of its landing page and found a 13% increase in sign-ups and a 35% higher click-through rate to pricing pages.

This isn’t a one-off case study either.

Neil Patel found a 13% increase in conversions on his Crazy Egg site by reducing the content amount by 60%.

Patel also worked with a client on their landing page to increase conversions.

They were using a long-form style landing page, but Neil recommended using a short-form page with video-based content.

They reduced the size of the landing page dramatically.

In the end, the conversion rate for the website jumped by 40%.

Data consistently shows that short-form landing page content converts better.

Why? Because Americans read headlines and not much else.

Typical Americans, am I right?

But seriously, Buffer found that 55% of visitors to your site will only read your content for 15 seconds or less.

If you want more conversions, try shortening your landing page and getting straight down to business.

Slack has one of the best landing pages in the SaaS industry right now.

It’s short-form and gets straight down to business with a clear-cut headline and call to action:

There is almost nothing on the homepage besides a headline, description, CTA, and a bit of social proof.

Bonus Hack: Social proof is one of the best data-backed hacks to increasing your conversion rate in seconds.

Include a few statistics on your site about how many users you’ve helped or big companies you’ve served. Orbit Media increased their conversions by 1400% using social proof.

Conclusion

Conversions are worse than ever.

You’re still driving tons of traffic to your site and product pages. But nothing is budging.

All of that work you’ve put in to bring people to your site isn’t leading to sales.

You’re screwed (kidding). You feel trapped, scared, and worried about your business.

Without conversions, you don’t have a business.

It’s probably just the slow season, right? Wrong.

There is no real slow season when it comes to generating conversions and sales online.

There is just bad conversion rate optimization.

Thankfully, it’s not that hard to fix.

There are actually multiple data-backed ways to increase your conversions for free.

Including PayPal at checkout can increase your conversions by up to 44%.

Want a fast increase in conversions on your landing pages? Include some product explainer videos.

Site speed should be a big focus, too. The slower your site is, the higher your bounce rate will be and the lower your conversion rate.

Try shortening your landing pages. It’s proven to increase conversions.

Getting conversions doesn’t require you to spend thousands on an agency to fix your site. It just requires a few simple tweaks to make it easier and faster to buy from you.

About Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics combines behavioral analytics with email automation. Our software tracks actions of your users across multiple devices allowing you to analyze, segment and engage your customers with automatic, behavior-based emails in one place. We call it Customer Engagement Automation. Get, keep and grow more customers with Kissmetrics.

    About the Author: Brad Smith is the founder of Codeless, a B2B content creation company. Frequent contributor to Kissmetrics, Unbounce, WordStream, AdEspresso, Search Engine Journal, Autopilot, and more.

http://ift.tt/2zWdSWw from MarketingRSS http://ift.tt/2mmulxj via Youtube

[webanalytics]

4 Data-Backed Conversion Hacks that Cost You Nothing

Conversions are in the toilet.

Traffic is still coming in. But your bottom line isn’t changing.

Sales are slower than ever. People simply aren’t buying right now.

It’s not the holiday season. It’s probably just the “off-season” for online sales.

No need to worry, right? It’s normal for this time of year…

But it’s not. Selling online isn’t only seasonal.

Conversions just aren’t happening for you. But there’s a reason.

Your conversion rate optimization tactics are outdated.

Or you simply don’t have any in place.

Those instant on-site popups aren’t compelling users to buy from you.

Social share buttons don’t lead to buying decisions.

As the online landscape changes and new technologies arise, user behavior changes.

And when user behavior shifts, marketers can’t stick to the same old tactics and fall behind.

If you don’t keep up to date with user behavior, your business and livelihood could be at risk.

Thankfully, there are a few data-backed conversion hacks you can implement that are sure to get you a better conversion rate.

So, what are you waiting for?

1. Include different checkout options

What if I told you that a few simple minutes of work (without paying anything for setup) could net you 44% more conversions?

Would you call me crazy? Maybe a used car salesman? Fair enough.

But let me explain.

Is your website optimized for mobile traffic? If not, is your name Fred Flintstone?

Image Source

In all seriousness, if you don’t have a mobile site that’s optimized for mobile sales, you’re doomed.

Why? Because the majority of website traffic is mobile now.

Image Source

If you’re not optimizing for mobile, you’re risking tons of conversions.

Mobile intent is big, too.

Think about it.

When you’re on the go, and you see someone wearing a shoe that looks awesome, what do you do?

You probably open up your smartphone and Google it.

You want it now. You don’t want to wait.

Why? Because you saw someone wearing it and you liked it.

Mobile intent is high because people often see something they like on the go. They don’t sit around wondering if they should really buy it.

So, where am I going with this?

You can improve your checkout conversions by up to 44% by incorporating multiple payment gateways, such as PayPal.

Pretty amazing, right?

According to Nielsen research data, PayPal transactions also have a 70% higher checkout conversion rate than non-PayPal transactions.

You need any trick in the book when cart abandonment hovers around 70%.

Image Source

Alternative payment methods are especially important on mobile, where people are otherwise forced to whip their credit cards out in public.

Adding other payment options is one of the easiest ways to solve that problem.

2. Use more videos

Video marketing is literally the future.

Research predicts that video will account for 70% of mobile traffic by 2021.

Video is already dominating the landscape of marketing.

HubSpot’s 2017 State of Inbound Report has shown that more and more marketing professionals are investing their budgets into video platforms like YouTube and Facebook Video:

Image Source

All of the top content distribution channels are heading towards video.

And for good reason.

Adding videos to your landing pages or product pages gives you a 50x higher chance of showing up on Google searches.

More visibility = more traffic and more conversions.

Even the simple mention of video in your email subject line can increase open rates.

That’s how popular video is right now.

If you are struggling to get conversions on your landing pages, consider creating a simple product video to help explain what your product does and why it can help the user.

People don’t like reading text anymore.

The majority of people skim text-based content online. Including that long-form sales page you just put finishing touches on.

People want you to get straight to the point. Video marketing can help you do just that.

If you don’t know where to start, try using a site like Biteable to create free videos for your landing pages.

You can create free business-style videos that have dozens of animated templates.

Plus, it’s free. It doesn’t cost you a cent.

And according to the latest data, implementing videos on your page will increase conversions.

The top companies are using videos on their landing pages right now.

Check out this landing page from Leadpages:

They use an explainer-style video to show how you can benefit from their product.

Seeing a video demo in action is much more compelling than reading a block of text about how great your product is.

3. Increase site speed

If you want to increase your conversion rates, speed is one the best ways to do it.

Why? Because we are impatient people.

Nobody wants to wait ten seconds for a site to load. Seriously: nobody.

Not when there are hundreds of companies out there selling or offering similar products/services.

Google recently released some amazing data backing this all up.

The latest data shows that if your site is slow, your bounce rate is going to increase:

Image Source

And an increase in bounce rate means fewer conversions.

Even a few seconds can cost you valuable traffic.

When it comes to an online business, traffic is money.

Walmart found that their conversions dropped rapidly when load times jumped from one to four seconds.

Every second of improvement resulted in a 2% increase in conversions.

Image Source

General data shows us an even worse outlook on site speed.

For each second that your website takes to load, you can expect a 7% decrease in conversions.

Image Source

Speed has the power to make or break your website. It can truly determine whether or not you find profit and scalable growth.

Even a single second could be costing you money.

According to Google, the majority of websites in any given industry fall way too short:

Image Source

The best practice for site speed is three seconds or less. But most of us are taking longer than eight full seconds. That’s bad.

So, what can you do about it? The first step is to diagnose your website with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

Enter your website URL into the tool and analyze it.

From here, you get your website’s overall speed score for both mobile and desktop.

The great thing about this tool is the free insight that it will give you into how you can fix your site problems.

Most of the time, images are going to be the biggest culprit.

They take up tons of space on your site, slowing your speeds dramatically.

If you can compress a few images, you’ve got a good shot at improving your site speed and increasing conversions.

WordPress has tons of plugins that you can use to automatically compress your images and increase site speed.

Try using Smush It:

It’s a free tool that you can install on your WordPress site in just a few minutes. You can also try TinyPNG or ImageOptim (Mac only).

When it comes to increasing conversions, speed is the name of the game.

4. Shorten landing pages

Long-form content wins the day when it comes to blogging.

Data proves it. The longer the content, the higher chance you’ve got to rank well on Google.

We hear it all the time: the longer, the better (no innuendo intended).

Content is king. Especially long-form content.

But does that same principle apply to landing pages?

Do long-form landing pages convert better?

Well, it makes sense that a long-form landing page would be good right?

You can tell a user all about your product without them having to leave the page to find more info.

Product features, demos, and descriptions are amazing when it comes to pushing a customer to buy.

Every sector of your business can have their featured spot on a landing page. It sounds great when you think about it.

But the data actually shows us otherwise.

Shortening your landing page can increase conversion rates dramatically:

Image Source

In a case study, one company reduced the size of its landing page and found a 13% increase in sign-ups and a 35% higher click-through rate to pricing pages.

This isn’t a one-off case study either.

Neil Patel found a 13% increase in conversions on his Crazy Egg site by reducing the content amount by 60%.

Patel also worked with a client on their landing page to increase conversions.

They were using a long-form style landing page, but Neil recommended using a short-form page with video-based content.

They reduced the size of the landing page dramatically.

In the end, the conversion rate for the website jumped by 40%.

Data consistently shows that short-form landing page content converts better.

Why? Because Americans read headlines and not much else.

Typical Americans, am I right?

But seriously, Buffer found that 55% of visitors to your site will only read your content for 15 seconds or less.

If you want more conversions, try shortening your landing page and getting straight down to business.

Slack has one of the best landing pages in the SaaS industry right now.

It’s short-form and gets straight down to business with a clear-cut headline and call to action:

There is almost nothing on the homepage besides a headline, description, CTA, and a bit of social proof.

Bonus Hack: Social proof is one of the best data-backed hacks to increasing your conversion rate in seconds.

Include a few statistics on your site about how many users you’ve helped or big companies you’ve served. Orbit Media increased their conversions by 1400% using social proof.

Conclusion

Conversions are worse than ever.

You’re still driving tons of traffic to your site and product pages. But nothing is budging.

All of that work you’ve put in to bring people to your site isn’t leading to sales.

You’re screwed (kidding). You feel trapped, scared, and worried about your business.

Without conversions, you don’t have a business.

It’s probably just the slow season, right? Wrong.

There is no real slow season when it comes to generating conversions and sales online.

There is just bad conversion rate optimization.

Thankfully, it’s not that hard to fix.

There are actually multiple data-backed ways to increase your conversions for free.

Including PayPal at checkout can increase your conversions by up to 44%.

Want a fast increase in conversions on your landing pages? Include some product explainer videos.

Site speed should be a big focus, too. The slower your site is, the higher your bounce rate will be and the lower your conversion rate.

Try shortening your landing pages. It’s proven to increase conversions.

Getting conversions doesn’t require you to spend thousands on an agency to fix your site. It just requires a few simple tweaks to make it easier and faster to buy from you.

About Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics combines behavioral analytics with email automation. Our software tracks actions of your users across multiple devices allowing you to analyze, segment and engage your customers with automatic, behavior-based emails in one place. We call it Customer Engagement Automation. Get, keep and grow more customers with Kissmetrics.

    About the Author: Brad Smith is the founder of Codeless, a B2B content creation company. Frequent contributor to Kissmetrics, Unbounce, WordStream, AdEspresso, Search Engine Journal, Autopilot, and more.

from Search Results for “analytics” – The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog http://ift.tt/2zSKsIF #Digital #Analytics #Website

[marie85marketing]

4 Data-Backed Conversion Hacks that Cost You Nothing

Conversions are in the toilet.

Traffic is still coming in. But your bottom line isn’t changing.

Sales are slower than ever. People simply aren’t buying right now.

It’s not the holiday season. It’s probably just the “off-season” for online sales.

No need to worry, right? It’s normal for this time of year…

But it’s not. Selling online isn’t only seasonal.

Conversions just aren’t happening for you. But there’s a reason.

Your conversion rate optimization tactics are outdated.

Or you simply don’t have any in place.

Those instant on-site popups aren’t compelling users to buy from you.

Social share buttons don’t lead to buying decisions.

As the online landscape changes and new technologies arise, user behavior changes.

And when user behavior shifts, marketers can’t stick to the same old tactics and fall behind.

If you don’t keep up to date with user behavior, your business and livelihood could be at risk.

Thankfully, there are a few data-backed conversion hacks you can implement that are sure to get you a better conversion rate.

So, what are you waiting for?

1. Include different checkout options

What if I told you that a few simple minutes of work (without paying anything for setup) could net you 44% more conversions?

Would you call me crazy? Maybe a used car salesman? Fair enough.

But let me explain.

Is your website optimized for mobile traffic? If not, is your name Fred Flintstone?

Image Source

In all seriousness, if you don’t have a mobile site that’s optimized for mobile sales, you’re doomed.

Why? Because the majority of website traffic is mobile now.

Image Source

If you’re not optimizing for mobile, you’re risking tons of conversions.

Mobile intent is big, too.

Think about it.

When you’re on the go, and you see someone wearing a shoe that looks awesome, what do you do?

You probably open up your smartphone and Google it.

You want it now. You don’t want to wait.

Why? Because you saw someone wearing it and you liked it.

Mobile intent is high because people often see something they like on the go. They don’t sit around wondering if they should really buy it.

So, where am I going with this?

You can improve your checkout conversions by up to 44% by incorporating multiple payment gateways, such as PayPal.

Pretty amazing, right?

According to Nielsen research data, PayPal transactions also have a 70% higher checkout conversion rate than non-PayPal transactions.

You need any trick in the book when cart abandonment hovers around 70%.

Image Source

Alternative payment methods are especially important on mobile, where people are otherwise forced to whip their credit cards out in public.

Adding other payment options is one of the easiest ways to solve that problem.

2. Use more videos

Video marketing is literally the future.

Research predicts that video will account for 70% of mobile traffic by 2021.

Video is already dominating the landscape of marketing.

HubSpot’s 2017 State of Inbound Report has shown that more and more marketing professionals are investing their budgets into video platforms like YouTube and Facebook Video:

Image Source

All of the top content distribution channels are heading towards video.

And for good reason.

Adding videos to your landing pages or product pages gives you a 50x higher chance of showing up on Google searches.

More visibility = more traffic and more conversions.

Even the simple mention of video in your email subject line can increase open rates.

That’s how popular video is right now.

If you are struggling to get conversions on your landing pages, consider creating a simple product video to help explain what your product does and why it can help the user.

People don’t like reading text anymore.

The majority of people skim text-based content online. Including that long-form sales page you just put finishing touches on.

People want you to get straight to the point. Video marketing can help you do just that.

If you don’t know where to start, try using a site like Biteable to create free videos for your landing pages.

You can create free business-style videos that have dozens of animated templates.

Plus, it’s free. It doesn’t cost you a cent.

And according to the latest data, implementing videos on your page will increase conversions.

The top companies are using videos on their landing pages right now.

Check out this landing page from Leadpages:

They use an explainer-style video to show how you can benefit from their product.

Seeing a video demo in action is much more compelling than reading a block of text about how great your product is.

3. Increase site speed

If you want to increase your conversion rates, speed is one the best ways to do it.

Why? Because we are impatient people.

Nobody wants to wait ten seconds for a site to load. Seriously: nobody.

Not when there are hundreds of companies out there selling or offering similar products/services.

Google recently released some amazing data backing this all up.

The latest data shows that if your site is slow, your bounce rate is going to increase:

Image Source

And an increase in bounce rate means fewer conversions.

Even a few seconds can cost you valuable traffic.

When it comes to an online business, traffic is money.

Walmart found that their conversions dropped rapidly when load times jumped from one to four seconds.

Every second of improvement resulted in a 2% increase in conversions.

Image Source

General data shows us an even worse outlook on site speed.

For each second that your website takes to load, you can expect a 7% decrease in conversions.

Image Source

Speed has the power to make or break your website. It can truly determine whether or not you find profit and scalable growth.

Even a single second could be costing you money.

According to Google, the majority of websites in any given industry fall way too short:

Image Source

The best practice for site speed is three seconds or less. But most of us are taking longer than eight full seconds. That’s bad.

So, what can you do about it? The first step is to diagnose your website with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

Enter your website URL into the tool and analyze it.

From here, you get your website’s overall speed score for both mobile and desktop.

The great thing about this tool is the free insight that it will give you into how you can fix your site problems.

Most of the time, images are going to be the biggest culprit.

They take up tons of space on your site, slowing your speeds dramatically.

If you can compress a few images, you’ve got a good shot at improving your site speed and increasing conversions.

WordPress has tons of plugins that you can use to automatically compress your images and increase site speed.

Try using Smush It:

It’s a free tool that you can install on your WordPress site in just a few minutes. You can also try TinyPNG or ImageOptim (Mac only).

When it comes to increasing conversions, speed is the name of the game.

4. Shorten landing pages

Long-form content wins the day when it comes to blogging.

Data proves it. The longer the content, the higher chance you’ve got to rank well on Google.

We hear it all the time: the longer, the better (no innuendo intended).

Content is king. Especially long-form content.

But does that same principle apply to landing pages?

Do long-form landing pages convert better?

Well, it makes sense that a long-form landing page would be good right?

You can tell a user all about your product without them having to leave the page to find more info.

Product features, demos, and descriptions are amazing when it comes to pushing a customer to buy.

Every sector of your business can have their featured spot on a landing page. It sounds great when you think about it.

But the data actually shows us otherwise.

Shortening your landing page can increase conversion rates dramatically:

Image Source

In a case study, one company reduced the size of its landing page and found a 13% increase in sign-ups and a 35% higher click-through rate to pricing pages.

This isn’t a one-off case study either.

Neil Patel found a 13% increase in conversions on his Crazy Egg site by reducing the content amount by 60%.

Patel also worked with a client on their landing page to increase conversions.

They were using a long-form style landing page, but Neil recommended using a short-form page with video-based content.

They reduced the size of the landing page dramatically.

In the end, the conversion rate for the website jumped by 40%.

Data consistently shows that short-form landing page content converts better.

Why? Because Americans read headlines and not much else.

Typical Americans, am I right?

But seriously, Buffer found that 55% of visitors to your site will only read your content for 15 seconds or less.

If you want more conversions, try shortening your landing page and getting straight down to business.

Slack has one of the best landing pages in the SaaS industry right now.

It’s short-form and gets straight down to business with a clear-cut headline and call to action:

There is almost nothing on the homepage besides a headline, description, CTA, and a bit of social proof.

Bonus Hack: Social proof is one of the best data-backed hacks to increasing your conversion rate in seconds.

Include a few statistics on your site about how many users you’ve helped or big companies you’ve served. Orbit Media increased their conversions by 1400% using social proof.

Conclusion

Conversions are worse than ever.

You’re still driving tons of traffic to your site and product pages. But nothing is budging.

All of that work you’ve put in to bring people to your site isn’t leading to sales.

You’re screwed (kidding). You feel trapped, scared, and worried about your business.

Without conversions, you don’t have a business.

It’s probably just the slow season, right? Wrong.

There is no real slow season when it comes to generating conversions and sales online.

There is just bad conversion rate optimization.

Thankfully, it’s not that hard to fix.

There are actually multiple data-backed ways to increase your conversions for free.

Including PayPal at checkout can increase your conversions by up to 44%.

Want a fast increase in conversions on your landing pages? Include some product explainer videos.

Site speed should be a big focus, too. The slower your site is, the higher your bounce rate will be and the lower your conversion rate.

Try shortening your landing pages. It’s proven to increase conversions.

Getting conversions doesn’t require you to spend thousands on an agency to fix your site. It just requires a few simple tweaks to make it easier and faster to buy from you.

About Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics combines behavioral analytics with email automation. Our software tracks actions of your users across multiple devices allowing you to analyze, segment and engage your customers with automatic, behavior-based emails in one place. We call it Customer Engagement Automation. Get, keep and grow more customers with Kissmetrics.

    About the Author: Brad Smith is the founder of Codeless, a B2B content creation company. Frequent contributor to Kissmetrics, Unbounce, WordStream, AdEspresso, Search Engine Journal, Autopilot, and more.

[reputationiseverything]

4 Data-Backed Conversion Hacks that Cost You Nothing

email marketing tutorial 2016

Conversions are in the toilet.

Traffic is still coming in. But your bottom line isn’t changing.

Sales are slower than ever. People simply aren’t buying right now.

It’s not the holiday season. It’s probably just the “off-season” for online sales.

No need to worry, right? It’s normal for this time of year…

But it’s not. Selling online isn’t only seasonal.

Conversions just aren’t happening for you. But there’s a reason.

Your conversion rate optimization tactics are outdated.

Or you simply don’t have any in place.

Those instant on-site popups aren’t compelling users to buy from you.

Social share buttons don’t lead to buying decisions.

As the online landscape changes and new technologies arise, user behavior changes.

And when user behavior shifts, marketers can’t stick to the same old tactics and fall behind.

If you don’t keep up to date with user behavior, your business and livelihood could be at risk.

Thankfully, there are a few data-backed conversion hacks you can implement that are sure to get you a better conversion rate.

So, what are you waiting for?

1. Include different checkout options

What if I told you that a few simple minutes of work (without paying anything for setup) could net you 44% more conversions?

Would you call me crazy? Maybe a used car salesman? Fair enough.

But let me explain.

Is your website optimized for mobile traffic? If not, is your name Fred Flintstone?

Image Source

In all seriousness, if you don’t have a mobile site that’s optimized for mobile sales, you’re doomed.

Why? Because the majority of website traffic is mobile now.

Image Source

If you’re not optimizing for mobile, you’re risking tons of conversions.

Mobile intent is big, too.

Think about it.

When you’re on the go, and you see someone wearing a shoe that looks awesome, what do you do?

You probably open up your smartphone and Google it.

You want it now. You don’t want to wait.

Why? Because you saw someone wearing it and you liked it.

Mobile intent is high because people often see something they like on the go. They don’t sit around wondering if they should really buy it.

So, where am I going with this?

You can improve your checkout conversions by up to 44% by incorporating multiple payment gateways, such as PayPal.

Pretty amazing, right?

According to Nielsen research data, PayPal transactions also have a 70% higher checkout conversion rate than non-PayPal transactions.

You need any trick in the book when cart abandonment hovers around 70%.

Image Source

Alternative payment methods are especially important on mobile, where people are otherwise forced to whip their credit cards out in public.

Adding other payment options is one of the easiest ways to solve that problem.

2. Use more videos

Video marketing is literally the future.

Research predicts that video will account for 70% of mobile traffic by 2021.

Video is already dominating the landscape of marketing.

HubSpot’s 2017 State of Inbound Report has shown that more and more marketing professionals are investing their budgets into video platforms like YouTube and Facebook Video:

Image Source

All of the top content distribution channels are heading towards video.

And for good reason.

Adding videos to your landing pages or product pages gives you a 50x higher chance of showing up on Google searches.

More visibility = more traffic and more conversions.

Even the simple mention of video in your email subject line can increase open rates.

That’s how popular video is right now.

If you are struggling to get conversions on your landing pages, consider creating a simple product video to help explain what your product does and why it can help the user.

People don’t like reading text anymore.

The majority of people skim text-based content online. Including that long-form sales page you just put finishing touches on.

People want you to get straight to the point. Video marketing can help you do just that.

If you don’t know where to start, try using a site like Biteable to create free videos for your landing pages.

You can create free business-style videos that have dozens of animated templates.

Plus, it’s free. It doesn’t cost you a cent.

And according to the latest data, implementing videos on your page will increase conversions.

The top companies are using videos on their landing pages right now.

Check out this landing page from Leadpages:

They use an explainer-style video to show how you can benefit from their product.

Seeing a video demo in action is much more compelling than reading a block of text about how great your product is.

3. Increase site speed

If you want to increase your conversion rates, speed is one the best ways to do it.

Why? Because we are impatient people.

Nobody wants to wait ten seconds for a site to load. Seriously: nobody.

Not when there are hundreds of companies out there selling or offering similar products/services.

Google recently released some amazing data backing this all up.

The latest data shows that if your site is slow, your bounce rate is going to increase:

Image Source

And an increase in bounce rate means fewer conversions.

Even a few seconds can cost you valuable traffic.

When it comes to an online business, traffic is money.

Walmart found that their conversions dropped rapidly when load times jumped from one to four seconds.

Every second of improvement resulted in a 2% increase in conversions.

Image Source

General data shows us an even worse outlook on site speed.

For each second that your website takes to load, you can expect a 7% decrease in conversions.

Image Source

Speed has the power to make or break your website. It can truly determine whether or not you find profit and scalable growth.

Even a single second could be costing you money.

According to Google, the majority of websites in any given industry fall way too short:

Image Source

The best practice for site speed is three seconds or less. But most of us are taking longer than eight full seconds. That’s bad.

So, what can you do about it? The first step is to diagnose your website with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

Enter your website URL into the tool and analyze it.

From here, you get your website’s overall speed score for both mobile and desktop.

The great thing about this tool is the free insight that it will give you into how you can fix your site problems.

Most of the time, images are going to be the biggest culprit.

They take up tons of space on your site, slowing your speeds dramatically.

If you can compress a few images, you’ve got a good shot at improving your site speed and increasing conversions.

WordPress has tons of plugins that you can use to automatically compress your images and increase site speed.

Try using Smush It:

It’s a free tool that you can install on your WordPress site in just a few minutes. You can also try TinyPNG or ImageOptim (Mac only).

When it comes to increasing conversions, speed is the name of the game.

4. Shorten landing pages

Long-form content wins the day when it comes to blogging.

Data proves it. The longer the content, the higher chance you’ve got to rank well on Google.

We hear it all the time: the longer, the better (no innuendo intended).

Content is king. Especially long-form content.

But does that same principle apply to landing pages?

Do long-form landing pages convert better?

Well, it makes sense that a long-form landing page would be good right?

You can tell a user all about your product without them having to leave the page to find more info.

Product features, demos, and descriptions are amazing when it comes to pushing a customer to buy.

Every sector of your business can have their featured spot on a landing page. It sounds great when you think about it.

But the data actually shows us otherwise.

Shortening your landing page can increase conversion rates dramatically:

Image Source

In a case study, one company reduced the size of its landing page and found a 13% increase in sign-ups and a 35% higher click-through rate to pricing pages.

This isn’t a one-off case study either.

Neil Patel found a 13% increase in conversions on his Crazy Egg site by reducing the content amount by 60%.

Patel also worked with a client on their landing page to increase conversions.

They were using a long-form style landing page, but Neil recommended using a short-form page with video-based content.

They reduced the size of the landing page dramatically.

In the end, the conversion rate for the website jumped by 40%.

Data consistently shows that short-form landing page content converts better.

Why? Because Americans read headlines and not much else.

Typical Americans, am I right?

But seriously, Buffer found that 55% of visitors to your site will only read your content for 15 seconds or less.

If you want more conversions, try shortening your landing page and getting straight down to business.

Slack has one of the best landing pages in the SaaS industry right now.

It’s short-form and gets straight down to business with a clear-cut headline and call to action:

There is almost nothing on the homepage besides a headline, description, CTA, and a bit of social proof.

Bonus Hack: Social proof is one of the best data-backed hacks to increasing your conversion rate in seconds.

Include a few statistics on your site about how many users you’ve helped or big companies you’ve served. Orbit Media increased their conversions by 1400% using social proof.

Conclusion

Conversions are worse than ever.

You’re still driving tons of traffic to your site and product pages. But nothing is budging.

All of that work you’ve put in to bring people to your site isn’t leading to sales.

You’re screwed (kidding). You feel trapped, scared, and worried about your business.

Without conversions, you don’t have a business.

It’s probably just the slow season, right? Wrong.

There is no real slow season when it comes to generating conversions and sales online.

There is just bad conversion rate optimization.

Thankfully, it’s not that hard to fix.

There are actually multiple data-backed ways to increase your conversions for free.

Including PayPal at checkout can increase your conversions by up to 44%.

Want a fast increase in conversions on your landing pages? Include some product explainer videos.

Site speed should be a big focus, too. The slower your site is, the higher your bounce rate will be and the lower your conversion rate.

Try shortening your landing pages. It’s proven to increase conversions.

Getting conversions doesn’t require you to spend thousands on an agency to fix your site. It just requires a few simple tweaks to make it easier and faster to buy from you.

About Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics combines behavioral analytics with email automation. Our software tracks actions of your users across multiple devices allowing you to analyze, segment and engage your customers with automatic, behavior-based emails in one place. We call it Customer Engagement Automation. Get, keep and grow more customers with Kissmetrics.

    About the Author: Brad Smith is the founder of Codeless, a B2B content creation company. Frequent contributor to Kissmetrics, Unbounce, WordStream, AdEspresso, Search Engine Journal, Autopilot, and more.

Google

[alissaselezneva]

4 Data-Backed Conversion Hacks that Cost You Nothing

Conversions are in the toilet.

Traffic is still coming in. But your bottom line isn’t changing.

Sales are slower than ever. People simply aren’t buying right now.

It’s not the holiday season. It’s probably just the “off-season” for online sales.

No need to worry, right? It’s normal for this time of year…

But it’s not. Selling online isn’t only seasonal.

Conversions just aren’t happening for you. But there’s a reason.

Your conversion rate optimization tactics are outdated.

Or you simply don’t have any in place.

Those instant on-site popups aren’t compelling users to buy from you.

Social share buttons don’t lead to buying decisions.

As the online landscape changes and new technologies arise, user behavior changes.

And when user behavior shifts, marketers can’t stick to the same old tactics and fall behind.

If you don’t keep up to date with user behavior, your business and livelihood could be at risk.

Thankfully, there are a few data-backed conversion hacks you can implement that are sure to get you a better conversion rate.

So, what are you waiting for?

1. Include different checkout options

What if I told you that a few simple minutes of work (without paying anything for setup) could net you 44% more conversions?

Would you call me crazy? Maybe a used car salesman? Fair enough.

But let me explain.

Is your website optimized for mobile traffic? If not, is your name Fred Flintstone?

Image Source

In all seriousness, if you don’t have a mobile site that’s optimized for mobile sales, you’re doomed.

Why? Because the majority of website traffic is mobile now.

Image Source

If you’re not optimizing for mobile, you’re risking tons of conversions.

Mobile intent is big, too.

Think about it.

When you’re on the go, and you see someone wearing a shoe that looks awesome, what do you do?

You probably open up your smartphone and Google it.

You want it now. You don’t want to wait.

Why? Because you saw someone wearing it and you liked it.

Mobile intent is high because people often see something they like on the go. They don’t sit around wondering if they should really buy it.

So, where am I going with this?

You can improve your checkout conversions by up to 44% by incorporating multiple payment gateways, such as PayPal.

Pretty amazing, right?

According to Nielsen research data, PayPal transactions also have a 70% higher checkout conversion rate than non-PayPal transactions.

You need any trick in the book when cart abandonment hovers around 70%.

Image Source

Alternative payment methods are especially important on mobile, where people are otherwise forced to whip their credit cards out in public.

Adding other payment options is one of the easiest ways to solve that problem.

2. Use more videos

Video marketing is literally the future.

Research predicts that video will account for 70% of mobile traffic by 2021.

Video is already dominating the landscape of marketing.

HubSpot’s 2017 State of Inbound Report has shown that more and more marketing professionals are investing their budgets into video platforms like YouTube and Facebook Video:

Image Source

All of the top content distribution channels are heading towards video.

And for good reason.

Adding videos to your landing pages or product pages gives you a 50x higher chance of showing up on Google searches.

More visibility = more traffic and more conversions.

Even the simple mention of video in your email subject line can increase open rates.

That’s how popular video is right now.

If you are struggling to get conversions on your landing pages, consider creating a simple product video to help explain what your product does and why it can help the user.

People don’t like reading text anymore.

The majority of people skim text-based content online. Including that long-form sales page you just put finishing touches on.

People want you to get straight to the point. Video marketing can help you do just that.

If you don’t know where to start, try using a site like Biteable to create free videos for your landing pages.

You can create free business-style videos that have dozens of animated templates.

Plus, it’s free. It doesn’t cost you a cent.

And according to the latest data, implementing videos on your page will increase conversions.

The top companies are using videos on their landing pages right now.

Check out this landing page from Leadpages:

They use an explainer-style video to show how you can benefit from their product.

Seeing a video demo in action is much more compelling than reading a block of text about how great your product is.

3. Increase site speed

If you want to increase your conversion rates, speed is one the best ways to do it.

Why? Because we are impatient people.

Nobody wants to wait ten seconds for a site to load. Seriously: nobody.

Not when there are hundreds of companies out there selling or offering similar products/services.

Google recently released some amazing data backing this all up.

The latest data shows that if your site is slow, your bounce rate is going to increase:

Image Source

And an increase in bounce rate means fewer conversions.

Even a few seconds can cost you valuable traffic.

When it comes to an online business, traffic is money.

Walmart found that their conversions dropped rapidly when load times jumped from one to four seconds.

Every second of improvement resulted in a 2% increase in conversions.

Image Source

General data shows us an even worse outlook on site speed.

For each second that your website takes to load, you can expect a 7% decrease in conversions.

Image Source

Speed has the power to make or break your website. It can truly determine whether or not you find profit and scalable growth.

Even a single second could be costing you money.

According to Google, the majority of websites in any given industry fall way too short:

Image Source

The best practice for site speed is three seconds or less. But most of us are taking longer than eight full seconds. That’s bad.

So, what can you do about it? The first step is to diagnose your website with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

Enter your website URL into the tool and analyze it.

From here, you get your website’s overall speed score for both mobile and desktop.

The great thing about this tool is the free insight that it will give you into how you can fix your site problems.

Most of the time, images are going to be the biggest culprit.

They take up tons of space on your site, slowing your speeds dramatically.

If you can compress a few images, you’ve got a good shot at improving your site speed and increasing conversions.

WordPress has tons of plugins that you can use to automatically compress your images and increase site speed.

Try using Smush It:

It’s a free tool that you can install on your WordPress site in just a few minutes. You can also try TinyPNG or ImageOptim (Mac only).

When it comes to increasing conversions, speed is the name of the game.

4. Shorten landing pages

Long-form content wins the day when it comes to blogging.

Data proves it. The longer the content, the higher chance you’ve got to rank well on Google.

We hear it all the time: the longer, the better (no innuendo intended).

Content is king. Especially long-form content.

But does that same principle apply to landing pages?

Do long-form landing pages convert better?

Well, it makes sense that a long-form landing page would be good right?

You can tell a user all about your product without them having to leave the page to find more info.

Product features, demos, and descriptions are amazing when it comes to pushing a customer to buy.

Every sector of your business can have their featured spot on a landing page. It sounds great when you think about it.

But the data actually shows us otherwise.

Shortening your landing page can increase conversion rates dramatically:

Image Source

In a case study, one company reduced the size of its landing page and found a 13% increase in sign-ups and a 35% higher click-through rate to pricing pages.

This isn’t a one-off case study either.

Neil Patel found a 13% increase in conversions on his Crazy Egg site by reducing the content amount by 60%.

Patel also worked with a client on their landing page to increase conversions.

They were using a long-form style landing page, but Neil recommended using a short-form page with video-based content.

They reduced the size of the landing page dramatically.

In the end, the conversion rate for the website jumped by 40%.

Data consistently shows that short-form landing page content converts better.

Why? Because Americans read headlines and not much else.

Typical Americans, am I right?

But seriously, Buffer found that 55% of visitors to your site will only read your content for 15 seconds or less.

If you want more conversions, try shortening your landing page and getting straight down to business.

Slack has one of the best landing pages in the SaaS industry right now.

It’s short-form and gets straight down to business with a clear-cut headline and call to action:

There is almost nothing on the homepage besides a headline, description, CTA, and a bit of social proof.

Bonus Hack: Social proof is one of the best data-backed hacks to increasing your conversion rate in seconds.

Include a few statistics on your site about how many users you’ve helped or big companies you’ve served. Orbit Media increased their conversions by 1400% using social proof.

Conclusion

Conversions are worse than ever.

You’re still driving tons of traffic to your site and product pages. But nothing is budging.

All of that work you’ve put in to bring people to your site isn’t leading to sales.

You’re screwed (kidding). You feel trapped, scared, and worried about your business.

Without conversions, you don’t have a business.

It’s probably just the slow season, right? Wrong.

There is no real slow season when it comes to generating conversions and sales online.

There is just bad conversion rate optimization.

Thankfully, it’s not that hard to fix.

There are actually multiple data-backed ways to increase your conversions for free.

Including PayPal at checkout can increase your conversions by up to 44%.

Want a fast increase in conversions on your landing pages? Include some product explainer videos.

Site speed should be a big focus, too. The slower your site is, the higher your bounce rate will be and the lower your conversion rate.

Try shortening your landing pages. It’s proven to increase conversions.

Getting conversions doesn’t require you to spend thousands on an agency to fix your site. It just requires a few simple tweaks to make it easier and faster to buy from you.

About Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics combines behavioral analytics with email automation. Our software tracks actions of your users across multiple devices allowing you to analyze, segment and engage your customers with automatic, behavior-based emails in one place. We call it Customer Engagement Automation. Get, keep and grow more customers with Kissmetrics.

https://fast.wistia.com/embed/medias/z139em2tk0.jsonphttps://fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js

    About the Author: Brad Smith is the founder of Codeless, a B2B content creation company. Frequent contributor to Kissmetrics, Unbounce, WordStream, AdEspresso, Search Engine Journal, Autopilot, and more.

from WordPress https://reviewandbonuss.wordpress.com/2017/11/13/4-data-backed-conversion-hacks-that-cost-you-nothing/

[filipeteimuraz]

4 Data-Backed Conversion Hacks that Cost You Nothing

Conversions are in the toilet.

Traffic is still coming in. But your bottom line isn’t changing.

Sales are slower than ever. People simply aren’t buying right now.

It’s not the holiday season. It’s probably just the “off-season” for online sales.

No need to worry, right? It’s normal for this time of year…

But it’s not. Selling online isn’t only seasonal.

Conversions just aren’t happening for you. But there’s a reason.

Your conversion rate optimization tactics are outdated.

Or you simply don’t have any in place.

Those instant on-site popups aren’t compelling users to buy from you.

Social share buttons don’t lead to buying decisions.

As the online landscape changes and new technologies arise, user behavior changes.

And when user behavior shifts, marketers can’t stick to the same old tactics and fall behind.

If you don’t keep up to date with user behavior, your business and livelihood could be at risk.

Thankfully, there are a few data-backed conversion hacks you can implement that are sure to get you a better conversion rate.

So, what are you waiting for?

1. Include different checkout options

What if I told you that a few simple minutes of work (without paying anything for setup) could net you 44% more conversions?

Would you call me crazy? Maybe a used car salesman? Fair enough.

But let me explain.

Is your website optimized for mobile traffic? If not, is your name Fred Flintstone?

Image Source

In all seriousness, if you don’t have a mobile site that’s optimized for mobile sales, you’re doomed.

Why? Because the majority of website traffic is mobile now.

Image Source

If you’re not optimizing for mobile, you’re risking tons of conversions.

Mobile intent is big, too.

Think about it.

When you’re on the go, and you see someone wearing a shoe that looks awesome, what do you do?

You probably open up your smartphone and Google it.

You want it now. You don’t want to wait.

Why? Because you saw someone wearing it and you liked it.

Mobile intent is high because people often see something they like on the go. They don’t sit around wondering if they should really buy it.

So, where am I going with this?

You can improve your checkout conversions by up to 44% by incorporating multiple payment gateways, such as PayPal.

Pretty amazing, right?

According to Nielsen research data, PayPal transactions also have a 70% higher checkout conversion rate than non-PayPal transactions.

You need any trick in the book when cart abandonment hovers around 70%.

Image Source

Alternative payment methods are especially important on mobile, where people are otherwise forced to whip their credit cards out in public.

Adding other payment options is one of the easiest ways to solve that problem.

2. Use more videos

Video marketing is literally the future.

Research predicts that video will account for 70% of mobile traffic by 2021.

Video is already dominating the landscape of marketing.

HubSpot’s 2017 State of Inbound Report has shown that more and more marketing professionals are investing their budgets into video platforms like YouTube and Facebook Video:

Image Source

All of the top content distribution channels are heading towards video.

And for good reason.

Adding videos to your landing pages or product pages gives you a 50x higher chance of showing up on Google searches.

More visibility = more traffic and more conversions.

Even the simple mention of video in your email subject line can increase open rates.

That’s how popular video is right now.

If you are struggling to get conversions on your landing pages, consider creating a simple product video to help explain what your product does and why it can help the user.

People don’t like reading text anymore.

The majority of people skim text-based content online. Including that long-form sales page you just put finishing touches on.

People want you to get straight to the point. Video marketing can help you do just that.

If you don’t know where to start, try using a site like Biteable to create free videos for your landing pages.

You can create free business-style videos that have dozens of animated templates.

Plus, it’s free. It doesn’t cost you a cent.

And according to the latest data, implementing videos on your page will increase conversions.

The top companies are using videos on their landing pages right now.

Check out this landing page from Leadpages:

They use an explainer-style video to show how you can benefit from their product.

Seeing a video demo in action is much more compelling than reading a block of text about how great your product is.

3. Increase site speed

If you want to increase your conversion rates, speed is one the best ways to do it.

Why? Because we are impatient people.

Nobody wants to wait ten seconds for a site to load. Seriously: nobody.

Not when there are hundreds of companies out there selling or offering similar products/services.

Google recently released some amazing data backing this all up.

The latest data shows that if your site is slow, your bounce rate is going to increase:

Image Source

And an increase in bounce rate means fewer conversions.

Even a few seconds can cost you valuable traffic.

When it comes to an online business, traffic is money.

Walmart found that their conversions dropped rapidly when load times jumped from one to four seconds.

Every second of improvement resulted in a 2% increase in conversions.

Image Source

General data shows us an even worse outlook on site speed.

For each second that your website takes to load, you can expect a 7% decrease in conversions.

Image Source

Speed has the power to make or break your website. It can truly determine whether or not you find profit and scalable growth.

Even a single second could be costing you money.

According to Google, the majority of websites in any given industry fall way too short:

Image Source

The best practice for site speed is three seconds or less. But most of us are taking longer than eight full seconds. That’s bad.

So, what can you do about it? The first step is to diagnose your website with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

Enter your website URL into the tool and analyze it.

From here, you get your website’s overall speed score for both mobile and desktop.

The great thing about this tool is the free insight that it will give you into how you can fix your site problems.

Most of the time, images are going to be the biggest culprit.

They take up tons of space on your site, slowing your speeds dramatically.

If you can compress a few images, you’ve got a good shot at improving your site speed and increasing conversions.

WordPress has tons of plugins that you can use to automatically compress your images and increase site speed.

Try using Smush It:

It’s a free tool that you can install on your WordPress site in just a few minutes. You can also try TinyPNG or ImageOptim (Mac only).

When it comes to increasing conversions, speed is the name of the game.

4. Shorten landing pages

Long-form content wins the day when it comes to blogging.

Data proves it. The longer the content, the higher chance you’ve got to rank well on Google.

We hear it all the time: the longer, the better (no innuendo intended).

Content is king. Especially long-form content.

But does that same principle apply to landing pages?

Do long-form landing pages convert better?

Well, it makes sense that a long-form landing page would be good right?

You can tell a user all about your product without them having to leave the page to find more info.

Product features, demos, and descriptions are amazing when it comes to pushing a customer to buy.

Every sector of your business can have their featured spot on a landing page. It sounds great when you think about it.

But the data actually shows us otherwise.

Shortening your landing page can increase conversion rates dramatically:

Image Source

In a case study, one company reduced the size of its landing page and found a 13% increase in sign-ups and a 35% higher click-through rate to pricing pages.

This isn’t a one-off case study either.

Neil Patel found a 13% increase in conversions on his Crazy Egg site by reducing the content amount by 60%.

Patel also worked with a client on their landing page to increase conversions.

They were using a long-form style landing page, but Neil recommended using a short-form page with video-based content.

They reduced the size of the landing page dramatically.

In the end, the conversion rate for the website jumped by 40%.

Data consistently shows that short-form landing page content converts better.

Why? Because Americans read headlines and not much else.

Typical Americans, am I right?

But seriously, Buffer found that 55% of visitors to your site will only read your content for 15 seconds or less.

If you want more conversions, try shortening your landing page and getting straight down to business.

Slack has one of the best landing pages in the SaaS industry right now.

It’s short-form and gets straight down to business with a clear-cut headline and call to action:

There is almost nothing on the homepage besides a headline, description, CTA, and a bit of social proof.

Bonus Hack: Social proof is one of the best data-backed hacks to increasing your conversion rate in seconds.

Include a few statistics on your site about how many users you’ve helped or big companies you’ve served. Orbit Media increased their conversions by 1400% using social proof.

Conclusion

Conversions are worse than ever.

You’re still driving tons of traffic to your site and product pages. But nothing is budging.

All of that work you’ve put in to bring people to your site isn’t leading to sales.

You’re screwed (kidding). You feel trapped, scared, and worried about your business.

Without conversions, you don’t have a business.

It’s probably just the slow season, right? Wrong.

There is no real slow season when it comes to generating conversions and sales online.

There is just bad conversion rate optimization.

Thankfully, it’s not that hard to fix.

There are actually multiple data-backed ways to increase your conversions for free.

Including PayPal at checkout can increase your conversions by up to 44%.

Want a fast increase in conversions on your landing pages? Include some product explainer videos.

Site speed should be a big focus, too. The slower your site is, the higher your bounce rate will be and the lower your conversion rate.

Try shortening your landing pages. It’s proven to increase conversions.

Getting conversions doesn’t require you to spend thousands on an agency to fix your site. It just requires a few simple tweaks to make it easier and faster to buy from you.

About Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics combines behavioral analytics with email automation. Our software tracks actions of your users across multiple devices allowing you to analyze, segment and engage your customers with automatic, behavior-based emails in one place. We call it Customer Engagement Automation. Get, keep and grow more customers with Kissmetrics.

  About the Author: Brad Smith is the founder of Codeless, a B2B content creation company. Frequent contributor to Kissmetrics, Unbounce, WordStream, AdEspresso, Search Engine Journal, Autopilot, and more.

Read more here - http://review-and-bonuss.blogspot.com/2017/11/4-data-backed-conversion-hacks-that.html

[ericsburden-blog]

4 Data-Backed Conversion Hacks that Cost You Nothing

Conversions are in the toilet.

Traffic is still coming in. But your bottom line isn’t changing.

Sales are slower than ever. People simply aren’t buying right now.

It’s not the holiday season. It’s probably just the “off-season” for online sales.

No need to worry, right? It’s normal for this time of year…

But it’s not. Selling online isn’t only seasonal.

Conversions just aren’t happening for you. But there’s a reason.

Your conversion rate optimization tactics are outdated.

Or you simply don’t have any in place.

Those instant on-site popups aren’t compelling users to buy from you.

Social share buttons don’t lead to buying decisions.

As the online landscape changes and new technologies arise, user behavior changes.

And when user behavior shifts, marketers can’t stick to the same old tactics and fall behind.

If you don’t keep up to date with user behavior, your business and livelihood could be at risk.

Thankfully, there are a few data-backed conversion hacks you can implement that are sure to get you a better conversion rate.

So, what are you waiting for?

1. Include different checkout options

What if I told you that a few simple minutes of work (without paying anything for setup) could net you 44% more conversions?

Would you call me crazy? Maybe a used car salesman? Fair enough.

But let me explain.

Is your website optimized for mobile traffic? If not, is your name Fred Flintstone?

Image Source

In all seriousness, if you don’t have a mobile site that’s optimized for mobile sales, you’re doomed.

Why? Because the majority of website traffic is mobile now.

Image Source

If you’re not optimizing for mobile, you’re risking tons of conversions.

Mobile intent is big, too.

Think about it.

When you’re on the go, and you see someone wearing a shoe that looks awesome, what do you do?

You probably open up your smartphone and Google it.

You want it now. You don’t want to wait.

Why? Because you saw someone wearing it and you liked it.

Mobile intent is high because people often see something they like on the go. They don’t sit around wondering if they should really buy it.

So, where am I going with this?

You can improve your checkout conversions by up to 44% by incorporating multiple payment gateways, such as PayPal.

Pretty amazing, right?

According to Nielsen research data, PayPal transactions also have a 70% higher checkout conversion rate than non-PayPal transactions.

You need any trick in the book when cart abandonment hovers around 70%.

Image Source

Alternative payment methods are especially important on mobile, where people are otherwise forced to whip their credit cards out in public.

Adding other payment options is one of the easiest ways to solve that problem.

2. Use more videos

Video marketing is literally the future.

Research predicts that video will account for 70% of mobile traffic by 2021.

Video is already dominating the landscape of marketing.

HubSpot’s 2017 State of Inbound Report has shown that more and more marketing professionals are investing their budgets into video platforms like YouTube and Facebook Video:

Image Source

All of the top content distribution channels are heading towards video.

And for good reason.

Adding videos to your landing pages or product pages gives you a 50x higher chance of showing up on Google searches.

More visibility = more traffic and more conversions.

Even the simple mention of video in your email subject line can increase open rates.

That’s how popular video is right now.

If you are struggling to get conversions on your landing pages, consider creating a simple product video to help explain what your product does and why it can help the user.

People don’t like reading text anymore.

The majority of people skim text-based content online. Including that long-form sales page you just put finishing touches on.

People want you to get straight to the point. Video marketing can help you do just that.

If you don’t know where to start, try using a site like Biteable to create free videos for your landing pages.

You can create free business-style videos that have dozens of animated templates.

Plus, it’s free. It doesn’t cost you a cent.

And according to the latest data, implementing videos on your page will increase conversions.

The top companies are using videos on their landing pages right now.

Check out this landing page from Leadpages:

They use an explainer-style video to show how you can benefit from their product.

Seeing a video demo in action is much more compelling than reading a block of text about how great your product is.

3. Increase site speed

If you want to increase your conversion rates, speed is one the best ways to do it.

Why? Because we are impatient people.

Nobody wants to wait ten seconds for a site to load. Seriously: nobody.

Not when there are hundreds of companies out there selling or offering similar products/services.

Google recently released some amazing data backing this all up.

The latest data shows that if your site is slow, your bounce rate is going to increase:

Image Source

And an increase in bounce rate means fewer conversions.

Even a few seconds can cost you valuable traffic.

When it comes to an online business, traffic is money.

Walmart found that their conversions dropped rapidly when load times jumped from one to four seconds.

Every second of improvement resulted in a 2% increase in conversions.

Image Source

General data shows us an even worse outlook on site speed.

For each second that your website takes to load, you can expect a 7% decrease in conversions.

Image Source

Speed has the power to make or break your website. It can truly determine whether or not you find profit and scalable growth.

Even a single second could be costing you money.

According to Google, the majority of websites in any given industry fall way too short:

Image Source

The best practice for site speed is three seconds or less. But most of us are taking longer than eight full seconds. That’s bad.

So, what can you do about it? The first step is to diagnose your website with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

Enter your website URL into the tool and analyze it.

From here, you get your website’s overall speed score for both mobile and desktop.

The great thing about this tool is the free insight that it will give you into how you can fix your site problems.

Most of the time, images are going to be the biggest culprit.

They take up tons of space on your site, slowing your speeds dramatically.

If you can compress a few images, you’ve got a good shot at improving your site speed and increasing conversions.

WordPress has tons of plugins that you can use to automatically compress your images and increase site speed.

Try using Smush It:

It’s a free tool that you can install on your WordPress site in just a few minutes. You can also try TinyPNG or ImageOptim (Mac only).

When it comes to increasing conversions, speed is the name of the game.

4. Shorten landing pages

Long-form content wins the day when it comes to blogging.

Data proves it. The longer the content, the higher chance you’ve got to rank well on Google.

We hear it all the time: the longer, the better (no innuendo intended).

Content is king. Especially long-form content.

But does that same principle apply to landing pages?

Do long-form landing pages convert better?

Well, it makes sense that a long-form landing page would be good right?

You can tell a user all about your product without them having to leave the page to find more info.

Product features, demos, and descriptions are amazing when it comes to pushing a customer to buy.

Every sector of your business can have their featured spot on a landing page. It sounds great when you think about it.

But the data actually shows us otherwise.

Shortening your landing page can increase conversion rates dramatically:

Image Source

In a case study, one company reduced the size of its landing page and found a 13% increase in sign-ups and a 35% higher click-through rate to pricing pages.

This isn’t a one-off case study either.

Neil Patel found a 13% increase in conversions on his Crazy Egg site by reducing the content amount by 60%.

Patel also worked with a client on their landing page to increase conversions.

They were using a long-form style landing page, but Neil recommended using a short-form page with video-based content.

They reduced the size of the landing page dramatically.

In the end, the conversion rate for the website jumped by 40%.

Data consistently shows that short-form landing page content converts better.

Why? Because Americans read headlines and not much else.

Typical Americans, am I right?

But seriously, Buffer found that 55% of visitors to your site will only read your content for 15 seconds or less.

If you want more conversions, try shortening your landing page and getting straight down to business.

Slack has one of the best landing pages in the SaaS industry right now.

It’s short-form and gets straight down to business with a clear-cut headline and call to action:

There is almost nothing on the homepage besides a headline, description, CTA, and a bit of social proof.

Bonus Hack: Social proof is one of the best data-backed hacks to increasing your conversion rate in seconds.

Include a few statistics on your site about how many users you’ve helped or big companies you’ve served. Orbit Media increased their conversions by 1400% using social proof.

Conclusion

Conversions are worse than ever.

You’re still driving tons of traffic to your site and product pages. But nothing is budging.

All of that work you’ve put in to bring people to your site isn’t leading to sales.

You’re screwed (kidding). You feel trapped, scared, and worried about your business.

Without conversions, you don’t have a business.

It’s probably just the slow season, right? Wrong.

There is no real slow season when it comes to generating conversions and sales online.

There is just bad conversion rate optimization.

Thankfully, it’s not that hard to fix.

There are actually multiple data-backed ways to increase your conversions for free.

Including PayPal at checkout can increase your conversions by up to 44%.

Want a fast increase in conversions on your landing pages? Include some product explainer videos.

Site speed should be a big focus, too. The slower your site is, the higher your bounce rate will be and the lower your conversion rate.

Try shortening your landing pages. It’s proven to increase conversions.

Getting conversions doesn’t require you to spend thousands on an agency to fix your site. It just requires a few simple tweaks to make it easier and faster to buy from you.

About Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics combines behavioral analytics with email automation. Our software tracks actions of your users across multiple devices allowing you to analyze, segment and engage your customers with automatic, behavior-based emails in one place. We call it Customer Engagement Automation. Get, keep and grow more customers with Kissmetrics.

    About the Author: Brad Smith is the founder of Codeless, a B2B content creation company. Frequent contributor to Kissmetrics, Unbounce, WordStream, AdEspresso, Search Engine Journal, Autopilot, and more.

4 Data-Backed Conversion Hacks that Cost You Nothing

[reviewandbonuss]

4 Data-Backed Conversion Hacks that Cost You Nothing

Conversions are in the toilet.

Traffic is still coming in. But your bottom line isn’t changing.

Sales are slower than ever. People simply aren’t buying right now.

It’s not the holiday season. It’s probably just the “off-season” for online sales.

No need to worry, right? It’s normal for this time of year…

But it’s not. Selling online isn’t only seasonal.

Conversions just aren’t happening for you. But there’s a reason.

Your conversion rate optimization tactics are outdated.

Or you simply don’t have any in place.

Those instant on-site popups aren’t compelling users to buy from you.

Social share buttons don’t lead to buying decisions.

As the online landscape changes and new technologies arise, user behavior changes.

And when user behavior shifts, marketers can’t stick to the same old tactics and fall behind.

If you don’t keep up to date with user behavior, your business and livelihood could be at risk.

Thankfully, there are a few data-backed conversion hacks you can implement that are sure to get you a better conversion rate.

So, what are you waiting for?

1. Include different checkout options

What if I told you that a few simple minutes of work (without paying anything for setup) could net you 44% more conversions?

Would you call me crazy? Maybe a used car salesman? Fair enough.

But let me explain.

Is your website optimized for mobile traffic? If not, is your name Fred Flintstone?

Image Source

In all seriousness, if you don’t have a mobile site that’s optimized for mobile sales, you’re doomed.

Why? Because the majority of website traffic is mobile now.

Image Source

If you’re not optimizing for mobile, you’re risking tons of conversions.

Mobile intent is big, too.

Think about it.

When you’re on the go, and you see someone wearing a shoe that looks awesome, what do you do?

You probably open up your smartphone and Google it.

You want it now. You don’t want to wait.

Why? Because you saw someone wearing it and you liked it.

Mobile intent is high because people often see something they like on the go. They don’t sit around wondering if they should really buy it.

So, where am I going with this?

You can improve your checkout conversions by up to 44% by incorporating multiple payment gateways, such as PayPal.

Pretty amazing, right?

According to Nielsen research data, PayPal transactions also have a 70% higher checkout conversion rate than non-PayPal transactions.

You need any trick in the book when cart abandonment hovers around 70%.

Image Source

Alternative payment methods are especially important on mobile, where people are otherwise forced to whip their credit cards out in public.

Adding other payment options is one of the easiest ways to solve that problem.

2. Use more videos

Video marketing is literally the future.

Research predicts that video will account for 70% of mobile traffic by 2021.

Video is already dominating the landscape of marketing.

HubSpot’s 2017 State of Inbound Report has shown that more and more marketing professionals are investing their budgets into video platforms like YouTube and Facebook Video:

Image Source

All of the top content distribution channels are heading towards video.

And for good reason.

Adding videos to your landing pages or product pages gives you a 50x higher chance of showing up on Google searches.

More visibility = more traffic and more conversions.

Even the simple mention of video in your email subject line can increase open rates.

That’s how popular video is right now.

If you are struggling to get conversions on your landing pages, consider creating a simple product video to help explain what your product does and why it can help the user.

People don’t like reading text anymore.

The majority of people skim text-based content online. Including that long-form sales page you just put finishing touches on.

People want you to get straight to the point. Video marketing can help you do just that.

If you don’t know where to start, try using a site like Biteable to create free videos for your landing pages.

You can create free business-style videos that have dozens of animated templates.

Plus, it’s free. It doesn’t cost you a cent.

And according to the latest data, implementing videos on your page will increase conversions.

The top companies are using videos on their landing pages right now.

Check out this landing page from Leadpages:

They use an explainer-style video to show how you can benefit from their product.

Seeing a video demo in action is much more compelling than reading a block of text about how great your product is.

3. Increase site speed

If you want to increase your conversion rates, speed is one the best ways to do it.

Why? Because we are impatient people.

Nobody wants to wait ten seconds for a site to load. Seriously: nobody.

Not when there are hundreds of companies out there selling or offering similar products/services.

Google recently released some amazing data backing this all up.

The latest data shows that if your site is slow, your bounce rate is going to increase:

Image Source

And an increase in bounce rate means fewer conversions.

Even a few seconds can cost you valuable traffic.

When it comes to an online business, traffic is money.

Walmart found that their conversions dropped rapidly when load times jumped from one to four seconds.

Every second of improvement resulted in a 2% increase in conversions.

Image Source

General data shows us an even worse outlook on site speed.

For each second that your website takes to load, you can expect a 7% decrease in conversions.

Image Source

Speed has the power to make or break your website. It can truly determine whether or not you find profit and scalable growth.

Even a single second could be costing you money.

According to Google, the majority of websites in any given industry fall way too short:

Image Source

The best practice for site speed is three seconds or less. But most of us are taking longer than eight full seconds. That’s bad.

So, what can you do about it? The first step is to diagnose your website with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

Enter your website URL into the tool and analyze it.

From here, you get your website’s overall speed score for both mobile and desktop.

The great thing about this tool is the free insight that it will give you into how you can fix your site problems.

Most of the time, images are going to be the biggest culprit.

They take up tons of space on your site, slowing your speeds dramatically.

If you can compress a few images, you’ve got a good shot at improving your site speed and increasing conversions.

WordPress has tons of plugins that you can use to automatically compress your images and increase site speed.

Try using Smush It:

It’s a free tool that you can install on your WordPress site in just a few minutes. You can also try TinyPNG or ImageOptim (Mac only).

When it comes to increasing conversions, speed is the name of the game.

4. Shorten landing pages

Long-form content wins the day when it comes to blogging.

Data proves it. The longer the content, the higher chance you’ve got to rank well on Google.

We hear it all the time: the longer, the better (no innuendo intended).

Content is king. Especially long-form content.

But does that same principle apply to landing pages?

Do long-form landing pages convert better?

Well, it makes sense that a long-form landing page would be good right?

You can tell a user all about your product without them having to leave the page to find more info.

Product features, demos, and descriptions are amazing when it comes to pushing a customer to buy.

Every sector of your business can have their featured spot on a landing page. It sounds great when you think about it.

But the data actually shows us otherwise.

Shortening your landing page can increase conversion rates dramatically:

Image Source

In a case study, one company reduced the size of its landing page and found a 13% increase in sign-ups and a 35% higher click-through rate to pricing pages.

This isn’t a one-off case study either.

Neil Patel found a 13% increase in conversions on his Crazy Egg site by reducing the content amount by 60%.

Patel also worked with a client on their landing page to increase conversions.

They were using a long-form style landing page, but Neil recommended using a short-form page with video-based content.

They reduced the size of the landing page dramatically.

In the end, the conversion rate for the website jumped by 40%.

Data consistently shows that short-form landing page content converts better.

Why? Because Americans read headlines and not much else.

Typical Americans, am I right?

But seriously, Buffer found that 55% of visitors to your site will only read your content for 15 seconds or less.

If you want more conversions, try shortening your landing page and getting straight down to business.

Slack has one of the best landing pages in the SaaS industry right now.

It’s short-form and gets straight down to business with a clear-cut headline and call to action:

There is almost nothing on the homepage besides a headline, description, CTA, and a bit of social proof.

Bonus Hack: Social proof is one of the best data-backed hacks to increasing your conversion rate in seconds.

Include a few statistics on your site about how many users you’ve helped or big companies you’ve served. Orbit Media increased their conversions by 1400% using social proof.

Conclusion

Conversions are worse than ever.

You’re still driving tons of traffic to your site and product pages. But nothing is budging.

All of that work you’ve put in to bring people to your site isn’t leading to sales.

You’re screwed (kidding). You feel trapped, scared, and worried about your business.

Without conversions, you don’t have a business.

It’s probably just the slow season, right? Wrong.

There is no real slow season when it comes to generating conversions and sales online.

There is just bad conversion rate optimization.

Thankfully, it’s not that hard to fix.

There are actually multiple data-backed ways to increase your conversions for free.

Including PayPal at checkout can increase your conversions by up to 44%.

Want a fast increase in conversions on your landing pages? Include some product explainer videos.

Site speed should be a big focus, too. The slower your site is, the higher your bounce rate will be and the lower your conversion rate.

Try shortening your landing pages. It’s proven to increase conversions.

Getting conversions doesn’t require you to spend thousands on an agency to fix your site. It just requires a few simple tweaks to make it easier and faster to buy from you.

About the Author: Brad Smith is the founder of Codeless, a B2B content creation company. Frequent contributor to Kissmetrics, Unbounce, WordStream, AdEspresso, Search Engine Journal, Autopilot, and more.

[intergalactic-zoo]

My experience with "It" has been a bit of a roller coaster. My dad's a big Stephen King fan, and I know the book was around the house when I was a kid, but I didn't see the TV miniseries until sometime in the last couple of years (and perhaps consequently, never had a fear of clowns). I only started digging into King's novels with 'Salem's Lot a year or two ago, so my knowledge of the story was limited to that miniseries and a lot of jokes about a child orgy scene. So I went into the audiobook expecting that I wouldn't really like it, and I was pleasantly surprised. Meanwhile, I went into the new film with high hopes and high expectations—a far cry from where I was a week or two before. I mentioned on Twitter that I thought the new version of Pennywise fell into the same trap that so much modern horror falls into, making every monster scary in and of itself, rather than having the horror come from placing this common thing in a scary context. In short, it looked a bit like Rob Zombie's Pennywise, and I thought that was an emblematic error. But reviews have been largely positive, and from people I generally respect with regard to horror movies, so I figured I was wrong. I went into "It" expecting to be wowed. I wasn't. Or, well, I guess I was, but only at the breadth and depth of wasted opportunities. Spoilers ahead for "It" (2017), and "It" (1990) and It (1986), I suppose, as well.

The most common critique I've heard since watching "It" is that it isn't actually all that scary, and I think that's accurate. The thing is, I don't know how much of a problem that really is. The story isn't all that scary, either. Not in the conventional horror movie sense, anyway. There's a lot of dread and cosmic horror in places, but surprisingly little death and gore and suspense for a movie about a killer clown monster—and what there is isn't central enough to the plot to be likely to make it through the cuts necessary to bring the story down to movie-length. The horror moments that made the cut relied mostly on jump scares and Bill Skarsgård's acting chops for their effectiveness. I'm usually kind of a soft touch when it comes to jump scares, and maybe they would have been more effective if I hadn't heard ahead of seeing it that the movie was non-stop jump scares (which isn't exactly accurate). Whatever the reason, I wasn't actually scared by anything in the movie, and I thought the only scene that was effectively scary was when the kids were watching the slide projector. There are several things about the movie that worked really well. For one thing, the production values are great, especially in contrast to the 1990 version, which looked every bit the TV miniseries that it was. I was worried that the story wouldn't work updated so that the flashback sections were in the 1980s, but that turned out to be a stroke of marketing genius, if nothing else. There is, perhaps, no better time to release a 1980s-nostalgic horror film about children fighting an otherworldly evil that stole one of their friends than in between seasons of "Stranger Things." The biggest change to the overall plot was shifting the focus from murdered children to missing ones, tying in with the stranger danger/kid on the milk carton concern of the time. The kids were great, particularly Sophia Lillis (Bev), who should, if there's any justice in Hollywood, have an amazing career ahead of her. I think the only misstep in casting for the children was Nicholas Hamilton, whose small size and weaselly looks never quite gave Henry Bowers the sense of real menace that he's supposed to have. I never quite bought Jaeden (Bill) Lieberher's stutter, but I attribute that less to his performance and more to how lightly it was used in the movie, and how natural Steven Weber's stutter sounded in the audiobook. I really don't want this to be just a list of things the movie did differently from the book; for one thing, that's inevitable, because the book is an enormous tome that builds the lore of Derry going back a hundred years, bounces back and forth between two main time periods, features a pretty large cast of characters, and has a climactic moment where a bunch of ten-year-olds have sex in a sewer (in a scene that, were it written today, would hopefully be less heteronormative if not less creepy). I understand departing from the book, but there are ways to do that well, and then there's the ways that "It" chose. And the first, most significant of those changes is in how it treats Beverly Marsh. Bev in the books is not a great character. She is almost entirely defined by her relationships to the boys and men in her life, from her abusive father to her abusive husband to the boy who has a crush on her to the boy she has a crush on to the five other boys she has sex with in a desperate attempt to rebuild a cosmic bond at a critical moment. She doesn't have a whole lot of agency to begin with, but what she does have is skill and perseverance. She's the one who knows yo-yo tricks. She's the one who's best with Bill's slingshot, who actually manages to wound It. She takes down her father when It pushes him over the edge. She keeps her cool when they're trapped in the sewers coming back from It's lair. And she sacrifices the most to make it back as an adult. She doesn't really get those moments in the movie. She gets to stand up to her father (whose abuse in the film is never as physical as it is in the book, but is much more heavily implied to be sexual), but the rest goes away, and even that feels less significant since there's so little buildup and no indication that her father isn't just acting on his own. The slingshot is gone, replaced instead by Mike Hanlon's slaughterhouse bolt pistol. So Bev doesn't get the moment of wounding It, a fact made more significant by the way the movie compresses that scene into the climax. She does get to go swimming in her underwear, so at least she still gets to be objectified by all her male friends and family. The novel gives Bev fairly little agency to begin with, but I suppose there's no amount of female characterization too small that Hollywood can't shrink it a little more. So, with the slingshot replaced by Mike's bolt pistol, you might expect that that would expand his role a bit. Indeed, Mike gets the biggest changes from book to film, and the clearest narrative arc. In the book, Mike is a farm kid from the other side of Derry, where the black families live, and he goes to a Christian school. His relationship with his father (and his father's relationship to the town) is one of only two really positive parent-child relationships in the book, and it informs a lot about Mike's character, including his interest in town history that leads him to be the researcher and the one who stays behind when they all grow up. It's his father's history with Henry Bowers' racist father that drives Henry's targeting of Mike. The book loses all of that, killing Mike's parents in a fire, and making him work the farm with his hard-nosed grandpa. Early on, Mike can't bring himself to kill sheep with the bolt pistol, and it's implied that he's a vegetarian. After the group experiences horrors and has an act-two falling-out, he's able to kill much more coldly. So the closure to that narrative arc is obvious: he gets to use the bolt pistol on It, striking the killing blow. But he doesn't. That moment goes to Bill. So, if you're following along at home, they gave Bill's slingshot to Mike, removed Bev from that aspect of the story entirely, changed the narrative so that Mike's character arc would end most naturally with using that weapon to kill It, and then gave that moment to Bill. They broke two characters with one change. And all the research and history that define Mike's character? Those go to Ben instead, who's now also the new kid in town (presumably to fuel the New Kids on the Block gags, which are genuinely funny). I'm not sure if all that is meant also to code Ben as queer, but it's easy to read that into the story as presented. Just as it was easy to read queer coding of Mike in the book. Again, it wasn't at all explicit or even clear (and was, at least in part, a result of me mishearing "vags," short for "vagrants," as something else), but I caught that Mike was gay before I caught that he was black. Speaking of which, racism is one of the more mundane horrors in the book, but one that was pretty omnipresent, especially in the 1950s sequences. Not so in the movie. When Henry and his cronies attack Mike, they tell him "get out of my town!" but we never get any indication why they say that (especially when it would make more sense to be shouted at Ben, the new kid in town), certainly not the explicit racism that's in the book. Neither do we get the personal connection of Henry killing Mike's dog. That moment shows up here, but it's Henry saying "I wish I'd killed your family!" Between this and the fact that they made Henry's father an abusive police officer rather than a washed-up farmer with serious psychoses, it seems like some earlier draft of the film might have leaned heavier on the racism angle, might have been trying to say something, probably had Henry starting the fire that killed Mike's parents, but none of that made it to the screen. What we got instead was entirely flattened. Everything that defines Mike's character in the book is stripped away and either sanitized or given to other characters, and so is a good portion of what would make sense to define his character in the movie. It's a mess. The only character who benefits at all from changes between the book and movie is Stan Uris, and that's arguable. Stanley's first act in the book is to commit suicide as an adult, so the book never really lingers on his character in the flashbacks. We get little bits of his personality and a decent amount on his interest in birds, but that's pretty much it. Here, his Jewish heritage is emphasized with a plotline about his Bar Mitzvah, and that could be really interesting. In particular, it'd make an interesting contrast with the plot about Bev's period, both stories about kids struggling with becoming adults. That contrast is never actually made, though, and Stan's encounter with It loses the moment of triumph. Again, what's distinct about Stan's character gets stripped away. Also, like Mike, we never see Stan encounter any bigotry. Derry has monsters, murderers, rapists, and hooligans, but no anti-Semites. That stripping of characters' unique qualities is almost universal, and weirdly consistent in that we never see the kids' weapons against It. In the book, the power of belief makes Bill's speech therapy mantra, Stan's bird book, Eddie's aspirator, Bev's silver slingshot slugs, and Richie's voices into potent weapons that hurt It at key moments, but none of those show up here. As a result, we never really get an idea why the kids are able to defeat Pennywise. For some reason, they're able to beat up the clown and then kill it with an empty bolt pistol, but there's nothing to contextualize those moments. And there's a lot of that out-of-context stuff, little bits left over from the book that don't work because the context was cut out. Why does a thirteen-year-old in 1989 shout "hi-yo Silver, away!" while riding his bike? What's with the references to the Turtle if we're not going to go cosmic with it? Why does Pennywise turn into a mummy at one point near the end, when we've never had mummies even mentioned in the film up to that point? Why do the kids say "beep beep" to Richie? Why does Eddie encounter a "leper" in 1989—especially after talking early on about his fears over AIDS (another moment where it seemed like maybe an earlier draft had something to say)? Why have the big Paul Bunyan statue if you're not going to bring it to life? They even removed Georgie's question about balloons, the line that contextualizes every comment about things floating in the rest of the movie. And then there's Pennywise, who just did nothing for me. I talked before about how I think it's less effective to make him outwardly creepy from jump, and nothing in the movie dissuaded me from that. When Skarsgård is meant to be a normal clown, he's too creepy, and when he's meant to be scary, he's not creepy enough. There's none of the juxtaposition that made Tim Curry's version of the character so effective, and while anyone's going to suffer in comparison to Curry, Skarsgård was hamstrung from the start by the bizarre choices they made in Pennywise's design and mannerisms. He frequently talked too fast, which swallowed up his dialogue on more than one occasion, and the film often gave him those herky-jerky movements that have been popular in monsters since "The Ring," but here they always just looked goofy. They further served to make Pennywise less distinct as a horror movie monster; here he's just another Samara or Annabelle, a creepy monster who talks and moves in a creepy way and never surprises you when it turns out he's creepy. A similar thing happens with the rest of the adult characters. We lose Richie and Mike's parents entirely. Bill's dad is hostile to Bill, having accepted Georgie's death in a way that Bill hasn't. Eddie's overbearing mother becomes even more cartoonish. Even Bev's passive-but-enabling mom is gone, leaving us only with sinister and hostile adults throughout the story. There's probably a lesson in there, but it means we don't get the creeping horror of the kids realizing they're alone in their fight, that It has isolated them by making the adults oblivious or by feeding their basest impulses. When Bev's dad gets slightly more physical in his abuse, it's the next logical step for his character, not a sudden disinhibition of what was kept slightly beneath the surface. By removing the juxtaposition and mingling of mundane and cosmic horrors, by removing the contrasts that make the horror function, the story—and the horror—is diminished. And that's my overall impression of the movie, really. It's diminished. Everything feels smaller. The stakes are smaller, the real-world horrors are smaller, the methods they use to fight the monster are smaller. Everything that made the story distinct has been stripped away for one reason or another, leaving a mess of a story that feels like it's coming out of half a dozen different script revisions and focus group decisions. Instead of a story about children caught in an ancient war against a Lovecraftian cosmic horror, it's The Goonies vs. Freddy Krueger. That's a fine pitch, but it's not It.