#also if youre starved for content of these two i have a lot or curated incorrect quotes

[intergalactic-garbage]

hiiii! hoo and tkc fandom?? riordanverse nerds!!!!! hello!!!! i'd like to remind you all that sadie kane, sassy english magician, former eye of isis, canonically goes to the same school as cabin 10 inhabitants, drew tanaka and lacy.

just a little reminder they both have loud personalities, and aren't afraid to speak their mind - drew in a mocking manner, sadie in quips and snark. obviously they would get on each other's nerves and argue over meaningless shite, of course they would have a rivalry!

and i don't even feel that big on making them romantic, but if that's your thing, they most certainly would get stuck on an adventure together, and learn about each other, and their respective pantheons, and drew would soften and open up to sadie and they'd realize they actually have a lot in common and they'd become friends and and

this has been a public service announcement

[sunsetinmyvein]

CLOSED (for now)

All right, all right, ALL RIGHT. PEOPLE. For the first time, I am taking requestsssss (so, let’s see if this goes well or not lol). @aphxsia‘s taking requests, @dot-writes is taking requests, everyone is taking them and I just felt a tad left out, y’know? I’ve chopped up a bunch of other prompt lists to throw together this lovely prompt list below at the suggestion of Dot. My general idea is: send me a character, and one prompt from the “dialogue” side as well as one prompt from the “context” side (or more if you have more that fit together in an idea, I suppose. But I need one of each to get a VibeTM) and Iiiiii’ll do my best to make it work within a character x OFC/Reader sorta thing. Oh, and send me an album era for added flair, if you’d like. Deets below the cut.

 I’ll write for:

-          The boys of Fall Out Boy

-          The boys of Panic! At the Disco (we’re talkin’ Ryan and Jon days)

-          The boys of The 1975

-          And, if you’re incredibly ambitious, also willing to give Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low a whirl

 Rules:

-          Can’t do smut (sorry, it’s just awkward and clunky for me to write and nobody wants that)

-          Won’t write characters under 18

-          Won’t write slash

-          I just kind of reserve the right to be like “I dunno what to do with this, sorry” (But I’ve curated this prompt list, so I should be okay lol)

-          I’ll get around to them when I get around to them - I’ll be writing them around The Radio Station being posted as well, so you won’t be starved for content.

  Dialogue:

·         “You’re not in love with them, are you?”

·         “I could literally strangle you right now and no one would stop me.”

·         “It’s not as bad as it looks.” - “You’re not very convincing.”

·         “You need to relax.” - “Relaxing is for the weak.”

·         “How long has it been since you’ve slept?” - “A week?”

·         “How the fuck are you still alive?” - “It’s a special talent of mine.”

·         “Can you please just listen to me for once?”

·         “I think this is a bad idea.” - “You think all of my plans are bad ideas.”

·         “You should really listen to me more.”

·         “Do I even want to know?”

·         “You have the cutest smile I’ve ever seen.”

·         “Just take care of yourself, okay?”

·         “Please don’t use cheesy pickup lines on me.”

·         “I like it when you’re romantic.”

·         “I’m going to be pissed if we get murdered.”

·         “How could I resist?”

·         “I’m sorry, I don’t speak dumbass.” - “Real mature.”

·         “You’re worth every scratch.”

·         “I could name about 110 things I love about you.” - “That’s oddly specific.”

·         “We can raise hell together.”

·         “Partners?”

·         “Don’t get too cocky now.”

·         “Fuck me.” - “Really?” - “No.”

·         “I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic.”

·         “Do you trust me?” - “Should I?”

·         “Do you have any idea on how frustrating you can really be?”

·         “I really, really want to kiss you right now.”

·         “I think we got off on the wrong foot.” - “You think so?”

·         “I don’t think that cancels out.” - “It does in my book.”

·         “You’re being dramatic.” - “I’m not being shit!”

·         “Take a break.” - “I don’t need it.” - “You look like a fucking zombie.”

·         “Then we’ll leave. Just you and me.”

·         “Do you need help? - “No… yes.”

·         “I hate you.” - “I love you too.”

·         “You have something in your hair, umm… Do you want me to get it out?”

·         “It’s nice that your voice was the first thing I heard today.”

·         “No, like…. It’s just, I can’t believe you’re actually wearing my clothes.”

·         “Would it be too cliche if we matched clothes a little?”

·         “My friends get so annoyed by how much I talk about how sometimes.”

·         “Wanna, like– I mean, if you’re not busy… We could get lunch? Or even just coffee if you don’t have a lot of time?”

·         “Quit smiling at me, I can’t stop messing up my sentences when you look at me like that.”

·         “What are you smiling about?”

·         “What’s in it for me?”

·         “Could you say that again?” “Were you not listening?” “No I was, I just like hearing your voice.”

·         “You’re an idiot.” “But you love me.”

·         “Is that my shirt?” “You mean our shirt?”

·         “You come here often?” “Well considering I work here, yes.”

·         “Are you blushing?”

·         “Your hair is really soft.”

·         “You’re really warm.”

·         “You owe me.” “Fine, whatever you like.”

·         “I love you.” “Tell me that when you’re sober.” 

·         “I wasn’t lying when I told you that I loved you.”

·         “It’s pouring rain why are you here?”

·         “Is that blood?” “Yes, but that doesn’t matter right now, what does matter is-” “You are literally bleeding.”

·         “Cheers, I’ll drink to that.” “You drink to everything.” “Cheers!”

·         “Why is there a deer in the room?” 

·         “Is that vodka? At 7 in the morning?”

·         “Wake me up when it’s over.” 

·         “Why is arson always your first answer?”

·         “Are you flirting with me?”

·         “Are they really ‘just a friend’?”

·         “Is there a reason you never say my first name?”

·         “Shh… listen… that’s the sound of me falling in love with you.”

·         “I have to tell you something really important and if I don’t tell you now, I won’t get the chance.”

·         “Whatever he’s saying, he’s lying!”

·         “I play a mean air guitar, if that’s what you’re asking.”

·         “I thought you knew?”

·         “We can, y’know, go together? If that’s a thing you’d like.”

 Context:

·         I remembered it was Valentine’s Day late on my way from work and the only place still open was McDonald’s, is bringing you a cheeseburger acceptable?

·         I accidentally punched you in the face when I was too overexcited about something

·         The library’s pretty empty save for you and me and, OH that couple making out loudly in the shelves somewhere

·         You’re overdue on this book and I want it so I’m tracking you the fuck down

·         You give me a different fake name every time you come into this coffee shop and I just want to know your real name because you’re cute but here I am scrawling “batman” onto your stupid cappuccino

·         We live in the same block of flats but haven’t ever talked and Sunday morning we were both doing the walk of shame and had to stand in the lift together

·         “My shower’s broken but I’ve got a date tonight could I possibly use your shower please?” “Oh sure (neighbour that I’ve been crushing on for the past six months) of course you can use my shower to get ready for your date (fuck fuck fuck)”

·         You’ve got a date tonight and you asked for advice on what to wear but I’m so in love with you and damn you look good in the outfit I picked out for you

·         It’s my high school reunion and I need a hot date so I can rub it in the faces of the people who hated me

·         There’s a person who won’t stop bugging me will you pretend to be my partner so that they’ll fuck off?

·         I wanted to go on the Ferris wheel but there has to be two people to a cart come on random person let’s go – oh, wait, are we stuck at the top? Fuck

·         It started to snow and I’m the only one of our friends who would go outside with you – I soon found out why none of the others would go out in the snow with you when you shoved a handful of snow down my back and declared snow war

·         It’s nowhere near Christmas it’s literally still November would you calm down about Christmas wait no why are you getting the tree out – no, stop, please stop

·         You were waving at your friend behind me but I got confused and waved back at you and now I’m dying of embarrassment but you think it’s cute

·         I’m a waiter at this wedding and you’re a drunk guest who will not stop hitting on me please I’m trying to work no I can’t dance with you omg let me find you some water

·         You’re pretending to be your friend’s lover for the sake of the friend’s family. But, I’m their sibling. And I know you’re not dating.

·         You had an assigned seat next to them at a wedding for a mutual friend.

·         You accidentally sprayed them with yogurt when you opened the lid the wrong way.

·         They mistook your bowling ball for theirs in the shared ball return.

·         They caught you when you slipped on ice and nearly fell over.

·         Accidentally stepping on their heel in a crowded room.

·         Tripping while getting into your seat in the theatre and spilling your popcorn on them.

·         Accidentally opening a door on their face.

·         They cover the small amount of change you are short on for a purchase.

·         They see your ice cream drop to the ground and buy you a new one.

·         You walk out of a dressing room asking if the outfit suits you, but it’s not your friend waiting outside the room like you thought.

·         Sharing an umbrella at a bus stop as it rains.

·         You help catch their dog when the leash slips from their hand.

·         Texting the incorrect number but continuing the conversation.

·         Getting paired up on an amusement park that requires even numbered riders.

·         A friend of a friend needs a place to crash because they got evicted

·         You’re so sunburnt you can’t even more, do you need help?

·         I admit that sleeping on the beach wasn’t the smartest idea but someone buried me in sand please help me

·         I met you last night when you were drunkenly patting my dog in my backyard at 3am and when I asked you what the hell you were doing, you slurred something about dogs being great and then you threw up on my feet. Fifteen minutes later you were passed out on my couch so that’s why you’re here right now. What the fuck is your name.

·         I always see you eat breakfast on the train and you always offer me some

·         I’m waiting for the train and the only open seat is on a bench next to you. Okay, sure, I’ll sit down next to the very cute person and I JUST SPILLED MY DRINK ALL OVER YOU I’M SO SORRY.

·         I don’t know you, but I fall asleep on the train every ride home and you always wake me up because we have the same stop, but we’ve never actually talked. Then one day you’re the one falling asleep and I got so excited for my comeuppance I made us get off at the wrong stop.

·         My cat steals underwear and I come home to find you chasing my cat to get your underwear back.

·         We’re always making stupid bets like ‘bet you can’t drink this whole bottle of BBQ sauce’ but then you did and now you’re sick and I feel really bad. Let me look after you

·         Did you actually just blue shell me on our date you fucker

·         I beat you at Mario Kart and now I’ve been banished to the couch for the night

·         I’m calling to cancel our date because I’m actually in the ER right now, sorry. I mean… sure? I guess you can come down here but- okay…

·         I asked a staff member and they said you’ve been coming to the pound every day to play with the dog I’m taking home today and that’s why you’re getting weirdly emotional

·         It’s my turn to open up the café today and you were sleeping under one of the tables when I came in, and I don’t know what to say so I’m just awkwardly sweeping around you

·         I’m drunk on public transport and you’re high and we both keep looking at each other knowingly.

·         You’re mowing your lawn at 5am and that is completely unacceptable and I’m going over to your house to yell at you about how unacceptable that is.

·         It’s like 3am and my roommate locked me out of the house and I forgot my keys and I’m really drunk and please take pity on me and let me crash at your place for the night o’neighbour of mine

·         We decided it would be fun to go camping and now it’s raining and we can’t figure out how to set up the tent.

·         I know it’s probably poor taste to ask you out during your relative’s funeral but I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again, so…

·         It’s raining. I’m walking home in this downpour and have no umbrella. I’ve taken shelter on a random porch in the hopes that the rain will let up, but the door behind me had just opened

·         You’ve got a big, lush pool and I overheard you say you were going out of town, so I snuck over to use it but you came home early

·         You’re having a BBQ in your backyard and it smelled really good so I crashed the party

·         Not trying to make a scene here, but you took the last pool floatie and I want it

·         This is a big beach, why do you have to build that sandcastle right next to me?

·         You tried to grab the exact Halloween costume I want and it’s the last one and I want it.

·         I pranked the wrong person on accident, I’m so sorry I thought this was my friend’s car.

·         We just wanted to do one of these awful, fake ghost hunting shows but now shit is happening and we don’t know what to do.

·         I tried to take a shortcut and ended up stuck in this damn fence and you just happen to pass by and after poking fun at me for a million years you finally help me.

·         Two strangers locked inside the store at 3am together.

·         I accidentally broke your nose in a moshpit, sorry.

·         You’re the bastard who keeps parking in my spot so I retaliated by keying your car and you caught me

·         This is a long plane ride. You’re stuck next to me, and apparently afraid of flying.

[forerunnerdiaries]

christmas eve; leaving the past behind.

What do you know? Writing my first post just 7 minutes into Christmas Day 2020.

I itched to write personally for a while. I write privately in my journal for most part, but felt like there was a necessity to get a proper personal blog again.

I’ve had a personal blog for years, on and off, always changing domains (I really am a pilgrim who cannot sit still in one place!). But in the recent years, I found that blogging for the sake of expression and sheer love of writing was an activity that had disappeared from my life. Instead, I had become a content creator for the purpose of growing influence or a brand. So the only platforms I had were for public-facing purpose. And when that happens, you write like a brand, wanting to frame or curate your message according to how you want people to see you.

Well, I have discovered that it is no longer the time for acting like a brand/influencer, or for curating so I can build public perspective of me. This is something God has been instilling in me and reminding me about for a few months now. Not too long ago, He moved me to start leaving and shutting down all my public platforms, my various Instagram accounts.

All the while, exposing my efforts to build my own ministry platform or personal brand - something that looked like well-meaning Christian work, but was in actual fact all about me and my ego. In actual fact, I was hoping that I could make a name for myself, that people would know that I was worth my salt. I found myself needing to be known.

And that’s the cry of every heart, is it not? So much so that we give ourselves interesting, curated identities on social media so that people know us as the “so-and-so person who’s all about such-and-such topic”. And while there is a time and place to create strategic, curated messages on the Internet, it sometimes bleeds into our hearts so that we are no longer “authentic” like we always pride ourselves to be, because we feel the need to fit that mould that we had built for ourselves. That mould that people think we are. God forbid if were to deviate from it! 

As 2020 entered its last quarter, I began to see that God has been bringing us back into a space of personal relationship, and unfiltered, uncurated living. The real “authentic”. Not about trying to show off selected parts of lives off on social media squares and 15-second stories, and letting those be the only way for people to learn about our lives. Instead, He is desiring true connection. True connection away from public eyes, with Him. And true connection with people, where we actually reach out to them for conversations, as opposed to stalking each other via Stories (a very lazy way, if you ask me).

So, what does this have to do with starting a personal blog, you ask? Let me explain.

I have always been a writer - a good enough writer gifted by God to craft beautiful messages inspired by a relationship with Him.

However, I feel like I’d given away my writing for the sake of profit and fame. And so much of my time as a storyteller was spent on trying to make a name for myself, up until He exposed my heart’s motivations for what they were.

Even after collapsing the tower of my self-ambition, and loving me into a place of repentance, He has been merciful enough to remind me that “my writing is worship” and to be stewarded carefully, not to be sold cheaply when I am desperate for provision or when I am starving for someone to validate me as a worthy successful adult. 

My writing is worship, and counted as beautiful in His eyes, if only I would celebrate and align with Him in this way by writing in a way that expresses a full reliance and trust in Him.

And so here I am, writing in a humble, simple blog as a response to His encouragement over my life. He has also been merciful enough to tell me that I have a voice and a message, and it doesn’t come out of creating aesthetic content calendars or strategic content plans with acquisition tactics. Rather, the message is an overflow from our conversations in the secret place, in the throne room. It sometimes comes on a Monday, sometimes many days later, sometimes a few times a day, and in various interesting ways that might not ‘fit the look’ or get a bunch of social media likes.

There’s no more pressure to succeed.

This brings me to talk a little bit more about what I want to leave behind as I sail into the final week of 2020.

It’s been a really intense year. A year of acceleration for many, and very much so for me. I have reflected that God has worked on me a mighty lot this year, causing me to change in such drastic and quick ways that I know cannot be done based on human effort alone. And yet, I know that a part of me continues to hold on to my past ways. I have not crossed over fully into the place that He is calling me to be in; I am still resisting the full transition in some ways.

I see it in the way I still hold on to old friendships and old interactions, even though God has already told me to stop. Not to stop being friends with them, but to stop associating my identity with them and wanting to be ‘of’ them. I see His grace gradually departing this area of my life, and I know that I must choose.

I see it in the way I still cannot fully embrace my new assignment in my art studio. I continue to have one foot out the door, straggling, not wanting to give my all because I know I am afraid. Afraid of being vulnerable, afraid of being used, afraid of hardship and afraid of humility. And yet, I know that this is where He is planting me for the time being.

I see it in the way I am constantly worrying about my physical looks because I am gradually becoming less of that “athletic chick” due to nearly two months away from the gym. I have allowed myself to boldly ask, “Who is it that you are still trying to impress?” and I know the answer - I am still trying to be a desirable young lady that the men I used to like will still pay attention to. I don’t want to be considered “no longer hot”. I don’t want to be unattractive. I worry about my external appearance more than I have let myself admit - from the size of my waistline to the kind of hairstyle I have to the clothes I wear and the bag I carry. And the funny thing is, all this while, God is not telling me to be ugly. He is in fact trying to show me what it looks like for me to be really beautiful. Yet, I am still stuck in the past.

These were the truth bombs I found myself confronted with on Christmas Eve, after departing from an overnight party that I had attended with aforementioned friends.

But I love God, I really do, He knows I do. And whatever He reveals to me in His grace, I take up the challenge to respond positively to. This is who I am - someone who will give all I can to stand aligned with Someone I love. So Lord, if it is Your desire for me to take a proper step across the line between my past and my future, I will do so, trusting that You will cause the ground to rise up to my feet as I take every step into the unknown.

And I am not afraid of the unknown, because You have always been with me, and more than enough.

[girlaboutcampus]

How I optimised my social media for my mental health

cw: this blog post contains references to food, fitness and dieting culture. 

A few years ago I was working for a chain bookstore over the festive period, mostly on the tills serving customers and occasionally dealing with enquiries and shelving. There was blissfully minimal phone answering too. Bookshops tend to stay pretty busy after Christmas with sales, folks coming in to buy something to read in their remaining time off and to buy dieting books. When I clocked in to take my shift on Boxing Day, there had already been a table of dieting and fitness bibles set up, all on two-for-one deals. Whilst I’m sure this table was set up on corporate instruction, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Bookshops are by no means safe spaces- they’re a place you should go to look for material that challenges and stretches your beliefs, as well as things to help you relax.  However, I don’t think they’re a place you go to be judged for your lifestyle, especially if you’re just on the way up to grab a muffin and latte with friends in the cafe. In many ways, this is the experience of being on social media in microcosm.

This summer, I had a bit of a meltdown, which I’ve talked about a little before. Without university to occupy me, I became obsessed with going to the gym. When I didn’t see results as quickly as I had in the past, I started to hyperfocus on my appearance and weight. It quickly became clear that I’d got myself into a dark place, so I started going to see one of the counsellors at my university (which is an enormous privilege you should make the most of if you also have access to it). It became clear to me, in talking to my counsellor, that a lot of my problem was down to the space I had curated for myself on social media. The fitness board I maintained on Pinterest meant that the algorithm was constantly generating unattainable bodies, diet foods and problematic motivational statements. From following some of my younger brother’s school friends on Instagram, I began to feel bad about not having the body shape of a teenager anymore. I decided to clear a whole day to go through all my social media and make it as much of a hospitable space for my mental health as possible. I should be clear at this point that this might not necessarily work for you, though I found it to be incredibly helpful. I’m sharing in the hope that it might make a little difference for someone else. I’ll start with the easier social networks and work my way up to the big guns. 

Facebook

This one might be more difficult for you depending on how much use you get out of Facebook. Personally, I use it mostly for keeping up with events, messaging friends and updating family members. One thing you can do if you only use it for the latter two is delete the Facebook app and just keep Messenger, that way you have to be on an actual computer to check facebook. If you don’t want to delete the app, then start to take advantage of the mute button. You can go through the hassle of sitting going through your whole friend list, removing people you no longer talk to, see, or are interested in keeping up with (you can let go of some people from school at this point, face it). However, I find that the experience of unfriending people can actually make me feel more anxious. 

The best thing I do- and this one isn’t something you can necessarily do in one day- is mute or unfriend as I scroll down my feed. If someone I once met in a job I had four years ago starts posting offensive and ill-informed political memes to my feed, that’s their time to go. If a friend’s mum posts a lot of things about her New Year’s diet, she’s going to get muted for the time being. If a friend posts a photo of her super cute baby, that’s getting a big heart react- give me more of that good shit. A big part of all of this stuff is trying to train your algorithm to show you the stuff you want, even if it fights back. 

Twitter

First huge bit of advice- block all the bigoted reactionaries. That’s your Piers Morgans, Katie Hopkinses, Julia Hartley-Brewerses and that girl who worships guns. This isn’t me openly advocating shutting yourself out of political discourse, or creating some kind of political echo chamber for yourself.  It’s just starving people who thrive on outrage of the attention they crave. I don’t care if you have a witty rebuttal. They don’t deserve your attention, views or clicks. Try to find professional journalists, politicians, and pundits whose expertise you can trust and who conduct themselves ethically and responsibly, rather than trying to just get clicks for their work. Also, read whole articles and think pieces rather than just the headlines. Headlines are often written to stir up outrage over something that just isn’t outrageous.

 Find tweeters who make you laugh, make good art and whose voices you’d like to amplify. 

Instagram (and Tumblr) 

Now we’re getting into the heavy lifters. It seems to me that the more image-dense the platform, the worse it can be for your mental health, especially if your mental health is tied up in your body image. Instagram and Tumblr might be the platforms to be most cutthroat with. What you decide to do with this one is really deeply personal, but I would suggest going with your gut and unfollowing and muting anything that makes you feel less than, no matter how nice the person running it seems. My first call was to unfollow more or less everyone who’s ever breathed in the general vicinity of a Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. A lot of these models seem to be lovely women, but their lifestyles and bodies are the definitions of unattainable. The one exception I make to this rule is Chrissy Teigen because her content is all about earnestly enjoying food, family and travel. Plus, she doesn’t take herself too seriously. Instagram also has a useful feature that allows you to mute stories, posts or both at your own discretion. That way if there’s someone you follow who posts great travel photos but is always talking about weight loss in their stories, you can filter out that content and keep what you like. I found that, personally, having fewer bodies in my line of sight is for the best. I like to maximise the presence of delicious food, cute animals and uplifting messages I follow. Here are some favourites:

Nigella Lawson

Shila and Eddie the Pomeranians

withlovelinh

Hannah Witton

Demi Adejuyigbe

Pinterest

This is the daddy of all the image-based platforms. Whilst probably the least popular of all the platforms listed here, it probably has the most potential to do harm. Don’t get me wrong, I love Pinterest. It is one of the most easily spaces online and the fact that it is image focused means that there is very little text involved, so it’s an ocean of calm compared to a platform like Twitter. However, it also has what might possibly be the most reactive algorithm of any platform. This is broadly a helpful tool, allowing you to locate the exact material you’re looking for, but it can really double down on any harmful material you put into it. It’s the internet’s worst enabler. In this sense, spring cleaning it is work. I got rid of my fitspo board and replaced it with one more focused on self-care. This didn’t mean getting rid of all my fitness-focused stuff- I still pin specific exercise routines- but I don’t pin #bodygoals stuff now.  A very important part of changing this is being conscientious of what I am choosing to repin. Specifically, I have to ask myself 

“Do I really like this hair/ makeup/ clothing, or do I just want to look like the model?”

If the answer is no, I will ask Pinterest to remove it from my feed. Pinterest also has a zero-tolerance policy for content that encourages eating disorders and self-harm so you can report anything like that. Whilst Pinterest will continue to show you things after you have deleted the boards you can, over time, train it to show you more of the things you want to see. I’ve finally got it to a point where I’m seeing things that make me feel bad far less frequently. 

All of this is work and requires a conscious effort from yourself to remove things that are harmful before they get to you. This system isn’t perfect and you will continue to see garbage some of the time. It is still possible to optimise what you’re seeing in order to feel less anxious and down on yourself. Do keep in mind, that it’s just a small part of your life and that if you are genuinely concerned about your mental health to talk to a professional if that is something you are able to access. Also, this isn’t an alternative to minimising your screentime, which we should probably all try to do a little more. 

Happy new year! 

More like this 

You are doing enough. 

Did I Keep my 2018 Resolutions?

[thestartupdubai]

Top 5 Business Ideas for Start Business in Dubai UAE

We're going to go over 15 new business ideas that you can start during this crisis that might allow you to create something brand new that you never thought possible in just 15 minutes, that's right, one business idea per minute, but first, let's go over some background information.

Discuss what is going on right now. Recent data has shown that unemployment is at an all-time high, with one out of every five Americans unemployed, which is insane, and it reminds me of my storey from 2008, when I was laid off during the recession for various reasons, and it A tell you a little bit about the niche and why I think there's opportunity there, and a lot of these are a resurgence of the recession.

Business Ideas Under 10 Lakhs in Dubai

I think that demonstrates where I'm coming from, so fuck you. What I want you to realise is that yes, you can take advantage of the resources you have here to serve a community of people, but you must come from a certain background.

Kids are home all day right now, which they've never seen before, and if you're like me, you want your kids on the iPad for nine hours a day, right? But we also need to get them to learn, so there's that distant learning that's going on right now, but we as parents still have to get stuff done.

What Small Business Can You Start at Home

Right now is a good time to concentrate business ideas on that and assist them, because if you can find parents and appreciate their pains and concerns, that's where you'll find some good opportunities right now. Number two, I want you to consider content creators right now.

Guess what, they're going to need some help, so companies that start to help those new creators who are focused on their efforts edit their things, repurpose their material, there are massive opportunities right now and there's going to be a huge boom in services that help content creators.

7 Innovative Business Ideas in Response to Coronavirus

Number three, let's talk about speakers. This is a fantastic opportunity for you to zero in on a particular niche in the creator room. Speakers have been hit particularly hard during this time, with events being cancelled left and right by people who used to fly. What do these speakers have to say?

Build their own virtual events, from which they can then create their own online mini-events - and many of them, with a lot of experience talking about these subjects over and over, are best suited to guess what to write books now, so maybe you can step up and assist speakers.

What Is a Good Business to Start With 10k?

Starving musicians, guess what, they were already starving, and now they could business ideas be starving even more, and they're going to need some support. There are a lot of people right now who are stepping up to teach art, creativity, and their work, whether it's guitar, piano, or whatever it is, there's a massive demand.

Business Ideas You Can Start With No Money

I think we all know that hobbies have been really good, from piano to guitar to art to all sorts of stuff, and now is the time to lean into that and support those who really need that extra income right now, and it could be a fantastic situation with a win-win situation for everybody.

Business Ideas With Low Investment and High Profit

Cation, and I believe there will be a big opportunity connecting students who are at home now learning out while at home to communicate with companies tech companies and other companies who might need some support that are now looking at a lot of remote work solutions, so a student just coming out of college will have a lot of opportunities.

Business Ideas Related to Information Technology

Very well, and you can get paid for it. For example, I know a lot of people who used Craigslist to find students right before the crisis, so why not be the middleman who can help link great students with great talent with companies that need that talent? Let's take a look at some entertainers.

Business Ideas That Can Make You a Millionaire

They've been spending a lot of time in person going from audition to audition and working on their work outside of the house, but guess what? They're in the house now, and you may be able to help them consult, bring them ideas, and even help them develop their personal brand online.

Business Ideas During Lockdown in Dubai

Developing their online brand is number seven. The health and fitness niche is obviously big, and what I believe there are opportunities in terms of specialty fitness solutions for people in this current crisis and what the new normal will be, and I'm reminded of a man named Joe who has a channel on YouTube about this.

What Are Some Good Ideas for a Small Business?

That niche, or even virtual training like I get from my friend Jeff at total body construction com, there are massive opportunities in fitness right now because people are at home eating junk food and need support, and you can help them - so that's fitness. That's what I'm talking about when it comes to diet.

What Are the Most Successful Business Ideas?

This is another way to tackle companies now here's what I would business ideas suggest figuring out what a business type is because businesses are concentrating on new things that they've never had to concentrate on before and there may be software-based solutions that can support them so instead of going in and helping them in, I would recommend finding out what a business type is because businesses are focusing on new things that they've never had to focus on before and there may be solutions that are software-based that can help them.

Create tools to assist them in managing their inventory and a variety of other tasks. I did an episode with a man named Dane knacks Dane Maxx, which was episode 46 in my podcast, where we actually called companies and asked them what they needed help with and what was inconvenient that they wished they could fix.

Memberships are a massive opportunity right now, and one of my good friends, Steve Mc Claren, has just spoken about how his students in his tribes network, who are all membership-based website owners, are booming right now because guess what people are missing right now? They're craving community and interaction, and when you can provide that, it's a win-win situation.

Connect with the group and share your business ideas on the website. It's not even about the content you put in there; it's about the link; it's about the guidance; it's about that sort of yearning for connection, community, and networking that people are sorely lacking right now, so if you can build a membership platform right now, that would be fantastic.

During these times, I know a lot of people who are starting gardens in their homes and even trying to grow their own food, which is incredible. I also know that the gardening niche is exploding right now, as shown by some of the numbers on Amazon with a lot of the items that are being sold.

You just need a small group of people who could use your guidance and advice, and you know expert curation whether it's selling your own goods or affiliate marketing as an opportunity, you could become the go-to person to help people start their own garden at home, and check in and share your progress with them every day.

Sports are also going on. There are several opportunities in eSports electronic gaming sports. For example, there are opportunities to create competitions for various types of games. There are also opportunities to create guides, YouTube channels, business plans, and twitch streams for various games.

We're moving into a new normal where people are engaging and seeking community. There are also opportunities in both VR and gaming, as well as AR. What are your plans to take the next step?

Many of those people don't know how to do that; they frequently have people who help them behind the scenes, and guess what? You can step up and support them as well by identifying college and professional athletes in a variety of sports and being their go-to person for assistance.

Should something else happen and they are unable to return to their line of work, it is worth a lot to me, and you should step up and support someone in that space as well number thirteen. I'd like you to consider brick-and-mortar companies.

I always say that the riches are in the niches, and your niche may be something like, "I'm going to help brick-and-mortar businesses stay alive by selling more goods online, starting a Shopify website, or being able to deliver more products and help them fulfil their things," or something similar.

Focus on learning the language of the audience and knowing what their buyers need, as well as learning how to ship those products and get refunds if they don't suit and other stuff like that. There are so many possibilities if they only focus on that niche and then have discussions to understand what they would need help with.

Meditation in virtual reality, I believe, would be a thing. Traveling through VR, I hope, would become a thing, and there are massive opportunities there have always been opportunities to do that in VR, and I believe now is a great time for a lot of those spaces inside VR to emerge.

Especially in relation, and while the gaming aspect is important, I believe the VR community will see a massive boom as a result of what's going on even outside of the game. Okay, number 15, and this is a big one for me. There will be a new educational norm in the future.

focus your energies and resources on a particular community, whether it's parents, teachers, schools, or whatever, and seeing if you may be able to build something is it an opportunity for you there in number 16 yes, I said there are only 15, but we're doing 16 because I always want to do more.

I'll take you to a fast and simple tutorial on how to get started with live streaming and the best apps to do so, but consider this: there are people who are used to watching regular television shows or late-night shows at home, and I'm one of them.

Opportunity for you to provide value to others, and I believe you will become the person who can help others go live as well, so if you want to learn more about how it works and maybe even get paid to help others do that, just click on the connection that's up there in the icon.

Conclusion

Perhaps you know someone who has recently lost their job, and there are new opportunities coming out every day. I believe it was Sir Richard Branson who said that business ideas are like buses, and if you miss one, you just have to wait for the next one, and guess what, there are a whole load of business idea buses that ribe hit those Bell notification icons so that I can send you more videos as they come out.

Business setup Dubai is not easy, just like anywhere else. Do your research. Talk to other business owners and possible co-tenants. Consult experts on how to set up a company in Dubai and make sure to utilize available resources to help in your efforts.

If you need assistance for a Dubai business setup , KGRN is at your service. With years of experience in the industry, they are able to have you and your team legally ready to work within the day.

Ref: https://kgrnaudit.com/business-setup-in-dubai/

[campaignsoftheworld]

How are brands evolving through Digital Campaigns and Strategies

How are brands evolving through Digital Campaigns and Strategies by Mr. Yashwant Kumar, Founder & CEO, GenY Medium

What will drive brand growth in the coming years? How can I ensure my brand is positioned to capture its fair share of the growth? These are some of the most common questions we field from marketing executives we work with, in India and around the globe. And they are great questions to ask. For, while India’s economy is growing rapidly and more and more people are coming online every year, digital technologies are also changing the rules of the game just as quickly. The internet has given consumers back their voice, and the tremendous power of their opinions via social media means that businesses and brands have to compete on a whole different level than they used to. Gone are the days when a hailstorm of marketing money could be used to grab everyone’s attention and push the competition out of the market. Now customer’s demands for authenticity, originality, creativity, honesty and good intent had made it necessary for brands to revert to a level of customer engagement rarely seen since our grandparents’ day when local business owners often knew their customers personally and gave them individual attention. “Consumers are increasingly giving a brand choice over to algorithms.”- Matt Mee, Mediacom Brands are facing a challenging future. Most of the marketers are unsure how they fit into a world powered by algorithms, data and fast sales. Do consumers even care about brands anymore? Others are worried about connecting with consumers in the age of voice control. All want to know how to build brands of the future, not relics of the past. Changing consumer behaviour is at the heart of these new challenges. Voice assistants such as Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa are shortening the traditional path to purchase, and the increasing number of connected devices in our homes are merging the points of engagement and transaction. We can look at Amazon Alexa device to see how new tech is pushing brands to the fringes. The prospect of people saying “Alexa, add 1 kg of front-load detergent to my cart”, rather than calling out a specific brand name, is enough to make any brand team lose their sleep (especially if they are in low attention, high frequency or functional category). And it’s not just new interfaces driving this new behaviour. Even the old school desktop e-commerce is also contributing. Many consumers are already transitioning to ‘passive selection’. Without the providence and magical powers of the physical in-store experience to influence their choices, online shoppers are sticking with what they know. The majority of brands in their shopping carts remain unchanged from week to week. Such passive selection is the first step to oblivion for many brands, and what makes matters worse is that for some consumers – and, in some moments – it is a welcome change. Lots of us are happy handing decision-making responsibilities to algorithms in many areas of our lives; from playlists to news filters. If I asked you, “Who is the most trusted voice in your industry?” how would you respond? Surprisingly, in most industries, such a person or company doesn’t even exist. Marketers have always had a hard life. Their teams are under constant pressure to deliver immediate sales while simultaneously building their brands to create value for the future. They’re taught to chase sales now, the margin for the long term. But while that ask has been the same since the dawn of time, it has become harder to find the right balance. Traditionally, the right balance between brand and response was thought to be around 60:40, but this heuristic has run its course in the digital world as marketers battle with new technologies and behaviours that threaten to nullify their brand’s voice. Today, on average, 70% of the buying decision is made before a prospect talks to the company. From voice search to e-commerce, and AI to passive selection, many consumer decisions are now being automated – and that’s bad news for brand owners. So, how should brands respond? I am a big fan of Mr Rory Sutherland, author of the book, Alchemy, and one of the most celebrated marketing leaders. He suggests that consumers are not only rational economic beings, but they will continue to look for simple rules of thumb and emotions to navigate thousands of complex decisions. In Sutherland’s vision, brands will continue to play an essential role in the decision-making process for satisfied consumers. Algorithms or not, Sutherland suggests, people will always have preferences, the challenges will be working out how to trigger them. We took an in-depth look at the practical implications of this changing marketing landscape. We examined three broad trends which demonstrate how brands are seriously rethinking their strategies for both short-term sales and long-term loyalty. User reviews and ratings: While consumers have always had the ability to vote with their feet, or with their wallets, they now have more power to influence not only what they buy, but also what others buy. Brands now need to invest in developing capabilities (content creation and management) to have better consumer-centric business models. They need to focus on informing and educating the consumers rather than just selling to them. Arming consumers with the right information helps them move independently through the shopping journey, creates trust and increases their loyalty. Voice assistants: If digital assistants with their contextual and relevant recommendations become a significant source of sales, they could impact almost all the brands. The competition will become even more brutal as consumers switch between only one or two verbally suggested options offered by voice assistants – one being their private label or another low-cost product. Convenient, reliable, and effective products can still become the kind of star brand that people refuse to go without. Another option is to go niche and develop brands that algorithms recognize as the first choice for niche audiences. These “tribal” brands can develop strong emotional connections with customers that go beyond product specifications: They relate to people’s values and reflect their aspirations. Passive selection: Contrary to popular perception, passive shoppers could be a huge opportunity in many categories. Attracting them could mean doing the work for time-starved consumers faced with an endless aisle of often confusing product choices, but little interest in sorting through them all. Brands can take the guesswork out of the process by providing personalized product recommendations. These shoppers have never been the priority of the industry. Winning over these consumers would require brands to win on both customer delight and efficacy. Such efficacy can only come from customized and curated “product matchmaking”. The opportunity lies in finding and wooing “the customer who is not looking for you.” Tags: Mediacom, Voice assistant, Read the full article

[ruffoverthinksthings]

Any funny/quirky headcanons about the jump in technological literacy/competence on the part of the main HOND cast? Esmeralda and cellphones, Phoebus and the tv./Call of Duty videogames or Quasimodo and radios? How would they deal with the technological advances? Such a jump into a world like that would have them all convinced that witchcraft does exist(and think Frollo was right for the time being) so how do they get over this?

Inmy headcanon timeline, Auradon had already exposed majority of thestates’ home realms to the concepts of advanced technology likewhat you’d find in London, so they’re either aware it isn’t witchcraft, or know it’s a benign, helpful form of “otherworldly sorcery.”

Inmostly non-magical and pre-industrial worlds like the The Hunchbackof Notre Dame, however, it was largely just theory and informationsharing that they were unable to put into practice, as they didn’thave the infrastructure nor the capability to make that huge of aleap in their technology.

Leap-froggingin real life only really works when you have easy access to the moreadvanced culture’s tech, and doing that with smartphones inmedieval France requires the large-scale creation of cell-towers, apower grid, or at least a charging cable attached to a dynamo, if allyou really want to do is take photos or play Flappy Bird.

Nevermindall the much larger industrial scale advancements such as greenenergy, motorized public transportation, or computerized recordsystems.

Soit is that all of the cast members of the Hunchback of Notre Dame(and sequel) were completely, totally new to actually usingtechnology.

Esmeraldaadapts to it very quickly, being as fluent as most firstworld inhabitants today are with the language of the internet,smartphones, and social media. She is always keen on knowing all thelatest advancements and trends, and whether or not there really isanything worth trading up for with the newest ayGem.

(“Ifthere’s a Z after the number, skip it. If your phone breaks or getslost, ask for the same model. Unless there’s a recall or a major,publicly known issue, the salespeople will always claim that it’sbetter to trade-up, but don’t, they’ll have to give you the samemodel eventually.”)

AsI mentioned in past headcanons, information and communication for theRomani people and other “outcasts” of Auradon’s are one of themost important currencies and means of survival, and the internethelps with that greatly.

Alongsidethat, it allows the largely nomadic or constantly traveling bands tokeep in touch with one another, and organize and ply their trades inconvenient, effective ways they never could have imagined BGU.

Forone, the “Etsy” of Auradon is filled with a lot of the craftsmen,blacksmiths, and artisans that were put out of business byindustrialization, delivering hand-crafted work at a massive mark-up,or with tons of incentive from the government—majority of theircustomers are royals and other aristocrats looking for the braggingrights, and the “buying good deeds” aspect of it thanfunctionality, anyway.

Foranother, the festivals and shows like Esmeralda’s street dancingand Clopin’s entire shtick become incredibly easy for them now thatthey have the capability to be easily booked for private shows,smaller venues, and can oftentimes bypass the inevitable problems ofdealing with the local government, having to perform in whichevercity you’re passing by or else starving to death, and thelogistical issues of holding a show.

ThatYouTube and StoryBook are great avenues for attracting new fans,profiting off old content cheaply, and advertising new live showshelps greatly.

Inshort, because it’s practical and the new reality of her job as anentertainer, Esmeralda takes like a duck to water with modern tech.

Phoebusis the exact opposite of her.

Bothbecause he is much older than the rest of the cast and has beendealing with the “slow, traditional” methods all his life,suddenly switching gears to the much faster, much more complicated(if you’re a “Traveler” like him), and very much alien“Internet Age” is incredibly difficult for him.

Onthe problem of crime, he’s stunned and confused by how millions andbillions of Silver Dollars can be lost through improperly reportedtaxes, and that it doesn’t involve a massive bank being robbed byarmed mercenaries with an entire caravan’s worth of carts andreally strong horses to physically haul away that much metal.

(Healso has a LOT of trouble collecting his pay through an automatedsavings account owned by the Royal Guard, than getting a bag of coinsas was standard.)

Thedramatic restructuring of the Royal Guard also bothers him, as thechain of command and “business as usual” is an entirely new beasthere. Suddenly, there’s no need for staff for messengers andscribes, officers can coordinate directly with their troops and areexpected to take up much larger workloads as a result, and a LOT ofthe former soldiers and mercenaries were laid off as Auradon simplydoesn’t need that many warm bodies who can fight for their securityneeds.

Thefirst time he realizes that his staff of three people is enough foran entire street block is mind-boggling to him, largelybecause one of them is a dedicated surveillance expert who can “seeeverything going on, anywhere” with the help of security camerasand the internet, the other two are on -call for dispatching shouldtrouble actually occur.

“Butwhat if we have an even bigger situation that needs more men?”Phoebus asks. “And women, and non-binary genders!”

“Thenwe just call for back-up,” his IT expert replies. “Hell, we caneven give them a live-feed and reports in real-time so they knowexactly what they’re dealing with before they even get here.”

Byfar the worst problem for him, though, is day to day communication,largely done through a secure intranet in the Royal Guard issuedphones and computers, which he dislikes in favour of writtencommunications (“in paper and ink!”) and actually talking topeople face-to-face.

Thisis best exemplified by his once getting reprimanded and dragged to ameeting he had no idea was a thing, and that he was supposed topreside over.

“Whywasn’t I told about this?!” Phoebus asks as someone gives him theagenda.

“Wesent out a Garrison-Wide e-mail, sir!” someone tells him.

Inshort, Phoebus is an old dog, it’s hard for him to learn newtricks, and Esmeralda has to spend a LOT of time and all manner oftactics to get him to regularly check his phone for communications.

Beforeyou ask, she makes VERY good use of her (extremely popular)Instagram and Snapchat for this.

Zephyr,as I’ve already said, takes to the new technology as children arewont to do: like a sponge, absorbing everything there is to know.

HisHero Rising gaming career aside, it quickly becomes in hisbest interest to know all about social media, promotion, and internetcoordination to make tournaments easy, and fight other players allthe way on the other side of the realm.

Unlikehis father, he also has a LOT of free time to learn and experiment,and if nothing else, the Auradon school curriculum emphasizestechnological literacy.

Quasimododoesn’t really use the internet, as he’s “spent long enoughcooped up indoors all day, watching the world go by, but never reallybeing a part of it.” Madellaine thinks differently, andjoins Esmeralda on her adventures in learning all the trappings, thehorrors, and the benefits of the internet and social media.

Chiefly,she has a YouTube Vlog and an Instagram account which she uses todocument her and her husband’s numerous adventures all throughoutAuradon, ignoring all “The Sights” like Agrabah’s palace, NotreDame the church, and Castle DunBroch in DunBroch, in favour ofadventures with all the backalleys, out-of-the-way villages, andespecially the forgotten tourist spots that have suffered and seen amassive decline for all manner of reasons.

Shealso has a habit of pulling out her phone and showing people her“most flattering picture” of her husband before they meet her inperson, so he doesn’t need to personally experience their(oftentimes negative) reaction to Quasimodo’s condition.

Thetwo of them have helped a lot with Auradon’s acceptance of the“other” and the “less sunshine and smiles” side of theirworld, such as with helping the Merry Men (and their Maidens) plusthe more remote parts of Sherwood Forest, Agrabah, the Borderlands,Faraway, and other remote, non-Neverland states find a living, andnew life in this brand-new world.

Andfor however much Madellaine is insistent on capturing and recordingpretty much everything they come across, there are entire days thatshe shuts off her phone for all but the most important calls, andjust enjoys everything as is, making memories “in her head”rather than “in her hard drive.”

Personally,Quasimodo wishes that she would cut down or completely stop thehabit, as he finds that her videos and her pictures are “toocurated, edited, and filtered” compared to what life actually is:“messy, ugly, but still beautiful.”

Still,he has to admit that it warms his heart to connect with fellowoutcasts, people he wouldn’t have met without the help of theinternet.

Inshort, Madellaine takes to it like a duck to water and is the girlalways taking selfies, Quasimodo is the one with her that smiles forthe shot, and tells her when it’s time to put the phone away.

[leroyamyterry-blog]

Alka Lamba Quits AAP For Congress With Parting Shot At Arvind Kejriwal

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[davidamosley]

The Art of Instagram Etiquette

    "I'm so happy I found your account! I see your work all over the place, but I never knew who made it!" 

This was a comment I received on Instagram last week, and it's not the first of its kind. Last week I hit the 100,000 follower mark on Instagram, which, silly as it sounds, was a big deal to me. I know I'm supposed to act like I don't care about followers and these numbers don't matter, but when you're a brand — when you work hard to put up content almost daily and the number of people you reach correlates to your ability to actually afford groceries and rent — these numbers do matter. It was a really exciting milestone for me, but its brought to the surface some really mixed feelings I have about Instagram.

I love Instagram, obviously, and I want the platform to continue to thrive, but there are some major downsides for creators. Creators post on there, driving traffic to the app, but, unlike a platform like YouTube, creators aren't compensated for all of the work they do to bring people to the app. That's a big scale problem, and one that I don't have the capacity to directly address, but there's also the sharing (and, all too often, stealing) issue, which is what I want to talk about here. 

Before I get into it, I have to admit that writing about this is difficult for me, because I feel the following: 

Worried that I'll sound ungrateful for my audience

Silly for being angry about something like Instagram

Embarrassed that my ego is possessive of my work

Annoyed that I have to care about "credit" as a creator

But, as uncomfortable as I feel writing this, it's something I've been wanting to talk about for a long time. See, over the past few years, things have changed a lot in terms of Positively Present's content and audience. Part of this has been my personal growth, my desire to create and share art in addition to writing, and part of it is a shift in the way people consume content online. I used to just write (and occasionally create images or illustrations) here on the site. They would get shared, yes, but typically with a link to the site so it was a give-and-take situation: someone would take my work and share it and, in return, I would be given the opportunity to reach new people. But, with Instagram, all of that's different now. It's a lot more take than give. Because Instagram doesn't make it easy to share links (particularly if you don't have a large account) or credit creators, it's up to individuals to give credit, and many people don't know how (or even that they should). 

I've shared guidelines before (the number of times a day I have to write "Check the FAQ story highlights for details on sharing!" is mind-boggling), but I thought I'd write them out again here. Keep reading for more on why these guidelines are so important for creators ('cause it's about way more than wanting more followers!).  

   PERSONAL ACCOUNT GUIDELINES

Creators love when personal accounts share their work because we're getting a real, positive promotion from someone who genuinely likes our work and wants to share it with family and friends. Unfortunately, because the everyday Instagram user often isn't familiar with Instagram etiquette, they often don't know to credit properly. Here's the deal:  

Always mention the creator in the first two lines of the caption.

Always tag the creator in the image itself.

Never filter, crop, or edit the image (doing so is changing the work without permission).

Never share a bunch of one creator's photos in a row (it's just rude. and weird.).

Consider purchasing something from a creator, particularly if you share the work frequently.

Stop following freebooting accounts (see below) and follow creators instead. 

  BRAND ACCOUNT GUIDELINES    Ideally, brands should be paying creators to make content for them — particularly the large brands — but since this isn't how things seem to work for the most part, at the very least, brands should do the following: 

Always ask permission before sharing. Large brands that have shared my work, magazines like Shape, Glamour, and Teen Vogue, do this. Smaller brands frequently do not, and it's problematic because no creator wants their work connected to a cause / product / celebrity they don't support.

Always mention the creator in the first two lines of the caption. This is especially important for brands to do because, if you're getting content for free, the very least you can do is drive some traffic to the creator's account. 

Always tag the creator in the image itself.

Never filter, crop, or edit the image (doing so is changing the work without a creator's permission).

Never share a bunch of one creator's photos in a row (it's just rude. and weird.).

Never imply the creator is a partner of or affiliated with the brand (unless a paid partnership is in place). 

Never use an image to promote a sale, promotion, event, or other business-related content. 

Hire the creators you really like to create custom work for you. It's way cooler than just reposting! 

  FREEBOOTING ACCOUNT GUIDELINES

Freebooting accounts are Instagram accounts (like this and this) that do not create any of their own content, but instead share only other people's content to grow their own page. I'm not fully aware of the purpose of this and, in many cases, I don't believe it's malicious, but it's still harmful to creators and particularly unfair when these freebooting accounts grow very large and receive compensation in the form of sponsorships, ads, and other partnerships — all while creating no work of their own. 

Never share creators' work unless you're going to create work of your own. 

If you want to curate things, hop over to Pinterest. That's what it's for. 

Why are you doing this? What are you getting out of it? Likes? Stop it. 

Just cut it out.

No. 

Stop. 

Seriously. Why? 

  So, why these guidelines? Why not just share my work and not worry about the credit? (A creator I love specifically says that anyone can share her work without credit and, as much as I love the idea of that — so selfless! so altruistic! — it plays all too well into the age-old tale of the starving artist, the notion that, in order to be creative, one doesn't actually make a living off one's work.) In reality, credit — as silly as it sounds — is a huge deal for creators.  

As far as I can tell, there's never been a period of time in history where creators' works were just taken and used whenever and wherever. If, back in the day, you owned an art shop, you couldn't just take a painter's work and then sell it as your own without physically stealing the paintings. Now, it's just a few taps on your phone, and you can take creative content and share it. For free. All the sharing is wonderful in that in can, if an image is credited properly, drive traffic to a creator's account. 

But, most of the time, creators' work isn't credited properly (or at all). I personally struggle with this a great deal. On one hand, I want to be open and carefree and think, I'm just generous creator and I'm happy to have my work shared and appreciated, even if I don't receive any appreciation or compensation for it. But another part of me can't seem to shake the notion that this work is mine. It whispers to me, You worked so hard on this. Why shouldn't you receive credit or, god forbid, compensation for what you've done? 

I don't want to feel the "mine-ness" of my work, but I do. Every time I see my work shared without credit, it feels like a sharp sting, a pinprick in my heart. Every time I see my work with the signature removed — someone's deliberate attempt to claim it as their own — it feels like I've been shoved to the ground, wind knocked out of me. 

This feeling of ownership is a strange mix of selfishness (That's mine!, my mind squeals like a toddler when her toy has been snatched away) and selflessness (Hey! When you just share others' work, you're really missing out on the joy of creating it yourself!, my mind also exclaims.) It sounds silly to say, but I almost feel guilty, being part of this culture that encourages people to look and share rather than make and create. Sometimes it feels like I'm spinning around on a giant dance floor — not the best dancer in the world, but having a damn good time — with all of these people standing on the sidelines saying, "Wow! I love your dance moves! That looks fun!" and I want to yell, If you like it, get out here! Try it. Make something! 

It makes me wonder: Why are creators giving so much away for free? (Answer: Because they have to in order to gain followers and be considered "successful" enough to be worthy of brand deals, ads, book contracts, etc.) What kinds of creativity are we losing by staring at screens filled with things other people have made instead of making things ourselves? (Answer: Unknown, but probably a lot of cool stuff!) Maybe we'd be better off if people put down their phones and picked up a pencil or a paintbrush. Perhaps this makes me sound ungrateful and petulant, but I'm constantly conflicted by the desire to make work that is appreciated and the desire to work alone quietly, undetected. And, as strange as it might sound if you're not in the same position, it's actually really stressful to be torn between these two things.

You might be thinking at this point: If you're so bothered by this, why don't you just not share it? Or just post it on your website? There are two main reasons I continue to share my work on Instagram (and other social media platforms): (1) It's one of the best ways to grow an audience and, therefore, make enough money to (barely...) be able to afford food, and (2) I genuinely enjoy it and want to help people. Have you ever heard that old saying, What would you do all day if you didn't have to worry about money? Well, I'm doing it. I love writing and drawing and creating and sharing and helping other people with simple things that speak to them. I really do. I don't really care about getting credit — yes, there's a part of me that thinks "mine!" but most of me really just wants to make things, even if no one sees them — but I do care about making a living and, like it or not, getting credit indirectly leads to getting paid.  

With this post, it’s not my intention to sound whiny or thankless — particularly amidst the joy of reaching a big Instagram milestone! 100k! Hooray!! — but, as much as social media feels like a frivolous time-waster, for a lot of creators — including me! — it’s really not. It matters. It's how we find work, sell products, build brands that will attract publishing houses or product distributors or whoever else can help us to grow our businesses. And, remember: the more a creator succeeds, the more content you'll likely get.

Mostly, I just wanted to get all of this out of my mind and into words. It's a weird and wonderful time to be a creative, and I'm incredibly grateful for all of the appreciation and opportunities that have come my way as a result of Instagram (and social media in general), but I think it's important for people who aren't creators — those who are consuming the content — to think about the other side to all of this free art. Creators are real people, people who work really hard to make things, and if you like what they do, you should support them — at the very least, by crediting their work, but, if you can, by actually paying for their work. 

If you can, buy something from a creator you follow this week. Pick up an art print. Buy a book. Or, if that's not an option, try creating something yourself. Above all, that's what I'd really love to see: more people creating, fewer people consuming. (Stay tuned for more on this soon!) 

I obviously had a lot to say on this subject, but I'd love to hear from you, too! Are you a creator? What is your experience with Instagram / sharing / social media? If you're not a creator, do you think about this? What are your thoughts now? Let me know in the comments section below!  

[lucyariablog]

How to Find a Writer Who Won’t Kill Your Content

Below the erupting volcano of content – billions of new articles every month – a secret army is hard at work.

Wherever marketers create e-books, run webinars, promote blogs, and craft events, artisans are hammering, hacking, and whittling the words. These writers make content marketing run. Alas, much of what they produce is junk.

Lots of content goes unread, and not for a lack of bullhorn-blowing. Much of it is poorly written. Eighty-one percent of a group of professionals say poorly written content wastes their time and, in the 25.5 hours they spend reading each week, much of the content they see is “too long, poorly organized, unclear, filled with jargon, and imprecise.”

No matter how much you prepare yourself, your in-house or freelance writers are the ultimate arbiters of content quality. If they mangle the piece, it’s typically for one of two reasons – they aren’t the right writer or you’re feeding them garbage.

Writers mangle #content for 2 reasons. They aren’t the right writer or they were fed garbage. @cgillespie31 Click To Tweet

Here’s how to fix both problems.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 27 Reasons Why Your Content Sucks

Finding Mr. or Ms. Write

As the chief content creator for Find A Way Media, I’m both a writer and an employer of freelancers. The responsibility for great content lies with the employer; it’s the organization that must deliver results – it’s up to managers to find the writers to do that.

Finding the right writer can be like apartment hunting in New York City: After the 10th viewing, your brain begins to melt and you’re willing to settle for anything just to make it stop. But you can shorten the search if you understand what type of writer you need.

Most writers fall into three broad categories:

Journalists – Trained to be precise, journalists are supposed to adhere to a code of ethics and be objective. This makes them excellent fact-checkers and concise writers, but they often dislike self-promotion and find the principles of marketing foreign. Writing content for marketing takes some adjustment.

Copywriters – These are writers raised in the marketing world. They’re often bloggers. They understand web writing, headlines, SEO, and marketing, and intuitively grasp what the business wants to accomplish. But, they often lack the fact-checking and literary finesse of journalists.

Novelists – This category encapsulates people who write as an art and merely freelance to fund their passion. They are screenwriters, comedians, essayists, playwrights, and novelists. I’ve never found one who cut it as a content writer. That’s not to say they can’t be found, but they are rare.

In my experience, you’re best off seeking someone with experience as a copywriter or a journalist and helping them develop any skills they lack.

Your best #content bet? Hire a copywriter/journalist & train them on the skills they lack. @cgillespie31 Click To Tweet

To further whittle your list, consider the trade-off between writing proficiency and subject expertise. These factors don’t have to be at odds, but they often are. Most writers either excel at their craft but are unfamiliar with your topic or are well versed in an industry but middling writers.

Which is better? That depends on how you plan to support them.

When in doubt, lean toward writing proficiency. It’s better to be read and shared than to expertly shout into the wind and wonder why nobody likes you. You can always have the writer interview subject-matter experts.

If your content topics are highly technical or emotional in nature, however, it can be better to select a subject expert. Real expertise is tough to fake. Writers for an analytics company, for example, will struggle if they aren’t familiar with concepts like regression analysis.

If your organization crafts content for a tight-knit audience whose members share a common experience, such as startup founders, a writer who isn’t an expert may not work well. A writer who has lived that entrepreneurial life and knows the misery of not closing a round of funding is more likely to be convincing.

Where can you find your ideal writer? Broadly consider these four places:

Writer job boards: These forums connect writers and employers, and include Problogger, Writer’s Den, the Freelancer’s Union, Craigslist, or LinkedIn groups. Because they’re often lightly moderated, the quality of applicants is across the board. (No pun intended.)

Freelancing platforms: Sites like Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer.com add automation to the mix. You can view the writers’ profiles, client reviews, and past work. But, with millions of freelancers, it takes a lot of dredging to find gems.

Content marketing platforms: Content platforms are pricier than other alternatives, but potentially worth the cost. Platforms like Contently, Skyword, and NewsCred curate their pool of writers and sometimes provide an editor who ensures top quality.

Referrals and word of mouth: Of all the options, referrals net the best results. As a rule, the best writers rarely look for work. They’re inundated with clients starving for their unicorn-rare mixture of writing proficiency and industry expertise. The easiest way to find them is to simply ask around.

Now, to evaluate candidates, just looking at their past work won’t do. Always ask them to write a test article. According to Brad Hamilton, editor-in-chief of the investigative journalism nonprofit The Hatch Institute, “You can’t tell how good someone is based on something they’ve published – you never know, they might have had a fantastic editor.”

Finding the correct writer takes time. It is work. But unless you’re happy to spend money on content nobody will read, it’s worth it. Once you’re certain you have that writer, it’s your job to give them something worth writing about.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

Are You Ready to Hire Quality for Your Content Team?

How to Speed Up the Process to Find and Hire Top Content Marketing Talent

10 Interview Questions to Help You Separate Content Marketing Rock Stars From Wannabes

Supply your writer with substance

The first rule of content writing is GIGO – garbage in, garbage out. If you don’t supply your writer with substantive, thought-provoking material, they’re unlikely to invent it. It’s like casting a great actor in a movie with a rotten script. (John Travolta in Battlefield Earth, anyone?)

The first rule of #content writing is GIGO – garbage in, garbage out, says @cgillespie31. Click To Tweet

I’ve been in too many conference rooms with clients who think they should be creating content because, well, everyone else is. They think it’s simply a matter of filling a bucket with words. Sometimes they start the conversation about content marketing services by asking, “Do I need to do anything?” Yes, of course you do. You are the marketer, after all. You’re the one who should have an iron grip on your company’s ideal buyer persona and should feed the writer, not the other way around.

TIP: If your writers don’t understand your buyer persona, they’re writing for themselves. Or you. But certainly not for your customer. It’s how you get bland-as-sawdust content that feels disingenuous or simply doesn’t resonate.

What can you give your writer to improve their writing?

Six-step checklist to help your writers be better

Buyer persona research: The more your writer can get inside your customer’s head, the more precise the writing will be.

Access to your team: Most writers do better work when they feel included. Invite them to the office to meet your team and set up ongoing opportunities for them to communicate with the team.

Access to your customers: For all writers, eventually the well of ideas runs dry. Give them ways to get reinvigorated, such as interviewing customers. It breaks them out of their pattern and gives you a never-ending fountain of fresh, authentic stories. 

Data: Content marketing writers rarely see data on how their writing performs. Sure, they might see the number of shares, but they don’t get to track their engagement from piece to piece or A/B headlines. Subscribe them to access performance reports in your marketing system or Google Analytics.

Feedback: Most writers never get more feedback than “thanks.” If they don’t know how they did, they can’t grow. Always track and share edits in Microsoft Word. Even better, build a style guide together. It’ll save you both a lot of time. 

Structure: If every deadline feels like an emergency, your content quality suffers. “I’ve never regretted waiting until the next day to publish,” says Caroline Vella, freelance content writer and editor. “I can’t say the same about rushing work through. Sleeping on it not only saves you from mistakes, but it also brings a fresh perspective.”

To provide structure to your writers, consider a project management tool like Trello, Asana, or, my favorite, a shared G Suite document with links. Oh, and invest in a written content marketing strategy.

Marketers must remain in writing process

It’s been a journey, so let’s recap. Have research? Have data? Have structure? Great. You’re halfway to effective writing. The next part of the road? Marketers must remain heavily involved in the creation process if they want results.

Writers can't do all the #contentmarketing. Marketers must be involved in the process. @cgillespie31 Click To Tweet

Marketers frequently want to set the strategy then ask the writer to run the content operation. They are abnegating their role as editor. It’s one thing to be creative and ideate, it’s another to call the shots. Rarely can one person do both.

If marketers entrust their writers with the responsibility to do it all, those marketers often develop a case of what the eminent psychologist and author of the book Influence, Robert Cialdini, calls the tapping problem. One test subject, the tapper, is asked to think of a song and tap the beat on the table. The other test subject, the listener, is asked to guess the song.

You can try this with a colleague. You’ll find tappers invariably get frustrated that listeners don’t know the song. “How could you not know,” they may sputter. These tappers fail to realize the song is only obvious to them because they hear the tune in their head.

Marketers who don’t offer clear briefs with suggested outcomes, quotes, links, and statistics to their writers are like tappers. They shouldn’t be surprised when their writers create something different than what they had in mind.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

5 Steps to Prime Your Creatives to Produce Outstanding, Clutter-Busting Content

Road Map to Success: Creating the Content of Your Audience’s Dreams

Behind all great content, there’s a writer

Great content doesn’t happen by accident. Neither does great writing. If marketers want to savor the results of content marketing, they must invest in finding and nurturing the writers who ultimately determine its worth. For their part, writers need to see content creation as a partnership in which they receive substantive information to build from and feedback to improve.

When marketers are paired with the correct writers, magic happens. And that’s when you get truly high-performing content.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 7 Fixes for Common Writing Mistakes [Examples]

Please note: All tools included in our blog posts are suggested by authors, not the CMI editorial team. No one post can provide all relevant tools in the space. Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones that you have used).

Ensuring better content also requires ongoing education, fresh tips, and expert insight. Get that and more at Content Marketing World Sept. 4-7 in Cleveland, Ohio. Register by May 31 for early-bird savings and use code BLOG100 to save an additional $100.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post How to Find a Writer Who Won’t Kill Your Content appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

from https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2018/05/find-writer-content/

[hotspreadpage]

How to Find a Writer Who Won’t Kill Your Content

Below the erupting volcano of content – billions of new articles every month – a secret army is hard at work.

Wherever marketers create e-books, run webinars, promote blogs, and craft events, artisans are hammering, hacking, and whittling the words. These writers make content marketing run. Alas, much of what they produce is junk.

Lots of content goes unread, and not for a lack of bullhorn-blowing. Much of it is poorly written. Eighty-one percent of a group of professionals say poorly written content wastes their time and, in the 25.5 hours they spend reading each week, much of the content they see is “too long, poorly organized, unclear, filled with jargon, and imprecise.”

No matter how much you prepare yourself, your in-house or freelance writers are the ultimate arbiters of content quality. If they mangle the piece, it’s typically for one of two reasons – they aren’t the right writer or you’re feeding them garbage.

Writers mangle #content for 2 reasons. They aren’t the right writer or they were fed garbage. @cgillespie31 Click To Tweet

Here’s how to fix both problems.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 27 Reasons Why Your Content Sucks

Finding Mr. or Ms. Write

As the chief content creator for Find A Way Media, I’m both a writer and an employer of freelancers. The responsibility for great content lies with the employer; it’s the organization that must deliver results – it’s up to managers to find the writers to do that.

Finding the right writer can be like apartment hunting in New York City: After the 10th viewing, your brain begins to melt and you’re willing to settle for anything just to make it stop. But you can shorten the search if you understand what type of writer you need.

Most writers fall into three broad categories:

Journalists – Trained to be precise, journalists are supposed to adhere to a code of ethics and be objective. This makes them excellent fact-checkers and concise writers, but they often dislike self-promotion and find the principles of marketing foreign. Writing content for marketing takes some adjustment.

Copywriters – These are writers raised in the marketing world. They’re often bloggers. They understand web writing, headlines, SEO, and marketing, and intuitively grasp what the business wants to accomplish. But, they often lack the fact-checking and literary finesse of journalists.

Novelists – This category encapsulates people who write as an art and merely freelance to fund their passion. They are screenwriters, comedians, essayists, playwrights, and novelists. I’ve never found one who cut it as a content writer. That’s not to say they can’t be found, but they are rare.

In my experience, you’re best off seeking someone with experience as a copywriter or a journalist and helping them develop any skills they lack.

Your best #content bet? Hire a copywriter/journalist & train them on the skills they lack. @cgillespie31 Click To Tweet

To further whittle your list, consider the trade-off between writing proficiency and subject expertise. These factors don’t have to be at odds, but they often are. Most writers either excel at their craft but are unfamiliar with your topic or are well versed in an industry but middling writers.

Which is better? That depends on how you plan to support them.

When in doubt, lean toward writing proficiency. It’s better to be read and shared than to expertly shout into the wind and wonder why nobody likes you. You can always have the writer interview subject-matter experts.

If your content topics are highly technical or emotional in nature, however, it can be better to select a subject expert. Real expertise is tough to fake. Writers for an analytics company, for example, will struggle if they aren’t familiar with concepts like regression analysis.

If your organization crafts content for a tight-knit audience whose members share a common experience, such as startup founders, a writer who isn’t an expert may not work well. A writer who has lived that entrepreneurial life and knows the misery of not closing a round of funding is more likely to be convincing.

Where can you find your ideal writer? Broadly consider these four places:

Writer job boards: These forums connect writers and employers, and include Problogger, Writer’s Den, the Freelancer’s Union, Craigslist, or LinkedIn groups. Because they’re often lightly moderated, the quality of applicants is across the board. (No pun intended.)

Freelancing platforms: Sites like Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer.com add automation to the mix. You can view the writers’ profiles, client reviews, and past work. But, with millions of freelancers, it takes a lot of dredging to find gems.

Content marketing platforms: Content platforms are pricier than other alternatives, but potentially worth the cost. Platforms like Contently, Skyword, and NewsCred curate their pool of writers and sometimes provide an editor who ensures top quality.

Referrals and word of mouth: Of all the options, referrals net the best results. As a rule, the best writers rarely look for work. They’re inundated with clients starving for their unicorn-rare mixture of writing proficiency and industry expertise. The easiest way to find them is to simply ask around.

Now, to evaluate candidates, just looking at their past work won’t do. Always ask them to write a test article. According to Brad Hamilton, editor-in-chief of the investigative journalism nonprofit The Hatch Institute, “You can’t tell how good someone is based on something they’ve published – you never know, they might have had a fantastic editor.”

Finding the correct writer takes time. It is work. But unless you’re happy to spend money on content nobody will read, it’s worth it. Once you’re certain you have that writer, it’s your job to give them something worth writing about.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

Are You Ready to Hire Quality for Your Content Team?

How to Speed Up the Process to Find and Hire Top Content Marketing Talent

10 Interview Questions to Help You Separate Content Marketing Rock Stars From Wannabes

Supply your writer with substance

The first rule of content writing is GIGO – garbage in, garbage out. If you don’t supply your writer with substantive, thought-provoking material, they’re unlikely to invent it. It’s like casting a great actor in a movie with a rotten script. (John Travolta in Battlefield Earth, anyone?)

The first rule of #content writing is GIGO – garbage in, garbage out, says @cgillespie31. Click To Tweet

I’ve been in too many conference rooms with clients who think they should be creating content because, well, everyone else is. They think it’s simply a matter of filling a bucket with words. Sometimes they start the conversation about content marketing services by asking, “Do I need to do anything?” Yes, of course you do. You are the marketer, after all. You’re the one who should have an iron grip on your company’s ideal buyer persona and should feed the writer, not the other way around.

TIP: If your writers don’t understand your buyer persona, they’re writing for themselves. Or you. But certainly not for your customer. It’s how you get bland-as-sawdust content that feels disingenuous or simply doesn’t resonate.

What can you give your writer to improve their writing?

Six-step checklist to help your writers be better

Buyer persona research: The more your writer can get inside your customer’s head, the more precise the writing will be.

Access to your team: Most writers do better work when they feel included. Invite them to the office to meet your team and set up ongoing opportunities for them to communicate with the team.

Access to your customers: For all writers, eventually the well of ideas runs dry. Give them ways to get reinvigorated, such as interviewing customers. It breaks them out of their pattern and gives you a never-ending fountain of fresh, authentic stories. 

Data: Content marketing writers rarely see data on how their writing performs. Sure, they might see the number of shares, but they don’t get to track their engagement from piece to piece or A/B headlines. Subscribe them to access performance reports in your marketing system or Google Analytics.

Feedback: Most writers never get more feedback than “thanks.” If they don’t know how they did, they can’t grow. Always track and share edits in Microsoft Word. Even better, build a style guide together. It’ll save you both a lot of time. 

Structure: If every deadline feels like an emergency, your content quality suffers. “I’ve never regretted waiting until the next day to publish,” says Caroline Vella, freelance content writer and editor. “I can’t say the same about rushing work through. Sleeping on it not only saves you from mistakes, but it also brings a fresh perspective.”

To provide structure to your writers, consider a project management tool like Trello, Asana, or, my favorite, a shared G Suite document with links. Oh, and invest in a written content marketing strategy.

Marketers must remain in writing process

It’s been a journey, so let’s recap. Have research? Have data? Have structure? Great. You’re halfway to effective writing. The next part of the road? Marketers must remain heavily involved in the creation process if they want results.

Writers can't do all the #contentmarketing. Marketers must be involved in the process. @cgillespie31 Click To Tweet

Marketers frequently want to set the strategy then ask the writer to run the content operation. They are abnegating their role as editor. It’s one thing to be creative and ideate, it’s another to call the shots. Rarely can one person do both.

If marketers entrust their writers with the responsibility to do it all, those marketers often develop a case of what the eminent psychologist and author of the book Influence, Robert Cialdini, calls the tapping problem. One test subject, the tapper, is asked to think of a song and tap the beat on the table. The other test subject, the listener, is asked to guess the song.

You can try this with a colleague. You’ll find tappers invariably get frustrated that listeners don’t know the song. “How could you not know,” they may sputter. These tappers fail to realize the song is only obvious to them because they hear the tune in their head.

Marketers who don’t offer clear briefs with suggested outcomes, quotes, links, and statistics to their writers are like tappers. They shouldn’t be surprised when their writers create something different than what they had in mind.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

5 Steps to Prime Your Creatives to Produce Outstanding, Clutter-Busting Content

Road Map to Success: Creating the Content of Your Audience’s Dreams

Behind all great content, there’s a writer

Great content doesn’t happen by accident. Neither does great writing. If marketers want to savor the results of content marketing, they must invest in finding and nurturing the writers who ultimately determine its worth. For their part, writers need to see content creation as a partnership in which they receive substantive information to build from and feedback to improve.

When marketers are paired with the correct writers, magic happens. And that’s when you get truly high-performing content.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 7 Fixes for Common Writing Mistakes [Examples]

Please note: All tools included in our blog posts are suggested by authors, not the CMI editorial team. No one post can provide all relevant tools in the space. Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones that you have used).

Ensuring better content also requires ongoing education, fresh tips, and expert insight. Get that and more at Content Marketing World Sept. 4-7 in Cleveland, Ohio. Register by May 31 for early-bird savings and use code BLOG100 to save an additional $100.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post How to Find a Writer Who Won’t Kill Your Content appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

How to Find a Writer Who Won’t Kill Your Content syndicated from https://hotspread.wordpress.com

[jccamus]

The world of Voice AI according to Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk and his agency Vayner Media are already known for dominating and owning social media. But now they're turning their attentions to Voice AI. We caught up with Gary to talk about the massive opportunities and challenges that a future of talking to machines presents. Here's the conversation in full: 

Can we establish your views on how revolutionary Voice AI is and is going to be in our day to day lives 

It’s going to be one of the core pillars of our interaction. I would say in a decade it’s going to rival  the cell phone as we know it today. Ultimately because of how much time we spend the cell phone will continue to be the primary, but I genuinely believe that voice AI enabled devices and infrastructure is going to become as crucial as the cell phone in the way we interact with technology. 

Let’s talk about control for a second. That dynamic between the user, the brands and the platforms (the machines/the device). Who’s actually in control here? 

The software’s in control and then the device that delivers it. I mean, we have to go a little further in that question, the consumer is in control of everything because if you don’t choose to have that device you don’t have it. But once you enter that fray, the relationship changes and then the device starts the process of taking over. 

So in the context of brands using Voice AI, how can they compete in this space? Will platforms ultimately decide what content users encounter?. Are there ways in which brands can maximize or optimize their presence whether that’s voice SEO or paid voice AI? What are the type of things that brands should be thinking about? 

I think ultimately we’re going to get into an environment where there are apps built on top of these devices and brands and businesses and entrepreneurs need to try to become the voice versions of WAZE, Spotify, Instagram and all the other monster businesses that were built on top [of the smartphone]. One could have formed this argument when the iPhone came out, like Apple can control, Apple can make. Ultimately these platforms make a hell of a lot more money if they’re frenemies with the brands. Amazon’s not going to private label every single category quickly. So I’m a big believer that brands need to understand these platforms (whether that’s voice or social) and they need to find the right cadence and the most value out of it, while recognizing that they’re not fully in control. 

There are some who think it’s a mistake to put your brand in the hands of a third party, letting the likes of Amazon or Apple speak for your company. How do you still maintain a voice (pardon the pun!) as a brand using Voice AI?

I mean, what’s the alternative, right? Let’s talk about the number of businesses that are not leveraging Google or Facebook or TV. That’s just the game. If you wanna build a brand and build awareness you are going to rent space at some point. Driving them to your environment and collecting first party data is the game, right? I think it’s a mistake to rely solely on anything, look at the biggest brands in the world they were relying on Walmart. That was a mistake. They’re going to end up relying on Amazon. That’s going to be a mistake. So I think it’s a dance and the way you win that dance, and they way I have as a personal brand, and the businesses I’ve helped who’ve won, is by only thinking about the end consumer. 

So if a brand is going to develop Voice AI should it work across different platforms?

Yes, absolutely. I’m already trying to figure out how to work on Google Home Pod, without knowing anything. I’m giving my recommendations because you don’t want to be at the mercy of one, let alone two. Plus you never know who wins, right? Like, I intuitively feel like Amazon has got a real shot here. It’s really hard to completely count out Google and Apple and I still think sneakily in some weird place Facebook is working on something.  

Let’s talk about some of the risk involved. It wouldn’t be technology and there wouldn’t be opportunity without some risks. One of the biggest potential risks of AI, is actually the risk of bias and negative bias. For example, many voice assistants typically have female voices unless you change the settings. 

I think it’s an interesting question. I’m a big fan of intent and also understanding consumer control. So for example, I have a lot of empathy for Google and Amazon, they have to pick one of the voices or they just mash it up to create a neutral voice that doesn’t exist that sounds like a robot, which I don’t think is going to be the best use of their time. If you’re Apple and you’re coming out with your voice, you’re Siri, in essence you’re picking between a man or a woman, right? And in this highly emotional political state you have people react one way or the other. I think for me, what Vayner media is doing about it is, we’re having some interesting conversations like we think brands are actually going to have to have a voice. Like, what does Budweiser sound like? These are conversations we’ve never had before in our lives. Is that Morgan Freeman everytime? Is that a new voice altogether? I recognize that we need to be thoughtful at all times, when you only have an A or B choice, you’ve gotta make a choice. 

In terms of the conversations that could happen within that device, if the predominant group creating AI do not reflect society, what happens then? 

Hold on… You’ve made an assumption, be careful. 

I’m not making an assumption. I’m putting an assertion that out there to you. 

I inform the readers of this article or video, I implore them to do their homework on what’s happening with these things. If you’re in the trenches and you understand the people working on these platforms, look, technology’s heavy handedness and the conversation around it is an interesting one for me because it’s actually very simple: everybody here is a big boy and big girl. If you’re unhappy with Amazon or Google or Apple’s execution around their imposing way, you’re more than welcome to not use them anymore.  All my friends who are deeply conservative who tell me "screw Google because the results that come up have liberal bias", I tell them all the time, you’re more than welcome to use Yahoo. 

Interesting point Gary. But there is certainly a need for inclusion during the development of AI because it’s so important to get it right. 

Are you kidding me? There’s a need for inclusion in every aspect of our lives in both directions. I live in Manhattan, I spend time in Silicon Valley, I have an office in London, LA and in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I don’t think voice, as big a technology space as it is, is the biggest thing we need to address. The human race has things that it needs to look at itself for. I agree voice is going to be a massive platform thus it’s an opportunity for us to have great inclusion. I would argue that what these companies are going to do, is they’re gonna allow you set it up from the get. Like, it’s really easy for these four or five tech companies to allow you to set up Alexa the way you want. Everyone will have complete control over that voice's sound and tone. 

Are we in an era of predictive retail and over personalization? 

Yes, I believe there’s an opportunity for that. But I’d also argue that then comes the new business and media and marketing opportunity. Like Snapchat in the face of an open, social web. So, the answer’s yes. And then, what’s gonna happen is there’s gonna be this huge opportunity to move back into broadcast, because we’re going to be starving for the opposite. That’s the human psychology. Technology is exposing us, not changing us. 

It’s changing us as well, surely?

It’s exposing us, not changing us. We are using these tools and we are big boys and girls. Facebook does very little in comparison to what Network Television does. People have been curated to their whole lives. We make choices everyday. I think there is an enormous lack of responsibility. We have an unbelievable inability to take responsibility for our actions and it feels a hell of a lot better to blame technology than it is to blame ourselves for short comings and ignorance. 

Stephen Hawking passed away recently. There’s been lots of different soundbites about what he’s said about AI i.e. a super intelligence that could spell the end of the human race. But ultimately what he was really saying was that we need to understand this technology and potentially regulate it. Are you of a similar mindset? 

That’s a great question. I genuinely believe that we are naive if we don’t believe that this accelerates to a level that is far beyond our minds. Look at what the sci-fi movies of the 60’s predicted. There are certain things we’re not even close to, but there are also technologies that are far exceeding our dreams. 

You know it’s funny, I’m a boy that was born in the soviet union and grew up in the US, so I have a very interesting dichotomy on regulation and a free market. I’m a big believer in the human spirit. I think the most underestimated thing in the world is human. We’ve been around forever and we’ve gone through unbelievable amounts of things. My question is: look, would I regulate AI today? I intuitively wouldn’t. I believe that would lead to not getting to the opportunity fast enough 

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So you’ve been bitten by a leech. What’s the worst that could happen?

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/so-youve-been-bitten-by-a-leech-whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/

So you’ve been bitten by a leech. What’s the worst that could happen?

Several years ago, emergency physician Jeremy Joslin found himself overseeing an ultramarathon in the backcountry of Cambodia. Once they’d finished the event, many of the athletes wanted to cool off and noticed an inviting stream nearby.

“After a few minutes, the screams started,” says Joslin, who is based at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. It was not long before people began hurrying back to camp—along with the multiple leeches that had become attached to their bodies. The next few days were filled with bandage changes and mild bleeding.

Most leech encounters play out similarly. Finding one of these bloodthirsty worms on your body can be a disturbing experience, but it’s usually not a medical emergency.

Usually. Every once in awhile, leeches can cause some serious and gruesome complications. Here’s what can happen when one of these little suckers bites you, and what you can do about it.

How did it find me?

There are actually plenty of leech species out there that don’t drink blood. However, those that do dine on people dwell both in water and on land. Aquatic leeches are found around the world, while land leeches are common in Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, the Indian subcontinent, and South America.

Leeches sense their prey in a few ways. They are attracted to shadows and disturbances in the water, body heat, and secretions like oil and sweat. Terrestrial leeches, which often perch on foliage while awaiting a meal, also respond to the carbon dioxide you exhale, says Sebastian Kvist, associate curator of invertebrates at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

“Anyone that has performed fieldwork in the tropics of Southeast Asia can attest to the aggressiveness of these leeches,” Kvist said in an email. “They need to be able to feed on anything that crosses their path, and they are very active hunters.”

Leeches come equipped with two suckers, one of which surrounds their three-jawed mouths. Once a leech fastens onto you, it encourages your blood to keep flowing using anticoagulants in its saliva. Some common aquatic leeches can guzzle nearly 10 times their weight in blood during a single feeding, filling their bellies for a year or more.

There are a few situations where leeches might be attached to your body because your doctor put them there. The infamous medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis) was once a popular tool for bloodletting. “Europeans were so enamored with the use of medicinal leeches in the 17th and 18th centuries that they depleted the supply,” Joslin and his colleagues wrote October 10 in the journal Wilderness & Environmental Medicine in a paper on the history and perils of leech attachment.

Today, there are very few illnesses for which bloodletting is considered a good treatment. However, leeches have made a name for themselves in reconstructive surgery by improving blood flow in damaged veins.

How dangerous are leeches?

That depends on how many leeches are feasting on you, where they are located, and how much you’ve pissed them off.

Leeches typically feed for about 20 or 30 minutes before dropping off your body. Bleeding from a leech bite lasts 10 hours on average, but sometimes continues for days. “It can range anywhere from inconvenient all the way to medically severe,” Joslin says.

In most cases, if you are healthy and get a single leech bite you’ll probably just have some bleeding. But if you are beset by many leeches at once, the consequences can be more serious. A man in Turkey once showed up in the emergency room with anemia and excessive bleeding from 130 leech bites. The anticoagulants in the leeches’ saliva had impaired his blood’s ability to clot enough to be life threatening.

Leeches can also spread disease. “Leeches don’t have an immune system that sterilizes their gut contents like we do,” Joslin says. “So if a leech has bacteria in its gut and it attaches to you and there’s any regurgitation of blood from their gut onto your wound, that can transmit infection.”

A leech might puke up germ-filled blood if you try to remove it by squeezing, burning, or other violent means. Medicinal leeches may pass on ailments like syphilis and erysipelas, a bacterial infection of the skin.

“If you get wild-caught leeches, you don’t know what other animal or human that leech has attached to in the past and may have picked up some bacteria, virus, or parasites from,” Joslin says.

Scientists have found HIV and hepatitis B viruses in wild leeches in Africa. “It wasn’t a confirmed case of transmission, but if they have these viruses in their gut then it stands to reason that they could be transmitted,” Joslin says.

And these bloodsuckers have another nefarious habit. Most of the time, leeches will fasten onto your exposed skin. But occasionally, a leech will pass through one of the body’s orifices and attach internally. Leeches have made their way into people’s eyes, ears, noses, throats, urethras, bladders, rectums, vaginas, and stomachs.

And according to Kvist, this is no accident. When a leech does invade a person’s body, it usually belongs to the Praobdellidae family. These leeches are known for feeding through mucous membranes. In other words: they want to be inside you. “The rest of the skin is much more unappealing to them,” Kvist says, “although they probably would feed on your leg, if they were starved.”

A leech can stay in your body for days or weeks. There are a few clues that a leech might be inside you, depending on where it’s ended up. Unusual bleeding from the orifice in question is one. Leeches can also cause fever, vomiting, trouble urinating, and “a sensation of foreign body movement,” Joslin and his team write. If the leech is nestled in your throat, it can cause difficulty breathing, hoarseness, or voice changes.

“If you get a leech in a body cavity or on your eyeball or something like that, even one leech can cause a pretty big problem,” Joslin says.

GET IT OFF!

If you find a leech attached to your body, you should check to make sure there are no others.

You’ll want to remove the leech gently to avoid regurgitation. Joslin recommends using your fingernail or the edge of a knife or credit card to get under the mouthpiece and break its suction. If you can’t reach the leech because it’s in your mouth or esophagus, you can try gargling saltwater. “Saltwater is able to sufficiently irritate the leech and cause it to remove itself without being so noxious as to cause regurgitation,” Joslin says.

Then wash the area with soap and water and bandage it. You probably won’t need to take antibiotics to prevent an infection, Joslin says.

In very rare cases, though, leech bites can be lethal. A person could bleed to death if they sustained a massive number of leech bites, or die from a blood infection, Joslin says. In 1799, soldiers in Napoleon’s army accidentally drank water with leeches in it on their march across Egypt. Some of these men suffocated to death as the bloated leeches blocked their airways.

How can I keep leeches from biting me?

There’s not a lot you can do to keep leeches at bay, especially those that live on land. “They get into your clothing easily and it’s difficult to fully keep them from attaching to your skin,” Kvist says.

If you are traveling over leech-infested terrain, you can try wearing long, tucked-in clothing. There’s also some evidence that insect repellents containing the ingredients DEET or DEPA can discourage leeches.

Unfortunately, some of the most tempting spots to swim and explore the outdoors are also prime leech habitat. That doesn’t mean you should never set food in a pond again, though.

“Having an understanding of how to remove them, what to watch out for, and how to treat it when it does happen is even better than trying to simply avoid places where leeches might live,” Joslin says.

Written By Kate Baggaley

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Digital Marketing for Realtors: The Ultimate Guide

Don’t get me wrong: word-of-mouth referrals and print marketing campaigns are great. This old-fashioned methodology is what drove the lion’s share of my business for well over a decade.

However, I’m always looking to grow as both a realtor and a businessman, and that’s why I decided to get started within the digital marketing space.

Since choosing to approach digital marketing with an all-in strategy, I’ve seen incredible growth in the number of leads I generate month after month.

Here’s how I did it and how you can get started.

Real Estate Websites

If you don’t launch a website, your digital marketing strategy will always be in the hands of somebody else.

Marketers refer to this idea as “rented space”. At any point, Facebook, Zillow, Trulia, Instagram, or any other platform that you utilize could pull the rug out from underneath you. If they do, it could leave you grasping for straws.

In fact, this has happened to realtors before. When Facebook changed its algorithm in 2008, many were left in circumstances that left them starving for new leads.

From Facebook’s end, this kind of thing can happen as the result of just one minor tweak.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t take on the task of social media marketing. It’s just setting up the case to have a property on the web that’s yours to own. I set up my first site years ago. After some time, people started to find my blog and come to it for updates on the local multifamily home market.

The people that found me here may or may not have been looking for a real estate agent on their first visit. However, they came back time and time again. Eventually, many of them ended up making the decision to work with me.

For real estate agents, an effective website must:

Provide a Way to See Up-to-Date Listings

Convey Useful Information About the Realtor’s Area of Expertise

Be Easy to Navigate

Display an Easy Way to Get in Contact With an Agent

That’s really all that’s necessary to get started. Of course, doing so is a lot harder than it sounds – especially if you’re not tech-savvy.

But that being said, there are plenty of tools available that help realtors in navigating through this process. Make sure that the website builder you select involves an easy way to add listings to your site. If you’re already using a third-party tool to curate MLS listings, then make sure that this specific tool works with the builder.

That said, keep this in mind:

Having listings on your site won’t help you with SEO. At least, not directly. More on that later.

Thankfully, there are a lot of great things that buyers want to see on your site besides listings. The home buying process can be a scary, confusing, and overwhelming thing for many buyers, and having more information about it on your site can be extremely beneficial.

Instead of turning to Google, you can encourage prospects and current clients to come to you for the latest and greatest about their local market and the homes within it. Many realtors fail to realize that starting a blog is a great idea – both for improving SEO results and for bettering a user’s experience.

If you establish yourself as an industry-leading expert, you’ll be sure to bring in some phenomenal clients.

Believe it or not, I’ve had tons of clients come to me only after months of following along with what I post on my blog. Clients like this are often very clever, and they’re dedicated to making sure that they pick the right realtor and that they get the best deal.

As you add all of that great information to your site, it’s also necessary to make sure that you’re being careful about how you present it. Sites that are confusing will scare away visitors – even if they are packed with great content.

Keep your website simple and make sure that pages are adequately interlinked so that it’s easy to find the most relevant information.

Lastly, do not forget to make it as easy as possible for clients to get in touch with you. Don’t bury your email address in a random footer somewhere – make sure that both it and your phone number are prominent.

Keep in mind that Internet users expect quick responses. If you get a new lead through your website, you should definitely do your best to respond before they move on to someone else.

SEO For Realtors

Search engine optimization might sound like a lot more work than it’s worth, but in reality, you can get started by making some simple changes.

These changes do take a bit of work to implement, but the result is well worth it.

SEO really isn’t as intimidatingly complex and technical as it sounds. More than anything, great search engine optimization methods are all about telling search engines that your site is trustworthy and relevant.

Trustworthy sites avoid spam and duplicate content, deliver on the expectations they set, and keep their visitors safe.

Your site can prove that it is trustworthy by accumulating backlinks, gathering reviews, and consistently delivering a user experience that brings visitors back over and over again.

Relevancy, on the other hand, is all about sharing great content. This means that your site should be packed with whatever it is that your visitors are searching for. That could be information, inspiration, contact forms, or just about anything else – it’s up to you to figure that part out!

Sharing On Social Media

In theory, almost everyone understands social media at some level. However, that can actually create problems for those who try to approach the platform with marketing efforts.

Posting about your personal life is very different from posting about your business.

Why?

Because Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social networks have developed powerful algorithms to determine what kind of content should be served up for users. In most cases, these algorithms hate overtly promotional content.

That may seem unfair when you get started with posting as a business. You’ll realize that your posts are seen by just a handful of people.

But keep in mind:

Most social media algorithms exist to protect a user’s best interests so that they will enjoy what they find in their feed and return to the platform.

That’s really your mission as a marketer on social media, then. To be seen and heard, you have to provide something of genuine value to your followers and their network.

Value is something that’s viewed differently by almost every audience. In some contexts, it’s smart to inform. In others, posting little bits of inspiration or humorous content is more appreciated.

To really provide value to an audience, you have to first understand what it is that they want. In the short run, posting without any intention to generate sales sounds backwards. In the long run, however, you’ll find that providing genuine value provides the greatest sales results.

Paid Advertising (Google AdWords and Facebook Ads)

There are a lot of theories out there about whether or not realtors should engage in paid advertising efforts. Some say that you should never have to pay for marketing while others insist that a careful ad spend strategy is the best way to produce results.

In my opinion, paid advertising should never be your sole focus. If it is, you’ll always be in the position where you have to spend money to earn money.

That being said, paying for smart advertising can be one of the best ways to accelerate your company’s growth.

On the internet, there are lots of places that you could put banner ads, video ads, text ads, product placements, and more.

However, the two most common online advertising platforms are Facebook and Google.

On Facebook, it’s possible to essentially pay to place a post onto user timelines. These posts blend in well and don’t look out of place at all. Because of this, users are drawn in to great posts – regardless of the fact that they are paid advertisements.

That said, finding an effective balance between providing value to both customers and your own business is difficult. For the post to be worthwhile, you have to cram a lot into a very small space.

On Facebook, advertisers also have the benefit of doing some very precise targeting. It’s beyond the scope of this article to talk about lookalike audiences, advanced targeting methods, and the like. However, the important thing to know is that it’s easy to hone in on the audience that you’re actually interested in reaching – just make sure you know a thing or two about that audience before you start going all in on advertising to them.

While most realtors are happy to get started with Facebook advertising, they tend to be a little more wary about doing anything with Google AdWords. For some reason, the platform seems much more intimidating, and failure seems to be much more likely.

However, in my business, I’ve had a lot of success with Google AdWords. When I started my first campaign, it was exciting to see leads coming in here and there. I wasn’t an expert, but I learned what I could and dove in.

Now, I’m running much more effective ads that are capturing leads for me on a very reliable basis.

How did I do it?

By giving search engine users whatever it is they were looking for. Google allows you to target specific keyword searches so that you can target only the people that are looking for exactly what you have.

I optimized landing pages specifically for my most important keywords and I worked hard to answer any question that someone searching for that keyword might have had. Because of this, my business has grown exponentially and I’m seeing new leads come through all the time.

Conclusion

Unless you’re starting off with paid advertising, know that digital marketing campaigns take time to get going. It’s unlikely that even hard work will pay off in the first month or two.

However, by keeping at it, you’ll realize that digital marketing often has a multiplication type effect. The more you work at it, the more results you’ll be able to potentially see over time.

Some experts say that working out your strategy for two years is necessary, but in my opinion, you should start seeing great results within 4-6 months. Don’t stop at the first sign that things are working, though. Keep on pushing and soon, you’ll realize the full potential of digital marketing as a realtor.

The post Digital Marketing for Realtors: The Ultimate Guide appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

Digital Marketing for Realtors: The Ultimate Guide published first on http://ift.tt/2vfDHOG

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Digital Marketing for Realtors: The Ultimate Guide

Don’t get me wrong: word-of-mouth referrals and print marketing campaigns are great. This old-fashioned methodology is what drove the lion’s share of my business for well over a decade.

However, I’m always looking to grow as both a realtor and a businessman, and that’s why I decided to get started within the digital marketing space.

Since choosing to approach digital marketing with an all-in strategy, I’ve seen incredible growth in the number of leads I generate month after month.

Here’s how I did it and how you can get started.

Real Estate Websites

If you don’t launch a website, your digital marketing strategy will always be in the hands of somebody else.

Marketers refer to this idea as “rented space”. At any point, Facebook, Zillow, Trulia, Instagram, or any other platform that you utilize could pull the rug out from underneath you. If they do, it could leave you grasping for straws.

In fact, this has happened to realtors before. When Facebook changed its algorithm in 2008, many were left in circumstances that left them starving for new leads.

From Facebook’s end, this kind of thing can happen as the result of just one minor tweak.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t take on the task of social media marketing. It’s just setting up the case to have a property on the web that’s yours to own. I set up my first site years ago. After some time, people started to find my blog and come to it for updates on the local multifamily home market.

The people that found me here may or may not have been looking for a real estate agent on their first visit. However, they came back time and time again. Eventually, many of them ended up making the decision to work with me.

For real estate agents, an effective website must:

Provide a Way to See Up-to-Date Listings

Convey Useful Information About the Realtor’s Area of Expertise

Be Easy to Navigate

Display an Easy Way to Get in Contact With an Agent

That’s really all that’s necessary to get started. Of course, doing so is a lot harder than it sounds – especially if you’re not tech-savvy.

But that being said, there are plenty of tools available that help realtors in navigating through this process. Make sure that the website builder you select involves an easy way to add listings to your site. If you’re already using a third-party tool to curate MLS listings, then make sure that this specific tool works with the builder.

That said, keep this in mind:

Having listings on your site won’t help you with SEO. At least, not directly. More on that later.

Thankfully, there are a lot of great things that buyers want to see on your site besides listings. The home buying process can be a scary, confusing, and overwhelming thing for many buyers, and having more information about it on your site can be extremely beneficial.

Instead of turning to Google, you can encourage prospects and current clients to come to you for the latest and greatest about their local market and the homes within it. Many realtors fail to realize that starting a blog is a great idea – both for improving SEO results and for bettering a user’s experience.

If you establish yourself as an industry-leading expert, you’ll be sure to bring in some phenomenal clients.

Believe it or not, I’ve had tons of clients come to me only after months of following along with what I post on my blog. Clients like this are often very clever, and they’re dedicated to making sure that they pick the right realtor and that they get the best deal.

As you add all of that great information to your site, it’s also necessary to make sure that you’re being careful about how you present it. Sites that are confusing will scare away visitors – even if they are packed with great content.

Keep your website simple and make sure that pages are adequately interlinked so that it’s easy to find the most relevant information.

Lastly, do not forget to make it as easy as possible for clients to get in touch with you. Don’t bury your email address in a random footer somewhere – make sure that both it and your phone number are prominent.

Keep in mind that Internet users expect quick responses. If you get a new lead through your website, you should definitely do your best to respond before they move on to someone else.

SEO For Realtors

Search engine optimization might sound like a lot more work than it’s worth, but in reality, you can get started by making some simple changes.

These changes do take a bit of work to implement, but the result is well worth it.

SEO really isn’t as intimidatingly complex and technical as it sounds. More than anything, great search engine optimization methods are all about telling search engines that your site is trustworthy and relevant.

Trustworthy sites avoid spam and duplicate content, deliver on the expectations they set, and keep their visitors safe.

Your site can prove that it is trustworthy by accumulating backlinks, gathering reviews, and consistently delivering a user experience that brings visitors back over and over again.

Relevancy, on the other hand, is all about sharing great content. This means that your site should be packed with whatever it is that your visitors are searching for. That could be information, inspiration, contact forms, or just about anything else – it’s up to you to figure that part out!

Sharing On Social Media

In theory, almost everyone understands social media at some level. However, that can actually create problems for those who try to approach the platform with marketing efforts.

Posting about your personal life is very different from posting about your business.

Why?

Because Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social networks have developed powerful algorithms to determine what kind of content should be served up for users. In most cases, these algorithms hate overtly promotional content.

That may seem unfair when you get started with posting as a business. You’ll realize that your posts are seen by just a handful of people.

But keep in mind:

Most social media algorithms exist to protect a user’s best interests so that they will enjoy what they find in their feed and return to the platform.

That’s really your mission as a marketer on social media, then. To be seen and heard, you have to provide something of genuine value to your followers and their network.

Value is something that’s viewed differently by almost every audience. In some contexts, it’s smart to inform. In others, posting little bits of inspiration or humorous content is more appreciated.

To really provide value to an audience, you have to first understand what it is that they want. In the short run, posting without any intention to generate sales sounds backwards. In the long run, however, you’ll find that providing genuine value provides the greatest sales results.

Paid Advertising (Google AdWords and Facebook Ads)

There are a lot of theories out there about whether or not realtors should engage in paid advertising efforts. Some say that you should never have to pay for marketing while others insist that a careful ad spend strategy is the best way to produce results.

In my opinion, paid advertising should never be your sole focus. If it is, you’ll always be in the position where you have to spend money to earn money.

That being said, paying for smart advertising can be one of the best ways to accelerate your company’s growth.

On the internet, there are lots of places that you could put banner ads, video ads, text ads, product placements, and more.

However, the two most common online advertising platforms are Facebook and Google.

On Facebook, it’s possible to essentially pay to place a post onto user timelines. These posts blend in well and don’t look out of place at all. Because of this, users are drawn in to great posts – regardless of the fact that they are paid advertisements.

That said, finding an effective balance between providing value to both customers and your own business is difficult. For the post to be worthwhile, you have to cram a lot into a very small space.

On Facebook, advertisers also have the benefit of doing some very precise targeting. It’s beyond the scope of this article to talk about lookalike audiences, advanced targeting methods, and the like. However, the important thing to know is that it’s easy to hone in on the audience that you’re actually interested in reaching – just make sure you know a thing or two about that audience before you start going all in on advertising to them.

While most realtors are happy to get started with Facebook advertising, they tend to be a little more wary about doing anything with Google AdWords. For some reason, the platform seems much more intimidating, and failure seems to be much more likely.

However, in my business, I’ve had a lot of success with Google AdWords. When I started my first campaign, it was exciting to see leads coming in here and there. I wasn’t an expert, but I learned what I could and dove in.

Now, I’m running much more effective ads that are capturing leads for me on a very reliable basis.

How did I do it?

By giving search engine users whatever it is they were looking for. Google allows you to target specific keyword searches so that you can target only the people that are looking for exactly what you have.

I optimized landing pages specifically for my most important keywords and I worked hard to answer any question that someone searching for that keyword might have had. Because of this, my business has grown exponentially and I’m seeing new leads come through all the time.

Conclusion

Unless you’re starting off with paid advertising, know that digital marketing campaigns take time to get going. It’s unlikely that even hard work will pay off in the first month or two.

However, by keeping at it, you’ll realize that digital marketing often has a multiplication type effect. The more you work at it, the more results you’ll be able to potentially see over time.

Some experts say that working out your strategy for two years is necessary, but in my opinion, you should start seeing great results within 4-6 months. Don’t stop at the first sign that things are working, though. Keep on pushing and soon, you’ll realize the full potential of digital marketing as a realtor.

The post Digital Marketing for Realtors: The Ultimate Guide appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

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Digital Marketing for Realtors: The Ultimate Guide

Don’t get me wrong: word-of-mouth referrals and print marketing campaigns are great. This old-fashioned methodology is what drove the lion’s share of my business for well over a decade.

However, I’m always looking to grow as both a realtor and a businessman, and that’s why I decided to get started within the digital marketing space.

Since choosing to approach digital marketing with an all-in strategy, I’ve seen incredible growth in the number of leads I generate month after month.

Here’s how I did it and how you can get started.

Real Estate Websites

If you don’t launch a website, your digital marketing strategy will always be in the hands of somebody else.

Marketers refer to this idea as “rented space”. At any point, Facebook, Zillow, Trulia, Instagram, or any other platform that you utilize could pull the rug out from underneath you. If they do, it could leave you grasping for straws.

In fact, this has happened to realtors before. When Facebook changed its algorithm in 2008, many were left in circumstances that left them starving for new leads.

From Facebook’s end, this kind of thing can happen as the result of just one minor tweak.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t take on the task of social media marketing. It’s just setting up the case to have a property on the web that’s yours to own. I set up my first site years ago. After some time, people started to find my blog and come to it for updates on the local multifamily home market.

The people that found me here may or may not have been looking for a real estate agent on their first visit. However, they came back time and time again. Eventually, many of them ended up making the decision to work with me.

For real estate agents, an effective website must:

Provide a Way to See Up-to-Date Listings

Convey Useful Information About the Realtor’s Area of Expertise

Be Easy to Navigate

Display an Easy Way to Get in Contact With an Agent

That’s really all that’s necessary to get started. Of course, doing so is a lot harder than it sounds – especially if you’re not tech-savvy.

But that being said, there are plenty of tools available that help realtors in navigating through this process. Make sure that the website builder you select involves an easy way to add listings to your site. If you’re already using a third-party tool to curate MLS listings, then make sure that this specific tool works with the builder.

That said, keep this in mind:

Having listings on your site won’t help you with SEO. At least, not directly. More on that later.

Thankfully, there are a lot of great things that buyers want to see on your site besides listings. The home buying process can be a scary, confusing, and overwhelming thing for many buyers, and having more information about it on your site can be extremely beneficial.

Instead of turning to Google, you can encourage prospects and current clients to come to you for the latest and greatest about their local market and the homes within it. Many realtors fail to realize that starting a blog is a great idea – both for improving SEO results and for bettering a user’s experience.

If you establish yourself as an industry-leading expert, you’ll be sure to bring in some phenomenal clients.

Believe it or not, I’ve had tons of clients come to me only after months of following along with what I post on my blog. Clients like this are often very clever, and they’re dedicated to making sure that they pick the right realtor and that they get the best deal.

As you add all of that great information to your site, it’s also necessary to make sure that you’re being careful about how you present it. Sites that are confusing will scare away visitors – even if they are packed with great content.

Keep your website simple and make sure that pages are adequately interlinked so that it’s easy to find the most relevant information.

Lastly, do not forget to make it as easy as possible for clients to get in touch with you. Don’t bury your email address in a random footer somewhere – make sure that both it and your phone number are prominent.

Keep in mind that Internet users expect quick responses. If you get a new lead through your website, you should definitely do your best to respond before they move on to someone else.

SEO For Realtors

Search engine optimization might sound like a lot more work than it’s worth, but in reality, you can get started by making some simple changes.

These changes do take a bit of work to implement, but the result is well worth it.

SEO really isn’t as intimidatingly complex and technical as it sounds. More than anything, great search engine optimization methods are all about telling search engines that your site is trustworthy and relevant.

Trustworthy sites avoid spam and duplicate content, deliver on the expectations they set, and keep their visitors safe.

Your site can prove that it is trustworthy by accumulating backlinks, gathering reviews, and consistently delivering a user experience that brings visitors back over and over again.

Relevancy, on the other hand, is all about sharing great content. This means that your site should be packed with whatever it is that your visitors are searching for. That could be information, inspiration, contact forms, or just about anything else – it’s up to you to figure that part out!

Sharing On Social Media

In theory, almost everyone understands social media at some level. However, that can actually create problems for those who try to approach the platform with marketing efforts.

Posting about your personal life is very different from posting about your business.

Why?

Because Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social networks have developed powerful algorithms to determine what kind of content should be served up for users. In most cases, these algorithms hate overtly promotional content.

That may seem unfair when you get started with posting as a business. You’ll realize that your posts are seen by just a handful of people.

But keep in mind:

Most social media algorithms exist to protect a user’s best interests so that they will enjoy what they find in their feed and return to the platform.

That’s really your mission as a marketer on social media, then. To be seen and heard, you have to provide something of genuine value to your followers and their network.

Value is something that’s viewed differently by almost every audience. In some contexts, it’s smart to inform. In others, posting little bits of inspiration or humorous content is more appreciated.

To really provide value to an audience, you have to first understand what it is that they want. In the short run, posting without any intention to generate sales sounds backwards. In the long run, however, you’ll find that providing genuine value provides the greatest sales results.

Paid Advertising (Google AdWords and Facebook Ads)

There are a lot of theories out there about whether or not realtors should engage in paid advertising efforts. Some say that you should never have to pay for marketing while others insist that a careful ad spend strategy is the best way to produce results.

In my opinion, paid advertising should never be your sole focus. If it is, you’ll always be in the position where you have to spend money to earn money.

That being said, paying for smart advertising can be one of the best ways to accelerate your company’s growth.

On the internet, there are lots of places that you could put banner ads, video ads, text ads, product placements, and more.

However, the two most common online advertising platforms are Facebook and Google.

On Facebook, it’s possible to essentially pay to place a post onto user timelines. These posts blend in well and don’t look out of place at all. Because of this, users are drawn in to great posts – regardless of the fact that they are paid advertisements.

That said, finding an effective balance between providing value to both customers and your own business is difficult. For the post to be worthwhile, you have to cram a lot into a very small space.

On Facebook, advertisers also have the benefit of doing some very precise targeting. It’s beyond the scope of this article to talk about lookalike audiences, advanced targeting methods, and the like. However, the important thing to know is that it’s easy to hone in on the audience that you’re actually interested in reaching – just make sure you know a thing or two about that audience before you start going all in on advertising to them.

While most realtors are happy to get started with Facebook advertising, they tend to be a little more wary about doing anything with Google AdWords. For some reason, the platform seems much more intimidating, and failure seems to be much more likely.

However, in my business, I’ve had a lot of success with Google AdWords. When I started my first campaign, it was exciting to see leads coming in here and there. I wasn’t an expert, but I learned what I could and dove in.

Now, I’m running much more effective ads that are capturing leads for me on a very reliable basis.

How did I do it?

By giving search engine users whatever it is they were looking for. Google allows you to target specific keyword searches so that you can target only the people that are looking for exactly what you have.

I optimized landing pages specifically for my most important keywords and I worked hard to answer any question that someone searching for that keyword might have had. Because of this, my business has grown exponentially and I’m seeing new leads come through all the time.

Conclusion

Unless you’re starting off with paid advertising, know that digital marketing campaigns take time to get going. It’s unlikely that even hard work will pay off in the first month or two.

However, by keeping at it, you’ll realize that digital marketing often has a multiplication type effect. The more you work at it, the more results you’ll be able to potentially see over time.

Some experts say that working out your strategy for two years is necessary, but in my opinion, you should start seeing great results within 4-6 months. Don’t stop at the first sign that things are working, though. Keep on pushing and soon, you’ll realize the full potential of digital marketing as a realtor.

The post Digital Marketing for Realtors: The Ultimate Guide appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

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