#like how their interests very from a surprisingly wide range of things id often be like wait i didnt know you liked that piece of media too

[kalmeria]

i never really talked abt this bc it feels like a sensitive topic and i dont know how to properly add warnings for it but i used to have a mutual (we didnt directly talk but they would tag me in those tag x ppl posts and communicated in replies one or two times) who turned out to be impersonating other ppl online. theres evidence of them commissioning art of others ocs. also they would rb posts from the source and add someone elses tags on it (the personal kind). i remeber them somtimes and wonder if their their “personal” posts were all stolen too

[canyousevmyheavydirtysoul]

*Halloween* I Lost A Bet To A Guy In A Top Hat. (Josh Dun x Reader)

Request: a user on Wattpad : ‘5. Corn Maze. Josh Dun X Reader. So Josh, Tyler and the reader dress up as things from Panic!. Tyler is the Ringleader/Brendon Urie from Sins, Josh is Brendon from the ballad of Mona Lisa, and the reader is the demon from emperors new clothes. They bet whoever finds the center first, (which is marked by a chalk X) and the three split up and go into the maze and the reader and josh eventually find each other. I don’t know how they get into this situation, but they kiss and some panic! fan sees them and screams, “ GUYS BRENDON IS KISSING HIMSELF!” Yeah if you would do that for meh, that would be snazzy!’

Prompt 5: Corn field/maze

“A corn maze?” you cocked an eyebrow in skepticism as you got your costume ready. “Really, Tyler?”

“Yeah!” he spoke into the phone, giving Josh a thumbs-up in approval of the costume he was trying on: ‘Mona Lisa Brendon’. The three of you thought it would be cute to coordinate your costumes this year, and eventually decided on going as the different eras of Panic!. Well, eras of Brendon, if you’re being technical. “There’s this really big one not too far out of town that I’ve been waiting to visit for a while.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” you opened your closet and reached to the top to grab the supplies you needed to turn yourself into 'Demon Brendon’, letting out an 'off’ when one of the packets fell onto your head. “I mean,” you continued, rubbing your scalp, “wondering aimlessly through rows upon rows of tall plants with no idea whatsoever about where we’re going sounds very anxiety-inducing, if you ask me.”

“I didn’t ask you,” he sassed and you rolled your eyes. “Just come. It’ll be fun.”

“Yeah, that’s what you always say. And surprisingly, most of the time, it is not fun.”

“Most of the time,” he pointed out, a smirk playing on his lips. “What if this is one of those times where it is fun, and you’re gonna miss out on it?”

You ran your tongue over your teeth and narrowed your eyes. “I hate you.”

“Love you too. We’ll pick you up at 7,” he blew a kiss into the phone before hanging up, leaving you to turn yourself into a demon.

~

“Wow,” Josh said in amazement, his eyes widening in awe as he looked around at the maze, “This place is huge.“ 

You nodded in agreement as you gazed out at the enormous field.

"Pretty impressive, huh?” Tyler sidled up to the two of you, having just payed.

“Not exactly the word I would use,” you chimed, “but yeah, sure.”

Tyler made a face at you while Josh turned to him. “So, where do we start?”

“I start over here,” Tyler pointed at an opening a few steps away from him, “you start over there,” he pointed at another opening further down the line, “and (Y/N), you start all the way over there.”

“Hey, woah, woah, woah, hey,” you stepped towards Tyler, frowning, “Are you telling me we’re not all doing this stupid thing together?”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” he gave you a sly smile, “It’s a competition. Whoever reaches the center with the big 'X’ first, wins. Didn’t I mention that?”

“No!” you yelled, “No, you did not!”

“Oh. Oops.”

You let out a low growl, making Tyler chuckle and Josh place a hand on your shoulder in an effort to calm you down. “There’s no way in this life or the next that I’m going in there alone,” you linked your arm with Josh’s, “I’m going with Josh.”

“Okay, first of all,” Tyler pointed a finger at you, “get your own fren. Second, you can’t partner up. It’s against the rules.” He turned his nose up into the air.

“What rules?”

“The rules that I made up two minutes ago.”

Groaning, you stomped a foot on the ground. “I’m not going in there alone.”

“Not even if we,” he tapped a finger on his chin in mock contemplation before shrugging, “I don’t know… Bet on it?”

You gasped, narrowing your eyes at the older boy while he simply cackled evilly. “You wouldn’t.”

“(Y/N)….”

“Tyler, please don’t.” He knew you never stood down from a bet, so to do this was pure evil.

“I bet you that you can’t reach the center before either Josh or myself.”

Josh kept his tongue, watching the exchange between you and Tyler with bated breath, his head moving from one of you to the other as if he was watching a tennis match. He wanted to say something, but he was too scared of pissing either of you off.

You gasped, frowning at Tyler as he raised an eyebrow, challenging you.

“What’s it gonna be, (Y/L/N)?” he cocked his head.

“You’re going down, Joseph.”

~

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” you scolded yourself as you pushed your way through the hanging leaves of the corn, cursing as you stumbled over a rock in the path for what seemed to be the fifth time. “Well done, (Y/N). Good job. Yeah, just go ahead and make a stupid bet with a stupid bean without thinking of the consequences first.”

“Uh, are you okay?" 

You whipped your head around, and you were met with two pairs of wide eyes, full of concern. Two girls, one dressed as Sam Winchester and the other as Dean, were watching you with a worried expression; it was then that you realised that talking to yourself while stumbling around a corn maze probably wasn’t what a sane - or at least a sober - person would do. 

"I’m not crazy,” you reassured them, and they nodded slowly, “or drunk. But I am pissed at myself for agreeing to this, because I’m really lost and I don’t know what to do.” Your breathing got heavier as you started to have a mini freak-out.

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay,” the girl dressed as Sam stepped forward and placed a reassuring hand on your shoulder. “We can show you the way out. We’ll even go with you, if you want.”

You shook your head violently. “No! No, I have to win! There’s no way I’m letting Tyler have the satisfaction of me giving up.”

“Wait a minute,” the Dean narrowed her eyes and tilted her head to the side while she studied your face, no doubt trying to picture what you looked like without all the demon make-up. When it finally hit her, her face lit up. “Oh! You’re (Y/N) (Y/L/N)! You’re friends with Tyler and Josh.”

“Oh my god,” Sam muttered as she gaped at you. 

“Well, that’s not exactly a true statement. I’m friends with Josh. I hate Tyler.” The girls sniggered. “I’m not joking!” you insisted, “He’s the reason I’m in this situation. He’s such an idiot; I told him this wasn’t good for my health, but did he listen? Noooo. I mean, a slightly confined space, at night, with no definitive way of getting out… this is the worst! I have anxiety, you know!”

“Me too!” both of the girls perked up in unison, and you chuckled. 

“Both of you?” you raised an amused eyebrow.

“Yeah. We’re basically the same person,” Dean shrugged. 

“It’s quite scary sometimes, actually,” Sam nodded in agreement. “We even have the same name.”

“Which is?”

“Alex,” Sam answered, “But she goes as 'Visser’ - it’s her last name - ,” she pointed at Dean, who waved, “And I go as 'Lex’.”

“Nice to meet you, Visser and Lex,” you smiled at the girls. “Would you girls be interested in helping me crush Tyler, by any chance?”

They shared a look before turning to you and smirking evilly. “Absolutely.”

~

You tapped your foot on the ground along to the melody in your head as you stood and waited for the girls to get back from their little expedition. 

Hearing two pairs of footsteps fast approaching, you straightened up and sure enough, the girls came running over. 

“Okay,” Visser panted, waving a piece of paper in the air, “I got a map of the maze, complete with extra direction annotation.”

“How did you even manage to get this?” you asked as you took the paper, in awe of her abilities. The workers usually keep the map under lock and key. 

“I had a little help,” she smiled coyly, readjusting her t-shirt. 

You laughed incredulously as Lex tsked. “Anything with a pulse,” she quipped, patting Visser on the hip.

“I found Tyler,” Lex announced, and you clapped your hands happily as she pulled out her phone, opening the tracking app, “I’m also tracking him as we speak.”

“Wh-HOW?” you spluttered. 

“I asked if I could have a hug and then I slipped my second phone into his pocket.”

“You’re amazing,” you marvelled, and she bowed her head, “But why do you have two phones?”

“Long story,” she waved a hand dismissively, eyes glued to her phone’s screen, “Tyler isn’t moving that fast.”

“Cocky bitch probably thinks I’m lost and he has all the time in the world,” you snarled, crossing your arms. “I mean, he’s right, but still.”

“Ah,” Visser raised a finger, pointed it at the map and smiled, “he was right. Now, he’s just stupid.”

~

Josh leisurely strolled his way through the maze; he knew that the competition was in actual fact only between you and Tyler, so he wasn’t making too much of an effort to reach the middle any time soon. 

He rounded another corner, ducking under some plants as his thoughts drifted to you. He knew how bad your anxiety could get, and because he suffered from it himself, he was often the only one who was able to calm you down when you had a pretty bad case. His stomach dropped at the thought of you having an anxiety attack while getting lost somewhere in the maze, and he gulped when he realised that if that did happen, he wouldn’t be there to help you through it. 

He suddenly felt achingly angry at himself for allowing you to go in alone; he should’ve told Tyler off and just gone with you when you wanted him to. 

Stopping in his tracks, he furrowed his eyebrows while he thought, eventually deciding on trying to find you instead of trying to get to the middle of the stupid maze. 

Josh loved you, and if anything happened to you while he wasn’t there, he’d never forgive himself.

~

With the help offered by the map and your two new friends, you were able to navigate your way through the maze quite easily, and you were sure that you would reach the centre in no time. 

“And then we take a…” Visser glanced down at the map, “right, here.”

Right when the three of you rounded the corner, Lex’s phone rang. 

“Oh,” she said, pulling it out of her pocket and checking the caller ID, “I have to take this, it’s my mom.”

“That reminds me,” Visser piped up, pulling out her phone too, “I have to check in with my parents too.”

“(Y/N), the centre shouldn’t be too far from here. You should keep moving if you wanna beat Tyler. We’ll find you when we’re done here,” Lex said, before stepping to the side and answering the call. 

“Are you gonna be fine on your own?” Visser asked worriedly as she handed the map to you.

You nodded. “Yeah, like Lex said – the centre isn’t too far from here. I’m sure I can manage.”

~

“Shouldn’t have gone off. Should’ve just waited for the girls,” you whispered to yourself as you apprehensively took small steps through the maze.

You’d gotten lost again – despite having a guided map. You weren’t sure where you went wrong, and when you tried to retrace your steps, it only made things worse.

The moon was beginning to disappear behind a bunch of thin wisps of cloud, and it had taken any surety you had about getting out of this place with it.

After about five more minutes of aimless wondering, you swallowed your pride and decided to call Tyler to tell him that the bet was off, and demand that he find you and take you home. But in a sick twist of fate, when you reached for your phone, you saw that the battery had died.

That did it.

From the moment you’d set foot in this godforsaken maze, your anxiety had flared up and it only increased more and more with each passing second you were stuck between the corn rows. You’d managed to fare pretty well, considering the consequences, and had so far managed to avoid an anxiety attack, but the moment you’d realise that you were essentially stranded – lost in a 15 acre maze with your only means of communication in non-working order – you slowly started slipping into that all-too-familiar state of panic.

Your body began to feel tingly; it was as if ice was running through your veins. Your head spun from dizziness, your chest contracted and your knees gave out, dropping you to the ground with a dull thud. Gazing up at the sky, your vision started to become spotty, and you couldn’t see straight. Every muscle in your body was screaming at you to move – to run – but of course, you couldn’t. You wanted to cry out for help. You wanted to cry out for Josh. But your voice caught in your throat, and all that escaped was a hoarse whimper.

Shallow breathing.

Heart racing.

Total panic.

“(Y/N)?”

You heard your name being called; it sounded like Josh, but you weren’t sure whether or not your brain was just playing tricks on you.

“(Y/N)!”

The voice was clearer this time, a tone of fear and the sound of fast-paced footsteps accompanying it.

The next thing you knew, Josh had taken you into his embrace, holding you as close to his body as possible and whispered soothingly into your ear.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. I’m here. I’m right here. Just breathe, beautiful.”

Your tense muscles relaxed tremendously, and you tried as best you could to regulate your breathing, using the rise and fall of Josh’s chest as a guide.

After a minute, your breathing had slowed down but it still wasn’t at a normal rate.

“(Y/N),” Josh gently took one of your hands in his and squeezed, while he hugged you closer, pushing your head into his chest over his heart, so that you could hear his heartbeat, “listen. Just listen. I’m here.”

Soon enough, after listening to Josh’s heartbeat while he whispered reassuringly in your ear, you were able to overcome the attack, and you were now ‘back to normal’ albeit still clutching onto Josh as if he was your lifeline. Which, in a way, you suppose he was.

Josh pressed a kiss onto your forehead. “You okay, beautiful?” he murmured against his skin.

“Y-yeah,” you breathed, sighing into his chest and shutting your eyes tightly. “Because of you. Again.” He smiled. “I seriously need to learn how to get over these things by myself; you’re not always going to be there to help me through it,” you frowned.

“What do you mean?” he returned your frown, “I’m always gonna be there for you. Forever.”

“Not always in person, though,” you chuckled.

“Well, I mean, there are ways that we could change that,” he scratched the back of his neck nervously.

“Like how?”

“Like this.”

The next thing you knew, he had slammed his lips to yours and nearly knocked all wind from your lungs.

He kissed you and the world fell away. It was slow and soft, comforting in ways that words could never be. His hand rested below your ear, his thumb caressing your cheek. You ran your fingers down his spine, pulling him closer until there was no space left between the two of you and you could feel the beating of his heart against your chest.

“LOOK!” Visser gasped, pointing at you and Josh with a shocked face, “BRENDON IS KISSING HIMSELF!”

You and Josh grudgingly pulled apart, turning to face the intrusive voice.

“VISSER SHUT UP, YOU IDIOT! YOU’RE RUINING THE MOMENT!” Lex scolded, hitting her best friend across the arm.

“I know and I’m sorry but come on, Brendon is kissing Brendon! This is gonna break the internet!” she exclaimed, snapping a few pics.

“I’m so sorry,” Lex apologised, mortified by her friend’s awful behaviour. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t post anything. Oh, and congrats! You two are adorable!”

“Wait,” you called after them as they started to walk away, “give me your numbers. You were a major help tonight; the least I can do is score you some tickets to see Fall Out Boy or something. You like them, right?”

“We fucking love them!” Visser beamed, as they both rushed forward to exchange numbers with you.

“Thank you, (Y/N),” Lex said sincerely, “You’re amazing.”

“Right back at ya,” you shot the girls a wink and waved at them as they walked off.

Shortly after they left, Josh’s phone went off with a text notification. He opened it, and you both sighed; it was a selfie of Tyler – a smug smirk on his face while he stood on the centre of the ‘X’.

Josh turned to you with a sad look. “I’m sorry you lost, (Y/N).”

“Don’t be,” you giggled, “I got to kiss you. I’m the real winner, here.”

_______________________________

Thank you for reading x

[clarencenicholsonata]

How to do a Marketing Audit: A Beginner's Guide

We know, we know. AUDIT. Who wants to do one of those?

Just like shoveling your driveway or getting your teeth cleaned, it’s not maintenance you’re thrilled to do.

But also just like shoveling your driveway or your teeth cleaned, it’s maintenance you really need to do every so often to keep things working.

If you’ve been putting a market audit off, or are approaching one for the first time, we’re here to help. We may not be able to make auditing fun, but we might be able to make it easier.

What is a marketing strategy audit?

The word 'audit' sounds scary, but it's really just a systematic and thorough look at your marketing activities to help you see what's doing well and what needs improvement. That's it!

An audit can be as thorough and complex as you like. One of the most straightforward things to take a look at, and one of the ones you have the most control over, is your marketing strategy.

In the end, a basic audit of your marketing strategy should answer these main questions:

Is your current marketing strategy aligned with your business goals?

Are you using your time and energy effectively?

Are your current marketing activities working?

If so, what’s working best and what can you leverage?

If not, what are your obstacles and what needs to be improved?

Why should you do one? When?

Day-to-day, it's easy to start taking on projects because they're exciting or fun, without thinking about if they truly contribute to your main goals. If you're not careful, you can find yourself burning valuable resources (and employee energy!) on marketing initiatives that aren't driving your core business goals.

A marketing audit can help you take a dispassionate look at how your market strategy is performing, and make you match each activity to a core business goal. It's a great way to ensure you keep your focus tightly on high-value activities for your business.

As to how often you should be sitting down and combing through your analytics, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. A one-person dynamo marketing team will handle a marketing audit schedule differently than a 10 person department.

In an ideal world, we’d be able to check in on our marketing strategies monthly. However, as marketers, we all know that getting a strategy updated quarterly can be a struggle.

You can opt for:

Constant maintenance

While a weekly in-depth look at every channel and every strategy would be unnecessary, you shouldn't wait too long between doing an analytics check. How thoroughly and how often is up to you.

For example, you might check in on how your main channels are doing in a weekly analytics meeting. Monthly, you might do a deeper dive where you review how closely you've stuck to your goals.

If you’re on track and continually seeing improvement, you might be fine without scheduling a quarterly deep dive on the calendar.

Regular check-ins

If the idea of looking at numbers every week makes your head spin, you should check in monthly, or at the very least quarterly, to see how you’re performing vs. how you think you’re performing.

A marketing audit is like car maintenance: it’s better not to wait until there’s a problem to make time for it. Then, it’ll probably be far more difficult (and costly) to fix.

Don’t wait until there’s a problem to perform a marketing audit.

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Step by step:

We’ve covered the what, the why and the when. Now, let’s get to the bit you’re probably all here for: the how.

There are two hard parts to a marketing audit.

The first: being thorough and collecting all your data. But this can be easily solved by a good data collection system.

The second: being clear-eyed about your own processes.

When we’ve spent a long time on designing our own marketing strategies, it can be difficult to be objective if they’re not achieving the numbers we want.

Step 1: List your main marketing goals

As marketers, we want to do all things at all times. Raise our company’s brand profile among potential employees and customers, promote your new product, bring in a new target market, bring in more clients, innovate, start movements, go viral.

The fastest way to get nothing done is to try to do everything.

List your top three goals: the ones that will decide whether your company continues to operate and grow, and then work from there. Everything else is just nice to have, and doesn’t necessarily need to be on your audit.

Step 2: List all your marketing activities

Yes.

All of ‘em.

Take your time with this. It can be surprisingly hard to do. You’re probably doing marketing you’ve forgotten you’re doing.

Here’s a few ideas to help:

CONTENT MARKETING

Blogs

Email newsletters

Webinars

Ebooks

Downloadables (Checklists, Templates, Calendars)

For more on this, check out "The Modern Marketer's Guide to Holistic Content Marketing"

SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube

Snapchat

TikTok

Reddit

Pinterest

OUTREACH AND NETWORKING

Media Spots (Print ads, TV Spots, Radio)

Conferences

Sponsorships & Scholarships

Remember, you likely have additional activities, or some of these don't apply to you!

Step 3: Write which overall goal each supports, and a target number for activity.

This is where an excel sheet comes in handy. This might look like this, for example:

Get specific with your targets. Instead of writing ‘more traffic’, for example, zero in on a number or a percentage improvement from last period.

If you didn’t have numeric targets outlined, that’s fine! That’s a good thing to know, and a great place to start.

Step 4: Record your analytics for each activity.

Write down what your current data says. If you hadn’t already, place a number next to each for a defined space of time. Whether it’s that week, that month, that quarter. Ensure you’re measuring the same period of time for each activity.

This can be a little bit of a pain to do manually. Management systems like Wishpond’s marketing automation tool can help, keeping track of analytics and metrics for you, and integrating with other major tools seamlessly for a powerhouse marketing suite.

Step 5: Decide if the goals are actionable or vanity metrics

This is where the really hard work starts.

Some metrics are more fluff than anything else. Likes on Instagram and Facebook, for example, might feel good to see tallying up, but are difficult to channel into ROI for your business.

Investing your finite energy in actionable metrics is likely to result in a much higher impact on your business.

For example, email open rates and clicks mean your targeted mailing list is actively engaging with messages you’ve chosen for them.

Shares of your blog posts show that your blog content and your brand are being seen and organically spread among networks.

If you're really good at racking up likes, it can be difficult to let that go to focus on less immediate rewards, but the rewards for your business, and the deeper relationships with your loyal customers, will pay off in spades.

Step 6: See which actionable metrics need improving and why.

Once you have your metrics looking at you, especially if you're able to compare period by period, you can identify trends and see where your strategy is doing great or needs some extra attention.

Sometimes simple changes can make a huge difference. For example, if you know you've followed best practices for great newsletters, but you’re still not seeing the open rates you want, are you sending your emails at the optimal time of day?

If your blog posts are interesting and thorough, but not getting shares, are there share buttons on your page and in your posts to make it easy for readers?

You don't always have to make big changes to see big results.

Step 7: Implement changes.

Here's the fun part!

Change what you need to and see if you get the results you want. Remember that changes do take time -- run any tests or experiments for a few weeks at least before deciding if they're a grand success or a dud.

Ready to level up your auditing?

Once you've gotten the hang of a marketing audit at the most basic level, you can expand the scope! Business Jargons explains the types of marketing audits there are:

Organization and Systems audits involve looking at each person in their roles or the team as a whole, as well as the software and systems they're working with.

Environment audits are much more wide-ranging and look at factors outside your organization (cultural, economic, political) that could be contributing to your performance.

Task environment audits look at how the factors directly related to the business - i.e. markets, competitors, distributors, retailers, etc. - are affecting your performance.

Need some help?

If this seems overwhelming, Wishpond's expert team of marketers is always here to help walking you through a marketing strategy that works to get you started right. You can book a demo anytime to talk to one of our friendly team members to see what Wishpond can do for you!

Summary

As a recap, here's a 7 step guide to a basic marketing strategy audit.

List your main marketing goals

List all your marketing activities

Write which overall goal each supports, and each activity

Record your analytics for each activity

Decide if the goals are actionable or vanity metrics

See which actionable metrics need improving and why

Implement any changes

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[zeroviraluniverse-blog]

VPN Unlimited review | TechRadar

Visit Now - http://zeroviral.com/vpn-unlimited-review-techradar/

VPN Unlimited review | TechRadar

VPN shopping can feel like a horribly complicated process. There are lots of options to consider, and you’ll often find yourself scrolling through lengthy comparison tables to find a plan that works for you.

KeepSolid’s VPN Unlimited does things differently. The website doesn’t overwhelm you with features or technicalities, at least initially, instead focusing on the key benefits of speed and privacy.

Browse the site and you’ll find a few details, but they’re mostly focused on the key basics. The service offers 400+ servers in 70+ locations across 45+ countries, for instance. It supports five simultaneous connections, and has software for a huge range of platforms. That means not just the usual Windows, Mac, iOS and Android: there’s also a Windows Phone app, a Linux client, and browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome.

There’s torrent support on five servers only: Canada, France, Luxembourg, Romania, and a single location in the US.

The product structure is simple. There are three main plans with identical features, which only vary by how they’re billed. The Economy plan is $9.99 (£8) for a single month, the Professional plan is $4.17 (£3.35) per month over a year, and the Infinity plan gives you lifetime coverage for a one-off $149.99 (£120). (As we write that’s described as a ‘time limited offer’ with a regular price of $499.99, or £400.)

VPN Unlimited does have some optional extras. You can get a static IP or your own personal VPN server from $14.99 (£12) a month. If the five-connection limit is too restrictive, paying $0.99 (£0.80) a month gets you one extra device, and $5.99 (£4.80) adds 10 devices.

The Family plan gives access for up to five users and 25 devices from only $8.33 (£6.65) a month, an amazing deal if you’ve three or more people to cover. Keep in mind that while VPN providers typically allow up to five devices to be connected at one time, most of them specifically say these can only belong to the same person. The Family plan allows for covering individuals, each of whom gets their own account, login and device support.

Sounds tempting? Then, good news: KeepSolid provides a 7-day free trial to get you started, and also a 7-day money-back guarantee for a little extra security after you’ve subscribed.

Privacy

KeepSolid’s privacy policy explains that there’s no logging of your specific online activities, such as the websites you visit or the files you download.

There is some session logging, including the date of every connection session and the total bandwidth used. That’s not ideal, but it’s not unusual, either.

The company says clients may ask you if they can collect data on program use. The privacy policy states this may “include your KeepSolid ID; the connection attempt time; the connection type; the encryption type; the device type, etc.”

Recording basic stats on program operations is common. There’s a problem here with the inclusion of your ID, which means the data is no longer anonymous. The suggestion that the client “may ask” for permission indicates that you’ll have a chance to opt out, but this may not happen by default, so it’ll be important to check any settings.

While browsing the small print, we noticed a small plus point in KeepSolid’s fair usage policy. Most companies use these to scare you with vague warnings about not using the service “too much”, but KeepSolid actually puts a figure on what “too much” might be: 900GB a month. Even if you pass that limit, the worst that might happen is your speeds might be limited. That seems very fair to us, and even if you disagree, it’s good to have a company which spells out what its policies really mean.

Performance

KeepSolid supports a wide range of payment methods, including cards, Bitcoin, Amazon and more. Even better, if you opt for PayPal then you get a further 5% discount off the total, for example cutting the cost of the Professional plan to $3.96 (£3.15) a month.

We handed over our cash, and moments later an email arrived thanking us for the “early purchase” of the VPN, and saying that “as agreed” the company was extending our subscription by 10%. We hadn’t noticed any mention of a contract extension, but free stuff is always welcome and we weren’t about to complain.

KeepSolid’s website and welcome email doesn’t point you to any setup guides, but it’s not difficult to figure out the process for yourself. Click the Downloads link, choose a platform – iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, Windows Phone, Apple TV and a catch-all Chrome and Firefox extension – and follow the instructions.

It’s always interesting to see how clients are doing on their individual app stores. KeepSolid was performing generally very well when we checked, with three stars for the Mac app, but around four stars for everything else, and all clients have been updated within the last six months.

Whatever you choose, setup seems relatively easy. We grabbed a copy of the Windows client, downloading and installing it within a few seconds.

The interface is bulkier than most clients, and doesn’t make the best use of space. The opening screen displays your location on a world map, for instance, but you can’t pan around it, zoom in/out, or click a location to connect. It’s just a static image.

A separate Servers tab displays all available locations along with their workload, and includes a Search box to help you find a particular city. It’s easy enough to use, but again takes more space than most clients to give you fewer features. You can’t browse by continent, for instance, there’s no way to change the sort order, and there’s no Favorites scheme to highlight your most commonly-used servers.

Poke around the client for a while and you’ll notice a second group of settings, bizarrely tucked away in the Account section. Here you can change your protocol from OpenVPN to ‘KeepSold Wise TCP’ or ‘KeepSolid Wise UDP’, which appear to be enhanced versions of OpenVPN with extra security. We would have liked the ability to decide whether the regular OpenVPN selection used UDP (for speed) or TCP (for reliability), but that’s not an option here.

There are no other significant settings or features. You can’t control whether the client reconnects when it launches. There’s no kill switch to prevent your identity leaking if the connection drops. There’s no IPv6 leak protection, and no way to modify program behavior, for example, to display notifications or not.

We had some issues with connecting and switching between servers. If you click on any server in the list, ever, KeepSolid connects to it immediately without asking for confirmation. We found it easy to do this by accident, and it seems to us that the standard Windows behavior – single click to select an item, double click to perform an action on it – would be more intuitive. But if you’re happy with the single click approach then it’s certainly easy to use, and the lack of “do you really want to connect?” confirmation messages may be an advantage.

We didn’t have any concerns about KeepSolid’s performance, which our tests* showed was excellent everywhere. Local UK servers managed 36-44Mbps download speeds. Nearby European countries – France, Netherlands, Germany – regularly reached 40Mbps. Stockholm couldn’t quite match up with an average in the low 30Mbps, but it was never lower than 28Mbps.

Connecting to the US made surprisingly little difference, with the New York server averaging around 40Mbps. Even Australia delivered speeds of 5Mbps, enough for us to stream basic HD video without difficulty.

Unfortunately, despite the triumph of the speed tests, the review ended with a problem. Both ipleak.net and dnsleak.com showed a potential DNS leak. This may not apply on all systems and platforms, but if you trial the service we would recommend checking it out for yourself.

Final verdict

KeepSolid offers great performance for a low price, and clients that run on almost everything. The DNS leak and the lack of a kill switch are going to be a problem for many, but if your needs are simple – unblocking websites, say – it could still be a good choice.

*Our testing included evaluating general performance (browsing, streaming video). We also used speedtest.net to measure latency, upload and download speeds, and then tested immediately again with the VPN turned off, to check for any difference (over several rounds of testing). We then compared these results to other VPN services we’ve reviewed. Of course, do note that VPN performance is difficult to measure as there are so many variables.

[rmkhealth]

The Calorie burn delusion

Quick question, Who is most likely to be overweight? A person whose job is very active such as a builder or someone who’s occupational requirements demand that they sit on their backside sixty hours a week?

You might think the active person is far more likely to be healthy, and you’d be right, but only just, and not every time.

A study from Washington D.C looked at BMI rates of 88,121 workers across various occupations over four years and considered fruit consumption, financial status, age, race and education and discovered a wide-ranging variance in levels of obesity.

Whilst some jobs undoubtedly showed higher levels of being overweight (truck drivers, mechanics and surprisingly cleaners) there wasn’t a significantly huge difference in the average of BMI’s across all the occupations with some quite sedentary jobs scoring lower on the obesity scale (management and administrative jobs)

Generally, it was acknowledged that occupation wasn’t as big an indicator of health as other significant factors like income, Education or whether someone smokes or the amount of fruit and veg they take on board.

It’s probably not a massive surprise to most of us, we have probably all met an overweight builder who takes five sugars in his tea and has a bacon buttie from the van most mornings, and likewise seen other builders who keep in amazing shape.

Personally I’ve known many overweight nurses and doctors who not only have an occupation that keeps them on their feet a lot of the time, but also educates them on good health practices.

Over the years I’ve worked as a PT I have worked with people who sit at a desk all day who are in great shape, and people who seem so lazy and laid back they appear practically asleep most of the time and yet have barely an ounce of fat on them.

So far, I probably haven’t given a very convincing backdrop to the title of this article on calorie expenditure, but hold onto your seats because things are about to get very interesting!

The Hadza tribe in Tanzania are a small group of hunter gatherers who are forced to survive without Netflix and so must spend most of their time foraging for various berries, roots and vegetation or hunting animals with bows and axes. If anybody is truly living the Paleo lifestyle its these guys.

As you can imagine they are very active, British government recommendations for activity are to aim for 150 minutes of exercise every week. This can include walking, cycling, running or strength exercises.

The Hadza tribe would do this much in just two days.

So here is the big shocker moment, when considering size and weight, a guy working at his desk all day would burn slightly more calories than a Hadza Tribesman. I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in.

It’s a study which forced some researchers to state that people are not overweight because of inactivity, but simply because they eat too much.

 Now you might be wandering why a desk jockey is burning more calories (just a few more) than a person who spends all day on their feet hunting deer?

Enter Adaptive thermogenesis

I recently got back into running after a long layoff over Christmas.

Here is my Fitibt data from a 6 miler a couple of weeks ago where I really pushed it.

 According to this, I burned 734 calories, a figure which is estimated on my weight and height and a unit called MET’s (metabolic equivalent task) which is taken using a complied list of data to measure how hard someone is working compared to when they are resting.

The only big flaw here is how things work in a lab and how they work in the real world.

I’m about to explain to you a very important reason why so many people struggle to keep weight off.

When I speak to a female runner who regularly competes in Marathons and averages 20 miles a week and yet still can’t seem to work of her belly, this is the reason, it’s why some people going to an exercise class at the gym week in and week out don’t look all that different after a year.

You see, the crucial bit of info my Fitbit can’t accurately record, at least without an oxygen chamber and a team of researchers, is my adaption to exercise.

Simply put if I had never run before, then that six-miler run may well have burned 734 calories. But the more often I run it, the more experienced I get, the more efficient I get at burning calories, the less calories I burn for the same activity, to the extent where my actual calorie burn for that run could be 300 calories or less. At this stage, I might find that what used to help me lose weight, isn’t working any more, and the only way I can get it to shift more tummy is to run for longer or faster or to change things up completely.

The Hadza tribe are adapted to their lifestyle, they are efficient at burning calories which means that their activity level is less significant to overall calorie expenditure than it would be for us soft city folk.

Therefore, I don’t get overly worried about how many calories a client burns during a weight loss session, for marketing purposes it might be cool to discuss the super calorie burn of a spinning session or other activities, or even the afterburn (post exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC). But these things aren’t as relevant as we’re led to believe, in the real world they don’t make all that much of a difference long term to a person.

As I believe Einsten said, “Insanity is a pointless home workout DVD that gets people doing overhyped plyometrics in their living room at great risk to their joints whilst not taking into account the effect of adaptive thermogenesis on their long term weight management “I’ve paraphrased slightly on that statement.

I dismay at these programs because at some point they will burn less and less, and because of the Halo effect of exercise whereby people are likely to be less active for the rest of the day after intense exercise, even if they do it subconsciously.

And most of all, because I know the single biggest predictor of resting metabolic rate is muscle mass, which doesn’t require getting stupidly out of breath, it just mean pushing some weights and making sure you have sufficient calories and protein.

The great thing about resistance exercise as my clients will testify is that we can change things up often, just as they are starting to get used to a routine and smashing a workout it’s time to change the program and take on a new challenge which means a different set of exercises to adapt to.

More than the hour or two hours a person spends with me each week, I try as much as possible to encourage activity, because it does matter, because it does make a difference.  Every little bit counts, and we all need to do a little each day, so count the steps, do some gardening, clean up, walk more and play.

The key is variety, mix it up, we need to take every possible opportunity we can to be active and remain committed to good health for life, there is no point where we can stop and say that’s it now, I’m healthy enough, time to go sit down all day and stop enjoying all this good health and energy.

I have made light fun of certain activities in this article, to which I do apologise, in truth I honestly believe any activity is good, honestly I do, I strongly suggest people mix things up for variety for reasons I have alluded to, and anything which gets you moving is positive.

Everyone responds differently to diets and exercise and there is no one size fits all. What might work great for a person may very well be a disaster for their best mate doing the same thing. We need to experiment a little and the most valuable longevity factor is consistency.

Keep exercising in any way you can every day.

The benefits of exercise and activity are of enormous importance to our long-term health and wellbeing, the principles I have alluded to in this article should make it more effective.

 Links to the studies I mentioned here

https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/13_0219.htm#table1_down

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0040503#pone.0040503-Dugas1

If you liked this article please share it, or at least click on the link below to the coolest personal trainer in Hull

http://richmckeating.com/

The inspiration for this article came from an excellent article I read by Matt Woodard.

[clarencenicholsonata]

How To Write A Real Estate Blog People Want To Read

Real Estate Blogging – Making Your Mark

If you do not have an online presence in today’s real estate market, you are not going to be as successful as you could be. As a real estate agent, having a blog is a big part of creating an online presence. But not all blogs are created equal. Some are much more successful than others. So, what’s the secret? How do you create a real estate blog people actually want to read?

People talk all the time about having quality content but what does that actually mean? In a recent article we talked about some tips for successful real estate blogging. Some general guidelines were discussed on how to provide information people want to read that can also drive business.

Below you’ll find some additional guidelines that will be helpful in starting your journey to creating a successful real estate article.

11 Tips to Write the Best Real Estate Blog Post

1. Provide solutions to problems your readers have.

When someone searches for something on the web, usually that person is looking for answers to questions or solutions to problems – particularly when it comes to real estate. How do I handle multiple offers on my home? Should I sell my own home? What renovations will get me the most money? What neighborhoods have the best schools? These are real life questions that people will put into their favorite search engine for answers.

The biggest goal of your blog will be to answer the questions and solve the problems of potential readers. The more useful your content, the more likely you are to have visitors and to get referrals from your site.

2. Write for the web.

A blog is substantially different from your college essays. Text is broken up into easily scanned blocks, with titles and formatting that guides the reader. Writing is more informal. You have less time to grab the reader, so titles are very important, as is formatting. Don’t save the best for last – or at least make sure you have interesting material up top to keep people reading.

People like to call an unattractive blog post a “wall of words”. This is because there is no semblance of any structure to the writing. A good real estate blog article should be broken down into ideas with a specific headings. Under each heading you should share your wisdom in a clear and concise fashion broken down in short concise paragraphs. Here are some great tips on creating a nice layout.

3. Add some pictures.

Having awesome graphics is one of the most important aspects of having a successful real estate blog. Your graphics can quickly propel you into being remembered by a significant amount of people. In fact, it is usually the graphics that will cause someone to want to share your article on their social media channels.

While you can find stock photos that you can use for free – which will work in a bind – ideally you should take some pictures on your own, or at least use unique pictures that really add to your content. A nice diagram, infographic or photo of a concept is great for your readers, summarizing information in a way words can’t. There are some great sites that you can purchase photos online.

Once you get your feet wet, you can take your graphics to the next level by using a service like Canva which allows you to make incredible designs. Social media sites, like Pinterest offer an incredible opportunity for real estate agents to expose their work. Use our tips and you’ll be a rock star in no time!

4. Focus on your areas of expertise.

While choosing broad topics is a great way to flesh out your blog and attract a wide range of readers, chances are the most valuable help you can provide centers on a more niche area. If you have spent 10 years working with home buyers in NE Spokane, WA, you have a unique perspective that not many other real estate bloggers have.

The more you can translate your knowledge into real estate blog material, the more attractive you will be to readers who need specific, accurate information on the subject you are covering.

5. Write for real estate agents and for clients.

It can be tempting to focus your content on buyers and sellers, which is certainly worth doing and is enough to fill out a blog all on its own. However, you are missing out on another audience – a surprisingly large audience – that you could tap into if you have something to say and the courage to say it.

Sure, it may be intimidating to write for your peers, but they are looking for good info too. If you believe you have some insight into issues your fellow Realtors face, take the plunge and blog about it. If other Realtors like what you have to say, they will probably feel comfortable referring clients to you.

For example, one of the most discussed topics among real estate agents is Zillow. They are in fact the bane of many real estate agents because of their “Zestimates of value.” Many home owners take these online estimates as gospel which puts agents in a position of constantly having to explain why they are not. Many buyers and sellers want to know are Zillow estimates reliable or not.

This is the kind of topic that can kill two birds with one stone. You are helping consumers, while also helping out your fellow agents on how to educate why Zillow estimates are far from accurate.

6. Blog regularly.

There is an ongoing argument about which is better – blogging frequently, like daily or almost daily, or blogging less frequently but focusing on more in-depth material. Bloggers have been successful with both strategies, so it is really up to you and how you want to do things. Frankly, I like creating in-depth content myself.

But whether you blog once a week or every day, you do need to maintain some consistency to keep readers around. The more erratic your schedule, the bigger risk readers will forget about your blog or become frustrated and go somewhere else. Keep them in the know by having a solid real estate social media strategy. While creating fantastic content is crucial, so is promoting it.

7. Go for evergreen content.

The higher quality blogs you can create, the more likely that readers will appreciate what you are doing and come to rely on you for good content. Content that will be useful both now and a year from now is referred to as “evergreen”.

Such content can take more work to create, but it is worth doing if you plan on blogging over an extended period of time. It only takes one really great evergreen blog and some luck to have it shared for years to come, which means ongoing traffic to your blog.

8. Write topical content too.

While evergreen content is the backbone of most good blogs, you also need to blog about current issues that may not be relevant a month or a year from now. The market is always changing, and your readers will probably expect you to discuss what is going on now. Who knows what the market is doing in an area better than a Realtor who works in that area?

Showing off you local expertise is always a smart move. Community pages are one of the better ways of letting people know you are the local real estate expert.

9. Encourage conversation.

When you are looking for clients, you want to have some interaction with the visitors to your blog. By allowing comments and encouraging your readers to discuss topics or give you feedback, you can develop relationships that may lead to work in the real world. There is a risk of undesirable comments, but you can always delete anything you do not want sticking around on your blog.

10. Build relationships with other Real Estate bloggers.

One of the best ways to have a successful blog post is to have a tribe of followers ready to promote it for you! Creating meaningful relationships with other real estate bloggers can be the cornerstone of having a well known blog.

Reciprocation by sharing on social media channels and linking back in relevant content can go a long way in creating a name for yourself online. Remember your peers are looking for the same thing you are – RECOGNITION. By taking the “you rub my back and I’ll rub yours” really works when it comes to blogging.

One of the best ways of saying thank you to your supporters is by running a monthly real estate round-up whereby you share content that was created by those who are often supporting your work. Round-ups are a great way to show off the talents of multiple real estate bloggers all in one post.

Here is an example of a recent real estate round up from Massachusetts Real Estate News. Notice how nine different real estate articles were featured. No doubt quite a few happy bloggers who were thrilled to see their name in the spotlight.

11. Keep working on it.

As the saying goes Rome was not created in a day. Your blog may not be that great at the beginning. But if you keep at it, eventually you will have a blog you can be proud of, one that benefits readers and leads to more business.

Real estate blogging is a long term investment in your time. If you think that you are going to write a couple of articles and you’ll have business pouring in your dead wrong! Most successful real estate bloggers don’t really start to see any meaningful business until they have been doing it for a few years.

If you put in the time and effort business will come – good luck!

The post How To Write A Real Estate Blog People Want To Read appeared first on The Contactually Blog | For Relationship-Based Businesses.

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