#the base is an actual screenshot of the 1999 site

[gayalienwilde]

OMG have you guys seen this????

[archiveacademics]

Why write fanfic?

I left off my last post with a screenshot from AO3′s homepage that gave some stats about how many fandoms are represented and stories have been written on the site. And there’s a lot, over 5 million works so far. But what is it that drives people to write fanfic? 

In Fic by Anne Jamison, popular YA author Rachel Caine writes about how fanfic saved her writing career. 

“By 1999, I was ready to quit professional writing. Quit, completely and utterly. I was still doing the occasional short story...During this time I wrote another novel, Exile, Texas, a straight mystery/thriller; but although it was published, it also sold in not fantastic numbers.

But mostly? Mostly it was the fic that kept me writing, from the sheer joy of creating stories in a wold that I loved to inhabit. I also loved the challenge of working in a world that had clearly defined rules and characters. Unlike most fanfic writers, I didn’t want to write outside the lines; the highest compliment I could be offered was when readers confused one of my stories for an actual episode of the show [I was writing about].”

A similar story is told by Betts, a guest on the Fansplaining podcast episode “The Craft of Writing (Fanfiction)” Betts was working at a bank and smothered her creative and fannish impulses when she discovered a popular fanfic in the BBC Sherlock fandom called “A Cure for Boredom.” And it changed the whole trajectory of her life. She eventually got an MFA and became a writing instructor. She even uses fanfic in her classes. 

“In Creative Writing, I have a lot more freedom, and so since I went into the MFA as a…as what they called a “self-taught” writer, since I had no creative writing—traditional creative writing instruction before that point, I developed my class around how I taught myself how to write, which involved very heavily fanfic.

And so I would take, when I started writing fic, I would take a concept that I wanted to improve on—and I did this very systematically, very scientifically—take a concept I wanted to improve on, and I would do all this research, and I would find like, resources and what other people thought of it and whatever, and then I would write a fic where I only focused on that single thing. And then everything else I didn’t care about. So like, if I was focusing on character development or voice, then it didn’t matter what anything else was doing. I was just, one thing at at time.

And so I got to develop my class around that, and that, like, I have these like—I have lesson plans, and I have a week dedicated to fairy tales, and a week dedicated to…and the fairy tale week is actually about form. And how to break form and invoke meaning. And I have a week based on character development, a week based on, on endings, which is called “Exit Strategies.” [all laugh] 

And so I do very much bring in fandom context into my classroom, because we also talk about—I should say, I meet with students one-on-one, because I’m, I think I’m better one-on-one than, you know, just standing in front of people talking at them. And I can usually tell by sitting in front of someone what their interaction with pop culture is. [all laugh] And so, like, they’ll be talking about their story, and I’ll just kind of insert, “Do you like fanfiction?” [all laugh] And it’s amazing, it’s amazing how many faces just like light up, like “I didn’t know I was allowed to write that, I didn’t know I was allowed to do that.” And I’m like “Yes, please please please write fanfic, please write things that are a step away from it, please begin with a fic and then move original,” you know. 

And so when I phrase it like “You can start something with something you’re familiar with, and then slowly work it around into something original,” and that kind of branches off of what I see as a major block for a lot of people who are writing original fiction, which is there are just too many decisions to make when you face a blank page.” (From the episode transcript)

Ok, so that’s a lot of words from someone else, I know, but I think what Bett’s gets at here is so important. Writing fanfic is not only about loving something and participating in it, it’s also about learning. Writing fanfic can teach you how to write. 

A simple Google search for “writing fanfic” will bring up a myriad of articles on the subject. From Julie Beck’s “What Fanfiction Teaches that the Classroom Doesn’t” to Colleen Mitchell’s “How Fanfiction can Improve your Writing” and Vivian Shaw’s “6 Ways Fanfiction Makes your Writing Stronger.” 

As Betts says in the podcast episode “[Fanfic] is a genre of freedom.” It allows for lots of different ways of writing and reading and interacting with a piece of media (be it TV, movie, book, or otherwise) that other genres don’t generally allow because there are boundaries, rules of what makes a genre a genre that fanfic doesn’t necessarily have. And it becomes easier to focus on particular aspect of a piece, be it character or plot, when you don’t have to fill in all the blank space. So an AU gives you a new setting to play with, but the characters are still the same, and you’ve got the story laid out for you. Meanwhile a story where you add an OC into an existing world allows you to work on character development without making you create the setting or the plot as well.

I actually ran a survey, posted to Facebook and it only received 12 responses, so it’s by no means scientific. But I asked my friends if they wrote or read fanfic and why.

One of the questions I asked was about when they started writing fanfic, and the answer for most of them was between 10 and 15, though one person said they didn’t start writing fanfic until they were 22, and another said they started at 35! Fanfic is for everyone of all ages, is what I’m saying. I also asked when they stopped writing and while some are still going strong, others stopped in their twenties. 

The most important question I asked, though, was what they got out of writing fanfic. A few of the answers were the expected, about loving the world or being inspired by reading other people’s fics. Many, though, had very interesting reasons for writing their fics. 

The survey was anonymous, so here are some of the answers in no particular order:

“It was some of my first serious attempts at writing a story more than a couple pages long. It was a great way for me to practice plotting, and writing a longer piece, without having to spend all my time working on world building and character creation as well. Also, playing around with the characters and the world, almost like a set of dolls, was - and is - just plain fun!”

“I first started writing it to make my own little world where I could be important and cared about, since I didn't have it in real life. After that I was just interested in exploring a couple concepts/characters deeper than the canon did.”

“I wanted to know what happened in those side stories, but obviously the author wasn’t going to tell me so someone had to do it. I had fun, entertained myself and others, flexed my creative muscles, and learned how to emulate others’ writing voices.”

“I wanted to see the characters explore storylines that weren't getting written in the comics (Rogue was done dirty by the x-men comics in the early 2000s), half of my oc got killed off (Anakin Solo [don't get me started on how much material Disney squandered when they rendered a bunch of novels/comics non-canon]), or I just really hated all the canon pairings (HP)”

I also asked why my friends read fanfic, because a whole big part of the experience is not just writing, but reading it as well!

“The last season [of Gilmore Girls] changed writers and producers and it became a different show, so I turned to fanfic to continue wondering what would happen if the original writers and producers were on the show. Additionally, the fanfic became a lot more interesting. I realized that there were a lot more people that liked the show than I even realized. I was also really impressed with the creativity of the writers. They were able to replicate the characters, how they would act, what they would say, almost perfectly to make a completely new scenario. I would say that reading fanfic has made me more imaginative about the shows I watch, or even the books I read, but also it has opened up a realization that there is a community in almost everything you do.”

“Fanfiction gives you alternate takes so you can spend time in the viewpoint of a character who barely makes an appearance in canon. Also, importantly, fanfic is written by peers, so you can interact with the writers. We are all friends.”

“Probably the main draw is getting to spend more time with the characters that I love, and seeing how they might react in different situations that didn’t come up in the source material. Also, it can be nice to be able to search the archives online to find something to exactly match my mood at the moment (such as if I’m in the mood for angst, or romance, or family bonding, it’s easy to find exactly what I want).”

“Ff is definitely 1) an easier lift than reading something new and 2) satisfies a slightly different itch than canon. It’s easier to read just because I mostly know what to expect from the characters and the type of story. There are few unpleasant surprises and I’m already invested, and if I don’t like a story, it’s easy to drop and move on. Fix in my brain is also wish fulfillment. There are many many things I would never stand for in canon, like overly saccharine endings or pointless melodrama, that I can enjoy in ff because “real” story is already established. Canon has the hard job of making a world or a character enjoyable or interesting. Ff is where I can go to wallow (sometimes for years) in that joy or interest, whether it was a character or a dynamic or just a specific trope.”

At the end of the day, fanfic isn’t just about reimagining stories we love, it’s about reimagining those stories with other people. 

Both Rachel Caine and Betts discuss this, that it was the positive feedback of the fandoms they wrote in that helped give boost their writerly self esteem and keep them coming back to write more, which eventually led to them writing their own original fiction. 

Not that you have to move from fanfic into original fic! There are plenty of people who are completely satisfied writing nothing by fanfic for the rest of their lives. And that’s ok. 

Whatever your experience with fic, whether you are a lurker who just reads but never comments or writes your own stuff, or if you’re a BNF (big name fan) or even a fan who became a big name (like Rachel Caine or Naomi Novik), the pleasure of fanfic is that we get to experience it together.

[pixelgrotto]

Schattenjäger Archives

The Gabriel Knight series is something special. I knew it when I played the first one, Sins of the Fathers, nearly 20 years ago and was so entranced by its story of a roguish mystery writer solving a conspiracy of voodoo murders that I was inspired to write a poem based on the game’s themes. (Here it is, dug up from the depths of my old PC for your viewing pleasure. It ain’t bad considering that I wrote it in the 8th grade.) I even considered applying to Tulane University for college so I could be in New Orleans, the site of the first game’s events, and I know from trawling through various message boards and YouTube channels that I’m not the only one who’s been bitten by the bug to see the scenes of Gabriel’s meanderings in person. This is a series of thrillers, with heavily researched plots similar to things that might’ve made The New York Times’ bestseller list back in 1996, and one of the main strengths that differentiated Gabriel Knight from other adventure games of the era - which were largely content with make-believe settings - were the real-world locations, from the most famous city in Louisiana to Bavaria to a tiny vale in France. Each of these locales seemed to come so vibrantly alive, teeming with delicious darkness just waiting to be expunged. 

Much of this is due to the effort of series matriarch Jane Jensen, a novelist who just so happened to fall into the adventure game business at Sierra in the 90s. Jane serves as a nice example of a video game creator who’s an actual writer and not just a designer trying to be a writer, and after helping the company produce the best King’s Quest game (KQVI), she won the right to make her own series. Gabriel Knight was the result, and the franchise would go on to span three games, plus a remake, detailing the adventures of the titular schattenjäger, or “shadow hunter,” as he tackles aspects of the supernatural across the world. 

I went and played through each game over the past month. (I also read the paperback novelizations that Jane wrote for games one and two - you can read my reviews on Goodreads here and here.) There are some warts, mostly due to your typical silly adventure game puzzles of the 90s that were designed to sell hint books, but by far and large, the writing and characterization that Jane put on display make up for these shortcomings. The first entry, Sins of the Fathers, intertwines a voodoo cult with an exploration of Gabriel’s German heritage and features perhaps the best implementation of Sierra’s classic “icon bar” interface. The second, The Beast Within, is nowadays known as one of the few good FMV titles to emerge from an era where the video game industry was frightfully obsessed with emulating Hollywood, and boasts an intricate plot that somehow manages to tie werewolves into the legends of the “mad” king of Bavaria, Ludwig II. The third and last game in the saga, Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, is probably the one that’s aged the worse, with frumpy polygonal graphics, an odd interface that’s emblematic of how early 3D games just didn’t know what to do with their cameras, and some truly mind-numbing puzzles - including an infamous one involving cat fur and a mustache that got criticized for “killing” adventure games back in 1999. Nevertheless, it still manages to tell a cool tale of the Knights Templar, the Freemasons, the blood of Jesus Christ and vampires, though the bloodsuckers are admittedly underdeveloped compared to the voodoo practitioners and werewolves of entries one and two. 

A Gabriel Knight 4 was never made, and it wasn’t due to the cat mustache puzzle. Adventure games simply fell out of favor at the dawn of the 2000s, and Sierra was eventually sold off and quite depressingly went out of business soon afterwards. Jane Jensen dabbled in the casual games industry for a while before mostly disappearing to work on books until 2014, when she used Kickstarter funds to produce a 20th Anniversary remake of Sins of the Fathers, hoping to summon up enough new interest in the schattenjäger to possibly revive the series for real. Despite solid reviews, the sales numbers of the remake didn’t quite translate into cold, hard cash (an unfortunate phenomenon that’s plagued every Gabriel Knight game, not just the 20th anniversary rehash), and it seems that barring a miracle, a proper GK4 will never materialize. Jane Jensen also appears content to write gay erotica under her pen name of Eli Easton for the time being, since novels about handsome men sexing each other apparently yield more consistent sales numbers. Ah well. 

There’s a lot to love in the Gabriel Knight franchise, from the aforementioned historical research that went into each game’s plot, to the Elton John-influenced soundtracks done by Jane’s husband Robert Holmes, to the fact that Gabriel was voiced by frickin’ Tim Curry in Sins of the Fathers and Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, to the highly likable Grace Nakimura, Gabriel’s Japanese American assistant who provides a foil to her occasionally dickish boss and also serves as one of the earliest and realest examples of a playable woman of color in interactive entertainment. (At one point in the third game, she receives an email from her overly anxious Asian mother about how she needs to get married or go back to graduate school, which is one of the most relatable things I’ve seen in a video game.) Fans of the series would go on to honor these themes in mysterious ways, and Wadjet Eye’s Blackwell games and Kathy Rain are prime examples of titles made by independent creators who were obviously heavily influenced by Jane Jensen’s work. On a slightly different personal level, even I’ve done my part in keeping the spirit alive - the main character I recently created to play in the tabletop Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game is essentially a 1920s version of Gabriel Knight with glasses. 

Prior to the release of the Sins of the Fathers remaster, Jane Jensen put out a short story called The Temptation that was eventually turned into an online comic. It details the beginning of a new adventure for Mr. Knight, loosely based off of concepts involving ghosts and witches that Jane was originally going to use for the fourth entry in the series. Gabriel appears more driven than ever in the span of its pages. Even if he never receives another game, the schattenjäger is still out there, keeping watch over Schloss Ritter, prepping for the next macabre mission into the heart of darkness. May he succeed, may he be reunited with Grace, and until that miracle occurs and Gabriel Knight 4 becomes a reality, perhaps this is the best possible way to remember him. 

Artwork and screenshots assembled from the promotional materials and respective MobyGames pages for each game. All courtesy of Sierra and Pinkerton Road Studio. 

[scifigeneration]

Illuminating the 'dark web'

by Robert Gehl

It might sound scary, but the ‘dark web’ is not much different from the rest of the internet. Willequet Manuel/Shutterstock.com

In the wake of recent violent events in the U.S., many people are expressing concern about the tone and content of online communications, including talk of the “dark web.” Despite the sinister-sounding phrase, there is not just one “dark web.” The term is actually fairly technical in origin, and is often used to describe some of the lesser-known corners of the internet. As I discuss in my new book, “Weaving the Dark Web: Legitimacy on Freenet, Tor, and I2P,” the online services that make up what has become called the “dark web” have been evolving since the early days of the commercial internet – but because of their technological differences, are not well understood by the public, policymakers or the media.

As a result, people often think of the dark web as a place where people sell drugs or exchange stolen information – or as some rare section of the internet Google can’t crawl. It’s both, and neither, and much more.

Seeking anonymity and privacy

In brief, dark websites are just like any other website, containing whatever information its owners want to provide, and built with standard web technologies, like hosting software, HTML and JavaScript. Dark websites can be viewed by a standard web browser like Firefox or Chrome. The difference is that they can only be accessed through special network-routing software, which is designed to provide anonymity for both visitors to websites and publishers of these sites.

Websites on the dark web don’t end in “.com” or “.org” or other more common web address endings; they more often include long strings of letters and numbers, ending in “.onion” or “.i2p.” Those are signals that tell software like Freenet, I2P or Tor how to find dark websites while keeping users’ and hosts’ identities private.

Those programs got their start a couple of decades ago. In 1999, Irish computer scientist Ian Clarke started Freenet as a peer-to-peer system for computers to distribute various types of data in a decentralized manner rather than through the more centralized structure of the mainstream internet. The structure of Freenet separates the identity of the creator of a file from its content, which made it attractive for people who wanted to host anonymous websites.

Not long after Freenet began, the Tor Project and the Invisible Internet Project developed their own distinct methods for anonymously hosting websites.

Today, the more commonly used internet has billions of websites – but the dark web is tiny, with tens of thousands of sites at the most, at least according to the various indexes and search engines that crawl these three networks.

The Tor Project promotes and encourages online anonymity. Screenshot by The Conversation, CC BY-ND

A more private web

The most commonly used of the three anonymous systems is Tor – which is so prominent that mainstream websites like Facebook, The New York Times and The Washington Post operate versions of their websites accessible on Tor’s network. Obviously, those sites don’t seek to keep their identities secret, but they have piggybacked on Tor’s anonymizing web technology in order to allow users to connect privately and securely without governments knowing.

In addition, Tor’s system is set up to allow users to anonymously browse not only dark websites, but also regular websites. Using Tor to access the regular internet privately is much more common than using it to browse the dark web.

Moral aspects of ‘dark’ browsing

Given the often sensationalized media coverage of the dark web, it’s understandable that people think the term “dark” is a moral judgment. Hitmen for hire, terrorist propaganda, child trafficking and exploitation, guns, drugs and stolen information markets do sound pretty dark.

Yet people commit crimes throughout the internet with some regularity – including trying to hire killers on Craigslist and using Venmo to pay for drug purchases. One of the activities often associated with the dark web, terrorist propaganda, is far more prevalent on the regular web.

Defining the dark web only by the bad things that happen there ignores the innovative search engines and privacy-conscious social networking – as well as important blogging by political dissidents.

Even complaining that dark web information isn’t indexed by search engines misses the crucial reality that search engines never see huge swaths of the regular internet either – such as email traffic, online gaming activity, streaming video services, documents shared within corporations or on data-sharing services like Dropbox, academic and news articles behind paywalls, interactive databases and even posts on social media sites. Ultimately, though, the dark web is indeed searchable as I explain in a chapter of my book.

Thus, as I suggest, a more accurate connotation of “dark” in “dark web” is found in the phrase “going dark” – moving communications out of clear and public channels and into encrypted or more private ones.

Managing anxieties

Focusing all this fear and moral judgment on the dark web risks both needlessly scaring people about online safety and erroneously reassuring them about online safety.

For instance, the financial services company Experian sells services that purport to “monitor the dark web” to alert customers when their personal data has been compromised by hackers and offered for sale online. Yet to sign up for that service, customers have to give the company all sorts of personal information – including their Social Security number and email address – the very data they’re seeking to protect. And they have to hope that Experian doesn’t get hacked, as its competitor Equifax was, compromising the personal data of nearly every adult in the U.S.

It’s inaccurate to assume that online crime is based on the dark web – or that the only activity on the dark web is dangerous and illegal. It’s also inaccurate to see the dark web as content beyond the reach of search engines. Acting on these incorrect assumptions would encourage governments and corporations to want to monitor and police online activity – and risk giving public support to privacy-invading efforts.

About The Author:

Robert Gehl is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Utah

This article is republished from our content partners at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

[misfiredmonologue]

Fragmented viewership and queer longing for better endings (Soldier’s Girl)

march 31, 2022

we’re both in it only for the longing,

but I enjoy being the delusional one about it.

(…)

There is a spam bot on grindr manifesting itself as an unknown user with a blank profile, that shows up in my messages the minute I go online, inviting me to visit NSAcock dot com. Therefore, the amount of people that message me on days I open the app can be reliably measured by the distance between each notification advertising National Security Agency dick. If you ever happen to visit the site I urge you to let me know what it says and what viruses are on offer (physically/digitally). I’m curious.

Heute

(...) hat dir eine Nachricht gesendet.

Diese Person ist nicht mehr verfügbar.

It’s trans day of whatever the fuck is going on and the tiredness and resignation about the endless streams of pastel infographic sharepics has long become its own pastel infographic sharepic (did you know that trans visibility without protection is a trap? yes. yes, we know). And while genuine queer rage and anger tends to make all meals of the great digital feed taste less bland, ignorance is bliss is my weapon of choice here. I gladly accept that excessive social media scrolling will be banned from my life today and probably this day for some more years to come. Am I doing this right? Therefore, holier than though, all who are consuming the dish of the day? For fucking sure not, but today I will not see captions on reposts of screenshots of tweets about other tweets that tell me why.

In 2014, Jared Leto received an Oscar for best supporting actor, portraying the trans woman Rayon in Dallas Buyer’s Club. That this was an incredibly mismatched casting choice and cis men routinely portraying trans women in film is, of course, nothing new.

I didn’t watch the movie then and my feelings for it when viewing it years later randomly at a friend’s movie night were as trivial as the event itself; not leaving the same impact as other filmic portrayals of queer struggle and subsequent death, like Soldier’s Girl, have had on me years earlier. What the two films do share though is one of the two lead roles - in Soldier’s Girl’s case that of the trans woman Calpernia - not being portrayed by a trans actress, but instead by a famous Hollywood actor and cis man, Lee Pace.

Having rewatched it only recently I thought I could give a more excited synopsis, with it recounting the different stages of the two protagonist’s - that being the performer and entertainer Clapernia Addams and US Army Airborne Infantry soldier Barry Winchell - radically different yet intertwining lives. But honestly, I don’t think it matters for the point I’m hoping to make here. All there is to know for now, is that the story is based on real events that took place in the US in 1999 ending in the murder of the young soldier by two of his military comrads. The actual story is probably best told by Calpernia herself on her blog. Everything more feels too intense to get into right now.

Maybe it is also important to note, that what I think drew me to the movie, was seeing a cis man, involved in the hypermasculine and toxic cult that is the US military, unapologetically fall in love with a trans woman. While his colleagues also meet her and other performers at a queer bar, where they admit being attracted to them, they later violently reject their womanhoods and label them as freaks, something that in their drunken, screaming discussions translates quite obviously to ‘something less than human, less than us’. Barry is given plenty of opportunity to copy this behaviour and with it escape becoming the target of increased bullying from other soldiers. But instead he reacts to his growing attraction to Calpernia with gentlemen-like gestures of affection and genuine care, not once questioning her womanhood. So basically, he is doing the bare minimum (we love to see it, don’t we?) and is not persuaded into violent rejection to ensure that his masculinity (and with it his job) remain unquestioned.

Him not doing the killing, in the end, is what gets him killed. It’s depicted in a chilling, graphic scene, that spares no detail of how his roommate and supposed friend and another soldiers conspire to and then execute his murder, by cracking open his skull with a baseball bat in his sleep. The camera doesn’t shy away from framing exessive amount of blood splattered over walls and bodies and remnants of faces.

When I first came across Soldier’s Girl in 2014 I watched it and then rewatched it excessively, just like the gay cowboy drama romance Brokeback Mountain - not nessecarily for the story arc but because parts of it fulfilled my simple desire to see romance, sex and affection, that has been labelled as queer, on screen. I had soon devised a distinct viewing routine that divided both movies into two parts. On some days I would watch it in full, but on days I was feeling sad and alone in my queerness I watched only the first hour, cutting the narrative short to miss out on the always violent, always deadly end that follows the protagonist’s short-lived glimpses into a world of possible tender romances. Having watched the first hour I already felt satiated in my longing. Repeatedly sitting through what was left, stopped feeling intensely heart-wrenching after a while and started to become more of a chore, that could be skipped whenever my conscience would allow it. Ignoring the last hour, the parts where a hopeful, romantic plot was overturned by violence, always left me feeling guilty of not been brave enough to be a viewer that would honor the original path of the story and with it, in the case of Soldier’s Girl, the memory Barry Winchell. Lack of exposure to other narratives stopped me from even questioning, why this was the end I felt like I should subject myself to over and over again, when I was actually there hoping to imagine how things could be different. Maybe in a way, where, just like in any other cheesy romantic comedy movie, the only challenge presented would be the ups and down of falling in love itsself. Where Calpernia and Barry evaluate their relationship and realize, that repeatedly being called freaks by other soldiers who are displaying concerning signs of toxic masculinity in their close proximity and with it the willingness to punish any dissent from the norm with violence, just like the military in general, is endangering their livelyhoods. And then find paths to live a life far from it, being supported and loved by Calpernia’s friends and neighbours and nothing truly bad ever happens to them and we see even more passionate fucking alternated with softly spoken affirmations on each other’s bodies and presence. Or something like that, you know?

In hindsight, I think this “short version” of Soldier’s Girl would have been the better movie for me, at that time, had there been someone to envision it apart from me. Someone who would have allowed for another narrative route based on real events, that we didn’t get to witness in media, because them not ending with court hearings and murder charges made them less visible to the public and less interesting to the curious cis gaze.

If undocumented storylines of joyful existence can only persist safely when staying invisible in their trans and queerness, why demand visibility? Is it so impossible to envision more of these already quietly existing narratives - to tell without recounting? If visibility without protection is a trap, then so is exclusively basing things ‘on a true story’. As if the things we make up were not real, just like gender is all made up and still very real!

The short and loud media outrage about Jared Leto’s Oscar nomination, that took place during a similar time as my obsession with Soldier’s Girl, sparked for me, above all, a weird, curious joy. Since I had just found out that trans women existed, even the mention of anything queer or trans in a mainstream online discourse felt intensely exhilarating. It was like I had stumbled upon a well-kept secret by accident, that I now carried around with me everywhere, of course contemplating subconsciously the consequences this might have for my life. Seeing this then shortly after being exposed to a wide, differently clueless public was exciting and invoking the opposite reaction of what the heightened attention frenzy on trans day of visibility feels like, today. I realize that this doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I can only suspect that I had become temporarily desensitized to the stress of seeing trans people’s lives and demands to be afforded basic human decency, discussed, picked apart and questioned. Just like I had become desensitized to transphobia leading to murder leading to depiction in media, in order to maintain my access to something I felt I needed to know more about, desperately.

It would take another year or two, until I heard of the existence of trans men and transmasc folk in general.This was a much less joyful discovery. I had been deeply invested in all the trans narratives I could get my hands on and that allowed me to contemplate gender from a safe distance, which was then completely obliterated and turned itself against me in all its emotional intensity, when I realized that hey, this could be about me, too.

Badly lit, pre T trans masc YouTube vlogs of anxious boys explaining how they know to have always been a man, believing that only those who can back up their suffering with the one and only holy gender dysphoria diagnosis are allowed to call themselves trans, while frantically swiping away the fringes of an emo haircut that keeps getting in the way, must have been the mood of these discoveries. Me watching for a few minutes and then crying, thinking ‘I don’t want to be that’ might have been what happened next. But I am really not sure, the only source backing this up is the favorite unreliable narrator, my memory.  

“What if I had known all that stuff when I was growing up, you know?” Leslie Feinberg asks in a video interview on transgender history. I wonder the same thing now, regarding Feinberg’s book Trans Gender Warriors, that I stumbled upon last year, but which had actually been published first in 1996. It is all and more of what I wish had come up, instead of Soldier’s Girl and video diaries of insecure trans medicalists, when teenage me frantically skimmed the internet for trans representation. What if stories of well researched trans history, collected and told by trans writers, had been my starting point for further digital exploration, leading me then to more niche discoveries like Shu Lea Cheangs interactive digital memorial archive BRANDON that was programmed between 1997 and 1999? I could have viewed and explored the original website before its Java plugins stopped being supported and it underwent digital restauration in 2017. But instead I find it now, despite all these things having existed for almost as long as I have. Why was I being stuck with scripts written by cis people about trans people, casting cis men to play women for so long and narrations that aim to convince, instead of dare to dream? And I wonder why am I still looking for joyful stories when I have collected plenty of evidence, that it is easier write them into my own life instead of finding them being told elsewhere?

“There is a reason why I didn’t know all this stuff. It’s not just that they didn’t tell me, they didn’t want me to know it. And I needed to know it.”

Feinberg scrunches up their eyebrows and looks directly into the camera, as if anxious and angry at who they might see looking back at them through the screen.

“But I found it anyways.”

[connecticut-seo-adwords]

Favicons - Why they are important for SEO

By Greg Snow-Wasserman The Value of Favicons for SEO

Favicons are the little piece of graphic that represents your brand on browser tabs, bookmark lists, search history, search ads and even browse outcomes. We have currently gone over in a previous post the use of favicons and their role in branding and use. Today we will dig much deeper into this much inconspicuous but rather substantial piece of branding component. We will discuss whether or not favicons have a function to play in SEO, what are the requirements in terms of mobile gadgets and the various tools used to assist you produce a favicon.

What Is A Favicon?For all those

who are uninformed of the what a favicon is: Favicons are 16 × 16 pixels little icons that typically consist of the logo, the very first letter of the brand or a generic image that represents business type. These files are positioned in a file called favicon.ico and placed in the root directory site of a website.It was Microsoft

's Web Explorer 5 launched in March 1999 that first supported this file. It was denoted as 'shortcut icon 'in the rel element of the code that was put in the area a website. In December 1999, the favicon was standardized by the Web Consortium (W3C) with the suggestion of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Read even more for more on the history of Favicons.

It was intended to be shown just for bookmarked URLs. In the modern day, there are numerous instances where the favicons are shown and are deemed user-friendly. They are used for branding and use in numerous ways. If a browser has actually a tabbed user interface, which nearly all internet browsers do these days, they reveal a favicon just next to the website title. Have a look at a sample screenshot listed below:

They also appear in the list of bookmarked URLs in your internet browser. In browsing the history area of Google Chrome, the only thing that makes it simpler to find the link is the colorful little favicons. Take a look at a sample screenshot below:

Even search engine result might have favicons shown, like when it comes to DuckDuckgo. Take a look at an example listed below that was drawn from search results page on the online search engine DuckDuckgo.com.Bing is testing using favicons

in its search engine result. Google used to show favicons in Google ads, however not any more. But it is reported that Google Adsense are working on bringing the favicons back to new advertisement formats in future. If your business website has a favicon that is difficult to forget, you have actually nailed branding with this very little piece of graphic on your site. Even on WooRank Website Evaluation report we can not worry enough how crucial a having a favicon is for your site.Uses Of Favicons Brand Acknowledgment Favicons

resemble your website's

little ID. As mentioned in the initial paragraph, they assist a users remember your website while checking out several URLs. So, whether it is browsing history, search results page in duckduckgo or list of bookmarked websites in your internet browser, favicons help the user easily recognize your website and gain access to it. This is simply since graphics are far much better perceived than text.Credibility And Trust If your site does not have a favicon a web internet browser will display the default, blank file, on a browser tab. Even worse still, if this is displayed next to a competitor website then you are going to lose credibility and trust. Users have the propensity of judging online retailers and services based upon how expertly built their website is. Something as careless as having no favicon will easily lead to losing credibility specifically when users are comparing you with your competitors. Take an appearance at the copying. Would you rather buy Southwest airline company tickets from the sites in the very first 2 tabs or the site in the last tab?Followup Visits State for example, your website visitor remained in a hurry the first time they visited your site and decide to bookmark it for a re-visit. Now, it is a recognized fact that people react much better to visuals than text. State they finally decide to review your site and for that they go through the bookmark. It would be fortunate for you if you have an identifiable favicon like Google. If you do not have a favicon, you might be even eliminated from the list of bookmarked sites.Saves User's Time Favicons conserve the users time in identifying a site from bookmarks, history and other locations where an internet browser places that favicon for fast

identification. It

just makes life simpler for your average user.Avoid a 404 Whether or not you have a favicon.ico file in your site's root folder, the web browsers will request it. And if you do not have the file the reaction will be a 404

Not Found. That is the reason why even if you use.png favicon files, you must have a default.ico files as.png files are not suitable with all browsers.Favicons For SEO If you think there are no SEO advantages of having favicons on your website, you are only partially correct. There are no direct SEO impacts of having favicons. There might be indirect advantages and

they are as follows

: Increased Functionality Of Website: Usability of a website correlates to greater search engine ranking. If having a favicon next to your site title on browser tabs, on bookmarks, on history archives and so on, helps a user save time, identify and browse your website without troubles, they might have a rather minuscule however notable function in SEO.Bookmarks: With a favicon you seem to have a higher benefit over websites that do not when it comes to saving and keeping a website bookmark on the browser. Online search engine such as Google has the Chrome internet browser for users through which they likewise deduct specific search

ranking signals for sites bookmarked on the internet. If there is no favicon to your website, you may lose out on the opportunity of being on a bookmarked list of a Chrome internet browser and hence indirectly lose on a small however substantial search ranking signal.There might be some theories out there that support that favicons impact SEO. Nevertheless, whether they do or do not impact SEO, they are certainly here to stay for branding and usability that indirectly affects a site's SEO.Favicons For Different Browsers These days

whatever digital marketing technique you apply to your desktop website, it needs to be all at once duplicated on to the mobile variation of your website too. So, the concern is, do you have different criteria for favicons on a mobile website? Yes, you DO have to specify icons for mobiles and in some cases even

for various web internet browsers. Let's take a fast appearance at how to do this.Browser-specific codes:'Shortcut icon 'After you publish your favicon.ico file in the root folder you have to position a require it in the area of your site. The following is the code utilized within the link component to do this: Because 2010 HTML5 specification declared that 'icon

'alone can be the standard identifier of favicons. Which indicates

that you do not have to specify'faster way icon'in the rel element any longer. However, the bad news is internet explorer till variation IE 10 needs the rel component to include'

want your favicons to show reveal IE 10 and below listed below code must be: whereas for every other browserWeb browser Chrome, FireFox, Opera, Safari) and for IE11 the following code is acceptable. Type Quality: Now, you can use just the'icon 'rel attribute for the favicon to be displayed in IE internet browsers, but you will need to use the type quality According to Wikipedia

. For IE9 and above the code can be as follows: As for web browsers on other mobile phones such as BlackBerry and Nokia there are no specified favicon recognition code. Check out a research study on favicons for numerous mobile OS's in the Q&A from Stackoverflow. So, exactly what are the benefits of using favicons-specific to mobile OS's? Well, right now the only big benefit is when a user adds the icon to their homescreens. If there>

/ Google Chrome's (for Android)monochrome icon, which really does not look excellent and can end up in being erased from the homescreens. Very same chooses mobile internet browser bookmarks. Shown listed below is the sample screenshot of websites without any favicons on iPhone followed by a comparable screenshot on an Android Phone.Favicon Tools There are numerous other tool choices to produce favicons in a matter of a few minutes. You can try all these tools for free.This tool lets you create.ico,. png and.gif format icons. You can add transparency to your icons utilizing this tool(. gif and.pnf formats only). The site likewise provides extra free tools such as animated gif generator, that might come in helpful if you want animated gif icons for your website's favicons.The realfavicongenerator permits you to create favicons for desktop and Mac web browsers, iPhone/iPad, Android devices, Windows 8 tablets and more. The tool uses a wide variety of

web browser suitable favicons and this is proven by the substantial list of evaluated variations of icons produced from this tool. Not just this, the tool also offers you a fast report on your existing favicon totally free. You can see how compatible your existingicon is on numerous gadgets and web browsers. Shown below is a sample screenshot of the report.Here is yet another fast

online favicon generator that provides you different customization choices. The tool likewise supports alpha openness. The website also offers numerous other tools however they are not associated with favicons generation. Listed listed below are such similar tools offered online for developing favicons.Even though favicons are a little part of your site style, branding and use, it is these little information that together

make a website successful. Have you set up a favicon for your site yet? Do you know how compatible it is for various browsers and gadgets? Hope this post has actually offered you some beneficial information that will help you keep your website up-to-date with quickly growing technologies.

Source

https://www.woorank.com/en/blog/the-importance-of-favicons-for-seo

[acehotel]

“Probably Ten Thousand Likes” : AN INTERVIEW with CORY ARCANGEL & OLIA LIALINA

It’s been over a decade since Russian-based net art pioneer Olia Lialina wrote “A Vernacular Web,” the first in her series of essays that detail elements of the World Wide Web and its relationship to ordinary users. Lialina has continued to write and produce work about the slow decline of user agency on the Internet over time. As a medium for free self-expression, the web, as a platform, has become increasingly pervasive and uncannily static, as we swipe easily from friendships to followers and abandon the former.

Today, the whole gamut of human exploration online has been observed by a slew of creatives — sifting through accumulations of digital culture, finding nuggets of truth amongst discarded cellphones, virtually extinct wallpapers, glittery gifs and homepages. One of the foremost among them is self-professed Internet lurker and post-conceptual artist Cory Arcangel, whose work speaks as much to the Atari generation as it does to the Post-Internet generation.

Cory and Olia met on the evening before Y2K, and have since continued to collaborate, tweet, text and email one another cool links. They each seem to contend with obsolescence as a subject in their practices, using appropriation as a form of preservation. We caught up with them during the installation of their latest exhibition, Asymmetrical Response, to talk about the Internet and marvel at their cross-genre artworks from wallpapers, to LCD screens, to pool noodles. 

Olia: We’ll start with the carpet and the wallpaper.

Cory: The carpet is a work of mine called Diamond Plate and it is this repeated diamond plate pattern. Diamond plate is usually kind of metallic. In fact the elevator of The Kitchen is coated with it (see below). This is part of a series of works that I started a couple of years ago, noticing that often carpets come in the same repeated patterns that were once popular on the Internet for people to put on the background of their websites. So diamond plate was once a very popular web background, and it was actually the background of my first website.

The Kitchen’s elevator, in diamond plate.

Ace: Your homepage?

C: Right, my homepage. So that’s what this is, and it’s just a ready-made. It was ordered from some carpet company.

O: [gestures] And what you see on the walls are also backgrounds of what one can say now, are early web pages. But it’s not that early, it’s 1999 — when Yahoo bought Geocities, and then they started to bring order into everything. So they said that if you have a dog, and you’re making a webpage for your dog, then use this template: “Meet My Dog.” If you’re making a personal website, “Personal Page Blue” is the best template. It also existed in other colors —green, pink, and something else — but the blue one was used the most. So people really tried to fit themselves into this format.

Olia Lialina, MeetMyDog (detail), 2016

Ace: That seems pretty consistent with Facebook today.

O: Yes. And later, when Facebook came along, it was also blue with the line on the top. But this was in ’99, 5 years or so beforehand. And it was one of the first attempts, really, online, to say how things should look. To say “don’t make this, make that.” This template here is for fan pages — so this was a suggestion for a page about Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls or Britney Spears.

Give me time/This page is no more (2015), an installation of two classic slide projectors

O: In each of these projects there are slides of websites. Here are sites where people promise that they will make the website soon. This is people promising, or asking for more time. Not just sites under construction, but I collected more sophisticated sites, where people really promise, or really ask for something. It’s very narrative.

Here are eighty slides where people say “no, I am not interested in making this website anymore. I’m not a Hanson fan anymore,” or “school just started, so I am done with my page.” So these are very clear statements, and that is quite rare. Usually they are not so spectacular, these pages, but they are very clear messages. And when you see them next to each other it can be very powerful.

Ace: I’m also very interested in this web page “visits counter”, or ticker. It’s sort of like the early “like” notification that produces a little bit of dopamine when you receive them.

C: I’ve never thought about that actually — just a page visit is a “like”.

O: We can’t see it now because it’s just a screenshot, but this is a fake counter. It’s a joke about counters because it’s constantly rotating. The websites are quite different themselves, but I chose them based on the text. I selected the sites where people promise they will make the website soon— and sometimes they say exactly when. My research shows that most commonly people say it will be two weeks. I don’t know what this hope or deadline means.

And these are pages are from ‘95, and the dates are from 2000.

Ace: And you’ve archived these from Geocities?

O: Yes, and actually everybody can see them on the tumblr, One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age, but I’m selecting them to show as slides. On One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age, there is one screenshot uploaded every twenty minutes — and right now it’s on Christmas of 2000.

Ace: Wasn’t that around when you two met? Around Y2K? Can you tell me a little about how you’ve collaborated over the years since then?

C: Well, our first time meeting was in Munich in 2001, in the fall. Olia was doing Make World, a festival and poltical art and concert series in Munich and invited me and my friends — we had a band — to play, and also exhibit. I had to get a passport for it, I remember. So that’s when we met and we stayed in contact since then. We’ve shown together a bunch —

O: But not intentionally.

C: Oh, not collaboratively, yeah.

Ace: Is this your first two-person exhibition with one another?

C: Yes. And we are in constant contact on twitter.

O: on WhatsApp…

C: on email…

Ace: Just sort of exchanging ideas?

C: Yeah actually, the show came out of…Olia was trying to print out an easyJet pass.

O: Boarding passes. And they didn’t work. I had three failures, and the fourth one worked.

C: So she tweeted about it as a joke saying, “I’m trying to print this boarding pass” and I tweeted back that I’d love to have those for my collection. So we had a back and forth.

O: We started to talk about what he would give me in return — and then it started to become about these responses we have with each other, and that work is what’s visible here.

C: Because I just said “I have something similar,” and she said “I have something similar to that,” and the great part of this story, is that the boarding pass piece has turned into a sculpture and it’ll be in the show. And the sculpture that I made in response is in the show too. 

Ace: So it’s come full circle.

O: And of course the title is Asymmetrical Response, so it has this kind of personal connotation. But when we started to conceptualize all this, one and a half years ago, it was very clear that the situation in the world is getting more and more similar to when we were kids — like the Cold War.

C: And when we started talking it wasn’t even on the radar, but all of a sudden we’re back to it.

O: And “Asymmetrical Response” is also a diplomatic term [correlating to power dynamics between nations]. 

Ace: A lot of the remains of the early web have shifted from being seen as merely nostalgic or amateur. Today, they are looked at as forms of “required digital heritage” or important archival ephemera. Can you speak a little bit about that shift?

O: I started to collect early web elements long before the hype, long before it came back around, just to show students how things looked a year, or a few years ago. That was around the start of Web 2.0, when it became clear that there was another part of the web now — with social networks and an exact place for everything — it became clear, like a cut, that there was the web of the 90s, and then the web of the 2000s. I think around that time, all of these earlier elements had another sort of great moment. A lot of work was made around it. But for me, it has nothing to do with nostalgia. I am still absolutely convinced that it remains a web that is made for people, and by people themselves, and it is still possible that it will come back to that.

Ace: Possible that people can kind of regain control and agency over the web?

O: Exactly. And these elements are symbols for this control — of the presentation, of the sort of modular culture. It’s not about the animation of the .gif, it’s about seeing that you can take this file and put it somewhere on the page yourself. You can decide if it’s on the bottom, if it’s on the top, if it appears three times.

Ace: Rather than just posting it?

O: Yes. These are signs of a web that belongs to the people.

Ace: A lot of operating system upgrades lend themselves to seamlessness or user-friendliness. It’s like they want users to forget about the interface, forget the cable, and maintain very close, quasi-relationships with these products that record our every digital move in some distant cloud. I wondered if you have any other ideas, like putting a gif anywhere on a page, about ways to disrupt that sort of mediation? 

C: I was always against upgrading. I wouldn’t upgrade until finally, something, that I needed didn’t work. That’s been my policy for twenty years. Only recently, in the past few months, you can’t do that anymore. Because your computer will ask you every day. My computer’s like, “Do you want to upgrade right now, or in two hours? We’ll totally do it in the middle of the night, between 2 and 4, when it’s plugged in…” There’s been a huge shift, and it’s exhausting. My iPhone is exhausting me right now: “Oh, we saw that you weren’t plugged in last night. Totally cool, just plug it in tonight…” 

O: In 2012, I actually started this User Rights Campaign, and one of the suggestions was “the right not to update” and there was quite some discussion there. I came back to this idea some days ago, when Samsung said that they are now running this update for their Galaxy 7 — the one that explodes. 93% of all these phones were returned, and for the remaining 7%, what they will do now is an update that won’t allow you to call anyone, or to charge the battery. It’s not a situation that you could say “oh, evil corporations” yeah? they are doing it for good, but it makes you think of how it all functions. It’s just a software update, but it can make it all obsolete. Even this battery. It’s all controlled.

C: What is the phrase? Everything phones home now. All devices.

O: But what we see now, Cory’s Lakes: that is an example of a work that is made on a computer that does not update. Otherwise it wouldn’t be possible. The snow here, you can’t see it on the browser anymore. Because it doesn’t support Java Applet.

Cory Arcangel (L to R): Imgres (2016), 100 Raves (2016), Krugman / Lakes (2016). 

Ace: So do you have a computer that allows you to insert those effects?

C: Yeah, we have one computer in the office that Java works on. And we just don’t touch it and pray that it doesn’t break. So we have a time capsule in the office, that I make these on.

Installation view

Ace: How does humor come to play in each of your individual practices? Do you think it provides a sense of relief from our hyper mediated lives, or does it instead make it more apparent, or uneasy?

O: I can’t say that I’m trying to make something humorous, ever. Interestingly, quite often I am criticized by my colleagues who say that everything’s too playful. But it’s because people often think that if something, like this .gif, is animated, or if there’s glitter, that it’s humorous. But it’s not. Everything here is rather…not sad, but melancholic.

C: Yeah melancholic would be an okay term.

O: But it’s not nostalgic.

C: I’m in a similar position where my work is always seen as playful. For me, humor can work in a lot of different ways, and it doesn’t have to be an “lol” kind of humor. Humor is a different way to communicate, basically. It’s a different structure of communication. It’s about expectation; at the last second you take a right or left turn, and it shifts people’s perception. My work, because it’s not “lol” humorous, where your perception is shifted in a split second — maybe it works more on our time. It’s a lot slower. Again, humor doesn’t mean that the work is funny. It’s just a type of communication. So what each work is communicating could be different, but the work is most often melancholic.

Ace: So it’s about that play on expectation.

O: It’s so often that we take things that many see as funny, or ridiculous, but we take them very seriously. I have web design manuals from the 90s, from my collection, but it’s not a collection of funny books. It’s my library that I studied. I did not take it seriously in the 90s, I would never read it at the time. But now I see that sometimes, they are the only source to see how the web looked at that time, because these are things that were not saved by archives or by anybody. 

There, you can see those precious screenshots. Or you can see how great minds, at that time, suggested that the rest of us make web pages. So I really read and re-read these books now, not just to laugh at how they used to make web pages.

Ace: It’s the only way to conceive of how the web used to be approached, as an innovative, or utopian, space. This also reminds me of the patents that technology companies have for different screenic gestures today, like the movement of your fingers across an interface, a pinch to zoom, and apple's new "force touch." I wonder, what do those documents look like, and what will they look like to us in ten, twenty years?

C: Oh my god.

O: Have you ever seen those documents?

Ace: I’ve seen some renderings but I’m sure they’re pretty well concealed. It’s not humorous, it’s absolutely serious actually. Because what you’re talking about is human gestures being patented. Do you want to talk a bit more about the pool noodles, Cory?

Installation view

C: Oh, that series of work started just a few years ago. The series is called Screen-agers, Tall Boys and Whales, and they are simply pool floaties which have been accessorized. Actually, they come in three categories, “Screen-agers,” which are teenagers (this show has teenagers), “Tall Boys” which I like to describe as kind of like Kid Rock — so camo and American Flags and Miller Beer Cans —

Ace: So there aren’t any Tall Boys in this show?

C: I brought some tall boys but they didn’t make it into this show. Although the Hooters one is getting into tall boys territory. And then there’s this whole subset of “Whales,” which are sort of like Wall Street Guys, who play around with big money.

Ace: Like a finance dude.

C: Yes. There are also no Whales in this show. But to me, they are sort of like portraits of different tribes of people. So we put them in this show as a response to Olia’s piece on the large LED screen that takes place at a sort of EDM concert. We wanted a group of people that would be at the concert.

Ace: So there’s an exchange there too.

C: Right. I’ve also made a new one that’s a webmaster. So that’s a new category.

Ace: I love it.

O: I’ve made clothes too, my collection is called Webmaster Summer.

C: Yeah so we both have these clothing lines — Olia’s is Webmaster Summer and mine is called Arcangel Surfware. Mine is for relaxing at home. It’s clothes that are comfortable for computing at home. And Olia’s are work clothes. So the locker represents the transition there. And the one noodle has my first collection – Arcangel Surfware. The bedsheets are also from the first collection.

Olia Lialina’s Webmaster Summer Collection

O: For this show, we aren’t just collecting things we have that rhyme with each other but we’re responding to each other, in position and in selection. On this table are new sculptures — it’s like the Cold War table, with the iron curtain allegories.

Ace: The title, Asymmetrical Response, engages the topic of power dynamics of the Internet over time. After its start as the ARPANET, which had somewhat of a military focus?

C: Well it’s in the news, again, as a military focus. Not in the same way.

Ace: Yes there’s this seizure of control of the web that relates back to its original function.

O: There’s an old Nintendo game from the 80s. When I was a teenager in the late 80s, we had this one portable Soviet game, and we always thought that it was our Soviet game. But you can see here that it’s been — not stolen, but... what’s the word for it?

Ace: Re-appropriated?

O: Yes, what you can see on the Nintendo screen, it’s Mickey Mouse. They rebuild it, but it looks the same, it just says Nintendo on one, and Electronica on the other.

Ace: It’s the same game?

O: Yes. There is this Iron Curtain right? But this is the Liquid Crystal Curtain. And this is something I really didn’t know when I was a child. I thought it was our great game.

Olia Lialina, Liquid Crystal Curtain, 2016

C: This is displayed on the table, like it would be at a cell phone store. These are running on Nintendo Emulators. So this is a work I made in 2005 called Mig 29 Soviet Fighter Plane. It was a modified Nintendo Game where I clearly just took the plane out of the game. It was a bootleg Nintendo game where you were a Soviet fighter bombing the Middle East. It was a game that existed when I was younger. I made the work ten years ago but I didn’t play this game, I played Top Gun.

Ace: Its reciprocal.

C: Yeah. I mean, I clearly remember standing at the Top Gun arcade machine at the pizza place, bombing Russia.

Ace: So there are these different narratives being driven…

C: Yeah there was this whole scene of bootleg Nintendo games!

Cory Arcangel’s Mig 29 Soviet Fighter Plane, Clouds, and Android

Ace: As the art world sort of relies more and more on social media platforms like Instagram to promote and share work, how can we move beyond a generation of likes? Do you feel that people are really engaging with these images?

O: I don’t know how to answer this in relation to the art world. I have a personal answer. I am not on Facebook. On twitter, I would never click ‘like’. I either respond, send a direct message or write an email. It’s really to keep myself conscious. Because I’m afraid that I will degrade. And I’m not on Instagram because I am afraid that I will not be able to write even 140 characters/words. So I stay on twitter to at least make something.

C: I’m asymmetrical. I have a problem. I’m compulsive about liking tweets. If you look at my account there are more likes than anything–probably ten thousand likes. I think the way people understand images on Instagram is a new way to understand images. It’s a new type of communication.

Ace: What is your favorite website right now? It doesn’t have to be your most visited…

O: I spend most of my time on One Terabyte of Kilobyte Age. It’s my own site, but it’s not my own, because I see websites from other people. It’s like going to the Internet for me.

C: That’s a very hard question for me, I might have to get back to you. Where do I spend a lot of my time?

O: If you can call it a website.

C: What are websites?

Cory and Olia’s exhibition Assymetrical Response continues at The Kitchen through February 18. Ace Hotel New York is proud to be The Kitchen’s hotel sponsor. If you’re coming westward for the exhibit, you can book a room with us using the code KITCHEN for a limited-time friendly rate.

[jeremyau]

The empathy layer

Can an app that lets strangers — and bots — become amateur therapists create a safer internet?

by Mar 2, 2017, 10:30am EST

Illustrations by Peter Steineck

In January 2016, police in Blacksburg, Virginia, began looking into the disappearance of a 13-year-old girl named Nicole Lovell. Her parents had discovered her bedroom door barricaded with a dresser, her window open. Lovell was the victim of frequent bullying, both at school and online, and her parents thought she might have run away.

On social media, Lovell posted openly about her anguish. On Kik, a messaging app, Lovell told one contact, “Yes, I’m getting ready to kill myself.” In another exchange, she grabbed a screenshot from a boy she liked who had changed his screen name to “Nicole is ugly as fuck.” She broadcasted these private interactions to the wider world by posting them on her Instagram, where she also snapped a photo of herself looking sad, adding the caption “Nobody cares about me.”

Starved for affection among her peers, Lovell sought it out online. Police found a trail of texts on Kik between Lovell and a user named Dr. Tombstone. Kik allows users to remain anonymous, and over the course of a few months, the conversation turned romantic. Tombstone’s real identity was David Eisenhauer, a freshman at Virginia Tech, five years older than Lovell. In a horrific turn of events, authorities say Eisenhauer lured Lovell to meet him, then murdered her.

According to Kik employees of the time, the tragedy was a moment of reckoning for the platform. In the beginning of 2016, the app laid claim to 200 million users, and 40 percent of teenagers in the US. Kik’s terms of service stated that anyone under the age of 18 needed a parent’s permission to use the app, but these rules were easily ignored. Because it allowed users to remain anonymous, a wave of negative press around Lovell’s murder painted Kik as a playground for predators. “It was, for the entire company, a shock,” says Yuriy Blokhin, an early Kik employee who left the company recently. “Everyone felt we had to do more, an increased sense of responsibility.”

Executives at Kik wanted a system to identify, protect, and offer resources to its most vulnerable users. But it had no way of knowing how to find them, and no system in place for administering care even if it did. Through their investors, Kik was put in touch with a small New York City startup named Koko. The company had created an iPhone app that let users post entries about their stresses, fears, and sorrows. Other users would weigh in with suggestions of how to rethink the problem — a very basic form of cognitive behavioral therapy. It was a peer-to-peer network for a limited form of mental health care, and, according to a clinical trial and beta users, it had shown very positive results. The two teams partnered with a simple goal: find a way to bring the support and care found on Koko to Kik users in need.

But as the two companies talked, a more ambitious idea emerged. What if you could combine the emotional intelligence of Koko’s crowdsourced network with the scale of a massive social network? Was there a way to distribute the mental health resources of Koko more broadly, not just in a single app, but to anywhere people gathered online to socialize and share their feelings? Over the last year the team at Koko has been building a system that would do just that, and in the process, create an empathy layer for the internet.

In 1999 Robert Morris, future co-founder of Koko, was a Princeton psychology major who got good grades but struggled to find direction — or a thesis advisor. “They didn't know what to do with me,” Morris told me recently. “I had a bunch of vague and strange research ideas and I would show up to their office with a bunch of bizarre gadgets I had hacked together: microphones, sensors, lots of wires.”

Morris finally found a home at the MIT Media Lab. A budding coder, Morris spent much of his time on a site called Stack Overflow, a critical resource for programmers looking for help on thorny problems. Morris was blown away by the community’s ability to help him on demand and free of charge and wondered if that crowdsourced model could be applied to other personal challenges. “I struggled with depression on and off for much of my life, but my early time at MIT was especially difficult,” he recalls. “I liked StackOverflow, but I needed something to help me 'debug' my brain, not just my code.” For his thesis project, he set out to build just that.

Based on the peer-to-peer model of StackOverflow, Morris’ MIT thesis, named Panoply, offered two basic options: submit a post about a negative feeling or respond to one. To quickly build and test the platform, Morris needed users. So he turned to Mechanical Turk, an online marketplace where anyone can crowdsource simple tasks for a small payment.

Morris taught MTurk workers a few basic cognitive behavioral techniques to respond to posts: how to empathize with a tough situation, how to recognize cognitive distortions that amplify life’s troubles, and how to reframe a user’s thinking to provide a more optimistic alternative. The only quality control Morris put in place was basic reading and writing comprehension. For each completed task the MTurk workers were paid a few cents.

Using an online ad for a stress-reduction study, Morris recruited a few hundred volunteers in order to fully test the system. Like the MTurk workers, the subjects were given some brief training and set loose to post their issues and reframe the issues of others. This random assemblage of people was about as far as you could get from trained and expensive therapists. But in a clinical trial conducted along with his dissertation, Morris found that users who spent two months with the Panoply system reported feeling less stressed, less depressed, and more resilient than the control group. And the most effective help was given not by the paid MTurk workers, but by the unpaid volunteers who were themselves part of the experiment.

It was a single study and has not yet been replicated, but it gave Morris confidence that he was onto something big. And then a stranger came calling. “A week after I defended my dissertation, I got several manic emails out of the blue from some guy named Fraser,” Morris said. “It was immediately apparent that he had an incredibly deep understanding of the problem.”

At the same moment that Morris was building Panoply at MIT, Fraser Kelton and Kareem Kouddous, a pair of tech entrepreneurs, had been pursuing the same idea. The pair had hacked together their own version of a peer-to-peer system for therapy. They recruited participants off Twitter and put them into WhatsApp groups, then had one group teach the other group the basics of cognitive behavioral therapy. “At the end of testing, 100 percent of helpers thanked us for the opportunity to participate and asked if they could keep doing it,” said Kelton. “When we asked why, they all said something along the lines of "for the first time since I finished therapy I found a way to put 5 or 10 minutes a day toward practicing these techniques."

A month later Kelton came across Morris’ work and emailed him immediately. “This is embarrassing, but I think I emailed him two or three times that night,” says Kelton. “We thought we had a clever idea, but he had taken it and jumped miles ahead of where our thinking was, run a clinical trial, gotten results, and defended a dissertation.” Within a few weeks Kelton, Kouddous, and Morris had mocked up a wire frame of an app that became the blueprint for Koko. They called the company Koko because the service is meant to help users by showing them different perspectives. Koko backwards is “ok ok.”

Fraser, who knew the startup scene, approached investors. “It seemed to us that there was a possibility that a peer to peer network in this space was kind of a perfect application,” says Brad Burnham, a managing partner from Union Square Ventures. The firm had previously invested in a number of startups that relied on networks of highly engaged users: Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare. But Burnham had never seen something quite like Koko before. When Koko users added value to the network by rethinking problems, they actually provided value to themselves, by practicing the core techniques of cognitive behavioral therapy. “By helping others, they were helping themselves, and that seemed like a great synergy," said Burnham. In January of 2015 Union Square Ventures, along with MIT’s Joi Ito, invested $1 million into Koko. Less than a month later, the company launched its iOS in beta.

The first time Zelig used Koko, she was sitting in a parking lot waiting to pick up one of her kids from a summer program. She had downloaded the app in search of emotional relief. Her son, an intelligent and outgoing boy with Asperger’s syndrome, seemed to have no place of acceptance outside of home, and was facing the increasing isolation often prevalent in the lives of teens on the autism spectrum. Her younger daughter had just been diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

“I have a special needs kid and high needs kid. My life is not typical,” Zelig explained in a phone call. “It’s pretty stressful and it’s always on. You make attempts to do your best and things don’t work, which is really scary.” She asked that we only use her Koko screen name in this story to preserve her family’s privacy. “My kids were struggling mightily, and there just wasn’t a way for me to see anything that could possibly make it better.”

The Koko app offered Zelig two choices. She could write a post laying out her troubles and share it with everyone who opened the app. They would give her advice on how to rethink her problems — not offer a solution, but rather suggest a more optimistic spin on the way she saw the world. But Zelig didn’t feel ready to open up about her own struggles. “It was hard for me to take the big things going on in my life and make them the size of a tweet, to get to the core. It was hard to turn loose those emotions.”

Instead, Zelig started reading through posts from other users. The Koko app starts users off with a short tutorial on “rethinking.” The app explains that rethinking isn’t about solving problems, but offering a more optimistic take. It uses memes and cartoons to illustrate the idea: if you choose the right reframe, a cute puppy offers his paw for a high-five. The app walks new users through posts and potential reframes, indicating which rethinks are good and which aren’t. The tutorial can be completed in as little as five minutes.

Once users finish the tutorial, they can scroll through live posts on the site. Despite the minimal training, the issues they are confronted with can be quite serious: an individual who is afraid to tell her family that she’s taking anti-depressants because they might think she’s crazy; a user stressed from school who believes “no one actually likes the real me, and if they see it, they will hate me”; a user with an abusive boyfriend who has come to feel “I am a failure and worth being yelled at.” I walked a friend through the tutorial recently, and they were shocked by how quickly Koko throws you into the deep end of human despair.

Koko lets you write anything you want for a rethink, but also offers simple prompts: “This could turn out better than you think because…,” “A more balanced take on this could be…,” etc. The company screens both the posts and rethinks before they become public, attempting to direct certain users to critical care and weed trolls out of the system. Originally, this was accomplished with human moderators, but increasingly, the company is turning to AI.

Accepting and offering rethinks is meant to help users get away from bad mental habits, cycles of negative thought that can perpetuate their anxiety and depression. Over the next few months, Zelig found herself offering rethinks of other Koko users almost every day. “Having it in your pocket is really good. All of sudden it would hit me what I needed say in the reframe, so I would pull my car over, or stand in the produce aisle.”

In the process of giving advice Zelig felt, almost immediately, a sense of relief and control. She began to recognize her own dark moods as variations on the problems she was helping others with. Zelig says the peculiar power of Koko is that by helping others, users are able to help themselves. She eventually got around to sharing her issues, but always felt that “I was more helped by the reframing action than I was by the posting. It trained me to be able to see my world that way.”

The last few years have seen an explosion of startup and mobile apps offering users mental health care on demand. Some, like MoodKit and Anxiety Coach, offer self-guided cognitive behavioral therapy. Others, like Pacifica, mix self-guided lessons with online support groups where users can chat with one another. Apps like Talkspace use the smartphone as a platform for connecting patients with professional therapists who treat them through calls and text messages.

For the moment, Koko is one of just a few company built primarily around a peer-to-peer model. Its best analog might be companies like Airbnb or Lyft. Why pay for a hotel room or black car when the spare apartment or neighbor’s car is just as good? Why pay for therapy when the advice of strangers has proven to be helpful and free?

Studies have found that cognitive behavioral therapy can be as effective at treating depression and anxiety as prescription drugs. Since the 1980s, people have been practicing self-guided cognitive behavioral therapy through workbooks, CD-ROMs, and web portals. But left to their own devices, most people don’t finish courses or stop practicing fairly quickly.

Koko is still a tiny company, staffed by the three co-founders and one full-time employee, all based out of New York City. To date, over 230,000 people have used Koko, and more than 26 million messages have been sent through the app over the last six months. Many, like Zelig, have used it on a daily basis for more than a year. But like so many mobile apps these days, Koko has struggled to attract a large following.

The Koko team always knew it would be difficult to charge users for the app, or to make money advertising to a relatively small number of anonymous users. It was at this critical juncture that the team from Kik came calling. After the murder of Nicole Lovell, Kik reached out to its investors at Union Square Ventures for advice. Burnham connected Kik with Koko, setting in motion an entirely new direction for the young company.

When users sign up for Kik, the first contact added to their address book is a chatbot. It answers questions about the service, tells jokes, and posts updates about new features. “A few months before meeting with Koko, we noticed something interesting happening with the Kik bot,” said Yuriy Blokhin, the former Kik engineer who helped forge the partnership with Koko. “People were not only talking to it the way it was meant to be, as a brand ambassador, but also sometimes people were mentioning they were depressed, concerned about their parents getting a divorce, or being unpopular at school.”

Kik didn’t know how to respond to these kinds of emotional confessions, but Koko did. It had millions of posts, carefully labeled by workers from Mechanical Turk to describe the type of problem they represented. It used that database to train artificial intelligence that could respond to posts sent to a chatbot. If the content of a message was critical — defined by Kokobot as being a danger to themselves or others — it would connect users with a service like Crisis Textline; if the issue was manageable, the bot would pass the person on to Koko users; if it was a troll, the bot would hide the post. This is the same AI approach Koko now uses to classify posts on its peer-to-peer network.

Once that approach proved successful, Koko went one step further. If a user posted about a stress Koko had a highly rated response for — a sick family member, a difficult test at school, a spat with a significant other — the chatbot would automatically offer up that rethink. The AI was now acting as a node in the peer-to-peer network.

Beginning in August 2016, any user on Kik could share their stress with the Kokobot. Most received a reply in just a few minutes. Working with Kik made Koko realize how big the business opportunity was. “Do a search on Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, any social network, and you will find a cohort of users reaching out into the ether with their problems,” said Kelton. The team realized that if they could train an AI to identify and respond to users sharing emotional stress, they might also be able to train algorithms to automatically detect users who were at risk, even if they hadn’t reached out. Koko was transforming itself into an intervention tool, scanning platforms and stepping in on its own volition. Koko hopes to provide these tools to online communities for free, using the feedback to train an AI with services it can one day sell to digital assistants like Siri and Alexa.

The move into detection and intervention, however, has been complicated. This past January, the team set up the Koko bot on two Reddit forums r/depression and r/SuicideWatch. It scanned incoming posts, and messaged several users offering help.

The response wasn’t what Koko engineers had expected: the community was outraged.

“I feel deeply disturbed that they would use a bot to do this,” wrote one user. “Disgusting that assholes would try and take advantage of people,” wrote another. The moderator of the two forums set up a warning advising users to ignore Koko’s chatbot. “I have to say that the technology itself looks like an interesting idea,” the moderator wrote. “But if it's in the hands of people who behave in this way, that is incredibly disturbing.” The Verge reached out to both moderators and users who left angry comments about Koko, but did not hear back.

The Koko team acknowledged it made a mistake by allowing its chatbot to send messages on Reddit without warning, and not educating users and moderators about who they were and what their goal was. But Kelton believes that the feedback from users who did interact with the bot on Reddit shows the system can do real good there. “One mod bent out of shape on how we handled the launch vs. many at-risk people helped in a way that they appreciated,” was a trade-off Kelton could live with. “Helping mods understand and embrace the service is a containable problem, one that we're already having good success with.”

In January 2017, top officials from the US military met with executives from Facebook, Google, and Apple at the Pentagon. The topic was suicide prevention in the age of social media. The federal government considers the subject a top priority, as suicide has become the leading cause of death among veterans. For the tech companies, the problem is wide ranging. Among teenagers in the United States, most of whom spend six and a half hours each with their smartphones and tablets daily, suicide is the second leading cause of death.

In attendance was Matthew Nock, a professor of psychology at Harvard and an expert in suicide prediction and prevention. When it comes to using technology for detection and intervention, “the consensus in the academic community is there is great potential promise here, but the jury is still out,” says Nock. “Personally I have seen a lot of interest in people using social media and the latest technologies to understand, predict, and prevent suicidal behavior. But so far many of the claims have outstripped the actual data.”

Despite those concerns, Nock is interested in what companies like Koko might offer. “We know that cognitive behavioral therapy is effective for treating people with clinical depression. There is not enough cognitive therapy to reach everyone who needs it.” Koko provides people with the simple tools they can use to help themselves and others. “These people aren’t clinicians, they have been trained in the basics, but for scaling purposes, I think it’s what we can do right now.”

The scalability of tech makes it an alluring tool for mental health — but the business comes with unique risks. “Everyone wants to be the Uber of mental health,” says Stephen Schueller, an assistant professor at Northwestern University who specializes in behavioral intervention technologies. “The thing I worry about is, unless you have a way to make sure the drivers are behaving appropriately, it’s hard to make sure people are getting quality care. Psychotherapy is a lot more complicated than driving a car.”

Koko’s experience with Reddit wasn’t the first mishap to befall company trying to scale mental health, an industry traditionally made up of heavily regulated, sensitive, one-on-one clinical relationships across an online community. Those challenges were made apparent in the case of Talkspace, where therapists didn’t feel they were able to warn authorities about patients who may have been a danger to themselves or others. That led some therapists to abandon the platform. Samaritans, a 65-year-old organization aimed at helping those in emotional distress, released an app in 2014 called Samaritan Radar. It attempted to identify Twitter users in need of help and offer assistance. But due to the public nature of the interaction, the warnings ended up encouraging bullies and angering users who felt their privacy had been invaded.

The ethics of using of artificial intelligence for this work has become a central question for the industry at large. “The potential demand for mental health is likely to always outstrip the professional resources,” says John Draper, project director at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. “There is increasingly a push to see what can technology do.” If AI can detect users at risk and engage them in emotionally intelligent conversations, should that be the first line of defense? “These are important ethical questions that we haven’t answered yet.”

In a recent manifesto on the state of Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that as people move online, society has seen a tremendous weakening of the traditional community ties that once provided mental and emotional support. To date, creating software that restores or reinforces those safeguards has been a reactionary afterthought, not an overarching goal. Systems designed to foster clicks, likes, retweets, and shares have become global communities of unprecedented scale. But Zuckerberg was left to ask, “Are we building the world we all want?”

“There have been terribly tragic events -- like suicides, some live streamed -- that perhaps could have been prevented if someone had realized what was happening and reported them sooner. There are cases of bullying and harassment every day, that our team must be alerted to before we can help out. These stories show we must find a way to do more,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Artificial intelligence can help provide a better approach. We are researching systems that can look at photos and videos to flag content our team should review.” In early March it was reported that Facebook had begun testing an AI system which scanned for vulnerable users and reached out to offer help.

The goal for Koko is the same, but distributed across any online community or social network. Its AI hopes to reach vulnerable users, people like Nicole Lovell, who are posting cries for help online, searching for an empathic community. On a recent afternoon I opened the Koko app, and spent an hour scrolling through a litany of angst: not having the money to complete school, feeling obsessed with an older married man, overwhelmed at the prospect of caring for sick relatives who can no longer remember your name. Beneath each post, three or four users had suggested rethinks, blueprints for coping that users could learn from.

For people who are suffering, knowing that others are in pain, and that they can do something about it, is one way of healing themselves. “Something that caught me right away and kept me coming back to the app again and again was the amazing feeling of hope,” said Zelig, when I emailed her recently to ask a few questions about Koko. “That regardless of all the crap that seemed to be happening in my life, that I could still be of help to someone and could take a positive action.”

Zelig’s kids, like most teenagers, have become keenly interested in what keeps their mother occupied on her smartphone. “They see me typing away and want to know what I’m doing,” Zelig explained. “I’ll ask them, do you think this is a reframe? How would you do it? It was cool, because it’s a puzzle we solve together. What is the critical thing this person was dealing with? [It’s] an emotional, social puzzle.”

A year and a half after she downloaded the app, Zelig still uses it almost every day, but she doesn’t consider herself to be in a state of crisis anymore. She wasn’t sure how she felt about Koko using chatbots and AI to reach out to people who had never heard of the service. At first she told me that if a chatbot had approached her out of the blue, she would have ignored it. But she wrote back later to say that, if these technologies mean more people find their way into the Koko community, she’s in favor. “Life really had me and our family by the throat there for a while,” she told me. “Koko was part of what gave me the ability to see a way through to the other side.”

Illustrations by Peter Steineck

[adolphkwinter]

5 Ways To Boost Conversions With Dynamic Content

Tailoring the online experiences of customers to best fit their needs and preferences is the ultimate goal of most new technologies that shape the online marketing landscape today. Indeed, it’s only recently that we have developed the capacity to adapt websites to the broader context of a user session, or individual viewing experiences. While often times words like personalization and recommendations are associated with such techniques, at their core, these technologies are about changing and displaying content dynamically, based on user signals, in order to provide them with just the incentives they need to engage in business with you (by popular term, convert), or at least take steps in this direction.

Dynamic content increases conversions by making the customer experience more relevant and intuitive. Many of these techniques work by reducing the amount of unnecessary and redundant information delivered to visitors, therefore eliminating friction and/or by presenting users with the logical next step in their customer lifecycle or discovery process.

It is important to note that while not all of the tools and technologies listed below require advanced data analytics capabilities, usually they do require a well maintained and structured, centralized customer database. Therefore, dynamic content solutions oftentimes:

are integral parts, extensions, or plugins of a CRM

are connected to a CRM through an API

assemble separate databases, which may or may not be integrated with a central CRM, and collect user data on their own (grouped by cookies, or used ids for user identification)

Below, I’ll outline 5 general ways in which dynamic content can be used on a website to increase conversions by creating a smoother, more intuitive, and more relevant UX.

1. Personalized, and Data-Driven Recommendations

Recommendation engines received a lot of attention in recent years, largely in relation to the practices of Amazon, Netflix, and other giant corporations that make personalized content and user journeys central elements of their services. Just how central? Well, Netflix recently estimated that their recommender system is worth a yearly $1 billion to the company and they were also the ones to initiate the legendary $1 million Netflix Prize back in 2006, the most important data science competition ever.

Also, Amazon’s “recommendation box” creates the sense that they, in fact, want to consciously guide users through their buyer’s journeys from product discovery to checkout by showing them relevant content at each stage along the way.

Contrary to popular belief, recommender systems are not limited to the world of eCommerce. They can power personalization on content portals, as well as dating platforms, and travel sites. As a rule of thumb, if your website sells or features a lot of anything, there’s a good chance that your business can benefit from implementing a recommender system.

You can look at recommendation engines as the “brains” behind dynamic content solutions. The most widely used and most advanced general recommendation method is called “collaborative filtering”, which, at its core is an algorithmic approach to capture preference or taste information on many users by collecting and analyzing behavioral information on them. In practice this means “Others who viewed this, also viewed…” recommendations. The benefit here is that you can be sure that the recommendations are going to represent the actual habits and preferences of your users, and are not displayed based on arbitrary, hard-coded criteria. Amazon was the first to implement this method at scale in eCommerce (they’ve filed their initial patent in 1999).

As you can see on the screenshot above, according to these recommendations, I was checking out obscure European literature on desktop and more professional sorts of books in the Kindle Store. However, these are not merely the items I was looking at, but items that were looked at by those people, who were also interested in the same books as me (sounds complicated, but there’s no easier way to put it, and it captures the basic idea of collaborative filtering well).

Nowadays, the underlying technologies of recommender systems are becoming more and more polished, both technically and in terms of possible business applications. With the proliferation of SaaS solutions in the field, more and more businesses can leverage the power of recommendation systems. There are 3 general types of such tools, based on the depth and resource-heaviness of the integration and also the costs involved:

eCommerce engine add-ons, plugins

These are the easiest to integrate and also the cheapest types of solutions out there. Recommender system plugins are available for all major eCommerce platforms (Magento, Woocommerce, PrestaShop, Shopify, OpenCart, etc.) The benefit of these services is the ease of installation and the reliability.

Self-Service Systems

These types of systems are DIYs as well, however, as they’re not platform-specific, integration can be a bit more complicated but still doable without considerable development resources.

Custom Developed/Integrated Systems

Custom developed and integrated solutions are the most resource heavy recommender systems, but obviously the most versatile and effective as well. Custom integrated third party solutions can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $50,000 a month, respectively. Implementing a self-developed recommendation engine, however, is no easy (nor cheap) venture, and unfortunately, it is also one that many companies underestimate, despite the warnings. This short article gives a great overview of why implementing a recommender system for your business is the wrong choice, in the vast majority of cases (even eBay acquired a recommender system company for $80 million instead of developing their own when they needed one back in 2011).

2. Enhancing Site Search with Dynamic Content

The advances in search technologies in the past couple of years had a huge impact on how we interact with digital interfaces. Search is becoming a more and more prominent element of navigation, and as an effect, the quality of your site search can have a huge impact on your conversion rates. There are several tricks for turning your search into a conversion tool (this article lists several excellent tips on how to make and eCommerce site search convert better).

Dynamic content has the potential to conversion-optimize your site search as well. On top of autocomplete, and autocorrect features, user behavioral information can also be utilized in this domain.

Dynamic Content In and Around the Search Box

If you sell limited types of goods, recommending products or categories directly to search terms can speed up the discovery process significantly, as visitors can jump to the item they’re interested in right from the search bar, rather than having to browse through the listing page and perhaps several other item pages as well. However, in the case of stores where item stock and portfolio are huge and change rapidly, more general search recommendations are a better fit.

On Alibaba, for instance, the extremely large amount of listings calls for a solution that does not guide users directly to products, but rather helps them complete, and narrow down their searches.

You can see that on top of recommending popular search phrases, hovering over any of these displays a list of the most often used, further filter keywords for the phrase itself. This helps visitors to narrow the scope of their searches, and also uses behavioral data, as the additional filters are displayed based on user interactions (popularity).

Listing Page Reordering

Reordering items on the search listing pages is also a great way to streamline the customer journey. This can be done based on personal click and purchase histories, as well as item popularity. While the former has its obvious benefits, popularity, as a ranking factor is not to be sneezed at, despite its simplicity. Just consider, to what extent Pareto’s rule in marketing, which states that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your products, holds true to your business.

3. Dynamic Call-to-Actions

Call to action buttons are very important parts of any business website, as they constitute direct points of connection between users and the business. Customers’ interactions with CTA forms can lead to conversions, subscriptions, form submissions, etc. In other words, user actions that are valuable, directly measurable, and can serve as starting points for future marketing and sales activities.

Dynamic CTAs are meant to streamline the user journey from first interaction to conversion. To achieve this at scale, such systems need to be connected to, or extensions of a central CRM that makes sure that user data is kept consistent across all channels involved and signals coming from each of these are being collected and processed alike. Integrated CRM tools, such as Hubspot or SharpSpring come with a built-in dynamic call to action functionality, but due to the integration prerequisites, there are hardly any solutions out there that could be considered “lightweight”.

To get a hang of how exactly dynamic CTAs can boost conversions, I’ll list some of the data points, based to which different CTA forms can be displayed to users:

Stage in the customer lifecycle: Different CTAs, if applied strategically, usually represent stages in a sales funnel. Making these important contact points dynamic, based on the information we have on a certain user, can significantly reduce friction in the UX and make it easier for prospects to seamlessly progress in their customer lifecycles. For instance, if a user is already subscribed to a newsletter list, it is absolutely unnecessary (and downright annoying and counterproductive) to display another newsletter subscription form for them. Moreover, it also means that they’re ready to be prompted for deeper involvement, for example, a free trial. Therefore, a non-dynamic CTA in this case is a UX glitch and a missed opportunity as well.

Past interactions: While customer lifecycle stage is basically abstracted from past interaction signals, these can also represent “softer” tipping points in the user journey. The number of pages viewed, newsletters opened, or time spent browsing on a company blog can also constitute triggers that, although not as direct as a form submission, can nevertheless indicate that the time is ripe for presenting the user with another (type of) CTA.

Buyer personas: If we consider lifecycle stages the vertical dimension of involvement, buyer personas can be looked at as the horizontal axis. Different buyer personas can be susceptible to completely different messages; therefore displaying different CTAs to each of these segments can significantly increase their chances to convert. While in this piece I won’t go into the details of crafting buyer personas, some of the data sources you can and should consider are:

Customer surveys (information, such as industry, yearly income, number of monthly visitors)

Customer feedback (aspects of your service/platform they criticize/like)

Contact database (previous communication with prospects)

Market research and segmentation (internal and/or external databases)

You can look at this article on building buyer personas using A/B testing for more handy tips.

As an example, let’s look at how Hubspot uses dynamic CTAs for marketing purposes.

When I visit their landing page, I’m prompted with a CTA asking for some basic contact info, so I can download their eBook on CTAs.

Right after the submission, I’m redirected to another page, where a form for requesting a custom demo of their software is displayed, with all the info I gave during the previous form submission already filled in.

4. Intelligent Pop-Ups

While the above solutions are powered by extensive customer databases, intelligent pop-ups display dynamic content based on more ad-hoc signals, such as exit intent or time spent on page.

The basic premise of intelligent pop-up solutions models that of dynamic content in general, namely, that an appropriate reaction in the right time to certain user signals can increase visitors’ chances to convert. A perfectly timed discount offer, subscription form, or a reminder about items left in an abandoned cart can save a lot of conversions.

Generally, user signals that trigger pop-ups can be exit intent, x seconds of inactivity, % of page scrolled, as well as simple clicks. What’s more important for us here, however, are the criteria based on which the content of these pop-ups can be dynamic. Some of these are:

Referral source: Displaying different pop-up messages to visitors coming from certain channels, or UTM-tagged URLs.

Geo-location: Showing different content to users from different geological locations is an excellent way to break down language barriers and engage visitors with location-specific knowledge (i.e. giving them discounts on tickets for a conference organized in their city).

Cart content: Highlighting cart content in an exit intent pop-up is a great way to reduce cart abandonment rates in eCommerce.

Engagement levels: Displaying different messages to users with different engagement levels can be an effective way of conversion-optimizing intelligent pop-ups. Whether a customer clicked on important product or landing pages, read a number of posts on a company blog, or is simply a new or returning visitor, are all valuable engagement signals that can be utilized to craft better-targeted messages.

Discount coupons are one of the most effective pop-up incentives.

This article features an excellent list of available pop-up scripts and plugins that can get you started with the experimentation.

5. Dynamic Banners

If you’ve spent time and effort on optimizing user journeys on your website, why should you stop the moment a user leaves your site? Dynamic banners or dynamic banner ads can be considered the outermost frontier of dynamic content, as they’re used to preserve the consistency of the experience even when a visitor had already left a website. Dynamic banners often come in the form of retargeting and they present a great alternative to sloppy text and static banner ads.

Dynamic Facebook retargeting banner ads displaying items that it considers relevant to the current user, based on past interactions with the website.

It is important to note that as dynamic banner ads are not displayed on the website itself, but offsite channels, there are a few technical prerequisites which have to be met regardless of whether the channel used is a major ad network or an ad-hoc integration between two or more websites.

Synchronizing your catalog with the ad server: As dynamic banners are shown on offsite channels, you cannot arbitrarily display content from your own website. Information on certain pieces of content (articles, products, holiday deals, whatever you sell) that you want to feature in dynamic banners need to be synchronized with the platform that actually serves the ads. This is typically done through content feeds. Major networks that provide dynamic banner functionality have detailed instructions on how to set up a content feed that works with their service (these are, for example, the requirements of the Facebook Dynamic Ads feed).

Storing behavioral data in cookies: In order to identify past visitors on offsite channels, it is necessary to store unique identifiers that correspond to their user histories in cookies. This is done almost completely automatically by major ad networks. To stick to the previous example, on Facebook, this is done by the “Facebook Pixel” which identifies visitors by cookies across your website and the social network. Pixels are also used to record the user events based on which the actual dynamic content is displayed (e.g. if user X viewed or added product Y to cart, then it is going to be featured in the dynamic banner ad displayed for that user).

Retargeting is one of the best-converting online marketing practices as it is, but dynamic content has the potential to make these ads even more powerful.

Closing Thoughts

There are, obviously, many more tools and practices for utilizing dynamic content for increasing conversions by creating a relevant and intuitive UX. This article merely intends to provide some food for thought for marketers who seek to get started with dynamic content solutions or take their current practices to the next level. The proliferation of dynamic content and personalization technologies is one of the most salient online marketing trends of recent years and we can only expect these tools to increase in prevalence and sophistication in the near future. Therefore, it is worth to start investing in dynamic content technologies and crafting an all-encompassing strategy to maximize the benefits they can bring to your business.

About the Author: Huba Gaspar is Content Marketing Specialist at recommender system vendor, Gravity R&D. He’s mostly involved with the company’s SaaS recommendation engine, Yusp that is a scalable recommender solution serving clients from SMEs to large enterprises. He has degrees in journalism and marketing and is interested mainly in topics and fields at the intersection of marketing and technology, including SEO, web development, and personalization technologies.

from Online Marketing Tips https://blog.kissmetrics.com/boost-conversions-with-dynamic-content/

[localbizlift]

5 Ways To Boost Conversions With Dynamic Content

Tailoring the online experiences of customers to best fit their needs and preferences is the ultimate goal of most new technologies that shape the online marketing landscape today. Indeed, it’s only recently that we have developed the capacity to adapt websites to the broader context of a user session, or individual viewing experiences. While often times words like personalization and recommendations are associated with such techniques, at their core, these technologies are about changing and displaying content dynamically, based on user signals, in order to provide them with just the incentives they need to engage in business with you (by popular term, convert), or at least take steps in this direction.

Dynamic content increases conversions by making the customer experience more relevant and intuitive. Many of these techniques work by reducing the amount of unnecessary and redundant information delivered to visitors, therefore eliminating friction and/or by presenting users with the logical next step in their customer lifecycle or discovery process.

It is important to note that while not all of the tools and technologies listed below require advanced data analytics capabilities, usually they do require a well maintained and structured, centralized customer database. Therefore, dynamic content solutions oftentimes:

are integral parts, extensions, or plugins of a CRM

are connected to a CRM through an API

assemble separate databases, which may or may not be integrated with a central CRM, and collect user data on their own (grouped by cookies, or used ids for user identification)

Below, I’ll outline 5 general ways in which dynamic content can be used on a website to increase conversions by creating a smoother, more intuitive, and more relevant UX.

1. Personalized, and Data-Driven Recommendations

Recommendation engines received a lot of attention in recent years, largely in relation to the practices of Amazon, Netflix, and other giant corporations that make personalized content and user journeys central elements of their services. Just how central? Well, Netflix recently estimated that their recommender system is worth a yearly $1 billion to the company and they were also the ones to initiate the legendary $1 million Netflix Prize back in 2006, the most important data science competition ever.

Also, Amazon’s “recommendation box” creates the sense that they, in fact, want to consciously guide users through their buyer’s journeys from product discovery to checkout by showing them relevant content at each stage along the way.

Contrary to popular belief, recommender systems are not limited to the world of eCommerce. They can power personalization on content portals, as well as dating platforms, and travel sites. As a rule of thumb, if your website sells or features a lot of anything, there’s a good chance that your business can benefit from implementing a recommender system.

You can look at recommendation engines as the “brains” behind dynamic content solutions. The most widely used and most advanced general recommendation method is called “collaborative filtering”, which, at its core is an algorithmic approach to capture preference or taste information on many users by collecting and analyzing behavioral information on them. In practice this means “Others who viewed this, also viewed…” recommendations. The benefit here is that you can be sure that the recommendations are going to represent the actual habits and preferences of your users, and are not displayed based on arbitrary, hard-coded criteria. Amazon was the first to implement this method at scale in eCommerce (they’ve filed their initial patent in 1999).

As you can see on the screenshot above, according to these recommendations, I was checking out obscure European literature on desktop and more professional sorts of books in the Kindle Store. However, these are not merely the items I was looking at, but items that were looked at by those people, who were also interested in the same books as me (sounds complicated, but there’s no easier way to put it, and it captures the basic idea of collaborative filtering well).

Nowadays, the underlying technologies of recommender systems are becoming more and more polished, both technically and in terms of possible business applications. With the proliferation of SaaS solutions in the field, more and more businesses can leverage the power of recommendation systems. There are 3 general types of such tools, based on the depth and resource-heaviness of the integration and also the costs involved:

eCommerce engine add-ons, plugins

These are the easiest to integrate and also the cheapest types of solutions out there. Recommender system plugins are available for all major eCommerce platforms (Magento, Woocommerce, PrestaShop, Shopify, OpenCart, etc.) The benefit of these services is the ease of installation and the reliability.

Self-Service Systems

These types of systems are DIYs as well, however, as they’re not platform-specific, integration can be a bit more complicated but still doable without considerable development resources.

Custom Developed/Integrated Systems

Custom developed and integrated solutions are the most resource heavy recommender systems, but obviously the most versatile and effective as well. Custom integrated third party solutions can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $50,000 a month, respectively. Implementing a self-developed recommendation engine, however, is no easy (nor cheap) venture, and unfortunately, it is also one that many companies underestimate, despite the warnings. This short article gives a great overview of why implementing a recommender system for your business is the wrong choice, in the vast majority of cases (even eBay acquired a recommender system company for $80 million instead of developing their own when they needed one back in 2011).

2. Enhancing Site Search with Dynamic Content

The advances in search technologies in the past couple of years had a huge impact on how we interact with digital interfaces. Search is becoming a more and more prominent element of navigation, and as an effect, the quality of your site search can have a huge impact on your conversion rates. There are several tricks for turning your search into a conversion tool (this article lists several excellent tips on how to make and eCommerce site search convert better).

Dynamic content has the potential to conversion-optimize your site search as well. On top of autocomplete, and autocorrect features, user behavioral information can also be utilized in this domain.

Dynamic Content In and Around the Search Box

If you sell limited types of goods, recommending products or categories directly to search terms can speed up the discovery process significantly, as visitors can jump to the item they’re interested in right from the search bar, rather than having to browse through the listing page and perhaps several other item pages as well. However, in the case of stores where item stock and portfolio are huge and change rapidly, more general search recommendations are a better fit.

On Alibaba, for instance, the extremely large amount of listings calls for a solution that does not guide users directly to products, but rather helps them complete, and narrow down their searches.

You can see that on top of recommending popular search phrases, hovering over any of these displays a list of the most often used, further filter keywords for the phrase itself. This helps visitors to narrow the scope of their searches, and also uses behavioral data, as the additional filters are displayed based on user interactions (popularity).

Listing Page Reordering

Reordering items on the search listing pages is also a great way to streamline the customer journey. This can be done based on personal click and purchase histories, as well as item popularity. While the former has its obvious benefits, popularity, as a ranking factor is not to be sneezed at, despite its simplicity. Just consider, to what extent Pareto’s rule in marketing, which states that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your products, holds true to your business.

3. Dynamic Call-to-Actions

Call to action buttons are very important parts of any business website, as they constitute direct points of connection between users and the business. Customers’ interactions with CTA forms can lead to conversions, subscriptions, form submissions, etc. In other words, user actions that are valuable, directly measurable, and can serve as starting points for future marketing and sales activities.

Dynamic CTAs are meant to streamline the user journey from first interaction to conversion. To achieve this at scale, such systems need to be connected to, or extensions of a central CRM that makes sure that user data is kept consistent across all channels involved and signals coming from each of these are being collected and processed alike. Integrated CRM tools, such as Hubspot or SharpSpring come with a built-in dynamic call to action functionality, but due to the integration prerequisites, there are hardly any solutions out there that could be considered “lightweight”.

To get a hang of how exactly dynamic CTAs can boost conversions, I’ll list some of the data points, based to which different CTA forms can be displayed to users:

Stage in the customer lifecycle: Different CTAs, if applied strategically, usually represent stages in a sales funnel. Making these important contact points dynamic, based on the information we have on a certain user, can significantly reduce friction in the UX and make it easier for prospects to seamlessly progress in their customer lifecycles. For instance, if a user is already subscribed to a newsletter list, it is absolutely unnecessary (and downright annoying and counterproductive) to display another newsletter subscription form for them. Moreover, it also means that they’re ready to be prompted for deeper involvement, for example, a free trial. Therefore, a non-dynamic CTA in this case is a UX glitch and a missed opportunity as well.

Past interactions: While customer lifecycle stage is basically abstracted from past interaction signals, these can also represent “softer” tipping points in the user journey. The number of pages viewed, newsletters opened, or time spent browsing on a company blog can also constitute triggers that, although not as direct as a form submission, can nevertheless indicate that the time is ripe for presenting the user with another (type of) CTA.

Buyer personas: If we consider lifecycle stages the vertical dimension of involvement, buyer personas can be looked at as the horizontal axis. Different buyer personas can be susceptible to completely different messages; therefore displaying different CTAs to each of these segments can significantly increase their chances to convert. While in this piece I won’t go into the details of crafting buyer personas, some of the data sources you can and should consider are:

Customer surveys (information, such as industry, yearly income, number of monthly visitors)

Customer feedback (aspects of your service/platform they criticize/like)

Contact database (previous communication with prospects)

Market research and segmentation (internal and/or external databases)

You can look at this article on building buyer personas using A/B testing for more handy tips.

As an example, let’s look at how Hubspot uses dynamic CTAs for marketing purposes.

When I visit their landing page, I’m prompted with a CTA asking for some basic contact info, so I can download their eBook on CTAs.

Right after the submission, I’m redirected to another page, where a form for requesting a custom demo of their software is displayed, with all the info I gave during the previous form submission already filled in.

4. Intelligent Pop-Ups

While the above solutions are powered by extensive customer databases, intelligent pop-ups display dynamic content based on more ad-hoc signals, such as exit intent or time spent on page.

The basic premise of intelligent pop-up solutions models that of dynamic content in general, namely, that an appropriate reaction in the right time to certain user signals can increase visitors’ chances to convert. A perfectly timed discount offer, subscription form, or a reminder about items left in an abandoned cart can save a lot of conversions.

Generally, user signals that trigger pop-ups can be exit intent, x seconds of inactivity, % of page scrolled, as well as simple clicks. What’s more important for us here, however, are the criteria based on which the content of these pop-ups can be dynamic. Some of these are:

Referral source: Displaying different pop-up messages to visitors coming from certain channels, or UTM-tagged URLs.

Geo-location: Showing different content to users from different geological locations is an excellent way to break down language barriers and engage visitors with location-specific knowledge (i.e. giving them discounts on tickets for a conference organized in their city).

Cart content: Highlighting cart content in an exit intent pop-up is a great way to reduce cart abandonment rates in eCommerce.

Engagement levels: Displaying different messages to users with different engagement levels can be an effective way of conversion-optimizing intelligent pop-ups. Whether a customer clicked on important product or landing pages, read a number of posts on a company blog, or is simply a new or returning visitor, are all valuable engagement signals that can be utilized to craft better-targeted messages.

Discount coupons are one of the most effective pop-up incentives.

This article features an excellent list of available pop-up scripts and plugins that can get you started with the experimentation.

5. Dynamic Banners

If you’ve spent time and effort on optimizing user journeys on your website, why should you stop the moment a user leaves your site? Dynamic banners or dynamic banner ads can be considered the outermost frontier of dynamic content, as they’re used to preserve the consistency of the experience even when a visitor had already left a website. Dynamic banners often come in the form of retargeting and they present a great alternative to sloppy text and static banner ads.

Dynamic Facebook retargeting banner ads displaying items that it considers relevant to the current user, based on past interactions with the website.

It is important to note that as dynamic banner ads are not displayed on the website itself, but offsite channels, there are a few technical prerequisites which have to be met regardless of whether the channel used is a major ad network or an ad-hoc integration between two or more websites.

Synchronizing your catalog with the ad server: As dynamic banners are shown on offsite channels, you cannot arbitrarily display content from your own website. Information on certain pieces of content (articles, products, holiday deals, whatever you sell) that you want to feature in dynamic banners need to be synchronized with the platform that actually serves the ads. This is typically done through content feeds. Major networks that provide dynamic banner functionality have detailed instructions on how to set up a content feed that works with their service (these are, for example, the requirements of the Facebook Dynamic Ads feed).

Storing behavioral data in cookies: In order to identify past visitors on offsite channels, it is necessary to store unique identifiers that correspond to their user histories in cookies. This is done almost completely automatically by major ad networks. To stick to the previous example, on Facebook, this is done by the “Facebook Pixel” which identifies visitors by cookies across your website and the social network. Pixels are also used to record the user events based on which the actual dynamic content is displayed (e.g. if user X viewed or added product Y to cart, then it is going to be featured in the dynamic banner ad displayed for that user).

[ageloire]

5 Ways To Boost Conversions With Dynamic Content

Tailoring the online experiences of customers to best fit their needs and preferences is the ultimate goal of most new technologies that shape the online marketing landscape today. Indeed, it’s only recently that we have developed the capacity to adapt websites to the broader context of a user session, or individual viewing experiences. While often times words like personalization and recommendations are associated with such techniques, at their core, these technologies are about changing and displaying content dynamically, based on user signals, in order to provide them with just the incentives they need to engage in business with you (by popular term, convert), or at least take steps in this direction.

Dynamic content increases conversions by making the customer experience more relevant and intuitive. Many of these techniques work by reducing the amount of unnecessary and redundant information delivered to visitors, therefore eliminating friction and/or by presenting users with the logical next step in their customer lifecycle or discovery process.

It is important to note that while not all of the tools and technologies listed below require advanced data analytics capabilities, usually they do require a well maintained and structured, centralized customer database. Therefore, dynamic content solutions oftentimes:

are integral parts, extensions, or plugins of a CRM

are connected to a CRM through an API

assemble separate databases, which may or may not be integrated with a central CRM, and collect user data on their own (grouped by cookies, or used ids for user identification)

Below, I’ll outline 5 general ways in which dynamic content can be used on a website to increase conversions by creating a smoother, more intuitive, and more relevant UX.

1. Personalized, and Data-Driven Recommendations

Recommendation engines received a lot of attention in recent years, largely in relation to the practices of Amazon, Netflix, and other giant corporations that make personalized content and user journeys central elements of their services. Just how central? Well, Netflix recently estimated that their recommender system is worth a yearly $1 billion to the company and they were also the ones to initiate the legendary $1 million Netflix Prize back in 2006, the most important data science competition ever.

Also, Amazon’s “recommendation box” creates the sense that they, in fact, want to consciously guide users through their buyer’s journeys from product discovery to checkout by showing them relevant content at each stage along the way.

Contrary to popular belief, recommender systems are not limited to the world of eCommerce. They can power personalization on content portals, as well as dating platforms, and travel sites. As a rule of thumb, if your website sells or features a lot of anything, there’s a good chance that your business can benefit from implementing a recommender system.

You can look at recommendation engines as the “brains” behind dynamic content solutions. The most widely used and most advanced general recommendation method is called “collaborative filtering”, which, at its core is an algorithmic approach to capture preference or taste information on many users by collecting and analyzing behavioral information on them. In practice this means “Others who viewed this, also viewed…” recommendations. The benefit here is that you can be sure that the recommendations are going to represent the actual habits and preferences of your users, and are not displayed based on arbitrary, hard-coded criteria. Amazon was the first to implement this method at scale in eCommerce (they’ve filed their initial patent in 1999).

As you can see on the screenshot above, according to these recommendations, I was checking out obscure European literature on desktop and more professional sorts of books in the Kindle Store. However, these are not merely the items I was looking at, but items that were looked at by those people, who were also interested in the same books as me (sounds complicated, but there’s no easier way to put it, and it captures the basic idea of collaborative filtering well).

Nowadays, the underlying technologies of recommender systems are becoming more and more polished, both technically and in terms of possible business applications. With the proliferation of SaaS solutions in the field, more and more businesses can leverage the power of recommendation systems. There are 3 general types of such tools, based on the depth and resource-heaviness of the integration and also the costs involved:

eCommerce engine add-ons, plugins

These are the easiest to integrate and also the cheapest types of solutions out there. Recommender system plugins are available for all major eCommerce platforms (Magento, Woocommerce, PrestaShop, Shopify, OpenCart, etc.) The benefit of these services is the ease of installation and the reliability.

Self-Service Systems

These types of systems are DIYs as well, however, as they’re not platform-specific, integration can be a bit more complicated but still doable without considerable development resources.

Custom Developed/Integrated Systems

Custom developed and integrated solutions are the most resource heavy recommender systems, but obviously the most versatile and effective as well. Custom integrated third party solutions can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $50,000 a month, respectively. Implementing a self-developed recommendation engine, however, is no easy (nor cheap) venture, and unfortunately, it is also one that many companies underestimate, despite the warnings. This short article gives a great overview of why implementing a recommender system for your business is the wrong choice, in the vast majority of cases (even eBay acquired a recommender system company for $80 million instead of developing their own when they needed one back in 2011).

2. Enhancing Site Search with Dynamic Content

The advances in search technologies in the past couple of years had a huge impact on how we interact with digital interfaces. Search is becoming a more and more prominent element of navigation, and as an effect, the quality of your site search can have a huge impact on your conversion rates. There are several tricks for turning your search into a conversion tool (this article lists several excellent tips on how to make and eCommerce site search convert better).

Dynamic content has the potential to conversion-optimize your site search as well. On top of autocomplete, and autocorrect features, user behavioral information can also be utilized in this domain.

Dynamic Content In and Around the Search Box

If you sell limited types of goods, recommending products or categories directly to search terms can speed up the discovery process significantly, as visitors can jump to the item they’re interested in right from the search bar, rather than having to browse through the listing page and perhaps several other item pages as well. However, in the case of stores where item stock and portfolio are huge and change rapidly, more general search recommendations are a better fit.

On Alibaba, for instance, the extremely large amount of listings calls for a solution that does not guide users directly to products, but rather helps them complete, and narrow down their searches.

You can see that on top of recommending popular search phrases, hovering over any of these displays a list of the most often used, further filter keywords for the phrase itself. This helps visitors to narrow the scope of their searches, and also uses behavioral data, as the additional filters are displayed based on user interactions (popularity).

Listing Page Reordering

Reordering items on the search listing pages is also a great way to streamline the customer journey. This can be done based on personal click and purchase histories, as well as item popularity. While the former has its obvious benefits, popularity, as a ranking factor is not to be sneezed at, despite its simplicity. Just consider, to what extent Pareto’s rule in marketing, which states that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your products, holds true to your business.

3. Dynamic Call-to-Actions

Call to action buttons are very important parts of any business website, as they constitute direct points of connection between users and the business. Customers’ interactions with CTA forms can lead to conversions, subscriptions, form submissions, etc. In other words, user actions that are valuable, directly measurable, and can serve as starting points for future marketing and sales activities.

Dynamic CTAs are meant to streamline the user journey from first interaction to conversion. To achieve this at scale, such systems need to be connected to, or extensions of a central CRM that makes sure that user data is kept consistent across all channels involved and signals coming from each of these are being collected and processed alike. Integrated CRM tools, such as Hubspot or SharpSpring come with a built-in dynamic call to action functionality, but due to the integration prerequisites, there are hardly any solutions out there that could be considered “lightweight”.

To get a hang of how exactly dynamic CTAs can boost conversions, I’ll list some of the data points, based to which different CTA forms can be displayed to users:

Stage in the customer lifecycle: Different CTAs, if applied strategically, usually represent stages in a sales funnel. Making these important contact points dynamic, based on the information we have on a certain user, can significantly reduce friction in the UX and make it easier for prospects to seamlessly progress in their customer lifecycles. For instance, if a user is already subscribed to a newsletter list, it is absolutely unnecessary (and downright annoying and counterproductive) to display another newsletter subscription form for them. Moreover, it also means that they’re ready to be prompted for deeper involvement, for example, a free trial. Therefore, a non-dynamic CTA in this case is a UX glitch and a missed opportunity as well.

Past interactions: While customer lifecycle stage is basically abstracted from past interaction signals, these can also represent “softer” tipping points in the user journey. The number of pages viewed, newsletters opened, or time spent browsing on a company blog can also constitute triggers that, although not as direct as a form submission, can nevertheless indicate that the time is ripe for presenting the user with another (type of) CTA.

Buyer personas: If we consider lifecycle stages the vertical dimension of involvement, buyer personas can be looked at as the horizontal axis. Different buyer personas can be susceptible to completely different messages; therefore displaying different CTAs to each of these segments can significantly increase their chances to convert. While in this piece I won’t go into the details of crafting buyer personas, some of the data sources you can and should consider are:

Customer surveys (information, such as industry, yearly income, number of monthly visitors)

Customer feedback (aspects of your service/platform they criticize/like)

Contact database (previous communication with prospects)

Market research and segmentation (internal and/or external databases)

You can look at this article on building buyer personas using A/B testing for more handy tips.

As an example, let’s look at how Hubspot uses dynamic CTAs for marketing purposes.

When I visit their landing page, I’m prompted with a CTA asking for some basic contact info, so I can download their eBook on CTAs.

Right after the submission, I’m redirected to another page, where a form for requesting a custom demo of their software is displayed, with all the info I gave during the previous form submission already filled in.

4. Intelligent Pop-Ups

While the above solutions are powered by extensive customer databases, intelligent pop-ups display dynamic content based on more ad-hoc signals, such as exit intent or time spent on page.

The basic premise of intelligent pop-up solutions models that of dynamic content in general, namely, that an appropriate reaction in the right time to certain user signals can increase visitors’ chances to convert. A perfectly timed discount offer, subscription form, or a reminder about items left in an abandoned cart can save a lot of conversions.

Generally, user signals that trigger pop-ups can be exit intent, x seconds of inactivity, % of page scrolled, as well as simple clicks. What’s more important for us here, however, are the criteria based on which the content of these pop-ups can be dynamic. Some of these are:

Referral source: Displaying different pop-up messages to visitors coming from certain channels, or UTM-tagged URLs.

Geo-location: Showing different content to users from different geological locations is an excellent way to break down language barriers and engage visitors with location-specific knowledge (i.e. giving them discounts on tickets for a conference organized in their city).

Cart content: Highlighting cart content in an exit intent pop-up is a great way to reduce cart abandonment rates in eCommerce.

Engagement levels: Displaying different messages to users with different engagement levels can be an effective way of conversion-optimizing intelligent pop-ups. Whether a customer clicked on important product or landing pages, read a number of posts on a company blog, or is simply a new or returning visitor, are all valuable engagement signals that can be utilized to craft better-targeted messages.

Discount coupons are one of the most effective pop-up incentives.

This article features an excellent list of available pop-up scripts and plugins that can get you started with the experimentation.

5. Dynamic Banners

If you’ve spent time and effort on optimizing user journeys on your website, why should you stop the moment a user leaves your site? Dynamic banners or dynamic banner ads can be considered the outermost frontier of dynamic content, as they’re used to preserve the consistency of the experience even when a visitor had already left a website. Dynamic banners often come in the form of retargeting and they present a great alternative to sloppy text and static banner ads.

Dynamic Facebook retargeting banner ads displaying items that it considers relevant to the current user, based on past interactions with the website.

It is important to note that as dynamic banner ads are not displayed on the website itself, but offsite channels, there are a few technical prerequisites which have to be met regardless of whether the channel used is a major ad network or an ad-hoc integration between two or more websites.

Synchronizing your catalog with the ad server: As dynamic banners are shown on offsite channels, you cannot arbitrarily display content from your own website. Information on certain pieces of content (articles, products, holiday deals, whatever you sell) that you want to feature in dynamic banners need to be synchronized with the platform that actually serves the ads. This is typically done through content feeds. Major networks that provide dynamic banner functionality have detailed instructions on how to set up a content feed that works with their service (these are, for example, the requirements of the Facebook Dynamic Ads feed).

Storing behavioral data in cookies: In order to identify past visitors on offsite channels, it is necessary to store unique identifiers that correspond to their user histories in cookies. This is done almost completely automatically by major ad networks. To stick to the previous example, on Facebook, this is done by the “Facebook Pixel” which identifies visitors by cookies across your website and the social network. Pixels are also used to record the user events based on which the actual dynamic content is displayed (e.g. if user X viewed or added product Y to cart, then it is going to be featured in the dynamic banner ad displayed for that user).

Retargeting is one of the best-converting online marketing practices as it is, but dynamic content has the potential to make these ads even more powerful.

Closing Thoughts

There are, obviously, many more tools and practices for utilizing dynamic content for increasing conversions by creating a relevant and intuitive UX. This article merely intends to provide some food for thought for marketers who seek to get started with dynamic content solutions or take their current practices to the next level. The proliferation of dynamic content and personalization technologies is one of the most salient online marketing trends of recent years and we can only expect these tools to increase in prevalence and sophistication in the near future. Therefore, it is worth to start investing in dynamic content technologies and crafting an all-encompassing strategy to maximize the benefits they can bring to your business.

About the Author: Huba Gaspar is Content Marketing Specialist at recommender system vendor, Gravity R&D. He’s mostly involved with the company’s SaaS recommendation engine, Yusp that is a scalable recommender solution serving clients from SMEs to large enterprises. He has degrees in journalism and marketing and is interested mainly in topics and fields at the intersection of marketing and technology, including SEO, web development, and personalization technologies.

from The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog https://blog.kissmetrics.com/boost-conversions-with-dynamic-content/

[zanytimetravelenthusiast-blog]

Big Ticket Commissions Review Should You Get It

Big Ticket Commissions Testimonial

Big Ticket Commissions Is Your ALL-IN-ONE Solution For Easy 3 Number Commissions!

Cloud-based software plus PROVEN system includes EVERY LITTLE THING to financial institution huge marketing OTHER people's high ticket products.

This application is simple, the suggestion is to develop your e-mail listing & generate high ticket compensations by HANDING OUT a "Free Present" to attract individuals to attend and watch an automated webinar.

EASY To Scale - start with one of the premium DONE FOR YOU supplies included, after that add various other high-ticket offers when you're ready!

Big Ticket Commissions CHANGES The Video game So YOU Win!

4-Step Strategy You Need to Make $2,000/ Month with High-Ticket Offers (Part 3)

See what I'm discussing:

I think I like 'home business Big Ticket Commissions possibilities'.

I'll click the keyword phrase, copy as it is and also go to Google Keyword phrase planner (below).

As soon as I get there, I'll paste it, and hit "Get ideas."

From the screenshot over, the reduced dangling key phrases (a.k.a. lengthy tail key phrases) you should target if you were to promote a home business program/offer are:

Work from home based business

Beginning a home based business

Legitimate job from home chances

Home based organisation possibilities

Work from residence frauds

Keep in mind: Targeting a long-tail keyword phrase does not imply you're over-optimizing or things search phrases.

Actually, Google suggests that you investigate the top search inquiries individuals are making use of to search for you. So it's crucial, it's essential!

If Google is against keyword study and targeting, why are they still permitting us to make use of Google keyword coordinator.

Action # 5: Produce superb content

Currently, based on the search phrases you located, as recommended in the previous point, you are ready to start the part that takes the most time (however potentially one of the most profitable) of producing the Big Ticket Commissions affiliate web content. This is where the expression over used however a lot more true than ever enters into play: "Web content is king".

Your goal will certainly be to transform your web site into an authority in your particular niche and also one of the most effective means to do this is to produce fresh, distinct as well as high-grade web content.

Currently, do not contact offer, however try rather to create a partnership with your audience.

Your viewers, prior to being transformed to a full-fledged buyer, needs to be drawn in to your brand (or just your name). That's why when you develop content, it must never ever be purely for the sale of your service or product. However, it needs to be constantly aimed first at producing a connection of trust, encouraging your reader to follow you in time since you have something interesting to state and tell which can be really helpful to him in his life.

Just when this partnership of trust fund is created, only after that, you can begin making with associate advertising.

Final thought

In all, you've to recognize the psychology of persuasion, as outlined by Robert B. Ciadini; Author of Impact.

Whether you're offering a $17 item or a $1999 high ticket item, knowing what prompts people to push the buy switch is an effective pressure you can not do without.

The majority of the time, people buy out of psychological signals taking place within their minds as well as afterwards, they warrant it by offering cognitive reasons that they bought it.

If you intend to succeed at marketing other people's items, begin speaking to the minds of your target audience.

Use your videos, articles, podcasts and slide discussions to evoke Big Ticket Commissions inquisitiveness, astound possible customers and nudge them to activity.

If you consistently do this, absolutely nothing can quit you from making $2,000 per month via high-ticket affiliate offers.

Big Ticket Commissions Overview

Supplier: Glynn Kosky

Product: Big Ticket Commissions

Introduce Day: 2020-May-07

Launch Time: 09:00 EDT

Front-End Rate: $17

Sales Page: https://www.socialleadfreak.com/big-ticket-commissions-review/

Niche: General

This system makes use of something called 'straight-line marketing'. It develops your listing WHILE making you payments ... without even sending out an email!

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70+ Private Tales on Tips on how to Make Critical Cash On-line!

In terms of creating wealth on-line, all of us have our personal story on how we first received began. For myself, it was truly again within the mid-90s within the AOL Net Diner Chat Room. I used to be making 46×860 graphic banners for folks and their web sites, and they might then ship me a greenback within the mail! Consider, this was approach earlier than something like PayPal was round. After that, I discovered myself on the planet of online marketing, and that’s when issues actually began to scale shortly!

Now that my story, it’s time so that you can examine how others received their begin with creating wealth on-line as nicely. Make sure you learn by means of every of the blogger, enterprise proprietor, and entrepreneur tales beneath to see which you relate to most!

Associated weblog posts and sources:

When did you first understand you may begin making ‘real money’ on-line, and with what technique?

I earned my first “online income” after I scored a job 20 years in the past working with greatest promoting writer, entrepreneur and agent of change Seth Godin at Yoyodyne, which was acquired in This autumn 1998 by Yahoo! In 1997 I used to be on the lookout for one thing thrilling and new and was decided to maneuver again to NY from South Florida and get again into the motion. I made a decision this new factor known as the “Internet” was the way in which to go. I learn an article about Seth Godin and since he talked about that though there have been no present openings, he was all the time looking out for expertise, I used to be decided to work with him at his start-up Yoyodyne. I despatched resumes to most likely 100 corporations and when Yoyodyne known as I knew it was meant to be (there is a little more to the story).

I’ve had a entrance row seat to the evolution of on-line advertising from what was conventional media and commerce first experiencing the transfer to digital, which was nothing greater than easy communication and catalog instruments, to full fledged digital commerce and communication… and now scaled Social Communication which so splendidly incorporates this Relationship element that’s for me, the last word worth. #FollowThePath #RonR… #NoLetUp!

Ted Rubin – TedRubin.com

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When folks began asking me to assist them get extra “Likes” on their Fb web page. I noticed that I may run some Like-exchange bots and provides “Likes” to the Fb pages of small companies in my metropolis. It was not “real money” within the sense that it was some huge cash, but it surely was sufficient to maintain me in school whereas I labored on my subsequent startup.

Rafi Chowdhury – Chowdhurysdigital.com

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What I believed was actual cash was after I hit about $100/day again in 2010 or 2011 with Maxbounty on NoNo Hair Elimination provide. There have been Three of us controlling all the SERPs and some different strategies principally driving most of their gross sales for that firm, aside from the infomercials they had been operating. I used to be shopping for site visitors in every single place again then, numerous Bing Advertisements and Faceook on the time. These had been the glory days when you may get away with something. I really feel blessed with the ability to make a greenback on-line and never having to exit and get a “real job” regardless that we most likely all work more durable and extra hours than conventional people, and have far more stress. Thanks for studying everybody! Hit me up on Twitter @pmkoom if you wish to join!

Patrick Coombe – Elite-strategies.com

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I’ve heard of so some ways to earn cash on-line. In reality after I began out I used to be so overwhelmed and didn’t know what to strive to have the ability to earn cash. Two strategies I zeroed in are promoting my very own merchandise and promoting merchandise of others (online marketing).

I made my first buck in online marketing. It was near $100. I used to be so new to online marketing however I used to be not impatient with creating wealth. So I didn’t publish critiques with out making an attempt out any product.

I printed a assessment of a product after making an attempt it out myself (with screenshots and so forth. as a tutorial). And that assessment helped me make my first affiliate sale.

That’s after I realized that it’s certainly attainable to earn cash on-line. Then my fast subsequent sale got here from my e-book. I nonetheless depend on these two cash making strategies closely for my enterprise.

Jane Sheeba – Janesheeba.com

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In 1997 I used to be massively right into a online game known as Half Life which you may play on-line. However… Web connections had been sort of garbage again then. Dial-up modems largely and some fortunate people had ISDN. So, I rented a small room in a constructing and promoted a LAN occasion. All I actually needed to do was discuss and community with people on the discussion board and we bought out the primary one. You could name this inbound now however actually it was simply relationship advertising. On the identical time I used to be learning laptop science at college and was simply actually within the early internet. Earlier than lengthy I used to be working round 1999 as an online developer and simply naturally ended up serving to the corporate out with search engine marketing and digital advertising. The remainder is historical past I assume.

Marcus Miller – Bowlerhat.co.uk

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It began with a buddy who launched Running a blog to me again in 2007. It was the time after I realized about creating wealth by means of sharing my experiences and expertise on-line with different peoples and discussing concerning the merchandise I exploit on each day foundation.

I shortly began a weblog and made my first $100 inside first 60 days. Networking was and nonetheless is an important consider kicking some enterprise on-line. Since that day, I made greater than 30 on-line communities and couple dozens of Affiliate Area of interest web sites.

In 2011, I lastly determined to show my interest into fulltime job after I obtained a proposal to flip one in every of my web site for greater than six figures. That was the true second after I significantly began my Digital Advertising and marketing and search engine marketing profession.

Over the past eight years, I labored on number of initiatives specializing in Adsense, Amazon Affiliate, Clickbank Merchandise, and direct advertising of merchandise that I exploit on each day foundation.

Hamza Sheikh – TheDigitalNerds.com

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I attended a web based advertising convention in late 2009 while working a full-time job as GM in a images firm. I bear in mind listening to the audio system as they defined how they made cash on-line and being impressed by the approach to life these companies allowed. A number of of these audio system had million-dollar plus companies they usually had been no smarter than me.

The seed was planted then that an ‘online’ enterprise was what I wished. When issues got here to an finish with my job I had already determined to go surfing. I attempted online marketing with minimal success earlier than my mentor advised promoting on-line advertising companies to offline companies.

I received began reselling web site design and search engine marketing companies, utilizing my mentor’s group to ship the work. As my enterprise grew (which it did shortly) I constructed my very own group in-house.

James Reynolds – SEOSherpa.com

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In 2005, there was one week the place I slept maybe 6 hours in a whole week. My buddy Marcus Frind taught me how you can run direct hyperlink AdWords campaigns to True.com and different courting websites on Azoogle. I had expertise operating PPC for shoppers, the place it wasn’t my cash. I received a month-to-month price or wage, as an alternative– like after I labored at Yahoo!

However this time, it was actual cash. So I used to be clicking refresh each jiffy in my AdWords Editor, watching my spend rise sooner than my earnings. After per week, I used to be as much as $1,000 a day in spend and producing $1,400 a day in earnings. I used to be addicted.

I figured that $400 a day was virtually $150,000 a 12 months– sufficient for a good residing.

But, it wasn’t till I received these checks from the FedEx man that I noticed I used to be making “real money”. I’d get these checks and deposit them on the financial institution, questioning it they might bounce. They had been large enough to purchase a pleasant car.

Dennis Yu – BlitzMetrics.com

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I made my first few kilos a really very long time in the past, I believe it was 1997. Ecommerce was simply beginning, large manufacturers didn’t perceive the Web and had been very sluggish to maneuver with the occasions. On-line enterprise was ripe for the choosing.

I used to be one of many first affiliate marketeers and managed to construct a bunch of internet sites throughout the vogue business that had been providing companies that the most important manufacturers couldn’t or didn’t wish to. Options like comparisons, interactive dimension charts, superior search actually helped to drive the web sites ahead and usher in a good residing.

Jon Tromans – Jtid.co.uk

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First time I noticed I may make actual cash on-line is when I discovered that some bloggers had been making over six-figures per 12 months with online marketing. I made a decision it was time to place away the video games and begin making actual cash. However it wasn’t one thing that I used to be in a position to do instantly.

I began doing a little analysis and I discovered among the secrets and techniques to creating an ideal sum of money. The strategy is straightforward, work exhausting in your weblog, write about subjects which are fascinating to you, but additionally fascinating to a broad viewers, and monetize the content material with affiliate relationships.

As you place within the work, construct an e-mail listing and set up social authority. The best way to capitalize on the content material and social forex is to make use of affiliate relationships to start out creating wealth.

The important thing to creating actual cash on-line is to ascertain a plan of motion and comply with it whereas leveraging one of the best accessible affiliate applications associated to your area of interest.

Oscar Gonzalez – Notagrouch.com

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I earn cash on-line by running a blog at ChristinaAllDay.com.

A number of folks get into running a blog simply to earn cash. I didn’t begin that approach. For me, my life-style weblog was one thing enjoyable to do in my free time. Then, I realized extra about social media, search engine marketing, and technique.

That technique half is a biggie. It means you’re not simply running a blog to weblog, like I did firstly. After I began studying about search engine marketing and how you can discover what folks had been looking phrase for phrase, how many individuals had been looking sure key phrases, and what the outcomes had been for these key phrases, I began seeing extra site visitors. Sure, this implies generally I wrote about issues I wasn’t loopy about, but it surely introduced within the numbers that manufacturers wish to see.

I believe the key is to not concentrate on working much less to make extra. Too many individuals are attempting to do this in on-line enterprise. It’s lazy and ignorant. If it had been straightforward to make “real money” on-line, then everybody would do it. It takes work. As an alternative, concentrate on giving folks what they need on-line.

Additionally, all of us see plenty of bloggers and on-line entrepreneurs selling how they’ll earn cash on-line, however I query what number of of them truly are creating wealth on-line by means of running a blog or one other on-line outlet… or if it’s simply promoting a course about creating wealth on-line. If you wish to earn cash on-line, I counsel you actually vet who you study from. On-line, it’s straightforward to brighten details (or simply make them up), so remember to totally take a look at what you’re studying and who you might be studying it from earlier than investing in schooling if that’s the route you wish to take.

Christina Nicholson – Mediamavenandmore.com _

I began my first on-line enterprise about 10 years in the past; I couldn’t get free time from my job to spend with my then 1-year-old daughter, and I had been pondering for some time about making an attempt to start out my very own enterprise. I didn’t begin out with social media, which got here slightly bit later; as an alternative, I took discover of the rising numbers of digital assistants in addition to the large demand for them.

So, I began pondering of ways in which I may get entangled; in the long run, I made a decision that I wished to assist others, so I began promoting e-books, in addition to toolkit for ladies who wished to arrange their very personal Digital Assistant enterprise. The e-books bought for $50, and the toolkit, for $200. It went nicely, however on the identical time, I began utilizing Twitter and realised the potential social media had for companies – so, I began on the lookout for a approach to get into social media advertising.

Lilach Bullock – Lilachbullock.com

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I believe the primary month I earned income made me understand I may begin making ‘real’ cash on-line. I began this journey as a contract author and was in a position to gross $805 in my first paid month of labor (which was month two of my journey).

On the time it felt epically S-L-O-W, however in hindsight (over three years later), that’s not unhealthy! And one of the best half, is that it’s repeatable for these which are keen to work exhausting, put themselves on the market and provides it a good shot.

Gina Horkey – HorkeyHandbook.com

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I began as a content material author in 2013, Then transfer on to studying about search engine marketing (search engine marketing) whereas having writing gigs on the aspect. Launch my very own weblog in late 2013 to share techniques and methods that I’ve realized and constantly examined over time in search engine marketing. Potential shoppers are coming in as they started to note my content material property – that is the place I began servicing search engine marketing to shoppers as a freelancer. 4 years have handed, I run my very own hyperlink constructing (search engine marketing) firm with 15 workers members servicing 20+ worldwide shoppers all around the world.

Venchito Tampon – Sharprocket.com.ph

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That is one in every of my fabled tales…however isn’t all people’s first time? On the time, I had my very own website in a really non-lucrative area of interest. I received’t go into particulars, however I used to be getting numerous nice site visitors, however the area of interest was simply not a money-maker. What I used to be doing proper was search engine marketing.

So I wrote an article on my predictions for the place search was headed, and what measures the major search engines had been prone to make use of over the subsequent 4 or 5 years. To provide you an concept how way back this was, again then virtually no one was trying forward. Having a “vision” was a novelty.

I used to be not within the search engine marketing enterprise, however that article generated three search engine marketing shoppers. That’s after I realized that my web site wouldn’t generate a revenue instantly. It might show to be the staging that may launch a profession selling different folks’s web sites. That profession lasted a number of years, earlier than I started turning extra towards writing.

David Leonhardt – THGMWriters.com

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Promoting my design companies and online marketing are my predominant two predominant sources of revenue on-line which together yield 6 figures of income a 12 months. Creating helpful shareable content material, with robust search engine marketing and a trusty e-mail listing have been the keys to success.

Jacob Cass – JustCreative.com

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On the age of 17, I received extraordinarily annoyed after taking a handful of jobs and quitting or getting fired from each single one in every of them. I used to be unemployable and knew I may by no means get a job the remainder of my life. I started doing a web based search hoping to seek out others who felt the identical approach I did. I got here throughout a whole lot of entrepreneurs sharing these related issues and I made a decision to launch my first enterprise on-line. I launched a multimedia company throughout my senior 12 months of highschool and I used to be in a position to shortly purchase paying clients after 2 weeks of launching my enterprise. We had been service primarily based and providing digital media companies for different companies. Web site design, web site growth, app growth, social media advertising, video manufacturing and search engine marketing had been all companies that we provided to companies all around the world. This was the primary time I noticed that I may make actual cash on-line.

Jeet Banerjee – JeetBanerjee.com

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After I received my first internet growth job on the age of 22 (~2007), I labored with a really small native internet growth company with a really particular area of interest – entrepreneurs creating wealth on-line. We constructed web sites for these folks, whereas I had simply gotten into the “business” of creating web sites – I noticed that folks had been utilizing my expertise to make their whole “business” work! I used to be constructing squeeze pages – the place you needed to choose in to get the goodies on the thanks web page, whether or not or not it’s an eBook, or teleseminar replays, no matter it may be. However I noticed first hand how folks would spend $10, $20, $50, even $195 simply to get entry to a digital good, or data, from an knowledgeable. That was when it clicked, even when I wasn’t all in favour of utilizing these strategies and instruments – it labored – folks had been already doing it. Even when only a few folks per thirty days had been to purchase in, and be pumped about your product, that was a residing and respiratory enterprise proper there. On the identical time I began my very own web site and was watching the AdSense cash trickle in by the pennies. So there have been a number of clear paths to creating “real money” on-line, and these paths had many branching paths linked to them – so I knew that the strategies, the instruments, and the proof of idea was all there at 22 – I simply had to make use of it, and so I did.

Andy Sowards – AndySowards.com

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My first indication that you may begin making some critical cash on-line, is after I began to consider creating an internet site of my very own. A part of this course of was the precise join a internet hosting and registering a website identify. Whereas going by means of all the analysis and looking for which host can be greatest, I discovered that many of those internet hosting companies had one thing known as an associates program, which paid out a fee to website homeowners and companions on all referred leads and gross sales. This received me to start out fascinated about alternative ways I may earn cash on-line utilizing online marketing as nicely. I began my website and slowly started including completely different affiliate applications into the combination. It took some time to get issues shifting, however as soon as I began incomes just a few dollars per day, then the fireplace actually began burning and I wished to develop my earnings much more. Online marketing has fully modified the way in which cash is made on the planet at this time together with my life and fervour for entrepreneurship within the course of.

Ninja Weblog Grasp – Blogninja.com

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In 1996, I began on on-line internet hosting and advertising firm making among the first database pushed web sites for small enterprise. We had been utilizing a beta model of chilly fusion and dealing with corporations of all sizes. I knew the way forward for commerce and advertising was on-line, so we had been promoting that imaginative and prescient. It was fairly early days so it took plenty of schooling for patrons. We later expanded the copy to turn out to be a service supplier. I believe we received about 10,000 members paying for entry earlier than we bought the corporate to a bigger supplier.

Rick Ramos – HealthJoy.com

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I first began realizing I may make actual cash on-line after I began running a blog whereas I used to be recovering in mattress for months after breaking my legs in a development accident. I had plenty of time on my arms and began exploring Web Advertising and marketing. I may see it was attainable to weblog and earn cash by means of promoting. At first, this concerned having adverts on my weblog. Then, I began to maneuver past that and add associates and commenced monetizing different methods by means of sponsored content material. This included sharing insights about numerous merchandise, companies, and corporations. I turned my weblog right into a seven-figure job.

John Rampton – Calendar

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I used to be in center faculty and my greatest buddy simply received grounded. We each wished to purchase the brand new Xbox 360 that was popping out and he proposed to start out a enterprise. After pouring by means of a number of concepts we ultimately signed up for a reseller account at Hostgator. Our partnership shortly fell aside however I discovered that I had a ardour for constructing and operating one thing of my very own. After posting adverts on some internet hosting boards I shortly received my first fee through PayPal and I used to be ecstatic. Realizing I may make a residing from my very own creation set me down on a live-changing course.

Cody McLain – SupportNinja.com

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While you take a look at the web at this time, there are such a lot of alternative ways to earn cash on-line. From finishing surveys to doing freelance work, the choices are just about limitless. In case you have the suitable info and sources, you possibly can truly create an in-depth PDF information or on-line course to cowl something. Then it’s merely a matter of reaching out to the suitable audiences and seeing whether it is one thing they want to buy. All of it begins with a easy concept and loads of motion.

That is truly how I first received began with on-line advertising. I beforehand had work expertise in IT and left to enterprise out alone. It was presently that I noticed plenty of companies had been exploring completely different choices with their knowledge administration and cloud laptop. I went on to create a easy PDF information on enterprise useful resource planning software program, which truly did fairly nicely. Although I haven’t up to date the course shortly, there’s nonetheless demand for it at this time, and gross sales proceed to trickle in right here and there. It was at that time throughout these first few gross sales that I noticed the true potential of on-line advertising and the way anybody can begin creating and promoting one thing of their very own.

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I believe the primary time I ever correctly realised I may earn cash on-line was utilizing a chunk of software program known as Construct a Area of interest Retailer. This allowed customers to arrange eBay area of interest shops on domains again when you may rank with a key phrase wealthy area, some content material and about 100 or so listing hyperlinks. This received me my first success – a $40 fee from eBay. This ultimately result in me to inspire myself to attempt to discover extra methods to earn cash, however that was my first success as an affiliate marketer, and as any individual who invested slightly little bit of money and time this was my first return on my funding. The location did ultimately earn me slightly bit of money – not an enormous quantity however one thing.

Sadly the software program has lengthy since stopped, but it surely did present the inspiration behind one other of my plugins eBay Feeds for WordPress.

Rhys Wynne – Winwar Media

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I began my running a blog journey in October 2016. I used to be not realizing the ability of online marketing. Now, I like to put in writing on subjects associated to Web Advertising and marketing, Affiliate Advertising and marketing, internet Internet hosting and so forth.

In my preliminary months of running a blog I’ve written a assessment publish on a internet hosting program and different WordPress merchandise and insert my affiliate hyperlink to the assessment publish. Inside few days I had made a handful of $300+ fee. I used to be actually amazed and this manner I noticed the ability of online marketing and now it’s one in every of major methods to earn cash on-line.

Affiliate Advertising and marketing helps me to monetize my weblog by offering related services and products to my weblog readers. I like to say the professionals and cons of merchandise which I like to advertise because it makes the assessment publish extra real and person pleasant.

To turn out to be profitable in online marketing you must take a look at the services or products first. It should enable you to grasp the each side of the services and products which you wish to promote. This may enable you to create a killer assessment publish which generates extra gross sales and fee.

Vishwajeet Kumar – Imbloggingtips.com

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Online marketing was all the time my favourite monetization technique from day one after I began selling CD’s and different music merchandise by means of a fan web site that I created about my favourite rock band. Online marketing permits anybody to start out creating wealth on-line shortly. You don’t must have large sources, you don’t must spend many months (and years) constructing merchandise. You can begin at this time and earn cash at this time. All you want is a few nice content material that solutions questions that actual persons are asking and a approach to combine related merchandise into that content material. With this, you’re able to go and begin creating wealth on-line.

Marko Saric – HowToMakeMyBlog.com

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Making a living on-line is not any straightforward activity when first beginning out, however when you understand there’s a want for one thing and that you could accomplish it higher, that’s when actual enterprise concepts begin to move. That is one thing we noticed within the e-mail advertising and lead technology area. We knew if we may create a 100% clear and bonafide approach to ship high-quality results in companies and types, it will be a hit. It took longer than anticipated, as we’re centered on high quality over amount, however that is the kind of mindset it is advisable have when constructing any sort of brand name or making an attempt to earn cash on-line.

Tim Bourquin – Afteroffers.com

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I noticed I may earn cash on-line by means of freelance writing. I had made pennies by means of different strategies however attracted just a few shoppers and noticed this might maintain my enterprise. Being a globe-trotting island hopper, I wished to seek out long run sources of revenue by means of which I may provide useful service and be paid. Enter freelance writing. I developed my writing expertise, received clearer on the worth I delivered to the market and made the extremely uncomfortable however daring step to enter enterprise for myself. I by no means seemed again.

Ryan Biddulph – BloggingFromParadise.com

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As a digital service-based enterprise, I discover big advantages to the worth of search engine marketing in my advertising effort. There is no such thing as a different effort that’s fairly so scalable with comparatively little time funding.

The trick is consistency. Producing nice content material and incomes back-links to that content material are the substance of search engine marketing for my firm in 2017.

The outcomes are improbable! I’ve earned shoppers from hundreds of miles away, and it’s a constant technique for incomes new enterprise.

Relating to consistency, nice web site search engine marketing is constructed over time. Outcomes don’t come as you’re employed — it could take months for beneficial properties to lastly be realized. In any case, there’s actually no site visitors distinction when you’re on web page Three or web page 300 (each offers you zero internet site visitors). However when you hit web page 1 on your predominant key phrases, outcomes present wonderful ROI.

Sometimes, the method takes 6-12 months until you’re making an attempt to make content material go viral in a sooner time, however by producing nice content material alongside a constant effort to amass hyperlinks to your content material, you’re going to get there!

Andrew Lowen – NextLevelWeb.com

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Now that I’ve my very own expertise and repair design firm, it’s humorous to look again on the expansion of the enterprise and the way it’s became what it’s at this time. After we had been first beginning out, all of us knew there was an ideal demand for brand design and visible content material advertising companies on-line, however on the identical time, there are many rivals on the market as nicely. As soon as we began to give you new and artistic methods to succeed in new audiences outdoors of conventional advertising and paid search, that’s once we realized the true potential of operating a enterprise on-line. One other necessary notice to make, is that we additionally had the conclusion that we may join with extra folks all over the world and never be centered on simply native markets. This was an enormous win for our enterprise and outreach, as brand and branding is a language all of us communicate.

Srish Agrawal – Srish.com

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The primary time I noticed I may truly make good cash on-line was touchdown my first freelance writing job with an organization that offered me regular work for over two years. The necessity for on-line content material is nice in a number of niches, and over time, I used to be in a position to get a gentle move of labor from a wide range of shoppers, primarily long-term. I used to be making considerably extra working part-time than I ever had at any of my full-time jobs. I finally moved away from this work as I began making extra regular revenue from my teaching companies and merchandise.

Advances in expertise have made it attainable to take action many forms of work remotely, from teaching and consulting to internet design. An important piece of recommendation I’d give nevertheless, is specializing in doing one thing by which you might be really . Pursuing a specific sort of enterprise or service merely since you assume it is going to be straightforward to earn cash on-line doing it’s going to most likely backfire because you may not earn cash instantly, and if that’s your aim above all else, you’ll most likely get annoyed and quit actually quick.

You additionally wish to work in your mindset, and take care of fears and limiting beliefs you might have about working on-line and incomes cash for your self head on. Succeeding on this area requires a really completely different mind-set, and if this isn’t addressed, you’ll not get the outcomes you might be on the lookout for, regardless of how a lot motion you may be taking.

Kelli Cooper – Life Made to Order

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I wrote a weblog publish on how you can resolve a really particular technical drawback. Just a few days later, I had somebody emailing me from one other nation asking how a lot I’d cost to easily implement that technical repair for them. I named what, to me, was an absurd value. They paid. I did the duty. It was then that I noticed the really international viewers that you could attain on-line. You’re now not restricted to creating wealth promoting to the identical folks in your small city / metropolis. It’s broad open.

Although my first “real money” on-line was decidedly not attractive – the sheer scale of the chance made me understand that different strategies may work as nicely. I may run an internet site funded with promoting, as a result of, once more, the dimensions of the Web removes geographic limitations. “Making real money online” is identical as “making real money offline” – all of the strategies and markets are the identical. It’s the dimensions that’s completely different – and thrilling.

Nathan Shivar – ShivarWeb.com

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Social media and on-line search has been grabbing all the web consideration for the ease-of-money making that they current us with. However, let me be sincere with you – creating wealth on-line shouldn’t be a straightforward activity with all of the competitors on the market.

An intuition for survival in my ardour for digi-related companies and my realization that web supplies us with numerous conventions to earn on-line is when the thought hit me first.

My persevering with surveillance of this discipline has helped me purchase an in-depth data of the mechanisms that it withholds and utilizing this expertise, I can information you to decide on one of the best one on your aim accomplishments.

You must present meticulous consideration to each minutest element if you’re actually planning to adorn this for a long run. Right here, are among the most fascinating journeys that you could take as much as earn cash on-line:

Writing an e-book after which promoting these Creating fascinating apps that present impeccable person expertise Hunt for human intelligence duties, additionally known as as Mechanical Turks. This could earn you a whoppingly excessive sum of money. Create your weblog and market fascinating content material Upwork and 99Designs – Promoting skilled companies throughout these networks Electronic mail advertising Promoting audio books through audible

Vipin Nayar – Acodez

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It took me just a few months on-line to essentially work out that the best approach to earn cash was to supply a service (at the very least to start with).

So, I took what I knew (internet design) and began serving to folks out totally free to start out with. Ultimately, I received just a few shoppers and it went from there.

In parallel, I additionally began constructing my viewers and web site and about 6 months in I began to see some site visitors and gross sales for affiliate merchandise. That isn’t one thing you possibly can anticipate from day 1, so plan slightly time if that’s your aim. Companies are far simpler :>

Ashley Faulkes – Madlemmings.com

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I began my tech profession working within the gross sales division for a serious internet hosting firm. I spent all day answering questions for individuals who had been all in favour of creating wealth on-line. Most people I spoke with had been all in favour of constructing an internet site for his or her retail enterprise or had been all in favour of creating a web based retailer to promote merchandise. The job was fairly straightforward as a result of we had loads of inbound inquiries coming into our division so it was not a really “hard sell”.

After I first began I didn’t actually know a lot concerning the digital market, inbound advertising, online marketing or the like. The pay was not unhealthy however It actually may have been higher. After just a few years working in Gross sales, I moved over to the Advertising and marketing division. I used to be within the Advertising and marketing & Enterprise Improvement division and was tasked with increasing our associates program. I quickly realized that our associates (the profitable ones) had been making fairly a bit greater than I used to be for selling our merchandise and it was at this level in my profession that I made a decision to make a change.

I stepped away from my skilled profession and determined to leap headfirst into the online marketing world. I knew little or no about online marketing, search engine marketing, e-mail automation and the like. I now take into account myself to know a very good bit greater than your common particular person on this subject material however the business is consistently evolving and there’s all the time extra to study. Online marketing is an extremely aggressive discipline but it surely’s additionally very rewarding, If you’re contemplating making an attempt to earn cash on-line I’d suggest you do loads of analysis previous to leaping in.

Mike Brown – The Running a blog Buddha

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I found I may make critical cash on-line by having a nicely optimized actual property weblog. My website Most Actual Property Publicity in actual fact is likely one of the most visited actual property blogs within the nation. What I found is that when you genuinely wish to assist folks you can be rewarded.

As a Realtor in Holliston Massachusetts, my focus has been to offer info that each patrons and sellers can use to make sound selections. The recommendation is predicated on being a prime producing actual property agent for the previous thirty years. With my data I’m able to assist folks resolve their issues.

Very often this has result in folks choosing up the cellphone and asking me to both work with them as a purchaser’s or vendor’s actual property agent. Web leads are nice as a result of those that are calling you might be already bought in your talents.

I’d encourage anybody who likes to put in writing to start out a weblog. It’s a good way to indicate off your experience!

Invoice Gassett – MaxRealEstateExposure.com

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In 2004 I noticed I may make actual cash on-line, I believe I did a web based survey and was paid just a few dollars to do it. While the fee was small it opened my eyes to creating wealth on-line. I went on to make a MySpace Layouts web site which generated a very good quantity of site visitors and make me first rate cash. The strategy of creating wealth was utilizing Google adverts and affiliate adverts on the Myspace Layouts web site. Myspace died out in round 2008 so I needed to transfer onto one thing else which was music and leisure centered web sites.

James Norquay – ProsperityMedia.com.au

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I noticed that I may begin making “real money” on-line by upgrading my pondering. As an alternative of making an attempt to show the web into an ATM machine, like I used to be deserved cash – I as an alternative requested a basic enterprise query: “What value can I provide to people?” As quickly as I noticed that producing income wasn’t about me, it was about my clients the sport modified. The essential enterprise idea of “value-creation equals revenue” is after I began making “real money”. I realized a high-value service (offering AdWords Administration), and the income adopted.

Michael Erickson – SearchScientists.com

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Since 1998, I’ve been creating wealth on-line. The strategy I used to earn cash then and to earn cash at this time hasn’t modified a lot.

After I first began on-line, I used to be younger and broke, however had one robust talent that I used to be in a position to leverage for achievement. I had a expertise for seeing patterns.

For me search engine marketing was only a pure approach to construct a website. search engine marketing in it’s basic kind is simply talking within the language of how folks search.

While you write on this approach not solely does your website rank for what persons are on the lookout for however those self same persons are extra prone to convert since you are chatting with the way in which that they’re pondering. It’s wonderful how straightforward search engine marketing and creating wealth on-line turns into while you understand and perceive this basic fact. So preserve issues easy do some key phrase analysis then use that language as a method of making your website navigation and web page subjects. Should you do that you’ll begin making “real money” on-line.

Allan Pollett – AllanPollett.com

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I knew that actual cash may very well be made since 2007 after I labored for an individual who was making extra money promoting on-line guitar classes out the again of his storage than folks working in company jobs within the metropolis. The second time it actually hit me was after I was working with journey and mommy bloggers who had been making greater than many people in company jobs, however had fewer enterprise expertise than us.

The principle technique I discovered was by means of freelance work. However I ended up increasing into completely different channels. I truly detailed the expertise in an annual revenue report on my different website.

There are such a lot of methods to earn an revenue on-line. However I do assume you will need to discover and stick to at least one core drawback that you could resolve so you possibly can scale up that area of interest.

Making the identical revenue that you’d get at a job for employment is unquestionably achievable from doing an exercise on-line. You simply must work out what’s your ‘thing’ within the on-line area after which carve out a slice of the revenue pie for your self.

David James – BusinessGrowthDigitalMarketing.com

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I first realized cash may very well be made on-line after I stumbled upon a video introducing Google Adsense. I attempted it out and made just a few dollars, however the fact is that Adsense is one thing extremely exhausting to scale. It’s instantly tied to your site visitors, and as competitors grows site visitors is more durable and more durable to amass.

After I started prioritizing online marketing, that’s when my eyes had been really opened to the chances of creating actual cash. The chance to promote to the identical folks again and again was unbelievable to me on the time and confirmed me that actual companies may truly be constructed on-line.

With good methods in place, online marketing in the suitable market has every little thing that you may need. It’s maybe the perfect substitute for creating an precise product if you’re unable to, or don’t wish to for no matter motive. Between small ticket and large ticket objects, recurring and non-recurring commissions, cross-sells and up-sells, you possibly can take the identical customer and find yourself making fairly a bit of cash – way over an Adsense click on would ever provide you with!

James McAllister – Starlight-Child.com _

I’m a licensed English trainer who loves each writing and modifying. Truly, I like something involving phrases, studying included! As a word-lover who started running a blog in 2013, I found that web site homeowners had been in want of writers for his or her blogs. I truly discovered this out by means of a private expertise with visitor posting. I had visitor posted on Expensive Blogger, and the proprietor, Greg Narayan, liked my writing a lot that he employed me to put in writing a weblog publish for him every month. Thus started my freelance writing profession!

*Associated learn: 10 Classes Realized from My First Freelancing Shopper (who was each My Worst and Greatest Shopper)

Lorraine Reguly – WordingWell.com

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The primary second I noticed you may make actual cash on-line was after I was sitting in Bangkok at 11pm one night time in 2010. I posted a assessment on my website of a web based course throughout it’s launch interval. Inside 5 minutes of the launch, I’d earned about $500 in commissions. This was an enormous eye opener for me, and helped me to appreciate there have been extra methods to monetize a website than simply adsense adverts.

Sean Ogle – LocationRebel.com

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It was late 2011. I’d had just a few profitable web sites that did rather well by way of site visitors. My first venture made a loss, and the second was doing nice by way of development but it surely was actually tough to earn cash in that area of interest given the sources we had accessible & the extent of competitors.

The worth of offering free content material had been confirmed to me already. However I had my doubts as as to whether I may truly earn cash with a weblog.

So I picked a brand new area of interest that me and went for it. Created a great deal of content material and determined to concentrate on online marketing.

Then after some time, my exhausting work paid off. I received my first cheque by means of the publish. It was round $200 or so. A small quantity contemplating the effort and time I’d invested but it surely proved to me that it was attainable to earn cash with a weblog and that offered the motivation to maintain going.

Adam Connell – BloggingWizard.com

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I first realized I may make “real money” on-line after I began working with Zoe Rodriguez, Founder and CEO of ZBody Health. She was utilizing influencer advertising as a car to drive site visitors to her web site. And it was by means of my partnership together with her that I first found the true energy of social media influencers and influencer advertising.

Since then, I’ve branched out into different types of digital advertising, together with search engine marketing, conversion fee optimization, content material advertising and even product launch advertising. However my actual ardour continues to be working with influencers and types to succeed in the suitable viewers, with the suitable content material, on the proper time to drive conversions and maximize ROI.

Shane Barker – ShaneBarker.com

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I first made my revenue from AdSense approach again in 2010 and even earlier than that I do know I may earn cash on-line if I can drive extra site visitors from search engines like google to my websites. I all the time consider search engine site visitors is the KEY to creating extra on-line. You need to use that site visitors to place adverts, promote banner adverts, promote affiliate merchandise and what not?

Should you’re simply beginning out, ensure to concentrate on discovering your target market, use correct key phrases and attempt to enhance your search engine site visitors within the first 12 months. Then, determine methods to monetize your site visitors.

Anil Agarwal – BloggersPassion.com

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It was promoting companies or software program on-line. It was in about 2012 after I made my first greenback promoting software program from the primary tech startup I’ve ever began known as Mailbird, you possibly can see it right here www.getmailbird.com. It began with making a easy web site with a touchdown web page to gather info from individuals who had been all in favour of what I used to be promoting, then establishing a fee gateway to allow folks to pay. Then I began experimenting with on-line advertising from content material, inbound, search engine marketing and Social Channels. I used to be very attentive to any clients that emailed me with inquiries concerning the product and that enabled me to additionally perceive what was most necessary to Mailbird customers. Then I arrange several types of pricing plans and examined and adjusted them because the enterprise developed.

Andrea Loubier – GetMailBird.com

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I first realized I may make actual cash on-line after I launched a free Coming Quickly Web page plugin for WordPress. Within the first month the plugin received over 10,000 downloads and I began receiving characteristic request. I put all these options in a Professional Model and began to promote it. To my shock I bought near Four figures the primary month. It was that second I noticed I may promote software program, particularly a WordPress plugin, and ultimately match and exceed my day job’s wage. That was 5 years in the past and I’m joyful to say I’ve exceeded my expectations.

You all the time hear “find something people want, build it, put a price on it and sell it”. Nicely that’s precisely what I did. I ought to point out nevertheless that I spent near 10 years prior constructing merchandise and making an attempt to promote them. The kicker was I used to be constructing merchandise nobody wished. With my WordPress Coming Quickly Web page Plugin I used to be capable of finding a distinct segment that wanted to be crammed.

The excellent news is there are nonetheless numerous area of interest alternatives on the web ready to be crammed. You would be the particular person to fill it!

John Turner – SeedProd.com

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I don’t imply to brag or something (and I perceive it may be exhausting so that you can consider) however… it took me only a few minutes after I received on-line for the primary time (again in December 31st, 1998) to appreciate all of the a whole lot of potentialities that having an internet site would open to me. Together with making a residing out of the Web!

I began on the lookout for how you can construct an internet site and, on the identical time, discovered applications that had been paying web site homeowners to publicize their merchandise.

I made my first dollars by means of online marketing selling on-line casinos. In round one to 2 years, I had earned round $10,000 USD and it was clear to me this was the suitable path to pursue.

Louie Luc – Buzznitrous.com

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This isn’t new by any stretch of the creativeness, however I’ll say that E-commerce companies are a rising business for the on daily basis particular person trying to begin a brand new enterprise. We’ve got just lately had a ton of success serving to folks with their E-Commerce gross sales through Fb and Instagram promoting. So we ended up doing plenty of analysis and digging and also you really can create a really profitable aspect (or predominant) revenue by discovering a product that’s nicely obtained by and establishing your personal e-commerce retailer. You will have seen Oberlo and different corporations promoting this and it really can work. After all, you have to have a proof of idea (i.e. will folks purchase your stuff) and know what you might be doing in establishing your E-comm storefront in addition to be versed with social media promoting (after all, corporations like ours will help you out and have a modest funds to present it a go (whole prices for constructing every little thing and having some cash to check out will likely be within the $10Okay-$15Okay vary). However if in case you have an superior concept, you actually can do that this present day and we’re seeing increasingly folks and corporations popping up. We’ve got plans ourselves to present just a few merchandise a go to check out and plan to have this be a pleasant income stream for us in 2018.

David Reimherr – Magnificent.com

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I used to be residing in Thailand on a protracted vacation after leaving a job at Microsoft. I used to be decided to determine a approach to make long-term worldwide journey attainable, so I used to be spending on daily basis learning something associated to digital advertising I may get my arms on (which wasn’t practically as straightforward 10+ years in the past).

Someday, I made $zero.40 sending affiliate referrals to motels and lodging web sites, and I used to be over the moon. It wasn’t a lot, however I knew that if I may make $zero.40, I may make as a lot as I wished as a result of the web is infinitely scalable. The subsequent day, I made $400+ utilizing the identical strategies, and though I’ve since pivoted from online marketing to operating a global digital advertising company, I’ve by no means seemed again.

Aaron Agius – Louder.On-line

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Again the top of 2007, I used to be a really new, eager, and optimistic blogger. I’d began a weblog about weight-reduction plan/weight reduction, popped Google AdSense on, and was ready for the cash to roll in. To attempt to get some further site visitors to the weblog, I pitched a (a lot bigger) weight-reduction plan weblog with a visitor publish.

They liked it — a lot, they provided me a paid gig. And I made my first $20 from running a blog.

This primary $20 was swiftly adopted by extra, after which a payrise from that editor … inside a few months, I’d secured one other common freelancing gig with a distinct weblog. I’d truthfully no concept after I pitched that first visitor publish that freelance running a blog existed!

It took me eleven months to make my first $100 from AdSense … by which level I’d stop my day job to freelance for a bunch of blogs (and to comply with my fiction writing desires too, by taking a component time Masters in Inventive Writing). 9 years on, I’m nonetheless making a residing on-line, and I nonetheless do a little bit of freelance running a blog as a part of that. Alongside the way in which, I spoke at running a blog conferences and universities, and wrote Publishing E-Books For Dummies, printed by Wiley of their iconic collection.

Ali Luke – Aliventures.com

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As a sports activities author and blogger, I first realized I may begin making ‘real money’ when my weblog started to develop and began receiving high quality focused site visitors.

For too lengthy, my internet site visitors numbers confirmed some promise but it surely was solely after I centered on answering folks’s questions and assist fixing their issues that that site visitors turned extra focused.

From studying just a few web advertising blogs and getting inspiration from folks like Zac Johnson, Spencer Haws and my good buddy Louie Luc, I made a decision to run some experiments with Google AdSense adverts and, in a while, affiliate hyperlinks.

My AdSense earnings had been good however I couldn’t actually depend on them as they weren’t that very a lot constant. After I added just a few affiliate hyperlinks to some particular articles, although, I used to be blown away with the outcomes!!

I bear in mind one morning checking my inbox and discovering dozens of latest affiliate earnings notifications. It was proper there that I noticed I may push it as much as the subsequent degree!

Mike Martyns – SoccerGearHQ.com

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For me, I noticed it once we scaled our FB adverts from $3k a month to $10ok a month to $100ok a month. We saved rising the funds and couldn’t discover a plateau for diminishing returns. This was in 2014 after I was with a VC backed startup. My life hasn’t been the identical since.

William Harris – Elumynt

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It was greater than 10 years in the past however I nonetheless keep in mind that “this it it” second vividly.

Again within the 2000’s period – Google rolled out updates each few months. Site owners would look ahead to the brand new search outcomes to go stay and research the most recent adjustments. In a type of updates, after months of exhausting work, my websites jumped into Google first web page for nearly all focused key phrases in a single day. I used to be getting 2 – 3x site visitors and affiliate gross sales. That was the second I noticed that I’m in one thing large and may go full time into online marketing.

The important thing to my success within the early days was search engine marketing. I used to be a search engine marketing nerd. I did plenty of research and testing to grasp how search engine algorithm works.

Jerry Low – Net Internet hosting Secret Revealed (WHSR)

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It’s a humorous but poignant story truly:

I weblog about running a blog suggestions. My reader had a buddy who was all the time criticizing his weblog. Due to this fact, he determined to rent me as a running a blog coach. Consultations are fairly profitable. Getting employed for one-on-one teaching made me understand I may make “real” cash running a blog.

At any fee, the one that employed me had his buddy inform me what to do to assist him. We had a Three-way association in that respect.

The person who employed me has since handed away however he ended turning into among the best running a blog buddies I’ve ever had.

After I consider my late buddy. I bear in mind him fondly. Earlier than he left, he gave me the arrogance that I may make actual cash on-line. Fortunately, I’ve continued to take action ever since.

Janice Wald – MostlyBlogging.com

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The time I noticed I may truly earn cash on-line was after I generated my first sale and fee from a child product assessment web site I’d created. I had no earlier expertise in online marketing after I created the positioning, however I did have a core competency doing search engine marketing and content material technique so I knew I may get natural site visitors to the positioning. However I had no clue if I may determine how you can make it worthwhile. The content material that earned me my first fee was this actually in-depth natural child mattress shopping for information that I truly wrote myself. My spouse and I simply had our first child and we’d been mattress procuring, so I had contemporary, first hand data to attract from for the information. Earlier than I monetized it, I performed outreach for the information first and it earned hyperlinks from a bunch of mother blogs, which helped it rank. After I’d completed outreach, I added Amazon Affiliate hyperlinks and Google Adsense. Inside just a few weeks, I made my first Amazon sale of an natural child mattress. It was just a few dollars fee, but it surely was actually thrilling and incentivized me to maintain going. I believe the important thing studying from that first website was doing outreach earlier than I monetized, so it didn’t appear to be my motivation was an online marketing play.

Ken Lyons – Measured SEM

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My first contact with operating a enterprise on-line was in 2012 after I chatted with a very good buddy in Las Vegas. He and I come from the identical metropolis in Germany and I knew he began creating wealth on-line on the age of 14. I used to be annoyed in my job and had a nervous breakdown on the age of 23. Clearly, one thing needed to change. He suggested I comply with bloggers like Pat Flynn from Sensible Passive Revenue and research how they earn cash on-line. Being an online developer already, I shortly realized that I may promote my WordPress expertise by means of a weblog. At the moment, my final aim was to stop my job as a guide. I began my first weblog and inside seven months I made sufficient cash to stop my job.

I used the weblog (and nonetheless do) as a platform to promote my WordPress expertise. Over time the enterprise grew into an company with three full-time designers, a venture supervisor, a growth group, two co-founders, and me being the CTO. Running a blog has turn out to be much less necessary for my enterprise, as we constructed significantly highly effective relationships with corporations all around the world. They preserve us busy and we depend on networking and over-delivering to develop our company.

For 2018 nevertheless, we plan to implement a brand new running a blog technique and to considerably “revive” all of our company blogs.

Jan Koch – WP Mastery

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After I noticed the primary teaching consumer’s first fee…that’s when the lights actually went on in my head. The case research I had seen had been immediately relatable—not simply aspirational. Positive, I used to be removed from being value my very own case research. However seeing these first few hundred dollars meant quite a bit.

In some methods, an much more necessary turning level occurred months later after I received my first fee of hundreds of dollars from a well-respected advertising knowledgeable. Having a world-class knowledgeable pay for me to assist them with advertising—and pay as a lot I used to make in 4 months at my final job—that, to me, meant I wasn’t simply dreaming of creating a residing off serving to folks get higher outcomes with advertising.

Peter Sandeen – PeterSandeen.com

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I all the time wished to start out my very own weblog after I received into web. However, I knew it that we are able to earn cash on-line however wasn’t positive which is the suitable approach. I began All Running a blog Ideas within the final month of 2011. It shortly acquire recognition and inside Three-Four month I used to be in a position to generate my first revenue which was from a WordPress theme associates program. I began getting extra into online marketing by signing up with completely different applications which my readers would love. Inside a 12 months of beginning my weblog I noticed that YES I can truly make fairly good sum of money from my weblog. In the meantime, I additionally labored on few internet growth venture in earlier months of beginning weblog they usually had been in a position to enhance the revenue. Briefly, you possibly can truly make fairly good sum of money from running a blog, when you do your homework correctly and have some endurance.

Ammar Ali – All Running a blog Ideas

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I used to be invited to talk at a big actual property convention in 2010, and whereas on the flight dwelling from Atlanta GA I used to be freaking out on the within. You see, I used to be fully broke at the moment in my life and I had spent each greenback I needed to get to that occasion so I may communicate …however with lease due in Three days and no cash in my financial institution I used to be stressed.

It should have been noticeable, as a result of I’ll always remember the second when the particular person sitting subsequent to me leaned throughout the aisle and requested … “Drew, are you okay?

Scott had been a speaker on the convention additionally, and we had turn out to be fairly good buddies in the course of the occasion. When he requested me that query I assume the severity of my state of affairs turned actual as a result of I instantly grabbed my pocket book and outlined a technique for creating wealth on-line.

Inside 15-20 minutes I had outlined a coaching course for realtors: 90 Day Weblog Blueprint.

I leaned over to Scott and confirmed him the define and requested; “do you think Realtors would pay to get access to this course?” He replied enthusiastically “Yes 100% I do!”

After I arrived dwelling, I examined the technique and was shocked …it labored! Inside 2 days of being dwelling I had made slightly over $Four,400 which was greater than sufficient to pay my lease.

From that, the Mailbox Cash System was born.

Drew Burks – EscapeTheJobLife.com

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In TimeCamp, we had felt that we are able to make actual cash when the variety of paid clients began to extend. It pressured us to investigate the way in which we take care of the shoppers and perceive higher how you can encourage them to make use of time monitoring software program of their corporations. There’s a stereotype that this type of device is utilized by bosses to invigilate the workers, however in line with our customers, it’s only a delusion. A lot of the employers resolve to implement time trackers as a result of they wish to present the employees that it’s the greatest answer to enhance their time administration expertise primarily based on the productiveness studies they get on daily basis, week or month.

However the way it resulted in our on-line cash success? We began selling an acceptable tradition of enchancment amongst our present and potential customers. It straightforwardly elevated the extent of belief to our software program and triggered the income development.

Ola Rybacka – TimeCamp.com

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I attempted a lot of small affiliate applications by means of the years however by no means noticed a lot in the way in which of return. It wasn’t till I began creating helpful content material to go together with fascinating affiliate applications (Amazon Associates for instance) that the month-to-month income turned definitely worth the funding.

Individuals search the web to get the solutions to questions they’ve. Often, we’re trying to study from the expertise of others earlier than shopping for a product. That is the place high-quality product critiques will be key to driving large affiliate gross sales. By being a trusted supply of data on a product persons are contemplating shopping for, they’re extremely prone to click on your affiliate hyperlinks, when you’ve put their thoughts comfy by offering an knowledgeable assessment and constructed their belief.

Excessive-quality, detailed content material is essential to being present in search outcomes the place high quality has turn out to be key to rank. Grow to be a trusted supply of data and folks will belief what you’re promoting.

Ben Brausen – BenBrausen.com

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Again in 2006 I’ve already been acquainted with running a blog however I didn’t know that point that you could truly earn on-line. My first weblog was constructed out of ardour however who would have thought that it will turn out to be my doorway to on-line advertising.

Quick ahead a bit, in 2010 somebody in my connection taught me search engine marketing and opened up extra concepts about freelancing. Throughout that point, it wasn’t as rampant as now and folks would mistrust on-line jobs fearing they might fall to scams on-line. Most of the time, elder ones would inform me to ‘find a real job in the real world’ even powerful I’m constantly getting paid through distant work. And it was completely OK!

Mainly, for me making ‘real money’ was synonymous to discovering ‘career online’ which I took step throughout that 12 months. I’ve began working as a contract search engine advertising man in 2010 up till current.

Aside from the SEM companies I provide, I additionally keep collection of passive revenue producing websites I repeatedly keep. They’ve served as my guinea pigs in testing digital advertising methods particularly for search engine marketing and PPC.

Fervil Von Tripoli – FervilVon.com

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I had two “aha” moments early on in my on-line profession. The primary was after I had a brick and mortar skilled companies enterprise. I used to be new to the occupation and wanted extra shoppers. It was 2006 which was comparatively early days for small enterprise on-line advertising. I didn’t have a lot of a advertising funds so I began a weblog and realized search engine marketing. Inside 6 months I had extra work than I may deal with. That was after I realized the potential of the web for constructing a enterprise.

My second “aha” second was after I hit $5,000 per thirty days in affiliate commissions through running a blog. I leveraged my search engine marketing data and began two web sites on the aspect. Inside 18 months these two websites had been incomes roughly $5,000 per thirty days. It didn’t take lengthy after that to hit 5 figures.

These had been two very vital milestones in my on-line profession that I’ll always remember.

Jon Dykstra – FatStacksBlog.com

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Google AdSense is the primary technique by means of which I attempted to earn cash on-line. Although not a fast cash producing technique, AdSense was nonetheless a tried & examined and trusted technique. Additionally, because it was a free platform and the required eligibility standards had been straightforward, I discovered this technique to be one of the best from the remaining.

One other factor that I completely liked about AdSense is that it allowed me full management as to which adverts seem on my web site, which ensured that the worth proposition of my website was not compromised.

Since then I’ve moved on to Online marketing which has helped me enhance my earnings considerably. This technique has much more scope, due to the rise of quite a few on-line retailers, Amazon, being my favorite. As well as, though online marketing is difficult, when you acquire a agency foothold on this area, it may show to be fairly rewarding.

Nirav Dave – Capsicum Mediaworks

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I first realized I could make actual cash on-line, after I obtain my first fee from the affiliate hyperlink on my on-line courting weblog, it a whole lot of kilos. The affiliate hyperlinks ultimately developed into personal model white label courting websites, which was much more profitable than affiliate hyperlinks.

However to get this actual cash I needed to do some good promotion. Within the previous days of search engine marketing internet directories labored very nicely. And it was sufficient to submit your website to few high quality directories and look ahead to outcome.

Evgeniy Garkaviy – Hope Spring Ecards

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The second I noticed I may make ‘real money’ on-line was after I obtained my first referred consumer. As a contract author with a small portfolio to work with, and never plenty of expertise, I used to be working with just a few shoppers and making some first rate aspect cash. Which is strictly what I got down to do initially.

Nevertheless, after I obtained a chilly e-mail from an consumer, that had not solely talked about seeing my work on different, outstanding WordPress web sites, but additionally had obtained excessive reward from a consumer I used to be already working with, I knew that there was actually one thing to this freelance writing enterprise and the networking that comes together with it.

And that’s the principle technique I used to construct my freelance enterprise. – networking. Nevertheless, I additionally proceed touse my byline to direct site visitors to my web site, chilly pitch shoppers I’m all in favour of writing for, and ensure that these I already write for are all the time conscious that I’m accessible.

Lindsay Liedke – WPKube.com

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I first beginning making actual cash on-line whereas consulting for a small eCommerce firm whereas getting my diploma in Web Advertising and marketing. It was a good way to check out the issues I used to be studying, and it was the primary time ever buying clients over the web. It was enjoyable and thrilling, and it received me hooked!

Harris Schachter – OptimizePri.me

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I first began realizing that I may make good cash after I began making greater than my full-time job. I stop my full-time job again in 2008. In reality, it was a manufacturing unit job, and there was plenty of undesirable drama. I resigned from there as a result of the headache there wasn’t value it. Doing my very own factor labored, and I didn’t need to have another person telling me what to do on a regular basis.

Nevertheless, anybody that decides to enter their very own enterprise ought to by no means stop their “daytime job” or full-time till they’ll show to have at the very least sufficient made that they’ll survive and have further for emergencies and for my son. I by no means would’ve resigned my manufacturing unit job if I hadn’t been making sufficient to help myself or my household. It’s a threat to to depart a job on your personal enterprise when you don’t make objectives and preserve them. You by no means wish to be right here “starving artist.”

Nile Flores – Blondish.internet

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To be sincere, to start with I had no concept that there was a web based world that might give us a lot cash and freedom in life. It was after I learn the e-book The Laptop computer Entrepreneur which opened up a brand new world of concepts and alternatives for me.

After that, I began my very own weblog and thru the weblog, I received plenty of freelance writing shoppers and that helped me to develop my data, find out about business SOP and earn a residing on-line. In reality, the luckiest second in my life was the time after I may give a sum of $15,000 to renovate his store. And the credit score to all these goes to my determination to step into the web world of freelance writing and running a blog

Swadhin Agrawal – DigitalGYD.com

_

After getting rejected to work as a barista at Starbucks 10 years in the past, I made a decision to browse the bookstore and stumbled upon a e-book on creating wealth running a blog by Problogger. I didn’t know a lot about running a blog then, however I believed it was going to be enjoyable studying about it.

I began a weblog and wrote about my ardour, which was espresso, a month later, I made my first greenback on-line by means of Adsense. It was the happiest second of my whole life.

That was after I noticed the potential of running a blog and making actual cash on-line, so I began extra blogs, optimised these blogs and monetize all of them by means of Adsense and in a while it went into sidebar adverts. I reached out to those that had been promoting on different blogs and requested them in the event that they wished to promote on mine. It was exhausting work reaching out to a whole lot of blogs, but it surely paid the payments, and it was value it. After just a few months, I flipped them for a extra vital revenue.

Aaron Lee – Wanting Peak

_

I believe most individuals perceive by now that you could earn cash on-line. The confusion for most individuals is how you can begin. What’s online marketing? What’s drop-shipping? Do I promote companies or merchandise? This might appear overwhelming.

For me, I began with online marketing and located distinctive methods to advertise merchandise. Not solely can I drive income from the associates, however including Adsense is a good way to complement the income on my websites that obtain above-average site visitors.

A few of these distinctive methods to drive affiliate income are to create in-depth tutorials or create instruments that hook into the affiliate merchandise API. Being an online developer, creating instruments is straightforward for me. For others, I like to recommend having a strong understanding of the area of interest you’re trying to go after with and deep understanding of the viewers.

Dario Zadro – ZadroWeb.com

_

I’ll simply take “online” as being concerned within the digital side of the world. It was by means of search engine marketing. It’s truly a comic story as a result of I first found search engine marketing by means of my internship for a digital advertising firm the place all I needed to do was touch upon boards, blogs, and so forth. and put hyperlinks in my feedback. Mainly, I spammed each feedback part that I discovered.

In a while, after I began my weblog, God and You, I noticed that the one viewers my website had had been my Mother and my brother. So, I made a decision, then and there, to learn the way to extend the site visitors that comes into my website. And that’s the place I noticed that search engine marketing can accomplish that a lot for an internet site. That’s after I determined to find out about search engine marketing by means of trial and error as a result of there have been no on-line tutorials, books, or another knowledge-based weblog about search engine marketing, so I needed to study all of it on my own.

That’s why I began a knowledge-based weblog, seo-hacker.com, to put in writing about every little thing that I’ve realized in my journey in educating myself about search engine marketing. Then, I went on a visit the place I met a lady, and we talked about random issues and I occur to say search engine marketing in passing. Coincidentally, her Uncle was truly on the lookout for somebody that may do search engine marketing for his or her enterprise. So, to make the lengthy story quick, the lady I met set-up a gathering between her Uncle and me, and I requested for fee in the course of the assembly (after all I instructed the Uncle that I used to be not an search engine marketing knowledgeable), and he agreed.

That’s after I realized that search engine marketing will help me acquire cash by means of the trade of my search engine marketing companies, and over time, I began my very own search engine marketing firm.

Sean Si – search engine marketing Hacker

_

To be frank, I wasn’t conscious of this incontrovertible fact that we are able to even earn cash from blogs. I began my first weblog to share the ideas and tips that I realized whereas experimenting with my laptop computer. I shared just a few theme modifications code snippets that I personally used to tweak the feel and appear of my web site. I used to be utilizing the Mystique WordPress theme at the moment. It was fairly a well-known theme again in 2011-2012. This theme modifications article began getting site visitors and somebody on the Web requested me if I can customise the theme in line with his wants. For a one hour job, he paid me $80. Once more, after just a few days, he employed me for the same job.

Rajesh Namase – TechLila.com

_

I started running a blog after I had numerous time to me and couldn’t return to my earlier search engine marketing job, as a result of my familial duties. And when Google AdSense paid me the primary buck, I noticed that there was a lot extra potential incomes to be made on-line. It was the primary technique that helped me generate my on-line revenue and as my weblog grew, I explored extra incomes alternatives.

With the launch of a number of blogs, I used to be in a position to set up my footprint. I got here throughout completely different on-line incomes applications and embraced the simplest of them. like most different bloggers, I discovered one of the best strategies after some hit and trials. The strategies that work greatest additionally fluctuate from one blogger to a different and infrequently the area of interest you might be concentrating on. Sponsored and promotional content material has additionally been an efficient technique. Moreover, I’ve additionally embraced some applications much like AdSense.

Nisha Pandey – SEOTechyWorld

_

My first encounter with the monetary aspect of on-line actions was in 1999. I printed a banner on a webpage and after the weekend I known as the consumer and instructed them that they’d over 10.000 views. They didn’t consider me and we tried it out the week after. The outcomes had been even higher, over 12.000 views. In 1999, we measured customer’s trough a go to counter on the web page. After this expertise, the consumer was keen to make use of banners/ digital advertising and didn’t hesitate to make use of cash on these actions. This additionally resulted in some huge cash occurring testing out what sort of message and design labored. The large (luxurious) drawback at the moment was that every little thing labored.

After these exams and expertise, I noticed that this needed to be one of the best and simplest advertising an organization can do. I used to be impressed with the way in which the advertising labored, imagining that the person is lively and centered on a display screen in entrance of them. As an alternative of strolling subsequent to a poster, listening to radio or watching TV.

I truly didn’t take into consideration the cash, I simply wished to study extra and “ride the internet wave”, and I’m nonetheless using the wave!

Slavisa Gacic – Nettrafikk.no _

I noticed I may earn cash on-line in 2002. I used to be consulting with a DVD etailer serving to them withbusiness growth instruments. I advised to the CEO that we must always attempt to get some site visitors from search engines like google, and he stated to me “Eric, great idea, go do it.” I began engaged on enhancing web page content material, and a 12 months later we had been doing tens of millions of dollars per 12 months from search.

Following that, I received concerned in a small startup with one enterprise accomplice, with a plan to develop the nice majority of our site visitors from search engine marketing. It was an schooling lead gen website. The method we used was that we created tons of content material. We wrote distinctive descriptions of a whole lot of faculties, and likewise for various diploma applications and metropolis school pages.

It labored extraordinarily nicely, and the positioning was very profitable. Primarily based on these early successes, I began doing plenty of search engine marketing consulting as nicely, and that’s what grew into Stone Temple Consulting.

Eric Enge – StoneTemple.com

It’s Time to Begin Making Even MORE Cash On-line!

If you’re already making good cash on-line, congrats! If not, proper now’s one of the best time to get began. With so many alternative methods to earn cash on-line, there’s actually no motive so that you can be sitting on the sidelines for much longer.

For anybody that desires to make use of the excuse they don’t have time or cash, that’s all it’s — an excuse. How a lot time are you spending watching TV each night time? And the way a lot cash are you losing on stuff you don’t want?

With that being stated, beginning a weblog is likely one of the best and most cost-effective methods to get began with a web based enterprise or model of your personal. It actually prices pennies per day, and is one thing that you could construct up and create in your spare time.

Don’t let 2018 be one other 12 months of “I wish I did that…” — take motion at this time!

from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/70-private-tales-on-tips-on-how-to-make-critical-cash-on-line/

[ntrending]

Why we have a ginger emoji

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/why-we-have-a-ginger-emoji/

Why we have a ginger emoji

In November 2014, a tech-industry consortium announced a new set of emoji that would diversify the physical appearance of the pictograms.

“I checked and saw that redheads were just not on there,” says Emma Kelly, editor and founder of the site Ginger Parrot. “I wondered, has no one brought this up? Is there no one at Apple with red hair? Has everyone forgotten about Ed Sheeran?”

Kelly fired off a post on her blog, launched a petition on change.org, and fed quotes to The Guardian and other media outlets. But she soon discovered it would take much more than an online protest to get her way.

Emoji are subject to a complex technical bureaucracy. The type and number of new pictograms released each year are strictly controlled by the Unicode Consortium, an international nonprofit organization of companies—including, most notably, representatives from Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Adobe. Unicode’s core mission is to convert the world’s alphabets and symbols into code that all smartphones, desktops, laptops, and computers can read. The dollar sign, no matter the phone or font, is U+0024. The taco: U+1F32E. Websites, email clients, word processors, and other interfaces then transform that code into words and icons—and vice versa.

For most of its 27-year history, Unicode was concerned with simple characters—musical and mathematical notations, currency signs, punctuation marks. Starting a decade ago, this group of accomplished linguists, font designers, and software developers began including the smileys that had become popular across several Japanese telecom companies. Thereafter, these technical overlords were tasked with debating such matters as the prevalence of unicorns and the cultural import of a pile of poop. A deeper look at Kelly’s campaign for ginger representation reveals that they do not accept their responsibility blithely.

Chapter one

Adopting pixelated cuteness

Emoji began in 1999 in Japan, a country with a long history of pictographic language. In 2007, Unicode members started seriously debating how to include stylized picture characters to make it easier to exchange them across platforms. By 2010, the updated Unicode standard, version 6.0, had some 722 emoji.

Michael Everson, linguist; Irish national representative to the International Organization for Standardization, which helps develop Unicode: Emoji were originally these little pixe­lated images that people could send along with their text messages in order to augment them with cuteness. A lot of people thought all of this stuff was, shall we say, unsuitable for encoding.

Doug Ewell, emeritus member, Unicode Consortium: Are people going to be sending each other face-palm emoji in 10 or 20 years? It’s like encoding a shag carpet.

Everson: We said, OK, if it has to be done, it has to be done.

Ewell: What Unicode ended up doing was to add these emoji to the standard in such a way that it would be possible to interchange them as if they’re characters.

Paul Hunt, font and typeface designer, Adobe Systems; member, Unicode Consortium emoji subcommittee: To your computer, it’s just the same as a letter A or a Greek Alpha. Your computer sees a code that maps to a particular concept. For alphabets and other writing systems, the code matches to letters. For emoji, it maps to a particular little picture.

Everson: We added a whole bunch of emoji and moved on. Nobody knew what was going to happen.

Ewell: We assumed it was not going to grow out of control, and, over the years, it did.

Fred Benenson, author of Emoji Dick, a version of the novel translated into emoji: Integrating emoji into Unicode turned them into a standard that was easy for hardware vendors to implement. Before that, it was just this mess of glyphs—things like hearts, arrows, and cat faces.

Jennifer 8. Lee, co-founder, Emojination, a diversity advocacy group; vice chair, Unicode Consortium emoji subcommittee: The fact that they are not infinitely variable, that there is a very controlled set, makes them a common ­vocabulary across people and cultures.

Jennifer Daniel, creative director for Google emoji, Google: At first people used them as nouns. Now they’re being used more as punctuation to indicate intent, the way an exclamation point signals enthusiasm. Emoji allow people to text the way they talk, with tone and emotion.

Chapter Two

Diversifying the emojiverse

Each year, Unicode approves more emoji, but the organization doesn’t determine their final appearance. That’s up to vendors such as Apple and Google. As these companies began to render their versions, user expectations changed.

Marcel Danesi, anthropological linguist, University of Toronto: Early emoji removed issues of gender, race, and class completely. They were abstract symbols devoid of any of those connotations.

Everson: When Apple released a version of iOS with emoji in 2011, everyone thought it was cute and fun. Except Apple had screwed up skin color, because they hadn’t made all the people blue Smurfs or yellow Simpsons. They made them white people.

Danesi: If you’re using these a lot, one day you’re going to say, I’m tired of using the basic yellow smiley face. It doesn’t reflect my own skin.

Daniel: People don’t want to go to the emoji keyboard and not recognize themselves.

Everson: I proposed a fix that if we needed five grandfather emoji, let’s just encode five grandfather emoji. What Unicode ended up doing was encoding five skin-tone patches that relate to the Fitzpatrick skin-burning scale.

Thomas B. Fitzpatrick, dermatologist (1919–2003), “The validity and practicality of sun-reactive skin types I through VI”: A simple working classification was proposed, based not on hair or eye color, but on what patients say their responses are to an initial sun exposure.

Unicode Technical Standard #51: Five symbol modifier characters that provide for a range of skin tones for human emoji were released in Unicode Version 8.0. (Ed. note: Fitzpatrick’s two fairest tones, I and II, share a modifier.)] ED-11 emoji modifier: a character that can be used to modify the appearance of a preceding emoji in an emoji-modifier sequence.

Hunt: These things happen below the level of user interaction. The user just uses their emoji keyboard, and it will spit out the corresponding Unicode sequence for “princess with medium skin tone” or “woman runner with dark skin tone.”

Everson: It was a way of dividing this thing up reasonably. There was a problem, and Unicode fixed it. It works, and people seem to be happy using it.

Apple had screwed up skin color, 🆘 because they hadn’t made all the people blue Smurfs or yellow Simpsons. 🌈 They made them white people. 🙄

Chapter Three

Great, but what about the hair?

With the release of version 8.0 in June 2015, Kelly and other redheads were fuming. Modern Family actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson tweeted his disappointment, and comedian Scott “Carrot Top” Thompson wrote a think piece for Time. As far as Unicode was concerned, dye jobs weren’t part of their job description.

UTS #51: It is beyond the scope of Unicode to provide an encoding-based mechanism to represent every aspect of human-appearance diversity that emoji users might want to indicate…. No particular hair color is required; however, dark hair is generally regarded as more neutral because people of every skin tone can have black (or very dark brown) hair.

Kelly: I was quite angry at the time, so I fairly hurriedly created a change.org petition. Eventually we gathered more than 20,000 signatures. Unicode originally told me that what these images look like wasn’t actually up to them, that it was up to Apple and Google and the others.

Daniel: There are differences in how we render them. Apple’s emoji are highly rendered and realistic. Google’s are more illustrative and playful. The circles, for example, aren’t perfect circles. They’re kind of squishy and soft. But that softness helps because it makes the illustrations friendlier.

Kelly: We wanted to physically go down there. We put out a call for redheads. A group of them went to Apple headquarters and delivered the signatures in a carrot-shaped USB drive.

Apple Inc.: Did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Kelly: Of course, Apple being Apple, we have not heard anything from them. Someone has got it somewhere there.

Daniel: Ultimately, vendors like Google are at the mercy of what Unicode passes and fails. The amount of emoji being added every year, and which are added, is really up to them.

Lee: We want to slowly ratchet it up as opposed to dumping them all at the same time. Fifty to 70 per year is a good target.

Hunt: The process starts with a proposal. If you want a new emoji to go into the Unicode standard so everyone in the world can use it, you need to create a report. Unicode ­provides a template, which is on its website.

Benenson: I think it’s kind of a bar for people who care about submitting emoji that shows they’re putting thought into whether it should really be an emoji. Adding that little bit of process helps weed out unserious people.

Lee: It’s really not that hard to create a good proposal. If you did reasonably well in high school, you could figure this out. It’s the level of a high school lab report.

Benenson: If it’s a food-related emoji like the oyster, you have to take screenshots of Google search results on oyster versus hamburger to show that it’s popular.

Kelly: I thought it was crazy that I had to do a proposal. It was so obvious that the ginger emoji should be there. So, as a form of protest, I refused to do the proposal.

Lee: It’s not like the emoji subcommittee is rejecting ­proposals willy-nilly.

Everson: The committee did delete the frowning pile of poo as a candidate. I made a lot of noise about that. Proponents cited reasons such as, “We need this because what if you had digestive issues and wanted to text your proctologist.” Can you not use words? Do you have to send your doctor a picture? What is wrong with you people?

You want a bagel emoji? ❓OK, let’s make an emoji that looks like a bagel. ✔️ But the ginger — it’s not straightforward. 🤔 What are we coding? 🤷

Chapter Four

Let there be gingers!

On January 17, 2017, emoji subcommittee vice chair Jeremy Burge, citing social-media and online buzz, submitted a proposal summarizing the group’s options for adding redhead emoji. Gingers were still far from official. Unicode would spend more than a year debating how to implement the hair-color change.

Hunt: We have quarterly Unicode technical committee meetings. That’s where we’ll decide which emoji will progress, how they will be implemented, and what the mechanisms will be.

Lee: The meetings are so long—it’s like C-SPAN but with emoji. It’s four weeklong meetings, and emoji are between one and two hours a day for the first four days. With the ginger, we had to go back to the drawing board three or four times.

Hunt: Part of why it was a difficult problem was that there were many ways this thing could be handled.

Lee: You want a bagel emoji? OK, let’s make an emoji that looks like a bagel. But the ginger—it’s not straightforward. What are we coding? Redheads could be old, babies, boys, girls. How do you approach that? Modifier characters are used in only one situation: skin tone.

Mark Davis, lead internationalization architect, Google; president and co-founder, Unicode Consortium: Changing the architecture by adding more modifiers typically requires code changes that might be difficult to retrofit to older devices.

Hunt: It was going to be easier if the hair colors were treated as Zero Width Joiner (ZWJ) sequences—the sequence that involves several emoji glued together.

Davis: Existing and older systems know how to handle ZWJ sequences without code changes.

Unicode Technical Report #51: The U+200D Zero Width Joiner can be used between the elements of a sequence of characters to indicate that a single glyph should be presented if available.

Lee: If you don’t have the underlying emoji to glue together, then you still need to create the atomic-level ones—say, the happy woman on her own. One concern was, what does it look like when one piece of the puzzle is missing?

UTR #51: When an emoji ZWJ sequence is sent to a system that does not have a corresponding single glyph, the ZWJ characters are ignored, and a fallback sequence of separate emoji is displayed.

Everson: At one point, they suggested combining the person with a separate red-hair glyph. Basically, they were suggesting encoding scalps, which I thought was offensive. We got that changed to a dotted face with the hair on top—a way of showing that it’s a control character if the sequence unravels, so you’re not sending someone a disembodied scalp.

Chapter Five

Bagels, lobsters, super-villains, and redheads

*Unicode announced on February 7, 2018, it would add 157 new emoji, including superheroes, the infinity sign, and red, white, curly, and bald hairstyles. As Kelly awaits Apple’s digital gingers, Unicode members and designers ready their keyboard updates and ponder the future of emoji. *

Hunt: The process isn’t completely finished at that point. Once the Unicode standard becomes official, then Apple and Google and the other vendors will take that information and do their own renditions.

Daniel: We consider a range of questions when designing an emoji. Is it abstract enough for you to relate to? Or is it overly specific? If it’s a person, did we get the expression right? Some emoji are really difficult and require lots of back and forth.

Hunt: Once the vendors update their operating systems with the new characters, people can start using them on their smartphones.

Daniel: Some you just kind of nail. The redhead is fairly straightforward from a design standpoint: You just change the hair color to red or orange.

Kelly: I felt relieved, mostly because it had been going on for so long, and I was very happy that all the work we’d done had finally paid off. It was long and confusing, but hey, we got there in the end.

Benenson: I want people to sympathize a little with Unicode. This is a standards body of software developers, and due to a fluke in corporate history, it ended up in charge of this extremely salient cultural touchpoint and creative expression.

Hunt: It’s a lot of work, but it’s still fun. That’s part of the reason why people love emoji. They’re fun, and it will be interesting to see how this does evolve and how it changes the way we think and talk and communicate.

Everson: I don’t think 70 years from now people will be sending each other pictures of eggplants to discuss certain matters. I don’t think 70 years from now people will be sending each other colorful emoji at all.

Daniel: Really, I’m interested in finding a way to mix and match these emoji to create something new. In the same way language and slang evolve, I hope there’s a way for emoji to evolve.

This article was originally published in the Fall 2018 Tiny issue of Popular Science.

Written By Gregory Mone

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

How the worst parts of the internet helped shape me as a kid

This post is part of Mashable's You're Old Week. Break through the haze of nostalgia with us and see what holds up, what disappoints, and what got better with time.

a/s/l?

If you know what those three letters stand for, there's a good chance you grew up on the internet like myself. An internet filled with opportunities to steal your innocence. 

There was something special about the internet of the late '90s and early 2000s that can never, ever be  replicated. It was mysterious, misunderstood, and truly a free place of exploration. More importantly, it was mostly anonymous, or at least it appeared that way.

SEE ALSO: How creepy YouTube channels trick kids into watching violent videos

As parents currently grapple with how their children interact with the internet at such a young age, it's important to take a step back and look at how we got here. Let's relive some of the horrors I witnessed growing up on the internet and consider what lessons their lingering effects hold for this generation. 

Chat rooms

For those utterly lost, a/s/l stands for age, sex, and location, and was commonly used in chat rooms during the golden era of the internet — 1995 to 2005-ish. Thanks to Facebook and the rise of social media, much of what we now do on the internet is tied to our real names. But back in the day, we hid behind usernames and screennames, and we changed them often.

I don't exactly remember any vivid conversations I had on the internet with strangers, but I do recall frequenting Yahoo Chat rooms when I couldn't find any of my friends to chat with on AIM. Remembering that today, I'm kinda horrified.

While those chat rooms around the internet had plenty of normal people just looking for conversations, they were also riddled with who the fuck knows trying to get off or take advantage of a young kid. There was even a dedicated section just for teens. Even worse, you could chat with people based on a specific location.

A screenshot of Yahoo chat from the year 2000.

Image: yahoo.com via waybackmachine

Yahoo Chat rooms were rife with catfishing long before the internet term was ever coined. You could be whoever you wanted to be when someone asked you a/s/l? And people were pretty upfront about seeking kids to chat with. While, thankfully, there were no To Catch a Predator scenarios for me in the days of the early internet, it's highly likely I interacted with plenty of scummy people looking to take advantage of kids during that time. 

Back in 2005, Yahoo finally shut down user-created chat rooms in an agreement with law enforcement. "Yahoo removed or barred the posting of 70,000 rooms whose names suggested illegal conduct, including the promotion of sex between adults and children," CNET reported at the time. 

Yahoo permanently shuttered its public chatroom feature in 2012.

Somehow, I made it out unscathed, and was smart enough to know better, but the chat rooms of the early internet were truly a terrifying place. 

Rotten.com and gore galore

Just last year, the internet lost one of its earliest and most disturbing websites, rotten.com. For now, at least. 

"The soft white underbelly of the net, eviscerated for all to see: Rotten dot com collects images and information from many sources to present the viewer with a truly unpleasant experience," a welcome message reads on an archived version of the website from 1999. 

A screenshot of Rotten.com from the year 1999.

Image: rotten.com via waybackmachine

Simply put, rotten was a compilation of the worst images the internet could find. From pictures of dead celebrities to photos of brutal crime scenes, car crashes, and botched surgeries, the shock site was capable of disturbing just about anyone who made their way to it. 

Rotten.com was introduced to me by an old boyfriend of my sister's when I was probably 11 or 12. I recall seeing a photo of a man involved in a motorcycle accident, his head splattered across a highway, and another picture of a guy sucking his own dick. The picture of the accident still fucks me up; the photo of the guy giving himself a blowjob is still impressive. 

While I (thankfully) never became a frequent visitor of rotten.com, the disturbing images I saw on the site desensitized and prepared me for the awful internet of today. As I grew up with the internet by my side, I can recall seeing countless beheadings. I watched the entire video of Saddam Hussein being executed in 2006, an unnecessary amount of shootings, car accidents, and just about everything else that would make a normal person vomit. 

Seeing those pictures and videos at a young age absolutely helped me cope with some of the things I see on the internet today. Would I be better off not seeing them? Maybe. 

Porn, porn, and more porn

I was about 11 or 12 when I was sitting at my computer, probably playing 3D Pinball when I overheard my dad and his friend talking in the kitchen, just down the hall.

"You can just type lingerie into the search and you wouldn't believe what comes up," he told my father, revealing that there was actually porn on the computer in the living room, which he literally never touched at that point. 

"No wonder he spends so much time on that thing," my dad joked, clearly referring to me. Jokes on you, Dad, because I had no idea of the obscenities that were available just a few clicks away.

A screenshot of sex.com from the year 2000.

Image: sex.com via waybackmachine

Of course, the first moment I was left alone after hearing there was porn on the internet, I typed something like "boobs" into AskJeeves or Yahoo search. I surfed my way to a crude porn site as fast as my 56k modem could bring me, only to be greeted with an age disclaimer asking me if I was 18 years of age or older.

After thinking it over for a few seconds, I decided to risk it and click "yes." Despite thinking the FBI was going to raid my house for this very serious offense, this began my exploration into sex. I never got "the talk" from my parents. It didn't matter — I had the internet. 

It's worth noting here that the internet moved at a grueling pace back in the late '90s when 56k was still king. So navigating a web page with photos, like porn, took a very long time. Given this fact, and that at the time my computer was shared with my family, I decided to do what any preteen would do with a color printer. 

That's right, I printed out porn. My mom found it in my sock drawer, and still occasionally makes fun of me for it.

While there are more than a few think pieces on how learning about sex through internet porn is terrible for a young boy's mind, and will turn them into sexist monsters with unrealistic expectations, I'm thankful for the unfiltered internet as a useful resource in my horny pubescent youth. 

Talking about sex with anyone — even friends — can be humiliating at that age, and at the time sex education provided to me in school was laughably bad, sometimes even frowned upon. That said, there are definitely more appropriate ways to learn about sex, and as a society, we have much to improve upon. 

Weed, drugs, and an online education

When I was 14 years old, I smoked weed for the first time.

This wasn't some spontaneous decision made in a dimly-lit room forced by peer pressure. I wanted to try marijuana, I sought it out, and I learned everything that I need to know about smoking weed through the internet.

Weeks before lighting up, the topic came up among a few of my good friends at the time, and we decided we were going to do it. I won't lie, I was pretty terrified of what would happen, so I did my best to sift through the bullshit pushed upon us by D.A.R.E., and find out the truth about marijuana. I found Erowid.

While there were plenty of websites dedicated to cannabis in 2001 and 2002, Erowid was, and remains, one of the best sources for information on drugs. The thing that makes Erowid so great is that it provides real information from real people about their experiences with various drugs, including dosages, effects, and experiences.

A screenshot of Erowid.org in the year 2001.

Image: erowid.org via waybackmachine.

I'll be the first to admit that I adopted cannabis use way too young, and I'm sure that it affected my school performance and my brain development. But teens and young adults aren't going to stop experimenting with drugs and alcohol, and at least the internet informed me of the real dangers in a way that wasn't preachy.

Would I have tried cannabis without the internet? Definitely, but using the web to learn about drugs was an invaluable resource that was not available elsewhere. I consider myself lucky for landing on Erowid, and not a forum with irresponsible users suggesting people us harder drugs. 

Are the kids gonna be alright?

I've been thinking a lot recently about how the internet has shaped me as a person, and how it's affecting the youth today. Before muttering their first words, kids have probably already watched a YouTube video. They have Instagram accounts before they're able to read, and hashtags dedicated to their entire lives. 

But for me, the internet was a choice. I sought it out,  and all of its opportunities to corrupt my youth. For kids today, it's become nearly impossible to disconnect. 

And again, when I discovered corners of the internet I shouldn't have ventured to as a kid, it moved at a snail's pace. Today's web is fast, pictures load in the blink of an eye, and HD streaming video is basically expected, thanks to YouTube.

It feels like the internet is at a breaking point, and we as a society are finally questioning the experiment. It's incredibly important for us to ask ourselves how the internet has altered our lives, and not just the convenience factor with 2-day free shipping, but really, how has the internet changed who we are? It certainly changed me growing up. 

I do still value the internet as an important growing up tool, which helped me learn about life, both the good parts and bad. But in the back of my mind I'll always wonder what would have happened to me if I never logged on.

WATCH: You know you're getting old when you remember using these phones

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What Carries out The Dow Jones Procedure?

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