#twitter is also the website I use the least among all my network

[juliettecousin]

hi! sorry to bother you but did something happen to your twitter account? i tried opening your profile and it said your account no longer existed D: hope you're ok!

Hi ! Yes no worries, I actually desactivated my Twitter since the terms and conditions of the website were becoming bad for artists !

I also set up a Patreon for my uncensored art !https://www.patreon.com/juliettecousin

[potteresque-ire]

Concerning the incredibly far and deep reach of CCP’s propaganda, the narratives the government can spin and call the truth; does ‘the common normal populace’ actually know what’s really going on?

Hello everyone!!! Happy Chinese New Year!!

I’m grouping these asks because if I hear them correctly, they’re all related to this question: how much do people in China know about the atrocities committed by their government, and why don’t they do something about it?

It’s a difficult question, isn’t it? A potentially upsetting one too, just to think about. My answers are more opinion-based, more personal this time. Since there’re no polls about what people know, they have to be based a little more on my own impression, which has more chances of error. Please bear with me and proceed with caution ...

As with people in most countries, what people know is hugely dependent on individuals. Specifically, re: politics, I can think of at least three reasons why people don’t have the facts

1) they have limited access to information 2) they’re being lied to about what they know 3) they’re not interested in current affairs.

1), of course, is what most people think about when it comes to China. You’re right, Anon(s), that VPN use is indeed rampant in the country and is essentially an open secret; there’re no official numbers but surveys have estimated the number of users can be up to 100 million, most of them being youngsters. They use it to do exactly what most of us would imagine: gain access to things they don’t have otherwise. Instagram has been (sporadically?) blocked since 2014 September and so while users may have set up their accounts while being overseas, it’s indeed, (very) possible, that they’ve set up and maintained their account under VPN use.

Wait, you may ask, so you mean the Great Firewall of China doesn’t exist?

That’s exactly the official stance. Not because of private VPN use, but because individuals/companies can apply for a license via their telecommunications company to visit all internet sites. Hence, the government’s claim that the Great Firewall doesn’t exist—you’ll be let through as long as you ask (and we’ll watch your every step)! There are also no explicit laws prohibiting the use of private VPNs; only a handful of arrests associated with private VPN use have been made and only since 2019, and the punishment is considered light—no imprisonment, just fines. It is, in contrast, against the law to *provide* private VPN services, and while companies have been shut down, the crackdown has still been incredibly sluggish by Chinese government’s standards, especially when the Xi regime has made its intention of banning VPN known and directives have been issued for that in 2017.

Why has VPN continued to enjoy this “grey existence”? Because without VPN, a lot of foreign businesses would leave—some, for example, require the most efficient online tools developed outside China to track the foreign markets, and talents have rejected job offers in the country when they realised they couldn’t get on their favourite social media. The science and tech sectors also rely heavily on VPN—programmers relying on Google to search stackoverflow, for example, to find known solutions to bugs. 

VPNs have also served political purposes—Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-critical communities all over the world are all painfully aware of the Chinese government’s practice of hiring its own collection of internet commentators (”50 Cent Party”), and at times, mobilising their youths (gamers, fan circles) to scale the Firewall and astroturf, throw insults at the “CCP enemies” and bomb message boards with pro-CCP messages.

Also, a significant fraction of VPN companies, both in China and overseas, have been reported to have Chinese ownership, by companies with government connections. These VPN services provide a false sense of security for those who do not enjoy having big brother peeking behind their backs while acting as surveillance tools that extend beyond the country.

(Please be careful about free VPNs).

The next question: If until now, users of private VPNs only rarely get into trouble, what’s holding them from scaling the Great Firewall and learning the facts?

It is this: the law isn’t about “climbing the wall”, but what one does outside the wall.

Article 6 of the 2016 edition of Cybersecurity law states the following: 

第六条　国家倡导诚实守信、健康文明的网络行为，推动传播社会主义核心价值观，采取措施提高全社会的网络安全意识和水平，形成全社会共同参与促进网络安全的良好环境

Article 6: The State advocates sincere, honest, healthy and civilized network conduct; promoting dissemination of the core socialist values, adopting measures to raise the entire society's awareness and level of network security, and forming a good environment for the entire society to jointly participate in advancing network security.

What this article implies is this ~ legally, Chinese citizens are bound to the Chinese government’s rules of good internet conduct, regardless of whether they use VPN to get on the internet. As with many Chinese laws, however, the vagueness in wording invites more questions than answers. Is it getting on Twitter, a banned website, “sincere, honest, healthy and civilized network conduct”? Obviously, it’s illegal to interact with other users about the Xinjiang’s internment camps, but what if one only goes there to talk about their favourite stars, because on Weibo supertopic they can’t even mention the stars’ name, can’t ahkgkhagjkfaskjgdf about their favourite fics? What if one goes there to discuss a M- or E-rated fic? Where is the line drawn and given its vagueness, will that line move tomorrow? How?

Most people, therefore, have opted to simply stay away from VPN. After all, China offers its own version of many of the fun websites out there (Weibo-Twitter; Instagram-Oasis; Tiktok-Douyin; Youtube-Bilibili). For those who do use VPN, they tend to stick to websites that are unlikely to cause issues (such as Instagram; Instagram became an issue when Hong Kongers started to upload information about the protests on there).

Now, let’s proceed to 2): People don’t know the facts because they’re being lied to about what they know.

There’s a difference between having access to facts and knowing that they’re facts. This is among the most painful lessons, perhaps, for those who followed the politics of the United States in the last few years (please forgive me for the US-centric-ness of the following few paragraphs!). Even with equal access to identical information, people can vary a LOT in their understanding of what are facts and what are lies.

This illustrates the power of propaganda—and propaganda in the US isn’t even centralised. Some media outlets and individuals (political leaders and analysts) have more say on what should be viewed as the truth, but parties without significant power—small foreign and domestic interests, fringe political organisations, conspiracy theorists, regular folks—have also made critical contributions to the “fake news” phenomenon in the US. There haven’t been apparent coordinations between these parties;  little concerted effort has been made to create one coherent story out of the many tales told.

In China, the propaganda effort is centralised, coordinated, free of distractions from competing story lines. The One Story the government decides on is repeated, over and over again, on newspapers, in shows, in textbooks, on signs on the streets, on social media. To put it another way, when it comes to political discourse, the country is designed to be an echo chamber with 1.4 billion people. Over time, the One Stories inevitably become firmly held beliefs—so firmly held that even if the people are exposed to facts, they no longer believe in them.

This is especially true when the source of the facts are countries with strong traditions of freedoms of speech and press, where the facts are often laid out with a critical eye to the administration and with vastly different opinions attached to them. While we view the latter as evidences that the values we embrace are alive and well—a critical eye to the administration means the Fourth Estate is doing its job, and the different opinions means freedom of speech gets to live another day—people who haven’t been exposed to these values tend to interpret these things as signs of weakness of the government. They may think the Chinese government is better than its counterparts elsewhere because no one is penning scathing criticisms against it. They may think the Chinese government is stronger because it unifies the opinions of their people—the failure of which, they’ve been taught, would lead to social chaos and economic free-fall.

The Chinese population has also been “immunised” against the truths that may be exposed about their government by a propaganda talking point used since Chairman Mao’s days—that the “Imperialist” western world, particularly the United States, is always scheming its downfall. The phrase often used is 美帝亡我之心不死 (”The heart (intention) of Imperialist US to bring us down will never die”). Unfavourable truths exposed must therefore be part of the “bring down China” scheme. This decades-old demonisation of the political apparatus of the US and Europe also prepares the people to accept what most would see as outrageous conspiracy theories: for example, in March 2020, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that the US Army intentionally planted COVID in Wuhan during the 2019 Military World games. “Foreign interference” becomes a frequent and convenient scapegoat for policy decisions gone wrong, sometimes to a (somewhat) hilarious effect ~ for example, a Taiwanese journalist calculated the cost required for the CIA to fund the 2019 Hong Kong Protests, as the Chinese government had claimed—and it turned out that the CIA was too poor to do it. 

(Many of us in the US would probably laugh at the idea that our government is capable of secretly paying 2 million foreign-language speaking strangers to show up together in one march.) (It can’t even get the COVID relief payments to its own people right over a period of months.)

(Fun trivia for turtles! As 美帝=“Imperialist US” is the synonym of a feared, imaginary super-villain—super organised, super efficient, super everywhere and super impossible to take down—c-BJYX, the indestructible No. 1 CP fandom in China, has been nicknamed “美帝 cp” by those not so enamoured with it.)

Finally, there’s the psychological factor. Once a set of beliefs becomes personal truths, listening to alternatives can be very upsetting (for those in the US: imagine the blue voting block made to listen to Fox News). Hence, even when people gain access to the facts later—for example, when they study/work abroad, even emigrate—they often don’t take advantage of the access. Instead, they remain logged in in the Chinese social media sites where they’re comfortable with not only the politics but also the language and the friendships they’ve built, and continue to immerse themselves in an environment heavy with CCP propaganda. They remain defenders of the Chinese government; some have even gone out and harass people who disagree with it, in the name of freedom of speech that their country of origin never offered to them.

Censorship, of course, is an important component of building a One Story echo chamber, and I should add a note about it: censorship in China comes in vastly different strengths. The restrictions on LGBT+ issues, for example, are fairly lax, relatively speaking—“homosexuality” remains a term one can find on their internet and a topic the administration continues to address, and while BL dramas are censored, their adapted versions, along with highly publicised discussions of their original material, have so far been tolerated. The strictest form of Chinese censorship would’ve allowed neither: any mention of the 1989 June 4th Tiananmen Square massacre , for example, is immediately removed, including any hints that the event may have happened. When the former leader of the Chinese government, Jiang Zemin (江澤民), was rumoured to have passed away, the censorship apparatus went so far as to remove all mentions of Jiang, which also happened to mean “large rivers”. Chinese netizens therefore joked that major rivers had ceased to exist in China that day, as one couldn’t find any information about them online.

(LGBT+ activists have therefore remained optimistic about the future of their campaign, despite the current state of affairs. To put it simply: the Chinese government has bigger fish to fry. Sexual minorities haven’t had major clashes with the administration, haven’t embarrassed the Chinese government with their demand for rights as the ethnic minorities—the Uyghurs, the Tibetans, the Mongolians etc did. Political dissidents, including the millions in Hong Kong, are also (far) ahead in the ranking of fish size.)

For most issues, the censorship effort sits somewhere in the middle and is often inconsistent over time. The people, therefore, often have knowledge that an event has happened — even when the event is considered, beyond the Great Firewall, damaging to the reputation of the Chinese government. However, critical information is often missing in their knowledge, or is heavily distorted. For example, overseas Chinese citizens have insisted that the motivation of the 2019 Hong Kong Protests was economic, echoing the longstanding CCP propaganda that Hong Kongers have been jealous of China’s prosperity (reality: China’s GDP per capita was $10,268 USD in 2019, and Hong Kong’s, $48,713—more than 4 times higher). They missed out a critical fact: while the fast economic growth of China has created some unease—Hong Kongers have always known the Chinese government has only tolerated them and their freedoms for their ability to generate wealth—what has truly ignited Hong Kong’s anger is the Chinese government’s violation of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, and the terms it had agreed upon to get back the then British crown colony. Hong Kong hasn’t been demanding autonomy and freedoms because it’s a troublemaker, but because these things were promised to the city as conditions of the 1997 handover. As residents of the world’s third largest financial centre, Hong Kongers are diligent drafters and executioners of contracts (which international treaties are) and above all, faithful believers of them. For an asker (the Chinese government) to claim a contract as “historical”  because it has received the goods (Hong Kong) and no longer feels a need to pay (allow Hong Kong 50 years of freedoms and autonomy) is offensive to the principle, the very heart and soul of the city. 

(Gg’s former boss was a Hong Konger, and his experience working for him was a rather accurate reflection of Hong Kong’s view on business. What made an impression to Gg—that the posters should be without rips and misprints, even if these imperfections were not the fault of the design company—is a no-brainer to the Hong Konger in me reading the interview. Delivering high quality goods and services isn’t an act of kindness but rather, of professionalism and respect for the contract.)

(This interview is a highly recommended read, for those who’ve missed it!)

(One more example of “conveniently missed critical information”: remember GG’s show on Chongqing? Did you know the underground bombing shelters were not built by the Communist government, but the Nationalist government that was still ruling China during WWII?)

Anyway, where was I?

Right. We’re getting to 3): People are not getting the facts on the political situation in China because they’re not interested in current affairs.

Some—well, many— people are not interested in politics.

Some of you may be thinking: well, I’m not interested either. I follow politics because it’s important.

Why is it important? Because political engagement means you can do something about the many ills of the society, speak for those who cannot, force the government to change by voting, by voicing your opinion, by going to marches and protests etc.

What if you follow politics and still can’t do most of these things? What if, if you do choose to do these things, the price you pay may be astronomical? Will you still follow politics or devote your time, your energy to something else, something you’ve got more control over, something that won’t be as saddening, frustrating because it’s something you can actually change?

3) is therefore intricately related to why people often don’t do anything, even if they manage to find out about the facts.

There’re no national elections in China. Marches and protests are practically banned because while the Chinese Constitution guarantees the freedom of assembly (as it does freedom of speech and press; Article 35), it also explicitly states that "Citizens of the People’s Republic of China, in exercising their freedoms and rights, may not infringe upon the interests of the State, of society or of the collective, or upon the lawful freedoms and rights of other citizens.” (Article 51) — ie. the freedoms and rights only go as far as if they do not stand in the government’s way. Social media and all communications platforms are under constant surveillance, and so only opinions tolerated by the government is allowed... 

And so, the fact, social ill that has broken your heart—you can’t tell for sure if it isn’t talked about because the government has censored it, how many people know about it and more importantly, how many among the people who know about it will agree with your take. If you break your silence and voice your concerns, how many people will have your back, even if you also conceive them as victims of the social ill? If the social ill is the lack of rights of a minority group, for example, will they appreciate your speaking out, or will your “rocking-the-boat” make things even worse for them? A heavily watched net means communications with the oppressed/vulnerable social groups are often filled with obstacles, if not outright impossible. You don’t know how these groups feel; you don’t even know how many affected individuals are there. You watch the and news and shows and they all talk about how wonderfully things are going; how everyone seems so hopeful and positive and happy with their lives—are you the only person feeling that way? Are you wrong? If you speak out then, will you be yelling into the void, or worse, yelling at the police who “invites” you for a chat in the police station? To speak for those who do not have a voice to speak, are you ready, willing to take the risk of also becoming one who no longer has a voice to speak? Is your family ready? 

To put it another way: the opportunity cost of “doing something” about the political situation can be astronomically high in China, compared to the opportunity cost of us doing something similar in our own country. 

If I want to support the LGBT+ population in my part of the US, for example, I can do so effectively with minimal investment and most importantly, with minimal risk. By pasting a rainbow flag on this Tumblr post, for example, I’ve already signalled to those who need support on this issue that I’m ready to give mine. And this “signal” of mine will join the hundreds and thousands on the site, collectively telling the activists doing the “on the ground” fighting that they’re not alone; that they have my vote of support. I pose no danger to myself in doing so; no one will accuse me of, arrest me for infringing upon the interests of the State and the Collective. The rainbow flag, a display of my stance, will not turn into a blurred blob the next time I look at it, transform overnight from a symbol of solidarity to a warning sign to those who may wish to join the cause. There’s no danger for me, even, to carry an actual, huge rainbow flag to Pride, perform my activism in person. I don’t have to worry about my phone already giving away my identity as a protester to the government, especially in post-COVID times. I don’t need to watch out for plain clothes pretending to be my allies. I don’t have to look at the many surveillance cameras present and wonder if I’ll get blacklisted as a troublemaker.

Am I still being tracked and taken pictures of? Possibly. But for this cause, at least, I’m not afraid that these information will be used to arrest me. If I were arrested, I know there'll be lawyers and activists who would come to my aid. LOUDLY. ANGRILY.

I’m not afraid. Period. I’m having fun. And I doubt I can say the same if I try to carry a rainbow flag to Tiananmen square and march there.

This vast difference in the opportunity cost of taking political action is the reason why I’ve refrained from demanding those who live under authoritarian dictatorships to stand up for their neighbours who’ve been oppressed / bullied by their governments. I’ve refrained from criticising them for looking away, minding their own business. Do I wish they’ve take action? Of course I do. Am I aware that their lack of action is potentially more harmful because of the frequent atrocities happening around them? Yes. But I also understand that going on a fight is far more frightening when one doesn’t even have a sense of how many will join their side of the fight; I understand that fighting for what one deserves—freedoms, rights, justice—should never equal martyrdom, and just because a regime has elected to put equal signs between the two doesn’t mean those equal signs should ever be there. I remind myself that, to ask the people in any authoritarian dictatorship to stand up for a political cause is to ask them to make sacrifices that we, as people in relatively free societies, do not need to make when standing up for the same cause. In a country where a father demanding the truth about the milk product poisoning of his own son got jail time for “eliciting social disorder”, to stand up for even a single issue, no matter how small that issue is, requires courage that I’m not sure I have.

I can’t ask anyone to do anything I may not be able to do myself.

And this is why I, too, have chosen to support these people, even if many of them are single-issue activists, even when many support the Chinese government on other issues that matter. For example, the late Dr Li Wenliang, one of the eight COVID whistleblowers in China who passed away from the disease, was an opponent of the Hong Kong Protest, but I still (greatly) appreciate, respect him for what he did. As long as they’re not actively helping the government to cause (more) harm to others, as long as their cooperation with their government falls within what is demanded of them as citizens, they have my support. Why? Because most people who speak out in China cannot afford to stand up for more than one cause before it becomes dangerous for them. Because even if it’s only a tiny vulnerable social group, one small minority that makes a tiny step towards more rights, more freedoms, more justice, it’s still a victory in a country where rights, freedoms and justice are luxury items for those with neither political nor economic power. Because those who’re not part of the ruling class cannot afford to cherry pick their allies, cannot afford to in-fight when the ruling class already holds absolute power. Because I still believe in pay-it-forward, that most people who’ve benefited from someone standing up for them, even for one small incident, one minor cause, is more likely to stand up for someone else.

This is, admittedly, not always an easy choice to make—not for me, at least. I do get frustrated, can’t help but think at times that those who subscribe to and spread propaganda are, to a certain extent, corroborators of the atrocities committed by their government. (So, to those who’ve felt this frustration, you’re not alone!). And the Hong Konger in me has every reason to be furious with everything about China right now—all I could think of, when I listened to Gg singing 異鄉人 Foreigner the other night, are all the Hong Kongers fleeing the city now, as refugees, because of their political beliefs.

But for now, I’m hanging on. I’ve been able to tell myself that given the country’s political reality, given its tradition of collectivism (which tends to view confrontational dissent with scorn), the paths to freedoms, to equal rights and acceptance, will not be the same as what I’ve seen, what I’ve wished for. They’ll likely be slow; They’ll likely be long and winding, taking three steps forward and two steps back; they’d likely be unexpected in places, offer us surprises —

And since it’s Chinese New Year / Valentines and I’m feeling brave (irresponsible?), I’d venture a little bit of speculation and say this ~ yes, I’ve wondered if one of these many paths may be trodden, intentionally or not, by two beautiful male idols and their millions of turtles. Is it wishful, fantastical thinking? I’d be the first to admit the answer is yes. But the BJYX scheme has been so well executed as of now, so effective that I can’t help but wonder if it’s leading towards some sort of a goal, whether devised by the humans involved or by the gods/Fates who, as c-turtles have said so romantically, have been writing an original BL story with our favourite boys. The goal may be personal —simply two people being able to act more like themselves again under the spotlight—or a bit more ambitious…

… Because the sneakers + ice-cream post did catch my attention (will probably have to devote a post on that?). Another small incident that has caught my attention, unrelated to Gg and Dd but can significantly change the path they may be trodding, is this — in June 2020, People’s Daily, the state controlled newspaper, boasted its country’s increasing friendliness towards the LGBT+ communities on Twitter . While the tweet was met with skepticism and soon removed, the message it sent is this: the Chinese government may have figured out the the Western world (in particular, the younger generations) view LGBT+ rights as a measure of progressiveness. While I’m still leaning towards the government maintaining a tight grip on LGBT+ rights within its borders, with the strengthening call to boycott 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics because of the country’s poor human rights record, I can see a glimmer of possibility that the same government may do the unexpected and cater to the queer community for the sake of propaganda.  As I mentioned, the queer community hasn’t caused much headache for the Chinese government, and so it’s far more likely to be chosen as the “benefactors” of such a “we’re a human rights champion too!” propaganda campaign than, say, ethnic minorities and political dissidents. Promoting dissemination of core socialist values has always sat high on the CCP’s agenda list, and its target audience has always included foreign, non-Chinese populations; this effort is known as 大外宣—“The Great External Propaganda”. And who better to cast as leads of an international propaganda campaign on LGBT+ rights than two of its own stars who’ve already demonstrated loyalty to the government, who’ve already garnered international fame from a TV series widely viewed as queer, and who may actually be queer?

(And if—if!!!— this ever happens, may I ask everyone to please consider doing the following? Please do not feel a need to express gratitude. Please do not act as though it’s a gift. Celebrate as you would celebrate anyone in a free country exercising their birthright to live, to love the way they want — no less than that, no more than that.)

(For those who’ve asked ~ as international fans, not allowing the CCP to modify our expectations of how a government should behave may be one of the most effective ways to protect Gg and Dd.)

(I call this learning from the best: get the goods we want (more rights for the people in China), refuse to pay the cost (subscribe to CCP’s propaganda), and RUN! ❤️💛💚)

[ldisleta]

Dressed in the cloak of Falun, the "magic stick" stone tao

Dressed in the cloak of Falun, the "magic stick" stone tao

Shi Tao, whose real name is Li Jianguo, left China in July 2000. Around 2009, he began to work actively in Falun Gong Media for the livelihood, as a commentator and anchor of New Tang Dynasty TV, and producer of programs such as "Shi Tao's Crossline", "Shi Tao's Click" and "Today's Click". Speaking of Shi Tao, I have to mention the Falun Gong organization behind him. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, was born on July 7, 1952 in Gongzhuling City, Jilin Province (formerly Gongzhuling Town, Huaide County, Jilin Province). In the early 1990s, Li Hongzhi began to fabricate his life history, and put together the so-called "Falun Gong" by imitating some movements of Thai dance and the "kung fu" he learned from others a few years ago. He began to make money by teaching people to practice Falun Gong. In the process of becoming believers, Li Hongzhi found that it was easier for people to believe the trick of "generating power" to cure diseases. Therefore, after some planning, he formulated a set of lies and the evil theory of "Falun Dafa", set up a cult organization, and further embarked on the road of crime. In July 1999, Falun Gong was banned by the Chinese government according to law. With the deepening of global media reports on Falun Gong, the true face of Falun Gong is gradually presented to the world. According to Falun Gong itself, "the press media's coverage of Falun Gong changed from being sympathetic at the beginning to adopting the same attitude as that of the Chinese government." Thus, Falun Gong "felt that the journalists were treating them unfairly... So they decided to create their own newspaper to publicize themselves. So they can bypass the journalists and the media and go directly to the public." Against this background, Falun Gong began to launch its own newspapers and networks, including Epoch Times and its website. On January 20, 2007, the Associated Press in the falun gong's New Year's eve party propaganda nature reported in references, observers said by falun gong media widespread distribution and spread, "falun gong" during the process of spreading information becomes more and more sophisticated, the emergence of falun gong media is "falun gong" a part of the global public relations strategy, The aim is to win over sympathizers and new followers. Among the numerous Falun Gong media, Shi Tao, as a faithful follower of Li Hongzhi and a leader of Falun Gong organization, is undoubtedly an excellent program host. I admire him for his ability to associate everything with the Communist Party of China, as if all the bad things in the world were related to the Communist Party of China. In the program, Shi Tao always talks about cause and effect from the aspects of the way of heaven, the way of God, inheritance and so on. He pretends to be a disciple of God, as if he can be detached from everything and get rid of the appearance of "god stick". Is such a long a zombie face of diablo iii, for a moment about the American election incited military coup clamor trump used ss arrested biden, in a short while scold CCP brutal persecution of falun gong, a moment and said the contradiction between Europe and Russia, said India outbreaks in western vaccine for a while, anyway not over can't comment, didn't he doesn't know. Look at a few program and still think he is a little talent, and world affairs, political system, no he didn't know, after a few period of continuous look, feel he is often in the show in read draft, and found the same thing more than once he expressed in different program is different, don't know whether the need to show or politically motivated, But in any case the truth cannot be distorted over and over again. Since 2015, probably over for publicity, many times in involving Mr Guo Wengui broadcast over the review content, over himself accused Guo Wengui on "is to achieve his goal by hook or by crook political rogue, psychosis, hate Guo Wengui". Many people know that Mr. Wen Gui is a great "big shot", his Zhengquan Holding Group assets of hundreds of billions, very people can reach. Mr. Wen Gui's live program, featuring Mr. Bannon, former President Trump's chief adviser, was far more influential than "Shitao Review." Mr Your text for over and the falun gong organization service very antipathy, starting in 2016, Mr Your text for many times in the live TV criticism of falun gong and over, said "falun gong there won't be in the future, li has finished", "over, Chen surprises nerve has a problem, do not say words", "over the abnormal condition, will die very miserably!" In addition, Mr. Wen Gui also criticized the Shenyun Art Troupe of Falun Gong for many times, saying that they were a group of clowns who dressed in national costumes to impress people with no artistic qualities at all. @godfather3721 also tweeted through its Twitter account, "Shi Tao will surely be ruined by the Guo Wenui scandal! If Shi Tao has problems, then the new Tang people will have problems!" A dark mind can hardly sustain a sunny face. In fact, what do not matter, the work did not high and low points. I understand Shi Tao who has been wandering outside for a long time. He needs money for food, clothing, housing and transportation. He needs money to support his family and it is not easy to survive. But no matter what to do, the bottom of my heart at least conscience and bottom line should not be broken, once broken, people will fall into his own in the program said the magic way. Perhaps, imperceptibly god stick stone tao has fallen into the magic way, or Mr. Wen Gui how can say "stone tao abnormal extreme, will die very miserably"?

[imtazur-rahman]

Imtazur Rahman Wedding Planner

Imtazur Rahman on How to Become a Wedding Planner: Steps for Success

You may be reading this blog post because you are interested in becoming a wedding planner. Or, maybe you have been planning weddings for years and want to take your skills to the next level. Whatever your reason for being here, I am happy that you found us!

We had the opportunity to interview Imtazur Rahman, a very successful wedding planner from Ontario, Canada. Imtazur won’t just teach you how to become a wedding planner; he’ll also teach you how to do it successfully. If you’re ready to start down the path of success as a wedding planner, keep reading!

– Wedding Planner: This is usually someone who plans weddings, but it could be an actual vendor like the venue or florist, etc.

– Wedding Consultant: As with any business consultant, this person provides advice on how to go about planning your wedding as well as helping plan other peoples’ weddings.

– Weddings: These are sometimes held at venues that specialize in catering for them, such as hotels or halls that can accommodate large numbers of guests and provide entertainment during the reception, including live bands, DJs, etc.

How to become a wedding planner?

Imtazur Rahman: The first step is to determine if wedding planning is the right career for you. What are your interests and skills? Do weddings interest you, or do you have any unique talents that would make an excellent addition to one’s business, such as event design (invitations), cooking, floral arranging, etc.?

Remember that it can take up to three years of education at an accredited university before becoming a professional wedding planner. It includes courses in marketing, finance and much more! Online seminars provide this kind of training within shorter periods – some even less than six months long.

Some general tips by Imtazur Rahman

– Consider what type of weddings you are looking to plan – Weddings, Corporate events, etc.

– Get the necessary qualifications for your area and country, including event management courses or a degree in wedding planning? The internet is a great place to find such systems online.

– Take some time off work as there will be periods where you need to take on large projects, which can mean long hours without regular breaks, so it’s best not to have any other commitments during this time.

– Work with other suppliers who offer wedding services, such as photographers, venues and florists, etc., by assisting them at their events when possible so that they get an idea of how hardworking you are and would want to work with you in the future.

– Get to know people working in this field and make a connection by getting advice on how to progress, volunteering for an organization that can offer opportunities, or even following wedding planners on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook so that they keep up with your achievements.

– Network as much as possible either through face-to-face meetings or online networking websites such as LinkedIn etc., which will allow you to establish connections over time without feeling uncomfortable about approaching someone on their own.

– Join organizations related to weddings where other wedding professionals gather such events, seminars, and conferences, all of which have one purpose: To share information and learn new skills rather than just spending hours at home doing research alone!

How does it work?

– You need to have a good understanding of what the job entails or at least get an idea from someone who has been in your position. It will allow you to focus on relevant skills for this line of work, and if not, it is permissible to take up subjects other than wedding planning, such as marketing and communications, etc.

– Once you have a clear picture of the profession, make sure there are enough hours left after completing all course requirements before applying for jobs so that you can search for internships first! It would be wise to use these opportunities wisely by trying out different organizations that might offer new challenges within their organization.

The most important thing when considering whether one should become a wedding planner knows oneself. Be sure to ask yourself what it is that you like, what are your skills and abilities. You can then keep an eye out for the following steps to take!

– Know who your consumer is.

– Learn about wedding planning etiquette among different cultures: Western vs Eastern culture; Catholic weddings vs. Hindu or Muslim weddings etc.

– Network with people in this field by making contacts at local events where many vendors gather, such as bridal expos or exhibitions, industry conferences, seminars, etc.

Find work experience opportunities that will help provide marketable job skills and hands-on experience working within the profession – even if unpaid. For example, internships offer invaluable insight into how things run from behind the scenes in certain places of work.

Volunteer for non-profit organizations that need volunteers and shows your dedication to the cause – this will help showcase your skills and abilities and provide you with a valuable networking opportunity.

These steps can be quickly followed by anyone interested in wedding planning or making weddings happen! Good luck!”

How many hours per week should I be working towards my goal?

“To reach success, I would recommend you spend at least 20 hours per week working on your goal for maximum speed.” – Imtazur Rahman.

What should be my long-term and short-term goals?

“Your goals may change depending on what stage in life you are currently. If you’re a young graduate, the next step is to build up experience by interning or volunteering with an established wedding planner. It will demonstrate your abilities and prove that you’ve got what it takes.

Once this has achieved, start setting some more ambitious but realistic targets such as raising funds through crowd funding, advertising you locally in magazines, etc., making sure there’s always something new happening to keep things fresh.”

Visit to the Website for getting more information related to wedding planner Imtazur Rahman.

[eddlestonian]

Passwords

001 Many sites on the internet require passwords.  Although they seem a nuisance, they protect you.  Consider them like a key to a door.  

002 Why bother with passwords?

(i) Financial Management

For most people this means online banking.  If you use a weak password it is likely it will eventually get hacked.  Needless to say this could result in you losing money.

(ii) Auction Sites

If someone hacked your account they could make binding bids or buy things in your name.

(iii) Stock Trading

This is like (i) plus (ii).  Someone could buy or sell stock or have stock transferred.

(iv) Social Media

Hacked social media accounts can be used to post compromising messages that could embarrass or defame somebody, be used for harassment, or to build up a picture of who you are and everyone you know.  This could result in a visit from the police.  Social media is also very useful for hackers for enabling identity theft.

(v) Shops

Hacking one of your shopping accounts (e.g. Amazon) would only be an issue if you have a “stored” payment method such as credit card details.

If you discover that your payment information was used to ship unexpected goods to an unknown location, it’s clear that someone has hacked your account.

(vi) Gambling

A hacker could generate debts on your behalf.

003 How To Design a Good Password

The important things when designing a password (in order) are make it -  

(i) Memorable,

(ii) Long – the longer the better (at least 12 characters),

(iii) Complex,

(iv) Different for different sites.

004 The Core of the Password

First of all create a “core” password with a string of letters.  Three ways ways of doing this include -  

(i) Initial Letters

Open your favourite book.  Go to a memorable page e.g. your birthday. Read the first sentence.  For me this would be “The Age of Reason” by Sartre.  My birthday is on the 23rd.  The first sentence of the first paragraph on page 23 is “Boris bitterly regretted never having been there, he would certainly go if it reopened.”

This makes bbrnhbthwcgiir – 14 characters.  If I forget it I just have to go to my favourite book.

(ii) Relevant but Not Guessable Words

This could be a street name, hill names, school name, stream name(s), car. Don’t use words relevant to you or close family.  However, you could use a relative’s street name etc.  Hill or mountain names, especially if non-English, are good.  Similarly, the name of your school is bad because a hacker could probably get it from Facebook. So use a relative’s school instead.  The advice regarding streams/rivers is the same as for hills/mountains.  If the resulting password is too short add something relevant.

So, examples from these could be -

springwoodbank (where my parents-in-law lived)

anteallach (a Scottish mmountain)

bluemountainsgrammar (a school in Australia)

severnriver (a river far away)

deloreanbelfast (not my car!)

or -

Look out of the window -  flowerwheelbarrowbinhusband

Look at your wall - picturetelevisionblue

Look at your spouse - greynoseartist

(iii) A Silly Phrase

Examples could be -

weneedanewcomputer

mustremembermilk

quickbrowndogs

lillylikeschocolate

myneighbourisnoisy

dollypartonhasbigboobies

These are long and memorable.

005 Make The Password More Secure

The core password generated as above satisfies the first two criteria – long and memorable.  You could use it as it is.  However, to make it even better we can add complexity.  There are three easy ways of doing it – add special characters and/or numbers and use mixed case.  But where to put the number and special characters?  The easiest is between each word (ignoring example (iii) above) but the better way would be to place it in random places.  The downside here is that random places make   it less memorable.

(i) Special characters such as !, £, $, _

flower_wheelbarrowbinhusband

bbrnh£bthwcgiir

springwood!bank

we_need£a$new_computer

Bear in mind that some sites only allow certain special characters.

(ii) Numbers

The question here is how to decide what numbers to use.  Anything relevant to you or your close family is bad because it is available online from various sources (e.g. Facebook, Linkedin, Ancestry).  Of course 123456 is bad.  You could use something random but then it won’t be so easily memorable.  Ignoring close family, you could use the birth date of, say, your mother (or even better, your grandmother).  For me that would be 07071936.  You could use one or more of these numbers -

flower07wheelbarrow07bin19husband35

bb07rnhb07thw19cgiir35

07spring07woodbank1935

w07eneedane07wco19mput35er

(iii) Mix upper and lowercase letters

FlowerwheelbarrowbinhusbanD

bbrnhbthwcGiir

SpringWoodBank

wEnEEdanEwcomputEer

(iv) To make an extremely secure password, use all three complexity methods -

Flower_07wheelbarrow07bin19husbanD35

bb07rnh£b07thw19cGiir35

07Spring07Wood!Bank1935

w_07EnEEd£a$nE07w__co19mput35Er

006 Create Different Passwords For Different Websites

You could use the same password for each website but if that gets hacked it would mean the hacker would have access to all of your accounts online.  So, how to make it unique for each website?  Here are some suggestions.

(i) Add the name of the site to your password

Flower_07wheelbarrow07bin19husbanD35amazon

bb07rnh£b07thw19cGiir35ebay

07Spring07Wood!Bank1935twitter

w_07EnEEd£a$nE07w__co19mput35Erfineartamerica

(ii) Add an acronym relevant to the site

Flower_07wheelbarrow07bin19husbanD35azn

bb07rnh£b07thw19cGiir35eb

07Spring07Wood!Bank1935twt

w_07EnEEd£a$nE07w__co19mput35Erfaa

(iii) Add numbers

How to choose a number relevant to the site?  An easy way is the length of the name of the site -

Amazon = 6

Ebay = 4

Twitter = 7

Fineartamerica = 14

To make it harder for the hacker “pad” it to three digits; -

Amazon =  006

Ebay = 004

Twitter = 007

Finartamerica = 012

So we get -

Flower_07wheelbarrow07bin19husbanD35006

bb07rnh£b07thw19cGiir35004

07Spring07Wood!Bank1935007

w_07EnEEd£a$nE07w__co19mput35Er012

007 Storing Passwords

Generally speaking, storing passwords anywhere is a bad idea but if you really can’t remember your passwords, here is some advice.

(i) Write Them Down

Writing your passwords on a piece of paper and sticking it to your screen or under your keyboard is a bad idea.  

So find that favourite book again and your favourite page and slip your password note in there.  What happens if a burgler finds it? Burglars rarely, if ever, are interested in passwords – they are looking for cash or small high value items to sell on quickly.

If you have accepted the advice above you have a core password used for all sites.  For each site you have added a three-digit number at the end.  This means all you have to do is store your core password because you can work out which password to use for each site but others would have a hard time figuring it out.  

For example, instead of storing

Flower_07wheelbarrow07bin19husbanD35006

use

Flower_07wheelbarrow07bin19husbanD35

Even if a burglar/hacker tries to use the password it will not work anywhere.

(ii) Password Manager

A password manager is a computer program that allows users to store, generate and manage their passwords for local applications and online services.

Types of password managers include:

locally installed software applications

online services accessed through website portals

locally accessed hardware devices that serve as keys

Password managers typically require a user to generate and remember a master password to unlock the password manager.  Many password managers offer additional services such as storage of credit card and frequent flier information.

Password managers come and go but the popular ones in 2021 are LastPass, myki, LogmeOnce, Norton and bitwarden

The two downsides of using a password manager are that you usually have to pay for it and, of course, if the password manager gets hacked your passwords are exposed.

(iii) Security Key

A security key looks a bit like a USB pen.  It allows you to securely log into your accounts without having to key in passwords.  They usually just plug into a USB port.

There are various security keys available so its worth shopping around and comparing them.  For example scan.co.uk sells the Hypersecu FIDO Titanium Pro (works in Windows, Apple devices and Android) which currently does well in reviews.

In addition to managing passwords a security key can combat real-time attacks such as man-in-the-middle (MITM), prevent phishing, make keylogging impossible and protect PINs from brute force attacks.

The problem is that they can be difficult to set up.

008 How To get Hacked (Bad Security Online)

(i) Use Number Substitutions in Passwords

Common substitutions are -

a = @

s = $

o = 0

e = 3

i /l = 1

So, ”myamazonassword” becomes “my@m@z0nA$$w0rd”

Hackers are aware of this so number substitution is a bad idea.

Note – this is substitution not addition (discussed above).

(ii) Use Personal Information in Passwords

Examples are -

Your birthday,

Close family names (sons, daughters),

Pet name,

Your address.

(iii) Repeating Characters in Passwords

1234567

aaaaaaaaa

abcdefg

abcabcabc

(iv) Same Password for All Sites

Someone who culls your Facebook or Twitter password in a phishing exploit could, for example, access your bank account.   Reusing passwords for email, banking, and social media accounts can lead to identity theft. Two recent breaches revealed a password reuse rate of 31% among victims.

(v) Auto Sign In

Do not allow your computer to automatically sign into sites on boot-up

(vi) “remember me”, Automatic sign-in option

Do not use “remember me” or Automatic sign-in option which is available on some web sites.

(vii) Alien Computers

Do not enter passwords on a computer you don’t control, such as a friend’s computer, because you don’t know what spyware or keyloggers might be on that machine.

(viii) Open WiFi

Do not access password-protected accounts over open WiFi networks or any other network you don’t trust unless the site is secured via HTTPS. Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) if you travel a lot.

(ix) Keyboard Combinations in Passwords

Avoid consecutive keyboard combinations such as qwerty or asdfg.

(x) Security Questions

The names of spouses, kids, other relatives, or pets, can be deduced with a little research.  When you click the “forgot password” link within a webmail service or other site you are often asked to answer a question or series of questions.  The answers can often be found on your social media profile.  This is how Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account was hacked.

(xi) Social engineering

This is an elaborate type of lying.  An alternative to traditional hacking, it is the act of manipulating others into performing certain actions or divulging confidential information.

[lewis98omigod]

Is Tumblr a Blog or a Social Networking Site? Week 4

Prior to taking this unit, honestly little do i know about Tumblr since i had never used and accessed Tumblr before. After a brief tutorial conducted by Doctor Bertha during week 1, i start to build upon the knowledge about Tumblr and How Tumblr acts as a social media platform for citizens to voice out thoughts and retweet posts. So now back to the most polarizing argument about whether Tumblr is a blog or a social networking site. My findings are as follows and lastly, i will make a concluding sentence about my perception towards Tumblr, it either is a blog or a social networking site.

First and foremost, we all need to know about the background of Tumblr and how it works. According to Boone (n.d.),  Tumblr is a network of millions of user-generated, personal Web sites. besides, Tumblr is also part blogging platform (like Wordpress, Blogger or Posterous) and part social networking service, allowing users create and post their own original content. Written entries, photographs, video clips or links to other Web sites as users can share all of these things with their friends and followers. Users make subscription to as many other users' pages as they like, which display on the user's feed, or Dashboard. It's also possible to give "notes" to other subscribers in several forms as users can re-blog someone's content on that user's Tumblr site, "like" it, or reply. To facilitate the social aspect, authors can choose to post their Tumblr entries simultaneously, or at least link to them, via other services, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Besides that,  A blog (a shortened version of “weblog”) is defined as an online journal or informational website showing information in the reverse chronological order, with the latest posts appearing first, at the top. It acts as a platform where a writer or a group of writers share their views on an individual subject (Skrba 2020). Personal use and business blogging are among the reasons why people blog. Blogging for business, you keep blogging in order to reach potential consumers and catch their attention. Without blogging, your website would remain invisible, whereas running a blog makes you searchable and competitive. So, the main purpose of a blog is to connect you to the relevant audience. Furthermore, great blogging makes your business look more credible, which is especially important if your brand is still young and fairly unknown. It ensures presence online and niche authority at the same time.

 For personal use, one of the advantages of blogging is being able to express yourself and share your passion. Blog serves as a platform for people to voice their ideas, thoughts, and feelings. Whether your passion is of business, personal finance, cooking, politics, photography, or marketing objective, blogging gives you the opportunity to connect and network with likeminded individuals who share the same passions. Second advantage is sharing knowledge.  starting a blog serves the opportunity to educate individuals that are interested in your field of expertise. The best part is that, as you build resources on your blog to teach others, you may realize there is a chance to monetize your blog by creating educational products or services online (Dekmezian 2016).

For social media, Dollarhide (2020) stated that social media is computer-based technology that promotes the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and information through the building of virtual networks and communities. By design, social media is internet-based and gives users quick electronic communication of content. Content includes personal information, documents, videos, and photos. Users engage with social media via computer, tablet or smartphone via web-based software or web application, often utilizing it for messaging. Moreover, social media originated as a way to interact with friends and family but was later adopted by businesses which wanted to take advantage of a popular new communication method to reach out to customers. The power of social media is the ability to connect and share information with anyone on Earth, or with many people simultaneously.

Conclusion

Now here comes the most polarizing argument ever, “Is Tumblr a blog or a social networking sites?”. As mentioned by Boone (n.d.),  Tumblr is part blogging platform and part social networking service, allowing users create and post their own original content. Written entries, photographs, video clips or links to other Web sites as users can share all of these things with their friends and followers. In my viewpoint, i do agree that there is no exact answer about whether Tumblr is a blog or a social network sites since Tumblr is definitely a blog for people to share thoughts and opinions. In terms of social network, Tumblr works like a social network as well since people can engage with others through following each other and texting each other via the message tab. Therefore, Tumblr can be a blogging platform and a social media platform simultaneously. However, Tumblr is more well-known as a blogging platform since people usually use it for blogging and retweeting other’s post. Social network is just an added special feature on Tumblr.

Reference list:

Boone, B n.d.,  How Tumblr Works, How Stuff Works, viewed 11 October 2020, 

<https://computer.howstuffworks.com/tumblr.htm>. 

Skrba, A 2020,  What is a Blog? – The Definition of Blog, Blogging, and Blogger, First Site Guide, viewed 11 October 2020,

<https://firstsiteguide.com/what-is-blog/>.

Dekmezian, G 2016,  Why Do People Blog? The Benefits of Blogging, Huffpost, viewed 11 October 2020,

<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-do-people-blog-the-be_b_8178624#:~:text=Businesses%20create%20blogs%20primarily%20to,and%20even%20generate%20online%20revenue.>.

Dollarhide, M 2020,  Social Media facilitates sharing ideas and thoughts, Investopedia, viewed 11 October 2020,

<https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-media.asp>.

[manimaranmatthews]

6 Effective Ways to Get Free Traffic to Your Site Today

Have you ever wondered why so many persons struggle to make money from affiliate marketing while there are others living the dream life. If you are one of those who are struggling to stay on top of your game this article is definitely for you.

How long have you been an affiliate marketer? If you have been around long enough you would have heard the saying “the money is in the list”. At first I wondered what that meant, but after educating myself about the business I realize that if people are not visiting my website I would never be able to make money.

So the only logical question now – How do I get traffic to my website for free? Good news there is a way to make money by spending little or no money at all. Yes! with patience, careful research and a little creativity you can drive traffic to your site for free.

Importance of Traffic

The flexibility of the internet allows you to find creative and innovative ways to generate traffic for free which will help you to augment the potential of your site to make money.

I know many will argue that it is not possible to generate enough traffic to your site without spending money, that might be true, but it is also possible to get traffic to jumpstart your business without spending any money.

If you do not have the money, let us face it – a lot of us including myself came into this business because we had no money, these methods will assist you in getting some traffic to your site for free.

Ways to Get Free Traffic

How would you feel if you had more traffic coming to your site without spending any money? I am sure your excitement would shoot through the roof. All this is possible and it can be done for free.

Let us get one thing straight, you have better chances of maximizing the potential of your site by spending money to do your advertisement. However, if you are low on cash you can give yourself a fighting chance with some of these free methods.

One of the best ways to get free traffic is through search engines you have to ensure that you do your research put in the extra work and optimize your site so that it ranks very high for your keywords. SEO is still the most powerful way to get traffic for free and you really need to invest some time and efforts in the optimization of your site. There are many free tutorials online on SEO.

Write articles that will draw the attention of people who have an interest in the niche you have chosen. An article that provides information, solution and knowledge to other people will certainly give you an edge in getting traffic to your site.

Social networks are also great ways to get free traffic the traffic you get from networks like Twitter and Facebook can easily surpass the traffic from Google and the other search engines.

You have to also write good content for your site. Many search engines follow the keywords and keyword phrases your site uses and analyze how they are used. Make sure the contents on your site are relevant as well as informational so that visitors will want to return and the search engine will keep sending readers.

Participate in online forums and become part of the online communities in your niche. By doing this, you will be able to target the people who have similar interest and are looking for the same things. You can discuss lot of things about the niche that you represent. Another great advantage is that you know what you are getting into and you will be prepared.

Last but not least is exchanging links with other sites. Both sites will benefit in that all traffic that goes to either site could possibly click on the link to your site as well. This works well especially if both sites are in the same niche.

All of these methods among many others will drive more traffic to your site for free. All it takes is a bit more effort and some extra hours. Learn all you can about these methods and you will soon have a site with a great traffic flow without the usual costs that come with it.

Doreen Gibson is a Counselor, Online Entrepreneur and an Administrator, whose greatest desire is to help new online business owners especially those from the Caribbean to quickly and easily adjust to the affiliate marketing business. It can be very overwhelming for newbies in this online business especially if you are doing most of the work on your own.

With this in mind, I have prepared a very simple and easy to follow step by step guide for beginners on how to make their dreams reality. This eBook will take you through all the steps you will need to follow right up to start earning money.

[kerishaharris]

Why the cool kids (and brands who hope to be perceived as such) are on TikTok

Being what I like to describe as a “tail-end millennial,” I’ve grown up both with and in the digital age. I still remember turning in school assignments completed on a typewriter as well as playing Oregon Trail in computer class on those box-shaped, neon green Macintosh screens (I’m still heartbroken that my wife died of dysentery, btw). I remember pleading with my mom to hang up the phone so I could log onto AOL, and how much thought I’d put into curating the perfect AIM away message. I joined Facebook my senior year of college when it was still “the Facebook” and for college kids only, and remember how big a deal it was to rearrange my MySpace top eight (funny how we were full-on coding and didn’t even realize it). But now, as a mom of three tweens, I can admit that despite digital and social media being both my personal experience and my chosen career, there are media formats out there that I know nothing about, and that my kids’ knowledge far trumps my own. None of these formats feel more foreign to me, yet obviously influential and equally important to the next generation, than TikTok.

What is TikTok and (dancing humanoid dogs aside) who uses it? TikTok is, by and large, the newer, cooler and way more sophisticated version of Vine (RIP to a real one). On its own website, TikTok says its mission is to “inspire creativity and bring joy.” Produced and manufactured by Beijing-based video-sharing service ByteDance, TikTok reportedly boasts 800 million users worldwide, and as of 2019, has surpassed one billion installs (Yeh, 2019). It creates and curates an experience driven by its powerful algorithm, turning all of its users into a connected network of mini-influencers through the use of trending hashtags, leveraging of popular music, and push for engagement with other users through duets and viral dance challenges, making for a meaningful, organized, and dare I say it, super fun experience for users of the app (Herrman, 2019).

In exploring the app, what I found especially interesting was the way TikTok employs a vertical feed experience prompting the user to swipe up, which sets it apart from similar apps like Instagram Stories or Snapchat. This “endless scroll” approach seems, in my opinion, very conducive to creating an almost addictive experience which can lock you in for hours and hours. TikTok appears to cleverly take advantage of the way users normally engage with our vertical screens, filling up the entire real estate of our phones with engaging video content coupled with popular music that’s perhaps a little too easy to get sucked into.

Who is TikTok really for?

As not only a mom of tweens, but also having worked in communications within the education space in various capacities since 2016, TikTok’s popularity among young people comes as no surprise to me. TikTok is primarily used by youth between the ages of 16 and 24 (Brucker, 2020). It is used by about 69 percent of young people in the U.S., and these users spend at least 80 minutes per day on the app (Perez, 2020). This is the same group that, if you ask them, considers Facebook to be that “cringey” old people app that your grandpa thinks is cool, and Twitter to be that thing where journalists and politicians bicker with other journalists and politicians. It’s unsurprising to me that young people would be attracted to TikTok, a space that can feel exclusively like their own.

For me, it is that young people's exclusivity that keeps me away from TikTok. Despite being what many consider to be a subject-matter expert on social media, I am admittedly intimidated by an app I don’t completely understand or feel welcomed on. I feel more comfortable with the apps I’ve come of age with and whose functionality is more native to my own digital experience, most notably Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I worry I may look like I’m “trying too hard” by exploring TikTok, or worse, that my presence there as a 38-year-old mom will render it an uncool place to be. My own kids reacted with horror when they noticed I had TikTok installed on my work phone, it didn’t matter that my job was to manage my then-employer’s institutional presence on social media. “Mom, please don’t make Wesleyan University a TikTok” they begged (too late guys, already secured the username for posterity). It was clear that they viewed TikTok as their safe space, and that my presence, as well as my employer’s presence despite it being an elite, well-known university, was not welcome.

Are any grownups or brands doing TikTok “right?” Interestingly, several marketers have managed to get past this “eww, adults and brands” factor to effectively market to TikTok’s growing audience through clever advertising and engagement campaigns. Capitalizing on the popularity of hashtag challenges on TikTok, Universal Pictures turned to TikTok as a way to promote their 2018 film, The House with a Clock in Its Walls, through a #FindYourMagic campaign which prompted users to film themselves doing their own magic tricks. Leveraging the power of influence, Universal got a group of popular TikTok influencers to post their own DIY magic videos, which naturally prompted others to do the same. As a result of the campaign, Universal received 1.3 million likes on the influencer videos, generated 19,000 pieces of user-generated content, and gained 11,000 new followers (Brucker, 2020). Whether it prompted people to actually go see the film, I’m not really sure.

(Source: TikTok for Business) In my work as a higher education social media manager, I often came across other universities (typically, with bigger teams and even bigger budgets) doing great work on TikTok. From a marketing perspective, it makes sense why a university would want to invest in building an exceptional presence on TikTok. Each year, so much of your energy and efforts are dedicated to marketing to prospective students and their families, convincing them that your school is the school to attend. Based on user demographics alone, TikTok offers a captive audience for the exact age range higher ed marketers are working so hard to reach. I’m proud to say that my undergraduate alma mater, the University of Florida, was one of the first to leverage TikTok and is considered one of the best in the game. With nearly 97,000 followers and more than 1 million likes, it’s clear they’ve figured out what resonates with their audience. Most of their TikTok videos feature the beloved school colors (anyone who went to UF will tell you we bleed orange and blue), Al the Alligator (we obviously weren’t terribly creative on the mascot name), fave spots on campus and the like. 

(Source: University of Florida on YouTube)

Other major schools like Brigham Young University and Florida International University capitalize on TikTok’s penchant for dance trends and employ their mascots, Cosmo the Cougar and Roary the Panther respectively, to jump in on these trends.

...this same video on BYU’s Cosmo the Cougar TikTok has a staggering 28 million plays, 4.8 million likes, and more than 24,000 comments.

Is TikTok here to stay?

As a perpetual student of digital and social media, I see TikTok as the wave of the future for digital and social communications and marketing. The question for me, however, is whether or not I’m going to ride that wave as a communications professional. While digital marketing is still somewhat new on TikTok, my constant fear is that the moment brands step in and try to inject themselves onto a platform, mimicking and profiting off of the way it is organically used, its core users become disinterested, abandon the platform, and look for the next big thing they can call their own. If I’m lucky, perhaps I’ll get the next big idea and launch that platform myself.

Funny but true story. As I was putting the finishing touches on this blog post, my 12-year-old daughter came up behind me chanting the following.

Her: Racism? Stop it. Bullying? Stop it. Homophobia? Stop it.

Me: Is that from a TikTok?

Her: Yeah.

Me: Figures.

SOURCES:

Brucker, N. (2020, January 6) Who is on TikTok and how can brands reach them? Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/01/06/who-is-on-tiktok-and-how-can-brands-reach-them/#1a2fe28343be. 

Herrman, J. (2019, March 10) How TikTok is rewriting the world. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/style/what-is-tik-tok.html.

Perez, S. (2020, June 4) Kids now spend nearly as much time watching TikTok as YouTube in the US, UK and Spain. Tech Crunch. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/04/kids-now-spend-nearly-as-much-time-watching-tiktok-as-youtube-in-u-s-u-k-and-spain/.

Yeh, O. (2019, February 26). TikTok surpasses one billion installs on the App Store and Google Play. Sensor Tower. Retrieved from https://sensortower.com/blog/tiktok-downloads-one-billion.  

[ma9l]

Research Project: Instagram Use and Depression

It’s fascinating. Isn’t it fascinating? What our world has become? The world is so different now compared to even a couple hundred years ago. It has advanced--especially when it comes to technology and the internet. Think about it. Social media used to be non-existent. Now it is booming with billions of users. This is proof that people are entertained by these types of platforms. However, aside from all their pros, they also hold many faults. For example, a survey (#StatusOfMind survey) was published in 2017 by the Royal Society for Public Health. They discovered that “Out of five social networks included in the survey, YouTube received the highest marks for health and well being and was the only site that received a net positive score by respondents. Twitter came in second, followed by Facebook and then Snapchat—with Instagram bringing up the rear.” Basically, Instagram was ranked as the worst social media for mental health. Although some may believe that Instagram doesn’t pose any issues, depression and Instagram actually share correlations. I believe the way Instagram is used plays a role in one’s well being and that symptoms of depression can arise if users are not careful. The world has enough issues, mental health being one of the most serious with the increase in suicides over more recent years. If we determine whether or not social media (particularly Instagram) is a contributor to depression, we could potentially end the epidemic, or at least avoid making things worse.

In the past, I would normally go about my research by googling and trying to find reliable sources that way. Usually this would present decent info, but hardly ever would it be in-depth. When I took ENGL 1010 last year, I was informed that my school’s library had a website full of databases holding a plethora of scholarly articles. My mind was blown. It was a bit overwhelming at first, but as I became familiar with the tools and resources, I learned how to properly navigate and refine my searches to produce the results I was looking for. I didn’t use the databases as effectively as I could have, but this year in ENGL 2010, I was encouraged to and I learned a lot more about how to read and interpret the articles to find relevant information. I did this by closely studying the abstract, methods, and results sections. Google searches aren’t necessarily bad. In fact, they can be used to compare and contrast with scholarly articles in order to find similarities and differences. I have also been told to use outside sources like physical books and newspapers or to try and perform my own research by creating a survey or poll. Overall, I am pleased with my education in research and feel that it has been and will be very beneficial for assisting me in my writing.

Before doing any research, I had a preconceived idea that Instagram was bad, but the more I looked into it, the more my opinion shifted from believing Instagram itself is unhealthy to believing the users of Instagram are the ones creating unhealthy habits. I came to this conclusion by reading various articles in relation to this topic and assessing my personal Instagram use.

One of the articles I read was “Instagram: Friend or Foe”. It revolves around a study from 2017 where 204 participants ages 18-48 were recruited through social media where the study was advertised. They were asked to complete an online survey regardless of whether or not they had an Instagram account. Authors actually hoped some wouldn’t so they could compare results between users and nonusers. Throughout the survey, participants (users only) were measured on seven things: anxiety, depression, loneliness, self-esteem, body image, social comparison, and time spent on Instagram. Using number scales, they would rank how they felt based on each category. In short, the authors’ hypotheses were correct for all but two of these categories: body image and social comparison where there was no significant difference between users and nonusers of Instagram. What surprised me most from the results was that those who had an Instagram account were less depressed than those who did not. I thought it would be the opposite, but I guess a reason for this could be because Instagram allows you to feel included and not so lonely with all the social interaction that goes on. “Contrary to expectation, Instagram anxiety was significantly, negatively associated with depression in this analysis. In addition, time spent , self-esteem, and anxiety were significant predictors of depression. Of note, social comparison was marginally associated with depression in the expected direction”.

The article “Instagram #Instasad?: Exploring Associations Among Instagram Use, Depressive Symptoms, Negative Social Comparison, and Strangers Followed”, held a set of online questionnaires for 117 individuals ages 18-29 who, like the previous study, were also voluntarily recruited through an online post that was shared. The questions asked were based on Instagram use, the number of strangers followed, social comparison, and depressive symptoms. Authors sought to identify the relationship between the different aspects of Instagram use. After completing the questionnaire, the following results were observed:  the more one uses Instagram, the more depressed they are, but only if they follow a large number of strangers, otherwise Instagram and depression were not related. As far as social comparison goes, it was positively associated with greater instagram use meaning social comparison on Instagram is inevitable. Results demonstrated that the social comparison was more positive when users didn’t follow strangers. In conclusion, “people using Instagram or other SNS to keep in touch solely with people they know personally are not at risk for negative consequences. However, following strangers may lead to or reinforce already existing negative feelings about the self by triggering negative social comparisons.”

“Why Social Comparison on Instagram Matters: Its Impact on Depression” by Ha Sung Hwang is all about the relationship between various types of activities on social media that motivate one to participate in social comparisons and how those influence college students’ moods. It specifically focuses on Instagram for the social platform and depression for the mental illness which is exactly what I was looking for in my research. The study was carried out as 245 college students were surveyed on the types of activities they take part in on Instagram and how they felt in doing each of those. Instagram usage, activity, social comparison, and depression were individually measured. Demographics of the participants were also taken into account. The author seemed to be interested in the social comparison theory where there are three different kinds of comparisons: upward, downward, and horizontal. Upward is comparing yourself to someone who appears to be superior to you, downward is comparing yourself to someone who is inferior to you, and horizontal comparison is relating yourself to someone who is equal to you. The results presented three outcomes: “(1) looking at other people's status updates and commenting on other people's photos influences upward social comparison, (2) frequency of Instagram use predicts upward/downward/horizontal social comparison, and (3) upward social comparison was positively associated with depression, while downward social comparison was negatively associated with depression.”

One of the biggest similarities between these three sources is that the participants in each experiment were all college aged. That’s because according to “Instagram: Friend or Foe? The application’s association with psychological well-being”, “Approximately 90% of young adults use social media.” This is significant because you are college-aged and an adult, so these effects couldn’t apply to you more! Each article also agreed that users of Instagram deal with social comparison to some degree each time they interact with the app. Social comparison was measured in every case. The first article confirms that it took place-but they also expected that to happen. Many of us could probably assume the same. Article #2 concludes that social comparisons only have an effect on depression when you follow strangers. Now, because the author in article #3 performed a more specific measurement with her participants, she found that social comparison does contribute to depression, but only when it falls into the upward comparison category. A final similarity amongst these reports is support in the idea that the activities you do on Instagram will determine how depressed you become along with the amount of time you take part in them. Those activities combined include: looking at or commenting on other people’s photos and following strangers. The main difference in the studies was that they each took at least one more thing into account when analyzing what aspects of Instagram play a role in depressed moods. #1 compares users with non users. #2 wonders if gender makes a difference. #3 again, implements the social comparison theory. Limitations inevitably happened which could have hindered results, like how in the third article, the survey only took place at a Korean University. How would the results differ if UVU students took the survey? For the most part, the results were in sync. In summary, all the studies are on the same page when it comes to social comparison and activities on Instagram-believing that they tend to elevate depression. The authors also all realized that college students are most at risk for developing depressive symptoms due to their population’s heavy usage of the network.

I strongly believe that the way individuals use social media has an impact on how they feel. Instagram seems to be a culprit for influencing the rise of many negative feelings with depressive symptoms being some of many. Coincidentally, depression correlates with more frequent Instagram use which presents a predicament we ought to be concerned with because if we don’t pinpoint the epicenter of this relationship, it’s only going to get worse… and depression is going to become even more common than it already is. 

According to an NBC article, Harvard University and the University of Vermont designed a computer program for spotting depressed individuals on Instagram with 70% accuracy. It was programmed to search for certain qualities of their photos in order to determine if someone was depressed or not. “Researchers found depressed individuals posted photos that were bluer, darker and grayer than images posted by others.” (Pawlowski). This demonstrates Instagram being used as an outlet for expressing one’s emotions. Elyse Fox struggled with depression and found relief in sharing her state of mind through this outlet because it helped her get things out of her system. This represents Instagram as a helpful tool. Others might not do it for relief, but simply because they are at an all time low. That’s when it becomes unhealthy and when you would need to reach out to someone you trust for help.

“In several recent studies, teenage and young adult users who spend the most time on Instagram, Facebook and other platforms were shown to have a substantially (from 13 to 66 percent) higher rate of reported depression than those who spent the least time.” This is proof of the correlation taking place.

Some may claim that it’s social media’s fault that people are suffering from mental illnesses. More specifically, that it’s Instagram’s fault if someone that uses it gets depressed. They might say it has nothing to do with the users actions because all of the potential negatives are automatically accessible before them and say that whatever happens is directly caused by the app. The blame is put on a non-living, non-physical, inanimate thing. To our knowledge, Instagram itself is not capable of causing anything. Studies show a correlation, not a causation. However, “One reason the correlation seems more than coincidental is that an increase in depression occurred in tandem with the rise in smartphone use.” (Miller). “By 2015,... 92 percent of teens and young adults owned a smartphone. The rise in depressive symptoms correlates with smartphone adoption during that period.” (Miller). The author of this write-up also mentions that there was a rise in the number of college students visiting counselors for anxiety and depression. Just so you know, UVU has counseling services available on campus if you are seeking further assistance with your mental health. (Student Health Services |(801) 863-8876| Room SC-221).

What should we do about it? What can we do about it? Personally? As a student body? I think it is a very personal issue because everyone has their agency and freedom to do what they want and really, it is up to them to decide how they will spend their time on Instagram. But we can suggest tips for those who are seeking help or for those who don’t realize what’s affecting them and want to change.

In a Ted Talk by Bailey Parnell, she suggests four tips for obtaining social media wellness. These are presented in four steps: 1. Recognize the problem. 2. Audit your social media diet. 3. Create a better online experience. 4. Model good behavior. It’s all about our awareness. If we don’t realize something’s wrong, then we aren’t going to do anything about it. After that, we are able to make adjustments based on our unique needs. For example, we could spend less time on Instagram, unfollow strangers, or make our posts more real and sincere. I, personally, need to work on all of those because I notice a difference between when my time spent on Instagram has been a waste, leaving me drained vs when it’s been productive and I’ve come away feeling enlightened or pleased with my online experience. What I consider to be a waste of time is viewing my followers profiles and engaging in social comparison where I degrade myself and wish my life was like theirs. A more productive way to spend my time would be sharing an uplifting message on my story or reach out to friends I haven’t talked to in a while to see how they are doing.

The United Kingdom’s RSPH had the great idea of teaching safe social media use in schools. (Macmillan). Because of the prevalence of social media today, it needs to be acknowledged and taught proper use. I think all schools should provide a class solely dedicated to teaching social media safety and another for teaching about mental health awareness. Instagram and depression each fall into one of those categories, so it’s perfect. These classes could be held in middle schools, high schools, and colleges since most age groups use some form of social media. I feel like a lot of students would benefit from taking these courses.

Fellow friends (A.K.A. UVU students) if you have been guilty of spending too much time on Instagram, comparing yourself to others, or following celebrities/strangers you hardly know, it’s okay!! So have I. That doesn’t mean you are a bad person, it just means that you are human. Now that you know more about what types of interactions on Instagram can make you depressed, you can choose to be more proactive and reap the rewards of “social media wellness” and obtain the happiness that comes from practicing “safe social.”

To restate my stance one more time, I will just remind you that all the research I have done and knowledge I have gained has led me to believe that Instagram use and depression correlate. Depression isn’t caused by the app, rather depression results from using the app excessively or from comparing oneself to others. I strongly believe that we have a responsibility to monitor and reflect on our Instagram behaviors in order to decrease our chances of being at risk for depression. Making simple changes can alter your perspective on life and bring you more joy. Bailey Parnell says it best: “Is social media hurting your mental health? The answer is: it does not have to.”

Google Slides (in progress): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jJ-aIcZZW0qCJpfWv0-SGCyrAFu7O_eLq34oCXVNsBo/edit?usp=sharing

[ministraight]

My Journey To Making $100/day On Twitter

I’ve been earning a decent income on Instagram using different methods for close to 4 years now, but as the years go by, Instagram continues to make changes that have continuously made it difficult for small businesses on a budget to make a decent living working on their platform.

 We’ve had to make changes as they do, and have almost always adapted well to the challenges but the   recent follow/unfollow limits   that were enforced sometime around June are just impossible to get around. There once was a time when you could follow more than 1000 users/day on Instagram without encountering any issues.

 Today, the limit for the entire month falls at under 6000 total, which means you can only follow around 180 users/day.

 It can be very scary to watch your source of livelihood gradually dwindle with time.

 So, for the past few weeks, I have been towing with the idea of shifting focus from Instagram to Twitter. Twitter is a lot more lenient than Instagram in terms of the number of actions you’re allowed to take within a certain timeframe.

 Unlike Instagram, they’ve even   made it public   that you can follow up to 400 users/day.

    Why I’m I making my Twitter journey public?   First, I’d like to hold myself accountable. By having to update this post on a continuous basis I will have little room to procrastinate knowing there are people out there following along.

 It is also a good reason to push myself to succeed. I’d hate to have the world witness what a colossal failure this journey turned out to be.

 And lastly, I know there are people out there struggling to make a decent living. By documenting my journey, some will be able to borrow ideas from this and hopefully, I will have helped someone out.

 This is the part I have to remind you to bookmark this post because I really need you to hold me accountable.

 So, what tools do I need for this journey?

  Tools of trade    An  automation tool  for Twitter. I have     Jarvee     for this     Twitter accounts   . I’m starting slow with just a handful of accounts and will gradually add more  A     proxy for each account    . Proxies make accounts less suspicious by giving each a unique IP address   AD network . I picked the adult niche for this journey and will be promoting links from    ADVerten   . There are other equally good ad networks, like   iMonetizeIt  , but I will stick with Adverten unless I find it necessary to switch networks.    The strategy   It’s simple:

 Drive traffic from multiple ‘female’ Twitter accounts to a  SmartLink  given to you by the ad network. The basic concept is, depending on the country from which a Twitter user clicks on your SmartLink, they will be redirected to an adult website where should they register on there, the ad network will add money to your account.

 The amount paid to you per registration will depend on a number of factors among which, the country of residence the registered user lives matters. For instance, you can expect to make more money when a user from either the US or a country from the European Union registers.

 I will be having my Twitter accounts follow, like and message users that are following Twitter accounts of adult female entertainers. I will also target those liking and retweeting posts of these entertainers.

 On the face of it, it might sound like a lot of work but since I will be using an automation tool, once the setup is complete, there will be nothing else to do but to watch the money roll in.

 The initial setup shouldn’t actually take more than an hour.

 I have created a    Telegram group    where you can discuss your own journey with everyone else and get notified on new updates from this post.

 Watch out for the next update.

  Update 22/08/2019    

 The amount in the screenshot shown as  INCOME  was not made on this journey. It’s what was left over when I did this with Instagram accounts that later got deleted.

 What I’ve done so far:

  Collected about 50 Twitter usernames of female adult entertainers. I’ve added these usernames as  follow sources  in Jarvee (I obviously need to add more usernames).  Created and profiled 2 Twitter accounts. They’re already set up on Jarvee and have started following slowly.  Ordered 10 Twitter accounts from a source that sells them. As soon as I receive them I’ll get them set up on Jarvee.   It’s now a waiting game.

 I need to have about 20 Twitter accounts running on this tool before I can start optimizing for better conversions.

 See you in the next update!

  Update 25/08/2019   The 10 Twitter accounts that I ordered took quite some time to arrive, so I wasn’t able to get things moving quickly enough. Nonetheless, I received them yesterday and started warming them up by having them perform a few activities.

 On the positive side, we’ve just had our first conversion (2 leads)!

   This week, my plan is to order and set up at least 30 more Twitter accounts.

 Look out for the next update!

  Update 11/09/2019   I added 20 more accounts to my Jarvee campaigns and was playing around with Jarvee’s settings trying to optimize the activities of my Twitter accounts. My settings turned out to be a little aggressive and I lost 6 accounts before I slowed them down a bit.

   I also noticed that my conversions on Adverten weren’t exactly close to what I was aiming for, and so as soon as I hit the payment threshhold I switched to iMonetizeIt.

   So while my conversions on iMonetizeIt aren’t perfect yet, I have to admit that I’m very pleased with the way things have begun taking shape. The day is still young and expecting a few more conversions before the end of the day.

 From now moving forward, the only thing I will be doing to scale up this campaign is to add more accounts and watch the money roll in.

  What I have done next    Upgraded my copy of Jarvee to accommodate 150 social media accounts    Placed an order for 70 Twitter accounts    Bought 50 proxies and added them to Jarvee while I wait to receive the accounts I ordered.   Look out for the next update.

  Update 17/09/2019    

 On the 12th of September, my automation tool had closed and it took almost 2 days before I discovered it and restarted it. I’ve been a little busy with my other online ventures and haven’t been able to do much for this journey, but I’m pleased that the earnings are improving gradually. It’s about 10 AM here and we’re sitting at $4.76 so far.

 Oops… I think I wrote too quickly. There’s been an update in the last 30 seconds.   The balance hasn’t even updated   …

   I should be able to cross $20/day before the end of this week.

   This is all on autopilot!   So you can go about your day doing other things while your money here grows.

 Look out for the next update!

  Update 18/09/2019   I was hopeful that yesterday would end better than the previous day but that didn’t happen. Still, it didn’t end too bad and the earning closed at $13.14. I haven’t touched my settings yet but I’m looking at what could be improved before Friday the 20th. This far my automation on   Jarvee   is running well without a hitch.

   I’m glad that I shared this journey publicly because some people have reached out to me for help with their own journeys and in some of these discussions one guy who’s currently doing really well with this method mentioned the CPA network    Crakrevenue   . Apparently, their offers convert way better than those on other networks.

 I’ll continue to promote on iMonetizeIt until Friday and will switch over to Crakrevenue on Saturday.

 It’s 9 AM here so we still have the rest of the day to look forward to but here are the results so far …

   Until next time!

  Update 21/10/2019   There hasn’t been much lately to write an update about. I decided to switch back to Adverten and did so for the whole of last week and it looks like there some notable improvements.

 The plan now moving forward is to create my own Twitter accounts and add them to my automation system. The quality of Twitter accounts I have been buying is really not that good. In most cases, you’ll find that  the text used in the bio does not make sense and the accounts look utterly fake .

 So, for this reason, I will be creating my own accounts.

 Here’s how last week went on Adverten:

   Remember, this is all on autopilot and I did have to do anything.

 If you’d like to create a similar system for yourself you can join our   CPA Telegram group   where you’re to ask questions and get answers.

 Until next time!

https://socialtipster.co/make-money-twitter-journey/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=make-money-twitter-journey

#entrepreneurship #smm #smallbusiness #graphicdesign #seo

[perkdistrict]

My Journey To Making $100/day On Twitter

I’ve been earning a decent income on Instagram using different methods for close to 4 years now, but as the years go by, Instagram continues to make changes that have continuously made it difficult for small businesses on a budget to make a decent living working on their platform.

 We’ve had to make changes as they do, and have almost always adapted well to the challenges but the   recent follow/unfollow limits   that were enforced sometime around June are just impossible to get around. There once was a time when you could follow more than 1000 users/day on Instagram without encountering any issues.

 Today, the limit for the entire month falls at under 6000 total, which means you can only follow around 180 users/day.

 It can be very scary to watch your source of livelihood gradually dwindle with time.

 So, for the past few weeks, I have been towing with the idea of shifting focus from Instagram to Twitter. Twitter is a lot more lenient than Instagram in terms of the number of actions you’re allowed to take within a certain timeframe.

 Unlike Instagram, they’ve even   made it public   that you can follow up to 400 users/day.

    Why I’m I making my Twitter journey public?   First, I’d like to hold myself accountable. By having to update this post on a continuous basis I will have little room to procrastinate knowing there are people out there following along.

 It is also a good reason to push myself to succeed. I’d hate to have the world witness what a colossal failure this journey turned out to be.

 And lastly, I know there are people out there struggling to make a decent living. By documenting my journey, some will be able to borrow ideas from this and hopefully, I will have helped someone out.

 This is the part I have to remind you to bookmark this post because I really need you to hold me accountable.

 So, what tools do I need for this journey?

  Tools of trade    An  automation tool  for Twitter. I have     Jarvee     for this     Twitter accounts   . I’m starting slow with just a handful of accounts and will gradually add more  A     proxy for each account    . Proxies make accounts less suspicious by giving each a unique IP address   AD network . I picked the adult niche for this journey and will be promoting links from    ADVerten   . There are other equally good ad networks, like   iMonetizeIt  , but I will stick with Adverten unless I find it necessary to switch networks.    The strategy   It’s simple:

 Drive traffic from multiple ‘female’ Twitter accounts to a  SmartLink  given to you by the ad network. The basic concept is, depending on the country from which a Twitter user clicks on your SmartLink, they will be redirected to an adult website where should they register on there, the ad network will add money to your account.

 The amount paid to you per registration will depend on a number of factors among which, the country of residence the registered user lives matters. For instance, you can expect to make more money when a user from either the US or a country from the European Union registers.

 I will be having my Twitter accounts follow, like and message users that are following Twitter accounts of adult female entertainers. I will also target those liking and retweeting posts of these entertainers.

 On the face of it, it might sound like a lot of work but since I will be using an automation tool, once the setup is complete, there will be nothing else to do but to watch the money roll in.

 The initial setup shouldn’t actually take more than an hour.

 I have created a    Telegram group    where you can discuss your own journey with everyone else and get notified on new updates from this post.

 Watch out for the next update.

  Update 22/08/2019    

 The amount in the screenshot shown as  INCOME  was not made on this journey. It’s what was left over when I did this with Instagram accounts that later got deleted.

 What I’ve done so far:

  Collected about 50 Twitter usernames of female adult entertainers. I’ve added these usernames as  follow sources  in Jarvee (I obviously need to add more usernames).  Created and profiled 2 Twitter accounts. They’re already set up on Jarvee and have started following slowly.  Ordered 10 Twitter accounts from a source that sells them. As soon as I receive them I’ll get them set up on Jarvee.   It’s now a waiting game.

 I need to have about 20 Twitter accounts running on this tool before I can start optimizing for better conversions.

 See you in the next update!

  Update 25/08/2019   The 10 Twitter accounts that I ordered took quite some time to arrive, so I wasn’t able to get things moving quickly enough. Nonetheless, I received them yesterday and started warming them up by having them perform a few activities.

 On the positive side, we’ve just had our first conversion (2 leads)!

   This week, my plan is to order and set up at least 30 more Twitter accounts.

 Look out for the next update!

  Update 11/09/2019   I added 20 more accounts to my Jarvee campaigns and was playing around with Jarvee’s settings trying to optimize the activities of my Twitter accounts. My settings turned out to be a little aggressive and I lost 6 accounts before I slowed them down a bit.

   I also noticed that my conversions on Adverten weren’t exactly close to what I was aiming for, and so as soon as I hit the payment threshhold I switched to iMonetizeIt.

   So while my conversions on iMonetizeIt aren’t perfect yet, I have to admit that I’m very pleased with the way things have begun taking shape. The day is still young and expecting a few more conversions before the end of the day.

 From now moving forward, the only thing I will be doing to scale up this campaign is to add more accounts and watch the money roll in.

  What I have done next    Upgraded my copy of Jarvee to accommodate 150 social media accounts    Placed an order for 70 Twitter accounts    Bought 50 proxies and added them to Jarvee while I wait to receive the accounts I ordered.   Look out for the next update.

  Update 17/09/2019    

 On the 12th of September, my automation tool had closed and it took almost 2 days before I discovered it and restarted it. I’ve been a little busy with my other online ventures and haven’t been able to do much for this journey, but I’m pleased that the earnings are improving gradually. It’s about 10 AM here and we’re sitting at $4.76 so far.

 Oops… I think I wrote too quickly. There’s been an update in the last 30 seconds.   The balance hasn’t even updated   …

   I should be able to cross $20/day before the end of this week.

   This is all on autopilot!   So you can go about your day doing other things while your money here grows.

 Look out for the next update!

  Update 18/09/2019   I was hopeful that yesterday would end better than the previous day but that didn’t happen. Still, it didn’t end too bad and the earning closed at $13.14. I haven’t touched my settings yet but I’m looking at what could be improved before Friday the 20th. This far my automation on   Jarvee   is running well without a hitch.

   I’m glad that I shared this journey publicly because some people have reached out to me for help with their own journeys and in some of these discussions one guy who’s currently doing really well with this method mentioned the CPA network    Crakrevenue   . Apparently, their offers convert way better than those on other networks.

 I’ll continue to promote on iMonetizeIt until Friday and will switch over to Crakrevenue on Saturday.

 It’s 9 AM here so we still have the rest of the day to look forward to but here are the results so far …

   Until next time!

  Update 21/10/2019   There hasn’t been much lately to write an update about. I decided to switch back to Adverten and did so for the whole of last week and it looks like there some notable improvements.

 The plan now moving forward is to create my own Twitter accounts and add them to my automation system. The quality of Twitter accounts I have been buying is really not that good. In most cases, you’ll find that  the text used in the bio does not make sense and the accounts look utterly fake .

 So, for this reason, I will be creating my own accounts.

 Here’s how last week went on Adverten:

   Remember, this is all on autopilot and I did have to do anything.

 If you’d like to create a similar system for yourself you can join our   CPA Telegram group   where you’re to ask questions and get answers.

 Until next time!

https://socialtipster.co/make-money-twitter-journey/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=make-money-twitter-journey

#smm #entrepreneurship #startup #Pinterest #seo #LinkedIn #entrepreneur

[creepingsharia]

The growing list of Muslim Student Association (MSA) terrorists – with updates

The MSA - established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood - has branches on hundreds of campuses in the U.S. and Canada. And many of its campus leaders have engaged in and been arrested for waging jihad.

Originally posted on April 25, 2015

The MSA has a growing list of terrorist alumni as noted in this post, Why Muslim Student Group Concerned the NYPD:  *updates below

The list is extensive, but among the MSA alumni who went on to terrorist involvement are:

Anwar al-Awlaki, an influential American-born al-Qaida cleric who recruited a series of homegrown jihadists before being killed by a U.S. drone strike;

Aafia Siddiqui, convicted of attempted murder and assault on U.S. officers and employees in Afghanistan;

Zachary Chesser, convicted of attempting to provide material support to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab and soliciting attacks on “South Park” producers for an episode in which the prophet Muhammad was shown in a bear suit;

Jesse Morton, convicted with Chesser of threatening the South Park producers with murder;

Adam Gadahn, an al-Qaida spokesman who is on the FBI’s Most Wanted List for treason and material support to al-Qaida;

Waheed Zaman, who was convicted of plotting to blow up transatlantic flights;

Adis Medunjanin, who is awaiting trial for plotting to bomb New York subways;

Ramy Zamzam, who was convicted in Pakistan of conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks;

Omar Hammami, who was indicted on charges of providing material support to al-Shabbab and is designated by the U.S. Treasury Department for his terrorist connections;

Muhammad Junaid Babar, who pled guilty to his support to al-Qaida; and

Syed Hashmi, who pled guilty to providing material support to al-Qaida.

MSA was founded in the United States in 1963 by members of the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood seeks a global Islamic state and has spawned leaders of a series of Sunni terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The Muslim Brotherhood motto established by founder Hassan al-Banna is, “God is our objective, the Quran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, jihad is our way, and death for the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations.”

MSA members remain faithful to Brotherhood ideology. At the closing session of the MSA West conference in January 2011 at UCLA, attendees recited a pledge, “Allah is my lord, Islam is my life, the Quran is my guide, the Sunna is my practice, Jihad is my spirit, righteousness is my character, paradise is my goal. I enjoin what is right, I forbid what is wrong, I will fight against oppression, and I will die to establish Islam.”

Update 1 via the Hayride: h/t terrortrends

In June 2006, Ali Asad Chandia, who had served as president of the Montgomery College (Maryland) MSA in 1998 and 1999, was convicted on terror charges as part of a Northern Virginia jihad network; he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for three separate counts of conspiracy and material support to the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Abdurahman Alamoudi, who served as MSA national president in 1982 and 1983, is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence for his extensive international terrorist activities, which included fundraising for al Qaeda.

In February 2010, Aafia Siddiqui – a woman who had been captured in 2008 with explosives, deadly chemicals, and a list of New York City landmarks – was convicted of attempting to murder a U.S. Army captain while she was incarcerated and being interrogated by authorities at a prison in Afghanistan. Described variously as “al-Qaeda’s Mata Hari” and “Lady al-Qaeda,” Siddiqui had previously been radicalized by the MSA chapter at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied neuroscience.

Wael Hamza Julaidan, who served as president of the University of Arizona MSA in the mid-1980s, went on to become one of al Qaeda’s co-founders and its logistics chief. In September 2002, the U.S. governmentlisted Julaidan as a specially designated global terrorist, identifying him as a close associate of Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders, and as a director of the Rabita Trust, which had already been designated a terrorist finance entity that supported al-Qaeda.

University of Idaho MSA president Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, who operated nearly a dozen Arabic-language websites for anti-American, pro-suicide-bombing clerics, was accused by federal authorities of using his academic studies as a cover for terrorist support activities. Al-Hussayen wasdeported to Saudi Arabia in June 2004 after agreeing to a deal with federal prosecutors.

In December 2009, Howard University dental student Ramy Zamzam, who had served as the president of MSA’s D.C. Council, was arrested in Pakistan along with four other D.C.-area men (all of whom were also active in MSA). All five were charged with plotting to join the Jaish-e-Muhammed terrorist group with plans to attack U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan; all five were convicted in a Pakistani court in June 2010 and sentenced to at least 10 years in prison.

Syed Maaz Shah, secretary of the University of Texas-Dallas MSA chapter, was arrested in December 2006, for his involvement in paramilitary training at an Islamic campground, where he was preparing to join the Taliban in order to fight U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Shah was convicted on weapons charges in May 2007.

Ziyad Khaleel, president of the Columbia College (Missouri) MSA, was a representative of the Islamic Association for Palestine (a Hamas front). He also registered and operated the English-language website for Hamas, and served as al Qaeda’s chief procurement agent in the United States during the 1990s. Among the items Khaleel purchased was a $7,500 satellite phone for Osama bin Laden. That phone, dubbed by intelligence authorities as the “jihad phone,” was used to plan the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings.

Anwar Al-Awlaki served as president of the Colorado State University MSA in the early 1990s, and as chaplain of the George Washington University MSA in 2001. In Washington, DC, he delivered sermons that were attended by two of the 9/11 hijackers and by Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan. In 2002 Alwaki fled the U.S. for Yemen, where he developed ties to al Qaeda and reportedly played a role in the Fort Hood massacre of 2009, the failedChristmas Day underwear-bomber plot of 2009, and the attempted Times Square bombing of 2010.

Carlos Bledsoe, aka Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, was a member of the MSA as a student at Tennessee State University in Nashville, TN. Bledsoe went on to receive terrorist training at a jihadist training camp in Yemen and returned to the US and murdered US Army Private Andy Long outside a Little Rock, Arkansas recruiting office on June 1, 2009.

Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, aka Omar Hammami is an American-born member of al Shahab, a Somali Islamic militant group aligned with al Qaeda. Hammami served as president of the MSA chapter at the University of South Alabama.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who would later go on to mastermind the September 11th terrorist attacks as the number 3 man in Al Qaeda, was a member of the MSA chapter at North Carolina A&T in 1986.

Update 2 via a CJR reader in Canada: h/t lburt

Here are some names in Canada

Ahmed Said Khadr MSA University of Ottawa Ahmed Said Khadr’s radicalization at the University of Ottawa

Ferid Imam MSA University of Manitoba Archive.Today (Former MSA Manitoba president Shariq Kidwai said that Ferid Imam has been a president of the association before him.)

Muhanad Al Farekh MSA University of Manitoba After being deported to the U.S. from Pakistan, former MSA Manitoba leader Al Farekh appears in a New York court to face terrorism charges

Maiwand Yar MSA University of Manitoba RCMP Warrant https://archive.is/kWAqF MSA Manitoba https://archive.is/0lxuS

Update 3: Add a pedophile to the list – Ahmad Saleem

Orlando community activist Ahmad Saleem drove to a Clermont-area house intending to meet a 12-year-old girl he had been chatting with online for sex in a vehicle with a specialty “Invest in Children” license plate, authorities said Tuesday…Saleem was also the Orlando regional coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations…

He attended the University of Central Florida, where he was President of the Muslim Students Association. He later became the MSA National Service Director before founding the Saleem Academy.

Update 4: Middle Tennessee State University added to the list:

Dareen Ahmad, leading active member in the university’s Muslim Student Association, tweeted: “…we need a new Hitler”

Dana Swaies, a well-known representative for the school’s MSA chapter stated: “May Allah annihilate the Jewish dogs”

Shaden Hamdulla contemplated putting Jews in concentration camps and called for a new Hitler to wipe them out

Update 5: Abdul Kareem Saeed Alkady – Twitter jihadi

Update 6: This list just got a lot longer.  CANADA: Biographies of MSA Alumni with Terrorism Connections (excerpts only, full description at the link)

Awso Peshdary: Ottawa born accused terrorist Awso Peshdary was arrested in February 2015 as part of operation ‘Project Servant’ by the RCMP Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET). He was charged with participation in the activity of a terrorist group

Khadar Khalib (aka AbdulBaqi Hanif): Grew up in Ottawa and later moved with his family to Calgary. Khalib was a member of the Algonquin College MSA. It is believed he was radicalized by Awso Peshdary. According to the RCMP, Khalib travelled to Syria in late March 2014 with the alleged assistance of Peshdary and former University of Ottawa business student John Maguire, who was already in Syria at the time. Khalib is now believed to be in Syria fighting with the Islamic State, therefore he was charged by the RCMP in abstentia in February 2015. Weeks before Khalib left for Syria, both he and Peshdary took part in Islam Awareness Week on Algonquin College’s Woodroffe Avenue campus, which was sponsored by the MSA.[61]

John “Yahya” Maguire: Grew up in Kemptville, ON. He received a scholarship to study in Los Angeles in 2010 and returned to Canada enrolling at the University of Ottawa in 2011, at which point friends claimed he had already begun making extremist claims, and became involved with the university’s MSA. He joined IS in 2012, travelling to Syria on a one-way ticket, and posted a propaganda video in 2014.[62] He was charged in abstentia with participating in a terrorist group in Syria, Iraq and Turkey, and conspiring with a terrorist network in Ottawa. He was reportedly killed in battle, but no official agency has confirmed his death.

Ahmed Said Khadr: Born in Egypt, Khadr moved with his family to Montreal in 1975, and then to Toronto several months later. He enrolled at the University of Ottawa, studying engineering. While there he joined the MSA, agreeing with their notions of Sharia law, and became a vocal advocate for Islamic rule in his native Egypt.[65] …Khadr was killed on October 2, 2003, along with al-Qaeda and Taliban members, in a shootout by Pakistani security forces near the Afghanistan border. An al-Qaeda website profiling “120 Martyrs of Afghanistan” described him as a leader of Bin Laden’s organization and praised him for “tossing his little child [Omar] in the furnace of the battle.”[68]

Salman Ashrafi: Originally from Pakistan but raised in Calgary, Ashrafi was enrolled at the University of Lethbridge, where he completed a bachelor degree in management. During his university years, Ashrafi started to practice Islam in a more serious manner and became heavily involved with Islamic activism in the campus, serving as president of the MSA. Following graduation, he worked at Calgary’s Talisman energy for one year before quitting in 2012, and flying to the Persian Gulf.[71] He blew himself up in November 2013 in a double suicide bombing at an Iraqi military base, reportedly killing 46 people on behalf of ISIS, using the nom de guerre Abu Abdullah al-Khorasani.[72]

Chiheb Esseghaier: A Tunisian national and scientist, who was a doctoral student with a research arm at the Université du Québec at the time of his arrest. Esseghaier admitted to “La Presse” in an interview to only becoming immersed in religion after arriving at the University of Sherbrooke, when he read books and websites about Islam and joined the local chapter of the MSA, and began attending a local Mosque. He was charged with plotting an attack on a VIA rail train in the Niagara region, and did not deny the charges, stressing that there is “no shortage of reasons” to launch a terrorist attack on North America.

Ferid Imam: University of Manitoba student who served as the local chapter of the MSA’s president.[75] He is wanted by the RCMP on terrorism related charges following a four-year investigation.

Imam has also been charged in the foiled al-Qaeda plot against New York City subways.

Khaled al-Qazzaz: Khaled al-Qazzaz was born on July 3, 1979 in Cairo, Egypt. He moved to Toronto in 2000 to do a Masters in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toronto, where he met his wife, Sarah Attia. He served as the UTSG MSA President in 2002-2003.[97]…

He was taken in a wave of arrests alongside several other top Muslim Brotherhood aides after a military coup toppled the government on July 3, 2013. After spending 18 months in prison, he was released by Egyptian authorities in January 2015.[98]

Maiwand Yar: Born in Pakistan in 1983, Yar is a former student of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Manitoba, and was the local MSA chapter’s treasurer.[105] According to the RCMP, in 2007, it is believed that Yar departed Canada with accomplice Ferid Ahmed Imam for Pakistan. Yar is being sought on charges of conspiracy to participate in the activities of a terrorist group and participation in the activities of a terrorist group.[107]

Muhannad al-Farekh: Born in Texas, al-Farekh grew up in the United Arab Emirates and was educated in Jordan.[108] In Canada he lived with his grandmother in Winnipeg. He is a former business student at the University of Manitoba, who served as the office manager of that chapter’s MSA from 2005-2006. On April 2, 2015, an arrest warrant for Muhannad al-Farekh was unsealed after an RCMP investigation. The allegations against al-Farekh date back to 2007.[109] It was then that he disappeared to Pakistan along with University of Manitoba colleagues Farid Imam and Maiwand Yar. Though both Imam and Yar were charged in 2011 with terrorism offences following an RCMP national security investigation called Project Darken, al-Farekh was only indicted in April 2015. The criminal complaint accused him of travelling “to Pakistan to join al-Qaida” and helping a terrorist group targeting American citizens and military personnel.[110]

Omar Kalair: President and CEO of United Muslims (UM) Financial, Kalair is wanted by the RCMP with respect to a sharia banking fraud investigation. Videos of previous RIS (Reviving the Islamic Spirit) conventions available on YouTube show that UM Financial sponsored the Toronto Islamist convention in 2005 and 2006. A profile of Omar Kalair posted on a Wilfrid Laurier University alumni’s website indicates that, during his years as an Economics student, “Kalair founded the Muslim Students’ Association [MSA] and remained its President for four years.”[113]

There are many others with links to MSA in the TSEC expose.

Update 6B: New link here and additions below:

Qutbi al-Mahdi:  Involved with the Islamic movement in Sudan from a young age. While studying for his PhD in Islamic Studies at McGill University, Qutbi was active with MSA and then ISNA, where he served as President from 1984-1986.

Youssef Sakhir, Samir Halilovic and Zakria Habibi:  All three are from Sherbrooke QC, and became friends through a local Muslim association in the Eastern Townships. They were Facebook friends with the University of Sherbrooke MSA. They vanished from Quebec last year at around the same time and are currently being sought by RCMP and CSIS.

Dr. Wael Haddara (aka Al-Muraqqash Al-Akbar):    Dr. Haddara has been active with Muslim Brotherhood organizations since at least 1991 when he was listed as the contact person for the Memorial University Muslim Students Association.   He sat on the board of CAIR-CAN from 2003-2012. He sat on IRFAN’s board from 1999-2003. The group had its charity status revoked in 2011 after it was found that from 2005-2009 alone, it transferred $14.6 million to Hamas. He has also been involved with MSA national, which was mentioned in a 2011 MAC newsletter.[81] Dr. Haddara was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood delegation that was sent to meet with, but refused by, the US State Department, to advocate against the current Egyptian government.

Khaled al-Qazzaz:  He moved to Toronto in 2000 to do a Masters in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toronto, where he met his wife, Sarah Attia. He served as the UTSG MSA President in 2002-2003.[97] In 2005, al-Qazzaz returned to Egypt. In 2011, and according to his own Twitter account, al-Qazzaz was working in Egypt as “Secretary on Foreign Relations, Office of the President Politics: Freedom & Justice Party.”  This refers to Dr. Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt in 2012 and 2013.  The Freedom and Justice Party is the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He was taken in a wave of arrests alongside several other top Muslim Brotherhood aides after a military coup toppled the government on July 3, 2013.

Many more in the link above.

At  least eleven (11), and counting…

Update 7:  Al Qaeda’s Base at MIT

MIT Muslim chaplain Suheil Laher used his leadership of the MIT Muslim Students Association as a vehicle for raising money for Al Qaeda causes around the world. We especially focus on the Al Qaeda affiliate in Chechnya, which Laher and his associates lionized, even as MIT trusted him to be its Muslim students’ spiritual guide.

…and now Brandeis Univ. Hires Terror-Linked, Jihad-Supporting Muslim Cleric

While at MIT, Laher did not hide his Islamist views. His personal website at the time featured attacks on Jews, Christians, and kuffar (non-believers):

The kuffar, including the Jews and Christians, can never become our intimate friends, confidantes or close allies.

Laher’s personal website featured al-Qaeda leader Abdullah Azzam’s infamous call to jihad. It also linked to an al-Qaeda fundraising website. It urged Muslims to reject the “evils” of the West.

His personal website also declared: “[T]he only solution prescribed by Allah is jihad.”

Update 8: Pakistani convicted of infiltrating DC for Pakistani intelligence

Ghulam Nabi Fai, the executive director of the Kashmiri American Center (KAC) who admitted in a 26-page Statement of Facts at the time of his plea deal last December that he was an influence agent working for the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI. He penetrated the halls of Congress and successive administrations over a 20-year period to help shape U.S. foreign policy in Pakistan’s favor.

Fai served as national president of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), during which time, according to an email cited in the FBI affidavit, he began serving on behalf of his Pakistani ISI masters.

Update 9: Imam Mahmoud Shaker Shalash at the Islamic Center of Lexington charged in murder-for-hire plot is former MSA

According to a LinkedIn profile, In addition to running the Islamic Center of Lexington, a man of that name owned a mobile home park and the Bluegrass Extended Stay motel (guest reviews have complained about roaches, stained beds and unfriendliness to service dogs), was a member of the Muslim Students Association (a terror linked Muslim Brotherhood hate group) while working on a degree in electrical engineering at the University of Chicago...

Update 10: One-time president of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at the University of Alabama Pleads Guilty to Concealing Terrorism Financing to al Qaeda

Alaa Abu Saad aka Alaa Mohd Abusaad, 22, who was arrested Oct. 23 in Ohio. She was a former student at the University of Alabama and her LinkedIn profile said she was president of the Muslim Student Association.

Abusaad pleaded guilty to concealment of terrorism financing, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2339C and 2.

Abusaad instructed an FBI undercover employee (UCE) about how to send money to the mujahedeen—fighters engaged in jihad.  Abusaad told the UCE that money “is always needed.  You can’t have a war without weapons.  You can’t prepare a soldier without equipment.”  Abusaad also advised the UCE on how to send money in a manner that would avoid detection by law enforcement, including by using fake names and addresses when conducting electronic money transfers.  Subsequently, Abusaad introduced the UCE to a financial facilitator who could route the UCE’s money to “brothers that work with aq” (meaning al Qaeda).

Update 10:  Mohamed Soltan - arrested as leader of Muslim Brotherhood uprising in Egypt

His father, Salah Soltan was recently given the death sentence in Egypt and Mohammed will likely receive the same verdict on April 11th, just days from now for his accused role in Muslim Brotherhood operations. It should also be noted that Mohammed Soltan was former President of the Muslim Students Association at Ohio State University

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Readers: If you know of other MSA jihadists, let us know and we’ll update the list.

We leave you with Amir Abdel Malik Ali at UCLA reciting the Muslim Student Association Pledge of Allegiance:

Jihad is my spirit, I will die to establish Islam

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, May 24 2020

Welcome to my latest summary of recent ecommerce news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & Etsy! This covers articles I came across since the early May report, although some may be older than that. Due to a need to get my taxes filed, and a continued busy jewellery business, I don’t expect to be able to do another update for a few weeks. You can follow me on Twitter for important breaking news, though! 

Have any topics you would like to see me cover in more detail? Drop me a line here on Tumblr, or email me through my website.

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

Small businesses can survive the pandemic and beyond, if they learn to provide what customers are now looking for. From desks to 3-D printed face shields, to including toilet paper on your takeout menu, to moving online, acting quickly has given these businesses hope. ABC also did a piece on this topic. [text & video; mentions Etsy & masks] Here’s another article discussing adapting to pandemic ecommerce “new normal”, with interviews with staff from Etsy, TechStyle and Zulily.

Ecommerce is about to get way more competitive (it probably is already), & arguably the retailers who will succeed are the ones who already put plans in action, including advertising plans. (mentions Shopify, Google Shopping & Etsy.)

Facebook and Instagram will now have “Facebook Shops”, which are free to set up. Sounds like it will be a slow rollout, though. Many take this as direct competition for marketplace sites such as Etsy, but it will probably also have a large impact on small website builder sites such as Indiemade. 

ETSY NEWS 

Etsy’s first quarter for 2020 was good, but April was astonishing by any standards; I covered it all here. 

Etsy Payments will soon be available to sellers in Turkey, Malaysia, & Mexico. This will likely be welcome news to sellers in Turkey in particular, who haven’t had an easy way to accept payment for Etsy orders since PayPal left Turkey a few years back. It looks like this move will be optional at the moment for those 3 countries, unlike those of us who are forced to use EP if it is available in our countries. 

Etsy gave some listing credits and ad credits to shops who had substantially lower than normal sales in late March through April; the credits don’t kick in until July, though. 

Etsy is beta-testing a new listing video tool. You can join here; if you want more info first, here are some details. Note that the videos must be quite short, and will not include sound. 

Etsy is still getting some good traction from the face mask initiative: “I would argue they were just in the right place at the right time," says Kodali. "When you think of who is able to consolidate the power of a million sewers in the country, the only answer is Etsy."  However, they are also getting some criticism for masks taking forever to arrive, if at all. The slow customer support is also annoying many of these new customers that the CEO was so happy to attract, with little to no response from Etsy. 

The Wall Street Journal did a well-received article on people buying food (mostly baked goods) on Etsy [paywall]. Other sources have picked it up, although some are a bit skeptical about safety. 

More trend info directly from Etsy: first, summer at-home ideas with Dayna Isom Johnson [podcast links with transcript]. It also covers what to do for socially-distanced celebrations. “[P]eople are taking what they would typically do for a birthday, but then doing it virtually. So many people love paint night parties and I've actually seen quite a few paint kits that Etsy sellers are creating. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate your birthday and still have that experience of expressing your creativity and having fun with your friends, but just through a screen.” Also, “tie-dye is blazing hot right now.”

Second, craft supply sellers get their own trend article for a change. Supply searches close to doubled in April, with “346% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for “diy”. Many buyers are making their own masks with supplies from Etsy; “2,089% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for “elastic”. Do read the whole article if you want to spin your shop in this direction, as there is a lot of good info included. 

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Google pushed out a core algorithm update starting May 4, which finished rolling out on May 18. It seems fairly large, maybe the biggest in some time, and may have hit more areas than other recent core updates. They did take some criticism for releasing it during a pandemic. Possible targets aren’t agreed on yet by the people tracking it, but could include cryptocurrency, travel, real estate, health, tech, finance & dating. Or maybe we shouldn’t rush to pick winners & losers so quickly? News media changes may be affected by the regular algorithm reaction to people reading a lot more news these days, and some ecommerce companies had a boom that could affect their rankings. This article discusses Etsy among other companies, who might have benefitted from the update. [I’m not sure on the Etsy complaints, as I have been seeing multiple links for some searches for well over a year now.]

Link building is generally the hardest part of Google SEO, in part because you aren’t allowed to do any of the obvious things that might get you easy links. Anyone confused about the rules & the benefits should check out this guide for 2020. 

While you can learn a lot from general SEO guides, if you have a Shopify site, this guide provides some specific SEO tips. 

LinkedIn managed to de-index itself from Google on May 6, at least for the United States. Here’s one theory. Well-paid webmasters for major internet companies can still screw up, it turns out. 

(CONTENT) MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails) 

If you are one of those organized marketers who plans their campaigns ahead of time, here are 5 content marketing ideas for June. 

With so many people not working as much as usual, this might be a good time to start a podcast. Gizmodo has compiled instructions on doing it cheaply.  

The best time to send an email depends on the purpose of the email. For example, “General site traffic emails have always been most effective mid-week — mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Mondays and Fridays tend not to perform as well” while “A general awareness campaign can be sent almost any time to be effective.”

Refreshing your evergreen content can be more productive than producing new content. That has some really good ideas for many types of businesses produce

Facebook bought Giphy, and while it will still be available to people without Facebook-owned accounts, it will be integrated directly with Instagram. 

Instagram is testing new fonts in its Stories feature. 

Twitter is enabling users to see how many people quoted a tweet, but so far only on IOS. They also have a new test where you control who can reply to your tweets. 

LinkedIn is rolling out both video events and polls, but maybe it is too late to get a big bump from either change? 

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS) 

Online advertising can be expensive; here are some stats on the cost of various search engine ad clicks as well as a bit on social media. 

Google Merchant accounts now let you compare your prices to other sites and also look at trends in clicks. 

Here is a good brief overview of the new free Google Shopping listings, including the 3 main reasons the author believes Google made this change. Here is another much longer overview, with screenshots for those not in the US, and info on how to set this up for your website. The PayPal integration is now available. 

Online advertising clicks seem to be bouncing back from the worst of the pandemic, according to several sources, including this one. It is still far too early to tell if this will last, however. 

YouTube has re-conceived its premium ad program, now called YouTube Select.  

If you have ads that slow down people’s computers or drain batteries by being too “resource-heavy”, note that Chrome is going to begin blocking those in August. “Chrome will filter ads based on the following thresholds: 4MB of network data or 15 seconds of CPU usage in any 30 second period, or 60 seconds of total CPU usage.”

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING 

Seeing all hits to one page in Google Analytics is a lot easier if you exclude the URL query parameters (but note that sometimes they are useful, such as for various pages on Etsy.) If you like the idea of filtering your GA results in general, here is another tutorial on that. 

If you want to do A/B testing on your website, here is a fairly straightforward introduction to Google Optimize, which is free to use. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS 

Many online companies had a good first quarter despite the pandemic, including Shopify, which beat income estimates and saw its stock rise 5% after its first quarter report. “New stores created on the company’s online platform jumped 62% between March 13 and April 24 as many brick-and-mortar businesses migrated online.”

Shopify rolled out software that allows its users to more easily do curbside pickup orders. “...Shopify was already in the process of redesigning its POS before the coronavirus, but decided to accelerate the development of a few new features, namely fulfilling curbside pick-up orders and home delivery. Shopify said that by the end of April, 26% of its merchants with a brick-and-mortar presence were offering local delivery or buy online, pickup in-store, compared to 2% in February.”

Rolling out for the US first, Shopify is also getting into financial products, offering a new debit card which you can use to receive your sales income on the same day you earn it. Shopify Balance can be described as “a merchant account with no fees and no minimum balances.” It’s also setting up an instalment plan feature for customers. 

Also new with Shopify: a Pinterest app for turning all your products into shoppable pins. 

An Amazon VP quit - very publicly - over the company firing several whistleblowers and labour organizers. “Amazon declined to comment.” The company is taking heat for those issues as well as poor management of and information about how many employees have tested positive at various warehouses. Several employees are known to have died of COVID-19 so far. 

Amazon has extended its order performance suspension exceptions for the pandemic to May 31. Which is a good thing, because it seems that buyers are leaving more bad feedback than ever before [soft paywall] “More than 11 percent of reviews left for sellers in the past 30 days are negative. That’s nearly twice the level of frustration vented by shoppers regarding Amazon’s third-party sellers during the holidays, when customer anxieties spike over not getting presents on time”. eBay extended some seller protection changes until July 19. [note: if you sell on these platforms outside of the US, lease check for your own country’s rules, as some of them are different.]

Amazon Handmade sellers from the US got a boost from a new local makers page and the accompanying blog post. [I was unable to find any similar promotions for other countries; seems like a missed opportunity]

Buyers in Canada and the US are trying to get class-action lawsuits certified against Amazon for their policy preventing/discouraging its vendors from offering lower prices elsewhere. This article includes the US class action complaint paperwork. 

If you are wondering about Prime Day, Amazon is apparently going to try for September, but there is no official announcement yet. 

eBay will be changing the fee structure for sellers using managed payments, including charging one fee on the entire transaction instead of separate commission & processing fees. 

USPS, complaining of deficits and being pressured by Trump, is reportedly reviewing its package delivery contracts with large companies such as Amazon. “According to the Washington Post, over the last few weeks the USPS has been seeking bids from consulting firms to reexamine what the agency charges companies like Amazon, UPS, and FedEx. Contracts are generally reviewed on a yearly basis, and analysts have repeated warned that suddenly raising package prices that drastically would cause more bad than good, not just for the USPS or Amazon, but for small businesses and individuals too.”

Square has created an easy online checkout option that works without being connected to a website/shop. (US only)

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

Google has introduced a new Trends-like tool that covers recent top product searches by the amount of growth. Yes, it is free!

Gen Z wants to see “fun and exciting advertising” during the pandemic, because they are bored. They are apparently not really fond of “things are different now” ads. Also: “A survey taken seven weeks ago indicated that younger consumers were more likely than older adults to say they wanted to see purpose-driven advertising that showed how companies were helping others.” Actually, Gen Z isn’t alone in wanting something different from commercials right now 

Consumers want to see companies taking positive action and supporting their employees during the pandemic - and claim they will remember who did a good job, so they know who to support with purchases. 

Not surprisingly, mobile usage is up during the day time since the pandemic was declared, and people are also staying online later during the week. Web browser usage is up, and more serious news and information is getting attention. 

There will likely be many more bankruptcies as the effects of COVID-19 ripple through the economy, but some businesses don’t have enough cash flow to go bankrupt. [text & video]

Canadian retail sales were down 10% in March compared to 2019, but many things went up, including general merchandise stores (6.4%) and online retailers (40%). Note that the online numbers didn’t include sales made from Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and delivered in Canada, so ecommerce was actually higher than that. In the US, March retail sales were down 8.7%, but April looks like it turned around for many ecommerce sites. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

So-called “cookie walls” are not enough to comply with the EU’s privacy laws. “[I]n order for consent to be legally valid under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) there are specific standards to meet: It must be clear and informed, specific and freely given.  Hence cookie walls that demand ‘consent’ as the price for getting inside the club are not only an oxymoron but run into a legal brick wall.”

Website layouts (and even other elements) are starting to look like each other more & more.

[malesha-arts]

The Ultimate Guide to Web Traffic for Real Estate Agents

Surely you've ever heard or read this:

“More Web Traffic = More Sales” And this is so. Because if you want to sell more properties and every month, the answer is in: Get more web traffic and you will achieve it . Sounds simple, right? But no. This is, in reality, a complex and very serious issue. BUT let me make it clear: If you learn to master the "Art of Attracting Quality Web Traffic" to the publications of your Capital smart city Real Estate, you will win the race and close sales every month. (Unless you're a bad seller, facing the customer. But I assume, it's not your case.) So if you are seriously committed to improve your sales and close deals every month, sit down, set aside about 45 to 60 minutes of your time that we will have a long and tended conversation about this topic, in this article. Are we already seated and comfortable? So let's start ... Why "more web traffic = more sales"? Because the principle is the same as a lifetime: "What is not shown, is not sold." And show your properties to the largest number of people should be understood as getting the highest number of web traffic to your property publications. But let's talk clearly. Web Traffic is the technical term that defines the number of people who visit your web page. Hence, without web traffic, there is no one who sees what you sell, therefore, there are no sales. Well, well, I know. Web traffic is not the only thing that defines a sale. It is true. But it is the beginning and one of the key aspects in the commercial process, and in fact, one of the headaches of more than one real estate agent or broker. Therefore, if you feel frustrated about not knowing how to get more web traffic to the publications of those properties that you have for sale (and that you know would change the life of your future clients) but because of being INVISIBLE, you can not sell. Then this article is for you. Take the next few minutes to read this post, where I will teach you: • How to stop being invisible understanding the key principle of Web Traffic. • What are the three types of web traffic that exist. • Which are the most convenient, according to the real estate sales model you drive • And even, depending on the type of property you sell, you are an independent real estate agent, real estate agent or construction company. So, without more, let's start: How did Real Estate Web Traffic evolve? Before, who only captured a property for sale and only offered it to his small and closed list of friends, delayed or never sold such property. Therefore, in the past, visibility was achieved through classified ads in life-long print newspapers. People looking for real estate, used to buy the local newspaper, searched the classified section and called the Real Estate Advisor to schedule an appointment and that's it. The problem? The process was slow. The clients were uncertain because they had no way of knowing what the property looked like before going to visit it and thus save time in buildings of little interest. And the solution was brought by the Internet. Because now on the web, in addition to having the possibility to publish the text-summary of the property, the Real Estate Agent could upload photos and even videos. That way, customers saved time by doing better pre-filtering and thus focusing on the most relevant to them.   The figures do not lie: 9 out of 10 clients, in the investigation phase, search online first BEFORE visiting the Property. Hence the importance of being VISIBLE for those people who are looking to buy or rent a property in the next 30 days, as well as those who are in a process of doing so for the next 6 to 12 months. Finished this short class of "The Evolutionary History of Real Estate Traffic", let's move to the bulk of the matter: What do I need and how do I get a flood of Web Traffic to my properties? First thing's first. Let's make something clear from the beginning: Do I need a PROPIA real estate website? My short answer is: Yes. And my long answer: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and YES. Why? Very simple: In the same way as you can not make arrangements when you are a tenant in a leased property, which is not yours, because you know that any improvement you make would mean a loss of money for you, so you can not build a solid real estate business by building it on strange house. Nowadays it is very simple to have your own real estate website. Seriously. It doesn't have to be the most PRO, but with it being its own and having the least viable to start sending quality web traffic to improve your sales, it's more than enough and start on the right foot. Of course You can start with ads on free classified pages, such as OLX, Locanto, Fincaraíz, etc. And you could also take your first steps with social media posts like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. And starting like this is valid. (Like most of us, when we first became independent from the paternal home, we started paying rent before having our own property). But having a Real Estate Website is the key to growing quickly, solidly and safely. And today it is absolutely easy and you can start even without money . Providers like Wasi, Clientify, Inmogesco, among many others, allow you to have a free version of your own website, as well as a very low cost payment option. This is important for two reasons: 1- First, because people who visit your website will ONLY see your properties and not the properties of other colleagues, as would happen if you send traffic to the classified pages as OLX. You don't want to do hard work for someone else and not end up earning anything, right? 2- And second, because having your own Real Estate Website, you can implement Advanced Customer Acquisition Tactics : Like REMARKETING . And thus sell more, strategically and without spending more. Leaving this first point clear, let's move on to the second point

The key principle of Web Traffic. Maybe it sounds obvious and even stupid. But I will tell you: Internet traffic is a simple link or link . Yes. As you read it. A click LINK .

Therefore, if the web traffic is to reach the website of your properties through a link or link, the trick is to put the links of the pages of your properties in the largest possible number of places . But above all, in front of the eyes of my potential client's profile ... … That is: To the right customer, in the right place and at the right time . And if you are more professional, you can do it automatically without having to do it yourself. But we will talk about this topic of automation in another article. For now let's focus on the number one key. In conclusion of this first point: To stop being invisible is to have the ability to put the links of your publications in as many places as possible, that catch the interest of potential clients and motivate the CLICK. That way, you manage to attract web traffic to your properties. Point. Do not misunderstand. I do not want to be with this facilitator or think that I ignore other variables, also important, such as bounce rates, CTR, duration of visits, conversions, etc. Because I also know that well enough. Trust me. The point is that for now I do not want to overwhelm you with technical aspects without first explaining the basis, the essential, the elementary principle presented in a simple way. Well, now let's move on to the second super important aspect: The three types of traffic sources. Maybe right now, you are "breaking the coconut" thinking of all the ways to put the links of your property as much as you can. Facebook, Twitter or any other social network, or in the description of your WhatsApp, or in the comments of videos on YouTube, put it in Instagram Stories or WhatsApp, or in the messages of your email reply, etc. But wait! Before talking about all the existing “ Traffic Sources ”, which are more than 24, you must first know what their types are . And there are three. Own traffic. Free Traffic And Payment Traffic. If you understand this concept, you will master the art of attracting traffic to your property's publications, thus increasing the chances of selling faster and faster.

Let's start with the OWN TRAFFIC The own traffic , is the contact you have in your possession. That is, the emails and cell numbers or WhatsApp that you have right now. It seems simple, but it is not. Because having the contact details of a list of potential clients is the beginning. But knowing how to manage communication with them in a segmented way, by interests, is the key . If your contact list is small. Your business is small. If your contact list is large. Your business is incredibly large. Why? Because you will not have to pay or make an extra effort to bring traffic to your real estate website with this type of traffic. Just send them the link of that property you just published, via email, SMS or WhatsApp and they, as they know you (there is trust) will click and see your properties. And even, if there is real interest, they will be able to share with their friends and on their social networks, that link that you just sent them. In fact, I give you an additional key : "All your efforts, with the other two types of traffic (free and paid), should be focused on increasing increasing the contact list s ." That is, increase your own traffic. And what is better, to manage these contacts you only need an App such as Excel or Google Drive Spreadsheets, which is almost the same. You don't need more, believe me. But if you like to complicate your life, you can use any CRM (Customer Relationship Management) application such as Pipedrive, Code49, SumaCRM, ZOHO, or even with Wasi, which has its own CRM built into the web tool. But, I insist, it is not necessary. The choice is yours. The point here is to understand two things: • Increase the number of contacts to your list. • And manage those contacts effectively through certain criteria, such as types of responses or property of interest. With this, you create a COMMUNITY of people related to the real estate sector and especially to the real estate that you sell in your area. And this is VERY powerful because you become the owner of that traffic and, above all, its leader. You position your brand, whether you are Real Estate, Construction or Real Estate Agent. Ah! But if you are a Constructor, better than better. Because if you build a large list of contacts in advance , when you launch a new real estate project, you will not have to waste your advertising budget by buying traffic with traditional means, such as newspapers or specialized magazines . Which means you can get in touch with your list and thus develop a more effective pre-launch and launch strategy, even reaching a point of balance, with just that list of contacts. Have you ever seen this? I do not. Very few construction companies do. The majority of Construction Companies that I know and have worked with, never worried about building that contact list (COMMUNITY) in the face of what this represents. Maybe at this point you are thinking: "But, Jesus, wouldn't this type of traffic be the same as the free one?" Yes and no. Yes, because it is also free. But no, because, as we will see later, the second type of traffic talks about the actions you do to attract traffic without paying money BUT you are not the owner of that traffic . For example… You do not have to wait passively for visitors to drop you, with SEO (search engine positioning like Google), but you decide when, how and where to take traffic to your website . And it is more powerful because you have maximum control of how your contacts interact with your content. OK. And as we know that we need to increase the list of Own Traffic, this is done by working the other two types.

So now let's move on to the second type: FREE TRAFFIC. This type of traffic is also known as traffic that you DO NOT control , because it is not up to you to know when and who will arrive through those means. In this second type of traffic, advertising actions such as: • Publish a property on a free classified page

• Make a social media post

• Write a comment on third-party pages such as Blogs, Videos on YouTube, Forums, Especially SEO (search engine rankings like Google).

• Among many others. I don't want to be pessimistic, but as the popular saying goes: " Free cheese in the mousetrap ." Although you do NOT need to invest money here, what you will need to invest is TIME. Time to develop a strategy to capture passive traffic. And I say "passive" not in derogatory terms but because it is literally so. You will have to wait for it to work and it will take a little time to see results. But here comes a SUPER POSITIVE aspect: A well-developed Real Estate SEO Strategy will be able to attract a flood of qualified and very good quality traffic, almost in the purchase decision phase. Ah, but I don't fool you: It will take more than 30 days or even months to see real and consistent results. What does it depend on ? Whether you do it with strategy or not. And I don't say "good" strategy, because just by doing SEO with strategy you will already be ahead of many of your colleagues in your area. And this Real Estate SEO does not have to be boring but I confess that it is a little more technical issue than a non-technical user is used to. So if you are patient, you do not need sales, you have no money to invest and you have plenty of time to learn, implement and test the Real Estate SEO methodology , cheer up! And I will be honest. I don't want to leave you started. I have taken the time compiling some specific recommendations that work, not only to do Real Estate SEO , but to get Free Traffic from multiple channels. Because remember: The greater the traffic sources, the greater visits to your website, therefore, the greater the chances of attracting qualified clients. So let's start, then! Ninja Cheats for Free Traffic for Real Estate SEO: • If you don't have a website, forget about this SEO section and go to the Alternative.

• We will focus on Google because it is the main search engine on the Internet today.

• First, you must understand that there are two types of SEO actions: On-Page and Off-Page. That is, the first are the actions you perform within your website and the second are the actions you perform outside your website. Let's start with the “On-Page” (within your website): • Identify the 5 most important keywords and their combinations, such as: [Type of Business] + [Type of Property] + [Place or Zone] + [Key Feature], among others.

• For this stage, you can use the Google Keyword Tool to discover the search patterns of real users.

• You may have to make a long list first and then select the most appropriate ones for you.

• By the way, in SEO, Keywords are everything. Remember that your future customers search on Google using specific words and related to what they want to find.

• Then, optimize the Meta Description of your website with a text between 100 to 150 words, but you must use those previously selected Keywords within that description.

• Use videos in your posts. A video increases the duration of a visit on the page, and this metric is positive for Google.

• Now comes the most important step: The creation of relevant and quality content to attract traffic to your website through the BLOG. That is, create regularly, articles of interest related to the properties that you sell in your area.

• If you create content with a Blog, you can use a technique called: "Internal Link Building", which in simple words means that you link internal pages within your content, involving those keywords. Google likes this. But you must use it wisely.

• The well-used BLOG strategy is very powerful. But I will talk about this in another article Now, let's turn to the “Off-Page” SEO actions (outside your website): • Here the key is that you can publish the link of your website but on the websites of third parties. This is what is technically known as: “External Link Building” so that our website is positioned in Google with incoming links.

• But of course, these inbound links must come from authoritative websites. What to do then? Try the following:

• Put the link of your website in the profile of all your social networks.

• Leave a serious and honest comment on websites related to real estate issues, where, usually, they allow you to link your website. The same applies to comments on videos on YouTube or similar platforms. But, remember, you must be strategic in your responses to not appear invasive and spammer.

• Publish articles of your own in Blogs of other professionals. They will put the link of your website and even take traffic to you. This technique is known as "Guest Blogging" or Guest Artist.

• Also, participate in specialized forums in the real estate sector and answer questions on websites such as Ask or Yahoo Answers.

• Have you tried with Google My Business? Sure you will find surprises with this functionality. Soon I will discover more about some tests I will be doing with this tool, to position in the real estate sector.

• And the free classified pages? Well, such pages as OLX , Locanto, Fincaraiz and the like, well used can help. I will not go deeper into this topic because I have already written an article about this, which you can read here .

• And of course, publish all the links of your properties in all the social networks in which you participate. This helps in two ways.

• And of course, if you can hire experts specialized in this topic, better than better. If you don't know anyone, write me and tell me your case. Maybe I can help you out . Now, well, I know that I have NOT been extensive but I have tried to make a quick and complete collection of SEO actions for the real estate sector. I promise to make an article of this topic, much more complete, with practical cases and starting from the basics to the advanced. I promise you 🙂

And last, and not least: PAID TRAFFIC First of all, I want to ask you: How are we doing? Sure, already at this point, you will have to refill that cup of coffee or tea or go for another drink. If we are ready again, let's continue ... I want to start this third point with a question, which I know is in the air, and surely you have already asked yourself: Why pay for traffic if I can get it for free with SEO or if I can publish my properties on free classified pages like OLX or Fincaraiz? This was the question asked by a cousin who is a Real Estate Agent and that in the year sold two to three properties using only OLX. And this was my answer: Because the Payment Traffic, different from the previous one, is a Traffic that YOU Control, both in the approach of profiles that you want to attract, and in the response times, which can be practically already for now . In addition, this type of traffic is absolutely key because it will be the one that will help you increase your “OWN TRAFFIC”, that is, your contact list and quality but, above all, in the shortest possible time. Here the TIME factor is the most important. If your family expenses and lifestyle allow you to live with the commissions you can earn with the sale of every 3 or 4 months. Perfect. But if not. You will need to learn how to use Payment Traffic to ACCELERATE earnings and close sales every month. In this third type of traffic, we find Ad Providers such as: • Facebook Ads • Instagram Ads • Twitter Ads • Google Ads • YouTube Ads • Linkedin Ads • Waze Ads And almost everything finished in "Ads". Really. But beware, the above list is one of the best known and most popular traffics. But there are many more. Some, even, very specialized. Oh, by the way, here the banners on traditional websites such as newspaper portals, such as EL TIEMPO, Vanguardia, El País, and the like, I will not include them in this category for generics, with an inappropriate collection model (which charges you everything for in advance) and with a low response rate. At this point I explain, something basic, but essential: THE COST PER CLICK . Before, web portals charged for a “space” on their website as banners. These portals showed you inflated figures and charged you under a model called: Cost per impression . And that charge was in advance. (Call impressions, the times that web portal was visited and the banner was "displayed") That worked for a while. Until the COST PER CLICK arrived . Where the traffic provider did NOT charge you for the number of impressions or times the ad is shown but for the times that a person actually clicks on it and visits your website. This ensured that you paid for traffic results and improved the previous model by far. And if I had to give you a quick recommendation University town on which traffic provider to start today, my answer would be without hesitation: Facebook Ads and its entire advertising platform. Because Facebook Ads also includes: • Instagram Ads • Messenger Ads • Audience Network It is very effective and is relatively easy to use. But above all, it is low cost if you buy it with other platforms such as Google Ads , Twitter and Instagram Ads . Any Real Estate Agent with a daily budget of $ 1 dollar or $ 2,000 Colombian pesos can schedule and start carrying traffic to the publications of their properties. In addition, and not least, the learning curve so that a non-technical person can begin to use it effectively is short. You do n't need to have a certificate or anything like that. In a matter of a few days you can learn to use the most relevant aspects of the tool and you will start to obtain results. I know there are many free and paid courses on the web. Most of them generic , that teach you to use the tool as if you were an agency or if you were going to sell clothes or food for dogs and things like that. But if you want to learn how to use Facebook & Instagram Ads for the sale of houses, apartments, lots, plots and commercial real estate , here I enter. See Course Information here And I will be forgiven for paid political advertising but I have published a Professional and SPECIALIZED Payment Course for Realtors . In my course they will NOT learn to use Facebook Ads for examples of real estate, but I will show you what I have learned for more than 7 years  and with more than 350 campaigns for Real Estate and Construction , where I learned what works and what does not. You will learn how to design and configure a Real Estate Sales Funnel prepared to bring you traffic with Facebook and Instagram Ads so that sales results are achieved faster and more professionally. All with step by step tutorials. All with step by step tutorials What does this mean? That you have two paths: 1. Or, first: You decide to learn for yourself, autonomously, digging through generic free content and of poor (or good) quality, and then wasting time and money on trying and trying until you discover what works and what doesn't, taking such Once months in the process.

2. Or second: You take the shortest and safest way, learning in less than a week a proven methodology for more than 7 years in the design of Sales Funnels and Campaigns in Facebook Ads for the real estate sector in the sale of houses, apartments, lots , plots and commercial real estate, with all the tools and explained step by step and from scratch, saving time and money in the process, so that you focus on doing what you do best: Close sales. That is the decision you must make. "Hey, Jesus, did you bring me here just to sell me?" - You'll be thinking. Well, no. Also, I want to tell you that I will soon publish a Full and Free Course on how to use Facebook & Instagram Ads in its most essential aspects and with a focus on the real estate sector. If you want to register on the waiting list, you can register here. Clear. It will not be as complete as my current Payment Course . Especially, because I will not address the most important issue: The Real Estate Sales Funnels and how to automate it easily and in less than 48 hours. We like it for free. I know. And I'm also designing quality content for you, my dear reader lover of everything that says "free" or "au gratin." But remember, if you want to move quickly and safely , investing your money in strategic and relevant training for your sales, it will always be the best move you can take. Anyway. Here I summarize some conclusions according to the type of real estate profile: For Independent Real Estate Agents: If you are an Independent Real Estate Agent, you are starting and you have no money. Don't think about it anymore, start with the Free Traffic. And with the first commissions, you go to the Payment Traffic, you accelerate the sales and the collection of contacts for your list and so, little by little, you are scaling your business. For Real Estate: If you are Real Estate, but seriously, not only paper but really, which is focused on a specific sector, which moves leases as well as sales, my advice is as follows: If the rental income is leaving you surpluses ( after paying the operating costs of the business) allocate 100% of that money in Traffic de Pago to sell those high-value real estate. This will leverage you better and faster. After you start closing more sales (from the second or third), you could allocate part of the ad budget to promote more leases. Not before. For Construction Companies: If you own a Construction Company or its commercial director. You have all the options at your disposal BUT be careful, don't get distracted. Work in phases each type of traffic. And if you take your business seriously, the recommendation is this: Hire a specialist for each one. Hire the best in Real Estate SEO; To the best Traffickers team for both Facebook Ads and Google Ads (both combined are the bomb!); And to the best Copywritter for the management of your Own Traffic. I have a lot to tell you but I want ... WOW! Wow! How many words written here? More than 4,000 words? Well, dear friend, I don't want to extend myself further. But I want to ask you something before you go (pliss) Leave me in the comments section how did you like the article, what questions do you have on this topic, what would you like me to focus on next posts or whatever you want to tell me. Not being more. See you soon or in the SPI-PRO Course 😉

[1bea2ma4-blog]

Thumbnail Blaster Review and Bonus

Welcome to my Thumbnail Blaster Review and Demo YouTube first became popular because an online platform for musicians to generate the name for themselves and obtaining more views was, and still will be, the ultimate goal intended for online video media content creators. In older days, people would use misleading title, tags, and thumbnails to a great extent to get more views and now nights Google and yahoo has won typically the war on spam by adding brand-new voice and image reputation technology to find an idea involving what exactly a video is approximately when compared with what the content material creator says in the title, tags, and even outline. This helps to give individuals with a much greater customer experience when looking a little something up on YouTube. Online video media content creators are today up against having to in fact make quality movies that people will take pleasure in and to get more views, it should be seen by enough visitors to find the appropriate customer who will upload this on his internet site, or at least share the idea on Facebook. Rightfully therefore, Google's top main concern can be user experience over this content provider's view matter, however some authorities say the new changes in order to often the algorithm will trigger old video tutorials, that persons have already seen, get more attention than new versions and could actually produce it complicated for the user to find fresh new content in search outcomes to get popular search terms. So, how could a video content creator in 2011 fights impotence the latest changes to be able to often the YouTube Algorithm? Produce Movies Like Never Before Create a Following Comment Your own personal Way for the Top Off of Site Seo Know This Difference Involving Junk mail And even Optimization Create Video tutorials Much like Never Prior to With YouTube's 92 Billion web site ideas a month together with soaring, a video clip has to be one of a kind for it to have popularity. Planning a movie and server scripting are now a must along having display quality. By comparing the videos with millions connected with views into the lesser regarding the tribes, you will observe the fact that high definition and exceptional lighting are two popular traits shared by this best viewed videos. This specific doesn't lead to you have got to get an pricey HD camera to get more views. Youtube . com offers a set of formatting tags, again to aid provide a a great deal better customer experience. yt: crop=16: in search of yt: stretch=16: 9 yt: quality=high Use these types of labels to eliminate window boxing and poor video quality if you do not have access to HIGH-DEFINITION equipment. Pay attention to be able to your video's thumbnail choices careful not to be flagged for spam. "OMG" deals with are well-known thumbnail selections just so long as it can be what will be within the video. The. 25. four plus. 75 points in your online video media used in order to be what determined your own thumbnail selections when adding. With so much mistreatment, Google came up having the bright strategy for you to use the three best movies from your online video and semi-randomly picking a point through the three period of time points. Audio and picture root report names are also added into the picture to better give right thumbnail selections. Spammers can no longer just add a short graphic flash at the particular halfway level of their very own videos to get a great deal more opinions. Build a Pursuing As with Twitter, Forums, and MySpace, Facebook is normally also a social networking system. Being mixed up in community is definitely a must for fresh plus old video content material creators looking to come to be popular on YouTube. Build your channel around a exclusive market that has a new mid-sized level of competitors. Visit similar channels and even comment on their video clips together with sincere compliments or maybe questions. Treat your subscriber's movies the same approach so you are not really to be a dormant range in their ongoing give. The old SUB4SUB approach is still being used and has grown straight into its own community or perhaps niche. If your visitors will be teenagers, go regarding it! Be careful definitely not to be called out to be a spammer because this idea of, "You subscribe to me and I actually may subscribe to you" is often frowned upon by people of a professional background. YouTube picks upward on heavily repeated responses and even auto-marks them as junk mail so just apply a SUB4SUB profile picture and be participating in the SUB4SUB channels inside Vimeo community. Set aside some sort of day to work on building some sort of following about other social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, in addition to Facebook or myspace. This stretches your own personal right away to those who have no a good channel on Dailymotion which in turn surprisingly enough tends to make up for a lot of the home page's 92 billion readers each month. Comment Your Way For the Top Uploading a good video twice a week and commenting on the readers video clips and programmes often the working day before is a superb tip of thumb. Being consistent from doing so is definitely the work section of the whole entire issue. However, by doing this you brand yourself using your readers and build a awareness among them which starts the particular snowball effect associated with even more landscapes and even subscribers when they think and share your movies. This is the reason you want for you to stay within your specific niche market. When leaving comments, become sincere about what an individual sort. Never just point out 2 words and abandon. This particular totally defeats the particular purpose which is not necessarily heading to make people need to know who also left said brief review. Leave comments people need on their videos and share this comment on Facebook and Facebook to help make it show up as a "linked comment" on top of often the brief review feed. Each moment a good fans from Facebook or myspace or Twits clicks in this, the comment is certainly moved back in the top of the comment nourish. Be creative in your current comments and it can get thumbed upwards also gaining more and even more interest towards the author of mentioned comment. Often the ultimate goal here is to compliment the online video user's work which companies your own personal username and station so that when your videos show up in their subscription give food to, it will probably be hard to resist. Off Web-site Optimization The following is more "work" of which has to be done in order to move your videos to typically the top of search success. When people are searching for a person, it is best to be able to be easy to find. Just making use of a lot of tag words individuals are searching for just isn't going to trim this cake. Google wants to find out back links on well-liked sites leading to your video to compliment your states of everything you have since your title. When a well-liked site has a connect to your video using the particular terms in your subject, it gives PUBLIC RELATIONS points for that phrase following a certain amount of time. However, in case you go all-around posting unrelated hyperlinks, chances are the idea will end up being taken out and wouldn't count like a new back web page link anyway with the time aspect threshold. Upload your online video to other websites relevant to your niche along with participate in forum talks and post your online video like some sort of hyperlink any time it is relevant to the particular discussion. You have in order to keeping it related and that has to add value to the debate. If your links get taken off, the idea will have a change effect on your search results positioning so always be sure and respect the terms and conditions connected with forums that allow back links to videos and internet sites. Know The Variation Between Spam And Search engine optimization The fine line involving spam and optimization is crucial to breaking through typically the mass amounts of video lessons on YouTube if folks interested in your product will likely even know this is present. In case you are Fred, and your personal route (Lucas) says your age is 33, it is highly not likely you will obtain called out for lying about your age when you created your. If you are like many various other Facebook celebrities and your current information abounds with advertising your own personal social networks in addition to T-shirt sales instead of conveying the video, you may not get named out there either. However, chances are you are usually certainly not a Dailymotion celeb and if you adhere to suit, it is just a new matter of time before you are suspended via the site. When selecting a title for your video, you should be creative and employ words and phrases that are intending to get results by search engines at the similar time. Decide on a search expression you wish to be found simply by (that best details the video) and use the idea in your title. Yahoo and google like wide variety so give a few support words to your phrase. For example: Goal phrase: Remote Control Yard Mower A good title will be: Remote Control Grass Mower vs. Steep Hillsides Write a brief information using the target phrase only once towards top yet not really as the first sentence. Be organic and discuss to your viewers. Typically the tags for the online video media should be specific to your own personal target saying with plus without quotations. To illustrate: "remote control yard mower" out of the way control grass mower. Following a thirty days of positive viewers allergic reactions, you will notice your online video media climbing often the charts. With thumbnail blaster review to competitive key phrases, your movie has for you to generate lots of beneficial viewer reaction before it is going to show up on leading of listings and at some point on Google as some sort of online video result. Patients, difficult work, and consistency can be a must. You should publish videos on a regular basis most with a little bit different targeted phrases related to your niche market. It is a lot regarding work. Nevertheless , when a person get your first video clip up to a thousand views, you will be hooked about YouTube, wearing Dailymotion Tshirts, and even making courses to help others.

[edebiyat-mavisi-blog]

Thumbnail Blaster Review and Bonus

Welcome to my Thumbnail Blaster Review and Demo YouTube first became popular like an on the net platform regarding musicians to produce a new title for themselves and having even more views was, and still is usually, the ultimate goal for online video content creators. Back in the day, people would use unreliable title, tags, and thumbnails to a good extent to obtain more views and now nights Search engines has won typically the war on spam simply by integrating different voice and image popularity technology to get an idea associated with what exactly a video is in relation to when compared to what the content material creator claims in often the title, tags, and outline. This helps to offer people with a much much better person experience when looking some thing up on YouTube. Movie content creators are right now confronted by having to truly make quality movies that people will delight in and to get more views, the idea has to be seen by sufficient individuals to find the right audience who will upload that on his internet site, at least share that on Myspace. Legally therefore, Google's top goal is user working experience over this content provider's look at count number, however some professionals say the new changes to be able to the algorithm will trigger old video clips, that men and women have already found, have more attention than new versions and could actually produce it challenging for typically the user to find refreshing content in search success for well-liked search conditions. So, just how can a video content creator this year and the years to come battle the latest changes in order to the YouTube Algorithm? Make Movies Like Never Prior to Develop a Following Comment The Way to The Top Down Site Marketing Know The Difference Concerning Unsolicited mail In addition to Optimization Make Videos Such as Never Prior to Having YouTube's 92 Billion web site views a thirty days together with climbing, a movie must be exclusive for it to get recognition. Planning a movie and server scripting are these days a must along using image quality. By comparing the particular videos with millions connected with views to the lesser associated with the tribes, you can see the fact that high definition and exceptional lighting are two widespread traits shared by the particular most viewed videos. That doesn't result in you have to get an expensive HIGH DEFINITION camera to get more views. Vimeo features a set of formatting tickets, again to support provide a a great deal better end user experience. yt: crop=16: nine yt: stretch=16: nine yt: quality=high Use all these tags to eliminate window boxing and poor video top quality if you do not really have access to HIGH DEFINITION equipment. Pay attention for you to your video's thumbnail models careful never to be flagged for junk mail. "OMG" encounters are popular thumbnail models just providing it can be what will be inside it. The. 25. 5 various and. 75 points on your online video media used for you to be what determined your own thumbnail selections when publishing. With so much mistreatment, Search engines came up having the bright idea to use the three longest fasteners from your video clip and semi-randomly picking a good point from three timeline points. Sound and picture root document names are also added in to the equation to better give appropriate thumbnail alternatives. Spammers is unable to just add a small image flash at often the halfway stage of their own videos to get a lot more opinions.

Build a Pursuing As with Facebook, Twits, and MySpace, Dailymotion is certainly also a social networking. Being mixed up in community can be a must for fresh plus old video information builders looking to come to be popular on YouTube. Create your channel around a individual specific niche market that has the mid-sized level of rivals. Visit similar channels plus comment on their video lessons with sincere compliments or maybe inquiries. Treat your subscriber's video clips the same approach so you are definitely not to work as a dormant number in their request foodstuff. The old SUB4SUB approach is still being utilized and has developed in its own community or maybe niche. If your target audience is usually teenagers, go intended for it! Be careful not to be called out there as being a spammer because the idea of, "You join to me and I may subscribe to you" is often frowned upon by means of people of a qualified background. YouTube picks upwards about heavily repeated responses plus auto-marks them as junk mail so just apply a SUB4SUB profile impression and be participating in often the SUB4SUB channels inside the Vimeo community. Set aside a new day to work upon building a good following in other online communities such while Facebook, Twitter, plus Bebo. This extends your current using to those who don't have the channel on Facebook which will surprisingly enough can make up for the majority of the web site's 92 billion visitors every month. Comment Your Approach On the Top Uploading a good video double a week and strategies on the readers video lessons and stations the particular day before is a wonderful principle of thumb. Being constant in doing so will be the work section of the full thing. However, in this way an individual brand yourself with the members and build a curiosity among them which commences the snowball effect involving even more sights in addition to subscribers when they brief review and share your videos. This is why you want for you to stay within your specific niche market. When leaving comments, possibly be sincere about what anyone sort. Never just state two words and abandon. That totally defeats this purpose which is definitely not proceeding to make people would like to know that left said review. Leave comments people need on their videos plus share typically the comment with Facebook and Myspace for you to make it show right up as a "linked comment" on top of the particular review feed. Each period a fans from Facebook or even Tweets clicks with the idea, typically the comment is normally moved back to the best of the comment supply. Be creative in your current feedback and it could get thumbed right up as well gaining more and even more attention towards the article writer of explained comment. The ultimate goal here is to compliment the video user's work which brands your own personal username and route so when your video clips appear in their subscription feed, it will be hard to withstand. Off Web page Optimization In this article is more "work" that has to be carried out in order to move your videos to this major of search success. When people are looking for anyone, it is best in order to be readily accessible. Just using a lot of tags consumers are searching for basically going to slash the particular cake. Google wants to find out back links on famous web pages leading to the online video to support your claims of whatever you have as your title. If a well-liked website has a url to your video using the particular words in your headline, it gives ADVERTISING things for that phrase after the certain amount of time period. However, if you go around posting not related back links, odds are that will always be taken away and wouldn't depend as a new back url anyway due to the time aspect threshold. Add your video to other web-sites connected to your niche along with participate in forum chats and even post your movie like some sort of hyperlink when it is in connection with this discussion. You have to keeping it related and the idea has to add value in order to the conversation. If the links get eliminated, it will have a change effect on your search results position so always be sure and respect the particular terms and conditions connected with forums of which allow backlinks to video clips and net sites. Know The Change Between Spam And Optimisation The fine line concerning spam and optimization is important to breaking through the bulk amounts of video clips on YouTube if folks interested in your materials are likely to even know this prevails. For anyone who is Fred, in addition to your personal route (Lucas) says your age is usually 33, it is very impossible you will acquire called out for lying about your age when anyone created your account. If a person are like many different Youtube . com celebrities and your information abounds with advertising the social networks together with T-shirt sales instead of conveying the video, you may possibly not get called out either. However, chances are you happen to be not necessarily a YouTube movie star and if you follow suit, it is solely a new couple of time just before you are forbidden coming from the site. When choosing a title for your movie, you should be creative and make use of terms that are intending to get results via search engines like yahoo at the exact same time. Decide on a search word you wish to be found by (that best identifies your video) and use the idea in your title. Yahoo and google like variety so give a few support words to your phrase. For example: Concentrate on term: Remote Control Garden Mower A great title would be: Remote Control Lawn Mower vs. Steep Inclines Write a brief explanation making use of the target phrase only once for the top nonetheless not necessarily because the first sentence. Be organic and discuss to your viewers. The tags for the online video should be specific to your own target key phrase with plus without quotations. For example: "remote control garden mower" remote control lawn mower. After the month of positive viewers reactions, you will see your movie climbing the charts. For competitive terms, your online video has to produce lots of good viewer reaction before it is going to show up on best of search engine results and eventually on Google as a new movie result. Patients, really hard work, plus reliability are a must. thumbnail blaster need to publish videos on a typical basis all with a little bit different target phrases relating to your niche market. The idea is a lot regarding work. Yet , when an individual get your first online video media up to a thousand views, you may be hooked on YouTube, wearing Youtube . com Tees, and even making guides to help others.