#the roster page is so hard to view on mobile | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ambreignsfans · 7 years

Photo

WWE’s Dean Ambrose and Renee Young: Power Couple (VegasSeven Interview)

The Las Vegas residents and World Wrestling Entertainment stars square off on the realities of life inside and outside the ring

You might have tuned in to E!’s Total Divas to see the inner workings of the women of World Wrestling Entertainment. Las Vegas resident Renee Young, a popular announcer and interviewer, is one of those featured, and her boyfriend, WWE superstar Dean Ambrose, sees his share of screen time.

Five years ago, it was improbable, to say the least, that Ambrose—then wrestling under the ring name of Jon Moxley—would be on a show called Total Divas. Ambrose had dropped out of high school to pursue his dream of wrestling professionally, training at Les Thatcher’s Heartland Wrestling Association. He made his in-ring debut in 2004, finding success in several smaller “indie” promotions. In 2009, he started wrestling for Combat Zone Wrestling, an indie that features “death matches” in which, although no wrestlers have actually perished, thumbtacks, barbed wire, cutlery, fluorescent light bulbs and even the odd power tool are fair weapons. Ambrose excelled at CZW’s bloody mayhem, winning the championship twice and establishing himself as fearless.

Then the biggest wrestling promotion in the world called. Ambrose signed with the WWE in April 2011. After a stint in the developmental Florida Championship Wrestling, he debuted on the main roster as part of a faction called The Shield. Since splitting with The Shield, Ambrose has been a fan favorite in the WWE, bringing intensity to a number of feuds. At last May’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view, held in T-Mobile Arena, Ambrose did what many thought was impossible: He captured the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, the top accolade in the wrestling business. He’s since dropped that title, but is currently featured, alongside Young, on Smackdown Live, where he is the reigning Intercontinental Champion.

It’s a path that shows the world really does work in strange ways. Six years ago, Ambrose was getting forks jammed into his forehead until he was streaming blood and powerbombed on thumbtacks in front of a few hundred fans. This year, he won the business’ biggest prize in front of 19,000 Las Vegas fans and hundreds of thousands watching on the WWE Network. But what probably means more to him is that the intensely private Ambrose snared something even more valuable: a rewarding life and someone to share it with.

Ambrose and Young talked with Vegas Seven about what he does and why he does it, with Young sharing her own perspective.

What’s it like being where you are now?

Dean Ambrose: I made a pretty good name for myself before I got here—hustling and working every single possible indie promotion and all over the world for years, and through YouTube, creating the biggest buzz I could for myself. I figured then that WWE wasn’t something I was destined for; I was gonna be a little cult hero in my own little niche. And at the time, I was totally happy with that, even though I always knew in the back of my mind that I wanted to be over there. So I think it’s a cop-out when you go, “Oh, well, I don’t wanna go there.”

Back then, nothing came of it materially, but I felt like I was as good as anybody in the world and I’d never get to prove it. Once I got here, it was about climbing the ladder. But that was all just icing on the cake.

By then, I wasn’t seeking validation or approval from anybody. The successes for me aren’t championships or any of that kind of shit. It’s that I get to do what I love and get paid for it, and it’s fun. And we get to do Make-A-Wish, meet kids and be an inspiration to people, and that’s such a blessing. How many people would love to be in that position? I was able to pay my mom’s house off, I have a home for myself, and another bonus was I was able to meet the one woman on planet fuckin’ Earth that could ever put up with me.

I feel like all the stars aligned. I’m one of those “I think the whole universe has a plan” kind of guys. And if you put enough good karma into the can, it’ll come back to you in the end. I feel like I’ve been able to put enough in by doing enough of the right thing …

Renee Young: Your karma can is looking good.

What do you have to do to get to where you are?

Ambrose: When I was a kid and first started wrestling, I would go to practice—they gave me a key to let myself in—I’d go in there and lift weights for a couple of hours and then roll around and practice. It’d be three hours of conditioning, wrestling, running, and then I’d stick around for another hour and wrestle. Then I’d go to my job and work at this factory from 11 at night till 7 in the morning Sunday through Thursday, which was the perfect indie wrestler job, because you got the weekends off. I’d get off at 7 in the morning from lifting these metal things onto hooks or whatever.

Then I’d get home and just put in wrestling tapes. I’d have guys make me tapes, like, “Give me a six-hour tape of the Rock ’n’ Roll Express,” and I would sit there and watch wrestling all the time, trying to learn. I’d see somebody do a move, and I’d head to the school and I’d try the move. I feel like I’ve watched every match that ever happened anywhere, ever. But still, you’re constantly looking at it and surrounded by it.

My first two years on the road, I did Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday—every single week for two years. I was home for 36 hours a week, if that. A lot of times I wouldn’t even go home, ’cause it just didn’t make any sense to fly from Allentown, Pennsylvania, or Philly or whatever on a Wednesday morning just to fly back on Friday morning to New Jersey. So I [would] just kick it in New Jersey for a couple of days.

What about people who say wrestling is fake?

Ambrose: We let everybody go behind the scenes and we make no effort anymore as a business to make it seem real. I don’t take myself too seriously. It’s 2017, [and] if you say wrestling’s fake, I’m not gonna flip out or whatever—you’re just uninformed. To me, there’s nothing fake about the miles that I’ve put on my body or the actual work that goes into perfecting this as a craft. I put in the same hours to get good at this as a surgeon who went to college. It’s just a much less important job in the realm of society. But as far as the man-hours you put in, it’s hard to do. And there’s nothing fake about the injuries, the risk and how dangerous this is. It’s extremely dangerous. But I won’t be offended by [the comments]; people say it all the time.

How about fan fiction?

Young: You know what I saw the other day—it must’ve been on my Instagram or on Twitter or something, but somebody tagged me in it—it was a shirt that was a picture, obviously a fan-drawn cartoon thing of just you and Roman [Reigns, a fellow WWE Superstar] in … a deep embrace. I wanted to buy it. [Laughs] It was a thing on Etsy, a real thing that I could’ve bought. It was hysterical.

Ambrose: There are psychotic fans.

Young: Insane.

Ambrose: Especially, like, I think I draw a certain … I think a lot of my particular …

Young: Fan base?

Ambrose: I have a particular demographic. I think I appeal to a lot of people who might have problems of their own [and] they relate to me. It’s cool when you can help and inspire people and stuff, but sometimes people just attach to you for strange reasons, [and] their behavior is not the best.

Like what?

Ambrose: I’ve been stalked, I’ve been—

Young: I get many a death threat.

Death threats?

Young: Well, I mean, there’s a lot of anti–Renee Young pages out there.

Ambrose: It’s actually good to make this point. But without going into too much detail, I’ve been stalked on the phone and my home and hotels, to the point where it’s a little Single White Female scary, though I’m pretty sure I’m not gonna get beaten up and kidnapped by a 15-year-old girl.

Young: I don’t know … there are a lot of steroids in foods now.

Ambrose: I’ve been stalked fairly regularly for the last two years. I have to go to great lengths to keep that shit at bay.

What if you hadn’t become a wrestler?

Ambrose: I have nothing to offer you. I can’t remember a time when wrestling wasn’t the only thing that I thought about or cared about or did or had any intention of doing. But if I would stop wrestling now and had to do something else, I think I can make a hell of a park ranger.

Young: Or a private eye.

Ambrose: I like getting into stuff; I like investigating. I’m a big outdoorsy person who fell in love with Vegas, and I’m huge into mountain biking, hiking and rock climbing. I love being outside. I love being able to see the mountains every day. So to work here … that’s not a bad job. Sit out in Red Rock all day just saying hello to people. That ain’t that bad. I’ve Googled this before, actually. That seems like a decent job, just hanging out in the park, going around, counting flowers, freeing raccoons from traps and stuff.

Young: Check out the flora and the fauna. I think that there’s definitely something to be said that when you don’t have a fallback plan, you have to just do it. It does really require all of your attention to get it off the ground, right?

Ambrose: Having a fallback plan isn’t a bad idea, but if you ain’t got one, fuck it. Just go for it and see what happens. Because if you don’t have one, that probably means you’re so single-minded that you’re gonna have the drive necessary to make it happen for yourself.

Young: You have to make it work.

Ambrose: Because if you’re like, “Well, you know what, my fallback plan is to be a nurse, but I’m gonna take a shot at this wrestling thing.” You won’t have the urgency to really go for it.

Young: It needs your full focus. I read that in a Janis Joplin book one time, and it stood out to me so much when she was saying that she didn’t want to have a fallback plan. I was like, “Oh, yeah, of course.”

Ambrose: I never looked at this as a job or a career until I got to the big-time. Then it was, “Oh, this is how I pay my bills.” Before that, I didn’t really have any bills. Maybe some rent, because I did a lot of couch surfing and being a vagabond; wrestling was just what I did. Now it’s a job because now I actually make money out of it. You gotta have that mentality.

And now you’ve starred in a movie. What was that like?

Ambrose: I knew nothing about acting or how movies were done. I had no intention, but for whatever reason, they thought I’d be good in this movie, the 12 Rounds franchise, which John Cena and Randy Orton—two of the biggest stars of this generation—had done. For the third installment, they asked me. I said, “Hell, yeah, I’ll be in a movie. Are you kidding me? Let’s do it.” And it was hard work. I got off the road, went straight to the set—14-hour days, every day for five weeks. And I got off the set, got right in a plane and was back in the ring the next day.

It was a cool deviation, something new. I found the fight scenes were so much fun. “OK, punch, kick, punch, throw him on the ground, pick him up, duck the knife, hit him in the gut, grab the glass bottle, hit him over the head.” And it was a 10- to 12-move thing; I picked it up instantly. Because I’m a professional wrestler, a choreographed fight scene might come easier to me.

The thing is, WWE performers are the Navy SEALs of entertainment. You might go out there on Smackdown Live with no net, talk for five minutes and then wrestle for 20 minutes, and at the end of it, plummet off a 20-foot ladder and through a table. You might have to do dialogue, a 20-minute fight scene and a stunt that you do yourself, all in the span of 30 minutes, all live, one take, on TV.

Young: Like entertainment boot camp.

Ambrose: We’re doing all these things live on the fly and bing, bam, boom, we’re so used to the high pressure of it.

Young: When I came to WWE, I was almost an outsider because I don’t wrestle, and I did TV shows prior, but I think the stigma that comes with WWE, of people thinking that they’re bad actors or whatever, it’s bullshit, because they have to go out on a drop of a hat. There’s no rehearsal. There’s nothing even close to it anywhere else.

It’s crazy.

What about when you have to do something you don’t necessarily believe in?

Ambrose: I’ve gotten asked to do things that, sometimes, I think, “That’s stupid.” If you do anything a hundred percent, if you commit to it, even if sucks, it’ll at least suck a hundred percent. One my favorites was when Vince [McMahon, the driving force behind WWE] wanted me to carry this little red wagon full of weapons around the ring in Brooklyn, the hardest audience that we have. And I’m getting ready for a fight with Brock Lesnar. So I’m like, “I’m about to go into a match that will be a fight to the death with the beast incarnate, who’s going to probably kill me—this is not a time for laughs. If I come out there with a little red wagon, they’re gonna laugh at me.” But he’s like, “No, you’re not even gonna look at Brock. You’re just gonna pull that wagon, put your weapons in it, walk around, go to the back.”

Young: And it was great.

Ambrose: He said, “Because it’s not a joke to you. This wagon is serious”—and in Vince’s mind, he saw it a certain way, and I went, “All right, fine, OK. I’ll drag the little red wagon, and I’m gonna drag the shit out of that little red wagon.” And I went out there, was mean-muggin’ with this little red wagon, and it was so ridiculous, but I took it seriously. They loved it, and I was like, “I cannot believe that worked.”

What’s the reality of reality TV?

Young: Doing reality TV is a different beast. He and I, we’ve always been very private about our relationship for the most part, so for us to have that on a reality show. … I’ve been doing television for over a decade. I’ve never been nervous for something to air. And I [was with Total Divas]—you’re so vulnerable. I [was] excited for people to see Dean and I and the shit that we get up to. There [were] nine cast members [and] a lot going on, but I think just delving into the relationships of so many of the people at WWE [was] really cool.

Ambrose: I hated it at first—hated the idea of it, hated the thought of it. I was like, “Hell, no.” But it’s just like any other television show. It’s entertainment.

Young: If I’m at a TV broadcast, the cameras are gonna be there and they’re following you. They’ve come to our house and filmed. We’ve been lucky enough to go on really great vacations with Total Divas. They will catch you in your moments, definitely. I think the biggest thing that tripped me out when I first started doing the show was that I would fall asleep and I’d wake up and still think that the cameras were on me. It was a very bizarre experience of always being on camera—I got over it, but it took me a couple of weeks.

Ambrose: I did a 180 on it. Once I saw how it works, I was like, “Oh, well, this is just entertainment. It’s fun.” So I was like, “I’m gonna have some fun with this.” And it turns out Total Divas is superfun. You do fun activities. I act like a goofball on TV, and even if they tried to sneak up on me and film me when I didn’t know they were there, I’m like a ninja. I can sniff a camera; I’m like a freakin’ bighorn sheep in the desert. I can sniff a camera from a hundred yards away. Nobody’s filming me when I’m not allowing it. So I don’t feel like there’s an invasion of privacy or anything weird like that.

Why do you wear a shirt when you wrestle?

Ambrose: I said, “What I’m going to do is dress as plain as humanly possible.” I’m not going to wear anything fancy, I’m not going to have fancy music, I’m not going to have fancy pyro—I’m literally just going to be a dude walking into the ring. I’m going to look like I just got off work from a construction site and I am now punching you in the face. That was my goal—be as simple as humanly possible. I pretty much stick to Hanes or Fruit of the Loom. You can wear large, you know, but you like to make it a little snug sometimes, shape the contours. It’s best to leave a little bit to the imagination, then at a certain point in the evening, in the match when the intensity is high, you get to rip off the shirt.

Young: He is a secret stripper.

Ambrose: You get a big pop for that. And then you can throw the shirt to somebody. It gives you another prop to work with. You can get your shirt ripped off or halfway ripped off, and then you look like you’ve been beaten up a lot more than you really have.

Young: You’re just a piece of meat.

#dean ambrose #renee young #vegas seven #interview

58 notes · View notes

prinxess-kink-blog · 7 years

Text

Get Free PSN Codes

The main advantage of PlayStation® Network Card (psn card) is the ability to pay for the services in your PlayStation Store with it instead of a credit card. A day after I made the post, the number of people getting codes from our website was going back up. And it was working, we were giving away codes that matched the number of visitors we had, so we kept the surveys and haven't looked back. Your second element of causing them to be is to watch out for a QR learn to get cost-free psn codes.

I've always thought, as well as much of my friends, that a paid PSN might notice the features required compete with Xbox Live and overtake it. Now that it came to pass, I'm much less than sure in the paid solution. If you do not get 50$ code , just try 20 or 10 , i get them most of the time since 50$ codes take a bit of time to refresh. Free-psn-codes is a premier site that offers useful information, tips and cheats for obtaining PSN codes. Employing a tips to get free psn codes helps you to swiftly construct a page and avoids you against building a oversight after you have not a clue what personal computer encoding is. how to get absolutely free psn codess are not only extremely fast, but it is possible to learn lots much too.

The funds that are credited on your PSN card are very useful to teens and adults alike of which are into gaming and do not own an individual credit card for their online purchases within the Playstation ‘network'. A unique confirmation link is dispatched to your e-mail address every time you try to generate a new code. Obviously, the first advantage of Psn code generator is that they help you have the experience you've always dreamt of without allowing you to the scratch your wallet. If you still don't understand how to get PSN codes, checkout this video tutorial below. Security breaches to the PSN network were more a hiccup and security is some thing will need to be robustly addressed, particularly a concern onset of ‘Play Community'. If we caught that you are selling the free psn codes that you are getting on the tutorial, we will forcely close the tutorial. Complete simple offers to get discounts and gift cards for PSN Console for free! Many people these days find that once they get to the code access page, they discover that the content is locked with a survey. With the free PSN codes, gamers will have access to the games that they require. Many people tend to be rather unsure if making use of codes is so the correct issue to try to to. the reality is that there ar several legitimate PSN code generators that you just would stumble upon and so, you'll be able to place all of your doubts to rest and build use of the advantages that you just can stand to achieve by creating use of free PSN codes.

The process of using the vouchers is as simple as it gets, and you only have to gather enough points on the websites that offer free PSN cards before you can ask for the code that will send you your $10 or $20 valued cards. However, there's frequent newbie player dilemma of not understanding how to download the NCAA rosters of their PS3 structures. PlayStation Plus accounts also benefit from discounts, online game saves, instant game collection, and many other benefits such as early access to exclusive games, automatic downloads and installation, free games, and so on. We hand select and test every survey to make sure they are quick and to the point. Qr program code, that is abbreviated from Swift Solution code and they are remaining use by leading corporation for connecting buyers making use of their online profile additionally, on their organization cards to exhibit participant one can redeem elements for that best and newest gaming applications, playstationÂ®store codes playstation cards free psn codes provider 2016, which enable you to yield 10$ , 20$ and 50$ free ps4 codes your added details about your online business. A QR code or Quick Response Code is a sort of a matrix barcode which are 2-dimensional and will definitely be easily scanned with QR Code Reader. All you have to do is share the content once with your friends to help them out and then fill out a quick survey to prove that you aren't a bot. If you have any questions about the PSN Code Generator , please write them in the comment. Qr program code, that is abbreviated from Fast Solution policy and are also getting use by leading company for connecting clientele with their online reputation and on their online business cards to exhibit your added info on your small business. One can purchase a psn gift card on our website where we offer a range of cards, differing in value and bonuses. A PlayStation®Network Card is a voucher code which provides its owner with the ability to place funds on a PlayStation® Network Master Account without using a credit card. And so the particular help of one's personalized QR Code imprinted on your T-shirt, a person send people your FaceBook profile or maybe contact number or whatever you decide to wish express. Through this web portal, users can access a handy Playstation Store card code giveaway. For this Huawei Modem Unlock psn codes generator internet site, getting the modem's unlock code is as easy as entering into your modem's IMEI (Foreign Mobile phone Hardware Identifier), enter into the CAPTCHA program code and click on the Calculator” control button. The money that is credited to the users play station account is beneficial for users who are into gaming but do not have a personal credit card for making online purchases. Welcome to our website, so don't delay trying psn code generator no survey is required! The PSN code generator permits you to get them without paying anything by any means. The selection of available content on the PSN Store is updated on a weekly basis, typically on a Tuesday in America and South America, or a Wednesday in Europe or Asia. With the methods we provide you with, you are guaranteed to save the money you would spend on PSN Codes. The third method we would like to mention here is the one that's utilizing the PSN code generators. Just in the case of a nicely filled offer, your psn gift card code will be downloadable. Before getting right down to why you actually need a short Reaction rule or how useful a QR Rule Generator is often, you must understand the thought of this astonishingly powerful application. After you have selected the icon, type in the 12 digit code and press continue in order to redeem. We've been spending a lot of time trying to shorten the time it takes to get a PSN code from our generator. Over 460 thousand active users and that number is increasing each day guys, check our for yourself why the free psn codes for Play Station Network store is so popular these days and why the users rated our hacking tool with 5 stars with over 100 thousand votes! The only requirement for our software to function is an active internet connection so that you can connect to Sony's PSN servers and activate your codes - these will then be directly applied to your PSN Store's account. It's not hard to understand why thousands of rushed in the PSN today and crashed the machine. It means the code you will get from each generating process will be identical to the card code they sell. There are two reasons why you have the highest chance of receiving a free PSN card by sticking with us. Our website is a website you can trust to get a working code every time, we like to build a strong foundation with our visitors so that they'll come back for more. Les codes generateurs PSN vous fournissent egalement l'occasion d'acquerir une adhesion, ce qui vous donnera acces a davantage de codes et de jeux. It's made in a way to never recreate the same code sequence as it has once made, and it keeps track of everything that has been made up until now. The PlayStation Network PSN Code Generator allows you to create unlimited codes. All I'm doing is taking these codes, compiling them into a free psn code list, and sharing them with you all. Once they receive their cards and their PSN vouchers, they can go to the PSN Store and redeem the games or other software products from Sony Entertainment. Yet, with the free PSN codes that we give, you will never need to miss another title again. Generate unlimited PSN codes and Cards right now with our fast and 100 % working psn codes generator. All you have to do is fill in your email and the code will be sent right to your email. For those of you who have no real way to stack any assets into your PSN account (or would prefer not to spend a corrupt measure of cash to just have a ton of fun), we found the ideal arrangement. All you have to do is to generate the desired PSN Codes online and you will have no problem using the app in the end. You should know by now why you´re here and you wouldn´t have found us if you weren´t looking for free PSN codes. But hey if anyone wants to buy a £50 PSN voucher off me I'm selling them for a bargain price of just all your money. In fact, I made a quick video to show you guys how the http://psncodegenerator.us/ works and to give you a quick tutorial. Sony also accepted the fact that digital copies of their products are much more convenient than the traditional hard copies, and that is why they introduced the system of PSN vouchers and cards. If you share our views that PSN games are simply too expensive and that paying well over fifty dollars for a single games is way too much, then you are welcome to use our generator. This PlayStation Code Generator is one of the few tools that allows you to generate PSN codes without any risks. Ceci est important car PlayStation vend des cartes pour chaque pays separement, de telle sorte quele code PSN soit protege geographiquement. If you desire an user-friendly and uncomplicated and fast generator then look into ZXing Undertaking. If the game is available in your region, the PSN Code Generator will work and you should have no problem getting it for your account. Having a regular PSN account will allow you to access entertainment, film, and TV services.

1 note · View note

laurelkrugerr · 4 years

Text

We Asked the Experts: How Do You Make a Google My Business Listing More ‘Clickable’?

We Asked the Experts is a series designed to provide you with the most relevant insights from local search experts. Each month we’ll cover a different question and share insights from key figures in the local SEO Company community in an effort to help you further your knowledge and strategy.

We Asked the Experts is back with a new task to tackle and some new expert local SEO Companys to share their insights!

This time around we’re tackling Google My Business — considered a key source of visibility and leads for local businesses – and more specifically, how to make your Google My Business listing more clickable.

Attributes, posts, photos, reviews, and beyond – there’s a lot to tackle when it comes to Google My Business, and it can be hard to know where to begin.

Hopefully, our experts can help to simplify the process, as they share how to make Google My Business listings more exciting, more engaging, and more ‘clickable’.

Read on to hear how our roster of local marketing agency pros would approach Google My Business optimization, and how they help clients make their listings more enticing — leading to more leads, more conversions, and better business.

How do you make a GMB listing more click-worthy?

Niki Mosier (Head of SEO Company, Two Octobers)

Having a GMB listing is definitely important but getting people to engage with the listing is even better.

I’m a big fan of utilizing the Q&A feature to help make the listing more helpful and hopefully encourage going to the website for more information.

Fresh photos don’t necessarily make the listing clickable but are a great way to make it more engaging. I’ve found product listings can be a great way to get more traffic to a website from the GMB listing as well.

Andy Simpson (Senior SEO Company Specialist, Digital Law Marketing)

Use as many of the GMB features that are available!

If there are Services then I’ll use that; if there are Products, I’ll use that; if both are open to me, I favor Products over Services, as it’s much more visually stimulating on the GMB profile. You can also add links on Products that you can then track using UTM codes, etc.

We use GMB posts on all top-level services provided by the client. We post because we know these posts appear in the 3-pack, plus we’re just fueling the beast (Google). Is it a ranking factor? Probably not. But do our clients’ GMB profiles look better than our competitors’ profiles? Yes.

We also upload good images, and videos too, as and when possible.

Ben Fisher (Founder and VP of marketing agency, Steady Demand)

Pay attention to the first 80 characters of a GMB post. This makes it much more engaging across most surfaces.

Make sure that you have Q&A populated with real questions and answers that you get/give on a regular basis, and finally, respond to all reviews for the sake of a prospective client.

Krystal Taing (Solutions Engineer, Strategic Partnerships, Uberall)

Focus on delivering the same aesthetic as if you were a brick and mortar shop on Main Street decorating your storefront window. Use every inch of digital real estate to teach the customer about your products or services.

Determine what is most important to communicate to your audience and put it on display. Assuming you have the previously mentioned core elements covered, I’d focus on visualization and engagement. From a visual perspective, I’d ensure you have rich and helpful images as well as updated Google Posts live, if available leverage the Product Editor or have Local Inventory Ads displayed.

Engage with your customers by responding to their reviews, answering their questions, and enabling messaging.

Steve Wiideman (President, Wiideman Consulting Group)

When it comes to improving appearance in Google Maps, image is everything. Literally, a business’s photos can make or break a potential user action. Monitoring and managing photos that appear in search results should be a weekly, possibly even daily, task.

For multi-location brands, one test of replacing a default store image with local store images increased listing engagement by greater than 20%. One might guess that users know the difference between a stock photo and a photo taken by a company who cares about their first impression with potential customers.

Amy Toman (search engine optimization Analyst, Digital Law Marketing, and Local SEO Company Specialist, Pet Sitter SEO)

Photos! I make sure [my clients] have many photos of valuable content, showing the staff who provide the services or work at the business. So we’ll show the staff in photos working with their specialized equipment, or standing by their vans with signage, or (for SABs), standing near local monuments like Welcome to [Location] signs. Because these are seen primarily on mobile devices, we tend to crop them so the subject is easy to identify.

We don’t recommend stock photos for this; we want to show recognizable staff to gain interest, especially when the same staff can also be seen on the associated website.

While it’s never a guarantee, designating a cover photo is also helpful, but because you’re never sure if Google will use your “suggestion,” we don’t count on that. (But if Google is reading this, it would be lovely if listing owners could indeed designate cover images and expect them to be used.)

Products! Adding your products and especially services to this menu is the best thing you can do right now. This section appears quite prominently in knowledge panels and attracts lots of attention. Attention should be paid to cropping so the elements may be quickly identified on mobile devices. This section especially helps SABs gain more attention to their listings.

Reviews! Having reviews, in general, is a good thing, but reviews that mention the business by name, or specific services, are more likely to be seen in the small snippets in Maps results. I, therefore, recommend suggesting several ways of approaching clients about reviews, helping phrase your “ask” so their reviews get picked up by Google.

Greg Gifford (VP of Search, SearchLab)

I’m a big fan of optimizing everything possible. Reviews are key, so we make sure our clients have a killer process for requesting reviews – we want as many as possible and a score in the sweet spot of 4.3-4.6.

We also upload awesome, professionally-shot photos. If clients have them, we upload videos. We upload common questions to the Q&A section and then write awesome answers (this has probably been one of the most successful strategies).

Finally, we make sure that there’s at least one live Google Post every week, with an optimized thumbnail image and compelling visible text in thumbnail view.

Crystal Horton (Digital Account Manager, Accelerate Marketing)

We coach our clients on how to get reviews that generate great reviews that will get people to take action and click. We also get our clients to respond to reviews to increase the likelihood of somebody clicking because they like that our client has taken the time to respond.

We create review videos with our clients’ customers in order to get the video carousel to show up on Google while somebody searches for our client. We also add a booking link to the client’s GMB site.

We make sure that the “leave a message” option has been turned on for our client to make it easier for people to message our clients quickly and/or make an appointment. Hours of operation are always updated and that special hours are posted as well.

We add as many FAQs as possible to answer questions and to be the only company that provides answers to questions, and add products and services to the clients GMB page to give people an idea of what is available.

Blake Denman (Founder, RicketyRoo)

For the local pack, the listing’s review count is going to make it more ‘clickable’. Once a user clicks into the GMB listing, we want to make sure we have the Questions & Answers filled out with good content, and great photos and videos.

Tim Capper (Local SEO Company Consultant, Online Ownership)

Each business is a little bit different and you should certainly experiment to see which produces the best results.

Also, keep in mind that results shown to users are slightly different depending on where the user finds you – branded query, local pack service query, local finder, or maps – each displays slightly differently. There is no one magic way of optimizing that will suit all.

So, according to our experts, you can increase your chances of gaining more leads through Google My Business by taking advantage of and optimizing each GMB component. Make sure you’ve got authentic, engaging photos, use Q&A to show customers more about the business, and showcase great customer support through responding to reviews.

Finally, as Tim Capper suggests, experiment with what works for you and keep testing until you find that magic formula.

Below we’ve shared some of our top resources related to Google My Business, so you can take the experts’ advice into your own hands.

The post We Asked the Experts: How Do You Make a Google My Business Listing More ‘Clickable’? appeared first on BrightLocal.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/we-asked-the-experts-how-do-you-make-a-google-my-business-listing-more-clickable/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/09/we-asked-experts-how-do-you-make-google.html

0 notes

riichardwilson · 4 years

Text

We Asked the Experts: How Do You Make a Google My Business Listing More ‘Clickable’?

We Asked the Experts is back with a new task to tackle and some new expert local SEO Companys to share their insights!

Attributes, posts, photos, reviews, and beyond – there’s a lot to tackle when it comes to Google My Business, and it can be hard to know where to begin.

Hopefully, our experts can help to simplify the process, as they share how to make Google My Business listings more exciting, more engaging, and more ‘clickable’.

How do you make a GMB listing more click-worthy?

Niki Mosier (Head of SEO Company, Two Octobers)

Having a GMB listing is definitely important but getting people to engage with the listing is even better.

I’m a big fan of utilizing the Q&A feature to help make the listing more helpful and hopefully encourage going to the website for more information.

Andy Simpson (Senior SEO Company Specialist, Digital Law Marketing)

Use as many of the GMB features that are available!

We also upload good images, and videos too, as and when possible.

Ben Fisher (Founder and VP of marketing agency, Steady Demand)

Pay attention to the first 80 characters of a GMB post. This makes it much more engaging across most surfaces.

Make sure that you have Q&A populated with real questions and answers that you get/give on a regular basis, and finally, respond to all reviews for the sake of a prospective client.

Krystal Taing (Solutions Engineer, Strategic Partnerships, Uberall)

Engage with your customers by responding to their reviews, answering their questions, and enabling messaging.

Steve Wiideman (President, Wiideman Consulting Group)

Amy Toman (search engine optimization Analyst, Digital Law Marketing, and Local SEO Company Specialist, Pet Sitter SEO)

We don’t recommend stock photos for this; we want to show recognizable staff to gain interest, especially when the same staff can also be seen on the associated website.

Greg Gifford (VP of Search, SearchLab)

Finally, we make sure that there’s at least one live Google Post every week, with an optimized thumbnail image and compelling visible text in thumbnail view.

Crystal Horton (Digital Account Manager, Accelerate Marketing)

Blake Denman (Founder, RicketyRoo)

Tim Capper (Local SEO Company Consultant, Online Ownership)

Each business is a little bit different and you should certainly experiment to see which produces the best results.

Finally, as Tim Capper suggests, experiment with what works for you and keep testing until you find that magic formula.

Below we’ve shared some of our top resources related to Google My Business, so you can take the experts’ advice into your own hands.

The post We Asked the Experts: How Do You Make a Google My Business Listing More ‘Clickable’? appeared first on BrightLocal.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/we-asked-the-experts-how-do-you-make-a-google-my-business-listing-more-clickable/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/628503291058405376

0 notes

scpie · 4 years

Text

We Asked the Experts: How Do You Make a Google My Business Listing More ‘Clickable’?

We Asked the Experts is back with a new task to tackle and some new expert local SEO Companys to share their insights!

Attributes, posts, photos, reviews, and beyond – there’s a lot to tackle when it comes to Google My Business, and it can be hard to know where to begin.

Hopefully, our experts can help to simplify the process, as they share how to make Google My Business listings more exciting, more engaging, and more ‘clickable’.

How do you make a GMB listing more click-worthy?

Niki Mosier (Head of SEO Company, Two Octobers)

Having a GMB listing is definitely important but getting people to engage with the listing is even better.

I’m a big fan of utilizing the Q&A feature to help make the listing more helpful and hopefully encourage going to the website for more information.

Andy Simpson (Senior SEO Company Specialist, Digital Law Marketing)

Use as many of the GMB features that are available!

We also upload good images, and videos too, as and when possible.

Ben Fisher (Founder and VP of marketing agency, Steady Demand)

Pay attention to the first 80 characters of a GMB post. This makes it much more engaging across most surfaces.

Make sure that you have Q&A populated with real questions and answers that you get/give on a regular basis, and finally, respond to all reviews for the sake of a prospective client.

Krystal Taing (Solutions Engineer, Strategic Partnerships, Uberall)

Engage with your customers by responding to their reviews, answering their questions, and enabling messaging.

Steve Wiideman (President, Wiideman Consulting Group)

Amy Toman (search engine optimization Analyst, Digital Law Marketing, and Local SEO Company Specialist, Pet Sitter SEO)

We don’t recommend stock photos for this; we want to show recognizable staff to gain interest, especially when the same staff can also be seen on the associated website.

Greg Gifford (VP of Search, SearchLab)

Finally, we make sure that there’s at least one live Google Post every week, with an optimized thumbnail image and compelling visible text in thumbnail view.

Crystal Horton (Digital Account Manager, Accelerate Marketing)

Blake Denman (Founder, RicketyRoo)

Tim Capper (Local SEO Company Consultant, Online Ownership)

Each business is a little bit different and you should certainly experiment to see which produces the best results.

Finally, as Tim Capper suggests, experiment with what works for you and keep testing until you find that magic formula.

Below we’ve shared some of our top resources related to Google My Business, so you can take the experts’ advice into your own hands.

The post We Asked the Experts: How Do You Make a Google My Business Listing More ‘Clickable’? appeared first on BrightLocal.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/we-asked-the-experts-how-do-you-make-a-google-my-business-listing-more-clickable/

0 notes

forlawfirmsonlymarketing · 4 years

Text

How verticalization and zero-click will impact local search in 2020

By Damian Rollison In a recent post on the SparkToro blog, Moz founder and search guru Rand Fishkin predicted that 2020 will be the year Google is transformed “from everyone’s search engine to everyone’s competitor.” Fishkin cites Google’s monopoly on web search and the trend toward zero-click searches, then outlines a dizzying range of examples to prove his case, from dictionaries like Merriam-Webster to lyrics sites like Genius, from news sites like USNews and FiveThirtyEight to travel sites like Expedia and Kayak … and the list goes on. Restaurant recommendations, weather, celebrity net worth, video games: just about every vertical you can think of has been impacted by a few related threads in Google’s recent development:

Featured answers

Knowledge cards

Verticalized search experiences

Zero-click transactions (Reserve with Google)

Transactions further down the funnel (Google Shopping, Google Travel)

Carousels

Local packs

All of these trends are related both technologically and strategically. From a technological perspective, they speak to the building out of the Knowledge Graph and the ubiquity of machine learning in just about everything Google touches in search. From a strategic point of view, along the lines of Fishkin’s argument, Google is pushing every potentially minable source of information, including those that hope to generate commercial transactions, further into the margins, and occupying more and more of the center of the experience. I want to share some thoughts about how all of this impacts local search, in ways that are very likely to expand in the coming year. My sense is that Google has looked very hard at the way consumers search within different types of verticals, from travel to shopping to restaurants to services and beyond, and has been tweaking the local search feature set subtly, in particular over the last year, but in some cases for much longer than that, to create ever more verticalized search experiences and own an ever-greater share of the funnel. Google wants to do this in part because of the never-ending quest towards stickiness and protection against competition. In other words, Google wants to be the best local search engine in the world, and having more or less conquered the generic use cases, verticalization is an obvious next place to go. But of course, it’s about more than that. In a scenario where the search engine succeeds beyond its wildest dreams, niche sites and directories that still serve significant margins of the population will simply be removed from the equation, leaving only Google to connect consumers with businesses. Here are a few examples of the trend.

Retail shopping

This is a case where many subtle changes over time have coalesced into what is now a vastly different product search experience than Google has presented in years past. Google is much more likely now to indicate local availability of products, even when the search has no obvious local intent: Further down the page for the same search, Google is essentially using the local listing as a conduit for customized presentation of content that meets the searcher’s needs. Note that the primary category of Target has been switched to “toy store” to help satisfy the searcher’s intent, and all three listings show that Google has mined data from the business website to determine relevance, making it unnecessary for the business to explicitly broadcast via Google My Business the availability of individual products: Particularly with product searches, Google has also focused heavily in recent months on drilling into photo content and modifying the display of listings in order to feature photos that match specific search queries. As Mike Blumenthal has demonstrated, this seems to work especially well when searching for jewelry. In my example below, Google pulls photos of earrings from among the available photos in each listing and displays them prominently in the local pack. In the third listing, Google can even tell earrings are present in a photo that also contains other items.

Hotels

Fishkin talks about this as well, but I still think it’s worth discussing hotels specifically in the context of local, because of how dramatically hotel search has changed in comparison with other local categories. This year, the local pack became the “hotel pack.” Though it looks similar to the local pack, the hotel pack is in reality a portal to a completely different search experience. You may recall that in late 2018, Google introduced a new version of the Local Finder for hotels, with a greater number of filters and a nine-by-nine grid of hotel listings; that’s already gone and replaced by the hotels section of Google Travel, which has hugely expanded the profile information available for each hotel: Tabs in the hotel profile now include Prices, Reviews, Location, About, and Photos, with data including a much-expanded list of amenities compared to what was previously available in Google My Business, as well as recommendations of things to do in the area near the hotel and photos from the business, Google users, and third-party sources.

Restaurants

Here’s a vertical with a long history of specialization. A very long history, if you remember back to the days of Hotpot and a range of other Google experiments designed to raise the profile of restaurants in search and capture traffic that might otherwise turn to Yelp or elsewhere for restaurant recommendations. That’s not surprising given the popularity of restaurant search, which must have made it seem like low-hanging fruit to Google from the beginning. In fact, in a recent survey we conducted at Brandify (written about in Search Engine Land by Greg Sterling), we found that 84% of consumers have looked up a restaurant online in the last 30 days, far more than any other category of business. Today, search for restaurants doesn’t look dramatically different from generic search, but there are several subtle differences, including prominent photos of dishes. Restaurant local packs also include special filters for ratings, cuisine type, price, hours (planning ahead to see if they’re open for brunch on Sunday), and “your past visits,” where you can ask Google to reference your location history to only show you restaurants you’ve been to before — or those you’ve never visited. In addition, editorial descriptions, such as the line “Relaxed spot for traditional meals” in the listing for Divine Thai, are far more common for restaurants than any other non-chain listing, due to the dedicated efforts of Google’s editorial team to build out that content and make restaurant search appear much more recommendation-oriented than other verticals.

Service-oriented businesses

Though Google has been steadily rolling out new features over the last couple of years for its Local Service Ads, such as the Google Guaranteed money-back program and the Google Screened license verification service, the initiative feels only half realized. Perhaps this is because so many verticals are still excluded from buying Local Service Ads — real estate agents, attorneys, and financial planners were added in 2019, augmenting a list that currently includes about 30 other business types such as locksmiths, plumbers, pet groomers, photographers, house cleaners, and pest control. Local Service Ads are also not available in all regions of the U.S., though coverage has been growing. The user experience for Local Service Ads is somewhat anemic when compared with Google Shopping or Google Travel. When I search for “house cleaners anaheim ca” I see an ad carousel at the top of the screen, with a local pack right underneath competing for traffic. Compared to Google Hotels, I have much less of a clear incentive to choose the sponsored path: Once I enter the Local Service Ads interface proper and select a business, I’m presented with a profile much simpler than that of the hotel example I shared above. If this is supposed to stand in for a business website, it’s not particularly impressive. Still, the very existence of Local Service Ads speaks to Google’s interest in becoming the HomeAdvisor of the future, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a leap forward at some point where Google provides a more robust recommendation service, perhaps with a basic level that is free to businesses. Today, service-oriented businesses are caught between having to pay for ads (if they qualify) or trying to rank alongside brick-and-mortar businesses in Google Maps and the local pack, which has traditionally been a huge challenge for them — no doubt one of the reasons service-oriented categories like locksmiths, garage door installers, and even attorneys have become notorious for listing spam.

Where is Google headed next?

Given the momentum Google is building around verticalized experiences, there’s every likelihood that the company will continue to add more verticals to its roster in the coming year and beyond. In fact, a recent Think with Google report may provide a hint to the company’s direction in this regard, given that it specifically calls out grocery, automotive and finance in a section called “Traditional industries are transforming with digital.” Google notes that in the past two years, mobile searches for “grocery app” have increased 900%, mobile searches for “electric car(s)” have grown by 85%, and mobile searches for financial planning and management have grown by 70%. These are the kinds of demand signals a data-driven company like Google surely looks to when determining where to build out new feature sets. Speaking of mobile searches, verticalization is a curious case where desktop is actually out in front of mobile as a locus of innovation. Though, for instance, the mobile browser version of Google hotel search is more or less the same as desktop, all those extra tabs feel crowded in, and the search experience isn’t as strong. And Google Maps — where much of the growth in local search is currently happening — still hasn’t switched over to the new interface for hotels, constrained no doubt by the need to present a unified in-app experience. It will be especially interesting to see how Google balances the priority of verticalization against the growing popularity of Google Maps as the first choice among searchers. This is part of a special feature from our community of experts on what successful marketers will do in 2020. > (opens in a new tab)" href="https://marketingland.com/23-expert-predictions:-heres-what-successful-marketers-will-do-in-2020-272786" target="_blank">Read more >>

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Damian Rollison is VP of Product Strategy at Brandify, a leading local search solution provider specializing in multilocation brands. Damian has more than ten years of experience in SEO, reputation management, and listings management, having previously served as product lead at UBL and Moon Valley Software. Damian writes a regular column at Street Fight covering various topics in local.

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/how-verticalization-and-zero-click-will-impact-local-search-in-2020/

#googlesearchranking #localseo #onlinemarketing #dailydoseofmarketing

0 notes

goarticletec-blog · 6 years

Text

The best Black Friday deals of 2018: The Cheapskate's picks

New Post has been published on https://www.articletec.com/the-best-black-friday-deals-of-2018-the-cheapskates-picks-4/

The best Black Friday deals of 2018: The Cheapskate's picks

Sarah Tew/CNET

Free iPhone, anyone? That’s just one of the pretty damn sweet deals lined up ahead of Black Friday, which kicks off just a few days from now (Nov. 23, if you’re bad at calendaring).

As always, I spend my time looking for the best of the best, the cream of the cheap crop. Sleep? I’ll sleep when I’m dead! Right through midnight on Friday, I’ll continue to serve up my favorite Black Friday deals of 2018.

To clarify, these are my favorite deals so far. Because we’re still a few days away from the big day (this was last updated Nov. 21), there may be late-breaking additions — so be sure to bookmark this post and check back often.

Also, note that unless otherwise specified, all deals listed here will be available starting Nov. 23. CNET may get a share of revenue from the sale of the products featured on this page.

The Cheapskate’s favorite Black Friday 2018 deals

Apple Watch Series 3: $199 (save $80)

Screenshot by Alina Bradford/CNET

Macy’s decided not to wait for Black Friday or even Thanksgiving. The Apple Watch Series 3 is available right now for this all-time-low price. Yes, it’s last year’s model, but there’s an awful lot of tech packed into this thing, which is why at $199 I have no qualms about recommending it.

See at Macy’s

Apple Watch Series 3 review

iPhone XR: Free! (Save $750)

Angela Lang/CNET

OK, make that “free*.” The asterisk is because you have to sign up for a US Cellular unlimited plan and stick with it for 30 months. The iPhone XR is paid for during that time in the form of bill credit. Still, you’re going to be paying for service from some carrier, right? When all is said and done, you will indeed walk away with a $750 phone you paid not an extra penny for. The deal is live right now and runs through Nov. 26.

See at US Cellular

iPhone XR review

3 months of Mint Mobile for $20 (save $40)

Mint Mobile

Shopping for a new carrier? On Black Friday and Cyber Monday, prepay-and-save service Mint Mobile will have one of the best trial offers ever: 3 months for $20. That nets you unlimited minutes and messages and 5GB of LTE data (on T-Mobile’s network) per month. After that, you can choose between various 3-, 6- and 12-month plans, all of which amortize out to extremely low rates.

See at Mint Mobile

Two Amazon Echo second-gen smart speakers: $100 (save $100)

QVC

Sure, Amazon will be selling the Echo for $69 on Turkey Day, but this QVC deal is even better. Score two of the smart speakers for just $99.98, a price that includes a voucher for extras like three months of Pandora Premium and three months of FreeTime Unlimited. Update, Nov. 20: The price now shows $109.98, but if you’re a new QVC customer, promo code TEN4U takes $10 off.

See at QVC

Echo review

Sphero BB-8 app-enabled droid: $30 (save $100)

Sphero

For anyone who loved the idea of an app-controlled BB-8 but didn’t relish paying $130, your patience has paid off. Sphero’s cute, versatile little roller has never been priced this low. Just sign in to My Best Buy to see this lower price.

See at Best Buy

Sphero BB-8 hands-on

Amazon Echo Dot (third-generation): $24 (save $26)

Ry Crist/CNET

There are plenty of standouts in Amazon’s roster of Black Friday deals, but for me the real standout is the just-released third-generation Echo Dot. Given that it’s brand-new, Amazon could easily have left it at $50, or even just lopped $10 off while selling last year’s model for the bigger discount. (As it happens, the second-gen Dot will be $4 less!) But just $24 for the smart speaker with the cloth suit and bigger, better sound? Yes, please. And don’t expect to see this deal again until Prime Day 2019.

See at Amazon

Echo Dot review

Huawei Honor View 10: $349 (save $150)

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Normally $500, and never before priced below $429, this powerhouse metal phablet features a 6-inch screen, dual rear cameras, dual SIM slots, Android 8.1 and — wait for it — a headphone jack! Just make sure you’re not buying this phone for someone who’s a US government employee or contractor, as federal security agencies have effectively deemed Huawei to be a national security threat.

See at Amazon

Honor View 10 review

Apple iPad (2018): $250 (save $80)

Sarah Tew/CNET

Wait, how is this better than Amazon’s Fire HD 10 for $100? Because, let’s face it, the iPad is an all-around better tablet, and at $250 it’s actually reasonable.

See at Target

iPad 2018 review

PlayStation 4 1TB with Spider-Man bundle: $200 (save $100)

Insomniac Games

My spendy senses are tingling. Update, Nov. 22, 3:30 p.m. PT: Target and a few other stores decided not to wait for Black Friday, so this deal is sold out everywhere we can see online. It’s sold out quickly, with good reason: It’s an excellent deal on a great console bundled with one of the hottest games of 2018. Target is still showing as “available” in select stores, hit the link below to check your own nearby brick and mortar.

Pro tip: If you’re willing to brave the lines at Kohl’s, you can get this same deal on the PS4 bundle, plus $60 in Kohl’s cash.

See at Target

PlayStation 4 review

TCL 55-inch Roku TV: $350 (save $100)

Sarah Tew/CNET

On sale at Amazon, Target and Walmart for the same price, and available right now, this may be the 55-inch TV deal to beat this year. You get a big screen, the unparalleled Roku interface and picture quality that belies this bargain-basement price.

See at Amazon

TCL S405 review

Ring Video Doorbell 2: $139 (save $60)

Chris Monroe/CNET

Wireless and equipped with a rechargeable battery, the Ring Video Doorbell 2 is among the easiest video doorbells to install and keep charged. It also integrates nicely with the Amazon Echo Show for an at-a-glance view of who’s at your door. At $199 it’s not exactly Cheapskate-approved, but $139 is definitely more in the ballpark. The optional $3-a-month cloud storage fee is reasonable, too.

See at Ring

Ring Doorbell 2 review

Art.com: Save 50 percent sitewide

Art.com

Need to dress up some walls? On Nov. 23 only, you can score 50 percent off all purchases at both Art.com. Looking for something a little more casual? On Nov. 24, AllPosters will be offering up to 60 percent off sitewide.

See at Art.com

The Instant Pot six-in-one cooker: $60 (save $40)

There’s no question that every kitchen should have a pressure cooker. The Instant Pot is also a slow cooker and four other kinds of cooker. This same deal ($60 instead of $100) tends to come around annually, but that doesn’t make it any less appetizing. If you don’t own one yet or you need a killer gift for a foodie, now’s the time to buy.

See at Walmart

5 reasons you should own an Instant Pot

Motorola Moto G6: $200 (save $50)

Josh Miller/CNET

Already a steal at the regular $250 price, the G6 gets even steal-ier when you knock $50 off. It’s unlocked, so take it to whatever carrier has the best deal — or best coverage.

See at Best Buy

Moto G6 review

HP Pavilion X360 with Intel Core i7 and 1TB hard drive: $450 ($350 off)

Wowza, Office Depot! You’ve undercut just about everybody on this 15.6-inch two-in-one powerhouse. This is one of the best laptop deals of 2018, bar none.

See at Office Depot

HP Pavilion X360 review

That’s it for now! But as noted earlier, check back for new stuff as Black Friday draws closer.

Now playing: Watch this: Tricks to score extra savings on Black Friday and Cyber…

2:06

Read more: CNET’s complete guide to Black Friday 2018

Read more: CNET’s Holiday Gift Guide 2018

Get the best deals from The Cheapskate in your inbox

CNET’s Cheapskate scours the web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Note that CNET may get a share of revenue from the sale of the products featured on this page. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page. Find more great buys on the CNET Deals page and follow the Cheapskate on Facebook and Twitter!

Fitbit Versa Special Edition

Source link

0 notes

itsstrangefoxcollectorblog-blog · 6 years

Text

What Is ClickKosh

What Is ClickKosh?

ClickKosh software Lets You Dominate in a Couple of Clicks....Discover. Engage. Profit

■ Let your customers shop what they see. Sell multiple objects from a single image [+] Use anywhere: ■ Use any campaign to drive traffic and sales on your blog, ecommerce website, and partner websites. Integrate with your favourite platform [+] Mobile Friendly: ■ Shoppable pictures are laser-focused on converting cellular visitors while maintaining the look and feel of this system. [+] Simple to use: ■ Don't code anything, do not employ a designer. Just point and click interface to curate compelling profitable images in under a moment. Just kick back and observe the clicks roster in [+] Totally Customizable: ■ Add hotspot that matches your campaign, Edit the pictures with best and simplest designing tools inbuilt [+] No Experience required: ■ Whether you are an experienced marketer or just beginning, this untapped marketplace is prepared for you

■ Content with relevant images get 940/0 m Ore viewpoints and engagement than articles without ■ Visual Content is the most accepted form of articles online & offline ■ 53% of all internet users have re-posted a photo or video they have found online. ■ 99% of all business owners & entrepreneurs use images to sell more information on line The Sun never sets on interpersonal media, people are seeing, scrolling and purchasing constantly. They're surrounded by content everywhere and each marketer is targeting them You aren't the only vendor, there are a lot of sellers selling and you must do something to be noticed. Something they are not doing. Just how to acquire more customers in this competition? Engage... Click... Convert Your site/store has a lot to do so as to capture visitor's attention and as a result of this...

In all honesty, your customers have seen countless pages like yours. They see some text and images... they Need to go through All the content and not everyone has that much time Their subconscious already started ignoring the tradition methods of promotion.

The lack of engagement means that less people will see your product or offer. That results to greater bounce rate and fewer sales They didn't buy anything Fastest Selling System Ever...

■ Marketing Giants have figured it out and they've been utilizing this revolutionary visual engagement platform for simple sales and leads. ■ You don't have to spend tens of thousands of bucks on content production and advertisements. You just need to innovate and change your existing efforts into storytelling visual method. ■ Visual campaigns prevents your traffic from rebounding and scrolling. Most People Are Doing It erroneous: People already know the importance of visual content. However, what are they doing wrong? You've won half of this conflict already by stopping them from scrolling. However, what's the point of this if visitors are not converting? They're losing a lot of money on the table. However, the solution is simple Hammering Right Message at the Perfect Time to Right People

If you traffic can take action directly in the picture that kept them engaged without requiring any extra step.

250% more engagement and sales that We've seen in out campaigns

And That Is Why ClickKosh Was Born...

7 Reasons why you MUST start using hotspot graphics for your next campaign:

■ People are posting pictures online for decades and they've curated tend to ignore them. ■ Visual and animated content grabs the attention inside 1/10th of the second which is impossible to ignore => New Point of Sale: ■ Every regular Joe is utilizing CTA buttons for website, site or ecommerce shop and for that visitor have to take an extra step. ■ Remove that extra step and start getting gains right inside the pictures and you can market several campaigns from one picture concurrently => 5X more prospects and sales: ■ It is hard to have action on regular campaign because people have developed an immunity towards these optin box and buy buttons. ■ With hotspot images you could show the details in a storytelling style and take an unfair advantage by getting more sales and leads

=> Show your offer without redirecting in 1 click:

■ Do not lose your visitors by redirecting to additional page. With hotspot pictures you can just show your offer, product information in rather interactive storytelling manner.

=> More actions from a single picture:

■ Do not limit yourself by simply getting clickthroughs. With hotspot images you can add click to call, popover videos in super interactive way. ■ Plus you can customize your hotspot frames and icons which fit your brand and campaign => Best Layout for Most Gain: ■ Don't pay hefty amount for your designer. Don't outsource the work to those freelances that can cost a arm and a leg. ■ Best and easiest designing tools integrated inside. So you can create best designs by yourself without all technical hassle

=> Integrate with your favorite platform:

■ You can use these hotspot images together with your favorite platform without any difficulty ■ You can use these images into your own blog, any page builder as well as shopify with complete control

Create An Unmatched Omnichannel Experience With ClickKosh Software:

Clickkosh have been producing amazing results for beta customers irrespective of your market, market, manufacturer or company size. Clickkosh harnesses the power of visual material and storytelling method Which Makes It impossible to ignore and skyrocket your profits nevertheless you want to utilize it... Possibilities are endless => Ecommerce Store Owners: ■ Showcase multiple products simultaneously. Let your visitors have a visual and more indepth view to store exactly what they need. And not to mention it makes cross-selling super simple for you just like amazon

■ Produce and upload hotspot images directly inside the facebook tab is easy. => Website Owners: Prove your call to action in fresh and unique manner. Whether it's about lead generation or selling your ebook or anything => Affiliate Marketer: ■ Showcase the affiliate products in entirely new way and you can promote multiple products simultaneously. Inspire your customers to take action in highly engaging method => Authors: ■ Captivate the attention of your visitors to encourage visitors to click and take action in your on the products you want to market or banners, offers even direct gen pages https://kenvinreviews.com/clickkosh-review

0 notes

junker-town · 7 years

Text

Rice coach David Bailiff has somehow managed to average 5-7 records for a decade

The Owls face an uphill battle in 2017, but what else is new?

This preview originally published February 28 and has since been updated.

David Bailiff has walked through the world a little differently than most coaches, and at this point in his career, the 58-year-old has produced one of the stranger résumés imaginable.

He has mentored two current Big 12 head coaches — Texas' Tom Herman, Kansas' David Beaty (not to mention Colorado defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot and Rutgers offensive coordinator-turned-Herman assistant Drew Mehringer) — without ever coaching in a major conference himself.

And in a decade at Rice, he has managed to both win a Conference USA title (unlikely) and average a 5-7 season without getting fired (perhaps even more unlikely).

A small-school product — he graduated from Texas State back when it had "Southwest" at the start of its name — Bailiff began his coaching career as a high school defensive line coach, then ended it.

Bailiff went into private business but was drawn back as a graduate assistant at his alma mater. He claimed a branch on the Dennis Franchione tree, then followed Franchione to New Mexico.

When his former teammate Bob DeBesse took the job at (SW) TXST, Bailiff signed on as his defensive coordinator. And when Franchione left TCU for the Alabama job and his successor, Gary Patterson, was looking for a line coach, Bailiff got the call.

Bailiff got his first head coaching gig, naturally, back at the alma mater. He won 21 games in three years and took his Bobcats to the 2005 I-AA semifinals, and that was enough to attract a rather desperate Rice. The Owls had gone 45 years between bowls (with only six winning seasons in the process) before first-year head coach Todd Graham brought them to the New Orleans Bowl in 2006 and left for Tulsa. Scorned and scrambling, the program went unorthodox.

The results have been ... unorthodox. Bailiff has been known for innovative offenses despite his history as a defensive coach, and he has produced four bowls, a conference title, two 10-win seasons ... and three three-win (or worse) campaigns. Either things click or they don't.

In the meantime, Rice has upgraded its facilities and shed most of its "You simply can't win here" reputation.

Bailiff's tenure has been a success. But the downfall has been undeniable. Since winning C-USA in 2013, the win total has fallen from 10 to eight to five to three. The Owls' S&P+ ranking has gone from 65th to 78th to 118th to 121st. In theory, when you raise your program's standards and then fail to meet the raised bar, you are cut loose. But here Bailiff is, preparing for his 11th year near downtown H-Town.

Bailiff has already pulled off two turnarounds at Rice. Following a 3-9 debut, he ripped off 10-win season No. 1. And following a stretch of just 10 wins in three years (2009-11), he won 25 over the next three. He has proved that, given time, he can figure things out, and despite the crazy impatience of this profession, he has been given that time.

Does he have another turnaround in him? Based on what we've learned about the talent, it's hard to be too optimistic. An offense that ranked 97th in Off. S&P+ must replace its leading passer, rusher, and receiver. A defense that was true dreck must replace maybe its two best playmakers. The defense does have far more experience than it did, and the offensive line could be one of the conference's best. But is that enough? Injuries and a stomach virus played a role in Rice’s low 2016 ratings, but is there actually upside?

Of course, my 2012 Rice preview wasn't optimistic either, was it?

Rice has long been a lovely underdog tale. And who knows, with sustained success following 2008's run, they may have been able to shove their way into "Smart-kid school of the Big East" status. But as it stands, college football's power structure has left Rice behind, and little about the 2012 roster suggests they will be capable of getting any of that back this fall.

Rice began 2012 by losing six of eight. Then the Owls won 15 of their next 19.

2016 in review

2016 Rice statistical profile.

The less said about Rice's 2016, the better. If you're looking for reasons for optimism, you could point to the fact that the Owls began 0-6 and finished 3-3. There was a bit of an uptick in quality:

First 6 games (0-6) — Avg. percentile performance: 19 percent (~top 105) | Avg. score: Opp 36, Rice 19 (-17) | Yards per play: Opp 7.2, Rice 4.8 (-2.4)

Last 6 games (3-3) — Avg. percentile performance: 36 percent (~top 80) | Avg. score: Opp 39, Rice 32 (-7) | Yards per play: Opp 7.7, Rice 5.5 (-2.2)

Still, the defense regressed down the stretch almost as much as the offense improved, and Rice's three wins came against a below-average FCS team (Prairie View A&M) and teams ranked 122nd (UTEP) and 125th (Charlotte) in S&P+. Within that span, they also lost by 45 to Louisiana Tech and by 17 to a pretty bad FAU.

So let's just move on. Rice was bad. Let's see if the Owls will be better.

(Actually, one more thing, if only because of uniqueness: about one-third of the team was floored by a stomach virus in late-October. That probably explains a little bit of the ghastly margin against La. Tech and the loss to FAU.)

Offense

Full advanced stats glossary.

Bailiff's career has been defined as much as anything by strong hires. Indeed, he gave well-regarded young coaches early-career breaks. And you could say he's staking his latest turnaround on another couple of young guys.

Billy Lynch has been around for a while now. He's entering his seventh season at Rice and his fourth as at least co-coordinator. The Ball State grad was able to figure out a decent path in 2016 -- the Owls' offense only improved from 102nd to 97th in Off. S&P+, but it did improve by quite a bit later in the season.

The Lynch offense was a pretty familiar one for Rice; it had a high tempo and created a decent number of solo tackles (indicating spread-out defenses), though the Owls did run a bit more than they previously have. Quarterback Tyler Stehling had his moments of mobility; not including sacks, he rushed about six to seven times per game at about six yards per carry. QBs rushed more times in 2016 than in 2015, when Driphus Jackson was behind center.

Still, Rice went from rushing 68 percent of the time on standard downs (20th in FBS) to 58 percent (80th); the Owls also ran more on passing downs than they did the year before, a product of some combination of Stehling's scrambling and an attempt at unpredictability.

Last year doesn't really matter, though, because Stehling's gone. In his stead comes a battle royale. Three other QBs (sophomores Jackson Tyner and J.T. Granato and senior Nate German, who is more WR than QB at this point) threw passes last year, and a couple of three-star youngsters (redshirt Sam Glaesmann and incoming signee Miklo Smalls) could enter the mix.

Actually, all five were three-star recruits; Bailiff's reputation has allowed him to ink some intriguing quarterback talent. But someone will need to seize the job, and you never know how that will go.

I guess you could consider Tyner the favorite; when Stehling got hurt against UTEP, Tyner lost an early fumble but then led the Owls to 34 straight points. (He had a miserable outing against Stanford in the season finale, but Stanford's not in Conference USA.)

Another young coach could play an important role. Wesley Beschorner is the new QBs coach, and while I rarely talk about position coaches in these previews, he was a quality control guy for Matt Canada’s awesome 2016 Pitt offense, and he fits the profile of a guy who often thrives under Bailiff.

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Jackson Tyner

The quarterback will have at least a couple of exciting weapons. Former star recruit Samuel Stewart had a breakout season in support of since-departed back Darik Dillard. Stewart ended up with 603 combined rushing and receiving yards and six touchdowns; he averaged 6.2 yards per carry (with better efficiency and explosiveness than Dillard), and he did most of his damage in only five games. He'll need to prove he can stay healthy, but if he does, he's a big threat.

Also a threat: senior receiver Temi Alaka [Update: he’s since transferred to USF]. He had only four catches for 26 yards in the first four games of the year, then put up 24 for 432 over the next seven. A lot of that came against PVAMU (six catches, 143 yards), but he made big plays against Southern Miss, FAU, and UTEP, too. He and sophomore possession man Kylen Granson bring some nice size and potential to the table, as do similarly-sized juniors Lance Wright and Parker Smith.

The biggest assets, though, might be up front. As with a lot of units last year, injury forced some shuffling on Rice's offensive line, but the Owls bring back seven hosses with starting experience, including honorable-mention all-conference performers Calvin Anderson (left tackle) and Trey Martin (center) and two-year starting guard Peter Godber. There is meat here, too: the 12 linemen I list on Rice's preview data page have an average size of 6'4, 306.

With a stable starting five, this could be an excellent line, and when you think about Stewart behind this line, you start to see big improvement in Rice's future.

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

Samuel Stewart

Defense

With each preview, I share an offensive and defensive radar for each team. They are designed to communicate pockets of strength or weakness. And if the radar is pretty much deflated, well, that says something, too.

So:

Yeah. Rice wanted to be aggressive and produced a decent pass rush and success rate. But if opponents got a pass off, it was finding its target, and the recipient was running a long way. And efficiency wasn’t nearly enough of a strength to account for the big plays.

Let’s put this another way:

Bad.

The good news, as it were, is that injuries (and illness!) really did make things worse. Rice ended up with 11 linemen making between eight and 32 tackles; five missed at least one game, and three missed at least four. Meanwhile, of the 11 primary defensive backs, five missed time, and a 12th missed all season.

The only thing worse than having a shaky lineup is having a shaky lineup that changes every week.

Now, for all we know, the injury bug will bite again this fall. But if that regresses toward a more acceptable mean, Rice's 2017 lineup might’ve benefited from 2016. Ten of those 11 linemen return, as do nine of those 12 defensive backs. And senior Emmanuel Ellerbee is back to anchor the linebacking corps.

Photo by Mike Comer/Getty Images

Emmanuel Ellerbee

Stats show continuity is most important at the back of the defense, and Rice has it. The main problem, though, is that maybe the two best play-makers (safety Tabari McGaskey and middle linebacker Alex Lyons) are among the small handful of departed defenders.

There appears to be potential up front. The top three returning ends (Blain Padgett, Graysen Schantz, Brian Womac) combined for 19.5 tackles for loss and six sacks last year, and the top four returning tackles (Preston Gordon, Roe Wilkins, Carl Thompson, Zach Abercrumbia) combined for 12.5 and six, respectively. There isn't enough size here -- none of those ends are over 250 pounds, and only two of those tackles are over 280 -- but the activity level could compensate.

The biggest loss is probably McGaskey. He combined 11 tackles for loss with six passes defensed (a rare combination), and he was the only real play-maker in the back. Nickel back Destri White did have four tackles for loss, and three returnees had at least four passes defensed (four if you include sophomore Justin Bickham, who missed 2016), but there will need to be improvement there.

Well, there will need to be improvement everywhere. Rice had the worst passing downs defense in the country even with a decent pass rush, and the Owls' "strongest" primary rating was a No. 92 spot in Standard Downs S&P+. Even if the offense comes together, you don't have a high ceiling with such a woeful defense. But we'll see what better injuries luck can do.

Special Teams

Special teams made things neither better nor worse for Rice. The Owls were 87th in Special Teams S&P+ ranking between 54th and 96th in all five individual categories. The entire unit returns, so the extent that experience matters, it could boost the lineup a hair. But there probably won't be significant shifts up or down here.

2017 outlook

2017 Schedule & Projection Factors

Date Opponent Proj. S&P+ Rk Proj. Margin Win Probability 26-Aug vs. Stanford 12 -32.8 3% 9-Sep at UTEP 126 -0.9 48% 16-Sep at Houston 49 -22.1 10% 23-Sep Florida International 104 -1.3 47% 30-Sep at Pittsburgh 33 -25.6 7% 7-Oct Army 102 -1.8 46% 21-Oct at UTSA 91 -10.6 27% 28-Oct Louisiana Tech 82 -6.4 36% 4-Nov at UAB 130 10.4 73% 11-Nov Southern Miss 84 -6.1 36% 18-Nov at Old Dominion 93 -10.1 28% 25-Nov North Texas 106 -0.7 48%

Projected S&P+ Rk 120 Proj. Off. / Def. Rk 106 / 112 Projected wins 4.1 Five-Year S&P+ Rk -15.1 (121) 2- and 5-Year Recruiting Rk 124 / 111 2016 TO Margin / Adj. TO Margin* -7 / -8.3 2016 TO Luck/Game +0.5 Returning Production (Off. / Def.) 66% (53%, 78%) 2016 Second-order wins (difference) 3.9 (-0.9)

When you've slid for three straight years and don't have impressive recruiting rankings, you are, of course, going to project pretty poorly. That S&P+ says Rice will rank around 120th this year isn't a surprise. And at that level, the Owls are given a better than 50 percent chance of winning in just one game this fall.

But if you're hoping Bailiff has another turnaround in him, you don't have to spin too much. For one thing, Rice really was beset by an abnormal number of knocks last year. And for another, the schedule isn't that far from flipping in the Owls' favor.

Rice faces four games with a win probability between 46 and 48 percent and two more with 36 percent. Granted, a bowl bid would require the Owls to win all but one of them, but you can at least see how a healthier, far more experienced team finds a quarterback, plays well in the trenches, and stops its recent slide.

You can also see how the Bailiff era limps to a quiet end, of course. You can see that more clearly, in fact. But Bailiff has stared down the odds before.

Team preview stats

All preview data to date.

0 notes

goarticletec-blog · 6 years

Text

The best Black Friday deals of 2018: The Cheapskate's picks

New Post has been published on https://www.articletec.com/the-best-black-friday-deals-of-2018-the-cheapskates-picks-3/

The best Black Friday deals of 2018: The Cheapskate's picks

Sarah Tew/CNET

Perhaps you’ve heard? Black Friday is coming, and even this jaded Cheapskate must admit there are some exciting deals lined up for Nov. 23.

Looking for the best of the best? The cream of the cheap crop? I’ve sifted through all the ads, press releases and secret notes passed to me in the lunchroom to bring you these, my favorite Black Friday deals of 2018.

To clarify, these are my favorite deals so far. Because we’re still a little over a week out from the big day, there may be late-breaking additions — so be sure to bookmark this post and check back often (last updated Nov. 13).

Also, note that unless otherwise specified, all deals listed here will be available starting Nov. 23. CNET may get a share of revenue from the sale of the products featured on this page.

The Cheapskate’s favorite Black Friday 2018 deals

3 months of Mint Mobile for $20 (save $40)

Mint Mobile

See at Mint Mobile

Two Amazon Echo second-gen smart speakers: $100 (save $100)

QVC

See at QVC

Echo review

Sphero BB-8 app-enabled droid: $30 (save $100)

Sphero

See at Best Buy

Sphero BB-8 hands-on

Amazon Echo Dot (third-generation): $24 (save $26)

Ry Crist/CNET

See at Amazon

Echo Dot review

Huawei Honor View 10: $349 (save $150)

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

See at Amazon

Honor View 10 review

Apple iPad (2018): $250 (save $80)

Sarah Tew/CNET

Wait, how is this better than Amazon’s Fire HD 10 for $100? Because, let’s face it, the iPad is an all-around better tablet, and at $250 it’s actually reasonable.

See at Target

iPad 2018 review

PlayStation 4 1TB with Spider-Man bundle: $200 (save $100)

Insomniac Games

My spendy senses are tingling. Target and a few other stores decided not to wait for Black Friday, so this deal is running now. And it’s selling out quickly, with good reason: It’s an excellent deal on a great console bundled with one of the hottest games of 2018. Pro tip: If you’re willing to brave the lines at Kohl’s, you can get this same deal on the PS4 bundle, plus $60 in Kohl’s cash.