#probably because there's a strictly increasing function from 'number of times I see posts like that on my dash' | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

demonslayedher · 3 years

Text

The Sharing of Demon Cells

Kibutsuji Muzan is the basis upon which all other demons live. They were altered by his cells, having more of his cells makes them more powerful, he can reach into their thoughts and sight whenever he likes, and should they ever slip up and say something that will pose a threat to him, the cells of his that each demon carries will act as a curse and kill them. But each demon is also an individual, and their own cells determine what sort of being they'll become, and how useful they'll be to Muzan in doing what he cannot. To what extent can their own cells be shared and influence others, a reflection of the way Muzan's can be? This will be heavily based on info presented in Fanbook #2, but will also look at cases throughout the manga.

Influence of Muzan's Cells First, let's consider how unique or separate the demons are in the first place. All demons have Muzan's cells, except Yushiro who was created without them, and when Muzan was killed all the demons died too. This dependency, as well as the fact that each demon essentially acts as a long-distance extension of Muzan, might make it seem like they are a hivemind, or like an aspen forest, in which it looks like there are lots of trees but actually they are all one living entity connected by their roots. However, I think it's better to think of Muzan like one core tree, and the other demons like plants that growth on top on him with roots dependent on him, though they use their own leaves to reap... well, sunlight. Maybe this is a bad metaphor. We can still, however, thing of them as intimately intertwined.

Essentially, they are their own unique beings almost like parasites to him, because in most cases we've seen of people turning to demons, there was more or less a death of the human. In the two cases of demons turning human again, with the help of medicine to unweave themselves from Muzan, the mere time spent as a demon which self-repairing cells was what already zapped life back into them. In other cases, while still intimating interwoven with Muzan, that means they'd have been dragging down with him. This means Nezuko got very lucky with her timing that the medicine had an effect on her before Muzan perished; though perhaps she freed herself enough that this would not have had an effect. For those demons that aren't as lucky (Tamayo had a pure stroke of luck being able to break from, as though the thorny vines turned brittle enough for her to break through when Muzan was in pieces after encountering Yoriichi, and then it was impossible to bring her back), this means being vulnerable to Muzan's wishes at any time. While Muzan himself is essentially in pieces at all times, what with being present inside of each of his demons, he is the progenitor of demons, and this doesn't cause him any ill effects (making him more like a host rather than interdependent). However, other demons have also shown this ability to break themselves into multiple pieces.

The Swamp Demon: One demon in three bodies showing different attributes, but all the same being. Notably, this was not it's only Blood Technique, it had also developed a whole sub-dimension. Pretty rough first mission for a newbie, although it's possible it did not yet have mastery of its own rather impressive techniques (like Kaigaku). Hantengu: His self-splitting is more complicated, in that he first gains strength when he is cut, especially in taking on younger forms, until reaching the limits of this. Make enough copies, and his copies will no longer gain extra strength, like how repeated clones will have shorter and shorter DNA code on which to base themselves, or how photocopying copy after copy instead of the original will lead to blurrier copies. While like the Swamp Demon these different bodies show different personalities, it's a more advanced technique because they also show entirely different abilities, and function like multiple demons that happen to share the same basic identity. What gets really interesting is when one of these demons forcefully absorbs the others and grows more powerful.

Demon cannibalism is not an ideal way of gaining strength, but it happens. As mentioned in this post analyzing how demons rely on their human diet, demons at the Final Selection were known to eat each other, but clearly this doesn't make them as formidable as eating humans would, and it may had only been a desperate act to quell their own maddening hunger. However, in cases when demons have challenged each other, the loser may be absorbed. That is precisely what Kokushibou did on two of the three occasions he was challenged for the Upper Moon One rank, according to Fanbook #2 (he decided not to eat Akaza because he liked him). This cannibalism was done with Muzan's permission, and if it's anything like Sekido absorbing the other Hantengu quarters to become Zouhakuten, then we can assume Kokushibou got stronger because of the cells he took from those demons, perhaps similar to how cells from Muzan can make a demon more powerful. While we're on the topic of Upper Moons, Fanbook #2 states that only they have the permission to make other demons, and even so, they must ask Muzan for permission first. I'm assuming they're also the only ones allowed to call Muzan up on the mental telephone line instead of just be on the receiving end. If Muzan agrees, their blood is changed, so essentially what they give the new demon hopeful is not their own blood, but Muzan's. There is only demon we know of who has permission to share his own unique cells, which influence demons in their own unique way, separate from the influence Muzan already has. Lower Moon Five, Rui, simply by virtue of being a favorite. Fanbook #2 tells us:

Although he's only been a demon for less than twenty years, he's especially skilled, and well-favored by Muzan. In terms of absolute abilities he's thought to be more like Lower Moon One or Two, but since he isn't concerned about what number he is he's never applied for change in rank. Muzan anticipated Rui being able to kill Pillars. He probably would had been able to have a good match with a Pillar if he first reabsorbed all the abilities he split up amongst the demons playing the roles of his family (that is, his Blood Techniques which he lent to them by making them drink his blood, which gave them spider appearances), and he probably could had gotten even stronger. However, because he got over-emotional while fighting Tanjiro and the others on Mt. Natagumo, he made some misjudgments. He has a tendency to do simple attacks just throwing his weight around when he gets angry. If Rui were defeated first, his family member demons, who could not originally use Blood Techniques, would lose those abilities.

We can infer a few things from this: --All of those techniques were Rui's in the first place --Rui became weaker by doing this (though his overall strategy in spreading his abilities lead to lots and lots of Demon Slayer Corp deaths, so this is probably part of why Muzan allowed it), so there are limitations in how thinly he can spread himself --If not Rui's personal techniques and instead developed by being in combination with the individual demons' he shared his blood with, that's perhaps part of why he could had gotten more powerful by reabsorbing his own blood/blood techniques. While Rui did have special permission, I think it's also partly because Rui lacked ambition, so he never would had set about to challenge Muzan by spreading his own personal influence. Just think what, say, someone like Gyokko would had done with this permission, and how much he might had abused it in spreading his own taste and influence. Though he's subservient to Muzan, with too much of a taste for power, it's possible he could had tried to overstep his boundaries--not that Muzan would had let that last long the moment he saw it in his thoughts, but keeping tight rules prevents him from ever having to deal with any challenges from among his more powerful demons. If we look at the Rui-Demon Family relationship from the receiving end, though, this is a clear case for how taking cells from other demons can make a demon much stronger, thereby being another option besides eating humans or possible other self-strengthening methods. While they did on the whole become stronger and were newly able to use Blood Techniques with Rui's help, what about other cases of not simply getting stronger, but using each others' techniques as-is? Yahara and Susamaru, perhaps? Not quite, they each used their own Blood Techniques and willingly cooperated with each other, there was no exchange of cells, as far as we know. (That sounds dirty, and we're not going there.) How about when anybody uses Yushirou's papers? First, those abilities were freely lent, and most of the people who used them were human, and there was no ingesting of demon blood required. Perhaps with Nakime, however, forcing his own blood into her may had been how he was able to force her to see illusions. Genya using Kokushibou's techniques? Now we're getting closer. While in his temporary demon state, he was influenced by Kokushibou's cells like Rui's family was influenced by his cells in their appearance. It seems the tree was of his own making instead of being strictly a copy of Kokushibou's techniques, but we can think of this as a crude imitation of the ability to make objects based on demon cells, especially something that requires speedy growth/increase of cells. Later in that fight, Kokushibou displayed the ability to very quickly increase and transform, and the sword which Genya consumed was, essentially, a part of Kokushibou's body. (Still sounding dirty, but nope, we still are not going there.) Very notable is that this is a case of a demon's cells/abilities being absorbed and used against their own will. Even if this did subtract from Kokushibou's abilities like happened with Rui, though, the effect was probably only slight. So then what about when a demon freely wants to lends their own ability to another demon? First of all, Muzan, who will stand for absolutely nothing challenging him, will say no.

Ok. So. What if we can get around that? Answer: Yes, we can. We can totally do this. It's probably just as simple as Rui having other demons drink his blood, and they all probably have some innate ability to influence each other, albeit the more powerful ones having more influence. But, what's super interesting is that their own cells still stay unique to them, even when in another demon's body. Cases in point, Rui's family members periodically changing back to their personal appearance, and Muzan's cells lurking inside of any other demon. And, jumping ahead of ourselves, even when Muzan has absorbed Tamayo, her cells are still so unique that he can even reassemble her. (Worth noting, absorbing one demon probably only had a marginal effect on making him stronger. Also worth noting, at least when inside Muzan's inner space, she's also able to reassemble herself to some extent, and we only see her fade away in peace in a post-chapter sketch once Muzan is dead.)

Speaking of Tamayo, she did freely use a Blood Technique freely given to her by another demon, the man in Asakusa. Once they got him free of Muzan's curse too so he could act on his own will, he could lend the use of his cells and thorny flesh vines to Tamayo, specifically to be used against Muzan in Chapter 138. Muzan's first thought is, "who's Blood Technique is this?" Unsurprising he's long forgotten about the throwaway Asakusa Demon, who has now totally slipped out of his control! But he stays calm, knowing this is like any other demon, and it's not even a huge amount, he can simply absorb this. Which, of course, makes his unwittingly absorb Tamayo's fist, too. Whoops. (Aside: I had initially thought the Blood Technique Muzan uses against Himejima in Chapter 139 was Muzan taking the Asakusa Demon's attack and using it as his own, but Fanbook #2 specifies that this is Muzan's own unique technique.)

Let's back up one more moment. It's one thing to influence each other with your own cells that stay separate and unique, and to lend out Blood Techniques. But what about sharing demon cells in a way that makes it act like like a food, something that can be broken down, totally separated from its former host, and fundamentally transform its new host?

For that, we have medicine.

Yushirou might had been made with Tamayo's cells, or a medicine developed from scratch like the medicine that changed Muzan into a demon, or it could be a combination of both. However, even when Tamayo died, Yushirou could go on living, so he and Tamayo do not have a dependent host/parasite relationship like all the other demons do with Muzan. He certainly felt it with his whole being when he perished, but you could argue that this was the power of love instead of his cells being tied with hers. If her cells were used to create him (which I find likely), being used in a medicinal form severed whatever sort of standard connection there might had been if making demons in Muzan's style, and it also allowed it to fully become a part of Yushirou as an individual, instead of remaining uniquely Tamayo (not that he'd have a problem with that). Getting that process to work took Tamayo over two hundred years. That's probably part of why she could work so much faster with Nezuko's blood, and why she was able to use it as a medicine to help the Asakusa Demon, as stated in Tamayo's letter to Tanjiro in Chapter 127. There's no mention of him picking up traits from Nezuko like Exploding Blood or potential to master the sun, instead, the only effect was helping him break free of Muzan's influence, and perhaps his ability to live on a small amount of blood might also had been influenced by Nezuko's ability to function without it (though I find it more likely Tamayo already had other appetite management methods that helped her and Yushirou which also helped this fellow).

So anyway. While there are demons we don't wish to harm by shedding light on them in a thoughtless metaphor, I hope this was insightful.

#kny fandom theories and meta #or at least trying to keep my own analysis of running themes organized #this is probably just a handy post I want to have around for future reference #Kibutsuji Muzan #Tamayo #Yushiro #Rui #more characters but I am too lazy to tag them all #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer

130 notes · View notes

marvelousbenz · 5 years

Text

My study routine

It’s no shocker that many of you have read countless posts about HOW someone should study, I frankly did that myself, but I found out that NONE of them help. Why? well because for someone that is looking for a way to save their educational year and start studying properly, these posts didn’t do it for me; they’re too perfect, and quite hard to stick to.

I’m not belittling them; AFTER I got myself into a study routine that I actually found suitable (the one that I will be talking about), I started trying the methods that are available everywhere here on Tumblr, or Pinterest.

So here’s what I did;

Get into the studyblr committee; like actually partake in it. Start posting pictures of your study notes, or your desk, or a random picture of your notes with your laptop at a cafe. You can post anything you want, really, anything. You don’t have to have a MacBook, or those Muji stationary. Your picture doesn’t have to be aesthetic. Getting a studyblr is like a way of holding yourself accountable; like people are going to see you work, ones that don’t go to school with you, they don’t know who you are. They just know that you're another human wanting to keep track of their studying.

Find when you are most productive; you DON’T have to be an early riser to be classified as productive. My mind works best when it’s really dark outside, usually past midnight. I tried getting up early to study, but it didn’t work for me. However, my friend prefers waking up at 4:30 am to study rather than staying up until midnight. The time you’re most productive at has nothing to do with what people say; it’s your choice.

Set your studying time; studying for 7 hours straight on your first day of being productive WILL NOT work. You’ll most probably stare at nothing or get distracted with whatever you have around you. Start with 1 hour of proper studying on the first day, then start adding an hour every day until you reach your optimal number of studying hours. You have to take small steps to reach your ultimate goal.

Create a routine; this one requires discipline. You have to set a certain time of the day (for me it’s from 2:30 pm till 8:00) which is strictly for studying. I don’t study for the whole duration everyday, but when I want to study, that’s my timeframe. I might study more, it depends on the load that I have to cover, but that’s beside the point. If you always start studying at a specific time, studying will become a habit; so when you aren’t studying at that time, something will feel off, thus you will go and study. Plus, that’ll increase your efficiency.

Have a to-do list with the time needed for each task; that way, you will feel like you have to finish the task, no matter what. But when you’re setting the time, make sure you give the task its needed time, or else the whole to-do list will crumble down.

TAKE A BREAK; I can’t stress this enough. TAKE A BREAK. Your brain will certainly NOT function properly for 7 hours straight. Take a 10 minutes break every 50 minutes of studying. At first, limiting yourself with that time and going back to your desk will be hard. But that’s only the start. This is why discipline is important.

It’s not motivation that you need; someone can motivate you every day for the next twenty year and you will still not achieve anything if you didn’t set your mind on doing it. Again, it’s discipline that you need.

These are my tips for anyone wanting to increase their productivity, but now I’m going to add some tips for all the medical students out there;

Screw the lectures; sure your professor gave them to you, and sure the exam questions will be from the lecture, but they’re not enough. You have to read the reference. You MUST. I know the reference is usually filled with information that your lecturer would never talk about, but knowing them will help you retain the main ideas of the topic. Also, you would want to know those extra information so that you can have a plus over your classmates; it’ll truly boost your confidence. And no that doesn’t make you a gunner or whatever you want to call it.

The library is your home; not only it’s an amazing place to study, but they also have many references that you’ll find useful. I found a pathology reference that summarizes everything in an amazing way (it’s called Pathology Illustrated). Also that means that you don’t have to buy all those expensive books.

Get an iPad; it’s way better than a laptop. trust me on this one.

It’s never too early to start studying from FirstAid or the Kaplan lecture notes; I’ve been studying from my Kaplan lecture notes since my first year in medschool, and we have our ifom in less than 90 days, but guess who’s already 50% ready? me. While my classmates struggle with trying to catch up on the high yield material, I already have them covered.

Pharmacology flashcards are your lifesavers; seriously.

Pathology charts are your best friends; they make the diseases way more easier to remember.

Summarize your microbiology; you really want to remember all the bacterias and viruses. You really do. So summarize them in a small handbook that you can carry around with you everywhere. You never know when you want to remember which bacteria causes Otitis Externa in swimmers (that’s pseudomonas)

Have a friend that you trust by your side for any instant pop up quizzes; I have this friend with me in class, we always ask each other questions. We would be studying some topic in physiology, the drug theophylline is mentioned as an example, and I go and ask her why we use it and what’s the side effect. Or we would mention Gastroenteritis and we have to recite as many causative bacterias as we can. It’s an amazing way to remember things. (REMEMBER; THE THREE DRUGS THAT CAUSE AN SLE-LIKE SYNDROME ARE; procainamide (class IA antiarrhythmic), hydralazine (anti hypertensive-vasodilator), and isoniazid (first line anti TB))

Get your Netter’s atlas for anatomy; you need it. it’s your key to never forgetting anatomy. You’re welcome.

You don’t have to go out every day; honestly it’s a waste of time. For me, I would rather be called lifeless or a nerd, than being referred to as the girl who failed her cardiology final.

YOU DON”T HAVE TO ALWAYS LOOK PERFECT TO UNI; this is for you ladies, you don’t have to always look on point. No one cares if you’re pretty if you fail your finals. You go to uni because you want to study, not because you want to attract anyone’s attention to your looks.

It’s okay if you don’t have any actual friends in medschool; tell me, do you want to be friends with people that will talk shit about you behind your back when you get a better grade than them? or be friends with those that’ll try to distract you from your studies? I befriended this girl back in my first year that told me that I’m not worthy of medical school if I failed my locomotor quiz. Crazy right? Finding true friends is hard in med school, most of them are out to get you. I’m honestly grateful for those 3 or 4 people I have that don’t want to destroy me. So be careful with who you decide to hang out with.

That’s pretty much it. I hope some of you found it useful. I really tried to make them as realistic as possible.

If anyone has any extra tips, do mention them.

Have a great day!

#medicine #Med School #study motivation #studyblr #med stuff #study tips #medblr #medblog #studyspo #studying #productivity #productive #motivation #tips #motivator #school #routine #medstudlife #medstudyblr

780 notes · View notes

noteslucky201 · 3 years

Text

Video Keno Jackpots

Whether you like to play your chances online or you’d rather travel to a casino, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with keno. Keno is a game of chance, similar to the lottery. You choose your lucky numbers and place your bet, then wait while you see what the fates have in store!

Video Keno Jackpots On Youtube

Video Keno Jackpots

Keno Slot Videos

Keno is an exciting game because it’s entirely left up to chance. The winning numbers are randomly selected, and you never know what those numbers will be!

Video keno jackpots soar with overlapping patterns. Jan 26, 2010 5:04 PM L.J. This past weekend, I had some success overlapping patterns while playing 20-card keno, which I thought might be. All the Best Video Keno Games are Here. We have always prided ourselves on providing the most exciting Video Keno variety in Northern California. With denominations ranging from 1¢ to $1 and popular titles like Keno Gold, Caveman Keno, Pot o’ Gold, Cleopatra Keno, Game Maker Keno and many others, we are confident you will find our Keno. Keno Casino Games,Keno Jackpot, Keno Odds and Rules. KENO Systems or machines have proceeded from the expansion of video slot, however, with an increased popularity and to win great bet in form of Video KENO Jackpots using the right Video KENO Strategies! Alike video slots and video poker, this game too offers a machine or particularly a Video.

Plaza Hotel and Casino Eric Santos of Kahului, Hawaii, hit a $96,000 video poker jackpot on Friday, Sept. 20, 2019, at the Plaza in downtown Las Vegas. A man from Hawaii hit a $96,000 video keno.

If you’re an avid keno enthusiast, you may be interested in learning how to increase your odds of winning big. In this article, you’ll learn:

Whether you can increase your odds of winning big in Keno

How to play smart

How to choose your lucky keno numbers

Are you ready to learn more about keno strategy?

Keep reading for everything you need to know.

Before you Begin Playing Keno

Before you place your first wager, it’s important to know that keno is strictly a game of chance. When you choose your numbers, you should know that your odds of winning at the game are actually pretty low, so be sure you play smart.

Setting a budget is important, so as not to get into trouble with lost money. It’s also important that you understand the rules of the casino or online gambling site that you choose. Different casinos may have different payouts or rules that you’ll need to observe so as not to lose your prize, should you win.

Most importantly, you’re going to need to learn the basic rules of keno! Let’s take a look.

These gaming systems manufactured by Aristocrat are digital network systems that manage the pokies or slot machines, also manufactured by Aristocrat. Apart from these, Aristocrat also deals in computerized table games, electronic card games, and its trademark-linked jackpot setups. Free Pokies Aristocrat Pokies Aristocrat is the biggest player in the Australian pokies market. They have over 60 years of experience in creating high-quality land-based pokies, and the company has recently ventured in the online, mobile and social casino market. This website is not endorsed by or affiliated with Aristocrat. Aristocrat Leisure Limited is Australia’s largest manufacturer of slot machines and online pokies, which is functional since 1953. Pokies is a free online gaming destination that offers players the chance to play their favourite online pokies with no signup and no registration required.It is the player’s responsibility to ensure you meet all age and other regulatory requirements before entering any online casino or placing wagers if you choose to leave the Pokies.fun website. Free online poker machines aristocrat casino.

Keno: The Rules and How to Play

There are two types of keno. You can play live or you can play a video version. There’s really not much difference between the two, and choosing one over the other doesn’t necessarily increase your odds of winning.

In live keno, you’ll choose your lucky numbers on a slip of paper. In video keno, you’ll use a touchscreen to select them. If you’re playing online, obviously you’ll use your mouse to choose the numbers you think will win.

So how do you win? First, you’ll make a wager. The amount of your wager will depend solely on what you can afford and the rules of the particular game you’re playing.

Next, you’ll choose your numbers. Some games will allow you to pick between one and 10 numbers, while others may allow you to select as many as 20. When you choose your numbers you can pick the digits you feel are lucky or you can use a “quick pick” option in which random numbers are selected for you.

Look over your card and make sure everything is the way you want it, then click “submit” online or hand your card to your casino employee.

Finally, sit back and watch the results! If your numbers match the randomly selected numbers on the screen, you win!

How to Win at Keno

As you now know, keno is a game of chance. The probability of winning depends largely upon how many numbers you choose as your lucky numbers. But there are a few things you can do to increase your odds, even slightly. Remember: playing keno is for fun! There are no guarantees that you’ll win, and it’s even likely that you won’t win. If it’s in your budget, try again!

1. Choose the right Casino site

Before you begin to play at keno, you’ll want to make sure you choose the right casino! Whether you’re playing online or in a physical location, there are a few things to check for.

First, ask around as to the casino’s reputation. How many people have won? How many have lost money? Then, make sure the casino is licensed in your state or region.

https://noteslucky201.tumblr.com/post/654681747151372288/sir-jackpot-casino. After you’re sure the casino is legit, you’ll also want to make sure the casino is a great value! Ask as to the payouts and the reputation for promotions, customer service and rewards. After all, there’s no sense playing keno if you can’t win a handsome payout!

Free high limit slots games. High roller or high limit slot machines are the offline or online slots that allow the large bets only. While most of the gamblers are playing slot games with small or average bets like 1-2 cents per spin, the high rollers can play on a $100 slot machine.

Be sure your casino is licensed

Find the casino with the best payouts

Ask other keno players for their opinion

2. Weigh the odds against the payout.

Consider the odds before you decide how many numbers to choose. If you choose one lucky number, you only have a chance for one small payout. If you choose more numbers, you have the opportunity to win much, much more!

However, remember that the more lucky numbers you choose, the more you’ll need to match. For instance, say that to win $10,000 you’ll need to choose 15 lucky numbers at a wager of $1 each. You’ll actually need five of your numbers to match the winning numbers just to break even!

Be smart. When you’re first starting to learn the game, try to choose fewer numbers at first until you get the hang of it. That will minimize the amount of money you could potentially lose.

Weigh the odds of your wager against the payout

Remember that more numbers does not equal better chances

Choose just a few numbers to begin with

3. Remember that the game is random.

Whether you choose your own numbers or use a quick pick option, there’s no guarantee that the winning numbers will match your picks. So, with that in mind, feel free to do either! While the quick pick option is easy to use, it’s more fun and just as effective to choose your own numbers.

Have fun while you’re choosing your lucky winning keno numbers. After all, that’s the point of the game! Choose your kids’ birthdays, your anniversary or even your age when you went on your first date.

Keno is a game of luck and chance

There’s no guaranteed way to win at keno

Have fun when choosing your umbers

4. Balance your card.

There’s nothing saying that choosing the numbers one through ten in keno will result in a guaranteed loss. But for better luck, why not try to balance the top and the bottom of your card? Choosing a few numbers from the top and a few from the bottom may increase your odds of winning at keno. If nothing else, it’ll give you a sense of inner zen to see that balanced card!

A balanced card may help improve your chances

Choose a few numbers from the top and a few from the bottom of your card

Remember that choosing your numbers is half the fun

5. Play the same numbers twice.

You don’t have to change your lucky picks every time you play a new race, or keno game. Instead, why not choose the same few numbers over and over? After all, the probability is on your side that at least one of those numbers will be drawn eventually, right?

It’s probable that one selected number will be drawn eventually

You don’t have to change your numbers every time you play

Playing the same numbers at every race may improve your odds

6. Know the odds.

On the subject of probability, it’s important that you know the actual realistic odds of winning at keno.

In short, they’re slim. Very slim. Winning big in keno is extremely difficult to do. For instance, the odds of choosing 20 lucky numbers that match the 20 drawn numbers are… get this … one in 3.5 quintillion. Quintillion!

Those are very, very low odds. This isn’t necessarily a strategy on how to win at keno. Instead, it’s a strategy to help you keep your bank balance in check and stay out of the doghouse with your husband and wife.

If you find that you’re not having too much luck at keno, just consider the odds. You’re more likely to be injured by a toilet (yep, there have been actual studies) than you are to win at keno.

Your odds of winning the jackpot are one in 3.5 quintillion

Play the game in a smart way – don’t bet more than you can afford

The more numbers you play, the less likely you are to win

7. Practice for free.

Video Keno Jackpots On Youtube

Fishing frenzy jackpot king rtp game. Before you wager money in a live or video game of casino, you should probably give the game a trial run. You can’t really do this in a casino, but before you fly off to Vegas and place your bets, hop online and give the game a spin.

There are plenty of online casinos that offer you the opportunity to try to play keno for free. There are no prizes in many of these games, though some do offer “points” which can later be redeemed for gift cards or even small monetary amounts.

You’ll find free keno games online and on your mobile phone. Download free apps onto your iOS or Android device and practice, practice, practice. It may not mean you’ll win big once you get to the casino, but at least you’ll be very familiar with how the game is played.

Practicing keno can help you learn the rules of the game

There are many free keno sites online

You can even practice keno on your mobile phone!

8. Find a progressive jackpot.

Let’s face it. One in 3.5 quintillion doesn’t really look like great odds. So if you are lucky enough to win at keno, you’ll want to maximize your earnings. One way to do this is through a progressive jackpot.

There are pros and cons to a progressive jackpot. The most obvious pro is obvious: a bigger jackpot. Also, as you continue to play keno with a progressive jackpot, the house odds decrease. That means your odds increase.

However, a progressive jackpot at keno isn’t for the weak-willed. You’ll essentially be committing yourself to the game for the long haul. You may find that you’re sitting at the keno game for literally hours. That may or may not be worth it to you – after all, keno is supposed to be fun!

Progressive keno games can have higher payouts

In progressive games, your odds increase the longer you play

Progressive keno games can last hours, so be patient

9. Play keno online.

Generally speaking, keno payouts are much higher online than they are in a casino. Another benefit to playing online is that the games go much faster than they will at the keno table in the casino, so you can play more frequently.

There are online keno games that offer progressive jackpots, but they’re few and far between. In most cases, you’ll wager between $1 and $5 for each number you choose in an online game, and the payout percentages are higher than you’ll find live.

There’s a disadvantage to online games that you’ll need to keep in mind. Because the online versions of keno are faster-paced than they are in the casino, you’re likely to spend more money. Watch your wallet and don’t wager more than you can realistically afford to lose.

Playing keno online is fast and exciting

You may not be able to easily find a progressive keno game online

Because online games are so quick, you’re likely to spend more money

10. Budget yourself.

While this isn’t necessarily a strategy for how to win at keno, it’s a darn good strategy for playing the game in a smart way. As a matter of fact, it’s a principle you should use no matter what game you choose. Poker, slots, blackjack … they all require a budget.

If you’ve set a budget and stick to it, then end up winning big, great! It’s up to you to decide whether you want to put those winnings back into another keno race. In other words, you’ll need to decide whether you should keep going or just quit while you’re ahead.

Set a budget and stick with it

If you do win, you may choose to put those earnings back into the game

Some people find it better to “quit while they’re ahead”

11. Try a multi-race card.

A multi-race card is a great way to stick to your keno budget and it’s also a useful tool for playing keno. Some may call it lazy – we call it efficient.

What a multi-race card does is allow you to choose your lucky numbers once. Say you choose six numbers that correspond to your birthday and your wife’s dress size. You don’t have to re-enter those numbers every time you play a keno game, or “race.” Just use a multi-race card and those lucky numbers will automatically be entered for you each time you play.

Many casinos, online and physical, offer multi-race cards

Multi-race cards allow you to play the same numbers through several races

They’re easy, efficient ways to play keno and stick to a budget

12. Use a keno calculator.

If you’re playing online, you may want to use a keno calculator. These nifty tools are a great way to determine your odds, based on your wager, the payouts and how many lucky numbers you choose. They’ll also help you figure out the potential payout of your race. You don’t even have to do any math!

Don’t feel like switching between tabs on your browser? For the more serious keno player, you can download a keno calculator to your tablet or smartphone. This allows you to play with the odds while you choose your lucky numbers and, hopefully, win a few races!

Keno calculators can be found online

These calculators help you figure your keno odds before you play

Keno calculators will calculate your potential payout

13. Choose between five and eight numbers.

Does choosing twenty numbers yield a higher payout if all your numbers match? Yes! Do you have good odds of winning the jackpot if you choose twenty numbers? Heck no!

Don’t forget that your odds decrease as you add lucky numbers. While the payout increases, your chances of winning that payout reduce drastically the more numbers you choose.

To keep your odds at their best, plan to choose between five and eight numbers. That’s a modest number that is respectful to your wallet while also providing you ample chance to win a payout. Keep it simple and balanced, and you’ll not only increase your odds of how to win at keno but you’ll also decrease your odds of losing at keno.

Choosing too many numbers decreases your odds of winning

Choosing between five and eight numbers is a nice balance

You may not win the jackpot, but you’re more likely to win a prize

14. Shop the casinos.

Do you have a favorite casino? Maybe you’ve got an old standby for blackjack or craps, that’s great! You know the dealer and he or she knows you! Feel free to visit your favorite casino over and over.

However, as great as that casino may be for roulette, it may be lousy for keno. Shop the casinos! Look for the casino with the best payouts and the highest number of variations on the game. For instance, maybe you can find a casino with 4 card keno, or with a progressive jackpot.

Video Keno Jackpots

Ask around, too. You’ll find plenty of message boards online that can provide you with recommendations for the best casinos for keno.

The same is true for online keno. Read the terms and conditions of the website carefully before you play. It’s boring but it’s critical. Then choose the keno game you like best based on the rules, the payouts and the odds.

Choosing the right casino is critical to winning the game

Ask around about casinos’ reputations

Be sure to read the terms of the website before you play online

15. Choose consecutive numbers.

How many times have you played bingo or roulette and almost had your number called or landed on? That is the logic behind choosing consecutive numbers to win at keno. Choosing consecutive numbers won’t guarantee that you’ll win. But it may increase your odds of having at least one of your lucky numbers drawn.

Choosing consecutive numbers may increase your odds of winning at keno

Many people find that consecutive numbers are luckier than scattered ones

Keno is a game of chance, so consecutive numbers may not guarantee a win

16. Choose the most and least drawn numbers.

Another theory is that if you choose the most and the least drawn numbers, you’ll increase your odds of winning at keno. If you’re playing online, many online casinos will post this information publicly. You can then choose your numbers based on that information.

To shake things up a bit, why not choose the most drawn, least drawn and consecutive numbers? For example, the least drawn number is 79. The most commonly drawn is 42. For a fun card, why not choose 78, 79, 80, 41, 42 and 43? Hey, it’s just an idea!

You can find out the most and least-drawn numbers online

Choosing the most and the least drawn numbers can improve your odds

Combining strategies can further increase your odds

17. Research your online casino.

You can be the luckiest keno player on the planet, but if you’re playing at a fraudulent online casino you’re never going to win a penny. Before you wager any of your hard earned bucks at an online casino, please check it out! Nowadays, literally anyone can set up a website. It’s not hard for crooks and scam artists to promise you a lively game of keno, only to run off with your money.

Use a reputable casino so as not to get scammed, please! Read reviews and check with your state’s governing organization if you have any concerns. Use your common sense and if you’re in any doubt, close out your browser and try another site.

Keno Slot Videos

Anyone can set up an online casino, so make sure it’s legit

Be sure to read the terms and conditions before you spend money

Read the reviews of your online casino before you play

18. Understand that it’s just for fun.

Of course you want to know how to win at keno. But it’s imperative that you remember that keno is just for fun! Don’t stress yourself out over the game, and certainly don’t get yourself into trouble.

Choose a reputable casino and set a budget for yourself. Choose your numbers based on your lucky feelings or just do a quick pick. Wager what you can afford, on the number of lucky numbers you think are appropriate. Use your common sense, and play smart!

Keno is strictly a game of luck, or fate, or whatever it is you believe in. If someone tries to sell you a keno strategy, tell them you’ve got a bridge to sell them. Keno is a great way to get lucky and earn big, but most of all it’s a fun game of chance that’s simply entertaining.

Remember that keno is just for fun!

Choosing a reputable casino will increase your odds of winning

Keno is entertaining, but you’re not guaranteed to win! Play smart!

New Page 1

Two members of the same family won nearly half a million dollars playing video keno at the El Cortez last week.

“The first hit occurred when Ramon (a 25-year-old Las Vegas resident) caught 9-out-of-9 for a keno jackpot of $60,000,” said El Cortez Slot Director Rick Ronca. “Two days later, Ramon’s grandmother hit a 10-out-of-10 video keno progressive jackpot for $385,000.”

Both jackpots were won playing 25Â¡ video keno (maximum of four coins or $1 bet), Ronca said. The winning machines were among the older IGT Fortune keno machines that have been retired at most other Las Vegas casinos.

“The best part of the story is how many family members got to enjoy the jackpot,” said El Cortez General Manager Mike Nolan. “There were already 20 family members (celebrating the $60,000 hit) when Maria caught the big jackpot. They divided up the money among themselves before they left the casino. It was really wonderful to watch.” —David Stratton

0 notes

mathematicianadda · 4 years

Text

The Big Lock-Down Math-Off, Match 4

Welcome to the fourth match in this year’s Big Math-Off. Take a look at the two interesting bits of maths below, and vote for your favourite.

You can still submit pitches, and anyone can enter: instructions are in the announcement post.

Here are today’s two pitches.

Tom Edgar – Rayleigh cool pairs of sequences

Tom Edgar is a math professor at a small university in Washington State, and is currently the editor of the Mathematics Association of America’s undergraduate magazine Math Horizons. He’s @TedG on Twitter.

youtube

An Exercise. Let’s start with a really (or Rayleigh) neat exercise: pick your favorite irrational number larger than $1$ (okay, you can choose numbers that are probably irrational like $e+\pi$ or $e\cdot\pi$, but I assume you will pick $\sqrt{2},e,\pi$ or $\phi$ – just don’t pick a rational number.) Let’s call your number $x$. Then, compute the first few values in the following integer sequence.

\[ \left(\left\lfloor n\cdot x\right\rfloor\right)_{n=1}^{\infty} = \left(\left\lfloor 1\cdot x\right\rfloor,\left\lfloor 2\cdot x\right\rfloor,\left\lfloor 3\cdot x\right\rfloor,\left\lfloor 4\cdot x\right\rfloor,\ldots\right) \]

where $\left\lfloor y\right\rfloor$ is the floor function, or “round-down function,” which outputs the greatest integer less than or equal to the input $y$.

The resulting sequence forms an increasing list of integers, but some integers are missing: aha, a mystery! For instance, when we use $x=\sqrt{7}$, which is irrational since $\sqrt{p}$ is irrational for all primes $p$, we get the sequence

\[ \left(\left\lfloor n\cdot\sqrt{7}\right\rfloor\right){n=1}^{\infty} = ({\color{blue}2,5,7,10,13,15,18,21,23,26,29,31,34,37,\ldots}) \]

It looks like one or two integers are missing between each pair of consecutive entries in the list. But now, here’s the fun part! For the value $x$ you chose, compute the number $z=\frac{x}{x-1}$, which is also an irrational number larger than $1$, and construct the corresponding integer sequence for the value $z$:

\[ \left(\left\lfloor n\cdot z\right\rfloor\right){n=1}^{\infty} = \left(\left\lfloor 1\cdot z\right\rfloor,\left\lfloor 2\cdot z\right\rfloor,\left\lfloor 3\cdot z\right\rfloor,\left\lfloor 4\cdot z\right\rfloor,\ldots\right). \]

For example, when we do this with $x=\sqrt{7}$ so that $z=\frac{\sqrt{7}}{\sqrt{7}-1}$, we get the integer sequence

\[ \left(\left\lfloor n\cdot\frac{\sqrt{7}}{\sqrt{7}-1}\right\rfloor\right)_{n=1}^{\infty} = ({\color{orange}1,3,4,6,8,9,11,12,14,16,17,19,20,22,\ldots}). \]

Do you see what’s happened? Are you amazed? To make things just a bit clearer, let’s weave together the previous two integer sequences in increasing order:

\[ \color{orange}1,\color{blue} 2, \color{orange}3, 4, \color{blue}5, \color{orange}6, \color{blue}7,\color{orange} 8, 9, \color{blue}10, \color{orange} 11, 12, \color{blue}13, \color{orange}14, \color{blue}15, \color{orange}16, 17, \color{blue}18,\color{orange} 19, 20, \color{blue}21,\color{orange} 22, \color{blue}23,\color{orange} 24, \ldots \]

Every natural number appears once and only once! The choice of $x=\sqrt{7}$ is not special; this partitioning property will happen for any choice of irrational $x$ (the first linked video shows it happen for $x=\sqrt{2}$ and $x=e$). If you haven’t tried it yet, pick your favorite irrational and give it a go; you can use the commands

print([floor(n*pi) for n in [1..20]]) print([floor(n*pi/(pi-1)) for n in [1..20]])

in Sage to get the two sequences when $x=\pi$.

Beatty Sequences and Rayleigh’s Theorem. The sequences defined above, those of the form $a(n) = \left\lfloor nt\right\rfloor$ for fixed $t$, are known as Beatty sequences (due to a problem posed by Thomas Beatty in the American Mathematical Monthly in 1926). The associated theorem, stated below, is sometimes called Beatty’s theorem, but it was previously discovered by Lord Rayleigh, and as such is more appropriately known as Rayleigh’s theorem.

Theorem. Let $x>1$ be an irrational number, and let $z=\frac{x}{x-1}$. The two integer sequences $a(n)= \left\lfloor nx\right\rfloor$ and $b(n)=\left\lfloor nz\right\rfloor$ partition the natural numbers.

In other words, every natural number is either of the form $\left\lfloor nx\right\rfloor$ or $\left\lfloor \frac{mx}{x-1}\right\rfloor$, but no positive integer is of both forms; the two sequences are complementary (they may also be complimentary like those in figure 1).

Two complementary sequences

Intrigued? Explore what happens when $x$ is instead a rational number larger than $1$: are some numbers missing from the lists, or are there numbers that appear in both lists?

A full proof of Rayleigh’s Theorem can be found in many places (see [2] or even Wikipedia), but we might as well include the basic building blocks for readers who want to construct a proof themselves. The key is to make sure the sequences have no integers in common (no collisions) and that every integer appears in one sequence (no whiffs).

Let $x>1$ be a fixed real number, $z=\frac{x}{x-1}$, $a(n)=\lfloor nx\rfloor$ and $b(n)=\lfloor nz\rfloor$. The first key properties to check are that $\frac{1}{x}+\frac{1}{z}=1$, and that $nx$ and $nz$ are irrational for all positive integers $n$.

No collisions.

If we suppose that $a(n)=y=b(m)$ for some natural numbers $n,m$ and $y$ (so that $y$ would be in both sequences), then we conclude

\[ y< nx< y+1 \text{ and } y<mz < y+1. \]

Dividing the first inequality by $x$ and the second inequality by $y$ and investigating the integer sum $n+m$ allows us to obtain a contradiction.

No whiffs.

If we suppose $a(n)< y$, $a(n+1)\geq y+1$, $b(m)<y$, and $b(m+1)\geq y+1$ for some integers $n,m$ and $y$ (so that $y$ would be missing in both sequences) then

\[ nx< y \hspace{.5in} y+1< (n+1)x \hspace{.5in} mz< y \hspace{.5in} y+1< (m+1)z. \]

This time, use the previous inequalities to show that $y$ (an integer) lies strictly between $n+m$ and $n+m+1$, which is impossible.

youtube

A More General Result. It seems quite strange that two sequences generated by floor functions create a set of complementary sequences. You might wonder how easy it is to formulaically or systematically generate complementary integer functions in this way; luckily, many have investigated these objects. Lambek and Moser describe how, given any increasing integer sequence $f(n)$, we can construct two sequences $a(n)$ and $b(n)$ that partition the positive integers. To do this, they define

\[ f^\downarrow(n) = \big|{m\geq 1\mid f(m)<n}\big|, \]

so that $f^\downarrow(n)$ counts the number of outputs of $f$ strictly less than $n$. Computing $f^\downarrow(n)$ can be accomplished by counting the number of outputs on the graph of $f$ lying strictly below the line $y=n$.

Figure 2. Computing $f^\downarrow(5)$ (left) and $f^\downarrow(10)$ (right) when $f(n)=2n$.

For instance, if we let $f(n)=2n$ (the sequence of positive even integers) graphed in figure 2, then $f^\downarrow(5)$ counts the number of dots (outputs) strictly below the red dashed line at $y=5$ so that $f^\downarrow(5) = 2$. Similarly, the diagram on the right in figure 2 shows that $f^\downarrow(10) = 4$; there are $5$ dots below the dashed line at $y=10$.

Amazingly, by the Lambek-Moser theorem, the two sequences $a(n)=f(n)+n$ and $b(n)=f^\downarrow(n)+n$ are complementary. In our example using $f(n)=2n$, we get $a(n) =3n$ and $b(n)$ consists of all the integers congruent to $1$ or $2$ modulo 3 in increasing order.

We can apply the procedure above directly to the function $f(n) = \lfloor nx\rfloor-n$ to prove Rayleigh’s Theorem. Try this more general out for yourself: find the complementary sequences guaranteed by Lambek and Moser when $f(n) = n^2$ or $f(n)=n^3$, or when $f$ is your favorite increasing integer sequence!

Concluding Remarks. Finally, one way to attempt to understand a sequence $(a(n)){n=1}^\infty$ is to study the sequence of first differences, $(a(n)-a(n-1)){n=2}^\infty$. For the Beatty sequence for $x=\sqrt{7}$ that we investigated previously, the sequence of first differences starts

\[ 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2,1,2,\ldots \]

Studying the first differences of Beatty sequences unlocks a large world of mathematical research connected to Sturmian words, Christoffel words, and Euclidean strings. The corresponding sequence when $x=\phi=\frac{\sqrt{5}+1}{2}$ has interesting connections to the Fibonacci numbers and the Beatty sequence for $\phi$ is used in the winning strategy or Wythoff’s game, a variation on Nim (for more on this game, see the wonderful video by James Grime and Katie Steckles, and a follow-up video by James Grime). These relatively unknown sequences unlock the door to many other interesting sequences related to the combinatorics on words.

PS. After recording the videos for this piece, I realized I am saying the name “Rayleigh” incorrectly – my apologies for this.

References

Samuel Beatty, Nathan Altshiller-Court, Otto Dunkel, A. Pelletier, Frank Irwin, J. L. Riley, Philip Fitch, and D. M. Yost. Problems and Solutions: Problems for Solutions: 3173-3180. Amer. Math. Monthly, 33(3):159, 1926.

Samuel Beatty, A. Ostrowski, J. Hyslop, and A. C. Aitken. Problems and Solutions: Solutions: 3177. Amer. Math. Monthly, 34(3):159–160, 1927.

J. Lambek and L. Moser. Inverse and complementary sequences of natural numbers. Amer. Math. Monthly, 61:454–458, 1954.

Fusible Numbers

Christian blogs at The Aperiodical, and collects his other doings at somethingorotherwhatever.com.

youtube

This is a puzzle that I’ve always enjoyed, not for the fun of solving it, but because of the unexpectedly deep answer to the question it makes you think of next.

At the end of the video I refer to these slides and this paper by Jeff Erickson and others.

So, which bit of maths made you say “Aha!” the loudest? Vote:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

The poll closes at 9am BST on Sunday the 19th, when the next match starts.

If you’ve been inspired to share your own bit of maths, look at the announcement post for how to send it in. The Big Lock-Down Math-Off will keep running until we run out of pitches or we’re allowed outside again, whichever comes first.

from The Aperiodical https://ift.tt/2KeuyeQ from Blogger https://ift.tt/3crswnI

#Blogger

0 notes

brianobrienny · 4 years

Text

What Is A Blog Writing Service? (And Why Your Business Needs One)

Whether you own a small business or manage marketing for a large corporation, you probably spend a great portion of your budget on pricey marketing activities, including your website and related IT.

But if you’re leaving your website as a static entity, like a television set always tuned to the same channel, you’re making a grave mistake.

By adding a blog and, better yet, hiring a blog writing service, you’ll get better ROI than any other marketing activity. Read on to learn why.

Quick Takeaways:

The more frequently you blog, the more visitors, leads and conversions you get. Study after study has proved this.

High quality content helps you build up brand authority and gain visibility in search rankings.

When you outsource blog content creation, you don’t have to worry about frequency, meeting timelines, niche expertise, or ROI.

Having a blog is essential to wooing today’s information-hungry customers. But most businesses don’t have the time, expertise, or budget to hire an in-house writing team.

A blog writing service can turn your subject matter expertise into expertly written content.

The Case for Having a Blog

First, let’s just get one important matter out of the way: You have a blog, right? If the answer is no, you’re not alone. Some new businesses get too caught up in their day-to-day basic functions to start one. Others think blogging isn’t for them – it’s the purview of foodies, mommies, and health gurus. But nothing could be further from the truth.

If you’re shelling out big bucks for advertising, consulting, data analytics, and email nurture campaigns, plus the aforementioned website, the cost of running a blog is negligible by comparison. It’s the lowest hanging fruit on the tree, and you should be grabbing it as often as possible.

Think about these apples, ripe for plucking:

Content marketing gives you three times the number of leads compared to paid search ads for every dollar you spend.

You can boost your website traffic by up to 2,000 percent with high-quality blog content.

When you blog, you’ll get 97% more links to your website than sites that don’t.

Blogging is 13 times more likely to yield a positive ROI than numerous other marketing activities, according to data from HubSpot.

Companies who publish consistent blogs show 6x the revenue from traffic and leads attributed to their website.

B2B companies will generate 88 percent more leads, while their B2C cousins will generate 67 percent more leads through publishing blog posts consistently. That’s a lot of leads to leave on the table if you’re not blogging. Further, the leads you generate will cost 62% less than ones you generate through advertising, cold calls, brochures, or other outbound marketing methods.

Isn’t that enough reason for any company to jump on to the blogging train? Imagine what could happen if you missed out and your competitors get –

67 percent cost reduction!

88 percent increase in leads!

97 percent more links to their website!

You’d have a heart attack, wouldn’t you?

I thought so. Bottom line, you need a blog to stay ahead of your competitors.

Converting More Customers

With a blog, you can engage directly with consumers better and more cheaply than with advertising. And, a blog gives you more control and focus over that dialogue than social media, for example. You get multiple opportunities and stages to convert readers to customers and to make existing customers repeat ones.

Think about your current marketing activities. They probably entail chasing customers in some way, such as by trying to get them to open emails or hoping they see your carefully placed (and expensive!) online ads. But, with a blog, consumers come to you. If they like what you post, they’ll come back, so you’ve just created a source of repeat traffic to your website and turned it into a dynamic and personalized face for your company.

Much of your blog content can easily be evergreen, at least for several years, which means once you’ve done the work, it keeps working for you. You can update popular posts with new data as needed with a minimum of extra time.

Why is your content so compelling? Because it’s not poorly disguised advertising or pushy sales material. Instead, the bulk of your posts should be value-added content for readers, such as:

Tips, how-tos, and tutorials for things that stymie most people but at which your business excels

Aggregated industry information and studies that save readers time by not having to hunt it down

Interviews with thought leaders or guest posters, including round tables

Questions and exercises to generate positive change

White papers and case studies

Videos and infographics

Samples from upcoming long-form content, such as books

Another good use for your blog is to solicit feedback on your products or services. You may uncover and then be able to answer common objections during the selling process in ways you cannot elsewhere. Additionally, you can offer solutions to common customer service issues.

You can also utilize your blog to introduce new products and services or to announce events, although you want to sprinkle these posts in with the value-added material to avoid sounding too salesy.

Industry Authority and Search Rankings

Having a popular blog can quickly promote you to a position of industry authority, a desirable spot to be in. You’ll find it easier to network with others in your field, and you’ll develop a reputation as the one to turn to for expert advice.

With influence often comes that sweet number-one search ranking that companies covet. When potential customers search for terms related to your business, your name will appear at the top, increasing traffic to your website, where you can get people interested in your product or service and eventually sell them on it.

What are the best ways to reach that plum top spot?

Always post high-quality, original content. Don’t “stuff” (overuse) keywords and use a post length that favors your topic and your audience, rather than what you’ve heard you must use.

Include keywords in your blog post URLs.

Do your SEO homework and make sure your keywords are what people are using in common online searches. Include a meta description for each post.

Make your website easy to navigate and designed for the user. It must be fast loading and responsive to all types of computers and devices.

Use available tools, such as Buzzsumo or Google Trends, to help with your search engine optimization research.

Promote your content well with connections and industry influencers.

Consider paid promotion to boost your ranking. Sometimes organic promotion doesn’t cut it at first.

Why You Should Hire a Blog Writing Service

“But,” you say, “I’m busy just running my business. I don’t have any time to write a blog. Besides, I practically got through English Composition 101 by the skin of my teeth. I’m an engineer/doctor/web developer/financial services professional, not a writer.”

So, if you’re convinced now that you should have a blog, or if you already have one but it’s been getting lackluster attention, how do you make it work?

For most businesses, especially those on the smaller side, the answer is to outsource blog writing. There are many benefits to hiring a blogging service and almost no disadvantages, and we’ll discuss how to overcome those later in this article.

Leveraging ROI

First, from a strictly financial point of view, outsourcing your blog nearly always lets you leverage that ROI in your marketing plan. Many companies are not sufficiently staffed to add blog writing to their list of duties. If you think about your own employees, they’re likely already up to their limit with their current job descriptions. Do you really want to add more to that? Significantly more?

Blog writing, when it’s done well, isn’t simply an hour tossed off here or there; it involves careful planning and integrating your blog posts into a comprehensive 12-month campaign within your overall marketing scheme. You need to develop a marketing calendar around goals and timelines and then spend manpower on content ideation before a single word is penned.

You need to schedule posts often enough to see a return on your blogging investment, which means posting at least several times per week to accumulate a regular following. New studies point to frequency as a key way to get desired ROI:

The more often you blog, the more traffic you get.

With 11 or more posts per month, you’ll see a considerable increase in website traffic, whether you are a B2B or B2C business.

The more posts you accumulate on your blog, the more traffic you’ll get, which in turn means more leads.

To accomplish this in-house usually requires hiring a full-time writer, which means not only paying a competitive salary but perks as well. And, there is a time investment in the interviewing and onboarding process, too.

You can get around all of this by outsourcing your blog writing and save tens of thousands in your marketing budget in the process. Blog writing businesses typically charge anywhere from several hundred dollars to several thousand per post, depending on the time and complexity involved. You can settle on a per-word fee, flat fee, or article cap much of the time (versus paying hourly), which means even if the writer takes several days to compose a post, you can stay on budget for the project.

It’s worth noting that cheaper blog writing fees aren’t always better. While you don’t have to break the bank outsourcing your blog, which would defeat its entire purpose, you often get what you pay for. Better services hire more in-demand, experienced writers and vet their people carefully. In turn, they charge more to their clients, but it’s often worth it in the end.

Professional Writing Skills and Scalability

One of the best advantages of working with outsourced blog writers is the professional writing skills they bring to the table. While many business owners and CMOs fancy themselves good writers, writing a blog isn’t the same as writing ad copy, venture capital proposals, or even sales nurture emails.

Blog writing today follows certain standard formats that make content easily consumed by readers, such as headings for scannability and bullet lists for easy summaries. There are stylistic conventions and other elements that most executives don’t employ on a regular basis. Professional blog writers know how to use all these tactics to make your posts attract and keep readers, as well as how to generate discussion in the comments section.

Blog services also come with proofreading and editing, so your copy is free of errors and is presented in a well-organized fashion. If you’ve ever read a blog that looked horribly unprofessional, you’ll understand how valuable this polishing is. It will also be run through a plagiarism algorithm. Reputable blog services don’t have writers that copy other work, but it is possible to accidentally include phrases that mimic others’ posts, which can mess with your SEO.

With a professional service, you also get assistance with SEO research and developing content topics. This can be a boon when it comes to getting more eyes on your website. Need matching social media posts, images, or infographics along with your blog content? Many agencies can provide that as well.

Do you have multiple businesses under one corporate umbrella, which entails maintaining many websites? This is no problem for a professional blog service because they’ll have multiple writers available to handle large volumes of content. You can scale larger as your business grows, too, and your blogging service will grow with you. Likewise, you can handle multiple tiers of the buying process and dedicate posts to different sales stages, just as you would with email nurturing.

The Best Writers for Your Business

Professional writers are all good, but how do you know they’d be able to passionately create content that’s just right for your business? Here are some things to look for when selecting the right blog writers for your needs:

A reputable agency or service that can provide examples of work and/or names of clients they have worked with, preferably similar to your business

Experienced, well-vetted writers who can commit to at least a year or two of work with you, so you don’t have to retrain new bloggers every few months

Bloggers with experience in your niche – the more specialized your area, the more expertise the writers should have

Ability to turn around content on a reasonable schedule that works for you

In-house editing and project management, if your needs are complex or your volume is high

A price that nets you solid talent while still allowing you to maintain high ROI

Excellent communication so you can work as a team

In turn, your business should be able to reciprocate in places where it makes sense to do so. Your people should be equally accessible for questions and clarification. While you want timely responses to your messages, you need to understand most writing services are juggling multiple clients like you. The more you can schedule in advance, the easier it will be for your bloggers to accommodate your needs. Create reasonable turnaround schedules and leave time for edits, especially early on in the process.

Most CEOs and CMOs spend enormous segments of time trying to get the best return on investment from their marketing activities, when the highest ROI solution is literally at their fingertips. Outsourcing your blog and blogging frequently have virtually no downsides and are proven to increase profitability considerably. It can take a bit of time and energy to get the ball rolling, but once you set up a system with a blogging service, you’ll never want to go back to writing your own content again.

What Can A Blogging Service Do for Your Business?

Content marketing – of which blogs are a huge component – is one of the most effective lead generation strategies in the marketing world. An agency that writes your blogs for you will combine their industry knowledge with keen research abilities to create regular blog posts that leverage the blog writers’ abilities to communicate with your audience, and propose solutions that can help your customers solve the problems that keep them up at night.

Build Industry Authority and Customer Visibility

And you are good at what you do. Only problem – not enough of the right people know just how good you are. Blogging helps you showcase that expertise without spending a moment of your time.

Having a blog writing service builds your authority in your industry in the minds of people who might not even have heard of your company before you launch your blog. When you couple that exposure with your social media reach by posting links to each post on your social media pages, it’s sheer marketing magic.

Furthermore, with every blog post you publish, your visibility on your target customers’ searches rises. A blog writing service will know how to leverage the right keywords and metadata to get both search engines’ and your target audience’s attention.

Create Newsletter and Other Gated Content

Your blog writing team can also create extra content that you can send to your email newsletter subscriber list. These articles can take a deeper dive into material that you covered in your blog posts or provide insight into topics you haven’t yet covered in your blog posts.

As a vital component of your content marketing strategy, your email newsletter can serve as the next step along the customer journey for those people interested enough in your blog content to subscribe. Providing expertly written, highly informative information in every newsletter will spark even more interest in your company, positioning you as a thought leader in your industry.

An email newsletter works equally well for B2C companies as well as B2B businesses. Statistics show that email marketing yields a whopping 4,400 percent ROI, yielding $44 for every dollar spent.

In addition, you can expand these newsletter articles into new content, such as white papers and e-books, that delve even deeper into the subject matter for those considering a purchase. Here’s an example from Zillow:

Craft Account-Based Marketing Messages

For B2B companies, you can even repurpose your blog post into personalized content in one of today’s hottest marketing strategies – account-based marketing. With a blog writing service, you’ll have a team of writers who know your company and its work – and can craft content tailored to each decision-maker’s interest.

For example, you could send a manufacturing company’s head engineer an article about how your new widget can shave hours off the manufacturing process, while the chief financial officer would appreciate an infographic about how much money the company would save by putting your widget to work in the process. Their developer, though, would love an article about the way you put Agile methodology to use as your team created the device.

When B2B companies align their blog writing service with their sales team to leverage the power of account-based marketing, they’re likely to boost their ROI. Forty-two percent of all companies that do so experienced significantly higher ROI, while 42 percent of the companies experienced somewhat higher ROI.

Turn Your Expertise into Compelling Content

You and your teams have a ton of expertise in your field. A blog writing service can work closely with your teams to turn raw facts into compelling copy.

Let’s say that you’re a pharmaceutical company, and you’ve come up with a new cure for an emerging disease. Your blog writing team can work with your researchers to turn their latest study into easily understandable content that busy physicians and nurses can scan quickly.

Your blog writing service can take testimonials from physicians that have tried your new drug successfully and craft blog posts that patients can understand. With more information, patients can be more informed when they have conversations with their own physicians.

For startups, whose lean budget doesn’t leave much room for marketing, let alone a dedicated content writing team, having a blog writing service at their disposal can be a game-changer.

Repurpose Existing Content

Just like your other assets, your blog content can do double duty when you repurpose it in other formats. Use your blogging team to transform blog posts to how-to video scripts, to create catchy product and service descriptions for Instagram and Pinterest, and to rephrase the content as compelling personal stories on Medium. Take a video and turn it into a LinkedIn article that showcases your thought leadership.

A blog writing service has experienced content writers that can adapt your existing content into practically any written form you want. They can even rewrite past content to make it more search-engine friendly. That way, you can reach even more people who need your expertise.

Finally, when you hire a blog writing service, you won’t have the added expense of an in-house writing team, nor will you need to spend your time recruiting and onboarding each team member. With an outsourced blog writing subscription service, you’ll have a team of writers that someone whose expertise is content creation has recruited, tested, onboarded, and proven through project after project.

Overcoming Obstacles When Outsourcing Blog Writing

Naturally, there are a few downsides to using a blog writing service, but they’re fairly easy to overcome. These may be your own concerns, or they may come from colleagues or leadership from whom you need buy-in to continue.

Giving Up Control

For some CEOs or CMOS, hiring a professional blogger feels like ceding control over their blog. Yes, it’s true you don’t get to decide on every word of every post. But, the benefits you get, as outlined above, certainly outweigh any negatives.

Further, using a blog service frees up executives and managers to do jobs where they are probably already overloaded with work. They can travel, take meetings, and tend to other business while still knowing they’ll hit their blogging goals and calendar milestones. Leaders who feel the need to have greater control over their company blog may struggle with delegating in general and can use the blog as a way to play with that.

Using a pro blogger comes with built-in safeguards. As well as in-house editing, you, as the client, can ask for revisions, too. Ideally, you want to meet with your blogger first, so they are on board with your overall vision for the blog and changes after the first draft will be minimal. If you have ideas, an outline, or even a rough first draft in your own words, a professional blogging service can accommodate them and flesh out the material for you.

Diversity… or Continuity

Another common hesitation about using a blogging service comes from wondering if the blog will sound diverse enough. This is easily remedied by asking for several different writers to work on your team and rotating the work among them.

Similarly, if you have multiple blogs on various topics, you can request writers who bring their own personal expertise to those respective subjects. Many seasoned bloggers started out in other careers before turning to writing, and you’ll find writers with impressive CVs in finance, law, healthcare, technology, real estate, and many other areas.

Some businesses find a hybrid model works for them. They have their own employees write a few posts here and there, while paid outside bloggers do the rest.

But what if, conversely, you want your blog to have continuity of voice and vibe? Simple – either ask to have one writer work on your blog consistently or put together a detailed style guide with a few examples, so multiple writers adhere to the same framework, rules, and tone. Professional bloggers, just like authors who write fiction dialogue, know how to make a blog post sound like it’s emanating from a particular voice for brand recognition.

The hybrid system just mentioned also works for creating a unifying voice for your blog. You can always outsource your content and have your in-house staff edit it or smooth it out to give it your unique brand feel.

If you are ready to get more traffic to your site with quality content that’s consistently published, check out our Content Builder Service. Set up a quick consultation, and I’ll send you a free PDF version of my books. Get started today and generate more traffic and leads for your business.

The post What Is A Blog Writing Service? (And Why Your Business Needs One) appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

What Is A Blog Writing Service? (And Why Your Business Needs One) published first on http://rssmix.com/u/11592782/rss.xml

#Internet Marketing #Social Media Marketing #Email Marketing #Business

0 notes

udemytutorialfreedownload · 4 years

Text

How FOX.com Optimizes for Branded Search Traffic [CASE STUDY]

try { window._mNHandle.queue.push(function (){ window._mNDetails.loadTag("173377332", "300x250", "173377332"); }); } catch (error) {}

Within the early days of my website positioning profession, a senior colleague had really useful to me that I focus my efforts solely on non-branded key phrases.

The logic of this recommendation was that web sites have an inherent benefit to outrank rivals for its personal branded key phrases – comparable to the corporate title or its merchandise.

Which to be honest, is considerably true.

The issue with that technique is, nevertheless, that rating on web page one for a branded key phrase is simply the primary piece of the website positioning puzzle.

The second piece of the puzzle is to make sure that the SERP itemizing and the web page content material is as useful as potential to customers – to drive extra website positioning visits, distinctive guests, and conversions for the web site.

Getting your web site seen on Web page 1 is the primary piece of the website positioning puzzle. The second piece is to make the SERP itemizing and web page as useful as potential.

In the remainder of this put up, you’ll discover ways to determine a branded key phrase alternative, plus provide tips about the best way to create and optimize your most popular touchdown pages to rank – utilizing a real-life instance from FOX.com.

How to Discover the Proper Alternative

One of the best ways to seek out the “proper” branded key phrases for your website positioning marketing campaign is to seek the advice of your key phrase monitoring instrument to reply the next questions:

What branded queries are hottest (i.e., excessive month-to-month search volumes)?

Are there any widespread themes to the queries?

What URL is rating nicely for these branded queries?

Does the URL make sense?

Would you be tempted to click on by way of from Google based mostly on its metadata?

Would you be happy with the content material on the web page as soon as you probably did click on by way of?

How are rivals performing for comparable forms of branded queries?

FOX Instance

Common Branded Queries

Within the case of FOX, I found that branded style key phrases (i.e, iterations of “FOX [Genre] Exhibits”) collectively provided nice month-to-month search quantity.

Odd Web page Rating for It in SERPs

The overall “leisure hub” touchdown web page ranked #1 for all branded style queries. This regardless of its non-descript metadata!

And whereas FOX.com did rank on Web page 1, Place 1 the queries, the ranked web page itself was not very helpful.

Rivals Are Performing Higher in This Space

For comparability, I reviewed what different business gamers have been doing to optimize for comparable queries.

Because it turned out, most had devoted touchdown pages for every style of content material they provided.

See examples under:

These touchdown pages even have well-optimized metadata, tempting customers to click on by way of. Plus, increase its rating for non-branded key phrase variations (i.e., “animation exhibits”).

With this stuff in thoughts, I set to work to enhance FOX.com’s website positioning efficiency for style touchdown pages.

How to Optimize Your Web site for Stated Alternative

Technique 1: Creating (Or Enhancing) the Ranked Web page

In lots of instances, the subsequent step is to construct a brand new web page that caters to the question.

Some inquiries to get you began:

What do I believe the person intent is behind this key phrase?

Would sort of content material would I look forward to finding on the web page, based mostly strictly on the key phrase?

What different webpages are rating nicely for this key phrase?

What do competitor pages appear like for their similar sort of branded question?

Technique 2: Getting the ‘Proper’ Web page Rating

In different instances, the only option is to make adjustments to your web site to get the “proper” web page rating for the branded key phrase.

When you’ve found that the “proper” web page for your branded key phrase alternative isn’t rating – or worse, lacking from Google’s index – preserve studying for 4 tips about the best way to repair (utilizing FOX for instance)!

FOX Instance

The answer for FOX was to get the “proper” pages ranked for branded style key phrases.

Particularly, its a number of genre-specific touchdown pages already stay on the positioning.

FOX.com had touchdown pages for a wide range of genres. Nevertheless, they weren’t rating for key phrases and had restricted visitors.

Tip 1: Make sure the Pages Serve the Right Standing Codes to Google

The very first thing I found was that a few of FOX’s style pages have been serving 404 errors to Google, so we fastened them to serve a correct 200.

Tip 2: Add Self-Referencing Canonical Tags to the Pages

Along with the 404 error response codes, FOX.com’s style pages was additionally lacking user-selected canonical tags.

Google had chosen to index none of them. It thought of all style pages as “duplicates” to the /stay web page.

We fastened this, too.

Tip 3: Create Static, HTML Variations of All of the Pages

It was no fluke that Google thought all the style filter pages have been duplicates with the /stay web page.

By inspecting the URLs in Google Search Console, I found that bots weren’t capable of “see” them correctly.

FOX.com was constructed with ReactJS, the answer was for us to create static, HTML variations of the pages so Google may higher learn what the content material on the pages have been.

The outcomes, under:

Tip 4: Implement Customized, Optimized Metadata

Lastly, I wanted to set all style pages up with their very own customized, optimized meta tags.

Earlier than – Style pages have un-descriptive metadata that was a reproduction with dozens of different pages.

After – Style pages have descriptive metadata with strategic key phrases.

We additionally up to date the “Leisure Hub” web page’s metadata to be extra descriptive, and assist it rank for its personal “appropriate” key phrases.

Earlier than – Leisure Hub web page has the identical, un-descriptive metadata because the style touchdown pages.

After – Leisure Hub web page has distinctive metadata that speaks to all the forms of content material it presents.

The Outcomes (So Far)

All the above adjustments have been made to FOX.com by January 19, 2020.

And whereas optimizations take time to kick in, now we have seen some promising enhancements over the past three months.

Particularly, FOX.com’s style pages and Leisure Hub web page have helped drive extra natural visits, distinctive guests, and content material begins to the web site.

See particulars under:

Style Pages:

66% improve in natural visits coming into by way of these pages.

66% improve in distinctive guests coming into by way of these pages.

51% improve in website positioning content material begins coming into by way of these pages.

Information: Final three months vs. earlier three months.

Leisure Hub Web page:

16% improve in natural visits coming into by way of this web page.

16% improve in distinctive guests coming into by way of this web page.

92% improve in website positioning content material begins coming into by way of this web page.

Information: Final three months vs. the earlier three months.

Conclusion

To depart you all with an actionable takeaway from this case examine, I extremely advocate pondering critically in regards to the pages which can be rating for your purchasers’ branded queries.

Taking the time to audit the pages that rank for your purchasers’ VIP branded key phrases can uncover attention-grabbing data.

And optimizing for these branded key phrases can yield vital enhancements within the web site’s website positioning visitors and conversions.

Extra Sources:

Picture Credit

All screenshots taken by creator, April 2020

if( !ss_u ){

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)}; if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '1321385257908563');

fbq('track', 'PageView');

fbq('trackSingle', '1321385257908563', 'ViewContent', { content_name: 'how-fox-com-optimize-their-website-for-branded-search-traffic-case-study', content_category: 'seo ' });

}// end of scroll user

try { window._mNHandle.queue.push(function (){ window._mNDetails.loadTag("379748484", "160x600", "379748484"); }); } catch (error) {}

Source link

The post How FOX.com Optimizes for Branded Search Traffic [CASE STUDY] appeared first on Bharats Guide.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/35hxHEE via IFTTT

#bharats guide

0 notes

chironwcentaur-blog · 5 years

Text

Can holistic and integrative therapy help disabled people?

What is a disability, can we leisurely define it; disability as a “phenomenon”? Unfortunately, disability either acquired or hereditary is the leading health and social problem in many countries including well-developed countries. It represents the significant health-social challenges of this era. As of now, as is, the healthcare system and social system is very oppressive, inadequate and inappropriate to meet the needs and challenges of the people living with disabilities. What is desperately needed is a fundamental shift in prospective approach with the application of complementary, alternative, holistic, integrative and functional treatments where the subjective experience of the disabled person is of central concern. Yes, subjective and personal experience! Life, wellness and health coaching for the disabled people are necessary and of urgent need. Some disabled people are with vocational rehabilitation services for years, not months as it should be. Actually, the primary goal of their existence, primary function and mission are to prepare and find employment for the disabled people (funded for their operation predominantly from federal resources about 75%). It looks like each disabled person is getting stuck in one of the phases, either in “the very beginning”, “hitting the wall”, “turning around”, “letting go”, “opening up”, “letting in”, and “the end of “healing” process” (1). The phase “hitting the wall” is the phase where most of the disabled people are giving up all malfunction services and so-called “independent living” where they realize that they are actually in reality heavily dependent on their family or primary caregiver for the rest of their life. All care and everyday living are on the primary caregiver’s shoulder, family and friends… Finally, we reached the point that life, wellness, and health coaching specifically designed for disabled people are “a must.” Most of the disabled people (if they can afford) are chronically placed in psychotherapeutic sessions with CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), yes, chronically for years, instead of as CBT standards proposed 6 -16 sessions and that’s it. No achievements, no improvements, then a psychotherapist should take another way of therapy. CBT strictly focuses on challenging and changing unhelpful cognitive distortions and behaviors, improving emotional regulation, and the development of personal coping strategies that target solving current problems. Well, it sounds good, but after a short period, another challenge is coming. Severe depression is a common co-morbidity of the disabled people which is “coming” silently but persistently, stay as a shadow following the disabled person who desperately wants to find a new way of life, meaning, and purpose of life as a disabled person, employment, lost dignity…a coming poverty, a new monster. Not a problem, here are antidepressant therapeutics widely available and readily prescribed even from primary care physicians. After changing six or more different forms of antidepressant therapeutics, no expected improvements or so little with frequent relapses. Some disabled people also do not know they have treatment-resistant depression; social factors are not improved, home-bound lifestyle is still in existence and persistent, and the disabled person is falling into a severe episode of depression. Definitely, integrative, functional approach in the treatment of the disabled people is promising including holistic, alternative or complementary therapy in the form of applied intensive life, wellness, and health coaching; finding a new way of life, meaning, and purpose of life, objectively approaching a job search, employment, getting back lost dignity, fighting depression and anxiety and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder getting disabled. Certainly, disabled people also deserve to find and feel the greatest love of all in their lives as all other people do. What is a disability? Millions of people live with a visible or invisible disability, acquired or hereditary disability, physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, developmental or sensory disability, disability with comorbidity and without comorbidity, nearly one in five people, currently almost 49 million people have a disability in the U.S.A. According to the data from the World Bank “one billion people or 15% of the world’s population experience, some form of disability and disability prevalence is higher for developing countries. One-fifth of the estimated global total, or between 110 million and 190 million people, experience significant disabilities” (2). Disability is not a category of disease; it is a condition caused by physical, sensory, cognitive and mental disorders that cause significant limitation in one or more major life activities. According to the Americans with Disability Act “major life activities include, but are not limited to, caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, lifting, bending, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating and working (Americans with Disability Act).” Probably, much better statement about disability we can find in the World Report on Disability, World Health Organization (WHO) stated: “Many people with disabilities do not have equal access to health care, education, and employment opportunities, do not receive the disability-related services that they require, and experience exclusion from everyday life activities. Following the entry into force of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), disability increasingly understood as a human rights issue. Disability is also an important development issue with an increasing body of evidence showing that persons with disabilities experience worse socioeconomic outcomes and poverty than persons without disabilities.” (3). It is imperative to understand disability as a phenomenon, fully. Yes, I would say the phenomenon. Defining disability is exceptionally complicated. A long time, I was searching for one good definition of disability. Probably, one of the best descriptions of disability is from the World Health Organization; it stated: “Disability is complex, dynamic, multidimensional, and contested. Over recent decades, the disabled people’s movement together with numerous researchers from the social and health sciences have identified the role of social and physical barriers in disability. The transition from an individual, medical perspective to a structural, social perspective has described as the shift from a “medical model” to a “social model” in which people viewed as being disabled by society rather than by their bodies” (3 - 8). Indeed, this statement provides a much better description of what disability is and how disability is transforming from a medical model into a social model. However, I did not stop searching for a better explanation and a better definition of disability. Leonardi M. and colleagues in 2006 in their article published in the Lancet stated: “Disability promoted as a “bio-psycho-social model,” it represents a workable compromise between medical and social models. Disability is the umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions, referring to the negative aspects of the interaction between an individual (with a health condition) and that individual’s contextual factors (environmental and personal factors)” (9). Generalization about “disability” or “people with disabilities” can mislead and any form of generalization should be avoided seriously. Persons with disabilities have diverse personal factors with differences in gender, age, socioeconomic status, sexuality, ethnicity, or cultural heritage; a unique culture. Each has his or her preferences and subjective responses to disability (10). A broad range of international documents has highlighted that limitation is a human rights issue, including the World Program of Action Concerning Disabled People (1982), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), and the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for People with Disabilities (1993). More than 40 nations adopted disability discrimination legislation during the 1990s (11). According to Harris J. and the article published in 2015 the Americans with Disability Act as it is stated the marquee civil rights legislation for people with disabilities expresses a national approach to disability that recognizes the role of society in its construction, maintenance, and potential remedy. But its mission is incomplete, and it has not generated the types of interactions between people with disabilities and nondisabled people empirically shown to deconstruct deeply entrenched social stigma (12). Disability as a phenomenon is very complicated, from a biological, medical, social, psychological point of view. As Sen A. in 2009 stated in his book: “Disability is a development issue, because of its bi-directional link to poverty: disability may increase the risk of poverty, and poverty may increase the risk of disability” (13). It looks like the definition of disability is not entirely reached, and still, the question of how disability supposed to be defined is fraught with political, ethical and philosophical complexities (14). How disabled people get even more impaired than actually, they are? Predominantly, disability is associated with some co-morbidities, and one of them is severe depression. Depression by itself, a separate entity is a form of disability. So, people with a disability who developed depression as co-morbidity are more disabled. Some previous research exhibited that co-morbid depression and chronic physical conditions associated with disability (15). Unfortunately, there is a substantial lack of data on disability and suicide in the U.S.A. There is a small number of national data on studies related to this topic. Some studies reaffirmed that disability is the risk factor of depression by using longitudinal data (16). Certainly, home-bound lifestyle, lack of employment, lack of transportation, malfunctioning or not provided services by vocational rehabilitation and social services, heavy dependence on a primary caregiver, the majority of disabled people will over a specified period develop the first signs and symptoms of depression and even suicidal ideation. Overall, significant indicators for increased suicidal risk in the population of disabled people are unemployed for an extended period, profound social isolation due to the homebound lifestyle and lack of transportation, significant change in health status because the majority of the disabled people require frequent medical attention and treatments. Progressively, due to lack of proper access to healthcare providers (even some primary care physicians do not want to accept Medicare and Medicaid insurance). Lack of mental health support and help either because they cannot afford due to overly expensive treatments and office visits or lack of mental health care providers locally, severe depression will be accompanied by suicidal thoughts or ideation in disability. Unproperly treated or untreated depression eventually in combination with the unbearable social status and life under the limit of poverty of the disabled people will convert into devastation condition of major depressive disorder with frequent suicidal thoughts. Majority disabled people are oppressed by ableism too, living as disabled people in a society that hates disability, or a society, the community, suffers from great stigma and taboo regarding disability. Overall, disability and its functional limitation in daily living activities have associated with suicide in the population of the disabled people (17). Still, there is a substantial lack of research data regarding what category of disabled people are more prone to develop severe depression, people with acquired disability or hereditary, and people with visible or invisible disability. Disabled people who suffer from suicidal ideation deserve to be seen by a therapist who “speaks” their language and understand their experience, thus cultural competency related to disability is a “must” for all healthcare professionals including pharmacists in the retail setting, social workers, psychologist and psychotherapists, rehabilitation counselors and our primary caregivers. There is a lack of research data what is the response of primary caregiver on a disabled person with developed depression as comorbidity and vice versa. Unfortunately, despite a substantial lack of national data on suicide and disability in the U.S. some studies have been shown that there is a substantially higher suicide rate in the population of disabled people with certain disabilities such as multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries and intellectual disability (18). As Giannini M. and colleagues in 2010 stated: “It is imperative that U.S. researchers and policymakers address the substantial gaps in knowledge that remain to help create a clear understanding of suicide in the disability population, especially targeting children and youth ages 10 to 24 and other at-risk age cohorts”. It sounds like a “wake up call” but still, since 2010 we do not have some significant contribution regarding research in this field. One of the possible reasons for such a condition is the fact that suicidologists are not able to find the data regarding the suicide rate in the population of disabled people, the data are hidden, or there is a lack of proper evidence regarding this particular issue. As one disabled person said: “Happy spring, I am “celebrating.” What? Six years of unsuccessful services with vocational rehabilitation services, still no job for me, with master’s and two doctoral degrees and numerous national and international certifications in the vocational evaluation process they made me an office clerk that even GED would be challenging for me, a home-bound lifestyle, severe disability, and heavy dependence on a primary caregiver…for them, I am “a low expectation and high liability.” I am “celebrating” a full five years in CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) paying out of pocket. My potentially successful suicide was prevented by my primary caregiver, not a psychiatrist, not a psychotherapist, not a rehabilitation counselor…but holistic therapy helped me to make a balance in my body-mind-soul and found a “healthier” myself.” This blog is the first blog in the series of three blogs dedicated to disability, disabled people and how holistic therapy, life, wellness, and health coaching can help disabled people to live productive life finding “the greatest love of all.” Dr. Miroslav Sarac – Chiron Wise Centaur – holistic and integrative healing center References: 1. Lindsey E. The gift of healing in chronic illness/disability. J Holist Nurs. 1995 Dec;13(4):287-305. 2. http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/disability 3. WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data World report on disability 2011. 4. Charlton J. Nothing about us without us: disability, oppression, and empowerment. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1998. 5. Driedger D. The last civil rights movement. London, Hurst, 1989. 6. Barnes C. Disabled people in Britain and discrimination. London, Hurst, 1991. 7. McConachie H et al. Participation of disabled children: how should it be characterized and measured? Disability and Rehabilitation, 2006,28:1157-1164. 8. Oliver M. The politics of disablement. Basingstoke, Macmillan and St Martin’s Press, 1990. 9. Leonardi M et al. MHADIE Consortium. The definition of disability: what is in a name? Lancet, 2006,368:1219-1221. 10. Learning lessons: defining, representing and measuring disability. London, Disability Rights Commission, 2007. 11. Quinn G et al. The current use and future potential of United Nations human rights instruments in the context of disability. New York and Geneva, United Nations, 2002b (http://www.icrpd.net/ratification/documents/en/Extras/Quinn%20 Degener%20study%20for%20OHCHR.pdf, accessed 21 Sept 2010). 12. Harris J. Processing disability. Am Univ Law Rev, 2015; 64 (3), 457-533. 13. Sen A. The idea of justice. Cambridge, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009. 14. Sisti D.A. Naturalism and the social model of disability: allied or antithetical? J Med Ethics 2015, 41 (7): 553-556. https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/faqs/ADAfaqs.htm 15. Deschenes SS, Burns RJ, Schmitz N. Associations between depression, chronic physical conditions and disability in a community sample: a focus on the persistence of depression. J Affect Disord. 2015; 179: 6-13. 16. Noh JW, Kwon Y.D, Park J, Oh IH, Kim J. Relationship between physical disability and depression by gender: A panel regression model. PLoS ONE 11 (11): e0166238. 17. Kaplan MS, McFarland BH, Huguet N, Newsom JT. Physical illness, functional limitations, and suicide risk: A population-based study. Am J Orthopsychiatry. 2007; 77 (1): 56-60. 18. Giannini MJ, Kreshover S, Elias E, Bergmark BA, Plummer C, O’Keefe E. Understanding suicide and disability through three major disabling conditions: Intellectual disability, spinal cord injury, and multiple sclerosis. Disabil Health J. 2010 Apr;3(2):74-8. Read the full article

0 notes

onlinemarketingcourses · 5 years

Text

Virtual Real Estate | SEO Book

Wrastlin With The News

The current presidential cabinet includes a WWE co-founder & this passes for modern political discourse:

#FraudNewsCNN #FNN pic.twitter.com/WYUnHjjUjg— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2017

CNN promised vengeance.

Something To Believe In

The pretense of objectivity has been dropped:

These reporters aren’t ideologues. They’re just right-thinking people who lean left. Somewhere along the line, they stopped pretending to be objective about Trump. … People don’t just disagree with each other. They can’t imagine how a decent caring human being could disagree with their own view of race or the minimum wage or immigration or Trump. Being a member of the virtuous tribe means not only carrying the correct card in your wallet to reassure yourself. You have to also believe that the people carrying any other card are irrational, or worse, evil. They’re not people to engage in conversation with. They are barriers to be ignored or pushed aside on the virtuous path to paradise. This intolerance and inability to imagine the virtue of the other side is the road to tyranny and chaos. It dehumanizes a good chunk of humanity and that in turn justifies the worst atrocities human beings are capable of.

The WSJ, typically a right-leaning publication, is differentiating their coverage of the president from most other outlets by attempting to be somewhat neutral.

The news is fake. Even historically left-leaning people are disgusted with outlets like CNN.

“I think the president is probably right to say, like, look you are witch-hunting me. You have no smoking gun, you have no real proof.” – CNN supervising producer John Bonifield

“When you do shitty reporting like CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times & Rachel Maddow especially. When you do that & it is revealed to be bullshit, what you’re doing is building up Trump. There’s no greater way to build up Trump than to falsely report on him. There’s no better way to build up Trump than to make him the victim.” – Jimmy Dore

“Rachel Maddow was given the facts, she ignored them, & she kept right on going. That’s MSNBC, that’s CNN, that’s the New York Times, the Washington Post – they’re all horrible. That’s why we had the Iraq war. That’s why we have the Syria war. That’s why we are still in Afghanistan. That’s why we had Libya. That’s why we have the biggest income disparity since the gilded age. Meanwhile we are spending more on the military than the rest of the world.” – Jimmy Dore

youtube

And, since people need something to believe in, there are new American Gods:

“A half hour of cable news delivers enough psychic trauma for a whole year. The newspapers are talking of nothing but treason, espionage, investigations, protests.” … “Stocks are rallying because of how little faith we have in the government. The Mega Blue Chip Corporation is the new Sovereign.”

Current Headwinds for Online Publishing

I struggle to keep up with the accelerating rate of change. A number of common themes in the current ecosystem are:

We are moving toward a world where more things are becoming fake (only accelerated by the demonetization of neutrality & the algorithmic boost associated with reliably delivering confirmation bias in an algorithmic or manual fashion)

risk keeps being radiated outward to the individual while monopoly platforms capture the spoils (forced-place health insurance purchases where the insurance company arbitrarily drops the sick member on the policy even though that is supposed to be illegal, more temp jobs where people don’t get enough hours to get health insurance through their employer, under-funded pensions, outsourcing of core business functions to sweatshops where part-time workers don’t get paid for dozens to hundreds of hours of required training & get to watch beheading videos all day)

the barrier to entry keeps increasing (increased marketing cost due to brand bias, heavy ad loads on dominant platforms, & central platforms making partners do “bet the farm” moves in how they adjust distribution to drive adoption of proprietary formats & temporarily over-promote select content formats)

the increasing chunk size of competition is making it much harder for individuals to build sustainable businesses. (Yes the tools of the trade are improving quickly, BUT the central platforms are demonetizing the adjacent fields faster than publishing tools & business options improve.)

In Europe publishers are aggressively leaning on regulators to try to rebalance power.

Some of this stuff is cyclical. About a decade ago the European Commission went after Microsoft for bundling Internet Explorer. Google complained about the monopolistic practices to ensure Microsoft was fined. And we’ve went from that to a web where Google syndicates native ads that blend into page content while directly funding robot journalism. And then Google is ranking the robot-generated crap too.

Speaking of robot journalists, check out the top 3 results for this query. All 3 are auto-written by automated insights (AI software). Yikes pic.twitter.com/ltFGFXHNiF— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) July 8, 2017

But to keep the ecosystem clean & spam free, Google is also planning to leverage their web browser to further dictate the terms of online publishing. Chrome will block autoplay audio & will automatically reroute .dev domains to https. Cutting edge developers suggest using a web browser other than Google Chrome to prevent proprietary lock in across the web.

Is this a test, @Google? pic.twitter.com/V9FZ2hL2cA— TNW (@TheNextWeb) September 5, 2017

While Google distributes their Chrome browser as unwanted bundleware, other web browsers must display uninstall links front & center when trying to gain awareness of their product using Google AdWords. Microsoft Edge is coming to Android, but without a BrowserChoice.eu screen it is unlikely most users will change their web browser as most are unaware of what a web browser even is, let alone the limitations of any of them or the tracking embedded in them.

If you go back several years, there was celebration of the fact that the cost of doing a startup was so low. You didn’t have to pay Oracle a million dollars for a server license any more. You didn’t even have to rack your own hardware. Now you can just dial it up on Amazon. But there are now these gatekeepers and toll-takers. Back in 2004, you had the wide-open internet. – Jeremy Stoppelman

The Mobile Revolution

If you are an anti-social work at home webmaster who has dual monitors it is easy to dismiss cell phones as inefficient and chalk most mobile usage up to the following.

Russian man visited Chinese click farm.They make fake ratings for mobile apps and things like this.He said they have 10,000 more phones pic.twitter.com/qE96vgCCsi— English Russia (@EnglishRussia1) May 11, 2017

The reality is cell phones are more powerful than they seem if you are strictly consuming rather than working.

Deflationary impact of technology: everything in this Radio Shack flyer from 1991 adds up to $3,285.12 and can be done today on a smartphone pic.twitter.com/ONh3waWVgq— Jeffrey Kleintop (@JeffreyKleintop) June 23, 2017

And that is how the unstoppable quickly becomes the extinct!

10 years ago. pic.twitter.com/ZCWfHfpedi— Harry Tucker (@harrytuckerr) September 11, 2017

Many people the world over are addicted to their cell phones to where viral game makers are self-regulating before regulators step in: “From Tuesday, users below 12 years of age will be limited to one hour of play time each day, while those aged between 12 years and 18 years will be limited to two hours a day, Tencent said.”

While China is using their various tools to clamp down on Honour of Kings, Tencent is bringing the game to the west, which makes blocking VPN services (with Apple’s help – they must play along or have the phones reduced to bricks) & requiring local data storage & technology transfer more important. Anything stored locally can be easily disappeared: “China’s already formidable internet censors have demonstrated a new strength-the ability to delete images in one-on-one chats as they are being transmitted, making them disappear before receivers see them.”

China has banned live streaming, threatened their largest domestic social networks, shut down chat bots, require extensive multimedia review: “an industry association circulated new regulations that at least two “auditors” will, with immediate effect, be required to check all audiovisual content posted online” AND they force users to install spyware on their devices.

In spite of all those restrictions, last year “Chinese consumers spent $5.5 trillion through mobile payment platforms, about 50 times more than their American counterparts.” In the last quarter Baidu had Â¥20.87 billion in revenues, with 72% of their revenues driven by mobile.

People can not miss that which they’ve never seen, thus platform socialism works. Those who doubt it will be tracked & scored accordingly.

History, as well, can be scrubbed. And insurance companies watch everything in real-time – careful what you post. The watchful eye of the Chinese pre-crime team is also looking over every move.

Last quarter Facebook had revenues of $9.164 billion, with 87% coming from mobile devices.

pic.twitter.com/JlPBSlmKlw— banksy (@thereaIbanksy) September 16, 2017

Simulacrum has ALMOST been perfected:

“We didn’t have a choice to know any life without iPads or iPhones. I think we like our phones more than we like actual people.” … “Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011. It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones.” … “Teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time than average on nonscreen activities are more likely to be happy.”

pic.twitter.com/QBLBXIDDLK— banksy (@thereaIbanksy) August 24, 2017

The web is becoming easier to get addicted to due to personalization algorithms that reinforce our worldviews even as they make us feel more isolated and left out. And the barrier to entry for consumers into one of the few central gatekeeper ecosystems is dropping like a rock due to the falling cost of mobile devices, coupled with with images & video displacing text making literacy optional. As we become more “connected” we feel more isolated:

“Social isolation, loneliness or living alone was each a significant factor contributing to premature death. And each one of these factors was a more significant risk factor for dying than obesity. … No one knows precisely why loneliness is surging, threatening the lives of many millions of people, but it does seem that the burgeoning use of technology may have something to do with it. Personally, I would contend that technology may be the chief factor fueling it.”

The primary role of the big data mining companies is leveraging surveillance for social engineering

Unsettling that according to Mark Zuckerberg purpose of Facebook is forced social engineering. From “World Without Mind” by Franklin Foer: pic.twitter.com/CHRnefg9m2— Murtaza Hussain (@MazMHussain) October 8, 2017

App Annie expects the global app economy to be worth $6.3 trillion by 2021.

The reason those numbers can easily sound fake & mobile can seem overblown is how highly concentrated usage has become: “over 80 percent of consumer time on mobile devices is now spent on the apps, websites and properties” of just five companies: Facebook, Google, Apple, Yelp and Bing.

Maslow 2.0 pic.twitter.com/X1OguQG8Gq— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) October 7, 2017

eMarketer stated Google will have more mobile ad revenue than desktop ad revenue in the US this year. They also predicted Google & Facebook will consume over 2/3 of US online ad spend within 2 years.

The central network operators not only maintain an outsized share of revenues, but also maintain an outsized share of profits. When the home team gets a 30% rake of any sale it is hard for anyone else to compete. Even after buying and gutting Motorola Google bought part of HTC for $1.1 billion. The game plan has never changed: commoditize the compliment to ensure user data & most of the profits flow to Google. Put up arbitrary roadblocks for competing services while launching free parallel offerings to drive lock-in.

For the last YEAR I’ve been battling App Store rejections – we made an app called Animoji with animated emojis…now I know why. https://t.co/jKJXfLMGj2— Ryan Jones (@rjonesy) September 9, 2017

Central data aggregators can keep collecting more user data & offer more granular ad distribution features. They can tell you that this micro moment RIGHT NOW is make or break:

it’s intended to create a bizarre sense of panic among marketers – “OMG, we have to be present at every possible instant someone might be looking at their phone!” – which doesn’t help them think strategically or make the best use of their marketing or ad spend.

The reality is that if you don’t have a relationship with a person on their desktop computer they probably don’t want your mobile app either.

If you have the relationship then mobile only increases profits.

Is iOS 11 specifically designed to make your older iPhones unusable and drain your battery so you have to upgrade to the newest phones?— Eric Jackson (@ericjackson) October 7, 2017

Many people attempting to build “the next mobile” will go bust, but wherever the attention flows the ads will follow.

Those with a broad & dominant tech platform can copy features from single-category devices and keep integrating them into their core products to increase user lock-in. And they can build accessories for those core devices while prohibiting the flow of data to third party devices to keep users locked into their ecosystem.

Smaller Screens, Shallower Attention

People often multi-task while using mobile devices.

youtube

When multi-tasking it is easier to accidentally click an ad. This happens 10s of billions of times a year:

This year, in-app mobile ad spend will reach $45.3 billion, up $11 billion from last year, according to eMarketer. And apps are where the money is at for mobile advertising, comprising 80 percent of all U.S. media dollars spent on mobile.

But multi-tasking means doing almost everything else worse. The “always on” mode not only increases isolation, but also lowers our ability to focus:

“while our phones offer convenience and diversion, they also breed anxiety. Their extraordinary usefulness gives them an unprecedented hold on our attention and vast influence over our thinking and behavior. … Not only do our phones shape our thoughts in deep and complicated ways, but the effects persist even when we aren’t using the devices. As the brain grows dependent on the technology, the research suggests, the intellect weakens. … when people hear their phone ring but are unable to answer it, their blood pressure spikes, their pulse quickens, and their problem-solving skills decline. … As the phone’s proximity increased, brainpower decreased. … Anticipating that information would be readily available in digital form seemed to reduce the mental effort that people made to remember it. … people are all too quick to credit lies and half-truths spread through social media by Russian agents and other bad actors. If your phone has sapped your powers of discernment, you’ll believe anything it tells you.”

Further, the shallow attention stream makes it easy to displace content with ads:

4 Ads 3 map carrousel results 5 organic results 4 Ads

Then “see more results”

4 more Ads 5 organic results 4 more Ads

On desktop devices people don’t accidentally misclick on ads at anywhere near the rate they fat thumb ads on mobile devices.

Desktop ad clicks convert to purchases. Mobile ad clicks convert to ad budget burned: “marketers are still seeing few shoppers purchasing on mobile. The 52% of share in traffic only has 26% share of revenue.”

For traditional publishers mobile users drastically under-monetize desktop users due to

drastically lower conversion rates (true for almost everyone in ecommerce outside of Amazon perhaps)

limited cross-device tracking (how do you track people who don’t even hit your site but hit a cached page hosted via Google AMP or Facebook Instant Articles?)

lower ad load allowed on publisher sites due to limited screen size

aggressive filtering of fat thumb ad clicks on partner sites from central ad networks

For the central network operators almost all the above are precisely the exact opposite.

higher ad CTR by making entire interface ads (& perhaps even disappearing the concept of non-ads in the result set)

great cross-device user tracking

higher ad load allowed by the small screen size pushing content below the fold

more lenient filtering of fat thumb accidental ad clicks

If you look at raw stats without understanding the underlying impact, it is easy to believe the ecosystem is healthy.

Assumption: Google’s ads are more prominent, so organic must be dying.Reality: As of Oct. 2016, 20X more organic clicks than paid ones. pic.twitter.com/FaEBpBZWSw— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) July 1, 2017

However the huge number of “no click” results are demonetizing easy publisher revenues, which have traditionally helped to fund more in-depth investigative reporting. Further, much of the direct navigation which happened in the past is now being passed through brand-related search result pages. You can argue that is an increase in search traffic, or you can argue it is shifting the roll of the address bar from navigation to search.

The first page is nothing but ads

Yep, and here they are in Philly. Home service ads, then AdWords traditional ads, then the local pack (way down below). 🙂 pic.twitter.com/VOVZPWWHsg— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) July 17, 2017

On mobile so is the second, and most of the third

Hey, only 2.5 screens before you get to the 10 blue links. A full 4 screens if you cannot crack the top 2 organics. pic.twitter.com/bbm1pz8hyF— Jeremy Bochenek (@J_Bochenek) July 17, 2017

If a search query has lots of easy to structure crap around it, a user might need 6 or 7 scrolls to get to an organic result

Very interesting Google SERP for GoT. One barely visible organic result after >70% scroll depth. Oh my… #seo #GameOfThones pic.twitter.com/Z6j7VvJMI4— Bastian Grimm (@basgr) August 24, 2017

Then if third parties go “well Google does this, so I should too” they are considered a low quality user experience and get a penalty.

Emailed a client one month ago when I picked up ultra-aggressive ads (especially on mobile). They just received an ad experiences warning. pic.twitter.com/QLLZci1xKW— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) September 25, 2017

31% ad coverage on mobile website is excessive / spam / low quality user experience for a publisher, while 301% coverage is reasonable for the central network operators.

Google not only displaces the result set, but also leverages their search suggestion features & algorithmic influence to alter how people search & what they search for.

Ads are getting integrated into mobile keyboards.

The standard keyboard on the HTC 10 has begun showing ads [X-Post from r/mildlyinfuriating] https://t.co/FuXDJzilZ6 #blog pic.twitter.com/VriK54dBHb— Android Facts (@manatweets) July 16, 2017

And when a user finally reaches the publisher’s website (provided they scroll past the ads, the AMP listings, and all the other scrape-n-displace trash) then when they finally land on a publication Google will overlay other recommended articles from other sites.

Whoa -> While you’re reading a page on the Google app for iOS, you’ll now see suggestions for related content https://t.co/n6FjkNqx82 pic.twitter.com/DZYTt8T7fI— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) September 19, 2017

That feature will eventually end up including ads in it, where publishers will get 0.00% of the revenue generated.

Remember how Google suggested publishers should make their websites faster, remove ads, remove clutter, etc. What was the point of all that? To create free real estate for Google to insert a spam unit into your website?

Continuing coverage of Google’s new content recos. I’m sure Best Buy is thrilled to see Amazon show up while someone is on their page. Ouch. pic.twitter.com/qpDyGKPyYh— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) September 24, 2017

This wouldn’t be bad if mobile were a small, fringe slice of traffic, but it is becoming the majority of traffic. And as mobile increases desktop traffic is shrinking.

Even politically biased outlets that appear to be nearly perfectly optimized for a filter bubble that promotes identity politics struggle to make the numbers work: “As a result of continued decline in direct advertising, [Salon’s] total revenue in the fiscal year 2017 decreased by 34% to $4.6 million. Following the market trend, 84% of our advertising revenue in fiscal year 2017 was generated by programmatic selling. … [Monthly unique visitors to our website saw] a decrease of 23%. We attribute the decline primarily to the changes in the algorithms used by Facebook.”

I knew the last year was bad for online publishing, but the Salon 10K shows *just how bad* pic.twitter.com/oyH7pdCDNI— josh laurito (@joshlaurito) June 26, 2017

The above sorts of numbers are the logical outcome to this:

we’ve heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it’s difficult to find the actual content, they aren’t happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don’t have much content”above-the-fold” can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn’t have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site’s initial screen real estate to ads, that’s not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.

Especially when combined with this:

As you scroll through it, you are then given travel ads for flight options through Google Flight search, hotels through Google Hotel search and restaurants through Google Local results. Then towards the bottom of the knowledge graph card, all the way at the end in a small grayish font, you have a link to “see web results.”

Bad news for TripAdvisor.

Google has squeezed out SEO for travel. PCLN/EXPE SEM $ spend and higher conversion is a massive competitive advantage. Bad news for TRIP. pic.twitter.com/39QkxuN780— modest proposal (@modestproposal1) April 17, 2017

And amongst the good news for Expedia, there’s also a bit of bad news for Expedia. The hotels are fighting Airbnb & OTAs. In travel Google is twice as big as the biggest OTA players. They keep eating more SERP real estate and adding more content behind tabs. On mobile they’ll even disappear the concept of organic results.

Room previews in the search results not only means that second tier players are worth a song, but even the new growth players propped up by aggressive ad buying eventually hit a wall and see their stock crash.

As the entire ecosystem gets squeezed by middlemen and the market gets obfuscated with an incomplete selection it is ultimately consumers who lose: “Reservations made through Internet discount sites are almost always slated for our worst rooms.”

The New York Times pitched Yelp as a pesky player holding a grudge:

“For six years, his company has been locked in a campaign on three continents to get antitrust regulators to punish Google, Yelp’s larger, richer and more politically connected competitor. … Yelp concluded that there was no better way to get Google’s attention than to raise the specter of regulation. … something [Mark Mahaney] calls the Death of Free Google. As the internet has migrated to mobile phones, Google has compensated for the smaller screen space by filling it with so many ads that users can have a hard time finding a result that hasn’t been paid for.”

In spite of how quick The New York Times was to dismiss Yelp, the monopoly platforms are stiffing competition & creativity while bundling fake reviews & junk features into their core platforms.

People can literally switch their name to “Loop dee Loop” and leave you terrible, fake reviews. Google’s lack of effort & investment to clean up trash in their local services department highlights that they don’t feel they need to compete on quality. Pay for core search distribution, throw an inferior service front & center, and win by default placement.

As AI advancements make fake reviews look more legit Google’s lack of investment in creating a quality ecosystem will increasingly harm both consumers and businesses. Many low margin businesses will go under simply because their Google reviews are full of inaccurate trash or a competitor decided to hijack their business listing or list their business as closed.

To this day Google is still egregiously stealing content from Yelp:

Yelp said it investigated and found that over one hour, Google pulled images from Yelp’s servers nearly 386,000 times for business listings in Google Maps, which Google exempted from its promise to not scrape content. Yelp then searched Google for 150 of the businesses from those map listings and found that for 110 of them, Google used a Yelp photo as the lead image in the businesses’ listings in search results.

Stealing content & wrapping it in fake reviews is NOT putting the user first.

Facebook has their own matching parallel shifts.

The aggregate quality of mobile ad clicks is quite low. So as mobile becomes a much higher percent of total ad clicks, those who don’t have scale and narrative control are reduced to taking whatever they can get. And mainstream media outlets are reduced to writing puff pieces so the brands they cover will pay to promote the stories on the main channels.

As programmatic advertising, ad blockers, unpatched Android-powered botnets & malware spread each day gets a little uglier for everyone but the central market operators. It is so bad that some of the central market operators offer surveillance apps which claim to protect user privacy! Other app makers not connected to monopoly profit streams monetize any way they can.

The narrative of growth can be sold (we are launching a new food channel, we are investing in our internal video team, we have exclusive real estate listings, and, um, we acquired a food channel) but the competition is a zero sum game with Google & Facebook eating off the publisher’s plates.

That’s why Time is trying to shave $400 million off their expenses & wants to sell their magazine division. Newspaper companies are selling for $1. It is also why Business Insider is no longer chasing growth & the New York Times is setting up a charitable trust.

The rise of ad blocking only accelerates the underlying desperation.

I have some thoughts about why news orgs are finding that people won’t read long articles: pic.twitter.com/G8Zh6GTA6w— Ben Chase (@bbchase) July 4, 2017

I feel terrible for journalists who invest time and effort into doing a hard job well only to have it presented like this. pic.twitter.com/jIZxuJqVAq— Jeff Long (@banterability) October 5, 2017

As long as news websites make their own customer experience worse than what can be found as a cached copy on the monopoly platforms there is no reason to visit the end publisher website. That is why the proprietary formats promoted by the monopoly platforms are so dangerous. They force lighter monetization & offset the lack of revenue by given preferential placement:

click through rate from Google search went from 5.9% (Regular) to 10.3% (AMP), and average search position went from 5.9 (Regular) to 1.7 (AMP). Since then, we have deployed AMP across fifteen of our brands and we have been very pleased with the results. Today, AMP accounts for 79% of our mobile search traffic and 36% of our total mobile visits.

As long as almost nobody is using the new proprietary, ghetto lock-in format the math may work out there, but once many people adopt it then it becomes another recurring sunk cost with no actual benefit:

the only voices promoting AMP’s performance benefits are coming from inside Google. … given how AMP pages are privileged in Google’s search results, the net effect of the team’s hard, earnest work comes across as a corporate-backed attempt to rewrite HTML in Google’s image.

Even if you get a slight uptick in traffic from AMP, it will lead to lower quality user engagement as users are browsing across websites rather than within websites. Getting a bit more traffic but 59% fewer leads is a fail.

No amount of collaborative publisher partnerships, begging for anti-trust exemptions, or whining about Google is going to fix the problem.

“The only way publishers can address this inexorable threat is by banding together. If they open a unified front to negotiate with Google and Facebook-pushing for stronger intellectual-property protections, better support for subscription models and a fair share of revenue and data-they could build a more sustainable future for the news business. But antitrust laws make such coordination perilous. These laws, intended to prevent monopolies, are having the unintended effect of preserving and protecting Google and Facebook’s dominant position.”

Wait a minute.

Wasn’t it the New York Times which claimed Yelp was holding an arbitrary grudge against Google?

The following sounds a lot more desperate:

newspapers that once delivered their journalism with their own trucks increasingly have to rely on these big online platforms to get their articles in front of people, fighting for attention alongside fake news, websites that lift their content, and cat videos.

Well maybe that is just smaller publications & not the gray lady herself

“the temperature is rising in terms of concern, and in some cases anger, about what seems like a very asymmetric, disadvantageous relationship between the publishers and the very big digital platforms.” – NYT CEO Mark Thompson

In unrelated news, there’s another round of layoffs coming at the New York Times.

And the New York Times is also setting up a nonprofit division to expand journalism while their core company focuses on something else.

Apparently Yelp does not qualify as a publisher in this instance.

Or does it?

The Times is backing the move for what is called an anticompetitive safe haven, in part, Mr. Thompson said, “because we care about the whole of journalism as well as about The New York Times.”

Ah, whole of journalism, which, apparently, no longer includes local business coverage.

You know the slogan: “news isn’t news, unless it isn’t local.”

The struggles are all across the media landscape. The new Boston Globe CEO lasted a half-year. The San Diego Union-Tribune resorted to using GoFundMe. The Chicago Sun-Times sold for $1. Moody’s issued a negative outlook for the US newspaper sector. As the industry declines the biggest players view consolidation as the only solution.

These struggles existed even before the largest brand advertisers like P&G cut back on low & no value ad venues like YouTube:

In the fourth quarter, the reduction in marketing that occurred was almost all in the digital space. And what it reflected was a choice to cut spending from a digital standpoint where it was ineffective: where either we were serving bots as opposed to human beings, or where the placement of ads was not facilitating the equity of our brands.

Google & Facebook are extending their grip on the industry with Google launching topical feeds & Facebook wanting to control subscription management.

Best of luck to journalists on the employment front:

The initiative, dubbed Reporters and Data and Robots (RADAR), will see a team of five journalists work with Natural Language Generation software to produce over 30,000 pieces of content for local media each month.

Hopefully editors catch the subtle errors the bots make, because most of them will not be this obvious & stupid.

The Guardian does not seem to know what a 40 is https://t.co/m7Gm1YrbXC pic.twitter.com/Y0sK9r0ltJ— Shuja Haider (@shujaxhaider) July 26, 2017

The cost of parasitic content recycling is coming down quickly:

In a show of strength last year, Microsoft used thousands of these chips at once to translate all of English Wikipedia into Spanish-3 billion words across five million articles-in less than a tenth of a second. Next Microsoft will let its cloud customers use these chips to speed up their own AI tasks.

Voice search makes it even easier to extract the rewards without paying publishers. Throwing pennies at journalists does nothing to change this.

And that voice shift is happening fast: “By 2020 half of search will be via voice”

If Google is subsidizing robotic journalism they are thus legitimizing robotic journalism. As big publishers employ the tactic, Google ranks it.

Checking some Heliograf articles (AI-written) reveals once again they do rank well. Google is in a tough position here. It’s inevitable… pic.twitter.com/g0Etcx3rFj— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) September 16, 2017

It is almost impossible to compete economically with an entity that rewrites your work & has zero marginal cost of production.

YouTube has perhaps the worst comments on the web. Some mainstream news sites got rid of comments because they couldn’t justify the cost of policing them. That in turn shifts the audience & attention stream to sites like Facebook & Twitter. Some news sites which are still leaving comments enabled rely on a Google filter, a technology Google can use on YouTube as they see fit.

Any plugins publishers use to lower their costs can later disappear. It looked like FindTheBest was doing well financially, but when it was acquired many news sites quickly found out the cost of free as they now have thousands of broken articles in their archives: “Last month, Graphiq announced that features for news publishers would no longer be available after Friday.”

Driving costs toward zero by piling on external dependencies is no way to build a sustainable business. Especially when the central network operators are eating the playing field:

“Between fast-loading AMP articles from major news brands hosted in its domain, full pages of information scraped from outside sites that don’t require you to visit them, basic shopping functions built into ads, YouTube, and a host of other features, the Google-verse is more of a digital walled garden than ever. … If Google continues to choke these sites out, what incentive will there be for new ones to come along?”

Unprofitable partners which were buying growth with artificially cheap pricing eventually find out investors want profits more than growth & either reprice or go away. The longer you use something & the more locked in you are to it the more aggressively it can afford to reprice. Symbiotic relationships devolve into abusive ones:

“for every pound an advertiser spends programmatically on the Guardian only 30 pence actually goes to the publisher.” – Mediatel

“Google wants to cut out the middlemen, which it turns out, are URLs.” – MobileMoxie

“[AMP is] a way for Google to obfuscate your website, usurp your content & remove any personal credibility from the web” – TheRegister

“Though the stated initiative of ads.txt is to stop inventory resale, it achieves this by establishing ‘preferred’ channels, which naturally favors the industry’s most influential companies” – Ad Exchanger

That Apple does extra work to undo AMP says a lot.

Those who think the central network operators are naive to the power structure being promoted by the faux solutions are either chasing short-term goals or are incredibly masochistic.

Arbitraging brand is the core business model of the attention merchant monopoly.

we’ve found out that 98% of our business was coming from 22 words. So, wait, we’re buying 3,200 words and 98% of the business is coming from 22 words. What are the 22 words? And they said, well, it’s the word Restoration Hardware and the 21 ways to spell it wrong, okay?

Publishers buying the “speed” narrative are failing themselves. The Guardian has 11 people working on AMP integration. And what is Google doing about speed? Google shut down Google Instant search results, often displays a screen or two full of ads which mobile users have to scroll past to find the organic search results AND is testing auto-playing videos in the search results.

Facebook is also promoting fast loading & mobile-friendly pages.

To keep bleeding clicks out of the “organic” ecosystem they don’t even need to have explicit malicious intent. They can run a thousand different tests every month (new vertical sitelink formats, swipable sitelinks, showing 8 sitelinks on tiny mobile devices, MOAR sitelinks, message extensions, extensions on call-only ads, price discount labels, frame 3rd party content inline, dramatically ramp up featured snippets +QnA listings, more related searches, more features in ad units, larger ad units, ad units that replace websites & charge advertisers for sending clicks from Google to Google, launch a meta-search service where they over-promote select listings, test dropping URLs from listings, put ads in the local pack, change color of source links or other elements, pop ups of search results inside search results, etc.) & keep moving toward whatever layout drives more ad clicks, keeps users on Google longer & forces businesses to buy ads for exposure, claiming they are optimizing the user experience the whole time.

They can hard-code any data type or feature, price it at free to de-fund adjacent businesses, consolidate market power, then increase rents after they have a monopoly position in the adjacent market.

And they can fund research on how to remove watermarks from images.

Why not make hosting free, get people to publish into a proprietary format & try to shift news reading onto the Google app. With enough attention & market coverage they can further extort publishers into accepting perpetually worse deals. And free analytics & business plugins which are widely adopted can have key features get pushed into the paid version. Just look at Google Analytics – its free or $150,000+/yr.

The above sorts of moves can be done in isolation, or in a combinatorial approach. Publishers aloof of the ecosystem shifts may use microformats to structure their content. They’ll then find it is integrated in Google’s new image search layout, where Google copies the content wholesale & shows it near other third party images framed by Google.

How about some visually striking, yet irrelevant listings for competing brands on branded searches to force the brand ad buy. And, of course rounded card corners to eat a few more pixels, along with faint ad labeling on ads coupled with vibrant colored dots on the organic results to confuse end users into thinking the organic results are the ads.

While Google turns their search results into an adspam farm, they invite you to test showing fewer ads on your site to improve user experience. Google knows best – let them automate your ad load & ad placement.

What is the real risk of AI? Bias.

“It’s important that we be transparent about the training data that we are using, and are looking for hidden biases in it, otherwise we are building biased systems,” Giannandrea added. “If someone is trying to sell you a black box system for medical decision support, and you don’t know how it works or what data was used to train it, then I wouldn’t trust it.”

And how does Google justify their AI investments? Through driving incremental ad clicks: “The DeepMind founders understand that their power within [Alphabet], and their ability to get their way with [Alphabet CEO] Larry Page, depends on how many eyeballs and clicks and ad dollars they can claim to be driving”

No bias at all there!

Truth: Google killed publishing in 2015. What you’re reading now is detritus + new junk posted by crazies walking around empty offices— 11 (@searchsleuth998) August 1, 2017

And if publishing was killed in 2015, things have only got worse since then:

Looking at 2015 vs 2017 data for all keywords ranking organically on the first page, we’ve seen a dramatic change in CTR. Below we’ve normalized our actual CTR on a 1–10 scale, representing a total drop of 25% of click share on desktop and 55% on mobile.

SEOs who were overly reliant on the search channel were the first to notice all the above sorts of change, as it is their job to be hyper-aware of ecosystem shifts. But publishers far removed from SEO who never focused on SEO are now writing about the trends SEOs were writing about nearly a decade ago. Josh Marshall recently covered Google’s awesome monopoly powers.

few publishers really want to talk about the depths or mechanics of Google’s role in news publishing. Some of this is secrecy about proprietary information; most of it is that Google could destroy or profoundly damage most publications if it wanted to. So why rock the boat? … Google’s monopoly control is almost comically great. It’s a monopoly at every conceivable turn and consistently uses that market power to deepen its hold and increase its profits. Just the interplay between DoubleClick and Adexchange is textbook anti-competitive practices. … Is your favorite website laying off staff or ‘pivoting to video’. In most cases, the root cause is not entirely but to a significant degree driven by the platform monopolies

His article details how Google owns many points of the supply chain

So let’s go down the list: 1) The system for running ads, 2) the top purchaser of ads, 3) the most pervasive audience data service, 4) all search, 5) our email. … But wait, there’s more! Google also owns Chrome, the most used browser for visiting TPM.

He also covers the price dumping technique that is used to maintain control

In many cases, alternatives don’t exist because no business can get a footing with a product Google lets people use for free.

And he shared an example of Google algorithms gone astray crippling his business, even though it was not related to search & unintentional:

Because we were forwarding to ourselves spam that other people sent to us, Google decided that the owner of the TPM url was a major spammer and blocked emails from TPM from being sent to anyone.

If the above comes across as depressing, don’t worry. The search results now contain a depression diagnostic testing tool.

Source link

0 notes

bluebookweb · 5 years

Text

Bionic Brick and Mortar: The Future of Main Street

The other day I was walking along a quaint Main Street when I was swiftly struck dumb. All the shops lining the street, from bars and restaurants to barbershops and professional services, could be doing so much more with available technology.

And not just in theory either. There are already scores of examples of companies with very standard offerings (think sandwiches and coffee) that are changing the Main Street customer experience by investing in technology. So why aren’t all of these businesses doing the same thing?

Walking along that street, I started imagining it differently. I saw all of the shops not as struggling brick and mortar operations, but as potential “hybrids” so to speak. Ones that blur the line between an offline store and a tech company. And if these small businesses need an example to follow, there are two leaders already paving the way: Starbucks and Panera Bread Company.

I’ll start with Panera, because frankly, the story they have to tell about tech investment is jaw-droppingly inspiring.

Panera Bread is not a tech company, right? It makes delicious soups and sandwiches that humans physically consume. But here’s a number that throws some skepticism toward the idea that the restaurant isn’t a tech company: $2 billion (with a B) in digital sales.

At CNBC’s recent Productivity@Work conference, Panera CEO Blaine Hurst announced the company is on track to surpass $2 billion in annualized digital sales in 2018, making up one-third of all sales. That’s up from $1 billion in digital sales in the year prior.

Panera defines digital sales as any order that’s placed online, on a mobile device, or at an in-store kiosk, and this is where I’d argue that Panera is, in fact, a tech company. Think of everything that goes into creating that system! The back end functions, the processing, the innovation, the bugs, the maintenance, the trial-and-error learnings. So much. I help companies conceptualize and build innovative digital products for a living, and all this makes my head spin in the best way.

As the “future of work” takes hold, digitizing your business will become easier, faster, and more affordable.

All told, those digital systems cost $150 million to build, and the digital transformation started back in 2014. At that time, Hurst expected to drive about 140,000 orders per week through the system. Fast forward to today, and it’s generating 1.4 million digital orders per week(!). That’s 900 percent more than what Hurst initially forecast.

My favorite part of Panera’s story is how fundamentally, it just makes sense. Hurst didn’t want to invest in technology just because he thought it was a good idea. He had a very specific problem he wanted to solve: Friction.

In a typical fast-casual take out restaurant like Panera, imagine all the areas of friction that exist. During a standard visit:

You wait in a line

You look around for a menu

You read a large, static menu with limited time

You place an order to an employee

You pay

That employee sends the order to the kitchen

You wait

An employee calls out your order and has to track you down

All that before you ever get your food. And at each step, there’s the possibility for friction, which can augment as the food order moves through the process, leading to delays and errors.

What did Hurst want to do? Remove the friction! How did he want to do it? Digital innovation!

With Panera’s system, you can choose from the menu at your own pace and in your own time. The order goes directly to the kitchen, and as soon as you walk in, it’s waiting for you. The process is more or less the same for in-store kiosks. Remove the friction, enhance the customer experience.

When you stop looking at tech innovation as something for Silicon Valley and start seeing it as a solution to basic problems every business faces, I think you’ll share the excitement I had walking down that Main Street.

And then there’s Starbucks, the darling of hipsters, investors, and tech innovators alike. And while there’s plenty to be said about every facet of the business, including its steadily rising share prices, can we please talk about its proprietary app?

The app was originally developed strictly for Rewards members in 2009, which by early 2018 made up about 15 million monthly users. However, that left 60 million monthly users unable to take advantage of the tech way to pay.

Once again, technology swooped in to provide a specific solution to a specific problem, and just a few months into 2018, Starbucks opened its app up to everyone.

And, just like Panera, the investment wasn’t strictly about driving higher revenues — It was all about the customer and improving their experience. By allowing anyone to use the app, Starbucks is now collecting data to feed artificial intelligence-powered systems that will provide serving suggestions based on a ridiculous number of factors, including time of day, order history, season, and even weather.

I love imagining it like this: You’re on a European vacation. It’s your birthday, and while walking around a historic city, you see a Starbucks. You walk to the counter, and the barista greets you with “Happy Birthday!” in your native language, and offers you 50 percent off that special, expensive drink you love, but only buy once a week or even month. That is unparalleled customer service never seen before.

And that’s an actual scenario Starbucks hopes to achieve.

(Photo courtesy of GeekWire)

To Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson, all this is possible because there actually isn’t a distinction between tech and non-tech companies anymore.

“The digital companies and tech companies realize more than ever that there’s going to be one customer interface, and that interface is as important to a tech company to have a brick-and-mortar relationship as it is for a brick-and-mortar relationship company to have a digital relationship,” he said on an investor call in 2017.

But, can local businesses replicate the success of these massive brands?

Yes! That’s what drove my excitement as I was walking down the street. There’s no reason locally owned businesses can’t make the same tech investments as these international companies. All they have to do is identify a problem, and develop a solution.

Let’s look at a hypothetical scenario using a business just about every town has: A bar.

Problem: Generally low patronage, and extremely unpredictable busy periods.

This bar could use a proprietary app to:

Send a limited offer to the user when he or she is within a certain proximity

Alert users of “flash” happy hours

Let patrons order without getting up from the table or flagging down a server

Collect data and use it to refine operations and make them more lean

Codify a referral network

Or anything else the imagination thinks up. And all of these solutions address the issue of lagging customer numbers.

Now, most bar managers would probably roll their eyes at this. I get that. But I’d urge them to think about it. Use their creativity, and imagine what could be. Because we’re in an incredible digital age where anything that could be, can be. And once you find the right tech team, anything that can be, will be.

At Indiez, we did a job for Domino’s that shows just how powerful a minor tech adjustment can be. Recently, the global food chain has been going through a digital transformation that, like Starbucks and Panera, has turned them into as much a tech company as a restaurant. Thanks to this push, the chain now has twice the market share of McDonald’s in Asia.

However, the company still found its digital experience was lagging behind newer food delivery services, such as UberEATS and GrubHub (Note: As a restauranteur you can definitely use these services to your advantage, but you can also go around them completely). We assembled a team of world-class designers and developers, and in six weeks, delivered a stellar product with UX that rivaled any modern food app.

This led to a 10 percent drop in abandoned carts, resulting in a one percent increase in gross revenue. You can read about the entire project in detail here.

There’s the argument that Domino’s is huge and has endless piles of cash. Of course they have the freedom to invest in tech. However, it’s also never been easier for small, non-tech businesses like restaurants to connect with the world’s best tech talent.

As the “future of work” takes hold, digitizing your business will become easier, faster, and more affordable. Those restaurants who are aware of this and ready for the changes will certainly fair better in the long run, or as we say in the tech business, “future-proof” themselves.

Will your restaurant be one of them?

Bionic Brick and Mortar: The Future of Main Street posted first on happyhourspecialsyum.blogspot.com

0 notes

conservationpsycholog · 6 years

Text

Predators, People and Conservation: An Introduction

Large predators are some of the most inherently fascinating creatures in the natural world. We humans can relate to them. Like us, large predators consume meat to survive, and exist at the top of their food chains. Many of them operate in social units comparable to ours. Unfortunately, as human development continues to encroach upon habitat and disrupt natural cycles, large predators are often the first casualties. Among the lessons learned over the previous century is that predators are not without a valid place in the ecosystems they inhabit. Still, people tend to fall firmly into either “for predators” or “against predators” camps. Often, neither position comes from a place of real understanding, so for this first post, I want to cover my experience with some basic ideas related to the complicated clusterfuck of modern wildlife management.

In the summer of 2017, I was invited to attend an annual public hearing on the specifics of wolf policy in the state of Oregon. In Oregon and elsewhere, wildlife hearings are intended to provide a forum for complaints by both ranchers and environmental biologists which might result in policy changes. I believe its important to set the scene here. Currently, Oregon wolves enjoy a (non-uniformly across the state) protected status that requires wolves kill a certain number of livestock within a certain timeframe before state wildlife agents are allowed to “lethally remove” wolves. Portland, Oregon contains the far left-leaning Portland metropolitan area (which represents a tiny fraction of Oregon’s overall land area) as well as the majority of Oregon’s 4 million inhabitants. The rest of the state (where wolves live) is a massive land area that is sparsely populated and politically right-leaning.

As I arrived at the policy hearing, I had no problems distinguishing peoples’ affiliations. Environmentalists were identifiable by their bright orange shirts emblazoned with “SAVE THE WOLVES.” Ranchers wore loosely fitting blazers, and sported impressive facial hair. For the most part, the environmentalists offered articulate, passionate arguments on the intrinsic rights of nonhuman beings. Ranchers convincingly presented a list of slights against them by conspiratorial wildlife agents. I was amazed by the intensity of emotion displayed by all speakers. Wolves are animals, who, in a bad year, kill dozens of livestock in a state of millions. What could justify such a disproportionate use of time and energy? Unsurprisingly, over the course of approximately eight hours of discussion, I couldn’t see much evidence that many opinions had changed. Evidently, self-questioning didn’t appear to be a part of either ranching or environmentalism at a policy hearing. It wasn’t hard to imagine how this kind of entrenchment might prevent a compromise in the future.

Wolf-livestock conflict is a popular topic of environmental discussion here in Oregon, but it has also been emblematic of a much larger struggle; as the severity of global environmental degradation continues to increase, peoples’ attitudes toward those who somehow inhibit environmental relief are shifting into real anger. Often, the recipients of this anger perform essential, or once-essential services, such as food or energy production. For example, some environmentalists may express frustration at corporations’ oil drilling expeditions, while simultaneously relying on petroleum products they produce. This creates resentment on all sides, which sometimes manifests itself in the form of counterproductive behaviors, including deliberately ignoring opposing arguments. Conflicts between environmentalists, “stakeholders,” who most directly receive the effects of policy changes, and other interested parties have resulted in particularly chaotic situations in the broader fields of predator conservation, endangered species legislation, National Parks, fisheries water resources, agricultural land use, hydroelectric power, coal production, nuclear energy, hunting, and many others.

“Don’t shoot me, I’m famous”

Cecil the lion makes for a good example. Unless you were living under a rock in 2015 or are under three years old, you recall that an affluent dentist on a guided hunting trip in Zimbabwe shot and killed a known, collar tracked lion named Cecil. Because the legality of killing the collared lion close to a National Park was questionable at best, resulting in legal action, the incident quickly sparked massive media attention. Over the next several months, paying hunter Walter Palmer was relentlessly derided on social media. As collective feelings intensified, he was subjected to death threats and protests at his dental practice.

To many, the Cecil situation appeared relatively black and white; an evil white man had come to Africa to poach a favored research lion (and this was probably to compensate for some lack of romantic danger in the field of dentistry). Few of the hysterical social media warriors responsible for the bulk of hate-tweets seemed concerned with the fact that the hunt had mostly gone as many before. African parks in politically unstable nations often suffer from severe shortages in traditional forms of wildlife program funding like travel/tourism. Instead, many African parks now rely on funding from tags purchased by hunters like Walter Palmer for the continuation of conservation efforts. The tens of thousands of dollars of contribution funds from a single hunt may go farther toward aiding conservation than hundreds of National Park visits. This is not to say that killing researched animals is somehow beneficial. Nor do paid hunts necessarily contribute toward conservation. In geographies plagued by corruption, funds may never actually reach their intended targets. At the moment, whether hunting helps or hurts conservation probably falls best under “unknown.”

The uproar over Cecil has continued until today. While this has created an interesting cultural conversation, the ethics of trophy hunting opponents can, at times, be both hypocritical and nonsensical. Those who oppose hunting in general may find it difficult to square their views with lifestyle choices, such as meat consumption, or blind veganism. Those who oppose specific instances of hunting may make philosophical distinctions between the killing of species that are potentially ridiculous. Is a lion worth more than a coyote? An elk? If so, when? What about indigenous people who may be at risk of attack? As I was beginning to research this subject, an article that I found particularly horrifying attempted to make the case that the death of lions and other predators was unquestionably good for conservation because it saves the lives of the prey they need to sustain themselves. This, of course, completely ignores both the essential functions of predators in regulating populations, and the broader inherent value of the existence of large predators. Clearly, we have a long way to go in getting people on board with the best information.

The fact that human beings have a difficult time basing opinions on purely rational grounds is no longer really controversial (Tajfel and Turner 2004). Still, the emerging field of conservation psychology has only begun to explore the reasons for this. A few researchers have helped out a lot in recent decades. This is a diagram I found by Jeremy Bruskotter, who does work with human attitudes toward predators:

Bruskotter proposed that an individual’s trust in management agencies, control over hazards, perceived risks of species, and perceived benefits of species all interact with one another to influence his/her level of tolerance. Interestingly, he notes that a species’ perceived benefits (or lack thereof) have a significantly higher influence on attitudes than risks on tolerance. He brings up a few concepts here (and elsewhere), each of which are based on well designed surveys:

Affect: The instinctive emotional response of residents or respondents to the presence of a certain animal.

Locus of control: A psychological concept in which there are two conditions: internal and external. An external locus of control is present when someone feels they have no ability to change their situation, resulting in anxiety, stress and learned helplessness. A rancher who suffers frequent livestock losses to strictly protected predators would likely fall under this category. Obviously, an internal locus of control would represent the opposite situation. An internal “LoC” is clearly healthier, and someone with a good sense of control, whether real or perceived, feels strongly that they have control over any adverse events in their life. For a time, wildlife managers were puzzled that highly effective methods of controlling coyotes, such as sterilization, were disliked by ranchers. Evidently, the ranchers almost uniformly preferred the expensive and somewhat ridiculous aerial gunning techniques that had almost always failed to reduce actual populations. Individuals concerned might always not know it, but what they really want in a management response is a often simply a sense of control.

Trust: Often, wildlife managers’ hands are tied by local regulations. Livestock owners want to feel that, if they can’t take care of problems themselves, wildlife officials will.

Risks/costs: This one is pretty obvious. Predators eat things. Sometimes this causes conflict.

Benefits: For some reason we can’t really explain, people like predators. Wolves, lions, bears, and other animals are sometimes described as “charismatic.” The implications for this might be increased conservation funds from donations and park visits. Additionally, predators exist at the top level of food chains, exerting “trophic cascades.” When a predator reduces prey numbers and behavior, this will have a “cascading” effect down the food chain that may result in greater abundance of other species, such as herbivores’ food-source plants.

Ingroup/outgroup: People are much more likely to favor the perspective a group to which they identify than to a compelling argument. When is the last time you left a political argument firmly convinced that everything the other person said was right?

Bruskotter’s diagram and concepts paint a fairly simplistic picture of human attitudes, however, given the complexity of the full scope of human behavior, simplification is probably necessary. Some of the points above have already been disputed- For example, a survey study in Wisconsin by researcher Adrian Treves suggested that increasing peoples subjective feeling of control over wolves by allowing them to hunt wolves did not increase their overall levels of tolerance for wolves. As we will see later in this blog, and as I have already mentioned, real explanations and solutions are hard to come by.

END

0 notes

jimmybechtel · 4 years

Text

Google Ads Campaigns Best Practices For The B2B Sector

Over the years, Google Ads campaigns have been popular mostly for the B2C market. Meanwhile, the methods of obtaining information about potential contractors in the B2B sector have changed and today also in this area you can confidently use Google’s tool.

How to reach a business customer thanks to various Google Ads functions?

I assume that as a business owner, you know the specificity of the industry in which you operate. You know your offer – you know what makes it stand out from the competition, what are its strengths and weaknesses, what problems of potential customer you can solve etc.

You probably also have information about your client. You know the buyer persona as well as the purchasing process (stages and length of the purchasing path). It is also worth knowing (if you have not already done so) industry jargon, which can be used by potential B2B customers when entering queries in the search engine.

Once you collected and analysed this information, you can start to prepare an advertising campaign on Google Ads. Here are some aspects to look out for in a B2B campaign.

KEYWORDS

In search campaigns, text ads appear above or below organic results based on users’ queries. It might seem relatively simple, but you must remember that some keywords types may cause your ads to appear on the wrong terms.

So how to select keywords to B2B Search campaign?

First, choose phrases related to your offer or product in combination with phrases which are suggesting that the seeker is a B2B customer. For example: “producer”, “wholesale”, “warehouse”, “supplier”, “distributor”, “seller”, “B2B”, “outsourcing” etc. These are examples of keywords that are not entered by ordinary users.

If you want to reach a potential customer at the bottom of the buyers funnel, exclude phrases with no shopping intentions, such as “reviews”, “forum”, “free”, “free”, “work”, “internship”, “instruction” , “Ratings”, “pdf”, “download”, “definition”, “wiki” etc.

The offer can be so niche that potential B2B customers will not know about it and therefore won’t search for it. In this situation, you can use general keywords or more broadly – phrases that deal with solving a problem or answering a question starting with the words “how”, “why” etc. Sift through your offer or product and find out if there are acronyms or other product names commonly used in the industry and add them to your campaign.

In this case, you will certainly reach also B2C customers, that why it is crucial what you put in the content of the advertisement.

Don’t forget to review the search terms to prevent your ads from showing up on unrelated terms.

You can also display ads on keywords from your competitor’s brand. This is not entirely ethical, but sometimes it can bring good results, because thanks to it potential customers get to know your company and maybe they decide to compare offers, and as a consequence, they will choose your product.

ADVERTISING CONTENT

The content of the ad itself is also extremely important. In B2B it differs from the content of advertisements directed to individual customers.

You must keep in mind that the B2B customer decision process is longer than that of an individual customer. He will not click the “add to cart” button and will not mark 100 pieces of the product, but will call or write to you to get to know the company from all sides and learn more about the offer, as well as the terms of cooperation. They want to compare prices with competitive offers, etc.

It’s important that you be specific in creating your ad content and not use general terms. Add information that will indicate that the message is directed to a business customer. Use the words mentioned earlier, e.g.“Wholesaler”, “producer”, “B2B” etc.

The assumption that the company is the recipient of the product which we are advertising is not good enough. The company as a whole cannot be treated as a person to whom we address the message. You have to remember that the recipient of the advertisement is always a human.

Advertising should be directed to the directors of specific departments. They are the most important recipients of the product and decision-makers.

Also, use all possible ad extensions to provide potential customers with a large dose of specific information about your business. If you have quality certificates or awards, put information about them in callout extensions or sitelinks. Add a business address and phone number. Include the types of products or services that you can offer to a B2B business in your ad extensions.

DESTINATION PAGE

You’ve already prepared the right keywords and ad copy, its time for the third piece of the puzzle, i.e. the landing page.

The website should be a business card of the company because it is the first point of contact with the potential customer with the offer.

For example, the website header can be a great place to inform potential customers about what you do and who you work with. The information should be specific and clearly explain what clients you are looking for.

If you offer technical products for B2B customers, add downloadable PDF files and as much information as possible about the products themselves. Adding a call to action “LEARN MORE” button to the contact form will increase the number of leads and potential clients.

If you offer different types of products to various industries, apply product-specific business-related landing pages into industries where you offer your services or products. By performing this task, you will clearly specify that your offer is directed to a business client, not an individual.

I’ve noticed that many companies that deal with both B2C and B2B sales have only one subpage with a minimum amount of text about cooperation with a business client, hidden in a high volume of other URL pages. In this situation, the potential contractor will look for opportunities to cooperate with a competitive company instead.

If you are seriously thinking about cooperating with the B2B sector, your website must contain a separate and visible section directed to such a client. Perhaps a better solution would be to create a subdomain or even an independent B2B site.

What should a website be like to help you gain B2B customer confidence?

Avoid just basic product or service information. Focus more on how your offer can help a potential customer.

Don’t forget that your landing page should be strictly linked to what you see in your ad content. It will also increase credibility in the eyes of a potential customer.

Post blogs and describe them with the name, surname and position of the employee. Also, add his photo to increase their credibility and inspire the recipient’s trust.

Create content that will provide value to potential customers. Show that you are an expert in your field. Share knowledge on the blog, solve problems that your potential customers may encounter. Create guides that will be available for download after entering your email address. This way, you will also start building a database of people who will be able to become your customers in the future.

REMARKETING

If you managed to get valuable traffic to your website, it is worth making use of it and creates a remarketing campaign. After creating the remarketing list, you can advertise your product to potential customers with relevant messages. In the message, you can offer recipients additional free materials (guides), a more extended test period or a discount for a more substantial order.

Examples of remarketing lists that you can use in a campaign:

People who visited a specific subpage e.g. entered the for tab B2B customers

People who downloaded the PDF after providing their email address

People who signed up for the software testing period but did not purchase the paid version

Other advertising channels, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, can also help in B2B remarketing activities. These services offer the possibility of an exact audience targeting for the ads, e.g. job title or industry. So, you will advertise your product to specific decision-makers. If a person clicks on a link to your page, you can create a remarketing list from these entries, and you will be able to remind these people about your offer in the future.

OPTIMISATION

Every campaign in AdWords needs time, data for analysis and optimisation. It is no different when advertising a product to a B2C client. Once you have data and conversion the first changes should include:

Grouping Ads – headers on the landing page should contain the keyword entered by the customer; this can be done by dividing the ads into smaller separate ad groups.

Testing Several Variants Of Ads – until we test, we don’t know what works. It is undoubtedly useful to include a vision of the problem and a promise to solve it, always remember about CTA, for example, “Download now!”.

Pausing Keywords With High Spend That Not Convert – this can only be done after a few months.

CONCLUSIONS

With AdWords, you can reach specific people from specific departments of companies that are your potential clients.

Traffic from general keywords can be narrowed down through the content of the ad.

People are ready to leave an email address in exchange for something that interests them.

An optimisation is the most important thing in every campaign.

SUMMARY

Remember that to get a B2B customer is a long term task. The decision-making process related to purchasing in this sector is much longer in comparison to the B2C industry.

So even if the initial cost of acquiring a customer is high, it can ultimately be profitable for you.

The above recommendations do not fully cover the topic, but they are a solid basis for building your advertising strategy in the Google Ads channel. The effectiveness of the described activities may vary depending on the industry and the specifics of the offer itself, but it is worth testing different solutions to choose the best ones for your business.

The post Google Ads Campaigns Best Practices For The B2B Sector appeared first on Koozai.com

Google Ads Campaigns Best Practices For The B2B Sector published first on http://wascript.weebly.com/

0 notes

des--aster · 6 years

Text

Best Grammar and Spelling for seo services

Seo services team have to be sure you are not throwing away enough period of your readers by giving them articles that is not valuable. When you compose lengthier posts, the viewers get yourself a feeling that you are simply focussing on your positions and perhaps not valuing your own period. Everyone is busy these days. Thus they'll be searching for articles that presents them answers with their problems in a short and valuable manner. They won't be curious to figure out a easy thing from a lengthy article. It's mandatory that you give value for your readers at exactly the finest method. You need to understand the problems of one's readers that need a simple reply and the ones that want a thorough answer. The audience must find the impression they're becoming invaluable articles that does not squander their period. You can see yourself being a writer, hunt for those difficulties in Google, and obtain the replies other websites are providing. This will give you a notion the way to exactly to give value to the visitors as well as can assist you in finding a gap in the market. 5. Value the time of one's readers. A lot of beginners take the key words in mind price. This is actually a major blunder. When targeting a key word, you need to have in mind the intent of this searcher. It's mandatory that you decide that key words to target according to it particular. You have to think about that will consider these keyword phrases and the reason why. This can help you to locate if persons are prepared to get from you personally or want more details to compose their minds. These points are rather crucial whether you're selling a costly product. Do not forget that focusing about those facets along with avoiding lengthy articles will require one to high positions. Research has always proven that drawn-out articles have a tendency to take higher positions from the positions. So that the trick to balance all these facets is that concentrate on the term count immediately after writing the guide and not before. This will help you to center about the level of the content while writing. Word count is an explanation for how far marketing and link building you will need to do in order to rank an report. Thus consider them at the ending result. 2. Give greater than simply words Many sites are loath off applying videos because they cost more than creating a informative article with plain text. However, they overlook how they're dropping a good opportunity. If you use this opportunity, you can superior for your competition that aren't making use of the particular. Additionally, you can upload these videos into other programs such as Vimeo, Youtube etc., that will enable you increase your audience and revenue. So adding visual elements for your own page is significantly more important than lengthy posts. If you are working to deliver an excellent information to your readers, you have to simply take care to improve the articles for keywords and phrases. This will help you to position for keywords that people usually hunt. So you're able to draw passive visitors from Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Take time to find out more about the keywords that people search for you personally. This can maximize your articles and certainly will require one to higher rankings. There diverse gears available you could utilize to work out keywords people are searching for. You can input a seed key word along with other keyphrases regarding the post. You must come across terms which have high search quantity however are not aggressive. These phrases will undoubtedly be ones who you will be more inclined to rank for. They have an adequate number of monthly hunts.

Inch. Give value to the readers

Good grammar plays with a exact vital part in developing content that is valuable. In the event you make a articles with bad grammar, then you'll be noticed by both Google in addition to your own customers. Google's algorithm could differentiate the contents with great punctuation and inadequate grammar. Maybe Google can use good grammar as criteria at the positions. Users may love to browse contents which are precisely composed. In case this content is inferior in spelling and grammar, the users will skip the site and continue ahead to other web sites having content that is correctly written. Those users who have abandoned the site is possible that they'll not return. Even should they go back, they may not eventually become your spending customers. This dilemma will have an impact on your new graphic too. Folks might think of that your brand as a person with poor and standards that are poor. Grammatical blunders and punctuation mistakes may take back your readers when your earnings pages as well as your product is outstanding. 4. Search Term Optimization You are unable to compel your audience to read your content, that they have to feel to read it. Giving different forms of content such as images, videos, audios etc., will be interesting for your readers. When you are explaining an visual thing or a challenging one, simply words wont be enough. For this kind of types of topics, an image or movie will be rather beneficial. You may possibly have noticed the images in instruction manuals and the videos onto a business's web site or youtube channel. They truly are far more valuable compared to the lengthy posts and words that are numerous. You are able to offer good value to your readers together with just 100 words into your website if you have any images and a video clip to supplement it. Also, pages that have graphics inside them are apt to have high rankings. Individuals relate to those internet sites with videos and images in the place of the people using just text. In many scenarios, phrases provide significance when compared to a video or image. After learning the key words, optimize your pages effectively. You have to avoid over-optimization penalty. Be certain to compose your content just as natural as you can in the place of completely focusing to the key words. This can improve the attribute of your information. Staying at a very low key word density will probably undoubtedly be perfect. This helps boost Google to rank one to your keywords without even appearing as if you're attempting to control their algorithm. Google places more weight onto the language from your title and header tags. Thus that the optimal/optimally place for those key words will be the titles and header tags. content development services

Content-Length is still some thing which is a topic for debates of this past years. You will receive many articles and article on the best way to compose content-writing samples, and how todo articles writing such as websites content writing tips examples, Contents for seo, contents for web development services. etc.. This we're managing some thing unique. There are many SEOs that strictly demand exceptionally long articles and blogs. Despite the fact that content span helps in enhancing rankings, it really isn't the only real aspect. The problem with long articles is the fact that it reduces the standard of this content. When you boost the span, you may lower the price of each and every term. This can create difficulties with Google algorithm simply because Google strictly wants to give quality material for their own searchers. People also appreciate little and precious material in place of the ones that are long. So here, I am going to give you 5 important things that are essential in articles writing additional than articles span. It has to function as the important objective. This content that you write should supply a few significance for the readers. If you are not successful within this goal, people will not share or link to your webpage. This may produce trouble in your search results rank. Even when people reach on your own page, they won't adhere with it for your content that is valuable. If you would like your viewers to turn in to paying clients, then you've got to give far more relevance to high quality than volume. If not, it'll even affect the reputation of your own brand and individuals may develop a awful image on your brand.

Now you may be thinking of how to provide valuable content. Because of this, to begin with, you should be aware of why folks are reading your own content. You have to understand that the situation that the reader is hoping to fix. You have to create your content based on the need for the reader. It should provide value for your reason why why they've been on your page. Your content need to deliver thorough information regarding the topic you're producing. You must also think about that the readers who have zero comprehension about this issue you are writing. Your content must enable the newcomers to have a good concept of the issue after reading through it. It's mandatory that you produce a full page which supplies the value in the best way. Creating a tremendous post might not be beneficial in this circumstance.

Best content writing for Seo

#Seo services #Seo development services

0 notes

ubizheroes · 7 years

Text

Virtual Real Estate

Wrastlin With The News The current presidential cabinet includes a WWE co-founder & this passes for modern political discourse: #FraudNewsCNN #FNN pic.twitter.com/WYUnHjjUjg— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2017 CNN promised vengeance. Something To Believe In The pretense of objectivity has been dropped: These reporters aren’t ideologues. They’re just right-thinking people who lean left. Somewhere along the line, they stopped pretending to be objective about Trump. … People don’t just disagree with each other. They can’t imagine how a decent caring human being could disagree with their own view of race or the minimum wage or immigration or Trump. Being a member of the virtuous tribe means not only carrying the correct card in your wallet to reassure yourself. You have to also believe that the people carrying any other card are irrational, or worse, evil. They’re not people to engage in conversation with. They are barriers to be ignored or pushed aside on the virtuous path to paradise. This intolerance and inability to imagine the virtue of the other side is the road to tyranny and chaos. It dehumanizes a good chunk of humanity and that in turn justifies the worst atrocities human beings are capable of. The WSJ, typically a right-leaning publication, is differentiating their coverage of the president from most other outlets by attempting to be somewhat neutral. The news is fake. Even historically left-leaning people are disgusted with outlets like CNN. “I think the president is probably right to say, like, look you are witch-hunting me. You have no smoking gun, you have no real proof.” – CNN supervising producer John Bonifield “When you do shitty reporting like CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times & Rachel Maddow especially. When you do that & it is revealed to be bullshit, what you’re doing is building up Trump. There’s no greater way to build up Trump than to falsely report on him. There’s no better way to build up Trump than to make him the victim.” – Jimmy Dore “Rachel Maddow was given the facts, she ignored them, & she kept right on going. That’s MSNBC, that’s CNN, that’s the New York Times, the Washington Post – they’re all horrible. That’s why we had the Iraq war. That’s why we have the Syria war. That’s why we are still in Afghanistan. That’s why we had Libya. That’s why we have the biggest income disparity since the gilded age. Meanwhile we are spending more on the military than the rest of the world.” – Jimmy Dore And, since people need something to believe in, there are new American Gods: “A half hour of cable news delivers enough psychic trauma for a whole year. The newspapers are talking of nothing but treason, espionage, investigations, protests.” … “Stocks are rallying because of how little faith we have in the government. The Mega Blue Chip Corporation is the new Sovereign.” Current Headwinds for Online Publishing I struggle to keep up with the accelerating rate of change. A number of common themes in the current ecosystem are: We are moving toward a world where more things are becoming fake (only accelerated by the demonetization of neutrality & the algorithmic boost associated with reliably delivering confirmation bias in an algorithmic or manual fashion) risk keeps being radiated outward to the individual while monopoly platforms capture the spoils (forced-place health insurance purchases where the insurance company arbitrarily drops the sick member on the policy even though that is supposed to be illegal, more temp jobs where people don’t get enough hours to get health insurance through their employer, under-funded pensions, outsourcing of core business functions to sweatshops where part-time workers don’t get paid for dozens to hundreds of hours of required training & get to watch beheading videos all day) the barrier to entry keeps increasing (increased marketing cost due to brand bias, heavy ad loads on dominant platforms, & central platforms making partners do “bet the farm” moves in how they adjust distribution to drive adoption of proprietary formats & temporarily over-promote select content formats) the increasing chunk size of competition is making it much harder for individuals to build sustainable businesses. (Yes the tools of the trade are improving quickly, BUT the central platforms are demonetizing the adjacent fields faster than publishing tools & business options improve.) In Europe publishers are aggressively leaning on regulators to try to rebalance power. Some of this stuff is cyclical. About a decade ago the European Commission went after Microsoft for bundling Internet Explorer. Google complained about the monopolistic practices to ensure Microsoft was fined. And we’ve went from that to a web where Google syndicates native ads that blend into page content while directly funding robot journalism. And then Google is ranking the robot-generated crap too. Speaking of robot journalists, check out the top 3 results for this query. All 3 are auto-written by automated insights (AI software). Yikes pic.twitter.com/ltFGFXHNiF— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) July 8, 2017 But to keep the ecosystem clean & spam free, Google is also planning to leverage their web browser to further dictate the terms of online publishing. Chrome will block autoplay audio & will automatically reroute .dev domains to https. Cutting edge developers suggest using a web browser other than Google Chrome to prevent proprietary lock in across the web. Is this a test, @Google? pic.twitter.com/V9FZ2hL2cA— TNW (@TheNextWeb) September 5, 2017 While Google distributes their Chrome browser as unwanted bundleware, other web browsers must display uninstall links front & center when trying to gain awareness of their product using Google AdWords. Microsoft Edge is coming to Android, but without a BrowserChoice.eu screen it is unlikely most users will change their web browser as most are unaware of what a web browser even is, let alone the limitations of any of them or the tracking embedded in them. If you go back several years, there was celebration of the fact that the cost of doing a startup was so low. You didn’t have to pay Oracle a million dollars for a server license any more. You didn’t even have to rack your own hardware. Now you can just dial it up on Amazon. But there are now these gatekeepers and toll-takers. Back in 2004, you had the wide-open internet. – Jeremy Stoppelman The Mobile Revolution If you are an anti-social work at home webmaster who has dual monitors it is easy to dismiss cell phones as inefficient and chalk most mobile usage up to the following. Russian man visited Chinese click farm.They make fake ratings for mobile apps and things like this.He said they have 10,000 more phones pic.twitter.com/qE96vgCCsi— English Russia (@EnglishRussia1) May 11, 2017 The reality is cell phones are more powerful than they seem if you are strictly consuming rather than working. Deflationary impact of technology: everything in this Radio Shack flyer from 1991 adds up to $3,285.12 and can be done today on a smartphone pic.twitter.com/ONh3waWVgq— Jeffrey Kleintop (@JeffreyKleintop) June 23, 2017 And that is how the unstoppable quickly becomes the extinct! 10 years ago. pic.twitter.com/ZCWfHfpedi— Harry Tucker (@harrytuckerr) September 11, 2017 Many people the world over are addicted to their cell phones to where viral game makers are self-regulating before regulators step in: “From Tuesday, users below 12 years of age will be limited to one hour of play time each day, while those aged between 12 years and 18 years will be limited to two hours a day, Tencent said.” While China is using their various tools to clamp down on Honour of Kings, Tencent is bringing the game to the west, which makes blocking VPN services (with Apple’s help – they must play along or have the phones reduced to bricks) & requiring local data storage & technology transfer more important. Anything stored locally can be easily disappeared: “China’s already formidable internet censors have demonstrated a new strength-the ability to delete images in one-on-one chats as they are being transmitted, making them disappear before receivers see them.” China has banned live streaming, threatened their largest domestic social networks, shut down chat bots, require extensive multimedia review: “an industry association circulated new regulations that at least two “auditors” will, with immediate effect, be required to check all audiovisual content posted online” AND they force users to install spyware on their devices. In spite of all those restrictions, last year “Chinese consumers spent $5.5 trillion through mobile payment platforms, about 50 times more than their American counterparts.” In the last quarter Baidu had Â¥20.87 billion in revenues, with 72% of their revenues driven by mobile. People can not miss that which they’ve never seen, thus platform socialism works. Those who doubt it will be tracked & scored accordingly. History, as well, can be scrubbed. And insurance companies watch everything in real-time – careful what you post. The watchful eye of the Chinese pre-crime team is also looking over every move. Last quarter Facebook had revenues of $9.164 billion, with 87% coming from mobile devices. pic.twitter.com/JlPBSlmKlw— banksy (@thereaIbanksy) September 16, 2017 Simulacrum has ALMOST been perfected: “We didn’t have a choice to know any life without iPads or iPhones. I think we like our phones more than we like actual people.” … “Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011. It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones.” … “Teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time than average on nonscreen activities are more likely to be happy.” pic.twitter.com/QBLBXIDDLK— banksy (@thereaIbanksy) August 24, 2017 The web is becoming easier to get addicted to due to personalization algorithms that reinforce our worldviews even as they make us feel more isolated and left out. And the barrier to entry for consumers into one of the few central gatekeeper ecosystems is dropping like a rock due to the falling cost of mobile devices, coupled with with images & video displacing text making literacy optional. As we become more “connected” we feel more isolated: “Social isolation, loneliness or living alone was each a significant factor contributing to premature death. And each one of these factors was a more significant risk factor for dying than obesity. … No one knows precisely why loneliness is surging, threatening the lives of many millions of people, but it does seem that the burgeoning use of technology may have something to do with it. Personally, I would contend that technology may be the chief factor fueling it.” The primary role of the big data mining companies is leveraging surveillance for social engineering Unsettling that according to Mark Zuckerberg purpose of Facebook is forced social engineering. From “World Without Mind” by Franklin Foer: pic.twitter.com/CHRnefg9m2— Murtaza Hussain (@MazMHussain) October 8, 2017 App Annie expects the global app economy to be worth $6.3 trillion by 2021. The reason those numbers can easily sound fake & mobile can seem overblown is how highly concentrated usage has become: “over 80 percent of consumer time on mobile devices is now spent on the apps, websites and properties” of just five companies: Facebook, Google, Apple, Yelp and Bing. Maslow 2.0 pic.twitter.com/X1OguQG8Gq— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) October 7, 2017 eMarketer stated Google will have more mobile ad revenue than desktop ad revenue in the US this year. They also predicted Google & Facebook will consume over 2/3 of US online ad spend within 2 years. The central network operators not only maintain an outsized share of revenues, but also maintain an outsized share of profits. When the home team gets a 30% rake of any sale it is hard for anyone else to compete. Even after buying and gutting Motorola Google bought part of HTC for $1.1 billion. The game plan has never changed: commoditize the compliment to ensure user data & most of the profits flow to Google. Put up arbitrary roadblocks for competing services while launching free parallel offerings to drive lock-in. For the last YEAR I’ve been battling App Store rejections – we made an app called Animoji with animated emojis…now I know why. https://t.co/jKJXfLMGj2— Ryan Jones (@rjonesy) September 9, 2017 Central data aggregators can keep collecting more user data & offer more granular ad distribution features. They can tell you that this micro moment RIGHT NOW is make or break: it’s intended to create a bizarre sense of panic among marketers – “OMG, we have to be present at every possible instant someone might be looking at their phone!” – which doesn’t help them think strategically or make the best use of their marketing or ad spend. The reality is that if you don’t have a relationship with a person on their desktop computer they probably don’t want your mobile app either. If you have the relationship then mobile only increases profits. Is iOS 11 specifically designed to make your older iPhones unusable and drain your battery so you have to upgrade to the newest phones?— Eric Jackson (@ericjackson) October 7, 2017 Many people attempting to build “the next mobile” will go bust, but wherever the attention flows the ads will follow. Those with a broad & dominant tech platform can copy features from single-category devices and keep integrating them into their core products to increase user lock-in. And they can build accessories for those core devices while prohibiting the flow of data to third party devices to keep users locked into their ecosystem. Smaller Screens, Shallower Attention People often multi-task while using mobile devices. Powerful stuff …An very fucking true pic.twitter.com/enP98Z6B7r— Nev (@LFCNev) July 13, 2017 When multi-tasking it is easier to accidentally click an ad. This happens 10s of billions of times a year: This year, in-app mobile ad spend will reach $45.3 billion, up $11 billion from last year, according to eMarketer. And apps are where the money is at for mobile advertising, comprising 80 percent of all U.S. media dollars spent on mobile. But multi-tasking means doing almost everything else worse. The “always on” mode not only increases isolation, but also lowers our ability to focus: “while our phones offer convenience and diversion, they also breed anxiety. Their extraordinary usefulness gives them an unprecedented hold on our attention and vast influence over our thinking and behavior. … Not only do our phones shape our thoughts in deep and complicated ways, but the effects persist even when we aren’t using the devices. As the brain grows dependent on the technology, the research suggests, the intellect weakens. … when people hear their phone ring but are unable to answer it, their blood pressure spikes, their pulse quickens, and their problem-solving skills decline. … As the phone’s proximity increased, brainpower decreased. … Anticipating that information would be readily available in digital form seemed to reduce the mental effort that people made to remember it. … people are all too quick to credit lies and half-truths spread through social media by Russian agents and other bad actors. If your phone has sapped your powers of discernment, you’ll believe anything it tells you.” Further, the shallow attention stream makes it easy to displace content with ads: 4 Ads 3 map carrousel results 5 organic results 4 Ads Then “see more results” 4 more Ads 5 organic results 4 more Ads On desktop devices people don’t accidentally misclick on ads at anywhere near the rate they fat thumb ads on mobile devices. Desktop ad clicks convert to purchases. Mobile ad clicks convert to ad budget burned: “marketers are still seeing few shoppers purchasing on mobile. The 52% of share in traffic only has 26% share of revenue.” For traditional publishers mobile users drastically under-monetize desktop users due to drastically lower conversion rates (true for almost everyone in ecommerce outside of Amazon perhaps) limited cross-device tracking (how do you track people who don’t even hit your site but hit a cached page hosted via Google AMP or Facebook Instant Articles?) lower ad load allowed on publisher sites due to limited screen size aggressive filtering of fat thumb ad clicks on partner sites from central ad networks For the central network operators almost all the above are precisely the exact opposite. higher ad CTR by making entire interface ads (& perhaps even disappearing the concept of non-ads in the result set) great cross-device user tracking higher ad load allowed by the small screen size pushing content below the fold more lenient filtering of fat thumb accidental ad clicks If you look at raw stats without understanding the underlying impact, it is easy to believe the ecosystem is healthy. Assumption: Google’s ads are more prominent, so organic must be dying.Reality: As of Oct. 2016, 20X more organic clicks than paid ones. pic.twitter.com/FaEBpBZWSw— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) July 1, 2017 However the huge number of “no click” results are demonetizing easy publisher revenues, which have traditionally helped to fund more in-depth investigative reporting. Further, much of the direct navigation which happened in the past is now being passed through brand-related search result pages. You can argue that is an increase in search traffic, or you can argue it is shifting the roll of the address bar from navigation to search. The first page is nothing but ads Yep, and here they are in Philly. Home service ads, then AdWords traditional ads, then the local pack (way down below). pic.twitter.com/VOVZPWWHsg— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) July 17, 2017 On mobile so is the second, and most of the third Hey, only 2.5 screens before you get to the 10 blue links. A full 4 screens if you cannot crack the top 2 organics. pic.twitter.com/bbm1pz8hyF— Jeremy Bochenek (@J_Bochenek) July 17, 2017 If a search query has lots of easy to structure crap around it, a user might need 6 or 7 scrolls to get to an organic result Very interesting Google SERP for GoT. One barely visible organic result after >70% scroll depth. Oh my… #seo #GameOfThones pic.twitter.com/Z6j7VvJMI4— Bastian Grimm (@basgr) August 24, 2017 Then if third parties go “well Google does this, so I should too” they are considered a low quality user experience and get a penalty. Emailed a client one month ago when I picked up ultra-aggressive ads (especially on mobile). They just received an ad experiences warning. pic.twitter.com/QLLZci1xKW— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) September 25, 2017 31% ad coverage on mobile website is excessive / spam / low quality user experience for a publisher, while 301% coverage is reasonable for the central network operators. Google not only displaces the result set, but also leverages their search suggestion features & algorithmic influence to alter how people search & what they search for. Ads are getting integrated into mobile keyboards. The standard keyboard on the HTC 10 has begun showing ads [X-Post from r/mildlyinfuriating] https://t.co/FuXDJzilZ6 #blog pic.twitter.com/VriK54dBHb— Android Facts (@manatweets) July 16, 2017 And when a user finally reaches the publisher’s website (provided they scroll past the ads, the AMP listings, and all the other scrape-n-displace trash) then when they finally land on a publication Google will overlay other recommended articles from other sites. Whoa -> While you’re reading a page on the Google app for iOS, you’ll now see suggestions for related content https://t.co/n6FjkNqx82 pic.twitter.com/DZYTt8T7fI— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) September 19, 2017 That feature will eventually end up including ads in it, where publishers will get 0.00% of the revenue generated. Remember how Google suggested publishers should make their websites faster, remove ads, remove clutter, etc. What was the point of all that? To create free real estate for Google to insert a spam unit into your website? Continuing coverage of Google’s new content recos. I’m sure Best Buy is thrilled to see Amazon show up while someone is on their page. Ouch. pic.twitter.com/qpDyGKPyYh— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) September 24, 2017 This wouldn’t be bad if mobile were a small, fringe slice of traffic, but it is becoming the majority of traffic. And as mobile increases desktop traffic is shrinking. Even politically biased outlets that appear to be nearly perfectly optimized for a filter bubble that promotes identity politics struggle to make the numbers work: “As a result of continued decline in direct advertising, [Salon’s] total revenue in the fiscal year 2017 decreased by 34% to $4.6 million. Following the market trend, 84% of our advertising revenue in fiscal year 2017 was generated by programmatic selling. … [Monthly unique visitors to our website saw] a decrease of 23%. We attribute the decline primarily to the changes in the algorithms used by Facebook.” I knew the last year was bad for online publishing, but the Salon 10K shows *just how bad* pic.twitter.com/oyH7pdCDNI— josh laurito (@joshlaurito) June 26, 2017 The above sorts of numbers are the logical outcome to this: we’ve heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it’s difficult to find the actual content, they aren’t happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don’t have much content”above-the-fold” can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn’t have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site’s initial screen real estate to ads, that’s not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward. Especially when combined with this: As you scroll through it, you are then given travel ads for flight options through Google Flight search, hotels through Google Hotel search and restaurants through Google Local results. Then towards the bottom of the knowledge graph card, all the way at the end in a small grayish font, you have a link to “see web results.” Bad news for TripAdvisor. Google has squeezed out SEO for travel. PCLN/EXPE SEM $ spend and higher conversion is a massive competitive advantage. Bad news for TRIP. pic.twitter.com/39QkxuN780— modest proposal (@modestproposal1) April 17, 2017 And amongst the good news for Expedia, there’s also a bit of bad news for Expedia. The hotels are fighting Airbnb & OTAs. In travel Google is twice as big as the biggest OTA players. They keep eating more SERP real estate and adding more content behind tabs. On mobile they’ll even disappear the concept of organic results. Room previews in the search results not only means that second tier players are worth a song, but even the new growth players propped up by aggressive ad buying eventually hit a wall and see their stock crash. As the entire ecosystem gets squeezed by middlemen and the market gets obfuscated with an incomplete selection it is ultimately consumers who lose: “Reservations made through Internet discount sites are almost always slated for our worst rooms.” The New York Times pitched Yelp as a pesky player holding a grudge: “For six years, his company has been locked in a campaign on three continents to get antitrust regulators to punish Google, Yelp’s larger, richer and more politically connected competitor. … Yelp concluded that there was no better way to get Google’s attention than to raise the specter of regulation. … something [Mark Mahaney] calls the Death of Free Google. As the internet has migrated to mobile phones, Google has compensated for the smaller screen space by filling it with so many ads that users can have a hard time finding a result that hasn’t been paid for.” In spite of how quick The New York Times was to dismiss Yelp, the monopoly platforms are stiffing competition & creativity while bundling fake reviews & junk features into their core platforms. People can literally switch their name to “Loop dee Loop” and leave you terrible, fake reviews. Google’s lack of effort & investment to clean up trash in their local services department highlights that they don’t feel they need to compete on quality. Pay for core search distribution, throw an inferior service front & center, and win by default placement. As AI advancements make fake reviews look more legit Google’s lack of investment in creating a quality ecosystem will increasingly harm both consumers and businesses. Many low margin businesses will go under simply because their Google reviews are full of inaccurate trash or a competitor decided to hijack their business listing or list their business as closed. To this day Google is still egregiously stealing content from Yelp: Yelp said it investigated and found that over one hour, Google pulled images from Yelp’s servers nearly 386,000 times for business listings in Google Maps, which Google exempted from its promise to not scrape content. Yelp then searched Google for 150 of the businesses from those map listings and found that for 110 of them, Google used a Yelp photo as the lead image in the businesses’ listings in search results. Stealing content & wrapping it in fake reviews is NOT putting the user first. Facebook has their own matching parallel shifts. The aggregate quality of mobile ad clicks is quite low. So as mobile becomes a much higher percent of total ad clicks, those who don’t have scale and narrative control are reduced to taking whatever they can get. And mainstream media outlets are reduced to writing puff pieces so the brands they cover will pay to promote the stories on the main channels. As programmatic advertising, ad blockers, unpatched Android-powered botnets & malware spread each day gets a little uglier for everyone but the central market operators. It is so bad that some of the central market operators offer surveillance apps which claim to protect user privacy! Other app makers not connected to monopoly profit streams monetize any way they can. The narrative of growth can be sold (we are launching a new food channel, we are investing in our internal video team, we have exclusive real estate listings, and, um, we acquired a food channel) but the competition is a zero sum game with Google & Facebook eating off the publisher’s plates. That’s why Time is trying to shave $400 million off their expenses & wants to sell their magazine division. Newspaper companies are selling for $1. It is also why Business Insider is no longer chasing growth & the New York Times is setting up a charitable trust. The rise of ad blocking only accelerates the underlying desperation. I have some thoughts about why news orgs are finding that people won’t read long articles: pic.twitter.com/G8Zh6GTA6w— Ben Chase (@bbchase) July 4, 2017 I feel terrible for journalists who invest time and effort into doing a hard job well only to have it presented like this. pic.twitter.com/jIZxuJqVAq— Jeff Long (@banterability) October 5, 2017 As long as news websites make their own customer experience worse than what can be found as a cached copy on the monopoly platforms there is no reason to visit the end publisher website. That is why the proprietary formats promoted by the monopoly platforms are so dangerous. They force lighter monetization & offset the lack of revenue by given preferential placement: click through rate from Google search went from 5.9% (Regular) to 10.3% (AMP), and average search position went from 5.9 (Regular) to 1.7 (AMP). Since then, we have deployed AMP across fifteen of our brands and we have been very pleased with the results. Today, AMP accounts for 79% of our mobile search traffic and 36% of our total mobile visits. As long as almost nobody is using the new proprietary, ghetto lock-in format the math may work out there, but once many people adopt it then it becomes another recurring sunk cost with no actual benefit: the only voices promoting AMP’s performance benefits are coming from inside Google. … given how AMP pages are privileged in Google’s search results, the net effect of the team’s hard, earnest work comes across as a corporate-backed attempt to rewrite HTML in Google’s image. Even if you get a slight uptick in traffic from AMP, it will lead to lower quality user engagement as users are browsing across websites rather than within websites. Getting a bit more traffic but 59% fewer leads is a fail. No amount of collaborative publisher partnerships, begging for anti-trust exemptions, or whining about Google is going to fix the problem. “The only way publishers can address this inexorable threat is by banding together. If they open a unified front to negotiate with Google and Facebook-pushing for stronger intellectual-property protections, better support for subscription models and a fair share of revenue and data-they could build a more sustainable future for the news business. But antitrust laws make such coordination perilous. These laws, intended to prevent monopolies, are having the unintended effect of preserving and protecting Google and Facebook’s dominant position.” Wait a minute. Wasn’t it the New York Times which claimed Yelp was holding an arbitrary grudge against Google? The following sounds a lot more desperate: newspapers that once delivered their journalism with their own trucks increasingly have to rely on these big online platforms to get their articles in front of people, fighting for attention alongside fake news, websites that lift their content, and cat videos. Well maybe that is just smaller publications & not the gray lady herself “the temperature is rising in terms of concern, and in some cases anger, about what seems like a very asymmetric, disadvantageous relationship between the publishers and the very big digital platforms.” – NYT CEO Mark Thompson In unrelated news, there’s another round of layoffs coming at the New York Times. And the New York Times is also setting up a nonprofit division to expand journalism while their core company focuses on something else. Apparently Yelp does not qualify as a publisher in this instance. Or does it? The Times is backing the move for what is called an anticompetitive safe haven, in part, Mr. Thompson said, “because we care about the whole of journalism as well as about The New York Times.” Ah, whole of journalism, which, apparently, no longer includes local business coverage. You know the slogan: “news isn’t news, unless it isn’t local.” The struggles are all across the media landscape. The new Boston Globe CEO lasted a half-year. The San Diego Union-Tribune resorted to using GoFundMe. The Chicago Sun-Times sold for $1. Moody’s issued a negative outlook for the US newspaper sector. As the industry declines the biggest players view consolidation as the only solution. These struggles existed even before the largest brand advertisers like P&G cut back on low & no value ad venues like YouTube: In the fourth quarter, the reduction in marketing that occurred was almost all in the digital space. And what it reflected was a choice to cut spending from a digital standpoint where it was ineffective: where either we were serving bots as opposed to human beings, or where the placement of ads was not facilitating the equity of our brands. Google & Facebook are extending their grip on the industry with Google launching topical feeds & Facebook wanting to control subscription management. Best of luck to journalists on the employment front: The initiative, dubbed Reporters and Data and Robots (RADAR), will see a team of five journalists work with Natural Language Generation software to produce over 30,000 pieces of content for local media each month. Hopefully editors catch the subtle errors the bots make, because most of them will not be this obvious & stupid. The Guardian does not seem to know what a 40 is https://t.co/m7Gm1YrbXC pic.twitter.com/Y0sK9r0ltJ— Shuja Haider (@shujaxhaider) July 26, 2017 The cost of parasitic content recycling is coming down quickly: In a show of strength last year, Microsoft used thousands of these chips at once to translate all of English Wikipedia into Spanish-3 billion words across five million articles-in less than a tenth of a second. Next Microsoft will let its cloud customers use these chips to speed up their own AI tasks. Voice search makes it even easier to extract the rewards without paying publishers. Throwing pennies at journalists does nothing to change this. If Google is subsidizing robotic journalism they are thus legitimizing robotic journalism. As big publishers employ the tactic, Google ranks it. Checking some Heliograf articles (AI-written) reveals once again they do rank well. Google is in a tough position here. It’s inevitable… pic.twitter.com/g0Etcx3rFj— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) September 16, 2017 It is almost impossible to compete economically with an entity that rewrites your work & has zero marginal cost of production. YouTube has perhaps the worst comments on the web. Some mainstream news sites got rid of comments because they couldn’t justify the cost of policing them. That in turn shifts the audience & attention stream to sites like Facebook & Twitter. Some news sites which are still leaving comments enabled rely on a Google filter, a technology Google can use on YouTube as they see fit. Any plugins publishers use to lower their costs can later disappear. It looked like FindTheBest was doing well financially, but when it was acquired many news sites quickly found out the cost of free as they now have thousands of broken articles in their archives: “Last month, Graphiq announced that features for news publishers would no longer be available after Friday.” Driving costs toward zero by piling on external dependencies is no way to build a sustainable business. Especially when the central network operators are eating the playing field: “Between fast-loading AMP articles from major news brands hosted in its domain, full pages of information scraped from outside sites that don’t require you to visit them, basic shopping functions built into ads, YouTube, and a host of other features, the Google-verse is more of a digital walled garden than ever. … If Google continues to choke these sites out, what incentive will there be for new ones to come along?” Unprofitable partners which were buying growth with artificially cheap pricing eventually find out investors want profits more than growth & either reprice or go away. The longer you use something & the more locked in you are to it the more aggressively it can afford to reprice. Symbiotic relationships devolve into abusive ones: “for every pound an advertiser spends programmatically on the Guardian only 30 pence actually goes to the publisher.” – Mediatel “Google wants to cut out the middlemen, which it turns out, are URLs.” – MobileMoxie “[AMP is] a way for Google to obfuscate your website, usurp your content & remove any personal credibility from the web” – TheRegister “Though the stated initiative of ads.txt is to stop inventory resale, it achieves this by establishing ‘preferred’ channels, which naturally favors the industry’s most influential companies” – Ad Exchanger That Apple does extra work to undo AMP says a lot. Those who think the central network operators are naive to the power structure being promoted by the faux solutions are either chasing short-term goals or are incredibly masochistic. Arbitraging brand is the core business model of the attention merchant monopoly. we’ve found out that 98% of our business was coming from 22 words. So, wait, we’re buying 3,200 words and 98% of the business is coming from 22 words. What are the 22 words? And they said, well, it’s the word Restoration Hardware and the 21 ways to spell it wrong, okay? Publishers buying the “speed” narrative are failing themselves. The Guardian has 11 people working on AMP integration. And what is Google doing about speed? Google shut down Google Instant search results, often displays a screen or two full of ads which mobile users have to scroll past to find the organic search results AND is testing auto-playing videos in the search results. Facebook is also promoting fast loading & mobile-friendly pages. To keep bleeding clicks out of the “organic” ecosystem they don’t even need to have explicit malicious intent. They can run a thousand different tests every month (new vertical sitelink formats, swipable sitelinks, showing 8 sitelinks on tiny mobile devices, MOAR sitelinks, message extensions, extensions on call-only ads, price discount labels, frame 3rd party content inline, dramatically ramp up featured snippets +QnA listings, more related searches, more features in ad units, larger ad units, ad units that replace websites & charge advertisers for sending clicks from Google to Google, launch a meta-search service where they over-promote select listings, test dropping URLs from listings, put ads in the local pack, change color of source links or other elements, pop ups of search results inside search results, etc.) & keep moving toward whatever layout drives more ad clicks, keeps users on Google longer & forces businesses to buy ads for exposure, claiming they are optimizing the user experience the whole time. They can hard-code any data type or feature, price it at free to de-fund adjacent businesses, consolidate market power, then increase rents after they have a monopoly position in the adjacent market. And they can fund research on how to remove watermarks from images. Why not make hosting free, get people to publish into a proprietary format & try to shift news reading onto the Google app. With enough attention & market coverage they can further extort publishers into accepting perpetually worse deals. And free analytics & business plugins which are widely adopted can have key features get pushed into the paid version. Just look at Google Analytics – its free or $150,000+/yr. The above sorts of moves can be done in isolation, or in a combinatorial approach. Publishers aloof of the ecosystem shifts may use microformats to structure their content. They’ll then find it is integrated in Google’s new image search layout, where Google copies the content wholesale & shows it near other third party images framed by Google. How about some visually striking, yet irrelevant listings for competing brands on branded searches to force the brand ad buy. And, of course rounded card corners to eat a few more pixels, along with faint ad labeling on ads coupled with vibrant colored dots on the organic results to confuse end users into thinking the organic results are the ads. While Google turns their search results into an adspam farm, they invite you to test showing fewer ads on your site to improve user experience. Google knows best – let them automate your ad load & ad placement. What is the real risk of AI? Bias. “It’s important that we be transparent about the training data that we are using, and are looking for hidden biases in it, otherwise we are building biased systems,” Giannandrea added. “If someone is trying to sell you a black box system for medical decision support, and you don’t know how it works or what data was used to train it, then I wouldn’t trust it.” And how does Google justify their AI investments? Through driving incremental ad clicks: “The DeepMind founders understand that their power within [Alphabet], and their ability to get their way with [Alphabet CEO] Larry Page, depends on how many eyeballs and clicks and ad dollars they can claim to be driving” No bias at all there! Truth: Google killed publishing in 2015. What you’re reading now is detritus + new junk posted by crazies walking around empty offices— 11 (@searchsleuth998) August 1, 2017 SEOs who were overly reliant on the search channel were the first to notice all the above sorts of change, as it is their job to be hyper-aware of ecosystem shifts. But publishers far removed from SEO who never focused on SEO are now writing about the trends SEOs were writing about nearly a decade ago. Josh Marshall recently covered Google’s awesome monopoly powers. few publishers really want to talk about the depths or mechanics of Google’s role in news publishing. Some of this is secrecy about proprietary information; most of it is that Google could destroy or profoundly damage most publications if it wanted to. So why rock the boat? … Google’s monopoly control is almost comically great. It’s a monopoly at every conceivable turn and consistently uses that market power to deepen its hold and increase its profits. Just the interplay between DoubleClick and Adexchange is textbook anti-competitive practices. … Is your favorite website laying off staff or ‘pivoting to video’. In most cases, the root cause is not entirely but to a significant degree driven by the platform monopolies His article details how Google owns many points of the supply chain So let’s go down the list: 1) The system for running ads, 2) the top purchaser of ads, 3) the most pervasive audience data service, 4) all search, 5) our email. … But wait, there’s more! Google also owns Chrome, the most used browser for visiting TPM. He also covers the price dumping technique that is used to maintain control In many cases, alternatives don’t exist because no business can get a footing with a product Google lets people use for free. And he shared an example of Google algorithms gone astray crippling his business, even though it was not related to search & unintentional: Because we were forwarding to ourselves spam that other people sent to us, Google decided that the owner of the TPM url was a major spammer and blocked emails from TPM from being sent to anyone. If the above comes across as depressing, don’t worry. The search results now contain a depression diagnostic testing tool. Categories: internet from SEO Book http://www.seobook.com/virtual-real-estate via IFTTT from Local SEO Guru http://localseoguru.tumblr.com/post/166227650323 via IFTTT from Tumblr http://tomeucapella.tumblr.com/post/166231157730/virtual-real-estate via IFTTT

from Network Coaching http://thenetworkcoaching.blogspot.com/2017/10/virtual-real-estate.html via IFTTT

from Blogger http://imlocalseo.blogspot.com/2017/10/virtual-real-estate_9.html via IFTTT

from IM Local SEO https://imlocalseo.wordpress.com/2017/10/10/virtual-real-estate-2/ via IFTTT

from Gana Dinero Colaborando | Wecon Project https://weconprojectspain.wordpress.com/2017/10/10/virtual-real-estate-2/ via IFTTT

from WordPress https://mrliberta.wordpress.com/2017/10/10/virtual-real-estate-2/ via IFTTT

0 notes