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Thursday 28 February 2019

What’s the Weather Like on Mars Right Now?

Now that the InSight lander is up and running on Mars, NASA is using the probe’s weather instrumentation to provide a daily weather report from the red planet.

Mars Insight Weather

The report is delayed by a day or so (communications delay? non-essential data delay?), but it’s still really cool to see what the temperature, wind speed, and barometric pressure is at Elysium Planitia.

I’d just like to note for the record that at some point on Monday, it was actually warmer on Mars than it is right now in Vermont. ♫ Gotta get up, gotta get out, gotta get out into the Martian sun… ♫

Tags: InSight   Mars   NASA   space   weather

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Marketing Technology Awards: Finalists announced for 2019

Here is the official list of finalists for the Marketing Technology Awards 2019. We’d like to give a huge congratulations to everyone here. We can’t wait to celebrate you and your great work at this event.

Winners will be announced on March 21 at the event in Tribeca, New York.

As a reminder, finalists were voted on by the marketing technology community, as well as by a panel of twelve expert judges.

You can learn more about the event and how to claim your table here.

So without further ado, check out the full list of finalists.

Technologies

Best Customer Relationship Management Platform (CRM)

  • Crowdvocate
  • Erply
  • Zaius

Best Email Service Provider (ESP)

  • Epsilon
  • GetResponse
  • MessageGears
  • Upland Adestra

Best Marketing Automation Platform (MAP)

  • Maropost
  • Omnisend
  • Salesforce
  • Swrve

Best Analytics Platform

  • AT INTERNET
  • Interana
  • Pathmatics
  • TapClicks

Best Attribution Platform

  • Fospha
  • Marketing Evolution

Best Digital Asset Management Platform (DAM)

  • Canto
  • Widen

Best Customer Data Platform (CDP)

  • Adlucent
  • Arm Treasure Data
  • Fospha
  • Tealium

Best Social Media Marketing & Monitoring Company

  • Kenshoo (Kenshoo Social)
  • Rascasse

Best Content Marketing Tool

  • Acrolinx
  • Percolate
  • Turtl

Best SEO Tool

  • Conductor
  • OnCrawl

Best Call Analytics Platform

  • DialogTech
  • Infinity
  • Invoca
  • Marchex

Best Predictive Analytics Platform

  • Keen Decision Systems
  • SmartyAds

Best Paid Media/Bid Management Tool

  • Adlucent
  • Kenshoo (Kenshoo Search)
  • SmartyAds

Best Account Based Marketing Tool

  • Demandbase
  • Jabmo
  • Uberflip

Best Location Based Marketing Platform

  • Brandify
  • Chatmeter
  • Rio SEO
  • Yext

Best Mobile Marketing Platform

  • Attentive
  • Urban Airship

Best Sales Enablement Technology

  • Clari
  • Highspot
  • List Partners LLC
  • Seismic

Best Personalization Platform

  • Certona
  • Monetate
  • RichRelevance
  • Sitecore
  • Yieldify

Best Influencer Marketing Platform

  • CreatorIQ
  • HYPR
  • IZEA Worldwide Inc.

Best Data Visualization Tool

  • Adobe
  • DashThis

Best Demand Side Platform (DSP)

  • Amobee
  • SmartyAds
  • The Trade Desk

Best Chat/Conversationsal Bot/Tool

  • Drift
  • Smooch
  • Wizu

Best Conversion Rate Optimization Tool/Technology

  • CoolTool
  • Lucky Orange
  • WEVO

Best Data Privacy/GDPR Tool/Technology

  • Isatis CyberSoft
  • Sourcepoint

Overall – Marketing Technology Company of the Year

  • To be announced from the list of finalist at the awards dinner

Use of technologies

Best Personalization Campaign

  • Conversant (Swanson Health)
  • Location3 (Mountain Mike’s Pizza)
  • Selligent Marketing Cloud (OPEL NETHERLANDS)
  • Sitecore (Herschend Family Entertainment (Dollywood.com))
  • Velocity Worldwide (The Belfast Classic/Sport Changes Life)

Best Customer Experience Campaign

  • Nestlé (Nestlé China)
  • Ogilvy (H&M & Ogilvy)
  • Best Data Enablement Campaign
  • Adobe (Adobe)
  • Catalyst (Catalyst & Tauck)
  • Idomoo (Fairmont Hotels & Resorts)
  • Marketing Evolution (Marketing Evolution)

Best Technology Combination

  • Akamai
  • Glisser
  • Merkle (Globe Life and Accident Insurance)
  • TVTY

Best Marketing Technology Stack

  • Catalyst
  • Kenshoo Inc.

Best use of Marketing Technology

  • Adobe (Adobe & Adobe Advertising Cloud)
  • Ogilvy (H&M & Ogilvy)
  • SAP (SAP & MSIGHTS, Inc.)

People

Marketing Technology CEO Award

  • Conductor (Seth Besmertnik, CEO, Conductor)
  • Marketing Evolution (Rex Briggs, CEO, Marketing Evolution)
  • Sourcepoint (Ben Barokas, CEO, Sourcepoint)
  • Tapad (Sigvart Voss Eriksen, CEO, Tapad)
  • Trustpilot (Peter Holten Mühlmann, CEO, Trustpilot)

Marketing Technology CMO Award

  • Hootsuite (Penny Wilson, CMO, Hootsuite)
  • The Trade Desk (Susan Vobejda, CMO, The Trade Desk)
  • Yieldify (Hannah Nakano Stewart, CMO, Yeildify)

Again, a huge congratulations to all of these fantastic companies and people!

The post Marketing Technology Awards: Finalists announced for 2019 appeared first on ClickZ.



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Ecommerce disruption 2019: Data and trends for what to expect this year

This past Thursday, we held our latest Martech Happy Hour event at our New York office, together with Surgo Group. Surgo is an intelligence engine that uses data and technology to predict the future.

At this event, they gave us some of their predictions on the future of ecommerce.

Here are some of the key takeaways.

What are the current issues we see in ecommerce?

  • Many companies believe they’re underperforming during the “glory days” of online shopping.
  • Declining search conversions.
  • Clients complain of what they believe are “Amazon-only” or “Instagram-only” competitors appearing out of nowhere.

What does the customer journey look like for ecommerce in 2019?

Ideation –> browsing –> conversion.

That’s the essential breakdown of the ecommerce customer journey.

Check out these stats Surgo gave us around the customer journey:

map of what the customer journey looks like for ecommerce in 2019

How are the paths to purchase in ecommerce changing?

Yesterday, the average shopper’s path to purchase consisted largely of just Google.

Today, the once Google-centric path has become highly personal to each user and user group.

Increasingly, we see consumers hopping between Google, Walmart, Instagram, Pinterest, Amazon, etc.

illustration of how the paths to purchase have grown from just google to now google, walmart, amazon, home depot, etc

What kind of ecommerce data do we need to be looking at?

As Surgo said, “Do your homework.”

For them, “homework” includes keyword analytics for millions of keywords across 5+ years, large-scale SERP collection, and in-depth ecommerce platform analysis.

When considering this question, remember that your most valuable dataset is already available: Your current consumers.

Here are some data sets to consider:

  • What price points people buy at
  • Granular traffic data
  • Search high to low, low to high, most recent, etc
  • Cart abandonment
  • Traffic sources

What trends are we seeing for Google Shopping in 2019?

Two main trends here:

  1. Increasing demand for ad space on Google Shopping
  2. Growing visibility of Google Shopping on the Google SERP in general

And what trends / challenges do we see for Amazon ecommerce?

The main trends for Amazon were around picking products, analyzing success, and running product ads.

One main challenge of Amazon Advertising is that not much data is shared in the Amazon Ads accounts.

Which leads some companies / agencies — like Surgo, for example — to do some interesting analysis themselves. Surgo collects data on product lists and how they change over time.

Another challenge with Amazon is the struggle to compete on price — especially when you’re up against Amazon themselves. In this case, Surgo suggested using coupons, as well as one slide in the image carousel that lists the poignant points about product.

A third challenge for Amazon ecommerce: New competitors appearing out of nowhere.

Case in point: this $110 down coat that’s taking market share from Canada Goose. (Beauty products are another big instance of new competitors popping up against companies like Loreal, Maybelline, etc.

ecommerce disruption on amazon: new competitors appearing out of nowhere, example of viral winter coat

What other kind of data analysis can / should we be looking at for ecommerce?

Surgo also discussed other cool things we can do with data. See more details in the slide clip below, but overviews include:

  • YouTube Unboxing videos
  • YouTube influencer analysis, how are brands performing based on what influencers are wearing
  • Instagram influencer and emoji analysis
    • Tagging emoji language
  • Influencer growth data

other cool things you can do with data to analyze ecommerce disruption in 2019

What other ecommerce trends should we expect for the rest of the year?

  • Amazon shopper network gaining lots more traction.
    • Create social media profile where you list your reviews, can show who has top reviews.
  • B2B shopping growth
  • Influencer brands

Again, read more info in this slide clip:

predictions for further ecommerce disruptions in 2019

Finally, Surgo addressed a couple other topics.

They get their data from a combination of panel, propietary services, similar webs, quantcasts, etc, and blend it all together. They then compare that data to actual traffic from websites they own.

Tracking on the Amazon app

How do these trends compare between the Amazon app and website?

Tracking data is not where it should be for apps. “It’s the next walled garden,” they say. But the Amazon app probably sees about 50% of their traffic. To combat that, they try to use actual extractions of listings, versus users. 

Voice search on Amazon

What happens if someone says “red shoes?”

  • More difficult to know, but they do have keyword tools that take those into account.
  • They’ve been looking at how many functions on top of Alexa are being developed.
  • They can’t say, “2% of purchases are made on Alexa” — they don’t have that information.

All in all, quite an interesting and insightful event! Thanks again to Surgo Group, and looking forward to the next #MartechHappyHour.

The post Ecommerce disruption 2019: Data and trends for what to expect this year appeared first on ClickZ.



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Martech news roundup: WaitWhat funding, Twitter cofounder steps down from board, Google’s GKE beta

In our roundup of last week’s martech news, we highlight:

  • Podcasting company WaitWhat raises $4.3M Series A funding
  • Twitter co-founder Evan Williams steps down from board
  • Google’s Kubernetes Engine hybrid cloud platform released in beta

Top stories in marketing technology last week:

Podcasting company WaitWhat raises $4.3M Series A funding

What it is

WaitWhat, a New York-based digital media platform, announced $4.3 million Series A funding on February 21.

Why it matters

The cofounders of WaitWhat, June Cohen and Deron Triff grew the media operations of TED for sixteen years. They launched TED.com, the TED Open Translation Project, TED Radio Hour on NPR, TED in Cinema, and a host of other efforts that grew TED Talks to more than one billion views/listens per year.

They create “premium, genre-defining digital content.” Where other companies go for short-lived, high metrics, they go for deep engagement.

Ever listed to Masters of Scale, the popular podcast hosted by LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman? WaitWhat were the content masters behind it.

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams steps down from board

What it is

On Friday, February 22, Twitter co-founder Ev Williams tweeted this:

Why it matters

Williams has been on the Twitter board for twelve years, and was CEO of Twitter from 2008 to 2010. Currently, he’s CEO of Medium.

Google’s Kubernetes Engine hybrid cloud platform released in beta

What it is

On February 21, Google released their Kubernetes Engine-based Cloud Services Platform (CSP) in a beta version.

What makes Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) different than other cloud platforms? Essentially, it lets companies run apps using both their own data centers (on-premise) and also most cloud platforms. Hence, a hybrid cloud platform.

Why it matters

Moving everything to the cloud is not an easy transition. Many companies are reluctant to make the shift so soon, or they prefer to keep information on their own hardware.

The GKE will allow companies to use both options, and shift between the two.

Before you go

  • Redis Labs raised $30 million Series E funding.
  • Google introduced the option to include YouTube video assets as part of their responsive ad (RDA) campaigns.
  • Navigation app Waze (owned by Google) announced a partnership with WPP to boost its ad business.
  • Google rebrands Universal App Campaigns to just “App Campaigns.” The rebranding won’t affect functionality, and will be effective next month.
  • Facebook added an offline conversions category as part of its Marketing Partners program.
  • What to expect from Facebook Marketing 2019.
  • Survey: These are the top five search trends for 2019.

See something we missed? Leave us a comment below!

The post Martech news roundup: WaitWhat funding, Twitter cofounder steps down from board, Google’s GKE beta appeared first on ClickZ.



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Five red flags that will help you spot fake influencers

Over the past five years, a steadily increasing number of brands have been adding influencer collaborations to their marketing repertoire.

Staying true to the law of supply and demand, the rise in popularity of influencer marketing lead to the introduction of 320 new platforms and influencer agencies in 2018, totaling at least 740. That’s more than double as many agencies and platforms that were alive and kicking in 2016.

Marketers aren’t the only ones who have jumped on the influencer marketing train. Every day, countless individuals make the decision to chase their dreams of social media fame and step into the influencer world. Most don’t make it far due to their lack of commitment. Others attempt to fake it until they make it.

As with any growing industry that has proven lucrative, there are people trying to take advantage of the opportunity. That’s where influencer fraud comes into play. Many brands are afraid to dive head-first into the influencer marketing world due to their fear of falling victim to this fraud.

It’s true; there are many “influencers” out there who have purchased followers, likes, or comments. But here are five red flags that shouldn’t be ignored in order to avoid collaboration with fake influencers.

Five red flags for fake influencers:

1. Rapid growth of followers

Follower growth rate can be used as a tool for finding the best up-and-coming influencers. Organic follower growth shows that an influencer is consistently building his or her audience by posting high-quality content. Influencers who have a steady increase in followers are exactly the type of content creators that you should be targeting for your campaigns.

However, when an influencer purchases followers (or bots), you might see a more sudden increase. While some marketers argue that any growth is positive, these fake followers will not lead to realistic KPIs for your collaboration. Accurately reporting on engagement and impressions is key to constant improvement in your marketing.

One quick way to test this is to compare the number of posts with the number of followers. If the numbers don’t match up, something fishy is going on.

It should be noted that large spikes in followers aren’t the only way to know an influencer is faking it. Marketers should also be wary of sudden drops in follower count when researching influencers.

2. Unusually low engagement rate

Engagement rate is one of the top metrics used for influencer campaign reporting. When searching for an influencer, it’s important to note their average engagement rate. Simply add the number of comments to the number of likes and divide by the number of followers. Multiply that number by 100 to get the percentage.

Defining what a “good” engagement rate is can be a bit of a tricky task. Several factors weigh in here including platform, industry, and reach. For instance, the average engagement rate of a macro-influencer in 2017 was 1.5%. Meanwhile, an influencer with less than 10k followers could expect an average engagement rate of 4.9% or higher.

As a standard, you can evaluate engagement rates as follows:

If an influencer has a decent following but seems to lack in the engagements department, this should be a major red flag. Their low engagement is likely due to the fake accounts that are following them but aren’t truly part of the community. Even if the accounts aren’t fake, a low engagement rate is a sign that an influencer is losing the trust of their audience.

3. Consistently off-topic comments

When looking at engagements, don’t simply take the quantitative approach. Instead, you should manually sort through the comments on the influencer’s content to see how the audience is engaging.

By looking at the engagements through a qualitative lense, you might notice that the comments seem to be off-topic, lackluster, or even strange. Influencer fraud doesn’t just involve buying followers. It can also include paying for engagements.

One red flag you might notice in the comments section would be an excess of emoji-only responses. Similarly, if the comments are short, stereotypical phrases such as “great pic!” or entirely unrelated to the theme of the post, this is a sign of bots engaging.

A few of these off-hand comments are inevitable. After all, even the most successful influencers will have frauds who are engaging with them simply to catch the attention of the real influencers’ followers. It’s the influencers with the overload of these comments you must be wary of.

4. Skewed ratio of followers to following

Did you know that Instagram blocks users from following more than 7,500 people? This limit was set to reduce spam and fake accounts. Can you imagine how cluttered your feed would be if you followed even close to 7,500 people? It would be a nightmare!

Most influencers who have organically built their brand will have a larger following than the number of accounts that they follow. A quick check of these numbers can tell you a lot about an influencer. An account who follows thousands of others is likely doing so in the hopes that they will get a follow back. That is not how you build an engaged audience. Avoid these accounts when setting up campaigns.

5. Your gut instinct is saying that something is wrong

Of course, it’s important to run the numbers and look at the data when analyzing an influencer. However, you should never underestimate the power of some manual digging. The best marketers will take their time diving into influencers photos, videos, blog posts, and other social shares before deeming them a good fit for their brand or client.

While doing a qualitative analysis, do not ignore your gut instinct. If an influencer’s KPIs seem too good to be true, they probably are. See an influencer who has an incredible engagement rate but you can’t get behind the quality of their content? They’ve likely purchased those engagements.

Don’t ignore your gut instinct simply because the numbers seem strong. There are plenty more influencers in the sea, so to say.

Conclusion

Having a plan in place while researching influencers should help you to avoid falling into the influencer fraud trap. There’s no fool-proof method, but being wary of these five red flags will lead to more successful collaborations.

When all else fails, marketers can hold on to the hope that regulations will soon be in place to make the influencer hunt easier. Just last month, a settlement was reached in New York that marked the first time a law enforcement agency found selling fake social media engagement to be illegal. With any luck, influencer fraud will be a thing of the past in five years time.

Jessica Butner is Senior Manager, Influencer Marketing at Go Fish Digital. She can be found on Twitter at @JessGoFish.

The post Five red flags that will help you spot fake influencers appeared first on ClickZ.



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How'd the Cohen Hearing Go? That Depends on Your Filter Bubble

On social media and on partisan sites, the talk of Michael Cohen's hearing in the House Oversight Committee split into like-minded echo chambers.

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How Chris Evans Became Twitter's Avatar of Male Decency

The actor helped Regina King up some stairs at the Oscars. Why is the internet praising him for doing the bare minimum?

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No Amount of Patches Could Make 'Anthem' Fun to Play

Despite coming from a great developer, the game is a big disappointment.

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Rotten Tomatoes' Revamp Could Save 'Captain Marvel'

But the movie may not need it.

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Why 4-Panel Comics Now Dominate Our Screens

Blame the death of Google Reader. Or Twitter. Or phones! But more than anything, webcomics have exploded because we're used to looking at squares.

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What Ryan Murphy's Netflix Show Should Say About Hollywood

The showrunner's upcoming series is about the Golden Age of Tinseltown—it could be about a lot more.

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'Black Panther' Won Three Oscars—and Made History

Also: Netflix makes a new play for Best Picture and the Carrie Fisher dedication no one expected.

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How To Start A Party Rental Business

partyzone How To Start A Party Rental Business
Complete Guide To Starting And Operating A Successful Party Rental Business That Can Be Easily Operated From A Home. Great Business For Families. Not Only Is It Profitable, But The Kids Love It!


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How to Make Your List Items and Bullet Points Super Smooth

The post How to Make Your List Items and Bullet Points Super Smooth appeared first on ProBlogger.

Lists and Parallelism

This is a post by ProBlogger writing expert Ali Luke

Do you ever use lists in your blogging?

They might be bullet points, tips that you’re sharing in a list post, or even a simple list of three or four items in a sentence.

If you’ve been writing blog posts for a while, coming up with bullet points or list items might seem like second nature. But there could be a crucial factor you’re overlooking.

Parallelism.

Say what?

“Parallelism”, in this context, simply means making sure the items on your list correspond to one another – that is, they’re parallel.

It’s often easiest to understand through examples.

Seeing Parallelism in Action

Here’s an example of a list that doesn’t work.

When you’re writing a blog post, it’s important to:

  • Give it a great title
  • Crafting a strong opening line
  • To use subheadings

All of those bullet points could work. But not in the same list.

Notice how the list is introduced: it’s important to. Every item on the list needs to fit with this opening phrase.

It’s important to … give it a great title. (Yep, that works.)

It’s important to … crafting a strong opening line. (Nope. It should be “craft” not “crafting”.)

It’s important to … to use subheadings. (Nope. It repeats “to”.)

To work properly, the full list needs to read:

When you’re writing a blog post, it’s important to:

  • Give it a great title
  • Craft a strong opening line
  • Use subheadings

But a lack of parallelism isn’t always obvious at first glance.

Take a look at these (fictitious) bullet points from a sales page.

  • Grow your business faster than ever before
  • Money while you sleep
  • This is the easiest system ever invented – you can use it straight away
  • Discover the secrets you’ve been missing all this time

As well as having a rather dubious “get rich quick” vibe, those bullet points don’t quite fit together as a list. They’re grammatically correct, as there’s no introductory text. But they’d read more smoothly if they all started with an imperative verb and were all roughly the same length, like this:

  • Grow your business faster than ever before
  • Make money while you’re asleep
  • Start using this super-easy system instantly
  • Discover the secrets you’ve been missing all this time

This might seem like a small thing. But when you’re crafting a sales page, you want to make it as easy to read as possible.

Great Places to Use Parallelism in Lists on Your Blog

Within your blog posts, look out for opportunities to use parallelism:

  • Whenever you have a short list within a sentence. For instance, “Today, I wrote a letter, visited my grandma, and went for a jog”. Note how each verb is in the past tense. You probably do this naturally already, but it’s worth double-checking when you edit your post to make sure all your lists are working correctly.
  • Whenever you create a list of bullet points. Even if you don’t have a specific phrase introducing your bullet points, make them all match. That usually means starting them all in the same way – with a verb in the right form, a noun, an adjective, or whatever works for your list. It could also mean ending them all in the same way (e.g. with a question mark).
  • Whenever you write a list post. The list items (usually the subheadings) in a list post might be separated by several paragraphs of text. But they should still match one another if you want your post to seem well constructed.

Elsewhere on your blog, look out for things like:

  • Calls to action on your About or Start Here page. If you’re offering readers several options, have you phrased them all so they match?
  • Lists of bullet points on your sales pages. We took a look at this earlier: parallel bullet points look polished and professional, and help create a good first impression on a potential customer.

As well as using parallelism within a single list, it often makes sense to create several lists that all match with one another. For instance, on the home page of my Blogger’s Guides website (where I sell premium ebooks) each Guide is summarised in five bullet points, and each bullet point starts with a verb (construct, write, produce, revise, develop).

Your readers may not notice that one product has four bullet points, one has five and another has six. They might not realise you’re only using parallelism within individual lists, and not to tie all your lists together.

But even if they can’t quite explain it, they’ll probably get a sense there’s something not quite right about your blog post or sales page. And that’s definitely not what you want.

Parallelism is a simple trick, and quite possibly one you’re already using. But if you’re not, or you’re not paying conscious attention to it, try revising a recent post or a key page on your blog to incorporate it.

By making your list items match one another your writing will read more smoothly, adding that extra little bit of polish to your blog posts and (even more importantly) your sales pages.

Ali Luke is the author of the Blogger’s Guides, a set of value-packed ebooks that are on sale until Friday 1st March for just $20 (instead of the usual $60): that gets you all four ebooks plus various bonuses, as well as all future updates. You can find out more and get your hands on a great bargain here.

 

Image Credit: Emma Matthews

The post How to Make Your List Items and Bullet Points Super Smooth appeared first on ProBlogger.



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How to Make Your List Items and Bullet Points Super Smooth

The post How to Make Your List Items and Bullet Points Super Smooth appeared first on ProBlogger.

Lists and Parallelism

This is a post by ProBlogger writing expert Ali Luke

Do you ever use lists in your blogging?

They might be bullet points, tips that you’re sharing in a list post, or even a simple list of three or four items in a sentence.

If you’ve been writing blog posts for a while, coming up with bullet points or list items might seem like second nature. But there could be a crucial factor you’re overlooking.

Parallelism.

Say what?

“Parallelism”, in this context, simply means making sure the items on your list correspond to one another – that is, they’re parallel.

It’s often easiest to understand through examples.

Seeing Parallelism in Action

Here’s an example of a list that doesn’t work.

When you’re writing a blog post, it’s important to:

  • Give it a great title
  • Crafting a strong opening line
  • To use subheadings

All of those bullet points could work. But not in the same list.

Notice how the list is introduced: it’s important to. Every item on the list needs to fit with this opening phrase.

It’s important to … give it a great title. (Yep, that works.)

It’s important to … crafting a strong opening line. (Nope. It should be “craft” not “crafting”.)

It’s important to … to use subheadings. (Nope. It repeats “to”.)

To work properly, the full list needs to read:

When you’re writing a blog post, it’s important to:

  • Give it a great title
  • Craft a strong opening line
  • Use subheadings

But a lack of parallelism isn’t always obvious at first glance.

Take a look at these (fictitious) bullet points from a sales page.

  • Grow your business faster than ever before
  • Money while you sleep
  • This is the easiest system ever invented – you can use it straight away
  • Discover the secrets you’ve been missing all this time

As well as having a rather dubious “get rich quick” vibe, those bullet points don’t quite fit together as a list. They’re grammatically correct, as there’s no introductory text. But they’d read more smoothly if they all started with an imperative verb and were all roughly the same length, like this:

  • Grow your business faster than ever before
  • Make money while you’re asleep
  • Start using this super-easy system instantly
  • Discover the secrets you’ve been missing all this time

This might seem like a small thing. But when you’re crafting a sales page, you want to make it as easy to read as possible.

Great Places to Use Parallelism in Lists on Your Blog

Within your blog posts, look out for opportunities to use parallelism:

  • Whenever you have a short list within a sentence. For instance, “Today, I wrote a letter, visited my grandma, and went for a jog”. Note how each verb is in the past tense. You probably do this naturally already, but it’s worth double-checking when you edit your post to make sure all your lists are working correctly.
  • Whenever you create a list of bullet points. Even if you don’t have a specific phrase introducing your bullet points, make them all match. That usually means starting them all in the same way – with a verb in the right form, a noun, an adjective, or whatever works for your list. It could also mean ending them all in the same way (e.g. with a question mark).
  • Whenever you write a list post. The list items (usually the subheadings) in a list post might be separated by several paragraphs of text. But they should still match one another if you want your post to seem well constructed.

Elsewhere on your blog, look out for things like:

  • Calls to action on your About or Start Here page. If you’re offering readers several options, have you phrased them all so they match?
  • Lists of bullet points on your sales pages. We took a look at this earlier: parallel bullet points look polished and professional, and help create a good first impression on a potential customer.

As well as using parallelism within a single list, it often makes sense to create several lists that all match with one another. For instance, on the home page of my Blogger’s Guides website (where I sell premium ebooks) each Guide is summarised in five bullet points, and each bullet point starts with a verb (construct, write, produce, revise, develop).

Your readers may not notice that one product has four bullet points, one has five and another has six. They might not realise you’re only using parallelism within individual lists, and not to tie all your lists together.

But even if they can’t quite explain it, they’ll probably get a sense there’s something not quite right about your blog post or sales page. And that’s definitely not what you want.

Parallelism is a simple trick, and quite possibly one you’re already using. But if you’re not, or you’re not paying conscious attention to it, try revising a recent post or a key page on your blog to incorporate it.

By making your list items match one another your writing will read more smoothly, adding that extra little bit of polish to your blog posts and (even more importantly) your sales pages.

Ali Luke is the author of the Blogger’s Guides, a set of value-packed ebooks that are on sale until Friday 1st March for just $20 (instead of the usual $60): that gets you all four ebooks plus various bonuses, as well as all future updates. You can find out more and get your hands on a great bargain here.

 

Image Credit: Emma Matthews

The post How to Make Your List Items and Bullet Points Super Smooth appeared first on ProBlogger.



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How to Easily Create a Quiz in WordPress

Quizzes are a fun way to increase user engagement on your site. You can use them for educational purposes or use them to create viral content like BuzzFeed and others to get more social shares.

Quizzes are basically online forms that collect user input, calculate responses, and show results.

In this article, we will show you how to easily create a quiz in WordPress.

How to Create a Quiz in WordPress Easily

Why Add Quizzes to Your WordPress Site?

Quizzes are fun and highly engaging. Due to their interactive nature, users find them more rewarding than other types of forms.

BuzzFeed Quizzes

Marketers have been using quizzes to generate leads since the very early days of the internet.

There are many scenarios where quizzes can help you capture audience interest, gather data, and add interactive features to your site.

  • Viral quizzes can help you gain more traffic from social media. BuzzFeed is probably the most popular example of viral quizzes
  • Educational quizzes to accompany your online courses
  • Quizzes to asses customer needs and recommend them solutions.
  • Quizzes that require users to sign up for your email newsletter
  • and more…

Quiz to assess customer needs

Having said that let’s go ahead and see how to create easily create a quiz in WordPress.

Creating a WordPress Quiz with Formidable Forms

As the saying goes, there’s likely a plugin for that. You can find many WordPress plugins for making a quiz, but it’s always your responsibility to choose the best one.

For creating this tutorial, we tried out the best WordPress quiz plugins available and picked Formidable Forms plugin as the best WordPress-focused solution.

Formidable Forms Advanced WordPress form plugin

Formidable Forms is the most advanced WordPress form plugin available on the market. It comes with a simple but powerful drag and drop form builder which helps you go beyond just contact forms.

Using its powerful interface, you can easily create advanced forms like quizzes, surveys, calculators, registration forms, and more.

Formidable Forms plugin comes with a Quiz Maker add-on for creating quizzes in WordPress. It allows you to easily build quizzes and display them on your website.

Let’s take a look at how to do that, step by step.

Step 1: Install the Formidable Forms and Quiz Maker Addon

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Formidable Forms plugin. For creating a quiz, you will need to purchase at least their ‘Business’ plan which includes the Quiz Maker addon.

For detailed instructions, check out our step by step guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress.

Next, you will need to install the Quiz Maker addon. Go to Formidable » Add-Ons, navigate to Quiz Maker addon and click the Install button.

Install Formidable Forms Quiz Maker

It will install the addon in a few seconds and show the addon as ‘Active.’

That’s it!

Now, you are all set to start building a quiz using Formidable Forms.

Step 2: Create a WordPress Quiz with Formidable Quiz Maker

Now that you’ve installed the Formidable Forms Quiz Maker, you are ready to create your first WordPress quiz.

Navigate to Formidable » Forms from your WordPress dashboard and click the ‘Add New’ button.

Add New Formidable Form in WordPress

Next, you will see different ways to create a form with Formidable Forms. You can either start with a blank form, use a form template, or import from an XML file. In our guide, we will show you how to start with a blank form.

Create with a Black Form - Formidable Forms

Start by clicking on the ‘Create with a blank form’ button. Next, you will see the plugin’s form building interface.

Formidable Forms Form Builder Interface

As shown in the screenshot above, you will see the main 3 steps to create a form. First, name your quiz. Second, add fields to your form. And third, save your form.

Quizzes can be used for different purposes including satisfaction test, personality quiz, market research, knowledge test, etc.

You may need different types of fields based on your quiz type. We recommend having a list of your questions and answers ready before creating the quiz.

In this guide, we will show you how to create a simple WordPress knowledge test quiz which includes different fields including single response ‘Text’ field as well as multi-response ‘Dropdown’ and ‘Radio Buttons.’

Let’s get started with the name of your quiz form. Then, you can add fields to your form by simply clicking or dragging the fields on the right.

Name Your Formidable Forms Quiz

Here, we added a ‘Text’ field for the first quiz question and replaced the field title with the question.

Create a Quiz Question in Formidable Forms

Next, we added a ‘Dropdown’ Field for a multi-response question.

Add Dropdown Field in Formidable Forms

Replace the field title with your question first. Then, add options for your question.

Add Dropdown Options in a Formidable Form

Similarly, you can add more questions to your form. Once done, add the ‘Quiz Score’ field to your form.

Add Quiz Score Field in Formidable Form

The Quiz score field is important because it’s where you can enter the correct answers for your quiz questions. Simply right-click the ‘Add an entry’ link to open in a new tab.

Doing so will open the ‘Entries’ page in a new tab.

Formidable Forms Entry Page

Now, you can enter or choose correct answers for your quiz questions. The plugin will later evaluate the users’ entries based on your entries here.

Once done, put a check on the box next to ‘Set this entry as the quiz answer key.’ After that enter a descriptive name in the ‘Entry Key’ field and click the ‘Submit’ button.

Set Correct Answers for Your Formidable WordPress Quiz

Once your entries are saved, you can close the tab and go back to the form making page.

Next, you need to click the ‘Create’ button.

Create a Quiz in WordPress using Formidable Forms

Upon clicking the Create button, it will open the form General Settings. On this page, you can set up settings for your form including what to display when a user completes your form.

Quiz Settings Formidable Forms

You can review all the settings and then change them or simply leave them as default.

Then, scroll down to the Messages section to customize the message users will get when they complete your quiz.

Message Settings for Formidable Forms Quiz

If you want to show the quiz score immediately to your users along with this message, you can add a shortcode including your Quiz Score field key or field ID.

You can find your Quiz Score field ID or the key under the ‘Fields’ panel on the right.

Quiz Score ID Formidable Forms

As you can see on the screenshot, the Quiz Score field ID in this example is [161]. Now, you can add a shortcode to the message box including this ID or key in the following format:

[161] – For fraction correct. Example: 5/10.
[161 show=count] – For correct answer count. Example: 5.
[161 show=percent] – For percent count. Example: 50%
[161 show=grade] – For letter grade. Example: F.

Here’s how you can add the shortcode to the message box.

Add Shortcode to Display Quiz Score in WordPress

Once you are done, click the ‘Update’ button at the end. That’s all. You’ve created your first quiz.

Step 3: Adding Your Quiz to Your WordPress Site

Now that you have successfully created a quiz form, you are all set to display it on your site. You can add the quiz to your site easily using the Formidable Forms widget.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to add that on a page.

Go to Pages » Add New from your dashboard.

Add New Page in WordPress

First, you will need to add a title and then click the ‘Add Block’ icon to add the Formidable Forms widget. Under the Widgets tab, you need to click the ‘Formidable Forms’ widget.

Add Formidable Forms Widget

After that it will add the Formidable Forms block to your page area. Simply click the dropdown in the block and select your quiz form.

Choose Your Quiz Form Widget in WordPress

Your quiz will now load on your page.

Publish Your Quiz in WordPress

Now you can go ahead and publish your page.

That’s it! Your WordPress quiz is live and your users can start answering questions.

Here’s how users will see the quiz results after clicking the submit quiz button.

Quiz Score Displayed in WordPress

We hope this article helped you add a quiz to your WordPress site. You may also want to see our guide on how to add a client feedback form in WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Easily Create a Quiz in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.



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How to Add Caption to Images in WordPress

Do you want to add captions to your images in WordPress? Captions are brief text descriptions that you can add to your images. They are typically used to provide additional details about an image.

WordPress comes with the built-in capability to easily add a caption and other metadata including title and alternative text for each image.

In this beginner’s guide, we will show you how to easily add a caption to images in WordPress.

How to Add Caption to Images in WordPress

Adding Caption to Images in WordPress

The first thing you need to do is to upload an image. On the post edit screen, click the ‘Add Block’ icon and select the ‘Image’ block.

Add Image Block in WordPress

Upon clicking on it, the Image block will be added to your post area.

Image Block Added In WordPress

You can now click on the upload button to select and upload an image from your computer to WordPress. You can also select a previously uploaded image by clicking on the media library button.

To learn more, see our article on how to add and align images in WordPress.

As soon as you add an image, it will appear inside the editor with a text box labeled ‘Write caption…’ below it.

That’s where you can add a caption for your image.

Add Caption to Image in WordPress post

Once done, you can save your post by clicking on the publish or update button.

That’s all. Wasn’t that easy?

Add Captions to Your Gallery Images

WordPress editor also comes with a Gallery block allowing you to upload multiple images and display them in a grid layout with rows and columns.

Let’s see how to add captions to images in a WordPress gallery block.

To create a gallery, go to your page or post edit screen. Then click the ‘Add Block’ icon and select the ‘Gallery’ block in the Common Blocks tab.

Add Gallery Block in WordPress

Next, you will see the Gallery block added to your page/post area. Now, you can upload images one by one from your computer or select the pre-uploaded pictures from your media library.

Gallery Block Added to a WordPress Page

If you upload images individually, then you can add a caption after uploading each one. When an image is uploaded, simply click on the image and the ‘Write caption…’ field will appear. You can add a caption by clicking on that.

Add Caption to Gallery Images in WordPress

If you select pre-added images from the library, you can add a caption to your pictures from the image metadata section on the right. If the photos already have a caption, then you don’t need to add it again.

Select Images to Create Gallery in WordPress

Adding Captions to Images in WordPress Media Library

WordPress allows you to upload images directly to the media library without embedding it in a post or page.

Here we will show you how to add caption to images when uploading them directly to the Media Library.

First, you need to visit Media » Add New page in WordPress admin area.

Add New Media to WordPress

From here, you can upload an image by dragging and dropping or by selecting one from your computer.

Once done, you will see the uploaded image below the Upload New Media box. You need to click the ‘Edit’ link.

Edit Image Option in WordPress Media Upload Page

Next, it’ll open the edit media page in a new tab. You may notice that the edit media screen looks similar to the post edit screen. That’s because WordPress treats attachment (for example, image) as a default post type.

This allows it to store image metadata like title, description, and caption in WordPress database.

From this screen, you can edit your image title, add image metadata including caption, alternative text, and description.

Image Post Edit Screen in WordPress

Once you add the necessary information, you can update your image. This image metadata will now be saved in your media library.

You can add this image on as many posts as you like without having to add the caption and other metadata again. Whenever you add this image to your post from the media library, it comes with the metadata already saved.

Select Image to Add in a WordPress Post

Adding Caption to Images in WordPress with Old Classic Editor

If you are still using the old Classic Editor on your WordPress site, then this is how you would add captions to images in WordPress.

Simply click on the Add Media button above the post editor to upload an image or select one from the media library.

Add media button in the old classic editor

Once the image is uploaded you can enter meta data like title, alt text, and a caption of your image.

Adding caption to images using the Classic Editor

Click on the ‘Insert into post’ button to add the image to your post or page.

You will now be able to see the image preview in your post editor with the caption. You can save your changes and preview the post to see how it would look on your live site.

Preview of an image with the caption

Adding Captions to Gallery Images in WordPress with Classic Editor

You can also add captions to images when creating a gallery using the Classic Editor. Simply upload and select multiple images and then click on the ‘Create gallery’ link from the left column.

Create gallery in media uploader

After that, you will need to click on the ‘Create a new gallery’ button at the bottom right corner of the popup.

Create a new gallery with selected images

Now you will be able to add captions directly below each image or click on an image to load its settings in the right column and then add the caption.

You can now click on the Insert Gallery button to add gallery into your WordPress post or page.

Classic editor gallery images with captions

We hope this article helped you to add caption text to your images in WordPress. If you liked this article, you might also want to see our guide on how to fix common image issues in WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Add Caption to Images in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.



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If I Had to Start All Over Again, I Would…

neil idea

I started young. At the ripe age of 15 and a half, I started my first online business.

Can you guess what it was?

It was a job board. I created it because I couldn’t find a high paying job at that young of an age. Heck, I struggled to find even a low paying job!

As you probably can guess, it failed and, eventually, I went on to do other stuff.

From creating an ad agency to a few software companies… the list goes on and on.

But if I had to start all over again, what do you think I would do?

Well, before I get into that, let’s first talk about what I learned a bit too late…

What I learned too late in my career

I’m really good at one thing and one thing only.

It’s driving traffic to a site.

It doesn’t matter what industry a site is in, I can drive traffic to it and make it popular. And best of all, I can do it without ads.

But because I can do one thing well, it doesn’t mean I can create a successful business. I still need amazing people around me.

For example, when I started working with Mike Kamo, my business started to take off.

mike kamo

He’s the CEO of my ad agency, and typically the CEO of whatever I want to do. And if he doesn’t have the time, he finds someone who does.

See, Mike doesn’t have a college degree and he’s not your typical CEO. But he is really good at building teams and hiring the right people. And best of all, he can do so on a budget.

That is his best skill!

And working with him I realized that no matter how smart you are, you’ll never build a big company unless you have a talented team.

Sure, you can get to millions on your own, but it’s hard to get to 9 figures or even 8 figures a year in revenue without an amazing team.

People help you scale and grow fast. With more brain power, assuming you are picking good people, you’ll solve your problems faster and see revenue roll in.

So what would I do if you started over again?

Well, the lesson above is one of the hardest lessons I had to learn. And I learned it too late in my career.

It’s obvious, but when you start out as an entrepreneur at too young of an age, you make mistakes (sometimes huge ones) that you more likely wouldn’t have made if you had started your entrepreneurial journey a bit later.

So, what would I do?

Well, I would spend the first 9 years of my entrepreneurial journey in the workforce.

The first 3 years I would spend my time at a startup. And ideally, one that doesn’t have too much venture funding and isn’t taking off like a rocket ship.

The reason I wouldn’t pick a fast-growing startup is that the hardest part is making a company work and then growing it. By working at a company that has amazing traction because of timing or luck, or something that they couldn’t control… it teaches you to be creative, scrappy, and how to fight to win.

You’ll learn a lot from the startup life.

After my first 3 years in a startup, I would then spend the next 2 years working at a mid-size startup that has raised at least 10 million dollars and is growing up and to the right like a hockey stick.

This will help you understand what a fast-growing company looks like. And let me be the first to tell you, it’s not sexy… it’s very messy.

So many things go wrong and keep breaking because you are growing so fast. You’ll end up finding things like your economics may not be great, or you may be working with mediocre people because you just need to hire for the sake of filling in empty positions.

And after those 2 years are done, I would spend 2 years working at a mid-sized company. One that generates at least a hundred million a year in revenue, but less than a billion.

The struggles that mid-size companies face are different than startups and large corporations. But by being in the mix at one of these companies for a few years you’ll learn everything from dealing with politics, to how to make a slow-moving company grow, to even thinking about the big picture. Such as how bigger companies look for huge markets because they know that it is easier to own 5% of a multi-billion-dollar industry than it is to own 50% of a multi-million-dollar industry.

Last, but not least, I would spend my last 2 years at a large corporation. When I mean large, I’m talking about a company that is worth over 10 billion dollars and potentially even publicly traded.

What would you do after your 9 years as an employee?

The whole purpose of working for others is to get the right mentors and to learn how the real world works.

Entrepreneurship isn’t as glamorous as most people think. Success isn’t easily achieved and it doesn’t look like what you might think considering what so many “successful” influencers might sell you on social media.

success

By working with others, you’ll learn what works and, more importantly, what doesn’t work.

No matter how smart you are, you will make mistakes. Just look at people like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, no one is perfect. Even the billionaires make mistakes.

But once you’ve worked for a handful of companies that are all different sizes, you’ll have a good understanding of what it takes to succeed.

You’ll have a much better understanding of common mistakes people make, such as how to avoid hiring bad people, and if you do hire them, how you need to fire them fast.

In essence, you will have learned what you should do for 9 years straight, which means if you skip all of that, it will be harder for you to be in a position to succeed for lack of experience in the real world. Sure, there is always the possibility of success without all of the experience, but it is much more difficult to become a reality.

Conclusion

Entrepreneurship looks great and is amazing. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. But before you go off and become an entrepreneur, learn from companies of all sizes.

It’s not an easy road and the last thing you want to do is fail on someone else’s dime because your reputation is all you have.

By putting in 9 hard years into other people’s companies, you’ll increase your odds of succeeding.

And when you are ready to go out on your own, hopefully, you would have met a few amazing co-founders along your journey because it takes too much time and capital to do it all by yourself.

So what would you do if you were starting all over again?

The post If I Had to Start All Over Again, I Would… appeared first on Neil Patel.



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