Vulnerabilities matter

Prem Rose - Jayantii Laughing

Vulnerabilities matter – it’s important to have skin in the game.

If you have an about us or a contact us page, put a photo/video of yourself (or persons related to those pages).

If you write something like a novel, you could consider leaving your mark on the writing.

If you speak about your life, open up.

What’s vulnerable?

  • Allowing yourself to be exposed, speaking about yourself.
  • Showing vulnerable emotions, they range from laughing to crying.
  • Speaking from personal experience.
  • Giving real names, real experiences.

Of course, this doesn’t mean being so vulnerable you can get hurt. But showing some of your inner person can do wonders in persuasion.

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Clicking on clickbait

byronv2 - Phones and Paper

If you click on clickbait, you encourage it.

When you want to see what a certain well-known person said about a subject, you increase her income and audience, even if you don’t agree with that person’s behavior.

If you follow someone toxic on Facebook, you increase their audience.

When you accept a friendly request from a dubious person, you give them a vote of confidence.

If you watch TV with negative messages, you increase their selling power.

The solution – be more critical when accepting invitations.

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SEO skills

SEO în WordPress + Google Analytics - Olivian Breda

Why does it help to know WordPress, HTML, CSS, something PHP / JS in SEO?

I know some of the above, and they’re really helpful in understanding a website, from an SEO perspective.

SEO is complex, there are lots to know, from content writing, networking (as a social form, not computer networks), Analytics, Ads, email marketing, social media marketing, affiliate marketing.

Still, my bet on technical skills helps me with … well – technical SEO.

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On gamification

Harry McGregor - Member’s Choice: Games or Game Pieces

There are two types of notifications on Facebook:

  • some which you don’t want – join group, like page;
  • and the ones you want – add friend, message.

What does Facebook do? They combine them until they irritate you.

On chess.com – there is one forced notification for the next lesson; once you do it, they immediately tell you you can’t do the next lesson.

Sites both push you away („go away, buy things, we annoy you”) and pull you („come to us, we have gifts, you’ll enjoy this”). This is very annoying.

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About fear

Nick Kenrick - I feared the dark Until I saw the beauty of the starlight

There are some fears and fears.

You can be afraid of dogs and not be afraid to compose emails.

You may be afraid to try something new, or you may be afraid to lose weight.

You may be afraid of work or fear of comfort (less often, probably).

The point is, I don’t think it’s a general thing – fear in general, but something very particular.

And if you manage to catch the main ones, for me the small fears are secondary.

I’m afraid of dogs, but I can walk on the street, even if I don’t always feel safe.

You may be afraid to speak in public, although that is somehow related to „I’m proud, I deserve to be praised, I’m extraordinary, I’m afraid to be vulnerable on stage.” It’s a fear of not being in the top 10, a form of pride. It matters how you frame fear and emotion.

Enormous impact – social conformity. Someone to give you a superior, an authority, an order.

And, also the fear of having success, and that of starting things – you feel good not having success, failing, and you feel good not taking responsibility.

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Requiring an app

HD - Internet

I know a person with an old phone who wanted to use a mobile app with a customer profile.

What did the app do? Something very simple – it showed a QR code to scan and gave some vouchers.

The app required a rather recent version of Android.

So, what did I do to overcome this?

I just saved the QR code from the app as a picture and used the old phone to just display the photo.

Also, some apps, rather complex, don’t have a website – one could only access the platform from the app.

It’s good to offer an app, but why make it mandatory?

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The secret of handling the pandemic times

arbyreed - Time is an Illusion

The secret of handling the pandemic times? To me, the „trick” was „Eat the frog first!”

Do you have to shop? Go early, be one of the first in the store.

Do you have to go to the bank? Go not only in the first hour but on Monday morning in the first hour.

Do you have anything to work on at home? Do the most difficult things in the first part of the day, the least in the second, and in the evening you can relax with a movie / reading.

Do you want to do sports? Do some exercise before breakfast (about 10 minutes), a few other movements before lunch, a 20-30 minute walk after lunch, and leave in the evening to relax.

I was pretty good with the above schedule.

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John Mueller on e-commerce category pages: maybe 90%, 95% of that text is unnecessary

Thomas Hawk - Google

John Mueller: The one thing that I notice in talking with the mobile indexing folks is that when the e-commerce category pages don’t have any other content at all other than links to the products then it’s really hard for us to rank those pages. So I’m not saying all of that text at the bottom of your page is bad but maybe 90%, 95% of that text is unnecessary but some amount of text is useful to have on a page so that we can understand what this page is about. And at that point you are probably with the amount of text that a user will probably be able to read as well, be able to understand as well. So that’s kind of where I would head in that regard. (via Too Much Content On Your E-Commerce Category Pages For Google?)

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On acting in a hurry

John Gateley - 5x7 Speed

Regarding a story by Gala Galaction – there is a difference between a shepherd who does not act in a hurry and one who works quickly and efficiently.

I don’t agree that if I give you a task you have to think for 30 minutes. You may not be in a hurry, you may not be upset, you may not act tomorrow. You need to solve the task quickly.

Still, there are other situations:

  • When you need to find the best way to negotiate an oral offer.
  • Maybe when you make a promise, it’s good to assume that you can deliver, within certain limits, and if you don’t, make the effort to reach the target.
  • When someone asks you to make a promise/commitment/complicated action, it’s best to think it over.

If someone asks you to buy a thing which you haven’t bought before and/or is an expensive product, think it over.

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