Facebook: Don’t Even Think of Trying to Bait Our Users

Wherever you find an algorithm at play on the Internet, there’s a good chance that some people (read: a lot of people) will try to game the system. On some level, this is nothing more than strategy. This is where we find all sorts of perfectly permissible search engine optimization techniques. And then you’ve got the “black hat SEO” people who try to exploit the system for their own benefit.

Google inevitably catches on their antics, adjusting its search algorithm accordingly, and lays the smack down with a new update. That’s how so many people came to despise penguins and pandas so much. That’s just the name of the game and the cycle just keeps renewing itself. The exact same thing happens with social media.

And no conversation about social media would be complete without at least some mention of Facebook. Way back in the before times, Facebook’s news feed was simply arranged in reverse chronological order. It was utterly a level playing field that you couldn’t really game, because the newest updates would always display at the top. And then the algorithm kicked in.

Brands and businesses had to adapt their strategy accordingly. Then, Facebook decided to severely limit the reach of business pages, totally screwing you over and almost turning the platform into a pay-to-play kind of scenario. But they said that if your posts get good engagement, then they’d naturally filter back into the news feed for the people who “like” or “follow” your page.

That’s good, right?

Well, it didn’t take long before marketers (and bloggers and everyone else) started to game the system to up their engagement numbers. That’s why at the end of 2017, Facebook announced that they’re fighting back against what they call “engagement bait.”

Just as they cracked down on clickbait titles — you won’t believe what happens next! — they are doing the same thing with posts that try to “bait” Facebook users into engaging with a post that they otherwise wouldn’t have.

This “engagement bait” takes on five different forms.

• Vote Baiting: You’ve surely seen this on Facebook. A number of options are shown in an image with different reactions (like, love, wow, etc.) associated with each one. You’re then encouraged to “vote” on which one you prefer using the corresponding reaction.
• React Baiting: This is very similar to vote baiting, except it usually gets the user to self-identify as being part of one group or the other. If you share a post about pet lovers, you might say “like if you’re a cat person and love if you’re a dog person.”
• Share Baiting: Most commonly used in contests, this is where you might require a user to share a post in order to enter your giveaway. “Share this post with a friend for a chance to win.”
• Tag Baiting: This is where you explicitly ask Facebook users to “tag a friend” either in an image or in the comments. “Tag a friend who could probably lose a few pounds.”
• Comment Baiting: Generating comments on your posts are good when those comments are authentic. Comment baiting, on the other hand, is when you already tell people to leave a specific comment for no real reason in particular. “Comment with OH YEAH if you’re looking forward to the weekend.”

Basically, Facebook is saying that you shouldn’t try to trick users into using the platform in ways that it wasn’t intended. There’s no real reason why a “sushi” could be represented by a “sad” face, while “fried chicken” could be represented by a “wow” face. On the other hand, if users provide an authentic reaction to your post, that is perfectly valid engagement. You might share some news about your company, for example, and ask what people think. If they’re impressed, they might use the “wow” face. If they dislike what you’re doing, they might use the “angry” face.

Facebook says that pages that “use engagement bait tactics in their posts should expect their reach on these posts to decrease.” Instead, you’re encouraged to “focus on posting relevant and meaningful stories that do not use engagement bait tactics.”

If you want to take advantage of Facebook’s benefits, you have to be willing to play by their rules. This may ultimately be better for users in the long run, but if nothing else, it once again demonstrates that you shouldn’t build your business on rented land if you want to have full control over how your content is distributed and consumed.

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What Successful People Do Differently – Part 3

I wasn’t going to write “3” parts to this series, but I came across a few more elements I’d like to add. In Part 1 & 2, I discussed the importance of networking, staying positive, and having clear cut goals. However, today, I’d like to discuss more factors that have been proven to contribute to success. I have compiled these factors from the biographies of successful people and what they have done in the past to get where they are now. Many of you might NOT agree and some of you will have a hard time implementing these into your daily lifestyle. However, I can honestly tell you from the amount of people who have made these changes, it’s amazing to see the results they’ve had.

Let’s jump into Part 3 and look at some additional things successful people do differently.

NOT Afraid of Failing

Those who are successful are NOT afraid of failing and embrace it. Why? Simply because they use this opportunity to learn from their mistakes and they know it’s hard to be completely perfect. Those who can’t handle failure will often give up, but those who can will learn from it, especially when you fail in what you are trying to achieve because it opens up doors for you going forward and this is where the magic happens. For example, each time you fail during your journey to success, you’ll be able to learn from it and make the adjustments to achieve it going forward.

It’s an awesome mind frame and one proven to produce strong results going forward.

DON’T Chase a Moment

One of the great things successful people do is create perfect moments for themselves. It’s hard when you are chasing one moment because that might never come but by creating your own, you’ve increased your chances. I know many people expect “1” moment to always outshine the other but it’s always good to have your own moments so you have the boost of confidence along the way. With that said,

It’s important to create your own moments and be in control because if you’re NOT then you’re going to have a hard time staying positive and happy.

Continually Educating

One of the greatest things about successful people is they know education and learning is a continual process. This means they’re always striving to learn new things and build momentum through a higher process. If you don’t learn and educate yourself, you’re limiting your knowledge and staying behind the trends. I encourage everyone who wants to be successful to know the importance of education and how keeping your mind fresh with knowledge is a great way to achieve success. Education also changes the way you think about certain things and your perspective on life.

The great thing is you have so many resources available to you to learn. We are in a time where the availability of resources cannot be questioned. For example, you have:

• Online resources
• Libraries
• eBooks
• Communities
• Social media
• And simple discussion groups

They Help Others

Karma is a major thing and successful business people definitely believe in it. Why is this so important to them? Simple…it’s because they received a lot of help along the way and believed in helping others to maintain their success. Everyone who is successful will tell you that they have had help from someone along the way so are more sensitive to helping others getting started. I would like to tell you guys something about when I started blogging.

First, it was very hard for me to get in an industry that was so competitive. Secondly, many people rejected me when I asked for help and it became harder for me to get a jump start. Third, the ones who did help me out were some of the MOST successful people in my niche. It’s unbelievable that the ones starting out never decided to work with me but the ones who have much more to lose by having competition enter their niche greeted me with open arms. It then hit me that they are the same people who needed help and got it so they wanted to give back to the community any way they can

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How To Retire In Next 100 Days As A Super Affiliate

People are always asking me what’s the best products to promote online? My answer has always been the same. When looking for an affiliate program to promote, you should always…

Promote Products That Pays You Over and Over Again

One of the best affiliate program that pay recurring commissions is ClickFunnels. They give you 40% of the customers bill for life. Not only do you get paid over and over again, but the customers you referred are yours for life. Anything they buy in the future, you will make money on.

To help their affiliates, ClickFunnels has a 100 Day Super Affiliate Challenge. If you accept the challenge, they will guide to step by step on how to become a ClickFunnels super affiliate and retire in the next 100 days. 

Go Here To Sign Up for The Challenge

The challenge is free to join and all the training is free as well. I recommend signing up even if you don’t plan to be a ClickFunnels affiliate because the training can be applied to any affiliate marketing program.

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Why I’m Returning The 2018 7K MacBook Pro

I’m sad to report that I decided to return my top of the line 2018 MacBook Pro. The performance gain over last year’s model should have been much higher but it was only modest because of thermal throttling problems. On the bright side, I have $7K to spend on something else now.

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Why You Need to Make Money Online (Even If It’s Not Full-Time)

Let me start by saying this. At a fundamental level, it doesn’t really matter if you want to be a professional blogger, web developer, affiliate marketer, freelance writer or anything else. If you want to grow your online business to the point where it can fully replace the income you’re receiving from your day job, then you need to quit your day job. It is only when your online business becomes your sole professional focus that you can grow it to its full potential.

And yes, it’s true that not everyone is going to succeed. Sometimes through no direct fault of their own, nothing works out. Or maybe they give up too easily. Or maybe they didn’t have the right business strategy for the current market. It could be any number of things. But you also can’t wait for all your ducks to get in a row before you decide to take the plunge. You just have to decide to take that leap of faith and absorb those failures in stride.

Maybe you’re not ready to abandon your day job altogether and that’s okay too. It’s a personal decision. Maybe you don’t actually want to quit your day job at all and you want to pursue your online business as a side hustle. While it won’t ever really reach its full potential that way, this might be the right decision for your circumstances. Maybe. That’s up to you.

The Most Important Thing

Here’s the thing. So many people never get started at all, because they assume that if they can’t dedicate themselves full time to their online business that they shouldn’t even try. And that’s hardly true.

I argued a few years ago that making money online is actually more stable than a regular job. I encourage you to go back and read that post if you haven’t already done so. Even if you hold on to your day job, you can think of making money online as your security cushion. Through circumstances beyond your control (or even within your control), you could lose your job tomorrow. You could get fired or laid off.

Then what?

If you decide to start your online business from scratch after you’ve already lost your day job, there’s a good chance that you might not make any money at all for the first several months. Are you prepared for that? By contrast, if you’ve already gotten started and your business is already generating some modest revenue, you can at least rely on some positive cash flow as you now dedicate yourself to growing your business even further (or looking for another day job if you must).

Saving for the Future

How much do you think the typical 40-something in America has stashed away in retirement savings? They would’ve been working for about 20 years at this point, so they should have a decent amount set aside, right? According to MSN Money, the average (mean) retirement savings at that age is about $81,000.

That’s not bad, but it could be a lot better. Experts recommend that you should have about four times your annual salary saved at that point in your life, which for the average 40-something American would be closer to $200,000. But do you know what’s even scarier? The median retirement savings for a typical 40-something American is just $6,200.

What this means is that half of the people in this demographic have more than $6,200 saved and half have less than $6,200. That’s not a very bright picture indeed and there’s no way that you’re going to retire with just $6,200 set aside.

Keep the Cash Flowing

How does this tie into an online business? Even when it’s just a side hustle, your online business can grow into another source of income. And the income you earn from that can be invested and saved, getting the money to work for you and to make more money on its own. The earlier you can start this process, the better.

And the earlier you can start this process, the sooner you can retire (and with more money in your savings too)… assuming you want to retire at all.

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SlingShot Take Over of Cars and Coffee

The super cool Polaris Slingshot has taken over Cars and Coffee! If you want to attract attention and don’t want to spend supercar prices to do so, the Slingshot is your ticket to ride!

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What Successful People Do Differently – Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my series and I’ll be continuing to look at the extreme characteristics of highly successful people. These people are NOT from another planet, nor do I consider them smarter, however, they do work much harder at what they want to achieve. Anyway, with that said, I’d like to go over a few more things you can implement into your work habits to make you more successful going forward. This, again, is Part 2 and I encourage all of you to read Part 1 before going any further.

Let’s get started.

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DAILY Improvements

Successful people know that a combination of improvements is the recipe to achieve your desired results. They also know this takes time and are willing to work at it every day until they achieve their desired results. Others simply don’t want to put the day-to-day effort into making small improvements, leading to ultimate success later down the line. This is what differentiates the unsuccessful from those who achieve the greatest. In the end, successful entrepreneurs know how small daily improvements full of growth can help achieve your bottom line going forward.

Always Stay Positive

One of the greatest assets successful people have is their ability to stay positive at all times. Their ability to remain at the top of their game by staying positive will contribute to them achieving the end goal at the end of the day. It’s widely believed if you can stay positive, then you don’t go into panic mode, which, in normal circumstances, will leave you making poor decision. Some of the MOST successful have publicly stated that they always stay positive even when faced with adversity because this helps them NOT make any drastic decisions that would hurt them.

If you want to be successful in business, then I encourage you to stay positive, knowing everything will be alright no matter what. Staying positive will also:

• Decrease depression
• Lower anxiety
• Reduce risk of death
• Be able to cope better with stressful times
• Lower psychological risk

NOT Afraid of Failure

This is awesome and you can learn a lot from this simple factor. Successful people are NOT afraid of failures because they consider them vital learning tools. They know with failure comes a time for growth and their ability to find new ways to do things, which improves them going forward. Other will be devastated by failure because they let it get to them psychologically, but successful people embrace it, knowing it will get them hustling, allowing them to make improvements in the long run.

Hang with Other Successful People

You’ve probably noticed that successful people have a huge network of people, all who are successful themselves. The reason is very simple and some of the reasons include the following:

First, they all have the same mind frame and this means having things in common. It means being able to stay positive and talk about the same things especially those that matter to maintaining their success in the long run. Secondly, it makes sure they have a wide network of resources when they need them. Reading the bio’s of many of these people will let you understand how they invest in each other’s business and self-improvement. For them, this is important because in the future, it means extending their wealth and opportunities going forward. However, here are some things you need to keep in mind about how they build networks:

• They work hard and show each other their discipline
• They work hard at making sure wealth grows and it’s a smart investment
• They commit to solid communication, etc.

My Final Thoughts

You can learn a lot from what successful people do differently and you should apply these into your daily lifestyle. I want to encourage all of you to pick one factor and start implementing it into your creative process. I know it’s going to be tough in the beginning, but over time, you’ll start to see improvements, etc. Then you can shift to implement other things until you find you have the right combination. However, it’s important to start doing this right away because success does have a time limit, especially when life is NOT infinite.

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