The first work day of 2023 is today for most and many are setting goals for the year.
Start strong! Your goals and ideas will always work better when you collaborate with top performers. Think about all of your past successes. Did you do it alone? Probably not. Build your brand! Here are tips to help you do that: Design, Content, Marketing Strategy, Reliable Team
By: R. Michael Brown, Freelance Writer [Follow on Facebook: @RMichaelBrownLLC]
📸: Let Ideas Compete is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
After joining a bunch of Facebook cycling groups I started to receive ads for CyclingDiet. You may be getting them too because you are part of the Facebook groups or post about cycling.
As a former US Olympic Cycling Coach and professional freelance writer, I thought I would take a look at their plan and write a review to be helpful to other cyclists.
The bottom line, BUYER BEWARE!
According to their Facebook ads and their Facebook page [@cyclingdietforweightloss] they say, “Fun, easy, and safe way to lose weight! Find what will work for you with 60-sec quiz approved by cycling coaches and experts and get your personalized plan & diet!”
So I purchased the program to check it out and it cost $66… not including the international charges because the company is based in Lithuania (Didn’t know that when I registered).
In addition I paid an extra, $4.99, to get the “rush” evaluation on the quiz I took. They say the personal evaluation is done by cycling coaches and experts.
I signed up as a beginner to see what they were teaching new cyclists. When I received my plan it included some generic daily workouts for before and after stretching, calisthenics, and bicycle training. You could easily come up with these on your own via the web for free.
But when I got to the diet part, and you are led to believe with a name like CyclingDiet this is the robust part of their offering, all it had was a Cycling Recipe book in a PDF showing calorie amounts for the few dozen recipes they provided. No daily plan, no meals to sync with the daily cycling and off-day workouts, no technology to track your calories… Just two mentions above the recipe “book” that showed total daily calories you should stay within to maintain weight and total calories you should target to lose weight.
Honestly, you could buy a paperback weight loss cookbook for under $10 and get more information.
What they sent me is what their “cycling coaches and experts” came up with?
After working with Olympic cycling sports nutritionists and many nutritionists over the years on my own diet and my daughter’s because she has Type 1 Diabetes, the CyclingDiet isn’t a diet or diet plan by any stretch of the imagination.
The whole plan is basically – stay under 1,500 calories a day and you add it up on your own. Oh, and exercise a lot. Not worth $5 let alone $66.
If you’re used to MyFitnessPal, Fitbit, WeightWatchers, or the many other online programs, CyclingDiet looks like a bad joke.
Plus, when I attempted to get a refund after telling them the deficiencies in their product, they gave me some back and forth customer support static and said they would refund only half ($33) and it may take 2 weeks to process.
So just to check on them by doing a Google search, turns out the company for CyclingDiet, UAB Kilo Grupė, in the first few Google results, are about “unauthorized charges” and scam alerts.
Now I’m going to have to watch my PayPal and bank accounts to see what happens.
They buy a lot of online ads. They’re everywhere. I blocked them.
As you can imagine, I won’t recommend this product. Far from it.
In fact this is the best $33, hopefully, I’ve ever spent if it helps you not fall for this waste of your time and money.
If you need a diet, talk to your medical doctor or a licensed nutritionist. They work with you and legitimate online programs for you to evaluate, plan, and track your diet. That’s the safest and will get you the best results.
Happy cycling!
For more free reviews and stories go to BrownieBytes.net
With iOS 14.5, Apple has introduced some new privacy features that will limit targeted advertising.
By Daphne Leprince-Ringuet
📸: Jimmy Benson
Ever been spammed with sportswear adverts after looking up gym membership fees, or been bombarded with tempting hotel discounts upon booking flights for your next getaway?
These sort of adverts, almost eerie in how relevant they are to users’ interests, are now a common part of our experience of using apps and the web. But with the new release of iOS 14.5, and with it a new feature called App Tracking Transparency (ATT), these ads might now become less of a common sight.
The Cupertino giant, in effect, is introducing some limitations to the data collection practices that constitute the bread-and-butter of creepy targeted advertising arising from our use of apps.
ATT was confirmed earlier this year, and it is a major blow to most modern-day online advertising strategies. The feature requires apps to get users’ permission before tracking their data across other companies’ apps or websites for advertising purposes.
In other words, if users decide to select “Ask app not to track,” then the app’s developers will not be allowed to collect data about users’ behavior outside of the services provided on their own platform.
For businesses new to digital marketing, these steps may feel huge to begin with, but once you get the hang of it, it will seem as natural as wearing a seatbelt in a car.
Now is the time, more than ever, to master your digital marketing strategy to get your business in front of more eyes. But strap yourself in for a journey rather than a two-stop trip—digital marketing is not a one-off effort, but rather an ongoing objective that needs daily monitoring.
Making a purchase is 85% emotional and 15% logical – this article breaks down how you can use content marketing to tap into your customers’ emotions.
Emotions are an integral part of our everyday life. So if you have chosen the work as a content marketer you need to know how to discover these emotions, and uncover their raw ingredients. Embrace them, dig deeper and offer a way out the other side.
We are always trying to understand why some content goes viral and rises to the top – and some flops. Up until now we have focused on the content itself – optimizing it for search and sharing, then desperately hoping it will get some attention.
But what about your readers’ emotional needs? The sense of belonging, ego, self-expression and obligation. There are ways to “tap” into these emotions and they should be a part of every content marketing strategy.
You have about 2 seconds to get people’s attention – that’s your first couple of sentences. My hope, for example, is that you were drawn in by my first sentence and lured down the page. Now, the rest of my job is to engage you, to continue to feed your emotions, and move you along in two ways:
— Read on www.jeffbullas.com/tap-emotions-boost-content-marketing/
By Jade Scipioni
At 73, James Patterson has sold more than 425 million copies of his 200 novels globally, making him one of the highest paid authors in the world.
Patterson had annual earnings topping more than $80 million between June 2019 to June 2020 and sold nearly 5 million in books in the U.S. during that time, according to Forbes.
In July, Patterson signed a multi-project deal with Amazon’s Audible for an undisclosed amount, with his first Audible Original, “The Coldest Case” out Thursday.
“I do not work for a living, I play for a living. I love doing it,” Patterson tells CNBC Make It.
But Patterson’s road to success didn’t happen overnight. He started writing as a side hustle and he faced a lot of rejection before getting his first book published.
In Dan Roth’s dream world, members of LinkedIn, where he has served as editor in chief since 2011, would habitually read the LinkedIn Daily Rundown with their morning cup of coffee.
They’d then turn their attention to the site’s podcast or newsletter during their commute to work. When they get to their desks, they’d open LinkedIn.com on their browsers, where they can read from a carefully curated feed of professional and business news throughout their work day. Users who felt inspired by the content would share links on their own timeline. They’d check their notifications tab to see if others have engaged with the content they share.
Who knows? They might even talk about one of LinkedIn’s articles at their next staff meeting.
This is Roth’s aspiration for LinkedIn’s 645 million members and for workers who have yet to use the site. He envisions LinkedIn as the perfect “utility” for professionals.
— Read on amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/10/23/media/linkedin-journalists/index.html
Starting in early 2019, 20 towns across Italy began selling homes for €1, or about $1.10.
Local governments hope the plan will attract fresh faces and new businesses to towns that have been suffering from rapid depopulation and a growing number of abandoned homes for decades. But the true cost of these homes turn out to be much higher than $1.
Business Insider video feature story describes the depopulation problem in rural Italian towns and what small town governments are trying to do about it.
Interesting concept and marketing program. Hint: taxes, fees, and renovation costs amount to a lot more than a $1.
Apple today shared a funny video focused on the problems that people working from home have to deal with, including noisy children, chaotic…
— Read on www.macrumors.com/2020/07/13/apple-work-from-home-video/
Back in March, we wrote about a new feature that Jane Manchun Wong spotted being tested by LinkedIn, which allows users on the platform to look for recommendations on professionals who provide specific services.
Then in April, Wong spotted another new option for users to fill out a ‘Services’ section on their profiles to allow freelancers to showcase their services.
The two go hand in hand, and the latter is now rolling out to small business leaders and freelancers who have a Premium Business subscription in the U.S.
Those who have access to the new feature will have the ability to share what services they provide right on their profile, thus showing other members that they are “open for business.”
Brownie Bytes 