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Your Secret Business Tool – Social Media

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Your Secret Business Tool – Social Media

Over time, some social media platforms can lose their initial popularity or significance. However, 'socialness' never changes. Regardless of the platform, each one gives businesses unequaled access and insight into their customers. When this information is used thoughtfully, businesses become privy to their customer's innermost thoughts, questions, interests, concerns, and dilemmas. In this post, we will look at how and why social media is the secret tool for operating a successful business.

 

Start With Building Trust

Without question, trustworthy companies are created from enduring relations. Customers initiate their transactions with 'company reps', irrespective of the company's status. So, to grow these business relationships, trust must be involved. But how do you start building trust? Here's how:

You Need To Be Present

The key is being available to the community members. For example, answer and follow up with all the direct messages and comments from users. Give value to those who read and interact with your posts. View them as people who may promote your business. Not as data or credit cards. They are people.

Display Your Humanity

Showing your face in a video or an occasional selfie can really resonate with customers. Seeing you online for a long time can make them feel like they know you because they've seen how you interact with people and what you post. Showing some humanity is valuable because your followers are interested in knowing you, not just what's being marketed. Examples are posting photos of fun company staff outings or perhaps retweets from admired companies/individuals.

Additionally, don't forget the power of humility. Trust can be built by admitting your mistakes. Sharing content describing what you've learned along the way is a great place to start, along with adding a bit of humor.

Be Transparent

Trust gets built from being helpful and being honest. Just as you can see that with friends, it's also true on social media. Honesty should be applied to your customer's questions and queries. Transparency shows that you do care about them. Responding quickly and even quirkily to every customer query, whether or not they're worthy of being answered in the first place, can generate higher engagement and often praise from the social media community.

Along with being honest and transparent, having a consistent tone is vital to building trust across social media. If the best manner of voice for your business is friendly and conversational, reflect that in all the captions, answers, and messages you post and send to your users.

Even though it can take a lot of time to build up trust, it takes very little time to break it. Trust can be destroyed in an instant if people' sense' you are misleading, deceptive, or you promote some specific cause and do nothing to support it.

Learning to Listen

So far, we've outlined the importance of building trust by being present, human, and transparent. Now we'll focus on understanding the power of listening. Most people listen with the intent to reply rather than the goal to understand. Especially with social media. No matter if it's what people say about your product or service, what your competitors are doing, or what the buzz is in your industry, the key to success is listening with the goal of complete understanding. When you know what's going on in your respective industry, you're more apt to find your way to participate in that conversation.

 

Creating Valuable Content

The term "valuable content" for digital users has different meanings for different people. A useful identification filter to use is "help, don't hype."

Listen to the questions being asked in your industry and answer them with your product or service. Inherent value is created when problems such as "How is this done?", "Where can I find that?" or "How does this work?" are resolved rather than just selling your products. Users get the distinct impression that you know what you're doing, and they can really trust your products or services, even if a specific product isn't mentioned anywhere in the blog post.

Here are some ways to begin creating content that's of value to your users, no matter what your area of business:

Make Your Content Customer-Focused

Many companies nowadays post information about their business. The content becomes more valuable to a customer when it's personalized for them, answers a problem they might have, or inspires them. Customer-focused content is what helps your customers make informed decisions and keeps them returning to you.

Request Real Feedback

The famous phrase, "There's no such thing as a stupid question." is especially true when it involves your audience. Encourage them to ask questions and provide their feedback. You cannot define what is valuable. Only your audience can. So ask. Every question that your ideal client asks is an opportunity to create valuable content that answers that question. To determine what content appears to deliver the largest impact on your audience, review your website analytics. You can also check your website analytics to find out which content seems to have the most audience impact and concentrate on producing additional content in the same arena.

Produce Content That Reflects Your Business

Valuable content helps people to understand your product or service and stimulates positive engagement amongst the users. However, this doesn't mean re-strategizing content purely for higher engagement levels. For success on social media, your content needs to be useful and informative, or people will look elsewhere.

Which Platform Works Best for Relationship Building?

Your best social media platform to use is the one where the people you want (your potential customers) are the most active. It might be Twitter, Instagram, or one of several others.
You will need to review your business and resources. Here are some of the top social media platforms:

  • Facebook. Here you are able to interact with possible customers, competitors, professionals in my space, find new friends, and increase value. It has the most members worldwide based on population percentage. You can interact with other members, build connections, and trusted relationships. Additionally, you can benefit from Facebook ads along with 'audience tracking'. You have a dynamic retention tool in Facebook groups, where you can have one-on-one exchanges regularly with platform members.
  • Instagram. Because of its pictorial nature, Instagram is inherently very appealing. With its feed and content, members are able to have interactions in various ways from the same location.
  • Twitter and LinkedIn. The Twitter and LinkedIn platforms are a dynamic pair for social marketing. They help you to engage prospects, find alternatives, and maintain connections until people are ready to buy or would refer you to someone else.
  • Markethive. Markethive delivers an Inbound Marketing platform equal or superior to Marketo and Hubspot. It includes email autoresponders, blogging platforms, landing pages, social media broadcasting, Tracking analytics, SEO, backlinking automation, messaging, e-commerce, and SEO. The benefits of these systems are to "attract," "convert," "close," and "delight." Building a large loyal long term customer base.

Improvement Of Your Social Media Presence

Social media is never a 'One and Done' relationship. It is always ongoing and evolving. What's critical is knowing it's not only concerning increasing your number of customers but also about extending your capacity and impacting your business sector. With the intention of advancement, review these useful guides:

  • Compose a conversation. Keep in mind you should be talking, not broadcasting. Since Social media utilizes conversational platforms, you should concentrate on creating conversations. That includes listening, questioning, and speaking with people, not at people. These days audiences are sick and tired of being talked at by individuals that just broadcast. They want to connect, and you can make the connection by involving yourself in their conversations.
  • Update & Optimize your social media Bio's. This is the initial image that potential connections will have of you. Unless your profile stands out from all the others on social media, your results will be less than you would like. Identify your points of difference and share them.
  • Try A/B testing. First, brainstorm for interesting, fresh topics that would reflect your business's image. Next, run the projects through a test in terms of their subject matter, post times, and headings by managing the results. If the results are favorable, proceed to the next test. For example, on Facebook, post a rough draft on a certain topic and see the response, i.e., questions asked, comments, and likes. From there, you can determine whether to leverage the quick post into longer-form content, such as a blog post or email.

 

Looking Ahead

Always remember, it's not about the technology; it's about the people. Social media platforms, without a doubt, can bring us together on both a personal and professional level with others. Perhaps the best way to move ahead, no matter how big or small your business, is using social media as a tool for understanding people. When your business prioritizes this understanding using open and honest engagement, trust can be slowly built, and success can indeed be had.

 

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

 

A Markethive Entrepreneur and a strong advocate of the Markethive mission for technology, world progress, and freedom of speech. I support change and endeavor to help others understand, grow, and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals.

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Integrate Markethive With Your Affiliate Programs For Optimum Results

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Integrate Markethive With Your Affiliate Programs For Optimum Results

AFFILIATE MARKETING WITH MARKETHIVE

We at Markethive pride ourselves in being entrepreneurial, and the fact that our logo says Ecosystem For Entrepreneurs is precisely what Markethive is. If you're an affiliate marketer, did you know you have a complete turnkey system in Markethive to achieve not only exceptional sales results but also long-lasting relationships you can build?

Everyone who joins Markethive either has their own business or is looking for a way to make money on the Markethive platform. Internally, we have the Markethive Vault, Loyalty program, MHV micropayment faucet, and referral program with its generous infinity airdrops; however, it's important to note, with the development of the turnkey system, Markethive is also the perfect platform for affiliate marketers. 

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is essentially the promotion of a business, company, or individual product. It is based on relationships in which one party (the Affiliate Party) sells another party's product and receives a commission to sell its product or service. This allows you to work with the brand to help them sell their product while earning commissions every time someone buys through your affiliate link.

Affiliate marketing became a concept in 1989 and took off in 1996 with Amazon Associates. Today, the affiliate marketing industry shows steady growth with an expected $6.8 billion spends in 2020.  

Considered a unique form of marketing, it is among the most popular approaches to drive sales and generate revenue. Affiliate marketing is beneficial for companies and affiliates alike and offers a convenient and cost-effective niche.  

Markethive BIX, Banners, And Impressions

The Banner Impressions Exchange (BIX), along with an ever-increasing amount of impressions, commands excellent organic traffic helped by Markethive's positioning, as shown on Alexa Rank, lends itself to a golden opportunity of any affiliate program one chooses to expedite.

The BIX allows you to sell your impressions on the exchange, which many Markethive entrepreneurs are doing. Alternatively, the affiliate marketers within Markethive are creating banners and using their impressions each month to promote their affiliate programs. 

Using your allocation of impressions is a great way to promote your business; however, many link their banner directly to their affiliate link, which points outside of Markethive to their affiliate website. This limits potential outcomes, resulting in missed opportunities.

Apart from the traffic stats you can access within Markethive's analytics for your banner, you don't know who they are, nor will you have the chance to build a relationship with them if they didn't take any further action on your website at that point. 

A Different Perspective

A solution would be to create a group or a storefront within Markethive. You can set up a landing page, paste information, tutorials, images, or videos from your affiliate website into the group's activity page. 

When a prospect clicks on your banner with the link now directed to your group, they will be able to join you in that affiliate program and Markethive. This allows you to keep in touch with them, provide them with reviews, updates, or new products. 

Inviting them to your group to purchase your affiliate product within Markethive can be seen as a support mechanism that includes a social aspect that would most likely be comforting to the new user, given they are now in a group of like-minded people.  

Almost 68% of affiliate marketers use social media to connect and display valuable content and offers in a specific group that allows them to build relationships and gain trust. This personal approach is expected to increase in the upcoming years, and Markethive is poised to play an integral part in this facilitation. 

Blogging And Affiliate Marketing

Did you know that nearly 65% of affiliate marketers rely on good content to enhance their campaigns? According to these statistics, there has been a 175% increase in content produced by affiliates and a whopping 240% increase in revenue created by content publishers over the last few years. 

Blogging has become an integrated sector of the overall affiliate marketing strategies as stats show that 47% of buyers read 3 to 5 pieces of content before deciding to purchase. 

This medium is where your storefront's blog section can be of service to the associates that have joined you in your group. Creating valuable content about your products and services can be a deciding factor and help build trust and integrity.

 

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

 

Make More Money While You Make Money 

The storefronts (groups) is designed to be a complete turnkey system for any independent business or affiliate program you promote. This includes capture pages, landing pages, autoresponders, broadcasting, co-op assignments, and campaigns with link rotators for those building a team. 

Automated tutorials on how to create and monetize any opportunity within the bounds of Markethive and its unique storefront system will be added. And you are not limited to one storefront. 

You can have as many storefronts to cater to the various affiliate niches you require. For you, it's central to managing all of your businesses. For the customer, it provides a platform of information and support and the added opportunity to be in a social environment to earn an income with Markethive if desired.   

Another benefit of using Markethive as your storefront to promote your business is your potential to increase your Hive Rank. As group numbers grow, it has a positive impact on your Hive Rank score, which increases your MHV earnings. It's the highest paying micropayment paid by Markethive, other than the airdrop received when you refer people to Markethive. 

A Collaborative Ecosystem  

As you evolve with your banner creations and promotions using your Markethive impressions, you may need to purchase more impressions from the BIX resellers. This increases the demand for the impressions, which increases the price, resulting in a very lucrative income from the Banner Impressions Exchange. 

So it's two-fold, the affiliate marketer makes money from their program gaining loyal customers in their groups, and the BIX resellers also profit. All this under the Markethive umbrella, making it a collaborative ecosystem, a marketplace, and a home for entrepreneurs and consumers. 

CEO and Marketing Director Thomas Prendergast presents the "Coffee withTom" weekly meetings, which is a hands-on approach. The sharing of new ideas, explaining the benefits of affiliate programs, outlining the best ones, and how you can integrate the Marketive tools to provide a better experience for your prospects and make your affiliate business more manageable for you to conduct. 

These meetings are live, held weekly, and not always recorded; however, they offer valuable information and direction covering the different aspects of the Markethive system and what it can do for you. (Check Calendar for details)

The Future Is Bright

Although affiliate marketing has been around for a while, there's a whole new generation rising up, proving that there is a legitimate way to earn a living online. Entrepreneur Adam Enfroy has done just that, starting as recently as 2019. Along with his outstanding success, he guides beginners, recommending the best affiliate programs and sound advice.

These affiliate marketing statistics indicate an overwhelming acceptance of this advertising model for just about anyone to make money online. 

  • More than 80% of brands have affiliate programs. 
  • America is the most significant player in the affiliate industry, with a 39% share.
  • Nearly 65% of affiliate marketers generate traffic by blogging.
  • 94% of publishers use multiple affiliate marketing networks.
  • Advertisers generate between 15% and 30% of all sales from affiliate programs.
  • Affiliate marketing is responsible for 16% of global ecommerce sales.

Surprisingly, affiliate marketing is far less time-consuming than other marketing methods, and there's little to no initial outlay. It's recognized as a great way to make some money just by promoting other businesses' products and services. The opportunity to tap into new markets and boost traffic is an added advantage. 

All you need is your blog or website, some writing skills, and a little advice to get started. The perfect scenario would be to have a platform to consolidate your affiliate niches, surround yourself in a social environment with all the SaaS tools you need to facilitate your business from start to finish. 

This is what Markethive gives you, along with a collaborative, stable learning environment for the entrepreneurial beginner. In 2020, it's clear that the future of affiliate marketing is a bright one, and with Markethive at the helm, it's a perfect match. 

 

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

 

Deb Williams
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept, and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals. 

 

 

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THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT FOR MARKETHIVE

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THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT FOR MARKETHIVE… 

…and all who sail in her

"Where there's a will, there's a way". 

Markethive has come a long way since the days of being the first automated marketing platform back in the mid-1990s. Thanks to the onset of Blockchain technology and the innovative culture of Markethive, with its visionary leaders, C.E.O., Thomas Prendergast, and C.T.O. Douglas Yates, we have seen significant progress with each milestone accomplished along the way in a timely fashion. 

Throughout Markethive's evolution, we have experienced some adversity, and Markethive has prevailed because it's driven by the divine vision of the omnipotent Lord, God. Today's global landscape of spiritual war has only made it more vital to move forward to the next level to deliver the fruits of our labors and goodwill. 

As explained by Thomas Prendergast,

"Markethive is our life's work. We do not build it for our own wealth and recognition. We aspire to build it to give the Lord all the glory, that in reality, we are but the masons, the carpenters, and the Lord is the architect and the main contractor." 

Given the repudiation of mainstream social media and the like, this is Markethive's time to shine. 

 

 

What Is Markethive’s Current Worth? 

The team behind this monolithic project is driven non-stop, working around the clock to render Markethive Adsense friendly, gain approval, and get the green light with external ad agencies to turn on this advertising revenue stream. 

The first will be Markethive.com, which will then branch out to Markethive.net, .org, and the many other domains Markethive has acquired. 

These added revenue streams will see Markethive in profit, and subsequently, the current I.L.P. holders will start receiving the promised dividends.    

The potential income for Markethive with these revenue streams is currently estimated at $426,540 per month, reaching a number into the millions per year, as shown in this independent study.

Markethive’s Current Goal Is Fast Approaching

Markethive's imminent goal is to move into the profit column with this added revenue and start paying out on the I.L.P.s as well as launching the Markethive Coin (M.H.V.) onto the exchanges to provide value and liquidity for the Markethive community. 

Markethive, the company has purposely not engaged any venture capitalists to assist in a more rapid advancement as its goal is to share the profits with the loyal users of the Markethive platform. 

The expected future forthcoming advertising revenue will give us the ability to move forward as planned. It's happening now as the ad agencies have approved Markethive and now awaiting activation. 

Markethive is the next generation of social media and inbound marketing on the blockchain, growing and becoming more prevalent each day by giving the power back to the people.   

 

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

 

Still Time To Join Our ILP Family

I reiterate, this is happening now; however, there is still time to join the I.L.P. family. You can purchase an I.L.P. or a percentage thereof by contacting C.T.O., Douglas Yates, or C.E.O. Thomas Prendergast on our Telegram channel. 

Or become an Entrepreneur One loyalty member by clicking on "Loyalty Programs" in the Markethive Home page's main menu. Time is limited with this offer, so don't delay. 

To find out more or refresh your memory about the I.L.P. read this article; THE INCENTIVIZED LOAN PROGRAM (I.L.P.) A Powerful Way To Spread The Wealth.

Helping us by being part of our I.L.P. family will bring great rewards. These reciprocal blessings are what make Markethive unique where the prosperity goes to the people of the Markethive Community.   

Thank you for your understanding, support, and above all, patience, as we move forward to accomplish another of our milestones and deliver on the I.L.P.s as promised. 

 

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

 

Deb Williams
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept, and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals. 

 

 

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A Time Of Reckoning For Some Emergence For Others

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A Time Of Reckoning For Some, Emergence For Others

A time of reckoning for social media

With the turbulent state of affairs social media giants are experiencing, where does that leave users and advertisers? Some think they have nowhere else to go when in reality a whole new social and market media is emerging. 

If you thought that there was a surge in social media usage as a result of the global pandemic you may be surprised to hear that although many people used social media to stay in touch with family and friends, the covid element has not substantially increased the number of people using social networks or messaging apps simply because 4 out of 5 users already engage in the activities pre-pandemic. 

According to these statistics, they speak of existing users’ engagement, not of changes in the total number of users. In the US alone, the social network user space is saturated already with 81.3% of adult internet users and 73.2% of users of all ages, so there’s little room for new growth.

On a global level, there are 4.57 billion people using the internet with 3.81 billion active social media users and 5.16 billion unique mobile phone users. GlobalWebIndex found that tutorials and how-to videos are amongst the top kinds of content that consumers want more of during the COVID-19 crisis, and these may represent a particularly compelling opportunity for B2B brands.

As you would expect, this year did see a surge greater than expected in the number of live video users, video game viewers, and subscription over-the-top (OTT) users due to the pandemic, but social networking activities have not experienced the same hike.   

Notably, the ongoing and escalating problems of fake news, misinformation, divisive content, and censorship have created a somewhat toxic environment causing past users to have little incentive to rejoin or log in and current users may feel the need for a break from the cognitive dissonance. 

A New Sense Of Urgency

A social media reckoning, post the US election of the far-reaching power of Facebook and Google is at hand and the role social media giants play in dividing us or uniting us has taken on a new urgency with long-term trends in polarization leading to an evermore fractured America. 

The percentage of Americans that use social media surprisingly is the exact same number of people saying social media has a mostly negative effect on how the state of what’s happening in America at the moment where the people are politically divided. 

Of that, 25% say it’s neither negative nor positive with only 10% saying it helps people stay informed and aware. Coming in at 3rd place was the ability to connect, communicate, and sense of community. Lastly was the visibility of marginalized groups and activism of social movements. 

People will still continue to use social media and are reflective of society at large. They continue to use it even if they are fed up with what they are seeing on the platform. This indicates the reality of how social media is embedded in our culture and reflects on what is actually going on around us. 

The intent of many users though, is to catch up with loved ones and friends and don’t focus on the divisive or high profile content so there is a disconnect, however, many look for or are subject to some kind of news. 

When asked, people said the biggest frustrations and reasons social media has a negative effect is in order of preference with an overwhelmingly lead being;

  1. Misinformation and fake news 
  2. Hate, harassment, and extremism
  3. People believing everything and not knowing what to believe 
  4. People bothered by censorship and bias
  5. Too much negativity 

A Rise In Cognitive Dissonance 

Cognitive dissonance is a primary issue and experienced by many users which can happen when we are exposed to differing opinions on social media, and when we are not able to choose which is the right one, we experience cognitive dissonance.

This behavior is more evident online and on social networking sites where people continue to bombard others with differing thoughts and opinions. With Facebook as an example, what started out as a platform to catch up with family and friends has turned into a stage for activism and movements, disinformation, segregation, politicization, and diminishing self-esteem and mental health in individuals in many cases. 

With emerging technology and the post-pandemic normal way of life, we won’t see a shift away from social media in general. However, individuals need to understand how to cope with the emotional upheaval that comes with cognitive dissonance. 

Some of the emotions that we experience as a result of cognitive dissonance are dread, guilt, anger, frustration, anxiety, stress, etc. Most of us are aware of our belief systems. However, when we realize that there may be a grain of truth in another person’s views and opinions, it conflicts with our own beliefs. 

One of my favorite sayings is “live and let live” so by accepting that there are opposing views around us and if we hold true to ourselves these conflicting opinions have no power over us. 

Lack Of Critical Thinking Skills A Culprit

At a roundtable conference, a panel of industry insiders discussed the issues about the spread of disinformation on social media. It was identified that many people are not trained well in the skill of critical thinking. They are unable to differentiate a biased or untrustworthy source of information from a reliable one. 

It was suggested to aggressively teach both confirmation bias and argumentative theory at a young age so an individual can learn to self-mitigate. A sure defense would be to equip everyone to be their own best advocate and critically evaluate all the information and the motives behind that information. 

Laura DiDio, a high tech analyst remarked,

"Everyone needs to check and vet their sources of information and not simply jump to conclusions and retweet or share so-called 'facts' before they are certain that it is the factual and correct information." 

"Think for yourself and question everything! That's a good start." 

 

Will Advertisers Stay On These Platforms? 

Throughout the years we saw greater user adoption that led to a popular explosion and expansion of these tech giants, more and more companies and brands came on board to increase their exposure to social media users reaching into the billions. 

However, according to pundits that believe social media reckoning has already started, many companies may be questioning whether these controversial platforms are actually good for business. They may well be revisiting their priorities and social responsibilities, what they stand for, and whether they match up or want to be associated with what they are now seeing on the social platforms. 

Well over 90% of Facebook's revenue comes from advertising with 8 million active advertisers, however as recently cited in the Washington Post “outrage is built into Facebook’s ability to profit”, it seems that the most divisive and emotive content tends to be more effective. 

It’s also been the platform’s algorithms placing ads alongside this type of content that has provoked many brands to question their presence on the platform. So advertisers are suffering twofold; They are funding the continued success of Facebook by purchasing ad space in its “outrage based” ad model plus their brand name and ads are placed automatically in content that could well be damaging to their public perception. 

The Kindness Economy 

Mary Portas, creative director and well versed in the fashion and retail sector for many years spoke about how we are entering a new phase and culture she labels “kindness economy”. She explained in a recent talk on a TEDx event that people are increasingly taking into account the moral values of a brand when choosing who to buy from. 

Mary believes an economy built on kindness is not weak, but strong leading to a foundation of a business that has truth, integrity, longevity, and commerciality.  Any business that organizes itself around this kinder way of behaving, will be the ones that win. The triple bottom line is people, planet, and profit – in that order.

This philosophy rings true for many high-profile brands such as Unilever, Verizon, Starbucks, HP, Microsoft, and Coca-Cola who have already pulled their advertising from Facebook realizing an increasing need to instigate change, also self-reflect and think about how to improve the ways they communicate with consumers as an industry. 

This stance is not just about a political statement, it’s also about the chance to reassert some control over their marketing.  

 

Tech Giants Time Of Reckoning

The social media monopoly will either be facing some kind of reform and regulatory risk, as the US Congressional antitrust hearings with the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google that recently concluded, hand down their findings. The investigation addressed claims that big tech firms wield too much dominance over the market. 

Any legislation of antitrust action may take some time subject to the political and bureaucratic red tape but whatever the regulators decide, users may well become alienated by the increasingly poisonous atmosphere on social media. A decline in user engagement would negate the incentive for businesses to pay for advertisements.   

We could see a mass exodus of users decamp from their once believed sanctuary as other platforms rise up as the solution to the advancing dystopia caused by the “too big to fail” data harvesters of Web 2.0. 

 

The Irony Of It All

Ironically Facebook sold the idea of privacy to early users, back in the MySpace era. At that time, privacy was the currency and since social media was free, the promise of privacy was an important distinction and pivotal in competition. 

Facebook made this promise initially: “We do not and will not use cookies to collect private information from any user.” In contrast, MySpace had a policy in which anyone could see anyone else’s profile. So MySpace users jumped on the Facebook train. 

As Facebook gathered market share, it attempted to roll back some of those privacy promises and in 2007, Beacon was released which tracked Facebook users while they visited other sites. The “like” button was introduced in 2010 and that also enabled the company to track users.

 By 2014, Facebook publicly announced that it would be using code on third-party websites for tracking and surveillance purposes. This is a blatant reneging on their promise it had used to establish market dominance initially. 

Facebook was fined $122 million in 2017 in Europe for violating a promise it made not to share the data from WhatsApp with the rest of the company. And in 2019, it paid a $5 billion settlement to the FTC for a variety of privacy violations. Too big to fail or too big for its boots? We’ll see. 

 

The New Disrupters – A New Dawn

Many have already escaped the dictatorial protocols or they’ve been banned, making their way to more sovereign platforms using Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, making it a no-brainer for individuals and companies to take advantage of monetization with the added benefits of autonomy and privacy afforded by this technology. 

Known as the new disrupters they are capturing user attention and the associated advertising revenue. These platforms may not be as big or popular as Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, yet, but given time and the way things are going, they’ve come just in the nick of time.

Companies, marketers, brands, and individuals looking for a new home in social networking and advertising now have a choice. A Market Network has emerged to give back the control to its users whether it be social, marketing, affiliate, inbound, influencer, et al, various campaigns and publishing with the SaaS tools including tracking, analytics, also digital wallet and payment processing with access to an increasing user base of entrepreneurs and publishers. 

The marketing industry in general is an incredibly sociable industry that thrives on building relationships. Markethive at its core has grown into a thriving ecosystem and is a most effective way to earn an income online, drive sales, and increase brand awareness. If the essential issue is one of control then Markethive with its varying modes of marketing puts you, as the brand in ultimate control. 

 

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

 

Deb Williams
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept, and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals. 

 

 

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PAST PRESENT and FUTURE of DIGITAL PAYMENTS

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PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE of DIGITAL PAYMENTS

PAST PRESENT FUTURE OF DIGITAL PAYMENTS

The 3 Cs – Contactless, Cashless, Crypto

We have experienced an architectural shift in the way we handle our financial transactions, particularly over the last decade. More recently, since the new safety regulations introduced and enforced due to the pandemic, consumer behaviors have changed to a more contactless and cashless way of buying things in-store with more businesses transitioning online. With this comes the rise in digital payments.

The world-renowned entrepreneur and engineer, Ken Olsen was quoted back in 1977 as saying,  "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home". That was around the same time I was receiving my wage as cash in a little yellow envelope. 

To be fair, that quote was taken out of context and what he was referring to was computers set up to control houses, not your average pc, however, today that’s exactly what’s happened. Many in our society have installed technology with many if not all appliances armed with computers that connect them to the internet of things. 

I’m personally still wary of this and wouldn’t have it in my home, but the smartphone used for digital payments instead of cash, yes, absolutely. A more convenient and secure way to manage finances given the improved security we now have with ongoing advancements to address the arising needs in the future. It’s even eliminating the need for physical credit/debit cards.  

One Hundred Years Ago…

Electronic payments became a thing when the first was the charge card issued by Western Union back in 1921. Not long after department stores, hotels, and service stations also began offering charge cards. Diners Club was introduced in 1950, then came American Express and the BankAmericard founded in 1958 which then became Visa in 1977. 

Since then, we saw the videotex system in the mid-1980s which from all accounts the world wasn’t ready for so it didn’t take off. It’s also worthwhile mentioning that in 1983, David Chaum, an American cryptographer, started work on creating digital cash by inventing “the blinding formula, which is an extension of the RSA algorithm still used in the web’s encryption.” This was the very beginning of cryptocurrencies.

Online banking and bill pay came into play in the mid-1990s along with the first-ever online purchase in 1994. Accounts of who actually was the first vary but this video by Shopify reveals who the credit goes to. 

 

Let’s take a look at the digital payments timeline which began just over 25 years ago and how it’s evolved as a solution for global transactions that reach into the $trillions every year.

Online Digital Payments Timeline

The origins of digital payments began when a 21-year-old entrepreneur Dan Kohn in Nashua, New Hampshire, sold a CD over the internet via credit card payment.

►1994: First online purchase is made
    A CD of Sting’s Ten Summoner’s Tales is sold for $12.48 on NetMarket.

►1995: Amazon.com launched its online shopping site and eBay was also introduced.

►1997: First mobile payments and first contactless payments
    Coca-Cola installs two vending machines in Helsinki that accept payment by text message.

►1999: Paypal launches electronic money transfer service
    Early on, PayPal’s user base grew by nearly 10% daily. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and venture capitalist Peter Thiel were among its co-founders.

►2003: Alibaba launches Alipay in China
   Today, the mobile payment platform has witnessed stunning growth — leveraging digital wallets accepted by merchants in over 50 countries and regions.

►2007: M-PESA creates the first payments system for mobile phones
   Kenya-based M-PESA launched its mobile banking and microfinancing service. Today, it has over 37 million active users on its platform across Africa.

►2009: Bitcoin enables secure, untraceable payments
   Satoshi Nakamoto develops the first decentralized payment network in the world.

►2010: The first Bitcoin purchase took place
   Two pizzas were purchased for 10,000 BTC on May 22, 2010. Given the current price of Bitcoin, that 10,000 BTC is worth around $129 million USD today.
    
►2011: Google Wallet is launched
   In partnership with Citibank, Mastercard, and Sprint. 

►2013: WeChat Pay is rolled into the popular messaging platform
   By 2018, it surpasses 800 million monthly active users.

►2014: Apple Pay launches
   To its iPhone users, Introducing widespread biometric authentication.
   This is followed by Android and Samsung Pay a year later in 2015. 

►2014:Ethereum launched
   Vitalik Buterin launches Ethereum, building decentralized applications such as Smart Contracts which allow for autonomous and more complex payment transactions on the Blockchain.  
 


Image credit: Visual Capitalist

By 2023, over $2 trillion of mobile payment transactions could be authenticated by biometric technology. The use of biometric identification management technology for accurate customer identity verification has proven to deliver efficiency and convenience for organizations and also helps comply with government regulations to prevent identity theft and money laundering. Biometrics use intrinsic data, allowing for immutable identification and verification of people, and is fast and simple. 

As technology continues to transform, advances in digital payment technologies and cryptocurrency are creating a knock-on effect worldwide. 

What Does The Future of Digital Payments Look Like

According to Deutsche Bank Research, the coming decade will see digital payments grow at light speed. That will lead to the death of the plastic card. In emerging markets, the effect could arrive even sooner. Many customers are transitioning directly from cash to mobile payments without ever owning a plastic card.

In a recent survey, most plan to use a smartphone wallet more in the next six months, and most believe that digital wallets will replace traditional wallets within the next five years. 

As more people use and rely on their smartphones for digital transactions as a means to manage their affairs and purchases with post covid guidelines, a number of other technological innovations may well be instrumental in shaping the evolving digital payments industry.

TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION FORGING THE FUTURE

♦ Messaging-app payments
   Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and WeChat can leverage the reach of billions of users.

♦ Multi-dimensional Digital Wallet 
   Markethive is releasing its wallet to facilitate messaging, P2P, ecommerce, micropayment, and crypto transactions to its users reaching into the millions

♦ Voice-activated commands
   Paying for gas, groceries, or retail via voice could soar.

♦ Biometric payments
   Smartphone biometric security features could spur traction across digital payments.

♦ Blockchain wallet adoption
   Blockchain wallet users are predicted to soar to 200 million by 2030.

♦ Cryptocurrencies
   Daily transactions of leading cryptocurrencies total at approximately 3 million on average. 

♦ Peer-to-peer (P2P) payments
   Financial Institutions along with credit card companies are investing heavily in P2P partnerships, following PayPal’s lead. 

♦ Hardware & in-store interfaces
   Square, Clover, and Stripe are driving new mobile processing integrations.

♦ Facial recognition
   May soon replace QR codes across retail, transit, and airports in China.

Consumers said they chose mobile payments for the convenience, speed, and absence of fees. Retailers are taking note. Many are installing a mobile payment app “to fit customer desire.” The key benefit is reduced effort with mobile payments, there is no need to type in a PIN or handle cash, which removes a psychological barrier. And then of course there is the contactless aspect of it which has become more prevalent today. 


Image credit: Deutsche Bank

Crypto And Blockchain Experience Significant Growth

There has been significant growth in the use of blockchain and cryptocurrency in digital payments. There is a need and enormous opportunity for the online community to take advantage of cryptocurrency micropayments for engaging, facilitating their businesses and to some extent, gamification is becoming more popular and rewarding.   

Markethive, the Blockchain-driven Social Market Network has realized the potential for cryptocurrency micropayments on its global platform which will extend to external coin exchanges and P2P payments via a multidimensional wallet, which is a POS wallet, a Mining Wallet (through the Markethive faucet systems), a private KYC/AML authentication provider, and a secure messaging system.

Blockchain being the technology behind cryptocurrency is foundational for building the next generation of digital transactions. This will establish trust in the trustless applications that provide transparency and immutability with the added benefit of streamlining business procedures, all of which is considered crucial by users as it enhances openness and efficiency of businesses.

Recently, Paxos’ announcement of PayPal now taking on cryptocurrency with its new service allows users to buy, sell, or hold cryptocurrency with their PayPal digital wallet. This is great for the crypto industry as PayPal will help to increase awareness and adoption along with education and utility for cryptocurrencies. 

A Digital Economy On The Rise

The value of digital commerce and mobile POS payments continue to rise on a global scale with yearly transactions valued at $4.8 trillion in 2020. The industry is undergoing a substantial transition given the disruption and global advancements taking place as key technological innovations are integrated. 

As digital wallets become more mainstream, transactional volumes are estimated to reach $9 trillion annually with online purchases and digital commerce driving the growth. As the industry expands its reach globally, users, consumers, investors, and businesses will all benefit from this transformative shift towards a digital economy. 

The real possibilities in a decentralized, blockchain-based payments world cannot be underestimated. There are various types of payments automated with smart contracts and the Blockchain could ultimately be universal in everyday payments at a society level. 

 

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

References:
Visual Capitalist
Deutsche Bank 

 

 

Deb Williams
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept, and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals. 

 

 

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BLOCKCHAIN – THE QUIET ACHIEVER

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BLOCKCHAIN – THE QUIET ACHIEVER 

Markethive Blockchain, the quiet achiever

Time For Trustless Trust 

Blockchain technology is what I consider to be a quiet achiever, and is subtly easing its way into the mainstream in many industry sectors that impact all of us in one way or another. Since my previous articles on Blockchain, we’ve seen an increase in the implementation of blockchain technology as now more than ever it has become a “time for trust”, as quoted by one of the big four auditing monopolies PwC.    

Without a doubt, Blockchain technology will have a beneficial effect on every aspect of business in the future, however, this is a gradual process that requires time and patience. Many traditional businesses are mindful of and watching this evolution, but sitting on the fence waiting for more examples of blockchain technology. Why?

Because traditional businesses will require more transformation when integrating Blockchain and will have to completely reconsider their processes to harvest the maximum benefits of this technology.  Meanwhile, companies with a culture of innovation lead the way into this new era of transparency and immutability. 

Although Blockchain was initially considered only suitable for banking, finance, and cryptocurrency sectors, we are now seeing the benefits in many other industries as well. Currently, we have a lot of solutions that are either in the pilot or beta phase or already being utilized in this enterprising way of not only keeping businesses honest but provides a range of benefits for the public.

 

50 Companies Already Using Blockchain Technology
BLOCKCHAIN 101

101Blockchains.com compiled a list of the top 50 companies across a range of industries as indicated in the infographic above, however, I’m going to add an industry that is at the forefront with a metamorphic influence and used by billions of people. It’s infiltrated our daily lives and increasingly is a way of life for communication, work, and livelihoods.  

Numerous giants in this industry have been in the notorious spotlight for misuse of personal data, political bias, and tampering, questionable algorithms to name a few. If you haven’t already guessed, yes it’s social media, particularly Facebook, and will probably be the last, if at all, to align themselves with a transparent, public blockchain for the benefit of its users on every level. 

Truth About FaceBook’s Libra

Even Facebook’s yet to launch Libra coin that has recently come up against regulatory pressure is a private blockchain (permissioned) that uses an access control layer to govern who has access to the network making it more centralized. In other words, validators are vetted by the network owner, unlike public decentralized blockchain where applications can be added to the network without the approval or trust of others, using the blockchain as a transport layer. 

The Libra blockchain would more likely be for financial transactions only and will not benefit from the network effect.  Nor would the issues of privacy and data harvesting be addressed, in fact, Facebook, which ironically banned ads related to cryptocurrency and initial coin offerings, has not said how it might use blockchain technology, so a public blockchain, by its very nature, could well pose a threat to Facebook.

Blockchain is a distributed ledger with data stored across a network of computers and rules that are enforced by its many participants. It’s the opposite of Facebook, which is a massive centralized organization that controls all the infrastructure underlying the 2.7 billion global users on its proprietary social network.

IMAGINE A BLOCKCHAIN FUTURE

Imagine…

Imagine a vast online network where we all hang out, chat, and buy things, but that’s not owned by Facebook, Google, or Amazon. That’s the vision many more people are seeing in blockchain technology as it becomes more understood. The companies using blockchain technology are actually securing their place in the changing ecosystem.

As 2020 comes to a close, there are now over 3 billion social media users around the globe using some form of social media, many are marketers, either for companies or in business for themselves. 

Blockchain technology as a foundation in social media will be able to solve the problems related to notorious scandals, privacy violations, data control, and content relevance. 

The integration of a decentralized blockchain ensures that all the social media published data remain untraceable and cannot be duplicated, even after its deletion. Furthermore, users will get to store data more securely and maintain their ownership. 

Blockchain also ensures that the power of content relevance lies in the hands of those who created it, instead of the platform owners. This makes the user feel more secure as they can control what they want to see. 

There are many upcoming social media platforms built on the blockchain, primarily used for sharing content through blogging and being rewarded with their native cryptocurrency. In my research, I’ve found some doing well, while others have tried and failed. Below I’ve outlined a few that stand out. They are each compared with a Web 2.0 platform or as close to it. 

SOCIAL MEDIA ON BLOCKCHAIN

Bitchute: is a peer to peer web torrent video sharing platform, predominantly funded by users’ donations and scaling memberships. Monetization including tipping creators’ content is handled by 3rd party processors via Bitbacker, Coinpayments, Paypal et al. The responsibility for payments are passed on to the user, not Bitchute. Primary user interests: politics, activism. Alexa ranking: 2,172. Comparison: Youtube.

Steemit: Steem blockchain-based social media platform. Earn Steem coin and Steem Dollars which is a USD soft-pegged asset to post, comment, and curate. Primary user interests: advice, finance, economics. Alexa ranking: 20,069. Comparison:  Reddit.

PeakD:  Underpinned by the Hive which is a new blockchain that originated as a fork of Steem. In February, TRON acquired Steemit, Inc., which allowed it to gain control over Steem. In response, several Steem nodes and users created Hive, introducing a new governance model that is designed to prevent anyone from gaining control over the blockchain.

Despite those differences, PeakD social media functions are very similar to those of Steemit. Users can post content on the social blogging platform, Peakd. Users receive HIVE crypto tokens for posting content and commenting on that content. Primary user interests: Blogging, miscellaneous communities. Alexa Ranking: 40,004 Comparison: Markethive Social Media Platform

Minds: is an open-source social media platform. You can earn Minds ERC20 tokens for contributions. Minds measure your contributions to the network on a daily basis and you receive a “Contribution Score”. They then calculate how much you have contributed to the network relative to the entire community. That determines the percentage of the Daily Reward Pool that you earn.

Users’ only receive credit for unique interaction, meaning you can only earn credit from another unique user once per metric per day. (eg. If a friend votes on my content 100 times in a day, I will only get credit for 1 vote).
Primary user interests: politics, activism. Alexa ranking: 11,591. Comparison: Facebook.

Narrative: is a user-governed social media platform for bloggers. Earn NRVE tokens to post, comment, curate, moderate, and own niches. Since its inception, some members of the Narrative community have incorporated and are negotiating a new platform with the aim to be reborn with a new platform name along with some improvements integrating to the new Discord server.  Primary user interests: n/a. Alexa ranking: 2,284,842. Comparison: Medium.

Memo: is a BCH blockchain-based social media platform. Earn BCH via posting. Data is stored directly to the blockchain, not the cloud, using OP_RETURN. Using the Memo OP_RETURN Protocol, the message you include with your transaction will show up as a post on the site. You can also use this protocol to like or reply to a previous memo.
Primary user interests: Bitcoin Cash, micro-blogging. Alexa ranking: 214,778. Comparison: Twitter.

However, According to Bitcoin.org the use of OP_RETURN is irresponsible in part because Bitcoin was intended to provide a record for financial transactions, not a record for arbitrary data. Perhaps Memo should build their own blockchain specifically for content and data.

SocialX: is a photo and video sharing blockchain-based platform. Earn SOCX crypto token rewards for contribution and licensing. SocialX is a community-driven social media platform allowing users to publish photos and video content. 

SocialX has created its own blockchain to tackle various challenges associated with blockchain-based projects including the decentralization of photos, video, and other media. 
Primary user interests: Varied content of a social nature. Alexa ranking: 2,223,697. Comparison: Instagram.

Indorse: Ethereum-based coding evaluation and assessment recruiting platform. Earn IND tokens for activity on the network. Primary user interests: coding, recruiting. Alexa ranking: 395,295. Comparison: Linkedin.

Markethive: built on blockchain technology, is a Social Market Network and much more than a social media or blogging platform. It incorporates all inbound marketing tools including SaaS, CRM, AR email systems, eCommerce, along with a digital media broadcasting platform. I am yet to find a blockchain comparison on the internet for Markethive. 

Earn Markethive coin (MHV) for every activity and engagement on the platform as a free member. Be rewarded for your loyalty while building your business online in a collaborative environment. Created for the struggling entrepreneur, delivering a sovereign platform so all have the opportunity to excel and prosper. Primary user interests: business, marketing, blogging, current news, commercial arts, entrepreneurialism. Alexa ranking: 3,152. Comparison: Marketo, Hubspot, LinkedIn.

(Alexa rankings and data retrieved on October 18, 2020)

Blockchain – A Real Differentiator 

Blockchain can be a real differentiator, a new technology with the potential to be a force for good, leaving centralized web 2 platforms behind with their tyrannical protocols.

Blockchain holds different meanings and use cases for different industries, with every industry being able to benefit from blockchain technology, however, by enlarge people still have limited knowledge of how blockchain can be a transformational change to all sectors.

Many cannot see beyond its association with cryptocurrencies and are confused about the differences between blockchain and cryptocurrency. A good way of understanding the relationship between crypto and blockchain is to compare it to an application on your smartphone. (e.g. Menulog or Messenger), and the platform on which that application is running (IOS or Android). Blockchain is the platform and cryptocurrency is an application that runs on the blockchain platform. 

The confusion stems primarily from the fact that the platform (blockchain) and cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) came onto the scene at the same time. The first time blockchain was recognized is when it took the world by storm as the technology behind bitcoin. When in fact, it was first conceptualized back in 1991 using the term “Timestamping”, which was basically an immutable ledger, long before Bitcoin.

More organizations are reassessing their operations as they do battle with the repercussions of the pandemic lockdown of 2020. It has accelerated many disruptive trends that will create entire new markets and displace others in the process. There is a shift towards new ways of working, communicating, and transacting online.

Trust Is Fragile

Trust is faltering, becoming an increasing issue in the digital world and organizations are clearly recognizing the importance of building trust with their people, customers, and business partners. They are paying far greater attention to the risks that undermine trust online such as fraud, data loss, or misuse along with many other forms of cybercrime. 

And in a more traditional sense we have all had to trust the institutions, middlemen, and the powers that be with our finances, documents, data, and the like, for decades, which has historically been the demise of society, even countries, almost becoming 3rd world. This type of trust will become irrelevant in the blockchain-enhanced digital world. 

A decentralized, immutable distributed ledger (blockchain) has been coined as a “trustless” protocol, meaning there’s no need for trust as in the traditional sense. Blockchain technology supersedes the old trust method, transforming into a “trustless trust”. 

 

An Emerging Technology Coming To Light

By integrating blockchain, organizations can build greater trust and transparency in areas such as certification, recruitment, commercial transactions, and the way they secure, share, and use data and content.

An increasing number of organizations are now seeing that blockchain technology provides an opportunity to change for the betterment of all, improving reputation, providing more growth and sustainability, build confidence, and propel any industry forward. 

 

Both Industries And Society Will Reap The Greatest Rewards 

PwC economists expect blockchain technology to bring benefits across a wide range of industry sectors and a lot of the value will be realized behind the scenes. This recent analysis in pdf format estimates blockchain technologies could trigger a $1.7 trillion boost in the global economy by 2030.  

They expect between 10% and 15% of worldwide infrastructure to be using blockchain within a decade with the biggest beneficiaries poised to be the public administration, education, and healthcare sectors. 

Also, wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers, and construction services will benefit from using blockchain to engage consumers and meet the demand for provenance and traceability.

There will be broader benefits for business services, communications, media, marketing, and advertising with the billions of users looking like winners with more of an equal opportunity to earn a living online. For ease, stability, and protection, blockchain technology will play a significant role in the next normal. 

 

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

 

 

Deb Williams
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept, and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals. 

 

 

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History And Timeline Of Digital Marketing Online

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History And Timeline Of Digital Marketing Online

Markethive Header History of Digital Marketing

Where have we been and where are we heading?

Let's travel back in time and check out the history and timeline of digital marketing and how we got to where we are now in 2020, also where we are heading in the future. This year has seen a remarkable change in habits and a tremendous leap in users online. 

Everything from social catch-ups on Zoom, even viewing your favorite sports game from your lounge chair on the Zoom platform as a part of the live audience at the game’s venue. 

Also, corporate working from home, more recently-unemployed looking to work from home to earn a buck, and an ever-increasing number of traditional offline businesses now have a presence on the net adopting digital marketing strategies.

Pretty much everybody has a connection to the internet in some form or another. Grandmas and grandpas are being urged to get online for their banking needs and grocery deliveries. So, of course, every time you go online, you experience digital marketing where someone is trying to sell you something albeit directly or indirectly. 

It’s fair to say businesses just can’t thrive now without online marketing to help generate sales. All businesses, big and small are increasingly moving online with a direct-to-consumer approach that reaches a huge worldwide audience more easily and takes advantage of an unlimited marketplace.

On a global scale, digital advertising spend was projected to hit $336 billion in 2020, pre- COVID, now adjusted to $332.84, but as you can see by the graph, stronger times are just ahead. 

Worldwide digital ad spending will make up 62.6% of the total media spend by 2024.

Digital Ad Spend

 

The Rise In Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is an umbrella term for promoting and selling services or products using online strategies as outlined in this article which is beneficial for all types of business and allows companies to; 

  • Reach their target audience wherever they are.
  • Use data to observe their online behavior.
  • Use analytics to understand which marketing messages to send them.

These digital marketing elements outlined in the infographic help you reach your customers wherever they are, engage with them, and encourage them to purchase something from you. You create brand awareness, generate leads, convert new buyers, build trust, and increase sales.

digital marketing infographic

Marketing has always been about connecting with your consumers and potential buyers in the right place, at the right time. Currently and into the foreseeable future the best place to meet them is where they are spending time – on the internet. 

Digital marketing is also referred to as 'online marketing', 'internet marketing', or 'web marketing' however, the term digital marketing has grown in popularity over time. 

Digital marketing is constantly evolving, with new technologies making it faster and easier to master especially for small businesses and marketers, but where and when did it all start? 

Let’s go way back and visit the history and timeline of digital marketing with some of the more major milestones in technology.  

 

Digital Marketing Became A Thing 30 Years Ago

The term “digital marketing” was coined back in 1990 and considered integral to technology development and advancement on the whole. 

One of the first key events took place back in 1971, when Raymond Tomlinson, a computer programmer from New York, USA, implemented the first email program on the ARPNET system, even before the internet launched. 

Tomlinson sent his first test email on a system that was able to send mail between users on different machines that previously could only be sent to others using the same computer. 

He was inducted into The Internet Hall of Fame in 2012 which stated "Tomlinson's email program brought about a complete revolution, fundamentally changing the way people communicate".

1990 – Web 1.0 Was Invented

This was a memorable year with the new terminology of digital marketing and that same year, Tim Berners-Lee who invented the World Wide Web in 1989, wrote the first web client and server in 1990. Classed as Web 1.0, it was limited to read-only. Meaning the early web allowed us to search for information and read it but very little user interaction or content generation. 

 

1993 – The First Clickable Banner Ad Was Born

The very first true, linked, clickable, paid advertisement on the WWW was from a website called the Global Network Navigator, (GNN) which in 1993 sold a clickable ad to a Silicon Valley law firm. 

However, the first to do rotating banner ads was pioneered by HotWired in October 1994 and the internet has not been the same since. Despite users’ aversion to online ads, particularly pop-ups, the business models of most websites still revolve around advertising. 

Advertisers will spend $52.1m on banner ads in the U.S. this year, according to Statista, with a projected annual growth rate of 7.9% resulting in a market volume of $71.5m by 2024. 

Those ads may annoy some users, however, they help fund many digital publishers. This is what helps keep platforms predominantly free for users. Banner ads were cutting-edge 26 years ago and gave birth to the internet ad industry.


The first banner. Image credit: Wired Formerly Hotwired

AT&T paid $30,000 to run a dedicated placement for this banner for 3 months in Hotwired. It initially got a 44% click-through rate. The metrics in those days consisted of a person manually counting the clicks and the first Web analytics tool was a highlighter pen. 

1994 – Yahoo Hits The WWW Scene

Yahoo, AKA ‘Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web”, named after its founder Jerry Yang, launched and to its success, received nearly a million hits within the first year. The human-edited Yahoo Directory provided for users to surf through the Internet became their first product and the company's original purpose. 

This set the tone for comprehensive changes in the digital marketing world, which led to companies to start optimizing their websites to obtain higher search engine rankings.  

Over the years, Yahoo evolved, then in 2000, they made what they thought was a strategic move in the history of search, when they partnered with Google. They let Google power their organic results, so in every Yahoo search result it displayed “Powered By Google”. 

At the time, Google was not well known, so essentially Yahoo introduced their largest competitor to the world and Google became a household name. 

Also in 1994, the first blog was created by Justin Hall of Swarthmore College. Soon after blogs became an opportunity for brands to connect with consumers. The original term was “weblog”, and shortened to “blog” in 1999.

 

1995 – LookSmart Comes Onboard

LookSmart was founded as Homebase in 1995 in Melbourne, Australia by husband and wife Evan Thornley and Tracy Ellery. The original concept of Homebase was to build a female and family-friendly web portal.  

On 28 October 1996, the company launched its LookSmart search engine. At launch, the search engine listed more than 85,000 sites and had a "Java-enhanced" interface.

These days, LookSmart is a search advertising, content management, online media, and technology company. It provides search, machine learning, and chatbot technologies as well as pay-per-click and contextual advertising services.

 

1996 – Alexa Internet Launches

Alexa Internet was founded in April 1996 by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat and has an interesting history. Alexa was founded as an independent web analytics company in 1996 and acquired by Amazon in 1999. 

The evolution of Alexa has seen its claim to fame being a key metric known as Alexa Traffic Rank also simply known as Alexa Rank. It is also referred to as Global Rank by Alexa Internet and is designed to be an estimate of a website's popularity.

The Alexa Traffic Rank can be used to monitor the popularity trend of a website and to compare the popularity of different websites.

This was also the year that the phrase, “content marketing” was born at a discussion for journalists and the American Society for Newspaper Editors, and quickly became one of the most pivotal terms in digital marketing.

 

google 1998

1998 – Google Was Incorporated

Starting out as a project in 1996, by Larry Page and Sergy Brin. They theorized about a better system that analyzed the relationships among websites. They called this algorithm PageRank which determined a website's relevance by the number of pages, and the importance of those pages that linked back to the original site. 

Page and Brin originally nicknamed the search engine “Backrub”, because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site. After much funding, Google was incorporated and launched in 1998, based in a garage.

In the same year, Microsoft launched the MSN search engine, and Yahoo introduced Yahoo web search.

 

Veretekk Automated Marketing 1998

1998 – Veretekk Launches  – Automated Marketing

Marketers needed an edge to reach out to potential customers so a new technology arose as marketing automation. 

Thomas Prendergast built the first automated marketing system in 1994 and was the foundation of Wavefour, which was one of the many firsts. It included a self-replicated website, self-replicated PDF (a formatted receipt to print out sign and fax or mail-in), the first read-write to a server database, the first autoresponder email system, the first remote broadcasting system, and all incorporated into the first Automated Marketing system.
 
Launching in 1998, this system poured new customers and evolved into a service called Veretekk, a standalone Application Service Provider with “Aweber” like email systems, lead capture portals, and Internet Marketing training that ran for nearly 20 years. It was private labeled to hundreds of companies and built a verifiable database that numbered into the hundreds of millions and produced revenues in excess of 5 million.

From 2003 onwards, many automated marketing platforms followed suit such as Eloqua, Salesforce, and later in 2006 came Hubspot and Marketo to name a few. This gave rise to SaaS or Software as a Service. 

The company Veretekk has since been re-built from the ground up to include Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, combining an inbound marketing platform, social network, and digital media broadcasting platform. Now called Markethive, it’s known as the first next-generation Market Network on Blockchain.

inbound Marketing Comparison

This also saw the birth of the term “Inbound Marketing” derived from automated marketing with a focus on content marketing which is proven to bring credibility and integrity to any organization and be considered a trusted source. 

 

2000 – Google Launches AdWords

Google’s AdWords program is a service that provides advertisers with advertising campaigns managed by Google. For those who want to manage their own campaigns the AdWords self-service portal was introduced soon after. 

Google then launched its AdSense program, originally named content targeting advertising in March 2003. It’s a program through which website publishers of content sites serve text, images, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to the site content and audience. 

These advertisements are administered, sorted, and maintained by Google and generate revenue for the publisher on either a per-click or per-impression basis. Today over 11.1 million websites use AdSense.

 

2002 – Linked Is Launched

Reid Hoffman founded LinkedIn in December 2002 – making it the first-ever business-oriented social networking platform. It’s primarily used for professional networking, job posting by company, and by job seekers.

As of 2015, most of the company's revenue came from selling access to information about its members to recruiters and sales professionals. Since December 2016 it has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft. 

 

2003 – Myspace Launches

Myspace, an American social networking service was the largest social networking site in the world from 2005 to 2009, reaching more than 100 million users per month. In June 2006 Myspace surpassed Yahoo and Google to become the most visited website in the United States

Myspace has had a significant influence on technology, pop culture, and music. It was the first social network to reach a global audience and it played a critical role in the early growth of companies like YouTube. However, in April of 2008, Myspace was overtaken by Facebook in terms of the number of unique visitors. 

 

2003 – The Genesis Of WordPress

b2/cafelog, more commonly known as b2 or cafelog, was the precursor to WordPress with an estimated 2,000 blogs installed as of May 2003. WordPress then became its name and is a joint effort between Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. 

WordPress was originally created as a blog-publishing system but has evolved to support other types of web content and plugins assisting publishers to increase their reach across the internet. 

By October 2009, WordPress was enjoying the greatest brand strength of any open-source content management system. As of June 2019, WordPress is used by more than 60 million websites which include 33.6% of the top 10 million websites. 

WordPress is one of the most popular content management system solutions in use.

Wordpress Markethive plugin

 

2004 – Web 2.0 Is Introduced, Then Came Facebook

The terminology, Web 2.0 was initially invented in 1999 by Author and web designer, Darcy DiNucci, who also predicted the influence it would have on public relations. However, it was in 2004 that it became popularized when introduced by Tim O’Reilly and Dale Dogherty at the O’Reilly Media Web Conference. Web 2.0 was the start of a participatory or social web. 

The same year “TheFacebook” founded by Mark Zuckerberg, became a thing, initially for the students at Harvard which later that year expanded to many other colleges across the USA. But it was in 2005 the name changed to just Facebook and started to take hold globally in 2006 when it opened to the public. 

Google also released Gmail on April 1, 2004. It started as a beta release and didn’t end its testing phase until July 7, 2009. 

 

2005 – YouTube Hits The Scene

YouTube was the brainchild and founded by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, all were early employees of Paypal. Karim said the inspiration for YouTube first came from Janet Jackson's embarrassing wardrobe malfunction in 2004 at the Super Bowl. 

The very first video of “Me at the zoo” with founder Jawed Karim, was uploaded on April 23, 2005. Then YouTube offered the public a beta test of the site in May 2005. At the time of the official launch on Dec. 15, 2005, YouTube didn’t have much recognition as Vimeo was already operational as it launched in 2004. 

However, as history denotes YouTube is a hit and in 2006 Google acquired the video-sharing platform for $1.65 billion in Google stock. Today, YouTube accounts for 2 billion users worldwide.

2006 – Growth In Search Engine Traffic 

By 2006 there were considerable advancements in the digital marketing space. Search engine traffic grew to approximately 6.4 billion in the month of March alone.

Microsoft also introduced Live Search to compete with Yahoo and Google.

Twitter also launched in 2006 and created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams. Dorsey explains,

“…we came across the word 'twitter', and it was just perfect. The definition was 'a short burst of inconsequential information,' and 'chirps from birds'. And that's exactly what the product was.”

So although classed as a social media, Twitter is more of a microblogging platform and information network. Furthermore, statistics demonstrate that Twitter users spend 26% more time with ads than users of other social media platforms.

Twitter Jack Dorsey Founder

 

2007 – Automation Marketing Became More Widespread. 

As the pace of the World Wide Web increased, so did the marketing climate and more companies and marketers came onboard utilizing marketing automated software that replaced conventional marketing processes. 

These tools automated the tasks of lead segmentation, marketing campaigns, and the ability to provide customers with personalized information. Its development during the 1990s and 2000s, changed the way brands and businesses use technology for marketing as digital platforms became increasingly incorporated into marketing plans and everyday life. 

 

2010 – Instagram Launches

The photo and video sharing platform was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, in 2010  After its launch, Instagram rapidly gained popularity, and was acquired by Facebook in 2012. Instagram users are spending an average of 28 minutes per day on the platform in 2020.

A large portion of those users (around 200 million) visit at least one business profile a day, indicating that Instagram has become a focal point in the digital marketing arena. 

Although praised for its influence, Instagram has been the subject of criticism, most notably for policy and interface changes, allegations of censorship, and illegal or improper content uploaded by users.

Also noteworthy, the digital marketing industry saw a substantial rise in 2010, with the digital media growth of an estimated 4.5 trillion online ads served annually, and digital marketing expenditure experienced a 48% growth.

 

2011 – Google’s Panda Algorithm launches.

First released in February 2011, Google Panda brought a major change in Google’s search engine ranking algorithm. The name "Panda" comes from Google engineer Navneet Panda, who developed the technology that made it possible for Google to create and implement the algorithm.

It aimed to lower the ranking of “low-quality sites” and rank “higher-quality sites” near the top of the search results. Google Panda affected the ranking of an entire site or a specific section rather than just the individual pages on a site.

Panda’s updates were rolled out once a month in the first 2 years, and consequently influenced the ranking and traffic which negatively impacted some sites that upset a few people, to say the least. In some cases, it forced companies to change names, business models, fire employees, and even go out of business altogether. 

Google stated in 2013 that future updates would be integrated into the algorithm which would make it less noticeable and continuous.

 

2012 – Saw The Launch Of Zoom 

Zoom is a video-telephony software program that launched a beta version on September 10, 2012, that could host conferences with up to 15 video participants at the time. In January 2013, version 1.0 of the program was released with an increase in the number of participants per conference to 25. 

By the end of its first month, Zoom had 400,000 users, which rose to 1 million by May 2013. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic Zoom experienced an exponential gain in users of 2.22 million in 2020.

On one day in March 2020, the Zoom app was downloaded 2.13 million times. In April 2020, Zoom had more than 300 million daily meeting participants. On August 24, 2020, Zoom experienced widespread outages for several hours before service was restored.

However, this year, Zoom has been at the center of some controversy with its attendee tracking feature, sharing personal data, shady techniques, and lack of transparency. It is recommended you “Zoom” at your own risk. 

 

2014 Long Form Content more prominent

 

2014 – Upsurge In The Amount Of Smartphone Users

Reportedly, 2014 saw a rise in the number of mobile users, to 4.55B which is 70% of the global population, with smartphone users reaching 1.75B. 

2014 also saw the launch of the Facebook messenger app and not long after came the Apple Watch. 

 

2015 – Markethive, The Genesis of The Next Generation Market Network  

Markethive, (previously Veretekk), was trademarked and incorporated in mid-2015 and opened the doors to a private Beta phase for Veretekk founders and users. The company then went into full public Beta launch in January 2016. 

Over the next couple of years, while operating as an inbound marketing platform and social network, Markethive methodically worked on creating its primary vision of being a decentralized Blockchain driven Social Market Network integrating cryptocurrency forming an entire ecosystem for aspiring entrepreneurs, marketers, companies, small business, and commercial artists. 

January of 2019 saw the launch of the Markethive Coin (MHV) within the Markethive ecosystem. Now it is possible to earn coins on every task and activity performed, whether it be facilitating your business with the inbound marketing tools or engaging on the social media platform.

Markethive is a sovereign entity offering transparency and self-sovereignty on all levels including autonomy, privacy, and security to its users as well as financial well-being. A community-focused culture of collaboration is the fabric of Markethive and proving to be a much-needed resource in the online world today. 

Markethive Wallet App

By years end of 2020 will be the launch of the Markethive wallet app and exchange which will open the floodgates bringing in the millions who are looking for a genuine way to earn and conduct their business in the online space that in many ways has become a jungle and cesspool of fraud, scams, data harvesting, political bias, and dystopia. 

This is all part of the Web 3.0 or 3rd generation internet which has started to emerge as a movement away from the centralization of services.  Markethive was built for the little guy and gal in mind, at little to no cost to join, utilize all the facets of an inbound marketing platform and social network, build their business relationships, and get paid for doing so, all while enjoying free speech, privacy, and autonomy in a collaborative environment. 

Sound like utopia? Pretty much is! 

Markethive Infographic

 

Staying At The Forefront Of Technology

So there you have it… Technology has come a long way over the past three decades with no signs of it slowing down any time soon. The successful company for the long term will need to have an innovative culture and be tuned in to the fast-paced, ever-changing technology and behaviors in this revolutionary world.    

One thing is for certain, content marketing, along with email marketing integral to inbound marketing which is a prescribed marketing strategy under the digital marketing umbrella is crucial to the success of any organization, large and small. 

Statistics show that:

  • Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing and generates 3x as many leads
  • Content marketing has lower up-front costs and deeper long-term benefits than paid search.
  • Small businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads than those without blogs.
  • Content marketing rakes in conversion rates 6x higher than other methods.
  • 87% of B2B marketers say email is one of their top free organic distribution channels.
  • 80% of B2C businesses believe email marketing increases customer retention. 

We have evolved into a more human approach towards marketing and advertising. Even  Google’s search engine is adopting that approach with their latest algorithm in 2019, BERT, that helps better understand the context of words in searches and language a bit more like humans do. 

At the height of the automated, inbound marketing boom in the mid-2000s, not only was it expensive but overwhelmingly complicated for many businesses to integrate. Larger companies would have it done for them, but what about the little guy and gal? 

Enter Markethive, the complete Market Network. 

 

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

 

 

Deb Williams
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept, and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals. 

 

 

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SEO StrategyIn 2020 – Focus On Content and Links

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SEO Strategy In 2020 – Focus On Content and Links 

SEO strategies for 2020

Even with all of the SEO trends that have been introduced over the past 25 or so years since its inception in the last decade of the 1900s, SEO in 2020 is still all about content and links. Without amazing content, you’ll never get links, and without link building, you won’t rank on the SERPs, so quality content and links should still be the foundation of any SEO strategy. 

SEO is the acronym Search Engine Optimization however more to the point it should be referred to as Web Presence Optimization, after all, we are optimizing our business and web presence, not the search engine. 

Content marketing and inbound marketing are synonymous as its foundational approach is creating quality content tailored to any given audience thereby acquiring customers, building trust, and loyalty. This type of marketing is not separate from SEO at all and has become an integral part of today’s SEO.

The SEO pre-2011 was a totally different mindset and the tasks were generally farmed out to search engine optimization professionals at a price. The industry became notorious for gaming search engines, particularly Google with the one-upmanship game using tactics like dark link schemes, mass forum posting, comment backlinking, and content stuffed with keywords, etc.   

After one of many of Google's algorithm updates (Panda/Farmer update) in February 2011, things notably changed and Google started viewing content from a truly human perspective. Marketer’s changed the way they approached Google and no longer used the keyword density formula as stuffing keywords throughout every page was a big no-no. Marketers started focusing on content that correlated and that interested their target market. 

Google continues to stay ahead of the game. Today, with their latest algorithm named BERT, which is based on user intent rather than a focus on content/page to keyword matching. It’s a  user-focused optimization, using real people to evaluate websites. These Quality Raters are not SEO professionals but are trained to assess the pages according to the amount of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of the page’s main content as well as the creator of that content. 

 

Two Factors Determine High-Quality Content In Google 

As we know Google’s algorithm changes constantly, but there are two human inputs that can affect how your content shows up in search results.

Behavioral Analysis: Google looks at user behavior factors like the dwell time and average time on page.

Quality Raters: Google hires humans who manually check their search results using quality rating guidelines.pdf

As it’s all about humans and how they consume content and their effect on search engine rankings, we need to ensure our content satisfies not only the technical but the human requirements also. 

The Human Touch Required For The Pillars

Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness, otherwise known as E-A-T are the pillars of Google’s quality rater guidelines and are only used to help Google evaluate changes, and do not directly impact rankings. The guidelines exist to help raters assess “Page Quality” and “Needs Met”, so it is simply a term Google created to teach quality raters what to look for. 

What is EAT?
Google emphasizes Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness –  EAT to ensure trust in their search results.

 

Page Quality

Jennifer Slegg, the editor for the SEM Post, explains how Google assesses E-A-T,

“They said that the best-known signal is PageRank — that means links.”

Google may count links from other authoritative sites in your sector as vouching for your page.

Slegg provided as a rule of thumb, 

“You want to make sure that you’re putting out content that other people will feel good about linking to. In addition to amassing backlinks, publishers can bolster their E-A-T by citing their sources, including author bios and credentials, hiring authors that are experts in their field, adding “about” info and contact details, and managing their reputation and reviews.”

Needs Met

“Needs Met” refers to how well your page satisfies the user’s query.

EAT Guidelines

Slegg goes on to explain,

“If you want to get the ‘Fully Meets’ ranking for this, which is the highest-ranking you can possibly get, you need to ensure that your content is completely answered what searchers are looking for,” 

So how can we improve our Needs Met ranking? One way is to see what keywords are getting users to your site and assessing that against your landing page. Also by having all your content on a single page rather than spread across numerous pages that would cause users to have to click on subsequent pages, may lower the likelihood of users returning to the search results only to click on your competitors’ listing. 

Low-quality signals are considered to be pages that are not mobile-friendly, misleading or clickbait titles, ad-blocked content, and intrusive advertisements, so the quality raters are instructed to assign the lowest rating available. 

“Google knows that sites need to have ads to support revenue,” Slegg noted, “it’s more about the types of ads.”

These pieces of content are ranked by their order of usefulness and relevance to the user performing the search.

And that means, in order for your content to have any SEO value at all, it needs to be beneficial to searchers.

How do you make sure it’s beneficial? The infographic below gives you some guidelines recommended by Google.

Google tips for adding SEO value

 

Social Media Now Considered Backlinks

Social relationships are now considered the new backlinks. In other words, you begin following people who have similar topics to yours and when you start building relationships, they will share your content from their social media turf. The more influential content-related people who share your content, the more impact it has on rankings. SEO is becoming a social butterfly that creates a network of substance and purpose.

A Community That Comments Is A Good Thing

Do blog comments help your rankings? According to Google, the answer is YES! 
In fact, Google stated that the community on your site that comments on your blog or article can help “a lot” with ranking.

Commenting through community is good for ranking

Subsequently, Gary Illyes from Google said that “Comments are better on-site for engagement signals for SEO than moving to social.” 

comments better on site than on social

In other words, Google now wants to see that you have an active community on your site. 

It’s extremely worthwhile to share "the love" with other social media platforms in terms of creating a greater reach. This is where Markethive excels as fully explained in this article written by the CEO of Markethive, Thomas Prendergast, a master at the art of marketing. 

Markethive is the ecosystem for entrepreneurs from all walks of life that not only includes a comprehensive inbound marketing suite but a social media platform where like-minded individuals network focusing on collaboration, sharing content and ideas, with the added advantage of Blockchain security and financial sovereignty. 

It’s a platform that highlights the cottage industry with sovereign storefronts and oodles of content all pointing to and from the platform.  It’s the perfect umbrella for any business to improve their exposure and reach.

With the classification of the next generation Market Network, Markethive has advanced exponentially in terms of traffic and Alexa Ranking. Thanks to the Markethive community with its professional approach to mastering the basic techniques of SEO, facilitating their individual businesses while engaging on the social platform, there’s little wonder that Markethive is a force and showing all the signs of dominating the Social Inbound Marketing paradigm.

Statistics updated Sept. 29, 2020
updated statistics on Markethive's growth

Markethive is not totally dependent on Search Engines as an individual marketer going it alone might be. It has built its own society (and continues to do so) so its traffic is contingent to the Markethive membership driving more traffic in, due to the nature of its platform, what it has to offer, the viral aspect, and the rewards system in place. 

Having said that, there are simple things we can do to optimize our content with the Markethive blogging system and keep within the guidelines of what is accepted or frowned upon on major search engines. 

Adding to that it’s beneficial to be aware of the continuous changes and updates our beloved Google does to its search engine. 

 

How Can You Optimize Your Content In Markethive?

Content optimization doesn’t need to be difficult. It’s certainly one of the easier elements of SEO to understand and since Markethive is in essence an Inbound Marketing platform with content being of paramount importance it makes sense to understand how you can optimize your blogs to improve rankings.

You need to ensure you’re following a process and adhering to best-practice guidelines. However, you first need to understand why certain elements contribute toward an optimized page and also what to do to implement these into your content. 

Content remains one of Google’s strongest ranking signals, but it’s important to create content with a purpose. You should never just publish blog posts or other types of content just for the sake of doing so. 

Typically, you’ll be publishing content to meet one of a number of goals, including: 

• To rank on the SERPs. 
• To earn links. 
• To educate an audience. 
• To drive social engagement. 
• To generate leads. 

11 Elements To Optimize Your Blog

When it comes to creating the perfectly optimized page, there’s a simple checklist which you can follow: 

Be Keyword Targeted 

Keyword research should always be the starting point when writing. It’s important to align the content you create with your keyword research. 

Although search engines have been minimizing the importance of keywords signals for a while now, they still play a role in ranking your content in the SERPs. 

The focus is now more than ever on keyword phrases (long-tail phrases) and the skillful use of these phrases in a manner that is appropriate for the way search engine optimization works today. 

This guide will show you the importance of understanding the authority strategy that aligns with E-A-T.

Shorter URLs Are More Search Engine Friendly

As far back as 2008, Google’s Matt Cutts said that a 3 to 5 word URL is optimal and that, with those which are longer, “Google’s algorithms typically will just weight those words less and just not give you as much credit.” 

Specifically, URLs at position #1 on the first page of Google are on average 9.2 characters shorter than URLs that rank in position #10.

Short URLs may improve SEO in terms of a higher organic click-through rate (CTR) as shown in this study that short URLs have a higher CTR vs. long URLs. Also, short URLs may help Google understand what your page is all about.

So shorter URLs have a correlation with higher rankings. The average URL on Google’s first page is 66 characters long. Be sure to also include your main target keyword in the URL. 

 

Optimize Your Title Tag 

The title tag of a page is one of the most important on-page SEO elements, yet one which is so simple to get right. The best place to start when writing an optimized title tag is your target keyword. 

Most title tags on Google’s first page contain keywords that are an exact or partial match of any given search, so it makes sense to describe what your page is about in your title tag.

Title tag optimization

Because your title tag gives the people searching and search engines an overview of your content’s overall topic, it should presumably have a significant impact on rankings as pointed out in the Google SEO Guide.

It appears that a keyword-rich title tag may be a “ticket to entry” that can help you get to the first page. However, once you’re on the first page, using the exact keyword in your title doesn’t appear to help you climb the rankings. 

That’s where other factors like backlinks, Domain Authority, and user experience signals (like bounce rate, time on site, organic click-through-rate) appear to play a large role.

Optimize Your H1 Tag 

Your H1 tag is generally the same as the title or at least has the keywords pertaining to the title. When using the Markethive blogging platform this can be found in the editor at the top along with all the other formats available. 
Optimizing H1 tags

As with title tag optimization, H1s may be a “ticket to entry” factor that can help you crack Google’s first page. But keyword-rich H1s may not be strong enough of a ranking signal to help a page move up the first page results. However, optimizing every aspect of your blog without going overboard can’t hurt.  

 

Target Keyword in the First Paragraph

There is no need to forcefully work your target keyword many times over throughout your entire content. Keyword stuffing is now considered “NOT COOL” and is frowned upon by search engines. 

It is important that you do use your primary keyword within the content, however, it needs to be done so in a natural fashion. It’s recommended that you include this within the first paragraph of content on the page. 
keywords in first paragraph

In the case of our Markethive TV article, this could be done easily by opening with something along the lines of what you see in the image above  Notice how it isn’t forced but fits nicely in the opening paragraph? That’s what you need to aim for. You will also notice I have included internal links using anchor text.

 

Optimize Your H2 Tags 

You’ve already wrapped your page heading in an H1 tag, but you need to also make sure you’re wrapping subheadings in H2 tags (or H3 – 6 if there are headings under other subheadings). 

Think of H tags as a hierarchy, where you’re wrapping the most important title in an H1 and work your way down the page. If all your subheadings contextually carry the same weight, use H2 tags for these. If there are clear sections within these, use H3 and so forth in a logical order. 

Don’t fall into the trap of stuffing your target keyword straight into an H2 tag but include variations that make sense to the content. In this example below, you may open the main body of content, after your H1 tag and introductory paragraph, with this variation.
Optimizing H2 Tags

Here, it’s highlighting clearly the overall theme and keyword focus – Markethive TV – however, there is an obvious variant describing what viewers can expect at present and in the future. Keep H2 tags concise and remember you don’t need to have a keyword variant every time as long as your content flows contextually. 

 

Use Of Images & Video 

The use of images and video within content has a positive impact upon dwell time, or how long someone stays on the page. Also, using video and images, which also includes the likes of infographics and charts, makes content easier to read and consume.

It’s a well-known fact that many of us are able to absorb and understand easier when content is visualized through an infographic or listened to via video. Furthermore, it nicely breaks up the text which can be seen as overwhelming to some readers, especially when it’s a comprehensively long article. 

Notably, writing comprehensive, in-depth content can help pages rank higher in Google, and according to this study when it comes to acquiring backlinks, long-form content significantly outperforms short blog posts and articles. Content longer than 3000 words gets an average of 77.2% more referring domains. 

From an SEO perspective, content that engages users more will have a positive impact upon dwell time. From the perspective of search engines, it makes sense that the longer a user spends consuming content on a site, the more useful it is in comparison to one with a much lower dwell time. 

Just be sure to fully optimize images and embed videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, or other video hosting and streaming platforms. 
source code embedding videos

 

Outbound Links Do Improve SEO

Not so long ago, SEO professionals were scared to link out to external content. Why? 
The worry of “leaking PageRank.” 

This was based upon a tendency to maintain as much PageRank as possible internally within a website and to avoid linking out. However, from an editorial perspective, that doesn’t make sense. 

Outbound links are one way that people and search engines discover useful content. They are important because they can improve organic traffic, build trust, and even facilitate relationships with other businesses.

Don’t be afraid to link out. If you’re citing a source, go ahead and link to it. It not only helps users to read further into a sub-topic but also allows search engines to better understand relevancy based upon content you’re linking to. 

Derek Gleason at CXL Institute explains how outbound links in your article align with a users-first approach to content, 

“If you really believe that your content marketing is there to benefit your users, I think you have to link to competitor content. They’re the other sites that are most likely to have created authoritative content on topics similar to those you cover. If you feel anxious about doing that, it’s a bit naive. Your users know that competitors exist. They’re going to find their websites one way or another. If anything, a willingness to link to others’ content may even reinforce why you’re the better resource as users know that you’ll give them full, honest answers.”

Just be mindful to link to authoritative sources. Don’t accept money from third-parties to link to their content from your own. Essentially, link to anything that adds value and makes the life of the user easier, so they don’t have to go search out resources themselves.

 

Balance Your Content With Internal Links 

Internally linking through to other key pages on your site is a must. Internal linking is a key way to navigate both users and search engines through your content and help to spread link equity to key pages. 

In the most simplistic form, if you’re mentioning a topic within your content which you have a page or post about, link to it. Don’t be afraid to link using anchor text, either. For example, if content talks about Backlinking and you have a previous relevant article that expands on your topic, by all means, link it, as I’ve done here. 

How many internal links should you add to your content? There’s no hard rule. Don’t go internally linking to anything and everything (and certainly don’t be forcing keywords in just to link), but link where it makes sense, and the target page adds value.

 

Page Speed

Although page speed can be an important factor for the user, and always considered to have a critical impact on digital marketing, and ranking, Backlinko recently analyzed 11.8 million search results to find no correlation between page loading speed (measured by Alexa) and first page Google rankings. However, it’s always best practice to strive for faster page speeds and when it comes to content, image size is a major contributing factor, so it’s important to optimize your images. 

Social Share Buttons 

Social shares are becoming more of an influence when it comes to search results, and social media profiles do rank in search engines. It’s also important that readers are able to share your content. 

Even if organic search is one of the reasons why you’re creating a piece of content, the end result is that you want eyeballs on it which create your reach and hopefully convert into business.

Social share buttons are located at the bottom of each of your blogs on the Markethive Blogging template which will appear as soon as you hit publish. 

The benefits of Blogcasting

 

In Conclusion

In 2020, it’s time to re-evaluate the quality of content and optimizing content for users rather than search engines. The key to staying successful in search marketing 2020 has been consistent throughout, publish good authoritative content, with consistent brand messaging, in all your channels. 

As the search engines adapt more to natural language understanding, the best-written content in all forms will win out. 

When you create content that is highly useful, engaging, or entertaining, and be seen as reliable enough to your audience that they would willingly return again to your site, or even seek you out above others, you’ve most certainly gained authority.

Users and customers are getting smarter and they expect more when it comes to marketing. The more they trust you, the more they are willing to share your content (links), talk about you (value), and buy your products (revenue).” 

Markethive has built a system on the Blockchain to empower the Entrepreneur, offering privacy, freedom of speech, and importantly, autonomy. Markethive with its numerous plugins, different domains, layouts, content, etc, all feeding from Markethive but feeding into them. 

We could literally have hundreds of thousands of websites all interconnected inside through the Blockchain from the outside having no possible connection, each one producing its own unique content. Some can be ranking really high, others not so much, but all feeding back into Markethive.

As Google evolves into a more humanistic search engine along with its updates, could and has resulted in a disruption of other sites’ and their standing in SEO. This will not affect Markethive, in fact, you could say it’s like trying to kill the Hydra.

Markethive, the company, is focused on providing a Universal type of income for aspiring entrepreneurs. We believe in sharing our resources with you as you build your business and seek to reach your goals. 

There is so much involved in the world of SEO, it can be very intimidating, however, Markethive has got you covered and committing to learn and carrying out the basics outlined here can lead to a fruitful association within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. 

 

Sources: 
https://searchengineland.com/ 
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/
https://backlinko.com/

 

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

 

Deb Williams
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept, and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals. 

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A TURNING POINT – A SPIRITUAL WAR -The War To End All Wars

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A TURNING POINT – A SPIRITUAL WAR  -The War To End All Wars

Autocrats and monopolies manipulate nature using artificial weather modification systems.
Human Beings Are Collateral Damage. It doesn’t have to be the way “they” say – in fact, it isn’t the way “they” say. 

It would seem the action plan of the Agenda 21 treatise is quickening with the history-making events of 2020. COVID and its restrictions, the world economy brought to the brink of collapse, the fires, and incessant riots, lawlessness bringing heartbreaking destruction. 

Page one of the intro of the original founding version of Agenda 21 (template for the soft treaty before it became hard treaty) has commoditized human beings saying,

Action to be implemented by governments, development agencies, UN, NGOs, and independent sector groups in every area where human “economic” activity affects the environment. 

What it’s saying is that humans are an economic activity that can be collateralized. It goes on to stipulate,

Combating poverty is the main problem for the environment. Poverty and environmental degradation are closely interrelated. Global environmental deterioration is an unsustainable pattern of consumption and production, particularly in industrialized countries which aggravate poverty and imbalances. 

So in order to reach environmental sustainability poverty has to go and that means humans especially in the developed countries that aggravate poverty and imbalances.   

That is a huge statement and when you consider what is etched into the Georgia Guidestones it basically means if we are harming nature we have got to go. It is being said by certain officials that we are the cause of climate change, using too much electricity, driving too many cars, eating too many hamburgers, having too many children, etc, so it’s our fault. 

Joe Biden even inferred that voting for President Trump is causing climate change. Many scientists with any credibility state it’s impossible to determine if these fires are caused by climate change, however, these politicians (who think they’re scientists) are adamant that it is. Furthermore, the practice of cutting firebreaks or backburning has been banned for a number of years in certain parts of the U.S. This has exacerbated these hazardous fires making them uncontrollable leaving the land uninhabitable.   

Although the politicians would have you believe these fires in California and Oregon are all down to climate change, there have been blatant admissions with some being caught in the act of setting the fires by certain factions, believed to be Antifa, BLM who are driven by anger, pure denial, believing they are above the law as in the case of the riots in the U.S. which are out of control with shootings, murder, looting, and arson.  

 

So Who’s Behind The Scenes Funding This Lawlessness? 

The death of George Floyd seemed to be the catalyst that turned protests into riots that have become more widespread and destructive. It is also no secret that George Soros and his Open Society Foundation (OSF) has funded a wide range of activities, including the Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM) back in 2015, so it didn’t take long to reveal the financial ties to the current riots and that OSF and George Soros directly support the movement today. 

This, along with tax-payer funded grants from the Wisconsin Department of Justice has been received by a group called Freedom, Inc. who has a direct link to OSF. Many Democrats have publicly applauded the violence of these out of control groups with no regard for human life or livelihood. 

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was silenced during an interview on Fox News Wednesday, where he called out billionaire George Soros’ deep involvement with the Black Lives Matter/Antifa riots engulfing the nation.

In an interview that turned awkward, Gingrich was explaining how Soros-backed officials were facilitating the far-left riots inflicted upon America’s businesses and communities, saying,

“The number one problem in almost all these cities is George Soros-elected left-wing anti-police pro-criminal district attorneys who refuse to keep people locked up."

"Progressive district attorneys are anti-police, pro-criminal and overwhelmingly elected with George Soros’ money and they’re a major cause of the violence we’re seeing because they keep putting the violent criminals back on the streets.”

In Oregon the threat of arson and looting appears to be such a significant threat that signs have been plastered across towns in Oregon, indicating “arsonist” and “looters” will be shot. There have been a number of arrests across Oregon, Washington, and California, however, the FBI and Facebook have banned any content to make sure no left-leaning groups are blamed for the wildfires. This allows mainstream media to preserve the narrative that the wildfires are a result of climate change. 

 

Give Credit Where Credit’s D.E.W.

The fires that have ravaged many parts of the world over the past few years including California, Oregon, Australia, Portugal, and Italy are purported to be the cause of climate change, however, there are too many anomalies that cannot be ignored. 

Another entity that is not so blatant or forthcoming about how these diabolical fires were started is that of the organizations that produce Directed Energy Weapons. (D.E.W.) One being Lockheed Martin bragging about and demonstrating their directed energy weapons as seen in this video.  The original video by Lockheed Martin that is displayed in the credits of this video has since been removed by YouTube. 

People that were caught up in the fires of 2017 in Santa Rosa, California, and surrounding areas, took videos of a laser that matched the demonstrations given by Lockheed Martin and other official sources. Mainstream media attempted to portray that over 100 fires that occurred all at once were from a forest fire spreading into neighborhoods.  Yet, most of the trees didn't burn and there is no burnt path between houses that are next to or across from each other. 

The photo above is of the aftermath of the Camp Fire in Paradise, California in 2018. According to a couple of survivors, the fire started at 6:30 am with no warning in the form of any alarms. Given that most aren't already out of bed and dressed at 6:30 in the morning and that no alerts were given, a good many probably didn't make it out alive. A couple of people who did make it out said they learned of the fire coming from Facebook and not from an alarm or siren. Also, many were found burned to death in their cars.

Notice how every home on this block burnt totally flat. Not a single item left, no refrigerators or bathtubs, toilets, etc. Not only were the trees leading to the houses not burnt, but the streets between the homes also look clean showing no ashes, debris, or even charring. This shows that the fires didn't arrive at the houses from the outside or surrounding forests, but looks as if the fires came from inside. The fact that ashes cannot even be seen on the streets and the forest didn't burn shows not only that it was not windy, but that the phrase "wildfires" used by the media is not only a misnomer but an outright lie.

 


Paradise, California. Before and after shots. 

Looks as if some kind of directed energy attack went to each house or to the electrical wiring or meter of each house. Could the pulse have been sent by the power company to the electrical power supply of each house, by a microwave weapon or by a laser, or maybe all three, depending on which fires you're talking about?  

The result of most of the fires point to microwaves due to the material specificness of what burned and what didn't (for example the metal hinges on the roadside rails, but not the wooden beams held together by those metal hinges) and then they get quickly replaced as if to hide the evidence. One thing that is for certain is that these were not normal fires, they were way too hot so as to burn and melt metal. Engine blocks, aluminum, and glass windows of cars have been literally melted leaving lava-like puddles on the ground. 

Seeing as the forest didn’t actually burn, how can they be called wild or forest fires. Also, interestly, wood from Paradise was very quickly harvested for lumber after the fire.

There is so much more evidence and scientific reasoning relating to the fires, the DEWs, and unusual weather patterns occurring worldwide which are manipulated using weather tampering techniques and equipment on a global scale. This means the authorities can either make it rain or precipitate a drought. Whatever suits their purpose at any given time. 

So weather modification has been going on for a very long time and aligned with their UN Agenda 21/2030. This site documents in-depth knowledge and proof of what is being dumbed downed by mainstream media, and it is also updated consistently, visit http://www.chemtrailplanet.com/DEW.html

 

In the video below is a breakdown of how lasers were used in the Paradise fires, along with some curious questions answered countering authorities explanations as to how the fires were started, scientific payoff, Directed Energy Weapons, Agenda 21/2030, geo-engineered genocide, and the planned mass exodus the authorities are executing to move the victims into higher density housing, controlled, surveillance areas.      

 

This Is A Spiritual War 

The intention here is not to create fear but to be aware and inspired to share this information to help others wake up to the fact that there is an evil entity manipulating us into believing baseless climate change theories and acceptance of depopulation, herding the rest into stack-and-pack housing inside smart cities.  

This is a spiritual war and we need to prepare for a fight between good and evil on a global scale. We need to strive for more goodness in this world to help offset the evil in it. 

Those wrecking our economy, manipulating our educational system, hijacking our free will with the tech giants psychologically conditioning the masses, setting us against each other, and brainwashing us into believing their lies, blatantly disregarding any other truth or evidence, are not interested in a future for humanity.

These evil spiritual beliefs are ultimately built on a weakness relying on temporary power and fleeting earthly wealth. This type of spirituality is no match for the word of God.

It is no match for the internal wealth of those that have aligned their morality with the truth.
So it is up to us to deflect the pervading wardenship of certain officials who seem to thrive on the dystopia of our civilization, by looking within and restoring the spirit of Jesus Christ that is forever present deep within our souls. We can win this. 

 

If you’re sick of all the manipulated faux news that gives you only one side of the story visit https://2020electioncenter.com/  and https://www.infowars.com/newsletter to receive what I’ve found to be closer to the real truth. 

May God Bless Us All 

 

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

 

Deb Williams
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept, and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals. 

 

 

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THE GEORGIA GUIDESTONES – IS THIS THE GUIDE TO THE NEW WORLD ORDER?

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THE GEORGIA GUIDESTONES – IS THIS THE GUIDE TO THE NEW WORLD ORDER?

Just as the UN Agenda 21 was first proposed and agreed upon by 179 nations back in 1992, there is a mysterious monument that was erected 12 years prior in 1980 that have 10 guides carved into the monstrous slabs of granite that look eerily like “commandments” for a “New Age Of Reason”. The first commandment stating the need to maintain the world population under 500 million people. Another malign fact is that the originators of these rules are still a mystery, with the exception of the people in the know of course.  

Let’s look deeper into this monument named the Georgia Guidestones, now dubbed as the American Stonehenge, its features, and its message that calls for a New World Order, along with how it could be the work of an occult secret society.

 

Georgia Guidestones – The Monument

The Georgia Guidestones is an enigmatic granite monument situated in Elbert County, Georgia.  The gigantic structure is almost 20 feet high and is made up of six granite slabs, weighing 240,000 pounds in total. More astonishing than its size is the message engraved on it that consists of ten rules for what they call an “Age of Reason”. These guides touch upon subjects that are associated with the “New World Order”, including massive depopulation, a single world government, the introduction of a new type of spirituality, etc. 

The authors of those rules have requested to remain totally anonymous and, until a few years ago, their anonymity has been duly preserved. However, this mysterious group left subject matter explaining the reasoning behind the rules, contents that were not discussed online before. With this enlightening information, the purpose behind the Guidestones becomes very clear, leaving little room for hypotheses. 

The Guidestones describe the ideal world, as envisioned by occult Secret Societies. The monument is, therefore, proof of an existing link between secret societies, the world elite, and the push for a New World Order.

Made of Pyramid blue granite, the Georgia Guidestones are meant to withstand the test of time and to communicate knowledge on several levels: philosophically, politically, astronomically, et al. It consists of four major stone blocks, which contain ten guides for living in eight languages: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. 

A shorter message is inscribed at the top of the structure in four ancient languages’ scripts: Babylonian, Classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Egyptian hieroglyphs. It is important to note that those last four ancient languages are of great importance in the teachings of occult mystery schools, such as the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians, organizations.

Georgia Guidestones – Astronomical Features

The four major stones are arranged in a giant “paddlewheel” configuration which is oriented to the limits of the migration of the sun during the course of the year and also shows the extreme positions of the rising and setting of the sun in its 18.6 – year cycle. The center stone has two special features: 

1st, the North Star is always visible through a special hole drilled from the South to the Northside of the center stone.
2nd, another slot aligns with the positions of the rising sun at the time of the summer and winter solstices and at the equinox.

At the base of the Guidestones lies an explanatory tablet listing some of the details of the structure. It also mentions a time capsule buried underneath it. The contents of this time capsule are a total mystery.

The explanatory tablet explains some of the features of the monument and their authors. Notably, the opening date of the time capsule has been left blank.

Astronomical features are of great importance in the design of the Guidestones. In a relatively “new” nation such as the United States, monuments that are aligned with celestial bodies are often the work of secret societies, such as the Freemasons. Drawing their teachings from the Mystery schools of Ancient Egypt, Greece, or the Druidic Celts, they are known for embedding into monuments some of their “sacred knowledge”.


The English version of the guidelines

 

The ten guides for a New Age of Reason are as follows:

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.

2. Guide reproduction wisely – improving fitness and diversity.

3. Unite humanity with a living new language.

4. Rule passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason.

5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.

6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.

7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.

8. Balance personal rights with social duties.

9. Prize truth – beauty – love – seeking harmony with the infinite.

10. Be not a cancer on the earth – Leave room for nature – Leave room for nature.

As you can see, the guidelines call for a drastic reduction of the world population, the adoption of a new world language, the creation of a world court, and vague allusions to eugenics. In other words, a blueprint for a New World Order.

 

Depopulation, Planned Parenthood, and Eugenics

The first “commandment” is particularly shocking, since it basically stipulates that 12 out of 13 people on Earth should not exist so if today’s world population is around 7 billion, then that means over 92% would need to be exterminated. These figures are inconceivable, and who of the 500 million will remain? I think I have a pretty good idea. 

The last rule of the Guidestones, “Be not a cancer on the earth – leave room for nature – leave room for nature” is particularly disturbing as it compares human life to cancer on earth. With this state of mind, it is easy to rationalize the extinction of nearly all of the world’s population.

Massive depopulation is an admitted goal of the world’s elite and many important people have openly called for it:

In 1988, Britain’s Prince Philip expressed the wish that, should he be reincarnated, he would want to be “a deadly virus” that would reduce the world population. More recently, Bill Gates said “The world today has 6.8 billion people … that’s headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.” Along with tax-deductible donations of enormous amounts of money to help the depopulation cause, “secret meetings” of the world’s elite have been taking place to discuss those issues.

Over the recent years, it has become no secret that some of America’s leading billionaires have met secretly to consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the world’s population and speed up improvements in health and education.

The elite who attended a summit convened on the initiative of Bill Gates, and his foundation, discussed joining forces to overcome political and religious obstacles to change. It was described as the Good Club by one insider which included David Rockefeller Jr, the patriarch of America’s wealthiest dynasty, Warren Buffett and George Soros, the financiers, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, and the media moguls Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey, reported by the Sunday Times, back on May 24th, 2009.

The second rule “Guide reproduction wisely – improving diversity and fitness” basically calls for the inference of lawmakers into the management of family units. If we read between the lines, it requires the creation of laws structuring the number of children per family. Furthermore, “improving diversity and fitness” can be obtained with “selective breeding” or the sterilization of undesirable members of society. This is also known as “eugenics”, a concept dating back to the days of Plato and discussed in Ancient Greece and Rome. The height of the modern eugenics movement came in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

 

One World Government

David Rockefeller, cited in his “Memoirs of David Rockefeller” (page 405)

“Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”

 

Image credit; Financial Times – David Rockerfeller Jr. 

 

Most of the other rules of the Guidestones basically call for the creation of a world government, ruled by an “enlightened few”, who would regulate all aspects of human life, including faith, social duties, economy, etc. This idea is far from new, as it has been entertained by Mystery schools for centuries. Manly P. Hall wrote in his book, The Secret Teachings Of All Ages in 1917, 

“When the mob governs, man is ruled by ignorance; when the church governs, he is ruled by superstition; and when the state governs, he is ruled by fear. Before men can live together in harmony and understanding, ignorance must be transmuted into wisdom, superstition into an illumined faith, and fear into love. 

Despite statements to the contrary, Masonry is a religion seeking to unite God and man by elevating its initiates to that level of consciousness whereon they can behold with clarified vision the workings of the Great Architect of the Universe. From age to age the vision of a perfect civilization is preserved as the ideal for mankind. 

In the midst of that civilization shall stand a mighty university wherein both the sacred and secular sciences concerning the mysteries of life will be freely taught to all who will assume the philosophic life. Here creed and dogma will have no place; the superficial will be removed and only the essential be preserved. The world will be ruled by its most illumined minds, and each will occupy the position for which he is most admirably fitted.”

Further to that, in his book, “The Secret Destiny of America”, Hall explains the ancient dream of a world government, as entertained by Secret Societies.

“World democracy was the secret dream of the great classical philosophers. Toward the accomplishment of this greatest of all human ends they outlined programs of education, religion, and social conduct directed to the ultimate achievement of a practical and universal brotherhood. And in order to accomplish their purposes more effectively, these ancient scholars bound themselves with certain mystic ties into a broad confraternity. In Egypt, Greece, India, and China, the State Mysteries came into existence. Orders of initiated priest-philosophers were formed as a sovereign body to instruct, advise, and direct the rulers of the States.”

 

Explanations Directly from the Anonymous Authors

Since the monument’s erection on March 22, 1980, numerous authors and researchers have attempted to interpret the rationale behind these ten guidelines. Do they truly consist of a blueprint for a New World Order? Are they simply rules to apply in case of a major catastrophe? 

The best place to get an accurate answer is to ask the authors of the rules themselves, however, since they have chosen to remain anonymous, it is impossible to do so. They did, however, leave an all-important statement, which has been overlooked by nearly all researchers of the Guidestones. 

This astonishing text, which describes their motives in great detail, can only be found in The Georgia Guidestones Guidebook, a pamphlet produced by Joe H Fendley Sr. the president of the Granite Company, which produced the monument. Fendley is also involved in fraternal activities, was raised as a Master Mason in 1958 and he is now a member of Philomathea Masonic Lodge. Right from the start, it is obvious that the authors of the monument do seek the creation of a New World Order. This is not a “conspiracy theory” or hypothesis. It is written in clear and unequivocal terms. 

One of the monument’s most prominent investigators is computer analyst Van Smith, of Arkansas. His website, Van’s Hardware, offers an extensive analysis of the stones.

Smith says, 

“The purpose of the monument’s ten edicts is to establish the groundwork for a totalitarian global government. The proportions of the stones predict the exact height in feet of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, now the world’s tallest building. Both the Guidestones and the Burj allude to the Tower of Babel. Also, be aware that there is supposed to be a time capsule buried a few feet west of the monument… 

According to the story, the capsule is only to be opened when signs are made obvious by the monument of an impending global cataclysm. And the North Star sighting hole is probably the feature that was intended for detecting the feared cataclysmic event if the story I was told is true. The hole is similar to a device created by the Hopi to detect a similar calamity.”

 

Who Are The Authors?

So who is this small group of sponsors who seek the Age of Reason?” Although their identity is secret, they have left some telling clues to the initiates, unmistakably pointing towards the occult nature of their group. A small excerpt in the Georgia Guidestone Guidebook state,

“We, the sponsors of The Georgia Guidestones®, are a small group of Americans who wish to focus attention on problems central to the present quandary of humanity.[…]

The celestial alignments of the stones symbolize the need for humanity to be square with external principles which are manifest in our own nature, and in the universe around us […] 

and to duality 

“We are the major agency through which good and evil qualities of the spirit become actors in our world. Without us there is very little of love, mercy, or compassion. Yet we can also be agents of hate, and cruelty and cold indifference.” […]

“A diverse and prosperous world population in perpetual balance with global resources will be the cornerstone for a rational world order. People of good will in all nations must work to establish that balance” […]

This text alone provides enough proof to conclude that the authors are either Freemasons, Rosicrucians, or another hermetic Secret Society. There are however even more obvious clues pointing to the esoteric leanings of the authors, starting with R.C. Christian, the mysterious man who ordered the monument.
 

The name of R.C. Christian on the explanatory tablet with a nice typo in “pseudonyn”)

If the name R.C. Christian was simply a meaningless pseudonym, why would it be engraved on to the monument for posterity? Could the name be of any significance? Well, it is. R.C. Christian is a clear reference to Christian Rosenkreuz whose English name is Christian Rose Cross, the legendary founder of the Rosicrucian Order. Some might say that the resemblance between R.C. Christian and Christian Rose Cross is the result of an odd coincidence, it is however only one of the MANY references to Rosicrucianism associated with the monument. This is only one piece of the puzzle, but an important piece nonetheless.

 

The Rosicrucians

Seeking entry into the Rosicrucian mysteries. Notice the candidate is showing the hand sign of secrecy. Also notice the letters “RC”, as in R.C. Christian.

The Rosicrucians are known for publishing three Manifestos, published at the beginning of the 17th century: Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis, Confessio Fraternitatis, and Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz.
These anonymous works, surrounded by mystery, cryptically introduced the general public to the Rosicrucian philosophy, while announcing a great transformation of the political and intellectual landscape of Europe. 

The Age of Enlightenment soon followed, accompanied by the fall of feudal Monarchies. The Georgia Guidestones seem to accomplish the same functions as the Rosicrucian manifestos, by calling for an important world transformation and maintaining a climate of mystery.

 

The Age of Reason

Does “Age of Reason” refer to Thomas Paine, a prominent Rosicrucian?

There are many references to the concept of “Age of Reason” within the Guidestones. Could they be a reference to the classic work of Thomas Paine entitled … Age of Reason?

It is a known fact that Thomas Paine was a leading member of the Rosicrucian Fraternity in America.

“The Rosicrucian Fraternity existed in America prior to the First American Revolution. In 1774, the great Council of Three (the Fraternity’s ultimate governing body) was composed of Benjamin Franklin, George Clymer and Thomas Paine.”
– The Fraternitas Rosae Crucis, soul.org

In the book, The Secret Destiny of America, by Manly P. Hall, he describes Thomas Paine as an important crusader for the march towards an ideal world government.

“Of Thomas Paine it has been said that he did more to win the independence of the colonies with his pen than George Washington accomplished with his sword, Only complete reorganization of government, religion, and education would bring us even today to the perfectionist state Tom Paine envisioned”.
– Manly P. Hall, The Secret Destiny of America

This reference to Thomas Paine is another piece of the Rosicrucian puzzle, which may well lead to the fact that the authors were either Freemasons (who have incorporated Rosicrucian teachings into their degrees) or members of the Rosicrucian fraternity.

 

Conclusion

The Georgia Guidestones could very well be seen as a proclamation of a secret society believing they are the enlightened ones announcing a drastic change in the way the world is managed. The monument is of great importance in the understanding of the forces shaping today and tomorrow’s world in a covert manner. It materializes into stone the crucial link between secret societies, the world elite, and the agenda for a New World Order. 

The push for a one-world government, population control, and environmentalism are issues that are today discussed on a daily basis and are becoming less of a secret with information technology. They were not in 1981 when the Guidestones were erected. 

Some of the rules of the Guidestones make sense relating to the preservation of Earth on a long-term basis if you believe Al Gore’s prophecies, but reading between the lines, the Guidestones require from the masses the loss of many personal liberties and to submit to heightened governmental control on many social issues, and arguably includes the death of 92% of the population, (probably not those of the “elite”). 

My Thoughts

I wonder if the world would have sustained a more environmental and socio-economic balance if the creative genius’ throughout the past decades hadn’t been oppressed and “silenced” by organizations and wealthy individuals of influence racked with greed, power, and control. 

The way I see it is we have got to a stage (according to the elites) that we can no longer be treated as individuals, but as a society, therefore, reducing our worth in the eyes of the new world order. Like herding cattle to the slaughter. 

Mother Earth is self-sustaining, life and death are cyclical and nature on every level will correct itself without the need of a few at the top declaring and conjuring up ways to establish their idealistic limit of a 500 million population, utopian world. Whatever happens or is happening right now, we must be aware and just being knowledgeable of these things do help to give us strength, to endure, and to make appropriate decisions that are true to us as individuals and our families. 

 

ecosystem for entrepreneurs

 

Source: vigilant.citizen.com; discovermagazine.com

 

 

Deb Williams
A Crypto/Blockchain enthusiast and a strong advocate for technology, progress, and freedom of speech. I embrace "change" with a passion and my purpose in life is to help people understand, accept, and move forward with enthusiasm to achieve their goals.