Could you elaborate on how do you use overlay layer?

sure! it's pretty straight forward, i sometimes add a layer on top with either this sort of warm orange color (or blue or red or yellow) set on the "overlay" blending mode.. sometimes on "multiply" i just play around with them it's not a very strict process

short answer: planning definitely makes my life easier with comics! i do messy thumbs on paper where i get issues sorted->digital sketches->finals. taking advantage of the comic format helps me convey mood clearly - stuff like page turns, adding/breaking/removing panel borders, panel size, bubbles...all are unique to this medium! i try to be aware of how i can use those as tools to control the way a reader will move through the comic, and how things are paced. if you utilize them well, it’ll read correctly!

an excessively longer answer after the cut ! v

some artists are great at working more stream-of-conscious, but if you struggle w it then spend more time in your thumbnailing phase. personally, i try to solve all my writing/composition problems in the thumb stage and then, when penciling, make changes spontaneously if it feels right - i like to go with the flow a bit. (Check It Twice was 23 pages in thumbnail form, then became 18 as i consolidated the story in the finals!) that’s just me tho - some people are more rigid, some more freeform ... knowing yourself will help, so do experiment! but definitely spend time in the thumbnails! map out everything you need there, including word balloon placement. 

speech bubbles are part of page composition AND a storytelling element! bubbles don’t have to be fancy and you don’t have to constantly be doing tricky things with them, but your page will turn out better if you consider their placement when you plan; how can your bubble position further the emotion the characters are feeling? (example: when i want characters to feel tense or insecure about each other, i’ll place the balloons between them - a literal wall that only the reader can see; if i want them to feel close or intimate, i’ll place the bubbles on either side of them - to push them together, visually. or if someone is ashamed and wants to hide, maybe the bubble hides part of their face, etc etc. you can be clever w it!) and how can they tell the reader where to look next? it’s taking into account both panel composition and page composition, and unifying them for your purposes!

paneling doesn’t have to be wild to convey every feeling, but considering the mood you wanna make will help. if someone is frantic and confused, i’d angle the panels so things feel off-kilter and quick. if it’s a moment of introspection, maybe a few big, wide panels will slow things down. here’s an example from the dance scene in Capriccio!! the first page was the original sketch. the second page is the final sketch - i went from 5 panels of the dance to just 2. adding less panels that are wider slow down time, whereas the moment-to-moment panels in the first page feel fast and like the dance is over in just a second! but the larger, close-up frame in junction with a distant shot are meant to make them feel like they’ve lost track of time to each other, and then this moment. (at least.. that’s what i was going for LOL you tell me if it worked HAHA)

so that’s sort of how i think about that! i organize things with emotion and technical efficiency (aka how little can i get away w drawing bc theres so many drawings to make LOLLL) as my priority! and try to do things with intention... like, does zooming out in a frame have a purpose or did i just run out of ideas of what to show? (i.e. will it make the character feel isolated, or breath-taken, or change the passage of time, etc. if i’m not trying to say any of those things, can i show something more appropriate instead of just changing angle/panning around/drawing extra stuff purposelessly?)  anyway... sorry that’s a lot of words!! these are just some of my thoughts abt it! while i do work on comics professionally, i’m absolutely still learning too! i’m not an expert, but this is a glimpse into my thinking while i work; everybody has a diff approach to paneling and balloons. at the least, i hope this will lend itself to helping you figure out how to do you !! if you wanna study more panelling stuff, i honestly recommend reading shoujo manga - it taught me a lot haha! 

you can do anything you want in comics, so go wild!! 

Key to Success and Sales - Internet Marketing

" Ignoring internet marketing resembles opening an organization however not informing anybody." - Anonymous

Absolutely nothing summarizes the luster of internet marketing in today's circumstance rather like this quote. Internet marketing is everything about being at the best location at the correct time. With the virtual area getting into every nook and corner of our lives, this is where you'll discover your audience.

Online is the location to be

From social networks to e-commerce websites, our present generations get up to their handset screens, remote just through in beeps and blocks. Nobody physically satisfies or welcomes any longer, rather we just 'like' and 'comment'. Like any excellent marketing technique that begins with going where the consumer goes, the time now is to go digital. Internet marketing has actually ended up being the newest trend, a certain marketing must-do all the multi- nationwide business. Internet marketing business and services are the most demanded by significant corporations. The advantages of internet marketing when compared to its equivalents - the traditional/offline marketing, is so glossy and intense, that it has actually ended up being difficult to disregard. Let's examine the prime advantages: 'The World is your Stage': With internet marketing services, your reach is really generous. It broadens in regards to the market in addition to significance. Deep pockets and large savings account are no longer the essentials to get discovered and offer items. A regional farmer from one side of the world, can now take his fruit and vegetables and display it online to reach a possible consumer living on the other side. All he'll require to do is to utilize the web to market this item, together with some wise SEO methods to put it in the middle of the ideal crowd.

'Laugh all the method to the bank'- It's not surprising rap artists around the world dispense such catch-phrases, every now and then. How can anybody run from the truth that every service and corporation is the world works towards - 'revenue' aka income, return, moolah? When the results are so enticing, who would not leap? With the opportunity to reach the target market straight and personally, the sales are bound to increase, by default.

'Straight from the horse's mouth' - With digital marketing, you can record every relocation of your customer. In the virtual area, whatever ends up being transparent - the excellent, bad and the awful is visible for every single to evaluate. No eluding, you will get instant feedback and instantaneous report of your item's efficiency. You can straight connect to your client and construct an individual bond. Providers can be personalized. Considering that everybody is online all the time, being in this location will make you more noticeable.

'Marking your area' - Digital marketing assures to cut marketing expenses significantly. Over and above all other advantages, the Passover from standard or offline marketing to online is bound to be significantly affordable. Your internet marketing firm will assist you to choose your audience and by connecting just to them. It will likewise lower your expense per distinct user. : while a 5000 AED financial investment on a hoarding or occasion sponsorship reach about 5000 potential consumers, an online project through a viral video on social media will keep 10 times fold more.

'Something for everybody' - Online marketing area isn't scheduled for the who's who of the business world. Even a small company or a startup can enjoy advantages in all the totality. That's the appeal of this medium. Such chance provides a sporting chance to services to show their guts simply based upon the quality of services/product. For the very first time, a little business can provide the marketplace's big wheel a run for its loan. Making it an all-encompassing environment to run service in.

'Survival of the fittest' - The service world is growing, everybody desires a piece of it. In order to endure this mad rush, you have to action ahead, constantly. Remaining in the digital provides you direct insights into your markets and demography. It provides you the chance to evaluate your rivals move and prepare a defense. Internet marketing business assists in offering your brand name the edge and new-age radiance. Ensuring the customer's that the product/services that you provide are cutting edge and cutting edge in all its whole.

The First Rule of Marketing Online 

If you’re looking for a Marketing company online, contact:

Infintech Designs

https://www.infintechdesigns.com/3436 Magazine St #120New Orleans, LA 70115, USA(504) 717-4837

Walking the Dog on Moonless Nights, Evening Mars and Pretty Pre-dawn Planets!

(Above: This detailed star chart of the area around Canis Major, the Big Dog, shows the main stars and deep sky objects (labelled yellow symbols) in the constellation. The southern sky is shown for early March at 7 pm local time.)

Hello, Stargazers!

Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of March 3rd, 2019 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to pass this along to your friends and send me your comments, questions, and suggested topics. I repost these emails with photos at http://astrogeoguy.tumblr.com/ where all the old editions are archived. You can also follow me on Twitter as @astrogeoguy! Unless otherwise noted, all times are Eastern Time. Please click this MailChimp link to subscribe to these emails. If you are a teacher or group leader interested joining me on a guided field trip to York University’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory or the David Dunlap Observatory, visit www.astrogeo.ca.

I can bring my Digital Starlab inflatable planetarium to your school or other daytime or evening event, visit DiscoveryPlanitarium.com and request me. We’ll tour the Universe together!

Public Astro-Events

Taking advantage of dark moonless evening skies this week, astronomers with the RASC Toronto Centre will gather for dark sky stargazing at Long Sault Conservation Area, northeast of Oshawa on (only) the first clear evening (Monday to Thursday) this week. You don’t need to be a RASC member, or own any equipment, to join them. Check here for details and watch the banner on their homepage or their Facebook page for the GO or NO-GO decision around 5 pm each day. 

Every Monday evening, York University’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory runs an online star party - broadcasting views from four telescopes/cameras, answering viewer questions, and taking requests! Details are here. On Wednesday nights they offer free public viewing through their rooftop telescopes. If it’s cloudy, the astronomers give tours and presentations. Details are here. 

On Thursday, March 7 at 8 pm in the Legion Hall in Waterdown, the RASC – Hamilton Centre will present a free public talk by Professor Michael Fich, University of Waterloo entitled New Frontiers in Observational Cosmology. Details are here. 

On Thursday, March 7, starting at 8 pm, U of T’s AstroTour will present a free talk entitled Kepler’s Story: How one Telescope Changed Everything we Know about Exoplanets. It will be followed by observing (weather permitting) and their planetarium show. Details are here. 

Eastern GTA sky watchers are invited to join the RASC Toronto Centre and Durham Skies for solar observing and stargazing at the edge of Lake Ontario in Millennium Square in Pickering on Friday evening, March 8, from 6 pm to 11 pm. Details are here. Before heading out, check the RASCTC home page for a Go/No-Go call in case it's too cloudy to observe. The rain date is Saturday. 

On Friday, March 8 at 7:30 pm in the Hamilton Spectator Building in Hamilton, the Hamilton local astronomers will present a free public talk entitled A Step Back, and a Look Up. Details are here. 

If it’s sunny on Saturday morning, March 9 from 10 am to noon, astronomers from the RASC Toronto Centre will be setting up outside the main doors of the Ontario Science Centre for Solar Observing. Come and see the Sun in detail through special equipment designed to view it safely. This is a free event (details here), but parking and admission fees inside the Science Centre will still apply. Check the RASC Toronto Centre website or their Facebook page for the Go or No-Go notification. 

Saturday, March 9 marks the opening of a six-month exhibition at the Aga Khan Museum entitled The Moon: A Voyage through Time. The museum will feature installations of art, culture, history, and science pertaining to the moon. A public talk, The Moon: Mirror of Faith, Science, and the Arts will be delivered by Dr. Christiane Gruber on Saturday at 2:00pm. Details are here. 

On Saturday, March 9 from 6 to 8 pm, weather permitting, astronomers from RASC Toronto Centre will carry out free public evening stargazing on the Teluscape at the Ontario Science Centre. Details are here. 

Evening Zodiacal Light

For about half an hour after dusk between today and the new moon on March 6, look west-southwest for a broad wedge of faint light rising from the horizon and centered on the ecliptic. This is the zodiacal light - reflected sunlight from interplanetary particles of matter concentrated in the plane of the solar system. The glow will be centred on the horizon directly below Mars. Try to observe from a location without light pollution, and don't confuse the zodiacal light with the brighter Milky Way to the northwest. I posted an image of it here. 

(Above: Canis Major is one of two dog constellations that accompany Orion in the winter sky, as shown here at 7 pm in early March. The Little Dog, Canis Minor is the “stick-like” constellation at top left. Perhaps they are chasing Lepus, the Rabbit. The winter Milky Way runs vertically, just to the east (left side) of Canis Major.)

Walking the Big Dog

The night sky’s brightest star Sirius is sure to catch your eye in the evening sky this time of the year. Once the sky darkens at around 8:30 pm local time, Sirius will be sitting a third of the way up the southern sky, to the lower left of Orion (the Hunter). During the rest of the evening, Sirius will slowly descend into the southwestern sky and set just after midnight local time. 

Sirius name means “searing” or “scorching” in Greek. It’s also commonly known as the Dog Star because it is the brightest star in Canis Major (the Big Dog). To my eyes, the constellation genuinely resembles a wiener dog! Sirius sparkles at the dog’s collar. The pup’s head is formed by several medium-bright stars to Sirius’ upper left, but those are near the limit of visibility in urban skies. Nose to tail, the constellation measures about 19°, or two fist diameters held at arm’s length. He’s about one fist from ears to paws. The rest of the dog’s body, composed of more easily visible stars, extends to the lower left (southeast) of Sirius. The dog is rearing up and facing west, as if he is begging Orion for a treat. 

About a fist’s diameter below Sirius is the bright star Wezen, which marks the dog’s “bottom”. Wezen, Arabic for “weight” is a rare, massive yellow supergiant star. One day it will explode in a supernova. The tip of the dog’s tail, marked by a modest star named Aludra, is found 4° (four finger widths) to the lower left of Wezen. Four degrees to the lower right of Wezen, a bright star named Adhara represents the dog’s rear legs. (Some representations include two dimmer stars for the rear paws.) Adhara is a hot blue giant star with a surface temperature of a whopping 21,000 K located about 34 light-years from the sun. It’s the brightest star in the sky when viewed in ultraviolet light, and it, too, is on the way to a supernova death. 

The dog’s front legs are formed by the bright star Mirzam, which is located about a palm’s width to the lower right of Sirius. Mirzam, which means “the Herald” because it rises just before Sirius, is 60 times more luminous than Sirius. If it were located where Sirius is, instead of 500 light-years away, it would appear 15 times brighter than Venus! 

In the heart of Canis Major, about four finger widths below Sirius, is a bright little cluster of stars designated Messier 41, sometimes called the Little Beehive Cluster. Binoculars should show it easily. The cluster, which is about 2300 light-years away, consists of several brighter golden stars and numerous fainter ones. Another nice cluster sits about 2.5 finger widths to the upper left of Wezen. Scan around that area of sky with your binoculars – the winter Milky Way has populated Canis Major with many treats. 

Canis Major is only one of Orion’s two hunting companions. The other one, Canis Minor (the Smaller Dog), sits 30° (three fist diameters) to Orion’s left. This constellation is composed of only two stars - very bright white Procyon and dimmer Gomeisa, which sits about four finger widths to Procyon’s upper right. Ironically, the constellation resembles a stick more than a dog! The two dogs might well be hunting Lepus (the Rabbit), a constellation of modest stars that sits directly below Orion. 

(Above: In this over-exposed image of the star Sirius, its white dwarf companion, the Pup, or the Flea, is the speck at the lower left.)

Sirius is so bright because it is about 25 times more luminous than our Sun, and only a mere 8.6 light-years away from Earth. Furthermore, it is heading towards us, and will brighten over the next millennia! Sirius has a tiny companion star, designated Sirius B, that some astronomers call the Pup. I prefer to call it the Flea! 

Sirius is famous for exhibiting flashes of intense colour as it twinkles. This is because northern hemisphere observers usually see the star positioned low in the sky, so its very bright starlight is passing through a thicker blanket of air. The pockets of turbulence in our atmosphere that makes stars twinkle also work like tiny refracting prisms – splitting apart Sirius’ white starlight and randomly sending different colours (wavelengths) to our eyes. 

The ancient Egyptians linked their calendar to the arrival of Sirius in the pre-dawn sky because it signaled the onset of the Nile floods around the beginning of summer. In China, Sirius is called Tiān Láng天狼, aka “the Celestial Wolf”. Many First Nations cultures saw a dog’s shape in these stars and called Sirius the Moon Dog Star (Inuit), the Wolf Star (Pawnee), and the Coyote Star. On the next clear evening, have a look at our bright neighbour! I’ll post sky charts and pictures here. 

The Moon and Planets

The moon will start the week as a slim, old crescent sitting low in the southeastern sky before sunrise. Even though New Moon won’t occur until Wednesday morning, the shallow angle of the moon’s orbit this time of year will cause the moon to rise almost beside the sun, hiding it from view for several days. 

The moon will return to view as a young, slim crescent sitting low over the western horizon on Thursday evening right after sunset. At the same time, sharp eyes might catch Mercury sitting 8.5 degrees to the right of the moon. The best time to look for Mercury will be around 7 pm local time. The moon will complete the week by waxing fuller daily and climbing higher – landing a fist’s diameter below Mars on Sunday evening.

(Above: Mercury will complete its best appearance of 2019 for northern hemisphere observers this week. Look for it low in the west after sunset, but a little lower every day. Meanwhile, reddish Mars at top left, continues to shine brightly every evening until it sets before midnight. Dim Uranus is below Mars. The sky is shown for 6:45 pm local time on Sunday, March 3.) 

Speaking of Mercury, during the first half of this week, the normally elusive planet will continue to be easily visible in a darkening western evening sky while it descends toward the sun. The optimal viewing times will fall between 6:45 and 7:15 pm local time. If you view Mercury in your small telescope, the planet will exhibit a waning half-illuminated disk. Find a viewing spot where the western horizon is low and free of foreground obstructions. Once the sun has fully set, sweep the sky with binoculars - or your own sharp eyeballs – looking for a medium bright, unmoving point of light. 

The other easy evening planet to see this week will be Mars. When the sky begins to darken, Mars will appear as a medium-bright, reddish pinpoint of light about halfway up the western sky. The Red Planet will set at about 11:15 pm local time. Mars has been slowly shrinking in size and brightness as we increase our distance from it little-by-little. 

The much dimmer, blue-green planet Uranus is also in the western early evening sky. It can be identified by aiming binoculars about 1.6 finger widths above the modestly bright star named Torcular (or Omega Piscium). Look for Uranus right after dark - this week the distant ice giant planet will set at around 10 pm local time.

(Above: Three bright planets will parade across the eastern pre-dawn sky during the coming weeks. Bright Jupiter will rise first, followed by dimmer Saturn, and then Venus, the brightest of all. Venus’ orbit, red curve, is carrying it downward and east, toward the sun. The sky is shown for 6 am local time in early March, 2019.) 

Three spectacular bright planets – Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus, will all continue to appear low in the eastern morning sky this week. Bright Jupiter will rise first, at about 2:30 am local time. By 7 am local time, it will be a beacon in the southern sky. Yellowish Saturn, which is twice as far away as Jupiter, is correspondingly dimmer. The ringed planet will rise at about 4:15 am local time and will be lost in the twilight by 7 am. Our sister planet Venus is only one-fifth as far from Earth as Jupiter. Venus’ blazing brilliance will grace the southeastern dawn sky after 5 am local time, and remain in view until sunrise. In a telescope, Venus will exhibit a gibbous (more than half-illuminated) phase. 

Dark Night Delights

If you missed last week’s write-up about grabbing your binoculars and telescopes and exploring the darker sky for deep sky treasures, I posted some beautiful images and sky charts here. This week will be just as good!

Keep looking up, and enjoy the sky when you do. I love questions and requests - so, send me some!

Strategic Snippets for founders / PMs

A mega-thread on strategic concepts that every founder / PM should know.

1. Kernel of a Strategy: A process to create a strategy. It contains three elements: diagnosis, tenets (guiding principles), and action items. You spend half of the time on diagnosis, another 40 percent on the tenets, and 10 percent on coherent actions.

2. BHAG: It is a big, daring, ambitious goal that pushes the company beyond its boundaries defined clearly with no ambiguity. People get it right away. It has a sense of urgency. It has a purpose. When you first hear it, you will feel it's a joke and that you’d never achieve it.

3. Objectives and key results (OKR): A goal-setting framework that helps companies set an objective, which is “what I want to have accomplished,” and the key results, which are “how I’m going to get it done.” OKRs must be specific and include a way to measure achievement.

4. Operating Plan (OP1) is an annual planning document that covers the strategy for the next 12 months, ways of executing the strategy, and the budget required. BHAG answers WHAT, OKR answers HOW, OP1 answers WHY.5. Flywheel: There is no single action, no grand program, no killer innovation, no lucky break, no miracle moment that creates momentum. Rather, the process resembles relentlessly pushing a giant, heavy flywheel, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough.

6. SMaC (Specific, Methodical, and Consistent) Tenets: A set of operating principles that is the first step in turning strategic concepts into an execution plan. SMaC guides you on what not to do in addition to what to do. SMaC tenets don't change more than 20 percent per year.

7. Blitzscaling: An execution framework that prioritizes speed over efficiency and allows a company to go from "Startup" to "Scaleup" at a furious pace that captures the market. For a startup to move very fast, it must take on far more risk than a company going through the normal.

8. FIRE BULLETS, THEN CANNONBALLS: When you see the enemy ship, you take a little bit of gunpowder and keep firing bullets until one bullet hits the ship. Now, you take all the gunpowder and fire a big cannonball along the same line of sight, which sinks the enemy ship.

9. Play-to-win canvas: Use this to explain your strategy to people who don't have time to read our entire OP1. It contains 1. What is your winning aspiration? 2. Where will you play? 3. How will you win? 4. What capabilities must be in place? 5. What systems are required?

10. Aggregator vs Platform: Aggregators such as Google and Facebook help you get things done. Think of them like Cars. While Platforms are Bicycles. Platforms such as Microsoft and Apple are an aid to humans, not their replacement.

11. Growth Loops: User acquisition funnels are now being replaced with a system of loops. Loops are closed systems where the inputs generate output that can be reinvested in the input. Similar to flywheel but for acquisition/growth.

12. Viral Coefficient (K Factor): The number of new customers the average customer generates. The virality should cover the churn of users. In other words, if k-factor > churn, more users come than users leave, and our product is going to have exponential growth.

13. It's AND. Not OR. The ability to embrace both extremes at the same time. Instead of choosing between X OR Y, they figure out a way to have both X AND Y.Profit AND Growth. Great Customer Exp AND Great Margins. Great Control AND Lean Operations. It's possible to do both.

14. Product-Market Fit: PMF is achieved when your users love your product so much they spontaneously tell other people to use it. It's a binary test. You can always feel product-market fit when it is happening. The customers are buying the product just as fast as you can make it

15. Network Effect: The idea of a network effect is that every additional user increases the value of a good or service. The Internet is an example of the network effect. There could be “internalized” versus “externalized” network effects.

16. Moat: Like the moat that surrounds a castle to provide it with a preliminary line of defense, companies need to have moats or the ability to maintain competitive advantages over their competitors in order to protect their long-term profits market share.

17. High-expectation customer (HXC): is the most discerning person within your target demographic. It’s one who will acknowledge and enjoy your product for its greatest benefit. She is also someone who can help spread the word. Your early adopters are not always your HXCs

18. Bullseye framework: To systematically find the most promising channel. The first step is brainstorming every single traction channel. The second step is running cheap traction tests. The third step is to focus solely on the channel that will move the needle for your product.

19. Level 5 Leaders: Display a powerful mixture of personal humility and stubborn will. They're incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, for the organization and its purpose, not themselves. They are often quiet, reserved, and even shy.

20. Did he say No?: Usually we pitch what we want, follow up 3-4  times more and then move on if we don’t hear anything positive. Don't move on until we hear the affirmative "NO". Lack of "Yes" is not good enough. We should keep knocking until we hear a strong and clear "NO".

21. Burn Multiple: Calculated as Net Burn / Net New Revenue. How much is the startup burning in order to generate each incremental dollar of revenue? The higher the Burn Multiple, the more the startup is burning to achieve each unit of growth. Burn multiple under 1X is good.

22. Efficiency Score: This is nothing but reverse of burn multiple. It’s a catch-all metric. Any serious problem will eventually impact the Burn Multiple / Efficiency Score by either increasing burn, decreasing net new revenue, or increasing both but at disproportionate rates.

23. Contribution margin (CM): is a product's net sales minus all associated variable costs. The total contribution margin represents the total amount available to pay for fixed expenses and to generate a profit. It can be further divided into CM1, CM2, and CM3.

24. CM1 is sales minus the basic cost of goods sold, discounts and coupons. This is the same as Gross margin.CM2 is CM1 minus logistics, warehouse, CS, payment gateway fees and any other operational variable costs.CM3 is CM2 minus Marketing. EBITDA is CM3 minus indirect costs.

25. Managerial Leverage (aka High Output Management): A manager’s output is the output of all of the people and the teams that report to her. A manager's activity with high leverage will generate a high level of output; an activity with low leverage, a low level of output.

26. Cohort Analysis: Track specific groups of users, known as cohorts, to understand how users engage with your product in the days, weeks and months after you acquire them and, in turn, understand how resilient your growth is.

27. Simon Sinek Circle (aka Golden Circle): There are three parts of the Circle: Why, How, and What.The WHAT represents the products or services a company sells. The HOW is an explanation of why their products/ services are better. The WHY is about what a company believes in.

28. First Who, Then What: Make sure you have the right people on the bus and the right people in the key seats before you figure out where to drive the bus. Always think first about who and then about what. Great vision without great people is irrelevant.

29. Prospecting Pyramid: Arrange your list of leads with high-yield prospects on top and low-yield prospects on the bottom. Start by prospecting from the top of the pyramid.

30. Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Is a proof of concept product that validates your idea before you build a full, mature, stable product. MVP is not just a product with half of the features chopped out but a process that you repeat over and over again till you get it correct.

31. Free cash flow (FCF): measures how much cash is generated after capital expenses such as buildings and equipment have been paid. Operating cash flow is your cash flow from operating revenue minus operating expenses. If you subtract capital spending from this, you get FCF.

32. Cash conversion cycle (CCC): How long it takes your customers to pay you minus how many days it takes you to pay your suppliers. Super-efficient companies have their CCC down to the single digits. At Amazon last year, the CCC was negative 30.6 days.

33. Working Backward: A practice where you start by writing the documents you will need at launch (a Press Release and an FAQ) first and then work backward from there to the product requirements.

34. Free Parking' Business Model: To bootstrap of the “chicken and egg problem”, give away one side of the market for free. Typically it is best to offer the free side to consumers since no one loves “free” more than a consumer. Or offer the service that has lowest marginal cost.

35. Freemium: A variant of the “free parking” model where the company transforms code into the equivalent of marketing spending and “gives away for free” service X to generate qualified leads for interlinked service Y.  Freemium works best if service X has network effects.

36. Cash multiplier (CMX): Revenue generated from customer segments over limited time frames or payback window.CMX = Total Rev / Total Customers.Ex: Your total rev for 60 days is $140. If new customers were 1000, your CMX ( 60-day LTV) would be $1,400 in total.

37. Customer lifetime value (LTV, CLTV, or CLV): The revenue generated from the average customer over the course of an average customer lifespan. LTV is the future cash flows over her entire relationship with the company.

38. High Output Meetings: Is a medium through which managerial work is performed. It is a way to supply information and know-how, to explain the way of doing things, and to help make decisions. We need to make meetings as efficient as possible. Not fight the need for the meetings.

39. Task relevant maturity (TRM): for a team member is a combination of the degree of their achievement orientation and readiness to take responsibility as well as education, training, and experience. All of this for a particular task.

40. UI Complexity Score: UI needs to be as simple and functional as possible. To calculate the complexity score, you add up a point every time you used a new font, font size or colour in the UI. The total score is the complexity score. A single page needs to stay below five point.

41. Conversion rate optimization (CRO): Science behind understanding why your visitors are not ‘converting’ into customers, and then improving your messaging or value proposition to increase this rate of conversions.

42. Blue ocean strategy: Red oceans are all the industries in existence today – the known market space. Cut-throat competition in existing industries turns the ocean bloody red. Blue oceans are all the industries not in existence today – the unknown market space.

43. Productive Paranoia: You assume that conditions can unexpectedly change, violently, and fast. You obsessively ask, What if? By preparing ahead of time, building reserves, preserving a margin of safety, you handle disruptions from a position of strength and flexibility.

44. Inbound marketing: A marketing strategy that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them. While outbound marketing interrupts your audience, inbound marketing forms connections they are looking for and solves problems they already have.

45. Ramen profitable: A startup makes just enough to pay the teams' expenses. Traditional profitability means a big bet is finally paying off, whereas the main importance of ramen profitability is that it buys you time.

46. Category Management: The process of managing categories as independent business units, in a way that enables maximum consumer appeal while maximizing profits. Category Management aims to provide customers with what they want, where they want it, and when they want it.

LG OLED CX TV review: The picture against which all other TVs are measured

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LG OLED CX TV review: The picture against which all other TVs are measured

By this point there’s no question whether OLED-based TVs have the best picture quality available: they do. In my opinion they’re definitely worth the extra money compared to other high-end TVs. The only question that matters is, if you can afford an OLED TV, which one should you buy? LG is the OLED leader and its 2020 CX series achieves as impressive a picture as any TV I’ve ever tested, but right now it’s not the best answer to that question.

Like

Better picture quality than any non-OLED TV.

Superior contrast and off-angle image.

Slim design and packed with features.

Don’t Like

Expensive.

Not appreciably better than cheaper 2019 models.

After reviewing the CX, the TV that I recommend most OLED shoppers buy instead is the LG B9 from 2019. I compared the two LG OLEDs side-by-side in my spanking new basement TV lab, and it was really tough to tell the difference between them in picture quality. My measurements sussed out some slight variations, and watching some low-quality material gave a vanishingly small edge to the CX, perhaps because of its improved processing. 

But that’s tiny potatoes compared to the huge price difference between the two right now — $600 to $800 for the 65-inch size, depending on where you shop. The price gap will shrink as the CX gets discounted and the B9 sells out later this year, but even then another TV will remain less expensive and likely a better value as well: the 2020 BX series. Look for CNET’s review of that TV soon.

My other comparison TV was the TCL 8-Series, which has the best picture quality of any non-OLED TV I’ve recently reviewed. It’s a superb performer and brighter then either OLED, but both the B9 and CX beat it for overall picture quality. Every OLED TV I’ve ever reviewed exhibits the true black levels, infinite contrast and near-perfect off-angle performance that makes images come to life like no other TV technology you can buy. 

Now playing: Watch this: LG CX OLED TV review: Awesome picture, high price

3:52

Get to know the LG CX series

It’s pronounced “C-10” because LG wants to be like Apple I guess.

It comes in 48-, 55-, 65- and 77-inch sizes. The 48-inch model is new for 2020.

As usual for OLED TVs, the 77-inch model is proportionally more expensive, at nearly twice the price of the 65-incher. Competing 75-inch LCD-based TVs are much more affordable. 

The 2020 CX adds a few extras that the B9 is missing, namely an improved image processor, compatibility with AMD FreeSync and a new Filmmaker picture mode. Otherwise they’re basically the same.

The only differences I noted between the B9 and CX are slightly different stand designs and LG’s processing. As I mentioned above, I don’t think the CX’s slight image quality advantage is worth the price difference.

OLED display technology is fundamentally different from the LED LCD technology used in the vast majority of today’s TVs, including Samsung’s QLED models.

The best LCD TVs I’ve reviewed so far, like the TCL 8-Series and Vizio P-Series Quantum X, scored a “9” in image quality. At times they were brighter in HDR than the OLEDs, but otherwise the OLEDs’ images were superior in almost every way.

All OLED TVs are more subject to both temporary and permanent image retention, aka burn-in, than LCD TVs. We at CNET don’t consider burn-in a reason for most people to avoid buying an OLED TV, however. Check out our guide to OLED burn-in for more.

Not much has changed with LG’s design. The panel on the B9, the CX and other recent OLED sets is still vanishingly thin when seen from the side, about a quarter-inch deep, with a chunkier section at the bottom that juts out another 1.75 inches. That section houses the inputs, power supply, speakers and other depth-eating TV components.

From the front it’s pure TV minimalism. There’s less than a half-inch of black frame around the top and sides of the picture itself. Then there’s a bit more below, but no trace of silver, no “LG” or any other logo at all. 

The CX’s stand is very similar to the C9’s, its angled edges and medium width across the bottom of the screen. It’s more heavily weighted than the B9 on the rear to (I presume) better resist tipping forward. That said, I’ve never had any fear of the B9 tipping forward, and I always recommend using a TV safety strap if you have kids.

David Katzmaier/CNET

Solid app and voice support

LG’s webOS menu system is also basically unchanged from last year. It still lacks the innovative extras and app-based setup of Samsung’s Tizen system and falls well short of the app coverage of Roku TV or Sony’s Android TV. If you want more apps, your best bet is to get an external streamer, although only a handful, including the Apple TV 4K, Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K and Nvidia Shield can support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Meanwhile LG’s apps for Netflix, Amazon, Disney Plus and Vudu all support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, while Apple TV app supports Vision but not Atmos. Using the TV’s built-in apps gets you the highest-quality video and audio from those services, no external streamer required.

The remote tracks the motion of your hand to whip quickly around the screen, something that’s particularly helpful when signing into apps or searching using an onscreen keyboard. The scroll wheel is also great for moving through apps, like those seemingly infinite thumbnail rows on Netflix and Amazon.

David Katzmaier/CNET

LG’s TVs are still the only devices that let you use both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. The main mic button invokes Google Assistant while a long-press of the Amazon button gets you Alexa. Both can do all the usual Assistant stuff, including control smart home devices, answer questions and respond via a voice coming out of the TV’s speakers (yep, both voices). Basics like “What’s the weather?” works as you’d expect from either assistant, complete with onscreen feedback. 

The CX also works with Apple’s AirPlay 2 system, just like many other TVs including 2019 models like the B9. I was able to fire up my iPhone to share photos and video to the screen from the Photos app as well as mirror my Mac and phone screens. The LG also has the Apple TV app, of course.

Key features

Display technology OLED LED backlight N/A Resolution 4K HDR compatible HDR10 and Dolby Vision Smart TV webOS Remote Motion

The feature-packed CX includes just about everything that matters in a modern TV. LG says the new A9 Gen 3 chip — included on the CX but not on the B9 or BX — has improved deep learning chops and “AI picture Pro” enhancements. I didn’t notice any major benefits from the processor in my testing. 

New for 2020 is the Filmmaker Mode, which takes the place of the Technicolor Expert modes of years past. As promised it turns off the Soap Opera Effect for film-based content (yay) but so do many other modes in the CX, including Cinema, ISF and Dolby Vision itself (yes, this TV has a LOT of picture modes). While plenty-accurate it’s also relatively dim so I ended up using Cinema and ISF Bright for most critical viewing.

All of LG’s 2019 and 2020 OLED models include the latest version of the HDMI standard: 2.1. That means their HDMI ports can handle 4K at 120fps, support enhanced audio return channel (eARC) as well as two gamer-friendly extras: variable refresh rate (VRR) and automatic low latency mode (ALLM, or auto game mode). Check out HDMI 2.1: What you need to know for details. I didn’t test any of these features yet for this review.

Speaking of VRR, the B9 and CX also support the Nvidia G-Sync standard. One difference between the two, however, is that only 2020 models like the CX will also support AMD FreeSync.

Bear with me, normal readers, because there is one ultra-technical downgrade on the CX compared to the 2019 C9. As reported by Forbes, the new model’s HDMI ports support 4K at 120fps up to 40Gbps (10 bits), while last year they went up to the full 48Gbps (12 bits). In a statement, LG told CNET that “the market situation evolution indicated that real content that requires 48Gbps is not available in the market.” The only devices that might look better at 12-bit compared to 10-bit are next-generation consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox One Series X, but I’d be surprised if it makes a big difference. 

David Katzmaier/CNET

The selection of connections is otherwise top-notch. Unlike many of Samsung’s sets, this one actually has an analog video input for legacy (non-HDMI) devices, although it no longer supports analog component video. There’s also a dedicated headphone/analog audio output.

Four HDMI inputs with HDMI 2.1, HDCP 2.2

Three USB ports

Composite video/audio input

Optical digital audio output

Analog audio 3.5mm headphone output

RF (antenna) input

RS-232 port (minijack, for service only)

Ethernet (LAN) port

Picture quality comparisons

David Katzmaier/CNET

Normally I’m able to compare a TV against four or five others side-by-side, but during coronavirus lockdown the size of my basement — and limited access to comparison TVs — reduced that number to two. Happily they were two of the best TVs of 2019, the B9 OLED and the TCL 8-Series. As I mentioned above the CX and B9 were basically tied, with image quality that deserves a score of 10/10, while the TCL fell a bit short of both. 

Click the image at the right to see the picture settings used in the review and to read more about how this TV’s picture controls worked during calibration.

Dim lighting: Lined up in my darkened basement TV lab, the CX immediately distinguished itself from the LCD-based TCL but not so much from its sister LG OLED. Between the two OLED TVs I didn’t spot any major differences. 

Watching the 1080p Blu-ray of Parasite, the trademark perfect black levels and superior contrast of OLED were an upgrade in punch and realism. Every scene benefited, but as usual the darker ones showed the largest differences. As the Parks discuss the transgressions of their chauffeur in Chapter 4, for example, colors of their faces, clothes and the surrounding kitchen looked, well, richer and more realistic. In extremely dark scenes like Park Dong-ik’s ride in the back of the car, the difference was even more evident in a side-by-side comparison.

Shadow detail was excellent on the CX and overall dark areas still looked significantly more realistic than with the TCL. Pro tip: In my recommended picture mode, Cinema, bump up Brightness from 50 to 52 to reclaim those shadows while still preserving perfect black levels.

Bright lighting: No major changes here: The CX was as bright as previous LG OLEDs and significantly dimmer than high-end LCDs.

Light output in nits

TV Brightest (SDR) Accurate color (SDR) Brightest (HDR) Accurate color (HDR) Vizio PX65-G1 1,990 1,120 2,908 2,106 TCL 65Q825 1,653 904 1,818 982 Samsung QN65Q80R 1,443 832 1,494 1,143 TCL 65R625 653 578 881 813 LG OLED65C9 (2019) 451 339 851 762 LG OLED65CX (2020) 377 290 690 634 LG OLED65B9 (2019) 374 283 628 558

LG OLEDs from 2019 and 2020 have a setting called Peak Brightness that boosts the light output for SDR sources in Cinema and Expert modes. The idea is to increase contrast for brighter viewing environments while maintaining the superior color accuracy of those modes. As with most TVs, the brightest mode for HDR and SDR (Vivid on the CX) is horribly inaccurate. For the accurate color columns above I used ISF Expert Bright (Peak Brightness: High) for SDR and Filmmaker mode for HDR — I recommend CX owners do the same to get good color in bright rooms.

Overall, the OLED sets are still plenty bright enough for just about any viewing environment. Yes, they do get quite a bit dimmer than the LCDs when showing full-screen white — a hockey game, for example — but even in those situations they’re hardly dim.

The CX and B9 preserved black levels and reduced reflections very well — better than the TCL. I didn’t compare a Samsung directly for this review but in the past that brand’s high-end models have delivered the best bright-room performance overall.

Color accuracy: Before my standard calibration, the ISF Expert, Cinema and Filmmaker modes were already super accurate, among the best I’ve seen, and afterward the CX was as accurate as I’d expect. As usual, OLED’s superior black levels also improved the perception of color saturation compared to the LCD other displays. Bright colors like the fruit on the Parks’ countertop or the green of their backyard in Chapter 11 were lush and vibrant, while skin tones like the face of Mrs. Park remained true. I also appreciated that, unlike many LCDs including the TCL in this comparison, the CX didn’t introduce a blue tinge to near-black areas.

Video processing: Watching the Parasite Blu-ray it was difficult to see any processing advantages of the CX over the B9, perhaps because it’s a very high-quality source to begin with. Looking for evidence of the CX’s fancy new chip in action, I tried an old favorite: Game of Thrones’ The Long Night episode on HBO Max, streaming from an Apple TV 4K (set to 1080p SDR to match the native stream).

The opening setup of the army awaiting the coming of the white walkers was rife with blockiness, banding and other compression issues, as well as basic video noise. But the CX didn’t clean it up much better than the B9. There was slightly less banding on the CX during a pan over Winterfell (5:19), for example, and less near-black noise in the sky during the Dothraki charge (12:51) and when the solitary horse returns (13:47), but I had to look hard to spot the improvement. And sometimes the B9 looked better; for example it showed less noise than the CX in the black sky around Sir Davos’ face (7:13). I’ll give the slight edge to the CX, but it’s really subtle.

With the Real Cinema setting turned on, the CX passed my go-to 1080p/24 film cadence test from I Am Legend in Off, Cinema Clear and User (0-4 for De-Judder and 10 for De-Blur) TruMotion position. The latter two also delivered the TV’s maximum motion resolution (600 lines). For 2020 LG’s User De-Judder setting is better than last year, with more of a range for finicky cadence purists (we know who we are) to dial in the right amount of smoothness; anything 4 or lower introduced some judder to my eye, conveying a sense of film rather than soap opera effect. Clear on the other hand is toward the smoother side, albeit still tolerable. Personally I prefer User: De-Judder 0 but it’s great that there’s more good options than ever.

David Katzmaier/CNET

There’s also a setting labeled OLED Motion Pro, available only in the User section of the TruMotion menu. In previous years it was a simple toggle that introduced black frame insertion to improve motion resolution but with the usual tradeoffs of a dimmer image and visible flicker. This year it has four settings, Low, Medium, High and Auto, with progressively better motion resolution, High tops out at the maximum 1,200 lines in my test but was quite dim and flickery. Medium was the best overall, measuring slightly less at 1080 lines but with nearly the same light output as Off and no flicker. The CX is the first OLED TV I’ve tested that can match LCD TVs with true 120Hz refresh rates, such as the TCL 8 series or the Samsung Q70, for motion resolution.

The problem? Engaging any OLED Motion Pro setting aside from Off crushed shadow detail and made the image look too dark. My advice is to avoid using this setting unless you calibrate the image specifically for it — or you hate blur so much that you’re willing to sacrifice being able to see dark areas clearly.

Gaming input lag is similar to last year, which is to say superb. The CX showed 13.7 and 13.8 milliseconds in game mode for 1080p and 4K HDR sources, respectively. That’s shy of the C9 by mere tenths of a millisecond. If you can tell the difference, hats off to you.

Uniformity: Like all recent OLED sets, the CX was extremely uniform in brightness and color, with no visible variations across the screen. In comparison the LCD-based TCL all showed slightly brighter and darker areas with full-field test patterns, although it didn’t have major issues. And as usual the two OLEDs were much better at maintaining fidelity from off-angle, when viewed from seats other than the sweet spot right in the middle of the screen. There were no differences in uniformity between the B9 and CX.

Parasite is a great movie that looks spectacular in 4K HDR.

CJ Entertainment

HDR and 4K video: The 4K Blu-ray of Parasite looked spectacular on all three high-end TVs, as expected, but the OLEDs had the advantage. The TCL beat them in brightness and highlight pop, however. In Chapter 3 when Kim Ki-woo rounds a corner of the house (13:13), the sun measured twice as bright — 1028 nits vs. 540 on both OLED TVs — and the difference was obvious to my eye. 

Despite the extra brightness, however, the overall contrast and richness of the OLEDs’ image made the LCD look relatively flat by comparison in many scenes. In the criteria at 30:51, for example, there was just a bit more pop and color in the food and the flower wrappings. And despite its excellent local dimming the TCL still betrayed some brighter spots in dark areas, for example the shadows in the back of the car at 30:14. 

Looking at the gorgeous nature footage from the Spears and Munsil HDR benchmark, the TCL’s higher brightness paid more dividends than the cinematic Parasite. In my side-by-side lineup the LCD’s brighter skies, snow and other daylit scenes were more powerful, especially when most of the screen was very bright — the desert sand, and plants at 5:20 was a good example. The OLEDs didn’t look dim by any means but the TCL was better in those bright scenes. In more mixed and darker scenes, on the other hand, the OLEDs superior contrast again won out.

Keeping with the nature theme, I switched my Apple TV back to 4K HDR mode and checked out the amazing-looking Our Planet: Coastal Seas on Netflix. From the brilliant colors of the reef to the dark recesses behind the swarms of sharks I saw the same themes: an overall edge to the OLED TVs despite the TCL’s brighter image. Netflix’s nature documentary didn’t show as much HDR punch and detail as the reference disc in general, and for that reason the TCL’s brilliance didn’t make as much of an impact. In some bright scenes like the splashing seals (20:34), highlights like the waves actually measured slightly brighter on the CX OLED, but in others like the sun through the kelp (21:03) the TCL was visibly brighter and measured as such (1440 vs. 660 nits).

Geek Box

Test Result Score Black luminance (0%) 0.000 Good Peak white luminance (SDR) 377 Average Avg. gamma (10-100%) 2.20 Good Avg. grayscale error (10-100%) 0.65 Good Dark gray error (30%) 0.20 Good Bright gray error (80%) 0.20 Good Avg. color checker error 1.1 Good Avg. saturation sweeps error 1.71 Good Avg. color error 1.14 Good Red error 0.89 Good Green error 0.92 Good Blue error 1.46 Good Cyan error 1.24 Good Magenta error 1.40 Good Yellow error 0.92 Good 1080p/24 Cadence (IAL) Pass Good Motion resolution (max) 1200 Good Motion resolution (dejudder off) 1000 Good Input lag (Game mode) 13.67 Good HDR10 Black luminance (0%) 0.000 Good Peak white luminance (10% win) 690 Poor Gamut % UHDA/P3 (CIE 1976) 99.20 Good Avg. color checker error 4.36 Average Input lag (Game mode, 4K HDR) 13.73 Good

LG OLEDCX CNET Calibration Results by David Katzmaier on Scribd

Cassette Culture | HumanHuman

Many have assumed that the format war ended with the rise and assumed victory of digital media like MP3 downloads, online music videos and streaming services. That isn’t strictly true. In recent years, we’ve seen physical formats like vinyl take hold with audio obsessives and CDs are still a viable source of revenue for major artists. What vinyls, CDs and MP3s have in common is that they are all well within the public mindset of ways to listen to and own music, and yet there’s another access-point that is gradually growing an underground following. It’s a good old friend - the cassette tape.

Artwork by Edvige Valdameri

Once the premise of road trips and radio-ripped mixtapes, this retro bit of technology is now regarded as the last truly alternative format. With so many other options on offer, we want to know why cassette culture exists and if we’ll soon be filling our glove boxes and shelves with these plastic rectangles of sound.

The thing about cassette culture is… it never really went away. Since the 1970s, there has been an admiration for this affordable, high-quality piece of recording technology with DIY bands and even a few established acts, such as Grateful Dead. This band used the format to share their music, interact with fans and have even inspired one avid tape advocate to document his efforts in collecting every Grateful Dead cassette in existence. The tape community appeared to have reached its zenith in the 1980s with a plethora of small labels offering cassette-only releases and music publications like the NME, Sounds, Factsheet Five and Op Magazine running regular features on this growing culture. As we now know, the good times were not to last and with the introduction and increased availability of alternative and arguably superior technologies, the passion for tapes seem to fade, but as mentioned earlier, it didn’t disappear altogether. So, where’s the evidence of this alternative record revival?

For a while now there have been hushed rumours of this fringe culture, many of which have been eclipsed by discussions surrounding vinyl amour and the huge potential of streaming. One of the overriding arguments for the resurgence of vinyl sales is that the sound quality far surpasses that of digital streaming, and by extension the favoured niche format also has that over tapes. However, it’s important to note that cassettes are not the domain of high-fidelity obsessives, instead there are some comments to suggest that listening to music on tape imbues more life into the recordings than their modern counterparts. For example, in one Diffuser article ‘Vinyl revival? Well, I’m more of a cassette man myself’, the writer Chris Kissel cannot help but take on a romantic tone when recalling that “soft hiss in the background, reminding you that behind it all, the album has its own essence, its own breath.” Another perspective for this reanimated sound was explained earlier this year by Esther Ford, owner of Manchester-based store Deco Records, who told BBC Radio 5 that “I’ve also started selling blank tapes to a lot of the bands who just stick a tape recorder in the middle of their rehearsal room [...] I think they feel like it gives them a truer sound than if they just recorded it off their phones.” Even more support for the tape’s unique resonance comes from Island Fox, aka instinctive electronic artist Jessica Bartlett, who released her own Nature EP on cassette via Post/Pop Records:

“For audiophiles like me, listening to lossless audio such as WAV on tapes and vinyls means an influence of the 'art of individual playing' on the physical format. This modifies the sound and adds to that 'beautiful imperfection' and uniqueness, knowing that it would never sound exactly like that if anyone listened to it again.”— Jessica Bartlett, Island Fox

The sound matters, that’s for sure, but it’s not the sole force behind music consumerism. If that was the case, then streaming services wouldn’t be nearly half as successful which rely on lack-lustre laptop and mobile speakers. The rise of streaming has also shown that people are increasingly unwilling to pay out large sums for the music they listen to. It’s the same reason that vinyl is still associated with the niche and hipster markets, because for many the records and the equipment needed to play them are either unaffordable or inconvenient. What cassettes offer is a low-priced, pocket-sized physical medium for people to own music and for musicians to actually make some kind of return on their hard work. In the case of Norwegian Blue Records founder Tyson Weibe, he was led to cassette culture following an EP release for his own band in 2010, whereby they gave away one hundred free download cards for fans to scan, but the heartbreaking reality was that not a single card was redeemed. Looking for a low cost, alternative to digital files, Weibe began by learning about the ins and outs of releasing tapes via acclaimed subreddit r/cassetteculture and soon after launched Norwegian Blue’s first tape, Mormon Girls’ The Farm Sessions. In addition to the economical motivator behind selling cassettes, this Canadian musician-turned-label-owner found the disappointment of digital sales falling flat in the face of tape ritual.

“I think the sheer act of opening the tape, reading the liner, and finding the card is enjoyable to people. I know I used to do the same with all the tapes I bought as a kid. That act is a tiny moment of connection between an artist and a fan, and it's something that can't be reproduced by the best sounding digital file (sorry Pono, et al.)”— Tyson Weibe, Norwegian Blue Records

Value for money is an enormous driver behind the increased interest in the fifty-year-old format. According to Forbes, the average cost for the manufacture of an individual tape is $2, and that figure at least doubles for vinyl production which can cost between $4 and $6. This reduced rate not only means bands and artists can independently put out physical releases much earlier in their careers, but as Tom Palvich (owner of tape label Mirror Universe) explained to Noisey “when you release tapes you can take more risks than you can putting out vinyl because they are inexpensive.” Perhaps this is why tapes continue to be associated with DIY outfits and experimental genres - it’s a format that harbours risk well. British label Blue Tapes is also a fan of this “underrated medium” for this reason:

“... the fact that it can be duplicated in such small runs (editions of 1? no problem!) means that you don't have to worry about appealing to a mass audience to recoup on costs. You can release really bizarre, unique experiments that probably only have a small audience naturally and cater comfortably to them without punishing your finances, as if so often the case when releasing vinyl.”— David, Blue Tapes

However, that fringe culture association hasn’t stopped the mainstream music industry hopping aboard the tape train, as displayed by the exclusive sale of The 1975’s debut album on cassette via retail giant Urban Outfitters. Neither the band nor the company are hurting for money, so why would they chose to promote tapes? Well, aesthetic trends have a leading role here. As pointed out in a New York Times piece titled ‘Hitting Rewind on the Cassette Tape’, the artistic pliability of tapes gave rise to “Prints and paintings of cassettes; pouches, belt buckles and notebooks made to look like cassettes; buttons with little cassette images on them; envelopes, a watch, even a soap dispenser decorated with the familiar cassette shape.” Rob Walker even comments on how designers and artists are paying homage to the plastic mold, such as Brian Dettmer’s skeletal sculptures crafted out of cassettes and thus becoming the perfect symbol of the seemingly dead format’s ability to live on.

The cassettes physicality has more than an artistic advantage on its side. One outstanding argument against digital music is that it encourages a throwaway attitude to listening and while you may dispose of an unloved tape from time to time, you’re much less likely to dump a whole collection. Even if you have no intention of erasing your online music library, the lack of control over digital storage means it could disappear without your consent. As Wired journalist Graeme McMillian puts it, “If you have a glitch with your digital storage, it could be gone. Whereas with tape, it’s tangible. It’s right there.” This tangibility of music on tape is also a recurring point amongst our contributing experts. For example, this is what the owner of Tape Club Records had to say:

“Nowadays, consumption of music/entertainment happens immediately. If you want it, you're hearing it, and you'll likely move on quickly to the next thing. A cassette is simply one of the cost-effective ways to create a longer-lasting tangible relationship with a fan or listener. It can sit on a shelf, or in your car, or on your desk. It's a statement of commitment beyond just a blast of binary digits that makes us feel a little more involved.”— William Evans, Tape Club Records

That is a real issue we have yet to address within the music industry - the sense of the ritual, the sanctity in music ownership is at the risk of being lost altogether. This is why tape labels and cassette culture as a movement is so important, it reminds you that music isn’t some airy substance formulated in an industry machine. There’s real people, real instruments, real thought, messages, feelings behind so much of our modern music. The next generation of music fans surely deserves something more than a clickable download and a pixelated thumbnail of graphic design. As the online world continues to rule over the music industry, there’s already a growing need for this real world reconnection between the artists, the music and the listeners. As Get In Her Ears radio presenter and avid tape promoter Tash Walker explains:

“We live in a world where more and more of our life and frame of reference is becoming digitalised, so what happens? ...we long for something tangible...enter the cassette tape revolution.”— Tash Walker, Get In Her Ears

Contributions

Island Fox

“For audiophiles like me, listening to lossless audio such as WAV on tapes and vinyls means an influence of the 'art of individual playing' on the physical format. This modifies the sound and adds to that 'beautiful imperfection' and uniqueness, knowing that it would never sound exactly like that if anyone listened to it again. The turn around and ease of releasing cassettes vs vinyl, is much quicker and cheaper from what I can gather; I worked with an upcoming independent tape label POST/POP, which involved a really easy and appealing 50:50 physical split of a limited run of 100 tapes and no contracts etc. I think physical releases of limited edition merchandise will always have that 'rare' appeal to collectors and as an artist grows, become more valuable in many ways as well. POST/POP was a great label to work with as the owner, Jed, really loves tapes and has been taking a stall to many independent record fairs and festivals, as well as working with Rough Trade etc to really get upcoming artists' tapes heard. Cassette Culture was actually also something I grew up with owning a Walkman, and so it was great to physically release on a format that meant so much to me as a kid; an achievement which I could hold in my hands.”

Blue Tapes

“There are still some practical advantages to physical formats. Space on my laptop and other devices is always at a premium, so I'm constantly deleting and losing mp3s. Worse, said devices have a tendency of breaking frequently so it's not uncommon to lose everything. Even when I do have mp3s long enough to listen to them once or twice, I find that digital devices are increasingly glitchy and corrupt and bad at just playing music. Although it's really convenient to have thousands of songs on my mobile phone, it's absolutely terrible at being a music player, and my iPod - when I had one - wasn't much better. I can't listen to music on a computer without also doing other things on the computer (checking email, browsing Tumblr - stuff that isn't just concentrating on the music). These days, myself and most of the people I know tend to use Spotify/Bandcamp for streaming and previewing albums and then investing in the physical when we purchase. It's physically harder to get rid of a chunk of plastic than it is an mp3. Plus they turn up in random places just when you've forgotten about them and you think oh! you! I should put you on and just forget about what I'm doing for a bit. That seems to be harder to do with digital music. There is shuffle, but then you just tend to shuffle through a pre-curated playlist and not really listen to the original album or release in sequence. So that's the case for physical in the digital age, or at least one dimension of it. Of course, there are other physical music formats - LP, CD, 8 track, Mini Disc, etc. Tapes are cheaper than all of these. And they look cooler! Always hated CD packaging. The vinyl boom is making LPs too expensive. Tapes are cheap, convenient and cool, and infinitely customisable. It's hard to do a generic-looking tape these days, and the fact there are so many cool tape labels now really drives people to do ever-more interesting and original designs. So that's why I prefer tapes to other physical formats. Tape is also an underrated medium, sound-wise, and the fact that it can be duplicated in such small runs (editions of 1? no problem!) means that you don't have to worry about appealing to a mass audience to recoup on costs. You can release really bizarre, unique experiments that probably only have a small audience naturally and cater comfortably to them without punishing your finances, as if so often the case when releasing vinyl.” (David)

Tape Club Records

“Nowadays, consumption of music/entertainment happens immediately. If you want it, you're hearing it, and you'll likely move on quickly to the next thing. A cassette is simply one of the cost-effective ways to create a longer-lasting tangible relationship with a fan or listener. It can sit on a shelf, or in your car, or on your desk. It's a statement of commitment beyond just a blast of binary digits that makes us feel a little more involved.” (William Evans)

Norwegian Blue Records

“We can talk about how cassettes are an inexpensive investment, how they are an object that can bring the wonder of new discovery to some people and nostalgia to others, how they are an analog item at a fraction of the cost of an LP, or any of the other myriad reasons that the humble cassette is making a comeback, but to me, the tape is about having something physical in a world of intangibles. In early 2010, my band was about to release a four song EP. Seeing that digital seemed to be the way of the future, we printed up 100 download cards to give to anyone who walked into the venue for our release show. Of those 100 cards, zero were claimed. As an artist, this was heartbreaking. We make our art so other people can interact with it, so to have a zero percent rate was astounding. Even close friends of ours, who played in bands of their own, that attended the show hadn't downloaded it. At this point I started asking people why they hadn't downloaded it. The most common comment was that the card had been lost. The idea that we could put our energy into the EP and people would lose it that easily was so frustrating. So I started thinking of low cost alternatives that people would be unable to lose. After a bunch of terrible ideas (the worst being laser-etching the download codes on rocks. Something I was only ever semi-serious about, no matter what the other owners of Norwegian Blue tell you) I remembered that another local label (Mammoth Cave Records, R.I.P.) had done a sampler of Alberta music on tape. So I started digging into tape culture. From there I found a subreddit (r/cassetteculture) with people who were making tape culture happen. I spoke with them, asked questions and learned about do's and don'ts. Eventually we released our first cassette, Mormon Girls - The Farm Sessions, with a download card included -something we've done with every tape since. That tape has sold across Canada and around the world, but the real kicker is this: for every tape sold, the download card has been redeemed. I think the sheer act of opening the tape, reading the liner, and finding the card is enjoyable to people. I know I used to do the same with all the tapes I bought as a kid. That act is a tiny moment of connection between an artist and a fan, and it's something that can't be reproduced by the best sounding digital file (sorry Pono, et al.)” (Tyson Weibe)

Get In Her Ears

“For those of us who grew up in a world of cassette tapes, our trusty Sony Walkmans were always firmly clipped onto our belts and fed our favourite tunes of the time straight into our ears (my first purchase being Return of the Mac - no judgement). Now over the last couple of years we've seen a resurgence of the trusty tape as more and more bands are releasing their latest EPs in this format. I think it would be hard to argue that nostalgia doesn't have anything to do with this u-turn, but on a more practical note you have the reduction in cost compared to our beloved vinyl, as well as the weight and size of the cassette. There is also the ever increasing demand for the DIY aesthetic that runs alongside the zine, which again has become a lot more popular in line with the 'second wave' of riot grrrl music. We live in a world where more and more of our life and frame of reference is becoming digitalised, so what happens? ...we long for something tangible...enter the cassette tape revolution.” (Tash Walker)

https://humanhuman.com/articles/cassette-culture-renewed-interest-explained

Content marketing is visual marketing

Visual marketing adds a new dimension to your content marketing. While your competitors are still learning to fly with long-form blog posts and maybe a few gated assets, your content strategy could be centered on dynamic media like video, graphics and custom illustration.

In 2019, content marketing is visual marketing. There’s no way around it.

So if you’re planning the remainder of the year’s marketing campaign, know that the only way to truly meet your target audience’s expectations for relevant, authoritative information is to meet them on their terms. Provide them with visually arresting, must-see content.

What is visual marketing?

Visual marketing is the connection between a visual asset, like an image or video, and the idea it conveys. Based on cognitive psychology, companies can effectively market their products and services through a visual medium. This makes information much easier for users to retain and process.

So much easier that 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual.

And the brain can process these visuals 60,000 times faster than text.

Because vision is such a dominant sense, it’s inherently obvious that marketers should be upping their investments to capitalise on visual content.

Our eyes absorb content at volumes that are unprecedented compared with previous generations of consumers. You should be helping your audience wade through what matters and what doesn’t.

Visuals afford a number of physiological advantages over other content types, such as:

Clarifying ideas and abstract concepts.

Supporting the understanding of new ideas.

Weeding out incorrect information.

Visual marketing goals

Humans are visual learners.

Go to any school classroom today and you see tablets, interactive games and colorful presentations. Gone are the days of stale lectures and barely visible words on a grainy challkboard.

A digital marketing target audience needs quick, frictionless information – straight to inboxes, social feeds and web search results pages. Visual assets make this possible.

They require less buy-in than a text-heavy blog post or lengthy whitepaper. Plus, visuals accomplish numerous marketing goals, like:

Brand awareness and identity

Visual branding is a first impression, often the only impression a consumer or buyer will ever have of your brand.

In other words, you have to get it right.

Company logos, color contrasts and typography create a larger picture of what your brand stands for and why an audience needs to sit up and pay attention to what you have to say. Having a consistent visual presence across all online channels ensures you’re creating a cohesive experience for users throughout every stage of the marketing funnel.

Product or service demonstration

What you sell matters. How you sell it matters even more.

Whether it’s a 90-second web demo or an in-depth, in-person product tutorial, you need a visual, interactive component to your brand.

There’s only so much a written explanation or FAQ can accomplish. But a comprehensive video that details important elements of your product or service is mandatory.

Content scannability

Visual marketing doesn’t mean you throw your written content out the window. There’s still plenty of room in your marketing campaign for the old-fashioned written word since text is the primary way search engines crawl and index your web pages.

That said, your content needs to be optimised for a mobile-first audience with a short attention span.

In practice this means using html subheads and imagery to break up text every 200 or 300 words. By embedding visuals throughout your on-page content you create a more satisfying, multimedia user experience.

At a very basic level, readers of any demographic prefer content that is easy to consume versus a laborious, long read.

Social media shareability

Content that is scannable tends to also be more shareable across social media platforms.

With roughly one-third of the planet using social media, it’s absolutely imperative that content performs not just for organic search engines but for human users too.

If it doesn’t get shared, it hardly exists.

Facebook and Twitter posts that contain images receive 70% and 78% more shares, respectively, than those with just text. And platforms like Instagram and Snapchat put visuals front and center, making text a secondary factor in social performance.

Lead generation and sales enablement

It’s estimated that 90% of all snap purchases are based on the branding of a product, aka how it looks and the emotion it conjures.

This means visual content marketing isn’t just about being present or being seen; it’s about driving sales too.

Videos and imagery play on humans’ conscious and unconscious biases in a way that text does not. They are deeply rooted mediums that our brains are hardwired to absorb and enjoy.

And that’s a powerful fact that can be employed in lead gen campaigns. Moving prospects further down the funnel via visuals brings them one step closer to becoming a customer, completing the overarching goal of all marketing and advertising.

How to go visual

Including visual elements in your content marketing strategy is easy.

Below are a number of assets to consider and how to quickly integrate them into your marketing campaigns:

Infographics

Design-centric formats are ideal for social media and email campaigns.

Infographics in particular combine the best in editorial and graphics to visualise key data points, important concepts and industry trends.

Sure, you could talk at length about rising economic spend in your sector, but a simple infographic with on-brand illustrations is going to make your point much more clearly.

It’s about simplifying content down to its bare messaging.

Videos

Video marketing is on the upswing, and has been for the better part of the last five years. Although it tends to require talent and budget a lot of organisations don’t have, video is the cornerstone of human connection.

Finding a way to incorporate it – in some form – in your marketing is table stakes in 2019 and beyond. Luckily, there are numerous formats and budgetary options to work with, such as:

GIFs.

Animations.

Web demos.

Live footage/livestreams.

Augmented/virtual reality.

On-location shoots.

Corporate testimonials.

Webinars.

Formatted eBooks, whitepapers and case studies

One of the best ways to immediately make your marketing more visual is to convert existing assets to new formats.

Take a blog post and turn it into an eBook complete with branded elements and illustrative cues.

You can also make your content more authoritative and click-worthy by supporting your research with pull quotes, page breaks, logos, photography, corporate branding and visual markers.

Three-thousand words on a new industry trend is a lot more digestible when complemented by data visualisations, text callouts and graphical overlays.

When in doubt, think like a reader. What bores you to tears, and what actually keeps your interest?

User-generated content

Sometimes you don’t even have to do the legwork in your marketing. Let your audience do it for you.

By running branded hashtag campaigns, social media contests and product giveaways you can gin up interest and engagement in your company’s marketing efforts. Then you can compile all of these interactions into something visually compelling.

View this post on Instagram

Welcome to the #bitterpups family Audie!

A post shared by Bitter Pups (@bitterpups) on Apr 9, 2018 at 1:45pm PDT

Take Bitter Pops, for instance.

They’re a small-time brew shop in Chicago and they run an Instagram account called “Bitter Pups.” Followers show up in store with their furry friends and take photos with Bitter Pops swag to be featured online. We loved this idea so much we crowned it one of our favorite social media campaigns in recent memory.

Rather than running the same types of social media posts over and over, allow your followers to post for you.

Over time, followers act on their own accord simply to be part of something bigger than themselves.

That’s free, visual content for you.

Blog posts

As we stated before, blog posts can be visual too.

This post, for example, is quite visual, as we included several forms of content to better illustrate our point. We featured social media embeds, YouTube videos, graphical CTAs to in-depth content, custom images and GIFs.

It’s basically blogging 2.0.

Just because the text is doing most of the messaging, you still need your blogs to be attention-grabbing, which is where visuals come in.

Paid ads

Paid ads are another content format to consider.

Because Google Ads Quality Scores account for the quality, creativity and relevance of your ad landing pages, your ads need to be optimised with visual components.

This often means on-brand colors, thematic imagery or photographs and clickable CTA buttons to best convert users who land on your page.

Depending on where you’re sending users, you may need conversion forms, video demos or product comparisons on your landing page, too.

In this case, visuals once again work best. Keep your text to a minimum and let your product branding speak for itself. This goes for ads across search, social media and display networks.

But avoid stock photography

Stock images are the downfall of online humanity. They’re so obviously staged and hilariously boring that they can actually have a negative impact on your brand.

So avoid stock photography if possible. Relevant, hi-res photos, in general, have value in some cases, but if you have the opportunity to custom-create design assets, then do so.

Visualise your success

Visual marketing is now mainstream across B2C and B2B organisations, though it may still have ground to make up in your specific industry.

Some companies still rely on physical marketing like trade shows and business cards – more power to them. Others have pivoted fully into automated technology and digital-only marketing – even more power (and ROI) to them.

While you may not be able to convince higher-ups to move the majority of your marketing budget to visual, you should at least aim to outpace your competitors’ visual output.

Videos (63%) are already shared on social media more often than blogs (60%). And 51% of B2B marketers are making visual assets their top priority moving forward. So clearly there is momentum toward going visual.

Will you ride the wave or sit it out?

from http://bit.ly/2ZjMLl6

Ticket To Success And Sales - Online Marketing Website Services

Nothing is better than Internet Marketing Website services in today's world. Internet marketing from website design Melbourne company all about going to the appropriate place at the correct time. With the online area invading every space and edge of our lives, this is where you'll find your audience.

Online is the area to be

From social media to e-commerce sites, our existing generations get up to their mobile displays, dramatize just via in beeps and blocks. No person physically meets or welcomes anymore, rather we just 'like' as well as 'comment'. So, like any type of excellent advertising strategy that starts with going where the client goes, the time currently is to go digital. Online marketing has actually ended up being the most current trend, a definite marketing must-do all the multi- national companies. Internet marketing companies as well as solutions are one of the most searched for by major companies. The benefits of online marketing when compared to its equivalents - the traditional/offline advertising, is so shiny and also intense, that it has actually ended up being impossible to disregard. Let's review the prime advantages:

'The Globe is your Stage': With internet marketing services, your reach is absolutely generous. It increases in terms of demographic as well as importance. Deep pockets and large checking account are no more the required to obtain noticed and also market items. For instance, A regional farmer from one side of the globe, can now take his fruit and vegetables and also showcase it online to get to a prospective client living on the other side. All he'll need to do is to use the internet to market this item, alongside some smart Search Engine Optimization strategies to place it among the right group.

'Laugh right to the financial institution'- It's not a surprise rap artists around the world dish out such catch-phrases, every now and then. Besides, how can any person run from the truth that every service as well as corporation is the world functions in the direction of - 'revenue' aka income, return, moolah? So, when the outcomes are so tempting, that wouldn't leap? With the possibility to get to the target audience directly and directly, the sales are bound to rise, by default.

'Straight from the horse's mouth' - With digital advertising and marketing you can record every step of your consumer. In the online room, everything becomes clear - the excellent, bad and the ugly is visible for each to evaluate. No eluding, you will certainly get immediate comments and also instantaneous record of your product's performance. You can straight connect to your client as well as develop an individual bond. Providers can be personalized. Additionally, given that every person is on-line all the time, being in this area will make you much more visible.

'Marking your territory' - Digital advertising promises to reduce advertising prices dramatically. Beyond all various other advantages, the Passover from traditional or offline advertising to online is bound to be tremendously cost-effective.

'Something for everyone' - Online marketing room isn't reserved for the who's that of business world. Also a small business or a beginning- up can gain benefits in all the totality. That's the elegance of this medium. Such opportunity provides a fair chance to businesses to prove their mettle simply based upon the high quality of services/product. For the first time, a small venture can offer the market's big fish a run for its loan. Making it an all-inclusive setting to run service in.

'Survival of the fittest' - Business world is booming, everyone wants a piece of it. So, in order to survive this mad rush, you need to a step in advance, constantly. Remaining in the digital offers you straight insights in your markets and also population density. It provides you the possibility to assess your rivals relocate as well as plan an answer. Online marketing firms aid in providing your brand the side and also new-age radiance. Therefore, ensuring the customer's that the product/services that you supply are advanced as well as cutting side in all its whole.

7 B2B Content Marketing Tactics For Long Term Success

I have an important question for you: Athlete A runs a marathon in under 3 hours. Athlete B runs a 40-yard dash in under 5 seconds. Which athlete is more impressive to you? Athlete A can run the distance, but Athlete B is explosive. ?

via GIPHY If you’re anything like me, you answered that they’re both very impressive. And you’d be right. Having both endurance and power are extremely important. So, why am I asking this question on a blog all about marketing? Well, the most successful content marketing strategies have tactics that cover those two qualities: endurance and power. AKA long-term and short-term tactics. For content marketing to be successful, you need those flashy, attention-grabbing campaigns to meet immediate goals. But you also need reliable, consistent, thought-provoking content to compound results over time. Below, I share the B2B content marketing tactics that combine for the greatest long-term success. [bctt tweet="“The most successful content marketing strategies have tactics that cover two qualities: endurance and power. AKA long-term and short-term tactics.” — Annie Leuman @annieleuman" username="toprank"]

7 of the Best B2B Content Marketing Tactics

Long-Term B2B Content Marketing Tactics

Tactic #1 - Blog Content

When it comes to tried and true tactics, blogging takes the cake. Blogging is some 26-years old and still drives amazing results. In fact, a recent survey from SEMrush found that it remains the most popular content type with 86% of marketers responding that it is the most important content type they create. Considering how much we marketers value optimization and data, we wouldn’t still be writing blog posts in 2020 if they didn’t drive results. How is blogging a long-term tactic, though? Well, similar to most long-term tactics, once you start you can’t stop. A blog is a brand-owned channel and a valuable resource of relevant knowledge for your customers and prospects. Stop publishing there, and it stops being that reliable source of brand perspectives and information. All out of new blog content ideas? Read these tips for more efficient content creation from TopRank Marketing CEO, Lee Odden.

Tactic #2 - Social Media Content

Back in 2019, Statista reported the average person spent 144 minutes per day on social media. I can only imagine that number has gone up in 2020 due to the COVID-19 health crisis. In marketing, you go where your audience is, making social media content a must for any brand both B2B and B2C. And once again, your social media content needs to be consistent over the long term if you’re to grow your social media following into the connected group of prospects, customers, and partners that you desire. Furthermore, social media content requires constant monitoring so you’re able to capitalize on timely topics and discussions that happen on social media platforms in real time. Growing your audience on social media is a laborious and lengthy process, but it’s easily worth it to have an engaged following, ready to consume the content you distribute and promote on your platforms of choice. How should you approach social media listening in the age of coronavirus? We have some tips for you that should help. 

Tactic #3 - Influencer Content

Read any other marketing blog and an influencer marketing campaign is probably classified as an ad-hoc, short-term tactic. However, here at TopRank Marketing, we believe in an always-on approach to influencer marketing. Think about it this way: do you approach personal relationships as a one and done interaction? No, relationships require nurturing and frequent interactions in order to grow and solidify. We believe influencer relationships, and therefore influencer marketing, needs to be approached in the same way. With nurturing. With empathy. Influencers are people, too, you know. Not sure what always-on influencer marketing looks like? View these 5 examples. 

Tactic #4 - Podcast Content

Starting a podcast is not for the faint of heart. It involves working with a new medium: audio. It involves publishing across several channels: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, etc. It involves securing guests. It involves creating thoughtful episodes. And, most importantly, it involves creating a show listeners want to tune into week after week. It is because a podcast is intended to be a continual show or series that it’s one of our favorite B2B content marketing tactics. Here at TopRank, we think of our podcasts like TV shows. Each podcast has several seasons made up of carefully designed episodes that match the theme of the season. This allows us to use each episode and each season as a chance to further grow and engage our listeners. If you’re wondering how you can launch your B2B podcast, start with these 10 steps.

Short-Term B2B Content Marketing Tactics

Tactic #5 - Sponsored & Guest Content

As stated above, blog content is extremely valuable. But when posted on a brand-owned blog, you’re limiting the exposure of your content to the people who already know or follow your brand. To reach a larger audience, you need to turn outward. And while more social media or email promotion could help — if it’s on a brand-owned channel you’re still limited to people who already follow you. So what about reaching a new audience? This is where sponsored or guest content can help you reach a new audience and expand your reach in the short-term. By posting content on a different channel, you’re exposing your content and thought leadership to a different audience. For example, you can secure placement on publications in a new target vertical or write a guest post on an expert’s blog. These are one-time placements, making this tactic drive short-term results, but the pay-off of greater reach and exposure is definitely worth it. But wait — isn’t that just advertising? We explain the great content vs. advertising debate here. 

Tactic #6 - Digital Advertising Content

Marketers have the seemingly impossible task of delivering the right message, at the right time, to the right audience, in the right channel. That’s a lot to ask. And it’s reaching that right audience that can be really hard to do with the long-term tactics above. Like I said, using brand-owned channels can make it tough to reach a new audience. Luckily, digital advertising content is a great short-term tactic that can help you target your ideal audience with the right message, at the right time, in the right channel. From native social media advertising to traditional display ads, these ad campaigns can help you spread your message in the short-term. Digital advertising is best when paired with content marketing. Learn more about how to marry the two tactics here. 

Tactic #7 - eBooks, Infographics, and Larger Content Campaigns

Campaigns, like eBooks, infographics, and interactive assets, have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Because campaigns aren’t designed to last forever — you need one to end for another to begin — they make it onto our short-term tactics list. Why are they a great short-term tactic? You can pack a ton of information and insight into a content marketing campaign. Plus, you can use a wide mix of media and strategies like influencers, video, audio, interactivity, and more to drive powerful engagement among your audience. They aren’t built to last, but they are built to pack a punch.

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

The best B2B content marketing strategies use a mix of the tactics above for both long- and short-term success. Short-term tactics help raise awareness for the long-term tactics. And long-term tactics help build up a loyal, engaged audience for future short-term campaigns. In other words, you need both. There’s a mutually beneficial relationship between all content marketing tactics. So use the list above to start plotting your course to B2B content marketing success. Hungry for even more B2B content marketing tactics? Well, here’s 50 of them. Enjoy!

The post 7 B2B Content Marketing Tactics For Long Term Success appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

from The SEO Advantages http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/LcYDCMxqIQI/

The Future of Local Search: 20+ Predictions for 2020

As the decade draws to a close, here at BrightLocal we’re preparing to don our flapper gear and sashay our way into the Roaring Twenties 2.0 in style. To celebrate the end of a very eventful year — the year in which that Google My Business survey, BERT, and of course, the Bedlam Update, took place — we’ve reached out to some of the industry’s leading figures. Read on as we bring out our crystal ball and discover what the top experts in local are predicting for the year ahead. The return of Google+? (Kind of) As Google continues to introduce new functions (such as the ability to follow Local Guides) theories of the resurgence of Google as a social network have begun to emerge. Spam-fighting pro and latest addition to Sterling Sky’s expanding team Jason Brown speculates: Google will launch a new service similar to G+ and a new community will be built around Local Guides and reviewers. This ties in particularly with his second prediction, that Google will rely more heavily on user-generated content (UGC) than ever before: Google is going to increase its demand and push for UGC, photos, reviews, Q&A and ‘Know this business?’ And Jason’s not alone in his thinking – Local Product Strategist at Rio SEO and GMB Gold Product Expert Krystal Taing predicts that if local businesses don’t start playing the UGC-game, they’ll miss out in a major way: All brands need to get up to speed on the many different ways user-generated content can impact your local visibility and rankings, from consumer reviews to suggested updates to local listings to GMB Q&A and beyond. Active listening, the ability to respond in real-time, and then using that UGC to drive greater visibility and engagement are key. Spam be gone! When we reached out to the experts for their 2020 predictions, there was one word on everyone’s lips – spam (no, not that kind). Sadly, despite the Nov. 2019 Local Search Update (aka the Bedlam Update), it doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing the back of GMB spam just yet. Local SEO Consultant at Online Ownership Tim Capper shares his thoughts on the controversial issue: Google has attempted to get [spam] under control but I don’t see it getting better in 2020. If Google does want to get a handle on this they need to close API loopholes and expand ‘bad’ address databases to other countries, not just the US – there is spam outside of the US too! Meanwhile, Crystal Horton of Accelerate Marketing remains optimistic about the spam outlook come 2020… I’m hopeful that fake listings and fake reviews will start to decrease in rankings once data from review place topics and service area specificity become more prominent. …Attorney Sync’s Gyi Tsakalakis offers a happy medium… I hope 2020 will bring major improvements to Google’s ability to fight spam in local packs. It’s absolutely out of control. Unfortunately, I neither predict nor expect that much to change. While there’s been a ton of local flux recently, there’s still no shortage of spam, at least in legal SERPs. …And Powered by Search’s Matt Lacuesta suggests taking things into your own hands: Spam in GMB is rampant and I think we’ll see Google try to address it more in the coming year, but don’t plan on that solving the problem. In 2020 business owners and agencies alike will need to actively monitor their local search landscape and report suspected spam.  Finally, GMB Gold Product Expert, Steady Demand’s Ben Fisher – an ever-shining light of optimism – told us: 2020 will be the year Google catches more spam than ever before…   …Just kidding! If anything, I think spam will increase. While Google states that the spam that is in the system is small compared to real data, the system is too easily gamed and fake listings along with fake reviews are on the rise. Will Neural Matching help curtail it? Maybe, but even so, spammers will find another way and Google is always a step behind. The redressal form was a great first step, but it is not enough. Pay-to-play and ads, ads, ads Last year, one of the most prominent topics among local SEOs (partially owing to that GMB summer survey) was pay-to-play. In 2020, director of SEO at Postali Dan Foland continues to anticipate the rising popularity of paid options:  I see the future of local SEO going more towards paid offerings which will make it more difficult for businesses relying on organic visibility. Google has been aggressively testing more local ad placements and even sent out a survey asking GMB users their opinions on making aspects of GMB paid. It’s clear that Google is starting to focus more on monetizing local search and GMB and I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon. Meanwhile, Tim Capper warns GMB users to keep an eye out for ads making their way into more and more places: You should expect this ad encroachment to increase and to keep an eye on what is being displayed in your business’s knowledge panel. In fact, it’s entirely possible that the first page of SERPs will be entirely filled with various types of paid ads – at least that’s what Kickpoint’s Dana DiTomaso is anticipating: Paid search is going to continue to take over more of local SEO when it comes to the ‘traditional’ SERP. We’ll see results where paid is the majority of the first page, along with Google specific products, such as Local Service Ads. Given the increasing frustration with Google My Business (summarized nicely by Optimisey’s Andrew Cock-Starkey as a “great big dumpster fire”), can we expect paid features to emerge? According to Andrew, this might be the only way for Google to feasibly clean things up: One way Google could clean up GMB is to make it a paid for product – or at least parts of it. Most people in local SEO saw the survey which slipped out from Google, asking about which services you might pay for,  how much, and which packages you’d get most value from. I’m going to stick my neck out and say before 2020 is done there will be some form of ‘pay to play’ system in Google My Business. Similarly, co-founder of Ignitor Digital Mary Bowling anticipates more ads within Google Places, stating: We’ll see more ads and more types of ads in more Google Places and Google will continue to find ways to insert itself into the online sales processes of local businesses. Alexa, tell me about voice search As if the year ‘2020’ didn’t sound futuristic enough, it looks like we’ll be seeing even more of an increase in the use of voice search, AI, and other similar techniques. Digital Strategist Shane Barker predicts voice search will have increasing importance in local: There will be an increased focus on optimizing for voice search, even by local businesses. Though you might think machine learning happens mostly online, we can expect it to have some very real-world consequences. VP of Search at SearchLab Chicago Greg Gifford explains: Google is going to really push the entity angle in local even harder. We’ve seen so many patents around entity analysis and the newest patent involves using quality ‘repeat visits’ to a location as a ranking factor. I think Google (especially in local) wants to use real-world signals to rank businesses instead of links and content. Machine learning has finally allowed Google to gain a better understanding of entities, and those real-world signals are much more reliable than links and content. We’ll see physical visits, unlinked mentions, and reviews become some of the most important ranking factors. Making the most of GMB Two well-loved UK SEOs, Claire Carlile and Andy Simpson both touched on similar points when asked to get their crystal balls out. Referencing the myriad new features introduced to GMB in 2019, Claire commented: In GMB, new functionality will continue to roll out and businesses will need to take advantage of existing opportunities such as photos, Q&A, Google posts, product editor, short names, messaging, and reserve with google, as well as keeping an eye on new features as they emerge.  Businesses will need to actively engage with GMB as a communications channel to reach and respond to clients and potential clients. The importance of GMB will continue to grow and small businesses will do well to think of it as a CMS separate to that of their website. Similarly, Andy emphasized the importance of taking control of what’s visible to users on the SERPs: Taking control of how your business’s brand is displayed in the SERPs should be on everyone’s radar for 2020. When potential customers search for your brand by name, what appears on the first page of Google? It should almost be a given that your Google My Business listing should appear. In 2020 business owners large and small have to be aware and ‘take control’ of what is displayed on the first page of Google about your business and make sure it’s the best it can be. Meh, links When it comes to the conversation of link building, it’s hard for Gyi Tsakalakis’s famous catchphrase not to be the first thing that comes to mind – and really, we couldn’t justify calling this section anything else. But in all seriousness, here’s what Gyi had to say on the matter: I predict: Meh, links. Well, what did you expect? Continuing with the theme, owner of Rickety Roo Blake Denman shared his thoughts on the age-old practice: Meh, links (hat tip to Gyi for coining this).  All jokes aside, Blake suggested that local businesses should focus on “topically and locally-relevant link building.”  Zero is the loneliest number, actually Towards the end of the year, the local search community was rife with talks of the elusive ‘position zero’ and zero-click searches. PatientPop’s Joel Headley anticipates: With the broader SEO community focused on the growth of zero-click searches, local SEOs know that zero-click is the bread and butter of bringing customers to the front door of storefronts through phone calls and driving directions.  Andy Simpson elaborated on the current state of so-called zero-click SERPs, outlining the consequence we might expect it to have for local businesses: Users are finding what they need to know about your business directly from the Google search results. Your business address (including directions to it), phone number, and even customer reviews, so the user has no need to click through to your website. This could mean fewer clicks through to your site, less traffic and perhaps lower sales/bookings in some cases. Way back in early 2017 Mike Blumenthal called it “Google as your new homepage”, but should we now be thinking of it as “Google IS your homepage”?  Long live schema markup In addition to the state of SERPs, spam, and GMB features, our experts had plenty to say about the future of schema markup. Of course, when it came to discussing schema, CEO of Schema App Martha van Berkel, was the first person we turned to: 2020 is looking to be the year of schema markup (aka structured data). Why? Throughout 2019 we’ve seen an acceleration of features released and announcements pertaining to schema markup. On November 4th at the Google Webmaster Conference, one of the top trends was schema markup, with Google stating that they will be investing in more features in 2020. As we see more searches be for questions on mobile, desktop, and through typing and voice search, schema markup will make sure that the content, services, products, and locations are fully understood and stand out in these search channels. Shane Barker also anticipates that schema will be a prominent factor for local businesses in 2020: Local businesses that use structured data, especially for business information, will be more successful in their local SEO efforts. Further predictions We received so many insightful predictions from our experts in local, we couldn’t possibly fit them all in (on that note, be sure to follow us on Twitter where we’ll be sharing exclusive snippets from our conversations with the pros). But what else can we expect from Google in the year ahead? Ending on an optimistic note, Head of Search at Local SEO Guide Dan Leibson predicts we’ll have even more communication from the major players in 2020: Now that Danny Sullivan is providing comms for Google’s GEO products (like the Google My Business September Core Update), I would expect to get more information from Google around that product. Now how accurate it is is an entirely different discussion. He also suggests that Google will continue to localize SERPs in general: I think the biggest trend in all of search, the one no one is really talking about except AJ Kohn and myself, is that Google wants to be able to localize parts of all SERPs and SERP features. I expect this trend to aggressively continue in 2020. Join the conversation Now the experts have spoken, why not have your say? Will 2020 be the year spam is eradicated from GMB? Will the rise in no-click SERPs increase? Drop us a comment below with your predictions — if nothing else, we can all return to this post next year and laugh at the inevitable naivety and optimism a new decade brings with it. The post The Future of Local Search: 20+ Predictions for 2020 appeared first on BrightLocal. https://probdm.com/site/MzE4NA

Facebook Launches Native Messenger Advertisements. Are They Worth It?

Facebook teased a statement in Might about list building ads becoming available in Messenger. On August 29, the company revealed that this advertisements option is now available globally. According to Facebook,

Messenger helps you simplify customer acquisition by supplying a direct, conversational way for people to take action where they currently invest their time ... We are revealing the international roll out of list building in Messenger, which allows organisations to set up an automated question experience. Advertisements that click-to-Messenger, produced in the messages goal, opens a Messenger conversation in between a person and business and begins a set of concerns that can be responded to through pre-filled or totally free kind text.

I confess. I might have had a Gilmore Girls marathon with my children this weekend. Which may be why I believed a classic Rory Gilmore pro/con list was the best method to break down Facebook's rollout of native List building Advertisements in Messenger.

Is this new option in Facebook Ads a good thing? Or is this good from afar, however far from excellent?

through GIPHY Messenger is Growing Prior to we produce our list, let's very first evaluation where Facebook Messenger Advertisements have actually been and where they are going.

They are not brand-new. Considering that 2017, companies have been experimenting with list building and e-commerce through Messenger. And it's working. ManyChat notes that there are 1.3 billion people actively usage Facebook Messenger on a monthly basis. Not just signed up-- actively utilizing it.

Facebook keeps in mind the gradually growing stats for Messenger when it comes to businesses:

Many remarkably, 56% of people who message organisations state they are most likely to patronize an organisation they can reach on Messenger.

I spoke to my associate, Rutger Thole (aka "The Botfather"), about this announcement. He states,

Most of digital marketers will need to change the method they believe they might-- and should-- use Messenger.

It's not simply a sales tool.

Messenger is a remarkable and powerful tool that should be part of your mix. It's a different channel that you can utilize.

I enjoy utilizing Messenger for a variety of entry points when and where your audience desires you:

TOF leadgen

List structure

Pre-purchase customer support

Post-purchase customer assistance

Audience segmentation for hyper-targeting

So it makes good sense. Previously, we Facebook advertisers have actually needed to count on 3rd party platforms like ManyChat to develop Messenger circulations for Facebook. Now Facebook wants to throw its hat in the ring and include this to its wheelhouse.

The question is, how great is the brand-new, native Messenger leadgen advertisements choice?

Let's get to it. (Rory would be halfway finished with her list by now.)

Facebook Native Messenger Ads advantages and disadvantages

PROs:

You can send to Messenger or do a Sponsored Message.

You can connect your WhatsApp account, too.

You can optimize for replies or leads.

You can produce chats that are text or text and images. You can then select to include up to 10 questions.(While this is an excellent quantity of concerns offered so as to not overwhelm users, the alternatives for the concerns are again, standard. Short answer, choices to click, or user details inquiries.)

You can avoid 3rd party fees for more improved services (a favorite of ours is ManyChat) while testing out the performance

. CONs:

The native offering is basic, which is to be anticipated with the first version.

There is no conditional reasoning to make the engagement more boosted and ultimately please the user's concerns and needs on a much deeper level. Here are examples of ManyChat Blueprints for online training and lead magnets from the learning course.

Along with standard contact information collection that the native leadgen templates in Facebook permit, actions six and 7 listed below show the postponed drip functionality that a program like ManyChat enables.

Credit: ManyChat

Third party platforms like ManyChat will most likely start diversifying across platforms in methods Facebook can't. This is the nature of SaaS business fixing faster-- after all, ManyChat has actually been around for a couple of years and Facebook is just now finally offering native Messenger Advertisements.

While there might be 3rd party charges associated with external programs, there is currently greater functionality. It will be difficult for advertisement purchasers who have been integrating in programs like ManyChat to utilize a stripped-down version.

So, who wins the pro/con list?

If you have a basic convenience level running advertisements in Facebook Advertisements Manager, however haven't dipped your toe in the water with Messenger Advertisements yet, this is a perfect opportunity to start evaluating them out.

If you're currently utilizing boosted 3rd party software, you will more than likely not desire to switch to native Facebook Messenger leadgen.

I asked another favorite associate and chatbot professional, Karen Saheyta, Creator of Brand Central Marketing and ManyChat expert, what she considers the new function:

This is an excellent opportunity for individuals to connect comparable to lead advertisements however in a more individual way. Messenger leads permit you to additional establish the relationship right now using the very same medium, whereas with lead ads there can be more friction when you switch to a phone or e-mail follow-up. ... this function shouldn't be rather of a more enhanced chatbot experience like ManyChat-- just another tool.

Just as Facebook continues to develop its advertisements using, I'm sure this is simply the very first version of its native Messenger leadgen advertisements.

This content was originally published here.

BITCOIN ON FIRE: Was this the spark?

BITCOIN ON FIRE: Was this the spark?

The Lightning Torch – a chain tweet between crypto celebrities that demonstrates it can be easy and cheap to pay for stuff with Bitcoin – may have helped light a fire under Bitcoin, with the crypto touching US$4000 this week and the highest daily volume since May last year. When historians (hopefully) look back on the Great Bitcoin Bull Run of 2019, will the Lightning Torch be the spark? OK, some other stuff happened too …

Of course, there are plenty of other bullish signs around Bitcoin lately – with Samsung adding a crypto wallet to its new Galaxy phone, Bakkt and Fidelity about to launch, JP Morgan announcing their own digital coin and other signs the institutions have arrived.

But The Lightning Network is the most promising sign that Bitcoin will finally be adopted by mainstream consumers as a currency. Bitcoin already has the name recognition and now it looks like it has a system in place that makes it actually useful

Yes, it’s basically just chain mail as a PR stunt

The Lightning Torch AKA #LNTrustChain may not seem like much – a chain tweet amassing 10,000 satoshis (35c) at a time – but the stunt has garnered acres of coverage and proves the Lightning Network enables fast, tiny transactions at a tiny cost.

Advertisement

The main argument from Bitcoin bears has been that it can’t scale, that the network is slow, expensive and horribly inefficient (read: Is Bitcoin Totally Useless?). During last year’s ATH, transactions cost a fortune and took half a day, with the network gobbling up a country’s worth electricity as miners competed for block rewards.

The Lightning Network attempts to fix (some of) those problems, with an off chain solution. If it can scale, then the low transaction costs will make it a very competitive payment system for merchants, who currently shell out around 2.5% to accept credit card payments.

The ‘genesis tweet’ and ‘where’s Elon?’

Since Twitter crypto enthusiast ‘hodlonaut’ sent what is now know as the ‘genesis tweet’ on January 20, usage of the Lightning Network has grown almost 40 percent, as the torch passed between crypto celebs including Boxmining, Binance’s Changpeng Zhao, Tron’s Justin Sun and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey.

If Elon Musk finally gives in to numerous exhortations to pick up the torch, the mainstream press coverage could see that number grow further.

Lightning Network grows 830% but still small beer

As it is, usage of the network has surged by 830% over the past six months. While transaction volume is still small beer – just under $3 million – it does appear to work.

At the time of writing Bitcoin was up almost 9 percent across the week, and just over 5 percent for the month.

While plenty of folk have been taking advantage of a new service in the US that allows you to buy Domino’s pizza (bleurgh) over the Lightning Network, the most promising sign for mainstream adoption has been on Twitter.

Twitter takes Bitcoin to the low spending masses

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey not only took up the torch, but actually increased the word count limit for tweets to support the Lightning Network invoice.

Dorsey has also endorsed a new browser Tweet tipping extension built using LN. “This is excellent” he told his more than 4 million followers about Tippin.me.

Download a Lightning Wallet, transfer a few dollars worth of BTC, open a direct channel with tippin.me and you’re good to go. The extension adds a lightning bolt to each tweet (helping spread awareness) and allows users to tip small amounts for tweets they like. Dorsey demonstrated the system on his own account this week.

“I hooked this up and already got tipped some satoshis,” Dorsey tweeted on Feb 21. Leaving aside the complicated morality of ordinary people giving tips to billionaires – even though he only made 49 cents – it was still a beautiful demonstration of the system’s potential.

It’s also widely believed that Dorsey’s other company Square will add LN to its Cash App.

Bad news for Steemit and Basic Attention Token

Twitter’s enthusiastic embrace of LN is good news for adoption, but potentially bad news for blockchain based social platforms and tokens like Steemit and Basic Attention Token, which operate in a similar fashion but don’t have the social media giant’s reach.

Now the idea has gone mainstream, it probably won’t be long before we see similar systems on YouTube, Facebook, Medium and Instagram.

(If this all sounds familiar, there used to be a Bitcoin App called ChangeTip, but it died in 2016.)

Lots of potential, but still doesn’t work right

The Lightning Torch and Tipping.me are ideal ways to grow the network, which doesn’t have a lot of liquidity at present. Due to some complicated mechanics, LN requires all the various intermediaries in the network to all have enough ‘staked’ to process your transaction. This means you probably won’t be sending large amounts of money anytime soon. It hasn’t been designed for this, to be fair.

Trustnodes received the Torch this week and reported that when the system works, it’s great. But it doesn’t always work. “When it worked, it does have a bit of a wow factor. The payment went out straight on and the fee was unfairly cheap … It only worked smoothly once in the three times that were tried, however.”

And it may never work say critics …

There are also plenty of naysayers with complicated mathematical models who believe The Lightning Network is fundamentally flawed and won’t be able to scale up.

Invest in Blockchain’s analysis suggests that if the network grows to 25 million active users it would require 57.08 on chain transactions a second and an estimated block size of 8.56MB. If it ever gets to a billion users, it would require a 342.47MB Bitcoin block size.

Let’s get excited anyway

But then again, back in the 1990s no one really knew how to ensure the internet could cope with HD streaming video, and they managed to solve that. As Invest In Blockchain points out, there are theoretical solutions already being worked on.

Despite plenty of critical and cautionary tweets that this week’s percentage rise won’t herald a new bull run, sentiment does appear to be turning.

As Binance’s CZ tweeted: “Is it just me? Or are we getting more excited at 4k than 20k?”

-By Andrew Fenton. Follow me on Twitter at @andrewfenton

GET BREAKING NEWS EVERY WEEK – Subscribe to Micky

Original Source https://ift.tt/2TfpmNT

BITCOIN ON FIRE: Was this the spark?

BITCOIN ON FIRE: Was this the spark?

The Lightning Torch – a chain tweet between crypto celebrities that demonstrates it can be easy and cheap to pay for stuff with Bitcoin – may have helped light a fire under Bitcoin, with the crypto touching US$4000 this week and the highest daily volume since May last year. When historians (hopefully) look back on the Great Bitcoin Bull Run of 2019, will the Lightning Torch be the spark? OK, some other stuff happened too …

Of course, there are plenty of other bullish signs around Bitcoin lately – with Samsung adding a crypto wallet to its new Galaxy phone, Bakkt and Fidelity about to launch, JP Morgan announcing their own digital coin and other signs the institutions have arrived.

But The Lightning Network is the most promising sign that Bitcoin will finally be adopted by mainstream consumers as a currency. Bitcoin already has the name recognition and now it looks like it has a system in place that makes it actually useful

Yes, it’s basically just chain mail as a PR stunt

The Lightning Torch AKA #LNTrustChain may not seem like much – a chain tweet amassing 10,000 satoshis (35c) at a time – but the stunt has garnered acres of coverage and proves the Lightning Network enables fast, tiny transactions at a tiny cost.

Advertisement

The main argument from Bitcoin bears has been that it can’t scale, that the network is slow, expensive and horribly inefficient (read: Is Bitcoin Totally Useless?). During last year’s ATH, transactions cost a fortune and took half a day, with the network gobbling up a country’s worth electricity as miners competed for block rewards.

The Lightning Network attempts to fix (some of) those problems, with an off chain solution. If it can scale, then the low transaction costs will make it a very competitive payment system for merchants, who currently shell out around 2.5% to accept credit card payments.

The ‘genesis tweet’ and ‘where’s Elon?’

Since Twitter crypto enthusiast ‘hodlonaut’ sent what is now know as the ‘genesis tweet’ on January 20, usage of the Lightning Network has grown almost 40 percent, as the torch passed between crypto celebs including Boxmining, Binance’s Changpeng Zhao, Tron’s Justin Sun and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey.

If Elon Musk finally gives in to numerous exhortations to pick up the torch, the mainstream press coverage could see that number grow further.

Lightning Network grows 830% but still small beer

As it is, usage of the network has surged by 830% over the past six months. While transaction volume is still small beer – just under $3 million – it does appear to work.

At the time of writing Bitcoin was up almost 9 percent across the week, and just over 5 percent for the month.

While plenty of folk have been taking advantage of a new service in the US that allows you to buy Domino’s pizza (bleurgh) over the Lightning Network, the most promising sign for mainstream adoption has been on Twitter.

Twitter takes Bitcoin to the low spending masses

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey not only took up the torch, but actually increased the word count limit for tweets to support the Lightning Network invoice.

Dorsey has also endorsed a new browser Tweet tipping extension built using LN. “This is excellent” he told his more than 4 million followers about Tippin.me.

Download a Lightning Wallet, transfer a few dollars worth of BTC, open a direct channel with tippin.me and you’re good to go. The extension adds a lightning bolt to each tweet (helping spread awareness) and allows users to tip small amounts for tweets they like. Dorsey demonstrated the system on his own account this week.

“I hooked this up and already got tipped some satoshis,” Dorsey tweeted on Feb 21. Leaving aside the complicated morality of ordinary people giving tips to billionaires – even though he only made 49 cents – it was still a beautiful demonstration of the system’s potential.

It’s also widely believed that Dorsey’s other company Square will add LN to its Cash App.

Bad news for Steemit and Basic Attention Token

Twitter’s enthusiastic embrace of LN is good news for adoption, but potentially bad news for blockchain based social platforms and tokens like Steemit and Basic Attention Token, which operate in a similar fashion but don’t have the social media giant’s reach.

Now the idea has gone mainstream, it probably won’t be long before we see similar systems on YouTube, Facebook, Medium and Instagram.

(If this all sounds familiar, there used to be a Bitcoin App called ChangeTip, but it died in 2016.)

Lots of potential, but still doesn’t work right

The Lightning Torch and Tipping.me are ideal ways to grow the network, which doesn’t have a lot of liquidity at present. Due to some complicated mechanics, LN requires all the various intermediaries in the network to all have enough ‘staked’ to process your transaction. This means you probably won’t be sending large amounts of money anytime soon. It hasn’t been designed for this, to be fair.

Trustnodes received the Torch this week and reported that when the system works, it’s great. But it doesn’t always work. “When it worked, it does have a bit of a wow factor. The payment went out straight on and the fee was unfairly cheap … It only worked smoothly once in the three times that were tried, however.”

And it may never work say critics …

There are also plenty of naysayers with complicated mathematical models who believe The Lightning Network is fundamentally flawed and won’t be able to scale up.

Invest in Blockchain’s analysis suggests that if the network grows to 25 million active users it would require 57.08 on chain transactions a second and an estimated block size of 8.56MB. If it ever gets to a billion users, it would require a 342.47MB Bitcoin block size.

Let’s get excited anyway

But then again, back in the 1990s no one really knew how to ensure the internet could cope with HD streaming video, and they managed to solve that. As Invest In Blockchain points out, there are theoretical solutions already being worked on.

Despite plenty of critical and cautionary tweets that this week’s percentage rise won’t herald a new bull run, sentiment does appear to be turning.

As Binance’s CZ tweeted: “Is it just me? Or are we getting more excited at 4k than 20k?”

-By Andrew Fenton. Follow me on Twitter at @andrewfenton

GET BREAKING NEWS EVERY WEEK – Subscribe to Micky

Original Source https://ift.tt/2TfpmNT

LG OLED CX TV review: The picture against which all other TVs are measured

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LG OLED CX TV review: The picture against which all other TVs are measured

By this point there’s no question whether OLED-based TVs have the best picture quality available: they do. In my opinion they’re definitely worth the extra money compared to other high-end TVs. The only question that matters is, if you can afford an OLED TV, which one should you buy? LG is the OLED leader and its 2020 CX series achieves as impressive a picture as any TV I’ve ever tested, but right now it’s not the best answer to that question.

Like

Better picture quality than any non-OLED TV.

Superior contrast and off-angle image.

Slim design and packed with features.

Don’t Like

Expensive.

Not appreciably better than cheaper 2019 models.

After reviewing the CX, the TV that I recommend most OLED shoppers buy instead is the LG B9 from 2019. I compared the two LG OLEDs side-by-side in my spanking new basement TV lab, and it was really tough to tell the difference between them in picture quality. My measurements sussed out some slight variations, and watching some low-quality material gave a vanishingly small edge to the CX, perhaps because of its improved processing. 

But that’s tiny potatoes compared to the huge price difference between the two right now — $600 to $800 for the 65-inch size, depending on where you shop. The price gap will shrink as the CX gets discounted and the B9 sells out later this year, but even then another TV will remain less expensive and likely a better value as well: the 2020 BX series. Look for CNET’s review of that TV soon.

My other comparison TV was the TCL 8-Series, which has the best picture quality of any non-OLED TV I’ve recently reviewed. It’s a superb performer and brighter then either OLED, but both the B9 and CX beat it for overall picture quality. Every OLED TV I’ve ever reviewed exhibits the true black levels, infinite contrast and near-perfect off-angle performance that makes images come to life like no other TV technology you can buy. 

Now playing: Watch this: LG CX OLED TV review: Awesome picture, high price

3:52

Get to know the LG CX series

It’s pronounced “C-10” because LG wants to be like Apple I guess.

It comes in 48-, 55-, 65- and 77-inch sizes. The 48-inch model is new for 2020.

As usual for OLED TVs, the 77-inch model is proportionally more expensive, at nearly twice the price of the 65-incher. Competing 75-inch LCD-based TVs are much more affordable. 

The 2020 CX adds a few extras that the B9 is missing, namely an improved image processor, compatibility with AMD FreeSync and a new Filmmaker picture mode. Otherwise they’re basically the same.

The only differences I noted between the B9 and CX are slightly different stand designs and LG’s processing. As I mentioned above, I don’t think the CX’s slight image quality advantage is worth the price difference.

OLED display technology is fundamentally different from the LED LCD technology used in the vast majority of today’s TVs, including Samsung’s QLED models.

The best LCD TVs I’ve reviewed so far, like the TCL 8-Series and Vizio P-Series Quantum X, scored a “9” in image quality. At times they were brighter in HDR than the OLEDs, but otherwise the OLEDs’ images were superior in almost every way.

All OLED TVs are more subject to both temporary and permanent image retention, aka burn-in, than LCD TVs. We at CNET don’t consider burn-in a reason for most people to avoid buying an OLED TV, however. Check out our guide to OLED burn-in for more.

Not much has changed with LG’s design. The panel on the B9, the CX and other recent OLED sets is still vanishingly thin when seen from the side, about a quarter-inch deep, with a chunkier section at the bottom that juts out another 1.75 inches. That section houses the inputs, power supply, speakers and other depth-eating TV components.

From the front it’s pure TV minimalism. There’s less than a half-inch of black frame around the top and sides of the picture itself. Then there’s a bit more below, but no trace of silver, no “LG” or any other logo at all. 

The CX’s stand is very similar to the C9’s, its angled edges and medium width across the bottom of the screen. It’s more heavily weighted than the B9 on the rear to (I presume) better resist tipping forward. That said, I’ve never had any fear of the B9 tipping forward, and I always recommend using a TV safety strap if you have kids.

David Katzmaier/CNET

Solid app and voice support

LG’s webOS menu system is also basically unchanged from last year. It still lacks the innovative extras and app-based setup of Samsung’s Tizen system and falls well short of the app coverage of Roku TV or Sony’s Android TV. If you want more apps, your best bet is to get an external streamer, although only a handful, including the Apple TV 4K, Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K and Nvidia Shield can support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Meanwhile LG’s apps for Netflix, Amazon, Disney Plus and Vudu all support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, while Apple TV app supports Vision but not Atmos. Using the TV’s built-in apps gets you the highest-quality video and audio from those services, no external streamer required.

The remote tracks the motion of your hand to whip quickly around the screen, something that’s particularly helpful when signing into apps or searching using an onscreen keyboard. The scroll wheel is also great for moving through apps, like those seemingly infinite thumbnail rows on Netflix and Amazon.

David Katzmaier/CNET

LG’s TVs are still the only devices that let you use both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. The main mic button invokes Google Assistant while a long-press of the Amazon button gets you Alexa. Both can do all the usual Assistant stuff, including control smart home devices, answer questions and respond via a voice coming out of the TV’s speakers (yep, both voices). Basics like “What’s the weather?” works as you’d expect from either assistant, complete with onscreen feedback. 

The CX also works with Apple’s AirPlay 2 system, just like many other TVs including 2019 models like the B9. I was able to fire up my iPhone to share photos and video to the screen from the Photos app as well as mirror my Mac and phone screens. The LG also has the Apple TV app, of course.

Key features

Display technology OLED LED backlight N/A Resolution 4K HDR compatible HDR10 and Dolby Vision Smart TV webOS Remote Motion

The feature-packed CX includes just about everything that matters in a modern TV. LG says the new A9 Gen 3 chip — included on the CX but not on the B9 or BX — has improved deep learning chops and “AI picture Pro” enhancements. I didn’t notice any major benefits from the processor in my testing. 

New for 2020 is the Filmmaker Mode, which takes the place of the Technicolor Expert modes of years past. As promised it turns off the Soap Opera Effect for film-based content (yay) but so do many other modes in the CX, including Cinema, ISF and Dolby Vision itself (yes, this TV has a LOT of picture modes). While plenty-accurate it’s also relatively dim so I ended up using Cinema and ISF Bright for most critical viewing.

All of LG’s 2019 and 2020 OLED models include the latest version of the HDMI standard: 2.1. That means their HDMI ports can handle 4K at 120fps, support enhanced audio return channel (eARC) as well as two gamer-friendly extras: variable refresh rate (VRR) and automatic low latency mode (ALLM, or auto game mode). Check out HDMI 2.1: What you need to know for details. I didn’t test any of these features yet for this review.

Speaking of VRR, the B9 and CX also support the Nvidia G-Sync standard. One difference between the two, however, is that only 2020 models like the CX will also support AMD FreeSync.

Bear with me, normal readers, because there is one ultra-technical downgrade on the CX compared to the 2019 C9. As reported by Forbes, the new model’s HDMI ports support 4K at 120fps up to 40Gbps (10 bits), while last year they went up to the full 48Gbps (12 bits). In a statement, LG told CNET that “the market situation evolution indicated that real content that requires 48Gbps is not available in the market.” The only devices that might look better at 12-bit compared to 10-bit are next-generation consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox One Series X, but I’d be surprised if it makes a big difference. 

David Katzmaier/CNET

The selection of connections is otherwise top-notch. Unlike many of Samsung’s sets, this one actually has an analog video input for legacy (non-HDMI) devices, although it no longer supports analog component video. There’s also a dedicated headphone/analog audio output.

Four HDMI inputs with HDMI 2.1, HDCP 2.2

Three USB ports

Composite video/audio input

Optical digital audio output

Analog audio 3.5mm headphone output

RF (antenna) input

RS-232 port (minijack, for service only)

Ethernet (LAN) port

Picture quality comparisons

David Katzmaier/CNET

Normally I’m able to compare a TV against four or five others side-by-side, but during coronavirus lockdown the size of my basement — and limited access to comparison TVs — reduced that number to two. Happily they were two of the best TVs of 2019, the B9 OLED and the TCL 8-Series. As I mentioned above the CX and B9 were basically tied, with image quality that deserves a score of 10/10, while the TCL fell a bit short of both. 

Click the image at the right to see the picture settings used in the review and to read more about how this TV’s picture controls worked during calibration.

Dim lighting: Lined up in my darkened basement TV lab, the CX immediately distinguished itself from the LCD-based TCL but not so much from its sister LG OLED. Between the two OLED TVs I didn’t spot any major differences. 

Watching the 1080p Blu-ray of Parasite, the trademark perfect black levels and superior contrast of OLED were an upgrade in punch and realism. Every scene benefited, but as usual the darker ones showed the largest differences. As the Parks discuss the transgressions of their chauffeur in Chapter 4, for example, colors of their faces, clothes and the surrounding kitchen looked, well, richer and more realistic. In extremely dark scenes like Park Dong-ik’s ride in the back of the car, the difference was even more evident in a side-by-side comparison.

Shadow detail was excellent on the CX and overall dark areas still looked significantly more realistic than with the TCL. Pro tip: In my recommended picture mode, Cinema, bump up Brightness from 50 to 52 to reclaim those shadows while still preserving perfect black levels.

Bright lighting: No major changes here: The CX was as bright as previous LG OLEDs and significantly dimmer than high-end LCDs.

Light output in nits

TV Brightest (SDR) Accurate color (SDR) Brightest (HDR) Accurate color (HDR) Vizio PX65-G1 1,990 1,120 2,908 2,106 TCL 65Q825 1,653 904 1,818 982 Samsung QN65Q80R 1,443 832 1,494 1,143 TCL 65R625 653 578 881 813 LG OLED65C9 (2019) 451 339 851 762 LG OLED65CX (2020) 377 290 690 634 LG OLED65B9 (2019) 374 283 628 558

LG OLEDs from 2019 and 2020 have a setting called Peak Brightness that boosts the light output for SDR sources in Cinema and Expert modes. The idea is to increase contrast for brighter viewing environments while maintaining the superior color accuracy of those modes. As with most TVs, the brightest mode for HDR and SDR (Vivid on the CX) is horribly inaccurate. For the accurate color columns above I used ISF Expert Bright (Peak Brightness: High) for SDR and Filmmaker mode for HDR — I recommend CX owners do the same to get good color in bright rooms.

Overall, the OLED sets are still plenty bright enough for just about any viewing environment. Yes, they do get quite a bit dimmer than the LCDs when showing full-screen white — a hockey game, for example — but even in those situations they’re hardly dim.

The CX and B9 preserved black levels and reduced reflections very well — better than the TCL. I didn’t compare a Samsung directly for this review but in the past that brand’s high-end models have delivered the best bright-room performance overall.

Color accuracy: Before my standard calibration, the ISF Expert, Cinema and Filmmaker modes were already super accurate, among the best I’ve seen, and afterward the CX was as accurate as I’d expect. As usual, OLED’s superior black levels also improved the perception of color saturation compared to the LCD other displays. Bright colors like the fruit on the Parks’ countertop or the green of their backyard in Chapter 11 were lush and vibrant, while skin tones like the face of Mrs. Park remained true. I also appreciated that, unlike many LCDs including the TCL in this comparison, the CX didn’t introduce a blue tinge to near-black areas.

Video processing: Watching the Parasite Blu-ray it was difficult to see any processing advantages of the CX over the B9, perhaps because it’s a very high-quality source to begin with. Looking for evidence of the CX’s fancy new chip in action, I tried an old favorite: Game of Thrones’ The Long Night episode on HBO Max, streaming from an Apple TV 4K (set to 1080p SDR to match the native stream).

The opening setup of the army awaiting the coming of the white walkers was rife with blockiness, banding and other compression issues, as well as basic video noise. But the CX didn’t clean it up much better than the B9. There was slightly less banding on the CX during a pan over Winterfell (5:19), for example, and less near-black noise in the sky during the Dothraki charge (12:51) and when the solitary horse returns (13:47), but I had to look hard to spot the improvement. And sometimes the B9 looked better; for example it showed less noise than the CX in the black sky around Sir Davos’ face (7:13). I’ll give the slight edge to the CX, but it’s really subtle.

With the Real Cinema setting turned on, the CX passed my go-to 1080p/24 film cadence test from I Am Legend in Off, Cinema Clear and User (0-4 for De-Judder and 10 for De-Blur) TruMotion position. The latter two also delivered the TV’s maximum motion resolution (600 lines). For 2020 LG’s User De-Judder setting is better than last year, with more of a range for finicky cadence purists (we know who we are) to dial in the right amount of smoothness; anything 4 or lower introduced some judder to my eye, conveying a sense of film rather than soap opera effect. Clear on the other hand is toward the smoother side, albeit still tolerable. Personally I prefer User: De-Judder 0 but it’s great that there’s more good options than ever.

David Katzmaier/CNET

There’s also a setting labeled OLED Motion Pro, available only in the User section of the TruMotion menu. In previous years it was a simple toggle that introduced black frame insertion to improve motion resolution but with the usual tradeoffs of a dimmer image and visible flicker. This year it has four settings, Low, Medium, High and Auto, with progressively better motion resolution, High tops out at the maximum 1,200 lines in my test but was quite dim and flickery. Medium was the best overall, measuring slightly less at 1080 lines but with nearly the same light output as Off and no flicker. The CX is the first OLED TV I’ve tested that can match LCD TVs with true 120Hz refresh rates, such as the TCL 8 series or the Samsung Q70, for motion resolution.

The problem? Engaging any OLED Motion Pro setting aside from Off crushed shadow detail and made the image look too dark. My advice is to avoid using this setting unless you calibrate the image specifically for it — or you hate blur so much that you’re willing to sacrifice being able to see dark areas clearly.

Gaming input lag is similar to last year, which is to say superb. The CX showed 13.7 and 13.8 milliseconds in game mode for 1080p and 4K HDR sources, respectively. That’s shy of the C9 by mere tenths of a millisecond. If you can tell the difference, hats off to you.

Uniformity: Like all recent OLED sets, the CX was extremely uniform in brightness and color, with no visible variations across the screen. In comparison the LCD-based TCL all showed slightly brighter and darker areas with full-field test patterns, although it didn’t have major issues. And as usual the two OLEDs were much better at maintaining fidelity from off-angle, when viewed from seats other than the sweet spot right in the middle of the screen. There were no differences in uniformity between the B9 and CX.

Parasite is a great movie that looks spectacular in 4K HDR.

CJ Entertainment

HDR and 4K video: The 4K Blu-ray of Parasite looked spectacular on all three high-end TVs, as expected, but the OLEDs had the advantage. The TCL beat them in brightness and highlight pop, however. In Chapter 3 when Kim Ki-woo rounds a corner of the house (13:13), the sun measured twice as bright — 1028 nits vs. 540 on both OLED TVs — and the difference was obvious to my eye. 

Despite the extra brightness, however, the overall contrast and richness of the OLEDs’ image made the LCD look relatively flat by comparison in many scenes. In the criteria at 30:51, for example, there was just a bit more pop and color in the food and the flower wrappings. And despite its excellent local dimming the TCL still betrayed some brighter spots in dark areas, for example the shadows in the back of the car at 30:14. 

Looking at the gorgeous nature footage from the Spears and Munsil HDR benchmark, the TCL’s higher brightness paid more dividends than the cinematic Parasite. In my side-by-side lineup the LCD’s brighter skies, snow and other daylit scenes were more powerful, especially when most of the screen was very bright — the desert sand, and plants at 5:20 was a good example. The OLEDs didn’t look dim by any means but the TCL was better in those bright scenes. In more mixed and darker scenes, on the other hand, the OLEDs superior contrast again won out.

Keeping with the nature theme, I switched my Apple TV back to 4K HDR mode and checked out the amazing-looking Our Planet: Coastal Seas on Netflix. From the brilliant colors of the reef to the dark recesses behind the swarms of sharks I saw the same themes: an overall edge to the OLED TVs despite the TCL’s brighter image. Netflix’s nature documentary didn’t show as much HDR punch and detail as the reference disc in general, and for that reason the TCL’s brilliance didn’t make as much of an impact. In some bright scenes like the splashing seals (20:34), highlights like the waves actually measured slightly brighter on the CX OLED, but in others like the sun through the kelp (21:03) the TCL was visibly brighter and measured as such (1440 vs. 660 nits).

Geek Box

Test Result Score Black luminance (0%) 0.000 Good Peak white luminance (SDR) 377 Average Avg. gamma (10-100%) 2.20 Good Avg. grayscale error (10-100%) 0.65 Good Dark gray error (30%) 0.20 Good Bright gray error (80%) 0.20 Good Avg. color checker error 1.1 Good Avg. saturation sweeps error 1.71 Good Avg. color error 1.14 Good Red error 0.89 Good Green error 0.92 Good Blue error 1.46 Good Cyan error 1.24 Good Magenta error 1.40 Good Yellow error 0.92 Good 1080p/24 Cadence (IAL) Pass Good Motion resolution (max) 1200 Good Motion resolution (dejudder off) 1000 Good Input lag (Game mode) 13.67 Good HDR10 Black luminance (0%) 0.000 Good Peak white luminance (10% win) 690 Poor Gamut % UHDA/P3 (CIE 1976) 99.20 Good Avg. color checker error 4.36 Average Input lag (Game mode, 4K HDR) 13.73 Good

LG OLEDCX CNET Calibration Results by David Katzmaier on Scribd

BITCOIN ON FIRE: Was this the spark?

BITCOIN ON FIRE: Was this the spark?

The Lightning Torch – a chain tweet between crypto celebrities that demonstrates it can be easy and cheap to pay for stuff with Bitcoin – may have helped light a fire under Bitcoin, with the crypto touching US$4000 this week and the highest daily volume since May last year. When historians (hopefully) look back on the Great Bitcoin Bull Run of 2019, will the Lightning Torch be the spark? OK, some other stuff happened too …

Of course, there are plenty of other bullish signs around Bitcoin lately – with Samsung adding a crypto wallet to its new Galaxy phone, Bakkt and Fidelity about to launch, JP Morgan announcing their own digital coin and other signs the institutions have arrived.

But The Lightning Network is the most promising sign that Bitcoin will finally be adopted by mainstream consumers as a currency. Bitcoin already has the name recognition and now it looks like it has a system in place that makes it actually useful

Yes, it’s basically just chain mail as a PR stunt

The Lightning Torch AKA #LNTrustChain may not seem like much – a chain tweet amassing 10,000 satoshis (35c) at a time – but the stunt has garnered acres of coverage and proves the Lightning Network enables fast, tiny transactions at a tiny cost.

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The main argument from Bitcoin bears has been that it can’t scale, that the network is slow, expensive and horribly inefficient (read: Is Bitcoin Totally Useless?). During last year’s ATH, transactions cost a fortune and took half a day, with the network gobbling up a country’s worth electricity as miners competed for block rewards.

The Lightning Network attempts to fix (some of) those problems, with an off chain solution. If it can scale, then the low transaction costs will make it a very competitive payment system for merchants, who currently shell out around 2.5% to accept credit card payments.

The ‘genesis tweet’ and ‘where’s Elon?’

Since Twitter crypto enthusiast ‘hodlonaut’ sent what is now know as the ‘genesis tweet’ on January 20, usage of the Lightning Network has grown almost 40 percent, as the torch passed between crypto celebs including Boxmining, Binance’s Changpeng Zhao, Tron’s Justin Sun and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey.

If Elon Musk finally gives in to numerous exhortations to pick up the torch, the mainstream press coverage could see that number grow further.

Lightning Network grows 830% but still small beer

As it is, usage of the network has surged by 830% over the past six months. While transaction volume is still small beer – just under $3 million – it does appear to work.

At the time of writing Bitcoin was up almost 9 percent across the week, and just over 5 percent for the month.

While plenty of folk have been taking advantage of a new service in the US that allows you to buy Domino’s pizza (bleurgh) over the Lightning Network, the most promising sign for mainstream adoption has been on Twitter.

Twitter takes Bitcoin to the low spending masses

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey not only took up the torch, but actually increased the word count limit for tweets to support the Lightning Network invoice.

Dorsey has also endorsed a new browser Tweet tipping extension built using LN. “This is excellent” he told his more than 4 million followers about Tippin.me.

Download a Lightning Wallet, transfer a few dollars worth of BTC, open a direct channel with tippin.me and you’re good to go. The extension adds a lightning bolt to each tweet (helping spread awareness) and allows users to tip small amounts for tweets they like. Dorsey demonstrated the system on his own account this week.

“I hooked this up and already got tipped some satoshis,” Dorsey tweeted on Feb 21. Leaving aside the complicated morality of ordinary people giving tips to billionaires – even though he only made 49 cents – it was still a beautiful demonstration of the system’s potential.

It’s also widely believed that Dorsey’s other company Square will add LN to its Cash App.

Bad news for Steemit and Basic Attention Token

Twitter’s enthusiastic embrace of LN is good news for adoption, but potentially bad news for blockchain based social platforms and tokens like Steemit and Basic Attention Token, which operate in a similar fashion but don’t have the social media giant’s reach.

Now the idea has gone mainstream, it probably won’t be long before we see similar systems on YouTube, Facebook, Medium and Instagram.

(If this all sounds familiar, there used to be a Bitcoin App called ChangeTip, but it died in 2016.)

Lots of potential, but still doesn’t work right

The Lightning Torch and Tipping.me are ideal ways to grow the network, which doesn’t have a lot of liquidity at present. Due to some complicated mechanics, LN requires all the various intermediaries in the network to all have enough ‘staked’ to process your transaction. This means you probably won’t be sending large amounts of money anytime soon. It hasn’t been designed for this, to be fair.

Trustnodes received the Torch this week and reported that when the system works, it’s great. But it doesn’t always work. “When it worked, it does have a bit of a wow factor. The payment went out straight on and the fee was unfairly cheap … It only worked smoothly once in the three times that were tried, however.”

And it may never work say critics …

There are also plenty of naysayers with complicated mathematical models who believe The Lightning Network is fundamentally flawed and won’t be able to scale up.

Invest in Blockchain’s analysis suggests that if the network grows to 25 million active users it would require 57.08 on chain transactions a second and an estimated block size of 8.56MB. If it ever gets to a billion users, it would require a 342.47MB Bitcoin block size.

Let’s get excited anyway

But then again, back in the 1990s no one really knew how to ensure the internet could cope with HD streaming video, and they managed to solve that. As Invest In Blockchain points out, there are theoretical solutions already being worked on.

Despite plenty of critical and cautionary tweets that this week’s percentage rise won’t herald a new bull run, sentiment does appear to be turning.

As Binance’s CZ tweeted: “Is it just me? Or are we getting more excited at 4k than 20k?”

-By Andrew Fenton. Follow me on Twitter at @andrewfenton

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