Mediastreet
Author

editor

Browsing
In News

Will AI Search Make You Throw Away Your SEO Playbooks?

No Comments

By Zak Ali

Okay, let me clarify: Your SEO playbook isn’t wrong…it’s just incomplete.

I’ve been working in organic search since 2016. I remember the golden age when a well-optimized page with decent backlinks could print traffic. I remember watching our rankings and traffic drop after the Helpful Content Update (HCU), and scrambling to follow Google’s guidance for recovery. And I still remember the process of coming to terms with the fact that search traffic wouldn’t be returning to pre-HCU levels.

Now, as we enter the LLM age, I’m seeing consultants and influencers pawn off ranking theories as fact and repackaging tired “SEO best practices” with buzzwords. Every week there’s a new silver bullet: “Chunk optimization!” “Schema markup is the answer!” “Bullets help you rank in ChatGPT!”

But beneath the noise, something fundamental has shifted. Instead of following every “hack of the week,” let’s acknowledge that no one has this figured out and shift to a longer-term strategy.

The Computational Realities Of LLMs

LLM-generated answers need to be trustworthy and valuable. But there’s a problem that every AI company faces and few SEOs acknowledge.

Running deep content analysis on every webpage on the internet for every query isn’t feasible. The computational cost and time required would be astronomical. So instead, LLMs use heuristics: educated shortcuts.

Take ChatGPT’s citations for instance. When it doesn’t use training data alone, it searches the web using existing search engines. What ranks on page one is what it scans to determine citations.

This is why people say good AI SEO is just good SEO. The distinction, however, is that where you rank in Google is seen more as a signal of your credibility for LLMs, not as the end game.

What Actually Drives Visibility

What really matters are authority and relevance, and how those definitions have evolved ever so slightly.

Authority

Traditional authority signals like getting cited by credible sites, demonstrating editorial standards and displaying trust signals like third-party reviews still work. Likewise, so do the entity connections between your business, authors and recognized authorities in your niche.

But what LLMs are doing is making authority become more real-time and contextual.

A site that published definitive content three years ago but hasn’t updated it? Less authoritative than a site actively engaging with current developments. An author with no digital footprint beyond their company blog? Less credible than one who shows up in industry discussions, podcasts and peer publications.

LLMs are pattern-matching machines. They’re looking for signals that you’re not just about a topic, you’re of it. Your brand should be woven into the conversations in your space.

This is where I feel SEO playbooks are falling short. People are still focused on optimizing for algorithms rather than optimizing for being genuinely known.

Relevance

In keyword-based search, relevance is straightforward. Does your page match the query terms?

In conversational search, relevance is contextual and cumulative. Consider the difference between these queries: “best credit cards” and “I have a 720 credit score, travel internationally twice a year for work, and want to consolidate my spending. What credit card should I get?”

The second query is specific, nuanced and assumes a back-and-forth dialogue. The user might follow up with: “What if I don’t want an annual fee?” or “How does that compare to others?”

So if search is becoming more conversational and less keyword-dependent, where does that leave keyword research? You still need to know what people are searching for. But keyword volume data won’t reveal the nuanced, long-tail conversational queries people ask LLMs.

Despite every chat-based search being unique and every answer personalized, your customers’ underlying needs remain constant. So if you need keyword data to tell you what those needs are, you have work to do.

No More Hacks

The problem with most “AI SEO” advice is that it’s trying to reverse-engineer LLM behaviour the same way we reverse-engineered Google’s. Find the pattern, exploit it, scale it.

But LLMs aren’t ranking algorithms in the traditional sense. They’re synthesis engines. They’re aggregating, weighing credibility signals, and constructing answers from multiple sources.

You can’t hack synthesis the way you could hack PageRank.

This is why chunking advice, schema recommendations, and formatting tips are marginal gains at best. They might help a little, but they won’t save a fundamentally weak content strategy.

The best strategy for SEO today is probably what we should’ve been doing all along.

A New SEO Playbook (That Isn’t Really New)

Get to know your customer on a deeper level. This is harder than plugging keywords into Ahrefs. It requires actually understanding your audience.

• Talk to your customers. Actually talk to them. What questions do they ask? What confuses them? What do they wish they knew before buying?

• Monitor communities. Places like Reddit, industry forums and comments sections can show you how real people articulate problems in their own words, not in “keywords.”

• Focus on intent, not keywords. Create content that addresses the full spectrum of questions someone might have around a topic, not just the highest-volume search term.

Then, start building up your authority.

• Build genuine authority. Not through link schemes, but through consistently showing up as a credible voice in your industry. Publish on platforms beyond your blog. Engage with industry conversations. Develop real subject matter experts, not just “content writers.”

• Create comprehensively useful content. Not 500-word keyword-stuffed blog posts, but resources that actually answer the full scope of what someone needs to know. Content that gets naturally referenced because it’s the best explanation available.

• Use first-party data. Use actual customer insights, from sales calls, support tickets and user research to understand what they’re trying to accomplish. Then turn those insights actionable in your content.

• Stay relevant and current. Plainly said, stale, outdated content is actively harmful to your authority.

Final Thoughts

The new SEO is anti-SEO. Stop trying to hack your way to the top. Start trying to be genuinely helpful to the people who are looking for a solution to their problems. The advantage will increasingly go to companies that do the hard work of building real expertise and communicating it clearly.

Feature image credit: Getty

By Zak Ali

Zak Ali is General Manager for Finder.com, a global financial comparison platform helping millions make better financial decisions. Read Zak Ali’s full executive profile here. Find Zak Ali on LinkedIn and X. Visit Zak’s website.

Sourced from Forbes

Read More
By
In News

How to build customer loyalty and relationships that drive repeat business

No Comments

Sourced from AOL

Many e-commerce businesses adopt complex loyalty programs to keep customers around, but these strategies don’t always perform as well in today’s market. Instead, making authentic connections is now the best way to create true customer loyalty.

E-commerce businesses must shift their focus from driving transactions to fostering relationships based on positive interactions. This new approach should stretch across your entire organization—from operations and fulfilment to delivery and post-purchase communications. Establish and maintain meaningful relationships with customers, and their loyalty will follow.

ShipStation highlights five powerful ways to build loyalty and turn one-time buyers into long-time customers.

1. Start with product excellence, not programs

The first and most essential aspect of customer retention is the quality of your product or service. No amount of advertising can convince a first-time customer to keep buying if your product doesn’t deliver on its promise.

“The best way to develop loyalty is by delivering a remarkable product in a remarkable way to the right audience. If that’s done, you’ll see customers come back on a regular basis,” said Eric Bandholz, the founder of Beardbrand during ShipStation’s recent Innovation Delivered summit.

The decline of loyalty apps and points systems
Many businesses still launch loyalty programs that reward customers for coming back. However, these aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Email marketing, automation, and other more recent marketing strategies have taken over much of the marketing space. As time goes by, customers lose interest in loyalty programs. The systems become less impactful or cost-effective, potentially hurting your organization more than helping it.

Effective loyalty apps and points systems should support your operational foundation. This way, your organization can deliver rewards and savings to customers without disrupting operations, inventory, or revenue.

For example, some online rewards programs offer customers free items with their next order. This encourages customers to make additional purchases, saving you the cost of packaging and shipping the extra items separately.

A new focus on automation
Automation has revolutionized online shopping, letting you retain customers with seamless repurchases rather than extra incentives. Now, shoppers can essentially subscribe to specific products—from pet supplies to home essentials—often at lower prices.

Beyond simplifying customer experiences, automation can also streamline your organization’s operations. For instance, based on how many automated “subscribe and save” orders you have, you can easily estimate how much inventory you’ll need each month for your regular customers.

That said, most first-time customers won’t subscribe or choose an automated delivery option, at least without significant savings. So, even with today’s best retention strategies, the quality of your product is the first place to focus.

“Your next step after that is achieved is to think about, ‘How do I automate the buying process? How do I make it so seamless that people have no friction points to coming back?’” said Bandholz.

2. Treat customers like family, not numbers

Customers are real people who want genuine relationships with companies. When it comes to retention, you shouldn’t just look at transactions as order numbers and revenue. Instead, consider the customer’s needs, motivations, and expectations, so you can meet them on their level.

“Make it about the client. All we’re trying to do is keep promises to people and make bigger promises to more people,” said Robert Metcalf, COO and co-founder of May Lindstrom Skin. “If you always stay focused on that, loyalty takes care of itself because you’re loyal to the customer, and they don’t need to protect themselves from you because it’s your job to serve them.”

Fostering strong relationships and trust with clients can motivate them to not only return, but to refer friends, family, and colleagues. One satisfied customer quickly becomes many. This trust should extend through all of your operations, not just your friendly customer service team.

Consider what you would expect if you were one of your customers. How would you feel if a delivery was late compared to how you’d feel if the package arrived early? What would you expect when purchasing your product? What obstacles could discourage you from completing your purchase?

How to foster genuine relationships over transactional exchanges
Trust isn’t developed overnight. It takes several transactions to nurture the connection and inspire customer confidence every time they consider buying from you again. Ultimately, you want customers to feel reassured when they see your company logo, making that “purchase” button even more enticing.

Establishing trust with customers doesn’t mean your organization needs to have a perfect record. That’s unrealistic. Shipping delays, manufacturer shortages, and other setbacks may be out of your control and can all impact your customers’ experiences, but they don’t have to define the customer’s final impression.

Setbacks offer excellent opportunities to increase trust. It all depends on how you respond. If a customer’s delivery is delayed, for example, you can strengthen the relationship and earn trust by notifying them as soon as the delivery runs behind schedule. Or, take it one step further and refund their shipping costs.

Similarly, if an item is out of stock, you can respond by proactively offering the customer multiple options, like alternate colour choices or a backorder at a discounted price.

Turn a negative transactional experience into a way to impress your customer with great service that maintains—or even bolsters—their loyalty.

3. Authentic brand storytelling that builds brand affinity and customer loyalty

Consistent brand storytelling lets you reach customers on a more meaningful level. When customers have emotional or personal ties with your brand, they’re more likely to trust you and share your story with others.

The right stories elevate you from “just another brand name” to one that customers remember.

“The initial hook is an accurate description of the brand value and the outcomes you’re selling,” said Michael Scholz, vice president of product marketing at BigCommerce. “If that content isn’t accurate, you face a lot of returns. It’s really important to tell a great story upfront.”

Being open and honest is a major component of authenticity, especially early in the buying process.

“It’s all about the transparency you have throughout the shopper journey,” said Scholz. “If you have multiple shipping vendors and shipping options, highlight those options and different prices during the checkout process. At the end of the day, it’s the shopper’s decision to pursue a specific choice.”

Framing an authentic brand narrative
Like any good story, your brand narrative requires a few key elements to build deep connections, and it all starts with the right framing device. Understanding the best ways to frame your brand storytelling helps you deliver your story in a way that captures customers’ attention and encourages them to act.

The most successful types of brand narratives include the following.

  • Founder stories: Share the story of your organization’s founding and key players. Discuss their inspirations for starting the business and the backgrounds that brought them to where they are today. Giving your brand a face can make it feel more personable, relatable, and approachable, which reinforces that your business is about more than making money.
  • Social missions: Discuss your brand’s goals and mission. For instance, did your organization begin as a way to serve the local community, fulfil a need, or carry on a legacy?
  • Case studies and success stories: Use positive quotes, reviews, and customer examples to add third-party credibility and validation to your message. The voice of the customer is an impactful way to share how your business and solutions have benefited real-life people and organizations.

4. How Fulfilment Operations Drive Customer Loyalty

Like the wrapping around a great gift, your fulfilment processes can seal the deal on customers’ experiences. Satisfaction can hinge on the customer receiving on-time deliveries rather than late deliveries, ones with missing parts, or other issues that harm the experience.

Seemingly small problems, like a third-party provider not being informed about a promotion and the expected increase in sales, can result in backorders and customers not getting their products on time.

Logistics providers, carriers, and other partners are often the ones behind the scenes making sure your package is delivered successfully.

“The experience starts from when they click on your website to when they receive the product,” said Matthew Carpentieri, strategic partnership manager at DHL Express. “We’re really supporting the merchant from behind the veil, and it’s really important for us to drive conversion for retention and not being the source of something that goes wrong.”

The 4 pillars of fulfilment excellence
Fulfilment excellence prevents customer service issues before they start by minimizing the risks of setbacks.

Is your fulfilment process up to the task? Here are some of the most crucial aspects of successful fulfilment.

  • Proactive communication: Be upfront with customers about shipping timelines and potential delays. Likewise, communicate with providers when anticipating sales spikes or creating promotions to align inventory with demand.
  • Thorough inventory processes: Accurate inventory bookkeeping gives you the best possible insight into your fulfilment operations and prevents customers from ordering out-of-stock products.
  • Strategic alignment: Make sure your loyalty programs, sales, and promotions align with your fulfilment operations’ needs and capabilities. For example, consider running clearance-style sales on overstock items, and avoid launching promotions on products you can only offer in limited quantities.
  • Return and exchange processes: Customers may be more willing to buy products they’re unsure about if they know they won’t have to jump through hoops to return them. A simple return and exchange process, such as at-home pickups or box less drop-offs, puts less burden on customers.

5. Post-purchase and personalized customer experience strategies

Post-purchase communication plays a vital role in turning a one-time buyer into a repeat customer. This might mean shifting your primary call to action away from simply buying products. Instead, you can encourage customers to subscribe to repeat purchases or sign up for notifications about deals. The best post-purchase customer experience strategy ultimately depends on what you’re selling and your unique audience base.

Whatever marketing strategies you choose, keep your focus on doing everything in your power to cultivate your relationship with customers.

Include personal touches in communication
Tailored messages directed to individuals show them you remember them and value them as customers when they return. Great real-life examples of a personalized customer experience include coffee shops that write customers’ names on their cups and pet stores that send birthday mail to pets.

“It’s actually people placing these orders,” said Bandholz. “They have lives and purpose, and realizing that is not only beneficial in the sense of loyalty, but you become a better business that serves them in better ways.”

Build community around shared interests
Beyond customers’ relationships with your organization, consider how you can empower relationships among customers. Social media or “refer a friend” programs can create a sense of community and keep people talking about your product.

“Ask yourself how you can facilitate those relationships. How can you create a community in ways that consider them more than just a number?” said Bandholz.

Follow up authentically after purchases
Reaching out to customers by asking about their purchase or requesting feedback shows you listen, care about their experience, and want to improve. However, it can annoy customers if overdone. The best approach depends on your specific offerings and audiences. For example, a home renovation will need an extensive feedback process covering different stages of the process, while a small, one-time purchase needs just a short and simple product review request.

Driving repeat purchases and customer loyalty in e-commerce

You can’t build a strong relationship with customers with a single transaction. Customer loyalty best practices should be incorporated in all areas of your organization—from the way you interact with customers to the product itself.

“I don’t ever wanna try to sell anything to anyone. I just wanna match what they want with what we have and prove them right the whole time,” said Metcalf.

This story was produced by ShipStation and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

Feature image credit:  PeopleImages // Shutterstock

Sourced from AOL

Read More
By
In News

How BMW drives success with emotional branding

No Comments

By 

The brand sells heart over horsepower.

Emotion sells, and few carmakers have leaned into that truth (sometimes gracefully, sometimes aggressively) quite like BMW. Sliding into a BMW isn’t meant to feel like entering a machine; it’s meant to feel like slipping on an identity, an emotion, a story.

From its iconic car designs to its slick campaigns, BMW has spent decades engineering not just vehicles but vibes. Over time, it has perfected what many premium carmakers attempt but rarely sustain: an emotional brand world where the product is less about horsepower and more about aspiration, belonging, and that intangible spark known simply as “joy.”

BMW i4

(Image credit: BMW)

This festive season, BMW pushed that idea harder than ever. You may have seen the campaign insisting, “We didn’t invent the car… We created a feeling,” for the brand’s all-electric BMW iX3 – to a world increasingly defined by silent motors and software screens. It’s BMW trying to humanise the algorithmic future of driving, a future where “The Ultimate Driving Machine” risks being reduced to just another rolling gadget.

Of course, emotional storytelling isn’t new territory for BMW. Long before the tech-luxury wars, the brand was selling Freude am Fahren (joy of driving). Even the 1974 tagline “The Ultimate Driving Machine,” which at first sounds like a performance flex, was really a coded identity pitch: buy a BMW, and you become the kind of person who values mastery, confidence, the feel of the road.

The First of a New Era | Introducing the New BMW iX3. – YouTube

But that narrative has had to evolve. In recent years, BMW’s marketing has shifted gears from taking the driver-as-hero route to the softer sideroad of lifestyle-as-feeling. The brand no longer just sells torque curves; it sells a sense of freedom, empowerment, and success. From cinematic social shorts to immersive, multisensory showrooms, BMW engineers every touchpoint to reinforce the idea that owning its vehicles is an experience on a very human level, not a mere transaction.

This is the classic playbook of emotional branding, which connects with people’s desires, anxieties, and self-image. Customers buy the feeling they hope the product will unlock. And BMW has doubled down on this playbook, threading emotion through everything from its design language to its retail choreography.

But here’s the tension: in a market where EVs are quiet, digital, and increasingly similar under the skin, can a brand still sell emotion as a differentiator? When the visceral growl of a straight-six becomes an algorithmically tuned sound profile, does “joy” hit the same? It’s a contradiction BMW is actively wrestling with.

BMW advert

(Image credit: BMW)

Designing Emotion in Every BMW

Each new model is crafted to elicit a reaction, sometimes delight, sometimes debate. From sculpted lines to wraparound cockpits, BMW treats design not as ornamentation but as emotional triggers. The brand knows customers aren’t buying A-to-B transportation. They’re buying confidence, pride, and a little theatre.

This also explains the polarising design decisions in recent years, the giant kidney grille, for example, which sparked a miniature design civil war. But even that controversy shows BMW’s intent: emotional impact beats universal approval. BMW would rather make you feel something than nothing.

And when hardware isn’t enough, BMW turns to narrative. A 2023 electric-i4 campaign, “Father & Son. Freude Forever,” shows a father passing the joy of driving to his son. The nostalgia is dialled up deliberately: driving becomes family, freedom, legacy. Likewise, this year’s holiday film uses a child and a grandmother reconnecting through a BMW to argue that the joy of driving can bridge generations, even in an era of range anxiety and touchscreen fatigue.

It’s emotionally effective. It’s also a bit of a gamble. BMW is selling joy at a time when driving, especially urban driving, has never felt less joyful. Congestion, cameras, automation, and rising insurance costs all threaten the fantasy. The brand is essentially promising a feeling that the real world increasingly refuses to deliver.

A gif of the colour changing BMW

(Image credit: BMW)

What Designers Can Learn

For designers and brand strategists, BMW offers a compelling blueprint: build products that earn trust at a functional level, then build stories that elevate them to something people can feel. But the blueprint comes with caveats. Emotional branding only works when the product experience supports the claim. BMW’s engineering heritage gives it leeway here, but not infinite leeway.

Because if emotion becomes a veneer over a commodity product, people notice. And the EV era, flattening performance differences, muting mechanical character, makes this risk more acute than ever.

In that sense, BMW’s evolving strategy isn’t a departure but a recalibration. The machines are changing; the promise can’t. The brand seems determined to argue that even if the future is quieter and more digital, the feeling of driving doesn’t have to be, whether consumers believe that is the next chapter.

Feature image credit: BMW

By 

Simon is a writer specialising in sustainability, design, and technology. Passionate about the interplay of innovation and human development, he explores how cutting-edge solutions can drive positive change and better lives.

Sourced from CREATIVE BLOQ

Read More
By
In News

4 ChatGPT Prompts To Turn Your Business Idea Into Reality In 2026

No Comments

By Sarah Hernholm

MBO Partners’ State of Independence 2025 research estimates that more than 72.9 million Americans are freelancing in some capacity, accounting for roughly 36 percent of the workforce. That shift has people of all ages looking for faster, more innovative ways to test ideas without wasting time or resources. ChatGPT has quickly become one of the most effective tools for doing exactly that. It speeds up the early thinking, reveals blind spots, and helps refine ideas long before money goes out the door.

The four prompts below can help anyone, whether a teen launching a first project or an adult building a side hustle, pressure test and position an idea for success in 2026.

1. Use ChatGPT To Pressure Test Your Idea Before You Spend A Dollar

Ideas tend to feel brilliant in your head. They tend to feel less brilliant when they meet customer expectations, pricing realities, or existing competitors. Most early-stage entrepreneurs do not run enough pre-launch analysis. Teen entrepreneurs often skip it because they are unsure what to look for. Adults might ignore it because time is limited.

ChatGPT can step in and ask the hard questions you may not think to ask yourself.

Prompt: Act as a sceptical investor. Challenge my business idea from every angle. Identify the five most significant risks, the costliest assumptions, potential red flags, and anything that would make you pass on this idea. Then give me strategies to mitigate each one. Here is my idea: [insert idea].

Action steps after running this prompt:

  1. Take the risks ChatGPT flags and sort them into broad groups like customer, financial, operational, and competitive. It makes everything easier to see at a glance.
  2. Choose the one or two risks that feel most important and come up with small, simple tests that can show whether they are real concerns.
  3. Use what you learn to tweak your idea, then rerun the prompt to get a fresh read on where things stand.

This process forces clarity early on, when adjustments are still cheap, and momentum is easier to build.

2. Use ChatGPT To Unearth A Positioning Angle No Competitor Is Using

A business with unclear positioning is one that customers overlook. That is even more true now, when AI-powered solutions crowd nearly every category. People want to know why your product deserves their attention, their money, and their trust.

ChatGPT can help you identify the whitespace most new founders miss.

Prompt: Act as a brand strategist. Analyse competitors in my industry and identify gaps in messaging, pricing, target audience, and value proposition. Then create three differentiated positioning angles I could own in 2026, angles competitors are not currently using. My idea: [insert idea]. My competitors: [list competitors].

Action steps after running this prompt:

  1. Look at the three positioning angles ChatGPT gives you and see how they stack up against what you are already thinking.
  2. Pick the angle that feels the most realistic for your skills, your time, and the resources you actually have.
  3. Try folding that angle into your website headline, your pitch language, or even your social media bio so it becomes part of how you talk about the idea.
  4. Share the updated message with a handful of potential customers or peers and pay attention to what they react to or remember.

Clear positioning is not only about standing out. It is about helping customers instantly understand why you are the right fit for them.

3. Use ChatGPT To Build A 90 Day Launch Plan You Can Actually Execute

A lot of ideas never come to fruition because they stay abstract. A concrete plan changes that. It turns a vague desire to launch into something you can move on week by week.

ChatGPT is surprisingly effective at mapping out a realistic 90-day plan, especially for people who feel overwhelmed or unsure where to begin.

Prompt: Act as my operations and accountability coach. Turn my business idea into a realistic 90-day launch plan divided into weekly goals. Include market research tasks, product development milestones, an MVP plan, pricing tests, audience building actions, two marketing experiments, and metrics to track. End with a non-negotiable list for me as the founder. Here is the idea: [insert idea].

Action steps after running this prompt:

  1. Input the weekly plan into your calendar so each task has an actual place to live. Real dates make it harder to ignore.
  2. Look for the first few actions that will give you momentum, whether that is talking to potential customers or putting up a simple landing page.
  3. Check in with the plan each week and make small adjustments based on what is moving you forward and what is not.

Momentum builds when you know exactly what to do next, not when you are still thinking about where to start.

4. Use ChatGPT To Craft The Pitch That Gets People On Board

Whether you are pitching investors, potential collaborators, early customers, or your own family, the success of your idea often comes down to how well you communicate it. Many pitches fail because they bury the most compelling part of the story.

ChatGPT can help refine your narrative into something punchy, simple, and memorable.

Prompt: Be my business pitch coach. Turn my idea into a 90-second pitch that is clear, compelling, and memorable. Include the problem I’m solving, why existing solutions fall short, my unique approach, early evidence or insights that validate the opportunity, and the call to action. Then write versions for investors, customers, and social media. My idea: [insert idea].

Action steps after running this prompt:

  1. Read each version of your pitch out loud. You will quickly hear which one feels the most natural to say.
  2. Share that version with a few people you trust and ask them what they remembered or what caught their attention. Their reactions will tell you what to adjust.
  3. Spend a little time with your opening line. Once that first sentence feels solid, the rest of the pitch usually comes together more easily.

Clarity builds confidence, and the higher your confidence, the better your chances of follow-through.

Why These ChatGPT Prompts Work For All Ages, All Stages, And All Ambitions

Shifting work patterns and the rise of side hustles have created a moment where people are more open than ever to building something of their own. These ChatGPT prompts do more than spark ideas. The prompts can help you identify gaps you might have missed and sort out what you need to do right now. Once you have that, taking the next step feels a lot less overwhelming.

Feature image credit: Getty

By Sarah Hernholm

Find Sarah Hernholm on LinkedIn.

Sourced from Forbes

Read More
By
In News

9 Apps You Should Never Install On Windows 11

No Comments

By Levin Roy

We all know that pre-built PCs come with a bunch of bloatware that needs to be uninstalled, but what about the apps you install yourself? Are there any commonly installed applications that you could do without? Plenty of them, actually. Many applications rely on huge marketing budgets to appeal to users, promising a bunch of features that are misrepresented or not needed at all. These apps then proceed to slow down your PC by running a bunch of processes in the background, often to collect user data. Even if you trust the companies in question, allowing them to collect your data presents a security risk, as their servers can be compromised.

Then there is the expense. Most such software comes with a monthly subscription model, costing you quite a bit over time for no real reason. Usually, they are loaded with advertisements for other apps and services on top of a premium subscription, forcing you to deal with annoying pop-ups even after paying through your nose. So let’s look at some apps you should never install on Windows 11.

McAfee

mariakray/Shutterstock

McAfee is one of the most well-known antivirus software suites out there, with a long history that has cemented it as a household name. It is also infamous for the dramatic life of its enigmatic founder, John McAfee, but that controversy doesn’t have much to do with the software itself. No, the antivirus is dragged down by its own poor performance and shady practices.

Let’s start with the main reason anyone gets a third-party antivirus: security. While McAfee was a decent antivirus program in the days of Windows XP, it doesn’t quite hold up anymore. But why then does it come bundled with so many pre-built computers? Because the company pays the manufacturers to include its software, not because it is a great application that secures your system. McAfee is often installed by new PC builders as well, enticed by limited-time offers, only to be constantly beset by pop-ups selling you additional plans and services. And since all of these are sold as subscriptions, you end up racking up a significant monthly bill for software that doesn’t add anything of value. Do yourself a service and avoid installing McAfee antivirus on your computer.

Norton

IB Photography/Shutterstock

Norton is another well-known antivirus behemoth that often comes installed on PCs and markets aggressively on media platforms. And just like McAfee, it is not worth the price. Heck, it is not even worth the free trial. The reason is poor performance. Norton antivirus has a reputation for slowing down your PC as it runs in the background, impacting your PC’s performance. Even that might be acceptable if it boasted perfect PC protection that could safeguard your data, but it does not necessarily work any better than Windows Defender.

This is the sad reality of most of these antivirus applications these days. Many verge on bloatware sold by an insane marketing push. Microsoft’s Defender has come a long way from the days of Windows XP, and handles most features of a proprietary antivirus by default, including virus definitions, real-time protection, and an aggressive blocklist to prevent exploits. This leaves less for a third-party antivirus to do, so they resort to shady marketing to continue making money. Norton is one of the more visible examples of this, but you should consider avoiding installing any third-party antivirus on a modern Windows computer.

ExpressVPN

T. Schneider/Shutterstock

VPNs are the next big category of heavily marketed software that users install on new systems. ExpressVPN is one of its biggest and best-known names, backed by a huge marketing campaign and a long history of success. Except that the ExpressVPN of today is very different from the software that it started as, and might actually be spying on you instead of safeguarding your privacy.

The early iteration of ExpressVPN did its job pretty well. You could use it to bypass regional website restrictions and access web content that was blocked or priced differently at your real location. But as the VPN business boomed, ExpressVPN was acquired by Kape Technologies, a massive conglomerate. And the app started pivoting more toward marketing rather than performance, buying up review websites to help sell itself.

There is also a problem with the basic premise of how VPNs are sold. VPNs are good for getting past regional controls, but the marketing pushes them as a privacy and security product. In reality, browsers already encrypt your data, and some VPNs concentrate your data on their own servers. This leaves your personal information vulnerable to hacks, even if you trust the company itself not to profit off it. Case in point is ExpressVPN’s owner, Kape, which made a fortune collecting user data and making adware. A better option might be to use a VPN-enabled home router.

Honey

GrandAve/Shutterstock

The problem with online shopping is that there are so many sites selling the same things. You often buy a product at one site, only to discover later it was available at a much lower price on a different platform. Shopping extensions like Honey offer to solve this problem by checking around for the best deals whenever you add an item to your cart, saving you the effort of manually checking. The problem is that an extension like that gets access to far more data than you should be comfortable sharing, and isn’t completely honest in its recommendations, either.

Privacy is always a major concern with a shopping extension, since it monitors your purchases, and the data it collects can be sold to advertisers. This is particularly alarming here because you are also entering your payment details while shopping, and don’t want any application monitoring that. And this is before we get into whether they are scamming you entirely.

Honey, for example, shows you alternative buying links before you are about to check out, ostensibly giving you a better deal. But it was exposed for pushing its own affiliate links instead, earning it kickbacks without saving you a penny. So steer clear of shopping extensions like Honey and instead do your own research when buying a product. It takes time and effort, but that’s the only way to confirm you are not being taken for a ride.

CCleaner

Sharaf Maksumov/Shutterstock

Windows XP was a very successful operating system, but it had its issues. This gave rise to a class of PC cleaning and optimizing applications that would remove these unneeded files and speed up the PC’s performance. CCleaner was one of the first apps in this category, and quickly established itself as the market leader, with great effectiveness in cleaning up system files and registry entries. It was safe to use, making it a must-have for every PC.

But in 2017, it was acquired by Avast, the antivirus company. This is also around the time when Windows 10 started phasing out Windows XP (actually Vista, but that was a disaster). One of the major improvements in Windows 10 was the optimization. No longer did Windows need third-party applications to clean up temporary files or mess with the registry; The default system services could do it just fine. At the same time, Avast started turning CCleaner into a software bundle to sell its antivirus and other utilities alongside it. The result is a bloated, unnecessary mess.

CCleaner cleans nothing and slows down your computer, all the while trying to sell you other apps you don’t need. It has been hacked in the past as well, resulting in leaks of user data. Avoid installing this app on any PC running Windows 11.

WiFi Speed Boosters

Simpson33/Getty Images

The concept of a software being able to boost your WiFi speed is tempting, even though it is completely bogus. Your wireless internet speeds are dependent on factors that cannot be controlled through software. Things like the network conditions, the router technology, and even the version of WiFi supported by your network card decide the quality of the internet you get. And of course, your Internet Service Provider (ISP), including what plan you are on.

But if you go online, you will come across apps that claim to be able to boost your WiFi speeds. They claim to be able to achieve this by optimizing your networks and selecting the right channel. The problem is that these are functions that modern routers perform by default, making such software redundant. All these WiFi boosters do is throttle services to conserve bandwidth, often blocking useful applications like downloads you left running in the background. The worst ones are just sitting there collecting data on your PC, while trying to sell you additional premium services and ads to make a quick buck.

There are better ways to increase your internet speed. If your PC has an antenna, make sure it is installed, and try to place your router in a position where it can reach your whole house evenly. Depending on the situation, it might be worth investing in a WiFi range extender or plugging your PC directly into the router through an Ethernet cable instead.

Crypto mining software

Joseph Christanto/Shutterstock

There was a time when cryptocurrency mining was all the rage. The idea that you could put your gaming PC to work and earn yourself some money while you slept was very enticing, even if the logistics didn’t quite work out for hobby miners.

But times have changed. Bitcoin mining has reached the point where you need a massive server farm to turn any profit, and cryptocurrencies like Ethereum have switched to a different model entirely, ditching the computationally intensive mining process. This means that there is no viable way of making money on the side by installing cryptocurrency software on your PC. The legitimate mining applications changed to reflect this reality, recommending specialized mining computers for enthusiasts.

And yet, there are still cryptocurrency mining applications online that claim to be able to mine from your home PC and make you money. Some will say they mine using the cloud (but will pay you for some reason) while others still pretend that mining in the background is possible. In truth, these tend to be malware just looking to infect your system and steal data. Even Android is rife with such crypto mining scams. Some variants will actually mine cryptocurrency on your system, using up all your resources to make the hacker some crypto bucks. So, whatever you do, never install any crypto-mining applications on your computer.

Razer Synapse

iama_sing/Shutterstock

Razer is a market leader in gaming peripherals, most famously for its gaming mice and keyboards. Since gaming devices usually come with RGB lighting, Razer also offers a proprietary software for managing these lighting profiles, along with adjusting keybinds for special buttons, called the Razer Synapse. Just as dedicated drivers made by a device’s vendor tend to be better than generic drivers, you would expect a dedicated app to work best with Razer devices, right? Wrong. It doesn’t work well at all.

The major issue with Razer Synapse is performance. An application like this is meant to be lightweight, running unobtrusively in the background with minimal system impact. The Synapse, on the other hand, causes a very noticeable FPS drop while playing some games. Even in games without performance issues, the basic functions of the software work inconsistently. Keybinds don’t trigger correctly, fan profiles revert to default when you minimize the app, or it fails to recognize your devices. Not to mention the software takes up too much disk space for a simple task.

To be fair to Razer Synapse, this is often the case with company-specific software like this, even from other manufacturers like MSI or Logitech. You may be better off sticking to universal software like SignalRGB, which can manage most of these devices from a common platform.

NVIDIA

Nwz/Shutterstock

NVIDIA is the GPU company, and it’s likely your PC uses an NVIDIA graphics card. Chances are also good that the company pushed you to download the NVIDIA app during driver installation. It is optional, but most users pick yes because the idea of a dedicated app for managing your GPU settings and tweaking them for every game sounds good. Except it cannot quite do that.

When you open the NVIDIA app, it greets you with a list of all installed games on your system, and then proceeds to show you graphical settings that you find in-game. Trying to change the universal settings just changes the very options you can see in the standard NVIDIA control panel on the taskbar, giving you nothing new. Worse, the NVIDIA app can negatively impact your PC performance, usually due to unoptimized overlay or malfunctioning game filters.

Another reason you might have installed this app is to record gameplay, as the previous GeForce Experience was dedicated to this function, and worked without a major drop in performance. But the new NVIDIA app struggles with this function as well, with the instant replay switching off randomly, or being unable even to take screenshots. For now, it’s better to stick with GeForce Experience or switch to something like OBS rather than installing the NVIDIA app.

Feature image credit: Alex Photo Stock/Shutterstock

By Levin Roy

Sourced from BGR

Read More
By
In News

Google is desperate for us to forget the simple joy of the original internet: Links

No Comments

By 

We have to go back.

Until I found the website ooh.directory last year, I hadn’t really understood, completely, how malnourished my internet diet had become. I still had some bookmarks I visited everyday, and the social media feed I checked (too often) for breaking news and interesting stories. But only when I made a conscious effort for the first time in a decade to fill up an RSS reader with bloggers, critics, news sources, and even webcomics did I realize that I’d lost track of the original, primal joy of the internet:

Clicking a link and finding a whole new world unfurl before me, as fast as my dial-up modem or DSL connection could load it in.

I realize in hindsight that that was the really magical part, not knowing what I would get when I clicked. Finding a site wholly born from the passion and personality of someone I’d never met was as much the point as the information that site contained.

For 20 years Google has been trying to kill this version of the internet that I loved. At first I think it was with good intentions: the internet just seemed so vast back then (ha!) that a search engine that could truly crawl all of it to surface the “best” stuff was amazing. Then, of course, Google took over the entirety of internet advertising and tightly integrated it with search. It took over browsing with Chrome so it could control the standards websites would have to adhere to. It made it so you could search without even going to Google.com.

(Image credit: Yahoo via Internet archive)

Google itself has become the final form of “Saved you a click,”

It started auto filling what everyone else was searching for, so that it could precisely tailor those results pages (and all the lucrative sponsored links at the top—$198 billion in ad revenue last year!). For years now we’ve watched Google rip more and more information out of the websites it once presented as promising, useful links and act as though it’s done us a huge favour.

Why should you click on George Clooney’s Wikipedia page (the first result when you search his name) when a snippet of it is right there in the sidebar? Surely you want to know “Is George Clooney richer than Brad Pitt?” and the answer is right there for you in the “People also ask” widget, sandwiched between the links.

Surely when you Google “Does Master Chief have sex?” you just want the answer to that pressing question as quickly as possible, right? Google is doing you a great service with its new AI Overview, then, which summarizes “Yes, Master Chief has sex with a human Covenant spy named Makee in a specific episode of the live-action Halo TV series.”

Mister Chief

(Image credit: Frank O’Connor)

It graciously provides a source for this information with a link to the 2022 YouTube video Master Chief Lays Pipe in the Halo Show.

But Google would really much rather entice you to click a button it highlights with swirling RGB lights titled “Dive deeper in AI mode,” where it promises to provide more context. As much context as you want. Endless context. I click it to see what insights it can offer. Master Chief “is often jokingly referred to by fans as a ‘big green virgin,'” Google tells me. Sure!

We all know that Google has, for years, been trying harder and harder to stop helping us navigate the internet and instead be the internet, with the answer to any and every thought or query right there at the top of the results page.

We can all feel in our bones that this convenience has become more and more a hindrance, every search weighed down by paid results and shortform videos and SEO’d-to-hell listicles as autocomplete funnels us to the lowest common denominator results.

And yet the infection eating away at Google’s core goes deeper than “search sucks now.” Google’s AI overviews aren’t just leeching traffic away from the very websites it’s happily pilfering from, with no fucks given in the halls of big tech about fracking the internet’s core until the whole thing collapses in on itself. The rot is spiritual.

Google’s AI overviews demonstrate with diamond clarity that Google views the trillions of links it crawls as nothing more than information—data to be surfaced in any form, the more immediate and convenient the better. Google itself has become the final form of “Saved you a click,” a 2010s Twitter phenomenon that writer Charlie Warzel once succinctly analysed as fighting less against clickbait than “the premise of simply reading.”

“In @SavedYouAClick’s”—or, now, Google’s!—”perfect world, information doesn’t just want to be free, it demands to be right in your face in its entirety—showmanship, gimmicks, and creativity be damned. Your time is, quite simply, too precious.”

Google Discover headlines rewritten by AI

(Image credit: The Verge)

AI overviews and everything about the modern Google experience view the totality of the internet as nothing but questions and answers. The same goes for ChatGPT, Grok, whatever—they’re not just offensive because they’re built on stolen material and wrong half the time, but because they don’t even recognize the actual value in what they’re stealing. How else should we interpret Google now deciding to rewrite our headlines with AI, turning this:

  • ‘Child labour is unbeatable’: Baldur’s Gate 3 players discover how to build an army of unkillable kids through the power of polymorph and German media laws

Into this?

  • BG3 players exploit children

What could the point of these AI headlines possibly be, other than to convince you that all the ‘information’ you ‘need’ is contained within Google’s feed in its most easily digestible form? Don’t waste time clicking away! Rest assured that all flavour will be hewn from the bone and discarded before serving so that you’re left with nothing but a flavourless content broth, so calorie light you can scroll-slurp it forever without interruption.

The thing is: Showmanship, gimmicks, and creativity? That’s what living is for, man! That was the whole original joy of clicking on an old website with no idea what you were going to get; whether it would start auto-playing a midi version of the Star Wars theme or dazzle you with a tiled 32×32 pixel tiled background of the Zelda triforce or a dancing baby.

Search and “AI” … have become so focused on serving up the known that they no longer bear any resemblance to the version of the internet that cherished discovering the unknown

Remember cursing when you landed on a Flash website because it would take so long to load, but then being like damn, this looks cool?

Remember joining a message board because you really liked a website’s Final Fantasy 7 guides and then, I don’t know, marrying someone else who posts there?

Okay, that was not an experience too many people had. But some did! And you sure as hell would never even crack open the door leading to that wholly unpredictable path through life if, in the year 2025, you Googled “what’s the best materia in Final Fantasy 7,” read the AI overview, and never clicked a thing.

(Dumbshit AI can’t even give you the right answer which is that obviously Knights of the Round is the best materia because it’s cool, more practical choices be damned).

Image 1 of 4
Eyes on Final Fantasy fansite in the early 2000s
(Image credit: EyesonFF.com via Internet Archive)

There are a million yeah, buts we could get into here: sometimes headlines really are misleading, sometimes websites are so stuffed with ads that reading them kinda sucks (sorry, but I remind you again that Google monopolized the ad market), sometimes search results pages are useless because the few human writers still eking out a living are fighting against a million spammy content mills to win a popular search term Google has told everyone to type in. Sometimes you do just need a quick answer to a quick question.

But Google has made us forget how much more nourishing clicking a link can be—how much beyond mere information could await you when that page loads. Search—and really any sort of “AI” that can answer your every question—have become so focused on serving up the known that they no longer bear any resemblance to the version of the internet that cherished discovering the unknown.

(Image credit: Ooh.directory)

So now, every few months, I find myself back on ooh.directory, clicking around at random. I love the front page, where it shows me a blog that is celebrating its 25th birthday today.

I click the random button and learn there’s a guy out there named Robert X Cringely (wow).

I land on the personal site of a game developer who worked on Doom 2016 and Deer Avenger 4: The Rednecks Strike Back and has created 1,450 pieces of Javascript art (so far), each in under 140 characters of code.

Javascript sunset

(Image credit: KilledByAPixel)

Without it I never would’ve started reading Sandwich Tribunal, a blog trying to review every sandwich listed on Wikipedia. They’ve been at it for 10 years. Never in my life would I have possibly typed the words “Rou Jia Mo, the Flatbread Sandwich of Shaanxi Province” into Google.

But now I know that there’s a sandwich out there that marries two culinary traditions dating back 3,000 years and 1,400 years, respectively—a sandwich I must eat before I die.

We’ll all need something like a Rou Jia Mo to sustain us during the internet nuclear winter that Google is eagerly creating, and once AI has fully destroyed search you’ll have to look for it the old fashioned way. Go out there, and find your own.

Feature Image credit: Future

By 

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he’ll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he’s not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it’s really becoming a problem), he’s probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).

Sourced from PC Gamer

Read More
By
In News

The LinkedIn Update That Will Crush Your Reach Unless You Adapt Fast

No Comments

By Jodie Cook

LinkedIn just made a decision that’s about to destroy most creators’ reach. The platform decided faceless education is dead. That means generic business advice gets buried. Safe content gets ignored. Yet most people keep posting like nothing changed.

When I visited LinkedIn’s New York headquarters in September they told me something that should have been obvious. People don’t come to LinkedIn for Wikipedia. They come for connections with real humans who happen to know useful things. The algorithm now reflects this reality. If you don’t adapt, your content becomes invisible.

Stop hiding behind your content: LinkedIn’s new reality

Your face beats your frameworks

I tested this with two identical posts. Same exact advice about scaling a coaching business. One had my face. One had a pretty Canva graphic. The face post got 4x more views. LinkedIn’s algorithm now prioritizes posts where people can see who’s talking.

Upload a simple selfie with your next post. Not a professional headshot. Just you, being you. Show people the human behind the advice. When someone scrolls to your content, they should recognize you instantly, not just your brand colours.

Turn teaching into entertainment

Remember when LinkedIn was all “5 tips for better leadership” posts? Those days died. The platform wants productive procrastination now. People need to be hooked by your content but should feel good about scrolling, not guilty. You’re a teacher, a gameshow host, and their cheerleader.

Share your morning routine disaster that led to a business breakthrough. Tell them about the client call where everything went wrong before it went right. Make them laugh before you make them think. Educational content wrapped in entertainment gets 10x the engagement of straight advice.

Lead with why they should care

Your credentials matter more than ever. Not because you need to flex, but because people need to know why to listen. LinkedIn shows your content to strangers now, not just your network. They don’t know you’re the coach who helped 100 founders scale. Tell them in line one.

“After coaching founders through $50M in raises, here’s what I know about pitch decks.” Beat that. “I spent 10 years making these LinkedIn mistakes so you don’t have to.” Perfect. Skip the wind-up. Get straight to why your voice matters.

Make your quirks your superpowers

Generic Gerald posts about leadership. Boring Barbara shares motivational quotes. Meanwhile, Anna who collects vintage typewriters and relates every business lesson to her collection? She’s memorable. Your weird hobby, your strange morning ritual, your controversial opinion about your industry. These are connection points.

Pick three personality markers that make you, you. Maybe you start every day with fantasy novels. Perhaps you dictate all your content while walking. Whatever makes you different, weave it into your posts. Give people reasons to remember you beyond your expertise.

Create binge-worthy content series

LinkedIn rewards creators who keep people on the platform through rabbit holes of connected content. Think Netflix for business content. One post should make them want to check your profile for more.

Start a weekly series only you could create. “Startup lessons from my disastrous kitchen experiments.” “What my toddler taught me about negotiations.” “Bad marketing emails I got this week.” Make it specific to your experience. People find one post in your series, then they hunt for the rest.

Become the expert people actually remember: LinkedIn in 2026

Enough of the frameworks, hot takes, and platitudes. Your audience craves real connections. They want to learn from someone they’d grab coffee with, not another faceless expert. LinkedIn finally caught up to what humans always wanted. Connection first, content second.

Stop posting like a content machine. Start showing up like the expert you actually are. Be more weird. The algorithm rewards humanity. Your perfectly polished posts are losing to someone’s messy Monday confession that happens to include brilliant advice. Choose which side you want to be on.

Feature image credit: Getty

By Jodie Cook

Find Jodie Cook on LinkedIn. Visit Jodie’s website.

Sourced from Forbes

Read More
By
In Uncategorized

4 marketing tricks to not fall for this holiday season

No Comments
By Marielle Segarra, Malaka Gharib

Extra 20% off! Factory sale! Last chance! You may have seen these offers while shopping. But are they actually good deals?

To find out, Life Kit spoke with Brian Vines, a reporter at Consumer Reports, and Lindsay Weekes, editor-in-chief of Brad’s Deals, a site that curates promotions from online retailers. They share common marketing techniques that companies use to entice shoppers to buy more — and tips on how to make smarter purchases.

Technique 1: Creating a sense of urgency 

When you see words like “buy now” or “flash deal,” while shopping, take caution, say our experts. Retailers use a sense of urgency to push consumers to make quicker shopping decisions, Vines says. They don’t want you to think too hard about the purchase.

This strategy also relies on shoppers’ fear of missing out, Weekes says. It makes people think, “if I don’t purchase this right now, I’ll never get this deal again.”

The next time you encounter an offer like this, take a beat. Remember, companies are constantly making products, Vines says. “You will not miss the boat.”

You may realize that you only wanted to buy something because it felt urgent. Or you might find a better deal, especially if you wait to shop for something at the end of the season, Weekes says.

Technique 2: Calling out the “original price” 

When you see a price tag that displays an item’s “original price,” say $200, next to the current price, say $75, that’s called price anchoring.

“It makes people fixate on that [higher] price versus the sale price,” Weekes says. It can also make the product appear higher-value, making you want it more.

A lot of the time, that “original price” was never the original price — or hasn’t been that price for a long time, Weekes says.

Outsmart the gimmick by focusing on the actual price of the item, our experts say. If the tag says it’s $75, then assess for yourself whether you think that’s a good deal, regardless of that original price.

Technique 3: Inflating the base price

Another pricing strategy retailers use is to raise the base price of an item just before the busy season, then offer a steep and enticing percentage discount, like 40% or 50%. But since the base price is higher, the item might cost the same as it did last week, or maybe more. This tactic is called “high-low pricing.”

To get around this gimmick, do a price comparison, say our experts. Look for historical pricing data online, or how much the retailer has charged for this product over time.

You can also see if a product is cheaper at another retailer or a second hand website. That’s a great option for clothing — you can even find the same pair of jeans, new with tags still on, for a fraction of the price when you buy second hand.

If you’re shopping at a store, go online to see if you can find a better price at another store across town, Vines says. Then talk to a sales associate and ask them if they can match that competitor’s price. You can also add an item to your online cart and check on the price over a few days or weeks to see if it changes.

Technique 4: Building a fantasy 

Marketers sell you a fantasy: the idea of that picture-perfect holiday dinner where everyone’s connecting and nobody’s fighting. Or the vision of you as your sexiest, most confident self.

“These all play to our aspirational, I’ve-got-my-stuff-together side, based on the amount of things we’re able to gather and put in our carts,” Vines says.

So if you find yourself typing in your credit card information while fantasizing about some idealized version of yourself or your family, pause, say our experts.

That doesn’t mean you don’t get your family any gifts for the holidays. But when you consider a purchase, remember that you don’t have to buy this particular item.

You can also get creative. Bake them their favourite cookies. Plan a group dinner or a family hike. Find a treasure they’ll love at a second hand store. These gifts can be just as meaningful as something you buy from a store.

Feature image credit: Mininyx Doodle/Getty Images

By Marielle Segarra, 

Marielle Segarra is a reporter and the host of NPR’s Life Kit, the award-winning podcast and radio show that shares trustworthy, non-judgmental tips that help listeners navigate their lives.

Malaka Gharib

Malaka Gharib is the deputy editor and digital strategist on NPR’s global health and development team. She covers topics such as the refugee crisis, gender equality and women’s health. Her work as part of NPR’s reporting teams has been recognized with two Gracie Awards: in 2019 for How To Raise A Human, a series on global parenting, and in 2015 for #15Girls, a series that profiled teen girls around the world.

Sourced from KOSU

Read More
By
In News

Skip the Startup Struggle — Here’s How Buying a Business Lets You Profit Sooner

No Comments

By Daria Shaposhnikova, Edited by Kara McIntyre

Buying a ready-made business isn’t “cheating;” it’s the smarter, faster and more sustainable way to win.

Key Takeaways

  • Buying an established online business can leapfrog the trial-and-error phase of starting from scratch, sparing time and money.
  • Despite popular belief, acquiring an existing ecommerce business offers the advantage of a proven model, allowing for more confident decision-making and less psychological stress.

 

There’s something romantic about the idea of building a business from the ground up. You picture yourself hunched over a laptop at 2 a.m., tweaking product descriptions, obsessing over logo fonts and testing 15 different shades of blue for your checkout button. You’re not just launching a store — you’re birthing a vision.

But here’s what that romantic notion usually leaves out: the 18 months of throwing money at Facebook ads that go nowhere, the suppliers who ghost you after taking your deposit and the soul-crushing realization that nobody wants to buy hand-poured candles in vintage teacups, no matter how perfect your Instagram aesthetic is.

Starting an online business from nothing isn’t just hard. It’s expensive, time-consuming and statistically speaking, likely to fail. According to various industry reports, somewhere between 80-90% of ecommerce startups don’t make it past their first year. Those aren’t odds most people would accept anywhere else in life, yet we’ve somehow convinced ourselves that starting from absolute zero is the only legitimate path to business ownership.

What if there was a different way?

The case for buying what already works

Imagine walking into a fully functioning business on day one. The website is built. The product suppliers are vetted and reliable. The advertising campaigns have been tested, refined and actually generate sales. Real customers have already voted with their wallets, proving that yes, people do want this thing you’re now selling.

This isn’t some fantasy scenario. It’s exactly what happens when you buy an established online business instead of starting from zero.

The appeal is straightforward: You’re skipping the part where most businesses struggle and fail. You’re not guessing whether your niche has potential or whether your marketing angle works. Someone else already figured that out, spent the money proving it and now you get to walk in and take over a machine that’s already running.

Time is the real currency

Money matters, but time might matter more.

Starting an ecommerce business from scratch doesn’t just cost you capital — it costs you months or years of your life. Six months of testing products that don’t sell. Another six months figuring out why your conversion rate is terrible. A year of learning that your target audience isn’t who you thought it was.

When you buy an established business, you’re buying back all that time. The learning curve still exists — you need to understand how the business operates — but you’re not starting from absolute zero. The store has a track record. The ads have performance data. You can see what works and what doesn’t because someone already ran those experiments.

The psychological advantage

There’s an underrated psychological component to buying versus building.

When you start a business from nothing, every setback feels existential. A slow week feels like failure. A bad month makes you question everything. You’re constantly wondering whether the problem is temporary bad luck or fundamental proof that your idea doesn’t work.

When you buy an established business, you have evidence that it works. A slow week is just a slow week — variance, not verdict. You can troubleshoot with confidence because you know the underlying model is sound. That psychological foundation changes everything about how you operate.

You make better decisions when you’re not constantly second-guessing whether the entire enterprise is viable. You experiment more freely because you’re optimizing something proven rather than validating something uncertain. The difference in stress levels alone might be worth the premium you pay upfront.

What you’re really buying

When you purchase an established online business, you’re not just buying a website and some sales history. You’re buying infrastructure.

You’re getting supplier relationships that took months to establish and vet. You’re getting customer email lists of people who’ve already bought once and might buy again. You’re getting advertising creative that’s been tested against real audiences. You’re getting product descriptions written by someone who figured out which features actually matter to buyers.

All of this exists as intellectual property and operational knowledge that has real value. Starting from zero means you’re paying for all of that education through time, mistakes and money spent on things that don’t work. Buying an established business means someone else already paid that tuition and you’re getting the degree.

The practical path forward

Here’s the best part: You don’t need to become an ecommerce expert overnight. The store is already running. The systems are in place. The money is already flowing.

The beauty of an established store is that it’s already proven it can generate profit with minimal hands-on involvement. The advertising campaigns are optimized and running. The supplier relationships are established. Customer service can be handled through simple systems that are already in place. You’re monitoring a machine that’s already humming along, not building one from spare parts.

You don’t need to master the intricacies of ecommerce logistics or become a marketing guru. The business comes with everything working — your role is more like an owner who checks in regularly rather than someone who needs to understand every technical detail. With support and clear metrics, you can oversee everything confidently without drowning in complexity.

Making the decision

The traditional entrepreneurship narrative says you should start from nothing because struggle builds character or proves commitment or whatever. But that’s just narrative. It’s not a strategy.

If your goal is to own a profitable online business, buying one that already works is often the most direct path there. You’re trading some upfront capital for a massive reduction in risk and time. For most people, that’s an excellent trade.

You don’t need to reinvent ecommerce. You don’t need a revolutionary product idea. You don’t need to risk your savings on an unproven concept. You can just buy something that works, learn how it operates and take it from there.

That might not be as romantic as the founder mythology we’ve all absorbed, but it’s quite possibly smarter. And in business, smart beats romantic every time.

By Daria Shaposhnikova 

Daria Shaposhnikova is a marketing executive with 15 years of experience leading teams and driving for complex IT and B2B products. As CMO, she brings expertise in brand strategy, market positioning and a proven track record in launching new products and scaling brands.

Edited by Kara McIntyre

Sourced from Entrepreneur

Read More
By
In News

Story archetypes and their use in digital marketing strategies

No Comments

By Rumble Romagnoli, 

Archetypes have long been used by marketers to help define a brand’s personality, which in turn allows for a powerful and cohesive digital marketing strategy to be rolled out. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the world of luxury marketing, where story archetypes help brands to define their image and tailor their marketing to a very specific group of individuals.

Relevance explain how story archetypes can be a powerful tool in luxury brand storytelling.

There are 12 archetypes, which were defined by famed Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung. These carefully constructed story archetypes each reflect enduring personas that feed into the human experience, helping a brand to discover its personality and brand voice by anchoring it to a clearly defined story archetype that is already embedded within humanity. This story archetype ultimately defines how and the way that brand communicates to its target audience, helping to make the brand instantly recognisable.

By identifying the specific archetype that a brand embodies, marketers can tap into what that brand’s clients consciously, or unconsciously, desire to experience. Archetypes are, at their very essence, story characters, whose symbolic or personal significance evokes emotional reactions in the listener.

Once a luxury brand has chosen their story archetype, they can create a powerful and compelling story that resonates with individuals’ desires, essentially enabling their target audience to better relate to a brand and their product. And, when you consider that a survey by Meaningful Brands in 2017 highlighted that 84 percent of people expect brands to produce content that entertains, provides solutions, experiences and events, carefully selecting the right story archetype and producing compelling content to appeal to that archetype has never been more important, or powerful.

A brand’s overall digital marketing strategy will also be driven by their archetype, dictating where their marketing focus should lie as well as what social media platforms will work best for them.

Story archetypes run the gamut from those that create excitement, to those that convey comfort to others, and choosing the right one is essential for the success of any brand.

The following 12 archetypes are typically used by marketers, with each story archetype tapping into the common narrative that individuals experience and see on a day-to-day basis.

The 12 story archetypes

The Creator

Naturally expressive, original and imaginative, the Creator wishes to see new ideas take shape and see visions realised. This is the ideal story archetype for technology brands, in addition to marketing and design brands, companies who believe that anything is possible and that ideas should not be stifled. Novel and experimental digital marketing strategies tend to work best with this archetype, with brands often focusing on their creative and innovative ideas. The multinational technology company Apple ideally fits this story archetype as it constantly pushes the boundaries of technological evolution.

The Everyman

Naturally empathetic, unpretentious and resilient, the Everyman’s purpose in life is to be accepted and belong. This is the story archetype for brands that wish to be known for their reliability and quality. Trust is central to this archetype, along with a feeling of belonging. Digital marketing strategies that offer a realistic down-to-earth view will appeal best. Luxury fashion and beauty brand Fenty appeals to the Everyman, with its no no-nonsense products designed to appeal to a wide range of people.

The Innocent

Idealistic, optimistic and hopeful, the Innocent wishes to live life in harmony and is the archetype for brands that offer wholesome fun, alongside brands that promote wellness, or those selling natural products, for example. Simple, yet cheerful marketing campaigns tend to appeal best to this archetype. Exclusive brand Chanel appeals to this story archetype with its luxurious goods that promote happiness and wellbeing.

The Explorer

Naturally independent, authentic and curious, this archetype craves, freedom, and adventure, with marketing campaigns tapping into this archetype’s desire by focusing on risk taking, travel and discovery. Ambitious and innovative, Explorer brands aim to push the boundaries and embrace anything is possible attitude. The Explorer story archetype is perfect for brands that promote exploration, such as Land Rover and its go anywhere rugged off-road vehicles.

The Caregiver

Compassionate, nurturing and dedicated, the Caregiver’s purpose in life is to help others. Brands that align with this story archetype offer protection, safety and support for their customers, and often includes healthcare, education, resorts, and baby care brands. Emotionally driven digital marketing strategies tend to appeal best to this archetype. The Four Seasons Hotels are ideal for this, with their latest marketing campaigns tapping into how they can help families spend more quality time together.

The Ruler

Confident, competent, and responsible, the Ruler aims to be a role model to others. Digital marketing strategies for brands that align with this story archetype need to have an authoritative voice, infused with a sense of wealth and success. Brands such as Porsche are an ideal fit for the Ruler archetype.

The Magician

Intuitive, insightful and inspiring, the Magician’s purpose in life is to transform the ordinary into extraordinary. Digital marketing strategies should be imaginative and inspiring, aimed at making dreams comes true and turning problems into opportunities. Italian jewellery company Bvglari’s extraordinary and exceptional designs perfectly resonates with the ideals of this story archetype.

The Rebel

Unconventional thinkers who can develop new, cutting-edge approaches, the Rebel’s purpose in life is to shake up the status quo, a great fit for action-orientated brands that want to stand out and be different. Digital marketing strategies should demonstrate the brand as an alternative to the mainstream in order to be successful. Balenciaga’s forward-thinking and cutting-edge designs perfectly align with this archetype.

The Entertainer

Playful, spontaneous, and humorous, the Entertainer aims to make people feel good, lighten the mood, and enjoy themselves. Fun-filled creative marketing strategies that create an emotional response work best. A great story archetype for fun-loving brands that are aimed at encouraging people to have a good time, such as historic fashion house Gucci.

The Lover

Appreciative, passionate and committed, the lover’s purpose in life is to make people feel special. Brands tap into this feel-good attitude by creating compelling digital marketing strategies that pleasure the senses. A great fit for aesthetically beautiful brands, especially very exclusive ones, such as Hermes.

The Sage

Intelligent, knowledgeable and reflective, the Sage seeks to find answers to their questions. This story archetype is a great fit for educational or research-based brands, as well as news outlets. Factual digital marketing strategies that challenge the audience to think differently and discover more about the world will work best with this archetype. Patek Philippe, one of the oldest luxury watch manufacturers in the world, is a great example of an iconic brand that perfectly fits with this story archetype.

The Hero

Determined, achievement-orientated and focused, the Hero’s purpose in life is to improve the world. Brands that align with this story archetype promote themselves as being superior to their competitors, often creating loud and bold marketing campaigns, such as the prestigious watchmaker Rolex.

At Relevance, we use story archetypes to help us craft compelling stories that align perfectly with our client’s brand personality but we also go beyond the traditional story archetypes to develop our own. Based on data and assumptions that we have in-house, we really believe in the power of creating your own archetypes that uniquely characterise a specific brand. For example, we have a huge amount of information on high-net-worth-individuals and ultra-high-net-worth-individuals, from their lifestyles and spending habits, to their education and business profiles. This unique data enables us to identify trends amongst this audience, create our own story archetypes, and then craft innovative digital marketing strategies and campaigns that are based on data and facts, not assumptions.

Contact the team of digital marketing experts at Relevance if you require digital marketing strategies that work coupled with severe standards of excellence. And, for a bit of fun, why not check out our quiz and discover your archetype.

By Rumble Romagnoli

CEO at Relevance.

Sourced from The Drum

Read More
By
Load More