Data Mining and Analytics as a Career
The word data mining or data analytics has already created quite a buzz in the digital world. Data mining services have opened doors to a fantastic world of new possibilities. It has given growing businesses a perspective that was previously beyond the realm of their thoughts. Data mining services have now become the pillars of any new business. Data mining services, when combined with data analytics, can help you develop business intelligence, which is an excellent tool for any business. https://www.bizprospex.com/on-demand-data-mining/
****What is Data Mining?****
Our world is made up of raw, unstructured data. Data mining / Analytics is the process of finding relevant patterns from the set of raw data involving methods such as machine learning and human logic. It is the culmination of two fields, computer science, and statistics. The ultimate goal behind data mining and analytics is KDD “Knowledge discovery in databases.” Data mining services are in emerging demand. Many firms offer data mining services by deploying various methods such as manual data mining and automated data mining with Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
We can use data mining services for customer experience, product research, or sales enablement in many ways. There are many ways data can help you improve ROI, be it via CRM cleaning, email data appending, and list building, among others. Thus, a lot of interdisciplinary branches bifurcate from data mining. However, data is the root of all these services. https://www.bizprospex.com/data-solution/
****How can Data Mining be used as a service?****
Once you have gathered the mined data, i.e., once you have identified the raw data’s usage patterns, you can predict future market trends and analysis to help your business grow and prosper. Data mining services can help a company develop a deep insight into their businesses. Data can be used in accounting as well. You can devise your revenue model, do cost-cutting, devise a best-suited marketing plan for your business, and whatnot. Thus, data mining services can prove to be a convenient tool for any business.
Many organizations offer data mining as a service or as an end product (take, for example, DaddyLeads.com). DaddyLeads offers raw data for Analytics, buys it, and uses it as per your organization’s needs. Thousands of B2B websites provide these services against a fee. All these firms require data analysts, data scientists, data researchers to accomplish their goal of providing data mining as a service. https://www.daddyleads.com/
Data mining services isn’t a one-time service; it’s a continuous process. Every business needs data mining at different stages of operation. Data mining services can be used in a broad spectrum. It’s like sitting on the gold mine and refining gold, the gold which can be molded, wired, and modified in an infinite number of ways.
****Data mining/analytics as a Career?****
Source: Google images
Since every modern business these days utilizes data mining service one way or another, data mining professionals’ demand has increased manifolds. Every company wants to hire people who are good at data science. Thus, new job opportunities and new positions have been created to accommodate these professionals. Professions such as Data researcher, Data Scientist, Data Architect, Data admin, Data analyst, and manager are widely popular. So, let me elaborate on each of these roles and know what it demands.
****Data Researcher:****
A data researcher is a person who researches relevant data from a large pool of available data. He devises and deploys an algorithm with the help of which relevant data can be extracted. Here are the steps involved in data research:
**Tracking Patterns:** The most crucial step in data mining is to find patterns. Modern-day tools like Google Adwords can help you achieve this goal. Tracking patterns include identifying the peak points of a specific variable over some time.
For example, you might see a spike searching for holiday packages during the vacation period and a dip otherwise. Thus, the first step a Data researcher performs is tracking patterns in the raw data.
**Classification:** Classification is the next step after tracking the pattern. The available data is then classified based on demographics, nature, size, and current status. Classifying the data makes it more readable and relevant, which can now be used for various purposes. It is the role of the data researcher to classify the data into useful information.
**Clustering:** The classified data is then clustered into respective groups. For example, you can cluster a group of audience with similar income levels. Thus, a data researcher also performs the clustering of the data.
****Data Analyst:****
Data analyst translates the data into an understandable and readable format. It is the job of data analysts to pull out the meaning from the tabular data. Based on the analysis, they help companies take better decisions regarding their business. This can include suggesting new pricing models, solving monetary glitches, transportation costs, or something as simple as determining how many people work on weekends.
There are different types of analysts – operational analysts, marketing analysts, and financial analysts. Data analysts can help in all the departments of the company.
****Data Scientist:****
A data analyst with an enriched experience and rigorous domain knowledge is promoted to be a Data Scientist. A data scientist knows how to extract meaning from the data, clean the data, and append it according to the business need. A data scientist has a thorough grasp of business needs and statistics. Data scientists use machine learning tools, artificial intelligence to develop an insight into the business and help businesses make better decisions. http://www.wahleads.com/
****Data Architect:****
As the name suggests, a data architect builds a framework of the collected and classified data with computer organization skills. They create a blueprint for creating, testing the database.
Thus, a data architect is a technical position given to engineers who have a thorough knowledge of developing frameworks, computer methodology, and organization. Several data architects work together to build a framework applied to all the data related operations and functions.
****Data Admin:****
Data admin is the person who controls the visibility of the mined data. It is the job of the admin to authorize permissions to view or modify the data. Sometimes, data admins reserve the right to modify the data to them based on its operation.
Their responsibilities also include monitoring the data and ensure the integrity of the data. They ensure that the data is error-free and fully functional. Data admins hold a crucial position in the company. They are entrusted with considerable responsibility for managing the company’s most important possession: data.
****Bottom Line:****
As you must have understood by now, mining services have created fantastic career opportunities. Apart from these professionals’ needs, data mining services have opened a new vertical for starting fresh businesses.
Crypto News #3
Forbes compiled a list of the wealthiest representatives of business in the field of cryptocurrency, following the results of 2020. It is headed by the CEO of the Coinbase crypto-exchange Brian Armstrong with $6.5 billion, followed by the head of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange Sam Bankman-Freed with $4.5 billion and the co-founder of Ripple Chris Larsen - $2.9 billion.
The ranking also includes: the head of MicroStrategy Michael Saylor - $ 2 billion, CEO of the Binance exchange Changpeng "CZ" Zhao - $1.9 billion, the founders of the Gemini exchange, the Winklevoss brothers - $1.6 billion each, founder of the venture capital company Digital Currency Group Barry Silbert - $1.5 billion , co-founder and former CTO of Ripple Jed McCaleb - $1.4 billion, venture capitalist Tim Draper - $1.1 billion and co-founder of blockchain startup Bloq Matthew Roszak - $1 billion.
When preparing the rating, the Forbes magazine took into account not only the value of the digital assets of the persons involved, but also their traditional assets, including the shares of various companies.
- According to Reuters, the German prosecutor's office is unable to access a wallet with more than 1,700 bitcoins with a total value of about $75 million. The account holder, who was found to be a fraud, refuses to testify against himself and provide access keys. Currently, law enforcement officers are looking for ways to "get close" to these assets through exchanges and wallet operators in order to return them to the victims of the criminal.
The fraudster was sentenced to two years in prison for installing phishing software on third-party computers, with which he deducted funds from the victims' accounts and transferred them to his own wallet. The prosecutor explained that the offender was offered mitigation of punishment if he provided data on the whereabouts of the coins, but he refused. The size of the criminal's assets has significantly increased against the background of the latest bitcoin rally, and it is possible that he is going to use them after his release.
- American children's charity Songs of Love created Superhero Billy Bitcoin to boost interest in their work. Crypto donations to such non-profit organizations in the United States are tax-free. “Donating in a cryptocurrency like bitcoin is even more efficient than cash. You don't have to pay capital gains tax and can deduct that amount from your taxes,” said Songs of Love. The fund accepts donations in 22 digital assets, and the Superhero Billy Bitcoin is dedicated to supporting children with serious illnesses.
- The price of bitcoin could rise to $100,000 as early as the end of 2021 if other companies follow Tesla's lead, the founder of cryptobank Galaxy Digital Mike Novogratz said in an interview to Bloomberg . Elon Musk's company announced the investment of $1.5 billion in Bitcoin on Monday, February 8. Tesla admitted that in the future they will integrate the first cryptocurrency as a means of payment for their products.
Novogratz called Elon Musk a genius in his decision to listen to people and evaluate the interests of young people. According to the billionaire, other companies will invest in the first cryptocurrency to hedge inflation risks. “You'll see that every company in America will soon start doing the same,” stated Mike Novogratz.
- Due to the shortage of discrete graphics cards in the market, gaming laptops have become popular among Chinese Ethereum miners. As calculated by the Techarp portal, the payback period for such a computer costing from $1000 is approximately three and a half months.
One laptop with a RTX 3060 video card is able to get 0.00053 ETH ($0.92 at the moment) within two hours. That is, the mining will amount to 2.3 ETH (over $4000) for the year, and a farm of 20 laptops at current prices and taking into account the cost of electricity in China will bring more than $76,800 in profit.
- North Korea has been able to upgrade its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles by using funds stolen in cyberattacks, to finance. According to the Associated Press citing UN experts, these attacks mainly targeted financial institutions and cryptocurrency platforms, and the total amount of the digital assets stolen in the period from 2019 to November 2020 is more than $316 million. Experts say North Korea continues to launder cryptocurrencies stolen by its hackers mostly through Chinese over-the-counter platforms.
- The authorities arrested a 37-year-old Wisconsin resident on charges of attempting to arrange a bespoke homicide. This is stated in the message of the US Department of Justice. The woman found the killer on the darknet, offering to pay for his "work" in cryptocurrency, and provided him with a phone number, place of work and a description of the alleged victim.
Journalists of one of the media learned about the upcoming crime while working on material about transactions in the darknet. They found evidence of a Bitcoin transaction, as well as a screenshot of a wallet with $5,633 in cryptocurrency, after which the reporters contacted the law enforcement. Now the alleged customer faces up to 10 years in prison.
- One of Mexico's richest people (the fortune of $11.7 billion) and founder of Grupo Salinas group of companies Ricardo Salinas Pliego added a Bitcoin hashtag to his Twitter account description. Recall that the founder of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk did the same in January, after which the asset rose to $38,000.
Earlier Pliego admitted in a Cointelegraph commentary that he first bought digital gold in 2013. He sold the asset at $17,000 during a bull rally in 2017 and called the bitcoin “the best investment of all time.”
- Specialists of financial and investment company Guggenheim Partners said that the value of bitcoin could reach $600,000. According to the company's investment director, Scott Minerd, everything will depend on the number of coins in the public domain. “Cryptocurrency can rise to very high values. It is possible that we are talking about 400 or even $600,000 per coin. We have been studying the asset for almost ten years, so we understand how it will behave. Bitcoin used to be unjustified for institutional investors, but now everything has changed,” Minerd said.
According to the specialist, the concern is caused by the rapid growth of the asset in the past few weeks. It is possible that we are talking about speculation, in which institutional investors capable of large investments to manage the value of the coin are involved. At present, bitcoin is in a difficult situation, as the departure of large investors will lead to a return of the negative trend. According to Minerd, such a development is unlikely, but it should definitely be taken into account.
Content Creation: 3 reasons why it is not working for you
It has often been said that don’t judge a book by its cover, and the same is true for social media content creation. Every client or business looks for a return on investment, when it comes to content creation. Even if you can write the world’s best content, your client still has to follow the fundamental business principles. If he/she doesn’t get a decent return out of the investment, why should they hire you to write an article?
There is one primary challenge in the content writing business. This question is valid not only for content creators but also for everyone who writes their social media content. Suppose you are my reader and are ii investing your valuable time in my content. In that case, you have one question: why is your business is not growing even after writing the best content with the best intention?
Being an avid reader and writer, I read almost ten articles every day, assessing the content creators’ potential. But they often neglect three vital points that can connect their content to the readers’ minds.
**Lack of suspense:**
Most of the content creators wonder why their readers don’t read their full article. The answer is straightforward: because they reveal the real suspense at the beginning of the article. If you have revealed the real suspense or the main point, in the beginning, the readers will bounce after reading the main point. There are many other detailed content writing tips that you can follow to create awesome content.
2**. The generalization of the content:**
During one of my research, I found that most circulating content on social media is almost repeated on the same concept as to how to write the content. Don’t generalize your concept, as that makes your content the same as others. When I got the message to write an article on content creation, instead of writing about creating content, I started with the different mindset of how content creators and writers can grow their business. Don’t generalize; see how you can have a unique perspective.
3**. The Reader’s Perspective**
Most of the content creators write their articles from their perspective about the content, which creates drawbacks. It’s not about what you write in the content, but about how your readers read your content and how they will use it in their business and life. Even if you have written the best content, your client still has professional commitment. He/she is looking for the solution of their business challenges, as most of the content creator has the challenge in growing their business. So, what is the solution? How can you write such content that will help your readers in solving their problems? https://contentality.com/index.php/2020/12/04/is-content-crucial-for-your-business/
In fact, how can I help you in growing your business? What is the importance of content creation for their business? The only answer for the right content to grow a business is writing the content from your reader’s perspective instead of your perspective. Whenever you write an article, always ask yourself one question, why should your readers invest their time in your content? What problems of your readers and clients are you solving with your article? Your readers and clients must feel that you have solved their business problem after reading your article. And this approach will surely provide you satisfactory results.
So, ask yourself how you will solve your clients’ problems with your content? Once you understand the importance of content creation, your content will automatically become more readable and valuable.
Forex Forecast and Cryptocurrencies Forecast for February 09 - 12, 2021
**First, a review of last week’s events:**
- EUR/USD. The dollar has been growing throughout the week, fueled by optimism about the imminent recovery of the US economy. The incidence of coronavirus is down sharply: in just three weeks since the peak, the 7-day moving average has dropped by almost 50%. And a successful vaccination, complete with a new economic aid package, can generally lead to an economic boom in the country.
And that is where the confusion begins, which has puzzled many economists. With the outbreak of the pandemic at the end of last February, an inverse correlation has clearly emerged between the dollar and stock indices. After an initial sharp collapse, thanks to fiscal incentives (QE), lower interest rates and pumping the US economy with cheap money, stock indices, S&P500, Dow Jones, Nasdaq, went up, and the DXY dollar index went down.
And here came 2021, and everything turned upside down. Against the backdrop of good economic data and expectations of a new injection of financial "vaccine" for almost $2 trillion, the growth of risk sentiment and stock indices continued. But in parallel, the yield of long-term US Treasury bonds and the dollar grew.
“But it shouldn't be that way,” many experts exclaim. A soft monetary policy and pumping liquidity into the market should lead to a weakening of the currency, but not vice versa. Or maybe it's not the dollar's strength at all, but the weakness of its competitors? First of all, the euro?
Starting on Monday at 1.2135, the EUR/USD pair groped the local bottom at 1.1950 on the morning of Friday 05 February, breaking through 1.2000 support for the first time in 10 weeks. After that, the correlation between the stock market and the dollar once again changed its sign, from plus to minus this time: the S&P500 continued to grow, while the DXY began to fall. As a result, the EUR/USD pair went up again and finished the five-day period at 1.2050;
- GBP/USD. We predicted that at its meeting on Thursday 04 February, the Bank of England would leave both the volume of bond purchases of ?895bn and the interest rate at 0.1% unchanged. And so it happened, no changes in monetary policy took place. But at the same time, in just a couple of hours the pound has strengthened sharply against the dollar, jumping up 135 points, from 1.3565 to 1.3700.
The whole point was not in the results of the meeting of the Bank, but in market expectations. The Bank's committee unanimously decided to leave key parameters of its policy unchanged. Some investors expected that a split in the ranks of the Committee would happen, and that a number of its members would support the introduction of negative rates. The split did not occur, the result of the vote was 9:0.
A negative rate, no doubt, would have led to a collapse of the pound, but the situation was saved by the optimism of officials regarding the growth of the UK economy. In their opinion, thanks to vaccination, the country's GDP will reach pre-COVID indicators during the current year, and the consumer price index will rise to 2% at the beginning of 2022.
The Bank of England's unanimous decision to abandon negative rates for the near future should encourage capital inflows into the country. And this was clearly demonstrated by the GBP/USD pair, which continued its growth on Friday February 05, and ended the weekly session at 1.3735;
- USD/JPY. The movement of this pair in most cases depends on what is happening not in Japan, but in the United States, on where the DXY dollar index, stock indices, as well as the yield of American state bonds are moving. This happened last week as well.
Back on January 27, the pair broke through the upper border of the medium-term descending channel, along which it had been descending since the end of last March and went up sharply. And although the overwhelming majority of oscillators and trend indicators on both ?4 and D1 indicated an uptrend, only 30% of experts voted for further growth among analysts. But it was their forecast that turned out to be absolutely accurate: at the high on Friday, February 05, the pair reached a height of 105.75, after which a correction followed and then a finish at 105.35;
- cryptocurrencies. We noted in our last review that the bulls are gaining strength again, forming another upward momentum in bitcoin. It also said that the main problem of the crypto market in 2021 will be regulators, whose goal is to take this segment under their maximum control.
Starting from the second half of 2020. institutional investors have become the main drivers of growth. In addition to specialized funds like Grayscale Investments and technology companies such as MicroStrategy, Harvard, Yale and Michigan universities have begun to acquire cryptocurrencies, using their endowment funds for this. Even conservative giants such as US government pension funds like CalPERS have been seen buying digital assets. However, due to regulatory issues, these institutions are acting very cautiously, investing in bitcoin, for now, very small amounts in their scale.
Recall that as soon as the BTC/USD pair renewed its all-time high on January 8, rising above $42,000, and the crypto market capitalization exceeded $1 trillion, the head of the European regulator Christine Lagarde immediately stated that this was a very speculative asset, which is used to conduct a rather "strange business" and money laundering activities. The new US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also joined her from across the ocean, according to her, "cryptocurrencies are of particular concern, and many of them are used to finance illegal activities." Both Lagarde and Yelen indicated that there is a need for serious regulation of this market. However, both kept silent about the main reason for such concern. Although, it is clear that governments are most concerned about the loss of their control over monetary resources.
Be that as it may, but after the statements of the President of the ECB and the US Treasury Secretary, the price of bitcoin fell below $30,000. However, by the end of January, the market came to its senses, and the main coin rate went up again.
On Friday evening, February 05, the BTC/USD pair is trading in the $38,000 zone, and the total capitalization of the crypto market hits highs, rising to the level of $1.16 trillion. As for the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, it reached 81, and although it is in the overbought zone, it is still far from the maximum values.
According to Glassnode specialists, the number of unique active BTC addresses reached 22.3 million in January. “This is the highest rate in the history of bitcoin to date,” analysts say. The January surge in activity beats the previous record of 21 million active addresses in December 2017.
BTC miners also showed indicators close to the record ones. Despite a 30% drop in the price of bitcoin, January was a very good month for this "strange business". Mining the main cryptocurrency brought them $1.1 billion (the maximum of $1.2 billion was recorded in December 2017). The production of Ethereum showed a record result of $0.83 billion, exceeding the figure of December 2020 by 120%.
**As for the forecast for the coming week, summarizing the views of a number of experts, as well as forecasts made on the basis of a variety of methods of technical and graphical analysis, we can say the following:**
- EUR/USD. So far, the situation seems to be still in favor of the dollar. In anticipation of the explosive growth of the US economy, investors are ready to turn a blind eye to another increase in the country's national debt, which will follow the next package of economic stimuli. The yields on long-term treasuries are growing, and the spread between US and European bonds is growing, strengthening the dollar, and putting pressure on the European currency. Thus, the yield of 10-year American state bonds has already reached about 1.15%, and the growth potential has not yet been exhausted. Here you can also recall the statements of Christine Lagarde that the ECB is not at all against the weakening of the euro.
The above has led to the fact that 70% of experts, supported by 85% of oscillators, 70% of trend indicators and graphical analysis on D1, agreed that the dollar will continue to grow in the coming days, and the EUR/USD pair to fall. Support levels are 1.1950, 1.1885, 1.1800 and 1.1750. However, the situation is changing with the transition from weekly to monthly forecast and here it is already 60% of experts together with graphical analysis who are waiting for the pair to return to the zone 1.2200-1.2300. The target is the January high of 1.2350, the nearest resistance is 1.2175.
As for important economic events in the coming week, we can note data on consumer markets in Germany and the United States, which will be released on Wednesday February 10;
- GBP/USD. Will the market still be able to maintain its bullish optimism about the British currency for some time? 65% of analysts believe that at least briefly the pair will still succeed, breaking through the resistance of 1.3750, to rise to the height of 1.3800, and possibly 25-50 points higher. Graphical analysis, 85% of oscillators as well as 100% of trend indicators on H4 and D1 agree with this. However, 15% of oscillators are already giving clear signals about the pair being overbought.
The remaining 35% of experts consider the 1.3700-1.3750 zone as an insurmountable obstacle, according to them, having broken through the support at 1.3700, the pair will first go down 100 points and then reach the 1.3485-1.3500 zone.
Among the events to which attention should be paid, of interest are the speech of the head of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey on Wednesday, February 10, and the publication of GDP data for the IV quarter of 2020 on Friday, February 12;
- USD/JPY. Most experts (70%) supported by graphical analysis on D1, 75% of oscillators and 80% of trend indicators, expect the pair to continue to grow at least up to 106.00-106.25 zone. The next goal is 107.00. The nearest resistance is 105.75.
The remaining 30% of analysts believe that the pair will return to the level of 104.00, and graphical analysis on H4 predicts an even greater drop, to the low of January 21, 103.30. Supports are at 104.75, 104.00 and 103.50 levels.
- cryptocurrencies. What is good, and what is bad.
The support of cryptocurrencies from large institutional investors is, of course, good. It can provide further growth for bitcoin. However, the fact that the crypto market now largely depends on the sentiments of this rather small group, and that, in turn, on the sentiments of government officials, is bad, and can lead to a collapse of the quotes. A clear example is the January drop in the BTC/USD pair by 30%.
However, government actions can not only put pressure on the crypto market, but also push it up. Thus, US President Joe Biden has confirmed his readiness for a new stimulus package for almost $2 trillion. And this is good, since with an almost 100% probability, some of these funds will flow to the digital asset market.
But, for example, is Chinese New Year good or bad? It is definitely good for people, a fun holiday, gifts, fireworks... But, according to a number of experts, on the eve of this joyful event, the value of bitcoin may fall again. Moreover, in this case, the price of the main coin is threatened not by the central banks, but small investors, who will begin to transfer their crypto assets to fiat for the purchase of New Year's gifts.
Currently, it is in China that the bulk of the owners of bitcoin wallets with savings of up to 10 thousand dollars are concentrated. And, according to the specialists of the investment company Stack Funds, “since it is customary to celebrate the New Year in China very splendidly, small investors will definitely begin to withdraw funds before the holidays. In addition, - they explain, “charts over the past few years show that it is in the run-up to the holidays that the capitalization of bitcoin is greatly reduced.” We do not have long to wait for either a confirmation or a refutation of this prediction: the New Year in China is this Friday, February 12, and the holidays will last from February 11 to 17.
Now about Ethereum. This leading altcoin continues to deliver impressive results. It has increased in price by 130% since the beginning of the year, and its increase was 448% in 2020. The main impact on such dynamics is the expectation of the launch of futures on it on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which is scheduled for Monday, February 8.
The forecasts for this event are mixed. Optimists (and they are the majority) recall that the launch of bitcoin futures on the CME allowed this cryptocurrency to break the $20,000 mark at the end of 2017. Pessimists say that it was this event that marked the beginning of the crypto winter of 2018. So, the question of whether futures is good or bad remains open.
In December 2020, when the BTC/USD pair reached its previous high of $20,000 and ETH/USD was still very far from its similar mark, we noted a significant potential for the Ethereum growth. Now a similar situation is observed with another token, Litecoin, which we have not thought about for a long time.
This coin appeared in October 2011, becoming an early fork of bitcoin, from a technical point of view is almost identical to it. Litecoin's all-time high of $370 was recorded on December 19, 2017. Then crypto winter came and, a year later, the price of the coin dropped to $20, having lost almost 95% of its value. At the moment, the quotes of the LTC/USD pair are at the level of $155, which is more than twice below its historical maximum, which can lead to its growth. Moreover, Litecoin even surpasses the main cryptocurrency in some important parameters. So, for example, the transaction speed with it is four times higher than with bitcoin.
**NordFX Analytical Group**
*Notice: These materials should not be deemed a recommendation for investment or guidance for working on financial markets: they are for informative purposes only. Trading on financial markets is risky and can lead to a loss of money deposited.*
A peep into the Life of Mozart
Who hasn’t heard of Mozart? We all know that Mozart was a famous composer of the classical style, whose most famous pieces include the unfinished Requiem in D minor, known as Lacrimosa, and the operatic composition, The Magic Flute.
But did you know that Mozart met Marie Antoinette when he was really young? Or that his actual cause of death is unknown to this day? I certainly didn’t. This gifted, multi-talented musician, like other geniuses, lived an exciting, turbulent life. So join me as we take a trip through it!
Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Amadeus Mozart; thought he went by Wolfgang Amade or Wolfgang Gottlieb later on. I don’t blame him though; his full name must have been a mouthful to pronounce. He was born in Salzburg, the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in Western and Central Europe, in today’s Austria.
His father, Leopold, was from a family of good standing and also published a violin playing manual, in the same year in which Mozart was born, with great success. His mother Anna Maria was from a middle-class family. The two of them had seven children, out of which only two, Mozart and his sister, Maria Anna, survived past infancy.
His father encouraged him to pursue his talent from an incredibly young age after, at three, the boy started picking out piano chords and, at five, began improvising minuets at the keyboard. Indeed, Leopold has sometimes been criticised for exploiting his son's prodigious talents for money and fame, much like today's stage mums, soccer dads or similar.
Leopold Mozart’s daughter Maria Anna (Marianne, nicknamed Nannerl), was an excellent harpsichord and fortepiano player. She was even paraded around with her younger brother as a musical prodigy in the early years. That was until (because she happened to be born a woman) she was no longer permitted to show off her artistic talents alongside her brother because she had reached the right age to be married off and it wasn't becoming of a woman to pursue a life in public.
Mozart, on the other hand, spent most of his childhood and teens, travelling around Europe first with his family, and then with his father, despite the travelling conditions being primitive and diseases being rampant. He also had the talent of absorbing the peculiarities of the composers he studied, resulting in his pieces having wide variety. In 1770, when he was still a teenager, Mozart was awarded the Papel Order Of The Golden Spur. His father made him sign his compositions with “Cavaliere Amadeo” for a while, but Mozart soon dropped the formality.
He worked at the Court of the Archbishop of Salzburg but eventually grew discontent by the meagre salary he received and the Archbishop’s dislike of operas, which he longed to compose.
Mozart resigned in 1777, then fell into debt, and began pawning off valuables. He eventually travelled to Vienna and settled there, establishing himself as the finest piano player in Vienna. He courted Constanze Weber, the third daughter of the owner of the lodge he was staying at. The two got married and had 6 children, of which only 2 survived infancy.
In his downtime, Mozart liked to indulge in billiards and bowls. Perhaps the rolling of the balls accompanied well the constant revolving of his musical mind. Indeed, history has him down as humming full Mozartian melodies throughout games and stopping to make brief notes on spontaneous ideas. Mozart favoured playing alone for those very reasons no doubt. The Mozarts lived a luxurious life during this period, as his compositions flourished. They also had a dog called Bimberl and among Wolfgang's many extravagant letter sign-offs is one from December 1774 in which he writes: "Farewell! A thousand kisses to Bimberl." This has me delighted with imagining Mozart bimbling around the streets with Bimberl (did you see what I did there?) and humming one of his cheerful melodies before popping into a cafe for a round of billiards.
However, towards 1786, his income began to shrink once again. This period was generally considered as a hard time for musicians in general because of the Austro-Turkish war. He began borrowing money from his friends and fell into depression too.
The last year of Mozart’s life was one of high productivity and supposed personal recovery. He composed many new pieces, and finances began to improve too. Unfortunately, he fell ill on 6th September 1791 and his health deteriorated until on 20th November, where he became bedridden. He composed Requiem in d minor, while on his deathbed, but was unable to finish it before he died.
Mozart’s exact cause of death is unknown. Antonio Salieri taught great composers—Beethoven, Hummel, Schubert, Liszt—and many others. But today Antonio Salieri is best remembered for something he probably didn’t do. He’s remembered for poisoning Mozart.
Peter Shaffer’s play and Milos Forman’s film ‘Amadeus’ treat the poisoning story metaphorically, suggesting that the mediocre, jealous Salieri conspired to break the childlike genius Mozart physically and emotionally. Yet the rumour that Salieri literally poisoned Mozart persisted in Salieri’s own time and long after.
The first reports of Mozart’s death speculated that he had been poisoned but did not mention Salieri, though as early as 1803 Carl Maria von Weber learned of the accusations when he visited Salieri. From then on, Weber—who was related to Mozart’s wife—avoided all contact with Salieri. In the summer of 1822 when Rossini visited Vienna, he discussed the rumours jokingly with Salieri. The next year, Salieri’s health took a turn for the worse, and with it, his reputation. Salieri suffered a physical and mental breakdown in the autumn of 1823, was admitted to the Vienna general hospital, and in a deranged state of mind, accused himself of having killed Mozart. Quickly rumours spread throughout Vienna. References to them appear in Beethoven’s conversation books of the time. This rumour, however, was not proven to be true, as the signs of illness Mozart displayed did not indicate poisoning.
Nevertheless, the world lost an amazing jewel too early. Mozart did not innovate. He mastered. He perfected existing forms and, in so doing, raised the symphony, sonata, and opera to new heights. His later compositions, especially, highlight his versatility and dexterity as a musician. And so, Mozart will surely be remembered as one of the greatest composers to have ever existed. https://www.britannica.com/art/symphony-music https://www.britannica.com/art/sonata https://www.britannica.com/art/opera-music
Blockchain : One of the Fastest Growing Technology
It seems difficult to use Blockchain, and it can certainly be, but its basic principle is actually very plain. A blockchain is a database form.
A database is a compilation of information which is stored on a computer server electronically. Data, or data, is usually arranged in table format in databases to make it easy to search and filter for relevant information.
Blockchain appears to be difficult to use, and it can certainly be, but the fundamental concept is also very simple. A blockchain is a type of ledger.
A database is a collection of information that is stored electronically on a file server. Data, or information, is typically structured in databases in table format to make it easy to search and filter for related information.
When applied in a decentralized way, this method often inevitably renders an irreversible timeline of data. It is set in stone until a block is complete and becomes part of this timeline. When it is connected to the chain, any block in the chain is given an exact timestamp.
While in relation to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, most people think about blockchain technology, blockchain provides protection that is useful in several other ways.
Several sectors include and incorporate blockchain, and the need for trained practitioners also grows as the adoption of blockchain technologies rises. A blockchain developer specializes in the creation and deployment of architecture and solutions using blockchain technologies from a bird's eye viewpoint. A blockchain developer's gross annual pay is ~469K.
If one user tampers with a Bitcoin transaction log, all other nodes are cross-referenced and the node is quickly detected by incorrect records. This mechanism aims to construct a precise and straightforward sequence of events. This information is a registry of transactions for Bitcoin, but it is also possible for a blockchain to contain a range of information, such as legal contracts, state identifications, or commodity inventory of a business.
https://youtu.be/yubzJw0uiE4
It is the infrastructure that drives Bitcoins, the entire modern parallel economy that has taken over the globe. Interestingly, in everything from healthcare to campaigns, to real estate to law enforcement, blockchain as a platform has far-reaching potential.
*****Is Blockchain safe ?*****
The encryption and confidence problems are compensated for by Blockchain technologies in many respects. Next, there is still linear and chronological placement of new blocks. That is, they are often attached to the blockchain's' top'. If you take a look at the blockchain of Bitcoin, you can find that each block has a location called "height" on the chain.
Walmart, Pfizer, AIG, Siemens, Unilever, and a number of others are several firms who have already adopted blockchain. IBM, for example, has established its blockchain Food Trust to track the path that food items take to get to their places.
***Blockchain's ability as a decentralized method of record-keeping is almost infinite, despite all its difficulty. From better consumer protection and improved security to lower fees for processing and*** *****fewer mistakes,*****
Marketing Skills to Boost your Career
Marketing has been in an evolving mode ever since the advent of the internet. However, in the olden days, word of mouth was used to spread the news about business. Then came print media in the form of magazines and newspapers. Later, radio and television were used as marketing channels. But now the time has changed. With the advancement of internet and technology, digital marketing skills are highly demanded to promote any business.
Do you know what the most attractive thing about digital marketing is? It’s flexible. You can work as a freelancer from a remote area or as a full-time employee in a large company. As long as you are driving business for your company, you can have full flexibility. But digital marketing requires a good amount of skill set, which makes you employable.
**Top 10 marketing skills that will boost your career.**
1. **Content writing**
Any business or organization requires an attractive website which has suitable calls for action. Good content contributes majorly to make a website attractive. Content writers are needed to present the information about a company or business and its related products/services in an enticing way to the target audience who get converted into customers.
2. **Technological Skills**
Technology is widely used in digital marketing to communicate, analyze, personalize, store information, build a marketing strategy, improve connection with customers, and much more. All facets of digital marketing revolve around technology. Although you don’t need to be a tech expert, you need to know a few basics to succeed in marketing.
3. **Analytical Skills**
Analytics help to make data-driven decisions in marketing. It is mainly used to evaluate website performances and conversions. If you have analytical skills, this can be the right field for you. Major decisions are taken based on an in-depth analysis of the marketing campaigns.
4. **Pay Per Click Marketing**
Pay Per Click is a paid advertising method where a digital marketer pays the website host for every click on the advertisement. You have to gain an in-depth knowledge of this subject to excel in PPC marketing.
5. **Storytelling/ Creative Skills**
In today’s marketing world, storytelling holds a vital place. Brands look for innovative storytelling skills to attract large numbers of customers from various backgrounds. It’s a process that requires creative ideas, a vision, and a flair to deliver a successful business story.
**6. SEO Knowledge**
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the optimal practice to get listed in the top results of search engines like Google. This technique can increase website visibility, traffic, customer engagement, and conversions significantly. As a digital marketer, you have to get your client’s website in the top search results.
**7. Social Media Marketing**
Social media is a popular platform to promote your business. Social media marketing encompasses blog posts, videos, images, and advertising campaigns to generate leads, building brand reputation, and enhancing sales.
**8. Email Marketing**
Sending promotional emails is one of the most traditional methods of marketing. However, it is still an essential tool to make one-on-one connections with customers and update them about new products and discounts.
**9. Video Marketing**
Video advertisements on social media platforms, YouTube, and other websites are more appealing to the audience than any other method. Video making and editing skills have high value in the market nowadays.
**10. Designing Skills**
If you possess graphics design, web design, and coding skills, you can surely succeed in the marketing field. Basic knowledge of these skills is more than enough to boost your resume.
**Importance of Marketing Skills**
Marketing skills help to build a connection between businesses and customers.
Helps to create brand equity, awareness, and presence in the market
A company’s sales depend highly on the marketing involved.
Good Marketing skills are the trump card to beat business rivals.
A skill you have mastered would be outdated after some time due to constant marketing innovations. And so, to be an excellent digital marketer, you have to upgrade your skills with time. Many Digital Marketing Training institutes have flourished in recent years. Suppose you’re an amateur or are eager to develop your skillset. We recommend taking a digital marketing course from a reputed Digital Marketing Training institute where professionals teach you how to handle various projects.
Achieve Dreams – Never lose hope
This is just an advice for people who have dreams in life but are discouraged because they have a feeling that they cannot reach their dreams. Some people think negatively because they have less confidence to make their dreams come true in life. And some others have dreams and plans, but they do not act on them. Many a times, following the flow of life, we stick to our habitual lifestyle and forget our dreams.
But can we in reality, achieve our dreams? Succeeding and achieving dreams is a lifelong process. Blood and sweat, suffering, endurance, and intelligence is used to achieve what is desired. It is not just for oneself but also to be an inspiration for others. It really helps to have courage; do not be afraid of falling. In the beginning, you have to experience defeat as to motivate yourself.
Believe in yourself, and it means to believe in your ability. Show the talent you can do and study to be useful in the chosen field. Thinking must be positive because it can help to improve confidence, so one must be self-determined. There is a saying, “Try and try until you succeed,” which means you have to work hard to reach the top.
Do not let negative thoughts demotivate you. or down yourself, It will affect mental health in the long term. Also, age doesn’t matter when it comes to dreams. Don’t let things like age, caste, gender restrict you from achieving your dreams. As long as you are alive, you can think of things you can do for yourself!
The thing you have worked so hard for will be fulfilled in due course. And you are the one who can inspire others to fulfil their dream as well. Achieving dreams can be a tedious process. But when you do achieve them, you will be an inspirational figure for many in their lives. Although dreams come directly from the heart. It is important to follow a methodical plan to achieve them.
Four things you must do to succeed in your life:
Plan your Journey
Break your ultimate goal into smaller goals and devise a plan to achieve each goal.
Take Action
After planning the journey. It is time to act upon your plan. Keep yourself motivated to work towards your goal. Make an accountability partner if you wish to.
Work Hard
Work towards your goals. Give it your best. Time is everything.
Work harder
It might so happen that you don’t achieve your goals even after working towards them. But don’t worry, consistency is sure to help you achieve your goals. So, keep at it, and don’t lose hope!
If you do all these things consistently, in a loop – success can’t be far away! Take my word for it.
Cryptocurrency- Everything you need to know about Cryptocurrency
From the ancient days, the people in the world got underway. The transaction may be in the form of money or things. We all know while making a transaction there is an exchange between money and things, isn't it? Every country has its currency which helps in a transaction. Such as Indian currency is Rupees, American currency is Dollar, etc. These are all physical currency.
**Evolution of cryptocurrency**
Now you will have a question what's the exact meaning of crypto? Crypto means cryptography, a method of operating encryption and decryption to ensure communication from any third party, which intends to steal or misuse the information. Now, what about cryptocurrency, Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that does not have any physical presence. It is a peer to peer electronic service.
Do you know? Cryptocurrency is more secure as it uses Cryptography to maintain its security. Cryptography uses computational algorithms, as well as a public and private key. The public key is the user's identity, and the private key is the digital signature of the user. If you want to purchase any goods or services then you may use cryptocurrency instead of physical currency. In short, Cryptocurrency is an encrypted Decentralized Digital Currency. Which doesn't involve any movement of regulatory body, agency, or government. Cryptocurrency rates fluctuate and cannot be controlled. More than 1000 plus cryptocurrencies are ruling over the market out of which Bitcoin stands outstanding. Nowadays we all make use of paper currency, credit cards, and digital wallets. As Google pay, PayPal, Amazon pay, Paytm all are controlled by banks and governments. All such methods arose with few merits and few limitations. Realizing all the limitations the upcoming year will surely aim at the usage of digital currency. Let me make your concept more clear, if you are using any one of digital currency and want to payout, it will access out the following procedure initially you need to make a selection on, whom to transfer the money, next there will be a pop-up message taking the permission to transfer the money, secondly, the processing takes place wherein it step towards authentication and verifies your identity. and make sure the required balance for the transaction. That's it and further, the payout is done successfully. The use of digital currency replaces the hacking error limitation for the transfer of funds.
**Why opt for cryptocurrency**
Low transaction cost
Using cryptocurrency reduces the transaction cost, if you are transferring money from your digital wallet to your bank account you will misplace the amount of money.
No intermediary assigned
When you want to transfer the money to a person out of the country so in what bank does it varieties both the status of sender and receiver, also you need to follow out exact procedure but here with cryptocurrency, there is no such requirement of an intermediary.
24/7 access
One of the best parts of Cryptocurrency is that it offers its users to access money anytime and anywhere, there's no time limit. But as of when we compare with traditional one, we need to follow up a perfect procedure as well as time to access money.
Limit free purchase and withdrawal
Herewith cryptocurrency one may purchase as well as withdraw according to their balance, cryptocurrency adds a limit free purchase and withdrawal support.
Reduces paperwork
By using cryptocurrency one may get permanently rid of paperwork and lengthy procedures, all you can complete within a few minutes.
Quick international transaction
With the help of cryptocurrency, you can quickly access international transactions. It hardly requires a few to get transferred. But when we talk about traditional ways it almost requires a day to get transferred.
**Limitation of Cryptocurrency**
Receivable transaction
If due to any case you attempt any wrong transfer here in the cryptocurrency the funds are irreplaceable. So once the money is gone it is gone forever. But as with the bank, the bank can refund the money as it knows the wrong transfers account details.
A way towards Illegal activities
Here in cryptocurrency, the senders and receivers identity is not unveiled unfortunately it is used for a lot of illegal activities via the internet. But if we speak about banks, banks act as a safe mode in such a case. Currency is a basic necessity for mankind, in the past as well as in the future. In the upcoming year's 95% of the world will be under the influence of cryptocurrency.
**Types of Cryptocurrency**
There are over 1500 different cryptocurrencies. An investment in knowledge pays a better interest. Before investing it's necessary to know deep about the crypto prices. As the price fluctuates the investment demand does change. It's necessary to make a proper choice between. A huge diversity can be seen in these currencies, it's difficult to choose one and invest in them. Here you will provide clear guidance over currencies. We will be discussing the best cyto to invest in. But some core principles stay the same in every crypto-like
**The supply of cryptocurrency is limited.**
Gold has an expensive value as it is a rare metal, and the supply of gold is limited in the world. In each cryptocurrency, the total supply in the protocol is predicted. For example, In total there can only be 21 million Bitcoin that can be mined and this will be completely mined by the year 2140.
**The second principle focus on privacy**
The most important fact is cryptocurrency is decentralized, no institution decides the price of Bitcoin in the market neither a wealthy man has the power to decide the price of it. The price of crypto entirely depends on market forces, which is the interaction between demand forces and supply forces. If demand rises, the price rises, and if supply rises the price falls.
**Prominent cryptocurrencies are listed below:-**
Bitcoin (BTC)
A trending currency that does not exist but one can invest in virtually. A Bitcoin adds different protocols and different prices. You have heard about bitcoin many times, let us examine it in detail. So here we go
Earlier Bitcoin's value was $5,000 and today it is over $40,000. It means it has boosted up to Rs30,00,000. In fact, December was affected by an increase in the value of Bitcoin.
From the above analysis, one might think to invest in Bitcoin as it is booming beyond expectation.
Bitcoin investment
As the prices are much expensive it's impossible to buy one whole bitcoin, but you can buy it in infractions. What in fractions? Yes absolutely true, you can buy bitcoin infractions. You cannot buy 0.1 shares of any company but here in Bitcoin, it's possible. Herein 0.1 you can purchase. Bitcoin hits the highest cap in cryptocurrency, also the largest market cap. And alone Bitcoin has 65% of the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies put together.
Ethereum
Vitalik Buterin, a Russian Canadian programmer and Cryptocurrency researcher who came up with the idea of Ethereum in 2013 which finally went live in 2015. Basically, Ethereum is a programmable blockchain that people can build software to create valuable products and services. Ethereum can be well explained in two terms, that is software and platform. What makes ethereum different from other software platforms, and the reason that is blockchain.
Now, what is blockchain?
Most simple explanation, a record of data stored on the networks of computers. Here's a tree pillar of blockchain that makes it unique.
Decentralization
Transparency
Immutability
Many times we came across the Ether and Ethereum, two, unlike terms. To incentivize people to host and maintain the data on the blockchain Ether was created as a form of payment to fuel the Ethereum networks. So anyone who wants to build a software application on the Ethereum network has to pay for the computing power and space required using Ether. Here's a difference between Bitcoin and Ether.
Bitcoin has fixed and halving events, while Ether currently does not. A fixed supply and halving events protect Cryptocurrencies from inflation.
Ripple
The idea for Ripple was actually first conceived in 2004 by Ryan Fugger and way called RipplePay. Each time you want to exchange or send money through the banking system you need to find a path to transfer that money depending upon circumstances. That's exactly what Ripple is here to change. Just like the Internet has its own rules or protocol to transfer information known as HTTP. Ripple uses its protocol known as RTXP, for moving value around the world. Ripple Labs, the creators of RippleNet, aim to create the "Internet of value" a way for money to move as quickly as information does. Through the Ripple, there is no reason to pay a fortune and wait for days when transferring money globally.
**Conclusion.**
As we have discussed over Cryptocurrency and its branches hope you have invested basic knowledge about Cryptocurrency and its types. Before investing you must know its pros and cons and a few past analyses, this will help you to find a direction in transaction deals. Let us know your views in below comment box.
Music:The True Medicine Of The Mind
Tons of People are smitten by music. In deep aspects, it touches our souls. This is Something that words alone can not Achieve. It stirs our creativity, revitalizes our bodies, and changes our moods. It can elevate us or it can fill us with emotion. In the dumps or over the moon, it can make one feel a drastic change of emotions in a short period of time. It can power us up, and it can soothe us.
Billy Joel, the famous American songwriter and performer, once said. “I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.”
There's no doubt: music is always able to cure. For starters, persons with brain injury such as a stroke have had success with music therapy. In alternate forms, it can stimulate their brain. It also circumvents the affected regions, helping individuals to recover mobility or voice. In this way, music actually affects the brain's composition. It offers new opportunities for people to travel and talk. Studies have also found that music therapy can reduce cortisol, a stress hormone. The enjoyment hormone dopamine will also improve it. In cancer patients, it can increase heart and respiratory rates, as well as anxiety and pain. Music has been used in the field of psychiatry to support people suffering from depression and other Mental Disorders.
https://youtu.be/kZJ8BfEu-P8
There’s solid science behind that lived experience. Music therapy sessions also lessened fatigue in people receiving cancer treatments and raised the fatigue threshold for people engaged in demanding neuromuscular training according to Initial Reports
Exercise enthusiasts have long known that music enhances their physical performance plus A 2020 research review confirms that working out with music improves your mood, helps your body exercise more efficiently, and cuts down on your awareness of exertion. Working out with music also leads to longer workouts.
Music exerts a powerful influence on human beings. It can boost memory, build task endurance, lighten your mood, reduce anxiety and depression, stave off fatigue, improve your response to pain, and help you work out more effectively.
Working with a music therapist is one effective way to take advantage of the many benefits music can have on your body, mind, and overall health.
Artificial Intelligence
As evolution is necessary and technology is a part of it, we need to boost our thoughts for the better destiny of mankind. Efforts of man can work up to a certain extent, but if we get connected with machines our work can perform effectively. If we collaborate with our ideas and fix them in machines, then there can be better opportunities in the present as well as in the future. We often come across the term Artificial Intelligence, so what is Artificial Intelligence? Nowadays mankind has developed and is developing, technology at its great height. We all are encircled with smartphones, the internet, computer and gave rise to era digitization which intern is adding a new hoping ray. A man has taken the technology to a height where he has designed gadgets or machines which enable them to talk, walk and think like a normal human being. This advanced technology is named Artificial Intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence designs a machine in such a way that acts similar work balance as a normal human being. When we fix up programs in the machines which act and behave identically like a human being it is called Artificial Intelligence. Few Computer scientists have put forth the idea of Artificial Intelligence. And revealed that, with the help of Artificial Intelligence we can develop a Computer-controlled machine or software which enables to act and behave similarly as of normal human being.
Today, mankind is desiring to develop software that can replace manual work with technical work. Therefore as and then Artificial Intelligence is given higher priority. The language of Python programming is used to influence Artificial Intelligence and machine learning technology.
**Evolution of Artificial Intelligence**
When humanity was in search of developing the computer-based system the man was forced to think over the question, **"Can a machine think as of man"?** But I think the machine works smarter when man commands it. And these questions gave a rise to the Artificial Intelligence term. The main aim of Artificial Intelligence was to develop a computer-based machine that can replace man's behavior. The year 1955 implicated, John McCarthy, an American computer scientist, firstly coined the word Artificial Intelligence and put forth the concept of Artificial Intelligence. And that why he is recognized as a father of Artificial Intelligence. The movies like Robot, Matrix, Terminator, etc have added significance to Artificial Intelligence
Roots of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is one of the popular topics to be ruled over in the business environment. By expanding, modifying technology we are connected with Artificial Intelligence technology. Most of the companies are regulating machine learning which enriched the supplying percentage of Artificial Intelligence products.
**Artificial Intelligence used in phone**
iPhone has designed the application that is personal assistant Siri, which acts on behalf of the user. Here Siri acts as the best example of Artificial Intelligence, with the help of Siri you can accomplish all your Internet work out like browsing information from the internet, sending messages, sets a timer, alarm, etc. Not only Siri but the application like Alaska, windows, Cortana, Google assistant. As well as Google is backed by Artificial Intelligence technology, If you use Google Maps then you may have experienced that it tracks the location and suggests an exact path by using Artificial Intelligence enabling mapping. We often use e-commerce sites like Amazon, wherein Amazon uses Artificial Intelligence by designing a device called echo which answers user's questions, can read an e-book, weather report, scheduled sports, etc. Artificial Intelligence is not only used in the phone but also used in the Automobile sector.
**Artificial Intelligence in Tesla cars**
Tesla car a self-driven car is backed with Artificial Intelligence. Not only this specific tesla car but also the world is hiring more self-driven cars using Artificial Intelligence.
**Artificial Intelligence in the manufacturing industry**
Manufacturing industries are too backed with Artificially intelligent technology, Here Artificial Intelligence has reduced the man that labor work and is replaced by machines. Industries like, weather forecasting, Video gaming, Robotics, Finance, Health are also backed with Artificial Intelligence technology.
**Significance of Artificial Intelligence**
Reduces Omission
More Accuracy
Quick Decision Making
LargeDurability
Development in more than 90% of Sectors.
**Limitation of Artificial Intelligence**
Human destruction
Self-decision making
Expensive technology
Targeting unemployment
**Final words**
As every coin has two sides, it may destructive as well as it may implement constructively. You have to choose a perfect percentage of its usage and balance it's both figures.
Crypto News #2
Bitcoin price could drop again ahead of Chinese New Year. According to a number of experts, this time the price of the main coin will be affected by the actions of small investors who will begin to transfer crypto assets to fiat to buy New Year's gifts.
Currently, it is in China that the bulk of the owners of bitcoin wallets with savings of up to 10 thousand dollars are concentrated. “Even if institutional investors do not react to the possible strengthening of the dollar and stock markets, small investors will definitely start withdrawing funds before the holidays. The New Year is usually celebrated very lavishly in China. In addition, the charts for the past few years show that exactly on the eve of the holidays, the capitalization of bitcoin is greatly decreasing, the specialists of the investment company Stack Funds explain the situation.
- According to Cryptofeed.news, a bug was found in Apple devices, due to which attackers can gain access to cryptocurrency wallets. Pete Kim, chief engineer of the Coinbase trading platform, noted that the bug represents the ability to activate remote access mode from other devices. This means that criminals who can enable this option will be able to get to banking apps or wallets.
“So far there is no evidence that the bug could have been used to steal digital assets, but it’s better just not to bring it up,” explained Kim. Apple has not yet commented on this software flaw.
- The first cryptocurrency is on the cusp of widespread adoption by the traditional market. This was stated by the founder of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk during a conversation on the Clubhouse media platform. According to him, many friends urged him to buy bitcoin. And today he has to admit that he was "late to appear at the party."
“I'm a bitcoin supporter. I believe the financial world is close to its wide acceptance. But I have no opinion about other cryptocurrencies, "- Forbes quotes the words of the billionaire.
Elon Musk also promised that he would be more careful with his comments because of the great impact they have on the market. Recall that he has recently changed his Twitter profile description to "#bitcoin" with the cryptocurrency logo, after which the coin's price jumped sharply, exceeding $37,000.
- On February 2, MicroStrategy, an analytical software company, bought an additional 295 BTC for a total of $10 million. The average purchase price was $33,808. In total, the company acquired 71,079 BTC starting from August 2020, spending $1.145 billion on it. At the time of writing, the total value of bitcoins in MicroStrategy's reserves is $ 2.55 billion, that is, its return on investment (ROI) in six months was about 120%.
- The US authorities have accused a California resident of running an illegal cryptocurrency exchange and money laundering. Hugo Mejia, 49, from Ontario reportedly launched his service in May 2018. He advertised the platform on the Internet and met with clients in person in a cafe and corresponded with them using encrypted messages. During this period, Mejia's clients exchanged more than $13m worth of assets with his help.
From May 2019 to March 2020, the manager communicated several times with a front buyer who informed him he was an Australian drug dealer. In total, the front client conducted five transactions worth more than $250,000, after which Mejia was arrested. He will appear in the U.S. District Court in March and faces up to 25 years in prison.
- The number of unique active BTC addresses reached 22.3 million in January amid growth in network activity and the rate of the first cryptocurrency, which rose to $42,000 on January 8. “This is the highest rate in the history of bitcoin to date,” say analysts at Glassnode. The January surge in activity surpasses the previous record of 21 million active addresses in December 2017, their number has not fallen below 10 million per month since then.
- Specialists of the analytical platform CryptoQuant noted in recent days the movement of large volumes of bitcoins. 15,200 BTC was withdrawn from the Coinbase exchange alone at a cost of about $500 million. Coins were withdrawn in batches from 1,100 BTC to 4,400 BTC, which is a rare occurrence. Usually, crypto exchanges do not split transfers in this way when moving coins between their own wallets, as this leads to an increase in overhead costs.
According to the founder of CryptoQuant, Ki Yong Joo, bitcoins went to custodian wallets, on which only incoming transactions were noticed. “These are probably over-the-counter deals of institutional investors. And I consider this to be the strongest bullish signal,” he wrote.
- Visa CEO Alfred Kelly spoke about plans for cryptocurrency payments during a teleconference on the company's financial activities. He noted that the company is ready to make such payments more secure. Visa plans to work with wallets and exchanges so that users can not only buy crypto assets, but also cash them in and make purchases in fiat currency without prior conversions.
Visa currently distinguishes between two classes of cryptoassets: assets like bitcoin - digital gold, and assets backed by fiat currencies, including stablecoins and central bank digital currencies. “It goes without saying that if a particular digital currency becomes a recognized means of exchange, there is no reason why we cannot add it to our network, which already supports over 160 currencies today,” concluded Kelly.
- According to a report from research firm Binance Research, bitcoin remains the leading cryptocurrency as 65% of users have it in their investment portfolio. This figure was obtained by a survey of 61,000 users from 178 countries. The document, called the 2021 Global Cryptocurrency User Index, says that 52% of users consider cryptocurrency to be a source of current income, while the rest own digital assets, considering them part of a long-term investment strategy.
It no longer doubt that Crypto currencies are on the rise and some Exchange platform are richer than some banks in Africa . Many people prefer taking the risk of trading and Investing into Crypto currencies now considering the margin of profit in it after some time especially if you are patient. It is already for seen by many people that very soon bank deposit will decline so if this eventually come to reality do you see banks joining Crypto currency trend especially in Africa though some banks in the US are already allign to Crypto currencies.. share your opinion on this. Thanks
Forex Forecast and Cryptocurrencies Forecast for February 01-05, 2021
**First, a review of last week’s events:**
- EUR/USD. The trade wars unleashed by the previous US President Trump have just seemingly subsided, but now we can "congratulate" everyone on the start of a new - currency - war. And it could prove equally exciting and unpredictable. This time, it was the European Central Bank, headed by Christine Lagarde, that declared hostilities. The adversary was, as you might guess, the US Federal Reserve System.
We have repeatedly written that the growth of the euro was caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The European currency rose against the dollar by more than 1700 points from March 20, 2020 to January 15, 2021. For the time being, the ECB leadership pretended that the problem lies not in the current level of the EUR/USD rate, but in the rate of its growth. But it turns out now that the current quotes are also of great importance for the EU economy, and that it would not be bad for them to go down.
The heads of the Banks of Finland and the Netherlands have started to speak actively about the fact that the ECB is very concerned about the euro exchange rate and should take decisive steps to stimulate inflation, hinting at a further decrease in interest rates. And Janet Yelen will definitely not like it. Recall that the former head of the Federal Reserve, and now the new US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yelen promised in every possible way to stop other countries' attempts to artificially reduce the rates of their currencies.
So, we can assume that the challenge has been posed and accepted, and the duel has begun. And right from the start, the EU has been let down... by its main support, Germany. It turns out that inflation in this country in January jumped from -0.7% to + 1.6%, which will certainly affect the growth of the total indicator of the Eurozone. Whether this will entail an accelerated curtailment of the ECB's quantitative stimulus (QE) program remains in question. The market is at a crossroads, which can be clearly seen from the EUR/USD quotes: the pair has been moving in a rather narrow sideways channel 1.2055-1.2185 for the last two and a half weeks. And even the fall of US stock indices on January 27-29 could not push it out of this corridor. As for the end of the week, the pair put the final point at 1.2135;
- GBP/USD. Last week, most analysts (65%) refused to share the bullish optimism of technical analysis. The reason is the poor performance of the British economy and the statement of the country's Prime Minister Boris Johnson warning that the third round of the lockdown could last well into the summer. This is forcing investors to not just revise their forecasts for the pound, but also to re-start discussing a scenario with negative Bank of England interest rates.
Looking at the chart of the pair, we can state that the bullish momentum has exhausted itself for the time being. Even fresh positive data on the UK labor market, published on January 26, did not help the pound. The pair cannot break above resistance 1.3750 for the second week in a row. Its volatility has also plummeted. If it exceeded 400 points a week at the end of December, the figure has now fallen to 150 points. As for the end of the five-day period, the final chord sounded in the zone of another strong resistance level, at 1.3700;
- USD/JPY. The medium-term trend for this pair was laid back at the end of March 2020, when it began to slide smoothly along the descending channel. There have been many discussions among experts, whether the pair will be able to reverse this trend and break through the upper limit of this channel.
It was only 30% of analysts who voted for such a development a week ago, but they were the ones who were right. The zone 104.70-105.00 was indicated as the target of the bulls, which was reached by the pair USD/JPY on Friday, January 29. Unlike the euro and the pound, it reacted quite actively to both positive reports on the labor market and the US trade balance. But the main impetus was given by the redistribution of financial flows caused by the fall of the American stock indices S&P500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq. As a result, the pair reached the 10-week high at 104.95, and ended the trading session slightly lower at 104.70;
- cryptocurrencies. We were certainly joking, but it seems the forecast of a fortune teller from New York is starting to come true. Last week we talked about Maren Altman, who determines the trends of the BTC/USD pair based on the stars movement. So, she absolutely accurately predicted the beginning of the January correction of bitcoin, since the trajectory of Mercury (the price of BTC) was to be crossed by Saturn (the limiting indicator) on that day. Her latest forecast spoke of "some favorable signals at the end of January."
For the past three weeks, the main cryptocurrency has been clinging to support in the $30,000 zone, trying to break even lower and thereby instilling pessimism in many experts and investors. For example, Scott Minerd, the director of investments at Guggenheim Partners, said that the bitcoin rate would not stay above $35 thousand or even above $30 thousand, since there is no institutional demand now that can support the quotes at these levels.
However, the end of the month showed that the fortune teller could win in a duel between a fortune teller and an expert, . Having found the local bottom at $29,200 on Wednesday January 27, the pair turned around and reached $38,100 on Friday January 29. But then another sharp reversal followed, and it dropped to the level of $33,500. So, the outcome of the fight at the time of writing the review remains in question.
Scott Minerd is certainly right that big professional investors are not digital currency fans at all. And what happened in the second half of 2020 can rather be considered an experiment on their part, which they went to, constantly looking back at the reaction of regulators. But the director of Guggenheim Partners may not have taken into account that, in the absence of institutions, retail investors can also move bitcoin up, as was the case in 2017. Moreover, if then they were young enthusiasts, now the middle generation has joined them.
A study conducted by specialists of the Wirex platform together with the company Stellar Development Foundation showed that most of cryptocurrency investors are not at all young millennials, as the case was recently, but people over 45 years old. Investors aged 25 to 45 are only 22%.
The active buyback of bitcoin after the drawdown below $30,000 and the absence of panic sell-off showed that many investors still believe in the growth of bitcoin to new heights. The total capitalization of the crypto market once again broke the psychological mark of $1 trillion over the past seven days, rising from $0.933 trillion to $1.08. As for the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, it also began to grow along with the growth of quotations. If at the end of last week the index was at around 40 points, it climbed to 77 on Friday, January 29. This is already close to the overbought zone, but the maximum values are still far away. Recall that the index values were constantly in the zone 95-98 out of 100 possible during the rally in December - the first week of January.
**As for the forecast for the coming week, summarizing the views of a number of experts, as well as forecasts made on the basis of a variety of methods of technical and graphical analysis, we can say the following:**
- EUR/USD. The currency war referred to in the first part of the review is not a matter of one week and not one month, it can stretch for years. The US economy “shrank” by 3.5% in 2020. And this is not only the first negative indicator since 2009, but also the largest drop since the end of World War II. However, investors expect a low interest rate and huge cash injections into the US economy ($900 billion from Donald Trump and $1,900 billion from Joe Biden), together with successful vaccination against COVID-19, will help it return to growth in 2021. Although, this will happen gradually, incrementally.
In contrast to the United States, support for the Eurozone economy was much more modest - €750 billion, therefore, the Eurozone GDP growth will be more moderate (according to forecasts + 1.5%). And the rate of vaccination is lower here than overseas. If we add to this the efforts of the ECB to weaken the common European currency, we can expect that the EUR/USD pair will be under certain pressure. But, as already mentioned, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yelen will make every effort to prevent this from happening.
After two and a half weeks of sideways movement of the EUR/USD pair in the channel 1.2055-1.2185, technical indicators are in confusion, giving no clear signals in either direction. As for the experts, most of them (65%) expect that in February, despite all, the dollar will continue to lose its positions and the pair will return to the 1.2200-1.2300 zone. The target is the January high of 1.2350, the nearest resistance is 1.2185. The nearest support is 1.2055, the main goal of the bears is the zone 1.1800-1.1900.
As for important economic events, there will be a lot of them in the coming week. Data on business activity and the labor market in the US will be published on Monday February 01 and Wednesday February 03. We will find out preliminary data on GDP On Tuesday February 02, and on the Eurozone consumer market on the next day. Finally, on February 05, on the first Friday of the month, data on the number of new jobs created in the United States outside the agricultural sector (NFP) will traditionally be released. This indicator is predicted to show an increase from -140K to +85K, which may lead to a short-term strengthening of the dollar, although this is often taken into account in advance by the market;
- GBP/USD. We will be waiting for a meeting of the Bank of England on Thursday February 04, where questions will be resolved about the planned volume of asset purchases under the programme to support the economy, as well as the interest rate reduction. Will Britain's regulator surprise investors? According to our forecasts, it is unlikely. It is likely that the volume of purchases of bonds on the open market will remain the same - ? 895 billion, and the rate will remain at 0.1%. Therefore, the market will wait for any signals, explicit or implicit, from the head of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey, whose speeches are scheduled for February 04 and 05.
As for analysts, 70% of them believe that the GBP/USD pair will still manage to break through the resistance at 1.3750 and rise to the height of 1.3800 for at least a short time. Graphical analysis and 85% of oscillators on D1, as well as 100% of trend indicators on H4 and D1 agree with this. At the same time, 60% of experts, along with graphical analysis, believe that after a dash to the north, the pair will return to the zone 1.3615-1.3700. The next support level is around 1.3500;
- USD/JPY. Most experts (70%), supported by graphical analysis on D1, believe that the pair's movement to the south will continue. However, now it has changed echelon, and the upper border of the medium-term descending channel will now become a support line for it. The main resistance level is 105.00, support is at 104.00, 103.55 and 103.00 levels.
The remaining 30% of analysts expect that the pair will be able to rise even higher and reach the zone of 105.70-106.10.
Among the trend indicators, 100% look up at ?4 and 85% at D1. As for the oscillators, 75% on H4 and 60% on D1 are colored green, the rest give signals that the pair is overbought;
- cryptocurrencies. According to a number of experts, the January drawdown is now fully redeemed, and the BTC/USD pair is ready to grow to $50,000. Those who wanted to take profits and transfer their crypto assets to fiat have already done so. And now the bulls are regaining strength, forming another upward momentum. Central bank interest rates, which are close to zero, the huge scale of fiscal stimulus, putting pressure on the dollar in the first place, and stock market fluctuations, drawing attention to Bitcoin as a hedge asset, can still act as arguments for the rally to continue.
It is likely that 2021 will be the scene of a struggle between the crypto market and regulators. And if we set aside the optimism of crypto fans, it remains questionable whether digital assets can seriously strengthen their positions.
So, for example, Bank of Singapore, which is one of the largest Asian financial organizations, called bitcoin a promising instrument that can not only compete with gold, but also shift it from the first place on investments security. At the same time, the bank's experts believe that "we are unlikely to see widespread adoption of bitcoin soon, since regulators simply will not allow users to independently decide how transactions with millions or even billions of dollars will be performed." Governments are making it increasingly clear that they will not allow attacks on their main instrument of power - national currencies.
As for the second most important cryptocurrency, the market is waiting for the launch of futures on Ethereum. It is this factor that allowed the ETH/USD pair to hold its positions even in the days of January, when bitcoin sought to break through support in the $30,000 zone.
Recall that one of the factors that allowed bitcoin to surpass the $20,000 mark at the end of 2017 was the launch of futures for this cryptocurrency by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). And now, on February 8, 2021, the same exchange is awaiting regulatory approval of the application for listing Ethereum futures, which may lead to a further increase in its quotations.
And in conclusion, another funny life hack from the life of cryptocurrencies. Last time we talked about an American fortune teller who predicts bitcoin prices by observing the movement of the planets. Now we are talking about another resident of the United States, Simon Berne, who placed a mining farm in the trunk of his BMW i8 sports car. The farm receives energy from the car battery, to which it is connected using a DC inverter. The battery power of the BMW i8 is 3500W, while the mining plant only consumes 1500W. According to Berne, this is a great way for him to make money even while traveling.
***Notice: These materials should not be deemed a recommendation for investment or guidance for working on financial markets: they are for informative purposes only. Trading on financial markets is risky and can lead to a loss of money deposited****.*
Crypto News
- Matt Maley, strategist at financial services firm Miller Tabak, believes the cryptocurrency market will face a major setback next year. According to him, the main coin may fall in price by about 25-30 percent in the first months of 2021
Bitcoin's capitalization currently stands at approximately $441 billion. According to Maley, the market is overheated due to large-scale investments, which is why corrections by one or several thousand dollars may become a norm next year.
“I consider cryptocurrencies to be a promising asset, but the minimum correction size next year will be 10%. At the same time, the fall may be at the level of 30% or even more. Therefore, it is worth being prudent before large-scale investments,” the specialist warns.
- Popular analyst and founder of Quantum Economics, Mati Greenspan, expressed an opposite view. In his opinion, the December rise does not mean that the market is "overheated", and a large-scale collapse awaits us. “We are at the very beginning of the period of massive entry of investors into the crypto sphere. This phase of the industry's development is qualitatively different from the rise and fall phases of 2017 and 2018. If demand continues to rise from current levels, and supply is constrained, then there is a possibility that we will see growth of 250% or more."
At the same time, Mati Greenspan excludes a scenario in which BTC will soar to $400,000. “The rally will certainly continue, but there is no need to talk about any astronomical figures yet,” the analyst summed up.
- 190 computers were stolen from the NATO military airbase in Emari (Estonia), which were illegally used to extract cryptocurrency. The Estonian Ministry of Defense reported that mining on the territory of the base was carried out by a certain employee who had access to classified documents. He worked for NATO for 14 years, after which he quit and decided to take the equipment with him. He took out the first computers from the base back in 2015, providing documents on their write-off. The remaining several dozen devices on the territory of Emari were networked and used for mining. In total, this "specialist" was able to mine cryptocurrencies worth 30,000 euros. The Ministry of Defense clarified that about 60% of these earnings would have gone to pay for electricity, but the attacker was using state resources.
- According to the analytical service Glassnode, the number of addresses with cryptocurrency worth more than $1,000,000 has reached 66,500. The increase in the second decade of December alone was about 150%. Analysts noted that some miners have not withdrawn funds from their wallets since the time when one pizza cost several hundred bitcoins. Now they have become dollar millionaires.
- Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk once again spoke on Twitter regarding cryptocurrencies. There, he again confessed his love for Dogecoin and posted a frivolous picture, comparing bitcoin to fiat money and considering it "the same crap."
Recall that in 2019, Musk became the winner of a comic April Fools' poll, in which users were asked to vote for the most suitable candidate for the position of Dogecoin CEO. And last July, Musk spoke on Twitter about the prospect of using Dogecoin technology as a global financial system. After his tweet, the price of the token went up 17%.
- The legendary bitcoin meme HODL is seven years old. It was first used by a user under the nickname GameKyuubi in his post on the BitcoinTalk forum, who later became known as Mr.HODL. On December 18, 2013, being a little drunk by his own admission, he wrote that as a bad trader he prefers to “hodl” so as not to incur financial losses.
“I typed the title twice because I made a mistake the first time. Still a mistake. A girlfriend is stuck in a lesbian bar, bitcoin is falling, so why do I hold? I'll tell you why. Because I'm a bad trader and I know it. Yes, of course, you good traders can see the highs and lows and playfully make a million dollars,” GameKyuubi wrote at the time.
On that day Bitcoin fell in price by almost 40%, GameKyuubi tried to simultaneously talk to his girlfriend and trade bitcoin through a heavily lagging app. After several failed attempts, he went to his room and started drinking.
Hodl, Hodler, is an Internet meme, a slang name for those who buy cryptocurrencies and hold them (do not sell) regardless of the market situation. For the first time, this variant of the spelling appeared as a typo in the word holding.
- MicroStrategy, a mobile software company, announced the completion of the last stage of the allocation of reserve assets, during which it invested $650 million raised from investors into 29.646 BTC at an average of $21.925 per coin.
It now owns almost 70,470 bitcoins in total, having spent $1.125 billion at an average price of $15.964 per bitcoin.
The $650 million raised in December was raised through the sale of convertible bonds with a maturity of five years. “The purchase of additional coins confirms our confidence in bitcoin as the most widely used cryptocurrency and a reliable store of value,” said Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy.
- Mill Hill Books has released a 340-page book, Kicking the Hornet's Nest, containing all emails, forum posts, and other entries by the anonymous bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. All entries are collected in chronological order and, according to the publishers, have been published "with almost no editorial comment." The printed version of the edition sells for $29, and it can also be purchased on Amazon.
- Scott Minerd, investment director of Guggenheim Investments, considers bitcoin to be a grossly undervalued asset, even at current price levels of around $23,000. “Our fundamental work shows that bitcoin should be worth about $400,000,” he said in a conversation with Bloomberg TV.
Analysts at Guggenheim Investments came to this conclusion based on two factors: the limited emission of bitcoin and its value relative to gold. There are many common characteristics that cryptocurrency shares with the precious metal, Minerd said, but bitcoin, unlike gold, "has extraordinary value in the context of transactions."
At the same time, Minerd noted that buying bitcoin above $20,000 seems to him "a little more problematic." His company began investing in bitcoin at a rate of about $10,000.
Is Bitcoin Worth Investing in?
Is it the "gold of the XXI century" or a soap bubble about to burst? We have repeatedly discussed the advantages and disadvantages of bitcoin over the past year, and analyzed the reasons for its ups and downs. Therefore, we decided to cite only the opinions of experts regarding the prospects for the main cryptocurrency in this review.
You may decide to be patient and invest in bitcoin for a long-term profitability. Or, on the contrary, you do not want to take risks and prefer to forget this word altogether. In general, the decision to buy, sell bitcoin or simply do nothing is always yours.
**Optimists' predictions: Only to the North!**
1. Bestselling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad and entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki is convinced that cryptocurrency will continue to rise to $50,000 next year amid further influx of institutional money. The entrepreneur, having said that “America is in trouble”, precludes the “death” of the US dollar and a “bright future” for gold, silver, bitcoin.
“Bitcoin's rise has outpaced gold and silver,” he wrote. - What does it mean? This means that you need to buy as much bitcoin and precious metal as you can and don't put it off. The train is already leaving. The dollar is dying. When the dollar falls, the price doesn't matter anymore. What matters is how much gold, silver and bitcoins you have.”
2. According to analysts at the JPMorgan Chase banking holding, bitcoin outperforms gold as an alternative currency and has a significantly better chance of continued growth. According to their report, the capitalization of the crypto market is not large enough yet. JPMorgan estimates that the physical gold market, including ETF backed by it, is $2.6 trillion. Bitcoin needs to hit the $130,000 mark to catch up with the precious metal in this respect.
According to JPMorgan Chase, institutional investors can invest up to $600 billion in the first cryptocurrency in the coming years. This requires American, European and Japanese insurance companies and pension funds to invest only 1% of their assets in bitcoin. However, at the moment there are still regulatory requirements for the selection of investment assets in terms of risks and performance of obligations for such traditional investors. This can limit the amount of funds available for buying BTC.
3. The well-known Dutch cryptanalyst PlanB, who developed the popular BTC stock-to-flow valuation model, believes that the price of the reference cryptocurrency may rise to $100,000 by the end of 2021, and maybe up to $300,000. PlanB admits his forecast sounds extremely optimistic. However, the rise in the price of bitcoin in the past allows him to make such predictions.
The expert notes that during periods of market corrections, the algorithms of bitcoin whales pick up hundreds of portions of 0.01 BTC from "weak hands". Later these coins “disappear” in “deep” cold vaults. This leads to a supply shock and triggers a bull market.
4. Scott Minerd, investment director of Guggenheim Investments, considers bitcoin to be a grossly undervalued asset, even at current price levels of around $23,000. “Our fundamental work shows that bitcoin should be worth about $400,000,” he said in a conversation with Bloomberg TV.
Analysts at Guggenheim Investments came to this conclusion based on two factors: the limited emission of bitcoin and its value relative to gold. There are many common characteristics that cryptocurrency shares with the precious metal, Minerd said, but bitcoin, unlike gold, "has extraordinary value in the context of transactions."
5. Popular analyst and founder of Quantum Economics Mati Greenspan believes that “we are at the very beginning of a period of mass investor entry into the cryptosphere. If demand continues to rise and supply is constrained, then there is a possibility that we will see growth of 250% or more." At the same time, Mati Greenspan excludes a scenario in which BTC will soar to $400,000. “The rally will certainly continue, but there is no need to talk about any astronomical figures yet,” the analyst sums up. He believes that, unlike in 2017, the market is now controlled not by speculators but by corporations and large investors interested in its stability. The entry of these large players leads to the fact that volatility will weaken, and this area will become more attractive.
6. Bloomberg experts believe that there is no reason for a change in the direction of bitcoin's movement now, and its cost may increase to $50,000 in 2021. “The dollar is gradually losing its position, ducking other fiat currencies,” writes this authoritative agency, “All this is noticed by investors who are forced to switch to alternative assets.” Bitcoin has significantly more support now, which minimizes the likelihood of a pullback. Open interest in the CME bitcoin futures market has exceeded $1 billion for the first time in history, which also speaks of growing support from investors.
Looking into the longer term, Bloomberg analyst Mike McGlone has suggested that within 5 years the price of the main cryptocurrency could exceed $100,000.
7. A similar point of view is followed by the American billionaire Paul Tudor Jones, head of Tudor Investment Corporation, who said that “cryptocurrencies are facing a crazy flight on a rocket with ascents and descents along the way.” “In 20 years, bitcoin will be significantly higher than the point where it is now. From here, the road for it lies north,” Yahoo! Finance quoted him.
8. The report of the fintech company Cindicator is of great interest. This is due to the fact that the figures presented in it are not the opinion of individual specialists, but the average results of the survey of more than 156,000 participants of the crypto market, according to which bitcoin next year will rise to $29,569. The respondents with the most accurate forecasts, the so-called "superforcasters", expect even greater growth on average, to $32,056.
According to the calculations of the “Hybrid Intelligence” Cindicator, which uses machine learning algorithms to process data from a team of analysts, the BTC rate next year will not exceed $25,222.
9. According to Mike Novogratz, head of the Galaxy Digital crypto trading bank, everyone should invest 2-3% of their funds in bitcoin. “After that, it is enough to wait a little time, and you will be surprised, but cryptocurrencies will cost significantly more. If you wait for five years, the assets will multiply several times,” he wrote.
10. According to experts of Stack Funds, bitcoin is ready to rise to a new high of $86,000.
11. The Director General of Global Macro Investor Raoul Pal expects that even conservative institutional investors, who usually prefer precious metals, will start investing in bitcoin next year. Therefore, Pal made a bold assumption that the rate of the first cryptocurrency could reach $250,000 in a year and placed an order for the sale of all the gold he had in order to invest in BTC and ETH in the ratio 80 to 20.
12. Even more inspiring forecast was given by Gemini crypto exchange founder Tyler Winklevoss, one of the twin brothers who are called the first cryptocurrency billionaires. He said on CNBC that the value of bitcoin could exceed the $500,000 mark.
"The question isn't whether bitcoin will cost $500,000 or not, the question is how quickly it will happen. In fact, even this assessment seems to me very conservative - the game has not really even started," said Tyler's brother Cameron Winklevoss.
13. A similar figure is also called by a member of the Board of Directors of the Bitcoin Foundation Bobby Lee, according to whom the price of the main coin can reach $500,000 by the year 2028.
14. According to experts from one of the shareholders of Tesla, the ARK Invest fund, the capitalization of bitcoin may exceed $5 trillion. This will take the coin up to 10 years, but massive investments can start earlier. This figure could reach $1 trillion in the next 5 years, after which growth will occur at a faster rate.
15. A forecast was presented by Tom Fitzpatrick, Managing Director of one of the largest banks in the world, Citibank. According to him, thanks to consolidation in the status of digital gold, the rate of the first cryptocurrency can reach $318,000 by the end of 2021.
In his new report, Bitcoin: Gold for the 21st Century, Fitzpatrick writes: "Bitcoin moved in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, when new changes in the monetary regime took place and we dropped to zero interest rates." And further he concludes that currently, financial stimulus measures against the background of the coronavirus pandemic have led to the formation of conditions similar to the 1970s, when the dollar inflation led to the increased demand for gold.
16. Popular TV presenter and Wall-Street veteran Max Kaiser believes that at current levels, bitcoin futures traders are suppressing the price of BTC to give institutional players a chance to "load the boat." However, once the asset reaches the $28,000 mark (the intermediate benchmark set by Kaiser), the number of coins for sale will go zero, and thanks to the deficit, their price will burst up to the cosmic heights.
“For the poor of this world, the current price and availability of BTC,” says Kaiser, “is the only opportunity in life to purchase non-forfeitable hard money before the price of it rises to 40-80 times, and prices will soar to the level of golden parity at around $400,000.”
“The demand for bitcoin is growing almost exponentially,” he says, “while its supply is mathematically fixed at 900 coins per day. And in 2024, the supply will be halved to 450 BTC per day. That's why I think people simply won't have the opportunity to buy coins, since the price can soar even to $1,000,000 per BTC. Meanwhile, Gen Z, who bought a lot of bitcoins when they were under $100, will become the new global power elite. The world order is about to change...”
**Pessimists' Predictions: A Fly in the Ointment**
1. Despite the optimism in general, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz believes that bitcoin instability can be expected in the near future. Its price in 2021 will certainly not return to zero, but could fall to the $14,000mark, or even $12,000. Although a correction to such levels is unlikely, investors need to be prepared for losses of 30-40%.
2. According to the average forecast of fintech company Cindicator, the lower bar of the trading range for the BTC/USD pair in 2021 will be at the level of $15,000. “Superforcasters” are less optimistic and expect a decrease to $12,000, and according to the calculations of “Hybrid Intelligence” Cindicator, the bitcoin rate will not go down next year below $16,000.
3. Matt Maley, strategist at financial services firm Miller Tabak, believes the cryptocurrency market will face a major setback next year. According to him, the main coin may fall in price by about 25-30 percent in the first months of 2021. According to Maley, the market is overheated due to large-scale investments, which is why corrections by one or several thousand dollars may become a norm.
“I consider cryptocurrencies to be a promising asset, but the minimum correction size next year will be 10%. At the same time, the fall may be at the level of 30% or even more. Therefore, it is worth being prudent before large-scale investments,” the specialist warns.
Forex Technical Analysis: Basics, Theory, Tools
The Forex market is a place where almost everyone has every chance to make money. But do not confuse luck with a professional approach. Trader is a profession that needs to be learned. Otherwise, intuition will fail sooner or later, and a series of trades will turn into a continuous loss. That is why, as a start to your career, it is better not to waste time, but to start by studying technical market analysis. It will let you trade with awareness.
Technical analysis is a global trend in the study of price behavior, its dynamics and external signs, which is based on statistical historical data. It is important to note this trend includes a huge arsenal of tools and specific movements that allow to analyze the quotes from different angles. Its main feature is its historical recurrence, cyclicality. Thanks to it, you will not only learn how to navigate in the current situation, but also to predict the future.
**Whom Technical Analysis of Graphs Suits**
There are two main areas that beginners should study at the level of theory - fundamental and technical analysis.
The first is difficult, as it requires an understanding of macroeconomics, world politics and their relationship with each other. Therefore, it is logical that people with the appropriate education are inclined towards the fundamental analysis.
If you adopt technical analysis (TA), you will not need to study complex economic theory and immerse yourself in the monetary policy of each individual state or bloc. You will not need to think about how, for example, the presidential elections of any country might affect the demand for oil on the world market, and that, in turn, the quotes of a particular currency.
Unlike fundamental analysis, technical analysis assumes that the market has already taken into account all these factors in its current quotes. The price dynamics, its movement features demonstrate the psychological portrait of the bidders. Knowing what motivates the participants, the key players, it is possible to build unique trading systems.
Technical analysis is suitable for beginners not because of its simplicity, but because of its versatility. The history of its development gave birth to thousands of instruments and views on price movement. Each trader can choose something of their own, without delving into complex mathematical calculations. Regardless of your background, profession, type of character, Forex technical analysis is an effective solution for making money in the foreign exchange markets for both beginners and experienced professionals.
**Trader's Work Environment**
One of the main challenges in learning to work with charts can be the choice of the working environment and the object of study. For example, one of the key questions is the choice of the currency pair to be traded, the time frame and, of course, the trading terminal.
The trader adjusts all these parameters personally, depending on their goals. For example, the brokerage company NordFX provides its clients with the opportunity to trade on MetaTrader 4, the world's most popular terminal. It can be both a stationary MT4 terminal and its mobile versions, which allow you to analyze the market, open and close up to 100 trading orders at any time from anywhere in the world where there is Internet access. MetaTrader 4 has a friendly interface, a huge number of built-in useful features and is a powerful weapon in the hands of the trader. You can learn more about how MT4 works in the corresponding section on the official NordFX website.
**Time Frame**
A time frame is a time interval during which one candle or bar is formed. Using different intervals allows you to cut off market noises and catch global trends, moving from a shorter time frame to a larger one.
In MT4 there are 9 options for presenting quotes charts - М1, М5, М15, М30 (that is, 1 candlestick or bar corresponds to 1, 5, 15 or 30 minutes), H1, H4, D1, W1 and MN (respectively, 1 candlestick is equal to 1 hour, 4 hours, 1 day, 1 week and 1 month). Thus, by choosing the one-minute time frame, you will see on the screen how the price has changed every minute for several hours, and by choosing, for example, the MN time frame, you will see the price change over several years.
Also, you will see the so-called tick charts in MT4 which are formed not by time, but by trades. One deal has passed - one tick has formed. And there can be several such ticks even within one minute.
Each trader selects the necessary interval for themselves, depending on the desired trading activity, their trading strategy and, ultimately, temperament and discipline. The higher the timeframe, the more averaged the picture you get. Some traders , called scalpers, can open and close trades in a very short time, so they use M1, M5 time frames and tick charts. Others are guided by long-term trends, relying on charts not lower than H4 or D1.
**Currency Pairs**
There are a lot of recommendations as to which specific currency pairs to use when trading. Moreover, in most cases, the emphasis is on the main, so-called "major", currency pairs, consisting of the main and most liquid currencies - USD, EUR, JPY, CHF, GBP. Pairs using AUD, CAD and NZD (Australian, Canadian and New Zealand dollars) as well as CNH (Chinese yuan) are also popular.
Basically, Forex technical analysis is applicable not only to these currency pairs, but also to rarer ones, such as ZAR (South African rand), SGD (Singapore dollar) or NOK (Norwegian krone). It can also be used to forecast many other trading instruments available to clients of the NordFX brokerage company. These are cryptocurrencies (bitcoin, ethereum and many others), gold, silver, oil, shares of various large companies and leading stock indices. That is, technical analysis is a universal method that can be used to make money not only in Forex , but also in other markets - stock, commodity, cryptocurrency. However, the technical analysis tools used each time require individual settings depending on the currency pairs and time frames used in trading.
So, for example, exotic currencies and cryptocurrencies are more difficult for technical analysis, since interest in them is weaker, there are fewer transactions, and trading volumes are lower. As a result, any news or manipulation, even by a not very large speculator, can lead to sharp unpredictable jumps in quotations.
**Technical Analysis Tools**
Do not confuse trading tools and technical analysis tools. The first is what you trade (currencies, cryptocurrencies, stocks, etc.), while the second is what you use to analyze the market and make decisions about a particular transaction. The diversity of this area has no boundaries. Every year, many new and unique tools are invented that allow you to make more and more accurate trading decisions. At the same time, the vast majority of them can be divided into the following groups.
**Graphic Tools**
Using graphic tools, the trader sets out patterns on the price chart and simplifies the forecasting process. They can be based on both a complex mathematical model and ordinary geometric shapes, the main task of which is to simplify the work with chart markings. These include: lines, channels, shapes, icons. As a simple example, the graph shows a down-to-date price channel that has changed to an uptrend.
All graphical instruments, based on the Fibonacci numerical sequence (levels, arcs, extension, time zones) are commonly called the mathematical model in this analysis. This also includes developments using the methods of William Gunn (grid, line, fan, pitchfork), pitchforks of Andrews and Schiff, Eliott waves and the methods of a number of other well-known scientists and practicing traders.
With their help, you can determine the direction of the trend, possible pivot points, the depth of the rollback (correction), and form the current trading range.
How to Create a Buyer Persona & Customer Avatar
You’ve probably come across the term buyer persona or customer avatar or audience persona but essentially they all mean the same thing and they are the details of who your perfect client is.
**What is a Buyer Persona?**
In short, it’s a semi-fictional character that represents who your perfect audience is. The details of who your perfect audience is are very important because it allows you to understand who they are. It goes beyond just those basic categories and basic demographics and taps into the person that taps into their circumstances and their individual lives and this amount of detail allows you to connect with them on a much more human level. It allows a brand to tailor their offer or their messaging to who this person is so they can better connect with them. Your buyer persona acts as a tool to attract high-quality leads and people who are essentially more likely to buy what you have to offer. If you’re going to take the time to market your business and your brand the way you should then you want to be as efficient as possible with your marketing efforts and having clarity in who your audience is through a buyer persona will help you do that.
**Why is Buyer Personal so Important?**
In short, it’s all about understanding. Most businesses don’t take the time to develop out who their audience is and develop buyer personas so they can speak to them on a more relevant level. Most businesses you’ll find will define who their audience is in terms of categories so they might define their audience as female professionals between 22 and 34 but that information doesn’t allow you to connect with who that person is because that person doesn’t identify as a female professional between 22 and 34. Understanding who your audience is and defining a buyer persona allows you to tap into the detail of that person’s lives so you can better understand who they are, what they’re trying to achieve, what challenges they’re going through, and what emotions are connected to those challenges and all of this information allows you to better resonate with who they are and better connect with them on a human level.
**How Many Buyer Personas Should I Have?**
This depends on the individual businesses. You might be very clear on who the audience is and you might to just have one buyer persona or you might have different segments and different groups and you might have up to five different buyer personas. Of course, you can communicate with each one of these personas individually through your marketing messages but your brand and your brand messaging as a whole should appeal to them all.
**What are the Different Types of Buyer Personas?**
The answer to that question is that there are no real types of buyer personas. Every single buyer persona is different because people are different. There’s no cookie-cutter solution where you take this type of buyer persona for this type of business. You have to custom create buyer personas every single time but luckily for you, I have a system that you can use to create a buyer persona
**Start with a Category and a Name**
That female professional between 22 and 34 is not enough for a buyer persona but it is a great starting point for your buyer persona because it allows us to categorize a certain group of individuals as to who the broad audience is. You want to start to shape that or you want to personally identify who this type of persona is, you might give this persona a name and you might get a little bit more clarity around what they do so instead of being a female professional 22 to 34 it might be Debbie the Marketing Manager so getting a bit clarity there sets the tone for getting personal with who this buyer persona is.
**Understand their Demographic**
The demographics are the circumstances around their lives and it gives us a window into the type of person that they are. It gives us a window into their lives so the demographics that you would be looking for here would be their age, their sex, their profession, their marital status, their income, all of this general information starts to paint a picture of the types of lives that these people have. Of course, this is not enough to connect and resonate with who they are but it is a great stepping stone to understand what their lives are like.
**Define their Psychographics**
While their demographics are all about the circumstances of their lives their psychographics start to get a little bit more detailed in who this person is because it’s about their behaviors and what makes them unique. Here we’re looking at their preferences. What is it that they prefer, what kind of news sources do they read, what do they do on the weekend, what type of food do they like to eat or what restaurants do they like to go to, what sports do they follow or play, do they have an active lifestyle, do they have a more passive lifestyle, all of this information will start to give you a window into the type of person they are and the types of behaviors they have so you can start to identify the type of character and the type of personality that they are.
**Discover their Goals**
Their audience is typically going to have two types of goals and that is their big picture goal and their immediate goal. Their immediate goal is something that they’re trying to achieve right now and typically your brand is going to be able to help them achieve that goal. Their big picture goal will be more their aspirational goals that their immediate goal will contribute to achieving so if they achieve this immediate goal it will work towards achieving their big picture goal. A perfect example of this would be a business owner who’s trying to meet his sales target this month to stay on track for his target and his big picture goal is that ultimately he wants to sell his business so if he’s able to achieve his immediate goal that will contribute towards his big picture goal.
**Uncover their Challenges**
Just like their goals they’re going to have two types of challenges here, they’re going to have challenges around their big picture goals and they are going to have challenges around their immediate goals. These challenges again are something that your brand is going to be able to help out with. Their big picture challenges on the other hand possibly you might not be able to help out with those at all but you should still understand what challenges are standing in their way. When it comes to their immediate challenges there might be one or two challenges that you might be able to help them out directly but there might be more challenges than that that they’re facing and if you understand those challenges you can speak to them about those challenges and show empathy and understanding and maybe even guide them on their way. Again coming back to that example of the business owner may be the business owner want to generate more sales this month that is the challenge this he has but some smaller challenges around that are he wants to generate more leads and more traffic to his website so that’s a perfect example of how understanding your audience’s challenges and the challenges around the ones that you can help resolve can help you better connect with who they are and what they’re going through.
**Extract their Emotions**
With all these goals and challenges there are going to be a lot of emotions around there so representing the goals will be the desires, what is it that they want to achieve, what is that desire that they have to achieve that goal, and around the challenges what are their fears, what is standing in their way and what does that make them feel if they can’t overcome those challenges. These fears and desires are the emotions that your brand will be able to use to connect with what they’re going through, to connect with those emotions, to connect with that triune brain and that reptilian brain where they make their decisions. We don’t make decisions through that logical brain, we make decisions through our emotions so if your brand and your messaging can connect with those emotions that they’re going through whether it’s those fears or whether it’s those desires you will resonate with who they are and what they are feeling.
Make no bones about it, your brand persona is one of the most critical tasks in building your brand and building your business because without that buyer persona you don’t know who you’re speaking to, you don’t know what challenges they’re going through, you don’t know what they are feeling, and you don’t know what they want and if you don’t have that information how are you going to build a brand that is going to connect and resonate with who that person is. The answer is you can’t. If you don’t have to message that speaks directly to who your audience is then your messaging is speaking to nobody in particular and that is the fastest way for your brand to go nowhere in particular. Once you have that buyer persona and you know who the person is and you know what they want you can work on giving them what they want.
Lead Generational Strategies to Get More Clients for Your Business
The most frequently asked questions that I get are in and around lead generation and sales because yeah I get it I mean I was a freelancer for years and I remember I didn’t know where my next lead was coming from. I didn’t have a strategy other than to wait around for referral which wasn’t a strategy. When I began to start experimenting with ways that I could bring leads into my business I found out what worked and what didn’t. In this article I want to give you eight strategies that you can take into your own creative agency so you can start generating leads for your business and stop worrying about where your next lead is coming from.
**Incentivize Your Visitors**
When your visitors come to your website, it’s not enough just to give them information. Yes, you need to tell them very quickly what you’re going to do for them, how you are going to do it but that information is not enough you need to incentivize them to take some kind of next step. If all you have is your core offer for your products or services then that’s not enough for somebody to take action coming to your website. You need to incentivize them with some kind of next step that will get them into your business. An example here might be a brand audit or a brand consultation.
**Get Creative with Your Forms**
Chances are if you have a website, you have some kind of lead capture form or you have some kind of inquiry form. I’ve seen forms that are as long as 30 questions and they asked their visitors to fill out 30 questions to make an inquiry that is the quickest way to scare your leads off to get no leads. If you just have a simple form with a handful of questions even that is not good enough you can get creative with your forms today, you can make them very easy and very intuitive to use and quite creative that you can lead your visitors along one question at a time towards whatever it is that you are offering. Scrap the old inquiry forms, don’t make them 30 questions long and get creative.
**Speak at Small Industry Events**
I remember hearing advice like this when I was younger on my career and I used to go along to small business events and there were tons of other designers and branding specialists and marketers they are all singing the same tune but here I’m talking about going to industry specific events and you need to be positioned effectively here for this. You need to be positioned within whatever niche that you’re trying to target and you need to have your messaging dialed in, you need to understand their industry. If you go along to a small business event offering creative services to small businesses then that’s not enough, your language is not dialed in enough, you’re speaking in generic terms but if you are dialed-in in terms of your positioning, if your messaging s dialed in, if you take that know-how and that knowledge to industry specific events you will be the only branding strategist there giving them information and giving them value about how they can brand their businesses. Think about the industry that you’re serving, think about the events that they have and go along and speak at those events.
**Give Then Something Actionable**
Chances are when a visitor comes to your website they have a problem. This problem could be that they need a new website or they need a brand identity or a brand strategy, they might need SEO or Facebook ads but whatever they’re coming to your website for they have a problem and if you understand what those problems are and you understand all of the questions in and around those problems then you can create a document that will answer all of those questions for them and that document will be valuable to them because it will answer those questions and it will give them that information that they’re looking for. In exchange for this document you are going to get their email address so not only are you giving them value here and earning trust, you’re getting the ability to follow up with them via email strategy.
**Use Automated Email to Warm Your Clients**
Without a doubt automated email is one of the most effective ways to turn a cold lead into a hot lead and you do this by giving them value, educating them, and addressing the challenges that they have, acknowledging the outcome that they’re trying to achieve and what they need to do to get there. This is a very effective way to give that information, to earn that trust, to stay top of mind, it kills so many birds with one stone through email automation and it warms your clients throughout that process. Take the time to put together a sequence that will bring your clients along, educate them, give them that value, and that will warm them to your offer when it comes.
**Go in Gently**
Just because you earned a little bit of trust with your lead doesn’t mean they’re ready to jump into bed with you straight away. Your core offer might be $10,000 or $20,000 and just a few emails and a few touch points is not going to make them ready enough to be able to spend that kind of money with you. You need to give them a low commitment offer first you need to have a low commitment transaction first and foremost to give them a taste of what you’re like, to give them a taste of how you work and whether or not you’re good for your word and you deliver on what you say you can deliver. If you deliver on that micro offer and they feel that they got value from that outcome then they’ll be ready to take you up on your core offer.
**Build Your Referral Network**
When you do niche down effectively chances are you’re not going to be a jack of all trades so therefore you’re not going to be doing content marketing and SEO and Facebook ads and brand identity and brand strategy and web development you are not going to be doing all of those things but all these businesses and all of these executioners that do this kind of work are doing this work for the same type of audience that you have so you need to build up referral network and that’s a two-way street. When somebody comes to you and they’re looking for a certain type of service and you don’t deliver that service it’s better to have somebody to refer them to rather than just close the door on that relationship. In turn if they do go to your referral network that’s a chance for you to earn more revenue through a referral fee or whatever agreement that you have set up and on the flip side of that you get more referrals through that referral network. It’s a two-way street and it’s a great way to get leads and strategy.
**Create Advocates**
Once you start getting those leads through those leads turn into clients, those clients turn into revenue and that completes the circle. However, you can keep that circle going by making sure that you over deliver with your clients making sure that they walk away feeling that they experience that they got through your brand was above and beyond what they thought they were going to get. You should treat every single client like they are going to go away with a megaphone and speak to the world about your business and your brand and if you do that you will create advocates in waiting if you then incentivize them to go out and speak about your business that will turn into leads.
There’s denying that the idea of getting new leads and trying to out there into a cold market and sell yourself is a little bit daunting but it’s easier than you think with inbound marketing today, with email automation, with the amount of things that you can do online to get the attention of your audience to give them value and to warm and nurture them before putting your core offer in front of them it’s a lot easier than you think. You just need to identify the strategy that suits you and your business and then commit to it and that commitment will turn into leads and sales.
Digital Product Ideas to Increase Your Revenue
Digital products have become a very effective tool for many businesses today. Essentially, what they do is they’re able to package up their skills or services into a variety of different ways making it easier for them to sell those skills and services to their prospective clients and ultimately increasing the revenue streams and bottom line as they do it.
**What is a Digital Product?**
It’s an intangible asset that can be sold again and again by a business without the worry that they’re going to run out of stock. It could be a piece of media or a tool. This digital product can be created a single time and that single product can be sold over and over or a digital product can be customized to every customer.
The main reason that an agency would want to sell digital products would be to increase the revenue streams and ultimately their bottom line. Most agencies have core services but the work that agencies do is quite labor-intensive, it’s very hands-on, and it’s very one-on-one whether that’s logo design or website design, or brand strategy this type of work is quite labor-intensive but digital products allow agencies to increase their revenue streams. It allows them to sell additional products to increase the average value per invoice of their customers and ultimately increase the bottom line.
There are many more benefits to offering digital products such as adding value; you get to add more value to your customer by offering these digital products, your core services will help them out with some very specific challenges but these digital products can help them out with additional challenges that they might have, ultimately helping them get towards their goal. If you do provide these types of services, it allows you to address those different challenges and help them to overcome those additional challenges as well and you’ll earn trust as you that. Digital products are also very lost cost; there is very little overhead in producing digital products whether you produce a digital product as a one-off or even if you customize those products as you go or if you use a template to do that it keeps the cost very low and that increases your profit margins as well. Let’s dive into the seven different digital product ideas that you can take into your agency.
**Presentation Templates**
Most businesses have a logo and most businesses do some kind of presentations whether it’s to prospective clients or business partners and what they tend to do is they tend to just grab the logo that they have available whether it’s a PNG or a JPG file and stick it on top of whatever presentation they’re putting together. They’ll grab whatever font they have had and this inconsistency does paint a bad image and whether or not they don’t think to ask the agency to put together a presentation like this or they think a job like this will be too small or they don’t want to pay whatever the reason is a lot of businesses do this. They use PowerPoint presentations or PDF presentations that don’t bring across that brand experience. If you’re able to put together a product like this and to give your prospects or your customers a tool that they can keep that brand experience consistent then that is a valuable product that you can add.
**A Stationery Pack**
You will find that most creative businesses will provide some kind of stationery to their client along with their brand identity product or brand identity service that they’re providing but you shouldn’t throw in any product with any other product. Your product should be clearly defined and separated. If you are offering a brand identity design then your brand identity design is the product that you’re offering. If they want stationery on top of that then you also have a stationery product. You can couple these together of course and you can add value by adding the stationery pack on top of the brand identity pack but you should separate these products and this allows you to offer products separately. It allows you to offer that stationary pack as a separate product. If you do sell that brand identity design then you can sell the stationery pack as a value add.
**Graphics/Icon Pack**
Again a lot of businesses will throw graphics and icons in with the brand identity designs that they are doing but if you pull this out as a separate service, if you add a price tag to it, it does enhance the value perception that your client has of this graphics and icons pack. You may well include this in the brand identity design that you’re providing them but you can use that as a value add. You can add that to the fee that you’re charging for the brand identity design. You can throw in a graphic and icon pack and if they see the value price tag to that it might be $499 as an example they’ll see that they’re getting a huge amount of additional value on top of the brand identity design that you’re providing them but again adding value and pulling this out as a separate product adds another income stream to your business.
**Media Library**
Today most businesses are communicating online whether it’s through their website or their social media channels and although most agencies will provide a handful of images with the brand identity designs that they provide that don’t act as a tool ongoing for a business to use within their communication. If on the other hand, you provide them with a media library whether that is customized or not they have tools then that they can use in the market, social media platform, or that they can use on their website. This could be a media library of 50 images and 10 videos and again that could keep them going for a year’s worth of communication or six months’ worth of communication and then you can follow up with that six months or twelve months down the line to offer them another pack but again another income stream added to your business.
**Content Templates and Calendars**
Most businesses and brands when they get out there into the market for the first time they are looking for some brand awareness. They want to get out there and engage with their audience. A style guide is not going to help a business owner to manage their brand through communication. It’s not going to help them to decide what kind of social posts to put out there but if you put together a content template and a calendar of the types of content that they should be putting out there it gives them a tool to proactively go out and engages with their audience and to start bringing in leads.
**Email and Campaign Packs**
Every business today communicates via email. They may be sending out a newsletter, they may have email drip sequences or they may just be communicating ad hoc through their email so you can provide professionally designed email signatures, you can provide email templates for their email drip sequences or you can provide email drip sequences in full. They can just fill in the key details through these templates or you can do it as a done-for-you service where you write the email drip sequence for them and integrate their email platform with their website depending on how hands-on you want to be with this you can provide an additional service here by helping them with their email and their campaigns to help them look more professional and keep that brand consistency going.
**Lead Magnets Design**
Every business today has a website and if they have a website they’re trying to generate traffic to come towards that website but once on the website they need them to take some kind of action. Nobody just buys when they come to a website today it doesn’t work like that as consumers that’s not what we do. We don’t engage with other brands like that. We want to take the time to get to know the brands that we’re potentially going to do business with and today it’s on average at least seven to eight touchpoints. You can’t expect a prospect to come back to your website seven to eight times before they buy so you need to transact with them. You need to give them some kind of value in exchange for their email address and lead magnets are one of the most effective ways that you can start that relationship off on the right foot so speak to your clients about their audience and about the challenges that they have and put together a lead magnet that can act as a lead generation tool for that business.
Every single digital product that you create is another revenue stream for your business and the more revenue streams you have as a business the more flexibility you have to sell your services and the value that you offer so take the time to think about the challenges that your audience has and what products that you can create to help them with those challenges and these can be sold individually. As individual products, they can be used as value ads or you can upsell your clients later on to increase the overall average value of your invoices. There are multiple ways that you can use digital products, you can use them as sales tactics, you can use them as standalone products but ultimately they all provide you with a flexible tool to increase your revenue as a branding business.
The 4ps of the Marketing Mix in Modern Branding
**Branding Vs Marketing**
The way I approach strategic branding is not a traditional marketing approach. The traditional marketing approach will tell you that branding is a small subset of marketing but the reality is that branding sits on top of everything and the reason I can definitively say this is that all examples of marketing are always branding but not all examples of branding are marketing. Of course, many traditional marketers would possibly disagree with me and that’s okay but for me, the way that we engage our audiences today, the way we bring a person and a business closer together has dramatically changed in the last 10 to 15 years and it’s going to continue to change in the years to come. For me, branding and brand sit on top of everything, and most of the important considerations of bringing a person and a brand closer together sit in the realm of brand strategy which sits on top of marketing.
Despite all of that, it’s still important to understand and consider traditional marketing concepts. I’m not saying that the four Ps of marketing are irrelevant. They are not irrelevant. They are very relevant and I consider all of the four Ps within my brand development process just maybe not in the same way that other traditional marketers might approach it but either way you need to understand the four Ps of marketing. You need to understand those traditional marketing concepts so you can have those high-level conversations with those leadership teams and with those marketing managers so with that let’s jump into the four Ps.
**Product**
Your product consideration can go deep in terms of the product line itself, how it’s presented, how it’s packaged etc. But on a basic level, your product needs to meet the needs and the wants of your audience. You’re going to define who exactly you’re targeting within your brand strategy and what you want to mean to them, what difference you want to mean in their lives, and the position that you want to take in their mind and once you have all of that then you can focus in on the product and giving them what they need or what they want. Make sure that the product that you develop is aligned with that difference that you want to own in their mind. Make sure that your product considers the needs and wants of who your target market is and give them what they want.
**Price**
Your price point should be most definitely aligned to the position that you want to own in the mind of your audience and should also take into consideration the value that your brand is offering and the cost associated with delivering that value as well. Of course, if you want your brand to be associated with luxury, your price is going to be relatively high. On the other hand, if you want to be associated with a budget then your price is going to be relatively low but you need to define the position that you want to own in the mind of your audience before deciding on a price and then use the pricing consideration to settle on your price point. It can go a little deeper here in terms of tactics and techniques on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis just ongoing in terms of your pricing strategy but all of this is considered within the price.
**Promotion**
This P of the marketing mix is all about knowing where your audience is when they’re there and meeting them there with your branding message. Let’s stick with traditional marketing for a second. Let’s say you had a high street brand (Chanel for example) they wanted to advertise and they were choosing where to promote their brand and when to promote their brand. They might choose ad space during sex and the city or let’s say you had a men’s supplement and this brand wants to choose where to promote their brand they might look at men’s health magazine and buy some ad space there but today digital marketing has changed the way this is done. If you think about Facebook ads and the hyper-targeting that you can get there it still considers the same things. It can still consider the same interest it just goes a little bit more granular there so number three promotions consider where your audience is at and how to meet them there.
**Place**
The importance of this consideration has dwindled somewhat in the last 15 to 20 years because if you think about what business was like 20 or 30 years ago, pretty much every business and brand had place consideration. They needed to consider where they were going to be if they were going to be on a high street or if they were going to be in a small suburb. They needed to decide where their audience was and where they’re going to be but today pretty much everybody is online and most businesses have some form of the presentation online and many businesses today are just online but you still need to consider what area you’re going to service and where you’re going to be for your audience. It’s still an important consideration less important than it was 20 years ago but you still need to understand your place.
This is the marketing mix and the four Ps of the marketing mix and as I said although I don’t approach my brand building efforts using the four Ps or using the marketing mix in its original concept. I do address every one of those Ps within my brand building, my brand development, and positioning considerations. It’s important to understand that these concepts haven’t been dropped. They’re not less important, they are very important and as you’re speaking to brand leadership teams with marketing managers if they want to have that level of conversation with you, if they want to address the four Ps then you should have an understanding of where they fit into your brand building process.
How to Get Clients for Your Agency
Something I hear often from so many new freelancers or new agency owners is how do I get clients and it’s fair enough, that is the most pressing issue when somebody starts a business because without clients there’s no revenue and it won’t take you long to go south. But the reality is that getting clients is not that difficult. Let me give you a bit of perspective here. Think about all of the businesses that there are on the planet, every single one of those business needs branding. Of course, if you’re offering logo design services only then you’re probably going to be looking for startups because most businesses have a logo and if you come to them offering a logo they’re going to say well we have a logo already. But when you start to offer branding services that go beyond the visuals using strategies such as storytelling, messaging, and positioning strategy then you have to opportunity to approach businesses with revenue who can afford the services that you’re offering. The beautiful thing about systems is that once you figure out your system as in once you figure out the strategy that works best for you to bring clients into your business then you simply replicate that system. You turn it on and off like a tap to bring in clients when you need them and turn it off when your pipeline is full. In this article, I want to give you seven strategies that you can go over and decide which one is right for you, your business, your personality, and your approach to go out and get clients into your business.
Low-Hanging Offer
This is not a groundbreaking strategy but it works, if you implement this strategy you will get clients. Create a new offer that is based on a time limitation or a number limitation. It’s going to expire next week or there are only certain amounts that you’re going to offer. Create an offer along the lines of a brand audit that would normally be $495 and offered for $99, a heavily discount that offer to further incentivize your audience. What you want to do is create a list of about 100 people of your perfect type of audience or connections who will have your perfect type of audience within their network and put the offer out there. But make sure that it is a genuine offer. Make sure that it is genuinely discounted and make sure that there is genuine limitation there. If those tick boxes are checked then this will be a great offer that you can put in front of that group of people and trust me if you put 100 out there people you will get bites. Make sure you create an offer that is compelling and speaks to the outcome that they want to achieve and put that out there into your network.
Proactive Hunting
Whether you like it or not getting new clients is not a passive game. You can’t just sit back and wait for them to come in. You can’t just post a couple of social posts and think that they’re going to come knocking on your door, it just doesn’t work that way. You have to be proactive in getting new clients. One of the best ways to do this is to identify who it is that you’re trying to target, what is their job title, and where are they hanging out. Go and find where they are, go and search for that job title on LinkedIn and get an exhaustive list of people who might represent your perfect client, and start reaching out to them. I’m not talking here about blanket emails just copying and pasting the same message, take the time to understand exactly who they are, who they’re working for, what kind of jobs they have out there in the market at the moment so that will tell you what kind of challenges they have, where they need help, and engage with them on a human level and show your personality.
Network like a Giver
Show interest in other people and their business and they will show an interest in you and what you do. Network like a giver and don’t be a taker.
Actively Engage
This strategy dovetails with proactive hunting. When you go out into the market and you proactively look for people who would be your perfect client or look for groups of people where your perfect clients are hanging out then you want to engage with those people, you don’t want to just approach those people cold and put an offer in front of them. If you follow their content, like and comment on their content and share their content they’re going to see your name time and again and they’ll be curious about who you are, they’ll follow whatever profile you are using for your social media and they’ll know who you by the time you reach out to them and put an offer in front of them and say hey, I like your business and I’ve seen what you’ve done, I’d like to work with you. They’ll know who you are and they’ll be much more open to engaging with you and listening to what you have to offer.
Piggyback Partnership
This strategy is all about going out and identifying businesses that are already serving your perfect client. I’m not talking about direct competitors. I’m talking about complementary services. For example, if you offer brand strategy services, you might go out and look for website designers or developers or social media managers, businesses who already have your perfect type of client and you go in there and provide additional services through those businesses and to those clients. Essentially, you’re piggybacking off the hard work that they’ve done, their leads, and off their clients, and not only are you generating leads and sales and piggybacking off their hard work, you’re also enhancing their offers as well. They go from just offering website design services to website and brand strategy services. This is an effective strategy if you can identify businesses who are serving those clients and you can set up a partnership, this can work well.
Proactive Referrals
Sitting around and waiting for a referral is not a strategy but going out and proactively looking for referrals can be. You can create a system to generate referrals through your existing or past clients. A great way to do this is to over-deliver on what you’re offering and make sure that they have a great experience and then incentivize them to go out and refer your business in front of yours and to tell other people about the great experience that they have. This only works if you over-deliver on that service and you give them a great experience. I’m not talking here about over-delivering in terms of what you’re offering. I’m not saying that they pay for x and you give them XYZ. I’m talking about over-delivering on the experience that they have on holding their hand right throughout the process on touching base with them, on making sure they understand exactly what’s happening and where they’re going, and making sure that they’re happy with the overall service that you’re providing.
Create a Digital Machine
I’ve listed this one to the end because it is digital. It does require some technical abilities but all of this can be learned. I’m not technical and I’ve learned all of these steps and I’ve used all of these steps to generate thousands of leads and hundreds of sales. If I can learn it, you can learn it too. But the strategy is simple. Create a compelling offer in the form of a lead magnet that your perfect audience will be happy to exchange for their email address and once you get that email address make sure you put that on an email drip sequence that sells them into your idea that educates them on the challenges that you can help them overcome and in turn it earns trust as you do it. A simple strategy creates a compelling lead magnet. Put them onto an email drip sequence and this will generate leads for you.
There are seven strategies here and I do not recommend that you go out and try all seven strategies certainly not at once. I suggest that you pick one that suits you and your business and one that you are most likely to commit to because it’s that commitment that will end up generating those clients for you. Pick one of the strategies, commit to it, go all-in on it and stay with it long enough till it generates your leads and new clients. Once you get those clients you want to make sure that you’re making the most out of each one of them and you’re generating as much revenue as you can from every client.
How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy
I’m not going to start this article by writing old marketing was difficult, new marketing is easy. It is true audiences are more accessible today than they were 10 or 20 years ago. 10 or 20 years ago, you have to use TV, Radio ads, Billboards. And today, you can simply jump online, create a social media account, and then you have access to your audience. But despite what people will tell you that old marketing was difficult and new marketing is easy, it’s not. It’s not easy. You just need to know how to use it. You need to understand the tools that are out there and how to make the most of those tools. That’s what I want to go through in this article and show you how you can create your digital marketing strategy.
When most business owners do start their business and they think of going out there and marketing, they pick different bits and pieces up, and on the face of it, it seems quite easy that you can just jump online and create all of these accounts. But again, you can’t just create a few social posts and expect your customers to come knocking on your door. And a lot of business owners do kind of have that perception when they go into the marketplace that they set up their logo, their website, they can create a few social media accounts and start posting out some posts. Then all of a sudden they’re going to have the customers knocking on the door, it’s not that easy. You do need a strategy to make your marketing work for you.
Now, the cold hard reality of it is that most business owners don’t have a marketing strategy. Most business owners will have some tactics, whether it’s Google ads, Facebook ads, Social media marketing, Content marketing, and what tends to happen is that they’ll try something on and see if it fits, and when they don’t get results, they move on to the next trend or the next best thing. If you don’t have a marketing strategy or if you don’t have a collection of tactics all working together and pulling in the same direction, then you don’t have a strategy. You need a cohesive strategy with tactics all working together for your brand to get any kind of results. That’s what I want you to know in this article. I want you to know how you can create your digital marketing strategy so you can get results for your brand.
Define the Method behind Your Message
This is not just about messaging, it’s not just about communication, and the reality of it is that you need a brand that you can market. Your brand needs to know who it is, who it’s for, why it’s different, and how it’s going to communicate that difference. If you don’t have that in place before you go ahead and define a marketing strategy, then your efforts won’t have the same effectiveness. They won’t have any substance behind them. You need to define your brand so that you can have a solid foundation that you can build on within your marketing strategy. Make sure you have a method behind your messaging to know who you are, know who you’re for, know why you’re different, and how you’re going to communicate that difference.
Define Your Objective
If you ask most entrepreneurs what their marketing objective is, you’re going to get a similar answer along the lines of getting more sales. Look that is the overarching goal of any kind of marketing efforts but you need to be a lot more specific with your objectives when it comes to marketing. Do you want to grow your brand awareness? Do you want to generate leads? Do you want to build your email list? What is it that you want to do because when you know what your objective is from marketing strategy, then you can craft messages that will be a lot more specific and a lot more relevant in making those objectives happen? Know what your objectives are in a bit more detail than just to make more sales.
Map Out Your Funnel
This step is important in defining your digital marketing strategy because it gives your strategy some structure and the structure looks something like this. Attention, Traffic, Micro commitment, Nurture, Conversion, and Advocacy. This step is important because it gives you that structure, it gives you that visualization, and allows you to picture your audience on a journey and how they might first come into contact with your brand and the progressive steps that they need to take on route to becoming a customer. You need to understand those steps. You need to map the match and have clarity in the journey that your customers on and that will allow you to be a lot more specific with your messaging.
Define the Channel and the Tactics for the Funnel Stages
Each stage of the funnel represents a step that your audience will take and for each step, you can have different channels and different tactics that you can use to engage them and if you know the steps that they’re taking and you know where they are at each step, then you can use a strategy to define what channels and what tactics you’re going to use at every step. It’s important here to visualize that journey and then to define the tactics, and the channels that you’re going to use at every step of that funnel.
Execute and Optimize
It’s great that you’ve mapped out a plan for this but chances are there’s going to be quite a bit of workload here in terms of executing the strategy and this is where many business owners fall short. They map out a plan and they have many different parts of the puzzle and they spread themselves too thin, they try to do too many things. They don’t think far enough into the future and they burn out quite quickly. If you have all the pieces of the puzzle of your digital marketing strategy in terms of what you’re going to do, then you can break that down. You can categorize that and you can allocate different work to different people. Are you going to be using Facebook ads? If so, who’s going to be doing the creative, the copywriting, audience insights, managing the campaigns, managing each one of those ads, and optimizing those? What about content creation? Are you going to be writing articles? Are you going to be creating YouTube videos? If so, who’s going to be editing them? Who’s going to be uploading those to your website, and who’s going to be sending them out to into the marketplace and posting those? You need to understand every step and every tactic that you’re going to use then make sure you manage that workload effectively because planning is great, your strategy is great but if you don’t have the means to execute that then it’s all for nothing. Make sure you take the time to identify and define exactly how you’re going to execute the strategy and make it happen.
There are a lot of articles and a lot of videos on how to create a digital marketing strategy and what I found are that most don’t take the time to focus on the importance of the brand. You must have a brand to market before you go ahead and start marketing anything. Most business owners don’t have that. They look towards marketing strategies or digital marketing strategies without having all of their ducks in a row in terms of their brand and their marketing efforts fall short. You need to know what your brand is before you go out and market it. You need to know who it is for and why it is different, and how you’re going to communicate that difference because it’s only through this clarity of knowing who your audience is and knowing why you’re different and how you’re going to communicate that message when you resonate with whom your audience is. Take the time to make sure that is crystal clear before defining any kind of digital marketing strategy.
How to Come Up with a Business Name
Without a doubt, naming a brand is one of the most emotionally charged tasks within the whole spectrum of branding and that’s because of the sentimentality attached to it when we name things growing up. We’ll name things that we’re emotionally attached to. We’ll name our toys, we’ll name our first pet then we might name our first car when it comes along and then we’ll start to come to name our children as they come along, and then ultimately we’ll name our businesses. When it comes to naming a brand for the first time that task usually falls to the business owner. Most business owners will approach this task in the same way that they approach any other task when naming anything else throughout their lives. They’ll approach it with that sentimentality point of view and I’m not saying sentimentality doesn’t play a role. I mean if the business owner is emotionally attached to the business and there is that sentimentality there then they’re far more likely to get behind the business but when it comes to naming a brand it’s all about connecting with the audience with who they are, with what they want, and that sentimentality doesn’t come into play. Nobody cares about who the owner’s dog was or what street they first lived in. If the business owner takes that sentimentality into naming their business then it misses the opportunity to connect with who the audience is and that ultimately is the role of the brand name.
**What Is the Goal of a Brand Name?**
The brand name has multiple goals but the main goal that it has is Memorability. The brand needs to be remembered and that name plays an important role in whether or not the brand will be remembered. But memorability is not the only task that the brand name has, the brand name plants a seed in the mind of the audience so that the audience remembers the brand but that seed then needs to grow and that grows into the image and the position that the brand wants to own in the mind of the audience.
**What Makes a Great Brand?**
As I’ve already covered, it’s not sentimentality and if you’re able to remove the task from the business owner or if the business owner can step away from that sentimentality then the outcome is far more likely to be effective but there are two main characteristics of a great brand name. The first as we’ve already covered is Memorability. It needs to be memorable that is the job of the brand name. If the brand name is forgotten or if the audience cannot remember what the brand is called then the brand name has failed in its primary task. It needs to be remembered, if it’s catchy and that adds to the memorability then great but that is the task of the brand name. It needs to be remembered. The second characteristic is that it needs to be strategic. It needs to help to solidify a position in the mind of the audience and solidify that image of how the brand wants to be remembered. If those two characteristics are included in the brand name then it’s well on the way to being a great name.
**Brand Name Ideas & Examples**
**Founder Brand Name**
This is where the brand is named after the founder and there are a couple of very famous examples here in both McDonald’s and Ford McDonald’s named by the McDonald’s brother and Ford named by Henry Ford.
**Descriptive Brand Name**
This is where the brand name describes what the company does. An example here would be the Coffee Club or ToysRus.
**Aligned Brand Name**
This is where the brand name uses associations or metaphors to align with an idea. I’ll give you an example here, Amazon aligns with the vastness of the Amazon jungle and Virgin aligns with that idea of new and innovative.
**Invented Brand Name**
The invented brand name has no real meaning or association. Essentially, it’s a figment of somebody’s imagination and the word doesn’t exist. A couple of examples here would be Google or Pixar or Xerox.
**Lexical Brand Names**
These are where related words are combined to enhance memorability. You might have two words with the same first letter. An example of this would be Dunkin’ Donuts or Krispy Kreme.
**Acronym Brand Name**
To be honest I’m not a big fan of this brand name type and it’s not something that I would recommend any of my clients do but that’s not to say that it can’t work. There are some very famous examples of acronym brand names such as BMW, MTV, IBM, etc.
**Geographical Brand Name**
Essentially, these brands are aligning themselves to a flag or an origin from where they’ve come and that usually comes with a certain type of reputation. An example would be Singapore Airlines or Swiss Brand.
**How do You Choose a Brand Name**
I’m going to give you a six-step process that you can use to choose or find a great brand name for your own business or your client.
**Create Your Buyer Persona**
As I mentioned earlier, the brand name is not about the business owner and it’s not about their sentimentality. It’s about the audience, who they are, what they are looking for, what they want, and when you understand the image that you want to create in the mind of your audience that’s when you can create an effective brand name but the first step is understanding who that audience is.
**Define Your Differentiator**
This is the strategic aspect of the brand name. If the position that you want to own in the mind of your audience is included or associated with the brand name then the chances of your audience remembering your brand for that image or for that position is significantly increased. Make sure you define your differentiator that you know the position that you want to take in the mind of your audience before naming your brand.
**Brainstorm Keywords**
Now that you know who the audience is and you know the difference you want to own in their mind and be known for in the marketplace now you can start to gather ideas for your brand name. This needs to be exhaustive and there is no bad idea at this stage you want to include every single word that can be even loosely associated with your audience or the difference that you want to own in their mind. Take the time here to exhaust out every single idea possible in both keywords and brand name ideas. Take your time with this exhausted and go as far as you possibly can.
**Integrate, Amalgamate, and Consolidate**
This step is dependent on the previous step being exhaustive in that you have taken the time to get as many ideas and as many keywords because here you’re going to merge, truncate, extend and push the boundaries in terms of what’s possible. You’re going to merge words, chop words up, and you’re going to create something out of nothing. The more time you take with this the more chances you have of coming up with something new and something unique. Involve a heavy dose of creativity here, take the time to integrate, amalgamate, and consolidate.
**Quality Filter**
Chances are if you’ve done this correctly you are going to have a lot of crap to remember. I said earlier that there is no bad idea early on and you want to exhaust as many avenues as possible but when you get to step five where you’re going to have a lot of crap and you’re going to need to filter all of that through some quality control and the quality control that you want to filter it through is to ask is it memorable? Is it strategic? Is it concise? If you’re able to filter it through that quality control and it comes out the other side and t take all of those boxes then you well on the way.
**Real-World Application**
This is where you apply your brand name into the real world. You stack it up alongside the competitors within your industry and the global brand of the world to see how it fits and if it feels right for your brand, you can also put this into submission statements, vision statements to see how it fits within your industry and how it fits for your brand.
Personal Branding Examples to Inspire Your Brand
Brands today attempt to be more human so that they can resonate with their audience on a human level but when it comes to personal branding, all of the elements that we develop in a business brand to be more human and to resonate with their customers on a human level already exist within a personal brand. Everything from your expertise to your personality, to your tone of voice, and the language that you use all of this exists within your brand. It’s just a matter of nurturing that personal brand to develop it into an asset that you can use. In this article, I’m going to give you five examples of normal people who have done exactly that so that you can take some inspiration to develop your brand.
**Gary Vaynerchuk**
Gary Vaynerchuk is an absolute beast of a personal brand and it’s not just because of what he does and how he does it, it’s because he is so intentional about the way he does it. He is a massive preacher of a brand and the value of brand both personal brand and business brands. He knows exactly what he’s doing. Of course, everything that he brings to the table is raw and he gives a lot of value, he brings a lot of personality and authenticity to the table. He is just being himself for the most part but he is also very intentional about doing. He is very aware of what’s going on around him in terms of what’s going on in the social world, in terms of what people are talking about, what is trending, what’s not trending and he brings all of that to the table but he brings it to the table in a very unique way. There is no shortage of entrepreneurs or marketers out there giving their opinion but the way Gary Vaynerchuk brings his knowledge and his expertise and his personality to the table are what endears him to his fan. Another thing that I like about Gary is where he’s come from. He comes from the wine industry and he created 1000 videos on YouTube long before I ever knew who he was and he turned his father’s three million dollar wine business into a 60million dollar business. He’s coming from a place of real experience and he’s bringing all of that to the table. It just also goes to show the value of a personal brand that you can pivot from the wine industry into branding entrepreneurship and marketing and still build successful businesses doing that. I love this example of personal branding and Gary is an absolute beast to look towards.
**Elon Musk**
Elon Musk is a real modern man of mystery and he has been likened to Tony Stark (Iron Man) as a real-life version of him because you know he’s just got this mystic about him. He is such a smart individual and he has these huge visions. If you think about what his vision is with Spacex, he wants to bring the human civilization to mars so that we’re a multi-planet species. I mean is there any vision in the world that’s bigger than that throughout any personal brand in the world and if that’s not impressive enough for you then he’s also the founder of Paypal and he’s the CEO of Tesla, one of the most modern brands in the world. He’s got a very active Twitter account. He’s got over a 40million followers on Twitter and he’s always on Twitter sharing his thoughts, his ideas, interacting with other celebrities or political leaders. He is this real man of mystery and he has everybody intrigued about what he’s going to do next or say next and he’s very intentional about keeping his brand alive and keeping in front of the audience that is so intrigued by him.
**Tony Robbins**
Tony Robbins has been in the public eye since the 80s. He wrote a book called unlimited power back in 1987 that catapulted him into the limelight and since then he’s been traveling around the world doing self-help webinars and self-help coaching and helping people be the best version of themselves. At this stage now he’s helped hundreds of thousands of people to overcome adversity and to achieve success within their lives. He doesn’t just do this on a mass scale with big seminars he does this on a one-on-one version as well. He’s coached people like Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey to Kim Kardashian and Conor Mcgregor. Still to this day at the age of 60, he’s still traveling around the world helping people and he’s still very much in the limelight and building his brand.
**Chris Doe**
The first three examples were more household names. They were names that you would expect most people to know but Chris is an example of a personal brand that has been developed within a specific niche that is designed. Chris is pretty famous within the Graphic Design Community and he originally achieved success with his agency. They won many awards. He’s lectured all over the world and he achieved all of this before he turned his attention towards the future. The future went in there and plugged the gap that was much needed to give designers a bit of direction in terms of their business ideas, business processes when it comes to design. There was a real gap in the market for somebody to go in there and do that and that is what the future has done and that is what Chris Doe had done. He’s built out his brand as much as they’ve built out the future brand as well. He continues to give value every single day on YouTube channel, Instagram channel, and Linkedin channel. What I like about Chris is that he is very accessible. He’s on social media interacting with people. That is a great way to build your brand to be accessible, to be on the platform where your audience is engaging with them and offering valuable content. Chris is a great example of a personal brand that has been built within a very specific niche.
**Charlie Marie**
Sticking with the design space, Charlie Marie is another personal brand that has been built out within the graphic design space. She’s half Kiwi, half British. She’s living out of Valencia and she’s just doing her thing. She’s a designer. She’s bringing that value, that experience to the table and she’s showing up time and again for her audience. She’s built an absolute solid following on YouTube to nearly 200,000 followers at this stage but what I love about Charlie Marie and her brand is just how refreshingly normal she is. She brings her unique personality to the table. She’s not trying to be anything that she’s not and she’s just there being consistent time and again. It just goes to show that you can build a personal brand without having designs or ideas about relocating the human race to another planet you can just bring the expertise to the table and your unique self to the table and just be consistent.
There are some household names there and you’re not about to go and compete with Elon Must in terms of relocating the human race to Mars. However, there are some very niche examples in there as well and I wanted to give some contrast there to show you that personal branding is not about becoming a celebrity. You’re not trying to necessarily become a celebrity if you’re building your brand. You’re trying to take the time to invest in a reputation that already exists. Your brand is already there. It’s just a case of whether or not you take the time to develop that out and although there might be a lot of people out there talking about what you’re talking about, there is only one version of you. You have your unique personality, you have your tone of voice, you have your unique idea about what your industry is about, and your unique philosophy. If you bring that to the table and you take the time to develop out what your ideas are and start creating content and giving value to your audience then over time that reputation will grow and your brand will grow.
Branding Tips to Grow Your Brand
Branding often gets tied up in semantics and you know that’s the debate of what branding means, what marketing means, and what branding versus marketing means. When you have professionals debating so heavily about what one thing means to the other then it’s no surprise that entrepreneurs and business owners are confused about what they need but when you take a step back from it, it’s pretty simple. Branding is the art of shaping the meaning of your business in the mind of your audience to ultimately influence how they feel and ultimately their decisions. When you look at branding through that lens then branding decisions become a lot easier. With that idea and with this article let me give you seven branding tips that you can use to shape the image and the meaning in the mind of your audience and ultimately their decision to go with your brand.
**Give Them Meaning**
To double down on what I said before we don’t brand our businesses so that they look good. We don’t brand our businesses so that we can have a website or to put some graphics on the side of a van or in a shop. We brand our businesses to give our audience some context as to what our brand should mean to them including what value we’re going to bring, what difference we’re going to make in their lives. We can’t assume that they’re going to know what our brand should mean to them. We need to give them that meaning.
**Define Your Brand Traits**
Most businesses go to market unprepared. They get themselves their logo, their website, and then they go into their tactics whether that’s social media marketing, Facebook ads, or Google ads and that’s how they approach the market. They don’t have too much understanding or consideration for who their audience is, what they like, how they connect, and what type of personality that they have but before you can resonate with who your audience is you need to understand them and you need to understand what they’re attracted to, what kind of characteristics and traits they’re drawn to. When you understand that about your audience and you understand what role you want your brand to play in their lives then you can use characteristics and traits to associate your brand with that meaning and ultimately resonate with who your audience is. Define what traits you want your brand aligned with. Write them down and build your brand with those traits in mind.
**Identify the Emotional Association**
We all believe that we’re rational creatures that we all understand what’s going on. We take all of the information that’s in front of us and we make logical decisions but that’s not how our brain works. We make emotional decisions. We are emotional beings. We justify with that logic that we think we make our decisions on but we make our decision based on emotions. Therefore you must understand what emotion you want your brand to evoke from your audience and what emotion you want your brand associated with. It might be hope, it might be exciting, and it might be a sense of achievement, a sense of desire to succeed in life. What kinds of emotions are going to trigger the feeling that you want your audience to have and how are you going to align your brand with those emotions? You must understand what emotion you want your brand associated with and keep those emotions in mind when you’re communicating.
**Craft Image Shaping Messages**
Business owners and Entrepreneurs tend to invest more in visuals than they do in messaging and copy but the reality is that the most influence a brand has is through its messaging and copy. You need to understand the image that you want to own in the mind of your audience and then shape your message and copy to provide that image in the mind of your audience. I can’t stress this enough and this is something that I spend a lot of time with my clients with. It’s with that understanding of the importance of copy and messaging and how influential copy and messaging is in shaping the mind of your audience.
**Design the Experience**
Whether or not somebody buys from your brand or somebody goes from being a prospect to a customer is largely influenced by the experience that they have with your brand. Most businesses don’t understand this. Most businesses don’t take the time to map out and design an experience but if you want to influence your audience then you need to design that experience that they’re going to go through, everything from your logo to your website, your messaging, your shop front or any collateral that you might have. What is the e-commerce experience that you bring them through? What kind of email drip series do they get from you? What kind of follow-up service do you have? What kind of after-sales service or customer service that you have? There are all part of the overall brand experience and if you don’t take the time to map out that journey that they’re on and design that experience then they won’t have an experience that you want your brand aligned with. Understand the journey that they’re on, understand the experience and the feeling that you want them to have, and design the experience to give them that feeling.
**Earn Trust with Value**
The days of push marketing and direct response marketing have had their heyday. I’m not saying that they’re irrelevant or that they don’t work and in fact, if you’re going to have a cohesive strategy then they should be part of that strategy but they have had their heyday and today if you don’t have a strategy that is about giving value then you’re missing out. You need to be able to connect with your audience and resonate with your audience. Even if your brand is selling a commodity you can still do that by giving them value through the context in which they will use that commodity. Today giving that value is paramount. You need to connect with your audience. You need to resonate with them and you need to earn trust. If you give value by helping them along in overcoming their challenges on a day-to-day basis then they will remember you and you will earn trust.
**Be Real**
There’s nothing too much that you have to do here within this tip. It’s just about stripping back those superlatives and using language that sounds conversational and not trying to put on a facade and be something that you’re not. If you think about how we connect with other people well we tend to push back from people who put a facade on and pretend to be something that we’re not. We tend to gravitate towards those who feel real who speak to us like we’re humans and don’t try to put on a façade or pretend to be somebody that they’re not. If you’re able to take that into business then your audience will feel that. They’ll feel it in the copy that you use in the engagement that you have on social media and they will have a soft spot for your brand. Take the time to strip everything back and be as real as you can be.
There’s no shortage of articles on how to market your business or how to build your brand. It can be overwhelming but if you take the time to step back and understand that branding your business is all about creating context and meaning for your audience then you can filter everything through that. Every social post you put out there, every article you write, every email that you write can be filtered through the idea that you are providing meaning and context to your audience over time. They will position your brand in their mind that will be positioned based on an image that you want to own in their mind and ultimately that’s how they will see your brand.
Experiential Marketing
Experiential marketing is another one of those marketing terms that tend to get cast to the side a little bit and it is understandable. There are so many different marketing terms out there, a lot of them do tend to cross over with one another and experiential marketing does sound like one of those terms that some marketer created because they didn’t like the term event marketing or they didn’t like the term brand experience but experiential marketing is its tactic and it’s a legitimate tactic that you can take into your marketing strategy so that you can put your brand on the map.
**What is Experiential Marketing?**
It’s a form of unique marketing that allows the brand to engage with the audience in a way they wouldn’t normally do. These experiences could be a pop-up Kiosk or a test drive with a limited edition car or an interactive billboard or some way that the audience can engage with the brand in a truly unique way. The impact that this has is it leaves a long-lasting impression on the person in that experience and it is shown to drive brand loyalty and brand awareness. If you pull it off correctly then you can earn media exposure as well. You can earn some PR to go with that. It is an effective way to drive brand awareness and to raise the profile of your brand if you can come up with a creative way to give your audience a unique experience.
**Why Use Experiential Marketing?**
The first reason to use experiential marketing is to get attention. You’re doing something completely out of the ordinary, something left of center and what that does is it provides a sense of uniqueness that provides that real sense of novelty to the audience that they haven’t seen before. They haven’t engaged with a brand in a way like this before and that leaves a long-lasting impression that will keep the brand top of mind for a long time. The other reason that you would use experiential branding is to create an experience that will align with the position that you want to own in the mind of your audience. Let’s say you have a brand that you want to align with energy then you might create a brand experience or an experiential marketing campaign where you can give that audience some kind of the hit of adrenaline. That is how you would align your brand with that feeling and with that experience and help to solidify that position in the mind of your audience that you are a brand that is aligned with this term.
**What Makes Experiential Marketing Effective?**
It gives us that human connection that we crave. We’re always looking for human connection whether it’s with other people or it’s with the brands that we do business with. 74% of consumers said that if they had a unique experience with a brand that they would be far more likely to engage in that brand. That is one of the reasons that it is so effective and if you think about how we share with other people, we tend to share experiences that we’ve had in our lives, our friends and families, and if you have a unique experience with a brand you’re far more likely to share that experience with somebody else let’s say sharing an experience about an advertisement that you saw that is one of the unique angles of experiential marketing that evolves from this experience itself. People go on to tell their friends and family about it and that’s then picked up by the media, might be picked up by TV or Radio or newspaper and that gives you that added exposure.
**Is it Experiential Marketing or Experiential Branding?**
The most common term is an experiential marketing and that’s all about gaining attention. It’s all about giving potential customers a unique experience. They position the brand in a very unique position in their mind and they associate with that brand with a particular experience but it can also be within the realm of branding as well maybe post-sale. You might have an on-boarding process that will give your audience a unique experience that will make them feel glad that they chose this brand that might be in a form of a unique email or handwritten letter or something to give them that sense of novelty that they are experiencing something truly unique and that ties into the whole brand experience and the experience that you want your audience to have with your brand. It’s both experiential marketing and experiential branding.
**How to Use Experiential Marketing?**
Experiential marketing can be astronomically expensive and I don’t use that word lightly. I’ll show you in the example next exactly what I’m talking about there but it doesn’t have to be that expensive and involve big budgets. If you set your goal as giving your audience or customers a unique experience that they will remember your brand by then that is what you want to achieve with experiential marketing. Think about your audience, the experience that you want your brand aligned with, and think about how you can give your audience an experience like that.
**Experiential Marketing Examples**
Back in 2012, Red Bull ran an experiential marketing campaign called Stratus where they sent an Austrian Skydiver up to the edge of the atmosphere and got him to jump from a balloon and broke the world record. This was an example of an experiential marketing campaign. There was nothing physical or tangible about the campaign that the consumer experienced but 8million people watched this live through the various streaming channels that Red Bull had and what it did was it created massive PR and massive media exposure. Although 8million people watched it live they had over 200 million views and in the next 6 months sales rose by over 7%. This is a perfect example of how experiential marketing becomes experiential branding. It’s all about leaving a unique memory in the mind of the audience and that memory is part of the experience and that experience is linked to the position that the brand wants to own. The position that the brand wants to own in this case is extreme. Red Bull owned the word extreme in the minds of their audience and those 8million people who watch that live will remember that moment for the rest of their lives. It goes to show impactful experiential branding can be.
Small businesses don’t have a budget to send people into space but they don’t have to. Remember what I said before it’s all about giving your audience a unique experience and that experience should align with how you want them to feel about your brand. The more creative you get with this the more chance you have of leaving a truly unique impact and a truly unique memory in the mind of your audience. Forget about a big budget for a second. It’s all about putting yourself into the shoes of your customer and understanding what experience you want them to have and what image you want them to align with your brand and coming up with a creative way to give them that experience so they will remember you and align your brand with that memory.
Life is kind of like a party. You invite a lot of people, some leave early, some stay all night, some laugh with you, some laugh at you, and some show up really late. But in the end, after the fun, there are a few who stay to help you clean up the mess. And most of the time, they aren't even the ones who made the mess. These people are your true friends in life. They are the only ones who matter.
If someone will talk smack to you about someone else, they’ll talk smack about you to others. Stay away from people like that. Thier friendship is harmful no matter how elusive it may look at the moment. Friendships should help you grow into a better version of you. Associate with those who have good influence on you.
Don’t spend so much time thinking about what other people think of you (they care more about themselves than you). Spend more time discovering yourself and loving/accepting who you are instead of wasting time doing things to get their approval.
That, and… When you thought that (whatever drama/comment/snarky remark etc) was about you, it wasn’t really about you. It was about them. Feeling better now? 😊 Good! Now go live a great life.
@Jeffsmith
