NetArgument - Online Skills!

Google Adwords Voucher and Top Placement Scams

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:36:00 PST

In the past 3-4 years, Google has sent me 20 vouchers worth Rs5000/- each every quarter, every year. I have allowed them go down the drain, and have no regrets at all. I am not the only person receiving them, Google is kind enough to send them to every X, Y, Z in this industry, some of whom it dubiously calls Authorized! Whenever, I have advertised, that I have vouchers to dispose, I have got calls from scammers form different part of the world. Some have even confided they are only using vouchers to run campaign on regular basis. I myself have observed, campaigns running on vouchers seldom goes beyond it. They make all the righteous claim that they are a new advertiser, but hey where you disappear after that?? I am strongly advocating completely doing away with vouchers. I doubt the percentage of genuine advertisers running campaign on free voucher is more than 10. Google Adwords is a reasonably old program, I have little reason to believe, most advertisers haven’t used this...

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Wikipedia: The New Age Porn Magazine!

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:51:00 PST

“But I heard it is an encyclopedia!”. You heard right, but that is how every Porn site, who are serious about their business masks themselves. Didn’t Jimbo tell you his Bomis.com was actually somewhat adult in content and not porn! In a typical wikipedia style I would first define what is porn, before arriving at any kind of judgement. As per dictionary.com obscene writings, drawings, photographs, or the like, especially those having little or no artistic merit. :::Ramesh, you got it wrong here! It says “having little or no artistic merit” but wikipedia has immense artistic value. You should first get your perception of art right. When you search Michael Arrington on google the first link is wikipedia article on him, which tells you The Fucking incidence of his life at great length. Had it been porn our elder brother Google would not have indexed it at all. So, your perception is entirely wrong, because what is art can’t be called Porn. See, how we Wikipedian, promoted an obscure...

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Online Encyclopedias: Wikipedia Still Rules!

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:41:00 PST

An encyclopedia is must for first hand information on anything we want to learn. We frequently come across various terms and concepts which we are not familiar with and then try to get some information about it. For over a century people have relied upon Britannica Encyclopedia, which for many is still the Gold standard in this field. However, the ease of search on internet has spoilt our habit and we have sacrificed accuracy of knowledge in favor of what satisfy us fast and easily. To fulfill this need of fast and free content on the internet were born several online versions of encyclopedia. First one which I could trace was MSN Encarta, which though was not free, effectively, took the attention off from Britannica Encyclopedia. MSN Encarta closed completely in 2009. First genuine attempt to create truly free encyclopedia on the web came in the form of Nupedia, which reincarnated as Wikipedia in 2001. This open source, free to read and edit encyclopedia has more or...

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10 important things to do immediately after starting a BlogSpot blog

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:09:00 PDT

10 things that will supercharge your blog. Immediately, after starting your blogspot blog, you require some customization, which gives it professional look and also helps it perform well on search engines. Remove/Hide the Top Blogger bar. Add the Following line of code by going to Edit HTML (Expand Widget): #navbar-iframe{height:0px; visibility:hidden; display:none} body{ margin-top:0px; position:relative; top:2px} which should look like this after adding the code: <b:skin><![CDATA[/* ----------------------------------------------- Blogger Template Style Name: Simple ----------------------------------------------- */ #navbar-iframe{height:0px; visibility:hidden; display:none} body{ margin-top:0px; position:relative; top:2px} Split the Header into two columns . Although, blogger has launched many designer templates, none till date, has split header by...

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1+9Bold Ideas for Writing Google Adwords Ad Text/Ad Copy that Performs!

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:47:00 PDT

In 2006, I started using “Keyword?” in Ad Text Headlines. It was my original bold decision, which many initially termed Bizarre! I had not seen anybody doing this before. However, after six months, I could find many ads written in the same way, on different search result pages of Google. Later, I learnt, Google customer support staff are recommending it. It was a quick fire solution for CTR enhancement, that works for every campaign. Lesson to be learnt- You can’t call an Ad, bizarre, till stats prove it. Since then, I have made it a norm, to test at least one ad text, in every campaign, which you may term as a bold idea. I am sharing with you some of them that has become part of my ad arsenal. Space before exclamation(!) Mark: I seldom use exclamation like, Now!. Instead, I prefer to write, Now !, unless I am compelled by the space limitation. It emphasizes, your exclamation mark. Long Display URL: Write Long display URL to draw attention towards your ad. Character...

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fb_xd_fragment, Fix for Blogger powered Blogs & Websites

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:13:00 PDT

While going through analytics last year I found a large number of urls with query string ?fb_xd_fragment=. While going to this link in a browser, I found, it displays the page for a while and then it goes white. It has been a big problem for a lot of websites, which uses FB Java SDK for like buttons. Someone, in facebook developers' forum recommended using the following code just before the </body> tag to solve this problem.  <script> document.getElementsByTagName('html')[0].style.display='block'; </script>  This fixed the problem for a long time, till it started once again, when I replaced the like button with, Like+Send button. A large number of pages, in analytics were showing the same query string with same problem. I was losing a big chunk of my traffic. I inspected once again if code installed has got corrupted, and hence pasted it there once again. It...

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Baba Ramdev, Anna Hazare, Poonam Pandey… Twitter Trending Hazards!

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 11:35:00 PDT

Twitter Trending Hazards Twitter trending is an effective way to get more attention by throwing your weight into a trending topic. A lot of people in your timeline talks about it and you too get tempted to throw your weight into it. Getting carried away by this stimulus may bring embarrassment for you, if you fail to understand the sensitivity of the issue. Impulsive tweets carry heat with them. The heat of negative emotions like jealousy, greed, hatred and anything you always wanted to hide from the public. Twitter trending and also many other similar situations on twitter may expose your negative side, and you just can’t take it back. Other similar situation is, when you are venting anger on some famous brand or personalities to get more attention. Gone are the days, when journalists reported an anonymous person abused some famous person, while surveying. You are living in a completely transparent world where both side knows Who is Who! Live Examples Suhel Seth & Others Indian...

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Google Display Ad Templates Vs. Custom Uploaded Image Ad - A Comparison - Which delivers the best Result?

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:19:00 PDT

Template Display Ad Advantage Google has added a big inventory of display ad formats, in your Google Adwords account over the past 2 years. There were several barriers in trying image ad earlier. First, you needed to have it designed by yourself. Second, you need some technical knowhow to get it uploaded correctly. Flash files require click tags and size has to be compatible with given formats. Third, you need to pay the designer, who may not understand what idea to convey, and would have to stick to what she has given you for a long period. Google Display ad templates, removes all the above barriers. It has some definite advantages over traditional image ads. You get a large number of templates for various categories. You can choose and filter out them to meet your requirements. Your designer won’t give you so many choices. When it comes to ads, more the variety, better the outcome. You can test several combination of text, font, color and background. Each gives different...

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Failed Ad Diagnosis - Why Some Ads Fail to Produce the Desired Conversion Rate and How to Avoid Them

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:50:00 PDT

Ads that do not produce conversion has Failed. It has failed to acquire attention. It has failed to acquire attention of the desired audience. There are several reasons of this failure. Some you can figure out after failing many times. Some are not so obvious and we cannot theorize on them. We can only eliminate the ads that fail and learn not to write the ads we know will fail. My experience tells, some ads will fail even before they start running and some successful ones have common characteristics. It is through this sense that I create ads which I think will serve better than previous ones. While writing ads for Google Adwords, we all rely on this sense, which develops through experience alone. Key to develop this sense is to study the ads and just try to figure out why one is success and other is failure. Let us talk about the ads that fail, and learn to avoid them. Again from my experience I would share some characteristics of ads that push your conversion rate downward. Ad...

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Writing Adtexts to Boost Conversion of Your Google Adwords Campaign – Ad Writing Strategy!

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Mon, 09 May 2011 13:04:00 PDT

Some adtexts convert better than others. Some ads have better CTR than other. To get optimum CTR and Conversion, You need to continuously test ads for performance. Some phrases do the trick, experiment them as much you can. From my experience with managing vast number of campaigns I can tell you what works best, rather what has worked best for me and my clients. While creating adtexts, it is always a good idea to do some searches for keywords you are targeting to see what people are already writing. Replicating the same would be a poor idea. you have to cut through this clutter. There are some basic rules which you should learn first and there are some advanced strategies, which I would discuss later. some of the points that you should always follow are: If you are writing for search, don’t ever ignore the keywords. use them as much as you can. Use them in Headline, text line & Display URL. More keywords you use, more attention you get. Use at least 3 adtexts in an...

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10 Ways to Quickly reduce the Bounce Rate on Landing Page

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Mon, 02 May 2011 13:45:00 PDT

When bounce rate is too high, you need to reduce it as soon as possible. There are some tested methods which brings down the bounce rate without any need to scratch your head. 1. Increase the font size of text. If it was 10, make it 11 or 12 or even 13. Higher font size surely reduces the bounce rate. You can increase them till it start looking odd. This technique works like a magic. Try it! 2. Paste a beautiful picture in the header Paste a beautiful picture in the header.Preferably a smiling woman or a child. 3. Post with a picture Post with a picture generally have lower bounce rate. Grab something relevant and if not possible post something beautiful. 4. Post a video on the page A demonstration video would be great, but if you are doing a crisis management of bounce rate, choose anything from youtube. 5. Rotate a message near header A marquee tagged message relevant to the page announcing something would serve the purpose. 6. Increase the size of tabs Tabs with suitable size and...

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Google Analytics is the Google Adwords Conversion Booster- Ignoring it may prove too costly

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Mon, 02 May 2011 12:58:00 PDT

Try to know your prospects as much as you can. Conversion through off the site optimization has a limit. You can break this limit only by on site optimization. Google Analytics gives you enough data to profile your visitors. There are many more tools to give you more data on this. However, data are useless unless you harness actionable insight from them. Google analytics throws unique visitor, returning visitor, bounce rate, geographical distribution of traffic and much more than you can crunch. You need to make a profile of your visitor regarding, what they are looking for, how they navigate, why they leave and how you can address them in better way. Whenever, looking into the stats of analytics always try to make a picture of your visitor into your mind and then try becoming one and try navigating your site according to their persona. It will give you the feel of what your site lacks. Too much of data are not desirable, you have just too many of them. You have some free analytics...

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Twitter Social Media Meetup in Delhi - 50th Social Media Breakfast Group Meeting in Delhi

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 06:02:00 PDT

50th edition of Social Media Meetup Group, Social Media Breakfast was held today(April, 19th, 2011). The meetup group founded 50 weeks ago, is a fortnight short of reaching its annual anniversary. Commendable feet! A without fail, weekly meetup, where people come in to share thoughts on social media, also get excellent breakfast free of cost. I have been part of most of them. Today's gathering discussed about the future course of this meeting. I and several regular attendees have enjoyed the hospitality of the host Simarpreet Singh, throughout the year, and he has agreed to take it forward in future too. Simarpreet shared ideas behind the formation of this group and also how he would be adding some other dimensions to it. Roughly, a year ago he had used meetup to promote his new launch twitsnaps.com, inviting famous twitter personalities to share ideas on its usage, as panelists. This time, however, he declined the possibility of this becoming a similar kind of session in future, at...

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How Adwords has changed from 2006 to 2011

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 15:18:00 PDT

Google Adwords has changed a lot, since I started using it for marketing. In 2006 everything was simple from interface to managing. Google kept on introducing new features and things became more complex thereafter. People were shy of targeting content network. I remember, clients used to tell specifically – No content targeting. Now, scenario has changed and people do want to see their sites on premium content listings. Those who were targeting content initially were very fortunate people. Lesser advertisers targeted it. Still lesser monitored them closely, and very few knew the real magic of this network. Now the scenario has changed completely with many advertisers monitoring it and in many segments there is nearly war for impressions. Publisher network too has gone smarter, they too monitor the result very closely and knows the optimal layout to make the battle fiercer. Search Targeting too has evolved with idea of match types and adtext writing becoming more common than before....

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Impact of Adgroup Restructuring on Conversions

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:39:00 PST

We tend to break keywords into themes. Its a good practice. However, an optimum level exists, where further breaking may result into decrease in conversion rate, which might result into negative ROI. We often break Adgroups into Themes and microthemes. You can break adroups into as many themes as you can. People tend to think, breaking Adgroups into themes increases Quality Score and hence decreases cost per conversion. However, it is not always true. It may increase your quality score but may also decrease your conversion rate. Further, Google's system does not have any Adgroup level Quality Score. System recognises only Keywords and adtexts. However, a pseudo quality score does come into existence at adgroup level, because of this very set up and assuming its existence is beneficial, but tighter theme does not enhance it. Consider a case, where:ADG= Theme1 + Theme2 + Theme3. ; Now breaking it into, ADG1, ADG2, ADG3 for individual themes, would increase the frequency of ad delivery....

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How to Deduct TDS for Google Adwords Billing

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 11:03:00 PDT

Advertisers always ask this question, how to deduct TDS of Google. Google's interface doesn't have any provision for deducting TDS. However, google to abide by Indian Laws has started posting about its PAN and other procedures related to the process. In fact you cannot deduct TDS of Google, rather, you sall have to pay on behalf of google first. TDS rate is 1.13% of the invoice amount and it needs to be deposited into Google's PAN number first. According to legal provisions in India, you need to deduct the TDS of the invoice amount and deposit it into the PAN of the service provider. In this particular case Adwords advertisers are required to deposit the TDS amount into Google's PAN (Permanent Account Number) AACCG0527D, and obtain certificate of the same. You need to send this certificate in original to the following address, accompanied with a cover letter to claim it, mentioning your personal and adwords account's details: Google Accounting Team Google India Pvt. Ltd. Block 1,...

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Why twitter should focus on Tweetups?

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 06:00:00 PDT

Someone has a very interesting query (via mail) regarding my last post, Why and How to use Meetups for Branding and Selling - Analysis. The gist of which is:Why Twitter should promote Tweetups, when it is solely designed for conversation, and the term doesn't mean meeting at a venue. Even a group of people having conversation on twitter is called a tweetup. ...... what kind of changes you have in mind that twitter failed to do?Well said! Tweetup does mean conversation on twitter itself. Many people use this term as such. Many don't. Let us not engage in this wrangle. I have used this term for meeting at a venue. Also, if meetup keeps on growing the way it is, tweetup in future might only mean what you have said. Regarding, how twitter might have promoted tweetups into its interface, it is the job of Developers and Thinkers who are behind twitter. They are very much capable, no question about that. Twitter is an Original Concept, I have no question on that too. However, there are many...

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Why and How to use Meetups for Branding and Selling - Analysis

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 12:27:00 PDT

Did You say tweetup? Looks old now! You don't need to be on twitter to meet new people. Twitter doesn't have a dedicated application for organizing tweetups. Its new interface adds new features, which smells like inspiration from facebook. Twitter doesn't seem to be serious about its greatest selling point, Tweetups. Had it been, the new interface would must have some applications for it. Does it matter though, when you have cool site like meetup.com, which is all set to steal the concept of tweetup to re-brand it as Meetup? This change is happening silently and steadily, people no more say they organized a tweetup, rather they organize Meetup. Meetup does not allow you to make friends like any other networking site, and this is what makes it different . Anyway, it is not like other networking websites. It is about managing meet ups based on interest and locality. You just need to browse groups and find out what is best suited to your interest, need and accessibility. It helps...

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Communication on Internet – What makes an Impact?

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 13:10:00 PDT

Communication on internet is both art and science. You can be very articulate presenting facts and figures, some of us are naturally gifted in this . However, on internet you need to stand out of the crowd to get your voice heard. Difference between online and offline communication is that you are not addressing a group of people who have already lent their ears to you. You shall have to tell repeatedly why they should give you their precious attention. There are millions of pages on internet and they just are pages, technically they are live but practically a dead one, because people come, smell and leave. Why so? because, they can smell the rotten egg you have cooked from different web pages already circulating around the internet. Originality, is the bottom-line of effective communication on internet, and if your blog, facebook, twitter updates lack it, any articulate concealment is an attempt in futility. You search on google for some product, information, problem etc., etc., and...

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Google Certified Partner - The new face of GAP

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 12:21:00 PDT

Google has retired the old certification program - Google advertising Professional - and in its place has come the new Google Certified Partner/Adwords Qualified Individual. They have also retired the Qualified Company Program. No minimum spent is required to become a Qualified Individual and only $10,000 spent in 90 days is required to become GCP. Since, there would be no Qualified company, so everybody would be on the same plane. Because, privileges that were given to QGAP, would be available to GCP, in that way, Google has actually raised the bar. For becoming Qualified company, minimum requisite was at least 2 GAPs taking exam for the same MCC, however, for becoming GCP, there is no such requirement. I personally feel this was done for guys like me, who are managing big spent individually, so I welcome this move. Another change was awarding of certificate in pdf format, which I have attached above. It also has a numerical code in the bottom (which I have removed in the snap). Last...

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Google Instant - It will skew the Traffic towards Shorter Phrases!

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 23:00:00 PDT

Google has recently Launched Google Instant. To know what is google Instant visit http://www.google.com/landing/instant/. This feature is not available to everyone and everytime. If you are lucky, you may notice it while searching. Google won't need you to hit the search button to deliver result, rather it starts returning results as soon as you type in search bar. So if I type - Google Adwords Resellers India. It will serve me 4 SERPs. first for Google, then for Google Adwords, then Google Adwords resellers and finally Google Adwords Resellers India. Google ads too will change simultaneously. So, you may see sudden spurt in impressions on keywords which are shorter. This is going to add a whole new dimension in Search advertising. Here intent does not match the served result. While, typing, the person who is searching is searching for Google Adwords resellers India, and so the other SERPs, are accruing impressions, where people have very less propensity to click. Of course, if...

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Optimizing the Conversion Funnel

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:21:00 PDT

Landing Page is where a visitor lands after clicking an ad. She has certain assumptions, which she has made about you reading the adtext. If she cannot find what she expected, she may get turned off, or if she finds something more exciting than expectations, she takes a step forward . There are many moments of truths, from adtexts to landing page to thank you page. You must woo her at every stage in the funnel, asking her to wait, there is something more! The tesed and proven driving force in a funnel is the counter-intuitive nature of your presentation. If you promise a package for Rs7000/yr in your ad & she gets 2 years offer instead on landing page for the same amount, she is bound to get crazy for it! If your ad says, you deliver roses for Rs500, but on landing page you pomise, if she want to get it delivered second time, it is just for Rs300, she feels a compelling urge to order through your site. In this case people who order for the first time would increase more than who...

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Content Network has now become Display Network - But, It is not mere Change of Name!

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:40:00 PDT

Did you notice the Display Network in your reporting and adwords interface. It is the new name for earlier content network. However, it is not just the change of name, and like every other change, google has imposed Ignorance tax with this too. Earlier, content network used to take the default bid of the adgroup in question to decide upon the max CPC of the adgroup, if you don't set the specific bid. However, its new incarnation, display network, will use avg. of all the adgroup's CPC. So, if you were in the habit of setting default bid for the content network, you might see unexpected CPC in your campaign. Most of us used to set up separate content network, and so we all were in the habit of leaving the field blank, so that default bid may be used as content bid. However, now, if you are continuing this practice, display bid won't be the default bid of the adgroup, rather it would be using an average of all your CPC bids. This average includes, in the order of priority: Individual...

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Website Domain Name Strategy - Rotating visitors within the loop

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 00:24:00 PDT

Godaddy suggests you should buy multiple domains, with different extensions. If you are buying xyz.com, it is wise to buy, xyz.net, xyz.in and anything you think people may create or mistakenly recall you to be. Getting all of them is a good strategy. Is it just for the sake of visitors who are so careless about remembering the domain of the site they love that you should create so many domains for yourself. No, it helps in engaging them too. People have succesfully implemented this strategy for promoting themselves. If you host the site on xyz.net, people tend to open xyz.com, not because they forget it, but just to check what is there! So, you find http://www.problogger.net/ is the main site and http://www.problogger.com/ is used for promotions and earning! Similarly xyz.com/blog or blog.xyz.com can be your main site page and xyz.com a parked domain! Just see what is on http://blog.bapoti.com/ and http://bapoti.com/. Isn't it a cool strategy to divert visotor to your adsense site. A...

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Facebook Share - Fshare Workaround for Blogger

ramesh@netargument.com (Ramesh) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 07:29:00 PDT

Facebook share requires you to write, meta content on the page you want it to be installed on. The problem with blogger is that you either shall have to insert different meta tags for different pages, or just leave that for search engines to decide. Many people have stopped writing meta tags because of Google's categorical assertion that they no more look into them, though duplicate meta tag may be the cause of concern for you. Because of the absence of meta tags, facebook share does not work properly. It was the case with this site too. in the description it used to serve some crappy url from the template. To avoid this situation, you can add, a tag different from description on your pages. I added <meta content='Ramesh Kumar' name='author'/>, and it worked. It helps Fshare to pull description from sidebar about me. Definitely it is not the solution for people who want description of the post to be displayed. For that you shall have to manually insert description meta tag for...

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