wizard of dork

Facebook dynamic multi-product ads is what eCommerce stores needed

2015-03-21T17:36:00.001+02:00

How can Facebook dynamic multi-product ads affect eCommerce?

You might have seen some Facebook multi-product ads yourself as well.

What is the main difference between the standard Facebook ads? Now you have the option to promote a number of unique products and their features in a carousel kind of ad.

Now if you have an e-shop that’s your hard sales breakthrough. You can select some of your finest products, TARGET the specific persons you want and then wait.

You could of course have a post with the product you are promoting and boost it but is that the same thing? The user will see at least 3 multi-product ads as an impression. They might see something they like in it. If the price is right they will click. Simple CPC (cost per click).

That way you can show your product variety, be very specific, extremely cost effective and create an awareness that can be quite product oriented.

That way you grasp the attention of a potential buyer that will view your variety and increase your sales! All that with an average CPC around 0, 05€. You get to show off your catalogue (or a portion of it) with extremely low cost.

Facebook has created a very powerful sales tool that may span across the smallest e-shop up to the biggest eCommerce retailer.

It’s all about relevance and perception if you ask me. Facebook algorithm nowadays is so smart and by giving you the chance to show more than one ads in the same space as one is the smart sales move to do. All because of relevance. When you win the relevance game the next thing to do is become even more effective.

Say you have an e-shop. You could go around with awareness ads promoting your stuff in general or you could go for a very specific ad that actually might not grasp the audience. Now Facebook dynamic multi-product ads change the whole set. They give you options in virtually the same cost or less.

You have a catalogue of products you want to show. Same goes for the user. They want to see the variety some times. But if I see what I want to buy on one specific ad then you have my interest. If the price is right I might even buy on impulse!

Some may say that this is the win move from Facebook on Google. I would say we have to wait. But to be honest, Facebook ads do manage to target way more correctly than a GDN ad. Google search might still be very effective, but the experience is not a much dynamic as a Facebook ad and considering the complexity of ads and the potential cost of specific words, then it’s a no go for a small eCommerce company.

In other words the definitive winner move nowadays for small eCommerce businesses is Facebook. I don’t say that you should not invest in Google. On the contrary. Your mix needs to be wide in order to reach wider in terms of customers. What I am saying however is that you should probably reconsider where to spend your budget in terms of mix.

Homeland review

2015-03-21T16:04:00.001+02:00

I’m pretty sure mostly everyone knows Homeland. Or the adventures of Sergeant Brody through wonderland as I call it.

Now I have to admit I’m not that much in to spy drama stuff so I could potentially be a cruel judge. Anyway let’s begin with a disclaimer. This review is spoiler free in general so you may just go ahead and read.

What I am going to do is review the series in general and then review 3 characters in specific. Nicholas Brody, Carrie Mathison and Saul Berenson.

That being said you may now proceed to the review.

A friend of mine studying abroad in England first told me about Homeland. He specifically said that Homeland is the best series ever. Now I don’t take any pride in this but I’ve seen so much TV shows and movies that I can hardly be surprised nowadays. So I went on ahead and saw the first episode. Now the basic storyline goes like this.

A sergeant in Afghanistan (Nicholas Brody) is found in captivity after seven years that was considered dead. The CIA has reason to believe that Brody has turned in to a terrorist by an Osama Bin Laden kind of guy called Abu Nazir. Brody returns to the United States, where all of us try to figure out if he really is a traitor or not.

That is pretty much the general story behind the series. Two things kept me to see the whole first episode. First one is a ridiculously beautiful woman called Morena Baccarin, playing Brody’s wife, Jessica Brody.

But let us be serious. There was also another reason. Nicholas Brody himself. Or actually the actor. Damian Lewis. I’ve known him since Band of Brothers and he truly is amazing.

So what do I like about this series? It’s all a big scheme and an overture to espionage as we hoped it could or would be. You see the brain being the most effective weapon to protect your country. Now let’s be honest.

The show is very American oriented in terms of what is a terrorist. There is some critique of course about watching the other side of the coin and the fact that the Americans are also the invaders and stuff but it’s mostly a villain’s talk. Which can be disturbing from times to times but other than that the series manages to keep suspense in to high levels without mechanized crafted cliffhangers. They are pretty honest with that. They build a story and keep you with the story.

Now there are many plot twists that make the show great and virtually none of them seems bullshit. That’s pretty honest if you ask me.

Now let us have a little look in the characters.

Nicholas Brody/Damian Lewis

What can I say about Nicholas Brody technically the whole show revolves around him. An amazing grey character. You never know if he is the asshole or not. He plays his part keeping you wondering what’s wrong. A marine trained to kill, with a heart full of shit after seven years of captivity. The choices he makes can be evaluated in so many levels giving him many chances to get away. One moment he is a coward and an asshole and then he turns out to be the best guy in the world.

Carrie Mathison/Claire Danes

I am really tempted in to describing her as the bitch. But I won’t. The mastermind of intelligence in CIA is Carrie. She’s also young and very hard to find allies in believing her conspiracy theories. She is the one believing that Brody is a terrorist.

Using unorthodox methods but also having a brilliant mind gives her the advantage to prove here points and trying to make the change in protecting her country and the CIA.

Saul Berenson/Mandy Patinkin

What can one say about Mandy Patinkin? Let us not forget he is Inigo Montoya. From princess bride. Yep that’s right.

The most exquisite poker face you can ever imagine. I Homeland he is very high in the CIA hierarchy and his “child” is Carrie Mathison. He is the one getting her out of trouble and finding solutions for her. Saul is the only skeptic in the show about the “techniques” used by the CIA while on the other hand can be more invasive than any.

So Homeland fans, put on your seat belts and get ready for 4 seasons of great story and suspense (Homeland season 5 release date is around September 2015) that will rock your mind. Espionage at it’s best.

How to increase your Facebook page reach performance

2015-03-05T16:44:00.005+02:00

We see lately that Facebook organic reach is plummeting.

There is one simple explanation for this. Facebook is getting smarter. Way smarter than we could predict at the beginning, thus penalizing some "not as much" great communication techniques used from time to time.

Now why is this happening? Well for me there are two reasons.

Firstly Facebook is growing exponentially. Why do we use Facebook? For a unique experience.
Normally a user wont be glad seeing product posts about toilet paper all the time. They want to see stuff relevant to them from people they care to follow. Facebook is a business. A business gaining money from their users. You do not want to make your client angry. Or else they will leave.
Therefore Facebook chooses to show you anything that would interest you. But that is not always the case right? I mean you are not always a multi-billion company trying to sell toilet paper on Facebook right? You may be a musician or a blogger trying to show people how amazing you are. Which is great and you should try that. But you wont be always interesting. And guess what. There are tons of stuff to see on Facebook and someone has to sort it out. That's the job of Facebook algorithm. Since Facebook is so huge then you will not be able to show out your work as easily on all your fans. Let's just say the world does not care about you. Especially if you are a brand.
Secondly, let's face it. Facebook is a business right? They say to you friend (Facebook page owner) that if you really want to sell your products or your music or whatever, you should probably pay something for it. Now at this point if there is any advertiser reading that, try and be honest. Facebook advertising right now is very cheap. You can reach out incredible amounts of people with a fraction of what you'd spend on TV. At the moment at least. Which is quite fair in my opinion. You are advertising don't you? What's the common tendency on advertising? To hate it. Now on Facebook you have a chance. There will be people that will see your message. But if you really did a good job you will be rewarded.

Engagement is the key.

If the people like your message they will interact with it. Simple as that. In the beginning of Facebook marketing we would do all kinds of shit to attract people to like our page (like likegating applications with contests) forcing people to like pages. Then of course you had another problem. People who come for contests rarely buy your products or engage with the page. They simply want to win something. So in that case you simply collect likes that will drop you page reach on 2%. I wouldn't even want to talk about engagement on that rate.
So what did the marketing geniuses did after that in order to get engagement? They did wall contests, asking people to share the contest image in order to create fake engagement. That didn't work either. As we said Facebook is getting smart.

What you need is balls.

Truly if you think you got the balls to provide something interesting everyday then go ahead. Facebook is survival of the fittest. You need to have a content mix. Do not for any reason just have one kind of posting. Just a link will not do the work. The mix should have links, photos and videos. Moreover there is one more thing. The type of posting is very important but you should also make sure to post something nice.
Which brings me to the reason I wrote this title. There is a way to increase your reach a lot. But have one thing in mind. Reach is not success. What you will do is bring the people in to the store. In order to buy they need to care. So be careful.
Anyway. How do you achieve amazing Facebook reach?

The Facebook video.

Facebook video is all about Facebook does right now. billions of videos are being watched each day. And Facebook is boosting video like hell at the moment. You can have an organic reach counting from 10% to 20%. Only a try can convince you about that. And trust me on that. I made my very own video too. I'm adding video in my very own mix too.

Now be careful. As I said. Keep the mix. Differentiate. Think like a user and try to create a shareable experience for people.
Follow me on Facebook too for a live show of what we learned here today.

Best SEO tips for blogger (and it's free)

2015-01-06T12:52:00.001+02:00

Every ambitious blogger desires one thing. For people to see his articles and perhaps gain some revenue out of it.

So many people around the world go out and try to find ways to increase their SEO (search engine optimization). So what is SEO to begin with? Basically is how often you will appear on search results on Google and other search engines.
Unfortunately lots of people get scummed and get to pay massive amounts of money to "increase" their search engine visibility. So this article is something I created on my own. It's not something you will find all over the web.

It's the do's and dont's in SEO for blogger.

Have in mind you can use all of these tips in anything you want to do online. So should we begin with with the dont's?

1. Metatags and specific keywords in the code do nothing.

You might have heard of the power of metatags. You put some specific words on the backend of your blogger blog and magically you get more pageviews. This is not true. Metatags are more like a "guide" of what the blog might contain, but it will never bring the desired traffic on your blogger blog.

2. SEO Companies.

There are still SEO companies around the world selling you SEO optimized blogs etc. Do not spend a penny on this. It's nothing you cannot personally do, and nothing that will give you any traffic of importance. Google has stopped promoting words for SEO. Google promotes content in the proper context with words as a guide.

3. Backlinks.

Supposedly backlinks is an effective way to build traffic on your blog. There are two kinds of backlinks. Those you find free and those you have to pay for in order to gain access to them. Do NOT ever use any kind of backlinks for your blog. It will most likely reduce your traffic, than get you any traffic at all. Google as I said before wants traffic to be fair. Google wants it's users to find what they actually are looking for and not some crap websites. For that reason backlinks will never help you.

Now let's see what you can do to give an increased SEO value on your blog.

First of all. Remember to be patient. Rome was not built in a day. Content/Context SEO takes time to build (mostly because it takes time to index), but after it is built, it's precious and it will not be gone.

1. Words.

When we are talking about a blog, it's mostly articles right? How will you get Google to show your article on Google? You will need to show you actually try. You don't just blog to make money. You need to show that your content has value. One way to prove that is how many words is an article. Based on my experience, do not go below 500 words. Go for at least 500 to 1000. That will show Google that you mean business. Plus you will get space to increase your density.

2. Words density.

Now that is important. Google recognizes keywords inside your content. Based ALWAYS on your context, it scans your words density. Meaning how many times a relevant word appears. But be careful. Don't just go around spam one word. This will not help. As I said, context is crucial when it comes to this.

3. Images.

Images nowadays have an important SEO value. But be careful. As I said before. Do not use random pictures in hope that you will get more traffic. You won't. Do not forget. When you are using an image, Google doesn't know what the image contains. You will have to name it. In blogger you can do it like this.
Just go on your image while editing and click on properties.

4. Helpful websites where you can spread your content.

Personally I do not use many. I mainly use websites that can give added value to whichever content I am using. For that reason I use Pinterest for the images. You cannot possibly imagine how much traffic my blog gets from Pinterest. Other websites can be Stumbleupon (works amazingly with a bit of luck and GOOD content), Digg, Scoop.it, Tumblr and Delicious. Just by having your articles there can be helpful.

5. Webmaster tools.

There are so many bloggers that do not use the webmaster tools and it's such a shame. It's a free tool provided by Google that actually lets you index your articles much faster and give them value.

Remember folks, I am here to give you a personal evaluation and help for your blog, if you need any.

A cheat guide to mount and blade warband (cheats and more)

2015-01-05T21:26:00.002+02:00

I know people who play many different "not so mainstream" video games around.

Games such as Minecraft, the 2 billion dollars game that looks like it came out from the 90s.

Well I kinda have a guilty pleasure like that myself. I love playing Mount and Blade Warband.

A game that really isn't as cool and awesome as others. Basically it's such a sandbox game that I love it. I also heard that recently it's a trend on steam too.

What I love is that you get to create a character, gather an army and just march around the world killing. That's all. there are some useless quests too, but I never bothered doing them.
What's amazing about it is that you can literally use any cheat you like (cause if you don't it's hard as shit) to gain whatever it is you like. Oh yes. Mount & blade Warband is truly a paradise for my Sundays. I just go outside with my huge army and kill. Or even with my elite team!

Which brings me to the cheats issue. You can use cheats pretty easily and there are 2 ways. It's what I call "soft" cheat and "hard" cheat. "Soft" cheat is when you only push buttons inside the game and "hard" cheat is when you play with the settings. So Anyway. Here are all the cheats. Let's begin with the soft skills first.

Cheat List for Mount and blade Warband:

Use the following cheat codes First you will have to enable cheats in the Config menu like this. In the inventory it gives you 1,000 Gold - CTRL + X Ctrl+Alt+F4 - Knock out enemy troops (it's awesome when it comes to huge battles) Full Health - CTRL + H Knock out all of your troops - CTRL + SHIFT + F6 Knock out one of your troops - CTRL + F6 1,000 Experience Point Bonus - CTRL + X Add 10 points to weapon proficiency - CTRL + W AI Fights For You - CTRL + F5 Kill Enemy Automatically - CTRL + F4 See All Parties - CTRL + T Slow Motion - CTRL + F9 Teleport Party to Cursor - CTRL + Left Click Hurt Yourself - CTRL + F3 Hurt Allies - CTRL + F3 CTRL+H - Full Health CTRL+Shift+H - Full Horse Health CTRL+F11 - Stop time CTRL+Space - Fast Forward

Now for the "hard" cheats.

Inside the game press C and go to your character menu.

Click on the "statistics". From there you click on "export character". That will export your character in a notepad. Just remember. In order for this to work, when you are done tweaking the stats you will have to re-import your character back to the game. (kinda like the Matrix!)

Having that in mind go to:

C:\Users\YourUsername\Documents\Mount&Blade Warband\Characters

There you will find your character sheet. You might as well back it up before you start. Then you can change anything you like and as you like in there. I usually go for 10 with the skills (it's the max) and leave the rest, to make it more challenging but you can do whatever you like.

Hope I helped and that you love Mount and blade Warband as much as I do! Of course if there is anything I can do to help, just leave a comment and I'll answer!

The hedge knight, A Game of Thrones Prequel

2014-08-05T16:21:00.000+03:00

Have you heard about the Hedge Knight? Probably if you are only watching Game of Thrones on TV you haven't.

It's a great opportunity to learn about it though! Plus I will be giving you two alternatives to check it out! A book and a comic!

It's all set up in Westeros and is actually a Game of Thrones prequel.

My suggestion though is going to be about the comic book. Let's face it. If you haven't read the Game of Thrones books it's pretty hard to actually read the Hedge Knight books either.
But what the comic book will offer you is a world class, amazing illustration of the Game of Thrones universe.
You are going to see the armors as they are actually depicted on George R. R. Martin's mind. Truth is that when it comes to a TV production you can't really show exactly what is being described on the book.

Yep, that's the Kingsguard

On a comic book though, it's the opposite. You get to see it all. The illustration is done by Mike S. Miller. I love his work. It's truly magnificent. You will love it.

That is his work too by the way!

So what is The Hedge Knight all about? It's around 90 years before the events that take place on the Game of Thrones show. It ends with the tragic events of Sumerhall that lead to the birth of Rhaegar Targaryen. But I will say no more about this because it's something huge!

It follows the life of a Hedge Knight called Duncan. Dunk for short. He was actually the squire of a Hedge Knight, Ser Arlan but the poor guy died of old age. There he decides to become himself a knight and ride across the seven kingdoms.

On his way to Ashford to compete in a tourney he finds a young boy. Named Egg. Together they will form what we call Dunk and Egg.

I will say no more, as it could spoil it for you.
I will just go on ahead and tell you will get to meet and understand a lot of things around Westeros. You will see why there is a green and a red apple in house Fossoway, you will learn more about the house Dondarrion and many more houses.

You will get find out a lot about the Targaryen ruling family and also about the Baratheons.

This whole story is a cruel fairy tale guaranteed to give you an amazing time!

Check it out and you will not regret it!

By the way I believe I must have the comic books in a CBR. format on my computer so if you cannot find them I could help, by sending them through wetransfer or whatever, so feel free to ask!

My best WoW video collection

2014-07-29T12:10:00.000+03:00

I rarely get to talk about World of Warcraft (WoW).

That is because I vowed not to ever play World of Warcraft ever again in my life. It so happens though, that I talked with someone that hasn't seen the very best classics of wow videos on YouTube.

That is a shame. That is the reason I will be sharing these videos here. Time may pass but the impressive times were back then.

Back then, if you wanted to be a pro in World of Warcraft you had no life whatsoever. I've been through that, which is why I no longer want to be doing this.

Nonetheless those videos show impressive skills. Even though the players were technically undead.

The first two videos are about two PVP legends back in the Vanilla days. When being a Grand Marshall and a High Warlord was harder than becoming a U.S. president (minor exaggeration).

Let’s see them then?

Maydie

Maydie is probably the best WoW video I’ve seen in my life. Amazing music and montage combining a great player with awesome skill.

Even though I was always Horde I have to admit that Maydie was perhaps the best Vanilla PVPer ever. Only one could match Maydie in PVP skills and that’s video number two. It’s number two because Maydie also produced a kind of art. Watch it and you will understand.

Pat

What can someone say about pat? The ultimate Tauren Beef slaying everyone around the Alliance.

Perhaps the most impressive character in terms of looks. High Warlord armor combined with Tauren is rather impressive.

Nyhm

Nothing special about Nyhm as a player. He did make a lot of funny machinima videos though filled with satire about what was wrong back then in World of Warcraft.

I’ll put two of his videos here, but feel free to explore a bit more!

The internet is for porn

Do I really need to explain?

That is all! Enjoy!

Books I want to read till the end of the year

2014-07-27T14:13:00.001+03:00

This is maybe a suggestion but it's more like a mere reminder to myself that I should probably read more.

Even though with work and all it can be rather hard to find the time to read I am trying day by day to limit my time of doing any other thing than reading.
So there are not really quite so many books you can read within a year. Let me set up a list here and I promise I will be stating which I've read by the new year.

Game of thrones, A song of Ice and fire.

I've read quite a few years ago the Game of thrones books in English. Now, after so long and while Game of Thrones is tremendously mainstream around the globe I started reading them in Greek to.
To catch up a bit and enhance my story while I am waiting for the winds of winter. So far I've read the Game of Thrones and Clash of Kings.
Hopefully I will be done with a Storm of Swords by the end of August leaving me until October to be done with the rest of the books. I would like to believe that until then we will be have a release date for the winds of winter.

Think and grow rich. Napoleon Hill.

Now this book is (at least that's what I've heard) a must for the business world and for entrepreneurs around the world. It's supposed to be a secret for success. I will give it a shot. It's a rather small book and and it's very old. So I'm sure it will be worth it.

Now if I am lucky enough I have two more books I'd like to read. There are actually in my library but I haven't read them yet.

Catcher in the rye. J. D. Salinger.

Two reasons for reading this book.
One it's the book Mark David Chapman said made him kill John Lennon.
Two. It's mentioned in South park in one of my favorite episodes.
Seriously I think it's a nice reading about alienation and it's a classic. So, might as well read it.

The social Contract. Jean Jacques Rousseau.

Back in my first year and for two more years after that, I had decided to study sociology. Later I realized there was no way I could possibly find a job as a sociologist, so I decided to find something I am good at, but can also earn me money.
That's why I studied advertising. Smart choice? I guess we shall see. So far it's good.
So, about the book. I've read all sort of notes out of it but never read it all. So I guess, since it's a really small book I could read it in about Christmas time!

That's about it! I'm open for suggestions!
Feel free to share books you would like to read.
You might give me ideas on what to read after I finish with those!

Tablet. A love story

2014-07-15T21:41:00.000+03:00

At first I was rather suspicious about owning a tablet.

My thoughts were “what’s the use of it”? I own a Smartphone and a PC. I don't need anything else.

To be honest, being a hardcore PC gamer blinded me on the benefits of owning a tablet.

So let me just go on ahead and tell you my story.

Firstly, I love reading. I couldn't read on my PC. It was hard and I was getting tired really fast. I couldn't read on my phone because the screen is too small because I'm poor. I only have the Samsung Galaxy Fame.

Quite the budget phone. But even if I had a bigger phone it would still be hard to read on my phone. That goes for comics too. I just couldn't read any. Which is quite a shame since I love books and comics.

Another thing. Apps. There are so many apps around. They don't exist for pc and my phone is too slow to handle them. Same goes for silly games. Temple run 2, subway surfers etc.

I just couldn't see those stuff.

So even though it was hard for me to make the decision I started searching for a tablet. But they were so damn expensive. Until I found my beauty! The Samsung Tab 3 8 inch!

The photo is from my filthy phone

This tablet was just perfect for me. Huge (8 inches are just about perfect dimensions for me, not too big but not small either) with amazing capabilities and in a perfect price!

Just only 156 Euros!

I can only say I am thrilled about owning a tablet now! I hardly use any other device.

I re-read game of thrones books and so far read all the walking dead comics and a bunch of others too.

I saved so much money and became so happy I couldn't possibly believe it.

Even surfing around is so much better. 9gag with an 8 inch screen is simply spectacular! But the main reason this device is an amazing tool is the fact that I can read any book I like.

I know books are irreplaceable but you need to consider it budget wise. It’s technically free, first of all. There is also another benefit. You only carry around a small device along and not a bulky book.

So why am I writing this? I was skeptical of tablets. I thought they were useless. To be honest I still believe a tablet worth 500 dollars is ridiculous.

But when you can get something so much value for money (in that case Samsung tab 3 8 inch) then it will be your everlasting companion!

You can do anything with it. Read, watch, play. Everything to the max.

So I'm trying to say one thing. Try not to be so skeptical and purist about stuff.

Not only technology. I was a PC purist and I never got to see the beauty of a tablet. Keep it open. That’s all I've got to say!

Tried reading game of thrones yet?

2014-07-03T21:47:00.002+03:00

Many people around haven't read the game of thrones books. They just watch the show.

Now let us clarify. It's called "song of ice and fire". Not game of thrones. Nonetheless. My critique about this subject is going to be a bit more general.

We grew up as a generation that doesn't read. Our attention span is around 2 seconds. We would never stay longer and reading. Which is bad for two reasons.

First is because you probably reached till the first sentence of the blog and then left (joking).
Second is because that way we lose interest so easily. We miss all the beauty in life. One of them is reading a book.

So what I am going to try right now is to convince you to read. At least game of thrones for a beginning. First off. have you read Harry Potter?

Why was it easy to read Harry Potter and hard to read George RR Martin's "Game of Thrones"?
It's on the same level of interest. Trust me. I read both. One other thing. Have you tried reading Lord of the Rings? Perhaps the Silmarillion?

OK you may have found that boring. But Game of thrones isn't like that. Really. It may be a bit more descriptive than other books but that's great. Because you get to know so much.
Another thing. George RR Martin has done something innovative with Game of Thrones. His chapters are in POV. Point of view.
So every chapter follows a specific character in his own POV hearing his thoughts only. It truly is amazing when you start reading the first 2-3 chapters. POV really changes the way you perceive truth. POV really makes it what it is.
Now for an important argument. You probably heard EVERYWHERE from book posers that a show is just the tip of the iceberg and the book is like 90% more bla bla bla.

Unfortunately it's true. Not only the book contains tons of other information that will solve a LOT of your questions, it also has a different mood than the show. Have in mind one important issue about the book. Pretty much everyone are children in the books! Rob and Jon are 15 and Daenerys is 13!! Beric Dondarrion is 22!!!

So you get to live two different realities. Which is great.

Another amazing thing? You can finally live a spoiler free life. You will know everything. You will be up to date. You are going to be spoiler-proof. All that by reading close to 7000 pages.
It's not much trust me. In the beginning you might find hard to read a full chapter. After a while though it's going to be hard for you to stop reading. So give it a chance. Imagine the pleasure you are going to feel after that when no spoiler will be able to harm you!

The books are the real deal. George RR Martin has written a fantasy masterpiece. Show your respect to him by reading his works. Don't be lazy! Read! It will do good to you!