Yeah..I vetted them all.  (true story)

The shiny object syndrome (SOS) ran strong in that Jedi.

Since I’ve been on both ends of this, below are two wonderful use cases of ChatGPT (AI).

1. Learn how to create a batch of Sales emails with AI.
   • http://bit.ly/3HoHQmg
2. Learn how to create a personalized reply to spam with ChatGPT, and an automated Trigger with Zapier.
   • http://bit.ly/3RmG8qe

1. Frase
What: Frase is a simple but advanced tool similar to Chat GPT, where you can get different versions of your copy depending on how creative you want it.

Use Cases:
• Rewrite phrases for multiple pages (no duplicate content)
• Rewrite similar but different copy for Search Ads

2. Pencil
What: Pencil is the AI Ad Generator that helps brands & agencies create new ad variations 10x faster.

Use case:
• Automatically generate static & video ad creatives
• Run creatives predicted to win based on $1B in ad spend.

3. Hyros

What: Post iOS tracking you need a tool that consolidates your tracking into one single source of truth. It automates user journeys, clicks, emails, and all the sources.

Use case:
• Attribution tracking
• Funnel tracking

4. Albert.ai

What: improves the effectiveness of your digital advertising with more persistence, precision, intelligence, and efficiency

Use case:
• Planning, building, optimizing, and reporting
• Auto-budget allocation

5. Headlime

What: Generate AI landing pages for you

Use case:
• Comes with up copy and structure
• Creates generable documents as well

6. Descript

What: AI generates video scripts for you

Use case:
• Finding hooks and retention clips
• Overdub feature can help you change the voice based on text

7. Varos

What: Evaluate your industry paid performance vs the market & benchmarks

Use case:
• Make weekly buying decisions on benchmarks on CPC, CPMs, and more
• Prove to clients that recent decline or increase in performance based on their data

8. Stable Difussion

What: It is a latent text-to-image diffusion model capable of generating photo-realistic images given any text input, to produce incredible imagery.

Use case:
• Make single images that pop on ads

In mid-February “most” of us started to get fidgety regarding the future state of the world. We might have disguised our weary concerns with memes or jokes, post on Facebook with no real meaning other than to cause a cackle from a friend. By the beginning of March things suddenly took a turn for the worse, and we’ve all be affected.

The reality is, a novel classification of businesses appeared, and the “non-essential” industries became the drive for mass unemployment which we have never seen. However, there are winners and here are a possible few.

Three Unsuspected “Possible” Winners After the Pandemic

#3: HVAC – A Possible Winner After Coronavirus Pandemic

We have a short term memory these days, but if you try to remember the beginning of March, everyone was freaking out (yes, even you). The media was saying it’s a new virus and could kill millions, politicians didn’t know what to do, the scientist and doctors were somewhat clueless too. For all we knew, this could be the end of times! So why not invest in off-the-grid energy sources?

Oddly enough while thousands of people flocked to Costco to buy toilet paper, the upper middle class decided to invest in solar panels.

My sources have told me that HVAC and Solar Panel industry were overrun with requests providing large bonuses to HVAC businesses in March, April and May.

#2: Mexico – A Possible Winner After the Coronavirus Pandemic

This might or might not be a clear “winner” to you. Hear me out though. As China and the USA continue to battle out “who’s to blame,” and as relations continue to break between the two nations, Mexico could win big as a trading partner. Granted, Mexico is already a large trading partner, but can they become even more influential to the American way of life?

A possible caveat to this prediction is Mexico’s cost of living; not to mentions Trump’s desire to bring manufacturing back to America. Doing business in Latin and South America can come at a higher price than doing business in China. I know this first hand because I’m from Brazil. Granted Mexico is vastly different than Brazil, however there are similarities in their socio-economic and political structures.

With that said, “I’m sticking with Mexico as #2!” Viva Mexico!

#1: Small Business – A Possible Winner After the Coronavirus Pandemic

“Ok, Ok I can tell you people are shaking your heads at me like I’m a major dummy. Hear me out though!”

If your small businesses makes it through this ordeal, I think you will have an amazing opportunity to revamp your digital marketing and approach. What better time to invest in digital than right now.

a. Digital Marketing for Small Businesses:

Many of your competitors are struggling, this is your time to double down on local Paid Ads, Yelp, Facebook and even Twitter! Refocus your advertising spend and go all in.

b. Support Local

If you haven’t heard or seen it, then I’m sure you will soon. Posts on Facebook encouraging people to support local businesses. This might cause a sort of shift in middle America to step away from the big chains. Could this be a “Local Business Revolution?” 

c. Small Businesses are – well they’re Small!

I get it, America loves their big chains and Box Stores, and that will never change. However, there is something “Small Businesses” can offer that large chains can’t – More safety and better service.

Personally I’d prefer a small neighborhood market over Costco. I might pay a little more, but at a small market I’m not rubbing shoulders with a thousand other people.

If small business Invest in Digital Marketing and promote their careful safe environments, then I feel they can actually come out of this on the other end.

This year was going wonderfully until the pandemic hit, “who would have ever thought this?” A phrase we’ve said time-and-time again, over the past few weeks.

A phrase, by itself, just another platitude. Today, however, we find ourselves in a Brave New World, where these platitudes have greater significance with life or death implications.

 The sudden emergence of COVID-19 has brought a surge of camaraderie in the way we live our lives and the way we speak.

1. Who would have thought, “We’re all in it together?
2. Who would have ever thought, “We’ll get through this?”
3. Who would have ever thought, “Stay Home, Stay Safe, Save Lives?”
4. Who would have ever thought, “We’ll be here when this is all done?”
5. Who would have thought?

The Top Search Results in order: 

1. We’re all in it together.

Note: I searched, “In it together,” but close enough

2. We’ll get through this.

3. Stay Home, Stay Safe, Save Lives.

NOTE: I split up the search.

   a. Stay Home b. Stay Safec. Save Lives

4. Who would have thought.

5. We’ll be here when this is all done.

 Note: I searched, “be here when this is all done”

Disclaimer: I understand this is not a direct search amount and by splitting up the phrases into smaller “keywords” can possibly skewing the data. I felt the “split phrases” is a close enough relevance to provide a directional trend, which is the point of this exercise. 

Here is a tutorial on how to create a secondary Wordpress Footer to appear on select pages, and how to make it widgetized. When finished you will have unique footers show up for pages on your website, so the Contact Page can have a different footer than the Index Page.

This is a low to medium level tutorial and basic HTML, CSS, PHP and WordPress architecture knowledge is recommended.

[line] [column width=”1/2″ first=”yes”]

Synopsis:

A client wants a different footer on the “contact page” of his WordPress website. The client desires that the main footer stay the same on all other pages except the “contact page.”
So essentially he wants two footers. The client also needs the footer to be widgetized so he can manage text and links in the future.

[/column] [column width=”1/2″ last=”yes”]

Approach:

I reviewed his WordPress site, footer.php, functions.php and sidebar.php files to see how everything is currently functioning.
I noticed the footer was already widgetized and that I would now have to create a separate footer for the contact page.[/column]

This it how it was done.

Step 1: Duplicate the Sidebar Footer:

First, let’s create a new sidebar. Your template should/might have a ‘sidebar-footer.php.’ You need to duplicate ‘sidebar-footer.php’ and rename it to ‘sidebar-footer2.php.’
[NOTE: This sidebar will be your second footer widget. You will be able to add Widgets to the footer.]

Every sidebar.php file is different depending on the WordPress template you have. In general you need to replace any script that relates to the sidebar.php, with the below snippet.

[box color=”gray” icon=”config”]<?php dynamic_sidebar(‘sidebar-footer2’); ?>[/box]

Step 2: Duplicate the WordPress Footer

Second, we will need to create the a new “Footer File” by duplicating the current ‘footer.php’ and renaming the new file ‘footer2.php’. (You can name it whatever you wish, like “footercontact.php”).

[box color=”green” icon=”check”]

Now you have two footer pages:
1. footer.php (the default main footer)
2. footer2.php (the contact footer)

[/box]

The code inside the footer file will be different for every WordPress template. The following snippet connects the “Widgetized” sidebar, so you can add “Widgets” to the footer.

[box color=”gray” icon=”config”]<?php get_sidebar(‘sidebar-footer2’); ?>[/box]

Step 3: Connecting pages to WordPress Functions.php

The next step is to find the functions.php file. We need add some snippet to the ‘functions.php’ file, which will connect WordPress infrastructure to the files you just created above (‘footer2.php’ and  ‘sidebar-footer2.php).

The next step is to find the place in the ‘functions.php’ file with sidebar code, usually it looks like this: // Sidebars.

Add this snippet:

[box color=”gray” icon=”config”]register_sidebar(array(
‘name’ => __(‘Footer sidebar 2’, ‘blm_basic’),
‘id’ => ‘sidebar-footer2’,
‘before_widget’ => ‘<li id=”%1$s” class=”widget %2$s”>’,
‘after_widget’ => ‘</li>’,
‘before_title’ => ‘<h3>’,
‘after_title’ => ‘</h3>’
));[/box]

Step 4: Adding Snippet to Index.php

Then, find your Index.php file. You are gonna add a little snippet at the bottom.

[box color=”gray” icon=”config”]<?php
get_sidebar();
if (is_page(‘contact’)) { include (TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/footer2.php’); } else { get_footer(); }
?>[/box]

[quote align=”right”]“ Cool right!”[/quote]

Extra Step: Add New Footer to other pages

Now, if you want to add the NEW footer2.php to other pages just use the below code. Obviously change the names of the files to correspond the pages you want.

[box color=”gray” icon=”config”]<?php
get_sidebar();
if (is_page (‘contact’)|| is_page(‘programs’) || is_page(‘about-us’)) { include (TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/footer2.php’); } else { get_footer(); }

?>[/box]

If this article helped you, please leave me a comment. It’s great to know that I helped someone out.

I recently acquired a new client. They were needing the usual website optimization and digital strategy. As usual I wondered about their data. Luckily they recently installed Google Analytics so I was really happy. Once I researched the client’s analytics I noticed they had a bunch of sub domains they forgot to tell me about. At this point I noticed they were using the new and improved “Google Universal Analytics.” A new and improved tracking code launched in March 2013. (Learn more about the benefits of Google Universal Tracking.)

I had a lot of questions regarding the code, especially now that I have subdomains to track. My immediate question was: “Is Google Universal Tracking Code customization basically the same as the old code?” Well, let me go into some of the things I found out.
Note: Some of this tutorial might be real simple for people, but I feel it’s important.

How to identify Google Universal vs Classic Analytics

Ok, first let’s identify what code the client is currently using.

Google Universal Code Identification

Google Classic Code Identification

That is pretty simple right? Want more information? Go to Google Help for more about the NEW Google Universal Analytics.

Subdomain Tracking with Google Universal Analytics Code

Now let’s review subdomain tracking. There are several tutorials on the web that explain subdomain tracking. Many of the tutorials are outdated and have “extra” filtering associated. I had to do some, trial and error to get my subdomain tracking perfect. The way I describe below worked for me with Google Universal Analytics.

[box color=”red” icon=”config” size=”big”]

WARNING: Raven Tool GACONFIG Out of Date

You might come across a Raven Tool called GaConFig (gaconfig.com – http://gaconfig.com/one-domain-with-subdomains/). I use Raven Tools for SEO purposes to track my clients. Unfortunately this tool is out of date. Do not use it for Google Universal Tracking Tool. When Raven Tools updates their Google Tracking Tool I will update my article. (PS: If anyone notices Raven’s Tool updated let me know)

This is Raven Tools OUT OF DATE TOOL Screenshot:

[/box]

Ok so let’s get to the “tutorial” part of my little article.

The first thing you need to understand is that the Google Tracking Code needs to be the same for the main domain as the subdomain. So to reiterate what I just said; the SAME Google Tracking Code will go on “www.maindomain.com” as “subdomain.maindomain.com.”

[box color=”green” icon=”settings” size=”big”]

Where to find Google tracking Code

You find the code by clicking on > Admin > Tracking Info > Tracking Code.
Once you find the code snippet, copy and paste it into your web page, just before the closing </head> tag*. If your website uses templates to generate pages, enter it just before the closing </head> tag in the file that contains the<head> section. (Most websites re-use one file for common content, so it’s likely that you won’t have to place the code snippet on every single page of your website.)

Here is a little more information regarding inserting your code on your website straight from Google Analytics Help:

[/box]

Creating Profile Views for Subdomain Tracking

So let’s create a different “profile view” for each subdomain. I feel this is where many newbies get a bit of a headache. We will be creating three views in this exercise.

A. WWW View (traffic ONLY for the MAIN Domain).
B. Subdomain View (ONLY traffic for the subdomain)
C. Total Traffic (Combining Subdomain and WWW traffic into one Total View)

STEP 1: Subdomain Profile View.
Let’ make our first view:

1. Click on “Admin”
2. Click on “VIEW (Profile)”
3. Click on “Create New View”
4. Choose “Reporting View Name” The name can be “Shop View.”
   • So for example if your website is shop.domain.com, name the view “Shop View.”
   • For subdomain’s use your www.domain.com as the URL when creating the ‘Profile View.’

STEP 2: WWW Main Domain View. (do the same thing as above)
Let’ make our second view:

1. Click on “Admin”
2. Click on “VIEW (Profile)”
3. Click on “Create New View”
4. Choose “Reporting View Name”
   1. The name should be easy for you to correlate with ONLY the domain. So for example, name the view “WWW View.”

STEP 3: Let’s rename our MAIN View which is probably named “yourdomain.com.
Go to: Admin > View (Profile) > View Settings

• You will see your Profile View Name as yourdomain.com
• You can change that to something like “Total View,” or whatever makes it easy for you to know that this view is ALL traffic including subdomains.

Now in essence there should be three views. When you select “View Profile” you will see three different views that you can now select.

1. Total View
2. Shop View
3. WWW View

*Remember, you have Google Universal Code inserted on all subdomains associated with the the main domain including the main domain. So now we need to “split” the traffic to the right “Profile Views.”

Google Universal Code Filtering

STEP 1: Filter your subdomain “Shop View.”
Go back to > Admin > View (Profile): select: “Shop View” > Filters
click ( +New Filter )

1. Filter Name: Include Shop Subdomain Traffic
2. Filter Type: Predefined
• — include only –traffic to hostname — that contain
3. Hostname: shop.yourdomain.com

( save it )

STEP 2: Filter your domain “WWW View” (only traffic to WWW) 

Go back to > Admin > View (Profile): select: “WWW View” > Filters
Select +New Filter

1. Filter Name: www Domain Only
2. Filter Type: Predefined
• — include only –traffic to hostname — that contain
3. Hostname: www.yourdomain.com

( save it )

STEP 3: Filter all traffic to the Total View (prepend show all domains)

*This will show full domain in your reports, so you know what traffic comes from sub domains etc.

Go back to > Admin > View (Profile): select: “Total View” > Filters
Select +New Filter

1. Filter Name: All Domain Data
2. Filter Type: Custom Filter
   • — Advanced
3. Field A -> Extract A: Hostname (.*)
4. Field B -> Extract B: Request URI (.*)
5. Output To -> Constructor: Request URI /$A1$B1
6. Field A: YES
7. Field B: NO
8. Override Output: Yes
9. Case Sensitive: No

( save it )

So there you go, that’s pretty much it. I hope I was able to help someone out there needing more clarification regarding the google code changes with subdomain tracking.

If I did help you out please follow me on Twitter, Pinterest, GooglePlus and/or drop me a note.

[dc]T[/dc]here is a certain campaign, or better yet a [mark]‘spoof’[/mark] campaign, that caught my eye early on in my career.  The Brawny Man’s, “Brawny Innocent Escapes” TV campaign is by far one of my favorite series of commercials or spoofs. The TV spots are shot in a “Saturday Night Live” approach. Personally I think the commercials are good enough to be a real campaign for Brawny Towels, but I have that odd humor I guess. Truth be told, I’m not sure who did the series of commercials, but I’d like to shake their hand.

The commercials feature a rough outdoors Brawny Man with the extreme sensitivity of a young schoolgirl. The commercials are filmed in a POV (point of view) style, where Brawny Man is essentially talking to ‘you.’ The Brawny Man is so oddly sensitive and peculiar that it left many viewers hating the commercials. However, many other viewers, like myself, love the commercials.

Humorous, creepy and original, this is one of my all time favorite set of commercial ‘spoofs.’

Enjoy the videos below.

Brawny Man – Random But Understandable Breakdown

Brawny Man – Buyer’s Remorse

Brawny Man – That Thing You’re Going Through

Brawny Man – Show Emotion Freely

Brawny Man – Happy Valentines Day