Article URL: https://deepsource.io/jobs/technical-lead-language-in/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26519802 Points: 1 # Comments: 0
The post DeepSource (YC W20) Is Hiring a Technical Lead (Language Engineering) first appeared on Online Web Store Site.
The post DeepSource (YC W20) Is Hiring a Technical Lead (Language Engineering) appeared first on ROI Credit Builders.
Article URL: https://deepsource.io/jobs/technical-lead-language-in/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26519802 Points: 1 # Comments: 0
The post DeepSource (YC W20) Is Hiring a Technical Lead (Language Engineering) first appeared on Online Web Store Site.
Understanding literature was once a common cultural pursuit. Now it’s about political power. The post Deconstruction, Identity and the Dying Art of Criticism appeared first on ROI Credit Builders.
The post Deconstruction, Identity and the Dying Art of Criticism first appeared on Online Web Store Site.
Whether it’s a good idea to start a business with home equity will depend on several factors. But it’s not outside the realm of possibility.
Are you a homeowner? Do you have significant equity in your home? You probably already know that your home’s equity is valuable. But have you ever thought of using your home’s equity to finance a new or preexisting business?
There are two main types of funds you can get out of your home’s equity. Both are second mortgages on your house. A home equity loan has a fixed rate, with a fixed rate loan amount and fixed repayment schedule. It’s a one-time lump sum loan that’s repaid monthly. In that way, it’s a lot like a regular mortgage.
A home equity line of credit (HELOC) works more like a credit card. It has a variable interest rate. You can use the equity when you need it. This is up to a predetermined amount. You can borrow against it for a certain period. This is usually five to ten years.
You’re only charged interest when you withdraw funds. You only pay interest during this draw period. Hence the monthly payments are lower while you’re not repaying principal. After the draw period it converts to a fixed-rate loan for repayment of the principle.
During the time you’re repaying the principle, you can no longer withdraw funds. You must pay off the entire HELOC balance. With a HELOC, the interest rate will vary. As a result, your costs will go up or down with the prime rate.
One issue is that a home equity loan has higher payments than a HELOC. This is because you’re repaying both principal and interest each month. For both types of financing, your home serves as the collateral. So if you default, it won’t matter if you have a HELOC or a home equity loan. You’ll lose your house either way.
Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.
Traditional small business loans can require a lot of paperwork. A bank may require paperwork like a projection of income and finance for the business, personal financial statements, your business lease, your business plan, three years of tax returns, and more.
The smaller and newer your business, the less likely you are to get a bank loan. Home equity can be easier to get. Home equity lenders aren’t concerned with your business plan. They just want to know about your personal resources.
If you have the income, equity, and credit rating to repay the loan, you’re likely to get a loan or line of credit. Home equity interest rates are lower than business loans. This is because the mortgage lender isn’t taking on the risk of your business. Rather, that’s your risk.
If your business fails or isn’t as successful as you expected, you still have to repay the loan, or lose your home. The low interest rates offered on HELOCs can be misleading. this is because the rates vary during the loan period.
Most equity loans are fixed rate simple interest, but most HELOCs are offered at revolving variable rates. This makes them similar to credit card accounts. Hence, the line accumulates interest far more quickly, and the rate is subject to change. As a result, your best option may be to get a loan for an amount expected to cover immediate or short-term needs, with an equity line for any excess.
A home equity loan may be best for one-time business expenses. And HELOCs may be better used by business owners as a cash reserve over time. Money from a home equity loan or line of credit can be used any way you wish, while business loans may be restricted in their use. The interest on a home equity loan or HELOC may be tax deductible.
You don’t have to pay a HELOC down to zero every year, as business credit lines may require. Interest paid on home equity debt can generally be deducted up to $100,000, or $50,000 if you’re married and filing separately, per the IRS. Interest paid on bank loans, personal loans, credit cards and other types of loans isn’t deductible.
The flexibility with home equity borrowing means, when pledging your home as collateral, the debt generally can’t be discharged in bankruptcy if the business fails. Plus you can’t refinance or consolidate without at least two years of profits as shown on your tax returns. If you use a HELOC to finance your business, pay vary close attention to making sure the business is profitable as quickly as possible. And get into a position to refinance or pay off the debt as soon as you can to mitigate personal risk.
One of the biggest issues is the possibility of going underwater. If you tap into your home’s equity, and later its value declines, you could owe more on your home than it’s actually worth. This is usually called being “underwater’’ or “upside down’’ on your mortgage.
There may be an issue with closing costs and fees. Home equity loans can serve as a second mortgage. So just like your primary mortgage, the closing costs, often somewhere between 2% and 5% of loan amount, can be expensive.
There may also be an early termination fee if you pay off the loan ahead of schedule. If you decide to sell your home before you’ve finished paying back the loan, the balance of your home equity loan will be due. Only you can decide if it’s worth it.
Risky businesses are not a good idea for HELOCs and home equity loans, seeing as your house is on the line. Hence a new product which may not catch on with consumers should be financed in some other fashion. Rather, a business in a well-known and used service industry – such as dry cleaning – would be a better choice. In essence if a product or service would be attractive to a venture capital firm, then it would probably be a poor choice for h0me equity financing.
According to Forbes, even though a good 45 million American homeowners have about $6.3 trillion in available equity,“As of May 1, after raising their lending standards in April, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo temporarily are not accepting applications for new HELOCs, “due to the economic uncertainty created by COVID-19.” In its mid-April announcement, Chase identified cash-out refinancing as an option available to homeowners seeking to tap their home equity”.
Cash-out refinancing differs from a traditional refinance. It replaces the old loan with a new one that is for an amount larger than the amount needed to pay off the old note. The difference between what was borrowed and what it takes to pay off the previous loan goes into the borrower’s pocket, no strings attached.
There’s a lot at stake if you use your home as collateral. And if you have a risky type of a business, then you’re unnecessarily jeopardizing your family. Business bankruptcy and even homelessness could ensue. So let’s look at how to protect you and your family.
Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.
You can get financing regardless of personal credit using stocks or bonds or a 401(k). Or you can use a guarantor instead. Borrow 90% of stock value, 100% for 401(k). You will still earn interest on investments. Pay rates of 5% and lower. And as a bonus, you can get inventory credit lines for 50% of value of your inventory.
Funding Circle is a peer-to-peer lender offering a line of credit. Their credit lines from $6,000 to $250,000. Pay rates as low as 4.8%. You pay interest only on drawn funds. Decision as fast as 24 hours and funds as soon as the next day.
Demolish your funding problems with 27 killer ways to get cash for your business.
With a Credit Suite Credit Line Hybrid, you work with a finance source that specializes in unsecured credit lines. This is a very rare, very little know about program that few lending sources offer. Get up to five to eight times your current high limit, than what you’ll get on your own, because even one inquiry can cost you $25,000 or more. Individual approvals go up to $150,000.
You can get 0% financing for 6 to 18 months. Accounts report to the business credit reporting agencies. Multiple lines create help get you limit increases and give you more tradelines. Get approvals up to $150,000.
A 680 or better FICO score is required for approval. Guarantors are welcome! You must have 40% or lower credit card utilization, and 5 inquiries or fewer in the last 6 months. The consumer card program is easier to qualify for.
Business credit is credit in a business name, that’s linked to the business’s EIN number not the owner’s SSN. When done properly, you can get business credit with no personal credit check and no personal guarantee. You can get business credit as long as you have a business in the USA. You can build business credit for all sorts of businesses. You can get business credit even as a non-profit long as it’s incorporated.
You can get business credit cards with no personal guarantee. You can get 3 types of business credit cards. The first is vendor credit, which offers net 30 terms used to start a business credit profile. Second is store credit, where you can get credit cards with high limits at most retail stores. The last is cash and fleet credit.
Fleet credit is to buy fuel and maintain vehicles, whereas cash credit is Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover cards you can use anywhere. Limits are often $5,000 – 10,000 to start and can exceed $50,000. You don’t have to buy bogus tradelines or shelf corporations, and you never have to put your house on the line.
Home equity loans and HELOCs are similar. They are both essentially a second mortgage on your home. But when you start a business with home equity, there are risks. Your house serves as the collateral for the loan, so if you default, the bank can take your house. There are other financing options which aren’t as personally risky. They include 401(k) financing, peer to peer lending, a credit line hybrid, and business credit.
Making the best decision for business funding is a big step. Let’s take it together.
The post Start a Business with Home Equity appeared first on Credit Suite.
The baby boomer generation may seem like an afterthought when you put together the target audience for your paid marketing campaigns, but they still hold a lot of the country’s wealth and remain a key purchasing demographic.
Baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. This generation still makes up a large portion of the population, with a 23.5 percent share as of 2019. In fact, they were the largest generation in history until millennials surpassed them.
The baby boomers have had a huge impact on social and economic policy and were the target audience for many marketing and advertising campaigns for decades.
The term “baby boomers” actually comes from the fact that there was a high birth rate following the soldiers’ return from World War II. As a result of their high numbers and growth to adult age during a time of economic prosperity, they’re also considered one of the most financially successful generations of all time.
This article focuses on the best strategies to deliver paid ads and marketing campaigns to boomers. To do this, you need to understand the generation’s personality traits, interests, and habits.
Keep in mind that the majority of this generation is reaching retirement age.
Their retirement may look much different than previous generations though. As many as 65 percent do not plan to retire. This is not just due to financial hardship; many enjoy their work, find their work time valuable, and think it’s important to stay active and involved to remain youthful.
They’re also more likely to spend money than previous generations. Their parents and grandparents were pretty tight with their pennies due to growing up in the Depression-era.
Compared to younger generations, boomers may be a bit slower to adapt to technology, and rightfully so. Many still use a landline and write checks rather than using debit cards.
They also don’t have the same trust in technology as younger generations. While younger generations accept that the internet poses a security risk (and are fine with it), many boomers haven’t felt the need to take the risk.
As a result, trust-building is far more important than design and aesthetics. Trust, brand loyalty, reputation, and security are critical to paid ad campaigns targeting baby boomers.
Why even target this generation, to begin with? Why not focus on millennials and Gen-X instead?
It’s because this generation still makes up a large portion of the population.
They also possess a lot of the country’s money and are working past retirement age, which means they’re still spending.
Interestingly enough, they’re the only generation experiencing growth in the workforce, so their influence on the economy is still very real. Plus, 40 percent are starting to spend money online, which opens the doors to more opportunities.
The big question is, do you own a business that could potentially benefit from targeting baby boomers? What are their interests as of right now, and what types of products are they buying? Keeping in mind these individuals are between ages 57-75, what are some baby boomer marketing characteristics you should implement?
First, any business providing accurate and actionable financial opportunities could be one. We find more of this generation is still looking for opportunities at an older age, and the days of “sitting on the front porch retirement” are over.
Businesses selling products to help seniors stay in their homes or help make their lives easier will also have a better shot at selling to this generation.
It’s less about what you’re selling and more about how you sell it.
First and foremost, keep ethics in mind at all times. There are so many slimy methods of marketing to people who are not as “tech-literate.” You don’t want to go that route. There are too many great ways to provide baby boomers with value while also growing your brand.
Marketing to baby boomers is all about trust, brand, reputation, simplicity, and transparency. Keep these five factors in mind as we go through the next few sections.
Most baby boomers are on Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest, so you’ll want to focus on these three platforms.
Facebook has a vast assortment of ads and ad types you can use like carousel ads, videos, static images, sidebars, and pre-roll ads. Each of these has its time and place, but you want to make sure it’s not too intrusive. Keep in mind that “click-bait” will not work with boomers because they won’t trust you.
Remember, this generation grew up with infomercials, the ultimate bait and switch.
If you’re advertising on YouTube, think about what this person may be doing on YouTube when they see your ad. What are they watching? What are they looking up? One in three use YouTube to learn something. They’re not wasting the day away watching videos for entertainment like younger generations might.
Many of them also turn to YouTube to save time. They’re learning that they can quickly look something up on YouTube to get the information they want, rather than sifting through dozens of TV channels trying to find the right media source.
They want to save time and learn something.
Marketing to baby boomers is all about appealing to their feelings and emotions. The same is true with any generation.
What are they feeling?
We know a majority likely have grandchildren, so they might be online looking for activities to do with their grandchildren or for gifts.
Many of them aren’t retiring any time soon, so they may be looking for solutions to make their working retirement more enjoyable. This could be something to save time or help them learn a new skill they can turn into a side-income during their retirement.
Lastly, Boomers don’t want to rely on their children as much as other generations. They value independence, they want to stay in their homes, and they don’t like when people classify them as “senior” or “elderly.”
The Baby Boomer target market didn’t grow up with technology, smartphones, retargeting ads, or artificial intelligence. No matter what way you look at it, they’re not going to possess the skills necessary to understand a complicated ad.
If you overcomplicate it, you’re going to lose interest.
You need to make sure the entire experience from front to back is simple, quick, trustworthy, and as transparent as possible. Take a walk through your entire funnel or sales process and look for areas where Baby Boomers may get tripped up.
Your price should be front and center, right at the beginning. Do not try to bait them in with videos to entice them, it won’t work. Your ad needs to be straightforward.
Essentially, “this is what I’ve got, this is how much it costs, and this is how you get it.”
Avoid terms like elderly, senior citizen, golden years, aging, etc. They don’t relate to this language because most boomers don’t see themselves this way. They’re not looking to unwind and relax like previous generations. Boomers still possess a strong zest for life, so they may take offense to being called “old.”
This is where things get tricky. You can’t call them old, but you also don’t want to use language that is “too new.” While they’re not as out of touch as their predecessors, they’re still not up-to-date on trends and internet slang.
If they can’t understand your ad or what it is that you’re offering, they will move on. Simplicity is the goal. Advertising to boomers is actually easier because you don’t need to do anything fancy to get attention, but you still need to say the right things.
Millennials are so numb from marketing slapping them in the face that you need to be clever to grab their attention. The same doesn’t apply to boomers. For them, it’s all about trust. If they trust you, they’ll listen to you.
This generation takes longer to make a purchase. They grew up when you had to shop in person or call and talk to a live representative to make a purchase. They wrote checks and money orders and did everything the slow way. They’re not going to respond to you talking a mile a minute about the latest and greatest product they’ve never heard before.
They’re also not going to take your word for it. You need to show them that it works. Including video as a part of your content is an important step in the right direction, as is social proof.
Boomers also value brand loyalty and think you should earn rewards for shopping specific brands and companies consistently. That’s why the majority are members of loyalty programs.
You could use this to your advantage by creating a loyalty program or offering a discount for signing up for a yearly service.
Let’s take a look at some examples and break them down so you can see what we’re talking about in action.
As you look at this first ad, do you think that it will work for people in the baby boomers years?
Probably not.
They likely won’t get it, understand why the person has a beard, or get what the objective is here.
We might realize they’re saying you need a great razor to clean yourself up so you’ll get kissed but it’s a reach. An ad like this may be too “modern” for the older generation.
Here’s a perfect example where keeping it simple wins. There’s nothing creative about this ad. It’s plain and simple.
The ad tells you that it’s the best razor and here’s why. The only thing that could be better is a description of how many razors you get, how much they cost, and how long they last on average.
Transparency wins over cute and cliche.
How about this ad? Any idea why we think it’s a bad choice for boomers? They made the people look so old with a cane, the way they’re dressed, the use of the word “senior,” and the fact that they said, “make moving fun.”
This ad is patronizing and shows baby boomers in a way they don’t see themselves. The truth is, most are still quite active.
Understanding how to market to Baby Boomers is still a relevant topic and we believe it will be for another decade or so. This generation still holds a large economic share, they’re still active, and they show no signs of slowing down. The key is to focus on Facebook and YouTube.
If you’re lacking experience on these two platforms, we have a variety of resources to help you. No matter what, having a definitive buyer persona is the key to all marketing so start there and the rest will come.
What types of unique strategies are you using to target baby boomers? Let me know in the comments!
Your brand has the power to reach millions of people around the world, and it only takes a few minutes to do. The power of pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is incredible, with a huge reach and the ability to target specific audiences.
How can you make the most of it?
Investing in PPC can bring a great return for your business (it’s thought paid advertising returns $2 for every $1 invested), but it’s also an easy way to lose money if you don’t approach it in the right way.
To help make sure you’re getting your PPC right, here’s my introduction to pay-per-click marketing.
Pay-per-click is a common advertising model in internet marketing. It allows advertisers to place ads on search engines, social media platforms, and third-party websites, paying a fee whenever the ad is clicked.
Generating over $134 billion in ad revenue, Google is the largest provider of PPC services. Its platform, Google Ads, is often the first stop for people beginning PPC marketing.
Whenever you invest in advertising, you want to know how much it’s going to cost you. With PPC, this is a little complicated.
Online advertising isn’t like taking out an ad in a magazine, where you pay a fee and you get a full-cover page. Instead, with PPC, you pay when you get results (someone clicking your ad).
However, with offline advertising, you tend to pay a set fee regardless of the results you achieve. With PPC, you’ve got more control over how much each truly engaged consumer costs you.
This plays out through an auction system. Unlike a traditional auction, though, there isn’t one product with one winner—you’re bidding on how high up and how often your ad could be visible. “Losing” the auction doesn’t necessarily mean you get no PPC space—it means you get less.
Whenever a user searches for a certain keyword, say “PPC Marketing,” Google looks through its list of advertisers for this word and initiates an auction between them. A Google algorithm then chooses ads based on each advertiser’s maximum bid and the quality score of each ad.
The big takeaway from this is that it’s not just about how much you bid. The quality of your ad plays a huge part as well.
That said, if your max bid isn’t realistic, then your ads aren’t going to be shown often enough to be worthwhile. Different keywords have different average costs per click, and this should inform your bidding strategy.
Tools such as Ubersuggest and Google Ads Keyword Planner could give you a good feel for how much your ads are likely to cost, so they should play a role in your keyword research.
Like any form of marketing, pay-per-click advertising has its pros and cons. Ideally, your company will use PPC as part of a complete digital marketing strategy, so you maximize its strengths and minimize its weaknesses.
This is why my own digital marketing agency works to create a well-rounded digital marketing plan for your business. PPC has some amazing benefits, but you need good marketing in other areas as well.
PPC isn’t a replacement for organic SEO. The two should complement each other, with organic work taking a good amount of your focus because those clicks are free.
Starting your first PPC marketing campaign may feel surprisingly simple—you could do it in just six steps. Remember, ad quality plays a large part in your campaign’s success, so make sure you take your time and focus on each step.
How much do you want to spend on your pay-per-click marketing?
To begin with, you need to set an initial budget to allow you to test the waters. As a rough guide, you can look at some industry benchmarks to understand how much you’re likely to pay for each conversion.
Once you have an overall budget in mind, daily and lifetime spend caps for your campaigns.
This is an important part of creating a PPC campaign because your budget will greatly impact your ads’ success rates. Google Ads gives you good tools to help with this, and it’s worth following Google’s recommendations because its algorithms are designed to maximize your return.
You’ll be able to see an estimate of how many clicks your budget is likely to get you. From there, you can work out your potential return on investment based on your anticipated conversion rate.
If your budget doesn’t allow you to get meaningful results, it might be worth looking at some alternative marketing methods.
Different businesses will have different goals for their pay-per-click campaigns.
For example, if you’re doing a pre-launch for a start-up, your goal might be to drive traffic to the site and create awareness. If you’re selling a product, your main goal may be conversions.
The goals you set will have a big impact on your marketing campaign because each goal has a different value. A click isn’t as valuable as a lead or a conversion, and your cost-per-click should reflect this.
Setting up your campaign with the right goals allows you to better target the correct audience and accurately measure your return on investment. You’re paying for the click, not what the customer does afterward, when you use PPC—the click costs the same whether they purchase or not.
Consider who you want to click your ad and what actions you want them to take. When you understand this, optimize your entire campaign to encourage people to take those actions, which should bring down your costs.
Another element to think about with PPC is what type of campaign you’re going to run. There are lots of options here, each giving you flexibility over how you reach your target audience:
All these options give you the tools you need to target specific audiences. You need to find out where your audience hangs out and what they respond to. This will change depending on the buyer personas you’re trying to reach.
You don’t have to commit to one particular type of ad, and many businesses find a mix of different ad formats works best for them. However, it’s important to keep your eye on your ROI for each ad type so you can tweak your strategy accordingly.
Keywords are one of the main tools you’ll use to target your audience, and your keyword research can make or break your campaign.
While you probably have a reasonable idea of how your customers search for your products or services, you need to narrow them down to those that result in people taking action.
A big part of this is understanding user intent. For example, who is more likely to make a purchase: someone searching “what is SEO?” or someone searching for “best keyword research tool?”
It’s probably the second one because of where that search fits into the buyer’s journey. Where people are in the buyer journey dictates how likely they are to make a purchase, so the keywords you choose need to reflect which stage you’re targeting.
Keywords that attract people who are further along in the buying process will generally cost you more, but they’re also more likely to lead to conversions.
Most platforms give you different bidding options based on your goals. With Google Ads, this allows you to optimize for:
Google will automatically bid on your behalf so it can optimize for your desired goal, but you still have some control over your bid. If you optimize to maximize clicks, for example, you can set a maximum bid. If you maximize for conversions, you can set a target cost per action.
It’s important to remember Google is there to help you get the most out of your ad spend. The algorithms are finely tuned to achieve this. It’s often wise to use Google’s recommendations, especially when starting out.
Getting people to click your ads is only a small part of what you’re trying to achieve. It’s what happens when people land on your page that’s key.
No matter what your goals are, you need unique, engaging landing pages to achieve them.
Your landing pages need to offer a good user experience and be relevant to the ad the user clicked. People want quick access to the information they’re looking for, and if your landing page isn’t relevant to their keywords, they won’t hesitate to click back to Google.
In short, your PPC landing pages need to be optimized and A/B tested to make sure you’re getting the most out of them.
Pay-per-click advertising is an amazing way to reach a highly-targeted audience quickly. Through platforms such as Google, Bing, Facebook, Instagram, and many more, you can set up paid ads in seconds. Once approved, they could be seen by tens of thousands of people, depending on your budget.
While reaching your target audience is vitally important in marketing, the most important thing is what you do when you have people’s attention. This is why you need to give your paid campaigns the care and attention they need or find a company to do it for you.
When you find the right balance with PPC and have your ads perfectly optimized, it can bring you an excellent return on investment and become a vital part of your digital marketing weaponry.
Is pay-per-click advertising a great earner for your business?
Article URL: https://recruiterflow.com/caper/jobs/73
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26518112
Points: 1
# Comments: 0
Article URL: https://deepsource.io/jobs/technical-lead-language-in/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26519802
Points: 1
# Comments: 0