Online Copywriting – When Humor Can Hurt!

November 22, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

Avoid the temptation to be clever or funny at all costs if you are providing your own online copywriting. The temptation is a huge one sometimes, but you will be better off if you fight it.

Why? No one wants to do business with a jokester.

It is more important to be honest and earnest with your potential customers and clients. They want to know what’s in it for them – not how well you can rhyme words for a clever headline or that you have a witty style of writing. No one cares. They want to know they are doing business with an honest professional who will deliver the product or services he or she sells. That’s it. Period. The end.

But can’t these readers overlook an occasional attempt at a clever headline or witty lead in online copywriting?

Why should they?

Their time is valuable. If they feel like you are wasting their valuable time, they will move on and not ever look back. Remember, your potential online customer is always only one click away from leaving your site, never to return. So, keep your online copywriting focused on the business at hand.

Leaving humor out shows your reader you are willing to give them the respect they deserve as discerning shoppers. It also shows you can be serious about the nature of your product or service. And if you cannot be serious about it, who can be?

Remember that there’s a big difference between humor and catchy, powerful copywriting.

If you insist on using humor in your online copywriting, carefully restrict it. Perhaps you are planning to present subscribers or customers with a monthly newsletter. If your wit is just bursting to get out, reserve yourself a column each week or month just for that purpose. Make sure it’s marked as a column by giving it a header like, “On the Editor’s Mind” or “A Funny Thing Happened on My Way to the Web Site….” Make it light hearted so your readers will know to expect to read article content that is also light hearted. But when you are writing for an area dealing with business, keep the tone very business like. By doing this, you will earn and keep the respect of your clients and customers.

This doesn’t mean that your online copywriting should be in stilted “corporate speak” or in the third person. No, online copywriting should be casual, informal, aimed directly at the reader, but still business like in nature.

Of course, there may be exceptions. If you’re marketing a clown’s costume designer, a clown joke may be in order. But the majority of shoppers are not looking for a joke to use in their next stand-up comedy routine – they’re looking for a quality product. Even clowns are serious when they’re searching for the next great costume.

In some types of management, humor is a tool recommended to help bond teams. However, when dealing with online copywriting for Internet marketing, you really can’t know much about the other participants. What might be funny to one person could well be offensive to a dozen others. It’s just too iffy to pull humor into your online copywriting both safely and effectively.

Thus, with online copywriting, don’t try to be too clever, or you may find that you are too clever for your own good.

George Dodge is owner of http://www.CompellingWebCopy.com where you will discover 757 explosive online copywriting techniques guaranteed to skyrocket your sales and stuff more cash in your pocket – even if you haven’t written a thing since high school!

Social Media Marketing Training Helps You Make a Plan For Success

November 18, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

At a social media marketing training session I recently attended, I overheard another attendee talking about the challenges she faced in attempting to tackle social media marketing. The owner of a small, home-based business based in the Toronto area, she was trying to find inexpensive ways to market her business. She had heard about this new way of promoting her company and decided to jump in with both feet. After a few months, she felt completely overwhelmed and decided that she needed training in social media marketing.
She is likely not alone. The temptation to take advantage of the virtually free marketing opportunities in social media is pretty strong, but without an effective plan, you will find yourself in the same position as that Toronto business owner.Social Media Marketing – Why So Much Choice Can Be a Bad Thing
There are many kinds of sites that fall under the heading of “social media.” These include social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, social news sites like Digg and Reddit, and social bookmarking sites like Delicious. Social media also includes the “microblogging” site, Twitter.
The key to using social media for marketing is to offer people something of value so they will want to connect and interact with your business. For most businesses, this thing of value is a blog, series of articles, or other content of interest to their core audience.
Here’s where it gets tricky, and where our Toronto business owner got tripped up – deciding which social media sites to use and what kind of content to create.
When I heard that business owner talk about her challenges, I entered the conversation to see what she had bee trying. Here’s a summary of what she said:
• She started a blog but after a month or so had run out of things to talk about.
• Everytime she posted to her blog, she would add a link to the post on Digg and Delicious.
• She had also investigated Reddit and Stumble Upon and set up accounts on both sites but left them pretty much inactive.
• She set up a profile on Linked In, at the suggestion of a client, but promptly forgot about it and rarely used it.
• She added a personal profile to Facebook but, beyond that, had no idea how to use this profile to promote her business. She eventually found a way to create a business page, which seemed to suit her needs.
• She just recently joined Twitter and was having trouble keeping up with it and finding things to say.
After listening to her, I concluded that the main problem she was having was content-based and I reassured her that the social media marketing training course would help her.
What she needed was a comprehensive plan to get her started. She needed to focus her efforts on a few sites, and ensure she had content to share. She needed a schedule for her writing and she also needed to learn how to optimize her content to draw the traffic she wanted.
Fortunately, the social media training course we were both attending covered all of those points and more.
I spoke to her at the end of the course and she said she felt much better, and much more ready to tackle social media marketing. The training had helped her immensely.
If you own your own business and you are interested in marketing through social media, I recommend that you start with social media marketing training, so you can avoid wasting months of time and energy like our Toronto business owner did.

For more information on Social Media Marketing Training or Pay Per Click Training Toronto visit seotrainingtoronto

Eight Things to Avoid Like the Plague in SEO

November 17, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

If you ask the average webmaster what’s safe and what’s risky in the realm of SEO, most will tell you to make an honest site and build backlinks, and don’t try to trick the search engines.While this is a true and good answer, it still doesn’t help you specifically with what not to do. The “bad” list or not so safe ranges from things that make it hard for a search engine spider to crawl your site to things that can get you banned.1. Entirely JavaScript / flash site a bad idea.While some JavaScript and flash add-ins can make for a great web experience, making a site entirely JavaScript or flash will make it hard for a search engine spider to crawl. This will likely result in not getting the search engine results ranking you really deserve Use regular HTML for links, and a sitemap to ensure the website can be crawled.2. Avoid excessive graphics and flash presentations.The reason for this is two fold. This is purely about visitor experience. If a web page takes too long to load (more than a few seconds), the average visitor will quickly hit the back button and you’ve lost your potential visitor. On this same token avoid very large graphics, instead using thumbnails and allowing the visitor to see a large version if they desire.3. Avoid the “quickly get submitted to thousands of search engines” deals.While many of these do what they say, keep in mind that 98-99% of all search engines are powered by Google, Yahoo, or MSN. Just keep these 3 in mind and you’re covered.4. Don’t submit your webpage to search engines too often.Submitting your webpage urn to search engines if it’s new is considered ok (though with backlinks not necessary). Search engines prefer to find your website through backlinks since that is how your webpage gets it reputation and relevance. 5. Avoid keyword stuffing / spamming.Avoid the temptation to use tons of keywords on your webpage only to try to impress search engines and get a higher ranking. Your search engines results ranking depends upon dozens of factors, only one of which is your webpage content. Write your webpage for visitors with your keywords in the back of your mind and you’ll be in good shape.6. Avoid hidden text.Hidden text is where a webmaster tries to hide keyword stuffing in plain sight, with a font color the same or nearly the same as the background. This gears it only towards the search engine, and search engines are very adept at catching this. This is the old trick that everyone knows and can very quickly knock your site ranking to near zero.7. Avoid cloaking.This is when the webpage your give to visitors is different than the one you give to search engines. Normally the one given to search engines is perfectly optimized for them, but search engines obviously don’t like this as the page they index and serve is different than the one that exists for visitors in reality. This can very quickly get your site banned forever from the search engines.8. Don’t forget, backlinks make the site.This is sometimes overlooked, but a website with backlinks plays a small part in the internet and appears to have less relevance. While how your site is ranked for search results has a lot to do with your content, your link popularity is a major part of how important your website is perceived to the search engines. Miss this one, and your traffic will suffer until you right it.As you can see, the list of things to avoid can affect your site from appearing invisible on the internet, to getting outright banned by search engines and knocking out 80-90% of your traffic. In general, try not to misrepresent your website to the search engines. Let them index what visitors see, and don’t modify your website to try to trick the search engines. Just run a site with good content for visitors, and get quality backlinks, and you’re on the right road.Most people know what things to avoid in the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) game. However, many do not fully know what is over the line and to avoid like the plague.

For more useful tips & hints, please browse for more information at our website:-
http://www.the20seotools.com
http://www.seo.reprintarticlesite.com

How to Stop Binge Eating

November 17, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

 

The biggest enemy of any dieter is compulsive overeating. The people who indulge in this kind of behavior know about the problem, but are often unable to do anything about it. Every episode of binge eating is followed by guilt and remorse. The dieter swears they will never do it again, but often fail. If you want to know how to stop binge eating, you must follow a few simple steps.

 

Binge eating is generally done as a way to relieve stress. However, it also makes the dieter feel that they are out of control, and that leads to more psychological stress. This sets them up for the next round of binge eating. This vicious cycle eventually leads the dieter to a point when they completely lose control and give up on their good intentions to lose weight.

 

Getting over the binge eating cycle takes a lot of self awareness. Developing self-awareness means that you learn what triggers the binges and set up an action plan to do something about it. First, determine what these triggers are. It may be trouble in a relationship, problems at work, or just plain old depression. Whatever it is, the big secret is discovering what these triggers are.

 

Binge eating is like any other addiction. Taking action is very important in breaking binge eating cycle. Once you have identified the triggers that cause you to go on an eating binge, you must psych yourself up to find another outlet for bottled up emotions and stress. Never let outside influences drive you into an eating binge.

 

One of the biggest mistakes people make is breaking the eating binge cycle and living a healthy lifestyle, and then going back to their old ways. Binge eating is almost always caused by stressful emotions, so the binge eater is always open to temptation. Breaking the cycle of binge eating is not easy to do. It involves creating a positive outlook, and other ways to deal with stress. It is your responsibility to learn what your triggers are and how to develop this positive outlook. This is not an easy thing to do.

 

If you struggle with eating binges, perhaps you do need outside help. This may involve seeking counseling. Remember, your health is at stake if you are extremely overweight. Often, people that are overweight are in a state of denial. They don’t want to admit to themselves that they are overweight. The downside to this is getting a good look at yourself in the mirror. This depressing circumstance will even trigger an eating binge.

 

As you can see, going on and eating binge is a vicious cycle. Millions of people struggle with this every day. If you want to learn how to stop binge eating, visit our website for more information today.

 

 

Alden Smith is a freelance writer that spent many years working with people having weight loss issues while participating in vocational rehab. He believes that the best weight loss advice should be made readily available to anyone having weight loss issues.


Visit his site at http://www.squidoo.com/strip_that_fat_now for more information on weight loss.

Why You Shouldn’t Increase Online Traffic – 2 of 5

November 13, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

It’s always desirable to increase online traffic if you have a website, but you shouldn’t set your marketing campaign on bulk traffic. The targeted traffic is the optimal type of traffic every site needs. To receive a large number of visitors without focusing on a specific keyword will be useless. Targeted traffic might bring less visitors, but it will definitely be more focused on the type of traffic you’re looking for.Quality increased online traffic equals targeted traffic. Actually, with organic SEO, you can select the type of visitors you need. So, prior to any marketing campaign, it’s recommended to have a second thought about targeting your desired visitors.Increase Online Traffic with Targeted Traffic in MindIt’s almost a kind of wasting your resources not to order targeted traffic. It’s a temptation deceiving many website owners. Professional organic SEO experts perform a thorough keyword research before they take any steps to increase online traffic to your site. As a result, they will discover a set of key phrases for your marketing campaign.A precise study of your target audience and a careful review of your website content will lead you to the type of traffic you need. Therefore, you select those key phrases that are supposed to be searched by your target audience. This will enhance the probability of getting targeted traffic.Do You Increase Online Traffic Using Bulk Traffic?Some people may pay for traffic and get it, but those visitors aren’t taking the same actions you expect them or not as much as you thought you’d planned for. You may wonder what the reason is. Well, now it’s clear why. This is the bulk traffic, not targeted traffic that you get.What are some examples of marketing methods creating bulk traffic?1. Banner marketing in the websites the contents of which are different from yours,2. Buying text ads in the websites the contents of which are different from yours,3. Exchanging links with the websites the contents of which are different from yours,4. Mass email marketing, which is targeting any audience having an email address,5. Pay-Per-Click Marketing with keywords that are too general or unrelated,6. Using wrong tags in distributing your content among social media websites,7. Choosing wrong categories in website directories,8. Distributing articles to the wrong categories in article directories,9. And so on,Worse than all the methods above is to spam search engines to get traffic. It will cause your site to be punished for such policies as result in spamming search engines. So, be careful while ordering SEO services, make sure you select the SEO experts who are efficient and proficient enough in their jobs to use white hat methods to bring targeted traffic to your site..As you’ve noticed, it’s easy to fall into such traps and increase online traffic without targeting the right type of audience you’re looking for.Increase Online Traffic with Organic SEOThe best method which provides a clear path to targeted traffic for your site is well-directed organic SEO service. To start an organic SEO, it’s essential to have a well-thought out keyword basket. It creates a traffic funnel through which only your targeted visitors will enter your site.Organic SEO aims at targeted traffic. That’s why it can prevent you from being attracted to bulk traffic campaigns. So, it’s highly recommended not to waste your resources by using any services other than organic SEO. Increase online traffic to your site if you’re sure you’ve aimed a certain group of visitors, targeted traffic.

Rahman Mehraby is the Malaysia SEO Expert who helps your increase online traffic by applying organic SEO services to your websites. Check out his services and articles at: http://www.site-booster.com.

Methods of Search Engine Optimization and Google Page Rankings

November 11, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

Methods of Search Engine Optimization and Google Page Rankings How to Improve traffic to your Website – Keyword Stuffing and the Downward Spiral of Page Rankings

There are many ways of creating and improving SEO in order to increase your website’s Google Page Rank. SEO  is a shortened version or acronym for Search Engine Optimization which is a term which basically means improving the flow and quality of traffic to a web site utilising the main search engines such as Google.

Hire a webmaster or do it yourself?

A professional webmaster will design, create, and/or maintain a website at the same time as advising on content, keywords, forum construction etc. It is very much a matter for the individual to decide whether to hire or become one’s own  webmaster. In effect the term “success breeds success” comes into its own when looking at improving a website’s Google page rank utilising SEO.  The more visitors a website attracts, the earlier it shows in the search engines’s page rankings which in turn will make it further attractive to greater numbers of visitors. Of course, this isn’t something that happens overnight but there are several things that can be done in order to achieve a higher search engine page ranking.  Thinking about the following topics and your ability or inability to achieve them by yourself should help you determine your needs.

Keywords

Choosing relevant keywords can often make or break a website:- there may be great temptation to use an obvious keyword to bring the site further up the page rankings. This will have the effect in most cases of diluting efforts and directing traffic to more readily established and often less relevant sites.  Being more specific at the same time as creating a greater combination of keywords will be more effective. A word of warning about keyword stuffing i.e. forcing great volumes of keywords into a topic without thought for relevance, construction, grammar or readability. This will have a detrimental effect on PR.  Readers will be  turned off by such obvious methods and the more popular search engines employ methods of detecting this practice.  This can seriously impede search engine optimization and will send your site towards  the bottom of the page rankings.

Content

Offering readers professionally written articles will help in keeping the content of your website fresh and alive and greatly enhancing search engine optimisation, since readers will more readily linger and refer others to sites which are helpful, informative and well written with well researched links and topics.

Backlinks

Including links to relevant, even more established sites will help to increase SEO rather than reduce page rankings.  This works  in the same way that a footpath, for instance becomes more accessible the more used and therefore more easily navigable.  Submitting  your links to SEO friendly directories, writing articles and blogs with sound content and links as well as participating in relevant forums and including backlinks will all help towards increase that all-important PR.

Forums

Forums are a great way to increase direct and referred traffic to a website and increase Google page ranking. Lively, ongoing debates will  increase a researchers desire to return to a site as well as introducing new members and subscribers.  This is also another opportunity to introduce backlinks.

Further discuss SEO over at http://www.devboards.info | Web & Graphic Development Discussion Board.

Info_Online bringing you up to date content about all things online. http://www.devboards.info | Web & Graphic Development Discussion Board

Methods of Search Engine Optimization and Google Page Rankings

November 11, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

Methods of Search Engine Optimization and Google Page Rankings How to Improve traffic to your Website – Keyword Stuffing and the Downward Spiral of Page Rankings

There are many ways of creating and improving SEO in order to increase your website’s Google Page Rank. SEO  is a shortened version or acronym for Search Engine Optimization which is a term which basically means improving the flow and quality of traffic to a web site utilising the main search engines such as Google.

Hire a webmaster or do it yourself?

A professional webmaster will design, create, and/or maintain a website at the same time as advising on content, keywords, forum construction etc. It is very much a matter for the individual to decide whether to hire or become one’s own  webmaster. In effect the term “success breeds success” comes into its own when looking at improving a website’s Google page rank utilising SEO.  The more visitors a website attracts, the earlier it shows in the search engines’s page rankings which in turn will make it further attractive to greater numbers of visitors. Of course, this isn’t something that happens overnight but there are several things that can be done in order to achieve a higher search engine page ranking.  Thinking about the following topics and your ability or inability to achieve them by yourself should help you determine your needs.

Keywords

Choosing relevant keywords can often make or break a website:- there may be great temptation to use an obvious keyword to bring the site further up the page rankings. This will have the effect in most cases of diluting efforts and directing traffic to more readily established and often less relevant sites.  Being more specific at the same time as creating a greater combination of keywords will be more effective. A word of warning about keyword stuffing i.e. forcing great volumes of keywords into a topic without thought for relevance, construction, grammar or readability. This will have a detrimental effect on PR.  Readers will be  turned off by such obvious methods and the more popular search engines employ methods of detecting this practice.  This can seriously impede search engine optimization and will send your site towards  the bottom of the page rankings.

Content

Offering readers professionally written articles will help in keeping the content of your website fresh and alive and greatly enhancing search engine optimisation, since readers will more readily linger and refer others to sites which are helpful, informative and well written with well researched links and topics.

Backlinks

Including links to relevant, even more established sites will help to increase SEO rather than reduce page rankings.  This works  in the same way that a footpath, for instance becomes more accessible the more used and therefore more easily navigable.  Submitting  your links to SEO friendly directories, writing articles and blogs with sound content and links as well as participating in relevant forums and including backlinks will all help towards increase that all-important PR.

Forums

Forums are a great way to increase direct and referred traffic to a website and increase Google page ranking. Lively, ongoing debates will  increase a researchers desire to return to a site as well as introducing new members and subscribers.  This is also another opportunity to introduce backlinks.

Further discuss SEO over at http://www.devboards.info | Web & Graphic Development Discussion Board.

Info_Online bringing you up to date content about all things online. http://www.devboards.info | Web & Graphic Development Discussion Board

SEO Tips for Increased Website Traffic

November 1, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

Every online business owner should be aware of a few simple seo tips that they themselves can implement to increase their search engine ranking. Often times in haste to improve any off or online business people will rush to hire an (overpriced) consultant.

Without question search engine optimization is important for any person or entity wanting to increase their ranking with the search engines. Of equal importance however is developing a basic understanding of how seo works and why.

By quickly introducing outside consultants to address this need for us we tend to sidestep this learning process ourselves. This ends up costing us both a valuable education and money. Let’s have a look at a few basic seo techniques we ourselves can implement that should improve both our search engine ranking and our budget.

SELECTING A DOMAIN NAME

As trite as this step may seem to many in the process of setting up their online business it is really a critical step. The name selected should, if possible, reflect what the site or business is about. As a rule the more specific you can be the better chances you’ll have to get your site indexed quicker. Also it is wise to keep your domain as short as possible.

The temptation to get too ‘cute’ with a catchy name should be avoided at this stage unless it is directly related to your site, business, or perhaps one of your products.

SELECTING A TITLE TAG

This lets the search engines know what your site is about. This is the first thing a search engine will see and it will be judged upon the relevancy it has to the content of your website. It is highly recommended to insure your most important keywords are located in the title tag to increase the relevancy between the site and title. 

MONITOR YOUR KEYWORD DENSITY

The keywords you select should all be relevant to the content of your site itself. Your choice of keywords is critical so be sure there is a DIRECT relationship between these words and your sites intent.

Close attention should also be paid to the way the words are used within the site content and the frequency of their use. Be sure your selected words are used naturally as would be the case in a casual conversation and take note NOT to use them too frequently.

Overuse could get your penalized by the search engines thereby lowering your search engine rankings. If the need to frequently use some words due to their relevance arises, have a list of synonyms available for substitution.

A keyword density of between 2 and 5 percent is a suggestion margin to target to both accurately reflect your sites content and keep you in ‘good graces’ with search engines.

INCOMING LINKS   

Links that come from external sites reflect to search engines how popular, relevant, or important your site is. The more links you have (within reason – don’t go overboard) the higher regard search engines tend to have for your site. This usually results in a higher ranking for your site.

When leaving a link back to your site at other sites you’re visiting it is recommended to use keywords from your site in the anchor text. 

These simple seo tips we’ve discussed here today should greatly improve the optimization of your site if this techniques haven’t already been implemented. Paying attention to the content of your site and how you use your keywords will definitely enhance your standings in any search engine rankings.

TJ Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina.

For additional online success tips and a free guide that demonstrates how to find both profitable markets and products visit:http://blogbrawn.com/

SEO Tips For Newbies

October 31, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment 

SEO or search engine optimization knowledge is critical for the person starting out in e-commerce. Whether you want to blog, run an online store or do anything else successfully online, you need to figure out how to get noticed by search engines so that people can find you. Understanding SEO is critical for anyone who wants to be successful in online enterprise.

An important aspect of search engine optimization is the fact that you need to invest time and effort into your website on a regular basis in order get traffic and keep traffic continuously increasing. If you allow your website to sit and collect cobwebs it won’t do much for you.

SEO Tip #1:

There isn’t a magical formula; at least not one that’s evergreen so it’s important to stay current on SEO news. Dig deep to find information and read everything you can. You’ll find conflicting information at times but knowledge is power so absorb as much SEO news as you can.

SEO Tip # 2:

Create an easy to follow design with a standard homepage, easily viewable links and a site index. This way, people and search engines can find their way around easily and so can people.

SEO Tip # 3:

Determine what your target keywords are. There are some great tools out there that can help you both for free or for a small fee. Often it’s fairly easy to figure this out on your own.

Ask yourself:

What are the top three to five words or phrases you would use if you were use to search for the product or topic you are selling? Be sure that those words are on each page of your website, especially in titles, headings and at the beginning, middle and end of each page. It’s a good idea to use variations as well to give your site further credibility and increase the Long Tail.

SEO Tip # 4:

SEO Fact : Content is king. Always will be. Don’t assume that more is better in terms of keywords. Do not fall victim to the temptation to simply keyword stuff your site otherwise two things will happen. First, you’ll get banned by the search engines and even worse, you’ll be ignored by the humans who land on your page. Both types of visitors can see through vain SEO attempts to trick you to get onto their site.

Instead, you want to target the fine line between having enough keyword relevancy to make it impossible for the search engines to ignore you but not so much that your human visitors find your content to be poor quality. Hire a professional SEO article writer if you have to in order to come across as professional. Keep fresh content on your pages and change your content regularly. You don’t have to waste what you’ve put effort and money into, instead move your old content into archives so it continues to work for you as well.

SEO Tip # 5:

Web 2.0 is all about social networking. Social networking, social book marking, forum posting and link exchanges can be invaluable If you can get high ranking websites in your niche to exchange links with you, this can help. If you are blogging, comment on other blogs in your niche to get a link back to your site and generate interest from bloggers that frequent other sites in your niche. If you use tools like Technorati, Digg, StumbleUpon and other social book marking tools on your pages with appropriate tagging, you can bring relevant traffic fairly quickly and it’s viral so others will do the same. Social networking activities are also indexed by the search engines.

In summary, there are basic to advanced seo techniques and seo tips that you can use to get noticed by the big three search engines. Your results will depend a lot on how narrow your niche is but there are some basic things you can do to be search engine friendly from the start. It’s never too late to optimize your site though so don’t lose heart if you didn’t follow this advice on your website from the beginning. Here are some basic ideas. This is not an exhaustive list but is a great place to start.

Matthew is the developer of TheWebReviewer: Legitimate Home Based Business Reviews, and NetWebVideo: Mastering SEO, Adwords, and Affiliate Marketing. Matt currently lives in San Diego, CA and is married with two children and has been an online marketer since 2006.
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