Here is the “REAL” truth about Doberman ear copping, the international research, reading forums, and about what you can and can’t do is all BS! Now, let’s start with some back story; I’m from Orlando, Fl, living in Medellin, Colombia. I live here to learn Spanish. About a year ago, my beautiful American Pitbull died, and I wanted another dog, so I looked into different breeds and what would match my lifestyle. Living in Medellin, I had a few friends with Dobermans, but I never thought to look into owning a dog from this breed. Well, I found the Doberman and liked the traits and look. I loved how aggressive the Doberman looked. I asked people about the ear cropping process, but I got general answers. That wasn’t enough for me, so I started my research. That research rabbit hole that I always seem to fall into, but I digress. Let me explain what most of the world thinks, what some others think, what I learned, and the truth about the process my little guy Blaze went through.

What I learned from the USA
There are many opinions when talking about Doberman ear cropping. The USA’s most common point of opinion is that you should cut the ears before three months of age. The reason for cutting the ears before three months of age is that there is an understanding that the ear cartilage will harden around three months, and the ears won’t stand if cut after that age. Few people think otherwise, but soon as they post their opinions or experience in forums, it gets shut down.

What I’ve learned in Latin America
First off, let me start by saying it is not legal to crop Dobermans’ ears in Colombia, where I live. When I was asking around and looking for an ear cropper, people would look at me crazy. “why would you do that?”, “you’re a bad person.” “Well, that’s what I want to do. It’s my dog.” Needless to say, it was not an easy task finding someone qualified to crop the ears. I was referred to many pitbull ear croppers, and I knew that wasn’t the same type of cropping, I digress. In Latin America, they want to make sure the puppy has all the first three vaccinations and is at least three months old. At that point, you can crop the ears because the puppy should be healthy and strong enough for the operation.

DAY 0-10
The first ten days, Blaze had stitches in his ears, and his ears were glued to a piece of foam. This would prevent the ears from moving, causing him pain while healing without creases.

DAY 10-20
Once the foam was removed from his head, his cropped ears flopped freely for the next ten days. During this time, his ears healed to about 85 percent.

DAY 20
First Posting
I have to be honest; I tried to post his ears the first time. I watched a ton of videos, and I could explain exactly how and the posting process. Well, it was a complete fail, and at this point, Blaze was four months old, and I remembered everything I read from the states online said if his ears are not posted by three months old, his ears WILL NOT STAND. I called and texted the ear cropper, and he told me to bring the dog next week; he would post the ears. That felt like the longest week of my life, and I had created worry about not being on time with the cropping process. The cropper told me not to worry; the ears will stand.

DAY 25
Finally, it was time to post the ears. I took Blaze thinking he would teach me the process of posting the ear. Nope, I would have to thank the pandemic because they would only let me drop Blaze off and not let me into the building. They told me to come back in two hours, welp.

After the initial posting
After the initial posting, the ears would stay posted for two weeks, then remove the tape and post, leaving his ears free to breathe for a week. But, there was so much tape that it would take two days to remove the paste from the fur on his ears. Every three weeks for the next four months, I would repost his ears.

Let’s talk about the difference again with the states and what you read online in the USA. They say you should remove and clean the tape from the ears, then let the ears breathe for about two hours, then repost the ears. Not at all what I did! But I will add when I removed the post from the ears the first time, the left ear fell after the 3rd day, I’m pretty sure Blaze slept on his ear. I was worried so I call the cropper and again he told me not the worry.

Results
Blaze is a year old, and I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. The truth is, it’s not an easy process. I hope you can find someone who knows how to post the ears, they should also teach you how to post the ears. Knowing how to post will save you a lot of time and money. Trust me, I watched all the youtube videos, and I could explain in detail how to post the ears but doing it was another story. Remember, the most crucial part of this process is ear posting, not the cutting.

The post The real truth about Doberman ear cropping first appeared on MykeDaMastermindand was written by sharod45.

“I always have that itch to learn; I mean, it’s really an addiction. It’s what moves me day to day.” “But, so what, what does that have to do with anything. All this learning and applying it to what.” “ok, ok ok I hear you.”

These are the conversations I have in my head. I realized that it’s cool to learn; of course, knowledge is power, but I wanted to show and tell how I learned it and what the process was. Maybe I could help people study a different learning method while learning more about myself.

Ok, let me get to the point! I wanted to learn how to draw, and I figured learning would help me make logos and with the bit of graphic design that I dabble in. The thing is, I also wanted something to show for, so I decided to document the process, and here it is.

The Process

How will I learn to draw, and what are the steps I will take to learn?
Wait before I answer that; let me start off by saying I have no drawing or art experience. I have a degree in web design and development which means I know how to design website and application layouts and make them come to life with code, but I’m not by any means, nor do I know anything about art. So, to be clear, I’m starting from zero.

Now, back to the question, how will I learn to draw? Well, I will teach myself through youtube university. Let’s start with a 7-day goal. I gave myself seven days to not only learn but to see if drawing is something I want to continue with as a hobby or maybe even more.

DAY ONE

I started by watching random videos about what supplies are needed to start drawing. Yea, know seems simple, pencil and paper, and it is that simple. I went to a local art store and bought a .05 mm mechanical pencil, an eraser, and a sketchbook. Now that I have everything I need, let’s work. I found a youtube channel with a 30-day learning playlist. I then watched the first five days of this playlist, and it took about two hours. I then watched another youtube channel another day one or first series in a learn-to-draw playlist. What I learned from these videos is that everything is made of three basic shapes; a circle, a triangle, and a square. On day one, I just drew these three shapes and worked on shading and understanding lighting angles.

DAY TWO

Listening to different points of views and teaching style are essential for me and my learning process. So on day 2, I watched more “learning to draw” from the first step videos, and I practiced the basic shapes. I also tried drawing things that were in front of me. Drawing from reference is something that I learned is very important in art, and it makes artists better

DAY THREE

At this point, youtube has changed the algorithm to show me drawing videos as they just play randomly in the background; I draw simple shapes in 3d and try to make them look like they’re in motion.

As I’m watching all these videos on art, a common theme is, draw what you like to draw. That’s when I realize, well damn, I just want to learn to draw. I don’t have any one thing that I want to draw. So, I thought, and I thought, the Boondocks was my favorite cartoon, and I wanted to draw some of the characters. I tried to draw Huey from a reference photo. Then I drew a second one, and it wasn’t that bad. Maybe I have a talent for this, I thought.

DAY FOUR & FIVE

Day 4 and 5, I went pretty hard to drawing from reference photos and things I saw around the house. I even sketched a comic of the Boondocks, and still while drawing basic shapes. I have had an Ex-pen drawing tablet with a screen that I had for about two years and never used it. I had it posted for sale, and it just never sold. So, in the process of letting these videos just randomly play in the background while I’m at home, I stumble across a Photoshop video and drawing with Photoshop. Nothing else to do but connect and set up my digital drawing tablet. That’s how days 4 and 5 ended in Photoshop, making the basic shapes and learning how to use photoshop.

DAY SIX

On day 6, I realized that I had already hit a plateau with my skills, I could kinda draw. Well, I maybe could convince a 12-year old that I knew what I was doing. I needed to work on something that would make me better. What was the next step in the drawing process? If I was going to draw comics and or objects from different angles, like logos, I would need to understand perspective. I didn’t touch photoshop on day 6. I only watched videos on perspective. I was trying to get the best understanding that I could, and it worked out. I completely understand it, but it’s something that will take practice to get good at. I worked on one-point perspective, and it really does make you look like you know what you are doing

DAY SEVEN

Day 7 was the hardest day to get to0. I pulled the drawing tablet back out and played around in Photoshop. Now, I have a better understanding of drawing the process. And, the way I should look at the world as an artist would with circles, squares, and triangles

What I Learned

Talent is something that is always brought up when we talk about greatness, but hard work and practice are far more important. With anything you want to learn, you need to put in the hours to get better point-blank period. There are no shortcuts. Anything can be learned, and you can posse any skill you want. Here is the formula to learning new things; Days x Hours + direction = mastery. I feel that anything is possible if you put in the time.

“Days x Hours + Direction = Mastery “

Myke da mastermind

What’s Next?

I learned drawing is actually relaxing, and I enjoy it. I will continue to document this process of learning to draw. I can already start to see logos take shape in my head now that I’m thinking in basic shapes. My goal is to try to make simple sketch comics and work more on graphic design.

I’ll be working more on my ex-pen drawing tablet and in photoshop.

This was the first step, of many in an ongoing journey in my life. Not only was this about learning to draw, but this was also a step towards productivity. I have done so much, but without documentation, what is it really? What have I been doing with my time, small freelance projects? That’s cool, but it still seems like I have been wasting time with nothing to show for. It’s time to get it!

The post Is it too late to learn to draw? first appeared on MykeDaMastermindand was written by sharod45.

Oftentimes, business owners and shareholders feel that they need a website for their business. The thing is they want full control of the design process without a thorough understanding of user interface/user experience (UI/UX). They have an idea of what they want the website to look like, and nothing else matters beyond that.

Now, what are we talking about here? Web analytics and why it’s essential to make CEOs and shareholders understand the importance of web analytics. There is science and research that goes into web analytics along with tools and platforms that assist with conducting website optimization. CEOs and shareholders should understand that analytics should answer almost all the questions you may have about your website, and knowing the answers to these questions should also come with website change recommendations.

Web analytics can provide you with website visitors’ data. Web analytics will identify what users are doing on your website, and with this information, you can make changes to the website to increase traffic and conversion rates. For example, let’s say you have an e-commerce website, and the analytics shows you that people are getting all the way to the checkout page of your website, but you are not converting like you know it should. The website optimization report, which is created with the information gained using various web analytics platforms like Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics will explain that your checkout page has issues and that it is making people leave or bounce from your checkout page.

Once changes have been implemented from the website optimization report, you will start to see your conversion rate increase from the recommendations in the report. Still, you may have to have an example of a website optimization report with the before and after analytics report so that they can see how much a website increases the page views and or conversion rate.

Once CEOs and shareholders realize how vital web analytics is, you will become one of the most critical aspects of the team.

References:

Levine, B. (2018, August 14). Forrester Wave report on web analytics: Adobe, AT Internet score top rank. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://martechtoday.com/forrester-wave-report-web-analytics-adobe-internet-score-top-rank-206849.

The post Analytics… Who? first appeared on MykeDaMastermindand was written by sharod45.

One of the most essential aspects of digital marketing is SEO (search engine optimization). Keyword research is discovering, dissecting, and utilizing the expressions individuals use to look for data on the web. This is tied in with becoming acquainted with the language of your potential guests and utilizing this learning to streamline your content.

Marketingterms.com defines keyword research as broken down into three main parts;

• Discovery – finding as many keywords as possible relating to your Web site. Online tools exist to speed up the discovery process by allowing marketers to search for related keywords and their relative search popularity.
• ROI analysis – finding the most valuable keywords for your Web site. The most generic keywords are the most widely searched, but also the most competitive, and sometimes bring mediocre conversion rates. Generally, phrases that most accurately describe specific qualities of a site yield the highest ROI.
• Competitive analysis – analyzing the strength of competitors for potential keywords. Competitive factors include how attentive sites are to optimization issues and the number of relevant inbound links they have received.

Why is it important to conduct keyword research? Well, it is one of the most significant SEO elements and an extraordinary method to contact more individuals to your content. While anyone can conduct keyword research, it is normally performed by an online marketer, blogger, or SEO specialist.

According to MOZ.com one of the leading websites heading digital marketing, and the main questions that keyword researchers should be asking are “What are people searching for?”, “How many people are searching for it?” and, “In what format do they want that information?”. All of these questions can be answered with keyword research.

Now that we know what keyword research is, how will you use keyword research to improve your website’s visitor count or conversion rate?

References:

Keyword Research: The Beginner’s Guide to SEO. (0AD). Retrieved from https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/keyword-research

What is Keyword Research? – Definition & Information. (0AD). Retrieved from https://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/keyword_research/

The post Keyword research… anyone? first appeared on MykeDaMastermindand was written by sharod45.

Influencer marketing is when you partner with someone who has a significant influence on a particular industry, and they present your message or and content to their audience. Utilized correctly, these influencer campaigns can put your company or product directly in view or at the fingertips of millions of new and potential clients.

Why are we doing this?

Understanding your goals is essential when creating an influencer marketing plan. According to KIM KOSAKA, “Some goals you may want to consider for your influencer marketing strategy include the following:

• Brand Awareness: Getting more people to know, recognize, and like your brand.
• Building Brand Identity: Getting people to see your brand personality and values.
• Audience Building: Getting more people to follow and subscribe.
• Engagement: Getting more shares, comments, and likes for your content.
• Lead Generation: Getting more people to sign up for your lead magnets and offers.
• Sales: Getting more people to purchase your products/services.
• Customer Loyalty: Getting people to stay interested and connected with your brand.
• Link Building: Getting more links directed back to your site.”

How should it be conducted?

Once you have figured out your goals, you must choose how to set forth your marketing campaign. Kosaka has put together a list of strategies that can be implemented. Each influencer is motivated by different benefits, and understanding these benefits is key to getting much better results out of your influencer.

• Gifting: Giving free products and services to an influencer in exchange for a review or mention.
• Guest Posting: Creating and contributing content for an influencer’s blog.
• Sponsored Content: Paying for your brand to be featured on an influencer’s blog or social channel. You may or may not create the content for the post.
• Co-Creating Content: Partnering with an influencer to create content that is featured on your website, their website, or a third-party website.
• Social Media Mentions: Getting a social media marketing strategy going with a personality or brand to mention your brand, share your content, or post about you.
• Contests and Giveaways: Running a contest and asking an influencer to share your giveaway event with their followers or readers.
• Influencer Takeover: Allowing an influencer to take control of your social media accounts for a set amount of time.
• Affiliates: Providing a unique code that gives influencers a percentage of each sale they drive.
• Discount Codes: Giving an influencer a unique discount code for your product or service that they can promote and offer to their audience.
• Brand Ambassadors: Forming relationships with loyal brand fans wherein they mention or promote your brand, products, and services in exchange for exclusive offers, free products, or being featured by your brand.

Has your marketing plan worked?

Tracking your campaign is essential when understanding if your marketing dollars were being put to good use. Tracking these matrices can be tricky, but the success of your campaign depends on good analytic. Let’s track some of the following matrices to get the most of the analytics. 

• Brand Awareness Metrics: website traffic, page views, social mentions, time on site, site users
• Building Brand Identity Metrics: social mentions, PR coverage (number of articles or links)
• Audience Building Metrics: opt-ins, follows
• Engagement Metrics: shares, comments, and likes
• Lead Generation Metrics: opt-ins
• Sales Metrics: new sales, revenue changes, price per ticket
• Customer Loyalty Metrics: customer retention rates, renewal rates
• Link Building Metrics: number of links, quality of links 

Now that we have tracked the campaign and we have a better understanding of the numbers, and we can make adjustments to get the most out of our marketing dollars. We can also determine if the campaign was a success and report the results to the shareholders.

References:

Kosaka, Kim. (2019, July 11). Your Complete Guide to Creating an Influencer Marketing Strategy. Retrieved from https://blog.alexa.com/influencer-marketing-strategy/

The post Can the influencer really help? first appeared on MykeDaMastermindand was written by sharod45.

AIDA is a very known term in the sales world, but how can we in the digital marketing world use this term with the understanding of marketing? Well, we should have the knowledge that marketing and sales go hand and hand if not one and the same. Knowing sales will make you a better marketer, and knowing marketing will make you a better salesman.

What is AIDA? Why does it matter? AIDA is the understanding of the “cognitive process we go through when making a purchasing decision.”
Attention, interest, desire, and action are the words that make up the acronym.

Now, How can we apply this to digital marketing? Well, by first driving into the words.

Attention – advertisements, posts, and websites can draw the attention of the target market or any potential clients.

Interest – Although, this stage can use the same tactics the strategies are not the same. Using advertisements, posts, and websites can create interest for products to any potential clients.

Desire – answer questions, and reviews of products buy other customers on social media and websites

Action – Conversion! This stage is the conversion stage where the client takes action.

“Traditionally, the AIDA model refers to the relationship between the company and the consumer. However, in today’s digital age, characterized by the widespread adoption of social technologies, this model is extended to include a wide network of interactions.” says Jake Third.

The main thing we have to remember is, keep it simple. You don’t want people to get lost in a site trying to close a deal. Remember that term “findability”, it means more than SEO and being able to find a website on google. In this case, it means, being able to find all desired information on the website that includes form, shopping carts, and checkouts. AIDA aids in conversions!

References:

Third, J. (2019, January 15). How to Apply the AIDA Model to Digital Marketing. Retrieved from https://www.hallaminternet.com/apply-aida-model-digital-marketing/

Hanlon, A. (2013, October 21). The AIDA Model. Retrieved from https://www.smartinsights.com/traffic-building-strategy/offer-and-message-development/aida-model/

The post What is A.I.D.A.? first appeared on MykeDaMastermindand was written by sharod45.

Web development is an element often overlooked by marketers, and this is because, at times, CEOs can’t see the value in web content. The cost of a website project is often hard to justify when many CEOs are not surfing the web and don’t under the impact of having an online presence. In an article from Zack Ferres of entrepreneur.com, Zack points out the many misconceptions many CEOs have about web development, one of the main misconceptions being “anyone can create a great user experience.” A companies website needs to project the values and character of the company while maintaining findability; this can’t be accomplished by using a random person in the marketing department utilizing a website template tool.

“A good website design should, therefore, consider structure and navigation, aesthetics, content, and metadata.” (Kezić, 2018) There are many aspects of web development that can be easily overlooked that are equally as important as the design of the website. Search engine optimization(SEO) is the perfect example because it’s an element of web development that’s affected by not only the design but also the content of the website. Metadata is an area that holds a significant amount of weight in the SEO element of the website; metadata is part of the source code, and most templates sites online don’t have an SEO section that can be addressed because these sites focus on design and aesthetics.

CEOs need to understand the importance of proper web development in the age of technology, and it’s the role of the marketing manager to make sure the decision-makers in the company are informed about the processes and critical standard practices that industry leaders are implementing. Website projects typically take a team to complete, and this team should include; a designer, content writer, developer, and project manager. When CEOs understand the value that a good website brings the company, overall, the project will be of higher quality, increasing conversions for the company.

References:

Ferres, Z. (2014, December 10). 6 Common Misconceptions CEOs Have About Web Development. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240710

Kezić, G. (2018, July 10). Why Design Is Important for Your Website Marketing. Retrieved from https://icons8.com/articles/design-website-marketing/

The post Why a CEO should care about web development!? first appeared on MykeDaMastermindand was written by sharod45.

Digital marketing can be the most critical aspect of the business because digital marketing can be the make or break of a business. Controlling the brand reputation is imperative because it’s how people perceive the company, products, and values, but this action should always be reactive. In this post, I will detail some steps you can take to control your brand’s reputation online.

Establish a Social media policy

Policies and procedures are vital because they detail the actions and the steps that should be taken according to a particular task. A company’s social media policy should outline the steps that should be considered in order to respond to an online crisis; this way, employees and management have a comprehensive guide to follow in the event of an emergency.

What are people saying online?

Understanding the current online reputation of the company is crucial, and knowing what people are saying will keep you in front of a crisis. There are many tools you can use to track what people are saying. Google Alerts is one of the main tools that can be used, and it can be set up to alert you when a name or keyword is used on a website.

Respond to a Crisis

Responding to a crisis in the right way is critical to controlling your online reputation. Using an alert system like Google Alerts can put you ahead of the crisis to resolve any issues that might arise. Companies often become victims to online forums where people go to seek information from a community of like-minded individuals, and the problem is when there is an issue with a product or service, and that community talks about it, and the company is not involved and not able to defend or resolve the problem in the public eye.

The post Controlling the brand first appeared on MykeDaMastermindand was written by sharod45.

Public relations(PR) is an area often overlooked in marketing. Not having a public relations section in your marketing program can hinder growth. Many CEOs don’t understand nor care about PR until they are responding to a crisis. Don’t be the company that learns about PR until it’s too late. Stay proactive, learning, and growing your marketing section to avoid a crisis. 

Here are a few helpful tips to help add public relations to your marketing team. 

Focus On Brand Awareness

Rebecka Jallad writes in an article for Forbes, “a strong identity and presence can help put any brand at the top of consumers’ minds. According to research, digital interaction influences 70% of purchases.” If you focus on brand awareness by monitoring your reputation online, when new comments or complaints are posted, you can then respond, creating those digital interactions influencing conversions.

She goes on to say, “by definition, brand familiarity is the process of creating brand presence by providing awareness, emotional connection, value, accessibility and relevant differentiation for your audience. Building strong brand familiarity is one of the most significant hurdles companies face.”

Organize An Event For Media Coverage

Creating these events can be essential to gaining good media coverage. It’s important to create events for the right reasons. Here are two reasons you don’t want to have an event according to victoria at eventtia.com. 

• To increase the attendance rate

victoria goes on to say that it’s not about increasing your attendance rate just for the sake of it. Many media out are trying to sell their own products, so focus on creating great news that supports your events. Apple product release events are a great example of this, they focus on the news that supports the events are a caveat to the product. 

• To become more popular

Trying to gain popularity is not the best reason to have an event, that’s because it seems to come off as desperate. Plan and discuss the goals for the event and how the news makes the event better not how you can get more people to see the brand.

Now that I’ve told you about the don’ts, what should you do?

You should start with smaller media outlets, this is because the large media outlets won’t take your company or brand seriously if the smaller outlets don’t pick up your story first. You need to prove yourself.

Create news that is important to your brand and that can complement your brand and product. If you have a bread company you should no have a wine tasting news event, you have something that compliments your product, like bread and cheese. 

Monitoring your online presence is key to brand awareness, and knowing what people are saying good or bad, then your response to that feedback is how you can affect brand awareness.

References:

Jallad, R. (2019, October 22). To Convert More Customers, Focus On Brand Awareness. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/10/22/to-convert-more-customers-focus-on-brand-awareness/#2b840fd32075.

Victoria. (n.d.). How to Get Media Coverage for Your Event. Retrieved October 23, 2019, from https://www.eventtia.com/blog/event-marketing/how-to-get-media-coverage-for-your-event.

The post Two Strategies for Mixing Marketing and Public Relations first appeared on MykeDaMastermindand was written by sharod45.

There is much inspiration that comes from this image I’ve taken in Medellin, Colombia. I would caption this image as “the journey to greatness.” The city has a torn pass yet such a promising future, my life a similar testimony to the dynamics of the city. The path to mastery is not an easy one but with focus and drive you can complete the journey.

The post The Journey to Greatness. first appeared on MykeDaMastermindand was written by sharod45.