Month: December 2018

How Much Leads Cost

How Much Leads Cost

Lead Generation Featured Image

I review a lot of content on this topic and am amazed at what I find written about lead cost.

For example: “The average cost per lead across all the companies surveyed is almost $200 ($198.44).Admittedly, that’s a useless statistic, as these figures vary quite dramatically depending on industry, company size, etc.”  Others stated that the range is between $35 – $100 for a B2B lead. Of course, it depends on what you are selling, but common sense tells you that B2B leads for a complex sale (that are worth a sales rep’s time) are probably going to cost more than $200.

Look at this data from an actual PoinClear teleprospecting client:

  • One source of leads was PointClear—we sent them only qualified leads and nurtured leads—at an average cost of $1,357.25.
  • Five additional sources of leads were from other sources, which included some qualified leads and nurtured leads, but which also included many, many more which were termed just plain “leads” (not even scrubbed, let alone qualified and nurtured) and a lot of “scrubbed” leads which were also not qualified and nurtured. Leads from these sources, most of which will land in a black hole, all cost more than the PointClear qualified and nurtured leads.

This table compares the cost per lead on outbound (PointClear Prospecting/Nurturing) to several other sources of inbound leads.

  • The EVP of Sales at this client, a big division of one of the world’s largest software companies, said that he received zero qualified leads from marketing—except for the PointClear outbound leads.
  • Marketing on the other hand stated that they had provided sales with more than 4,000 leads.

This problem is classic and represents the disconnect between marketing and sales:

  • Marketing is focused on the quantity and cost of the leads.
  • Sales is focused on the quality of the leads and revenue generated.

Marketing considered the content syndicator download “leads” to be “too valuable to stop buying” (at $23.15 per gross lead). Because prequalifying the leads adds cost, marketing’s solution was that they would just quit prequalifying the leads and send them straight to sales. What do you think the chances are that sales will cull through 3,117 suspects to find 40 prospects? Right. Zilch. Yet from one source alone marketing spent $72,158 per quarter on leads that were sent to sales and ignored. What is the “right” price to pay for leads? Here are some scenarios to review:  

Lead Rate Break-Even Analysis

To convert to a SaaS solution, calculate lifetime net present value of the average deal.

While this is a simplistic approach, you can see the extent to which average deal size, margin and the percent of revenue that is spent on marketing impacts the allowable cost per lead. Only the $50,000, 60% margin, 15% allowable marketing cost ($1,500 target allowable $ per lead) scenario works for proactive outbound marketing. You can’t cost effectively buy quality leads for low price and low margin offers. I go through an exercise like this with prospects and clients as we work through whether our services will result in a successful outcome. 

 

Article Produced By
Dan McDade

https://www.pointclear.com/blog/how-much-leads-cost

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

How Much Should You Pay for a Sales Lead?

How Much Should You Pay for a Sales Lead?

         

 

When planning a B-to-B lead generation program,

you need to deliver leads to your sales team at an affordable price. A neat way to determine in advance how much you can spend on a lead is to calculate the allowable cost per lead for your campaign. This number can then be used as a benchmark for evaluating campaign investments, and deciding which ones are likely to work. If a campaign is looking like it’s not affordable, then you’ll want to make some tweaks, like find a stronger offer, or narrow your targeting.

Begin by calculating your cost per inquiry. Assemble the total direct campaign costs, including all fixed and variable costs that can be directly attributed to the campaign. Include creative and pre-production work, cost of developing and producing content, and the normal variable costs of campaign development and execution. Divide this amount by the number of expected campaign responses, and voila! There’s your cost per inquiry.

Then, estimate the costs associated with qualifying a lead. Don’t try to determine this number on a per campaign basis — it’s too hard. Instead, calculate an average qualification cost for inquiries over a set period, such as a year. Gather up all your inquiry-handling costs, including the direct headcount involved in inquiry capture, fulfillment, qualification, and nurturing. If your back-end processes are outsourced, gathering the data is as simple as adding up the bills. After you have a number for the year, divide it by the number of inquiries handled in the year. This number will serve as your average cost to qualify an inquiry.

Finally, go talk to your counterparts in finance and sales to gather several data points. You need the average order size, namely, the total revenue divided by the total number of orders. (If this number swings wildly, do the calculation by product category.) You need the margin (or its opposite, the cost of goods sold) and the direct sales expense per order, calculated by the total sales expense divided by the total number of orders.

Let’s look at an example of how this works. The chart works through some hypothetical numbers to arrive at a cost of lead closed and an allowable cost per lead, and compares the two. Your goal is for the cost of a closed lead to come out lower than the allowable — obviously. If it’s higher, you lose money on the campaign. To get to Allowable Cost per Lead, it’s not actually necessary to know how many inquiries will be generated, qualified, and converted. But you do need to know the cost per inquiry, the cost to qualify an inquiry, the qualification and conversion rates, the net margin per order, and the direct sales expense per order.

 

Comparing your cost per closed lead to your Allowable Cost per Lead: A hypothetical example
Cost per inquiry (campaign cost/# responses) $100
Average cost to qualify an inquiry (lead management costs/inquiries per year) $50
Total cost per inquiry qualified (cost per inquiry + cost to qualify) $150
Lead qualification rate 25%
Cost of qualified lead (cost per lead/qualification rate) $600
Lead conversion rate 30%
Cost of a closed lead (cost of qualified lead/conversion rate) $2,000
Average order size (annual revenue/# orders) $10,000
Net margin per order (revenue per order x margin, 60%) $6,000
Allowable cost per lead (net margin per order – direct sales expense, $3,500) $2,500

 

In this hypothetical example, say the campaign spent $15,000 and generated 150 inquiries. Whatever the cost and the responses, the important number is the cost per inquiry. Here, we have hypothesized it as $100. Separately, the average cost to qualify an inquiry for the year was calculated at $50. We divide the qualification rate (25 percent) into the total cost per inquiry qualified ($150) to calculate the cost of a qualified lead. Then, we divide that by the conversion rate (30 percent) to get the cost of a closed lead ($2,000).

This number is then compared with the allowable cost per closed lead ($2,500), which is a simple calculation of the net margin per order minus the cost of sales (hypothetically set here as $3,500). In this example, the campaign looks promising, because the expected cost per converted lead is $500 less than the Allowable Cost per Lead. If you put this information in a spreadsheet and play with it, you can quickly see how much leverage there is on the back-end, meaning after the inquiry has come in and you are working it through qualification and nurturing. A few efficiencies on qualification rate and conversion rate work wonders on campaign ROI.

Article Produced By
Ruth P. Stevens

Ruth P. Stevens consults on customer acquisition and retention, and teaches marketing at companies and business schools around the world. She is past chair of the DMA Business-to-Business Council, and past president of the Direct Marketing Club of New York. Ruth was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Marketing by Crain’s BtoB magazine, and one of 20 Women to Watch by the Sales Lead Management Association. She is the author of Maximizing Lead Generation: The Complete Guide for B2B Marketers, and Trade Show and Event Marketing. Ruth serves as a director of Edmund Optics, Inc. She has held senior marketing positions at Time Warner, Ziff-Davis, and IBM and holds an MBA from Columbia University.

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Life After Google: Fall of Big Data, The Rise of the Blockchain Economy

Life After Google: Fall of Big Data, The Rise of the Blockchain Economy

There is life after Google says, George Gilder…

Since becoming famous with the arrival of the international bestseller Wealth and Poverty in 1981, George Gilder has remained an artistic pillar in the world of politics, economics, and more so, as of late, technology/innovation. Gilder is an energetic author and correspondent covering not only where we are as a society today, but where we’re as of now heading also. Previously, Gilder has honed in on the innovations of the future and anticipated the diminution of technology that basically isn’t staying aware with the way society is developing.

As an intense author and maybe a periodical polemicist, Gilder is definitely already known to many perusers from his other works, including titles like Microcosm, Life After Television, Telecosm, and the Silicon Eye. Despite one’s own sentiments on his other work as it identifies with social analysis, there’s no denying Gilder’s poignant presence in the world of financial matters, particularly from the conservative-libertarian side of things, and his tech-focused visions for what is to come. With regards to economics, Gilder has even gone so far as to earn the label of being the most referred to author alive, by former President Ronald Reagan.

In his most recent book, Life After Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy, Gilder is now again examining the way humankind relates with technology and how it influences the lives of end users. We’re existing at a point in history where such a large amount of what we do, what we see, and what we utilize is controlled by an increasingly smaller group of individuals. Gilder doesn’t like that and, more importantly, doesn’t think it’s useful for civilization. Google appears to dominate nearly every aspect of so many individual’s lives, Gilder sees an essential shift in the future. A move away from centralized authority and domination of so much of the internet today. A shift instead to a decentralized method of connecting and communicating with the world around us; a “great unbundling,” perhaps.

Security, Blockchain, and the Coming Disruption

Eventually, Gilder sees a future beyond Google where things are decentralized and blockchain innovation assumes an indispensable position in the manner in which we interact as a society. For Gilder, one of the other worrying aspects of the centralization in the case of Google is the absence of an emphasis on security. Gilder unequivocally expresses that security in a framework isn’t merely an afterthought. It shouldn’t be a patch or an addition made to a platform, but rather a foundation of the platform to begin with. At the end of the day, the question of security is really one of architecture to Gilder.

In Google’s case, the organization has possessed the capacity to escape without that foundational basis because of how they’ve inverted the traditional relationship between company and consumer. Gilder sees this as a crucial mistake on Google’s part. Basically, Google has changed the relationship between customers and companies which places the would-be consumers in a position significantly more similar to a commodity.

According to Gilder, there is aspiration with the approach and presentation of blockchain technology (a glaring difference to Google’s framework which isn’t security-established in its engineering). Really, blockchain isn’t so much a “hope” as it is a natural progression. The current model practised by companies like Google won’t be able to survive on its own. To be sure, we’re in for an incredible “unbundling.” Big Data ie, Google operates from control and when they can't control data they will fail.

Unlike Google’s model, Blockchain technology is essentially based in security. Instead of being an afterthought for a network, it’s a crucial component of how the network is formed in the first place, something undeniably more sustainable in Gilder’s eyes. Ultimately, blockchain technology is exactly the kind of impetus that can lead society to a more decentralized, provable, and trustless future. In contrast to huge organizations with walled gardens, blockchain allows for large distributed systems that aren’t controlled by a third party and can remain stable without one crucial failure point.

A distributed system that is unalterable and can’t be tampered with by an overshadowing authority has extensive-scale significance. Whether pertaining to legal records, property deeds, financial transactions, or any other type of data imaginable, blockchain technology can offer a framework more secure and immutable than those before it. Simply put, blockchain is the future:

George Gilder, featured in the video, is one of the tech world's more famous and controversial prophets, serves on the board of directors of several technology companies. He believes we can say goodbye to today's internet and welcome a new "system of the world" that enables a new global economy founded on a new form of internet money and micro-payments, where new companies will emerge to lead the new era.

Will This Effect Social Media Platforms?

Decentralized data will also frustrate the social media platforms because they will have no control. Should these platforms go the route of incorporating blockchain technology, will probably be to its demise as they thrive on the data they collect. It would also be a monstrous undertaking considering blockchain really needs to be foundationally introduced, not an add-on.

It would seem that technology has somewhat left them on the shelf.

We have a future here where we can operate on a platform of decentralized data. The next 10 years will be about Market Networks.

Markethive is a next generation Social/Market Network, built on the Blockchain that has positioned itself as a complete ecosystem for Entrepreneurs. Using the latest technology, it provides prosperous solutions for all business owners, marketers, commercial artists who require an online presence. Markethive's functionalities include SEO features, Analytics, Customer Management System, Traffic Portals, Capture Page and Lead Creation, Profile Page, e-commerce portals, video conferencing, Blogging Platform and much more. Also included are significant training tutorials and weekly live support meetings.

Focused on Inbound Marketing, Markethive plugs into all Social Media, simplifying your marketing efforts, with automated email campaigns allowing for lead flow into your designated business. Markethive incorporates collaboration building relationships within the community.

Markethive is a social market platform that is essentially a hybrid between the social networks, Inbound Marketing, Ebay and exchanges. No other alternative utilizes the blockchain the way Markethive does.

Inbound marketing is one of the most sought-after attractive marketing strategies in business today, yet managing a successful campaign requires a high demand of human and technical resources. Here is a platform that can enable you to create, advertise and broadcast, plus evaluate your content’s success effortlessly with complete control and privacy.

Article Produced By
Deb Williams

Freelance Writer – Crypto Enthusiast

I am a freelance writer for the Market Network and crypto/blockchain industry. I'm a strong advocate for technology, progress and freedom of speech and I live for Change. My background is in Sales, …

https://marketnetworks.quora.com/Life-After-Google-Fall-of-Big-Data-The-Rise-of-the-Blockchain-Economy?share=1

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Evolution, The Shift: Social Networks Are Now Becoming Market Networks.

Evolution, The Shift: Social Networks Are Now Becoming Market Networks.

 

SEIZING THE FULL POTENTIAL OF THE RAPIDLY EXPANDING
MARKET NETWORK ECOSYSTEM.

TRENDING NOW: an emergence representing the evolution of Social Networks, combining social interactions with transactions between multiple buyers and sellers in a 360-degree pattern. Social Network + Marketplace + SaaS (Software as a Service [aka Workflow]) = Market Network.

Collaboration is appearing front and center as the new necessary component to businesses achieving and maintaining a competitive edge. It wasn’t long ago that the concept of an open market networking movement was a mere dream. The dream is fast becoming reality wherein an ecosystem has arisen around open networking, offering clients not only choices in the networking hardware and software they run to meet their specific needs, but also in how they obtain it. Companies of all sizes are now able to reap the benefits of open networking in a way that works best for them.

Market Networks are not just seen as a type of business, but rather as a strategic capability for any organization: the ability to orchestrate networks of service in a well-orchestrated, yet reproductive manner. This is one future of doing business that leads to solutions plus possibilities for development of additional organizational models that not only can increase variety, but also distribute innovation while supporting a richer framework of services, moving commerce towards new models in the global IoT marketplace.

Opportunities for Market Networks exist wherever there are groups of service professionals supporting industry verticals. Organizing business operations in this way can potentially produce a powerfully significant outreach which subsequently influences hundreds of millions of consumers. While still seen as in its infancy, it’s become obvious that social media really had no choice but to become widespread with an emphasis on facilitating doing business, which meant evolving into commerce-friendly Social Market Networks or risk becoming irrelevant. Market Networks combine the best elements from social networks (such as Facebook) with top qualities of marketplaces (such as eBay) plus a portfolio of software tools (SaaS), as with Adobe.

Comparison of 3 Market Networks:

  1. DotLoop provides SaaS tools and marketplace solutions, connecting millions of real estate brokers and agents with clients (from anywhere and even while on the go), through a paperless transaction platform to simplify getting deals done. This equates to providing more time driving growth versus chasing paper. DotLoop replaces form creation, e-sign and real estate transaction management systems with a single end-to-end solution while helping to streamline doing business with real-time visibility into transactions. Brokers and agents are also able to seamlessly integrate DotLoop into their workflow with apps they already use with one-click sign-on and with their accounting and CRM systems with flexible APIs.

    With DotLoop. Brokers and agents can recruit, integrate, brand and simplify compliance with a complete 360-degree paperless solution. This results in higher ROI and a much-increased financial bottom line for the brokerage as well as their agents. Compliance is done right the first time, saving massive amounts of time and headaches for the brokers, agents and their clients. Brokers are able to recruit, and more importantly, retain top agents. A broker can power their entire business suite, from CRM and lead generation to accounting and commission reports, all with one-and-done, automated data syncing. They now have the ability to integrate with 40+ software platforms. Last, but certainly not least, there is the ability to brand their brokerage. Their tagline, logo, and colors automatically appear before co-op agents and customers with every document shared.
     

  2. Contently is designed for freelance writers to connect with clients and potential new clients. It’s a marketplace where companies can “shop” to find writers who will create content such as articles, eBooks, and other kinds of marketing collateral. It’s a SaaS tool that helps content marketers with organizing and streamlining their editorial calendars, also with managing the writers’ work, plus tracking performance through analytics.

    Contently’s end-to-end content marketing platform is engineered to surface actionable insights at every stage of each of their client’s processes. Contently provides clients with the ability to find talent on demand. Clients can scale their content program with an expert talent network they can only find at Contently. With the achievement of a much faster time-to-benefit, developed from Contently’s work with hundreds of the world’s best brands, their services and methodologies improve every aspect of a client’s content program.

    Customer experience has become critical in the digital age, yet keeping your content aligned across different product lines, channels, functional teams, locations, and campaigns is no easy task. Marketers need more quality content than ever, but the way they manage the content lifecycle is stuck in the past. Without the right resources and infrastructure, scaling is incredibly difficult. The competition for attention is fierce. Since 5 percent earns 90% of total consumer engagement, marketers need a data-driven content strategy to generate business results.
     

  3. Markethive is an innovative Ecosystem designed specifically for forward-thinking business people and Entrepreneurs. With a user-friendly “familiar” Facebook-like look and feel, Markethive is easily navigated, being simple enough for novices while at the same time powerful enough for individuals or groups with advanced skills, knowledge, experience and capabilities. Of the utmost importance is that Markethive is a private network, being built on blockchain assuring security, privacy, and reliability from political manipulation. This means neither you nor your information is tracked nor profiled, and your personal information is NEVER SHARED with anyone.

    Markethive’s culture is not fixed. It’s a decentralized, autonomous, fluid environment which includes manifestations of intellectual achievements, social habits, innovation, music, literature, technology, commerce, and the arts. A central “hub”, albeit a “decentralized” platform, system and framework built using blockchain technology, is designed to encourage “reciprocal interchange” of ideas, knowledge or skills as well as providing for exchange, sales or purchases of goods, services and commodities. This futuristic model is here now and fully prepared for the future, truly representing a prime example of the next generation = Market Networks. Markethive has the roadmap and is the blueprint of where things are headed.

    Markethive’s collaborative community is founded for, as well as built, run and used by entrepreneurs and is self-governing, independent and sovereign by design. Markethive’s continuous objective and mission is to provide a social environment, complete with an arsenal of technology, that champions the rise of the entrepreneur.
    Integrated with state-of-the-art blockchain, cryptocurrency, and inbound marketing technologies, Markethive has constructed a social network that provides a “Universal Income” created exclusively with entrepreneurs in mind. Because Markethive is self-governing, sovereign and controlled by its entrepreneurs and holders of Markethive, its coins (MHV) share in Markethive’s profits and benefit greatly from ultimate success.

    Markethive’s culture is one of innovation, the DNA of their entrepreneurial ecosystem, inspiring and fueling its entrepreneurs through excellence. Although times, cultures, technology, politics, people, and economies change, the entrepreneurial spirit endures. Markethive’s focus is upon providing a user-friendly social network environment which nurtures a true collaborative business community. Markethive is already seen as a leader in the Market Network realm. Their mission and objective is to pioneer “Universal Income” worldwide. It is already being predicted that Markethive will soon be the gold standard, to which all others will compare.

What Is A Market Network?

Market Networks are hybrids: part social network, part marketplace, part SaaS. [1]*

  • Social Network.
    An online service or site comprised of a connected interpersonal network of individuals, such as friends, acquaintances and coworkers. Social networks are designed to connect people with others who are a part of the network. This environment nurtures the building of relationships, providing the necessary stepping stones for the growth of “virtual online communities”. Social networking websites offer the ability to stay connected with existing friends, plus opportunities to meet new people.

    Think of a social network as a dedicated website or other application that enables users to communicate with each other by posting information, comments, messages, images, etc. Think of a social network as a 360-degree spherical connection where individuals can share personal information with others in their own network. Some networks even offer private messaging services to provide the ability for real-time communication between members or the ability to leave messages privately. As a general rule social networks are not particularly business-oriented or commerce-friendly by design.

  • Marketplace.
    The term market comes from the Latin mercatus (“market place”). A marketplace is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of goods and services. Marketplaces allow for transactions between multiple buyers as well as multiple sellers. A marketplace is an arena of competitive or commercial dealings; the world of trade.

    Fast forward to the realm of the Internet of Things (IoT), and now a marketplace is more commonly seen and represented as highly accessible, streamlined commercial transactions being conducted electronically on the Internet, with an outreach that has no boundaries or limits. An online marketplace literally has the ability to expand the borders of even a local business to that of a nationwide outreach, or even worldwide exposure. With the advent of computers, the internet and networking, anyone can do business 24/7 from the comfort of their home or from anywhere, provided they have a computer, laptop, tablet, SmartPhone, and WiFi.

  • SaaS Tool.
    SaaS tools are for making your job easier. SaaS is the modern way to run software and integrated tools to enhance, leverage and assist the subscribers’ success to achieve targeted goals within the construct of a particular sphere. Software as a service is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as “on-demand software”. Reduces complexity, helps to keep pace with innovation, and provides access to experts for support to provide a clear path for your day-to-day tasks and projects.

    One of the most popular forms of cloud computing is SaaS, defined as a software distribution model in which a service provider hosts applications for customers and makes them available to these customers via the internet. The era of installing software from a CD or from a data center’s server is coming to a close, as Internet-delivered software makes applications available anywhere, anytime.

*[1] Market Networks focus on more complex services; the types of services that are not easily scalable and require more human collaboration.

Just as brick and mortar businesses have been and still are falling by the wayside to make room for much bigger and better ways in which to do business online without borders, traditional social networks will need to either evolve into being much more business- and commerce-friendly or get left behind.

In today’s economic and technological cultures, what had been seen previously as traditional jobs and long-term employment are now things of the past. Statistics have shown that employees and laborers now work on average for only 4 years or less. More and more, the faces of this new paradigm shift are entrepreneurs. Reid Hoffman founder of LinkedIn is quoted as saying, “All human beings are entrepreneurs.” Hence, the impetus for designing a platform that will ultimately create real Universal Income that is available for everyone. It should be noted that Universal Income has become a new focus of elites, such as Elon Musk, and a subject for a more in-depth analysis in another article.

Attributes of a Successful Market Network.

If you recall from history, back in the days of the Gold Rush, it turned out to be those who provided the tools and resources for the miners who benefitted the most financially. In a Market Network, a many-to-many transaction pattern is key. A Market Network often starts by enhancing a network of professionals that exist offline. Many of them have probably been transacting with each other for years using various offline methods of doing business: phone calls, fax, checks, and overnight packages. When moving all these connections and transactions into software, the creation of a Market Network makes it much easier for professionals to operate their businesses and for clients to get far better service.

  • Market Networks target more complex services.
    The highest value services are neither simple nor normally objectively judged. They can be more involved and longer term. Market Networks are designed for these types of services.
  • People matter.
    A Market Network is designed to acknowledge that as a core tenet while providing the best possible solution.
  • Collaboration happens around a project.
    The SaaS at the center of Market Networks focuses the action on a project that can take days, months or even years to complete.
  • Market Networks help build long-term relationships.
    For years, social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook have helped build long-term relationships. However, until Market Networks, they hadn’t been used for commerce and transactions.
  • Referrals flow freely.
    The Market Network software is designed to make referrals simple and more frequent.

Market Networks increase transaction velocity and satisfaction.
The Market Network grows the closing ratios on proposals and expedites the payment process. The software also raises customer satisfaction scores, reduces miscommunications, and makes the work appealing, with outstanding results.

 

Conclusion

It’s just a matter of time

until nearly all independent professionals and their clients will conduct business through the development of tight-knit collaborative Market Networks within specific industries. We’re just really witnessing the beginnings of this now. Each Market Network will have different attributes that make it work in each vertical, but the principles will remain the same.

Starting NOW, there will be many more forward-thinking entrepreneurs stepping forward, with their sights set upon creating increasingly innovative, highly synchronized business models and solutions to doing business in the 21st century and beyond. Those who will be most successful will not only keep up with the speed at which technology continues to change, but they will align themselves ahead of the curve at all times.

The potential payoff is predicted to be huge. Market Networks will have a massive positive impact on how millions of people work and live, and how hundreds of millions of people buy and sell better services.

Article Produced By
Deb Williams

Writer at Markethive

I am a freelance writer for the Market Network and crypto/blockchain industry. I'm a strong advocate for technology, progress, freedom of speech and I embrace "Change". My background is in Sales, Service & Business Development Consulting, and have trained and coached clients from Front Line through to Management in the Financial Services Industry. I have been owner/operator and developed offline and Online Businesses.

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Number of Crypto Users Increase Despite 85% Market Correction

Number of Crypto Users Increase Despite 85% Market Correction

When all is said and done, people remained relatively loyal to bitcoin and crypto in 2018.

Crypto Says Goodbye to the Last 12 Months

This year has not been particularly kind to BTC, especially when compared with 2017, the year of the bitcoin boom. Last December, cryptocurrency enthusiasts and traders everywhere were treated with a special Christmas treat when bitcoin rose to just under $20,000 during the final weeks of the year. After a series of extensive price spikes throughout 2018, it appeared bitcoin had finally hit its mark.

But just a month later, bitcoin began to take a nasty fall, and that fall has never let up. At press time, bitcoin has lost virtually 85 percent of its previous value, and today, it’s trading for just over $3,400.

People Still Love Their Crypto

But that doesn’t mean people gave up on bitcoin and cryptocurrency altogether. A new report issued by the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance suggests that the number of “newbies” entering the crypto space in 2018 practically doubled from the numbers listed for 2017. Despite bitcoin’s record (and consistent) drops, BTC and crypto users shot up more than anyone likely anticipated.

The authors explain:

“Conforming with popular narratives, survey data indicates that most users – both established as well as new entrants – are individuals and not business clients. Individuals can by hobbyists, retail investors, consumers or users seeking a better investment or payment alternative… Growth rates were at their highest in 2017, and the number of new users’ accounts as well as ID-verified users continued to rapidly grow in 2018 as well.”

Will Bitcoin Return to Greatness?

The data suggests one hugely positive thing: that bitcoin is potentially in line for another rally. If users continued to flock to bitcoin even during times of extreme crisis, that could mean recovery is on the way in the coming months – especially if new customers continue to flock to the space. It’s a nice little push forward considering some analysts predict bitcoin to fall even further.

Data issued in the report show that the number of user accounts on digital exchanges nears the 150 million-mark for 2018. This is almost double the number of accounts in 2017, which was only at about 80 million. In addition, the number of ID-verified accounts sprung from about 20 million to 40 million between 2017 and now.

However, the study confirms that bitcoin is still largely being used for investing purposes rather than for commerce or making purchases. Volatility remains extremely high, which has prevented bitcoin from being used as a potential “money replacement” more often.

 

NICK MARINOFF · DECEMBER 13, 2018 · 12:07 AM

 

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

ICOs: One Year Later

ICOs: One Year Later

With the sale of digital coins,

start-ups have taken many billions of dollars of capital last year. For the financiers, however, that has by no means paid off according to a study.

In August 2018, Digipulse declared himself a victim of a hypeship, which it was co-fired with. At the end of 2017, the start-up acquired approximately $25 million in an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) through Ethereum blockchain platform to build a secure digital asset inheritance service. But other ICOs were in demand at that time, so the price of Ethereum units shot up. This, in turn, meant that the use of the network became too expensive for Digipulse. So the young company was radically re-thinking: Instead of storing it in a blockchain, data is now classically stored on cloud servers, and those who want to use the service can only pay in dollars instead of using crypto-money. So you can confidently consider the Blockchain plans of Digipulse as failed.

Higher risks with ICOs

Nevertheless, the company is one of the positive exceptions in the ICOs of 2017, because after all, it still exists and has developed a specific product. The majority, on the other hand, sees things differently: The audit firm looked at the 110 largest ICOs in 2017 and found that 71 percent of them had neither a finished product nor a prototype until October 2018.

Also, the value of the digital coins they issue was well below their first market price in the vast majority of cases?—?here Digipulse is no exception. Anyone who would have invested in a portfolio of the examined ICO coins on January 1st, 2018, would have recorded a loss of 66 percent

until October.

“ICO-funded companies seem to be at higher risk due to a number of factors,” the EY experts wrote.

Researchers at Boston College had calculated this summer that investing in ICOs on average yield high returns. But this consideration covered only a short period. As things stand now, the more experience with ICOs, the more disillusionment it gets.

Up and down again

In keeping with this, the ICO hype?—?along with the price losses in most cryptocurrencies?—?seems to be gradually slowing down. Although in the third quarter of 2018 with ICOs still added about 2.4 billion dollars. However, that was only half as much as in the previous quarter and only about a fifth of the volume in the first quarter, which had been at nearly $11.5 billion. In fact, the numbers found by EY are not as bad as they might seem at first sight. 71 percent without a product or prototypes, in turn, means that at least 29 percent of ICOs have already implemented their plans.

Alex Lielacher of the crypto-market research firm Brave New Coin refers to this point. He compares ICOs with “seed funding,” the first start-up financing by venture capitalists?—?in this phase, normal start-ups usually have to offer only speculation and theoretical considerations.

Not unlike other startups

While the number of seed-funded projects in the US has grown rapidly since 2009, there has been little increase in follow-on financing. For Lielacher this shows how difficult it is not just for ICO-funded companies to get from the start-up phase to a marketable product. He points out that according to a rule of thumb from the venture capital industry, around 90 percent of all start-ups financed by it fail. Against this background, the previous success rate of the ICOs examined by EY is no longer so frightening.

The EY experts also point out that many companies have failed in previous technical revolutions. And for those who fared better, it took a while for them to mature enough to be considered an investment for a wide range of investors. In the meantime, according to their forecast, interest in ICO will probably shift from private investors to professionals “who know what downside risks exist and can handle them”.

Article Produced By
Marko Vidrih

Marko Vidrih
I love writing, and that is why I do it. A passion for not only providing the information but for helping people understand.

https://cryptocurrencyhub.io/icos-one-year-later-14f33d1b8196

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

6 ways to create a highly shared newsroom

6 ways to create a highly shared newsroom

   

Most organizations consider it essential to have dynamic newsrooms

these days, downplaying press releases in favor of journalism-style content. But how easy is it for others to share what your organization is up to on social media? In an online world that runs at warp speed, are you getting the most out of the people who read your posts or watch your videos? “Social media sharing is the lifeblood of our newsroom content,” says Jake Jacobson, director of public relations at Children’s Mercy Kansas City. “Whether we’re working with media coverage—the ‘In The News’ section—or content we’ve created—'Our Stories’— we rely on our highly active social media channels to spread the word.”

Social media, boosted by a social-friendly newsroom, helps readers share stories with their friends and followers, thereby driving traffic to Shepherd Center, an Atlanta-based brain and spinal cord injury rehabilitation center. “Using social media to boost Shepherd Center’s content allows us to cost-effectively reach a much broader audience than if we just hosted content on our website,” says Kerry Ludlam, associate director of public relations at the center. Here are some ways your newsroom can encourage such sharing:

1. Make it easy to quote and share.

Most organizations’ websites include buttons that make it easy to “like” and share their content on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other platforms. Take it a step further, making it easy for readers to share quotes from your stories, and you’ll gain an advantage over most websites—and even mainstream news sites. Shepherd Center frequently writes about successes, such as a former patient who speaks at high schools about making safe and smart decisions around cars.

A reader impressed or moved by a quote—say, “The doctor who treated Andrew while he was in a coma … said his prognosis ranged from ‘Andrew 100 percent’ to ‘he never wakes up’”—can simply highlight it and tweet it or share it on LinkedIn (a function PressPage enables).

2. Offer expertise your audience is looking for.

Recently Children’s Mercy featured its Parent Support Program coordinators in its intensive care nursery in a story that suggested 10 things you can do to help “when a friend’s baby is in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.” The article was targeted toward the consumer audience, but the writer’s daughter spent time in Children’s Mercy NICU, “so she’s able to appreciate and empathize with the parents’ perspectives as well as the caregivers,” Jacobson says.

News media coverage turned this into one of Children’s Mercy’s more popular posts on Facebook that month, with nearly 300 likes and more than 140 shares. By reaching 23,000 people and sparking 4,300 engagements—all organic, no paid support—more than half of the nearly 3,000 visits to the hospital’s newsroom were driven from Facebook. The success of this post “reinforced that when we’re talking to the right audience—in this case, our moms—with helpful content and knowledgeable experts they can relate to, the best way to get them engaged with the story is through social media,” Jacobson says.

3. Unleash your employees.

SAS , a North Carolina-based software analytics company, recently encouraged its social media team to use the organization’s employee base to drive share of voice by recommending certain content on social media, says Kirsten Hamstra, senior global social media manager. SAS rallied its 14,300-strong workforce, including 600 employee advocates who are trained on social media. The organization suggested hashtags to promote the company’s expertise in AI and machine learning, setting a challenge of increasing share of voice 20 percent.

“We performed extremely well, reaching the challenge,” Hamstra says.

Many hospitals use this approach. OhioHealth tells how its emergency clinical resource team runs practice drills in case of mass casualty events. Cook Children's Health Care System in Fort Worth, Texas, recalls a teen who leaves a mark on nurses who cared for her through cancer journey. "If you walk into a room and see a 6-month-old child, and it doesn't make you beam, you shouldn't go into pediatrics," one physician says.

4. Maximize your supporters.

Few people—inside your organization or out—will spout talking points from your mission statement. They will share something that relates to their own lives. “A key thing with this is that people generally want their messaging to be ‘all about them,’ not ‘all about you,’” says content marketer Lin Grensing-Pophal, adding, “If they see the benefit to them or their organization, they're more likely to share.” Shepherd Center’s pre-Thanksgiving tweet promoting a podcast expressing gratitude for caregivers drew shares and likes recently:

5. Spin a yarn.

Few people are going to share that talking point you crafted, but they will remember a story of selflessness that subtly underscores your mission. “You’re more likely to remember it and retell it as a consumer and an audience member if you hear it as a story than if you hear it as an announcement or a press release or a tag line,” says Jacobson. Take, for example, the story of a Children’s Mercy nurse who donated a

kidney to a friend:

Christa Jordan had several reasons not to donate a kidney a few months ago.She had just gotten married, and her husband was about to start graduate school. And her brother might need a kidney some day.But the Children’s Mercy Hospital nurse had one very good reason to donate: a patient who also happened to be her friend needed a kidney, and she had one to give.

6. Provide quality content.

You can tweak your site all you like, but if you can’t offer interesting content, don’t expect even your most loyal followers to wrap a LinkedIn post around it. On the other hand, quality content boosts your reputation. Says Pophal, “You become known as an expert or go-to resource in a particular area, which will lead to new business, clients and customers.” Building a great newsroom for your brand stories shouldn’t be complicated. PressPage is an online newsroom software that makes building and running your newsroom a quick and painless process, so you can focus on telling the stories that matter to you.

Article Produced By
Russell Working

 

Russell Working is a staff writer for Ragan Communications. A former reporter for the Chicago Tribune, he has also freelanced for The New York Times,The Atlantic Monthly, Columbia Journalism Review, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the South China Morning Post, The Japan Times, and many other publications worldwide. Before moving to the Chicago area in 2003, he was based in the Russian Far East and Cyprus for six years. He has reported from throughout the former Soviet Union, China, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, the Philippines, Turkey, Greece, the Middle East, and aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he has also taught as a visiting faculty member.

https://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/89802d51-d7fa-4077-aa52-d35f11540372.aspx

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

French Firm Becomes Europe’s First Regulated Crypto Asset Manager Funded by an ICO

French Firm Becomes Europe’s First Regulated Crypto Asset Manager Funded by an ICO

France has one of the toughest regulatory environments in Europe

and the world generally when it comes to finance and specifically cryptocurrency. The country has in recent times taken a few cursory steps toward becoming a hub of ICO activity, but strict enforcement of crypto regulations is the cost of doing business in a well-connected financial hub like Paris.

Napoleon Group Gets Green Light from AMF

Napoleon Group, which is backed by BNP Paribas bankers Jean-Charles Dudek and Stephane Ifrah, and private equity investor Arnaud Dartois, used the ICO funding model about 9 months ago to raise about 10 million euros by issuing around just almost 30 million NPX utility tokens, which are used for access to trading bots and quantitative strategies on the NapoleonX.ai platform. One only needs a single token to access the platform. According to the firm, they are the first to overcome all the regulatory hurdles in French law and acquired approval to offer managed cryptocurrency assets to institutional traders everywhere. This is big news for France and Europe more generally.

Individuals can already benefit from the quantitative strategies available on the napoleonx.ai platform for bitcoin and ether, as well as the main global stock market indices. The first investment vehicles are expected to be launched in the first half of 2019. The group consists of three entities: Napoleon Capital, Napoleon AM, and Napoleon Index, set to launch next year, which will be another first, in that it will be a Benchmark Regulated-registered blockchain index publisher and administrator, which means they are future-proofed for Eurozone regulations set to be fully enforced around the bend in 2020.

Regulation is important, whether those in the crypto space like it or not. Attracting real capital and institutional wealth has been a long process for the crypto space. People don’t want to transact in a market where they can be regulated out of existence at any minute, so regulations that are clearly defined put them back in their comfort zone. France is still outlining its whole crypto framework, but one thing that is clear is that those who profit from cryptocurrencies in France will be paying a flat tax like any other asset, which is, according to co-founder and COO Arnaud Dartois, “the maximum that could have been done in France. It’s not enough. It’s not competitive in regards to what is done in other countries, but it is the best we could hope for at this time.”

As they say in their most recent press release:

“The AMF’s decision validates the Napoleon Group’s approach from the outset: to comply with the strictest financial standards and to rely on regulation to meet the needs of institutional investors. The Group has always believed in the need to regulate the crypto and blockchain industry in order to accelerate its adoption and has participated in numerous meetings and workshops with both public and private players over the last quarters.”

Proof of Performance

Albert Bergonzo/Wikimedia Commons Napoleon has actively participated the development of the ICO-friendly regulations that France is working on, having discussed the regulatory environment at length with the powers that be for over a year, as Dartois explained to this reporter in

an interview Friday.

“Actually, we have been in touch with the French regulator AMF for over a year, and we have done some lobbying to explain to them the importance to be very proactive on crypto and blockchain, and the hold that France can have to lead it. […] Tokenization of assets will be the next big wave, and they have to give the ecosystem, the framework, to seize this opportunity. And they have done it in a quite nice way, meaning they don’t have a very fixed or constrained framework, but something that is very light – they have a very flexible approach to that. It is understood that this is a huge opportunity for France and they have done a nice job.”

Napoleon’s primary market will be institutional investors and traders who have money in France and would like to gain exposure to crypto markets. What they have done is not easily done, and the association with former BNB Paribas banker Jean-Charles Dudek likely didn’t hurt.

Next year, they intend to launch Napoleon Index, which which requires the latest European regulatory approval under the BMR directive. Dartois says the index product will “enable anyone to prove the performance of any benchmark calculated and administrated by Napoleon Index via a public blockchain.” The result is that users can confirmed that the value of any algorithm or index are legitimate, after a requisite period of obfuscation data. The firm calls this feature “proof of performance.” Napoleon Index is scheduled to launch next year after approval is finalized. Dartois said it is currently operational, but just hasn’t received full regulatory approval yet.

Article Produced By
CCN-News

https://www.ccn.com/french-firm-becomes-europes-first-regulated-crypto-asset-manager-funded-by-an-ico/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

AirDrop an unwanted nude pic and you could face stiff penalties

AirDrop an unwanted nude pic and you could face stiff penalties

   

It has come to the attention of the New York City Council

that there have been certain disclosures of – ahem – intimate images, conveyed via portable electronic pocket telephones, that have been inflicted upon strangers in order to harass, annoy or alarm. If a bill introduced last week by the council makes it into law, legions of hands-down-the-pants photographers could be left holding stiff penalties. The bill would make it a misdemeanor “for a person to send an unsolicited sexually explicit video or image to another person with intent to harass, annoy or alarm such other person.” Anybody who gets caught beaming their junk out could be looking at up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both.

It’s called cyber-flashing, and it’s a modern-day version of flashing that dispenses with the need for a trench coat and sneakers to make a quick get-away. The term refers to the practice of sending obscene photos to strangers through Apple’s AirDrop: an iOS file-sharing app that enables users to send photos, videos and documents instantly over a wireless connection to anyone within 30 feet who’s left the feature open to being contacted by everyone.

By default, AirDrop is set to limit devices to accept content only from people in your contact list. Unfortunately, people often turn it on to accept from anybody and everybody, and then they forget to turn it back to contacts-only. That’s led to a growing number of incidents, such as what happened last year to a Huffington Post UK writer who reported that she’d been gang-flashed with 120 down-the-pants images while riding on the London Underground.

At the time – August 2017 – London police didn’t think that it amounted to an epidemic despite headlines about the ”horrific public transport craze.” However, the UK is ahead of New York on this one: sending indecent images is classified under section 66 of the Sexual Offences Act (2003), given that it’s the same as exposing genitals and intending that the recipient “see them and be caused alarm or distress”. The penalty for breaking the law is a prison term of up to two years.

One little problem: anonymity

Penalizing the propagandists of penises and other private parts is a satisfying notion, but there’s a bit of a hitch: AirDrop allows people to send images anonymously. It also keeps recipients anonymous: senders might never know who, within a 30-foot radius, has received their little package, since AirDrop only identifies nearby phones by their nicknames. Be that as it may. Donovan J. Richards, a councilman from the New York borough of Queens and a co-sponsor of the bill, told the New York Times that the legislation is intended to raise awareness, and to lessen the sense of impunity that emboldens

the creeps who send the pics:

If you do it, the message we are sending is that the repercussion is a fine or jail time.

AirDrop works via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. A similar function has recently come to some Android devices in the form of a feature called AirDroid that offers wireless file transfer. But what makes iOS devices particularly susceptible to cyber flashing is that AirDrop automatically shows an image preview when it asks a recipient to accept or decline a photo – thus, there’s no way of not seeing the fleshy missive if the feature is on and open to receiving content from one and all.

How to not see the fleshy missive

The way to avoid having your eyeballs assaulted is to either turn off AirDrop or set it for use only between phone contacts (Apple’s default setting).

Here’s how to keep the creeps off your phone:

  • In the main settings app, select General, and then AirDrop. Then select either Receiving Off or Contacts Only. The Everyone setting is what the creeps take advantage of.
  • On newer iPhones, you can also swipe up from any screen to bring up the control center. Press and hold the the network settings card that contains the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi icons to open another menu where you’ll find an AirDrop icon. Tap it, and you’ll be presented with options for Receiving Off, Contacts Only and Everyone.

Article Produced By
Lisa Vaas

Lisa has been writing about technology, careers, science and health since 1995. She rose to the lofty heights of Executive Editor for eWEEK, popped out with the 2008 crash and joined the freelancer economy. Alongside Naked Security Lisa has written for CIO Mag, ComputerWorld, PC Mag, IT Expert Voice, Software Quality Connection, Time, and the US and British editions of HP's Input/Output.

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2018/12/04/airdrop-an-unwanted-nude-pic-and-you-could-face-stiff-penalties/

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

International Cooperation ‘Critical’ to Bringing Illegal ICOs to Justice: SEC

International Cooperation ‘Critical’ to Bringing Illegal ICOs to Justice: SEC

   

International cooperation is essential for eradicating ICO fraud,

said Steven Peikin, co-director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division. Peikin made the remarks during a December 3 speech at Harvard Law School’s Program on International Financial Systems, where he discussed the astonishing growth of the ICO market. “The sponsors of ICOs are, in many instances, located outside the United States,” Peikin said. “And international cooperation is critical to our ability to investigate and, where appropriate, recommend that the Commission bring enforcement action.”

ICOs Have Spiked 22,000% Since 2016

Peikin noted that the ICO market has “exploded from a mere concept to a phenomenon” in just a few short years. In 2016, ICOs raised less than $100 million. In 2018, that figure skyrocketed to more than $22 billion — a spike of 22,000%. With that rapid growth has come a massive increase in fraudulent activity. Complicating matters for regulators is that the money raised in initial coin offerings often comes from investors both inside and outside the United States.

Peikin noted that the novelty of ICOs — coupled with the excitement surrounding blockchain technology — makes them an alluring vehicle for investors. This exuberance can sometimes blind them to the risks associated with this nascent asset class, he warned.

Peikin: ‘Some ICOs are Outright Frauds’

“The growth in the ICO market can obscure the fact that these offerings are often high-risk investments,” Peikin said. “The issuers may lack established track records. They may not have viable products, business models, or the capacity for safeguarding digital currencies from theft by hackers. And some of the offerings can be simply outright frauds.”

Steven Peikin then alluded to the example of PlexCoin founder Dominic Lacroix, a Canadian citizen who fleeced as much as $15 million from thousands of US investors for his sham ICO by promising a 13-fold profit in less than a month. The SEC learned from Canadian authorities that Lacroix had a long history of running similar financial scams in Quebec.

In May 2018, US and Canadian regulators launched over 70 investigations into cryptocurrency scams and fraudulent initial coin offerings as part of a wide-ranging crackdown called “Operation Crypto Sweep". As CCN reported, the North American Securities Administrators Association sent cease-and-desist letters to operators of sham crypto companies in more than 40 jurisdictions across the United States and Canada.

Operation Crypto Sweep Targets Scams

Operation Crypto Sweep came shortly after a finding that fraud was alarmingly widespread among crypto investment promoters. Securities attorneys have also warned celebrities who endorse ICOs that they could be sued for aiding and abetting fraud if they promote sham crypto products. Last week, that warning turned into a rude awakening for boxing champ Floyd Mayweather and music producer DJ Khaled, when they were fined a combined $767,500 by the SEC for illegally promoting ICOs.

 These regulatory crackdowns — combined with the current bear market — have led some industry insiders to declare that the ICO market is dead.“The ICO market is dead — over,” said Barry Silbert, founder of crypto investment fund Digital Currency Group. “You now have the lack of demand from ICOs. And you have all the sponsors of the ICOs who raised a bunch of bitcoin [and ether] that are now starting to sell that.”Even though he believes that ICO mania is over, Silbert remains bullish about the future of the cryptocurrency industry, and he called the current market downturn an “awkward transition” that will pass

Article Produced By
ICO News

https://www.ccn.com/international-cooperation-critical-to-bringing-illegal-icos-to-justice-sec/

 

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden