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Posts tagged guest post
The Facebook IPO
26 days ago
This guest post was written by Efraim Landa.
Efraim Landa is the co-founder of Effi Enterprises, a venture capital firm that specializes in providing VC funding to medical device companies as well as tech start ups.
Facebook IPO
It is usually a good sign when a company is ready to go public. Effi Enterprises has many years of experience working with companies and helping them explore their options for financial investments. Efraim Landa is an entrepreneur with a wide variety of experience in helping emerging companies find funding sources that are beneficial for the growth of the business. He is also familiar with helping companies who are ready to go public with their shares. Facebook recently announced that this was their intention. According to official plans the Facebook IPO is set to début towards the end of May 2012.
Facebook’s IPO
Effi Enterprises gets asked frequently about when is the best time for a company to go public. Many think that there is a certain set of criteria that once it is met qualifies them for and IPO. But there is no set time for going public. Generally, a company should not ever consider going public until they have begun to experience steady finances. Once the company isn’t surviving and is no longer needing to seek funding for new expansions or new growth they are probably established enough to go public. It is certainly not the time to state intentions for IPO when the company is still desperate for finances.
Facebook reported a substantial increase in revenue in the first quarter of 2012; to the tune of 45%. Just as a note of comparison, for the same time period Google only reported a 22% increase. For Facebook taking their stocks to the public sector would mean something like $100 billion. By their IPO they plan on raising $5 billion. The company right now has a valuation of nearly $100 million.
Facebook is certainly a public entity and not many would argue with the fact that it is a company of great value. And going public is generally a great way to generate revenue. Think about some of the statistics. Approximately 1/10 of the world’s population has an account with Facebook. No other business can boast about having such a varied audience. They already control more than 25% of all advertisements online. Their ad revenue just in the United States is equal to nearly 1/6 of all ad revenue. Why wouldn’t investors in the public sector jump on an opportunity like this? It is nearly a guaranteed successful financial gain. Business analysts may have a difference of opinion.
Ads may be the greatest asset that Facebook boasts about but it may also be their largest risk factor. The difficulty that they will likely face is in sustaining continuing growth. As companies get larger it is more difficult to sustain such types of exponential growth. Is it possible for them to continue to increase ad campaigns without losing their audience in the process? It is a stark possibility that they could overwhelm their users with ads. The largest risk that must be addressed by Facebook is the risk of losing their audience they do not need to worry as much about building it. Potential investors will have to be convinced that Facebook can continue to monetize their millions of users.
Facebook’s IPO
Facebook is set to offer about 180,000,000 shares for public investors. In addition to these Class A Common Stock, shareholders are presenting another 157,415,352. These are the numbers of their Initial Public Offering. Class A Common Stock had not been available on the public market previously. Each share will be priced from about $28 to $35 per share.
How to Get VC Funding for a Start Up Company
02 weeks ago
This guest post was written by Efraim Landa
Mr. Landa has played a major role in founding several companies. He is very experienced at building a business from the ground up. His own experience as an entrepreneur was behind the founding of Effi Enterprises whose mission is to help emerging companies establish value. One of the very important services that Effi Enterprises offers their clients is in the area of securing venture capital funding. This can be a make or break decision for many businesses that are just getting started.
What is venture capital funding?
Venture Capital
Capital is always required to start and grow a business and there are several methods available through which a business can fund their growth. Venture capital is one of these methods. It is an effective means of helping provide financial means to a startup company; or a company that is rapidly expanding. Firms who are interested in the area of specialization will invest funds into a business. Some of the most popular are areas such as health sciences, IT and clean technology. The point of VC is to help build and establish a company so that there is a return on the investment.
The investing firm will generally agree upon a proportional equity from what the company produces. This way there are no interest charges such as occur with a business loan. The company simply gains a percent of the profits obtained by the growing business. The firm or company who offers venture capital must carefully analyze the company in which they are investing as they are taking a great risk if the company was to fail. Generally when a firm invests in a business they will also gain a seat on the board of directors for the business in which they are investing.
How do you obtain VC funding?
Starting up a business is not an easy task; and after it is going well, it can be just as difficult to secure the finances to ensure its success. This is where the venture capitalist comes in. These types of firms are generally found through a series of contacts or some investigating. Once you locate a firm that is willing to invest VC in your company you will need to set up an appointment to visit with them. Be prepared. You will want to present your business proposition in an honest way and be able to answer any questions that may arise. Explain who you are, how your business came about and exactly how it is doing. You will also have to convince them that your company is a great investment for their firm. Go in prepared to show them your business strategies, financial arrangements and the investment strategy. They need to see what your company is capable of producing and how far you have come so far. Providing VC is a risky proposition and it will have to be convincing for them to agree. Then you will wait for them to approve the measures.
What responsibility do companies have to investors?
One of the most important aspects of an entrepreneur to investor relationship is communication. Keeping communication open and direct is a must. The moment a company receives investment sanctions they must communicate with the investor about the business plans and share all relevant figures, facts or documents with the investor. The investor has a right to know how the company’s vision is taking shape and the specific outcomes. Usually the investor will become an essential part of the company’s board of directors. It is the entrepreneur’s responsibility to secure a profitable return on the investment. It is important to maintain a good relationship with investors who may be able to provide much expertise and advice.
How to Reduce Bounce Rate
88 months ago
The Sexy Metric: Bounce Rate
There are many different reasons people don’t stick around on your website for very long, and having a high bounce rate on your website is a frustrating experience. Often, what causes them is a mystery to website owners, as they can seem to point out just what is causing users to leave their page. But fixing a high bounce rate is actually a pretty manageable problem, one that has many easy fixes.
Make It Faster
If you’re website loads slowly, then you may be irritating potential visitors. Waiting for a website to load can cause frustration for the user, who most likely doesn’t like waiting. Instead of letting your website finish, they can be off visiting a quicker site that loads immediately. A slow loading webpage is a major cause of a high bouncing rate, especially with the speed of today’s high speed internet. Nobody wants to wait around anymore, so having a fast webpage is essential. To fix a slow page, simply optimize your code and remove unnecessary plug-ins, or anything else unnecessary that is causing your page to load slowly. It’s not worth it.
Avoid Intrusive Pop-ups and Registration
Nobody likes to be interrupted, and a pop up does just that. Having an advertisement pop up when the user is enjoying your webpage is kind of like an argument at a party, it ruins everything. The simple fix to that is simply to not do it. Push you’re ads to the side, make sure they’re not in the visitors way. And forced registration is another thing never to do. Nobody wants to give out their personal information, especially if you have nothing they want in return. Obviously, if you’re selling something, they’ll be registering anyway if they want to buy it, but if you’re not selling anything, then never force users to register just to maintain access to your site. You can offer a few select services to registered users only, but the bulk of your site should be accessible to anyone, signed up or not.
It Needs to Look Good
A professional looking website is key. If your site looks cheap, users will assume it is. Your site is your product, your selling it. Or you’re trying to attract users to buy your actual product, but even still, a professional appearance for your site is important. The site must be easy to navigate to and from pages, it must be easy to find what you’re looking for, and it should be easy on the eyes. No lime green in large doses. Or hot pink.
Good Content
Your site’s content is its vitals. If these aren’t up to snuff then you’re back to step one. Everything on your page should have a purpose and every word written should have meaning. It’s not always about quantity (although you should have enough to keep people coming back). Fewer, higher quality articles will destroy a mass of redundant, poorly written articles every day. And it’s not just words; make sure your site has some images on it. Nobody wants to read a wall of small font text. A picture helps entice a user to stay awhile.
The Social Media Advantage
Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are huge in this day and age. Not utilizing it to its full advantage would be a waste. Advertise your page on Facebook and tweet about it. Join the revolution of social media and your site will be rewarded.
These fixes are generally quite simple, and no site should have a high bounce rate. The causes of it are just oversights, and oversights can be fixed with a simple use of repairing. Follow these tips, and you should have users sticking on your page like glue.
A/B Testing
If you have pages with high bounce rates then consider A/B tests, these allow you to test different versions of your website’s pages to reduce bounce rate. Try experimenting with different content, images, tiles and colors and layouts to see which has the biggest impact on reducing bounce rate.
This is a guest post by Ralph Johnson
Ralph Johnson writes for Maxymiser where you can learn more about A/B testing, multivariate testing and website personalization.
How to Avoid Viruses on Social Media
410 months ago
Social media safety
Online thieves and scammers are increasingly using social media to scam and hustle people out of private information and even money. This is due to people’s trust in links posted by their friends – but it has now started to filter through to people that there is a spam danger with links posted by friends.
Top 10 10 basic tips to stay spam and malware-free on social networking websites are;
1. Be 100% sure that links are going to respectable websites by hovering over the link to check the web address.
2. You might receive emails asking for your log-in details – but don’t enter your Facebook login anywhere other than Facebook.com.
3. Use numbers and characters in passwords and don’t use words. It is also recommended to change your password regularly.
4. Ensure anti-virus software is installed. Run a scan every couple of days and keep it updated with the latest updates.
5. Remove cookies.
6. Don’t add people on Facebook that you don’t know – as scammers use fake profiles to spy on you. Unfollow people on Twitter if their tweets look “unhuman”.
7. Using Wi-fi can be very spammy, as the security isn’t quite to the same level as a traditional connection. Don’t click on links in your inbox or in text messages you have received.
8. Videos that claim to show the body of Osama Bin Laden or ‘My Ex-Girlfriend Cheated on me… Here is my revenge!’ posts are spam. Don’t click on them and delete immediately. There are lots of variables of these types of scams – so always do the “hover test” to see where the link goes.
9. Remove spam and report suspicious looking links/posts.
10. Browse the security sections, such as http://twitter.com/about/security and http://www.facebook.com/security, just to keep you up-to-date and aware of things to avoid.
If you have clicked on a link that you think is malware, then immediately change your password, delete the post/uninstall the app, tell the social media website that you suspect that a post is spam, and run a full virus scan on your computer.
This guest post was written by James Brack
James Brack is a regular contributor to blogs on the topic of search engine optimisation, social media security, and computer and mobile forensics
Use Long Tail Keywords to Market Your Website
312 months ago
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Most of the time, you’ll want to look for keywords that are popular enough to make investing in targeted text content, links with tailored anchors, and other keyword specific SEO worthwhile. The general rule is that it’s no good ranking well for search keywords that don’t get a lot of traffic. Why put in all that work if you’re not going to get a strong traffic stream out of it?
A big percentage of all search traffic is made up from a fairly small pool of popular keywords. Let’s say you’re running a website selling surfboards and surf gear, and you take a look at the 100 most common search terms. A strong term like ‘surfboards’ might get half a million Google searches per month, and ‘surfboards for sale’ and ‘used surfboards’ a few tens of thousands each. The vast bulk of the list will be made up of less common keywords that only get a few hundred searches- or even just a couple of dozen- per month. These less frequently used terms are what’s called the ‘long tail’ of the search distribution.
It’s usually fairly easy to pick up a good share of the traffic from a long tail keyword because they aren’t competitive. Most surf gear sites target ‘surfboards’ and ignore less popular keywords like ‘buy surfboards los angeles’ and ‘second hand mini mals’ because they are too specific. Pick up one long-tail keyword you won’t get much from it. However, picking 20 of them might bring in a worthwhile number of visitors, and if you’ve chosen keywords that are relevant to what your site offers they’ll be interested in what they find.
Ranking well for 20 or even 100 low-competition long-tail keywords may be easier than getting the top spot for something really strong. With the right research, a long-tail strategy can actually pay off pretty well.
Some sites specialize in picking up rankings for long-tail keywords but it can be worthwhile for more generalist websites too. If you are struggling to rank well for high-traffic, highly competitive keywords, the long tail might be a useful place to look for new opportunities. Choose a dozen keywords with low competition and a trickle of monthly traffic and experiment. Don’t spend too much time or effort on each keyword. Figure out what it takes to make your site rank well for one and balance that against the expected sales. Each long-tail keyword might not generate much revenue, but if you can rank on the first page for plenty of them, they can make a good stream of income.
This guest post was written and submitted by Jess Spate
Jess Spate is an SEO and green business consultant. She represents a number of clients in the travel and leisure industry including Timeshare Partners, a leading resource for those looking to buy Wyndham timeshare units.
Career in Social Media Marketing
81 year ago
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A career in marketing requires adaptability, good intuition, and the ability to make good use of the many social media sites now available to users. Here are some interesting and unique ways of using social media in your marketing career.
When was the last time you logged on to Facebook, have tweets sent directly to your phone, visited a forum or watched a video online? If you’re like most of the population you’ll have done at least one of these things in the last twenty-four hours. While just a few years ago regarded as a diversion, social media has quickly become an essential way of connecting with other people and doing business.
Because of this new trend, students who pursue a marketing degree will gain a basic understanding of the many ways that social media can be used to gather information on and market a product or service. Many people in marketing careers have expanded on that basic training and come up with other ideas, often unique or thought -provoking, that make use of this social media in the field of marketing.
With simple flash games such as Angry Birds becoming increasingly popular, more companies are developing and releasing games and apps for smart phones and tablets. Whether they are simply fun or if they are useful, these games and apps allow companies to expose potential customers or clients to their product in a casual manner.
Other brands have sought to break the “fourth wall” between companies and consumers by opening up Facebook, twitter, and other social media pages to commentary by customers. A representative speaking on behalf of the company is able to answer customer questions and concerns first hand. This is especially useful for small to medium sized companies, granting them a more “personal” image.
Because a marketing degree program teaches a student to consider all routes when advertising and informing consumers about a product, the emphasis is not always on the creation of products and advertising material. Many marketers are finding that by simply helping support and working with “fan” pages, product image can receive a huge boost from consumers. This was most notably used by Conan O’Brien, whose company eventually bought a Team Coco page generated by a user in support of Mr. O’Brien after his departure from NBC.
Social media is also being used to collect valuable data on trends in the marketplace, as almost all networks now feature applications to track popular subjects. A marketing professional may simply research the number of searches and likes of a particular subject or could undergo a process as complex as creating quizzes and inviting users to surveys in order to gain feedback to be used in marketing research. Many marketing degree programs are now teaching students these new methods of information gathering.
There is no real limit to how much a marketer may use social media throughout their career. As social media continues to grow and evolve new ways will develop to make use of it for future professionals in the field.
Make Your Business Look Good with SEO
61 year ago
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Are you debating as to whether to approach a Search Engine Optimization company for help? There is plenty of literature available on the Web that both celebrates and condemns search engine optimization (SEO) and the companies that provide the service. The truth is, like any other business, there are good, bad, and all businesses in between. Years ago, Vidal Sassoon originated the marketing message, “If you don’t look good, we don’t look good,” in reference to his hair styling products. The message makes sense; to reiterate another marketing quip, ‘the proof is in the pudding.’
Keyword Research
How will your intended customers or target markets find your products and services online? They will conduct an online search. The answer seems simple enough, yet what exact words and phrases will they use? Will they search for general terms, geographically-linked words, phrases, exact names of products, etc? An SEO firm will conduct research and convey insight regarding keyword research. This invaluable service has immediate and ongoing results; once you know what words and phrases inspire your target market’s search, you can concentrate on them in a perennial fashion.
Copywriting and On-page Optimization
“Content is king” is a mantra often related by many online marketing, SEO, and search engine specialists. It echoes a simple sentiment: search engines love sites that host information; that is the sole purpose of the Web in the first place. Copywriting and on-page optimization concentrates on relaying information to both users and the search engines. Search engines crawl your site’s pages in order to assess how well they address a user’s search. An SEO firm’s copywriting and page optimization showcases information using your keywords. This way, search engines know what kind and how much information your site offers in order to make the decision to offer your site in regard to a user’s search query. Those found on the golden ‘first page,’ are sites with a lot of keyword-focused content.
Inbound Links
Another way search engines decide to offer your site’s pages in regard to a user’s query is how others view your site. It works much like a popularity contest with inbound links serving as popularity votes. The more times other sites link to your site and its content, the better. This lets the search engines know that others have viewed your content, value it, and think that it would be helpful to other users on the Web. An SEO firm will leverage blogs, social networks, and other platforms to intrigue others to provide links to your site.
Continual Maintenance and Measurement
An SEO campaign usually takes time. It relies heavily on your industry and competition, but most campaigns last for six to twelve months or longer. You are taking the time to promote your site’s rankings; it is very likely your competition is doing the same. This means that the quest to make the golden ‘first page’ never ends. An SEO firm’s services are usually intense at first and then begin to curtail while continuing to deliver maintenance and ongoing measurement of your rankings.
If you are thinking about searching for an SEO firm, but are hesitant, just remember that your site’s rankings are reflexive of the service’s efficiency. If your rankings don’t look good, then their service doesn’t look good. A reputable SEO firm understands this principle and will provide you with results; getting you results is the ‘bread and butter’ of its existence.
This guest post was written by Todd Bailey
Bio: Todd Bailey is Vice President of Online Marketing for WebiMax, a Search Engine Optimization company located in Mount Laurel NJ with 100+ professional online marketing staff managing over 300 clients worldwide. Todd contributes reguralarly at http://www.blog.webimax.com and other major SEO/SEM outlets.
Related Articles
- The Pros and Cons of Hiring an SEO Firm to Market Your Website (shoutmeloud.com)
- Basic Organic Search Engine Optimization Defined : Make Money Online. (marketersdaily.com)
Expand your website through Social Media
111 year ago
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Social media has basically become the life of the internet and unless you know how to tap into this resource your website will not be growing as fast as it could be. Fortunately it really isn’t all that difficult to connect with various forms of social media to build plenty of links and traffic which are all beneficial to your website. Using the proper social media networking ideas you can easily increase traffic while building a solid fan base.
Obviously the most popular social media sites are Facebook and Twitter but there are other social media sites out there. In the end however each of these sites will basically accomplish the same thing because they’re all targeting the same audience. In order to successfully get your links out to these social media sites you will likely need to create an account with the site in order to begin posting your links and articles.
Once you’ve signed up for sites such as Facebook and Twitter the process of actually publishing your link is quite easy. For both of these sites (as well as most others) you will simply have to paste the link you wish to share into the “share” box which will then automatically publish the link. Of course the more fans or followers you have on these social media sites the more traffic you will receive but just getting your link out there is a good way to get started. Social media links alone however will not be enough because nearly all social media sites publish links as “no follow” links which means they will not be noticed or used by search engines.
What exactly is a “no follow” link? Well as the name suggests a no follow link is one that will not be followed by Google and other search engines. This means that no matter how many no follow links you have on various social media sites your search engine ranking will not improve. As a result there is little benefit to building large quantities of no follow links. Another drawback to social media is that Google and other search engines are often not able to see or index things you post. For example; Facebook generally restricts access to certain posts which means that Google will more than likely not be able to even see that your link has been published. This once again means that social media is about much more than simply building links; the overall purpose is to gain fans and readers.
Another very important thing to remember is that social media is only as effective as you make it. Simply using a single social media network will significantly limit how much of an impact you see from the links you are building. Try to utilize as many social media sites as you can because the more links you are able to build the faster your website will grow and expand. Try out sites like Facebook and Twitter but also make sure to use other methods like Digg, Squidoo and Reddit as these will have just as good of chance to build a fan base. Also do everything you can to encourage fans and readers to repost your article links as often as possible because these will make more of an impact than you publishing your own links on these social media sites. Eventually you will build a solid group of readers that consistently share and spread your links which will keep your site well rooted in the social media system.
In the end social media really comes down to quantity and quality. If you manage to build a large user base on any of these social media sites you will quickly begin to see some major increases in traffic. It may take a while but the more fans or friends you have on these social networks the more benefit you will see from social media marketing; hopefully social media will be an effective tool for you and your website thanks to these tips.
This guest post was written by Jonathan
Jonathan is a journalist currently writing for Amazing News where he and others consistently provide heartwarming and cheerful news stories that can make your day better and brighter.
Google Chromes Personal Blocklist Extension
81 year ago
It seems that the latest in a long line of browser extensions from Google is one that allows users to block low quality sites. These sites are known throughout the web as content farms. The extension will block sites you choose from ever appearing on any similar searches in the future.
Google has said that they are exploring and developing many different algorithms in the quest to locate these content farms. One suggestion has been to use explicit feedback from users themselves as a possible new avenue to set search rankings. The tool (Blocklist extension) sends all the information of sites, chosen by users to block, back to Google. Those sites are then scrutinized and evaluated. The extension is also equipped with an undo feature in case you accidentally block the wrong site.
There are those articles and sites that are just place holders on the internet but there are just as many that have valuable and timely information squeezed onto those same sites. Weeding out the bad may seem like a great idea and there have been those in the tech world very enthusiastic about it. There have also been, however, some criticisms; some worry that content farms may use this tool to attack and subvert each other creating even more internet noise. Another worry is that credible and useful sites may get blocked simply for not being incredibly interesting. The good may be made to suffer with the bad
What about the new entrepreneur who is feeling their way around? This may make some of the best new content sites on the web never get a chance to take off. Of course, that is always the rub with any new endeavor and making a site that has good content and is visually interesting has become pretty easy. Google has always sort of been about the wisdom of the masses. Up until now their data collection interventions have been much more passive but this is definitely the most active to date. It completely relies on users to want to consciously provide feedback. More than likely the real trick will be in getting people to remember to actually use the new extension.
This extension is doubtfully going to be “the end all be all” point of information Google uses to figure out what sites and content is worthwhile for its users. Rather, it will probably be yet another data point of many for them to plug into their complex and tightly guarded algorithms.
This guest post written by Rick Valence
Rick Valence loves to read and write short stories, books and especially blogs. Rick works Monday through Friday as a digital camera repair specialist at C.R.I.S. Camera Services in Chandler, Arizona. He is also the webmaster of his company’s camera repair blog.
Social Media and Egyptian Revolution
11 year ago
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Social media is no longer limited to status updates and posting photos from a friend’s birthday party. It has quickly become one of the most influential factors in grassroots socio-political mobilization across the globe. The January 25 revolution in Egypt gained a major foothold with the application of Facebook and Twitter. Ever since communication media have existed, individuals used them to demand more governmental transparency and mobilize allies.
On February 9 former President Bill Clinton gave a lecture at New York University about the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the 1995 Bosnia-Herzegovina genocide. Clinton compared constant news media coverage in Bosnia-Herzegovina with the role of social media in assisting communications during the revolution in Egypt. While he noted that the coverage of Bosnia-Herzegovina was different from the social media-assisted revolution in Egypt, both captured global attention, springing from the human desire for information.
Clinton reflected back on the quality of technology available during his presidency 16 years ago, “There were just 50 Internet sites and the average cell phone weighed 5 pounds”.
Inspired by events taking place during the recent successful revolt in Tunisia, many Egyptians began protesting against the unemployment and poverty resulting from 30-year s of autocratic rule by former President Hosni Mubarak. They used social networks like Facebook and Twitter to show the world what was happening, arrange protests and share information about governmental and military responses to the unrest. On the second day of mass protest the Internet, PDA access to the Internet and text messages were shut off by the Egyptian government, but these efforts to disable ‘insurgent’ communication were unsuccessful. A handful of transnational human rights activists, translators and bloggers used social media platforms to relay messages from Egyptian protestors, journalists and activists to further grassroots social mobilization. The world witnessed, day-by-day, what was going on inside Egypt.
Social media makes social organization easier and effective. In Egypt, citizens used social media to bring together individuals who shared common goals and ideas, and it also became a medium for planning. Social media forced the government to take accountability. These days, international social networks make it nearly impossible for governments to lie to and hide from their citizens. As January’s events have shown, social media interconnects individuals creating a transnational network armed with information.
While the Bosnia-Herzegovina genocide and the recent revolution in Egypt are two completely separate events rising out of different politics and history, the human desire for information has always been insatiable. At many points in history individuals have combined ingenuity, passion and technology to link with people, societies and movements across the globe.
This post was written by Thomas Morrison
Thomas Morrison is a co-editor of Everything Left and writes on topics that are current and progressive
Related Articles
- Social Media Sparks Egyptian Revolution (socialnetworkingnewsdaily.com)
- Upheaval and Revolution in Egypt, and the Powerful Effects of Social Media (fastgush.com)
- Egypt’s Social Media Revolution (kylelacy.com)
- Energtek Signs a Natural Gas Purchase Agreement with BH Gas, the Transmission Gas Provider of Bosnia and Herzegovina (prnewswire.com)
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