Top of the Post 📥  …

• Longevity: A key investment trend in 2024

• Social Media Execs Grilled by US Senate on Child Safety

• Podcast Throwback: Will Cole Functional Health Pioneer

• Success story: James Block’s Bid to Expose the Crypto World

• Insights on Affiliate Marketing

Weekly Catchups

News | Industry Insights | Trends

• 💉 2024’s Key Investment Trend: Longevity 
  Annual Outlook 2024 has predicted that this year, people will remain invested in attaining longer life spans. The report points toward biohacking and the consumerization of healthcare leading to the trend. Research suggests the alternative medicine market in the U.S. could be worth $411 billion by 2030. 

• ⚖️ A Tech Trial

  Social Media executives of Meta, X, TikTok, Snap, and Discord were grilled by the US Senate for four hours on their efforts to combat online child sexual exploitation this week. During the fiery hearing, Mark Zuckerberg apologized to families who said their children had been harmed by social media.

• 🙃 Amazon Prime Video Now Has Commercials

  An ad-supported tier will help Amazon bolster its ad business as dollars shift from television to streaming. Most major streaming services have begun introducing ad tiers, indicating a saturated market. Amazon says it aims “to have meaningfully fewer ads” than competition. 

Uncharted Horizons

Personal Development | Success Story

One Man Campaign

If you’ve watched ‘Dumb Money,’ you’re probably acquainted with the brutality of hedge funds. (ICYMI: Inspired by insane life events where Keith Gill, a bullish trader behind the Game Stop stock phenomenon, inspired millions of retail investors to get behind his bet, nearly bankrupting at least one hedge fund.) In 2021, ordinary people flipped the script on Wall Street. 

Two years later, a first-year medical resident continues exposing some of the world’s most damning financial irregularities. James Block is a Physician at one of America’s top hospitals. But Between shifts, he moonlights as a financial investigator and writer. His writing has a clear mission: exposing the cryptocurrency market from what he describes as a “semi-decentralized pyramid scheme.” Many argue this revolution, written in his blogs for 20,000 people, is a drop in the ocean of all the support for crypto. Yet the 31-year-old hobbyist remains unfazed, winning notable victories, including last year’s bearish calls.

Block might not enjoy the clout of famous short sellers whose research can send a stock spiraling the minute they hit publish, but what he has managed to build for himself is trust. This after he single-handedly exposed fraud at Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency firm FTX and trading firm Alameda Research. In a Dirty Bubble post, Block explained how a scam is underway. His blog “Is Alameda Research Insolvent?” grabbed much-deserved attention from hedge funds and regulators amidst the FTX collapse.

Strategies | Tools | Marketing Tips

Affiliate Marketing is No Magic Capsule

It’s a buzzword. Marketing gurus and influencers can’t seem to get enough of it. But we urge you not to give in to the frenzy of affiliate marketing just yet. Though projected to be a $36.9 billion industry by 2030, this category of marketing is not a get-rich-quick scheme needing little to no patience.

(Spoiler Alert!) Affiliate Marketers need to do the hard work.

Word of Advice

Affiliate marketer and content creator Victoria Kurichenko, speaks about her learnings from selling products via affiliate links:

• A high page ranking doesn’t automatically mean earnings.

• Search engines like Google send organic traffic to your website. 

• If your website loses rankings, you won’t make affiliate commissions.

• Do more affiliate programs mean more money? Not necessarily, but be prepared to be bombarded by partners with a host of promotional newsletters instead.

  Remember, the more you talk about the same product, company, or tool, the more sales you make. 

  US Chamber of Commerce on best practices for companies partnering with influencers: 

  • Choosing the right software: There’s a plethora of software for tracking and managing sales. But focus on the most important feature of automated payouts. New affiliates join programs to make money. Auto payouts ensure affiliates are paid commissions timely. 

  • Deciding which products fit the bill: To illustrate with examples, health supplements, online courses, and pet products make great affiliate marketing products. 

  • Determining a commission structure: You want to be generous enough to attract new affiliates while still being realistic, given the cost of acquiring a customer. Standard affiliate commission rates vary between 5% and 25%. 

  • Track your progress through clicks, conversion rate ( number of clicks that turn into sales), and Cost of sale.

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Networking | Business Development | Entrepreneurship

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