News
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Meridian 2024 Takeaways
Key Innovations and Infrastructure Developments from Meridian 2024 The recent Stellar Meridian conference and its preceding hackathon showcased significant developments in the Stellar Network’s ecosystem, highlighting how the platform is revolutionizing blockchain infrastructure and smart contract capabilities. From innovative on/off-ramp solutions to ground breaking smart wallets, Stellar is positioning itself as a formidable player in…
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ChatGPT Plus vs Free | Is The Paid Version Of ChatGPT Worth It?
ChatGPT Plus vs Free [Video] James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/U3xXd3vV4iU |Subscribe Why Upgrade To ChatGPT Plus? ChatGPT Plus is the paid version of ChatGPT, it currently costs $20/month + VAT and there are 3 main reasons why the average user would want to upgrade to the premium version: On top of this paid…
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A Close Look at PYUSD | Implications Of The PayPal Stablecoin
In August 2023 Paypal unveiled their new stablecoin, an ERC20 token built on Ethereum. The code is open source, the contract is verified on Etherscan, it’s a real token which is going to be available to Paypal’s 435m users. What Is pyUSD & How Does It Work The Paypal stablecoin was developed in partnership with…
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The Secrets Web3 Marketers Use To Launch New Crypto Projects
My previous background in digital marketing and now having worked in the blockchain sector for 6 years provides unique vantage point on the differences between conventional and web3 marketing. Successful crypto projects create communities of advocates who act as micro-influencers championing the cause. In this article I’ll discuss why “build it and they will come”…
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XRP Legal Case | What It Means For Developers
In this article I’m going to be breaking down the document filed by judge Torres yesterday and consider what it means to developers working in the blockchain and web3 space. Highlights From The Ruling The full document is available here:https://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/2023-07/SEC%20vs%20Ripple%207-13-23.pdf I’ve picked out some highlights Programmatic SalesHaving considered the economic reality of the Programmatic Sales,…
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FTX 2.0 ReLaunch
FTX 2.0 is a proposed relaunch of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.com, which filed for bankruptcy in November 2022. The FTX exchange was a profitable business, earning a small percentage from trading fees. However depositors funds were used to cover up losses from partner trading firm Alameda Research. Alameda also provided market maker services across all…
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Effective Altruism | Leveraging Innovation & Transparency for Social Good
Effective altruism is a philosophy rooted in maximizing the positive impact of our actions to improve the lives of others. It has gained significant traction in recent years, especially among proponents in crypto circles who resonate with the data driven approach. This article explores how effective altruism, when combined with innovation and transparency, becomes a…
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ETHDenver | Thoughts & Takeaways From The Biggest US Blockchain Conference
This article is aimed at providing an overview summary of what was talked about at ETHDenver and some of the things I picked up while being there. Buzz Word Bingo I took the schedule and ran through how many talks there were on each of these subjects. Buzz Word No. Of Talks Zero Knowledge 18…
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FTX Collapse Explained | The Story Of Scam Bankrun Fraud
In November 2022 the world’s second largest cryptocurrency exchange FTX collapsed, stopped withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy. The stories of the last week are so far-fetched they deserve a Netflix documentary. Here we will look at how FTX was able to defraud the crypto industry of somewhere in the region of $10 Billion US dollars.…
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Ethereum DevCon Bogotá Write Up
In this post I’m going to try to summarise some of the most interesting talks at from DevCon 2022. Here’s a video summary about the key takeaways from the conference. James On YouTube Watch On YouTube: https://youtu.be/kgiAV7z1fwo |Subscribe The main topics for this years event were: One of the best things about the event is…
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The State Of CBDC Central Bank Digital Currency
Nation states across the world are exploring CBDC’s (central bank digital currency). Many governments including France, Canada, Saudi Arabia & China have pilot schemes already in place. The US dollar is the global reserve currency, it’s used throughout the world as a base asset and more recently as a political weapon in the form of…
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Blood in the streets for crypto markets
A year ago I outlined my 60/40 digital asset portfolio which was 60% crypto and 40% USD stablecoins. One of the biggest benefits to this portfolio is that during market downturns it leaves you with capital to deploy. Today has been one of the most chaotic days in crypto markets ever and I’m going to…
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EthGlobal Hackathon | Winning $4300 And Advice For Future Participants
EthGlobal hackathons are the largest and most prestigious in the blockchain developer space. The February 2022 “Road To Web3” event was focused on the migration from web2 social networks to web3 technologies. Over the weekend around 400 teams built projects using sponsors technology including Polygon, Uniswap, Moralis and Web3Auth. This video talks about the experience…
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Real Bedford FC | The ₿itcoin Football Club Story
Negotiations are finalised. Peter McCormack, host of “What Bitcoin Did” podcast, has agreed to purchase Bedford Football Club. At the end of the season the the club will rebrand to Real Bedford FC and the journey to take Bedford to the premier league will begin. With lucrative sponsorship deals already in place this could just…
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Deflationary Effect Of Wealth Concentration
With inflation rising there is going to be more attention on government statistics like the consumer price index CPI. However these metrics don’t fully represent inflation in respect to the devaluation of fiat currency. This article explores the effects of wealth concentration and how it might affect all of our futures. Introduction In recent years…
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Wallstreetbets vs Hedge Funds
An epic battle is currently breaking out between a rapidly growing Reddit community Wallstreetbets vs Hedge Funds. James On YouTube For those who don’t know Wallstreetbets is a subreddit which is dedicated to proudly “treating the stock market as a casino”. It is generally not safe for work and describes itself as 4Chan with a…
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Brave vs Chrome | Ultimate Browser Test & Comparison Guide 🖥️
I’ve been using Brave for web browsing recently after using Chrome and Firefox for a long time. Here is a comparison of Brave vs Chrome, which is the best browser in 2020? Brave vs Chrome in 90 seconds Page Load Speed Privacy Protection Rewards Downside of using Brave Moving from Chrome/Firefox/Safari to Brave Conclusion Brave…
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Deno JS | Deno vs Node.JS
Deno is a Javascript and Typescript runtime from the creator of Node.js For anyone that doesn’t know Node.js is a server-side Javascript runtime. It’s used by millions of projects across the globe and powers the backends and API’s of many of the world’s leading websites. Then came Deno (aka Deno.js or Deno JS), an improved…
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Advertising & Marketing Statistics 2020
These advertising and marketing statistics are derived from raw data on advertising and marketing trends in the UK, US and globally. Feel free to use any of the stats and/or images in 3rd party content but include a link back to this blog at https://jamesbachini.com Advertising Spend & Market Size Stats Performance Marketing Stats E-Commerce…
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CoronaVirus | The Most Socially & Economically Disruptive Event Of The Century
The coronavirus pandemic is the most socially and economically disruptive event of the 21st century. What will the world look like once we come out of lockdown and can we return to some level of normality? The lockdown period is expected to last 2-6 months in western economies. There is going to be political pressure…
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How To Calculate EV (Expected Value) By Analysing Risk & Reward
Expected value or EV is a term used in finance and gambling to define the estimated return of a given situation based on enough iterations. James On YouTube For example if you bet $1 on a coin toss your EV would be 0 because you would win/lose 50% of the time and your loss would…
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Micro Conversions | Complete Guide To Optimising & Scaling With Micro Conversions
What are micro conversions? Micro conversions are minor events such as clicks and scrolls that we can use to track visitor behaviour and optimise advertising and landing pages faster. They are generally not directly linked to key performance indicators for an advertising campaign but can be used to scale (increase traffic volumes) more effectively. James…
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8 Tips For The Perfect Blog Post
This is the revised 2020 complete guide to the best practices when creating content for your blog. You can use this framework to create a “perfect blog post” and move your site up the search engine rankings. James On YouTube The Title The title or headline of a blog post should be a close match…
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Search For Satoshi
In 2008 an anonymous user with the alias Satoshi Nakamoto posted the original Bitcoin whitepaper to the Cryptography mailing list. Satoshi mined a lot of the early Bitcoin blocks and the rewards that are held in bitcoin wallets associated are estimated to be around 1 million BTC or 10 Billion USD. If Bitcoin eventually reaches…
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Setting up HTTPS (SSL) with Cloudflare and WordPress
If you are just running a wordpress blog or simple website you can setup Cloudflare to manage SSL for you. Cloudflare acts as a proxy between your website and the user. I recently setup Cloudflare which provides a SSL certificate with their free account plan. Step 1. Setup Cloudflare Register for an account. Then select…
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Cryptocurrency During The Next Recession
I learnt the hard (and expensive way) not to try and predict stock market timings so I wont guess when the next recession will occur. Like a knock on the door from someone wanting to talk about Jehovah, you know it’s going to happen but it’s normally at the most inopportune time when you don’t…
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Publisher Side Ad Platform Statistics
This really shows the dominance of Google for display advertising, especially for smaller sites with their Adsense platform. I’ve thought for a while that Facebook should be able to enter this market and using their vast amount of user data increase CPM’s for small publishers. As of yet this hasn’t been widely adopted and Adsense…
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Instagram Add Call To Action Button
Instagram call to action buttons can be found on profile pages and advertisements. This article will show you how to Add a call to action button to your Instagram Profile Add a call to action button to your Instagram Ad Add a call to action button to your Instagram Profile Follow these steps to add…
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Online Marketing Predictions For 2017
Here are my online marketing predictions for 2017. I reviewed this in 2020 (ticks/crosses) to see what I got right. 1. Native will go mainstream and start attracting big brand spenders Native advertising has been affiliate marketers little secret for a couple of years now. The volume is now at a stage where brand advertisers…
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New Page Level Ads – Adsense
These new ads are now available in the Adsense platform: They can be added to your adsense site and will only pop on mobile when Google thinks it’s a good time to launch an overlay. I’m not sure how they calculate this but it is described as displaying at “optimal times”. Most importantly you can…
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CTA Conf 2016 Notes (PDF Download )
The CTA Conference was put on by Unbounce in June and they also produced this really good notes PDF which is worth reading for anyone in the digital marketing space. You can download it here: http://calltoactionconference.unbounce.com/docs/CTAConf%202016%20Notes.pdf
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Jim.am has moved to JamesBachini.com
Welcome to the new blog. I have updated the design with a new theme and some pretty pictures. I changed the domain name too as I wasn’t doing anything with the last one and wanted to keep a personal blog anyway so this will suit me more. I still plan to talk, rant and go…
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Microsoft to buy Linkedin
News this morning is that Microsoft is going to buy Linkedin for $26 Billion USD. Now I’m not saying we are in a new .com tech bubble but… Linkedin has 433 million users. That would give a cost per user of $60usd. Now my first thought is that if Microsoft spent that money on advertising…
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Tuesday Morning Funny
What’s not smart? Not testing your dynamic tokens when email marketing: Like a pro!
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Stack That Money Meetup STM London 2015
Stack that money has been a great meetup. I was surprised at the turnout which topped over 700 members. The talks were good, particularly some of the ones on the second day. Highlights included: Tim Tetra’s tricky little presentation where he sold a magic bullet to a crowd that should know better. Lars Kroijer one…
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Funniest video I’ve seen in years
Damn those spammers!
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Pics From Affiliate Summit West 2015
Some snapshots from ASW15 Meet market, people doing the rounds. The Charles Ngo Seminar Benjamin Yong doing his thing While I’m all for using public transport I’m pretty sure this isn’t how Ryan Eagle does it. Arriving into the strip on the Deuce with a blazer attached to a backpack. You walk a lot in…
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Boost Software (PC Cleaner) Shutdown
The FTC has taken another swipe at the darker side of the affiliate industry by closing down Boost Software. Assets frozen and business practices suspended! There CPI offers were pretty big but the business model was scammy at best. The FTC paid particular attention to the telemarketing “scare tactics” used on the backend of the…
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Matomy Media Group
So you think you’ve made it in the performance marketing space? Check out the figures in Matomy’s interim report for a humbling come back down to earth: http://otp.investis.com/clients/uk/matomy/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=813&newsid=441656 Overview of results ($ millions) H1 2014 GAAP H1 2013 GAAP Change GAAP Revenue 107.6 97.3 11% Gross profit 28.8 25.6 13% Operating profit 6.5 4.6 42%…
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Affiliate Summit West 2015
I missed it last year so am really looking forward to getting back to Vegas for some blackjack, craps and roulette. No meetings before midday this time, live and learn! I first went to affiliate summit in 2012 and in my opinion it’s the best show of the year. The location, the parties, the sheer…
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Epic Advertising Legal Action
Legal letter we had come through against Epic Advertising Limited. Anyone else had one of these? Looks like they went bust owing about 3.2 million and someones not happy about it.
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Neverblue Out of Bounds Thailand 2013
Thank you Neverblue for a great trip to Phuket Thailand, was good to see everyone in the Neverblue team and meet some new faces. Just when you think the out of bounds trips can’t get any better… The Westin Siray Hotel where we stayed Everything required for an OOB trip was supplied Boat trip to…
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EWA Gone Under
It’s not nice to see any company fail (especially when they owe so much to so many) but never in this industry have I seen it happen to a more deserving character. Goodbye Ryan Eagle and the joke/scam that was EWA.
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Las Vegas 2013, Affiliate Summit West, iDates etc.
Four shows and countless parties in 8 days. Here are some pics from Las Vegas this January: Some takeaways I had from this trip: Don’t ever book meetings before midday and preferably later still. Even if you can party till 4am and get up and sober for a meeting at 10am the chances are the…
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Out of Bounds Thailand March 2013
Just had the email come through confirming a place! Looking forward to seeing everyone for Out of Bounds Thailand. The official dates are 13th – 18th March but I am thinking of going out on the 9th and staying till the 24th. Let me know if anyone else has plans outside of the OOB dates.
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Maxbounty setting an example
Credit where credit is due this is awsome from Maxbounty: Hello James, For the past 8 years, MaxBounty has made it a tradition to give back to our community during the holiday season. This year is no different, and once again we are inviting you to help us out. On Saturday, December 22nd, 2012, we…
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Neverblue Out of Bounds Whistler 2012
Some photos from the Whistler trip with Neverblue. Top of Whistler Mountain Neverblue Party Crew Ice bar View from ATV ride Victoria home of the Neverblue offices It was a great opportunity to spend time with the Neverblue team, other affiliates and spammers alike. Alot of fun, left handed drinking, good food and all the…
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Romania Advertising Agency – Oops Media
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Reasons to Love Neverblue in 2012/2013
Looks like Neverblue are taking their affiliates to Phuket Thailand in March 2013! Wow!
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Anyone planning on running $15,000,0000 to Clickbooth this Summer?
I know there are other prizes further down the list but really… That works out at $166,666.66 USD a day in revenue. If Mark Zuckerberg is reading stick some 300×250’s on your site and you could keep the new shareholders happy and get yourself an island. For everyone else if you can get their offers…
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Cupid PLC Kildermorie Lodge Scotland
Thank you so much to all the team at Cupid PLC for organising an amazing trip to Kildermorie Lodge, near Inverness, Scotland. I’ve never been so surrounded by forward thinking people and whiskey. Here’s some photos from the trip: Fishing, shooting, Glenmorangie tour, great food and possibly the darkest game of charades ever played! Thanks…
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Virgin Media Blocks Piratebay.se
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Internet World London 2012
Earls Court, London was home to Internet World 2012 and on a wet Wednesday morning in April I jumped on a train to check it out. It was my first visit to this show and I came away with mixed feelings. I was hoping it was going to be like ad-tech but there was only…
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The Neverblue Velo Bankruptcy Saga
On April 3rd Velo Holdings the parent company of Vertrue which in turn is the parent company of Neverblue (have I got that right?) filed for bankruptcy. Performer insider released an “affiliate marketing is dead” post and I’m sure alot of affiliates, myself included, panicked. A generic email followed which stated “we intend to make…
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Jim.am Acquired
With more than just a slight nod of the head to my favourite online marketing blog MrGreen.am I have moved the blog away from the business website to jim.am OK 3rd best might be a little bit of an exageration but if I can get the content flowing and get some interest I think it…
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Big Thank You To Neverblue for Out of Bounds Dominican Republic
Just like to say a big thank you to Neverblue for organising Out of Bounds Dominican Republic. It was an amazing experience to be surrounded by like minded people and have all the luxuries the Neverblue team laid on. Sun Rise Punta Canna 2012 My main takeaways from the trip were:- Mobile advertising is expanding…
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Googles Panda Update, Brands and Negative PandaRank
More information has been coming out about the Panda update. Google have released a article on their webmaster blog describing how they see quality content. There were a few things that really stood out:- Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name? This seems to be a big hint towards…
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Affiliate Network and Payment Terms
There has been news this week of Epic/Azoogle stopping all weekly payments to affiliates. This has sent rumors of financial difficulties and cash flow problems circling the forums for one of the giant CPA networks. Just when the dust settles Maxbounty sends out a network email informing all affiliates they are improving their payment terms…
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Slow Site Speed Prevents Google Indexing Pages
We had a problem with one of our database sites not getting indexed as well as we have come to expect. After about a month it still only had arround 10% of the urls indexed from the sitemaps. We looked at the differences between this and other sites we had which were all going well.…
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Domain Trust Ranking Sites Without Backlinks Or Social Network Indicators?
For the last decade or more the SEO community has been obsessed with backlinks. Whether it be filling out profiles to get a quick link such as the famed Angela and Pauls packages or automated tools such as Xrumer and SENuke. Blog commenting, shout boxes, wordpress templates, sql injection, website widgets are just some of…
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The future of MFA (Made for Adsense) sites after the Google panda update
The big content directories such as ezinearticles, hubpages, articlesbase etc. All took a big hit with the Google panda update. It seems Google targeted low quality article databases with heavy blocks of adverts. These article directories have been abused by black and white hat link builders for the past decade. They allow people to post…
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Welcome to the blog
Thanks for visiting this is the first post at JiM’s Blog. To tell you a little about why we are starting a blog could take a while but in short we are trying to improve our communications throughout the industry and this is one method we are using. If you are interested in getting in…
