Patrick

Update: this was an April Fools' Day joke. More info here: http://www.karateforums.com/april-fools-day-update-submit-new-posts-via-postal-mail-vt46545.html Thanks, Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. Early this morning, we announced that you would now be able to submit posts to KarateForums.com via postal mail. With a little bit of time left in April Fools' Day, I just wanted to confirm that this was a joke. That's not to say it wouldn't be fun to receive some submissions! Thank you to John (Zaine) for being the primary force behind the idea and to the staff in general for helping to guide the end result. I hope that you had a great day. Thanks again, Patrick

Edit: This was part of an April Fools' Day joke. Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. The internet has made it easy for people to have a voice and to receive instant gratification. This is both good and bad. It's good because we can connect to people quicker and share our thoughts without delay. We can buy a song and download it less than a minute after we decided we wanted it. On the other hand, it can lead to a shallower appreciation of what we have. And without a delay in sharing our thoughts, we sometimes share thoughts that aren't fully formed or considered. Because of this, there is a movement back to mediums of the past. My friend Chrispian loves to write in paper notebooks like Field Notes (I myself use a paper planner). Vinyl record sales have increased steadily over the last several years. Discerning consumers are looking offline to cultivate their passions and engage in deeper thinking. Similarly, we have always encouraged high quality contributions here at KarateForums.com. In line with this, for the discerning KarateForums.com members, we will now be accepting handwritten submissions to KarateForums.com via postal mail. We have created a form that you can print and fill in, while taking your time. Once you are done, mail it to us and we'll publish it online. Download the form here: http://www.karateforums.com/documents/kfsubmissionform.pdf You can still submit posts online, but I look forward to receiving some excellent, well thought out posts via postal mail. Thank you for reading. Sincerely, Patrick

Congrats mazzybear. Patrick

Nice clip, Noah. Patrick

Welcome to KF, ventura. Patrick

Thanks John. Patrick

Congrats. Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. The March selection is... jaypo. Congratulations! Thank you for all of your great contributions to our community. Sincerely, Patrick

Awesome. Have fun. Patrick

Not to derail this serious discussion, but I just did a quick search and, excluding your post, the word speedo has only been mentioned in 28 of our 506,258 posts. And 11 of those were a spammer. Spammers, etc. aside, there are only 14 posts that used that word. Before you used it, it actually hadn't been used since December 26, 2012. 2013, like 2008, 2007, 2002 and 2001, was a speedo free year here on KarateForums.com. I guess we're just not that big on speedos around here. Patrick

Welcome snowturtle. Thank you for your kind words. Patrick

My pleasure, Noah and Bill. We'll count it, SteyrAUG. Thanks for sharing. Patrick

Welcome aboard, SteyrAUG. Glad to have you. Patrick

Hey all, Do you author a martial arts related blog (or similar)? If so, please share a link to it here. Patrick

Please feel free to share your resources in the thread, Bill. Thanks.

Glad to hear it, Devin. That sounds like fun. Patrick

Happy Birthday to Devin (Lupin1)! Thank you for all of the great contributions that you have made to our community. Hope that you have a great day. Patrick

Congrats.

Hey stubbsy. Welcome aboard. Patrick

Glad to hear it, Bill. Thank you for replying, Brandon and Ted. I appreciate you both stopping by. beley is Brandon Eley and Ted S is Ted Sindzinski. They have a ton of online marketing experience for companies big and small. They are part of my circle of friends that I turn to when I have questions like these. Patrick

Congrats Nidan. Patrick

Hey Bill (ps1), I have had minimal experience with Facebook ads, so you couldn't qualify me as being skilled with them. The main thing I would say is that you should spend time educating yourself on ad optimization, conversion tracking and A/B testing. It sounds like you have some experience buying ads on Facebook and Google. Hopefully you are using that experience to see what works and improve. A lot of people spend $20-$100, get no results and blame the system. But the only effort they put in, more or less, was buying the ad. You have to think about why you are buying the ad. What do you want people to do? And then you want to track if they are doing it. Sidenote: Most small businesses who try to use social media aren't that great at it. They may get some minimal value from it, but they don't take it seriously enough to spend time educating themselves or understanding that it can actually be a job in and of itself. "Post on Facebook? Anyone can do that! Do people actually get paid for that?" Heh. Small business are well positioned to take advantage of social media. They have this great little guy quality and usually have stories to tell. For anyone serious, I'd recommend reading three books: Face2Face by David Lee King, Youtility by Jay Baer and Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk (in that order). That's about $50 invested. King's book sets a foundational understanding, Baer's book introduces more advanced thinking and Vaynerchuk's gives you a crash course on getting the most out of what you post with easy to follow examples. Hope this helps a little. I'll contact a couple of friends and see what resources that they recommend. Thank you for the mention, other Bill (MasterPain). Thanks, Patrick

Thank you for checking in, all. Glad to know that you are doing alright. I'll think good thoughts! Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. The February selection is... Safroot. Congratulations! Thank you for all of your great contributions to our community. Sincerely, Patrick