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Arthur Law
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It is a man with great exposure on everything !!!!!
Member since 2017-07-14T03:17:10Z. Last seen 2021-08-04T16:12:59Z.
86 blog posts. 24 comments.
Elle Kaplan 12:23 PM ET Mon, 8 Jan 2018 Medium Brain X-Ray, mind control, ullstein bild | Getty Images The way our brains function is critical for every inch of our being. Thanks to recent studies, it has been discovered that rewiring your brain could result to dramatic changes leading to success, as explained by neuroscientist Michael Merzenich. The brain has been proven to filter what we can remember and the information that we want to absorb, hence, a person should direct his/her focus on what is essential to their specific life goals. Furthermore, it has also been confirmed that humans unconsciously continue to create new neurons by performing mental activities. More from Elle Kaplan: Why Warren Buffett's 10/10/10 Rule will make you insanely successful and wealthy 10 things you should give up if you want to be exceptionally successful Adopting this simple habit will make you insanely successful and wealthy, according to studies
You have the power in you to improve your brain's performance through mental training that will impact your overall performance. Start developing your brain to make it an essential tool to achieve more success through these mental practices: LIVE, NEWS-MAKING DISCUSSIONS UNIQUE, IN-PERSON EXPERIENCES LEARN MORE + JOIN US
Regardless of your age, there is an appropriate brain activity that will suit you and your lifestyle. It can be as simple as doing crossword puzzles, playing chess, or any activity that will encourage thinking. This CEO wants to put a computer chip in your brain Based from studies, uber-successful people allot 15 to 30 minutes of their day to think, which has shown a correlation to the amount of success that they have. "What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur? It takes willingness to learn, to be able to focus, to absorb information, and to always realize that business is a 24/7 job…" — Mark Cuban Start your day by exercising your mind to ensure that it stays in shape and is capable of weathering your daily challenges.
Feed your mind with fresh new ideas every single day and get involved in things that you find interesting. For instance, you are curious about a certain sport, find time to learn it until it becomes a habit. This will challenge not only your physical limitations, but will also strengthen your mental power. Continuous learning equates to personal growth that will teach your mind the focus it needs to be able to function well despite the numerous tasks you have on your to-do list. According to Jack Welch, success is all about growing yourself, so don't settle on what you know and what you have. Find opportunities to improve and develop new skills, and prepare to go further in life.
Spend time visualizing how you want to be by the time you reach a certain age. In doing so, you attract the needed energy to make this vision a reality. Moreover, it also projects the kind of attitude that is required of you to become this person. Imagining your success empowers you to work towards your goals even on days that you feel discouraged. Oxford neuroscientist: These futuristic brain enhancements will be available sooner than you think Visualizing is a powerful activity that prepares your mind for opportunitiesthat you will encounter in your pursuit of ultimate success.
The reason why there are people who don't succeed is because they fail to establish a concrete long-term goal. If you don't look forward to anything in this life, it becomes meaningless no matter how excellent you are in what you do. In some cases, there are people who get swayed by present circumstances causing them to change their plans from time to time, which will definitely hinder their success. Train your mind to always be ahead by anticipating what you will gain in the future if you stick to your game plan versus being uncertain in your decisions and actions.
Many people don't know that changing one's mindset could lead to significant growth. An exponential mindset takes thinking to the next level as it aspires for greater things (ten times bigger than how a normal person would imagine). You anticipate faster growth because you can already see it coming, even the failures, you consider them part of the equation but you always end up being ten times ahead preparing for anything that you have to deal with in the future, may it be positive or not. Elle Kaplan is the Founder and CEO of LexION Capital, a fiduciary wealth management firm in New York City serving high-net-worth individuals. She is also the Chief Investment Officer and Founder of LexION Alpha.
344 smalter 13 hrs 128
https://slab.com/blog/jeff-bezos-writing-management-strategy/
For the first piece in our series How CEOs Write, we talked about how Tesla's missteps and failures can be traced back to three critical mistakes that Elon Musk makes in his writing, tweeting, and emails. Check it out here.
There's probably no technology company that values the written word and produces written output quite as much as Amazon.
At Amazon, meetings to present ideas start not with PowerPoint slides but with narratively structured memos.
Years have proverbial themes—like the Year of Getting Our House In Order—that guide the Amazon's priorities and decision-making for that year.
And every year, the company's chief executive, Jeff Bezos, writes a long annual letter to his shareholders—the only such investor letter, besides Warren Buffett's letters for Berkshire Hathaway, to take on official “must read” status for not just Silicon Valley but Wall Street as well.
Bezos is Amazon's chief writing evangelist, and his advocacy for the art of long-form writing as a motivational tool and idea-generation technique has been ordering how people think and work at Amazon for the last two decades—most importantly, in how the company creates new ideas, how it shares them, and how it gets support for them from the wider world.
At Amazon, instead of asking his senior leaders to brainstorm great ideas for the company, Bezos asks them to submit six-page, dense, narratively structured memos.
Writing memos forces his team to think through their ideas in high-resolution detail. Instead of wasting time with impromptu brainstorming sessions, writing memos ensures that group discussion is based on the critical review of the relevant ideas, not on hypotheticals.
Most importantly, it makes it impossible to hide any logical inconsistencies in the ideas that people put out there. By imposing a rigorous, standardized template on the process of idea generation at Amazon, Jeff Bezos raises the bar and raises the quality of his team's thinking.
memo
The email in which Jeff Bezos officially banned the use of PowerPoint at Amazon and insisted that people with ideas come to meetings with “well structured, narrative text.”
Bezos's obsession with memo writing became law at Amazon on June 9, 2004.
In the now-famous email, he explained that no Amazon team members would be allowed to bring PowerPoint presentations or even lists of bullet points as documentation for meetings: all ideas were to emerge from densely written, narrative memos:
“The reason writing a good 4 page memo is harder than 'writing' a 20 page powerpoint is because the narrative structure of a good memo forces better thought and better understanding of what's more important than what, and how things are related,” he writes, “Powerpoint-style presentations somehow give permission to gloss over ideas, flatten out any sense of relative importance, and ignore the interconnectedness of ideas.”
porter
The memo-style of presentation is designed—contra forms like PowerPoint—to make presenting new ideas difficult for the presenter but easier for their audience.
Businesses need a repeatable process that helps generate good ideas consistently. Many companies do this by brainstorming—holding meetings for all involved to kick in ideas as a way to spur creativity by getting a diverse set of minds together.
But research has shown not only that humans are better at thinking creatively as individuals rather than as groups but also that inviting criticism and analysis is beneficial to creativity—not harmful, as some brainstorming advocates would claim.
A 2003 experiment at the University of California–Berkeley, conducted by Charlan Nemeth, set out to examine the effects of different kinds of group idea generation on idea creativity. One group was asked to answer a problem with no other instructions; one group was asked to brainstorm, with no criticism of others' ideas allowed; and one group was asked to debate one another. The last group outperformed the other two by a significant margin when it came to coming up with diverse solutions.
At Amazon, the memo format allows every meeting where ideas are presented to turn into a deep debate of the idea's relative costs and merits. This kind of criticism is even built into the memos themselves. Each memo is designed to be a full logical argument, complete with a reflexive defense of potential objections:
The point or the objective being discussed How teams have attempted to handle this issue in the past How the presenter's attempt differs Why Amazon should care (i.e., what's in it for the company?) If you’ve ever been in a brainstorm meeting, you've probably noticed that a few people can dominate the conversation. The nature of the format rewards quantity over quality and breadth over depth. The result is a lot of ideas from a few people that were all thought of more or less on a whim, many of which might not withstand even the slightest scrutiny.
Amazon involves the group, but only once the ideas are out there. Research tells us that while individuals are better at developing ideas, groups are much more efficient than individuals at recognizing the best ideas and figuring out how to implement them.
Often, the even bigger challenge, once the group figures out that they want to implement an idea, is getting that idea to spread among the wider team. Writing a six-page memo and thinking through every dimension of a new idea for the company is one thing; getting everyone in a company of hundreds of thousands to understand and live that idea is a different kind of problem entirely.
Spreading Good Ideas: Amazon Original Proverbs
Inside Amazon, Jeff Bezos's use of proverbs to get his entire company aligned behind goals is legendary.
By packaging his ideas about how Amazon should work into short, simple, and easy-to-remember phrases—“It is always Day 1,” “process as proxy,” “high-velocity decision making,” and others—Bezos ensures that his ideas not only spread and get understood but also become an influential part of how people actually act inside Amazon.
day1
The “Day 1” metaphor first appears in one of Jeff Bezos's first shareholder letters—it was so influential inside Amazon that at Amazon's new Seattle HQ, Bezos named the building that he worked in “Day 1.”
Getting employees at all levels and in all departments on the same page often poses a difficult problem for senior leadership in companies. Messages get ignored or diluted and obscured as they pass from person to person and team to team. Instead of having a unified direction, the company then ends up with different departments prioritizing different things for different reasons.
weiner
All CEOs have to repeat themselves. But with the right kind of writing, you can improve comprehension and reduce the amount of time you have to spend explaining yourself. (Source: Lighthouse)
Packaging a message into pithy, aphoristic form is not only likely to make it more memorable; it's also likely to make it more powerful. It's less likely to be miscommunicated as it spreads from person to person, and it's more likely to encourage the kinds of behaviors you want it to encourage.
At Amazon, the year that the company first approached $1 billion in revenue was the year they chose to title “Getting Our House In Order,” or GOHIO.
Being concerned that Amazons processes wouldn't hold up to the pressure of the projected increase in volume they expected that year, Bezos knew that the focus of the company had to be on improving internal structure and process.
gohio
[source]
GOHIO became the pithy, memorable calling card of that entire year: a constant reminder that, as the company grew, everyone needed to be thinking about how the company would handle the increased scale of customer service complaints, web traffic, logistics issues, and more.
But probably the most influential proverb inside Amazon is the idea of Day 1.
1997
Jeff Bezos's first annual shareholder letter as CEO of Amazon, sent at the end of 1997.
2016
Jeff Bezos's 2016 annual shareholder letter, revisiting the idea of Day 1 and expanding on it.
The most important message a CEO needs to spread throughout a company is about culture: what types of mind-sets are valued, and what types of behaviors are encouraged. At Amazon, the entire cultural code is communicated in a two-word phrase: “Day 1.”
For Bezos, “Day 1” harks back to the first years of Amazon, when it truly was “Day 1” for the internet. With the internet age just beginning in earnest, Bezos knew Amazon was at an exciting juncture. There were no established playbooks for success on the internet. There were few successes to point to at all. All the company could do was try to deliver as much value as possible to their customers. Bezos's instinct was that focusing on that, over the long term, would bring about the best possible results.
In his 2016 letter to shareholders, Bezos reviewed some of the forces that could lead a company to forget that it was in “Day 1” and lose that customer-centricity, and discussed how Amazon has held those forces off. In it, he expounds at length about what Day 1 still means to Amazon—customer-centricity, resisting proxies, always looking for ways to deliver values to customers.
Few memes can guide an organization's thinking and behavior for nearly two decades straight. The only ideas that can survive for that long are the ones that are packaged memorably enough—and memorably packaging his ideas in just a few choice words has long been one of Bezos's strengths.
It's a strength that, clearly, he's used not just internally but also in his communications with the public—and most importantly, with the public shareholders of Amazon Inc.
Getting Support for Good Ideas: The Language of a Leader
Bezos's main form of communication with Amazon's shareholders and customers comes in the form of an annual letter. In these letters, Bezos explains Amazon's year, talks about what the company has learned and been challenged with, and gives hints about the future.
One reason Bezos's letters are interesting is that, for the majority of its life as a public company, Amazon was not the darling of Wall Street, as it is today. For much of its lifetime, Amazon has been criticized for refusing to turn a profit, for being too ambitious, for spreading itself too thin, and for various other reasons. In his letters, Bezos hasn't shied away from his critics—ironically, by addressing his critics head-on and at times professing his controversial decisions as Amazon's chief executive, he has built up more trust among the true believers in his shareholder pool and removed doubters.
1997 2 1997 3
From Bezos's first shareholder letter in 1997.
In his first public letter to shareholders, Bezos outright told his new investors that he would “make investment decisions in light of long-term market leadership considerations rather than short-term profitability considerations or short-term Wall Street reactions.” For tech-crazy shareholders in the late '90s hoping to see exponential, immediate returns on their new stock investment, this wasn't the most reassuring message to hear. And Amazon wasn't struggling by any means—by that point, the company was already generating about $148 million a year in revenue and had grown by 838% year over year. Many Wall Street analysts bucked at this clear defiance of shareholders' supposed supremacy, but Bezos was confident that the gains Amazon would make from a long-term strategy would far eclipse the losses from a few Wall Street speculators selling the stock early.
Another habit of Bezos throughout his shareholder letters is not holding back about his and Amazon's failures, and professing that Amazon would keep seeking out opportunities to boldly experiment regardless of how many failures they faced.
In his very first letter he wrote, “We will make bold rather than timid investment decisions where we see a sufficient probability of gaining market leadership advantages. Some of these investments will pay off, others will not.” In his 2017 letter, Bezos acknowledged the ”billions of dollars’ worth of failures” they'd had ”along the way”.
The shareholders who balked at this strategy, thanks to this letter, had the opportunity to leave the company behind—but those who chose to stick it out and hold on ultimately benefited.
Part of it is Bezos's style and his use of language—cool, calculated, and logically articulate. Like an air traffic controller talking down a scared pilot, Bezos doesn't shy away from discussing disaster and failure and explaining his controversial ideas for how to run a company. Instead, he explains them thoughtfully and makes you understand from his point of view.
It's also not uncommon to find Bezos strengthening and moving his points forward by posing questions to himself that a skeptical reader might bring up. In mirroring and then addressing readers' concerns, Bezos makes the tone of his writing all the more calm and confident by showing that he knows the issue inside and out and can refute any doubts.
2015
The question Bezos poses in the introduction of his 2015 letter, “Is it only coincidence that two such dissimilar offerings grew so quickly under one roof?” challenges the assumption upon which his previous point was supported: that the success of Amazon and Amazon Web services was by design rather than coincidence. The act of posing the question in itself indicates that Bezos has thought deeply about the information and is confident in what he is saying.
How Amazon Really Wins
Amazon and Jeff Bezos have become reference points for business leaders of all types looking for guidance on how to create and manage an innovative company. While CEOs and managers are quick to adopt Bezos’s ideas and put his best practices to work, few are likely to adopt the most influential and important practice inside Amazon itself: writing.
It's not exciting or sexy, but as Jeff Bezos and Amazon have proved over the last two decades, the same skills involved in writing clearly, logically, and memorably are the same kinds of skills needed to build a company that is constantly able to deliver value to customers and reinvent itself.
本欄上期提到，薩爾曼．可汗（Salman Khan）每月為數以千萬計的世界各地中小學生網上補習，成效顯著。論受助人數之廣及影響力之大，均備受教育界、創科行業和慈善家關注。從創效投資角度看，「可汗學院」每年開支僅為2400多萬美元（2015年度），倘若為每位學員假設任何一個合理增值，該學院所發揮的影響功效和回報都非常驚人。
以美國為例，雖然在教育上投放不少資源，但當地中學畢業生良莠不齊眾所周知。不少人缺乏基本數學認識，因而放棄繼續修習理科，令自己就業出路變窄；也有許多人因未能符合基本中學數學資格，而放棄投考理想工作。從這個角度看，可汗學院絕對擔當起推動者的角色，填補了很多人進修上所需要的空間。
個人化配合大數據
傳統教育一般是把同年齡的孩子編成一班，教授同樣內容，學生們以差不多的進度念書，然後一起參加考試。不管學生掌握學科與否，老師都須跟着課程推進，一旦有學生理解出現落差便可能每況愈下，如此積累的情況，在數理科目上尤為顯著。例如在分數的計算上認知不足，就可能會阻礙以後學習代數；錯過了某些概念就更難打好基礎，學生只會倍加挫敗並慢慢失去學習動力。反之，如果教學進度太緩慢，亦使領悟較快的學生感到無聊轉趨消極。
可汗學院透過設計軟件、影片和各種練習直接指導學生，讓他們自行決定觀看時間和速度，反覆練習，在學習過程中把累積的落差追回來，翻看影片亦不會感到難堪。遇到困難時可以暫停影片再請教別人，這意味着科技把學習經驗個人化。
可汗學院亦與加州公私立中小學合作，讓老師對各學生的進度一目了然，教師也因減少了講課，有更多時間按個別需要作針對性強化學習。此外，可汗學院也開始運用大數據，理解不同人的學習過程和成效，控制各種因素並衡量變化，例如試驗使用或不使用某些文本，會如何影響學生的掌握程度；又或者學員的專注力，如何左右他一兩周後的遺忘曲線。這些應用對傳統教育而言都很創新。
薩爾曼還於2014年在加州矽谷創立了可汗實驗學校（Khan Lab School），這家距離世界最大科技企業重鎮不遠的實體學校，嘗試為傳統教育注入更多創科元素。該校以學生為本，信任他們自發追求學習目標，學校沒有評分及家庭作業，亦不設班級，只是把5至15歲兒童，按照能力分為5個獨立水平，所有學生時間表都是靈活機動的，內裏包括個人輔導時間和獨立作業時間，讓學生朝着每年訂立的目標努力進發，同時深入發展自己的個人興趣領域。儘管沒有成績表，但學生仍須接受評估和自我審核。
培訓自主解難能力
由於學生主動學習，實驗學校還決定廢棄了暑假，實施12個月學年制度，並延長每天上課時間至下午6時。據說下課以後，大多數學生仍然醉心於學校活動。實驗學校還希望分享經驗，不斷改進成為一個教育從業的合作社。難怪薩爾曼被評為《時代雜誌》最具影響力的其中100人時，蓋茨曾寫道：「薩爾曼從補習算術開始，但他對教育的影響之深遠卻可能是無法估量。」
傳統的教室學習讓大量學童接受普及教育，然而這模式也讓學生變得被動，只會遵從老師指令，不會多也不能少，完成任務後就問「那我接下來該要做什麼？」可汗學院的興起，卻讓大家反思現今教育，是否一定要局限於教室和規定的上課時間。科技帶來一個新的契機，讓教學焦點回歸學生自身，老師不僅可以令課堂變得互動，而且更可以從教學主導者變成協助同學的輔導角色。最重要的是訓練學生自主學習及重新定義問題的能力，培養不斷探索的思考方式，讓孩子學會利用現有資源和工具達到計劃目標。這些培訓其實更能幫助學生適應瞬息萬變的社會。
去年，香港一名中學生在文憑試放榜前，已獲美國史丹福大學優先取錄。令筆者記憶猶新的是，那位同學向大學寫信自薦他擁有豐富應用程序創作經驗，展示出他有跨學科解決難題的能力，而且年紀輕輕已多次獲邀參加蘋果世界程式開發員年會。由此可見，未來充滿着機遇和挑戰，而讀書和考試亦不過是證明自己實力的其中一個方法而已。
筆者對年輕人充滿期盼，亦祝願大家豬年蒸蒸日上。
作者為香港科技大學工商管理碩士校友會會員
5 HeinZawHtet 1 hr 0
https://stripe.com/atlas/guides/landing-page-copy
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18713844 In the beginning, there’s the landing page.
It’s often a company’s first impression: a digital introduction to an organization, the problem it tackles, and the solutions it offers. The sophistication of landing pages can vary. Some companies use their homepage as a landing page. Others create specific pages that target discrete customer profiles and move them through a marketing funnel.
Landing pages also take various forms depending on the growth stage of a company. But that’s one of the common missteps that I see: landing pages prioritize the story of the startup, rather than the journey of the customer with the startup.
Landing page copy improves the more customers see themselves in it. Rethink and revise your landing page by building it around three elements. If that’s too much effort and you’re looking for fast fixes, the following tips will improve your current landing page copy.
Quick wins for better landing page copy
Focus copy on them. Landing pages often say “we offer” or “our solution,” which focuses on the wrong thing—your company, not your customers. Go through each sentence in your copy and rewrite it to address your customers. One way to do this is to begin with the word “you.” Another tip is to start your sentence with a verb. Focusing on them nearly guarantees that your copy will address—and speak to—your visitor. Here’s a good example of what this looks like:
modern fertility screenshot The only possible exception to leading with “you” in your copy is if you’re a service business, where prospects want to see what you do differently as a service provider. That’s often expressed as “we” language. But it doesn’t have to be. It just very often is.
Add pattern, texture, and shine to a block of copy. Accurate, succinct, and grammatically correct copy can still feel flat. Patterns, texture, and shine can add another dimension to your copy, making it more engaging and memorable. Here’s how:
Apply a pattern to a sentence. Patterns may be used to subtly reference a logo or map out a theme. Take a logistics company that transports goods by railway. Perhaps it not only wants to deliver a message, but also simulate a train with a pattern of evenly spaced dots in a horizontal line. To mimic that visual, rewrite landing page copy to link only words of similar length, such as three- or four-letter words.
Vary sentence length and formatting to create texture. Texture can make copy feel more conversational, natural, and engaging. To create texture, write a smooth, polished sentence and juxtapose it with a more staccato sentence. Throw in some short sentences. More. More. And maybe one more. And then add a sentence that goes a lot longer, using clauses to lure your reader along. Then stop. The result? Texture.
Include a glossy word or two for shine. Polish might mean swapping in a few new words. Find a bland word in your copy, and replace it with a more dazzling synonym. Take the Collective Retreats landing page copy below. Instead of “Find destinations without losing luxury,” try “Explore extraordinary destinations without sacrificing luxury.” The bright adjective and stronger verbs adds punch to the copy.
collective retreats screenshot Defang objections with an “even if” clause. If you can anticipate what might keep someone from believing your claim or assertion, undercut that opposition by acknowledging it. It’ll hint that you understand their fear, uncertainty, and doubt—and suggest that your solution takes those considerations into account. The formula is simple: “[Claim] even if [objection].” A very simple example is: “Be creative even if you’re not creative.” Here’s an “even if” clause in the wild:
woorank screenshot Limit each sentence to one idea. Sentences have the capacity to carry a lot of information, but your reader cannot. Your readers depend on periods, question marks, and even exclamation marks to give their brains a short rest—just enough of a reprieve to absorb information before moving on. The more you help readers with information digestion, the more appetite they’ll have to read on. So edit every sentence to have just one thought. Not two. Not three. Apple is skilled at this technique, but even it has opportunities:
apple tv screenshot Take its copy for Apple TV 4K. Most of the sentences don’t qualify as sentences, but they absolutely follow the rule. Here’s the one that doesn’t: “Apple TV 4K lets you watch movies and shows in amazing 4K HDR—and now it completes the picture with immersive sound from Dolby Atmos.” This sentence merges two distinct features. The average reader would be better able to take in the information if that sentence was broken in two:
Apple TV 4K lets you watch movies and shows in amazing 4K HDR. It’s got immersive sound from Dolby Atmos. Streams your favorite channels live. Has great content from apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and ESPN. And thanks to Siri, you can control it all with just your voice.
Create a landing page that’s not your homepage. If you’ve recently created a website for your company, your landing page might be your homepage, but they’re two different creatures. A landing page is designed to convert prospects into customers. It speaks to visitors looking for something specific, features content relevant to that particular item, and contains a call-to-action customized to that precise offering. On the other hand, a homepage serves a broad audience, features widely-relevant content, and may not have an immediate CTA.
More sophisticated companies will route visitors who, say, search for products for large companies to a page geared toward enterprises rather than a homepage with general information. If you have a website with more than one page—or a more advanced information architecture and sitemap—consider linking to the page on your site that best addresses a visitor’s intent.
The foundational elements of effective landing page copy
First, the spoiler: landing page copy is never done. Like your company, it will—and should—evolve over time. It’s an iterative process, and can always be improved. There are hundreds of copywriting formulas (many of them documented here) that can help you craft a headline, draft bullets, or structure a CTA. But if you don’t have the fundamentals down, the improvement will be incremental, not game-changing.
Copy for a high-performing landing page has three foundational qualities:
It delivers a convincing first impression for the startup. At a fundamental level, this involves direct, specific, and grammatically-correct copy. That level of precision and professionalism sets expectations and raises the bar for future engagements with a company’s product and team.
It considers the maturity of the market. Every market—like every company—is in its own stage of development. Companies in highly mature markets can use short copy, because most visitors already get the ins-and-outs of the solution or category (e.g. disposable razors). Their focus should be on product differentiators, the brand story, and who’s using it. If a market is still emerging (e.g. cryptocurrency in 2018) customers likely need more information, because a company is not only educating about its solution, but also helping define the category more broadly.
It reflects the customer’s stage of awareness. Effective landing page copy mirrors customer comprehension, which is layered and includes: how well a customer understands the challenge the company addresses (e.g. data privacy), what’s at stake (e.g. personal data and/or compliance), the changing landscape (e.g. GDPR), and tools that help (e.g. a specific product).
In short, great copy demonstrates that a company grasps how aware customers are of the market, its pain points, and potential solutions. The best copy does all that and signals that the company is clued into precisely how aware the customers are of themselves. Here are the five stages of awareness for any visitor to your landing page:
Most aware. Visitors totally understand your solution and likely believe it’s a top contender for them. They just needs nudging. Purchases happen here.
Product-aware. Visitors are learning about your product. Free trials, demos, and purchases happen here.
Solution-aware. Visitors are considering solutions to their pain or problem.
Problem-aware. Visitors are feeling pain or dealing with a problem.
Unaware. Visitors haven’t experienced a need that would drive them to your solution.
Landing page copy reflects the customer if you can answer “yes” to the following questions:
Is the language accessible and does it mirror a visitor’s stage of awareness?
Does the copy move them from where they are to where they want to be?
Are visitors prompted to take action once they become Product-aware or Most aware?
The elements of landing page copy in action
Every landing page should deliver a convincing first impression, consider the maturity of the market, and reflect the customer’s stage of awareness. The best way to see how the absence or presence of these elements alter a landing page is to review real-life examples. So, with the three foundational elements in mind, I’ve evaluated the landing pages of nine companies—from member management software to a vegan candy brand to a court date notification service. Here goes:
First impression: make an accurate, trust-building, and lasting introduction.
Company: Kapwing What it does: Modern editor for videos, GIFs, and images Landing Page Challenge: Copy that’s short, but vague The Fix to Apply: Get specific—but, first, scroll down
kapwing screenshot The Analysis
The headline—”Creativity made easy”— raises this question: Are people who’d use this solution not creative? The phrase suggests that it’s hard for your audience to be creative. Is that true?
The page falls victim to the myth that copy must be kept short at all costs. Many startups write three- or four-word headlines that try to say everything. It reduces the elevator pitch to a hiccup. Along the way, we tell ourselves we’re being succinct because we understand that being succinct is good when it comes to communication.
But are you being succinct or are you being vague? Worse, are you sacrificing a clear message for a short one? Your headline is prime real estate. Let it do some real work—it’s made for it.
Think back to your last ten conversations with a customer or prospect. (If you haven’t had at least ten, do that first.) At what point in the conversation did they perk up? That’s the fodder for a good headline—at least one that’s worth testing. That’s what should top your landing page.
With headlines, don’t take rich, nuanced feedback from customers and whittle it down to the smallest possible version. Instead listen. Write down what you hear. And put it on the page. You’ll clean it up so it’s on brand and persuasive, but it shouldn’t be boiled down.
The concern in boiling it down is that you’ll get too vague. Kapwing’s tools run the gamut. They make memes, add subtitles to video, create montages and more. If you’re the marketing team, the temptation is to look at everything Kapwing does, plot it in a Venn diagram, and promote the overlapping part: the quality that all features, uses cases and outputs have in common. That’s likely how “Creativity made easy” emerged.
That’s how mediocre headlines surface—and it happens surprisingly often, even to the most copy-savvy startups. Many founders use more effective headlines in their verbal elevator pitches or elsewhere in copy. That’s the case for Kapwing; the better options for a headline are further down in the copy:
Tasks that take hours in iMovie take minutes in Kapwing. No install. No passwords. No technical tutorials. It works on every OS, on your phone, and your computer.
OR
Bring on the memes. Creative jobs that take hours in iMovie take just minutes in Kapwing.
Either copy expresses the ease of being creative in Kapwing in a specific, compelling way—and serve as entry points to its other suite of tools. These messages should lead the page as a headline. Hidden headline copy happens to many businesses. It’s not that companies can’t generate good headlines; they’ve likely just buried them.
Company: WebGazer What it does: Free website monitoring Landing Page Challenge: We-focused copy The Fix to Apply: "The Rule of You"
The Analysis
This headline works, as long as visitors arrive on the page knowing what WebGazer is and does. The copy might suffice if this is a retargeting page.
But what if it’s not? Let’s start with the phrase: “We help you keep your business running.” The very first word (“we”) is a problem. We-focused copy is an issue—almost without fail. It communicates from the perspective of the company, not the customer. It’s the equivalent of a person introducing themselves and dominating the airspace with their story. Correct “we-focused” copy by rewriting every sentence to begin with the word “you” or a verb. Here’s how WebGazer can change three sentences on its landing page:
We-focused copy You-focused copy We monitor your sites without a rest, see what we have done today yourself. You can rest easy. Because we’ll monitor your site without rest. WebGazer checks if your website is up as it should be and notifies you if anything goes wrong. Keep your online business running without interruption. WebGazer monitors it night and day. And notifies you if anything goes wrong. We help you keep your business running. How would you know if your website was suddenly down? Company: InfluenceKit What it does: Automated reporting for sponsored content Landing Page Challenge: A timely call to action The Fix to Apply: AIDA
influence kit screenshot The Analysis
My first impression is how much is right with this landing page copy. It reads well and follows some of the strongest copywriting better practices, including:
Removing distracting calls to action (e.g. no global navigation)
Hooking visitors immediately with a highly desirable benefit (why they should care)
Expanding on the benefit with product-specific support (how the product does it)
Formatting copy for maximum readability (the three paragraphs of body copy under “You have a blog?” is a manageable column to read instead of spanning the width of the page, which is extremely fatiguing for the reading eye.)
Using a voice that is present but not overwhelming (With few exceptions, they’ve used their voice in crossheads only, minimizing ‘interruptions’ in how readers process information.)
Leading with “you” wherever possible
Making sentences short, and easy to consume
The landing point copy has done so much right—the challenge is that it hasn’t cashed in on it. After making a convincing argument to the prospect, it forgets to end with a CTA. The AIDA framework can help outline this progression and missed opportunity.
AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
Grab their attention. In this case, InfluenceKit starts to build trust and empathy by clearly articulating the problem many bloggers face: demonstrating value from content. The copy reads:
...it’s really hard proving to brands how much value you’re delivering.
Build up their interest in the subject. Here, the copy deepens that understanding by elaborating on the problem, causing readers to nod along and more fully recognize themselves in the challenge. This shared understanding builds further interest. The copy continues:
Yes, it’s about the content, but it’s also about knowing how many lives were impacted by what you created.
We all like to know where our money's going (dang you Target!!). Brands are just like us; they want to know what they're getting for their investment. Reporting impressions is the industry standard for internet marketing, and up until now, bloggers have been a black hole of information.
Your blog is more than just pretty pictures, you have real influence. You know it, and we know it, and together we’re going to prove it.
Turn that casual interest into a direct desire for them to add the solution to their lives. The solution that’s offered is succinct and clear. The copy reads:
Show Your Real Influence with Powerful and Dynamic Reports
Call them to action. There’s a CTA, but it’s in the wrong place. It’s buried beneath a list of integrations, the four-step process to set-up InfluenceKit, an infographic on the two types of bloggers, and a Meet-the-Team section. Finally, there’s a call to action:
Ready to Prove Your Value & Make More Money? Request Access Now. (Secret handshake to follow)
The copy has sufficiently made a case for action by the end of the four-part “How Does InfluenceKit Work?” section. Here, I’d expect—and encourage—a closer section, featuring:
A restatement of the value prop
A quick bullet list of results generated by the solution
A powerful screenshot
A CTA
A testimonial from a blogger or sponsor
A data point about average results
Perhaps InfluenceKit is a newer company, which is why there’s no data yet for how it’s paying off. But there’s power in being new. I’d suggest the founders share their own story and results thanks to InfluenceKit—being transparent all along that they’re the founders—to demonstrate that others can also benefit. Part of making a lasting first impression is creating a window for not only a prospect to relate, but act, and interact. That turns an impression into a relationship.
Market maturity: reflect the state of your market in your copy.
Company: Nomba What it does: Digital-first vegan candy brand Landing Page Challenge: The model to try or demo The Fix to Apply: Map your market over your first customer engagement
nomba screenshot The Analysis
The “Try Now” language at the top of the landing page—and throughout the site—is confusing. But what’s more puzzling is the idea of a trial for this product.
For the mainstream consumer, trials are not typical in the world of buying candy. By offering a trial, you’ve effectively taken a super-sophisticated market of buyers—people who’ve bought candy, understand buying candy, and just wanna get vegan candy—and introduced doubt. Suddenly visitors are asking small questions that escalate into bigger concerns:
What does a trial mean in the world of candy?
Try food that’s shipped to me? Do I ship it back?
Will I get a sample or a full-sized product?
Wait. Is this a subscription I’ll have to work to get out of?
Do I even want spicy candy?
And just like that, they’re gone.
Your visitors go from wanting to give this spicy vegan candy a shot to hitting the back button and feeling relief that they got out of there as quickly as they did.
Nomba’s copy has a new challenge: it needs to deal with the “problem” of prospective customers not understanding the trial model for a food item. Here’s how it can do that:
First, know that you have to address the problem. But you do not have to go into great detail to address it. After all, this is a $5 treat or $15 investment in sugar.
Second, ask: what’s the easiest, quickest way is to address the problem? Often, it’s in naming. Sometimes product features are better explained by renaming them and pricing tiers are better explained by re-labeling each tier. In this case, the trial may be better grokked by renaming it to sample pack or sampler.
Now the “Try Now” CTA could become any of the following:
Get the Sampler
Sample Nomba
Sample It
Nomba should keep that new language consistent throughout each product page and checkout to avoid further confusion. Any startup that offers demos or trials to win customers should craft their copy with not only their customer, but their existing market in mind. The market part of product/market fit also matters.
Company: Eve What it does: Event management software Landing Page Challenge: Overemphasis on the solution, not the problem The Fix to Apply: PAS framework
eve screenshot The Analysis
The prospects for event management software may already recognize the need for a solution, but if not, this landing page needs more education on the challenges of planning events. After all, there’s a lot of complexity in running events: multiple stakeholders, shifting timelines, numerous vendors, and changing agendas. The list goes on.
The landing page starts out relatively strong with a benefit-driven headline and a product-level value proposition:
The easier way to plan events. Eve allows your entire team to plan, execute and review your events, all in one place — without changing your existing workflow.
Leading with a value proposition is the standard choice for SaaS companies. That’s fine, but a lot of marketers struggle with what should go next on the page. For a product like eve—where it’s easy for the prospect and the whole world to minimize the pain of event planning until you’re two days away from the event and panicking—I’d recommend moving swiftly from discussing the value prop to outlining and fleshing out the problem eve solves.
It may seem like that’s accomplished with the first crosshead under the hero:
Easy software to end event stress
But that crosshead leads with the solution (“easy software”) when it ought to focus entirely on the pain (“event stress”). The PAS—or Problem, Agitation, Solution—framework helps lay out copy in a way that it zeroes in on the driving force behind choosing a painkiller solution like eve: the pain.
My biggest advice is choosing copy that doesn’t glide over that pain. So swap this:
"How hard could it be to plan and coordinate a live event?"
with this:
"How hard could it be to plan and coordinate a two-day conference with 20 speakers from around the globe and 500 attendees?"
The first option is safe. The second option is sticky.
Too often we try to boil everything down to its safest version. And we sacrifice specific, sticky copy that might actually hook and convert actual prospects. It’s not our fault. Everyone we know is writing safe copy. If we go bold, we’re taking a risk.
Test it and see, but my encouragement is to go for it. Rare is the business that makes waves today without either 1) a huge marketing budget to overcome their safe messaging or 2) a memorable way of connecting with people. Endeavor to be uncomfortably specific with your prospects. It shows you’re in touch with the precise pain felt by the professionals in your market.
Company: Scribendi What it does: Editing and proofreading services for English documents Landing Page Challenge: Understanding scale and results The Fix to Apply: Visualize—don’t just display—data
scribendi screenshot The Analysis
Overall, the copy on this page is strong. But copy is not always words, but numbers.
Further down the page, there is some impressive proof of impact on clients served, words proofread and editors in action:
scribendi2 screenshot These are striking figures, but they also come with complications.
First, I’m sure I’m not the only person who misread 1.6B as 1.6M. That sounds like a lot, but how many documents does that mean? Is it 10,000+ ESL papers for academics or 100,000 essays for undergraduates?
I suggest keeping the data as is, but adding in a visual that shows the scale of the achievement. Here’s one way to back into a compelling visual via a quick calculation: 1.6B words is actually 6.4M pages. That’s 318,939 millimeters. That’s 1,046 feet. That’s amazing. That’s more than half the size of the CN Tower in Canada—or insert your local landmark relevant to your audience.
Help your prospects visualize the work you’ve done—and don’t be afraid to reference something outside your market to make the case for your market. Numbers are good. But I believe the saying goes: whoever draws a picture wins.
Customer awareness: map your customers’ awareness.
Company: Join It What it does: Member management software Landing Page Challenge: Assumes visitor is solution-aware The Fix to Apply: Shift to the mindset of a solution-aware prospect
join it screenshot The Analysis
This headline—Membership Management Software—is great for search engine optimization (SEO), but it’s so technical that it’s jarring, especially as the first three bold words on the page.
For a headline like “Membership Management Software” to work, its prospects need to be sophisticated and “solution-aware.” Here’s where that stacks on the five stages of awareness:
Most aware. Visitors totally understand your solution and likely believe it’s a top contender for them. They just need nudging. Purchases happen here.
Product-aware. Visitors are learning about your product. Free trials, demos and purchases happen here.
Solution-aware. Visitors are considering solutions to their pain or problem.
Problem-aware. Visitors are feeling pain or dealing with a problem.
Unaware. Visitors haven’t experienced a need that would drive them to your solution.
If prospects are solution-aware, they’re actively seeking “membership management software” and would easily call it that. However, Join It is eliminating a segment of prospects by only addressing solution-aware visitors. By finessing headlines and copy to match the problems or state of mind of prospects, Join It can open its aperture to capture more potential customers. Here’s how that might look with tweaks to copy:
Solution-aware prospect’s state of mind on arrival Corresponding headline copy I’ve heard that membership management software can help me automate all the community stuff I’m struggling with Now You Can Automate Community Engagement with Easy Membership Management Software I need membership management software that does this big list of stuff Fast-Growing Organizations Need Membership Management Software That: Brings your community together Works intuitively Automates your tasks Scales as you grow I’m thinking of switching from X membership management software, which I don’t like because of Y Put an End to Y with Easy Membership Management Software That Scales Should I be terrified of all the work that’s about to come when I introduce a membership management solution in my organization? Membership management software How Much Easier Would Growing Your Business Be If You Could Automate Your Community? A shift from solution-aware language to the state-of-mind of a prospect may seem like you’re downshifting to a problem-aware visitor. This stage of visitor might seem further from a product-aware prospect, where a sale can occur.
But given the market maturity for membership management software, Join It will open its top-of-the-funnel to more prospects if it makes its headline more accessible to more visitors. And it’ll still be relatable to solution-aware and product-aware prospects.
Company: Parkpnp What it does: Marketplace for unused or underutilized parking spaces Landing Page Challenge: Incorrect assumptions about the visitor The Fix to Apply: The Rule of One
park pnp screenshot A key part of customer awareness is understanding the context and drive for their visit—all of which should be reflected in the copy and experience of a page. That nuance can be the difference between a visitor identifying you as a hero in their lives—or a villain.
In the case of Parkpnp, context and drive are pivotal factors for its solution. An app that allows you to find a parking space might be used in advance of an anticipated painful parking experience, such as major sporting events. But it’s more likely to be used in the heat of the moment, when the pain for a prospect is most visceral and distractions abound.
In short, most people will use Parkpnp when they are driving their cars looking for a place to park in a busy area. Their pain is high. Their motivation to solve the pain is high.
They need a hero.
Is your site a hero or a villain in that moment?
The current hero section copy and experience sets up the solution to be more the villain than the hero. First, it puts work on the user’s plate by asking for an address—which holds true on both mobile and desktop. But perhaps more glaringly, it makes assumptions about what “perfect” means to the user. In fact, perfect parking could mean:
It’s near where I am now.
It’s closest to my final destination.
It’s available now.
It’s available regularly / always.
It allows overnight parking.
It’s the cheapest option in the vicinity.
It’s free.
It accepts credit card payments.
It’s patrolled by security.
It’s covered.
It has extra-wide parking spots.
It doesn’t require parallel parking.
It’s got special needs access.
The word “perfect” is trying to cover all manner of desires in the headline for this page. But perfect for User A may not be perfect for User B. This is where the business needs to make a decision: What’s the primary prospect’s top definition of perfect parking in the moment they use the solution?
This question gets to the heart of what copywriters call the Rule of One, which holds that you are always writing a landing page with the following four points identified first:
Your One Reader
Your One Big Idea (or culture-shifting idea)
Your One Promise (or desirable measurable outcome)
Your One Offer
Of all parts of the Rule of One, your One Reader is the most important. You can’t write an effective page without first identifying your One Reader. Once you know your One Reader well, you know what pains drive them, what benefits they’re looking for, what offer they’re most likely to respond best to, what kinds of social proof will move them—the list goes on. You do not have to get incredibly detailed on your One Reader, but you do have to know them well enough to look at the above list of definitions of perfect parking and know which one they would choose if they could only choose one.
The one they would use is the one you use.
In the case of Parkpnp, if the One Reader defines perfect parking as parking that’s near where I am now, the headline would change and so would the CTA. Here’s how:
From... To... Headline FIND YOUR PERFECT PARKING SPACE FIND AN AVAILABLE PARKING SPACE NEARBY NOW Primary CTA Field: Where would you like to park? Button: Find Parking Button: Find Parking Near Me Now Subordinate CTA Button: Find Parking Nearby Link: Find Parking for a Future Date, Event, or Long-Term Need That’s how your site goes from being a villain to being a hero.
Now, if your One Reader would define perfect parking as parking near my work that doesn’t cost half my paycheck or safe parking for my daughter who’s away at college—that is, if they’re planning for future parking needs—the headline and experience would change accordingly, of course. You don’t have to get that specific. But if you can get that specific in your headline, you’re more likely to convert your visitor. The alternative is writing a headline that serves a huge range of audiences. But, be forewarned: a hero to all is a boring character—and more likely to be ineffectual for the business.
Company: eCourt Date What it does: Timely, digital court date reminders Landing Page Challenge: Unclear who the user is The Fix to Apply: "Ideal for" statement
e court date screenshot Here’s the first—and most important—question about eCourt Date’s landing page: do people land on this page and know if the service is meant for them?
One of the cleanest, easiest ways to optimize your copy is to use an “ideal for” statement. That statement can appear anywhere on your site, but it’s best that it appears closer to the top of your landing page. That’s especially true for a service like eCourt Date, where the user is unclear. It might be for lawyers, police officers, the court, defendants and plaintiffs—maybe even those serving jury duty.
Whichever one it is, put that on the page in an ideal-for statement, like:
Ideal for lawyers with criminal and DUI cases
If it’s for more than one user, that’s fine. Put those names on the page:
Ideal for criminal lawyers, traffic cops, and courthouse administrators
From there, the headline and subhead in the hero have context and communicate the service more clearly. To enhance the copy, take a few extra steps. Answer why it matters and add proof that you’ve done it. This rule is known as “So What”/”Prove it.”
Here’s how the copy might look with those two elements addressed:
Ideal for busy courthouse administrators Send Court Date Reminders. Reduce Failure to Appear Rates. Notify defendants about court dates and other legal events. So you save up to 20 hours per month of court staff time. Reduce court no-shows by 33%. And humanize the defendant experience.
Bolster this copy with testimonials from previously frustrated and now happy court staff or judges. These improvements all stem from articulating the ideal user for the service at the onset.
Take the first step with your landing page copy
Landing page copy is an underleveraged, powerful tool. Done right, it builds brand, engenders trust, and sells product—to anyone with an internet connection, on their schedule. But it’s not automatic. Landing page copy must deliver a convincing first impression, consider the maturity of the market, and reflect the customer’s stage of awareness. It must meet prospects where they are and get them to where they—and the business—want them to be. Once it does, hand waves became high fives, and high fives turn into handshakes—and conversions can happen without much human intervention.
Don’t overthink where you should start. Just get started. A landing page can—and must—always improve. If you have limited time and resources, run through the quick wins to make tweaks that generate outsized gains. If you have more time, revamp your copy to orient around making a lasting impression, the maturity of the market, and customer awareness.
Landing page copy is only one channel to the customer. Get tips on email marketing, or hone your cold emails and calls with this guide on finding your first customers. If there’s a related topic you wish we’d cover, drop us a line at atlas@stripe.com.
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創新科技及大數據應用日趨流行，網上旅行社Expedia利用創新科技自動電腦程式，為客人設計旅遊行程。該公司表示，期望利用新形式客戶服務，吸引初次計劃以自由行方式旅遊的人士，為公司拓展新客源。
迄今服務逾3萬人次
Expedia東北亞區高級市場經理曾婉怡表示，今年5月推出Chatbot 「旅遊教練」，免費為客人實時解答旅遊問題及編排外遊行程。「旅遊教練」團隊有逾10人，他們會在Facebook Messenger平台回應客戶訊息，而客人可選擇用自動電腦程式或真人安排行程及回答旅遊問題。
她表示，公司於一年前開始籌備並投資7位數字研發「旅遊教練」，由於不少港人工作繁忙，無時間自行搜集資料編排行程，相信「旅遊教練」有助解決旅客的煩惱，搜集資料也更省時方便。
由今年5月推出「旅遊教練」至9月，曾婉怡稱期內合共有逾3萬人次使用，日均約400人次，已提供約1.6萬份旅遊行程建議予客戶。數據顯示，客人回應計劃外遊時選擇的旅伴，有34%屬親人，其次才是伴侶及朋友，反映現時家庭旅遊數目有所增加。
她解釋，家庭旅遊以往多向傳統旅行社查詢資料，也普遍選擇參加旅行團，但現時他們亦開始嘗試以自由行方式外遊。故公司冀藉上述服務吸引該批以往多是「跟團」、現時改為自由行的客戶，以及初次編排自由行旅程的人士。
資料庫含1500景點食肆
「旅遊教練」主要功能是為客人編製旅遊行程，以港人五大最愛旅遊目的地，包括台北、大阪、東京、曼谷及首爾為主。目前公司資料庫已有500個景點及1000間餐廳，可組合出過百萬個行程，電腦系統會因應客戶選擇，度身訂造行程建議。曾婉怡透露，旅遊教練團隊日均花費10小時更新有關新景點及餐廳推介。問及客人使用「旅遊教練」服務後，會否有助提升網站訂酒店次數時，曾婉怡稱客人使用服務後未必一定同在網站訂酒店，是次服務僅希望為客人提供個人化旅遊行程。
採訪、撰文：陳慧筠
29 prostoalex 2 days 8
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/tech/amazon-sellers-marketplace/index.html
Washington, DC (CNN Business)When Nida Kazmi got laid off from her job as a product manager at Bloomberg two years ago, she came up with a fallback plan: Selling stuff on Amazon.
She chose stackable baby formula dispensers because the category didn't seem to have much competition, and found a supplier in China to manufacture them.
After hiring a coach to help her navigate how the world's largest online marketplace works, she set up listings from her home office in Reston, Virginia, selling dispensers for $11.99 a pack. After a few months, the business was doing between $1,500 and $2,000 per month in sales, about half of which she kept as profit.
That's when Kazmi received an email from Amazon's seller support department saying her account had been suspended. Amazon didn't explain why, saying the reason was "proprietary."
Nida Kazmi at her home in Virginia. Kazmi had made a living selling baby formula dispensers through Amazon. It took two months of emailed appeals before Amazon reinstated her in November 2017. By that time, she had lost her place in the site's all-important search rankings, and was stuck with 600 stackable baby formula dispensers in her garage. With her source of income gone, she would have to rely on savings while trying to relaunch her sales.
"After all that, I decided I can't continue with this," says Kazmi, 34, who decided to start her own social media consulting business instead. "You plug a lot of your money into buying the inventory up front, you have to. And they can just in a heartbeat turn the switch off."
Amazon's scale and open platform have drawn legions of vendors like Kazmi looking to turn cheap goods into a decent living. Amazon doesn't disclose how many sellers operate on its platform beyond saying "millions," but chief executive Jeff Bezos wrote in his most recent letter to shareholders that the company added 300,000 in 2017 alone. That side of the business — where sellers transact directly with consumers, rather than using Amazon as a middleman — accounts for more than half of the units sold on the site.
Amazon emphasizes the role that micro-enterprises like Kazmi's play in making the website what it is.
"Small businesses and entrepreneurs selling on Amazon Marketplace are incredibly important to our customers," Amazon says. "We work hard to help these businesses successfully reach and delight Amazon customers, and we continue to innovate and improve the experience for all sellers."
But as many of these sellers quickly learn, Amazon always sets the rules. And in the company's drive to keep customers happy, they can be collateral damage.
"It's just not a place where I felt like 'We're business partners,'" Kazmi says. "I felt more like, 'You're God, and I'm nobody.'"
An indispensable new retail world
Amazon wasn't the first online platform to enter the business of helping regular people become global merchants. That honor belongs to eBay, which launched in 1995 using auctions to keep buyers hooked on the draw of getting a good deal. Amazon tried auctions, but the business never took off.
Then, Amazon changed the game in two ways.
First, it dispensed with eBay's auction model, allowing shoppers to instead quickly buy items for a fixed price. (Later, eBay followed with its own fixed-price option.) Then Amazon got into the shipping business, developing a vast warehousing and transportation infrastructure that allows sellers to fulfill orders without doing any of the work themselves — something eBay and other e-commerce sites had studiously avoided.
"These early businesses thought that investing in brick and mortar was a mistake," says Kirthi Kalyanam, director of the Retail Management Institute at Santa Clara University in California. But Amazon pulled it off, and built the technology — such as robots that move products around and last-mile delivery mechanisms — to make it work seamlessly. "What they're trying to do is make everything so automated that they don't have to do a lot of hand-holding."
Now, everything involved in a sale can occur within the Amazon ecosystem — for a fee. Sellers buy ads to market themselves across the site, part of what has become a multibillion dollar revenue stream for Amazon. They can also pay for access to Amazon's distribution network, avoiding the hassle of packing and shipping, for upward of $2.41 per package. Each item sold carries a "referral fee" of between 6% and 45% of its value. The company even offers loans to help sellers purchase inventory.
For that reason, thousands of businesses have grown up around Amazon's platform.
Dragon Glassware dedicates two people to maintaining its Amazon listings and figuring out what keywords work best. Matt Rollens launched his artisan glassware company, Dragon Glassware, primarily by selling through Amazon.
There's no other way to reach so many potential customers, he says, and they all expect two-day delivery. "I honestly believe that we wouldn't be around if it wasn't for Amazon," Rollens says.
Growth is a full-time job: The two-year-old company, which is based in Granite Bay, California, dedicated two people to maintaining Amazon listings and figuring out what keywords work best, since the sales algorithms are opaque and change frequently.
"We spend a lot of time trying to reverse engineer stuff," Rollens says. "It's a daily requirement to go through and look at everything."
At Amazon's mercy
Amazon's execution, however, isn't always flawless. There's little that a seller can do about items sent to the wrong address, rivals who might lodge complaints to bring down their ranking, or buyers who return something after using it.
The complexity of Amazon's platform — and the power that the company holds over a seller's livelihood — has given rise to a robust community of Facebook groups and other online forums where sellers troubleshoot problems and share experiences. There's also a cottage industry of consultants and software vendors who promise to boost sales and get sellers out of trouble, as well as insurance offerings in case one gets booted from the platform unpredictably.
Not all of that advice is on the up and up: In March, the Federal Trade Commission busted a get-rich-quick scheme that promised to teach people how to make $5,000 to $10,000 per month by selling items on Amazon, with no ability to actually do so.
Chris McCabe, who worked in the seller performance department at Amazon for six years before starting his own consulting business, says sellers usually end up eating the cost of customer complaints and even foul play by the competition.
"Part of the seller relationship with Amazon is granting them very liberal powers over your money and over your inventory," McCabe says. "[Amazon] Prime is going to help you sell exponentially more than you might on Walmart or Jet or eBay, but you have to do it their way. You can't struggle and fight with them."
There are many ways to run afoul of Amazon's rules, or to appear to. A seller can get suspended for having too many negative reviews, attempting to get better reviews by giving away products, or communicating with customers outside Amazon's interface. Sellers can also get punished if someone accuses them of selling counterfeit goods or a copy of someone else's.
Over time, those enforcement actions have become increasingly automated, and can happen with little to no warning, leaving sellers scrambling. Sellers who transact large volumes on the platform can get dedicated account managers who help them improve sales and manage issues as they arise, but few meet those threshold. Anyone can get that same assistance, though — for a fee.
Some sellers who supply inventory wholesale to Amazon are shocked to find that the listings for their products can suddenly go dead because Amazon's algorithm determines it Can't Realize a Profit — a phenomenon known by its acronym, CRAPping out.
"For 99% of brands, their relationship is purely based on an algorithm," says Drew Kraemer, who founded an Amazon analytics consultancy that was recently acquired by the digital marketing firm SocialCode. "You could have a product driving millions of dollars in sales that CRAPs out overnight."
Frustrated after her Amazon account was suspended, Kazmi decided to start her own social media consulting business. In order to get reinstated after a suspension, sellers say they must submit detailed documentation to a support system that mostly operates over email and through online chats.
"There is literally no justice for sellers," says Kazmi. "[Amazon doesn't] owe you anything. But there's no competition, there's no place you can go."
After getting nowhere for a few months, Kazmi hired another consultant, who advised her to email an Amazon vice president. The executive's assistant got back to her the same day, and her account was swiftly restored.
Amazon says it is accessible by phone 24 hours a day for seller questions, and offers many self-service help pages online. "We interact with sellers thousands of times a day through a variety of channels and will continue to make sure we maintain that open dialogue," a spokesperson from Amazon told CNN Business.
An 800-pound gorilla with a hand grenade
Some critics argue that the power of Amazon's marketplace constitutes "monopsony," meaning Amazon controls how producers can reach an essential audience of consumers. About 44% of online sales come through Amazon, according to the e-commerce data firm One Click Retail, and 52% of shoppers go directly to Amazon when looking for a particular product, rather than searching Google or visiting their local mall, a Raymond James survey found.
Amazon says it works hard to maintain its value proposition for vendors on its platform. "Buyers and sellers are both our customers," an Amazon spokesperson said. "We have large teams dedicated to helping sellers — many of them small businesses — be successful at reaching and delighting Amazon shoppers."
But since access to that universe is indispensable, for the most part, sellers understand that their host cracks down first and asks questions later to prevent any kind of seller abuse that could turn off buyers.
In Calgary, Canada, IT project manager Vladimir Vylegzhanin had built a tidy business selling ping pong paddles on Amazon. But then he switched bank accounts, which he thinks triggered a suspension because it may have appeared he was operating multiple accounts on the platform, a big no-no. Even after getting reinstated — which took months — he was later suspended again for the same reason, and finally he gave up.
Amazon declined to comment on the record about individual sellers.
"The only thing that Amazon is fighting for is their customers, because this is something that's hard to get, but not sellers," Vylegzhanin says. He doesn't hold that against the company, but warns prospective sellers to diversify their sales channels in order to stay afloat if Amazon cuts them off.
"Like an 800-pound gorilla with a hand grenade, you can't always understand what they will do next," he says. "It's good while it lasts, but it can always end. Amazon should be just a part of your business."
As its hotly-contested and widely-publicized search for a second headquarters draws to a close, CNN Business is taking a top-to-bottom look at Amazon's present — and what it means to our future in its series, The United States of Amazon.
【高血壓年輕化】營養師拆解5大降血壓食物 煲呢個湯最掂！（足本版）： http://bit.ly/2OQAgHS
很多人恃着年輕，常吃高鈉高脂食物，加上生活和工作壓力，缺少運動，膽固醇過高，導致高血壓。但不用擔心，可以吃一些高鉀食物，以降低血壓。鉀質可以減低血管的敏感度。一般而言，情緒緊張時，血管便會收縮，但一個吃足夠鉀的人，血管會放鬆一些，有降血壓功效。
眾多食物中，薯仔的鉀質最高，一個薯仔約有600毫克鉀，而每個人的鉀攝取量，每日不少於2,000毫克，高血壓人士每日更需要3,500毫克鉀質。由於鉀是水溶性礦物質，可以透過煲薯仔湯，攝取足夠鉀質。番茄的鉀質也不少，一個番茄含500毫克鉀，以沙律和榨汁是很好的進食方法。但不可採用灼的方法，除非你喝菜水，否則無法攝取溶於水中的鉀質。
水果方面，以牛油果的鉀質較高，一個牛油果含480至500毫克鉀，但熱量高達350卡路里，營養師建議體形肥胖人士，每次食用量不超過半個，更毋須擔心高脂的牛油果會阻塞血管，因為牛油果含不飽和脂肪，可以保護心血管。另一高熱量的榴槤，每100克約有430毫克鉀質，營養師提醒超重或肥胖人士，不可以吃那麼多。全身是寶的香蕉含420毫克鉀，但糖分和澱粉較高，糖尿病人每次不要吃超過半隻。
營養師又警告，對於腎病患者，高鉀食物可能是催命符，因為他們不能夠將血液裏多餘的鉀，經尿液排走，以致他們血液內的鉀水平超標，影響心臟跳動，會有生命危險。還有低血壓人士不宜多吃，這類人士以女性為多，並會有輕度貧血問題，紅血球水平不足，如果再攝取高鉀，會令她們的血壓再跌，導致頭暈眼花或腹瀉情況。
隨着身體檢查愈來愈流行，病人不時會帶着身體檢查報告來找家庭醫生跟進。脂肪肝便是其中一種他們常常詢問的疾病。
脂肪肝泛指脂肪積聚於肝臟，一般分為酒精引致或者非酒精引致的，後者又稱「非酒精性脂肪肝」（Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, NAFLD）。患者肝臟可以屬沒有發炎的脂肪肝（NAFL），或是有發炎的脂肪肝（NASH）。非酒精性脂肪肝大多屬良性，但小部分NASH患者有可能引致肝纖維化及肝硬化，甚至肝衰竭和肝癌，勿掉輕心。
大部分脂肪肝的病人都沒有徵狀，多是因其他問題抽血時發現肝酵素超標，或因其他病因須做超聲波和掃描而意外發現的。
一般從病人的病歷史、抽血和醫學影像，便能排除其他肝病原因而診斷脂肪肝，但要全面評估脂肪肝惡化的風險，傳統做法是需要從肝臟抽取組織化驗肝臟纖維化的程度。這是一種帶侵入性的程序，其風險包括出血或細菌感染，亦有機會傷及肝臟甚至附近其他器官。
近年，無創肝纖維化掃描愈來愈普及，用來檢測肝臟纖維化和脂肪肝程度的效果頗佳，有望將來能取締風險較高的肝臟組織檢查。家庭醫生若發現病人的肝酵素十分高、有黃膽或其他症狀顯示有可能肝臟發炎甚至肝硬化，便會轉介病人找內科醫生作進一步檢查。
易患心血管病
引致非酒精性脂肪肝惡化的因素有很多，其中包括吸煙、糖尿病、年紀大、肥胖、嗜酒、直系親屬有脂肪肝引起肝硬化等。非酒精性脂肪肝發炎患者超過七成屬於肥胖，甚至七成五患者有糖尿病二型，有二至八成患者同時有高膽固醇。此外谷丙轉氨酶（Alanine transaminase, ALT）超標與內臟脂肪積聚（特別是中央肥胖、三酸甘油酯高與太少高密度膽固醇）亦是病情惡化的風險之一。患脂肪肝的病人亦比一般人較易患上慢性腎病、睡眠窒息症、骨質疏鬆、牛皮癬、卵巢多囊症和腸癌。然而脂肪肝患者的頭號殺手卻不是肝衰竭和肝癌，而是心血管疾病！
3項治療重點
1.體重控制：體重控制是目前治療脂肪肝最安全和有效的方法。BMI是用來分析體重是否適中的體重指標。其計算方法是體重（公斤）除以身高（米）的二次方。據世界衞生組織建議，亞洲人BMI體重指標大過或等於25屬於肥胖，而23至24.9則屬於過重。對大部分病人來說，控制體重需要靠注意飲食和有足夠的運動量。有些病人常常害怕減重瘦得太快太多。減重過急的確對脂肪肝無益，但每星期減一至兩磅倒是十分安全。如有任何擔憂，可以請教家庭醫生或營養師。
另外一類病人則剛好相反，常常覺得自己「喝白開水也會胖」，一直把食物份量減少、減少再減少。最初可能有些效果，但隨着體重下降身體的新陳代謝亦會跟着自動調節，效果不能持久。食量太少亦難以攝取均衡的營養，得不償失。有些病人會驚嘆跟着營養師的指示雖然吃多了，體重不增反減呢！
運動方面，過重的病人要選擇適當的運動方法，一些重複性和衝擊力高的運動會增加膝蓋的磨損，誘發退化性關節炎。一星期不少於5次、每次共30分鐘的帶氧運動，可以幫助控制體重，例如急步走平路或游泳都是適合肥胖人士的選擇。除了家庭醫生外，物理治療師也可以設計適合病人的運動。惟無論飲食還是運動，都必須持之以恒才能達到長久果效。
2.接種甲型和乙型肝炎防疫針：脂肪肝病人亦應該考慮接種甲型和乙型肝炎防疫針。如果已有慢性肝病的病人，更應考慮接種其他疫苗，例如肺炎鏈球菌疫苗。飲用過量酒精能使脂肪肝惡化。暫時沒有足夠研究數據評估小量酒精對脂肪肝的影響，因此，病人最理想還是滴酒不沾以減少肝臟負擔。
3.控制心血管疾病的風險：控制心血管疾病的風險亦同樣重要，包括高血壓、糖尿病和膽固醇。如果已採取健康的生活習慣和飲食亦未能控制這些風險，醫生便會建議用藥物幫忙。很多病人聞藥色變，特別害怕服用降膽固醇藥。不錯，降膽固醇藥的確有機會引致肝酵素高，但一般幅度不大，可以繼續服用。
更有研究顯示，對於有心血管風險的脂肪肝病人，大部分不但能安全地服用膽固醇藥，不少病人服用後肝酵素更降低呢！如果你有這方面的疑慮，不妨跟家庭醫生商討，切勿諱疾忌醫。抽煙的患者亦須戒煙。戒煙除了減少心血管疾病的風險，亦減少非酒精脂肪肝惡化的風險，實在一舉數得。至於其他藥物例如抗糖尿病藥物、維他命E、奧米加3等用於治療脂肪肝的建議則因人而異，適宜與醫生商討後再作決定。
篩選檢查疑問
那麼有脂肪肝風險的人，如有糖尿病、高膽固醇和肥胖的人，是否應定時做脂肪肝的篩選檢查呢？美國肝病研究協會目前不建議此類病人定期做脂肪肝篩選檢查。原因有幾個：脂肪肝的患者肝酵素未必一定升高，用抽血來發現脂肪肝的方法敏感度不足；要抽取肝組織做化驗，於肝臟纖維化風險不高的病人風險又略嫌太大；用超聲波或無創肝纖維化掃描用作篩檢方法未被證實有效。何況確診脂肪肝後，最有效的治療不外乎減重，跟沒有脂肪肝的心血管高風險病人並沒有分別。
患有脂肪肝是危也是機。病人只須成功減重3%至5%，脂肪肝便能得以改善；減重7%至10%，則連NASH和肝纖維化亦可見到好轉。
家庭醫生見證着病人努力改變生活習慣的成果，不單是肝功能，連心血管亦變得更健康。這些病人亦知道自己有能力控制自己的生活，從而變得積極自信，勇於面對挑戰。處理脂肪肝，好處往往出乎意料之外呢！
撰文：鍾思博醫生_香港家庭醫學學院醫生
69 prostoalex 1 day 26
https://www.zdnet.com/article/walmart-deploys-17000-oculus-go-headsets-to-train-its-employees/
screen-shot-2018-09-20-at-11-32-46-am.png Walmart said on Wednesday that it is providing Oculus Go virtual reality headsets to all of its US stores as part of a nationwide expansion of a VR-based employee training program. The big box retailer first experimented with VR in its training academies a year ago and now says the program has proved its worth, with employees reporting boosts to confidence and technology familiarity after training on the headsets.
Also: Walmart gains patent to eavesdrop on shoppers CNET
Starting next month, Walmart will ship four Oculus Go headsets to every Walmart supercenter and two units to all of its smaller Neighborhood Market stores. The headsets will give employees access to 45 activity-based modules created by VR software company STRIVR.
All told, more than 17,000 Oculus Go headsets will be in stores by the end of this year, and every employee will have access to the training programs.
Walmart said it is using the headsets to train within three key areas: new technology, compliance, and soft skills like empathy and customer service. With the technology training, Walmart is aiming to prepare employees for the wave of in-store technology it's rolling out as part of its overall digital strategy.
Also: Walmart brings DoorDash into its grocery delivery fold | Walmart rolls out 500 more vending machines for online order pickups | Walmart steps up Amazon battle with nationwide grocery delivery
"VR training is particularly helpful for learning new tech," the company wrote on a blog post. "In a pilot test this summer, 10 stores used VR for training on new Pickup Tower units in their stores. VR is allowing associates to be trained before the towers are even installed - no teachers required. This will be key as Walmart continues to roll out new tech to stores."
Workplace training is considered one of the most promising areas where virtual reality can make a push into the enterprise. VR headsets are still maligned on the consumer side for their long list of problems and limitations, but workplace training is a bright spot where VR is not only practical but also potentially more effective than training via humans or basic computer programs and apps.
In Walmart's case study, they found that employees benefited by the ability to make mistakes in a safe environment, and came away with skills and confidence unique to this type of experience.
"Walmart was one of the first companies to benefit from VR's ability to enrich employee education, and its applications will only grow from here," said Andy Mathis, Oculus' head of business partnerships. "What makes it so compelling is that costly, difficult, or otherwise-impossible scenarios and simulations become not only possible, but immediately within reach."
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Walmart bets on Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365 in strategic cloud partnership
Well you didn't think Walmart was going to partner with Amazon Web Services did you?
BBC英國國家廣播，除了新聞，亦製作很多高質素的紀錄片，所報導的資料極為嚴謹，絕對不會亂來。最近，他們做了一個調查，從一千種食材中選出一百樣對人體最有營養的。從尾算起，排行如下。 第一○○種：番薯。第九十九種：無花果。第九十八種：薑。第九十七種：南瓜。第九十六種：牛蒡。第九十五種：抱子甘藍。第九十四種：西蘭花。第九十三種：椰菜花。第九十二種：馬蹄。第九十一種：哈密瓜。第九十種：梅乾。 第八十九種：八爪魚。第八十八種：紅蘿蔔。第八十七種：冬天瓜類。第八十六種：墨西哥辣椒。第八十五種：大黃。第八十四種：石榴。第八十三種：紅醋栗，又叫紅加侖。第八十二種：橙。第八十一種：鯉魚。第八十種：硬殼南瓜。 第七十九種：金橘。第七十八種：鯧鰺魚。第七十七種：粉紅三文魚。第七十六種：酸櫻桃。第七十五種：虹鱒魚。第七十四種：河鱸魚。第七十三種：玉豆。第七十二種：紅葉生菜。第七十一種：京葱。第七十種：牛角椒。 第六十九種：綠奇異果。第六十八種：黃金奇異果。第六十七種：西柚。第六十六種：鯖魚。第六十五種：紅鮭。第六十四種：芝麻菜。第六十三種：細葱。第六十二種：匈牙利辣椒粉。第六十一種：紅番茄。第六十種：綠番茄。 第五十九種：西生菜。第五十八種：芋葉。第五十七種：利馬豆。第五十六種：鰻魚。第五十五種：藍鰭金槍魚。第五十四種：銀鮭魚，生長於太平洋海產或湖泊中。第五十三種：翠玉瓜等夏天瓜類。第五十二種：海軍豆，又名白腰豆。第五十一種：大蕉（是非洲蔬菜，長得像香蕉，但味道一點都不像，似木薯，非洲人當馬鈴薯吃）。第五十種：豆莢豆。 第四十九種：眉豆。第四十八種：牛油生菜。第四十七種：紅櫻桃。第四十六種：核桃。第四十五種：菠菜。第四十四種：番茜。第四十三種：鯡魚。第四十二種：海鱸魚。第四十一種：大白菜。第四十種：水芹菜。 第三十九種：杏。第三十八種：魚卵。第三十七種：白魚，即為白鮭。第三十六種：芫荽。第三十五種：羅馬生菜。第三十四種：芥末葉。第三十三種：大西洋鱈魚。第三十二種：牙鱈魚。第三十一種：羽衣甘藍。第三十種：油菜花。 第二十九種：美洲辣椒。第二十八種：蚶蛤類。第二十七種：羽衣，與羽衣甘藍相近又是不同種類。第二十六種：羅勒，又名金不換，九層塔。第二十五種：一般辣椒粉。第二十四種：冷凍菠菜。（註：冷凍菠菜的營養不會流失，故級數高於新鮮菠菜）。第二十三種：蒲公英葉Dandelion Greens。第二十二種：粉紅色西柚。第二十一種：扇貝。第二十種：太平洋鱈魚。 第十九種：紅椰菜。第十八種：葱。第十七種：阿拉斯加狹鱈。第十六種：狗魚。第十五種：青豆。第十四種：橘子。第十三種：西洋菜。第十二種：芹菜碎，將芹菜曬乾或抽乾水份，營養較新鮮的高。第十一種：番茜乾，同道理。第十種：鱲魚。 第九種：甜菜葉。第七種：瑞士甜菜。第六種：南瓜籽。第五種：奇亞籽。第四種：扁魚、比目魚、左口魚的各類的魚。第三種：深海鱸魚。第二種：番荔枝。第一種：杏仁。 這都是有根有據的科學分析和調查，絕對可靠，但是我們作夢也沒有想到杏仁那麼厲害，怎麼可以跑出第一位來？今後要多吃杏仁餅了。 第二位的番荔枝也出乎意料，這種台灣人叫為釋迦的水果從前只在泰國吃到，當今各地都種植，澳洲產的又肥又大，皮平坦的不好吃，一粒粒分明的才行。 大家都認為留有奧米加三的三文魚只排在第六十五位，而西洋人也不贊成生吃，他們都要煙燻過的，或者煮得全熟的。西蘭花或椰菜花也不是那麼有營養，排在第九十三至第九十四。 大力水手吃的菠菜，新鮮的只排在第四十五，反而是冷凍過後再翻熱的排在第二十四，營養極高，但不如排在第十八位的葱。 至於我們東方人的主食大米，根本不入流，米飯營養價值極低，我們可以放心吃個三大碗。但米飯當今大家都少食，不如選擇最好的中國五常米、日本米、台灣蓬萊米，貴一點也無所謂了。 對了，在排行榜上你會發現沒有第八位，那就是我最喜歡的豬油了，這一種一直被誤解的食材，原來是那麼有營養的，比什麼橄欖油、椰子油或各類植物油都有益處，更不必說牛油或魚油了。 當然我們不贊成一有營養就拚命吃，各類食材都吃一點點，營養才均衡，而有什麼比吃沒營養的白飯，淋一點豬油來撈的更好呢？ 哈，哈。
269 constantinum 21 hrs 149
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1986/10/09/why-read-the-classics/
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曲奇四重奏控股上載招股文件，擬在主板上市，獨家保薦人創陞融資。
該公司在2008年成立，由前香港小姐謝寧，食物造型師、飲食生活作家關琬潼及糕點廚師黃耀文創辦。目前共有8間零售店，以及在新蒲崗設有中央生產基地，共提供超過30種口味的曲奇產品，主要分為蝴蝶酥及牛油曲奇。
截至今年3月底止年度，盈利2468.6萬元，按年下跌16.24%；收益8067.4萬元，按年減少1.17%。
上市集資所得淨額將用於收購新蒲崗建築面積不少於350平方米的物業，作為額外生產基地，購置所需機器及設備；拓展香港零售網絡、拓展海外零售渠道及加強營銷力度。
更多新股IPO資訊及集資數據分析，請瀏覽〈港股360〉全新IPO專頁。
微軟宣布，收購課堂學習工具平台Flipgrid，令到其可接觸到逾2000萬學生，爭取這些學生成為產品的用家。
微軟沒有披露收購作價，指出計劃讓學校可免費使用Flipgrid，以及旗下的辦公室365軟件。
Flipgrid是讓學生可在討論功課時、免費使用的可錄像軟件，令到他們可錄下對話內容，以作為日後參考。
海洋奇遇 海洋天地 I 高峰樂園 (海洋劇場) 「同心護海洋——向零海洋垃圾進發」！海洋劇場故事帶出人類與海洋動物的不解之緣，宣傳保護海洋環境、愛惜海洋動物的珍貴訊息！表演約長達20分鐘。
下午 12:00下午 2:00下午 3:30下午 5:00
天上王者 亞洲動物天地 I 海濱樂園 (雀鳥劇場) 由鸚鵡、貓頭鷹、非洲冠冕鶴和各種雀鳥同大家分享一個愛護大自然的雀躍故事。表演約長達20分鐘。
下午 3:30下午 5:00
10點開門，門票可現場買，但是建議提前在網上預訂，我們這次正好碰到買3送1的活動，等於省了一張門票，差不多也要300多了呢！
網購門票後，會收到電子郵件，每張門票對印一個二維碼，可打印出來，也可以直接手機打開讓園內人員掃描，直接入場。園區門口有地圖和表演時間可拿，可以各拿一份，另外下載海洋公園的APP，裏面也有地圖、表演時間，還能知道景點排隊時間、暫時關閉景點以及一些優惠券。
去的那天有不少幼兒園和小學春遊，園方會提前讓這些孩子入園，並拍攝集體照，這個要點個讚！
進園後，我們沒有像很多人一樣直接坐纜車上山，而是去了山下最值得一逛的展館——海洋奇觀水族館。
入館前會排隊，並不是因為人多管制，而是因為工作人員會攔下所有進場的人讓你拍照，出館後如果你要照片需要另外付費。背景太傻，所以我們就拒絕了拍照的要求，直接進館。沒走幾步，就聽到了背後的爭吵聲，因為有遊客覺得他們被強制消費了……
進館後的美景，大家到時可以自己感受，不得不說確實非常贊，不管是孩子還是老人，都看得津津有味。就是拍照時不能使用閃光燈，只能拍出人影，不過這樣的效果也是很棒的，畢竟主角可是那些魚兒~
出館後，迅速向上車纜車前進~在入口處拍張照先~
我們由於一早就進園，所以上車纜車也沒排多久，也就10分鐘不到，就直接坐上車了，原本一車要坐6人，由於前期排隊的人不多，哪怕你是2個也讓你獨享一車，對於情侶來說絕對是很棒的體驗哦！要是晚了，只能辣拼車了，然後大家就大眼對小眼吧，哈哈~
沿着海岸線滑行，海、山連成難得的美景，這一段短短旅程，卻是終身難忘！
下了纜車到達山頂，直奔水母萬花筒館，雖然館不大，但相信我，絕對不會讓你後悔。
大小不一、形狀萬千的水母，讓你流連忘返，感嘆大自然造物的偉大~
出了水母館，我們又去逛了附近的中華鱘館以及鯊魚館，都不大，而且人少，逛起來很舒服。
欣賞完這兩處，時間差不多也要11點半了，園區內有不少美食，不過據說價格都不菲，人均好幾百那是常事，幸好，我在網上提前發現了園內性價比最高的餐廳——麥當勞！就在鯊魚館下方的遊藝區，沒有座位，只能外帶，至於價格，20多港幣一個漢堡，20多港幣一杯超大杯可樂，你說性價比如何？
去的時候運氣真是好，居然一個排隊的人都沒有，買了一堆食物後，就找地方填肚子啦。就在附近不遠處，有很多桌椅供遊客休息及食餐，我們去的時候照樣一個人都沒有，實在是幸運！
不過有一排桌椅下有下水道，所以蚊子較多，我就被吵了不少包，555……
吃到一半，發現周圍聲音越來越響，環顧四周一看，我靠，居然所有位子都被坐滿了，都是吃麥麥的……
除了飢腸轆轆的遊客之外，這裏還有幾位不速之客，那就是幾隻像八哥一樣的小鳥。它們會趁你不注意搶奪你的食物，當然也是看人的，小朋友尤其是小女孩往往會成為搶奪對象。這時好想說一句，放開那女孩，有本事沖我來！
好了扯遠了，繼續我們的公園之旅。
吃飽後，會發現遊客也比之前多了不少，這時你有兩個選擇，一個是熱帶雨林，一個是極地世界，兩個園區相互鄰近。
極地世界美麗凍人，裏面最有意思的是企鵝館，各種憨態可居的企鵝讓你忍俊不禁……
企鵝館的出口，是個購物店，雪狐居的入口就在裏面，不過非常小，就三隻睡覺的雪狐……
出了購物店，往左拐，進入北極館，裏面有海獅表演，之前還會有馴獸員帶着貓頭鷹亮亮相。
不過對於海獅表演，不要期待太多，也就是揮揮手而已，沒多久就結束了。 離開極地世界，如果你有興趣，可以嘗試一下周圍的動感遊樂設施，會很嗨哦~（反正我在下面聽別人的叫聲時很嗨）
不敢玩的朋友，可以四處拍拍照片，由於處於山頂最高處，風景真的是不錯。
接下來我們到了旁邊的熱帶雨林區，裏面是一些熱帶鳥類以及爬行類動物。看，盤絲洞！
出來後，我們就去旁邊飄流啦！身高1米4以下兒童不能玩，女兒只能眼淚汪汪地看着我們上船…… 一圈不大，不過不穿雨衣肯定會濕身，幸好我早有準備，某寶上買來的雨衣這時起了很好的防護作用，不管是機器自動噴射的水注還是其他遊客發射的水槍，都全部擊中了我們……
濕身後，看看時間差不多2點45了，我們就去看下午3點半的那場海豚表演了，需要上個不小的坡，到達海洋劇場。 海洋劇場的樓梯較陡，下去時一定要注意安全，抓緊欄杆。 表演時間不長，也就20分鐘，基本上都是海豚在表演，還是挺值得一看的。
看完表演，大批遊客開始下山，我們也往山下撤，這次選擇的是另一種交通工具——海洋列車。 海洋列車有好幾節車廂，順着軌道運送遊客上下山，差不多10分鐘不到一趟來回，也沒啥風景可看，純粹就當交通工具吧~
下山後，抓緊時間逛逛大熊貓之旅（小熊貓），熊貓山莊（水獺），賽馬會四川珍奇館（大熊貓）、雀鳥劇場、鱷魚潭，然後就可以帶小朋友去專屬他們的遊樂場——威威天地了。 裏面有小火車、小摩天輪、小飛機，還有大滑梯等，夠讓孩子玩上一陣。 孩子玩得差不多了，就該出園覓食啦~夢幻水都據說有表演，但是和我網到的閉園時間不同，之前說7點半才關門，但我那天發現6點就閉園了，所以也沒看到表演。 好了，基本上一天的行程就是這些，希望能夠給大家帶來幫助，總的來說，根據本人的提示，正常一天搞定海洋公園的大多數遊樂項目是絕無問題，當然要注意儘量避開暑假高峰期哦~