Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 173
March 29, 2017
These 6 Instragrammers Are Getting Rich by Traveling the World
Love taking travel photos and sharing them with your friends on Instagram? So do the social media stars below. They’ve earned celebrity status — and sometimes six-digit incomes — from the travel snaps they post on the photo sharing giant.
Building such a loyal and monetizable following takes a long time, a lot of talent, and a little luck. But hopefully, their work can provide you with a bit of inspiration for your photography on your next trip. (See also: 5 Surprising Ways Social Media Stars Make Money)
1. Liz Eswein
Liz Eswein (@newyorkcity and her personal handle @lizeswein) started her account when Instagram first came out in 2010. Perhaps her early entry to the game helps explain how she was able to snag the handle @newyorkcity, which has now accumulated well over a million followers.
Eswein posts pictures of New York, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Although her account wasn’t initially focused on travel, her success on Instagram has led her to travel to Chile, Namibia, and Dubai for different clients.
Her personal account has thousands of followers, and features destinations she’s visited such as Tokyo, Seoul, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
After beginning the Instagram account, Eswein told The New York Times she earned around $50 for a promotional post. But the Gazette Review reports that since then, she’s increased her earnings to $15,000 a post, making her one of the top earning Instagrammers in the world. The publisher estimates her net worth at $850,000.
2. Chris Burkard
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that professional photographer, writer, and videographer Chris Burkard (@Chrisburkard) has gained such popularity on Instagram, garnering more than 2 million followers.
His account features breathtaking shots from the Arctic Circle (his focus is surfing in freezing waters), Yellowstone National Park, Zakynthos Island in Greece, and many other places.
Burkard regularly works with Fortune 500 clients and has given a TED talk on how he found meaning in those frigid Arctic waters. According to his website, he began taking pictures when he was 19 years old, and his favorite place to travel is Iceland. (See also: How to Take Stunning Travel Photos)
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3. Julie Sariñana
Julie Sariñana is a blogger from Los Angeles, California. She began her blog in 2009 writing and posting about fashion, travel, and lifestyle. Today her Instagram account (@sincerelyjules) has an audience of more than 4 million followers.
As of June 2016, Gazette Review calculated her net worth at $800,000. She makes money by promoting products on her Instagram account and writing fashion articles. She also has her own fashion line, Shop Sincerely Jules.
Some of her recent destinations include Paris, Hawaii, and Costa Rica. She’s been featured in Teen Vogue and Elle, and has written for Glamour. Some brands she’s worked with on Instagram include Karl Lagerfeld and Nespresso.
4. Julia Engel
Julia Engel’s Instagram account (@juliahengel) is focused on fashion and travel. Based in Charleston, South Carolina, Engel posts photos of destinations including the Bahamas, Iceland, and Miami on her account.
She’s parlayed her 1 million Instagram followers into $1.5 million, as estimated by Gazette Review. Some of her earnings are generated from a shopping app called LIKEtoKNOW.it, which allows Instagram followers who like a product they see in one of Engel’s photos to be directed to a website where they can buy it. Engels reaps a commission from every sale.
5. Emilie Ristevski
Emilie Ristevski’s account @HelloEmilie has about 400,000 followers. This Australian traveler started posting on Instagram when she was still in university and her travel-related posts attracted so many travel offers that she was able to turn Instagram posting into a living once she graduated, according to an interview with AWOL.
Some of her favorite destinations? Petra, Jordan, and New Zealand’s Milford Sound. She has worked brands including Moet and AirAsia.
6. Brooke Saward
Brooke Saward is the woman behind the @worldwanderlust Instagram account. Originally from Australia, her travels have recently taken her to Lake Como, Italy; Paris, France; and throughout Japan. With more than 600,000 followers, she’s attracted diverse brands such as Bose Australia and smartphone e-tailer Honor Global to work with her.
At just 24 years old, she’s been featured in Elle and Glamour. Her rates are unpublished.
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Source:
http://www.wisebread.com/these-6-instragrammers-are-getting-rich-by-traveling-the-world
Buying and selling apps – Poshmark & Mercari
By now, most of you are probably familiar with selling your gently used goods on your phone through apps. These apps help you earn extra cash by selling and promoting your used (and new) goods to customers all over the country.
There are tons of apps like these out there, but the most popular ones are by far Poshmark, and now the new Mercari app. Since my wardrobe changes so frequently, I LOVE buying and selling on these apps and they are my go-to when I’m looking to buy certain things, or get rid of something fast. After using these apps to buy and sell, I’m going to weigh the pros and cons of both apps for you ladies!
Poshmark
The pros: The app is catered more toward women, but I’m seeing more men pop up on there primarily to buy and sell women’s fashion. You can negotiate prices by making an offer/counter offer, and items are protected by Poshmark’s guarantee: Get the item you ordered in its described condition, or get your money back.
It’s very simple and easy to use, and tried and tested as one of the first apps of its kind. You can recieve invites to attend Poshmark parties and events in your area. When you search for an item on the app to purchase, it automatically filters the search to only show items in your size.
I’ve earned tons of extra cash selling my gently used clothing on this app. Poshmark sends you a shipping label when you sell an item. Poshmark hosts in-app parties to help you sell items, and they offer incentives to help you sell such as discounted shipping, notifications for likes, comments, and more. Earn $5 when you first sign up using code: JBJTE
The cons: When selling, Poshmark takes a HEFTY commission, up to 20 percent. This is huge. And when buying, shipping costs of $6.99 are added to your purchase
Mercari
The pros: Mercari just began taking commission from sales, yet it’s only 10 percent. You can buy and sell anything from electronics to clothing. I also find their prices more reasonable on certain items. You can choose to pay for shipping or charge the customer for it. Purchases are protected by Mercari’s guarantee: Receive the item in its described condition or get your money back.
Mercari also sends you a shipping label when you sell an item.
Overall, it’s very easy to use. I personally have sold a lot more with Mercari than Poshmark, but I have more of an array of items then just apparel and accessories. Referral promotion: Give $2 get $2 when you sign up using code: RUQFCA. So not only do you save, but so does anyone you refer.
The cons: You can’t negotiate prices unless you do it through the comments section and ask the seller to lower the price. I only list this as a detraction because people sometimes get offended by your offer. In contrast, Poshmark allow you to either not accept an offer or counter it.
However, Mercari just launched a private chat for each seller so others can’t see your offer or comments. That in essence turns the detraction into a BIG PLUS!
Mercari can be a little confusing and a bit cluttered to use at first. It caters to a very broad market, meaning there are people selling all kinds of things on the app and makes it hard to find what you are looking for. But by using the search function, you can narrow down what your looking for.
To wrap it up, I feel Mercari has a lot of potential and is a perfect fit for both men and women to sell things other than clothing. If you are selling high-end clothes, shoes, handbags, or accessories, Poshmark is definitely the way to go, despite their excessive commission. Both apps make it very easy to sell an item. I currently have both apps installed in my phone.
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Source:
http://www.themaineedge.com/style/the-frugal-edge/buying-and-selling-apps-poshmark-mercari
Tristan Walker: ‘No one wants to fund e-commerce companies anymore’
When Tristan Walker decided to raise venture capital money for his new startup, a health and beauty company that makes products for people of color, the fact that he was running a tech company — not a retail company — was key.
“When I started, I said we’re a tech company. That’s bullshit,” Walker said Monday night at Recode’s Code Commerce conference in Las Vegas. “If you go to any kind of venture capital firm on Sand Hill Road and you say you want to build a retail business, you’re not going to raise any money. So to say that you’re a direct-to-consumer e-commerce business focused on subscriptions … it allows us to really talk about how we kind of focused on tech.”
That strategy worked. Walker’s startup, Walker & Company, has raised $33 million from well-known VC firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures; its flagship brand Bevel, a line of razor blades and lotions for people with “coarse and curly hair,” is sold in major retail stores like Target.
But Walker says that, despite his company’s success and home runs like Dollar Shave Club’s recent $1 billion sale to Unilever, raising money as a commerce company hasn’t gotten any easier.
“It still is difficult,” Walker said. “No one wants to fund e-commerce companies anymore. There’s been no shortage of e-commerce companies that have just failed recently. No one wants to fund a retail business.”
Walker & Co. is not failing, though, or at least he’s optimistic that things are just beginning. The company plans to come out with its second brand later this summer — a line that will include 10 new products — and has found success by selling its products a la carte. Bevel used to sell via subscription only, but Walker expects retail sales to make up 50 percent of his business in 2017.
And even though Walker relies on Amazon for lots of those sales, that doesn’t mean he isn’t hyper aware that he’s working side by side with the potential competition.
“Amazon is on a tear,” Walker said. “One thing that people don’t understand about Amazon and don’t give them enough credit for is that they make good products themselves that are private label … Really, the last vertical that a lot of these retailers haven’t tackled yet is health and beauty, and that’s where all the margin is.”
“Amazon is a wonderful partner of ours [but] I’m always nervous,” he added. “This isn’t a friendly game.”
Source:
https://www.recode.net/2017/3/20/14991346/tristan-walker-ecommerce-funding-code-commerce
Why debt to income matters in mortgages
Paying your bills on time, having stable income and boasting a good credit score won’t get you a mortgage loan if your lender determines that you live too close to the edge.
In the mortgage lending world, your distance from the edge is measured by your debt-to-income ratio, which, simply put, is a comparison of your housing expenses and your monthly debt obligations versus how much you earn.
Knowing your DTI is just as important as knowing your credit score when you get ready to apply for a home loan, says Ed Conarchy, a mortgage planner and investment adviser at Cherry Creek Mortgage in Vernon Hills, Ill.
“People are so focused on their credit scores and on getting a low interest rate that they forget to look at the big picture of their financials,” Conarchy says. “Your debt-to-income ratio plays a huge role. It’s a number that can impact whether or not you’re getting a mortgage in the first place.”
How to figure debt-to-income ratio
There are two types of debt-to-income ratios that lenders look at when you apply for a mortgage:
The front-end ratio, also called the housing ratio, shows what percentage of your income would go toward your housing expenses, including your monthly mortgage payment, real estate taxes, homeowner’s insurance and association dues.
The back-end ratio shows what portion of your income is needed to cover all of your monthly debt obligations. This includes credit card bills, car loans, child support, student loans and any other debt that shows on your credit report that requires monthly payments, plus your mortgage payments and other housing expenses.
To calculate the front-end ratio, add up your expected housing expenses and divide it by how much you earn each month before taxes (your gross monthly income). Multiply the result by 100 and that is your front-end DTI ratio. For instance, if all your housing-related expenses total $1,000 and your monthly income is $3,000, your DTI is 33 percent.
To determine the back-end ratio, add up your monthly debt expenses with your housing expenses and divide the result by your monthly gross income. For instance, suppose you pay $200 per month for a car loan, $50 per month in student loans, and about $100 per month in credit card bills. That adds up to $1,350 in monthly debt obligations, including housing expenses. Based on a monthly income of $3,000, your back-end ratio would be 45 percent.
Recommended debt-to-income ratio
Lenders typically say the ideal front-end ratio should be no more than 28 percent, and the back ratio, including all expenses, should be 36 percent or lower.
In reality, depending on credit score, savings and down payment, lenders accept higher ratios. Limits vary depending on the type of loan.
For conventional loans, most lenders focus on your back-end ratio, says Matt Hackett, underwriting manager at Equity Now in New York.
Although it’s not written in stone, most conventional loans require a debt to income of no more than 45 percent, he says, but some lenders will accept ratios as high as 50 percent if the borrower has compensating factors such as a savings account with a balance equal to six months’ worth of housing expenses, he says.
“Anything over 50, you would need to have some considerable compensating factors to get approved,” Hackett says. “Something like a 50 percent down payment.”
FHA debt-to-income ratio
For Federal Housing Administration loans, the recommended debt-to-income limit is 31 percent on the front ratio and 43 percent for the back ratio. But with certain compensating factors, the FHA automated approval system accepts ratios as high as 46.99 for housing expenses and 56.99 for the total back ratio, Hackett says.
“I try to stay away from those,” he says. “I don’t see how one can make payments when 57 percent of your income is already gone. You have to remember these numbers don’t take into account your utilities, cable, phone and all those other expenses.”
Ways to get around a high DTI
The most obvious and easiest way to lower your debt-to-income ratio is to pay off some of your debt. But most people don’t have the money to do so when they are in the process of getting a mortgage, since much of their savings often goes toward the down payment and closing costs.
If you think you can afford the mortgage you plan to get but your DTI is over the limit, a co-signer might help solve your problem.
Borrowers can have a relative co-sign their mortgages on FHA loans. Unlike in conventional loans, FHA co-signers are not required to live in the house with the borrower, but they need to show sufficient income and good credit.
Sometimes a co-signer isn’t the answer, Concarchy says.
“Just because you are able to get approved doesn’t mean you should get approved,” he says. “If your DTI is too high, maybe it’s time to take a step back and get your finances together before you commit to a mortgage.”
Read more: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/mortgages/why-debt-to-income-matters-in-mortgages-1.aspx#ixzz4ckHQ7rOR
Follow us: @Bankrate on Twitter | Bankrate on Facebook
Moving from brick and mortar to ecommerce
‘Ecommerce’ seems to be the buzzword now days with many brands moving omni-channel or online-only while quite a few aggregators and marketplaces are in news for right or wrong reasons. While the brick and mortar model presented its own set of challenges, online shopping has come up with its own set of complexities. Mostly ecommerce site owners are at the receiving end of the rubik’s cube, which seem to never reach the solution, making it imperative to constantly improve, adopt, learn and implement in a race towards sustainability, profitability and scalability.
At a very basic level ecommerce has four levers – platform, assortment (or catalogue), pricing and channel. Platforms can be website; mobile cross browser, responsive and wap sites, or app. Channels are where you market your platform. Your catalogue or products drive your revenue. Pricing determines your brand positioning, and evolves from your customer acquisition strategy, product margins and many more. A play among these levers determines where you position yourself in the market, and the kind of scale or revenue you generate from your online store.
Without getting into platform specifics, the selection of platforms which need to be live for your ecommerce business is an output of your business goals and budget constraints. Not always does app generate more business than web or have a greater conversion rate. At scale, app does offer you greater RoI than web, but app as a platform demands more investment to become profitable than the web.
Conversion rate of platform is another puzzle which needs to be solved regularly. There is no absolute conversion rate benchmark and it needs regular improvement. For some ecommerce players, conversion rate is more than 2.5%, while some are at 0.1% or even lesser.
When you have multiple platforms, there will be one question which needs addressing – whether one channel is cannibalizing revenue from the other? One might feel that investing in Web is of little use, or it makes sense to invest more heavily on app. But if you cut off the discovery platform, there might also be a huge dip in revenue from app. Of course you would not see the dip since transition of shoppers, who were web-only, from web to app will balance the overall dip, but new customer acquisition cost or repeat purchase rate will show some fluctuation. How then should one validate the importance of platform? The answer, to some extent, lies in seeing a unified view of customer across all platforms.
Marketing spends get split across channels for various purposes. One of them is brand marketing (offline and online), which includes display networks, banner inventory buyout, video promotions, offline marketing and Social media organic marketing. The other part of channel marketing is to drive revenue, and those channels are typically known as performance marketing channels. They include SEM, social paid marketing, retargeting, affiliates, to name a few. Spends are plotted against revenue generated by each of these channels (RoI or CIR as KPI), and spends are increased for better performing channels while non performing channels are either optimized or spends reduced.
Now if someone visited your site, added something to cart and left, there is high chances that they would anyways purchase after sometime (maybe after going home or reaching office), or your live campaigns in CRM will drive them to make the purchase. But now retargeting shows up some ad in Facebook and the user buys through that channel and you lose out on an organic sale or a CRM sale but get better retargeting performance. Result – net revenue remains same, and spends increase. Many such similar cases can be seen regularly in the ecommerce industry. Which channel gets attributed to a sale and which channel should be scaled up are two questions very closely related and yet there is no clear answer. The most convincing solution seems to be multi touch-point analysis and understanding the customer behavior across channels.
Both scenarios above point to one thing – understanding customer behavior. Not just across platforms but also across channels. If your analytics team can get you data which tell us what percent of customer visited App, browsed through products, and then went to Web and made a purchase (or vice versa), and what has been the channel wise flow from discovery to purchase, we can improve customer acquisition and conversion funnel much better.
As the ecommerce industry is evolving, every aspect of it is becoming smarter. Progressive Web Apps for Mobile Web, Programmatic marketing for display, multiple payment options, international shipping, shop the look for fashion ecommerce, App deep-linking and deferred deep-links, customized feed for retargeting and Google Shopping Ads, scheduled push notifications for serving at the same time, etc, are all focused towards improving conversions and revenue. If one can constantly keep customer convenience and superior customer experience in mind as well, we are evolving in the right direction!
Source:
http://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/re-tales/moving-from-brick-and-mortar-to-ecommerce/2259
That Chip on Your Credit Card Isn’t Stopping Fraud After All
That new chip you have in your credit card may not end up protecting you anymore from fraud than the old strips.
Although the security chips, which have become increasingly ubiquitous at stores across the nation, have made it harder for criminals to counterfeit credit and debit cards, fraud has actually risen over the last year, according to a new study. Thieves, it appears, have figured out new ways to pilfering cash through the plastic in your wallet.
The new study from research firm Javelin Strategy & Research found that incidents of identify fraud rose 16% in 2016, costing individuals $16 billion in loses, which was an all-time high. In all, 15.4 million victims were affected, 2 million more than in 2015, representing 6.15% of all consumers. The study did not look exclusively at credit card, but Javelin said the vast majority of identity theft fraud is linked to credit cards.
The rise in fraud, which totaled $700 million more in loses than the previous year, seems counterintuitive. Many thought the use of electronic chips would derail criminal activity. But as it turns out, the new electronic chips embedded in cards seem to be actually spurring on more fraud than they prevent. The chips have made it harder for thieves walk into a store and purchase goods with a counterfeit card, so the criminals are keeping their illegal activity online, where the new chips do not come into play. The anonymity of the internet also makes fraud less risky than an in-person scam where the criminal’s face is likely on camera, and the possibility of immediate apprehension by authorities exists. So in a way the new chips have helped fraudsters stay out of trouble. Card-not-present fraud, which is when a thief buys something online or by phone, rose 40%.
Another area that saw lots of new activity is account takeovers, which increased 61% over 2015, totaling 1.4 million incidents. Account takeovers occur when thieves gain to access someone’s accounts and change the contact and security information. The criminals are then free to make charges without the victim’s knowledge since any warnings or notifications are sent back to the thieves themselves. Incidents where new accounts were opened in consumers’ names without their knowledge increased 40%, which comes out to 1.8 million victims.
Moving forward, banks, credit card companies, and retailers will need to keep being vigilant in order to keep fraud under control. Online retail sales totaled $22 trillion last year and are expected to top $27.7 trillion in 2020, according to eMarketer. And as is evidenced by the fraudsters’ willingness to adapt to changing security measures, no matter how many new safeguards are created, there will always be some vulnerability they will try to exploit.
Source:
http://fortune.com/2017/02/01/credit-card-chips-fraud/
Virtual diamonds and Dior Eyes: Could augmented reality be about to revolutionise fashion retail?
Virtual and augmented reality is about much more than just gaming. It’s a trend that’s expected to grow rapidly and consume almost every part of our physical lives, including fashion.
From notebooks to calendars, alarm clocks and cameras, objects that were once integral have all but disappeared into the digital landscape. Could our wardrobes be about to follow suit?
It has even been suggested that technology could become so advanced and bizarre that we end up renting virtual clothes and jewelry for our augmented reality worlds.
“All those things we thought essential materially, disappeared into the virtual environment,” Jody Medich, director of design at Singularity University told WIRED Retail.
“They have all gone into the screen – but in the future, we are going to be looking through that screen.”
Medich believes that augmented reality will be ubiquitous in just five years through our phones, headsets, or AR contact lenses and while that might sound a little hasty to some of you, it’s more realistic than you might think.
As early as 2014, VR was making huge waves in the fashion world when London Fashion Week offered users a front-row view of the catwalk with a 360 degree stream. More recently, Balenciaga’s Autumn Winter 2016 show was broadcast in virtual reality, while Hussein Chalayan released a panoramic video of his show; heck even Dior has its own VR headset.
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“This technology will be ubiquitous – it won’t affect little bits of our lives, it’s going to affect every aspect of our lives. All those activities we do on our second screens are going to change in a radical way,” says Medich.
“Instead of looking into a screen, we will be looking through the screen. When we do that, magical things will happen.”
People love the convenience of online shopping but it’s difficult to know exactly what you’re getting or how well it’s going to fit. Could AR be the solution?
Medich certainly seems to think so, referencing furniture retailer Wayfair, which used Google’s Tango technology to build an app that can measure your environment.
“Tango knows the dimensions and can see the decor of my space, then suggest what types of end tables I will want. Then I can just put it there and see what it looks like.”
Imagine this but in a virtual retail world where you can be matched with products specific to your shape and personal style or where your bedroom becomes a fitting room and builds outfits based on exactly what’s in your wardrobe.
Why stop there? What about personal AI stylists or the ability to rent high-end clothing and jewellery that can only be viewed through AR lenses? If Merdich is right, the accessibility of luxury fashion could soon be available to every consumer.
Of course, how and to what extent the medium will impact the fashion industry is yet to be determined but nonetheless it comes with endless possibilities.
Source:
Thor and The Hulk featured on new promotional poster for Thor: Ragnarok
As we await the first teaser trailer for Thor: Ragnarok (which according to Guardians of the Galaxydirector James Gunn, may be Marvel’s best trailer to date), a promotional poster for the Phase Three threequel has arrived online featuring the God of Thunder alongside The Incredible Hulk. Check it out here…
Thor: Ragnarok is an upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Thor, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is intended to be the sequel to 2011’s Thor and 2013’s Thor: The Dark World and the seventeenth film installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film is directed by Taika Waititi with a screenplay by Eric Pearson, and stars Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Hopkins. In Thor: Ragnarok, Thor must defeat the Hulk in a gladiatorial duel in time to save Asgard from Hela and the coming Ragnarök.
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A third Thor film was confirmed in January 2014, with the title and involvement of Hemsworth and Hiddleston announced that October. Waititi joined the film as director the next October, after Alan Taylor chose not to return from the second film, and Ruffalo joined the cast, crossing over the character Hulk from other MCU films. With the Hulk’s inclusion, elements from the 2006 comic storyline “Planet Hulk” were adapted for Ragnarok. The rest of the cast was confirmed the next May, with Pearson revealed to be involved with the film at the start of filming in July 2016. Principal photography took place from July to October, 2016, in Queensland and Sydney, Australia, with the film having exclusive use of Village Roadshow Studios in Oxenford.
Thor: Ragnarok is scheduled to be released on November 3, 2017, in IMAX.
