Archive for category Internet Marketing

ByzHub – New Kid on the Block

Oct 15

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing, Social Media | 2 Comments

Another Happy Anniversary ByzHub!

What I like about my new business is that I get to meet a lot of interesting people both in my industry and other businesses; some are established, some just beginning and yet others are the up and comers – the new kids on the block.

Just about this time a year or so ago I met one such interesting person – an up and comer. His name is Owen Clark and he is the founder and president of ByzHub, a business directory service blended with social media marketing. Brilliant!

As with most business directories it takes only a few minutes to register your business and put up your advertisement and it costs you nothing. Owen took the traditional advertising model where typically a business would take out space in print, TV or radio and pay upfront and turned it upside down. Traditional advertising can be a very costly line item in your budget. Tracking results is cumbersome at best, and there are no guarantees of any result. At ByzHub, you pay nothing to advertise until you get results.

Other features I like are:

1. Latest Profile: New members get front of page exposure under the heading Latest Profile. This however is organic and a business enjoys this placement only until other new members come along. ByzHub is still a young business and while more and more businesses are learning of it and filling up the ranks, the membership stampede is still just gathering, what that means to you is that your business profile will be in the limelight for a longer period of time.

2. Local Search Citation: If yours is a brick and mortar business or if you are doing online marketing for an offline business, a listing in ByzHub gives you a valuable local directory backlink, or citation. Search engines view these in much the same way that they look at backlinks to websites in the internet marketing arena.

3. ByzBuzz: this is the social media part. Members can post what’s shaking at or in their business or in their community. It’s a great way to advertise new merchandise, opening of another location or being honoured with an award in your industry. The possibilities are endless. Good place to post your press releases too.

4. Quote Requests: This is where members can post a free classified … yes Virginia, FREE! If your business is looking for a social media consultant or a private math tutor for your child post it in the Quote Requests. When the responses begin to roll in is when you as an advertiser pay but right now it is cheap as borscht, under five bucks!

Approaching its second anniversary, ByzHub is growing at an ever increasing pace. Currently membership is open to businesses in North America – No Cost. Nada. Zip. Zero. Damn good deal if you ask me.

Technorati Tags:U6SNUZFUK97S local business directories, social media

Happy Anniversary Jeff!

Aug 30

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing | 1 Comment

A fifteen year anniversary is a major milestone in any endeavor, but when that endeavor is internet marketing it puts you firm and square as a pioneer in this industry – 15 years ago today, August 30, 1996 – yes, 1996!- Jeff Walker began his internet marketing career. Fifteen years ago, the internet as we know it today had not even been invented yet but there was email and Jeff had a list – all 19 got an email from Jeff on August 30, 1996.

Jeff, of course, went on to become one of the foremost leaders in internet marketing and is best known for having created the Product Launch Formula, but I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that he had no inkling on the trajectory that this small step of sending out 19 emails would take on in his life.

But here’s the thing – he took a step.

I read his post today – 15 Years Of Internet Success (And The First Law) . Hop on over there and take a read yourself. I was struck and impressed that the date was so firmly etched in his mind, it made me wish that I had such a date to celebrate. You see, I sort of fell into this by accident and for those who believe that there are no accidents, that all things happen for a reason, fine, but its been a long haul from the seeding to the seedling to the plant finally gaining some strength and growing.

It began by my opening an email which promoted a course at the end of which I would have my book written, edited and published, perhaps even on the best seller list! And why not, I would be tutored by a celebrated author and, I had always harbored visions of becoming one myself! With trembling fingers I pulled out the plastic, phoned the number in the email and with some trepidation but with great expectations gave the details to the person at the other end.

A week or so later a box arrived. The book however, has yet to be. No, that email was not from Jeff.

But it was a step, albeit one that would change direction many a time. One day things began to fall in place like picture puzzle pieces beginning to fit together.

Today I meet people who want to get into internet marketing. They want to know how they can get started without paying big sums of money for courses and of course they want results right away. I tell them that the “right away” will probably have to wait, that the best way to get started is by blogging and that somewhere at some point they will probably need to part with some cash. Most go away seeking the answer they want to hear, others wait for the right time or they attend seminars and learn but never apply.

If I sound somewhat introspective it is because I am. I wonder how much talent lays dormant because of the waiting for the right time or because the cost is too high – too high in capital of time, of money, of effort, of “getting it right” before launching. There is always an excuse for the step never taken.

One of my favorite sayings is “You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going“ Mike Litman. (Mike was one of my early mentors – that’s when the picture puzzle pieces began to fit together).

So Congratulations Jeff Walker! My hat off to you. The internet marketing world is so grateful for your having taken that step all those many years ago!

Technorati Tags:U6SNUZFUK97S Internet Marketing, Jeff Walker, Product Launch Formula

Tags: Internet Marketing, Jeff Walker, Product Launch Formula

Panda Not Just Another Cute Bear

Jun 26

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing | 11 Comments

Pandas are native bears of China and they are simply adorable. As bears go they tend to be on the smaller side and typically have names like Mingaling, Yingyang or SingaLing.

But now we have a new panda and it has a name altogether different – it is the Google Panda! And this panda seems to have created a lot of pandamonium and we who are internet marketers need to pay attention to this bear, which is not that little and definitely not at all cuddly!

But before I go into panda territory a small aside. I miss posting on this little blog of mine. Been away for far too long. The reason is sound as a good deal of my time is now devoted to marketing and growing my fledgling internet marketing business for the bricks and mortar market, something I would not have attempted were it not for the experience gained here. A while back I made a commitment to Dave Doolin of Website in A Weekend that I would post here once a month … that was some time ago. What can I say – I’m slow in keeping my commitments!

I find now that I am actually making online marketing money by providing services to other businesses I need to be top of my game all the time – well at least try, keeping top of game can be a full time job of and on itself. The internet is nothing if not volatile , every day the RSS feed is filled with the newest, the latest, the best, the fastest, the dead in the water and the BIG DIFFERENCE and the Big Difference today is the Google Panda. I am not going to go into details of the Google Panda here – Aaron Wheeler does it brilliantly in this article. What I want to talk about is that, yes, once again content trumps king.

That, ladies and gentlemen is music to my ears. As most of us are aware Google’s algorithm content always was king but there appeared to be a system that was keyword supported and wouldn’t you know it but IMers quickly learned how to game that system (who’d have thunk!) so much so, that the quality of the content was often questionable if not down outright ignored.

It is no surprise that with each passing year Google gets smarter and smarter. Now it has a completely different way of looking at content, not just is the keyword in the subject/title, is it in the first sentence of the article/page, is it used at least three times within the whole piece (dammit, I just got that down pat), BUT, does the article/post engage the reader? Is it quality content?

For me the keyword thing has always been counter intuitive – somehow it seemed contrived and often stilted and while over here, it did not seem to matter much, but once writing for paying clients it did. Often I came across content on other sites that was so obviously created simply for the SERPs but now Google will pay attention to the human eye and interest of the reader: how long did the visitor stay on the page? Did the visitor go and visit other pages on the site? Was the “like” button clicked? Did they share the article with their friends … and so on.

So content rules. We don’t know just how “smart” Panda is – not yet. There seems to be reference to humor but then again, that would translate into engaging the audience, i.e., how long does the reader stay on the page/site and not a big haha from the bot. So attention grabbing titles may errrr…aaah… trump keywords?

Now don’t go overboard and throw out the importance of the keyword, I’m sure it still has some role to play but now your content can SingaLing along with MingaLing and squeeze some PandaGoogle juice for your site!

Technorati Tags:U6SNUZFUK97S Google Panda, keywords, quality content

Tags: Google Panda, keywords, quality content

Are Training Wheels Slowing You Down?

Oct 2

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing, Making Money | 28 Comments

Today’s question: Are training wheels hindering the speed of your success and what’s that got to do with blogging?

Taking the summer off of blogging was like taking the training wheels off of my internet marketing business. I didn’t see it that way – heck the thought never entered my mind until this morning when I read Nathan Hangen’s essay Step Away From the Blog

In his essay Nathan compares blogging to a set of training wheels. Blogging, he says gets you going on the internet, familiarizes you with online business basics and opens doors for opportunities. Blogging of and on its own seldom puts serious coin in your pocket and he challenges the reader to step away from blogging, develop a product and build a business around that product. In other words stop fooling yourself, take off the training wheels and start making money.

Co-incidentally in today’s edition of Website in a Weekend, Dave Doolin tosses a suspiciously look alike grenade into his reader’s psyche: Money blogging: Everyone’s dirty little secret . Dave’s question is simply this: why do you blog?

Both articles are worth the read. Hop on over there and then come on back.

But it got me thinking. Without knowing it I was shedding those training wheels during my sabbatical.

After almost two years of blogging the money truck hasn’t exactly rolled up to my front door. I have made a few dollars here and there but it’s a long way to Tipperary and to the pot of gold.

Taking the sabbatical helped me to de-clutter, clarify and get into business – two in fact, one as a JV partner and the other a full partnership. Both are online businesses. Neither would have happened if I did not have this blog as my set of training wheels.

But the training wheels are off now.

Does that mean I won’t be publishing here?

No.

One of the most valuable lessons learned from blogging here is that this is my Continuing Ed in internet marketing. So yes of course I’ll continue to publish – I hope to change the tone of content somewhat, that this may not be so much a blog on blogging as a commentary on our industry and a further hope that it stirs your creative juices which I encourage you to share here.

So as a beginning what about you? What has your experience been in blogging? How have you grown since you began? Do you have a vision of where you want to be? How do you think blogging factors in? Have you made money off your blog? Or has the blog been a conduit to selling other products? What’s your topic? What’s your product?

Would love to hear. My space – your voice!

Technorati Tags:U6SNUZFUK97S i, internet marketing business, training wheels

Tags: i, internet marketing business, training wheels

Odds and Sods

Jun 24

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing, Miscellaneous | 4 Comments

Just some odds and sods today … a little bit of housekeeping at Blog Income.

To those who asked (thank you for asking) and those who are wondering – I am taking a short hiatus and will be back full steam in four to six weeks … that is not to say that this will be a completely silent blog for that length of time, but certainly the posting will be somewhat sporadic.

Tonight is one of those sporadic moments … I just had to let you know that Ed Dale’s annual 30 Day Challenge is just days away only the name has changed and it is no longer 30 days – this year it is simply THE CHALLENGE and starts July 01.

If you take only one internet marketing course this year, this is THE ONE no matter where your level of internet marketing competence lies … best thing is that it is FREE! Hop on over to

http://challenge.co

No. That .co is not an error. You may already know this but just in case you don’t this is a great time to go and grab yourself some awesome domain names ending in .co … how often have you gone to get a .com or even a .net or .org and found that the simple and most effective names are gone. The assignment of .co domain names is not live as yet but you can go over pre-register at

www.domainmonster.com

I have pre-registered for a few … they’re not cheap at $24.95 but I think they’ll fly. This is your chance to get the domain that got away and your opportunity to register a truly global, credible and recognisable domain name. The flexibility that comes with .CO domains means they can be associated with companies, corporations or even other commercial endeavors.

Even if you don’t want to pre-register it is worth the visit to the site, I like the way they are positioning the launch. The message is compelling, of course by now the obligatory video is there but I like that they have a “landrush” option which is an auction format – so if you have the shekels you could bid for say www.internetmarketing.co and any other “good” web address that suits your business. Another feature that I like is aimed at those who have trademarks … the pre-registration requests are filled only after the landrush and trademarks are filled. You do not pay anything up front.

The last item today … why the absence? The reasons are several but they all revolve around working ON my business. Sometimes one gets so entrenched working in the business that you find yourself doing the same things over and over again – that is good to a degree because it is an excellent way to become familiar with what it is that you do, but if you don’t step away for a while and take a bird’s eye view you’ll just stay where you are. I’m going to take this time to go and do some eagle soaring (and there are plenty of them but literally and figuratively).

If I come across something whilst soaring out there that I think would be of value to you, I’ll quickly make a post here – till then ciao!

Those Doggone Blogging Blues – Having Nothing More To Say

Jun 11

Posted by Valentina in Blogging for Money, Internet Marketing | 12 Comments

dogging the blues

What can you do about it?

Question. As you have been writing on your subject have you at the same time continued to increase your own knowledge base on it? If not, this is a good time to do so. Here are some good ways to broaden your scope on any given subject/topic:

Visit your colleague’s blogs. Guaranteed you will find something that will get your attention. A new slant, a new resource, a fresh approach, perhaps even the appearance of your colleague’s blog may give you some ideas.

You may want to visit blogs that have a commonality but not necessarily the same niche as yours. For example while Blog Income is a blog on blogging I find visiting sights on personal development and personal finance to be both inspirational and broadening. I apply some of what I learn at those blogs to some of the other areas of my internet marketing – and to my personal life.

2. Review

3. Interview a blogger: This is a natural gimme. It’s fun to come up with questions. I like interviews where the blogger answers questions that are yes, helpful, but also that may be off topic and put the blogger in the hot seat. It’s a way to break through the din of what is expected and perks your reader’s interest.

4. Invite a colleague to be a guest on your blog. Pick a favorite blogger: one whose sun is rising. In the make money online grouping you are more likely to have such a blogger accept your invite than if you invited a big name guru. Moreover I like the guts and nerve that the newbies display – they have to do something to rise above the noise and they have to differentiate themselves from the pioneers while basically still writing the same stuff as others who have gone before them.

6. Republish some of your earlier posts. Some of your best writing may have been done when you first began. Lets face it that was when you were pumped and bent on showing the blogosphere that you knew whereof you wrote, and you took time to polish the prose so that it came across as being professional. The thing is that was early on in your blog income career when hardly anyone was aware of your blog let alone visiting it. New traffic typically reads the current post yet some valuable stuff may be buried in your archives.

7. Last but not least

These are simple steps which if followed will remind you why you decided to blog, why you chose the topic you did and guaranteed invigorate you to continue.

Technorati Tags:U6SNUZFUK97S blog income, blogging, making money online

Tags: blog income, blogging, making money online

Sunday Morn Musings: Parting of Ways

Jun 6

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing, Making Money, Sunday Morn Musings | 2 Comments

Slept in late this morning. Perhaps it’s just my body telling me that it needed some catch up, although I recently read that lost sleep like time is lost forever and that you cannot “catch up” on sleep and yet, if you go to bed early and sleep in late, what could be it but catch up?

Lots on my mind this morning. How do I choose which of the many thoughts swirling in my head should be written about? Should it be about money? Should it be about the environment? Should it be about parting? All separate but somehow like a vine they intertwine. I know. I’ll take a stab and see if I can make sense of that which my brain seems to be dwelling on this overcast Sunday morning.

Parting. Whilst sitting in a grouping listening to one after another of my colleagues speak I was suddenly acutely aware that I no longer enjoyed being here. I felt a sense of discomfort not with what was being said but with my feelings. Betrayal came to mind. How could this be? This is the group that I started. The dissonant and discordant energy was exactly what I wanted, no make that thrived on: contentious, mind disturbing, thought provoking, irreverent – political correctness be damned. It was all there. How could I now no longer want to be part of something I created?

This niggling thought followed me around all day yesterday and here it is again this morning. I am reminded of how people who break out of their bearings are often criticized for being “too good for their britches” – an observation often lobbed by the status quo at a usually successful friend who no longer spends time with them. I can understand that.

Not that the situation I speak of has anything to do with any newly acquired riches. Rather it has to do with a dull but insistent knocking in my cranium, each dull thud sending a message “…these are not your people.”

Indeed the rhetoric is palling. It assaults my values and frankly I am tired of the same old same old Robin Hood mentality that the rich are corrupt and should be taxed (even more)that seems to dominate these meetings. There is more. At one time there was a balance present and the bantering back and forth was fun, sharpening not only the tongue but one’s own appreciation of and respect for how others think.

With time the members changed. Being the lone wolf is not only no fun but it sinks you into a funk. I am not there to change anyone’s mind – that was never the intention. There are still some who present opposing views with some forethought and intelligence. I do not have to agree to enjoy a mind expanding experience.

No. That is not the reason my brain is going thud, thud. Lately, on my drive home from these gatherings I cannot help but question the knee jerk reactions that are being presented … and you know, even if they were knee jerk with substance, it might be ok. But its mostly rhetoric that is riding high on hype and for that I have little tolerance.

There is a side of me that says that I should soldier on and another that keeps telling me to surround myself with like minded people. These are not them. Have you ever found yourself in such a situation? Is it outgrowing your friends, associates, colleagues – your position? Has your thinking changed? Your circumstances?

I’ll sleep on it but I think that I am at a fork in the road and right now it is the road that takes me on a different path that beckons. It is sad. This was my baby – somehow, I don’t think I will be missed. Oh, the money and environment? I’ll save that for another Sunday … the sun is just beginning to peep, time to go out and have some fun!

Gather Success Challenge V – Promotion Challenge

May 31

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing | No Comments

Massive Action Flower Cluster

This week’s Gather Success challenge is to drive traffic to the post about this challenge on Gather Success. The task is to promote any which way: blog, email, Facebook, Twitter etc. this url:

http://bit.ly/bDDm4N (so please feel welcome click and visit

The purpose is to get good at online promotion by using all the tools we have on hand for a single purpose, i.e., take massive action. I think of massive action as a cluster, like the photo of the flowers to the left – it is the cluster of the flowers that forms the beauty of a shrub in bloom. I think that we all use these marketing tools but not necessarily as a cluster. We are vaguely aware of the power of massive action but for some reason seldom use it to our advantage. Alvin is one smart cookie. Yes it is his site we are promoting (gold star for big smarts) and here are the rules:

1. Traffic hits to blog post is determined by unique visits
2. You may use Twitter, Blogs, Facebook or Email List for promotion
3. You will need to digg the blog post once!
4. RT the blog post once!
5. Reddit the blog post once!
6. Delicious the blog post once!
7. All promotion should point the blog post with your bit.ly tracking link to track @

Notice the addition of points three through six. I have Delicious and Reddit programmed on to this site ( and many other social marketing sites), but actually going to the sites and doing the digging gives me a personal introduction to Digg. As I was thinking about this, I have been keenly aware that although I know of Delicious and many other social bookmarking sites, I really don`t know what each one is set up to do, in other words, what its specialty is.

As I click away on the keyboard, this is good news and not so good news. The not so good news is that I am late to the game – not the whole challenge, just this week’s. The results are due in on Tuesday (and today is Monday)! Nevertheless, better late than never. It is the exercise I want to get into my system. Action develops memory smarts like reps develop muscle strength.

The good news is that I am in the number 5 position for the challenge … albeit a distant number 5.

The main benefit of participating in this challenge however is the heavy lifting of actually doing the marketing. It’s just like when I started this blog, I knew a lot about blogging and internet marketing but found that when I put shoulder to the grindstone, theory and action did not always run on parallel bars. It really is blood, sweat and sometimes even tears, to get the wheel to grind.

Participating in the Gather Success Blogger Challenge I have picked up the following:

- Going back to basics is empowering: At the very least it reaffirms that which you already know, at best you pick up new gems that you may have missed first time around or were never aware of in the first place.

- Escalated speed of progress. Familiar territory covered quickly and with ease, unfamiliar ground quickly understood and enacted.

- Identifying areas of weakness. In my case I know that my social media smarts are in need of some serious smartening up. Having gone through the exercise I now visit Twitter and Facebook with some regularity. I don’t always post, just hang out and try to understand by osmosis. I have to admit that I am beginning to understand Facebook better than Twitter, but am confident that the latter will eventually become just another marketing tool I use with ease.

- Procrastination rules – aaarrrgghhh!!! This is my big elephant in the room. It shows up way too often in all that I do. I mean, here I am, putting up this post the day before the results are due instead of the day the challenge began!

This makes me think of my previous habit of being chronically late for just about everything. I decided to change that. I did. I did that by simply changing the goal from being on time to being early by 10 to 15 minutes. That bought me time for unexpected delays. I am still not perfect but am on time better than 90% of the time.

I will now work on my procrastination. Instead of saying that I will complete the project on time I will change that to I begin my projects in a timely fashion so as to complete them before they are due.

- It’s fun to play … participating in challenges gets the adrenaline going and sharpens your smarts.

I hope that some of what I have experienced to date will be useful to you. In the meantime you could help me play by visiting:

http://bit.ly/bDDm4N .

You can also view all of the videos of the call-ins that Alvin hosts every Tuesday and pick up the same gems that I do.

Technorati Tags:U6SNUZFUK97S Internet Marketing

Tags: Internet Marketing

Frank Kern’s State of the Internet Address

May 27

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing, Making Money, Miscellaneous | 14 Comments

With Frank Kern at Mass Control

Have you seen Frank Kern’s State of the Internet Address? It is on video that is several months old now – in fact Frank put it up in December of last year. One of the members of an online mastermind group I belong to brought it to our attention.

I just watched it this morning. Excellent.

Frank is one cool dude and really knows his internet marketing stuff – he’s been in it since 1999 and has become an acknowledged master at the art of the game. Not bad for a kid who was once told by a professor that his chances of success in life were none and none.

In his State of the Internet Address Frank talks about his vision of where the internet is going, his predictions and how we as internet marketers are in the perfect place at the perfect time to ride the perfect wave of money that is coming our way.

Currently only 10% of brick and mortar businesses have an online presence, mostly in the form of a brochure rather than an ecommerce/marketing site. Frank predicts that within the next decade 100% of bricks and mortar businesses will have an online presence and that an ever growing number of these business owners will be looking at having more than a “brochure” presence, but rather as a means of attracting and retaining customers.

As online shopping grows and customers become increasingly comfortable with pulling out their plastic or using alternate forms of payment such as PayPal, there will be areas of commerce where online shopping will eclipse that of traditional bricks and mortar.

We as internet marketers are standing in front of a tsunami! Those of us that take advantage of this phenomena will be riding the wave, those of us who dither around looking to perfect our art will be swamped.

I love the way that Frank simplifies everything. Commerce?

B has money
B hands money to A
A hands B a product of greater value than the funds he received.

Note the word “greater” … that’s what Frank calls outcooling your competition.

Gather Success Challenge IV – Retweet Challenge

May 22

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing, Social Media | 2 Comments

Chirping for Retweets!

This week’s challenge at Gather Success is all about the ReTweet … the objective is to get familiar with Mr. Twitter, now that is a challenge and a half for me! That is not good. I’m not in the habit of getting familiar with any misters that I don’t know very well … and Mr. Twitter? Why, we’re practically strangers!

Yes, I have a Twitter account. Yes, I took a workshop with Matt Astifan on how to be a good Twit – no wait, that would be Tweeter.

No. I have not been putting what I learned to practice. I haven’t even got the tweeting thing down pat let alone the REtweet.

This challenge is forcing my hand.

There are points at stake and the winner even gets cash! A whole $100 smackeroos. All I have to do is get the following retweeted

RT @MrGatherSuccess by @goldenkoi Join In The Tweet Contest & Win $100 In Prizes! More Details @ http://bit.ly/9zLn3M

I have noticed that there are some in the contest who have real savvy social media smarts but hey, who knows, maybe, just maybe if not the loot I can at least figure in the top three? That will give me 50 points (in 3^rd spot).

In addition to actually tweeting I can promote it through any online media – including blogs and email. So if you’re on my mailing list, you’ll be hearing from me again

The difficulty level of this challenge is 6 out of 10! It`s getting steeper all the time!

If you are a frequent visitor here, please feel free to retweet; yeah, I know. No - whoring is too harsh, the word would be “chirping” thank you, please!

How to do this: Login to your Twitter account. Copy and paste the two lines below, and tweet it.

RT @MrGatherSuccess by @YourTweetID Join In The Tweet Contest & Win $100 In Prizes! More Details @ http://bit.ly/9zLn3M

If you are a first time visitor – hey jump in the game!

And speaking of jumping in the game. Each week`s challenge is a standalone module so if you want to you can still register and kick ass. No seriously. And then you can log on to the weekly webinar with Alvin – I have picked up so many tips. Some I have posted here, but there really is soooooo much more … and it’s fun!

Technorati Tags:U6SNUZFUK97S social media, Twitter

Tags: social media, Twitter

Blog Income Life

Blogging for Money and Loving It!

Archive for category Internet Marketing

Happy Anniversary Jeff!

Panda Not Just Another Cute Bear

Are Training Wheels Slowing You Down?

Odds and Sods

Those Doggone Blogging Blues – Having Nothing More To Say

Sunday Morn Musings: Parting of Ways

Gather Success Challenge V – Promotion Challenge

Frank Kern’s State of the Internet Address

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