These Online Classes Help You Master Essential Digital Marketing Skills

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According to HubSpot, digital marketing encompasses all marketing efforts that use an electronic device or the internet. In other words, it’s how companies use digital channels, such as search engines, social media, email, and websites, to connect with their current and future customers.

Most businesses today use some digital marketing to get the word out about the product or service they offer customers, which has created a high demand for digital marketers. So, if you’re looking to land a new job soon or simply want to enhance the work you already do, now’s a great time to learn the ins and outs of digital marketing.

The Complete Digital Marketing Growth Hacking Certification Bundle teaches you how to create, promote, and convert with 40+ hours of instructional marketing content on Facebook, YouTube, Google, Amazon, and more. Pick up the bundle on sale today for $34.99, which is more than 90% off its regular price tag. 

Certified Facebook Marketing 2020 (Complete Masterclass)

Facebook marketing isn’t easy. That’s why this course gives you straightforward step-by-step strategies for successfully marketing any company on Facebook, the social media platform with over 2.6 billion monthly active users. This course starts with the very basics of creating professional Facebook profiles and then progresses to proven tips and tricks for Facebook marketing. Meaning, you’ll learn how to reach your target customers through Facebook, use paid ads effectively, create a massive community around your brand’s story, and so much more.

Google Tag Manager: Crash Course

Google Tag Manager is a free tool that allows you to manage all your website tags without editing code. Throughout this course, you’ll learn more about Google Tag Manager and how to use its features, from a novice level to that of an expert. Even better, you’ll have the opportunity to test your newfound knowledge and skills by completing a set of included challenges.

The 2020 Complete Growth Hacking & Conversion Course

One area of digital marketing that is all the rage these days is growth hacking. This course teaches you plenty of different growth hacking strategies that are proven to work, from writing compelling copy that grabs users’ attention to how to create high-converting landing pages with irresistible CTA buttons. By the time you finish this course, you’ll know how to increase the conversion rate of your online presence by up to five times.

Go Viral on YouTube

YouTube is the second most popular social media platform behind Facebook, with over 1.9 billion monthly active users. So, it’s safe to say that if you go viral on YouTube, you’ll attract plenty of customers to a business. Throughout this course, you’ll learn over 100 unique methods for increasing fan engagement, brand awareness, and profits on YouTube. Meaning, you’ll learn how to improve your SEO and search results ranking on the platform, discover how to turn YouTube videos into profitable leads, and optimize your posts for maximum engagement.

30 Actionable Branding Strategies That Will Triple Your Profit

Knowing how to brand correctly and effectively is a must for any business. As such, you’ll learn 30 unique tactics on advertising, promotions, building credibility with your target audience, and more as part of your branding training. This course even lands you access to an exclusive interview with billionaire Lynda Resnick, founder of POM and Fiji Water, who provides you with marketing insights from decades of business experience.

The 2020 SEO Link Building Course

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process by which companies and individuals optimize their websites so that search engines like Google will rank them higher in searches conducted by customers online. Unlike paid advertisements, SEO offers companies a free outlet for getting their information in front of the right people at the right time. As such, it’s become an increasingly important component of any company’s digital marketing efforts. This course teaches you everything you need to know about SEO and is updated regularly, which means you’ll always have the latest information about SEO best practices.

Complete Guide to YouTube Channel & YouTube Masterclass 2020

This course expands upon what you learn in the other YouTube course included in this bundle. It focuses on helping you build a YouTube channel with time-tested strategies that will make it easier to get more subscribers and scale your channel. On top of all that, it has incredible user reviews — a 4.8/5 star rating from 48,243 students enrolled in the course speaks to the quality of the instruction contained within it.

Complete Guide to Pinterest & Pinterest Growth 2020

Pinterest is another popular social media platform, and this course guides you from creating an account to growing your profile views with four hours of instructional content. Throughout this course, you’ll learn how to drive more traffic to your Pinterest account and drastically increase your Pinterest monthly views with a weekly routine that’s proven to help individuals and companies achieve incredible growth.

Amazon FBA Course 2020

Last but not least, this bundle guides you through how to work with Amazon Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). Amazon FBA is a service provided by Amazon that provides storage, packaging, and shipping assistance to sellers around the world. In other words, if you or the company you work for sells a physical product online, Amazon FBA may enter the picture. This course covers both marketing and promoting with Amazon FBA, as well as other essential Amazon FBA skills, including how best to list products online to get them to sell in the first place.

Overall, The Complete Digital Marketing Growth Hacking Certification Bundle teaches you essential digital marketing and growth hacking skills for leading tech and business platforms. Grab the bundle on sale today for only $34.99.

Dr. Disrespect Returns to Streaming on YouTube, but Not Exclusively

Guy ‘Dr. Disrespect’ Beahm is officially back to streaming after a high-profile ban from Twitch back in June. Although Beahm made his return to livestreaming on YouTube, IGN has learned that Dr. Disrespect has not signed an exclusive deal with YouTube.

In June, Beahm was mysteriously banned from Twitch. Neither Beahm nor Twitch divulged the reason for the ban, and Beahm maintains that he doesn’t know why he was banned from the platform in the first place.

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After months of silence, aside from a handful of interviews where Beahm expressed interest in returning to streaming, a teaser of sorts premiered on the Dr. Disrespect Instagram account. The teaser suggested Beahm could return to streaming as early as that day, but nothing materialized.

Instead, Beahm premiered his Dr. Disrespect persona on YouTube a day later. IGN has learned that Beahm does not have any exclusive deal with YouTube and plans to “experiment” with other platforms including Facebook Gaming and his own Champions Club website.

Beahm was once banned from Twitch back in 2019 after streaming out of an LA Convention Center bathroom during E3, but that ban was only temporary.

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Meanwhile, streaming services like Twitch, Facebook, and YouTube Gaming have begun signing streamers to exclusive contracts. Something Mixer did when it signed Ninja to the platform before the service shut down. Logic recently retired from rapping to stream exclusively on Twitch.

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Matt T.M. Kim is a reporter for IGN.

AEW’s One-Sided ‘Ratings War’ With WWE Makes It Look Like WCW Jr.

The year is 1996, the place is World Championship Wrestling (WCW). With the New World Order, made up largely of former WWE stars, reigning supreme, WCW Nitro took the ratings lead over WWE Raw–a streak it would hold onto for 83 weeks. In that time, WCW regularly boasted about trouncing its competition in the ratings. After all, when you’re the king of the wrestling mountain, why wouldn’t you want to talk about it? That said, wrestling fans know how this story ends. WCW ultimately falls apart, with a long list of reasons for its downfall, from ego to a corporate merger. The story remains the same, though: For all of its non-stop bragging, the company lost.

Fast forward to 2020 and there’s something intriguing happening on Wednesday nights. When All Elite Wrestling (AEW) launched in October 2019, it looked to be an exciting alternative to WWE’s programming. And, thankfully, in many respects, it is. Many of the wrestlers are interesting and new, having not appeared in a major role in WWE before–from the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega to Private Party and Orange Cassidy. However, as time goes by, AEW seems to be borrowing more and more tactics from WCW’s playbook, and it’s starting to get grating.

This is most evident with the TV ratings. Pretty regularly since its debut, AEW has topped WWE’s NXT in the 18-49 TV rating demographic, the one typically seen as the most important factor to TV advertisers. For the majority of its existence, the company hasn’t let that become much of a factor in its storylines. After all, WWE doesn’t tout when it beats AEW–which would largely be seen as punching down–so what good would it do for AEW to start doing so?

Then former WWE and AEW champion Chris Jericho started tweeting about it. It all began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when NXT’s total audience slipped ahead of AEW’s regularly. At that point, Jericho began tweeting about how it didn’t matter because AEW still had the coveted demographic.

He’s not wrong, but a little context would be helpful. First, you have to know how TV ratings are gauged. Nielsen is the leading group behind measuring TV viewership. According to a 2019 story from The Hollywood Reporter, the Nielsen ratings are determined based on a sampling of 40,000 homes (roughly 100,000 people) in the United States. The company then uses an algorithm to determine its ratings numbers.

On the August 5 episode of AEW Dynamite, the show scored a 0.36 in the 18-49 demographic, which translates to 468,000 viewers based on Nielsen’s calculations. The episode of NXT that same night, on the other hand, garnered a 0.20 rating, which equates to 256,000 people.

Both are decent numbers and both improved on recent ratings. What they aren’t, however, are numbers worthy of basing your character around. After all, both numbers are a fraction of WWE Raw’s audience for this same week, which was a 0.51 in the 18-49 demo (652,800 viewers) and a total audience of 1.715 million.

Yet, over the past month, Jericho has taken his tweeting about the ratings and incorporated it into his AEW character, regularly bragging about winning the “ratings war” and christening himself the “DemoGod.” He’s even released two different T-shirts with the phrase.

And to be fair, this is well within Jericho’s rights. He, like every other professional wrestler, is an artist who is simply plying his trade on TV weekly. However, as a longtime connoisseur of this particular genre of art, it’s a little too reminiscent of the crowing WCW did about its ratings in the ’90s. It’s a nudge and a wink at a minuscule segment of the audience that obsessively tracks such things while leaving the majority of the audience confused–or, at worse, misinformed about what’s actually happening.

Because, while AEW’s ratings success over NXT is somewhat notable, it’s also a skewed victory. To get to the bottom of that, you simply have to take a look at something else AEW is doing that might remind you of WCW.

The roster for AEW is one of the most impressive in the industry. It’s a group of up-and-coming wrestlers bursting with talent, mixed with an array of former WWE stars who have had varying levels of mainstream success. Does that sound familiar?

AEW featuring guys like Cody Rhodes, Jon Moxley (FKA Dean Ambrose), and Chris Jericho to elevate their roster–in addition to the likes of Shawn Spears (FKA Tye Dillinger), Matt Cardona (FKA Zack Ryder), and FTR (FKA The Revival)–is a truly fantastic idea. It brings eyes to their product that recognize the talents from WWE, while also giving the company bankable stars to build itself around–to date, the only two AEW World Champions have been Jericho and Moxley.

Image credit: AEW
Image credit: AEW

However, this is a roster going head-to-head with NXT. For those unfamiliar, NXT was formerly viewed as WWE’s developmental brand. It’s the place where new signees go to learn how to wrestle in the WWE style and acclimate themselves to the company before debuting on Raw or Smackdown. That perception has changed as NXT has begun to be billed as WWE’s third brand and, what’s more, one main roster star (Finn Balor) has returned to NXT to help establish it.

All that said, NXT remains a platform full of names that have had little-to-no exposure on Raw or Smackdown. So comparing the star value of NXT to that of AEW doesn’t quite make sense. That said, it also doesn’t quite make sense comparing AEW’s ratings to those of Raw or Smackdown, shows with decades of a baked-in audience.

Ultimately, AEW’s ratings are something the company should be proud of on their own, regardless of what WWE is presenting on any given night–especially now, in the past couple of weeks, as they seem to be on track to regain the audience lost during the first months of episodes filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic. While ratings for wrestling programs have been down across the board, AEW (and NXT, to an extent) have both begun slowly gaining back viewers that were lost.

Those gains are something Tony Khan, president of AEW, spoke about proudly on Twitter, thanking fans for tuning in and promising another strong show next week. It’s the exact right way to handle the situation

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TV ratings are something the majority of the audience doesn’t care about and even more of the audience doesn’t understand. While proclaiming you’re “winning” is an exciting prospect, you’ll be hard-pressed to find WWE doing the same, or even mentioning AEW and its other competitors. There’s simply nothing to gain from it. And those in the know understand that for all AEW’s bragging, they’re only managing to top WWE’s lowest-rated show.

This simply isn’t what fans are tuning into a wrestling show for. They want characters they love and matches that excite them. While AEW is packing in plenty of that, one of the least interesting aspects of the show has become Jericho–who is truly one of the absolute greatest professional wrestlers of all time–gloating about beating WWE’s lowest-rated brand in a ratings demographic by a couple hundred thousand people. What’s exciting about that?

GTA Online Los Santos Summer Special Update Drops Next Week

Rockstar Games announced that GTA Online will get an update on August 11 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Titled the Summer Special Update, it will add a new suite of activities for you to participate in.

These activities include new cooperative missions you can initiate from your Galaxy Super Yacht, more Open Wheel Race events, dozens of vehicles you can add to your garage, and more.

Those who own Galaxy Super Yachts can participate in new missions in either solo or cooperative play. Some missions will task you with diving deep into the ocean in search of something, while others require that you perform high-stakes heists while out on the open sea. In addition to new nautical missions, the Summer Special Update also includes new Adversary Modes and Business Battles.

GTA Online’s Summer Special Update also adds more than a dozen vehicles, including cars that Benny Original Motor Works can customize, off-roaders, and more. While there is a series of new Open Wheel Race events to compete in, you can also take your new car and race it on a circuit you created with the Open Wheel Race Creator.

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An assortment of general improvements and bug fixes are also packaged into the Summer Special Update when it drops next week, along with a series of weekly special events and bonuses happening over the coming months. Rockstar didn’t specify anything but confirmed that details are coming soon.

In other Grand Theft Auto V news, Rockstar confirmed that the seven-year-old open-world game will launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in the second half of 2021. When it does arrive, it will feature next-gen exclusive content for GTA Online.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Game Of Thrones Idle Game Out Now On Apple Arcade

Game of Thrones: Tale of Crows, a new idle game taking place in the HBO show’s universe, is now available exclusively on Apple Arcade. The narrative-driven “real-time” idle game follows the 8,000-year history of the Night’s Watch atop the wall.

You get to manage Castle Black, its recruits, and the expeditions they must take beyond the wall. Tale of Crows will provide new tales of the Night’s Watch, going beyond the show. Developed by That Silly Studio and published by Devolver Digital, ravens will travel between the wall and expeditions, providing real-time updates throughout the day.

The game will show Castle Black during both the winter and summer, something that was not seen in the TV series. Game of Thrones: Tale of Crows is available now, exclusively on Apple Arcade.

HBO is currently developing a spin-off series titled House of the Dragons, taking place 300 years before Game of Thrones and focuses on the House Targaryens.

Daily Deals: Death Stranding for $17.99, Nioh 2 for $19.99, Dreams for $19.99

Today Best Buy and Amazon have dropped prices by at least 50% on three very popular PS4 games. You better hurry though, these prices aren’t going to stick around. In other deal news, there’s a crazy deal on a flagship Alienware Area 51m gaming laptop for only $1399. If you’re a Nintendo Switch gamer, you can get a highly recommended fast charging power bank for less than $20. And for those of you who are waiting for the next best thing, the new Arcade1Up Marvel vs Capcom arcade cabinet and the upcoming Pikimin 3 Deluxe game for the Nintendo Switch are both finally up for preorder.

Deals for August 7

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More Video Game Deals

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Eric Song is IGN’s deal curator and spends roughly 1/4 of his income on stuff he posts. Check out his latest Daily Deals Article and subscribe to his IGN Deals Newsletter.

Preserved ‘Hell Ant’ Has Been Devouring It’s Prey for 99 Million Years

A prehistoric “hell ant” in the midst of grasping its prey with its unusual mouthparts has been found preserved in 99-million-year-old amber.

According to ScienceAlert, the frozen specimen captures the predator “actively feeding” on another insect, which is said to be an extinct relative of the cockroach. It is shown using its scythe-like jaw to pin its prey against the protruding horn-like paddle on the top of its head, acting as sort of a clamp.

Hell Ant Fossil
Image credit: Barden et al., Current Biology, 2020

While the mandibles of modern ants and almost all other living hexapods move on a horizontal axis, this new evidence indicates that hell ants used their lower mandibles to move upwards in a vertical motion as part of their predatory strategy.

“Fossilized behavior is exceedingly rare, predation especially so,” said Phillip Barden, an assistant professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, who served as the lead author on this new research, which was published in the Current Biology journal. “As palaeontologists, we speculate about the function of ancient adaptations using available evidence, but to see an extinct predator caught in the act of capturing its prey is invaluable.”

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This newly identified species of prehistoric ant, known as Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri, is just one of over 12,500 different species of the insect that scientists have discovered to date, though they believe that there’s “probably another 10,000 or so” still out there, waiting to be identified in order to join the ranks of this diverse collection of complex creatures.

For more real-world discoveries and developments, check out the complete skull of the smallest known dinosaur found preserved in amber, discover the process behind resurrecting 100-million-year-old underwater lifeforms in laboratory conditions, and find out about the bionic moon jellyfish that was created by scientists earlier this year.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Call of Duty 2020 Reveal Teased For August 10 By Press Kit

Activision has sent a mysterious crate to members of the press, with instructions suggesting that this year’s Call of Duty game may be revealed on Monday, August 10.

Call of Duty news outlet Charlie Intel posted a picture of the wooden crate to Twitter yesterday. According to the instructions included in the press kit, those receiving the crate have been told not to open the crate “until August 10 at 12PM ET.”

The specific date and time suggest that this could be when this year’s Call of Duty game could be revealed. Charlie Intel mentions in a follow-up tweet that they have been told to send a text to a number on Monday in order to receive a code that will unlock the crate. This tactic of sending out a cryptic press kit to outlets is becoming something of a strategy for Activision – most recently the publisher sent members of the press a puzzle from “Your Favorite Bandicoot” to tease Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.

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Recently we learned that Call of Duty 2020 will be tightly integrated with Warzone, and that the game is in a playable state, and has been developed by Treyarch and Raven Software. A series of leaks have suggested that this year’s Call of Duty will be titled Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. In early July, a Microsoft Store listing for an Activision Shooter called The Red Door was datamined, with sleuths finding strings related to campaign missions, multiplayer maps and even a potential zombies mode. 

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Nioh 2 Special Edition Is Half Off, Plus More Great PS4 Game Deals

There are some great deals on PlayStation 4 games happening right now, and if you haven’t yet picked up Final Fantasy VII Remake or Days Gone, now’s your chance.

Personally, I haven’t picked up Final Fantasy 7 Remake because I read some of the story spoilers and didn’t really like where it went. But… I’m also a sucker for Final Fantasy and I’m working to improve my attitude, so I’ve gone from “no way” to “this pricing intrigues me.” So I’m extremely tempted.

Both Nioh 2 and the Nioh 2 special edition are on sale, with the special edition marked down 50% at both Amazon and Best Buy. The steelbook edition of Persona 5 Royal is also on sale, but that’s a Best Buy exclusive.

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Death Stranding’s Best Buy price is part of its deal of the day today, so if you want to get your hands on Kojima’s weird, divisive PS4 game, the price is good for today-only.

Oh, and if you’re in the market for some Switch games, Amazon and Best Buy both have some great deals on first-party Nintendo games happening right now, too. And they said it couldn’t be done.

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Seth Macy is Executive Editor, IGN Commerce, and just wants to be your friend. Find him on Instagram at sethgmacy.

Huge DC FanDome Guest List Revealed

DC FanDome, the online 24 hour event for everything DC comics, is happening on August 22. Today, DC has revealed many of the guests who will be taking part, and the list is humongous. It’s pretty much everyone you could imagine from all areas of DC.

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The above video features dozens of names, and also includes the caveat of “and many more”, so it’s not even the full list. But among the names are big hitters including Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson, meaning it looks like we’ll be getting news on The Batman. Zack Snyder is also in attendance, so news on his Justice League cut could also be part of the proceedings.

As for other DC talent, expect big stars like Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, and Kristen Wig from Wonder Woman 1984 to be there, along with director Patty Jenkins. Dwayne Johnson is also coming along for the ride, so Black Adam news may be on the cards. James Gunn and Viola Davis are also confirmed, so hopefully that means an update on The Suicide Squad will happen, too. Andy and Barbara Muschietti are also there, presumably to chat with Ezra Miller about the Flash movie. And, of course, it wouldn’t be complete without Harley Quinn herself, Margot Robbie.

From the world of DC television, the likes of Kaley Cuoco, Lake Bell, and Alan Tudyk are in attendance from the Harley Quinn show, as well as cast from Greg Berlanti’s Arrowverse shows, including fan favourites Caity Lotz and Grant Gustin.

WB Games are also going to be showing off Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad video game, and both Troy Baker and Nolan North are also turning up. Perhaps they have roles in Rocksteady’s latest?

And, of course, you can also expect big names from the medium that started it all: the comics themselves. Expect comic superstars Jim Lee, Brian Michael Bendis, Grant Morrison, G. Willow Wilson, Mark Waid, Matthew Wilson, Scott Snyder, and more.

1Beyond the talent themselves is the list of hosts, presenters, and special guests, which – as before – comes with a “and many more!” caveat. But announced so far are Aisha Tyler, Aline Diniz, Andrea Delogu, Chella Man, Clara Amfo, D-Nice, Damian Molla, Dominik Porschen, Erico Borgo, Estelle, Gaby Cam, Gael Monfils, Geoff Keighley, Gino Quillamor, H.E.R., Jayden Rodrigues, Karama, Lilico, Nyambi Nyambi, Sam Wright, Terry Ltam, Tyrone Edwards, Venus Williams, and Will Arnett.

DC FanDome is a 24 hour fan event happening online on August 22. In the absence of a big DC presence as part of ComicCon@Home this year, it seems like this will be the place for any big DC news in 2020.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer.