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We’re being pushed harder than ever — expected to hit bigger revenue targets with the same or smaller PPC budgets. Even with flat budgets, rising platform costs mean we’re effectively facing a budget cut. Average CPCs have risen by as much as 40%, with an average of 3.74%, per Wordstream. Certain periods, such as Black Friday, see much higher increases. Teams are experiencing budget cuts, with average marketing budgets flatlining at 7.7%, according to Gartner. Our own account audits show that 20-30% of most accounts’ spend is quietly underperforming. This is the reality of paid media in 2026. But it isn’t all bad news. Efficiency isn’t just about spending less, it’s about spending smarter. Here’s how to find the waste, fix the fundamentals, and get maximum return from every dollar you invest. Why efficiency has become the priority Paid media has shifted dramatically over the last few years, with a greater focus on automation, which has led to hidden data. In parallel, businesses are freezing or reducing budgets while expanding revenue targets, and we’re seeing inflation hit CPCs across most industries, with accounts across our portfolio averaging 10% increases year on year, depending on the industry. With the expansion into AI-driven automation, this has pushed us further into smart bidding strategies, meaning that where CPCs are rising, you have to be clever with the levers you pull to curtail or minimize these increases. Meanwhile, customers are spreading their attention across more platforms than ever before, switching between screens and devices, and frequently double-screening. The question for many businesses is no longer “how do we spend more?” but “how do we get maximum return from every dollar we spend?” Getting that answer right starts with an honest look at where money is being lost. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with Auditing for waste: The 20-30% rule One of the most important (and uncomfortable) truths in paid media is that aggregate metrics hide wasted spend in plain sight. A campaign with a 600% ROAS average might have a single product consuming 20% of the budget at just 300%. An untouched search term report can contain dozens of irrelevant queries burning through spend, especially when broad match keywords or Performance Max campaigns are in play. Settings or targeting that made sense when you first launched your campaigns may not do so now. Consumer behavior shifts, and business objectives develop and change over time. Are your ROAS targets still reflective, for example? Common waste zones to investigate include: Zero-conversion products or keywords. Low ROAS/CPL outliers. High spend, low ROAS/CPL. Zero-conversion products or keywords Products or keywords that receive spend but generate no conversions are generally loss-making. Before drawing this conclusion, apply impression, click, and spend thresholds to ensure sufficient data. If a product or keyword has surpassed your target, look to stop spend in these areas. You also want to assess for seasonality and review other contributing factors such as: Search term relevance. Checkout funnels. Competitive advantage. Low ROAS/CPL outliers Products consistently below your viable ROAS/CPL threshold are often hidden within blended campaign performance. Use performance bucketing, and set more aggressive targets to control spend and CPCs for these areas. High spend, low ROAS/CPL High visibility with low return is a common and costly pattern. Optimize your product feed, and apply more aggressive targets to bring these in line. Again, these products will benefit from implementing product bucketing. Beyond products, a thorough audit should cover: Account-level settings (such as content suitability, scheduling, landing page quality, and device performance). Campaign-level detail (including search term reports, cannibalization, negative keyword coverage, bid strategy alignment, and asset performance). AI tools can significantly accelerate this analysis. Feeding your data into a well-prompted model can surface patterns that would take hours to identify manually. AI can also help visualize data more clearly and break it down into manageable, easy-to-understand segments. Full-funnel thinking: Where should your budget sit? When budgets are tight, funnel prioritization becomes critical. Not all spend is equal, and the hierarchy matters. Conversion (retargeting, branded terms, exact match) This is where the highest intent and highest return live. Protect this budget as much as you can, but also assess whether other channels can pick up some of this slack. For example: Do you need to spend on brand searches, or can you capture this organically? Can you re-engage better through email? Consideration (generic search, shopping, social) For established brands, this is where the majority of the budget will sit, supporting the pipeline. These users have an active need for your product, and you should prioritize appearing for these searches/users. Again, consider the need for paid ads. If you are strong organically, with low competition, can you cut back? Which keywords and products is your budget best spent promoting? Awareness (social, display, video, audio) Valuable for long-term brand building, but is usually the first area to be trimmed when budgets are under pressure. You should try to maintain a level of branding, or you end up passing the issues down the road, as you are unable to build a future pipeline. In Google Ads, campaign types like Performance Max allow full-funnel targeting. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Creative is a must-have, not a nice-to-have Creative is no longer just a brand awareness nice-to-have. It’s directly correlated to campaign success. Google and Meta campaigns rely heavily on creative variation to test and optimize. Without sufficient variants, the system runs out of testing capability, and performance plateaus over time as frequency increases. Campaign types such as Performance Max (Google Ads), GMV Max (TikTok), and Advantage+ (Meta) are heavily restricted without sufficient creative. This results in inefficient spending. Variety is a system requirement: Platforms need multiple creative variations to identify what works for each auction, audience, and placement. If you don’t supply enough variety, you risk performance decline. Fatigue is accelerating: With AI-generated content flooding the digital landscape, audiences are tiring of ads faster than ever. For most categories, refreshing creative at least every four to six weeks is now the baseline. Quality beats quantity: Variation is valuable, but one clear, well-crafted message will outperform ten low-quality. Know the purpose of each ad, and who it’s for before. AI can support creative production, but strong messaging and strategic clarity still matter most. Attribution and measurement: Getting honest about what works Platform attribution has become more fragmented and broken over the years, but many advertisers are unsure how to address this and move forward. Elements such as cross-device behaviors, iOS privacy changes, consent mode, and GDPR, modeled data, plus the platform’s bias toward claiming conversion credit mean that in-platform numbers should be treated as optimization signals, and not sources of truth. Using blended metrics gives a cleaner picture of actual efficiency, and can help you establish how your paid media efforts are working: Marketing efficiency ratio (MER): Total revenue divided by total ad spend. A single, honest view of overall paid media efficiency. New customer acquisition cost (nCAC): Total spend divided by the number of new customers acquired. Shifts focus from retention to business growth. CLV:CAC ratio: Sets a strategic ceiling on customer acquisition costs. A ratio of 3:1 or above is the benchmark to aim for. Building a reliable measurement framework follows a clear sequence: fix your base tracking first, build a blended view of performance, use in-platform data for optimization signals only, and apply incrementality testing when making significant budget decisions. Incrementality testing allows you to use treatment and holdout groups to clearly establish whether a new campaign or platform launch, for example, has added incremental value. Automation and AI: Efficiency with guardrails AI and automation offer real efficiency gains, but only when applied with thought and control. The biggest mistake is automating decisions that require strategic judgment, or removing human oversight from areas where context matters. Safe to automate: Bidding strategies. Budget pacing alerts. Data-backed budget adjustments. Product labeling and exclusions. Scheduled reporting and data visualization. Competitor ad monitoring. Keep human oversight: Channel strategy. Audience targeting. Creative strategy. Targets and KPIs. Campaign launches. Interpreting significant performance changes. Scripts for product bucketing are a particularly high-value area of automation. Automatically labeling products based on performance criteria allows for continuous, data-driven management without manual intervention. Performance Max: When to use it (and when not to) PMax works well when you have a strong product feed, sufficient conversion volume, high-quality assets, clear audience signals, an appropriate budget, and effective conversion measurement in place. Without these conditions, the risks can be high, and can hide troublesome metrics among the averages. This can include: Cannibalization of brand search. Over-indexing on existing customers. Loss of product-level control. Get the foundations right before leaning into automation. Getting the most from AI bidding strategies Choosing the right bidding strategy matters as much as setting it up correctly: StrategyWhen to useWatch out forTarget ROAS30+ conversions/month with a clear ROAS targetToo high throttles spend; too low creates wasted trafficTarget CPALead generation, where dynamic revenue isn’t trackedWorks best with consistent CPA; wrong targets cause delivery to spiralMaximize Conversion ValueWhen you lack sufficient data to set a ROAS targetNo bid ceiling, monitor CPCs and budget closelyMaximize ClicksUpper funnel only, where traffic volume is the goalIgnores the bottom of the funnel entirely See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with The highest-leverage moves for paid media efficiency If your paid media budget is under pressure, the highest-leverage moves are: Run a waste audit: Find the 20-30% that’s underperforming. Protect lower-funnel spend: Conversion-focused campaigns should be the last to be cut. Refresh creative more frequently: Creative fatigue is costing performance in ways that aren’t always visible in the numbers. Move to blended measurement: Get honest about what’s working across channels, not just within platform dashboards. Automate selectively: Use AI for what it does well, and keep human judgment where it counts. Done well, efficiency can give you a competitive advantage, and it’s available to any team willing to look honestly at where their spend is actually going. View the full article

Surge in prices highest since May 2024 as impact of Iran conflict spreads through global economyView the full article

Google's March core update finished rolling out. A Search Console bug inflated impressions for nearly a year. Pichai warns AI will break software security. The post Core Update Done, GSC Bug Fixed, Mueller On Gurus – SEO Pulse appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Facebook wasn't really on my radar as a place to make money. Instagram, sure. TikTok, absolutely. But Facebook felt like the platform I used to keep up with my high school friends, rather than the one I'd turn to for creator income. But things are changing! Facebook has been making a lot of effort to lure over creators from other platforms — especially when it comes to monetization. As a nano creator, I’ve been keeping a close eye on this for several months now. Brand partnerships make up a small part of my income, but most platforms’ native monetization features are woefully out of reach for me as a small creator. So Facebook piqued my interest. The idea that I could earn money from content I'm already making was enough to send me down a research rabbit hole. This article is what I came back with. Down the rabbit hole we go! Jump to a section: Can you actually make money on Facebook? How Facebook monetization works Facebook monetization requirements 7 ways to make money on Facebook How to get paid on Facebook Facebook monetization FAQ More Facebook resources Can you actually make money on Facebook?Short answer: yes, and increasingly so. Facebook paid creators nearly $3 billion in 2025 through its monetization programs — a 35% increase from the year before, and the platform's highest annual payout ever. The number of creators earning more than $10,000 a year on Facebook grew by over 30% year-over-year, too. What's changed recently is that Facebook no longer limits payouts to video creators. Through its Content Monetization program, creators now earn from reels, stories, photos, and text posts. In 2025, about 60% of total payouts went to reels, with the remaining 40% split across other formats. So even if you're not making videos, there's still a path to earning. Whether you're a creator exploring a new platform, a small business owner looking for an additional revenue stream, or someone (like me) who's curious about making money as a nano creator, Facebook has more options than most people realize. How Facebook monetization worksThere are four different routes to native monetization on Facebook (that is, earning money from Facebook itself). The most straightforward is Facebook Content Monetization, but creators can also earn by joining the Creator Fast Track Program, earning Stars, or setting up subscriptions. Let’s start with the main one, Facebook Content Monetization. It’s an invite-only program that pays creators based on how their content performs. It used to be limited to in-stream ads on longer videos, but it's expanded a lot in recent months to include reels, photos, text posts, and even stories. It works a bit like YouTube monetization — you post eligible content, and Facebook places ads in and around that content. You earn a share of the ad revenue based on performance. Then there’s the Creator Fast Track program, which seems to be a bit of a sub-program for eligible folks. No performance-based earnings here — creators get paid just to post. Still, it’s a bit trickier to get into than general monetization. Stars are completely different — and ‘gifted’ to creators by fans. They’re a bit like tips. For every star earned, Meta pays out $0.01 USD. Then, subscriptions are a bit like having an exclusive Patreon for your Facebook superfans. Subscriptions are the only one of these native monetization options that are exclusive to Facebook pages. The rest are available to Facebook professional mode profiles as well. In all cases, creators can check (and withdraw!) their earnings in their dashboard or in the Meta Business Suite (pages only), along with metrics to help them understand which posts made bank, and which didn’t. These aren’t the only ways to earn, however — more on that in a sec. 💡Switch to a professional profile on Facebook: A professional profile unlocks monetization tools, audience insights, and the Professional Dashboard — and you don't lose your existing friends or personal content. To switch: open the Facebook app, go to your profile, tap the three dots (⋯) menu, and look for Turn on professional mode. One thing to know: turning on professional mode makes your profile public by default.Facebook monetization requirementsBefore you can earn from Facebook's official programs, you'll need to meet a couple of requirements. These vary depending on the monetization tool you're going after. Here’s a big-picture look at them all, but I’ll give the comprehensive list in the section below. In all cases, you’ll need to have either a professional personal profile or a Facebook Page and be in good standing with Partner Monetization Policies and Community Standards. Almost all these programs are available pretty widely globally, except Fast Track — that one’s only open to folks in the US and Canada (🥲). Stars (fan tipping) is the most accessible — you need 500 followers for 30 consecutive days and to be in an eligible country.Facebook Content Monetization program is invite-only and… less clear. Facebook says invites are ‘sent out periodically,’ but has not shared eligibility criteria.Fan subscriptions require at least 10K followers (or 250+ return viewers), plus 50K post engagements or 180K watch minutes in the last 60 days.The Creator Fast Track program is really for established creators on other platforms. You need at least 20K followers on Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok, and at least 30K video views in the last 60 days.When you’re eligible, you’ll see an invite like the one below in Meta Business Suite (for pages) or in your creator dashboard (for professional profiles). Yes, there are a couple of hoops to jump through (I’m right there with you!), but there are other ways to make money on Facebook we haven’t touched on yet. Here’s a comprehensive list on all the ways to make money on Facebook as a creator. 🌱Need to get serious about posting on Facebook? Buffer can help! Plan and schedule posts, reply to comments, and review your analytics from a single dashboard. Sign up free →7 ways to make money on FacebookHere's a full round-up of all the ways creators and influencers and earn on Facebook. 1. Join the Content Monetization programThis is the big one — Facebook's flagship monetization program that pays creators for all types of content, not just video. If you can get invited, it's the most direct way to earn from content you're already posting. The program works by placing ads around your content, and you earn a share of that ad revenue. What makes it really cool is the format flexibility. While reels are the highest earning format, photos, text posts, and stories all qualify. Eligibility: Content Monetization is currently invite-only. The best way to improve your chances is to switch to a professional profile, use a page, or post consistently and build engagement. Facebook has been gradually expanding access, so it's worth checking your Professional Dashboard regularly. 2. Apply for Creator Fast TrackThis is brand new — Meta launched Creator Fast Track in March 2026, and it's designed specifically for established creators who are new to (or returning to) Facebook. The pitch: guaranteed pay just for posting reels, plus increased reach to help you build a Facebook audience faster. The program pays out monthly, with tiers based on your follower count on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube: 20,000-99,999 followers: $100-$450/month100,000-999,999 followers: $1,000/month1,000,000+ followers: $3,000/monthTo unlock your payout each month, you need to post 15 eligible reels on Facebook, uploaded across at least 10 separate days. There are no Facebook view counts to hit. Bonus: You can crosspost content you've already made for other platforms. It just needs to be your original work and not already posted on Facebook. So you may not even have to make new content. On top of the guaranteed pay, accepted creators get increased reach on eligible reels (very appealing as well) and immediate access to Content Monetization. That means you can earn even more from the performance of your content, and you stay in the Content Monetization program after Creator Fast Track ends. Eligibility: To be eligible, you need to live in the US or Canada, be 18 or older, have (or create) a Facebook Page with an account that's at least 30 days old, and not have posted a Facebook reel in the past six months. You'll also need at least 20K followers and 30K video views in the last 60 days on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. 3. Collect Stars from fansStars are Facebook's tipping feature — viewers can buy Stars for $0.01 each and send them to creators during live streams, on reels and for other content. If you get 5,000 Stars, that's $50. It might not mean loads of money, but it’s pretty accessible. You only need 500 followers for 30 consecutive days to be eligible, which puts it within reach for a lot of creators who aren't close to the thresholds for other programs yet. It's especially valuable for creators who do live content — Q&As, tutorials, behind-the-scenes streams — where audiences feel personally connected enough to tip. To enable Stars, head to Creator Studio, select Creative Tools, then Live Dashboard, and toggle Stars on. Eligibility: You need at least 500 followers for 30 consecutive days, and you need to be in an eligible country (though it’s pretty widely available!). Stars are available on both Facebook Pages and professional mode profiles, and there's no minimum view count or engagement threshold — which is why it's the most accessible of Facebook's native monetization options. You do need to be 18+ and have a payout account set up to actually receive earnings. 4. Set up fan subscriptionsFan subscriptions let you put some content behind a paywall for a monthly fee that you set. Think of it as a mini-membership: subscribers might get exclusive behind-the-scenes content, early access to posts, subscriber-only Lives, or special badges. The eligibility requirements are steeper — you'll need at least 10K followers and strong recent engagement. But if you've built a dedicated audience, the recurring nature of subscriptions makes your income a lot more predictable than ad revenue (which can swing wildly month to month). A word of advice from creators who've done this well: make sure the subscription price reflects the value. Research what other creators in your niche charge. Too high and you'll alienate followers; too low and you're undervaluing your work. Eligibility: You'll need at least 10K followers (or 250+ return viewers), plus 50K post engagements or 180K watch minutes in the last 60 days. Subscriptions are only available on Facebook Pages — not professional mode profiles. You also need to be 18+ and in an eligible country. Availability is broad; there are only a handful of countries that aren’t on the list. Check here for your specific country's status. 5. Partner with brands on sponsored contentIf you take one thing away from this article, let it be this: You don’t need to have thousands of followers to earn from brand partnerships. As a creator with under 30K followers on all my platforms combined, I can personally attest to this! gets off soap box You don't need to be in any official monetization program, either — you just need an audience that a brand wants to reach. This is how a lot of creators (including me, as a nano creator) earn the bulk of their income. My best partnerships have come from one of two ways: Personally reaching out to a brand I love and want to create content aboutTagging a brand in content I’ve already made about their productThere’s a third option, and that’s applying for a creator program or marketplace like Collabstr, Passionfroot, or Aspire.io — there are hundreds of marketplaces out there that help match brands with creators, and they’re worth exploring for sure. Once you’ve landed a partnership (yay, you!) you should explicitly label it as such on Facebook. When creating a post, tap the handshake icon at the bottom of the composer, search for the brand's Page, and tag them. This adds a "Paid partnership with [Brand Name]" label to your post. There's also a toggle to let the brand boost the post as an ad, which many will want — it's worth discussing upfront. Eligibility (for paid partnership label): Any creator with a professional mode profile or Facebook Page can use the paid partnership label. Creator Marketplace has its own thresholds (1,000+ followers and engagement minimums). For the brand deals themselves, there's no official follower minimum — it comes down to what brands are looking for. 6. Set up a Facebook ShopIf you have an established product line (physical or digital), a Facebook Shop lets people browse and buy without leaving the app. You can tag products directly in your posts, reels, and stories to make content shoppable. This pairs well with the creator monetization tools — imagine earning ad revenue on a reel while also driving product sales from tagged items in that same reel. For small business owners, it turns Facebook from a marketing channel into a direct sales channel. Eligibility: Facebook Shops are available in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, UK, and most of Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, and others), plus Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. You'll need to comply with Meta's Commerce Policies, have an online store or product catalog, and demonstrate trustworthiness through an authentic, established presence on the platform. 7. Promote affiliate productsAffiliate marketing involves sharing products you use and earning a commission when someone buys through your link. Commission rates typically fall between 5% and 25%, depending on the program and product category. The setup is simple: find affiliate programs in your niche (search "[your niche] + affiliate program" or check whether your favorite brands offer one), get approved, create your referral links, and share them in your Facebook posts and video descriptions. Just be transparent about affiliate relationships — your audience will appreciate the honesty, and it's required by law in many countries anyway. You can also tap into Facebook Affiliate Partnerships, a native system that lets creators tag shoppable products directly inside posts and reels and earn commissions on qualifying stuff. It's currently available with Amazon (US), Shopee (Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Brazil, Taiwan), and Mercado Libre (Brazil, Mexico), with eBay and Temu in the US expected to follow. Eligibility: There's no follower minimum for traditional affiliate marketing — anyone can share affiliate links in their posts. You can link existing affiliate accounts through Meta Business Suite and manage everything from your Professional Dashboard. How to get paid on FacebookOnce you've earned money through any of Facebook's official programs, you'll need to set up your payout account. Here's how it works: Facebook processes payments monthly, usually between the 17th and the 22nd of each month for earnings from the prior month. There are two payout thresholds depending on the monetization tool: $25 for some features and $100 for others. Payment options vary by country but typically include bank transfer and PayPal. To set up your payout information: go to your Professional Dashboard, navigate to Monetization settings, and follow the prompts to add your bank account or payment method. Make sure your tax information is up to date too — Facebook requires this before processing any payments. 🌍A note for international creators: payout availability varies by country. This is one of the things I'm personally keeping an eye on as someone in South Africa — not all monetization features are available everywhere, and payout methods can differ. Check Facebook's help center on monetization eligibility for the most current list of supported countries.A few more bits and bobs to help you earn and growGetting monetized is the first step — growing what you earn comes down to a couple of things I keep coming back to in my own research. The biggest one is consistency across formats. Facebook rewards creators who show up regularly, and with Content Monetization paying for reels, photos, text posts, and stories, you're not boxed into video. Our data on the best times to post on Facebook can help you figure out when to publish for maximum reach. And if you're already creating for other platforms, crossposting to Facebook is one of the easiest ways to expand your earnings without doubling your workload — tools like Buffer make that pretty painless (have you tried our duplicate feature? swoon). The other thing worth mentioning: Facebook is actively prioritizing original content and cracking down on reposted and spammy stuff. Original content qualifies for higher monetization rates too, so there's a direct financial incentive to create for the platform rather than just reshare. Understanding how the Facebook algorithm works helps here — the more your content gets distributed, the more qualified views you earn, and the more you get paid. I'm still early in my own Facebook experiment, but the monetization options are more developed than I expected going in — and they're growing fast. If you're a creator who's been sleeping on Facebook (like I was), it might be worth a second look. Facebook monetization FAQHow many followers do you need to make money on Facebook? It depends on which monetization tool you're using. Stars has the lowest bar at 500 followers for 30 consecutive days. Fan subscriptions need 10K (or 250 return viewers). The Content Monetization program's exact threshold isn't publicly listed, while the Creator Fast Track Program requires at least 20K on other platforms. How many views do you need to start earning on Facebook? For in-stream ads, you need at least 600K minutes viewed in the last 60 days. For the Content Monetization program, Facebook uses "qualified views" as the metric — not every view counts toward earnings. Only unique views that last around 5 seconds will count as qualified, for example. Do Facebook Reels make money? Yes — and they're the top earner. Reels accounted for about 60% of total creator payouts on Facebook in 2025. They're monetized through the Content Monetization program via ads that play before, during, or after your reel. Can you make $500 a day on Facebook? Technically possible, but not where most people start. Earning $500 daily would take some combination of very high view counts, strong CPMs, a successful product operation, or solid brand deals. Most creators start small and build — which isn't a bad thing. Consistent smaller earnings from content you're already making add up faster than you'd expect. What's the minimum payout on Facebook? Either $25 or $100, depending on the monetization feature. Payments go out monthly, usually between the 17th and 22nd. Should I switch to a professional profile on Facebook? If you’re looking to earn money, you’ll need create a Facebook Page, or convert your personal Facebook profile into a professional profile. If you already have followers there, I’d go this route. It unlocks monetization tools, audience insights, and the Professional Dashboard. How do I switch to a professional profile on Facebook? Open the Facebook app, go to your profile, tap the three dots (⋯) menu, and look for Turn on professional mode. It takes about 30 seconds, and you can switch back to a personal profile at any time. Once it's on, you'll see a new "Professional Dashboard" option in your menu — that's where you'll manage monetization, check eligibility, and track your content's performance. One thing to know: turning on professional mode makes your profile public by default. Your existing posts stay with their original privacy settings, but new posts will default to public. If you'd rather keep a separate presence for your creator content, setting up a Facebook Page is the other option — and the only one that supports fan subscriptions. How do I check if I'm eligible for Facebook monetization? Open your Professional Dashboard on Facebook, go to the Monetization tab, then Content Monetization on Meta Business Suite (for pages), navigate to All Tools > Monetization. If you're not eligible yet, you’ll be able to turn on a notification for if (when!) you get invited. More creator resourcesThe best time to post on FacebookHow the Facebook algorithm worksHow to get more followers on FacebookFacebook Reels: what you need to knowHow to start and grow a Facebook GroupFacebook benchmarks for engagementHow to make money on InstagramHow to make money on TikTokHow to make money on YouTubeView the full article

There has been no shortage of retailers closing locations over the last few years as consumer behaviors shift online and foot traffic at brick-and-mortar stores continues to decline for many chains. And now, iPhone maker Apple has announced that it will join the ranks of companies closing locations, with multiple Apple stores to close for good this summer. Here’s what you need to know. Which Apple retail stores are closing? Yesterday, Apple confirmed that it will close three Apple retail stores in the United States. While there have been a few instances in the past of Apple closing a retail store, this is the first time the company has announced the closure of three in one fell swoop. In a statement to MacRumors, Apple confirmed the closure of three locations across the United States. Based in three different states, those locations are: California: Apple North County retail store at the Shops at North County, 272 E Via Rancho Parkway, Escondido 92025 Connecticut: Apple Trumbull retail store at Trumbull Mall, 5065 Main Street, Trumbull 06611 Maryland: Apple Towson Town Center retail store at Towson Town Center, 825 Dulaney Valley Road, Towson 21204 According to MacRumors, all three locations will close in June. Each location was also temporarily closed yesterday, but is now open and will continue operating until its final shuttering this summer. Why is Apple closing these retail stores? When a retailer announces store closures, many assume the company’s entire business is struggling. But given that Apple continues to rake in money hand over fist, quarter over quarter, that is clearly not the case. The company currently operates around 540 retail stores worldwide, with over 270 in America, and those numbers are growing. Since 2025, Apple has opened 11 new retail stores. So why is Apple closing the three specified stores? You can blame the shopping centers they are located in. In its statement to MacRumors, Apple said that it remains “deliberate about evaluating our existing locations” and that “Following the departure of several retailers and declining conditions at Trumbull Mall, the Shops at North County, and Towson Town Center, we’ve made the difficult decision to close our stores at these locations.” In other words, Apple is just the latest retailer to pull out of these three locations. Like many malls and shopping centers in America, the three locations losing their Apple stores appear to have struggled with declining foot traffic in recent years. Apple has now decided that the conditions at the three locations no longer warrant investing in a retail presence at those locations. Apple is closing its first retail store to unionize One notable thing about this round of Apple Store closures is that it includes the first Apple retail store to unionize. In 2022, the Apple Towson Town Center retail store in Maryland became the first Apple retail store in the United States to unionize. And just two years later, it became the first Apple retail store to vote to authorize a strike. Now, that store, along with the two other nonunion stores, is being shuttered. But the workers at all three stores aren’t being treated equally. According to the company’s statement, Apple will keep the retail workers at the two nonunion stores—Apple North County and Apple Trumbull—on staff, transferring them to other Apple retail locations in their areas. As for the closing unionized Apple Towson Town Center retail store, the workers there will not automatically continue in their roles at other retail stores. Instead, Apple says, “Towson employees will be eligible to apply for open roles at Apple in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement.” In a statement to MacRumors, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Union, which represents the union workers at the closing Towson Town Center store, said Apple’s decision to not automatically transfer them to other stores “raises serious concerns.” “Apple’s claim that the collective bargaining agreement prevents relocation is simply false and raises serious concerns that this closure is a cynical attempt to bust the union,” a union spokesperson said. “We are exploring all legal options and will work with elected officials and allies to hold Apple accountable.” Fast Company has reached out to Apple for comment. View the full article

For the next two weekends (April 10-12 and April 17-19), Los Angeles is going to be quieter than normal. This is because many Angelenos will be hitting the road to attend the popular Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival located in Indio, California. For those who aren’t able to attend in person, never fear: There’s a free livestreaming option that allows you to avoid port-a-potties. Here’s everything you need to know about both weekends of this rocking event, including how to watch from your living room. How did Coachella begin? The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was created by concert promoters Rick Van Santen and Paul Tollett in 1999. Tollett discovered the venue for the festival, the Empire Polo Club in Indio, after a successful Pearl Jam concert. A seed was planted for a multiday event with numerous artists. Among the first headliners were Beck and Rage Against the Machine, and tickets cost only $50. Coachella didn’t immediately take off, partly because of hot temperatures and a lack of corporate sponsors. The festival even took a year off and scaled back to one day after a lackluster opening year. By 2004, the event sold out for the first time. It expanded to two weekends in 2012. In 2017, the city allowed the capacity for the event to increase to 125,000. These days, the festival is considered one of the most important music events of the year. Who’s performing at Coachella 2026? Three headliners are set to perform at Coachella in 2026. Karol G will become the first Latina artist to get top billing. In 2024, Sabrina Carpenter promised the audience that they would see her back at the festival when she headlined. She’s about to keep her word. Justin Bieber will make his festival debut after doing a “dress rehearsal” at the Roxy in Los Angeles. Beyond the headliners, The xx and the Strokes will return to the beloved music festival. Fans are also eager to hear the rock band Geese. For a complete list of the 140-plus artists performing at Coachella, check out the official website. When did the livestreaming option begin? Coachella began large-scale livestreaming in 2011. Audiences were treated to multiple camera angles of three stages. The livestream has always been public and free, with no paywalls. How to tune in This is the biggest year yet for the Coachella livestream. Seven stages will be available to watch. Viewers can pick four different artists to watch on their television at the same time. The Coachella Stage, Outdoor Theatre, and Sahara will all be presented in 4K resolution, so the picture quality will be crisp. All you have to do to tune in is head to the official YouTube channel linked here beginning at 7 p.m. ET on Friday, April 10. Here’s the full schedule so you can plan your viewing experience accordingly. If you just can’t get enough, the “Coachella TV” YouTube channel is here to help. It features 24/7 content of archival footage, music videos, and (eventually) festival highlights of all of this year’s performers. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When you lift a weight, how many times should you lift it? Supposedly, there’s a correct “rep range” to use to build strength, and a different rep range to build muscle size, or endurance, or to “tone.” But how much of the oft-repeated wisdom is true? Not as much as you’d think. What are reps and sets? Just so we’re on the same page here: if you pick up a dumbbell and do eight curls before putting the weight down, you have just done one set of eight reps. (Rep is short for repetition.) Typically a workout will call for several sets of each exercise, separated by a rest period of a minute or two, or by another exercise. Typical schemes include three sets of 10, four sets of eight to 12, or five sets of five. These are often written in the format [sets]x[reps], so 5 x 5 would be five sets of five reps each, and 3 x 10 would be three sets of 10. There are many factors you might consider (or that an experienced trainer might include when writing your program) when deciding how many reps you should do, but often people try to stick with the “rep range” that they are told makes sense with their goals. PowerBlock Elite EXP Adjustable Dumbbells (Pair, 5-50lb) $339.15 at Amazon $449.00 Save $109.85 Get Deal Get Deal $339.15 at Amazon $449.00 Save $109.85 What are the traditional rep ranges? Here’s what you’ll hear from many trainers, influencers, and online resources. Beware that you need to take these with a grain of salt, and I’ll explain why in a minute: Smaller numbers of reps, like one to five, are said to be for strength. Medium numbers, like six to 12, are said to be for building muscle size. If you’re a woman and want to “tone,” you may be told that eight to 12, or maybe 10 to 15, will give you definition while keeping your muscles from growing too much. (You may notice this overlaps with the range for muscle growth.) A rep range of 15 or more is usually held to be for muscular endurance. The exact numbers will vary depending on who you ask, but no matter how you slice it, something isn’t adding up. If you do 10 reps, are you building muscle size, or are you keeping your muscles “toned”? It can’t be both—unless 10 can work for either goal, in which case the number of reps isn’t what determines the outcome. (Hmm…) It’s also wrong to think that strength and muscle growth are completely separate from each other, with different ways to build each. So let’s go over some practical advice for deciding what rep ranges you should actually work with. Strength and muscle size don’t (always) require different trainingBeginners in the gym often spend a lot of effort figuring out the “optimal” routine to meet their goals. But as I’ve said before, optimal is optional. Getting the details right is not nearly as important as getting the big picture right. And the big picture for most beginner and intermediate lifters is that pretty much everything will build both strength and muscle size. You can lift in the “strength” range and still build muscle. You can lift in the “size” range and find yourself gaining strength. You can read a deep dive on this idea here. The author, powerlifter, and coach Greg Nuckols does conclude that lower numbers of reps (like 1-5) have a bias toward strength, and higher reps (15+) have a bias toward muscular endurance. But for growing muscles in size, just about anything works. He summarizes: “The ‘hypertrophy [size gaining] range’ of roughly six to 15 reps per set may produce slightly better results per unit of time invested than low rep and high rep work. However, on the whole, the advantage you get from working in the hypertrophy range isn’t nearly as big as people seem to think; maybe a ~10-15% advantage per unit of effort invested at most.” He recommends training in a variety of rep ranges if you want bigger or more defined muscles, rather than using the same narrow range every time. That’s pretty much the consensus among good trainers, anyway: most effective training programs have a mix of high- and low-rep exercises. That’s because each rep range has its pros and cons when it comes to particular exercises and purposes, not just a person’s overall goals. When to use low reps (1-5)This is traditionally the strength range, and to be fair, it is a good rep range to work on strength. Here, I’m using “strength” to mean increasing the amount of weight you can lift, even if you can only lift it once. For strengthIf you want to show off in front of your friends by benching more than them, or if you want to enter a weightlifting competition and place well, or if you want to achieve your first pullup, you want to work on strength. This means you need to practice with heavy weights. A weight that you can lift 10 times in a row is going to be fairly light, relative to your ability, and it won’t teach your body everything it needs to know for a heavy lift. So you’ll need to work with low reps (at least sometimes!) if you’re aiming for a strength goal. To learn techniqueLow reps also help you to focus and avoid fatigue. You might get tired or sloppy by the 10th rep of a set, but that’s less likely to happen in a set of three. Olympic weightlifters typically do their tricky competition lifts in sets of just one to three. Beginners who are learning a new exercise, like squats or barbell presses, may also want to work in this range. Do a few reps, take a break, then come back fresh. For muscle size, alongside other rep rangesHeavy weights put a lot of mechanical tension on your muscles, and they help you get stronger. These factors mean low-rep sets can still help your muscles to grow, even though they aren’t the traditional muscle-growth rep range. After all, the stronger you are, the heavier the weights you can handle—which means you can go even heavier in your moderate- and high-rep sets. When to use moderate reps (6-12)This is a good middle ground that will build strength and size, and will give you plenty of practice moving weight around. Pretty much everybody can benefit from working in this rep range, at least some of the time. For strength and muscle sizeThis is the range that’s probably ideal for gaining muscle size, and it will help a lot in supporting your efforts to build strength. Even athletes who focus on strength will include plenty of work in this rep range for the purpose of growing some extra muscle mass. After doing squats in sets of three, you might go and do sets of 10 on lunges or leg extensions or the leg press machine. For beginners and for general fitnessWhile low reps are best for learning an exercise that is complicated or that is brand new to you, beginners are often recommended to work in a medium rep range as soon as they’re comfortable with it—and that makes a lot of sense. Doing eight or 10 reps of the same exercise gives you plenty of practice (there are 30 reps in three sets of 10), without having to strain to handle a heavy weight that you haven’t mastered the technique for yet. For “toning” Toning isn’t a specific strength training goal, and that’s why it doesn’t have its own special rep range. Being “toned” is a look: it means you have some muscle definition while being relatively slim. That’s why the same exercises that build muscle in people who want to “bulk” are also appropriate for people who want to “tone.” Or to put it another way: any resistance training that builds muscle will be appropriate for both goals. So what makes a “bulky” body different from a “toned” one? Partly nutrition (the more you eat, the bigger your muscles can get) and partly just how long you’ve been training and how hard you’ve worked. It takes a lot of time to build a lot of muscle. I might even say there’s a component of mindset: people who recognize how important muscle is for their health and for their fitness goals tend to see their new muscles as part of a healthy, fit look—not necessarily as “bulk.” When to use higher reps (15+)Traditionally, this is described as the “muscular endurance” range, but that’s a misnomer. Higher reps aren’t great at building strength, and may not be your best option for building muscle size, so just about all they have left to offer is that they might help you do high numbers of reps. For muscular endurance, alongside lower rep rangesThe thing is, if you want to build muscular endurance—say, you want to be able to do 100 pushups in a row—you will also benefit from using lower rep ranges to build strength. The stronger you are, the easier each pushup will be for you, and the longer you’ll be able to keep going. Studies have found that you don’t need to stick to the 15+ rep range to build muscular endurance—the three-to-five and six-to-eight ranges may work even better than spending your training time on high reps. If your ultimate goal is to do 100 pushups, I wouldn’t tell you to only do high-rep sets; those low-rep ones are useful too. But I’d still expect you to practice high reps for the skill, conditioning, and mental toughness that will be required to execute your goal. For muscle size (and “toning”), if you only have light weights availableTo do heavy or moderate reps, you need appropriate weights. So if you’re working with limited equipment, you may have no option but to make the best of what you’ve got. Fortunately, research has found that muscles can still grow in size if you use light weights and high repetitions, so long as you take each set to failure. So if it takes 20 or even 30 reps to tire out your arms when doing bench press with a set of light dumbbells, that’s still workable. If you’re able to do more than 30 reps, though, we’re starting to leave the realm of strength training and enter a territory that’s more like cardio. At that point, you should really look for harder exercises or find a way to get your hands on heavier dumbbells. The bottom line: variety in rep ranges is goodUltimately, you don’t need to decide on one rep range for all your training. You won’t see powerlifters only working in the strength range, or bodybuilders only working in the size range. The guy in your neighborhood who can do 25 pullups at the local park probably isn’t doing 25 of everything in his workout routine. So when you go to the gym, you’ll probably want to use low reps for a strength-focused exercise or two, moderate reps for most of your other work, and occasionally some higher-rep work for variety or to make do with lighter equipment. View the full article

Will artificial intelligence enable an even higher level of creativity, or turn us into cognitively deflated Sims spitting out chatbot responses? This question has polarized much of the internet. On one hand, you have the ardent defenders who believe that AI writing speeds up their process, allowing them to quickly transform bullets of information into elegant and typo-free copy. On the other hand, there are the critics who contend that AI writing seems to violate something sacred, and that by using a large language model (LLM) to write, you’re not only degrading the craft, but also yourself. AI, in its ideal form, is a technology that allows us to off-load or complete a range of tasks in a smarter, faster way. In the past month, I have used AI in a variety of extremely helpful ways, including translating pages of a table of contents from Russian to English so that I could better find intersecting sections in a book; building and modifying a graphic that would have taken far longer to create myself; and producing code that could, in turn, ingest a bunch of data into an easy-to-read data frame. Even when utilized as a search engine, Claude and ChatGPT produce far more expansive and helpful results—especially for niche topics—than the platforms I used to use. (Sorry, Google!) But writing, in its ideal form, is a finalized and set ordering of your thoughts, the penultimate step in the creative process before sending something off to be read and digested by other people. Writing isn’t just thinking; it’s the thinking you commit to when you’re finally ready to speak from a place of authority. AI has a ton of real and powerful use cases, including in the research process. But outsourcing the writing to AI is to lose the part of the process that requires you to declare your command over the material, including your understanding of how you might have used AI to come to your conclusions. To rely on AI writing is to work under a model rather than over it, and to turn to an insurgent and powerful technology for possibly its least astonishing application. The woes and worries of the AI writing wars Some of these arguments against AI writing are very practical. The first, and most significant, is that AI hallucinates things and makes statements, even confidently, that are flat-out wrong. It’s true that models are getting better, but it’s also true that they can insert mistakes into their responses. In recent tests, Google announced that Gemini—the same AI model that dictates your summarized Google results—is wrong about 10% of the time. I catch AI making factual errors frequently, especially in domains that are less discussed on the internet and likely less well-represented in training material. Another worry is that AI writing—and reading AI writing—will cause deleterious sociological and psychological effects. For instance, some research suggests that AI writing is homogenizing our language and pushing to a sort of digital common denominator that strips us of our cultural, individual, even grammatical context. As Megan O’Rourke noted in a New York Times op-ed last year: Reading AI writing can sometimes feel like the equivalent of processed food. It’s good but something, eerily, feels off. There’s also the even more alarming anxiety that AI is making us much stupider. Some research suggests this might actually be happening. A group of researchers based at MIT and nearby universities suggests that relying on LLMs could reduce our neural activity. (The research on this question is ongoing, though.) And there’s another rub: AI writing is bad, many argue, because it lacks the inventiveness of human writing. It used to be that AI writing, some alleged, could be identified by certain grammatical features. (Remember the AI em dash apocalypse?) Still, as AI has evolved, critiques of AI-generated prose have evolved, too, and even become more convoluted. AI proponents also have a million responses to these arguments and shifting goalposts. These are ongoing debates that force us to wrestle with what AI writing is and what human thinking is, and various other really important questions. AI produces errors, but so do humans. AI writing may strike you as bad right now, but AI is also getting better and better, and in terms of quality, it’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference. Also, the tech industry often suggests we can engineer away the flaws of the products it produces. And maybe it’s true that AI is making us stupid, but we’re also naturally incentivized to seek efficiency and use tools that help us. In a lot of ways, it feels really smart to use it. Navigating how to use AI tools for research requires, critically, an understanding of deterministic and stochastic processes, a healthy understanding of false positives and false negatives, and the limits of search engines and data. You need to be fluent in the kind of errors AI can make, in the same way you need to know that your office intern can make stuff up and mess up. If you aren’t, then you shouldn’t be using AI for anything serious. Great uses of artificial intelligence exist above the model. In other words, you need to be the one in charge. No, you might not be particularly literate in the weights and biases that make an LLM tick, or the inner layers of a neural network. But you need to have some sense of an AI’s innards. You need to know what it’s doing so that you can coach it to be better, whether that’s catching its mistakes or pushing it toward more productive outputs. AI is your bloodhound, not a sentinel. Ted Chiang argued in The New Yorker a few years back that “if an A.I. generates a ten-thousand-word story based on your prompt, it has to fill in for all of the choices that you are not making.” There’s a corollary here. The process of writing is messy and frustrating and often quixotic, but in the end, you need to arrive at a sort of final peace between what thoughts are tumbling around your brain and the words on the page. This is one of the most satisfying—and important—parts of the process. If you are not working through your thoughts, and writing them up, you are not coming to this peace—and you have not participated in the critical steps in what it takes to decide something is true, even just true to you. In writing, there’s an old adage: Write what you know. This, of course, requires actually knowing something. View the full article

Companies today are facing a paradox they can’t seem to solve: Roles are going unfilled while millions of capable workers remain overlooked. Work has changed. That much is undeniable. Artificial intelligence, automation, demographic shifts, and economic pressure are reshaping how companies operate and who they need to hire. The future of work isn’t on the horizon; it has already arrived. Yet the way most organizations approach hiring and workforce development remains rooted in the past. The consequences are increasingly visible. Job growth has slowed from its post-pandemic peak. Layoffs are rising across sectors. And still, critical roles in healthcare, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, and the skilled trades remain persistently unfilled. A LABOR MARKET OUT OF ALIGNMENT What we are seeing is not a shortage of talent—it is a failure to connect talent to opportunity. Across the economy, millions of workers have skills that are not being recognized or effectively matched to available jobs. At the same time, fewer young people are pursuing traditional postsecondary education, with enrollment still below pre-pandemic levels and projected to decline further. Meanwhile, demand for essential roles continues to grow. Companies need healthcare workers to deliver care, electricians and construction teams to build infrastructure, and technicians to maintain critical systems. These are not future jobs—they are open now. The disconnect lies in how roles are defined and how candidates are evaluated. Hiring systems built around degrees and linear career paths are no longer aligned with the realities of how work gets done. RETHINK THE PROXY FOR POTENTIAL For decades, a college degree has served as the default signal of capability. Today, it is an increasingly incomplete one. A degree may reflect knowledge or persistence, but it does not consistently measure whether someone can perform a specific job. Yet most hiring systems still treat it as a gatekeeper—screening out qualified candidates before they are ever considered. A skills-first approach offers a better path forward. By focusing on what individuals can actually do—their competencies, experiences, and demonstrated abilities—companies can access a broader, more relevant talent pool. Millions of workers already possess the skills needed to succeed in high-demand roles, regardless of how they acquired them. But adopting a skills-first mindset requires more than removing degree requirements from job postings. It demands a fundamental shift in how organizations define work, assess talent, and create pathways for advancement. THE GAP BETWEEN INTENT AND EXECUTION Most leaders understand this. Many hiring managers even support it. But inside organizations, intent often breaks down in execution. Job descriptions continue to default to degree requirements. Hiring platforms filter candidates based on traditional credentials. Evaluation methods vary widely, making it difficult to consistently assess skills. And internal incentives often prioritize speed and familiarity over precision and long-term fit. The result is a system that reinforces the very barriers companies say they want to remove. Embedding a skills-first approach requires alignment across leadership, redesigned hiring processes, and sustained change management. It is not a surface-level adjustment—it is an operational transformation. WHY INSIGHT MUST DRIVE ACTION In a labor market defined by rapid change, workforce decisions cannot rely on outdated assumptions. Companies now have access to unprecedented levels of data—from labor market trends to internal workforce analytics to emerging technologies that map skills in real time. This information has the potential to fundamentally improve how organizations hire and plan for the future. But data alone is not enough. The advantage lies in how companies use it: to redefine roles based on actual work, to identify where talent exists, and to build systems that accurately match people to opportunities. Organizations that translate insight into action will move faster and hire better. Those that do not will continue to face talent gaps—not because the talent isn’t there, but because they are not equipped to find it. FROM INSIGHT TO IMPACT After working alongside leading employers, one lesson is clear: Without the ability to operationalize insight, even well‑intentioned strategies stall. Roles remain misaligned. Talent remains overlooked. Impact remains unmeasured. That realization is driving a broader shift. As OneTen evolves into SkillsRight, the focus is on building an insights engine that integrates multiple data streams to help companies make smarter, faster workforce decisions—redefining roles, expanding access, and creating systems that reflect the realities of today’s labor market. A MORE RESILIENT AND INCLUSIVE FUTURE OF WORK When companies get this right, they do more than improve hiring—they transform how work functions. A skills-first approach enables organizations to operate with greater precision, adaptability, and resilience. It expands access to talent, increases workforce flexibility, and creates career pathways that are not constrained by traditional credentials. In an imbalanced labor market, this isn’t just a competitive advantage, it is a necessity. And the benefits extend beyond companies. Workers gain access to opportunities aligned with their capabilities. Employers access talent they were previously missing. The result is stronger, more durable hiring outcomes—and a more inclusive economy. Getting this right doesn’t just solve workforce challenges. It unlocks opportunity for millions and builds a labor market that works better for everyone. Debbie Dyson is CEO of SkillsRight (formerly OneTen). View the full article

Measurement is the foundation for everything we do in performance marketing. Without accurate measurement, what we recommend, implement, and optimize is, at best, guesswork. Maintaining accurate measurement is more challenging than ever — and getting harder. Regulatory crackdowns and increased privacy concerns, alongside longer multi-touch journeys, are compounding to create a measurement crisis. Brands still using decade-old tactics won’t be able to overcome modern measurement challenges. If your brand falls into this category, it’s time to rebuild your measurement foundation — from integrating first-party data (crawl), to creating cross-channel reporting for actionable insights (walk), to advanced media mix modeling (MMM) and incrementality testing for true incremental media lift (run). The crawl: Building a first-party data foundation Without integration of first-party data into your performance marketing channels, you’re fully reliant on third-party signals. While these metrics can be helpful, they’re surface-level signals and don’t show how channels impact your business goals Audience integration The first step is integrating your customer relationship management (CRM) data into your paid media platforms. This includes: Remarketing to abandoners. Creating exclusion lists for current subscribers or recent purchasers. Compiling priority contact lists. You might be uploading lists today, but integration improves targeting by connecting to up-to-date audience lists for media platform targeting. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with Offline-conversion tracking For lead gen businesses, the next recommended step is setting up offline conversion tracking (OCT). It shows the bottom-line impact of your media on sales. The integration passes sales data back to the platforms for campaign attribution. With OCT in place, you can optimize for lower-funnel, higher-quality conversion steps in the sales cycle or even begin optimizing toward revenue to improve your return on ad spend. Setup is simple. You add a click ID to your form and then pass it from the platform to your CRM. Most of the top CRMs today, like Salesforce, integrate directly with platforms for easy implementation. Server-side tracking and consent mode To gain momentum from crawl to walk requires a heavier uplift, shifting from client-side tracking to server-side tracking. Client-side tracking is the default process for passing conversion signals from your website to your media platforms. The user’s web browser sends that signal, allowing for cookie loss, ad blockers, or strict browsers like Safari to muddy the signals and reduce data accuracy. With server-side tracking, instead of relying on the user’s browser, you use a dedicated tagging server to capture signals from your website and send them directly to the platforms. This bypasses browser-based tracking and relies on your first-party data. It keeps your data accurate and resilient as privacy restrictions increase and cookies disappear. You have two main integration methods: Partner integration is the simpler option, as it uses pre-built connectors for setup through partners like Shopify, Tealium, Google Tag Manager, or similar platforms. Direct API is code-heavy and for complex data or custom backends, and requires a developer team to build it. How you set up server-side tracking depends on the paid media channels you use, your tech stack, and your integration method. Both options require a dedicated cloud hosting server, which adds cost, but it’s worth it to better understand your media investment. The walk: Cross-channel reporting integration With a stronger measurement foundation in place, the next step is to break down platform silos and see the full ecosystem. Going beyond last click With server-side tracking in place, you’ve created a clean data pipeline. Last-click and first-click attribution give full credit to the first or final step, ignoring the full-funnel path a user takes. Platforms offer advanced attribution models, like Google’s data-driven attribution, but they still favor and silo data within their own platforms. For example, a user clicks a Meta ad, then searches and converts on a Google ad. In this case, each platform claims the conversion. The solution is to use a data warehouse, such as BigQuery or Snowflake, to centralize your data from your website, CRM, and other platforms. From there, you can apply custom logic to build a multi-touch attribution model that stitches your data together using your first-party identifiers to see the full journey and attribute across the ecosystem. Unified reporting dashboards With evolved attribution, a unified reporting dashboard will merge the platform performance data (views, clicks, impressions, etc.) with your integrated first-party conversion data (using server-side tracking and advanced attribution). There are many dashboard builders — the easiest being Looker Studio, as it integrates directly with BigQuery and Snowflake, making it effectively plug-and-play. With a dashboard in place, you can now visualize the data across the funnel to gain actionable insights into which platforms are driving volume, converting, and impacting your bottom line. The run: Media mix modeling and incrementality testing You now have a detailed, day-to-day view of performance of user-level events and insights. But key questions remain. How do you know if a channel has room for more growth? How do you measure offline performance like a TV ad? How do you know if a tactic is working? Understand the full impact of your media investment and tactics at a macro level requires media mix modeling and incrementality testing. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. The holistic view through MMM Think of MMM as your compass guiding strategy. It provides a holistic, mathematical source of truth for your paid media investments by measuring the relationship between your media inputs and business outcomes (revenue or leads) over time. This isn’t a day-to-day tool. You typically use it on a 3-, 6-, or 12-month cycle, depending on your data volume, and it requires 2+ years of data to account for seasonality and promotions. The model then runs a regression analysis to determine the relationship between your inputs and business outcomes. With MMM, you get channel-agnostic insights that remove platform bias. It helps you answer key questions about diminishing returns, budget allocation, and the impact of upper-funnel investment on revenue. That clarity helps you make smarter decisions for the next quarter, half, or year so your marketing dollars drive maximum impact. Pulse checks with incrementality testing Incrementality testing validates both MMM and your marketing efforts. It measures a single tactic or channel by splitting your audience into two groups: a test group that sees the tactic and a control group that does not. It compares results between the groups, with the difference representing incremental lift. You can split test and control groups using user-level holdouts, individual-level tracking, or geo-level holdouts when individual tracking isn’t possible. It answers a core question: if a user didn’t see the ad, would they have converted anyway? This shows the true lift of a specific platform or tactic and helps you decide whether to stop bidding on brand terms for existing customers. It can also calibrate your MMM. For example, if MMM reports paid social drives $1 million in revenue, but an incrementality test shows lift closer to $500,000, you can feed that back into the MMM to improve future forecasts. See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with The sprint: Clean, integrated, and validated first-party data With first-party data integrated through server-side tracking, cross-channel reporting, and custom attribution, you’ve built a strong measurement foundation. Guided by MMM and validated with incrementality testing, you’re ready to sprint — with a system that helps you make better decisions and clearly show the impact of every investment. View the full article

On the latest Search Off The Record Podcast, Martin Split and Gary Illyes discussed the growing page weight issue and how that impacts users and Googlebot crawling. This follows Google updating its documentation to clarify file size limits for Googlebot (and various versions of Googlebot). View the full article

Models by Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI struggle when asked to predict scores over football seasonView the full article

If you own a small corporation in the U.S., it’s important to grasp the current tax rates that apply to your business. C corporations face a federal tax rate of 21%, whereas S corporations benefit from pass-through taxation, which means income is taxed at the owners’ personal rates. State corporate taxes can likewise vary, greatly influencing your overall tax burden. Comprehending these differences can help you navigate potential strategies to minimize your tax liabilities effectively. Key Takeaways Small corporations classified as C corporations are taxed at a flat federal rate of 21% on taxable income. S corporations benefit from pass-through taxation, with income taxed at individual owners’ personal tax rates (10% to 37%). State corporate tax rates vary, impacting total tax liability; rates range from 0% to 9.8% across different states. Small corporations can utilize deductions like the Qualified Business Income deduction, reducing taxable income by up to 20%. Payroll taxes, including FICA and unemployment taxes, add to the overall tax burden for small corporations. Understanding Small Corporation Taxes When you’re steering through the domain of small corporation taxes, it’s essential to understand the fundamental differences between various business structures. Small corporations, particularly S Corporations, are taxed differently than C Corporations. Meanwhile, the latter faces a flat federal corporate tax rate of 21%. S Corporations benefit from pass-through taxation, meaning their income is taxed at the owners’ personal income tax rates, ranging from 10% to 37%. This leads to varying S corp tax brackets that can considerably impact the overall tax burden. Furthermore, state corporate tax rates can add complexity, with rates from 0% to 9.8%, further influencing the small corporation tax rate. To minimize liabilities, small businesses should leverage allowable deductions for expenses and consider the Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction, which can provide a potential 20% tax break on qualified business income, eventually reducing their taxable income. Federal Corporate Income Tax Rate The federal corporate income tax rate in the United States stands at 21%, a figure set by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. This rate is applied to the taxable income of C corporations, calculated as total revenue minus allowable business expenses. It’s important to understand some key aspects of this tax rate: The rate is a flat rate, meaning it doesn’t change based on income levels. Before the 2017 reform, the corporate tax rate was as high as 35%. Corporations must report their profits and losses using Form 1120 for federal tax purposes. This uniform rate aims to simplify tax calculations for businesses. With this knowledge, you can better navigate the implications of corporate taxation in the U.S. and understand how it affects your corporation’s financial planning and obligations. State Corporate Tax Rates State corporate tax rates vary greatly across the United States, affecting how much you pay based on where your corporation is based. These rates can range from 0% to 9.8%, with some states, like Nevada, Ohio, and Texas, imposing no corporate tax at all. For instance, California has a relatively high rate of 8.84%, whereas Florida’s is set at 5.5%. New York’s corporate tax rates fluctuate between 6.5% and 7.25%, depending on your corporation’s income level. Furthermore, some states, such as Illinois, impose extra taxes, like the Personal Property Replacement Tax, on top of the corporate income tax. States may utilize either flat tax rates or tiered brackets based on taxable income to determine your corporate tax liabilities. How Corporate Taxes Work Comprehending how corporate taxes function is crucial for any business owner steering through the financial terrain. In the U.S., corporations face a federal corporate income tax rate of 21%, a reduction from the previous 35% established by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Corporate taxes apply to taxable income, defined as revenue minus allowable business expenses, deductions, and credits. Moreover, state tax rates can greatly vary, creating further complexity for corporations. Here are some key points to reflect on: Corporations must file taxes using Form 1120, detailing profits and losses. Owners of pass-through entities report income on personal tax returns. Double taxation occurs, taxing earnings at both the corporate and individual levels when dividends are distributed. Some states may impose gross receipts taxes instead of traditional corporate taxes. Understanding these elements can help you navigate your business’s financial responsibilities more effectively. Taxable Income Calculation When calculating taxable income for your corporation, you’ll start with total revenue and subtract allowable expenses, deductions, and credits. Accurate record-keeping is essential, as it guarantees you have the necessary documentation to support your calculations and comply with tax regulations. Comprehending this process can help you manage your tax liability effectively. Revenue Minus Expenses Calculating taxable income for small corporations involves a straightforward process of subtracting total business expenses from gross revenue. This calculation gives you the amount subject to taxation. To guarantee accurate results, keep detailed records of your revenue and expenses. Here are key components to reflect on: Operating costs: Regular expenses like rent, utilities, and supplies. Employee wages: Salaries or wages paid to your staff. Contributions to retirement plans: Any funds you contribute to employee retirement accounts. Other allowable deductions: Various costs that can lower your taxable income. Deductions and Credits Deductions and credits play an important role in determining your taxable income, as they allow you to reduce the amount on which you’ll owe taxes. For corporations, taxable income is calculated by subtracting allowable business expenses and tax deductions from total revenue. Common deductible expenses include office supplies, marketing, travel, and retirement plan contributions. Furthermore, if you’re a pass-through entity, you might benefit from the Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction, which permits you to deduct up to 20% of qualified income. Tax credits, such as those for hiring specific employees or providing health coverage, can further lower your tax liability. It’s vital to take into account all these factors when calculating your taxable income to optimize your tax situation. Record-Keeping Importance Accurate record-keeping is vital for small corporations, as it directly impacts how you determine your taxable income. By maintaining organized financial records, you can effectively track revenues and expenses, which are important for calculating your tax obligations. Here are some key points to keep in mind: Deduct eligible business expenses to lower taxable income. Report profits and losses accurately on Form 1120. Identify and document deductible expenses to maximize tax benefits. Regularly review financial statements to guarantee compliance with tax laws. C Corporations vs. Pass-Through Entities When choosing between a C corporation and a pass-through entity, you need to understand how tax rates impact your bottom line. C corporations face a flat federal tax rate of 21% on their income, but they likewise endure double taxation on dividends. In contrast, pass-through entities benefit from being taxed at individual income rates, which vary from 10% to 37%. Furthermore, pass-through entities can leverage the Qualified Business Income deduction, potentially reducing their overall tax burden. This makes the choice vital based on your business goals and projected income. Tax Rates Comparison Comprehending the differences in tax rates between C corporations and pass-through entities is vital for business owners deciding on their organizational structure. Here’s a quick comparison: C corporations face a flat federal tax rate of 21% on taxable income, plus potential state taxes ranging from 0% to 9.8%. Pass-through entities, including sole proprietorships and S corporations, are taxed at individual rates that range from 10% to 37% based on total income. C corporations experience double taxation on profits and dividends, whereas pass-through entities avoid this by passing income directly to owners. Eligible owners of pass-through entities can utilize the Qualified Business Income deduction, allowing for up to a 20% deduction on business income, potentially reducing their effective tax burden. Income Tax Implications Grasping the income tax implications of your business structure is crucial, as it can greatly affect your overall tax liability. C corporations are taxed at a flat federal rate of 21% on their taxable income, which is total revenue minus allowable business expenses. Nevertheless, they face double taxation; profits are taxed at the corporate level and again as dividends when distributed to shareholders. Conversely, pass-through entities like sole proprietorships and S corporations allow income to flow directly to owners, who report it on their personal tax returns, avoiding corporate tax rates. Depending on your state, C corporations may additionally incur additional corporate taxes, whereas pass-through entities are typically taxed at personal income tax rates, which can vary greatly. Deduction Opportunities Available Comprehending the deduction opportunities available to different business structures can greatly impact your tax strategy. C corporations enjoy a flat 21% federal tax rate and can deduct a variety of business expenses, which helps lower taxable income. In comparison, pass-through entities face individual tax rates between 10% to 37% and may have limitations on deductions. Here are some key points to take into account: C corporations can benefit from the Section 179 deduction for equipment. Both structures can utilize the Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction, potentially reducing income by up to 20%. Pass-through entities may take advantage of personal deductions and credits. C corporations typically have broader options for deducting employee benefits and salaries. Understanding these differences is essential for optimizing your tax efficiency. Deductible Business Expenses When running a small corporation, grasp of deductible business expenses is crucial for managing your finances and minimizing tax liability. Deductible expenses include costs for office supplies, marketing, travel, and other necessary expenditures incurred during the operation of your business, which help reduce your taxable income. If you use part of your home exclusively for business, you can likewise take advantage of the home office deduction. Contributions to retirement plans like 401(k)s or SEP IRAs are tax-deductible, allowing you to save for your future and lowering your current taxable income. Under Section 179 of the IRS tax code, you can deduct the full purchase price of qualifying equipment and software purchased or financed during the year, subject to specific limits. Furthermore, business tax credits may be available for hiring certain employees or providing health coverage, further alleviating your overall tax burden. Comprehending these deductions is crucial for financial success. Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (CAMT) As you manage your small corporation’s finances, comprehension of the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (CAMT) is important, especially for larger entities. Effective for tax years beginning after 2022, CAMT imposes a 15% minimum tax on adjusted financial statement income (AFSI) for corporations with average annual AFSI over $1 billion. Here are some key points about CAMT: It primarily targets large corporations with significant U.S. presence and income. A minimum tax credit arises when CAMT exceeds the regular tax liability plus Base Erosion and Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT), allowing indefinite carryforward. CAMT prevents large corporations from reducing their tax liability to zero using deductions and credits. Foreign-parented multinationals must pass a two-part test to determine CAMT applicability based on U.S. operations. Understanding CAMT helps you navigate potential tax obligations and guarantees compliance with the evolving tax environment. Base Erosion and Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) The Base Erosion and Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) serves as a crucial measure to safeguard the U.S. tax base by imposing additional taxes on large corporations that make base-eroding payments to foreign affiliates. This tax applies to corporations with average annual gross receipts of at least $500 million over the prior three years. Currently, the BEAT rate is 10% for tax years beginning after 2022, and it will rise to 12.5% for tax years starting after 2025. Base-eroding payments include deductible amounts paid to related foreign persons, which limits corporations’ ability to reduce their U.S. taxable income through these payments. If you’re subject to BEAT, you must calculate your regular tax liability and compare it to your BEAT liability, paying the higher amount to the IRS. S Corporations and Their Tax Treatment S corporations, which are designed to avoid double taxation, allow income, deductions, and credits to pass directly to shareholders, who report them on their individual tax returns. To be eligible for S corporation status, your business must meet specific criteria, including: Having 100 or fewer shareholders, all of whom must be individuals, certain trusts, or estates. Issuing only one class of stock, which guarantees all shareholders receive equitable treatment in distributions and liquidation rights. Taxing shareholders at individual income tax rates, which range from 10% to 37% for 2025. Allowing eligible shareholders to benefit from the Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction, enabling a deduction of up to 20% of qualified business income on individual tax returns. Payroll Taxes for Corporations When you run a corporation, payroll taxes are a significant responsibility that can impact your overall business costs. You’ll need to account for federal payroll taxes, including FICA and unemployment taxes, during the same time being aware of potential state and local taxes that vary by location. Comprehending these obligations is essential, as timely reporting and payment can help you avoid penalties and keep your finances in check. Payroll Tax Responsibilities Grasping payroll tax responsibilities is vital for corporations, as failing to comply can lead to significant penalties. You must navigate various federal and state requirements to stay in good standing. Here are key points to take into account: FICA Taxes: Totaling 15.3%, split between the employer and employee, with each contributing 7.65%. FUTA: Typically 6.0% on the first $7,000 of wages, but this can be reduced by state unemployment taxes. State Variability: States may impose additional unemployment or disability taxes, so check local regulations. Reporting Deadlines: Corporations must regularly report and remit payroll taxes to the IRS to avoid penalties for late payments. Accurate record-keeping of wages and taxes is fundamental for compliance and smooth tax filing. Impact on Business Costs Comprehending payroll tax responsibilities is just the beginning; the impact these taxes have on your business costs is significant. Corporations like yours are required to pay FICA taxes totaling 15.3% of eligible gross earnings, with you covering 7.65% as the employer. For higher-earning employees, Social Security taxes only apply to the first $168,600 of earnings in 2024, which can affect your payroll costs. Furthermore, federal and state unemployment taxes vary by state, influencing overall payroll expenses. These payroll taxes are essential components of your total labor costs, directly affecting your profitability and budgeting. To remain compliant and avoid penalties, you must accurately track and report these taxes, which requires efficient payroll systems in place. Sales and Use Taxes Sales and use taxes play a crucial role in the financial environment for small corporations, impacting their overall operating costs. As a business owner, you need to be aware of these taxes to guarantee compliance and avoid penalties. Here are some key points to reflect upon: Sales tax is a percentage added to the purchase price of taxable goods and services, which you must collect from customers. Base sales tax rates vary by state; for instance, California has a base rate of 7.25%, whereas Texas has 6.25%. Use taxes apply to out-of-state purchases for business, typically matching your state’s sales tax rate. Additional county or city sales taxes may increase your overall tax burden. Staying compliant means maintaining accurate records and making timely payments of collected taxes. Comprehending these aspects can help you manage costs effectively and keep your business running smoothly. Strategies to Minimize Corporate Tax Liability When you’re running a small corporation, employing effective strategies to minimize your tax liability is crucial for maintaining financial health. Start by deducting qualifying business expenses, like salaries, rent, and utilities, from your taxable income. This reduces your overall tax burden noticeably. Consider utilizing the Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction, which can provide up to a 20% tax break for owners of pass-through entities. Implementing a strategic retirement plan, such as a 401(k) or SEP IRA, allows you to make tax-deductible contributions, further lowering taxable income. Moreover, taking advantage of the Section 179 deduction lets you immediately deduct the cost of qualifying equipment purchases rather than capitalizing and depreciating them over time. Finally, exploring alternative business structures, like S corporations, can help you avoid double taxation, as income passes through to shareholders and is taxed at their individual rates. Important Tax Deadlines for Corporations Staying on top of important tax deadlines is vital for corporations to avoid penalties and secure compliance with federal regulations. Missing deadlines can lead to significant financial repercussions, so it’s imperative to track these dates carefully. Here are key deadlines you need to remember: April 15: File your federal income tax return using Form 1120 for calendar year filers. Quarterly Estimated Tax Payments: Due on April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15 of the following year. W-2 Forms: Issue to employees by January 31. 1099 Forms: Must be sent to independent contractors by January 31 as well. Late filings or payments may incur penalties based on the amount owed and the duration of the delay. Frequently Asked Questions Are All Corporations Taxed at 21%? Not all corporations are taxed at the 21% rate. C corporations face this flat federal tax on their taxable income. Nevertheless, pass-through entities, like sole proprietorships and S corporations, don’t pay corporate taxes; instead, their income is reported on personal tax returns and taxed at individual rates, which range from 10% to 37%. Furthermore, some states impose their own corporate tax rates, which can further affect the overall tax liability. What Is the Current Small Business Tax Rate? The current tax rate for small businesses varies depending on their structure. C Corporations face a flat federal tax rate of 21% on taxable income. Conversely, pass-through entities like sole proprietorships and partnerships are taxed based on individual income tax brackets, which range from 10% to 37%. Furthermore, LLCs can choose their tax classification, impacting their rate. Staying informed about deductions and tax deadlines can notably affect your overall tax burden. What Is the Tax Rate for an S Corp LLC? The tax rate for an S corporation LLC isn’t fixed, as these entities pass income directly to shareholders, who report it on their personal tax returns. Your income is taxed at individual rates, ranging from 10% to 37% in 2025. Furthermore, S corporations can benefit from the Qualified Business Income deduction, allowing you to potentially deduct up to 20% of qualified income. What Is the S Corp Tax Rate for 2025? In 2025, S corporations themselves won’t pay federal income tax at the corporate level. Instead, income and deductions flow through to you, the shareholder, and you’ll report this on your individual tax return. Your tax rate will depend on your overall income, ranging from 10% to 37%. Even though S corporations avoid double taxation, they still face certain taxes under specific conditions, like built-in gains tax and passive income tax. Conclusion In conclusion, comprehending the tax environment for small corporations is essential for effective financial planning. C corporations face a flat federal tax rate of 21%, while S corporations enjoy pass-through taxation based on personal income tax rates. Furthermore, state corporate tax rates can further influence overall liability. By grasping these elements and maintaining awareness of deadlines and possible deductions, you can navigate the intricacies of corporate taxes and potentially minimize your tax burden. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "Current Small Corporation Tax Rate?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

After glorious lunar views, a moving dedication, a malfunctioning toilet, and a floating Nutella, Artemis II is poised for the riskiest part of its 10-day journey to the far side of the moon. The Orion spacecraft, Integrity, is slated to enter the Earth’s atmosphere tonight at 7:45 EDT at a blistering 25,000 mph and 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The autonomously guided capsule will slow down and dissipate heat through a time-honored “skip” maneuver that dips it in and out of the atmosphere in a suborbital arc, then back in again for a final descent. Think of skipping a stone on the water’s surface to slow it down. The technique involves shifting Orion’s center of mass by rotating it left and right to generate lift before reentering the atmosphere a second time, thereby achieving a safer speed for parachute deployment and lower g-forces for a crew acclimatized to microgravity. Adjusting the reentry timing and angle enables a more precise landing target. It will take roughly 40 minutes from when the service module separation takes place at 400,000 feet (76 miles) to splashdown 50 to 80 miles off the coast of San Diego, including a nail-biting six-minute communications blackout with Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston. “We have high confidence in the system, heat shield, and parachutes, and recovery systems we put together. And tomorrow the crew is going to put their lives behind that confidence,” Amit Kshatriya, NASA associate administrator, said during a press conference on April 9. Orion’s reentry will stream on NASA’s YouTube channel, NASA+, and its other social media platforms, as well as on C-SPAN.org beginning at 6:30 p.m. EDT for the anticipated splashdown at 8:07 p.m. The descent might be visible in Southern California as a slow-streaking shooting star. It’s more likely to capture attention with a widely felt sonic boom. NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen are the first astronauts to travel to the moon in more than 50 years. And their journey took them farther from Earth—nearly 250,000 miles—than any other human has ever traveled. The mission tees up subsequent flights to the lunar surface to establish a sustainable base. “This is a relay race,” Koch said of the crew’s attitude toward future missions during an April 8 in-flight press conference. “We brought batons to symbolize [that] physically. We plan to hand them to the next crew, and every single thing that we do is with them in mind.” Reentry is considered more dangerous than launch—like “riding a fireball through the atmosphere,” noted Glover. Aside from the extreme heat, there are fewer options to mitigate failure and none to abort. Reentry from the moon is faster than from low-Earth orbit, requiring more parachutes. Following a finding that parts of the Artemis I heat shield degraded more than expected upon reentry, Artemis II will engage a shorter entry range. Yet even with this adjustment, retired astronaut and thermal protection expert Charles Camarda and former NASA engineer Daniel Rasky have raised grave concerns about the heat shield’s efficacy. Camarda unsuccessfully lobbied to help NASA revise the shield, estimating a 1 in 20 chance of disaster (which translates to a 95% success rate), while Rasky told ABC News, “If I had to rate it an A, B, C, D, or E, I’d rate it an F.” “We have to get back,” Glover said. “There’s so much data that you’ve seen already, but all the good data is coming back with us. There are so many more pictures; so many more stories.” View the full article

Google is doubling down on Data Strength as conversion signals become more critical to bidding, performance, and how campaigns are optimized. The post Google’s Push For Data Strength Is Really A Push For Better Bidding appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Hello again, and welcome back to Fast Company’s Plugged In. For years, progress in AI has been motivated by an industry-wide yen to create software that’s at least as capable as humans—not at some tasks, but all of them. The precise definition of the goal varies, and two maddeningly overlapping terms, artificial general intelligence (AGI) and superintelligence, both get bandied around. But no matter how you look at the aspiration (or how long you think it will take to achieve), it’s about the ways the world will change when software can do everything extraordinarily well. I’ve written—here and here—about why I believe fixating on that eventuality isn’t the best way to think about AI and its impact. It might turn out that AI trounces humanity at some jobs and never rivals it at others. That would not be reason to take it any less seriously. This week brought some of the clearest evidence of that point so far. On April 7, Anthropic announced a new version of its Claude model called Claude Mythos Preview. Like existing Claude versions such as Sonnet and Opus, it was trained for general competency, not to be a specialist at anything in particular. But Anthropic says that when it tested Mythos, it discovered it had made dramatic strides in coding ability. It was particularly good at finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in existing software, surpassing “all but the most skilled humans.” According to Anthropic, Mythos detected security flaws in every major operating system and web browser. It spotted a 28-year-old hole in OpenBSD, an operating system designed, above all, to be secure. It also found a 16-year-old one in a widely used piece of video software called FFMPEG that had gone unnoticed even after 5 million rounds of automated testing. As impressive as that sounds from a technical standpoint, it’s also deeply unsettling. Rogue nation states, low-rent scammers, and other bad guys have long exploited bugs to carry out attacks. Until now, the supply of such flaws has been limited by human ability to uncover them. If AI can perform that work with unprecedented aptitude, anything that runs on software would be radically more prone to attack, from your smartphone to the country’s electrical grid. Just to make matters more unnerving, Anthropic says early versions of Mythos behaved in various “reckless” ways, sometimes when prodded and sometimes on their own initiative. When the model was isolated in a sandbox that theoretically denied it internet access, it figured out how to break free and send one of its researchers an email. It also made changes to code and then covered its tracks, as if it was hiding something. Overall, according to Anthropic, Mythos behaved more responsibly than the current Opus 4.6 model. Still, its deep understanding of software vulnerabilities, determination to achieve its goals, and apparent willingness to be sneaky do not sound like a great combination. Anthropic, which wears its dedication to AI safety like a badge of honor, is moving gingerly. Instead of making Mythos publicly available in its current form, the company has launched an initiative called Project Glasswing to carefully share it on a need-to-know basis. Forty technology companies will get access to the model and a total of $100 million in usage credits, including big names such as Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia. That will give them a potentially transformative new tool for identifying and patching holes in their own products. Allowing them to poke at Mythos should also clarify whether Anthropic’s own lofty assessment of its model’s cyberhacking prowess is at all hyperbolic. Anthropic’s archrival, OpenAI, isn’t part of Project Glasswing. However, Axios’s Sam Sabin reported on April 9 that OpenAI plans to take a similarly cautious approach with an upcoming cybersecurity-savvy version of its own GPT model. Other AI overlords, such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, may follow suit. But no matter how responsibly Big Tech behaves, Mythos surely foreshadows less carefully guarded AI acquiring similar skills, possibly within months. Open-source models could give bad actors uncontained hacking superpowers. Governments would have every incentive to invest heavily in the technology and put it to shadowy use. Cyberterrorism might evolve from looming threat to terrifying everyday reality. Even well-meaning uses of the technology could go awry if a model misbehaves, either by fluke or intent. The bottom line: Project Glasswing isn’t just about preparing the world for Mythos. It’s also a first pass at readying the tech industry for Mythos-like models that have few if any safeguards, or that are explicitly designed to wreak havoc. Unsettling though all this is, I find strange comfort in the fact that the tech industry is being forced to face its implications right this very minute. Predictions of when AGI might arrive vary wildly, even among people whose expertise is unimpeachable: “Before the The President administration ends” and “sometime in the 2060s” are both defensible answers. With no consensus on how much time we have to gird ourselves, it’s tough to make a plan. True AGI would also present us with so many new challenges on so many fronts that confronting them all in parallel would be overwhelming in itself. Tackling the societal catastrophes that AI may unleash one problem at a time sounds far less intimidating than playing Whac-a-Mole with all of them at once. Now is the best time to start. And if this new age of cyber insecurity turns out to be among the most daunting of the lot, we should consider ourselves lucky. You’ve been reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or if you’re reading it on fastcompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard. More top tech stories from Fast Company The U.S. and Silicon Valley may be running out of time to deal with Taiwan Most advanced chips, including those for AI, are produced on the island, which China has long believed to be its own. Read More → How GoPro lost its way After years of missed bets and shrinking relevance, the once high-flying camera company is cutting staff, losing money, and nearing a potential delisting. Read More → Inside Niantic Spatial’s audacious plan to scan the world The company behind ‘Pokémon Go’ is now creating an AI- and robot-ready 3D model of everything around us. Read More → Satirizing Silicon Valley is pointless in 2026. This show proves it AMC’s ‘The Audacity’ is a sharply written, well-acted new series about the foibles of Silicon Valley’s movers and shakers. It’s also utterly inessential in our current era. Read More → Lawmakers want to restrict 3D printing to stop ghost guns. Critics say it won’t work New ‘print blocker’ proposals would force printers to scan and reject files, a move opponents say risks privacy and targets the wrong problem. Read More → These heat pumps can be installed in an hour—and will cut costs in half Merino Energy, a new startup led by a former Apple engineer, created a lower-cost heat pump that launched today. Read More → View the full article

For those of us not born tall and strong, using a shared electric bike can sometimes be cumbersome—they’re often big, heavy, and hard to maneuver. Bike-share giant Lime has taken note, releasing a new generation of bikes tailored for riders who could benefit from more accessible design. One of the first dockless micromobility companies, Lime launched in 2017, eventually filling the streets of major cities across the U.S., Europe, Australia, and the Middle East with its bright-green two-wheelers. Now the company has introduced an alternative model to its standard Gen4, designed to reach riders—particularly women and older adults—who may have found its original model challenging or intimidating. “The new vehicle builds upon the strong foundation of what is already working well,” Jason Parrish, Lime’s senior director of product management, tells Fast Company. Lime piloted its new design in July 2024 in Atlanta, Seattle, and Zurich, with an official release in April last year. The model, called a “LimeBike,” is not meant to replace the Gen4, but rather serve as a complement to the company’s bike-share services, offering an alternative for riders. LimeBikes are currently in circulation domestically in Atlanta, Seattle, and Nashville, and globally in Munich, Paris, Berlin, and other cities. A rider-friendly redesign The LimeBike model came about based on feedback from riders and city officials from around the world who said they wanted bike sharing to feel more approachable and accessible to a wider range of riders, especially those who are shorter in stature or have more restricted range of motion. Compared to the original model, the LimeBike weighs less, has a more compact frame, a lower step-through, and smaller, 20-inch tires. The designers also moved the bike’s battery under the seat to shift its center of gravity, and introduced an ergonomic seat clamp to ease height adjustments. These details make the bike more comfortable to get on and off of, steer, and ride. “We wanted to keep the great ergonomic ride feel that our riders love about the Gen4 bike, but do it in a new way that makes the vehicle feel more approachable and accessible,” Parrish says. “The result is that while the frame changed, the rider geometry of the bike [distance between seat, pedals, and handlebars] was maintained from the Gen4.” The redesign also addresses safety concerns. As the blog London Centric reported, a number of Lime riders in the U.K. have suffered broken legs, which some attribute to the Gen4 e-bike’s heavy design. Some riders are pursuing legal action against the company. The redesign features details that will improve trips for all riders, like a new phone holder, wider front basket, and advanced location-recognition accuracy so they don’t accidentally leave the bike in a no-parking zone. “The updates focus on making the LimeBike more approachable, intuitive. and practical for everyday use,” Parrish says. Longer-lasting bikes The redesign doesn’t solve only rider pain points. It also extends each bike’s lifespan by featuring modular elements that make replacing parts easier and quicker. Additionally, the bike is made with some of the same parts as the LimeGlider, the company’s e-scooter, making inventory management more efficient. “By building the two vehicles together, we were able to create a unified product experience for riders, simplify spare parts management and maintenance, and release two vehicles at once to drive innovation in our fleet,” Parrish says. As the fleet and offerings continue to expand, so do options for sustainable urban travel. According to UCLA Transportation, swapping a car ride for a bike ride can lower an individual’s emissions by 67%. Accessible scooter and bike designs are providing a greener option for riders regardless of their body type. View the full article

If you’re in the market for a car, you might be one of a growing number of people considering a used EV. In the past month alone, Cars.com says searches for used EVs jumped 25.5%, pointing to how quickly interest is shifting. Gas prices likely won’t drop much anytime soon, even if the Strait of Hormuz can stay open. And with hundreds of thousands of used EVs coming off lease this year, consumers have affordable options, even though the federal tax credit went away last year. You get more for your money than with used gas cars: for the same price as a five-year-old Toyota Camry or RAV4, you can get a newer Tesla Model 3 or Volkswagen ID4 with tens of thousands of fewer miles, according to Recurrent, a company that tracks EV data. Here’s what to know if you’re shopping for a used EV. Battery life is better than you think First, you don’t need to worry much about the battery. “EV batteries are lasting a lot longer than most people expected—even people that study electric car batteries every day,” says Andy Garberson, head of growth at research at Recurrent. The company tracks data from 30,000 EV owners across the U.S., and says that among cars that were made in 2022 or later, only 0.3% have needed battery replacements because of degradation or failure. If older EV with first-gen batteries are included, the number is still low, with 4% needing replacement. Performance is surprisingly good over time. Take the example of a 2023 Nissan Ariya, an EV that Recurrent recommends. Three years after it came out, its average real-life range is 226 miles on a full battery charge, a stat that’s better than its official EPA range. In another three years, it’s likely to drop only slightly to 220 miles on a charge. Range for any EV varies depending on conditions like cold weather (the Ariya performs well in the winter, too, keeping 83% of its range). You can access Recurrent’s data through dealerships or listings on Edmunds and Cars.com to see stats for any used model throughout the year in your own climate, along with estimates of how much you can save on fuel and maintenance. EV batteries aren’t the battery in a phone, which can see steep degradation. In an EV, the data shows that there’s actually a little more degradation in the beginning, but it slows down. “We’ve all had that phone that a few years old and the pace of degradation actually accelerates with time, and that’s just not the case with EVs that have sophisticated battery management systems and liquid cooling and just a lot of tech that’s there to preserve it,” Garberson says. When buying an EV, you can ask the dealership for a battery health report, or take a car from a private seller to repair shop for a test. After checking the expected range based on the car’s age, you can also see how it performs on a test drive. Before a test drive, you can ask the dealership to fully charge the battery overnight. If a battery does degrade significantly after you buy it, the manufacturer should replace it. Nearly all EVs sold in the U.S. include long battery warranties, typically lasting 8 years or 100,000 miles. (EPA performance rules require that EV batteries last at least that long.) If a battery drops to less than 70% of its capacity, the warranty should cover a replacement. Buy the newest used EV you can afford Newer models are a better choice than older EVs because EV technology has been improving so rapidly. Early EVs had different battery chemistry, but lithium ion phosphate (LFP) batteries became widespread in the 2020s—making batteries cheaper, safer, better at handling frequent charging, and longer lasting. The median range for an EV in 2023 was 270 miles on a charge; compare that to a 2017 Nissan Leaf, which started with around 84 miles of range. It makes sense to buy the newest used EV you can afford. Like all cars, newer models also have better tech in general, including safety features and more options for autonomous driving. The 2023 Nissan Ariya, for example, comes with ProPILOT Assist 2.0, semi-autonomous technology that can assist with lane changes or passing slower drivers. The EV was expensive when new, and didn’t sell particularly well for that reason. But used models now sell for only around $25,000. “The used price made that car very appealing, because you’re getting a lot of car for the money,” says Garberson. With a newer EV, you’ll also have more time left on the battery warranty if you need it. But buyers who choose older EVs do also have the option to pay for third party warranties through companies like Xcelerate Auto. Consider the EV’s history As with any used car, you’ll want to do a prepurchase inspection and also find out as much as you can about its past. An EV that was a rental car—like the thousands of Teslas dumped by Hertz—or a ridesharing or fleet vehicle, obviously would have seen more use. Still, that may be more of a negotiating tool than a reason not to buy it. Ridesharing EVs can hold up surprisingly well, like a 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E that still had 92% battery life after 250,000 miles on the road. In theory, if the previous owner regularly used fast charging, that could degrade the battery faster, though Garberson says that real-life data hasn’t borne that out. “When we sit down with all of our PhDs that studied this stuff in school, they understand that at an academic level that fast charging degrades a battery faster,” he says. “That’s something that they know and can prove out in a lab environment. But when we look across all of the cars connected to Recurrent—and we even can segment by those that we know are fleet vehicles that are only fast charged—we can’t see that in the data.” Buyers should also consider potential perks that carry over with the vehicle. Some used Teslas, for example, come with free unlimited charging that the next owner can use. Some software subscriptions also transfer. In general, Garberson says, used EVs can offer buyers significant value, including cars that were expensive initially. “People are amazed that they can drive off a lot with a BMW SUV that has 350 miles of range for the price of a RAV4,” he says. “We’re at an interesting moment in time. This is going to be kind of an exciting year with some of the affordable new models that are coming out. But there are also going to be a lot of people trading in, and that’s going to put a lot of really nice used EVs on the market.” View the full article

Google's Mueller answers whether links pass negative signals and says unhelpful links may be ignored. The post Google Answers If Outbound Links Pass “Poor Signals” appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Ever find yourself behind the wheel watching all the other cars go by and think to yourself, “Man, I’m a much better driver than all these clowns on the road?” It’s a funny thing about this question. Pretty much everyone reading this is likely to say “yes.” It seems we all think we’re better drivers than the next guy. In a landmark 1981 study, psychologist Ola Svenson asked people in the U.S. and Sweden to rate their driving skills compared to the average person. The results? Around 80–93% rated themselves “above” average—statistically impossible—with an eye-popping 93% in the American sample doing so. Psychologists call this “illusory superiority,” the human tendency to think we are better than average at pretty much everything. We think we are smarter, kinder, more generous and even funnier than other people. And it turns out, this unbecoming bias sneaks right into how positively we think we show up for the people we lead. Research shows that leaders who consistently act as a genuine positive force build deeper trust, stronger commitment, greater resilience, and higher team performance—yet most of us overestimate how effectively we do it. Which leads to a question worth pondering: Would you consider yourself above average as a positive force for the people you lead? If your answer was “yes” (and let’s be real—most leaders consider themselves exactly that), the research has a gentle but eye-opening reality check coming. The Ratio That Separates Thriving Teams from Struggling Ones Renowned psychologist John Gottman, who spent decades studying successful marriages at the University of Washington, discovered something remarkable: thriving couples maintain roughly five positive interactions for every negative one. He called this the “magic ratio.” In short, consistent positivity (appreciation, encouragement, humor, support) far outweighs criticism or conflict in building trust, resilience, and lasting connection. For example, a couple might have a tense disagreement (even a heated argument), but if they quickly follow it with affirming words like “I value your perspective,” a warm touch, or shared laughter, the relationship remains strong, healthy and enduring. And, as Gottman later found, the exact same dynamic plays out in leadership and teams: When leaders foster far more positive interactions than negative ones—even amid tough debates or feedback—the group builds trust, stays resilient, and performs at a higher level. But here’s the catch that makes this especially challenging for leaders: the math is stacked against us from the start. Researcher Roy Baumeister’s work on negativity bias shows that negative experiences and feedback land four times harder on humans than positive ones of similar magnitude. If you wonder why, it’s because our brains were wired this way in our evolutionary past—to ensure threats got priority attention and helped our species survive. As leaders, this means every difficult conversation, performance critique, or unpopular decision lands with amplified force—easily overwhelming praise or encouragement unless we intentionally counterbalance it. And this imbalance explains why maintaining a high positivity ratio doesn’t happen by default. Instead, it requires deliberate, daily leadership practice rooted in genuine intention and sustained effort. And what’s the reward for this vigilance? Positive psychologist Barbara Fredrickson’s research shows that people who experience consistent positivity become more creative, resilient, collaborative, and better at solving complex problems. At the same time, negative workplaces do the opposite—they narrow focus, heighten defensiveness, and limit innovative thinking. In other words, positivity from leaders doesn’t just make people feel good—it expands what their brains can do, leading to greater creativity, collaboration, and performance. Neuroscience sharpens this point: chronic exposure to negative leadership—criticism, unpredictability, fear—elevates cortisol levels in measurable ways. Sustained high cortisol undermines focus and clear thinking. In other words, leaders who lean heavily negative (sadly, there are many) don’t just demoralize people—they biologically constrain what their teams can accomplish. These findings are part of the research foundation behind my book, The Power of Employee Well-Being. One of the central conclusions is simple but powerful: leaders shape the emotional climate their teams experience every day—and that climate (positive or negative) quietly determines how well people think, collaborate, and perform. What Being a Positive Force Actually Looks Like Contrary to what may be commonly assumed, being a positive force has nothing to do with being relentlessly cheerful, avoiding hard conversations or sugarcoating reality. The truth is leaders like this are mythical—and wouldn’t survive long in business were they real. Instead, leaning into positivity means being solutions-oriented rather than problem- or fault-obsessed. It means being genuinely curious about your people—truly interested in what matters to them—and consistently showing it. This shows up through encouragement, kindness, and the psychological and emotional safety that lets employees bring problems to you early, before they become crises. It also means actively looking for what’s working and praising it—rejecting the outdated belief that too much praise spoils motivation—more often than focusing on what isn’t. The behaviors that sustain the 5:1 ratio are deceptively simple. Showing genuine interest in your people. Expressing appreciation specifically and sincerely. Listening attentively rather than waiting to respond. Beginning team meetings by celebrating wins before tackling challenges. Asking “how are you—and how are you really?” and meaning it. Gottman found these same behaviors to be the glue that sustains marriages over decades. They work the same way between leaders and the people they lead—and over time they determine whether teams merely function or truly thrive. The Blind Spot You Need to Close Here is the uncomfortable truth that brings us back to where we started. In study after study, leaders rate themselves significantly more positive, approachable, and encouraging than their direct reports rate them. And, sadly, that gap is wide. Illusory superiority convinces most of us that other leaders need to improve their positivity—not themselves—a belief that keeps many from even trying. To that I say, your people already know if you are a positive influence in their lives. The only question is whether you do. So, go find out. Ask your team—genuinely and not performatively—how positive a force you are for them. Ask your most trusted colleagues, your peers and even your boss. If the news isn’t ideal, listen without defending. Then go use the feedback to change your presence and influence. Being a positive force is not a personality trait or a one-time fix—it is a daily leadership discipline that shapes the emotional climate your team breathes every day. Choose it intentionally, and you don’t just improve performance; you help people become more of who they’re capable of being and elevate their well-being. As I often say (and one of my core mantras): “The most powerful thing a leader can do is make people feel better about themselves when they leave your presence than when they arrived.” View the full article

For decades, the millions of American women who dye their hair had two options: They could spend three hours and upwards of $300 in a salon or grab a $10 box off the drugstore shelf, squint at the ingredient list, and hope for the best. There was no middle ground. Amy Errett thought that was absurd. “There was no prestige product that a woman could buy for at-home use,” the founder and CEO of hair color startup Madison Reed tells me. “Just because you color at home does not mean you can’t afford good color. That was, in my opinion, a very elitist viewpoint.” Errett established Madison Reed in 2013, right as the direct-to-consumer wave was cresting. But while brands like Warby Parker and Dollar Shave Club were mostly rethinking distribution—taking existing product categories online and cutting out the middleman—Errett wanted to do something more fundamental. She wanted to reformulate hair color from the ground up, rethinking how it reaches consumers. The result is a company that is profitable and has raised approximately $250 million in venture capital. Across the U.S. Madison Reed operates 98 Hair Color Bars—which exclusively offer hair coloring services—and sells through Ulta, Amazon, and its own website. The brand is now poised to take market share from competitors that have been around decades longer, like L’Oreal, Schwarzkopf, and Wella. “A lot of the DTC models were picking off a very narrow aspect of something and trying to build a commerce brand,” says Jon Callaghan, cofounder and managing partner of True Ventures, which has backed Madison Reed since 2013, along with Norwest Venture Partners, Comcast Ventures, and Jay-Z’s Marcy Ventures. “Amy’s tackling something substantially larger—a fundamental activity in beauty and wellness that women do every four to six weeks.” Callaghan describes Madison Reed as a classic disruption story. “The industry was dominated by large incumbents, very low innovation, poor-quality product,” he says. “Amy sort of flipped the script on every aspect of that.” Anthropological research Madison Reed’s origin story begins with a woman and a bathroom. Errett, a serial entrepreneur and former venture capitalist, recorded about 50 women at home doing their hair with drugstore box dye and observed them. The experience left a lot to be desired. The instructions were unreadable. The smell was off-putting. The shade ranges—often only eight or so colors—bore no resemblance to the complexity of actual human hair. “Dark hair has a multitude of colors,” Errett says. Her first breakthrough was upending the product itself. Errett set out to reformulate home hair color without ammonia and other harsh chemicals that were standard across the category. Madison Reed’s boxes, which retail for $35, contain hair dye made in Italy using a production process the company controls end-to-end. Today, the brand offers roughly 90 shades of color, 55 of which are available to consumers as permanent color. The second breakthrough was matching the right color to the customer. Half of American women color their hair at home, Errett points out, but the fundamental challenge of the at-home market is that you can’t see the customer. “There’s a lot of science in hair color,” she says. “I have to know what her natural color is, how gray is she, the texture of her hair.” From the beginning, Madison Reed developed AI to bridge that gap. Customers answer an 18-question quiz, then the system recommends two shades most likely to suit them. The process is working. The company now has roughly 17 million profiles, which gather data points about the color and texture of consumers’ hair. Customer retention rates, Errett says, run at 70% and above, which matters enormously in a business predicated entirely on repeat usage. “If I don’t get you to come back, this doesn’t work,” she says. Errett had always suspected that many women dyed their hair in salons not out of preference, but because there wasn’t a high-quality at-home hair dye they trusted. But when COVID-19 hit and the world shut down, many women scrambled for an alternative. Madison Reed offered a solution. The brand touted its high-quality, less-toxic ingredients. And the boxes provided everything needed to do the job at home, from plastic gloves to wipes. Madison Reed received an influx of new customers during the pandemic. For many, it was a revelation that they could have an enjoyable experience doing their hair at home—at a fraction of the cost and time of a salon visit. Many never went back. A multichannel business The DIY customer is only part of the market. Many women prefer to have someone else dye their hair, and Errett wanted to make sure Madison Reed was serving them, too. Shortly after launching the at-home color part of the business, Errett debuted a new concept called a Hair Color Bar. Optimized for speed, these salons specialize in color only (no haircuts), so customers are in and out as quickly as possible. Most women don’t even opt for a blowout; they dry their hair when they get home or use hair dryers provided in the salon. Before COVID, there were just eight of these locations. But after the pandemic, Errett invested in growing the network of storefronts exponentially. “There was a pent-up demand to get out of your house and go into a store,” she says. What makes Madison Reed unusual is what Errett calls the “blurring of lines” between channels, which gives women the flexibility to dye their hair in many different ways, depending on their lifestyle and schedule, all while achieving consistent results. The company assumes that women may choose to pop into a salon sometimes, and use an at-home box at other times. Every color applied in a Hair Color Bar is logged in the company’s backend system and linked to an email address. A customer can walk into any of the brand’s locations and get the exact color that was applied at a different bar previously. She can go online and order that same box delivered to her door. “She owns that color,” Errett says. “It’s hers. She can do it wherever she wants, whenever she wants.” The company also sells products through big-box retailers, which is another way to offer convenience for customers—and an opportunity for the brand to continually introduce itself to new consumers. While the conventional wisdom is that a brand’s sales may cannibalize those of third-party retail partners, Errett has found that the opposite is true. In markets where Madison Reed has more than two locations, nearby retail sales at partners like Ulta run 20% to 30% higher out of brand recognition. “You walk by the [Madison Reed] store at the Oakbrook Mall in Chicago, you see it’s full, then you pop into Ulta eight stores down and you see Madison Reed on the shelf,” Errett says, noting the effect is, “‘Oh, I recognize that. That must be good.’” The Hair Color Bars function, in Errett’s framing, as permanent billboards: 98 stores, 1.3 million services expected this year, all generating awareness that no marketing budget can replicate. Running three businesses simultaneously—direct-to-consumer subscriptions, nearly 100 physical service locations, and a wholesale presence at major retailers—is, Errett acknowledges, operationally brutal. “You’re running three completely different businesses,” she says. But the hero of all three is the same product, which is what makes the model defensible rather than just complicated. Thriving in the trade-down economy The current economic moment has turned out to be well-suited to what Madison Reed sells. Consumer confidence is shaky. People feel the pinch of inflation. Many consumers, even those who are affluent, are eager to stretch their budget. A $300 salon appointment can feel hard to justify when a $35 box—or a $45 Hair Color Bar visit—delivers comparable results. “People want quality, but they want value,” Errett says. “They’re not trading going out to dinner all the time to McDonald’s. They may not be going to the five-star restaurant, but they still want a great meal.” (She notes that the household income of Madison Reed’s Hair Color Bar customers averages $150,000 and above; in some markets, it’s closer to $175,000.) It’s a profile that maps closely to what retail analysts have watched unfold across other categories: Walmart’s stunning turnaround among middle- and upper-middle-class shoppers, Ulta’s resilience, the durability of TJ Maxx. The brands winning right now aren’t the ones promising pure luxury or pure value; they’re the ones that have found the gap between the two. Madison Reed has real estate studies suggesting it could support 700 to 800 Hair Color Bars in the U.S. alone. It’s currently only in 15 markets, so it has a lot of room for growth. But Errett says she’s created a business where 72% of revenue is recurring, through a combination of membership plans to the Color Bars and subscriptions to the at-home product. Errett likes to think of her company as generating “SaaS-like revenue,” even though it’s a consumer business. When Errett describes the nature of the business to me—heavy physical assets, low obsolescence, a service too intimate to be automated—she also articulates something broader about what it takes to build a durable consumer brand right now: You need a product that solves a problem. You need to meet customers wherever they happen to be. And you need a reason for them to come back. “Hair is confidence,” Errett says. “It is a relatively inexpensive way to feel good about yourself.” In a moment when people are squirrelly about their dollars, that’s a powerful thing to be selling. View the full article

Jumbo loans demand more scrutiny and documentation, but automation is streamlining the process — and lenders who master the product stand to gain in a moderately bullish market. View the full article

Industry group warns EU that reserves are running lowView the full article

With most of New York City surrounded by water, climate change poses a grave threat to its infrastructure, as devastating storm surges and coastal flooding have shown. Inland blocks are in danger, too. Researchers at the New York Botanical Garden have created a new interactive map of the city showing the areas most at risk of flooding. They’re calling them “Blue Zones,” places where water is, used to be, or will be due to climate change. More than one-fifth of the city is in a Blue Zone, according to a paper published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. “Everybody was startled, including us,” Eric Sanderson, vice president of urban conservation at the New York Botanical Garden and an author of the paper, told The City. nybg.org The hope is that this information will help city officials, planners, and residents better prepare for the effects of climate change. While resiliency infrastructure has hardened the coastline, some of the most disruptive and deadly floods have happened in inland areas where aging infrastructure isn’t able to handle heavy rainfall. To identify the Blue Zones, researchers studied more than 500 years’ worth of flood data and integrated intel from 311 service calls and flood maps from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Critically, they also examined maps of the city’s natural hydrology. Even though urbanization paved over ponds, streams, and salt marshes, these geographic elements continue to influence flooding today. nybg.org “Understanding the historical ecology—particularly the geographic distribution of streams and wetlands prior to the construction of the city—can help reframe the way we see the current urban landscape, promote ideas about how we adapt to current realities, and prepare for future contingencies,” the researchers wrote in their paper. Some areas identified as Blue Zones may seem surprising, especially those that are far away from visible bodies of water. “It shows how large scale this is and it lets you look at the city as a landscape,” Lucinda Royte, manager of urban conservation, data tools, and outreach at the New York Botanical Garden and coauthor of the paper, told The City. “We currently view the city through its political boundaries. We care about neighborhoods and zip codes, but water doesn’t care about those boundaries.” View the full article

A Chart of Accounts setup is crucial for any business, as it organizes all financial accounts in a structured manner. By categorizing accounts into assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, and expenses, you create a framework that allows for efficient tracking of transactions. Each category is assigned specific numerical codes, which aids in accurate reporting and analysis. Comprehending how to properly establish and maintain your Chart of Accounts can greatly impact your financial management practices. What are the key components you should consider? Key Takeaways A Chart of Accounts (COA) is a systematic list of financial account titles organized into categories: assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses. Each account in the COA is assigned a unique numerical code for easy identification and retrieval, facilitating effective transaction recording. The structure includes main categories with sub-accounts for detailed tracking tailored to specific business needs and financial reporting. Regular updates and reviews of the COA ensure it remains relevant, effective, and aligned with evolving business requirements and compliance standards. Accounting software can simplify COA setup, offering templates and tools for organization, automation, and collaboration in real-time. Understanding Chart of Accounts The chart of accounts (COA) serves as the backbone of an organization’s financial reporting system, providing a structured framework for categorizing all financial transactions. Fundamentally, the chart of accounts definition refers to a systematic list of all financial account titles used in your general ledger. This list is categorized into five primary sections: assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, and expenses. Each account in the COA is assigned a unique numerical code, often following a structured numbering system, which simplifies classification and retrieval. This structure not only improves clarity in financial reporting but also supports budgeting and forecasting. By using a well-structured COA customized to your organization’s specific needs, you can guarantee effective transaction recording and gain detailed insights into your financial performance over various periods. In the end, a well-organized COA is vital for maintaining accurate records and complying with accounting standards. Key Components of a Chart of Accounts Comprehending the structure of a chart of accounts is critical for effective financial management. A typical chart of accounts setup includes five main account categories: Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Revenue, and Expenses. Each account is assigned a unique numerical code, often following a specific chart of accounts format—for example, 100-199 for assets and 200-299 for liabilities. This coding system facilitates easy identification and retrieval of accounts. Additionally, you can create sub-accounts under main categories to provide more detail and organization, allowing you to track specific transactions by business function or division. During the setup process, it’s crucial to take into account your business’s operational needs, ensuring the chart accommodates future growth and financial reporting changes. Regular reviews and updates to the chart are critical, as they maintain its relevance and effectiveness in accurately reflecting your company’s financial activities. Importance of a Well-Structured COA A well-structured chart of accounts (COA) improves financial clarity by organizing transactions into distinct categories, which makes it easier for you to track your financial performance. This organization supports accurate reporting, ensuring compliance with accounting standards and providing stakeholders with reliable insights into the company’s health. Furthermore, a properly set up COA facilitates efficient analysis, allowing you to make informed decisions and improve operational efficiency. Enhances Financial Clarity When you implement a well-structured Chart of Accounts (COA), it greatly improves financial clarity for your business. A clear COA systematically categorizes financial transactions, making it easier to analyze data. Here are four key benefits: Organized Structure: By grouping accounts into assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses, you create a thorough framework for financial analysis. Performance Tracking: A clear COA supports budgeting and forecasting, allowing you to identify cost control areas. Quick Identification: A numeric coding system boosts the retrieval of financial information, streamlining reporting processes. Ongoing Relevance: Regular updates to the COA guarantee it remains aligned with your operations, preventing confusion in financial reporting. Supports Accurate Reporting Accurate reporting is vital for any business, and a well-structured Chart of Accounts (COA) plays an important role in achieving this goal. A well-organized chart of accounts list categorizes financial transactions into specific accounts, enhancing clarity in reporting. By systematically classifying assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, and expenses, the COA allows for detailed financial analysis, which is critical for informed decision-making. Furthermore, a properly configured COA supports compliance with accounting standards, guaranteeing consistency across reporting periods. It likewise aids in budgeting and forecasting, helping you pinpoint areas for cost control and operational improvements. Regular reviews and updates confirm the COA remains aligned with your evolving business needs, thereby maintaining the accuracy and relevance of your financial reports. Facilitates Efficient Analysis Even though you might think of a Chart of Accounts (COA) as just a list of account names, its role in facilitating efficient financial analysis is far more significant. A well-structured COA improves your comprehension of business performance by: Categorizing transactions for clear visibility into revenue, expenses, and assets. Enabling accurate budget forecasting and variance analysis to identify trends. Streamlining reporting through standardized account codes for quick access to financial info. Supporting compliance with accounting regulations, reducing misstatement risks. Categories Within the Chart of Accounts Grasping the categories within the chart of accounts (COA) is essential for effective financial management, as they provide a structured way to organize a business’s financial data. The COA consists of five primary categories: Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Revenue, and Expenses. Assets represent resources like cash and inventory, classified as current or non-current based on liquidity. Liabilities include obligations to external parties, such as loans and accounts payable, categorized into current and long-term liabilities. Equity reflects the owner’s interest in the business, including common stock and retained earnings. Revenue accounts track income from business operations, whereas chart of accounts expense categories record costs incurred to generate that revenue. Comprehending these categories helps you assess financial performance and make informed decisions, ensuring your business remains financially healthy and organized. Setting Up Your Chart of Accounts Setting up your chart of accounts starts with establishing clear account naming conventions that reflect the nature of each account. You’ll need a numerical coding system, typically five digits, to categorize accounts effectively, ensuring each code indicates its primary category. Organizing your accounts into main categories like Assets and Liabilities, along with thoughtful subcategories, will improve your financial tracking and reporting. Account Naming Conventions When you’re establishing your chart of accounts, having clear and consistent account naming conventions is crucial for effective financial management. Prioritizing clarity and simplicity helps everyone understand the purpose of each account, especially those without accounting backgrounds. Here are some key points to take into account: Use prefixes or common abbreviations (e.g., “Rev” for revenue, “Exp” for expenses) to improve organization. Maintain consistency in naming across the chart of accounts; similar accounts should follow the same structure. Avoid overly complex or lengthy names; concise, descriptive names maintain clarity. Periodically review and update account names to reflect changes in business operations or industry standards. Implementing these strategies will streamline your chart of accounts numbering and enhance financial reporting. Numerical Coding System A well-structured numerical coding system is fundamental for organizing your chart of accounts effectively. This system typically assigns a range of numbers to categorize accounts, with assets coded from 100-199, liabilities from 200-299, equity from 300-399, revenues from 400-499, and expenses from 500-599. Each account receives a unique identifier, facilitating easy organization and retrieval of financial data. The first digit indicates the main category, whereas subsequent digits can represent subcategories or specific accounts, thereby creating a hierarchical structure. Gaps between account numbers are often left intentionally for future additions. When setting up your chart of accounts, verify the coding aligns with your company’s operations and reporting needs, aiding both internal management and external compliance. Organizing Account Categories Organizing account categories is crucial for an efficient chart of accounts, as it improves clarity and structure in financial reporting. To effectively set up a chart of accounts for a business firm, consider these key categories: Assets: Items owned by the business. Liabilities: Obligations owed to others. Equity: Owner’s interest in the business. Revenue and Expenses: Income generated and costs incurred. Assign unique numerical codes to each account, starting with a digit representing its category. Create sub-accounts for detailed tracking, like operational expenses for salaries, rent, and utilities. Tailor the chart to your firm’s specific needs and review it regularly to make sure it remains relevant and effective for accurate financial analysis. Common Challenges in COA Management Managing a chart of accounts (COA) presents several common challenges that can considerably impact financial accuracy and reporting. One major issue is overcomplication, which can lead to data entry errors and hinder staff from accurately recording transactions. Furthermore, a lack of standardization in account naming and structure can create reconciliation problems, resulting in discrepancies that affect financial analysis. Duplicate categories further complicate your ability to compare financial data effectively, making it tough to assess business performance. Misalignment of the chart of accounts with your financial reports can lead to compliance issues, as inaccurate classifications may violate accounting standards or tax regulations. Regular maintenance is crucial to avoid clutter and inconsistencies, ensuring your chart of accounts accurately reflects the current state of the business and supports necessary financial reporting needs. Addressing these challenges proactively can help streamline your financial processes and improve overall accuracy. Best Practices for Maintaining a COA To maintain an effective chart of accounts (COA), you should regularly update it, ideally at least once a year, to guarantee it aligns with your current business operations. Simplifying account structures by using standardized naming conventions can improve consistency and make navigation easier for users. Regular Updates Required Regular updates to your chart of accounts (COA) are crucial for accurately reflecting the financial status of your organization, especially as business operations evolve. To maintain a relevant and effective table of accounts, consider these best practices: Perform periodic reviews—ideally quarterly or annually—to assess the COA’s effectiveness. Maintain consistency in account naming conventions and structures to improve clarity in financial reporting. Incorporate feedback from team members and stakeholders during reviews to identify potential improvements or new account needs. Utilize accounting software to automate updates, ensuring that changes are efficiently implemented and the COA remains organized. Simplify Account Structures When simplifying account structures, it’s essential to create account names that are clear and concise, as this helps minimize confusion during data entry and analysis. Establish a logical numbering system for your standard chart of accounts, categorizing accounts by type—like using 1 for assets and 2 for liabilities. This approach allows for future additions without disrupting the existing structure. Regularly review your chart of accounts to eliminate obsolete accounts and consolidate similar ones, maintaining relevance. Implementing sub-accounts can help categorize detailed transactions without complicating main categories. Furthermore, utilizing accounting software streamlines management, offering automation, real-time updates, and improved insights into financial performance, making your system more efficient and organized. Examples of Chart of Accounts Comprehending the examples of a chart of accounts is essential for effective financial management, as it provides a structured framework for organizing a business’s financial information. A well-structured chart includes various categories, each with specific examples. Here are some common examples of chart of accounts: Asset Accounts: Cash (101) Accounts Receivable (102) Inventory (103) Liability Accounts: Accounts Payable (201) Short-Term Loans (202) Revenue Accounts: Sales Revenue (401) Service Income (402) Expense Accounts: Rent Expense (501) Salaries Expense (502) Advertising Expense (503) These examples of chart of accounts help you categorize and track your business’s financial activities, ensuring accurate reporting and analysis. Impact of COA on Financial Reporting The impact of a well-structured Chart of Accounts (COA) on financial reporting is significant, as it lays the groundwork for accurate and clear financial statements. A properly organized accounting chart of accounts categorizes transactions into distinct accounts, minimizing misclassifications that could distort your financial data. This structure not just aids in compliance with accounting standards but furthermore guarantees consistent recording of all transactions, making it simpler to generate compliant reports for stakeholders. Tools and Resources for Effective COA Management A well-organized Chart of Accounts (COA) is only as effective as the tools and resources used to manage it. To learn how to make a chart of accounts that meets your needs, consider the following resources: Accounting Software: Programs like QuickBooks and Xero offer built-in templates, simplifying COA setup and ensuring compliance with standards. Online Guidelines: The U.S. Small Business Administration provides useful examples to help you tailor your COA to your business operations. Educational Platforms: Websites like AccountingCoach offer materials and quizzes to deepen your comprehension of COA principles. Cloud Solutions: Using cloud-based accounting allows for real-time updates and collaboration, ensuring your COA remains organized and accurate. Additionally, regular training for your staff on COA usage can improve data entry accuracy and support better financial reporting, eventually leading to enhanced compliance and decision-making. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Chart of Accounts Setup? A chart of accounts setup is a structured list of financial accounts that categorizes your business’s financial transactions. You’ll use unique numerical codes to identify assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses clearly. By organizing accounts systematically, you guarantee easy tracking and reporting. It’s essential to establish a logical hierarchy, making it simpler to analyze financial data. Regularly review and update your accounts to adapt to your business’s evolving needs and maintain accuracy in reporting. What Is a Chart of Accounts in Simple Terms? A chart of accounts (COA) is fundamentally an organized list that categorizes your company’s financial accounts. You’ll find accounts grouped into assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses. Each account gets a unique alphanumeric code, making it easy for you to track transactions. The structure of the COA aligns with your financial statements, providing clarity in reporting and aiding in budgeting. A well-structured COA is vital for effective financial management and compliance. What Does the Chart of Accounts Structure Set? The chart of accounts structure sets a systematic framework for organizing financial transactions by categorizing them into five main areas: Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Revenue, and Expenses. Each category has a unique numerical code for easy identification and organization. Subcategories further refine these accounts, aiding clarity in financial reporting. This structure not merely aligns with financial statements but additionally improves compliance, tracking, and informed decision-making, ensuring a thorough overview of your financial environment. What Are the 5 Levels of the Chart of Accounts? The five levels of a chart of accounts include assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses. Assets, numbered 100-199, represent resources you own. Liabilities, ranging from 200-299, are your obligations to others. Equity accounts, assigned numbers 300-399, show your ownership interest. Revenue, falling between 400-499, tracks income from operations, whereas expenses, coded 600-699, record costs incurred. Each level provides a structured way to organize and analyze your financial transactions effectively. Conclusion To conclude, a well-structured Chart of Accounts is crucial for effective financial management. By categorizing accounts into assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, and expenses, you improve your ability to track transactions and generate precise reports. Establishing a COA requires careful planning and adherence to best practices, ensuring it meets your business needs. Regular maintenance and utilizing appropriate tools can further streamline the process, in the end supporting informed decision-making and compliance with accounting standards. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Is a Chart of Accounts Setup?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article