The Ultimate Guide To Playing Cards With A Group

by Nasr-Eddine VerhaeghGames

If you’re looking for a fun and easy way to entertain a group of friends, look no further than a classic game of cards. Playing cards with a group is a great way to socialize and have some friendly competition, and there are a variety of games you can play to keep things interesting. Here is a guide to some of the best card games to play with a group.

Spoons

Spoons is a fast-paced and energetic card game that is perfect for a group of friends. The object of the game is to collect four of a kind in your hand, and then grab a spoon from the center of the table before anyone else. The player who doesn’t get a spoon is out, and the last player standing is the winner.

War

War is a simple card game that can be played with any number of people. The object of the game is to win all of the cards, and it is played by dealing out all of the cards evenly to the players, and then flipping over the top card of each player’s pile. The player with the highest card takes all of the cards and puts them at the bottom of their pile, and the process is repeated until one player has all of the cards.

Go Fish

Go Fish is a classic card game that can be played with two or more players. The object of the game is to collect as many sets of four cards as possible. The game is played by dealing out seven cards to each player, and then the player whose turn it is asks another player for a specific card. If the player has the card, they must give it to the asker, if not, the asker must “go fish” and draw a card from the deck. The game continues until one player has no cards left, and the player with the most sets of four wins.

Crazy Eights

Crazy Eights is a fun and fast-paced card game that can be played with two or more people. The object of the game is to get rid of all of the cards in your hand. The game is played by dealing out seven cards to each player, and then the player whose turn it is plays a card. The next player must then play a card that is the same suit or rank as the first card. If the player cannot do so, they must draw a card from the deck. The game continues until one player has no cards left, and the player with the least amount of cards is the winner.

Solitaire

Solitaire is a classic card game that can be played by one person. The object of the game is to clear all of the cards from the board. The game is played by dealing out a hand of cards, and then the player must choose a card and place it on the board. The player must then choose another card and place it on top of the first card, and so on. The game is won when all of the cards are cleared from the board.

Playing cards with a group of friends is a great way to socialize and have some friendly competition. There are a variety of games you can play to keep things interesting, and the guide above will help you choose the perfect game for your group. So grab some friends, some cards, and get ready to have some fun!

Entrepreneurs: How to Minimize Marketing Spend Online

by PATRICIA HolmesBusiness

Are you a young entrepreneur going into business for the first time? If there’s anything you don’t have a lot of at the outset, it’s money. In terms of cash flow, 28% of small businesses that go bankrupt have big problems with their financial structure. There are a multitude of expenses, from product development, to finding and leasing a quality brick-and-mortar location, to hiring and training staff, to paying consultants and accountants—the list goes on.

Thankfully, many of your first-time expenses are tax deductible. You can deduct up to $5,000 in your first year of doing business. After that, deduct your remaining expenses in installments over a period of 5 years.

Things like property, vehicles, and inventory aren’t expenses—they’re capital expenditures. Over time, you can write off the cost of tangible items through depreciation. But that doesn’t make up for the fact that you have to invest money in capital expenditures at the beginning. The same applies for expenses; you could spend well over $5,000 at the beginning. With both capital expenditures and expenses, you have a year during which you’re on your own, and you may not see any return on investment (ROI) unless you do some high quality marketing.

That’s where this guide comes in. If you lower your marketing spend, you may be able to write off all of your marketing expenses in the first year. A great place to start is right here, on the internet.

Understand Google and Internet Advertising

If you’re planning on drawing in customers, invest in a website. There will be costs, such as web hosting fees. If you want to minimize your overall spend, check out a free course on how to make a website. You can DIY and achieve awesome results. It’s purely a matter of how much time and effort you put into your site.

Once you have a site, consider the matter of making yourself visible online. There are several ways of going about this, but let me just get straight to the reality of the situation: You can spend plenty of money on advertising, but not achieve any results. When it comes to display ads, publishers and advertisers have to cope with the fact that over 200 million people use ad-blockers. You are 475 times more likely to survive a plane crash than click a display ad, and 33% of people find ads “intolerable”.

As a first-time entrepreneur, you’re nowhere near the point where you’re a publisher who can prompt people to whitelist you on their ad-blocker extension. The best, and most inexpensive way for you to gain visibility online is to rank as high as you can in Google.

There are two ways to do this. You can buy AdWords, meaning that if you pay Google for certain keywords related to your business, you’ll show up at the top of the page when someone enters that particular search phrase. The unfortunate thing about AdWords is that if someone clicks on your ad, but doesn’t buy anything, you still pay for that click. Also, if you’re looking to compete on a national level, the competition for your keywords will be incredibly fierce unless your product is so niche nobody else is selling it. Fierce competition equals expensive keywords.

The second way to rank in Google is the organic way, otherwise known as content marketing. Organic can also be the least expensive. Start a blog on your website and create informative content related to your product or service. Put the keywords you want to rank for in your posts, but don’t overdo it. Make sure the meta structure of your site is also in good shape. Send clear signals about what you want to rank for. Next, guest post on high authority blogs and create backlinks to your content. Particularly since you’re the business owner, many different sites will want to hear from you.

This is all part of the complex and competitive world of SEO. Before you undertake this, make sure you know exactly what the deal is with Google and links. Some links to your site can be negative, some can be great. You want good links to your site, and you want internal links between your pages, ultimately funneling the user to product pages where they can make purchases. The only way they’re going buy anything is if you’ve convinced them along the way.

Understand Social Media Marketing

Social media is a great tool for valuable, inexpensive marketing. You’ve probably seen plenty of it during your personal time on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and any other social media sites you might use. There are entire websites devoted to the topic of social media marketing; it’s an art, just as content marketing is to Google.

This is a huge subject so here’s a digestible, step-by-step intro:

  • et up your business page on Facebook, which is the social grandaddy
  • Decide on your Twitter handle, and start your business Twitter account
  • Sign up with one or two other platforms on which you’d really like to see some engagement; i.e. you’re appealing to a young audience, and they’re all over Instagram and Snapchat
  • On your website, provide social media buttons for sharing content and liking your company
  • Consult these four social media rules for businesses:
  1. Along with promotional content, provide valuable information related to your niche
  2. Pay attention to your brand message by using the right words, images, and other media
  3. Post at good times; e.g. Facebook users prefer 1-4pm, Google+ users 9-11am
  4. Create conversations that evoke emotions
  • Pay attention to video marketing trends and take advantage of them; people love video—about 65% of viewers will visit your website after watching your video
  • There are so many great free tools you can use for social media marketing; even just looking at these will help give you an idea of all the different things you can do
  • Respond to your audience as quickly as possible when they reach out to you

Overall, your reach on social media can be huge and you can get started on most networks for free. Link up your content marketing efforts with your social media efforts. Think about who your customers are and what type of customers you want, then design your marketing messages accordingly. Put your heart into this, and you’ll get great results for a very small investment.