A Sign Of Omega-3 Deficiency In The Eyes

Omega-3 fatty acids in the diet can prevent this serious disorder.

Problems with vision can be a sign of omega-3 deficiency, research suggests.

Age-related macular degeneration disorder is an eye disease which is linked to omega-3 fatty acids deficiency.

Macular degeneration is a common medical condition, affecting a large group of the population at age 40 and older.

Deterioration of the macula, an area of the retina, can result in losing central vision but not complete blindness.

A review of nine studies on 90,000 people found that a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids was associated with a 38 percent reduction in the risk of age-related macular degeneration.

Omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats considered to be essential as our body cannot produce them and so they are obtained from the diet.

These type of fats are mostly found in oily fish (fatty fish) and have many health benefits, therefore they known as “good” fats.

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) are the main types of omega 3 fatty acids.

Fatty fish such as salmon, trout, herring, sardines, and fish oils, including cod liver oil, are high in EPA and DHA.

ALA is found in fats from plant foods such as nuts and seeds — walnuts and rapeseed are good sources of this nutrient.

Age-related macular degeneration is a leading cause of sight loss which affects about 3 million people in the U.S. and more than 600,000 people in the UK.

Early signs of macular degeneration includes fuzzy, blurry and impaired vision, difficulty reading or seeing details like recognising faces or watching television.

A study found that having one or more servings of fish per week reduced the risk of age-related macular degeneration by 42 percent.

The authors said:

“This lower risk appeared to be due primarily to consumption of canned tuna fish and dark-meat fish.”

Dark-meat fish in this study included salmon, sardines, bluefish, mackerel, and swordfish.

Knowing how dietary essential omega-3 fatty acids work can be useful in treating and prevention of different disorders.

It appears that DHA is the key since it generates signaling molecules called docosanoids where there is a disruption within cells due to a disease or an injury.

Docosanoids can protect neurons by controlling specific genes in the brain and retina and asking the genes how to respond.

Moreover, DHA from the liver is concentrated in photoreceptors, a type of cell in the retina that responds to light.

Retinal degeneration including macular degeneration occurs when photoreceptors cannot get enough DHA.

When a gene that controls the DHA uptake is turned off then photoreceptors die and mutation of an amino acid in these cells leads to a disorder of the eyes that causes loss of vision known as retinitis pigmentosa.

Two studies were published in Arch Ophthalmol (Chong et al., 2008); (Christen et al., 2011); the other study was published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry (Asatryan et al., 2017).

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10 Strategies to Mastering Social Media for Ecommerce

Social media has become an indispensable tool for businesses in today’s digital age. You need it to connect with your target audience, boost your brand’s visibility, and drive sales.

But most businesses and even beginner marketers don’t fully understand how to use social media for ecommerce.

If you’re one of them, we’ve got you covered.

Whether you’re new to social media or looking to enhance your existing social media strategy for ecommerce, this blog is here to help.

We’ve compiled ten effective social media ecommerce strategies that can propel your brand to new heights. So, grab your favorite snack, sit back, and get ready to unlock the potential of social media for your ecommerce business.

Let’s get started!

What is Ecommerce Social Media Marketing?

Ecommerce social media marketing refers to the strategic use of social media platforms to promote, sell, engage, and support customers in the context of ecommerce.

Some of the most common ways brands use social media for ecommerce marketing include:

  • Setting up online shops and selling products directly on social platforms (this is known as social commerce)
  • Promoting brands on social media accounts and driving traffic to online stores (ecommerce websites)
  • Replying to customer queries and engaging with potential customers to build trust
  • Offering customer support before and after sales
  • Using customer insights and data to revamp marketing strategies

But why do brands do all of this? What’s the benefit of having a social media presence? Let’s try to understand.

What Are the Benefits of Using Social Media for Ecommerce?

Social media is a game-changer for ecommerce businesses, offering a wide array of benefits, such as:

  1. Increasing Website Traffic & Generating Leads
  2. To Build Brand Awareness
  3. Building Customer Loyalty & Trust
  4. Acquiring New Customers
  5. Creating Opportunities for User-Generated Content (UGC)
  6. Improving Customer Service
  7. Engaging with Target Audiences in Real-Time
  8. Enhancing SEO Efforts & Search Rankings

Fact: Did you know that online stores leveraging social media networks drive 32% more sales than those that don’t? (WPForms)

This stat alone should get you excited about crafting an effective social media strategy for your ecommerce business!

So, now that you know what ecommerce social media marketing is and the benefits it offers let’s look at how to use it.

10 Powerful Social Media Ecommerce Strategies

Here are ten powerful social media ecommerce strategies you can employ to drive sales for your brand:

1. Set Clear Goals

Setting clear and measurable goals should be the first step in your social media ecommerce strategy. Goals will provide you with direction, help measure success, and hold you accountable.

But what kind of goals should you set?

The most common ones can be:

  • Drive Sales on Your Social Profile
  • Drive Traffic to Your Ecommerce Store
  • Get More Customer Queries/Leads

Other than these, you might want people to subscribe to your newsletter or…

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Ecwid Review – What Makes Ecwid Great and Where Ecwid Falls Short

If you’re looking for a lightweight ecommerce solution you can add to just about any existing website, Ecwid is a smart choice. You can get set up and selling in just a few minutes for a very reasonable price, but it lacks some of the depth of customization that other ecommerce platforms offer.

Keep reading to learn who Ecwid is best for, what it’s good at, where it’s lacking, and how its features stack up against its biggest competitors.

Ecwid logo for Quick Sprout Ecwid review. Ecwid logo for Quick Sprout Ecwid review.

Who Ecwid Is For

Ecwid is an ideal ecommerce solution for sellers who are looking for an easy way to add shopping functionality to an existing website. It’s also great if you want to keep your website and store separate so you can move or make changes to one without affecting the other.

Either way, this platform works best if you already have a website on WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or just about any other site building platform.

Overall, Ecwid provides a seamless way to get quickly list products and make sales using the digital properties you already own. Whether you’re dropshipping trendy goods, selling digital downloads, pushing your products on Instagram or TikTok, or offering a subscription-based service, Ecwid gives you a easy path to multichannel ecommerce.

However, if you’re a larger shop with more intricate, complex needs or you want an ecommerce site builder with deep customization options, Ecwid probably isn’t the ticket for you.

Our favorite alternatives for ecommerce site builders and platforms that are made for serious scaling include:

  • Shopify – Best all-around ecommerce platform
  • Wix – Best for stores with fewer than 100 products
  • BigCommerce – Best for large inventories

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How to Find the Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

How to Find the Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

I screwed up my face Sunday morning. While trimming my beard, I took off the spacer to clean it and forgot to put it back. The bathroom mirror revealed irreparable damage. So, I trimmed the whole thing down to the skin.

When my wife saw it, she said, “What happened?” Her tone discomforted me. I’ve had a beard since my 20’s. One day long ago, I shaved it off. My wife’s first words back then, “Grow it back.” I like a woman who knows what she likes. And she likes my beard. So, I like my beard.

I forgot about my deformed visage after a few hours.

Self-forgetfulness is freedom.

Self-forgetfulness is freedom. Image of a person looking in a small mirror.Self-forgetfulness is freedom. Image of a person looking in a small mirror.

Damage of self-consciousness:

Self-consciousness is slavery to anxiety. Your inner critic takes the tone of imagined criticisms from others. “They’re staring at you. They think you’re ugly.”

Imagined criticism from others transforms into damaging self-criticism. You imagine others think you’re ugly. So, you tell yourself, “I’m ugly.”

Self-consciousness is the end of authenticity. You’re not yourself when fear amplifies the imagined voice of others.

Image of a warning sign, Image of a warning sign,

How to find the freedom of self-forgetfulness:

#1. Develop yourself.

There are four stages of competence.

  1. Unconscious incompetence.
  2. Conscious incompetence.
  3. Conscious competence.
  4. Unconscious competence.

Incompetence forces you to focus on yourself. When you learned to drive a car, you went through all four stages. Now you don’t even think about yourself while you drive.

#2. Limit yourself.

People pleasers never develop self-forgetfulness. Don’t assume a power you don’t possess.  

You do a few things well and many poorly. Focus on what you do well and let everything else go.

Mother duck watching over ducklings. Gently shift your attention to something bigger than yourself.Mother duck watching over ducklings. Gently shift your attention to something bigger than yourself.

#3. Turn outward.

You forget yourself when you get lost in something outside yourself. Sometimes it’s healthy. Other times it’s destructive. Workaholics forget themselves, for example.

Bring advantage to others.

Turn toward something bigger than yourself. If it’s bigger than yourself, it requires self-forgetfulness.

How does self-consciousness hold people back?

How have you developed self-forgetfulness?

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45,000 Suicides Every Year: The Sad Cause Which is On The Rise

One in five suicides around the world is caused by this and the figure is rising.

Unemployment is linked to 45,000 suicides around the world each year, a new study finds.

This represents around one in five of the total number of global suicides.

The research, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, gathered data from 63 countries between 2000 and 2011 (Nordt et al., 2015).

They found that the risk of suicide due to unemployment had risen between 20 and 30 per cent across all regions of the world.

Also, since the period included the start of the recession in 2008, they were able to look at its effect.

Dr. Carlos Nordt, who led the study, said:

“After the crisis year in 2008, the number of suicides increased short-term by 5,000 cases.

Therefore, suicides associated with unemployment totaled a nine-fold higher number of deaths than excess suicides attributed to the most recent economic crisis.”

It’s not just the unemployment itself that is linked to suicide, it’s the period leading up to it when employees can face an uncertain and stressful few months, or even longer.

Suicide and unemployment

In some countries the impact of unemployment is worse, as the team explains:

“…our data suggest that not all job losses necessarily have an equal impact, as the effect on suicide risk appears to be stronger in countries where being out of work is uncommon.

It is possible that an unexpected increase in the unemployment rate may trigger greater fears and insecurity than in countries with higher pre-crisis unemployment levels.”

Dr Wolfram Kawohl, one of the study’s authors, said:

“The development on the job market was obviously anticipated and the uncertainty regarding the development of the economic situation already seems to have negative consequences.

Training for specialists such as those in the human resources department is needed to recognize this increased suicide risk in people both in and out of work more effectively and to help deal with the problem.”

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Wincher Review – What Makes Wincher Great and Where Wincher Falls Short

Looking for an easy way to stay on top of your SEO efforts without paying upwards of $100 (or more) per month? You’re in the right place—for less than a third of the cost and a fraction of the headache, Wincher makes rank tracking and competitor analysis easy.

Keep reading to learn everything you need to know in order to decide if Wincher’s right for you.

Wincher logo for Quick Sprout Wincher review. Wincher logo for Quick Sprout Wincher review.

Who Wincher Is For

Wincher is a great tool for marketers, small businesses, bloggers, and solopreneurs looking for an easy, eminently affordable way to track their search engine rankings.

It’s an approachable solution for anyone, including users with little to no experience with optimizing their site and content. Rather than getting lost in an overly complicated tool filled with irrelevant details, Wincher gives you a straightforward view of what really impacts your rankings so you can take direct action.

However, its simplicity isn’t for everyone. If you’re looking for advanced keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink monitoring, or technical SEO features, one of our other favorite rank tracking tools may be a better fit:

See our full post on the best rank tracking software to learn more about each of our top picks and how to assess which one’s best for you.

Wincher Pricing

The main difference between Wincher’s pricing plans is the number of keywords and websites you can actively track at a time. Of course, there are also advanced features unlocked on the higher-priced plans, but keyword and website limitations are the biggest differentiator.

The Starter plan is $33 per month when you pay annually ($39 for month-to-month billing) and…

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Become Extraordinary: Guidelines for Reaching High

Become Extraordinary: Guidelines for Reaching High

The stuff I read about setting goals is dangerous because it works.

The thing you reach for shapes you.

Big goals destroy us when we reach for the wrong thing.

Many lose what matters in pursuit of fool’s gold. Reaching high corrupts life and distorts perspectives when done poorly.

Guidelines for becoming extraordinary:

#1. Choose extraordinary.

Aim to become an extraordinary person.

Sir Edmund Hillary said, “People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.”

I want to add a necessary dimension to Hillary’s quote. Meaningful goals are bigger than climbing Mt. Everest. Hillary said his greatest work was helping the Sherpa people.

Extraordinary people love deeply. I never met a hate-filled person worth respecting.

You matter more when you decide to accomplish extraordinary things. Image of Sir Edmund Hillary.You matter more when you decide to accomplish extraordinary things. Image of Sir Edmund Hillary.

Image source: Edmund_Hillary

#2. Define achievement.

You achieve more when you aim for Mars, even if you don’t get there. (As long as Mars-goals motivate action.)

Look to the sky when you shoot for Mars, not Las Vegas. Someone said, “Shoot for the moon. If you miss it, you will still land among the stars.”

Modern quotes about aiming high may have begun with a poem by the poet and Anglican priest George Herbert who died in 1633. In the poem “The Church-Porch,” he writes…

Pitch thy behaviour low, thy projects high;
So shalt thou humble and magnanimous be:
Sink not in spirit; who aimeth at the sky,
Shoots higher much, than he that means a tree.
A grain of glory mix’d with humbleness
Cures both a Fever, and Lethargickness.

Herbert reminds us to be humble when we reach high. “Pitch your behavior low…” Aiming high doesn’t make you special. Any fool can aim high.

#3. Clarify evaluation.

A noble goal makes sense of the tapestry of life.

When setting high goals ask, “Is this how I want to measure my life?”

What is dangerous about setting high goals? Useful?

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Sacrifices Can Improve Your Relationship If They Are Done Willingly

Sacrifices Can Improve Your Relationship If They Are Done Willingly post imageSacrifices Can Improve Your Relationship If They Are Done Willingly post image

The way of thinking about relationship sacrifices that is linked to satisfaction.

People who make sacrifices in their relationship because they want to are more satisfied, research finds.

Those who make sacrifices because they feel pressured into it are less satisfied.

The difference could help to explain why some relationships work, and others don’t.

Sometimes couples appear to be working well together, but underneath the story is different.

Dr Heather Patrick, the study’s first author, said:

“It’s important to understand what makes positive relationships positive and what might undermine positive experiences.”

The conclusions come from a study in which 266 men and women documented their own and their partner’s pro-relationship behaviours for two weeks.

Pro-relationship behaviours are any sacrifices made out of consideration for the other person.

Partners who carried out more of these selfless behaviours because they wanted to felt closer to their mate and were more committed and more satisfied.

The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Patrick et al., 2007).

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Low Goals: 7 Unexpected Advantages

Low Goals: 7 Unexpected Advantages

Better to set a small goal and meet it than a grand goal and feel defeated.

I set a low goal for riding my stationary bike, 85 minutes a week. I reach my target If I ride five times a week for 17 minutes. Last week I road four times but exceeded my goal.

I set a low mark to guarantee success. It helps that I’m maintaining, not riding in a race next month.

Sometimes you should aim low.

Leadership quote: Small goals you can meet take you further than grand goals that paralyze you. Image of a person choosing a small pumpkin.Leadership quote: Small goals you can meet take you further than grand goals that paralyze you. Image of a person choosing a small pumpkin.

7 unexpected advantages of low goals:

#1. Boost confidence.

Novices need more encouragement than pros. Set attainable goals for novices and challenge goals for experts.

Everyone needs to feel they’re making progress. Goals that can’t be reached drain enthusiasm.

#2. Surf the wave.

Momentum is a series of successful endings. Grand objectives choke momentum because they’re achieved slowly.

A series of trivial wins takes you further than attempting one ginormous leap.

Tip: Slice long-term goals into manageable bites.

Leadership quote: Momentum is a serise of successful endings. Image of a high-five.Leadership quote: Momentum is a serise of successful endings. Image of a high-five.

#3. Defeat procrastination.

You put off writing college papers because they were big and distant. Then you scrambled at the end.

Achievable action today is better than an ambitious aspiration next month.

#4. Develop habits.

Aim low at the beginning. When you return to working-out, just get in the car and drive to the gym.

Read, Mini Habits: Small Habits, Bigger Results, by Stephen Guise.

#5. Lower risk.

Attainable targets are safer than BHAGs.

Better to under-deliver than over-promise.

#6. Enable consistency.

You’re inconsistent when you regularly fall short.

#7. Facilitate learning.

Inexperience finds courage to learn when ambitions are manageable. Tight deadlines create stress, and stress makes us stupid.

When is it better to reach low? Reach high?

However, sometimes trivial targets limit potential and hinder growth. Tomorrow’s post focuses on setting high goals.

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Perfectionism Is Related To Higher Depression Risk – But It Can Be Reduced

How to reduce the damage done by this depressive personality trait.

The personality trait of perfectionism is linked to higher depression risk, a review of ten different studies finds.

People who are perfectionists are worried about making mistakes and they tend to be heavily critical of themselves.

They feel pressure from society to perform to a high standard and they think others are continually judging their performance.

When perfectionists fail to meet their lofty standards, they tend to get depressed.

Practicing self-acceptance or self-compassion is one of the best ways of dealing with perfectionist tendencies (see my ebook).

The conclusions come from research collecting together the results of 10 separate studies including 1,758 people.

The results showed that neuroticism, or ‘negative emotionality’ is the personality trait most strongly linked to depression.

However, being a perfectionist is associated with an additional risk.

The authors explain their results:

“In our meta-analysis of 10 longitudinal studies composed of undergraduate, community member, psychiatric patient, outpatient and medical student samples, neuroticism was the strongest predictor of change in depressive symptoms.

Even so, all seven perfectionism dimensions still predicted change in depressive symptoms beyond neuroticism.”

One aspect of perfectionism is feeling societal pressure.

The authors write:

“…socially prescribed perfectionism, concern over mistakes, doubts about actions, self-criticism, and perfectionistic attitudes add incrementally to understanding change in depressive symptoms beyond neuroticism.”

Perfectionism is problematic because high standards are so hard to reach consistently.

The authors write:

“…people high in perfectionistic concerns appear to think, feel and behave in ways that have depressogenic consequences [causing depression].

Such people believe others hold lofty expectations for them, and often feel incapable of living up to the perfection they perceive others demand.

They may agonize about perceived failures and have doubts about performance abilities because they experience their social world as judgmental, pressure-filled and unyielding.”

The study was published in the European Journal of Personality (Smith et al., 2016).

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