Back in March, long before a short seller would raise questions about electric-truck company Nikola Corp. and hasten its founder’s exit, early investors in the company were expressing concerns of their own. Those investors, led by mutual-fund giant Fidelity Investments, were worried that Trevor Milton, for all his brash visionary talk and Twitter braggadocio, lacked the ability that Elon Musk possesses to deliver these sorts of newfangled products to market. They lobbied successfully to remove him as CEO before the company’s June IPO and for Milton’s father to leave the board, according to people familiar with the matter. When the deal was done, Milton only held the title of chairman, the post he resigned this month.
The back-room negotiations show that Milton’s past was a concern to investors months before General Motors Co. executives placed a bet on the company in a US$2 billion deal carved out after the IPO. They liked Milton’s vision and his ability to raise cash and felt the venture was safeguarded from his shortcomings in operations by his push upstairs, say people familiar with the matter. Nonetheless, the events that have unfolded since the short-seller report, with Nikola’s stock plunging amid a steady stream of negative headlines, have exposed just how high the risks still were.
Now, it’s up to former GM Vice Chairman Steve Girsky, whose blank-check company VectoIQ took Nikola public via reverse merger in June, and Nikola CEO Mark Russell to stabilize the business and regain investor confidence. The plan with GM was to use Nikola’s hot stock and Milton’s ability to raise money to build a hydrogen-fueled trucking business with GM’s technology.
“There is obviously someone on the diligence side who isn’t going to get a nice bonus this year,” said Reilly Brennan, founder of the venture capital fund Trucks Inc. “The best possible thing if you’re a shareholder is that Milton is no longer running the company and you have Girsky as chairman and GM providing technology.”
The GM deal was originally scheduled to close Sept. 30, and the automaker has said it plans to carry through, but that timing may slip, say people familiar with the matter. BP Plc is still engaged with Nikola in talks to partner on a network of hydrogen fueling stations for fuel-cell trucks the company hopes to sell, but also is slowing the pace for a deal, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. BP and GM declined to comment.
Milton’s tale reads like a Greek tragedy. The report by short seller Hindenburg Research accused Milton of overhyping Nikola’s technology and has prompted investigations by the Justice Department and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. A cousin has accused him of a decades-ago sexual assault, which he denies. The company’s value peaked at US$30 billion and is now worth about US$7 billion.
Girsky and GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra have both said publicly that they did plenty of due diligence. People familiar with the matter say that GM found out when scouting the deal that it had better batteries and fuel-cell technology but joined forces because Nikola had a working semi truck and access to capital markets. In addition, GM will get paid to build Nikola’s Badger pickup on existing assembly lines. Milton was so excited to get the Badger pickup program moving that he signed a deal that heavily favored GM, one of the people said.
Nikola’s stock and GM’s US$2 billion stake are worth less than half what they were on Sept. 8, when the deal was announced. Milton’s own stake is worth US$1.7 billion, down from almost US$5 billion at one point.
Milton said in a June interview with Bloomberg News that he grew up in modest surroundings in Layton, Utah. His family moved to Las Vegas when he was very young and he lost his mother to cancer shortly after moving back to Utah in the sixth grade. He wrote on Twitter he didn’t finish high school, earning an equivalency certification instead, and later dropped out of college. His Twitter account has since been deleted.
He grew up in a tight-knit Mormon family, according to Aubrey Smith, his first cousin. She went on social media recently and accused him of sexually assaulting her in 1999 when she was 15 and he was 17.
In a public account on Facebook and Twitter, and repeated in a phone interview, Smith said that Milton came onto her at the funeral of their grandfather. He took her shirt off without permission, Smith wrote, and then he touched her inappropriately before someone knocked at the door and she ran out.
Milton denied the allegations through a spokesman.
Smith said Milton raised money from family members to get his start. He founded and ran several businesses, including a home-security company that Milton claims he sold for US$1.5 million. Next, in 2009, he founded an e-commerce platform called Upillar.com, which Milton claims “pioneered the shopping cart online.”
Then he got into clean propulsion but ended up embroiled in litigation with dHybrid Inc., which he founded in 2009. The company retrofitted diesel vehicles with natural-gas-burning turbines, claiming the dual system had greater efficiency.
But a deal with Swift Transportation Co. in 2010 ended in court when Swift alleged dHybrid defaulted on a US$322,000 loan and that it retrofitted only half of the agreed vehicles. The case was dismissed in 2015.
Milton later tried to sell dHybrid to a company called sPower in May 2012 but that, too, got mired in lawsuits after sPower backed out and accused Milton of exaggerating its technological capabilities.
Amid the litigation, Milton started another company with a very similar name, dHybrid Systems, selling it in 2014 to Worthington Industries.
During an interview with Bloomberg in June, Milton said that dHybrid Inc. was a success but conceded that, “we ended up closing that one down because of some litigation.”
His next startup was Nikola, founding it in 2014 in Salt Lake City before moving to Phoenix. Emulating Musk, he took the name from the electricity pioneer Nikola Tesla, and the company was soon billed as the Tesla of Trucks. His plan was seen as potentially disrupting the entire transportation industry by making trucks that ran on batteries or hydrogen-fuel cells. He also planned to build a network of hydrogen filling stations.
Friends and Family
Milton had friends and family members working for Nikola despite resumes that didn’t match the job. His brother, Travis Milton, is director of hydrogen and infrastructure. His LinkedIn profile shows that most of his experience was being “self-employed” in Maui. The short seller, Hindenburg Research, said that Travis Milton poured concrete as a contractor. Milton’s father Bill was originally on the board but stepped down when VectoIQ took the company public.
The company’s stock prospectus said that Nikola had awarded more than 3 million stock options “to recognize the superior performance and contribution of specific employees.” The list included Travis Milton and an uncle, Lance Milton, the document said, acknowledging that they are relatives.
As Milton went public with Nikola’s technology, questions soon arose involving his claims about the company’s fuel-cell system. He bragged in an investor video in 2019 that the company had created “what other manufacturers said was impossible to design.” But while Nikola holds patents in fuel-cell and battery technology, most of its planned hardware was coming from German supplier Robert Bosch Gmbh.
Nikola Demonstrations
It became clear that Milton had gotten ahead of himself. A 2016 demonstration showed a truck that didn’t have a working hydrogen-fuel-cell system and was missing key parts, people familiar with the matter said in June. Milton said at the time that the parts were removed as a safety precaution.
In July of this year, he recorded a video of the semi truck in which he ran alongside the vehicle as it coasted at low speeds in a parking lot. Aping Musk’s combative social-media persona, Milton took a shot at his detractors saying, “these damned trolls, I wonder if they are going to apologize to everyone for the lies they spread the tens of thousands of comments about how fake we are.”
Girsky said in the webcast “Autoline This Week,” in which Bloomberg participated, that he has been in Nikola’s fuel-cell trucks and that they work.
Still, when the GM deal was done, GM will be supplying all of the technology for every global market except Europe. Nikola’s pickup truck, called Badger, will use GM’s Ultium battery, and the semis will run on a fuel cell developed by GM and Honda Motor Co.
Since Milton’s departure, Nikola has billed itself more as an integrator of other technologies into its Badger pickup and semi trucks.
For GM’s part, the automaker is protected from any financial downside. GM got 11 per cent of the stock for no cash investment and gets paid for its technology. If Nikola fails, GM won’t lose a dime.
Milton has remained silent and is out of the company. He unknowingly presaged his own downfall in the June interview with Bloomberg: “Part of becoming a better person in life is losing everything you have got and having nothing left.”
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/nikola-founder-milton-s-fall-reveals-what-his-backers-feared-1.1500376

Ride Along as I Build a Profitable Business From Scratch Part 2: Viral Facebook Community Growth

Hey All,
This is a continuation and update of my previous post. If you haven’t seen that yet you can check it out here: https://www.reddit.com/EntrepreneurRideAlong/comments/ice022/ride_along_as_i_build_a_profitable_business_from/
The TL;DR of it, I’m documenting creating a profitable business from scratch so others can learn along with my journey. I did a basic S.W.O.T analysis and picked the niche of “unicorn” along with creating an MVP blog.
Let’s start with a big win! My metrics massively improved:
https://imgur.com/piCW5nE

Week 1 Goals

I received some amazing feedback from the last post I made and I wanted to incorporate some of that feedback into this next week's goals. Moving forward on week 1 I have set these goals:

Create a digital foundation
Start Building Facebook Page
Build Email List
Start prototyping potential merchandise.
Record my daily progress with Loom

Creating My Digital Foundation

With a base of blog content completed and feeling like I can actually create a profitable niche, I’ve decided next to move into creating a strong foundation. The first thing I did was use Trademarkengine.com to get my brand name protected.The last thing I need is to be talking about this online and have someone swoop in and grab my trademark. That would be a dick move. Therefore I took the precaution of going through that process. (actually, I did that before I even posted my first post)
I’ve also been recording my day to day operation using Gary Vaynerchuk's method of documenting over creating. I decided to do this because I know what tasks need to be completed at the moment. But looking back a week later at what I’ve accomplished and my thought process, I lose a lot of data points that help me make micro-decisions. As I record the day today, it will allow others to follow along a bit more closely.Once I had that process going, I started building my social media foundation.

Social Media

My background is in social media consulting. I’ve learned that focusing on a single platform or two and doing it well is better than spreading yourself thin. So for this market, which my initial guess is going to be prodementaly millennial females, I’ve decided the two social media I'll be working on are Pinterest + Facebook.
I’m picking Pinterest since their entire user base is millennial females and Facebook since Facebook advertising is so powerful (and the platform I know the best.)

First Day Results:

Watch the loom walkthrough here: https://www.loom.com/share/7b1da8c9d9d5406ca313236e2d91c41aI created the Facebook business profile, put up a simple banner that grabs attention, and shared my blog articles. I also went onto Pinterest and found the top “unicorn memes” and shareable content.I posted the first one and boosted the post with $10 over 4 days. I put the targeting as USA only, Age 23-39 male & female, interest in unicorns. Giving me a rather huge target demographic but that is 100% okay by me.
https://imgur.com/B2DROYr
One of the top techniques I use on new Facebook pages is to invite people who react to your posts to like your page. This trick works up to 100k likes and will give me a nice base of users to promote to.
I’ve consistently found this to generate cheaper results then a Facebook likes campaign.I also ran a “Facebook Likes” ad for $5 to show you all the difference between the two for results.
At the end of the first day, I had 70+ Facebook likes from these two marketing campaigns.

The Facebook ad for likes spent $5 and generated 30 likes.
The boosting the post to generate reactions spent $1.85 and generated me 40+ likes.

The lesson learned from this test is that sharable meme-able content is a much better way of building your audience then running Facebook ads for likes.

Day 2: Creating Share-Worthy Content

Watch the loom walkthrough here: https://www.loom.com/share/c9fa89218e2c4f87b6c378b47a8b6eceI created more meme-able content and boosted the results. I also downloaded a chrome plug-in that will automatically run through the posts and invite people to like my page. I’m a huge fan of using tools and automation to take over repetitive tasks on social media.I signed up for a free account with Mailchimp to start building my email marketing list. Adding a simple newsletter sign up to the website.Typically a newsletter signs up form with no opt-in isn’t going to collect a lot of emails. I wasn’t 100% sure what I wanted to offer in exchange for the email address. I was debating creating an ebook around unicorns but there are two downsides to this method.

Creating an ebook is a lot of work due to having to either pay my writer or write the whole thing myself
It may not be ideal for collecting emails as it may not convert.

I left the sidebar sign up for now and decided to come back to it later.

Day 3: Email List Building

Watch the loom walkthrough here: https://www.loom.com/share/f5f8fe404169432c9b25e974d0135afc
I got a great idea for what to do with email marketing. I decided to build a quiz that will collect email addresses for me. Quizzes and interactive content is a great way to build an email list as it is more “fun” then just signing up for an ebook. Think about all those Buzzfeed quizzes that are “what type of vegetable are you?”This quiz will be “what type of Unicorn are you?” Luckily I have a lifetime subscription to tryinteract.com that I got for reviewing it a few years ago. It’s a great tool and free is the best price for me!The quiz only has a few questions, but I’ve outlined 12 different unicorns as answers based on the zodiac signs. I can use this information (zodiac sign) to run unique Facebook ad campaigns for birthday offers.
From there it was simply writing up a quick little ditty about each of the unicorns. Then hooking up my email marketing service (Mailchimp) to this tool.
There was an option to make it mandatory to give an email address before seeing the results of the quiz. I choose not to do this because there will be a high unsubscribe rate after the first email if I do that. This means that those who do subscribe are much more engaged.Interact allows the quiz to be a pop up on the website, which I absolutely love. Allowing me to potentially capture all website traffic But I wanted to test if cold traffic from social media will convert better.I copied the quiz and promoted the copy on social media. After 60+ people and 0 leads, I got my answer.
https://imgur.com/hegU4jn
Compare this to the pop-up on the website which ended up generating me around 10-15 email subscribers a day!
https://imgur.com/uvrAKSM
So by the end of day 3, I have my Facebook page growing nicely, my email list growing by ~15 new emails a day.
I also launched a blog article that was generating around 1800 impressions with a 10th page ranking in Google webmasters tools. “What is a Unicorn With Wings Called”Promoting it on social media and in some Facebook groups lead to very interesting results.I bet people didn’t know the name, and when they got it wrong, they got very angry and wanted to argue. Who would have thought people like to argue over the internet about meaningless fictional details.
Turns out this is really great for generating engagement and the algorithm was very happy.

Day 4: Making the Internet Angry For Traffic

Today I saw a huge spike in traffic appear in my Google analytics dashboard due to launching the article yesterday on Facebook. People angrily arguing about Unicorns is great for jacking engagement and traffic.
https://imgur.com/6A6Ea7R
This is really great for sure but the traffic spike did showcase a few problems that I need to address.
https://imgur.com/plbgUNt

My bounce rate is stupid high with an average of 90%.
Average Page/Sessions is only 1.16
The average Session is only 27 seconds.

While I’m capturing attention, that attention isn’t staying on the site very long.
I mentioned in my previous post these same insights and my thoughts behind why this might be the case. As a recap

The website isn’t thin in content. There isn’t that much content (10 articles)
The website isn’t optimized well. Design is sub-par and the website doesn’t load fast
SEO traffic is looking for specific information and they have no reason to explore further.

Therefore I wanted to address one of the problems I was seeing. The website design is sub-par and not optimized for mobile. Here is what I did:

I did a fast redesign on the website, adding a new banner and changing up the blocks to make the site more engaging with a better UI.
I set up WP total Cache and configured my site (I'm not the best at this end of WordPress but WP total Cache is a relatively easy plugin to use)
I signed up for stack path CDN for $10/mo and signed up for the free SSL certificate

My rationale being that site speed and load time will be the main cause of high bounce rate and low time on site. Also, these two factors are pivotal to long term success of ranking in Google so it doesn’t hurt to fix early on.
Additionally as u/T0Bii “Make your page have SSL/TSL aka HTTPS with the little small green lock. This helps your SEO, takes 5mins to set up (or less) and tbh makes it more credible.
Because a page that looks like this https://i.imgur.com/SwqQyjU.png is just not credible for me.”
Which I fully agree with.
Between the content promotion and the fixes to the site, my 4 main metrics have massively increased on my site.https://imgur.com/piCW5nE

Day 5, 6 &7: Day's Blurring Together

Since this is a side project I haven’t been able to dedicate much time each of these days to the project. So I’ll roll all of them together into one section.I’ve been testing more memable sharable content and inviting reactions to like. My end of the week results is great. My total likes on the new Facebook page is over 1k in the first week and pushing towards 2k already.
https://imgur.com/asx7G7t
Bonus points u/Gallowboob found out about what I’m doing and threw me alike. Love him or hate him, it’s always good when a massive influencer sees what you are doing. Here is hope he shitposts my content.
I’ve worked on generating backlinks to the site using H.A.R.O. H.A.R.O stand for help a reporter out and is one of the best ways to get organic links to your site by answering requests of reporters. Best of all it’s free.
I’ve started building out my first few products and market testing various copy based on what sharable content is performing the best.

TL;DR & Final Thoughts:

This post is getting really long so I’ll keep this brief.

Automation is a godsend when it comes to saving time. The chrome plugin says I’ve saved over 11 hours.
Interactive content like quizzes is fantastic for generating emails and building brand equity. I’m having people respond with how fun the questions are.
A little bit of advertising goes a long way with Facebook. I hope my tests have helped show what you can do. This strategy will also work on Instagram too.
Moving forward I want to get up my first products this next week and launch with 5-10 products.
Viral Shareable Content + Advertising = Tons of engagement for stupid cheap (like .003 cents) which drives tons of new likes and website traffic.

I have no experience selling e-commerce merchandise so any insights or experience is welcome.Thanks, and hope you guys enjoyed this post.

Notes and Highlights of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s Live Update September 22, 2020

Notes and Highlights of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s Live Update September 22, 2020
Notes by mr_tyler_durden and Daily Update Team
Register for your Absentee Ballot here!
Watch here:

Youtube: Update (YT Channel)
Facebook: Update (FB Page)

Headlines

62,731 Cases (+824), 1,119 Deaths (+7)
New cases by county: 129x Jefferson, 110x Fayette, 78x Christian, 37x Madison, 35x Warren, 28x Laurel, 24x Hardin, 18x Boone, 18x Whitley, 13x Daviess, 13x Montgomery, 12x Campbell, 12x Clay, 12x Henderson, 12x Muhlenberg, 11x Calloway, 11x Kenton, 11x Oldham, 10x Union, 9x Nelson, 8x Franklin, 7x Boyd, 7x Boyle, 7x Bullitt, 7x Hopkins, 7x Knott, 7x McCracken, 7x Shelby, 6x Pulaski, 6x Rockcastle, 6x Scott, 5x Allen, 5x Barren, 5x Caldwell, 5x Jackson, 4x Adair, 4x Anderson, 4x Bath, 4x Bell, 4x Graves, 4x Greenup, 4x Hancock, 4x Jessamine, 4x Lincoln, 4x Logan, 4x Marshall, 4x Mercer, 4x Ohio, 4x Todd, 4x Trigg, 3x Bourbon, 3x Carter, 3x Clark, 3x Cumberland, 3x Floyd, 3x Meade, 3x Rowan, 2x Crittenden, 2x Grant, 2x Green, 2x Harrison, 2x Mason, 2x Menifee, 2x Metcalfe, 2x Monroe, 2x Nicholas, 2x Simpson, 1x Breathitt, 1x Butler, 1x Casey, 1x Clinton, 1x Elliott, 1x Estill, 1x Garrard, 1x Harlan, 1x Hart, 1x Larue, 1x Leslie, 1x Letcher, 1x Lewis, 1x Livingston, 1x McLean, 1x Morgan, 1x Owen, 1x Perry, 1x Russell, 1x Taylor, 1x Trimble, 1x Washington, 1x Wayne, 1x Webster, 1x Woodford
New deaths by county: 79 M Jefferson, 79 M McCracken, 69 F McCracken, 90 M McCracken, 56 F Marion, 87 M Harden, 92 M Taylor
Fast 4 at 4:
- 1: Today is National Voter Registration Day, which ought to remind everyone to register to vote and then to make sure to vote. Again, you have more opportunities to vote now than ever, certainly in my lifetime, I think in the history of Kentucky. So we ought to be able to set a turnout record this year. The deadline to register is coming up, it's October the fifth. If you've moved to Kentucky, you've never registered before, you've turned 18, or you have had your voting rights restored (in that you have done your time for a non-violent, non-sexual felony) you can register to vote by October 5, and you should.
- 2: Number two, I continue to say this, get your flu shot. It is absolutely critical going into this fall, that we have our flu shots.
- 3: Student Aid: So in July I announced an additional $15.3M in need-based financial aid to students, made possible through the Kentucky Lottery proceeds. Kentucky lottery, having a brand new CEO. These dollars will fund up to 7,500 new awards to college-age students whose families are struggling as a result of this pandemic- 7,500 kids whose families can get help.
- 4: And finally, in our Fast 4, this is National Recovery Month. National Recovery Month is held every September to promote and to support new evidence-based treatment, and recovery practices, the emergence of strong and proud recovery communities, and the dedicated service of providers and community members across the nation who make recovery possible in its various forms.
Let me just start out with one question I know that's out there that's about Halloween. We don't have our guidance ready yet. So Ohio had put out some guidance that we were at least looking at that talked about ways to do it. The CDC put something out saying don't let kids Trick-or-Treat. Now, I believe our guidance is going to try to provide a way for kids to have that experience but in the safest way possible. Let me be clear: the idea of big parties for young adults or older adults, no. We cannot do that during Halloween this year. So let's focus on trying to find a way to make sure kids can have a safe experience but that also means you know that traditional walking around with seven other adults while the kids are running around together, we're probably not going to be able to do that either so to do it safe is going to require a lot of supervision and require protecting your kids and everybody else's based on your actions.
Has the NG been activated yet in Louisville? -- I have not signed an authorization, or an activation for the National Guard to engage in any mission as I'm standing here today.
- -- I cannot comment on when a decision related to the Breonna Taylor investigation is going to be released. I know that the city of Louisville has declared their state of emergency and so folks, from that, believe it's coming soon. I think that's fairly reasonable from seeing the state of emergency, but I can't provide specific comments on timing.
Do you plan on activating the National Guard or State Police today or tomorrow? --- We have certainly had requests for assistance from the State Police or the National Guard, either once a decision is made or if certain events occur. We're going to make sure that we make the right decision to secure the personal safety of everybody, protect critical infrastructure, and and so I think that there can be an expectation that the Guard and the Kentucky State Police will serve limited, specific missions where they will be under their own command, meaning the Guard, or the State Police, and that LMPD will be the primary Law Enforcement Unit that will interact with any demonstrators. But there are specific missions whereby the Kentucky state police or the National Guard could help.
Have you been given any assurances by the AG’s office that the final decision on the Breonna Taylor’s case will be given by the end of this week or next week? -- Again, I can't comment on the timing of an announcement but I haven't been told when an announcement will occur.
Oh, actually, I got another piece of news for you on that topic. At this time, Kentucky has been approved by FEMA for an additional three weeks of the additional unemployment payments. Eligible Kentuckians will now be able to receive $400 for the weeks of August 22, 29th, and September 5th for each week a claimant meets the criteria. That means individuals who qualify for a weekly benefit of at least $100 per week in UI compensation for each week covered by FEMA’s, what they call LWA, lost wages assistance, and individuals who self certify that their employment has been impacted by COVID-19. Payments are going to be automatically processed and we'll have a timetable soon but understand that because of the federal government we don't get to control exactly how they go out.
Slides from Update

Full Notes

Alright, it is four o'clock, time that we give our updates, Monday through Thursday, and go through a few items we're working on in state government and provide our COVID update. So today, I'm supporting education, just in a slightly different way. This is the Paul Sawyier Public Library here in Frankfort. This is them doing their part to make sure that their employees are safe and then also those who visit the library are, too. Our library still serves such an integral purpose, all over the Commonwealth, whether it is providing books for some kids that might not otherwise have a chance to open them, providing a space for people to come together, when we can, or providing internet access when sometimes it's difficult. We appreciate our libraries. And while we know their mission may be a little bit different than they were when I was growing up, we know how critical they are to their communities. So thank you to the Paul Sawyier Library, and full disclosure, my wife also read on a digital platform there just the other day so I'm supporting her too. Alright. We have a very fast 4 at 4 today.
A couple of major things going on. Today is National Voter Registration Day, which ought to remind everyone to register to vote and then to make sure to vote. Again, you have more opportunities to vote now than ever, certainly in my lifetime, I think in the history of Kentucky. So we ought to be able to set a turnout record this year. The deadline to register is coming up, it's October the fifth. If you've moved to Kentucky, you've never registered before, you've turned 18, or you have had your voting rights restored (in that you have done your time for a non-violent, non-sexual felony) you can register to vote by October 5, and you should. Voting is a bedrock part of our democracy and I think it's something that gives us dignity, and so let's make sure we are doing it. Request your absentee ballot. If you are in any of the danger areas for COVID, age, or have a pre existing health condition, if you are just really worried about it; if you live with someone with a pre-existing health condition; if you have a lot of contacts in your day, request that absentee ballot. I've done it, I think about 400,000 Kentuckians have done it, please make sure you do that. If you are not going to vote absentee, vote early. There are three weeks of in-person, early voting beginning October 13. If you choose a time and you make a plan for one of those days, it spreads out when people are in that polling place that we need to make sure that the vast majority of people vote early, and not just on election day, though, there will be multiple locations in most counties, it'll be a couple counties that just have a handful normally, that might just have one. So National Voter Registration Day, take advantage of it. Make sure that you have the ability to vote by registering, and then actually vote. I've learned since I've been governor and probably before, that, everybody's got an opinion. So if you do, and I know you do, make sure that you exercise that right to vote.
Number two, I continue to say this, get your flu shot. It is absolutely critical going into this fall, that we have our flu shots, I got mine just the other day. It really doesn't hurt, it protects you. If you've ever had the flu you really don't want it again. And with these vaccines being pretty effective it certainly cuts down on your risk. This is Dr. Stack, he's getting a little time off. So I won't tell you whether he cried or not after this one. This is the Lieutenant Governor, again, get your flu shot, perfectly safe to do it protects you and is really important in a time of COVID and here is Virginia who's not with us today. But is still with us- isn’t she?
Alright, next is student aid. When we look at post COVID, what we were working on before COVID, what limits us and what truly helps us get ahead, the education and the health of our people, are primary. And with student aid and the opportunity to have state scholarships out there, to make higher education especially more available to everybody, knowing that every first generation college graduate changes every generation after them, changes the history of their family going backwards and forwards, we want to see more kids take advantage of this. So in July I announced an additional $15.3M in need-based financial aid to students, made possible through the Kentucky Lottery proceeds. Kentucky lottery, having a brand new CEO. These dollars will fund up to 7,500 new awards to college-age students whose families are struggling as a result of this pandemic- 7,500 kids whose families can get help. We want Kentucky students to be preparing for their futures right now, whether that's college or advanced training, so when we emerge from the pandemic they'll be ready to take advantage of opportunities, awaiting them. And we want every Kentucky student to access federal and state assistance available, to the greatest extent possible. If you are in school and experiencing financial difficulty, contact your school's Financial Aid Office. They can help reassess your financial need, which could result in your aid being increased, or maybe getting aid for the first time. You can also contact KHEAA- the Kentucky Higher education assistant authority at http://kheaa.com/ or 1-800-928-8926 for questions, or learning how to apply. This organization administers the state scholarship and grant programs in 2020, this fiscal year, thanks to proceeds from the Kentucky lottery more than $272M in state scholarships and grants were awarded to Kentucky college students. $272M, trying to create better lives, better opportunities better, education for our next generation, and through the use of technology KHEAA outreach counselors continue to work with students, families, and adults across the Commonwealth to assist with college readiness and provide assistance filing changes to the FAFSA. Through social media they're connecting with school counselors, students, teachers, and other interested parties and their sister agency the Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corporation is Kentucky's only source for state-based, fixed interest rate, competitive, private education loans. Loans administered to help Kentucky students afford college when an unmet need still exists after all scholarships and grants have been exhausted is done by KHESLC, we have to have an acronym for everything. They've assisted thousands of borrowers with financial hardships and are doing great work. So, for more information, go there, but here's what it is: if you are pushing for that higher education, if you're struggling to make ends meet, if COVID changed your financial information, there's more money out there to help make sure you don't have to pause your educational attainment. So please, please, take advantage of it.
And finally, in our Fast 4, this is National Recovery Month. National Recovery Month is held every September to promote and to support new evidence-based treatment, and recovery practices, the emergence of strong and proud recovery communities, and the dedicated service of providers and community members across the nation who make recovery possible in its various forms. You meet some of the hard working folks in recovery, many of them having gone through it themselves, dedicating their lives to help other people and you see a little bit of God's grace right there. The Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy stated that roughly 22 million people in the US are in recovery as of today. That's 22 million of our brothers and sisters across this country in recovery. The Kentucky Chamber started the Opioid Response Program for Businesses, launched in June of 2019, in response to Kentucky's employers struggling to navigate the issue of workforce participation and overdose deaths. One special story, though I will tell you, I personally know a lot of special stories of people who have overcome something so powerful and difficult it's hard for me to comprehend, but have put their lives back together, brought their families back together, kids back in their home that haven't lived with them for so long, it just shows you that so much as possible, even if it's hard, and we can do so much good work when we're willing to provide people, the help that they need, when they're willing, and in the form that they need it, and to not give up on people. One special story is that of Rob Perez, owner of DV8 kitchen in Lexington where all of his employees are in recovery. Rob shared his business has seen huge success including a turnover rate that is one third better than the national average. He has longer tenure of employees and DV8 was named the 40th best restaurant in America. Another story is from Jamie Johnson, Director of Operations at Dorman products. Dorman has seen an 80% drop in Workers Compensation Claims, favorable reactions from customers and the communities they serve, and huge growth in the company, thanks to the company's fair chance employment efforts. It's important we celebrate recovery and increase awareness and understanding of mental and substance abuse disorders, through opportunities such as these in Kentucky. And while we haven't talked about it as much, battling this epidemic and protecting and helping those that need help, it's one of the most critical missions we can have as a Commonwealth. And you bet we are going to be just as focused as ever during this crisis, but also coming out of it knowing that it's made it harder for many in recovery to get what they need, and to successfully get in recovery and then stay in recovery. Alright, let's move to our COVID update.
The tough news is tough news for us as a country. We've now lost 200,000 Americans to the coronavirus - 200,000. It's difficult to comprehend that this virus that pretty much didn't exist, or to our knowledge until the beginning of this year, and really a period of about six months when most of these deaths occurred would take 200,000 Americans. And I certainly don't have another event period challenge in my lifetime, where we have lost so many Americans. And I can't think of one in the past that occurred that some people denied. This virus is deadly, it's real, and it is harming, killing us. And on a day where we've lost 200,000, and some numbers are going up, we had a large number of cases nationwide yesterday. It looks like cases are back on the rise, it'll take a little bit of time to see. We got to understand our fight is still going on. It's gonna take as long as it takes. It's going to be difficult. But the fact that we've already lost 200,000 people ought to tell you how powerful this virus is and make us commit to doing the right things to defeat it. 200,000. We've only got a couple Kentucky cities that are larger than 200,000. It's larger in my knowledge than any football stadium that's out there, almost double what you'd see and we've lost those Americans. In Kentucky, and we're now 1,119 and growing and growing because of the number of cases that we have. This is a major challenge of our lifetimes and we're going to be judged in many ways. We're going to be judged in part by how many Kentuckians and how many Americans we let die.
And I say that because while we can't save everybody, COVID is that difficult, we can save a lot of people: wear a mask, social distance, follow the rules that are out there. Don't try to find a way around them. If you see a crowd that gathered, don't go to it. And if you don't think it'll harm somebody, there's 200,000 families out there in this country that prove you wrong. And we see it every day. We see families going through the toughest of the tough and saying if I could only let people know one thing, it's that COVID is real, and you need to wear a mask. How many people have to tell that story over a loved one's death bed? Until we all realize that even though we're tired and even though there's something called “COVID fatigue”, I think that's a new phrase, the virus doesn't care. And we ought to be better, we ought to be stronger, and we ought to be more committed than that. While I think at the beginning of the year we're going to be seeing a deployment of a vaccine, and we're still waiting to see how that'll come out, folks, it's gonna take as long as it's going to take. And that's the truth, because if we quit, those deaths go up.
So let's know what we're facing. And let's just make sure we do what it takes to defeat it. Yesterday we showed our incident map, and how it has been updated. Today, again this is us trying to be in full transparency, showing you all the data that is out there, we want to show you the new White House report. The White House report now, and maybe they're watching what we do, has red, orange, and yellow counties in the reports they put out and so it'll be posted online. [Can you go to the White House counties, James?]
So here is an example of counties that, for this week, the White House has in the red zone. Notice they're a little bit different than our incidents that are calculated differently, but it ought to tell you that we're trying to put together a really fair system that's out there in that, the White House would have more counties in the red zone. We see a lot of counties there that we haven't seen in the red zone before. And it just shows you how quickly this can spread and how flexible and fluid we have to be. Right, if this was a battle, the battle moves to a different area, we've got to be willing to move to a different area and counter and react and that's exactly what we have to do with the virus. So Warren County is maybe the only county that has been in the red every single report, since I first started putting them out and it's still there. Christian, which we got a lot of cases in today. Barren, Logan, Jackson, Grayson, Green, Taylor, Trigg, Monroe, Estill, Russell, Clay, Caldwell, Meade, Allen, Letcher, all over the Commonwealth. This is the red zone which White House views as critical and widespread community spread.
And there is now the orange zone. And these are again some counties that we had previously seen in red, or in yellow. You now see them moving more into the orange area. You see Jefferson there, Daviess, Hardin, Oldham, and the list is in the document posted on the website.
And then finally you have the yellow, which is another group of counties and then finally there's the green which is anybody that's not on those. This is up at http://kyCOVID19.ky.gov/ again, this is us showing you what the White House believes based on their data. I do think it's pretty interesting that we've got our incident map and have the four different colors, and now they do too. And so people can look on there and they can compare but I think what it says is, when our incident map has you in red, it means you're in a difficult place and you need to take the appropriate steps.
I want to mention sports real quickly. We ought to be very carefully watching what's going on in our high school sports. I think we have at least five football teams right now that are quarantined that aren't playing, including two teams that just recently played each other. We need to see what happens there and the number of positives at least on one team continues to go up. we need to know that when we are in the red, now athletics are supposed to stop during the period that it takes to get back down to the yellow but we need to be, again, very careful, especially when we are seeing the spread. And everybody who pushed for them, and I got it- I made the commitment from the start that we are going to try to do best practices, we're going to try to do this but when it proves dangerous, or there is spread, we're going to stop at least for a period of time. I need people to keep their word on that, to not try to get around it, and when there is an outbreak, do the right thing. I will tell you, everybody we know that has had one has done the right thing. So we just need to keep that up. I thought that there was a quick and positive reaction here by Franklin County Public Schools and we appreciate that form of leadership. But let's again, these are kids. Let's be careful; let's watch this. And let's make sure that we are being attentive to what's happening and that we are willing to reevaluate when needed. Let me also be clear because this can start people up, there's no overall reevaluation that's occurring. Again, my job is to flag when we see things that we ought to be watching. And that's what I'm doing here today.
Positive cases today: 824 - And that's 824 out of about 10,000 new tests and so what does that do? It increases our positivity rate. So not only do we have more cases than I'd like today
Probable cases: 7,154
Total confirmed cases: 62,731
Children Under 18: 134
New cases by county: 129x Jefferson, 110x Fayette, 78x Christian, 37x Madison, 35x Warren, 28x Laurel, 24x Hardin, 18x Boone, 18x Whitley, 13x Daviess, 13x Montgomery, 12x Campbell, 12x Clay, 12x Henderson, 12x Muhlenberg, 11x Calloway, 11x Kenton, 11x Oldham, 10x Union, 9x Nelson, 8x Franklin, 7x Boyd, 7x Boyle, 7x Bullitt, 7x Hopkins, 7x Knott, 7x McCracken, 7x Shelby, 6x Pulaski, 6x Rockcastle, 6x Scott, 5x Allen, 5x Barren, 5x Caldwell, 5x Jackson, 4x Adair, 4x Anderson, 4x Bath, 4x Bell, 4x Graves, 4x Greenup, 4x Hancock, 4x Jessamine, 4x Lincoln, 4x Logan, 4x Marshall, 4x Mercer, 4x Ohio, 4x Todd, 4x Trigg, 3x Bourbon, 3x Carter, 3x Clark, 3x Cumberland, 3x Floyd, 3x Meade, 3x Rowan, 2x Crittenden, 2x Grant, 2x Green, 2x Harrison, 2x Mason, 2x Menifee, 2x Metcalfe, 2x Monroe, 2x Nicholas, 2x Simpson, 1x Breathitt, 1x Butler, 1x Casey, 1x Clinton, 1x Elliott, 1x Estill, 1x Garrard, 1x Harlan, 1x Hart, 1x Larue, 1x Leslie, 1x Letcher, 1x Lewis, 1x Livingston, 1x McLean, 1x Morgan, 1x Owen, 1x Perry, 1x Russell, 1x Taylor, 1x Trimble, 1x Washington, 1x Wayne, 1x Webster, 1x Woodford
I think the most we've seen in one day, at least in Christian County. You notice Clay was in the red and then we have 12 today. That's not a mistake, because when there is widespread community spread, when there is significant community spread, you're going to see in the next couple days, that those red counties also report double-digit cases even if they are a small county.
Total tests conducted: 1,142,031 (PCR: 1,068,466, Serology: 52,158)
Positivity Rate: 4.52% - our positivity rate is now back over 4%
Total hospitalized: 5,075
Currently hospitalized: 511
Total in ICU: 1,494
Currently in ICU: 133
On a ventilator: 73
Total recovered: 11,361
New deaths today: 7
Total Deaths: 1,119
New deaths by county: 79 M Jefferson, 79 M McCracken, 69 F McCracken, 90 M McCracken, 56 F Marion, 87 M Harden, 92 M Taylor
Let’s light our homes up green for these seven families. Let's ring our bells every morning at 10am. To the families, it doesn't matter when during this virus their family members passed away it hurts just the same. So let's make sure we show them the respect we have for everybody else.
Racial breakdown of all cases: 80.38% Caucasian, 11.66% Black or African-American, 1.61% Asian, 5.85% Multiracial
Ethnicity breakdown of all cases: 88.84% non-Hispanic and 11.16% Hispanic
Racial breakdown of all deaths: 83.45% Caucasian, 12.93% Black or African-American, 1.18% Asian, 2.45% Multiracial
Ethnicity breakdown of all deaths: 96.44% non-Hispanic and 3.56% Hispanic
Long Term Care Facilities (PDF): 31 new residents and 50 new staff positive from yesterday, 4 more deaths, and 1 fewer facilities- that has had one positive case, that sometimes happens with reporting.
K-12 Update (PDF):
University Update (PDF):
So, a tough day, we'll see what the rest of the week holds. But I think we can all admit as we look around, that maybe we're not doing things as well as we were three weeks ago, or four weeks ago. And given that we're going to be taking steps about getting kids back in school in areas where there is not that level of community spread, given that we want sports to continue and we're seeing teams with positive tests, we got to redouble those efforts, because the future of our economy, whether we can keep things open, doesn't depend on me, depends on how we respond to the virus. Whether it's safe for our kids to be in school, doesn't depend on me depends on the virus. The number of lives lost depends on the virus. And what we can do to stop the virus, it's fundamental, it's easy, it's wearing a mask, it's social distancing. It's limiting your contacts, that helps us do everything else out there. It's also your patriotic duty as an American, and as a Kentuckian. This is our challenge. In many ways, this is our war. We've lost 200,000 people. I think it's fair to talk about it that way. And we need your help. Because your actions are what can save someone or cause us to lose them, and you might not ever even know.
So with that, we will open it up to questions. I don't think I've missed anything.

QUESTIONS

Let me just start out with one question I know that's out there- that's about Halloween. We don't have our guidance ready yet. So Ohio had put out some guidance that we were at least looking at that talked about ways to do it. The CDC put something out saying don't let kids Trick-or-Treat. Now, I believe our guidance is going to try to provide a way for kids to have that experience but in the safest way possible. Let me be clear: the idea of big parties for young adults or older adults, no. We cannot do that during Halloween this year. So let's focus on trying to find a way to make sure kids can have a safe experience but that also means you know that traditional walking around with seven other adults while the kids are running around together, we're probably not going to be able to do that either so to do it safe is going to require a lot of supervision and require protecting your kids and everybody else's based on your actions. Alright, we'll open it up to questions we'll go to Joe.
Has the NG been activated yet in Louisville? -- I have not signed an authorization, or an activation for the National Guard to engage in any mission as I'm standing here today.
- -- I cannot comment on when a decision related to the Breonna Taylor investigation is going to be released. I know that the city of Louisville has declared their state of emergency and so folks, from that, believe it's coming soon. I think that's fairly reasonable from seeing the state of emergency, but I can't provide specific comments on timing.
Have you been in touch with Attorney General Cameron at all on this? -- We have had communications with the Attorney General's office, we have appreciated those communications, but I cannot comment on them. That's part of the trust in something like this that we have to have.
What measures do you think protesters should take seeing all those preparations and barricades, boarded up buildings in Louisville? -- The question is how do I think that, I guess, community activists and those that want change and have and have been out in peaceful demonstrations how they should view what's going on? First I think that LMPD and others are trying to ensure that any reaction is one where people can give voice but at the same time that we don't see violence or property damage now. Just about every protest other than other than a couple of nights that we have seen in Louisville hasn't had those but the national attention here is so great, the potential for outsiders is so significant, the possibility of someone taking something peaceful and trying to turn it into something that's not as all there. I mean, when we saw a couple weeks ago a couple groups coming together and downtown- one being the three percenters, a white militia group, that I think is white supremacist militia group, I know them fairly well, they came over to my house, and they hung me an effigy. You know, I think that people can see the potential presence of groups like that and understand wanting some level of security. I want people to be able to give voice to frustrations, I hope they can find a way to do it where they feel heard, but at the same time, can potentially turn something that can be positive into something that can be negative. And I've talked to a number of organizers and they've said the same: that the eyes and ears of the world are going to be here. People are going to be heard, let's just make sure it's done in a way to where that message doesn't get lost.
You mentioned HS Sports, their Positive tests results that we’re now seeing them in quarantine. I think it’s easier for college teams to do the bubble approach and do routine testing. Any guidance on how HS can do that?-- The question is on high school sports which we talked about when college sports or professional sports have a ton more resources. College sports in the SEC, they're going to test athletes three times a week. And right now I don't think there's a requirement that our high school athletes are tested even once a week. Certainly, if I was running a high school program, which I'm not, (I'm a little busy, but I'm also not qualified to run a high school sports program, that's because of lack of overall talent) I would want my team to be getting tested on some basis. I would really want to talk about a partnership with my parents about ensuring that I always know how my athletes are feeling. I want to make sure that I communicated to them that their health is most important to me because their futures are big and bright whether they include athletics or not and I, if I was a coach, would be in an almost sacred position to make sure that we protect that. And so talking to them too about how if you feel bad you really need to talk about it. Don't try to come to a practice just because either it's your senior year or we really need you. I think that dialogue needs to be there. And then I think we also need to be clear that when there are schools that are in the red zone area, we ought to not want to play that game, even if we are somewhere else that weekend. That's tough. You know, there’s a lot of anticipation, and people look forward to it. But I think that communication, and just being really clear on the expectations, putting the student athlete first, first, which means their health in their future is where I would be. I would look at some form of testing and monitoring and that can be different in different places, but especially a high contact sport is important. We’ve seen things at different times, football, soccer, I think there were just a couple teams, and volleyball, in particular, we've seen some outbreaks.

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How To Leverage Long Blog Posts To Build Your Brand

You guys were not joking with the amount of shit posts that are ending up on this sub lately.
So, in order to change that, I thought I would throw out something that I have done in the past and am still seeing success with today.
Leveraging your blog posts/articles to build a BRAND.
I did it, you did it, almost everyone does it. They get started, they crank out some content, and they expect money to come in. You can make a great living doing this, but you will find it almost impossible to hit the "next level" unless you focus on building a brand. You see the rare comment here of people hitting 20, 30, 50k+ per month....I would bet almost anything their site is a brand that people actually CARE about.
In order to actually get there, you have to create value, have a strategy and create trust with your audience. But how the hell do you create value and trust with an audience that does not yet exist?
One of those ways is utilizing a platform that people already trust: Amazon.
The basic idea before we get into the actual guide is twofold.
1: You are going to take your longest article or articles, and turn them into an ebook. You will create a coveinterior and publish this on Amazon via the KDP platform. Chances are, no one will actually want to buy your 99 cent ebook, so you are going to make it FREE (with a work around) and use this as a lead gen for your website/email list.
2: You are then going to take your longest article/articles, and turn these into an AUDIO book, which again acts as a springboard from Amazon to your content to build trust, educate and let them know about your website.
Step 1 brings you no money up front, but if you do this right can net you a LOT of affiliate income and build your list at the same time. Step 2 actually surprised me when doing my taxes. I currently have a single audio book live and it brought me in a few thousand dollars in royalties the past year and I havn't looked at it or touched it since.
Here is a bit of proof that this works and has led to hundreds of thousands of downloads:

Book 1 (audiobook and ebook): https://www.amazon.com/Merch-Amazon-Blueprint-T-Shirt-Business-ebook/dp/B01N0AART1
Book 2: https://www.amazon.com/Start-Profitable-Authority-Blog-Under-ebook/dp/B014S9MKBK/

So, let's first go over the free book, and then the more exiting method the audio book.
Creating A Free Book On Amazon With Your Blog Posts
I am not going to go into detail on how exactly to create a book (this is fairly straight forward), but you will need two things.
1: Get a KDP Account (free): https://kdp.amazon.com/
2: Get a Smashwords account (free): https://www.smashwords.com/
Create your book, format it, and get it uploaded to KDP. This is so straight forward (Google it)
In order to get your book perma free on Kindle, you need to get your book free on other major retailers that Amazon actually has some respect for. The one that I used was Barnes & Noble and this took about a week. Here is how to do it!
Smashwords
Smashwords is another retailer of ebooks. What makes this service so powerful is that its free, and they also distribute to major retailers such as Barnes & Noble, OverDrive, iBooks, and Kobo.
Upload your Book and set a price of free
It will almost immediately go online at Smashwords as a free book. On your dashboard, you will see that it has been submitted for premium status. This is where the magic happens. A real person will take a look over your work, and if it has followed all of proper formatting, then it will soon show up in the big retailers mentioned above.
It is VERY important that you follow their style guide. It can take a few days at a time for Smashwords to review your book. If it is not up to par, they will deny you, give you a list of things you need to fix, and then you can resubmit it. One of the things that I did wrong was do my table of contents a different way than they wanted.
Another reason I was denied was that my book had links back to Amazon, so remove those as well if you want perma free status.
Premium Status Achieved
Once your book has been looked over and has achieved premium status on Smashwords, it is just a waiting game from here.
Eventually, your book will show up on Barnes & Noble. This is one of the only online retailers that Amazon seems to care about. I tried to ask Amazon to price match me as soon as it was free on Smashwords, but it seems they have no respect for this service and I had to wait.
Emailing Amazon
Now, you could wait and wait and eventually Amazon should pick up on the fact that your book is free somewhere else. If you are not in the business of waiting for months on end, it is time to do something about it!
What I did was take the URL from Barnes & Noble, and email Amazon from inside my KDP dashboard. At the very bottom of your dashboard, in super small text, you should see Contact Us.
Click on Contact Us –> Pricing & Royalties –> Price Matching, and send them an email asking them to help you out. I told them I had a reader on my blog disappointed that he could get my book for free on my website as well as Barnes & Noble but had to pay for it on Amazon. A few hours later I got an email back stating that while they can decide to price match or not, they had forwarded it to the correct department and a few hours after THAT it was priced to free!
Do keep in mind that this is going to be geo dependent. If you want your eBook free on All Amazon TLDs you need to give them links from all GEO URLs from the major retailers
Note: There are a million and a half Facebook groups for free books. Go post in a few of them to get the ball rolling. Once you have those initial downloads, everything should take off and remain a stable stream of downloads and traffic back to your site if you put links in your book. ALSO, make sure to put some sort of ask at the end of your book for a review, a subscribe to the email list, or give the reader something if they visit your site.
Now, let's get into how even more money is made, by taking that same book/books and turning them into audio books spreading your brand around the internet.
Making Money Selling Audiobooks (ACX) Through Amazon
Note: I am going to be copy and pasting images from my own site because there is no way I am downloading a rehosting these. Feel free to complain about self promotion in the comments XD.
In order to be a successful internet marketer, you always have to be testing new ideas and markets. Time and time again I see people who want to make their first dollars online actually succeed in doing so but after many months or many years, it all dries up.
Why?
Because these people were not willing to adapt and keep learning. This is the number 1 reason that people fail. They do not want to test the market but keep doing the same thing over and over again, getting stuck in a vicious cycle.
During some downtime a while back, I stumbled across a video of a guy doing thousands of dollars through audiobooks. What really perked my interest is that these books are being sold through Amazon, or more importantly, Amazon’s audio book platform audible.com.
This is one of the biggest audiobook portals in the entire world and I myself have purchased a few during some long road trips.
When I first started selling t-shirts online, the driving factor and where most of my success came from is that they are being sold on Amazon where the customers already are. I did not have to drive traffic at all, only give an existing audience what they wanted. This opportunity looks EXACTLY the same and the competition is so low, its crazy! Chances are, your blog posts will fit right in.
Why Audible.com (Amazon’s Audiobook Platform)?
The very first thing I did was take a quick look at how much traffic the platform was getting. I was seeing people put up some pretty impressive numbers (into the 10 figures a month range) so before I dove in, I wanted to make sure the market was actually there.
What I did was take the domain (audible.com) and run it through similar web. This website is incredibly helpful in estimating the amount of traffic that a platform receives each and every month. It is WILDLY inaccurate, but gives a brief overview.
https://neillassen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/audible.png
As you can see at the time of writing this (I wrote this ages ago), there is almost 22 million visitors per month with an average duration of close to 5 minutes.
This is exactly what I want to see!
Lots of traffic, and relatively little competition because there are not that many books out there.
I was down to give this method a try and to my surprise over a year later, it actually worked.
Getting Your First Audiobook Published on ACX
Before you attempt to put up an audio book at all, you need to make sure you RESEARCH the niche. Just as with everything else when it comes to internet marketing, you need to make sure that there is customer demand, but that you can break into the market in the first place.
The way we do this is pretty simple.
Audiobook (ACX) Niche Research
First, you want to look at Amazon.com for books (NOT audiobooks). For the sake of this example, lets use the first niche that came to my head “merch by amazon”.
Head on over to Amazon.com and just type in the niche you are interested in. If you are pulling back results that are not books, just follow it up with “book”.
https://neillassen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/amazon-page.png
At the very top of the image, you can see that there are over “10,000” results for this niche. This is a good sign, that means there is customer demand there! Customers want to read and learn more about this niche.
I also happen to hold the first and third position for this keyword (those are my books) so it makes this experiment a little easier to start!
Even if there are a lot of results, you want to make sure to click on the first page of products, and look at the BSR or best sellers rank of an item. The lower the rank, the better it is selling.
You can see this in the product details section of the product page:
https://neillassen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/product-details.png
The best sellers rank is dependent on the category you are selling in. In this particular instance, this book gets about this many downloads per day:
https://neillassen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/merch-by-amazon-book.png
NOTE: Old screenshot but this book still averages almost the exact same downloads per day even over a year later.
Now that we have determined that there is customer demand here, we need to check the competition on Audible.com
In the upper right hand corner you will see the search box. This is where you want to put the same search term that you checked over on Amazon.com.
Click on search and see what comes up!
In this particular case there are ZERO results (note: there are now more than a few results). That means that there is definitely customer demand over at Amazon.com and there are literally zero books on this subject on the audible platform that Amazon owns (and gets 20+ million visitors each month). There is clearly an opportunity here.
After you get good at searching, you will realize that almost every niche under the sun has very very little competition.
What you want to look for is where there are lots of results with a good BSR (under 100k on Amazon.com) and you want to see that there is less than 100 results on Audible.
The opportunities here are almost endless. Remember, it is all about niching down!
Vegetable Gardening:
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Sleeping better:
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Make Money Online:
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If one of the most competitive niches on the internet (making money online) has such small search results, then you KNOW this is an untapped gold mine.
NOTE: Screens are from when I published the book. Numbers are changed, but go check. Still stupid low competition in most niches that your blog posts are in.
Getting Your Audiobook Created
Now that we have a niche, we need an actual book! Any one of you reading this has the ability to write their own books. It does not matter if you are a great writer. However, if you are NOT a writer, no interest in being a writer, and simply want to get a book up to test this method, there is an easy way to do that.
Outsource!
I will be going over how to outsource the actual book creation as well as the audio voice over for that book once it is complete.
Your book can be as long as you like or as short as you like. However, how long it ends up being is going to determine what kind of royalty you get once the entire process is complete. Because of this, I would recommend about 20-25k words per book. This should put your final audiobook at just over 3 hours in length and this is where you make the best money. To hit this, you may want to take a few of your articles and combine them.
We have a niche, we have a target length for the book, now we just need to find someone to actually write the thing!
Go hire someone or do it yourself. This is pretty self explanatory.
I find that having a general outline for your book is the easiest way to get a good quality product. You can do this by looking at the chapter headings of some of the best sellers. Compile a list of all the headings, and then formulate your own online so that your book will be the most comprehensive book on the market for that niche.
Upload Your eBook to Kindle (if you didn't previously)
Before you can actually create your ACX book, you will need to upload your book to Kindle. This is a platform for ebooks that sell on Amazon and ANOTHER avenue for you to make money with your book (outside of audible sales).
Head on over to kindle here: https://kdp.amazon.com/.
Sign up for an account and enter in all your information so that you can get paid.
Now that you have an account, you need a few other bits before you can actually upload your book.
First, make sure you familiarize yourself with the cover requirements here: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201113520
You now need to get a cover for your book created. The idea image requirements for kindle for your book cover are 2560 pixels by 1600 pixels.
Your book cover is important!!
I know everyone always says not to judge a book by its cover but we all do it. You do it, I do it, and your potential customers are going to do it too!
Because of this, head over to upwork and post a job for an ebook cover designer. There are a lot of very very talented artists out there and you should get an amazing cover for your book for $20-$30 dollars.
You can see here the cover that I went with that sticks out on the page:
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Now that you have your book and your cover, let’s upload to Kindle!
Log in to Kindle and click on the Kindle new title button:
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After you are done adding the Kindle eBook, I would highly suggest adding a paperback as well. We will not be focusing on the paperback, but this is just another avenue that you can make money from your book.
Give your book a title (what is on the book cover), an author, and a description.
Make sure your description is long and detailed. I like to tell a little bit about what is in the book as well as outline the chapters and what the customer will be learning when they read the book.
After you have filled those out, it is time to enter in some backend keywords. These are keywords that you want the book to rank for. Think like a customer here. Whatever they might search for, enter these as your back end keywords.
You have 7 boxes of keywords to fill up here. No need for any punctuation. As long as the keywords are relevant, enter them in.
Once you have your keywords selected, choose a category for your book, and then click on continue.
Now all that is really left is to upload your book, the cover, and pick out pricing:
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You do not need to enter an ISBN so go ahead and click save and continue at the bottom of the page.
Set your book at $2.99 or above, and select the 70% royalty share. If you price below $2.99, you will get a much smaller cut. Since we will not be focusing on the actual ebook, every time it sells, we want to maximize our profit. (This is if you are just doing audiobooks and not the free book method mentioned above)
Now all you have to do is scroll to the bottom and click on publish your book!
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It can take a while to publish, but I typically see all my books going live within 24 hours. You need to wait for your book to go live, so in the meanwhile, I would suggest publishing the paperback version as well!
Publishing Your Book to ACX (Audible)
If you have made it this far and are still with me, impressive.
So far you should have a book with a cover, and it is published on Kindle meaning it is for sale on Amazon.com.
This means we can FINALLY start creation of our audiobook!
To begin, head over to ACX.com and sign up for an account. This is the dashboard for audible.com which is where we want to publish our book.
Again, fill out all your information and take the tax interview. Once you have done that, click on “Add Your Title” from the upper right hand corner.
Search by keyword and find your book on Amazon.com. Once you have found it, click on “This is my eBook”.
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Once you select your book, you will see a popup that asks what you want to do with your ebook:
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Now the fun part starts!
You can either upload audio for the book you already have (which I assume you don’t), of you can find someone to narrate the book for you. This is not going to be free, but you can find some real talent out there that will read your book and allow you to publish audiobooks without ever using your own voice.
Select the first option and click on continue.
Accept the terms and conditions, and click on continue.
The next page is where you want to fill out your book information. Since your book is already on Kindle, most of this is going to be selected for you.
The interesting parts are these:
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This lets you say that you want to receive auditions from narrators but also lets you describe the voice you are looking for. I like to select this based on the topic of the book and what would fit best.
After you upload a test piece of your book for your narrator auditions, click on next.
The next page is the MOST IMPORTANT part of the entire process. You can pick how you pay the person that is narrating your book.
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By default, the first option is going to be selected (Royalty Share) but you do NOT want to do this! If you have a successful book, that means you will giving half your royalty away for many years to come.
Instead, select pay for production and pay your narrators up front. I have found that the lowest level of $0-$50 per finished hour (PFH) works well and you get some quality people applying to narrate your book.
For a book of 20,000 words, you can expect to pay a little over $100, but you do not have to do any of the work yourself!
You will start getting auditions almost immediately over the next few days and you will be able to see this in your top menu.
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Make sure to go through all the auditions and listen to each one of them as everyone has their unique style and some attach specific notes about the project to their audition:
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Once you have someone selected, all you have to do is then make an offer, and they will do the rest!
The narrator you chose may send you a few questions over messages, so make sure you are watching your email whenever those come in.
Once your narrator has finished the book, you have to approve it. After you approve it, you MUST pay your narrator before the book will go live on audible. This is not very clear for a first time user.
I was expecting the system to use my card on file, but had to follow up and actually send the narrator the money over paypal. After that occurs, they will also approve the book, and it will get final approval from the ACX team!
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Once you receive that email, it is just a waiting game as the book is pushed out to retail!
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TIP: If you email the ACX team and ask nicely, they will give you 25 codes for free books so that you can give them out to people for review. This is a good way to bump your book inside of audible and start getting downloads.
Wrapping It Up
When building your business, use every tool at your disposal to drive traffic and build up your audience.
Focus on building a brand and not just a website.

Cryopod Refresh 240: Commander Phoebe's Strategy

Phoebe Hiro, now the Head Commander of the Anti-Demon Resistance, paces back and forth in front of six hand-picked leaders of the various warfronts. Her guests sit on rocks set in the middle of the field not far behind the warp-gate encampment's western wall, while all of them face her and listen intently to what she has to say. Their names and ranks become unimportant as she looks at them with the eyes of a hawk. To the Hero's Wife, these people are merely weapons she must carefully wield in defense of humanity and its monster allies.
In the front row sits General Chadwick, Princess Brunhilda, and Corporal Hurent, along with Blinker, the monster queen. Behind them sits Lieutenant Samuel and Elder Skarde.
General Chadwick, Neil's number one. A black-haired Norwegian with a thick, three-inch-long beard. He wears a long, thin black coat, one designed to allow the air to cool him during the summertime, while his navy-blue military uniform underneath gives him a commanding presence. Chadwick's six-plus-foot height, in addition to his giant muscles and rotund belly, makes him stand out among all the others present. In social situations, he is the one who defeats his drinking opponents, while in grave situations, he is the strong and silent type.
Brunhilda, the Felorian princess. A chocolate-skinned, well-proportioned warrior with long white hair and countless white tattoos across her face and body. She wears only an animal-skin bra and loincloth, revealing her muscled abs and arms. As a tribeswoman, her domineering attitude comes not from stuck-up haughtiness, but from two decades of careful grooming by her parents, the former King and Queen of planet Feloria. Having bowed and acquiesced to the demons her whole life, she now sits and faces the Hero's Wife with a grave expression, knowing she may soon perish in battle while protecting her planet's tribes. At the least, she may enable a new future for her people, one where they no longer cower at the feet of their demonic oppressors.
Corporal Hurent, a decorated veteran with several military accomplishments. Her black hair sits in a ponytail, draped over her left shoulder, while Blinker sits on her right. Combined with her smooth, olive-green military uniform, and lightly bronzed white skin, she appears almost like a shorter, more tomboyish version of General Chadwick. Not bothering with makeup, she has a 'harder' edge to her appearance than Phoebe or Brunhilda, yet her eyes reveal she longs for the war to end. Battle is not in her nature, but merely her current call to action.
Blinker, the Monster Queen. She wears a tiny little set of cream-colored battle armor, crafted in advance by her mother two years prior. Her bright red hair contrasts with the white armor to give her the appearance of a cute little Valkyrie. When combined with her moth-like wings, the trifecta completes itself, making her resemble a battle-angel. Blinker sits on Corporal Hurent's right shoulder, the two of them somewhat close thanks to their interactions over the past few years.
Lieutenant Samuel, a hard-nosed man with a violent past. The ebony-skinned soldier sports several dreadlocks and a mean scar going across his forehead. He rests his elbows on his legs and leans forward, a look of intense concentration on his face. Combined with his camouflage-fatigues, he looks ready to step into the jungle and disappear amongst its foliage. Few of the leaders gathered have anywhere near the same intense look in their eyes, a testament to how much he hates the demons and what they've taken from him.
Finally, Elder Skarde, one of several tribal elders from the planet Locklorn. As their designated envoy, Skarde speaks for all the people of his world. His skin appears the darkest of all, giving him a rich, coal-colored hue capable of blending in with the night. Skarde's carefully maintained, short-cropped hair combines with his purple and gold robes to give him the air of a merchant king, one with money flowing like rivers. A peaceful man, Elder Skarde nevertheless sets aside his misgivings for the sake of his world. While he might prefer seeking peace with the demons and forgiving their transgressions, he likewise would never consider rolling over and letting them destroy his extended family. He draws a hard line in the sand, one he will never let the demons cross.
With all six of the most important leaders assembled before Phoebe, the recently promoted Tarus II Commander begins pacing back and forth.
"Thank you all for coming. I'd like to have gathered more people, but it's probably best if you simply relay today's briefings to the relevant subordinates. We don't have much time to waste, so I'll get right down to business."
Phoebe shoots a glance at the walls of the warp-gate encampment, listening for a moment to hear if any battles have broken out due to the warp-gate's unexpected opening. Luckily, everything remains quiet and calm.
"I don't know how long we have before the demons clear out the Core, but I do know they will, eventually," Phoebe begins, as she returns her attention to those assembled. "The question afterward is how long we have until the demons get the warp-gates back online."
Corporal Hurent raises her hand. "Commander, one thing has been bothering me. We destroyed the computers which control the Core's warp-gates. How can the demons reactivate them? Without the Core's server infrastructure, won't it be impossible for the demons to calculate Tarus II's travel vectors?"
The Corporal's question, prodding at the very nature of warp-gate travel, elicits several nods from the other leaders. After all, from what they understand, calculating the relative position of a planet in the vastness of space, its orbital position, its current facing, and the exact position of the warp-gate on said planet should be impossible without a vast amount of computing power to assist.
However, to the assembled leaders' surprise, Phoebe shakes her head. "Our opponent is no ordinary demoness. She is Ose, the Emperor of Infiltration, and the creator of warp-gate technology. Co-creator, technically, but a distinction which matters little in this context. I've spoken with Samantha on several occasions regarding Ose, and everything she's had to say about our enemy's abilities left me feeling shaken and worried. Ose's brain functions on a level far beyond ours, with unmuddled thoughts capable of computing information thousands of times more quickly than anyone else. She is, essentially, a living bio-computer."
Continuing, Phoebe adds, "Further, my husband once used Solomon's Crown to calculate the jump-vectors from Tarus II's warp-gate back to the Core. Kar watched him do it. If Jason can perform such a feat, I imagine the creator of warp-gate technology can do so as well."
The Commander's words end that line of questioning by the other generals. They fall silent and listen as Phoebe continues with her original train of thought.
Phoebe clears her throat. "Ahem. The battle for the Core was over far faster than anyone, especially Neil, first thought possible. Our enemies caught us off-guard with their new, armored soldiers. It seems likely they won't have any more of those terrifying Baron-level bastards available to hit us with, but we should naturally prepare for them. In the meantime, shifting to open terrain instead of the enclosed corridors of the Core will benefit humanity's forces greatly. Our weapons work best when engaging our enemies from a distance. The further they have to travel, the more time we have to kill them before they close the gap."
After pausing for a moment to rifle through her bag, Phoebe pulls out a tiny dime-sized device and presses it against the side of her head, just above her right ear. A small red LED on its side blinks twice once attached, then turns off. Afterward, she pulls out a baseball-shaped mechanical object, then lightly tosses it into the air. Elder Skarde and Brunhilda both reflexively flinch when the device doesn't fall to the ground, but instead stops in midair and hovers next to Phoebe.
"This is my Hovering Personal Assistant. I call him 'Happy.' Happy helps me with all sorts of things, but today, he'll be helping all of you to understand my thoughts."
Phoebe concentrates for a moment. She transmits images from her brain through the device stuck to her head and into Happy. In turn, the hovering metal baseball bobs in the air for a moment before beaming out a projected image of Tarus II's landscape, primarily the 20-mile range around and between Hero City and the warp-gate encampment.
The other leaders watch in fascinated silence as Phoebe points toward a small mountain range just over a mile north of the warpgate encampment. "This location is known as the Sphinx Mountain Range, and is going to be a critically important asset we must protect once the demons invade. How many of you have visited it before?"
Elder Skarde and Samuel both shake their heads. General Chadwick, Corporal Hurent, and Blinker all offer hesitant nods, while Brunhilda's are the most emphatic of all. Upon noticing the recognition in the Felorian Princess's eyes, Phoebe smiles. "Brunhilda, what makes you so familiar with that region?"
"I enjoy climbing mountains to gaze at the world from their vistas," Brunhilda replies. "Since that region offers a breathtaking view of the distant ocean, I have scaled it numerous times."
Phoebe's smile stretches further. "Did you ever happen to notice the artillery battlement I built there?"
A look of surprise appears on Brunhilda's face. The Felorian Princess scratches her head sheepishly. "Ah, no? What do you mean, Commander Hiro?"
"Three years ago, Jason and I worked together to build several fortifications for Tarus II. One of those happened to be a network of long range auto-cannon installations in the Sphinx Mountain Range. Observe."
Phoebe's robo-assistant, Happy, releases a cute high-pitched chirp. "Beep-boop!"
Immediately, a second hologram appears, one of a gigantic gun more than a hundred feet tall, with three cannon barrels aimed diagonally into the sky. The whole thing rests upon a square turret base, with rotatable joints and motors allowing it to adjust its firing angle and distance. The menacing weapon makes all of the leaders gathered raise their eyebrows in surprise.
"Wow!" Blinker gasps. "Phoebe, you built that thing? It's huge!"
Chadwick stands up and walks closer to more carefully scrutinize the artillery cannon. "Very impressive. Why have I heard nothing about this?"
"Because it's one of my many secret weapons," Phoebe says, a tricky smile playing upon her lips. "I call it a King Cannon. We've always worried about demonic spies in our ranks. Bad actors among our fellow humans and monsters might also be an issue, too. I built these cannons in absolute secrecy, telling only Jason and Solomon. Not even Samantha knows of their existence."
Elder Skarde snorts. "Just as well."
"Samantha will never betray humanity," Phoebe snaps, glaring viciously at the elder. "Don't think I've forgotten some of the hurtful things you said. I'd advise you to keep your mouth shut about her if you don't want my foot shoved where the sun doesn't shine."
Chadwick remains silent. As one of Neil's closest confidantes, he too has no trust for the succubus. Still, he knows better than to disparage her in front of Phoebe, especially given the circumstances.
"Ahem," Lieutenant Samuel clears his throat. "If I may. You mentioned cannons, plural. How many of these have you built?"
Phoebe turns away from Skarde to look at Samuel behind him. "Ten. They function by firing shells over long distances which explode shortly before striking the ground. These explosions release hundreds of iron rods, each one capable of stabbing through even the heaviest armor. No demon will be able to withstand a shelling from the King Cannons. I have several other types of ammunition present as well, including explosive munitions, poison gas, and acid for melting flesh. Needless to say, we must ensure our troops don't get caught in the crossfire."
"And," Phoebe adds, "that is one of the biggest problems we face. The King Cannons are explosively powerful and more than capable of turning tens of thousands of demons into puddles of blood. However, they lack precision. They're a double-edged sword capable of harming our soldiers. I plan to use them only if our troops fail to prevent the demons' advance from the warp-gate. That's why I will now move on to the next strategic point."
Commander Hiro disables the hologram for the King Cannon while Chadwick takes his seat. She returns to the original hologram, the one showing Tarus II's topography.
"On the north side of Hero City we have ten Covenant ships to protect. On the south side are the Pyramids. On the east, we have a mixture of forested woodlands and some hilly terrain. Between Hero City and the Warp-gate Encampment, we have the Horned Forest, with all manner of vicious predators hiding amongst its trees, and the vast open plains where we will most likely engage with demonkind if they take over the encampment. Looking at the encampment itself, we have the King Cannons to the north, Tarus II's great ocean to the west, and finally the southern side."
Phoebe clears her throat. "Here, we run into another problem. Some of you may not be familiar with the southern region, as we rarely go there. It's filled with canyons and ravines deep enough to kill anyone if they should stumble inside. The deepest one reaches half a mile into the planet's crust, so, needless to say, not many people go there. However, it is also home to another of my secret facilities."
"Another?" Corporal Hurent asks, her jaw turning slack. "Just how many facilities have you built?"
Phoebe's smile dims. "Too many to handle on my own, but not enough to guarantee our safety."
That reply makes the Corporal close her mouth and nod along silently. Phoebe continues by activating another hologram, this time showing a massive network of buildings carved into the side of a ravine. The facility stretches far enough into the distance that it goes past the edge of the hologram where nobody can see its end.
"By the Creator..." Lieutenant Samuel mutters. "You've been holding out on us."
"Indeed. This facility is one I haven't even told Jason about. I built it by myself."
Phoebe's casual attitude stuns everyone present. Blinker jumps off Corporal Hurent's shoulder and flies over to Phoebe. "What?! How could you build all that by yourself? That's impossible!"
While the fairy buzzes around the hologram with wide-open eyes, Phoebe chuckles. "Believe me, I did. Don't you remember six years ago, when Jason used to build houses and apartments for people with his Wordsmithing? I created a tool that could synthesize simple square structures out of energy, one which could project and build walls, ceilings, and floors. I built this facility with an upgraded version of that device."
A huge, giddy smile spreads across Chadwick's face. "Absolutely amazing. I never imagined we had a facility like this at our disposal, nor that you would be its sole builder. What is its function, Commander Hiro? Why did you build it in such an out-of-the-way location?"
"It's not out-of-the-way at all," Phoebe clarifies. "This facility's purpose is to create war-machines capable of leveling battlefields, and so I needed it somewhere close where I could send them barreling toward the front lines within minutes. That Planet-Walker I demonstrated earlier came from here, as well as many similar machines. I wanted to ensure we had extremely powerful trump cards prepared, should the demons ever invade. Secrecy was even more important, as I couldn't chance the demons learning of their existence."
Corporal Hurent raises her hand. "Hold on a moment. Regarding not only this robot-creation-facility, but also the King Cannons, how can we train enough people to pilot and control your machines? Those cannons look like they will require countless soldiers to aim and fire them, while the robots you've constructed will doubtless require intense training to use them to their fullest capacity. Have you trained anyone in secret as pilots? Or, perhaps... might these machines be fully autonomous?"
"Neither," Phoebe replies. "The Planet-walkers and other mecha are, indeed, autonomous, but I will require pilots inside them for target designation purposes. Each robot is capable of basic decision-making, but a human in the cockpit is our surest bet for strategically taking out demons wherever they appear. As for the King Cannons, the situation is similar. I will require a few personnel to man them for the sake of designating targets, but their roles will be minor. A bigger issue comes from fuel and munition supplies, which is the next thing I'd like to mention."
Phoebe waves away the southern facility's hologram, returning to the topographical Tarus II map.
"Look here. The King Cannons are immensely powerful, but they are also fragile. Once the demons figure out the cannons' location, if they choose to attack them, they can easily destroy them. I've protected the King Cannons, as well as my southern facility, with holographic obfuscation technology. Even up close, it's nearly impossible to locate the cannons, but every time they fire, the stealth net will go down for a moment, revealing their position. This will make it easy for the demons to find and destroy them."
Blinker nods. "Like Ose's mansion."
"Additionally," Phoebe continues, "the King Cannons have limited ammunition available. I always envisioned them as being supplementary to Jason and Hope's power, giving us a powerful area-attack, but with the Wordsmiths missing, they will end up being our primary suppression device against the demons. If so, then we'll need to establish munition supply lines to keep them continuously firing at all times. The supply line will come from the east side of Hero City up along the northern border until it reaches the Horned Forest. From there, it will continue until it reaches the Sphinx Mountain Range, where the personnel we place can take the shells and reload the King Cannons. At any point, demons might disrupt this supply line, thus rendering the cannons useless. Without ammunition, they will be little more than giant, decorative statues atop the mountains."
Brunhilda pipes up. "So, you wish for me to take control of protecting the King Cannons?"
"That's right. While the number of personnel required to operate the King Cannons is minimal, we will need a substantial number of troops available to guard the mountains themselves from demonic attacks. Think you're up to the task?"
"Naturally," Brunhilda replies.
Phoebe nods. "Good. I have some positive news to report as well, which you all will doubtless find comforting."
She touches the hologram and draws a circle around the warp-gate encampment. "I came up with a temporary fix for the burrower problem. I didn't want them to easily breach our lines by burrowing under us, so I cobbled together a few experimental devices. I call them 'seismic mines.' They detonate when they detect seismic activity nearby. If the Burrowers try to dig a tunnel near a seismic mine, they will perish a quick, explosive death."
Blinker lands on Phoebe's shoulder. "When the heck did you make those?"
"Today," Phoebe says. "Took me about eight hours. I only synthesized a couple hundred of them, and I attached them to mechanical moles to ensure they end up deep beneath our feet. However, given my limited amount of time, I only managed to surround the warp-gate encampment with them, as well as place a few beneath Hero City. Once a few Burrowers explode, they'll doubtless be able to continue forward, unabated. Luckily, the sensors will still give me an idea of where they're headed."
"You think of everything." Brunhilda says, admiration in her eyes.
"I wish that were the case. I'm only human, so I can't anticipate a demon's thought processes. Doubtless, Ose is sure to find a gap in our defenses. Don't get starry-eyed on me, not unless we actually survive this awful war."
Once again, Phoebe points at the holographic map. "Look over here, to the west of the encampment. There are thirty-seven miles of unprotected land between here and the ocean. If the demons escape in that direction, they'll be able to spread out and go around our borders, as I haven't built any defenses in that area. The King Cannons can certainly fire that far, but their accuracy and coverage will decrease substantially. Lieutenant Samuel, I'll rely on you to keep an eye on the western and southern sides of the encampment, while Princess Brunhilda will be in charge of guarding the Sphinx Mountains to the north. We cannot let the demons stake out a safe haven to the west. If they do, they'll likely summon countless portals to the Labyrinth, removing our chokepoint advantage. We have to keep them pinned down at the Tarus II warp-gate, or else they will rapidly overwhelm us with numbers."
Samuel nods. "As long as I get to kill bloodskins, you can count me in."
Phoebe frowns. "Demons, Lieutenant. Demons. Enough with the god-damned slurs."
"I don't care if you like my language or not," Samuel says, his face emotionless. "Bloodskins killed my brother. They butchered him like livestock. Don't preach to me that compassion nonsense. In my eyes, they're all filthy animals in need of extermination."
"Demons tortured my people for countless generations," Elder Skarde chimes in. "We have known nothing but fear and subservience to the bloodskins my whole life. Commander Phoebe, you may feel some twinge of compassion for the murderous wretches, but we do not. We only fight the bastards because of the horrors they've exacted upon us. If you want our help, then you will find a way to deal with our feelings."
After seeing the other two leaders stand up for their beliefs, Chadwick adds his two cents. "With all due respect, Commander, how many demons do you know who are righteous and pure? One? Ten? A hundred? You may have the utmost faith in Belial and others like her, but we do not. I have fought alongside Neil and Hope countless times when rescuing human slaves from the core. Some of the things I saw..."
The General starts to fall silent, only to notice a look of curiosity in the faces of Elder Skarde and Princess Brunhilda, both of whom have never stepped foot in the Labyrinth except for its Core.
"I saw a young man who was half-dead," Chadwick mutters, his voice low. "the poor kid had all the skin on his back melted and fused together. His bloodskin tormentor pressed him against a wall after burning him, then left him there, with his skin stuck to the stone. When Hope found him, the boy was half-dead and delirious with pain. It took Hope fifteen minutes of Wordsmithing to heal the boy's injuries. The lad later killed himself because of the lasting mental pain we couldn't erase."
General Chadwick glances at Phoebe, noticing with interest that for once, she doesn't appear angry at his words. "That boy was not the exception, but the rule. The bloodskins treat us worse than cattle, worse than bugs. They enjoy our suffering. I see no way we can ever truly cohabit with them. Perhaps you might be capable of picking out one or two decent ones, but the rest are all irredeemable, violent psychopaths. We must eradicate them for the good of the galaxy."
Despite a three-pronged verbal assault from Samuel, Elder Skarde, and Chadwick, Phoebe appears unmoved.
"Do you think I don't know all that?"
Commander Hiro tilts her chin up slightly, allowing her to look down upon the still-seated Chadwick.
"I'm well aware of the atrocities demons have committed. I am not Jason, and as such, I don't believe in trying to save all, or even most of them. My husband is a good man. He tries to look at demons as sinners, those who were led astray early in their history. They were born from bloodshed, and so that is all they know. Or so Jason claims."
Phoebe raises her hand and waggles a finger. "I do not think the same thoughts as Jason, General Chadwick. I do not believe demons are necessarily redeemable, but I do believe that they are not irredeemable. That is why I find myself disgusted when you refer to them with such gross, offensive slurs. Not because I think your hatred is misguided, but because as long as we treat them as inherently evil villains, we will never have even a chance to mend the rift between our species. Hate the demons and wish for their deaths all you want, for I will not stop you from thinking such thoughts. However, please understand that we humans must be better than our enemies. We must show them with our conduct that, so long as they own up to their actions and accept the appropriate punishment, we will always be willing to forgive, if not forget their pasts."
The Commander falls silent, allowing her words to germinate in the ears of those present. Blinker sits on her shoulder silently, saying nothing, while Brunhilda and Corporal Hurent stew in their own private thoughts.
General Chadwick rubs his knee contemplatively. "Hrm. I do not fully understand why you so often choose to defend the demons. Perhaps I never will. I merely wish you would not try to dissuade people from referring to the demons as 'bloodskins,' like they deserve."
"'Deserve' is a strong word, General," Phoebe retorts. "From what I've gathered, humanity stomped on the faces of the demons countless generations ago, and they retaliated in kind. Do we not deserve hatred from them as well?"
"That is a different situation entirely."
"So you claim," Phoebe snaps back. "But, if you so desperately wish to lump all the members of a sentient species under one definition, I suppose I cannot stop you. We haven't time to sit here and wax philosophical about our beliefs, so let's just hold off on the comebacks for today. If we survive this invasion, we'll return to this discussion at a later time."
Chadwick nods. "Very well."
Elder Skarde and Samuel both share a glance with one another, revealing neither of them plans to change their minds, but at the least, they fall silent to allow Phoebe's continued debriefing.
"Right. Let's finish this, then," Phoebe says. The Commander disables the Tarus II topographical map, and instead summons a series of images of various soldiers standing at attention, all of them wearing basic military uniforms with T-REX's strapped across their chests.
"I've finished doling out the new exosuit models I prepared in advance. Allow me to debrief you on their functionality."
The first trooper's image shimmers and shifts, adorning him in a shiny silver armor, one which all of the generals are familiar with.
"This is the basic T-REX, a mass-produced model with no obvious flaws that merely enhances the average human warrior's speed and durability to beyond that of a Demon Lord. It also helps with aim assist on projectile-based weapons, and features a low-level pilot-assistance mode capable of augmenting its wearer's dodging capabilities mid-battle. An excellent suit for any beginner, but one the demons have long grown used to seeing."
The next trooper also shifts his appearance, appearing in a silver-and-red exosuit with a few utility modules attached to its arms and waist. The red coloration extends in a cross-like shape across the trooper's chest.
"This is Mark I of the Clinician battlesuit. It has lower strength and speed than the basic T-REX, but in exchange, it features greater durability and advanced pilot assistance support. I designed it with our battlefield medics in mind. We can't rely on rescue devices to save all of our downed troops, so having field medics on hand will be essential to saving as many lives as possible. The Clinician also features several medical devices capable of prolonging a dying soldier's life, including nano-injectors to seal and repair wounds."
Corporal Hurent, one of the more technically-minded of the leaders present, nods appreciatively. "I'd have liked to have a few of those on hand when we fought in the Core."
"As would we all," Phoebe replies.
The Commander moves on to the third exosuit, one with an identical silver coloring scheme to the first exosuit, but with four 'struts' sticking out of its back.
"Previously, we've had to rely on Harpies for their excellent battlefield mobility and flight capabilities. Now, we have another option. The Mark I Hummer is our first flight-capable battlesuit, but I've only managed to manufacture fifty of them, so far. The wing struts on the back allow for limited durations of swift flight, but extended amounts of hovering capabilities. Think of them as mobile sniper platforms, rather than flying assault weapons."
"I can already imagine several uses for the Hummer," Chadwick says, his voice low.
Phoebe doesn't reply. She activates the next hologram, revealing a truly menacing-looking exosuit, one with gold and black coloration, a metal horn on its helmet, and two others on its shoulders. With much bulkier armor than the previous exosuits, as well as a long impaling rod sticking out above each wrist, it looks like a nasty melee-capable battlesuit.
Audible gasps go up among the leaders present, making Phoebe smile.
"This is the Mark I Rhino. Truly exclusive, I've only made twenty of them. Each is a precious asset, featuring fifty percent thicker armor than other exosuits and razor-sharp nanite rods for 'sticking it' to the demons. Advanced cooling capabilities also make it effectively immune to flame-based attacks from all but the most extreme sources. I designed them for frontline usage, improving the power of each of our best commandos. Naturally, I hope you'll be the first to try one out, Samuel."
Lieutenant Samuel grins evilly. "Oh, yes. I'll be able to do a lot of damage with one of those."
"I'm sure you will. Let's finish with the last two suits, both of which you should all be familiar."
This time, the holographic trooper shifts his appearance into a stealthy jet-black exosuit, one with the same sleek design as the basic exosuit model, but fewer 'cracks' it its surface. Most notably, four long, metallic 'tendrils' stick out of its back and writhe around like an ant's antennae.
Chadwick blinks in surprise. "A Spectre? We have hundreds of those already, don't we?"
"Correct. This Spectre is different, though, as it's a second generation exosuit. I'm sure all of you have noticed the odd-looking tendrils on its back. I call them 'Needlers,' and they will be key for maximizing the Mark II's improvements over the first generation. In addition to greatly improved passive stealth capabilities in shadow, the Mark II Spectre can initiate Level III cloaking at will, granting it five minutes of near-perfect stealth capabilities. Most importantly, it now features nearly infinite Level II stealth capabilities, meaning it can remain invisible indefinitely so long as the user keeps their movement to a minimum. It will be excellent for setting up ambushes."
"What function do the 'Needlers' perform?" Brunhilda asks. "They look like headless black snakes."
"More than you can imagine," Phoebe replies. "The Needlers allow the user to scale walls and cliffs, assassinate multiple enemies at once, manipulate tools, and countless other such feats. Think of them as four additional limbs, each one stronger and much more flexible than your arm. They can wrap around an enemy's neck to choke him out, or they can pick locks by deforming their shape... the possibilities are endless."
"Amazing as always, Miss Hiro," Chadwick says, bowing his head respectfully. "If we had these suits during the Core invasion, perhaps we could have defeated the demons instead of suffering such a terrible loss."
Phoebe purses her lips. "Not necessarily. The Spectre suits sacrifice durability and defensive capacity in exchange for speed and stealth. Their offensive-power is also sub-par, making them only good for assassination and espionage. In a giant arena like the Core, Spectre pilots would have perished the fastest."
"Ah. I'll defer to your expert opinion, then," Chadwick mutters, slightly embarrassed.
Phoebe clears her throat. This time, when the last trooper shifts his appearance, looks of surprise appear on Chadwick, Corporal Hurent, and Samuel's faces.
"Hm?" Samuel says. "Isn't that...?"
"Yes," Phoebe replies. "It's the suit Neil wore during the Core invasion: The Thundercat Mark II."
The final trooper hologram changes to reveal a bright blue, red, and golden exosuit, one with a bulky golden gauntlet on its left wrist. Three Wolverine-like blades stick out of the gauntlet, suitable for ripping and tearing, while the trooper also sports a vicious-looking nanosword in his right hand.
"Another Mark II," Chadwick marvels. "It's much flashier than the Mark I, particularly with its coloration. You must have given Neil one before the battle."
"His bodyguards too," Phoebe affirms. "Neil didn't get much time to learn its many functions, and sadly, neither will our troops. However, I'll tell you right now what to expect. The Transforming Exogauntlet on its left arm is a powerful utility item comparable to the Spectre's Needlers. It can become a hammer, a blade, a shield, or anything you need for the situation at hand. Merely describe a shape, and Centurion will attempt to replicate it."
Phoebe gestures toward the holographic trooper's right hand. "This nanosword is equally dangerous. When combined with the Thundercat's reinforced defensive capabilities, it will allow its pilot to fight on the front lines alongside our Rhino-wearing troopers. Since the Thundercat Mark II is a modification of the Mark I, we already have several thousand of them available, along with the new Spectres. I advise you to quickly debrief your troops about the additional functions of these new exosuits, as we won't have much time to train them in their various intricacies once the demons invade."
After taking a long, deep breath, Phoebe exhales.
"Alright. Let's wrap this up. Any questions?"
Chadwick runs his fingers through his beard. "Do you have anywhere you'd like to station us?"
"Ah! I almost forgot. Thank you for reminding me."
Phoebe re-engages the topographical map and points toward the southern side of Hero City.
"Over here, this area is part of the southern prison complex, where I've created a specialized Demon Containment Facility. We must ensure the demons don't locate Beelzebub and Artorias. Keep them locked up at all costs. Corporal Hurent, I'm putting you in charge of defending the prison."
The Corporal nods. "Yes, Commander. I'm already familiar with their layout, as I took our prisoners there earlier."
"Good. I'll need you to pull double-duty keeping an eye on Hero City's eastern flank, too. The south and east sides are among our most vulnerable, so if the demons break containment from the warp-gate, I want to know at once if they reach our flanks."
Phoebe turns her attention toward the others. "Princess Brunhilda. As stated before, you're in charge of protecting the King Cannons and their supply line. Samuel, you're in charge of guarding the southern and western side of the warp-gate encampment. Chadwick, I want you on command duty for the vast majority of our main forces, particularly between Hero City and the encampment. However, Elder Skarde, you may have the most complex job of all."
Elder Skarde frowns. "In what way?"
"You'll be our final defensive line. You will protect Hero City, especially the north side's Covenant ships. You must ensure Burrowers don't make it past our defensive lines, and that any Warpers get taken out before they can circle around to our flanks."
"I will do my best," Skarde replies.
Blinker hops off Phoebe's shoulder and flies around excitedly. "Ooh, ooh, what about me? What do I get to do?"
Phoebe smiles. "Are you fully healed?"
"Yeppers! Samantha got me all fixed up! Kar's still healing, though. I dunno when he'll be ready to return."
Phoebe's smile deepens. The memory of what Blinker told her before the debriefing, regarding Daisy, leaves butterflies in her stomach. However, for some reason, she keeps her mouth shut and doesn't mention it in front the other leaders.
"That's good. I'm glad we have Samantha at times like this. Well, even if Kar isn't back, I hope we can rely on you for support against the demons wherever they appear."
"Duh!" Blinker giggles. "I'll smush 'em flat! Those big red dummies won't know what hit 'em!"
Phoebe pokes Blinker's stomach playfully. Just watch yourself out there. If anything happened to you, it would devastate Kar."
Blinker rolls her eyes. "Psh. Don't you know who I am? I'm the Monster Queen. I'm strong as heck!"
Despite the fairy's tough words, Phoebe's eyes grow distant. "Yeah. But... be careful. Kar already lost one wife. I don't want to imagine what losing a second would do to him. I'd never forgive myself if something happened to you."
With one last, heavy sigh, Phoebe turns to the assembled leaders. "Alright, dismissed. Get out there and make Neil proud. If he's still alive, we'll mount a rescue operation once we survive this war."
Chadwick rises off his rock and raises an eyebrow. "You suddenly sound more confident than before."
Phoebe nods. "Neil always says a leader must look strong for his troops. I can only hope to live up to that ideal."
"As can we all. Words to live by," Chadwick mutters. With a nod of the head, he turns to leave. "I'll see you on the battlefield, Commander Hiro."
"Likewise," Phoebe replies.
The waning sun begins to fade behind clouds to the west, setting on the world of Tarus II and bringing the cover of darkness. As the humans disperse, with Blinker riding on Phoebe's shoulder, they all gaze at the setting sun with wistful eyes.
.......................................
Artwork time!
Basic T-REX.
Clinician T-REX.
Hummer T-REX.
Rhino T-REX.
Spectre T-REX.
Thundercat T-REX
This is Brunhilda!

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