Well, dear Family, this is a message full of surprises - certainly surprises to me...tonight as I was in worship, things started out as they usually do, I was dancing with the Lord. And I noticed I had on a black dress - an evening gown, a black evening gown with sequins that reflected light. He also was wearing black. We were dancing in kind of a formal ball setting. I was really questioning why I was wearing black, as that is a sign of mourning, yet we were dancing. I was a little confused on that. So I began:
"Lord, I don't understand why I am wearing a black sequined evening gown and yet dancing so gracefully with You as if we were at a ball or celebration of some kind."
"Because the whole world shall mourn and you shall mourn with them, but have deep inner joy, which the world cannot take away from you.
"We will dance through the times to come, as My judgment falls upon this nation and the world. We will behold it with one eye, while beholding Heaven with the other.
"As things come to a close here in America and around the globe, you will draw closer and closer to your Heavenly homeland.
"I know, Clare, you sense in your spirit that time is short - and indeed it is, My Love. Soon, I will be taking you away with Me forever and ever and ever. I will lavish on you all My gifts of Love and we will live happily ever after."
"Oh, Lord - that is so precious and exciting and my inner man trembles in hopes that it truly is You and truly this will come to pass soon."
"I guess I have no experience to compare it with, to hold on to... it is so far away from my reality. It's almost too good to be true."
He smiled, "Yes, My Love, I know well how you feel... but it is true, Clare, just as surely as I AM. It is true. And I know it's beyond what you can imagine - and that delights Me even more because I love to see you surprised and overwhelmed with My loving provision for you."
"Lord, how can I be happy knowing what mankind is suffering on this Earth and how You suffer with them? I really question this, as well as..."
"YES! I mean, there's so many rumors about us being trained and coming back to help during the Tribulation."
"You are going to enter into My Rest - you have labored and now you are going to rest. I have not called My Bride to be any part of this judgment that is coming. I am not removing you so you can watch from Heaven and suffer. Is that clear?"
"Well, I'm not. Your job is done here until I return. I will come to you for comfort, but I will not expose you to the horrors of Earth. I cannot and I will not."
"In My Divine plan, I have limits to what each one must undergo. I have purposes and I have limits. My love, do not question. Just accept. Just receive the gift of freedom from the alienation and troubles of this world."
"My Love, many think it's heroic virtue to come back and be present for the chastisement. They don't know what they are talking about. My angels have been prepared for what is to come, they alone will be a part of what is to happen."
"But what about our prayers from Heaven when we see You praying...surely we will pray, too? Our children! How can we not respond to that?"
"There will be times when you will pray for them, but your knowledge will be so far above what it is now, that even then, what you pray will be for their best. No longer will you be dramatically tied into them, rather you will see them as I see them - as a part of humanity that must be purified from sin. It will not lessen your affection but it will change your perspective to one of seeing from Heaven."
"Exactly. You will love them...from a distance and yet, as their mother. It will all make sense to you then, My Love. It truly will."
"So, we will not be returning during the Tribulation or get to see all the things going on here on the Earth?"
"No. You will not. You will touch in from time to time, to give them courage but you will not be a part of the drama...rather more like an apparition that speaks encouragement, but not engaged in the painful realities.
"You see, your reality is going to be so much more different. In a sense, it will be impossible for you to get emotionally involved on the same level you are on now, in your body, on Earth. Your whole world and reality will be so different.
"I know it is hard for you to grasp this concept...although I do see a little light breaking through."
He smiled. "You see, things are so different in Heaven, even now you cannot compute how you will react or see Earth from Heaven. It is the true reality. What you are in now is only a mist. When you've been distanced from it... well, there's just no way for Me to explain it, you have to experience it, My Love. But, you can take My word for it. Will you?"
"Well, I do have a peace about it now that I rebuked that unbelief. I have a deep peace, Jesus, that You are speaking the truth to me, and that it shall be as You have said."
"Moving on. There are many who will be disappointed that they cannot come back and be a part of the drama. To you I say: Please, take My word for it, you would only get in the way. You would suffer what was intended for the reprobate. You have proven your love for Me and I will not have you go through these things with those who have shown scorn and contempt for Me.
"However, you will get your chance when we return together. Then you will have your assignments and all will be new, full of expectations and opportunities for you to use your gifts. Oh, the plans I have for you, My Bride - they are so exciting! So wonderful! And you will be fully equipped to do all that is in your heart that you have longed to do.
"Yes, you will be perfectly equipped. Your music will flourish, your playing will be nothing less than perfection, and the anointing will bring hearts to Me, to heal and restore. You see, that is what you are all expecting - you're just getting ahead of Me by thinking it will be during the chastisement.
"You will all have the opportunity to do everything that is in your heart and so, so much more that I have planned for you. No longer will you labor and see no results because of the hardness of hearts. No, hearts will be wide open to receive all that you have to give.
"Oh, REJOICE MY BRIDES!! Rejoice! Great is your reward, and great shall be your assignments. Rejoice! Look forward to this. Yes indeed, you will dance in the black dress, one eye on Heaven and one on the Earth, but your reality shall be in My Arms, not in sackcloth and ashes.
"Oh, yes Lord, I believe I am. I believe in You, Jesus. You speak only the truth and I have come to understand that You truly are preparing us for what is to occur very quickly."
"Thank you My Love, thank you for receiving. My heart leaps for joy that finally you have settled this question in your heart, and you truly have heard the voice of your Shepherd.
"And I have told you I will never cease to work in you to bring you into the reality of My faithful voice. It is I who will do these things, and all that I need from you is what you just gave Me.
"Thank you My Love, thank you ever so much for believing in Me. I adore you, Clare, and I have spoken My words through you and I will continue to speak them until the day you come Home with Me."
The past few years have witnessed the morphing of search engine optimization (SEO) into search engine marketing (SEM). And, as you are undoubtedly aware, SEM is a multi-faceted endeavor that demands careful integration of online marketing strategies. Today's astute SE marketer knows that page optimization, inbound linking strategies, and paid placements all dovetail together to form the winning combinations that drive traffic to sites that generate profits.
Of course, one of the cornerstones of SEM is Google's AdWords Program. However, unlike traditional pay-per-click advertising where the top placement is awarded to the top bidder, AdWords uses a formula that allows the underdog to triumph over advertising behemoths who might otherwise just buy the top ranking. On AdWords, one can rise to the top of the listings with a lesser bid by simply offering a more compelling ad that motivates visitors to "click" more often.
Perhaps you already know all that - but, what you may not already know are the various ways to beat the competition by making some lesser known, but very smart, choices within your AdWords setup and your keyword selections.
Unlike traditional pay-per-click engines, Google bases its ad ranking formula around two values - the cost per click (CPC) and the click-thru rate (CTR). Your CPC is what you pay every time someone clicks your ad. This fee is set according to the maximum amount you have agreed to pay for each click and typically reflects the competitiveness of search queries you're bidding on. If no one else is bidding on the same search queries, then your CPC would only be the $0.05 per click minimum fee. The opposite is also true. Popular search queries are more competitive and therefore bid considerably higher. Such competitiveness can substantially increase the CPC it takes to become the top bidder.
Your CTR indicates the percentage of people who actually click on your ad as compared to the number of people who see your ad. Each time your ad is seen, that's called an impression. If your ad gets 100 impressions and one person clicks, then your CTR is 1%.
The method Google uses to determine the numerical position of your ad in relation to your competitors' ads is determined by the following formula:
To see how this works, imagine you're bidding on the search query (keyword/keyphrase) cell phones. Your company, CheapCells, is competing for this same keyphrase with two other companies, BestCells and TopCells. You've decided that you will bid a maximum of $0.09 per click for this keyphrase. For every 100 people who see your ad, 3 are clicking on it, so you have a 3% CTR. Let's see how your position index (PI) compares to that of your competitors:
Here you can see that, even though BestCells only has a CPC of $0.08, they will still rank higher than you because their 5% CTR gives them a higher position index. This is the great thing about AdWords - lower bids can still outrank higher bids if they can motivate more people to click their ad.
What about TopCells? Even though they've bid a higher CPC, their lower CTR means that you both end up with the same position index. In this case, Google uses the advertiser's maximum bid - the top price you're willing to pay for a click - to determine who will rank higher. Since AdWords is based on an automatic bidding process, if someone obtains a higher PI than you - either through increasing their CPC or by achieving a higher CTR - Google will increase your CPC up to your maximum bid until your PI index is greater than theirs. This continues until you've either obtained top ranking or you've reached your maximum bid.
In this example, let's say that you decide to increase your maximum bid to $0.12, while TopCells increases theirs to $0.15. In the previous scenario, you both had a 0.27 PI. In this situation, Google will engage in an automatic bidding war until one of you emerges victorious. Assuming your CTR remains the same, Google will increase each of your CPCs until one of you reaches your max bid. When this happens, the following situation emerges:
At this point, your company, CheapCells, has maxed out. The only way to increase your PI now is to increase your max bid or get a higher CTR (generally by writing more effective ad copy that draws more clicks). Notice that BestCells is still ranking in position one, with a PI of 0.40, even though their CPC is far lower than anyone else's. This is because they have written compelling ad copy that is attracting more clicks giving them the best of both worlds - more clicks for less money (Hint: perhaps you should emulate what you can from BestCell's ad copy to increase your own CTR).
TopCells, on the other hand, still has room to grow, since they set their max bid at $0.15. AdWords' automatic bidding process continues to increase TopCells' CPC until they have a higher PI than BestCells. That happens when TopCells reaches their maximum bid of $0.15:
This puts TopCells in position one, placing its ad above all other competitors' ads. But notice that TopCells is paying nearly twice as much per click as their next closest competitor, BestCells. And, BestCells could easily move TopCells out of the top position by increasing their max bid by just one cent.
This underscores the importance of CTR when running an AdWords campaign. AdWords allows you to remain competitive - even with a smaller budget - as long as your ads attract more clicks. And you can do that by making your ad copy more compelling and more relevant to the keywords that you're competing for.
Of course, a company with a huge advertising budget can still keep increasing their max bid to stay ahead of you, but at some point this becomes unprofitable for even the largest company. Not to say that a big company won't continue to pay large CPCs, but Google does tend to level the playing field by rewarding relevance and good ad copy, as opposed to just deep pocketbooks.
These examples illustrate that you can compete successfully, even in extremely competitive areas, by being smart and focusing on making your keywords and ad copy relevant to your customers' searches.