Our sermon title this evening is One for All, One for All. We're in Judges chapter 3 verse 31. And you can say that the title of the sermon tonight could be interpreted to mean one verse for the whole sermon, for all the sermon, and you'd be right about that one verse for all the sermon. But that's not the point behind the title this evening. Tonight we see the story of the third warrior judge who delivered Israel in the record of the judges. This is one champion for all the people. One warrior. One governor for all the people. One savior. One deliverer. One man sent by God, empowered by the Spirit to save the people of God out of bondage. And he uses an unexpected means by which to do it. He achieves an unexpected victory through that means. A Shamgar, the son of Anat, is legendary. It would have been legendary to the people of Israel and the annals of their history together. And his victory here emblazoned forever on the pages of the Bible in one verse. Judges chapter 3 verse 31. As we consider the one verse exploits of the one verse wonder Shamgar, we see that the ultimate warrior champion, deliverer and savior of his people in this account has got himself. And we'll see that as we work through the text together. But our text now begins in judges chapter 3 verse 31 with the words then after him. After him. Well, after who? We have to ask the question, right? Well, obviously after Ehud, the south paw from the tribe of Benjamin, who took down Eglon king of Moab in chapter 3 verses 12 through 30. Shamgar came after Ehud. Before Ehud was Othniel, the lion from the tribe of Judah who defeated that twice son of hell, Kushan Rishithaim from Mesopotamia. And we have then after Othniel, after Ehud comes Shamgar. Now, two points at the outset that I want us to look at from the words that we can infer from the words after him at the beginning of verse 31. Two points that we can infer from the words after him. One, from after him we can infer that the nation of Israel has continued in their ongoing rebellion against God. They've continued in their rebellion. And point two that we can infer from after him is that God has continued to demonstrate his mercy in delivering his people. God has been very gracious with the Israelites and the after him signifies the Lord's gracious deliverance yet again. So under the leadership now of Ehud in chapter 3 verse 29, and all due to the grace of God, the Moabites have been delivered into the hands of Israel. We saw that in the victory last week of Ehud over Eglon king of Mesopotamia. And 10,000 stout men of Valor had been killed, not a man of all that army had escaped. 10,000, a large number of completion, meaning that entire army was wiped out. These are 10,000 stout men of Valor that had been killed. And in verse 30, under Ehud the judge, the land then had rest for 80 years. So now think about the setting with me. 80 years has since passed. Ehud has since died. And the people once again, we know from the text, once again, plunged themselves headlong into idolatry. This is according to the pattern. It's been well established for us in the book so far. And it's a pattern that we were introduced to in chapter 2, verse 19, where the Bible reads it came to pass that when the judge was dead, that they, the children of Israel, reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers by following other gods to serve them and to bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way. So what we see vividly portrayed in the words after him is that the people continue to rebel.  The people cry out in response, cry out for delivery. They plead for mercy in their misery. God hears their cry, raises up a judge to deliver them, gives them rest, and then when the judge dies, what happens? The people revert to sin and idolatry, behaving even more wickedly than they had behaved before. It's like that parable, isn't it, of the man who sweeps out his heart, demon leaves, he sweeps it out, cleans it up. When the demon returns, he finds it swept and cleaned and so he bites seven of his buddies to come and inhabit that man with him. Just increasing wickedness, increasing devastation. They behave even more wickedly than they had behaved before. Notice, it's not only a pattern here that's being repeated, but the pattern is being repeated along a downward spiral. Increasing wickedness, they're not remaining level, right? It's increasing devastation. It's not remaining status quo, it's not remaining level. Wickedness is increasing, the destruction is going to increase. And we're going to see that as we work through the Book of Judges, these circumstances growing worse and worse and worse over time following the pattern. Now, in verse 31 then, the arrival of Shamgar after him or after Ehud, verse 31, indicates that this pattern of rebellion, this pattern of judgment has continued. And the Lord continues to send deliverers and judges because this pattern cannot continue, okay? The Lord continues to deliver his people, to be merciful to his people, continues to send judges because this pattern cannot continue. It cannot continue in Israel, it's going to get progressively worse. We'll see that in the Book of Judges. When we get to the monarchy, it continues to get progressively worse. Eventually, there's civil war in Israel, the southern kingdom provided from the northern kingdom. The northern kingdom goes off into exile in Assyria, gets wiped out by the Assyrians, never recovers. The southern kingdom taken off in exile to Babylon, things get worse and worse and worse. It doesn't just remain level. Sin never does, rebellion never does. It follows this downward spiral. The wickedness of the nation here in the Book of Judges continues to increase. The judges themselves become more and more morally compromised. We'll see that when we work through the Book. Monarchy fares no better. Eventually, the northern and southern kingdoms are exiled. And when the Messiah comes, He came to his own, and what does John say? His own received him not. The Lord says, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, given to a nation that bears the fruit of it. They had lost their inheritance, so to speak. He tells them that their house is left to them desolate. This is the way that sin works. This is the way that sin works. If you are entertaining sin, if you are entertaining compromise, and you're not taking aggressive action against it, if you're not cutting off and plucking out that which causes you to sin, there will come a time when you're no longer shamed by it. There will come a time when you become complacent with it. Where you just aren't embarrassed by it, just aren't convicted by it, just aren't ashamed of it. When you just don't feel conviction any longer. When your convictions become dulled. When your heart becomes dulled and cold. When your conscience becomes faint. Sin spreads like eleven. It always does. It will spread until it consumes the one it spreads in. It'll consume a person. Sin can consume a church. Sin can consume a people. We see that here in the book of Judges. Sin continues to spread until it destroys its host. Sin spreads like eleven. It will not stop its defiling spread until you are destroyed. James says that sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Now listen, for Christians, even today, for people who profess the name of Christ, you may think to yourself, I've turned from sin. I don't want my sin anymore. I want to follow Christ.  Maybe it's just indifference. Maybe your sin is apathy. Maybe you have a secret sin you're not willing to give up and you continue to entertain that secret sin. Listen, sin will take you. Sin will continue to spread. It may seem to you like it's neutral. Or you may think that there's just a period of pause, for example, or maybe it's plateaued. Things are just remaining level. It's never level with the spread of sin. It's never level. Sin begins to grow. Sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Have you noticed how everything in the created order, how everything decays into filth and then death and then the Lord renews and restores it? Have you noticed that pattern in Scripture? Everything apart from the Lord decays. Everything apart from the Lord is destroyed, is decays until death. The Lord has to come along and the Lord is the one who has to renew it and restore it. You and I are no different. You and I must be made what? New creations in Christ. We have to be born again. We need a new heart. We need a new spirit to indwell us. You and I must be made a new creation. Because there is no hope in us that things will get better apart from a miraculous intervening work of a living God, you and I need the Lord. We need reformation. And everything does. This world will one day be made over. The elements will melt with the fervent heat and this world will be remade. A new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells. Amen? Things are not going to get better. We need the Lord. That's why we need the Lord. Things are not going to get better for Israel. This should point them forward to God's ultimate and final deliverer, the ultimate Savior that God would send. Things are not going to get better. Now notice, again, the nation of Israel has continued in their rebellion. That's one thing that we get from after Him. But the second observation we can make from the words after Him is that God has continued to demonstrate His mercy in delivering His people. God is seen in the book of Judges as the constant and consummate Savior. God just continues to pour out mercy and continues to deliver His people even in the midst of their sin. Judges chapter 3 verse 31, after Him came Shamgar, God's appointed deliverance. Shamgar, the son of Anat, who killed 600 men of the Philistines with an ox code, and He also delivered Israel. So think with me now. After God raised up Ehud, after God delivered His people by Ehud's hand, and after the people again did evil in the sight of the Lord, after they once again forgot the Lord their God and served the idols of the land, after the anger of the Lord, then burned hot again after Israel, and after the Lord delivered them into the hands of their Philistine oppressors in judgment, after they once again cried out in their misery, after that God raised up another warrior judge after Ehud, after Him was Shamgar, the son of Anat. He also delivered Israel. After God displayed His mercy and power and might through Ehud, God displays His continued mercy and power and might through Shamgar. Our God is a saving God. Our God delights to save. Our God plans and purposes to save. Our God, there's a record of God's delivering acts throughout the Bible. Genesis to Revelation, God is a saving God, planning and purposing to save. Ultimately, ultimately that comes through the Lord Jesus Christ, our ultimate Savior. He is going to glorify His name through the redemption of His people. Now God shows Himself to be uncompromisingly set on this decreed purpose. He is going to save His people. God told the people during Jeremiah's day, He said in Jeremiah's day, I have sent you all my servants, the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying do not do this abominable thing that I hate. God is pictured as one who rises early for the deliverance of His people. He rises early to send His prophets. He rises early to save. The Lord told Isaiah. He said, my counsel shall stand. I will accomplish all my purpose. The Lord told Ezekiel. I am the Lord. And the word which I speak will come to pass.  The Lord set His face like a flint toward Jerusalem. You see it in the Lord's promise under the New Covenant. Listen to this from Ezekiel chapter 36, beginning in verse 23. The Lord says, and I will sanctify my great name. The Lord intends to do it. It will come to pass. He says, my great name, I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when I am hallowed in you before their eyes. The Lord of hosts will do it. You see then Shamgar is a picture. Shamgar becomes an episode, so to speak, in a more grand narrative in which God is setting about the salvation of His people. Shamgar becomes a picture, an illustration. Shamgar points to a greater redemptive reality. Shamgar is a shadow of God's greater and ultimate saving and delivering work in the person of His only begotten Son. By the one man, think with me, by the one man, Shamgar, the Lord delivered His people from their bondage to the Philistines. Much more, as Paul would say, the grace of God and the gift of the grace by the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. Shamgar is a picture of that gracious outpouring of God's mercy in Jesus Christ. Listen to Romans 5 verse 18. Paul says, therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation. Even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous.  Make the connection. One man, Shamgar, through an unexpected means and unexpected instrumentality, so to speak, Shamgar delivers God's people from oppression under the Philistines by killing 600 Philistine soldiers. One man champion for all. We see that as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, don't we? Through one man's disobedience, Adam, sin entered the world and death through sin. But through the one man's righteous act, the Lord Jesus Christ, God delivers his people. God saves his people. Shamgar kills 600 Philistines. The Lord of glory destroys our worst enemy, sin and death. Jesus Christ, Colossians 2 verse 15, having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. The Lord Jesus Christ has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. He is able, as Paul says, He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, our glorious Savior. Like Israel, like Israel, you and I deserve to be under the judgment of our sin. We deserve to be under judgment.  That is our just reward for our sin against Him. Like Israel, deserving judgment, we are utterly powerless to save ourselves. Paul describes us as dead in trespasses and sins, dead. We are sons of disobedience, children of our Father the devil. We are under the prince of the power of the air as those who are apart from the Lord Jesus Christ in their sin. Like Israel, we deserve to be under the judgment of God. Shamgar comes along then, empowered by the Spirit of God, goad in hand, right, faced down 600 Philistines. David, later, empowered by the Spirit of God, slain in hand, faced down the giant Goliath. Jesus Christ, our Lord, empowered by the Spirit of God also, taking the cross in hand, faced down all our enemies forever and ever, amen. Principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this age, spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places, the dragon that serpent of old called devil and the Satan, all of our sin, the wrath of Almighty God, poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation and the last enemy which is death. And he triumphed over all of them in the cross. All when you and I couldn't stand before God with even one of our sins standing against us. You and I can't stand. Lord, if you should mark iniquity, who could stand? Not a man alive, not a person. No one could stand if God should mark iniquities. All of us would fail to stand before God with even one of our sins arrayed against us.   Think about just one sin. Just one sin. That sin that plunged the human race into darkness in the garden. Can you face your own sins? Can you face God with one sin accounted to your record? One sin on your ledger, the guilt of one sin standing against you. Can you strike them down? Not one sin, not one shred of guilt.  So in matchless love, in abounding grace, God from the riches of his mercy sends forth his conquering and triumphant savior. And he wins his great victory in a way that confounds the wisdom of the wise. That's the picture we see of Shamgar. He wins a victory in a way that confounds the wisdom of the wise. Has God not made foolish the wisdom of this world? Paul would ask, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Ford has written, he catches the wise in their own craftiness. Here he does so with Shamgar. How does he do it with Shamgar? In verse 31. Shamgar's very likely a Gentile. It's interesting to think about that. He's obscure. We can't be certain exactly who he is or where he came from. But he's described here in verse 31 as the son of Anat, the son of Anat. Now if you remember from a sermon in the earlier part of Judges, Anat was the consort of Baal. She was a pagan Canaanite fertility goddess. And this pagan cult goddess was eventually recognized by Egypt, was thought to have served Pharaoh as the goddess of war. In other words, that pagan idol Anat, the consort of Baal, was absorbed into the pantheon of gods in Egypt, and the Egyptians worshipped Anat just like these Canaanites did. Now archaeology, it's interesting. Archaeology uncovered evidence of a small army of mercenary soldiers serving Pharaoh. It's about 800 men. They were called Ben Anat, or sons of Anat. And these mercenaries fought primarily for Pharaoh against what was called the Sea Peoples, and these people we know today as the Philistines. So you have a small band, about 800 men, of mercenary soldiers who served Pharaoh fighting against the Philistines. Now think of this, the message then that this sends. Israel, what's the significance of this? If Shamgar was a Gentile son of Anat, a mercenary soldier fighting for Pharaoh against the Philistines, and God used Shamgar as an instrument by which he would deliver his people, what kind of message does that send? What's the purpose of that in God's redemptive plans? He's sovereign over all these circumstances. What would that mean? Well think of the message that this would send. Israel is rendered so impotent by their sin, rendered so weak, so hopeless by their idolatry that they can't do anything for themselves. They can't lift a single finger in their own deliverance. They are devoid of any power of their own. They have no power from God in their faithless condition. They've been delivered over to judgment. And God shows them how destitute of any hope they are, how shameful their condition really is by raising up a single Gentile man to deliver them. It's amazing, isn't it? It shows them their shame, shows them their impotence. How does God make foolish the wisdom of this world? He shames it with his own infinite wisdom. How does he cast down the arguments of the proud? He shows himself to be alone wise. So Shamgar very likely a Gentile. How else does God confound the wisdom of the wise using Shamgar here to deliver his people? Secondly, Shamgar wins with an ox-goed. He wins with an ox-goed. An ox-goed was a pole about eight feet long, six or so inches around the handle in circumference. Often there was a small iron spade at one end that you could dig or run around with. And there was an iron tip on the other end of that pole used to drive or goad oxen. Essentially, the ox-goed was a glorified stick. Sometimes that's all it was, was a stick. If they had a little bit of money, they would have put an iron tip on the end, right? Matthew Henry said, very obscure, but eminently serviceable for God's glory. You're going to beat them with a stick, okay? And Shamgar here collects 600 notches for his ox-goed. I'm not sure if eight feet is enough to put 600 notches on it. Shamgar gets 800 notches for his ox-goed. In other words, the victory here belongs entirely to the Lord. Entirely to the Lord. The Lord uses an obscure man, an obscure instrument. He uses an obscure means, an unexpected means. And ultimately you can set all your armies in battle array. You can line up all your chariots. You can line up all your horsemen. You can put all your stealth bombers, all your F-35s in the air, right? God's going to humble you with a stick. That's the way it works. God is sovereign. God is all-powerful. God is the one who decrees and his decrees come to pass.  At the end of the day, Shamgar didn't really even need a stick, did he? And at the end of the day, God didn't really even need Shamgar, did he? But God delights to manifest the work of his spirit through his instruments in that way. Zechariah chapter 4 verse 6. Zechariah says there's a rubble, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. The Lord of hosts delights to gain victory in ways that confound the wisdom of the wise. That's what we see with Shamgar here in Judges chapter 3. So God delivers his people. God wins a great victory and accomplishes all his will through an unexpected deliverer under unexpected circumstances using unexpected means. Well, if we think about that and we think about the fact that all Scripture points in some way or another to the Lord Jesus Christ, how did the Lord win our victory through Jesus Christ? Well, first, he won our victory through an unexpected deliverer. God the Son. God himself. 100% man, 100% God. Fully God, fully man. Not yet as a conquering king, but first as a suffering servant. An unexpected means. An unexpected deliverer using an unexpected means. Listen to Isaiah 53. Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? It would have been unimaginable, unbelievable if it hadn't been told to us, right? If it hadn't been revealed by God, this would be exactly how he would deliver his people. We wouldn't believe it. But because it comes from the Word of God, this is how we know, right? It's been revealed to us. Who's believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. He has no form, no comeliness. And when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised, rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised. We did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And the Lord saves through unexpected means, right? Through unexpected circumstances, through an unexpected savior, through an unexpected instrumentality. It's amazing, isn't it? The wisdom of God. Jesus would show his disciples that he must, quoting the Lord, that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day. And his disciples at the time didn't believe it, didn't understand it. It was unimaginable to them. They couldn't have seen how the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled all that prophecy in Scripture of the suffering servant. The truth of the matter is that Jesus Christ is also coming back. As much prophecy as we have of the Lord's first advent, where through an unexpected deliverer, through an unexpected means, under unexpected circumstances, through an unexpected instrumentality, God miraculously and gloriously glorifies himself in the salvation of his people. Also, there are prophecies that say the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back. As literally fulfilled as those first advent prophecies are, will be as literally and as exacting as the prophecies of his second advent are. Those prophecies will be fulfilled. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming back. And when he comes back, he comes back as the conquering warrior king. He will come back to deliver his people, to cast out the wicked. There will be in the new heavens and in the new earth no one who defiles. The Lord will be ultimately and totally and completely victorious. Like God's people, under Shamgar, when Shamgar won his victory against the Philistines, he gave the people of God rest. Of course, the people described by the pattern that we saw in Judges chapter two did not listen to their judges. And when the judge died, the people reverted, behaved more corruptly than their fathers had behaved before them, plunged themselves back into idolatry and incurred the judgment of God. What will you do? The Lord has given us a testimony of his saving purposes. We see that illustrated in Shamgar. We see that in Technicolor Splendor in the Lord Jesus Christ. What will you do? The Lord Jesus Christ offers you grace and mercy in his only begotten son. If you will put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have him as conquering Savior king. You just need to trust him. Turn from living life for yourself. If you don't turn from living life for yourself, then you're one of the Philistines. You're one of the Canaanites. You're one of those against whom the Lord Jesus Christ has arrayed himself in glory and power. Turn from your sin. Turn from your sin. Put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. And when the Lord comes back, we'll enjoy our victory together with him in the kingdom. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for this brief testimony of your conquering deliverer, Shamgar. And thank you, Lord, for how that points us, causes us to look beyond him, look beyond the the ox-goad, look beyond those circumstances, and look to the one whom he signifies, the one whom he illustrates, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we praise you and thank you, Lord, for how you illustrate these truths that have moved us by giving us these accounts and these records to help us to understand what it is that you've done in the Lord Jesus Christ, his person, his work, all that he's accomplished. And from the lesser to the greater, from the lesser to the infinitely greater, Lord, we're grateful to you for showing us all the blessings that have been won, that victory that has been secured, and all that comes down to us, your people who put our faith and trust in him for salvation. Thank you, Lord, for delivering us. Thank you, Lord, for saving us from our sin. Thank you, Lord, for saving us from the wrath of God. And thank you, Lord, for the inheritance that we now have with the saints in glory. Please, Lord, we pray that you will preserve us, Lord. Keep us from being like that dog that returns to his vomit. Keep us, Lord, from being like that pig to its wallowing in the mire. Preserve us, Lord, in the way. Help us to endure to the end and be saved. Help us, Lord, fastly abound in the work of the Lord. Keep our forehead like flint in the cause of Christ and help us, Lord, to live faithfully, diligently, fervently for you until you're done with us, Lord, until you call us home. And thank you, Lord, that it is you who preserve us and not we ourselves that were left to us, Lord, we would certainly repeat the pattern over and over and over again, Lord, until sin spread like a leaven at the point it brings forth death and destruction. We praise you, Lord, that you are the one who does the work.  You are the one who confounds the wisdom of the wise, confounds the wisdom of this world. We praise you, Lord, that you've done it all in the gospel through our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son. To him be all praise and glory and honor. Lord, to you be all praise, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.


for the introduction. I am excited to be here. This is my second year at WordCamp Phoenix, but my first time speaking. And the October comma is not optional, so I'm glad that I have some fellow enthusiasts in the room. So I'll start with a quick introduction we have a lot to go through. First, I'm Michelle Thomas, as she stated. I'm the Bluehost Content Manager. I live and reside and dream all things of life in the breakfast taco capital of the world, also known as Austin, Texas. And I'm a writer and photographer. Also have worked for Starwood Hotels. I'm sure one or two of you have stated a Sheraton, a Weston, a W. I wrote content for all 11 brands there. And I also am a social media and content strategist. So let's get started quickly with what content is. I like to think of content as the number one relationship builder between you and your customer. It's your way to engage and have an emotional connection with your customer. And if you think of this as information, experience, and engagement, you're able to analyze how to write that content to them. So think of all things form text, image, video, or audio as content. So what is good content then? That's simple. Good content is compelling. It's concise, and it's clear. So compelling content is meaning you have something worthwhile to say. It's something that someone would want to read. It's pretty simple. Concise meaning that it's clear. It's well thought out. It makes sense. And it has consistent tone and voice. And clear is, is your message well thought out? Have you written your words to flow properly? Do they make sense? Is there a lot of jargon, wordiness? So removing those things from your content. And again, since relationship is important with your customer, we know that we want to give them accurate and compelling, concise, and clear content. So what was content originally? When content was originally, when you think of content, you think of the written word in most cases. And that was the case in the early 2000s. However, things have changed. So actually, if we can get the screen down. So back then, content was newspapers, billboards, magazines, things that were in written form. So now that these mediums have evolved, content has changed as well. So major magazines and newspapers were forced into a new era of WWW. And instead of their content being on a piece of paper, it's now on a piece of the web. So now content looks a little bit different. Now content is 150 social media channels. It's YouTube, it's Facebook, it's Snapchat. It's all these different ways that people can spread their message to society. So each of these forms of content can be used individually. They can be used as a business. And they provide a unique opportunity to connect with your customer at 100 different touch points at the same time. And we can use tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to share these. You can easily write a blog post on WordPress, hit publish, and share it with 10 social networks at the same time. So now if we ask ourselves, with all these different options, all these different ways to get our message into the world, how do we know which medium is right to use? And the answer is simple. You have to understand your audience. So understanding your audience is the way that your business can continue to grow. If you're writing content to me and you're writing it for the gentleman here, I'm likely not going to purchase your product. So understanding your audience is the first way to write that content. So the first question I like to ask myself is what problem are we solving? And if you think of this as your audience, if I'm selling wrinkle cream, the problem is likely wrinkles. OK. And the solution is the cream to get rid of said wrinkles. So that is an easy way to figure out your audience, right? It's likely someone who's a little bit older, maybe, who has wrinkles or fine lines that they want to get rid of, but who purchases wrinkle cream? Is it me? Don't answer that question, by the way. I want us to remain friends, so don't answer that question. But the idea is that it may be simple to identify your target audience for wrinkle cream and for maybe baby food, which would likely be a mother. But something like camping gear can be a little less easy to figure out. And market research may be necessary in order to get that information. So if we think of market research, we know that we have to begin to understand these people. And I like to think of it as putting them into personas. Personas are a personality or a person who digests and consumes your product or your service. So a persona is an easy way to think of the different types of people that you may sell a product to. So camping gear, again, if we go back to that option, it could be someone like Dave, who is 35 and is a free thinker and a travel enthusiast. But it could also be someone like Manuel, who's a nature lover and a college student. They may consume their content in different ways, but they are still purchasing camping gear. So in my experience at Bluehost, obviously, most of you have met us already. We're a web hosting company. And everyone can use web hosting. So my customer could be a graphic designer who is looking to get their portfolio online. I'm sure there are a few graphic designers here today. Any? We have a few. OK. It could also be a bakery on the corner that wants to start selling cupcakes online. So I have to be able to write content for each of them at different times, not necessarily in the same piece of content. But I do have to write for each of them individually in order to get their business. So these personas are a good way to identify your audience, put them into a category, and understand how to better serve each of them. So if we go back to finding this audience, how do we know where to find them? So if we go back to wrinkle cream, do you think that you would find someone to buy wrinkle cream on Snapchat? Anyone buy wrinkle cream on Snapchat? No, probably not. OK. And the reason for that is because most people have identified the demographics for Snapchat do not meet the criteria for the audience of wrinkle cream. Snapchat users are over 85% under 34 years old. So it's not really the right platform to sell that product. So one of my favorite speakers, Gary Vaynerchuk, he has a saying that says, if you're not putting out relevant content in relevant places, it doesn't matter. You don't exist, and you're not able to sell your product or your service. So we have to identify the need for your product or your service. And a need in content is a little bit different than a need, let's say, for survival, like basic shelter, food, water. The need for content can be something that entertains like a meme, right? I may search for content for the reason for entertainment. I may want to see a puppy video to laugh on a bad day. I may want to read a meme to laugh, like why don't you blog? I don't understand. Do that. Blog, always blog. Or it could be that you're looking for an answer to a question, like what is Bitcoin? What is net neutrality? How does that affect my business? It also could be something to where you're looking for information or insight from someone who's a professional in that industry. So if you have a recent diagnosis of heart disease or of diabetes, you want to understand how to better serve yourself in that situation, you go to Google to find this information. So we know now that targeted content engages. It resonates, and it informs the customer or of your product or your service. So resonating basically means that you're meeting someone at an emotional place. You're meeting them somewhere where it matters to them.  So what kind of content can sell as products or services? Ironically, negative feelings incite engagement. So you can say something positive, like why are these puppies now free, right? And someone could be excited to read about, I like puppies if you didn't notice. I've mentioned that a few times now. But it also could be something negative, like why did someone blow up a building? You're interested in that content because you want to understand the reasoning behind that. So anything that resonates or builds a positive or emotional reaction will create engagement in your content. So how do you know what to feed your audience? How do you identify what your target audience is? You can use a lot of different tools, like Google Analytics or Facebook Analytics even that can tell you who's actually engaging with your website or your brand or your social media network. And you can also observe your competition. If you're selling woodpeckers, then you know that other people who serve woodpeckers may be serving it in the same platform that you need to be on. So following and emulating that information is a great way to stay on top of what others in the industry are doing. You can also ask your audience. This can be something like a focus group. It can be a survey that you send out after a purchase. It can also be just meeting with them on the social media network, engaging with them and saying, hey, I heard that you had a complaint. What is it that you need from us? How can we better serve you in our product or our service? And staying up to date on trends. So Google is a great place to find information, obviously. On Google you can easily look up trending topics, trending news, and using that to keep up to date. In social media, any business, whether you're working by yourself or for a corporation, should have a social media network.  So what are the benefits of content? Content builds brand loyalty. It builds a relationship with your customer by giving them helpful, useful, entertaining information. It also helps with your SEO efforts.  So you're allowing these search engines to crawl your site and to get higher rankings through Google. You also have brand awareness. Brand awareness is basically someone being able to identify with your brand. At this point I can't see a check mark without thinking of Nike. So clearly they've done a great job of building their brand awareness and we could all use that type of brand awareness as well. Lead generation basically means your ability to get people on the door, your way of prospecting, of leading to a sale by dropping hints of information, by asking, you may have seen something like this on LinkedIn where they say, hey, you give us your email address, we'll give you an e-book on how to do X, Y, or Z. And you download it, that's lead generation. They now can market you in other ways. Social media presence, again, is a way for you to stay in touch with what's in the now, what's going on with your customers. And backlinking, I think someone mentioned this earlier, is basically you linking to another site or another site linking to your website which builds trusted websites on Google. So your website linking to another trusted site builds your SEO as well. So backlinking is a great strategy to have if you don't have that already. And the golden era of this is brand authority or thought leadership. Thought leadership means that you're now the person to go to about information. You're the person that someone leans on to get information about a product or a service in your industry. So just a few quick SEO tips. Oh, bless you. A few quick SEO tips. So making sure that you are having title tags and meta descriptions on all your pages and your blogs, these are great ways for search engines to identify what your website is about and what your blog post is about or what your webpage is about if it's not a blog. Adding title tags to images on your website, also a great way to keep tabs on what's going on on your website and Google to better identify who you are. Using keywords that are popular or in your industry is also another way to do that. So keywords are something you can look up through Search Console, which used to be known as Webmaster Tools, but it's a great way for you to put in your industry and say what things are people typing in. It can be long form like, how do I know when to go to the doctor versus something like what is a doctor? That's a short search result. But using those keywords that matter for your ranking in your title, in your image descriptions, in your meta description, and also in your content without keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing basically is a search engine telling you that we don't trust you. You put words in here that don't make sense. You're clearly trying to rank and not trying to give out relevant information and Google will penalize you for that really bad and you don't want it. So SEO and WordPress is, WordPress has Yoast SEO, which is the number one plugin actually and also super helpful when starting this SEO journey and learning to start getting your website to rank.  So red means that you are not doing a good job at all. Orange means you can be doing a little bit better and green means that you're succeeding in whatever you're trying to write about. So some of the things on there are, it will review things like your image having a meta tag in a description, the length of your post and whether your title is in the first paragraph of the blog or the page. And then also you can use this to tag your images. So in the image you can put your alt text, your description and your title. The title could be the same as the title of your blog or the title of the page and all these things help build your SEO strategy. So also one of the other things we wanna talk about is backlinking in WordPress. It's super simple in your WordPress dashboard to go into a page, highlight a text copy. In this case it's the time of the most, I can't read it, I'm sorry. Two of the most common options, highlighting it, choosing to insert a link, inserting that link and then hitting the blue button to actually add it. And now you see that it's live on your site and now if you're linking to somewhere that's trusted again it's building your page authority in Google as well. And so the last part of this section we wanna talk about is becoming a thought leader. So we already said that being coming a thought leader is the golden area, it's where you wanna be, it's the good area of content. We know that you can work with influencers, you can build a niche, you wanna make sure that you're not too broad. If you're talking about travel, maybe be a little more specific, maybe you want to specialize in Thailand travel or travel in the woods and making sure that you are building authority in that area. Also blogging and building a network and working with other influencers are ways to become a thought leader. And so essentially if you don't remember anything else about this presentation, remember that you want to resonate with your customer. So you always wanna have purpose driven marketing. And purpose driven marketing is basically marketing that bonds with your reader on an emotional level.  Some of these I can think of are Toms for example, they give away shoes. So many shoes a year it's crazy to small countries or countries that are, have gone through a disaster or something like that. So their purpose is to empower the world through shoes, to have every child have a shoe. And so that's their purpose and they've built this community around that purpose. All of their content is built around that purpose. So again, this purpose driven marketing, it builds a culture with your reader. It also allows customers to interact with your company again on an emotional level. So essentially after all of this, you get brand loyalty, right? They now have agreed with you, they support your thoughts, your thought leadership in this sector and they are now loyal to your brand forever hopefully. But that's up to you to make sure that they continue to have the same compelling, concise and clear content that helps them to grow in their business or their day to day life, okay? So if your content isn't driving conversation, what is it really doing? If people aren't talking about it and aren't sharing it with their friends or on social media, it's dead content. And we wanna have content that is being shared that's going viral. That type of content keeps you relevant and especially in this ever changing society where the internet is constantly changing and evolving and things are becoming more popular and less popular every day, you wanna make sure that you're always staying consistent and you're always doing it the right way and causing conversation. So the last part of our conversation is gonna be about headlines and subject lines. I know many of you may be read in the description that we talk about how to get click worthy headlines. I like to follow three rules. If you're gonna write a headline, make it pose a question, make it be a how to or name drop. And that sounds probably a little silly but we'll talk about those a little bit more. So a how to headline basically is telling your audience how to do something they're interested in doing. So now that you've identified who your audience is, you know where they are, now you know where to put the content and you know how to write the headline, okay? So you're gonna say, how do I know that a student wants to learn how to lower their debt? So how to lower your debt while in school, right? That would identify the audience. It calls them out immediately and it gives them something that they're interested in learning about. So it's a simple, I like to think of it as a simple formula, how to, action and benefit or solution. How to lower your debt in 10 days or 10 years, something like that. 10 days is probably not accurate. But potentially 10 years, maybe 30 at this rate in the world, but 10 years to lower your debt. And this is a formula that you can follow for any topic really. The next one is name dropping. That can be Facebook. It doesn't necessarily mean a celebrity. So we're not gonna write Chloe Kardashian, X, Y and Z. We're gonna say something that's relevant to our audience. If Chloe Kardashian is relevant to your audience, do you wanna use that? But in this case, it could be something as simple as Facebook 101. Learn how to master it today. Learn how to build your social presence today. So we've identified something that we know our audience wants to use. Someone who wants to learn Facebook now knows that you're giving them the information that they need in order to grow in that area. Okay, so again, formula, importance or well-known name plus Benefit or Solution. So learn to build your Facebook website today or Facebook social presence today. Today, okay? And then posing a question is thought-provoking, right? It's saying it may be negative. Usually this is negative. Wanna get out of debt, drowning in debt? We can help you. We're offering you a solution of helping you with your problem. So question that targets the specific audience you're talking to and the promise of a Benefit or Solution. So you're getting the emotional or negative response that you're looking for and they're clicking to say, oh, okay, now I know I'm drowning in debt. I may feel sad about that, but I now have a solution to that issue or that problem. So the one issue with clickable headlines is that you easily run into click bait, right? So you click on something and you say, this is not what you told me this was gonna be, right? And when that happens, how do you feel? You automatically don't trust this company anymore.  So avoiding clickbait headlines is a great way to also not get dinged by Google. So if people are leaving your site, they're bouncing your site really quickly, Google's gonna say something's going on with this, right? These people aren't really talking about what they say they're talking about. So some of these are sponsored ads where they're actually like ads, like 17 discount singers didn't know they could get, but then you click on it and it's about a diet pill. Literally, I checked it, it's a diet pill. So try to avoid these at all costs. While some clickbait is good if it's accurate, again, make sure that we're always being honest because we're trying to build that relationship with our content. So again, in everything that you do, think about that relationship building that you're looking for. Okay, so email subject lines are a lot more lighthearted, right? For the most part. So simple charts to get a clickable email headline is to say, put a sense of urgency on it. Bless you, this deal is only available today, right?  So make them an offer. Like we're offering you 10 free days if you do this. Make it in the headline. So we already know that about 47%, 48% of people click based on the email subject line because you're scrolling through your email on your mobile phone and you're seeing what interests you and that's what you click on, right? So making sure that your email subject line pops is a great way to ensure that people read your actual message. You can have great content, but if no one wants to click it, no one will ever see it. So segmenting your list essentially means that you're separating it by those personas. So my headline to Carl, who's 55, may be different than my headline to Margaret, who's 26. So making sure that you're identifying what to write for each person or each audience is a great way to get your content read. And so also make your subscriber feel important, right? So here's a few examples. So free email training for you, just for you. Like you're the most important person today and we're gonna make sure that you get this deal. The sense of urgency, grab this deal now. Like today only, grab this deal. And this is the last day to save big and then you're solving a problem. Hiring a writer, use this. This is how you can get the service that you need or the writer that you need by doing these things. So a few quick ways to get started. There's a thousand tools out there and I'm sure you guys know more, possibly different ones than I use. But it's important to know how to get started with all these different things that you're working on. So the first thing is a plan of action. You wanna establish your goals. What is your strategy? What is your company's mission or vision? And identifying your audience like we talked about, putting them in personas if it's important to do that or identifying your target market and also creating content. So putting content out on a schedule that works for you. So we wanna make sure we have quality over quantity. So if you're writing five blogs a day and you're putting out five pieces of content a day, if you have a team, that sounds great. If it's just you, it's probably not gonna be attainable to continue to do that. So you wanna set an expectation and keep that expectation met. So if you put out a blog every Tuesday, put out a blog every Tuesday, your customer will subconsciously begin to realize that on Tuesdays, they're looking for your blog. This podcast do this a lot now where they drop their podcast on the same day. You know what to expect. You log into iHeartRadio. You log into whatever SoundCloud, whatever you use and you know to start listening to your podcast on that day. So building that expectation with your customer and then you wanna make sure that you scream it from the rooftop. Tell everyone on social media that you did this thing. I did a thing, right? And I'm gonna share it with you and I want you to share it and I'm gonna potentially give you a price for sharing it, right? Giveaways are great for social media. I do them a lot. So make sure you follow us if you wanna get a deal that way.  So here are a few tools that I use or that I have used for all the different things that we talked about. Buffer being something that you use for scheduling your social media. It can be like, I use the Chrome extension where you can just click on it and it automatically will send it to whatever social channels you have plugged in. Snappa you can use to create images or create graphics if you're not a graphic designer and you need ways to get content out in different easier forms. That's a great thing to use. It's the same with being Canva. You can create a few different images that way. BuzzSumo is an app you can use or plugin you can use through WordPress that connects to your social channels and it allows people to subscribe to your blog or to your website. Grammarly checks your grammar spelling and punctuation because content is important and good content is even more important. Google Analytics, again, this is how you can identify your audience, where they're coming from, what they're doing on your page, how long they're staying on your page and you can use this to get really in-depth analysis on your website. So these are just a few that I use. I know you guys probably have a lot more and I'd be happy to hear any questions that you may have or any concerns, anything that's come up for you during my presentation. Absolutely. I know we went through that fast. I was trying to get through it. Sorry. Absolutely, yes ma'am. Yes. Okay, so the question was back-linking. Should you also back-link to your own site and does that help with your Google rankings? Yes, it can. The reason why most people back-link to other websites is because the other website is larger. So for example, if you're back-linking to a website that is well-known like Facebook, for example, Google knows that's a trusted site. So if you're back-linking to a site that is potentially shady or potentially has a bad ranking with Google, that does not benefit your SEO. Back-linking to your own site is great because it keeps people on your page and it also tells them that you're a thought leader, right? So all these different points that I'm bringing out in my blog post, we already have information about. We already have all this information that you need here. You don't have to leave our website. So that is a great way to ensure that you're maintaining yourself as a thought leader in that industry. Any other questions? Absolutely. Okay, so the question was, how do you identify personas? Is there a certain number that makes sense and how do you make it digestible for your team? So generally, personas are not more than five per company. In my experience at Starwood Hotels, for example, we had 11 different brands and they were all for a different type of lifestyle. So the W Hotel was for the younger, the people who liked being out late at night, nightlife and traveling on a whim. But the West End was more for people who were health conscious or wanted to relax. And so all the messaging was separate in that way. If you have multiple clients within your company, that's one way you do it. If you have multiple personalities that you're selling one product or service to, you wanna stick to three to five personas. And a great way to make it digestible is to identify the top purchasers, right? So you don't wanna say this is everyone who purchases our product, but if the top 60% are one of these three personas, you wanna focus on those three, right? So then you identify a demographic, so an age group, a gender if possible, and what they do. So as simple as saying this person is a free thinker or this person is meticulous. And so you know that all of your content needs to match that type of attitude. If they're not on Snapchat and they're not a free spirit, it's probably not a good idea to say, to you slang in your content, for example. So just making sure that you narrow down on the highest amount of traffic and making personas based on that and not every customer that you have. Well, that can be either one. So for a blog, for example, they don't necessarily care who the traffic's coming from potentially if they're not selling a product. But if you're selling a product, then it needs to be the traffic that you're going for. Okay? Any other questions? Yes, ma'am. I wanna make sure I understand. You said tagging a post, tagging a, are you talking about, oh, a photo within a post. So you're asking how you should name a photo in a post? Okay, so you're talking about this. Is that right? Right here? Oh. Okay, so if you're tagging an image on your post, you wanna make sure that you're tagging by the description. You wanna write a description and you wanna name it after your post or something close to your post. Is that what you're talking about? It could be both, right? So if I'm wanting to rank for Bluehost, then I might write Bluehost and then hyphen and then the title of the post. So it could be both potentially. It depends. If you have a long name and a long title, then maybe that doesn't make so much sense, but it can be whatever you're trying to rank for is what you need to write in that description and as the title. Does that make sense? Rank for it. So I don't know how many of you were in the SEO talk earlier, but the, okay, sorry. In that talk, they talked about tags and categories. So in a one post, for example, you have your page, the actual page that you're looking at, you have the description for that page, you have the title for that page and you have different headlines within that page, right? And also in that page, you have images. The images also have a title and a description and then you can also tag each of those posts in WordPress under a tag and under a category. So in categories, you wanna say, let's say we're writing about fish in Alaska, okay? The category would be fish, right? And then the tags would be wild salmon in Alaska, tuna in Alaska, I don't think it's there, but whatever fish, that could be the tags that you're wanting Google to pick up. Does that make sense? So the tags, the image, the page. So there's three different ways to get your tags, your keywords and your descriptions on your page, on every page. I know it's a little complicated, but WordPress makes it easy by walking you through that because in every post that you have in your dashboard, when you're looking at all of your posts, on those columns, it'll say tags, it'll say categories and you'll know if you're missing any because it'll be empty, right? And so you can take a quick snapshot of looking at it and see what you're missing. Any other questions? Yes, ma'am. So the question was there's a current conversation going on with back linking on whether you should have that link open in a new tab or in a new page and my opinion will always be in a new tab. You don't ever want to drive someone to another page. If you're wanting to sell a product or service or keep them interested in you, you can give them additional information, but they should be opening it in a new tab. So when you're back linking, it'll give you the option to say open in a new tab or open in a new window. So if they open a new window, they're gonna get another page that potentially is away from your site if you backlink to someone else and now you may have lost that interest or that reader. So my opinion will always be open in a new tab. Any other questions? Yes, sir. Absolutely, he asked for a recommendation on word links for a blog post. The current standard is 800 to 1250. I try to stay somewhere within a thousand. If your content is very technical, again, you need to know your audience. If it's a very technical topic and you need to give them detailed information, go longer. If you're talking about something that's a little more fluffy, a little more lighthearted, it's better to keep it shorter so that you keep their interest since they're not learning something. If it's for entertainment, think shorter. If it's for education, think longer. Yes, sir. Anyone else? We have two minutes. Yes, ma'am. Okay, so the question was when writing a description or a tag on your image, does it make a difference to have spaces and or other punctuation? Is that right? Okay. No, you need to get the words on there. If you don't wanna have comma, comma, comma, comma after each thing, but having one hyphen or semicolon is totally fine. Google will still recognize the words. Well, I appreciate your time today and I hope you guys have a great night. Thank you.