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CONTENTS (Ad Trap special version, August 2008)

CHAPTE ! " #NTO$%CT#ON&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&'
Before you read this guide:......................................................................................................................3
CHAPTE 2 " HO( TO SPOT )OO$ (E*S#TES +O ,O% A$S&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&-
Important Concepts..................................................................................................................................4
Here's a brief recap on these different ranking systems......................................................................5
Necessary toos.........................................................................................................................................5
!hat you need to remember..................................................................................................................."
CHAPTE ' " HO( E++ECT#.E AE $#++EENT A$ T,PES&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&8
#he cardina rue about ad efficiency.....................................................................................................$
#e%t ink ads &'good choice'(...................................................................................................................$
)tatic banner image ads &'okay option'(................................................................................................*
+nimated banner image ads &'good choice'(........................................................................................*
,e-ie.s &'e%ceent choice'(................................................................................................................../0
)ummary:................................................................................................................................................./0
CHAPTE - " (HEE TO P%T ,O% A$S&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&!2
1r .ho shoud hunt the sites................................................................................................................/2
3aid re-ie.s 4 3ay 3er 3ost.................................................................................................................../2
5ooge ad.ords6 7ahoo6 8)9 +dCenter6 +dbrite............................................................................/3
#e%t inks 4 :ink!orth and #e%t4:ink4+ds........................................................................................./4
,ent maiing ists..................................................................................................................................../4
,ent )ignature inks.............................................................................................................................../4
9irect deas............................................................................................................................................../4
:ist of sites .here you can ad-ertise .................................................................................................../5
CHAPTE / " HO( 0%CH A$S SHO%1$ COST&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&!2
!hat is the -aue of your customer;..................................................................................................../"
<no. your target audience.................................................................................................................../"
9o you kno. .hat's better than / ad impression;............................................................................/=
9o the math............................................................................................................................................./$
)ummary................................................................................................................................................../*
CHAPTE 2 " +#NA1 NOTES&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&20
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CHAPTE ! " #NTO$%CT#ON
#his short ebook's soe purpose is to sho. you how to promote your product using
advertisement with minimal effort. I kept this guide as short as possibe for a
reason: it sa-es your time &it takes ess than 30 minutes to read through this guide(
and I get to concentrate on the most practica issues 4 ea-ing ong fancy .ords for
somebody ese.
Before you read this guide:
I reay recommend you get famiiar .ith some artices before reading the guide.
/. #he 3ractica 8arketing category in 5ame 3roducer bog
>http:??....gameproducer.net?category?practica4marketing?@ the artices in
this category pro-ide you a good amount of information on ho. to promote
your products.
I reay recommend you go through the artice ist before pouring money into ads.
)ome of these ideas are briefy mentioned in the other resources6 but here you' get
bit more information on ho. to use these ad-ertising methods. I'-e .ritten this
guide so that each method &such as 'a paid re-ie.'( describes the main idea behind
the marketing tactic and gi-es some pros A cons of that tactic.
I e%pect you to use your Budgment .hen deaing .ith ads. Hasty attempts might end
up costing you money .ith Cero resuts. You are 100% responsible for how you use
the information in this guide. #he first rue in ad-ertising: you have to test ads
before you know that they work.
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CHAPTE 2 " HO( TO SPOT )OO$ (E*S#TES +O
,O% A$S
Important Concepts
#here are a coupe of concepts you need to be famiiar before you can choose the
paces .here you shoud ad-ertise. #he .ebsite '-aue' &or 'importance'( has se-era
different ranking methods. 3erhaps the t.o most common ranking methods are
5ooge 3agerank &or 3,( and +e%a ,ank. Ho.e-er the bottom ine is that neither of
these ranks alone accurately report about the site's performance and people can
can use them to trick others into believing that their website rank is higher than it
really is.
#here's aso the concept of backinks: they te you ho. many sites ink to some
.ebsite. 3eope can aso mess .ith the backink count &by inking from poor sites to
get the count up(.
I repeat: PR backlinks and !le"a rank alone mean nothing # and there are people
who try to fool others &ike the one I'm going to sho. you soon(. I .i sho. you a
too that makes it easy to spot the .ebsite ranks6 but I .i aso sho. you ho. to find
out the ranks accuratey.
No.6 here's something reay important. $hile alone these ranks mean nothing
together they can give you a pretty good hint whether you should continue dealing
with the site. 8ore about this ater. !hen combined together 4 and if a ranks are
eDuay high 4 you are deaing .ith a non4scam site.
4
Here's a brief recap on these different ranking systems.
!le"a Rank. )maer the better. ,ank 04/000 indicates a -ery hea-y traffic site 4
probaby hundreds of thousands of -isitors per month. If the rank is o-er se-era
hundred thousand my guess is that there coud be maybe fe. hundred -isitors per
month. #hese traffic estimates are Bust guesses6 and might fuctuate a ot. 7ou reay
need to combine +e%a rank .ith other ranks to make it any usefu.
%acklinks. #he more the better. #es the number of inks that point to the .ebsite. If
site is popuar6 it has thousands and thousands of inks pointing to it.
&oogle PageRank. )cae 04/06 the bigger the better. 5ooge's .ay to te about the
'importance of the site'. 5ro.s e%ponentiay. 5ooge recenty started gi-ing
penaties for sites that se inks6 so this might make the pagerank itte ess important
.hen estimating traffic and site -aue.
Necessary toos
Eor tracking the right key.ords6 you need to sign up to 5ooge +naytics
>....googe.com?anaytics@. It's free and you can easiy see the key.ords that
bring traffic to your site.
#here's a Eirefo% 3ugin caed )earch )tatus >http:??....Duirk.biC?searchstatus?@. I
recommend you get that e%tension and insta it right a.ay. #his too .i sho.
5ooge 3agerank and +e%a ,ank &among other information ike backinks( that you
need to kno. .hen finding good .ebsites for your ads. If you are consider hiring a
marketing agent for you6 then you can recommend him to get this too.
5
'his tool can be fooled to think that sites rank higher than they do in reality. #o
get an accurate rank information6 you shoud aso check out number of backinks
.ith toos such as i!eb#oo Backink Checker
>http:??....i.ebtoo.com?backinkFchecker@ &the more backinks the better(.
Eor a reiabe 3age,ank checking6 see i!eb#oo
>http:??....i.ebtoo.com?pagerankFchecker@ 4 they use 5ooge's o.n datacenters
to sho. 3age,anks. Basicay this means that the )earch )tatus 3ugin too may sho.
3age,ank = for some .ebsite6 .hen in reaity the .ebsite has true 3agerank of 0 in
5ooge datacenters. I don't go into detais ho. this is done6 but it's about coaking A
tricking the 3ugin to beie-e the site has a higher rank than in reaity it has. #he
5ooge datacenters .on't ie6 the pugin might.
)imiary6 +e%a rank can be fooed &for e%ampe by getting peope to insta +e%a
toobars and hiring them to -isit on your site(. #here's no fuproof method to reay
kno. if +e%a rank is reiabe 4 athough you can check out backinks and pageranks
and compare their -aues. If a site .ith good +e%a rank reay gets ots of traffic6
then usuay it has penty of backinks and a good pagerank too.
#he idea of the pugin is that you can easiy spot if sites are asking too much money
for ad-ertising. If the site 3age,ank is Cero6 +e%a rank miions 4 and they ask
hundreds of doars for 'ad in a good spot' 4 you kno. it's .aste of time. But6 on the
other hand: if you see that they ha-e a -ery good 3age,ank and a -ery good +e%a
,ank6 then you coud take the ne%t step. #he ne%t step is to use the 5ooge's
datacenters to confirm those ranks6 and then you can use some time to check the
backinks too.
!hat you need to remember
/. 5et the )earch )tatus pugin for Eirefo% and use it to estimate site -aues
6
2. ,emember that +e%a ,ank6 Backinks count and 5ooge 3age,ank are Bust
one indicators 4 they .on't te you if your ads .i do fine.
3. !hen you -isit sites6 check out their 3, A +e%a 4 if they are good &and ad
prices ook fine( then proceed to confirm the 3, A backinks
7
CHAPTE ' " HO( E++ECT#.E AE $#++EENT A$
T,PES
I'-e been seing ads and recommending affiiate products to peope for coupe of
years. I'-e tested different ads6 and in summary 4 here's .hat I think about the
effecti-eness of ads. I'-e gi-en ratings 'okay'6 'good' or 'e%ceent' in terms of 'ho.
good resuts you get compared to the price'. I must remind that these ratings are Bust
my 'genera opinion'6 and since it's rea .ord out there you reay shoud test your
ads to see ho. .e they .ork for you.
#he cardina rue about ad efficiency
+ds perform differenty. )ometimes changing the headine6 or ink coor can .ied
-ery different resuts. #he foo.ing thoughts about effecti-eness are Bust my
thoughts based on the e%perience I ha-e. In the end6 you sti need to test your ads. It
might be that banner ads .ork much better than te%t inks for your product 4 or -ice
-ersa.
#e%t ink ads &'good choice'(
#e%tua inks ha-e perform pretty .e in my opinion. If the ink is ocated in a -isibe
spot6 and has a description te%t 4 it might .ork -ery .e. I gi-e a good rating
because I beie-e they can be 'under priced' compared to for other ad types. If one
300%250 banner ad costs G4006 then you might get 4 te%t inks that fi the same area
for G/00 or G200. In my opinion6 buyers are underestimating te%t ink -aue 4 and
o-erestimating banner ad -aue.
#e%t ink ads aso impro-e your search engine rankings. If you carefuy pick the
right te%t for your inks6 it .i hep you get good resuts from search engines. !ith
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banner ads this .on't &necessariy( happen &at east you .on't get any key.ord
benefits(.
#e%t ads are not good if there's ots of them6 and if put in some poor &non4-isibe(
pace if you .ant traffic and rankings. If the .ebsite contains adut inks &incuding
gambing6 casino inks(6 then it might not be a good pace to ad-ertise. 5ambing and
other adut materia is not iked by the search engines6 so getting inks from that type
of sites doesn't necessariy do good for your site.
)tatic banner image ads &'okay option'(
)tatic banner ads are okay6 but the probem is that peope might miss them if they
don't catch your eye &for some reason I got more cicks on te%t based ads than image
ads on my site(. #hey aso don't hep you .ith search engine rankings &in terms of
keyink6 athough a banner ad is sti considered as a backink(6 and they might cost a
ot to sho.. If on the other hand you get to use animation6 they are much better &see
the ne%t point(.
+nimated banner image ads &'good choice'(
+nimated banners are much better than static images. +nimation catches
e-erybody's attention and peope are more ikey to cick the ads. +nimation might
cost Duite a ot of money6 so that's .hy I'm gi-ing 'good choice' rating instead of
'e%ceent'.
,e-ie.s &'e%ceent choice'(
I'm a fan of re-ie.s. I'-e done se-era and seen ho. .e they can perform. + .e
done re-ie. can do se-era good things for your product. Eirst of a: a re-ie. is
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most ikey permanent. If somebody re-ie.s your game in their bog6 that post might
stay there fore-er. )earch engines can find it6 peope can find it years after
pubishing. #hat .on't happen if you buy 'one month banner ad'.
If you buy a re-ie. from somebody .ho truy enBoys your product6 then he might
use his o.n .ords to .rite the re-ie. for his audience. If peope reading the re-ie.
trust the guy6 you can rest assured that you' see saes. 7ou get the short4term impact
&the traffic .hen re-ie. goes onine( but aso the ong4term impact &the re-ie. .i
be archi-ed6 and peope can find it ater(.
#he bad thing about re-ie.s is that they might not ast ong 4 there might be se-era
re-ie.s done e-ery day &by one site( and your re-ie. coud simpy get ost there.
+so6 it might happen that the re-ie.er is Bust after the money and .rites a hasty
re-ie. 4 and that money is ost. But generay speaking6 if you get somebody to
recommend your game6 it's far more effecti-e than trying to sho. te%t or banner ads
and hope peope .i try your product.
)ummary:
9on't underestimate the po.er of te%t inks. In some cases6 te%tua ads might be
more effecti-e than banner ads. )tatic image banners might not be good6 but
animated can be reay effecti-e in terms of getting peope to cick them. ,e-ie.s 4 in
my opinion 4 .i do reay good for your game and site.
(on't get too e"cited about the different options. #he cardina rue stays: it Bust
might be that for your product some other form of promotion &rather than re-ie.s( is
better for you. #he main thing is to test the performance. If re-ie.s aren't gi-ing
enough traffic &or saes(6 then doing more of them probaby .on't hep. )se what
works for you.
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CHAPTE - " (HEE TO P%T ,O% A$S
1r .ho shoud hunt the sites
Check out 9igita 3oint Eorums >forums.digitapoint.com@. #here are penty of
peope from countries .here good saaries are in range of hundred of t.o hundred
doars per month. If you think finding the right paces to ad-ertise reDuires too
much time from you6 you coud a.ays hire somebody ese to do that for you. I'-e
deat .ith coupe of indian guys in -arious tasks &ranging from animation to
.ebdesign( and that can be reay ine%pensi-e. Hust hire an agent to find the best
deas for you6 and gi-e him a bonus if the ads perform .e.
+ .ord of .arning though: in some countries ega matters aren't 'that important'.
)ome peope don't e-en kno. .hat the .ord 'copyright' means6 so pay attention to
.here they get their stuff 4 and make sure they understand it's necessity for you to
ha-e e-erything done egay.
!ithout further tak 4 et's check out different paces to ad-ertise.
3aid re-ie.s 4 3ay 3er 3ost
3ay3er3ost >....3ay3er3ost.com@ is a system .here peope pay for re-ie.s.
Basicay you can set up an account and pay peope to do re-ie.s about your
product6 or you can try find re-ie.ers by your o.n. #he re-ie. can cost anything
from G5 to G500 &or more(. #he system has some ine%pensi-e re-ie.ers6 but it aso
contains ots of peope .ho do massi-e amount of re-ie.s in poor bogs. I ha-e
heard good and bad about the system6 so I' ea-e this for you to consider and test. If
you can get in touch .ith some boggers6 per sure to use the )earch )tatus pugin for
checking ho. good their sites are. +so remember to make sure their site is dedicated
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for your product type. Eor e%ampe: if they ony re-ie. games 4 that's good. But if
they re-ie. e-erything from cooking to tra-eing to gambing to hoidays to games 4
then it's not a good site to make the re-ie..
*n a nutshell+ If you can spot the 3ay3er3ost offers ine%pensi-e .ay to buy re-ie.s
from many bogs &yet many of them are crap(.
5ooge ad.ords6 7ahoo6 8)9 +dCenter6 +dbrite
ad.ords.googe.com
adcenter.microsoft.com
searchmarketing.yahoo.com
5ooge +d.ords is probaby the most .e4kno.n pace to bid for ads. +d.ords
reDuire some effort to get used .ith them6 and some .ork to get your ads in the best
paces. 7ou need to keep in mind ho. .e your cicks are con-erting to saes6 and
you need to figure out best paces to ad-ertise &ike: shoud you ad-ertise on the
search engine resuts page6 or shoud you spend money to get first in the search
engine resuts6 or shoud you spend money in the site that gets first in the search
engine resuts(.
8)N and 7ahoo I'm not famiiar .ith6 but heard peope using them successfuy.
+dBrite can be efficient. It might take some time to find the best paces to ad-ertise6
but you coud a.ays hire somebody to do that for you.
*n a nutshell+ #ry different 33C &pay per cick( programs6 and carefuy cacuate
ho. the ads perform. +dBrite might reDuire some time before you find the best sites
to ad-ertise.
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#e%t inks 4 :ink!orth and #e%t4:ink4+ds
:ink!orth.com
#e%t4:ink4+ds.com
5etting ink ads through these type of sites can impro-e your search engine
rankings. :inks .i aso hep get you some traffic 4 depending .here the ink is put.
7ou can find both good and bad offers. 8ake sure you check out the site -aue before
putting ads.
,ent maiing ists
Indiegamer.com
If you kno. peope .ho ha-e maiing ist .ith hundreds or thousands of targeted
subscribers6 then you coud try renting their ists. 3eope at Indiegamer.com for
e%ampe might be interested in this.
,ent )ignature inks
forums.digitapoint.com
7es6 you can buy signature inks. #here are some peope .ho ad-ertise this in
different forums &ike 9igita 3oint forums(6 so check this out for additiona .ay to
ad-ertise your product.
9irect deas
forums.digitapoint.com
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indiegamer.com
7ou can aso do direct deas .ith different peope. 9igita 3oint forums ha-e penty
of peope seing inks and -arious ads in any kind of site. #here's anything from
gaming to sports to 4 .e 4 anything. #here are scammers and there are reiabe
peope to dea .ith. #he best thing you can do is to ook at the peope's reputation
and past deas and simpy approach peope.
:ist of sites .here you can ad-ertise
5ame4ad-ertising4onine.com has a big ist of sites .here you can ad-ertise your
game. 7ou might .ant to check them out .hen choosing .here you are putting your
ads. &+t the time of .riting they reDuire you to contact them before you get to use
their ser-ices(
,otice+ 'he &ame#advertising#online.com is a site *'ve encountered not a site
which *'ve used. * make no guarantees that advertising through them works or
would be a good option.
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CHAPTE / " HO( 0%CH A$S SHO%1$ COST
!hat is the -aue of your customer;
Ho. much money does one payer bring you; If you ha-e G20 product6 you might
think that the payer is .orth G20. In reaity6 he might be .orth G30 4 or e-en G/00 4
on a-erage. If you ha-e ony one G20 product6 you coud sti se somebody ese's
game to him. 3erhaps your a-erage customer ends up buying your game &G20( and
t.o affiiate products &2% G/0( from you that make you tota of G40. #his .oud mean
that your 'a-erage customer is .orth G40 for you'. #his is Bust an e%ampe 4 but
sho.s you that you ha-e to think about the fu -aue of a customer before making
decisions on ho. to ad-ertise.
<no. your target audience
If a car site agrees to re-ie. your game6 that's .aste of time A money. 3eope .ho
buy cars are interested in hearing about cars. #hey don't .ant to hear about your rea
time strategy game .here you can shoot aiens. &1kay6 maybe they might be
interested about a car game...(.
Basicay6 you need to kno. .ho your payers are. +re they young; +re they od;
Ho. much money do they ha-e; !hat are they interested in; +re they reigious;
+re they interested in poitics; +re they casua gamers; +re they hardcore gamers;
+re they something in bet.een; !hat kind of peope are they;
:et's suppose you ha-e that rea time strategy game &for hardcore gamers( .here
payer can ki aiens. If you get a casua game site to do a re-ie.6 that might be okay
4 but not necessariy mean any saes. Casua gamers don't necessariy .ant to ki
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those aiens &some do(. 8aybe they .oud .ant to see something ese. If you buy
banner ads on poitics forums... I think nobody .oud cick your ads. 3eope .ho
.ant to tak about poitics aren't the peope .ho coud buy your aien shooter game.
If a hardcore gamer .ho ikes strategy games makes a re-ie. about your game in his
popuar bog6 then I beie-e then you are hitting the nai on the head. #hen you might
get good response.
Basicay6 .atch out .hat the site &or re-ie.er( offers. If it sounds something that fits
for your product6 go for it.
If a site is -ery targeted &meaning: they do re-ie.s about 'car games' and you
happen to ha-e a 'car game'( then you can pay itte more for getting ads on their
site. If site is poory targeted &meaning: you ha-e a 'car game' and the .ebsite you
approach has ne-er done any kind of game re-ie.s 4 instead they tak about fo.ers
and pink trousers( then you shoud pay ess.
9o you kno. .hat's better than / ad impression;
)i% ad impression.
+ds need repetition. )ho.ing one ad is good6 but sho.ing si% ads is better. )tart
sma6 test6 and then gro. your ad budget as you see some saes.
8ake a test .ith the site of your choice &ike one month( and if it pro-es to .ork6
consider doing a onger dea. 7ou might aso mention to the site o.ner that you are
interested in onger dea if the first month goes okay. #his can ha-e the impact that
the site o.ner sho.s more interest for you.
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9o the math
7ou reay gotta do the math by yoursef. +d-ertising reDuires testing. If you rent a
ne.setter that's sent to /000 peope6 and 0.5I of them &5 peope( purchases your
product for G206 that means you get G/00. If the guy .ho operates the ne.setter
asked G506 then you ha-e found a good dea. If on the other hand it cost you G300 to
send the etter6 it might not be a good dea. If on the other hand it costs you G/00 to
send the etter and 5 peope purchase6 you might think it .asn't .orth it.
If you ha-e cacuated your a-erage customer -aue &et's say it's G40( then you' see
that .ith 0.5I con-ersion rate &the percentage of peope .ho buy your game after
seeing your ne.setter( your customers e-entuay .i purchase G200 &5%G40( .orth
games from you for e-ery /000 sent etters.
#his same goes .ith sho.ing ads on different sites. If /000 banner ads impressions
costs you G3 &that's G3 C38 4 cost per thousand impressions(6 and e-ery /00th person
cicks your ad &/I C#, 4 cick through rate( then you are getting /0 peope to -isit
your site for e-ery /000 sho.n impressions. If 2I of those -isiting peope purchase
your product &0.2 persons out of /0 peope 4 or 2 persons out of /00( then you kno.
that you need to spend G30 to get /0 000 impressions &/0 % G3 C38(6 /00 cicks6 and 2
saes &G40(. +nd that ooks ike an okay dea for you since that you are making G/0 for
e-ery G30 you spend.
3ease notice: this .as Bust an e%ampe case. In reaity6 it might happen that G/ C38
ads don't make any saes &perhaps the site target audience is .rong(. 1n the other
hand6 perhaps you find some G/0 C38 site that con-erts so .e that you are making
ots of saes.
17
)ummary
/. <no. the -aue of your customer &ho. much can you spend and sti get your
money back and more(
2. <no. your target audience &the more targeted the ads are6 the better(
3. #est your ads and remember that '" ads is better than / ad' &you need to ha-e
penty of ads to see the effects(
4. 9o the math &make sure you are .inning in the dea6 and don't be afraid to
adBust your approach(
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CHAPTE 2 " +#NA1 NOTES
#his ebook contains ony tips that might .ork6 or might not. #he responsibiity ies
soey on your shouders. 9on't put G/06000 in ads if you don't kno. .hat you are
doing. )pend one hundred or coupe of hundreds first and see ho. that .orks. #est6
earn6 and do more .hat .orks.
5ood uck .ith it6
4Huuso
....5ame3roducer.net
3.). #hanks Hames for proofreading A for the 5ooge +naytics tip.
3.3.). 3romotion reay .orks... 9ead !ake got in 3C 5amer 4 Cick here to find out
more...
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