For a long time I wrote a successful newsletter on business and small business development. And then I stopped when it got to the point I was doing more writing then I was doing business.
I decided to rekindle the newsletter again, but this time - devote it to the people who already were in business, but who were having communications problems. It's called the Executive Pen, and it can be reached here. http://www.write4me.net/Writing_Tips-Tricks.htm.
The subscription form is one click away and the publication is without charge.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Things I thought about:
Marketing is about finding excuses. The best marketer in the world is that person who finds the most successful excuse and uses it for the good of the product, service or idea they are promoting. The title of “best” however, only lives for that brief minute or so.
I love writing. I love taking time to massage the words until they are right – until they sound convincing – until they convey the message I want. This is in direct contrast to speaking, where the words just tumble out of my mouth because I can’t shut it in time.
My love of writing was born out of my fear of saying the wrong things at the wrong time. My talent for writing marketable copy began when I found that I could write to the other voices in my head.
How does a writer tell when they have written something worth while? When their wife reads it and says "can I get a copy of that to keep on my computer?" You have just received the "Wifey Award" more precious then the Nobel Prize for Literature. OK, maybe not that good, but a close second.
The only time you really know that people love you, is when - at your funeral, they show up without a copy of the will in hand.
I love writing. I love taking time to massage the words until they are right – until they sound convincing – until they convey the message I want. This is in direct contrast to speaking, where the words just tumble out of my mouth because I can’t shut it in time.
My love of writing was born out of my fear of saying the wrong things at the wrong time. My talent for writing marketable copy began when I found that I could write to the other voices in my head.
How does a writer tell when they have written something worth while? When their wife reads it and says "can I get a copy of that to keep on my computer?" You have just received the "Wifey Award" more precious then the Nobel Prize for Literature. OK, maybe not that good, but a close second.
The only time you really know that people love you, is when - at your funeral, they show up without a copy of the will in hand.
Monday, June 23, 2008
A little slice out of life
Today on average - I make in an hour what I used to make in a week when I first started working. Yes – I am considered “seasoned” by some, or “old” by my kids.
The point is – I am in business for myself and even though I know the numbers, when it comes to pricing my services, I sometimes find myself thinking in the 50’s & 60”s. Then of course, gas cost .25 cents a gallon or less. That causes me to think about how far we have regressed. Yes – I wrote regressed.
I remember when my dad brought home a $100.00 a week in the 50’s and we had a new car each year. We would it right out of the factory in Detroit. We were never considered rich. We were typical Americans growing up after the war, learning how to live with debt - building the great American dream.
Are products so different today, that a motor vehicle using .35 cents a gallon gas, (.10 cents in the 50’s) was any less efficient then the cars we drive today? My gas hog 57 Chevy used to get 12 to 14 miles to the gallon on a good day. Moreover, that was with me at the age of 17 with my foot through the floor all the time.
My neighbors SUV gets the same today. My cost per gallon then was .25 cents. Today it’s $3.85.
Some "A__hole" in Washington is sitting before a congressional hearing telling us how oil companies are not profiting, and why – in order to save money we need to be more economical, and why it’s our fault.
My solution? I will show you economical. I’m am going back to the horse and buggy, raise a herd of cattle, and say the hell with any tree hugger who tells me that my cows are producing too much methane gas, which is contributing to global warming. I am going to tear up the land, grow my own food, cut down a wide section of old growth forest to build my own house, and provide logs for my efficient but old wood stove.
I am going to butcher my hogs and my cows, eat meat because my body needs it to stay warm, and home school my kids because of the wasted intellectual system we have fostered in this country. I am going to dig a well, deplete your water table because all you’re doing is polluting it, and reuse my waste water to water my land.
If you don’t like it – turn your back. You don’t need to worry about my little slice out of life. I can assure you that the biggest cause of global warming, high fuel prices, and less efficient automobiles is not me, but it is the methane gas produced in the Congressional Halls of Washington every week.
----------
Copyright 2008 - Gary A. ClarkGary Clark is a Freelance Commercial Writer and Web Content writer who for 25 years has been both a Consultant and instructor of Small Business Entrepreneurship. He can be reached by e-mail at GAClark@Write4me.net, or by phone at 719-536-0505- Mon thru Fri / 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (MST)
The point is – I am in business for myself and even though I know the numbers, when it comes to pricing my services, I sometimes find myself thinking in the 50’s & 60”s. Then of course, gas cost .25 cents a gallon or less. That causes me to think about how far we have regressed. Yes – I wrote regressed.
I remember when my dad brought home a $100.00 a week in the 50’s and we had a new car each year. We would it right out of the factory in Detroit. We were never considered rich. We were typical Americans growing up after the war, learning how to live with debt - building the great American dream.
Are products so different today, that a motor vehicle using .35 cents a gallon gas, (.10 cents in the 50’s) was any less efficient then the cars we drive today? My gas hog 57 Chevy used to get 12 to 14 miles to the gallon on a good day. Moreover, that was with me at the age of 17 with my foot through the floor all the time.
My neighbors SUV gets the same today. My cost per gallon then was .25 cents. Today it’s $3.85.
Some "A__hole" in Washington is sitting before a congressional hearing telling us how oil companies are not profiting, and why – in order to save money we need to be more economical, and why it’s our fault.
My solution? I will show you economical. I’m am going back to the horse and buggy, raise a herd of cattle, and say the hell with any tree hugger who tells me that my cows are producing too much methane gas, which is contributing to global warming. I am going to tear up the land, grow my own food, cut down a wide section of old growth forest to build my own house, and provide logs for my efficient but old wood stove.
I am going to butcher my hogs and my cows, eat meat because my body needs it to stay warm, and home school my kids because of the wasted intellectual system we have fostered in this country. I am going to dig a well, deplete your water table because all you’re doing is polluting it, and reuse my waste water to water my land.
If you don’t like it – turn your back. You don’t need to worry about my little slice out of life. I can assure you that the biggest cause of global warming, high fuel prices, and less efficient automobiles is not me, but it is the methane gas produced in the Congressional Halls of Washington every week.
----------
Copyright 2008 - Gary A. ClarkGary Clark is a Freelance Commercial Writer and Web Content writer who for 25 years has been both a Consultant and instructor of Small Business Entrepreneurship. He can be reached by e-mail at GAClark@Write4me.net, or by phone at 719-536-0505- Mon thru Fri / 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (MST)
Monday, May 5, 2008
The Cost of Free
We want privacy. We are angry we feel violated when someone steals out identity or misuses our information. We fight for the right to remain private - and yet, we willingly give it up with but one click of a mouse button. Small business owners – private citizens, it doesn’t matter; if a service comes along that says FREE, we clear all hurdles to grab it.
Bottom-line – nothing is free. Quit kidding yourself and start protecting your privacy.
Logic tells you that a company who goes through the expense of setting up a website, carries the monthly charges associated with hosting that website, pays for every employee in the company and advertises that same site to the tune of thousands of dollars - does not – will not - can not - afford to give ANYTHING away for free. They want something, and that something is you.
They will either generate an income from advertising space sold to others, or the sale of your information to advertisers with whom they are associated with, or partners for.
Don’t believe me? Here are excerpts from a couple of FREE service providers many of you use today. Just because you always click through the users agreement saying “yes I read that” - doesn’t mean you did.
Here is what they say:
"We will not collect or use sensitive information for purposes other than those described in this Policy and/or in the specific service notices, (reread this phrase) unless we have obtained your prior consent. "
They then describe in explicit detail - in the policy itself, how they will use the information which means they have informed you of the use of your personal information and you are agreeing to it by agreeing to this terms of use and privacy information. Then this same agreement goes on to say:
“You can decline to submit personal information to any of our services, in which case ___________ may not be able to provide those services to you.”
In other words - hit decline – don’t agree to our using your personal information, and you cannot use the service.
They go on to say:
______________ cookies - When you visit _____________, we send one or more cookies - a small file containing a string of characters - to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service by storing user preferences and tracking user trends, .. . . . .
Your computer – attached to that browser – has a unique ID or footprint. In many cases, those cookies are tracking cookies that track where you go on the internet, what browser you are using, what sites you read and for how long, what information you subscribe to, how long you are on the internet, etc.
Then: (and this is where they get you)
" ______________ only shares personal information with other companies or individuals outside of ______________ in the following limited circumstances: We have your consent. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information. "
The minute you hit “approved” or “agreed”, you are “opting in” and consenting.” This is not a separate consent form as they are implying.
Bottom Line
If a company offers subscriptions, make sure their privacy policy explicitly states they do not sell or otherwise use your personal information in any way. After all – their income comes from the subscriptions and you are paying for privacy. For an example of how that agreement would look, take a look at the Privacy Statement and Terms of Use for FileShare-Pro.com (linked with their permission) This is the system I use for all client project documentation and file exchange.
Carefully read all agreements and privacy statements. The above are excerpted from two of the more popular and less abusive companies on the internet. Others have no scruples, and even these two companies are getting very pervasive in their quest to track you everywhere you go.
Note: One – major - major player in this market – has even filed a patient request for a user tracking system that monitors your blood pressure and chemistry coming off of your finger tips as they run the keyboards and mouse. The reason? To track how you feel and the emotions you display, when you land on a site.
I am not kidding.
It is important that you understand, however, that no website or database is completely secure or “hacker proof”. You are also responsible for taking reasonable steps to protect your personal information against unauthorized disclosure or misuse. For example, by protecting your password and knowing where you are going.
Adherence to your own instincts and common sense with a slight touch of healthy paranoia are good things to cultivate today.
-----------
Copyright 2008 - Gary A. ClarkGary Clark is a Freelance Commercial Writer and Web Content writer who for 25 years has been both a Consultant and instructor of Small Business Entrepreneurship. He can be reached by e-mail at GAClark@Write4me.net, or by phone at 719-536-0505- Mon thru Fri / 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (MST)
Bottom-line – nothing is free. Quit kidding yourself and start protecting your privacy.
Logic tells you that a company who goes through the expense of setting up a website, carries the monthly charges associated with hosting that website, pays for every employee in the company and advertises that same site to the tune of thousands of dollars - does not – will not - can not - afford to give ANYTHING away for free. They want something, and that something is you.
They will either generate an income from advertising space sold to others, or the sale of your information to advertisers with whom they are associated with, or partners for.
Don’t believe me? Here are excerpts from a couple of FREE service providers many of you use today. Just because you always click through the users agreement saying “yes I read that” - doesn’t mean you did.
Here is what they say:
"We will not collect or use sensitive information for purposes other than those described in this Policy and/or in the specific service notices, (reread this phrase) unless we have obtained your prior consent. "
They then describe in explicit detail - in the policy itself, how they will use the information which means they have informed you of the use of your personal information and you are agreeing to it by agreeing to this terms of use and privacy information. Then this same agreement goes on to say:
“You can decline to submit personal information to any of our services, in which case ___________ may not be able to provide those services to you.”
In other words - hit decline – don’t agree to our using your personal information, and you cannot use the service.
They go on to say:
______________ cookies - When you visit _____________, we send one or more cookies - a small file containing a string of characters - to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service by storing user preferences and tracking user trends, .. . . . .
Your computer – attached to that browser – has a unique ID or footprint. In many cases, those cookies are tracking cookies that track where you go on the internet, what browser you are using, what sites you read and for how long, what information you subscribe to, how long you are on the internet, etc.
Then: (and this is where they get you)
" ______________ only shares personal information with other companies or individuals outside of ______________ in the following limited circumstances: We have your consent. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information. "
The minute you hit “approved” or “agreed”, you are “opting in” and consenting.” This is not a separate consent form as they are implying.
Bottom Line
If a company offers subscriptions, make sure their privacy policy explicitly states they do not sell or otherwise use your personal information in any way. After all – their income comes from the subscriptions and you are paying for privacy. For an example of how that agreement would look, take a look at the Privacy Statement and Terms of Use for FileShare-Pro.com (linked with their permission) This is the system I use for all client project documentation and file exchange.
Carefully read all agreements and privacy statements. The above are excerpted from two of the more popular and less abusive companies on the internet. Others have no scruples, and even these two companies are getting very pervasive in their quest to track you everywhere you go.
Note: One – major - major player in this market – has even filed a patient request for a user tracking system that monitors your blood pressure and chemistry coming off of your finger tips as they run the keyboards and mouse. The reason? To track how you feel and the emotions you display, when you land on a site.
I am not kidding.
It is important that you understand, however, that no website or database is completely secure or “hacker proof”. You are also responsible for taking reasonable steps to protect your personal information against unauthorized disclosure or misuse. For example, by protecting your password and knowing where you are going.
Adherence to your own instincts and common sense with a slight touch of healthy paranoia are good things to cultivate today.
-----------
Copyright 2008 - Gary A. ClarkGary Clark is a Freelance Commercial Writer and Web Content writer who for 25 years has been both a Consultant and instructor of Small Business Entrepreneurship. He can be reached by e-mail at GAClark@Write4me.net, or by phone at 719-536-0505- Mon thru Fri / 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (MST)
Monday, April 21, 2008
I mentioned in my previous post that I found a new tool to use for my business. FileShare-Pro (http://fileshare-pro.com/) is the system I use. Today it gained me a new client. Now why would a private secured file sharing service gain a client?
Well as you know, in addition to commercial writing, I also write documentation for Contingency Planning, Disaster Recovery. (http://www.bcp-inc.net/) In a majority of cases, the information is sensitive in nature. Thus the need to have a secured location on the Internet where - while everyone who is in the company - can see and use the emergency information, no one from outside the company can use it.
But because I use FileShare-Pro as my means of uploading files, and collaborating with my remote client, I got the contract. This one contract will pay me more then FileShare-Pro will ever cost me in subscription fees. Great tool. Look into it for your requirements. You won't be sorry you did.
And yes - in the interest of full disclosure, I did have a hand in its development as both a writer of the content, and in what was required of a system for professional writer, consultants, engineers, etc.
-----
Copyright 2008 - Gary A. ClarkGary Clark is a Freelance Commercial Writer and Web Content writer who for 25 years has been both a Consultant and instructor of Small Business Entrepreneurship. He can be reached by e-mail at GAClark@Write4me.net, or by phone at 719-536-0505- Mon thru Fri / 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (MST)
Well as you know, in addition to commercial writing, I also write documentation for Contingency Planning, Disaster Recovery. (http://www.bcp-inc.net/) In a majority of cases, the information is sensitive in nature. Thus the need to have a secured location on the Internet where - while everyone who is in the company - can see and use the emergency information, no one from outside the company can use it.
But because I use FileShare-Pro as my means of uploading files, and collaborating with my remote client, I got the contract. This one contract will pay me more then FileShare-Pro will ever cost me in subscription fees. Great tool. Look into it for your requirements. You won't be sorry you did.
And yes - in the interest of full disclosure, I did have a hand in its development as both a writer of the content, and in what was required of a system for professional writer, consultants, engineers, etc.
-----
Copyright 2008 - Gary A. ClarkGary Clark is a Freelance Commercial Writer and Web Content writer who for 25 years has been both a Consultant and instructor of Small Business Entrepreneurship. He can be reached by e-mail at GAClark@Write4me.net, or by phone at 719-536-0505- Mon thru Fri / 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (MST)
Marketers – Welcome to my e-mail.
If you don’t know it by now, you will shortly. With the rising cost of gas, the rising cost of postage, and the rising cost of printing, I am an e-mail advertising advocate. Note that I said e-mail advertising and not SPAM advocate. Frankly, I understand the issues, but really don’t understand the problem. I don’t worry about getting any more ads for Viagra or marital aids anymore because they simply pass into my delete box. I don’t think about attachments, my mail and my firewall dump those as well. I don’t spend a second of my day on them except to laugh at their misspellings and obvious attempts to get past my defenses. That should be a hint to all those knuckleheads who keep sending this stuff. Knowledgeable people are not even seeing them, so save yourself the time and money.
But e-mail advertising – the kind that informs me of new products, new ideas, new companies, and new business concepts – I am for. If you can pass my internal spam catcher / killer – welcome to my e-mail. I would love to know about your company, your products, or even your ideas. If you want to know how to write letters that pass spam muster – hire me.
Now you may wonder what has prompted this love for e-mail advertising. Something that I have known for a long time but really hadn’t thought of until someone put it into perspective and sent me the following comparisons by – of all methods – e-mail.
In justifying working from my home, cutting down on travel, using remote communication – including the latest tool in my line up – FileShare-Pro
(http://fileshare-pro.com), I weigh the cost of things, against something we can all relate to. In this case, it’s the cost of printers’ ink (which I use to use a lot of) and the cost of a gallon of gasoline – another item all of us consume a lot. Someone who knows my thinking sent me the following.
So you think gas is expensive.
Diet Snapple 16 oz $1.29 ... $10.32 per gallon
Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz $1.19 ..........$9.52 per gallon
Extra Virgin Olive Oil ………….$23.90 per gallon
Gatorade 20 oz $1.59 ..... $10.17 per gallon
Ocean Spray 16 oz $1.25 ......... $10.00 per gallon
Brake Fluid 12 oz $3.15 ...... $33.60 per gallon
Vick's Nyquil 6 oz $8.35 ... $178.13 per gallon
Pepto Bismol 4 oz $3.85 .. $123.20 per gallon
Whiteout 7 oz $1.39 ....... . $25.42 per gallon
Scope 1.5 oz $0.99 .....$84.48 per gallon and this is the REAL KICKER.
Evian water 9 oz $1.49..$21.19 per gallon! $21.19 for WATER and the buyers don't even know the source (Evian spelled backwards is Naive.) It’s a good thing we don’t put any of this stuff into our gas tanks.
But the real kicker – and the reason why I love e-mail marketing is simply that someone calculated the cost of the ink at ……………$5,200 a gal. No that’s not a misprint.
Therefore, I did some more calculations and figured that if I did a lot of snail mail marketing - which you will eventually shred, using the above costs as a relative measurement, I would have to raise my rates to over $450.00 an hour just to break even. So will every commercial writer, copywriter, marketer, or consultant in business, which would drive the above prices even higher.
Get the picture. E-mail marketing is saving the planet, sometimes informing you of things you would have never known but make for good conversation, and allowing companies to keep low hourly rates. Now all you need to do is call me and I can show you other ways to think about business, without killing your ad budget.
Oh, one last thing. The biggest voice against e-mail marketing are the companies who do print advertising. It’s a false fight, and I understand. For the most part I agree with them. However, print advertising is not going away, and e-mail marketing is not putting a substantial dent into their business income. It only appears that way, because print advertisers have not yet figured out a way to work with the e-mail competition. They want to fight with it. Here are some stats that will further help solidify my position.
- For every dollar spent on email marketing, marketers can expect an estimated $48.29 ROI. (DMA 2007 dollars)
- Email is delivering sales at an average cost per order of less than $7, compared to $71.89 for banner ads, $26.75 for paid search and $17.47 for affiliate programs. (Shop.org, State of Retailing Online 2007 report Sept. 2007)
- Small business Email Service Provider Constant Contact recently went public and has a market cap hovering around $800,000,000. Yep, 800 million!
- One email marketing industry leader (Bill McCloskey, CEO of Email Data Source Inc.) says email marketing is a $3 billion industry.
-------------------
Gary Clark is a freelance commercial writer whose services span two continents. He has been writing for and consulting with companies about their market communications for over 25 years. His website at http://Write4Me.biz has additional article for use by the business publisher. He can be reached by e-mail at GAClark@Write4Me.biz or by phone @ 719-536-0505. His marketing blog is: http://market-to-sell.blogspot.com/
You are given permission to use this article, provided that you use the article in full and notify me of its use prior to publication.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
One day, a man came home and was greeted by his wife dressed in a very sexy nightie. "Tie me up," she purred, "and you can do anything you want."
So he tied her up and went golfing.
Communications is the key to the development of the human race. Mis-interpretation of what is being either desired, said or implied will often result in an unexpected and undesired outcome. For example, I recited this joke to my wife expecting a laugh. What I got was the “look.” I know what that look means. My mother used to give me that look. That is where wives learned it.
Here’s a live example:
I want to tell you about a "superior" software product developed from 20 years of knowledge by a leading professional in the field. I want to show you this time saving, much-needed product. Get it and it will save your company one day.
What do you want to know? What information do you need before you are ready to grant me the time to show it to you?
Do you want to know what programming language it is written in? How many developers it took to produce it, or years it took to develop it? How about the color of the screens? Do you want to know that it uses a relational database?
No. None of this really matters to you. What really matters is what it can do for you. What do you need it for? Without that information – I won’t get the time of day off you.
Even if I manage to sell it to your company, without this knowledge, it remains nameless, sits in the corner and fails to do what it was intended to do. Instead of helpful software, you have shelfware.
However, if I told you what it could do for you, how it could make your job so much easier, so much faster and more accurate, or so much better, then you would use it.
If I told you that by using this software, you would gain new respect in the firm, perhaps a position and a raise, would you understand why it is important to use it?
What if I told you how to use it? What if I gave you examples, and promised to help you practice using it so that you were the most proficient in it?
The only thing that would cause you to pull it off the shelf - is if it was good for you.
Why didn’t they sell you this?
Ever wonder why game software sells so well. It’s because they get YOU into the position of being the hero. You wipe out all the monsters, you kill all the bad guys, destroy all the demons and end up rescuing someone – who is very grateful to you.
There is a lot of bloodshed, body parts fly everywhere, but eventually – you – prevail. Don’t you wish your program, service or product could create that same feeling of triumph in your customers.
Are there solutions? Yes – but for those, you are going to have to call me if you want them immediately. Or, you can follow this blog. As we go on, the answers will be forthcoming.
A fast way is to look up my contact information on my website at http://write4me.biz/and call me. I look forward to talking with you.
---------
Copyright 2006 - Gary A. ClarkGary Clark is a Freelance Commercial Writer and Web Content writer who for 25 years has been both a Consultant and instructor of Small Business Entrepreneurship. He can be reached by e-mail at GAClark@Write4me.biz, or by phone at 719-536-0505- Mon thru Fri / 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (MST)
So he tied her up and went golfing.
Communications is the key to the development of the human race. Mis-interpretation of what is being either desired, said or implied will often result in an unexpected and undesired outcome. For example, I recited this joke to my wife expecting a laugh. What I got was the “look.” I know what that look means. My mother used to give me that look. That is where wives learned it.
Here’s a live example:
I want to tell you about a "superior" software product developed from 20 years of knowledge by a leading professional in the field. I want to show you this time saving, much-needed product. Get it and it will save your company one day.
What do you want to know? What information do you need before you are ready to grant me the time to show it to you?
Do you want to know what programming language it is written in? How many developers it took to produce it, or years it took to develop it? How about the color of the screens? Do you want to know that it uses a relational database?
No. None of this really matters to you. What really matters is what it can do for you. What do you need it for? Without that information – I won’t get the time of day off you.
Even if I manage to sell it to your company, without this knowledge, it remains nameless, sits in the corner and fails to do what it was intended to do. Instead of helpful software, you have shelfware.
However, if I told you what it could do for you, how it could make your job so much easier, so much faster and more accurate, or so much better, then you would use it.
If I told you that by using this software, you would gain new respect in the firm, perhaps a position and a raise, would you understand why it is important to use it?
What if I told you how to use it? What if I gave you examples, and promised to help you practice using it so that you were the most proficient in it?
The only thing that would cause you to pull it off the shelf - is if it was good for you.
Why didn’t they sell you this?
Ever wonder why game software sells so well. It’s because they get YOU into the position of being the hero. You wipe out all the monsters, you kill all the bad guys, destroy all the demons and end up rescuing someone – who is very grateful to you.
There is a lot of bloodshed, body parts fly everywhere, but eventually – you – prevail. Don’t you wish your program, service or product could create that same feeling of triumph in your customers.
Are there solutions? Yes – but for those, you are going to have to call me if you want them immediately. Or, you can follow this blog. As we go on, the answers will be forthcoming.
A fast way is to look up my contact information on my website at http://write4me.biz/and call me. I look forward to talking with you.
---------
Copyright 2006 - Gary A. ClarkGary Clark is a Freelance Commercial Writer and Web Content writer who for 25 years has been both a Consultant and instructor of Small Business Entrepreneurship. He can be reached by e-mail at GAClark@Write4me.biz, or by phone at 719-536-0505- Mon thru Fri / 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (MST)
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