Author: Dailyusastory

Lori McDonald is the founder and CEO of Brilliance, a prominent B2B ecommerce development firm. As of February, she’s also the owner of a specialty food manufacturer called Norsland Lefse. Why would a busy web development executive acquire a direct-to-consumer producer? I asked her that question and more in our recent conversation. The entire audio is embedded below. The transcript is edited for clarity and length. Kerry Murdock: You’re the CEO of a leading ecommerce development company. Why acquire a food manufacturer? Lori McDonald: We specialize in working with mid-market manufacturers and distributors. We purchased a small manufacturing company to…

Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) found that writing dangerous prompts in the past tense bypassed the refusal training of the most advanced LLMs. AI models are commonly aligned using techniques like supervised fine-tuning (SFT) or reinforcement learning human feedback (RLHF) to make sure the model doesn’t respond to dangerous or undesirable prompts. This refusal training kicks in when you ask ChatGPT for advice on how to make a bomb or drugs. We’ve covered a range of interesting jailbreak techniques that bypass these guardrails but the method the EPFL researchers tested is by far the simplest.…

Google’s frequent algorithm updates produce nonstop fluctuations in organic traffic and rankings. Content audits are essential to identify lost rankings, revive declining traffic, and find new topics. Here’s how I audit content for better search engine optimization. Evaluate Lost Traffic Traffic declines from organic search can occur for multiple reasons. Over time, new articles push current ones deep into the archives. Updating articles with substantially new info and a new date will likely help regain traffic. Google’s core updates often focus on searchers’ intent. Many queries imply multiple intents. For example, a search for “backyard barbeque” could suggest a need…

Here’s what we don’t know about Prime Day 2024. Amazon says the event was global but famously provides no revenue details. We’re left with estimates by Adobe and others of U.S. purchases. Thus we don’t know the worldwide purchase volume or the impact on Amazon’s income since most of the purchases are presumably with third-party marketplace sellers from which Amazon earns a commission — $1 billion of purchases at a 20% commission would be $200 million of earnings to Amazon. Less clear, too, is the bottom-line effect of Prime Day discounts on third-party merchants who tell Practical Ecommerce that Amazon takes…

AI research is fueled by the pursuit of ever-greater sophistication, which includes training systems to think and behave like humans. The end goal? Who knows. The goal for now? To create autonomous, generalized AI agents capable of performing a wide range of tasks.  This concept is called artificial general intelligence (AGI) or superintelligence, which means the same thing. It’s challenging to pinpoint precisely what AGI entails because there’s virtually zero consensus on what ‘intelligence’ is, or indeed, when or how artificial systems might achieve it. Some even believe AI, in its current state, can never truly obtain general intelligence.  Professor…

Amazon By Emily Sullivan Jul 19 2024 Amazon’s 10th Prime Day ran on July 16th and 17th this year, solidifying its position as a major shopping event with ever-increasing popularity and scale. Despite expanding into a two-day event over the years, the retail holiday retained its distinct name – Prime Day. Consumers recognize Prime Day as a round-the-clock deals extravaganza, requiring them to regularly check Amazon throughout the event to snag limited-time discounts before they disappear. As in previous years, savings opportunities started early with a variety of Early Prime Day Deals available on July 15th, the day before the…

Scientists have developed an AI system capable of simulating hundreds of millions of years of protein evolution, creating a novel fluorescent protein unlike any found in nature. The research team, led by Alexander Rives at EvolutionaryScale, created a large language model (LLM) called ESM3 to process and generate information about protein sequences, structures, and functions.  By training on data from billions of natural proteins, ESM3 learned to predict how proteins might evolve and change over time. “ESM3 is an emergent simulator that has been learned from solving a token prediction task on data generated by evolution,” the researchers explain in…

Episode SummaryIn this episode of the 7 Figures and Beyond eCommerce Marketing Podcast, hosts Greg Shuey and Laurel Teuscher discuss strategies for preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, emphasizing the importance of early planning. Laurel, VP at Stride, shares insights from her nine years of experience in digital marketing, particularly focusing on SEO and Google Ads. The discussion covers various critical aspects of preparation, including customer service, fulfillment processes, and marketing strategies.Video ReplayKey TakeawaysStart Early: Begin Black Friday/Cyber Monday planning in July to avoid last-minute rush and capitalize on all opportunities.Optimize Customer Service and Fulfillment: Prepare customer service…

Securing Your Magento eCommerce Checkout Page: Solutions to Be Secures from Carding AttacksTo safeguard your Magento payment page from carding attacks, consider implementing the following protection strategies:Use Magento’s CSRF ProtectionMagento 2.3.0 and later versions include built-in CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) protection for critical controllers such as /paypal/transparent/requestSecureToken, which are often targeted in carding attacks. Enabling this protection helps mitigate risks associated with CSRF vulnerabilities, although additional security measures should also be considered to comprehensively address carding threats.Implement Rate LimitingRate limiting is another effective strategy to combat carding attacks. It works by setting a maximum threshold for the number of payment…

Securing Your Magento eCommerce Checkout Page: Solutions to Be Secures from Carding AttacksTo safeguard your Magento payment page from carding attacks, consider implementing the following protection strategies:Use Magento’s CSRF ProtectionMagento 2.3.0 and later versions include built-in CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) protection for critical controllers such as /paypal/transparent/requestSecureToken, which are often targeted in carding attacks. Enabling this protection helps mitigate risks associated with CSRF vulnerabilities, although additional security measures should also be considered to comprehensively address carding threats.Implement Rate LimitingRate limiting is another effective strategy to combat carding attacks. It works by setting a maximum threshold for the number of payment…