Squats the story - the Off Topic Thread...

Stench Blossoms

Didn't Pat work in the USA or England? He'd have quite a lot of contacts.

Also, he's offered quite a lot of free stuff and word goes round quickly when there's anything free involved. He's also heavily involved in community based stuff in Galway (doing stuff for meningitis Ireland for example), that could be a factor in it as well.

Another also. He's doesn't bitch or bad mouth anyone which can't be said for other Galway based trainer's who actively like to name and shame people for silly reasons.

colman1212

brownej wrote: »

This sort of story ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7234786.stm ) would make me very wary of bringing anything into the UAE.

Jesus. :eek: That is horrific. With the millions of people passing through there every year, it just seems hard to believe. Like the rugby 7's is on there every year, surely those boys bring a mountain of supps with them. Scary. I guess the ol' whey protein will be staying at home!


I've gone through the customs website though and can't see anything about supplements.
Like surely if they are in a sealed container they should be fine...

colman1212

colman1212 wrote: »

Jesus. :eek: That is horrific. With the millions of people passing through there every year, it just seems hard to believe. Like the rugby 7's is on there every year, surely those boys bring a mountain of supps with them. Scary. I guess the ol' whey protein will be staying at home!


I've gone through the customs website though and can't see anything about supplements.
Like surely if they are in a sealed container they should be fine...

I've read a few forums online.
I'm just going to bring them with me. Its just vitamins and protein (Fibre,whey protein, multivitamin, fish-oil, vital greens) and I'll have them in a sealed container so we'll see what happens. I know they are really strict on anything contraining codine but supps should be fine.

Mellor

Should be fine. The horror stories involve people bring in actual illegal drugs (albeit tiny amounts).
That said, I don't think its worth the bother. You should be able to get protein, fish-oil mad fibre from real food. It's only a week FFS

syklops

Stench Blossoms wrote: »

Another also. He's doesn't bitch or bad mouth anyone which can't be said for other Galway based trainer's who actively like to name and shame people for silly reasons.

Like who?

Stench Blossoms

syklops wrote: »

Like who?

They know who they are. They've been confronted about doing it already.

syklops

CM24 wrote: »

Was just looking at the Facebook pages of some of the most well known trainers in Ireland. How the hell does the Pat Divilly Fitness page have so many more fans than the rest? I'm not hating on him, I just dunno how he has nearly 20k followers, while Revolution Fitness, The ABS Gym or Dominic Munnelly's page only have about 1000 fans each. He's just started two 6 week transformation courses, one for lads and one for girls, costing 100 euro each. From the looks of the responses he's got a few hundred people signing up to each. That's a lotta earnings... I am very envious but fair play to him. I'm sure his training programs are very good but so are the aforementioned trainer's. How is he marketing himself so well?

I ask because I'm looking to get started as a PT. I would have thought in order to get loads of attention to myself I would have to take loads of spectacular before/after pics of myself, have a load of videos of me lookin jacked on Youtube (like this guy http://www.youtube.com/user/sixpackshortcuts) and so on. But Pat Divilly doesn't appear to have done any of this. (I don't want to either!)

In a word, Internet marketing. OK, thats atually two words, but you get the message. Maybe he did a like this and win, competition. So for example, he offers an hours free personal training or something, all you have to do is like his page. Also, if he regularly puts up interesting information, or even funny pictures, people share it to their own walls, and some people outside of his regular circle like his page.

Dathai

I thought the "like this and win" competitions were banned?

There's a good few new independent PTs on facer now that have thousands of friends / likes. I figured its because people want to bump their friend count / look like they give a **** about being fit. Looks like the trainers just started out as well so it's not a case of word getting out about the "results" of their clients.

Zombienosh

My feed is full of like and share competitions.

syklops

Dathai wrote: »

I thought the "like this and win" competitions were banned?

Why would they be banned? If they're going to ban something on FB, ban flippin farmville.

Sangre

syklops wrote: »

Why would they be banned? If they're going to ban something on FB, ban flippin farmville.

Free advertisement on a site where the business model is primarily based on advertisements?

Hanley

Dathai wrote: »

I thought the "like this and win" competitions were banned?

There's a good few new independent PTs on facer now that have thousands of friends / likes. I figured its because people want to bump their friend count / look like they give a **** about being fit. Looks like the trainers just started out as well so it's not a case of word getting out about the "results" of their clients.

They are. You only get stung if reported.

syklops

Sangre wrote: »

Free advertisement on a site where the business model is primarily based on advertisements?

Thats if you use a personal account, which is understandable. If you use an advertiser account, I don't see why they would be banned.

Hanley

syklops wrote: »

Thats if you use a personal account, which is understandable. If you use an advertiser account, I don't see why they would be banned.

What's an advertiser account?

syklops

How to advertise on Facebook

Hanley

syklops wrote: »

How to advertise on Facebook

Right. So what's an advertiser account?

syklops

Hanley wrote: »

Right. So what's an advertiser account?

Its an account you can manage adverts from?

Stench Blossoms

It's phrased wrong but an advertiser account is any account (or page) that places a add on facebook.

Hanley

syklops wrote: »

Its an account you can manage adverts from?

So it's a facebook account. You can advertise from any page. You don't need a specific "advert" account.

Regardless, facebook rules disallow you from using facebook features (ie like, share, comment etc) for generating interest in business posts.

Here's the section from their website;

"iii. You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall.
iv. You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.
v. You must not use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion."

Oisinjm

Hanley wrote: »

So it's a facebook account. You can advertise from any page. You don't need a specific "advert" account.

Regardless, facebook rules disallow you from using facebook features (ie like, share, comment etc) for generating interest in business posts.

Here's the section from their website;

"iii. You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall.
iv. You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.
v. You must not use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion."

They're happy to get any money. Do a like and share, they won't notice unless it gets a huge amount of shares (1,000+). If they do notice, just pay for a few advertisements or sponsor posts. They'll back off.

Oisín

Hanley

Oisinjm wrote: »

They're happy to get any money. Do a like and share, they won't notice unless it gets a huge amount of shares (1,000+). If they do notice, just pay for a few advertisements or sponsor posts. They'll back off.

Oisín

I've had 2 reported and blocked inside of an hour with minimal shares. A lot of knob ends out there.

syklops

Hanley wrote: »

So it's a facebook account. You can advertise from any page. You don't need a specific "advert" account.

Regardless, facebook rules disallow you from using facebook features (ie like, share, comment etc) for generating interest in business posts.

Here's the section from their website;

"iii. You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall.
iv. You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.
v. You must not use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion."

Apologies. That its referred to as an advert account on Facebooks documentation threw me.

the drifter

****...that got serious pretty quickly.

Oisinjm

Hanley wrote: »

I've had 2 reported and blocked inside of an hour with minimal shares. A lot of knob ends out there.

Really? We only got a message directed to ours after we got 200,000+ reach on a post and 1,500+ shares. We promoted a few posts, made a few ads and we were away with it. We now have a 'competition tab'. We tell people to go to the tab and enter via that and to share through the tab. People don't read though and still share the post but I'm fairly sure we're abiding by the Facebook rules? Haven't been reported since anyway.

Oisín

Gummy Panda

Now to pillage Bodypower Expo...

podge57

Absolute chancer -

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/weightlifters-olympic-dream-at-risk-in-gun-and-drugs-case-29225471.html

Hanley

podge57 wrote: »

Absolute chancer -

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/weightlifters-olympic-dream-at-risk-in-gun-and-drugs-case-29225471.html

Wait... The rankings have him at 105 and 80/112. What f*cking olympics would that qualify him for?!

Also - f*ck him. He's supposed to compete as a drug free athlete, if the judge doesn't link the ridiculousness of him selling drugs and being sponsored by the state as a drug free athlete, I'm going to leave this country.

jugger0

Hanley wrote: »

Wait... The rankings have him at 105 and 80/112. What f*cking olympics would that qualify him for?!

THE SPECIAL OLYMPICS LOLOLOL


Sorry... seriously tho very unimpressive numbers, ive taught myself O lifting and even i can manage a 120+ Clean and jerk, what a joker i hope they throw the book at him, who knows maybe a few years in jail lifting and he'll come out the other side with decent numbers.

ronanc15

Focusing a lot more on my nutrition & macros the last week, trying a minor cut and managed 51:26:23 PFC for the first week. Was aiming for 50:30:20 so im chuffed with that!

Thanks for the tips for the fats guys, really helped

Duck's hoop

Got some Macca root powder from iherb. Most of it was all over the box. On inspection the packet had been slit open and taped over by customs.

Obviously they thought it a drugs consignment.