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AI Data Masking and Sensitivity Mapping in Salesforce - Salesforce Break

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 06:18:13 +0000

Every new Agentforce feature widens your org’s permission surface. Prompt templates, Agentforce actions, and Einstein Copilot setups all touch sensitive data in ways your existing security reviews may not cover. If your quarterly security health check still treats AI features as an afterthought, it’s time to build them into the core cadence.

AI data masking and sensitivity mapping deserves a spot in your governance framework alongside the checks you already run. This covers two related tasks. First, auditing how the Einstein Trust Layer protects data moving to and from large language models. Second, verifying that standard users can’t reach admin-level AI configuration they were never meant to touch.

This piece builds on the org governance framework Lizz Hellinga presented at Texas Dreamin’, expanded here with a closer look at AI data masking and sensitivity mapping.

What the Einstein Trust Layer Actually Does

The Einstein Trust Layer is the built-in gateway that every Salesforce-originated generative AI call passes through, whether that’s Prompt Builder, an Agentforce action, or Einstein for Service reply recommendations. Every prompt and every model response routes through this layer first, which is the entire reason admins can point Agentforce at real production data without treating it as an open security hole.

Image source: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=ai.generative_ai_trust_arch.htm&type=5

Three architectural facts matter for your audit:

Zero Data Retention

Salesforce runs under contracts with external model providers, including OpenAI and Azure OpenAI, that require any data sent for processing to be wiped once a response is generated. Nothing lingers on the provider’s side after the exchange completes. This is a contractual commitment, not a configuration toggle, so your audit should confirm which model providers your org actually uses and verify those agreements apply.

Data Masking With a Catch

Image source: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=ai.generative_ai_trust_arch.htm&type=5

Before a prompt reaches an external model, the Trust Layer scans it for sensitive elements and swaps them out for placeholder text. Once the model responds, it maps those placeholders back to the original values before the reply reaches the user. This masking step doesn’t currently apply to agent interactions. It’s active for embedded features like Einstein Service Replies and Einstein Work Summaries, which you can configure directly in Trust Layer setup, but agent traffic runs outside that protection today.

Grounding Respects Existing Permissions

When a prompt pulls in Salesforce data to ground its response, it can only see what the person running that prompt is already allowed to see. Nobody gets a backdoor through AI that bypasses their normal profile or permission set. This single fact is why your permission set hygiene reviews directly determines what your AI features can see. A bloated profile creates risk in every AI-generated response that user triggers.

Permission Set Exposure Control: Who Can Touch What

Prompt templates run on a two-tier permission model, and mixing these up is one of the most common gaps you may see in org audits.

One permission set lets a person open and use existing prompt templates day to day. A separate one is required before anyone can build a new template or change an existing one. A standard sales rep might reasonably need User access to run an approved template. That same rep should almost never hold Manager access, since that would let them create or edit templates that touch production data and control what gets sent to an LLM.

Run this check as part of your quarterly security review:

Pull every user currently assigned Prompt Template Manager: Confirm each one is an actual admin or a designated AI process owner, not a standard user who inherited it through a cloned permission set.
Cross-reference Prompt Template User Assignments: Run this against your active Agentforce and Prompt Builder rollout. Deactivate access for anyone outside the current pilot or use case.
Check for any custom permission sets built before your AI rollout: It’s possible some may have accidentally bundled prompt template access alongside unrelated permissions.

Third-party tools built for Salesforce metadata auditing can help here. They let you compare permission set assignments across your org at once instead of clicking through Setup user by user. This becomes especially useful once you’re managing more than a handful of AI-related permission sets across sandboxes and production.

Security Health Check Cadence for AI Governance

Include this work into your existing security health check rather than treating it as a separate initiative. Here is a practical sequence:

Image source: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=xcloud.security_health_check.htm&type=5

Quarterly: Run the Salesforce Security Health Check. Add the prompt template permission set audit above. Review sharing rules and guest user access alongside it, since AI grounding inherits from the same access model.

Monthly: Spot-check any newly created permission sets or permission set groups for accidental AI access bundling. This catches drift early instead of finding it during the next full quarterly pass.
Annually: Revisit which LLM providers your org actually connects to and confirm the zero data retention terms still apply to each one you’re using.

None of this requires a new committee or a separate audit calendar. It just means widening the checklist you already run. The quarterly, monthly, and annual cadence above slots directly into existing security workflows, so nothing new gets added to anyone’s plate beyond a few extra line items.

Building Toward AI-Ready Data Hygiene

There’s a second layer to sensitivity mapping that extends beyond permissions: the data itself. Clean, well-described custom fields help grounding retrieve the right information and help any AI feature understand what it’s looking at. A field with a vague API name and no description is a governance problem whether or not AI ever touches it, but it becomes a bigger one once an LLM is expected to reason over it accurately.

If you’re running a rotational field and object audit as part of your broader governance framework, use it to flag fields feeding into prompt templates or Agentforce actions first. Prioritize those over the general backlog. Bad grounding data can produce a wrong answer a rep sends straight to a customer.

Run your Einstein Trust Layer Audit Now

AI features move fast, but the governance behind them doesn’t have to lag. Most of the controls covered here already exist inside Salesforce. They just need to be checked on purpose instead of assumed. Bring the Einstein Trust Layer and prompt template permissions into your regular security cadence. Treat AI access like any other permission risk. Your org will be in better shape than the one that finds out the hard way.

Explore related content:

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Why Salesforce Profiles Are Putting Orgs at Risk

The Real Lessons Behind a Year of Agentforce Rollouts

Why Salesforce Profiles Are Putting Orgs at Risk

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:24:00 +0000

Salesforce admins have relied on Profiles for decades. They feel familiar. They feel safe. According to Andrew Day, Fractional CISO and founder of 22 Nexus, that familiarity is exactly the problem. At Texas Dreamin’ 2026, Day delivered a session that walked attendees through why Profiles have become the biggest obstacle to real security in Salesforce …

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Object Relationships in Salesforce - Salesforce Break

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:24:00 +0000

When you’re just starting out learning the basic foundational concepts in Salesforce, it helps to break them down like this: one object, one purpose, and then a set of rules for how objects connect to each other. Object relationships are exactly that connective tissue. They let you link records together so users can see related data without hunting for it across the org.

Think about a school tracking student enrollment. A staff member opens a student’s record and needs to see every course that student is enrolled in, right there on the page. That visibility doesn’t happen automatically. Someone has to define a relationship between the Student object and a custom Course object first. Once that relationship exists, the data shows up together, and the whole team works faster.

We’re going to walk through the main relationship types, what each one is good for, and the tradeoffs for each choice.

Master-Detail Relationships

A master-detail relationship ties two objects together so tightly that the master record controls the detail record’s behavior. Delete the master, and Salesforce deletes every related detail record with it. Undelete the master, and those detail records come back too.

This tight coupling shows up in a few other ways. Detail records don’t have their own Owner field. Instead, they inherit ownership from the master record. That also means custom objects sitting on the detail side can’t use sharing rules, manual sharing, or queues, since all of those depend on an Owner field being present.

Security works the same way. Detail and subdetail records inherit their permissions from the master, so you can’t set access on the detail record independently. The relationship field itself is required on the detail record’s page layout, and by default, records can’t be reparented to a different master. An admin can turn on reparenting for custom objects if the business need calls for it.

There’s a practical limit worth remembering here too: Salesforce recommends keeping master-detail relationships under 10,000 child records, and each custom object can have a maximum of two master-detail relationships along with 40 total relationships.

One more thing to flag: once you save a master-detail relationship, you can’t change what it’s related to. Get the object selection right before you commit. As a general rule, lookup relationships are the safer starting point. Default to lookup relationships unless you have a specific reason to need the tighter coupling master-detail provides.

Lookup Relationships

Lookup relationships connect two objects in a much looser way. They work similarly to master-detail relationships, but they skip sharing inheritance and roll-up summary fields entirely. You can link two different objects, or you can link an object to itself, as long as that object isn’t the user object (which has its own special hierarchical relationship type, covered below).

Roll-Up Summary Fields and the Standard Object Exception

One nuance worth flagging, especially for custom objects: roll-up summary fields require a master-detail relationship. You can’t add a roll-up summary field on top of a lookup relationship, only master-detail supports it.

Standard object relationships bend this rule, though. Relationships between standard objects like Contact, Lead, Account, Case, and Opportunity are sometimes called special relationships. They behave like a hybrid of master-detail and lookup, but they aren’t strictly either one.

The Opportunity-to-Account relationship is a good example. Account is optional on Opportunity, which is normally a lookup trait. Yet you can still create a roll-up summary field from Opportunity up to Account, something that isn’t available for a true lookup relationship between two custom objects.

Because the coupling is looser, lookup relationships give you more configuration choices. You decide whether the field is required. If it’s optional, you choose what happens when someone deletes the linked record: clear the field automatically, block the deletion outright, or delete the child record along with it.

That last option, deleting the child record too, deserves real caution. Salesforce calls this a cascade-delete, and it bypasses normal security and sharing settings. A user could end up deleting records they wouldn’t otherwise have access to, simply because the parent record they do have access to got deleted. For this reason, cascade-delete is turned off by default, and you need to request it from Salesforce before it becomes available as an option.

Lookup relationships also come with volume considerations. If the combined record count across both linked objects exceeds 100,000, you can’t delete an object or record involved in that relationship until you bring the count down.

Many-to-Many Relationships and Junction Objects

Sometimes one master-detail relationship isn’t enough to model how your data actually works. Picture that Student and Course example again, but now imagine a single student enrolls in multiple courses, and a single course has multiple students enrolled. That’s a many-to-many relationship, and Salesforce handles it through a junction object.

A junction object is simply a custom object holding two separate master-detail relationships, one to each of the objects you’re connecting. Build the junction object first, then create both master-detail fields on it, one at a time.

Order matters here more than you might expect. The first master-detail relationship you create becomes the primary relationship, and it determines the look, icon color, and inherited ownership of the junction records. The second one becomes secondary, and it only takes over as primary if you later remove the first relationship.

Renaming Related Lists Doesn’t Remove the Extra Click

Once both relationships exist, you’ll want to rename the related list labels on each master object’s page layout. This step is easy to misunderstand, so it’s worth being precise about what it actually changes.

Renaming the label doesn’t change what’s inside the related list. The related list still shows junction object records, the actual Course Enrollment records, not Course or Student records directly. Renaming the label just changes what that list is called on the page. So instead of a generic label like “Course Enrollments,” you might rename it to something that hints at the other side of the relationship, but clicking into any row still opens a Course Enrollment record first. From there, you’d click again to reach the actual Course or Student.

That two-step path, from Student to Course Enrollment to Course, is normal for junction objects. It’s built into how master-detail relationships work, and renaming labels doesn’t remove that extra click.

Some standard Salesforce objects hide this navigation on purpose, at least visually. Opportunity Products is a good example. When you add a product to an opportunity, it looks like you’re selecting products directly. In the background, Salesforce is still creating a junction object record connecting the two.

Junction objects come with their own deletion behavior worth knowing. If either master record is deleted, the junction record moves to the Recycle Bin. If both master records get deleted, the junction record is gone permanently and can’t be restored.

Hierarchical, External, and Indirect Lookups

A few more specialized relationship types round out the picture. Hierarchical relationships exist only for the user object, and they let you build something like a manager chain, where one user links to another without any circular references back to itself.

External lookup and indirect lookup relationships come into play when Salesforce Connect is involved. An external lookup connects a child object to a parent that lives in an external data source. An indirect lookup flips that, connecting a child external object to a parent that lives inside your Salesforce org, matched through a unique external ID field. These are less common in day-to-day admin work, but they matter a lot once external data sources enter the conversation.

Converting Between Relationship Types

Relationships aren’t always permanent decisions. You can convert a master-detail relationship to a lookup, as long as no roll-up summary fields exist on the master object. You can also go the other direction and convert a lookup to a master-detail relationship, but only if every record’s lookup field already contains a value.

There’s one blocker worth knowing before you try that second conversion. A lookup relationship can’t be converted to master-detail if the child object’s organization-wide default is already set to Controlled by Parent. You’ll need to change that setting first before the conversion will go through.

Converting a lookup to master-detail changes the organization-wide default to Controlled by Parent, and it updates the sharing model to public read/write. Converting the other way, from master-detail to lookup, changes the organization-wide default on the detail object to public read/write as well.

Reports depend on these relationship types too, so a conversion can break custom reports that relied on the old structure. Test your reports right after any conversion, before anyone downstream notices something looks off.

Choosing the Right Salesforce Relationship Type

Object relationships aren’t just a technical detail buried in Setup. They shape how users see data and control record deletion and restoration. They determine ownership and which reports are possible. Getting the relationship type right from the start saves rework later. Some decisions, like the Related To field on a master-detail relationship, can’t change once saved.

Start with the business question first: does one record truly control another, or are they simply connected? That question alone points you toward master-detail or lookup. From there, the rest of the configuration choices get a lot easier to reason through.

Explore related content:

Standard or Custom Object – The Importance of the Data Model

Which Object Do You Trigger On?

How Many Flows Per Object?

Agentforce Coworker Applied: Enterprise Intelligence at Your Fingertips

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:26:15 +0000

For years, enterprise productivity has suffered from a subtle tax: context switching.

Sales executives, account managers, and customer success teams spend a fraction of their week actually talking to customers. The rest of their time is spent hunting through tab after tab, jumping from CRM records to email threads and opening Jira tickets. They also pull reports from Tableau, cross-reference customer support tickets, and ping colleagues in Slack to verify account histories.

The promise of modern enterprise AI isn't just about generating text or writing code; it is about bringing all your organization's scattered data directly to your fingertips through Large Language Model (LLM) interfaces. Instead of navigating complex database structures, you simply converse with your data in natural language.

The post Agentforce Coworker Applied: Enterprise Intelligence at Your Fingertips appeared first on Salesforce Break.

Agentforce Pricing: A Tier-by-Tier Breakdown

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:26:15 +0000

Salesforce has restructured Agentforce pricing around usage and business value instead of flat seat licenses. This guide breaks down each pricing tier, what it costs, and where the credits actually go. We'll cover the free Foundations tier, the two usage-based options (Flex Credits and Conversations), and the flat-rate licensing paths built for employee-facing agents.

The post Agentforce Pricing: A Tier-by-Tier Breakdown appeared first on Salesforce Break.

Is Setup with Agentforce Ready for Prime Time?

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:26:15 +0000

Salesforce keeps pushing AI deeper into the platform. Setup with Agentforce is the latest example. It promises a conversational way for admins to explore setup configurations, get security recommendations, and manage their Org, all without digging through menus. The pitch is simple. Ask a question in plain language and let Agentforce guide you through the …

The post Is Setup with Agentforce Ready for Prime Time? appeared first on Salesforce Break.

n8n and Salesforce: Simplifying Complex Integrations - Salesforce Break

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:26:15 +0000

Let’s face it; integration in Salesforce is not as easy as it is supposed to be. It requires coding in Apex in most cases, so non-developers are already out of the game. There is no native logging solution and a developer has to build one from the ground up (or use Nebula Logger). It is difficult to call AI interfaces such as Claude API and OpenAI Responses API, and even more so to put Salesforce on the recipient side and another widely known service, such as Gmail or WhatsApp, on the triggering side.

Luckily for us, Salesforce is trying to remedy this and break Agentforce out of self-containment by releasing Headless 360 and letting external channels (apps, agents, bots) interact with Salesforce without relying on standard UI flows. However, this doesn’t solve all of our problems regarding integrations and automations: we still need an integration layer for event ingestion on Salesforce’s side. We may want to trigger Salesforce from our business email inbox. Additionally, we may want to create a Lead using WhatsApp or Telegram, send a message on those platforms without relying on Apex, or simply use basic triggers and webhooks instead of agentic workflows.

What is n8n and Why Use It?

Here’s where n8n (pronounced “n-eight-n” or sometimes “nathan”) comes in. With its name standing for “nodemation”, n8n provides a visual interface similar to Flows for extensive business process automation including AI capabilities, fully deserving its nickname of “the Swiss army knife of workflow automation.” It enables businesses to build powerful automations and AI-driven workflows, such as integrating large language models, handling data pipelines, and orchestrating cross-system processes while retaining full control through self-hosting or cloud deployment. Any service you may need for your personal or commercial uses, including Salesforce, Gmail, WhatsApp, Instagram and Claude API, is available in n8n. It also allows you to natively write code in Python or JavaScript when you need it, showcasing this capability as, “Code when you need it, UI when you don’t.”

n8n offers a free trial for 14 days, with a fair pricing plan depending on your needs. You can also choose to self-host n8n to overcome its governor limits including the number of workflows and monthly workflow executions if your automation needs are high.

For the purposes of this article, we assume that we are running a travel agency. Leads are coming to us through emails, and our requirement is to automate the process of Lead creation instead of manually entering the Lead values every time. An email that necessitates a Lead creation will have content that expresses interest in a tour package: “I would like to inquire about your Grand Canyon tour package” or “I would like to book your Japan tour.”

On the other hand, we may also receive emails that don’t fall into this category; they may contain complaints, reviews or they may simply be promotional emails. Therefore, we have to introduce a layer of sentiment analysis, which will be achieved through AI, to our workflow. When the sentiment is positive (i.e. the email came from a prospective client), our workflow should create a Lead. When it is negative, it should do nothing.

Creating the Workflow

Click the “Create workflow” button at the upper right corner.

We are met with two options: building our workflow manually or with AI. You can try out the AI creation tool, but for this tutorial we will be adding our workflow trigger manually. Click “Add first step,” then search for Gmail on the toolbar that appears on the right. It should be under the “On app event” section. There is only one trigger: On message received. Click it and log into your Gmail account under the Credential field. These credentials will be saved into your personal credential archive which can be found under the “Credentials” menu in the page shown above. Leave everything as is and go back to your workflow. It should look like this:

Analyze Email Content with AI

The content of the email should then be analyzed by an LLM to check whether it belongs to a prospective customer or not. Click the small plus sign and add the LLM of your choice (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini etc.) Log in to the API that you chose when you are prompted by n8n, make sure that the Resource value is selected as “Text” and the Operation is “Message a model”. Choose a model and enter a prompt that will not only do sentiment analysis for you, but also summarize the email content and extract the first and last name of the email sender from the content. Below is a sample prompt that I am running on Claude Haiku 4.5 with the Anthropic Message a model node:

You are a travel agent who will receive booking requests and inquiries about tour packages through email. Below is the content of the most recent email received by a prospective customer (below the separator given as '-----'). Analyze the content and return a JSON containing four variables:
- isProspect: A Boolean value that contains whether the email sender is looking to book a tour package (e.g. "I want to book..." or "I would like to buy..."), or is asking questions about a tour package (e.g. "I would like to inquire...", "I want to ask about this package..."). If the sender is doing so, the value should be true. If the sender is not doing so (they may be issuing a complaint, it could be a promotion mail etc.), the value should be false.
- emailSummary: A String value that contains the summary of the email in one or two sentences.
Output only the JSON value and nothing else.
- firstName: A String value that contains the first name of the email sender if it can be found in the email.
- lastName: A String value that contains the last name of the email sender if it can be found in the email.
{{ $json.snippet }}

Let us pause here for a while and examine our prompt. Essentially, we are configuring our AI so that it:

assumes its role as a travel agent/assistant
knows where the prompt ends and the email content begins
analyzes the sentiment given in the email, in the sense that an email such as “I would like to book your Japan tour” would belong to a prospective client, while “Congratulations! You have earned a coupon” would not
summarizes the email content and extracts the first and last name of the email sender
returns the output as a JSON which makes it easier for us to parse

The {{ $json.snippet }} at the bottom of the prompt refers to the body of the email, which can be put into the free text area by simply dragging and dropping from the left hand side of the screen. The reference will be resolved when the workflow runs, wrapping up the email content inside the prompt and handing it over to the LLM.

The output of the LLM will be a String that looks like:

{
  "isProspect": true,
  "emailSummary": "The sender wants to book the Grand Canyon tour package.",
  "firstName": "John",
  "lastName": "Appleseed"
}

Parse the AI Response with a Code Node

This is obviously not a JSON, but a format that allows the AI to return a JSON value in code view. To be able to parse this, we need to get rid of the artifacts that we don’t want (such as “`).

Add a Code node (found under the “Core” section) and choose Code in JavaScript. There is also an option to code in Python but vanilla Python does not have the capability to parse JSON and importing libraries is forbidden for security reasons (unless you self-host n8n—an additional advantage of self-hosting). Therefore, we will be going with JavaScript.

Select “Run Once for All Items” as its mode and enter the code below:

const response =  $input.first().json.content[0].text // adjust to your actual field name
const jsonStr = response.replace(/^```json\s*|\s*```$/g, '').trim();
const data = JSON.parse(jsonStr);
 
return [{
  json: {
    isProspect: Boolean(data.isProspect),
    emailSummary: String(data.emailSummary),
    firstName: String(data.firstName),
    lastName: String(data.lastName)
  }
}];

With this code block, we have:

formatted the text that was returned by the AI into an actual JSON
parsed it into 4 different variables (isProspect, emailSummary, firstName, lastName)

Now it’s time to use these variables. Add a new “If” node (found under the Flow section) and add only one condition: {{ $(‘Code in JavaScript’).item.json.isProspect }} is true.

Connection with Salesforce

Here’s where we finally use Salesforce. Before we add the Salesforce node to the end of the true segment of the If node, we need a client ID and secret from Salesforce. To obtain those, we need to create an External Client App (Connected Apps are deprecated with the Spring ’26 release). Go to your org, then go to Setup → App Manager. Click New External Client App.

Enter the app name and contact email (this can be your email). Under the API (Enable OAuth Settings) section, tick the Enable OAuth checkbox. Once the other fields pop up, enter https://oauth.n8n.cloud/oauth2/callback as the callback URL (if you are self-hosting, it will depend on your domain). In the OAuth Scopes section, select these scopes:

Full access (full)
Perform requests at any time (refresh_token, offline_access)

Configuring Your Salesforce Connected App

In the Flow Enablement section, select Enable Authorization Code and Credentials Flow. Under OAuth Policies, make sure the following settings are checked:

Require Secret for Web Server Flow
Require Secret for Refresh Token Flow
Require Proof Key for Code Exchange (PKCE) Extension for Supported Authorization Flows

Save and enable your External Client App. Once you’re in the app page, go to Settings and find the Consumer Key and Secret button under App Settings. You will be asked to verify your identity by a verification code sent to your email. The Client ID and secret will then be revealed. More info about how to achieve an n8n-Salesforce connection can be found here.

Now add the Salesforce node (found under the “Action in an app” section) at the tail end of the True arm of the If node and choose Create a Lead as your action. n8n will ask for your credentials at the top of the screen. Click it and paste the Client ID and secret values to their appropriate fields.

You will then be prompted to self-authenticate with your username and password. If everything goes right, the integration will be complete. If you are met with a generic error, wait for 10-15 minutes before trying again or create a new External Client App from scratch and try to connect with that one.

Once the connection is done, you are now ready to trigger Salesforce through your workflow. Drag and drop the values returned from your Code node to their appropriate fields; that is, lastName in the Last Name field, firstName in the First Name field and emailSummary in the Description field. Since these are personal Leads, I chose to leave the Company field as “None”.

We don’t want to do anything when the isProspect value is false i.e. when the email sender is not a prospective client. Therefore, it is best to leave that arm blank.

This will conclude our workflow. At the end of it all, it should look like this:

Putting the Workflow to Test

Now let’s see how our workflow performs. Consider the email below:

I want to book your Grand Canyon tour.
Best regards,
John Salesforce

This email obviously expresses intent to book a tour package i.e. isProspect should be true when you run the workflow after you receive this email or when you send an email with this content to yourself. Make sure that it is the last email you have received before executing the workflow, since the last email will be fetched by the automation. Eventually, you should end up with a JSON returned from your AI node that looks like this:

[{"isProspect": true,
"emailSummary": "The sender is interested in booking the Grand Canyon tour package.",
"firstName": "John",
"lastName": "Salesforce"}]

The isProspect value is true, so the Salesforce node runs and returns the ID of the newly created Lead. You can then find that Lead in your org.

By combining n8n‘s visual workflow automation with Salesforce’s CRM capabilities, you can eliminate the repetitive manual work of creating Leads from incoming emails, no Apex code required. The workflow we built demonstrates how a non-developer can wire together Gmail, an LLM for intelligent sentiment analysis, and Salesforce into a seamless pipeline in a matter of minutes.

As Salesforce continues opening up its ecosystem through initiatives like Headless 360, pairing it with a flexible integration layer like n8n positions your team to move faster, reduce dependency on developers, and focus on what truly matters: converting those Leads into customers.

Thank you for reading and hope you liked this article!

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This Kingdom Refuses To Panic

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 12:29:30 +0000

Art by Candice Slater. Prints here.

Me, last Tuesday: Columbus write up, a cursory mention that one of the authors present was dropped by the publisher.

BDH: What does drop mean?

Mod R, to me: They want to know what dropped means.

Me, this Monday: Explanatory post of what dropped means.

BDH: Are your series getting dropped? Are your publishers not happy? What are the sales numbers? Do you not have enough sales? What are the sales numbers?

Mod R, to me: No good deed goes unpunished.

Dear Horde,

Right now I’m looking at not one but two congratulatory emails in my inbox, one from Tor US and the other from Tor UK, both of which express happiness with sales. We have just received three new offers from foreign publishers.

Going along with my CIA stance, I can neither confirm nor deny that This Kingdom has exceeded expectations. It is safe to say that this is the best debut we ever had. This is due in part to incredible support from our publishers, but most of all, this happened because of you.

Thank you! You are amazing.

In Depth Sales Numbers

While I can’t tell you the specific sale numbers, I can tell you the Kindle ranks, because they are public record.

Beast Business, published January 29, 2026:

On sale for: 6 months
Price: $5.99
Ebook rank: 10,887 in Kindle Store
Amazon reviews: 3,865
Goodreads reviews: 6,065

Inheritance, published August 10, 2025:

On sale for: 11 months
Price: $6.99
Ebook rank: 22,578 in Kindle Store
Amazon reviews: 9,007
Goodreads reviews: 11,341

This Kingdom, published March 31, 2026

On sale for: 4 months
Price: $14.99
Ebook rank: 1,201 in Kindle Store
Amazon reviews: 9,266
Goodreads reviews: 32,781

Not only has the rank held for 4 months, but the sheer number of Goodreads reviews indicates that the book is being widely read.

Now here is where I level with you:

Sweep of the Heart, published December 13, 2022

On sale for: 3.5 years
Price: $6.99
Ebook rank: 53,830 in Kindle Store
Amazon reviews: 12,383
Goodreads reviews: 19,279

This Kingdom costs twice what Sweep of the Heart does, and it’s been out for only 4 months, yet you can see by the number of reviews that it was able to reach a much wider audience.

I’ve been trying to explain before why sequels to existing series are bonus releases for us. This is why. The publishing landscape always changes, and in its current form, books greatly benefit from the presence in stores and the backing of a great publishing partner. Not being in print is hurting us. This is partially why there is no Arabella trilogy – we need a publishing partner. The first two trilogies were in print.

It seems Amazon has beaten us to Hidden Legacy announcement we said we couldn’t share yet. Yes, Catalina’s trilogy will be released in trade paperback, matching the new edition of Nevada’s books. The first will be SAPPHIRE FLAMES on February 16. We will have an official announcement and share the new covers as soon as we have Avon’s go-ahead.

Before some of you panic again, we love the Innkeeper world just as much as we love This Kingdom, and we will be continuing it. More news to come soon.

State of House Andrews

I know Horde gets antsy, when we don’t update. To keep you in the loop, this is what we are working currently:

Bonus material for the trade cover release of This Kingdom. (I ~~can neither confirm nor deny that this edition might have special stuff~~. Screw it. It will have special stuff! They can’t really come after me, they are happy with the sales numbers!)
Orders from the store – we anticipate a 4-6 weeks timeline for vellum fulfillment due to the large number of orders and personalization requests. If you get nervous, the store page shows some of the progress. We can only do between 100-200 orders per day and sometimes less. It’s the bookplates, guys. They are slowing us down.
Edits for This Redacted will not Redacted Me, which we are told will land today or tomorrow. (Not nervous about this. Not at all. #sarcasm.)

150 orders going out today

Things that we will be working on shortly:

Additional bonus material for Guide to Kair Toren
Sticker sheets availability for the store – please be chalant, we promise, we will make stickers available
Additional bonus material for I cannot tell you because contractual obligations
Map for Maggie 2
Bonus art for Maggie 2 – starting early here, because we will need a lot
Bonus content for the blog: short stories and deleted scenes, possibly a serial

The app is due to go live in 8 days and we also will need beta testers. If you would like to help us a little bit, please drop your favorite quotes from our work in the comments with the book they are from. As in “If sky could dream, it would dream of dragons. – Fate’s Edge.” Right now the app has placeholder quotes and we need it to have ours instead.

PS. Jeaniene Frost has read the draft of Maggie 2 and has texted me with words like WOW and !!!!!! and then some threats, and then followed that with a 2 hour phone call. She called me evil – for some reason, Gordon was exempt – and demanded spoilers for Book 3, because quote “if redacted redacted endgame, I will not be able to handle it.”

Horde, if this ending survives the edits, we shall have to contract Hugh d’Ambray to build us a moat around our house. Just in case.

The post This Kingdom Refuses To Panic first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

A New Start

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 15:13:56 +0000

Once, many years ago, I was sat in a budget hotel in Hamburg, thinking to myself “I don’t want to stop doing this”. It was the day after NEXT18, and my mind was buzzing with the ideas I’d been exposed to.

In particular, one of the closing talks by Indy Johar was stuck in my mind. It was one of those that I needed to continue exploring in my writing. He had given us the right questions, without any pretensions to delivering answers:

There are very few parts of the world that have the democratic infrastructure to have these conversations – but they are fundamental conversations. How we have them, and who we design for, will be profound. We are sitting at the precipice of war, famine, revolution, or another disaster. They change things. Can we avoid that?

I couldn’t imagine not being part of that conversation.

Planning for change

The conference had been a freelance client since 2012, and I knew that every conference, every piece I wrote for them could potentially be my last. But I know that if that day came, I’d want to carry on writing about those issues; to keep looking into the future and start conversations about what’s next.

That was the secret of the conference: unlike so many tech events, it was more interested in what today’s tech would do to society in 10 years, than about the latest app or startup. To take a day a week and look outside journalism, at how the world was changing, and what that means for all us, was a blessing I would rather not let go of.

So, I set up my fallback. A domain name that perfectly encapsulated the ideas I was thinking about. A Ghost install. And a steady flow of random pieces that didn’t really fit in with what I’m doing with One Man & His Blog, but which kept the domain (and its Google ranking) alive.

Change arrives. With coffee.

Today, I activate the plan. There’s been a strategic shift at Accenture, NEXT26 won’t be happening, and the site is, for now, on hiatus, while the lovely team decide what NEXT will be in the future.

And so, while that happens, I’m picking up where I left off. Drinking coffee. Exploring complexity. Charting a course to what’s next.

I didn’t want to stop doing this. It turns out I don’t have to.

But I really hope you’ll join me on the journey.

Campaign Optimization with Certified Google Ads Management

Thu, 14 May 2026 22:34:20 +0000

Read Time 6 mins | Written by: Copify

Get the best results from your online marketing with Copify Google Ads management. Our services help increase your advertising campaign’s ROI and eliminate unnecessary spending using data-based approaches.

Benefits of Google Ad Management for Your Business

Google ad management is most effective when conducted by experts. Their help can benefit your company and prevent wasting the ad budget. The advantages of our team’s managementservices include the following.

Major Revenue and Sales Increase

Precise identification of interested audiences and optimization of ads and accounts to efficiently target them allows your ads to attract more high-quality traffic, increasing conversions and sales.

Enhance Your Brand Awareness

White label GoogleAdsmanagement helps to identify your audience’s preferences to make your brand more relatable, increasing its reach. Raising brand awareness brings additional organic traffic and helps increase conversion rates.

Save Time and Money

Our team can quickly find the optimal solution to any marketing issue. Using time-efficient tools, we can use market data to give your marketing account a performance boost without wasting time and money on ineffective approaches.

Reasons to Hire Specialists for Google Ads Management Services

Expert GoogleAdsmanagementservices can help your business better navigate the complex field of paid advertising. Here are some reasons our agency can help you get the most out of your ads.

Understanding Client Goals and Budget

Deep market research gives us a good idea of what your customers want, how they engage with your ads, and how to optimize your strategy to match their preferences. The collected data also helps us choose the most cost-effective keywords and approaches that suit your budget.

Comprehensive Analytics, Creatives, and Expertise

Giving your ads our full attention allows us to react to the changes in performance, keeping their ROI and cost-efficiency in check. We continuously iterate your ads, making them more effective over time.

Advanced Targeting Techniques

Our team’s data-processing capabilities allow our GoogleAds PPC management to find the best approach to any audience. Using advanced targeting results in effective budget use, since your ads are only shown to people who are most likely to be interested in your services.

Google Ads Management Pricing

Copify GoogleAdsmanagement agency offers a full range of advertising services for any company. The total cost of our paid adsmanagement is determined by the scale of your campaign, your industry, and other factors.

Explore Ads Management Payment Plans

We offer a variety of payment plans for our services, including Google ad grant management. Our team’s personalized payment options allow small and large businesses to increase the benefits of their ads with effective solutions for any budget.

How Do Google Ads Managers Operate?

Google ad campaignmanagement is performed in several stages, allowing our agency to find the most optimal approach for every unique case. We create ads that give a quick initial result and continuously optimize them to maintain their benefits.

1. Campaign Analysis and Implementation

Configuring your GoogleAds manager account to better suit the needs of your campaign will help to streamline all further steps of the advertising strategy.

2. Keyword Optimization and Audience Targeting

Finding the most effective keywords used by your audience will make your ads visible only to highly convertible traffic. We search for keywords with great performance and acceptable costs, allowing your campaign to give great results at any budget.

3. Unique Content Creation

Using the data and keywords gathered during market research, our team creates a variety of content that will help your ads attract your audience’s attention and guide them to your site.

4. Ad Testing and Tracking

Creating several variations of the ads using different approaches and keywords and testing them with your target audience helps us discover the best methods of increasing your ROI and profits.

Why Choose Copify as Your Google Ads Management Agency?

Copify GoogleAdsmanagement company is an expert in creating Google advertising campaigns that help businesses quickly increase their sales and brand value.

Our Approach as a Google Premier Partner

Our team’s personalized approach to managing Google ad accounts has gained us the status of a Google Partner. This demonstrates our ability to create high-performing advertising campaigns that give great returns.

Case Studies and Client Success Stories

Our case studies can help you learn more about our process and the potential benefits of partnering with us.

Tips for Effective Google Ad Campaign Management

Effective managementGoogleAds requires using a variety of approaches as the market conditions change. The following advice will help to make your campaigns give better results.

Focus on Negative Keywords

Using negative keywords will help to avoid users who do not readily convert to customers. These keywords are used to list searches for which you do not want your ads to appear.

Implement Smart Bidding Strategies

Smart Bidding allows automatically adjust your bidding using machine learning algorithms. This helps to make timely changes to bidding strategies when manual control is not feasible.

Prioritize Quality Score

Quality Score shows how relevant your content is compared to your competition. It can help to quickly determine if your marketing approach is effective or whether you should make changes to your account to avoid wasting your budget.

FAQ about Google Ads PPC Management

What Are Google Ads Management Services?

These services are used to manage your GoogleAdsaccount, choose cost-effective keywords, create effective ads that meet your customer’s demands, and get more conversions and interactions at a lower cost.

How Do I Manage My Google Ads?

The best way to manage your ads is to hire an expert agency that will be able to maximize your campaign’s effects within your ad spend.

What Is Google Ad Manager?

Google Ad Manager is a platform for creating and managing large-scale marketing campaigns that use several advertising networks.

How Much Do Google Ads Management Services Cost?

The costs can vary depending on what results you want to achieve, your ad spend, chosen keywords, your business industry, and many other factors.

Why Use Google Ads Management?

Managing a GoogleAdsaccount requires making choices that do not give immediate results. Without experience and knowledge of the system’s inner workings, you are more likely to spend time and money on ineffective advertising.

Why Choose Google Ads Manager?

Google Ad Manager is a great choice for big businesses since it allows for greater control over their large-scale advertising campaigns.

Can I Manage Google Ads Myself?

You can manage your advertising campaigns by yourself. However, since each ad must be paid per click, you won’t get the best results without extensive market research, so hiring an agency is the best choice for efficient use of your advertising budget.

How Do Google Ads Work?

Google offers a variety of ad formats to use. Most ads are displayed to users who match the targeting options chosen for the ad or use keywords you choose to bid on for your advertising.

Is Managing Google Ads Easy?

Managing online advertising is a time-consuming process that requires constant attention to give the best results. It also requires technical knowledge of the advertising networks used, as well as experience with marketing.

Do You Need Google Ad Manager?

Using Google Ad Manager for your advertising strategy can be a good choice if you are a large business that uses several ad networks to conduct your marketing.

How do I pay for Google Ads?

You have various payment options for Google Ads, including credit/debit cards, bank transfers, and automatic payments. Charges are based on your campaign’s spending and performance. Benefit from our attentive support as we assist you in navigating payment options and optimizing your campaigns.

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The post Campaign Optimization with Certified Google Ads Management appeared first on blog.copify.com.

Expand your Results with Professional Google Ad Services

Thu, 14 May 2026 22:34:20 +0000

Read Time 7 mins | Written by: Copify

Are you ready to guide your business toward more tremendous success? Leave your Google Ad services in the capable hands of our expert team. We’ll pinpoint the right keywords, manage everything seamlessly, and deliver impressive results that propel your efforts. Discover the impact our professional ads expertise can bring to your strategy.

Understanding the Importance of Google Ads Services

Discover GoogleAds’ transformative potential for business growth. With our expert management, your campaigns will reach new heights, driving unparalleled results and maximizing your online presence. Experience the impact of our services firsthand, enhancing your visibility and expanding your reach with targeted keyword optimization.

Services for all types of businesses

Our services are tailored to perfectly match the needs of your business, regardless of its size or industry. From startups to established enterprises, Copify customizes campaigns to ensure optimal outcomes, helping you achieve your goals efficiently.

Attract your perfect customers with Google Ads

Tap into the effectiveness of targeted Google Ads keywords and well-planned campaigns to attract your ideal customers. With our services, you’ll connect with the right audience, driving engagement and conversions that matter most to your business.

Effective budget management

Are you worried about overspending? Our expert team ensures effective budget management for your GoogleAdscampaigns. We optimize spending to maximize results, delivering exceptional ROI and keeping your business on track for success.

How Much Does Our Google Ads Service Cost?

With Copify, you’ll find clear payment plans customized to fit your budget and requirements, guaranteeing you receive the best return on your Google Ads investment. Get in touch with our committed team for customized support and guidance throughout the entire process.

Google Ads management payment plans

Our services provide various payment options to accommodate your financial preferences and Google Ads campaign goals. From monthly subscriptions to pay-per-click models, we offer adaptable solutions to your business requirements.

How Does Copify Google Ads Customer Service Work?

Are you curious about how our Google Ads customer services operate? At Copify, we are committed to providing tailored assistance that meets your enterprise’s specific requirements. Count on our dedicated team to assist you with every facet of your Google Ads campaign, guaranteeing the best outcomes and maximizing your return on investment.

Competitor and industry research

Gain a competitive edge with our in-depth competitor and industry research services. We analyze market trends, identify opportunities, and refine your GoogleAdscampaign strategy to outperform competitors and drive business growth.

Keyword analysis and targeting

Starting with our precise analysis and optimization techniques, we enable you to harness the effectiveness of targeted keywords. We ensure your GoogleAds effectively reach your target audience by strategically selecting relevant keywords, boosting visibility, and driving conversions for your endeavor.

Sales, leads and conversion tracking

Our advanced Google Ads tracking solutions enable you to monitor the success of your campaigns effectively. From overseeing sales and leads to analyzing conversion rates, our services provide valuable insights to help you measure Google Ads performance and make data-driven decisions confidently.

Ad copywriting, testing and tracking

With our team of expert copywriters, we ensure your message captures attention and drives engagement. Experience the difference with our comprehensive ads services Google, where rigorous testing and tracking methods optimize GoogleAds performance, delivering measurable outcomes that speak volumes about your brand’s success.

Types of Ads Used for Google Ads Management Services

Our Google Ads management services offer a variety of ad types tailored to your needs. From Google Search Ads to YouTube Ads, we tailor our services to meet your business goals and drive exceptional results.

Google search ads

Our services specialize in crafting and optimizing Google Search Ads campaigns. We ensure the right audience sees your ads by targeting specific keywords, which drives relevant traffic to your website and helps generate valuable leads for your venture.

Google display ads

Utilizing visually engaging Google Display Ads, our expert team enhances your brand visibility across the web. Through strategically placing Googleads campaigns on relevant websites and pages, we help you reach a broader audience and boost brand awareness, ultimately driving more traffic and conversions for your business.

Google shopping ads

Our Google Shopping Ads management services optimize product listings and bidding strategies to maximize ROI. We ensure your products stand out in Google Ads search results and attract qualified leads ready to purchase. Explore the full range of our specialized services today.

YouTube ads

Harness the immense potential of video advertising with our YouTube Ads campaign management solutions. From captivating ad copy to compelling visuals, we create engaging video ads that resonate with your target audience, driving brand engagement and increasing conversions on one of the world’s largest video platforms.

What are Google Local Ad Services?

Discover how Google’s local ad services can boost your business by connecting you with nearby customers through targeted advertising.We explore how these specialized Google ads can benefit your enterprise, driving local visibility and attracting valuable customers to your doorstep.

How to optimize Google local service ads?

Our tailored optimization strategies unlock the potential of your local ad services. Our skilled team excels in refining Googlekeyword targeting, budget allocation, and performance monitoring to enhance local visibility and drive impactful outcomes for your campaignmanagement.

Local service ads vs Google Ads

Local service ads focus on local customers actively seeking services, while conventional Google Ads target a broader audience. We thoroughly analyze Google‘stargeting capabilities, budget management, and ad formats, empowering your campaign to select the optimal solution aligned with your business goals efficiently.

Benefits of Google ads For Service Business

Google Ads opens exciting growth opportunities for service businesses, propelling them into the online forefront and drawing in motivated customers seeking their services. Harness the power of keyword optimization to maximize your ad’s reach and impact.

Expert marketing plan and goal setting

Our seasoned team designs personalized marketing strategies perfectly tailored to your Google Ads SEO services strategy objectives. With meticulous attention to detail and a clear vision for achievement, we expertly navigate the Google digital landscape, ensuring each campaign drives your project toward unmatched success.

Exclusive Google Ads beta opportunities

Access exclusive beta features before competitors, leveraging cutting-edge tools and insights to stay ahead of industry trends. Our service thrives on innovation, and with Google Ads beta opportunities, you’re always stepping ahead, ready to seize new opportunities and outshine the competition.

Individual campaign strategy and execution

We specialize in crafting customized Google campaign management strategies designed to elevate your brand above the noise of the digital landscape. By paying attention to every detail and using the right keywords, we create campaigns that connect with your audience, leading to more leads, conversions, and overall growth.

Why Trust Copify Google Ads Services Agency?

Choose Copify for personalized care and tailored strategies. Our individualized client approach prioritizes your success, ensuring satisfaction and growth in the competitive digital campaign services landscape.

Case studies and client experience

Explore our case studies and client testimonials, showcasing how our tailored Google campaigns, expert management, targeted keywords, and comprehensive services have driven exceptional results for brands like yours.

FAQ about Google Ad Service

What is a good budget for Google Ads?

A reasonable budget for Google ads depends on various factors like campaign goals, target audience, and competition in your industry.

How can I keep track of my campaign performance?

Monitor your campaign management performance using Google Ads’ comprehensive analytics tools. Look at essential metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and return on investment.

What's the difference between Google and PPC?

Google Ads is a platform that facilitates the creation and supervision of PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns. Advertisers compete for keywords to showcase their ads on Google’s search results and affiliated networks.

What are remarketing ads?

Remarketing ads specifically target users who have engaged with your website or app before, ensuring your brand stays fresh in their minds and motivating them to revisit and take desired actions.

Who should use local service ads?

Local service ads are well-suited for professionals in industries like beauty, real estate, and healthcare. They allow them to connect efficiently with local clients seeking their services.

How much will | pay per lead with local service ads?

The cost per lead for Google’s local service ads varies depending on location, industry, and competition. Professionals typically pay for each qualified lead generated through the campaign management ads.

What is the minimum payment for Google Ads?

There is no minimum payment for Google Ads; advertisers set their budgets based on their campaign goals and can adjust spending as needed.

What is a good CTR?

A reasonable click-through rate (CTR) depends on various factors, but generally, a CTR above the industry average indicates effective ad performance and engagement with your target audience.

Is Google Ads easy to learn?

While Google Ads has a learning curve, its intuitive interface and comprehensive help resources make it accessible for users of all sizes to learn and master.

How do l use Google Ad services?

Utilize ad services to create, manage, and optimize campaigns targeting specific keywords, audiences, and locations to drive targeted traffic and achieve your business goals.

How do I pay for Google Ads?

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The post Expand your Results with Professional Google Ad Services appeared first on blog.copify.com.

Maximizing ROI with Google Ads Consultant Services

Thu, 14 May 2026 22:34:20 +0000

Read Time 8 mins | Written by: Copify

Get the results you want from your Google ad campaigns with the help of Copify GoogleAds consultant. Our team focuses on effective customized approaches that help you make the most out of your ad spend.

Google AdWords Consultant Services Overview

GoogleAds consultants offer several types of services aimed at planning, creating, and refining all types of Googleads. The comprehensive approach to Google advertising allows you to get new marketing opportunities and increase your ROI.

Paid Campaign Analysis And Implementation

Planning effective campaigns is impossible without research. A Google PPC consultant will gather data about your audience’s preferred keywords, competitor strategies, and other information to create an effective framework for ad creation.

Search Network Advertising

Search networkads allow your site to appear at the top of searchresults when your audience uses relevant keywords. This increases the likelihood of interested users finding your products.

Ad Variation And Testing

GoogleAdWord consultants use ad testing to determine which ad variants perform better, continuously refining your campaign’s performance.

How Google AdWords Experts Operate

Google AdWords consultation firms work in a process that helps get your GoogleAdscampaigns running effectively in the fastest time. The process includes the following steps.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is used to determine which keywords will have the best effect on your campaign, balancing performance with price.

Campaign Setup

Google Ads consultation firm will set up your Google Ads account to make it easier to follow your marketing strategy and campaign progress.

PPC Campaign Management

The agency will constantly monitor your ads’ performance, adjusting their parameters to maximize conversion rates and ROI.

Bid Management

Keyword prices are constantly changing. The agency will manage your bidding to ensure your campaigns always work with the optimal spending rates.

The Importance of Google AdWords Consultants

Allowing a consultant AdWords to manage your campaigns brings you many marketing benefits, such as those listed below, making partnering with one important for businesses that want the best advertising results.

Boost Leads And Sales: Expertly implemented campaigns attract users who are the most likely to make a purchase, increasing your sales and ensuring you don’t waste your money on advertising to uninterested audiences.

Enhance Conversions:AdWord consulting helps you gather conversion data to help determine which approaches work and make your ads more effective at converting visitors into customers.

Implement Remarketing Strategies:Targeting your past customers is an effective approach for getting more sales. An expert consultant can help you find the best method of reaching these users.

Increase Brand Awareness:GoogleAds can make your brand more visible and lead to more organic traffic as a result of increased awareness among your target audience.

Pricing for Google AdWords Consulting Services

The prices of hiring Google advertising consultants depend on several criteria and will depend on your campaign’s requirements.

How Much Do Google Ads Cost?

The cost of GoogleAds depends on your business industry, level of competition over keyword bids, location, and other criteria. Our agency will focus on choosing the parameters that help you achieve your goals without overspending.

What Are the Charges for Google Ad Consultants?

An AdWords consultant Google can offer several types of payment plans, such as monthly fee or per-project payments to better suit the needs of your business. The total charges will depend on the chosen payment plan.

Advantages of Hiring a Google Ads Consulting Specialist

Hiring an expert consultant Google AdWords helps make your marketing campaign much more likely to give great results.

Increase Your Profits

Google advertising consulting increases your profits by attracting new and returning customers, making your brand more recognizable, and optimizing bidding costs. This maximizes your chances of getting a sale and gives quick profit increases.

Receive Consultation and Account Audit

An agency can review your existing campaign to help you discover and fix any issues it may have. This helps to increase its effectiveness and bring down running costs.

Get Detailed Campaign Analysis

Our campaign analysis uses data-based approaches to discover real performance criteria, allowing you to see exactly how your GoogleAds help you increase your profits.

Access Real-Time Reports

We offer regular reports that detail your strategy’s progress and provide advice for further improvements.

Why Choose Copify as Your Consultant for Google Ads Optimization?

CopifyGoogle AdWords consultancy can help any business create effective GoogleAdscampaigns that give quick results. Our services have been used by companies from many industries, allowing us to quickly identify the best approach for your needs.

Extensive Experience

As a Google AdWords certified consultant, our agency has extensive experience finding the best methods to achieve your goals.

Delivering Reliable Results

Our help has allowed many businesses to get consistent increases in their GoogleAdscampaigns’ performance.

Monthly Management Services

We offer a variety of payment plans, including affordable monthly billing options.

FAQ Google Ad Consultant

What Is a Google Ads Consultant?

A GoogleAds consultant is an agency that can create and optimize effective ads displayed on Googlesearches and compatible websites.

How Can I Earn Money from Google Ads?

Your company can get more customers and sales through expert Google marketing, increasing your profits and maximizing ROI.

What Is the Cost for 1,000 Views on Google Ads?

The cost of 1,000 views can vary depending on keyword prices, with the average cost of $7 and $20.

What Is the Revenue for 1 Million Ad Views?

As with ad costs, potential revenues can vary and depend on many factors. The total money depends on location, campaign scale, and other criteria.

Should I Hire a Google Ads Expert?

Getting the help of a Google marketing expert is the best way to make your advertising budget give your business the most benefit.

How Can Google Ads Consultants Help Businesses Grow?

Googleads increase revenue and brand value, leading to quicker business growth.

Why Are Google Ads More Effective?

Google is the most popular search engine, making advertising using its frameworks a rational choice for businesses that want to reach as many interested users as possible.

What Is the Quality Score System?

A Quality Score is a metric that helps you determine how well your ads are working by comparing them to your competitors and helping you determine how well they are helping you achieve your goals.

What Are the Components of a Successful Google Ad?

An effective Google Ad can capture the attention of your target audience, uses relevant keywords, and has a good price-to-performance ratio.

How Do Google Ads Compare to Facebook Ads?

Some GoogleAds are similar to Facebook ads. Others contain only text and are displayed directly in the searchresults. The performance of Googleads compared to Facebook depends on your type of business.

Is Landing Page Optimization Necessary?

Landing page optimization helps to increase conversion rates by making your pages easier to use and can influence your PPC campaigns by giving you a higher search engine rating.

Who Needs AdWords Consultancy?

GoogleAds firms provide services that work for any business that needs an effective digital marketing strategy.

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The post Maximizing ROI with Google Ads Consultant Services appeared first on blog.copify.com.

Blog Copify Google Ads Management Services

Thu, 14 May 2026 22:34:20 +0000

Read Time 12 mins | Written by: Copify

Increase your site’s traffic and profits with Copify Google Ads management services. Our team of experts can help your campaign’s ads reach more customers and increase your brand recognition.

To make the most out of any eCommerce site, a solid marketing plan is essential to establish your brand and spread the word. Digital marketing is a different beast than traditional marketing, and eCommerce sites should learn to embrace these differences to really make an impact online.

In this article, we take a look at how to do digital marketing for eCommerce websites, with a range of strategies and tools to grow your online business.

Why Choose Google Adwords Management Services?

Google Adwords management service is the best choice for getting reliable marketing campaign results. We use several data-based approaches to maximize your ROI when creating and optimizing your ads.

Deep Understanding of Your Business: Our campaign management process starts with gathering data about your business’ industry, best-performing keywords, and competition, allowing us to create ads that meet the requirements of your audience and company.
Reliable and Experienced Professionals: Well-versed in creating and optimizing any type of Google ads, our professional team can quickly create a marketing approach that will help you get the best returns without overspending.
Campaigns that Boost Revenue: Our Google Adword Services are designed to create strategies that help your ads reach the most interested users and increase conversions. This increases your sales and lowers your ad costs, helping to boost your profits.

Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion rate optimization Google Ads managment service can be used to determine which of your ads or approaches do not generate sufficient conversions for their cost and optimize them to increase your sales.

Comprehensive Industry Analysis

Our industry analysis can help your campaign benefit from the latest market trends. We collect a variety of data about your competition, keywords, and other factors to give your campaign an immediate boost.

Ongoing Campaign Support

We continuously monitor the changes in your ads’ performance and make edits to guarantee the best results. Our experts can maintain and increase the campaign’s effectiveness to help you outpace your competitors.

In-Depth Keyword Research

Extensively researching keywords helps to make our Adwords management services more cost-effective and helps increase your campaign’s reach. Well-chosen keywords prevent low-quality traffic from interacting with your ads, decreasing the cost per conversion.

Effective Landing Page Design

The technical aspects and design of the landing pages have a big influence on your ads’ performance. Our team can help your landing pages become more attractive to your target audience and make them more likely to become your customers.

Customer and Audience Match Targeting

Our customer match targeting will help your campaign reach more users with similar interests and needs as your existing customers, giving you more quality traffic and chances to increase your sales.

Persuasive Ad Copywriting

Our team will create an effective copy that reflects your audience’s preferences, uses relevant keywords, and works in tandem with your landing pages to drive your profits.

Targeted Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising is an effective complement to search engine ads. We use the collected data to determine the best targeting parameters to discover previously untapped traffic through social media campaigns.

Strategic Email Marketing

Email marketing helps to give your customers and audience more information about your new products and offers to increase interest in your services.

What are the Costs of Google Ppc Management Services?

The cost of Google Ads PPC management depends on your campaign goals and the types of ads and keywords you use. Our flexible pricing options can be customized to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes, ensuring the optimal price for creating a campaign that meets your marketing objectives.

Transparent Google Ads Management Pricing: Our Google Ads management packages contain services with clear costs, ensuring you know what you are paying for. Furthermore, we offer detailed reports that describe how and what of our services have helped increase your ads’ performance.
Performance-Based Fees:We offer performance-based plans, allowing you to pay only for the actual improvements in your marketing performance. This guarantees you will only spend money on positive outcomes.

Google Ad Management Services: Our Process

The process we use for our AdWords campaign management services is customized to give you fast results without any unnecessary spending.

Research and Strategy Development

Research is important for the effective use of paid ads and keywords. During our strategy developing stage, we will gather and evaluate various information to choose the best keywords and approaches for your campaign.

Google Ads Campaign Setup

Setting up and configuring your Google Ads account to make it easier to implement the developed strategy ensures quicker results and helps coordinate further optimizations.

Ad Testing and Performance Tracking

We use ad testing for our professional Google Ads management to determine the best advertising approach among several possibilities. Gathering performance data of several ads allows us to focus on using only the best of them.

Continuous Optimization and Reporting

After creating and launching your campaign, we will keep on optimizing and editing it as new data comes in. This makes it more effective over time and gives you information that helps make future marketing efforts more effective.

Why Choose Google Ads Campaign Management Services at Copify?

Blog Copify Google PPC management company is one of the best partners for businesses that need a professionally implemented Google Ads campaign. Our extensive experience and knowledge of search engines’ inner workings give you the best results in record times.

Google Adwords Campaign Management Services FAQ's

What Do Google Ads Management Services Entail?

Google ads services are used to create an effective strategy that uses keywords and audience preference data to make your marketing reach your objectives.

What Is the Cost of Having Someone Manage Your Google Ads?

The costs for managing any type of paid ads can vary widely. They will depend on keywords’ bidding, location, and many other factors that can’t be predicted without knowing your industry.

Is It Beneficial to Hire Someone for Google Ads Management?

Managing paid ads requires constant attention to keep them running at the best cost-to-performance ratio. An expert agency is the best choice for most companies without an in-house online marketing team.

What Do Google Ad Services Include?

The services can include researching keywords, ad testing, ongoing optimizations, and other types of approaches that help you reach your campaign’s goals.

Are Google Ad Services Free?

Neither Google ads nor management are free. Google ads are a form of paid advertising, which means you pay for every click, even if you do it yourself. Hiring marketing experts who can deliver reliable results also means spending money.

What Does Ads Management Involve?

Our team will create a strategy that will consider the needs of your business and the audience’s preferred keywords to choose effective approaches that will increase your profits.

Are Google Ads Too Expensive?

In general, the cost per conversion for any type of online marketing is lower than for traditional advertising. Our team will focus on choosing cost-effective approaches and keywords for your campaign so that you can get great results even on a small marketing budget.

Can You Manage Google Ads on Your Own?

You can create and manage your business’ ads, but without constant attention and insider knowledge, you are unlikely to get the performance possible when hiring an expert agency.

Who Can Benefit from Google Ad Manager?

An ad manager can help any type of business get more sales, make their brand more recognizable, and find new audiences.

Is Managing Google Ads Difficult?

Effectively managing Google ads requires having detailed knowledge of how they work and the ability to gather many types of data to find the best course of action for maximizing marketing results.

Who Owns a Google Ads Account Legally?

The entity with administrative control over the account is its legal owner.

Are Google Ads Worthwhile for Small Businesses?

Paid ads are a perfect method for small businesses to target only those users who are likely to make use of their services.

What Is the Monthly Cost of Google Ads?

The monthly cost of your ads will depend on how many of them you use, prices for keywords, and other factors. The average business can expect to spend about 500 USD on their ads.

Is AdSense the Same as Google Ad Manager?

These are separate products, though they have similar uses. AdSense is an ad network, while Ad Manager is an ad platform.

How Does Google Ads Differ from Google Ad Manager?

Google Ad Manager is primarily a tool that helps publishers coordinate ads that appear on a variety of supported sites. Google Ads allow advertisers to display adverts using Google search and display networks.

Are Google Ad Agencies Worth the Investment?

They can give great returns to any business and are suitable for investment if you need faster growth.

Codeless Way to Include External Directory in Sitemap | Digging Into WordPress

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 15:22:48 +0000

As of version 5.5, WordPress automatically generates an XML sitemap for your site’s content. The sitemap benefits your site by providing a simple “map” of all posts, pages, categories, tags, and more. This is useful for bots and humans, and is considered beneficial for SEO and even GEO. Even better, WordPress makes it easy to customize your sitemap as desired. For example, if you want to include or exclude certain pages, or even disable the WP sitemap completely, there are programmatic techniques (i.e., code snippets) for making it happen.

Add a directory without code

Now that we’re on the same page, so to speak. This quick DigWP tutorial explains how to add an external directory to the auto-generated WordPress sitemap. And by “external”, I’m referring to any directory that is not under the purview of WordPress (based on its URL). More specifically, any directory or folder that you add manually to your site’s files.

Step 1: Requirements

Okay let’s dig into it. For this non-code trick to work, the main requirement is that your site has permalinks enabled (via the WordPress General settings ▸ Permalinks). So instead of query-string-based URLs:

https://example.com/?p=123

..your site’s rocking keyword-rich “pretty” URLs:

https://example.com/ai-will-replace-the-internet/

Other than permalinks, there are two other caveats:

Directory name consists of alphanumeric, underscores, and hyphens
Directory location is within the site’s root directory

These requirements are explained further as we continue with the tutorial..

Step 2: Add a directory

Next add a directory to your WordPress site. Anywhere in the root directory of your site. For example, when I moved my shapeSpace WordPress theme from its own domain to Perishable Press, I added a directory named /shapespace/ to the site’s root directory. So the resulting directory path is this:

https://perishablepress.com/shapespace/

Important: for this non-code technique to work, the folder name must consist of only alphanumeric characters, underscores, and/or hyphens.

Step 3: Add new Page

Next, visit the WordPress Admin Area and create a new page (via Pages ▸ Add Page). Make sure that the page has a URL/permalink slug that matches your directory path. So continuing with the /shapespace/ directory example, we would add a new page that is named shapespace, which results in a permalink URL that matches the external directory. So both the directory and the newly added page have the same URL:

https://perishablepress.com/shapespace/

That’s all there is to it. Once you publish the new page, WordPress will do its thing and automatically add the new URL to your XML sitemap.

Check it out..

As long as the external directory and WP Page have the same URL, your WordPress sitemap will include a link to your directory. And when you (or anyone, anything) follows the link, they will be taken to the directory, not the WordPress Page. To get a better idea of how it works, check out the pages sitemap at Perishable Press, and follow the link to the external /shapespace/ directory. Instead of pointing to the blank WP Page, the sitemap link points to the shapeSpace directory, which serves the shapeSpace homepage.

A few final notes

This “codeless” way of adding directories to the WP sitemap works seamlessly. The new URL appears in your site’s local search results and links to the external directory (not the blank WP Page). That means the contents of the WP Page never are displayed anywhere on the front end of your site. So you can add a note or whatever reminding your future self why this otherwise empty page exists ;)

Note: This no-code technique works whether WordPress is installed in the root directory or subdirectory. Just FYI.

And of course, the main benefit of adding a directory to your sitemap is so the search engines can find it, pick it up, and include it in the search results. And that’s just smart SEO.

What about adding files?

Does this tricksy non-code technique also work with external files (instead of directories)? Not really, because of the limitations in how permalinks are formatted. For example, permalinks end with a forward slash /, file names do not. Also special characters like periods/dots that are included in file names are not included in permalinks. So if you add an external file named external-file.html, the closest you can get with a static page name is /external-file-html/, which won’t work for the sitemap trick.

Fortunately you always can add files and directories and just about anything using the Sitemaps API now included in WordPress core :)

How to Disable All Automatic Updates (WordPress Core, Plugins, and Themes) | Digging Into WordPress

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:30:46 +0000

Everyone has their own preference when it comes to automatic updates. Many folks like the idea of saving time and not having to “do” anything when updates are available. The problem is that updates don’t always go as planned. Unexpected things happen, conflicts, bugs, etc. Best-case scenario you save some time. Worst-case scenario your site goes down. Personally, I prefer to disable automatic updates for all the things: WordPress core, plugins, and themes. To do it, I use the following code snippets..

Disable automatic updates via constants
Disable automatic updates via filter hooks

Disable automatic updates via constants

This is the code snippet that I add to every site to turn off ALL automatic updates. Added via the wp-config.php file, just before the line that says, “That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging.” Here is the magic code:

// Disable auto-updates for EVERYTHING
define('AUTOMATIC_UPDATER_DISABLED', true);

// Disable auto-updates for WP CORE
define('WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', false);

// Disable auto-updates for PLUGINS & THEMES
define('CORE_UPGRADE_SKIP_NEW_BUNDLED', true);

Here we define three constants. The first constant disables all automatic updates. So technically that’s all you need. The second constant disables auto-updates for the WordPress core. The third constant disables auto-updates for plugins and themes. It’s as simple as that, and it just works.

Notes

By changing the values of the constants, you can define other configurations for automatic updates. For example, you can enable core updates while disabling plugin/theme updates and vice versa. In fact, the WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE constant may be one of three possible values:

true – All updates (major, minor, and dev) are enabled
false – All updates (major, minor, and dev) are disabled
'minor' – Only minor updates are enabled (major & dev are disabled)

The other two constants, AUTOMATIC_UPDATER_DISABLED and CORE_UPGRADE_SKIP_NEW_BUNDLED, are strictly boolean (true or false).

Also note that “dev” updates only happen on sites running a development version of WordPress.

Disable automatic updates via filter hooks

Instead of using constants, it’s possible to configure automatic updates using filter hooks. Going the “filter” route is somewhat more flexible. Best advice is to go with constants via wp-config.php if you simply want to disable automatic updates. For alternate configurations, using filters gives you more granular control over each aspect of the update process.

Note: The code snippets below can be added via must-use plugin or custom code. Do NOT add any of the following code directly to wp-config.php.

Here are the filters that may be used to configure automatic updates:

// Disable auto-updates for EVERYTHING
add_filter('automatic_updater_disabled', '__return_false');

// Disable auto-updates for WP CORE
add_filter('auto_update_core', '__return_false');

// Disable auto-updates for PLUGINS
add_filter('auto_update_plugin', '__return_false');

// Disable auto-updates for THEMES
add_filter('auto_update_theme', '__return_false');

// Disable auto-updates for TRANSLATIONS
add_filter('auto_update_translation', '__return_false');

As written here, these filters all return false, which disables their respective auto-update feature. To instead enable any update feature, simply replace __return_false with __return_true.

Notes

The auto_update_core filter disables all core-related updates: major, minor, and dev. For more granular control, you can use the following alternate filters:

allow_dev_auto_core_updates
allow_minor_auto_core_updates
allow_major_auto_core_updates

These filters do exactly what their names imply. For more details, check out this WordPress article. As explained there, even when disabling auto-updates using auto_update_core and related filters, WordPress will continue making HTTP requests to the update endpoints:

https://api.wordpress.org/core/version-check/...
https://api.wordpress.org/plugins/update-check/...
https://api.wordpress.org/themes/update-check/...

If you want to stop WordPress from checking for updates, you can add the following code via must-use plugin, regular plugin, or via functions.php:

// Stop HTTP requests checking for updates
remove_action('admin_init', '_maybe_update_core');
remove_action('admin_init', '_maybe_update_plugins');
remove_action('admin_init', '_maybe_update_themes');

That’s all for now, I hope this tutorial helps you in your WordPress adventures :)

Mobilizon: 聚集，组织，动员

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 06:12:44 +0000

我戒除微信群聊已经快半年了，除了偶尔有些朋友会打电话给我，确认我还健在之外，我的生活清净了很多。没有微信群聊，通信工具还有很多，这里不一一列举。我最喜欢的是电子邮件，好处是自主可控。但微信群聊有一些功能超越了通信的范畴，例如社区建设，朋友约会搞活动之类，对于这些功能，有没有什么更好的替代品呢？

有的。本文介绍的Mobilzon 就是。

功能简介

mobilizon

Mobilizon是一个小型网页应用，最主要的功能是组织线上或线下活动，另外还包含简单的群组功能，如讨论组，组内活动，信息发布等。它是完全的自由软件，谁都可以自行搭建一个实例，实例和实例之间可以还联网，也就是所谓的Federation。

最近由于Twitter名声不好，有一个类似Twitter的自由软件很火爆，叫Mastodon (长毛象），可能不少人听说过。Mobilizon和Mastodon类似的地方在于都是自由软件，都可以组Ferderation，但不同点在于，Mobilizon不是一个社交媒体，而只是一个社交工具，它没有点赞，转发，关注等能给你带来满足感，虚荣心和焦虑感的数据统计，更没有智能推荐，排行榜，无限滚动等功能来抓住你的关注。它就是一个工具，从小里说你可以用来和朋友约一起吃饭，从大里说你可以和陌生人约一起示威游行等大型群体活动。干什么随你。

Mobilizon是一个web应用，暂时没有原生的手机应用。但是，Mobilizon的手机网页版优化的非常不错，功能上不比桌面网页版差。读过我手机应用还是信息监狱？一文的朋友知道我对手机应用不以为然，Mobilizon也证明了我的观点：手机网页版其实可以做的够好。

Mobilizon的主要作者是一些法国人，来自一个非政府组织FramaSoft。他们开发Mobilizon的初衷是对标Facebook里的主页，群组，活动功能，做一个有节操的自由软件，让人们能脱离垄断性商业平台的束缚。目前除英语法语之外，主要欧洲语言的翻译已经比较完备。我正在做简体中文的翻译工作，估计一两周内，简体中文的翻译覆盖将达到主要欧洲语言的水平。

我的实例

作为技术控的我，当然不会满足于做一个简单用户这么没创意。所以，我搭建了自己的实例，放在自己的服务器上：mob.roastidio.us，欢迎大家光临，目前对全网开放注册。我就是这里的管理员，我的用户名是 @derek，有事可以 @ 我哦。你可以把上面网址加入书签，爱用手机的朋友还可以发送上面网址到Home screen，这样还能达到PWA的效果，一点即入，全屏无地址栏，近似原生应用。

再说明一点，这个实例和吐槽俱乐部roastidio.us除了一级域名共享之外其实没有内在关系。这是百分百的自由软件，我除了配置文件之外，一个字符都没改，一个字符也不准备改。想改的话我自然会给上游发patch。请大家放心使用。

Mobilizon虽然没有改，但吐槽俱乐部是我写的，所以我对吐槽俱乐部做了一点点改动。之前，吐槽俱乐部一直有一个小的使用上的不足：它不提供头像上载功能，而依赖于Social Login 或 Gravatar 来载入头像。对于不能或不愿意使用Social Login 的用户来说，他们在吐槽俱乐部里一直没有定制头像显示。另外，有些用户也不是很喜欢邮件登录。现在，吐槽俱乐部的用户可以使用 mob.roastidio.us 的用户名和密码登录吐槽俱乐部，登录后直接带入你在mob.roastidio.us预设的头像，是不是就方便很多？

结束语

Mobilizon还没有中文名。我的想法是叫 江湖召集令 , 有更好的想法的朋友可以给我提建议，提建议的方法是在下面留言。

一定来mob.roastidio.us注册用户哦！

Gather ⋅ Organize ⋅ Mobilize — Mobilizon

My Recommendations | Eat Sleep Breathe FI

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 11:02:51 +0000

Personal finance

Borrowell*: Check your Equifax credit score and credit report for free.
Coast Capital Free Chequing, Free Debit, and More Account^®*: Our favourite account for all our in-person banking needs (read my review for more info, including how to receive a limited-time $400 bonus).
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Passiv*: The best tool to automate and/or simplify your portfolio rebalancing.
Wealthsimple Cash*: Earn up to 4% interest on your savings (if you hold at least $100,000 in investments with Wealthsimple).
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Investing

Questrade*: My favourite Canadian brokerage (receive a $25–$250 bonus using my code: 816205072429040).
Wealthsimple Invest*: An easy, low-cost way to invest (receive a $50 bonus using my link)!
Wealthsimple Trade*: Commission-free trades (receive a $10 bonus when using my link)!

Credit Cards

Borrowell*: Check your Equifax credit score and credit report for free.
Credit Card Genius: Personalized Canadian credit card recommendations.
Rogers World Elite Mastercard: My favourite no-fee cashback credit card.

Utilities and bills

Backblaze*: Unlimited cloud-based backup for a very low annual price (we each get a free month of service when you sign up using my link).
Fongo Home Phone*: VoIP service for only $4.95/month (enter my email: chrissy@eatsleepbreathefi.com to give me one month of free service—thank you)!
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Public Mobile*: My favourite mobile carrier (receive a $10 bonus using my code: X946WK).
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Estate planning

Bitwarden: Give loved ones access to your passwords and other secure digital info.
Epilogue Wills*: Simple, smart online wills that you can complete from the comfort of home.
Family Emergency Binder*: A fillable, printable binder to leave for your loved ones in case of emergency (read my detailed review for more info).
PolicyMe*: An easy, convenient way to buy life insurance (read my review for more info).
Willful*: Online wills made easy (receive 10% off on any Willful plan when using my link).

Polipo and the GFW

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 07:11:11 +0000

Polipo is a web proxy. Together with ssh one can bypass the firewall to access website that cannot be directly visited, or to browse the web in an untrusted network to increase security. It is a very useful tool.

However, with China’s GFW, some rare condition may happen.

Typical usage

You are on machine a, and want to access website running on b. But the problem is a firewall is bloking you to do so. Luckily, you have access to aonther machine c on the other side of the firewall, that can access b. The only accss you have on c is ssh. With ssh and polipo you can setup a proxy on c, and expose it through ssh securely, so you and you alone can access it.

Polipo setup on c

There is nothing special; default seting should be ok. You will only need it to listen to a local port, default is 8123

SSH setup on c

Again, nothing special. For your safety, it is strongly recommended to use public key authentication, and public authentication only.

clieent side setup

all you need to do is:

ssh -L 8123:localhost:8123 MACHINEC

And you have a web proxy locally on port 8123 that can visit all the sites the c can visit.

HTTP and tunnel

Polipo is an HTTP proxy. It understands HTTP and can do a lot behind the scene.

caching. It caches files so the next time it does not need to fetch it for you.
multiplexing and pipelining. It reuse connection to the server for multiple clients to increase efficiency.

So, web performance is boosted and bandwidth is saved.

However, there is another method used to access the web, HTTPS. HTTPS is HTTP over SSL, so the communication is protected from end to end. Because it is end to end, none of the caching, multiplexing and pipelining can work. Polipo is a faithful HTTPS proxy as well; it does not do anything funny for HTTPS and just blindly forwarding a raw TCP connection. This is called a tunnel in polipo. The performance boosting features are no more; no caching, and client side connections and server side connections are 1 to 1 mapped and spliced.

China’s GFW

China is blocking a lot of content on the web. It blocks contents by:

DNS tricks
drop connection, at various stage

If polipo is within the GFW, it subjects to the same limitation as a normal web client such as a browser, however, it behaves slightly differently. We have observed 2 kinds of dropped connections because of the GFW:

connection dropped at the beginning. For the client this is the same as if the server is not online. For the majority of the block sites this is the common behavior.
connection dropped at the last stage of the TCP 3 way handshake. Some blocked sites, curiously google’s sites, are blocked this way.

And you have HTTP and HTTPS, which give you a 2x2 matrix. For HTTP the polipo will make the connection asynchronously and return errors of it own; and for HTTPS polipo will make the connection synchronously and the client will see the same effect as without the proxy:

case 1 HTTP. Polipo will return remote cannot be found.
case 2 HTTP. Polipo will return remote connection timeout.
case 1 HTTPS. no message is returned, but the client will see that remote site cannot be found eventually.
case 2 HTTPS. Your client will stuck for a while and timeout locally.

From the client point of view case 1 and case 2 HTTPS are the same but for polipo it is not. For case 2 HTTPS. polipo established a tunnel that is only half established. When client side timeout happened the server side is still at SYN_WAIT stage and will stuck here forever, there is no timeout. This is different from case 2 HTTP when polipo is a full HTTP and TCP client with timeout protection. The end result is leaked file descriptors. WHen the leak accumulates large enough polipo will be out of file descriptors, and stop functioning.

Remedy

It is a polipo bug. Upstream may take sometime to fix but in the meantime I can only do:

block google within polipo, so case 2 HTTPS does not happen as often.
restart polipo periodically.

It is sad that the GFW causes yet another grief.

LDAP and Kerberos

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 02:38:46 +0000

Two of the core problems in running a IT environment are authentication and authorization. Authentication is the process of proving one’s identity to others, and authorization is the process of granting rights to the individual based on the proven identity. Although the 2 tasks are clearly defined, they are deeply related. The best tools for authorization and authentication are LDAP and Kerberos; which can work hand in hand and produce a nice and secure IT infrastructure. However, these tools are not fool safe and some understanding and configuration are needed.

LDAP

LDAP fundimentally is a database. It is a database built for a special purpose, which is to store a directory and associated data. Some rigidly defined schemas are provided so the data stored within are always consistant and consise. Among other things, group memberships, login shells and home directories are stored here so it can play a important role in the authroization process. Another good thing about using a centrally managed database is that it provide the same data for all hosts, services and users which is very nice for the administators.

LDAP can also store user password (as a security hash in most cases) so it can also act as a authentication backend. If password matches, LDAP can bind the user to a identity (DN in LDAP jargon); authentication frontends can leverage this capability so all passwords can be centrally stored and unified; users only need to remember one password to access all services.

Kerberos

Kerberos is a tools for a single purpose, which is authentication. It aims to solve the following problems:

Not only users need to prove their identity, services need to do the same as well. (Rogue services that harvest password and other user information are not good)
Access shall have a time limit. (Shells left open for indefinitly are not good)
Transimission of password, even in a encrypted channel, is not secure.
Storing of password, even in an one way hash, is not secure.
Users don’t want to type passwords, even the same one, repeatly to access multiple services. (Single Sign On rules)

Their interaction

One can use LDAP or Kerberos, but for the best results you want to use Kerberos for authentication and LDAP for authorization. The tools can run seperately fufilling their jobs; or they can have stronger interactions:

Kerberos can use LDAP as a database backend.
LDAP can be kerberosized, which mean its access can be authenticated by kerberos
LDAP can use kerberos as a password checker, so simple bind still works, now with the kerberos password

1 does not provide new functionality; and unless you have a very large domain, one KDC with builtin database is good enough. So let’s skip that to avoid unnecessary complication. 2 is important because LDAP contains sensitive imformation; we want to make sure the authentication is secure.

Although 3 seems to downgrade kerberos back to simple password checker, it is actually very important:

Many services are not kerberosized, you still want to use the same password at least
It provides a smooth migration path, so services can gradually become kerberosized
Kerberosized services need kerberosized clients, which may not be available to your users

There is one downside, which is you cannot change password through the LDAP bridge (or any other bridge). It would be very insecure anyway. LDAP is not the only way to use kerberos as password checker, PAM and SASL are 2 other ways. However, LDAP is widely supported, for example in web services.

To configure LDAP and Kerberos is not easy and beyond the scope of this article.

Pointers to documents

Documents on how to setup LDAP (OpenLDAP) and Kerberos (MIT Kerberos) can be found in their websites:

Those documents are a little hard to follow though. There are some howtos on the web, one of them is:

http://www.rjsystems.nl/en/2100.php

Services and kerberos

Services that has to use Kerberos

OpenAFS

OpenAFS has to use Kerberos for authentication. Authorization is not based on LDAP though, it has it own authorization backend.

Services that can use Kerberos

The following services can be configured to use kerberos, and is recommended to do so.

PAM (Linux Login)

Actually login is half kerberos in this way. It use PAM, which takes passwords but verify the password with kerberos and grant you a ticket so you are in. If your ticket expired, you are still in the system, but without a ticket.

LDAP

You have to have a ticket first (using kerberos’s kinit or Linux login), and then you can access LDAP as the identiry proven.

NFS v4

With Kerberos identity (tickets) you can access NFS v4 that is configured with kerberos. Authorization (group membership) is often still done with LDAP.

SAMBA

Like NFS v4, Samba can use kerberos.

SSH

Like PAM, it can check password with kerberos and grant you access and a ticket. Better yet the ticket can be forwarded so once you are in you can login to other similiar configured host without a password. If you use public key to login then you will not have a ticket so you will have to kinit to get one.

Services that can use Kerberos, but likely not

Some services can be configured to use kerberos authentication, however due to the ubiquitousness of clients that do not support kerberos, the use of kerberos is impractical:

SMTP
IMAP
XMPP

Services that does not support Kerberos

Most web services do not support Kerberos. So most likely you have to rely on the LDAP bridge.

Webauth

webauth is a framework for web services to use kerberos as the authentification method. It is still SSL/cookie based; so it is very compatible with the current network environment, at the same time no more secure than simple password authentification. The real benifit is single sign on for all participating web services; too bad it is not widely used.

The documents is at: http://webauth.stanford.edu/weblogin-config.html To use webauth you need to have:

webkdc, which is a module running in apache. It hands out security cookies based on info obtained from kerberos
weblogin, which is a bunch a CGI scripts that handle login/logout/pwchange for the users. It communicates with the webkdc in the backend. weblogin is commonly run on the same apache server.
web services using webauth. By using webauth the services redirect the login/louout/pwchange requests to weblogin, and once logged in, the web services automatically have the username setup from an env variable by the webauth module. Also requires apache.

Do you have kerberos

Easy enough on the commandline:

derek@kclient:~$ klist
Ticket cache: FILE:/tmp/krb5cc_1000
Default principal: derek@SHANNON-DATA.COM

Valid starting       Expires              Service principal
10/09/2015 11:11:39  10/09/2015 21:11:39
krbtgt/SHANNON-DATA.COM@SHANNON-DATA.COM
renew until 10/10/2015 11:11:39
10/09/2015 11:11:48  10/09/2015 21:11:39
ldap/kerb.shannon-data.com@SHANNON-DATA.COM

derek@kclient:~$ ldapwhoami
SASL/GSSAPI authentication started
SASL username: derek@SHANNON-DATA.COM
SASL SSF: 56
SASL data security layer installed.
dn:uid=derek,ou=people,dc=shannon-data,dc=com

Watch out for the expiration:

derek@kclient:~$ krenew
krenew: error renewing credentials: Ticket expired

If that happens, you have to login again. There are ways for automatic renewal, but even that can be

Summary

LDAP and Kerberos combined is nice and secure. The setup is not easy and to use it you need to get used to a few things.

Streamlining Your Studio

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 18:00:08 +0000

Thanks for reading Streamlining Your Studio from TopMusic.co.

If the studio admin side of teaching is your favourite part, this blog isn’t for you. But if you’re like most other music teachers, you prefer the lessons. You want to put all your time and energy into helping your students grow into confident musicians…rather than fretting about scheduling and payments.

The post Streamlining Your Studio appeared first on TopMusic.co - Your Integrated Music Teaching Hub.

Site to Site VPN Using OpenVPN

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 21:52:42 +0000

You have 2 offices, it make sense to have a VPN to connect both sites together. OpenVPN is both easy to install and reasonably performant. It use a IP layer tunnel with UDP transport, with all traffic encrypted, so it is both transparent and secure. Howeever like any real world networking problem, there are traps.

Setup

Main office: public IP: 124.74.106.46 lan: 192.168.0.0/24 WAN gateway: 192.168.0.2 VPN gateway: 192.168.15

Branch office: No static public IP lan: 192.168.2.0/24 WAN gateway: 192.168.2.1 VPN gateway: 192.168.2.2

VPN network: 10.8.0.8/24

The procedure in http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/security/security-howto/30353-how-to-set-up-a-site-to-site-vpn-with-openvpn is easy enough to follow and clear, so I will not repeat here. the WAN gateways on both side are conmercial wireless routers and the VPN gateways are custom built PCs.

Problem 1

After setup the VPN gateway can ping each other, but other machines in the 2 LAN cannot. This is because the PC used as VPN gateways did not turn on packet forwarding among networking interfaces (a security measure, only routers need to forward packet). this is simple enough:

net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

in /etc/sysctl.conf will do. sysctl -p to make effective.

Problem 2

Now other machines can ping VPN gateways on the other side, but the VPN gateways cannot ping other machines on the other side. It turns out the VPN gateway will use the 10.8.0.* ip as source IP, so the return packet goes to the WAN gateway and it either drop them or throw it over to the WAN side. So you need to add route 10.8.0.0/24 to the VPN gateway on both side to the WAN gateway.

Problem 3

Now one side can connet to the other side with no problem, but not the other way! And things got even wierder, I can traceroute but not ping! It looks like the main office WAN gateway, a TP-link router, does something funny. Although I specifically added the static route to the VPN gateway, but:

regular packet got routed correctly
ICMP echo return and TCP return handshake got dropped
it does ICMP redirect for ping from the own side, but many OSs ignore ICMP redirect (for security)

It looks like some kind of firewall I cannot disable. The only way I can think of is to setup custom route rules for every machine, so the WAN router is not getting in the way.

for DHCP clients I can do that automatically since I already control the DHCP server
for manual setup machines you will have to do it manually.

Like:

ip route add 192.168.2.0/24 via 192.168.0.15
ip route add 10.8.0.0/24 via 192.168.0.15

Future work

Conmercial routers are good only when you stay with in the intended usage model. If I can do it all over again, I will ditch the router, and combine WAN and VPN gateway in one custom built pc; this way I have full flexibility. The router will be used as just a wifi AP on the side. For all the networking functionality the router provide:

DHCP. I already disable it from the router and use my own because I want to do PXE boot.
DNS. I already disable it from the router and use my own because I have many internal DNS need.
SNAT and DNAT. It can be done with free software; if you don’t miss the web interface.
firewall. It is very limited anyway.
UPnP. it is better to disable them anyway.
traffic shaping. I’ve never made it work the way I want it to be.

Block SPAM by Source

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 06:30:35 +0000

SPAM is a serious problem for any non-trival, internet facing email setup. At shannon, we receive on average 200+ SPAM per day, sometimes more than legitimate emails. There are ways to filter SPAM, such as content based filtering. However, they are resource intensive, and need human training to work best. It is important to know:

trying to filter all SPAM is both unrealisitic and not necessary
blocking legitimate emails is worse than letting some small amount of SPAM through.
the majority of SPAM arr generated by non-sophistic bot networks

So, a simpler and effective method to fight SPAM is to block them by SMTP source IP. This article explore several ways to accomplish this task and derived an effective ways to block the vast majority of SPAM.

Identifying SPAM sources

The majority of SPAM are coming from either professional SPAM network or botnet of hijacked residential PCs. Lucky there are ways to identify them by IP or the software driving them:

There are public database of known SPAMER network and IP range
They usually do not bother to setup proper forward and reverse DNS
The SPAMing softwatr are usually non-conforming SMTP source

A number of ways has been found to identify SPAM sources

spamhaus.net

spamhaus.net is a public database of known spammer network and ips. It provide free of charge, DNS based ways to query, and any ip flaged by it is very likely to be bad. There are also some downsides:

It may take some time to list new spammer IPs, which pop up everyday
Sometimes it is overloaded and fail to respond to our query

Reverse DNS

A legitimate SMTP host is supposed to have maching forward and reverse DNS record. Because the forward and reversed DNS are governed by seperate entitys there are some time delay and procesure to have everything setup correctly, SPAMMER usually do not bother to do that. Also, it is generally impossible to do that for residential IP blocks anyway. So one can do 2 DNS calls, first reverse (ip to DNS name) then a forward (DNS name to ip) to verify they matched up, then have a high confidence of the SMTP source is legitimate. However, there are also downsides:

Some legitimate domains do not have matching records (newbies)
Sometimes DNS query will timeout and cannot give you definate answers

Grey listing

Oftentime, the spamming software are poorly written and does not conform to standard. The idea of greylist is to establish whether a prior relationship exists between the sender and the receiver of a message. Most of the time it does, and the delivery proceeds normally. On the other hand, if no prior relationship exists, the delivery is temporarily rejected, using a 451 SMTP response. Legitimate MTAs will treat this response accordingly, and retry the delivery in a while. In contrast, ratware will usually fail to retry the delivery in a normal fashion. The downsides is the initial email would arrive late.

Combining all 3

We can combine all of the above to have a more robost SPAM blocking scheme:

first, use a white list to let high traffic known good sender ip pass
then, do reverse DNS and forward DNS. if it fails, go to 3. otherwise, skip to 4.
go through grey listing because the odd of SPAM is higher
finally, verify with spamhaus.net

The popular MTA exim can be configured as such fairly easily. SPAM traffic at shannon is reduced by 95%, with very little false positive.

The 1958 All-African People’s Conference Explained through the Zone Analysis Theory By Dr. Gnaka Lagoke - Toward Freedom

Sun, 31 Aug 2025 22:38:09 +0000

Introduction

Pan-Africanism is one area that African academics have shied away from for some time now. For this reason, faculty and students, across the continent, have little understanding of what it really means, and especially, when it started, and for what purpose. It is therefore important that African higher education institutions revisit the issue to place it back on the continental agenda because it is experiencing a resurgence.

Consequently, there is the need to show its importance and the significant contribution it made to African history, especially, the first major 1958 All-African People’s Conference. This has necessitated the attempt to look at the subject through the prism of the Zone Analysis Theory.

Pan-Africanism, born in the Americasis a phenomenon, which promotes freedom, unity, oneness and solidarity on the spiritual, cultural, social, political, and economic levels, social and racial justice, and self-determination of people of African ancestry. This movement won its first electoral and political victory in Africa in 1951 when Kwame Nkrumah, a staunch Pan-Africanist, became head of government business of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) after winning an election while in prison¹. Ghana became independent on March 6, 1957, as the first country in black Africa to rid itself from the shackles of colonialism.

One year after its independence, Ghana hosted two conferences, respectively for the already independent nations: the Conference of Independent African States and for the freedom fighters, i.e. the All-African People’s Conference. The latter was impactful and consequential. It was an inflexion point in the history of Africa. It ignited Pan-Africanism and accelerated the decolonization process.

In this article, I seek to discuss the success of the All-African People’s Conference, which took place December 8-13, 1958, through the prism of a Pan-African theory: the Zone Analysis Theory. While much of the literature in the field of Pan-Africanism is often done from a historicist perspective, I want to refocus our discussions of Pan-Africanism through theorization. A theory is an ideational framework—based on observation, interpretation, and everyday dynamics—that can elucidate historical, political, and cultural realities and can guide action and movements.

Africa could not host major Pan-African meetings before the independence of Ghana—it is for this reason that most of the Pan-African gatherings before the All-African People’s Conference took place outside the continent of Africa. Using the fundamentals of Nkrumah’s ideas, which were further developed by Zizwe Poe, I examine how a Pan-African liberated zone contributed to the expansion of Pan-Africanism and to the creation of Pan-African communities of struggle and shared thought—in short, Pan-African liberated zones.

The zonal analysis tenets were outlined by Kwame Nkrumah in his book Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare published in 1968 while he was proposing guidelines for successful revolutions in Africa. He divided Africa fighting for its freedom into three zones: liberated zones, contested zones and enemy-held zones². Zizwe Poe used some of the above-mentioned tenets to highlight the significance of independent Ghana as a free zone, a liberated one, which contributed to the advancement of Pan-Africanism, in his book Kwame Nkrumah’s Contribution to Pan-Africanism. He later articulated the Zone Analysis Theory in 2012³.

My analysis here will proceed in three parts. The first part discusses the origin and the fundamentals of the Zone Analysis Theory. To better explain the relevance of that Theory, I demonstrate in the second part of the study why most of the Pan-African gatherings, which took place before the independence of Ghana took place outside the continent of Africa in European capitals. The third part of the text examines the significance of the independence of Ghana and how it created the space that ignited Pan-Africanism in Africa and enabled the organization of a new series of Pan-African gatherings called the All-African people’s Conferences.

Zone Analysis Theory, a Pan-African Theory

The process of the Zone Analysis Theory formation can be divided into three steps: Kwame Nkrumah’s zonal classification, Zizwe Poe’s interpretation of Ghana’s independence as a liberated zone and his primary zonal theory articulation and my own contribution, which is providing a comprehensive definition of the Zone Analysis Theory and the categorization of the same theory.

The Zone Analysis Theory finds its relevance in relation to the historical context of colonization. The founding act of colonization was the Berlin Conference (1884-1885). It sealed the partition of Africa on paper. The golden rule adopted by the participants during the conference could be summed up in these terms: Any territory already occupied or conquered belongs to the conquering country’.⁴ By the beginning of the twentieth century, the entire continent of Africa, with the exception of Ethiopia and to a lesser extent Liberia created by the American Colonization Society for freed American slaves, was under colonial rule. Ethiopia was the only African country to have escaped colonialism after defeating Italy twice respectively at the Battle of Dogali in 1887, under Yohannes IV and at the Battle of Adwa in 1896 under Menelik II. ⁵

Events have had an impact on the decolonization of Africa and on the evolution of Pan-Africanism, namely World War II (WWII), the creation of the United Nations in 1945 and the Bandung Conference, which took place in 1955. The British colony of the Gold Coast (Ghana) became independent on March 6, 1957, through peaceful means.⁶ The war of independence of Algeria erupted in 1954 through an armed struggle. The Sharpeville Massacre of November 1960 led to the killing of 69 unarmed people. Freedom fighters were engaged in a series of armed struggles across the continent of Africa, from Southern Africa to the Portuguese colonies. Kwame Nkrumah himself was overthrown on February 24, 1966. In his Conakry years in exile, he published a manual of guerrilla warfare, Handbook Revolutionary Warfare: A Guide to the Armed Phase of the African Revolution, which provides the tools for the articulation of the Zone Analysis Theory. In the context of a revolutionary warfare, Kwame Nkrumah provides a classification of zones:

For although the African nation is at present split up among many separate states, it is in reality simply divided into two: our enemy and ourselves. The strategy of our struggle must be accordingly, and our continental territory considered as consisting of three categories of territories, which correspond to the varying levels of popular organisation and to the precise measure of victory attained by the people’s forces over the enemy:

1. Liberated areas
2. Zones under enemy control
3. Contested zones (i.e. hot points).⁷

The three zones (liberated zones, zones under enemy control, and contested zones) become the foundational pillars of the theory. Kwame Nkrumah goes on to argue that in a liberated zone, freedom is attained and obtained through a successful struggle or through a successful coup d’etat that can take out of power a neo-colonialist regime.⁸ Kwame Nkrumah suggests a strong cooperation between liberated zones and the liberation movements in the contested zones and in the enemy-held zones.⁹

The zones under enemy control or the enemy-held zones are completely subjugated and totally controlled by the oppressors, settler colonists, colonizers or neo-colonists who control all aspects of life of these zones, namely political, economic, cultural and military.¹⁰ The Ghanaian leader asserts that the revolutionary awareness of the masses determines the fate of the struggle. If and when it is high it is likely to lead to resistance, to « national boycotts, strikes, sabotage, and insurrection. » ¹¹Enemy-held zones can be easily transformed into contested zones if the revolutionary spirit can spark a successful revolt. Contested zones are transition zones that can be placed between the enemy-held zones and the liberated zones. In these zones, the oppressed and the oppressor are engaged in a battle, which determines if freedom can be attained or if oppression continues.

Building upon Kwame Nkrumah examination, Zizwe Poe, in his book Kwame Nkrumah’s Contribution to Pan-Africanism: An Afrocentric Analysis, emphasizes the significance of Ghana’s independence to the expansion of Pan-Africanism. He demonstrates the significance of the Ghanaian independence and presents Ghana as an example of a liberated zone or as « a Pan-African liberated zone.¹² » Zizwe Poe stresses that the primary goal of Ghana as the first Pan-African liberated zone was to help create or transform other colonies or free nations into Pan-African liberated zones. ¹³Zizwe Poe defines a liberated zone as « a zone from which to launch and support liberation. »¹⁴

In order to highlight the optimal dimension of Ghana as a purposive true Pan-African liberated zone, Zizwe Poe compares three liberated zones such as Haiti, Liberia and Abyssinia (Ethiopia), He presents the latter as a Pan-Africanist symbol of a liberated zone.¹⁵ He differentiates these Pan-African clusters from Egypt, which was a liberated zone but not a Pan-African liberated one from the outset. Egypt later evolved to turn into a Pan-African liberated zone. ¹⁶Zizwe Poe echoes the position of Vincent Bakpetu Thompson who declares that Ghana then offered what Liberia and Ethiopia could not provide: a safe-meeting place for the discussion of priorities.¹⁷ Thompson would also argue that in 1957 Ghana was the first to be independent in Black Africa and was therefore rightfully viewed as the beacon of hope, freedom, and unity of African nationalists.¹⁸

Building on what precedes, I now define the Zone Analysis Theory as a Pan-African Theory through which one can measure the environmental freedom of a given people in a given society, the level of revolutionary awareness of the elite and of the masses, and the degree of sovereignty of the agency in a specific zone. From this definition it is clear that there are three dimensions which are the three components of the zonal theory: environmental freedom, revolutionary awareness or consciousness, and sovereignty of agencies. These three dimensions can be discussed in each of the three zones: liberated zones, contested zones and enemy-held zones.

In the next section, I discuss the theory against the backdrop of the venues of the Pan-African gatherings before the independence of Ghana.

Zone Analysis Theory and Venues of Pan-African Gatherings before Independent Ghana

The colonial settlers set up a system of colonial administration that did not guarantee basic freedoms, especially freedoms of assembly, association, and organization. This explains why most of the Pan-African rallies took place in the western cities: London, Paris, Lisbon, Brussels, New York, Manchester. Besides the major Pan-African political organizations such as the African National Congress (ANC) created in 1912 in South Africa and the Rassemblement Democratique Africain (RDA) created in Bamako (French Sudan now Mali) in October 1946, the attempts to organize Pan-African gatherings before the independence of Ghana were marginal.

Joseph-Casely Hayford was the main architect in 1920 of the establishment of the National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA) whose goal was the building of West African unity in Accra. Delegates from the British colonies in West Africa (Gambia, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast- Ghana, Nigeria) took part in the meeting. The NCBWA suffered the contempt and derision of the colonial authorities, but nevertheless succeeded in pursuing its mission, by organizing rotating congresses in the British colonial capitals of West Africa. The NCBWA organized four Pan-African Congresses between 1920 and 1930. The third was held in Bathurst in The Gambia in December 1925. The last was held in Lagos in December 1929.¹⁹ Apart from these meetings, the major Pan-African meetings took place outside the continent of Africa.

The first acclaimed Pan-African conference took place in July 23-25, 1900, in London under the leadership of Trinidadian Henry Sylvester Williams in the midst of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was the champion of the Back to Africa movement in the early years of the 20th century. He was credited to have transformed Pan-Africanism into a mass movement. His gatherings called conventions mobilized tens of thousands of Black people. The headquarters of his organization was Harlem in New York.²⁰ Marcus Garvey could not visit Africa as he was prevented from doing so by colonial forces. W.E.B. Du Bois, who was at the London conference, initiated another series of Pan-African gatherings that he called Pan-African congresses. They took place in 1919, 1921, 1923, 1927 and 1945; all in western cities and capitals. The first congress took place in 1919 at a historic moment and in a symbolic city for the context. It was the end of World War I and Paris was chosen because of the Treaty of Versailles about to be signed in the suburbs of the French capital. The second Pan-African Congress took place in 1921 in London, Brussels, and Paris. A third of the participants were from Africa. The Third Pan-African Congress was held in 1923 in London, Paris, and Lisbon. The Fourth Pan-African Congress of 1927 was held in New York. It was supposed to take place in the Caribbean. W.E.B. Du Bois explained why the organizers initially wanted to organize it in the Caribbean: “So far the Pan-African idea was still American rather than African, but it was growing and it expressed a real demand for an examination of the African situation and a plan of treatment, from the native point of view. With the object of moving the centre of that agitation nearer African centres of population.” ²¹ He pursued to explain how he intended to organize that meeting, and he accused colonial powers of having thwarted it: “My idea was to charter a ship and sail down the Caribbean, stopping for meetings in Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, the French Islands. Here I reckoned without my steamship lines. At first the French Line replied they could easily manage the trip;’ but eventually no accommodations could be found on any line except at the prohibitive price of fifty thousand dollars. I suspect the colonial powers spiked this plan.”²² The African centres of population namely Haiti, Cuba, the French Islands were all according to the Zone Analysis Theory non-sovereign territories and enemy-held zones.

Eventually New York was chosen because the organizers wanted to highlight the issue of racism in the United States and the growing importance of that country in the world. The congress brought together 208 delegates from 22 American states and 10 foreign countries. Africa, however, was poorly represented with delegates from the Gold Coast (Ghana), Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria.²³ The small number of African delegates was partly due to travel restrictions imposed by the British and French colonial powers on those who expressed interest in attending the congress. The travel restrictions prevented a massive turnout of African delegates. Most of the Black American delegates were women. As at previous Pan-African congresses, participants discussed the status and conditions of Black people across the world.

The Great Depression of 1929 and the military imperatives generated by WWII led to the suspension of Pan-African meetings for a period of eighteen years.²⁴ Under the leadership of W.E.B. Du Bois, Pan-Africanists sought to organize the fifth Pan-African Congress in Tunis, as they wanted that Pan-African gathering to be « geographically African. » ²⁵ The French colonial power, which had Tunisia as a colony, would only allow that Pan-African meeting to take place in Marseilles, another French city. The fifth Pan-African congress finally took place in Manchester from October 15 to 21, 1945. W.E.B. Dubois was appointed chairperson of the gathering whose main organizer was Trinidadian George Padmore aided by Kwame Nkrumah.

The Zone Analysis Theory, Ghana Independence, and the Significance of the All-African People’s Conference

The systems of domination such as colonialism, segregation, and apartheid were repeatedly scorned at the United Nations created in the aftermath of WWII.²⁶ As a result of his resounding victory in 1951, while in prison, Kwame Nkrumah was released from prison and formed a government in which were four British and seven Africans.²⁷ The leader of the newly independent country organized in 1953 a Pan-African conference in Kumasi (Gold Coast). The gathering launched the idea of forming an independent West African Federal State.

The meeting could not claim to be representative of the African masses given the non-participation of leading figures in the fight for the decolonization of Africa. Nkrumah intended to organize another Pan-African conference in 1954. That one could not take place. It was not until the independence of Ghana that major Pan-African conferences were held on the African continent, particularly in Accra (Ghana). ²⁸Ghana gained its independence on March 6, 1957 as the first Sub-Saharan African country to be free and the first Pan-African liberated zone as envisioned by the Manchester Congress. The correlation between the independence of Ghana and that of the African continent was beautifully illustrated by Kwame Nkrumah himself during his midnight speech on March 6, 1957: « The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up to the total liberation of the African continent. »²⁹

These remarks articulated a Pan-African doctrine. Ghana became a magnet and a safe haven for African nationalists and freedom fighters seeking refuge, guidance, and assistance. Ghana also became a coordinating centre for Africa’s decolonization and unity. Its leader, Kwame Nkrumah, took upon himself to bring together African leaders, African nationalists and the representatives of African masses fighting for freedom to accelerate the pace of decolonization.

The Conference of Independent African States brought together independent African states such as Ethiopia, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Libya, Liberia, and of course Ghana. The goal was to coordinate efforts and strategies for the decolonization of the continent of Africa.³⁰ The last words “Hands off Africa! Africa must be Free!” of Kwame Nkrumah’s inaugural speech during the Conference of Independent African States became the slogan of the All-African People’s Conference, coordinated by George Padmore, who was assisted by a preparatory committee.

After the Conference of Independent African States, Kwame Nkrumah visited the leaders of the countries who participated in the meeting in their respective countries. This helped strengthen physical contacts as a practical means of unifying African countries. In a context of bubbling ideas and possibilities for action, mobility among Africans has increased. Nkrumah had thus set the tone.³¹

Some other Pan-African gatherings took place in 1958 respectively in Tanganyika (September), Cotonou (July). The meeting in Tanganyika saw the creation of the Pan-African Freedom Movement for East and Central Africa (PAFMECA). Cotonou gave birth to a Pan-African party in favour of independence, the Parti of Regroupement Panafricain (PRA). Even though important, they could not be compared in magnitude, symbolism, and impact to the All-African Peoples Conference of December 1958 in Accra, which was a consequential event.

I will spotlight now how the All-African People Conference of 1958 used the three dimensions of the Zone Analysis Theory, environmental freedom, revolutionary awareness of the freedom fighters, and sovereignty of agency to promote Pan Africanism and freedom in Africa. Under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah and the Convention of People’s Party, the masses namely the women, the youth, the trade unionists, the farmers had been awakened. Several organizations and structures were created to be the channels of the struggle and sentinels of the revolution and to contribute to the ideals of freedom and unity across the continent: the National Council of Ghana Women (NCGW), the Young Pioneers, the Ghana Trade Union Council (G-TUC) and the Ghana Farmer’s Council.

To carry out the actual and practical organization of the Pan-African gatherings in Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah created two specific sovereign agencies: the Office of the Advisor to the Prime Minister for African Affairs and the Centre for African Affairs. The first had the essential objective of working for the liberation and unity of Africa. It functioned as an investigative body, a propaganda platform, and a centre that allowed for the exchange of ideas with African nationalist leaders. This institution provided financial and logistical support to liberation movements in Africa and facilitated the integration into Ghana of the many political exilesto whom it provided logistical support. George Padmore was in charge of the Office of the Advisor to the Prime Minister until his death in 1959. He was the main architect of the All-African People Conference. The second tool, the Centre for African Affairs, was intended to be a reception centre for Pan-African meetings and to be an ideological training centre for African nationalists. Hundreds of them crossed paths there, received their ideological training and learned from each other.³²

Hundreds of African nationalists and international observers and partners of Africa gathered and discussed a variety of topics, namely the adequate methodology to achieve independence and notions such as African Personality. The gathering was a revolutionary landmark gathering. The revolutionary significance of the All African Peoples Conference lies in the following: the geographical relocation of the Pan-African Conferences, the naming of the new series of Pan-African gatherings, the change in leadership of the Pan-African movement, the redefinition of the concepts of the African Personality and Pan-Africanism, and in the immediate impactful reverberations and repercussions of the gathering.

The Pan-African gatherings were now held in Africa. They took the name “All-African People’s Conference” instead of congresses or conventions to mark a new cycle of the Pan-African gatherings.³³African leaders were now the leaders of the Pan-African movement rather than people from the Americas. The notions of African Personality (as articulated since the 19th century by Edward Blyden) and Pan-Africanism now transcended the idea of Black identity. They now reflected the multiracial identity of Africa.³⁴ Kwame Nkrumah would therefore claim: In 1958, Pan-Africanism had moved to the African continent, where it really belonged.’³⁵

The Accra calls for independence spread like wildfires across the entire continent of Africa from north to south from east to west, across races, borders, and ideologies.³⁶ Consequently, in 1960, 17 African countries became independent, including the colonies of France in black Africa. Two other iterations of the All-African People’s Conference took place respectively in Tunis (1960) and Cairo (1961). In hindsight, Kwame Nkrumah affirmed that three historical events have contributed to increasing the urge in Africans to be free: The Conference of the Independent African States, which took place from April 15-22, 1958, the All-African People Conference which took place from December 8-13, 1958 and the All-African People’s Conference of 1961 in Cairo.

Conclusion

In this research I have shed light on the significance of the 1958 All-African People Conference that contributed to the expansion of Pan-Africanism which thus reached new heights. A sovereign state, Ghana, conscious of its mission as a liberated zone, led by a vanguard political elite supported by awakened masses created agencies to sustain its freedom and to support others to gain theirs. The primary agencies, besides the Convention of the People’s Party (CPP) were the Office of the Advisor to the Prime Minister for African Affairs and the Centre for African Affairs. Thanks to these agencies which were totally sovereign, Ghana embarked on its mission to free Africa and build its unity. Ghana supported the liberation movements on the African continent and devised a plan for the unification of the continent.

To highlight the importance of a liberated zone in the struggle for freedom, I have demonstrated that the Pan-African Conference under Henry Sylvester Williams, the Pan-African Congresses under W.E.B Dubois, the Pan-African Conventions under Marcus Garvey all took place in European cities. Even some of the Pan-African gatherings organized in western cities suffered from the interference of western powers which sought to either thwart these meetings or to reduce their success by imposing visa restrictions on the delegates.

I also briefly compared the 1958 conference and that of 1953 organized in Kumasi when Ghana was not yet a liberated zone but a contested zone and when most of Africa was still full of enemy-held zones. I have conducted the discussion through the lens of a theory, that of the Zone Analysis Theory. Its foundational pillars were put forth by Kwame Nkrumah himself. Its theoretical articulation was done by Zizwe Poe. I have in this research contributed to that theory formulation by providing a comprehensive definition and its categorization while spotlighting the significance of the All-African People’s Conference in the history of Africa and its people. The zonal analysis can better explain the organization of different types of Pan-African gatherings, those of union leaders, political leaders, women, youth, and those of writers and intellectuals, thus making Ghana live up to its mission of a true liberated zone. The 1958 All-African People’s Conference was a great success because it was organized in a liberated area that was an independent Ghana. Today the elites and the masses of Africa are engaged in another golden age of Pan-Africanism

characterized by the quest for economic sovereignty. Continuing analysis is needed to measure the level of freedom and the state of art of the current revolutionary struggle.

Dr. Gnaka Lagoke is Associate Professor of History and Pan-Africana Studies at Lincoln University (PA) and author of Laurent Gbagbo’s Trial and the Indictment of the International Criminal Court: A Pan-African Victory and Le Panafricanisme d’Hier à Demain et la Philosophie Ubuntu. Email: [email protected]

Endnotes

¹George Padmore, Pan-Africanism or Communism (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1971), 156.

²Kwame Nkrumah, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare: A Guide to the Armed Phase of the African Revolution (London: Panaf Books, 1968), 44.

³Zizwe Poe, “Reflecting on Pan-African Liberated Zones: Designing a Dynamic Nkrumahist Evaluation”, Conference pronounced at the 24^th Cheikh Anta Diop Annual Conference in Philadelphia, October 10-12, 2012.

⁴Kevin Shillington, History of Africa, Third Edition (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012), 314.

⁵Zizwe Poe, Contribution of Kwame Nkrumah to Pan-Africanism, 67.

⁶Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah (New York: International Publishers, 1971), 112.

⁷Kwame Nkrumah, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, 44.

⁸Kwame Nkrumah, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, 44.

⁹Kwame Nkrumah, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, 45.

¹⁰Kwame Nkrumah, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, 46.

¹¹Kwame Nkrumah, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, 47.

¹²Zizwe Poe, Contribution of Kwame Nkrumah to Pan-Africanism, 3.

¹³Zizwe Poe, Contribution of Kwame Nkrumah to Pan-Africanism, 25.

¹⁴Zizwe Poe, Contribution of Kwame Nkrumah to Pan-Africanism, 162.

¹⁵Zizwe Poe, Contribution of Kwame Nkrumah to Pan-Africanism, 66.

¹⁶Zizwe Poe, Contribution of Kwame Nkrumah to Pan-Africanism, 162.

¹⁷Vincent Bakpetu Thompson, Africa and Unity: The Evolution of Pan-Africanism (New York: Humanities Press, 1969), 126.

¹⁸Vincent Bakpetu Thompson, Africa and Unity: The Evolution of Pan-Africanism, 124.

¹⁹Vincent Bakpetu Thompson, Africa and Unity: The Evolution of Pan-Africanism, 47.

²⁰Amzat Boukari-Yabara, Africa Unite (Paris: La Decouverte, 2014), 71.

²¹W.E. Burghardt Du Bois, The World and Africa: An Inquiry into the part which Africa has played in world history (New York: International Publishers, 1965), 242.

²²W.E. B. Du Bois, The World and Africa, 242.

²³W.E. B. Du Bois, The World and Africa, 242-243.

²⁴W.E. B., The World and Africa, 243.

²⁵W.E. B. Du Bois, The World and Africa, 243.

²⁶Vincent Bakpetu Thompson, Africa and Unity: The Evolution of Pan-Africanism, 126-129.

²⁷Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah, 139.

²⁸Marika Sherwood, “Pan-African Conferences, 1900-1953: What Did “Pan-Africanism” Mean” in The Journal of Pan African Studies, Vol. 4, No 10 (January 2012); p. 116-118.^XXX

²⁹Ama Biney, The Political and Social Thought of Kwame Nkrumah (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 3.

³⁰Zizwe Poe, Kwame Nkrumah’s Contribution to Pan-Africanism, 109.

³¹Vincent Bakpetu Thompson, Africa and Unity: The Evolution of Pan-Africanism, 127.

³²Matteo Grilli, Nkrumaism and African Nationalism: Ghana’s Pan-African Foreign Policy in the Age of Decolonization (Cham : Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 15-16.

³³Vincent Bakpetu Thompson, Africa and Unity: The Evolution of Pan-Africanism, 130.

³⁴Lagoke, Gnaka, Le Panafricanisme d’Hier à Demain et la Philosophie Ubuntu (Paris: Editions de l’Onde, 2025), 129-130.

³⁵Kwame Nkrumah, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, 31.

³⁶Philippe Decraene, “L’Afrique noire tout entière fait écho aux thèmes panafricains exaltés à Accra”, https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/1959/02/DECRAENE/22920

³⁷Kwame Nkrumah, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, 30-31.

How To Use Process Monitoring In Windows 11 HTMD Blog

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 08:19:23 +0000

Let’s learn how to use process monitoring in windows 11. Process monitor is a program that expands the options available in the previous Windows version. This program is a complete tool that helps you to monitor the system’s active processes.

Process monitoring helps establish all kinds of filters to make your system easier to make any changes or searches to carry out. Process monitoring also shows you the percentage of ongoing processes on a real-time basis.

Process monitoring systems enable us to end any processes that are impossible to end using windows administrator. Like end processes, you can also be eligible for launching an application recognized by windows through the program’s interface.

In this post, I will show how to use a process monitor in Windows 11, and the below steps show how to download and install it with users in Windows 11.

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How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.1

What is Process Monitoring?

Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry, and process/thread activity. It combines the features of two legacy Sysinternals utilities, Filemon and Regmon.

It adds an extensive list of enhancements, including rich and non-destructive filtering, comprehensive event properties such as session IDs and user names, reliable process information, full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation, simultaneous logging to a file, and much more.

Its uniquely powerful features will make Process Monitor a core utility in your system troubleshooting and malware-hunting toolkit.

Installation and Uses of Process Monitoring in Windows 11

You can download the process monitor from the Microsoft website. You can download the process monitor from the link given below. The steps to download and install the process monitor in windows 11 are below.

Click here to download the Process Monitor in Windows 11 -> Download Process Monitor.

Step 1 is to first click on the link provided above, and the process monitor starts downloading instantly and stores it in the download folder as a zip file. Now go to your system’s download folder, right-click on the zip folder, and select extract all.

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.2

Step 2 is after clicking on extract all; it asks to select a destination folder where you want to extract the folder. All downloads are saved in the download folder by default.

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.3

Step 3 from the extracted folder, choose Procmon, right-click on it and select Run as administrator. Then the User Account Control approval window opens; press Yes to continue.

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.4

Step 4, the next window is the Process Monitor License Agreement; click on Agree to its terms and conditions. And the installation will start.

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.5

The final step is the application interface shown in the figure below. You can check the interface of the process monitor application. It contains various options tabs, as listed below, and also, some graphical options are shown in the figure.

File Tab
Edit Tab
Event Tab
Filter Tab
Tools Tab
Options Tab
Helps Tab

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.6

1. File Tab

The file tab contains some functions to make changes in the process, the options shown below. Here are the alternatives to open, save, back files, etc.

Open: To open a selected file or process
Save: To save the process
Backing Files: To make a backup storage
Capture Events: To save all the process paths in the record
Export Configuration: To export the configuration of some processes
Import Configuration: To import the design into it
Exit: Leave the process monitoring window

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.7

2. Edit Tab

The Edit tab is used to make changes in the currently running process that can be changed during the running process. There is some option to make some modifications.

Copy: To copy some process
Find: To find a particular process
Find Highlight: To see highlighted processes
Find Bookmark: To find bookmarks in process, if any
Auto Scroll: To scroll the process window automatically
Clear Display: To clear the process monitor window

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.8

3. Event Tab

The Event tab is used to check any event properties, show the highlighted events, etc., and manages the details of the currently running processes.

Properties: Show the detailed information
Stack: Show the stacking information
Toggle Bookmark: Toggle in between the bookmarks
Jump To: Helps to jump from one process to another
Search Online: Search online event
Include: To include process details
Exclude: To exclude process details
Highlight: Shows the highlighted details

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.9

4. Filter Tab

The filter tab is used to make a specific process search for the user to make a particular process to monitor. The filter tab creates filters for search, reset filters, load filters, etc. The details are shown below:

Enable Advanced Output: It enables advanced output
Filter: To set filters in the process of monitoring
Reset Filter: To reset the filters
Load Filter: To apply the filters
Save Filter: To save a particular set of filters
Organize Filter: To make filters organized
Drop Filtered Events: To drop some filtered events
Highlight: Highlighted the filtered selections

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.10

5. Tools Tab

Like other applications, the Process Monitor also has a tools tab to make changes, check the summaries, system details, etc. The details are shown below:

System Details: Showing the details of the system
Process Tree: Showing the process tree of an event
Process Activity Summary: Only represent summaries of Process Activity
Registry Summary: Showing the outlines of the registry process
Stack Summary: Represents the stack details
Network Summary: Shows the network details
Cross Reference Summary: Paths that are written and read between differing processes
Count occurrences: Count values occurrences

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.11

6. Options Tab

Using the options tab user can change the interface of the application, like changing the Font, theme, highlight colors, etc. The details are shown below:

Always on Top: Events on the top
Font: Modify the font styles
Highlight Colors: Highlight colors choosing
Theme: Modify the application theme
Configure Symbols: Symbol configuration for the application
Select Columns: Select particular columns
History Depth: Limits the total number of events during a run
Profiling Events: Can generate thread profiling events that capture the state of all executing threads at a regular interval
Enable Boot Logging: This can generate thread profiling events that capture the state of all executing threads at a regular interval
Show Resolved Network Addresses: It shows the resolved network address
Hex File Offsets and Lengths: Shows the file offsets and lengths shown below
Hex Process and Threads IDs: Shows the process and threads IDs

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.12

7. Helps Tab

Like other applications, the helps tab is also present for the user to solve any complications regarding the PC’s health. The process monitor, index, and search contents are available in it.

Help: Shows all contents, indexes, and search
Command Line Options: It shows the command line arguments details
About: Shows information about process monitor

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.13

What are the Capabilities of Process Monitoring?

Process Monitoring includes powerful monitoring and filtering capabilities and also has some other functionalities listed below:

More data captured for operation input and output parameters
Non-destructive filters allow you to set filters without losing data
The capture of thread stacks for each operation makes it possible, in many cases, to identify the root cause of an operation
Reliable capture of process details, including image path, command line, user, and session ID
Configurable and moveable columns for any event property
Filters can be set for any data field, including fields not configured as columns
Advanced logging architecture scales to tens of millions of captured events and gigabytes of log data
The process tree tool shows the relationship of all processes referenced in a trace
Native log format preserves all data for loading in a different Process Monitor instance
Process tooltip for easy viewing of process image information
The detail tooltip allows convenient access to formatted data that doesn’t fit in the column
Cancellable search
Boot time logging of all operations

Now some functionalities are shown below that are discussed above. The quick and various options from the different tabs are discussed below:

Command Line Options from Helps

The Helps tab has an option as a command line with some arguments to perform some tasks. The details of command line arguments are illustrated in the table and the image below:

Command Line Arguments	Description
/OpenLog<PML file>	Open a previously saved event file
/BackingFile<PML file>	Save events in the specified backing file
/PagingFile	Save events in the virtual memory
/NoConnect	Don’t automatically begin collecting events at startup
/NoFilter	Clear the filter at startup
/AcceptEula	Accept the EULA automatically (don’t show a dialog)
/LoadConfig<file>	Load a previously saved configuration file
/Profiling	Enable the thread profiling feature
/Minimised	Start the application minimized
/WaitForIdle	Wait for an instance of ProcMon to become ready
/Terminate	Terminate all instances of ProcMon and exit
/Quiet	Don’t confirm filter settings during the startup
/Run32	Run the 32-bit version to load 32-bit log files (x64 only)
/Runtime	Run for the specified number of seconds and terminate
/HookRegistry	Hook Registry for Softgrid troubleshooting (x86 Vista only)
/SaveAs<path>	Export to an XML, CSV, or PML file
/SaveAs1<path>	Export including stack traces (XML Only)
/SaveAs2<path>	Export including stack traces with symbols (XML Only)
/SaveApplyFilter	Apply the current filter before exporting
/EnableBootLogging	Configures logging of the next boot
/ConvertBootLog<PML file>	Automatically processes a boot log after reboot
/RingBuffer	Enable fight recorder mode
/RingBufferSize<size>	Ring buffer size in MB
/RingBufferLen<len>	Ring buffer length in minutes

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Table 1

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.14

Show Registry Activity

Selecting the Registry Activities shows the currently running process of the device. The registry activity is marked with an arrow in the figure below.

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.15

Show File System Activity

Selecting the Registry Activities shows the currently running process of the device. The registry activity is marked with an arrow in the figure below.

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.16

Show Network Activity

Selecting the Network Activities shows the currently running process of the device. The Network activity is marked with an arrow in the figure below:

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.17

Show Process & Thread Activity

Selecting the Process & Thread Activities shows the currently running process of the device. The Process & Thread activity is marked with an arrow in the figure below:

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.18

Show Profiling Events

Selecting the Profiling Activities shows the currently running process of the device. The Profiling activity is marked with an arrow in the figure below:

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.19

You can change the application font using the Options tab. The Step by step process to change the application’s Font is shown in the image below.

Click on the Options Tab
Click on Font
On the Font window, select Font
Select Font Style
Select Font Size
Click on OK

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.20

You can also change the theme of the application. The theme is set to default; click on Dark to switch it to dark mode. Then restart the system, and the Process Monitor window changed to dark mode.

Open Options Tab
Clin on Theme
Select Dark
Click OK to restart your device

How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 -Fig.21

The information shared above regarding How to Use Process Monitoring in Windows 11 is helpful. Please follow us on HTMD Community and visit our website HTMD Forum if you like our content.

Author

Alok is a Master of Computer Applications (MCA) graduate. He loves writing on Windows 11 and related technologies. He likes to share his knowledge, quick tips, and tricks with Windows 11 or Windows 10 with the community.

Inside the Vatican: Praying with Our FeetA Personal Account of African Reparatory Justice - Toward Freedom

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 14:27:45 +0000

Bust of Lourenço da Silva Mendouça, a member of the royal family of Thngdom of Ndongo in what is now Angola. An abolitionist, he was probably the first person to successfully convince authorities to end slavery in Europe.

When I stepped through the gates of the Pontifical Urbaniana University this past May, I carried more doubt than certainty in my bag. For three days, during African Liberation Weekend, I watched a global circle of scholars, seminarians, artists, prophets, priests, and everyday people do something rarely done within these ancient Vatican halls; we told the truth out loud about Reparatory Justice for Africa and the African Diaspora. We demanded that the Church help deliver it.

During this African Union’s first Year of Reparatory Justice for Africa and the African Diaspora, we navigated the grounds that have shaped the Church’s moral authority for centuries. The Vatican Symposium was more than an academic talk event where people pontificate ideas about what they want. Rather, it was a healing in practice that can no longer be ignored.

Participants at the Vatican symposium in Rome, Italy 2025

When we first set this vision in motion, I reached out to the seminarians’ student group Omnes Gentes, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Italy [WILPF], and the Global Circle for Reparations and Healing. Omnes Gentes, a Vatican-based intercultural student organization, is grounded in the mission of building authentic global dialogue within Catholic formation. They brought the heart and energy of young clergy in training who believe in a Church that listens and evolves.

I remember how the road turned and twisted before it opened. The WILPF International Secretariat told me they could quietly share news of our gathering with members, but felt they could not publicly stand beside us inside the Vatican’s walls. Their reluctance reflected a long-standing tension. WILPF’s historic secularism, born from its early 20th-century pacifist roots, has long resisted direct association with institutions like the Catholic Church, particularly because of the Church’s colonial entanglements. But just like water shapes the ground, Patrizia Sterpetti of WILPF Italy showed me something stronger than policy or historic pain. She showed me the courage to heal our future. She said, “you can count on me” and I felt that promise deep in my chest.

Kim Poole and participant at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome Italy

The Global Circle for Reparations and Healing too, at first, felt the timing was not right. Pope Francis had just passed away that Easter. Many wondered if this sacred pause would swallow our moment. But faith has a way of growing through hesitation. Less than a week before we flew, Kamm Howard called to say they were coming after all. The Global Circle for Reparations and Healing, a big-brain network of African-descended leaders from across the Diaspora, understood well the church’s amnesia. On July 18th 2022 they came to the Dicastery of Education and Culture to deliver a Presentment of legal claims for church liability in global African trauma that was never fully acknowledged.

That is partly how I knew the Vatican Symposium was never mine alone. It was faith with a pulse, quiet proof that this is God’s work and plan.

So we moved forward, through every twist and pause. Together we turned Pontifical Urbaniana University’s stone lecture halls into a sanctuary for truth-telling in the Vatican’s heart.

Across three days, we named the Church’s complicity in colonization. Everything from the Papal Bulls Dum Diversas of Pope Nicholas V in 1452 and Romanus Pontifex (1455), which gave divine license to steal African lands and bodies, to the silence that has stretched for centuries.

I listened as Dr. José Lingna Nafafé, professor at the University of Bristol, unlocked the buried story of Lourenço da Silva Mendonça, the 17th-century Angolan abolitionist who dared to petition the Vatican to condemn the slave trade centuries before Europe would even pretend to listen. Mendonça, born into royal Pungo-Andongo lineage (modern day Angola), exiled in Brazil and re-educated in Europe, went on to lead one of the earliest legal and theological cases for abolition, within the Church itself and the Atlantic world. His images alone could inspire an entire new concentration for seminarians ready to study truth, not colonial myth.

Global experts came from Chicago, Kentucky, from the UK, Kenya, Tanzania, Italy; each carrying proof that this is not just an African struggle but a glocal one. I watched Kamm Howard remind the room that Pope Leo XIV, who will soon ordain new priests, was from Chicago like him and carries African genealogical roots. That matters. It means the future of this institution carries a thread that cannot be cut off from our story.

Dr. Lewis Brogden spoke about the hidden intersections of faith and Black identity. Ana Miro of Tanzania said what about illicit flows of resources within Africa, that now we too are a part of the problem. Dr. Patrizia Sterpetti ensured that activists from across Italy were present. She told us how she has fought for decades to protect African refugees cast aside by Europe’s fortress walls.

One of the most sacred moments came from Lanishma Emmanuel Gbatar, a master’s student in missiology and interfaith dialogue. I watched him pause, close his eyes, and say: “In six years of seminary, this is the first time I have ever been invited to moderate any public dialogue, of any topic. That it is this dialogue about Reparatory Justice is no accident. This is God’s work.” Emmanuel told us that he will be ordained by Pope Leo XIV on June 27, inside these same walls. This conversation, he promised, will live inside the Church, not just at the gate.

And then came Stanislaus Obiakor, an Igbo graduate of Pontifical Urbaniana University, who stood and said he had left seminary because he “could no longer stomach the lie that ignored the divine nature of women.” Around him; local voices, young and old, Giovanna Graziano, Stanislaus Obiakor, Vincenzo Mazzola, Omar Diallo, Daoud Mahamat, Alessandro Triulzi, Steve Emejuru

When the last presentation ended, we did not pack up and go quiet. We held a Global Virtual Community Report-Back, where clergy, prophets, and everyday people carried the message forward. I watched Rev. Kobi Little of Deacons for Justice, Pastor Tom Schwind of New Covenant Tabernacle, Dr. Akil Khalfani of the Africana Institute, and Prophet Anyanwu Cox stand and declare that the Church’s historical amnesia must end with tangible action. They committed to being part of the coalition forming to do this work.

Cressandra Dunford, who opened every day with songs of praise, told the gathering that her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, will embed our Reparatory framework in city policy across every sector. That is what faith looks like when it rolls up its sleeves.

One of the quiet miracles of this gathering for me was Erick Kiarie, our Teaching Artist Institute illustrator from Kenya. I met Erick just two months earlier at the Baraza Social Movements in Ghana. He had never left Africa, never seen Europe, and he told me it would be an act of faith if his visa was ever approved. I felt it too, so I bought his plane ticket before that visa was even in his passport. Two months later, he was standing beside me at Pontifical Urbaniana University, sketching our story in comic-book panels for the world to see. That is how faith travels, on a wing and a prayer.

Graphic pages by Eric Kiarie – Teaching Artist Institue (TAI) illustrator from Kenya

A mustard seed, in truth I bought my own plane ticket before the Vatican ever officially approved the date. I didn’t even land in Rome until the morning of the event. I changed clothes in a bathroom stall, from my take-a-flight Momo into my Vatican presentation best, and rushed straight from the airport to the podium.

The Bible says faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains. Thank God for that, because a mustard seed is all we had. Our printed banners, event programs, and Prayer for Reparatory Justice bracelets never even arrived in time. They are still crossing borders to find us. If you are reading this and want a printed program or bracelet to stand with us, we have plenty and every purchase keeps this work alive.

Graphic pages by Eric Kiarie – Teaching Artist Institue (TAI) illustrator from Kenya

The ultimate takeaway from our gathering is my blueprint for interfaith healing. I call this truth-telling serum the Ukumbusho Cure, Ukumbusho meaning remembrance in Swahili. This blueprint for healing centers land return, nullification of colonial papal decrees, an official declaration honoring Africa’s place as the cradle of civilization and Christianity, especially the Ethiopian foundations of the faith. After one presentation, I raised the example of Ethiopia’s Christian heritage, the ancient kingdom of Axum, and the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, as evidence of Africa’s central place in early Christian history. The Togolese professor who had just spoken responded simply, “That’s Christianity only for the Ethiopians.” His excellent presentation had used striking images to expose the Church’s historical tunnel vision, and in his words, I saw something deeper, a window into how tribalism shows up even in the Church. While the Ethiopian Church’s lineage is sidelined as too specific to be universal, the lily-white faces of Jesus and the rosy-cheeked angels in the Sistine Chapel are accepted without question. This hypocrisy lives in the architecture. It’s time to change that.

The Ukumbusho Cure calls for the replanting of African spiritual heritage in Church life and dedicating a permanent share of the Church’s wealth; including museum profits from inception into perpetuity to fund real repair. The approach is simple and impossible to ignore: Faithful & Future-Oriented. Actionable & Glocal. Sustainable & Land-Based.

As the African Union’s Year of Reparatory Justice moves forward, together we are praying with our feet.

By Kim Poole | Founder, Teaching Artist Institute

About Teaching Artist Institute:

Founded by Kim Poole, the Teaching Artist Institute (TAI) is a global network of artists, scholars, and cultural workers using the arts as a tool for social transformation, cultural preservation, and reparatory justice. Learn more or join the movement at Facebook.com/TeachingArtist

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