#has to do with previous eps etc. i love ep 16 for example but i can't mention it without mentioning dot's entire arc from ep 7 to 16

[amelikos]

Spotlight posts of each chapter in anticipation of HZ100 (Liko and Roy Set Off, Terapagos' Shine, Terastal Debut, Rayquaza Rising).

[shanethvarosa]

Music Review: 2020

My blog has been a lot of things over the years, but it did originate as something I used to publicly review music; especially in the Visual Kei scene. Since I began the blog so many years ago, I had actually been hired to review Visual Kei and J-Rock music for an actual website: VKH-Press.com, work I am very, very proud of to this day. However, with not much news to comment on or work to critique, I haven’t been as active. Plus, personal issues always seem to stand in my way. However, I always take the time to discuss my passions at the end of the year. There were so many incredible releases, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and so I wanted to take the time time to discuss my favorite releases and, maybe, the not-so-favorites as well. Quick shout out to Bastille’s Goosebumps EP and Megan Thee Stallion’s Good News LP as I did not get to listen to them before I wrote up my lists, but were still excellent releases. See my thoughts below! 

Overall, there were about 75 albums or groupings of albums I listened to this year and split them between various tiers. Starting with the bad tier, there were actually only ten albums listed here and mostly just because they were seemingly unnecessary collection albums. For example, another Satsuki collection? Rides in ReVellion releasing two greatest hits LPs after only five years of work? Beyonce releasing The Lion King: The Gift again? None of those felt like necessary releases. There weren’t many albums that really screamed bad to me this year, but I really could not stand Vanessa Carlton’s “Love is an Art” or Justin Bieber’s “Changes.” The only other albums on this tier were just underwhelming compared to what I know the artist is capable of, but the “best bad tier album,” in my view, was The 1975′s “Notes on a Conditional Form.” 

The mid-tier albums had all sorts of reasons for being only mid-tier. They weren’t quite bad or outright unnecessary, but are mostly by artists who put out work that was nowhere near the caliber of their usual work or were re-releases or other collection albums. For example, Tove Lo’s “Sunshine Kitty: Pawprint Edition” or Man With A Mission’s remixes/b-sides/covers albums. Nice to have with good quality music, but I wish we’d just have had brand new EPs or LPs. 

The good-tier albums were all really excellent releases, but didn’t hit home the way anything on the “God-Tier” list did. Here, I’d like to share a quick top ten: 

10. Taeyeon’s “Purpose: Repackage” & Japanese EP, “#GirlsSpkOut” 9. Charli XCX’s “How I’m Feeling Now” 8. Miyavi’s “Holy Nights” & “Holy Nights: 2020 Lockdown” 7. TK’s “Sainou” 6. PVRIS’s “Use Me” 5. Buck-Tick’s “Abracadabra” 4. Katy Perry’s “Smile” 3. Alicia Keys’ “Alicia” 2. Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” & “Club Future Nostalgia” 1. Ava Max’s “Heaven & Hell

Without furhter ado, though, the God Tier Top 25: 

25. Acme’s We Are Visual Kei: Essentially a collection album of several songs that were b-sides that never made a full-blown album. This LP was loaded with some of Acme’s best work and shows that they are going to be here for a long time, despite Div not quite working out. Recommended tracks: Mononoke Requiem, Gekiyama Celluloid, Houkago no Shiiku 

24. Alanis Morisette’s Such Pretty Forks in the Road: Admittedly, a huge fan in the 90′s and loved her cover of Seal’s Crazy. However, before this album I didn’t really listen to much of her body of work and I can see why today’s youth might not listen to this album. It is very “adult” insofar as it deals with her struggles in marriage, parenting, religion, etc. Her vocal performance is exceptional and her song writing remains some of the best in the business. Recommended tracks: Smiling, Nemesis, Reasons I Drink. 

23. Niall Horan’s Heartbreak Weather: Not my usual cup of tea, but for some reason Niall’s music makes me feel softer than normal. He’s very cute and charming and his words are always so romantic. It feels more genuine than the music made by other members of One Direction and kind-of reminds me of earlier Taylor Swift writing, but from a male perspective. Recommended Tracks: Put A Little Love On Me, Arms of a Stranger, Still. 

22. K/DA’s All Out: I don’t even really understand what this is, but I love it. There’s something to do with League of Legends? Cartoons? International pop stars? Whatever it is, I’m totally obsessed. These songs just completely slap. Recommended Tracks: The Baddest, More, Drum Go Dum. 

21. Darrell’s Brilliant Death: This might even “officially” be a single, but there’s enough content to market it as an album. Darrell is a band formed from the ashes of Deathgaze and Ai’s solo project. Who knows why Ai didn’t just continue after his solo album, Confusion, but he decided to go back to the band-format with confusingly-named Darrell. This album is then, incidentally, mostly Deathgaze covers. It brings the production into the new era and gives you a lot of nostalgic love for old hits. Recommended Tracks: Brilliant Death, Evoke the World, Abyss. 

20. Alice Nine’s Fuyajou Eden & Kuro to Wonderland: Neither album was particularly long, in fact these were glorified EPs that could’ve been merged to one two-sided LP, but in either case... Both albums had something really special to offer and felt like a true comeback after years of name changes and finally going back to their original, kanji-styled name. Recommended Tracks: Kakumei Kaika -Revolutionary Blooming-, Testament, Replica, Glow. 

19. Mucc’s Aku: This album felt very long in the making after a series of weird singles that didn’t feel like they were going anywhere. Ultimately, a lot of those singles did not make the album including my favorite one: Taboo. The resulting album, though, did feel very cohesive and thematic and even featured one of this year’s heavy hitters: Hazuki. Recommended Tracks: Aku -Justice-, Memai, Ameria. 

18. Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts: This person is absolutely one of my favorite people in music. I’m pretty sure they have comeout as genderfluid/non-binary, so I want to stick with safe pronouns, just in case. However, they’ve always been a favorite and as they’ve come out as such a champion for the LGBT, I love them even more. The album though gave me a lot of hype for something very 80′s rock, but didn’t quite give me what I expected. All in all, the music was fantastic, just a little off-beat from expectations. Recommended Tracks: Gimme What I Want, Angels Like You, WTF Do I Know. 

17. Rina Sawayama’s Sawayama: I didn’t expect to fall in love with this girl the way I did. My boyfriend recommended “STFU” to me as kind of a joke because the song discusses a lot of Asian racism that I’m always criticizing people in my life for falling into, but then the song was so bad ass I checked out the album. There were so many different types of music on it and she really did a good job with all of them. Then, with the deluxe edition coming out and the hardcore club banger “Lucid” being involved... Just really brought it all home. Recommended Tracks: Tokyo Love Hotel, Lucid, Fuck This World. 

16. Amber Liu’s X: This was just an EP, but every song on it was great. Amber Liu was from f(x), a K-Pop Icon Group, but she always seemed like the odd one out. She was such a tomboy, so silly and funny all the time, and didn’t really behave like other Korean idols. I mean, really, she isn’t actually even Korean. I believe she’s Chinese American. In either case, the EP really noted some of her own personal strugles in the business and also remaining pretty fun at parts too. I saw her live in Philly before COVID-19 and she was truly excellent. Recommended Tracks: Numb, Stay Calm, Other People. 

15. Blackpink’s The Album: Not much of an album at only 8 tracks, but that’s K-Pop for you. I bet next year I’ll be putting “Blackpink’s The Album: Repackage” on my top 25 list. The quality of the music was pretty dope though, all things considered. It was a very solid debut effort with all of their previous songs being somewhere in the same lane as this one. I still kind of believe they are a reminder of what 2NE1 could have been, but they’re doing well enough on their own. Recommended Tracks: Ice Cream, Lovesick Girls, Pretty Savage. 

14. Hazuki’s Year Over All: Kind of a weird way to word it, but Hazuki basically released two albums this year in different formats. His work with his band, Lynch., was pretty magnificent. I’m not one to usually dwell on a Lynch. album. Their singles or featured tracks are what I usually get into, but the actual album (Ultima) really did a good job of showing how versatile Hazuki can be. His solo album, Souen -Funeral-, was an entirely stripped down, gothic orchestral album of Lynch. covers and other J-Hard Rock artists. Hearing it done like this was almost transcendental. Recommended Tracks: Xero, Idol, Ray, D.A.R.K. 

13. Sam Smith’s Love Goes: They had me scared that their album wasn’t coming this year once they pushed it back, back in May. Then again, at the time, an album called “To Die For” was probably super tone deaf. In any case, literally every single released for this album had me in love. So, when they all got included in the final version, I was thrilled. Sam gave us a bonus song after the album as well, but I can see why that one didn’t get on. In any case, this is a huge step up from “The Thrill of it All,” which I didn’t really care for. Recommended Tracks: Another One, Dance (’Til You Love Someone Else), Forgive Myself. 

12. Troye Sivan’s In A Dream: I love this kid. He’s so gay and so not shy about it and it really makes me smile. The EP comes after his last LP, Bloom, where the title track basically talks about bottoming for the first time and this new EP deals with a few other queer issues over weirdly produced beats that just... make sense. Recommended tracks: Stud, In A Dream, Easy. 

11. Matenrou Opera’s Chronos: Unfortunately, this band just lost their guitarist again. Their original, Anzi, was basically the most consummate guitarist in the visual kei scene that wasn’t Hizaki and he left them. Their sound wasn’t quite right since and they seemed to just get it back with Chronos when Jay left them. I guess we’ll see what they do next, but I think Chronos could be their last great release. Recommended Tracks: Chronos, Silence, Reminiscence. 

10. BoA’s Better: A very recent release that hasn’t had much time for me to digest. This is strange for me to put it so high on my list for that reason, but BoA is one of my all time favorites. She never disappoints me. This album was no different. It wasn’t exactly up to par with “Woman” or “Watashi Kono Mama de Ii no Kana,” but it definitely gave us some new and very iconic Queen BoA bangers. Recommended Tracks: Cut Me Off, Start Over, Temptations. 

9. Kesha’s High Road: A semi-step down from Rainbow, only because a lot of the same melodic elements and, sometimes, even beats were used on this album too. However, her vocal performance was outstanding and she even gave us a new dirty-pop song with some interesting indie-pop tracks to go with it. Plus, who doesn’t love a Big Freedia feature? Recommended Tracks: Resentment, Raising Hell, Tonight. 

8. Lady Gaga’s Chromatica: Anyone who knows me knows I don’t really love Gaga anymore. After all the drama with Madonna and her experimentation with “Joanne” I didn’t think I’d ever like her music again. However, she definitely won back big points for me on Chromatica. It was finally fun, weird, dancey, and then simultaneously emotional and I was really able to get back into it. She’s always had the voice, but on this one it also showed us that she still has what made us love her. Recommended Tracks: Rain On Me, Plastic Doll, Enigma. 

7. Koda Kumi’s My Name Is... Angel + Monster: She is, very likely, my Japanese Pop Queen. She always makes these absolutely outlandish bangers of dance tracks that have such a great attitude and beat and when she released re(CORD)... last year? 2018? Who can remember... I thought she could never outdo herself. Then she released “Lucky Star” and I was floored. I was a bit disappointed when they were only to promote a “My Name Is...” collection album, but then, to my surprise, a full set of new tracks came out just after that just blew me entirely away. Guess the last 6 albums must be pretty great, huh? Recommended tracks: Killer Monster, Work It!, Alarm. 

6. Grimes’ Miss Anthropocene: I’ve never been a big fan of Grimes, but when Violence came out I was really looking forward to whatever album this was going to end up promoting. The song is actual fire, but then the LP ended up being some kind of experimental Gothic Pop with Asian Pop influences I never expected. I doubt I’ll ever find something she does this good ever again, but it was really a musical light in the darkness of this year. Recommended tracks: Darkseid, Delete Forever, Violence. 

5. Kylie Minogue’s Disco: Admittedly, my draw to Kylie has always been that she is like some kind of Australian Madonna. Madonna being one of my all time favorite artists... In fact, number 2 for all women I listen to, Kylie has some big shoes to fill with her sometimes generic pop that she puts out. However, I haven’t really truly loved a Kylie song since “Get Outta My Way” and then this album comes out filled with tracks to love for the rest of time. Recommended Tracks: Miss A Thing, Till You Love Somebody, Magic. 

4. Chanmina’s Notebook/Angel: I don’t have really any way of knowing how popular Chanmina is in Japan or if she is as popular in the Japanese Queer Scene as she should be, but god damn does she know what she’s doing. Her music is raunchy, bitchy, and condescending at it’s highest and deeply personal at it’s most mellow. There is no “lowest.” “Notebook” was a two-sided album and “Angel” a strong follow up EP, but all the recommended tracks are from “Notebook.” If you have not listened to “Picky”.... go do it now, I’ll wait. Recommended tracks: Picky, Baby, Lucy. 

3. The Weeknd’s After Hours: Incidentally, I got into The Weeknd after someone said something shitty about him here on Tumblr! I took their likely-valid criticism and went to check him out for myself and I gotta say, I love his work. The beats are literally always on point and his voice is like silk. This album provided more than a few iconic songs and I always can’t wait to see what he does next. Recommended Tracks: Alone Again, Heartless, Blinding Lights. 

2. Halsey’s Manic: The singles and features she did between Hopeless Fountain Kingdom and Manic gave me such insanely high hopes and I was not disappointed. HFK was a strong album of course, but this was near perfection for me. I think the production of this alt-pop album was the star of the show because it wasn’t all one way, there were heavy-bass songs, interesting piano riffs, striaght up punk rock, all of it. She really made an album quite like it’s namesake. Recommended Tracks: Ashley, Killing Boys, Still Learning. 

1. Dexcore’s Metempsychosis: A newcomer to the visual kei and death metal scene, they’ve been putting out single after single for years in preparation for their extemeley long and multidaceted debut album. With a total of about 33 songs, the entire second disc was rerecorded singles from their early days and some even got new lyrical treatment. The main series of songs were, of course, also totally flooring and all of the recommended tracks are the new ones. If you haven’t checked them out by now, you have to! Recommended tracks: Cibus, Scribble, Period.

[meowvelousmayhem]

LOOKING FOR RP PARTNERS

Hey, you can call me Mayhem or M.M. for short. I’m not new to Tumblr, but I created this account specifically for my OCs and story ideas that I would like to RP. Amid this unique situation where I find myself with more time (as of March 15, 2020), I would love to RP with someone. I’ve RPed on-and-off for about 8 or so years now, first on DeviantArt, and most recently on Google Docs. But now I am looking for a roleplay partner/partners that are chill and just want to write some teen/young adult romance that may or may not be cliche and involve people getting/being famous and stuff or fantasy rps based off of fairytales or Greek mythology. I’m also open to RPing my story ideas or yours!

So, to begin with, I have some rules/things you should know about me:

-As much as I hate to say it, I’m a sucker for cliches. But I also like to develop original ideas, so my plots/stories will be a mix

-I am a college student, and while I may not be in class physically for the next few weeks, I do have class and a job, therefore I will not be available all of the time. However, I will always try to let you know if I’m having a particularly busy day and won’t respond more than three times. Generally, I do have more free time now so that should only happen on a test day or something. I’m in Central Daylight Time.

-I am okay with RPing characters that have gone through mature situations, such as those with histories of abuse, EDs, and etc. However, I will not write explicit smut scenes. I will fade it to black. I am okay with inuendos, flirting, and heavy makeout sessions though.

-Since there could be mature situations, I’d prefer my RP partner to be like 17+

-With my last RP partner, we mostly wrote dialogue. I think my style now leans towards at least one paragraph, or two. In your response basically, just give me something to work with, and not just dialogue all the time (occasionally, this is fine). Honestly, I’m really chill about this. I just want to have some fun romance RP times.

-I like to write romance, preferably f/m pairings, but will also do f/f and m/m. We can discuss how we both want things to go, I’m pretty flexible!

- I don’t normally do face claims, every once in a while I will, but it’s fine if you want to. For my characters, I will have a separate post for each OC with aesthetics (about 6 pictures that I feel like are my characters) and a short playlist of songs, as well as their backgrounds and pertinent info. If you want to RP with me, for your character, I would at least like background info, which you can do in a post or message to me.

- In terms of how we RP, I only am really familiar with Tumblr Messaging or Google Docs. I could do Discord if that’s your preferred. I just have no idea how it works so lol

Secondly, here are some things I like to RP, beyond just my story ideas:

YA RP (preferably older high school/college)

Fantasy RP (whether that be a modern fantasy in the real world, or a totally made up universe)

- for example: Modern Hades and Persephone, anything modern Greek mythology, something inspired by Legacies, mermaids, royalty, something like The Raven Boys, FAIRY TALES

Some tropes I like are enemies-to-lovers, best friends mutually pining but afraid to take the first step, sweetheart with grumpy, sassy energetic character with cold stoic character, and more. Like I said, I’m a sucker for cliches.

Finally, my story ideas:

- One of my ideas centers around a band consisting of four guys. I have a love interest in mind for each and a general idea of how they meet, but the plot can be up to me and my partner to flesh out fully. Generally, I’m up to either rp as the boy or girl, but I have two OCs I definitely want to write for in this story.

So, these characters are college-aged, and 4 boys in a band; the lead-singer, the lead guitarist (my OC Levi), the bassist, and the drummer. They’re gaining a following on YouTube and are planning a tour locally. I envision them at a college near a beach for some reason, preferably east coast since that’s what I’m most familiar with.

For Levi, the lead guitarist: he and his love interest met on some social media like Tumblr when they were middle schoolers, and didn’t know their true identities, but became friends after some initial misunderstanding. This communication continues for years, and they became best friends. However, one of them ghosted due to personal reasons, and never came back online. Years later, while Levi is in college and the band is becoming super popular, they meet again, but don’t know that they knew each other. Shenanigans ensue. Levi’s character post is here. I could see Levi’s love interest as male or female, your choice

For the drummer, his love interest is my OC, Arden. Arden is the roommate of the female best friend of the four band members. It is their first semester in college. The roommate is super important in getting Arden and her love interest together. In my mind, Arden has a history of emotional abuse from her previous love interest, and has an anxiety disorder and an eating disorder. If eating disorders are triggering to you, but you still want to RP with this character, she can just have the anxiety disorder. She is a photography major. Her character post is here.

For the lead singer, I imagine his love interest to be the female lead singer of another “rival” band. Some kind of twitter fued starts, but then they end up meeting in person. Female is not at all interested in his advances, but he totally has the hots for her.

For the bassist, I imagine his love interest as the female best friend of the band (Arden’s roommate). They’ve known each other for a long time, and both are pining, but are too afraid to approach the topic of becoming more than friends. Their love story might begin after the boys have “made it” and are signed to a record label and go on a world tour.

Other ideas include:

- Sophie is the daughter of a famous musician, and she is also interested in music and becoming famous. In high school, she dates a person who’s a year older than her, but they break up when he leaves for college. She becomes famous through her YouTube channel and immediately after high school is signed to a record label and develops a couple of EPs, with an album on the way. Her success is huge. Her record label decides to have her open for a male famous musician, who resents that she “got famous just because she’s the daughter of a famous musician” in his mind. There are two ways this could go:

1. She gets back with her ex. Neither of them wanted to break up, but he felt it was necessary since she was becoming famous and he just went to college. The famous musician she’s touring with decides to get into a relationship with her simply for the fame and doesn’t tell her, and is abusive to her emotionally and forces her into a world of partying and drugs. She eventually drunk calls her ex, who’s super worried. Lots of struggles and angst.

2. She dates the famous musician. Her ex cheated on her, leading to their breakup. She believes that the male famous musician is a player, as he sleeps around, and has no interest in him at all. At first, he views her as a conquest, since she rejects his advances completely, and he also wants to knock her down a peg. Later, he starts to develop real feelings for her, and she reencounters her ex at some point and musician comforts her.

- Beck is a 16-year old boy who has been adopted by a wealthy family. He was previously in the foster care system, and during his time with one family, he developed a protective older-brother like relationship with a little girl who was one of the other foster kids in the home. He wants to eventually be able to help her out and form a family. His adopted family is best friends with another family who lives right next door. This other family has a child Beck’s age, who is pretty into him. No plot developed yet really.

- this post

So just shoot me a message if you’re interested/have any questions! Mostly I just want to have a fun time and write some fluff, angst, drama and romance!

[cchilyoja]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

tagged by:   tagged by the always wonderful @foxcharmed tagging:    anyone that follows me, sees this on their dash & wants to do it :)

MY MUSE IS:   canon / oc / au / slightly canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated.

IS YOUR CHARACTER POPULAR IN THE FANDOM?   YES / NO. Well, he is the main character of the show, but seeing as there’s only me & @legcndreportr that write character from the show, I’d say, the RP fandom for it is tiny, but I think a lot of people that watch dramas like the show & the characters.

IS YOUR CHARACTER CONSIDERED HOT™ IN THE FANDOM?   YES / NO / IDK. [ I mean, he’s played by Ji Chang Wook, I mean, obviously yes. Have you seen just how many fan JCW blogs there are on this site? Understandable. Honestly, and truly.  ]

IS YOUR CHARACTER CONSIDERED STRONG IN THE FANDOM?   YES / NO / IDK. [ I’d say he’s very skilled & flawed. There are many things that he can do, many things that he is good at, but the slew of both traumatic and just plain shitty things that had happened to him over the early years of his childhood, combined with HUGE abandonment issues that he has never really dealt with. All of that can make certain mundane things a lot harder than any 007 stuff that he sometimes does. ]

ARE THEY UNDERRATED?   YES / NO / IDK. [ I think, even though I love the character, obv been RPing him for years. I hate that people don’t STAN the other characters as much, especially the other main female characters that are just as interesting, complex and worth loving. But alas that is the world we live in. ]

WERE THEY RELEVANT FOR THE MAIN STORY?   YES / NO,he is the main story, if you know what I mean. But no, seriously, he is the main character. 

WERE THEY RELEVANT FOR THE MAIN CHARACTER?   YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG. [ Yeah, but tbh, I find it that in the show, the two main characters are equally sorted in the first place, Jung-hoo is nothing without Young-shin. There would be no development, no revelation about his life, childhood and interesting complex storytelling and showing without her.  ]

ARE THEY WIDELY KNOWN IN THEIR WORLD?   YES / NO. [ One would assume that I should put YES for this, buuuut, while HEALER is known to the criminal underbelly, police and those that would want or need to hire someone like him, the general public has no idea. Which is exactly what he wants, because attention isn’t really a useful thing in his line of work, or just the way he lives his life.  ]

HOW’S THEIR REPUTATION?   GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. [ Good when it comes to how skilful he is, but bad as a person. His character arc really goes a looong way from where he is in episode 1. Like the first thing we see is him playing a tennis VR game, complaining that he can’t pick the character he is playing against to have less clothes (that being a computer-generated character but still), which isn’t really all that interesting and for sure not someone I’d be all into writing. And also his lack of care when it comes to what he does, like the guy he was protecting also in ep 1. Ends up dead, and he’s annoyed bc the police think he killed him, the fact that he’s dead, he couldn’t care less. ]

HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON?   —   I’ve been writing him for over two years, and it’s just no fun to just follow the canon. He has developed overtime on his own, and besides that, I just never really like any CANON fully. When it comes to the show, bc there are only 16 eps, and as with most dramas there is only one season. So I’ve taken the liberty to expand on the canon and to create Jung-hoo as I think he’d be, away from the scenes we can see him in.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.   —   For me personally, I really found it interesting that the mother that abandoned him, married someone else and had a whole new family, after his father died. Jung-hoo cares for her, meets with her, gives her money etc. He doesn’t hate or resent her, I think that shows a lot of compassion but also emotional intelligence. He has this me vs the world outlook, way of life, mentally, however you want to call it, but is in desperate need for someone to SEE him. Like acknowledge his existence, to stay, to love him. He is incredibly skilled & capable, everything you’ve seen 007 do, he does it better. Also I’ve made sure to include diverse verses so there is a way to explore pretty much anything under the sun that you could think of.

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).   —  I think he can’t really move past the whole I hate everyone & I need someone. So he goes back and forth, it is difficult to create a meaningful connection. I’ve been lucky to do that but that’s also bc I’ve written with some people here for years. 

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RP YOUR MUSE?   —   I had taken a few years break from RP, which used to be like one of my main interests, writing in general. And then I was getting into just watching Kdramas, watched HEALER, and I was instantly like I HAVE TO WRITE HIM, and never looked back really. 

WHAT KEEPS YOUR INSPIRATION GOING?   —   Auditory stimuli, be it music or just sounds. For example, when I write I tend to use programs or websites where you can put different sounds in the background like thunder, rain, wind, chatter etc. Watching yt clips, seeing people on my dash tbh, like people that I follow also inspire me bc they make me go I WANNA WRITE WITH ALL OF THEM.

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

DO YOU THINK YOU GIVE YOUR CHARACTER JUSTICE?   YES / NO / I SINCERELY HOPE I DO? [ I think I tend to have all of these feelings, sometimes I’m like, yeah, this is Jung-hoo, this is exactly what I wanted, sometimes I’m like who am I writing? But I just focus more on me enjoying writing him, than thinking if people think I write him as they think I should.]

DO YOU FREQUENTLY WRITE HEADCANONS?   YES / NO / SORT OF? [I have a bunch of headcanons about like the smallest of things, like the fact that I don’t think he likes wearing socks is one of them, but,  I don’t write them or post them on here. I’m not sure why, I guess I prefer to sort of just sprinkle them in the threads??? ]

DO YOU SOMETIMES WRITE DRABBLES?   YES / NO [ Kinda. I also write fanfiction & I had started this original one with sort of Jung-hoo in mind but not really him. I realized I really like writing starters, I think that’s probably like an unpopular opinion or way of thinking but I really enjoy starting the thread, and I kinda sometimes think starters are like drabbles, I’m not making sense. ]

DO YOU THINK A LOT ABOUT YOUR MUSE DURING THE DAY?   YES / NO

ARE YOU CONFIDENT IN YOUR PORTRAYAL?   YES / NO / SORT OF? [ Depends on my mental state. Like sometimes 100% and then other times it’s like what am I even doing?? ]

ARE YOU CONFIDENT IN YOUR WRITING?   YES / NO / A LITTLE BIT. [ I enjoy how I write, if that makes sense. I’d like to think that I can switch it up now and again, keep it fresh, I def know that I’ve evolved over the course of the years I’ve been RPing ]

ARE YOU A SENSITIVE PERSON?   YES / NO. / SORTA.

DO YOU ACCEPT CRITICISM WELL ABOUT YOUR PORTRAYAL?   —   Sure. I’m fine with that. I just think that the INTERNET does not know how to compute that, or people on the internet. It’s either, you can do no wrong or you should die a horrible death. It’s like either STAN or HATE. And it’s also somehow part of the rp community here on Tumblr. Where there’s just either fake praise or just unnecessary hate. And then there is a bit in the middle where like you can talk and exchange ideas and thoughts. But it is not the main focus by any means. If anyone wants to tell me to change something, or to do something diff, sure, let me hear you out, you might inspire me to improve. But that rarely happens. 

DO YOU LIKE QUESTIONS, WHICH HELP YOU TO EXPLORE YOUR CHARACTER?   — Of course, I think a lot of people are like this. Talking about my character gives me muse for the character. Like we could be talking how he’d eat a salad and I’d be like, okay now I have to write a novella about this other thing I’m inspired about. 

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES TO A HEADCANON OF YOURS, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY?  —  That’s weird to me just bc I feel like when I read someones headcanon, this is how they, and them uniquely see the character, so I can’t really disagree with that, I can have an opinion for sure. But that’s like someone being I like this band, and you say, no you don’t, it just doesn’t make sense to me.

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES WITH YOUR PORTRAYAL, HOW WOULD YOU TAKE IT?   —  Same with the previous one. Like I often find blogs where they are writing a character that I either love from a show, move, book whatever, or it’s a canon type character that I find really interesting, like the idea behind it, but then I read their writing and then I go, aaaah okay nooo, no NO. And it’s never personal, it’s like, we ain’t gonna mesh, which is fine. And if someone is like that with my writing, fully understandable, just don’t be a dick about it, and we’ll be cool.

IF SOMEONE REALLY HATES YOUR CHARACTER, HOW DO YOU TAKE IT?  —  Couldn’t really give less of a shit really. RP to me is this little bubble where I am this fictional person that can do and try everything. It is in no way connected to any other aspect of actual reality or my life. The only connection is if I have to take a hiatus or smth, but like even if I write OOC things, it’s about IC stuff. I have other social medial for real life, this is just my RP bubble. So if someone is wasting their time hating a fictional character, they have bigger fish to fry. 

ARE YOU OKAY WITH PEOPLE POINTING OUT YOUR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS?   —   Sure, English isn't my first language so mistakes happen. If I see someone make a mistake and the write with me, I just change it when I reply to them, but I don’t point it out bc you never know, someone people could be okay cool thanks, and someone else could really feel down on themselves, which would be bad, and I wouldn’t want that to happen.

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE EASY GOING AS A MUN?  —  I’d like to think so, especially that I’m easy to approach and talk to. I don’t take many things seriously, not just on here but like in life. So I’m always open to any idea anyone might have. I’ve been lucky with the people that I’ve been following & those that have followed me, a huge percentage is just really dope people, nice to read their writing, nice to talk to, great to write with. And I hope that it stays that way, so we can also have this as some kind of mental break from life :) 

[jbuffyangel]

With Emiko coming on & all the FF stuff, Arrow is getting way too bloated, taking time away from the core characters. Why do you think the EPs are so reluctant to get rid of NTA? Are they assuming a strong fan base or something? I agree that Curtis should be gone & would prefer to see less Dinah & Rene. Do you think SA is tired of shooting & wants more time off? Seems like a no brainer to have more OTA but sounds like that will take time. Bring Overwatch & GA back at least. Great blog! Tx.

I think... the show is the show Anon. The showrunners/writers pick a road and they go down it for better or for worse. They film several episodes ahead and can’t turn on a dime based on fan response. 

Arrow is seldom if ever written based on fan response. It’s physically impossible. All the things we love about the show were decided on before fan input (Olicity, OTA). The same goes with the things we don’t like. I think there’s a general game plan before the season begins. I’m sure the previous season’s failures and successes are taken into account, but then they pick a direction for the season and away we go.

I feel confident the writers know the NTA civil war storyline was poorly received. Hence the reason they are pretending like it never happened. I feel like this is their typical reaction when a storyline doesn’t work. They don’t really go about “fixing” it. They just act like it never happened. Oliver & LL’s romantic relationship is a great example. If it doesn’t work then the writers don’t waste anymore time on it. Those storylines end up on some mystical island where all the Suicide Squad characters, Sin and Walter live. 

We’re always screaming for more OTA. Every. Single. Season. It’s like clockwork. But we get what we get. Arrow is going to give us as much OTA as they see fit. If screaming online for more OTA worked then well... we’d actually get the amount of OTA we want. But we don’t. It is what it is.

I don’t know the reasoning entirely behind it. On one hand, I’ve always thought the reason we are always begging for more OTA is because it is parceled out bit by bit. Everything on television gets old eventually, so if all we ever had for the last seven years was OTA all the time then I think it’s highly likely the audience would grow fatigued. OTA & Olicity are Arrow’s bread & butter, so if the audience grows tired of it then they’re up a creek because that’s the show. 

I’m not talking about the deeply obsessed. It’s hard to imagine ever growing tired of Olicity or OTA, but we’re in a class by ourselves. ;)

Arrow always focuses on OTA and Olicity during the sweeps episodes (premiere, mid season, mid season premiere, final three eps and finale). It’s not a hard an fast rule, but I think generally they do. So, that always tells you how important they believe Diggle, Felicity and Oliver are. But then they intersperse it with other storylines and characters. A 23 episode season is a lot to fill.

It’s highly unlikely they would gut half their cast. Arrow has evolved to include more characters and we’ll never go back to the days of OTA only. To be fair, it was only OTA  for a very very short period of time. This show is always adding and subtracting characters. They’ve never focused ONLY on the core characters.

Even in Season 1 and the highly loved glory days of Season 2 there was a shit ton of other stuff going on. If memory serves, Diggle & Felicity didn’t really score all that much screen time quite frankly. It was a lot about the Lance family, Thea, Moira, Roy, flashbacks, etc. 

There’s always a lot of characters on Arrow and a lot of storylines cooking. I don’t feel the show has changed all that much in that regard. Nobody likes it when I say this, but I’ve been saying it for years and I’m gonna keep on saying it because it’s what I think. lol

I also think it can be tough as a viewer to gauge fan response. I may not like Curtis and the newbies but that doesn’t represent the Arrow audience as a whole. The majority of online fandom may feel one way but that doesn’t equate to the entire Arrow audience either. 

I’m sure there are internal numbers we are not privy to. In fact I know there are because that’s how film/tv works. It’s entirely possible the NTA actors’ Q scores are high or some other data I don’t even know the name of is favorable. Something is working for someone somewhere. 

But I don’t think our opinions have gone completely unheard. Felicity was driving the A storyline. Her focus increased a ton. They managed to keep a spotlight on Olicity even when they were physically separated. A feat I never imagined would happen. They have pulled back on both Curtis and Rene A LOT this season. Particularly Curtis. Rene’s main storyline was helping Felicity. More time with Felicity always equates to character rehab (I’m side eyeing Bl*ck S*r*en right now). But the pull back on Curtis and the rehab on BS & Rene has worked for me at least. 

I agree there’s been a lot of Dinah. But that’s because they’ve introduced the flash forwards and she’s pulling double duty in present & future. She has the boring exposition job of filling all the other characters in on what happened in the FF. Dinah also has to sell this “Felicity is evil and dead” storyline, which just makes her sound judgey and mean. Maybe the writers chose her because she seemed like the newbie character fans liked the most or hated the least, based on your perspective.

They are holding off on the flash forward reveals with the core characters because they are the core characters. They writers understand all we want  to know is where the hell Diggle, Felicity and Oliver are. Thus, they are dragging it out. Dramatic television is seldom if ever about making fans happy. Most of the time it’s just about torturing us.

It doesn’t automatically equate to good television. I think the flash forwards are too dark and we need to be given some hope asap. The big FF tease so we tune into 7x10 was, “Find out where Rene is!” Uhhh that is not going to make me run to my television, guys. Pass. I don’t care. I won’t care until it’s Diggle, Felicity and Oliver. On some basic level I think the writers understand that.

They will eventually bring back Overwatch and Green Arrow. The band will get back together because it’s a crime fighting television show about superheroes. Just because Oliver is working for Dinah in SCPD for a couple of episodes doesn’t mean they are chucking the entire concept of the show. But it’s mid season slump time and we gotta sludge our way through 7x11-7x16. If we’re lucky we’ll get some bright spots and solid drama. If we’re unlucky well... it wouldn’t be the first season we just don’t talk about 11-16.

Honestly, OTA concerns me less than Diggle. That’s the character I would like some focus on. An individual storyline where his character makes a damn bit of sense would be fantastic. Once Diggle figures out his shit then we can send him on home to Oliver and Felicity’s loving arms.

I agree the cast is pretty bloated, but the nice thing about bloated casts is it gives the writers plenty of characters to kill without touching our faves. What can I say? I’m a glass half full kind of girl. ;)

[podcastification]

Want to Monetize a Podcast? Here Are Your Options [Ep #77]

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If I had a nickel for every time a client or potential client or random podcaster has asked me…

How can I monetize a podcast?

I wouldn’t need to monetize a podcast.

It’s a natural question, I guess - there’s nothing wrong with making money from providing value to the world - and podcasts are some of the best vehicles for value-delivery I’ve ever seen.

So heck yes, go ahead, monetize your podcast! You should if you can.

But… it’s not quite that simple, is it? You can’t simply go out and monetize a podcast. You have to take a little time to figure out exactly what the options are, which one fits you and the purpose you have for your podcast, and so on and so forth and such and such.

That’s exactly why I recorded this episode.

My goal is to help you understand what I’ve seen as successful or potentially successful ways people have monetized their podcasts.

I’m also going to be frank with you (or maybe I’ll be Joe this time) and let you know what I don’t like about each of the methods, what I do like about them, what the pitfalls may be, and whether or not that approach to monetization will make you rich or only pay for your weekly coffee.

OK - coffee is more than a weekly expense, I get it. But you get my point, right?

Here’s a rough outline of How to Monetize a Podcast

[1:25] What do we mean when we talk about monetizing a podcast?

[2:53] What are sponsorships? A fancy word for a commercial

[8:01] Have you thought about hawking affiliate products to your listeners?

[12:16] What would happen if you had a patron (or many of them) support your podcast?

[14:24] Could make a membership community for your listeners (and charge for it)?

[18:41] YOUR podcast should definitely feature YOUR resources

If you want to Monetize your podcast, FIRST focus on delivering value

When we talk about monetizing anything we’re talking about making money from it.

I hope that’s not too unrefined for you sensitive types, but it’s the truth. You’re trying to figure out a way you can ask people for money in exchange for the value you’re delivering to them - in this case, your incredible podcast content (for example).

That means you’ve got to be providing them the VALUE side of that equation.

You owe it to your podcast audience NOT to fill their ears with fluff.

It’s the people who throw together some quick and dirty (and useless) PDF download piece of junk who give all of us a bad name. Don’t be that girl or guy. Make your offer something worth having.

And now that we’ve got THAT out of the way…

Idea #1 to monetize your podcast: Sponsorships

Whenever I hear people talking about monetization of their podcast, they usually mean gaining some kind of sponsorship.

What’s a sponsor? It’s a fancy way of saying a person who wants to pay you to put commercial advertisements on your show.

The ads could be pre-produced or they could be something you read. Either way, it’s a commercial, plain and simple.

Sponsorships DO have benefits:

Someone with deeper pockets than you is paying the bills for your show, at least partially

It can be a type of recurring revenue for you

If you/they can track sales directly from your listener base, it could be a long-term relationship

But there’s also the drawbacks (the things I don’t like about sponsorships)...

It’s a commercial. On your podcast.

Part of what I LOVE about podcasting is that I get to listen to a topic I’m interested in WITHOUT interruption.

Many of the companies that are getting into podcast sponsorships may not be directly related to your topic (Audible, Casper Mattress, etc.)

When I have commercials from a mattress company, or an email list company - on my show about Christian Homes and Families - https://www.ChristianHomeAndFamily.com  it seems pretty obvious that I’m just trying to make money.

Nothing wrong with that… but does it build trust? That’s what I care about - and what I think you should care about.

The legalities of doing a sponsorship right can be a bit sticky at times.

One tale I heard told was how a podcaster had to provide multiple months worth of “free” sponsorship to a sponsor because of supposed mistakes he was making in the way he read the ad copy. In his mind, the HOW of it wasn’t covered sufficiently to warrant the claim, but he didn’t want to lose the sponsor so he continued to consent to their demands.

And that brings me to the biggest deal about sponsorships that I don’t like…

Somebody BESIDES YOU has influence over your show

You may say they don’t. But they do.

If you’re concerned about what a sponsor might thing regarding what you say, or how you say it, or how it might reflect on them - they ARE having influence on you.

The beauty of podcasting (again, in my mind) is that you get to do YOUR thing with nobody telling you that you can’t.

So there.

Naturally, you can do what you want when it comes to sponsorships. I’m sure there are good experiences out there to go alongside the bad ones I’ve heard about. It also has to do with the “type” of show you’re publishing. Some lend themselves to sponsorships more than others.

In the end, you’ve got to do what you believe is best for you, your listeners, and the sponsor.

Monetization idea #2: Affiliate relationships

In case you’re new to this whole internet thing (like some attorneys I know), it would be a good thing for you to know what affiliate relationships are before I tell you to establish them…

Affiliate (according to Entrepreneur Magazine): https://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/affiliate-marketing 

A way for a company to sell its products by signing up individuals or companies ("affiliates") who market the company's products for a commission.

Get it?

#1 - You find a company that sells products or services your listening audience needs

#2 - You make those products available to your listeners through an “affiliate link” on your website or show note

#3 - When somebody clicks on that link, the company’s website is setup with a “tracking code” that recognizes that person as coming from your link.

#4 - When/if they purchase, you get a commission.

Simple enough, right?

Affiliate relationships can be a gold mine for podcast monetization… sometimes. Maybe.

It depends on a lot of things… but to me it’s an issue of whether your niche has legitimate products/services that you can offer to your listeners.

Yeah, yeah, you can technically offer anything as an affiliate product - related or unrelated to your audience - but I don’t think you should.

Here’s why…

Your audience has done YOU the incredible favor of self-selecting you as their go-to resource for the topics you address.

The feel like they know you (or are getting to know you). They like you (at least you’d better hope they do). They are starting to trust you.

And trust is a valuable thing.

My recommendation is that you do everything in your power NOT to violate that trust in any way. You want to build on it, make yourself a valuable, indispensable resource to your listeners.

In my thinking, a big part of that is NOT trying to get them to buy any old thing. That goes back to making them feel you’re “just trying to make money.”

Instead, why not offer them things that further connect them to you and your topic?

That seems like a winner to me - and when you do it well, it really CAN be a gold mine.

As an example: You’ve probably heard of a guy named Pat Flynn. https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/  One of his most successful affiliate relationships has been with a web hosting company called Bluehost. In September of 2017 he made $18.655.00 by referring people to Bluehost. That figure was even down by $815.00 from the previous month.

The reason I know such details is because Pat publishes his income reports every month. 

https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/income-reports/my-september-2017-monthly-income-report/ 

It’s a great idea - transparency to show people what’s possible by building your own thing online like he has.

The point I want to make is this… that relationship with Bluehost is a hand-in-glove thing for Pat, it’s a service 99% of his listeners will need eventually, so he offers it to them with a full disclaimer that it’s an affiliate relationship.

And it banks for him. Month after month after month.

So… if you’re going to do affiliate relationships, go for it. Just make sure you’re offering things that are truly of benefit to your listeners and do it consistently and genuinely, like Pat does.

But there’s another way to offer affiliate products to your listeners… Guest resources

If you do guest episodes - conversations with experts in your niche or industry - you have a very natural, incredible opportunity to make some income through no more work than recording and publishing a great conversation with that person.

Here’s how…

Many people who are guest on podcasts regularly are established in their niche and have already created their own stuff - books, courses, coaching packages, events, etc.

Before you hit the “record” button, stop to discuss what your guest wants to offer your audience. Yes - offer them the opportunity to highlight what they have to sell.

And find out if there’s an affiliate-type relationship you might be able to establish with them.

You’ll find many such people already have an official affiliate program setup. All you have to do is sign up and place the link in your show notes page. Then, during the interview, disclose that you have that relationship and make the offer.

Better yet, let your GUEST make the offer since they know the product much better than you do. Then you get to simply endorse their offer and recommend it to your listeners.

And keep in mind… podcast episodes are out there forever (as long as you keep paying your hosting bill). This kind of partnership could be a long-term cash cow for you if you do it effectively.

It benefits you.

It benefits your guests.

It benefits your audience (at least it should).

A caution about affiliate offers: Do it right

Remember that trust thing I spoke of earlier? It’s vital that you maintain trust when it comes to affiliate offers.

You don’t want your listeners to in any way feel that you’ve tricked them into doing something that will benefit you directly - even if the supposed “trick” was that you forgot to disclose an affiliate relationship.

So don’t forget.

Always, Always, ALWAYS tell your listeners - both in writing on your show notes page or website - AND verbally on your podcast audio, that you have an affiliate relationship with any product you’re recommending, if you do in fact have such a relationship.

It’s honest. It’s clear. And I believe if you do it right, it can build trust with your audience even more.

And… it’s the law. 

https://www.ftc.gov/policy/advisory-opinions/letter-commercial-alert-concluding-respect-type-amplified-word-mouth 

#3 Podcast Monetization Idea: Donations

Let me ask you a question…

What sort of compulsion do you feel when somebody does an amazing thing for you? You want to do something for them, right?

It’s what social psychologists refer to as “the law of reciprocity” and there’s something to it. When somebody does good to/for you, you naturally want to do good for them.

Take that concept and apply it to your podcast…

If you are truly adding value to the lives of your listeners, don’t you think some of them are going to start feeling like they want to say “thank you” in a more tangible way than listening to your next episode?

It’s natural. And it’s OK to make a way for your listeners to support your show.

It’s called a Donation Model - and it works. You can see a sterling example of it here - on Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History Site. 

http://www.dancarlin.com/dc-donate/ 

He offers 3 ways to donate - via PayPal recurring donation, via old fashioned snail mail, and via Bitcoin (yes, Bitcoin).

And I could be a bit off on this, but I recently heard Dan interviewed at Podcast Movement 2017 and I believe he said that he only asks $2 per episode - and that the approach does VERY WELL for him.

So… if I were doing this for my “Live Build Change” https://www.LiveBuildChange.com podcast (which I may do someday), I’d say something along this line…

The Live Build Change podcast is my effort to help you live your faith in an authentic, genuine way, to build a business either part time or full time, and then to integrate those two things in a way that enables you to truly change your world. If you’d like to make a donation (one-time or recurring) to ensure I can continue to do so, you can find out how to do that at (website link).

That’s it.

No high-pressure tactics or begging. Just giving listeners an opportunity to reciprocate and moving on.

A similar but different way to accomplish it… Patreon

Back in the olden days… when Kings, Lords and Ladies, and Dukes ruled the lands… there was such a thing as patronage.

For example: The famous artist Michelangelo had two primary patrons who supported him so that he could produce his artistic works: Pope Julius II, and the Medici family.

Patreon is a fairly new approach based on the idea of patronage - it’s where your fans can intentionally set up a recurring payment to you SO THAT you can continue doing what you’re doing with your podcast.

It’s really what I spoke of earlier - but again you’ve got to set it up in order to make the opportunity for your listeners/fans.

Here are the details as I understand them:

You set up the account

Patreon gets 10% of what you receive (administrative costs at 5% and profit at 5%)

Your fans can choose to send you any amount on a recurring basis

Patreon takes care of credit card issues, chargebacks, etc.

And the site claims to have funneled over $150 million to its users so far

  My #4 Monetization idea for Podcasters: Memberships

We’ve all done the membership thing at one time or another…

When I was a kid I got into the Columbia Record and Tape Club. For one penny the Columbia people (whoever they were) sent me 14 albums I selected and I committed to buy 20 more in the next three years.

I loved it. It was a membership I was happy to participate in.

Today we have Netflix, Health Clubs, Spotify, etc.

You get it. You understand memberships.

But have you thought of the benefits received by the company OFFERING the membership?

Fairly consistent recurring income

Sure, a subscriber can cancel their subscription at any time (in most cases). But how often does that happen in comparison to the big number of subscribers an outfit like Netflix has?

That dynamic is a reality that makes the income of a company like Netflix consistent. In fact, because of new subscribers, their revenue goes up over the long run. 

Check out this graphic of Netflix profits: https://ycharts.com/companies/NFLX/revenue s

And don’t miss the RECURRING part of the setup - people pay over and over and over for what Netflix has to offer rather than a one-time purchase.

That. Is. Bank.

Set-it-and-forget-it payments (they don’t have to invoice monthly)

When I first got this concept it was a game changer for my business.

Invoicing on a monthly basis is a hassle. There are costs associated with it both in time and in tangible goods like paper, etc.

But recurring payments - subscriptions - do away with all that (with the exception of credit card processing fees). A one-time setup BY THE CUSTOMER starts a potentially never-ending source of revenue.

Forgettable fees

I don’t remember where I first heard the phrase “forgettable fees” but it’s brilliant - and important to understand.

Think about it: How many of us even THINK about our $14/mo Netflix subscription?

We just watch Netflix. We enjoy the service. We hardly give the monthly charge a thought when going through our credit card statements.

Why? Because the amount is so reasonable compared to other expenses we have to pay - like a car payment or mortgage or rent.

It’s a forgettable fee - and companies like Netflix count on that as a big part of why people will buy into their subscription service and STAY in.

What does Netflix have to do with monetizing a podcast?

SO much, my friends.

What is stopping YOU from creating a membership for YOUR audience, YOUR listeners?

No, you don’t have the tech that Netflix has. You don’t have the bankroll they do.

But a membership model may not be as impossible as you might think.

You can set up membership functionality with a fairly inexpensive plugin on a Wordpress Website and start things rolling today.

WPKube.com lists 13 of the best plugins right here. 

https://www.wpkube.com/best-wordpress-membership-plugins-match-budget/ 

The point is that there’s really nothing technologically that stands in your way.

And there is definitely more than one way to do this membership thing…

In fact, if you remember Episode 67 in this very podcast feed - https://podcastfasttrack.com/67  - Rob Walch explained how the good folks at Libsyn have created an option for every one of their customers to have a custom app for their podcast - and it can be set up to have “gated content” in it.

Translation: Membership-ONLY content

So think that through…

You have your own custom app

You encourage your listeners to download it

They listen to your show, connect with you and each other, through the app

You add ADDITIONAL content that ONLY MEMBERS can have

But everyone can see it as available (but NOT access it)

What do you think is the likelihood that many of those people who enjoy your show enough to download your app, will be willing to pay the forgettable fee you ask in order to get more goodness from you?

I think it’s pretty high. This app option from Libsyn is DEFINITELY worth looking into.

And Patreon is getting into this membership game as well…

A few paragraphs earlier I mentioned Patreon as a donation platform - and so it is.

BUT… (you knew that was coming, right?)

They’ve been supplying their members with app integrations for a long time… things like Zapier, MailChimp, and Google Sheets.

There’s a new one on the list now - Wordpress - which opens the door to integrating the Patreon payments portal to memberships ON your website.

In a recent post from the Patreon blog - Patreon Powers Membership Across The Web -

 https://blog.patreon.com/patreon-powers-membership-across-the-web/ 

the company highlights a new Wordpress plugin that essentially makes your site into a membership site, with Patreon as the payment gateway (by donation, of course).

So… if you like the donation thing - and think it might fit with a membership thing - this is a VERY promising looking option for you.

Cautions about setting up a membership

I tried to set up a membership on one of my sites a few years back and it didn’t go so well.

I still think the idea is a great idea, but both my timing and my implementation were off.

Here’s what I learned…

Critical Mass is vital

In order to launch a membership of any kind you’ve got to have enough momentum to build a movement - of sorts.

It won’t be enough to buy the needed plugins, install them on your site, and start announcing that you now have a membership.

You just might hear crickets like I did.

You’ve got to have a very excited, raving fan base established in order for a membership site to launch successfully. Some signs you might be ready…

Your listeners ask you for help often

You can’t keep up with the demand for new content

Your industry/niche is exploding

You get lots of engagement on social media when you post about your topics

People tag you as a resource in their own conversations about your niche

And that’s just SOME of what I’d consider.

The good news is that if you take the time to set up a membership of some kind and you DO hear crickets, it didn’t cost you much. Chalk it up to your education.

You’ve got to be able to deliver over-and-above value consistently

It’s one thing to establish a membership site.

It’s quite another to keep pumping it full of new, great, helpful content that makes the cost of admission worth it.

True, a good membership will become a self-perpetuating thing over time, with members themselves adding great content that helps the community.

But you’ve got to be the catalyst for that, the one who pumps the community up with enthusiasm, information, and helpful tools, tips, and tricks for your niche.

If you don’t have time to do that - DON’T set up a membership site.

An example of a guy who does this very well is James Schramko.

He’s got a very successful business membership called Silver Circle. I’ve heard him talk about the power of his membership group both in terms of usefulness to members and income for him. It makes total sense.

Here are a couple of James’ podcast episodes about memberships you might enjoy…

How to Jumpstart Your Membership Forum

https://www.superfastbusiness.com/business/how-to-jumpstart-your-membership-forum/ 

Advanced Subscription Membership Techniques

https://www.superfastbusiness.com/business/497-advanced-subscription-membership-techniques-with-stu-mclaren/ 

Idea #5 for monetizing your podcast: Sell your own stuff

To me, this one is the most obvious, no-brainer, you’ve-got-to-do-this option when it comes to monetizing a podcast. Let me explain…

Your audience is YOUR audience. They’ve chosen YOU to speak into their ear-buds.

They like what you have to say, that’s why they are listening.

Doesn’t it seem natural that if you were to provide a resource they would be very interested in buying it?

That’s what happened to Pat Flynn (mentioned previously). He had added so much value to his listeners over the years that they actually began begging him to make a product for them.

That may not be where you’re at right now… but you’re on the way. I can say that confidently because every podcaster I know is eager to add value to their audience.

And there’s nothing sullied or distasteful about creating something of enormous value and selling it to that audience.

It’s the way the “free enterprise” system works. Give it some thought…

You create your amazing product to help your audience on a deeper level

You set your “asking price”

Your listeners get to decide if it’s worth that amount - to them

Those for whom it is, will buy it.

Happily

Excitedly

And likely tell others about it when it delivers the value they are seeking

Do you see how that works?

Nobody was coerced. Nobody was pressured into buying.

It’s a very natural process of exchange we participate in almost every day of our lives.

You exchange your great content for their money. They exchange their money for your great content.

And everybody is happy.

Tips for making your own products a legitimate way of monetizing

Create truly helpful, good stuff your audience can use

When it comes to purchases there is NOTHING WORSE than buying something that turns out to be a disappointment.

I remember buying an “iPod” for one of my kids from eBay years back, and when it arrived it was a cheap knock-off. I called it a “lie-pod” from then on.

So disappointing.

You DON’T want to be that guy or gal. You’ll destroy any amount of trust you’ve been able to build with your audience thus far, not to mention your reputation.

So don’t shortcut your products. Make them great. Give it your all.

Be ready to devote the TIME required to learn how to create a great product

Building something great takes time. Decide right now that you’re going to be patient, but persistent.

Learn. Grow. Make use of Youtube University.

Get clear on what you’re going to build and how you’re going to build it.

But don’t postpone your launch simply because it’s “not perfect yet.” It will never be perfect.

Make it good - then publish it.

Then you can concentrate on making it great as you get feedback from those who purchase it.

Mention your resource often - on your podcast - on your website

The “Build it and they will come” philosophy will NOT work with products you create for your listeners. You have to tell them that it exists.

And you have to do it repeatedly.

I suggest you create what’s called a “call to action” for every episode of your podcast. It’s an offer of help you make to your listeners via the product you’ve created.

Tell them what it is.

Tell them why they need it.

Tell them how to get it.

Nothing needs to be high pressure. Nothing needs to be urgent or over-hyped. Just be honest, tell them, and let them decide.

But do it consistently. On every episode of your podcast.

Think about it - how many times have YOU heard about a product or service that was of interest to you and then forgotten about it, or forgotten to look it up? Lots.

But then you hear about it again and take action.

Your listeners are the same. Do them the favor of always talking about your offer.

And maybe you’ll find that monetizing your podcast through your own products is the BEST and most NATURAL way of monetizing you could have dreamed of.

The folks over at Hubspot have created a post titled “31 Call-to-Action Examples You Can’t Help But Click.” Helpful stuff you’d do well to read and learn from. 

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/great-call-to-action-examples 

And one more thing about monetizing via your own stuff...

By "your own stuff" I don't only mean products. Think outside the box.. You could offer

Coaching

Group coaching

Books

Online courses

Mastermind groups

Events

Speaking

Workshops

Retreats

Consulting

Service-related work

Anything else you can think of that has a legitimate benefit to your audience

That’s it. If you’re looking to monetize a podcast, pick the option that works best for you, your show, and your approach to business, and get started.

The money won’t come in unless you open the door for it.

www.PodcastFastTrack.com/5 - A podcast sponsor challenge for you!

Keyword Finder (this is my affiliate link.. Meaning, I get paid if you buy from them)

Ringr (another affiliate link)

eClincher (yet another of my affiliate links)

Patreon (NO affiliate relationship)

www.ChristianHomeandFamily.com (one of my websites and podcasts)

Paypal

Stripe

Episode 67 with Rob Walch about having your own custom podcasting app

Connect with me…

Carey(AT)PodcastFastTrack.com

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