#I have google searched posts from my own blog before with decent results so I find this shit to be bonkers

[wittywallflower]

absolutely ridiculous that I can know the username, the full text of the post, and the first tag… yet I still cannot just search up that post easily. Either on tumblr search (which I expected to suck because it sucks) or on google. I tried several different keywords on google and it was not until I used super super vague keywords (tumblr (username) (fandom)) that the search results would even show me a single post from that blog, where the user has posted about and tagged that same subject multiple times. It showed me ONE post and it wasn’t the one I wanted. I added ONE keyword to the search to refine it and stopped showing me results from that blog again. Completely infuriating that the only semi-reliable way to find this post again is to go that tag on my blog and scroll forever until I find the reblog of it.

[fasterthanmydemons]

Headcanons: Pietro’s Right Hand/Arm

Okay, so here’s a big ball of random headcanons that will apply for my version of Pietro on this blog, and they have to do with his right hand... its health, history of injuries, and why he always keeps it a lot more gloved than his left hand. This is an idea first brought to my attention by a question from @cinnamonspoon23​​ that I somewhat began to answer in this post, but will also build on ideas I mentioned in this meta post about the twins’ experiments with Hydra. I also did some Google searching on the topic and found this interesting page where someone else attempted to explain what was going on as well. And finally, doing a bit of discussing, brainstorming, headcanoning, supposing, and guessing with @edenwander​​ resulted in me being so fascinated with this topic that I knew I needed to add this to my Pietro muse and have it be a part of his character from now on. Now that all those credits and references are out of the way, let me now detail what headcanons I will be using for my version of Pietro on this blog regarding his right hand (and sometimes arm), why he has tremors in it, why he keeps his hand covered, and why he is often seen with it a lot more covered than his left hand.

Below cut because LONG.

Overall upshot of this set of headcanons: Pietro has nerve damage in his right arm and hand that results in tremors that sometimes go all the way up his arm but more commonly involve his hand. This nerve damage is the result of several traumas, both physical and psychological, that have contributed both to the physical nerve damage ailment and its tremor symptoms. His hand is also scarred from some of the same things that contributed to the nerve damage. He wears gloves, bandages, etc. on his right hand to not only cover the scars but also to minimize the tremors. Compression gloves also help relieve pain and throbbing from excessive use of his hand during training, battles, etc.

I am referring to the tremors that can be seen here (you can also see his arm muscles spasming as well if you look close):

And I’ll be talking about why he is always seen with an extra glove or bandage on his right hand vs. his left, like in these scenes:

The easiest way to handle this huge ball of headcanons is to just go chronologically, so I’m going to describe all of the physical, chemical, and psychological contributors to Pietro’s hand/arm tremors and nerve damage, and then what he does to cover/hide/deal with it. 

HIS PARENTS’ DEATHS

Aside from this being an incredibly stressful and traumatic event for Pietro for a lot of reasons (losing his parents, literally getting a bomb dropped on his house, seeing his sister so upset and scared, being trapped under rubble for two days, fearing a nearby bomb might explode any second), there were chemical and physical injury aspects of this event that were the start of the woes for Pietro’s right hand and arm. First, lemme go into some background about what their apartment building might have been made of and about a condition called manganism...

Manganese is a naturally-occurring metal in the environment and it is an essential nutrient that people need to survive. Usually humans get it through food or water, depending on where they live, but sometimes there is the chance for being exposed to too much of this metal. Exposure to levels orders of magnitude higher than what is necessary for survival, can be very harmful and result in manganese toxicity and manganism. Manganism is the name of a syndrome that occurs as a result of prolonged high exposure to manganese metal. This can occur either by drinking contaminated water or by inhaling dust or other particulate matter containing manganese. Symptoms of manganism include: permanent nerve damage, tremors in extremities, trouble concentrating, irritability, aggressiveness, and hallucinations. As it turns out, young children are more susceptible to manganese poisoning than adults, because their smaller body weight results in greater dosing per pound/kilogram, and because they are more sensitive to poisoning via inhalation exposure. I believe that Pietro suffers from the effects of manganism as a result of acute toxicity caused by inhaling manganese-laden dust when his apartment building was bombed. If you would like to read more about manganese, toxicity effects, and manganism, you can read this report here.

Manganese is used in building materials. It is often alloyed with other metals (iron, copper, etc.) and can decrease brittleness in steel in the right amounts. It is also used in brick-baking processes in which brick material is coated in a manganese-laden substance and baked at high temperatures to strengthen the material. Manganese is also far cheaper a metal to buy and use than copper and a lot of other types of metals that might be used in building alloys, bricks, and other building materials, making it an attractive option for a country with a struggling economy, like Sokovia. It is possible that Pietro’s building was unfortunately made of materials that contained too much manganese. This would make the cost of the building materials much lower, but it would also mess with the structural integrity of the building, making its components much too soft. So not only would something like a bomb decimate a building made from these types of soft materials, it but those materials would also crumble into dust a lot more easily than others.

Alright, slight detour here to explain why Pietro would have been exposed to manganese-laden dust but not Wanda if they were both trapped under rubble together for two days. To explain this, I need to explain a few headcanons for my version of Wanda. Wanda is smaller than Pietro by a lot, both in body type and height. She was also born twelve minutes later than him. Unless there’s some sort of problem or there is a reason why doctors might be trying to keep one twin in the womb while one is born prematurely, that’s a decent amount of time for Wanda to wait to pop out, heh. Once the water breaks, there can be oxygen issues for the twin left inside the womb if they can’t breathe.

Anyway, I headcanon that Wanda took so long to come out because she wasn’t quite ready yet. Very often with twins, especially fraternal ones, one twin might be “weaker” than the other. In my version of the twins, Wanda is the “weaker” one, being smaller and somewhat more fragile in health than her brother. A result of this was respiratory distress, because her lungs were not as developed when she was born. As an infant she had lung ailments that were life-threatening, and as a young child she was pre-asthmatic, not quite having asthma but often wheezing if upset or frightened or having trouble breathing if she got something like a cold or the flu. Bronchitis and pneumonia were also problems of hers when she was little. Wanda fortunately outgrew these setbacks, and by the time she was a teenager, her health issues pretty much disappeared.

Okay now back to Pietro and Wanda being stuck in rubble in the remains of their apartment building. Pietro knows that his sister has lung issues, and he’s very conscious of that and protective of her. So one of his first thoughts when trapped under that bed in their apartment was that there was so much dust in the air that he was breathing in... and if he was breathing it in, then so was Wanda. So he had the forethought to tell her to cover her nose and mouth with his shirt to prevent her from breathing in dust that might make her sick. It was a simple decision by a child trying to protect his sibling, and surely he didn’t understand all that he was actually protecting her from by doing that, and maybe he overestimate his own ability to deal with the dust since he didn’t bother to cover his own nose and mouth. He figured well, I don’t have lung problems, so I’ll be fine. It didn’t really occur to him that there might be bad things in the dust that could make anybody sick, not just someone who was already compromised like Wanda. So for two days, Pietro was breathing in toxic dust laden with high levels of manganese... among other things, while Wanda was breathing through the filter of her brother’s shirt, which would have blocked the majority of particulates.

Manganism was only the beginning of Pietro’s issues with his hand and arm, however, and physical damage did occur during those days in addition to chemical exposure. To help keep her still and to comfort her, Pietro held his sister with his right arm while keeping his left arm free in case he needed to support collapsing rubble to protect her. Because they were laying down in a tight space, his right arm frequently fell asleep underneath Wanda for hours at a time. He didn’t think anything of it, but all that poor circulation was terrible for his muscle tissue. To compound things, when the twins were finally extracted from the rubble, Pietro did not bother to gingerly move his right arm first to get the feeling back or to make sure that he had proper range of motion with it. Nope, he just went ahead and moved it full force. The result was a sharp, tearing feeling that ran from the center of his hand, through his wrist, and up his arm to his elbow. Since that time, he’s had transient numbness in his right hand.

BECOMING AN ORPHAN

Living on the streets was rough for the twins. Pietro was constantly vigilant in protecting Wanda and, with his developing swiftness (remember, my twins are mutants, so their powers began before Hydra’s experiments), he often stole things like food and clothing for him and Wanda. Fights with people who either bothered Wanda or didn’t like that the twins were around were a thing, and Pietro didn’t pull any punches, literally. Being right-handed, he punched a lot more often with his right hand than his left, even though he had developed tremors from the manganism and had lingering numbness, pain, and/or throbbing in his hand from the nerve damage and tearing injury. Impact from fighting exacerbated his already existing conditions in his hand and arm, and resulted in cuts and bruises, but that wasn’t the worst thing that happened to his hand during this time of his life.

One day, while attempting to steal something, Pietro miscalculated and was caught. He was able to escape, but not before the shop owner stabbed his right hand with a pocket knife in an attempt to pin it to a table and stop him from running away. Without proper medical attention and because he tried to play the wound off as nothing too bad so Wanda wouldn’t be upset, Pietro ended up with a massive infection in his hand that resulted in some tissue death and almost the loss of his thumb and forefinger. Luckily for him, the infection eventually cleared up on its own, but not before the back of his hand and his thumb and forefinger were badly scarred by it. This scar tissue further limited movement, making Pietro’s already damaged hand stiff and less mobile. It frustrated him, and so there have been plenty of times since then that he has forced his hand to move in certain ways out of that sheer frustration, as if merely forcing it to be able to move a certain way would fix the problem. Instances of him being angry at his own hand for not just “being normal” have resulted in a lot of pain and swelling, as well as the tremors increasing due to stress.

HYDRA EXPERIMENTATION

Hydra completely compounded everything that was wrong with Pietro’s hand and arm in two big ways: physical and psychological.

Physically... where they decided to stick the IV injection port was unfortunate for him. Both Wanda and Pietro had IV ports placed in their right hands, something I discuss in this meta. And actually, the psychological issues I’m going to mention were also brought up in that same post. Anyway... Pietro reacted very poorly to having a semi-permanent port put in his hand, and I don’t mean that he got angry or upset... even though he did. I mean his body didn’t react well. He had a reaction, possibly allergic in nature, to the type of plastic and adhesive used for the port and to secure in his hand, and this reaction resulted in swelling and a large hematoma (blood that collects outside of blood vessels where it’s supposed to be) inside his hand. The blood spread in and around already existing scar tissue, serving to only exacerbate the existing tissue problems that he already had. To relieve the pressure on his nerves, minor surgery was required to drain the hematoma and correct the issues with the port.

With the stress of his happening to a hand that was already so compromised combined with just the stress of being there in the Hydra lab in a controlled and often abusive environment and being confined to a tiny little cell when he has a compulsion and a deep-seated need to move a lot and fast, Pietro began to suffer psychologically. Already under a lot of psychological stress because of so many other events in his life, he now had a whole new set of problems that compounded everything, resulting in violent and reckless behavior, such as slamming himself into the walls of his cell because he needs to move around no matter what. The psychological stress of his situation, further potential injury to his hand as he slams himself around in his room, and potentially even injuries to his spine or head, however temporary and about to be healed they may be, all could have increased the severity and/or frequency of the tremors that began with earlier problems in his life.

ULTRON AND BEYOND

By the time Pietro is set free in Age of Ultron, he’s wearing gloves on his right hand to hide his scars and to compress his hand a bit to reduce pain and tremors. His gloves both before and after he teams up with the Avengers cover the back and palm of his right hand and extend downward to further hide the scarring of his thumb and forefinger (see pics above).

Pietro hides his tremors as well as he can, often pressing his hand to his leg to keep it still at his side or hiding it if it’s shaking a lot while switching to his left hand to perform a task he can’t do with a trembling one. When fighting, he tends not to care, continuing to use his compromised hand, but during everyday tasks he tries his best to hide that anything is wrong, especially from Wanda. He doesn’t want to worry his sister, and he’s afraid that she’ll feel responsible in part for his condition, because some of it was caused by holding her in the rubble as children and she was most of the decision-making behind volunteering for the Hydra experiments.

Also, Pietro does not like to appear weak, damaged, or feeble in any way, and very often he can get insulted by people who show him any sympathy because he assumes they’re patronizing him. So rather than risking any of that or having to explain why his hand and arm sometimes shake or where his scars came from, Pietro prefers to cover and hide the problem. When he is alone, however, like after a shower or something, he’ll something look at his hand in great detail and stretch it out as he ponders it. It bugs him, having what he considers an obvious flaw and a sign that he’s inferior to others in some way. It’s a definite chink in the armor of an otherwise strong ego.

Pietro often has stinging pain shooting up his arm or a throbbing feeling in his wrist and hand. Sometimes his hand hurts, but other times it is numb and cold, especially in his two worst fingers. And of course there are the tremors. All of those symptoms are due to nerve damage from injuries and manganese poisoning. Opening it fully or closing his fist is sometimes difficult without forcing it because there is a great deal of tightness from the scar tissue. Besides holding something with his hand to make the tremors stop or wearing compression gloves, in times of stress that exacerbate his condition, Pietro will fold his arms to hide the involuntary movements of his arm and hand. As I mentioned above, I also headcanon that some of his concentration issues, irritability, and aggression may also be attributed to the last effects of manganism.

Alright, I think that about does it! So this will be canon now for my Pietro, but again, because he hides it from pretty much everyone, it isn’t like it’ll be mentioned a lot. If you want your muse to notice his tremors of catch him without his glove on, we can definitely do a thing. Otherwise, it will likely not change too much in already existing threads.

[lksdante]

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Affiliate Marketing.

A great many people have known about affiliate marketing, regardless of whether they haven’t really begun doing it. Affiliate promoting is essentially alluding individuals to different items and administrations around the web. For every deal you produce through your affiliate link, you acquire a commission. The size of the commission relies upon the items themselves, who are selling them, and the rate offered by the vender to the affiliate.

Yet, what is really associated with affiliate marketing? What do affiliate do consistently? How would they gain cash and how would they realize what to do?

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are an affiliate link. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

1 An Example Of A Successful Website

There are a few different ways of advertising items and administrations on the web. Numerous members make a blog first and sell items and administrations through their blogs. Martin Lewis has an extremely effective site called moneysavingexpert.com. This is additionally an associate site. By making substance and helping individuals choose which administration to utilize: which Mastercard offers to pick, the wellbeing rate, and so on moneysavingexpert.com brings in cash by sending site guests to different offers. On the off chance that a deal is made through this site, the connection this credited to it and a commission is made. By making content, offering worth, and helping individuals settle on reasonable decisions, the site has fabricated notoriety and gotten more pervasive after some time. Google positions the site profoundly in the web indexes and a large number of individuals use it to settle on buying choices consistently.

2 How Can I Get Started As An Affiliate?

Affiliate promotion is enormous. There are a huge number of individuals previously making their fundamental wellspring of pay from the internet. To begin as an affiliate you have to become familiar with some fundamental techniques and construct different strategies for creating traffic from the web to those offers. A great deal of affiliates starts with a basic blog. Numerous travelers ‘blog’ about their travel. On the off chance that you don’t have an enthusiasm or enthusiasm to blog about, you can begin by following an online course that will help.

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3 How Long Does It Take To Make A Living?

A few people go into offshoot showcasing with the aim of making a subsequent pay. A few people need to bring in enormous cash. Contingent upon how long you can commit to your affiliate business, and that you are so committed to it, is a major factor in deciding your outcomes. Results fluctuate from individual to individual. With an enormous promoting financial plan and the correct plan of action, a few affiliates have supplanted their living in 6 to a year. For other people, it can take a very long time before it replaces their current pay. Contingent upon your methodology, promoting spending plan, and plan of action, it can take between 3 months and quite a long while to assemble it to a point where it can supplant a current pay.

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4 Can Anyone Do It?

An extraordinary aspect concerning affiliate marketing is that the innovation is currently accessible to permit anybody to manufacture their own online business. However long you are set up to learn and execute that information, any individual who can work an email can utilize online stages and devices to fabricate their own online business. The primary concern you need is the longing to learn. Member showcasing isn’t for everybody, however. It takes a ton of difficult work and it can take a very long time before you are compensated monetarily.

5 What Are The Pitfalls Of An Affiliate Business?

You have to commit some an ideal opportunity for your affiliate business for it to work as long as possible. A few people go into affiliate marketing thinking it is some enchantment pill that will pay them in a flash in real money. Much like work you can’t anticipate getting out more than you put in. Affiliate marketing is execution related. This implies you don’t get paid except if you can effectively sell items and service on the web. In the event that you don’t have a clue what you are doing it can take a very long time to do this. You can’t be a dilettante and hope to win the large cash. The enormous income is made over long periods of difficult work. Try not to hope to accomplish this with just a limited quantity of information.

6 What Are The Best Things About Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing offers an unfathomable measure of adaptability and opportunity. You can work an affiliate business from anyplace on the planet giving you have a PC and a web connection. You can pick your own hours and develop them around existing work. Numerous individuals come into affiliate marketing in light of the fact that it offers this sort of adaptability. They can pick their needs throughout everyday life: invest more energy with family, pick your working hours, travel, and work abroad. No all the more driving to work or working extended periods of time for a supervisor you don’t care for.

Affiliate marketing additionally offers fantastic versatility. A business that is nearby is constantly restricted to the individuals who can venture out to that business. An online business can be worldwide. Utilizing advanced items related to a worldwide reach, you can scale utilizing instruments and programming to arrive at a huge number of individuals through computerized innovation. By utilizing mechanization a great part of the work associated with an online business can be re-constructed. By building mechanization into the plan of action, you can zero in your exercises on contacting a bigger crowd through substance creation and paid to publicize.

7 Why Am I Struggling With My Affiliate Business?

Many individuals battle with their affiliate businesses. This can be for various reasons. Right off the bat developing a affiliate business requires significant investment. You have to devote a great deal of time to a affiliate business in any case. Just when you arrive at a ‘tipping point’ do you truly begin to see your improvement. Numerous affiliate just don’t understand how much work is included. They think little of how long they have to commit to their online business to make it work.

Paid publicizing can permit you to develop your affiliate business rapidly. In any case, it costs cash and you need the correct items as well. You can’t promote little worth things with paid publicizing. You won’t create enough benefit to take care of your promoting costs. You need a scope of items and an email rundown to promote through.

Content advertising takes longer time to work, contingent upon your picked zone of business. In the event that you locate an undiscovered niche to showcase your blog in, you can gain some quick ground. In any case, with a competitive niche, you will battle to get seen over the wide range of various substances that you should rival. There are a few reasons why you may battle. The primary one is the absence of information. Get the correct instruction first and your affiliate business will move a lot quicker.

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8 What’s The Best Affiliate Model To Use?

There is a wide range of affiliate models, all contributing something else to suit the person. A few affiliate target search traffic and expect to get their substance found on Google. Some make their own items and sell them legitimately to clients. In any case, having a scope of items which you can sell again and again to existing clients is an incredible model for long haul achievement. Selling a solitary thing on the web is restricted. It implies you can just make one commission from every deal. By picking participation items to advance which additionally offer back end deals and an inherent deals group, you can profit by month to month commissions and up-sell commissions for the lifetime of some random client. Selling enrollment items is unquestionably a distinct advantage when it comes to affiliate marketing in light of the fact that you make payments from every client, instead of a solitary commission. Be that as it may, a decent model to pick is one in which you have the energy for and can continue accomplishing as long as possible. Picking items which you have no enthusiasm for is a foolhardy arrangement. Consider what you might want to do online to create pay. In the event that you decide to go with your enthusiasm, your business will last any longer, and be more fruitful.

9 Can I Just Sell My Own Products?

Numerous affiliates make their own items to sell on the web. In any case, when you are beginning it is a smart thought to gain proficiency with the essentials of promoting first. That way you can begin procuring all the more rapidly from your affiliate business. I spent quite a while making my own items when I initially found affiliate marketing. Yet, I didn’t sell anything in view of a few reasons. Initially, I didn’t explore whether my items would have a large enough interest. Besides I didn’t have the foggiest idea how to advertise them. By joining a program that shows you how to advertise items first, you can begin bringing in cash all the more rapidly. Try not to sit around idly making items in the event that you don’t have the foggiest idea how to sell them. Promoting is considerably more significant expertise for bringing in cash on the web. When you know this ability, you would then be able to apply it later when promoting your own items and administrations. Additionally, your own items will be restricted to extend. By utilizing a current item run, you can profit by items that are as of now selling. You can pick a program that offers high ticket commission, month to month participation, back end deals, and an inherent deals group. Building your own items that offer these things not an opportunity for the vast majority when beginning.

10 What’s The Point Of Affiliate Marketing?

A few people battle with the idea of affiliate marketing. They think it sounds too ‘salesy’. At the point when I comprehended affiliate marketing, I promptly thought that it was engaging basically on the grounds that I required an adaptable method to work around my provisional labor. I needed to drop what I was doing at a minute's notice if the telephone went. This implied different positions were off-kilter to shuffle around. Nobody needs to utilize a ‘flaky’ worker. I needed to work from my PC and affiliate marketing gave me that chance. For some individuals, this is the motivation behind why they pick affiliate marketing. They can win pay from their PC, pick their working hours, and not have a chief or work environment. You don’t need to sell legitimately to anybody or even converse with a client. There is no stock to hold. Added to this, the versatility of affiliate marketing which lets you scale up to a worldwide crowd and convey items on autopilot makes it the best adaptable business of the future.

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[samuel0987]

Free traffic sources for affiliate marketing

Successful affiliate marketing does not have to cost a fortune. In fact, attracting an audience can be done for free, as long as you’re willing to be patient. 

Most people are aware of blogging and the many site builders that are available for free. What you may not know, is the vast array of free resources that you can use as an affiliate marketer to gain more traffic. 

Once you increase your traffic, you can begin promoting an array of products and services that are in line with your niche. You will need to market these products differently depending on the sources you are using to generate traffic.

It’s important that you understand the fundamentals of affiliate marketing before you start promoting products and services to your audience. This will help you increase conversions through your marketing campaigns. 

Take a look at this list to learn more ways to increase traffic to your affiliate site for free. I recommend having a website so that you have a designated place to where you send your traffic.

SEO

I can’t write an article about free traffic sources without talking about search engine optimization. If you’ve been in the game for any time at all, you already know how crucial it is to harness the power of search engines if you want organic traffic. 

Take a look at Labrador Training HQ, for example: 

Labrador Training HQ is able to generate over $30K per month from leveraging organic Google traffic and monetizing it with affiliate marketing offers. 

Keywords have proven to be one of the most important ranking factors out there. Keywords are how search engines categorize your work and determine if it is valuable to a specific audience. If you haven’t already, it’s crucial that you start conducting keyword research for your site.

It would be impossible to cover every ranking factor that Google accounts for. However, one often overlooked factor is topical authority. Topical authority is demonstrated by creating a significant amount of in-depth content related to a very specific niche. 

In other words, if you center your site around one niche topic and make great content, Google sees this as far more valuable than, say, only getting backlinks. 

To make this work in your favor as an affiliate marketer, make sure your blog is truly focused on the niche that you’re promoting. That also means choosing affiliate products that fall into the niche you’ve chosen. 

Reddit

When we talk about free traffic, Reddit might not be the most obvious choice, but it is a powerful engine that can drive visitors to your affiliate website. 

The cool thing about Reddit is that people often use it as a place to get recommendations and advice from other redditors.

By adding links to your website in the comments you can drive consistent targeted traffic to your affiliate offers. For this to be effective, you must add comments that add value to the user so that it doesn’t look spammy.

Take a look at how I used Ahrefs to filter Reddit.com by “top pages” and added a parameter to only include results with the keyword “VPN.”

Notice all the pages that come up, which are currently generating substantial amounts of traffic from Google. 

As a marketer, the first thing that comes to mind is how to use these pages to drive traffic back to my site. 

If I do a quick Google search for “best VPN Reddit,” the page that shows up in the first position generates over 17K monthly visitors with a traffic value of $79K dollars. 

Now, if we take a closer look at that page, you will see that the first comments are loaded with links that drive traffic directly to an affiliate website that recommends the “best VPNs.”

This Reddit page probably generates over $30K dollars per month from affiliate commissions. 

Sounds easy right? Well, it can be if you find the right pages with the right keywords and enough traffic to make money.  

I can pull up hundreds of examples of Reddit pages that have cloaked affiliate links hidden in the comments, or drive traffic to a website that is nothing more than a landing page for affiliate offers. 

Any platform that uses highly specific categories is going to be your best friend as an affiliate marketer.

You can become an active member of any given subreddit and share your content. Now, keep in mind, each subreddit has its own rules and may have restrictions on things such as YouTube videos, so make sure to read through the guidelines.

Guest posts

Collaborating with other content creators in your niche is a great way to bring visitors to your site. As we already know, when it comes to affiliate marketing, it’s all about the right audience. 

Guest posting is not only free, it’s a win-win for both you and the person you’re collaborating with. It expands your reach to a wider audience while providing another blogger with quality content. 

For example, this post you are reading now is a guest post, and I have included a link to my website in order to improve the value of this article.

If you’re interested in guest blogging, here’s how you can get started for free:

Research blogs within your niche or similar niches that post quality content

Email them or use their contact form to find out if they accept guest posts

Once you hear back from the site you can send them your pitch

If your pitch is approved, you can submit your guest post

You may find that once you start making more connections in your field, exchanging guest posts becomes more natural. 

As always, focus on networking and making connections to increase these opportunities. 

Pinterest 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and in this case, that couldn’t be more accurate. Pinterest is an image sharing website that categorizes compelling images into several distinct categories. 

I could probably write an entire article about how valuable Pinterest can be for businesses or affiliate marketers. 

According to Hootsuite, Pinterest is the third-largest social network in the U.S. But Pinterest is as much a search engine as it is a social network. Think of it as the Google of images. 

Some very popular categories are fashion, home decor, fitness, gardening, and travel, just to name a few. 

Now, the cool thing about Pinterest is that you can upload an image attached to a URL. That means, whenever someone clicks on that image, they are redirected to the attached website. 

If you’re using compelling images and your article falls into a Pinterest category, it’s a great (and free) way to reach a wide audience.

Let’s take a look at a website called The View from Great Island. According to SimilarWeb, this website generates around 650K monthly visitors, 26% of which is generated using social platforms and 90% of that is generated from Pinterest alone. 

I think it’s safe to say that this site generates thousands of monthly visits from leveraging the power of Pinterest. 

YouTube

If you’re an affiliate marketer on a budget, the idea of starting a YouTube channel can seem out of reach. Fortunately, you don’t have to invest in any expensive filming set up right away. 

YouTube is one of my favorite ways to generate free traffic because all you need is a phone, and you can actually use your phone camera to get a YouTube channel off the ground.

YouTube is great for affiliate marketers for several reasons. I wrote an entire article about how to do YouTube affiliate marketing with little to no money. 

Aside from being low- to no-cost, it also gives you the opportunity for your videos to get indexed on Google. This will get you some of that sweet Google traffic, as well as organic YouTube traffic. 

If you’re creating helpful tutorials, guides, or reviews, your video may appear in relevant Google search results, which gives you more exposure.

Affiliate marketers can create a variety of content that showcases products and services such as guides, reviews, comparisons, and unboxing videos. You can then add affiliate links in the description below. 

As with any form of content marketing, you need to create high-quality content that sticks to a given niche. 

Some of the most profitable YouTube niches are technology, beauty, fashion, gaming, fitness, and education.

Niche forums and groups

Here’s an example of how you can use forums to your advantage. 

I recently published an article about a website builder called Beaver Builder. There is a Facebook group dedicated to this particular website builder with several thousand members. 

Because this group is clearly interested in Beaver Builder, chances are they’d be interested in an article on this topic. 

You can do the same with your own articles. Find groups and forums that are centered around your post and share it.

Keep in mind, it’s important to provide context when you post your article. Avoid just sharing a link with no explanation, otherwise, you appear spammy.

Expert roundup

Since we went over guest posting, I think it’s appropriate to talk about expert roundups.

These are articles in which you are interviewing a selection of experts in your field. Usually, you pose a couple of questions to which the experts respond in a short quote. 

Once the article is published, all of the experts featured in the article typically share the link on their own site and to their social media followers, bringing more traffic to your website. 

To create an expert roundup, you can follow similar steps to what we went over for guest blogging. 

Reach out to similar blogs with an email asking if they would be interested in participating in an expert roundup. 

Once the article is complete, make sure to share it with all of the people who participated.

Write for Medium

Medium is an online publication that offers abundant opportunities for bloggers. Just like with guest posting, writing for Medium offers you access to a wider audience. 

Medium has a built-in audience already, so you can count on reaching a decent number of readers. 

Here’s where traffic to your site comes in: you can add blog links to your post on Medium. You can also embed your YouTube videos into your Medium article. 

Contributing to Medium is totally free and can be completed in a few simple steps:

Write a relevant blog post.

Wait for an editor to review and approve your work.

Once approved, your post will be recommended to relevant Medium readers.  

Social media

I would be neglecting my duty if I were to leave out social media. Social media is free and gives you access to a huge audience. 

As long as you follow the correct guidelines, most social media sites allow users to promote affiliate products on their accounts. Instagram is one of the most popular options out there. 

Learning the ins and outs of Instagram marketing deserves a post unto itself, but if you are willing to learn the ropes, it’s a great platform for affiliate marketers. 

TikTok is the new kid on the block but it is making huge waves. While the Instagram algorithm is notoriously hard to crack, TikTok is a bit more forgiving. 

My advice would be to strike while the iron is hot and make a TikTok account for your business. 

Final thoughts

You don’t need a big budget to gain traffic as an affiliate marketer. While there are certainly places where your money is well spent, attracting your target audience doesn’t have to be one of them. If you follow these tips and put in the time and effort, your traffic will begin to increase. 

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, early February 2020

Welcome to my latest summary of recent ecommerce news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & Etsy! This covers articles I came across since the late January report, although some may be older than that. Report is a bit short because I was sick this last week; don’t worry, I used hand sanitizer before typing this up, so you are all safe 🤒

I am currently looking into setting up a new ecommerce business forum where we can discuss this sort of news, as well as any day-to-day issues we face. I need some good suggestions for a cheap or free forum space that has some editing tools, is fairly intuitive for inexperienced members, and is accessible. If you have any suggestions, please reply to this post, email me on my website, or send me a tweet. (I will put out a survey once we narrow this down to some good candidates, but if you have any other comments on what you want from such a forum, please include those too!)

As always, if you see any stories I might be interested in, please let me know!

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

Searchmetrics says Etsy did quite well [podcast & text] in the Google January Core Update, while both Amazon and Walmart lost a little bit. “Who won January? I’m going to say Etsy. Etsy has really done a tremendous job [with Google visibility] over the last two years. Sure, they’ve been on the winning side of the algorithm update, but consistently, being in that a position, from my experience, isn’t by chance.” Here’s more analysis listing the US winners and losers, including by subject category (sadly, not shopping sites). Marie Haynes says that the update likely targeted sites that aren’t properly disclosing affiliate links, as well as some pet health sites. 

Since a quarter of Americans have a disability, your website, your products & your marketing should be more accessible. Lots of good ideas in here! 

ETSY NEWS 

TOU alert: Etsy has banned the sale of spent bullet casings (often used as craft supplies). It’s not clear why. There is a thread from a seller whose listings were pulled here.

The 2020 wedding trends blog post is one of those pieces that is useful to sellers & buyers alike, and is also good for Etsy because it attracts outside articles and links. Some trend & keyword info of interest: ”there has been a 171% increase in searches on Etsy for bridesman items and a 72% increase in searches for best woman items”... “searches for ‘70s invitations increase 18% and searches for disco ball items increase 18%” ...”24% increase in searches for bridal jackets and a 4% increase in searches for women’s pantsuits” …”searches for reused, recycled, or reclaimed wedding items increasing 7%” in the last six months (compared to the same time the previous year).

Etsy released its annual diversity & inclusion report on January 29, getting some media coverage along the way, for example here, here and here.

Reverb hired David Mandelbrot as their new CEO; he most recently ran Indiegogo. (Etsy bought Reverb last year.)

The 4th quarter 2019 results will be out Feb. 26. I am currently planning on doing my usual summary thread in the forum. 

Decent overview of product photography for beginners, with some pointers on what Etsy wants you to do with photos. For example, “The recommended size for listing images is 2000px for the shortest side of the image, and a resolution of 72PPI.”

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

So you know what Etsy tags are, but you get confused when people talk about tags for search engines? Read this beginners guide to SEO meta tags. (not needed for Etsy shops, but it is terminology used by some website builder sites, as well as coders of course.)

Data provider Jumpshot will be closing due to the controversies over the revelation that their parent company Avast (the anti-virus software) provided user activity to Jumpshot while perhaps not always fully disclosing this to the users. This will affect some SEO tools that relied on these click stats to generate estimates for traffic & search term use, Hitwise & Moz among them.  “In all likelihood, Avast took the action to protect its core business, as multiple articles, including from Consumer Reports, called out the company for its data collection practices, while some called for the uninstallation of the Avast software. This is probably as much PR damage control as it is driven by any principled position.”

Forbes appears to have been hit by some Google search issue, but it happened later than the Core Update, so no one is sure what is going on.They were previously penalized for selling links, but that was years ago.   

John Mueller listed all of the big Google search news from January in this almost 9 minute video. Click to see the detailed info under the video, because they helpfully summarized the important topics by timestamp, and linked to text resources as well. (Some of it is technical/coding relating; you have been warned!)

There may be another big Google ranking update happening right now (Feb. 9), as tracked by Search Engine Roundtable. Check that site over the next few days for any updates. 

CONTENT MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails) 

The time you send your marketing emails matters, although it’s going to vary more than this article lets on. Keep track of your own stats. 

Debunking some myths about Instagram, including the importance of your follower count. “...your follower count isn’t the most important metric on Instagram. Your engagement rate is. Your engagement rate (which is found by calculating the number of engagements you receive divided by EITHER the number of people who saw it OR your total followers, depending on who you ask) is crucial.”

If you use the app Social Captain for Instagram, be aware that your Instagram password was publicly available in the source code. 

Facebook’s algorithm has a lot of different factors controlling who sees your posts, including actually having conversations with others, and including “quality, original videos.”

Facebook’s revenue was up 25% in the 4th quarter of 2019, to $21.1 billion, but they expect the privacy controversies to cut into growth this year.

Pinterest is testing an augmented reality tool called “Try On” that allows users to see what they will look like with specific lipstick colours. 

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS) 

Google Shopping Ads will soon be shown in Gmail accounts, YouTube and the Discover feed, starting March 4th. Note that “Retailers have been steadily shifty more of their search budgets from text to Shopping ads.”

A comparison of Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads, with plenty of tips. According to them, if you are seriously considering one, you should probably do both. “When we talk about Facebook, we’re also talking about Instagram, What’sApp, and Facebook Messenger. Google also includes YouTube, the second-most trafficked site in the world (behind Google itself).”

Google’s revenue was up 17% in the 4th quarter in 2019, almost all of it from advertising. YouTube makes more on ads than Amazon does. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS 

eBay released its 4th quarter results for 2019 on January 28, with revenue down 2% and gross merchandise value down 5%. Amazon’s sales were up 21% for the 4th quarter. 

BigCommerce now allows customers to check out in over 100 currencies, integrated with several different payment processors. 

Wondering what a good conversion rate would be for different ecommerce pages? Here’s a brief overview of the known stats, with some tips on improving.. (Note that any action can be counted as a conversion, including signing up for an email list, so this isn’t just about purchases.)

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

Are you marketing to Generation Z, or think you should be? Here are 52 facts (with the citations); some highlights: Gen Z has more members than millennials do, and “As of 2020, Gen Z makes up more than 40% of U.S. consumers.” and finally “When shopping online or in stores, 65% of Gen Z prefers to see as few items as possible out of stock” (that last one explains a feedback I received, I think LOL Kind of hard on Etsy when you might have a listing with multiple choices & you only have the one left.)

A study of Cyber Week email open & click rates shows that it might be better not to mention the holidays or discounts. 

This article warns consumers of the tricks ecommerce sites use to nudge people to buy more, including some clear examples of deception. “A study by Princeton University and the University of Chicago singled out online clothing seller Fashion Nova, which tells customers that items in their cart “are in high demand.” The problem? The message appears for any item that’s added to the cart. Fashion Nova’s cart also tells shoppers that their items are being “reserved” for 10 minutes. But nothing happens to the items after the 10 minutes are up.”

MISCELLANEOUS 

YouTube wants Clearview AI’s face recognition program to stop scraping its videos for content, and to delete anything it has already collected. (Twitter did the same last month.)

[janenguyenstudies]

What I think Biotech freshmen should learn during your first year at IU

So my first year has finally ended. The curriculum for freshman year is pre-determined by the Office of Academics so I did not have a chance to change the schedule. I took about 7 subjects each semester, with a total of 2 semesters. If you do not have to take IE1 and IE2 classes, you can “jump” directly into the main curriculum. So in my first year I took: Calculus 1&2, Physics 1&2, General Biology and Chemistry plus 2 Bio and Chem labs, Organic Chemistry, Academic English 1&2 (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), Critical Thinking, Introduction to Biotechnology, P.E. It’s a relief that I could work through the courses although I was not excelling at STEM subjects in highschool. But college taught me all the amazing skills to study on my own and discover knowledge for my self-growth. Apart from schoolwork, I think any Biotech freshmen should also keep an eye on learning other extra skills of a scientist/professional, which I will list below. Do not worry because a year ago I entered this school while being a completely blank state, having seen so many of my friends succeeded in getting scholarships, leading extracurricular activities,... I felt hopeless sometimes but I believe in grinding one step at a time until I could accomplish the job. So my general experience boils down to being humble and let others teach you the skills, then practice slowly but firmly. You will be able to grow so much faster. And do not compare yourself with others’ success stories because everyone has their strengths and their own clock.

These are the lists of skills I have learnt and will continue to improve in the future. I will be expanding and giving more details about each point. This is in no chronological order:

 - Learn to make a positive affirmations/ orienting articles book: 

            During your whole college career, you will have a lot of moments of self-doubt, for example when your grades are not good, you've failed some classes, your part-time job application got turned down too many times (trust me I am so familiar with such rejections), some experiments got messy and returned no results, you wonder what your future in the field would look like. These are all scenarios that have happened to me in freshman year. 

Therefore, I have found a way to cope with self-doubt and boost my confidence, which is to make a collection of positive affirmations and orienting articles. I would form an imagined overview of my own career path reading all these writings and finally came to recording my own path . I use all forms of note-jotting tools to record them. I tend to record 1) Experience snippets from influencing scientists in my field, whom I happen to follow on Facebook 2) Lists of “What college kids need to practice before they graduate” (Dr.Le Tham Duong 's Facebook) 3) Ybox 's Shared tips for career orientation column (Link) 4) Short paragraphs from the books that I have read. The paragraphs often contain insights into what successful people (in Biotech or in Finance) have thought, have planned, and have acted on. For digital copy of the books, I save the snippets into a file called "Clippings" and later export them through the website called clippings.io

- Have an online note-taking tools for jotting down important thinking (recommend Keep or Evernote for quick jot, while Onenote is more suitable for recording lectures thanks to its structure that resembles a binder)

A snippet of my Evernote, where I store career advice:

- Learn to do research properly (what is a journal, what is a citation management software, what is the structure of a paper[abstract, introduction, methods, data analysis, discussion, conclusion], poster, conferences). You can begin to search for academic papers using Google Scholar scholar.google.com. However, there are countless of other websites for published journals that serve different sience fields. You need to dig into Google further to find them.

- Learn to write essays (basic tasks are covered in Writing AE courses including brainstorming, reading, citings, argumentative essay, process essay, preparing thesis statement)

- Join a lab: learn the safety guidelines, learn who is in control of the lab, what researches/projects are being carried there). As for this, you need to make contact with professors from our department. Most professors here are friendly and willing to help if you just come up and ask a question after class. To be eligible to join their labs,  - Learn to write a proper email to a professor: to ask for what will be on the next test, whether you can be a volunteer in their lab (usually by cold-email, and the professor will likely ask for your background: your highschool grades, your motivation,...); write email to an employer asking for a temporary position. - Learn to write a meeting minute: a sum-up of your meeting with other team members - Learn to answer basic questions for a volunteer opportunity: what is your strength, what is your past experience, what do you know about us, what is your free-time - Learn to write a CV: using topcv,... or downloading free templates on the Internet and write a motivation letter: What you are currently doing, what problems have you solved for your employers, and what can you do to help your new employers solve their problems.

- Learn to create an attractive presentation by using Canvas and learn to deliver ideas effectively (recommended book Think on your feet [Lib 1]).

I have discovered Canvas only for a year, but its graphics are so attractive and appealing to my taste, so here is my presentation for Finals using Canvas:

- Learn a programming language or a second language: recommend Python or R, and any foreign language that you feel interested in, but your ultimate goal would be to comfortably use that language in academic reading and exchanging ideas through writing and speaking (which is a long journey of 4+ years learning), so choose wisely. - Learn to create an online presence through a blog (Tumblr, Wordpress, Github, StackExchange,...), stalk your favorite experts on Quora and Reddit, make a habit to have a journal article delivered to your inbox every morning (me being Medium, Pocket, Nature); then Instagram or YouTube - Recommended books for incomming freshmen: How to be a straight-A student, Do not eat alone (socializing skills) - Recommended Medium sites: - Recommended Newspapers: The Economist, The Guardian, The New York Times Opinions Columns, Nature’s columns, The Scientific American. - Recommended Youtube Channels:  - Recommended Podcasts: listen passively on the bus, but try to paraphrase in your own words what you have understood about their conversation: - Recommended study spots: Den Da Coffeeshop, The Coffeehouse, Library of [...] in District 1, Central Library (Thu Duc District), IU Library.

- Learn the Pomodoro technique and Forest app: - Important websites for study resources: libgen, khanacademy, Coursehero (post only a short paragraph to get 1 free upload), scripd organic chemistry tutor, for jobs: ybox.vn - If your laptop is capable (with decent hardware), learn Adobe Tools (Video editing, Photoshop,...). My laptop can only run Linux Mint, so I chose to learn the skill of citation management and research (using less resource). Basically do not become computer-illiterate. - To reduce eye-strain, buy an e-reader to read scientific papers, do not print out all of them. - One exception to IU: you can bring one two-sided A4 paper into certain exams: this is my note for Calculus class:

- Learn to write a grand summary of formulas for Physics 2, meta-sum of all exercise questions - Prepare for IELTS (if you haven't taken IELTS already): you'll need it to pass IE classes, or apply for an exchange program. Ultimately, you need at least 6.0 in IELTS to graduate. I stumbled upon this careful list of tips from a senior student in our BT department who got an 8.0 => Link

Basically, follow Ngoc Bach’s page on Facebook to receive fully-solved exam materials, add ielts-simon.com into the mix, learn 560 academic word list, listen to Ted Talk and podcasts, do tests on ieltsonlinetests.com, do Cambridge IELTS book 9-14 and you’re good to go. - Have your eyes on competitions that spark your interest (innovative competition, writing contests, speaking and debating contests,...)

- Develop your fitness routine to protect your sanity when academic coursework overwhelm you and make you gain 15 pounds.

I do home HIIT exercises on Fitness Blender’s Youtube channel, Emi Wong, Chloe Ting home workouts in the beginning. 

Later I went to the gym and do split routines with weights, then threw in squats, deadlifts, lunges and HIIT on treadmill. This is how my current routine look like: (I work out only 4 times/week)

- Learn to use flashcards. (Quizlet has premade flashcards for biology class)

- Learn to manage personal finance: what is budget, expenses, income,... - Learn some google tweaks to pirate stuff. (especially textbook files and solutions files) - Learn to make handwritten A4 notes. I will post my own handwritten notes for Critical Thinking Mid (final is taken), Calculus II Mid and Final. - Learn to create meta sets for formulas and problems. I will post my formula set for Physics II and Problem/Skill set for Organic Chemistry. For Physics II, I learned my hard lesson is that it is better to do past exams than to solve advance textbook problems, so I stuck with past exams posted by TA and learnt by heart all the formulas, SI units. For Organic Chemistry you need a skillset checklist (like in the Wade textbook). Also there are questions from the slides such as the connection of amylopectin,... But they won't challenge you to think much. Only the amount of information to be memorized is deemed challenging here. - Intro to Biotech was quite easy and you could prepare in advance. 3 faculty members (from 3 fields: plant, animal, pharma) will take turn giving you an overview lecture. The exam will ask “Write what you know about those fields and their applications”, openbook-style. So hear me out and search for Overview powerpoints of that field, then write your own essay, print it out and bring it with you into the exam. Your power should be spent on Calculus and Physics, not on memorizing the essay.

[digitalpillory]

Planet Princeton

Dear Reader,

You’ve probably stumbled across this webpage accidentally during a cursory web search of my first and last name. The following is my attempt to correct the record and take a stand against the deplorable behavior of a particular journalist who has seemingly been nursing a vendetta against me for the last several years. Almost six years ago, Ms. Krystal K. Knapp (KKK henceforth for brevity) published my name and other identifying information about me on her news-oriented Word Press blog. The disparaging item consistently appears very high first page search results of almost all major search engines for my relatively uncommon name as a record of a number of charges brought against me by the town of Princeton while I was a graduate student at the university. The most damning and attention-grabbing item is the charge of DUI in a school zone as a result of a car accident. Succinct in her description, KKK misrepresents and sensationalizes an unfortunate event from many years ago of dismissed charges. However, due to the peculiarity of NJ law in this matter and my own ignorance and chagrin, I missed the window of opportunity to pursue a claim of defamation against KKK. Furthermore, dismissed charges in NJ are ineligible for expungement and therefore remains on a copy of my driving abstract with NJMVC.  

I sincerely regret having to resort to self-publishing my own narrative to provide additional context and information. However, after repeated requests over the last several years, KKK has ignored my requests and most recently alleges that she has removed my name or suppressed the item from search results which can be found here. I can understand KKK’s (personal) resolve to hold me accountable for these allegations. Yet, it appears spiteful, prejudicial, and arbitrary how she has chosen to single me out for her digital pillory, Planet Princeton. I do not know KKK personally and am unaware of any personal connection to her despite the fact that we are both graduates of schools in the town of Princeton, New Jersey. I am not fit to judge whether her academic or professional ethics support her behavior or if her readers are aware of this incredibly hurtful and glaring bias. In brief, KKK does not choose to publish every item or even names consistently in her periodic police blotters. So, I asked her in the public forum where she has delighted in denigrating my character over the last several years!

KKK hastily deleted my comments from public visibility, blocked my IP address so that I could no longer view her blog, and finally chided me privately for being charged in the first place. Maybe I should obey the law next time, she taunted. And for good measure, KKK threatened to sue me for harassment if I did not cease my requests for removal from her blog. Indeed, this dilemma had seemingly no satisfactory resolution.  KKK seems intent on trying to assassinate my character and publicly shame me for something about which she could only legally know very limited details. Was she trying to bait me into some kind of public dispute or enhance her own “credibility” or “celebrity” via a feud? For the first few years, I was shocked and intimidated by how she was trading upon her platform in the town that she is privileged to represent. Having a relatively uncommon name and without and fame or celebrity to contribute, I was at a loss for how to proceed, especially as I journeyed through life: graduating university, applying for jobs, starting new endeavors, and finally submitting applications to medical school.

So, if you found this webpage and you’re curious, allow me to tell you in my own words, lest you feel embarrassed to inquire about the charges. I was involved in a one-car accident one evening after dropping a friend home. I made a right turn onto a narrow, winding road after it had just begun to rain (without speeding), and my car hydroplaned and collided with a guard rail on the outskirts of the “school zone”. No persons or animals were injured or even present at the time of the accident. I voluntarily called the local police for help who later “determined that I had consumed alcoholic beverages according to KKK” I appeared before a local judge several weeks later to answer for the charges which were dismissed. It may also be worthwhile to know that a number of NJ DUI cases have been reopened and are now being re-litigated through post-conviction relief due to a landmark case that found faulty breathalyzer equipment. In the following months after adjudication, I was awarded a Secret-level security clearance by the U.S. government. 

That’s what you thought happened though, right? Maybe this is true for some who are acutely aware of current events or have had their own personal sagas with any kind of “revenge” publications or unflattering search results. However, I suspect there might be a significant and silent majority who are eager to believe calumny like this. Plus, the fact that it’s been present high on the results page for many years must only add to its credibility, right?. I’m not lobbying for a European-style “right to be forgotten” law or making a sociopolitical argument about shame, nor do I expect to win a war of words against this hard-nosed journalist. Rather, I would ask the reader to be cautious about the information you choose to accept and allow to guide your decisions whether implicitly or explicitly. It’s commonplace to google everyone you meet these days, but as KKK may now understand anyone can publish text online. The internet has authorized anyone to conduct their own unofficial background checks and public opinion trials.

Don’t get me wrong: I think that this can be good in many cases. More information is usually better and key to good decision-making like for research or sometimes just for entertainment. Free speech is a hallmark of this great nation.

Although I’m hardly KKK’s only victim here*, it appears that I am the only person who is willing to confront and challenge this behavior through reasoned arguments. It is unfortunate that the people of Princeton continue to condone and celebrate this kind of journalism that is fundamentally racist, misleading, and unfair. I hope that by sharing my personal experience I can raise awareness about different forms that prejudice and cyberbullying can take. Let’s all pledge to be responsible with our platforms and be decent to each other. Remember that someone can always tell the truth on you too and that each person is the protagonist of his or her own epic tale.

*Just look at a few of these articles and try to reason for yourself why some names are broadcast and others are not. Note: it is illegal to publish the names of minors, whistleblowers, and survivors of sexual assault under some conditions in NJ.

-Stephen Chaisson

Stephen is 2015 graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in International Relations. He earned his undergraduate degree from Brown University and has worked in international development as an RPCV. He currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland where he works in the healthcare field with the ambition of becoming a doctor of medicine. 

Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.

[modesty-blaise]

Since I'm curious, what caused you to become very possessive of your gifs? Not out of rudeness but curious, since no matter what you do a lot of them show up in the gif function on Tumblr which automatically credits you at the bottom of the gif.

Hey. Tbh, at first I didn’t wanna bother with yet another anon but since I see no ill intent behind this, I decided to go and answer it. Unfortunately, half-way through I realised my reply is turning into incredibly long semi-bitter rant and expands well beyond calling out just one person in Psychonauts fandom (and yes, this is related to Psychonauts fandom – you do know that these anons are not really that anonymous, right?) so… buckle up! All that beneath “read more”.

I’ve been on this hellsite for like…7-8 years? Maybe more? Can’t really tell cause I moved blogs and my old blog now consists of only 4 posts I’ve made close to leaving so I honestly have no idea how much time I’ve spend here before moving. Anyway, during those few years I’ve spent on my first blog I’ve met a lot of creative gifmakers who enjoyed sharing their love for fandoms they were in. I’d like to point out that this was waaaaay before tumblr created that insert-gif option so, back in the day, the only way to add gifs to your post was to: 1. make them yourself 2. take them from someone else. And a lot of people were taking them from someone else which resulted in many gifmakers giving up on making gifs and leaving fandoms and/or even leaving tumblr – and I’ve had many of my friends give up on what they love and have their games/shows/movies/whatnot ruined for them cause people would not stop stealing from them. And many of my friends eventually left tumblr cause they couldn’t deal with it anymore.

Tumblr adding insert-gif option, in my opinion, honestly, just made it worse for gifmakers. Cause now people had the opportunity to use gifs for their posts, with or without creators’ permission/knowledge, but it was alright and it was perfectly fine cause creators were credited. There’s their name at the bottom. It’s alright. Like… it doesn’t matter if they’re actually okay with people using something they’ve put hours into making or if they’re not – tumblr gives them credit so they SHOULD be okay with it. Simple as that.

Well, we’re all different and some people are not okay with that. I’m not okay with that. It took me weeks to figure out how to use photoshop correctly. Took me countless hours of looking through different tutorials and basically trial-and-error-ing my way through the process. Whenever I make gifs, it takes me hours to record videos and then hours trying to achieve that 3mb limit on gifs (thank lord these days we’re beyond 1mb limit). After all that effort I put into creating gifs for games that I love and enjoy, someone is going to make 2 clicks and have that same gif added to their post, without even asking. So how is that okay?

Back to your question. Yes, “no matter what you do a lot of them show up in the gif function on Tumblr”, that is true and that is something I was aware of when I saw you-know-who announcing they would be starting 30 days Psychonauts challenge. So, hating to see my gifs used against my will, and not wanting to start any unnecessary drama and threaten people in advance with reporting them if they do use them, I’ve made my blog as private as I could. It was only accessible through the dashboard, it was not showing in ANY search engines inside and outside tumblr, and my gifs were impossible to find through insert-gif function – I’ve made sure. I did all that cause I just knew that during those 30 days, someone would use my gifs and I would get mad and I desperately wanted to avoid that (hence going extreme). And you know what happened? You know what creator of this challenge (who prevously already reposted my gifs) did? *drums* They used my shit anyway. :3 They just uploaded it from their computer, where they’ve saved it earlier.

And like… a lot of people see pretty pic and decide to save it - I mean, we all do that. Heck, even I have a folder full of shit I saw online and liked it – but i’m not uploading it online cause I haven’t made it. It’s not mine to share.

But some people are not like that.

Some people see fanart of something they like and they want to share their opinion on it – and instead of making their own post, maybe drawing the fanart themselves, they decide to use someone else’s art for their post. Do they know who made it? Do they have creator’s permission to share it? If the answer is NO, then they should be a decent human being and not do that to creators. Oh, they shared it anyway but now people in fandom are calling them out BUT this actually happened on accident? They know who the creator is but, somehow, they accidentally forgot to credit them? OK, well, it’s possible, shit happens, but they better make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Then sometime later these same people decide they want to make a post appreciating their fav character and they want to include pics cause duh, you can’t have character appreciation post without pics, right? Now they have several options: they can get their own screenshots, make their own gifs, maybe draw something… or they can just take someone else’s creation. Do they know who made it? Well there’s my fuckin name on it, and since they’ve stretched it from 245 to 500px, it’s really hard to miss, plus it’s not like there are that many people making Psychonauts gifs. Do they have permission to share it? Hmmm, nope, didn’t ask me. Is this also an accident? Could be. I mean, I’ve seen stranger things happen, so accidentally forgetting to credit content creators twice… kinda suspicious but still possible. Who am I to say?

Now if these people then decide to make a post appreciating their fav ship and they want to add a cute pic of the loving couple – yup, you guessed it! They can either create something or take something. Again: they know who did? They asked for permission? Got the permission? No?!?! But they posted it anyway?!?! :o Could it really be, that after being called out publicly, after being told that reposting is bad (something that’s very easy to understand), after even having tumblr staff intervene and remove stolen shit from their blog, after all that - could it really still be an accident?

Nah, man.

They just don’t give a shit.

Cause if they did, they’d stop with that crap first time they were called out.

(and if you think Psychonauts fandom is their only fandom and that they’re not doing this crap in other fandoms too - hoooo, boy, do I have some bad news for you! Do you know how many stolen and butchered HP fanart is on their blog? Hobbit stuff? They seem to be one of the most accident-prone users on tumblr. And honestly - it’s a real miracle their blog’s not been terminated.)

Back to what I was talking about - I’m not okay with people using my gifs and I’ve made it very clear. I literally do not give a shit if I’m credited or not, I’ve made it very clear that I don’t want my gifs used without my permission. If you like them and want them on your blog, there’s a fuckin reblog button. It’s sole purpose is to allow you to share other people’s creations. Or shitposts, cause lord knows we all love those.

So that’s why when someone spends hours going through my Psychonauts tag and goes as far as to send me “I love your gifs” anonymous message, but the very next day makes stim moodboard post including one of my gifs, now cut and resized to fit 3x3 format they’re going with, I get mad. And that’s why when someone uses one of my gifs to promote their RP blog, butchering it to fit their aesthetics, and later when confronted going as far as blaming their good friend on it cause god! they’ve had no idea it wasn’t theirs, I get mad. (makes you wonder though: if they friend has such skills, why not making them gifs themselves?)

Like…. I’ve had my gifs stolen plenty of times. I’ve had them stolen for roleplaying, for headers, for imagines, just for notes… I’ve had them stolen by people claiming to run official fan sites (that’s a real wild story but I won’t get into that now)… I’ve seen them on pinterest, weheartit, FB, all those random gif sites… and I’ve seen EVERY. POSSIBLE. EXCUSE. ranging from: “well i found it on google so why should i credit you” “lol dunno who made this but its pretty so im posting it” “ive had it on my computer for years so i don’t remember where i got it from” “i dont know how to make gifs so im using weheartit as a source” “credit to whoever made this” (that’s my fav) to “its just a gif so who gives a shit” (it’s not – it’s hours of creator’s time and lots of love that you’re now shitting on so thanks) and “i have an /illness/ and getting notes makes me feel better so dont u dare blame me for stealing” (I don’t remember exact excuse but it was something along those lines and like… how do you even respond to something that without looking like an asshole?).

And sometimes it really is just an accident. Sometimes people really do forget to credit you and/or ask you for permission. And I’ve had my fair share of those accidents. People in Psychonauts fandom have been using my gifs for various crap but, when approached, they’ve removed it and apologised. And it’s something I really appreciate. (if they actually bother reading this and they recognise themselves: i’m really grateful and thank you for not being an ass)

But you know what I don’t appreciate? People making a call out posts about me, asking about my gifs when they know very well they’re the main reasons why I’m not making those gifs anymore, at the same time failing to address any of the issues I have with them and instead rather explaining to others what happened BUT explaining only the parts that make me look like a villain cause how I even dare be mad about them stealing? How I even dare call them out on it? That is so ridiculous and criminal of me, and it’s so so sooooo bad that they need to call me out. I deserve to be called out by the very same person who’s been stealing my shit.

And their explanation is…well… it’s something.

They were sympathetic and polite? When did this happen? Did I completely missed that part? Please someone fuckin enlighten me with such post/message where they expressed their sympathy and politeness and I’ll apologise right this second.

I told them to “literally fuck off”? Yeah, that did happen, I admit that. Did they bother explaining why I told them to fuck off in the first place? Did they say they were caught stealing from me and had tumblr stuff remove my shit from their blog? Did they get into details of how they demanded the proof of my so very wild and obviously false claims but then when I showed it, they just deleted that “how dare u call me out cause I would never do such thing” post? No, they didn’t and geee, I really wonder why.

Instead, what did they choose to address? Out of all the things I’ve said. Hm? What did they choose? Me telling them to fuck off. Me dropping the F-bomb on them, rudely rejecting their obvious kindness and politeness. Nothing else.

Back to what I was talking about before I got derailed again: no, I’m not mad cause this person used my gifs without crediting me. I mean – I am, but that’s not my main issue with them (and they know it). My main issue is that this is someone who will continuously lie and steal and still deny any of it, even when there’s plenty of proof (and you can always count on me to show up with proof tbh), and then go as far as to publicly ask about my gifs and try to call me out. Like me getting mad that something I’ve put hours of work into, and something I’ve made cause I love the game and I want to share my love and appreciation for it, is now being shared against my will and my knowledge - like me getting mad over something like that is so unreasonable that they need to make an entire post about it while pretending they have absolutely no idea why I’m even mad and why we have issues.

And I have every fucking right to be mad. 3 times is not an accident. 2 times to the same person is not an accident. They know it. But yeah, playing stupid is their defense so it’s not like I expected them to actually address their actions this time either.

And you know what? Just because I swear a lot doesn’t mean I’m wrong. Doesn’t mean there’s no solid ground for my claims. People on tumblr have always been and always will be stealing shit. Sometimes they will credit you, often they will not, and that’s just how it is, doesn’t matter if you’re okay with it or not. But that doesn’t mean I’m just gonna sit quiet and accept someone’s shitty behaviour. Especially when it’s directed at me.

TLDR: giving credit =/= having permission

but my previous posts leading to this ask were not about that

you knew that already

[flameingdaethfearies-blog1]

Learn To Do Affiliate Marketing Like A Rock Star and Make Money Like Donald Trump

So what's all the hype about affiliate marketing and what is it exactly?

The idea is that you promote other people's products, without the need of having to create your own and earn a commission for doing so, if people buy the product.

Simple, right?

Well not really, you do have to learn as you go along or pick up a course to teach you the basics. As long as you put the work in and don't expect to earn money overnight, it is a great way to enjoy the freedom of being your own boss and working the hours that suit you. In addition, you have the added benefit of not even having to get in your car and face the hustle and bustle of rush-hour traffic to make a decent income.

But how do you choose the products that you want to promote?

First of all you need to decide what niche, marketing online, dating, fitness, dieting etc.  I’d recommend that you search for a digital product, rather than a physical product and you’ll need to find one that has an affiliate program and get approval to promote it before you do anything.  Once approved you will be provided with your unique affiliate link.  

The next step is to do your due-diligence. Don't just promote any old product without knowing something about it - if it fails to meet the customer's needs or doesn’t work for whatever reason, it will be your door that these angry customers come knocking on and believe me, that's no way to be a successful affiliate marketer.

Instead, take the time to find out about the product, I would highly recommend that you buy it yourself so that you can become familiar with it and find out whether it's any good.  If it is, then you can happily promote it and if customers have questions, they will be able to contact you and you will be in a position to help them - remember, happy customers will be with you for life and will more than likely to buy from you again :)

Another suggestion is contacting the product vendor and asking them if they would be willing to provide you with a review copy of their product, on the understanding that you will promote it.  Not everyone will say yes but it's worth a try.

Do a search on Google and find out what other people are saying about the product - if it's got a lot of negative reviews or comments - just steer clear - it will be more trouble than what it's worth. Instead, choose a product that people are happy with.

A good way to get traffic to a particular offer you choose to promote is by creating your own review blog or video. Make sure these are genuinely helpful for people, rather than making it obvious that you're just trying to score a sale. People aren't stupid and they will see through you. In the description of your video or at the end of your blog, you can add a sentence suggesting the reader clicks the link for further information and this is where you would add your affiliate link - if the reader buys through your link, bingo, you've made a sale :)

You can also sweeten the deal by offering visitors a bonus of say a free report or a plugin if they buy through your link. If you decide to do this, it's a good idea to offer something that's in some way related to the product you're promoting. If you can offer something that will enhance your customers’ results, your conversions will improve dramatically.

Once you have a few sales under your belt, try different methods of promotion, for example, try starting a YouTube channel and regularly post review videos - share these videos on social media sites to get the word out there.

As the money comes in, you may want to look at paid advertising, such as Facebook ads but start your budget low to see how people respond to your offer otherwise the profits you originally made will quickly deplete.

Facebook advertising is not an easy platform to master and I would seriously consider picking up a course to teach you the basics if you are not familiar it.  It is incredibly easy to lose your shirt from my experience. One thing to point out though, is that you must understand that you will not make money right away with Facebook advertising, you need to spend money to make money.

When you first start advertising with Facebook, your aim is to gather data, not make sales.  Many marketers forget this and give-up on this platform, when the real money could be just around the corner.

Gathering data is basically all about checking out what sort of people are clicking on your ads, are they male or female, what age range are they, what sort of interests do they have?

How are people responding to your ad copy, is your image the right fit for your ad? Targeting is also a major influencer, which is why I recommend you seek training, prior to advertising on Facebook. Another tip is to consider doing video advertising on Facebook as your costs will be a whole lot cheaper.

From my personal perspective, I think affiliate marketing is one of the most lucrative businesses out there, offering the freedom to work the hours you choose in the comfort of your own home, however it's not for everyone.

You can find out more about affiliate marketing at my blog here!

[magnusthemes]

Here’s to 4 years of MagnusThemes :D

4 years and one day bc it’s now 29-Jan and my anniversary is 28-Jan lmao wyd @ me lol I was supposed to publish a theme too but well it didn’t happen and I accidentally released it too early hahahahaha literally wyd @ me

I have no idea how I managed to keep this blog going for 4 years tbh, it’s really insane to think about the fact that I was only 16 (secondary 4) when I made my first terrible theme? I don’t even remember clearly how or why I even started, most likely it was just on a crazy whim, but it’s crazy because all I remember is Googling my ass off and sitting in front of my computer for hours on end and hurting my butt (yes, it happened) to make just one shitty theme... At the time it really felt like I’d just blindly dived into the deep end of a 3-meter swimming pool without even knowing how to swim because I had zero coding experience. Zero. Zilch. Nothing. I’d played around with themes for a couple of months (Yukoki’s Alive theme was my fave and it was like the ultimate holy grail of theme making for me, and I obsessively checked my favourite theme makers’ blogs daily for new themes) but while a lot of other people come into theme making with PHP experience, Javascript experience, HTML/CSS experience from elsewhere, I had nothing. Literally down the deep end for me!

And ultimately I ended up making such a mess that I now run a full-fledged theme blog which has become not only my main creative outlet but also my stress relief hahahah I’ve deleted so many of my old codes but I’m really happy that I decided to continue with this whim of mine over the years haha!

I guess I was just kind of searching for some form of validation that I felt I really needed because irl, 2014 was a pretty crap year for me and that was coming off another somewhat-crap year of 2013. I was getting shit from a bunch of unpleasant people at school and it made me feel like utter trash to the point that I genuinely contemplated suicide at many points of time that year. So it really filled me with joy that the crap theme got like more than 0 notes because it was something I made, and the fact that someone liked it enough to want the post on their blog made me feel that, hey, maybe I wasn’t unwanted and worthless, maybe I do have something I could be decent at (other than always screwing things up and/or lying down aimlessly on my bed). And I guess I liked it so much that I kept going, kept sketching up layouts to code, kept sitting my ass down in front of the computer for hours on end, and I really poured nearly all my feelings of unworthiness into this blog that eventually, it became something that I really looked forward to at the end of every stressful school day. And as that happened, I started wanting to know more, to learn more, and apart from HTML and CSS, I even picked up jQuery (and even pure Javascript now too!). During stressful periods, I was always on here, making stuff, coding, learning more, to take my mind off schoolwork. Even in the middle of A-Levels, I was coding, and I ended up releasing something the day before my Economics paper LOL what a mess...

Running this blog has made me feel like I can really do things, really put my ideas into action, because it’s really a one-man show of design --> code --> publish. Throughout junior college it was kind of a fallback for me in a sense that whenever I felt inferior that I wasn’t being a leader in school, wasn’t doing enough extracurriculars, etc, at least I remembered that I still have a very unique hobby of coding themes, because none of my classmates/friends knew how to code, and it became something that I really took pride in, that could set me apart from everyone else.

Eventually, when I applied to university, I was accepted easily because of my grades, but during the three interviews I’d had, I spoke about my code with pride, because it’s not easy to teach yourself a skill that many people pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars to learn. I remember one of the professors interviewing me for one of my grants remarked, hey, I’m really impressed that you’ve managed to learn code and to do all this without any background and all on your own! I felt super good because, yeah, I did do all of that! (Fun fact, that guy’s now the prof supervising my research LOL) And during orientations and stuff, I knew nobody, nobody at all, and it was pretty cool that I could always use “my hobby is coding” and “I do web design in my free time” as my fun facts hahahah and it’s really helped me a lot with my issues of generally feeling worthless and dumb and stupid. Even in actual computing classes (last semester I took a C module and got an A instead of an A+ which I’m still salty about, and now I’m doing an Arduino module), my Javascript that I picked up while on here comes in really handy, because I understand code logic, loops, functions a lot easier than my peers and my life’s been really easy, which has really given me a boost.

I even genuinely considered pursuing an IT-related degree for university before deciding on my aerospace engineering major, but honestly, at age 16, when I’d first started this blog, I could never have imagined that I’d make it this far. It was just by chance that I started this blog, There’s been both ups and downs, I’ve met and kinda bonded with a lot of people I now consider my friends through the theme-making community, but I’ve also experienced all the unpleasantness of code theft, design theft, credit removal etc and though I’ve wanted to quit many times over, I’m really glad I didn’t. I get asked a lot, hey Bev, what would you do if you weren’t coding? And my reply is always “I don’t know”, because I really can’t imagine myself without code. Maybe I’d be baking cakes, pastries, cookies? Who knows? 

Many many things and people have helped me get to where I am today, but I definitely wouldn’t be here if not for theme making. I’d probably be rotting somewhere, wasting my days away, but because of that one minute of madness resulting in me logging out and clicking “Sign Up” with a new email address, I’m here. Without you guys, I wouldn’t have gotten this far, and I’d really like to thank all of you for sticking with me to this day and for being a great bunch of followers and users. I may go ballistic sometimes, I may disappear for long periods of time without notice, etc, but I’m really glad that you guys are still here.

I can’t promise that I’ll be here more often (because most likely I won’t, due to university), but thanks for 4 great years, and here’s to many more years of MagnusThemes!

[adaysnotes]

02152020

I think I have achieved the workstation setup that really caters to my specific ‘workflow’.

I did have previous decent setups but I think what makes my current one stand out is that I went past not just considering how an actual peripheral will be used but instead to consider it part of my entire workflow. Like the keyboard, for example. Plenty of times before, I would pick a keyboard solely because I thought it would really feel good when I played my online games, and also when typing blog entries, etc. I never gave much thought about how it would fit the rest of the other accessories -- say, the mouse.

This time around, I tried to come up with a setup that would work well as a unit, and, at the same time, has parts that are in itself high-performing. Working from home has presented this need since I try not to mix work with pleasure. That just basically means I don’t use the work laptop for browsing personal stuff, and my personal desktop for work and development tasks as well. (I wasn’t always like this, of course. Back in the office, there was no choice but to use your office laptop for browsing. Haha!)

I was also kind of getting tired with the gaming look of the setup that I had for quite sometime. I thought I’d go for a look more aimed at productivity -- a little more professional, if I may say so. Add that to the fact that I try to always think of ways in which I could save time and space in my daily life.  Among the things that had been at the back of my mind bugging me were my current desk devices and layout. The things that I had on my desk -- the gaming mouse and keyboard -- just took up too much space.

So my step 1 was to get rid of the gaming peripherals. I sold my Logitech G512 keyboard, the Razer Ergonomic Wrist Rest, and the Razer Mamba mouse. My colleague got the mechanical keyboard and wrist rest at a bargain, and a buyer from Carousell bought the mouse for a steal price also.

I went back to the Magic Keyboard that came with the iMac... but I could not make myself go back to the Magic Mouse simply because I just hated that thing. I never got the idea behind that device. It’s not ergonomic, which was toally un-Apple-like. 

When I had my MacBook (before I had this desktop), I was curious what the fuzz was about this Magic Mouse so I decided to try and buy one. I thought it might make using Photoshop or Lightroom easier, etc. I was so wrong. In no fucking way did it make any of my computer use more convenient. I sold it two days later. Hahahaha! The only reason why I still have a Magic Mouse now is that it came with the iMac. I didn’t want to add for a Magic Trackpad back then since I didn’t think I wanted it -- and I still had my Razer Mamba mouse then.

This time I decided to go with the Magic Trackpad 2. I’ve seen Vuhlandes’ workstation on his vlogs and he has that same trackpad. Plus, I’ve always placed a premium on devices that offer both the options of using it wired and wireless.

When I started editing photos with the Magic Trackpad, however, the use of brushes was a pain point I encountered. Using the trackpad in performing any click-and-drag task proved to be very unintuitive and, frankly, just difficult. Any click-drag activity would require you to exert more effort, not to mention that it grants you less control than if you were using a mouse. So I looked around the internet on what tools other photographers use.

The main solution that I came up with was to use a graphic tablet. To that end, one of my brothers lent me his Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch when I told them about the possibility of getting myself a Wacom. I tried using it immediately once he let me borrow it, and I was totally blown away. It presented too great of an ease in my photo-editing workflow, instantly turning it into a quick hassle-free moment. For the short period that I used it in Capture One, the focus was on the things I wanted to do to get the output that I wanted and less on the ‘how’ would I do those same things. The next day, when I told my brother I was sold on the idea getting myself a graphics tablet, he told me that I can have his Wacom Bamboo. Wow!

While the graphic tablet covered the difficulty encountered with photo-editing softwares’ brushes and sliders, it occupied considerable table real estate next to a keyboard. A full-time mouse is also not its primary use case (I’m guessing, of course) so for me -- a stickler to a-place-for-everything-and-every-thing-in-its-place mantra, it was not an ideal solution for casual use. There were still normal, everyday click-and-drag scenarios (e.g. moving folder items to a different window on a big display, etc.) that doesn’t exactly present the need to bring out a pen & touch tablet full-time. Those would still require a mouse.

My search for a mouse was for a couple of reasons, with one being the reason I explained above. One of the other reasons was that I wanted a heftier and a more reliable mouse to use with my day job: software development work. 

The Logitech M720, the mouse that I had been using for my office-issued laptop, was becoming a little light for my taste. At the same time it was also unraveling now that I do mostly hardcore development work solely on a laptop display,  without an extended monitor. It’s selection and click-drag accuracy (or lack of it) has become more pronounced with the smaller screen space. Using it in the office before where there was a monitor offset this nuisance by forcing me to just aim more precisely and click more deliberately at the target. Here, right now, there is just no way to mitigate that. It was the M720′s time to go. My Wacom-tablet donor of a brother happened to also want a mouse for his MacBook Pro so I just handed him this one.

The Logitech MX Master 3 was just the perfect choice for my mouse. It still has the multi-device capability that the M720 had -- which I had never used (I just knew it had that because of the additional buttons) --- but it was also bigger and heavier. It was also more reliable -- a conclusion I gathered from watching some couple dozen of YouTube videos and fiddling through Google’s search results of “best mouse for Mac”. So I did my usual online window-shopping for a week or so. Units of the mouse weren’t really easy to come by locally and prices were also really all over the place so I decided to go for the ones in the middle price range, eventually settling on a Facebook page that sells electronic components for robotics, and stuff. They happened to have an MX Master 3 in their inventory posted, which I found quite weird since they were selling mostly electrical circuit boards for Raspberry Pi and whatnot. I messaged them one evening and told them that I’ll order the next day and have it picked up once they confirm the order and payment. 

When I finally got to use my own Logitech MX Master 3, it did not disappoint. It wasn’t over the top. I mean, you could consider the modern look to be (it really isn’t). But the performance? It didn’t hit you with a wow. It just flat out, simply delivered. It did what I wanted it to do. The setup was easy, the moving between my work laptop and my personal desktop was seamless. These days, I’m even playing Starcraft: Remastered with it. It was like a perfect marriage of all the features that I wanted in a mouse: the wired/wireless option, the multi-device support, modern design, right amount of heft, the softness of the click, the sleek charging cable, etc. It was just the right work mouse.

Now, let’s go to the keyboard.

Apple’s Magic Keyboard is no doubt an impressive piece of equipment and is very fun to use. However, using it for a long period of time will really suck since there is nothing really ergonomic about it. It’s too low and flat (both its frame and keys) that when you’re trying to type fast you would find that you are actually banging on the keys. That’s not good. I am also a deep lover of the number pad. This is also one of the reasons why I’ve always felt the need to get an external keyboard when using a laptop: I feel that a work setup is incomplete without a numpad. What I wanted now was a keyboard with a numpad that still has the compactness somehow of Apple’s keyboard. But as I was looking around what to get, I would still try and look for models that have my nice-to-have features: wired/wireless options and mechanical.

This is where I first began taking a serious look at the Keychron brand. Their Keychron K4 V2 wireless mechanical keyboard checks all those boxes that I’ve laid out. It’s a 100-key mechanical keyboard that can be used wired or wireless, and is compact. It also has the multi-device feature, which completely had me sold on it since I was just getting the hang of this particular feature on the MX Master 3 mouse. Just thinking of a one-keyboard-one-mouse setup for both my office laptop and iMac, I was already giddy with the space I’ve saved on my desk. And so in a way, when I had read up on all of the K4 V2′s features while waiting for my turn with the dentist, it was a no-brainer. When I got home that night, I ordered the keyboard online along with the Keychron wooden palm rest.

One thing that I also loved about the Keychron K4 was that its visual elements are very minimal. It doesn’t have a huge frame, and the design is pretty straightforward. It’s minimal and it’s also nostalgic. Its boxy keys takes me back to the times when I was playing alone as a make-believe hacker with the mechanical keyboard (all keyboards were mechanical back in the day) from our old computer. The K4 also has RGB lighting but it does grant you options to change the colors and lighting effects, or even turn it off completely (which I did with mine).

So now, I have a multi-device combo of an awesome mouse and an equally awesome compact keyboard for use for work and for pleasure, a trackpad for smooth scrolling and also serves as a backup cursor, and a graphic pen & tablet which I pull out from the side for a more precise and efficient creative workflow. I know, I know -- it’s really very specific to me. But so far, it works.

This entry took quite a while to finish. I started this one on the 15th, and it’s now sometime past midnight of the 20th. 

[michaelandy101-blog]

When (and When Not) to Outsource Link Building

New Post has been published on http://tiptopreview.com/when-and-when-not-to-outsource-link-building/

When (and When Not) to Outsource Link Building

Have you ever outsourced link building? How did you like the experience?

To be honest, mine was terrible. Allow me to share my story.

When I had a typical 9-to-5 job as a marketing director at SEMrush, we made a decision to get more links from the top resources in our segment. We ended up hiring an agency to help us build these links. The agency was charging us an outrageous $13K a month, but, unfortunately, the high price didn’t equal quality. They weren’t capable of writing anything meaningful, not to mention publishing their content on trustworthy industry blogs. What made things worse was the fact that I brought them on board.

Needless to say, we stopped working with this agency. We decided to give another one a try, thinking that this time luck would be on our side.

Well, we were wrong. Although the second agency charged us nearly three times less and promised premium quality work with superb links and stellar results, the outcome was disappointing, to say the least. We ended up getting links from irrelevant content published on sites that wrote about everything, from the ten best sex positions to the ultimate guide on cleaning your toilet.

As ridiculous as it may sound right now, back then, I didn’t feel amused. These two failed attempts at outsourcing link building left me convinced in two things: getting high-quality links is a job to be done internally, and outsourcing is simply pouring money down the drain.

Fast forward to now, and I can honestly tell you that my opinion on outsourcing has changed. Since these two unfortunate scenarios with outsourcing, I went from working for SEMrush to being a freelancer, and, when the amount of work started to grow, I launched my own link building agency, Digital Olimpus. As I gained more experience in this field, I started to realize why our attempts at outsourcing failed so miserably.

At that time, I didn’t know the ropes of link acquisition. We weren’t thinking ahead to establish strict requirements to prevent us from getting links from low-quality sites. Thus, as I went through trial and error, I gathered some unique insights about the pros and cons of link building outsourcing. Today, I’d like to share these insights with you so you can better understand which option is the right one for you — to hire an agency or an in-house link builder.

When is outsourcing the right choice for you?

Here’s my perspective as the owner of a link building agency.

The majority of our clients come to us because they don’t have the time or resources to set up a decent link building process by themselves. Most of the time, their current focus is shifted towards some other business goals, but they still understand the value of links and have some pages that are trying to rank well on Google.

Usually, our ideal client knows what kinds of pages they want to boost via links, and they understand how SEO works. In most cases, they have an SEO team that has a lack of resources to step into link building, so they’re looking for someone who could help them get some juicy links.

So, at the end of the day, our clients pay for our knowledge and experience. But there are also other reasons why companies may choose to outsource link building to an agency as opposed to hiring an in-house specialist.

1. If hiring an experienced link builder is too expensive

The first reason to outsource link building is in the recruitment costs.

According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a junior-level link builder is about 30-40K, while those who are extremely experienced will be looking for an estimated yearly salary around 100K USD. As for the hourly rate, the lowest would be $13, while more experienced link building specialists expect you to pay them as high as $16 an hour.

Besides salaries, you also need to consider other points. For example, your in-house link building specialist would also need content developed specifically for link building purposes, which should have its own separate budget. Apart from that, to do the job properly, they need to have access to backlink analysis tools, like Ahrefs (costs $99/month), SEMrush (also $99/month), Moz (starting $99/month), and Pitchbox (starting from $300/month). All in all, you’ll have to pay for these tools, which alone will cost around 6K a year.

To put a long story short, hiring an in-house link builder will cost you a pretty penny. Moreover, it might take you quite a while to find the in-house link builder you’re looking for. So, while you’re searching for one, you could give an agency a try to get your link building strategy started.

2. If you need to get links straight away

The biggest difference between hiring an in-house link builder vs. an agency is the speed of acquiring links. Usually, an agency already has a tried-and-tested link building strategy, while an in-house link builder still has to develop one.

In my opinion, this is the biggest reason why our clients are choosing our fellow link building agencies and us. We have a well-established process of building links, but most importantly – we’ve already developed meaningful relationships across particular industries and niches. So, in some cases, it doesn’t take us longer than a few minutes to secure a link.

However, if you decide to do link building by yourself, you shouldn’t expect instant results. On average, it takes 3-4 months to start getting at least 10-20 links every month. Besides, it might take you a while to find the right and meaningful way to connect with other sites, and to learn how to pitch your ideas properly.

I should say that, even for my agency, it’s always a big issue to open a new niche and start building a decent number of links per month. The first few months are resulting in 2-4 links, and that for sure can’t be described as a decent flow of links.

3. If you need help educating your team on how to build links the right way

The exchange of knowledge and experience is another reason to outsource link building. It’s definitely why I outsource some tasks, and work closely with those who have substantial expertise in the areas where I don’t feel as confident.

Paying for knowledge is an excellent way to spend money, especially if you lack time. For example, I understand how long it would take me to learn before I could do technical SEO myself, so I’d rather hire someone to help me with that instead. And, while we’re working together, I’ll take this opportunity to enhance my knowledge as well.

For this exact reason, we have a few contractors on our team who are working on other projects, but gladly share their unique strategies and approaches with us. It’s like a breath of fresh air – their experience gives us new perspectives on building high-quality links.

By the way, if you decide to hire an in-house link builder, it might take them quite some time to learn how to work with such contractors, while a link building agency would already have well-established relationships with them.

So, with all that said, try to perceive outsourcing as a learning opportunity. If you already have some experience in link building, you don’t necessarily need to ask an agency to educate you. Instead, you can follow their strategy if you see that it’s working. We have a few clients who follow this logic, as they do link building in-house while still being under our guidance. Sure, one day, they might start building links independently, but it feels nice that we paved that path for them.

4. If you want links that would take you ages to acquire by yourself

Again, it’s all about the connections and how well you can build relationships with them. If you don’t have a tight circle of partners, you can’t expect quick results from your link building efforts.

Usually, the best link building agencies already have a great network of partners. However, it’s still very important to double-check that an agency operates within your niche and has some meaningful connections.

But even if the agency hasn’t worked in your niche before, don’t give up on it just yet. Most likely, the agency might still be able to network faster due to existing relationships with partners and word-of-mouth power.

Still, even for an experienced agency, developing the network of connections in a new and unexplored field will take some time. We’re always very transparent when it comes to telling a client that we haven’t yet worked within their industry, but some clients are ready to wait. However, your needs might be different, so always bring up this question to avoid misunderstandings.

5. If you need to scale your current link building efforts

Sometimes brands realize that link building can be a good strategy for them, but they might not fully understand how to approach it, considering the specifics of their industry and niche. If this is your case, the agency will help you select the right angle and review your current link building needs objectively.

Another pain point that makes our clients ask for our help is building links to problematic targets. Some pages — commercial ones, for example — are hard to build links to in an organic way. In my recent blog post, I talked more on the topic of building links to commercial pages and a few examples of how it can be done. But if you struggle with acquiring links to some pages, you can outsource this task to an agency, which will find the right way to address these difficulties and tackle them.

When outsourcing isn’t your best option

As someone who went through an unpleasant experience with outsourcing, I should say that you really have to know what you need when hiring an agency. This might be the first and most crucial reason not to outsource link building – you should know what to expect.

However, there are also other situations when outsourcing link building will be a waste of time and money. Let’s take a look.

1. You’re looking for digital PR and consider it link building

Over the years, I’ve met a lot of potential clients who ask for articles on leading sites in their industry just for the sake of having their brand mentioned by a popular resource. While getting links from such websites would be good for your brand image, this is a task for PR.

Here’s the thing: Links acquired from such resources are usually very weak from an SEO standpoint. Besides, there are cases when guest contributors sell links from these sites. In one of them, a well-known writer who worked for Forbes and Entrepreneur sold links under the radar, which is forbidden by Google’s guidelines.

As a result, links to such websites rarely bring any benefit, because they don’t carry the SEO value we are usually looking for.

From an SEO standpoint, the best links come from websites that are not involved in such suspicious activities. In addition, don’t be quick to trust influencers, since they often sell links on their websites as well.

Instead, try to find a website that doesn’t have guest posts. Google typically favors guest posting, while pushing the websites which are only used for link building to the bottom of search results.

2. You don’t have a solid SEO strategy and you just want to build some links

Many clients don’t understand that link building and SEO are interconnected. When it comes to link building, you need to remember that the results only come if you make links to the right pages from an SEO standpoint.

What does that mean? Such pages should target the right keywords relevant to your business, and that don’t have an insane level of competition. Also, content that is allocated on those pages should match user intent.

Just for context, it takes 10 times more time to get a page with commercial intent to the top of Google results, especially if the top 10 have informational intent.

Ideally, you should understand how many links you need in order to close the current link gap; otherwise, it might take ages for your page to rank well on Google. By analyzing what kind of links your rivals have already built, you can set up the right requirements for your link building agency.

3. You have very strict requirements and an agency can’t hit that mark

Sometimes, clients underestimate their link building needs. But other times, their expectations can be way too high, and it turns into a real problem. Let me give you some examples.

Once, we had a client that wanted us to implement a whole new link building approach just for his campaign. Everything should have gone great, except he forgot to tell us that he would need a unique approach, and what we were capable of providing at that time wasn’t what he was interested in.

Naturally, our partnership ended on that note. We decided to return the funds to this client and move forward. Now we do an in-depth interview with every client to give them a very detailed overview of our link building approach and our capabilities.

The same problem can occur in a few other cases:

You want links that will be allocated only in particular content. Ask the agency if it gets links through guest blogging. If not, this is not the best option for you.

You have a list of sites from which you want to get links. Contrary to what you might expect, link building isn’t an exact science, and it’s hard to predict or guarantee that a link will be secured on a particular site.

You want links only on pages that have already built a solid number of links and are already ranking well on Google. That’s a smart strategy, but it should only be done internally, since getting a link on such a page might take ages.

So, as I mentioned before, ask the agency about its capabilities before you outsource link building. It would be fair for both sides if you and the agency have clear expectations of the final result.

4. You expect to receive referral traffic from links that an agency will be building for you

Unfortunately, there’s minimal chance that referral traffic will come. Digital marketing experts confirm that there’s a very slim chance that even guest blogging on leading sites will bring you a solid flow of referral visitors.

Nowadays, steady referral traffic only comes through sources of organic traffic. A good example is this article with a list of SEO tools by Brian Dean that receives over 7K organic visitors per month:

Certainly, tools listed in Brian’s post are all getting some traffic, too, as those visitors are browsing through them and would love to learn more about them.

In general, we rarely see that our clients are getting referral traffic. Getting a good link is one scenario, but getting a good link that will send referral traffic is a whole other story.

In my opinion, building the links that will most likely send you a solid flow of referral visitors requires an analysis of current sources of referral traffic to your competitors and industry leaders. Then, you must try to understand the reason behind this traffic, whether it’s an active audience, being featured in a newsletter, etc. But the entire process differs from the link building strategy we usually follow.

5. You’re too busy to communicate your feedback to the agency

If you expect the link building agency to deliver the results you expect, communication is key. Outsourcing is not about delegating the task and forgetting about it. It’s about close collaboration.

With that said, be prepared to have to go on a number of calls with an agency just to figure out the link building strategy you will follow, not to mention other related meetings that will occur in the process. It is especially important if your link building needs are very specific.

So, let me reiterate – ongoing communication is crucial for building juicy, high-quality links. If you don’t have time to talk with the agency and articulate your needs and expectations properly, outsourcing link building is not the right option for you.

6. You don’t have a sufficient budget

If you are planning to hire an agency to outsource link building, you should evaluate your financial situation first, because it will cost you a fair amount of money.

To give you some context, we only take long-term contracts starting from $10K because one-time partnerships don’t help bring permanent link building results. In general, the entire process of building links should be ongoing, and your website should continuously show a rising link growth graph:

So, no matter how hard you try, the lack of a systematic approach to link building means no tangible results, and the client won’t get any profit from these links. That’s what made me understand that single-time link building is a waste of time and money.

What’s the verdict?

All in all, I should say that hiring a link building agency is worth every penny, as long as it has the experience you’re looking for, of course. Just from the rational standpoint, it’s much harder and more cost-intensive to do link building by yourself, especially if you have little knowledge of it.

There are also other perks of outsourcing link building. First and foremost, when you’re hiring an agency to build links, you’re paying for the speed of acquiring links. An agency already has all the connections to get links faster, in addition to a well-established process of building links in general.

Nevertheless, evaluate your needs first. Outsourcing might not be the best option for you if you are more interested in PR, not link building. You might also want to check what the agency can offer, as your requirements might not fit its profile. And, of course, outsourcing is not an option if you don’t have time to communicate with an agency or you have insufficient funds for such partnership.

However, in general, if you ask me now if outsourcing is worth it, I would say yes, but only if you are committed. Remember, outsourcing link building to an agency shouldn’t be a one-time occasion. If you want ongoing results, you need to commit to a long-term, close cooperation.

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How to Come Up With Content Ideas That Drive Traffic

There's so many topics that you can be blogging on. But how can you pick blog post topics that consistently generate more traffic? Hey everyone I'm Neil Patel and today I'm going to break down how to come up with blog topic, ideas that consistently generate traffic ( upbeat music ) Before we get started, make sure you subscribe to this channel and if you're on YouTube click the alert notification. Now. First, off what I want you to do is go to Ubersuggest, So neilpatel Com/Ubersuggest - and I want you to put in your domain name If you don't get a lot of traffic well, you can put in one of the competitor domain names see what they're blogging on, But I recommend that you first start off by putting in your own domain Name And when you put in your own domain name it'll, look something like this. This breaks down all the other, similar websites that are related to yours. So when you put in your URL it'll allow you to analyze your competitors And you'll see a list here at the top. You see, I see Forbes Word Stream, Neil Patel, which is mine, Searching Journal, HubSpot, Hootsuite And there's many many more options. What I want you to do is cross off the ones. Click the X buttons to the ones that aren't that related See Forbes, I'm a marketing blog. They talk about many more things than just marketing. So I'm going to X that one out - And this right here is pretty good. So what I want to do now is scroll down and you want to look at key word gaps. Keyword gaps shows you all the keywords that your competitors rank for, that you don't rank for, And you want to go through the list. So let me start off with WordStream, So if I click view all under WordStream, this will show me the keyword gaps for WordStream Now. Some of these keywords don't get tons of traffic. Some of themdo And you know presentations So presentations marketing. They go well together. Podcasts advertising look at the CPC on that one. So I'll! Look at podcasts advertising here And then I want you to do - is Google for podcast advertising You'll see if you rank, I look my buddy Eric ranks high up Our WordStream rank's there Marketing land - I don't see neilpatel.com, And it doesn't mean that I don't have a blog post on podcasts advertising. This is why I'm scrolling a little bit just to make sure to see if I have a post on podcast advertising. Because if I don't, I can then write a article on podcast advertising. Next you'll want to go into your own WordPress back end or your blogging back end and search for posts with that term. So I'm going to search for podcast advertising and I have tons of content here, as you can see, 7,100 Podcasts through paid ads How to promote your podcast to pay ads. That'S not on podcast, I don't know how to get podcast sponsors, As you can see here, based on the titles, there's nothing that really focuses just on podcast advertising, such as how podcasts advertising works or how to advertise on podcasts. Those are all examples of podcasts advertising. So if I go back to page one, I can then look at podcast advertising. The number one ranking site is Midroll, the world's largest podcast advertising network, The Single Grain, one is podcast advertising. What you need to know - And this URL here gets around 33,792 visits. I can click that and it'll load up all the other keywords that the URL ranks for In many cases it can be a lot and lot of URLs . So then, that way, once it loads up, you can see it All right: advertise podcast, podcasts advertising, podcast marketing, podcast advertisers, podcast ad. I can keep clicking next and it'll. Give me more and more suggestions. What you'll want to do is export these keywords and it'll. Take you to neilpatel.com, where you can export'em And once you export'em you'll have a list of keywords that you can include in your blog posts. So now I know, look Eric's getting a lot of traffic for podcast advertising, This one's getting 15,000 And it's not all about. If you rank at the top, you get the most traffic. As you can see here, this one ranks higher gets 15,000 This one ranks here: second, it gets 33,000. The reason being is the second one is going after more keywords: more than just podcasts advertising. Ex, as I showed you here, podcast ad or podcasting marketing, These are all other variations that can also drive traffic as well, And then what I want you to do, if you actually don't have this actually a quick step you can take. Is you just google Ubersuggest Chrome extension It'S the first result here You can install it and then that way, whenever you do, Google searches like I did you'll end up getting the traffic estimation right here, which is the estimated visits for that specific URL And the WordStream one as you can see, which is Where I got the idea from gets 5,700, So you can go through a few of them and it'll, give you ideas And then I'll also want you to load up the actual blog post. So this one is on Single Grain, I'll load it up. Let me load up the WordStream one, Let's see who else gets decent traffic? Some of these don't get much traffic 2,000. 1,000. This one gets 15,000 And the reason you want to load up, the bigger ones is, keep in mind. You may not always rank as high as other people. Sadly, no matter how good you are at SEO. A lot of it has to do with content, quality and factors that you can't control. Such as relevancy, how much authority your site has in the niche, But what you'll want to do is you'll want to load up a few of the blog posts. So here's a Single Grain, one podcast advertising, what you need to know. And it's pretty thorough. I would take much much more time reading it to see what they're doing really well And then I can end up trying to create a better version of it And then let me go to the WordStream one podcasts advertise 101. 4 tips to get you started. Similar, I would just go through the whole process. See what they're doing that's unique and just try to create a better version, The Midroll one. This is more so like a landing page that just talks about that they're, a podcast advertising network. So I wouldn't copy this one, And even these I wouldn't copy'em. I would try to create better versions of it. So you want to poke holes. What is their content not covering? Is it up-to-date? Do they talk about networks where you can advertise on podcasts? Do they talk about what you should be paying The more end-up you can get, the better you can be The better. You can separate yourself from the other competitors, the more likely you are to rank. So when I go through the process of writing content for neilpatel.com part of the content that we create is advanced expert content. For example, the other day I published a piece of content that is on the new way of blogging. And I'll load it up really quickly, so you can see - And with this piece of content, this piece of content wasn't meant to get Google traffic. It was meant to get social traffic and back-links, And I broke down stats here where, if you write advance content with a lot of stats and data - And I use stats like I'm not going to break down all of them that you can see here in the Charts And I talk about how advanced content gets less SEO traffic, but it gets more social shares and it gets more back-links per post And I also break that down for other blogs. That'S not Neil Patel, but more Facebook shares more back-links per post. I even have a little stat here for content with graphs and data. They tend to get more back-links versus content without And a portion of my time, roughly 10 % of the time which I break down in this post. I write advanced content, But 40 % of the time. What we do is we use this process that I broke down in Ubersuggest, where Let me go back to Ubersuggest. I can't find the tab Either way where we use a keyword gaps like I showed you to write content on stuff. That gets a lot of search traffic Like how to's how to change a toilet. How podcast advertising works? And then 20 % of the time we update our old content, because that way Google wants to rank fresh content. So anything, that's outdated, just make sure you're updating it. If it has any outdated information change it, If there's anything irrelevant change it. If that topic's no longer relevant EX talking about how MySpace is a popular social network, You can either delete the posts and 301 redirect it to maybe a post on Facebook, And then you would want to try to make your content better over time. When I say update it, maybe there's images that you can include. Maybe there's videos that you can include to get your message across better And then the other 30 % of the time I promote the content, As I mentioned, don't forget the marketing in content marketing. So that's how I create content that drives traffic I really go and dig deep see what my competitors are ranking for that I'm not That's what the keyword gaps is all about, And then I create content around that topic. Read more : Free Traffic Source For Affiliate Marketing In 2021 – Secret Method Revealed! Read the full article

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When (and When Not) to Outsource Link Building

Posted by Alex-T

Have you ever outsourced link building? How did you like the experience?

To be honest, mine was terrible. Allow me to share my story.

When I had a typical 9-to-5 job as a marketing director at SEMrush, we made a decision to get more links from the top resources in our segment. We ended up hiring an agency to help us build these links. The agency was charging us an outrageous $13K a month, but, unfortunately, the high price didn’t equal quality. They weren’t capable of writing anything meaningful, not to mention publishing their content on trustworthy industry blogs. What made things worse was the fact that I brought them on board.

Needless to say, we stopped working with this agency. We decided to give another one a try, thinking that this time luck would be on our side.

Well, we were wrong. Although the second agency charged us nearly three times less and promised premium quality work with superb links and stellar results, the outcome was disappointing, to say the least. We ended up getting links from irrelevant content published on sites that wrote about everything, from the ten best sex positions to the ultimate guide on cleaning your toilet.

As ridiculous as it may sound right now, back then, I didn’t feel amused. These two failed attempts at outsourcing link building left me convinced in two things: getting high-quality links is a job to be done internally, and outsourcing is simply pouring money down the drain.

Fast forward to now, and I can honestly tell you that my opinion on outsourcing has changed. Since these two unfortunate scenarios with outsourcing, I went from working for SEMrush to being a freelancer, and, when the amount of work started to grow, I launched my own link building agency, Digital Olimpus. As I gained more experience in this field, I started to realize why our attempts at outsourcing failed so miserably.

At that time, I didn’t know the ropes of link acquisition. We weren’t thinking ahead to establish strict requirements to prevent us from getting links from low-quality sites. Thus, as I went through trial and error, I gathered some unique insights about the pros and cons of link building outsourcing. Today, I’d like to share these insights with you so you can better understand which option is the right one for you — to hire an agency or an in-house link builder.

When is outsourcing the right choice for you?

Here’s my perspective as the owner of a link building agency.

The majority of our clients come to us because they don’t have the time or resources to set up a decent link building process by themselves. Most of the time, their current focus is shifted towards some other business goals, but they still understand the value of links and have some pages that are trying to rank well on Google.

Usually, our ideal client knows what kinds of pages they want to boost via links, and they understand how SEO works. In most cases, they have an SEO team that has a lack of resources to step into link building, so they’re looking for someone who could help them get some juicy links.

So, at the end of the day, our clients pay for our knowledge and experience. But there are also other reasons why companies may choose to outsource link building to an agency as opposed to hiring an in-house specialist.

1. If hiring an experienced link builder is too expensive

The first reason to outsource link building is in the recruitment costs.

According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a junior-level link builder is about 30-40K, while those who are extremely experienced will be looking for an estimated yearly salary around 100K USD. As for the hourly rate, the lowest would be $13, while more experienced link building specialists expect you to pay them as high as $16 an hour.

Besides salaries, you also need to consider other points. For example, your in-house link building specialist would also need content developed specifically for link building purposes, which should have its own separate budget. Apart from that, to do the job properly, they need to have access to backlink analysis tools, like Ahrefs (costs $99/month), SEMrush (also $99/month), Moz (starting $99/month), and Pitchbox (starting from $300/month). All in all, you’ll have to pay for these tools, which alone will cost around 6K a year.

To put a long story short, hiring an in-house link builder will cost you a pretty penny. Moreover, it might take you quite a while to find the in-house link builder you’re looking for. So, while you’re searching for one, you could give an agency a try to get your link building strategy started.

2. If you need to get links straight away

The biggest difference between hiring an in-house link builder vs. an agency is the speed of acquiring links. Usually, an agency already has a tried-and-tested link building strategy, while an in-house link builder still has to develop one.

In my opinion, this is the biggest reason why our clients are choosing our fellow link building agencies and us. We have a well-established process of building links, but most importantly – we’ve already developed meaningful relationships across particular industries and niches. So, in some cases, it doesn’t take us longer than a few minutes to secure a link.

However, if you decide to do link building by yourself, you shouldn’t expect instant results. On average, it takes 3-4 months to start getting at least 10-20 links every month. Besides, it might take you a while to find the right and meaningful way to connect with other sites, and to learn how to pitch your ideas properly.

I should say that, even for my agency, it’s always a big issue to open a new niche and start building a decent number of links per month. The first few months are resulting in 2-4 links, and that for sure can’t be described as a decent flow of links.

3. If you need help educating your team on how to build links the right way

The exchange of knowledge and experience is another reason to outsource link building. It’s definitely why I outsource some tasks, and work closely with those who have substantial expertise in the areas where I don’t feel as confident.

Paying for knowledge is an excellent way to spend money, especially if you lack time. For example, I understand how long it would take me to learn before I could do technical SEO myself, so I’d rather hire someone to help me with that instead. And, while we’re working together, I’ll take this opportunity to enhance my knowledge as well.

For this exact reason, we have a few contractors on our team who are working on other projects, but gladly share their unique strategies and approaches with us. It’s like a breath of fresh air – their experience gives us new perspectives on building high-quality links.

By the way, if you decide to hire an in-house link builder, it might take them quite some time to learn how to work with such contractors, while a link building agency would already have well-established relationships with them.

So, with all that said, try to perceive outsourcing as a learning opportunity. If you already have some experience in link building, you don’t necessarily need to ask an agency to educate you. Instead, you can follow their strategy if you see that it’s working. We have a few clients who follow this logic, as they do link building in-house while still being under our guidance. Sure, one day, they might start building links independently, but it feels nice that we paved that path for them.

4. If you want links that would take you ages to acquire by yourself

Again, it’s all about the connections and how well you can build relationships with them. If you don’t have a tight circle of partners, you can’t expect quick results from your link building efforts.

Usually, the best link building agencies already have a great network of partners. However, it’s still very important to double-check that an agency operates within your niche and has some meaningful connections.

But even if the agency hasn’t worked in your niche before, don’t give up on it just yet. Most likely, the agency might still be able to network faster due to existing relationships with partners and word-of-mouth power.

Still, even for an experienced agency, developing the network of connections in a new and unexplored field will take some time. We’re always very transparent when it comes to telling a client that we haven’t yet worked within their industry, but some clients are ready to wait. However, your needs might be different, so always bring up this question to avoid misunderstandings.

5. If you need to scale your current link building efforts

Sometimes brands realize that link building can be a good strategy for them, but they might not fully understand how to approach it, considering the specifics of their industry and niche. If this is your case, the agency will help you select the right angle and review your current link building needs objectively.

Another pain point that makes our clients ask for our help is building links to problematic targets. Some pages — commercial ones, for example — are hard to build links to in an organic way. In my recent blog post, I talked more on the topic of building links to commercial pages and a few examples of how it can be done. But if you struggle with acquiring links to some pages, you can outsource this task to an agency, which will find the right way to address these difficulties and tackle them.

When outsourcing isn’t your best option

As someone who went through an unpleasant experience with outsourcing, I should say that you really have to know what you need when hiring an agency. This might be the first and most crucial reason not to outsource link building – you should know what to expect.

However, there are also other situations when outsourcing link building will be a waste of time and money. Let’s take a look.

1. You’re looking for digital PR and consider it link building

Over the years, I’ve met a lot of potential clients who ask for articles on leading sites in their industry just for the sake of having their brand mentioned by a popular resource. While getting links from such websites would be good for your brand image, this is a task for PR.

Here’s the thing: Links acquired from such resources are usually very weak from an SEO standpoint. Besides, there are cases when guest contributors sell links from these sites. In one of them, a well-known writer who worked for Forbes and Entrepreneur sold links under the radar, which is forbidden by Google’s guidelines.

As a result, links to such websites rarely bring any benefit, because they don’t carry the SEO value we are usually looking for.

From an SEO standpoint, the best links come from websites that are not involved in such suspicious activities. In addition, don’t be quick to trust influencers, since they often sell links on their websites as well.

Instead, try to find a website that doesn’t have guest posts. Google typically favors guest posting, while pushing the websites which are only used for link building to the bottom of search results.

2. You don’t have a solid SEO strategy and you just want to build some links

Many clients don’t understand that link building and SEO are interconnected. When it comes to link building, you need to remember that the results only come if you make links to the right pages from an SEO standpoint.

What does that mean? Such pages should target the right keywords relevant to your business, and that don’t have an insane level of competition. Also, content that is allocated on those pages should match user intent.

Just for context, it takes 10 times more time to get a page with commercial intent to the top of Google results, especially if the top 10 have informational intent.

Ideally, you should understand how many links you need in order to close the current link gap; otherwise, it might take ages for your page to rank well on Google. By analyzing what kind of links your rivals have already built, you can set up the right requirements for your link building agency.

3. You have very strict requirements and an agency can’t hit that mark

Sometimes, clients underestimate their link building needs. But other times, their expectations can be way too high, and it turns into a real problem. Let me give you some examples.

Once, we had a client that wanted us to implement a whole new link building approach just for his campaign. Everything should have gone great, except he forgot to tell us that he would need a unique approach, and what we were capable of providing at that time wasn’t what he was interested in.

Naturally, our partnership ended on that note. We decided to return the funds to this client and move forward. Now we do an in-depth interview with every client to give them a very detailed overview of our link building approach and our capabilities.

The same problem can occur in a few other cases:

You want links that will be allocated only in particular content. Ask the agency if it gets links through guest blogging. If not, this is not the best option for you.

You have a list of sites from which you want to get links. Contrary to what you might expect, link building isn’t an exact science, and it’s hard to predict or guarantee that a link will be secured on a particular site.

You want links only on pages that have already built a solid number of links and are already ranking well on Google. That’s a smart strategy, but it should only be done internally, since getting a link on such a page might take ages.

So, as I mentioned before, ask the agency about its capabilities before you outsource link building. It would be fair for both sides if you and the agency have clear expectations of the final result.

4. You expect to receive referral traffic from links that an agency will be building for you

Unfortunately, there’s minimal chance that referral traffic will come. Digital marketing experts confirm that there’s a very slim chance that even guest blogging on leading sites will bring you a solid flow of referral visitors.

Nowadays, steady referral traffic only comes through sources of organic traffic. A good example is this article with a list of SEO tools by Brian Dean that receives over 7K organic visitors per month:

Certainly, tools listed in Brian’s post are all getting some traffic, too, as those visitors are browsing through them and would love to learn more about them.

In general, we rarely see that our clients are getting referral traffic. Getting a good link is one scenario, but getting a good link that will send referral traffic is a whole other story.

In my opinion, building the links that will most likely send you a solid flow of referral visitors requires an analysis of current sources of referral traffic to your competitors and industry leaders. Then, you must try to understand the reason behind this traffic, whether it’s an active audience, being featured in a newsletter, etc. But the entire process differs from the link building strategy we usually follow.

5. You’re too busy to communicate your feedback to the agency

If you expect the link building agency to deliver the results you expect, communication is key. Outsourcing is not about delegating the task and forgetting about it. It’s about close collaboration.

With that said, be prepared to have to go on a number of calls with an agency just to figure out the link building strategy you will follow, not to mention other related meetings that will occur in the process. It is especially important if your link building needs are very specific.

So, let me reiterate – ongoing communication is crucial for building juicy, high-quality links. If you don’t have time to talk with the agency and articulate your needs and expectations properly, outsourcing link building is not the right option for you.

6. You don’t have a sufficient budget

If you are planning to hire an agency to outsource link building, you should evaluate your financial situation first, because it will cost you a fair amount of money.

To give you some context, we only take long-term contracts starting from $10K because one-time partnerships don’t help bring permanent link building results. In general, the entire process of building links should be ongoing, and your website should continuously show a rising link growth graph:

So, no matter how hard you try, the lack of a systematic approach to link building means no tangible results, and the client won’t get any profit from these links. That’s what made me understand that single-time link building is a waste of time and money.

What’s the verdict?

All in all, I should say that hiring a link building agency is worth every penny, as long as it has the experience you’re looking for, of course. Just from the rational standpoint, it’s much harder and more cost-intensive to do link building by yourself, especially if you have little knowledge of it.

There are also other perks of outsourcing link building. First and foremost, when you’re hiring an agency to build links, you’re paying for the speed of acquiring links. An agency already has all the connections to get links faster, in addition to a well-established process of building links in general.

Nevertheless, evaluate your needs first. Outsourcing might not be the best option for you if you are more interested in PR, not link building. You might also want to check what the agency can offer, as your requirements might not fit its profile. And, of course, outsourcing is not an option if you don’t have time to communicate with an agency or you have insufficient funds for such partnership.

However, in general, if you ask me now if outsourcing is worth it, I would say yes, but only if you are committed. Remember, outsourcing link building to an agency shouldn’t be a one-time occasion. If you want ongoing results, you need to commit to a long-term, close cooperation.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

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When (and When Not) to Outsource Link Building

Posted by Alex-T

Have you ever outsourced link building? How did you like the experience?

To be honest, mine was terrible. Allow me to share my story.

When I had a typical 9-to-5 job as a marketing director at SEMrush, we made a decision to get more links from the top resources in our segment. We ended up hiring an agency to help us build these links. The agency was charging us an outrageous $13K a month, but, unfortunately, the high price didn’t equal quality. They weren’t capable of writing anything meaningful, not to mention publishing their content on trustworthy industry blogs. What made things worse was the fact that I brought them on board.

Needless to say, we stopped working with this agency. We decided to give another one a try, thinking that this time luck would be on our side.

Well, we were wrong. Although the second agency charged us nearly three times less and promised premium quality work with superb links and stellar results, the outcome was disappointing, to say the least. We ended up getting links from irrelevant content published on sites that wrote about everything, from the ten best sex positions to the ultimate guide on cleaning your toilet.

As ridiculous as it may sound right now, back then, I didn’t feel amused. These two failed attempts at outsourcing link building left me convinced in two things: getting high-quality links is a job to be done internally, and outsourcing is simply pouring money down the drain.

Fast forward to now, and I can honestly tell you that my opinion on outsourcing has changed. Since these two unfortunate scenarios with outsourcing, I went from working for SEMrush to being a freelancer, and, when the amount of work started to grow, I launched my own link building agency, Digital Olimpus. As I gained more experience in this field, I started to realize why our attempts at outsourcing failed so miserably.

At that time, I didn’t know the ropes of link acquisition. We weren’t thinking ahead to establish strict requirements to prevent us from getting links from low-quality sites. Thus, as I went through trial and error, I gathered some unique insights about the pros and cons of link building outsourcing. Today, I’d like to share these insights with you so you can better understand which option is the right one for you — to hire an agency or an in-house link builder.

When is outsourcing the right choice for you?

Here’s my perspective as the owner of a link building agency.

The majority of our clients come to us because they don’t have the time or resources to set up a decent link building process by themselves. Most of the time, their current focus is shifted towards some other business goals, but they still understand the value of links and have some pages that are trying to rank well on Google.

Usually, our ideal client knows what kinds of pages they want to boost via links, and they understand how SEO works. In most cases, they have an SEO team that has a lack of resources to step into link building, so they’re looking for someone who could help them get some juicy links.

So, at the end of the day, our clients pay for our knowledge and experience. But there are also other reasons why companies may choose to outsource link building to an agency as opposed to hiring an in-house specialist.

1. If hiring an experienced link builder is too expensive

The first reason to outsource link building is in the recruitment costs.

According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a junior-level link builder is about 30-40K, while those who are extremely experienced will be looking for an estimated yearly salary around 100K USD. As for the hourly rate, the lowest would be $13, while more experienced link building specialists expect you to pay them as high as $16 an hour.

Besides salaries, you also need to consider other points. For example, your in-house link building specialist would also need content developed specifically for link building purposes, which should have its own separate budget. Apart from that, to do the job properly, they need to have access to backlink analysis tools, like Ahrefs (costs $99/month), SEMrush (also $99/month), Moz (starting $99/month), and Pitchbox (starting from $300/month). All in all, you’ll have to pay for these tools, which alone will cost around 6K a year.

To put a long story short, hiring an in-house link builder will cost you a pretty penny. Moreover, it might take you quite a while to find the in-house link builder you’re looking for. So, while you’re searching for one, you could give an agency a try to get your link building strategy started.

2. If you need to get links straight away

The biggest difference between hiring an in-house link builder vs. an agency is the speed of acquiring links. Usually, an agency already has a tried-and-tested link building strategy, while an in-house link builder still has to develop one.

In my opinion, this is the biggest reason why our clients are choosing our fellow link building agencies and us. We have a well-established process of building links, but most importantly – we’ve already developed meaningful relationships across particular industries and niches. So, in some cases, it doesn’t take us longer than a few minutes to secure a link.

However, if you decide to do link building by yourself, you shouldn’t expect instant results. On average, it takes 3-4 months to start getting at least 10-20 links every month. Besides, it might take you a while to find the right and meaningful way to connect with other sites, and to learn how to pitch your ideas properly.

I should say that, even for my agency, it’s always a big issue to open a new niche and start building a decent number of links per month. The first few months are resulting in 2-4 links, and that for sure can’t be described as a decent flow of links.

3. If you need help educating your team on how to build links the right way

The exchange of knowledge and experience is another reason to outsource link building. It’s definitely why I outsource some tasks, and work closely with those who have substantial expertise in the areas where I don’t feel as confident.

Paying for knowledge is an excellent way to spend money, especially if you lack time. For example, I understand how long it would take me to learn before I could do technical SEO myself, so I’d rather hire someone to help me with that instead. And, while we’re working together, I’ll take this opportunity to enhance my knowledge as well.

For this exact reason, we have a few contractors on our team who are working on other projects, but gladly share their unique strategies and approaches with us. It’s like a breath of fresh air – their experience gives us new perspectives on building high-quality links.

By the way, if you decide to hire an in-house link builder, it might take them quite some time to learn how to work with such contractors, while a link building agency would already have well-established relationships with them.

So, with all that said, try to perceive outsourcing as a learning opportunity. If you already have some experience in link building, you don’t necessarily need to ask an agency to educate you. Instead, you can follow their strategy if you see that it’s working. We have a few clients who follow this logic, as they do link building in-house while still being under our guidance. Sure, one day, they might start building links independently, but it feels nice that we paved that path for them.

4. If you want links that would take you ages to acquire by yourself

Again, it’s all about the connections and how well you can build relationships with them. If you don’t have a tight circle of partners, you can’t expect quick results from your link building efforts.

Usually, the best link building agencies already have a great network of partners. However, it’s still very important to double-check that an agency operates within your niche and has some meaningful connections.

But even if the agency hasn’t worked in your niche before, don’t give up on it just yet. Most likely, the agency might still be able to network faster due to existing relationships with partners and word-of-mouth power.

Still, even for an experienced agency, developing the network of connections in a new and unexplored field will take some time. We’re always very transparent when it comes to telling a client that we haven’t yet worked within their industry, but some clients are ready to wait. However, your needs might be different, so always bring up this question to avoid misunderstandings.

5. If you need to scale your current link building efforts

Sometimes brands realize that link building can be a good strategy for them, but they might not fully understand how to approach it, considering the specifics of their industry and niche. If this is your case, the agency will help you select the right angle and review your current link building needs objectively.

Another pain point that makes our clients ask for our help is building links to problematic targets. Some pages — commercial ones, for example — are hard to build links to in an organic way. In my recent blog post, I talked more on the topic of building links to commercial pages and a few examples of how it can be done. But if you struggle with acquiring links to some pages, you can outsource this task to an agency, which will find the right way to address these difficulties and tackle them.

When outsourcing isn’t your best option

As someone who went through an unpleasant experience with outsourcing, I should say that you really have to know what you need when hiring an agency. This might be the first and most crucial reason not to outsource link building – you should know what to expect.

However, there are also other situations when outsourcing link building will be a waste of time and money. Let’s take a look.

1. You’re looking for digital PR and consider it link building

Over the years, I’ve met a lot of potential clients who ask for articles on leading sites in their industry just for the sake of having their brand mentioned by a popular resource. While getting links from such websites would be good for your brand image, this is a task for PR.

Here’s the thing: Links acquired from such resources are usually very weak from an SEO standpoint. Besides, there are cases when guest contributors sell links from these sites. In one of them, a well-known writer who worked for Forbes and Entrepreneur sold links under the radar, which is forbidden by Google’s guidelines.

As a result, links to such websites rarely bring any benefit, because they don’t carry the SEO value we are usually looking for.

From an SEO standpoint, the best links come from websites that are not involved in such suspicious activities. In addition, don’t be quick to trust influencers, since they often sell links on their websites as well.

Instead, try to find a website that doesn’t have guest posts. Google typically favors guest posting, while pushing the websites which are only used for link building to the bottom of search results.

2. You don’t have a solid SEO strategy and you just want to build some links

Many clients don’t understand that link building and SEO are interconnected. When it comes to link building, you need to remember that the results only come if you make links to the right pages from an SEO standpoint.

What does that mean? Such pages should target the right keywords relevant to your business, and that don’t have an insane level of competition. Also, content that is allocated on those pages should match user intent.

Just for context, it takes 10 times more time to get a page with commercial intent to the top of Google results, especially if the top 10 have informational intent.

Ideally, you should understand how many links you need in order to close the current link gap; otherwise, it might take ages for your page to rank well on Google. By analyzing what kind of links your rivals have already built, you can set up the right requirements for your link building agency.

3. You have very strict requirements and an agency can’t hit that mark

Sometimes, clients underestimate their link building needs. But other times, their expectations can be way too high, and it turns into a real problem. Let me give you some examples.

Once, we had a client that wanted us to implement a whole new link building approach just for his campaign. Everything should have gone great, except he forgot to tell us that he would need a unique approach, and what we were capable of providing at that time wasn’t what he was interested in.

Naturally, our partnership ended on that note. We decided to return the funds to this client and move forward. Now we do an in-depth interview with every client to give them a very detailed overview of our link building approach and our capabilities.

The same problem can occur in a few other cases:

You want links that will be allocated only in particular content. Ask the agency if it gets links through guest blogging. If not, this is not the best option for you.

You have a list of sites from which you want to get links. Contrary to what you might expect, link building isn’t an exact science, and it’s hard to predict or guarantee that a link will be secured on a particular site.

You want links only on pages that have already built a solid number of links and are already ranking well on Google. That’s a smart strategy, but it should only be done internally, since getting a link on such a page might take ages.

So, as I mentioned before, ask the agency about its capabilities before you outsource link building. It would be fair for both sides if you and the agency have clear expectations of the final result.

4. You expect to receive referral traffic from links that an agency will be building for you

Unfortunately, there’s minimal chance that referral traffic will come. Digital marketing experts confirm that there’s a very slim chance that even guest blogging on leading sites will bring you a solid flow of referral visitors.

Nowadays, steady referral traffic only comes through sources of organic traffic. A good example is this article with a list of SEO tools by Brian Dean that receives over 7K organic visitors per month:

Certainly, tools listed in Brian’s post are all getting some traffic, too, as those visitors are browsing through them and would love to learn more about them.

In general, we rarely see that our clients are getting referral traffic. Getting a good link is one scenario, but getting a good link that will send referral traffic is a whole other story.

In my opinion, building the links that will most likely send you a solid flow of referral visitors requires an analysis of current sources of referral traffic to your competitors and industry leaders. Then, you must try to understand the reason behind this traffic, whether it’s an active audience, being featured in a newsletter, etc. But the entire process differs from the link building strategy we usually follow.

5. You’re too busy to communicate your feedback to the agency

If you expect the link building agency to deliver the results you expect, communication is key. Outsourcing is not about delegating the task and forgetting about it. It’s about close collaboration.

With that said, be prepared to have to go on a number of calls with an agency just to figure out the link building strategy you will follow, not to mention other related meetings that will occur in the process. It is especially important if your link building needs are very specific.

So, let me reiterate – ongoing communication is crucial for building juicy, high-quality links. If you don’t have time to talk with the agency and articulate your needs and expectations properly, outsourcing link building is not the right option for you.

6. You don’t have a sufficient budget

If you are planning to hire an agency to outsource link building, you should evaluate your financial situation first, because it will cost you a fair amount of money.

To give you some context, we only take long-term contracts starting from $10K because one-time partnerships don’t help bring permanent link building results. In general, the entire process of building links should be ongoing, and your website should continuously show a rising link growth graph:

So, no matter how hard you try, the lack of a systematic approach to link building means no tangible results, and the client won’t get any profit from these links. That’s what made me understand that single-time link building is a waste of time and money.

What’s the verdict?

All in all, I should say that hiring a link building agency is worth every penny, as long as it has the experience you’re looking for, of course. Just from the rational standpoint, it’s much harder and more cost-intensive to do link building by yourself, especially if you have little knowledge of it.

There are also other perks of outsourcing link building. First and foremost, when you’re hiring an agency to build links, you’re paying for the speed of acquiring links. An agency already has all the connections to get links faster, in addition to a well-established process of building links in general.

Nevertheless, evaluate your needs first. Outsourcing might not be the best option for you if you are more interested in PR, not link building. You might also want to check what the agency can offer, as your requirements might not fit its profile. And, of course, outsourcing is not an option if you don’t have time to communicate with an agency or you have insufficient funds for such partnership.

However, in general, if you ask me now if outsourcing is worth it, I would say yes, but only if you are committed. Remember, outsourcing link building to an agency shouldn’t be a one-time occasion. If you want ongoing results, you need to commit to a long-term, close cooperation.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

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