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autumnalwalker · 1 year

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Seven Snippets, Seven People

Thank you for the tag, @druidx.

Rules: post seven snippets and tag seven people.

Passing the (completely optional) tag to @saintedseraph, @moondust-bard, @maskedemerald, @mundanemoongirl, @camillenrose, @rmgrey-author, @nrivanwrites, plus the usual open tag to anyone else who wants to participate.

Here's seven snippets of the Empty Names cast talking about Road, the one who ties them all together, but never gets their own POV chapter:

1: Chapter 2

He walks over to the stage and leans an elbow on it, looking up at Ashan. “Have you ever heard of the individual known as Road?”

Ashan arches an eyebrow in surprise. “The guy who runs around in purple armor fighting subway dragons and saving goth kids from vampire cults?”

“Among other things, yes.”

“From what I have heard they are a noble fool who just happens to be skilled and lucky enough to back up their reckless actions. But a fool whose heart is in the right place. Supposedly they used to be a big deal before disappearing several years ago.” Ashan stops himself and gets back to the still unanswered question. “Why?”

Bridgewood chuckles. “Because,” he drags out the word, “said noble fool just so happens to be an old friend of mine and recently got back to town. They’re looking to put a team together and could use a proper spellslinger.” He smiles just a little too widely and reaches up a hand. “So, interested?”

2: Chapter 5

“What was it that you told them?” Lacuna finally breaks the silence. Not so much looking at Eris as past her. “Road I mean. About me.”

Not where Eris thought that conversation was going to go when it inevitably came back around. She rubs the back of her neck as she takes a moment to think.

“After he gave me the pitch for this team he’s putting together,” she begins, “we got to talking about who else was going to be on board, and he said he was still looking for a ‘tech guy’ - finger quotes and all - and asked if I knew anyone. I remembered you were in the market again, so I told him how the company you were working for on some sort of advanced AI thing got bought out by some big corp and you chose to walk instead of working for them. Said you were the best programmer I know.”

“Eris, I’m the only programmer you know.”

“And while I’ve got no idea what you’re saying half the time you go on about it, I can tell that you do, and that you really care about what you’re working on.”

“What I was working on.”

“Sorry. Sore spot?”

“Just a bit. Also, ‘he’?”

“Road’s fluid about that. And they were he at the time so, eh.” Eris shrugs. “I try to handle that on an individual basis, and Road said something along the lines of ‘whatever fits in the moment’ when I asked them about it.

“Anyway, when I told them-slash-him about you he said that he remembered you. They said some stuff about you having natural talent and being the kind of person to run towards problems to solve them instead of away to safety.”

“More like having dumb luck and being sleep deprived enough for my self-preservation tendencies to be shot.”

“You’re selling yourself short again. Whatever it was you did, you made enough of an impression that I didn’t even have to say all that much before Road jumped all over the idea and said that he’d call you first chance he got. Which was apparently before I even got home that night.”

The conversation hangs.

“Why do you ask?” Eris asks.

“Well... I... You know... Haven’t actually accepted Road’s offer yet.”

“Oh?” That one syllable is all Eris can think of as she wonders to herself if she should have seen this coming.

“Some of the stuff they were saying… They were throwing out words like ‘hacker’ and ‘artificer’ and ‘magi-tech’. Like they’d gotten the idea into their head that I was some kind of action movie cyberpunk net wizard and I’m just. So. Very. Not.”

“And you told them that?”

“Tried to anyway. Said that I don’t ‘hack’ things. Just because I’m a programmer, that doesn’t mean I do cybersecurity. You wouldn’t call a plumber to change the locks on your house. You know?”

“The apartment maintenance guy does both.”

“Okay, bad analogy. Also, Jim’s awesome enough to probably be an outlier. But you get my point, right?”

“Sure.”

“But I’m not sure Road does. Even after I tried to explain they toned it down a bit but were still talking me up enough that I couldn’t help but feel they’re overestimating me.” Lacuna lets out the longest sigh of the night. “It would be wrong of me to jump into this unqualified. Especially when… well, I’ve seen how you wind up on nights I need to help you back to your apartment. Or to Doc.”

“Well, I doubt you’d actually be in the field, and if you did end up there somehow, there’s no way Road or I would let anything happen to you.”

“But what if I let something happen to you?!”

3: Chapter 5

It’s Lacuna who breaks the silence of the last stretch of their return home, asking “By the way, what’s up with that guy who contacted us after Road’s offer asking for ‘equipment requests for this new business venture’?”

“Oh, Sullivan?”

“I think that’s what the email said, yeah.”

“I’ll admit, I’m not entirely sure what his deal is. I only briefly met him the once on a job Road was helping me with. Apparently the two of them go way back. Got the impression he does a lot of info gathering for Road. Like, he’s the reason they’ve got such an uncanny knack for showing up just when they're needed.”

“Huh… guess he’s probably one of the other people Road mentioned being on this team.”

“Either that or just bankrolling the whole operation. From what I hear, he’s absolutely loaded. Old money shit.”

“That would explain the blank check for a budget, I guess.”

The conversation pauses momentarily as they reach the apartment complex gate and enter the code to open it.

“Although,” Eris picks back up as they cross the lamplit parking lot to their building, “I have heard some weird rumors about him when I tried asking around.”

“What kind of weird?” Lacuna asks after a moment’s hesitation.

“The big one’s that he used to be some kind of hitman. And that he married some bigwig sorceress to steal her secrets and no one’s heard from her since.” Eris shrugs. “Can’t say I put much stock in either of them. Just doesn’t seem like the kind of guy Road would roll with, you know?”

“Yeah… I mean, you know Road better than I do, but… okay, it’s sort of embarrassing to say, but when they saved me and when they were showing me around Crossherd for the first time, they had this aura about them. Like they were some hero who’d just stepped out of a story.”

Eris leans against the railing of the stairwell they’ve stopped in. They’re on Lacuna’s floor now.

“You’re actually not the first to say that. More than a few guys I know in the monster hunting gig were originally brought Backstage by Road, and they all came away with the same impression. At least two of them have admitted to getting into the biz to try to copy them.”

“Really? I wouldn’t have guessed,” Lacuna says. She’s looking down at the floor again.

“Yeah. And I’ll admit I’ve gotten a similar vibe myself the few times I’ve worked with them. Strict no killing rule. Encouraging speeches. Putting saving people above catching the monster. All the classic hero stuff.” Hard not to feel like a punch-happy brute in comparison, Eris refrains from adding.

4: Chapter 9

There’s a soft electronic pop in Eris’s ear as Road’s headset abruptly disconnects and she, Sullivan and Ashan are left standing in the quiet dark of the hold.

“Yeah…” Lacuna’s voice breaks the awkward silence, “they just turned their whole earpiece off.”

The muffled sound of captain Cabetha laughing some distance from her own microphone echoes in everyone’s ears.

Sullivan sighs and massages his forehead. “I distinctly told them the button was power and the switch was mute.”

5: Chapter 12

As the the photophores on Dis!ma*s’s face flicker in surprise, it occurs to Ashan that the bruises that had covered the man yesterday are gone.

“But aren’t you one of them? After the way you jumped in the fire I figured you must be friends or something.”

Ashan shakes his head. “Perhaps one day, but for now ‘coworkers’ is the more apt descriptor. From what I gather, the woman who built this place as her home valued her privacy and simply never intended to have visitors going in and out. I suspect our temporary confinement is merely a lack of preparation rather than imprisonment. I myself only set foot here for the first time yesterday and only met Road for the first time a week ago, although I have known them by reputation as a forthright and heroic individual for some time longer.”

“Road’s the one with the symbiote coat? They seemed to be an alright enough sort, I suppose. Stopped by to check on me this morning, talked me into getting out of my room and keeping busy instead of dwelling on what happened. They even offered me an amnestic if it gets too painful. I turned down the drug, but they were right about keeping busy.”

6: Chapter 14

Silence stretches. Drinks cool, one of them still untouched.

“You mind if I share something?” Eris asks. “An untold anxiety for an untold anxiety. More of a confession, really.”

“Of course you may. You are my friend.”

“Thanks. Truth is, part of me was glad when I realized I lost my comms down there. It meant that if I ran into anything Lacuna wouldn’t have to watch me go to work on it.”

“I am not sure I follow. She seemed enthusiastic enough in her recounting of Road’s exploits and you said yourself that she has seen you in worse states after a hunt.”

“That’s the point, she’s seen me after, never during. And Road doesn’t rip beasts limb from limb and cave in skulls with their bare hands. Road doesn’t get covered in gore during fights. Road doesn’t enjoy the smell and feel and taste of fresh blood or the sound of cracking bones and ripping flesh. Road’s not a monster.”

“Is that how you think of yourself?”

“No, not quite, but I know I would be if I didn’t have a constructive outlet for managing it. Autogenesis being what it is, I’m not being entirely figurative about that either. I know it’s not normal or healthy to find what I do and how I do it fun or to go barehanded instead of bringing a weapon because I like feeling it all up close and viscerally personal. But the point is I do manage it. I just also know it doesn’t look that way from the outside.”

7: Chapter 16

Sullivan takes the paper, holds it up, and catches the ashes in a handkerchief that he subsequently pockets.

“A pleasure doing business with you, as always,” he says, pushing off of the counter. Halfway to the door he spins around on his heel and adds “By the by, if it eases your conscience any I’m actually going to save dear mister Whelan’s life. This is one of my friend’s jobs, not one of mine.”

“It’s for Road?”

“Have I ever been known to have another?”

“Seven hells, man! You could have just opened with that and I would have handed the damn address over.”

“Oh, I know.”

“Then why the wheedling and the threats?”

Sullivan shrugs theatrically. “I wanted to see if I could still get a rise out of you. You should have seen your face, even through the proxy dummy. The real thing must have been just priceless. Did you really think that I - what? - ate people and stole their magic? Ooohhh, out of all the wild rumors to come out of my marriage and that’s the one you jump to? And did you really think I’d be fool enough to seriously threaten so useful a contact?” He chuckles and shakes his head. “Don’t ever change Eustace.”

The exhale of relief comes through the wax proxy better than Sullivan would have expected. When Eustace speaks, the anger is still there, but it’s duller now. “Let the door hit you on the way out.”

Sullivan gives a flourishing bow and walks out the boutique backwards, making a show of bumping into the door to open it.

#tag game #seven snippets seven people #writing tag games #writeblr #my writing #writers on tumblr #empty names

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darkficsyouneveraskedfor · 4 years

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any advice for new authors in the community and getting themselves out there?

1. Write what you want, not what anyone else wants

Being genuine to your passion and your inspiration is more important than appeasing the crowd and it always shows.

2. Get to know other writers

Reciprocity goes a long way. Reading and reblogging others encourages them to do the same. But this isn’t just about numbers, making connections also helps make this a better place and you can build your own experience around this instead of getting lost in the overall negative aspects of fandom.

Furthermore, you can build a network to help with discussing and expanding story ideas, encourage collaboration, and even work to help each other as betas for fics, all while building meaningful friendships. But at the same time be wary, tumblr is still the internet.

Engagement is the key focus here. Again, be genuine and don’t just reach out to people because their “numbers”. It’s not about that. If you get involved, if you make friends, it will keep you wanting to write and wanting to share.

3. Tag and warn appropriately

This lets your readers know what they’re getting into and it attracts those who are looking for your specific content. Tag by character, fandom, pairing, and anything else you can think of.

There’s lots of theories out there about how the algorithm works and timing and all that but I’ve really not found any of these to be consistent. All you can do is try to build up from the ground and to cast a wide net of tags to get your stuff seen.

4. Be patient

It’s going to take time. Nothing happens overnight, especially on Tumblr. It takes time to build up a readership because it takes people time to see your stuff. Don’t get discouraged too quickly, the bulk of notes on a fic I find come a few days after posting.

5. Stay organized

Masterlists are useful and let people catch up any chapters they’ve missed or one shots as well. Providing links makes it more accessible to readers because tumblr isn’t the best for searching. Also, if you can use Ao3, it has a much better structure for readers as well.

6. Have fun

I find that I enjoy writing the most, that I get the most out of enjoying what I’m doing and finding new things to enjoy. Reading and writing on here is better when you find what you love and let it guide you.

Hope this makes sense, it’s early and I’m sore and tired. Good luck! Also, my dm’s and asks are always open to all writers!

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raevenlywrites · 4 years

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The Ties That Bind 12 of ???

Rei and I held hands as we emerged from the dark into--more dark. Zane had promised the rsh wasn’t as dim inside as it seemed, but I missed the sun. And I was grateful for Rei’s hand in mind as we moved through the tight press of netting and vines.

There was an uncanny beauty to it, this joining of intention of happenstance, a closeness that I might have found comforting if I hadn’t felt so stifled already. Rei’s hand seemed too thick and hot in mine, but I stuck close to him anyways, unnerved by the walls of the rsh . They seemed to slither and switch, and it wasn’t until we rounded a corner back into the main room that I realized their movement came from the shifting shadows cast by a dancing flame.

Once a fire was lit in the central room, the entire space transformed. Where net and leaf began became much clearer, because the nets, I could now see, had once been bright, vibrant colors. Time had dulled them, and I could only imagine the brilliant jewels they must have once been, however long ago.

They say our peoples have been at war for over two thousand years.

They also say the falcon empress Cjarsa is older still than that.

It seems petty to doubt such magic when I myself have knit closed minor wounds with only the power of my voice and prayer. But surely, surely, some myths need not to be true. I didn’t want to believe our war was that old. And I didn’t know what to make of an empress that was supposed to remember a time we knew peace, but did next to nothing to help us return to it.

Zane startled me from my thoughts, even as my mind played back the last few seconds and realized I had noticed my guards shift around me and had simply dismissed it. It wasn’t Zane startling me, it was the interruption from my introspection in general.

“It’s eerie, isn’t it?” he asked, gazing at the wall and not me. “There’s a rsh just like this on the edges of the marketplace, with a central room just like this one, but...”

He trailed off, dropping the hand he’d been reaching out to a broken twist of net. It amazed me how it still stood at all, and I said as much.

“This one is more vine than net, I think,” he said carefully. “It takes time and patience to grow up walls like this. And even more to bring them back down.”

I humphed under my breath.

“Everyone keeps talking around me lately, in pretty metaphors--or obvious ones.”

He turned wide eyes to me and I gave him back what I hoped was a single arched brow. It was a difficult expression to master, without screwing up the rest of my face to be comical. Apparently it was effective though, or Zane was being polite at my failure when he smiled with a soft shake of his head.

“That one was for me, actually. If you feel the tearing down walls metaphor is apt for yourself as well, then hopefully it means we’ll be able to find more common ground before the week is out.”

My stomach dropped at the reminder that I was expected to stay here, with him--and Rei--for an entire week. It had seemed like such a good idea at the farmhouse, staring into the triumphant face of Alasdair.

“You said your dancers dance around the sign of the Anhleh,” I said, not caring how obviously I was changing the subject. “Do you think there’s one intact here, or...” I gestured lamely at the walls. Zane gave me another humoring smile.

“This nest is dead, a relic. I’m afraid if you want to see serpiente dance before the Anhleh you’ll have to come back with me to sha’Mehay.”

It was only my blood running cold that kept my cheeks from flushing. The terror at the thought of willingly entering the heart of the serpiente palace cooled any embarrassment at the thought that I might have been asking him to dance, here and now.

You want to do this here, now? Rei’s voice echoed in my head and the blush won out. Zane chuckled.

“Is the thought of merely watching others dance too much for you, pretty Danica? I knew hawks were prudes but--”

“I’m not a prude!” I snapped, and instantly regretted it. Softer voices could be politely ignored in this close space. Quiet shouting could not.

I felt Rei crowd closer behind me and suddenly wanted out of this hole in the ground.

“Rei,” I ground from between my teeth, “you cannot hover over me all week. I meant what I said to Erica, and I’ll say it again to you too. I don’t need a soldier, I need a guard. Go fly a scouting circuit, see how obvious the smoke from that fire is above the trees.”

It was almost certainly the wrong thing to say. But he met my orders with a tight, “Yes, Shardae,” and gave me the space I so desperately needed. Now if only I could order myself up and into the sun.

Zane was studying my face, and didn’t have the manners to try to disguise it when I turned back to him. Or maybe it was a cultural thing. Maybe serpiente just openly stared at everyone. Either way, my emotions were too wrung out for niceties anymore. I’d spent the better part of a week either traveling or trapped in fruitless arguments, and I just needed a break .

“This is the most emotion I’ve ever seen from you,” Zane commented before I could speak. “It’s a shame it’s all tense and jagged like this. I have a feeling you’d have a lovely aura in more pleasant times.”

At that, I could only blink.

“W-wha?”

Zane did that sad smile, headshake thing that was definitely starting to seem like his go to cover up for laughing at me.

“In our scaled form, serpents taste heat. Life. Alive-ness. Like this, I can still taste your heartbeat, smell the sticky sharp closeness of panic on the back of my tongue--“

“That’s disgusting,” I said, nearly sick from the thought of it. How could serpiente stand to be so close to one another if they were so aware of each other’s bodies?

“It’s a metaphor,” he said lightly, colder than he’d been a moment before. “We sense it with a sense that isn’t taste or smell or touch, but it's like trying to describe a song to the deaf. I can hold your hand, tap out the beats, but you still miss the soaring of the melody, the finer notes that make it music and not just sound.”

I nodded, contrite at having offended him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend.”

He sighed. “It’s quite alright. I can only imagine it will be the first of many.”

Something about that made me unspeakably sad. So sad that it changed my “taste” apparently, because Zane reached out for me, to brush my arm I think. But of course Erica was there, and I finally lost my temper completely.

“Enough!”

I snatched Zane’s hand in mine, earning startled cries from everyone in the room, even Adelina. I raised our joined hands and shook them, like brandishing a weapon.

“Zane and I are going to touch. Zane and I are going to be close, because Zane and I are trying to have private conversations. If one more person comes within a foot of me without my express invitation I am going to send them home. So help me I will sit in his lap if that’s what it takes to get you all to stand down .”

Abruptly, I became aware of the fact that I was holding Zane’s hand, that I had taken it without his permission, and that the whole room was staring at us. I squeezed his hand tighter, not knowing how to get off this metaphorical dias.

Zane squeezed back.

“It’d be almost worth it to call your bluff,” he muttered, but then said to the larger group, “Is there something we can do to help make you all more comfortable? Among my people, we have elaborate rules and traditions for guests, and I do consider you all my guests, even as I consider myself yours. In my house, I would offer you food and drink, and you would know that no harm would come to you unless violence was offered. What is the way of it in the Keep?”

In the Keep, violence was absolutely unheard enough. We had enough of that on the fields, on the training grounds. There was no violence in the Keep because it was our refuge from such things.But that wouldn’t help us here.

“We are held by our word,” Raymond said. I startled, almost having forgotten the quiet raven in the press of so many louder personalities. “Words spoken by or to the Tuuli Thea have power, real power, especially in the halls of our Keep. I do not know how such oaths would hold you, but it is what we would do, if we felt the need.”

Zane nodded. “We have our own words, codes of conduct, contracts.” He turned to me, pulling our hands closer to our chests.

The Ties That Bind Tag list: @thehellinsideyourhead @therecouldbecolorsandlove @adventuresofacreesty @writing-with-melon @rainydaydarling

Raev’s Gen Tag List (should I tag you guys in this? It IS a thing I wrote. I’m gonna say yes unless you guys are like “no of course not we’re sick of hearing about your stupid fic for a twenty year old book XD)

No one has complained yet so yall gonna keep getting tagged :P

List is currently: @lordkingsmith @writinglyra @drbibliophile @mperialscribe @adie-dee @adie-dee @lexiklecksi @writinginslowmotion @raenawrites @apollon-arium @anika-writes

#raev does fic #the ties that bind #hawksong fic #hawksong

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moonwaif · 4 years

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Of Bunnies and Sleeves and All Happy Things

Summary: When Lan Wangji tells Wei Ying to go pester somebody else, he doesn’t expect him to actually do it. Or, Lan Wangji definitely, absolutely does not miss Wei Ying's attention--despite the fact that he can't stop thinking about it.

Pairing: WangXian

Words: 3,000+

Rating: G

Tags: two dorks, failed attempts at flirting, Lan Zhan is jealous, but he doesn't know it, unresolved romantic and sexual tension, Mutual Pining

Warnings: alcoholic beverages

When Lan Wangji tells Wei Ying to go pester somebody else, he doesn’t expect him to actually do it. But the next morning, Wei Ying passes him wordlessly in the corridor like a cold breeze. In the library later that same day, Wei Ying never once throws a crumpled paper or a deliberately provocative statement his way. Instead, Wei Ying copies the text dutifully, pausing every once in a while to stretch or sigh. When the time is up, he opens his mouth like he's about to say something, and Lan Wangji tenses with anticipation. But then Wei Ying's lips close, his brow furrows, and he turns, departing without so much as a goodbye.

Lan Wangji is stunned.

He sits motionlessly, staring at the space where Wei Ying stood just moments before, trying to puzzle out what just happened. Maybe Wei Ying found a new distraction. He wonders briefly what--or who--it could be, then catches himself. Turning his attention back to the text in front of him, Lan Wangji tries to disregard the ever-expanding feeling of tension in his chest.

He doesn’t see Wei Ying again until the next day’s lecture--although “see” is perhaps not the right word. Aside from a quick, initial glance darted in Wei Ying’s direction, Lan Wangji spends the rest of the lecture steadfastly ignoring him. For once, he is able to. No paper men come creeping up over his shoulder. No drawings find their way onto his desk, no jokes are hissed in his direction. It’s not until he hears the familiar whispering that he finally darts a furtive glance in the culprit’s direction. It’s Wei Ying, of course. He’s leaned over his desk, grin wide and eyes shining--the same way he usually looks when trying to pester Lan Wangji. The boy in front of him--a cousin of Nie Huaisang, Lan Wangji thinks, although he isn’t certain--tilts his head so that his ear is pointed toward Wei Ying’s fast-moving lips. His breath catches, and both their shoulders shake as they fight to suppress giggles.

Lan Wangji looks away.

The next time Lan Wangji sees Wei Ying, he is accompanied by Jiang Wanyin, Nie Huaisang and the nameless cousin. They are on the other side of the courtyard, headed in the opposite direction from Lan Wangji. He wonders where they are going. After all, it is only natural to be concerned--anyone would be--since wherever Wei Ying goes, trouble is sure to start. As he ponders, Lan Wangji catches snippets of their conversation.

"See?" Wei Ying says, tossing Jiang Wanyin a winning smile--the one that always does something funny to Lan Wangji's stomach. "I told you I could do it."

Jiang Wanyin snorts, skeptical. "Whatever! I saw you stealing glances when you thought no one was looking. You won't last even one more day."

"Who says I can't? You make it sound like I'm obsessed."

"Aren't you?" Jiang Wanyin quips back. Wei Ying gives him a sour look.

"I think Wei-xiong can definitely do it," Nie Huaisang says confidently. His cousin nods in agreement. Wei Ying immediately brightens.

"Of course I can! Jiang Cheng, I hope you have more money than you do faith, because by the end of this week you better be ready to pay up."

Are they talking about . . . a bet? Lan Wangji frowns. Gambling is forbidden in the Cloud Recesses, since all games of chance should be avoided by men of virtue. He considers intervening.

At that moment, Wei Ying looks up, their gazes locking across the distance. The concerns that just seconds ago seemed so pressing to Lan Wangji vanish. He waits for Wei Ying to call out to him, waits for him to come racing over with that embarrassingly obvious enthusiasm that Lan Wangji does not understand but has somehow grown to expect.

Wei Ying looks away.

Lan Wangji's chest tightens like a vice. He watches as Wei Ying throws an arm over his new friend’s shoulder, and the four of them round the corner, disappearing until nothing but the echo of their laughter remains.

----

Over the next few days, Lan Wangji has more time to practice guqin. He completes all his readings and even has spare time for additional studies. None of his meditation sessions are interrupted. Best of all, he does not find himself in any unexpected or disgraceful situations.

So why does he feel so ill at ease?

“Wangji.”

Lan Xichen’s gaze is gentle, like a warm hand on his cheek. They have just finished eating with their uncle. Now they stand outside, surrounded by a curtain of cricket song under the evening sky.

“Something troubles you,” Lan Xichen says. Lan Wangji's lips purse. A second passes. Lan Xichen’s chin dips slightly, eyes carefully reading his brother’s expression. “Is it . . . young master Wei?"

Lan Wangji swallows. His brother smiles.

“If something troubles you, or you are worried for your friend, perhaps you should try speaking with him.”

The thought of approaching Wei Ying makes Lan Wangji's stomach flip. What would he say? Should he apologize for speaking harshly? No, he could never apologize to that flippant Wei Ying, who flouts his disregard for propriety like a badge of honor. Wei Ying, who pokes his nose into other people’s business, who sniffs out trouble like a dog digging for a bone. Wei Ying, who flutters his eyelashes and tosses out handsome smiles like casting a net over a flock of butterflies. Whose whims change as easily as the wind, first carrying him to Lan Wangji before whisking him off to someone else.

Lan Wangji quickly changes the subject by asking his brother if there has been any progress with the investigation. Lan Xichen lightly reproves his inquisitiveness, but seems to understand. The topic of Wei Ying is closed.

----

Since the Yunmemg Jiang sect's arrival at the Cloud Recesses, Lan Wangji has broken many rules. He has fought without permission. He has acted impulsively. He has even used a bad word to hurt others. Today he is dangerously close to breaking another rule, because when he spots Wei Ying in Caiyi Town, he instantly finds himself of two minds. Wei Ying flits about the stalls, handling knickknacks like an excited, greedy child. There is a pleasurable squeeze in Lan Wangji’s lower abdomen as he watches--the sensation of something missing sliding into place. He takes a step forward, then stops, shocked at himself. How dare he approach Wei Ying? Especially when his brother has sent him on an important task, no less. His grip tightens around the pouch of herbs in his hand--the object of his errand. No time for distractions. He should hurry back to the Cloud Recesses.

At that moment, Wei Ying stills. His posture is familiar to Lan Wangji--a barely perceptible tilt of the head, a slight stiffness in the neck. He’s thinking. Planning. Deciding what to do. His gaze slowly slips away from the trinket in his hand and gravitates in the direction of Lan Wangji. Mouth dry, Lan Wangji waits for those eyes to find him, to brighten with recognition.

'Wei Ying.' He thinks the name with all his strength, as if somehow Wei Ying will hear him.

But he must not, because Wei Ying suddenly turns away.

"Ugh, I'm hungry," he declares. "Li-xiong! Hey, Li-xiong. Feed me something good!"

Nie Huaisang and his cousin float into view, followed by a typically sour-faced Jiang Wanyin.

"Didn't you just eat?” Jiang Wanyin scolds. “How can you complain so much and waste other people's money?"

"I've been training a lot lately," Wei Ying whines. "Working so hard, I should be careful to eat more, right?"

Wei Ying nudges him impishly, then returns his attention to his new friend.

"Li-xiong agrees with me, right? That's why he'll take us somewhere good to eat."

He reaches out and starts to tug on "Li-xiong's" sleeve. Lan Wangji's jaw tightens. He watches as Nie Huaisang joins in on the disgraceful display, whining and tugging on his cousin. Laughing, the cousin relents.

"Fine, fine! But let's find a place to sit down and have a drink."

Wei Ying wags his finger. "Ehhh, Li-xiong, you rascal! I like your style."

'Shameless,' Lan Wangji thinks. 'Boring.' But his feet don't move, nor does the lump in his throat, nor Wei Ying's hand as it clutches the other boy’s sleeve. Wei Ying has touched Lan Wangji that way before. At the time, Lan Wangji had been surprised by the sudden warmth. Speechless, he merely glared until Wei Ying let go, wincing. But this boy is not glaring. He is smiling, laughing, as if Wei Ying's touch is nothing special. He and Wei Ying must touch each other frequently, Lan Wangji realizes, and the lump in his throat swells until it hurts to breathe.

‘It’s supposed to be me,’ he thinks, and the thought is so abrupt and so inappropriate that it steals his breath away.

"Hey," Jiang Wanyin says suddenly, and Lan Wangji realizes with a start that he's staring in his direction. "Isn't that Second Young Master Lan?"

By the time Wei Ying turns around to look--if he even bothers to, as distracted as he is by his new friend--Lan Wangji is already gone. And this time, Lan Wangji doesn’t expect Wei Ying to follow.

----

That night, Lan Wangji tells himself that he isn’t waiting for Wei Ying to come back. But when he hears the voices outside, he is suddenly and unequivocally enraged. Darkness has long since fallen, and the dormitories of the Cloud Recesses are still as the waters of the cold springs. Now four different whispers, snorting and slurring drunkenly, come to disturb its still surface--to disturb him. Rising, Lan Wangji storms from his room and to the courtyard. He derives more than a little satisfaction from the way they all seem to freeze.

"S-second Young Master Lan!" Nie Huaisang stammers. "Wh-what are you . . . We were just . . ."

“Drinking is forbidden in the Cloud Recesses.” Lan Wangji looks directly at Wei Ying. “You’ve broken the rules.”

Wei Ying lets out a little huff, rolls his eyes. Lan Wangji’s fists clench. Before either of them can say anything, Nie Huaisang interrupts.

“B-b-but Second Young Master Lan! We didn’t drink in the Cloud Recesses. We drank outside.”

“Wow, Nie Huisang!” Wei Ying claps him on the shoulder. His face is clearly impressed. “So even you can be crafty like this, huh?”

Nie Huaisang simpers cheekily behind his fan, and then the two start giggling and mooning over each other the way they always do, and Lan Wangji just can’t stand it.

“No going out at night in the Cloud Recesses,” he retorts, and the laughter withers. Wei Ying’s face suddenly brightens with realization.

“Ah, but Lan Zhan, we came back just now! When we went out, it was still light. As long as we’re just coming back in the dark, we shouldn’t be breaking any more rules, so it’s fine, right?”

Lan Wangji knows that this is not how the rule works, but he’s too furious for explanations. Wei Ying, meanwhile, actually has the audacity to look pleased with himself. Tossing his head, he glances back at the others, clearly gloating over his own cleverness.

"Besides," Wei Ying continues, "tomorrow is Li-xiong's last day in the Cloud Recesses. Can’t you just let it go?”

"Shameless," Lan Wangji practically growls, but he isn't sure what to say after that. Wei Ying just smiles.

"Aren't you the one who's being shameless right now?" he coos, and Lan Wangji's insides go cold. "You don't have to go so far as to pick a fight, Lan Zhan. If you missed me so much, just go ahead and say it."

But Lan Wangji can't say it, so he draws Bichen.

----

The punishment is particularly humiliating--not just because Lan Wangji has disappointed his uncle and brother, but because Wei Ying looks especially smug as the five of them are forced to kneel the next morning. Like he's proven a spectacularly intelligent point, or won a prize.

"See?" Wei Ying hisses at Jiang Wanyin. "I told you--"

Jiang Wanyin cuts him off with an elbow to the ribs.

Since Lan Wangji and Wei Ying are deemed doubly guilty as having both broken curfew and instigated acts of violence, they are charged with kneeling longer than the other three. Nie Huaisang and his cousin shoot Wei Ying a sympathetic look as they slink off. Wei Ying just puts on a brave smile and whispers, "Bye, Li-xiong! Remember to come visit me in Yunmeng!"

Lan Wangji's stomach curls. "No talking," he snaps before he can stop himself. Wei Ying gives him a sardonic look.

"Aren't you just breaking your own rule by talking?" he asks. Lan Wangji's face hardens, but he can't quite ignore the pleased little thrill in his chest.

Wei Ying is speaking to him again.

"Aren't you just being unnecessarily rebellious?" he retorts back, invigorated. Wei Ying blinks at this, then heaves a little laugh.

"You know what, Lan Zhan? You've been really argumentative ever since last night. Don't be so self-righteous. You'll have a hard time getting along with others."

"Unlike you, who gets along with others so well," Lan Wangji claps back, surprised by his own vitriol.

Wei Ying shrugs. "Most of the time. People with good taste get along with me, anyway. Oh, that reminds me!"

He reaches suddenly into his sleeve. Lan Wangji tries not to look, but his eyes are inevitably drawn as Wei Ying removes something, holding it out for Lan Wangji to see. A small, wooden bunny, crudely carved and even more crudely painted, sits in Wei Ying's palms.

"Ta-da!" Wei Ying declares. "Isn't it cute?"

"Mn," Lan Wangji answers, taken off guard. His ears burn as Wei Ying's smile widens.

"Right? I bought it when I went to Caiyi Town yesterday. Lan Zhan, you like rabbits, don't you?"

The sound of a throat clearing has both of them straightening their backs. Lan Qiren gives them a particularly scathing look as he passes by. Lan Wangji's ears burn even hotter with shame.

"Anyway," Wei Ying says, as soon as Lan Qiren has disappeared, "that's why I--"

"No talking," Lan Wangji mutters harshly.

Wei Ying heaves an exasperated sigh, but unexpectedly doesn't protest. Instead he leans over. With unnecessary flourish, he sets the figurine down directly in front of Lan Wangji's bent knees.

Lan Wangji would rather die than look down.

Wei Ying makes a face but says nothing. He settles back down reluctantly.

They pass the rest of the punishment in silence. Wei Ying pokes at pebbles, squirms, whistles and sighs. Lan Wangji stares straight ahead, until his eyeballs ache and he realizes he's forgotten to blink. The little white rabbit taunts him just outside of his periphery. Lan Wangji wonders what Wei Ying could possibly mean, teasing him this way. Is he trying to gloat? Why else would he show Lan Wangji a trinket that is obviously meant for someone else? Maybe it's for Jiang Yanli. She seems kind and gentle. Perhaps she has a soft spot for small, mischievous creatures. Or maybe it's for Jiang Wanyin, as part of some inside joke Lan Wangji isn't privy to.

Or maybe it's a parting gift for Nie Huaisang's cousin.

Lan Wangji spends the next few hours focusing on his breath.

When the time of their punishment finally concludes, Lan Xichen dismisses them. Wei Ying leaves first, but not before shooting Lan Wangji one last glance. Lan Xichen doesn't miss it, of course. His eyes, twinkling, trail after Wei Ying as he departs. Then he turns, gaze landing on the small wooden rabbit perched in the pebbles, just at the tip of Lan Wangji's boots.

"Is that yours, Wangji?" he asks, voice warm with amusement.

Lan Wangji bends to retrieve it. The rabbit is coarse in his hands, and unexpectedly light. The poorly painted eye sockets watch him haphazardly as it sits in his palm. He blinks back at it, as if startled that it hasn't yet hopped away. He thinks back to yesterday in Caiyi Town, remembers Wei Ying lazily browsing the vendors and stalls.

Wei Ying may be careless, but Lan Wangji knows he did not leave this rabbit behind by mistake.

Lan Wangji has to swallow back a smile.

"I am glad to see that you and young master Wei are getting along again," Lan Xichen comments. "It's good to see you happy and at ease."

'Am I happy?' Lan Wangji wonders, but the answer is clear. Even after having spent hours on his knees, pebbles and hard ground digging into his joints, he feels strangely relaxed. He is happy that Wei Ying is talking to him again, he realizes with sudden and absolute clarity. Happy that he didn't completely push Wei Ying away with too harsh words; happy that he has not been so easily forgotten. But he is not sure why this makes him happy, or what that happiness means.

Lan Wangji tucks the rabbit into his sleeve. There will be plenty of time to think things over while he monitors Wei Ying in the library tomorrow--provided Wei Ying is not too much of a distraction.

----

Wei Wuxian heads from the main pavilion directly to Jiang Cheng. He holds out a hand, palm up. "Time to pay up."

Jiang Cheng scowls. "This doesn't count. You deliberately provoked him first."

Wei Wuxian pretends to look scandalized. "It's not my fault he patrols the Cloud Recesses like a hawk! Besides, the rules of the bet never said anything about who provoked who, only who talked to who first. You saw it yourself; he was the one who approached me, fair and square. I told you he wanted to be my friend!"

Jiang Cheng digs out his coin purse reluctantly. "If he does, then you both deserve each other! The way you chase after him is ridiculous. It's gross just to watch!"

Wei Wuxian counts the coins happily. "Well Second Young Master Lan must like it, because he couldn't hold himself back. Haha, and to think you were so sure that I was the one who wouldn't be able to stay away!"

"He only approached you because we were breaking the rules," Jiang Cheng gripes. "If he hadn't caught you, he'd still be ignoring you."

Wei Wuxian's smile falters like a candle flame in the breeze. He recalls the sight of Lan Zhan's back--the smooth black hair, the white clad shoulders--retreating amongst the crowded street of Caiyi Town. He'd been so sure Lan Zhan would approach him that time.

If he hadn’t caught you, he’d still be ignoring you. Yeah; Jiang Cheng was probably right.

But whatever! So what if that fuddy duddy Second Jade of Lan looks down on him? Teasing Lan Zhan is one of the few fun things to do in the Cloud Recesses, an oasis in a desert of lectures and rule books and curfews. And that's all it is--just teasing. There isn’t any deeper meaning behind it. The bet had proven it, after all. Wei Ying could literally stop talking to Lan Zhan any time he wanted to, just like that. So what if it made the days longer, or left a hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach that he couldn't seem to fill, no matter how many bowls of shijie's soup he stuffed himself with? All that matters is that it's over now. Wei Wuxian doesn't have to hold himself back like a caged cat, or bite back the words dancing on the tip of his tongue. Things can finally go back to normal.

Lost in his own thoughts, Wei Wuxian doesn't notice Yanli approach.

"Who's ignoring A-Xian?" she asks with a smile.

Wei Wuxian is suddenly overcome with a wave of shame. He pockets the coins hastily. "No one, no one," he lies. The last thing he wants is for Yanli to find out that he and Jiang Cheng have been placing bets on a person. She probably wouldn't think it was very kind, and he'd hate himself if he disappointed her. And now that he thinks about it, really thinks about it, she'd be right to be disappointed. Playing these kind of games with another person . . . Couldn't that potentially be hurtful?

Whatever, whatever! As if Lan Zhan would ever bring himself to care about anything Wei Wuxian does, as long as he's not violating the Lan sect rules.

"What's for dinner?" Wei Wuxian asks, and the three head back to their main quarters.

On the other side of the Cloud Recesses, Lan Wangji removes the rabbit from his sleeve, sets it on the table beside his guqin, and allows his face to soften.

#wangxian #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #mdzs #fanfic #wei wuxian #wwx #lan wangji #lwj #my stuff

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the-prophet-lemonade · 5 years

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do you have any advice on getting a story to be seen? i made an ao3 account not too long ago so no one has seen my fic at the moment but i was wondering if you had any tips on that, or would i just have to wait?

hello! i can’t claim to know what makes a fic popular as it’s 99% luck, but i can speak for the remaining 1% that has worked ~reasonably~ well for me in the past.

i think there are three key elements to getting a fic “seen”: marketing, branding, and presentation, and they’re all very important. this post got very long, so please find everything under the cut! i hope it helps :-)

i. marketing

fic marketing may seem a bit narcissistic if you haven’t done it before, but trust me on this: it’s the best way to attract readers and you deserve to promoted your story as something you worked hard upon!

drumming up hype for a fic is great. you can do this by posting on social media, providing sneak peaks on your twitter, involving yourself in the fandom community and discussing your wips with other fans, and just generally being excited about what you’re creating. engaging with other people’s writing is also a great method to help boost your own stats … get involved with reading other work and leaving comments for other people, because they will be more likely to return the favour! when someone comments on my fics, i often go and check out their profile and see what they’ve written, as it’s highly likely we enjoy the same things!

making promos is one of my favourite ways to engage with people about fics. once i post a fic/new chapter to ao3, i also crosspost promo posts with links and graphics to my twitter and tumblr. you will need a good hook to get people interested, but also an eye-catching image that summarises the story pictorially can be a great asset (you don’t even need photoshop, just a nice moodboard will do!). when using images however, it’s always important to think how the image size will appear in tumblr’s dimensions and on your own blog … make sure it’s not stretched or the resolution too low, and create something with a good visual flow i.e. the title appears first, then the necessary information, then any teasers or extracts. you need to make your fic post stand out on someone else’s timeline, which may already be filled with a bunch of other fic posts, jostling for attention. make it neat, clean, informative, and professional.

make sure to use the tagging systems efficiently for your chosen social media platforms: only the first five tags count on a tumblr post, so choose them wisely (i.e. use the key fandom tags first and save your personal blog tags for after), and only two hashtags count on twitter before it’s marked as spam, so go for the ship tag!

creating your own fic tag on twitter can also be fun, and i’ve seen a lot more people doing it lately too. you can encourage people to tweet along with a specialised hashtag and then you can find their reaction and engage with them later, which once again expands your fandom circle and will increase engagement on tweets associated with your fic.

another trick i’ve learned is utilising time zones and understanding the demographics of the audience you’re trying to reach. i am very careful to post my fics at certain times of day in order to reach key people e.g. i will try to hit either europeans or americans during the evening, as this is when most people are home from work and wanting to read fic. as a european myself, especially involved in fandoms with high levels of european fans, i usually post during the early evening for CET time zones i.e. 7 or 8 pm and i tend to find this works for me.

with tumblr, i often delay my promo posts so that i post when it’s likely to get maximum interaction (you can see when your blog is most active using your tumblr analytics) … use your queue if need be!

i also take care in reblogging/retweeting my promo posts at certain times of day too. i will usually bump the post just before i go to bed, so as to grab americans in their early evening, and then i will bump it again in the morning when i wake up, to catch australians and west coast americans still awake. i then usually keep bumping my promos once a day for two or three days on my social media to cast a wide enough net to catch as many people who might be interested, as not everyone checks their timeline every day and social media swallows up posts so quickly, especially tumblr which is not built for original content creators to do well (lol). i will usually bump a promo post 5 - 7 times before retiring it and this is a model that’s worked well for me in the past, especially for droplets, which would get 500+ notes per chapter! if you’re anxious about this, know that most people will only see your post once or twice because tumblr moves fast and swallows posts up very quickly, and sometimes people need reminders to read if they decide to save things for later when they have more time

ii. branding

the benefits of branding mainly come from experience, so it’s a tricky thing to utilise if you haven’t published fic before … but there are still tricks worth trying!

certain fic writers will attract readers to new fics just because their name is attached to it, and people know the sort of story they’re getting, they know how it’ll be written, the sort of tropes that will appear, that sort of thing. obviously, building up this sort of brand requires publishing a lot of work, and so it must be said that practice makes perfect: the more you write and publish, the more your fics will be seen and your audience will grow. people will regularly see your username in the tags on ao3 and be more inclined to click on you as someone who reliably produces good content. it’s important to remember that everyone starts from the same place and works hard to improve their craft; success doesn’t just come overnight (unless you’re in the right place at the right time) and any creator will tell you that compliments to their talent aren’t what matters, but instead, it’s compliments to their dedication and hard graft.

another key thing about branding is how you present yourself online. the most important thing in my opinion is cohesion across your social media platforms e.g. having the same username on ao3 as you do on tumblr/twitter/wherever you promote your fic. having an easily navigatable blog with working hyperlinks and archiving of your fic work is also great. basically, building a clean interface for people to engage with your work is vital! having the same icon and username across all your social media makes it so much easier for readers to navigate between your fics and your promo posts … basically, the easier you can spell something out, the better

branding is mostly to do with how you advertise yourself, rather than the particular fic, although much of it overlaps. get your name out there by engaging with other writers and making friends and appreciating their work! this is often the best way to get inspired, plus you get to meet some amazing people. i recommend trying out for zines and big bangs and writing challenges, as these are good ways to show your work to already-established audiences. also, make yourself available by interacting with commentors or by opening up your inbox on tumblr to anons. try linking your social media and your inbox as hyperlinks in the authors note of your fic

iii. presentation

this is really fundamental and is often the main reason people will close out of your fic and not read to the end. people want to read fics that are easy to digest and have had care put into them. this includes a lot of things:

correct tagging i.e. are the tags coherent and not just rambling? are there appropriate trigger warnings in place? have you unnecessarily tagged every side pairing under the sun, rather than just the main relationship?

grammar and spelling. goes without saying … people are more likely to read things that look professional and have had care poured into their preparation. make sure you know how to use speech punctuation. revise how to use commas. avoid epithets (especially racially-aggravated ones). get yourself a beta if you’re worried, because betas are godsends!

paragraphing. so many people will close out of a fic if it isn’t correctly spaced. double spaced paragraphs look best on ao3 and i often won’t read a fic if the paragraphs are too long because it hurts my eyes to read. make sure you’re starting new speakers in new paragraphs. new ideas deserve new paragraphs. basically, every time the “camera” changes, you should be starting a new paragraph. not just a new line.

summaries. i see so many fics on ao3 with summaries that are either apologising for being bad at summaries or apologising for a fic being bad/being a first fic, and like … stop this! own what you have written, no-one else will have written it the way you have and you should be proud of it. if you’re saying in your summary that it’s a bad fic, i’m not going to click on it as a reader. instead, utilise your summary to get people hooked … good hooks can be written a load of different ways, but the best ones i see often involved a snippet from the fic as a taster, and then a couple lines of blurb. get people excited!

titles: i’m personally more likely to click on a fic where the title is either (a) correctly capitalised or (b) is clearly chosen for its aesthetic or meaning (i love long lower case titles with parentheses lol). choosing a memorable title is really helpful, especially one that can be shortened or abbreviated for social media (e.g. for hashtags)!

all this being said, traffic on ao3 is a crytpid at best and obeys little in the way of rhyme or reason. you can put blood, sweat and tears into marketing your fic, but sometimes, just being in the right place at the right time (writing for the right niche) is what does it, so being a fic writer requires a lot of patience. first and foremost, write for yourself. write what you want to read and enjoy doing it, because if you get sucked into obsessively checking stats, it’s only going to disappoint when you don’t achieve what you want to achieve.

just keep persevering and keep writing and appreciating each and every person who takes time in interact with your fic and its promos … because ultimately, all it takes it that one reader to fall head over heels in love with your fic for everything to change. for now, just be proud of your work and keep writing!

#lucy replies #writing

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growinstablog · 4 years

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Why Social Listening Should Be a Key Part of Your Social Media Strategy

First things first, what actually is social listening?

Social listening involves tracking mentions of your brand, competitors, and anything relevant to your industry, on social media. To get a detailed picture, you’re going to want to monitor mentions across a number of social channels. Focusing on platforms where your target audience is most active might seem like the obvious thing to do, but don’t forget that anyone who is aware of your brand could have something to say about it. So, cast your net wide! Through collecting and evaluating data such as tags and mentions across social media, you’ll have some actionable insights to improve your communication strategy.

Here are just a few ways social listening can be useful for your brand.

Why Social Listening Should be a Key Part of your Social Media Strategy

To assess the mood surrounding your brand

Use mentions to get a feel for how people are viewing and interacting with your brand. Sometimes it’s easy to assess the mood. We all remember the social media backlash that Pepsi unwittingly created with their tone-deaf Kendall Jenner ad. It was pretty easy to get a feel for the mood then 😬. But, hopefully, the way people are interacting with your brand is more nuanced – which means you have more digging to do.

By tracking mentions across social media and monitoring the use of your brand and campaign hashtags, you’ll get a clearer picture of how your brand is positioned in your industry and beyond, and hopefully pinpoint what’s working and what isn’t.

Investing in social monitoring tools such as Mention, BuzzSumo or Keyhole is a great idea if you’re a bigger brand with a budget, but there are also cheaper options out there too. Though it’s more time consuming, you can manually track hashtags and mentions using native social analytics such as Tweetdeck. You can also track your mentions across the web with Google Alerts, which is completely free.

To bring social media users into your community

Tracking mentions of your brand can help you take an active role in engaging with your audience outside of the your own social media pages. Engaging in these conversations can help you better position your brand and attract new members to your community.

Remember: DO be genuine and be helpful. DON’T try to upsell everything to everyone all the time.

Focus first of all on how you can provide value to those already talking about your brand – this could mean explaining something about your product, solving a problem for an unhappy customer, or sharing some relevant content that might interest those in the discussion. If you do this, users are more likely to follow you, engage with your content, and eventually use your product or service.

If you can provide value to users who are particularly active on social, they could end up recommending you to their network, which is free (positive) publicity for your brand! Which brings us to the next point…

To discover influencers and brand ambassadors

Wouldn’t it be great if the people talking about your brand were not only saying nice things, but saying them to a large, engaged follower base? Well, good news – that might already be happening! But you’ll only know if you monitor social mentions.

The aim should be to pinpoint potential ambassadors for your brand and reach out to them with a friendly comment or DM. Instagram is the biggest social platform for influencer marketing, with 1 billion spent last year on influencer marketing. If you want a piece of the action, it’s important to find the right influencers to work with.

Though not everyone mentioning you will be a future brand ambassador, you might be surprised how many micro-influencers are already promoting your brand for you!

This post is a great example of how social listening can help you find great brand ambassadors who are already promoting your brand, and who reflect and speak to your target audience. @reformation regrammed this pic from @minamigessel, who’s sporting one of their swimsuits, and the response speaks for itself. They listened to the feedback from their community and recently announced a new, more inclusive range of clothing in sizes 0-22.

To discover brands you can collaborate with

Look out for mentions from similar brands (not direct competitors, that point is up next!) that could be potential collaborators.

Let’s say you’re an interior design brand selling cute cushions, and you notice you’ve been tagged or mentioned in great photo shoot for a fashion campaign because, yay, your cushions were used in the shoot.

So what do you do?

You reach out and see if the fashion brand in question want to work on a campaign together!

Even if you don’t end up planning a big project, there’s always the option to feature or share each others content occasionally to utilize each others audiences and maximise your reach. Obviously, the collaboration has to be mutually beneficial, so be prepared to offer some airtime in return.

Always be picky about the brands you collaborate with though. Make sure they’re interesting to your audience, and in keeping with your own brand identity and niche.

To monitor your competitors

Stay ahead of the game by monitoring your competitors’ mentions. Knowing what the mood is around their brand and their marketing campaigns can help you understand what could also work for you and give you fresh ideas. Keeping a lookout for negative mentions can also allow you to pinpoint the mistakes they’re making, and stop you from making the same ones!

Tools like Mention let you create a dashboard where you can monitor competitors’ mentions and apply direct filters so you can focus in on particular topics of conversation. But just like when you’re monitoring your own mentions, you can also track your competitors brand hashtags with native insights.

For more insights into your competitor’s performance on Instagram and Facebook, including tag usage, follower/fans growth and posting times, check out Iconosquare’s Competitors feature (available on PRO and ADVANCED plans). Keep in mind that due to Instagram’s API changes, you will need an Instagram Business profile to track competitors, and you’re only able to track other Business accounts.

If you’re willing to listen, there’s a lot you can learn! Make the most of the information out there to inform your social media strategy and develop your brand so that it really speaks to your audience.

Are you already using social listening? How has it helped you develop your strategy? Leave a comment and let us know!

https://growinsta.xyz/why-social-listening-should-be-a-key-part-of-your-social-media-strategy/

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contractor-media · 6 years

Text

How to Use Image SEO for More Site Traffic

Keywords, content, and SEO tend to be the focus when you’re trying to direct more traffic to your website. Images are a powerful tool for traffic as well, but unfortunately, many marketers aren’t using them to their fullest potential.

Images are content as well, which can be easy to forget. In fact, images are an essential part of any content marketing effort. Users are also searching for visual content, so if you’re not using images as part of your SEO, you’re missing out on valuable opportunities.

How Do Images Boost Traffic?

Images serve many purposes for your site, such as:

Aesthetics: Images make your site more visually appealing and easier to digest, which keeps people on your site longer and decreases the bounce rate.

Image search: Images pull traffic from image searches, which may direct a different audience to your site than other searches.

Social media shares: Images get more shares and engagement on social media than text-only posts. The more your content is shared, the larger your potential audience is and the more likely you are to get readers for your posts.

Optimizing for Image Search

Images need to be optimized just like anything else. Optimizing images isn’t much different than optimizing other types of content, and they rank similarly. The first image on the image search results page is the equivalent of the first website to come up in a standard search.

Image search has more results, however, and people view images differently. Because of this, it’s important to optimize your images to be sure they’re close to the top.

Here’s how:

File Names

Cameras use a series of letters and numbers as the default name for images. Unfortunately, this doesn’t do much to boost your SEO.

Whenever possible, rename your images with a relevant title that reflects the content, which gives a search engine an idea of what it is.

Alt Tags

Image alt tags are metadata that help a search engine index an image. Editing alt tags not only improves your ranking, but it also boosts your SEO overall.

An ideal alt tag description is short, but filled with keywords. It should accurately describe the image for visually impaired users as well.

Compression

Your images should be as big as possible, but use as little storage space as possible, which can be done with compression. Tools like Compressor.io can be used to reduce the storage size and retain the quality of the image.

Now that we know how to optimize, let’s take a look at how to use image search to direct traffic to your website.

Use Your Own Images

Stock photography has its purposes, but if you’re consistently using stock photos, it’s not going to help your site. Stock photos don’t accurately reflect your brand, and they give your site a disorganized look, which is then communicated to your visitors.

Original images, on the other hand, show your visitors that you put the extra effort into the look of your site and the overall image of your brand. Original images are also traced back to your site, which means that you’re more likely to earn backlinks when others use them for their own content. They’ll also show up earlier in the image search results, giving you an SEO boost.

If you don’t have the resources to create your own images, it’s acceptable to use stock images. However, you should be doing all you can to limit your use of stock photography and provide as many original images as you can.

Related Image Keywords

Just like text content, image content has a primary keyword that’s included in the file name and alt tag. You should still be using related image keywords, however, to give your strategy more variety and to target searchers who want to find your image but may not be using the proper keyword.

This may seem like extra work, but you’d be surprised at how different the images can be between similar keywords. When you cast a wide net with related keywords, you’re reaching a much larger audience.

If you need some assistance in coming up with related keywords, just look at the image keyword suggestions at the top of an image search results page. This will give you an idea of what others are searching, which you can use as part of your own strategy.

Relevant Images

Relevant images are images that are directly related to the topic. While this may seem clear, it’s not always the case. Many people use images that are unrelated to their topic to enhance their posts, which directs unrelated traffic to your site.

For example, you may use a pop culture reference that relates to one section of a blog post. Because of this, anyone searching for that pop culture reference will find themselves on your blog post, when they were actually looking for entertainment. When they discover the actual purpose of your site, they’re likely to bounce.

Infographics

Infographics are an excellent way to boost your SEO and create custom imagery that is easy for your readers to digest. They drive thousands of visitors to your site and help you establish yourself as an authority as well.

Not every bit of content needs an infographic, but they can help with content that is research intensive or contains a lot of data. By putting it in a quick, clear infographic format, you’re allowing your readers to quickly skim the information to get the answers they need.

Watermarks

Watermarking is common with artists and photographers, but not so much for business owners who create their own custom images. Watermarking can be used to copyright your images, which is always a good thing, but it has another purpose — traffic.

Watermarking your images tells people where the image came from using a link, so it gives you credit and tells viewers where to go to find similar content. This is a good way to get traffic to your site and social pages, no matter where the image is shared.

Conclusion

Image SEO is powerful, but few marketers are using it to their advantage. Keywords and meta descriptions are important, but images can give you that extra edge over the competition.

People always need images for their own posts or videos, so driving traffic from optimized images is quick and easy. If you put some effort into optimizing your images and combining them with your other SEO tactics, you should see an increase in rankings in no time.

How to Use Image SEO for More Site Traffic republished from the Contractor Marketing blog by Contractor Media

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thelmasirby32 · 4 years

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Content creation guide: How to effectively think of SEO at every stage

30-second summary:

Content marketing and SEO are like a sailboat and its sail, they need each other.

We’re in a time where only nine percent of content actually sees organic traffic from search results, and nearly 70% of all clicks go to the first five organic search results.

Co-founder and CEO of Influence & Co., Kelsey Raymond shares a five-step guide to help you with an SEO-friendly content creation process that wins in SERPs.

Content marketing and SEO are like a sailboat and its sail, they need each other. Just like your sailboat’s not going anywhere fast without a sail, your content isn’t going to help you reach your goals if people can’t find it. And finding it might be harder than you think.

In a time when there are nearly 80,000 Google searches per second, breaking through the noise can seem impossible. Only nine percent of content actually sees organic traffic from search results, and nearly 70% of all clicks go to the first five organic search results.

So how can you compete in this race to the top of search engine results pages to make sure your target audience can find your content?

By thinking about SEO at every single stage of the content creation process.

Keeping SEO in focus throughout the content creation

Creating high-quality, educational, engaging content is an honorable pursuit, but in order for that content to actually be valuable, you can’t ignore SEO as you’re planning and creating your content. After all, content can only be valuable to someone if she knows that it exists.

So as you’re developing your next batch of content, here’s how you can consider SEO and implement SEO strategies at every stage of the content creation process:

1. Brainstorming

From the very start of content creation — even before you’ve nailed down definite content topics — you should be considering SEO. Two ways you can do that are by looking into which subjects you should cover based on what your audience is searching for and researching potential publications you might want to target.

Let’s start with keyword research. You can use a tool like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz to get a grasp on what your audience members are searching for now, how they’re searching for it, and what other content is ranking for those keywords. This research will tell you which keywords you rank for, your position in search results for each keyword, and the traffic that keyword attracts, just to name a few metrics.

As you’re researching keywords to gather content topic ideas, start broad with your overall content theme. For example, if you’re looking into what your audience is searching for related to content marketing, start there. When you search for content marketing in one of the above tools, it will return variations of other keywords that people are searching for that are related to content marketing, such as what it is, techniques, strategies, ROI, case studies, examples, and more. This will help you cast a wide net from the start and narrow your focus from there.

Once you have this information, you can discover what content your audience finds valuable and take the next step of determining how you can create content that’s higher-quality and more engaging and relevant to your audience.

For guest-contributed content

Consider which publications you might want to target based on your niche and subject matter expertise. Once you have that list, research those publications. It’s important to choose publications that are reputable authorities within your industry. While domain authority isn’t a direct ranking factor, a site with a higher DA is perceived as more authoritative, which can potentially lead to more eyeballs on your content and, therefore, a higher ranking due to that engagement. Not sure which sites qualify as authoritative? A good test is to ask yourself whether you’d be comfortable sharing an article from the publication with your colleagues and friends. If not, keep looking.

In addition to considering publications’ credibility, you’ll also want to look at what types of links these publications include in their articles. You can use a tool like MozBar to see which links in an article are “nofollow” or follow and internal or external. A follow link is acknowledged by search engines and drives SEO juice for the linked site. But keep in mind that just because a site doesn’t use follow links, that doesn’t mean it won’t advance your content goals. Follow links do carry link juice, but you can still gain valuable organic referral traffic to generate leads without those follow links.

Also, check to make sure the publication uses contextual links, tools like cognitiveSEO can help with this. Contextual links are links that are surrounded by relevant text within the body of a piece of content. For example, in one of my recently published articles, I included an educational link that was directly related to the surrounding text:

Getting those contextual links in high-authority publications helps Google establish the relevancy of your content, and these links can boost your click-through rate by providing readers with additional valuable information.

2. Outlining

Once you’ve chosen a content topic and a publication target for guest-contributed content based on your research, you can begin the outlining phase.

Start by determining a few primary keywords you’re focusing on in this specific piece of content. List out some related long-tail keywords and keyword variations you might consider including so you can keep them in mind during the writing stage. Also, pinpoint any related links you’d like to try to include naturally within the content. Here’s an example:

Next, write up a brief summary of the topic. What’s the big picture? What will this article cover, and what value will it provide to readers? Make sure this summary ties back to your target keywords. Here’s an example, notice the underlined target keywords:

Once you have that summary in place to guide you, you can create a bulleted outline including the actual information you want to cover within the article. Include your own insights, the takeaways you want readers to walk away with, and relevant examples and research.

3. Write with a “people first” approach

When you’re writing your content, remember to write for people first. Write content that is helpful, educational, and engaging, and optimize from there.

When you’re including keywords, use both short- and long-tail keywords naturally. These days, search engines are trying to curate search results that ring true to the searcher’s intent and to do that, they’re trying to understand the searcher’s natural language in the same way another person would. Make sure to include your keywords in a way that would match up with what your audience members are looking to learn based on their search.

Searcher intent is also important when determining the length of your content. If you’re focusing on a keyword that people are searching for when asking a simple question, you might want to keep the content short and sweet — they’re probably not in the market for a long guide. However, it’s still important to balance out those shorter pieces of content with long ones so you can provide valuable content to members of your audience at every stage of their journey with your company.

Consider voice search

Also, remember that search isn’t limited to text anymore. By 2020, almost a third of searches will be done without the help of a screen – think Siri, Amazon Echo, and Google Home. And research shows that only 1.71% of voice search results have the exact match keyword in their title tag. So make sure you’re including keyword phrases in a way that people might speak to help your content rank in voice search. For example, in addition to the keyword “content marketing strategy”, you might also want to include something like “how can I create a content marketing strategy?” into your text.

Make it digestible

Finally, as you’re writing your content, make it digestible. For content that’s on the longer side, use subheadings and bullet points to break up the content to provide a better experience for the reader.

Also, look for opportunities to optimize your content for Google’s “featured snippet” box, also known as “position zero.” Only 12.3% of search queries result in a featured snippet box, and 93% of SEO experts say that claiming the featured snippet box can drive more clicks and visits to a website. A few ways you can optimize your content for the featured snippet box are posing a question in a header and then concisely answering the question directly below, including FAQ schema, and providing a table of contents with anchor links.

4. Editing

Once you have a written draft put together, it’s editing time. It’s best to have someone other than the writer edit the content because a fresh set of eyes is more likely to catch grammatical errors and other content issues.

During the editing stage, make sure the keywords read naturally within the copy. Be on the lookout for keyword stuffing (that is, including tons of keywords without regard for readability) or missed keyword opportunities, and double-check that any hyperlinks you’ve included are placed on keyword phrases when possible.

The anchor text for hyperlinks should be relevant to readers based on where they are within the article, and it should make sense for them to want to click another link. For example, let’s say a reader stumbles across this sentence: “It’s important to optimize your blog posts for SEO.” When the reader sees that “optimize your blog posts” is linked, he will probably assume that the link goes to a page that provides advice on optimizing blog posts for SEO. But if that link leads straight to a homepage that contains no helpful insights related to that topic, the reader will probably get frustrated and bounce.

It’s also important to ensure the content title is relevant and includes keywords so your audience members can find the content in search and see clearly that it can help them solve their pain points or answer their questions.

Next, take a step back and make sure the content is formatted for readability on mobile. Google research found that there are more Google searches on mobile than desktop, so this couldn’t be more important. To ensure your content is formatted for mobile, Jumpfactor CEO Zamir Javer recommends that you “use the squint test to scan the page to identify design and layout flaws so that you can adjust the layout to make it more readable. Don’t bring your readers to a page with a wall of text, or they will leave just as fast as they came. This will ultimately erode your search visibility as Google measures site interaction as a signal for rankings”. This squint test should be done on a mobile device to confirm that everything looks great for your mobile readers.

Evaluate whether there are enough subheadings within the content. Subheadings break up content to make it digestible and less overwhelming for readers, which can improve the user experience and time on site, which then boosts your search rankings. Include relevant keywords within subheadings when appropriate so readers can quickly see that the content is relevant to them and what they’re hoping to learn.

5. Prepping for publishing

Congratulations! You’ve created a high-quality piece of content and have kept SEO in focus throughout the journey. But the work isn’t finished quite yet if you’re creating content for your own site.

Don’t forget to add alt text for any visual elements you’re including. The alt text describes what an image or other visual element contains. This makes your content accessible for people with visual impairments and makes sure Google correctly interprets what those visual elements are.

Also, create an SEO title tag that’s 60 characters or less and a meta description that’s 155 characters or less. The title tag denotes what will appear as the page title in search results, and the meta description is the descriptive text that appears just below the title in those results. These elements ensure searchers can clearly see what your content is about and are enticed to click through to it. Make sure this metadata is both keyword-rich to help with rankings and engaging to drive click-through rates.

Finally, do one last check to make sure the content is visually easy to follow and doesn’t bombard readers with a big wall of text.

Well, there you have it! You’re now armed with the information you need to stay focused on SEO throughout the entire content creation process — all while creating high-quality, engaging content that your audience will love.

Kelsey Raymond is the co-founder and CEO of Influence & Co., a full-service content marketing firm that specializes in helping companies strategize, create, publish, and distribute content that accomplishes their goals.

The post Content creation guide: How to effectively think of SEO at every stage appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

from Digital Marketing News https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2020/06/19/content-creation-guide-how-to-effectively-think-of-seo-at-every-stage/

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bashfoo · 5 years

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7 Signs It’s Time for a Paid Google Ad Campaign

Google Ad campaigns allow you to raise awareness about your business, target people who are already searching for exactly the keywords you cover and expand your reach. In spite of its many benefits, however, many businesses choose to forego Google Ad campaigns–or perhaps to put them off for an undefined “later.” The trouble is, you cannot benefit from a campaign you never create.

Is it time for a Google Ad campaign for your business? Consider these key signs.

1. You aren’t bringing in search traffic for the right keywords.

Creating an SEO-optimized website includes ensuring that your website brings in search traffic for the keywords that are most important for your business. Unfortunately, bringing your website up to the top page of those rankings can take time. If you’ve noticed that you aren’t bringing in search traffic for the keywords you most need to see traffic for on your website, running a Google Ad campaign can help increase your website’s overall visibility–including visibility for specific keywords. That ad campaign can also benefit your usual SEO, since the more visitors come to your website and stay on it, showing that you offer quality content.

2. You’re not targeting your advertisements.

Google Ads allows for highly targeted advertisements that will go straight to the audience you choose. Instead of casting out a broad net with a traditional advertisement, Google Ads allows you to send your advertisement directly to people who are already searching for that specific keyword. Based on your keyword research and understanding of the ad funnel, you can even target people who are at specific stages of the buyer’s journey, designing advertisements that will reach out, answer their questions, and help bring them into your funnel to complete that journey.

If you’re a local business, you can also benefit from Google Ads. You can narrow your targeting to people in a specific geographic region, including searchers using specific geographic search terms or those using the “near me” term.

3. You’re ready to expand your business.

When you create advertisements, you’re looking for opportunities to expand your business: to bring more traffic to your website. If you’re looking to expand your business, increasing your search traffic is a great way to bring in more leads and new business. Test your Google Ad campaigns and see how effectively they bring in the traffic you need–and what percentage of that traffic is new traffic.

Build your future ad campaigns based on these statistics and what they tell you about people coming into your business. As you decide to grow and expand your business, you’ll find that Google Ads campaigns are a great way to accomplish that expansion, from increasing awareness about the latest products you’re ready to offer to expand into new geographic areas. If you’ve recently changed the location of your business, a Google Ads campaign can also help new customers find you.

4. You’re looking for a budget-friendly way to launch a new marketing campaign.

The keywords you choose to target in your Google Ad campaign will determine the expense associated with your campaign. Some high-priority keywords may have a higher price tag than others. You can, however, choose the funds you want to put into your ad campaign. You may have a relatively low budget to work with, or you may have a higher marketing budget that will allow you to target a wide range of potential customers who are already looking for information related to businesses like yours.

Once upon a time, Google Ads campaigns were considered a more expensive form of advertising. As they’ve improved, however, many people have found that they can find a Google Ads solution within their budget. Even if you’re on a budget for your marketing campaign, you can still make the most of it!

5. You want fast results.

When you’re trying to bring new leads–and potentially new business–to your website, you may want fast results that will help you immediately start building your profits. Not every type of ad campaign will make that possible. Instead of relying on older, slower methods, including trying to build SEO through website content, consider the benefits of a Google Ad campaign. In some cases, traffic to your website can jump within a matter of hours. Many business owners also discover that their websites make a faster rise through search rankings when using paid Google Ads over free SEO tactics alone.

6. You want to build greater awareness of your brand.

Brand awareness helps guide many of the decisions customers make. If they’re considering making a purchase in the industry, they’re more likely to choose a brand they recognize one that has presented information they trust in the past or that has helped guide them through the earlier stages of the buyer’s journey. Through your Google Ad campaigns, you can build greater awareness of your brand even for customers who don’t click on that link and visit your website. Customers may also show a higher degree of trust for brands that appear in ads or Google’s recommended results.

7. You’ve noticed overall traffic to your website is decreasing.

Your website is like a digital storefront: it’s an opportunity for customers to visit your brand, check out the products you have to offer, and consider whether they want to make a purchase. If customers aren’t visiting your website, they’re less likely to make those important buying choices. If you’ve noticed a decrease in your overall website traffic, a paid Google Ads campaign can help bring in fresh, new traffic and raise awareness of everything your brand has to offer, which can, in turn, increase your sales.

Are you ready to launch a Google Ad campaign that will help grow your business and expand awareness of everything you have to offer? Do you need help designing an advertising strategy that meets your needs, created by a Google Partner? Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you reach your goals.

The post 7 Signs It’s Time for a Paid Google Ad Campaign appeared first on Bash Foo Digital Marketing.

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mattgoxleeca · 7 years

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Different Types of Web Marketing

Marketing yourself online these days, either individually or as a business, is critical to success. In this day and age of digital communication however, it’s often common to see so many acronyms and short forms evolve almost on a daily basis. When it comes to the types of digital marketing options available, we’re faced with the same challenge. Sometimes, it’s hard to keep the who’s who and what’s what straight!

The Alphabet Soup Demystified

When you are communicating online, it’s hard to keep track of tech-talk – especially if you’re new to the world of digital marketing. When someone texts you about SMM – are they talking Super Mario Maker (Nintendo video game), or do they mean Social Media Marketing? And if you are into sales, does SMM mean Sales and Marketing Management?

When building your online marketing strategy however, context is everything. The “A”s and the “B”s in various acronyms could mean different things, depending on the digital marketing context you are talking about. So, lets try and demystify this alphabet soup for you in the context of some of the types of digital marketing options available.

Back to the Basics

For the novice, wishing to make an informed decision about internet marketing strategies, at a very basic level, digital marketing isn’t about the marketing of digital goods and services (although it very well could be!). Rather, it is the use of digital technologies and strategies to facilitate any type of marketing activity. The results that you are aiming for will of course depend upon:

The type of products and services you wish to market (while Tanks and submarines aren’t particularly suited for mas digital marketing, Electronic items, Runners and Yoga Pants certainly are!)

Whom you want to reach out to (your target audience)

How that audience uses digital technologies today (cellphones, laptops, desktops)

The time horizon over which you expect to achieve results (1 week, a year)

The extent of your marketing budget (some types of digital marketing are cheap, others are expensive)

The types of online marketing strategies that you employ in your marketing campaign will then depend upon these major constraints.

In order to understand which digital tools you should deploy, as part of your marketing strategy, it’s important that you understand what types of digital marketing approaches are available out there, so you can match strategy with tools appropriately. And that’s where most novice digital marketeers (and some veterans too!) step on a minefield of acronyms and abbreviations.

In the following section, we’ll demystify that alphabet soup for you, so you can hopefully understand what types of online marketing options are available to you, and which ones will best meet the objectives you’ve set out for your marketing efforts. As you go through each of these digital marketing options however, you should always keep in mind the various constraints we outlined earlier. They will be your guiding principles in choosing one (or a combination) over the other types of digital marketing.

Digital Marketing Types

Generally speaking, there are a handful of abbreviations for digital marketing that you should be aware of. Out of those few core approaches, digital marketing professionals create various other types of hybrid digital marketing strategies. When you are talking to, or negotiating with, digital marketing service providers, it is important for you to understand “digital marketing speak”, so you can make informed decisions. For instance, these days you hear a lot about things that go “viral”. Well, there now is a specialized digital marketing strategy, which uses various types of digital marketing alternates, which revolve around making things “go viral”. It’s a strategy known as Viral Marketing, and it uses a hybrid of several online marketing approaches. We’ll cover some of them in greater detail shortly.

Your Choices – What’s on The Menu?

So, without further ado, lets do a deep dive into the various forms of digital marketing. Be warned though – you’ll be exposed to many acronyms and abbreviations.

But don’t worry – we’ll break it all down for you:

1. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (SMM)

In the old days, you’d base your marketing strategies upon surveys or polls conducted through third-parties. Many online marketers still do that, but now there’s a better way. They use social media, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to take their message directly to the client.

Social Media Marketing (SSM) if one of the types of digital marketing that’s rapidly being used by large companies and small start-ups alike. It’s growing popularity is partly due to the fact that it puts businesses directly in touch with consumers. But the other reason that SSM is gaining in popularity is because of cost. Its low cost means many more businesses can adopt it and unleash the power of their social networking platforms to market themselves.

2. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

To understand SEO, just think of your browser’s home page. As soon as you go to MSN.Com or Google’s home page, you’re flooded with popular or trending news stories or items of interest. Well, SEO aims to do just that: It takes your message to various search engine result pages (SERPs) and displays it prominently, ahead of your competitors, so surfers and would-be customers get to view them quickly.

The science of SEO is complex, and based on algorithms (called Bots, Crawlers and Spiders) and processes that parse the contents of websites and social media platforms, to rank and rate them for relevance. These types of digital marketing approaches therefore depend on making sure your content includes a lot of “food” – called Keywords, Tags, and Meta Data - for search engine Crawlers and Bots. If the hungry algorithms are satisfied with your content, they’ll rank your online presence higher up in search engine queries – which is a great marketing opportunity!

3. CONTENT MARKETING (CM)

Remember we talked about “hybrids” earlier? Well, one of the types of digital marketing hybrids is called content marketing. This strategy depends on high-quality, SEO-rich content, that you then serve across a number of online platforms – including websites, social media sites, Blogs and other digital presences.

With good content in hand, CM-specialists then use different destinations, including those owned by you as well as owned and operated by others, to host that content. Some of this content goes to paid destinations, while others are hosted/posted in reciprocal arrangements (you post mine, I’ll host yours!). The result: Well-created content, widely distributed and marketed, casts a wide net and creates a continuous pipeline of potential clients.

4. VIRAL MARKETING (VM)

We talked a little bit about VM earlier. Essentially, it is the art (some call it a science!) of taking some digital content, and marketing it in a way that it becomes the “talk of the digital world!”. Content could be a funny video, a thoughtful photograph, a passionate essay, or a mind-blowing piece of animation. It doesn’t matter what your content is created from, as long as it stirs a lot of online interest.

Next, VM uses various types of digital marketing strategies to push out that viral message, and link it to your brand or message. That could be done on YouTube, through Twitter, on your Facebook page, or through Instagram or Pinterest. With your message attached to that content, the more people like what they see, the more they share it with their own network of contacts, and the more viral it gets. VM is really that simple (and effective)!

5. PAY PER CLICK MARKETING (PPC)

Unlike SEO-enabled links, which rise to the top of any SERP because of their popularity and relevance to the searchers’ query, PPC marketing actually pays search engines to display your links or advertisements in prominent places on their pages.

If you are rolling out a short-term promotion of your goods and services, sponsored links and paid advertisements are a great way to be “up front, and top and center” on SERPs. Once that period is over, and you stop paying for your PPC campaign, your content will no longer appear “in your face” of searchers and casual surfers.

The duration of your marketing blitz, and the extent of your budget will dictate whether PPC is for you.

6. AFFILIATE MARKETING (AM)

To understand what Affiliate Marketing is, all you need to do is walk into any local franchise of a popular brand (Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire) and see how it works. AM is similar (though not identical!). These types of digital marketing strategies identify a host of “affiliate” platforms – websites, social media networks, Blogs – and recruit them to spread the word about what you are offering.

In effect, what you are doing is tapping into the popularity of your “affiliates”, so that you can convert some of their clients (or website traffic) into your own clients. There is an up-side and a down-side to AM. Firstly, you need to be diligent about selecting the proper affiliates, because if they aren’t honest and credible operators themselves, your brand could be irreparably harmed.

Also, AM means you have to split your revenue with your affiliates. The more prospects your affiliates convert into paid sales, the less revenue you get to keep.

However, the up-side to marketing through affiliates makes it one of the more popular types of digital marketing strategies around. Firstly, you don’t have to spend much of your own time, effort and money on marketing (although it is advisable that you continue to do so!). In the hope of increasing their own revenues, your affiliates will invest time and capital in marketing activities on your behalf.

In addition, since they have already built sizeable followings, you have a captive audience to target the marketing of your goods and services towards. And that’s a key advantage of using someone else’s contact list to sell yourself!

7. INFLUENCER MARKETING (IM)

One of the “indirect” types of digital marketing that’s gaining traction today, is called Influencer Marketing. Like affiliate marketing discussed earlier, IM is a marketing strategy that relies upon the popularity of others, to market your own products and services.

Here’s how it works:

You search and find individuals, groups or businesses that are well-respected within your niche. Then, you enter into an arrangement with them, whereby they promote and endorse your business, brand or marketing message.

Remember, because of the “authority” they hold within the niche, people they reach out to are more likely to get “influenced” and get converted when they hear your message. As an indirect marketing tool, AM often uses celebrities or other individuals (groups or entities) to influence prospective buyers to become paying clients. As in the case of affiliates however, credibility is of utmost importance!

8) ONLINE MARKETING (AKA: WEB MARKETING)

As alluded to earlier, some types of digital marketing strategies involve multiple strategies rolled into a single approach. Online marketing is one such hybrid marketing tool that involves a broad array of internet marketing initiatives.

Just as individuals in the old days marketed themselves using the Yellow Pages, Newspaper advertisements, door-to-door Flyer deliveries, Classified ads in community newspapers, Television spots – so too online marketing uses a myriad of digital marketing strategies to get the message out.

From marketing on specialized websites, to listings on niche online directories, to getting paid and reciprocal links from/to other online platforms from/to your website, this type of strategy takes a shotgun approach to marketing. You could write Guest Posts to promote yourself; buy paid links on search engines; write and publish content on niche sites, or launch a Press Release every time you roll out a new product or service, or have something newsworthy to report.

And there…now you know Who’s Who, and What’s What about digital marketing. As you can see, the types of digital marketing strategies are as broad and diverse as the products and services you are trying to market. Some of them can be launched on your own, others might need professional inputs. And still others need partners (affiliates) to pull them off successfully.

Happy Marketing!

And now, for the BIG questions:

Are some of these better than others?

Should you avoid some and embrace others?

Which one is the best for you?

Unfortunately, the best answer to all of these questions is a rather vague (and politically correct!): It depends!

When it comes to online marketing, there’s no one-size fits all approach. Which types of digital marketing strategies you adopt will depend on many factors, including on your marketing objectives. While PPC might work for your competitor, your business may be better suited for SMM. To choose which one is ideal for you, go “Back to the Basics” above, and review the five constraints we provided. Keep those in mind when deciding what types of digital marketing you should adopt. And happy marketing to you all!

from Survis Posts https://survis.com/posts/different-types-of-web-marketing from Survis https://survisinc.tumblr.com/post/172246433961

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survisinc · 7 years

Text

Different Types of Web Marketing

The Alphabet Soup Demystified

Back to the Basics

The type of products and services you wish to market (while Tanks and submarines aren’t particularly suited for mas digital marketing, Electronic items, Runners and Yoga Pants certainly are!)

Whom you want to reach out to (your target audience)

How that audience uses digital technologies today (cellphones, laptops, desktops)

The time horizon over which you expect to achieve results (1 week, a year)

The extent of your marketing budget (some types of digital marketing are cheap, others are expensive)

The types of online marketing strategies that you employ in your marketing campaign will then depend upon these major constraints.

Digital Marketing Types

Your Choices – What’s on The Menu?

So, without further ado, lets do a deep dive into the various forms of digital marketing. Be warned though – you’ll be exposed to many acronyms and abbreviations.

But don’t worry – we’ll break it all down for you:

1. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (SMM)

2. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

3. CONTENT MARKETING (CM)

4. VIRAL MARKETING (VM)

5. PAY PER CLICK MARKETING (PPC)

The duration of your marketing blitz, and the extent of your budget will dictate whether PPC is for you.

6. AFFILIATE MARKETING (AM)

Also, AM means you have to split your revenue with your affiliates. The more prospects your affiliates convert into paid sales, the less revenue you get to keep.

7. INFLUENCER MARKETING (IM)

Here’s how it works:

8) ONLINE MARKETING (AKA: WEB MARKETING)

Happy Marketing!

And now, for the BIG questions:

Are some of these better than others?

Should you avoid some and embrace others?

Which one is the best for you?

Unfortunately, the best answer to all of these questions is a rather vague (and politically correct!): It depends!

from Survis Posts https://survis.com/posts/different-types-of-web-marketing

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evnoweb · 7 years

Text

This Week in Ontario Edublogs

Happy February and Groundhog Day (updated)…

For this Huron County boy, there only is one weather predictor – Wiarton Willie. But I understand there are others.

While you wait for the sun to rise, check out these posts from Ontario Edubloggers. I usually refer to this link but I also keep a Scoopit collection here. I refer to that because

It’s now at a gold level. That’s a lot of blogging. Way to go, folks.

I’m sorry, but the world needs more real apologizing

Heather Swail has an interesting take and insight on a Canadian trait – being nice. I mean, who among us hasn’t apologized without any real need? I smile when I think of a lady who wasn’t paying attention at the store the other day and ran her grocery cart into me. I apologized to her.

What can I say? I was raised to be polite.

Heather’s take is that an apology should be …

A real heartfelt – not intellectually or strategically manufactured – apology involves reflection and thought on the part of the apologizer.

My action, I guess, could best be described as a reflex action.

We know that learned behaviours can be modified. Is the reflex on my part worth the time and training that would be needed or is there a problem with being overly apologetic?

A $50 Million Gift Horse

This post, by Anne Shillolo is actually a copy of an email that she wrote to the Minister of Innovation with respect to the $50 million that has been allocated to the CanCode project.

The CanCode program will invest $50 million over two years, starting in 2017-18, to support initiatives providing educational opportunities for coding and digital skills development to Canadian youth from kindergarten to grade 12 (K-12). It also supports initiatives that provide K-12 teachers with the training and professional development they need to introduce digital skills, coding and related concepts into the classroom.

Anne correctly identifies the lay of the land, at least here in Ontario.

Not enough young women in technology,

Not enough computer science (CS) teachers in Ontario,

Most teachers’ colleges are no longer training CS teachers,

Teacher candidates are not choosing CS as a teachable.

High school CS and engineering courses are not offered province wide.

Then, she proceeds to share her thoughts about outsourcing professional development for teachers. It’s a letter that will get you thinking.

The CanCode details can be found here and the list of winning companies here.

Precarious Absences – The impact of teacher intervention truancy systems

Deborah Weston tagged me in the announcement of the release of this post.

It’s a standing joke in the educational profession that it’s easier to come to work sick than to plan lessons for someone else to teach while you are under the weather. Creating lessons is difficult enough when you’re healthy. Being sick makes it even more difficult.

I see you nodding your head. We’ve all said that.

Yet, there are times when you have to take time off. It’s very seldom to get a doctor’s appointment in other than school hours. Society generally likes people working from 8-5.

Now, I like a computer to do all kinds of administrative things for me as much as the next person. Deborah talks about teacher truancy systems that track days off and then performs some sort of action for excessive time off.

As Deborah notes, it does cast a wide net. Wouldn’t the principal of a school be in a better position of knowing if someone is potentially taking advantage of days off?

In the bigger scheme of things, the days are laid out as a matter in a collective agreement. At what point does this become a violation of that agreement?

ok go

For the record, I don’t own a Google Home device. But, I do have an Android phone with the Google Assistance installed and I’ll admit that it’s darn handy at times to just ask a question and get Google to try and respond with a a useful suggestion.

I’ve even trained Google to know that my dog’s name is Jaimie. It was just a case of fooling around, asking Google…

“What’s my dog’s name?”

And the first time, Google didn’t know. So, I taught it.

Now, when I ask “What’s my dog’s name?”, Google will respond correctly.

Chris Cluff shares a combo blog post, podcast with Chad Reay about Google Home. Both the blog post and the podcast are entertaining and insightful. I recommend both.

As for Google Home, my son got one for Christmas and we did have some fun with it. But, when you put your tinfoil beanie on, you do realize that it’s listening all the time waiting for you to say “Hey, Google”.

The podcast did get me thinking about whether or not it is a welcome member of the household or classroom. What do you think?

The Essential Catchall

When I read the title for this post by Tim King, I didn’t know what to expect.

It turns out, he’s reflecting on his teaching of an Essentials class. This post is a powerful look inside the classroom and shares with us just how students end up in this course. With Tim’s description, it’s quite obvious that a course geared for a particular type of student certainly takes a turn for the worse when it becomes a catchall.

I found Tim’s description quite disturbing.

I would have thought if anyone could reach out and design a course to engage students, it would be him. He embraces technology and learning at an inspiring level. And yet, he reports that equipment in his shop gets broken.

You can’t help but speculate that success would only be achieved if the catchall philosophy is abandoned and student needs become paramount rather than the current reality.

Taking the step: Vertical Non-Permanent Surfaces in my mathematics classroom

When you close a blog post with

The richness of the mathematics and the thinking that resulted from it was well-worth the challenges though. Moving forward we will use this strategy for some logic puzzles and number challenges, and then transition into specific curriculum content.

you know that you’re onto something good.

Melissa Dean’s post is interesting and got me thinking just about “how” we do mathematics. Typically, it’s done by yourself flat on a desktop. After all, the school board paid a lot for those desks.

Occasionally, you get called to write your solution to a problem on the black/white/green board in the classroom. It’s different; you’re writing in a different direction but you now have a potential audience looking at your work. She describes a problem solving situation that involves a triad and the role of the scribe. (You have to read her post to see why I used that word!)

What I think is particularly noteworthy is for her to step back and view the students as mathematicians. This whole activity is certainly worth trying out in your classroom.

Knowledgehook Math PLC Planning Tool

Kyle Pearce takes us through a very thorough walkthrough of the Knowledgehook PLC tool.

The product is made by a Kitchener based company and claims a few Ontario school boards already as clients.

It’s an interesting walkthrough with Kyle’s comments as your guide to what’s happening on the screen captures that he shares.

Clicking through Kyle’s post takes you to the Knowledgehook website where there are a number of mathematics tools running the gamut from free with a few features to a subscription model with much more utility.

In case you missed it, I had a chance earlier this week to interview Helen DeWaard.

Thanks for sticking with this post to get to the bottom! I hope that you’ll click through and read the original posts in all their glory. There’s lots there for learning and reflection.

And, don’t forget to add these bloggers to your learning network.

@hbswail

@anneshillolo

@dr_weston_PhD

@chrisjcluff

@tk1ng

@Dean_of_math

@mathletepearce

@hj_dewaard

This Week in Ontario Edublogs published first on https://medium.com/@DigitalDLCourse

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garynsmith · 7 years

Text

Bumble Bizz Swipes Right on Networking

Mobile apps are playing a bigger role in the real estate industry than ever before. Typically, real estate related apps are catered to buyer and seller clients to make their transactions a little easier. But agents can benefit from apps as well, especially the newest arrival into the networking world, Bizz—an offshoot of the popular dating app, Bumble.

Started by Whitney Wolfe Herd after she left Tinder and started Bumble, Bizz was created when dating app users voiced their demand for easy networking. What makes Bumble stand apart from other dating apps is its feminist focus that allows only women to make the first move. And now with Bizz, networking is taking on the same spin. According to the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), 63 percent of all association members are female. A networking tool that caters predominantly to the female gender could be a boon to the real estate industry.

But how does this differ from popular networking site, LinkedIn? That’s simple: Bumble Bizz gives users the opportunity to network or get mentoring from local users at a moment’s notice. Wolfe Herd reiterates that Bizz is strictly a networking and mentoring app and not a job search app like LinkedIn. And while many brokerages provide in-house training to their agents, there’s something to be said about having a face-to-face conversation with a fellow professional to discuss what’s working well for their business and what’s not.

Here’s how it works:

Users must download the app and select networking

The app will add professionals based on users’ location

Users can state their networking goals in a short bio

Users must swipe right to connect with an individual

Women must start the chat within 24 hours or the match expires

Men can’t send the first message

And herein lies the app’s biggest challenge: there are currently no filters to show only professionals within a specific industry. Since LinkedIn has such advanced search capabilities when it comes to looking for industry professionals, Bizz will have to update this glitch in order to make the app truly successful.

But Bizz is still in the early stages of adoption, having just launched last month, and has time to expand and become an innovative way to network. Real estate agents may want to add this free app to their toolbox regardless of the unavailable filters as networking is beneficial even outside of the industry. Here’s how agents can use the app to network, increase referrals and become more successful.

Build a referral network. Right now, finding fellow real estate agents to build a referral network can be problematic because of the absent filters. But if a large majority of agents start using the app, they could match with others in their state or nearby locations with a swift swipe. It’s a great way to connect in a casual setting and build relationships with agents that can take on referred clients. The inability to work in a specific location should not translate to losing out on that business completely.

And by connecting with professionals in other industries, agents can use this opportunity to expand their client base. Cementing themselves as that person’s source for real estate-related information can create a steady stream of incoming referral business from friends and family. Even if that individual is already in touch with an agent, they should reach out to cast their net wide and meet as many people as possible.

Look for mentorship opportunities. Most successful agents say that the learning never stops, no matter how many homes they sell. Bizz gives agents the opportunity to counsel each other. And while mentoring can be a way of giving back to the real estate community, this is also a great way of forming strong referral relationships that keep the cash flowing.

But agents shouldn’t discount the advice of out-of-industry individuals. Just because they are successful in a different business does not mean their advice is less useful. Success comes in a variety of forms. Something as simple as a specific work routine or a set of values can spark success in a business.

Learn about surrounding market trends. While it’s most important that agents are knowledgeable about the market in which they work, it’s also valuable to know what’s happening in the surrounding areas. It can be very time-consuming to check sold statistics and comparables in areas outside their immediate market, and so having a simple conversation with an agent that works in those areas can be very enlightening. Trends that may be taking place just a couple of towns over, may make their way to the agent’s market in the near future. Being prepared for those changes is the best thing agents can do for their business.

Discuss business tools. In addition to in-house services they may already be using, it could be helpful to learn about other business tools. They can learn from others who use different marketing, database and lead generation services, and could implement new tools to boost their own business. The right combination of tech won’t become apparent until they try out various products. They might find that dialers don’t work well for them, but a third-party contact database is more intuitive than what they’re currently using. Many times, if they get referred by another agent, companies will offer discounts to use their services, or at least provide trial periods.

And agents should take all tech into consideration. There are a variety of applications that can be used regardless of the type of business being run. Apps that streamline processes will save agents time, giving them more opportunities to be out at listing or buyer appointments and making sales. Agents should consider the systems others incorporate into their business, even if not strictly for real estate.

While Bumble Bizz stands out for its focus on women and its quick connections through swiping, there are other networking apps out there that might also be beneficial.

Happening: iPhone application that displays upcoming professional events in nearby locations

Shapr: Mobile application that matches up individuals who want to build professional relationships.

Vivastream: A social channel for networking professionals using expertise tags to find individuals with common interests

Agents will have to keep in mind, however, that these may offer less networking opportunities than Bumble, which already had a strong reputation as one of the most popular dating apps and therefore a larger user base. But only time will tell if Bizz will become the new way to network.

Liz Dominguez is RISMedia’s associate content editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at [email protected].

For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com.

The post Bumble Bizz Swipes Right on Networking appeared first on RISMedia.

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