#it also sends the message to creatives that if they’re not getting engagement they’re wasting their time because that is the value of it

[florbelles]

today in hag yells at clouds. i’m not sure where this mentality comes from, but people absolutely create without sharing their work. they absolutely create for the sake of it. that everyone everywhere only writes/paints/records/what have you for external validation is fundamentally untrue. people love doing those things. they love doing them alone. often someone’s favorite or best works are the ones that aren’t ever intended to see the light of day because they are made from pure unadulterated love and joy in creating. no, no one’s creative processes or endeavors feel that way all the time. no, it isn’t wrong to seek support or validation for your work. yes, everyone wants to feel appreciated when they share something. yes, often that’s a factor in why that work is shared. it’s not wrong to create with that in mind. it’s not even wrong to prefer the engagement to the process itself. but the notion that it’s the only reason anyone creates, or even the primary reason humans historically have done so, is not only untrue but pretty grim

[projectcubicle1]

Creative Ideas for Expanding Your Product Range with Print on Demand - projectcubicle

Creative Ideas for Expanding Your Product Range with Print on Demand

Picture this: you’re going through your favorite online shopping page and every item feels that is meant only for you. It’s not by magic but POD power! – Service changing online stores, especially the one using Shopify. A retailer who wants to give a broad product-line, but does not wish to take any risks in regards to accumulating a lot of capital that will be tied down within inventory will choose POD.

Understanding Print-on-Demand

Print on demand is a straightforward yet ingenious concept. Imagine this: a customer orders a product, and then it's made. No overstock, no waste. For business owners, this means less risk and more room to experiment with different products. It's like having a virtual warehouse that's as big as your imagination. And when you pair POD with Shopify, things get even more exciting. Shopify print on demand solutions link your store with POD providers, making the process smooth. This way, you can focus on creating great products without worrying about logistics.

Creative Product Ideas

Diving into print on demand? Here's a starter pack of ideas: Custom Apparel: Who doesn't love personalized clothing? T-shirts, hoodies, hats - you name it. Each piece not only reflects your customer's style but also spreads the word about your brand. Home Decor: Turn homes into art galleries with custom prints, pillows, and blankets. These items add a personal touch to any space, making them perfect for gift-giving or personal indulgence. Accessories: Daily essentials like phone cases, tote bags, and mugs offer a canvas for your creativity. They're practical, yet with your design, they become unique fashion statements. Seasonal Products: Capitalize on the holiday spirit with themed items. These can range from Christmas ornaments to Halloween costumes, tapping into the festive mood of your customers. Limited Editions: Create a sense of urgency with short-term exclusive designs. They're like the flash sales of the POD world, sparking interest and quick purchases.

Design Strategies for POD

Print on demand design is an art. Secondly, you need to have grasped the fundamentals of designing for print. It is not always that what looks good on a screen translates well into a physical product. Next, jump into the realm of design tools and software. They act as the best of friends in realizing your dreams and bringing them into reality. Collaboration is key too. By working alongside artists and designers, you add a breath of fresh air to your merchandise. Finally, quality is king. Ensure that your designs not only look appealing, but are printable for various types of printers as well. This makes sure that what your customers see on the internet, is the same as what they hold in their hand.

Marketing Your Expanded Product Range

However, the most enjoyable aspect of it all starts with marketing the new products. First, outline a strategy. What's your message? With whom do you want your customers to communicate? Finally, leverage social media channels. Sharing of the new products can perfectly be done on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. But don't just post pictures. Engage with your audience. Post run competitions, tell stories behind your designs, and reply to comments. Another option is working together with influencers. Look for those who are related to your brand and can bring in more customers through it by talking about your products. Another powerful tool is email marketing.  Sending newsletters is not all. It's about building relationships. Offer new products, share updates, special offers and feedback. What about Shopify’s artillery in marketing? They will enable you to monitor your growth, focus on a particular consumer group, and market your products/services. Note that creativity, uniformity, and honesty as well as emotional connection between you and the customers are the main things here.

Managing Inventory and Fulfillment

Hence, let’s discuss the actual advantages of employing print-on-demand in your company. It is the air for changing and refreshing inventory management firstly. The issue of overstock is eliminated because you do not have tons of unsellable merchandise around to deal with. You do not manufacture any goods and only make what your customers place their orders for them. It's simple and efficient. Another reason is that it helps in easier life while dealing with POD providers. From making those prints to shipping them, they take care of everything. Therefore, you will stay at bay, and concentrate on the artistic front. Moreover, if one considers shopify, integrating drop shipping is as easy. It allows you to handle your business smoothly, unlike any ordinary inventory managing systems that normally cause headaches.

Analyzing and Adapting

For one start observing your sales. What is going fast off the virtual shelves and what is not? It says so much about what your customers need. Now, take the time to hear your customers. Their feedback is invaluable. You refine your existing products, and it can be a basis for developing other items. And lastly, never stop learning. This is a changing market, get ready to change with it. However, continually search for something different or fresh. Simply, this is a great way of making your business new and exciting all the time.

The Future is Bright

Therefore, what exactly have we just come to know regarding print on demand? This is one of the most effective way of expanding the product mix while retaining total control over the stock at your disposal. However, this is not where the journey ends. Never stop exploring beyond your limits of creativity. Innovate and test new designs and products. Print on demand is among many innovations underpinning the constantly evolving face of e-commerce. It must strive to remain innovative as well as adaptive. Moving forward it is obvious that online retail and print on demand is not just a fad but tomorrow’s reality of a vibrant, client centred business environment.   Read the full article

[pumpkinparade]

Palpatine, Obi-wan, and tea

So, this is a very stupid idea, but I needed to get it out of my head before I did something extreme like writing fanfic. As a heads up, I've used real-world meanings for various details since there presumably isn't a Star Wars equivalent.

The story begins when Anakin is late for a social engagement. Both Palpatine and Obi-wan are anticipating his appearance. The Sith lord presents a kindly and patient front but fumes at this egregious waste of his time internally while the Jedi pushes his dissatisfaction into the force. He disapproves of the Chancellor, but his former padawan's discourtesy is off-putting. The fact that he has put the Chancellor of the Republic on hold merely aggravated the situation.

The Jedi informs the politician that Skywalker should arrive shortly. He doesn't. The chosen one is with Padmé at present and has forgotten he's meant to be elsewhere. Kenobi ultimately invites Palpatine to offers him some tea aboard his ship while they delay action until Anakin materializes.

Normally, Jedi eschew worldly possessions, but Kenobi owns an old miniature tea set that once belonged to Qui Gon. His tea supplies are generally supplied by colleagues who offer him the leaves when he's not on Coruscant. The ship is equipped with an electric tea kettle and a portable Hot Plate for cooking. He goes about preparing Green tea for both of them when he remembers the Sencha, while excellent in quality, has since gone somewhat stale. It hasn't gone bad, but it has lost some of its fresh flavours.

Jedi are practical(in theory), and tea can be costly.

Lower-income individuals in certain Asian countries have roasted stale green tea to enhance the taste. As this is an accepted practice, he takes the loose leaf tea in his possession, grounds, roasts, and serves it with minimal preamble. Palpatine debates whether or he'll actually drink peasant tea. When Anakin appears, apologizing profusely for the delay before noticing his ex-teacher has brewed tea and claims a cup for himself, supplementing copious amounts of sugar. On Skywalker's recommendation, the Sith decides to take a chance. It's not bad, so he compliments it. The evening wraps up without an event. http://mattchasblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/experiments-with-re-roasting-stale.html?m=1

Later on, the bureaucrat invites the Jedi to attend a senate afternoon tea party. It's an opulent affair. Flowering (Gyokuro) tea with Jasmine flowers bloomed within transparent glass teapots sat next to elegantly designed tiered trays. On hundreds of tables, they rested; the flat surfaces were loaded with the first, second, and third courses, from petite pastries on the top to the tiny tea sandwiches on the bottom, the aggregate sum had been skillfully prepared for the guests. Palpatine had the wherewithal to afford a party grand enough to unsettle a Jedi. To his delight, he had succeeded.

Nearly everyone in attendance had been bequeathed a box of 16 Jasmine Pearls green tea blooms, the dried bundled ball of tea leaves and flowers would open like a plant in "bloom" when placed in hot water.  

Kenobi had "accidentally" received 17,  an unlucky number. In Roman numerals, 17 is XVII. One anagram for XVII is VIXI. In Latin, vixi means "I have lived," the implication being that the person(Obi-wan) is now dead. Jasmine is a plant that symbolizes purity and takes its name from the Persian word "Yasmine". This term translates to "gift from God". Put together; your death is a gift from God(the Sith'ari). Darth Sidious finds himself deeply amusing.

Obi-wan is grateful for the tea, especially since he's recently finished off his supply and always felt sheepish defending the expenditure to the Council. Official regulation dictates that he's not permitted to keep the gift. However, Jedi can distribute the donations to others in the order or, better still, add it to the communal ownership and shared at the temple. There are enough in the box for all parties to experience the high-end tea, so he gladly donates it to the Jedi temple and appreciates it along with everyone else.  When Sidious hears what happened to his gift, he's pleased his secret message was brought to the rest of the Jedi as well.

Obi-Wan is averse to socializing with lawmakers in general and Palpatine in particular. Still, he makes a mental note to invite Chancellor to have tea with him again next time Anakin has them waiting for him as recognition for the expensive gift. Nevertheless, the opportunity doesn't come along until a few months later. Thankfully this time, the tea isn't stale. Unknown to Obi-wan, Anakin is in the middle of winning an illegal pod race. Skywalker wanted to purchase a present for Ahsoka, but as a Jedi, the lack of personal funds to his name meant he had to be creative if he wanted to show the people that meant the most to him how much he loved them, rules against attachments be damned.

This time he has Maghrebi mint tea. Traditionally the drink is sweetened, but he hasn't used sweetener. There is a bowl of rock sugar grown in the shape of tiny purple lightsabers on the counter. It was available if either party wanted to utilize the sweetener. The ingredients, as well as the tea, had come from Mace Windu.

Jedi were generally not meant to accept gifts from clients unless it's culturally necessary for them to do so. The tea was a regifted thank you gift from an ambassador. As the items couldn't be shared equally with everyone, Mace decided Obi-wan, as Anakin's minder had a more significant need for it.

After all the passive-aggressive messages he'd sent at the party, Sidious isn't expecting anything to receive any in return but still looks for any possible messages Obi-Wan might covertly send him through the tea anyway.

His actions don't seem to convey a particular message... unless Kenobi considered serving him a herbal tea that also happens to be an appetite suppressant is a message. Perhaps he intended to inform the wealthy politician that the Jedi felt Palpatine's tea party Palpatine had been too lavish and wanted him to know he'd offended the man utilitarian sensibilities, but that was likely a reach.

The tea itself was one of hospitality, meant to welcome guests by the male head of a family. As Kenobi poured the tea in three rounds as expected of tradition, he wondered if he had missed something and resolves to reflect on it more in the future. Each of the three rounds poured has a different meaning: life, love and death. The sugar represents the sweet aspects of life, and Sidious wonders as the sugar dissolves within his cup if the Jedi is aware of what he's saying about his life by going without it.

The Chancellor certainly knows the symbolism of prolonging the second cup to avoiding the third. Love as a concept was not something he neither wanted nor needed, but he had no fear of it. He drank to the idea without hesitance. If he played his cards right, Anakin's love would pave the way for the ascendancy of the Sith. As for death, he had designs on immortality. He would pass on even the metaphorical notion of his own demise.

When Anakin arrived, he doesn't go for any of the tea. He's tried the tea Mace had given his former master. It's tolerable, yet he has another target. Instead, he seizes the rock candy and laughs when Obi-wan protested that grinding on the purple sugar crystals might ruin his teeth. Nevertheless, he drops the bowl back on the counter after taking two and takes off with Palpatine.

Obi-wan is surprised the next day when the Chancellor has a package delivered that contains four(because four means death) kombucha starter kits(kombucha was considered to have "yang" energy in traditional Chinese medicine) and silver needle tea. As before, Obi-Wan gives the white tea to the temple, but he feels self-conscious. This incident marks the second time the Chancellor has given him something extravagant, and he feels like there are strings attached to the gift even if the politician hasn't said as much.

Politicians don't give gifts without reason—especially politicians who are not friends with the receiver.

Uncomfortable by the thought, he waited until one of his friends gifts him with tea.  It's Bant who visits him first—intending to give her friend Pu'er tea(flavoured with dried honey ginger chamomile) she'd received at a medical conference. Obi-wan explains the situation and asks if he can send the tea to the diplomat as a sign of gratitude. Bant isn't bothered by the question and wishes him success.

Little does he know that although he intended nothing untoward with his regift, Palpatine had, after considering the possible implications, managed to be offended by it. Pu'er tea was often used to treat hangovers(among other things). His former teacher, Darth Plagueis, had once kept several kilos of it in his home. The muun would consume premium Poo Poo Pu-Erh Tea the morning after he'd had a night of excess on Sullustan wine. After he'd given the Jedi kombucha, a very mildly alcoholic beverage, he'd apparently proceeded to criticize the gift by implying he (Sidious) was a drunk who needed it. Indicating he shared the same weakness that had gotten the deceased Sith Lord murdered was exasperating, even if Obi-wan couldn't have identified the reason.

And that's when the situation becomes, for lack of a better word,"serious". Obi-wan thinks they're exchanging gifts, almost they're friends, but he's becoming increasingly frustrated because they're uneasy allies at best. Still, he doesn't want to feel like he owes the Chancellor anything, so the cycle begins anew. His financial circumstances still haven't changed, so he's been forced to regift a few presents from his friends to have something to present to the politician who won't leave him alone.

Kenobi is frustrated by this. He already spoke of the issue with several of his friends. Usually an honest man, he felt compelled to share what might happen to tea they might give him. Always while out of Anakin's earshot. They're sympathetic but unsure what could be done about the man who holds so much power, especially considering the relationship his former padawan has developed with the politician. It's difficult to entirely avoid the man without avoiding Skywalker, who would notice any attempts at evasion and likely take umbrage, even if the Chancellor did not.

Palpatine, for his part, is honestly surprised to learn how very snide Obi-wan appears. He can sense the Jedi's frustration building and is aware it's related to the tea. That said, he hasn't guessed the actual cause. Instead, he believes Kenobi has managed to guess at the intent of his gift and is ostensibly reacting to the Chancellor's actual message.

Amused, he no longer sends veiled death threats. If he does it one time too many time, someone at the temple, likely Yoda, will start asking awkward questions he doesn't want to answer. Yet, he continues to send hidden messages with the intent of antagonizing the Jedi as he proceeds to misread the situation. As the other Force-user's better, Darth Sidious refuses to be out-performed in a game of pettiness by Obi-wan Kenobi.

Anakin assumes they're just two older men who love tea and have found a way to bond over that. He's pleased to finally witness two people he respects burying the hatchet and getting along. Ahsoka doesn't have the heart to tell him that Obi-wan is not happy with whatever madness he's been dropped into. Madame has resigned herself to remaining silent regarding her husband's bond with her former friend. She no longer trusts the Chancellor and knows bringing up her feelings with Skywalker will only end in arguments with the man she loves.

Matters take a turn for the weird when Obi-wan receives cacao maca tea from Quinlan Vos. His fellow Jedi had gotten it from a secret admirer with a crush. After tests came back proving it wasn't poisoned, he'd given the herbal tea to his tea-loving friend.

Like most of the gifts he'd received lately, obi-wan presents it Palpatine. He wouldn't have the ability to keep up with the bizarre back and forth otherwise. He doesn't have the money. He's thankful his friends understand how much he dislikes the idea of being beholden to Palpatine and encourage his efforts to circumvent it.

What he'd failed to account for was the reaction he'd spark by presenting a herbal tea that was viewed, by some, to be an aphrodisiac. Obi-wan himself hasn't realized he'd done anything problematic. Vos hadn't mentioned maca had a reputation because he hadn't known himself. When he'd dropped it off, he'd simply named the vitamins the healers had said it contained.

Palpatine is confused. He's politically powerful and comes from a wealthy family, so it's hardly the first time anyone has been interested in pursuing him. However! Just the other month, they'd been politely abusing one another. There hadn't been any reason for the change.  

Sidious can't decide Obi-wan attempting to insult his virility since maca is reported to help with reproductive health or if the Jedi is propositioning him. He hadn't thought Kenobi was interested in hate-based romantic overtures. That said, making mockeries of a sexual nature is astonishingly inappropriate given their positions. He wasn't offended, the possible slight was far too childish for him to take it sincerely, but he hadn't taken the General as the type of man who would make the insult in the first place. Complicating matters is the fact that the General is Anakin's former master.

He's hesitant to assume the situation would work out in his favour if the Jedi is twitterpated and if he should allow it... whatever it was, to persist. Would developing a relationship with Kenobi hasten Skywalker's fall to the dark side, or would the interaction convince the boy to turn his back on Darth Sidious.

Sexual relationships were irrational, messy little things and far more unpredictable than pretended friendship. He tended to avoid non-transactional sex due to the wildly unpredictable nature of the beast. If an uncompensated connection didn't service his ambition, didn't cultivate his power or influence, it was deemed irrelevant and discarded. An ill-defined situation occupied a troublesome grey area he despised, leaving him in something of a quandary on how to advance his agenda. Sidious knew he'd have to adopt a resolution expeditiously, and that inaction was as much a choice as any other.

[sociempire]

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[mannatea]

Hi. I used to follow your old blog on a different account. Hope you're doing well. Do you have any tips on thinking up stories that are *not* dark and depressing due to subject material? The last story I was working on I had to quit because the backstory I was developing for my passive male character was super depressing. At times I enjoyed researching it, though what won out was the thought I was wasting my time looking into angsty things for something I wasn't even planning to publish. Now I want to write something a little happier. But I have the most experience in writing angst and cringe comedy 😅 thanks for any help you can give. Stay safe out there!

By the way, good on you for dropping that manga you used to follow. I was happy most of the characters lived, but other than that, it felt "meh" to me (granted, I didn't read all the way from the beginning). The author was probably going for a "people will always be fighting each other" theme, but some of the imagery of what happened after a time skip could definitely be taken as pro-fascist. And I was disappointed the protagonist basically said he wanted to bring about destruction! I'm glad I didn't spend any money to read it.

Wow, hi! I’m doing all right, thanks for asking. I hope you’re doing all right, too. :)

As far as “that manga” goes, I’ve kept tabs on it. I’ve been on the fringes for the last two-ish years; I dedicated something like four real life years to that fandom and mostly had a good time while I was there (made some friends I hope to keep for life), so it was one of those situations where I just had to find out how it ended. I realized at some point that I was in a very negative space in the fandom, and felt it was better to publicly drop the series and the blog associated with all of my meta/discussion than to play in what had become a toxic pool for me. I didn’t really want to drop the account after my time there, but I couldn’t have dealt with the nonstop questions/messages/etc that would have piled in over the years, and eh, when you’re done you’re done. I criticize Hallmark television for fun, now, instead. It’s a lot less stressful! And literally nothing is That Deep so there’s very few delusions, at least on the Tumblr side of things. (Reddit, however, is insane, but I don’t post in the fandom there.)

As far as writing advice goes, I am going to apologize in advance for muddled thoughts. I just got out of work and have been staring at numbers all day, so it’s hard for me to think lmaoo.

In my opinion, any sort of character or personality type/flaw/whatever could have developed via a negative OR positive influence/catalyst, so that’s something to consider. I also think people tend to reach for “sad” or “traumatic” pasts either as a way to cope with their own issues/pasts/whatevers, or because it’s the “easy explanation” for why a character is the way they are.

If you WANT to write things a certain way, it’s sometimes a matter of changing the lens through which you’re viewing life, the story, the characters, or character writing in general. This is never easy, especially when you find a genre you feel comfortable in, but it’s always possible. When I was in college and submitted an autobiographical piece (Rot Tooth) for a creative writing final, I received multiple comments from classmates and even the professor that my talent/skill was in writing comedy. COMEDY!!!! I don’t think anyone who has read my writing from the last decade would say that I was a comedy writer. I stopped labeling ‘fics as humor/romance so long ago I can’t even remember when it was. But boom. I had written a comedy piece.

I don’t think I can ignore that most of the comedic elements in Rot Tooth were brought about because humor is one of the ways in which I cope with things, but it was also a very conscious choice I made. I wanted people to be able to engage with the story without being grossed out, without getting bored, without feeling that it was a poor-pathetic-me story, and humor was the classiest way to do it. Here, read this long story that includes journal entries from Ye Olde Livejournal days, but it will make you laugh often enough that the depressing aspects of the story don’t weigh it down too much! It was probably the only way to make the subject matter widely palatable. 

As often as I joke about characters or scenes or moments that “just write themselves” the author does have control. I mostly write fanfiction, so let’s go with examples from that.

I’m (very slowly) working on a ‘fic called Three Years which features a character who, when last seen, was headed off to serve a prison sentence. They haven’t been on the show for three years and thus I assume they have been serving that sentence for the last three years. The story starts when this character is released from prison. They are a woman. This is a historical piece of fiction. Prisons were vile to women and yet...this is fiction. I have a choice. I get to choose. Does she get to start her life off carrying 25 bags of trauma or just 2? It would be unreasonable to expect that someone, especially a woman, who was imprisoned for 3 years in the early 1900s wouldn’t have some issues (at the very least, the isolation would have been awful), but it doesn’t really have to be much worse than that. It doesn’t.

I have the power to choose.

A character has anger issues. Sure, he could have had a traumatic past with an abusive parent who took his anger out on him or his mom or whatever...or maybe it is an inherited personality trait and the parent figure with the problem was never really That Bad about it, but seeing it normalized makes it harder for the character in question to realize it’s a huge problem and part of their character arc is realizing they need to get help, not because they don’t want to be like their dad, and not because they hate their dad, but because they just want to be a better person/they don’t want to let that struggle consume them.

Someone’s sweetheart goes off to war. Guess what? They don’t have to die there to force a traumatic past. They don’t have to come back a raging alcoholic either. Maybe the time apart, and the time fighting a war just puts a natural sort of crack in the relationship by making it clearer to each character what they want in life/what matters to them in their life.

A character is super passionate about their work/hobby. Maybe they have ADHD and it’s a hyperfixation. Maybe they’re autistic and it’s a Special Interest. It doesn’t have to be “their parents ignored them and forced them to be alone all the time and they used this thing to cope so it means everything to them because it’s always been there.”

Maybe you have a character whose greatest fear is losing the people they love. It doesn’t have to be because a pet died in their arms when they were four and it traumatized them. It doesn’t have to be because they only have one person they love in the whole world. It can just be a thing because that’s a valid fear literally anyone can reasonably have, and maybe it’s a bigger deal because they don’t have siblings or aren’t close to many people! (And the “aren’t close to many people” thing doesn’t have to stem from trauma, either. Most busy adults for example who get to choose their friends, are just like that.)

A perfectionist might just have the personality type; it doesn’t mean their parents criticized everything they ever did. A person with three failed marriages might hesitate to fall in love and try again but it doesn’t have to be because those three failed marriages were abusive. A quiet character may just be shy or introverted by nature. 

I think everyone carries some kind of trauma with them, so it’s never unreasonable to have some in a person’s past (you can’t write an ugly character without having to think about the fact that they carry some trauma from what it’s like to grow up ugly), but it doesn’t have to define them. It doesn’t have to overshadow everything else in their past.

You can always ask yourself, “Why am I reaching for angst every time I create a backstory?” Literally everyone has some kind of angst. Most kids were hurt by things said to them in school, for example, or made fun of for some reason. Most people did something extremely embarrassing as a kid and never got over it. There are a thousand little moments in our adult lives that go back to these little points—you might call them the tiny traumas. But they’re not defining. They’re not so heavy they also live in the present. Not all of them.

Why do you reach for the darkest corner? Why not for the light? Or a middle ground?

I encourage people to write basically whatever floats their boat, but it sounds like you’re at a point where you just feel weighed down by that sort of stuff, and that’s not a great way to feel, especially when it discourages you from working on a project entirely.

My final suggestion: look at some of your favorite characters from various types of media. Are they all traumatized? What are their defining characteristics? Black Beauty has some depressing stuff in it, but is ultimately a story with a happy ending. Pride and Prejudice has drama, but nobody’s past is filled with the darkest stuff imaginable. North and South has awful things to consider in it (cotton mills were sooo awful) but the characters are not wildly traumatized people.

What kind of story are you trying to tell? Do the characters need to be traumatized to tell it? Does the story have to be dark to get across the message you want to send? 

Way back in the day, when I was into “that manga” I made an RP blog for a one-off character that nobody gave a damn about. Like, he was so one-off that even back in those days nobody even remembered him having existed. It was sort of a joke RP blog that wasn’t supposed to be serious. The only canon information we had about this character was that he enjoyed drinking. I decided to make him a lighthearted character because the series was pretty dark and I wanted to send people hilarious starters instead of wading through the muck of depression with everyone else’s sad, abused characters. I decided his family was old money and he had a brother. Nothing super traumatizing in his past. Some family issues but not the sort of thing that would haunt anyone. He was not traumatized in his recent past any more than other characters were. Mostly just “a regular guy.” I really loved RPing him. He was fun! The story could get heavy but he didn’t have to be.

Anyway, dive head-first into the dark angst if you want, but if it’s not necessary to tell the story you want to tell, just remember you don’t have to go there. You have the choice.

[fairiesherefairiesthere]

Fraxus fake Boyfriend AU part 1/?

So it’s Fraxus day, but this isn’t finished yet so I decided to split it up. Here’s part one folks! (it’s a modern au)

"No Freed, you can't hack your father's bank account. The feds will get you and then I will be tragically best friend-less."

"No, you don't get it", Freed says and on the grainy computer screen, Laxus can see him shake his head. "If I go to jail, it'll probably be in Crocus, which means you can actually visit me instead of videocalling me at stupid o'clock in the morning. Also orange is an excellent colour on me."

A quick glance at the lower corner of his screen and a bit of mental math tells Laxus that it's indeed way too early in the morning for Freed to even consider to talk to him. "Justine it's three in the morning there, why are you even awake?"

Although it's hard to tell with the awful videoquality, Laxus thinks he can see the other man pout. "Talking to my bestie, duh", Freed replies and bashes his eyelashes obnoxiously, drawing a huff of laughter out of Laxus. "What are you, a fifteen year old schoolgirl? The lack of sleep is clearly getting to your head."

Smoothly ignoring Laxus' criticism of his horrendous sleeping habits, Freed continues the earlier topic. "Speaking of besties, made any friends yet?" Groaning, Laxus rolls his eyes. "My roommate is an actual nutjob and I don't know why I'm fond of him. He introduced me to his absolute bitch of a friend and I think I like her even more", he confesses and the pixelated image of Freed gives him a smug smirk. "It's because you like to be bullied, Laxus dearest. You won't say it, so I'll say it for you : bottom rights baby."

"I hate you and if you were here I'd smack you", he half-heartedly threatens and Freed replies "Kinky" without missing a beat. While the two of them are engaged in a staring match without actually being able to make out each other's eyes in the blur of colours on the screen, Bickslow throws open Laxus' bedroom door and yells: "Time to hide your porn blondie, it's time for reallife interaction with actual human beings!"

On instinct, Laxus does click away and as soon as the connection with Freed breaks he sees it fit to pout like a child. Their schedules matching (or one of them not sleeping for a day) and their wifi allowing them to see each other is a ridiculously difficult situation to stumble upon and now he's wasted his chance. Bickslow looks at least apologetic. Laxus was going to forgive him, until he opened his godforsaken mouth. "Dang man, the porn that good?"

"I hate you too", he says without clarifying to Bickslow who the other despised person is. He doesn't seem to mind as he plucks Laxus' computer from his bed, plops it down the nearby desk and sits himself down right in front of Laxus, legs in lotus position and bouncing with way too much energy. "I had a great idea", he announces and Laxus immediately doubts him.

"You see Ever and I, we thought you were a bit lonely and it might heal your soul to... Nah, scratch all of that, Ever and I were really fucking bored and we thought : Hey, let's set our absolute bestie up on a date! So here we are. Get dressed, you're going on a date."

"I can't", he says and desperately tries to come up with a reason. Uni work won't fool them, because they know that he's actually a good student, other activities won't work either because he's a social recluse and not even Makarov can save him because for some reason, the little shits he calls friends are all buddy-buddy with his grandpa.

"My boyfriend would hate it", he continues, cheeks colouring. It's because of the lying, not because he can only come up with one boyfriend-candidate in his mind. The statement is bland and straight to the point, which makes his words sound all the more true. Of course, Bickslow doesn't even buy a little bit of it. "Prove it", he demands.

While mentally apologising to Freed, Laxus digs up his contact information and futily tries to call him. After the third time trying, Bickslow looks even less convinced, which is an impressive feat considering he didn't believe Laxus from the beginning. Sighing, he goes to their chat instead and unlike their usual nonsense, he finds a sweet (?) message from Freed.

Damn, the wifi is really fucking with us huh? Wish we could talk more and I wish I could see your pretty face instead of a black screen and some smudges of colour here. X from the most beautiful man you know."

'Conceited brat', he thinks fondly and replies: Cymbeline (Act 3, Scene 4) Line 35-39, but replace 'slander' with 'you bitch'. They've adopted this weird system where Freed uses slang and Laxus literary references, just to meet each other's vibes somewhat. Sometimes it works, most of the times it really doesn't, but at least it's fun.

"Bro have you forgotten about my entire existence already? Stop smiling at your phone and admit that you don't have a mans!" Wordlessly, Laxus passes his phone to Bickslow who gasps. "Book quotes? Shit man, you're in deep. I'm gonna tell Ever." Without a warning, Bickslow disappears through the window, probably giving Evergreen her twentieth heart attack of this month by landing on her balcony. If the school thought a floor would seperate girls and boys, then they clearly hadn't met Bickslow.

Too late Laxus realises that Bicks has taken his phone with him and hopes his friends somewhat value his privacy and don't scroll too far up. There are the occassional way too deep talks around midnight but also a one time onceler x barry b benson bdsm roleplay (Freed had needed help with a creative writing assignment and Laxus had contributed a whole lot of nothing).

Barely five minutes later, Evergreen marches right into his bedroom, heels clicking snappily on his floor. "What", she spits and waves with his phone, "is this?"

"My cellphone."

Unperturbed, she continues her dramatic rant. "You have a boyfriend and you don't bother telling us?" Her tone turns sly and she elegantly flops down on his bed, rearranging her body to give herself a 'stern posture'. She looks like an irod rod trying to do yoga. "Or are you just making things up? Feel free to prove me wrong by showing us what he looks like."

"Why would I bring my photoalbums to uni?" he asks dumbfounded and Ever looks at him as though he just came down from Mars. "Laxus, honey, snapchat is a thing? Email if you're oldfashioned? Where are your boyfriend's nudes?"

"You're in a relationship."

"With a great guy who loves and trusts me and knows I ain't gonna cheat on him. Show me the dickpicks." Annoyed, he gives her a little shove. "I don't have any, I'm used to him being around. He's on another continent now and I just recently realised that all my memorabilias are at home."

"Convenient", Ever remarks dryly and Laxus sighs deeply and stretches out his hand. After she dumped his phone in it, he sends Freed a message ('Bro send me a pic of u ppl wanna know u exist') and shows it to both of his friends. "There."

Surprisingly fast, he gets a message back. 'No. The paparazzi and the FBI agent assigned to me will have to try harder than that to get a hold of ME (why is this man so ridiculous).' He shows it to Ever and Bicks and the former uses this opportunity to snatch his phone, typing a response before Laxus can properly register what's happening. "Hi I'm Laxus friend and I don't believe you're his boyfriend. Send a thirst trap to prove you exist. Or nudes", she reads aloud. Bickslow guffaws at that and Laxus sighs, resigning himself to face the consequences of his actions. What he does not expect however, is for Freed to send a picture back.

It's an awful photo of high school-aged Freed, complete with braces and a very unnatural smile. He's gangly, thin and looks like the walking embodiment of an awkward teen. 'This is a nude, as my soul has never been as bare as in this one picture', the caption reads and Ever laughs. "You know what, he passes the test." She purses her lips. "For now at least, I'm going to need more concrete evidence of this being an existing human being, because everyone can pluck a photo from the internet. Anyway, you're way too late for your date, so you get off easy Laxus."

After brushing nonexistent dirt from her skirt she opens her arms for Bickslow. "Take me home, spiderman", she orders and he gives her a salute. "Roger madame!" he yells before plucking Ever from the floor and leaping over the balcony railing. Their trust in each other is remarkable, but Laxus does think they're weirdos.

The very next day, Ever once again bursts through his door and Laxus mentally curses because he hasn't had the chance to discuss this whole thing with Freed yet. "Laxus", she says, voice dead-serious. "Evergreen.", he greets back as she half-crawls under the covers of his bed. "It's fucking cold", she clarifies before opening her laptop. That seemingly insignificant action makes Laxus weary, as Ever is holding her rickety laptop that's for illegal purposes only.

"I reverse searched that pic of your boyfriend and before I tell you the results, I'd like to know how exactly you met him."

He recognises her nosiness for what it really is (worry) and with a sigh, he gives her the sparknotes version of their history.

"We lived in the same town and we became friends because both of our fathers were absolute shit. They were friends so we became friends. At age thirteen he moved to Alakitasia and we reconnected because we matched on that stupid tinder profile you guys made me."

"Are you sure you weren't catfished?"

"Yup, because we skype regularly."

"Okay. Then certainly you're aware that he's a billionaire? Like, the heir to Justine Industries, the biggest technologie giant at the moment?"

He tries to see the whole situation from her perspective and has to admit that 'I have a boyfriend overseas, who's also a billionaire', sounds a bit too over the top to be true. "Yep, his pa's job is the reason he moved. I know this whole situation sounds like a huge lie to stop you guys' antics (probably because it is), but I swear it's true (it really isn't)."

"Okay then", she mumbles before putting her feet into Laxus' lap. The audicity of this woman, he thinks as he does absolutely nothing to move her. "I'm sorry for the whole 'setting you up' thing, it was rude of us. We just wanted you to have someone, you know? Because you deserve it and we can also see that you kind of want it and we wanted to help. We were too overzealous."

Ah, what a festive feeling brews in his chest. Nothing like a bucket of guilt to get your morning refreshment. The worst part is that Evergreen isn't even done yet with her sentimental speech. "Also, you get really happy whenever your man sends you a message, so all in all I'm glad our big plans didn't work out. I'm still going to be weary of  his actual existence until I meet him, I hope you don't mind." He shakes his head. "Nah, be weary all you want."  

After dropping Evergreen off at her boyfriend's, he rushes to his room to send Freed a message to update him on his situation (he even uses the actual sms-system instead of the internet, which is crazy expensive but he's in a bit of a panic). Unlike most of the time, Freed responds quickly. Laxus wonders why his wifi is absolute shit if he's rich enough to pay for intercontinential messaging. An agonising five minutes pass as the speech bubble ominously keeps showing that the other is typing. When it finally shows up, all it reads is :

"Lol"

"That's all you have to say?" he furiously types back, but before he can hit send, he gets another message. "Whatever man, I'll be the hottest boyfriend ever." After that, it's radio silence again.

The silence between them is broken a few days later. Laxus is trying to enjoy his lunch while Bickslow and Evergreen bicker over something or other, when his phone pings. Little gremlins that they are, they've already looked at the message as soon as it pops up. They read the godawful collection of words "Send me a pic of your feet" before he does.

"Romance at its finest", Bickslow dryly jokes and Evergreen turns to him with big worried eyes. "You're sure he's not a catfish? Or is this what you consider a raunchy picture?" Laxus would answer if he knew what the fuck is happening. Another message appears :  "With measuring tapes surrounding them, not in a weird, gross, fifty year old with a feet kink kind of way. I want to spoil my boyfriend (with my father's creditcard)."

"Aw how sweet, he's committing crimes for ya", Bickslow croons and Laxus grumbles. "I'm not about to give him anymore excuses to commit theft.", he says while typing "Absolutely not." At the other side of the table Evergreen collects her phone from her bag and opens Instagram. After looking for and finding Freed's profile, she sends him a selfie with Laxus and Bickslow in the background and adds a thoughtful message detailing Laxus' feet. "Honey, you need shoes that fit you. No stores have your size and if your insanely rich boyfriend's dad can involuntarily provide, why not take the chance?"

A few days later, the shoes do arrive. They're the most comfortable pair Laxus has ever owned and there's no obnoxious trademarked name smacked on it. He thanks Freed, but asks him to please not do something along those lines again. Knowing full well that Freed himself would never be financially bothered by it, he still feels guilty. Freed apologises (he really shouldn't, he's been nothing but an angel while Laxus is being bothersome) and drops the matter.

"Where are you rn?" The message feels somewhat ominous, but Laxus ignores his gutfeeling that tells him that today is going to be weird. "The western outside food court of Crocus' uni, why?" The response that he gets is a simple :  " :) ". Like a dumbass, he decides to not question it.

While he's chilling out, head resting on his crossed arms, he hears an unusual amount of chattering. Although he and his friends had chosen this place because of how little people came here, it seems like that peace is now gone. Rest in peace, piece. Vibrating bothersomely, his phone grabs his attention. "Got ya another present!" Brows furrowing, Laxus reads the new incoming message : "Kids and their phones these days. Look up darling !"

[agustdef]

Here & Now - Chapter 11

Pairing: Yoongi x OC

Genre: Fluff; Chill romance

Word Count: 1,885

Warning: None.

Banner Marker: @dee-ehn​

The moment the clicking sound started up again I slapped my hand against my table, gaining everyone's attention. My eyes narrowed on Lexi, the reason for my sudden annoyance.

"Click it again, Lexi. Do it," I challenged.

Lexi dropped the pen the moment the words left my mouth. Her eyes went wide as she stared back at me, the rest of her body frozen. When she finally glanced around the others were also glaring at her, all of us tired of her incessant noise making. She took a chunk of her curly do and used it to cover her face, probably out of embarrassment.

Why she was clicking a pen, no one knew. She wasn't even using it, all her edits were being done via her laptop.

"And I think that means it's time for a break," Alex said, breaking the silence.

Everyone finished what they were working on and then there was a series of cracking bones. It sounded horrid, but it felt so good.

My brain felt like mush as I took a moment away from the chapter I was writing, but I knew it wouldn't last for long. It had just been some time since I'd been able to sit in an environment where everyone was working and I felt like trash if I wasn't productive like them. That was the purpose of our monthly meet-ups. Be around people we like and get work done. Any work. Though most were writing and revising things.

"Can I just burn the whole draft and hope that from its ashes a better one will emerge?" Max asked.

Goodness, how I wished that writing worked like that.

"If you manage to figure out which kind of magic allows for that please share with the group," said Spencer, whose voice was muffled by his hands.

Alex, who'd disappeared after announcing break, returned with everyone's chosen beverage. When she sat down my hot chocolate I almost downed half the drink before I felt the burn. I needed the placebo effect it had on me and my energy levels.

"Or you could write it and stop switching to that secret tab for that convention you keep saying you're not going to," Alex said.

Max gasped, hand against their chest in a dramatic fashion. It got a laugh out of everyone. We knew they'd been doing that for weeks now, claiming that they couldn't spend any more money and it was a waste. Yet, if you ever glanced at their screen the webpage would be right there, the mouse hovering over the buy tickets button.

"At least I wasn't switching between my draft and six other tabs, like someone I know." Max's gaze fell on me.

I scoffed, waving them off. "I was working thank you very much. I had some writing stuff to do and then some work stuff came to mind. I am allowed to multi-task."

"You had two docs of writing open and one weird looking program open, which I assume was for music. So, what was the second doc for, Kennie? Do share?" Max leaned in closer as they spoke, trying to peek at my screen.

Using my hand I pushed their face away and then darkened my screen so they couldn't see. "Nothing for any of you to know about. When it's time you'll know. I don't need y'all hyping me up and then I end up getting hyper-focused on it. I'm enjoying the carefree nature of writing it without pressure."

"And you don't want Ara to find out," Lexi added.

"And I don't want Ara to find out. So silence all of you." Even though I spoke to the group my gaze fell on Alex.

Her brow raised as she stared me down. "Why? What did I do?"

"You ratted on me last time when she asked you, don't think I forgot."

Like a fish her mouth opened and closed, her face screwing up as she became flustered by my words. I could even see a hint of red peeking underneath her brown skin.

"I... What? Do you expect me to lie to our precious agent? I could never lie to Ara. She's too precious. I refuse this. This is slander," she managed to choke out.

My eyes narrowed on her, though she no longer met them. She was avoiding them and every time she did look into them she quickly looked away.

Leaning in close I made sure she was looking directly at my face. "You sold me out for food."

Again she didn't seem to know what to say, but then she just shrugged. Dropping all attempts to make herself seem pure.

Lexi, Max, and Spencer just watched us and laughed. And then we all just sat in silence for a while, no one interacting unless to show someone a thing on their phone or to ask a random question that just popped into their head.

It was nice.

"I start work again tomorrow," Spencer huffed.

In the corner of my eye, I saw Lexi suddenly sit up. "Didn't your vacation just start?"

He shook his head. "It's already been a week, they go by so quickly. I feel like I just started to relax."

"The one time I got to take a two-week vacation was glorious. I miss working at that company," Max said, joining in on the vacation sadness.

"What are vacations?" Alex asked.

"Seconded," I said.

Without having to look up I knew they were all staring me down.

Max smacked their lips. "Um, ma'am you take them frequently. What do you mean?"

I rolled my eyes and turned my head towards the group. "Ma'am, I haven't had one in months. A few off days do not count."

They were silent and then Max gasped, looking at me with wide eyes. "Wait. Was your birthday the last vacation you had?"

Nodding my head I sat back and released a deep sigh. I didn't mind my constant working, because I had a flexible schedule and off days, but when I sat and thought about it a vacation would have been awesome.

"You need to get it together," Spencer said, while the others hummed in agreement.

Before we could go any further though my phone rang and though the immediate urge was to silence it, the ringer belonged to Marcus. So, sighing I picked it up and answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey. Sorry, Ken, I know now is supposed to be your creative outlet time or whatever it is you called that thing," Marcus rushed out.

"It's fine. We're on a break. What's up?"

"I know we aren't meeting for another round of offer eliminations for a few days, but I wanted to let you know that I got another revised contract for Def Jam, though they haven't made many changes." He didn't sound too enthused about it.

"Okay, just email it to me and I look over it again. I feel like I know what they gave in on and what they're going to ignore."

He sighed. "You're probably thinking the right things."

A small laugh escaped me. I'd shed some of my stress over the decision and found amusement in the way some of the labels were handling my acquirement. Most had no problem giving into my major concerns, but some of them just refused to budge; which made things easier.

"Was that it?" I asked just as my laptop notified me he'd sent it.

"Yeah. Wait, no. Did you finish going over the BigHit contract? I know it was a shock, but I'd prefer we get back to them sooner rather than later. I know I said we have time, but not that much time. It would be best to get it to them quickly so they can give it back."

For a second I froze. I'd had the contract for well over a week and for the last few days had been avoiding it. I couldn't explain why, but I chalked it up to the fear of change and left it at that.

"I..." I paused, chewing on my lip. "I, um finished it two days ago."

"Really?" Marcus asked, sounding shocked.

"Yeah."

There was a brief moment of silence and then I could hear him release a deep exhale. The man knew how to read me. "What's wrong with it?"

I glanced around the coffee shop, avoiding the eyes of my friends who were engaged in their own conversations. Looking at one of them always made me want to spill my guts out and I needn't do that.

But life didn't work how we wanted and Alex raised her brow at me as she stared into my soul and I broke.

I pushed back a stray strand of hair from an attempt at a braided crown and sighed.

"Nothing. Nothing is wrong with it. Well, okay. There are things wrong with it, but they're small things. Most of it is great and some of it beyond what I would ask in respects to my pay and control over projects outside of the company. Like too good. Like someone has been relaying some of my issues with the other offers to their legal team, and I've only complained to you, Hals, Yoongi with Joon in the room and my mother. And I wouldn't put it past 3 of those people. Or they're magic," I rambled.

"Or, perhaps - going to pitch a wild idea here so be ready - they see your worth and would appreciate working with you," Marcus reasoned.

I knew I was being a tad outlandish with that second claim, but my mind sometimes worked in weird things. Especially things that felt too good to be true and the offer was peak too good to be true.

"Send me the revisions and I'll look them over. And if you want we can go over it together before I send it in. You know I want you to make the best choices for you and if talking it through is necessary we can. I don't want you overthinking and regretting choices later."

Marcus was annoying as hell, but a freaking angel. He knew me well enough to know that sometimes I needed to be coddled. But he also knew when I needed a kick in the ass and how to do it while keeping things professional. Honestly, his professional agent side differed greatly from his personal life chaoticness.

Taking a deep breath I nodded. "Uh, do you have time tomorrow? I should be less weird then and we can do the usual quick run-through before you send it off."

"Yeah. Just email me the attachment and give me time before 2:00 pm for us to meet."

"Okay. Thank you, Marcus. I'll get that right over to you."

"Later," he said and hung up.

Without wasting time I pulled it together, got the email ready, checked my calendar and told him an 11:00 am meeting would work before sending it off.

I went to put down my phone and rejoin the group talking, but then it vibrated. The lock screen showed it was a message from Yoongi in the group chat with Joon.

Why are there pictures of my hands in here? Is this normal? Do you two have this fetish too?

I laughed so hard I snorted.

[veridium]

hi! i wanted to ask advice from you, i hope it's ok! i'm currently writing a long fic, but i usually write original stories, and i'm having a hard time with what i should say. i don't want to quote the canon, and say things people already know, but what if i don't say enough and lose my readers? do you have advice for a beginner? thank you so much, i love your work so much!

Hello, sweet anon! I am so honored that you would send a message my way and ask for advice of all things. I am but a humble gremlin, but, I can’t say that longfics/longer stories aren’t my focus or specialty. I will try my best to offer what insights and wisdom I feel I have in my 6+ months or so of writing. Be warned: I am in no way an expert or professional. This is simply all my perspective as another person in fandom who writes fic. 

I’m assuming you’re working with Dragon Age canon since that is the fandom I am apart of, but if you aren’t, my apologies for the false assumption! 

The thing is, every author contends with canon in different ways. I know some authors who use the canon quite literally as the skeletal system of their story, navigating the plot with their character and using the structure to their advantage to tell the story they want to tell. Others I know completely leave out canon scenes/plot points in favor of showing the moments/vignettes that happen in the in-between – moments we don’t get to necessarily see in games or other forms of canon media. Fanfic as a discipline and practice is highly dependent on each author’s style and idiosyncratic traits. It’s a reflex, a habit, and really, it’s alchemy. Aka it’s messy and creative and glorious. 

A rhythm I have found helpful for me is this: I use the canon plot points as checkpoints, or benchmarks, for my stories. They help me keep a pace in my stories, so that I can take steps back from my writing and go “alright, how much attention did I pay to this specific moment in the story versus the other? How long in theory does this era last in the canon, and what was missing from the original story line that I could show? What climactic moments have I yet to arrive at, that I can save or push off major developments that would better fit them?” 

I also think a critical point to remember is that the canon already exists, people know it, and if people wanted to just engage with the canon they can play the game or read the book or watch the movie. They’re coming to you for a new, unique story and perspective. You have a lot of liberty in that, to tell and show what you want. You can also bend it a bit and work with Canon to make it more dynamic, realistic, and poignant than it was before. I love breathing life into canon scenes/moments because:

1). it shows how the character I’ve crafted would handle the situation and thus impact the sequence of events, and 

2). it gives me an opportunity to show new sides of canon characters that may be unexplored in the canon all by itself.

I can only speak for myself as a fanfic reader and author based on what my tastes are. But, in my mind when I read a fic, I’m looking to get lost in the world. I want to be submerged in emotions, feelings, and complexities of being alive. I am looking for that because, as complex and engrossing as video game plot lines can be, they can feel rather hollow because it’s framing itself around your in-game pathway. When you’re telling a story, in my mind, you want to have a reader step into a world that you see, feel, hear, etc. and perceive what you perceive. 

So, the questions you want to ask yourself when you’re contemplating inputting a canon scene may just be:

1). Is it going to show/progress something I think is important? If so, what?

2). Will it ground my story or inhibit it from reaching where I think it needs to go?

3). If I am using it, how can I alter it/put my own take on it so it doesn’t just feel like a script read from the original canon?

Canon scenes may just be that – canon – but they aren’t inflexible. They aren’t one-dimensional. Brainstorm, make a thought tree perhaps, of dialogue points and choices, and see where they connect to. See if there’s easter eggs of character exposition you can use and further develop that the game otherwise left alone. Show how your character(s) would react to dialogue exchange, how it would be similar or different from the game. Be playful and have fun with it!

I also think that for as many multitudes of fic types there are, there are just as many types of readers. People who want canon-loyal fics, people who want canon-divergent, people who want AU takes, people who want a mixture of all the above or none! It’s endless. No matter what, as long as the story you’re trying to tell is one you feel invested in, someone will appreciate it. I am 99.9% sure of that. Stories are amazing like that. 

The bottom line is, anon – and I will say this over and over until my dying days – the story that is worth writing is the story that is loved. By that, what I mean is as long as you, the author love what you’re creating, and you’re able to utilize that energy in the process, rarely will your stories be a waste or an echo chamber of unoriginal ideas. Love is kinetic, active, and and investment. If you’re bored with what you’re creating there’s no point, because in the end you’re expending time and energy on something you don’t feel connected to. It’s a lot like baking and cooking: it may be well-done, technically perfect, and by the recipe, but if there’s no love in it there’s something that will always be missing. 

I am sending you the best writing mojo I can. At the end of the line, look at you! You’re writing a longfic, isn’t that amazing? Like, damn, how many people can say that? (Not as many as you think). Longfics are challenging, tiring, and involved processes, just as fanfic is in general. You’re doing the damn thing! Don’t be afraid to take breaks, take breaths, and pat yourself on the back. 

Love and light to you, friend. Don’t be a stranger! 

I also invite my fellow fanfic authors to input any advice, caveats, corrections, or add-ons to this post! :) Because we are a community and we are here for each other!

- Veri

[pass-the-bechdel]

Dollhouse s01e12 ‘Omega’

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

Yes, five times.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Ten (52.63% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Nine.

Positive Content Rating:

Two.

General Episode Quality:

Not garbage, but it is a letdown after the previous episode.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

Alvarez takes Whiskey for a treatment in flashback. Adelle gives Caroline the tour. Sophie asks Whiskey if she wants a treatment again. Caroline passes with Echo, twice.

Female characters:

Claire Saunders.

Adelle DeWitt.

Echo.

Sophie Alvarez.

Whiskey.

Caroline Farrell.

Sierra.

November.

Anita Walsh.

Madeline Costley.

Male characters:

Boyd Langton.

Topher Brink.

Alpha.

Blevins.

Lars.

Paul Ballard.

Tanaka.

Victor.

Dr Saunders.

OTHER NOTES:

Saunders telling Victor that he’s disgusting and ugly now feels pretty disingenuous considering how minor her scars are. Like, ok, she’s regularly at the receiving end of other people’s shock and pity and the impact of her appearance upon the way other people approach her is significant, but the idea that we’re supposed to be looking at Amy freakin’ Acker and being repelled by some almost-completely-healed cuts that aren’t even noticeable in certain light? I feel like the narrative is approaching with the idea that mutilation is automatically hideous, at the same time as the character design has made sure to preserve Amy Acker’s looks as thoroughly as possible, and consequently the message is far, far more superficial than it should be. 

It’s pretty funny that they’re leaning on Ballard’s ‘skills’ for help. Firstly, because he’s terrible at his job, and secondly, because they can program any better-skilled person they want.

Hmmm, Alpha’s whole spiel about how Caroline ‘abandoned’ Echo, i.e. ‘herself’, relies on the theory that she is defined by her body, not her mind, but that’s immediately at odds with his statement that Wendy is “just a body - they’re all pretty much alike”. You can’t have it both ways, either you believe the body is the repository of the soul (or whatever word you want to use for that thing you value), or you think it’s just interchangeable meat. Pick one.

“I did sign a contract”, come the fuck on, Caroline, I thought you were a blando activist. As if you would legitimately believe that bullshit contract is legally binding. Also I really hate this line about how you can’t sign a contract to become a slave “especially now that we have a black President”, it’s such an ‘Obama’s election ended racism!’ type sentiment.

Tada! Alpha’s original personality was a big ol’ violent misogynist! What a shocking turn of events for this show. What an amazing plot development that is explored in any fashion and exists for any reason other than to indulge in sexist abuse. Remember that thing I talked about (in the context of rapists) and the idea of punishing women’s existence by ‘ruining’ them? They don’t actually state whether or not there was sexual assault involved in Alpha-original’s three-day abduction and mutilation of Anita Walsh, but this is that same misogynistic rage manifesting, either way. And since the show doesn’t explore anything through the inclusion of this violence, I gotta assume it’s also a manifestation of misogynistic rage from the creative team behind the show, again. This has been season-long; I’m kicking the content rating for it.

Also season-long: Echo getting knocked around, especially by misogynistic villains (because that’s not, y’know, also sending a very specific message from the creative team. Fuck all o’ y’all). This time she even gets smashed with a metal pipe, AND shot! Ten of Twelve.

You know what would have made Alpha’s whole schtick about destroying your original self way more meaningful? If it wasn’t tied up in misogyny. That might seem obvious - especially on this blog - but I mean it objectively (and subjectively, and ethically...anyway). The fact that Alpha’s entire character - both his original personality and his present conglomerated persona - is defined by woman-hating violence completely obscures the idea of exploring the formation of a second intellectual identity which perceives its original as a traitor to...themself. We COULD have had some really weird and wild meta discussions about the nature of consciousness and the ‘soul’, all of the grandiose cerebral concepts that this show invokes through its premise, but instead we derailed that by focusing on the notion that the whole reason Alpha is ‘crazy’ is because his original personality really liked slicing up women. And since the show couldn’t be bothered actually exploring that either - like all other misogynistic acts it indulges (and it indulges them on a constant, multiple-times-and-kinds-per-episode basis), it merely presents this as A Thing That Happens, and makes no attempt to challenge the why by exposing and confronting the toxic-masculine roots of the problem - Alpha’s misogyny has no textual depth of purpose, it’s just a way to waste time. At best, it’s lazy, the failure to think up an actual intellectually-engaging idea to back up the show’s intellectual concept. But we already know this isn’t a best-case scenario, the track record is far too damning for that. Remember how I said that I loved this show once, eight years ago? Nowadays I can’t see how to defend it against a charge of indulgent misogyny. It’s not just going to the well for water, it’s living down there.

[talabib]

Simple Stress-Busting Strategies That Deliver.

It’s often said that the past is a foreign country. That certainly applies to the world of work. From the perspective of our relentless 24/7 business culture today, the old days of nine-to-five shifts and three-martini lunches look about as mysterious and decadent as the lives of the late Roman emperors. Today, it’s hard enough switching off in your free time, never mind during office hours!

That’s hardly surprising. After all, the mid-twentieth century and the present are, technologically speaking, light-years apart. Innovations like the internet, email and smartphones have made it harder than ever before to get away from work. If you have an iPhone, your boss is always right there in your pocket waiting for you to open that email she sent at 10:00 p.m.

And that’s starting to take its toll. Professionals have never been so stressed and sleep-deprived. They’re unhappier, less productive and staring down the barrel of burnout. So it’s high time to make some changes! This post walks you through a series of simple, stress-busting strategies and explains the science behind them. Start integrating them into your professional life today, and you’ll be amazed at how much better you’ll soon feel.

Life is becoming increasingly hectic, and stress levels are on the rise.

There’s no sugarcoating it – life has become more stressful. Getting up at six, grinding out a grueling shift at the metaphorical coalface and collapsing into bed at eleven in the evening is the new normal. But it wasn’t always like this. In fact, things have gotten a whole lot crazier over the last decade.

So, what’s behind our increasingly hectic work lives? Well, let’s rewind to 2008. The economy was in freefall, and companies were scrambling to adjust to the harsh new realities. Lots of companies only managed to survive by downsizing their staff and restructuring workloads. The result was fewer people shouldering a whole lot more than their fair share of responsibilities.

Then there’s the smartphone. Apple launched its first iPhone in 2007. Soon enough, it had taken over the world. According to a 2012 study in the MIT Technology Review, the iPhone conquered 40 percent of the American mobile phone market within just a couple of years. That’s pretty astonishing when you consider the fact that it took computers fourteen years to achieve anything close to that level of market penetration.

The problem, however, is that smartphones don’t just make life more convenient and fun. Sure, you can check Instagram and send tweets, but this also means you’re always on standby mode. Your work is never more than a click away. A 2013 study carried out by the Center for Creative Leadership highlighted this trend. The surveyed executives and managers with smartphones spent an astonishing 72 hours every week engaged in work-related activities!

That’s not sustainable. When work gets too hectic, our stress levels shoot through the roof. According to a study by the American Psychological Association, 33 percent of all Americans suffered acute work-related stress in 2013, while 48 percent claimed that their stress levels had increased over the previous five years.

A full 83 percent of interviewees in the study believed that stress was negatively affecting their health. They’re not wrong! When the Benson-Henry Institute in Massachusetts looked into the matter, they found that between 60 and 90 percent of all trips to the doctor were stress-related.

Practicing mindfulness counteracts the natural fight-or-flight response triggered by stress.

Have you ever had the urge to jump out of your office chair, run right out the door and never come back? That’s a pretty good sign you might be suffering from work-related stress. The desire to flee is one of the body’s natural responses to stress. That’s part of the “fight-or-flight” response, a cerebral and hormonal reaction to life-endangering events. Here’s how it works.

Imagine someone jumps out from behind a corner with a weapon. Your brain – or, more precisely, the command center of your brain known as the thalamus – is the first to react. This, in turn, triggers the amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for processing emotions. This then activates the hypothalamus, the area in charge of regulating the autonomic nervous system, which transmits a message to your adrenal glands. These start pumping out adrenaline – a hormone that prepares your body to react quickly and, if need be, violently. Once it runs out of adrenaline, your body switches to cortisol, another hormone with a similar effect.

This reaction makes you more alert and prepares you to fight or flee. Strange as it may sound, a difficult boss or impossible deadlines are just as likely to trigger this response as a knife-wielding maniac. That’s a problem. If you’re sitting in your office producing adrenaline and cortisol for hours on end, this creates a hormonal imbalance that can be damaging to your health.

So here’s a great tip: learn to beat the fight-or-flight reaction by practicing mindfulness. A quick and dirty mindfulness routine involves nothing more than focusing on your breathing. Take ten deep breaths followed by a pause, and you’ll already feel a lot better.

The second option requires a bit more practice, but it’s an invaluable anti-stress tool: meditation. That’s not just good for your mental well-being – it’s also good for your physical health. That’s the conclusion of a 2000 study by Herbert Benson, a professor at Harvard Medical School. It showed that regular meditation could actually shrink the size of the amygdala and thus counteract that unwanted stress response!

The best way to minimize stress is to develop a supportive daily work rhythm.

You’ve probably heard the old Chinese proverb that says giving a man a fish feeds him for a day, but teaching him to fish feeds him for a lifetime. That’s also a good motto when it comes to stress reduction. Quick fixes like nipping out for a coffee have their uses, especially when you’re in a pinch, but the best way to minimize stress is to develop a long-term anti-stress plan.

Here’s an idea: start by trying to work out a supportive daily work rhythm. That’s precisely what Hilton Hotels CEO Chris Nassetta did. In his case, that involved getting up earlier to free up time to mull over his day’s responsibilities. Nassetta gets up at five every morning and aims to be in the office by six at the latest. Since his work officially only starts somewhere between eight and nine, that gives him at least two hours to prepare for the day ahead. The upshot? He can think through his tasks without losing focus or worrying about what’s coming up later. Rather than drifting off in the middle of a conversation because he’s worried about what he’ll say in an upcoming meeting, he can be fully present and engage with the people he’s talking to.

 It’s worth noting at the outset that you won’t always pull off your ideal work rhythm. In practice, you’ll have to be flexible and roll with the punches. Take it from Crystal Cooper, the vice president for public representation at global IT company Unisys. She initially resented the demands her work placed on her schedule. No wonder – being on call 24/7 is pretty intense! But after a while, she decided to go with the flow and adapt her expectations. Rather than planning to spend two hours of quality time with her family between seven and nine in the evening, she made sure she fit those hours in whenever the chance presented itself throughout the day.

Having clear routines and feedback systems supports you both personally and professionally.

Imagine you had to summon all your willpower to do even the most mundane tasks, like brushing your teeth or tying your shoelaces. Life would be unbearably exhausting, right? Luckily the human mind has an autopilot function that helps you do these things without wasting too much brainpower. And here’s the thing – you can get the most out of that nifty cerebral technology by cultivating routines. That’s good news for your personal life.

So, how can you start putting that into practice? Well, there are three words you need to remember: cue, routine and reward.

Let’s take Patricia as an example to see how it works. Jeff met Patricia at a workshop, where she told him about a routine she’d developed. When she got home from work, she entered her house through a side door that leads to a small washroom. That was her cue to take out her phone and plug it into the charger attached to a socket above the washing machine – that’s the routine part. Once she’d done that, she could spend the evening with her family, free from all distractions – that’s the reward. Because the reward was something she genuinely enjoyed, the routine was quickly established.

What about work, though? Well, if you want to improve your professional life, you might want to think about establishing feedback systems. Take Doug, a man struggling with his role as a project leader. The issue was simple: Doug’s colleagues weren’t happy with the way he always focused on the negatives.

Rather than ignoring the problem, Doug took this feedback to heart and resolved to change his ways. He developed a feedback mechanism. Every time he started getting too negative, his colleagues gave him a signal by raising three fingers. It was an informal and friendly gesture that allowed him to directly and effectively address an uncomfortable issue. The result? A happier, more efficient and satisfied team!

Exercise is a highly effective stress remedy.

Lots of people accept stress as a fact of life and try to put a brave face on it. It’s only when they finally burn out or get seriously ill that they start considering changes. But that’s not the right approach. In fact, you can spare yourself no end of suffering by taking action today. And here’s the good news: you don’t even need to make particularly radical changes to boost your well-being.

Sometimes all it takes to beat work-related stress is exercise. That doesn’t necessarily mean taking out a gym membership, though. Simple rhythmic and repetitive movements like walking, jogging, cycling, dancing or even going through some yoga poses can significantly reduce stress.

Why? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First off, movement helps your body eliminate those stress hormones that were mentioned earlier. Nothing purges them from your system like a spot of exercise. Then there are the psychological effects of movement. Focusing on your body for a few minutes is an excellent way of getting out of your head and interrupting those obsessive thoughts that go hand-in-hand with stress.

That’s not just a theory, either. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal reporting on the results of a one-year study of professionals, workers who regularly used a treadmill experienced less stress, interacted more with their colleagues and were more productive than their peers who didn’t exercise.

That said, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Your best bet is to try out different types of exercise and see what works for you. The most important point to remember is that if you choose something you enjoy, you’re much more likely to stick with it. If you like taking walks around the park, do that. If you prefer jogging with a friend, well, do that. What you opt for will also depend on your commitments. If you need to be super-flexible, developing an exercise routine you can do in your office might be a good idea. If you’re the organized type, weekly swimming lessons might be the way to go.

Visualizing stress-free success and savoring the moment are also useful stress-busters.

As we’ve seen, physical movement is an excellent way of relieving stress. Unfortunately, that’s not something we can do whenever we need a bit of relief. After all, you can’t just leave your office to go for a jog whenever you feel like it! That means it’s also a good idea to develop some cognitive strategies to quiet your mind. Lets look at two top techniques that’ll help you do just that.

Let’s start with being in the moment. Stress is all about worrying about the past or the future. Learning to appreciate the present pushes those anxiety-inducing thoughts to the back of your mind. Best of all? You can start practicing this kind of mindfulness without making any changes to your routine. The reason for that is simple. Remember those autopilot activities like brushing your teeth we talked about earlier? Well, those are the kinds of things you can focus on to become more present!

All you have to do is make a conscious effort not to zone out and instead direct your attention to what you’re doing. That’s about learning how to appreciate, say, the way the water is running down your body or feels on your skin when you take a shower. Whenever you find your mind wandering, make an effort to refocus it on those sensations.

The second technique involves visualizing stress-free success. Start by asking yourself what you want to achieve and then concentrate on what it is you’d need to do to pull that off. If you’ve got an important presentation coming up, for example, and you really want to impress the audience, what would that take? Well, you’d need to be well-rested, prepared and punctual. Visualize those steps and work backward from there. What do you need to do to make sure you’re well-rested, for example? This is a great way of pushing vague anxieties out of your mind and really honing in on the things that are in your control – a guaranteed stress-reliever.

Cultivating new friendships and staying in contact with old friends is great for your mental health.

What’s worse than those endless shifts that bite into your evening? Getting off work and not having anything to do or anyone to do it with. The simple truth is that isolation just isn’t good for your mental health. Friends matter – a lot!

That means it’s in your best interest to make an effort to stay in touch with old friends. How you do that depends on your personality type. As Susan Cain points out in her book Quiet, introverts will generally prefer seeing more of fewer people. Cain, a self-professed introvert, says she spends 80 percent of her free time with just 10 percent of the people she knows. That means it’s important for her to regularly reach out and give a select number of old friends a call or invite them out for a drink.  

Extroverts are the opposite. They generally prefer seeing more people less often. Take psychologist and author Adam Grant. He goes out of his way to reconnect with someone he hasn’t seen in a while once a month. That’s a great way of reactivating old contacts and keeping the connection alive.

Then there are new friendships. Few things can help you beat stress more effectively than cultivating new friends in your workplace. Why? Well, as a 2006 Gallup study showed, having just one good friend at work increases your morale and engagement levels up to seven times more than the normal amount. That’s easier said than done, of course, so let’s take a look at a couple of tips you can use to help you get to know your colleagues.

The simplest option is to respond enthusiastically when colleagues reach out to ask for help or invite you to take part in some after-work activity. If you’re pressed for time, you can be more strategic. Position yourself outside the main exit at lunchtime and pretend you’re waiting for someone and you’ll have a great opportunity to exchange a couple of words with your colleagues.

Being grateful can help you beat stress.

We’ve talked a lot about stress and how to overcome it. As we’ve seen, stress is inherently harmful. That’s why one of the simplest and most effective ways of getting it out of your system is to stay positive.

That means learning to be genuinely grateful for the things that are going well. Take Kaye Foster-Cheek, a senior executive at the Boston Consulting Group. She’s found that making time to experience gratitude has boosted her well-being significantly. So it’s the first thing she does when she wakes up. Rather than jumping out of bed, she takes a moment to reflect on how grateful she feels to simply be lying there with a new day ahead of her.

Alanson Van Fleet, an executive in the financial sector, takes a similar approach. His moment of gratitude comes when he walks through his office door and sees the small statue of the Buddha he keeps next to his computer, which reminds him how grateful he is that his company pays for his personal office space.

Those are great examples of how paying attention to those little details we all too often take for granted can help you beat stress. Here’s another tip: use visual cues in your workplace to reconnect with your core values.

When you’re under intense pressure and feeling adrift, catching sight of something familiar and loved can be a real lifesaver. Personal manager Tracy Columbus, for example, keeps Native American art in her office. Whenever she’s feeling blue, she turns to the images and their joyful colors. Peter Block does something similar. When he looks at the artwork in his office, he thinks of the time, patience and dedication the artists put into their creations – a reminder that that’s also something he seeks to do.

That goes to show that stress isn’t inevitable or inescapable. So, if you’re feeling under pressure, try out some of these stress-relieving strategies. You’ll be amazed at what a difference a couple of minutes of mindfulness or a quick walk around the park can make to your personal and professional life!

Increased workloads, demanding bosses, increasingly intrusive tech and a 24/7 business culture – no wonder today’s workforce is more stressed than ever. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Follow the simple stress-busting strategies in this post and you’ll be well on your way to beating burnout!

 Action plan: Get a coaching partner. Building a new routine is hard work, especially in the early stages. That’s why it’s a good idea to find a coaching partner who’s embarked on the same path as you. Together, you can support each other on your journey. Whether that’s just a phone call to check in now and again or a gym buddy, having a partner who’s got your back is the best way to make sure you follow through on your resolutions.

[makingmoneyonlinemethod]

13 Effective Email Marketing Tips

 Have you ever sent an email to clients only to get no response? Did they even open it? Or open it just to delete it? Maybe you don’t even know where your campaigns are going wrong. Have no fear, our Email Marketing Tips are here.

We’ve all received an email we immediately deleted, marked as spam, or ignored altogether. If this is happening to your emails, you need to understand why. Maybe you aren’t effectively grabbing your audience’s attention. Or perhaps your subject lines don’t reach out and say “Open me!” or your calls to action don’t scream “Click me!”

As long as you aren’t heartlessly spamming your subscriber lists, email marketing is an incredibly powerful tool for getting messages directly to your clients and prospects. It strengthens client relationships and keeps reminding your prospects to reach out to you. So, let’s discuss how you can improve your efforts. First, let’s review the types of emails you might send:

Marketing emails

These are usually informational or promotional messages sent to people who asked you to keep them updated, such as prospects, clients, reporters, vendors, affiliates, etc. Marketing emails encompass a variety of content, but most are used to send newsletters, sales promotions, announcements, press releases, follow-ups, and surveys.

Transactional emails

This type of email is usually automated and triggered by your customers’ activities. Examples of transactional emails include welcome messages, order tracking, received payments, registration confirmations, etc.

Don’t underestimate the potential of these messages. If you’ve sent a customer a transactional email, they’ve completed at least one action that indicates they’re very likely to engage with you again. These are trusted emails, which means they have higher open rates and provide plenty of opportunities for engagement and cross-selling.

Operational emails

These are emails with important information about your business, such as holiday closures, maintenance plans, or changes to your service availability. It’s tempting to skip an operational email if you think it won’t impact your sales, but it’s important to be consistent for the sake of trust, engagement, and thoroughness.

Again, there’s also hidden value in these messages. Although they may seem strictly informative, they can be crafted to improve your sales and your image. For example, if your service will be down for maintenance, describing what kind of updates you’ll be performing is a great way to remind your clients of the value you provide.

Whatever emails you're sending, it’s critical that you consider what you’re trying to accomplish and structure your message and strategy accordingly. Here a few tips that guarantee success:

How To Send Marketing Emails Like A Pro

1.  Build your subscriber list

2.  Encourage readers to reply

3.  Make it personal

4.  Keep your emails out of spam folders

5.  Make sure your emails look clean and crisp

6.  Include interesting links and calls to action

7.  Build your subscriber list

8.  Encourage readers to reply

9.  Make it easy to unsubscribe

10.              Make emails mobile-friendly

11.              Test, test, test

12.              More testing!

13.              Track your data

1. Build your subscriber list

Even if you’ve already got a long list of emails for clients and prospects, you should never stop adding to it. Especially since it’s not nearly as hard as it sounds. For example, make sure your list is always growing passively with a signup feature on your website. Subscription forms should be on your home page, blog page and everywhere else you can fit it without taking away from more important content.

Digital Fire does a great job of collecting email subscribers on their home page, which includes a sign-up box that hovers over the page and follows users as they scroll. It’s impossible to miss (without being annoying) and plainly explains the value of subscribing to their email list.

 You can also build your list through more traditional means. If you have a booth at an industry conference, provide an option for people to sign up for your newsletter. Even if you don’t end up closing at sale directly at the conference, getting someone to sign up for your email list can turn into a business opportunity down the road.

2. Encourage readers to reply

Unlike direct mail, email marketing opens the door for meaningful conversations with real people interested in your business. Just throwing information to leads and clients is a waste of time, so make sure you always focus on these three variables:

1.  Irresistible subject lines – Speak to readers directly and promise them something that stands out from the other emails in their inbox. The best way to go about this is with automated solutions that personalize your emails (which we’ve written about in depth).

2.  An entertaining and distinctive voice – Just because readers open your email doesn’t mean they aren’t queued up to quickly delete it. Always make sure your message sounds like it came from a real person who cares, not some faceless marketing machine.

3.  Targeted content – Segmenting your email lists by reader demographics makes it easier to create a message that really resonates with your readers' needs and interests, which makes them more likely to take up an offer, engage with you, or even to pass it onto other prospective clients.

The focus of these points is to encourage recipients to respond. Sometimes that means they click on a link in your message, but whenever possible, encourage them to actually respond to your emails. That's a surefire way to show you’re interested and responsive to what your subscribers have to say.

3. Make it personal

Whenever possible, add a personal element to your emails. Most email tools allow you to enter shortcodes that will be replaced with the recipient’s name when the email is sent out. Emails from Treehouse Co-Founder Ryan are always fun and personal. The subject lines are creative, messages are sent "from" Ryan's email address, and the content is personalized. If you reply to the mail, you'll even get a prompt response from Ryan himself!

 On top of this, you can segment your messages to particular portions of your audience. If you have a business that works with multiple industries, consider sending out different versions of your email with each one providing information specific to each industry.

4. Keep your emails out of spam folders

If your carefully constructed emails are flagged as spam, they’ll never see the light of day. Start off by making sure your recipients have opted into your emails so you aren't running afoul of any regulations like the CAN-SPAM Act.

Beyond that, avoid using all caps, too many exclamation marks, and hyperbolic phrases ("ACT NOW BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT!!!!"). Poorly formatted HTML in your emails can also hurt how they’re handled. Every spam filter is different, so an email might pass through one filter but get flagged by another. For more comprehensive info on how spam filters work and how to avoid them, check out this guide by MailChimp.

5. Make sure your emails look clean and crisp

This sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people send emails that look like amateur websites from the ’90s. If someone has opened your mail because of an engaging heading, you want to keep their interest. This means:

·         Using short paragraphs and ensuring that keywords and phrases relevant to your readers stand out.

·         Including bullet points to help people skim the content and take in the vital points.

·         Inserting pictures sparingly. Images should illustrate your message rather than replace your content. Some email providers block images or consider them an indicator of spam.

Here’s an example of what an email newsletter template might look like.

 6. Include interesting links and calls to action

The aim of most email marketing campaigns is to increase traffic to a site, sometimes a specific landing page. No clicks means no customers -- it really is that simple. Always try to include visually striking buttons with text that give readers more than one opportunity to interact (e.g., Find out more! Download Now! etc.).

 In general, calls to action should be written as just that -- actions. The more exciting the action you describe, the more enticing it will be to your audience.

7. Make it easy to unsubscribe

It may seem as though you are cutting off the "conversation" by giving clients the chance to opt out, but if a user wants to remove their name from your lists and can’t do so easily, they’ll flag emails as spam, which will cause you problems in the future.

 8. Make emails mobile-friendly

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Many people reach for their phone. In fact, 66% of email opens occur on smartphones or tablets. If your emails aren’t optimized for viewing on these devices, you’re potentially missing out on a huge number of clicks.

 9. Test, test, test

Never send anything without making sure it’s working properly. Double-check that your messages look the way you want them to be by sending them to employee accounts. Ideally, you will view them on Outlook.com, Gmail, and Yahoo, and on a variety of mobile devices before finalizing your drafts.

For more robust testing, check out Litmus, a tool that tests and provides screenshots of your email in dozens of different email tools.

Ensure that all your links work, and any personalization shortcodes aren’t failing. Sending mass emails without double-checking the content would be like turning up to a business meeting having chosen your outfit in the dark. If it goes wrong, you’ll look foolish and unprofessional.

10. More testing!

Beyond testing content on different platforms, you should also experiment with different subject lines, calls to action, and body text to see what is most engaging to your audience.

Some email tools have built-in A/B testing modules that allow you to compare the results of different versions of your emails, but even if you don’t have access to these, you can run tests on your own. Try sending your emails on different days of the week or different times of the day to see when you get the best response rate.

11. Track your data

Some results may have nothing to do with platforms and content. Keep a close eye on your data, like how many email addresses were undeliverable or what time of the day people opened your message. These tiny details will tell you a lot about your email’s performance.

If you’re using Google Analytics on your website, tagging your emails with custom campaign tracking can show you how they are driving traffic to your landing pages and how those visitors behave once they arrive on your site. Equipped with this powerful information, you can now really tailor your marketing message to people who will use it.

12. Don’t overwhelm your subscribers

Armed with all these tips, you might be eager to start sending out as many emails as you can. But beware of how often you send messages to your list. You don’t want to flood their inbox with marketing messages about everything you offer -- they might get annoyed and unsubscribe.

13. Above all else, provide value

Great email marketing ultimately comes down to giving your audience something that sticks with them - something that keeps your business on their mind, whether that’s educational information about your industry, operational messages about your service, or marketing messages about the products you offer.

Otherwise, that message is just going to end up in the trash.

This is just the beginning

Like most marketing efforts, becoming successful with email marketing is a process. It’s a combination of good planning and analyzing data to make improvements to your campaigns, but the only way to learn and improve is to get out there and apply these Email Marketing Tips. Start emailing!

[michaelandy101-blog]

12 Tactics That Take Webinars From Good to Great, According to HubSpot Marketers

New Post has been published on https://tiptopreview.com/12-tactics-that-take-webinars-from-good-to-great-according-to-hubspot-marketers/

12 Tactics That Take Webinars From Good to Great, According to HubSpot Marketers

In 2020, with conferences and events going virtual, a number of brands around the world have heavily embraced webinars. 

Along with allowing marketers to educate audiences about topics related to their brand, webinars can also offer major lead generation benefits.

But, while a number of successful marketing pros make creating webinars look easy, there’s actually a hefty amount of work that needs to go into planning them in order to see solid engagement.

The lead-up to a webinar requires other facets of inbound to come into play — everything from getting a speaker to join the webinar, to planning blog and social posts to promote it, to developing the actual topics and focus for the event.

At this point, you might be asking yourself if there’s a checklist that can assist you in your webinar planning.

Well, look no further. Below, I’ve outlined 12 tactics you should focus on to ensure you and your team are fully prepared to put on a high-quality, successful webinar.

How to Prepare for an Engaging Webinar

1. Interact with your audience through promotions before the webinar.

If your audience doesn’t know about your webinar or isn’t excited about the topic, they won’t sign up. 

Be sure to tweet about the event, write blog posts promoting it, and come up with other creative ways to share it online. To engage attendees — even before your event, your promotional messages, such as social posts or emails, can ask for people to submit their questions or comments beforehand.

Also, if you have some type of webinar giveaway or special feature during the webinar, circulate that information to further differentiate your webinar from similar events held by competitors.

For example, we once gave out tickets to INBOUND, our inbound marketing conference, to a person who tweeted our webinar’s hashtag before, during, and after the webinar. This helped us get audiences to participate in promotions on top of our other marketing efforts. 

For more on promoting webinars and other virtual events, check out these tips from HubSpot experts.

2. Create an eye-popping slide deck.

To keep an audience engaged for 30 minutes to an hour, you’ll need to give them something nice to look at. So, make your slide deck is visually appealing.

Create image-heavy slides that relate to the topic you are discussing. Using copy on slides is fine — if done correctly. Don’t simply write a paragraph on a slide in black and white. Instead, make sure the copy adds to the presentation. Stick to one color palette throughout the webinar deck, and try not to make it too busy. 

Take a look here to see what a blase, paragraph-only slide looks like (on the left) and what one with color and images (in other words, one that’s got some life to it) looks like (on the right):

3. Dedicate a hashtag to your webinar.

As mentioned in the first section, you can consider using a hashtag through the webinar marketing process that is unique to your virtual event. Using a lesser-known hashtag or creating a brand new one will help ensure all tweets with the hashtag are about your webinar.

For example, we used #TwitterQA for a past webinar that featured a Q&A with an Twitter executive. In scenarios like this, we use a webinar hashtag well before the webinar to create a community of people with something in common. During the webinar, we use the hashtag to interact with the audience, answer technical questions, and gather questions for the Q&A portion.

Finally, after the webinar, we use the hashtag to follow up on any unanswered questions and send additional information. 

4. Seek one or more thought leaders or experts to present.

Nothing is worse on a webinar than a monotone speaker who puts the audience half asleep. Pick a webinar host who is personable, energetic, and an expert in the topic you plan on discussing.

Additionally, if you have more than one speaker, have them play off of each other, making the webinar a discussion instead of two different monologues.

If you are able to access experts in your industry, or thought leaders with higher followings on platforms like LinkedIn, you should also consider including them in your webinar.

Leveraging experts will make your event more interesting for your audience and could also pull in listeners that have followed that experts work. You can additionally leverage these people for online co-marketing tactics before, during, and after the event. 

5. Meet with all the speakers beforehand.

For an extra smooth webinar, consider hosting a quick meeting that will allow you and other webinar panelists to walk through the webinar topic and get to know eachother. 

Juliana Nicholson, a HubSpot Program Manager who’s been involved with a number of webinars including our Adapt series, strongly encourages a get together like this before you launch the event.

“Don’t have the first time your host and panelists meet be the day of your webinar,” says Juliana Nicholson, a HubSpot Program Manager. “Set up some time ahead of the event for the host and speakers to get to know each other, and run through day-of details.”

Nicholson, who most recently planned webinar content for our Adapt 2020 series, explains, “Everything from pronouncing people’s names to knowing who to call of first for each question will feel a lot more smooth day of, if you practice beforehand.”

6. Leverage speaker and company social media handles in your promotions.

While the webinar is being run by you and your organization, you’ll still want to allow your audience to interact with the speaker(s) as well, so be sure to make their Twitter handle(s) known, both in your promotions, as well as throughout the webinar presentation.

Not only does it give a personal touch to your webinars, but also think of all the new followers you could get!

7. Have at least one host or moderator.

Getting one or more speakers to join your webinar can really liven the conversation, but that convo can lose track pretty quickly if no one is assigned to moderate the discussion.

Simply put, a webinar host can help with the flow of the presentation. This person introduces the speakers, asks any questions that come up during the webinar or Q&A, and concludes the event. If any problems arise, this person can address them easily, without causing the speakers to get off-topic. 

8. Leverage different types of media in your webinar.

To keep audiences engaged during the event, you should consider using a variety of media types for your webinar.

Do you have a short video or animation that will help your demonstrate your point? Does sharing your screen temporarily help get a point across? Would a downloadable checklist help your audience follow along with your discussion? Think about how you can complement your webinar with other forms of media, either during or after the webinar.

Recently, we hosted a webinar with Guy Kawasaki that was 100% screen-sharing. Guy walked us through his daily social media activities, down to how he takes screenshots and posts them on Twitter! Talk about a highly interactive webinar. 

9. Consider other audience engagement strategies. 

With webinar platforms expanding their features daily, there are now many more ways to engage your audiences than there were in the past. For example, many platforms let audiences comment with questions, vote in polls, or take quizzes during the webinar. 

As a moderator or webinar planner, get creative and consider ways to leverage these elements so your audience doesn’t feel like they’re passively listening to speakers rather than engaging with them. 

“Don’t let audience engagement be an afterthought. Know how and when you want to engage the audience,” Nicholson advises. “Will you have formal Q+A? How will people submit questions? When will you answer those questions? All this should be pre-determined and clearly communicated to set your attendees up for a good experience.”

10. Perform thorough audio and video checks.

Even in today’s world, technical problems happen with software. Do your best to avoid them when on the air live by testing your webinar platform ahead of time.

For example, you might not realize it, but your computer’s sound could be muffled, or your headphones could prevent people from hearing sounds played on your screen. This is why you’ll want to do at least one sound check before you present.

Similarly, you’ll also want to make sure you pick a workspace with good lighting.

“It’s better to have attendees be front lit (think a desk lamp) than back lit (think sitting in front of a window) to avoid shadowy faces and glare-y viewing experiences,” says Nicholson.

Additionally, you should also troubleshoot for more unexpected technical slip ups. For example, if you’re going to be sharing your screen or switching controls, have a pre-webinar dry run where speakers can practice before doing it live.

Ultimately, it’s always best to find out where mistakes could occur before the actual webinar so you don’t waste your time or that of your guest speaker(s).

11. Take time zones into consideration when scheduling your event.

When choosing a time to host your live event, keep in mind that not everyone will be in your time zone. HubSpot is located in Eastern Standard Time, so we try to host webinars at a time that works for other areas around the country and across the globe.

For example, though 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST often works for us, it may not suit our European audience well, so we’ll need to find a time that works for both of us.

Nicholson also suggests that marketers should “make it clear if your webinar will be recorded and that by signing up someone will get that recording. You’ll increase conversions even when someone cant attend live.”

12. Host your webinar in a quiet, non-distracting workspace. 

Don’t underestimate the importance of the physical location of your webinar. I sit next to a sales team who are on the phone all day. If I tried to host a webinar from my desk, the audience would hardly be able to hear me! Thus, I make sure to find a quiet (sound proof is even better) room elsewhere in the office.

If you have multiple people speaking in the same room, make sure to have a high-quality speakerphone. To avoid any technical problems, I avoid using the wireless internet when at all possible and test everything beforehand.

Planning the Perfect Webinar

Yes, it takes lots of time to plan a webinar, but the benefits might just be worth it. As you plan, keep in mind that most of the tips on this list aim to boost audience engagement.

While an informative webinar is a great start, sharing a basic lecture with your attendees might not cut it. Your audience will listen more actively, enjoy the content more, and continue signing up for webinars if they feel engaged throughout the event.

For more webinar tips, check out this ultimate guide. If you already think you’re planning great webinars, but don’t know where to start with promoting them, check out this post with tips from HubSpot marketing experts. 

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[lydiaevedunn-blog]

Design approaches

Co-Design  

“Creating clarity from complexity”

Co Design (co-operative design, also known as participatory design) is an active way of designing and creating between; employees, partners, customers, citizens, end users and business. It is a visual way within the design development process which is used to ensure the end results meet the customers and/or businesses needs. Co Design is a process which involves both generative and exploratory research; which helps resolve an underlying problem that requires a solution. Recent research has shown that designers create more innovative ideas and concepts, when working as part of a co-design environment with others as opposed to creating on their own. 

The term “co-design” is found in a variety of fields such as; graphic design, product design, software design, urban design, architecture, and even medicine; to help create an environment which is more responsive to their users' cultural, emotional, and practical needs. Co-Design originated in Scandinavia, and from 1960 and onwards there was a demand growing for more in-put and consideration of community and public opinions amongst major decision making. Co-Design (Participatory design) has attempted to build a platform and allow an alliance to form for active participation between the designers and the end users.

http://designforeurope.eu/what-co-design

Design Cultures

Design Culture is made up of various expectations, habits, principles, normalities and philosophies which group together and influence the work of design organisations and teams. Design Culture often emerges from the shared experiences the designers involved have had. Design Culture is an organised approach to design which focuses on improving customer experiences. It is a term which is often used but rarely understood, in fact, it often means something different to different organisations. Some examples of design culture include: 

creativity- “A willingness to pitch brave ideas that might get shot down”

leadership- “The leadership style of the team or organisation, for example a command and control style organisation with everything requiring the approval of a creative director” 

organization- “How work is pulled together, some teams are self-organising where as other teams require an coordinator or project manager to track everything closely” 

design philosophy- “A fundamental approach to design that is shared by a team. For example, a team of dedicated minimalists or a team that rejects minimalism in favor of complexity” 

refinement- “The degree to which work is refined and perfected versus a culture of always doing the minimum required”

https://simplicable.com/new/design-culture

https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/what-is-a-design-culture/

The future of fashion & the environment under stress

The global fashion industry; its designers and makers are in need of a necessary change. As an increasing number of designers are beginning to consider how they can practically apply sustainability to their businesses. Some considerations of sustainable materials include: hemp, wool, organic cotton and mohair. Hemp is a plant cultivated for its fibre, it can be used to make a variety of products such as rope, clothing, shoes and textiles. Wool is a textile fiber, collected from sheep typically used in clothing, upholstery, blankets, Carpets and insulation. Organic cotton is typically grown in subtropical countries from organic cotton seeds and is mainly used for clothing material.

Some makers are experimenting with textile and fashion waste with what is called “re-use”, which embraces “sustainable circular fashion (recycle it, upcycle it, give it away, sell it)”. The term re-use in fashion simply means to give clothing a ‘second life’ 

“we, as part of the fashion industry, are a pivotal factor in the destruction of earth but also one of most important factors that can help maintain and evolve it.” 

https://fashionforgood.com/reuse/

https://1819betterlivesjasminmalcolm.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2019/05/02/thinking-differently-about-the-fashion-industry/

Interaction design 

Interaction Design also known as IxD,  is the practice of design using interactive digital products, systems, environments and services. In which the designer’s focus goes further into the development of the item to consider how its users will interact with it. So forth, close observation of users’ needs, context and limitations empowers designers to customize their output to suit precise demands. Interaction design originated within web and graphic design but since, has grown into its own realm. Interaction design started when the first tv/computer screen was made  to hold more than just a static copy.

There are some design elements which are essential in creating an engaging digital experience such as; colour, logo, imagery, icons and illustrations. Interaction designers are also responsible for creating every interactive element on a screen that the user might interact with whether that be a swipe, tap, click or some sort of action. 

Five dimensions of interaction design: 

 words - simple to understand and easily communicate information to the user

visual representations - typography, icons and images, should supplement words to communicate info to the user

 Physical objects or space - refers to the hardware and objects that the user interacts with

Time - How users might measure progress 

Behavior - Includes how the user reacts to the product

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/interaction-design

https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/amazing-interaction-design/

https://www.uxbooth.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-to-interaction-design/

Critical design 

The term critical design was first used by designer Anthony Dunne in his 1999 book Hertzian Tales. Critical design is an approach to design which seeks to challenge and question the status quo about moral, cultural and political issues amongst others. It asks the viewer to think deeper about the problems we face as a society but take for granted. 

Satire humour is used throughout critical design as a way to get its message across, this can mean it is often striking because the message is rhetorical and will usually require a second examination. It has been described as an attitude towards design rather than a style and has been used in different forms long before the term was coined. 

Critical design is intended to spark debate and raise awareness about heated topics. This is why the messages the designs portray aren't always set in stone, to allow the viewer to arrive at their own conclusion and to view the form of art as they wish and hopefully provoke some action where it's needed. Some may even see this style of design as entertainment in an intellectual way.

http://dunneandraby.co.uk/content/biography

https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/136

Experience Design 

Experience design is a practice which focuses on human outcomes, especially the level of satisfaction and engagement that the user receives from a product and how relevant the experience is to their needs and context. Experience design is about attending to human needs and building around that to achieve a proactive response. 

An experience designers whole purpose is to make technology not only easy and accessible but also fun and enjoyable for everyone. This is achieved by understanding how humans use and interact with technology in order to figure out how to make the experience more useful and compelling. 

To get the most accurate results and understand the users needs on a deeper level, an experience designer may use interviews, user journeys, personas and behavioural observations as techniques to get that sort of insight. Although, not all experience designers, design, some contribute through code, while others research and send it off to be created and some do a bit of everything and float where they're needed. After initial research and plan making to solve the users problem, the next step is to start sketching and designing. 

“It is not about products anymore, it is about the experiences they deliver”.

— Marc Hassenzahl

https://www.foolproof.co.uk/journal/experience-design-a-definition/

https://www.wired.com/insights/2014/03/experience-design-innovation-isnt-enough/

https://uxdesign.cc/wtf-is-experience-design-7888d6edf44a

https://uiux.blog/understanding-experience-design-13f115037662

https://medium.com/digital-experience-design/my-definition-of-experience-design-31ddf549920e

Design thinking

Design thinking is a process made for creative problem solving, essentially design thinking is a philosophy and a set of tools to help solve problems creatively. It is an iterative process to understand the user, to challenge assumptions and redefine problems. Some of the world's leading brands have rapidly adopted design thinking such as: apple, google and samsung. Design thinking relies on a deep interest in developing a better understanding of the people who designers are designing the product or services for.

 The main steps in design thinking, although they can vary, the five main ideas always remain the same;

Step 1: Empathise - Gathering information to understand the people the designer is designing the product or service for.

Step 2: define - Define the information gathered in step 1 and come to a conclusion on the users needs.

Step 3: ideate - Generate solutions and ideas based on the previous 2 steps, which match with the information gathered.

Step 4: prototype - Take the ideas generated and start breaking them down and turning them into prototypes 

Step 5: test - Test prototype and ideas created in the previous two steps with real people, receive feedback and then repeat the steps to define the product further

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-design-thinking-and-why-is-it-so-popular

https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/what-is-design-thinking

[zanytimetravelenthusiast-blog]

DFY Lead Funnel Review And Bonus

DFY Lead Funnel Testimonial

DFY Lead Funnel is the initial "Done-for-you" Funnel Collection that assists users generate leads, nurture them as well as make Massive Affiliate Commission with them.

Just How To Make Use Of B2B Affiliate Advertising To Boost List Building (Part 2)

Specify Your Objective

The first thing you need to do is define your objective. For many B2B operations, this is to raise sales. Nonetheless, exactly how you produce these sales will differ from business to service. For instance, some services will certainly have items offer for sale directly on DFY Lead Funnel. Others will certainly desire site visitors to their website to call a phone number, or register for a newsletter. You need to think of your own sales channel, as well as the actions that you want your client to follow in the process.

When you've specified the actions, you can start thinking about which of these factors are one of the most useful. These are the points that you'll likely for which you'll want to provide payments. For example, if your objective is to expand your email listing, you prefer to provide a commission for every individual who completes the signup kind, as opposed to for every individual they send to your internet site. The factor of associate advertising and marketing is to pay for value, so take into consideration which stops along your sales funnel are the most valuable.

For lead generation, you're likely more thinking about factors such as e-newsletter signups, e-mail queries, or chat messages received. The people that execute these activities are generally better leads, and that's what you're spending for. Spending for site visitors to your site might expand your website traffic, but if it decreases your conversion price, it's simply a waste of money.

Decide On Worth

After you determine what it is you want your associates to do, the following thing you'll wish to think of is how much this is worth to you. To do this, you'll wish to create a Cost Per Activity value. This is the quantity of cash you're aiming to spend per a details activity. As an example, just how much are you going to spend to obtain someone to join your e-mail e-newsletter?

This number will certainly differ from company to service, based upon your spending plan and what you expect to gain from that action. What you truly want to consider is your Certified public accountants about one another. Allow's say you have 3 significant steps in your customer's trip-- checking out an article, joining your e-mail checklist, and purchasing DFY Lead Funnel as a result of your email. Each of these steps is necessary, yet the ones towards completion of the journey are better. So, as an example, you could designate a worth of $1 for each blog post visit, $5 for each person that joins your e-mail list, and $10 for each and every individual who ends up being a client.

When thinking of a value, it is very important that you strike an equilibrium. If you determine to pay your marketers way too much, you won't get a great return on your financial investment. On the other hand, if you don't pay them enough, they will not have much reward to advertise your services or products well. It may take some experimentation, yet keep at it until you find a value that is convenient for both you as well as your marketing companions.

Locate The Right Publishers

The following secret to a successful B2B associate advertising and marketing campaign is dealing with the best publishers. If you pick the wrong publishers, two points are likely to happen-- either you will not obtain several leads, or the leads you do obtain won't be of a premium quality.

One of the first things you ought to try to find is a companion within your own specific niche. If you're a service that accommodates small company proprietors, you don't want an associate companion whose target market allows service CEOs or university interns.

Afterwards, you must locate an author with a great background of collaborating with associates. Take some time to check DFY Lead Funnel and also see if you can find any other affiliate offerings currently on there. This is a great indicator that the individual you'll end up collaborating with has experience, and will certainly know the best methods to advertise your business. You can likewise reach out to those various other organisations to see if they have actually had a good working relationship with the advertising partner you're taking into consideration.

As B2B associate marketing increases in appeal, more publishers appear daily. You do not have to deal with the very first author you find-- take the time to explore each of your options, as well as ensure you're happy with your option prior to you continue.

DFY Lead Funnel Summary

Supplier: Ugoo Carson

Product: DFY Lead Funnel

Launch Date: 2020-Feb-17

Introduce Time: 10:00 EST

Front-End Cost: $37

Sales Web Page: https://www.socialleadfreak.com/dfy-lead-funnel-review/

Specific niche: General

DFY Lead Funnel Features & Benefits

# 1: List building

DFY Lead Funnel offers users with 50 Top quality lead Magnets, with well developed Squeeze pages as well as Thank you web pages.

These pages are completely customizable and receptive, with opt in forms that can be connected to 23 Autoresponders, including Zapier.

All the Customers have to do is ...

Select their favored Theme Call their website

Attach their Autoresponder and also Boom!

They're good to go.

Here are some squeeze web pages individuals will get with DFY Funnel

Customers also have the option of attaching their Customized Domains via C NAME.

There's even more!

We also went even more by providing 2 vital possessions that will most definitely help customers send out Website traffic to these capture pages!

Provided for You' Email Swipes For Solo Advertisements and also DFY Facebook Ads Creatives for Paid Traffic.

# 2: Lead Nurturing

After creating leads, what's following?!

Lots of platforms offer customers with Lead Generation Assets and Abandon them ... however not us

We'll offer them with 50 Done-for-you email swipes.

These well composed swipes will certainly help them support and also engage their leads, in preparation for item promos.

We'll additionally have a video overview that shows them just how to utilize these swipes.

# 3: Lead Money making

Obviously, we know that individuals will definitely wish to cash with the leads they have actually generated and also supported, by advertising High Converting Products on both JVZOO and Warrior And Also.

We likewise understand that a core part of making those affiliate sales is to provide time-sensitive Rewards that supply added worth to buyers.

So we decided to develop Done-for-you Reward web pages for 50 High converting products on JVZOO and also Warrior And Also.

Top Products that videotaped enormous sales like Video clip Application Collection, Conversio Crawler, AdvertSuite and also others like them.

Each web page comes with the Demonstration Video clip of the product being offered, total summary and channel info of the product, and 5 custom Bonuses developed by us.

All users have to do is pick their preferred Benefit page, name it and include their affiliate link.

Here are example Incentive web pages individuals will have access to with DFY LeadFunnel

We additionally included something outstanding.

We have actually observed for several years that when an affiliate runs an advertisements to his bonus offer web page, maybe through YouTube or Facebook, and also make sales, he does not get the chance to mail that buyer once more, due to the fact that he does not have that purchaser's e-mail on his autoresponder.

This indicates that he has actually lost a purchaser that has the potential of purchasing more through his affiliate link!

That misbehaves!

So we made a decision to offer a bridge web page that compels buyers to fill their e-mail address prior to they can declare their rewards.

Right here's an example of this page:

In this way, the individual isn't just selling; he's building a buyer's checklist.

This is an attribute that has NEVER been created prior to in the open market.

DFY Lead Funnel is a total channel that provides actual worth to all net marketers.

We're mosting likely to have lots of tutorials and also write-ups to assist individuals browse their way around it.

Verdict

"It's A Large amount. Should I Invest Today?"

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The Newest Black Friday + Cyber Monday Ideas for Your Social Media Marketing

The biggest retail dates of the year are just around the corner. Do you have your social media marketing ready?

We’ve researched some of the trendiest marketing ideas for Black Friday + Cyber Monday, including flash sales, messenger marketing, and UGC. In this blog post, we’ll cover a host of new ideas, tips, and tactics that can help you boost your already-planned campaigns or give you some inspiration for an upcoming piece of content.

Find out some of the numbers behind Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and see what the most cutting-edge brands are trying out this holiday season.

Holiday shopping begins for people all the way back in September! So there’s a wide window of opportunity to reach customers who are in the shopping mood.

According to the National Retail Federation, the average shopper is planning to spend $1,047 this holiday season, which is a four percent increase from last year. 

Overall, sales in November and December are expected to rise between 3-to-4 percent, reaching more than $725 billion. 

That’s a huge amount of spending. We’ll get into some ways to best position your products and promotions during this spending season. But first, we wanted to start with a couple of outside-the-box campaigns to get you feeling inspired. 

Inspiring examples of Black Friday / Cyber Monday marketing

Outdoor apparel retailer REI has taken a rather unique approach to its Black Friday marketing. For the past four years, REI has chosen simply to not participate at all. They close their stores and send their employees home. Even the website has a giant takeover message. They want you to feel empowered to opt out of Black Friday and spend time outside. The hashtag campaign “Opt Outside” has been a hit. 

And this year, they’re taking it one step further by not only encouraging people to opt out of shopping but also asking folks to spend their time cleaning up the environments around them of trash and waste. 

It’s a really powerful message to send, and it’s been very effective for REI’s brand.

For another example of Black Friday creative campaigns, there’s this amusing one from the New York Public Library. The library put together some simple content to share on social, advertising a 100% off sale on all its books. 

Of course, the joke here is that the New York Public Library is a .. well, library. All of its books are free to check out all the time anyway. 

Nevertheless, it proved to be a very memorable campaign.

So with these fun examples in mind, let’s jump into some of the specific strategies and tactics you can take with your Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing.

1. Conduct hourly flash sales

When researching this episode, we came across a really interesting case study of HostGator, a web hosting service, and how they approached Black Friday / Cyber Monday. Essentially, HostGator put together a spreadsheet with multiple sales at multiple different hours of multiple different days. It was fascinating!

Yes, their sales typically lasted one hour with some steep savings of 60 to 70 percent. And each hourly sale had its own coupon code so they could track the results. 

It’s a really interesting strategy, especially when you think of how you can use it on social media. 

That’s right. Think of all the possibilities for Stories content and social posts if you have multiple sales during the shopping weekend. Especially with Stories, you have things like countdown timers and reminder stickers that you can use to great effect. Each new sale gives you another chance to reach out to your audience in multiple ways — getting attention before the sale starts, holding attention during the sale, and teasing the next one. 

2. Think beyond Black Friday and Cyber Monday

HostGator’s plan included sales for Early Access Black Friday as well as Small Business Saturday, and it’s a trend that many other businesses are emulating. 

The Black Friday weekend is almost a four day affair, if not more. We have Gray Thursday, which is U.S. Thanksgiving Day, then there’s Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, which some companies extend for the whole next week. 

If you’re thinking of using multiple days for your marketing plans, you can consider some fo the unique behaviors of your audience on these days. For instance, on Black Friday, you might tie some of your marketing into some Buy Online / Pickup In Store specials (commonly referred to as BOPIS) and on Cyber Monday, you can of course focus on online sales. Shoppers spent $7.9 billion online for Cyber Monday last year. 

Related to this, it’s also worthwhile to start, really, any time between now and the holiday weekend, if you haven’t already. Around 40% of consumers start their holiday shopping before Halloween. So shopping is definitely top of mind for your audience, even before Black Friday hits. 

3. Update your design assets for each of the holidays

You’ve probably seen this with many of the brands you love. All their designs, photos, and graphics match the season we’re in. This might mean harvest colors in October and early November, short and catchy ads around Black Friday, and then holiday themes in December. 

If you’re able to align all these creative assets across all platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, even your display ads — it can create a very powerful and memorable brand experience, which often ends up tying back to ad performance and sales!In fact, according to Twitter Business, ad recall is 60 percent higher if a brand does something as simple as placing the logo in a consistent spot. These little things – logo placement, color, font, hashtags — they make a difference! 

4. Make the most of Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp

There are some really big opportunities out there for messaging platforms around the holidays. 

The website Retail Dive touched on a bit of this in a recent blog post explaining the virtue of SMS and text messaging. Get this: During Black Friday 2018, there were reports of brands getting 2000% ROI from using SMS campaigns during the Black Friday weekend. 

That’s an incredible number!So probably your mind goes next to, well how can I get this set up for my brand? 

You can definitely go the SMS route. We think it can be almost just as effective if you think of applying this strategy to Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp as well. Either way, the workflow looks a little like this:  Step One: collect the contact information and the person’s opt-in consent.

This can happen at signup or with a special one-off campaign to collect contact info with the promise of special deals coming soon. 

Then, you can apply some messaging strategies to the data. Send a discount code to subscribers. Follow up with an email with the same discount and more product offerings. For those who don’t purchase right away, send a reminder nudge. 

You can even tie this into the hourly flash sales we talked about earlier. Just be careful not to overuse this messaging channel — you want to always uphold first and foremost a solid, genuine relationship with the person. Sending too many messages can be a turn-off.

5. Focus on user-generated content (UGC)

You probably have a lot of content to create around these busy holiday dates, so it can be quite a relief to get some help from your community by re-sharing the content that they’re already making. 

This can take a lot of different forms like photos of your brand and product, or positive user reviews. It’s especially easy on Instagram Stories where you can reshare someone else’s post to your Stories with just a couple taps. 

Some companies go the extra mile and create programs to incentivize users to create and share content about the brand. You can tie giveaways into this strategy — offer prizes to random winners who have used a certain hashtag or commented on a post. We recently added a Giveaways feature to our social engagement product, Buffer Reply, if you want to check it out at buffer.com/reply. 

For some simple ideas for creating UGC contests, we quite like this list by G2 Crowd. 

Ask your community to share a video or photo of them using your product

Ask your community to reshare your content

Ask people to follow you on social

Have people tag people in the comments, people who they think might benefit from what your brand has to offer

6. Craft a well-designed mobile experience, from social to your website.

For last year’s Black Friday / Cyber Monday shopping, Adobe Analytics found that mobile devices sent 58 percent of traffic to websites, which represented a 20 percent increase from the year before. 

That means that more than half of your website visitors are likely coming from mobile. Is your website prepared? 

it’s worth considering this type of user flow when you’re putting together your social media campaigns. Be sure that whatever you’re linking to — whether it’s from your social ads, from the Swipe Up in your Stories — that the page is well-optimized for mobile. It’s going to make a big difference with user experience and with conversions. 

7. Prepare for product returns

People often turn to social media to get in touch with brands for product questions. You can expect that volume to be especially high around the shopping weekend. 

Yeah, we thought this stat was really interesting: projections say that 77% of consumers expect to return some of the presents they get this year. And almost 20 percent of consumers say they’ll return more than half of their gifts. 

Knowing this in advance, you can put together some workflows and some docs to help prepare your social media teams to handle these types of requests and this volume. 

8. Stories, Stories, Stories

As has been the case in past years, Stories on Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat continue to be more and more important for showcasing what your company sells. 

According to Facebook’s holiday marketing guide, Stories have become a hugely popular place to window shop. Last year, 63 percent of shoppers either watched or posted videos on Stories and more than a third of shoppers claim that videos were influential in choosing what to buy. 

So whatever you do with your content plans this Black Friday and Cyber Monday, be sure that you’ve allocated plenty to Stories! 

About the Show:

The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing strategies from brands and influencers in every industry. If you’re a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you’re sure to find something useful in each episode.  It’s our hope that you’ll join our 27,000+ listeners each week and rock your social media channels as a result!

The Newest Black Friday + Cyber Monday Ideas for Your Social Media Marketing published first on https://improfitninja.weebly.com/

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13 Effective Email Marketing Tips

Have you ever sent an email to clients only to get no response? Did they even open it? Or open it just to delete it? Maybe you don’t even know where your campaigns are going wrong. Have no fear, our Email Marketing Tips are here.

We’ve all received an email we immediately deleted, marked as spam, or ignored altogether. If this is happening to your emails, you need to understand why. Maybe you aren’t effectively grabbing your audience’s attention. Or perhaps your subject lines don’t reach out and say “Open me!” or your calls to action don’t scream “Click me!”

As long as you aren’t heartlessly spamming your subscriber lists, email marketing is an incredibly powerful tool for getting messages directly to your clients and prospects. It strengthens client relationships and keeps reminding your prospects to reach out to you. So, let’s discuss how you can improve your efforts. First, let’s review the types of emails you might send:

Marketing emails

These are usually informational or promotional messages sent to people who asked you to keep them updated, such as prospects, clients, reporters, vendors, affiliates, etc. Marketing emails encompass a variety of content, but most are used to send newsletters, sales promotions, announcements, press releases, follow-ups, and surveys.

Transactional emails

This type of email is usually automated and triggered by your customers’ activities. Examples of transactional emails include welcome messages, order tracking, received payments, registration confirmations, etc.

Don’t underestimate the potential of these messages. If you’ve sent a customer a transactional email, they’ve completed at least one action that indicates they’re very likely to engage with you again. These are trusted emails, which means they have higher open rates and provide plenty of opportunities for engagement and cross-selling.

Operational emails

These are emails with important information about your business, such as holiday closures, maintenance plans, or changes to your service availability. It’s tempting to skip an operational email if you think it won’t impact your sales, but it’s important to be consistent for the sake of trust, engagement, and thoroughness.

Again, there’s also hidden value in these messages. Although they may seem strictly informative, they can be crafted to improve your sales and your image. For example, if your service will be down for maintenance, describing what kind of updates you’ll be performing is a great way to remind your clients of the value you provide.

Whatever emails you're sending, it’s critical that you consider what you’re trying to accomplish and structure your message and strategy accordingly. Here a few tips that guarantee success:

How To Send Marketing Emails Like A Pro

1.  Build your subscriber list

2.  Encourage readers to reply

3.  Make it personal

4.  Keep your emails out of spam folders

5.  Make sure your emails look clean and crisp

6.  Include interesting links and calls to action

7.  Build your subscriber list

8.  Encourage readers to reply

9.  Make it easy to unsubscribe

10.              Make emails mobile-friendly

11.              Test, test, test

12.              More testing!

13.              Track your data

1. Build your subscriber list

Even if you’ve already got a long list of emails for clients and prospects, you should never stop adding to it. Especially since it’s not nearly as hard as it sounds. For example, make sure your list is always growing passively with a signup feature on your website. Subscription forms should be on your home page, blog page and everywhere else you can fit it without taking away from more important content.

Digital Fire does a great job of collecting email subscribers on their home page, which includes a sign-up box that hovers over the page and follows users as they scroll. It’s impossible to miss (without being annoying) and plainly explains the value of subscribing to their email list.

 You can also build your list through more traditional means. If you have a booth at an industry conference, provide an option for people to sign up for your newsletter. Even if you don’t end up closing at sale directly at the conference, getting someone to sign up for your email list can turn into a business opportunity down the road.

2. Encourage readers to reply

Unlike direct mail, email marketing opens the door for meaningful conversations with real people interested in your business. Just throwing information to leads and clients is a waste of time, so make sure you always focus on these three variables:

1.  Irresistible subject lines – Speak to readers directly and promise them something that stands out from the other emails in their inbox. The best way to go about this is with automated solutions that personalize your emails (which we’ve written about in depth).

2.  An entertaining and distinctive voice – Just because readers open your email doesn’t mean they aren’t queued up to quickly delete it. Always make sure your message sounds like it came from a real person who cares, not some faceless marketing machine.

3.  Targeted content – Segmenting your email lists by reader demographics makes it easier to create a message that really resonates with your readers' needs and interests, which makes them more likely to take up an offer, engage with you, or even to pass it onto other prospective clients.

The focus of these points is to encourage recipients to respond. Sometimes that means they click on a link in your message, but whenever possible, encourage them to actually respond to your emails. That's a surefire way to show you’re interested and responsive to what your subscribers have to say.

3. Make it personal

Whenever possible, add a personal element to your emails. Most email tools allow you to enter shortcodes that will be replaced with the recipient’s name when the email is sent out. Emails from Treehouse Co-Founder Ryan are always fun and personal. The subject lines are creative, messages are sent "from" Ryan's email address, and the content is personalized. If you reply to the mail, you'll even get a prompt response from Ryan himself!

 On top of this, you can segment your messages to particular portions of your audience. If you have a business that works with multiple industries, consider sending out different versions of your email with each one providing information specific to each industry.

4. Keep your emails out of spam folders

If your carefully constructed emails are flagged as spam, they’ll never see the light of day. Start off by making sure your recipients have opted into your emails so you aren't running afoul of any regulations like the CAN-SPAM Act.

Beyond that, avoid using all caps, too many exclamation marks, and hyperbolic phrases ("ACT NOW BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT!!!!"). Poorly formatted HTML in your emails can also hurt how they’re handled. Every spam filter is different, so an email might pass through one filter but get flagged by another. For more comprehensive info on how spam filters work and how to avoid them, check out this guide by MailChimp.

5. Make sure your emails look clean and crisp

This sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people send emails that look like amateur websites from the ’90s. If someone has opened your mail because of an engaging heading, you want to keep their interest. This means:

·         Using short paragraphs and ensuring that keywords and phrases relevant to your readers stand out.

·         Including bullet points to help people skim the content and take in the vital points.

·         Inserting pictures sparingly. Images should illustrate your message rather than replace your content. Some email providers block images or consider them an indicator of spam.

Here’s an example of what an email newsletter template might look like.

 6. Include interesting links and calls to action

The aim of most email marketing campaigns is to increase traffic to a site, sometimes a specific landing page. No clicks means no customers -- it really is that simple. Always try to include visually striking buttons with text that give readers more than one opportunity to interact (e.g., Find out more! Download Now! etc.).

 In general, calls to action should be written as just that -- actions. The more exciting the action you describe, the more enticing it will be to your audience.

7. Make it easy to unsubscribe

It may seem as though you are cutting off the "conversation" by giving clients the chance to opt out, but if a user wants to remove their name from your lists and can’t do so easily, they’ll flag emails as spam, which will cause you problems in the future.

 8. Make emails mobile-friendly

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Many people reach for their phone. In fact, 66% of email opens occur on smartphones or tablets. If your emails aren’t optimized for viewing on these devices, you’re potentially missing out on a huge number of clicks.

 9. Test, test, test

Never send anything without making sure it’s working properly. Double-check that your messages look the way you want them to be by sending them to employee accounts. Ideally, you will view them on Outlook.com, Gmail, and Yahoo, and on a variety of mobile devices before finalizing your drafts.

For more robust testing, check out Litmus, a tool that tests and provides screenshots of your email in dozens of different email tools.

 Ensure that all your links work, and any personalization shortcodes aren’t failing. Sending mass emails without double-checking the content would be like turning up to a business meeting having chosen your outfit in the dark. If it goes wrong, you’ll look foolish and unprofessional.

10. More testing!

Beyond testing content on different platforms, you should also experiment with different subject lines, calls to action, and body text to see what is most engaging to your audience.

 Some email tools have built-in A/B testing modules that allow you to compare the results of different versions of your emails, but even if you don’t have access to these, you can run tests on your own. Try sending your emails on different days of the week or different times of the day to see when you get the best response rate.

11. Track your data

Some results may have nothing to do with platforms and content. Keep a close eye on your data, like how many email addresses were undeliverable or what time of the day people opened your message. These tiny details will tell you a lot about your email’s performance.

 If you’re using Google Analytics on your website, tagging your emails with custom campaign tracking can show you how they are driving traffic to your landing pages and how those visitors behave once they arrive on your site. Equipped with this powerful information, you can now really tailor your marketing message to people who will use it.

12. Don’t overwhelm your subscribers

Armed with all these tips, you might be eager to start sending out as many emails as you can. But beware of how often you send messages to your list. You don’t want to flood their inbox with marketing messages about everything you offer -- they might get annoyed and unsubscribe.

13. Above all else, provide value

Great email marketing ultimately comes down to giving your audience something that sticks with them - something that keeps your business on their mind, whether that’s educational information about your industry, operational messages about your service, or marketing messages about the products you offer.

Otherwise, that message is just going to end up in the trash.

This is just the beginning

Like most marketing efforts, becoming successful with email marketing is a process. It’s a combination of good planning and analyzing data to make improvements to your campaigns, but the only way to learn and improve is to get out there and apply these Email Marketing Tips. Start emailing!