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maskeraith · 3 years

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big eldar scrolls on line post about what i thought about it

may have some spoilers for the morrowind storyline and sidequests idk also I am inevitably gonna compare it to ffxiv a lot as it’s the only other mmorpg I’ve played good luck

Writing this after finishing writing the rest wow this got too long there is a tldr though haha

so the first thing I will say is that eso’s overworld exploration and sidequesting blows ffxiv away completely, there is so much to do and fun to be had in eso simply by exploring around! the enemies feel cool to fight, there are delves and solo dungeons to just stumble across with quests in there, skill points just lying around if you look hard enough, gathering spots that you can just gather from without having to be a specific profession or something, WORLD bosses that you need a group to battle just OUT there it’s really cool! Ffxiv does have some really beautiful environments but in terms of actual stuff to do, there’s literally just fates and they’re pretty shit to be honest, and i guess the sightseeing log??

and sidequests! all my time in the game was spent in the morrowind area (vvardenfall I think? my eso lore is zero watch out) and every sidequest I did had a really engaging storyline. They do mostly amount to fetch quests and slay monster quests in terms of gameplay with some puzzle moments sometimes, but the storylines were captivating enough to justify most of what you had to do. compared to ffxiv which is BLOATED with boring fetch quests with uninteresting storylines eso has it figured out. the characters you meet and their dialogue is great and sometimes you can even make choices which affect the final outcome of the quest which is always fun (your character having the personality of a brick aside). I actually think I enjoyed certain sidequests more than the main story of morrowind they’re that involved

Also there are world events but I didn’t really get into them, there was like a huge tornado which spawned some enemies that give you massive exp, but my horsey was too slow and I only got there at the tail end because they’re great for farming so every player in the world goes there and kills them instantly they seem cool though

in terms of lore, I’m not someone who is super interested in the lore of the elder scrolls universe but I found myself learning a whole lot of very crazy stuff from the friends I was playing with who DO know all about it, and I will say that if the lore of the elder scrolls universe interests you in any way you’ll love this game! so I learned that there are Eras in this universe, and eso takes place in the second era I believe. The other main series games all take place in the third or fourth I think, so eso is able to like set the groundwork for those games and explain the history behind stuff going on in all the main games, which I think is a really good idea, perfect for fans of the lore and stuff. Like I remember the funny talking dog from skyrim and he’s like the primary antagonist of the morrowind main story like woah

The combat is where I think the game started to fall off for me, again with the ffxiv comparison but it just wasn’t reaching levels nearly as interesting as the combat in that game for me.

Firstly, there’s no tab targetting (unless there’s a setting in the menu somewhere i missed?) you actually aim all your attacks, single target, aoe, whatever. for me this made it harder to be able to gain a situational awareness, and I have to keep my camera aimed at the boss and I’m not able to move it around to see if there was anything else going on. I do see how aiming your attacks could actually make the game more appealing to some people, though, as it does give a sense that you are more actively participating in the battle and not just standing there pressing buttons, but for me this sort of thing doesn’t make any difference

The second thing was the amount of abilities you have at any one time - you have 10 abilities and 2 ultimates slotted at any one time. Five and one ult are active at a time, and you have to swap weapons (it’s as easy as the press of a button) to switch to your second bar with the other 5 and 1 ult. This does make the game a lot more accessible I think, but it also means the stuff you get to do is just gonna be a lot more straightforward and spammy compared to the interesting and involved rotations you get in ffxiv. as a tank, I set myself up to put three dots and a debuff on the enemy and then spam my one damaging attack, until I had to reapply the stuff again, and that was basically it. I had some tank cooldowns too like a shield, heal, a grab and so on. I did look up the Most Complicated Rotation to see how hard it could get, which seemed to be stamina nightblade, and even that has “Ability x11″ or something in its rotation

Simple rotations would be fine for me if the bosses themselves were more difficult or complicated to compensate, but honestly nothing was any more difficult or involved than ffxiv. On youtube I’ve watched like 5 dungeons and a trial on the hardest Veteran difficulty, and the dungeons don’t look like anything more than what you would get in other mmos. The trials looks like really great content honestly, but there’s no party finder for them as far as I know so you have to manually gather 11 other people which is never something I enjoy trying to do in multiplayer games lol

i also didn’t super appreciate that the game wanted to like hide a bunch of info from me by default? like a few hours in I complained that it was impossible to know when my dots and self buffs ran out because all I had was like little particle effects on the enemy/myself to go off, and my friends were like “oh yeah you need to turn on these tooltips in the options” like huh?? I need to know this stuff come on

There is some really cool stuff in the combat though! Every player has like a basic bash attack, which can interrupt certain attacks, and then a basic heavy attack, which can knock down staggered enemies (they get staggered if you interrupt them) so there is more to do than just your abilities.

One thing I will mention though, is that I think a huge part of the combat is resource management - you spend stamina/mana on your abilities and if you’re not careful it’s easy to run out. As a tank, blocking takes up stamina, and sometimes I would not manage it correctly and run out and be unable to use my anything for a bit. You get it back by doing heavy attacks (contrary to every game ever) and other like passives unique to whatever build you might have going on. A lot of the game’s difficulty in harder content might come from this, but I didn’t get that deep into any of that sort of thing

I think the way you pick your abilities is really cool - you level up a whole bunch of different skill trees at a time, and you can slot any ability from any tree at any time (other than weapon skills specifically, you must be weilding that weapon) into your 10 slots. Your class has three unique trees, then there’s like a tree for every weapon type, for mage and fighter’s guild, this weird guild called the undaunted, werewolf and vampire, probably more I forgot about. All of them have 5 skills that you unlock as you level that tree, and all of those skills can be morphed into one of two “strong” versions of that skill once you level that specific skill. So there is a huge amount of player choice in how you build your character! I remember getting loads of advice from my friends but also just thinking to myself “but this skill though...” (i am so sorry). There are loads of passives too but they’re kind of lame and you just sort of put your excess skill points in them to make yourself passively stronger. I am sure there are Optimal builds, but playing casually you can literally just do anything

I do think levelling them can sometimes be a pain though because like, if you want the fifth ability in Skill Tree 1 but you don’t really use any of the first four, well actually you do have to start using a bunch of those skills you don’t want because you gain more exp for that skill tree the more of its skills you use, sort of a minor thing I guess

Finally I will talk about how I really do not like the execution of the loot system... So you get armour sets in this game and if you wear 5 of them you get a very significant passive, like whenever you crit you summon a big ghoul to shoot acid, or all of your aoe abilities also taunt. I think this is a super cool idea in theory, and it allows for even further personal customisation of the kind of character you want to play. However..

So the max level is 50, but the real max level is like 180 or something because at 50, you continue to level up but each level just gives you a point to put into these big huge bonus passive skill trees which continue to increase your stats up to the 180th point or something like that. In eso, though, you can go anywhere and do anything and all the enemies are scaled to you. But, it’s actually that you are scaled to the enemies - while below level 50, you get an invisible buff that makes you as strong as a level 50 character. This means that every level you gain, you actually get slightly weaker, if you’re not updating your armour.

Armour drops at whatever level you are, up to the cap of 180 where you are the strongest you can be. So ultimately what this means is every piece of armour you get up until you reach the level cap will quickly become obsolete. Every time I collected 5 pieces of a set and got a cool passive, all I could think was “this will be fun for about 4 levels” because I knew I’d need to swap it all out for stronger stuff. Essentially I felt locked out of seriously farming for the gear sets I wanted until I reached Max Max level, which made everything I collected seem pretty pointless to me.

Also, always being as strong as a level 50 character did kind of make it feel like I wasn’t really levelling up at all? It’s why I broke my rule of “I will get to level 50 before stopping” because I actually was level 50 all along, I got all the abilities from my skill trees that I wanted and ran a bunch of dungeons with them and I was in the 30s, but there were no other skills I could really see myself swapping out so I was essentially “max level”, as far as I was concerned.

so yeah tl;dr these are my two main opinions:

This game is an awesome time running around and exploring the environment, doing quests and running dungeons! If you’re a fan of the elder scrolls world and lore it is absolutely a must play!

Customising your character’s skills and armour sets is a lot of fun, but I do think it comes at the expense of not having a really finely tuned, coherant combat style, it feels a lot like I’m Just Hitting All The Buttons.

The end lol

#long post #i didn't comment on crafting because I didn't do it #tl;dr here as well I think the overworld exploration is awesome but I don't think the combat gameplay is engaging enough to play long term

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preciouslandmermaid · 3 years

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Hi! I saw your message. I didn't mind if you posted it, but thank you for taking the time to consider my thoughts on that!

I wanted to apologize for spamming your notifications! Incase I'm coming off as weird or anything.

I know what it's like to receive like zero encouragement on writing via the internet on writing and how discouraging it is, so I just wanted to give back some of the joy you've given me as the reader.

I've loved a lot of fics but TTFATTF really hit home for me in a way I didn't go into reading it expecting it. The movie also speaks very much to me. The characters' journey of grieving/mourning a loved one, plus going through a dystopia alien apocolypse (parallel it with the pandemic), and getting into the path of healing spoke to me for various reasons, and I was pleasantly surprised at how you are having the characters deal with it all. TTFATTF quite literally ✨hit me✨ in the feels. Thank you for sharing it. (No pressure or anything on the writing. I don't mean to just plant something heavy onto your shoulders. omg.) I've read through comments on TTFATTF and I know I'm not the only one this fic speaks to.

Also: JOHN KRASINSKI ANSWER FOR YOUR CRIMES. I needed like 30 more minutes of AQP2.

I can't wait for when you post the new fic! 90s Evemett here I come!!!

I'm so totally glad that you are doing what you need to take care of yourself. Purge writing and then not taking any breaks is the worst and I've done it one too many times that coming out of it is like overcoming a bad hangover.

Sorry for the long ask! You can post this or answer it privately! Whatever you're comfortable with. Bye! 👋

ok first off - you're absolutely not spammy at all & i love it & also im a crazy person who reads everyone's tags when they reblog things JDKLFJSFL.

Gosh, I really cannot express how happy that makes me to hear like - it's so nice to KNOW that the story resonates with so many people especially in regard to topics like grief/mourning/healing. liKe yes you're not the first person to mention this but gosh it is so VALIDATING to hear as a writer. because you know, i sometimes feel like im stumbling through it. so yEAH. idk. just big thank you all around. <3

JOHN. ANSWER FOR UR CRIMES!!! yeah, i understand WHY he ended it the way he did (he was big on parallels/callbacks to the first movie) and the first movie ended with Evelyn loading the shotgun, so it makes sense that he'd end the 2nd with the children standing over the monsters they defeated. From a cinematic standpoint/creative standpoint, I GET IT, but also yeah, I would've loved just a little bit more.

AHHH 90S EVELYN/EMMETT. I am so thrilled to share it. It's been a comfort to write during this crazy transition period in my life. Because I can be SOFT and SELF-INDULGENT lmao !!!

and yes, I've honestly taken a break from writing TTFATTF and am focusing on the AU for now - at least until I'm at my new house & in my own bed lol. It's all about that comfort ~

Alsooooo pls omg don't worry about sending long asks. I love it. I feel like I'm making friends :,) and it's nice to know that other people, even if it's only a handful of us, connected to the movie/the characters.

#ttfattf #writing #through the flood and the fear #long post #ahhhh thank u again for sending me this #it means so much so im gonna post it so i can see it again LOL #amelia's writing #omg #favorites

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sailolive93-blog · 5 years

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The best Guide to Reddit Marketing around 2019

"Yep, i do all my modelling in C4D as I just know the tools so well there. I do minimal retopology in Zbrush on organic shapes but any hard surfaces I make in C4D. I'd recommend the "Introduction to Subdivision modelling in C4D" by Shane Benson on Vimeo (he goes by Sheppard O'Neill on YouTube if you prefer that) and it was his tuts that got me into box and subdiv modelling.

I'm also releasing a modelling workshop in C4D and models from the kitchen scene that these belong to will be in there to learn. Just not these two as they belong to marketing for the workshop. very well "Brand new Reddit account with two extensive comments defending Boa Vista Orchards huh...? We joked earlier about spotting the Boa Vista account in here but it looks like we actually have lol! > I just talked to the dude who does the marketing for Apple Hill and he sent me this So you just randomly talked to the guy and he emailed over his entire statement...? " "I too wonder why they didn’t just create a new line and call it the mach-e instead of mustang, I believe it has something to do with the marketing department since they knew it’ll stir a lot of discussion" "Precedent suggests it depends on the marketing around the product being sold and the implied purpose. " "Wow, ha. The fact that you think that it’s ok for the government to strip away my personal health insurance so that I HAVE to be on the same shitty plan on everybody else is crazy. If healthcare is “free” and universal, the quality of healthcare is bound to decrease. I can choose to pay for whatever the fuck I want and whatever healthcare I want. I give to charity and I have plans on giving a lot more to charity as I get further in my career and start making more money. Believe it or not, you aren’t the only one that cares about people just because you want “free” healthcare for everybody. And there is also no such thing as free healthcare. It has to be paid somehow and middle class taxes will go up no matter how complicated you try to make the source of payment sound. And regarding free college, that will also raise middle class taxes. You keep bringing up this. 02% of financial transactions bullshit as if that’s going to cover all costs. Have you done studies on this yourself? Do you even know that? You act like all these things can be magically paid for without anybody in the middle class being negatively affected. I have a bachelor’s degree and I didn’t feel like college was very challenging. It was more like a series of annoying classes I didn’t need when all of college could have been boiled down into one year of the core classes of my major of marketing. College is a fuckin scam and it’s only truly necessary for a very limited amount of majors. You’re just another minion that kisses the feet of big-government Democrats that try to make us feel like horrible people for not allowing them to sucks insane amounts of money out of the economy and spend it how they would like to. inch "That's including the localization teams for every language though, as well as PR and marketing. >! Some of them might even be legacy accreditation for the Gen 6 models they're *still* using.! < " "Time is a cost and you should track where that cost is going. That said, if you are working on general administrative/nonbillable stuff within your own department, it's pretty easy to have that time automatically go to the right cost bucket, so generic entries for that sort of thing are fine imo. The stuff that really has to be tracked is anything for clients or for departments that are outside your default (e. g. engineer writes a blog post, that's marketing time etc). micron "I believe there are some lessons on Google Academy for Adss (now called Skillshop) but hands-on experience is tricky. Two ways are possible, 1) is for you to have your own website and use Google Ad Sense, but this is more from the advertiser side rather than publisher or technical side 2) ask a digital or marketing agency that is near you if you can shadow/assist/internship/work experience for a week or so. This may be difficult depending on where you live and agency people are always very busy, so if you do ask tell them how you could help THEM not the other way around. To be honest, start with Analytics and Paid Search as they are arguable more accessible and have more out there for you to learn" "We are in the same boat, but different industry. Here's my approach, starting this week: I'm joining business groups that my target clients are a part of, for example, manufacturer groups. Then I'm going to target that organization with our services. I'm then going to offer to speak about the service I offer and how it helps businesses. Not a marketing spiel, an educational talk. Good luck" "One might consider a lawsuit if a car or alcohol company advocated or implied the action of drinking and driving in their marketing" "This post has been removed for breaking Rule 1. No Spammy Titles. Do not mention anything about selling anything in the title. Absolutely ZERO marketing in the title. Do not even ask for people to contact you for more. Be enticing. Post quality pics with quality titles. Read the rules for info on how to market yourself here. If your posts keep getting removed then you will be banned. READ THE RULES! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Remember to[contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/? to=/r/feetpics) if you have any questions or concerns. *" "I came of grew up and came of age in Chicago during Jordan's time with the Bulls and the shortest answer is that it's almost incomparable because the level of fame basketball players before Michael Jordan was laughably lower than now. Even today MJ has a logo that might be more identifiable than the company that created it. I would argue no athlete in any sport has surpassed MJ's level of fame. MJ pioneered so many avenues of endorsements, its like comparing planes in the era of propeller planes with jet planes. Jordan like most greats, stood on the shoulders of giants, specifically Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Those two spent the better part of the late 70's and early to late 80's dominating the sport of basketball. Also add in Isiah Thomas of the Pistons and arguably "Dr. J" Julius Erving of the 76ers and those four were the superstars of the four teams that won EVERY NBA championship of the decade. Before Michael Jordan won his FIRST NBA Championship in 1991, he was arguably bigger than all of them. Before MJ, being a big name athlete meant getting your name on a breakfast cereal box called Wheaties, and doing the commercial saying the plug line "Gotta eat your Wheaties! " That's not a joke. Check 'em out on youtube, they're cringe worthy. MJ's meteoric rise in my opinion was helped by a few special advertising campaigns. I think first would have been his Nike commercials with Spike Lee, another pioneer. He just made "Do the right thing" at a time when black people making movies with black people in the movies wasn't really a thing. Spike Lee also happens to like playing characters in his own movies and Mars Blackmon was a character in that movie that Spike Lee chose to portray in a series of commericals with Michael Jordan. Again, pardon me for repeating, but I have to say it again for context. You have a supremely talented and charismatic young athlete being marketed by a young shoe company (Converse Chuck Taylors were still THE basketball shoe) hiring a visionary and ground breaking director to do something that had not been done before. And they crushed it. Again, at this time Michael Jordan wasn't winning NBA championships. He was having savant level performances, but get bounced out of the first round by the Celtics, or getting manhandled in the playoffs by the Pistons. By the time he did win it all in 91, MJ was doing things that no one had done in fields well outside basketball. Michael Jordan in Flight is one of the first videogames to have 3D. He had already supplanted Dr J in the one on one basketball video game with Larry Bird. Gatorade put out a marketing campaign with the song "Be Like Mike" and that song was the top song for the summer of 92 in Chicago on most radio stations regardless of genre. You're already familiar with Space Jam, but before Space Jam, the Looney Toons were relegated to afternoon after school syndicated (rerun) television stations. Michael Jordan made Bugs Bunny cool again to a whole new generation that knows of them only through MJ. I hope that helps. inches "Yeah I don't want to turn it around and criticize Musk over this or anything, but Tesla is great at PR and marketing while convincing people they don't actually try to be. inches "No, you dont need more parties, you need to ban all parties and establish government funded elections where everyone with a certain amount of support by the people can run using government money and marketing channels. Equal funding, equal marketing, equal candidacy, by the people, for the people. Sounds too good to be true? Well fuck you, because parties are corrupt barbaric cavemen shit. " " Funny Cartoon Images for website content - Family Funny Images and illustrations, Ultimate single panel funny cartoons used for websites, social media and emails https://www.freecartoonsdaily.com https://www.cartoons.cafe www.cartoons.cafe www.acmeblanks.com sign up now! Funny Cartoons, Funny family cartoon images, Custom Cartoons, Niche Cartoons, Humorous Illustration Services, Business Cartoons, Medical Cartoons, Custom Comic Strips, Book Illustration Services, Political Cartoons, funny hospital cartoons, cartoons for marketing, corporate cartoons, work cartoons, business cartoons, Computer Cartoons, farmer cartoons, farm cartoons, tractor cartoons, Pig cartoons, pig farmer cartoons, cor farmer cartoons, wheat farmer cartoons, soybean farmer cartoons.... inch "That's including people associated with the marketing and promotion of Sword and Shield, which means people at Nintendo and the Pokemon Company rather than actual programmers at Game Freak working on the game itself. The same article you're looking at gives 200 at Game Freak - which is likely wrong since Game Freak had 143 employees, and Game Freak openly stated most were working on Town. You could include the modelers from Creatures Inc, but given that the models are the same as those developed for X and Y by Creatures Inc years ago, they are likely still being credited for "work" on this game that was actually done quite some time ago. " "Imagine what a lucky break JonTron was for FlexSeal. Their products are actually pretty decent, but their marketing was almost typical infomercial stuff that no-one over fifty would've seen. Next, out of nowhere, some YouTuber makes them famous amongst younger customers. People make "that's a lotta damage, " and "I sawed this boat in half, " memes. Everyone knows who they are. Chances are, when you need some stuff like this you'll at the very least know about their existence and you might buy their stuff because at least you know they're legit. Some people will buy it when they need something like that, literally for the meme. All they have to do is keep the ball rolling with tweets like these (because, of course, people actually follow them on Twitter now). " "That's my point. The pub you linked to is disney land. I'm looking for somewhere that recreates the a more authentic historical experience. I think these places have got their marketing wrong which is why they are closing. They should be trying to recreate an experience closer to that in the Pathe news reel. If you just sold fresh baked bread, potted Hare, a variety of local ales you could heat with a poker while smoking a hilarious pipe you could capture a huge slice of the real ale / hipster / foodie market. " "No game in the genre had been competition for the Diablo franchise since it's inception. D3 no matter how you look at it was a huge commercial success being in the top 10 video games sold of all time at one point. Diablo now has become what WoW was before, tons of games saying they are a WoW killer and none of them doing it. So now we looming at Diablo killers but they all end up falling off somewhere because they don't get the same $$$ support / marketing. inch "8M opening weekend bad = bad marketing. Bad quality movie would be revealed in the multiplier (word of mouth and no rewatches). In this case I don’t think there was anything compelling from the movie they could focus the marketing around which led to the 8M OW. " "I’m in the same boat. I have to get 14 credits by may2020. In the last 2 weeks I did principle of marketing 3 credits score 66 and principal of management 3 credits score 62. This week I’ll take precalculas which is 5 credits and calculus which is 4 credits. I did not pay the $89 for the test because I did modernstates which pays the testing fee. It also reimburses me for the $20 testing fee" "Marketing. McAf€€ gets money from users, Micro$oft gets money from McAfee. They beget the green, motherfuckers that they are. Sometimes http://tipofmytongue.topreddit.info who install 3^^rd party stuff tho, it's not only Microsoft. Anyway, it's a motherfuckery of bloatware if not malware. "McAfee antivirus is one of the worst products on the planet" -John McAfee" "You're arguing entirely from marketing hype instead of actual quality, which is entirely stupid and comes down entirely to Sont having far greater of a userbase and them having less games to pump more money behind. Besides, let's not pretend Sony has an actual library of games here. Both Xbox and Sony have completely shit the bed this console generation in terms of exclusive libraries. Sony has had like, 8 good games this entire generation as exclusives. You have Death Stranding, Uncharted 4, Horizon, Until Dawn, Bloodborne, God of War, MLB The Show... That's about it? I guess you also have Detroit and Last Guardian depending on who you ask, but I defo don't wanna throw Days Gone on that list. But in any case, you could lump all of those games into loke 3-4 genres. Am I missing anything? But yeah, stop saying dumb shit like "Well its not a household name so its irrelevant" because you're entirely missing the point and reducing the entire industry to what can or can't be marketed. As well, its telling that Sony has stated their goal next-gen is to have less games release but have them be bigger, where Microsoft is going the opposite direction. Keep the the big titles, bur also have a little something for everyone. Diversity is important. Your Battletoads reboot might not sell as well, but its important to folks who like it. Games shouldn't be live or die based on how well they fit in established and marketable trends. Its absurdly reductive" "I actually never had injected one, whats the main difference? And is it really a big improvement or rather a marketing bait" "It’s all part of his NYC persona. Marketing. inches

#tag #statics

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annakie · 6 years

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I made it, and now there's no turning back

Hey, so, this is about to be a very long, spammy post about Critical Role season 1. This is mostly for my own memory, so in the future when I want to revisit watching the show, I'll have my own log, of sorts. It's really long. And a lot of it is my chatlogs about the show with @janiemcpants , posted with her permission. So if you hate reading other people's chatlogs, this may not be the post for you.

But if you wanna read a lot of words about a show where some nerdy-ass voice actors play Dungeons and Dragons, this may be the post for you.

Also, for unknown reasons, I’ve had Jimmy Eat World’s song “Cut” stuck in my head the last couple of days, and it’s basically all I’ve listened to today. The words don’t really fit my emotions, but the overall feeling the song gives me does. So that’s where my head is.

I said some of this an a post I made a few weeks ago, but I’m saying it again now. Ever since I heard of it, I was pretty sure I’d love Critical Role if I could get into it. And so for two years I meant to catch up.

I’ve played Dungeons and Dragons since the late 90′s, second edition, and have been in epic campaigns of my own before where I fell in love with not only my character but our entire party. I love this party just as much as I’ve loved Annotea, Sekhar, Ike, Ta’Rik, Annwyl, Krivken, Liek, Colin, E’a and Rhyz.

I have looked for a post I made like a year and a half ago asking for help figuring out how to get into Critical Role on my blog a few times but either I tagged it badly or deleted it. I don't know. I remember some people said to start at episode 19. Some people said to use it as background sound when cleaning / cooking / driving etc. I knew I didn't want to start midway through the part of the story we had, I was disappointed to learn they were already 8th level and we'd missed like two years of story before the show.

I have a post from June 2016 saying I'd made it an hour into the first episode, but I think I finished that ep, or got close, and didn't pick it back up for like, another year. I think it was like mid-summer last year when I made my second push to get into it.

I made it through like eight episodes, and I remember having episode 8 up in a web browser for weeks or a couple of months and things were just so crazy with everything happening with work at the end of the year. And I only watched it as background noise at work. I'd frequently realize I had no idea what was going on, and through like the first 30 or 40 episodes I'd find some kind of recap to read at the end of the episode to make sure I didn't miss anything important.

Here's some negativity, so skip it if you'd like: It took me a very long time to get through like episode 10 to 27 because long before I learned all the things that happened since he left, I couldn't stand Orion. I've looked into it a bit and basically for all the normal reasons people didn't like him. I respect that some people did, but being honest here, if he'd have stayed on the show, I probably would have stopped watching. Around episode 20 I learned that he'd leave soon, and dragged myself through the rest of the episodes until he was gone. And then, it was much easier to get into.

The first half of this year my job went from crazy drama to just plain boring. I really didn't have much to do, and everyone knew I was just biding time until it was time to go. So I'd watch like half the day sometimes, often while doing what work I did have to do. But often that work was like, wiping laptops or organizing keys or just... busywork. But CR made the days pass quicker, and it was enjoyable.

The Feels apparently really started on 3/09 when I sent this to JanieMcPants: Grog winning his second solo battle with the orc JUST BARELY thanks to Scanlan's sneaky inspiration is my new favorite moment in the show.

This would begin a very long chatlog of me just yelling feelings at her. After this, my current comments are italicized.

---------- 03/10/2018 janiemcpants: That whole episode is SPECTACULAR Did you finish it? I don't want to spoil anything if not!

annakie: I did, I got to the part in the next episode where Percy finally confessed a bit of what is going on with his life since they're back home and have been invited to some feast. Still pretty early on in that ep, work got crazy yesterday. :)

---------- 03/23/2018 annakie: Man, I'm on ep 26 now (I watch in bits and bursts as I have time at work, it's real slow going) and I have to say, (I deleted some negativity about Orion here). EVERYTHING ELSE IS GREAT though. I'm really enjoying everyone else and their characters. The episode with the dinner at the Briarwood's was AMAZING especially and I'm so worried about Percy. I was almost in tears as Liam was talking about him thinking about Keyleth and Vex when Vax was going unconscious and thought he was going to die. That was so, so good.

BTW did I just miss it all this time that Vax has a thing for Keyleth? Like I didn't notice it at all until that moment he was going unconscious and now it's obvious.

janiemcpants: Vax’s last thoughts about Vex and Keyleth KILLED. ME. That was also the first time I realized he was into Keyleth, and I think it was the first time any of the others realized it, judging by their faces. Liam did say later that he already was aware of it when the show started, and he dropped a few hints before he outright said it. I’m listening to the podcast right now from the beginning and there are some little things there that you can pick up if you’re looking for them, but nothing that would have given it away, I don’t think. So it was a fun surprise for everybody. (Vax and Keyleth are one of my favorite pairings on the show. I just love them.) This arc is THE BEST and so intense. So much suffering, but also so much goodness!

(We chatted more for awhile about Percy, and the cow episode (Very fun!) )

---------- 04/12/2018 annakie: OH MY GOD SO MUCH IS HAPPENING CASSANDRA IS ALIVE AND VAX IS KISSING KEYLETH. This is so good. SO GOOD.

janiemcpants: I didn't see that kiss coming AT ALL It was SUCH A DELIGHTFUL SURPRISE And Percy gets one sibling back, MY HEART

---------- 05/02/2018 annakie: I've been studying a lot and haven't had a lot of time for CritRole but I watched some today like the END OF THE BRIARWOODS HECK YEAH and Cassandra is good again, and then VAX TRYING TO HOLD KEYLETH'S HAND ON THE TREE and she didn't know how to respond she's so awkward and unsure and needs time to figure it out. I was sitting there just staring at the screen instead of working for like 20 minutes during that part haha.

And I watched the winter fair episode with Trinket winning the pie eating contest and Grog losing arm wrestling to Trish the Dish and that was GREAT. I stopped like right after Matt had Tiberius leave the party for good. It was a very good day of very awesome CritRole at work. :)

janiemcpants: Keyleth and Vax just KILL ME. It's such a slow burn until suddenly STUFF HAPPENS and then it slows down again and pulls at my heartstrings the entire time.

---------- 05/17/2018 annakie: "I don't want to be alone tonight."

"I haven't wanted to be alone most nights..." And I let him in. THE SHIP HAS SAILED. YAY!! :D

annakie: Haha aww Marisha switched seats so she could be closer to Liam, that's sweet.

lol of COURSE the VERY NEXT DAY they see Kashaw again. And Will sits on the other side of Marisha... that's great.

janiemcpants Yay!!! They’re the slowest of slow burns but it’s so worth it. Liam and Marisha manage to be adorable even when they’re seated far away from each other. And yay to Kashaw coming back! I had mixed feelings about him at first, because the second Trial of the Take group had a blend of personalities that was tough to work with, and he got lost in the sea of grouchiness. But he ended up being great and every time he comes back I love him more.

(I'd grow to feel the same way about Kashaw.)

---------- 05/29/2018 annakie: Episode 44 - Oh my gosh, there was a beholder fight AND NOW VEX IS DEAD WHAT IS HAPPENING? And yeah, I think Kashaw is definitely more stand-out-y here, I'm really enjoying his character here. :)

annakie Keyleth: "Why did you do that? Kashaw: "Because I knew you wanted me to." D'awwww....

janiemcpants: AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH Vex’s death there kills me extra because it comes AFTER they win the fight! Everything is supposed to be okay, and then NOPE. THANK GOODNESS Kash was there. They're so lucky he happened to be their guest that night!

I mean, they probably could have come up with another way to save her, but being able to do it right away was a relief. And it was a great character moment for him

--------- 6/15/2018 I made this post, and I was at episode 49.

----------

A lot happened, and I didn't yell about it much of anywhere. I don't know how I let 20 episodes go by without reacting much to them, especially when SO MUCH HAPPENED in there. Right about when the Chroma Conclave hit, I knew I was sucked in, completely.

But in a month and a half I made it through 14 episodes. Near the end of July, things started happening very quickly.

---------- 07/27/2018 annakie: I'm on episode 63 now and I just realized today I'm JUST BARELY over halfway through this campaign. Which makes me both happy and not, haha.

Woah Tiberius. This actually sad. :(

That was really rough and I cried a little.

janiemcpants: TIBS That was so sad All of it was, but "I encourage peace" really got me And when I rewatched it and realize that's what Percy's DM whisper was about, and you can see it on his face and then he has to sit on it for like 20 minutes AUGH

07/28/2018 annakie: Oh man I'm going to have to go back and watch that again. I was touched at how sad EVERYONE was. And yeah, the burial part and "I encourage peace" got me too. It's always sad to lose a friend, but also Tibs defending Draconia was really the perfect ending for his character.

I started ep 65 and YAY. FINALLY. KEYLETH AND VAX. FOR REALS. I have LOVED the slow-burn of the last 40 episodes but I'm glad they're moving into an actual relationship now.

I got spoiled about Vex and Percy just the other day (No one's fault, someone I follow on twitter liked a tweet, which twitter OH SO HELPFULLY put on my timeline. So, it's twitter's fault.) There have already been some hints that it's coming with Vex's titling and all, but I'm looking forward to it.

(Getting spoiled accidentally about that was my "OK TIME TO CLAMP DOWN ON SPOILERS!!" wakeup call -- especially since that Really Big Thing happened in Campaign 2 right about then and despite trying real hard to not be spoiled I know all about it.)

And Scanlan, what character growth with his speech to Pike a couple of episodes ago, apologizing for the proposal and realizing he was more in love with the idea of Pike, even though he does really love her, so proud of that boy. And the note he gave Pike awhile ago for if he dies AND SHE READ IMMEDIATELY. That was like the first real sign she's given. The only thing that's bothered me about Scanlan, (who is probably my favorite, though I love THEM ALL) is that he was nice-guying / trying to wear Pike down this whole time, albeit in a charming way, and now he gets that, so YAY!

---------- 07/28/2018 annakie Watching 65, and having Matt torture Marisha by having Kashaw ask Keyleth out the night after she finally gets together with Vax is masterful. Haha

Awww Gilmore's parents, so sweet. And then Sam "Well, they're both over 70, so who's going to kill them?" buhahahahaha

07/29/2018 annakie: Oh my God, episode 68. I'm bawling. I obviously know Percy will be back but this was really, really, really rough. Taliesin took it better than anyone. Matt seemed just as devastated as everyone else. Marisha's crying made me cry.

That ending, with everyone gathering around Ripley and each doing their own killing blow for Percy.... it was so, so, SO GOOD.

I hope the internet wasn't too hard on Matt that week.

(I really did bawl about Percy's death. That's when the show went from “I love this” to "This is masterful. This is amazing. This might be elevated to rank of "FAVORITE THINGS!"

This is also when I started watching at home -- because I had to know what was going to happen. And because I realized that this show will MAKE ME CRY and I can't cry at work. I also started watching on the weekends, basically as much as I could, every night, all Saturday and Sunday when possible.)

janiemcpants: Keyleth and Vax took a while, but I think they played out perfectly in the end :) I’m so happy the way the official couples turned out, because they’re all so different and so great in their own way. Truly something for everyone! (Vax and Keyleth are my favorites, but I don’t think I have ANY NoTPs, which is awesome.) When I first started the show, I thought I was going to HATE Scanlan, specifically because of the nice-guy thing. But then that sort of started to taper off and he won me over anyway, and I was so happy that he actually realized what was going on and apologized for it. Especially since I love their relationship, as she’s more or less the group’s moral compass, but he’s also basically the group dad--the one who keeps the to-do list and helps everyone keep their shit together (even if it’s not in the most conventional way). Thank goodness he finally realized it was more important to keep her as a friend than to keep trying for romance and probably eventually lose her by being a shithead.

68/69 are two of my favorite episodes, and two of the very hardest to watch Rough, but really emotionally and narratively satisfying

---------

7/21/2018

I made this post, My first big feelings post.

---------------

08/03/2018 annakie: I JUST FINISHED 78. SO MANY FEELINGS! VEX ANSWERING THE DOOR NAKED. THE WHOLE PLANNING. GILMORE IS WITH THEM! AND OH MY GOD KASH AND ZARAH PLS DON'T DIE BUT IF YOU DO SACRIFICING YOURSELF LIKE THIS IS AMAZING, I LOVE YOU. Also I'm now watching Talks Machina too so each episode is an hour longer!

08/05/2018 annakie: OH MY GOD SCANLAN. THIS IS SO MUCH WORSE THAN PERCY. I DIDN'T THINK IT COULD GET WORSE I AM BAWLING AT PIKE'S POEM OH THANK GOD SHE ROLLED A NATURAL 20

Liam breaking during Pike's poem double killed me

I'm also so glad Ashley could be here for this one. I wish Sam was.

Also I'm SO GLAD Keyleth was so amazing last episode, both the feeblemind (totally, 100% saving this fight) and spotting Kima and Allora in the ocean. Just MVP'd the hell out of that ep.

janiemcpants: OH MAN that feeblemind!!! And I’m so glad it was Keyleth who landed such a huge blow on Raishan. And spotting Kima and Allura was such a HUGE RELIEF. What an emotional rollercoaster that episode was. I’m convinced the dice themselves have a sense of drama. That’s the only way to explain some of the narratively amazing 1s and 20s we’ve gotten

annakie: Oh my God, I know. Just absolutely insane. THAT NAT 20 MERCER ROLLED FOR THE FINAL RESURRECTION ROLL OMG

I didn't stop for Talks Machina between those eps. I couldn't, I had to see what happened. I'm so glad this entire ep was so laid back after the resurrection.

This show... I'm so, so mad I wasn't into it from the beginning. On the other hand, having to wait a week between THOSE EPISODES would have been the worst.

janiemcpants: IT WAS It's so good that they generally have breather episodes once something huge is over with, because I don't think I could handle the tension otherwise

---------- 08/06/2018 annakie: WHAT THE FUCK I THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE FUN AND HAPPY AND EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE. I had to stop watching at work

Because I started crying a little and then Percy gave his speech and I almost lost it haha That's where I am right now, raced home from lunch to watch the rest of this where I could cry

janiemcpants: Are you on episode 85? That one really hit like a slap in the face

annakie: Yep!

janiemcpants: That's the only one I think I won't be able to watch again

(I made this post.)

annakie: He's gone now, they're awake the next morning. Like I knew he was leaving but I thought it wouldn't be THIS TERRIBLE. I thought it’d be like “Hey guys I’m taking some time off, love you, bye!” but nooooo.

janiemcpants: And it really felt like it came out of nowhere!

annakie: But also props to Sam because that was such a good representation of depression.

Like I really understood where it was coming from but yeah you really didn't expect THAT.

janiemcpants: Yeah, he's definitely not afraid to take risks and let his character be imperfect, and he had some good points and some not so good points in a very realistic way But BOY was that hard to watch

annakie: Yeah exactly. Like, yelling that nobody cares about him.... that they don't love him.... I have felt that way about people who I absolutely knew loved me and that just shook me. It was just... so... real. And the way everyone reacted. Man I just wish Ashley had been there.

I already know Sam plays someone else for awhile and eventually, Scanlan comes back but man... again... so glad I don't have to wait to KNOW THAT.

janiemcpants: You're lucky you know that! I totally thought he was gone for good Are you at the end of the episode, or still going?

annakie: Still going, they're at Whitestone still the next morning deciding what to do next. Keyleth just scryed on Scanlan and Kaylee.

Grog: "I know you on a more intimiate level." Vex: "Because you saw my titties." Grog: Basically, yeah.

Real question: Can I watch the rest of this episode and maybe next without crying, so I can finish it at work, or should I not? Gotta head back in a few minutes

Oh heeey it's already Sam's new character. :)

janiemcpants You can probably finish it up Since you met Sam's new character and he's pretty good And the next one has a lot of funny stuff in it

---------- 08/07/2018 annakie Episode 88: The Kraken Fight. FIVE AND A HALF HOURS (more like five after the break BUT STILL.) I feel like I was watching this episode for a week.

janiemcpants That was intense! Them not being able to kill the kraken really added some stress to the fight Although they might not have been able to anyway

08/08/2018 annakie Yeah! That added a whole crazy layer onto it! I was pretty sure there would be more deaths than just Vax. Not that him dying wasn't bad, but you know. I think I'm becoming desensitized to the deaths because I didn't cry during his resurrection. Also, poor Ashley, it feels like every time she's there lately it's to resurrect someone.

Finished Ep 90 this afternoon, Keyleth's Aramente ceremony was really good. :)

Also Grog and Tary potion shopping, I laughed so hard at work and had to keep it quiet, I'm sure my coworkers think I'm a maniac.

Ep 91 - Vox Machina Go To Hell... sounds amazing. Just starting.

janiemcpants: Grog and Tary shopping was a total trash fire and it was so great And Vox Machina Go to Hell was such a good title! And a good episode!

---------- 08/11/2018

annakie: Ep 95! Past the time skip! The last two have been SO MUCH FUN and just what we needed after all the sadness and tension! And YAY ASHLEY IS HERE FOR AWHILE. SHE'S GETTING A STORYLINE! Also I love Tary so much now, that character growth! :D But I only have 20 episodes left noooooo

(later that night)...I should probably be doing other things with my life other than watching CR + Talks Machina but I'm already on 98. Clearly Tary is leaving soon, it's neat to meet his family and all, though. I'm gonna miss him. I thought Tary would just be like... a filler character. But he's so great. So. Great.

---------- 08/12/2018

annakie: OH GOD IT'S SCANLAN HE'S BACK I'M DYING (also I'm real sad Tary is leaving soon, the conflict of emotions!). I JUST got to the part where Vex runs up and hugs him and they go to break I'M CRYING.

annakie: EVERYTHING HURTS but Jon Heder's character is hilarious

janiemcpants: Oh no, goodbye Tary! Tary was a cross between Gilderoy Lockhart and a J Peterman catalog and I absolutely adored him, but it’s so good to have Scanlan back I wasn’t sure what to expect from Jon Heder, because I’d only seen him in Napoleon Dynamite and didn’t like it, but he was so great in this

annakie: Oh man I missed him so much. He's having to apologize SO MUCH. Poor Sam, haha. The Talks Machina with him, Ashley and Laura was great, though and Laura saying Travis was too emotional to go on the show was so.... awwww. I'm into ep 100 now Yay the new look! AND LADY BRIARWOOD IS BACK WHAT THE WHAAAT. And Poor, poor Sam having to play three characters, though, he did this to himself. :D

--------- 8/13/2018 annakie (about the first Vecna fight): That shoulda just been called "Vox Machina gets their asses kicked." Vaaaaax

Scanlan MVP'd the hell out of that fight though No time for Talks Machina, I'll do that at work tomorrow, RIGHT ON TO 103!

janiemcpants: Episode 102 was an ABSOLUTE DISASTER Thank goodness Scanlan came back when he did!

Although I did enjoy everyone guilt tripping Sam for making him leave

And then THE ENDING

annakie: GOD EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. ALL OF THIS. I NEED TO PAUSE TIME SO I DON'T NEED TO SLEEP AND CAN JUST WATCH CR STRAIGHT THROUGH FOREVER UNTIL IT'S OVER. These are disaster children and they are terrible I love them.

(I made this post.)

janiemcpants: I had to laugh at your last post because that's exactly what it's like! There's SO MUCH in each episode it's almost impossible to post about it. TOO MANY FEELINGS

And not enough time!

I think this last arc has really good flow to it You can feel the urgency, but it still gives things the time they deserve

annakie: It really is! Like you know if I had a week between episodes than it'd be way easier to sort but I can't take any time I have to watch as much as I can now. I'm at the part where they're trying to sort out why Vax is back and I WANT TO DIE.

janiemcpants: WASN'T THAT A CURVEBALL I was expecting a tense, elaborate ritual like the others got, and they were planning for it, but nope! We're skipping that part

annakie: I read something like a tweet or untagged post MONTHS ago about Scanlan not being able to save Vax. So when he got disintegrated I was like "Oh this is that that meant." and now I'm like "OH SHIT NO IT WASN'T, WAS IT?!" I'm scared.

(Oh, you sweet summer child, you have no idea what you’re in for.)

janiemcpants I just love how Vax getting disintegrated totally changed the context of everything that happens, but not in the way anyone expected Matt's mind is truly a place of wonder

annakie: Also Yay Grog just asked Scanlan to hang out with him in Vasselheim :3 Nothing like a terrifying near-death experience to spread some forgiveness.

TRAVIS + SAM IS THE BEST, WHETHER IT'S SCANLAN OR TARY.

--------- 8/14/2018 annakie Me today: OK my boss asked me to go to this important meeting and take notes I need to concentrate.

What I actually thought about : SERENRAE GAVE PIKE A SPECIAL BLESSING AND LOVES HER SO MUCH AND ALSO TOLD SCANLAN SHE HEARS HIS PRAYERS AND HE IS A TRUE BELIEVER, HE HAS A HOLY SYMBOL AND FOUND HIS WAY TO THE TOWER HIMSELF WE ARE SO BLESSED. REMEMBER SAM AND ASHLEY'S FACES THROUGH ALL OF THAT IT WAS PERFECT.

Also Scanlans face when. Grog mentioned that he was looking for Scanlan, the moment passed so fast but I cried.

(later that night) annakie: I'm so mad I have to run my own game tonight so all I'm gonna have time to watch is to the end of 104 Glad I prepped my game a week or two ago though

janiemcpants: THEIR MEETING WITH SERENRAE, I WEEP It’s just so good to see both a character who’s been so devoted but struggled with it at the same time, and a character who had to develop so much to get there, actually be seen and acknowledged by their god

annakie: I REWATCHED IT WHEN I GOT HOME

janiemcpants: What a great moment for both of them

annakie: SO amazing, I loved it so much.

janiemcpants: Also, I love how it doesn’t even matter how the group splits up, any combination of them is going to be interesting and fun (But especially Sam and Travis because of their shared delight in chaos)

annakie: I'm RIGHT NOW at the part where everyone is talking about Vex to Pelor and OH SHIT SHE AND PERCY ARE BETHROTHED THAT'S THE SECRET YES that's so true every pair is amazing

Also once again Scanlan MVPs this, with his polymorph on Vex

janiemcpants: It's truly astounding how many times Scanlan single-handedly saves their bacon

annakie: Yeah as much as I loved Tary like... they really NEEDED Scanlan.

janiemcpants: They really did I wish they could have both!

annakie: When I rewatched the Serenrae meeting I watched Ashley's face and every time Scanlan did something positive like made it to the tower or Serenrae acknowledged Scanlan as a true believer Ash's face was just amazing. She's so pleased at Scanlan :3

janiemcpants: Ashley's just so good

annakie: I KNOW, ME TOO. I peeked and saw that we don't see Tary again and I'm sad! I hope he gets an epilogue!

Also I NEED VOX MACHINA PEOPLE TO ACKNOWLEDGE HOW GREAT SCANLAN IS BEING HERE.

Last Tuesday at 11:24 PM *screaming into the void* http://blog.annakie.com/post/177011924723/critical-role-stuff-spoilers-up-to-ep

--------- 8/15/2018

janiemcpants Everything you said is SO TRUE And I still just can't believe how Sam took what was meant to be a joke* and turned him into this incredible three-dimensional person who never fails to surprise me. Will he turn into a dinosaur and destroy a building? Will he sing at the giant monster instead of fleeing like everyone else? Will he melt my heart with beautiful words about friendship? Will he devastate my emotions when he stops covering up his pain? Will he make a dick joke? We never know! And he's grown so much! *(Apologies if you already knew this, but when they were getting ready for the original one-shot home game that started all this, Sam had never played before, and Liam helped him pick out his character. Sam said he wanted to be the worst, and asked what the worst character would be, and Liam came up with gnome bard. And here we are. That was all captured on the podcast they sporadically do together and it's pretty funny.)

annakie Hilariously, I just found that out about Liam helping create Scanlan an hour ago. On the episode of Talks I was watching at work Sam kept mentioning his Reddit AMA and so I googled it and read it, literally an hour ago. So if I would have seen this earlier, it would have been new information! And YES SO MUCH I AGREE.

Like I love them ALL so much but I mean... Scanlan. Fucking Scanlan. Fave. Sorry.

(Later) annakie Darin DePaul is hilarious lol I was like "Uh who is this?" when he showed up but he keeps making me laugh. I'm still in the initial fight right after they find Sprigg

janiemcpants Fun fact: Darin de Paul played D&D thirty something years ago with Matt's mom, and Sprigg is the character he played back then I think that old session ended with Sprigg disappearing or something, so this is the continuation of his story, set thirty-whatever years later He’s really terrific, though! I only knew him from Overwatch, but I get such a kick out of him here

annakie OMG, that's awesome! Thank you for that fun fact! I was wondering if he ever played before, he seemed to get it pretty quick with only a little help from Sam. He's saying goodbye now, aww, such a good end for a fun character!

annakie Oh good, Ioun told Scanlan how awesome and important he is to VM and Kaylee and in general, I feel better now. I'm a little sad that I guess Ioun is his god now I guess and not Serenrae but it also seems fitting.

8/16/2018 janiemcpants Yeah, I was surprised by that, but in the end I think I'm glad he got his own god who appreciates him, rather than being wrapped up in Pike's story Not that Serenrae didn't appreciate him, but I like that he got something of his own

annakie That is so true!! Like Serenrae gave him comfort when he needed it, and accepted him, but he prayed to her because it's what he knew because of Pike, but I think he didn't do it FOR Pike. But it turns out Scanlan wasn't destined for Serenrae.

Also I meant to mention awhile ago that I really loved Percy holding everything together after Vax died and they were in the Feywild. He really stepped up and kept everything from falling apart and I was really proud of him.

Scanlan being constantly dismissive of them talking about Tary is hilarious. "Scanlan can you scry on Tary?" "Who? Oh... you mean that fancy fellow?" haha

(Later) annakie Oh yay I'm glad they sent word to Tary that everyone is OK.

janiemcpants Yes!! I was so concerned about poor Tary. The necklace is a good idea in theory, but in reality all it does is tell him something is wrong, but he doesn't know what or how he can help What an anxiety-inducing item!

Also yes to Percy! His growth is really inspiring to me on a personal level (all of theirs are in different ways, but he's the most relatable to me personally) I love how, since they're all so different and grow in different ways, there's a good story there for everyone

--------- 8/17/2018 9:07 PM annakie Just finished the ep where they forge the trammels. Starting to close in on the endgame :o

annakie OH MY GOD... hahaha using the love potion TARY gave Vax to prank SCANLAN, this is amazing, I love it so much.

I CAN'T BREATHE

Last Saturday at 1:15 AM Hi it's 1:14am and I'm still awake because I had to finish this live episode.

--------- 8/18/2018 annakie: In the middle of 112 now, and I have to stop watching to go to my Pathfinder game.... nooo... one of the few times I'm unhappy about going to gaming. :) I think I'm going to be able to finish tomorrow if I just power through and don't stop for Talks.

---------

(And here we go, into the endgame. I woke up, turned on Critical Role, and knew I'd finish the campaign that day. In addition to the gifs and posts I made: http://blog.annakie.com/tagged/episode+114, here's the rest of that experience. I’m not going to link the individual gif posts.)

8/19/2018 12:53 AM annakie: THE STRANGLING WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS

This entire episode is like the most fucked up episode lol

9:21 AM BRIARWOOD FIGHT WITH Joe Manganiello!!! I'M SO SCARED.

11:58 AM OH MY GOD KAYLEE AND CASSANDRA AND SHAUN THANK GOD THEY STOPPED AND FIXED IT OH MY GOD I'M CRYING

3:17 PM I'm liveblogging. AND DYING. ZARAH AND KASH OH THANK SERENRAE!!!

janiemcpants: I was out of town for the weekend and just got home, and I can't believe how fast you're going! Although once you hit a certain point you can't help but tumble unstoppably towards the end, because it's all going so off the rails at once I WAS SO WORRIED FOR KASH AND ZAHRA

annakie: I STILL AM

janiemcpants: And having Cassandra and Gilmore and Kaylee as death knights was a particularly cruel stroke of genius on Matt's part

annakie: Arkhan just got back though, so that's good I guess haha

SO CRUEL

janiemcpants: CAN YOU IMAGINE, if they hadn't left one alive, they might not even have taken their helmets off and they never would have known

annakie: GOD I KNOW I KNOW... That would have just been.... oh man I can't even imagine And thank God Matt let them revivify even though it could have been more than a minute

annakie: There's so much happening I can barely breathe I feel like I've been watching this episode for ten hours already All I've watched is 113 and this today.

janiemcpants: It's probably even better watching it all together like you're doing, because a whole lot of interesting things happen in a not-that-long amount of time There's so much!

annakie: Yeah... I mean TBH for the last month I've just lived this show, I haven't watched any TV shows. It's been so great to just really LIVE IN IT and there's so much of it especially after taking a year to get to this point.

annakie: Well, it was around the point of Percy dying the really sad time to get to "OK I can't stop watching", that's when I started watching at home and not just at work. And then I stopped watching at work much after Scanlan left because I was too invested to only sorta pay attention. Yeaaaaah Grog just kicked ass.

janiemcpants: Percy dying was right when I started watching live! I was trying to catch up on the old stuff before I started doing it live, but when I heard that happened I just COULDN’T stay away. What a hell of a pair of episodes those were.

annakie: OH WOW that's awesome! How many episodes did you skip to get to that point? haha OH ALSO PIKE TELLING SCANLAN HE HAS TO STAY ALIVE BECAUSE OF WHAT HAPPENS AFTER. MY HEART. I was a little worried because since she was back she'd hardly interacted with him, except for that butt-slap a few episodes ago and then this conversation happened and I DIED. (And then Sam joked it was Scanlan2 and I refuse to believe that it wasn't actually real Scanlan, they're dressed different, she would have known.)

(Also in the Vecna fight Real Scanlan had to use the Death Ward Pike put on him so yeah, she said it to Real Scanlan.)

Oh also I found online where Sam posted the letter Scanlan wrote to Pike and OH MAN, TEARS.

janiemcpants: RIGHT?? At the beginning I never thought I'd be invested in Scanlan and Pike's relationship, just because of the nice-guy stuff, but it got really, really good as it went on I still had about 15 episodes or so to go when I started watching it live, so I missed a little bit of context, but it was worth it That letter was so good

annakie: Oh man we just almost lost Vex and the looks on Liam, Travis AND Taliesin's faces all killed me. I can't wait to start watching live, still probably going to be a month or so.

annakie: OH NO THE JENKY TRAMEL.

annakie: PIKE BLEW SCANLAN A KISS!!

annakie: I can't believe I still have an hour to go (probably 45 minutes of game time) and Scanlan and Grog just got banished. Also I know something bad happens to Grog so I'm just waiting for that. Maybe he never comes back from banishment!??!

annakie: Hahaha Scanlan dispelled Vecna's teleport and MATT'S FACE. Oh no, he's saying sorry to Liam This is why... “I was going to save Vax.” OH MY GOD Sam is crying And Liam is crying

janiemcpants: That moment is where I cried the hardest in all of 114 Especially because they called each other Sam and Liam instead of Scanlan and Vax IT'S SO PAINFUL

annakie: THIS HURTS SO MUCH, I’M BAWLING. Most of the table doesn't even see what's going on Like they're having this private moment while the game keeps going.

annakie: Oh God that Nat20 for Scanlan to counterspell dominate person on Keyleth. Could you imagine this fight with Tary instead of Scanlan? It'd have been over in round 2

annakie: lol I watched Jocks Machina on the D&D twitch channel awhile ago so I knew Arkhan was going to betray them, that's amazing how he did it. Also, so great that Keyleth was able to finish the ritual

annakie: Oh no Sam and Liam are crying at the end this is the worst

annakie: Annnd here we go. 115.

janiemcpants: GOOD LUCK

annakie: I'm really going to miss this credit sequence, I love it so much I always watch it every episode. I've seen the new one and it's cute but I love this one.

janiemcpants I miss it too! It's so good

annakie: I get why they did a more generic "look at us playing D&D" instead of character intro credits but this one is amazing I mean especially after what happened to Taliesin's character in season 2.

annakie: Yay Kash and Zahra :D I'm so glad they got a goodbye. :) That was a great sendoff!

janiemcpants: It was so good! Even with Liam wreaking emotional havoc

annakie: vax is saying goobye and I'm bawling

even matt is crying, i can't

(I made this post.)

janiemcpants: I cried through that ENTIRE EPISODE

annakie: I'm taking a crying break to watch the fanart Glad Ashley made it just in time for that moment

Oh man this great series of fanart with the quote where Sam asking what's the worst character, and Liam saying gnome bard, and the art is all showing how Scanlan saved the party, that was amazing

annakie: Oh my God Liam isn't even at the table anymore THIS IS SO SAD

janiemcpants: That art sounds fantastic! Must try to hunt it down Oh no, I can't cope when they leave the table

annakie: "We'll fill in each other's gaps, we'll be the glue." THANKS LAURA NOW I'M CRYING AGAIN BECAUSE I LOVE VEX/PERCY SO MUCH.

That even broke Taliesin a little

There's a part of me right now that's still screaming "GO FIND GILMORE AND CASSANDRA AND KAYLEE!"

janiemcpants: I know!!! There's so much they should be doing, all at the same time! HOW IS EVERYBODY??

annakie: Percy just mentioned cassandra, maybe they'll remember lol

NOPE, off to a bar!

Yay Kima's there!

Oh ok good they're in whitestone whew

annakie: GROG NO DON'T PULL CARDS

Oh man Kaylee and Scanlan's conversation, I'm crying again.

janiemcpants: Grog pulling the card was so goddamn funny Especially in the midst of so much sadness

annakie: Oh my God he just pulled the card in whitestone

omgomgomg

AND ASHLEY'S INTERNET DROPS

Annnnnnnnnnnnd this is why they have to go rescue Grog omg omg omg

annakie: Aw, I was almost hoping they'd actually do one last adventure but that was funny.

janiemcpants: Yeah, I really wish we could have seen the rescue, but they were clearly planning on this being the last episode, and it would have thrown everything off But it was worth it

annakie: ASHLEY’S FUCKING INTERNET DIES RIGHT AS SHE'S ABOUT TO ASK SCANLAN ON A DATE I AM SCREAMING I'M SO MAD

Scanlan and Pike’s conversation was everything I always wanted THEN HER INTERNET DIES

annakie OK Scanlan's epilogue was awesome :3 “I will do literally whatever Pike wants to do.”

And YAY we get to hear about Tary!

YAY LAWRENCE!

janiemcpants: I'm so glad Lawrence wasn't dead! I was totally convinced Tary's dad had him whacked

annakie: Oh God Pike’s marriage proposal and one last grog & scanlan conversation I love it so much I'm crying again

I've known they ended up married for a long time but that was great. :3

janiemcpants: I just love that they both planned to ask each other out in their epilogues!

annakie I KNOW, so great :D

I'm really glad that Scanlan let Pike lead, that was amazing.

janiemcpants: Yes! That brought it from great to perfect

annakie: And he just wanted to follow where she went and helped out. And they have a home, and Grog with them, and are a perfect weird family! :D

They're my favorite ship, though I love all three very much.

janiemcpants: And Grog gets to stay with his gnomes forever! And he's not left alone even though he didn't end up with a romantic relationship!

annakie: YES!

I love Percy and Vax being so Percy and Vax in their epilogue. Kids with lots of names! Tinkering!

janiemcpants: The part about Percy making clocks made me weep BUCKETS

annakie: Percy finding redemption helping Cassandra omg

YES

"Make a clock tower, make art and never make another weapon. I'm good." :D

annakie: Aww Grog taking punishment from Vasselheim

Hahaha the potion guy being the tutor ohhhhh my God this is amazing.

This guy never even got a name did he and yet he's brought so much joy

janiemcpants: I don't think he ever did!

annakie: Marisha is making Liam cry this is so sad

janiemcpants: EVERYONE CRIES SO MUCH AND THAT MAKES ME CRY EVEN MORE

annakie: "And every day that Raven comes to visit."

I'm dead.

Oh my God Matt and Marisha get married THE NEXT WEEK!?

janiemcpants:

YEP!

annakie: Well I'm completely emotionally drained.

(We said a bit more here, but it was personal.)

11:28pm: I made this post. ) -----------------

I couldn't do much yesterday but think about this fucking show. I'm catching up on the Talks Machinas I missed from like 108 through 115, I think I'm on 111 now? I also watched Matt Colville's recap of the episode and why it's so great. I'd been looking forward to watching that since he made it, since I watch most of what he puts out it's been sitting in my suggested videos like for almost every episode I watched. That was perfect, as well.

I removed some talk about this in the chatlog Janie and I had but I'm going to take like this week off and catch up on the Specials & Oneshots I didn't watch before. I need that cooling off period. I'll probably power through season 2 after it's done and start watching live and wondering if It's Thursday Yet? within a couple of weeks from now.

I'm still sorting through feelings, too. I'll probably have more to say.

But you know how there's a lot of media you like, and some that you love but only a few make it to that "Favorite things" level, the place where it turns into something that you love wholeheartedly and will remember forever and kinda wish you could erase from your brain so you could re-experience it for the first time again?

I have a few of those. Futurama. MST3K. Parks and Recreation. Psych. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The entire Mass Effect trilogy. Neverwinter Nights 2. The Thrilling Adventure Hour. U2's Songs of Experience album. Sugar's Copper Blue album. The Princess Bride. All of Star Wars. The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Star Trek: TNG and DS9. The Good Place will end up here once it's done.

And now Critical Role: Season One.

#critical role stuff #personal post tag thingy #critical role

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3dfangs · 2 years

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☕️ spammy if no one has asked yet

if not gaster i think

I've only answer for specific snowgrave route with spam and i can alwaaayyysss talk more about him <3

Literally everything about him is so interesting. His knowledge of the light world, his past in the dark world, his desperation to be free by any means necessary. His issues also. Slap the top of his head this character can be soooo neurodivergent, disabled and traumatized (will still being a bad guy! The world’s first evil autistic puppet /j).

I also Very much like all the theories on him. Puppet theory? Shadow crystal? Code corruption? Acid theory? Always just been short? Who was on the phone? Mike? Gaster? The Knight? Love it all. He’s so vague well also trauma dumping. Not wanting to reveal his plans, Not Being Allowed to say more, etc. it’s all very very interesting.

I like all the aspects of his character, how real he feels to me and how I do personally see a lot of myself in him as well as some other mental health stuff going on there LOL. He’s such a personal character for me to talk about its hard at this point to put it into words how I just feel about him as a whole. I’ve said it before but maybe ill work that out and write a whole like dissertation about him and what he means to me and all the facets of him that make him… like that to me.

He’s the longest character obsession I’ve had (i think) since middle school so I do think that says something about him. Or me. Im just not sure what…

As for Gaster I’m sorry but I haven’t really personally give him much thought outside of ‘wow he knows he’s in a game that’s mad crazy lol’ like. if I found I was in I game I would NOT get turned into goo. Just saying. /j

But honestly idk I don’t have many thoughts on him as stated though I do think his fanon design and interpretations are neat and I like when he’s nice just a misguided / doesn’t realize the harm he’s doing.

send me ☕️ + [topic] and i’ll tell you my opinion on it!

#thank you for the ask!! sorry this got rambly LOL #kai.ask #anon

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itsyourturnblog · 4 years

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There was the initial frenzy of terrible, painful decisions, crisis management and figuring out new ways of working. And, then there were discoveries of the small delights. The dog has never been happier. More time with the family. It’s nice to see more of the kids. Movie nights, fun and games. Getting up to speed on the whole home-schooling thing. Evening Zoom cocktail hour. And of course… sour dough baking.

It was all new. And new is better than not new.

Or as Voltaire put it:

“If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new.”

But now… it’s a slog.

I bet you can feel it already. My first pang was when I had writer’s block last week, I thought I’d just pop over to my local coffee shop to work. A change of scenery has unblocked me before. And then I remembered — oh.

Zoom meetings get old after a while. Cracks in communication begin to show. More terrible, painful decisions are necessary. We become less productive. We stop dressing for work. This t-shirt looks clean enough. We begin to feel edgy. Our daily walk isn’t cutting it. Apathy begins to set in. We’re bored, bored, bored. Frustration is mounting. We miss our favorite lunch spot, Saturday date-night, sports, movie theatres. Hell, we even miss the commute because at least that’s when we caught up on our podcasts. The kids have moved beyond novelty to stir crazy and are now plotting full on war. We don’t always know what day of the week it is. And god help us, someday soon, we’ll run out of new Jeopardy! episodes (maybe that’s just me).

And yes, there’s the constant, nagging anxiety.

When will this end?

No one knows for sure.

But there’s one thing I know for sure.

The slog is the birthplace of imagination, ingenuity and genius.

Or as Ellen Parr (an author no one seems to know anything about) said:

“The cure for boredom is curiosity.

There is no cure for curiosity.”

Your slog will become what you make of it. You might as well make it count.

Here’s how.

Watch out for your tripwires

Our tripwires keep us from achieving the things we want in life. These fear-based negative patterns of belief and behavior are very likely to make an appearance during the slog. We have to watch out for them because they can seriously derail us during what are already precarious times. Not to mention the fact that they generally make us miserable and that they can have painful long-term repercussions. Learn more about your tripwires here.

Surrender

Stop fighting the slog. It’s here, you don’t control it and it’s a complete waste of energy and focus to do anything but accept it.

Author and spiritualist Caroline Myss tells us to approach each day with no judgement and no expectation, and to give up the need to know what happens tomorrow.

This may sound like an incredibly irresponsible way to live. What do you mean, “give up the need to know what happens tomorrow”? How else will a plan my life?

Well, as it turns out, tomorrow is an unpredictable thing. And judgement and expectation are a great way to introduce negativity into your life.

So just let them go. And then take a deep breath and just get on with it.

Practice both Self-compassion and Self-accountability

I’m all for self-compassion. Most of us are so hard on ourselves. We expect so much and then beat ourselves up for not realizing our unrealistic expectations. A little self-compassion is a rare and wonderful thing.

But the thing about compassion, is that without accountability, it quickly devolves into enablement. And then nothing gets done. In fact, we’re likely to spiral downward into a contractive cycle of self-betrayal.

That ain’t good.

We have to hold space for both compassion and accountability. That means setting goals and expectations with compassion for our little ol’ selves. But then holding ourselves accountable for meeting those goals and expectations. The goals might be smaller. And that’s okay. We’ll have a better chance of meeting them. And then we won’t need to beat ourselves up. And the next compassionate goal can build on that goal. And we’ll hold ourselves accountable and meet it too. And so on.

Get curious

Now we have room for curiosity. We can breathe. We can think. We can experience joy again. We’re expansive in nature. We communicate more. We read more. We tinker and experiment more. We dramatically reduce our potato chip consumption.

We begin to see solutions and possibility where we couldn’t see them before.

The slog is over, no matter what’s going on in the outside world.

Here’s an idea! If you’d like to learn more about getting and staying unstuck, sign-up for my weekly newsletter (green box at top right of your screen on desktop, or under this post on mobile) so you’ll never miss a post. I promise I’m not a spammy nightmare. One per week, and that’s it.

And Now, the Slog Begins. Here’s What to Do About It. was originally published in It's Your Turn on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

by Judy Sims via It's Your Turn - Medium #itsyourturn #altMBA #SethGodin #quotes #inspiration #stories #change #transformation #writers #writing #self #shipping #personaldevelopment #growth #education #marketing #entrepreneurship #leadership #personaldev #wellness #medium #blogging #quoteoftheday #inspirationoftheday

#ItsYourTurn #It's Your Turn #IYT #altMBA #Seth Godin #Inspiration #Stories #Change #Transformation #Blog #Medi

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yourhelpfulaffiliate · 5 years

Text

10 Common Mistakes New Affiliate Marketers Make

Going From Noob To SpammerNot Having A Digital HomebaseNot Modeling What WorksTrying Everything At OnceNot Tracking Your ProgressNot Setting GoalsGetting Distracted Being Scared To Spend MoneyPutting Sales First Promoting The Wrong Stuff

1. Going From Noob To Spammer

The business model for affiliate marketing is basically suggesting or promoting products or services and getting paid a commission when people purchase through your affiliate links. When people first discover this there is a very common tendency for them to spread their affiliate links all over the Internet. I understand this because I made the same mistake. I thought if I have more links in more locations the chances of me getting a commission will increase. Unfortunately it just doesn’t work like that. Spreading affiliate links without providing any value has a very low conversion rate. On top of the fact that it doesn’t convert very well this strategy also reduces your credibility. The average person uses the Internet every day and they can tell the difference between helpful information and spam in a matter of seconds. If you want to be successful at affiliate marketing I recommend creating unique and helpful content that you can add related affiliate links to. The strategy has a much higher conversion rate than just spamming links.

2. Not Having A Digital Homebase

When I started trying to be an affiliate marketer I was on a shoe string budget so I didn’t want to spend money on anything. I started every type of social media account and spammed like crazy. Doing this did nothing to create trust between me and my prospects. It also took a lot of time and effort and yielded nothing as a result. Not only was this a very unsuccessful tactic most social media platforms won’t allow you to post direct affiliate links and will actively block them. Creating a homebase on the Internet can solve a lot of these problems. Your homebase could be a website, a blog or even a YouTube channel. It just needs to be a chunk of Internet real estate where you can brand yourself, share content, and earn trust. After that, then you can recommend products or services.

3. Not Modeling What Works

I have to admit this mistake has stolen more time and effort than any other mistake. I thought I could figure it all out on my own. I spent years testing this and trying that hoping I would discover a new and innovative way to be an affiliate marketer. If I had simply spent a fraction of that time studying how others have managed to become successful at affiliate marketing I would have been much better off. If others have found a way to be successful affiliate marketers there is nothing wrong with modeling what they have done. I am not saying copy or steal others work! I am saying you should model successful strategies because they been show to work for others. If you would like to learn more about the tactics and strategies I use as an affiliate marketer check out my 7 day $7 course - Affiliate Marketing Jumpstart Week. The link for this online course is below. https://yourhelpfulaffiliate.com/courses/affiliate-marketing-jumpstart-week/

4. Trying Everything At Once

Making money online can be a bit like being a kid in a candy store. Every strategy seems appealing at first glance so you just wanna try a little bit of everything. When I started trying to make money online I jumped from referral programs, to drop shipping, to MLM, to affiliate marketing and never really nailed down any of them. I recommend picking one and sticking with it until you see success. Because if you can’t be successful with just one of them what makes you think you’ll be successful trying to do all of them at once. Now this blog is specifically about affiliate marketing. And you can fall into the same type of trap picking affiliate programs. There are a lot of affiliate programs out there. That does not mean you have to sign up for every one. Trying to manage and promote to many affiliate programs can quickly lead to disorganization and confusion. It can become very difficult to track and keep up with this amount of information. This is why I recommend doing a good amount of research before you pick what affiliate programs you will become a member of and start promoting. It’s much easier to keep track of a small number of affiliate programs that you have researched and understand. Honestly I still have trouble with this mistake. Every time I discover a new affiliate program I am always tempted to sign up for it. This is something I’m actively working on getting better at. At this point I don’t actually know how many affiliate programs I am a member of and that’s not good. You want to have a number that’s manageable that way you can actually track your progress.

5. Not Tracking Your Progress

This can be an easy mistake to make. A lot of new affiliate marketers don’t think about what kind of data they should be keeping track of. Creating a simple Excel sheet to help you keep track of your important data is a good way to remedy this mistake. Simply decide how often you’d like to keep track of specific data points and then keep track of them. Examples of the type of data you should pay attention to are- Business costsWebsite visitorsAffiliate link clicksConversionsIncomeHours workedConversion rateWebsite bounce rateMost popular content Keeping track of this type of data and how it changes as you progress can help you understand what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong. I spent years without paying attention to any of this information. This mistake left me without an understanding of how my business was actually performing. It also becomes much easier to actively attempt to improve, for example, your conversion rate if you know what it has been and what it is now.

6. Not Setting Goals

Goals can be in incredibly powerful tool to help you move toward success. However most new affiliate marketers don’t set goals for themselves. I highly recommend setting goals that seem easy to complete in the beginning. As you become more and more successful you should increase the difficulty of the goals you set. Doing this will help push you towards success and help youKeep track of what you actually need to do.

7. Getting Distracted

We are only human and distractions are everywhere. If you actually want to be successful as an affiliate marketer you need to learn how to be your own boss. That means developing self discipline and time management. This also means learning to actively deny yourself from being distracted. The more time you focus on actually working on your business the sooner you will become successful. For me this meant giving up video games and spending the time I would have been playing them working on my business. You would be surprised how much “spare” time you can create by actively removing distractions.

8. Being Scared To Spend Money

I’m sure you have heard this saying. “You have to spend money to make money.”- Unknown This does not mean you have to spend thousands of dollars to be successful. What it does mean is if you are afraid to invest in your own business it’s not a real business. I tried to do affiliate marketing with spending any money for years with no success. When I finally decided to invest in myself and my business everything changed. It just became more real. I had skin in the game and needed to see a return on my investment. This made me work harder and smarter towards that end. If you don’t take your business seriously why should anyone else? Investing in the creation of a website can have a huge effect on the future success of your affiliate marketing business. This is one of the biggest and best decisions I have made for my business and I only wish I had done it sooner. The second best investment I have made for my business was in an online course. There are many online courses that say they will show you how to make money online. I think I have found the best one! This online course is unlike anything else out there. It is taught by two guys who have been successfully make money online for over a decade. They don’t use tricks or deception. They will show you how to create a successful online business of your own using affiliate marketing in just 24 months. To learn more about this course check out the links below. https://yourhelpfulaffiliate.com/project-24-what-you-should-know-before-you-sign-up/ https://yourhelpfulaffiliate.com/what-the-heck-is-project-24-the-best-make-money-online-course-ive-ever-found/ https://yourhelpfulaffiliate.com/income-schools-project24-day-1/

9. Putting Sales First

I get it. You want to make money, but if you make that your number one priority people will see through it right away. Your content will be spammy and not useful to anyone. Focus first on a problem you can help people solve and actually be helpful. This will help you gain trust and people buy from people they trust. I constantly see new affiliate marketers complaining about how it is to hard. It’s because of this very mistake. They have their eyes on the finish line but have missed to start.

10. Promoting The Wrong Stuff

Many new affiliate marketers often choose affiliate programs based on the commission that is paid per sale. I personally feel like this is foolish. When you pick your affiliate programs I suggest picking products and services you know something about. It’s even better if you have used them yourself. People are actively looking for reviews and comparisons. If you have personal experience with the products or services you are promoting your content will be ten times as valuable.

Please Share If You Liked It!

If this blog post was helpful please consider sharing so it can help others. The best way to do this is to share it on Pinterest. Below are a few images you can use to share and save this article.

Read the full article

#affiliate #affiliatemarketer #affiliatemarketing #digitalmarketing #makemoneyonline #marketing #mistakes #onlinemarketing #tips #tricks

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waqasblog2 · 5 years

Text

Expired Domains for SEO: Generating Up to $35K/m from Best Product Reviews

“Hey Glen. My name is Suumit and I wanted to share a case study of how I launched an Amazon affiliate site from scratch and hit $28,000/m in just eight months.”

I didn’t know who Suumit was or how he got my Skype ID, but if you’re going to message me out of the blue, that’s the kind of introduction that will get my attention.

Three days later he shared the website in question and some of the strategies behind growing it so quickly.

I didn’t need to look at his income reports to believe the numbers (though I would later check them). A quick glance at Ahrefs showed he was dominating the “best [product]” keyphrases for his particular niche and still is months later.

So why did he want to reveal his secrets to me? And why did he also want to share them with Detailed readers?

There were two reasons, he tells me.

The first was to use my audience as a platform for personal goals. “I’m a big believer that knowledge which makes people’s lives better should be freely available. So, I hope this case study will help people out there to understand how SEO is evolving” he typed.

The second goal, he stated, was to connect with me personally.

I admired his altruism but can’t deny I was skeptical. Especially when I asked if he wanted to promote any other resources in our interview together and he politely declined.

Maybe he plans to sell the site later. Maybe he wants a bigger audience in the world of SEO. Maybe he believed a backlink from Detailed might help.

I can’t know for certain, but there’s one thing I’m sure about: This guy is smart.

After talking with him at length on Skype, I got a better idea of why he wants to talk about a site that makes more than $10,000 on a bad month, with little upkeep required.

Amazon commissions for the full year of 2017

While taking me around his various web projects, I got a sense that he couldn’t open up each new tab quickly enough. This twenty-something is unquestionably ahead of the pack when it comes to SEO experiments you haven’t even considered; automating as much of the successful ones as possible.

Primarily based in Mumbai, India, he told me how businesses in his local area were all following similar strategies and taking advantage of Google “loopholes” in a number of different niches.

Whatever happens after this interview goes live, he’s not hurting for exciting projects to work on.

That said, I did decline to share it.

An Upfront Admission You (Probably) Won’t Like

The initial version of this interview included Suumit’s site, niche, rankings and a deep-dive into some of the backlinks that are helping him rank.

I knew it would get the SEO world talking — perhaps more so than when I shared the story of 10 Beasts.

Yet, three weeks after he first reached out, I sent him an email with the subject line “A genuine concern”.

My fear was that while he was revealing information that was inspiring and insightful to those involved in SEO (and especially affiliate SEO), he was perhaps also providing enough ammo for trigger-happy Google employees to issue him with a manual penalty.

After all, a few months after I shared the story of 10 Beasts which went niche-viral, that’s exactly what they received.

(The owner had been talking about his site and tactics in the open for months on his personal site – and the penalty was revoked just 48 hours later – but I accept I likely had a part in bringing the site unwanted attention).

In the email I explained that we shouldn’t reveal the site because I don’t want to be responsible for any issues that may arise.

He genuinely didn’t seem to care, and still wanted to go ahead, but I would later repeat my recommendation to which he finally relented.

To be clear, I have no problem if Suumit wants to reveal the site elsewhere. I’m sure many bloggers would jump at the chance and the end result would undoubtedly be more interesting than my own version.

With that said, this is a case study without a website attached.

If you’re looking for a URL, you might want to leave this article right now. It isn’t here.

Suumit fully expects some people to find the site in question but at least it will be far fewer than if I were to link to it outright. If you do find it, please keep it to yourself.

He accepts that sharing his story may result in negative consequences but there are enough insights here that help him serve his mission of people looking at SEO in a different light (depending on their current perspective, of course).

Only after I knew he worked on a number of projects far more successful than this one was I willing to share his redacted interview. His background is pretty incredible for someone so young and I have a feeling he’s just getting started…

The Backlinks That Rank (Whitehats, Look Away Now)

One of the biggest criticisms I faced when I covered the story of 10 Beasts was that I didn’t dive into their link profile in more detail.

The owner, Luqman, had been so open about his tactics on his own site that I didn’t feel the need to repeat them.

To me the real story was that a young site with so few pages was making so much money. The reaction to that article showed I was far from alone in thinking that.

There isn’t a world of difference between Suumit’s site and Luqman’s 10 Beasts.

Both primarily make money from recommending products with an Amazon affiliate link.

Both have very basic designs with less than perfect content, and both have a domain age that makes you wonder why your own projects didn’t succeed so quickly.

Because I’m not revealing Suumit’s site I feel like we can be more open about his link building strategy, because it’s possibly a huge part of why this site – and similar sites I’ve seen – are ranking.

So what is his strategy that might get him in trouble? Redirecting expired domains that already have links.

Not so much building sites on them, but just doing straight redirects to the site he wishes to rank.

Thanks to this, Suumit technically has great links from sites like the LA Times, The Verge and Gizmodo.

The stats for one domain that now redirects to Suumit’s site

“Over the years I have realized that the value of links which are available for free or can be acquired publicly is dropping day by day.”

He continued, “Found a site with great authority? Chances are it will already no-follow outbound links or will in few months once the SEO community finds about it. Any new “method” which becomes public gets abused a lot in this industry. Scholarship link building is a good example of that.”

When I asked if he was involved in other strategies he said that his biggest problem with paid links or guest posts is that any of his competitors could replicate the same links.

With his own network of domains and sites he didn’t have that problem, and could (mostly) stay under the radar.

Though many people are afraid to utilise these tactics incase they get caught, they can work well, and Suumit’s site is a prime example of that.

After this interview we’ll get thoughts on the site from three well-known names in SEO so you don’t just have to trust what I think of it.

Let’s dive in…

First of all, a lot of people are going to ask…why are you willing to do this interview? What’s the benefit for you?

The reason I wanted to do this interview is because SEO is changing dramatically and getting immensely competitive.

Search engines like Google and Bing are investing a crazy amount of money and resources to make their search results better and there are very few good places on the internet where you learn the latest changes made in search algorithms.

I’ve been active on dozens of platforms to stay up to date with the latest SEO hacks and surprisingly everyone keeps talking about the same old things again and again.

For instance, most people haven’t moved on from talking about H1 tag optimization or they’re still scraping domains and setting up PBN’s in the traditional way.

I’m a big believer that knowledge which makes people’s lives better should be freely available. So, I hope this real-case study will help people out there to understand how SEO is evolving and how they can change their traditional SEO approach and do things differently to achieve better results.

Did you start the website yourself?

Yes! I started this website by myself.

How about the domain? Was that available from a registrar or did you get it through another process?

It was an expired domain that I found within a matter of minutes when I decided to set up a blog related to health. I just applied a few filters – such as only looking for domains which contain the word “health” – and they must not have any spammy links pointing to them.

Although this is the traditional way, I’ve recently started using a new approach for finding brandable domain names that have a good backlink profile.

I created a central database of approximately 1.7 million domains. These domains all have live backlinks from sites like Forbes, The Huffington Post and any authority site you can think of.

One can easily get a list like this using Ahrefs.

All you have to do is enter the URL of an authoritative website and download all of their outbound linking domains.

You can then apply further criteria such as only pulling back domains with a DR (Domain Rating) of 15-40, because it’s very rare that a domain with a higher DR will expire.

I’ve then built some technology which allows me to the check the domain name availability of around 7,000 domains per minute and I’m running a cron-job which keeps checking the entire database on a daily basis.

As soon as any domain is available, I get an email notification.

Suumit’s custom domain name notifications

I know a lot of people are doing the same thing, but they’re doing it manually.

In my case, I don’t need to touch anything for months and I keep getting good domains arriving directly to my inbox.

Checking the availability status of thousands of domains per minute is a big deal since there are no bulk domain name checker API’s available. The cost of running this infrastructure is less than $50/m.

Note from Glen: We’ll dive into Suumit’s link building strategy more later on. For now, I wanted to learn more about the project.

The site is ranking very well for a lot of high-ticket “best product” terms in the health space. What was your inspiration to get involved in this particular niche?

I’ve been working with plenty of Series A+ funded startups and few big corporates and helping them to grow their userbase and revenue with SEO.

As you know, SEO changes at the speed of light and I don’t want to take the risk of trying new methodologies on clients websites directly before I test them on my own projects so I usually have multiple test projects on the side.

Coming back to your question of “Why this niche?”, I seriously don’t know much about health — I’m 27 and weigh 54KGs (119 lbs).

The reason I chose this niche is because one of my close friends recently sold his blog for half a million dollars targeting the exact same keywords. I knew all of the revenue and competitor information for the space so it was “proven” and that’s why I went ahead.

My main objective behind these side-projects is simply this: Try new things and make money at the same time.

Do you ever spend time updating the content? Are you worried about your pages not being as good as they could be?

Note: In private I had picked out some articles and their typos and grammatical errors to go with this question. For this interview I have rewritten some of Suumit’s answers (with his permission) as, understandably, English is not his first language.

“Content” is one of those words I hate the most. Not being able to generate quality content is my biggest failure to date.

Being from India, it’s rare to find a local writer who can write articles like a native English speaker. I tried working with freelancers from the United States but my experience wasn’t that great.

I haven’t updated the content on money-making articles for months.

All I’m doing is pushing 3-4 new articles per month of 800-900 words each and trying to make sure I won’t fall under the “thin content” website-type.

Just to clarify, the existing articles on the website are written by around five freelancers from different places like Upwork and local Indian resources.

Of course I’m worried about the pages not being so good in terms of content but I’m not sure I’ll spend more time fixing them. Instead, I’ll build tech products and grow the sites like crazy.

For instance, three years back I launched an app called Grappr which is a community of Indian users where they get paid for doing microtasks such as app downloads or app reviews.

Within a year that app grew to 1M+ active users with 4.5 Avg rating from over twenty thousand users.

I view myself as a “growth hacker” more than an SEO.

I assume there are some pages making more money than others? Which rankings are the most valuable for you?

On Amazon Associate-style websites there are mainly three types of pages:

Product Category Search – For example, “Best Standing Desk to Buy in 2018 – A Complete Buying Guide”

Product Brand / Model Search – For example, “Varidesk ProDesk 60 Electric Reviews”

– For example, “How to Reduce Repetitive Strain Injury With a Standing Desk.”

Usually the competition for product and category related terms is pretty high in the health niche but they can give you crazy returns if you rank in the top positions.

Product brand / model related keywords can be ranked easily but their revenue potential is lower.

For me, only the first and second type of pages are making money, though the third type of pages can attract a lot of legitimate backlinks.

With Amazon lowering commissions and thus your earnings, have you tried to work with companies directly to increase your revenue?

Amazon lowering commissions is indeed a real pain and a constant threat to almost everyone who is in this game.

I tried working with manufacturers directly and while the commission structures was better, the revenue was much lower than with Amazon.

Clicks being sent from Suumit’s site to Amazon on a weekly basis

Most phsyical health product creators don’t have affiliate sales tracking in place so it becomes difficult to work with them. I also believe people trust Amazon more, especially when the transaction size is pretty significant.

On top of that, Amazon gives me a commission for anything & everything the user purchases – so it’s a win-win situation for me.

As per last years report, only 30% of users I sent to Amazon purchased the products I recommended; the rest purchased something else. Yet I still got paid for all of those transactions.

Add in real transparency, trusted tracking, on-time payment, and the considerable brand Amazon have built, I believe it makes sense to stick with them for now.

You recently redesigned the site and I have to say it looks much better. What was your inspiration for that? To increase conversions / look better for a manual review / something else?

I’ve recently started working around conversion optimization and unlike content, I actually enjoy the design part.

According to Full Story – a tool which gives a real-time data of how users are interacting with the website – my users’ experience on a mobile device wasn’t that great.

The New Year is approaching and according to last years data, revenue could go as high as 3X within next 60 days.

Improving health is the most common New Years resolution for people so I redesigned the website for a better user experience and conversion rate.

Is this your most successful affiliate site or do you have others in the wings as well?

The definition of success is different for every individual and talking regarding monetary value this website is adding, this is a successful project. I own a bunch of other websites and apps too (although I have a lot of failed projects as well).

Out of all of these properties, a few are affiliate sites and a few are tech products.

Apart from these, I’ve been working with tech startups who are operating at a scale and looking to expand further online.

What would you say to those going through this model already and not seeing success, or those thinking of starting?

Talking specifically about Amazon Associate sites, most of the sites I see are just creating list articles and repeatedly explaining the same product features. They aren’t adding any valuable information.

For example, actual video reviews of a product isn’t present on more than 95% of them.

Since the last few Google updates I’ve realized that ranking Amazon niche sites (or any kind of website in general) is becoming more time-consuming. With sites that aren’t successful I can usually see it’s because their content isn’t up to par or they need a better link profile.

People who are just thinking of starting an Amazon affiliate site (or any sort of website) should spend more time on creating valuable content and then build links in a smart way.

Never rely on free guest posts or directory submissions or blog comments. Those are old techniques and don’t work as well anymore.

If you really want to dominate search then try building what I referred to in the interview as “exclusive” links. Links that competitors can’t pick up as easily because you’re building them through your own properties.

/Fin

Suumit had not asked for any of his projects to be linked to but he did mention a rank tracker he’s working on, Rankz, that he’s hoping to grow. After all he’s shared here, it’s the least I can support him with so I’ll personally be trying it out in the next few weeks.

Thanks for your time, Suumit!

Three SEO Friends Share Their Thoughts

As I mentioned in the introduction, it was my idea to not share Suumit’s site with the world.

I know a possibly penalty wouldn’t be too detrimental to him but it’s not something I want to increase the likelihood of.

With that said, I did ask Suumit if we could ask some outside experts for their views on the site so people didn’t just have to trust us.

In the order I received a response, here are some other takes.

First up is Nick Eubanks from Traffic Think Tank.

The site is a pretty amazing anomaly if you ask me. The design is as basic as it gets, the content is thin – has no tone or legitimacy, and the internal links are partial match at best.

Yet the site has made strategic use of some old school link building techniques that definitely still work and managed to rack up over 2,300 RD’s in Ahrefs and rank for over 28k keywords, with nearly 1,800 ranking on the first page of Google. Most of these terms are commercial intent terms with several thousand searches per month each.

Crazier still is the domain was registered just over 2 years ago in February of 2016 and is already scoring in the upper echelon of all sites for Domain Rating. I’m a bit uneasy with how well this site is doing, all things considered.

Thanks, Nick!

Next up we have Tommy Griffith, a former SEO for Airbnb from ClickMinded.

It looks like there are some very strong rankings here for a number of valuable affiliate terms. You can see the clear moment in time where there was an investment in PBNs – and for now, it looks like it’s working.

Most of the links are on pages with a very small number of external links, and it looks like there is good contextual relevancy on about half the domains. The other half are from sites that don’t look like they’re related to the topic – but again, yes, this looks like it’s working.

Finally, Britney Muller of Moz fame kindly contributed her time.

They’ve actually done a great job of optimizing page titles and on-page content. The use of enticing titles like ‘Best of’ and ‘DO NOT BUY before reading this’ helps increase CTRs. The blog posts are also really clean and without sidebars. The Titles, URLs, and headings are well optimized for Featured Snippets (to which they have several high volume FSs).

Their straightforward IA is commendable; this isn’t a cluttered website with a dozen navigation items. It’s a basic free theme with the only dropdown (and footer) linking to their primary money pages. This helps to optimize their crawl budget and funnel any homepage traffic to their top affiliate posts. The homepage is clean and simply showcases the most recent blog posts.

The one thing that stood out was the appearance of seeded community blog comments with frequently asked questions about the page topic. I would never recommend creating fake accounts to seed questions and manufacture engagement, just include those FAQs in their own section on the page. However, it would be interesting to test this to see if Google deems comment activity/content more or less valuable.

Moz found the most backlinks for this site (just sayin!) and the profile is fascinating. It becomes immediately clear that a savvy link builder helped acquire a few things to increase the link authority being passed to this site.

I still don’t know how people are going to react to an affiliate case study without an actual site attached but I like to think this feedback gives you a much better idea of what’s working for them.

If I can add my own commentary, I have to admit that the site looked pretty terrible before the recent redesign. With the spelling and grammatical mistakes throughout the content – they are not small or random occurrences – I would be pretty disappointed to land on it via a search.

Especially when the products Suumit is ranking for are not cheap.

He has made some clear efforts to improve things here and he posts quite a lot of content that isn’t written just to make money so it’s definitely becoming a better resource.

That said, I don’t think any of these were needed to please Google, who have been rewarding the site regardless.

Redirecting Expired Domains: The Main Link Building Tactic In Question

As with most sites, Suumit’s affiliate site has links from a number of different sources.

The ones with the most authority undoubtedly come from purchasing expired domains that already have links and redirecting them.

The domain he’s ranking was also an expired domain which had previously picked up links.

Detailed Pro hopefully shows how focused on link building I am so while I have redirected expired domains to other sites before I’ve never really pushed the effectiveness of it.

I would usually build a site on the domain and then link out from it (like a PBN).

If you’re been in SEO for a while then you’ll know that both of these strategies are far from new.

If you were to ask about its effectiveness on Blackhat World, you’ll probably get a response that suggests looking at all of the other threads on the topic, like so:

If you go to a course sharing site like Udemy, you’ll find it’s very popular over there as well:

In other words, it has been around for a while, and many people know about it.

Suumit, as far as I know, is one of the first people who has basically said, “This is what I do, and here’s the kind of results I’m getting.”

However, he’s certainly not alone.

According to my Ahrefs usage stats I’ve checked the backlink profile of thousands of sites in the past year alone and I’m constantly finding high-trafficked sites that employ this tactic.

A recent site relying on it heavily isn’t doing too badly:

This site has some incredible links thanks to other domains that now redirect to them.

To stick with the theme of the post so you don’t just have to believe me alone, I asked Ahrefs CMO Tim Soulo to verify that graph and their links.

He has.

For those who know about the tactic already I really hope you got something out of this interview.

For those who are completely new to the concept, you might have a few questions in mind, so I thought I would answer them FAQ-style.

“So all I have to do is find dropped domains and redirect them?”

That is what appears to be working incredibly well for a lot of sites, yes.

But in that same vein, you will find many people who say they tried to do the same thing and saw little to no results from their efforts.

Depending on your source of domain names and the niche you’re in, this can be an expensive exercise.

As with anything when it comes to search, there are no guarantees, but I should add the warning that I wouldn’t ‘test’ this on a site that you care about.

Set-up a new brand and don’t risk your own or client websites in the process.

“Surely Google can just block this tactic from working?”

Perhaps, but there are a lot of genuine use cases for it.

Sometimes sites change names and want to redirect all of their ‘juice’ to a new brand. That can include letting domains expire before they are picked up and used.

Sometimes companies acquire other businesses and merge multiple sites into one.

Not every example of one domain redirecting to another is someone trying to game search results in their favour.

“OK, then maybe a red flag if a lot of domains redirect somewhere else?”

It’s certainly possible Google have something like this in play but if it caused an obvious and immediate penalty it would be a bit too easy to hurt your competitors.

“What if I build a site on an expired domain that I try to rank?”

I’ve heard of a lot of success stories relating to this so it can definitely work.

People buy domains that have dropped all of the time and build legitimate resources on them. I wasn’t the first person to own Detailed.com – so it isn’t exactly “shady” either.

Suumit’s site is built on an expired domain that already had links to it. There’s no way to say for certain that they helped, but logic would suggest they likely did.

Especially when he was dominating search results within a few months.

“Didn’t Google say this shouldn’t work? Won’t they?

If recent trends in SEO are anything to go by, we’ll see a Google denouncement of this entire concept shortly ;).

It is entirely possible that the expired domains aren’t helping the site in any way, even though it’s a large part of their strategy (notice how Tommy mentioned PBNs rather than redirected domains).

If you are going to try it yourself, you could invest a lot of time and effort with nothing to show for it.

I’ve seen the subdomain vs sub-folder debate where people are convinced subfolders are better and show the rankings improvement but neglect to state they changed their URL structure, internal links and so on.

Back in 2003, ‘GoogleGuy’ said,

you can get that domain into Google; you just won’t get credit for any pre-existing links.

While 15 years is a long time in SEO, this should mean that the tactic doesn’t work at all.

A few years after that, Google’s Matt Cutts said,

There are some domain transfers ( e.g. genuine purchases of companies) where it can make perfect sense for links to transfer. But at the same time it wouldn’t make sense to transfer the links from an expired or effectively expired domain, for example. Google (and probably all search engines) tries to handle links appropriately for domain transfers.

On a webmaster hangout in December of 2016, Google’s John Mueller said,

Sometimes we recognise that a new site is completely unrelated to an old site. So for example if you go out and buy an old domain name, it might have been a church website for 10 years. If we recognise your new website is really not the same as it was, then we need to understand that difference and say that, these links, they apply to the old website but they don’t apply to the new one.

That certainly doesn’t seem to be as definitive as the statement from 2003 and seems to tie more into the relevance of the new site.

Either way Google will win any argument on this topic because they can always say (and often do) some variation of “We just don’t count those links.”

I can’t find more recent updates than that but I will update this article if I find them. Danny Sullivan had a nice guide to this back in 2009.

“Where can I find expired domains?

Just to reiterate, keep in mind this tactic goes against Google’s guidelines depending on how you implement it so be very cautious about using it on sites you care about.

If you’ve decided you want to give it a try, you have a few options available.

First of all, you could follow Suumit’s method and find domains with the links you want first, and then build a tool to constantly monitor their availability.

I recently built just that as an experiment and tried it out on around 30,000 domains:

Im my first crawl I found two domains out of 30,000 that were available and worth picking up.

So even if a lot of people are aware of this model, there are great domains up for grabs.

To get the 30,000 domains took less than 30 minutes – including filtering – but you will need an Ahrefs, Moz, SEMRush or similar account.

Creating the tool in the first place is more costly, but shouldn’t set you back more than $1,000.

If you have a large budget it’s probably better to go via the Ahrefs API – or similar platform API’s – because the constant downloading of CSV’s and filtering the results is a bit laborious (especially when you get into tracking millions of domains).

Another option is to go to auction sites like GoDaddy Auctions and watch what is available.

You could of course simply Google “purchase expired domains” or “purchased dropped domains” and find a lot of resources that way.

I have personally implemented another system which cost around $750 to set-up and $500/m ongoing and is finding at least two register-worthy domains per day. If there is enough interest in this article, I’ll happily share that strategy in a future blog post.

(I don’t redirect these domains, but they are useful for other purposes. I’ll purchase a new batch this week solely for the purpose of a redirect experiment as well).

If I’ve missed anything, please do let me know in the comments. Suumit might join in as well if you have any questions for him.

Thank you for reading!

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