#listen I’m not a content creator okay i don’t do this formatting business

[slythereen]

FRED VASSEUR congratulates MAX VERSTAPPEN on 10 consecutive wins — Italian Grand Prix, Monza 2023

[rpbetter]

Anyone doing the Post+ Protest this weekend?

Anyone want to, but you're not sure what you'd do without tumblr for 48 hours?*

Here are some suggestions:

work on your drafts off of tumblr - gather what you owe (it doesn't have to be everything if you owe a lot or do very lengthy replies, but it's better to grab more than you end up needing than running out) and write them using google docs or whatever program or app you like best outside of a browser. Then, you can move them over and format them as usual when the protest is over

work on your inbox - same deal! Just take what's in your inbox and write your replies off of tumblr (if your mutuals don't send the whole prompt or just looking at it, you can't remember what the full context was, find the memes and copy that, too, first)

get some headcanon prompts - pull them from memes, character development questionnaires, writing prompts, etc. and paste them into a doc to pick from and write later while logged off

write down headcanon topics until this weekend - just that, be thinking of things you'd love an opportunity to talk about but usually don't have the time or drive to tackle over the remainder of the week, and write them up while logged off

grab some writing prompts - use them as inspiration for writing some open starters or stand-alone things like doing the full month's worth of spooky, October prompts this year starring your muse, getting a head start this weekend

have a canon or an OC in specific fandoms? Of course, you do! And, I bet there are some thoughts you have about those universes and/or events involving your muse. You can write some meta, some discussion on how your muse differs from canon, or even a one-shot to fill in gaps with your muse or revisit an event from their perspective

make/learn to make those icons, edits, or graphics you've been meaning/wanting to do

anything you need to get caught up on or have been wanting to work on for a while, this is a great time to do it! Most of the things you do on tumblr as a RPer don't actually require you being logged in to work on

What happens when you have the impulse to check tumblr, though?

it's habitual, that's how habitual things work, don't feel bad about it or anything! You're not critically addicted to tumblr, and even if you are, it's not meth, it's okay

message friends instead - see ahead of time which friends/mutuals/writing partners are intending to do the logoff, you can help each other out by being around to DM each other instead

find something else ahead of time that satisfies the same habitual sort of needs - browser games are great for this, they often have the same elements of click, scroll, refresh

games games are great, too, it's just that we often still check tumblr on mobile while playing them and that might also be habitual for you

decide you're going to learn how to do something this weekend - make it something you can accomplish, but that is personally complex enough to be occupying for you while not being boring or feeling excessively like work

I've seen a lot of suggestions, this time and the last time around, but they're not specific to RPers...and a few of them are at least mildly insulting with an attitude that this is your time to realize that you're addicted to tumblr and need to go outside, this will be a life-changing experience for a healthier you.

Yes, totally read a book, have a movie weekend with friends, do various social activities (that are safe and responsible for you to do in your area, obviously), go on a walk, go biking, whatever the hell you want to do. However, I'm not comfortable implying that no one does this shit regularly as it is, or that everyone is physically or psychologically capable of doing it. Honestly, if you simply don't have a driving need for "a healthier life" and/or do not feel like you're leading an unhealthy, unhappy one because you have online hobbies, you're 100% valid as well.

So, I'd rather give some suggestions specifically geared toward RPers, that might be closer to normal for your downtime online, that are not negated by real-life limitations, and that aren't things that are your actual, daily responsibilities (studying, engaging with your pets, laundry).

If you participate in the protest, it's best to have some ideas before you log out, so I hope this helped!

*by the way, if you can't make it that full 48 hours, just fully logging out for as long as possible makes a difference! While the full 48 is the best and would be great, the whole point is demonstrating that we're really serious about how not alright with many aspects of this we are - if you never log off of tumblr or are usually logged in for several hours a day, logging off for as long as possible during the hours you're usually here does say something. Please remember that it is important to actually log out! Not simply not visiting your dash or interacting with posts, but literally logging out of your account(s).

-No one is judging you for not being able to participate, either, and there are a variety of reasons why you might not be able to. Maybe, if you have to remain logged in for the duration, you could help out friends who are protesting by keeping them busy, saving things for them to view on tumblr until after the protest is over so you're not reminding them, and generally being supportive of the effort in whatever way you can. This post is a suggestion post, it isn't meant to guilt or push anyone into protesting or shame them for not doing so. Neither is it a perfect listing of everything you could do - you can and should consider what will work out best for you as an individual!

-if you have questions about the protest, the link in the first sentence takes you directly to the blog for it. In the pinned post, they have information like what date and specific timezone time the protest will run for. They also have answered numerous questions, so, check out the blog, please! However, if you want to ask me why anyone is doing this: it is neither about tumblr or content creators making money, everyone is realistic about the former and supportive of the latter. The issue is tumblr advertising this feature to fandom content creators, refusing to listen to its userbase ever, and offering no legal protection will assuming no legal risks with this feature. There are other issues, but these are the primary ones, that the feature is incredibly harmful and legitimately dangerous to those it is being marketed to.

[winteriron-trash]

I love when people comment on my stories on AO3, but recently I got one that just says, “update”. Is it wrong of me to be frustrated with that? I’m glad that they liked my story and everything, but I feel disappointed. I spent my own time and energy into writing something and they couldn’t even be bothered to write a short sentence that they liked it.

Absolutely not. 

When I first started writing fanfiction, I counted every kudos, cherished every comment. I didn’t think twice about comments that just said “update” or “update soon” because who cared, it was a comment and I was excited for that. if I had answered this question a year ago, I’d have a completely different answer. I wouldn’t have a problem with those types of comments.

But now, it’s a little different.

Because getting a comment on Ao3 is amazing, and even just a “

I think when we’re online, reading fanfiction, we often forgot these are real people making this art. We don’t see faces, we don’t hear voices. We only see the words on the page. When you read this right now, you don’t think about me, laying in bed at 4 am, listening to P!nk, balancing typing this and texting my partner. You don’t think about what mood I’m in, you don’t think about how my day is going, you don’t think about me, because the person behind the content does not seem relevant to the content. All you care about is the content because that’s what you came for. It’s not like a youtube video or a movie where the creator’s face is in the media. It’s just words on a screen. 

But that doesn’t change the fact that all of those things about me are still relevant to me. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m lying in bed still in a shitty mood from yesterday, thinking out how to word this just the right way. But unless I brought it up, no one would think about it.

Writing fanfiction, the same logic applies. Especially on Ao3, where your personality isn’t necessarily attached to your content, like in Tumblr where you have a bit more leeway with that. People read the fic, see that it’s unfinished, and want more. When you comment, it is so easy to forget there is a real person that’s going to read your comment and be affected by what you just said. You get impersonal, edging on the side of rude because you want more content.

Comments like “update” are incredibly impersonal, and to some people, rude. Because the commenter forgets that you put time into this fic. You put energy into it. It takes me an hour to write 1k words, and up to a half an hour to edit 1k words. When I have fics that are 10k, 20k, and so on, that’s hours of my time that went into it, not even counting the time it took to brainstorm, outline, format, and publish it. It’s a lot of work, and it’s not just the fun parts like writing. Even the writing can be gruelling some days. 

It’s not wrong to want validation for what you create. You spent time on it, you’ve stared at it until you hated every word. So yeah, it’s really nice when you get a comment gushing about how much they loved it. It can make your day to see someone write paragraphs of how good it was, or even just leave a little smiley face in the comments. That stuff is feedback, and it tells you that you’re doing something right, and it really does mean the world. You as a writer feel appreciated, you feel like you’re pleasing your crowd.

But then you get a comment that just says “update” and all that appreciation seems to go out the window. It’s the equivalent of doing a huge load of dishes for a friend to be helpful, and then all you get when you’re done is them telling you to do the laundry next. You give an inch, they take a mile, so to speak. 

Our culture as a whole has sort of fallen into a cycle of wanting the arts, but not wanting to show our appreciation for the arts. Whether it be fanart/fanfic, or actual art in museums and books on shelves. We don’t want to tell the author how much we liked their book, we just want the next one in the series. It’s stupid, and it can make creators feel like all they’re good for is just being a robot, cranking out the next chapter in a fic only to crank out the chapter after that a minute later.

So no, you’re not in the wrong for feeling that way. I and most other fanfic writers feel the same. It’s hard to reply to comments like that with the truth because people get snippy and go on about how you should feel complimented about them appreciating your work, even though they put no effort into the actual appreciation of the work.

To the readers out there, I get it. I understand the feeling of seeing a fic that used to update weekly fall dormant for a month. I understand the frustration of wanting to know how it ended, wanting more. I know that you want to ask for more.

But here’s a word of advice. Don’t ask for more of the fic. Ask the writer how they’re doing. Tell them you hope they’re doing well. Don’t push your support towards more content, push it towards the wishing for the betterment of the person who created it. As a writer, I hate abandoning fics just as much as you hate finding a fic abandoned. But I am 1000% more likely to pick it back up if instead of getting a hundred comments telling me to update, I get just one comment asking me how I’m doing and making sure that I’m okay. It’s the little things that can make a writer feel appreciated. If we abandoned a fic we put our heart and soul into, it feels like we abandoned a part of our soul with it, and there’s usually a deeper reason for it. Even if it’s as small as being too busy to even function. It’s just nice to be appreciated and validated for our talents as well as our person.

I’m sorry, I’ll get off my soapbox.

I got a little rambly, but I hope this helped, Anon. Good luck in all your writing endeavours, and I hope you’re doing well!

[youtubexreader]

i n s e c u r e // aleks x punk/emo!reader

Hey, sorry I haven't posted an imagine since dec 25th 2015. (Yikes) I can't thank this person enough for reaching out and letting me know what they thought of my work, if it wasn't for you I probably wouldn't have posted anymore, but I really cracked down on myself to focus on things I love doing, and that being writing for you guys. (Also I'm sorry it took so so long to finish and post this, the request was fun to write- I just have been continuously been getting non-stop, back to back, extremely sick out of nowhere and also for things I don't think I could have prevented- it has been a really rough time for me and I've been under a lot of stress and pressure for my age.) hopefully it's somewhat good or moderately enjoyable, ESPECIALLY for the AMAZING AND RAD REQUESTER ILYSSSSM Much love as always! Keep sending in requests, and share your thoughts! / reblog to share the luhv of ff <333 Xx. !request: “ Thank you so much!!! Could i please have an Aleks x Punk/Emo Reader please? I dont mind what i will let you choose Again i love your work ❤️❤️❤️ ” (again thank you to the person who requested this, I didn't know if you were comfortable or not with your blog being directly @'ted. Regardless! Much love to you, thank you for your amazing amazing amazing support and incredible patience!) Warnings(ish idk??): swearing, slight sexual themes, self esteem issues. ((sorry I don't know how to actually do posts with cuts in them/posting without good formatting, I'm still using mobile.)) - - - - - "Thanks for the ride-" he started, but you cut him off with a "don't mention it-". You pulled out of the driveway of aleks' house and made your way to the 'boonies', not with much excitement. It was just early enough with the time change to need a pair of shades. 'Sonofa-' and with that, you realized you left yours on your kitchen counter. 'Great' you thought, thinking you'd be able to look decent and have everything together so this wouldn't have to be a more agonizing ride than it was planned out to be. But clearly that wasn't going to happen. It was agonizing because of your own mind. It was making this 'internship' harder than it should. Constantly having to deal with an overwhelming amount of editing, filming, and have a cute colleague drive your blood pressure through the roof whenever they're around was really bringing you to the brink of insanity. "So." He started "You're different." Just that half of a statement made you want to jump out of the car. You didn't want to play this game; the whole 'get to know why she acts that way', 'dresses this and that way', 'simply breathes that way'. It was crystal clear to say the least, that in your mind he's way out of your league. There's no reason for him to try to get to know you? What's he pushing this for? Just to be a dick to the dumb intern? All of these thoughts running faster and faster, only adding to your groggy state. Your knuckles were practically white from your grip on the wheel. Somehow, Aleks noticed that. You can feel his eyes on your hands, so you try to ease up. But he'll never seem to make things easy. "Uu-h yeah, I guess.-" trailing off, Aleks still had his eyes set on you. "I mean not in a bad way- oh god..." sighing in defeat almost, letting his head fall back on the headrest as if he had a migraine or broke his great grandmother's fine china. "It's fine, I get it." You replied simply, trying your hardest to not fall into your insecurities. Whatever he saw that was "different" made you worry. What was it exactly? The band tees, the consistent hair dye changes, the piercings, the stacked amount of bracelets on your arms of random ones you've come across, and ones with your favorite band's logos on them? As soon as the car was parked, you hopped out, grabbing your bag and heading towards the barn while hitting the lock button on your keys as soon as you heard aleks' door close. 'Please ease up- just today?' You mentally bargained with Christ. He's probably too busy, and that leaves you with the one and only Satan. He didn't even know he was doing this to you, and you'd figured that was possible but just had found it easier to believe he did it on purpose. Aleks was at his desk, which was facing yours, just humming and doing the random subconscious things he always does. Persona pushed aside, he had so many features that were meant to be framed in an art museum. When he's concentrating, he always wrinkles his forehead and rests his chin on his hand. Both of you had been stuck with editing a lot more than usual, and James had something to do so he left early. The quiet background music you had playing on another tab ended, you didn't bother with putting on another song, you were so close to finishing the last couple post-rolls. Aleks was still in front of you, probably almost done too- you just stared at your screen till you heard him start quietly saying something in Russian. He was so out of it- If someone was just walking in it would seem like it was just you watching carefully, as if you knew what he was saying. But really, it was you distracted completely by him slowly gliding his tongue across his bottom lip and biting down on it out of habit. The sound of his feet shifting across the cold floor made you look back at your screen, but his voice- whatever he was saying, you had no clue. But it was hot as fuck, yet also so soothing. Letting your head rest on your hand you instinctively let your eyes rest as well. You've never breathed deeper than in that moment. "y/n?" He carefully whispered, looking across the desk to see you, looking peaceful and completely at ease. His breath was stuck in his throat instantly. He would've taken a picture of you so he could remember what you looked like when you're not tense and stressed but your eyes quickly opened. "You look tired as hell, if you have more post-rolls left I don't mind finishing them for you tomorrow." He said almost in a whisper; like he was afraid of bothering you. "Hmn-? Oh! N-no, I was finished a little bit ago, I must've dosed off." "You look like you chugged a bottle of zquil, y/n..." Eyebrows raised and all, you realized that you were indeed the most tired you've ever felt, Lack of sleep to be the blame- the third night without sleep to be exact. "You can call shotgun, I'll drive. C'mon, it's the least I can do. Besides paying for gas money until I can get my car done." He continued giving you hopeful brown eyes that you were quick to avoid. You were easily convinced to say the least. How could you not be? "Fine, I guess..." you said grabbing your jean jacket and backpack. Quickly turning off lights and set ups, you both walked out and locked the door in a slight hurry, the temperature dropped, no surprise. Keys in one hand you passed them to him, your hands briefly touching. "Hope you know how to drive a stick shift." You said hoping he couldn't see your flushed cheeks as you strolled slyly over to the passenger side keeping your eyes down. Quickly hopping in, you rubbed your arms up and down trying to create some warmth. He chuckled, his breath visible in the cold air. 'I'm so fucked' you thought. "Hm?" Aleks murmured stopping what he was doing and staring directly at you. "What? Did I say something?" You asked, trying so hardly to play it off. "Well, I guess not-" he looked back down with a smirk and turned the keys igniting the engine. "Do you have an aux cord?" He asked "Uh no..." "Do you always just drive in quiet?" He pressed. "Ha, no!? I just have a lot of uh..." squeezing your eyes shut to avoid getting worked up. 'CDs, y/n?! Just say you are an avid CD collector because you deeply appreciate your emo phase and the bands that had been apart of it!' You thought. 'Stop being such a baby!' Your conscious scolded. You wanted to curl up in a ball. There's no way to avoid it anymore, you sold yourself to the devil when you listened to 'I don't love you', by my chemical romance. You'd rather be in a passenger seat with your worst ex right now rather than deal with his judgement. "Oh! You have cds? Are they in the console? Dude, that's so sick! I have a ton of cds too!" He exclaimed with a childish but sincere excitement. Every single word flew over your head. He began to lift up your console that was stashed full of your life's collection of ridiculous cds, special edition copies, ep's. Oh god... As he scooted your elbow off of it and went on to open it, you inhaled and let your head fall against the window. 'FUCKFUCKFUCK-' you screamed repeatedly over and over in your head, but you were stopped by the sound of the console quickly closing. "I'm so stupid," he muttered, letting out a sigh. "Just- uh, get comfortable and shit, and uh try and sleep- that was my reason for driving you-" he spoke almost mad. His previous excitement completely gone. Just a douchey outer shell of a content creator you used to admire. Maybe he really isn't the way you thought he was, that cute, rowdy, and funny personality who would give even a weirdo like you a chance. Or even a friendship. "Aleks, you really don't need to! I'm okay, really, you look much more tired-" you stopped when you saw his stare saying all too much. "Okay, fine. I'll try and sleep." You groaned turning on your side facing the window as best as you could. Your hood helped a lot, but still it was cold as heck. You drifted off quickly, the last thing you remember seeing was rain drops rolling down the window. "You call the shots babe, I just wanna be yours, secrets I have held in my heart, are harder to hide than I thought, maybe I just wanna be yours, I wanna be yours, I wanna be yours, wanna be yours, wanna be yours, wanna be yours..." your eyes blinked open slowly trying to reassess what's happening. You see the familiar street lamps passing by and you slowly breathe again, happy to almost be home. You smiled at the realization that Aleks had been singing the entire time, and it definitely wasn't the radio, no one has played this since it was big only meaning he went through your cd stash. His voice distracted you, making your stomach giddy like it does when you're on a trampoline, not knowing how high up you're going, and the unknowing feeling of when you're going to catch ground, over and over. Finally the car was parked, ignition turned off. And a tired Aleks gently rubbed your arm up and down in an attempt to bring you back to consciousness, although you definitely already were. You also realized the familiar fabric laying over you; it was his jacket. Your heart melting, you attempted to fake stirring in your sleep, not giving up the act that easily. An audible sigh was heard from your left, Then the obvious jingling of keys, and then another sigh. "y/n/n, What's wrong?" He asked out loud. Him calling you by your nickname hit you in your gut. No one does that. "Huh?" You asked, pretty confused. "Why do you always do shit to push me away?" Now he had your full attention. "What are?-" "No!" He loudly stopped you. What's happening with him? "Why do you always push me away?" He asked again while attempting to keep you in your seat with his awfully harsh eyes glaring into your own. "What the fuck Aleksandr?" You pushed yourself up grabbing the door handle and seeing he purposely locked the door. Great. "I- I just want to know why, you won't ever talk to me normally, you can barely tolerate a drive with me? What's your fucking deal?!" He was yelling too loud for you to even think. Your fingers pulling at your roots out of frustration. Not even feeling the pain it was causing to your head. "Have you never felt insecure, aleks? You don't get it! Why the fuck do you care anyways?! Just so you can hear someone say how much they like you? Or how much better you are than them?-" by now tears tinted black were streaming down your face uncontrollably. All the pent up frustration and feelings were unveiled and put on show like a trophy case. If you weren't so sleep deprived and out of your head you'd shut up by now. "You know what? Tomorrow, I'll just turn in my r-" With no warning, and ridiculous speed, he had his hand impatiently bringing your face to his, he let his other hand take your chin, tilting it up towards his soft and smooth lips. He didn't bother being polite or delicate, he was just as pissed off at you for no clear reason too. He made sure to let you know that- he wasn't easing up, and you couldn't care less. His lips were saying things that words never could, but in sync, as if you completely were on the same page. He'd bite down on your bottom lip harshly and use his teeth to pull on it, then suck on it again and again until you'd moan uncomfortably. Groaning he grabbed your hips and managed to sit you on his lap while not leaving your mouth alone. You impatiently kissed and bit all along his jaw, the smell of his aftershave burning through you, watching his head tilt back and eyebrows furrow. His hands weaving in your hair, pulling slightly, continuously panting against your mouth as he let your weight fall against him, foreheads resting on another. Your skin was dotted with bruised and pulsing teeth marks. His pale skin practically mirrored yours. "Ah f-fuck y/n-" he moaned in your ear, tightening his hold on you. He shifted in the seat from under you trying to get you to stop subconsciously writhing your hips back and forth, not doing anything other than holding you tighter, and letting his head fall into your neck when you'd stilled finally getting the message. He clearly was trying to control himself, he wouldn't take advantage of this; no matter how much he enjoyed being under you. "y/n? Can I take you to your room? Not like to fuck! But to sleep with- shit, next to you?" He asked, eyes rolled back. "Yes- yes, please... Are you okay, Aleks? I'll get off of you-" "Ah. No, fuck- just don't move for a second babygirl, okay?" He hissed grabbing your hips as you arched yourself forward. Smirking, you nodded in his neck, though the nickname he gave you just made you want to do your worst, he probably hadn't even realized he said that, but damn. You breathed heavily and stayed as still as you could so he could catch his breath. Soon enough he finally got out of the car, and swiftly picked you up, not without kissing you harshly on your lips, before picking you and his backpack up, and made his way to your bedroom. He laid you down softly, and set his backpack down, taking of his shirt and jeans in the process as you did somewhat the same. He made his way around the bed and crawled under your covers, his needy hands reaching out for your sides to embrace, you could feel how easy it was to reciprocate his feelings. Which you did. He pulled you tightly flushed against him, his cold fingertips tracing up your sensitive sides with his head resting into your neck and hair. Any movement would probably just grind on him- which was fun, but both of you were so content being just like this, it could wait till morning. Never thinking you'd be in the same bed as him washed over you, and his cold breath and movements, it was hard to close your eyes from trying to burn the mental picture of him. He looked so peaceful and worry free. His arms tied around your back as his chest became the best pillow you'd ever had. Getting to stare at his tattoos felt like a blessing. Tracing the outlines of some and relaxing to the feeling of his breathing was something you can't help but want to be able to do forever. Occasionally while admiring his entire being a kiss would be planted here and there on his chest. This went on till he moaned and slowly opened his brown eyes to only be a couple inches from yours. He trailed his hand ever so slowly up the outside of your left leg to pull it up on his waist. Feeling every part of him as he wrapped his arms around you, pulling you into his chest and letting his lips dwell all over. "y/n?" he asked in a rough voice, "Why didn't you want me to look in the console?" He softly asked "…well, it's just embarrassing. I don't want you to see my cds and shit because I know you would hate me even more and peg me as some punk ass if you saw how many band posters I have-" "Wait- you think I hate you? y/n, of all things to get insecure about- your music taste is nothing that you should be paranoid about." He said leaning on his elbow looking down at you "I love a lot of the same bands you do- I just thought I'd look like a tool if I walked up to you and sounded like a dick only talking to you about one band on your shirt. I'd been wanting to ask you out- I just didn't have the balls to make a move till last night..." His sentence was cut short by your mouth on his, stopping his banter of self consciousness made you understand how ridiculous your own was. It was definitely reassuring to hear him say that he did like your He sat on top of you quickly, to whisper "my taste in music iS YOUR FACE!-" as loud as he could, which in turn, started a pillow fight of attempting to suffocate each other with a pillow. Also making you both late for work, let's just say you regret not having time to put makeup over the bruises that littered your neck. You two would never hear the end of that.

[goodra-king]

Transcript of Using a Framework to Create Inventive Content

Transcript of Using a Framework to Create Inventive Content written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

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John Jantsch: This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Zephyr CMS. It’s a modern cloud based CMS system that’s licensed only to agencies. You can find them at zephyrcms.com, more about this later in the show.

John Jantsch: Hello, welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast. This is John Jantsch, and my guest today is Melanie Deziel. She is the Founder of StoryFuel, and the author of a book we’re going to talk about today called, The Content Fuel Framework: How to Generate Unlimited Story Ideas for Marketers and Creators.

John Jantsch: So Melanie, welcome to the show.

Melanie Deziel: Thanks for having me.

John Jantsch: Is this your first book?

Melanie Deziel: It is my first book.

John Jantsch: Awesome.

Melanie Deziel: It’s very exciting stuff.

John Jantsch: It’s very exciting. Have you got finished copies, yet?

Melanie Deziel: I have not, they are in the mail. I’m waiting, the bated breath, checking the mail a little obsessively. Any day, now.

John Jantsch: It’s a pretty awesome feeling, I will tell you.

Melanie Deziel: It will be really nice, to see them live and in person.

John Jantsch: I’m going to ask you lots of really easy, nice softball questions, but I’m going to start with kind of a hard one.

Melanie Deziel: Okay.

John Jantsch: There’s a lot of books about stories right now, so what’s your focus?

Melanie Deziel: Yeah.

John Jantsch: I’m going to use that word again … for this book, that’s going to make it different from the other books out there about story telling?

Melanie Deziel: Yeah, you’re totally right. Storytelling is a bit of a buzzword at this particular moment, everyone’s trying to figure out their story and how to tell it.

Melanie Deziel: My approach is a little bit different in that I’m not coming at you, talking about your brand’s story as a whole, right? This is not who you are, as a company. This is, very specifically, how do you take that message and bring it to the world? The framework that I’m sharing is something that I learned in my background as a journalist, which is also, probably, a different perspective than a lot of the storytelling books out there. Just sharing, how do I sit down and come up with content on a recurring basis? There are so many platforms, and you have to update all of them so frequently, you run out things to say.

Melanie Deziel: So, the goal of this book was really to say you don’t have to be this amazing, magical, prolific content creator to have something unique to say routinely. And that if you have a system behind how you choose what to say, you’ll actually be able to fill those platforms with ease. You’ll have hundreds of ideas, rather than this writer’s block of what should I post today? That’s the question I’m trying to eliminate.

John Jantsch: Yeah. Well, it’s interesting you said that because, my experience working with a lot of journalists, now that we’re all producing all this content, is that this idea, the training really was a system, because a lot of times you got assigned something you knew nothing about. Your system had to kick into place, to allow you to structure it, format it, get it going quickly, on deadline. I think that makes a ton of sense.

Melanie Deziel: 100%. The other thing I always say is, you never see a newspaper that says, “Sorry, we decided not to do a paper today, because there was nothing new to talk about,” right? That deadline pressure is real, so you become very skilled at always finding a new angle, a new perspective, a new approach, something that you can say. So that even if it’s yet another school board meeting, or whatever else you happen to be covering that day, you’ve got some new way to talk about it that’s going to engage people.

John Jantsch: Yeah. Unfortunately, that also produces the stories of the doctor who talks about more people having a heart attack in Kansas City, during the Super Bowl, because they had to fill space, right?

Melanie Deziel: It’s true, it’s true. Well, you never want to make content just for the sake of content, so hopefully this will help you come up with a lot of ideas, and then choose the best ones to bring to life.

John Jantsch: We can drill into some of the elements, but I guess it might be helpful if you have the one minute version of the global picture, of what the framework is?

Melanie Deziel: Absolutely. The framework proposes two things.

Melanie Deziel: One, that every piece of content you’ve ever created, loved, or consumed is only made up of two things. It has a focus, in that it’s about something. Maybe it’s about people, or history, or data. And it has a format, so it’s brought to life in some way, like writing, audio, like we’re doing here, video, et cetera. As long as you agree with that, that every piece of content has a focus and a format, then what I’m proposing is if I can give you a tool belt of these are some focuses, and these are some formats, you can start to come up with new and novel combinations of those things, that allow you to tell similar stories in new ways.

Melanie Deziel: The idea being you could tell a story about history through a timeline, instead of just through a written piece of content. Or, instead of just through a video, or instead of just through an infographic. So, talking about new and different ways to combine all these different focuses, and formats. That’s really what we’re trying to do, is give you a go-to system, and a language for talking about, and thinking about content creation, so that you’re not just trying to grab things out of thin air.

John Jantsch: When I hear you talk about the focus piece, are you saying every piece of content has to have one focus? Your business has to have an over-arching focus? I mean, drill down on the focus idea?

Melanie Deziel: Yeah, absolutely. I think that you can certainly combine these focuses, but the idea is if you were to think about a particular piece of content that you really enjoyed, like maybe the Serial podcast. We all remember Serial, that was a big one, we went crazy for it. That was a story about people, and it was a story about the history of that particular case, right? It did combine both the people and the history, as the focus. And it was told through audio, so that’s the particular combinations of focuses and format, there.

Melanie Deziel: You can imagine a world where that was a really long, investigative written piece, and something like the New Yorker instead of being just audio. That would be a different focus. It could have been told through an interactive timeline, where you scrolled through, and you got to listen to audio clips, and see photos. It could have been a map. I think they did, actually, include a lot of supportive content online, there was a map at some point, where you could look, here’s the cell tower, and here’s where the body was found, and plotting out all the different story elements on a map, instead.

Melanie Deziel: Every piece of content you’re trying to come up with … If you have a new product launch, or an event coming up, or you’re trying to just promote your business in general, thinking how could I tell this story through the lens of history? The history of our company, the history of this product. Or, how could I do it through data? As we talk about our company, how many people have we helped, how many products have we sold, how much revenue have we made? It just gives you different prompts, so instead of going back to the same tired stories, maybe you’re approaching things in a new way, or bringing them to life in a new way.

John Jantsch: That makes a ton of sense. Is there a finite collection of focuses? Like, here are the top … I know you talk about 10, but is there ultimately only so many of those that you should try to? I’m sure that certain industries, you could go crazy, but for the most part, would you say that there are a handful of tried and true focuses?

Melanie Deziel: Definitely. I think when it comes to focuses, and formats, I’ve picked 10 because it seemed like a nice, round number that would include some that were familiar, and some that would stretch you, to think and create in new ways. I probably can’t create an exhaustive list. At least, probably not in the timeline that it would take to create a book, there’s limits on our life. But, I did try to present some of the tried and trues.

Melanie Deziel: In terms of focuses, I think people is always a really good one to go for, we relate to stories about people very well. Basic and details, those are two complimentary ones. Basics, approaching something with just the very basics of what you need to know, really educational content. Then, details being more of an in-depth dive. You could do the same story, but approach it in both of those ways, as basics and details. I think process content is really having a moment, the last couple years. So, that’s anything that’s instructions, or DIY, recipes, we’ve seen a lot of that type of content. Those are some of the really common, tried and true.

Melanie Deziel: But, I think this also present some that you may not have thought of. I don’t know how many people are doing opinion content, as a brand. I give some examples in the book of how you can do that, without feeling like you’re going out on a limb, or getting in the middle of a debate. That’s not the goal, we’re not trying to create drama or divide your audience, we just want to express that someone has made a choice in creating this content. Maybe, “My favorite podcasts for entrepreneurs,” as opposed to just, “Here’s 10 random podcasts for entrepreneurs.”

Melanie Deziel: Yeah, those are some of the favorites. Again, like I said, a balance of hopefully ones that are familiar, and ones that might challenge you to think in some new ways, too.

John Jantsch:  Yeah. I think the structure, one of the beauties of this … I do think the challenge for a lot of people is they’re busy, doing all kinds of stuff, and then they sit down at a blank piece of paper, a blank screen, and they’re like, “I need some ideas.” This is almost like the little candy box, right? Just go grab one out of there, and start?

Melanie Deziel: Exactly. That’s the idea. If you can select from this list of focuses, here’s the eight or 10, or more that feel good to me, here’s the five, or eight, or 14 formats, that are within my resources, you could come up with 100 plus combinations. You’re obviously not going to create 100 pieces of content, maybe about the same thing, that would probably be excessive. But, like you said, it gives your brain somewhere to focus, that you’re not starting with a blank slate. You have some prompts, if you will, to think of ideas, and then you can select from those. Okay, these three are probably the most realistic for my budget, for my timeline, for my skillset.

John Jantsch: I can see a role, even … When I say content, so many people hear blog posts, and that’s where they stop. This could be your social media calendar of things, and obviously we’re going to get into some of the formats. In fact, maybe list your 10 formats, just quickly? Then, we can come back and talk about some of my questions on those.

Melanie Deziel: Yeah, definitely. The formats, this could be an almost unlimited list, because new formats are coming out all the time, new platforms are launching. So, I tried to come up with a decent combination, here, and pick 10 that I thought would be most applicable.

Melanie Deziel: Writing is first. Like I said, that’s the default for all of us. Infographics is another one, a visual way to represent our information. Audio is really having its moment, as we were talking about. Video is another big one, that obviously always creates such deep engagement. Then, I added live video as a separate one, so not bunching them together but actually thinking differently about how you might create live video.

Melanie Deziel: Number six is an image gallery, so that could be a collage, it could be a slideshow, any way you’re assembling images together. Seven is a timeline, so presenting things chronologically. Eight is a quiz, which I think is super underrated, it’s a really fun way to test knowledge, and present new information to your audience. Nine is a tool, so this would be anytime you’re helping your audience achieve something, make a calculation, convert something. You’re letting them input information, and then having a custom output of some kind. Then, 10 is a map, which again, I think maps is one of the things that we don’t use as often as we should because it feels really intimidating to create a map, but it doesn’t have to be. There’s a lot of really easy tools out there, that can help you do that.

John Jantsch: You know, today content is everything, so our websites are really content management systems, but they’ve got to work like one. Check out Zephyr, it is a modern, cloud-based CMS system, that’s licensed only to agencies. It’s really easy to use, it’s very fast, it won’t mess with your SEO. I mean, it really reduces the time and effort to launch your clients’ websites. Beautiful themes, just really fast, profitable way to go. They include in agency services, to really make them your plug and play dev shop. Check out Zephyr.com. That is Z-E-P-H-Y-RCMS.com.

John Jantsch: Maybe expand on that map one, because I’m thinking, oh, I need to get to Des Moines tomorrow, I’ve got to pull out a map. But, that’s not necessarily what you’re talking about, is it?

Melanie Deziel: It doesn’t have to be, no. I think anytime you think of a story, you’re trying to convey … You’re doing an interview with someone and they’re mentioning different locations from their history, you’re talking about a particular story that has multiple geographic points, you can create a map, an optional, additional, or the only way to explore through that content.

Melanie Deziel: One of the things that I always remind people is that location doesn’t have to be, as you said, going to Des Moines, it’s states, and Interstates, and highways and things. You could have a map of a home, a blueprint is essentially a map of a home. If you’re doing some sort of real estate or renovation type content, you might want to have a map of home, to show where things happen. A map of the body is another option, right? If you’re doing any healthcare content, you’re talking about yoga positions, or pressure points, then a map of your body showing where different things happen may also be a really useful way to bring that to life.

Melanie Deziel: Just thinking about, if there’s any sort of placement or geographic element to what your talk about, then a map may be an option.

John Jantsch: Right. Not everybody who listens to my show has a content team. One of the things that I hear all the time, and I’m sure you’re hearing as you go out and talk to people is, “Okay, what’s the best format? If I can only do one, what’s the best format?” I’m going to let you answer that, but I’m going to throw the follow-up, too, is that is there a way to approach content creation, in format, that maybe is more efficient? Then, allows you to maybe do lots of formats?

Melanie Deziel: It sounds like the real challenge that a lot of us have, especially if you’re a content team of one, or if content is just one of many things you’ve been tasked with, is there’s only so much time and money for us to do these things. So, how do we make the most of our time and money?

Melanie Deziel: My recommendation, if you have the means, is to start with video. The reason for that is video can be repurposed more easily than any other format. Video has visual elements, so you can use short video clips, you can use stills from that video. It has the audio, so you could create audio clips from that as well. Then, that audio can be transcribed, to be come blog posts, articles, snippets for social media.

Melanie Deziel: If you’re starting with any of the others, writing, or infographic, or just audio, that’s still wonderful. If you can create one thing very well, consistently, by all means, do that. But if you are trying to create the illusion of more resources than you have, video is a really good starting point, that you could break down into many smaller elements, without too much extra work.

John Jantsch: Well, I think one of the challenges we face today is that there’s a whole lot of behavior in consumption, that we have to be addressing. I mean, some people listen to books. When I write I book, my audio book doesn’t come out the day the other book comes out, I hear from people. It’s like, “All I do is listen to audio!” Then, there are readers, then there are more visual learners.

John Jantsch: To some degree, we kind of have to cater to all of them, or at least to as wide as swath as possible, don’t we?

Melanie Deziel: Yeah. I talk about, everyone has their first content language, the one that your most comfortable creating in. For me, I’m a writer, that’s my background. I would rather sit down and write 100 blog posts, then have to edit two videos, it’s just the way my mind works. I’ll probably do it more quickly. Some people are different, and writing might give them anxiety, and they’d love to just hop on live video, and talk freely.

Melanie Deziel: Figure out what works for you. What are you most comfortable creating? Then, make sure you go that extra step, like you said, and see, what does your audience like consuming? Because there could be a gap, there, and even if you make the most amazing podcasts in the world, if your audience doesn’t listen to podcasts, you’re wasting your time. You want to make sure there’s some alignment, there. If there isn’t alignment, find someone, or a tool, that can help you bridge that gap.

John Jantsch: Yeah, I’m glad you threw in that idea, of something you’re good at, or you enjoy, or it’s your preference, because this stuff’s hard work, and if it’s something you really just hate doing, you’re just not going to stick with it, so great point.

John Jantsch: So, you mentioned in your book, and I loved it, “focus before format,” which I’ve been saying strategy before tactics for years. It’s kind of the same thing. I guess, you can just clear this up, then. You’re saying somebody should say, “Okay, I’m going to write about this. This is my focus, now let’s figure out all the formats it could go in.”

Melanie Deziel: Exactly. Ask, what’s the story you’re trying to tell? Then ask, what’s the best way to bring that specific story to life?

Melanie Deziel: So, a lot of times we do the opposite, just like you said, we go for tactics. We’re like, “I need a viral tweet.” But, about what? Then, you end up with a lackluster “about what.” So, we want to start with, what is this story about? Then okay, does it have visual elements? If so, maybe it would make a good video. If not, we’re probably going to have a very boring video, if there’s no visual elements to this whole story. By starting with your focus, and then asking which format is best to bring this to life, you ensure that you’re going to have some good alignment there, between the two.

John Jantsch: How closely should your focus be aligned with, say, business goals?

Melanie Deziel: I think, at the end of the day, all the content we make has to, in some way, help our business goals. So again, that’s one thing I always try to underscore. I’m not advocating that you make every possible piece of content you could with this system, or that you create every single interaction, or combination of the focuses and formats.

Melanie Deziel: But, if you know that your overarching goal is I want to create deeper relationships with this type of audience member, or I want create awareness around this event that we’re throwing, or I want to help people better understand a particular topic, then that helps you choose from amongst the focuses and the formats.

Melanie Deziel: So, for example, if your goal is, “Look, our customers really misunderstand this particular area of what we do, we need to do some education.” You’d look at that list and say, “Well, telling them about our Founder, doing a people focused story, that’s not really going to clear up that matter, so we’ll skip that for now.” But maybe a history, helping them understand the history of that particular issue, challenge, area, that might be helpful. Process would almost certainly be helpful, help them understand the thing that they maybe misunderstand, how it comes to life, what’s right and wrong there.

Melanie Deziel: Then saying, “Okay, if we’re trying to show a process, is the best way to do that process through writing? Maybe it is, but maybe we need to show that process, so we should try an image gallery, showing each step, or a video, or a live video, so that they can watch it happen.”

Melanie Deziel: As long as you start with your why, and then your big business goals, then asking, what sort of focuses make sense for that? Then, what sort of formats make sense, with that?

John Jantsch: Yeah, to your story of the viral video, so many people created ones, that got millions of views, that actually didn’t cause any business objectives to be met. It’s kind of like, well, is that worth the time?

John Jantsch: You have … and I’m imagining you, in workshops, almost playing Tic-Tac-Toe, with the boxes of this, and filling it in. You have some visuals, of the framework. Can we post those, in the show?

Melanie Deziel: Yeah, we’ll see what we can throw up there. Actually, I have a little cheat sheet, that includes the focuses and the frameworks. Maybe what we can do is we can include the link, and then a code to download that, for your listeners? That should be easy. Yeah, we’ll definitely do that.

Melanie Deziel: Yeah, it’s absolutely a fun little game. A lot of times, what I do in workshops is we’ll actually use a 10-sided die. Have you ever seen 10-sided dice? We’ll roll them, to come up with random combinations, and just see what we can come up with.

John Jantsch: That’s actually really cool, because that’s probably as accurate as somebody just picking.

Melanie Deziel: Yeah. Yeah, it’s just a good thought exercise. Like I said, sometimes, you get a combination that, “Okay, this doesn’t align with our goals.” Or, “We could do this, but it probably wouldn’t be great.” Again, at least you’re not a blank slate, and that will sometimes spur an idea for something related, that is actually a much better strategic fit.

John Jantsch: I have never seen a 10-sided die, I’m having trouble wrapping my head around what that would even look like.

Melanie Deziel: It’s quite an odd shape.

John Jantsch: It must be. It can barely sit on its side.

John Jantsch: So Melanie, where can people find out more about The Content Fuel Framework, and of course, the work that you’re doing?

Melanie Deziel: Yeah, you can learn more about my team and my company at Storyfuel.co. So, Story F-U-E-L.C-O.

Melanie Deziel: The book, if you want to buy it, is at IWantMelaniesBook.com, nice and easy. But, you can learn more at ContentFuelFramework.com, as well. There’s even instructions there, if you want to make that 10-sided die game, if you want to see what the 10-sided die look like, and make that game, there’s instruction cards there. You can try it out yourself.

John Jantsch: Awesome. Well Melanie, thanks for dropping by. Are you in New Jersey, New York?

Melanie Deziel: I am.

John Jantsch: New Jersey?

Melanie Deziel: I’m right in Jersey City, so I pretend to be both.

John Jantsch: Okay. Well, I was picking up just … I have a client that lives in Northern New Jersey, and you sound exactly like her, so I was pretty sure that’s where.

Melanie Deziel: That makes me happy. I’ve not lived in Jersey my whole life, so that means I’m starting to sink in.

John Jantsch: Oh, happy. Yeah, it’s starting to get to some of your phrases.

Melanie Deziel: There we go.

John Jantsch: All right Melanie, thanks for dropping by. Hopefully, we’ll run into you soon, out there on the road.

Melanie Deziel: Definitely. Thanks for letting me share my story.

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Sharing is caring! Table of Contents Are you worried? Do you check your stats every day? Are you looking to increase your website traffic? Listen, you’ll get traffic… Trust me, by the end of this article, you will be able to understand how to survive as a website owner. If you’re a blogger, you must be happy because you got a whole heap of solutions that are not available to static site owners. Worried? I’m talking about customization options, plugins, theme changing features, etc. So, now if your biggest scare is the website traffic, then let me tell you something. The traffic will waste if you don’t know what to do with the traffic. In fact, now internet marketers and website owners try to engage the audience to keep them in the loop to offer them more options. We’ll dig deeper into this later on. Let the genie out of the bottle. I have to take care of every type of reader. I know many new bloggers and starters will read this article too, so to keep everything together in the process, I should explain the basic things first before proceeding to the heavy stuff. What is Website Traffic? The website traffic means the number of people who visit a website on a daily, monthly, or annual basis. Normally blogs and websites record and analyze their daily and monthly visitors. The website traffic becomes so essential when it comes to analyzing the website conversion rate. Why does a visitor visit the website? A visitor visits any specific website or blog to learn something, gain knowledge, or to get entertained by the given data and insights. It could be any type and form of data required by the audience that fulfills the desire. Every website’s audience is different from the other website. 3 Main Reasons for Getting Traffic Following are the three essential elements of getting website traffic: 1. Delivery of value When you have something to deliver which counts as valuable, you’re likely to get traffic. Now traffic is itself a huge concept. There are different forms of website traffic such as organic traffic, referral traffic, social media traffic, and paid traffic. Every type of traffic requires some value to be delivered to the audience to gain the trust of visitors as well as the platform. 2. Popularity of Brand The acceptability of the product ensures the website traffic. Have you ever searched for the favorite brand’s products on the Google? People search for Facebook covers, Adobe Photoshop, iPhone devices and such things, because, they know the favorite brands and products, which is why they look for the specific products or brands to learn more about them or directly buy them. 3. Insights and Research This could be a little-advanced level reason of why some blogs and website get traffic. Many of the websites offer a lot of information, stats, and research-based content that helps the audience, and that’s what they need from these sites. Many bloggers use in-depth articles format and support their points with examples and research findings, which resonates with the audience, and they start following those bloggers, which means they not only do read it, but they also share the content with social media contacts. By now, you probably have got some idea how things work here. You will find out much more in the rest of the article, and by the end of this post, you would be pretty much clear about reaching to the newer audience for your blog. Before we proceed to a how-to guide on traffic, you must know a very important aspect of website traffic. It is the source of your traffic. The purpose of telling you is that you get to know some facts that how people arrive on your website. Sources of Website Traffic The common sources of website traffic list will help you understand the floodgate of the website traffic. In this way, you will be able to learn and implement a better strategy: Search Engines: Search engines provide free traffic to our websites. The difficult part is that you have to make your website competitive to become an authority in the specific niche to reach the target audience. Search engines provide free traffic, but it doesn’t mean ever time you publish an article, you will get traffic. There are a bunch of rules and regulations that determine which links are to be displayed earlier than the others, and this happens pretty quickly. Social Media: Social Media is certainly another source of traffic for any website and blog. This shows that your content must be engaging and helpful for the audience, once you get there and start doing it, you will get a great outcome. Social media sites aren’t just about sharing your content. Instead, they require you to reshare others’ content, admire others, and start building relationships with other content creator and social media friends. Referral Content: This is a type of traffic which transfers the visitor from one page to another page. Whenever a website is mentioned somewhere, it normally redirects the visitors to that website. Backlinks: The backlinks are considered the backbone of the whole SEO strategy. These backlinks not only just increase the site authority, but it also gives extra traffic to your website. You’ll always find SEO experts emphasizing on the strategies that build backlinks. Word-of-mouth: This is one of the most important sources of free traffic. Suppose, you impressed someone with your blog, and now you start telling him/her the real success story behind your success. When you explain that how someone helped you expand your business and grow your blog, he will ultimately want to follow the mentors you have worked with or look forward to meeting the person behind your success. How to Get Traffic on Your Website Here is the step-by-step method to start getting free traffic to your website: 1: Select the Target Audience First things first, you have to know that who your target audience is. Even though, it’s a basic step that should be taken before the blog launch, but you can’t ignore it throughout your blogging and web business journey. Selecting the audience means to decide WHO TO TARGET. You must have a clear idea about your audience, if you know your audience, you’ll be able to help them accordingly. The step one could be the game-changer for you. You got to follow the right trail to succeed. That being said, in fact, you can get traffic anyway. That’s not the point, but, what if they (visitors) turn out to be just a one-time visitors and they never come back. People who are new in the business, they try to purchase different paid traffic packages from different providers, and they think they might be able to retain them, even half of them, but it will never happen, because this is not how it works. In fact, there are a few ad companies that pay you for visiting websites. They probably sell the traffic that way. I don’t recommend such tricks and short-term methods which turn out to be useless all the times. Here we talk about BUILDING a strong reader base, not a short-term visitors statistics. They are like smoke. They vaporize after a few minutes. So, select your audience wisely. It’s an essential step to approaching your audience. Once you know who you want to target, the only target remains is, HOW TO TARGET them. Got it? For instance, you sell baby garments (for babies from 1 to 6 months). It means your target audience is pregnant women + new moms. All you need is to target the new mothers with kids from 1 to 6 months old as well as expectant mothers. 2: Choose your Social Media Channels We already know how important the social media is, and we still struggle… (Well, most of us) (okay, a few of us) The problem is we know the importance of social media, but we lack in the DECISION MAKING. You’d be like: WHAT THE HECK IS THIS? Let me tell you, you know all the major social media networks, you have been there for a while now. The problem is that you don’t CHOOSE THE SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS… Most of us try to be everywhere on social media and end up dominating nowhere. That is the problem. You can’t be everywhere. However, you can be a SUPER STAR on your favorite social media platforms. This is what I meant. Choose wisely. You can be on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube or you can be on LinkedIn, Facebook, Slideshare, and Quora. There isn’t any number formula that you can’t exceed 3 or 4 networks. You can be anywhere you want but make sure it must be coherent with your business strategy and customer base. Suppose, if you’re a video-editing service or video tools company, and you are using Twitter and LinkedIn and ignoring YouTube and Facebook, and then you might need to think again. It’s you who need to decide what is best for you and where your audience is hanging out.  3: Influencers Engagement Do you want to get traffic to your website? Build relationships with influencers. Make them friends. Be their loyal followers. They will notice and keep you in the loop after a while. This is a growth hijacking strategy. You have to be the consistent and loyal follower of your favorite influencers. Whether they are Entrepreneurial Guru, SEO giants, or Financial Experts, whoever they are or whoever you follow in your field, you have to keep an eye on their videos, articles, podcasts, and infographics… Follow them, share their content, and leave incredibly thought-provoking comments under their content. Help their followers to understand your influencers’ viewpoint. They will notice you. They will follow you, and they will fall in love with you. Because what you’re doing is exactly they want from their followers. People know this. I’ve seen people doing this everywhere. You should start doing this right now. Don’t panic. It’s not about Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube. Just be there wherever you follow those influencers. And, if you’re far behind that line, just hop in, and start following the influencers in your field. 4: Build your Loyal Audience through Email List At step 4, you might not feel a nudge about this step but you will ultimately thank me in the future for adding this point in this article. This works. People on your list trust you, and you have to develop that relation with your list members. You have built your email list; now I’m going to tell you how it will exactly increase your website traffic. When you keep on building your email list, it will ultimately increase your website visitors as you will keep on engaging them through your updates and newsletters. You probably know that email marketing is one of the biggest online marketing strategies in the world. Every loyal customer or reader doesn’t bookmark your blog or website, but almost everyone checks his/her email, once a week or once a month email newsletter to your email list could start getting more people on your website. People who know your website or company, they could visit again to read a blog post or see an update on your site that you have mentioned in that newsletter. Normally, the brands create helpful articles to engage the subscribers or existing customers. And, they send those articles through their newsletter. This is how they get their existing visitors or customers back to their websites. It might look a little fizzy. But it’s not. Imagine, you’re a company, you have different paid and free traffic campaigns are going on and trying to get more and more people onto your website. You have an email list of people (who subscribed to your newsletter). Wouldn’t it be better if you regularly send them newsletters to get them back to your website? It would certainly increase the ratio of your regular website visitors. 5: Give Value to Others At step 5, we will discuss the giving behavior and its results. When you’re providing value to the readers, it’s going to change their lives. When it does, they will never forget your brand’s name and visit your blog or website again and again. You probably write great content and trying to help out your readers, if you’re an online tool, I’m sure your tool helps lots of people every day, and if you’re a service firm, you might be helping your customers to provide the best solutions possible. We all want more traffic on our websites and blogs. Do you know why? Because we all want to grow. Now, I’ll tell you how you can give value to others and grow your business. If you’re not continuously creating the content on your blog, you’re making the mistake, and if you’re publishing content, then try to make it USEFUL. You have to create the right message and provide everything possible in the content to make it useful, whether you have to add references, online tools, and relevant articles from other websites. The readers need to be satisfied, whatever it takes… Do it. There are two benefits of linking to others’ (content and websites): I. Readers get benefit: The readers love when they find something relevant to the topic, and it helps them. They want to know the solutions and solve their problems. II. Brands and companies notice: When you add the related tools or exact products that help readers, not only readers like it, the brands you’re also mentioning notice and start recognizing your brand. They can share your content on social media too. 6: Use Images in the Content At step 6, we will analyze pictures and images. A picture is worth a thousand words. You probably heard of that. Pictures are important, no one denies it. Pictures and images in the content make it worthwhile, not only do they engage the audience to stay a little longer on the page, but they also help the page to ranked well in the search engines. It’s been seen that the article gets traffic on the specific image, which means if that image weren’t there, there would be no traffic on that article. That is why content marketers and SEOs recommend using images in the content. Read: 5 Best Places For Bloggers to Get FREE Stock Images Canva is a popular tool to create images and graphics to use in the content and web pages. It shows that how important the images are for getting our articles ranked in the search engines and getting organic traffic. If someone says that written content and images are two inter-related methods of getting search traffic, then it won’t be wrong because both support each other in getting organic traffic and get standalone search traffic as well. 7: Use Online Advertising Tool The step #7 is a paid form of getting traffic. This is one of the popular online marketing strategies. Although, it doesn’t just require to spend some bucks to get your hundreds of leads for your business. You need to be very technical, analytical, and sharp with your online advertising strategy. In online marketing, online advertising has different levels and methods. You can surely get traffic from paid methods, and if the campaign goes right, you can take your business to the next level. Although, it solely depends on the experience and efficiency that you put into the advertising campaign, however, it recommended to test, analyze, and adapt to get better in your online advertising. You might get a lot of visitors but not sales through one platform and could get a few clicks, but most of the leads turn into paying customers. Although, every online advertising network asks the advertisers to add the specific measures to identify their demands and provide them quality traffic. This could be a vital source of getting traffic on our websites. Your Part Everybody wants to get more visitors. I tried to explain that visitors aren’t an issue. I just tried to deliver that you have to utilize the website visitors. If thousands of visitors visit your website in a month, and none of them helps you to earn money, then how would it be beneficial for you? Whether you’re running a website or a blog, try to create a funnel along with a front channel to utilize your visitors, even if they are a few in numbers. In the beginning, people dream of getting thousands of visitors on their websites. Once their websites start growing, their web hosting and maintenance costs go up. You got to use the best web hosting service when your traffic increases. The point is, whether you want to get traffic that is of no use, or you’re targeting the specifically targeted visitors who turn out to be your customers. The choice is yours. Which type of website traffic would you prefer? /*Archive Template Only*/ #wp-coupons-outer-wrapper { padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; } #wp-coupons-wrapper { max-width: 1200px; } /*Navigation*/ body .wp-coupons-nav a, body .wp-coupons-nav a:visited { font-size: ; color: #0c0402; } body .wp-coupons-nav a:hover, body .wp-coupons-nav a.wp-coupons-nav-selected { color: #0872aa; } body .wp-coupons-subnav a, body .wp-coupons-subnav a:visited { font-size: ; color: #0c0402; border-color: #0c0402; } body .wp-coupons-subnav a.active, body .wp-coupons-subnav a:hover { color: #0872aa; border-color: #0872aa; } /*Coupon Panel*/ .wp-coupons-coupon-panel { background: #e5e5e5; } .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .wp-coupons-discount-percent { background: #1b3e5a; color: #ffffff; font-size: ; } .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .wp-coupons-expiration { color: ; font-size: ; } .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .wp-coupons-discount-code { background: #f9cc29; color: #0c0c0c; font-size: ; } .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .wp-coupons-discount-code span { color: #0c0c0c; border-color: #0c0c0c; } .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .wp-coupons-ctr:before { border-color: #f9cc29 transparent; } .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .wp-coupons-ctr:after { border-color: #f9cc29; } .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .coupon-separator { border-color: #d0d2d7; } .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .coupon-title { font-size: ; } .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .coupon-title, .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .coupon-title:visited, .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .coupon-link, .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .coupon-link:visited, .wp-coupons-banner .coupon-title { color: #0c0402; } .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .coupon-title:hover, .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .coupon-link:hover { color: #0872aa; } .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .coupon-description { font-size: 22px; line-height: ; min-height: ; max-height: ; } .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .coupon-type, .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .coupon-type:hover, .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .coupon-type:visited { color: #000000; font-size: ; } .wp-coupons-coupon-panel a.coupon-link { font-size: ; } /*Pagination*/ body .wp-coupons-navigation .page-numbers, body .wp-coupons-navigation .page-numbers:visited { background-color: #0c0402; } body .wp-coupons-navigation .page-numbers.current, body .wp-coupons-navigation .page-numbers:hover { background-color: #0872aa; } /*Click to Reveal Popup*/ #wp-coupons-ctr-popup #wp-coupons-ctr-discount-code span { background: #f9cc29; color: #0c0c0c; } #wp-coupons-ctr-popup #wp-coupons-ctr-discount-url a { color: #0c0402; } #wp-coupons-ctr-popup #wp-coupons-ctr-discount-url a:hover { color: #0872aa; } /*Buttons*/ body a.wp-coupons-button { background: #0c0402; border-color: #0c0402; font-size: ; } body a.wp-coupons-button:hover { color: #0872aa; border-color: #0872aa; } @media(min-width: 794px) { .wp-coupons-coupon.list.compact .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .coupon-link, .wp-coupons-coupon.list.minimal .wp-coupons-coupon-panel .coupon-link { font-size: 22px; line-height: ; } } source http://wtf.telenor.com.np/2020/01/18/a-newbies-guide-on-how-to-get-traffic-to-your-website-in-2020/

http://m.globalone.com.np/2020/01/a-newbies-guide-on-how-to-get-traffic.html

[likefusion]

These 2 Ridiculously Simple Tactics Will Boost Your Conversion Rates by Next Tuesday, Guaranteed: If there's one thing I hear all the time, it's this: “Neil, I just want to get more conversions from my website.” That's it. That's the big one. I get it. Conversion rates are notoriously low. By vertical. Low. By channel. Low. By device. Low. It doesn't matter whether I'm talking with a group of startup entrepreneurs in San Francisco, a meetup of marketers in Sao Paulo, or a team of e-commerce geeks in Seattle, everyone wants more conversions. Heck, I want more conversions too! Are there some simple ways to turn up the conversion juice and make more money from your blog, e-commerce site, startup, or landing page? Yep, there are. And I'm about to show them to you. First off, though, why did I write this article? For whom? After all, I write a ton about CRO (conversion rate optimization). Why another article? Because tactics. Simple, practical, easy tactics. Most people I talk with are just looking for a few plug-and-play tactics—things they can do on an average Tuesday afternoon to get more conversions and make more money. These are two that I recommend. “What?! Only two?” Yes. The reason I've given you only two is because I don't want you to be distracted by stuff that doesn't work! These two CTA-boosting techniques will work. And if you implement them this Tuesday, I guarantee you'll have more conversions the following Tuesday. Use popups It's time to open the proverbial can of worms. Yes. It's time to talk about popups. When you visit Teachable.com, you'll see this: And after five seconds, you'll see this: What just happened? A timed popup. Popups are synonymous with pull-your-hair-out levels of frustration. It's accepted as absolute truth that popups are bad. But are popups bad? According to some people, yes. Jakob Nielsen surveyed users on their responses to popups: 95% of them rated the experience of “pop-ups in front of your window” as negative. That survey of 605 respondents was conducted in 2004. In Internet epochs, 2004 is the equivalent of the paleolithic era. And back in 2004, popups were pretty bad. I mean, look at this. Really? But today, popups have matured into an art form: they are helpful, compelling, useful, and valuable. The real truth? Popups are not bad. And if you want to increase conversions on your long-form content, I strongly suggest you use popups. Derek Halpern says it like this, If you don't use popups, you're an idiot. I try not to call people idiots, but I do agree with Derek's point: you should use popups. Popups are a useful, powerful, in-your-face technique that can skyrocket your conversions on long-form content. On his blog, Derek himself uses this popup on the article discussing popups: Think about it like this. Users who don't like popups may not be your ideal customer anyway. Never thought about it like that, did you? If you lose a reader for disliking your popup, you have not lost a customer. You've just lost a visitor. And that's okay. In fact, it might be a good thing. I will always counsel you to make website improvements that enhance the user experience. Some may argue that a popup is detrimental to the user experience. We need some balance between the perceived tension of UX and marketing goals. To help achieve this balance, take a look at a handful of representative statistics: Using the List Builder popup, Sumo Me collected 23,645,948 email addresses in 24 months. One marketer instantly doubled his conversion rates by using an exit overlay popup. Derek Gehl reports a conversion boost of 162% after adding a popup to his website. A recipe blog experienced a 10x boost in conversions after adding a popup. Most online marketers I know would love to see a bar graph like this for list growth: Growth like that came as a result of using popups. Considering the issue from a data-driven and results-oriented perspective, you'll see popups work. But before you rush to install a popup creator, listen to this: The average popup converts at 3.09% The best popups convert at 9.28% That's a huge difference! My guess is, you want the conversion rate of the best converting popup, right? Sean Bestor's guide on the subject shares all the juicy details. To sum it up, here are the eight elements of ultra-converting popups, as explained by Sean: Popups with more context have higher conversion rates. The highest-converting popups don't appear immediately. Being unclear with your headline and offer will sink your conversion rates. Personality creates interest. The best popups offer something of value. Popups shouldn't appear immediately after a visitor closes out. Calls to action need to match the offer. Exit popups need an overwhelmingly valuable offer. Let me show you four examples of effective popups. This popup is from Authority Hacker: Here's one from GetRooster: This popup is from AmbitionAlly: Here is one from Convince&Convert: All the best-performing options have a clear ask and an obvious next action, and they provide obvious value to the user. Keep in mind there are different types of popups. Here are a few of the popular ones: Timed popups. The popup appears after the user has been on the page for a certain amount of time. Scroll popups. The popup appears when the user scrolls to a certain point on the page. Slide-in popup. Instead of offering an intrusive popup experience, this popup slides into the user's view, only partially obstructing the content. Entry popups. The popup appears as soon as the user lands on the page. Exit popup. The popup appears when the user is about to leave the page. The technology is a bit complex, involving cursor directionality, velocity and timing to determine whether the visitor is about to bounce. Today's popup technologies are advanced enough to keep you from having to do any programming or complicated jiggering. Most popups allow you to customize them to your heart's content. The framework and structure, however, are completely primed for popup success. Instead of distracting yourself with issues of UX or conversion rate increases, ask yourself a simple question: How can I give the greatest value to my readers in the most obvious way? If popups aren't the answer, don't use them. But if popups can deliver value on that level, use them without regret. Place CTAs everywhere One major reason why most blogs aren't as effective as they could be with their conversions comes down to one simple thing: They don't have enough CTAs. Wait, what? CTAs? CTA stands for call to action. It's marketing jargon for asking the user to do something or to respond in a certain way. It's easy to think of the CTA in a simplistic way. Buttons, right? A CTA is a button. Like this… Whether or not you use the dreaded “submit” button copy is entirely up to you. A CTA can be a button, but a CTA is a whole universe of things. My point is this. Your CTAs should be more than just buttons. In fact, your CTAs should be everywhere on your page. Let me be entirely transparent with you. I love blogging. I love the written word. I love content. And when I feel as if my content is being crowded out by a bunch of rude CTAs, I get a little nervous. I might even get a little defensive. If you're feeling that right now, I understand. But I still want you to consider the following statement: for your long-form blog to be effective, you should always be presenting the user with your call to action. Let's take a look at a few examples, and you'll see what I mean by this. Here's a blog article from Hubspot. At the very top of the page, before we read beyond the title of the article, we see no less than three CTAs. (You could make a reasonable argument that the social sharing icons are also CTAs, but I'm not counting them.) As you scroll down the page, watch what happens. It's subtle, but you'll notice how the top navigation bar fades into a persistent header. Watch the gray bar at the top of the page: Now, no matter where you're reading on the page, Hubspot is presenting you with a CTA: When you reach the end of the article, you are presented with three CTAs: These CTAs are not intrusive or over the top. They are simple invitations to the user to take things to the next level. As a long-form content creator, I am not bothered by it in the least. Instead of distracting the user from the valuable content, it is inviting the user to go deeper. Let me show you another example, this time using a mixture of two content types—video and text. Squarespace's blog features this account of John Malkovich: Perhaps the most outstanding feature of this content is its visual appeal. CTAs are visually understated, but they are still there. One invites the user to read more articles. The other points to newer and older articles. And the most important CTA of all prompts the user to play the video. Now that the user's attention is focused on the video, a CTA is placed in their line of sight: For users who are on the full video page, the CTAs are still there. Although obvious, they do not detract from the immersive visual experience of the video: A business like Squarespace is focused on visual excellence. They have to be. User experience is paramount. Their CTAs do not impair the visual appeal of the website at all! One of my favorite examples of CTA is Buffer. Why? Because Buffer, a social media SaaS, is recognized for extraordinary content. When you land on any of its blog articles, you'll see this CTA: The CTA is always in your line of sight. In the gif below, you'll see me scroll through the entirety of the the main blog page and then navigate to one of their long-form articles. Don't worry about catching the content I'm scrolling through. Instead, keep your eyes on the blue CTA at the top of the page: Let's take a closer look at one of their long-form articles. The layout, formatting, and presentation is a paragon of design simplicity. Even so, there are two powerful CTAs: The CTA “Share with Buffer” is particularly powerful. Its intent is to share the article socially, but the actual event prompts the user to sign up for the service. The article itself is 2,500+ words. That quantity speaks to the value of the content and suggests its high quality. When you get to the end of the article, you're again presented with several CTAs, not counting the social sharing icons: If you continue scrolling past the comments, you'll reach the end of the page. Even at the bottom, you'll see more CTAs: I think you'll agree that Buffer has outstanding and valuable content. Its CTAs do not in the least detract from its quality content. Want another example? This time, take a look at this massive 11,715-word magnum opus from AudienceBloom. My red circles destroyed the visual appeal of the page, but I wanted to point out the four CTAs at the top of the page: There are seven CTAs at the bottom of the page: The reason I showed you each of those examples is to demonstrate that conversions depend on CTAs. Instead of hiding your CTAs or consigning them to a button or two, put them out there—everywhere! According to the principle of least effort, users are not going to work hard to respond to your CTA. The principle of least effort has its most profound applications in information-seeking contexts and behavior. An information-seeking client will tend to use the most convenient search method, in the least exacting mode available. Information seeking behavior stops as soon as minimally acceptable results are found. What does this psychological factoid have to do with your CTAs? This: Make your CTAs easy and available for the reader to access. By virtue of their activity, your blog reader is an information-seeking client. Your CTA is designed to secure some level of commitment from your readers before they leave. If you have clear CTAs distributed throughout the blog, you stand a greater likelihood of engaging their attention and securing their conversion. Conclusion You have a simple goal: get more conversions. I wish I could say, “Yes, getting more conversions from your blog is easy!” It is. And it isn't. Creating long-form content is not easy. At least not in my experience. Launching a comprehensive content marketing campaign is not simple. Hiring growth hackers, developers, marketers, and writers isn't a breeze. Designing a compelling landing page and blowing it up with value isn't a cinch. Conducting months of split and multivariate testing is complicated and time-consuming. But boosting your conversion rates? It doesn't have to be that hard! I'm not trying to end on a false happy note either. The fact is, with the right tools, you can get a lot more conversions from your blog. Sprinkle in some popups, hand out CTAs like beers at happy hour, and you'll get instant improvement. I guarantee it. Implement these tactics, and report back here next Tuesday. I want to see what you've done. http://bit.ly/2rFDUoU