#(especially if you want them to run editing software)

[zorosdimples]

beyond frustrated that i can’t edit any pictures right now

[theliteraryarchitect]

Hi, this is a really specific situation, but I'm at a loss. I had an accident that left me with lasting brain issues, and my writing has taken a hit. I went from being able to churn out a 3k word chapter in a day to needing an hour to write 50 words. I have so many ideas but can't express them, and I hate writing as a result. I know practice and just pushing through are going to be the main pieces of advice, but do you have any other suggestions or resources for someone who is having to re-learn how to be a writer?

Hey there! First off, I’m so sorry this response took me so long. Your Ask really stuck with me, and I wanted to give it the thought and care it deserves.

I can’t imagine how frustrating and heartbreaking it must be to go through such a big shift in your writing process. Losing that ease and flow—especially when you have so many ideas—is a huge adjustment. It’s a testament to your creativity and drive that you’re still thinking about how to keep writing despite the challenges.

You’re absolutely right that practice and pushing through are often the go-to advice, but I think it’s equally important to give yourself permission to grieve what’s changed. Writing can feel like such a core part of who we are, and when it’s harder than it used to be, it’s natural to feel a sense of loss.

Here are a few suggestions that might help as you navigate this:

1. Try Different Mediums: If typing feels like slogging through mud, maybe experiment with dictation software or voice-to-text tools. Speaking your ideas aloud could help you capture more words without the same strain.

2. Focus on Smaller Goals: Instead of trying to write full chapters, set tiny, manageable goals—like jotting down a single image or one sentence that excites you. Those little wins can add up and feel more achievable.

3. Explore New Ways of Outlining: If you’re struggling to get the words out, focus on the ideas instead. Create bullet points, mind maps, or even doodles to capture the essence of your story without the pressure of fully fleshed-out prose.

4. Be Kind to Yourself: This is the hardest one, but it’s so important. Writing isn’t just about the final product; it’s about the joy of creating. Even if the words come slower, every step you take is progress.

And don't forget to give yourself a ton of credit! Re-learning how to write in a way that works for you now is an incredible act of resilience. You’re still a writer, and your stories are still worth telling, even if the path looks different.

Hope this helps!

Bucket

/ / / / / / / / / / /

@theliteraryarchitect is a writing advice blog run by me, Bucket Siler, a writer and developmental editor. For more writing help, download my Free Resource Library for Fiction Writers, join my email list, or check out my book The Complete Guide to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.

[nanowrimo]

Write Smarter, Not Harder: 5 Ways to Conquer Chaotic Writing

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. ButterDocs, a 2023 NaNoWriMo sponsor, is an all-in-one writing app built for productivity, collaboration, and a more joyful writing experience. Today, the folks at ButterDocs share a few tips on organizing your writing to meet your goals:

NaNoWriMo is about to start, and you're champing at the bit to get to 50,000 words. But that's no easy feat! Because life doesn't stop when NaNoWriMo starts.

You're still going to have climb a mountain of chaos to reach your goal: Chaos like not being able to find your notes and outlines when you need them since they're scattered across multiple apps, or the constant lure of internet distractions.

And of course, once NaNoWriMo ends, the writing process continues. You'll need to get feedback, be able to actually easily take advantage of that feedback, and make revisions (especially if your ultimate goal isn't just a rough draft, but a polished novel).

Here are five tips from ButterDocs to beat the chaos and make your writing workflow less work and more flow.

1. Know what you're about to do.

We know you want to start maximizing your word count from Day One, but you'll thank yourself on Day Twenty if you lay the groundwork for yourself. Take some time to organize your research, develop your characters, lay out your major plot points, and consider your themes.

You don't need to buy and learn advanced plotting software. A digital whiteboard can be as intuitive as pinning index cards to a cork board.

2. Write in the best environment for you.

You're about to spend a lot of time writing. It's a good idea to get comfortable.

Think about what environment you write best in. Do you need the hubbub and energy of a busy coffee shop? Or the serenity of a cozy nook?

Once you find the right place, put the same effort into finding a writing app you'll actually enjoy writing in.

3. Stay in your writing flow.

Focus and dedication during NaNoWriMo is the whole ball game. Lose either, and your chances of hitting 50,000 words are harder.

Whatever your NaNoWriMo goals are, give yourself the best chances to succeed with tools that will help you get and stay focused. A timer, word counter, and goal tracker will help you with timed writing sprints and hitting daily writing goals.

4. Recover from distractions.

Distractions will happen. Chaotic writing aside, the human brain wants to wander for dopamine. And life inevitably gets in the way.

What's important is how you recover. Don't let one distraction or missed writing day snowball into another and another. Give yourself tools that help you get back on track. A simple notification to come back to your writing can be a big help.

5. Pull others in to help you move forward.

You may be participating in NaNoWriMo as an individual, but know this: you are not alone.

You have the entire NaNoWriMo community, among many other writing communities and groups you can turn to for any genre of writing.

When you feel stuck or need feedback on a draft, don't be afraid to ask for help. Just be sure to invite people into a writing app where you have control over the collaboration.

ButterDocs Early Access + NaNoWriMo Resources

Conquer chaotic writing by using a writing app built for exactly that. With ButterDocs, you can plan, write, share, and edit your writing all in one place, without the chaos. It's by the team that built Arc Studio, a leading screenwriting app with hundreds of thousands of users.

ButterDocs launches today in early access and we'd love to invite you to check it out for NaNoWriMo.

All NaNoWriMo participants can receive a free year of ButterDocs if you sign up by December 1st, 2023.

We're running a free online event on October 25th for everyone who signs up: "Getting (and Staying) in Your Creative Writing Zone During NaNoWriMo." with Grant Faulkner (Executive Director of NaNoWrimo), Matt Trinetti (founder of London Writers' Salon), and Allison Trowbridge (founder of CopperBooks). If you can't make it, we'll email ButterDocs users the recording afterward.

Visit https://butterdocs.com/NaNoWriMo to learn more about ButterDocs, claim your free account, and enter an exclusive sweepstakes giveaway for NaNoWriMo participants!

[astrogre]

What gifts to buy for each Venus sign

Christmas is among us, my favourite season and time of the year. Venus is the planet of love, by nature it can display what we like to receive from others but if you don’t know their Venus or the house it’s in you can try to look at the persons Sun sign instead but Venus is ideal.

A gift based on their:

Sun sign will make them feel seen and like you know them well, it will be a gift they may appreciate

Venus sign is all they’ve ever desired it’s the pinnacle of their ideal gift. Especially as Venus represents how we like to receive and experience love

Aries/ 1H Venus

Gym membership, running shoes, thrill seeking experiences like tickets to bungee jumping, rock climbing, a skydiving event, gym outfit, tickets to their favourite artist, tickets to festival, cool lighter, archery classes, tickets to sports games, a shirt with their teams logo or merch from their favourite artists, scissors set, cooking tools, hair styling products like hairspray, hair dye, Fitbit/apple watch, knives set, sports gear, heavy bass headphones, tickets for those room smashing experiences, take them clay pigeon shooting, family destroying board games like Risk or Catan, diy tattoo kit, diy piercing kit, theme park tickets.

Aries Venus are by nature thrill seekers, Aries is ruled by the head and has 1st house influences, they can certainly appreciate something that ignites passion, they are impulsive and quick by nature to pursue what they desire. They need gifts that match their decisive nature and to let out that pent up energy they have in them, I honestly think experiences are the best for them. Or a box of hair dye for their impulsive moments

Taurus/ 2H Venus

Hire a chef or take them to a really good restaurant for a 5 course meal that serves orgasmic food and has impeccable visuals/atmosphere OR you can even arrange a 7 course homemade meal with the finest of recipes! , fine jewellery adorned with a gemstone, culinary experiences, cooking classes, kitchenware, go to fragrantica.com and find a high quality perfume to give, premium home decor, art, antique items, antique furniture, comfortable cosy clothing, hot water bottle, gardening tools, plants, selection of seeds for their garden, diffuser, essential oils, desserts like baklava/ferro rocher, luxury goods, wellness retreat subscription, day at the spa, tea set, comfy velvet winter pillows and bed sheets

Oh my Taurus natives, they know how to break a bank for Christmas and if not they can enjoy luxury on a budget! They enjoy the finer things of life of course Venus ruled, they know how to induge in pleasures and satisfaction. Due to the earthy influence they have a green finger and a natural affinity with plants and gardening, they may love flowers or want to grow plants themselves. Taurus venuses are rather easy to gift, if you know them they usually have a vice, it may be sleep, food or pure laziness, get them something according to their vice and they will treasure it.

Gemini/ 3H Venus

Really cool stationary, Spotify subscription, comedy show tickets, books from their favourite genre, a notebook, Grammarly subscription, cards against humanity board game, Duolingo subscription, multiplayer games, home kit recording studio, language learning stuff, calligraphy classes, kindle, portable car charger, Bluetooth speaker, karaoke machine, suitcase, travel accessories, a musical instrument, sealing wax kit, creative hobby supplies, microphone, podcasting equipment, audio editing software, a car, vr headset, Nintendo online subscription, Netflix/HBO/youtube/crunchyroll subscription

Gemini rules communication, short journeys and social engagement. Blessing these natives with tools to enhance their pleasant hobbies will make them swoon in gratitude, if you want to get them something make it engaging and whimsical. These natives are ruled by mercury and always welcome something that requires the mind.

Cancer/ 4H Venus

A cooking set, baking set, comfort food, commission artwork of the family, family photos, some really nice home decor, a keepsake/musical box adorned with velvets and soft materials that will store sentimental objects, a locket necklace, family recipe book make a recipe book of all their favourite foods and some foods you know they’d like, soft fluffy blanket, the family heirloom, hand crafted quilt, hand painted ceramic mug, animal crossing game, sims 4 game, games relating to the home, bring and fly in family that are far away as a surprise and cook their favourite meal together, household utilities, lush bath products, a personal chef for a day, a personal butler for a day, custom family tree art, ancestry DNA kit (please be careful though once you use them they keep your data and if they get hacked your information is out there), home movie night, comfy slippers and pyjamas, family board games, this christmas make them Christmas dinner this time.

Cancer rules the home and there’s nothing more appreciated by a cancer Venus than things that remind them of this. They are by nature expressive and nurturing, this time let them be pampered!

Leo/ 5H Venus

Hair care products, gift card for their favorite store, make them an edit no joke like a TikTok edit that makes them look really cool, one of those light up mirrors or a pretty handheld one if they don’t have one already, book them a photoshoot together if they don’t like the camera maybe post them on your social media and show affection for these bold natives, theatre tickets, bold sunglasses, luxury watch, good jewellery, VIP experiences like backstage passes or reservation to exclusive invite only restaurants, designer clothing that is a prestigious brand they love, commission style artwork, make them a playlist of songs that reminds you of them, fine wine, personalised fragrance creation that allows them to create their own signature fragrance, personalised makeup makeover, hire a stylist for them

A perfect gift for Leo’s need to have an element of self expression, luxury and incorporate their personality that garners attention from peers. They need a gift that makes them feel special, something tailored specifically for them that cannot be gifted to anyone else. Personalised gifts do well either this placement too. When I think of these natives I just think of that Meghan Trainor music video “Me Too” watch that and you’ll get their vibe.

Virgo/ 6H Venus

Skincare products, a blender for smoothies, lots of cleaning products, multi purpose aesthetic storage containers, Quora or chat gpt subscription (these guys like to be well informed), give them scientifically researched bath products that have all that vitamin breakdown qualities, make them a notion template to help them plan, quality office supplies like a desk organiser or chair, practical fitness gear like a yoga mat, a fitness tracker, get them a personal nutritionist, tailored meal prep services, bookshelf organiser system, a stylish briefcase, home office makeover (BUT PLEASE GET THEIR PERMISSION FIRST), online course subscription, digital subscription to news feed, you can never go wrong with practical things, an ikea haul, Costco membership, minimalist decor, multi vitamins, a precision watch, set of labelling and sorting tools, a neat tidy chess board, get them a nice little pet, honestly for some reason whenever I think of Virgos I think of matcha. Get them something matcha based.

Virgo Venus natives need gifts that resemble their routine and organisation, they can be rather difficult to purchase for since they have such a specific taste in mind. Gift cards are practical for them but they really need something that allows them to be more prepared. Take them out for comparison price shopping like say if you want to get them a sofa tell them you’ll take them out to Costco, Amazon, ikea, and compare the best ones. They are also very clean and efficient.

Libra Venus/ 7H Venus

Trending Make up like the fenty hot chocolit heat lip gloss, Korean skincare products, beautiful piece of art, a wedding ring 😏, bouquet of flowers, take them to a beautiful botanical garden, fashionable accessories like a silk scarf, books and courses on design, take them to a couples romantic date, a couples workshop, write them a love letter, museum date, tickets to an art exhibition, fine dining, an astrology synastry reading, if they’re single set up a blind date with someone who you KNOW they would like (make sure they’re handsome/pretty), couples retreat, love coach Patreon subscription, pottery/painting classes, relationship podcast subscription, relationship psychology books, fine fragrance/cologne

Libra is ruled by Venus and 7th house, all things related to love beauty and pleasure align with this native, even if they are single they have a natural gift for delving into relationships. Make sure that whatever gift you give them it is pleasing and sensual

Scorpio/ 8H Venus

Intimate gifts, a psychological crime documentary playlist like Epstein island documentary or YouTubers who speak of renowned cult leaders, personalised astrology reading, a dark seductive fragrance, dark artwork, dominance and submission guide book, shadow work journal with a lock on it, dark poetry and literature, escape room adventure tickets, monopoly game, dungeons and dragons game equipment, bdsm accessories, personalised erotic art, leather/latex clothing, bonding activities, empowering books like 48 Laws of Power, martial arts training, taxidermy, personal development workshops, intense workout equipment like a punching bag, chess, daggers, locks on their door or for their belongings like installing a lock for their drawers, buy them a ring camera and subscription, wine tasting experience

Give them something sultry and deep, it has to be psychological and empowering. They are not impressed by superficial gifts that mean nothing to them. They really like gifts that allow them to explore their nature and the darker aspects of existence.

Sagittarius/ 9H Venus

A scratch off map that allows you to scratch off countries you’ve been to, a surprise holiday where you take them abroad, Duolingo subscription, a wanderlust journal for them to document their experiences, passport accessories, an electric guitar, drums, take them to a fireworks display or do one at home for them, a telescope, a drone, binoculars, philosophical books or religious books based on their own beliefs and religion, running shoes, horse riding in the sunset experience, musical instruments, motivational and positive affirmations book or make some for them yourself, a book collection of all their motivational and positive messages they have said, a compass, pay for their tuition for a course they’ve always wanted, traveling stuff like suitcases, pillow for travelling, a portable flask, a disposable camera, a Polaroid camera, a tent, tickets to a cultural festival, hiking gear, skiing gear, camping gear, sketchbook, a donation in their name

Sagittarius Venus and 9H venuses love the concept of exploration whether it be in the mind or physically, the best gift you could give them is one that allows them to take in so much culture, information and experiences.

Capricorn/ 10H Venus

Customisable credit card (CUCU is a good site for this), a nice power suit like business attire, vintage pocket calculator, cufflinks or a tie, formal shoes, pay for their CV to be analysed by professionals in their industry, elegant timeless clothing and jewellery, make them business cards, get them a corporate slave (an assistant will do), pay for business class flights for their next trip abroad, project management courses, tickets to Ted Talk event, take them to and big them up at networking and entrepreneurial opportunities, a sleek desk, submit their work for trophies and awards, quality furniture, Starbucks or their fave coffee place gift cards, a fountain pen, personalised desk name plate, professional photoshoot, designer accessories like a Swiss watch, leather wallet, cheque book, pay for a professional calligrapher to design their signature, time management software

Our sweet cap Venuses and 10Hers need their professional acknowledgment, give them anything timeless and a way for them to better themselves. They love being the best of the best so give them things that support their ambitions.

Aquarius/ 11H Venus

A 3D printer, high tech phone, a gamer console, smart home device like Alexa, chat gpt subscription, AI art pieces of them, rubix cube, VR headset, bespoke one of a kind art piece, tickets to a science technology conference or musem, networking events, phone case, futuristic home decor, membership to an niche club their interested in, mini indoor garden like a plant terrarium, pay for an astronomy stargazing experience for them, alt clothing, goal setting journal, a camaraderie for their friendships can be a bracelet for an example, tickets to a unique workshop according to their niche interests, video editing software, a unique invention prototype for the industry their interested in say if it were cars then a mini Tesla or something, volunteer together, design software, film festival tickets, social cause merchandise, unique fashion piece, astronomy kit, an AI boyfriend or girlfriend, take them a Ted talk.

Always remember the specific niche interests of these natives they like things that are very niche and so sometimes asking them is actually the best thing to do. But make sure it’s something they’re passionate about not all of these natives live tech but they certainly are innovative.

Pisces/ 12H Venus

Seashell necklace, watercolour paints, fantasy book collection, their favourite mangas, handmade artwork, stained glass window art, dream interpretation book, flowerpedia book, vinyls, yoga mat, contact lenses, tickets to their favourite artist like mitski or the sort, create a playlist for them that’s about fantasy and imagination, they might like Disney consider taking them to Disneyland, windchime, subscription to mindfulness app, astrology book, go to the aquarium together, windchimes, art supplies, a dream journal, sound healing instruments, pay for their spiritual retreat, zen garden decor, a mystical music box, water fountain, take them to a mesmerising body of water, prayer mats, diary, write them a heartfelt letter of how amazing they are, take them to a nature retreat, wearable art

Dreamy imaginative gifts would be perfect for these people, they need gifts that allow them to appreciate their escape world where they have a reality that’s just better than here. Give them things that are as beautiful as their inner world.

[dragonmarquise]

How to Deal with Windows 10/11 Nonsense

This is more for my own reference to keep all of this on one post. But hopefully others will find this useful too! So yeah, as the title says, this is a to organize links and resources related to handling/removing nonsense from Windows 10 and Windows 11. Especially bloatware and stuff like that Copilot AI thing.

First and foremost, there's O&O Software's ShutUp10++ (an antispy tool that help give you more control over Windows settings) and App Buster (helps remove bloatware and manage applications). I've used these myself for Windows 10 and they work great, and the developers have stated that these should work with Windows 11 too!

10AppsManager is another bloatware/app management tool, though at the moment it seems to only work on Windows 10.

Winaero Tweaker, similar to ShupUp10++ in that it gives you more control over Windows to disable some of the more annoying settings, such as disabling web search from the taskbar/start menu and disabling ads/tips/suggestions in different parts of the OS. I think ShupUp10++ covers the same options as this one, but I'm not entirely sure.

OpenShell, helps simplify the Start Menu and make it look more like the classic start menu from older versions of Windows. Should work with both 10 and 11 according to the readme.

Notes on how to remove that one horrible AI spying snapshots feature that's being rolled out on Windows 11 right now.

Article on how to remove Copilot (an AI assistant) from Windows 11. (Edit 11/20/2024) Plus a post with notes on how to remove it from Windows 10 too, since apparently it's not just limited to 11 now.

Win11Debloat, a simple script that can be used to automatically remove pretty much all of the bullshit from both 10 and 11, though a lot of its features are focused on fixing Windows 11 in particular (hence the name). Also has options you can set to pick and choose what changes you want!

Article on how to set up Windows 11 with a local account on a new computer, instead of having to log in with a Microsoft account. To me, this is especially important because I much prefer having a local account than let Microsoft have access to my stuff via a cloud account. Also note this article and this article for more or less the same process.

I will add to this as I find more resources. I'm hoping to avoid Windows 11 for as long as possible, and I've already been used the O&O apps to keep Windows 10 trimmed down and controlled. But if all else fails and I have to use Windows 11 on a new computer, then I plan to be as prepared as possible.

Edit 11/1/2024: Two extra things I wanted to add onto here.

A recommended Linux distro for people who want to use Linux instead of Windows.

How to run a Windows app on Linux, using Wine. Note that this will not work for every app out there, though a lot of people out there are working on testing different apps and figuring out how to get them to work in Wine.

The main app I use to help with my art (specifically for 3D models to make references when I need it) is Windows only. If I could get it to work on Linux, it would give me no reason to use Windows outside of my work computer tbh (which is a company laptop anyways).

[lesbianherald]

I don't think I've ever been this frustrated with a fic before. It's genuinely one of the best reads this fandom has to offer; the plot, the characters, the pacing all work very well. And yet! Each time I got immersed in the story, something (like a lack of periods at the end of sentences, characters' names without capital letters, no commas in obvious places, sometimes a word or two that got skipped for no reason) kicked me out of it.

I'm just really confused why you didn't think it'd make this fic even better, if you put each chapter in any free writing app (even google docs) and check it for spelling and punctuation mistakes. You don't need a beta. Your writing is great. It would take a moment, and then your work would be excellent.

Maybe minor mistakes catch my attention because I'm a teacher and English is my 3rd language. I get you don't want to obsessively check every paragraph or you're dyslexic. We have software for this!

You're clearly very hard-working, so it shouldn't be a problem to check your text for silly mistakes (that we all make). Correcting them, next time you write something, won't take more than 5 minutes of your time. But the effects will be there.

hi condescending internet stranger! i've actually been in the process of slowly going back and doing some basic edits. i'd like to bring to your attention that I am in graduate school, I work TWO jobs on top of Freelancing and still make time for this. this was originally supposed to be something fun for me and what I assumed was the couple hundred or so people that would engage. it's been deeply overwhelming for me to see the response its gotten. usually it's great. but people like you are making putting out more work extremely stressful because the pressure to be perfect is umm. a lot. and not why i started fic writing in the first place. this is a free labor of love i am putting out because I LIKE IT.

i guarantee you that diligently going over every single word of a 90k long piece of work takes up a LOT more than five minutes of my time, which may i remind you - you aren't entitled to any of. I do the best i can considering I often have 12 hour days.

i actually do run it through a basic checker. so miss me with that. what i will not do is run it through an AI software - which based on your tone is what I'm guessing you suggest I do. and accusing someone of having a learning disability is kind of insane - especially for a teacher ?! i'd really suggest you watch yourself with that kind of language. much more harmful than missing a few periods.

have a nice day :)

[detailtilted]

hi! I'm sorry if you've talked about this before, but I've been wondering how you enhance the spn con videos. like, how does it work? cause your videos look amazing, especially in comparison to the previous footage!

Thank you so much for being interested enough to ask!

At a very high level, the visual enhancements to the original videos themselves are made by running an upscaling program and then manually adjusting color-related settings in my video editing software. Sometimes I also fix aspect ratios if the original videos are squished.

Below are way more details than you probably ever wanted. 😅 I’ll put my very long answer after a break...

Upscaling

The very first thing I do when I start a new video is to take all the video sources I can find, pick out the ones I think I'm most likely to want to use, and see if I can get them to upscale. This is actually one of the easiest parts of the whole process, at least in terms of the actual time that I myself have to put into it. The computer does most of the work.

The upscaling is done through a software program. I don't actually have any idea, but I imagine it might be a dumbed down version of the type of software that movie studios use when they create upscaled Blu-ray releases of older films. I know the obvious question is, “What’s the software program?” I’m a little scared to say it without some explanation first, because it has “AI” in the title. I know and understand (and agree with) why AI is such a hot button today. However, this is not generative AI where it generates a new work out of nothing, and it’s performing a function that a human could not reasonably do.

The way I understand it, it runs an algorithm to analyze all the frames in the video and figure out how it can remove some of the visual “noise” and also add missing details to some frames based on what it finds in other frames. It then updates every single frame in the video. The videos I’m currently working with have 30 frames per second. A 30-minute video would therefore have 54,000 frames. For a human to compare 54,000 frames and make all the tiny changes required to each one would be… impossible I think. So anyway, after that long preamble, the name of the software I’m using is “Topaz Video AI”.

There are a variety of settings you can tweak, so I focus on upscaling one video source at a time because the same settings that work with one source may not work for a different source recorded with different equipment. I try different combinations of settings to small sections of the video until I find settings that seems to return noticeably improved results without adding any weird distortions. Sometimes I have to give up and proclaim the task impossible. If the video has too much noise and/or not enough good detail already there for it to work with, then it won’t upscale well. I get much, much better results with original video files than I do with files from YouTube. I think the videos were compressed when they were uploaded to YouTube and lost some of their quality.

If I find a setting that works, I tell the software to apply those settings to all of the videos from the source I'm currently working on and then leave my computer to crunch through them. That can take hours, and it makes my computer sound like it's preparing for liftoff, but it doesn’t require my involvement. I’ll often let it run overnight, then check it the next day to see if it came out ok. Sometimes I have to go back to the drawing board because I find parts of it didn’t come out well at all, but usually if the sample looked good then the full result also looks good.

Then I take my next video source (another set of videos recorded by a different person on different equipment) and repeat the process.

Color Corrections

This is all done in my video editing software. I’ve been using Adobe Premiere Pro. There’s free software out there that might be a better choice. I tried one early on and didn’t do very well with it, but I had no idea what I was doing. Video editing is new to me. So for me, the advantage of using a very popular software program was that there are tons of answers out there for just about every question I’ve ever thought to ask. Now that I have more experience, maybe I’ll give some of the free options another try. I have to decide whether or not to renew my current license at the end of the year and the price is pretty crazy, especially considering it's only for a limited period of time.

So… back to color corrections. My original attempts at this did not start out well. My first set of videos were the CHICON 2007 videos and those colors looked fine to me, so it never even occurred to me to adjust colors. When I moved on to Comic-Con 2008, I was confronted by a bunch of badly red-tinted and green-tinted videos and I thought, “Hmm, I wonder if this video editing software can do anything about that.”

And I tried. I drove myself absolutely mad. I’m not good with colors in general, I’d never worked with color adjustment settings before, and my eyes were going crazy trying to figure out if I was making things better or if I was just creating a new variety of bad. I put out a plea for opinions/advice here on Tumblr with some screen shots showing what I’d done so far, and sensitivehandsomeactionman came to my rescue. They took one of my screen shots and adjusted the colors in their own software to show me what could be achieved. And it looked amazing. Having that example to reference was a huge help. It was still a challenge for me, but I eventually got pretty close to what they did.

I’m not as good at it on my own, but I learned a lot through that process that I’ve been able to apply to my subsequent videos. I think every video I’ve worked with since then has had at least slightly wonky colors, so I've had a lot more practice. There are a bunch of complicated color-related settings in Adobe, but eventually I found the “Lumetri Color” panel which has a simpler set of set of controls consisting of a few sliders that let you adjust between two opposites until you find the right balance.

One slider is for Exposure and it basically changes the lighting from darker to lighter. Then there are two color-related sliders. One shifts between blue and orange and the other shifts between green and purple. I play around with those sliders until I think the colors look more natural, focusing mostly on their skin tone. Then if needed, I’ll adjust the Saturation slider a little to tone things down. For the most part, playing with those 4 sliders usually gets me something that I think looks decent.

Some videos are more difficult than others though, and I still consider this to be very much outside my wheelhouse. When I announce a new video on Tumblr, I usually display a comparison image of the original video versus the enhanced. Those help me see that the end result does in fact look at least a little better than the original. Sometimes after staring at the video for hours on end, I start to doubt.

If there are any wonky aspect ratios making the video look squished, that’s a really easy fix by just changing the scale percentages for that video in my video editing software.

All The Rest of the Work

All those things I just babbled about probably take up only 25% of the time I spend on each video. Less if the videos don't give me much trouble with upscaling or color adjusting. I could write another book about the rest of the process, but what I've already typed is probably overkill as it is so I'll try to be brief since this stuff isn't as much about the visuals anyway.

This is when I move on to the process of choosing which videos to display at which times and editing everything together into one (hopefully) cohesive video. I also try to choose the clearest audio that covers most of the panel. Audio changes are very noticeable, so I try to minimize them and use a single audio throughout the whole video as much as possible. Often the audio you’re hearing was from a different video than the one you’re seeing.

Once I have all the footage edited together, that’s when I start adding the subtitles and the extra content. These things are by far the most time-consuming part of the process, especially the subtitles.

I hope this answered your question. Thanks again for asking! If I didn't answer your question and if you want to risk having another book typed to you, let me know. 😅

[backagainpodcast]

Hello! I absolutely love BABA, it is everything I need in a comfort media, especially during exam season. Do you have any advice for people looking into writing podcasts? Like audio editing programs or writing tips or anything else that's come up in your process? If you do, thanks so much! But regardless, I adore this podcast and I hope you're having a wonderful day!

hello! thank you so much for listening, and I really really hope your exams go well <<33

My writing advice is the kind that I feel like deserves to get me shook, but it's the truest I know --- write a lot, write every day or as often as you can manage it, write like it is the thing that you must do to keep you alive. Write like it's at the top of your to-do list, write knowing that as long as you write something that day, whatever else happens, it can be enough. Choose a word count and try to reach it every day. Choose a duration of time and make sure you set it aside. Just --- write. Note the things that are important to you and mean the most to you, and you'll never run out of ways to talk about them.

When I am drafting, I aim for 500 words a day (but please god find what works for you don't take this as anything other than an example.) Sometimes I kick and scream to that point and don't go any further. Oftentimes, after 500, the words are loose enough that I can keep going. Stack 'em up. The more you have, the less each one matters. The longer you get into the habit of hitting a word count, the easier it is to do!!

From the podcasting side of things, I have no idea what I'm doing, ever, which means that I am NOT the best person to get good advice from, but I CAN tell you how to duct-tape a podcast together. My tips---

Take the time to learn how to use Audacity (or whatever audio editing software you'd like -- audacity is just FREE, we LOVE) get yourself a mic that fits in your budget (my blue yeti has been going solid for years and years and has survived several moves!), and get talkin'.

Likewise, take your time editing. Get a sense of how much you can reasonably do between episodes, and don't overwork yourself. It's better to have a consistent schedule for releases than a sporadic one, even if that means episodes are farther apart :) BABA comes out twice a month and I could not consistently do any more without losing my mind. Maybe that's not the case for you, but figure it out!!

Uh --- I use Anchor, which is now "Spotify for Podcasters," because, again, it's free. Freemusicarchive.org is where BABA's theme music (Nightingales by Pierce Murphy) comes from, and just do some googling about what each attribution right means so you're respecting people's wishes.

I also cannot recommend enough writing the whole season before you start recording. Editing and recording and editing episodes is enough every two weeks -- I couldn't imagine also having to write the episode on top of that :')

(But again -- maybe you're different!! Maybe it's no problem for you! The biggest thing is figuring out how you can stretch and how you cannot and adapting.)

But I think the biggest thing is having a story that you want to tell and that excites you, if no one else. It's going to be a lot of talking to yourself in empty rooms and listening to yourself through headphones and the only way to get through is to love something about it :')

I finally must encourage you to take all of this with a grain of salt, as I'm just Some Guy with no real qualifications except that I snuck in the back door and no one kicked me out fast enough. But that is the glorious thing about audio drama!!! Anyone can make anything!!!

Good luck, good luck, and always reach back out if there's something more substantial I can help you with :)

Very best, always,

Abigail <3

[magicalgirlmindcrank]

Your new miku this week has reminded me I've been wanting to get into digital illustration, so I wanted to ask.

What drawing tablet and software do you use? And do you have any recommendations?

Sorry, we didn't see this just now! We currently have two tablets technically, though we don't use the old much outside of edits on PC. One is an Artist 12 pro, which plugs into the computer, and the one we use now is an S7 FE. We use Clip Studio Paint on both, though we own 1 on the PC and have a CSP 2 subscription for the tablet. They are largely compatible.

There are some issues with the S7 FE - it often claims it's running out of memory while drawing, and cites that it may crash. It never does, and auto saves like every two minutes, but the pop up is obnoxious. I can't seem to transfer any files directly off it to my PC, and Patreon doesn't let me upload from it either. If I try to upload an image to discord, discord crashes. Maybe these things have fixes we didn't find, maybe it's just that I bought an older tablet to save a bit of money. Who can say. It's probably our fault for drawing 300dpi on big canvases. I would suggest maybe trying the S9 FE or something else.

CSP is really good though, and we love it a lot. It has a ton of cool features we don't really know how to use cuz we're too lazy to learn them, and a bunch that we do understand! It also can use Photoshop brushes and has a pretty extensive online market of its own brush and asset wise. It's a really powerful program that can do whatever you want it to.

We've also heard great things about iPads for drawing, which also support CSP. We've never used Procreate but that's also really good we hear, and on both Android and Apple systems.

As for what we recommend, uhhh, a standalone tablet is expensive, but the ability to whip it out and doodle is hard to match. They are pretty expensive compared to something like the Artist 12 pro however. I think we paid 325 for the S7 FE and another 50$ for the s pen pro, vs like 100$ for the 12 pro, but one let's me draw at work or in bed or cuddled up, and the other needs me to be at my computer.

It really comes down to what you can afford and the screen size you want though - you can definitely get an older or refurbished iPad for cheaper and it will probably run just fine. The S7 FE we have is only 4gb memory and does great despite its whining. Of course, it's the only thing we use it for, especially when drawing, so ymmv.

[remastered-feedback]

Spent the last couple weeks working to set up a Linux-Windows dual-boot setup after buying a bunch of parts for a new computer on Black Friday.

I'll have a big blog post about it some time soon but top-line is that Linux is better than Windows for most people, partially because Windows has gotten way worse but also because Linux, especially mainstream distros like Mint and Ubuntu, are way better designed for typical daily tasks people use computers for than they used to be. (Web browsing, email, streaming, etc.) Kudos to the OSS community as well, open-source software has gotten way better and Linux itself is way friendlier than it once was. If you're worried about gaming don't be, Proton is black fucking magic and Valve deserves a round of applause for basically closing the gap when it comes to Linux gaming. I've been A/B testing between the two operating systems and it really is that seamless. Minimal performance drops in framerates and no latency in frame-perfect games like rhythm games and fighting games. It's that good. It still fails on certain niche tasks that mostly just boil down to a lot of the really nice options still being exclusive to Windows and/or Mac - Frustrations with the shortcomings of Linux music and photo editing software compared to my old Windows-native workflow, and an inability to make them work in emulation, are why I'm dual-booting - but unless you've got needs like that, it genuinely outperforms Windows.

Downside is it still has a really high barrier to entry in the form of the troubleshooting you have to do to get things hunky-dory. If you're into tech and comfortable in the command line and how Linux works then "sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf to edit this config file to fix crashing during large file transfers" or "Edit your fstab file to include the UUID and mounting destination of your second hard drive, and remember to reload with the new configurations and set permissions wherever you mount it to 777 so you can actually access it" is easy and no big deal. If you've never touched the command line before then that was a bunch of meaningless gibberish, and probably somewhat intimidating meaningless gibberish. I do this stuff at work so I'm comfortable fixing it but I could never in good conscience tell my septuagenarian parents or my borderline-technologically-illiterate college friend who thought iPhones were too confusing to figure this stuff out.

So yeah, if you're comfortable getting "under the hood" to get it working properly, Linux is great, especially for day-to-day stuff. If you're comfortable doing that or willing to learn how to do that, try it out next time you move to a new computer. It's free after all, testing it and finding you don't like it will cost you all of $0. Unfortunately that barrier is still very real and I hate that because I hate Windows 11 and once you finish troubleshooting Linux is a genuinely nice experience I wish was more accessible to people who don't want to have to tweak their operating system.

Also if you do anything remotely techy do it. IDEs, VMs, everything runs so much better.

[travi3sapsd]

never used photoshop so im curious to see your opinions about photopea vs photoshop

ok things to be known: 1) adobe can suck my cock and balls theyre evil and i wish that the corporate entity that is adobe would go up in flames, a corporation shoud NOT have that much insight in your privacy, files, sensitive info, etc 2) photopea is great and built off a small dev team as a basically a passion project, which is awesomesauce! i'm not knocking them at all, and i think ppl should support them in anyway they can

i've been a graphic designer and photographer for years now, and in hs i became adobe certified. i literally spent four years of my life learning on an industry standard. it becomes muscle memory after a while. beside that i was a roleplayer so i became VERY familiar with edits and gifs and all that. again everything became muscle memory. adobe suites are the industry standard for a reason, and for GOOD reason. i think they have an amazing interface and work hard to update the experience and make shit easier for artists; like i will give them that even if i sound like a bootlicker. i never paid for it tho lol as a student i got it for free and i would use cracks/torrents.

when i got my new computer it wouldn't let me run bootcamp so i couldn't crack the adobe suites like i used to :/ new mac processors or whatever don't rely on intel anymore, so not intel = no bootcamp. most cracks are pc based so i just couldn't find one that worked for me. apple went ham on protecting IP and combating torrents so it's like impossible to crack without an extensive VPN or else adobe will literally send a cease and desist to your internet provider. its sincerely fucked up.

i switched to photopea bc of this. i really liked it, but im autistic so having to relearn my own workflow that ive had for years made me want to hashtag die. the interface is VERY close to photoshop, so it wasn't hard, but it doesn't have the same capabilities i was used to w ps. i do NOT like edited photos in photopea; i think its way too laggy and glitchy to work with giant raw files, which really sucks!!! for making small edits and doing my graphic design tho??? i do really like it. it doesn't have the same capabilities as ps sure, but once i just fucked with the filter galleries and different plug ins and worked my process around what photopea could accomplish, i was good as gold. i've been producing quality work on commission through photopea. it's a learning curve for sure, especially if you have zero experience with an editing interface like that, but the more i use it the more i learn.

all of that being said, i think photopea is fucking awesome for being completely free and open source. it has its issues —— sometimes its way too glitchy for me and pisses me the fuck off, i have to frequently save my psd files and hope that they don't fuck up, and then reopen so it's less laggy and rinse and repeat bc some of my stuff takes hours lmfao —— but i think its pretty darn close to the photoshop i was using like less than a year ago. its glitchy, its laggy, the ads are annoying and clog up the screen, but i simply cannot complain to much when its a smallish dev team working on a shoestring budget (last time i checked) and for FREE. like its open and usable on any browser and computer and i think thats rad.

if i could go back to ps without giving them money i would in a heartbeat. ps is awesome for the work i do, and i like that there's constant improvements and updates. it just boils down to look, feel, and workflow to me; ps is rarely laggy and glitchy, its meant to handle giant projects, there's so many plug ins you can find online, etc. i just wish it wasn't a subscription based software; honestly if i new adobe was less like the elf on the shelf and i could make a one time purchase, i would. but alas.

anyways i'm pro photopea all the way. idk if any of this was helpful its mostly rambly lmfao. but yeah. i don't do much photography anymore, so i don't have to work around the glitches and lags and all of that with photopea; i focus on graphic design for event fliers and social media content + rp resources. it has room for improvement for sure for sure, but it's lovely and helpful in its own way.

[nowritingonthewall]

hello chrissie! I hope you're having a good day!

do you have any tips on gifmaking for someone who wants to start?

Hi Nonnie, thank you so much for your ask, I hope you're having a good day, too 🥰

Tbh, I always feel like I am not really qualified to answer these questions, because – unlike me – most of the wonderful gif makers on this site use photoshop and if you have access to that software, I would always recommend using it because it’s easier, faster, the outcome is so much better and the opportunities it offers are endless. (There are a lot of beginner tutorials on this site if you search for gif + tutorial in the search bar 😊)

However 😉 If you don’t have access to photoshop or your cpu can’t handle it or you are simply overwhelmed by the vastness of the program, you can always try GIMP 😊 It’s opensource, you can download it legally for free and it runs on all platforms. The main drawback is that it doesn’t have the timeline feature, which means that you have to edit every single layer separately. (The program literally wasn’t designed to create gifs, it’s just that a few clever people found a way to work around that 😆)

I would recommend starting with this tutorial here. It explains how to create a gif in GIMP in general, how to create screencaps, how to import them, how to resize, how to crop and how to export your gif.

As for the really fun part (editing your gif), I think for a beginner it would be easiest to concentrate on three basic steps: brightening up the gif, adjusting the colours, and sharpening the gif. You’ll find all the editing tools that you need for that under “Colours/Colors” in the menu bar.

The brightening/contrast tool of GIMP can give weird results, so it’s usually easier to use the exposure tool, but that’s just my personal opinion.

As for playing around with the colours, the tools that you would want to look into first are “curves”, “levels” and “components -> channel mixer”. The channel mixer isn’t nearly as good as the one in photoshop, of course, but it makes me so giddy that GIMP finally has a proper one implemented 🙃

Also, if you’re just starting out, I would always recommend working with the largest quality source material that you can find (at least 1080p). I spent most of last year giffing really low quality vids because I’ve never been able to resist a cute Oscar moment, but if you’re just learning how to gif, the quality issue might become really frustrating, especially in the beginning.

And of course, the most important part: Allow yourself to have fun playing around and trying new things 🥰 Every new gif poses a new challenge, so don’t be discouraged if a certain editing step doesn’t result in the outcome you’d expected, you’ll soon get the hang of it 💜

I hope this was at least a little helpful 🥰

[quaddmgd]

Get to know me!

Thanks for tagging @oranzuwu and @ghostoffuturespast <3

Unfortunately, I don't know who to tag, feels like everyone has been tagged already :/ Please if you reading this and want to take part, do so and tag me so I can read it <3

1. are you named after anyone? 

If I remember correctly, my parents just chose names they liked. Mom chose one for a boy, and dad for a girl.

2. when was the last time you cried?

The day before yesterday, I think? Lately I've been crying more out of laughter than sadness tbh... I can only hope it stays that way.

3. do you have kids? 

I don't and I won't!

4. do you use sarcasm a lot?

More than I would like to, especially when something pisses me off or confuses the hell out of me.

5. what sports do you play/have you played?

I enjoyed basketball and volleyball during our P.E. But since my high school mostly consisted of boys, I spent most of the classes on the bench watching them play soccer.

6. what's the first thing you notice about other people? 

Their attitude towards other people. I find it easy to tell if someone cares about what you say to them. A Mutual respect during a conversation is something I can remember and cherish very long after.

7. eye color? 

Blue.

8. scary movies or happy endings? 

Scary movies, when they're any good. Psychological horror is one of my favorite genres. Especially the stuff that stays with you for a long time.

9. any special talents? 

Some people were surprised that I write my fics in Vim, so I guess that's my special talent lmao

10. where were you born? 

In a mid-sized city surrounded by woods and lakes. Still living there and trying to get out! The city stinks (literally and figuratively), but I love running away to the woods whenever I feel like I need to catch a break.

11. what are your hobbies? 

Damn, I have so many. First and foremost - video games! But I do programming, photo editing, sometimes video editing too. I'm into free and open source software, I love tinkering with it, I follow cool reverse engineering projects. Outside of my puter I enjoy long walks and photography.

12. do you have any pets? 

I'd love to have a dog, but I probably wouldn't be at home enough to give it the attention it deserves.

13. how tall are you? 

Oh last time I measured myself I was 18yo or so. If nothing changed since then, I'm 187cm/6′2. I'm s tall girl!

14. fave subject in school? 

Art and IT as a child. And in IT School I loved programming and PC assembly/maintenance the most!

15. dream job? 

Working full-time on a game I have in mind. Just fully commit and create something I'd enjoy myself and be proud of!

[division-d]

How To Forecast and Calculate the ROI of SEO (With Template)

March 22, 2023

By: Dan Ansaldo, SEO Specialist

With the continued rise of AI and ChatGPT, constant algorithm updates, and the never-ending goal of beating the competition, understanding the ROI (return on investment) of SEO has arguably never been more important.

How do you know if your SEO is effective? How can you determine if it’s going to create positive ROI? Is it even possible to forecast like other marketing channels?

These are critical questions to ask and answer. Let’s dive in!

What is the ROI of SEO?

Return on Investment (ROI) is the monetary gain you receive from investing in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The goal of SEO — and all marketing efforts for that matter — is to earn you (or your client) more money than what you spend.

When you receive more website traffic, conversions, and ultimately leads and sales from your SEO efforts, that’s the positive return coming into effect.

While SEO is very effective, and arguably the most effective digital marketing channel long term, it’s complicated to understand — especially when calculating SEO ROI or forecasting potential ROI.

So can it be done? Yes, but it can be a bit cumbersome at times.

Why It’s Important To Determine the ROI of SEO

Like any other business investment, it's crucial to determine the impact of your SEO campaigns. Understanding the effect is key to making the most of your SEO efforts. If left in the wrong hands, SEO can become nothing more than an expensive housekeeping service for your website.

But when in the right hands, a thorough SEO strategy can be a powerful tool that sets you (or your client) up as an authority in the industry and attracts invaluable, converting website traffic. Being cognizant of the cost and conversions stemming from SEO helps you better understand the impact SEO is having.

How To Calculate The ROI Of SEO

Calculating the ROI of SEO for Ecommerce sites is different from lead generation sites. No matter what kind of business you operate, this process starts with conversion tracking and a solid look at your Google Analytics account, so have that handy before moving on.

Identify Your SEO Expenditures

First, you need to identify your SEO expenditures. If you hired a freelancer or an agency to do your SEO for you, this is simple. Your SEO cost is the price you pay the freelancer/agency each month.

If you’re doing SEO in-house, you need to take all of the following into consideration:

Software/tools: Whether it be cloud-based or downloaded on your computer, every successful SEO needs their tools. Moz, Semrush, Surfer, Screaming Frog, ContentKing…the list goes on and on.

Content Production: If you have a copywriter in-house, calculate the time (and cost) it takes them to write each article. If you outsource, how much do you pay for your content?

Editing and Plagiarism: Do you use Grammarly or Hemmingway to edit your articles? How about running through CopyScape to check for plagiarism? These may be small costs, but they all add up.  

Graphics: If you use graphic or image software like Canva, Adobe, or iStock, you’ll want to account for these.

Misc: There are other SEO-related costs that can come up (speed optimizations, citation building, etc.), so make sure you track them all to make your ROI calculations as accurate as possible.

Set Up Conversions for Ecommerce Sites

The first thing you need to do for your Ecommerce site is set up conversions in Google Analytics. This allows you to capture the conversions occurring on your site. Once Ecommerce tracking is set up, you can see the overview of your sales data by going to the Conversions tab on the left navigation panel, then Ecommerce, then Overview if you still have Universal Analytics.

This is what that looks like:

Remember, Google is putting Universal Analytics to rest for good, so switch to GA4 as soon as possible if you have not done so.

If you are using GA4, then you would go to Reports, then Monetization, and finally Ecommerce purchases. Below is an example of Google’s online store. The chart and data will automatically sort by items viewed, largest to smallest, but you can select items purchased to see the items that have been purchased the most for the time frame.

Now, in GA4, click on the plus sign at the top next to “Item name” to add a filter, and filter to include Session source/medium. Then click google/organic (click apply) to see conversions coming from organic search or at least partially attributed to organic search.

Set Up Conversions for Lead Generation Sites

If you don’t sell items directly on your site, it can be a bit more challenging to know how much money comes from your site. The first step you need to do is create events in your Google Analytics account and then mark them as conversions. You also need to assign a value to each conversion. Here’s how you do that:

Identify your top conversion events (form submission, “call us today” button, “get a free quote” button, etc.)

Count how many of those conversion events/leads become paying customers

Calculate the average amount of money your customers spend

Divide the total revenue by the total number of conversions to get a value per conversion.

For example, let's say 100 people clicked on your “call us today” button in a given month. If you have that selected as a converting event, you get 100 conversions.

Of those 100 people that clicked, 10 became customers and spent $6000 collectively. That means on average, each “call us today” conversion was worth $60 ($6000 total revenue/ 100 conversions).

Now you can mark the “call us today” button with a $60 value. Repeat this process for the other conversions. When you’re done, you’ll have a nice list of conversions set.

If you don’t know how many conversions you get from each event (and thus can’t calculate the value of each conversion type), you’ll have to gather data for a couple months.

From this point on, you’ll be able to see how many conversions were attributed to organic search by going to the Advertising tab.

Calculate Your ROI!

Once you have all of the above information at your fingertips, it’s time to calculate! This is by far the easiest step. Here’s how you calculate your ROI:

SEO ROI = (Revenue From Organic Conversions - Cost of SEO Investment) / Cost of SEO Investment

Time for another hypothetical. Let’s say your revenue from organic conversions in one quarter was $80K and you spent $15K on SEO services. This would be your calculation:

($80K - $15K) / $15K = 4.33

Multiple 4.33 by 100 to get your percent, and your ROI from your SEO for that quarter was 433%. Not bad at all!

How To Forecast Potential ROI from SEO

Perhaps you are not investing in SEO at the moment (you probably should though) and you’re curious about what the potential ROI could be. Or, you need to calculate it for a potential client, here’s how you would go about forecasting potential ROI.

Disclaimer: This is a forecast, not a guarantee. Since there are many moving parts to the equation, the final ROI can be different from what you calculate.

Identify the Keyword Search Volume

The first step is to go to your favorite SEO tool (like Semrush) and look at the search volume for your target keyword. If you wanted to rank for “San Francisco SEO Company,” you’d plug that into Semrush and see that it is searched about 210 times per month.

Now, multiply that number by 0.276 because that’s the average click-through rate (CTR) of the number one organic ranking position in Google. That gives us 58 (rounding up).

That means if you rank #1 for that keyword on Google, you can assume you’ll get about 58 people coming to your website from that term each month.

Multiply 58 by your average conversion rate for all of your conversion events. Remember those from earlier? To get your average conversion rate, divide the number of paying customers by the number of leads/converting events.

Using the lead generation example from earlier, if 100 people total clicked on a converting event (form submission, “call us today” button, “get a free quote" button, etc.) in one month and 7 of those became paying customers, your conversation rate is 7% (7/100 = 0.07 x 100 = 7%).

If we multiply 58 (the number of monthly assumed visitors from the keyword “San Francisco SEO Company,”) by .07 or 7% (your average website conversion rate) you get 4.06. This is the average number of MONTHLY purchasers you can expect to gain from ranking #1 on Google.

Finally, multiply 4 (round down to the whole number) by your average order value (AOV) to get the potential income from that keyword on a monthly basis. For instance, if your average customer spends $5K monthly (not too bad for an SEO company) then your potential monthly revenue if you rank #1 for “San Francisco SEO Company” is about $20K (4 x $5K).

Annually that would be over $243,000 from a single keyword. Now do you see why SEO is so valuable?

Here is the ROI forecasting spreadsheet you can use to calculate the potential SEO ROI

Need Help With SEO?

If you need help with your SEO — as a business owner or an agency — shoot us a message. Whether you’re an Ecommerce business or a lead generation business, we can help you (or your client) gain visibility in the SERPs and take advantage of the compounding power of SEO.

READ OUR LAST ARTICLE: 5 Tips For Your Next Influencer Campaign

[jonayariley]

Some more tips from someone who's been doing computer stuff professionally for like 20 years and tinkering with computers since she was a wee lass!

If you have a desktop, it's absolutely worth learning the basics of how to swap out components yourself. Desktops are generally designed to be user-serviceable, and being able to upgrade/replace components like the GPU rather than buying a whole new PC is a huge advantage.

If you're running Windows, the Defender anti-virus that comes with it is probably a better anti-virus option than any third-party one. Malwarebytes sometimes adds an extra layer of checking for malicious-but-non-virus software, but tbh Defender is good - just make sure you keep Windows up to date.

If you're still rocking traditional hard drives (the kind with magnetic platters), replace them with SSDs (solid-state drives) as soon as possible! SSDs are significantly faster, more reliable, longer lasting, and less likely to be damaged if you accidentally bump or knock over your PC!

If you've got the ability to install an M2 SSD and have some extra money (they're kinda pricey, compared to normal SSDs), those are absolutely worth it! They're somehow even faster than normal SSDs and come in a ridiculously small form factor (I have a 4 TB M2 drive in my desktop and it's amazing)

As several folks have said - you SHOULD NOT defragment SSDs!

Probably the most cost effective upgrade on a system with less than 16 GB of RAM is to upgrade the RAM, especially if you do a lot of memory-heavy stuff like photo/video editing. RAM is dirt cheap now, and having 32 GB of the stuff is amazing.

Speaking of that, if you're running less than 8 GB of RAM on a modern Windows PC you need to upgrade that shit immediately. An 8 GB RAM module will run you around the cost of buying a meal or two from McDonalds, so unless you have a laptop with soldered memory, it's an essential upgrade at that point.

If you do happen to leave something on the laptop keyboard and end up breaking the screen, it is possible to replace it - you can take it to a repair place or if you're reasonably tech-savvy you can buy replacement screen modules for $100-200 and the installation isn't super awful (my daughter's laptop screen had this happen when a cat knocked the screen shut on a pair of earbuds and broke the LCD panel)

If you have the ability to install more than one physical drive, you should try to have one drive for the OS and your main programs (but NOT the files you create in those programs) and one drive that you use for data storage. If you're ever in the position where you need to do a clean wipe/reinstall of your OS, it's much easier to not have to worry about whether or not you're also going to end up losing your data.

If you're a gamer and want to do your due diligence when buying upgrades, Tom's Hardware, especially their GPU/CPU hierarchy, is an invaluable resource. 2024 GPU Hierarchy 2024 CPU Hierarchy Seriously, I've been using them for performance research since like 2006, they're an incredibly useful place to get no-bullshit info on the hardware and the whole "is this worth upgrading?" question.

When it comes to heat management in desktop PCs, make sure you have a good CPU fan (or liquid cooling), that you open the case periodically and blow out the dust (use one of those compressed air cans), and that components aren't overly obstructed by cables. Basically, you want open space in the case to allow air to circulate, and you want the case to be well ventilated.

If you're doing any kind of upgrading or troubleshooting, you should grab yourself a copy of Open Hardware Monitor (it's free and open-source)! It provides access to the data from all the sensors on your PC, including various temperature and voltage sensors, load indicators for CPU/GPU, etc. This can help diagnose common issues, like CPU shutdown due to overheating.

The Very Basics of Not Killing Your Computer

AVOID HEAT STRESS

If you have a laptop DO NOT use it on a soft surface like a pillow or on a blanket, it’ll block the vents on your computer and make it get really fucking hot inside.

If you have a desktop you gotta open it up and blow out the dust sometimes.

If you are moving your laptop in a bag turn the laptop off. Don’t put it to sleep, don’t just shut the screen, turn it off, because otherwise it’s in the bag generating heat and there’s nowhere for the heat to go in the bag. OFF. Not sleep. OFF.

DO NOT DROP

Okay I know that should be obvious but drop damage to your hard drive is bad bad news. Be as careful as you can to set your computer gently on flat surfaces; don’t leave it hanging out on a bed where it can get knocked off, don’t set it on the roof of your car. And yes, just dropping it a couple inches can kill your hard drive or totally shatter your screen.

DON’T PUT SHIT ON YOUR KEYBOARD

Look I’ve seen four people ruin their laptops because they had a pen on the keyboard and closed the laptop and it fucked up the screen and the keyboard and it sucks so much and you feel awful after it happens because it’s so avoidable just don’t put things on your keyboard and always check that your laptop is clear before you close it.

PROTECT YOUR PORTS ON YOUR LAPTOP

You’ve only got one power jack and a limited number of other inputs on your computer and if they detach from the motherboard you’re fucked. USB ports get damaged because people use them a lot and eventually it weakens the connection and then they just stop working and it sucks. You can get around this with USB ports by using a USB hub to connect things like your keyboard and mouse.

For your power plug you just gotta be careful. Avoid tripping over the cord at all costs, don’t yank the plug out of the computer. It will SUCK VERY MUCH A LOT if you have to buy a new computer because the power port lost contact with the motherboard.

Don’t move your computer with things plugged into it. Take the power cord off before you put your laptop in the bag, take out the USB mouse dongle, do not travel with little nubby bits sticking out of your computer that can easily get caught or get tweaked or snap off inside of the thing.

(I really can’t emphasize enough that most of the “it will cost more than it’s worth to fix this” laptops I see are because of USB ports and power jacks. People don’t seem to know that this isn’t something that can be fixed easily; a broken power jack is a “remove the motherboard and resoldier components” job, not a “plug a new one in in fifteen minutes” job and most computer repair shops aren’t going to solder things for you and if they DO it’s going to be very expensive)

RESTART YOUR SHIT AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH AND JUST LET THE FUCKING UPDATES RUN

You should probably restart more than once a month but whatever. This is actually something that I consider part of reducing heat stress because when your processor is straining to keep up with all the background bullshit that’s running from a program you opened three weeks ago it’s going to use up resources and get hot and look just restart it once in a while.

Also the updates are almost always okay and safe and generally running updates is a good and secure thing to do (though maybe follow a blog dedicated to the OS you run because if there IS a problem with the updates that blog will probably talk about it before the update gets forced on your computer)

ANTIVIRUS BULLSHIT

Yes you should probably be running an antivirus.

Sophos is free and it’s fine. But don’t pay for it - if you’re using Sophos use the free version.

If you’re looking for something paid and a little more comprehensive I recommend ESET - get the cheap version, renewals cost less than the initial purchase, and feel free to get a multi-year version, the credentials follow your email not the computer so if your computer dies before your license expires you can install the license on a new computer.

DO NOT INSTALL NORTON OR MCAFEE THEY ARE EXPENSIVE BULLSHIT. Kaspersky is whatever. It’s less bullshit than Norton or McAfee but not as good as ESET for about the same cost.

If you think you’ve got a virus run the free version of Malwarebytes and get your shit cleaned.

KEEP LIQUIDS THE FUCK AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER

Again this should be obvious and yet. But seriously, just make a rule for yourself that drinks aren’t allowed on the same table as your computer and you’ll save yourself a lot of headaches.

PLUG YOUR COMPUTER INTO A UPS

Okay I fucking hate amazon but here’s a thing you should be using, just search the rest of the internet for “surge protector/UPS” and you’ll find something that isn’t from amazon - APC is a solid brand for this.

Basically you want a fat surge protector that has a little bit of a battery backup and you want to plug your computer (desktop OR laptop) into that instead of into the wall. The benefit of this is twofold:

1) if there’s a power surge the UPS will prevent your computer’s power supply from getting fried and possibly frying parts of your motherboard

2) if there’s a power outage and you’re *at* your computer you’ll have enough time to save what you’re working on before your computer loses power (like, you’ll maybe only have a minute or two on a small UPS but that’s still time to hit CTRL+S and keep from losing work)

At a bare, bare minimum your computer should be plugged into a surge protector but NOT directly into the wall.

BACK YOUR SHIT UP

[we interrupt this yelling for me to tell you that Western Digital has apparently released their new My Passport line and I’m obligated to inform you that you can get a 2.5″ USB 3.0 backup drive with FIVE FUCKING TERABYTES OF STORAGE for $130. Or you can get 4TB for $93. Or you can get 1TB for $53. basically what I’m saying is that it is not only cheap computer season it is also cheap hard drive season.]

[also if you’re getting a backup drive get western digital not seagate seagate fucking sucks and has a much higher failure rate]

Uh, okay, anyway - Do an image backup of your computer every once in a while so that if you get infected or your hard drive dies or whatever you can just restore from backup and move on like nothing happened.

HERE’S HOW TO DO AN IMAGE BACKUP.

SAVE YOURSELF THE WEAR AND TEAR

You know what is cheap? USB Keyboards and USB mice. You know what is not cheap? Fixing the touchpad on a laptop or replacing a laptop keyboard.

Get yourself a USB hub, a USB Keyboard and a USB Mouse (wired or wireless, doesn’t matter) and if you’re using your laptop at home plug *that* into your computer.

Also if your keyboard on your laptop breaks it’s fine just to use a USB keyboard instead I promise; if the screen breaks it’s also usually cheaper and easier to get a used or inexpensive monitor than it is to replace the screen. Your laptop is basically just a very small version of whatever bullshit is going on inside a desktop, if the peripherals break but the core components are fine you can just use it like a desktop.

Unless it’s a piece of shit that doesn’t have any USB ports or video out in which case you got ripped off, friend, demand functionality in your devices I’m sorry.

/rant

[beatverse1]

Time-Saving Tips to Upload Your Music on YouTube Quickly

Uploading music on YouTube has become an essential step for musicians who want to reach a global audience. The platform’s vast user base and music-focused features make it the go-to choice for artists looking to gain visibility and grow their careers. However, the process of uploading music can sometimes feel daunting, especially for those juggling tight schedules. This guide provides practical, time-saving tips to help you upload your music on YouTube quickly without compromising quality or effectiveness.

Preparation Is Key to Efficiency

One of the most significant factors affecting the time it takes to upload your music is preparation. Many musicians waste valuable time because they fail to organize their materials before starting the upload process. To avoid this, ensure your files are ready and properly named. Use clear and consistent naming conventions for your audio and video files. For example, instead of naming your file “Track1_final_v3.mp4,” use a more descriptive name like “ArtistName_SongTitle_OfficialVideo.mp4.” This helps you locate the right file instantly.

Equally important is ensuring your files are in the correct format. YouTube accepts various file types, but sticking to the recommended formats, such as MP4 for video and AAC for audio, ensures smoother uploads. Compressing large files without sacrificing quality can also speed up the process. Tools like HandBrake or Adobe Premiere Pro make it easy to optimize your files for YouTube.

Mastering the Upload Process

Learning the ins and outs of YouTube’s upload process can save you a lot of time in the long run. Start by creating a dedicated YouTube channel for your music if you haven’t already. Having a separate channel allows you to streamline your branding and ensures your content is organized for your audience.

When uploading, take full advantage of YouTube Studio’s user-friendly interface. The drag-and-drop feature allows you to quickly select your files and begin the upload process. While your video is uploading, use the time to fill in essential details like the title, description, and tags. Make sure the title is catchy and includes your keyword naturally, such as “How to Upload Your Music on YouTube Quickly – A Guide for Musicians.” This improves the video’s discoverability.

Creating a detailed and engaging description is another crucial step. Include information about the song, your inspiration behind it, and any relevant links. Use your keyword strategically here as well, ensuring it blends naturally into the content. Tags, while less impactful than they once were, still play a role in helping YouTube categorize your video.

Leveraging Tools and Software

Modern tools and software can drastically reduce the time it takes to upload music. Video editing platforms like Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Rush, or even free tools like Canva can help you create visually appealing videos quickly. These platforms often have templates that make the process of designing your video much faster, even for beginners.

Cloud-based services like Google Drive or Dropbox also come in handy when dealing with large files. By uploading your files to the cloud first, you can avoid delays caused by transferring files between devices. Additionally, using a high-speed internet connection is critical. If your current internet setup is slow, consider uploading during off-peak hours when bandwidth is less congested.

Batch processing is another excellent time-saver. If you have multiple tracks or videos to upload, edit and prepare them in bulk. YouTube’s scheduling feature allows you to upload all your content at once and set them to publish at different times. This ensures your channel remains active without requiring daily uploads.

Maximizing Engagement After Upload

Once you’ve successfully uploaded your music, your job isn’t over. Engaging with your audience immediately after upload can help your video gain traction. Responding to comments, sharing your video on social media, and encouraging viewers to subscribe to your channel can amplify your video’s reach. Make sure to include a pinned comment with a call-to-action, such as “What do you think of the song? Let us know in the comments!”

In addition to promoting your video, monitor its performance using YouTube Analytics. This tool provides valuable insights into how viewers are interacting with your content. Use this data to refine your strategy for future uploads, such as identifying the best times to publish or the types of content your audience enjoys most.

Building a Routine for Quick Uploads

Creating a consistent routine for uploading your music can significantly reduce the time and stress involved. Dedicate specific days to recording, editing, and uploading, so each task becomes a part of your regular workflow. Over time, this routine will make the process feel less overwhelming and more efficient.

Another effective strategy is to create templates for your video descriptions and tags. Having a pre-written template saves time and ensures consistency across all your uploads. For example, your description template might include a short bio, links to your social media, and your keyword, such as “Learn how to upload your music on YouTube quickly and efficiently with this guide.”

Conclusion

Uploading music on YouTube doesn’t have to be a time-consuming process. By organizing your files, mastering the upload process, leveraging modern tools, and engaging with your audience, you can save valuable time while maximizing your impact. The key is to focus on preparation and efficiency without compromising the quality of your work.

Whether you’re a seasoned musician or just starting, these tips will help you upload your music on YouTube quickly and effectively. Start implementing these strategies today, and watch your music reach new heights on one of the world’s most powerful platforms for creators. How do you plan to save time on your next upload? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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For additional resources on music marketing and distribution, visit Deliver My Tune.