#I want to add more bad batch related tags but then people will see it and i'm still deciding if i want that

[crab-instruments]

Dust in the Wind Part 1 (tbb)

Master Part 2>

Pairing: Hunter x Reader

Rating and warning: General audience, not much happens (yet)

Words: 597

a/n: hello, I’ve never written a fic before, but I’ve had ideas. This is the first time I’m trying to. If it works out, this will be a Hunter fic, slow burn, multipart mess. It’ll be based much after the events of episode 12, since that’s the time of writing, not connected to the show. I don’t know what I’m doing, I just have an idea and a need to push it out there, and possibly make some other readers, like myself, happy there is more content to consume. It’s not beta-read. I thought that maybe if I wrote and posted it, I’d get it out. Nothing happens here. It’s just an intro. Holy Kenobi, what am I doing?

You clutch your backpack close to your stomach as you run, unable to have put in on fast enough. You push past people on the street, rounding a corner, finding a landing dock. You look behind you, catching a glimpse at your chasers before disappearing from their view. You hoped you had more time here, just starting to get used to the area, kriff, you even had a favorite stall to buy fruit from.

However, now wasn’t the time for worrying about that. You needed a place to hide.

The lot was empty of people, only ships and crates. Your footsteps echoed as you frantically weaved through the ships. One ship, a ship that certainly looked like it had seen its fair share of battles, had the loading ramp down. Bingo.

A quick look showed no one was in your immediate area to see you slip into the ship. Standing in the main hold of the ship, you quickly found an area to hide in, the refresher. You quickly ran in and shut the door. The grip on your backpack was tight, showing the whites of your knuckles. You push your back against the wall, sliding down to your knees.

I’m safe… for now. Breathing felt hard, but you closed your eyes and focused on keeping quiet. You listened real hard for the sounds of footfalls. After a few moments, you heard what you were listening for, fast and heavy, but the voice that followed wasn’t the one you expected.

“Tech, get us out of here, fast! We are being followed!”

By the amount of footsteps, you could tell there was more than 3 people jumping on the ship. It rocked, knocking you out of your cocoon. Shots were fired. The ship climbed in altitude and your life on this planet seemed to come to end as your immediate options were slowly dwindling.

This wasn’t what I planned to do today...

“Jumping to hyperspace!”

Your body lurched to the side. Your arms flew out to find purchase on something and your right arm slammed into the wall behind you.

Oops

When things seemed to settle, the realization that you are a stowaway on a ship that you don’t know the crew of sets in. How do you even begin to explain your situation? They seemed to be running away from less than stellar circumstances, what if they aren’t understanding of your situation?

Your eyes shot to the door as you heard muffled voices outside and footsteps came closer. Your presence was known.

First impressions are everything. Do you go out swinging? Do you beg for your life?

The door slip open with a hiss, with 3 men with dark gray and red accented trooper armor looked at you. The man in front had longer hair held out of his face with a red bandana. The two others seemed to fade back as you stared in his eyes, frozen, like a lothcat in a speeder’s headlights.

His face seemed to softened from the surprise, seemingly coming back to the situation.

“Boys, step back, I’ll handle this.”

He stepped forward and shut the door.

Your mind raced. It felt like the thoughts in your head spun like a wheel in one of the game holoshows you saw, not slowing down on a next move.

The man in front of you kneeled to get to your eye level, let a breath out, and looked at you with the most beautiful of eyes.

“I’m not going to hurt you but what are you doing, sitting on the floor in our ‘fresher?”

What a good question.

Part 2

[peace-coast-island]

Diary of a Junebug

Making cookies at the Nova Aeria Clock Tower

When it comes to being creative with cookies, Addie and Ginger are always up for the challenge! Since rebranding and opening shop at the Nova Aeria, things have been going super well for them. They went from a small cookie stand in their neighborhood to a traveling cart and now they have a full fledged bakery in the city.

Today the bakery was busy because of the monthly cookie contest, which has been a huge hit since it started earlier this year. Like I said, Addie and Ginger like to think outside the box when it comes to unique cookie recipes!

A lot has changed since I last saw them at the camp. At the time they were rebranding, taking time off to reevaluate things after realizing that the direction they were going in wasn't working out. By reinventing themselves and starting over from scratch, they were able to make something that aligned more with their dreams. It wasn't easy, but they took the plunge, knowing when to bail out when they realized that they deserved better.

The Nova Aeria Clock Tower feels like it exists in a space of its own. I don't know, it just gives off this starry, otherworldly vibe. I can also see why Addie felt that this was the perfect place to settle down in. She always has a knack for being intuitive like that. The moment she stepped inside, she knew that it was meant to be. And that's not something Addie says lightly so if she's somewhat certain about anything, we gotta keep that in mind.

For now, it's just Addie and Ginger running the bakery, though now they're in the process of building a team. Bree and Lyn were gonna start training soon but they're needed at the funeral parlor where Lyn's brother Ry works as undertaker turned temporary director.

Bree and Lyn have always been Addie and Ginger's biggest supporters so it was a matter of time before they joined the team. They're creative bakers too - Bree's baking videos are always relaxing to watch and Lyn likes experimenting will all kinds of complicated recipes. Problem is that their families aren't as supportive of their baking aspirations so it's a case of them waiting for the right opportunity to take a plunge and pursue their dreams.

So now they're one step closer! Except they can't quite take the step yet as poor Ry's overwhelmed since the funeral parlor director and consultant are out of commission. Lyn says it's not as bad as it sounds - basically, the director and consultant occasionally work with an adventurer's guild so they sometimes tag along on a mission with their investigator friend. Rarely they both go together and for that particular mission, things went horribly wrong, as Lyn puts it. The director, who Lyn describes as a bit of an eccentric prankster who seems too cheerful despite her family's business, should be out of the hospital tomorrow so she'll probably be back in a week or so. As for the consultant and investigator - an old fashioned gentleman and a headstrong young adventurer - it'll be a while before they're back up on their feet again, but at least they're recovering from their injuries.

Lyn always has stories relating to the funeral parlor - mainly about the director being weird and causing trouble. She seems like an interesting person, someone full of dark humor and can be a bit much, but a nice person overall. Lyn's family and hers go way back, and she has been supportive of Lyn and Bree while Ry seems to be on the fence. The consultant and investigator sound like cool people too - Lyn doesn't know them too well but they've always been nice to him. Bree says the consultant's super knowledgable about a lot of things so he always has a lot of interesting things to say.

The funeral parlor business was never for him so Lyn only really works there if they're short handed. Bree is basically the on call undertaker - probably the only one in the world as far as I know - though she mostly does cleaning and sometimes clerical stuff. To keep things lively, she bakes treats for the staff, which they appreciate, especially the director. She also learned a bunch of new recipes from the consultant, who also taught her a bunch of obscure and valuable baking techniques that most professionals have never heard of.

Since it's the monthly cookie contest, Ry gave Lyn and Bree the day off. So Ginger felt that this was the perfect opportunity to start their training - by being contestants! Normally Bree bakes something at least once a week but since the funeral parlor situation, she hasn't baked in almost a month, which is almost sacrilege to her. Of course, she was totally up for the challenge of coming up with a brand new recipe on the spot.

I was surprised at the turnout of the contest - thirty contestants! The bakery was packed so Addie had to break everyone up in groups. I didn't participate in the contest myself while Fauna and Mira did. Daisy Jane and I were behind the scenes, helping out contestants and cleaning equipment. It was cool seeing the kitchen as well as get some sneak peeks behind upcoming recipes.

It was fun watching everyone come up with all kinds of cookies. Everyone had such a unique spin on their creations so trying over thirty kinds of cookies didn't feel like a hassle. There were sweet cookies, savory cookies, and a lot of in between. Even things that you wouldn't think would go in a cookie came out well. Addie and Ginger sure know how to get everyone creative!

Fauna made a passionfruit matcha mochi cookie that screams tropical vibes. It was a recipe she came up with on the spot so it took a couple trial batches to get things going. The matcha cookie dough texture is like a mix between shortbread and chocolate chip, resulting in a flaky, buttery, and rich flavor. Then she bakes the cookies for a bit while making the passionfruit mochi. Before the cookies finish baking, she tops them off with the mochi, like putting chocolate chips on top, and put it back in the oven for a minute or two. That way, the cookies are crisp on the outside and soft on the inside while the mochi is chewy and flavorful.

Mira came up with colorful chocolate cookies with a black sesame custard filling. They taste as good as they look, especially with the rainbow sprinkles. The cookie is made from a mix of coconut and almond flour, resulting in a nutty flavor that goes really well with the custard and chocolate. The flavor's not overly sweet thanks to the black sesame and a touch of flaky rock salt, which really elevates a dessert. I can totally see this cookie being served at a rainbow themed party for its looks alone.

Lyn went experimental with a super duper chocolate cookie. Basically a super rich brownie in the form of a cookie that's made from three different types of chocolate. To balance out all that chocolate, he topped them off with roasted pecans flavored with lime and chilis. He got the inspiration from hot chocolate with chilis and the flavors go surprisingly well together. I mean, along with the rich chocolate ganache drizzled on top, without the spicy pecans, the chocolate would've been way too much. Only Lyn can pull off something as indulgent as that!

Bree's creation is like a fusion of a focaccia and quiche in the form of a cookie. The dough is similar to focaccia, except with some tweaks here and there to make it more cookie like. The topping is a cream cheese custard with a blend of herbs, an unusual mix of sweet and savory flavors that balance each other super well. How she came up with this idea, I don't know. To add a bit of a personal touch, she decorated the cookies as various constellations. Creativity never ceases to amaze me!

There were so many cookies, more than enough to take home and give to friends. Bree and Lyn plan to stop by the hospital and funeral parlor on the way home to give away some of the sweet treats. I did a little baking myself with Addie and Ginger before they closed up and that was pretty chill. It's so good to see them thriving and I can't wait to come back, especially now that Bree and Lyn will be joining them soon.

While waiting for the cookies to cool, Ginger took us on a tour around the Nova Aeria. At first glance, the clock tower looks like a fancy shopping center. It kinda is but also isn't, if that makes sense. There are shops and cafes but there's also places like an archive building, an observation deck, the clock tower itself, a couple of HQs - it's basically the center of a lot of things. Even those who spend their days at the Nova Aeria for years - generations even - still don't know the full extent of the clock tower and what exactly its purpose is.

Being the curious cat she is, Ginger wants to learn more about the Nova Aeria. Lyn wants to know more about the place as well. Both say the consultant seems to have some knowledge about it so he seems like a good starting point. The director might know something too as her family has connections to the clock tower so that's another thing to look into. Hearing them talk about the clock tower's mysteries has made me curious too.

What stories does the Nova Aeria hold? That's another thing to look forward to on future visits.

[with-love-anu]

Tag your mutuals and share what you like about them.

This is so cruel because there are wayyyy too many people I would like to add here because of their sheer brilliance *pouts*. Okay, I’ll try and jot it it down to a few, even though I know I’ll forget someone!

@futurewriter2000: My very first internet bestie and she’s like the most bad-ass (Yup! I’ve used this so many times but this is exactly what describes her) and yet such a softie (I can feel you coming at moi Tijana) because she is just so easy to talk to and is ready to help anyone and everyone. She’s just so perceptive of everyone and she like, knows what you need! If I ever get the chance to meet her irl, the first thing I’ll do is engulf her in a hug.

@im-a-writer-right: Okay, first off phew! Because she is literally THE person I goof around with. She might be all jokes and memes but I think she cares far too deeply about her friends ;) and is like the person you just go and talk about your problems too. She has cheered me up more than a hundred times and I hope to keep hearing her late night rants because they are just too full of life and add color to her blog!

@marauderswhisperer: She has a like, cool elegant personality. She gives of ~queen~ vibes to me and I think there is whole lot more to her than she lets on here.

@approved-by-dentists: I have been talking to her every other day and let me tell you she’s an adorable goof ball and I’m so amazed by her work, because if you look closely, her deductions about love and philosophy shows exactly that she is one of the people who thinks too deeply, cares too much and is probably one of the people you shouldn’t give up the chance of befriending!

@mknight080904: She’s intelligent, witty and extremely perceptive and I think she doesn’t even know it! I always thought of her as a shy person and I’m so so happy that she’s becoming more confident each day!

@obsessedwithrandomthings: I went to her for some really big advise just the other day and let me tell you, she’s one of the people who make you feel at home and comfortable. She’s a very friendly and a lovable person.

@screennamealreadyused: Okay, I’ve followed her very recently and I might not know much about her, but she’s an amazing amazing person who went forward and made moodboards based on the personality of various bloggers around her and let me tell you, she’s great at it.

@thou-crusty-batch-of-nature: She’s an amazing writer and an even better person. I love talking to her because she is someone I can totally relate with. Moreover, she is one of the sweetest people around!

@angelinathebook: She is a complete and utter darling. She has a nice word for every person around here and I cannot appreciate her more, because words would always lack in expressing how cute she is!

@slytherinquill: She is totally laid back, chill person. She has a thing about her that would cheer you up by just talking to her!

@padfootagain: She is so so nice to talk to! She’s a complete and utter sweetheart and you would have to love her for the absolute cinnamon role she is!

@emcchi: She’s the beautiful flower girl! She never forgets to leave a comment and whatever interaction I’ve had with her, I know she’s absolutely lovable and deserves all the love in the world.

@wreckofawriter: She’s an amazingly talented person, and I could see why she would become a brilliant lawyer (If she decides to!) She’s opiniated (in a good way) and very convincing and you’ll find yourself agreeing with her more than anything!

@scaredofvscogirls: I still remember the cat gif she reblogged my Writer Appreciation with and that was my first interaction with her and I still associate her with an absolutely cute ball of fluff and she’s never failed to prove it otherwise.

@emmaloo21: She’s the pretty little sunshine of tumblr and you have appreciate her enthusiasm with which she does things! She’s a very sweet person to talk to and I’m happy to call her my friend.

@pregnant-piggy: Okay, so I always see her Amy (The cute parts) and she’s a very intelligent person who gives off these artistic vibes and I see her as the person who’s calm and quiet, probably the person you’d love having tea with <3

@peachesandpinks: How do you describe a person who’s so cute and lovable that all you want to do is hug them so tight, squeezing the air out of them? I am so amazed by the excellent fiction she writes and she has lifted my spirits so many damn times!

@mysterioustruffle: I haven’t interacted with her much but she is an absolute darling who’s understanding and supportive!

@april-showers-and-flowers / @sweeter-than-strawberries: She is as much of a sweetheart as her url! She knows how to cheer people up, gives in an amazing response and I would love to get to know her more!

@bave-de-crapaud: She’s a brilliant brilliant author and an equally wonderful person and she’s brought a smile to my face so many times!

[livian-lucifenia]

Soft Fic™

Literally what this was titled when I found it.

This can be manga or game verse. I tended to combine manga Red with game Green, anyway so just pick a side and go for it.

It's cute but v rushed at the end.

It's old fanfiction, there's only so much you can do to it without saying fuck it and rewriting the whole thing.

You know the drill. If anything is fucky, overlook it and keep going.

That being said, enjoy.

____________

Green has such a soft heart and Red loves that about him.

Red thinks about this as he watches Green play peekaboo with a baby shiny eevee at his grandfather's lab. It was the last one from the most recent litter, and Red really hoped Green would take it home before someone else did. He seemed to make up excuses to visit the lab just so he and his eevee, Vee, could play with it. He even bought a little squeaky toy for it, so it would have something to play with when no one was around.

Green's birthday was coming up, so Red made a trip to the lab early one morning and asked the professor if he could take the eevee. Of course, the professor happily allowed him to have it, telling him to wish Green a happy birthday for him just in case he forgot. And with that, Red was on his way back to Viridian.

As expected, Green was still asleep in his room when he arrived. Red had thought about how exactly to give the eevee to Green, and decided on placing it in bed with him so he saw it when he woke up. Vee seemed okay with this arrangement, as she curled around the smaller pokémon and both fell asleep easily. Now to just wait until Green woke up.

It was an hour later when Green's bedroom door opened to reveal a very happy, messy-haired Green with his arms full of just as happy eevees. Honestly, Red could have died right there on the living room couch. Seeing Green like this was something he would never get tired of. Green was so damn adorable and Red was so happy he could live with his best friend.

Green also had a thing for toys and cute plushies.

Red knew this well. After all, Green had collected them as a kid, so it made sense that he would still like them now. He made a trip to Celadon every now and again to get supplies and always took Red into the large toy store. He would show him various things, explain what they did, or what he liked about them, and then put them back on the shelf. He always looked a little disappointed when he did this, and Red knew it was because Green secretly wanted to buy it, but didn't want other people to see him doing so. He was a popular gym leader, and didn't want some embarrassing article to pop up online about him being seen in a toy store. Red thought it was a little silly to worry over stuff like that, but Green liked to keep up his public image.

The wall at the back of the store was filled with various plushies, and Green always gravitated towards it. He liked the small, cute ones best, "How can you not like them, they're adorable!", he'd said as he picked up one that looked like an eevee, but was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. He made comment about wanting to recreate his team with plushies, just as room decor or something, and Red instantly knew what he was buying as Green's Christmas gift this year.

And that's exactly what he did.

Of course, he had no idea how to wrap a gift, so he asked his mom for help. She gladly wrapped up the large box of plushies, and let Red fill out the To/From tag himself while she tied everything up with a pretty, dark green bow. As payment, she asked for him to stay a while longer and help her bake cookies for some gift baskets.

Red was in the middle of 'sampling' the third batch of cookies when his mom asked him a question, "You like Green, don't you?"

"Of course I do, he's my best friend. I wouldn't be living with him if I didn't.", he replied without hesitation.

She laughed a little as she slid another tray of cookie dough into the oven and turned to face him, "No, honey, I mean like a crush."

Red paused, did he have a crush on Green? "I... I don't know."

"How do you feel when you're around him?"

"Happy, but I've always felt like that with him. But there are some things he does that make me feel... different. I don't know how to describe it..."

"Do you ever think about him or miss him while he's at the gym?"

"All the time."

"You bought him those plushies for Christmas, why did you pick those over something else?"

"Because every time we go to Celadon, we go in the toy store, and he always looks at the same ones. He talks about them, too. About how detailed they are, or how soft the material is, or just that he likes them. He never buys them, though. He really wants to, I can tell, but he has an image to keep up. So... I bought them."

"That's very sweet if you. So, I take it you like making him happy?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I? He's cute when he's happy."

It took Red a moment to realize why his mother had paused their conversation to give him a knowing smile. His face felt hot and he just knew he probably matched his name and hat. The silence made him come to a realization, one he never saw coming, and probably wouldn't have if not for his mother.

"Mom, I think I have a crush on Green."

Now the question was, how the hell was he going to tell Green? Or... should he even say anything? Would it ruin their friendship? What if Green kicked him out?

All those thoughts made his head spin, and made him feel bad about even having those feelings towards Green.

He had to tell him, though. According to his mom, even though he had just realized what he was feeling, he had always acted differently with Green and vice versa. This all felt like something a teen should be dealing with, not a twenty year old league champion, but it is what it is. He couldn't complain, after all, the guy he was crushing on had a childish side too.

After having another long talk with his mom, Red decided the best way to confess was through a letter. That way, he wouldn't mess up his words or make an idiot of himself. The letter would be disguised as a card on top on his Christmas gift, and Red knew Green ways opened the cards first, so there was no way he would miss it. When Red sat down with a pen and paper to actually write the letter is where the problem came. What was he supposed to say?

It took two days to write the letter, and the trashcan next to his bed was filled with all the failed attempts to write a decent love letter.

A love letter...

That's what this was, wasn't it?

Arceus, he felt like he was in one of those sappy teen romance movies.

Finally, the day had arrived. Red woke up extra early to go pick up his gift to Green from his mom's house. He'd left it there because he didn't have enough room to hide it, and he didn't want the wrapping paper to be torn accidentally.

He placed the box and letter on Green's desk and quietly walked out, hoping he hadn't disturbed Vee or Viri, as they would surely wake Green up earlier than anticipated.

Red kept the apartment quiet as he waited, too afraid to even turn on the tv. He decided to go back to bed, it was still pretty early, and Green wouldn't be awake for another couple hours, anyway. So, after changing back into his pyjamas, he went back to sleep with Pika curled up at his back.

"...Red.... Red!"

Red woke with a start at the sound of his name being called. The first thing he saw was Green with his glasses on and tears falling down his freckled cheeks.

Oh.

Oh shit, Green was crying. Why was he crying? Is he upset? Red sat up, scooting closer to Green on the bed, "Green, what's wrong?"

Green looked down at the letter in his hands, "I... I got your gift."

Red's breath caught in his throat.

"Do you really feel like this about me?"

Red leaned in a little closer, "Yes..."

"Even... E-Even after all the shit I put you through?" Green wouldn't face him. Still staring down at the letter and wiping his face with the back of his sweater sleeve.

"Of course, I do. I forgave you, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but I didn't deserve it. I still don't. I... don't deserve any of this. You're too nice to me. I mean, I appreciate it, I really do, but I feel like I'm not good enough. I forgot your birthday this year and then you brought Viri home for my birthday... and now this. You picked out exactly what I liked, and you couldn't have known unless you really payed attention, and I can't even remember what kind of cereal you like, and I love you so much... but, I don't deserve you."

Red pressed his hand to Green's tear-soaked cheek, making him look up. "You don't have to remember stuff like that for me, or do anything special. You make me happy, Green."

Green closed the gap between them, kissing Red with everything he had. Red responded with just as much eagerness, his hands finding their way into Green's soft, messy hair.

He loved Green, and Green loved him, too.

Red broke the kiss so they could breathe, and wiped the remaining tears from Green's face, "I love you."

Green smiled, "I love you, too."

................

One year later, Red was helping Green put together a shelf for all of their collectables and plushies they had acquired over the year, Viri had surprised them a month earlier by evolving into a Sylveon, and Red was planning a different kind of surprise for Christmas this year.

He was going to ask Green to marry him.

____________

Ah, yes. More fluff.

Don't worry, there's more angst content coming soon.

Asks and add-ons relating to my content are always accepted!! 💜💜

Have a good day/night, my dudes.

[yue-muffin]

The muffin watches Love and Redemption (insert preemptive crying here)

Aright, I finally FINALLY finished live blogging this episode. @mejomonster my thoughts are aplenty! I actually wrote way too much! 

Edit: I’m an idiot, I forgot to mention a prediction/observation.

Episode 1:

The CGI is actually very nice in this drama, I’m pleased. I will definitely watch dramas with cringe-worthy CGI, but it’s always nice when they manage to integrate it with the actors and set pieces well, which is even harder to accomplish in Xianxia.

Wait, what did the god of war do to deserve the reincarnation out of the heavenly realm punishment? Didn’t she defeat the Asura/Mosha guy? Was it because she used his weapon or something? And in the first place, why does that half of the Mosha guy’s soul qualify as a celestial that can be reborn? I suppose everyone is subject to reincarnation, but this batch is explicitly for those who have committed crimes in the heavens and wasn’t he on the demon/asura side? Or…maybe he was a celestial who betrayed them? Who knows, I’m just wildly speculating…

The scene definitely suggests there is a lot the narration is not telling us about how these two ended up being reincarnated - yet.

If she lacks the six senses, then why can she see and hear just fine? She apparently can’t feel pain, which would count for the deficiency of touch. Hm.

Xuanji, I relate to just wanting to go back to sleep and not deal with visitors so much lol.

HA, that little look of alarm one of the shixiongs (Liuzi?) has on his face when Linglong tries to convince Xuanji it’ll be fun because they get to check out the handsome guys. So is Linglong supposed to be her twin since they’re both 16 years old?

The dragon wolf thing moves a little funny, but at least it doesn’t look glaringly out of place and the camera doesn’t focus on it for too long, as is typical of CGI monsters. Kudos to them!

Cheng Yi is low-key really good looking in action scenes, just putting that out there. I didn’t think I would adjust to him in period clothing and long hair so quickly, since it usually takes me a while to make the switch (after seeing him in The Lost Tomb 2), but nope! He looks really good!

Ah, so this is the ruthless sect. I love how their first rule, which is literally more important than anything else they may value or encourage in their members, is to not show their entire face when outside the sect…also, what’s the point in hiding only half your face?? Sifeng’s mask only covers one eye, his forehead, and cheek on one side…at least have it cover the entire upper or lower half like everyone else in the sect (I know it’s so we can actually see the actor’s face and not supposed to make sense in-universe)?? I actually do like how they designed it though, it’s far less clunky than the full-face masks we saw in the opening sequence, probably due to the curves.

Sect leader…Sifeng is 16, he IS little pfft. Even adjusting for the times, he is a BABY haha. As I grow older, I realize more and more how young a lot of protags in fantasy stories really are. Also, sect leader is a drama queen, like he’s just lounging on his chair with this dramatic laid-back pose, takes a deep breath, and turns his chin up. So extra.

Aw, yes, I want to see more of Cheng Yi’s easy smiles. He’s so serious in TLT2, except when the warmth seeps into this expression when he’s smiling fondly at Wu Xie…

These devil/asura people have a weird bowing pose. I can’t help but think their hands make them look like…eagle claws or something lol.

Ah, a classic ‘I forgot my invitation’ situation. Well, Xuanji doesn’t have to feel too bad, apparently none of the other Shaoyang disciples know how to fly on a sword either lol. Her sister was tied down by that spell, but could none of the others have attempted to chase after the jerk who grabbed her? (Side note: I really love the color of his sect’s outfits.)

:3 I like Xuanji’s expressions, they’re just cute? So cute. Like her little huff when she’s defending her big sister from the jerkass. Also, I love characters who are like little kittens who puff up and try to protect their friends/family even though the one they’re trying to protect is probably more capable than them.

Jerkass really does take it too far when he just DROPS HER FROM THE SKY. Like, I can accept if youthful teasing goes a little far in that he snatched her and took her for a joy ride, but when it’s apparently that she really can’t summon a sword, it’s 100% not okay to just drop her and laugh it off. If Sifeng didn’t catch her, she could’ve died, and how exactly do you plan on explaining THAT to her father, huh Mr. Jerkass? He had like a dozen witnesses too.

Well, what can you expect from a guy who forgot to bring his invitation and literally was too arrogant and entitled to wait for his teacher to come out and let them in. :p Not the smartest cookie, is he. Even if you got in trouble for forgetting your invitation, you’d get in x10 more trouble for murdering a girl. Good thing she has plot armor and Sifeng was conveniently in the right spot to catch her lol.

Small note, he left her on his sword and she fell off after a bit - so…how exactly is HE flying? Can people fly without the help of their sword? Is he able to make more than one?

Lol Xuanji tugs at him like she does to her sister, it’s cute. But he’s so PANIC every time she touches him haha poor guy. He’s so awkward…why is it so endearing…

It took me a second to realize that he stutters, also that he has a voice actor this time! Idk why, Cheng Yi has a good voice. It would’ve fit this role just fine, unless there were parts they were concerned he couldn’t do. They did a good job matching the VA to his lip movements though, it’s really hard to tell it’s not his voice. It’s been a while since I heard Cheng Yi on video, but listening and comparing, now I can tell that it’s not his in this drama. Anyways, this might be my only complaint lol. Both he and his VA do a good job conveying the stuttering though!

Cheng Yi, you’re playing another character who’s good at disappearing in the blink of an eye lol…

Aah, so normally her sister’s personality type is the annoying sort, which is why she works well as a supporting character. I love how she turns her brattiness up to eleven in order to help Xuanji get out of a scolding by their father. I just really love how these two are so supportive and defensive of each other.

Edit: Alright, but Xuanji did you really just raise a flag for yourself so early in the show. ‘I think tears are the most precious things’. I WILL EAT MY HAT IF THIS DOES NOT BECOME RELEVANT LATER.

And instead of holding onto Sifeng’s name tag for like 50 episodes, she remembers she has it and goes to give it back + some birthday snacks because it’s his birthday too! GAH Xuanji is too cute.

I love how the guy who answered the door just his back only to turn around and smoothly give an explanation for his friend’s disfluency lol (so it’s a language thing!). AND THEN HE GOES ‘carry on!’ AND TURNS AROUND AGAIN. Idk why I find this funny but.

? Why all that effort for dew from a peach blossom tree. Is this one a special peach blossom tree. Why is he making tea with it. OH OK it’s good for cultivation.

He’s so vicious ha, he’s clearly perplexed by her - I mean, he’s the top disciple in his sect, so likely he doesn’t get how she can live so carefree and not have any desire to cultivate or anything. It’s perplexing and kind of total opposite to his worldview, so he reacts harshly.

Ah, I really like Cheng Yi’s acting! He goes from flat/indifferent face to reacting angrily to her picking the snake up, then a subtle worry as his eyes drop down from her to the snake.

I don’t know why I like this snake scene but I dooo. xD Also, it’s interesting how she doesn’t feel any strong emotions (she’s actually rather intensely curious tho!), while he puts on a mask literally/figuratively to seem like he doesn’t and yet gets worked up quite easily.

I’m glad she stops imitating him when he tells her to and is explicitly angry/upset, I get enough of people being assholes and making fun of others for things they can’t help like their speech impairments or mannerisms, it’s just kind of a personal thing that irks me.

AW HE’S SO PROTECTIVE OF HIS LITTLE SNAKE.

Why is it always the peach tree forests?? They’re always weird places that trap people. I can think of two other dramas where this happens haha. I know peaches do have significant symbolism in Chinese culture, so maybe that explains it.

Lol he still flips out a bit when she gets close. Poor girl, getting dropped from the air AGAIN.

Ah, this is the lake! Where they sealed part of that Mosha guy’s soul! This can’t be good.

Aw, look at his face, he’s genuinely worried for his little snake. CHENG YI YOUR RANGE OF EMOTIONS. GAH. 

I CAN’T OPEN IT. Oh wait.

WHY DID YOU GO IIIIN YOU JUST SAID YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING AND HE TOLD YOU TO STAY OUT, YOU LITTLE IDIOT. If he’s Little Stutterer, you can be Little Idiot, ok.

Here’s an idea, she finds the snake, you fight the dragon, and then all three of you get out of there.

OH the mask comes off!! Ok, but you have seen like most of his face already…Hahaha the look on his face ‘wait…why do I feel a hand why is she touching me there…OH NO’

Ah, a nice detail I didn’t think they’d think to add in: his stuttering got way worse without the mask on, since he was so upset/shaken.

?? What just happened with her blood lol.

Final Thoughts:

An interesting start, with nice character dynamics revealed and a dangerous situation to move the plot right along. I have been informed the drama really differentiates itself from the typical setup that has been supplied thus far, and I’m excited to see it unfold.

For now, I have a tiiiiny crush on Cheng Yi and I’m interested in where they take Xuanji’s character. Also, what disasters will result from their little excursion into the super lake where a demon lord thing was sort of sealed away a long time ago...

[emcon-imagines]

Rules, Fandoms, FAQ

What types of requests are you taking and how do I request...

[OPEN] Imagines

ex: “marvel imagine: being best friends with Peter and Ned”

[OPEN] Headcanons

ex: “brooklyn 99 headcanon: celebrating the holidays with the squad”

[CLOSED] Moodboards

ex: “could i request a moodboard for jessica jones?”

[OPEN] Playlists

ex: “could I request a playlist for the marvel runaways squad?”

Notes:

please be specific about which fandom you’re requesting for!

all reader inserts are written as platonic unless specified

please make requests as specific as possible

Please don’t send requests if you know someone has already written the exact same scenario! If I receive something that feels too similar, I’ll reply to the ask with a link to the one that a mutual has already done and a request to change up some of the details if you want me to still write it.

This also includes requests sent to multiple blogs at once

I tend to write all requests for the same character at once, but post in the order I receive them in. You can see my progress here.

this blog is LGBTQ+ friendly!!

I will not write about:

irl people

anything more explicit than PG-13 (smut, for example)

crossovers (for now)

anything romantic that involves minor characters or characters played by minors. platonic requests for these characters only!

anything else i’m uncomfortable with. this could be several categories of things (esp. related to mental health, the romanticization of triggering topics), so please don’t take it personally if I have to turn a request down for that reason!

Fandoms:

Agents of SHIELD (seasons 1-3)

Always Sunny in Philadelphia

BBC Sherlock

Better Call Saul

Brooklyn 99

Doctor Who (series 1-7, 11 + 12)

Good Omens

Gravity Falls

Harry Potter

Killing Eve

Marvel Movies (MCU) (up to Shang-Chi)

Jessica Jones

Marvel’s Runaways

Mindhunter

Mr. Robot

Parks and Rec

Santa Clarita Diet

Sense8

Star Wars Movies

Star Wars: Rebels

Star Wars Resistance

Star Wars: The Bad Batch

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Star Wars - The Mandalorian

Stranger Things

The Good Place (up to season 3)

The Umbrella Academy

Utopia (BBC 4)

Wonder Woman

What order do you post in?

I post everything in the order I received it, though I do jump around and write all the requests I have for a fandom at once, which is why my progress on the To-Do page might seem more haphazard. This just helps me focus better and maintain consistent voices when writing for the same characters.

Are gifs used your own?

Unless specified, gifs used are not my own and will be credited right underneath. if i use one of your gifs and you would like it removed, message me and i’ll take it down asap

What do I do if my question isn’t answered here?

Shoot me an ask and if it’s a common enough question, i’ll add it to this FAQ

Can I be put on a tag list?

Sure! Send me an ask with which fandoms or characters you’d like to be tagged for, as well as the URL you’d like me to tag.

Credits:

current icon is from gagalacrax on Twitter

Header is from @agents-of-edits

[pendragonfics]

Video Killed The Radio Star

Paring: Billy Hargrove/Reader

Tags: female reader, tutoring, teen angst, hurt/comfort, implied/referenced child abuse, canon related, Neil Hargrove Is an Asshole, angry Billy Hargrove, 1980s, set Post-Snow Ball Stranger Things s2. 

Summary: Reader isn't exactly Brooke Shields -- she's quiet, prefers books to people, and likes to listen to the newest hits on the radio with her friends. But when she's paired up with the Billy Hargrove by her math teacher to help him from falling behind, the status quo of her life with her dad and sister, and of Hawkins High is interrupted.

Word Count: 2,769

Current Date: 2018-10-15

“Why do you want me to hate you so bad?” you whisper to him.

You were sitting on the porch of Mr. Hargrove’s house on the edge of Hawkins, drinking soft drink and trying to tutor the newcomer to Hawkins High on math. His credit transfer from his old school in California might have been good over there, but in Indiana, in this small town where there wasn’t anything to distract someone from their studies other than sport or dating, it wasn’t up to scratch. Thus, you were here, trying to get Billy to pass the next quiz.

Billy blinks, and with a straight face that makes you want to punch him right between his pretty eyes, he says, “Because, sweet cheeks,” he looks away, down the driveway that Neil Hargrove could drive up any minute, “I am bad.”

“Yeah?” you ask him. Shoving the maths textbook away from you, and your hands into the pockets of your jean jacket, you bite your tongue. It was cold out, and your Dad warned you before you took your bike here, but you liked your jean jacket. “Well, then Hargrove…why is it you want me, and everyone else to believe you’re a Danny Zuko, when you’re just a Brad Majors?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He says, voice sharp like broken glass underfoot. He clicks his lighter to life and lit up the end of a cigarette.

You shrug. “I don’t know, Hargrove, why don’t you tell me?”

He takes a pull of his lit cigarette. “You don’t like Grease?” he replies.

You shake your head. “No, Hargrove.” Closing your eyes, you take a deep breath, “Who are you trying to fool? I know you’re a nice guy. Under all of that.”

It’s then he chokes. Coughing, he wheezes, “Nice guy?” he laughs, “_________, I’ll have what you’re smoking.”

You huff. “I’m not smoking anything!” you cross your arms, feeling a little mad. “I know you’re not half bad –,”

“First nice, now half bad? _________, who’re you – I’m Billy Hargrove, asshole, king of Hawkins High. I am not nice. I’m an asshole, and you know it.” He’s nothing short of angry, and in his temper, he tosses his cigarette on the porch, and crushes it, still lit, under his boot. “Is this because I agreed to let you tutor me? I don’t need pity, much less from a nerd like you.”

You blink, watching him. “What are you saying?”

He doesn’t respond. He just sits there, looking at his shoe which smashed his cigarette into the wood of the porch, and it is then when you take a deep breath, and begin gathering your books.

“Whatever,” you say, trying to not show how much his words hurt.

Nerd.

Nobody had called you that in years, since you were in middle school, and Nancy threatened to beat up anyone who called you that. “This took up too much of my time anyway.” You shove your books into your backpack, and in the hurry to pack up, some of the textbooks become dog-eared. You don’t care. He’s on your nerves. You turn to look at Billy to say a goodbye but doesn’t meet your eyes at all.

With a huff, you march to where your bike rests against the porch, and flip the bird to the King of Hawkins High, “Good luck passing math.”

---

The next time you will see Billy Hargrove, you’re seated in the back of the math classroom, using your free period, and the availability of the empty room before math class for some alone time. It’s nice. Nancy is off holding hands with Jonathan in the shade of their favourite tree in the schoolyard, and Steve is off working on his American history report last minute in the library. You’re thirty pages into To Kill A Mockingbird when you realise that the little office off the back of the math room is not empty – as there are voices coming from there.

“It’s either be tutored by Ms. __________, or you fail this class.” Mr. Mundy’s voice carried, slightly louder than his usual tone.

You frown, placing your homemade bookmark in place, lowering the book. It’s then you hear a bang! like small thunder, or a fist upon a desk, and you hear, “No! No. I can’t fail. Isn’t there anyone else who can…” there’s a silence, “tutor me?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Hargrove, but no.” His tone is firm. “I cannot bend the rules for one student.”

Your heart beats faster, like a rabbit learning there’s a fox nearby. Instinct wants you to run out the math room before anyone sees you. Your more logical part of the brain thinks it’s better to duck under the table. Instead, when Mr. Mundy and Billy come out of the backroom, you freeze, and amidst your panic, you fall from your chair.

“Ah, Ms. _________,” Mr. Mundy says, as you look up from behind the desk you toppled behind. You know your face is heating up in embarrassment, you can feel it in your ears. “I was just speaking to Mr. Hargrove about the little issue between the both of you. I know you said you don’t have the capacity to tutor Billy anymore, but, is there any off-chance you would take him on again?”

You stand, brushing the dirt from your knees, and look to where Billy stands, behind Mr. Mundy. He’s wearing a brown leather jacket that the other girls at school might think is bitchin’, but to you, it’s uglier than lumpy Christmas sweaters, and reminds you of his father. Billy’s scowling, too, and if you know a scowl (they’re commonplace on your sister’s face, especially when she doesn’t get her way), he hates your guts.

“Mr. Mundy,” you start, shaking your head. “I told you that I don’t have the time for tutoring. Or the patience. He’s quite behind.”

“Yes, I know –,” Your teacher wiped a hand over his stubbled chin and huffed. “I didn’t want it to get to this… _________, if you tutor Billy, I will personally write a letter of recommendation to your preferred college, come senior year.” You look between Mr. Mundy and Billy, and, as you do this, he adds, “I’ll organise this to be written as an extracurricular –,”

“Fine.” You look at your shoes. If your Dad heard how hard you changed your mind, he’d march right into the principle’s office and demand a hearing between them both. “I better get a great recommendation.” You say, as if a curse under your breath. As Mr. Mundy goes to move, perhaps to the staff lounge for his pre-class cup of coffee, or behind the gym classroom for a sneaky cigarette with the English faculty, you add, “And if I quit one more time, I’m not tutoring him again. No matter what recommendation I get.”

Mr. Mundy walks out, mumbling in agreement. But as Billy turns to go, you address him, staring him down. “Tutoring starts at eight in the morning, my place.” Fishing in your backpack, you tear the back cover off, and write down your address. “Be there or be square.”

---

This time, you have Billy over at your house. It’s nothing much – your Dad lived sidled up to the woods in a tiny house. It has enough room for you, your Dad, his collection of music, and your little sister. It feels weird to have Billy Hargrove over, especially since you thought you rid yourself of him already. You’re set up at the dinner table when he knocks on the door, and when you greet him wordlessly, and lead him inside, you know he’s staring at you.

“What?” you ask, deadpan. “Do I have two heads?”

He shrugs, dropping into chair opposite where you’re set up. “Nothing, nerd.”

You frown, jaw set. “Okay, if I’m going to tutor you, Hargrove, we need some ground rules. Like, don’t call me a nerd. Or any names. Just _________.” You grit your teeth. “Just because I’m good at some subjects at school doesn’t mean you or Tommy H can walk all over me.”

He raises his hands in surrender. “Alright, I won’t do those things.” He wipes a hand through his long hair, and with a groan, he rolls his eyes, “Can we start? I gotta be done before noon.”

You nod, moving to take a seat. “Yeah. Um, this week was basic algebra, so I found these problems from the textbook, so we can practice some examples…” before too long, you delve into the problems, and explain the fundamentals of how to understand the problems.

When it got to ten o’clock, you noticed how hungry you had gotten, and how broken Billy’s attention was getting. It was when Billy worked on the latest batch of examples, you moved to the kitchen, and began preparing the oven for pizza rolls. Your sister had really taken to them, and there were lots of them in the kitchen. It wasn’t until you shoved them in the oven that you realised that Billy had been watching you.

“What?” you demand, hands posed upon your hips. When he doesn’t say anything, you turn to the egg timer beside the oven, and clock the right amount of time, and return to your seat opposite Billy. But he’s still staring at you. “Have you never had pizza rolls before, or…?”

He shakes his head. “You’re different.” He says, and adds, quickly, as if speaking as he’s thinking, “Every time you open your mouth.”

“What, you’ve never met someone who’s progressively more pissed off at you?” you retort, rolling your eyes. When Billy says nothing, you pick up your pencil where you left it before you got up and go back to the algebra problem you had begun to sketch out for him. “Anyways, it’s not like you’re being horrible to me now, so I’m sorry if I’m not spitting fire.”

He shrugs. “I was going to say that you’re not half bad.”

You chuckle at that. Didn’t you say that about him, before? “Don’t get soft on me, Hargrove. We’ve got limited time before the pizza rolls are ready.”

---

There’s a drive-in cinema just on the outskirts of Hawkins, and your father has the night off from work. You’d think that as police chief, he’d be able to work out more times off with his family, but no. It’s nice – you’re in the backseat of the station wagon with your sister Jane, and as you pull into the lot and pay for the tickets, you watch as Jane skirts away from a kiss goodbye from Dad when she goes off to find her friends. As you watch her find Steve Harrington’s car – your friend often took her and her friends to the movies – you clamber to the passenger seat beside your dad.

“So, what’s this movie about, again?” your dad Jim Hopper asks you, pulling on the handbrake.

You roll your eyes. “It’s in the name, Dad.” You point at the flyer you picked up at the ticket booth, pointing at the title. “Superman III. The third Superman movie. You know, about…”

“Superman?” he guesses.

You laugh, but midway, you choke on it. Because walking this way is none other than your tutee, Billy Hargrove. He’s wearing a button-down shirt that’s actually decently done up, and there isn’t a cigarette hanging out of his lip. In the split second between you noticing him and your dad noticing something’s up with you, you bend as if you’re going to tie your shoelace to hide your face. But you forget the dashboard that’s between you and your task, and you headbutt it in the effort.

You’re rubbing your sore head when Billy sees you, and, your father. His step falters, and, as if it never happened, he keeps on his path, and walks away.

“What was that?” your father asks you.

You shake your head. “Nothing, Dad.” You give him a withering look. “What, a boy looks at me, and now this?”

He nods in earnest. “Yes, _________. Because that’s the Hargrove boy who’s always making trouble around town.” He replies, and narrowing his eyes, he adds “Don’t tell me you’re friends with him.”

“No!” you cry out. “No.”

But internally, you’re not sure. Now at school, he actually acknowledges you in the hallways, and when you meet up at Hawkins library for tutoring – a neutral location that isn’t his house with Max or his father around, nor your family – he’s, well, not an asshole. Passably nice. You’re not sure if it’s because you’re seeing less bruises on him when you meet up, or if it’s because you’re not noticing his bloodied knuckles wrapped around a lead pencil anymore, but whatever it is, it’s working.

“Alright then,” your dad raises both his hands in surrender. “Sorry, kiddo. I just don’t want you mixing with the wrong crowd, you know?”

You frown, facing your father. “I know you mean well and all, Dad, but I’m not a kid anymore. I can be friends with nice Nancy Wheeler, quiet Jonathan Buyers, cool Steve Harrington and bad Billy Hargrove if I wanted to.” You look at your lap. In a quiet voice, you add, “besides, I think I am.”

“Didn’t you just say…?”

“I’ll be right back,” you tell your dad.

Before he can protest, you dash out of the car, following where you saw Billy walk off earlier. Weaving through the parked cars on the open field, you stand on tip-toes, trying to see where he got off to. You can see Mr. Clarke’s car parked nearby, Tommy H and Carol making out beside the popcorn booth on the edge of the field, but no Billy.

“Didn’t know you came here,” you hear a family voice behind you.

Turning, you see him. He’s holding a small popcorn, and in the other hand, a packet of sweets. A girl beside him groans when she realises Billy has stopped walking, and tugs at his sleeve.

“C’mon, the movie’s starting!” she urges.

Billy shakes his head, “Yeah, I know Max.” He passes her the food, and adds, “You go back to your friends, I just want to say hi.” She makes a face, but silently walks away. When it’s just you and Billy, standing between stranger’s cars at the drive-in, you clear your throat, unsure where to go from here. You hadn’t thought it this far. “Hi.” He says, after a beat.

You give him a little smile. “Hi, Billy.” Nervously, you bite your lip, and add quickly, “Um, are you here with your sister?” you ask, watching as the little girl walks away to Steve Harrington’s car where the other kids are hanging out.

He nods, playing with his shirtsleeve. “Yeah, just dropping her off.” He chuckles, looking at you. “I didn’t know you came out here.”

You shrug. “Didn’t you hear? Video killed the radio star.” He laughs at that, but after, neither of you say a thing. A beat passes between the both of you, and you speak up. “You know, if your dad gets too much for you, my Dad can step in.” you say, voice low so anyone listening in around can’t hear.

Billy frowns. “Wait…that guy who you were with in the car – your dad is –,”

You nod, pocketing your hands. “Yeah. Chief Hopper.” you shrug. “Well. If that’s not enough of a buzzkill in itself, I’m sure you’re itching to go back into town to hang out with your friends…” you say.

He shrugs. “Or I could hang out with you.” He says. “if that’s cool.”

You blink, unsure if what you’re feeling is shock. “Yeah, um. I’m just here to watch the movie.” You motion to where your dad is parked with your shoulder, and add, “Would it be more of a buzzkill if we watched it with my dad…?” you propose. “He won’t admit it, but he’s lonely without my sister and me.”

Billy takes a deep breath, and after a moment’s consideration, he says, “What the hell, why not.”

You watch Superman III in the backseat of the police station wagon, ignoring your father’s wide eyes. When it comes to the credits, you ignore Jane’s wide eyes, as well as the quiet stares of her friends, including Max and Steve Harrington. The drive home is quiet too, with the exception of the moment in which your dad took the key out of the ignition once you all got back to the house.

“If _________ has a boyfriend, I want to kiss Mike.” Jane pipes up.

In the rear-view mirror, you watch your father’s face pale. “No!”

[splend-aros]

SPLEND-AROS IN 2019

tl;dr: I know I have a tendency to ramble so skip to the bottom of the post where the new schedule will be bolded for the really important details! (If you're on desktop, you can hit the j key to go to the next post, then scroll up a bit to see it.)

Remember when I said big changes were coming? Well, here they are!

Running this project takes a lot of effort from the mods. Both Mod Sam and I (Mod A) are busy people, and I've only become busier after beginning college this past fall. In order to keep splend-aros sustainable, I need to slow down the pace of affirmations to make the project something I enjoy and something I can achieve. I've been feeling sort of burned out recently. So, to solve this issue we've come up with a new schedule for the blog.

Beginning January 1, 2019, affirmations will no longer be posted daily. Don't worry - affirmations are NOT going away!! Instead, they will be posted bi-weekly, every Monday and Friday. This will allow me to write them in batches per month instead of per week, and reduce the amount of affirmations I need to write so it feels less like churning out positivity and more like thoughtfully crafting what those posts are supposed to be: affirmations of the arospec experience.

Just like now, daily aro posts (art, positivity, jokes, etc) will be in the queue. You can can count on daily content from us in the form of reblogs!

And finally, the biggest change, to compensate for daily affirmations, are weekly discussion prompts. Every Wednesday, we will post a question, topic, or issue that we will prompt our followers (that's you!) and the rest of the aro community to discuss. You can do that by replying to the post, reblogging it with an addition, sending in an ask or submission (anonymously or not), or making your own post and tagging us in it. Responses and discussions based off another person's post are encouraged!

We will do our best to reblog each response we get in the form of reblogs+additions and original posts that we are tagged in (using the tracked tag #splendaros - note that there is NO DASH and NO SPACE in that tag!). We will post all asks and submissions we get. If you don't want us promoting your response, please utilize the reply function or mention in the body of your post (or in the tags) that you don't want us to reblog it. We will, of course, take down any reblog that you are not comfortable with.

I (Mod A) will do my best to add my own response to each prompt, but I will do so not on this blog but on my own personal aro blog, @arogimli.

Those of you only interested in affirmations and not discussion posts, don't fret! We will tag discussion-related posts as #wdp, #prompt response, and with the number of the discussion prompt related to the post (ex: #wdp1 response). You can blacklist those tags using tumblr's blacklisting system, the New X-kit blacklist tool, or tumblr savior. (Personally, I use tumblr savior, but I know X-kit is effective too. I don't know about tumblr's system; staff is bad enough with code that I wouldn't trust it unless you're an exclusively mobile-blogger.)

If you are not aromantic, arospec, or questioning, you are of course welcome to follow the blog but we do ask that you please refrain from adding your two cents to these discussions. If you have questions, you can direct them to me (Mod A) @amazingaro or @arogimli. This is meant to build discussion within the aromantic community!

All these changes will be occurring right here, on the splend-aros blog. There is no need to follow another blog or unfollow this one! The content will change a bit, but we will still be posting in the same feed.

If you have any suggestions for ways we can make the blog better, please do not hesitate to send them in!

In particular, I'm curious as to whether you think we should reblog all of the responses to discussion prompts to this blog - would that interrupt the flow of the blog, or boost more discussion?

Currently, doing so is the plan, but if you don’t think it’s a good idea please write in. Additionally, depending on how much discussion we get, I'm not sure if I can sit down each day and go through all those reblogs, so we might consider adding another mod for that purpose.

Or maybe the discussion prompts won't be super successful, in which case we'd love to hear from you about what you'd want instead of them!

And, as always, we LOVE hearing from you! If there's something you want to talk to us about or you have a suggestion for an affirmation, our ask box is always open and I (Mod A) am available to talk to privately @arofili or @arogimli and I take advice asks @amazingaro.

If you have any ideas for affirmations (or discussion prompts!) PLEASE contact us! We want to serve the aro community by directly affirming your lived experiences. I draw on my own experiences and those I observe to write these affirmations, but hearing from you directly is incredibly helpful. Feel free to just send in a topic or a post that got your thinking (tag us in it, or send it to me privately @arogimli, though if you do that please tell me it's for this blog) OR you can write an affirmation yourself (+ let us know if you want us to credit you)!

Thank you so much for understanding, and for your patience and support of this blog! It means so much.

♡♡♡♡♡ Mod A

Here is our weekly schedule! Sundays: aro post (reblog) Mondays: aro post (reblog) + affirmation Tuesdays: aro post (reblog) Wednesdays: aro post (reblog) + discussion prompt Thursdays: aro post (reblog) Fridays: aro post (reblog) + affirmation Saturdays: aro post (reblog)

[avanesbitt537-blog]

‎FLAC MP3 Converter On The Mac App Store

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is a measurement-compressed however lossless digital audio format with smaller file measurement than uncompressed lossless codecs like WAV FLAC is presently nicely-supported by many software purposes and hardware assist is rising. The bitrate of the MP3s this program makes is so bad I might quite put 500MB of FLACs on my cellphone than take heed to the horse crap this program spits out. After trying many purposes, we realized that VLC Media Player is able to changing audio and video information, too, which is great information contemplating we already had the software put in and we guess most of you do, too. Usually FLAC files are used by music fanatics, audiophiles, music producers, sound editors, and audio engineers, but there are different uses for them as effectively, virtually at all times related to both recording, modifying, or listening to absolutely the highest high quality audio version of a track or audio monitor. HandBrake has a few benefits over the Lion Automator and iTunes strategies. The primary is that it could possibly convert video files not natively supported by the Mac OS. You'll be able to, for instance, convertavi andmkv information. It also means that you can batch process files. Just select a file you wan to transform and click the Add To Queue button at the prime of the HandBrake window. Then add every other recordsdata you wish to convert, utilizing this same Add To Queue button. Once you're ready, simply click Begin. HandBrake will set about converting all the files within the queue. Run Free FLAC to MP3 Converter firstly, merely click on the "Add Media Recordsdata" button to pick out audio recordsdata out of your onerous drive. You can even add batch audio information by clicking menu "File -> Batch Add Media Recordsdata". Step 1. To free convert FLAC to MP3 using Video Converter Free, download, set up and launch the software program. Make sure that to select the Convert option earlier than utilizing the software program. Add information utilizing the Add Information choice or simply drag and drop the information on the primary interface. FLAC, or Free Lossless Audio Codec, is an audio format that compresses music files without losing any knowledge. However, as is the case with most lossless codecs, the information are often quite giant and may fill your storage space with only a few albums. Additionally, the FLAC format is not broadly supported on cell devices, so you may need to flip your FLAC recordsdata into the extra widely supported MP3 format to be on the secure facet. The easiest option to get this accomplished is through the use of Movavi Video Converter.

Large-scale digital media distributors, resembling Apple and Amazon, use DRM (Digital Rights Administration) encryption for copyright protection and to authenticate the media player you authorize to play the encrypted information. Once you purchase an album or track from iTunes, the DRM-protected file can solely play on an Apple machine that's related together with your Apple ID. If you want to play that music or album on an Android phone or pill, it's good to use a copy of the file that doesn't have DRM encryption. You possibly can tell if a file is encrypted or protected by proper-clicking on it and consulting its properties. Now go right down to Profile drop-down menu at the bottom of the window to reveal the export format record, and then select MP3 - MPEG Layer-three Audio (.mp3) from the Normal Audio checklist. With this simple-to-use converter, you'll be able to simply convert any Spotify music or flac to mp3 online playlist in simply four steps while retaining a hundred% unique high quality and ID3 tags after conversion. After that, you'll be able to freely take pleasure in Spotify music on any machine as you want. Earlier than you moved towards online instruments, we wish to introduce you to the best and probably the most beneficial desktop software for flac to mp3 online to MP3 conversion. It's Wondershare Video Converter Final which has many perks similar to video file format conversions. When put next with any free FLAC to MP3 converter online, you needn't preserve doing the tedious job of loading a web page, as the software program performs any operation swiftly. Your ALAC recordsdata possible stayed relatively small because there wasn't a lot information there for them to encode. If you had began with a lossless source (like a CD or vinyl) and encoded them to ALAC, then converted them to MP3, you'd see the files shrink so much. After I rip a CD to ALAC, it will normally use between 250mb to 750mb for a full album. My relatively small library is getting near 40gb already. Slower converting velocity than desktop FLAC converters particularly when changing a large or a number of recordsdata. WMA: Windows Media Audio is Microsoft's personal proprietary format, much like MP3 or AAC. It doesn't actually offer any benefits over the opposite formats, and it's also not as effectively supported. There's very little reason to rip your CDs into this format. Some audiophiles claim that FLAC provides you with the close to audio CD sound high quality whereas compressing the file measurement to more than 50%, making it the almost perfect" sound compression algorithm out there immediately. For those who hold around people with golden ears, you'll probably stumble into FLAC lots. Supports wide range of audio file formats comparable to AC3, AAC, MP3, FLAC, M4A, MKA, OGG, WAV, APE and so forth. A minimum of it factors out what is very important: good recordings, good original information, good converters, and, to keep away from jitter, a very good clock for the converter. To FLAC Converter can encode the unlimited number of media information and folders. Just add your audio and video for conversion. The application will maintain folders' construction, authentic tags and file names for all output MP3s. You can be supplied with detailed progress of every file's conversion and notified when encoding of all files is finished.It can be MP3, FLAC, OGG, WAV, WMV or any of the supported formats. Hello-fi: Of course, the largest benefit to FLAC recordsdata is that they're ideally suited to listening on a hi-fi machine. Allow you to regulate bitrate, sample value, channel of a audio file in order that you may reduce file dimension whereas holding audio prime quality as excessive as doable. Convert your FLAC recordsdata to MP3 audio. Bypass DVD CSS, Area Code, Multi-angle, Disney X-Challenge DRM and other advanced copy protections. Extract audio from DVD with 1:1 authentic quality preserved and convert the audio to MP3, FLAC, WAV, OGG, AAC and more with simple clicks.

[growthmktingpro-blog]

Top 10 Best Blogging Platforms for Creating and Hosting your Blog

Today, there are over 152 million blogs on the internet..

Almost all of us read blogs:

News sites and other blogs associated with big companies like CNN or Wall Street Journal

Themed blogs related to our favorite stuff like TechCrunch, Refinery29 or Hypebeast

Professional blogs of leaders in our industry  

Personal blogs: ones of our friends, travel, lifestyle and fitness blogs

Starting this blog was a turning point in my life

I was a great digital marketer and I always loved writing. So I married those two passions and took the plunge.

Today, my blog is not only one of my greatest sources of happiness but it also generates a good portion of my income! In our first year, we got 53,781 pageviews. Today, the blog is making over $15,000/month.

Maybe you’re thinking of doing the same thing. The good news: it takes less than 20 minutes to set up a blog.

But before you begin writing furiously, you need to choose the best blogging platform to create and host your blog on the internet.

Unfortunately, it’s a bit confusing because there are so many options. Choose wisely. It’s quite annoying to move your blog from what platform to another once you’ve started.  

There’s some important things to consider when choosing the right platform for creating and hosting your blog:

Ease: Blogging should be about making great content, not battling with software or settings.

Customization: If you want your blog to look a certain way, you have to be aware of the limitations of certain blogging platforms.

Support: Will it be easy to get help if/when you need it?

Search optimization: If you want people to discover you serendipitously via internet searches, there are some blogs that offer much better “search engine optimization.”

Price

Features: Some of the blogging platforms offer all-in-one solutions including website domain name and web hosting; the others just provide the Content Management System (CMS) suitable for blog publishing. Based on your goals, you need to choose the features you care about.

I’ve done the research on each of the major blogging platforms. In fact, I’ve used nearly all of them at one point or another in my career. Below is how each of them stacks up.

WordPress.org is still my favorite blogging solution. Learn to start a WordPress blog here.

But keep reading if you’re considering others.

Top 10 Best Blogging Platforms for Creating and Hosting Your Blog

1. WordPress.org

When it comes to choosing a blogging platform the first option that comes to mind is WordPress.org. In my opinion, WordPress wins the award for best all-around blogging platform.

In fact, this blog is a WordPress blog!

Believe it or not, WordPress powers 29% of the internet. By that, I mean WordPress.org powers 29% of the internet. Note that WordPress.com is not what people are talking about when they mention “WordPress.�� Curious about the difference? Read WordPress.org vs WordPress.com: What’s the Difference?

Because so many people use WordPress, there are hundreds of help websites for it and developers everywhere understand it in case you run into trouble.

WordPress excels in search engine optimization. Your blog posts are automatically organized in a way that Google crawl them (read and categorize them). This means that people across the internet are more likely to discover your content in Google searches.

WordPress also has a whole host of plugins — in fact there’s over 53,291 as of today. These plugins require no code to implement and can do things like:

Make your blog look completely different,

Add analytics so you can see user behavior

Collect email addresses from your visitors

Further improve your search engine optimization

Sell products to visitors

And just about anything else you can think of

Finally, WordPress blogs are beautiful. There are hundreds of themes to choose from so that your blog looks exactly like you want.

WordPress is one of the simplest blogging platforms.

Our guide on how to set up a WordPress blog is best-in-class and perfectly simple. Launch your blog in 20 minutes.

Pros

Suitable for beginners and professional blogs like CNN.com

Over 50,000 themes and plugins available

Search engine friendly; certain plugins make WordPress’ search optimization even more powerful from a search engine optimization perspective

Cons

Not as easy as a drag-and-drop editor like Weebly, but not very difficult

Types of blogs From fashion blogs to high powered Fortune 500 companies and everything in between, WordPress is a great solution.

Price Free, but you have to pay for hosting. Fortunately, we have a $3+ per month hosting deal thanks to our partnership with BlueHost!

Link WordPress

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O5pyFS4VTA

2. Blogger

Now owned by Google, Blogger is one of the longest-running blogging platforms on the Internet.

While the most blogging platforms offer paid features, Blogger is completely free. This platform is perfect for the beginners. It’s very easy to set up a blog and begin publishing here.

The other advantage is deep integration with Google.

You may choose the photos for your posts from the images stored within your Google account; there’s integrated Google Analytics for site stats tracking, and you can even make money on your posts by using Google AdSense option which automatically displays relevant targeted ads on your blog.

The Blogger users get unlimited space for their blogs, and the number of blogs owned by each user is also not restricted. You may even run your blog on a custom domain, which was a feature they once didn’t allow.

While the customization options are limited here, the users still have some room for the creativity. It is possible to choose from the number of the templates and to customize them by digging into HTML and CSS.

You can even edit the blog’s code to include third-party advertising.

Blogger also offers a lot of built-in tools, called widgets, which are actually Google Apps integrated with the platform. There are clocks, calendar,  Google Maps, Google Translate, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube widgets among the others.

Pros

Unlimited traffic and storage space for free

No fees for adding a custom domain

Google AdSense integration

Built-in analytics

Strong search engine optimization

Cons

Limited number of features

Limited customization

Types of blogs Best for small “hobby” blogs or “about me” blogs

Price Free

Link Blogger

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2QvwgaECps

3. Tumblr

Tumblr is positioned as one of the simplest blogging platforms. As the official site says ‘It is so easy to use that it’s hard to explain’. It’s a totally free service which offers yoursite.tumblr.com address for your blog.

There is also an opportunity to connect your own domain name.

Tumblr is not intended for the people who like to write, as it has the really tiny text field. In fact, Tumblr is more focused on a short content and thus, attracts those who are visually-oriented. It stays in the middle between the classical blogging platform and the social media feed.

It’s very straightforward to post links, mp3s, videos, Spotify tracks, photos, and any content you could possibly imagine. You can instantly see the similar posts from the other Tumblr users and share them on your blog.

Apart from the posts, one can also create pages which don’t move through the feed and thus are always accessible to the visitors. The number of pages is unlimited on Tumblr.

One of the outstanding Tumblr features is the mass editor. It’s very simple to work with the dozens of posts on one screen and make some batch actions with them. For example, you can tag, untag, or change a tag on a selected number of posts which are displayed as the thumbnails.

Tumblr is not optimized for search at all. If you want your blog to be discovered, stay away from Tumblr.

Pros

No fees for adding a custom domain

Convenient mass editor

Unlimited number of pages is possible

Your posts are advertised on the similar blogs

Cons

Limited design controls

Bad management of the comments

Types of blogs Only for bloggers who want to curate images (similar to Instagram) — not for serious blogs.

Price Free

Link Tumblr

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yv-woY0gXA

4. Medium

A lot of famous folks and influencers have chosen Medium for their blogging platform.

Created by the Twitter founders, this platform uses microblogging approach. There is one standardized template you use to publish all your posts.

It is possible to choose a grid or stream based layout for your publication, as well as add your logo, background color, or image to the header.

However, the customization options are very limited, so you’d better focus on what you write.

Medium has the robust WYSIWYG editor which recognizes key commands and formatting characters, correctly displays styles and more.

This makes it easy to use. But Medium is much better for pure written blogging than anything visual.

Once a post is published, Medium makes it simple for the other Medium readers to discover the content. The recommendations are based on the users’ interests. The readers can also easily subscribe to authors they enjoy. But Medium posts aren’t naturally very discoverable by Google, so SEO is just okay.

There are built-in analytics tools and inline commenting. You may also share your post draft with the interested users before it goes online.

Unfortunately, there is no option of using the own domain for your blog, so you can’t get the full control of your content. So you’re stuck on medium.com.

Pros

It’s easy to reach the existing Medium audience

Built-in analytics

Cons

Direct competition with other writers

Impossible to use your own domain

Just okay for search engine optimization

Types of blogs Not for business blogs or blogs that want to make money because of the lack of search optimization. Best for personal blogs.

Price Free

Link Medium

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPc4IvUlY6U

5. Ghost

Ghost is another blogging platform very focused on written content. It’s extremely minimalistic and thus clutter-free.

However, it’s much easier to use Ghost if you or someone on your team has an engineering background. The editor involves code, plus most people customize the look and feel of their Ghost blog in code. There are few plugin or theme choices out of the box.

Ghost installation is much more complicated than WordPress. You need to have the strong technical background to make it work on your domain.

Ghost(Pro) is a simpler option as you instantly get the fully working site with it. However, there is no free plan of hosted version like on WordPress.

The other thing that you should keep in mind about Ghost is the lack of the visual editor. Instead, the posts are written in Markdown which is a text-to-HTML writing syntax that translates your text into the formatted output.

Thus, you should have some idea of how to use HTML and CSS if you move forward with Ghost.

Ghost is an open source content management system made for midsize companies and up — who have engineers that can help with the look and feel of the blog.

Pros

It is seen as the fastest blogging platform

Easy writing

Clean and simple

Cons

Free version is difficult to setup

The number of themes is limited

No plugins

You must have a technical background to use ghost

Types of blogs Most businesses and personal bloggers can use Ghost. However, given that some coding is required to use Ghost, you need to be a proficient engineer.

Price Free to install on your own domain. Paid plans start at $19 per month and include 1 blog and 50,000 unique views/month.

Link Ghost

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-WToqkx7GM

6. Weebly

Weebly is not a blogging platform out of the box, but it can be transformed in one.

In actuality, Weebly is a website builder — meant for creating just about any type of website.

All setup job is done by dragging and dropping the required elements like pictures, paragraphs, videos, buttons, maps, contact forms, and more.

What you see in the site builder is what you get on your pages (WYSIWYG).

Updating the site is easy as well. Weebly includes a lot of extensions that can be added if necessary — related to ecommerce, design changes and analytics. Of course, blog functionality is among the plugins.

If you ever need advanced site features like forums, membership options, integrated advertising, or file uploads it’s pretty easy to add them as well.

The best thing about Weebly is that it supports apps made by 3rd party developers. The app center is constantly growing making it easy to find the extensions for any task.

The free version of Weebly includes weebly.com subdomain and 500 Mb of storage which is not much if you want to share images with your visitors.

Weebly offers a number of beautiful themes for all kinds of blog categories: business, academic, education, e-commerce, writer, musician, and so on.

They not only look great but also very responsive and perfectly adapt to mobile devices. And it is possible to customize them making your site to look different.

Pros

Drag-and-drop support

Affordable e-commerce functionality

A lot of extensions and third-party apps

Cons

The pages are difficult to manage if you have more than 10

There isn’t great SEO optimization

Types of blogs Better for ecommerce sites than for blogs.

Price Free. Paid plans start at $8 per month and include unlimited storage and free domain.

Link Weebly

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VnRMP7jRjY

7. Postach.io

Do you use Evernote for organizing your personal information? Then you’ll be happy to find out that there is a way to blog right from this application.

Postach.io is a simple blogging platform directly connected to Evernote. How does it work? You create Postach.io account and connect it to your Evernote account.

Then you specify which notebook will be used for writing and storing the blog posts. That’s it.

The best thing about Postach.io is that all your content is actually backed up on your computer and can be reached from Evernote.

The blogging features of Postach.io are basic. The user gets a free yoursite.postach.io domain. By default, your name and surname are used as a subdomain, but you can choose the one you like in the blog settings.

It is also possible to customize blog appearance with a number of themes, to add social profiles and cover photo, to write a blog description, to specify the purpose and category. F

or the small monthly fee, you are allowed to use your own domain as well as to protect your site with the password.

There are also some useful add-ons that can be easily added to the blog. You can power your site with Disqus comments, add analytics to your site with Google, as well as configure automatic sharing of published posts to Twitter, a Facebook page or profile. Social sharing is implemented just by ticking posts with ‘share’ tag in Evernote.

Overall, pistach.io has limited use cases and should not be used by serious bloggers.

Pros

Evernote integration

Social sharing

Google Analytics support

Password protection

Cons

Few opportunities for customization

No advertising possibilities with a free account

Types of blogs For starting your online notebook. Not for serious blogs.

Price Free. Paid plans start at $5 per month and include a custom domain, password protection, more themes, source code access.

Link Postach.io

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IamSDEpNkDY

8. Wix

Like Weebly, Wix is a website builder — it’s not a blog out of the box. But still, people do use it to power their blog.

Wix is one of the most beautiful blogging platforms.

Fully powered by HTML5, this website builder offers stunning templates for every niche you can imagine. The choice of the niche is made during the registration.

Once you tell Wix what site do you want to build it offers thematic templates for every taste.

Artists, photographers, graphic designers and other creative people are among the most loyal Wix fans because there are so many different animation options, photo galleries, video players, and so on.

With a free account, you get 500 MB of storage and the ability to create the unlimited number of static pages. Secure hosting and a mobile site are also included. The posts are created within intuitive blog editor with drag and drop support.

You can edit drafts, schedule upcoming posts, tag and categorize the posts to help the readers easily find what interests them.

Wix also offers video and photo galleries that could be embed into the posts. And you can even embed HTML code to add quizzes, polls, surveys, and other interactive content.

Pros

Great looking themes

Themes are customizable

A lot of widgets for adding new features

Cons

Free plan has too many restrictions

Wix Ads on a free plan

Types of blogs Good solution for fashion blogs and ecommerce websites.

Price Free. Paid plans start at $4.50 per month and include the custom domain. To remove Wix ads and increase the storage/bandwidth the $8.50 per month plan should be used.

Link Wix

Video https://youtu.be/pWDr1MNfJ34

9. Penzu

Most people who start blogging want to attract as many readers as possible. Best go with a blog platform that specializes in search optimization like WordPress if this is your goal.

But there are a couple blogging platforms that behave more like diaries — for people who don’t want their thoughts to be discovered by others.

Think about pregnancy or food diary, the reflective journal where all daily emotions and activities are covered, private dream journal that makes you feel happy, and so on. This is when Penzu is useful.

The service offers handy blog editor with a focus on writing. There are not too many possibilities for design customization, but basic things like colors and fonts can be changed so that your journal can look the way you please.

Mobile support is also included in the free account, so you can write your thoughts from any device. And don’t worry about the post preservation, since autosave option is also in place.

The main focus of Penzu is security. All posts are private by default. You need to use one password to access your journal and the second for editing and adding the new posts.

And if you’re really concerned about privacy, the paid plans also include encrypted journal locking. Also, Pro plans and tags for your posts, individual entry locking, PDF Export, starring entries, custom writing reminders, version history, trash recovery, and more.

Pros

Possibility to have private blog

Mobile apps for easier blogging

Cons

Pure customization options

No encryption for the free accounts

Not a real professional blog, more for writers who want to keep a diary

Types of blogs Penzu is more of a personal diary. Not for serious blogs.

Price Free. Paid plans start at $2+ per month and include multiple journals, added security, reminders, and journal customization.

Link Penzu

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGVh4ckt6M0

10. Pen.io

Like Penzu, pen.io is geared toward bloggers who don’t want necessarily want others finding their content. The search optimization is not good, but that is by design.

Registering and setting up for Pen.io is incredibly easy.

It is an extremely minimalistic approach to publish your thoughts and to share them in seconds. This platform is also handy for the or online resumes, anonymous letters, lecture notes and so on.

How does it work? Think about services for temporary files sharing. It’s almost the same, but for the blog posts. You need to enter your page title and password which could be used later for editing the entry. Write your post and add images from your computer (drag and drop is supported), then save.

You’ll get the unique link to the post that can be shared with other people. You may also create multi-page posts using tags. No user account, to blog customization, just the pages with the content. The page can be edited by clicking the link at the bottom.

It is not search optimized.

Pros

No registration required to create blog posts

Simple editing

Cons

No customization for the blog

Once the editing password is forgotten, it couldn’t be restored

No social sharing

Not search engine friendly

Types of blogs Pen.io is more of a personal diary. Not for serious blogs.

Price Free

Link Pen.io

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9fyf3hDyyI

Conclusion

When you are just thinking of your own blog you really have the freedom of choice.

Of course, if you’re a novice it’s important to choose the blogging platform that is easy to set up and customize. But it is always a good thing to look ahead because switching the platform is not easy when your blog is already running.

So, before making your choice, try to visualize your blog in the future.

Could it grow into something bigger (online store etc.)?

Are you considering advertising option on the site?

Do you want to own all your content and have an access to it and thus, ready to buy a domain? Answers will definitely help you to choose the best option.

There’s a reason most bloggers use WordPress. It has the out-of-the-box features and flexibility to serve your needs today or however you decide to grow in the future. See the guide by clicking below.

–> How to Set Up a WordPress Blog: Easy Step-by-Step Guide <–

Originally published on www.growthmarketingpro.com: 

https://www.growthmarketingpro.com/top-10-best-blogging-platforms-creating-hosting-blog/

[meltedmagazine]

AN INTERVIEW WITH HOOPS

      LISTENING TO HOOPS IS LIKE MELTING INTO A DAYDREAM. THIS BLOOMINGDALE BASED TRIO IS COMPOSED OF DREW AUSCHERMAN, KEAGAN BERESFORD, AND KEVIN KRAUTER. READ OUR CONVERSATION WITH BASSIST KEVIN FRESH FROM THEIR SUMMER TOUR. FROM BASEMENT TO STUDIO, LISTEN TO THEIR LATEST RELEASE ROUTINES.

________________________________________________________________

YOU RECENTLY WRAPPED UP YOUR FIRST US HEADLINE TOUR! HOW WAS THAT?      It was awesome! It was really fun, way more stressful than I expected and way more people coming out to shows then we thought which was really cool!

HOW HAS BEING THE HEADLINING BAND BEEN DIFFERENT?

    It's a little more pressure as far as getting places on time, you have to be in charge of setting up for the night and looking after the bands that we’re with, although the bands we’re with do fine on their own but you know. There’s kind of an older sibling feel to it, it’s really fun, having people to tour with. It makes everything a lot easier, a lot more laid back.

A GOOD BIT OF YOUR NEXT TOUR IS WITH THE DRUMS. CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THAT?

    I’m really excited about that! When we first started the band in highschool we were still pretty into them around that time and so it’s funny to be going on tour with them. They’re a great band.

ON BANDCAMP ONE OF YOUR TAGS IS SHOEGAZE, A GENRE SEEING QUITE THE RESURGENCE (OR MAYBE IT NEVER WENT OUT OF STYLE). WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS NEW WAVE SHOEGAZE MOVEMENT AND HOW IS IT EVIDENT IN YOUR MUSIC?

    Around the time we started we were playing a lot of shoegaze in other bands we were in, so ever since we were juniors and seniors in high school all of our friends were getting really into it and we all kind of got into it together. It’s something that I think a lot of people in our generation gathered around. It’s a really cool area of music to embrace and a lot of bands right now are embracing that which is cool. As far as our influence goes, it’s never been a goal to be a shoegaze band but I think it’s no matter how much we try to it’s been an influence here and there just because of how we like to play music, especially live with that spacey aspect of things. It can provide a lot of atmosphere that we’re really into. So I think it influences us pretty heavily, more so earlier on, now not as much but I think it’s still there for sure.

ORIGINALLY HOOPS WAS A SOLO PROJECT OF DREW’S. HOW DID IT TRANSITION INTO A WHOLE BAND?

    Originally it was just Drew doing ambient music in 2011 and then he started writing music for a full band and then he asked me and our former drummer James to be in a band so it was just the 3 of us at first and we were playing basically just full band beach pop shoegazey kind of stuff. Iit was a pretty easy transition because it kind of turned into something totally different at that point when we joined in because I think Drew was kind of done doing his ambient music thing, he still made some on his own after that but  I think he wanted it to be a full band thing.

WHEN YOU GUYS FIRST GOT TOGETHER AND RELEASED TAPE 2, WHAT WAS THE INITIAL REACTION TO YOUR MUSIC?

      When we first started we were in high school and then we took a break for a year and went to college, but the year after we came together and started making stuff and that’s when Drew made Tape 1, which is all the solo demo’s he made on his own. Tape 2 was some of my stuff and his and then we were just putting them online and it was just to have stuff out there because at that point we weren’t touring at all, we were just playing around Indiana and Michigan. So it was just putting it out for us and our friends and it got some attention here and there from other people. It wasn’t until a few months after we started the third tape that we got hit up by Fat Possum and started that whole process.

HOW HAS YOUR RECORDING PROCESS CHANGED NOW THAT YOU ARE SIGNED WITH FAT POSSUM?

      We put out an EP with Fat Possum last August and that was a pretty similar process to doing the tapes cause we pretty much did it all by ourselves, besides the fact that we had a label keeping tabs on it and giving us pointers. Even with the album we went to a studio for a little bit but then did most of it on our own. We were working on it by ourselves for a while and then we’d send a batch of songs to the label to give us pointers and we’d work on whatever they were talking about. That was definitely different and it got stressful at times cause we weren't used to being told what to do, not that they were super overbearing or anything but it got a little frustrating. Ultimately we’re all grateful for it because we’d never had that sort of constructive criticism of what we were making before. It was definitely something to get used to but it was nice to have for sure.

SO YOU DID SOME OF IT IN THE STUDIO AND SOME IN THE BASEMENT? WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE TO CONTINUE TO DO IT AT HOME?

     Originally the label suggested going to the studio and then send it to someone else to mix it. But we got to the studio and it was just a little more difficult then we expected because there's so much at our disposal that we didn’t know where to start. We usually have a mode of working when we’re by ourselves at home where we could get stuff done very quickly but also take our time with a lot of things. When we were in the studio we had a time and a schedule we had to rush things a little bit, coupled with the fact that we didn’t really have any experience in a studio made it difficult for sure. When we left the studio  the label decided that they wanted us to just do the rest on our own because they really liked how the EP  turned out so they changed their mind a little bit so we could finish things on our own which I think is a good decision. We were able to  add our own personal sort of touch to everything and work the way we were used to. After being in the studio and being in an unfamiliar environment it was nice to be able to come home and focus on it like we’re used to.

IN YOUR OWN WORDS, WHAT IS ROUTINES?  

    There wasn’t really a huge unifying theme behind the songs, a lot of the songs were thrown together and some are really old, the first track is almost three years old. All of the songs came from all over the place because there wasn’t really a set time where we sat down and wrote the album, we just picked the song from our collection of stuff that we had laying around. At the same time it's pretty exemplary of what we were sounding like and what we were doing at the time. Routines is a pretty good summary of our catalog prior to release. I think with our next album we're going to try to be a little more unified and consistent with how we’re writing and recording. With Routines a lot of it was sort of on accident - us just rolling with different things, changes of plans in the studio, just figuring everything as we’re going. We had to finish it and deal with it which is not a bad thing, but it’s kind of a thrown together mishmash.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON CASSETTE TAPES?

     When we were making the tapes before we were signed it was a really easy + cheap way to get music out on a physical platform. Having a physical form of music is fun - people seem to really like having something to hold and look at rather than downloading an album. It’s just fun and easy and it makes the whole band experience a little more fun.

WHAT IS THE MUSIC SCENE LIKE IN INDIANA?       It’s all over the place. Some of my favorite stuff has come out of Indiana + it’s an untapped source of a lot of stuff. Northwest Indiana had a really huge punk scene for a long time, Bloomington had a huge punk scene... As far as indie music is concerned, Bloomington has been a huge place for that, especially being like the big college town. You need to find your niche wherever you are because there isn’t a huge overarching scene anywhere, most of which would be in Bloomington or Indianapolis. It’s sprawled out in Indiana. It’ not like New York or Chicago or any big city or big scene. There's a huge DIY mentality and any shows that happened when we were in highschool were put on in our parents basement. And then at the same time there was like an all ages sort of scene in Indianapolis that was really small but really open and inclusive. There's lot of really good stuff that flies under the radar since it’s not a big city.

HOW HAS BEING IMMERSED IN THAT SCENE INFLUENCED YOU AS A BAND?

      It’s definitely encouraged us to branch out and be as creative as we want to be cause you can do whatever you want since there isn't a huge market or crowd to appeal to. From the start we’ve been putting our music online, same as any other band in Indiana, so  your audience is people all over the place on the internet, it’s not like you’re overly concerned with catering to a local geographic audience other than playing shows. As far as a local scene, when we were playing a lot of shows in Bloomington,you’re just playing house shows to college kids and that whole scene is really easy to find people that are into what you’re doing. There’s a lot of freedom to just experiment cause it’s not a super formal thing. I like being a band in Indiana. Went to California on this last tour and it was very weird being a headliner band in a big city. We played in New York at our sold out show at Baby’s All Right, which is really awesome but at the same time it was kind of weird, cause we’re from fricking corn town USA, it’s very rural affluent suburb it’s conservative bullshit. It’s not a big cultural hub like New York but it’s like ‘we’re here we’re doing our stuff’ so it’s just kind of funny to come from such a different place but be able to relate to people in big cities that are so different.

WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON THE ROLE OF MUSIC VIDEOS IN THE CONSUMPTION OF MODERN MEDIA?

     I’ve always loved music videos. I used to watch the MTV music video and VH1 vdieo hour like all the time. When we started making videos for Hoops you realize how much work goes into that process it’s not just like ‘alright we have a cool idea let's make it happen.’ There's a lot of variables that go into it but at the end of the day it’s definitely fun to see your music contextualized in a video format or in a narrative. It’s cool cause it’s a totally different medium to express your music or ideas through and it's just fun. In every music video we’re definitely had a good amount of artistic freedom with what we want to do.

IS THERE ONE IN PARTICULAR YOU REALLY LOVE?

     We had a lot of fun doing the “On Top” video with a guy from Indianapolis, Jake Huber, who's now a good finds of ours. He reached out to us and said ‘hey I’m a videographer in Indianapolis, I really like your music, I’d be really down to help you guys make a video for like no money at all.’ He was just super stoked to make it and had this goofy idea for the video that we were immediately totally down with so we just started bouncing ideas back and forth of how we wanted everything to work out. We went to the Fort Wayne Indiana public library and rented out this little public access TV studio. Originally we wanted to do it at this weird church in Popilius which had this TV stage and it looked like a 90’s family sitcom living room and we were really excited to use it but Jake was talking to the church and it came down to them being like ‘I don’t think the band represents Christian values’ or something. But the public access stage in Fort Wayne ended up being a really a great place to shoot.

WHAT IS IT LIKE BEING A MUSICIAN IN THE 21ST CENTURY?     Weird because there's so much content available on social media and stuff you can do so much and you can be putting stuff out whether it's music or pictures or information about what you’re doing. You can be so present but you can also withhold a lot of what you’re doing. I don’t know I think with all the social media stuff it’s a whole medium in of itself with how you communicate and present yourself as a public entity and as a band I think there are ways that we’re trying to figure out how to creatively go about presenting ourselves on social media. For a while it was something that we didn’t want to fuck with at all but our label wanted us to get a twitter and instagram and facebook and we were like ‘fuck that! We just want a blogspot or some shit’ You know we don’t want to worry about any of that. But then we ended up getting all of those and it’s been fun getting to make an image for yourself and getting to curate what you share it’s almost our own medium communication. .

LISTEN TO HOOPS HERE

INTERVIEW by SAMANTHA SULLIVAN

[driveaugust1-blog]

Buttermilk Buckwheat Waffles

BEST WAFFLES OF MY LIFE.

And on top fo their amazing taste…they’re also gluten-free, dairy-free and refined sugar-free! Yes, ladies and gents, these are the unicorn of all brunch foods. Guaranteed to bring smiles alllllll around the table!

I made these for my husband and I this past Sunday, and we devoured the whole batch between the two of us. My husband is a hungry, hungry man, so he had FOUR square (small-ish) waffles and I had the remaining two. 💁🏻‍♀️

Now, if your family doesn’t eat like starved human beings like us, then this recipe should be perfect for four people. Plus, the waffles pair up nicely with any kind of egg recipe and with generous servings of fruit, so one batch of these will go a long way.

The recipe makes six square and small waffles, so if one of your four family members wants a repeat, there are two remaining waffles for that. Always nice to have those extras around!

If you’re in college, live alone or just want to make these for you, you’ll probably have a few left that can serve you as an awesome ready-to-go snack for any time of day or for breakfast the next day (and the day after that!). These should last fresh for about 4 days when refrigerated.

The hubby and I topped our waffles with fresh blackberries we picked up from the farmer’s market, with cacao nibs we brought straight from a cacao farm in Ecuador, and with a good pour of pure maple syrup.

They legit were heaven on earth.

The combination of the cacao and the berries was delightful, and that added sweetness from the maple syrup really took our waffles to that next-level good.

The waffles are a bit dense, yet airy and fluffy. The fun ingredients in them, like the sea salt, coconut, buckwheat and sunflower seed buttermilk stand out and shine together. Yes, you read that right: SUNFLOWER SEED BUTTERMILK. Yep. You’ll be making sunflower seed buttermilk first for these waffles to use as an ingredient. Don’t you think for a second that it’s complicated though! It literally takes one second and is super easy to make. So feel excited…and proud…because you’ll be making dairy-free BUTTERMILK at home. For your homemade waffles!

That drippy maple syrup though. OMG. If you’re into breakfast foods that are sweet and comforting and healthy, this one was made for you.

A lot of you may have never tried buckwheat before, so let me share a bit about this wonderful ingredient. It’s a favorite of ours!

I first tried buckwheat groats and buckwheat flour when my nutritionist had me follow a very strict diet to get my gut back to health. Prior to the diet, my nutritionist had me take a comprehensive blood test to test my food sensitivities and find out which foods were causing inflammation to my system. Once we got the results back, we removed the foods that were highly inflammatory to me, stuck with the ingredients that were the least inflammatory to my system (I was only allowed twenty of them for two weeks straight…and one was sea salt; I wads very limited to say the least.) and after only two weeks, all the inflammation was gone and I was able to function properly again. I had no  bloat, gut issues, digestive issues, NADA. I was so happy!

You can read more about my story here.

Anyway, buckwheat was one of those twenty ingredients I was allowed to have on the two weeks I was put on a strict diet, as it was an ingredient that caused no inflammation to my body. Buckwheat worked well for me during those two weeks, not only because my body reacted really well to it, but also because it was a naturally gluten-free starch that I loved using for breakfast and snack recipes.

I got creative in the kitchen (with my 20 allowed ingredients) and was making crepes, granola, bread and pancakes out of buckwheat. Buckwheat was one of the few starches I had available to me during those two weeks, so I really learned how to cook it and use it well. And I was thrilled.

You can say buckwheat was one of the ingredients that helped save my life, and one that brought much, much joy to my diet. 🤗

Here are some fun facts about buckwheat:

Buckwheat is not a grain. In fact, it’s not even related to wheat. Buckwheat is a pseudocereal that is related to rhubarb or sorrel.

Since it’s not actually a wheat, it’s a good food option for those with gluten sensitivity.

Good source of iron and magnesium, and high in starches, protein and fibre.

It contains phytonutrients that are useful in lowering elevated blood cholesterol level and high blood pressure.

The flavonoids from the buckwheat have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancerogenic properties.

It has a strong, nutty flavor.

It can be consumed in the form of porridge or used as a substitute for rice. Buckwheat can be also ground into dark-colored flour (which is what we are using for these waffles!).

For these waffles you’ll need a waffle maker, a blender, mixing bowls and about 25 minutes from beginning to end. Not too bad, considering the majority of those 25 minutes is allowing the batter to sit for 10 minutes and the other 5 is spend letting the waffle maker do it’s thing.

They are really easy and totally worth making. If you and your family are into breakfast or brunch or brinner, I highly recommend you add these to the menu.

If you do end up making these waffles, be sure to take a quick photo of them and tag me on Instagram or Facebook so I can see your waffle creations. I’d love to see how yours turned out!

Yep, that is me below, taking pictures of my waffles on a beautiful summer Sunday morning. With my leg on our fancy dining chair and all. Haha.

Buttermilk Buckwheat Waffles

Author: Mariel Lewis

Recipe type: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

1 cup buckwheat flour

1 tbsp coconut sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp sea salt

½ tsp cinnamon

4 tbsp coconut oil, melted

2 large eggs

1 ¼ cup filtered water

1 ½ tbsp sunflower seed butter

1 tbsp + ¾ tsp white vinegar

Place water and sunflower seed butter in a small blender and blend on high for about 2 minutes. Pour mixture in a bowl and add in vinegar. Let sit for 5 minutes. This will become your dairy-free buttermilk!

Preheat waffle iron.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the buckwheat flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, eggs and dairy-free buttermilk.

Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir together until smooth. Let batter sit for 5 to 10 minutes.

Pour batter onto the hot waffle iron and cook per waffle maker instructions. Repeat with remaining batter as necessary.

Serve with berries, cacao nibs and maple syrup!

3.5.3226

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Source: https://www.amazingpaleo.com/2018/07/06/buttermilk-buckwheat-waffles/

[wjwilliams29]

21 Effective Low Effort & High Return SEO Techniques for 2019

Ranking high takes both time and effort. But there are some SEO techniques out there that are easy to implement and will definitely bring some results. The best part? You can probably do everything yourself.

  Spoiler alert, though: many of them include basics. During the years we have observed something rather shocking. Many clients that I’ve picked up had paid big time for search engine optimization services in the past. To my surprise, however, basic things like keywords in titles were missing.

Now before you start, you can always perform an audit. It’s not actually something easy to do, depending on the size of your website, but it will help you prioritize your actions in order to save time. Depending on each individual situation, different actions in the list below might not be useful or might not apply to your case.

  Optimize Your Titles and Headings

Prioritize Pages in Website Navigation

Add Breadcrumbs to Your Pages

Implement Tracking on Your Site

Install an SSL Certificate

Secure Your Maps Listing

Compress & Optimize Your Images

Increase Site Speed

Interlink Your Pages with Keyword Rich Anchor Texts

Link to Relevant, Authority Websites

Secure Your Social Media Profiles

Increase The Shareability of Your Pages & Posts

Share Other People’s Content

Ask Friends and Customers for Reviews

Custom Design Your 404

Post Fresh, High Quality Content

Update/Improve Existing Content

Repurpose Existing Content

Make Your Website Mobile Friendly

Invest in advertorials with nofollow backlinks

Acquire Your Competitors’ Backlinks

  1. Optimize Your Titles and Headings

  As mentioned in the introduction, I was often surprised to see that although some of my clients had paid big money for SEO services in the past, basic optimization things like keyword research and title optimization were not performed.

  These being said, make sure your pages are targeting the proper keywords. The title tag has the most weight in search engine optimization, so make sure your keyword is there. The closer the most important keyword is to the beginning, the better. After that, you need to add the proper keywords to your Headings as well. The H1 is the most important heading so it should be the first thing on a page. In many cases, it’s the same as the title, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be.

    If you have a PPC campaign running, you can inspire yourself from those titles. Many people think that PPC titles are unfit for SEO, but the truth is that the PPC titles are focused on conversion, which will benefit SEO greatly.

  Same thing goes for the meta descriptions. Optimize the meta descriptions to convince people to click your link. Make sure you have your keywords there as well, otherwise the chances of it showing up are much lower.

  Once you get a hold of it, you can start targeting multiple keywords with one page. Although this article doesn’t really target multiple keywords, we could say that this title is optimized for “effective seo techniques”, “seo techniques” and “seo techniques 2019”.

  This is a great thing, because you can focus on writing bigger pieces of content instead of many smaller ones. Google loves longer content. 

  2. Prioritize Pages in Website Navigation

  Navigation is the most important structure element on your entire website. Why? Well, because it’s the first thing linking to your ‘other’ pages and it’s usually at the very top of the page, giving those links a lot of weight.

  You can see, for example, that pages optimized for some of our most important keywords are linked to right from the navigation menu. These links are found on every page on the website, making those pages look very important in Google’s eyes.

    That’s actually one of the reasons the Homepage has such high authority on all sites. It’s because, usually, the logo on every page links to it.

  3. Add Breadcrumbs to Your Pages

  Adding breadcrumbs can be very beneficial to your website, especially if it’s an eCommerce one. This is due to the fact that they create structure within your site.

  Most, if not all online stores, link their products from their category pages. This means that the category pages send some equity to the product pages, making them stronger. Not a bad thing, overall.

    However, I’m pretty sure though that you want your category pages to rank high, because those are the ones optimized for the keywords with the most search volume. With Breadcrumbs, you will consolidate the strength of your Category pages by linking to them with all your subcategories and related products.

  If you’re using a CMS, things are pretty easy. Most templates already come with breadcrumbs, so make sure you check the template’s settings first. If not, you can search the web for “Your CMS Platform” + “breadcrumbs plugin/extension/module”. I’m sure there’s something out there for you.

  On a custom platform you might not be able to do it yourself without coding knowledge. However, a programmer should be able to do it pretty quick, so it won’t be a big expense.

  4. Implement Tracking on Your Site

  Tracking is extremely important. If you don’t track your rankings and traffic, you can’t spot the issues with your website.

  What pages do the users leave quickly? You know you can improve those first, especially if the search volume for them is high!

  Also, if you don’t monitor your organic search traffic you can’t know if you’re making any progress and, worse, you won’t know if the search engines penalized you or your rankings have dropped.

  You can use Google Search Console and Google Analytics to monitor your organic search traffic and issues with your pages. They’re fairly easy to install as long as you have access to your server. You might even be able to install them via a plugin for your CMS. I recommend using Google Tag Manager to implement all tracking codes. They will be easier to manage afterwards.

  If you want to go to the next level, you can try things like HotJar, which creates a heatmap of where your users click most on a page. However, that’s a lot harder to understand and improve correctly, so an experienced person is required.

  5. Install an SSL Certificate

  SSL has become a ranking factor since 2014. If you’re wondering why, the answer is pretty simple. Because of security. Cybercrime has been on the rise constantly and more and more people share more and more sensitive data on the web.

  Installing an SSL should be pretty easy. Most of the time, your hosting provider can help you. However, there is a simpler solution which is also free: CloudFlare. You simply have to change your domain’s nameservers to point out to CloudFlare and then CloudFlare will act as a filter, blocking spam and bad IPs from reaching your server.

  Beware, though! Migrating to HTTPS can cause some serious SEO issues!

  If you want to know more, you can read this detailed guide about migrating from HTTP to HTTPS.

  6. Secure Your Maps Listing

  This isn’t something that people will be able to ‘steal’ from you very easily, but it will provide your website with great value. Using Google MyBusiness you can get your website listed multiple times on Google.

    Not only that, but it will also link back to your website. People will be able to find your website a lot easier if it’s not already ranking very well.

  Once you create your listing or claim ownership of it, make sure you fill out all the required details correctly. You should also add nice pictures of your location, products and team. This helps building trust with your clients.

  7. Compress & Optimize Your Images

  Images take up the most physical space on your server. That means they also take the most physical space on your user’s device, which means they also take the most time to load.

  Slow loading times greatly impact your conversions and images really take the longest to load.

  There are two ways an image takes up too much space. First, it’s not compressed in its physical size on the disk. So you can have two images that look the same, but one has 1MB and the other has one fifth of a MB.

  How is this possible? Well, I’m not sure how image compression works, but it makes images smaller in size on the disk without reducing their size or quality on the screen. You can use plugins such as Smush for WordPress, or image compression tools like ShortPixel which have APIs. You can also compress your images every time you upload them using TinyPNG. If you can’t connect a tool, just download batches of images (if you don’t have thousands) compress them and then reupload them to your server.

    Then, of course, you have the size on the screen. A 2000 by 2000 pixels image will take up more physical disk space than a 500 by 500 pixels image. Therefore, don’t load a 2000x2000px image and shrink it to 500x500px using CSS. The browser will have to download an image 4 times larger than it needs.

  To make this work with responsive designs, you can research the “srcset” HTML attribute. You can use it to only download specific images on specific screen sizes.

  8. Increase Site Speed

  Although images have the most impact, there are other elements that can affect your site’s loading speed. Most of the time it’s related to files, but other times it can be because of PHP conflicts or database queries taking very long to load.

    To avoid conflicts and slow database loading times, you can try and limit your plugin use to the very minimal. Do you have a lot of unnecessary plugins and extensions? Get rid of them. Do you think something looks nice on your site, but you rarely every use it or it provides little value? Get rid of it.

  You can start by removing your slider plugin, for example. Replace the slider with a static image and a CTA button. Why? Well, it turns out that sliders kinda suck! People rarely click on those offers, they take up a lot of space and resources and they can be very annoying when you’re reading something and the image shifts automatically.

    Some other things you can do to increase your site’s speed include having a great hosting provider and minimizing the resources needed to load a page. You can use PageSpeed Insights and GT Metrix to monitor these issues.

  Some are easy to fix and some are not. For example, a caching and file minification plugin like W3 Total Cache (for WordPress) can be useful. You can use this guide to set it up properly. However, beware of possible CSS and JS issues and conflicts that might mess up your design and functionality. Usually, disabling minification will fix the issue, but have a backup of your files and database before you change anything!

  In Page Speed Insights check your server’s response time. If multiple tests show that the response time is over 2.5 seconds, you can consider switching to a better hosting provider.

  You should also take a look at this Technical OnPage SEO Guide. Not everything there is easy to implement, but considering that it’s OnPage SEO, you have complete control over it, so it’s worth doing!

  9. Interlink Your Pages with Keyword Rich Anchor Texts

  Interlinking is one of the most effective SEO techniques out there. You can use it to link to important pages using specific anchor texts. This has a lower risk than building backlinks on keyword rich anchor texts and, more importantly, you have absolute control over it.

  Whenever you add new content, make sure you link to other relevant pages within your website. Vice-versa, go edit some old pages from your site and add links to your new content, if relevant.

  If you have thousands of pages, it can be hard to interlink, but you can use plugins such as Interlink Manager. Make sure you also check out this guide about interlinking.

  10. Link to Relevant, Authority Websites

  I know you’d rather prefer other websites linking to you, but just as with the social media example, you’ll have to share other people’s content in order to get linked to yourself.

  This can actually improve your SEO. Why? Well, it’s because Google works on backlinks! That’s how it finds good content and figures out which content is worth ranking at the top. That’s why Google encourages webmasters to link to great content

  11. Secure Your Social Media Profiles

  Although you’ll only probably use one or two of them, it’s a good idea to secure as many as possible. Social Media profiles are a great way of getting some initial backlinks to your website.  Sometimes you might even lose the name if someone else (like a competitor) registers it before you.

    The most popular ones are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn. However, depending on your niche, you can consider Reddit or any other niche oriented social media platform, such as SoundCloud or Yelp.

  However, for the links on the social media profiles to be effective, you’ll need to get shares, retweets, pins, etc.

  12. Increase The Shareability of Your Pages & Posts

  If you want to get more traffic to your website, you have to use social media to get viral. Even if people read your content and like it a lot, they might not bother sharing it if you don’t facilitate the process.

  Add share and like buttons on your pages. Focus on the platforms most relevant to your site instead of adding as many as possible. Again, if you have a CMS, there’s a plugin there for you!

  You can also add CTAs within your content. There’s a nice SEO strategy called locked content. You can unlock that with a share. While locking the content you said you’d provide in the title is a very bad idea (bad user experience), locking some extra PDFs or tips can definitely increase the number of shares/ tweets about your site.

  13. Share Other People’s Content

  Also, make sure you share interesting content, even if it’s not from your own website. If you want other people to share your content, you’ll have to share theirs.

    It’s better if you get shares from other pages instead of people, because personal profiles aren’t usually indexed. This means that Google won’t be able to see the backlinks created from those shares.

  14. Ask Friends and Customers for Reviews

  Now that you have your Google MyBusiness listing secured, it’s time to get some reviews. Many people ignore this and I never understand why. It’s something so easy to do!

  Although reviews are a local SEO ranking factor, the higher your listing ranks, the more value it will provide to your website and business.

  Getting good reviews is fairly easy, considering you offer quality products/services. Users are more likely to leave a negative review, so you have to work a little more. However, asking your friends to review your page on Google MyBusiness (and Facebook as well) isn’t hard. Also, everytime you have a satisfied customer, ask them to review you. You’ll be surprised, but many will do.

  15. Custom Design Your 404

  Depending on how big your site is, you might get a lot of 404s (an error message displayed by a browser indicating that an Internet address cannot be found). If people land on those 404 pages, they will inevitably leave, costing you a lot of money. One way to fix this issue is to create a custom design for you 404 page, with a Call to action in it.

  Take a look at ours, for example:

    If you have an eCommerce store, you can even add some categories, an offer, or hell, even a discount code! Now that’s going to heavily reduce the bounce rate.

  Here’s a link where you can read more about how 404 pages affect SEO.

  16. Post Fresh, High Quality Content

  It’s no secret and no rocket science. The more (quality) content you post, the more traffic you will get. However, I still see a lot of new websites that want results with SEO lacking a blog. If you only have 5 pages that list your products, chances are you won’t outrank Amazon and Walmart for “Diapers”, even if your diapers change themselves. You need to post blog posts regularly to show Google that your website is active. It’s also a great way of earning new backlinks, as people will be more likely to share those rather than your services pages.

  Countless times I’ve noticed that whenever I post new blog posts on a website, all the pages gain a little boost in their rankings, especially if the pages aren’t on the first page of Google.

    This proves (to me at least) that Google trusts websites that post regularly more. After you get to page 1, you might see what’s called the Google dance, where Google sometimes puts your page up to see how users react to it and then uses machine learning to figure out if it’s good. If they like it, you will rank higher. If they don’t and your bounce rate is very high, you’ll drop back to lower positions. Search engines are all about user experience these days.

  The secret to always coming up with new ideas and topics for content and blog posts is to try and answer customer questions. Answering questions is also a great idea to target keywords introduced through voice searches. If you haven’t answered all your customers’ questions, you should start with that!

  You’ll see that content can be written in any niche, even the shitty ones! Just take my example above… do you imagine how many parents search for “how to change a diaper” on the internet? If you don’t have a guide yet, well, you should have one! Especially if your diaper changes itself, because you can then say “ignore all this and buy my product!”.

  17. Update/Improve Existing Content

  If you already have content on your website that’s targeting a specific keyword, don’t start writing something else on the same topic. You’ll get into keyword cannibalization, when multiple pages will be competing for the same keyword (and probably none will be ranking).

  Simply improve the existing article by adding new content to it. The simple way to do it is to use CognitiveSEO’s Content Tool. Just search for the keyword you wish to target, add your title and content and hit optimize. The tool will provide you with a bunch of relevant topics and keywords you should add to your article in order to rank higher.

    Whenever you find out something new related to an article you already have on your website, make sure to write it down. You can update your article from time to time to keep it fresh.

  You can also add things like “Updated dd/mm/yyyy” to let users know that the information is not outdated.

  18. Repurpose Existing Content

  You can easily obtain new search traffic by repurposing existing content. You can turn it into a PDF and use it to build your e-mail list, or you can turn it into a video or a podcast.

    You could even use that content to share it directly on social media as a story. It’s known that a longer text without links gets more reach on platforms such as Facebook.

  Different audiences prefer different types of content format, so expanding to more than just text is a smart move, especially considering that video content demand is on the rise!

  19. Make Your Website Mobile Friendly

  This is part of those SEO tactics that aren’t really easy to do. Considering how old your website is, it might require and entire redesign, or even rebuilding from scratch.

  However, it’s worth it, since Google has recently moved to a mobile first indexing process. This means that Google will rank your pages depending on how they’re viewed by users on mobile devices.

    You can fix everything on a CMS by simple installing a responsive template. However, depending on the plugins you have installed, some functionalities might suffer from the change. It’s not really a low effort change, but it’s definitely high result!

  20. Invest in advertorials with nofollow backlinks

  “But Adrian, isn’t buying backlinks dangerous?Is this white hat SEO?”

  Well, yes. But things are different when it comes to nofollow links. The dofollow purchased links are the ones that bring trouble. Those you should earn, not pay for.

  Theoretical, search engines are aware that websites and the internet work with advertising and links. However, it does not want websites to take advantage of its organic search algorithm.

  Nofollow links remove all the risks. You no longer have to hide yourself under “informative content” and can directly promote your business through the content and advertising texts you purchase. Just make sure the content is still valuable to the reader. Don’t just buy it for the link. The more traffic it gets, the more it will benefit your site as well, so invest in quality.

  21. Acquire Your Competitors’ Backlinks

  Backlinks are very hard to get, but also very effective. Link building opportunities are not easy to found. However, there are some easy OffPage SEO strategies that allow you to acquire high quality backlinks that are proven to work.

  How?

  By using cognitiveSEO’s competitive backlink research tool. Once you analyze your website and your top competitors, you can easily identify common referring domains between the websites using our tool.

    This helps you identify websites that are prone to share content in your niche. Even if the links are purchased, you know they work if your competitors are ranking with them. Sign up for a free trial and get a list of your competitors’ best backlinks.

  Conclusion

  You’ve probably heard these SEO tips before, but the real question is have you truly tried them?

  Not all these SEO strategies might be easy to implement, but you will definitely be able to improve your rankings with them. Everything listed above doesn’t require an expert and won’t put your website in any risk of getting penalized.

  If you have any questions, I will gladly reply in the comments section. Also, I’m curious: which SEO technique above have you already used? Was it effective? Did I miss anything? Share it with us and let’s help each other!

The post 21 Effective Low Effort & High Return SEO Techniques for 2019 appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

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21 Effective Low Effort & High Return SEO Techniques for 2019

Ranking high takes both time and effort. But there are some SEO techniques out there that are easy to implement and will definitely bring some results. The best part? You can probably do everything yourself.

  Spoiler alert, though: many of them include basics. During the years we have observed something rather shocking. Many clients that I’ve picked up had paid big time for search engine optimization services in the past. To my surprise, however, basic things like keywords in titles were missing.

Now before you start, you can always perform an audit. It’s not actually something easy to do, depending on the size of your website, but it will help you prioritize your actions in order to save time. Depending on each individual situation, different actions in the list below might not be useful or might not apply to your case.

  Optimize Your Titles and Headings

Prioritize Pages in Website Navigation

Add Breadcrumbs to Your Pages

Implement Tracking on Your Site

Install an SSL Certificate

Secure Your Maps Listing

Compress & Optimize Your Images

Increase Site Speed

Interlink Your Pages with Keyword Rich Anchor Texts

Link to Relevant, Authority Websites

Secure Your Social Media Profiles

Increase The Shareability of Your Pages & Posts

Share Other People’s Content

Ask Friends and Customers for Reviews

Custom Design Your 404

Post Fresh, High Quality Content

Update/Improve Existing Content

Repurpose Existing Content

Make Your Website Mobile Friendly

Invest in advertorials with nofollow backlinks

Acquire Your Competitors’ Backlinks

  1. Optimize Your Titles and Headings

  As mentioned in the introduction, I was often surprised to see that although some of my clients had paid big money for SEO services in the past, basic optimization things like keyword research and title optimization were not performed.

  These being said, make sure your pages are targeting the proper keywords. The title tag has the most weight in search engine optimization, so make sure your keyword is there. The closer the most important keyword is to the beginning, the better. After that, you need to add the proper keywords to your Headings as well. The H1 is the most important heading so it should be the first thing on a page. In many cases, it’s the same as the title, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be.

    If you have a PPC campaign running, you can inspire yourself from those titles. Many people think that PPC titles are unfit for SEO, but the truth is that the PPC titles are focused on conversion, which will benefit SEO greatly.

  Same thing goes for the meta descriptions. Optimize the meta descriptions to convince people to click your link. Make sure you have your keywords there as well, otherwise the chances of it showing up are much lower.

  Once you get a hold of it, you can start targeting multiple keywords with one page. Although this article doesn’t really target multiple keywords, we could say that this title is optimized for “effective seo techniques”, “seo techniques” and “seo techniques 2019”.

  This is a great thing, because you can focus on writing bigger pieces of content instead of many smaller ones. Google loves longer content. 

  2. Prioritize Pages in Website Navigation

  Navigation is the most important structure element on your entire website. Why? Well, because it’s the first thing linking to your ‘other’ pages and it’s usually at the very top of the page, giving those links a lot of weight.

  You can see, for example, that pages optimized for some of our most important keywords are linked to right from the navigation menu. These links are found on every page on the website, making those pages look very important in Google’s eyes.

    That’s actually one of the reasons the Homepage has such high authority on all sites. It’s because, usually, the logo on every page links to it.

  3. Add Breadcrumbs to Your Pages

  Adding breadcrumbs can be very beneficial to your website, especially if it’s an eCommerce one. This is due to the fact that they create structure within your site.

  Most, if not all online stores, link their products from their category pages. This means that the category pages send some equity to the product pages, making them stronger. Not a bad thing, overall.

    However, I’m pretty sure though that you want your category pages to rank high, because those are the ones optimized for the keywords with the most search volume. With Breadcrumbs, you will consolidate the strength of your Category pages by linking to them with all your subcategories and related products.

  If you’re using a CMS, things are pretty easy. Most templates already come with breadcrumbs, so make sure you check the template’s settings first. If not, you can search the web for “Your CMS Platform” + “breadcrumbs plugin/extension/module”. I’m sure there’s something out there for you.

  On a custom platform you might not be able to do it yourself without coding knowledge. However, a programmer should be able to do it pretty quick, so it won’t be a big expense.

  4. Implement Tracking on Your Site

  Tracking is extremely important. If you don’t track your rankings and traffic, you can’t spot the issues with your website.

  What pages do the users leave quickly? You know you can improve those first, especially if the search volume for them is high!

  Also, if you don’t monitor your organic search traffic you can’t know if you’re making any progress and, worse, you won’t know if the search engines penalized you or your rankings have dropped.

  You can use Google Search Console and Google Analytics to monitor your organic search traffic and issues with your pages. They’re fairly easy to install as long as you have access to your server. You might even be able to install them via a plugin for your CMS. I recommend using Google Tag Manager to implement all tracking codes. They will be easier to manage afterwards.

  If you want to go to the next level, you can try things like HotJar, which creates a heatmap of where your users click most on a page. However, that’s a lot harder to understand and improve correctly, so an experienced person is required.

  5. Install an SSL Certificate

  SSL has become a ranking factor since 2014. If you’re wondering why, the answer is pretty simple. Because of security. Cybercrime has been on the rise constantly and more and more people share more and more sensitive data on the web.

  Installing an SSL should be pretty easy. Most of the time, your hosting provider can help you. However, there is a simpler solution which is also free: CloudFlare. You simply have to change your domain’s nameservers to point out to CloudFlare and then CloudFlare will act as a filter, blocking spam and bad IPs from reaching your server.

  Beware, though! Migrating to HTTPS can cause some serious SEO issues!

  If you want to know more, you can read this detailed guide about migrating from HTTP to HTTPS.

  6. Secure Your Maps Listing

  This isn’t something that people will be able to ‘steal’ from you very easily, but it will provide your website with great value. Using Google MyBusiness you can get your website listed multiple times on Google.

    Not only that, but it will also link back to your website. People will be able to find your website a lot easier if it’s not already ranking very well.

  Once you create your listing or claim ownership of it, make sure you fill out all the required details correctly. You should also add nice pictures of your location, products and team. This helps building trust with your clients.

  7. Compress & Optimize Your Images

  Images take up the most physical space on your server. That means they also take the most physical space on your user’s device, which means they also take the most time to load.

  Slow loading times greatly impact your conversions and images really take the longest to load.

  There are two ways an image takes up too much space. First, it’s not compressed in its physical size on the disk. So you can have two images that look the same, but one has 1MB and the other has one fifth of a MB.

  How is this possible? Well, I’m not sure how image compression works, but it makes images smaller in size on the disk without reducing their size or quality on the screen. You can use plugins such as Smush for WordPress, or image compression tools like ShortPixel which have APIs. You can also compress your images every time you upload them using TinyPNG. If you can’t connect a tool, just download batches of images (if you don’t have thousands) compress them and then reupload them to your server.

    Then, of course, you have the size on the screen. A 2000 by 2000 pixels image will take up more physical disk space than a 500 by 500 pixels image. Therefore, don’t load a 2000x2000px image and shrink it to 500x500px using CSS. The browser will have to download an image 4 times larger than it needs.

  To make this work with responsive designs, you can research the “srcset” HTML attribute. You can use it to only download specific images on specific screen sizes.

  8. Increase Site Speed

  Although images have the most impact, there are other elements that can affect your site’s loading speed. Most of the time it’s related to files, but other times it can be because of PHP conflicts or database queries taking very long to load.

    To avoid conflicts and slow database loading times, you can try and limit your plugin use to the very minimal. Do you have a lot of unnecessary plugins and extensions? Get rid of them. Do you think something looks nice on your site, but you rarely every use it or it provides little value? Get rid of it.

  You can start by removing your slider plugin, for example. Replace the slider with a static image and a CTA button. Why? Well, it turns out that sliders kinda suck! People rarely click on those offers, they take up a lot of space and resources and they can be very annoying when you’re reading something and the image shifts automatically.

    Some other things you can do to increase your site’s speed include having a great hosting provider and minimizing the resources needed to load a page. You can use PageSpeed Insights and GT Metrix to monitor these issues.

  Some are easy to fix and some are not. For example, a caching and file minification plugin like W3 Total Cache (for WordPress) can be useful. You can use this guide to set it up properly. However, beware of possible CSS and JS issues and conflicts that might mess up your design and functionality. Usually, disabling minification will fix the issue, but have a backup of your files and database before you change anything!

  In Page Speed Insights check your server’s response time. If multiple tests show that the response time is over 2.5 seconds, you can consider switching to a better hosting provider.

  You should also take a look at this Technical OnPage SEO Guide. Not everything there is easy to implement, but considering that it’s OnPage SEO, you have complete control over it, so it’s worth doing!

  9. Interlink Your Pages with Keyword Rich Anchor Texts

  Interlinking is one of the most effective SEO techniques out there. You can use it to link to important pages using specific anchor texts. This has a lower risk than building backlinks on keyword rich anchor texts and, more importantly, you have absolute control over it.

  Whenever you add new content, make sure you link to other relevant pages within your website. Vice-versa, go edit some old pages from your site and add links to your new content, if relevant.

  If you have thousands of pages, it can be hard to interlink, but you can use plugins such as Interlink Manager. Make sure you also check out this guide about interlinking.

  10. Link to Relevant, Authority Websites

  I know you’d rather prefer other websites linking to you, but just as with the social media example, you’ll have to share other people’s content in order to get linked to yourself.

  This can actually improve your SEO. Why? Well, it’s because Google works on backlinks! That’s how it finds good content and figures out which content is worth ranking at the top. That’s why Google encourages webmasters to link to great content

  11. Secure Your Social Media Profiles

  Although you’ll only probably use one or two of them, it’s a good idea to secure as many as possible. Social Media profiles are a great way of getting some initial backlinks to your website.  Sometimes you might even lose the name if someone else (like a competitor) registers it before you.

    The most popular ones are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn. However, depending on your niche, you can consider Reddit or any other niche oriented social media platform, such as SoundCloud or Yelp.

  However, for the links on the social media profiles to be effective, you’ll need to get shares, retweets, pins, etc.

  12. Increase The Shareability of Your Pages & Posts

  If you want to get more traffic to your website, you have to use social media to get viral. Even if people read your content and like it a lot, they might not bother sharing it if you don’t facilitate the process.

  Add share and like buttons on your pages. Focus on the platforms most relevant to your site instead of adding as many as possible. Again, if you have a CMS, there’s a plugin there for you!

  You can also add CTAs within your content. There’s a nice SEO strategy called locked content. You can unlock that with a share. While locking the content you said you’d provide in the title is a very bad idea (bad user experience), locking some extra PDFs or tips can definitely increase the number of shares/ tweets about your site.

  13. Share Other People’s Content

  Also, make sure you share interesting content, even if it’s not from your own website. If you want other people to share your content, you’ll have to share theirs.

    It’s better if you get shares from other pages instead of people, because personal profiles aren’t usually indexed. This means that Google won’t be able to see the backlinks created from those shares.

  14. Ask Friends and Customers for Reviews

  Now that you have your Google MyBusiness listing secured, it’s time to get some reviews. Many people ignore this and I never understand why. It’s something so easy to do!

  Although reviews are a local SEO ranking factor, the higher your listing ranks, the more value it will provide to your website and business.

  Getting good reviews is fairly easy, considering you offer quality products/services. Users are more likely to leave a negative review, so you have to work a little more. However, asking your friends to review your page on Google MyBusiness (and Facebook as well) isn’t hard. Also, everytime you have a satisfied customer, ask them to review you. You’ll be surprised, but many will do.

  15. Custom Design Your 404

  Depending on how big your site is, you might get a lot of 404s (an error message displayed by a browser indicating that an Internet address cannot be found). If people land on those 404 pages, they will inevitably leave, costing you a lot of money. One way to fix this issue is to create a custom design for you 404 page, with a Call to action in it.

  Take a look at ours, for example:

    If you have an eCommerce store, you can even add some categories, an offer, or hell, even a discount code! Now that’s going to heavily reduce the bounce rate.

  Here’s a link where you can read more about how 404 pages affect SEO.

  16. Post Fresh, High Quality Content

  It’s no secret and no rocket science. The more (quality) content you post, the more traffic you will get. However, I still see a lot of new websites that want results with SEO lacking a blog. If you only have 5 pages that list your products, chances are you won’t outrank Amazon and Walmart for “Diapers”, even if your diapers change themselves. You need to post blog posts regularly to show Google that your website is active. It’s also a great way of earning new backlinks, as people will be more likely to share those rather than your services pages.

  Countless times I’ve noticed that whenever I post new blog posts on a website, all the pages gain a little boost in their rankings, especially if the pages aren’t on the first page of Google.

    This proves (to me at least) that Google trusts websites that post regularly more. After you get to page 1, you might see what’s called the Google dance, where Google sometimes puts your page up to see how users react to it and then uses machine learning to figure out if it’s good. If they like it, you will rank higher. If they don’t and your bounce rate is very high, you’ll drop back to lower positions. Search engines are all about user experience these days.

  The secret to always coming up with new ideas and topics for content and blog posts is to try and answer customer questions. Answering questions is also a great idea to target keywords introduced through voice searches. If you haven’t answered all your customers’ questions, you should start with that!

  You’ll see that content can be written in any niche, even the shitty ones! Just take my example above… do you imagine how many parents search for “how to change a diaper” on the internet? If you don’t have a guide yet, well, you should have one! Especially if your diaper changes itself, because you can then say “ignore all this and buy my product!”.

  17. Update/Improve Existing Content

  If you already have content on your website that’s targeting a specific keyword, don’t start writing something else on the same topic. You’ll get into keyword cannibalization, when multiple pages will be competing for the same keyword (and probably none will be ranking).

  Simply improve the existing article by adding new content to it. The simple way to do it is to use CognitiveSEO’s Content Tool. Just search for the keyword you wish to target, add your title and content and hit optimize. The tool will provide you with a bunch of relevant topics and keywords you should add to your article in order to rank higher.

    Whenever you find out something new related to an article you already have on your website, make sure to write it down. You can update your article from time to time to keep it fresh.

  You can also add things like “Updated dd/mm/yyyy” to let users know that the information is not outdated.

  18. Repurpose Existing Content

  You can easily obtain new search traffic by repurposing existing content. You can turn it into a PDF and use it to build your e-mail list, or you can turn it into a video or a podcast.

    You could even use that content to share it directly on social media as a story. It’s known that a longer text without links gets more reach on platforms such as Facebook.

  Different audiences prefer different types of content format, so expanding to more than just text is a smart move, especially considering that video content demand is on the rise!

  19. Make Your Website Mobile Friendly

  This is part of those SEO tactics that aren’t really easy to do. Considering how old your website is, it might require and entire redesign, or even rebuilding from scratch.

  However, it’s worth it, since Google has recently moved to a mobile first indexing process. This means that Google will rank your pages depending on how they’re viewed by users on mobile devices.

    You can fix everything on a CMS by simple installing a responsive template. However, depending on the plugins you have installed, some functionalities might suffer from the change. It’s not really a low effort change, but it’s definitely high result!

  20. Invest in advertorials with nofollow backlinks

  “But Adrian, isn’t buying backlinks dangerous?Is this white hat SEO?”

  Well, yes. But things are different when it comes to nofollow links. The dofollow purchased links are the ones that bring trouble. Those you should earn, not pay for.

  Theoretical, search engines are aware that websites and the internet work with advertising and links. However, it does not want websites to take advantage of its organic search algorithm.

  Nofollow links remove all the risks. You no longer have to hide yourself under “informative content” and can directly promote your business through the content and advertising texts you purchase. Just make sure the content is still valuable to the reader. Don’t just buy it for the link. The more traffic it gets, the more it will benefit your site as well, so invest in quality.

  21. Acquire Your Competitors’ Backlinks

  Backlinks are very hard to get, but also very effective. Link building opportunities are not easy to found. However, there are some easy OffPage SEO strategies that allow you to acquire high quality backlinks that are proven to work.

  How?

  By using cognitiveSEO’s competitive backlink research tool. Once you analyze your website and your top competitors, you can easily identify common referring domains between the websites using our tool.

    This helps you identify websites that are prone to share content in your niche. Even if the links are purchased, you know they work if your competitors are ranking with them. Sign up for a free trial and get a list of your competitors’ best backlinks.

  Conclusion

  You’ve probably heard these SEO tips before, but the real question is have you truly tried them?

  Not all these SEO strategies might be easy to implement, but you will definitely be able to improve your rankings with them. Everything listed above doesn’t require an expert and won’t put your website in any risk of getting penalized.

  If you have any questions, I will gladly reply in the comments section. Also, I’m curious: which SEO technique above have you already used? Was it effective? Did I miss anything? Share it with us and let’s help each other!

The post 21 Effective Low Effort & High Return SEO Techniques for 2019 appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

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6 steps for organizing your messy photo library

Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering for Apple Inc, discusses the macOS Sierra at the company’s World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, U.S. June 13, 2016. REUTERS/Stephen Lam TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY – S1AETJSFFOAA

Using the most basic digital or smartphone camera, you can shoot thousands of photos, dump them onto a computer and then shoot thousands more. In seconds, you can edit a photo series in ways that would take days to develop in the darkroom. But our images are usually stored on our devices, often leaving duplicates to sort through.

Compound this mess with old photos stored in albums and shoeboxes. It’s best to digitize these before time takes its toll. Click here for the easiest way to scan and save your old photos.

Organizing digital photos takes time and patience, but just follow a few simple steps, and everything should fall nicely into place.

1. Upload your photos to your computer

This should always be your first step. Even in this cloud-based era, most people have a desktop or laptop that serves as their primary computer, and you should dump your images there first.

Mac: The go-to program for Mac is simply called Photos, and it comes free with macOS. Photos works the same way on any Mac, and the photos also save easily to iCloud. Once you’ve attached your camera or inserted a memory card, go to Files >> Import and you should be in business. Photos downloads images directly into the program.

Windows: Unlike Mac, Windows doesn’t have a standard photo editor that everybody uses, but there are plenty of free and powerful options. Microsoft also offers a free photos app, Microsoft Photos, that you can use to import your photos and videos from your camera or phone. You can edit your photos with a wide range of editing tools and create fun slideshows. Click here to get the Microsoft Photos app for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

If you’re passionate about photography, you probably love editing photos as much as you love taking them. Photoshop is one of the best editing programs out there, but it’s also expensive. Click here for a free alternative that doesn’t skimp out on the features you want.

2. Don’t be a photo hoarder

Trigger-happy photographers end up with countless bad pictures. They snap away, not caring about framing or the Rule of Thirds, because they’re just hoping one of those shots ends up perfect.

Luckily, you can delete those extra shots, especially the ones you took to test the exposure or are obscured by your thumb. In fact, you should delete them, not just because they’re embarrassing, but because they clog your hard drive with needless images and make your albums harder to organize.

3. Use face recognition

If you’re using Apple Photos, the face recognition feature is extremely easy to use. Just go to “Faces” and find the row of “Suggested Faces.” Double-click on any of the people you see, and you can confirm or deny which faces belong to that friend or family member. This is an easy way to create albums based on people who are close to you.

Apple doesn’t have the monopoly on face recognition, but many Windows programs require an extra step or an additional plugin.

Tip in a tip: Whether you’re attending a wedding, birthday party, family reunion or other special event, one of the best things is sharing the photos you’ve captured. Rather than email your photos back and forth to each other, click here for a much better method.

4. Add keywords and tags

Looking for a document is easy. Just type its title into your finder, and the document should appear. But images are harder to sift through. How do you make your photos searchable? Change their metadata.

Metadata is basically the hard information that is embedded in every photo, such as the date and location that it was taken. Many photos document the type of camera, lens and exposure, too. Adding keywords and tags makes your photos easier to track down. If you’ve visited the Grand Canyon on several occasions, you can tag all of these with “Grand Canyon,” and you’ll be able to track them all down, even if they’re located in different files.

In Photos, you just click a picture and then hit the “i” icon at the top of the screen. A small window will show you the metadata, and you can instantly add keywords and tags.

When looking at a photo file’s name, you can usually right click for “info.” This will reveal the photo’s metadata, and you can add specific tags there.

5. Create files that are easy to identify

Putting together files is an art because you have to anticipate what photos you’ll be seeking in the future. Keywords help enormously, but sometimes you want to find a whole batch of photos that aren’t exactly related.

You know yourself well, and you know how you’ll end up looking for things. You’ll likely end up putting all the photos from your Cancun vacation in a file marked “Cancun,” and if you travel a lot, the “Cancun” and “Virgin Islands” and “NYC” photos will all end up in a file called “Travel,” and so on.

6. Save the images online

Even if you have plenty of gigabytes available, you’ll want to back up the pictures that you have online. Here are a few ways.

Apple: When you sign up for iCloud, you automatically get 5GB of free storage. If you use all of your iCloud storage, you can buy more, starting at 50GB for $0.99 a month. To see how much iCloud storage you are using, go to Apple menu > System Preferences. Then, select iCloud to view your total and available storage.

Google Drive: This virtual storage site comes with every Google account. Once you open your Gmail, find the features icon in the upper right-hand corner (it looks like nine interlocking squares) and find Google Drive. This will grant you 15 GB of space, which is the equivalent of about 1,500 high-res photos of 10 MB each. Alternatively, use Google Photos, which is designed specifically for images. When uploading, select “High Quality,” and you have unlimited photo storage. These images can be no more than 16 megapixels in size.

Amazon Photos: Among the many perks of an Amazon Prime membership is Prime Photos, which provides unlimited photo storage. The service also offers its own app, which can help you organize your photos on the go. Remember, a Prime membership costs $99, so it’s far from free. But aside from its capacity to organize, Prime Photo is also compatible with Alexa, so you can give commands like, “Play a slideshow,” and “Show me photos of Jane.”

Tip in a tip: Like most people, you probably signed up for Amazon Prime for one reason. Maybe it was the free shipping. Maybe it was the streaming videos or the free music. But even now, several years after Amazon Prime was founded, few people know the full breadth of their membership perks. Click here for a master list of everything you get with your Amazon Prime account.

Flickr: I’m very suspicious of Flickr. Yahoo owns the site and it’s been having epidemic security problems lately. But Flickr helped create the online photo phenomenon, and it’s still a high-quality venue with lots of sharing options. Flickr offers 1TB of storage, which is a colossal amount of space. Like Google Photos, you can easily create physical portraits, photos on canvas and photo books.

What questions do you have? Call my national radio show and click here to find it on your local radio station. You can listen to the Kim Komando Show on your phone, tablet or computer. From buying advice to digital life issues, click here for my free podcasts.

Copyright 2017, WestStar Multimedia Entertainment. All rights reserved.

Learn about all the latest technology on the Kim Komando Show, the nation’s largest weekend radio talk show. Kim takes calls and dispenses advice on today’s digital lifestyle, from smartphones and tablets to online privacy and data hacks. For her daily tips, free newsletters and more, visit her website at Komando.com.

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6 steps for organizing your messy photo library

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Useful tools for editors: Go Predators edition

It’s been awhile since we’ve visited the Useful Tools for Editors series so in honor of our Nashville Predators making it to the NHL Western Conference Finals here’s a new batch of software, hardware, books, tweets and tips for editors everywhere. Go Preds!

Art of the Cut book

Most people reading this column have probably been following Steve Hullfish’s long running ART OF THE CUT series here on PVC. It is by far the most expansive and in-depth interview series with the biggest names working in editorial in Hollywood today. While Steve’s series has published on PVC for quite some time you may not know that he recently published a printed, paperback version of Art of the Cut:Conversations with Film and TV Editors. 

I’m sure the first question asked is: Why would I every buy a dead tree version of this book when I can read them all online for free? For me there is still the pleasure of curling up with a good book and as an editor I learn something every time I read something like Art of the Cut. After a long day of editing I just don’t like to stare at more screens, even a Kindle (though a Kindle isn’t as bad as an iPad.) But the best thing about the book is that the interviews are organized by topic and not just by interview subject. I think this approach takes the linear approach to reading a book out the window as you can browse the table of contents and go to a section that is of interest. Since Steve is an editor first and foremost he does a great job interviewing his subjects and has worked very hard on the curation of hundreds of hours or interviews. Amazon is currently listing the book at $36.26 so click on over and get your own copy.

I really love how the printed version of @stevehullfish ART OF THE CUT book divides the interviews by topic.

A post shared by Scott Simmons (@editblog) on May 15, 2017 at 1:19pm PDT

Avid App Manager Closer

God bless Avid and their attempts at making Media Composer easier to install and work with but one downside of a modern Avid install is that both the background services and the Avid Application Manager seem to run all the time. While you can just quit the background processes the App Manager continues with a helper process that runs even after quitting (this is on a Mac, I’m unsure how this works on a PC). Yes you can force quit via the Activity Monitor or you can download the AvidAppManagerCloser thingy that will do it for you.

This little Automator script comes courtesy of the must-read Avid related blog 24p. Click on over there, give it a read and download it if you need it.

Editing Folders generator freebie

Many of us know and love and use Post Haste from Digital Rebellion to get us setup with a defined folder structure when we go to work on a new editing job. But editor Adam Schoales wanted to customize things a bit more and he created a Mac Automator workflow called Editing Folders that does just that and is available as a free download. It only asks you to name when you launch it and then creates a series of folders where you specify.

This is a pretty good set of folders to cover many different edit jobs.

If you want to customize the folders you can open the Editing Folders script in Automator and dig into the shell script a little bit and change those folder names and maybe even add a few more. I didn’t do this but since you can see those folder names in the script I’m guessing it should be easy. But since there’s not support  with this freebie you’re on your own.

Some free custom folder icons

If you just want some new, free custom folder icons then head over to Sam Woodhall’s blog and download his 2017 Post Production Icons. Pretty simple in concept but there is a lot of different categories in the sets Sam has created. The clean, modern design is just nice to look at as well.

Each of those folders you see on the left all contain subfolders of varying types to future organize your projects. They are some specific folders icons for Final Cut Pro X and Adobe CC apps but there is enough in there that any media professional will be able to find some stuff to use.

Sam also includes some blank folder png files so I suppose you could take those and make some of your own. One could also dig through all the folders and remove what you don’t want and create a template set that could be duplicated for each new project. I guess that’s sort of like the Automator script above only you don’t run an Automator script. Thanks to Sam for putting these together and you can thank Sam as well (or leave him a donation for these things) on his blog.

          Timing

As a freelancer I always keep an eye out for time tracking apps because freelancers track a lot of time. And as one who works in multiple NLEs tracking between the different applications and projects can become tedious. This app called Timing was recently brought to my attention and I can’t wait to try it. It looks to have a lot of different analytics to track many aspects of what you’re working on. Timing also says it will track documents so my first test will be to see if it can latch onto an NLE project or Library and actually track it per job and not just per NLE.

Timing has three difference cost tiers ranging from $29 – $79. It looks like the $49 option is the sweet spot with a lot of useful looking options at that price.

 FindrCat (Pro)

Intelligent Assistance introduced a new app last last year called FindrCat. It’s an interesting little Final Cut Pro X app with a cool idea that kind of reverses that you might think in that it takes your Keywords applied in FCPX and turns them into Finder tags in the Mac OS Finder. Those keywords then travel with the files as metadata meaning they are searchable outside of FCPX. Philip Hodgetts talks a bit more about FindrCat on his blog post after the software’s introduction.

FindrCat is $20 and available on the Mac App Store.

Rampant Design NLE Templates

We all know Rampant Design as a creator of great special effects and overlays but they’ve gotten into creating templates for both Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Final Cut Pro X. They create After Effects templates as well but I’m always more interested in cool templates that work directly in the NLE (sorry Avid Media Composer but none for you right now). The PPro templates include things like VHS glitch effects, various promo and lower third designs as well as a slideshow. FCPX templates include some of the same but a few less. And the price is right running at around $20.

Some of these types of things are over the top for most jobs but depending on your need templates like these can save a ton of time if you’re in a pinch or a ton of headaches if you’re not a particularity strong motion graphic designer. And since these are project files you can most likely monkey around with them and do a good bit of customization to fit your need.

FX Factory

It’s always worth catching up with that’s new from FX Factory since the last edition of Useful Tools. There’s a few things I wanted to point out:

Yanobox Mosaic

I’m always by what Yanobox is doing. Their Nodes tools just blows my mind and now they’re released Mosaic for FCPX, Motion, Premiere Pro and After Effects. I can’t explain it so here’s YAnobox’s description: “Mosaic lets you create a wide range of effects based on real time pixel texturing and adaptive tiling. Mosaic includes several procedural recipes but the most exciting use comes with the import of your own motifs to create amazing graphic effects.”

Or better yet watch the video:

Kevin P. McAuliffe wrote up a little review here on PVC so check that out as well.

VideoDenoise and Echo & Noise Remover from CrumplePop.

A new entry into the noise removal category is VideoDenoise. This $99 option is optimized for OpenCL and CUDA which is a good thing as denoising is not for the small computer.

On the audio side both EchoRemover and AudioDenoise have added some new hosts including Logic Pro, GarangeBand, Davinci Resolve and Adobe Audition. I expect we’ll see more and more plug-ins supporting Resolve in the future. All of these CrumplePop tools are $99 and part of the FX Factory ecosystem. Update your FX Factory install and you can get a free demo of most all FX Factory tools as well as purchase the ones you need.

Red Giant Universe

Red Giant’s subscription effects service Universe has gotten an update to version 2.1. And with version 2.1 we get six new effects:

AV Club: Mimic the lo-fi, noisy text found on ancient video tapes, old infomercials and local access cable channel shows.

Luster: The 1980s are back! Give video text the retro treatment with Luster by applying a metal sheen to text – includes a refraction-based bevel for a glassy simulated 3D look.

Title Motion: Create text and shapes and then instantly add dynamic animations that bring them on and off screen. Great for titles, lower thirds, callouts and more.

Ecto: Inspired by the timeless film “Ghostbusters” and Netflix cult-hit “Stranger Things,” Ecto allows artists to create haunting, evolving titles with this glowing, fractal-based effect.

Long Shadow: Apply a colored, long shadow to text, logo or shape, for both classic and modern motion design.

Glow Fi II: Give text an ethereal moody look by instantly adding silky smooth, self-animating, fractal-based glow effects to titles. A simple UI make it easy to apply evolving, organic glows.

Universe is also a package that is supporting beyond the usual FCPX/Motion/Premiere Pro/AE as it also supports Magix Vegas Pro, Hitfilm and Davinci Resolve. Universe costs $99 / year or $20 / month.

Tools, Tips and Tweets from Twitter

Premiere Pro was born 25 years ago. Through film, music videos, and groundbreaking cuts, see how far we've come together. #PremierePro25 pic.twitter.com/OZ6818830f

— Adobe Premiere Pro (@AdobePremiere) April 10, 2017

Interesting read on the effects of social media on our lives. https://t.co/LB7C2r9onv

— Reba Baskett (@RebaBaskett) May 8, 2017

Control + Shift + Eject = Screen Off#MINDBLOWN

— Zeke McGeehon (@zekesauce) April 19, 2017

You can then import that SRT back to your NLE or do whatever you need with it.

— Jiří Fiala (@stooovie) April 18, 2017

At an airport? Need a password for the Wi-Fi? Here you go.https://t.co/dAENL0L3XH

— Mikko Hypponen (@mikko) March 13, 2017

Knot School for filmmakers: https://t.co/YJxmssdtMo #filmmaking

— Filmsourcing (@Filmsourcing) February 20, 2017

Walter Murch on the Difference Between Sound Editing and Mixing https://t.co/9XjNm14YsQ

— lacpug (@lacpug) February 20, 2017

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