#Still not 100% happy with it but I could keep tweaking a changing it forever so it’s good enough!!!

[gecko-in-a-can]

”truth is, the game was rigged from the start” -cause of death: a risky gamble

[sapiowoman28]

Chaos Part 2: Cool? How?

Pairing: Haechan x Ally Noona

Genre: friends to lovers au, smut, fluff

Warning: Mentions of sex, but there’s no smut in this part.

Tags: @nctlover94

Note: pls read the rewritten part 1 first

Except for Renjun, they all woke up with hangovers the next day.

“Ha! You fools!” Renjun wriggled his finger judgingly at all of them looking miserable at 2pm in the afternoon, after their next door neighbour decided Saturday was the perfect day to drill stuff into his walls, waking all of them up.

“I can’t believe he’s still drilling!” Haechan whined. “I feel like my head is getting drilled!”

“Next time don’t drink so much!” Renjun nagged.

“What’s a party with no alcohol?” Jaemin pouted. “You need to get as much booze in your system to have the maximum amount of fun.”

“I don’t think having to watch Hendery and Lucas running naked across the lawn counts as fun.” Rejun huffed.

“Oh come on! I won $100 from Yang Yang for being able to convince them to do that in less than 10 minutes!” Haechan protested.

“Mark looked so traumatised,” Jaemin’s girlfriend chuckled as she attempted to stuff some pizza into her mouth.

“Not as traumatised as when he found me in his bed naked with a hot older woman,” Haechan wriggled his eyebrows.

Renjun slapped the back of his head.

“Ow!” Haechan shoved Renjun. “What the hell?”

“I don’t want to know the details, Haechan,” Renjun huffed.

“But I do!” Jaemin’s girlfriend grinned. Jaemin nodded and Renjun looked esaperatedly at them.

“Nothing happened. We had sex. We cuddled. Mark found us when he came to get his expensive bottle of whiskey and threw us out of his room.” Haechan shrugged. “Then she went to hang with her friends and Yang Yang and I thought of something fun to do. And that’s how you saw Lucas and Hendery naked.”

Renjun shook his head.

“Speaking of which, have you asked Yang Yang if he’d like to move in with us? We need to find someone for the spare room you know.” Jaemin said.

Haechan let out a dramatic sigh.

“He refuses to live in the same house as you!” he said dramatically, pointing to Jaemin’s girlfriend, who shrugged. It wasn’t surprising since she once dated Yang Yang but dumped him for Lucas. This was all before she dated Jaemin.

“I’m sure we’ll find someone.” Jaemin said.

“We might even have 2 empty rooms if Jeno keeps staying with his girlfriend.” Renjun sighed.

“If my girlfriend had a house like hers I’d stay there too instead of this junk of a place.” Haechan gesticulated to their crammed abode. “One day, I’ll make so much money, I’ll buy a house we ALL can stay in.”

The guys groaned, having heard this one too many times from Haechan.

“What? Don’t you want to become rich? There’d be so many things you can buy. The cars you could drive, the holidays you could go on...” Haechan defended himself.

“I don’t know about you. But I think you’re still high from the alcohol yesterday.” Jaemin said.

“Surprise!” Haechan said excitedly, uncovering Ally’s eyes.

She looked at the car before her, gleaming in the sunlight, looking all polished and new.

“Wow,” she said. “I didn’t know.”

“Didn’t know what?” he asked.

“That you raced.” she smiled looking at him.

“I don’t.”

“Then why do you need an expensive sports car?” she asked as they got into the car.

Haechan shrugged. “It’s cool i guess?”

“Cool? How? To whom?” she looked at him almost challengingly now.

For once, Haechan had no answers.

“Cool to me.” he finally said as he started the engine. “I want to be proud of what I drive.”

“But you’re still a student. How are you going to pay the car loans?” she asked, increasingly concerned.

“I got some money from investing.”

She almost heaved a sigh of relief. “So the car is fully paid?”

“I got enough for the downpayment and 3 months of instalments.”

She turned to him in shock.

“Haechan! You have to return this car! You can’t afford it!”

“But I’ll lose the down payment!” he whined.

“You can’t afford it!” she repeated, frowning. This date was sure taking a wrong turn.

“I’ll figure something out.”

“Like what?”

“Noona, trust me!” he pouted. She turned to look out the window, in a bit to be more measured with her words. He started to panic slightly. This wasn’t going well.

“You’re upset.” he said, softly.

“I’m not.” she said, equally gently, turning to look at him.. “I’m just… really disappointed.”

He was silent, focussing on the road, taking a right turn into the lane that would bring them to the beach. He really didn’t know what to say.

“Listen.” he finally said. “If you’ve changed your mind about getting to know me, I can understand. I can drop you off back home…”

She sighed, covering his mouth.

“Are you always this dramatic? I still want to know you even though you clearly have no clue what you’re doing with your money.”

He relaxed, wriggling his eyebrows. “You can’t resist this handsome face, can you?”

She burst out laughing.

They watched the sunset together. She made him feel relaxed. She asked him about college, about his family, about his life. He told her as much as he could. Occasionally she dropped little nuggets of information about herself, and he couldn’t believe how much in common they had. The strict upbringing. The rules they had to adhere to as children of religious parents.. The fun they had secretly with their friends. Their lives now.

“I don’t want to be an ordinary person,” Haechan said. “I want to be someone different. Someone people look up to.”

She chuckled.

“What about you, Noona?”

“I just want to live.” she said rather cryptically. He wanted to ask her what she meant, but her phone rang.

“My housemate forgot her house keys.” she said. “I need to go back.”

“Will you go out with me again?”

“I would like that.” she said, smiling. “I want to know everything about you.”

“The funny thing is,” he said, as he touched her cheek. “I feel as if I’ve known you forever.”

The news that Haechan and Ally were dating spread like wildfire, mostly because Haechan insisted on clinging on to her like a love sick puppy. Well, he was mostly there by her side to tease her, but it was also obvious that he had a huge crush on her. And because she was older than him some people found it entertaining to talk about.it. Yang Yang even started taking bets on how long it’d be before Ally would get sick of Haechan’s nonsense and start avoiding him.

“The thing is,” Jeno’s girlfriend May said. “They’re kind of cute together.”

“Oh come on! Haechan has the attention span of a 5 year old!” Renjun huffed. “I’m worried about her getting hurt.”

“I think you should worry about Haechan first. The thing with that car. What was he thinking?” Jeno shook his head. “Someone needs to talk some sense into him.”

“You know,” Jaemin grinned. “I think we found the right person to speak to him.”

They watched as Ally came into the cafeteria with Haechan in tow, teasing her about something she wasn’t very amused about. She glared at him and he smiled sweetly at her, before crushing her in an embrace.

“I feel so sorry for her.” Jeno muttered.

“Me too.” Renjun agreed.

“You guys don’t know what you’re talking about! I see a match made in heaven right there,” May said, clapping her hands.

She was working on her final year project when he visited her in the art studio. She looked happy to see him and got up immediately to plant a kiss on his cheek, since her coursemates had taken a break to go get some snacks and she was alone in the studio for the next 20 minutes at least.

Haechan looked at the painting she was working on. This was just a trial, to see if what she planned would come out good. If it worked, she was going to start on her piece next week.

“It’s beautiful,” he gasped.

“Thanks. I might make some tweaks.” she said, accessing her own work with a critical eye. “I don’t think it’s good enough.”

“What’s good enough?” he asked, clearly not agreeing with her.

She had no answers for him.

“I just feel...it’s not great.” she explained. “I pale in comparison with some of the rest.”

“Noona, what you feel isn’t necessarily reality. You keep saying you’re not good at art. In fact, you said it 3 times in the week I’ve known you. But I know a lot of people like Renjun who think you’re really talented.”

“Haechan…” she sighed. “You don’t understand.”

“What don’t I understand?” Haechan asked.

“I need to keep striving for perfection or I’ll never improve.” she said. “And I really need to do well enough for post grad.”

“Maybe there is a different way to strive for excellence.” he shrugged. “I have to go now. I have a lecture. Think about it, ok?”

She nodded her head, watching him leave after planting a kiss on her forehead. Perhaps he was right. Perhaps she needed a new perspective on things. The past year had been a struggle. She never told anyone. And she was surprised Haechen noticed within a week..

When she first saw him across the room at the party, she could tell he was a smart and lively guy, and despite his initial awkwardness, he was turning out who she expected him to be, perhaps even more. Ok, his choice in automobiles was downright stupid. But beyond that, he was a sharp guy, and that made her more and more attracted to him. He noticed little things about her that she herself didn’t even notice, and the way he looked at her when they sometimes had their serious heart to hearts made her melt.

She just hoped she was able to challenge him to think of looking at things differently like how he was challenging her. She was very sure they were in each other’s lives for a reason, and she was excited to see where things would go.

[pseudofaux]

so..... under Comte's MC worship piece you mentioned having some darker ideas for him....... i think it's only natural to ask if you'd ever expand on that at least a little?... 👀

I would and I will 😤😍, thank you so much for asking!

This is ALL GOING UNDER A CUT. If you, gentle reader, don’t like the idea of the ask for/featuring Comte, this post isn’t for you— so please don’t read it. Totally fine if this is not your cup of tea! It is mine. And under the cut is tea time. 😌

He wants her sparkling with life, and happy, and choosing to be with him, of course. But he would love to have stretches of time where she’s both pliant and reliant— he’ll want her submissive to his wishes... to do everything for her. Feed her, bathe her, cosset her, fuck her. Hard. So, so lovingly, but hard, hard enough that she’ll need rest and care afterward, and that is part of the thrill: he creates her pleasure and any resultant soreness or exhaustion, she trusts him to do that even though she knows she doesn’t know how big a trust that is, and then he’s further in charge of all the massaging and hydrating and sheet-changing and moon watching and everything else AFTER.

He’s not a creature that sweats much and he loves to sweat from the physical ways he fucks her whenever they get the chance: holding her bent atop dressers and desks, pinning her against a wall, holding her over the rail of a theater box all done in velvet and gold, standing up to his shoulders in a river or the great baths of the mansion and cupping his hands underneath her thighs while he keeps her naked body in the air like a dryad and licks into her, anywhere. Anywhere! He’s strong and never gets to showwwwww ittttttt. He’s got this thin, devestating edge of keenness inside himself to reveal his strength to her. His aim here is 500% caveman “I am no threat to you but I am Big Damn Threat to anyone who would ever even think about hurting you” display. Sometimes he sweats just from holding himself rigid for her to touch, and her cool, miraculous fingertips tracing his body with obvious wonder and appreciation make him so, so deliciously tense. But sweet gentleman Comte, he loves that pre-snap as much as the snap itself. 🥰 And he loves! loves! HER sweat. It’s not as though it smells sweet, it smells like sweat. And he loves it and it turns him on. Dirty from the garden = charming, him loves him wife, dirty and a bit sweaty from the garden = he’ll be escorting her to the bath. Now. Good DAY, Sebas. You’ve done well.

He wants her blissed out, fucked out, so lucid she loses all her manners and only has him in her eyes. That’s the intimacy he craves, that’s what he’s dying to see under the Christmas tree.

Speaking of Christmas!

He’s really dying to take her to a little country church, something homespun and humble and holy, and make love to her on a dark wood pew. He wants his hand over her mouth and her hand over mouth and he wants them to be so close to getting caught. He wants them stumbling out and giggling like young lovers and he wants her to fall asleep next to him in the carriage home.

Also speaking of Christmas: loves to see her in rich ribbons. Dark blue velveteen with gold edging is his favorite. If she’s game to present herself as a gift to him, he’ll unwrap her with an open glee he very rarely displays. He’s gotten her several ostrich-feather fans and will get her dozens more if he so much as catches her eyes on their boxes. The slow delight of her revealing herself with them is an unparalleled joy in his life.

He doesn’t like her tied up beyond the ribbons. He likes to be tied up himself. 😏 Lives for her circling a chair he sits in, there in their bedroom, and winding ropes or whathaveyou through the arms and legs and around the back to keep his body in place, all the while teasing him with loving touches and sensual offers. If he makes it through that heavenly torture, he sits tied to the chair while she spreads her legs and lets him watch her get off. If he slips out of the bonds or snaps them before she’s finished... she wins that way, too. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Has considered asking Sebastian or Leonardo to tie him to a chair for her to find, so it’s all set up and a nice surprise. Hasn’t done it but knows he won’t be able to resist the idea forever.

All of his cravings for her dependency, even the dark ones, come from the root of his desire to be worthy of her trust. He’s not too angsty about it once they make it official, but none of it is a desire to hurt or endanger her, only to care for her if she is ever imperiled. The closest he comes to that is edging and biting her, but he doesn’t enjoy edging for edging’s sake and would be Very Content to help her orgasm as frequently, blissfully, and quickly as possible. Draw out the lovemaking session, not the denial.

Oooooh, and he’s a talker, during! Of course! So smooth and polite about it, always so mannerly, which makes the crudeness really leap out. Calls her a naughty girl like he does in that hand-licking card (R.I.P. pseu), tells her that the squelch between her legs is magnificent and musical, very free with praise for how rapturously beautiful she is. Asks if she wants sachertorte or fraises avec crême pâtissière as dinner wraps up, and anyone else still at the table rolls their eyes or flees because that the offer is a coded proposition is so obvious, my god, these two, again?

The entire house ships it, it’s fine, also it is Comte’s house

Her moans thrill him, so he often echoes her. If she should call out something like “Oh, god, yes,” it will be hard for him not to do the exact same. The sounds she makes during sex make his dick throb. He’s really enjoyed sitting her on the edge of a high table and stepping between her thighs, feeding from the top curve of one of her breasts, and toying with her with both hands to get her making noise. One broad finger pressing a line down the small of her back, through the lady’s sweat beading there, and following her body between the cheeks of her ass, flirting with her rim for a long time (she clenches, it’s delightful, you can’t fault a man for pleasing his lover) before he makes true contact and she gasps. His favorite. One of many favorites.

He’s a handful man, not a pincher. He wants to have her full breast against his palm much more than he wants to tweak her nipples, and he loves to cup her cunt with his hand and stroke her slit with more than one finger. He’s all about wide, diffuse, overpowering sensations. He’ll grab (he loves to watch her skin pillow his fingers anywhere he can get it), he’ll hold, he’ll use his hold hand to grip. But he thinks of pinching as both too direct and punishing. He’s not a fan.

I could see (AND ENJOY) a Comte/MC/Leonardo triad, but personally I prefer to ship them with her individually. If it’s Comte/MC I’m convinced Comte would arrange for them to be fucking in places where Leonardo will know, at the time (by sound) or after the fact (stuff moved, a scent in the air). There’s no one else in the mansion on his level like Leonardo is, so a little bit of my dick is wetter showing off... is... gonna happen.

He would share her with Leonardo if they all wanted that, as a one-time or short term (what’s a few years of blissful threesomes between friends?) thing. I don’t think the Comte that loves MC pines for Leonardo romantically, but Leo’s understanding is the best non-malevolent way Comte is known, and there’s trust there. I also! think!!! that Comte respects Leonardo’s abilities and inclinations as a lover, so. 😏

He would drink from her until she was weak, 100%. Not every time! But would he do it? YES. Like so weak she needs to rest for a day or two. So weak she needs to rely on him and he can not only keep her in bed but satisfy all her needs, gently and attentively. It’s not about the ego of holding her life in his hands, it’s the opportunity to be the one who serves her so fully. He probably gets in some dumb, angsty tangles about not wanting to be the one to hurt her, but being deeply moved by the idea of caring for her if she were to be hurt, and not being willing to trust anyone else, ever, to hurt her for them. Ah, this goose, I fucking love himmmmmm

Comte has had a few torturous dreams of leaning her against the wall of a ruin, biting her somewhere high on her naked body, and then waiting for the blood to run down her form so he can lick it from her ankles. Her skin is so fragrant and her blood is so sweet... The way bites and blood flows work doesn’t even make the scenario possible, but the dream is deeply arousing. He is not, at all, into torturing her, but the dream is recurring and he doesn’t mind it as a fantasy. He’s got all sorts of ritualized ways to love her in mind.

He’s so in love with making love to her before they go out to plays and insisting she needs no blush or powder. He’s right, she can see it in the mirrors of their room. Keeps her color high with his hands up her skirts on the way to the theater. And at the theater, if she allows. If they see a tragedy performed he’ll be extra watchful for signs of any lingering distress on her part.

Cock warming’s not a bad idea, she is heaven incarnate, but what he really likes is to undo her with his fingers inside her body and then not take them out. If he’s wearing gloves the next morning before etiquette demands them, it’s because they’re still a bit wrinkled. 😌

Has her pose for as many classical portraits as she’s willing to endure. Touches her bare breast while the painter watches to tease all three of them. Sometimes he asks to be added to the painting. Usually not!

Happiness: a nice, wet,  w i d e  bite over her shoulder.

He doesn’t actually like biting her neck because he loves to kiss and nuzzle it so much, the fucking fool! 😂 He likes fleshier parts of her: the aforementioned shoulders, her instep, the curve of both her hips where they flare from the small of her waist. He’s also REAL fond of biting her on her mons and the sacred place where her bottom meets her legs. Goddddddddd. He thinks he’s a derrière man but it’s really THAT part, that hidden curve that is sometimes a crease. He’d live there if he could, and he spends many happy nights laying her out on their bed on her front, fingering her and nosing up the beloved heft of her ass so he can get his fangs into that special place on her body.

The fleshiness is partially for her comfort and partially a mouthfeel thing for him— it’s the best vampiric sensation for Comte when her blood wells over her skin in his mouth, when he can suck a mouthful of skin between the wounds he’s made.

WHEW okay that’s what I’ve got for now. Thank you so much for this ask. 😭😭😭🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

* Sachertorte is him eating her ass while she grinds into a pillow, the strawberries would be making a slowwwwwww sash of exquisite bite marks across her back and licking each one... while she grinds into a pillow. Alfajores are her giving him a handjob while he propped over her on their bed, arms shaking because he’s not allowed to move until she says. Chouquettes are him giving himself a handjob and coming all over her breasts. Welfenspeise is ruining all the flowers in a particular part of the garden. Ciardunas...

[hopevalley]

Season 8, Episode 3: From the Ashes

Intro -

Scene 1: Freedom-Alls

Well, folks, we start out with Rosemary and Elizabeth discussing the latest and greatest trend of the western world (or attempt at a trend): Freedom-Alls! Patented in April 1918 by Levi Strauss & Co., Freedom-Alls were a women’s one-piece suit intended to appeal specifically toward ladies who lived out west and wanted to take advantage of the areas and work they did for a living (ranchwork, farming, hiking, et cetera). It was introduced alongside Kover-Ups (a one-piece suit for men) and Koveralls (a one piece denim suit for children). 

You can read a little more about them here.

Unfortunately Freedom-Alls didn’t really catch on; they were, perhaps, a little too ahead of their time. But guess what? It means this season of When Calls the Heart takes place in 1918! 

Rosemary says she’s trying to support Clara’s ideas by trying to sell the Freedom-Alls and that she “can’t run the dress shop forever.” When Elizabeth tries to talk to Rosemary about it, she changes the direction of the conversation to Nathan and Lucas. Elizabeth admits she feels bad for having ridden off on Nathan, and Rosemary gets a weird line: “But who knows what might have happened between you two if you hadn’t?” I’m not sure what to make of this... With modern viewers it almost sounds like they might have had sex or something if left alone, but really I think they want to hint that they might have said regrettable things. I think that line could have used a bit of a tweak.

Elizabeth goes on to say it was right to choose not to be with Nathan but she hasn’t chosen Lucas either, and in fact does not want to even speak to Lucas until his mother tells him the truth about his father. One thing I really appreciate about this scene, and in fact this whole plot, is that Rosemary knows the hot gossip but she doesn’t repeat it to anyone else. In fact, she makes sure Elizabeth knows immediately that Lucas is standing behind her before he can hear her say anything, and when given a very obvious opportunity to intervene (when Lucas says he’s going to call his father) she elects to stay out of it.

I’ve been a little worried about Rosemary’s character writing in the past; they tend to bounce between wholesome and entertaining to cringey and embarrassing without...really meaning to, or without thinking about what kind of person that creates on-screen. This episode, and in particular this first scene, really makes up for a lot of past problems with her writing.

Also, Lucas was just really cute and wholesome at the end of the scene and I liked that.

--

Scene 2: Bill’s Land & The Inquiry

Bill stops Nathan and lets him know that he’s still working on Allie’s official adoption but it’ll still be a few weeks, and Nathan is understanding about this. Bill then brings up his land that Nathan seemed interested in buying. He says he has another potential buyer that’s been asking about it, and Nathan says he changed his mind about it.

Before they can really get into any sort of conversation about it, another Mountie approaches. Bill refers to him by his first name (Andrew) and then his title to congratulate him on a promotion (Superintendent Hargraves). He tells Bill that he learned from the best.

When Bill tries to introduce Nathan to Andrew, Nathan says they already know one another. When Bill asks what Andrew is doing in Hope Valley, he says he has a matter to discuss with Nathan and Bill says he hopes they can find the time to catch up before he leaves town again.

Bill leaves, and Andrew tells Nathan that due to the fact that a Mountie lost his life last year during the shooting, they’re opening up another internal inquiry (which means they already did one) and that Nathan is the focus of it.

“to determine your possible culpability as to whether or not you were at fault.”

Apparently this also means his career as a Mountie is at stake.

There’s not a lot to discuss this early in the episode about this plotline, but I do wonder if Bill actually has a potential different buyer for his land or not. I don’t think Bill is above pretending he has another buyer to push Nathan into making a decision either way, but if he actually does have someone else interested, that could be interesting.

As to Nathan, it’s pretty clear Andrew Hargraves doesn’t care for Nathan.

--

Scene 3: The Introduction of The Chair

Molly and Florence talk about a crate that is sitting outside and Molly asks Florence if it might be the beehive that Florence ordered for Ned for his birthday. Florence shushes her (worried Ned will hear, as this is clearly meant to be a surprise) and says no it isn’t; her order has been delayed.

Molly goes on to say that she’s thinking of taking a cue from Florence and wants to buy Bill something for his birthday. Molly asks for Florence’s advice on what to get and Florence can’t help her:

Florence stares at her with...honestly kind of a sad expression after this? I don’t know what to make of that. Molly tries to say she’s kidding but Florence isn’t stupid enough to believe it. 

I’m not exactly thrilled with this storyline (nobody is surprised yet again lol), but one thing I really hope they bother taking the time to do is...you know...show why Molly might be interested in Bill. They don’t really have a particular chemistry I think, so...right now it just feels like Pair the Spares because nobody else in town is of the right age and available (except Henry and I can’t see that working well). If they’re going to bother with it, I really hope it’s either “Molly’s just lonely, actually” or “She likes him because XYZ” and not that weird middle thing where it’s hard to understand why either person would like the other...which has been a problem in this show’s writing since about Season 4.

The camera pans out to the mysterious crate. Ned wants to guess what’s in the crate but doesn’t get the chance before Jesse announces what it is to everyone (and Ned is sad about this haha). Cute little bit, honestly; you can tell the dialogue in this season has gotten a glow-up.

Jesse is disgruntled about the chair’s existence (why would you ship a chair halfway across the world?) and tries to sit in it to see if it’s a good chair but Lee tells him it’s bad luck to do that. The person for whom the chair was made has to be the first one to sit in it! He asks Jesse to take the chair to his house and move his motorcycle to the mill.

This is overall a nice scene. People feel...like people. And they carried over Lee’s back injury because now he’s wearing a back brace. This follow-through, this continuation from episode to episode, makes a big difference in the quality of writing, IMO.

--

Scene 4: Nichols & Dimes

Fiona is just getting done trimming Lucas’s beard and makes a comment about how if he wants it all shaved off she’ll be happy to do it because she’s curious to see what is hiding underneath it. Faith walks in and when Lucas asks her opinion, she has the same answer: “I’d be curious to see!”

Lucas considers this a moment and asks to think about it. She dusts off Lucas’s shoulders with her brush and asks Faith if she has time to chat and Faith says for a moment. Lucas gets up and pays Fiona, but it’s too much money so she tries to get him to take it back but he insists she keep it. 

“Besides, after I meet Lee about a lumber order, I might need a free haircut.” Fiona only can say after he leaves, “He is so nice.”

Do we have a Fiona/Lucas hint? Or is this to show up how generous a person Lucas is? Or perhaps...how kind the people in this town are that they know to help out where and how they can?

--

Scene 5: Boy Meets Bike

Jesse drops off the chair at Rosemary and Lee’s house and goes out back to uncover the MOTORCYCLE. This is a man in love with a machine right here.

--

Scene 6: The Oil Rig

Lee promises Lucas a lumber order by the end of the week and Hickam stops Lucas to talk about the fact that the men think they should drill further (another 50 feet). Lucas seems to be having some...regrets about having gotten into the oil business (it is lucrative but it’s also a lot of work and with a very serious uh...potential for failure). 

Lucas says (to Lee) that 50 feet becomes 100 feet becomes 300 feet (increasing costs of course, with no guaranteed payout), and jokingly (sort of) asks Lee if he wants to buy an oil well. Lee just laughs and says he doesn’t think so.

--

Scene 7: The Motorcycle No-Nos

Hope Valley really isn’t ready for Freedom-Alls after all. On the plus side, Dottie gets a mention! She sent over a beautiful dress (I think this is the one we see Molly wearing in the promo images for a later episode) from Union City. Clara laments having to replace the Freedom-Alls in the window just as Jesse pulls up on the motorcycle he’s moving for Lee.

Rosemary scolds her and tells him not to make Clara a widow (very insensitive choice, not sure they thought this through before they included that... She already IS a widow...and through no real fault of her husband). Rosemary said the danger is why she wanted Lee to sell the motorcycle and Jesse says, “You know, Lee always said you loved riding on the back of the motorcycle” which seems to upset Rosemary a bit. She tells him that was a long time ago and they’re married now and she wants Lee to sell it to the first person to make a good/fair offer.

--

Scene 8: Editing Woes

Helen is trying to go over Elizabeth’s manuscript with her but Elizabeth is completely zoning out and Helen is kind of sick of it.

She asks Elizabeth what the problem is and they talk about Lucas’s lack of knowledge about his father. Helen doesn’t want to talk about this and suggests they get back to work. Elizabeth asks to open the window (probably hoping some fresh air will clear her head). When she goes to open it, though, she sees Nathan and Bill talking animatedly by the blacksmith/farrier.

Helen confronts her about her feelings for Nathan and for Lucas, and Elizabeth asks if they can get back to work.

This is probably one of the weaker scenes. Helen pries too much and doesn’t seem the type to do so without good reason. I’m not sure how I would word it instead but the audience already knows Elizabeth has feelings for both men, and the scene with Rosemary sufficed at explaining Elizabeth’s stance on things.

I feel like this mostly made Helen look prickly and nosy...and it wasn’t doing either character any real favors.

--

Scene 9: Henry’s Flowers

Henry walks into the mercantile with some flowers and I definitely thought he was going to give them to Ned! (Let the shipping BEGIN...)

He apologizes very thoughtfully to Ned and I can honestly say this is one of the best scenes both men have gotten on this show and I really appreciate it. It was wholesome and kind, and I definitely think with the way Ned brushed things off that he at least read that first letter.

Florence kind of stands up as Henry starts talking (probably thinking she’ll have to yell at him again lmao), but Henry walks up to her and gives her the flowers, saying she was right to be angry with him and he hopes they can move past it.

Henry leaves and Ned’s like heyyy I was the one he yelled at and Florence tells him that’s true, but...she defended him and Ned seems a little...touched by that and says, “Yes...you did.”

Wholesome...good. Nice scene.

--

Scene 10: Motorcycle Absolutely Nots

Jesse brings the motorcycle to Clara again and tries to appeal to her using logic that my own husband would use if it meant he could possess yet another motored vehicle.

Same Clara!!!

I’m a little amused by this and also kind of like...meh about it. These characters had a long time to get to know one another and court before they got married and now Jesse’s just...Like This? It’s not that I’m against the plotline, but...I  don’t know exactly how I feel about it right now. It’s funny but something still feels tonally off about it to me...

--

Scene 11: Inquiry Part II

Bill reads the inquiry notice that was given to Nathan and says it doesn’t seem right to him. Nathan says he tried to explain that earlier (must have been the conversation by the blacksmith). Bill goes on to say the Mounties can of course do this as it’s well within their rights and that...it’s possible it’s just...a formality? Andrew’s a good Mountie and a stickler for detail so--

Nathan seems annoyed at this and says “That’s one way of putting it” which of course prompts Bill to ask why they don’t get along. Nathan will only tell him that they’ve crossed paths before but refuses to elaborate.

It’s pretty clear that in whatever capacity they crossed paths before, it wasn’t exactly...friendly.

I also wonder if this man has been in a previous episode? He seems familiar but I couldn’t find anything with a quick Google search.

--

Scene 12: OIL! And uh, fire. Yeah.

Lucas and Mike Hickam talk about the oil business and Lucas admits that if they don’t see oil soon he’s going to just shut the entire thing down. Mike wants to react to this but there’s a ruckus at the well that isn’t normal so he runs over to the men and insists they get out of there right away.

They get oil! And then a spark catches. If you were confused about what supposedly caused the spark, it was this:

The metal of the wire rubbing against the metal of the pipe, causing friction. To be clear...the wire would be so coated in oil it wouldn’t be likely to catch fire in this scenario, but eh, we can ignore that. It was at least an attempt, and considering some of their past attempts this one was pretty good, actually.

For some reason the town has a real siren (more accurate would probably be a fire bell) and everyone freaks out. 

Bill tells everyone to stay where they are and Fiona says “We can help!” and Bill says if they need more help they’ll call for more men. Fiona’s like:

I kind of missed that line my first watchthrough but I’m belatedly annoyed with that “Let’s make this look kind of misogynistic and make Fiona a Feminist Icon™ (as if she isn’t already good enough like??? what). It’s literally an OIL WELL FIRE. It might burn for WEEKS. It’s INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS and if you get too close you’ll be lucky if you’re not covered in burns. 

They’ll get men because they’re more likely to be wearing the proper clothing and have the proper knowledge. Also, there are plenty of men on sight already. Why risk more casualties (or any if there aren’t already some, which of course Bill doesn’t know about). 

It’s not that I don’t appreciate some good women-getting-involved writing, but this reads very much like it was written by a man.

That said, Henry’s determined face when he saw the fire was GOOD. He’s blurry but he’s MOVING FAST.

--

Scene 13: The Fire

Mike Hickam has burns on his face, Lucas has been knocked down, and everyone is in a panic. NATHAN IS ON THE SCENE.

IDK........I’d ship it.

Nathan asks Lucas how to put the fire out, and Lucas...doesn’t know. How could he know? He’s involved and he’s the owner of the operation, but he has absolutely (or nearly) no practical experience. BOOM HENRY IS ON THE SCENE.

He suggests they get some dynamite. A LOT OF IT.

They gather enough dynamite to blow an entire quarry sky-high. (My husband and I work in construction and this is more dynamite than we use to do blasting in the quarries. A few years ago we did our biggest blasting job ever in our largest quarry and we didn’t even use that many explosives lol...)

I would imagine your average person wouldn’t know that, though, so...I’ll give it a pass. Ned comes to help, and Jesse, and then Fiona shows up just in time to ask if the one more person to help they need needs to be a man. She then proceeds to stand at the back of the group. She’s also the first person to drop the cart lol... -_-

I can’t imagine being in town for all of this. It would probably be terrifying. Imagine being Florence or Molly who lived through the mine explosion. PTSD right there fellas.

And it’s over like...in two seconds.

People hugging all over the place. 

Even though I was a little shocked the drama didn’t last longer, it was probably for the best. As much as I like drama, this isn’t the kind of drama that makes sense to be dragged out. If you don’t act fast there’s no chance to act at all, and you’re either successful with the dynamite attempt or you’re not. Either way, the town would be lost if the fire burned for too long, so it was worth a shot. Just...not with THAT much dynamite.

Also, using dynamite to snuff out oil fires was the first proven accurate method of putting out oil well fires! It basically uses the dynamite explosion to “blow out” the fire by forcing the furning fuel and oxygen away from the fuel source. It’s still used, and its first successful use (that we have record of) was in 1913. You can read more about oil well fires here.

--

Scene 14: Kindness

Lucas and Henry run into one another outside of Abigail’s Café and agree to meet outside the mercantile when Lucas is done chatting with her. Inside Abigail’s, Mike Hickam is dabbing (antiseptic?) on his burned face while Bill and Helen are chatting.

Helen is a bit upset that Lucas helped with the fire because it frightened her—the thought of losing him. He responds by saying he had to help and that she is being dramatic, but then apologizes and says, “I love you, too.” I think this is a sign he understands his mother more than we realize.

They agree to have lunch together at the saloon and Lucas says he couldn’t reach his father. Helen says she doesn’t know where he is but she’ll try to reach him.

Lucas tries to say something to Mike but Mike insists he won’t take a vacation; he was only doing his job.

Then Bill stops by with another plate of food for Mike and insists that it’s free just like the first plate. 

I’m pretty sure this scene + the barbershop one earlier were just showing us how good and wholesome the people in Hope Valley are. They support each other and SHOW THEY CARE. I like it. :)

--

Scene 15: The Letter

At the mercantile Henry finally gets a letter!

It’s from “Christopher Hughes” in Cape Fullerton.

Henry stares at the letter for a long moment but says nothing is wrong. 

Ned limps away as Henry leaves the mercantile to wait for Lucas and Florence scolds him for being stubborn.

There is a Romantic Sort of Moment...

And Florence talks about how gallant Ned was during the fire... A little spice is in the air methinks!!

--

Scene 16: THE LETTER PART TWO

Lucas stops by Henry’s car to say thanks for yesterday (the fire advice) and then tells him that even though he doesn’t agree with all of Henry’s terms/methods he does want him to come back to work.

Henry’s response? “I’ll think about it.”

This man is RATTLED by that letter! Lucas is shocked that Henry isn’t as on board as he was just the other day...

Scene 17: Chair Adjustment

Lee moves the chair around the house trying to find the perfect spot, and he refuses to sit in the chair until he gets his back brace off. It’s a pretty wholesome and fun scene; it manages to be lightly funny without trying too hard, and the best part about it is actually that they take the time to weave other characters into the dialogue more. “Carson wants me to walk; he says it’s good for my back.”

This is the stuff dreams are made of, folks!

Jesse drives up on the bike as Lee comes out of the house and he tells Lee that he wants to buy it off of him. When asked what Clara thinks of it, Jesse says:

This is going to be a big problem later. Lee says Jesse can buy it for $5.00 less than asking and Jesse rides off excited.

--

Scene 18: Trouble at the Infirmary

Florence apparently was successful in her attempt to drag Ned to the infirmary because he’s getting his foot looked at. When asked how he got the injury, he says he must have stepped in a hole or something, and Florence adds her heroic spin on things:

Faith tells Ned there’s some swelling with indicates a mild lateral sprain, and that the best thing for him to do will be to stay off of his foot for a week. She turns to Molly to suggest getting some crutches and Carson steps in to ask what Ned did to himself and begins his own exam, asking Ned which way his foot turned in/which way causes pain.

He then turns to Faith and explains that with a lateral sprain the foot turns inward, but with a high ankle sprain it turns outward (which is Ned’s problem).

Faith tries to explain that if you feel the tendon--

But Carson cuts her off and says that Faith will wrap it up nice and tight for him and he can go back to his regularly scheduled heroics immediately.

This angers Faith and makes Molly uncomfortable.

--

Scene 19: Goodbye Sweet Chair (I Hardly Knew Ye)

Rosemary approaches Elizabeth and they talk about how Elizabeth and Jack want to start a garden in the backyard, but first she has to go to town and speak with Bill. Rosemary offers to babysit and do the planting with Jack herself, and Elizabeth agrees to it.

They go over to Rosemary’s and Jack sees the NEW CHAIR and makes a beeline for it. Rosemary stops him from sitting in the chair but...overcome by curiosity she herself sits in it...

...and it breaks.

--

Scene 20: Elizabeth’s No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day

Elizabeth presumably asked Bill what was going on with Nathan, and Bill explains that one of the superintendents, “an old friend” of his, gave Nathan some bad news. The Mounties are investigating last autumn’s prisoner transfer shooting. She asks why, when it was already completed, and he tries to calm her down by saying it’s an inside investigation and the Mounties always try to better perform their duties (the suggestion here is that they do this by reviewing recent cases).

After Elizabeth pesters Bill about it a little more, he folds and admits that it’s all very unusual and he has no clue why they’d have an inquiry about that case. He promises Elizabeth he’ll keep digging until he finds out.

Just as Elizabeth is reeling from this, Lucas approaches her and asks her why she didn’t tell him about his father leaving his mother. Elizabeth tries to say that she was told that in confidence and couldn’t/didn’t feel comfortable breaking it. She then says, “This isn’t my fault” and Lucas kind of just walks off annoyed/frustrated.

--

Scene 21: No-Work Advice

Clara comes into the barber shop asking Fiona for advice. Jesse asked for the day off to ride the motorcycle to Albert Falls (even though she asked him not to buy it). Fiona’s like “Uhhh...”

Then Faith walks in upset and says to Fiona, “Maybe you can help!” She goes on to say it’s like she’s back in Chicago being ignored like all the other interns!! And Fiona’s like, “Uhhhh...”

Faith realizes Clara is there and apologizes for interrupting. She asks Clara what’s wrong and Clara tells her about Jesse. Faith is like, OHhhhh My GOoDnESS I feel the SAMe wAY about the way Carson is treating mE!!!

And Clara says, “I have some chocolate cake at the cafe.”

And aWAY THEY GO.

Leaving Fiona cakeless (unless she’s gettin’ some of Mike Hickam later; that man is CAKED UP).

--

Scene 22: 

Lee sadly contemplates his broken chair.

And then has a midlife crisis.

The chair reminded him of a chair he built with his grandfather, and he’s getting older and thinking about how he can’t do any of that stuff himself, and he doesn’t remember how to build things anymore. “I don’t make anything, Rosie.”

--

Scene 23: Judge Avery’s Office

Bill walks into his office to see that Andrew Hargraves has let himself in while he was out. Andrew asks Bill if the Mounties can use the judge’s office for the inquiry.

Bill says that, given they have a history, could he maybe tell him what’s going on? The inquiry isn’t adding up.

He goes on to say he was close by and that he stated on the record what happened that day, as well as the fact that everything regarding that event was done by the book.

Andrew says, “A Mountie died. I think that warrants a review.”

Bill says he noticed that Nathan and Andrew aren’t close and Andrew says the same thing Nathan did earlier: that they’ve “crossed paths.”

Andrew says he wouldn’t have achieved his rank if not for Bill; he also says that Bill was a good mentor. (I would argue this means that Bill taught him at the Academy like he did Jack and many others.)

And he suggests that Bill with see that his council wasn’t wasted. Bill replies back, “What appears to be holding a grudge.”

I mean, it’s not as if Bill didn’t have grudges (COUGH HENRY COUGH COUGH) but he never let those impact his work overmuch and he always did the right thing when the truth was uncovered. That’s one thing I have always enjoyed about Bill’s character. He’s suspicious of like, basically everyone but when someone he has reason to actively dislike (Henry Gowen) is innocent he’s the first person to insist the right thing be done.

Andrew doesn’t respond to that; he simply asks if the Mounties can count on use of Bill’s office and Bill agrees. Andrew then tells Bill that he’ll be called on as a witness.

--

Scene 24: Heart to Heart

Helen comes to Elizabeth’s house to visit and almost sits on a block (#parentlyfe).

She notices Jack playing with a little Mountie and a horse and asks about it. Elizabeth says a friend made that for Jack. 

“Hm. A Mountie. Constable Grant?”

“A Mountie. My late husband.”

They’re clearly talking about the figure and not who made it, here. I’m not sure who the friend would be in this case, but it could be literally anyone in town.

Helen admits to Elizabeth that the most difficult thing she’s ever done in life is try to be a mother. She “never discovered what seems to come so naturally to others” (in particular Elizabeth)—the joy of it.

Elizabeth admits that sometimes she can’t recognize the joy in anything, but in moments like that she surrounds herself by people who love her. She asks why Helen has come, and Helen says she regrets having put Elizabeth in a position where she had to keep a secret from Lucas.

Elizabeth thanks her for her honest and Helen admits tearfully she should have said it earlier, in a more forthright manner, but that she doesn’t really know how to be any other way than how she is.

Elizabeth comes to sit with her on the couch and says that it’s understandable to be afraid because being yourself can make you vulnerable. She tells Helen that she is thoughtful and intelligent and asks if she shows that side of herself to her husband. Helen admits she hasn’t for a long time. 

Elizabeth tells her that if her husband doesn’t love her for exactly who she is, then it isn’t love and he doesn’t deserve her...but if she’s not sure if they’ve shown each other their true hearts (i.e., their true selves) then it might be worth considering trying again.

She suggests Helen reach out first. Jack plops on Helen a bit, Helen hugs him, and Helen thanks Elizabeth for being her friend. 

This isn’t a bad scene by any means, but I think I liked it better on a second watching. Still, the dialogue was a bit stiff and hard to follow. I really think it should have been put past someone specifically to see how easy it was to understand/if it hit the correct emotional beats. Rewatching it slowly and making sense of the complicated wording is what made it better. I’m not sure if I was the only one who thought that, though...

--

Scene 25: Faith vs. Carson

Faith approaches Carson and tells him they need to talk. She tries to insist that Molly stay because they all work together...but when Faith says that Carson ordered her to wrap Ned’s ankle without listening to what she had to say about it, Carson tells Molly to leave.

Faith expresses her concerns and he says she’s reading too much into it.

He says he wants to hear about it and then doesn’t want to actually hear about it because he is treating her exactly the same way she was being treated there. I think they’re being pretty lighthearted about that, too; you know she got talked over and overlooked over the male students for sure.

Carson tells her that he doesn’t know what she went through but that they aren’t in any shape to discuss it right now.

She just wants to make an effort, they need to get through this, but he claims he doesn’t know what “this” is and wants to know what she wants.

“You say that you value me as a doctor. You say that I’m gifted. But I don’t just want to hear it. I want to be treated like you mean it.”

Honestly this entire scene I just wanted them to break up. I make no secret of how I feel about them as a couple and this scene, this season’s drama for them, is maybe going to resolve my biggest annoyance about Faith and Carson as a couple. She was SO good on the show, you guys, and then he came on and as soon as he picked up the role of doctor again he completely outdid her at everything and overshadowed her character to the point where she may as well not have even been there.

He’s never seemed to be as into her as he seemed to be into the idea of her. I never got the impression that he viewed her as an equal. I’m pretty interested to see where they go with things this season; I have a feeling it could actually be really good.

--

Scene 26: Lee’s Workshop

Lee comes home and finds Rosemary in the backyard setting up a little workshop space for him.

He confesses that he doesn’t remember how to build anything and she encourages him fully. This scene was really good. It’s sappy and silly but it’s super cute and fun. I always do enjoy these two. I hope they get other good things this season. They deserve it.

--

Scene 27: Axes

Nathan and Bill are talking about the inquiry and Nathan says maybe he is responsible for the Mountie’s death. Bill insists that is not the case.

Nathan continues on to say maybe he should have listened to the demand and let the prisoner go.

Bill cautions him against talking in hindsight and asks if he’s sure Hargraves doesn’t have an axe to grind with him. Nathan says “Yeah” but doesn’t look at Bill when he says it, so of course Bill knows it’s not the truth.

--

Scene 28: Helen’s Goodbye & The Cruel Reality

Helen leaves on the stage with hardly a goodbye, and Elizabeth runs over to ask about it. Lucas tells her that she was determined to catch the last stage (probably for the week or month) and tells her that she’ll be in touch about the manuscript soon.

Lucas is a little uncharacteristically emotional and Elizabeth tries to stop him from leaving in a hurry. He tells her that what upset him about the whole thing isn’t just that she didn’t tell him the truth, but that he thought his parents loved one another.

Elizabeth says maybe they did love each other, though. Maybe they still do. 

And Lucas replies with, “How do you lose that?”

Elizabeth says that she can only tell him what she told his mother: love has to be fought for.

“What would you know about it?” he asks.

Elizabeth stares at him a moment and can only say, “...That was cruel.”

Lucas walks away, and we see Nathan on the other side of the street.

Elizabeth doesn’t go to either of them.

And that’s the end of the episode.

--

Something I think needs to be mentioned is...the audacity of the writing this season. It feels bolder. Definitely better. The writers are taking their time and writing things that feel...mostly interesting or relateable. I never expected Lucas’s parents’ splitting up to be such a big deal to Lucas but adding that touch in there is just SO good. It makes me want to go back and watch the “date” scene where he explained how long it took his father to convince his mother to marry him. Any kind of story can be told in a way that it might sound romantic, or funny, or silly...when that isn’t the reality. 

It’s actually a bit of clever storytelling to take Romantic Lucas and turn the idea almost upside-down. Whether his parents were actually in love or not doesn’t matter (yet); he feels that something he believed in his whole life, something he’s wanted his whole life for himself...isn’t even real. Worse, I think, he had that long conversation with Elizabeth about his parents and how lovely things were there, and...she finds out first that it might have just been...something he made of the situation. 

And then... Elizabeth tells Lucas that love needs to be fought for. First of all, she told Helen it needed TO BE NURTURED and an a language nerd I’m a little annoyed that she used a different word with Lucas because...they aren’t the same thing. Nurturing is a tender sort of care, encouragement, growth. Fighting for love is a different beast.

But I still appreciated Lucas’s cool, irritated (frustrated?) response back. “What do you know about it?”

It’s a fair question. Who is she to give advice like that to Helen? I mean, objectively it’s good advice, but she hasn’t lifted a finger to fight for Lucas OR Nathan, and both men know it. She hasn’t worked to nurture her relationship with either of them. 

The only thing cruel about his response is the time and place of saying it, but like...it’s honest.

If she doesn’t love either man, she needs to say so. She needs to be honest. If she loves Lucas she needs to tell him. She needs to reach out first. If she loves Nathan she needs to tell him. She needs to reach out.

She’s making both of these men do all the work. They both have to be the ones to reach out. Over and over and over while she does the bare minimum to encourage them enough to keep trying. 

And the thing is, they’ve both been incredibly patient, certainly due to her situation. But their patience means she needs to be the one to reach out.

And she hasn’t. She won’t.

Fight for love? Nurture love? Please. What do you know about it, Elizabeth? 

--

I’m really curious to see where they’re going to go with this. I hope they give Elizabeth and someone else a good talk about it. Maybe Clara would be a good choice... Or she could ask Rosemary for her HONEST opinion so that Rosie can give it.

Very much looking forward to the next episode!

[thesevenseraphs]

Bungie Weekly Update - 4/4/19

This week at Bungie, we’re getting ready for some high voltage.  

A storm is brewing. Next week, we’ll kick off what we’ve been calling Arc Week. Our goal for this happening has been to take the element that makes our sandbox crackle and put it under the microscope. The most noticeable update is that we improved many Arc subclass paths from the time before Forsaken. The week will also feature Arc Singe and Arc Bounties to synergize with your updated abilities. To provide a proving grounds for all this new energy, Mayhem will be available in the Crucible to let you experiment with your enhanced Arc abilities using shockingly short cooldowns.

Arc Week will also feature one of the most powerful Arc weapons ever created, the Thunderlord Exotic Machine Gun. If you weren’t able to complete the quest to obtain Thunderlord last year, you will have from April 9 to April 23 to revisit the Cosmodrome and add it your collection.

A Spark Can Give Life... or Take It

Arc Week buffs up several Arc subclasses.

Designer Dan Gniady has all the details on what changes you can expect.

Dan: After the release of Forsaken, the sandbox team wanted to revisit some older subclass paths and freshen them up a bit. This entailed tuning for balance as well as quality-of-life fixes. We’ve also added new functionality to a couple of subclasses. In update 2.2.1, we're focusing on Arc subclasses for Titans, Hunters, and Warlocks to kick off Arc Week. That said, we also made a couple needed changes to non-Arc abilities. Let’s get into it. 

Striker Code of the Juggernaut (Bottom Path)

Notes: This path is all about punching enemies to get better at shooting them and shooting enemies to get better at punching them. We want to further incentivize engaging in this loop and make doing so move visible and flashy. Shooting an enemy should make you feel like you are primed to strike with melee. Punching an enemy and releasing your rage will make you feel like a more focused shot.

Frontal Assault:

Now increases all weapon damage for the duration of the buff

25% against combatants

20% against players

Duration increased from 10 to 16 seconds

Buff timer is now displayed on the HUD

Knockout:

Melee damage bonus increased from 25% to 60%

Now also triggers once you have dealt 60% damage to a target

Any damage done after 60% will refresh the timer

Still also triggers off shield pop

No longer consumed after 1 melee attack

Duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds

Arcstrider Way of the Warrior (Top Path)Notes: 

This path thrives on striking with precision and timing and is heavily melee focused. To enhance this loop, we are giving it a bit more nuance with a higher potential payout. We want to allow for more room to execute and engage with both the path to success and the benefits once you do succeed.

Combination Blow

Bonus melee damage can now be stacked 3 times (requires a melee ability kill for each stack)

Buff increases melee damage by 60% per stack in PvE

Buff increases melee damage by 22.7% per stack in PvP

For comparison, this ability used to be 1 stack and increased melee damage by 50%

Kills with this ability now heal 40 health in addition to starting health regen

Deadly Reach:

Increased buff duration from 6 to 8 seconds

Buff is no longer consumed by a melee hit

Arcstrider Way of the Wind (Bottom Path)

Notes: This path is about quick movement and thriving under pressure. We want to increase your ability to survive while at low health and enhance your elusiveness so you can be more confident when in danger. This way, you don't just get a bonus when you’re injured, you have more control over what state you are in, and you can make more risk/reward choices.

Disorienting Blow:

Increased the disorient distance by 50%

Increased duration of disorient on players from 1.5 to 2 seconds

Focused Breathing:

Increased dodge recharge bonus while sprinting by 100%

Combat Meditation:

Increased bonus grenade and melee regeneration while bloodied by 25%

Lightning Reflexes:

Increased damage resistance while dodging from 25% to 40% in PvP

Increased damage resistance while dodging from 63% to 70% In PvE

Stormcaller Stormtrance Super (Top and Bottom Path)

Damage scales up to 150% over 5 seconds of continuous use of the attack

Updated FX and audio to support this functionality

Stormcaller Attunement of Conduction (Top Path)

Notes: This path focuses prominently on chain lightning, but we also want to better sell the fantasy of being a god of erratic and dangerous energy. We want you to be delighted and surprised by the chaos you cause. On top of that, we should make the choice of using your abilities something to better strategize around, and reward you for doing so.

Chain Lightning Melee

Can now chain up to 5 times, up from 1, and each individual target can be hit twice

Chain damage decreased from 50 to 31 damage per chain hit

Arc Web

Can now chain to many (many) more targets, and back and forth between targets

The amount of chaining varies based on use, and I will leave it to you all to discover!

Increase chain range from 10 meters to 12 meters

Chaining Arc damage now reduces the cooldown of your grenade

Works with Arc Web chains and chains from Chain Lightning Melee

Earn 3% energy per instance of chain damage in PvE

Earn 10% energy per instance of chain damage in PvP

Stormcaller Attunement of the Elements (Bottom Path)

Notes: Currently this path focuses on creating drone buddies for allies and staying close to them to dish out more Rifts and the buddies therein. Generally, Arc drone is short-lived, and you need to stay close to your Rift to keep it around. Now you will be able to take your pal further and, if you stick with friends, will be able to have it around much more often, making this path more potent as support.

Electrostatic Surge:

Increased bonus regeneration rate of Rift by 600% per nearby friendly Guardian

This sounds insane, and it’s a big boost you will definitely feel, but it was previously very low.

Extends Rift duration from 15 to 20 seconds

Added a UI notification for when the buff is active

Arc Soul:

Extended duration by 50%.

Now let’s talk about some non-Arc Changes, as well…

Voidwalker Nova Warp Super

Notes: Clearly we swung a bit hard when we hit this previously. This should serve as a nice middle ground to settle into.

Reduced initial charged detonation energy cost by 20%

Reduced energy cost of holding the charged detonation by 7%

Reduced time required to fully charge the charged detonation from 0.9 seconds to 0.7 seconds

Reduced Dark Blink cost by 20%

Increased base Super duration from 18 seconds to 22 seconds

Dawnblade Everlasting Fire Perk

Notes: Similar to the Striker, we wanted to make sure this perk didn’t allow for infinite Supers in certain activities. We’ve increased the amount you get back upfront but put diminishing returns on it so you can’t go forever. This will still be a Super you can extend much longer with skill.

Tuned the amount of Super gained from Everlasting Fire

Initial return increased from 10% to 13% Super energy

Return then decays linearly over the course of 30 kills from 13% to 0.75% returned per kill

You may be asking “What about Spectral blades???”

We know it’s out of bounds and are working right now on a few tweaks to bring it back in line. We’ll let you know the details once we’ve finished play testing and tuning to lock in on what the changes will be.

That’s all for me this time. As always, we look forward to you getting your hands on these changes and letting us know what you think. Happy electrocuting everyone!

Patch Note Preview

Next week, Update 2.2.1 will be deploying on April 9. Here is a preview of some changes you can look forward to along with the Arc Week rollout. 

Catalysts

Four new Exotic weapon catalysts will be available to drop in Nightfall, strikes, and the Crucible

Prospector (Nightfall, strikes)

Rat King (Nightfall, strikes)

Hard Light (Nightfall, strikes)

SUROS Regime (Crucible)

Warlock Bloom Ability

Fixing an issue where the Bloom ability would not deal damage

Xûr

Xûr’s inventory will now offer random-rolled perks for armor

Infusion

Fixing an issue where the Vow could not be infused above 650

Fixing an issue where the BrayTech RWP Mk. II could not be infused above 600

Gambit Prime Weapons

Most Gambit Prime weapons will now have a chance to drop as match completion rewards from Gambit Prime

Increasing drop rates for Gambit Prime weapons from the Reckoning

Both Gambit Prime and the Reckoning will have increased drop rates for weapons after each completion without a drop until players are guaranteed a reward

Gambit Prime

An invasion kill will heal 8% of the Primeval's health, down from 12%

The invasion portal cooldown time during the Primeval phase will be increased to 40 seconds, up from 30 seconds

This cooldown triggers after a player has been killed or successfully returns from an invasion

Gambit Prime will now count to unlock the Weekly Gambit Clan Engram

Quests and Bounties

Power Surge Bounties that have been deleted or expired will now be available on the Drifter

Each bounty can still be completed only once per character

Yes Sir, I'm a Closer Weekly Gambit Prime bounty will now award 4 points for a win and 2 points for a loss, with a completion value of 20 points

All 4 weekly role bounties for Gambit Prime now grant powerful helmet rewards

Strong Resolves

Our Player Support team is keeping track of all known issues in the game. If you see something they aren’t tracking, make a post on the Help forum letting them know.

This is their report.

Destiny 2 Update 2.2.1

Next Tuesday, on April 9, Destiny 2 will undergo maintenance and Update 2.2.1 is scheduled to go live. No downtime is expected during this maintenance; however, players who have not yet updated to version 2.2.1 by 1 PM PDT will be returned to the title screen.

Please see below for the timeline of this deployment window:

9 AM PDT (1600 UTC):

Destiny 2 service maintenance is scheduled to begin with no expected downtime.

Update 2.2.1 will begin rolling out across all platforms and regions.

Destiny Companion features will be unavailable on web, mobile, and third-party apps.

1 PM PDT (2000 UTC):

Destiny 2 service maintenance is scheduled to conclude.

Players who have not yet installed Update 2.2.1 will be removed from activities and returned to the title screen.

1:15 PM PDT (2015 UTC):

Destiny Companion features will be re-enabled on web, mobile, and third-party apps.

Console players who encounter issues updating to 2.2.1 should reset their console and try downloading the update.

For more information on Destiny maintenance, players should visit our

Destiny Server and Update Status support page. For live updates on the 2.2.1 deployment, players should follow @BungieHelp on Twitter, or monitor our support feed on help.bungie.net. Destiny 2 Update 2.2.1 Resolved Issues PreviewWith the upcoming launch of Destiny 2 Update 2.2.1, we’d like to take the opportunity to follow up on a sampling of player-impacting issues that have emerged in Destiny 2 over the past several months.

The following known issues are expected to be resolved after the launch of Destiny 2 Update 2.2.1 on Tuesday, April 9.

Like a Diamond Triumph: Players who became eligible for the “Like a Diamond” Triumph during the window when it was not available will have this Triumph unlocked retroactively following the 2.2.1 update. Impacted players will receive a notice in game when this fix begins rolling out to their accounts.

Acting Bad, Looking Good Pursuit: The “Acting Bad, Looking Good” pursuit is not completing for players using a full set of Ancient Apocalypse armor.

Obsidian Crystal: The Obsidian Crystal doesn't always drop for players on the Unidentified Frame quest step for Izanagi’s Burden.

Wish-Ender: Players cannot see behind walls with Wish-Ender while invisible.

The Vow Infusion: The Vow cannot be infused above 650 Power.

BrayTech RWP Mk. II Infusion: BrayTech RWP Mk. II cannot be infused above 600 Power.

Stronghold Power Ammo: Stronghold consumes Power ammo when blocking with Black Talon.

The Weight of Guilt: The Weight of Guilt emblem does not display its purchase price after it has been unlocked for purchase from Lord Saladin.

For the complete list of resolved issues and patch notes, please keep an eye on our Updates page once 2.2.1 is live.

If you’re excited for ShArc Week and you want everyone to know, there is one more way you can express your electric personality. Three emotes will be available in bundles for direct purchase, one for each class. Now you can show off your mastery of the Arc arts even when your Super is on cooldown.

One more thing before we close This Week out. There have been a lot of questions about the future of the Crucible in Destiny, and what plans we have to support PvP going forward. Yesterday, we let you know during a stream that we have no plans to remove PVP from the Destiny franchise.

A lot of feedback on Crucible and how it could improve comes in the form of suggested sandbox changes that would impact the flow of combat in PvP. As you can see from the section above, we are still committed to updating the sandbox as frequently as we can, and we have an update going out next week. We have bigger Crucible changes being planned for later this year, but we aren’t ready to talk about those plans just yet. We hope to share more with you sometime this summer. In the meantime, we will continue to provide updates to matchmaking, QOL fixes, Sandbox balance, and Glory changes.

[blogpr940]

Capture One 20 Slow

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Anyone else experience C1 catalogs taking forever to load? Once the app is open, then I can load/change catalogs with ease. But the first time I open the app and the catalog size is at least 40GB, it just takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Reminds me of Aperture 2. Just painful and my number one complaint. I’m still using the test version… but maybe things are better once I purchase???

Not noticing that here, and my machine is not overpowered.

Behind the scenes videos with our favourite photographers, tutorials, tips and guides to Capture One. Whether you are a beginner or an expert, prepare yourself for a dose of tips, tricks. This indicates what speed the camera is connected: 12Mb/s: USB 1.1. If the camera is connecting slower than it should be, reconnect it and refresh System Profiler (via cmd+R). If it persists, try a different port on the machine, preferably on a different USB bus. For our Capture One 21 launch, we challenged Polish food and still life photographer Maciek Miloch to tell us about his experience of the pandemic – using just one color. In this blog, he shares the inspiration behind his shoot. Customizing the Interface. Capture One is a popular RAW photo editor that caters to the professional photographer looking for full control over their craft. In a land of competing products, CO stands out as being one of the few to take the GPU seriously, which is exactly why we decided to take the application for a. Length: 60:00 minutes New Heal and Clone tools in Capture One's latest update are both easier and faster to work with, while providing the high image quality that Capture One is known for. Webinars Shooting and Editing with the Fujifilm X-T4 and Capture One.

“but maybe things are better once I purchase???”

That is never a good thing to assume. It’s rarely right. :-)

Apparently, it is a known issue. Received this from their tech support (which was pretty cool that they’d reply to a non-customer using their time-bombed app):

Hi

If you are on “All images” in the catalog, then CaptureOne is strating threads to open all images. If you instead highlight a low count folder before closing, it will only start opening that folder and it will be much quicker. We are looking in to things to improve this.

Kind Regards Phase One support

Could also be linked to the size of the preview images?

I have a fast iMac, with a very fast thunderbolt drobo. My library contains 40k images. C1 opens in 2mins- 10sec. Holy Cow. I will try pre-selecting a low count folder as described above. Hope this works. So far C1 is the best alternative to Aperture. I tried LR… Really not happy with that program. It’s kindof a disorganized mess.

(Reply to #5)#6

Like I wrote in the other thread, try to relocate your masters out of the Aperture library. I think reading an Aperture managed library may slow C1 down (just an idea).

My catalog also opens quite slowly, taking about a minute with 63K images. This is with the catalog on an SSD and the referenced images on a Thunderbolt drive.

It was worse when I first created the catalog from my Aperture library (over 2 minutes, like you are seeing) but I used the command “File > Verify Catalog or Session…” and it found some problems which it was able to repair. That improved the file opening time from over two minutes to about a minute.

Also, selecting either a small folder of images to open at startup or the full “All Images” collection doesn’t make any difference in the performance.

Look at what part of your catalog you have selected in the left sidebar when closing C1. I've noticed that if I select All Images, then loading of the catalog upon next startup can be slow. Selecting an individual Album or Folder that has fewer images speeds up loading on next startup. I've given this feedback to PhaseOne. Don't know if they will find a way to improve that in a future update, but they do seem to be very interested in user feedback so tell them all of the quirks you experience using their Support Case system.

I am experiencing this very slow startup as well. When the catalog and referenced files are both on external HDD, I have extremely slow startup. I made a screen recording and provided it to PhaseOne. It is an 8 minute video. I have under 40,000 images and the catalog is about 64GB. I copied the catalog to an internal SSD and left the referenced files on external HDD. Startup was extremely fast by comparison (under 30 seconds vs 5-8 minutes).

I have a running case open with PhaseOne (case #215211 if anyone else wants to reference it in their own case).

I’m using Apple Photos to be my reference catalog because C1 was so slow. C1 is too good and I don’t waste my time editing with any other software. Then Photos is too good at cataloging. jpegs and raw files show as 1 file and the viewing modes are perfect. No need to catalog every single photo with C1.

(Reply to #10)#11

Milo, this seems like a brilliant idea. I would like to reference my growing iPhone images from C1. Are you able to comment on the following:

1) Did you create a new C1 catalog for the images in Photos?

2) By default, Photos does not download images to your computer. The pictures reside in the iCloud, unless you download them into the Photos application. Are you only referencing the downloaded images in Photos?

3) How are you organizing your images in Photos and how does that structure appear in C1?

Capture One 20 Slow Start

4) Is the metadata, favorites, tags, etc. recognized when referenced by C1?

Your idea of referencing your Photos library in C1 could be a great solution for those of us who increasingly use iPhone 7 Plus pictures from our travels, etc.

Sincerely, Alex

I haven’t seen the slow starting many have. My catalog is 82G, and opens in approx. 9.5 seconds either on the internal HD on my laptop, or the backup copy on an external raid 5 thunderbolt DAS. All files are referenced, there aren’t any stored in the catalog. Thats opening on a root folder with not thumbnails showing on start up. The time measurement is the best I can do with a stop watch.

absolutely. a pain in the butt

I had. a catalogue. at 70gb

it took 12 hours

it seems. that with Mac there is. a huge problem.

I have been. writing with them , they know there is a problem but will not. admit

and so far nothing has really changed.

I don’t think they know what the problem is

(Reply to #13)#14

What is your configuration? Memory? HDD or SSD? Catalog on internal or external disk? I get the best performance from placing the catalog itself on internal SSD and leaving images on external disk. I have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB of RAM, 1TB internal SSD, 2TB external portable HDD. My catalog has 56,000 images now.

If I select “All Images”, it sends Capture One into a tailspin where it consumes all 16GB of RAM and then some (so says Activity Monitor). The app locks up for 5-10 minutes, but eventually the memory goes back down and the app becomes responsive again. I opened several cases with Capture One and provided them a lot of evidence of the issue. They agree there is an issue. I believe an update will addresses this. I can't say when that update will be released.

If I select any other folder or album with fewer images with under 1000 image, for example, Capture One is much faster.

With a few tweaks, Capture One is a fantastic Lightroom alternative.

…and shrink that enormous Capture One catalog file

» Scroll to step-by-step instructions

One of the most pleasant surprises of going 100% Adobe-free has been the switch to Phase One’s Capture One. It has long been a favorite among pros, but I have to admit that I overlooked it at first after being seduced by the slicker marketing and shinier interfaces of some other self-described Lightroom alternatives. None of those proved to be — or show any real progress towards ever being — a complete replacement for Adobe Lightroom, at least not for many professional photographers.

Capture One Pro 11, on the other hand, is an excellent Adobe Lightroom alternative. Capture One is faster, has more powerful tools (including layers), and does not require a subscription! If only Phase One’s marketing reach matched that of Adobe’s (or Luminar’s for that matter), more photographers might learn that they’ve had a wonderful Lightroom alternative just waiting for them all along.

Update November 29, 2018

Capture One 12 is here and it’s the best pro-level Lightroom alternative on the market.

I do have one issue, however, with the configuration options of Capture One. Although it is simple enough to import images into Capture One while keeping those big RAW files on my external RAID, the preview and thumbnail images that Capture One creates can only be stored in the catalog file itself, which is actually a macOS package. This is not unlike Apple’s Photos app, and it makes sense for smaller catalogs.

However, the size of the preview files is not trivial. For a large library, the catalog file can reach many gigabytes, even while the database file itself is only a few hundred megabytes. I would much rather store those preview files on the external SSD that I reserve specifically for caches. That way I don’t waste precious space on my internal SSD, and I can exclude that drive from my various backup services. There’s not much point wasting bandwidth and storage space by constantly backing up new preview files that can always be recreated if lost, and, in my particular case, the catalog file size had surpassed the single file size limit for syncing with iCloud Drive, which is a critical part of my workflow.

I was unable to find an answer in the Capture One user forum, but I eventually, and accidentally, stumbled on a solution while testing the Backup Catalog… command. For whatever reason, Capture One creates a standalone database file when exporting a backup and separates out the preview image cache into its own directory.

It occurred to me that this database file was the same type as that found within the contents of the default catalog package, which led to the following 10-step procedure to move the cache to an external drive.

Step-by-step tutorial:

1 Find the location of the Capture One catalog file in the Finder. The default path is Pictures ▸ Capture One Catalog ▸ Capture One Catalog.cocatalog.

2 Right click on the catalog file (extension .cocatalog), which is actually a package.

3 Select Show Package Contents. This will reveal a .cocatalogdb file, along with various directories, including Cache and possibly Adjustments. You may also see Originals if you have opted to store photos inside the catalog, although that would negate the space savings of storing the preview files in a separate location!

Capture One 20 Slow Cooker

4 Copy the .cocatalogdb file (along with the Adjustments and Originals folders, if they exist) to the directory where you would like to keep your new database file. An easy way to do this is to select the files/directories and press Command-C. Click the back arrow in the top left corner of the Finder window to exit the package. If you want to keep your new catalog database file in the same directory as the original catalog package, just press Command-V to paste right there, or navigate to another location and paste the files there. Personally, I choose to store my Capture One Catalog in a directory that syncs with iCloud.

Capture One 20 Sony

5 Copy just the Cache directory to the drive where you want to store all of your preview images. In my case, I keep the cache in a folder named Capture One on an external SSD.

6 Delete the Cache directory that you just copied (the one in the same folder as the .cocatalogdb file).

7 Here’s where the magic happens. Use the Terminal to create a symbolic link, also known as a symlink or soft link, in the location of the Cache folder you just deleted. This symlink will point to your external cache in a way that is transparent to Capture One. To do this, enter the following at the command line prompt, replacing the first path with the location of your external cache directory and the second path with the original location. Note the backslash escape characters before the spaces.

ln -s /Volumes/My External Drive/Capture One/Cache /Users/username/Pictures/Capture One Catalog/Cache

Hint: You can drag a directory from the Finder into the Terminal window to paste in the path.

8 Double-click your new, nice and slim .cocatalogdb file to launch Capture One. Et voila! Your catalog should load exactly as before.

9 If everything is cool (and all photos are backed up as always!), you can delete the original, bulky .cocatalog file.

10 I can’t end at step 9! So go take some pictures!

[kaytlinfmp]

Evaluation

For my final major project I wanted to produce a portfolio of work that I could present to employers or clients to get 2D work in the games industry. To do this, I decided to create my own brief and a concept for a game, and go through creating the concept art and 2D assets required. This would give me a broad range of skills to showcase from environment work, to characters, to interfaces. As well as displaying these skills to employers, some of them were things I either hadn’t done before, or hadn’t done much of, and wanted to challenge myself as well as broadening my skills. 

In the end, I think I achieved what I set out to do. I now have a range of work that is suitable for the games industry, and showcases my skills in different areas. I think the pieces are finished to a good standard, and show my skills with digital art. The work has gotten me some freelance work with a small games studio (Mobile Pie) lined up, so it definitely achieved what I set out to do. The director and founder of the studio commented on my “great portfolio”, and thinks I would work well on their childrens games. This is a great opportunity that I look forward to taking part in, and would like to find out more about the games industry and if it’s right for me. I also used the work to apply to some other art positions in the games industry, such as Jagex’s concept art internship, and Radical Fish’s concept art role.

As for things that I think were successful, my favourite aspect has to be the background environment pieces I created. I’ve been focussed on drawing characters for so long that I’ve avoided ever really doing backgrounds or detailed environments before. It was a real challenge in that regard, but I found it very fulfilling and fun. I enjoyed finding lots of visual research of bakeries and gardens and witchy places to use as reference when planning out an environment and filling it with lots of little details. The process of drawing and colouring the backgrounds felt more freeing than what I’m used to when making work of characters that I tend to stick to a set equation for. I also found it valuable creating a whole world and thinking about where characters live and what they do, and creating more elements that go together, rather than a random character with no context like I may have done in the past. The same also applies to creating the illustrations of the bakery foods, it was a nice change from the usual characters that I do and feel a bit hemmed in with. Because of this project being for a (fake) game it made me more aware of the finish of the pieces I was producing, I was more careful to make sure everything was neat and tidy and clean and to a high resolution. I think this made my finished work look more professional, and ready to be used in a real game. 

Something that I struggled with quite a lot was colour, and colour theory. Previously I’ve created artwork of characters that already exist, or drawn things or environments from a reference, so could see what colours to use because they already existed. However, creating characters and environments and interfaces from scratch, and making them all look cohesive and not clashing on colours and making sure there was enough contrast and range of values, was extremely challenging. I used to think I was good at colouring, and would choose colours instinctively, but now that I’ve tried creating whole environments and different elements that need to go together, I’ve realised that I definitely need to do some research and studies into colour theory to improve. I’m looking forward to reading some books on this and doing study drawings/paintings to improve my colour theory, which will hopefully make choosing colours for whole environments or new characters in the future easier or with more purpose, rather than blindly tweaking saturations and hues until it looks ok. Something that I also struggled with was the timetable I had set myself to get everything finished. I think I could have stuck to this schedule if I hadn’t had 2 other modules running alongside it. I think this taught me more about the limit of my creative energy, and how difficult it is to be creating very different work for 3 different things within the same week, and that it’s impossible to always be creating. Once the other 2 modules were completed, I found it much easier to concentrate fully on this project and get the final pieces of work finished. 

Despite being happy with the work produced and level of finish, this module, as well as the Portfolio & Promotion one alongside, have made me realised some things about my practice and what I want to do. At the start of this year I was torn between wanting to dedicate myself to digital art for games, or working in different mediums as a freelancer. I ultimately decided that games were the way to go as that seemed like a more stable fulltime job, which was a silly reason to focus on that. For this module I did plan at the start to incorporate both by creating merchandise or plushies to go along with the concept art, but realised I wouldn’t have time for both, so stuck to the digital artwork. Along the way, I’ve realised that I don’t need to 100% decide what I’m going to do as a career and only do that, and that I would like to work freelance after to try different things before perhaps specialising into one thing. My final project being entirely digital work also made me realise that I really need a break from digital, and miss the interaction with traditional mediums. I think with digital the infinite options for colours and brushes and textures and effects makes it too overwhelming and difficult to keep consistent or find a “style”, whereas the limitations of traditional mediums call for creative problem solving which can produce more interesting pieces. I’m looking forward to playing around with traditional mediums again, and maybe finding a way of incorporating both traditional and digital into my work.

My short term goals after finishing are to get in contact again with Mobile Pie and see if they would still like to hire me for freelance work for their games. I can then see if working in games, and digitally, is for me or if I’d like to try something else. I would need to work in my current digital style as this is what my portfolio consists of and what they’re looking for. I would also like to try contacting clients for possible editorial work, I think this would be a good way of trying out new styles or subjects quickly and not get bogged down with long projects. I would like to create work with traditional mediums in my spare time, and if I enjoy it then I can start creating pieces to go into my portfolio so that I can get work that isn’t solely digital. I’m planning on working with coloured pencils and maybe doing some painting again. This will also be a good way of working on my colour theory and practicing other subjects other than characters. I’m also going to try and be more active with posting my work to social media, and maybe paying to make the website live that I created in the Portfolio & Promotion module. I joined the AOI so that I can receive support when it comes to freelancing which I think will be really useful. I’ve entered a couple competitions, like the National Rail postcard one, and hope to enter some more upcoming ones, like the Cheltenham Illustration Awards. I think these will be a good goal to work towards if I don’t have any work, and will be a good opportunity to try new ways of working. 

My long term goal is to have tried out different mediums and styles, as well as different areas of illustration from games to editorial to advertising to books, etc, so that I can find a style, way of working, and area that suits me best and is fulfilling to me. I know now that it will be a journey to find what I enjoy most and can make a living from, and I don’t need to panic about deciding right now and never changing. I would like to have a way of working that can be applied to lots of different things so that I can be producing lots of different types of work, like products, prints, advertising, books, paintings, editorial, games, etc. I think being able to apply my way of working to different areas would make me happy and means I wouldn’t get bored. Maybe a long term goal would be to also get an agent, once I have a defined style and way of working, with some previous clients, so that I don’t have to worry about all the legal stuff.

Overall, I’m happy with the results of this module. I’m happy with the level of work produced and am proud to show it off, and am also happy with my realisation that I don’t need to stick with this style or subject forever. I look forward to using the work I’ve made to try out working in the games industry, as well as for editorial work. But I also look forward to making work very different from what I’ve made in this module, and discovering more about what I enjoy, what mediums I enjoy, and how I can merge digital and traditional together. I’ve gotten down about not knowing what I want to do or how I want to make work during this year, but I am now optimistic about the opportunity to try new things and get lots of different illustration work, and see where it takes me going forward. 

[semi-sketchy]

This is for both of you! I am SO NEW to digital artwork and I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m using FireAlpca and I was wondering if you could give me some tips and how to make my art better! Thank yo7~

Forgive me for taking so long to get to this, just asks like this take a lot of time to put answers together for.

Seeing as you’re using FireAlpaca, this’ll be somewhat easier. So, I’m going to assume you’ve got a drawing tablet and have it set up in a way you like. If you’re using a mouse, then godspeed.

I also went into a lot more than I thought I would with many pictures, so I’m going to put this below a read more.

First, let’s go over a few basics.

Canvas size. I’ve seen it and done it myself, so let me tell you, you want a large canvas. That’s the resolution I use, I like to have something that’s 16:9, but the aspect ratio is up to you. Extra large canvases can also cause FireAlpaca to lag, so keep that in mind before you do a 10,000x10,000 canvas. Find something that’s at least over 1,500x1,000 that your computer can handle. It’s a lot easier to shrink something down than to blow it up and you can always crop out extra space at the end. If you noticed you drew the sketch small, I recommend blowing it up some before lining so you have more room for details and so if you upgrade your monitor in the next few years, your old artwork won’t look pixelated.

Correction/stabilization. You’ve probably heard many people talk about this already and are using it, so I’ll keep it brief. It uses some digital tech to make your pen movements seem more fluid and flow better. Find the number that feels right to you and adjust it as need be. As you can see I keep mine pretty high, so here’s a quick example of the same drawing with different stabilization settings.

…I somehow got progressively worse each time. Well, the important thing is you can see the smoothness of the lines and how they flow better, so that’s what matters. Now onto the next topic.

The brush tab. FireAlpaca is widely used and that means it has a huge community that makes custom brushes. Some people find this confusing, so I’ll try my best to walk you through installing custom brushes.

First, you want the actual brush. I recommend looking through DragonLoreStudios’ brush packs as most of the ones I use are from them. Some cost points, but there are a few free packs. (Pack 6 has a water texture which I freaking love.) You’ll need to keep those files, so I recommend making a folder on your computer where you keep all the custom brush textures.

It’ll be in a zipped folder, so you’ll need to extract it. Just right click and select “extract all” to a folder that is NOT the zipped folder (done this a few times). Now the hard part.

Click that icon, “Add Brush (Bitmap)” and select the image from your computer.

It’ll pull this up. This is the tricky part. Some brushes come with what the presets should be to make it look like it does in the preview, however not all do. You can do some tweaking if you change your mind about something or it didn’t work like you wanted it to by double-clicking on the brush in the brush tab. However, since this one is from DragonLoreStudios, there’s a preset panel I can match this to.

And that’s the end result. They update that panel once in awhile and it is time consuming to put in a bunch of brushes, but they carry over from version to version, so no need to worry about losing your custom brushes when you update.

Lastly, if you’re like me and want to organize your brushes, I introduce to you folders. I had some people ask me about this on my last stream, so it’s as simple as layers and folders. Just click the folder icon, name it, drag ‘n’ drop. Nice and easy way to keep your brushes organized.

So far, haven’t said a whole lot you didn’t know, huh? Alright, let me get into some stuff that I jumped for joy when I found out.

FireAlpaca doesn’t have a multi-select….or does it?

Yup! I didn’t find this out for a long time. If you hold shift with the wand, you can select as many areas as you want. It seems like a silly thing to get excited over and you may have already known about it, but I figured I’d point it out since my friends and I took forever to learn about it.

The blur sucks. We all know. No matter what computer you have, when you turn it up over 120 it gets so laggy you can’t hardly use it. But, those big canvases, you can’t use a dinky little 100 size blur on it. Welcome to filters.

I’ll admit, I don’t quite know what everything on that list does. HOWEVER, I do know what gaussian blur does and with the select tool, it’s amazing.

Let’s say you drew this awesome background, but you want those dots blurred however you don’t wanna sit here for 10 minutes with the manual blur tool.

It’s amazing, really. Only want one side blurred? Just use the select tool and blur that side. I wish I knew about this a year ago whenever my airbrush shading wasn’t smooth enough.

Now, the hue is also something that has saved my shading life more than once. It works just like you’d expect. Don’t like that background color? Think it needs more pop?

Simple. The other two options that I know on the filter tab are also great! Sand and cloud. Depending on how big your canvas is, it might take the computer a second to put it out, but it’s a texture that’s randomized every time you do it and here’s what they look like with black and white.

Not very interesting, huh? Well, put a color below them and turn that layer to overlay…

Wow! It adds some texture! I personally like to turn those down to about 15% opacity so it doesn’t overpower the image, but it’s nice for adding texture to your plain, otherwise straightforward, backgrounds.

So, time we take that knowledge and move to the miracle that is clipping.

Clipping is your go-to tool for shading and colored lines. I can’t believe how often I have to tell my friends “no, don’t grab the paint bucket use clipping” because clipping looks better. Always. Alright, for an example I’m gonna grab a newer piece that I already finished since I still have the project file.

Notice the clipping? I actually used more, but had to merge some layers because a clipping layer can’t clip onto another clipping layer. I’m gonna go backwards a little here and show you how helpful clipping can be.

This is without clipping. Not very nice looking, is it? I shaded with black as a base color, the lineart sticks out like a sore thumb and it lost its soft look. I actually use black a lot to shade, but only as a base color (unless I’m shading a really deep color, then black is basically my only option). After I got all the shading, I made a new layer and turned on clipping.

Now with this layer, I’m free to put color into the shading. If I did this with say a paint bucket, I would end up with spots that didn’t quite reach because of the antialising or it would expand if I turned on that on and I’d have to go over it again to clean it up. With clipping, I get clean lines and am free to change the color with ease.

The ears are a gradient, which means it’s time for some clipping ex machina mixed with the hue tab.

I made a copy of the top half of the color layer that covers the part I’m shading.

Now we got it pasted in with clipping on the ears. It matches up perfectly, of course, but there’s no shading. Time for the hue tab!

Look at that. Was able to keep the shading even with the gradient while adding a bit of hue shift to the purplish side. THAT is the power of clipping. Of course, use clipping for the lineart mixed with a bit of airbrush for the ear gradient (since the color layer ain’t on the lineart, have to color that by hand) and remembering to darken the lineart around the shaded areas, and we get this.

Sounds complicated, but it’s really simple and the result doesn’t look half bad. I’ve used clipping + hue on so many drawings and it’s saved my life.

Now, another little nifty trick is that white boarder. You don’t have to trace all the way around your piece, that would take forever. Let’s go back to our little grumpy Tara piece.

I added some color to help the boarder stick out. Now, first we wanna make a layer above the background layers, just below the color layer, and turn off the background.

Should be looking like this.

Next, we’re gonna use the wand to select outside and under the select tab, click “inverse”.

Now, it’s time to expand! It’s the button right under inverse, you can see it in the last image. How big or small you want it all depends on you and the canvas size, so play around until you’re happy with it. For this example, I’m using 7 because this is a pretty tiny canvas.

Next, we want the fill tool. Honestly this thing is so much more useful than people give it credit for.

Get the whole area and boom! That’s it. Deselect, turn your background back on and take a look!

Beautiful. The reason you don’t want to use the paint bucket is it wouldn’t get every spot. If you drew a tuft of fur or a little corner, it wouldn’t reach. This way makes it so every inch is covered. However, with fur and all, there’s a bit of a draw back and something you’ll have to fix manually.

Look how it squared those spots out, yikes. You’ll have to take your pen and round them as I did in that earlier piece with Miles.

I think this’ll be the last thing I cover and I myself am not very good at this, but I want to show you comics in FireAlpaca.

Step one: do NOT USE THE SNAP FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE. THERE’S A BETTER WAY.

For real though, don’t do that. Make a new canvas (I wouldn’t use the comic tab, I just find it screws with all the knowledge I have and all it does is make a new canvas anyways).

Great. Next step.

We’re going to go to the layer tab and click “add panel material”.

That’ll bring this little box up. Whatever you pick is up to you and remember the undo button does exist, so choose whatever you want and click “OK”.

We got it started! That’s the easiest part done. It’ll automatically set you to the “panel divide” tool so you can get working. Drag that tool across and it’ll cut lines and if you hold shift, you can do diagonal lines.

Here’s a quick example. If you adjust the kerning and leading, you know, this stuff:

You can change how close it’ll cut the panels.

However, for some odd reason, you can’t do completely diagonal. Like if you take a square and cut from one corner to the other, it won’t work. I don’t know why, maybe they’ll change it in an update, but that’s how it is right now.It also takes a little getting used to, so mess around with it.

The great thing about doing this instead of using the snap (besides it looking better) is nothing will go above it. Even if it’s the bottom layer, you can’t go over it or erase it. However, sometimes you want a little panel overlay and this doesn’t give you many options, does it? Maybe you’d like to transform it, but you can’t because it’s a comic layer. You wanna convert it.

Under the layer tab, just click “rasterize material” and it’ll turn it into a normal layer you can use your select tool and transform stuff on. Now if only they had a way to create text boxes my life would be complete…

Oh, one last thing I wanna mention: ALWAYS save your project file. When you finish a piece, don’t just save it as a PNG and be done, save it as a MDP (FireAlpaca file) too. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve drawn something, uploaded it then realized I forgot one minor detail I wanna fix. Without the project file that contains all my layers, I’d be so screwed. Just keep the file around for maybe a week or two, at least until you know you won’t go back and edit it any time soon. Also be careful you don’t save a file as a PNG to show it to a friend, make progress, then just aimlessly click “save” because it’ll be in the format you last saved it as. I’ve had a friend do that several times and it’s terrible when that happens.

Okay this went from some help to a sales pitch. Still, when I found out about this stuff I thought it was a godsend. I might’ve just rambled on about stuff you already knew about, but I tried to cover some more obscure things you won’t find in basic YouTube tutorials. Anyways, hope this was of use to you!

-Sassy

[dualectic]

the alfie revamp: part II

(part I, which was a semi-successful attempt to whiten the yellowing on a nearly nine year old doll, can be found here)

So, where we left off from last time, I was concerned about the s-hooks in Alfie’s hands and feet digging and wearing away at the resin, and I wanted to reinforce those spots before they became truly structurally unsound. 

This was a pretty simple and quick fix - I just made the bars in the hands and feet thicker with epoxy carefully patted in with a toothpick (I used Milliput, as I’ve worked with it before, but I don’t think you have to). If you have dolls that are older and that are starting to see serious wear here, I’d definitely recommend trying this out! This was about a 2-hour project, not including downtime when the epoxy is curing. 

The only tricky thing about this is making sure that the reinforcement to the resin bar is still cylindrical so an s-hook will still smoothly glide over it. I initially made the bars too thick, and had to pry my s-hooks to be a little wider in order to accommodate the reinforced bars. You can also smooth and thin things out with a piece of sandpaper cut into a long, thin strip that’s the exact width of bar, looped through where the s-hook would go. A few back and forths with a coarser grit sandpaper did the trick for me! Since this is an area that’s totally hidden from view when the doll is assembled, I didn’t bother matching the epoxy to the resin, or making the thing particularly aesthetically appealing. 

Then I went ahead and blushed the hands, although this was a bit of a learning curve! I’m not really thrilled with these results, but it was my first time in almost three years working with pastel on resin and I think need to get my touch back. These feel overblushed, though I was trying to compensate for the fact that the peroxide-baking soda bath over-whitened his hands. I’m mainly upset about the wrinkles, because they’re too thick and read as lines of paint rather than realistic texture. 

So, that was sort of the easy part! At this point, Alfie’s been lightened up, is no longer pee-yellow, and has gotten the resin equivalent of some glucosamine and chondroitin in his old creaky joints. I redid his hot glue sueding and he’s holding poses much more stably. But boy, the real plunge was deciding to modify his face. 

This is Alfie, two weeks ago. In 2010, I gave Alfie a slight nose job to make his nose match the one I’ve always drawn for the character - it’s got that distinctive tip you can see in the profile shot above, and has a little bump on the bridge. That’s me - bulldozing the arguably more classically beautiful nose of the original Migidoll Ryu for my own ends. But the much bigger problem I’ve always had with this sculpt is its lack of jaw. Alfie, as I’ve drawn him since I was a wee teenager, has always had something of a Manly Jaw. 

pictured: super embarrassing drawing from circa 2010 where Alfie Has a Manly Jaw (also, Nell, a character currently housed in a modified migidoll Jina, but she’s another story)

One day, I’m going to sculpt Alfie from scratch and get his face exactly right, and I debated for a while about undertaking a more drastic additive mod to his current face. What’s the point of owning a Migidoll Ryu, a sculpt I admire immensely in its original form, if I’m going to do something that’s going to make him not look like a Ryu? Prior to this, the only other additive mod I’d ever done was a slight eye closing on my Migidoll Jina. Excuse this ancient image that’s super JPEG-lossy. 

Not only was that mod much less extensive, it was seven years ago and I haven’t touched epoxy since. In order to test the waters, I used some translucent Sculpey to quickly sketch out what the mod I had in mind would look like in the round. 

As it turns out, this test is nothing like the final epoxy result, because Sculpey behaves very different than Milliput and I think it’s a medium that leads to a different sculptural result than epoxy. Since it’s infinitely malleable until baked, I ended up tweaking and tweaking forever and ever until I felt like I had totally lost my intentions. But it did give me the guts to go forward with a large additive epoxy mod. 

The blessing of Milliput (or nightmare, depending on how you prefer to work) is that it starts to stiffen up at about the half hour mark, so it forces you to be decisive about your choices. I think I sculpted using larger, lumpier masses, with the knowledge that the stuff responds very well to sanding and that refinements could take place at that stage. Milliput can be smoothed out with water, and I did do this, but I didn’t stress about textural inconsistencies too much. 

My goal for this mod was to drastically build out the jawline, reinforce the rather thin undereye with epoxy so I could then later go back and carve out a more hollowed eyesocket without compromising the thin parts of the resin, and make the brow a little more prominent. Think of it as Doll Puberty!

The additions took place over the course of about three days, since I thought going overboard would have been really easy. I really wanted the avoid the kind of “puffy” face look I got when I did the test run in Sculpey. 

Nonetheless, the mod ended up colonizing way more of the original sculpt than I expected. I was referencing various stock images of men’s faces along the way in order to try and maintain some semblance of an understanding of the underlying structures of the face, and in doing so I realized exactly how much stuff needed to be added to his face to get that ~cut~ cheekbone and jaw situation. 

After that, it was all about sanding. So much sanding. While I was mainly sanding down the epoxy, I also inevitably sanded the base resin to get a smooth transition between the two. I wore a face mask and sanded wet, to minimize the amount of dust kickup, because resin dust is not something you want to inhale. In order to put less strain on my hands and wrists and provide a shape to carve with, I molded pieces of kneaded eraser into the desired shapes and then wrapped sandpaper over them, and used that to do most of the heavy sanding. It definitely makes a difference when you’re doing it for hours on end. 

And here’s the dude, all sanded up! I did most of the heavy subtractive sculpting with 200 grit sandpaper, and worked up in stages to a 3000 grit for the finishing and polishing. As you can see here, there’s a little pock mark on his cheek, from where an air bubble presumably got caught in the middle of my mods. I could have filled it in, but I kind of liked it and decided to keep it to later paint as a blemish or something. I also thought the end result here kind of just looked cool, like the inverse of a pattern of facial vitiligo or something. 

I initially thought (rather foolishly) that I might be able to color correct the epoxy to match the resin with pastel only. Here are two layers of pastel over MSC. As you can see, while it worked somewhat and gave the epoxy a cool texture, it just couldn’t get opaque enough. An airbrush is the ideal way to go when doing this, I think. 

Wel, I don’t own an airbrush, so I ended up hand painting, which gives...definitely a particular look, and one that I think not all people might like. I used various acrylic paints thinned out with water and matte medium. Since paint applies rather more thickly and with more visible brushstrokes when hand painting than when airbrushing, this gave his head a rather pasty, flat appearance initially, and also created a lot of texture. I decided to embrace it rather than fight it, and tried out a technique that Helene of @deleted-dollshe / @that-venitu / Rugged Realism / generally one of my favorite BJD people ever mentioned on her Instagram where she applied matte medium thickly over a doll head and then stippled it while still wet to create a pore-like texture over the resin. 

I have mixed feelings about this - I think it would look fantastic on a doll whose face wasn’t painted over with an opaque acrylic, because resin has a slight luminosity that’s lost with the acrylic “foundation”. Alas, it was unavoidable in this case. I think I am moving more towards a more “imperfect” style with my faceups where evidenced of the human hand is more apparent anyhow, so I worked with it. I added lots of very light mottling (dip a toothbrush in a very diluted mix of pastel and water or acrylic paint, and flick from a distance onto your doll, it’s ~magic~), veining, faint wrinkles, and shadows. 

And of course, the eyebrows. Who could forget? Alfie needs to be fleeky af or something. 

Hopefully you can see some of the detail and texturing in this closeup! I think this is a technically stronger faceup than the previous one I did on Alfie. I’m not mad at the linework, anyhow. 

And the other side, for good measure. After I sealed everything with MSC to make everything Very Very Matte, I actually went back in with matte medium on strategic points of the face. Contrary to its name, matte medium is in fact slightly more reflective than MSC, without looking outright glossy, so I dabbed some on the lips, waterline of the eyes, and down the nose, chin, and a bit under the eyes. I think it gives his face a more lifelike appearance in person, and you can see that it does photograph with a slight sheen. 

And here’s the guy wigged and dressed! I’m still getting used to photographing him with the new face, since this is a pretty drastic change from his previous appearance. I’m finding that while I’m generally happy with my mods, there are certain moments when I’m shooting him and I realize that the form doesn’t work 100% at every angle, but this was my really sculptural mod, so I’m trying not to beat myself up about it too much. Overall, I’m just thrilled that I had the guts to do this and finally try and make Alfie look more like how I draw him. I’m waiting on some eyelashes in the mail, and I have a backup wig that I want to try styling for him, but he’s pretty much all finished otherwise! Thanks for coming along for the ride!

I’ll leave you with this horrifying compilation of faceups and stages that Alfie’s been through with me since I got him in 2008. I have no doubt that he’s going to continue to change as I grow and get older, but here’s to 2017 Alfie anyhow!

[todaynewsstories]

I’d do it all over again, says founder of failed start-up Fastbee

SINGAPORE: Starting his own business has been such a stressful process that Khoo Kar Kiat lost 10kg over the past two years. 

It has also set him back by almost S$200,000. 

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But Mr Khoo does not regret taking the entrepreneurial plunge, even as his start-up ended last week and he did not get to prove his naysayers wrong. 

Back then, he was told by some that he had made the wrong move to leave the civil service. 

He was already 33, they said, and should not be taking risks given that he had a “good, stable job” at the Economic Development Board (EDB). 

Some did not mince their words: “Can (your idea) make money? Why do something stupid like that?” 

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The idea that he had was a food delivery service called Fastbee, which allowed people to order hawker delights via an app and collect their food from nearby vending machines. 

Mr Khoo believed that this would incur lower costs than a conventional point-to-point delivery model and in turn, be more sustainable and scalable. 

At the end of last year, Fastbee expanded to 10 vending machines across various industrial and business parks in the West. More than 800 deliveries were made per week from a team of just seven people. 

Unfortunately, it could not withstand a double whammy of competition from new players and fundraising difficulties that soon came along. The start-up had its last day on Aug 14. 

But nothing ventured, nothing gained, said Mr Khoo. 

“Maybe I should be happy that I lasted for about two years,” he quipped. “After all, statistics out there say about 90 per cent of start-ups fail in a year.” 

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL ITCH

A former student of the Anglo-Chinese Junior College and Nanyang Technological University, Mr Khoo described himself as someone who rarely veered off the beaten path. 

Taking a risk, such as entrepreneurship, never crossed his mind until he was introduced to the Lean Start-up methodology at work. 

Coined by Silicon Valley entrepreneurial guru Eric Ries, the methodology emphasised experimentation, like quickly launching a product then change it based on market feedback, instead of elaborate planning. 

He was tasked to adopt this innovation philosophy to build a new industry for Singapore but felt “something missing” and that he needed more than just reading materials to fully grasp the concept. 

“Innovation, the Lean Start-up methodology – these were often discussed but how do you get answers about starting something from scratch and making it work? Do I ask my boss or do I read more books?” 

Disruption becoming the new normal and technology changing jobs also got him thinking if he had become too comfortable in his work.

“I was somehow semi-cruising and contented with life,” said Mr Khoo. “But the world is changing and there’s actually so much to do and learn.” 

He considered applying for an MBA but eventually concluded that the answer lies in getting his hands dirty. So in October 2016, he left his eight-year career at the EDB. 

A steep learning curve awaited him in the initial months as he took the dive into entrepreneurship. 

From lacklustre demand for his “primitive version” of Fastbee (a breakfast delivery service in the Central Business District), new guidelines for vending machines to manpower and logistics issues, Mr Khoo recalled having “a reason to close down almost every month”. 

“There was once when I was going to launch a new machine at a new location but the third-party logistics provider I was partnering couldn’t deliver. I suddenly find myself with no drivers to fulfil orders,” he said. 

“It was such a stressful day that I nearly felt like throwing in the towel.” 

Each time, he tweaked his model and soldiered on. 

With its focus on the underserved market of delivering humbler local fare to non-CBD areas, business grew and Mr Khoo felt confident enough to add new vending machines by end-2017. 

“After surviving the initial months, I thought nothing else can kill me,” he recalled. “But I was wrong.”

READ: From hawker centre to home: Is delivering cheap, local food a recipe for business success?

At its core, Fastbee relied on aggregating orders and eliminating point-to-point deliveries to stay lean and keep costs down. Unlike other food delivery services, it does not take a cut or have a minimum order requirement. Its main income is a S$1.50 delivery fee. 

While it does have lower manpower costs, it required economies of scale to turn profitable. At its peak, Fastbee only had a footprint of 10 vending machines. 

By early 2018, its capital of S$200,000, consisting of S$100,000 from Mr Khoo and the rest put in by an angel investor, was fast running out. Months of fundraising, however, yielded little results. 

“Eventually, I realised that we were simply not growing fast enough,” said Mr Khoo. “We may be growing 10 to 20 per cent in our customer base but venture capitalists are looking at super-normal growth of 100 to 200 per cent.” 

Investors also questioned the exportability of the start-up. “We are a solution for Singapore where manpower is expensive, but that’s not the case for the rest of Southeast Asia. So they were sceptical.” 

At the same time, new entrants with deeper pockets have begun targeting its stronghold of industrial and business parks in the West. With its coffers running dry, Mr Khoo said Fastbee could not match the extensive marketing efforts, such as dishing out promo codes, that some of its rivals have done. 

Fastbee’s vending machine at Mediapolis. (Photo: Tang See Kit)

To hold on, it began reducing its vending machines while tweaking operations to have one delivery man for four locations. 

“We always needed about 30 packets for breakeven but with that, it took just eight to 10 packets.” 

That kept the start-up going for four more months until talks with an investor fell through on Aug 9. By then, Mr Khoo knew the time was up. 

“I sat in front of my laptop and wept a bit. Even though I had been preparing myself, it wasn’t easy when the realisation hit.” 

When asked if he had been too confident on Fastbee’s lean model, Mr Khoo’s face turned pensive. 

“I still believe in the concept of using a vending machine because right till the end, we were breaking even operationally. But we needed investments to keep going. 

“With the consolidation going on in the market, interest was low. Nobody wants to invest in a small start-up and hope you can survive against the big guys.”

READ: Promo codes, lower minimum orders: Is a price war brewing among food delivery apps?

NO REGRETS

Without a salary and having to dig deep into his savings for his daily expenses, Mr Khoo estimated that he has spent about S$200,000 on his entrepreneurial pursuits. 

But there are no regrets, he said, as he’s gained valuable lessons in return.

For instance, he should have kept a tighter lid on spending in the initial stages of the business.

“Everyone told me that I needed to bootstrap. You will try but you won’t do it until you are desperate,” said Mr Khoo.

“We were not overspending compared to many start-ups but we were not stingy enough. Only when we ran out did we realise that we could have slashed a lot of spending by becoming even more efficient.”

This will involve walking the talk on embracing innovation and out-of-the-box thinking, added Mr Khoo. For this, he credited his young team for constantly reminding him of the value of taking a chance on something new.

“Towards the end, I told my team that we needed to radically change our operations. They took it and we started brainstorming together. That’s how we pivoted our model when we needed to.”

Having family support would be crucial for any entrepreneur though Mr Khoo admitted that his mother disapproved of his career switch.

“My brother had a business failure in his 30s and lost a similar amount of money. My mum went through that with him and she obviously didn’t want me to end up the same.”

He added: “Plus, I was doing quite well in EDB so she could not understand why I wanted to quit.”

His business has been a taboo topic at home for the past two years. But there was once after an argument, Mr Khoo received a text message from his mum reminding him to take regular meals and rest when he can. 

“I remembered being on my way back to the office. When I saw the message, I stopped and cried uncontrollably for 10 minutes. 

“I know she’s been very worried about us failing and having a tough life as a result of that.” 

Bringing up the deep-seated fear of failure in Singapore, he added: “The older generation still views entrepreneurship and the risks involved very differently and I know from here, there will be certain pressure that my family and I will have to face.” 

“So when the realisation hit, I did think about what I should do for the next Chinese New Year. Should I still go for visiting?”

Mr Khoo also candidly let on that he initially thought it would be rather “paiseh”, which means embarrassed in Hokkien, to do an interview but he now hopes to help dispel that fear of failure. 

“I’ve previously given a few talks on entrepreneurship. Obviously now, I can’t tell a success story but perhaps I can tell the other side of becoming an entrepreneur given that so few people talk about failures and what we learn from them.” 

On his next step, Mr Khoo admits to feeling some trepidation though he was quick to add that there is no time to wallow in failure. 

“After spending S$200,000, I need to build up my nest again,” he said with a laugh. 

But more importantly, he has come to realise that life is not a race and that one failure does not mean losing out forever. 

“Bouts of ‘I’m single, turning 35, don’t have a career and probably can’t afford a HDB’ definitely went through my mind but I really don’t think I’m in the worst place. 

“If I compare myself with my peers, I may be a few years behind but this is not a race. I still have many years ahead of me to make the best out of my life.”

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[peachhplum]

Let's groove on, 'cause it's time to move on!

I like change. Not too much that it's overwhelming, leaving you feeling slightly out of control. But just enough to mix things up a bit. Enough to make you reconsider routines and to keep you leaping out of bed in the morning excited at what the day will hold. Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware of the comfort of familiarity. It's good for the soul. And come December, after an incredibly busy year, my thoughts rarely revolve around Christmas shopping, nights out and tackling new things, but instead how soon I can find a way to spend a day or two under the comfort of blankets with only a TV remote and a massive bar of chocolate for company.  I really do relish this season of slowing down slightly ... of twinkly lights, family films on repeat, beige buffets and bizarrely large glasses of Baileys. But then I replace our annual calendar and see twelve blank pages ahead of me, and I'm excited again at the potential. So much potential. The first thing that crosses my mind? Yes. You guessed it. What can I change this year?

Because it appears that corporate methodology somehow stays with you many years after you've resigned, I still like to use the good ol' 'stop start continue change' management model to get all of my thoughts down on paper in a cohesive manner. Or type them on here. Which is no bad thing as my handwriting is illegible for the most part. Plus, this way I can trust you guys to hold me accountable in the coming months, right? 

Stop - what am I doing that's not working?

Online: Once upon a time, all bloggers were fed the line that they had to be pushing out content on every available social media channel at all times of day and night in order to have some modicum of success. Admittedly, I was never entirely convinced of this and last year, I ditched a few social media channels that I personally don't spend anytime interacting on or find enjoyable. And did I see a dip in people reading my blog? Nope. Probably because those channels weren't right for me and didn't fit with what I like to write about. The key word there is 'write'. YouTube? Not for me. Really not for me.  This year, my aim is to stop feeling burdened by Instagram. The word on the street is that it's a platform where you've got to have a niche to do well. Last year, I listened to the advice out there and tried to stick solely to sharing interiors-related images. And? It sucked all the joy out of it for me. It bored me to tears. So that niche-business is over for me now. No one puts baby in the corner ... I'm breaking out and going to post what I like when I like. It has to be fun and enjoyable otherwise, why do it? Offline:  Embracing a more relaxed pace of life in December with the boys having chicken pox and having to throw all to-do lists out of the window, made me realise that I don't have to fill every minute of the day. Left with half an hour of free time, I fall in to the trap of thinking that I obviously don't have enough to do and jump on the laptop and book a million different things. Twenty minutes of unfilled time on a Wednesday doesn't mean that I should sign up for a floristry course at the local college. And one quiet evening in a million isn't a nudge to start a monthly supper club. I will stop this. And please feel free to give me a pinch if you hear or spot me doing otherwise.

Start - what can I put in place to improve my life?

Online: The online world never sleeps, which is both a joy and a curse. It means that I can work hours that suit me rather than the traditional 9-5. But it also means that I have a tendency to work ALL the hours way beyond the traditional 9-5. When my youngest son started school in September, it was an opportunity for me to work through the day again, rather than in the evening. But then, under the illusion of having so much extra time, I took on enough work to fill the hours in the day AND the evening. I need to start defining clearer working hours and being more realistic about what I can fit in and when. Offline: I want to start running again. Not so much to lose weight but to be a bit healthier and rid myself of the guilt for the sheer amount of biscuits I eat each day. I need to ignore my to-do list and the urge to tick things off it the moment I wake up, and head outdoors in the morning. When I'm busy, I always want to tackle things as soon as I've dropped the boys off at school but a half hour run/jog/skip/walk/crawl will not eat in to my day and mean that I don't get everything done.

Continue - what's working well that I should carry on with?

Online: The type of posts that I write on here and the photos I take to accompany them really make me happy. I like the mix of family, lifestyle and interiors and I love telling little stories and sharing favourite finds from cool brands. I think I get the balance right between organic content and sponsored posts ... and the fact my sponsored posts receive such a positive reaction tells me that I collaborate with companies that you're genuinely interested in and that really fit both my and your lifestyle. Offline: I had a couple of discussions last year about taking on a similar work role, with a different company, to the one that I had before the boys were born. And I dithered over it. It could have been an amazing opportunity. But, right now, when the the boys are sick, I get to stay at home with them. They have various concerts and sports matches throughout the year, and I get to go to them all. When Paul works away, there's very little juggling needed. And if something crops up unexpectedly during the day, I can catch up with my work during the evening. Working at home works for all of us. I'm exactly where I want and need to be. But yes, I do occasionally miss a frantic corporate environment.

Change - what's working but would work better with a few tweaks?

Online: Late last year, because working in isolation can be hard sometimes ... no feedback, no discussion, no chit chat ... I started having Skype calls every couple of weeks with my friend and fellow blogger, Jess - you can find her amazing blog here. Being able to talk through things and run my ideas past someone who 100 percent gets where I'm coming from and knows what I want to achieve made a massive, positive change for me. It's something that we're going to continue with this year, and hopefully add in a couple of face to face meet ups, too. Offline: I struggle with the concept of 'forever', particularly when it relates to a house or a location to live in. North Wales will always be my home, and the place where I return to, but I'd never say never to another stint abroad. However, we're days away from exchanging contracts on a place that I'd say is a promising 'ten years' home. And that's as good a commitment as you'll get from me about staying in the same four walls for any length of time. It's already an amazing house and garden for the children but with a few tweaks, it will be absolute perfection. I'll share more when the signatures are dry as I don't want to tempt fate. I'm so nervous that it all goes through without a hitch. Argh!

And that's enough about me. How are you? Do you have any goals for the coming year? Anything that you'd like to achieve? Let me know!

[babystuffs]

How to Teach Baby to Sleep Through the Night

The scene wasn't pretty. It was 4 A.M. and my 11-month-old son and I had been awake for hours. I'd tried everything to get him settled: rocking, singing, feeding, and even bringing him into our bed, where he excitedly climbed over his dad as if we were having an impromptu family cuddle puddle. When he began crying for what seemed like the tenth time in a few hours, I broke down too. Harper had been sleeping through the night for months. How could this be happening? Was it possible that my proudest parenting achievement had completely come undone?

Here's what I didn't know at the time: It's 100 percent normal for babies who have been snoozing blissfully for eight to 12 hours each night to suddenly go through some bad patches. "Once your child is sleeping through the night, never expect that it will last forever," warns Parents advisor Jodi Mindell, Ph.D., author of Sleeping Through the Night.

Related topic : http://www.newmomstuff.com/missing-the-graco-sweetpeace-swing-try-one-of-these-instead

With that in mind, we've identified the most common reasons that star sleepers tend to wake up -- and asked experts to offer solutions for each dilemma.

   Win a prize a day, enter now!

Wake-Up Call: Developmental Milestones

Sara Moe, mom of 8-month-old Finn and 3-year-old Dashiell, from Los Angeles, remembers that both her children woke up in the middle of the night during the weeks when they were learning to crawl. "I would go in and find them on their knees, still half asleep, utterly confused about how they got that way," she says.

That's not uncommon. One of the biggest disruptions to slumber time is that your little one is working hard on mastering a new skill -- seemingly all night long. A baby learning to roll onto her tummy may have trouble finding her way back to her original position. When she begins to sit up later, you might find her crying because she hasn't figured out how to lie back down. Another biggie is walking: Research shows that a kid can get so excited about this milestone that she literally can't sleep, says Dr. Mindell.

Sleep-better solution: Spend time practicing the new skill with your kid during the day. "Let your baby move around a lot, and try to avoid excessive stroller or car-seat time," says sleep consultant Jennifer Waldburger, coauthor of The Sleepeasy Solution: The Exhausted Parent's Guide to Getting Your Child to Sleep. When your little one wakes up because she's stuck in a new position, help her lie down again but don't linger -- you don't want this to become a game.

Also check how to find best baby carrier for short moms

Wake-Up Call: Separation Anxiety

Children under the age of 1 don't understand object permanence -- the idea that you may go away but you will always come back. As a result, your baby can feel panicked when he wakes during the night and doesn't see you -- especially if you were there when he drifted off. If he rouses with a startled cry and then seems playful after you pick him up, he might have just missed you. The worst thing to do is follow his lead and start socializing. "Don't turn the middle of the night into fun time," says Waldburger.

Sleep-better solution: Teach your baby that you'll never disappear by playing games like peekaboo or hide-and-seek with his stuffed animals in the daytime. If he's crying in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, pat him or pick him up for a minute or two to reassure him that you're there and then give him a kiss good night -- and goodbye. Trying to sneak out can backfire. "If your child is experiencing separation anxiety it will just make him more panicked and hyper-vigilant," says Waldburger.

Wake-Up Call: Naps, Naturally

As your baby gets older, she's going to begin needing fewer naps. These fluctuations can affect her overnight schedule as well. "If her rest periods are too close to bedtime she may not be sleepy, and if they're too short she may be overtired -- either scenario can make her more likely to wake at night," says Marc Weissbluth, M.D., professor of clinical pediatrics at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and author of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.

Sleep-better solution: If your baby's routine has changed recently, consider keeping a sleep journal for a week to see whether you need to adjust her bedtime or tweak her naptimes. One way to gauge if your baby is getting enough quality sleep is to watch her between 4 and 5 P.M. "Many parents write this time off as the 'witching hour' -- but it's really the time when poor sleep catches up with a baby," says Dr. Weissbluth. If your little one seems playful and happy, then her schedule is probably okay; if she's clingy and short-fused, she may have given up her nap too soon or needs to go to sleep earlier.

Wake-Up Call: Routine Disruption

When Harper was 6 months, we took him for a week at the beach. When we got home, I resumed his bedtime ritual of bath, bottle, and book. But what used to soothe him had stopped working. He began crying as soon as I left his room.

No surprise we were back at square one -- vacations, teething, or illness can all disrupt your baby's shut-eye schedule. And it's a vicious cycle: Sleep deprivation, even one hour less each night, can add up and make your baby even more likely to wake at night.

Sleep-better solution: Set aside a few days to get back on track. If your baby continues to wake after three nights post-vacation or illness, do a sleep-training refresher. It's also helpful to keep as much of a routine in place as you can when you're away from home -- if it's always bath and book before bed, keep that ritual intact as much as circumstances will allow.

Wake-Up Call: It's A Mystery To You

You might have a bad night's sleep now and then, and so will your baby. Maybe she has a tummy ache, or she's too hot -- or cold. Perhaps she's getting smarter. "When the brain is rewiring itself for a cognitive leap, it can affect sleep," says Waldburger. Most often, the rough patch will pass or the answer will reveal itself over the course of a few days -- a new tooth, a first word, a growth spurt -- or all of the above!

Sleep-better solution: If you don't know why your child is waking, comfort her by patting, holding, or rocking her. Soothe yourself by remembering that you won't create a bad habit in one night and that you and your baby are passing through a stage. "Learning to sleep is like riding a bike. She may fall off sometimes but she won't forget," says Waldburger. Feel free to use that as your late-night mantra.

[scholaarblog]

Secret Million Dollar Amazon Listing Formula

Secret Million Dollar Amazon Listing Formula

Secret Million Dollar Amazon Listing Formula

Dear Amazon Vendor,

First of all, thank you for accepting my private invitation to view this page. I do NOT share this with just anyone, so know that you have been personally selected to read the following message…

Would you like your current (and future) Amazon products to sell even more?

Are your current listings converting at a rate below 60%?

Does the brutal, cutthroat competition make it hard to gain the edge and keep your sales as high as you’d like them to be?

Does seeing your competitors at #1 cause you concern or motivate you to beat them?

If you answered yes to ANY of these questions, then you need to take just a few minutes of your time right now to read this entire page. You’re about to discover an incredible opportunity to increase your sales, attract a stampede of traffic, and boost your conversion rate literally overnight. I KNOW you won’t be disappointed!

My name is Dana Derricks, and I’m a world-class copywriter. I have spent years researching and testing different tweaks to Amazon listings to maximize their effectiveness. Recently, my research has led me to the PERFECT solution for any Amazon vendor who would like to attract more buyers and improve conversions…

What I’ve discovered will completely change the way you sell on Amazon forever, because:

…You CAN beat your competition, explode your sales, and claim the MASSIVE market share that’s waiting for you on Amazon almost instantly… Look, I know that Amazon has a very complicated audience to try to convince…

You see, when a visitor comes to an Amazon listing, they are in a totally different mindset than a typical buyer. Amazon buyers are savvy, and they have certain triggers that get them to buy. Without these triggers, they’ll just find your competitors and buy from them.

heres the truth

Amazon is one of the toughest places to sell in the entire world. What’s the number 1 enemy of a vendor? Options. Your visitors are bombarded with options from competitors: a lower price, better quality, faster shipping, better rated product, and the list goes on and on.

The more options a visitor has, the less likely your chances of them becoming a customer of yours. You already know this.

but heres the good news

Perception is reality. If a visitor perceives YOU as the answer to their problems, even though they could get a similar product for a cheaper price, they’ll buy from you every single time. Your visitor’s perception of you NEEDS to be at its absolute best. There is no room for error on Amazon, it’s too competitive.

I know how frustrating and confusing this can be…I sell on Amazon myself, too. That’s why I’ve taken so much time to understand exactly how Amazon works, how it’s visitors behave, and what gets listings to SELL.

let me tell you a quick story

One of my favorite clients, a guy named Mike from Ohio (well, he was from Ohio…you’ll find out more about this later), is the owner of a medium sized supplement company. For a number of years, he was doing quite well. However, lately he was seeing a slight decline in sales and was finding it tougher and tougher to stay competitive. That was…until he found me.

When him and I met, he was very, VERY skeptical about how changing up the copy of his listing could help.

He hired me to rewrite just one of his Amazon listings for him. I took the time to research his target market, their needs and desires, added a few of my “magic” triggers and secrets that get products SOLD like crazy, and positioned him as the ONLY solution for them.

I sent back the copy upgrade for his 1 product and he made the edits to his listing and went live. What happened next was nothing short of amazing…

Why don’t I just let Mike explain what he thought of the copy upgrade for himself, in his words:

testimonials mike b

Now, we’re not talking about a super-niched product that went from selling 10 a month to selling 30…

Mike’s product was in one of the most competitive sections of all of Amazon…

Weight loss.

After a few weeks, the copy that I gave Mike had his sales absolutely exploding. He went from having a mediocre product on Amazon that was selling just a few hundred bottles per month, to selling HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars’ worth EVERY SINGLE MONTH.

The screenshot tells it all:

before after mike

That increase is with absolutely NO outside promotion, NO price difference, and NO other changes besides my copy versus his.

Let’s wrap our heads around this for a second…

That’s an increase of $1,819.01 PER DAY.

Do the math… That’s $56,389.31 MORE money Mike made EVERY SINGLE MONTH because of my copy!

See how important copywriting can be, and how much money is being left on the table?

Now, how would you like to log into your seller dashboard to see that type of increase??

How would that change your business, and your life?

So…

“If you’re selling anything on Amazon… …then you NEED to listen up…!” No matter what product you’re selling…

No matter if you’re selling just 1 product a month or 50,000…

Whether you’ve got 1 product for sale or 5,000…

Whether you hire writers to write your listings or you do it yourself…

But hang on a second, before I say anything else let me ask you a question.

Is the copy for your Amazon listings optimized? I mean, REALLY optimized.

If not, you’re losing money. A LOT of money.

I promise you.

you know what

I’ll just let some of my customers tell you if this is worth your time:

testimonials amazon book

Now YOU can Cash-in on my “Secret Million Dollar” Amazon Listing Formula! That is…

If you’re ready to be able to EASILY write 100% unique, from scratch, and PROVEN copy for your Amazon listings (built SCIENTIFICALLY to position your product as the PERFECT choice for your targeted audience) that WILL produce you incredible results EVERY single time!

Or…if you don’t personally have the time…

The best part of this is how easy it is to learn. You can slap this on your secretary’s desk and in an hour s/he’ll be on their way to writing you perfectly optimized Amazon copy.

Heck, you can give this to your spouse and they can figure it out -that’s how easy it is.

Okay, okay…I’m mildly joking about that, but really it is so super easy that pretty much anybody can follow right along and do it themselves.

You can pay me (or another world class copywriter) $1,000 and up to write EACH listing you have, or you can learn how to do it yourself right now and develop a skill that’ll bring you literally thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of dollars in sales that you don’t even realize you’re missing.amazon workbook 4

All you need to do is click below to claim YOUR copy of the #1 Workbook to Write Killer, Traffic & Conversion Boosting Amazon Listing Copy for ANY Product!

(You’ll be charged just 1 payment of $397, with NO recurring fees or hidden charges. I’m even throwing in rush shipping for FREE! Just a few days with an increase in sales, traffic, and conversions and this investment is already paid for!)

What’s all included?

A Complete Workbook, NOT Another Junk eBook –This isn’t just an eBook that sounds great and is based on theory -leaving you scratching your head as to how to implement the information you’ve learned… This is a workbook that’s based on real-life, results-based science. You’ll be working on writing your listings as you go through the book, and by the end you won’t be getting started on your listing, you’ll be finished! Oh, and no it’s not some crappy .pdf file that you’ll lose the next time your computer crashes. It’s a physical, real-life book that I’ll ship to you and that you’ll have right at your desk. The Inside Secrets to the Mindset and Behavior of Your Potential Customer –You’ll discover the inside secrets (NOT some crap that’s floating around the internet) to the mindset and behavior of your potential customer… What’s making them tick? What do they really want? Why are they buying that? You’ll quickly become a master of understanding your customer’s needs in-and-out, and you’ll find yourself easily crafting the perfect Amazon listing that sells them EXACTLY what they’re looking for! The Million Dollar Trick to Attracting the Customers that YOU Want –There’s more than one type of buyer on Amazon… There’s the impulsive, demanding, and impossible-to-please crowd that will try to get a free ride off you and after you’ve done everything (and then some) to please them, they still leave you with negative feedback. Then, there’s the smarter, fat-walleted, and easy-to-please crowd that’ll boost your sales, let you sleep peacefully at night, and leave your page filled with positive feedback over and over. Which would YOU rather go after? Create the PERFECT Traffic-Attracting & Enticing Title –You’ll be creating your own perfect, traffic-attracting and enticing titles to attract more Amazon traffic from searches, plus it will entice more browsers to open your product’s page over competitor’s! Craft Flawless, Can’t-Say-No Key Features –These will give those visitors an immediate connection and reason to read ALL the information they can about your product, and will funnel them to the description (which will close the sale) Supercharge Your Indications, Ingredients, Directions, Disclaimer –Important information about using your product, why it’s superior to other options, and how to effectively use it for maximum results (and the beginning of a happy customer) Engineer an ‘I-Need-To-Order-Now’ Product Description –Will convince ANY visitor who may be “On the fence” to give it a try, and will absolutely motivate visitors to become BUYERS (Featuring some of my own “Secret methods”). You REALLY will be blown away by this. Time-and-Money Saving Tips & Tricks To Maximize Your ENTIRE Business (Free of Charge, of Course) –I’m throwing in some of my other secrets that have propelled my own, and countless clients’, business from pretty good to “out of control”… You don’t want to miss this!

Again, this isn’t a purchase. It’s an investment.

This is an investment in your business to take out your competition in a clean, ethical, and powerful way. An investment in your business to sell a LOT more without having to spend a ton of money or make major changes. An investment in yourself to produce the results your company (or boss) is looking for.

Just make sure you take action right now.

You don’t want to look back a few weeks later and wish you would have done something today… wishing how you could have stopped letting your competition rake in the sales on Amazon and get YOUR product where it should be –On top.

So, go ahead. It really is your turn to become my next success story.

YES, Dana! I’m ready to take my Amazon listings to a whole new level, and leave my competitors scratching their heads and slamming their keyboards as they watch me blow past them! YES, Dana! I am aware that today is my ONLY chance to get your Amazon Formula Secrets Revealed Workbook at your introductory price of just 1 payment of $397. I MUST order today to guarantee that price. YES, Dana! I know that this investment is literally a fraction of the price of hiring you (or somebody else with your ability) to write just 1 of my listings! (At $1,500 per listing, that adds up quickly!) YES, Dana! I understand that my request will be processed on a totally secure server (PayPal) and, once it is processed, I will have my own workbook physically shipped to me within a week! YES, Dana! I know that by taking action today, I only pay the total of $397. There are no renewals, no recurring fees, and no other charges. This is a 1-time offer. YES, Dana! I want my listing to take claim of MORE customers and DOMINATE the market that’s waiting for me on Amazon! amazon workbook 4

It’s YOUR Time to Get this Incredible, Profit-Boosting “Secret Amazon Listing Formula” and Transform Your Business in 24 Hours or Less!

You really can’t afford to miss out on this.

Also, please note: I’m not responsible for how mad you get when you realize how much money you’ve been leaving on the table because of the copy on your listings. But, what I can tell you is that every minute you wait you’re losing money.

Now go get it back. It’s not that difficult, and will save you a ton of time and money every time you introduce a new product.

This measly $397 is going to be nothing compared to the increase in sales you’ll see. Seriously.

Give it a try right now and watch your inventory go down and your sales go up!

Secret Million Dollar Amazon Listing Formula Free Download

Secret Million Dollar Amazon Listing Formula Free Download

The post Secret Million Dollar Amazon Listing Formula appeared first on Profit Info Mastery.

Secret Million Dollar Amazon Listing Formula published first on http://ift.tt/2zeC3iy

[profitinfomastery]

Secret Million Dollar Amazon Listing Formula

Secret Million Dollar Amazon Listing Formula

Secret Million Dollar Amazon Listing Formula

Dear Amazon Vendor,

First of all, thank you for accepting my private invitation to view this page. I do NOT share this with just anyone, so know that you have been personally selected to read the following message…

Would you like your current (and future) Amazon products to sell even more?

Are your current listings converting at a rate below 60%?

Does the brutal, cutthroat competition make it hard to gain the edge and keep your sales as high as you’d like them to be?

Does seeing your competitors at #1 cause you concern or motivate you to beat them?

If you answered yes to ANY of these questions, then you need to take just a few minutes of your time right now to read this entire page. You’re about to discover an incredible opportunity to increase your sales, attract a stampede of traffic, and boost your conversion rate literally overnight. I KNOW you won’t be disappointed!

My name is Dana Derricks, and I’m a world-class copywriter. I have spent years researching and testing different tweaks to Amazon listings to maximize their effectiveness. Recently, my research has led me to the PERFECT solution for any Amazon vendor who would like to attract more buyers and improve conversions…

What I’ve discovered will completely change the way you sell on Amazon forever, because:

…You CAN beat your competition, explode your sales, and claim the MASSIVE market share that’s waiting for you on Amazon almost instantly… Look, I know that Amazon has a very complicated audience to try to convince…

You see, when a visitor comes to an Amazon listing, they are in a totally different mindset than a typical buyer. Amazon buyers are savvy, and they have certain triggers that get them to buy. Without these triggers, they’ll just find your competitors and buy from them.

heres the truth

Amazon is one of the toughest places to sell in the entire world. What’s the number 1 enemy of a vendor? Options. Your visitors are bombarded with options from competitors: a lower price, better quality, faster shipping, better rated product, and the list goes on and on.

The more options a visitor has, the less likely your chances of them becoming a customer of yours. You already know this.

but heres the good news

Perception is reality. If a visitor perceives YOU as the answer to their problems, even though they could get a similar product for a cheaper price, they’ll buy from you every single time. Your visitor’s perception of you NEEDS to be at its absolute best. There is no room for error on Amazon, it’s too competitive.

I know how frustrating and confusing this can be…I sell on Amazon myself, too. That’s why I’ve taken so much time to understand exactly how Amazon works, how it’s visitors behave, and what gets listings to SELL.

let me tell you a quick story

One of my favorite clients, a guy named Mike from Ohio (well, he was from Ohio…you’ll find out more about this later), is the owner of a medium sized supplement company. For a number of years, he was doing quite well. However, lately he was seeing a slight decline in sales and was finding it tougher and tougher to stay competitive. That was…until he found me.

When him and I met, he was very, VERY skeptical about how changing up the copy of his listing could help.

He hired me to rewrite just one of his Amazon listings for him. I took the time to research his target market, their needs and desires, added a few of my “magic” triggers and secrets that get products SOLD like crazy, and positioned him as the ONLY solution for them.

I sent back the copy upgrade for his 1 product and he made the edits to his listing and went live. What happened next was nothing short of amazing…

Why don’t I just let Mike explain what he thought of the copy upgrade for himself, in his words:

testimonials mike b

Now, we’re not talking about a super-niched product that went from selling 10 a month to selling 30…

Mike’s product was in one of the most competitive sections of all of Amazon…

Weight loss.

After a few weeks, the copy that I gave Mike had his sales absolutely exploding. He went from having a mediocre product on Amazon that was selling just a few hundred bottles per month, to selling HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars’ worth EVERY SINGLE MONTH.

The screenshot tells it all:

before after mike

That increase is with absolutely NO outside promotion, NO price difference, and NO other changes besides my copy versus his.

Let’s wrap our heads around this for a second…

That’s an increase of $1,819.01 PER DAY.

Do the math… That’s $56,389.31 MORE money Mike made EVERY SINGLE MONTH because of my copy!

See how important copywriting can be, and how much money is being left on the table?

Now, how would you like to log into your seller dashboard to see that type of increase??

How would that change your business, and your life?

So…

“If you’re selling anything on Amazon… …then you NEED to listen up…!” No matter what product you’re selling…

No matter if you’re selling just 1 product a month or 50,000…

Whether you’ve got 1 product for sale or 5,000…

Whether you hire writers to write your listings or you do it yourself…

But hang on a second, before I say anything else let me ask you a question.

Is the copy for your Amazon listings optimized? I mean, REALLY optimized.

If not, you’re losing money. A LOT of money.

I promise you.

you know what

I’ll just let some of my customers tell you if this is worth your time:

testimonials amazon book

Now YOU can Cash-in on my “Secret Million Dollar” Amazon Listing Formula! That is…

If you’re ready to be able to EASILY write 100% unique, from scratch, and PROVEN copy for your Amazon listings (built SCIENTIFICALLY to position your product as the PERFECT choice for your targeted audience) that WILL produce you incredible results EVERY single time!

Or…if you don’t personally have the time…

The best part of this is how easy it is to learn. You can slap this on your secretary’s desk and in an hour s/he’ll be on their way to writing you perfectly optimized Amazon copy.

Heck, you can give this to your spouse and they can figure it out -that’s how easy it is.

Okay, okay…I’m mildly joking about that, but really it is so super easy that pretty much anybody can follow right along and do it themselves.

You can pay me (or another world class copywriter) $1,000 and up to write EACH listing you have, or you can learn how to do it yourself right now and develop a skill that’ll bring you literally thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of dollars in sales that you don’t even realize you’re missing.amazon workbook 4

All you need to do is click below to claim YOUR copy of the #1 Workbook to Write Killer, Traffic & Conversion Boosting Amazon Listing Copy for ANY Product!

(You’ll be charged just 1 payment of $397, with NO recurring fees or hidden charges. I’m even throwing in rush shipping for FREE! Just a few days with an increase in sales, traffic, and conversions and this investment is already paid for!)

What’s all included?

A Complete Workbook, NOT Another Junk eBook –This isn’t just an eBook that sounds great and is based on theory -leaving you scratching your head as to how to implement the information you’ve learned… This is a workbook that’s based on real-life, results-based science. You’ll be working on writing your listings as you go through the book, and by the end you won’t be getting started on your listing, you’ll be finished! Oh, and no it’s not some crappy .pdf file that you’ll lose the next time your computer crashes. It’s a physical, real-life book that I’ll ship to you and that you’ll have right at your desk. The Inside Secrets to the Mindset and Behavior of Your Potential Customer –You’ll discover the inside secrets (NOT some crap that’s floating around the internet) to the mindset and behavior of your potential customer… What’s making them tick? What do they really want? Why are they buying that? You’ll quickly become a master of understanding your customer’s needs in-and-out, and you’ll find yourself easily crafting the perfect Amazon listing that sells them EXACTLY what they’re looking for! The Million Dollar Trick to Attracting the Customers that YOU Want –There’s more than one type of buyer on Amazon… There’s the impulsive, demanding, and impossible-to-please crowd that will try to get a free ride off you and after you’ve done everything (and then some) to please them, they still leave you with negative feedback. Then, there’s the smarter, fat-walleted, and easy-to-please crowd that’ll boost your sales, let you sleep peacefully at night, and leave your page filled with positive feedback over and over. Which would YOU rather go after? Create the PERFECT Traffic-Attracting & Enticing Title –You’ll be creating your own perfect, traffic-attracting and enticing titles to attract more Amazon traffic from searches, plus it will entice more browsers to open your product’s page over competitor’s! Craft Flawless, Can’t-Say-No Key Features –These will give those visitors an immediate connection and reason to read ALL the information they can about your product, and will funnel them to the description (which will close the sale) Supercharge Your Indications, Ingredients, Directions, Disclaimer –Important information about using your product, why it’s superior to other options, and how to effectively use it for maximum results (and the beginning of a happy customer) Engineer an ‘I-Need-To-Order-Now’ Product Description –Will convince ANY visitor who may be “On the fence” to give it a try, and will absolutely motivate visitors to become BUYERS (Featuring some of my own “Secret methods”). You REALLY will be blown away by this. Time-and-Money Saving Tips & Tricks To Maximize Your ENTIRE Business (Free of Charge, of Course) –I’m throwing in some of my other secrets that have propelled my own, and countless clients’, business from pretty good to “out of control”… You don’t want to miss this!

Again, this isn’t a purchase. It’s an investment.

This is an investment in your business to take out your competition in a clean, ethical, and powerful way. An investment in your business to sell a LOT more without having to spend a ton of money or make major changes. An investment in yourself to produce the results your company (or boss) is looking for.

Just make sure you take action right now.

You don’t want to look back a few weeks later and wish you would have done something today… wishing how you could have stopped letting your competition rake in the sales on Amazon and get YOUR product where it should be –On top.

So, go ahead. It really is your turn to become my next success story.

YES, Dana! I’m ready to take my Amazon listings to a whole new level, and leave my competitors scratching their heads and slamming their keyboards as they watch me blow past them! YES, Dana! I am aware that today is my ONLY chance to get your Amazon Formula Secrets Revealed Workbook at your introductory price of just 1 payment of $397. I MUST order today to guarantee that price. YES, Dana! I know that this investment is literally a fraction of the price of hiring you (or somebody else with your ability) to write just 1 of my listings! (At $1,500 per listing, that adds up quickly!) YES, Dana! I understand that my request will be processed on a totally secure server (PayPal) and, once it is processed, I will have my own workbook physically shipped to me within a week! YES, Dana! I know that by taking action today, I only pay the total of $397. There are no renewals, no recurring fees, and no other charges. This is a 1-time offer. YES, Dana! I want my listing to take claim of MORE customers and DOMINATE the market that’s waiting for me on Amazon! amazon workbook 4

It’s YOUR Time to Get this Incredible, Profit-Boosting “Secret Amazon Listing Formula” and Transform Your Business in 24 Hours or Less!

You really can’t afford to miss out on this.

Also, please note: I’m not responsible for how mad you get when you realize how much money you’ve been leaving on the table because of the copy on your listings. But, what I can tell you is that every minute you wait you’re losing money.

Now go get it back. It’s not that difficult, and will save you a ton of time and money every time you introduce a new product.

This measly $397 is going to be nothing compared to the increase in sales you’ll see. Seriously.

Give it a try right now and watch your inventory go down and your sales go up!

Secret Million Dollar Amazon Listing Formula Free Download

Secret Million Dollar Amazon Listing Formula Free Download

The post Secret Million Dollar Amazon Listing Formula appeared first on Profit Info Mastery.

[nirvanadavi]

Twenty-Seven

1. Let shit go! Don’t hold on to what could have, should have, or would have been. Put it behind you and move the fuck on.

2. Be positive! This was my only “New Years Resolution”. Do not allow any negative energy into your personal space. Surround yourself with positivity and own that shit like a m'fkr!

3. Cleanliness is a lifestyle choice! I’m talking about personal hygiene here. Throughout my teens and early 20’s (god I feel old AF because I’m now in the “late 20’s” age range) I never stuck to a skin care regime. Now it’s kicking me in the ass. Cleansers. Toners. Exfoliating. Weekly masks. Eye creams. All of these products have taken over my makeup stand and it’s SO worth it.

4. Love the skin you’re in! In the last 2 years, because of the birth control switch up, I’ve gained 30lbs that I cannot wait to get rid of. However, I understand that I have to accept what is, my body shape, and learn to live with it. I’m okay with being overweight because I’m working to correct it. There’s no use crying at my reflection when it’s fixable.

5. Healthy is the way to be! I’ve been on and off with my gym schedule and eating clean for a million different reasons. Actually, excuses, I should say. Once I got my lazy behind back to the gym, I felt a million times better! My sleep schedule was way better and I found myself having a lot more energy. Eating clean is a day by day process and I’m so happy with how far I’ve come. It’s a long road, but I’m determined to be healthier for my future.

6. Schedule alone time! Omg YAS! I completely need this. Every week or so, I pick a day where I plan to do absolutely nothing. Physically that is. I wouldn’t say I meditate because I don’t. However, I get myself ready for bed super early and I just lay there and contemplate my thoughts. I throw around ideas and thoughts and write it down on post it notes. I allow myself to tune the world out and focus solely on myself and what I need.

7. Be social! Coming from me, lord that’s new. I hate people. I hate being out and being social. But, I can’t be a recluse forever. My significant other is way too outgoing for me to be a social outcast anymore lol. It’s good to break free and let loose every once in a while. Double dates with dinner and drinks has its perks. I get to see friends and still spend time with my boyfriend. Fresh air won’t kill me. *knock on wood!

8. Keep up with your calendar! I cannot stress this enough! I use my dry erase calendar, the calendar on my iPhone, and on my MacBook. If it’s not in my calendar, it’s not happening. I forget everything so if I don’t put it in one of the 3 calendars I check religiously, guess you’re not that important lol.

9. Cursing is a no no. This pains my heart because I have the worst potty mouth. But, I’ve gotta cut back on my bad words. I seriously cuss like a sailor and I never thought much of it. But as I age, I realize my language needs a tweak.

10. Listen more; speak less! LOL. Everyone knows that I talk WAY too much. And I’m loud as hell. But, I’ve tried to not open my mouth to respond as much. Sometimes listening is better than talking. Let’s see how this ones goes.

11. Humble yourself! I know I’m a badass. I know I’m all that and a bag of chips. Just because I know it, doesn’t mean I need to flaunt it. Keep it simple and humble yourself. Instead of making yourself seem big, understand that you’re the bomb.com and you always have to work to keep it that way.

12. Sleep consistently! Forreal people. This is important. Sleeping allows the body to rest and rejuvenate itself for the next day. Don’t wear and tear yourself to keep up with others. I love my sleep. I’m a nap queen. Getting a solid 6-7 hours of sleep is a must. Every single night. No matter what.

13. Coffee is NOT the answer! Sometimes I feel like I should just start an IV from the coffee pot. I know a lot of adults feel the same way. This was the hardest change for me personally. I cut my coffee intake from 3 cups to 1. Hopefully I can cut the 1 down to a half. Less coffee, more green tea!

14. Be responsible for yourself! Seriously guys. We’re adults. Act like it. Own up to your shit. Simple as that.

15. Love yourself! This should have been my #1. Honestly, if you can’t love yourself, then you have no business trying to love another. This was my biggest lesson in the last few years. I’ve learned to love myself and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Because I love myself so much, I’m able to love my significant other even more. Yes, it’s really that simple.

16. Don’t over do it! Please please please. Do not pile on stuff and then end up so overwhelmed that nothing gets done. Quality over quantity is key. Give it your all and finish one task before starting or committing to another.

17. Be prepared! It’s the little things that count here. Keep an umbrella in your car. Bring a sweater. Have wet wipes in your purse. Along with Tylenol, hand sanitizer, and a Tide to go pen. You just never know. Travel size items come in handy more than you realize.

18. Keep your circle small! I can count the number of REAL friends I have on 1 hand. Close that hand and it becomes a fist. That’s all I need. Sure, I can be friendly towards you. That doesn’t mean we’re friends. As you get older, you’ll find yourself with less time and little tolerance for 101 people trying to be in and out your life. This ain’t pon de river pon de bank. Stay in the river fam.

19. Make yourself your #1 priority! Stop putting everyone and their momma ahead of you, your wants, and your needs. Before you can make anyone else happy, you gotta do what you gotta do for YOU.

20. Stability keeps you sane! At this point, you should have your life somewhat together. Career and finances should not be up in the air at this age. Buckle down and get it together!

21. Say no! Repeat it with me. N-O! If you don’t want too, don’t. Don’t. You’re an adult. Say no to people and situations that aren’t for you.

22. Patience is a virtue. I have none. Or, I had none. Now I do. And it’s worth it. Waiting for what’s right, for things to fall into place and make sense, is so completely worth it.

23. What’s meant to be, will be! Don’t force anything. It won’t be sincere. It won’t feel or fit right. Let the pieces of your life put themselves together when it’s meant to be.

24. Your body is a temple! Respect the skin you’re in. Don’t use and abuse your body and then expect to be at your best and feel 100%. It doesn’t work like that. What you put in, is what you’ll get out. Treat yourself and take care of yourself and you’ll see what I mean.

25. Your life partner should be your best friend! And he is. After 10 years plus in the dating game, I’ve found the one. When people used to tell me, “you’ll know when you find the right one”, I would roll my eyes and ignore it. Falling in love with someone who loves me unconditionally has taught me so much. He’s the man of my dreams and I’m so blessed that he’s my very best friend. I can be myself with him because our weirdness compliments the other.

26. Be a goal digger! Set daily, weekly, and monthly goals. Be realistic and know your time frame. Write it down so you can cross it off and clap for your damn self. Do everything you set your mind to do. The sky is the limit and you can have it all! I promise.

27. Respect the hustle! Grind hard every day and respect what you do. Love your profession and own it. Be badass and earn your paycheck. Don’t put down someone else’s hustle. That’s their business. Don’t mind it. Mind your own. Earn each dollar and understand it’s worth.

This is what 27 has taught me.

[kristinejrosario]

5 Things to Think About Before You Start a Blog

It’s time! You’ve had it in the back of your mind for a while now, but you’ve realised the hour is right to take the plunge, and you want to start a blog. Welcome! You’ve come to the right place.

If creating a blog is something you’ve been thinking about but you haven’t known where to start, then these are some basics you could keep in mind to ensure you create a blog not only you love, but your readers will too. A blog you won’t get sick of in six months’ time and abandon (which happens more than you think!), but something you can build and be proud of.

5 Things to Think About Before You Start Your New Blog

1. Is this the topic I want to write about forever, or have I given myself some wiggle room?

If you changed your mind a year into blogging and wanted to go in a different direction, you wouldn’t be the first.

We can often start a blog for one reason and continue it for another. Where this gets difficult (without losing all your hard-earned readers and starting again) is where you’ve boxed yourself in so tight that you can’t branch out.

Now I’m not saying a slender niche is a particularly bad idea, if you’re passionate about it – Nerd Fitness has nailed the brief, as has Lotsa Fresh Air, just to name two. If you can see yourself still motivated and excited to write about your chosen topic five years from now, then you’re laughing. But if you’ve chosen a niche just because it’s a current trending topic and you think it will get you tons of traffic, you may find you can’t stand it 12 months in and you’ve got nowhere to go. And worse, the trend for that topic has passed!

There’s no reason why you can’t start out as a personal blog and write about all sorts of things until you hit up on your niche. There’s also no reason why you can’t transition from a particular topic to something different that you’ve touched on before. The thing is to keep your options open if you’re not sure, or really be sure before you start.

Has your idea got longevity? Or do you have a Plan B?

2. The technical bits

No need to be frightened by this list, as simple as I’ve tried to keep it! You’ll often find that plenty of these things come with time and you can do them gradually. You might start out on the Blogger platform with no newsletter and eventually move onto a different platform with a simple email-capturing plugin. Baby steps!

It also goes hand in hand with just starting your blog rather than waiting until you’ve got all your ducks lined up. I’m a huge proponent of jumping in with both feet and figuring it out later. There’s a huge chance you won’t even start (or you’ll waste valuable time) waiting around until you’re 100% sure with every single aspect of your blog.

But it doesn’t hurt to have a think about these options, even if you end up putting them in the too-hard basket to deal with at a later date.

If you’d like step-by-step instructions for the technicalities of setting up a blog, Darren has written a fantastically comprehensive tutorial here: How to Start a Blog. You can also check out our Start a Blog portal for further newbie info.

Hosting: Which company will you go with? How much money do you have to spend? Will they take into account certain circumstances for your blog? Things like load time and dedicated servers are important, make sure you can find out all the information you think is relevant to you.

Platform: It’s no longer a fight to the death between WordPress and Blogger, there are plenty of other options in the mix these days too. Squarespace has a lovely, clean look, and Tumblr is easy to use, for example. Will you be selling your own product in the future, and therefore have to look at a platform that also has ecommerce ability? Or do you need to choose between WordPress.com or WordPress.org? The options are many, but it depends on what you want to get out of it. A simple online journal could work well on Blogger, or for more functionality and control, you could go self-hosted WordPress.

Domain: First, read 4 Things to Consider When Choosing your Domain name, as it has several very important components for you to think about. Will you get your own domain name? (I recommend it!), does anyone else have that domain or similar? Which company will you buy it through?

Design: Do you know how to design webpages, or are you going to buy a theme? Will you install it yourself or get someone else to? Will you leave it as standard, or make tweaks to it? Do you have enough white space, easy navigation, and a clear layout?

Email address: If you’re not getting an email address through your blog hosting, which platform will you use? Will it be your blog name? What if it is taken (like mine was)? Think thoroughly about what the alternatives could be rather than rushing into it, or you’ll be stuck with a not-so-great email address (like I was!) which is meant to be a professional representation of you.

Structure: How will your blog layout look? What kinds of posts will you be writing? Will you be doing mainly video? Are visuals your priority?

Plugins: What kind of functionality do you want your site to have? A recipe index? An Instagram widget? An email signup form? A spam filter? What comment system? Printable recipe cards? Easy SEO? The options are pretty unlimited, but a bad plugin can flood your site with errors, or worse – malware. Do your research and only use the plugins you really need and keep them updated.

Social Media Accounts: This almost goes without saying in this day and age, but think about which ones will be most useful for you, and secure your blog name on them (or whatever you want to be known as). You don’t have to use all of them regularly, but it’s best to have a presence on each, even if you just direct folks to the platforms you do use regularly. How will you display these on your site so your readers know where to find you?

Visuals: How wide will your pictures be? Will you need a slider? What about your blog profile picture? Are they optimised for the web so they don’t drag down your load speed?

Safety: How will you stop your site being accessed by hackers? What protection does your host offer?

Backups: What happens if your blog suddenly disappears? Gets hacked? Gets taken down by a rogue plugin? If you had to repopulate your entire site, where will you get the info to do that? Do your research on backups and backup plugins.

Spam filters: How will you cut down on the amount of bots trying to get backlinks to their sites? Will you use the general WordPress Jetpack or something else?

Email collection: If you’re going to build an email list, how will you capture readers’ emails? Will you be creating a newsletter? Where will you keep all your collected email addresses?

3. Branding

If you haven’t already decided 100% about a blog name, now is the time! Some of us know exactly who and what we want to be, and others go through some more brainstorming to come up with the perfect title that sums up the blog’s ethos.

Take into account basic marketing tips:

Is the name easy to remember?

Does it roll off the tongue?

Is there something sufficiently different about it so that it stands out?

Does it make a good URL?

Are there keywords in it?

Can you see yourself being happy with this name in a year’s time? In five years’ time?

Do you have a particular logo or colour scheme in mind? Your blog’s header is the first thing people see, usually – are you settled on a graphic? Or will it be just text? Will you use this branding across your social media, or a profile picture of yourself?

Your branding is how you are represented visually, and while you can definitely change it in the future, you should have some idea of how you want to come across right now and what name/image will describe that for you.

4. Where’s your community?

A blog isn’t really a blog without readers – you need people to visit your site and interact with it for your blog to be successful.

It’s very tempting to just start writing and hope people find your blog, but it’s always best to sit down and have a brainstorm about where those people might actually be so you can be there too!

Are you appealing more to a Pinterest or a LinkedIn crowd? Would your readers be in Facebook groups or in online forums? What is their demographic? What other blogs are in your niche where they might be reading (and you could read too, if you don’t already!)? Where would they go to find people like them?

It’s a really good idea to try and narrow down who you’re talking to and who would be interested in what you have to say. Darren often recommends creating a reader profile (or several!) to give you some structure when it comes to tone and topic content. Then find where your ideal reader hangs out and create a presence there.

Half the job of finding readers for your blog will be done if you know who you’re looking for and where they are. You can get all our handy tips and every article in the Finding Readers portal.

5. What am I doing this for?

Knowing your why, or understanding what is motivating you to write your blog, is invaluable. The earlier you can figure this out, the better! Why have you started a blog? What is the purpose? Where do you want it to take you?

Dig down deep and see if you can come up with the overarching reason you’re cracked open a laptop and started to write for the world to see. Knowing your why can then impact the how (how you intend to create content and engage with readers) and the what (what that content is and how you intend to share it).

It also helps when you are trying to find the time to work on your blog. If you’re passionate about your blog and its topic, it’s easier to find the time in and around your work and family commitments. If you’re passionate about your blog, it’s easier to keep going when you feel as though nobody’s reading it yet. If you’re passionate about why you’re blogging, then it can help keep you on track when you’re working umpteen hours a week and earning zero dollars.

Knowing why you want to blog will help you create a blog not only you will love, but that others will immediately understand and be drawn to as well. There’s nothing so obvious as a soulless blog just there for the traffic! Understanding what you’re in this for will lead to a better end result.

Bonus Round one: spending money

There comes a time when if you want to make money from your blog, you have to spend money.

If you’re doing it as a hobby, that’s great! Don’t spend a cent if you don’t want to. But if you would spend money on a hobby anyway (my two weaknesses are books and beautiful pure-wool yarn), then go for it. If your blog doesn’t make a cent but it looks how you want it to and it makes you happy every day then that’s money well spent.

If you want to make money from your blog, you may find you’re forking out cash before your blog is bringing it in. It is worth having a beautiful theme, altered to suit your blog and its specifications. It’s worth it to pay for plugins that you think will make your blogging life easier. Then there’s paid social scheduling options, blogging courses, graphic designers, web gurus, hosting, SEO help – your blog will take as much money as you have to spend on it! And probably more.

It’s best now to work out a budget of how much you’re willing to spend, or you’ll find that you’ve got money coming out your ears and you’re still not where you want to be.

Bonus Round two: making money

It’s no longer a dirty word! There are millions of bloggers all over the world making an income from their blogs, whether large or small. If this is something you’re hoping to achieve with your blog (one of your “why”s perhaps?!), then take a look at our Make Money Blogging resource page and see what resonates with you, and check out our plentiful articles on the topic!

Starting a blog can be one of the most exciting endeavours, and often far more rewarding than we realise. I hope I haven’t overwhelmed anyone with my “before you start a blog” topics to think about, because as I said before, I’m of the school of thought that encourages people to just get started before they over-think themselves out of it! Start a blog and iron out the kinks later – but if you can start it with just a couple of these locked down, then you’re on the front foot.

If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them in the comments below. Happy blogging!

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