#Unless i’m currently being affected by intrusive thoughts of hurting people.

[alw4ys-ch4ng1ng]

i’ve gone from being ashamed of my source to getting happiness knowing i’ll never be as terrible as my canon-self.

[anxiouslyfred]

Love After Exile - Testing a Theory

Summary: Virgil loved Remus and Deceit long before they fell out. Now he’s dating Logan after beginning to recognise similar feelings. Now Deceit and Remus have an idea over what Virgil might hide they want to see if it could be true.

Formatting: There’s a shifting POV, anytime you see Bold starts of a paragraph then there’s been a perspective shift.

Pairings: Analogical from the start, eventual Analoceitmus though that’ll take a few parts

Warnings for this part: possessiveness,

/\/\/\/\/\ Part One /\/\/\/\ Part Two /\/\/\/\/\

“There's definitely chaos happening here.” Deceit walking in had Morality and Roman's eyes turning to him. They'd planned for him to come and join Remus under the guise of fetching him back from causing trouble after a few hours but that could only work if Remus was actually there. To find he, along with Logan and Virgil, didn't seem to be present was mildly concerning given how likely the other could be to lash out at someone with a claim to one of His People.

“Try Logan's room.” Roman glanced over, ignoring the glare that Patton directed towards him. That didn't help his confusion over the change of plan very much. How on earth does focusing on Logic's known fear end up with a visit to his room, even for someone as given to impulses as Remus?

At least the door was already open so he could watch before making his presence known. Logan seemed to be talking enthusiastically about a specific type of shellfish that he'd never let Thomas pick up for fear of encountering one. There was a video paused on what he first thought as a projector before realising Remus had just enlarged the laptop screen instead, showing the surf of a beach.

He walked in after a moment, only briefly taking in how relaxed Virgil was, sat beside Remus with the only free seat left on the opposite side of him. “So your souvenirs could just be deadly unless brought from a shop. How much would capitalists love us to believe that. Better avoid mentioning it.” All eyes on Deceit, just how he liked his entrances to be, at least when he wasn't pretending to be someone else for Thomas. “Hows goes the feelings, Logan?”

“Feelings don't go anywhere. They are either expressed or repressed, but I believe you are the one to talk to regarding repressing things.” Logan stated, but waved to the seat. “Please join us, though I doubt you're particularly interested in the oceans mysteries. There's not much need to lie when surrounded by an ever changing mass of water.”

“People find reasons to lie wherever they are. Whether it's to themselves or to others is the only change between being isolated somewhere or being among the people.” He brushed Virgil's hand as he got comfortable in the seat, as accidentally as he could manage.

“All my people in one room, this is a good day!” Virgil and Deceit both turned to Remus in an instant at his exclamation. He usually only said that if it was just them so that had to mean somehow Logan had become one of His People over the afternoon. Deceit grinned, leaning further back in his chair as Virgil started snickering, clearly happy over what had been implied as well as another mention of him still belonging.

Looking around, Logan knew he'd missed something from the interruption but couldn't discern what it might be. “I'm not quite sure that connects to anything we've been talking about, Remus.”

“It's important, L. I'll explain later.” Virge cut off the question he'd been about to raise, playing the video they had been watching before they got sidetracked. “I probably don't need to know about what can harm Thomas on the beach to do my job but whatever.”

Curiosity isn't easy to quiet when your entire function within Thomas is the centre of his knowledge but the promise of later explanations was enough of a reward to refocus him back on the subject of the ocean, mostly at least. He couldn't help but focus more on the interactions of the trio with him now.

If he'd been correct in their response a few days before, Deceit and Remus would have been trying to understand what he meant and Virgil as far as they could understand each other. He'd honestly thought that if they figured out Virgil's feelings his relationship would be ended with them asking to talk but an afternoon covering oceanic conspiracies was not what he'd expected to occur.

Eventually all days reach an end and Virgil was bewildered over what had happened as Remus and Deceit finally left the Light Sides that evening. The possessiveness was still there, something he'd warn Thomas about if ever one of his friends or lovers leant too far into it outside of the mind space but came with Remus's function.

He hadn't thought it would still apply to him, perhaps only being for Deceit or perhaps another hidden side filling the place he'd held but not only was he still one of Remus's people, but Logan had somehow, somewhen become one as well.

“We're all the Duke's people? Does that mean he sees us as courtiers or servants or something?” Logan asked before he could do much more analysing of the day than that.

Still he snickered, leaning onto his boyfriends shoulder. “Not really. He sees everyone like that at times, just as much as Roman can do occasionally. I think it comes from choosing nobility titles to differentiate each other, sometimes they think everyone is there to serve them. Being his people basically makes you one of his advisors, under his protection and well, it means you're one of his favourite people to spend time with. Apparently all three of us now. How did you manage that?”

Even if he was in love with Deceit and the Duke, he didn't want to give up Logic for anybody now he had that stable relationship and source of affection with him. Doesn't Patton insist that love grows over time? That was certainly true for their relationship so far, even with the calculating gaze on him as Logan took in the new explanation.

“How does trying to understand Virgil's feelings translate into claiming a new person?”None of the plan they'd had that morning had happened even similarly to how Deceit had thought it might change subject to impulses. He had confirmed their suspicions though.

Anxiety was more open with his expressions when he was relaxed and seemingly a lot more so since Thomas had accepted him. It was clear to him there was strong affection for them involved as well as a wish for stability which of any side Logan was the most constant.

“Same way talking about Logan's fears got me invited to his room” Understanding the logic behind anything that Logan had done that afternoon was becoming increasingly fascinating without knowing his views at all. Deceit couldn't reason it out easily at least, but Remus was easier to understand at least.

“He did something you didn't expect so now you've claimed him?” His deadpan expression was ignored by the other, who was bouncing and nodding with a manic grin.

“Yup. Strange boy is our Logic, but Mine now!” Remus insisted, calming a little to actually think about how the afternoon had actually happened.

He definitely recognised the reactions of Virgil now. It almost seemed like since Anxiety had been accepted and for all intents and purposes become a light side he saw loving the hidden sides as forbidden. It was nostalgic to recognise those feelings again, but painful. Just looking after them when Thomas was learning to accept being gay had been difficult but seeing someone Remus had claimed going through them, all he wanted to do was pull Virgil to him, and let him know it's okay, that he wouldn't be rejected by everyone, and everything would be okay.

Some of that comforting had always come from Deceit, that had been how they'd grown close originally, but Remus could come up with stories surrounding the forbidden belief that everything would be alright easily. None of that could comfort Virgil with the distance in their relationship currently and letting the offer be made again seemed nigh on impossible.

“Do you wanna date Virgil?” The question made Deceit freeze, so apparently the conversation wasn't where Remus's thoughts were but it could catch up.

“Of course that's what follows claiming Logan.” He heard the mutter into Dee's cloak but was distracted by the question actually addressed to him. “Are you meaning a romantic involvement including you and Virgil, or everyone you've claimed, or me being the only one to date Virgil cause I'm pretty sure he's taken?”

When your entire function in Thomas is to embody dark twisted thoughts or desires that go against the moral code, monogamy becomes something you're only peripherally aware of. Remus didn't pause at all before replying “All; I want everyone that's mine, every way I can. If you're comfortable with it lets go ask them!”

It's odd how often he's watched Deceit's head fall into his hands, but usually that's a reaction to a bizarre intrusive thought he's not controlling, not a serious suggestion. The action also isn't usually accompanied by a thoughtful expression although the sigh often comes. “Let's leave it for tonight. Tomorrow I'll go over and actually work out how everyone thinks of polyamory. I'm not letting either of us get hurt for leaping before knowing there's even a path in that direction.”

The tiredness in Deceit's voice stops Remus from saying anything more as they separate to their rooms for the evening. He'd loved how unpredictable the day had actually been, but knew most other sides preferred knowing what was likely to happen next.

/\/\/\/\ Part Four /\/\/\/\/\  Part Five /\/\/\/\/\ Part 6 /\/\/\ Part Seven /\/\/\ Part Eight /\/\/\ Part Nine /\/\/\/\

[writingforloki]

Sparks Fly

Chapter 3: Hit me with your best shock.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader.

Chapter summary: Your first combat training session with Bucky goes just how you’d expected it, shockingly.

A/N: I’m back!!! sorry for the mini hiatus, I had some ~personal~ stuff going on.

However, I’ll be way more on top of my writing from now on!!! Hope u enjoy this chapter, as always pls feel free to comment, ask questions and give me some constructive criticism in the comments.

Ao3 link. 

Chapter 1

Chapter 2 

You went to bed feeling a bit more relaxed about your place in the compound, you had chatted with the group and started to feel more chill around them. However when your alarm woke you at 7.30 for your training session at 8am, chill was not how you were feeling. The annoying pinging shocked your eyes open and you grumbled patting your bed to try and find the source of the noise to make it stop. You hadn’t slept terribly to say it was your first night in a new bed, although it definitely helped that the bed was massive and extremely comfortable.

Pushing the covers off your body and letting the cool air do its thing and wake you up a little, you tried not to let the anxiety of a new day in a new place scare you too much, you had half an hour until your first training session and although it seemed counter productive to shower before your workout, you decided the water would wake you up, so you pulled yourself out of bed, grabbed your towel and headed to the bathroom.

You hopped in the shower and let the water run down your body tipping your face gently into the spray to try and wake yourself up. You started to think about what your first session would entail, how hard would it be? Would you embarrass yourself? Would the Winter soldier crack a smile? Were a few of the questions swimming around your brain. Knowing you couldn’t hide in the shower for ever, you made your way back to your room.

You opened your wardrobe to find something to wear to see that it had been decked out with an impressive amount of workout gear, you decided on a pair of black high waisted leggings with pale blue piping at the seam, along with the matching sports bra, you felt bougie as hell, you’d never been so coordinated before, so you pulled on an oversized white tee and tied it at the bottom, feeling better slightly more covered up.

It was 7.57am when you checked your watch and decided it was best if you headed to the training area of the compound, and although you had a vague idea of where it was, it was easy to get lost when all the halls all had the same uniform, slick, chrome finish to them. That’s how you found yourself at 8.05 starting to panic and none the wiser about your whereabouts in the massive compound. You had wanted to make a good impression, and being late didn’t strike you as the best way to do it, you had started to lose all hope until you saw a familiar figure walk through one of the slick doors in the hallway.

“Clint!” you sighed in relief as he spotted you and walked towards you, fiddling with something in his ear.

“Hey newbie, what you doing down here.” He asked head cocked to the side comically. He looked like a confused puppy.

“I’m supposed to have training with Bucky at eight but I got lost and now I’m late and I don’t want him to think I’m a slacker, it’s just these halls you know? All the doors look the same and I feel there should be signs up in this place!” You babble, unsure of whether you’re coherent or not at this point.

“Woah that was not easy for a semi-deaf dude to comprehend but I got the bit where you said you were lost, come on sparky follow me, I’ll deliver you to the grumpy soldier.” He laughed as he took you in the opposite you would’ve headed next.

However you didn’t manage to make it all the way to the gym before bumping into someone else, it was Bucky and he did seemed to fit the grumpy soldier profile pretty well as his face was the blank expression you’d come to expect from him, his mouth set in a straight line and his eyes looking impassive.

“I come bearing your dutiful student.” Clint extended his arm to you and you looked up at Bucky guiltily.

“I got lost, I’m sorry! You guys really should have signs in this place.” You mumbled repeating your earlier statement.

Buckys expression softened and it was only then that you relaxed enough to notice that he had his hair pulled back into a low bun. It was cute, you thought. Wait, since when was the kinda intimidating winter soldier cute? It was only Buckys voice in your ears that alerted you out of your inner man bun related turmoil.

“No worries, I was just coming to see if you were awake, C’mon the gyms this way.” He turned, you guessed he expected you to follow.

“Thanks Clint!” you turned on your heel and gave him a cheery wave as you embarked down the hallway, and he saluted you in response.

You followed Bucky into what you assumed was the gym, and judging by the vast amounts of workout equipment you were in the right place.

“Right, like Steve said yesterday we’re gonna start out light, a bit of boxing and some very light hand to hand combat lessons.” Bucky said as he turned to look at you, his eyes were a steel blue and deadly serious.

“Okay, sure sounds good.” You say and put your fists up doing a few small air punches in his direction before immediately feeling embarrassed and questioning what went through your mind when you decided to do that.

However to your relief the winter soldiers lips quirked into a smirk similar to the one you’d seen yesterday, it was small and it didn’t quite meet his eyes, but it made your embarrassment ebb a little, so you’d take it for now.

“C’mon then Muhammad Ali, time to warm up, you don’t wanna pull anything.” he said softly and led you to the centre of the room, encouraging you to copy what he was doing.

After your stretching was done and you were apparently warmed up, it was time for you to actually start training, to say you were apprehensive about it was an understatement.

“Just to warn you” you said throwing a sheepish look in Buckys direction “I’m gonna be terrible at this, I’m really clumsy, so I’d stand at least 5 feet away in case I sock you in the face, I don’t wanna hurt you.”

He laughed quietly, that smirk back on his face, “I don’t think a punch from you could do much damage sweetheart.” He drawled, coming to stand in front of you.

You flushed at the term of affection, although it seemed more patronising than affectionate, you still hadn’t expected it.

“So first we’re gonna start off with basic self defense, I know you have your abilities but you can’t depend on them all the time, sometimes you may be put in situations where your powers have been suppressed and you’ll have to rely on your fists to get yourself out alive.” His face was serious again and you tried your best to listen and concentrate on what he was saying but it was difficult when his body was getting closer to yours.

“We’re gonna start off simple, basic self defense remember, we’ll get to the combat stuff later okay, so a lot of things can happen when you’re on a mission that you don’t expect, people can come out of know where and surprise you, grabbing you from behind is common if they’ve been waiting for you to turn your back.” He positioned himself behind you, not close enough to be intrusive, but close enough to make you shift uncomfortably.

“You’re gonna wanna think of your attackers pressure points, so if someone came up behind you and grabbed you, like this -” His arms wrapped around you from behind, encasing you in his vice like grip.

“Your arms are pinned down, so there’s not much you can grab from my upper body, so you’ve gotta be thinking lower body, unless you just wanna head butt them of course but that might hurt you a little as well. So your gonna grab just above the knee and I want you to squeeze real hard, you should get the sciatic nerve which’ll distract them enough to let their arms down.” he broke his hold on you and suddenly you felt rather cold as his arms were taken off your body.

You turned to face him nodding slowly, taking in everything he had just said.

“Right so squeeze the leg real hard, possible backwards headbutt if that fails, then what?” you ask, eager to learn.

“You wanna take advantage of me dropping my hold on you, at this point you should be able to twist your body ‘round, so go for the chin.” he says gesturing his chin in the air as if you’d just swung for him.

“Like this?” you ask, fake punching his jaw with your fist punched up.

He smirked as he looked at your hand, grabbing it and gently unfurling your fingers. “No Doll, didn’t anyone ever teach you to throw a punch before? Don’t tuck your thumb into your hand, that’s an easy way to break it. Also for this you wanna be using the bottom of you palm, that way you can get the most force behind your blow.”

He straightened out your hand and demonstrated, pushing your hand against his jaw. You could feel his stubble scrape against your skin. You’d always had a thing for guys with a bit of scruff.

“Right, that, that makes sense.” You mumble as he releases your hand. “And to answer your question, why would anyone need to teach me how to punch when I can just give anyone who bothers me a shock.” you smirk and look up at him.

He smiles back and raises his hands in mock defense. “Thats fair, but let’s practice this again but put it faster into motion.”

Suddenly his arms are back around you in his vice like grip, you can feel his body pressed against your back, and your not used to having any men pressed up against you, never mind super buff super soldiers. You tell yourself that’s what makes you do it, it was the unfamiliarity of the situation which makes you press your hand and force an electric current his leg instead of squeezing his nerve.

He goes down straight away, grabbing his leg and releasing you, while the shock of the situation hits you and you realise what you just did.

“Oh my god, Sargent Barnes- I mean Bucky, shit I’m so sorry I just panicked when you boxed me in, I knew I wasn’t in control enough to be with you guys, i-i are you okay?” You ask, close to tears and frantic as you crouch to match his doubled over position.

“Hnnng yep, I’m okay, it’s fine, you just caught me off guard Doll.” He says between gritted teeth, straightening himself up again and shaking his leg a little.

“I’m so sorry, I- I just can’t always control it.” your voice was shakey and you could feel the tell tale signs of your eyes starting to prickle. God this was embarrassing.

“Hey don’t worry about it, super soldier, remember?” he said trying to catch your eye and failing when you dipped your head and stared at the floor. “Listen, I don’t know how much you know about me, but I’m an expert in knowing how it feels when you’re not in control of your own body.”

You look up at him, his gaze is soft and not at all what you had expected from the steely eyed winter soldier.

“So you’re okay?” you ask “You’re not hurt?”

“Nah Doll I’m fine, c’mon why don’t we leave the one on one combat stuff for a bit and i’ll talk you through basic pressure points, maybe I’ll even teach you how to throw a punch without breaking your hand.” He smiled gently.

What you had been expecting from Bucky Barnes, you weren’t sure, but it certainly wasn’t the level of kindness and understanding that he’d shown you today. It was nice knowing that someone else had experienced the struggle of not being in total control of their body, and knowing he’d managed to change it and take control.

“Hey Bucky” you mumble softly.

“Yeah Doll?” he asks, head tilted to one side.

“I know Steve said he usually trains the beginners but, would it be okay if you trained me, even when Steve comes back from his mission?” you asked shyly meeting his eyes as he looked back at you, his face a picture of shock before he plastered on a neutral expression.

“Of course.” he answered.

It wouldn’t be easy, but maybe with Buckys understanding, you could get better at all this, and maybe finally gain control over your abilities.

Tag list:

@latsyrc85x @jsmith509 @yourwonderbelle @mywinterwolf

[beckzorz]

Out of Nowhere (13/21)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes/OFC Summary: An offhand comment at work draws Jesse Kaplan into the orbit of Bucky Barnes. Bucky’s excited at the prospect of normalcy, but there’s nothing normal about falling in love with the Winter Soldier. Words: 3276 A/N: The song for this chapter is “Just Squeeze Me” by Gordon Webster on Blues Til Dawn.

PART 13: “JUST SQUEEZE ME”

Considering its breakneck speed along the throughway, Bucky’s bike was oddly quiet. The dull thrum of other cars and the wind in her ears were more noticeable than the noise of the engine. Once again, Jesse was too distracted to keep track of where Bucky was taking her. Every time before, she’d worn a helmet, but there hadn’t been time to consider road safety when there were people with guns behind them. How could she focus on geography when she was overwhelmed by the wind on her open cut? By their closeness, and her arms wound around his waist and her cheek pressed tight against his back? Not to mention the stray intrusive thought of let go!

It was still well before dawn, and Jesse had no idea how long had passed since they’d escaped from Current Relief.

Bucky turned off the highway and took a circuitous route through Cobble Hill. Finally he pulled into a basement garage—a familiar garage, Jesse realized, even if its exact location eluded her. They took the elevator again, and as it went up, Jesse leaned against the back wall behind Bucky and pressed a finger to the reopened cut on her face. She winced. Her fingertip was shiny with blood, though none was running down her face anymore. She sucked the blood off her finger while Bucky was still facing away from her, silent and still save his oddly shallow breathing.

The difference from their first elevator ride together was enough to make Jesse’s eyes sting, though she didn’t cry. If only they could be so at ease with each other again, but now? Now it was impossible.

The elevator dinged, and Bucky pulled her along to his apartment door. His grip on her upper arm was solid, but not harsh like her captors had been. He didn’t make her skin crawl, or sting, or burn.

Bucky stood between her and the elevator down the hall as he unlocked his door, then quickly ushered her inside. He followed, relocked the door, and turned to inspect her. His expression was unreadable as he looked her up and down; she just stared at his face. He did not hold her gaze, nor even change his expression when their eyes met. His eyes did linger on her cut, and he shouldered past her to the kitchen. Jesse just stood in place, eyes closed, until she felt him looming by her again. She opened her eyes.

“Put this there,” Bucky ordered, pressing a damp paper towel to her open cut. The relief was immediate. Jesse took hold of it and he stepped back, though he also held out a protein bar. “Eat this. And sit down.”

Jesse faltered over to Bucky’s couch. She lowered herself down, toed off her shoes, and crossed her legs, resting her elbows on her knees. Her limbs felt heavy, as though her bones had turned to concrete. She was too drained to to turn and see what Bucky was doing; she couldn’t even tell if the noise was coming from the bedroom or the bathroom. Opening the protein bar and holding it up to eat was a trial in and of itself; the food stuck in her dry throat.

Well, they’d both made it back in one piece, apart from whatever amount of blood she’d lost. How did it compare to his other missions? The infiltration of Current Relief surely was a mess from the perspective of the man who had flawlessly executed clandestine assassinations for decades—under brainwashing, no less.

There was a lot to be disappointed about, all things considered. She’d fallen. She’d gotten hurt. She’d actually gone at all, which was what Bucky had objected to most. He might have been right. But she’d saved Mike from being shot at point-blank range, and no one had been killed. Not that she knew of, anyway.

Would Bucky have shot Liz, if not for her? Would he have tried to knock her out before she could shoot Mike? Or would he have let her do it? He’d been focused on keeping Jesse safe, at least until she jumped out into the open. From that point on, his hands had been tied. How much had her spur-of-the-moment decisions made him feel utterly powerless?

And her thoughtless retort…

Jesse shuddered. She lowered her hand, and the damp paper towel with it, and leaned over her crossed legs, pressing her free hand over her eyes.

Like a fucking serial killer.

How could she have said that to him? She knew what he’d been, and she tried not to let it affect their… acquaintanceship? She didn’t dare call it friendship, not when he’d never referred to her as a friend. She had never assumed anything with him, and yet in a moment that should have been triumphant, she’d called him the worst of all possible things. She squeezed her eyes shut. God, what must he think of her now? Foolish for her behavior, cruel for what she’d said to him. Would she ever be able to look him in the face again? How could he forgive her?

The couch dipped to her right; Jesse took a shallow breath and dropped her hand from her face.

Bucky had taken off his jacket and much of his tactical gear; all that remained was a holstered gun strapped to his leg. He’d rolled up the sleeves on his shirt too, baring his lower arms to her. His legs, torso, and upper arms were still fully covered—his boots were still on, even—but she’d still never seen so much of him bared.

“Turn this way,” he instructed.

Jesse shifted around to face him, her legs still crossed. She blinked. A first aid kit lay open on his other side. It was everything she’d need to bandage her face back up. She fiddled with the damp paper towel on her knee; it was beginning to soak through her jeans.

Bucky grabbed her chin and turned her head to inspect her cut. Jesse sucked in a breath at the feel of his hand—his flesh and bones hand—on her face. His fingertips were rougher than her own; his hands were cool from a recent wash. She stared over his shoulder at the fruit painting behind her. It wasn’t just oranges; there were apples, too. Bucky might know the painter, but Jesse didn’t have the courage to speak to him yet.

“Keep looking there.” Bucky dropped her chin and rummaged in the kit at his other hip. He made a little frustrated noise. Jesse winced.

“I can do it, if you like,” she offered.

Bucky leaned back and stared at her, and she flicked her eyes to him when he didn’t respond. Eventually, he shook his head, incredulous.

“Why do you hate to be taken care of?” he asked. “You…” He shook his head again, and this time he didn’t meet her gaze. He twisted his hands together between his legs; his arms clenched, sending the muscles of his right arm into stark definition. Jesse flushed and turned to hug her knees to her chest.

“I don’t hate it,” she said hesitantly. “But I shouldn’t be your problem.”

“My problem?”

“I’m not—I’m not supposed to be a problem to anyone. But especially not you.” Jesse didn’t dare look at him. Here she’d called noted reformed assassin Bucky Barnes a serial killer only an hour ago, and now… now they were having a heart-to-heart on his couch.

“Why the hell not?”

“This was supposed to be normal,” Jesse blurted. “You said so yourself! And if I could do that for you—”

“Jess,” Bucky interrupted. He put his prosthetic hand on her shoulder; she finally looked up at him. His face was unsmiling but still gentle, still sincere. “Normal isn’t worth being hurt. It’s… what did you say when we met? It’s the cost of doing business.”

“Things have gone way past business,” Jesse joked hoarsely. She couldn’t even remember saying that; how much did he remember? How much had he picked up on, over the last weeks? Did he know everything?

“You’re right,” Bucky said. The corners of his mouth quirked up. “Friends look out for each other, no?”

Friends. Jesse sighed. She couldn’t quite smile, but her heart warmed at finally being called his friend. “I was trying to do that, as much as I could, but… Well, I’m not very good at it, I guess.”

“Yes you are,” he argued. “You always did for me. Unless you were busy jumping in front of someone about to be shot.”

Jesse scratched the back of her neck and screwed up her mouth. “I didn’t mean to fuck everything up,” she said.

“You didn’t,” he told her. “Now face the damn painting and hold still.”

She did as she was told, though this time her eyes flitted to his face as he focused on her cut. He was focused, serious; for a moment he reminded her of the blond doctor’s businesslike manner, but Bucky’s hands were gentle on her skin. Even the metal one. The astringent burned something fierce; she clenched her teeth against the pain and tried to keep her head still.

As he rubbed a soothing ointment in with a gentle finger, he said, “Why don’t you let people worry about you?”

Jesse blinked. “What?”

“Whenever I’m worried, you shut it down, or you shut down.” He pressed a gauze pad to her temple and turned to fiddle in the first aid kit for body tape.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she said.

“Right now, yesterday with the notebook. The break-in at your apartment, for god’s sake.”

“That? I thought I was crazy!” Jesse exclaimed. “I thought I was imagining things. Why would I tell anyone about that?”

Bucky paused. “You didn’t tell anyone at all?”

“No, of course not,” Jesse answered, face pinched. “It’s like I said. I don’t want people to have to worry about me!”

Bucky shook his head. “I can’t help but worry about the people I care about. I don’t think anyone can help it, honestly.”

Jesse’s heart pounded in her chest. He cared about her? After all she’d done, and all she’d said? How was this possible?

“More to the point,” he continued, “I like you as you are. It’s the circumstances that suck. But none of that is your fault.” He finished taping the gauze onto her face, and he squeezed her shoulder. “All good.”

Jesse’s heart was too full for her to speak. She reached out and hugged him tight around the neck, pressing her face into his shoulder. She was afraid to look at him; she felt close to tears from his words. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone had said something so nice about her. Her work, sure; her dancing, of course. But about her?

She couldn’t remember.

Bucky slowly put a hand on her back; it was his natural hand, the warm one that he put around her when they were dancing. She’d missed this so much. Being held in his arms, even as little as now, was a balm even when she was miserable about him. Would that she could bottle this feeling. After a minute she even felt bold enough to speak.

“I’m so sorry for what I said,” she murmured. “I wasn’t thinking, and I said something awful, and I’m sorry.”

Bucky was quiet; for a moment he just rubbed a little circle on her back. “I get it,” he said. He pressed his face into her hair; his breath was warm on her scalp. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just… I was worried, Jess. I was worried.”

“You were right to be.” Jesse sighed. “Who jumped in front of a gun? It wasn’t you.”

Bucky pulled back just enough to look her in the face. A little smile played across his lips. She’d never been this close to him; her arms were still hooked around his neck. She looked away from his soft pink mouth—god, in another world she’d have the guts to throw caution to the wind and just kiss him—and met his eyes instead. Not that his eyes were any less distracting. There was something hesitant about them, something that made her want to comfort him. She was so close she could have counted his eyelashes. But she was too buried in the blue depths of his eyes.

“—your help,” Bucky was saying.

Jesse had been too focused on him to process what he’d said. She had to ask him to repeat himself; her cheeks burned, but he didn’t comment on her distractibility.

“You did a good thing, even though he in no way deserved your help.”

Jesse opened her mouth to respond, but Bucky cut her off.

“He’s the reason you went through hell. He could have taken your name off the list. He could’ve protected you at all. But he’s complicit, Jesse. He’s complicit.”

Her shoulders slumped. She unwound her arms from around his neck. Letting go felt like a loss, like an opportunity had passed and she’d fucked it up. She hugged herself and shook her head. “I know,” she said. “I know! But he still regretted it. He wanted to help me, in the end. He got Liz out, too.” She blinked. “I hope, anyway.”

“He should have gone to someone who could help,” Bucky argued. “Why did he have to get you involved?”

Jesse frowned at her lap. “He… he knew he’d see me,” she said slowly. “Maybe he couldn’t have stopped it.”

At that, Bucky scoffed. “It was a hazard to involve you. You’d seen two of them already!”

“Sure, but…” Jesse’s cut began to ache from her deep frown, but she ignored the pain and tried to think. The blond doctor had said something, when she’d first seen Jesse… “Wait,” she said. “Even the doctor—Dr. Faulk, I guess? Even she didn’t want me there. She asked who put me on their list. How could it have gotten to that point without her knowing? She seemed so in charge, at least compared to the others I saw. But I didn’t see the whole operation.”

“We’ll know more soon,” Bucky said darkly. He nodded at the kitchen counter; his laptop was up and running, and Stark’s drive was plugged into it. “In the meantime, you should get some rest.”

“Well, you’re hogging my space,” she quipped, sounding far more chipper than she felt. Her chest was clenched with an awful grief, grief and something that felt like heartbreak. Would she ever have the courage to do something about all her suppressed desires?

Probably not.

Bucky gathered his kit and stood up. “You should get some real sleep.”

“I can sleep here,” she protested. “I’d just need a blanket and—”

“Let me take care of you,” he interrupted. He gave a tiny smile. “For a change.”

“For a change?” Jesse stood up, but she couldn’t let his last statement slide. “You just saved my life! You took on this crazy project for me, you cured me of whatever they’d done—wait.” She paused at the door to the bedroom, her memory suddenly jolted. “You knocked me out!”

He gave an apologetic smile and scratched the back of his head. “I did. It worked on me, before. Uh, sorry?”

Jesse just laughed. His smile was a cure for anything. “Apology not accepted. You’ll have to live with that guilt. I think you’ll manage, though.”

Bucky shook his head and rummaged through his drawers, giving Jesse a chance to look his bedroom over. He’d discarded his tactical gear in a pile by the closet door, but his guns were nowhere to be seen. Hopefully they were locked up in a safe somewhere. The bed was rumpled, but nominally made, with a dark red blanket and white sheets. The walls here had more art than the common space: a poster with a poem in some Cyrillic language, an exhibit poster from the Met, and an oil painting of a cityscape in the rain. All of the art featured the same red as the blanket. Had he picked it all out? She couldn’t quite imagine it.

Bucky turned back and held out a pile of clothes. “For sleeping,” he explained. “Use whatever you want.”

“Thank you,” she said with awe. She was already wearing a borrowed shirt; she could have slept in it. But no, he was taking care of her. For a change, he claimed. That was laughable, really. He’d been taking care of her nonstop for the last day and a half, not to mention his harried visit to her place when she’d first gotten home. He’d freed her, given her back her autonomy. He’d arranged for her to leave the hospital safely. He’d fed her and given her a place to stay. How could she ever thank him enough?

“Bathroom’s free,” he said.

Jesse left, the pile of clothes in hand, and locked the bathroom door behind her. She sagged against the door, dropping the clothes on the floor. Bucky was so good, so kind. He’d been through hell in so many times and ways, but he hadn’t given up. He’d still done so much to help her, to help BCEI.

Her work… She’d forgotten all about it. Would she be able to go back tomorrow? Would Bucky want her to keep a low profile until they knew just what they were up against?

Jesse shook her head. Work would have to wait.

She sorted through Bucky’s clothes. Drawstring pajama pants—flannel, no less—and a long-sleeved shirt, a t-shirt, and a button-down shirt. She raised her eyebrows at the latter. Who wore buttons to bed? She put on the t-shirt; it had a nice loose v-neck and was long enough on her that she felt safe in forsaking the flannel pants, which would undoubtedly end up bunched in annoying bands around her knees within an hour. Bucky could survive witnessing some leg.

She did as much of her bedtime routine as she could. Toilet, teeth-brushing with the toothbrush Bucky had given her the day before, washing her face without disturbing her bandaged temple. She shook out her hair and rebraided it tight across her head, catching as many flyaway strands as she could.

Before she went back to the bedroom, Jesse looked herself over in the mirror. The bandage on her face wasn’t as big as the one from the hospital, and though she was still mostly pale she knew the color in her cheeks wasn’t from the temperature in the apartment. She was getting goosebumps just standing in the bathroom in the nightshirt, though her blush had yet to recede.

Yet for all her little blunders, Bucky was still acting much the same, as if her own internal struggle was invisible to him. She could only hope he didn’t know, didn’t recognize the strain she was under in being so close to him, so comparatively open. They were friends, dammit, nothing more.

Nothing more.

Jesse splashed cold water on her face one more time. Her face was almost back to its normal state—normal when Bucky wasn’t around, anyway. If he didn’t let her go straight to bed, she was sure she’d be red as a beet within a few minutes. As much as she regretted her longing, she wasn’t so deluded as to think that she didn’t have good reason for it. If only he was a little less kind, or a little less magnetic, or a little less talented, or—

But Bucky was Bucky, and even though she was barred from being with him as she wanted, she knew she’d never leave him.

Not unless—or until—he made her.

A/N: Finally, some rest for these two!!! And a good old-fashioned heart-to-heart. I hope you liked it! Let me know what you think :3

[understandingchaoss]

What Recovering from PTSD Looks like When Society Says I Can't Have It

We all know what post traumatic-stress disorder is. We all know that most people who come back from war experience it. In fact, about 30% of men and women who experience war zones are diagnosed with it.

But what about the rest of us? What about those of us who never experienced war but have been diagnosed?

An estimated 7.6% of Americans will experience PTSD at some point in their lives with women twice as more likely to experience it than men. Events leading up to or causing PTSD can consist of sexual assault, a traumatic car accident, childhood abuse or neglect, emotional and physical abuse, finding a loved one deceased, or the suicide or death of a loved one.

Those who come home from war and experienced PTSD are completely valid. I in no way ever want to experience what they had to experience. But when they are honest with their loved ones and admit that they have been diagnosed with PTSD, their feelings and emotions are validated, and actions following the diagnosis are validated.

But for some reason, my emotions, feelings, and actions are not. That is simply because I am not a veteran. Society has made me feel as if I am not allowed to have PTSD if I did not go to war. 

To most people, I don’t show symptoms of my illness. No one even knows I have it unless I tell them. But my second most dominating illness following my depression, according to my psychiatrist, is PTSD. I don’t have any bruises or scars to show for the trauma that I have endured; therefore, according to society, I must not have it.

I spent the majority of my life carefree. Post traumatic-stress disorder never even became a thing for me until I was in high school. I am still not at the point in my recovery where I can openly talk about my traumas, but most people are aware of the three major events that occurred. Unfortunately, because I do not feel comfortable talking about them, my illness is invalidated. I’d like to say that the details of my trauma are not important, and that in this case, they don’t matter. But they are important and they do matter because unless I speak up about them, society says that I didn’t endure trauma and that I shouldn’t have ended up with PTSD.

But here’s the truth, I have experienced sexual assault that has permanently damaged me. I require a good amount of physical space from people, particularly men. I am constantly looking at the people in my life wondering who is going to assault me next, and when it’s going to happen. I have experienced abuse, both mentally and physically that has completely warped my perception of love and what it is supposed to be like. I may never have another healthy relationship again because of it. I hope and pray that isn’t the case though. I am extremely “jumpy.” I feel on edge constantly. I do not do well with others who raise their voices, yell at me, or come up behind me and scare me. I have experienced a situation within the church that I still to this day haven’t really accepted. It has permanently affected the way that I look at the church and it’s leaders. I am extremely terrified that I will never be able to attend church the way that I used to be because of it. I currently do not attend because if I don’t attend, it doesn’t give anyone else the chance to do what has already been previously done.

As a result of my trauma, I have an extreme and unrealistic fear of going anywhere in public alone. I am constantly aware that those who have traumatized me, will already be where I am attempting to go. It keeps me from going to the grocery store, so I often do not have an adequate amount of food in my house. It keeps me from casually walking into a gas station to pick up something. It keeps me from being the independent person I was raised to be. I am in constant fear that they will show up to where I work, so I’m never 100% comfortable in my workplace. 

Not only that, but the fact that people tell me that I can’t have PTSD or that I shouldn’t have PTSD just adds to the hurt and trauma. I already feel invalidated. I’ve felt invalidated since everything happened and I tried to speak up about them for the first time. On top of that, I’ve got people left and right telling me that I’m not allowed to have PTSD because I didn’t go to war and fight for our country. I am denied many of the services that veterans receive because of the fact that I’m not one of them. That isn’t their fault and I do not hold it against them. But it honestly down right sucks for people like me. I want my illness and the feelings and emotions and actions that come along with it to be validated just like theirs. 

Some days, I can’t eat at all, other days I eat way too much of my comfort food. I have terrible nightmares that interrupt my sleep constantly. I have flashbacks that are so debilitating; sometimes I can’t even function correctly afterwards. I have dissociative episodes several times a week. I can never rest. I can’t tell you the last time I actually felt relaxed. My mind is constantly in fight-or-flight mode, doing its best to protect me from those who have previously traumatized me and those who may traumatize me in the future. 

I have fought long and hard in my recovery journey. But I fight especially long and hard in my recovery from PTSD because of how debilitating the entire illness is. I have spent countless nights trying my best to fall asleep instead of listening to the intrusive thoughts or paying attention to the flashbacks. For a long time, I felt that I could not tell anyone what was really happening or how I was really feeling because of the stigma that surrounds PTSD. I am not allowed to have it, therefore, I cannot speak about it. I am expected to sit down and shut up about my trauma, because in reality, people don’t even see any of the events that have happened to me as traumatic. I am just some girl who “overreacted” to certain events in her life.

I have tried my best to keep finding the strength every single day to speak up about what has happened to me and why it has affected me the way that it has. I have apparently ruined the reputations of some of the people who have traumatized me. But part of being a survivor and not a victim, is speaking up against those who have traumatized you and not allowing them to keep you quiet. I have tried many, many different combinations of medications and I have put in many hours of therapy sessions that rip my heart out, but end up healing it in the end. I have had to try and fail before I could take a step forward. I’ve had to be painfully honest with my mental health providers, my family, and my friends. I have fought the stigma by being painfully honest. I’m sure half of them didn’t want to hear it, or even believe it. But by my speaking up, they understand more of PTSD and what traumatic events can do to people. I have had to put myself through more pain just to work through the initial pain. I have had to stop avoiding every personal, upsetting, and triggering question. The more I avoid, the more steps backward I take. I have to face those questions that I so desperately do not want to answer in order to make any kind of progress. The more questions people ask, the more I am able to think about the things I have tried so hard to bury deep. I can’t face any of those things if I continue to bury them.

I wish that I would have been able to stop PTSD in its tracks before it got out of hand. But I have to accept that I couldn’t, and so does society. I have done everything that I can to help myself improve and beat this illness. Society is going to have to see that, because I stopped shutting up about it a long time ago.

If you or someone you know needs support right now, call the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, or textSTART to 741-741

[realitycrazy2017-blog]

11 Ways to Market Your iPhone and iPod Touch App

New Post has been published on https://realitycrazy.com/11-ways-to-market-your-iphone-and-ipod-touch-app/

11 Ways to Market Your iPhone and iPod Touch App

While there is no magic formula or single marketing action that may do the trick for you, these strategies can provide you with a framework to help you increase company exposure, sales, and profit. Marketing your iPhone/Touch app is definitely a process that can take time.

I will let you know that we have not found price reductions to be the best strategy. We initially thought this might be very effective as the App store structure is set up to rank applications by the number of total downloads. Higher total sales and total downloads by price category are not currently recognized by Apple’s system.

Keep in mind for instance that if your app was $5 and you decided to lower it to $0.99, you’d have to tell sell five times as many just to break even. Now you might temporarily increase exposure this way but at the expense of maximizing your profit margins when you are most apt to do well at the beginning of your product life cycle. Customer support issues may increase by a factor of five as well.

That being said, there’s nothing wrong with adjusting your app’s price in the beginning to find its best market price (which might change over time).

There are 24,455 apps and counting, so let’s jump in and get started!

1. The World (iTunes App Store) Is Flat

Consider your potential international market right from the moment of conceptualization. There are people all over the planet eager to use and benefit from quality applications. Initially, we intended to include the metric system and local currency in our app but decided to push it back until version 1.1. We were so eager to start the submission process with Apple and this ended up negatively affected our sales without question. I recommend taking that extra time to make your app useful to the international community, or even a few key markets (China, Russia, Central and South America, Japan, and Germany come to mind).

What does this mean? If currencies are used, auto-detect the user’s local currency under their device’s general settings; and if applicable handle currency conversions. Make your website, instructions, and sales pages easy to understand and use images to support your text. Consider that for many people, English may be their second or third language. Make your software more intuitive by choosing symbols over text wherever possible. Reach out to bloggers for your niche market in Europe and Asia. Include a complimentary promo code in your correspondence. It can’t hurt.

Consider this: we received nearly $1,000 in sales from Italy because of a single online post was written in Italian! Now you could go further with this and have your sales page and help instructions translated into major languages like Spanish or Chinese. Prices for quality work vary and you’ll need to get someone fluent in the language to double check their work.

Remember there are 65 different versions of iTunes around the world and counting. Single apps can be developed for use on the iPhone and the iPod Touch. How big is the market for both? Apple does not break down sales of individual product lines. A conservative estimate of 4.4 million iPhone sales and 22.7 million iPod sales for last quarter would be about 7 million in three months. That’s an average of 78,000 new devices coming online daily. Incredible and almost scary. It can’t last forever, but wow!

2. Create a Lite or Demo Version

Apple lets developers offer both a free and paid version of the same app, and a free sample is probably the most successful marketing strategy ever. People want to try things. There are plenty of Crapps (crappy apps) out there, so why should people risk money on an app they know nothing about from a company they know even less about? If you can give people a taste that is just enough, they’ll buy the whole meal from you! This way you take away much of the risk.

There are numerous strategies for this, but make sure the lite version sales page is clear in its limitations vs. the paid or full version. If you truncate the app too much, people may think it’s a complete dud and see no value in paying you anything for the premium release. Give people a clear idea of what they’re getting into and this strategy could make you rich. Developer Ethan Nicholas offers motivation to go this route in a recent Wired piece:

When iShoot launched in October, business was slow for a while. And then Nicholas found some spare time to code a free version of the app – iShoot Lite, which he released January. Here’s how that helped: Inside iShoot Lite he advertised the $3, the full version of iShoot. Users downloaded the free version 2.4 million times. And that led 320,000 satisfied iShoot Lite players to pay for iShoot.

3. Go Free

Now, this is something that can be considered for different reasons. Right now “in-app” advertising lacks sophistication. When I say that, I mean we don’t have Google AdSense yet. I’m sure it’s coming, but embedded advertising that does not relate to the content in any manner is really intrusive in my personal opinion. I still read about certain developers making tons of money with embedded app advertising, but it’s hard enough to get people to click on ads if they’re relevant. When they’re not, the click-through rate is pretty low. If your app is something that people use, again and again, advertising can still work. We personally did not find it successful as it’s much easier to make about 70 cents off of a 99 cent app than to earn the same amount with ads. You could also add a PayPal donation button as AppCubby did, but this probably won’t work for you unless you have a large pre-existing customer or fan base.

You could also introduce your app for free. Get people using it, talking about it, and receive positive feedback. Then start charging people. Perfectly acceptable with Apple.

Looking at it from a long-term perspective, you might completely give away the first app to get people talking, create a base and build your brand. After all, nothing spreads like free (especially good free). You can use this to gather contact info and feedback from your initial users and turn them into customers for your next app or product. Be sure to include a “share” feature inside your free app (inside all of your apps!). Make sharing as easy as possible.

4. Send Out a Press Release

PRMac, a free (or almost free) press release distribution service, and the MacNN (Macintosh News Network) syndicate (free to submit) are definitely worth the price of submission. Competing services can charge over $600 for distribution within the United States alone, so these are valuable and less costly alternatives. They say the press release is dead, but these offerings directly targeted your potential customers. You never know who you might reach, and it’s vital to provide a press release when soliciting all forms of media.

5. Contact the Top 100 Blogs

Technorati can provide you with the current list. Use a conversational style, get right to the point and include a promo code. Figure out what could sell them on your company. If there’s an interesting angle or story around your app, this could increase your chances. Ask them if you could do a guest post. Who knows? When you have sites like Gizmodo that get 3 million page views per day, this can absolutely turbocharge sales!

6. Constantly Improve Your Sales Page

This one is pretty basic but often overlooked. Look at the sales pages of other top apps. What are they doing? Emulate what works and keep researching to spark ideas. You can display up to five images as of this writing, so use them! Use the images that sell your product best. Ask other people what grabs their attention. Use quotes from reviewers; share benefits first and foremost. Customers are not always logical, so don’t bore them with statistics. How will your application make their lives better?

7. Use Customer Feedback to Build a Better Product

This is two parts. First, timely respond to customer emails and realize that every interaction with customers, whether good or bad, is a marketing opportunity. When you get feedback via email or through your customer reviews, consider and incorporate these improvements. You can’t please everyone all of the time, and you may have limited resources, so you won’t be able to add everything. Some great ideas are bound to come your way. First-time users can also let you see how your software is being used from a beginner’s perspective.

The second way to receive customer feedback is to embed analytics code in your application. Flurry Analytics and Pinch Media both offer to track software that will provide insight into how customers are interacting with your application, including real-time download information, all for free. This can be especially useful if 90% of your customers are not using a particular feature. Maybe they don’t know it’s even there!

8. Continually Update Your Application

Here’s a great feature of the App Store. New versions move back to the top of what’s new in your category. Incorporating features your customers want, thereby making your product better, coupled with maintaining visibility, can help increase or at least maintain steady sales. Don’t abuse this by changing a few words in your help section and then resubmitting or you could ruin this for everybody. If you are working hard to make your product better, the distribution channel can reward you with increased exposure, because you are renewing.

9. Advertise

Google AdWords and AdMob are possible options. I believe we’re not there yet, but we’re pretty close. AdWords does offer the ability to advertise on mobile devices with a full internet browser, but that doesn’t just include the iPhone and Touch. You’ll get Androids and more depending on which territory you advertise. Right now they haven’t developed conversion tracking for apps either, and without this, you can just burn through cash with little results to show for your efforts. You won’t know which keywords are working or aren’t working. There is one way to track sales using this method: become an iTunes affiliate by joining LinkShare. You can create a link to your sales page in the App store and receive a 5% commission on qualifying purchases.

AdMob has app advertising down better than Google so far. You are able to track your conversions and target relevant Apple devices. You can even target those that are either on or off the WiFi network, which is pretty cool. The downside to this is that you are paying at least 10 cents a click to send someone to your App store sales page. No guarantee of sales here and depending on the price of your application, this leaves a very little margin to spend on advertising. It can take a hundred clicks just to get an actual sale, so keep that in mind. Also, since AdMob doesn’t target your ads very well, the people clicking are not actually seeking what you’re offering as they would on a Google search.

Here are a few examples of Google AdWords ads below from companies with money to burn; this luxury is not something everyone can afford and it may not be worthwhile anyway.

GOOGLE ADWORDS ADS:

EXAMPLE #1

Kraft iPhone Application

No-Hassle Cooking w/Recipes And

Shopping Lists At Your Fingertips.

EXAMPLE #2

Free iPhone Download

Get Local Search Power On Your

iPhone Today! Find. Map. Save. Go.

One last consideration: even if you break even from your advertising, you could increase your ranking in the store, and thereby receive more sales from the increased exposure. If you are popular, sales can feed off themselves. iTunes is a distribution channel, but so is Walmart. If you are featured next to the register, you’re gonna get more sales. If you’re at the bottom of the shelf on aisle 34, good luck!

10. Use Social Networks

Facebook Fan pages, online forums, and quality comments on top blogs and news sites can help you get conversations started about your company. Comments are even crawled and tracked by the major search engines. Be part of the discussion and actually share something relevant or this could work against you. You could quickly end up being considered spam (and despised or banished by your fellow netizens). The subtlety here will carry you far. Also, create profiles to further your cause.

11. Get Featured in the App Store

This one is tricky obviously because how do you make it a part of your marketing plan? You do not choose but are chosen. I will say this for what it’s worth. I contacted iTunes about a month ago and asked to be featured Today we are. It never hurts to ask and it can be worth quite a bundle! You never know who you’re going to reach. Someone may say something to someone else. That’s how it happens.

Thus far, we’ve increased our average daily sales almost tenfold. We are currently (2/23/09-3/9/09) featured on the front page of the App Store in iTunes under “New And Noteworthy” and #7 in “What’s New” on the iPhone/Touch.

Every time I contact media, even if nothing comes of it, I’m sharing my company and my product with powerful people (or people in contact with powerful people) and I never know directly or indirectly where this can lead.

Keep plugging away and please share your ideas and experiences with me. I’d love to hear about them. I wish you the greatest success!

John R. Haigh recently collaborated on the interior design book, “What Would You Do With This Room? My 10 Foolproof Commandments to Great Interior Design” by Mark Lewison and written by Sherri Houtz. He also co-developed the iPhone and iPod Touch virtual interior designer app, “Mark On Call”. He shares the latest beneficial and intriguing information from a variety of sectors (i.e. arts & entertainment, business, science, and technology to name a few) on his personal “Friends With Strangers” blog.

[beingmad2017-blog]

11 Ways to Market Your iPhone and iPod Contact App

New Post has been published on https://beingmad.org/11-ways-to-market-your-iphone-and-ipod-contact-app/

11 Ways to Market Your iPhone and iPod Contact App

While there may be no magic formula or single marketing motion that can do the trick for you, those strategies can provide you with a framework to help you growth corporation exposure, income, and earnings. Market advertising your iPhone/Contact app is sincerely a manner that could take time.

I’m able to let you understand that we’ve now not found charge reductions to be the high-quality strategy. We first of all thought this is probably very powerful as the free apps save shape is an installation to rank applications by the variety of overall downloads. Better overall sales and total downloads by means of rate class are not currently diagnosed with Apple’s system.

Preserve in mind for example that if your app changed into $5 and you made a decision to lower it to $0.99, you’ll have informed promote five times as many just to interrupt even. Now you would possibly temporarily increase publicity this manner, however at the expense of maximizing your earnings margins while you are most apt to do well at the start of your product existence cycle. Customer support issues may increase via an issue of five as nicely.

That being stated, there is nothing wrong with adjusting your app’s fee in the starting to discover its high-quality Market price (which would possibly exchange over time).

There are 24,455 free apps and counting, so allow’s soar in and get began!

1. The sector (iTunes App store) Is Flat

Recollect your capability worldwide Marketplace right from the moment of conceptualization. There are humans all over the planet keen to use and advantage from satisfactory applications. initially, we intended to consist of the metric system and nearby currency in our free apps , however, determined to push it again till model 1.1. We had been so eager to start the submission system with Apple and this ended up negatively affected our sales without query. I endorse taking that more time to make your app useful to the worldwide network, or even a few key markets (China, Russia, Significant and South America, Japan, and Germany come to thoughts).

What does this suggest? If currencies are used, vehicle-discover the consumer’s local foreign money beneath their device’s fashionable settings; and if applicable take care of currency conversions. Make your internet site, instructions, and income pages smooth to apprehend and use pix to help your text. Remember that for lots human beings, English may be their second or third language. Make your software program extra intuitive with the aid of choosing symbols over text anywhere viable. Reach out to bloggers on your niche Market in Europe and Asia. consist of a complimentary promo code for your correspondence. It cannot hurt.

Bear in mind this: we obtained almost $1,000 in sales from Italy due to an unmarried on line put up written in Italian! Now you could cross further with this and feature your sales page and help instructions translated into major languages like Spanish or Chinese. Charges for high-quality work vary and you may need to get someone fluent inside the language to double take a look at their paintings.

Take into account there are 65 exclusive variations of iTunes around The arena and counting. single apps may be advanced to be used on the iPhone and the iPod Contact. How large is the Market for each? Apple does not breakdown income of character product lines. A conservative estimate with four.4 million iPhone sales and 22.7 million iPod sales for the closing zone might be about 7 million in three months. That is a median of 78,000 new devices coming online each day. Top notch and nearly frightening. It can’t last all the time, but wow!

2. Create a Lite or Demo version

Apple lets builders provide both a unfastened and paid version of the same app, and a loose sample is probably the maximum a success advertising strategy ever. humans need to strive things. There are lots of CrApps (crappy apps) available, so why should humans chance money on an app they recognize not anything approximately from an organization they know even less approximately? If you could supply people a flavor that is just sufficient, they’ll purchase the complete meal from you! This way you take away an awful lot of the hazard.

There are various techniques for this, however, make sure the lite version sales web page is obvious in its barriers vs. The paid or full model. If you truncate the free apps too much, people might imagine it is an entire dud and notice no cost in paying you something for the premium launch. give humans a clear idea of what they’re moving into and this method ought to make you wealthy. Developer Ethan Nicholas gives the motivation to head this route in a latest Wired piece:

Whilst iShoot launched in October, commercial enterprise become gradual for a while. After which Nicholas determined some spare time to code a loose model of the free apps – iShoot Lite, which he released January. Right here’s how that helped: Interior iShoot Lite he advertised the $three, the full version of iShoot. Customers downloaded the unfastened model 2.four million instances. And that led 320,000 glad iShoot Lite gamers to pay for iShoot.

three. go loose

Now, this is something that may be considered for unique reasons. proper now “in app” advertising lacks sophistication. Once I say that I suggest we do not have Google AdSense yet. I am positive it’s coming, but embedded advertising that doesn’t relate to the content in any manner is sincerely intrusive in my non-public opinion. I nonetheless examine approximately sure builders making tons of money with embedded app advertising, however, it’s hard sufficient to get people to click on advertisements if they are applicable. When they’re no longer, the click-through fee is pretty low. in case your app is something that human beings use, again and again, advertising and marketing can still paintings. We for my part did not discover it a success as it’s lots less difficult to make about 70 cents off of a ninety-nine cent app than to earn the identical quantity with advertisements. you can also upload a PayPal donation button as AppCubby did, but this in all likelihood won’t work for you unless you’ve got a large pre-present consumer or fan base.

you could additionally introduce your app free of charge. Get humans using it, speak approximately it, and get hold of high-quality remarks. Then begin charging human beings. Flawlessly applicable with Apple.

Looking at it from a long-time period attitude, you would possibly completely give away the first app to get humans speak, create a base and build your brand. In any case, nothing spreads like loose (specifically appropriate unfastened). you may use this to acquire touch info and comments out of your initial Users and flip them into customers in your next app or product. Be sure to consist of a “proportion” feature Inside your free app (Inside all your apps!). Make sharing as clean as possible.

four. Send Out a Press launch

PRMac, a loose (or almost unfastened) press launch distribution service, and the MacNN (Macintosh News Community) syndicate (loose to publish) are truely well worth the price of submission. Competing offerings can price over $600 for distribution inside the America on my own, so those are precious and much less pricey alternatives. They say the press release is lifeless, however, these offerings at once focused your capacity customers. You never understand who you might Reach, and it’s important to provide a press launch Whilst soliciting all types of media.

five. contact the Pinnacle a hundred Blogs

Technorati can offer you with the contemporary listing. Use a conversational style, get proper to the factor and encompass a promo code. Figure out what should promote them on your business enterprise. If there may be an interesting attitude or tale round your app, this can boom your chances. Ask them if you may do a visitor submit. Who knows? If you have websites like Gizmodo that get three million pageviews in line with the day, this may certainly turbocharge income!

6. Continuously Improve Your income web page

This one is quite simple, however often omitted. Examine the income pages of other Top apps. What are they doing? Emulate what works and Maintain gaining knowledge of to spark thoughts. you could display as much as 5 photographs as of this writing, so use them! Use the pix that promote your product satisfactorily. Ask different human beings what grabs their interest. Use rates from reviewers; proportion blessings first and principal. clients aren’t constantly logical, so don’t bore them with statistics. How will your application make their lives better?

7. Use client remarks to construct a better Product

that is components. First, well-timed reply to client emails and recognize that every interplay with clients, whether or not accurate or horrific, is a marketing opportunity. whilst you get comments thru electronic mail or thru your patron evaluations, Consider and comprise these enhancements. You cannot please absolutely everyone all of the time, and you could have restricted assets, so that you may not be capable of add everything. a few extraordinary thoughts are sure to come your way. First-time Users can also help you see how your software program is getting used from a newbie’s perspective.

The second one manner to receive client feedback is to embed analytics code to your software. Flurry Analytics and Pinch Media each offer monitoring software program with the intention to offer insight into how customers are interacting along with your software, which includes real-time download records, all free of charge. this may be particularly beneficial if ninety% of your customers aren’t the use of a particular feature. Perhaps they don’t know it is even there!

8. Always Update Your application

Here’s an amazing feature of the App store. New versions circulate returned to the Top of what is new to your category. Incorporating capabilities your clients need, thereby making your product better, coupled with maintaining visibility, can help increase or at least hold constant sales. don’t abuse this by means of changing a few phrases in your help phase After which resubmitting or you may damage this for absolutely everyone. In case you are running hard to make your product higher, the distribution channel can reward you with improved publicity because you are renewing.

nine. Put it on the market

Google AdWords and AdMob are feasible alternatives. I agree with we’re no longer there but, however, we’re quite near. AdWords does offer the capacity to Promote it on mobile gadgets with a complete net browser, however that doesn’t just consist of the iPhone and Touch. You’ll get Androids and extra relying on which territory you Put it up for sale. right now they have not evolved conversion monitoring for apps both, and without this, you may simply burn thru coins with little results to reveal for your efforts. You might not understand which keywords are working or aren’t running. there may be one manner to music sales the usage of this technique: grow to be an iTunes associate by means of becoming a member of LinkShare. you could create a hyperlink in your income page inside the App keep and obtain a 5% fee on qualifying purchases.

AdMob has app advertising down better than Google to this point. you are capable of a song your conversions and target relevant Apple devices. you may even target the ones which are both on or off the WiFi Community, that’s quite cool. The downside to this is that you are paying a minimum 10 cents a click to Ship someone on your App shop income web page. No guarantee of sales Here and depending on the rate of your application, this leaves the very little margin to spend on advertising. It may take one hundred clicks just to get a real sale, so Keep that in thoughts. additionally, since AdMob does not target your advertisements thoroughly, the humans clicking aren’t without a doubt looking for what you’re offering as they might on a Google search.

Right here are a few examples of Google AdWords commercials below from groups with cash to burn; this luxurious is not something everyone can have the funds for and it may not be worthwhile anyway.

GOOGLE ADWORDS advertisements:

Example #1

Kraft iPhone application

No-Hassle Cooking w/Recipes And

Buying Lists At Your Fingertips.

Www.Apple.Com/Kraft

Example #2

loose iPhone download

Get local search Electricity on your

iPhone These days! find. Map. Shop. pass.

YellowPages.Com/iPhone

One remaining attention: even If you break even from your marketing, you may boom your ranking in the store, and thereby receive greater sales from the multiplied publicity. If you are popular, income can feed off them. Itunes is a distribution channel, however so is Walmart. In case you are featured subsequent to the register, you’re gonna get more income. In case you’re at the lowest of the shelf on aisle 34, proper success!

10. Use Social Networks

Fb Fan pages, on-line forums, and nice comments on Pinnacle blogs and Information websites assist you to get conversations began about your company. comments are even crawled and tracked by way of the important search engines like google. Be part of the dialogue and actually proportion something applicable or this can paintings in opposition to you. you may fast become being considered junk mail (and despised or banished by means of your fellow netizens). Subtlety Right here will convey you far. additionally, create profiles to further your cause.

[netmaddy-blog]

11 Ways to Market Your iPhone and iPod Touch App

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11 Ways to Market Your iPhone and iPod Touch App

While there is no magic formula or single marketing action that may do the trick for you, these strategies can provide you with a framework to help you increase company exposure, sales and profit. Marketing your iPhone/Touch app is definitely a process that can take time.

I will let you know that we have not found price reductions to be the best strategy. We initially thought this might be very effective as the App store structure is set up to rank applications by the number of total downloads. Higher total sales and total downloads by price category are not currently recognized with Apple’s system.

Keep in mind for instance that if your app was $5 and you decided to lower it to $0.99, you’d have tell sell five times as many just to break even. Now you might temporarily increase exposure this way, but at the expense of maximizing your profit margins when you are most apt to do well at the beginning of your product life cycle. Customer support issues may increase by a factor of five as well.

That being said, there’s nothing wrong with adjusting your app’s price in the beginning to find its best market price (which might change over time).

There are 24,455 apps and counting, so let’s jump in and get started!

1. The World (iTunes App Store) Is Flat

Consider your potential international market right from the moment of conceptualization. There are people all over the planet eager to use and benefit from quality applications. Initially we intended to include the metric system and local currency in our app, but decided to push it back until version 1.1. We were so eager to start the submission process with Apple and this ended up negatively affected our sales without question. I recommend taking that extra time to make your app useful to the international community, or even a few key markets (China, Russia, Central and South America, Japan, and Germany come to mind).

What does this mean? If currencies are used, auto-detect the user’s local currency under their device’s general settings; and if applicable handle currency conversions. Make your website, instructions, and sales pages easy to understand and use images to support your text. Consider that for many people, English may be their second or third language. Make your software more intuitive by choosing symbols over text wherever possible. Reach out to bloggers for your niche market in Europe and Asia. Include a complimentary promo code in your correspondence. It can’t hurt.

Consider this: we received nearly $1,000 in sales from Italy because of a single online post written in Italian! Now you could go further with this and have your sales page and help instructions translated into major languages like Spanish or Chinese. Prices for quality work vary and you’ll need to get someone fluent in the language to double check their work.

Remember there are 65 different versions of iTunes around the world and counting. Single apps can be developed for use on the iPhone and the iPod Touch. How big is the market for both? Apple does not breakdown sales of individual product lines. A conservative estimate with 4.4 million iPhone sales and 22.7 million iPod sales for last quarter would be about 7 million in three months. That’s an average of 78,000 new devices coming online daily. Incredible and almost scary. It can’t last forever, but wow!

2. Create a Lite or Demo Version

Apple lets developers offer both a free and paid version of the same app, and a free sample is probably the most successful marketing strategy ever. People want to try things. There are plenty of CrApps (crappy apps) out there, so why should people risk money on an app they know nothing about from a company they know even less about? If you can give people a taste that is just enough, they’ll buy the whole meal from you! This way you take away much of the risk.

There are numerous strategies for this, but make sure the lite version sales page is clear in its limitations vs. the paid or full version. If you truncate the app too much, people may think it’s a complete dud and see no value in paying you anything for the premium release. Give people a clear idea of what they’re getting into and this strategy could make you rich. Developer Ethan Nicholas offers motivation to go this route in a recent Wired piece:

When iShoot launched in October, business was slow for a while. And then Nicholas found some spare time to code a free version of the app – iShoot Lite, which he released January. Here’s how that helped: Inside iShoot Lite he advertised the $3, full version of iShoot. Users downloaded the free version 2.4 million times. And that led 320,000 satisfied iShoot Lite players to pay for iShoot.

3. Go Free

Now this is something that can be considered for different reasons. Right now “in app” advertising lacks sophistication. When I say that, I mean we don’t have Google AdSense yet. I’m sure it’s coming, but embedded advertising that does not relate to the content in any manner is really intrusive in my personal opinion. I still read about certain developers making tons of money with embedded app advertising, but it’s hard enough to get people to click on ads if they’re relevant. When they’re not, the click-through rate is pretty low. If your app is something that people use again and again, advertising can still work. We personally did not find it successful as it’s much easier to make about 70 cents off of a 99 cent app than to earn the same amount with ads. You could also add a PayPal donation button as AppCubby did, but this probably won’t work for you unless you have a large pre-existing customer or fan base.

You could also introduce your app for free. Get people using it, talking about it, and receive positive feedback. Then start charging people. Perfectly acceptable with Apple.

Looking at it from a long-term perspective, you might completely give away the first app to get people talking, create a base and build your brand. After all, nothing spreads like free (especially good free). You can use this to gather contact info and feedback from your initial users and turn them into customers for your next app or product. Be sure to include a “share” feature inside your free app (inside all of your apps!). Make sharing as easy as possible.

4. Send Out a Press Release

PRMac, a free (or almost free) press release distribution service, and the MacNN (Macintosh News Network) syndicate (free to submit) are definitely worth the price of submission. Competing services can charge over $600 for distribution within the United States alone, so these are valuable and less costly alternatives. They say the press release is dead, but these offerings directly targeted your potential customers. You never know who you might reach; and it’s vital to provide a press release when soliciting all forms of media.

5. Contact the Top 100 Blogs

Technorati can provide you with the current list. Use a conversational style, get right to the point and include a promo code. Figure out what could sell them on your company. If there’s an interesting angle or story around your app, this could increase your chances. Ask them if you could do a guest post. Who knows? When you have sites like Gizmodo that get 3 million pageviews per day, this can absolutely turbocharge sales!

6. Constantly Improve Your Sales Page

This one is pretty basic, but often overlooked. Look at the sales pages of other top apps. What are they doing? Emulate what works and keep researching to spark ideas. You can display up to five images as of this writing, so use them! Use the images that sell your product best. Ask other people what grabs their attention. Use quotes from reviewers; share benefits first and foremost. Customers are not always logical, so don’t bore them with statistics. How will your application make their lives better?

7. Use Customer Feedback to Build a Better Product

This is two parts. First, timely respond to customer emails and realize that every interaction with customers, whether good or bad, is a marketing opportunity. When you get feedback via email or through your customer reviews, consider and incorporate these improvements. You can’t please everyone all of the time, and you may have limited resources, so you won’t be able to add everything. Some great ideas are bound to come your way. First-time users can also let you see how your software is being used from a beginner’s perspective.

The second way to receive customer feedback is to embed analytics code in your application. Flurry Analytics and Pinch Media both offer tracking software that will provide insight into how customers are interacting with your application, including real-time download information, all for free. This can be especially useful if 90% of your customers are not using a particular feature. Maybe they don’t know it’s even there!

8. Continually Update Your Application

Here’s a great feature of the App Store. New versions move back to the top of what’s new in your category. Incorporating features your customers want, thereby making your product better, coupled with maintaining visibility, can help increase or at least maintain steady sales. Don’t abuse this by changing a few words in your help section and then resubmitting or you could ruin this for everybody. If you are working hard to make your product better, the distribution channel can reward you with increased exposure, because you are renewing.

9. Advertise

Google AdWords and AdMob are possible options. I believe we’re not there yet, but we’re pretty close. AdWords does offer the ability to advertise on mobile devices with a full internet browser, but that doesn’t just include the iPhone and Touch. You’ll get Androids and more depending on which territory you advertise. Right now they haven’t developed conversion tracking for apps either, and without this you can just burn through cash with little results to show for your efforts. You won’t know which keywords are working or aren’t working. There is one way to track sales using this method: become an iTunes affiliate by joining LinkShare. You can create a link to your sales page in the App store and receive a 5% commission on qualifying purchases.

AdMob has app advertising down better than Google so far. You are able to track your conversions and target relevant Apple devices. You can even target those that are either on or off the WiFi network, which is pretty cool. The downside to this is that you are paying at least 10 cents a click to send someone to your App store sales page. No guarantee of sales here and depending on the price of your application, this leaves very little margin to spend on advertising. It can take a hundred clicks just to get an actual sale, so keep that in mind. Also, since AdMob doesn’t target your ads very well, the people clicking are not actually seeking what you’re offering as they would on a Google search.

Here are a few examples of Google AdWords ads below from companies with money to burn; this luxury is not something everyone can afford and it may not be worthwhile anyway.One last consideration: even if you break even from your advertising, you could increase your ranking in the store, and thereby receive more sales from the increased exposure. If you are popular, sales can feed off themselves. iTunes is a distribution channel, but so is Walmart. If you are featured next to the register, you’re gonna get more sales. If you’re at the bottom of the shelf on aisle 34, good luck!

10. Use Social Networks

Facebook Fan pages, online forums, and quality comments on top blogs and news sites can help you get conversations started about your company. Comments are even crawled and tracked by the major search engines. Be part of the discussion and actually share something relevant or this could work against you. You could quickly end up being considered spam (and despised or banished by your fellow netizens). Subtlety here will carry you far. Also create profiles to further your cause.

11. Get Featured in the App Store

This one is tricky obviously because how do you make it a part of your marketing plan? You do not choose, but are chosen. I will say this for what it’s worth. I contacted iTunes about a month ago and asked to be featured Today we are. It never hurts to ask and it can be worth quite a bundle! You never know who you’re going to reach. Someone may say something to someone else. That’s how it happens.

Thus far, we’ve increased our average daily sales almost tenfold. We are currently (2/23/09-3/9/09) featured on the front page of the App Store in iTunes under “New And Noteworthy” and #7 in “What’s New” on the iPhone/Touch.

Every time I contact media, even if nothing comes of it, I’m sharing my company and my product with powerful people (or people in contact with powerful people) and I never know directly or indirectly where this can lead.

Keep plugging away and please share your ideas and experiences with me. I’d love to hear about them. I wish you the greatest success!

John R. Haigh recently collaborated on the interior design book, “What Would You Do With This Room? My 10 Foolproof Commandments to Great Interior Design” by Mark Lewison and written by Sherri Houtz. He also co-developed the iPhone and iPod Touch virtual interior designer app, “Mark On Call”. He shares the latest beneficial and intriguing information from a variety of sectors (i.e. arts & entertainment, business, science and technology to name a few) on his personal “Friends With Strangers” blog.