#added new styles to my icon page so i felt like posting them here

[zackmartin]

you can find a million more knight squad icons on my icon page found HERE!

⭐︎ requests open! ⭐︎ all icons are 150x150 ⭐︎ please don’t repost or claim as your own! ⭐︎ please don’t edit/change. if you want another color, doodle, character, shape etc, just ask :) ⭐︎ reblog if saving/using ⭐︎ credit isn’t necessary to use, but please link back to this post or my icon page if asked about them ⭐︎ doodles/textures credit: ☆ ★ ⭐︎★ ☆ ★ ☆

[somethinglacking]

Shooting For Stars: Chapter 1

Summary: 

Hyuna Lee just started college, and while procrastinating decided to give a popular MMO called LOLOL a try. Here she will meet new friends, battle monsters, part takes in epic quests, and potentially find love!

Most of this will take place in LOLOL at the beginning.

This takes place a year/ year and a half after Seven's good end, and the secret endings. Yoosung x OC

**Update's once a week**

Smut in later chapters, of course ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Hyuna groaned as she sat staring at her computer. Her assignment was to draw something that inspires you, some sort of introductory assignment for the Professor to get to know her small class of Art Student Misfits. Nothing seemed to inspire her as of late, and no matter what she did manage to sketch out onto screen seemed to call her out: The Un-Inspired Art Student with no muse or motivation. Her fingers ran the length of her caramel brown locks, and her nails lightly scratched her scalp trying to ease her growing frustrations. Hazel glared at the taunting screen before her, daring it to keep on challenging her. 

After what seemed like an eternity, the artist sighed in defeat. Nothing was coming to her, and the lines she had managed to get down didn’t seem to be coming together as anything. Annoyed with herself and lack of a muse, she set her tablet to the side and opened her social media. Not much was going on, and she didn’t really have any friends anymore. Her sister posted a photo of her and her little class of second graders. They were cute and her sister looked happy. Smiling at the photo she offered it a thumbs up. 

When she was done scrolling her newsfeed she opened boogle. Bored she searched for fun things to do on the internet. The search results varied in interest, but an ad on the web page she was on showed a popular MMO and a free trial. Curious she clicked it and went to the homepage of the game. She read of the spec’s and nodded noting it would work on her pc. She clicked the download icon and downloaded it. 

Hazel eyes read every bit of detail the game had to offer her as it booted up the character creator. Feeling a little nervous, having never played an MMO before and unsure if she’d actually like being in contact with actual people. Logically she knew she could just play solo and ignore the events, or even delete her entire account after the free trial ran out and simply say she tried it. Biting a plump bottom lip she was greeted with page after several final updates. 

First, she selected her gender debating on being a boy, but ultimately settled for female solely because she knew their armor would be cuter the further she got into the game. She clicked through the races and settled on an elf. She smiled customizing the hairstyle and making the hair a lovely hue of blue. The eyes matched her avatar's hair. Hyuna chooses the least appalling beginner to wear praying she would be able to get something that wasn’t such an eyesore to wear easily. Overall the artist was pleased with the look of her new online persona and moved onto the next page.

Here she had to choose a username. Chewing on her lip she knew she go to Sapphire would be already taken in such a massive game, but gave it a go anyway. Slightly disappointed when it was already taken she contemplated what to use. She typed in several weird spelling of the name before Sapfyre worked. Making a surprised and pleased noise, she made haste to click the arrow button that would take her into the game. 

The screen loaded and she took her time going through the tutorial and getting the hang of the world, and command functions. Hyuna watched as her pretty avatar moved about doing little missions and basically busy work with prompt boxes explaining the gameplay.

 Soon enough she had completed her ‘training’ and was warped to a busy square full of other players. Hyuna blushed feeling slightly overwhelmed by the sheer number of avatars on the screen. She had picked one of the busier servers, but she hadn’t imagined it’d be this popular. Chewing her lip she ran around getting used to the shops and how the currency worked. Hazel eyes scanned the screen and took notice of where the world chat was, besides it was a little icon that lights up red with a little 1 beside it. Curious she clicked it and noticed it was the private messaging system. 

SupermanYoosung★: Hey you look lost ^^ SupermanYoosung★: You must be new! SupermanYoosung★: If you want help doing some quest or anything let me know. Hyuna tapped the pads of her fingers against her lips reading the message over and over again honestly wanting to take them up on their offer. Yet, she also felt rather shy about it too, it was strange. It wasn’t like it was a real interaction with someone, just two gamer bros going on a digital epic quest, so to speak. That being said, the artist wasn’t really a people person. Taking a moment to think about the other player's offer she opened the tab at the top that showed the servers rankings and who was online at the moment. Hazel went wide as she stared at the first couple name’s noticing the friendly strangers rank. They where rank number 2, basically LOLOL royalty. Hyuna let out a girlish giggle in disbelief. She clicked back onto her private messages and re-read the person’s name. It was for sure rank #2 SupermanYoosung. Before her brain could catch up to her fingers the typed with speed across her keyboard. 

Sapfyre: Oh wow! Sapfyre: I just check up on you, and it says your rank #2 ^^; Sapfyre: You must have better things to do than help a little noob like myself!

Before she knew it an impressive tank build avatar ran towards her. Hyuna bumped her forehead lightly with her fist watching as he positioned himself next to her Hobo of an Elf avatar. What a contrast that was to behold. However, if he did have time to waste with her, she almost wanted to beg him to help her get something more suitable for her avatar to wear. Something less beggar and painstakingly noob. 

SupermanYoosung★: Hahaha Yup! That’s me, I’m pretty awesome, huh? 

Hyuna couldn’t help but roll her eyes as a smile played at the edge of her mouth.

SupermanYoosung★: I’m also pretty free at the moment. I have no issue bussing you through some dungeons and helping you get some decent equipment.  SupermanYoosung★: Plus once you get passed level 20 you can join guilds! SupermanYoosung★: If you want, I can invite you to mine, haha!

This person seemed pretty nice and welcoming, Hyuna mused smiling to herself. She didn’t want to get his hopes up, nonetheless. Still unsure if she wanted to pay for the month to month subscription, or would even bother logging in again once she decided she had procrastinated enough for the evening and got back to her assignment. Best to play it coy. 

Sapfyre: Well alright then!  Sapfyre: Lolol can you add me to the party, I have absolutely no idea what I am doing  SupermanYoosung★: Oh! Sure thing!

The notification of a party invitation popped up. Hyuna clicked it and accepted. Soon there was an Icon over the two opposing in style avatars linking them together. 

Sapfyre: Wow they really go out and show you who you're with, huh? Sapfyre: We should get out of the public eye, haha… Someone like you hanging out with a LOLOL hobo can’t be good for the reputation! ^^ SupermanYoosung★: lol naw, it’s fine, I’m buying potions. I’ve got a feeling you’re gonna need them at the start ^^ SupermanYoosung★: I know just the Dungeon that shares exp! It’s pretty high rank, but I can handle the monsters myself. You can just sit back and enjoy the show! Cheer for me too! Sapfyre: I might be a noob, but I do freelance as a cheerleader on the side Sapfyre: It’s not much, but it’s honest work~ Sapfyre: Go! Yoosung! GO!  SupermanYoosung★: Haha! I didn’t expect you to actually cheer for me >_< SupermanYoosung★: Now I definitely have to help you get to at least level 20!

Hyuna’s character automatically followed the party leader’s avatar about the busy town square. There was an option to turn it off, but she didn’t feel like it. It was fun watching the two of them run around side by side as this Yoosung got the supplies she would most likely need to brave the dungeon. The artist clicked on her avatar and gasped in surprise. 

Sapfyre: There are little social action commands! Sapfyre: Ooooh~ 

She made her Elf do a little tribal type dance around Yoosung. She giggled as he made his brolly tank dance with her in the middle of the square. That was cute! 

SupermanYoosung★: Hahaha >_< SupermanYoosung★: They do! And some of the actions are special to race, gender, and class. SupermanYoosung★: Oh! You get to pick a class at level 10 SupermanYoosung★: Any ideas on a build you want to make? Sapfyre: Thank you for the dance Monsieur~ Sapfyre: I dunno what build to make??? Sapfyre: I guess I want something ranged so I can hang back. 

A box popped up on the screen declaring that SupermanYoosung would like to item share with her. Hyuna clicked yes and his inventory opened along with her own. She flushed when she saw all the cool things he was carrying and how she only held a level 2 stick from one of her tutorial missions at the beginning. She watched as Yoosung threw 99 potions, and 99 mana restore potions at her along with a level 2 wooden helm. She giggled equipping it to her Elf. 

Sapfyre: Now my look is finally complete. What a sexy helm! SupermanYoosung★: lololol, sooo sexy~ SupermanYoosung★: Back on the topic of builds SupermanYoosung★: Ever consider being a support healer? SupermanYoosung★: It’s sooo hard to find a decent one D:

Sapfyre: I dunno if I’d make a good support ^^; Sapfyre: If they are hard to find there must be a reason right?

SupermanYoosung★: They just don’t know how to build themselves, and/or try to fight when the tanks have the situation covered and die, SupermanYoosung★: I never built a healer before, but I do know a few things. I could help you if you want?

Sapfyre: Welllllllll Sapfyre: Sure why not~~! Sapfyre: Since you’re helping me out so much already, I don’t mind trying to be a healer for you.

SupermanYoosung★: Thank you! SupermanYoosung★: Rest of the guild will be so jealous when I show off my own personal little healer~ haha~

Sapfyre: >_< lololol I’m shy~

Hyuna bit her lip re-reading the messages. It almost felt like this guy or girl or whatever they are was flirting with her. They couldn’t possibly know she was a girl. She assumed many male players would make a female avatar, let's be honest, the higher rank armor leaves little to the imagination. She wrote off the interaction as this Yoosung being friendly and excited to help her create a healer support he seemed to need desperately. 

SupermanYoosung★: Haha that’s okay! SupermanYoosung★: Do you have a headset, it’s easier to chat that way while in dungeons.

The artist flushed again at the thought of letting a stranger hear her voice. She could see why it would be more convenient. Seeing as she had never played an online game, and preferred solo JRPG’s or Horror survival-

Sapfyre: I never required a headset before

SupermanYoosung★: It’s okay, it just means we are gonna crawl dungeons a bit slower since we’ll have to type to one another. 

Sapfyre: ^^; I’ll look into investing in one in the future. Sapfyre: I’m on a college student allowance, it’ll have to be a cheap one.

SupermanYoosung★: Haha, I’m a student too. I get what you mean. SupermanYoosung★: No shame in having an off-brand HS since you’re just starting SupermanYoosung★: I’m gonna teleport us to a level 30 dungeon. Keep your guard up

Sapfyre: Sure thing ^^

They were off, the screen turned into a load for a moment before both of them spawned in a dungeon. The artist smiled as she watched the other player navigate the surrounding area. She was careful to fall back when zombie looking monstered spawned and swarmed them. All level 30, which made sense, Yoosung had stated it was a high-rank dungeon. Turns out level grind was a bit of a grind, even for beginners. Luckily it was a shared exp dungeon and since there were only two of them in the party it got split in half. Slowly where minimal communication since she lacked a headset they crawled through the Dungeon. Yoosung was kind enough to allow her to loot the corpses and the treasure chests. 

They had even run into some other players who would say hello to Yoosung via the world chat. They had custom speech bubbles, and Hyuna was interested in obtaining some of her own. It was impressive how immersive this game was. You could build sperate skills like smithing, mining, fishing, cooking, act. It was super customizable. Yoosung had rattled off about how there was an event boss just recently and the cool stuff he got for himself. Hyuna smiled, sometimes even giggling to herself as she read Yoosung’s messages. 

Even though she had gotten some pretty decent armor and weapon’s they couldn’t be equipped before she was level 30. It was probably a power scale to disallow players to equip armor so far above themselves early. Yoosung assured her in a few sessions he would have her beefed up and ready to stand on her own in no time. Hyuna despite herself agreed to meet up tomorrow evening and found herself genuinely enjoying the game. Maybe she was just enjoying Yoosung’s company, who knew. 

Once they finished the dungeon, Yoosung warped them back into the town square and sent her a friend request. Hyuna didn’t even think twice as she accepted it. 

SupermanYoosung★: This way we will get notifications when either of us logs on, and it even shows where we are on the map.  SupermanYoosung★: I’m gonna be on a little while longer, you good?

Hyuna looked at the clock and gasped blinking, unbelieving what she was thinking. Had she really wasted three hours? Was it really 1 am?

Sapfyre: OMFG!!!! It’s 1 am!!! I have an assignment due tomorrow morning! SupermanYoosung★: It’s 1 am for me too, we must be pretty close. Lolol SupermanYoosung★: You should go get the project done SupermanYoosung★: Guess I’ll see you tomorrow~ ^^

Sapfyre: Ya tomorrow! I’ll be off! Sapfyre: Enjoy ruling the online virtual world!

With that Hyuna was quick to log off and sighed to herself. It had only meant to be an hour break, and somehow she got so caught up in it she was looking at either failing her first assignment or not sleeping. Looking at the clock she grabbed her a tablet and the pen and looked at whatever these lines she had drawn were suppose to be. Deciding to delete all the progress she had apparently made, she settled herself in for a long night of drawing her assignment for her 8 am class. 

[amorecleverdevil]

@shiftingsupport​: 1 and 13?    ↪︎ ask the mun about writing. [ 𝔄𝔠𝔠𝔢𝔭𝔱𝔦𝔫𝔤 ]

         𝔬𝔲𝔱 𝔬𝔣 𝔥𝔢𝔩𝔩. Oh hell yeh! Question time! I threw your answers down below a lil read more because I’m what the kids like to call?? A rambler.

1). What does your writing process look like?

A mess?? Lmao nah;;; So, honestly it depends on what I’m writing, how long I’m going to be continuing the story revolving around it, and what my current mood is. In general, I am a person who has a hard time sticking to one particular style or approach because I just get bored of it a lot. I find it a lot of fun to come at writing in many different ways and I’ve found that it’s helped me really explore what I do and don’t like for each genre or character that I attempt to tackle.

That being said, though, I tend to have at least a couple consistencies. Basically, when I’m writing replies, the most important questions I ask myself tend to be;

What is my character’s reaction to what just happened?

What have I written that actively engages the other writer and/or their character?

Have I actually described the scene or merely provided dialogue?

Will this thread carry for at least two more replies and, if not, should I end it or can I add something to make it keep going?

I’ll go ahead and give you some examples using writing that I’ve previously written to paint what I mean with each of them. For the first point, that’s the one that most people I’ve seen tend to have the best grip on, obviously. People who do roleplay tend to really know their own characters and can write them really compellingly. Most of the time, this part of the writing comes from the other player setting up a question or scenario and my character basically engaging with it. Typically, reactions tend to be the first thing I’ll actually be the first thing I put into a reply and I think that they are really important to keeping a fluid transition from one character to the next. 

In the above example, you can kinda see what I’m talking about. Basically, Izzy made Gwen say something and Billy here gave a very basic response to it. Most of the time, I find dialogue or verbal responses are the best because usually the other character should pick up on them, but I like mixing in physical reactions and more internal monologues alongside those verbal responses. Sometimes, if two characters are in tune enough with each other, it actually can be really rad to get away with only physical reactions and internal dialogues, but that often requires a certain connection and history between characters to make accurate conclusions about what might be going through their head. Here is a great example between one of my mains and Nay from my old blog.

Basically, Nay notices that Oswald is probably getting emotional over the fact they’re standing in front of this grave and looks down to get a better idea of who Oswald is getting so upset over. Oswald then follows his line of sight to the headstones, themselves. It’s a more sad scene, so not only is the lack of actual verbal responses very fun to play with, it’s also much more appropriate for the tone of the thread. This is something I love to try and play with a lot, but I avoid doing it as much with people who I have not already threaded with a few times.

After that, I then have to try to actively engage the other writer or create an opportunity for them to add to the thread as well. Especially when writing with someone new or for whom you may not have an immediate chemistry with, it becomes very important to throw them a bone, so I usually will do this as a follow up. I personally don’t love using questions to carry a thread, but it can be a good way to give an explicit indication of how the other person can contribute to it and it can be a lot more comfortable for people who are new to interacting with me and may be hesitant to just throw new ideas at me without having an extensive conversation about it. Here is an example where Naomasa responded to a question that Oboro poses and interacts with a nonverbal. 

These first two bullets are what I usually consider the meat of the reply, so the most work is put into them. Everything else is filler and tends to be what actually makes the replies prettier and more interesting. In many cases, adding the last two can even happen naturally when you are trying to come up with ways to do the former, but it’s still something I keep in mind to look out for when I’m writing. Of the four points, I think that the one I probably struggle with the most is the one that revolves around describing the scene and I think that has been what’s kept me from reaching that multi-para/novella goal that I really wanna be able to do when writing threads, but I’ve been putting in more work to try and get on top of that one. 

The final point is basically just thinking about what I can add to try and keep a thread engaging. This is when I really tend to bring in that plot and start advancing it. Introducing a conflict or a new activity in the scene that might not have otherwise been relevant before now can really revive a thread and I tend to do that a lot if I feel like a thread is dying out too quickly. Sometimes it takes, sometimes it doesn’t but it’s basically just my way of jumpstarting an interaction I feel like didn’t have enough substance to get off the ground in the first place. The example for this one is between Naomasa and Jasper - Yes, I know it’s the same person, again, but it’s because Fabgen is ridiculously good at doing the whole “yes and” thing and really we should all just take some time to appreciate them - in which the two of them are both responding to a crisis of some kind. I had felt the nature of the thread hadn’t given them a concrete way to continue to interact with each other, so I made up a random conflict that they both could work! In this case, it was some random kid running into danger.

After ALL of that, basically the last thing I tend to do for a thread is proofread and format. In a perfect world, I’d actually do the whole proofreading thing more often, but lmao nah. Basically, tldr, my writing process when doing threads is:

1). Respond to what the other person says. 2). Give them something to respond to. 3). Introduce a new plot point as necessary. 4). Fill in scene details and revise as necessary.

If you read back on my old threads, you’ll probably notice most of them follow this linear outline. Sometimes I’ll switch a couple things around, but 95% of the time you can literally cut my replies pretty into these parts without too much trouble. Also yall should go check out the people in these example threads because they’re all very talented and worth interacting with!! 

13). What do you look for in an RP partner?

Hmm.... An excellent question let’s see...

Typically, these are things that make or break rp relationships:

Have concise rules/ooc pages that includes information such as their name, their pronouns, their age and their triggers. For certain fandoms, I also tend to look for stances on certain major discourse points.

Have the ability to para or multi-para threads and 3rd person POV. We don’t have to always do this, but I do really prefer this kind of RP.

Have the ability to participate in joke/crack posting

Read my character info or at least my rules before interacting with me. I know they are long and tedious and that I tend to ramble, but there are some important things in there that may vastly differ from many other people in the RPC and it’s important to me that everyone takes those things into account when engaging with me.

Have discord for OOC conversations and extended plotting or, at the very least, be comfortable chatting regularly via IM.

Follow me. It’s not necessary to interact with me and I 100% will interact with people who are not mutuals, but I typically tend to assume others around me are mutuals only regardless of whether or not they actually are and it’ll often put most of the responsibility on the other person to come interact with me if they want to thread.

I tend to main with people who will have OOC conversations with me about our characters and who are willing to adapt to fit into the settings / verses which I have already created for my characters. I am always seeking out familial relationships of ANY kind and will usually be quick to main people who do these kinds of threads with me. I do have ships for many of my characters that I tend to indulge in, but my mains tend to be people who actually get me to start shipping something because the characters just ended up vibing so well. I actually really love shipping my bi male characters with women, but there just really aren’t enough ladies in any of the RPCs to have lasting ships ;;y;;, so if we are able to get one going, I’d probably consider maining with ya’ll

I tend to like people who like continuous threads and verse building. I tend to like people who don’t mind having a million unfinished threads. I tend to gravitate to people who do formatting and icons, but I do not require it. I tend to shy away from people who are too self-concious about doubles or who tend to prefer being exclusive. 

Overall, I’m open to at least trying to rp with everyone! And I’ve definitely formed lasting friendships with people who did not meet many of this criteria, but in terms of what I look for this is probably a pretty good list.

[mermaidylluria]

Warning to all you mers on Tumblr out there: The purge has officially begun. My account just got flagged, and the only things I have on here are my own event photos (which are all family-friendly & fully clothed), and mermaid art (both classical and new, some of which has an LGBTQ focus- and may, at times, *gasp* in some cases feature kissing). So.. just as a heads-up, the whole Tumblog censorship hubub is a real thing. My hope was that in a page FULL of mermaids, it would be obvious what the space was about- that it was absent of pornographic or ANY kind of child-endangering content, n’ be subsequently left alone.  But it appears that’s not the case.  So now that we know mer art is going to be targeted (after all, “NEKKIT BEWBIES, ER MAH GURD!!”), I suggest we all get ready to either defend our posts (via disputing flagged content), participate in some kind of (peaceful, preferably meaningful & artful) protest, or just leave the platform all together. 'Cause this tells me that they're not only flagging classical art, they're also trying to eradicate LGBTQ content, and NONE of that is okay.  Personally, I’m going to do all 3.  Fight and dispute, while making preparations to move my space elsewhere.  Where that’ll be I’m not sure yet, but if we loose, I want a place for my mermaid stuff to go, and the demigods at Tumblr better be aware, I’m taking my decently-well-known bellydance n’ other blogs w/me too, if I’m forced to leave.

And just for my personal 2 cents on the matter?  Dear gods, not ALL of the internet has to be child friendly. XP Censorship like that happening on YouTube, Facebook & now Tumblr stifles creativity (look at channels like Glam&Gore, who can’t barely do SFX makeup anymore because she keeps getting demonetized), silences valuable artistic and minority voices, removes audiences for burgeoning creators (who, btw, may NOT be engaging in pornographic content in ANY way), and forces narrow-minded, puritanical standards of "decency" (which are by FAR the minority), over others' ability to operate successfully in that medium. This smothers decent, AWESOME things like art, science, expression and SO much more. XS  See, it’s not about the p0rn.  It’s about the CENSORSHIP.  This is the internet. It was designed to dispense and SHARE information, ideas, inspiration, fun, etc. Not be a surrogate nanny for your kids. XS

ANNNNYWAY, if you want to read more about what is and is not allowed on Tumblr now, you can visit: https://tumblr.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/231885248. (And be sure to read to the bottom, where users can find out how to appeal post & entire blog flags under the last 2 questions.)  And if you have a mermaid blog where ANY kind of toplessness is involved, note that "female presenting nipples" is distinctly mentioned, which, as I'm sure lots of you already know, directly impacts classical AND modern art- one of the few things on Tumblr that can be shared WITHOUT a copyright, as well as a TON of mermaid art, classical and otherwise. XP 

What does this mean?  Well.. in simple terms, it means that stuff like Botticelli and Picasso are no longer welcome on Tumblr.  It means that Reubens, Waterhouse and Rodin, if they have artistic interpretations of naked women in their work, cannot be shared on Tumblr.  Even though their works are featured in international museums of the highest callibur, lauded all over the world as legends of innovation, vision, unparalleled beauty, & precision, expression & creativity, and world-famed for their social and economic value.  Those.. are not welcome here now, apparently.  Meanwhile, images & videos stolen from present-day & other modern hard-working artists, photographers, cartoonists, writers and other creators from allll over the world arrre hunky-dory. XP  DaFUQ, Tumblr??? (At -least- they mention mis-attribution & non-attribution on their new guidelines now. That at least, is an improvement. X*)

But now.. let’s see how that’s directly affected my blog, shall we..?  ‘Cause, as I mentioned before, I figured surely since I didn’t actually have any pr0n on my pages, I & other mer pages should be safe, right?  BZZZZZZZT, WRONG.  After getting this e-mail (pictured above), I went through my whole blog and found the 4 posts that were "flagged" as having adult content. *rolls eyes* 

3 of them were reblogs &1 was an original post. 

2 of those posts were queer-positive modern art. 

1 was a photographic collection of pieces FEATURED IN "W" MAGAZINE, 

And the last is a piece of classical style, queer-positive art. XS 

One of the modern pieces doesn't even show nipples, just saggy bewbies COVERED with small seashells. 

The other modern-style piece was a Rackham style drawing, where the tatas are but a mere suggestion of simple lines and dots. 

One was shown in a INTERNATIONAL FRICKING FASHION MAGAZINE SPREAD, which was apparently suitable for SOMEONES' interpretation of public consumption, 

and the last only shows suggestions & curvatures of breasts! (Showing the side and outer portions of the female chest, with no nipples. XP)

-And WHY AM I HAVING TO JUSTIFY THIS???? THIS IS ART. THIS IS NOT P0RN. Again I say "WTF, Tumblr????" XS

As you can see, 3 of my posts were reblogs, so I had no means of disputing those posts.  (According to their new guidelines, the owner of the original post has to do that, and if they are found as having “inappropriate content,” there’s no further means of appeal.)   But one of them, one of the very first posts I ever made in this blog, was an original, so I was able to refute its being deemed as inappropriate.  FIrst, you have to go through allll of your posts to find.. whatever it is someone’s had issue with.  (Whether it’s a person who’s flagged it or something chosen by Tumblr’s algorithms/keyword alert systems, I have no idea.)  But they don't even bother to link you in your notification e-mail, so first you’ve gotta FIND what’s being flagged before you can repeal it.  (I didn’t even know what I was looking for at first.  They never specify.  Would it be a tiny new icon near the Edit and Share buttons at the bottom?  A wee little flag pointer, outside of the post itself..?  Do I got to my posted page n’ try to find it?  Or will it be in my Posts stream, & the whole post be red..?  Who knows?)  But eventually, after enough scrolling, I found what I was looking for.  A big red bar across the affected posts.  -And if it’s a post you can do something about, they give you a button to push on the designated "flagged" work, at the top right. After you hit the "dispute" button, you’re given a largely blank page.  In the center, you get to choose between Dispute, Cancel or Learn More.  No “tell us why you feel this should not be flagged, why it doesn’t violate our rules,” nothing.  Nowhere to speak your peace.  You just hit a button, and you’re done.  You get no say, other than “I object, your honor!”  NOT COOL, people. NOT COOL.  You clearly don’t wanna hear the voices of your content creators, or, at least, enough to allow them to speak for the work they felt appropriate enough to post..

Reading this from another media source?  Please don’t discount this issue if you don’t personally have a Tumblog.  It doesn't really matter whether you use tumble or not, whether you think it's lame or not, etc. The problem is much, much larger than that, and it’s growing.  This is another very large, social media platform that's being affected by censorship in the name of marketing- and thus, be child-friendly.  They want the whole family to be able to come and see all the ads they wanna put here, and without that, they don’t make their money.  So anything not child-friendly, even vaguely PERCEIVED as not child-friendly (by God only knows whose standards), is being wiped out from the whole platform.  Don’t believe me?  It’s happened on YouTube, on Facebook, and likely, many others.  Do some googling and check it out for yourself.  YouTube is a platform that’s being strangled by this phenomenon right this very second.  There are videos on it.  Go see. Now.  ‘Cause if we don’t educate ourselves about this n’ do something to fight it, what’s happening to YouTube is our future.  Not just here on Tumblr, but EVERYWHERE.

Big Brother isn't just watching, guys, he's stealing your open arenas for personal and creative expression, so he can better market to you & yer kids.  He wants EVERYONE to buy his Stuff.   And if the kids can’t see it here, they won’t ask mommy and daddy to go get it for them.  So out classical art, and LGBTQ content, and mermaids go.  Out the door.  (Meanwhile, who do kids love?? UM.. MERMAIDS.  HELLO!!!  What should be educating them about history and the arts?  UMM.. FINE ART, HELLO.  Who teaches them about tolerance and diversity and SO MUCH MORE?  Umm.. THE LGBTQ community!  Who teaches them about what human bodies look like, and that it’s okay to have ANY kind of body?  UM.. BODY POSITIVE ART, THANK YOU.)  

We need to put the kaibosh on this somehow, now. Not just for Tumblr, or Facebook, or YouTube. We've got to find SOME way of letting the Big Boys know this is not activity we will tolerate. 'Cause the places to freely express ourselves are going to continue to diminish, get scarcer, and fewer.. until they're all.. gone.

ART =/= PORN, YOU IGNORANT, PURITANICAL, MONEY-GRUBBING FISHTITS.  LEARN TO POLICE YOUR OWN CHILDREN, MORE EFFECTIVELY POLICE GENUINE CRIMINALS, AND LEAVE THE REST OF THE INTERNET ALONE.  Please.

♥

[lilyellowsongbird]

The White Stripes - Simplicity

I don't think I've ever been fascinated with an artist like I am with Jack White. Really, there's nothing I could say about him that hasn't already been said. Polyphonic has two great videos about Jack's work (Jack White's Obsession with the Number Three and In Defense of Meg White), so I would definitely go watch those before or after you read this. He has a certain type of charisma, this I-don't-give-a-damn-I'm-gonna-make-my-art-how-I-want-to attitude. He's been around in the industry long enough, he has his own label and record pressing factory, he certainly can do whatever he'd like, and he's good at what he does. He's willing to experiment with his sound and take great risks to achieve something new. I could talk about all of his work for quite some time, but this post is all about his greatest achievement: The White Stripes

Before I got a "real" job, I had to find a cheap and easy way to sustain my music habit without having to listen to an ad every other song. I would go to the library, check out a CD, rip it onto my computer, and put it on my phone. Janis Joplin, Green Day, MCR, Panic!, Florence + The Machine, and so many more. I went through my entire emo phase without it being documented in my Spotify stats. In February of 2019 (I remembered the month it was that important) I read a comment on a Green Day video suggesting the similarities between Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground by the White Stripes and Brain Stew. I had to hear it and upon doing so, it sparked my interest. I started listening to the band on Spotify until my weekly library trip. I walked straight to the CDs, flipped through W, and grabbed every White Stripes album I could find (there's only seven, minus the live album, and still I got most of them). I ripped them onto my phone and never looked back.

As he has stated a million times, Jack's basis is in the blues. Jack took that rough, simple sound and brought it into the modern age. With his rowdy electric guitar and Meg White's simple, deep drumming, they blended blues and punk rock to create that iconic White Stripes sound. It is gritty and it is powerful. They understood the concept of simplicity and just how impactful it can be. Their first album only uses four instruments; they don't even use a bass guitar until their fifth studio album Get Behind Me Satan. Limitation is what makes the White Stripes what they are.

One of the most fascinating things about the band to me is the fact that they never used a setlist. They relied solely on silent communication, an almost psychic link to both the audience and each other. They could flow seamlessly from one song to another, not missing a single beat. Any flubbed chord could be revived. Any path could be followed. They felt the energy of the crowd and let it move through them, guiding their every heartbeat. As much as they relied on the crowd, they relied on each other. They could gesture or even lock eyes and know exactly which song they were playing next. They could move on without a second thought and still be on the same page. My favorite example can be found here.

Yes, Jack is incredibly talented. He's the epitome of rock and roll. However, we cannot overlook Meg. Meg is the heartbeat of the band, and what a heart she is. I don't care what any prog-rock-music-purist says, Meg is a brilliant drummer. It doesn't matter what you can do technically on your own, if you can't make something good with someone else, you, your work is useless. Meg's simple drumming style is just as essential to the White Stripes' edge as Jack's guitar. Her frequent use of the bass drum rings out like a beating heart. It's dirty, guttural, and most of all, it blends perfectly with Jack's guitar. Meg wasn't afraid to drum her way, and that is why she is so wonderful. She could follow Jack's lead with silent communication and make each song perfect.

The White Stripes officially dissolved in 2011. Meg's anxiety became too much for her to continue touring and Jack was already starting on other projects. They only produced seven studio albums over their nearly fifteen year run, but dear god, they're good. I'm a huge proponent of quality over quantity. I would rather savor a few good albums than have to suffer through the slow decline and wasting away of a band.

I remember those first few months where all I listened to was Jack White and The White Stripes with great fondness. Listening gave me confidence. I felt like me, it was one component of my lifeblood. Later that year I saw him live with his band The Raconteurs, another band I will make an individual post on one day. He still refused to use a setlist. Seeing him live, watching him communicate with his bandmates, and just rocking out, I've never felt like I did that night. I've seen several of my favorite artists live, ones that I love more than Jack, and still, none of them compare to that night in that old theater, watching him perform. As much as I adore him, I don't think I could ever meet him. Maybe I hold him to too high a standard, maybe I don't want him to know just how much of an impact he made on my life. He taught me that simplicity and limitations can give you more freedom than no rules at all. They get your mind working, leading you to produce art that is detailed and precise.

Maybe one day Meg will return to the stage, but if not, I won't be sad. They had a good run, they were true to themselves, and they left a lasting impact on this world in a way that many artists never will. That is all that matters in the end

My Favorite Tracks in No Particular Order:

Apple Blossom

Jolene - Live Under Blackpool Lights

There's No Home For You Here

The Air Near My Fingers

Fell In Love With A Girl

Honey, We Can't Afford To Look This Cheap

Jimmy The Exploder

Stop Breaking Down

St James Infirmary Blues

I Fought Piranhas

Well, It's True That We Love One Another

[lapublicites]

INSTAX @ HOME PROJECT.

 For this project, I decided to recreate one of the first ever projects I did in my first year of university at UAL.

This project consisted of two images, showing off various polaroids that I had, however that project - although aesthetically pleasing - didn’t exactly make me feel any type of way towards it. It was pretty but I felt that it lacked depth and meaning, which always helps an advert feel more personal.

With this, I decided to start researching up previous Instax adverts. While I researched, I realised that their adverts were quite minimalist and bare and I wanted to step away from that.

Not every memory is shot like a day in an Instagrammers life, I wanted my adverts to be messier and more lifelike, something people can relate to in their busy lives, especially now with all of us staying home and houses getting messier, more memories being made despite everything and I wanted to be able to catch that at this vital moment.

I went through a lot of ideas, debating whether I should stay with just photo advertisements or branch out more. I decided on the latter, however the progress to it gave me a lot of things to research.

Instax’ previous adverts are very minimal. 

They’re almost similar to my first try back in 2017, hence why I tried to go in a different direction. I focused less on the partying and the adventurous aspect that Instaxs hold, but I inside went for the more close to home and personal vibe.

I asked my friends and people close to me to take photos of their own polaroids, scattered on their bed with things they love and that define them.

With these photos, I tried a few different methods of what I wanted to do (insert pic of the faded adverts w the slogan), I was still stuck on wanting to do print adverts before Brian suggested that I try to do this as a live project, so that’s what I did.

I researched into two projects, one called the ‘It Gets Better’ project (@itgetsbetter) and The Live Drawing Project (@livedrawingproject). 

These two projects both have under 100k followers and while rather small, they still have a community within them. I first looked at ‘It Gets Better’.

The ‘It Gets Better’ project focuses on uplifting, empowering and connecting with LGBT+ youth around the world. Their posts are primarily video posts from actors and other people all around the world, sharing and showing their support for the LGBT+ youth, especially during this tough time. They’re still active, receiving a decent amount of likes on each post.

I looked at this project as I want my project to be able to uplift peoples day to day lives, showing them that there can be memories in everything, showing them that this quarantine can be used to create memories, despite how sullen the world is currently.

The second project is the Live Drawing Project.

This instagram is the home of LDP, an art project started in France. While the location exactly is unknown (I’m unable to enter their website as I don’t have a log in), their instagram shows pictures of peoples art and creativity shown up on the walls of buildings and houses. They also have an event called the Night Of Illuminations where they’ll have people gather while they project the drawings for all to see in the night, making them show up best.

I absolutely adore this project, I love the fact that it’s still being updated this year and that many, many people are joining in.  

While only a small following, they’ve been around for a year and have grown a gathering of people who will follow their projects. They also hosted various art lessons throughout France, which I found amazing.

I chose to focus on this project as I wanted to see the drive that a smaller instagram had. They may not have thousands of followers but they’re still updating and inspiring others to do the same as I said previously with the ‘It Gets Better’ project. I want to bring people together and to inspire them to create memories from their own homes.

I started to create the adverts with Instagram in mind and started to look through the photos and choose which ones I wanted to post first on the ‘gram.

I used these two pictures that my mum (picture one) and my best friend (picture two) sent me and used these to create my first set of posts on my Instagram.

I decided to have a white background as Instagram doesn’t have a ‘dark mode’ and therefore works with the minimalist feel of the whole account. I also used the yellow from the icon as it would match.

For the ‘@ home’ font I used Sweet Purple, a fun and simplistic style yet one that looks homemade and personal. I’ve used this font on other projects such as my Animal Crossing Amiibo Cards, that can be found on my portfolio here.

I posted these with a relatability in mind. I wanted to hone in to people's personal sides, to make them feel nostalgic and happy to look at photos that they took with loved ones and I want them to feel the urge to create them within their own home, to make memories that’ll replace the thoughts and things that have happened over the last few months.

While creating the Instagram posts, I decided to go with a yellow colour scheme. Yellow is not only my favourite colour but it’s also widely recognised as the happiest colour, according to sources. I wanted to keep the colours light and happy to keep with my message of creating happy and fond memories. 

I decided on having ‘picture breaks’, where I’d include a picture like the one above in between photos to somewhat break up the posts, and to be able to give commenters a place to ask questions and talk if they wanted to know anything but didn’t want to comment on the polaroid picture itself. I added a post with what Instax @ Home is, explaining my ideas behind the project and what I would like people to do (partake, comment, tag me in posts, etc). This turned out to work wonderfully, as I’ve had people tagging me in posts!

I created 5 of my own polaroid posts to beef up my feed and to get traction within my account, creating content and tagging it so it can bring in more traffic to my page, as well as bringing in people who’ll want to take part! These photos are ones rom my past memories, 

This is what the account looks like currently (apologies if the image is bad quality - it shouldn’t be!).

Now the Instagram is live and I’m waiting for people to start joining in. I’ve got a lot of likes on my first few posts and I hope that I’ll be able to continue this project well after the deadline, or for as long as quarantine is.

UPDATE: 17TH JUNE 2020, DAY BEFORE HAND IN

After I posted the images on Instagram, I got immediate following and interactions!

While I only have 30 or so followers, I’m getting interactions and people tagging me and sharing their own Instax pictures!

I realised, I shouldn’t be so focused on making new memories in a household, but instead finding the polaroids and reminiscing on the old photos that have been taken.

One person, under the @ silenceofthesunflower, they captioned a picture of themselves with ‘a long throwback, @instaxathome made me miss my polaroid camera. I should’ve brought it in with me’

This made me realise that people don’t particularly want to make new memories in this pandemic, but instead focus on the past ones to be able to remember happier times. I wanted to combat the sadness of the world's current situation by creating more memories, but I realise now that some people just want to remember, and that’s okay too. I will be posting both old and new polaroids to this account as a way to expand my userbase!

However, despite that, I do hope this makes more people pick up their Instax camera and use it more in the future. I have my own and I know I don’t use it as much as I should. This project has made me realise, as well, that I should be using my camera more often. I have the means to make memories so why aren’t I?

I know I will absolutely be continuing this project past my deadline and hope to make it a fully fledged account with followers and interactions daily.

[maevworldny]

Mornings Around Here: Liz and Lego

Welcome back to our series on morning routines where we highlight women around the city and talk to them about what their morning routines look like with their dog. No two mornings are alike and they shouldn’t be! A lot of people hope that dogs will help to bring routine and structure into our lives, to bring joy into mornings, to get up early, to lounge a little longer - whatever it is, it’s your sacred ritual. It’s designed to fit your life and your dogs’s. We’re just here to show how many different faces it can take on.

This week, we chatted with Liz, one of the fabulous models from our shoot about life in New York with her playful and hilarious puppy Lego and work as a graphic designer at Myro. Liz has a tattoo of a lego on her wrist, but you’ll have to find out for yourself which came first - the puppy or the tattoo. Let’s get into it.

Liz and Lego

“It’s funny, as a kid I spent most of my time building with Legos… how fitting right?”

How long have you been in New York? 

Well technically I grew up in New York on Long Island, but I’ve lived in Bushwick for 5-6 years now. 

You’re a graphic designer - have you always been a creative person? What drew you to graphic design in particular? 

Oh yeah, for sure – it runs in my blood. My parents were both creatives; my dad worked for Hearst Magazines in their print management department for 25 years, and my mom was a medical copywriter for several of the big name advertising firms in the city. 

It’s funny, as a kid I spent most of my time building with Legos… how fitting right? Legos made me obsessed with the ability to create. It all kind of just went from there. 

You’ve worked at a bunch of different places and you currently work at Myro, a plant-powered, refillable deodorant brand. What do you love most about working in a startup environment? 

Yeah, I’ve worked for a few startups at this point; Plated, sweetgreen and now Myro. To be honest, my favorite part of the startup life is the culture. I am able to do what I do and LOVE what I do because of the people I work with.

Graphic design requires a pretty creative mind - where do you go when you’re looking for inspiration in both your professional and personal life? 

The best place to find inspiration in my mind is just walking around the city. I always see something that catches my eye, whether it be the outfit on the person walking in front of me, or a wheatpaste ad posted up on the green walls of a construction site. 

When we had you on set, your outfits mixed patterns and colors and textures in really fun and interesting ways. Who are you style icons and fashion inspiration?

It’s a real mix for me. I’m really into this one influencer Suzie Riemer’s(sweetsuzieq) style, and eclectic mix of wild graphic tee’s and color patterned coats/bottoms. At the end of the day though, I feel like my coworkers influence my style a lot as well. We’re always sharing the latest drops of clothing from different brands like pleasures and braindead.

Let’s talk about Lego because that puppy is so f’ing happy. When did you first decide to get a dog and how did you go about that process?

I’ve been in Bushwick now for over five years, and felt that I needed a change in my life. It was either move across the country or get a dog. I first started seeing bernedoodles in the street around the time I decided to get a dog and immediately became obsessed with them. I kept checking adoption agencies and finally came across Lego’s profile on pet finder. I fell in love at first glance and had to meet him. 

On set, Lego was so curious and happy and probably the most social dog we had there that day. How would you describe Lego’s personality?

Lego is such a sweetheart, I’ve never met a more passionate, cuddly, quirky pup in my life. I also would like to think that I had something to do with his personality being so great. ;)

Alright, let’s talk about Lego’s name. I noticed you have a lego tattoo on your wrist. What came first - the tattoo or the dog?

The Lego tattoo came first – it was my first tattoo. My dad actually gave me the idea to name my first dog Lego… little did he know I was actually in the process of going to meet Lego at that point. 

Lego is clearly beyond obsessed with you (and it’s obvious the infatuation goes both ways).  In what ways do you think the two of you complement one another? 

We’re each other’s hype man for SURE. We’re also the perfect cuddle buddies. So many people have told me that Lego always seems to be on the same page as me, almost as if he could read my mind… I wish.

Lego’s still technically a puppy. What’s been the most unexpected part of puppyhood?

In the beginning when I first got him, it was so painful to crate train him. The look he gave me when I would shut the crate door, was just the most depressing thing. And then the crying… yeah, it wasn’t great. 

And New York isn’t the easiest place in the world to raise a dog. What’s been the hardest part of having Lego with you in New York City?

The hardest part for me is planning ahead. I can’t be as spontaneous as I used to be with grabbing drinks or hanging out after work because most places aren’t dog friendly in New York. 

What are some of your favorite activities to do together on weekends or when you have a bit more time on your hands?

Now that it’s off season at Rockaway, I like to bring Lego to beach 90. He LOVES to dig in the sand.

What time do the two of you wake up every morning?

We wake up at 8:15, sometimes earlier depending on how playful Lego is when he wakes up.

Are you guys early birds or night owls?

On the weekends, we are total early birds!

Does he sleep in your bed?

Of course! He loves to snuggle with me, although he doesn’t stay that way for long, as he likes to move around a lot throughout the night.

What's the first thing you do every day?

I’m such a millennial, I check my phone :(

And what's the first thing you two do together every day? We play for a few minutes before I actually need to get up for work.

What's for breakfast?

For me, it depends on my mood. But for Lego, he has Wellness Complete Health Chicken, Oatmeal and Salmon dry kibble, with a few small pieces of Stella and Chewy’s freezer dried lamb patties.

Walk before or after breakfast?

Before breakfast!

What do you listen to while getting ready for the day?

As of late, I’ve been listening to Mark Ronson’s new album “Late Night Feelings”.

Healthiest morning habit:

Going to a morning workout class.

Worst morning habit:

Going back to bed.

One word to describe your mornings:

Productive

I never leave home without…

My headphones!

If you had one extra hour in the morning, how would you use it?

I would go workout OR take Lego to the dog park.

The best part of mornings with my dog is:

When he sees I’m waking up and comes over to snuggle with me.

Our morning routine series is designed to showcase the diversity of experiences that come with having a dog in the city in all the ups and all the downs.

If you and your dog would like to be featured, text ‘ritual’ to 29071

[yuurisolympicgold]

Yuuri Week 2017, Day 5: Eros Title: Strut For Me Characters: Katsuki Yuuri, Victor Nikiforov. Pairing: Yuuri/Victor. Genre(s): Romance, Fluff, Humor, Anxiety, Canon Compliant, Post-Canon. Rating/Warnings: G/None. Summary: "Darling, as your coach and choreographer it is also my job to make sure you get the exposure you deserve!" Or, there were aspects of being a world champion figure skater Yuuri was not prepared for. At all.

“They want to put me on the cover of which magazine?!” Yuuri sputtered.

“IFS Magazine! They’re doing coverage of the 2017 World Championships. Of course they want to interview the gold medalists. They also want to do a spread!” Victor replied enthusiastically, still brandishing the cursed proposal in his direction. It even had terms and royalties outlined.  

“Oh and one other thing,” Victor added. “A former colleague contacted me this morning. She says you have the ideal summer casual style and wants to do a piece on you in their next issue. Congratulations, Yuuri. You made the top 10 of Sports 2017′s Fashionable 50 List!”

Yuuri wanted to sink into the floor.

Today was a day of rest and Yuuri had been looking forward to doing just that. Yuuri was seated on the bed, rolling up the ends of his jeans over his ankles as he finished dressing when Victor walked in. Conspicuous as he hid the proposal behind his back. Yuuri had no idea why they wanted to put him on the front cover of International Figure Skating, but a skating magazine was at least understandable. The fashion stuff though? That was ridiculous.

“Why would anyone want to feature me in something like that?” Yuuri asked.

Victor chose not to address that question. Now that Yuuri was a Grand Prix silver medalist, a World Champion and a future Olympian it was time the world took even more notice of him.

“Darling, as your coach and choreographer it is also my job to make sure you get the exposure you deserve!” He said with a flourish and sweeping gesture. “Especially now that the world’s gotten a taste of your true Eros,” He added with a wink.

Yuuri blinked once and then twice more. There were a million and one questions and statements he wanted to make, but right now he was utterly stuck.

“And as my husband?” He asked instead.

“As your husband I get the unfiltered version of your Eros of course,” Victor replied without missing a step. His expression softened. “That’s my pleasure alone. The world can have your visage and the part you play. You gave me everything else.”

“Of course I did,” Yuuri said automatically, then felt like cringing away as his face heated up. What stopped him however was reminding himself that he wasn’t the same Yuuri from months ago. He wasn’t the same Yuuri who used to shy away whenever Victor complimented or paid any attention to him. Now the reminder was always reassuring. He knew he had all of Victor, he also wanted to make sure Victor knew he had all of him as well.

“There’s nothing official about these lists, of course. Basically the magazine writers team up with sports and fashion experts, but you’d be surprised how seriously people take them,” Victor mused with a finger pressed to his mouth. “This is how people become the next trend setters, you know. You’ll become a fashion icon in no time. People will start emulating you—”

“Victor!” Yuuri cut in incredulously. “Being a fashion icon is your thing. I’m not starting any trends!” He picked at a loose thread on his green cardigan. “Absolutely no one is going to want to dress like me,” He assured.

Victor just smiled brightly. 

He had been featured in countless magazines, layouts and articles since the time he broke ranks at fourteen. He knew how fame and celebrity status worked. Yuuri had no idea how completely, indubitably and utterly wrong he was. It would be difficult for Victor, but he could wait.

That time would come a month later. Victor schooled his expression as he nonchalantly handed the newest issue over to Yuuri, making sure it was open to the correct page.

“What,” Yuuri said warily. “Is this?”

“Hmm,” Victor reached around him and plucked the offending item back from Yuuri’s hands and turned it upside down. Then tilted it sideways.

“I’m not sure,” He replied. “It’s really hard to tell. These things change all the time, you know. Usually monthly. But I think it’s a magazine. Yes!” He handed it back to Yuuri. “Definitely a magazine!”

Yuuri gave him a deadpan look. He wasn’t having it. Not right now anyway.

“No, Victor. Why are people wearing their pants,” He trailed off and gestured to his own tightly cuffed jeans. “Like this?!”

“I did tell you this would happen,” Victor unhelpfully reminded. He leaned over Yuuri’s shoulder, skimming over the article. “It says here that a rolled hem and bared ankles are expected to be the hottest trend this summer,” He read. “Look they even go into extensive detail called ‘The Right Way to Roll’ and what to do based on the cut of denim. Apparently optimal ‘rolling’ is a 1.5 inch cuff. Wow,” He blinked. “I had no idea the process was so involved!”

“It’s not that involved,” Yuuri groaned, covering his face in mortification. He wondered if it would be possible to hide himself inside a wall somewhere.

“By the way,” Victor said, lifting his eyes from the article. “I have wonderful news.”

“...Which is?” Yuuri asked cautiously. He had a feeling his definition of ‘wonderful’ was not the same as Victor’s right now.

“This morning I received a call from a local sports magazine. They want to schedule an interview and photoshoot with you tomorrow.”

Cursed. That could be the only thing Yuuri was at this point.

These were far from the first times Yuuri had done a photoshoot of course. When he’d been a Junior there had been journalists who wanted to do pieces on him and take photos of his practices. Mizuno sponsored and supplied athletes with official gear and jackets from when they were young. He’d done many advertisements for their athletic wear over the years. He’d had sponsors, outside the JSF as well, this was nothing new. Photoshoots was like going through the motions, interviews never became much easier. They were important to his big name sponsors and he still needed to spend time beforehand, talking himself through his nerves.

Victor was much quieter than he had been yesterday. He kept a distance yet close enough for Yuuri to feel comforted by his presence. It had nothing to do with anyone in particular, but it often times felt stifling if people hovered while he was feeling anxious. He appreciated how much Victor listened. It meant the world to him. Each time their eyes met he focused on Victor’s neutral expression, but Yuuri could now see the underlying message; are you okay? What do you need? Say the word and I’ll take you away from here.

Yuuri knew he could do this. It was just something he needed to work through by himself. Nothing filled him to the brim with more love and gratitude than knowing he now had someone who would stand by him while he did it.

The studio they were in was quite large and used for multiple purposes. He’d been here before so he knew the layout. Right now he just wished he could find a better distraction. He blinked, noticing a partially open door down the quiet hallway he’d sequestered himself in. He wondered if it served the same purpose as before...

Yuuri walked over and pushed the door the rest of the way open with a creak. Blindly, he felt along the wall and flipped the light switch. He smiled to himself reminiscently at the sight. Before walking the rest of the way in he called out to Victor.

“What is it?” Victor asked from the doorway. He leaned against the frame and crossed his arms, looking on in amusement. “Yuuri, those are stage costumes. This is a costume storage room.”

“I know that,” Yuuri said as he leafed through the hangers on one of the many lines crammed in the room. He pulled one out and smoothed away the wrinkles.

“Then I’m starting to think you have no fashion sense at all if you think the photographer will go for this,” Victor teased. If he had anything else to add it was cut off as fabric landed on his face.

“I’m not worried about that right now,” Yuuri said as he replaced the empty hanger. “Come on, Victor. This could be really fun and we have time to kill.”

Victor lifted up the clothing article enough so he could observe him. Yuuri looked...so content and at ease as he rifled through the various costumes. There was no sign of the earlier stress that had made his husband barely motivated to get out of bed that morning. Victor had almost cancelled on principle, but Yuuri eventually got ready on his own.

Victor set the clothing aside and looked around in appraisal. There was certainly no shortage of costume ideas. The room was well organized and sorted by categories, with tags detailing the individual racks contents. There were various styles of shirts, jackets and trousers. Clothing from different time periods. One piece dresses and petticoats. All manner of accessories like wigs, masks, crowns, feather boas, faux weapons and armor. It could feed a person’s creativity for hours.

Yuuri was currently in a section filled with full ensembles for stage productions. At some point he’d swapped out his track pants for a pair of green tights and was looking through the decorative shirts. Victor moved over to his side and plucked a faux flower crown from a nearby rack. He placed it snugly over Yuuri’s hair.

“There,” Victor said. “You could be Titania.”

“You mean from a Midsummer Night’s Dream?”

Victor hummed and continued looking around indifferently until something colorful caught his attention. Something extremely colorful that looked like a rainbow. He pulled down a very long and elaborate looking coat.

“Yuuri, what is this?”

Yuuri looked up from the box of costume jewellery he was sifting through. “Oh, I think I remember that one. It’s based off of an American musical. That’s the Technicolor Dreamcoat. I don’t know how the studio ended up with that, but they’ve always had a weirdly extensive collection.” He straightened up and helped him into the coat then nabbed a fedora from the racks and placed it on Victor’s head.

“Hey that works. I don’t know how it works, but it does,” Yuuri said with a grin. 

Between Yuuri’s happy energy and being surrounded by so much potential for creativity, Victor felt the beginning thrum of excitement.

Which was exactly how they spend that afternoon. It was messy and silly as they spent most of the time dressing each other up, giggling at the mostly gaudy combinations they came up with. At one point they found the matching Oberon costume and posed together for a picture Victor immediately uploaded.

For Yuuri, being here filled him with nostalgic memories. He had once been here with Takeshi and Yuuko when they were still young competitors. Takeshi had still been a jerk then, but he’d loosened up and had fun trying on the different costumes too. It had brought Yuuri such joy when he’d been a nervous wreck at his very first photoshoot. He wanted Victor to be part of that joy too.

What started off as trying on different ensembles then mixing and matching ended up with both of them covered in layers. They were each wearing a cavalier hat and a garish amount of clunky jewellery. Altogether they looked ridiculous and it was yet another of Victor’s treasured moments since he met Yuuri. He’d certainly not enjoyed himself this much at one of his own photoshoots.

Victor found him sitting at one of the vanities, looking through the various cosmetics. He’d removed both his hat and glasses. The only light in the small alcove came from the circle of small light bulbs around the mirror. He tossed his own hat and settled unceremoniously onto Yuuri’s lap as his husband let out an oof.

“Good thing I’m wearing extra padding,” Yuuri said and shifted into a more comfortable position.

“What exactly are you implying, Yuuri?”

Yuuri pressed his lips together to hide a smile. “That you’re kind of boney. Just a bit.”

Victor mock gasped and placed a hand on his chest. “Are you calling me lanky? How could you injure me like this?!” He said dramatically.

Yuuri leaned up and planted a kiss on his cheek. “I like it,” He said simply.

Victor held a hand to his cheek and pouted. It would be all Yuuri’s fault if he had to be taken to emergency for this, he thought with a blush.

He quietly observed through the mirror as Yuuri used a wand to press black novelty spider eyelashes to his eyelid. He then sealed them in place with a black eyeliner pencil. Occupying himself he picked up a few tubes of lip gloss and painted samples on the backs of his hands as they lapsed into comfortable silence.

After awhile the arm pressed against Yuuri’s chest started to go numb. Victor adjusted his position so he could settle his arm instead along the back of the chair. He idly toyed with the tresses at the nape of Yuuri’s neck. His hair was getting long now. Victor wondered if he’d let him plait it someday.

“You look very good, zolotse,” Victor said simply. “Gorgeous.”

Yuuri ducked his head and blushed with a faint smile. “Thanks, um. You’ve been calling me that a lot lately,” He noted. “I know it’s a Russian word, but...”

“Why wouldn’t I? It essentially means ‘my gold’ by the way,” Victor said. “And you are my gold, even without a gold medal.”

“Victor...” Yuuri’s voice shook. He bit down on his lip, stopping himself from dragging the eyeliner pencil. “I need a steady hand to do this, you know.”

Victor laughed.

Needless to say they were very late for Yuuri’s appointment and had to reschedule. Not that any agency would complain. Being a gold medalist granted at least some leeway. Moments like these were much more important.

[onlinemarketinghelp]

How to Get Followers on Instagram: From 0 to 10k Followers https://ift.tt/2KIrOGH

When you’re just starting out with an online business, it can be exciting to imagine how you can successfully sell your product through Instagram once you have built up your follower base. But truth is, your first 10,000 Instagram followers are the hardest to get. Why? No one knows who you are yet. You’ve still got to prove yourself as a successful brand and influencer. But that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. If you follow this guide on how to get followers on Instagram, you could hit 10,000 Instagram followers in as little as six months.

How to Get More Followers on Instagram

#1. Join Instagram Engagement Groups 

Are you just starting to learn how to get followers on Instagram? This tactic is best for beginners. Some Instagram newbies have seen their Instagram followers increase fast. What did they do differently? They joined engagement groups.

While it can be tempting to join the biggest Instagram engagement groups, the truth is you’ll get a more targeted list of Instagram followers by sticking to your niche. You can find engagement groups for travel, beauty, fashion and more.

In these groups, you can get followers and likes from people who have shared interests. But if you’re serious about getting the attention, you should also return the favor by following fan pages for people who join the group.

I’ve had friends get 2,000 new followers in only a couple weeks using this strategy.

While it might not help with immediate sales, it helps you gain credibility early on so your Instagram page doesn’t show that you only have 38 followers. This is more of a short-term strategy for your first few weeks on Instagram, not a long-term one for getting Instagram followers.

You can learn other amazing Instagram tricks like this in our free Instagram course.

#2. Repost Others’ Content

When I was building my store’s Instagram account, my entire posting strategy revolved around reposting other people’s content. The only way to do this without getting flagged is to credit the original poster in your description, every time. Instagram has now updated their policy and you’re required to ask for permission before reposting.

When I first started, I’d take screenshots and add the pictures to my Instagram. What really helped my page take off was the Repost app. It allowed me to start reposting video content on Instagram. One of the biggest home runs I had was when I re-posted a video that amassed 52,862 views, got 1264 comments and 9,147 likes. At the time, I didn’t even have 10,000 followers so this was a big freaking deal.

Why’d I repost other people’s content instead of posting my own?

Because I knew that it was easier to repost content. Plus, my visual and video content would never be as good as someone else’s. Hey, at least I’m honest about it!

How did I know what to repost? I’d look at the numbers.

Hashtags are a great way to get new followers. I was pretty active on Instagram so I’d browse the list of hashtags I came up with and used daily to find the top performing posts that weren’t posted by other fan pages (so not my competitors) but by individual people. I’d then watch the videos and look at the pictures to see which ones I had the biggest reactions to. If I felt the urge to share someone else’s post, I knew I had to repost it onto my page. So if you’re just learning how to get followers on Instagram, this high-impact strategy is simple enough for a beginner.

#3. Get your Instagram Account Promoted on Buzzfeed 

To get that Instagram followers boost, you need to find a way to tap into a massive audience. And no one embeds Instagram posts into their content as much as Buzzfeed.

A Buzzfeed staff member wrote an article about how she grew her personal brand as an Instagram influencer. She currently has almost 6,000 followers but the article she wrote on the platform might’ve helped. Buzzfeed does have a Community section where anyone can post their own content onto their platform, though you’ll need to follow their guidelines to build trust and to get visibility.

Is Buzzfeed not right for your niche? That’s cool. You can also use a tool called HARO where you get emails three times a day filled with requests from reporters who are looking to get content and expert quotes for their stories. Most allow a website link and social links. So you can hit two birds with one stone by getting a link to your store and Instagram account.

#4. Ask Customers to Share their Photos 

When you’re just starting out, getting followers on Instagram will be a lot easier with customer photos in your feed. Why? It can help increase social proof.

If you’ve never had a customer before, reach out to influencers in your niche with under 5,000 followers. I know the number seems low but influencers with few followers on Instagram want to monetize their accounts and will be willing to take pictures with your products at a much lower rate. You can also offer them an affiliate deal where they’ll get a commission for every sale they score with their customer referral link.

If you’ve already had a couple of sales, reach out to customers and offer a free gift or cash incentive for taking quality images with the product they purchased. Offering incentives isn’t going to be your long-term strategy but for the short-term, while you try to build your brand, this can help you grow.

As more customers start seeing customer photos on your Instagram, they’ll naturally start tagging you in posts when they receive their products. If you comment on their post, repost the content and follow them you’ll likely get them to follow back. Though some will follow you after tagging you in their post on their own.

#5. Have a consistent style that hooks people in 

I know this sounds like one of those ‘blah, blah, blah’ ways to gain followers on Instagram. But it isn’t. Here’s why: people don’t follow you because of the content you’ve posted but because of what they think the future content you’ll post will be like.

Say you have a corgi fan page, every day you post cute corgi pictures and videos without fail. If Instagram users keep seeing your posts eventually they’ll realize that you always post the cutest corgi content. So they follow you with the expectation that your account will always be more of the same type of content.

Having a consistent style or theme is more than just a branding play, it’s about creating an expectation for your Instagram account that your followers or potential followers can count on. They want to see more of the same type of content, every day.

If you can deliver that consistency with every post, you’ll grow your followers on Instagram at a faster rate over time.

#6. Hashtags to Get Followers on Instagram

Many experts will tell you to only use 5 or 11 hashtags or some other arbitrary numbers. But when I was building my store’s Instagram account, I ignored their advice and ran wild with it.

I’d copy and paste a list of hashtags from my phone onto my app. Then, I’d sometimes switch it up to try different hashtags but eventually, I knew which ones usually worked best. Usually, I’d go as close to or right to the max number of hashtags possible. 30. That’s the magic number.

Truth is, you add all those hashtags in the first comment. And as your page engagement grows, no one will ever see the first comment because they’re too busy tagging their friend in your post.

Sure, when you’re starting out people might see it. But if the goal is to increase visibility, the easiest way to do it is to add more hashtags. As you gain followers, your posts will rank higher for those hashtag keywords giving you even more visibility.

If your hashtags are niche specific, you’ll increase your likelihood of being found by a relevant audience which will help you grow your followers on Instagram as well. So avoid generic hashtags like #love or #picoftheday if you’re selling fashion, for example.

#7. Use your Instagram Posts in Blog Posts 

If you have your own personal or business blog, you can embed your Instagram pictures into your blog posts.

Like this  – Don’t forget to follow Oberlo on Instagram while you’re at it.

Say you have a fashion blog, you might write a blog post about styling tips. You can choose posts from Instagram where you show pictures of your layered outfits or a trendy outfit look. You’d then go onto the Instagram website on your desktop, go to your page, click the post, click the ‘…’ icon and click Embed. Then you copy that link into your blog post’s code section.

Over time, more people will be visiting your blog and will be more likely to check out your Instagram account too.

I know that this is more of a long-term game. Especially if you’re not getting traffic today. But adding your Instagram posts right from the beginning gives you a higher chance of visibility when six months from now you really start seeing massive returns.

#8. Follow People who Like Competing Pages 

To get that Instagram followers increase you need to find people who follow brands. Who are your biggest competitors on Instagram? Write them down. Then, browse their posts to see who’s commenting on their posts. Follow them and engage with them.

Keep in mind that when choosing competitors on Instagram it’s better to go for the smaller brands. Why? Because if you were selling makeup brushes and trying to get people who comment on Sephora, there’s a good chance that they’re not the right audience despite being in a similar niche. Bigger brands tend to have more customer loyalty.

However, if you have a competitor who has 100,000 fans on their page, they may not have a loyalty to that brand.

When commenting on posts of those you follow, don’t scare them off with a sales pitch or the same comment for every person you message. If they ask a question on their post, give them an answer. Look at the types of comments others are giving and use that as a guideline for what you can comment too.

As you keep engaging and following people, you’ll start to amass a strong following of your own.

#9. Work with Influencers – How to Get Followers on Instagram

Another way to increase Instagram followers is by getting an influencer shoutout or having an influencer do an account takeover.

If an influencer has a loyal following, they can give you a shoutout that’ll result in new followers for your account and possibly a few sales.

Be sure to write up a contract that prohibits the influencer from sending fake traffic. We once worked with an influencer who gave us a shoutout and we got 2,000 fake followers on our account. It was obvious she used a bot. When you get a sudden rush of fake follower on your account you risk getting your account banned.

If you’re looking for a more effective approach to get new followers, ask the influencer you work with to do an account takeover on your Instagram Stories. That way, people will have to follow your page to view the story. You’ll need to get him or her to let their audience know a few days in advance.

#10. Host Giveaways 

If you host giveaways on Instagram and have a small audience, you might be able to get more followers. But if you host giveaways on your website and include an option to follow you on Instagram and other social networks, you’ll have a much bigger reach.

If your audience size is small you can post your giveaway in certain giveaway facebook groups or on giveaway blogs.

When I first started working in marketing, I’d reach out to giveaway blogs. I’d send them some free products in exchange for a review post. Most agreed to it for the free product though some did ask for payment as well. They’d do a product review post filled with pictures and their experiences with the product. At the end, their audience would enter to win the product under the condition that you send that customer the product. We’d get hundreds of new followers on all our social accounts. This is a great way to get new followers if you don’t have an audience. But it might not be as targeted than if you were to host a giveaway on a relevant niche blog.

If you’re just starting out, giveaways can help you get more followers on Instagram. However, if you do them too often, you might not get the right type of audience you want. If your goal is to get sales, giveaways won’t necessarily help you get more of them. Though you can try this giveaway hack to get more sales. But if you’re only looking to get Instagram followers fast, this strategy can work quite well.

#11. Partner with Another Brand

If you’re just learning how to get followers on Instagram, a tricked I learned while working on my case study was to take my own product photos. Instead of reposting other people’s content, other brands reposted one of my photos crediting me. Since the brand has nearly 300k followers I ended up getting a few new Instagram followers from their audience. I didn’t have to do any upfront work aside from taking my own photos. I didn’t even have to reach out to get new followers on Instagram. They reached out to me. And they weren’t the only brand to do so.

#12. Use Instagram Analytics Tools

Instagram analytics can give information to you about your following, but there are many free tools in the marketplace that can give you more interesting information. Things like engagement rate, new followers, Instagram unfollowers, and inactive accounts can give you insight that will shape how you get more followers on Instagram. The best Instagram analytics tools in the market right now include:

Sprout Social

Iconosquare

Keyhole

Curalate

Socialbakers

All these Instagram analytics tools provide valid and highly informative information that can help you better understand your audience. This data can also highlight the right content that leads to increasing Instagram followers, which should lead to more sales for your online business.

Instagram Followers Apps

When I first started building my store’s Instagram account, I used a bot, an app to increase Instagram followers, called Instagress. It worked really well at first which allowed me to easily build up the first few thousand Instagram followers. Eventually, I stopped because I didn’t need it anymore. Unfortunately, Instagress and other apps to increase Instagram followers usually get shut down. And some people who use them can get their entire Instagram account shut down. While they can work well, the risk just isn’t worth it.

The apps to increase Instagram followers that you can use include marketing automation tools like Buffer, HubSpot, or Hootsuite.

Free Instagram follower apps include:

Followers for Instagram Discover Instagram accounts that have unfollowed you, those who haven’t followed you back and similar accounts you should be following through Followers for Instagram. This Instagram follower app is perfect to understand how to make your followers happy and what content to post in order to get more followers on Instagram. Reach out to those who unfollowed you to find out why and start to improve your Instagram follower metrics today.

Crowdfire Inactive followers are a much talked about topic within any social media platform, and Instagram is no different. Inactive Instagram followers could be spam accounts or accounts from people who no longer engage on the platform so if you are looking to grow your following and engagement level, it would be a good idea to ax your list of inactive followers. Crowdfire identifies your inactive followers, recognizes when people unfollow you, and helps you find new followers.

Get Followers Get Followers & Get Likes is a free Instagram followers app aimed at increasing both followers and likes. Providing information on hashtags and followers, this app allows you to analyze information and make great decisions that will increase Instagram followers on your account straight away.

Social Rocket Social Rocket gamifies social media engagement to motivate you to interact more. Although not a great long-term strategy this could be a great starting point. The basic premise is that every time you like someone else’s post you will gain points to exchange for followers or likes on your own posts.

Tracker for Instagram There aren’t any effective tools for Instagram unfollowing or following accounts in bulk. Tracker for Instagram gives you this option in their app. The app also provides analytics so you can analyze how followers engage with your account.

Want to become an Instagram master? Sign up for the free Instagram course taught by Instagram guru Gretta Van Riel.

How to Get Followers on Instagram According to Three Influencers

Juanika Dildy is the founder of the popular website The Ladypreneur. Her Instagram account has gained over 16.1k followers. Here’s her advice on how to gain followers on Instagram:

What’s been your secret to getting over 16k followers on Instagram?

Engagement makes the difference. It’s important that your followers know that you appreciate them just as much as they do you. For increased engagement, users should search the hashtags used to attract followers, find users that stand out, like a few pics and comment. You’ll gain the curiosity of those you’ve engaged with, they’ll follow your page, and tag their friends on your posts.

Did you use any apps to increase Instagram followers?

Initially, tools like Instagress were useful for engagement, but with the ability to target followers and sponsor content, they’re no longer needed.

What advice would you give someone who asks you how to get followers on Instagram?

Post, post, post! The more users [you have seeing] your content, the more familiar they’ll become with your brand, causing them to like, follow, and share. The more you post, the more users feel like they know you.

Imagine if you woke up at midnight to a noise in the kitchen. You run downstairs to find Oprah drinking a cup of coffee. Most people wouldn’t call the cops, why? Because they’ve seen so much of her content, they feel like they know her. Some would even feel privileged to have her in their kitchen. That’s the effect that constant content provides for influencers.

If you had to name one thing you do different than anyone else on Instagram, what would that be?

My account encourages, inspires AND informs. It influences the influencers with a brand voice that relates and educates. It attracts the “SHE-E-O” and the girl next door.

Talia Koren is the mastermind behind the ever so popular Work Week Lunch which has an astounding 114k followers and counting. We asked her what the best way to get Instagram followers is and this is what she told us:

What’s helped you grow your Instagram followers to a six figure number?

I listen to my audience and give them what they ask for. It shows that I’m invested in them and in return they give me their time and attention. Also, consistency. I show up every single day with valuable content in posts and in stories that helps them instead of just talking about myself. Lastly, I pay close attention to the changes to the platform. Using new features like story highlights and understanding the changes to the algorithm helped me grow too.

Have you used any tools to help you grow the number of followers on Instagram you have?

I don’t use any tools outside of the analytics within Instagram. They’re great! Analytics are important because they help you figure out what’s working and what’s not.

We often get asked how to get followers on Instagram, what should someone starting out focus on?

When you’re starting from 0 or less than 1,000 don’t pay attention to the follower number so much. It’s going to go up and down and it’s going to be slow. Instead focus on ways you can connect with and help others and get them talking about you.

What do you think separates your Instagram account from others out there?

Well, my account isn’t that different from many out there but I don’t post any pictures of myself. It’s not about me it’s about my audience! I also use stories as a vlogging channel which my followers love.

Gracie Parish is an Instagram influencer who grew her Instagram following to an impressive 41.3k. We asked her to share her advice on how to get followers on Instagram, here’s what she said:

What steps did you take to get over 41,000 followers on Instagram?

I take a lot of time to engage with my followers through Instagram, emails, Facebook, and Pinterest. I take time each week to respond to as many followers as I can as well as I make sure to engage with my followers on their posts as well. Through collaborations, I have been able to cross-promote with many bloggers or brands that I feel fit my brand and this has really helped grow my following.

What’s had the biggest impact on increasing your Instagram followers?

I work really hard on building authenticity on my blog to create a more authentic relationship with my followers. To do this I only promote brands and products I truly believe in. Through five years of blogging, I really realized how to pick the brands that fit my blog and style best as well as the brands that my followers enjoy seeing which has contributed to my success.

If someone asked you how to get followers on Instagram what advice would you share?

Be yourself and don’t lose confidence in yourself. Building a blog took years of hard work, and if you are able to maintain a brand and stay true to yourself, your followers will take notice of that. I would also advise someone to not get discouraged in the beginning, because it takes a lot of time and practice. No [influencer] was an overnight success.

What’s the one thing your Instagram does differently than other Instagram accounts?

One thing my instagram does differently than other accounts is I really try and give followers insight into my real life. While a lot of my content is sponsored, I really try to posts real, quality posts as well to help my followers get to know me better and give them the content they are asking to see. A lot of bloggers get caught up in the business aspect and while a blog is a business, it is important to not lose your authenticity and to stay real with your followers.

How to Get Followers on Instagram Summary

Figuring out how to get followers on Instagram is the hardest in the beginning. Once you’ve passed your first 10,000 followers you’ll need to continue using some or all of the strategies in this article to keep growing your account to 100k or even beyond one million. Don’t forget to update your profile regularly, especially your Instagram bio to include new CTAs or interesting news. At the end of the day, you’ll need to put yourself out there more than you ever have before. Maybe posting on Instagram three times a day every day of the week to help you grow your visibility. But eventually, all that hard work will pay off. And you’ll have gained an Instagram following you can be proud of.

Want to learn more Instagram hacks? Sign up for Shopify’s free Instagram course today!

How to Get Followers on Instagram Recap

#1. Join Instagram Engagement Groups 

#2. Repost Others’ Content

#3. Get your Instagram Account Promoted on Buzzfeed 

#4. Ask Customers to Share their Photos 

#5. Have a consistent style that hooks people in 

#6. Hashtags to Get Followers on Instagram

#7. Use your Instagram Posts in Blog Posts 

#8. Follow People who Like Competing Pages 

#9. Work with Influencers – How to Get Followers on Instagram

#10. Host Giveaways 

#11. Partner with Another Brand

#12. Use Instagram Analytics Tools

  How many followers on Instagram do you have right now? Comment below!

Want to Learn More?

Who Unfollowed Me on Instagram?

200+ Best Instagram Captions and Selfie Quotes for Your Photos

How to Sell on Instagram: 6 Instagram Tips That Actually Work

60 Instagram Tips You Should Know

The post How to Get Followers on Instagram: From 0 to 10k Followers appeared first on Oberlo.

from Oberlo

When you’re just starting out with an online business, it can be exciting to imagine how you can successfully sell your product through Instagram once you have built up your follower base. But truth is, your first 10,000 Instagram followers are the hardest to get. Why? No one knows who you are yet. You’ve still got to prove yourself as a successful brand and influencer. But that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. If you follow this guide on how to get followers on Instagram, you could hit 10,000 Instagram followers in as little as six months.

How to Get More Followers on Instagram

#1. Join Instagram Engagement Groups 

Are you just starting to learn how to get followers on Instagram? This tactic is best for beginners. Some Instagram newbies have seen their Instagram followers increase fast. What did they do differently? They joined engagement groups.

While it can be tempting to join the biggest Instagram engagement groups, the truth is you’ll get a more targeted list of Instagram followers by sticking to your niche. You can find engagement groups for travel, beauty, fashion and more.

In these groups, you can get followers and likes from people who have shared interests. But if you’re serious about getting the attention, you should also return the favor by following fan pages for people who join the group.

I’ve had friends get 2,000 new followers in only a couple weeks using this strategy.

While it might not help with immediate sales, it helps you gain credibility early on so your Instagram page doesn’t show that you only have 38 followers. This is more of a short-term strategy for your first few weeks on Instagram, not a long-term one for getting Instagram followers.

You can learn other amazing Instagram tricks like this in our free Instagram course.

#2. Repost Others’ Content

When I was building my store’s Instagram account, my entire posting strategy revolved around reposting other people’s content. The only way to do this without getting flagged is to credit the original poster in your description, every time. Instagram has now updated their policy and you’re required to ask for permission before reposting.

When I first started, I’d take screenshots and add the pictures to my Instagram. What really helped my page take off was the Repost app. It allowed me to start reposting video content on Instagram. One of the biggest home runs I had was when I re-posted a video that amassed 52,862 views, got 1264 comments and 9,147 likes. At the time, I didn’t even have 10,000 followers so this was a big freaking deal.

Why’d I repost other people’s content instead of posting my own?

Because I knew that it was easier to repost content. Plus, my visual and video content would never be as good as someone else’s. Hey, at least I’m honest about it!

How did I know what to repost? I’d look at the numbers.

Hashtags are a great way to get new followers. I was pretty active on Instagram so I’d browse the list of hashtags I came up with and used daily to find the top performing posts that weren’t posted by other fan pages (so not my competitors) but by individual people. I’d then watch the videos and look at the pictures to see which ones I had the biggest reactions to. If I felt the urge to share someone else’s post, I knew I had to repost it onto my page. So if you’re just learning how to get followers on Instagram, this high-impact strategy is simple enough for a beginner.

#3. Get your Instagram Account Promoted on Buzzfeed 

To get that Instagram followers boost, you need to find a way to tap into a massive audience. And no one embeds Instagram posts into their content as much as Buzzfeed.

A Buzzfeed staff member wrote an article about how she grew her personal brand as an Instagram influencer. She currently has almost 6,000 followers but the article she wrote on the platform might’ve helped. Buzzfeed does have a Community section where anyone can post their own content onto their platform, though you’ll need to follow their guidelines to build trust and to get visibility.

Is Buzzfeed not right for your niche? That’s cool. You can also use a tool called HARO where you get emails three times a day filled with requests from reporters who are looking to get content and expert quotes for their stories. Most allow a website link and social links. So you can hit two birds with one stone by getting a link to your store and Instagram account.

#4. Ask Customers to Share their Photos 

When you’re just starting out, getting followers on Instagram will be a lot easier with customer photos in your feed. Why? It can help increase social proof.

If you’ve never had a customer before, reach out to influencers in your niche with under 5,000 followers. I know the number seems low but influencers with few followers on Instagram want to monetize their accounts and will be willing to take pictures with your products at a much lower rate. You can also offer them an affiliate deal where they’ll get a commission for every sale they score with their customer referral link.

If you’ve already had a couple of sales, reach out to customers and offer a free gift or cash incentive for taking quality images with the product they purchased. Offering incentives isn’t going to be your long-term strategy but for the short-term, while you try to build your brand, this can help you grow.

As more customers start seeing customer photos on your Instagram, they’ll naturally start tagging you in posts when they receive their products. If you comment on their post, repost the content and follow them you’ll likely get them to follow back. Though some will follow you after tagging you in their post on their own.

#5. Have a consistent style that hooks people in 

I know this sounds like one of those ‘blah, blah, blah’ ways to gain followers on Instagram. But it isn’t. Here’s why: people don’t follow you because of the content you’ve posted but because of what they think the future content you’ll post will be like.

Say you have a corgi fan page, every day you post cute corgi pictures and videos without fail. If Instagram users keep seeing your posts eventually they’ll realize that you always post the cutest corgi content. So they follow you with the expectation that your account will always be more of the same type of content.

Having a consistent style or theme is more than just a branding play, it’s about creating an expectation for your Instagram account that your followers or potential followers can count on. They want to see more of the same type of content, every day.

If you can deliver that consistency with every post, you’ll grow your followers on Instagram at a faster rate over time.

#6. Hashtags to Get Followers on Instagram

Many experts will tell you to only use 5 or 11 hashtags or some other arbitrary numbers. But when I was building my store’s Instagram account, I ignored their advice and ran wild with it.

I’d copy and paste a list of hashtags from my phone onto my app. Then, I’d sometimes switch it up to try different hashtags but eventually, I knew which ones usually worked best. Usually, I’d go as close to or right to the max number of hashtags possible. 30. That’s the magic number.

Truth is, you add all those hashtags in the first comment. And as your page engagement grows, no one will ever see the first comment because they’re too busy tagging their friend in your post.

Sure, when you’re starting out people might see it. But if the goal is to increase visibility, the easiest way to do it is to add more hashtags. As you gain followers, your posts will rank higher for those hashtag keywords giving you even more visibility.

If your hashtags are niche specific, you’ll increase your likelihood of being found by a relevant audience which will help you grow your followers on Instagram as well. So avoid generic hashtags like #love or #picoftheday if you’re selling fashion, for example.

#7. Use your Instagram Posts in Blog Posts 

If you have your own personal or business blog, you can embed your Instagram pictures into your blog posts.

Like this  – Don’t forget to follow Oberlo on Instagram while you’re at it.

Say you have a fashion blog, you might write a blog post about styling tips. You can choose posts from Instagram where you show pictures of your layered outfits or a trendy outfit look. You’d then go onto the Instagram website on your desktop, go to your page, click the post, click the ‘…’ icon and click Embed. Then you copy that link into your blog post’s code section.

Over time, more people will be visiting your blog and will be more likely to check out your Instagram account too.

I know that this is more of a long-term game. Especially if you’re not getting traffic today. But adding your Instagram posts right from the beginning gives you a higher chance of visibility when six months from now you really start seeing massive returns.

#8. Follow People who Like Competing Pages 

To get that Instagram followers increase you need to find people who follow brands. Who are your biggest competitors on Instagram? Write them down. Then, browse their posts to see who’s commenting on their posts. Follow them and engage with them.

Keep in mind that when choosing competitors on Instagram it’s better to go for the smaller brands. Why? Because if you were selling makeup brushes and trying to get people who comment on Sephora, there’s a good chance that they’re not the right audience despite being in a similar niche. Bigger brands tend to have more customer loyalty.

However, if you have a competitor who has 100,000 fans on their page, they may not have a loyalty to that brand.

When commenting on posts of those you follow, don’t scare them off with a sales pitch or the same comment for every person you message. If they ask a question on their post, give them an answer. Look at the types of comments others are giving and use that as a guideline for what you can comment too.

As you keep engaging and following people, you’ll start to amass a strong following of your own.

#9. Work with Influencers – How to Get Followers on Instagram

Another way to increase Instagram followers is by getting an influencer shoutout or having an influencer do an account takeover.

If an influencer has a loyal following, they can give you a shoutout that’ll result in new followers for your account and possibly a few sales.

Be sure to write up a contract that prohibits the influencer from sending fake traffic. We once worked with an influencer who gave us a shoutout and we got 2,000 fake followers on our account. It was obvious she used a bot. When you get a sudden rush of fake follower on your account you risk getting your account banned.

If you’re looking for a more effective approach to get new followers, ask the influencer you work with to do an account takeover on your Instagram Stories. That way, people will have to follow your page to view the story. You’ll need to get him or her to let their audience know a few days in advance.

#10. Host Giveaways 

If you host giveaways on Instagram and have a small audience, you might be able to get more followers. But if you host giveaways on your website and include an option to follow you on Instagram and other social networks, you’ll have a much bigger reach.

If your audience size is small you can post your giveaway in certain giveaway facebook groups or on giveaway blogs.

When I first started working in marketing, I’d reach out to giveaway blogs. I’d send them some free products in exchange for a review post. Most agreed to it for the free product though some did ask for payment as well. They’d do a product review post filled with pictures and their experiences with the product. At the end, their audience would enter to win the product under the condition that you send that customer the product. We’d get hundreds of new followers on all our social accounts. This is a great way to get new followers if you don’t have an audience. But it might not be as targeted than if you were to host a giveaway on a relevant niche blog.

If you’re just starting out, giveaways can help you get more followers on Instagram. However, if you do them too often, you might not get the right type of audience you want. If your goal is to get sales, giveaways won’t necessarily help you get more of them. Though you can try this giveaway hack to get more sales. But if you’re only looking to get Instagram followers fast, this strategy can work quite well.

#11. Partner with Another Brand

If you’re just learning how to get followers on Instagram, a tricked I learned while working on my case study was to take my own product photos. Instead of reposting other people’s content, other brands reposted one of my photos crediting me. Since the brand has nearly 300k followers I ended up getting a few new Instagram followers from their audience. I didn’t have to do any upfront work aside from taking my own photos. I didn’t even have to reach out to get new followers on Instagram. They reached out to me. And they weren’t the only brand to do so.

#12. Use Instagram Analytics Tools

Instagram analytics can give information to you about your following, but there are many free tools in the marketplace that can give you more interesting information. Things like engagement rate, new followers, Instagram unfollowers, and inactive accounts can give you insight that will shape how you get more followers on Instagram. The best Instagram analytics tools in the market right now include:

Sprout Social

Iconosquare

Keyhole

Curalate

Socialbakers

All these Instagram analytics tools provide valid and highly informative information that can help you better understand your audience. This data can also highlight the right content that leads to increasing Instagram followers, which should lead to more sales for your online business.

Instagram Followers Apps

When I first started building my store’s Instagram account, I used a bot, an app to increase Instagram followers, called Instagress. It worked really well at first which allowed me to easily build up the first few thousand Instagram followers. Eventually, I stopped because I didn’t need it anymore. Unfortunately, Instagress and other apps to increase Instagram followers usually get shut down. And some people who use them can get their entire Instagram account shut down. While they can work well, the risk just isn’t worth it.

The apps to increase Instagram followers that you can use include marketing automation tools like Buffer, HubSpot, or Hootsuite.

Free Instagram follower apps include:

Followers for Instagram Discover Instagram accounts that have unfollowed you, those who haven’t followed you back and similar accounts you should be following through Followers for Instagram. This Instagram follower app is perfect to understand how to make your followers happy and what content to post in order to get more followers on Instagram. Reach out to those who unfollowed you to find out why and start to improve your Instagram follower metrics today.

Crowdfire Inactive followers are a much talked about topic within any social media platform, and Instagram is no different. Inactive Instagram followers could be spam accounts or accounts from people who no longer engage on the platform so if you are looking to grow your following and engagement level, it would be a good idea to ax your list of inactive followers. Crowdfire identifies your inactive followers, recognizes when people unfollow you, and helps you find new followers.

Get Followers Get Followers & Get Likes is a free Instagram followers app aimed at increasing both followers and likes. Providing information on hashtags and followers, this app allows you to analyze information and make great decisions that will increase Instagram followers on your account straight away.

Social Rocket Social Rocket gamifies social media engagement to motivate you to interact more. Although not a great long-term strategy this could be a great starting point. The basic premise is that every time you like someone else’s post you will gain points to exchange for followers or likes on your own posts.

Tracker for Instagram There aren’t any effective tools for Instagram unfollowing or following accounts in bulk. Tracker for Instagram gives you this option in their app. The app also provides analytics so you can analyze how followers engage with your account.

Want to become an Instagram master? Sign up for the free Instagram course taught by Instagram guru Gretta Van Riel.

How to Get Followers on Instagram According to Three Influencers

Juanika Dildy is the founder of the popular website The Ladypreneur. Her Instagram account has gained over 16.1k followers. Here’s her advice on how to gain followers on Instagram:

What’s been your secret to getting over 16k followers on Instagram?

Engagement makes the difference. It’s important that your followers know that you appreciate them just as much as they do you. For increased engagement, users should search the hashtags used to attract followers, find users that stand out, like a few pics and comment. You’ll gain the curiosity of those you’ve engaged with, they’ll follow your page, and tag their friends on your posts.

Did you use any apps to increase Instagram followers?

Initially, tools like Instagress were useful for engagement, but with the ability to target followers and sponsor content, they’re no longer needed.

What advice would you give someone who asks you how to get followers on Instagram?

Post, post, post! The more users [you have seeing] your content, the more familiar they’ll become with your brand, causing them to like, follow, and share. The more you post, the more users feel like they know you.

Imagine if you woke up at midnight to a noise in the kitchen. You run downstairs to find Oprah drinking a cup of coffee. Most people wouldn’t call the cops, why? Because they’ve seen so much of her content, they feel like they know her. Some would even feel privileged to have her in their kitchen. That’s the effect that constant content provides for influencers.

If you had to name one thing you do different than anyone else on Instagram, what would that be?

My account encourages, inspires AND informs. It influences the influencers with a brand voice that relates and educates. It attracts the “SHE-E-O” and the girl next door.

Talia Koren is the mastermind behind the ever so popular Work Week Lunch which has an astounding 114k followers and counting. We asked her what the best way to get Instagram followers is and this is what she told us:

What’s helped you grow your Instagram followers to a six figure number?

I listen to my audience and give them what they ask for. It shows that I’m invested in them and in return they give me their time and attention. Also, consistency. I show up every single day with valuable content in posts and in stories that helps them instead of just talking about myself. Lastly, I pay close attention to the changes to the platform. Using new features like story highlights and understanding the changes to the algorithm helped me grow too.

Have you used any tools to help you grow the number of followers on Instagram you have?

I don’t use any tools outside of the analytics within Instagram. They’re great! Analytics are important because they help you figure out what’s working and what’s not.

We often get asked how to get followers on Instagram, what should someone starting out focus on?

When you’re starting from 0 or less than 1,000 don’t pay attention to the follower number so much. It’s going to go up and down and it’s going to be slow. Instead focus on ways you can connect with and help others and get them talking about you.

What do you think separates your Instagram account from others out there?

Well, my account isn’t that different from many out there but I don’t post any pictures of myself. It’s not about me it’s about my audience! I also use stories as a vlogging channel which my followers love.

Gracie Parish is an Instagram influencer who grew her Instagram following to an impressive 41.3k. We asked her to share her advice on how to get followers on Instagram, here’s what she said:

What steps did you take to get over 41,000 followers on Instagram?

I take a lot of time to engage with my followers through Instagram, emails, Facebook, and Pinterest. I take time each week to respond to as many followers as I can as well as I make sure to engage with my followers on their posts as well. Through collaborations, I have been able to cross-promote with many bloggers or brands that I feel fit my brand and this has really helped grow my following.

What’s had the biggest impact on increasing your Instagram followers?

I work really hard on building authenticity on my blog to create a more authentic relationship with my followers. To do this I only promote brands and products I truly believe in. Through five years of blogging, I really realized how to pick the brands that fit my blog and style best as well as the brands that my followers enjoy seeing which has contributed to my success.

If someone asked you how to get followers on Instagram what advice would you share?

Be yourself and don’t lose confidence in yourself. Building a blog took years of hard work, and if you are able to maintain a brand and stay true to yourself, your followers will take notice of that. I would also advise someone to not get discouraged in the beginning, because it takes a lot of time and practice. No [influencer] was an overnight success.

What’s the one thing your Instagram does differently than other Instagram accounts?

One thing my instagram does differently than other accounts is I really try and give followers insight into my real life. While a lot of my content is sponsored, I really try to posts real, quality posts as well to help my followers get to know me better and give them the content they are asking to see. A lot of bloggers get caught up in the business aspect and while a blog is a business, it is important to not lose your authenticity and to stay real with your followers.

How to Get Followers on Instagram Summary

Figuring out how to get followers on Instagram is the hardest in the beginning. Once you’ve passed your first 10,000 followers you’ll need to continue using some or all of the strategies in this article to keep growing your account to 100k or even beyond one million. Don’t forget to update your profile regularly, especially your Instagram bio to include new CTAs or interesting news. At the end of the day, you’ll need to put yourself out there more than you ever have before. Maybe posting on Instagram three times a day every day of the week to help you grow your visibility. But eventually, all that hard work will pay off. And you’ll have gained an Instagram following you can be proud of.

Want to learn more Instagram hacks? Sign up for Shopify’s free Instagram course today!

How to Get Followers on Instagram Recap

#1. Join Instagram Engagement Groups 

#2. Repost Others’ Content

#3. Get your Instagram Account Promoted on Buzzfeed 

#4. Ask Customers to Share their Photos 

#5. Have a consistent style that hooks people in 

#6. Hashtags to Get Followers on Instagram

#7. Use your Instagram Posts in Blog Posts 

#8. Follow People who Like Competing Pages 

#9. Work with Influencers – How to Get Followers on Instagram

#10. Host Giveaways 

#11. Partner with Another Brand

#12. Use Instagram Analytics Tools

  How many followers on Instagram do you have right now? Comment below!

Want to Learn More?

Who Unfollowed Me on Instagram?

200+ Best Instagram Captions and Selfie Quotes for Your Photos

How to Sell on Instagram: 6 Instagram Tips That Actually Work

60 Instagram Tips You Should Know

The post How to Get Followers on Instagram: From 0 to 10k Followers appeared first on Oberlo.

https://ift.tt/2VEQJi0 August 10, 2019 at 11:30PM https://ift.tt/2HRBOLE

[larphacks]

PROCESS HACK: Seven Tips for Starting Your Own Game

So, I have a lot of asks sitting in my inbox about how to start / run / write a LARP game. I’m going to give it my best shot, but I’m equally aware that there are many wiser than me out there who likely have their own opinions, and I look forward to learning and reblogging from people who want to add to or disagree with anything I’ve said here. The post is a bit of a monster, so buckle in!

1. DECLARE YOUR INTENT

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Your policies on diversity & inclusion / equality and accessibility should be the first thing you think about and the first thing you publish when you start making material public, not an afterthought. 

Photo from the first event of Pioneers, by @tomgarnett​

Now Read On....

It isn’t good enough to write some airy-fairy “~~everyone is welcome at our LARP~~ ^_^” rubbish either. You’ve got to get real with this stuff. This is a statement of principles that your entire game needs to live up to. You have to start considering now: 

What the practical limitations facing you are, and 

What sort of game you want to run vs. what sort of game you can run. 

Is your intent to run a game where everyone has equal access to all IC spaces? Then you can’t put any of those IC spaces in areas only accessible by stairs. Is your intent to run a game where people of all genders feel welcome and included? Then you’d better be prepared to back it up in your setting material by including specific representation of multiple genders in different roles, otherwise your intention means squat. Is your intent to run a game where everyone can participate in combat? Then you need to have a serious chat with yourself about hard vs soft skills.

The statement of principles that you start with will influence every aspect of your game, from setting, to system, to what sites you can and can’t use. It isn’t set in stone - there’s nothing wrong with coming back and revising it later, adding elements you’ve forgotten or clarifying how it relates to your game; indeed I heartily encourage it! But you need to understand now what sort of game you intend to run, and for what sort of people.

Unpopular opinion time: It is not inherently evil to run a game which is not equally accessible to all possible players. LARP is a physical hobby, some variants more than others - it is not wrong to run a game where it’s easier to play a fighter if you have 20/20 vision and the use of both legs; it is not wrong to run a game where it’s easier to play a mage if you are highly numerate and can speak fluently in public. It’s not even wrong to run a game at a site that’s impossible to access by wheelchair, especially if that’s the only site available to you. 

What is wrong is not clearly signposting those restrictions up front in your publicly accessible game material, and making whatever reasonable adjustments you can to compensate. It is worse to be welcoming and “talk the talk” in your advertising material, then fail to follow through on the field, than to state simply and clearly what access restrictions your game comes with - your players need as much information as possible to decide for themselves whether the game is right for them.

If you want some examples of what an “OC policies” or E&D / accessibility statement might look like, try these:

Death unto Darkness OOC policies

Profound Decisions Accessibility Policy

Profound Decisions Equality & Diversity Policy

Tales out of Anchor Event Rules

Photo from the first event of Falling Down, by @tomgarnett​

2. WRITE FOR THE SITE

Now that you understand what inclusion and accessibility requirements you need to meet, you can pick a site! 

If you’re a university or small-town LARP, this decision may be from a very small pool indeed; you may even find after looking at your options that you need to go back to your accessibility statement and revise it or manage expectations. That’s fine - you can only work with the resources you have; just make sure that you’re doing site recce & viewings with accessibility in mind.

If you are mobility impaired or have a friend who is, they may be willing to help you out by conducting an accessibility survey of your potential site. Don’t assume they’re obligated to help you, but there’s nothing wrong with asking politely.

It is important that you match the game to the site, not the other way around. My LARP career is littered with examples of start-up games which had a fantastic concept of the world they wanted to run in, and which implemented shockingly badly in play because the site they eventually found didn’t match up with their requirements. 

What do you have? A lot of single-use mixed-terrain woodland? Then small-party linear adventures can be an excellent feature of your game! A big open empty field with nothing in it? Have some linefights, or a big friendly diplomacy-heavy IC camp! An abandoned glue factory but no outdoor terrain? Claustrophobic space-prison survival horror it is! 

At all costs, avoid marrying yourself to any particular gameplay style or type before you know what site you’re working with.

Photo from the first event of Regenesis, by @tomgarnett​

3. GAMEPLAY BEFORE NUMBERS

Start thinking about designing the mechanics and working parts of your game the same way the military plans operations: Begin with the effect you want to achieve on the players and then think about the tools you can use to get there, not the other way around.  A lot of people who write and run LARP games are mathematically clever and get excited about creating intricate, clever systems like D&D; that’s fine, if that’s the sort of game you want to run, but you need to be focused on what the players get out of it and how it works in play as the first priority, not as an interesting side effect.

Your “system” - the crunchy numbers bit, the magic, the calls, the death counts, the bean bags, the Nerf guns, whatever it is - is a mechanism to create the kind of gameplay you want, not an end in itself. 

Once more: System is a mechanism to create the kind of gameplay you want, not an end in itself.

Photo from the first event of Slayers LRP, by @tomgarnett​

4. PLAYTEST THOROUGHLY

Take every possible opportunity to playtest. Give your mechanics, your setting, your character creation and your fight system to fellow LARPers. Give them to LARPers whose opinions you disagree with, who like a different type of game to you, who you argue with on the internet. Give them to friends and family. Give them to total newbies and ask them how accessible they are. Ask them to murder your darlings. Swallow your pride and take all feedback with equanimity - use it to hone and refine your game. Don’t feel the need to change everything someone objects to, but understand where the objection comes from and how you would meet it from a paying customer.

Don’t try to please everyone “just enough” (unless you are trying to run a national, professional-level game you intend to make a lot of money from, or a local system in a town that has no other LARPs and which you want to have a wide appeal to local nerds); please your target audience as much as you can, and make it very clear who that audience is and what sort of game you are running. Hard work during the playtest will help you articulate these things, and clearly signpost who this game is designed for - and who it’s not designed for.

One useful project management system that my friends Crazy Donkey LARP use when receiving feedback about games is the Stop, Start, Continue heuristic. They ask their audience segment to tell them about things they didn’t enjoy (that they should Stop doing in their games), things they felt were lacking that they should Start doing, and things which worked well which they should Continue doing. 

Photo from the first event of Split Worlds, by @tomgarnett

5. THINK ABOUT THE BUY-IN

What is the minimum amount someone needs to know to functionally play this game, and how long will it take them to absorb that information?

If you really care about your game setting, you’ll be overflowing with cool tidbits of history and costume advice and setting material. That is great - and all to the good for stoking the fires of keen from already keen players! But a huge volume of game material (such as, much as I love it, the Empire wiki) can be really offputting for a new player. It’s in your interests to boil down “the basics” as far as possible, and present them in a clear, obvious one-pager which allows a new player to quickly and easily absorb them. This also helps accessibility for people who have issues reading, or absorbing, a large volume of text at once.

The “At-a-Glance” pages for the six Cultures of Odyssey LARP (now, tragically, ended) are a really good example of how the game writers used a single format to boil down a high volume of culture-specific setting material into a series of representative fragments that gave a new player all the information they need to quickly play a character from that IC culture. Here and here are examples.

In system terms, this is a pretty successful attempt to collate several pages of Odyssey rules into as-basic-as-possible summaries for the reader in a hurry.

The Empire Game Overview is another good page, and the Combat Rules page for Empire is an example of the “Bullet Point / Expand” format that can make it easier for some people to absorb complex rules and system information. 

Photo from the first event of Tales Out Of Anchor, by @tomgarnett

6. KIT & COSTUMING

When contemplating what costume looks like for your setting, you should be thinking on two levels: Firstly, what makes the characters look cool and iconic (and, assuming your setting has different classes, nations, professions or cultures which are distinguished by kit, what is obviously different about each one); but secondly and more importantly, what do your players have access to?

Once again here, understanding your target audience is key. For a small, local weekly game that runs for a few hours on a Saturday and targets university students, your costume briefs need to be realistically achievable by people with a low budget and time constraints. For a £250 three-dayer in a castle, you can probably assume your target audience has a bit more spare cash to splash out on frock coats or chainmail or EL wire. If your target audience already has a certain type of kit in abundance - Medieval armour, or Roller Derby kneepads, or leather jackets - build that into your briefs.

Do your best to provide photographic examples of costumes in advance so that players can see what sort of “look” they strive for. When writing costume briefs, pick one or two clear, simple, iconic and easy elements for each brief - like “wide sash around the waist” or “brightly coloured headgear” - and try not to crowd the brief with too many elaborate suggestions for the perfect look. Your players will pleasantly surprise you. 

Be aware of body shape and size accessibility when writing your costume briefs. “Empire line” or “broad shoulders” or “ethereal, floaty, elfin clothing” may all sound iconic and straightforward to you, but they are all examples of clothing which disproportionately favours particular body shapes; steer away.

Think about where your monster/crew kit comes from; do you expect crew to self-costume or will you be buying kit for them? What does a properly stocked crew kit room look like? How does that affect your budget?

Photo from Hades, by Oliver Facey

7. SEPARATION OF POWERS

When you’re putting your game team together, clearly define what each role means - who’s responsible for what - and write down those responsibilities somewhere everyone on the team can see them. An amorphous blob of “the refs” which slowly evolves into proper working practices is unlikely to be as efficient as starting out with a head of site & logistics, a head of setting coherency, etc. 

You can always change and modify these terms of reference as you go on, but setting them out clearly at the start will cut out an awful lot of drama later down the line. 

Try to avoid having any individual make big important setting, system or plot decisions on their own; everyone, no matter how authoritative, should have their work checked by at least one other person who has the power to veto or bring their material to discussion. 

If you can, appoint a “conscience” early in the game design process. That person’s job is to stand behind you every time you’re about to make an important decision or rules call, or finalise a plot, or do something you think is really cool, and ask “What about player agency?” and “But how do the players interact with this?” and “What effect does this have on the players?”

Photo from Gruntz, by Oliver Facey

8. CREW

Where is your crew from? How do you keep crew coming back for more? How many crew do you need to run a successful game?

If you’re starting up a local small linear style system, inculcating an early culture of “crew one / play one” is a good way to keep a regular stream of crew available for more. For medium systems, you might implement a “crew lottery” where people who crewed the last game get favourable placement for tickets for the next event, or discounts on future tickets. You should also do your best to include crew incentives - you’d be surprised how little “bennies” like hats or t-shirts help cement a sense of group identity and belonging among your crew cohort.

Out of the number of crew you need to run your ideal event, 2/3rds will book, and half of that number will actually show up. Be prepared and write your encounter based on low crew numbers as a contingency.

All photos from this set are from the first games of new systems, or one-off games.

[isearchgoood]

Position Zero Is Dead; Long Live Position Zero

Posted by Dr-Pete

In 2014, Google introduced the featured snippet, a promoted organic ranking that we affectionately (some days were more affectionate than others) referred to as "position zero" or "ranking #0." One of the benefits to being in position zero was that you got to double-dip, with your organic listing appearing in both the featured snippet and page-1 results (usually in the top 3–4). On January 23, Google announced a significant change (which rolled out globally on January 22) ...

"Declutters" sounds innocuous, but the impact to how we think about featured snippets and organic rankings is significant. So, let's dig deep into some examples and the implications for SEO.

What does this mean for Moz?

First, a product announcement. In the past, we treated Featured Snippets as stand-alone SERP features — they were identified in our "SERP Features" report but were not treated as organic due to the second listing. As of Saturday, January 25 (shout-out to many of our team for putting in a long weekend), we began rolling out data that treats the featured snippet as position #1. SERPs with featured snippets will continue to be tagged in SERP Features reporting, and we're working on ways to surface more data.

Here's a partial screenshot of our "SERP Features" report from one of my own experiments ...

At a glance, you can see which keywords displayed a featured snippet (the scissor icon), owned that featured snippet (highlighted in blue), as well as your organic ranking for those keywords. We're working on bringing more of this data into the Rankings report in the near future.

If you're a Moz Pro customer and would like to see this in action, you can jump directly to your SERP Features report using the button below (please let us know what you think about the update):

Check Your SERP Features

This change brings our data in line with Google's view that a featured snippet is a promoted organic result and also better aligns us with Google Search Console data. Hopefully, it also helps provide customers with more context about their featured snippets as organic entities.

How does Google count to 10?

Let's take a deeper look at the before and after of this change. Here are the desktop organic results (left-column only) from a search for "LCD vs LED" on January 21st ...

Pardon some big images, but I promise there's method to my madness. In the "before" screenshot above, we can clearly see that the featured snippet URL is duplicated as the #1 organic result (note: I've added the green box and removed a People Also Ask box). Ranking #1 wasn't always the case prior to January 22nd, but most featured snippet URLs appeared in the #1–#3 organic positions, and all of them came from page-one results.

Here's the same SERP from January 23rd ...

You can see that not only is the featured snippet URL missing from the #1 position, but it doesn't appear on page one at all. There's more to this puzzle, though. Look at the January 21st SERP again, but numbered ...

Notice that, even with the featured snippet, page one displays 10 full organic results. This was part of our rationale for treating the featured snippet as the #0 position and a special case, even though it came from organic results. We also debated whether duplicating data in rankings reports added value for customers or just created confusion.

Now, look at the numbered SERP from January 23rd ...

The duplicate URL hasn't been replaced — it's been removed entirely. So, we're only left with 10 total results, including the featured snippet itself. If we started with #0, we'd be left with a page-one SERP that goes from #0–#9.

What about double snippets?

In rare cases, Google may show two featured snippets in a row. If you haven't seen one of these in action, here's an example for the search "Irish names" from January 21st ...

I've highlighted the organic URLs to show that, prior to the update, both featured snippet URLs appeared on page one. A quick count will also show you that there are 10 traditional organic listings and 12 total listings (counting the two featured snippets).

Here's that same SERP from January 23rd, which I've numbered ...

In this case, both featured snippet URLs have been removed from the traditional organic listings, and we're left once again with 10 total page-one results. We see the same pattern with SERP features (such as Top Stories or Video carousels) that occupy an organic position. Whatever the combination in play, the featured snippet appears to count as one of the 10 results on page one after January 22nd.

What about right-hand side panels?

More recently, Google introduced a hybrid desktop result that looks like a Knowledge Panel but pulls information from organic results, like a Featured Snippet. Here's an example from January 21st (just the panel) ...

In the left-hand column, the same Wordstream URL ranked #3 in organic results (I've truncated the image below to save your scrolling finger) ...

After January 22nd, this URL was also treated as a duplicate, which was met with considerable public outcry. Unlike the prominent Featured Snippet placement, many people felt (including myself) that the panel-style UI was confusing and very likely to reduce click-through rate (CTR). In a fairly rare occurrence, Google backtracked on this decision ...

Our data set showed reversal kicking in on January 29th (a week after the initial change). Currently, while some featured snippets are still displayed in right-hand panels (about 30% of all featured snippets across MozCast's 10,000 keywords), those URLs once again appear in the organic listings.

Note that Google has said this is a multi-part project, and they're likely going to be moving these featured snippets back to the left-hand column in the near future. We don't currently know if that means they'll become traditional featured snippets or if they'll evolve into a new entity.

How do I block featured snippets?

Cool your jets, Starscream. Almost the moment Google announced this change, SEOs started talking about how to block featured snippets, including some folks asking publicly about de-optimizing content. "De-optimizing" sounds harmless, but it's really a euphemism for making your own content worse so that it ranks lower. In other words, you're going to take a CTR hit (the organic CTR curve drops off quickly as a power function) to avoid possibly taking a CTR hit. As Ford Prefect wisely said: "There's no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later."

More importantly, there are better options. The oldest currently available option is the meta-nosnippet directive. I'd generally consider this a last resort — as a recent experiment by Claire Carlile re-affirms, meta-nosnippet blocks all snippets/descriptions, including your organic snippet.

As of 2019, we have two more options to work with. The meta-max-snippet directive limits the character-length of search snippets (both featured snippets and organic snippets). It looks something like this ...

<meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:50">

Setting the max-snippet value to zero should function essentially the same as a nosnippet directive. However, by playing with intermediate values, you might be able to maintain your organic snippet while controlling or removing the featured snippet.

Another relatively new option is the data-nosnippet HTML attribute. This is a tag attribute that you can wrap around content you wish to block from snippets. It looks something like this ...

<span data-nosnippet>I will take this content to the grave!</span>

Ok, that was probably melodramatic, but the data-nosnippet attribute can be wrapped around specific content that you'd like to keep out of snippets (again, this impacts all snippets). This could be very useful if you've got information appearing from the wrong part of a page or even a snippet that just doesn't answer the question very well. Of course, keep in mind that Google could simply select another part of your page for the featured snippet.

One thing to keep in mind: in some cases, Featured snippet content drives voice answers. Danny Sullivan at Google confirmed that, if you block your snippets using one of the methods above, you also block your eligibility for voice answers ...

A featured snippet isn't guaranteed to drive voice answers (there are a few more layers to the Google Assistant algorithms), but if you're interested in ranking for voice, then you may want to proceed with caution. Also keep in mind that there's no position #2 in voice search.

How much should I freak out?

We expect these changes are here to stay, at least for a while, but we know very little about the impact of featured snippets on CTR after January 22nd. In early 2018, Moz did a major, internal CTR study and found the impact of featured snippets almost impossible to interpret, because the available data (whether click-stream or Google Search Console) provided no way to tell if clicks were going to the featured snippet or the duplicated organic URL.

My hunch, informed by that project, is that there are two realities. In one case, featured snippets definitively answer a question and negatively impact CTR. If a concise, self-contained answer is possible, expect some people not to click on the URL. You've given them what they need.

In the other case, though, a featured snippet acts as an incomplete teaser, naturally encouraging clicks (if the information is worthwhile). Consider this featured snippet for "science fair ideas" ...

The "More items..." indicator clearly suggests that this is just part of a much longer list, and I can tell you from my as a parent that I wouldn't stop at the featured snippet. Lists and instructional content are especially well-suited to this kind of teaser experience, as are questions that can't be answered easily in a paragraph.

All of this is to say that I wouldn't take a hatchet to your featured snippets. Answering the questions your visitors ask is a good thing, generally, and drives search visibility. As we learn more about the impact on CTR, it makes sense to be more strategic, but featured snippets are organic opportunities that are here to stay.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2Sl8hzD #blogger #bloggingtips #bloggerlife #bloggersgetsocial #ontheblog #writersofinstagram #writingprompt #instapoetry #writerscommunity #writersofig #writersblock #writerlife #writtenword #instawriters #spilledink #wordgasm #creativewriting #poetsofinstagram #blackoutpoetry #poetsofig

[nutrifami]

Position Zero Is Dead; Long Live Position Zero

Posted by Dr-Pete

In 2014, Google introduced the featured snippet, a promoted organic ranking that we affectionately (some days were more affectionate than others) referred to as "position zero" or "ranking #0." One of the benefits to being in position zero was that you got to double-dip, with your organic listing appearing in both the featured snippet and page-1 results (usually in the top 3–4). On January 23, Google announced a significant change (which rolled out globally on January 22) ...

"Declutters" sounds innocuous, but the impact to how we think about featured snippets and organic rankings is significant. So, let's dig deep into some examples and the implications for SEO.

What does this mean for Moz?

First, a product announcement. In the past, we treated Featured Snippets as stand-alone SERP features — they were identified in our "SERP Features" report but were not treated as organic due to the second listing. As of Saturday, January 25 (shout-out to many of our team for putting in a long weekend), we began rolling out data that treats the featured snippet as position #1. SERPs with featured snippets will continue to be tagged in SERP Features reporting, and we're working on ways to surface more data.

Here's a partial screenshot of our "SERP Features" report from one of my own experiments ...

At a glance, you can see which keywords displayed a featured snippet (the scissor icon), owned that featured snippet (highlighted in blue), as well as your organic ranking for those keywords. We're working on bringing more of this data into the Rankings report in the near future.

If you're a Moz Pro customer and would like to see this in action, you can jump directly to your SERP Features report using the button below (please let us know what you think about the update):

Check Your SERP Features

This change brings our data in line with Google's view that a featured snippet is a promoted organic result and also better aligns us with Google Search Console data. Hopefully, it also helps provide customers with more context about their featured snippets as organic entities.

How does Google count to 10?

Let's take a deeper look at the before and after of this change. Here are the desktop organic results (left-column only) from a search for "LCD vs LED" on January 21st ...

Pardon some big images, but I promise there's method to my madness. In the "before" screenshot above, we can clearly see that the featured snippet URL is duplicated as the #1 organic result (note: I've added the green box and removed a People Also Ask box). Ranking #1 wasn't always the case prior to January 22nd, but most featured snippet URLs appeared in the #1–#3 organic positions, and all of them came from page-one results.

Here's the same SERP from January 23rd ...

You can see that not only is the featured snippet URL missing from the #1 position, but it doesn't appear on page one at all. There's more to this puzzle, though. Look at the January 21st SERP again, but numbered ...

Notice that, even with the featured snippet, page one displays 10 full organic results. This was part of our rationale for treating the featured snippet as the #0 position and a special case, even though it came from organic results. We also debated whether duplicating data in rankings reports added value for customers or just created confusion.

Now, look at the numbered SERP from January 23rd ...

The duplicate URL hasn't been replaced — it's been removed entirely. So, we're only left with 10 total results, including the featured snippet itself. If we started with #0, we'd be left with a page-one SERP that goes from #0–#9.

What about double snippets?

In rare cases, Google may show two featured snippets in a row. If you haven't seen one of these in action, here's an example for the search "Irish names" from January 21st ...

I've highlighted the organic URLs to show that, prior to the update, both featured snippet URLs appeared on page one. A quick count will also show you that there are 10 traditional organic listings and 12 total listings (counting the two featured snippets).

Here's that same SERP from January 23rd, which I've numbered ...

In this case, both featured snippet URLs have been removed from the traditional organic listings, and we're left once again with 10 total page-one results. We see the same pattern with SERP features (such as Top Stories or Video carousels) that occupy an organic position. Whatever the combination in play, the featured snippet appears to count as one of the 10 results on page one after January 22nd.

What about right-hand side panels?

More recently, Google introduced a hybrid desktop result that looks like a Knowledge Panel but pulls information from organic results, like a Featured Snippet. Here's an example from January 21st (just the panel) ...

In the left-hand column, the same Wordstream URL ranked #3 in organic results (I've truncated the image below to save your scrolling finger) ...

After January 22nd, this URL was also treated as a duplicate, which was met with considerable public outcry. Unlike the prominent Featured Snippet placement, many people felt (including myself) that the panel-style UI was confusing and very likely to reduce click-through rate (CTR). In a fairly rare occurrence, Google backtracked on this decision ...

Our data set showed reversal kicking in on January 29th (a week after the initial change). Currently, while some featured snippets are still displayed in right-hand panels (about 30% of all featured snippets across MozCast's 10,000 keywords), those URLs once again appear in the organic listings.

Note that Google has said this is a multi-part project, and they're likely going to be moving these featured snippets back to the left-hand column in the near future. We don't currently know if that means they'll become traditional featured snippets or if they'll evolve into a new entity.

How do I block featured snippets?

Cool your jets, Starscream. Almost the moment Google announced this change, SEOs started talking about how to block featured snippets, including some folks asking publicly about de-optimizing content. "De-optimizing" sounds harmless, but it's really a euphemism for making your own content worse so that it ranks lower. In other words, you're going to take a CTR hit (the organic CTR curve drops off quickly as a power function) to avoid possibly taking a CTR hit. As Ford Prefect wisely said: "There's no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later."

More importantly, there are better options. The oldest currently available option is the meta-nosnippet directive. I'd generally consider this a last resort — as a recent experiment by Claire Carlile re-affirms, meta-nosnippet blocks all snippets/descriptions, including your organic snippet.

As of 2019, we have two more options to work with. The meta-max-snippet directive limits the character-length of search snippets (both featured snippets and organic snippets). It looks something like this ...

<meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:50">

Setting the max-snippet value to zero should function essentially the same as a nosnippet directive. However, by playing with intermediate values, you might be able to maintain your organic snippet while controlling or removing the featured snippet.

Another relatively new option is the data-nosnippet HTML attribute. This is a tag attribute that you can wrap around content you wish to block from snippets. It looks something like this ...

<span data-nosnippet>I will take this content to the grave!</span>

Ok, that was probably melodramatic, but the data-nosnippet attribute can be wrapped around specific content that you'd like to keep out of snippets (again, this impacts all snippets). This could be very useful if you've got information appearing from the wrong part of a page or even a snippet that just doesn't answer the question very well. Of course, keep in mind that Google could simply select another part of your page for the featured snippet.

One thing to keep in mind: in some cases, Featured snippet content drives voice answers. Danny Sullivan at Google confirmed that, if you block your snippets using one of the methods above, you also block your eligibility for voice answers ...

A featured snippet isn't guaranteed to drive voice answers (there are a few more layers to the Google Assistant algorithms), but if you're interested in ranking for voice, then you may want to proceed with caution. Also keep in mind that there's no position #2 in voice search.

How much should I freak out?

We expect these changes are here to stay, at least for a while, but we know very little about the impact of featured snippets on CTR after January 22nd. In early 2018, Moz did a major, internal CTR study and found the impact of featured snippets almost impossible to interpret, because the available data (whether click-stream or Google Search Console) provided no way to tell if clicks were going to the featured snippet or the duplicated organic URL.

My hunch, informed by that project, is that there are two realities. In one case, featured snippets definitively answer a question and negatively impact CTR. If a concise, self-contained answer is possible, expect some people not to click on the URL. You've given them what they need.

In the other case, though, a featured snippet acts as an incomplete teaser, naturally encouraging clicks (if the information is worthwhile). Consider this featured snippet for "science fair ideas" ...

The "More items..." indicator clearly suggests that this is just part of a much longer list, and I can tell you from my as a parent that I wouldn't stop at the featured snippet. Lists and instructional content are especially well-suited to this kind of teaser experience, as are questions that can't be answered easily in a paragraph.

All of this is to say that I wouldn't take a hatchet to your featured snippets. Answering the questions your visitors ask is a good thing, generally, and drives search visibility. As we learn more about the impact on CTR, it makes sense to be more strategic, but featured snippets are organic opportunities that are here to stay.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[theinjectlikes2]

Position Zero Is Dead; Long Live Position Zero

Posted by Dr-Pete

In 2014, Google introduced the featured snippet, a promoted organic ranking that we affectionately (some days were more affectionate than others) referred to as "position zero" or "ranking #0." One of the benefits to being in position zero was that you got to double-dip, with your organic listing appearing in both the featured snippet and page-1 results (usually in the top 3–4). On January 23, Google announced a significant change (which rolled out globally on January 22) ...

"Declutters" sounds innocuous, but the impact to how we think about featured snippets and organic rankings is significant. So, let's dig deep into some examples and the implications for SEO.

What does this mean for Moz?

First, a product announcement. In the past, we treated Featured Snippets as stand-alone SERP features — they were identified in our "SERP Features" report but were not treated as organic due to the second listing. As of Saturday, January 25 (shout-out to many of our team for putting in a long weekend), we began rolling out data that treats the featured snippet as position #1. SERPs with featured snippets will continue to be tagged in SERP Features reporting, and we're working on ways to surface more data.

Here's a partial screenshot of our "SERP Features" report from one of my own experiments ...

At a glance, you can see which keywords displayed a featured snippet (the scissor icon), owned that featured snippet (highlighted in blue), as well as your organic ranking for those keywords. We're working on bringing more of this data into the Rankings report in the near future.

If you're a Moz Pro customer and would like to see this in action, you can jump directly to your SERP Features report using the button below (please let us know what you think about the update):

Check Your SERP Features

This change brings our data in line with Google's view that a featured snippet is a promoted organic result and also better aligns us with Google Search Console data. Hopefully, it also helps provide customers with more context about their featured snippets as organic entities.

How does Google count to 10?

Let's take a deeper look at the before and after of this change. Here are the desktop organic results (left-column only) from a search for "LCD vs LED" on January 21st ...

Pardon some big images, but I promise there's method to my madness. In the "before" screenshot above, we can clearly see that the featured snippet URL is duplicated as the #1 organic result (note: I've added the green box and removed a People Also Ask box). Ranking #1 wasn't always the case prior to January 22nd, but most featured snippet URLs appeared in the #1–#3 organic positions, and all of them came from page-one results.

Here's the same SERP from January 23rd ...

You can see that not only is the featured snippet URL missing from the #1 position, but it doesn't appear on page one at all. There's more to this puzzle, though. Look at the January 21st SERP again, but numbered ...

Notice that, even with the featured snippet, page one displays 10 full organic results. This was part of our rationale for treating the featured snippet as the #0 position and a special case, even though it came from organic results. We also debated whether duplicating data in rankings reports added value for customers or just created confusion.

Now, look at the numbered SERP from January 23rd ...

The duplicate URL hasn't been replaced — it's been removed entirely. So, we're only left with 10 total results, including the featured snippet itself. If we started with #0, we'd be left with a page-one SERP that goes from #0–#9.

What about double snippets?

In rare cases, Google may show two featured snippets in a row. If you haven't seen one of these in action, here's an example for the search "Irish names" from January 21st ...

I've highlighted the organic URLs to show that, prior to the update, both featured snippet URLs appeared on page one. A quick count will also show you that there are 10 traditional organic listings and 12 total listings (counting the two featured snippets).

Here's that same SERP from January 23rd, which I've numbered ...

In this case, both featured snippet URLs have been removed from the traditional organic listings, and we're left once again with 10 total page-one results. We see the same pattern with SERP features (such as Top Stories or Video carousels) that occupy an organic position. Whatever the combination in play, the featured snippet appears to count as one of the 10 results on page one after January 22nd.

What about right-hand side panels?

More recently, Google introduced a hybrid desktop result that looks like a Knowledge Panel but pulls information from organic results, like a Featured Snippet. Here's an example from January 21st (just the panel) ...

In the left-hand column, the same Wordstream URL ranked #3 in organic results (I've truncated the image below to save your scrolling finger) ...

After January 22nd, this URL was also treated as a duplicate, which was met with considerable public outcry. Unlike the prominent Featured Snippet placement, many people felt (including myself) that the panel-style UI was confusing and very likely to reduce click-through rate (CTR). In a fairly rare occurrence, Google backtracked on this decision ...

Our data set showed reversal kicking in on January 29th (a week after the initial change). Currently, while some featured snippets are still displayed in right-hand panels (about 30% of all featured snippets across MozCast's 10,000 keywords), those URLs once again appear in the organic listings.

Note that Google has said this is a multi-part project, and they're likely going to be moving these featured snippets back to the left-hand column in the near future. We don't currently know if that means they'll become traditional featured snippets or if they'll evolve into a new entity.

How do I block featured snippets?

Cool your jets, Starscream. Almost the moment Google announced this change, SEOs started talking about how to block featured snippets, including some folks asking publicly about de-optimizing content. "De-optimizing" sounds harmless, but it's really a euphemism for making your own content worse so that it ranks lower. In other words, you're going to take a CTR hit (the organic CTR curve drops off quickly as a power function) to avoid possibly taking a CTR hit. As Ford Prefect wisely said: "There's no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later."

More importantly, there are better options. The oldest currently available option is the meta-nosnippet directive. I'd generally consider this a last resort — as a recent experiment by Claire Carlile re-affirms, meta-nosnippet blocks all snippets/descriptions, including your organic snippet.

As of 2019, we have two more options to work with. The meta-max-snippet directive limits the character-length of search snippets (both featured snippets and organic snippets). It looks something like this ...

<meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:50">

Setting the max-snippet value to zero should function essentially the same as a nosnippet directive. However, by playing with intermediate values, you might be able to maintain your organic snippet while controlling or removing the featured snippet.

Another relatively new option is the data-nosnippet HTML attribute. This is a tag attribute that you can wrap around content you wish to block from snippets. It looks something like this ...

<span data-nosnippet>I will take this content to the grave!</span>

Ok, that was probably melodramatic, but the data-nosnippet attribute can be wrapped around specific content that you'd like to keep out of snippets (again, this impacts all snippets). This could be very useful if you've got information appearing from the wrong part of a page or even a snippet that just doesn't answer the question very well. Of course, keep in mind that Google could simply select another part of your page for the featured snippet.

One thing to keep in mind: in some cases, Featured snippet content drives voice answers. Danny Sullivan at Google confirmed that, if you block your snippets using one of the methods above, you also block your eligibility for voice answers ...

A featured snippet isn't guaranteed to drive voice answers (there are a few more layers to the Google Assistant algorithms), but if you're interested in ranking for voice, then you may want to proceed with caution. Also keep in mind that there's no position #2 in voice search.

How much should I freak out?

We expect these changes are here to stay, at least for a while, but we know very little about the impact of featured snippets on CTR after January 22nd. In early 2018, Moz did a major, internal CTR study and found the impact of featured snippets almost impossible to interpret, because the available data (whether click-stream or Google Search Console) provided no way to tell if clicks were going to the featured snippet or the duplicated organic URL.

My hunch, informed by that project, is that there are two realities. In one case, featured snippets definitively answer a question and negatively impact CTR. If a concise, self-contained answer is possible, expect some people not to click on the URL. You've given them what they need.

In the other case, though, a featured snippet acts as an incomplete teaser, naturally encouraging clicks (if the information is worthwhile). Consider this featured snippet for "science fair ideas" ...

The "More items..." indicator clearly suggests that this is just part of a much longer list, and I can tell you from my as a parent that I wouldn't stop at the featured snippet. Lists and instructional content are especially well-suited to this kind of teaser experience, as are questions that can't be answered easily in a paragraph.

All of this is to say that I wouldn't take a hatchet to your featured snippets. Answering the questions your visitors ask is a good thing, generally, and drives search visibility. As we learn more about the impact on CTR, it makes sense to be more strategic, but featured snippets are organic opportunities that are here to stay.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

from The Moz Blog https://ift.tt/31sLZAr via IFTTT

[kjt-lawyers]

Position Zero Is Dead; Long Live Position Zero

Posted by Dr-Pete

In 2014, Google introduced the featured snippet, a promoted organic ranking that we affectionately (some days were more affectionate than others) referred to as "position zero" or "ranking #0." One of the benefits to being in position zero was that you got to double-dip, with your organic listing appearing in both the featured snippet and page-1 results (usually in the top 3–4). On January 23, Google announced a significant change (which rolled out globally on January 22) ...

"Declutters" sounds innocuous, but the impact to how we think about featured snippets and organic rankings is significant. So, let's dig deep into some examples and the implications for SEO.

What does this mean for Moz?

First, a product announcement. In the past, we treated Featured Snippets as stand-alone SERP features — they were identified in our "SERP Features" report but were not treated as organic due to the second listing. As of Saturday, January 25 (shout-out to many of our team for putting in a long weekend), we began rolling out data that treats the featured snippet as position #1. SERPs with featured snippets will continue to be tagged in SERP Features reporting, and we're working on ways to surface more data.

Here's a partial screenshot of our "SERP Features" report from one of my own experiments ...

At a glance, you can see which keywords displayed a featured snippet (the scissor icon), owned that featured snippet (highlighted in blue), as well as your organic ranking for those keywords. We're working on bringing more of this data into the Rankings report in the near future.

If you're a Moz Pro customer and would like to see this in action, you can jump directly to your SERP Features report using the button below (please let us know what you think about the update):

Check Your SERP Features

This change brings our data in line with Google's view that a featured snippet is a promoted organic result and also better aligns us with Google Search Console data. Hopefully, it also helps provide customers with more context about their featured snippets as organic entities.

How does Google count to 10?

Let's take a deeper look at the before and after of this change. Here are the desktop organic results (left-column only) from a search for "LCD vs LED" on January 21st ...

Pardon some big images, but I promise there's method to my madness. In the "before" screenshot above, we can clearly see that the featured snippet URL is duplicated as the #1 organic result (note: I've added the green box and removed a People Also Ask box). Ranking #1 wasn't always the case prior to January 22nd, but most featured snippet URLs appeared in the #1–#3 organic positions, and all of them came from page-one results.

Here's the same SERP from January 23rd ...

You can see that not only is the featured snippet URL missing from the #1 position, but it doesn't appear on page one at all. There's more to this puzzle, though. Look at the January 21st SERP again, but numbered ...

Notice that, even with the featured snippet, page one displays 10 full organic results. This was part of our rationale for treating the featured snippet as the #0 position and a special case, even though it came from organic results. We also debated whether duplicating data in rankings reports added value for customers or just created confusion.

Now, look at the numbered SERP from January 23rd ...

The duplicate URL hasn't been replaced — it's been removed entirely. So, we're only left with 10 total results, including the featured snippet itself. If we started with #0, we'd be left with a page-one SERP that goes from #0–#9.

What about double snippets?

In rare cases, Google may show two featured snippets in a row. If you haven't seen one of these in action, here's an example for the search "Irish names" from January 21st ...

I've highlighted the organic URLs to show that, prior to the update, both featured snippet URLs appeared on page one. A quick count will also show you that there are 10 traditional organic listings and 12 total listings (counting the two featured snippets).

Here's that same SERP from January 23rd, which I've numbered ...

In this case, both featured snippet URLs have been removed from the traditional organic listings, and we're left once again with 10 total page-one results. We see the same pattern with SERP features (such as Top Stories or Video carousels) that occupy an organic position. Whatever the combination in play, the featured snippet appears to count as one of the 10 results on page one after January 22nd.

What about right-hand side panels?

More recently, Google introduced a hybrid desktop result that looks like a Knowledge Panel but pulls information from organic results, like a Featured Snippet. Here's an example from January 21st (just the panel) ...

In the left-hand column, the same Wordstream URL ranked #3 in organic results (I've truncated the image below to save your scrolling finger) ...

After January 22nd, this URL was also treated as a duplicate, which was met with considerable public outcry. Unlike the prominent Featured Snippet placement, many people felt (including myself) that the panel-style UI was confusing and very likely to reduce click-through rate (CTR). In a fairly rare occurrence, Google backtracked on this decision ...

Our data set showed reversal kicking in on January 29th (a week after the initial change). Currently, while some featured snippets are still displayed in right-hand panels (about 30% of all featured snippets across MozCast's 10,000 keywords), those URLs once again appear in the organic listings.

Note that Google has said this is a multi-part project, and they're likely going to be moving these featured snippets back to the left-hand column in the near future. We don't currently know if that means they'll become traditional featured snippets or if they'll evolve into a new entity.

How do I block featured snippets?

Cool your jets, Starscream. Almost the moment Google announced this change, SEOs started talking about how to block featured snippets, including some folks asking publicly about de-optimizing content. "De-optimizing" sounds harmless, but it's really a euphemism for making your own content worse so that it ranks lower. In other words, you're going to take a CTR hit (the organic CTR curve drops off quickly as a power function) to avoid possibly taking a CTR hit. As Ford Prefect wisely said: "There's no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later."

More importantly, there are better options. The oldest currently available option is the meta-nosnippet directive. I'd generally consider this a last resort — as a recent experiment by Claire Carlile re-affirms, meta-nosnippet blocks all snippets/descriptions, including your organic snippet.

As of 2019, we have two more options to work with. The meta-max-snippet directive limits the character-length of search snippets (both featured snippets and organic snippets). It looks something like this ...

<meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:50">

Setting the max-snippet value to zero should function essentially the same as a nosnippet directive. However, by playing with intermediate values, you might be able to maintain your organic snippet while controlling or removing the featured snippet.

Another relatively new option is the data-nosnippet HTML attribute. This is a tag attribute that you can wrap around content you wish to block from snippets. It looks something like this ...

<span data-nosnippet>I will take this content to the grave!</span>

Ok, that was probably melodramatic, but the data-nosnippet attribute can be wrapped around specific content that you'd like to keep out of snippets (again, this impacts all snippets). This could be very useful if you've got information appearing from the wrong part of a page or even a snippet that just doesn't answer the question very well. Of course, keep in mind that Google could simply select another part of your page for the featured snippet.

One thing to keep in mind: in some cases, Featured snippet content drives voice answers. Danny Sullivan at Google confirmed that, if you block your snippets using one of the methods above, you also block your eligibility for voice answers ...

A featured snippet isn't guaranteed to drive voice answers (there are a few more layers to the Google Assistant algorithms), but if you're interested in ranking for voice, then you may want to proceed with caution. Also keep in mind that there's no position #2 in voice search.

How much should I freak out?

We expect these changes are here to stay, at least for a while, but we know very little about the impact of featured snippets on CTR after January 22nd. In early 2018, Moz did a major, internal CTR study and found the impact of featured snippets almost impossible to interpret, because the available data (whether click-stream or Google Search Console) provided no way to tell if clicks were going to the featured snippet or the duplicated organic URL.

My hunch, informed by that project, is that there are two realities. In one case, featured snippets definitively answer a question and negatively impact CTR. If a concise, self-contained answer is possible, expect some people not to click on the URL. You've given them what they need.

In the other case, though, a featured snippet acts as an incomplete teaser, naturally encouraging clicks (if the information is worthwhile). Consider this featured snippet for "science fair ideas" ...

The "More items..." indicator clearly suggests that this is just part of a much longer list, and I can tell you from my as a parent that I wouldn't stop at the featured snippet. Lists and instructional content are especially well-suited to this kind of teaser experience, as are questions that can't be answered easily in a paragraph.

All of this is to say that I wouldn't take a hatchet to your featured snippets. Answering the questions your visitors ask is a good thing, generally, and drives search visibility. As we learn more about the impact on CTR, it makes sense to be more strategic, but featured snippets are organic opportunities that are here to stay.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[gamebazu]

Position Zero Is Dead; Long Live Position Zero

Posted by Dr-Pete

In 2014, Google introduced the featured snippet, a promoted organic ranking that we affectionately (some days were more affectionate than others) referred to as "position zero" or "ranking #0." One of the benefits to being in position zero was that you got to double-dip, with your organic listing appearing in both the featured snippet and page-1 results (usually in the top 3–4). On January 23, Google announced a significant change (which rolled out globally on January 22) ...

"Declutters" sounds innocuous, but the impact to how we think about featured snippets and organic rankings is significant. So, let's dig deep into some examples and the implications for SEO.

What does this mean for Moz?

First, a product announcement. In the past, we treated Featured Snippets as stand-alone SERP features — they were identified in our "SERP Features" report but were not treated as organic due to the second listing. As of Saturday, January 25 (shout-out to many of our team for putting in a long weekend), we began rolling out data that treats the featured snippet as position #1. SERPs with featured snippets will continue to be tagged in SERP Features reporting, and we're working on ways to surface more data.

Here's a partial screenshot of our "SERP Features" report from one of my own experiments ...

At a glance, you can see which keywords displayed a featured snippet (the scissor icon), owned that featured snippet (highlighted in blue), as well as your organic ranking for those keywords. We're working on bringing more of this data into the Rankings report in the near future.

If you're a Moz Pro customer and would like to see this in action, you can jump directly to your SERP Features report using the button below (please let us know what you think about the update):

Check Your SERP Features

This change brings our data in line with Google's view that a featured snippet is a promoted organic result and also better aligns us with Google Search Console data. Hopefully, it also helps provide customers with more context about their featured snippets as organic entities.

How does Google count to 10?

Let's take a deeper look at the before and after of this change. Here are the desktop organic results (left-column only) from a search for "LCD vs LED" on January 21st ...

Pardon some big images, but I promise there's method to my madness. In the "before" screenshot above, we can clearly see that the featured snippet URL is duplicated as the #1 organic result (note: I've added the green box and removed a People Also Ask box). Ranking #1 wasn't always the case prior to January 22nd, but most featured snippet URLs appeared in the #1–#3 organic positions, and all of them came from page-one results.

Here's the same SERP from January 23rd ...

You can see that not only is the featured snippet URL missing from the #1 position, but it doesn't appear on page one at all. There's more to this puzzle, though. Look at the January 21st SERP again, but numbered ...

Notice that, even with the featured snippet, page one displays 10 full organic results. This was part of our rationale for treating the featured snippet as the #0 position and a special case, even though it came from organic results. We also debated whether duplicating data in rankings reports added value for customers or just created confusion.

Now, look at the numbered SERP from January 23rd ...

The duplicate URL hasn't been replaced — it's been removed entirely. So, we're only left with 10 total results, including the featured snippet itself. If we started with #0, we'd be left with a page-one SERP that goes from #0–#9.

What about double snippets?

In rare cases, Google may show two featured snippets in a row. If you haven't seen one of these in action, here's an example for the search "Irish names" from January 21st ...

I've highlighted the organic URLs to show that, prior to the update, both featured snippet URLs appeared on page one. A quick count will also show you that there are 10 traditional organic listings and 12 total listings (counting the two featured snippets).

Here's that same SERP from January 23rd, which I've numbered ...

In this case, both featured snippet URLs have been removed from the traditional organic listings, and we're left once again with 10 total page-one results. We see the same pattern with SERP features (such as Top Stories or Video carousels) that occupy an organic position. Whatever the combination in play, the featured snippet appears to count as one of the 10 results on page one after January 22nd.

What about right-hand side panels?

More recently, Google introduced a hybrid desktop result that looks like a Knowledge Panel but pulls information from organic results, like a Featured Snippet. Here's an example from January 21st (just the panel) ...

In the left-hand column, the same Wordstream URL ranked #3 in organic results (I've truncated the image below to save your scrolling finger) ...

After January 22nd, this URL was also treated as a duplicate, which was met with considerable public outcry. Unlike the prominent Featured Snippet placement, many people felt (including myself) that the panel-style UI was confusing and very likely to reduce click-through rate (CTR). In a fairly rare occurrence, Google backtracked on this decision ...

Our data set showed reversal kicking in on January 29th (a week after the initial change). Currently, while some featured snippets are still displayed in right-hand panels (about 30% of all featured snippets across MozCast's 10,000 keywords), those URLs once again appear in the organic listings.

Note that Google has said this is a multi-part project, and they're likely going to be moving these featured snippets back to the left-hand column in the near future. We don't currently know if that means they'll become traditional featured snippets or if they'll evolve into a new entity.

How do I block featured snippets?

Cool your jets, Starscream. Almost the moment Google announced this change, SEOs started talking about how to block featured snippets, including some folks asking publicly about de-optimizing content. "De-optimizing" sounds harmless, but it's really a euphemism for making your own content worse so that it ranks lower. In other words, you're going to take a CTR hit (the organic CTR curve drops off quickly as a power function) to avoid possibly taking a CTR hit. As Ford Prefect wisely said: "There's no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later."

More importantly, there are better options. The oldest currently available option is the meta-nosnippet directive. I'd generally consider this a last resort — as a recent experiment by Claire Carlile re-affirms, meta-nosnippet blocks all snippets/descriptions, including your organic snippet.

As of 2019, we have two more options to work with. The meta-max-snippet directive limits the character-length of search snippets (both featured snippets and organic snippets). It looks something like this ...

<meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:50">

Setting the max-snippet value to zero should function essentially the same as a nosnippet directive. However, by playing with intermediate values, you might be able to maintain your organic snippet while controlling or removing the featured snippet.

Another relatively new option is the data-nosnippet HTML attribute. This is a tag attribute that you can wrap around content you wish to block from snippets. It looks something like this ...

<span data-nosnippet>I will take this content to the grave!</span>

Ok, that was probably melodramatic, but the data-nosnippet attribute can be wrapped around specific content that you'd like to keep out of snippets (again, this impacts all snippets). This could be very useful if you've got information appearing from the wrong part of a page or even a snippet that just doesn't answer the question very well. Of course, keep in mind that Google could simply select another part of your page for the featured snippet.

One thing to keep in mind: in some cases, Featured snippet content drives voice answers. Danny Sullivan at Google confirmed that, if you block your snippets using one of the methods above, you also block your eligibility for voice answers ...

A featured snippet isn't guaranteed to drive voice answers (there are a few more layers to the Google Assistant algorithms), but if you're interested in ranking for voice, then you may want to proceed with caution. Also keep in mind that there's no position #2 in voice search.

How much should I freak out?

We expect these changes are here to stay, at least for a while, but we know very little about the impact of featured snippets on CTR after January 22nd. In early 2018, Moz did a major, internal CTR study and found the impact of featured snippets almost impossible to interpret, because the available data (whether click-stream or Google Search Console) provided no way to tell if clicks were going to the featured snippet or the duplicated organic URL.

My hunch, informed by that project, is that there are two realities. In one case, featured snippets definitively answer a question and negatively impact CTR. If a concise, self-contained answer is possible, expect some people not to click on the URL. You've given them what they need.

In the other case, though, a featured snippet acts as an incomplete teaser, naturally encouraging clicks (if the information is worthwhile). Consider this featured snippet for "science fair ideas" ...

The "More items..." indicator clearly suggests that this is just part of a much longer list, and I can tell you from my as a parent that I wouldn't stop at the featured snippet. Lists and instructional content are especially well-suited to this kind of teaser experience, as are questions that can't be answered easily in a paragraph.

All of this is to say that I wouldn't take a hatchet to your featured snippets. Answering the questions your visitors ask is a good thing, generally, and drives search visibility. As we learn more about the impact on CTR, it makes sense to be more strategic, but featured snippets are organic opportunities that are here to stay.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[daynamartinez22]

Position Zero Is Dead; Long Live Position Zero

Posted by Dr-Pete

In 2014, Google introduced the featured snippet, a promoted organic ranking that we affectionately (some days were more affectionate than others) referred to as "position zero" or "ranking #0." One of the benefits to being in position zero was that you got to double-dip, with your organic listing appearing in both the featured snippet and page-1 results (usually in the top 3–4). On January 23, Google announced a significant change (which rolled out globally on January 22) ...

"Declutters" sounds innocuous, but the impact to how we think about featured snippets and organic rankings is significant. So, let's dig deep into some examples and the implications for SEO.

What does this mean for Moz?

First, a product announcement. In the past, we treated Featured Snippets as stand-alone SERP features — they were identified in our "SERP Features" report but were not treated as organic due to the second listing. As of Saturday, January 25 (shout-out to many of our team for putting in a long weekend), we began rolling out data that treats the featured snippet as position #1. SERPs with featured snippets will continue to be tagged in SERP Features reporting, and we're working on ways to surface more data.

Here's a partial screenshot of our "SERP Features" report from one of my own experiments ...

At a glance, you can see which keywords displayed a featured snippet (the scissor icon), owned that featured snippet (highlighted in blue), as well as your organic ranking for those keywords. We're working on bringing more of this data into the Rankings report in the near future.

If you're a Moz Pro customer and would like to see this in action, you can jump directly to your SERP Features report using the button below (please let us know what you think about the update):

Check Your SERP Features

This change brings our data in line with Google's view that a featured snippet is a promoted organic result and also better aligns us with Google Search Console data. Hopefully, it also helps provide customers with more context about their featured snippets as organic entities.

How does Google count to 10?

Let's take a deeper look at the before and after of this change. Here are the desktop organic results (left-column only) from a search for "LCD vs LED" on January 21st ...

Pardon some big images, but I promise there's method to my madness. In the "before" screenshot above, we can clearly see that the featured snippet URL is duplicated as the #1 organic result (note: I've added the green box and removed a People Also Ask box). Ranking #1 wasn't always the case prior to January 22nd, but most featured snippet URLs appeared in the #1–#3 organic positions, and all of them came from page-one results.

Here's the same SERP from January 23rd ...

You can see that not only is the featured snippet URL missing from the #1 position, but it doesn't appear on page one at all. There's more to this puzzle, though. Look at the January 21st SERP again, but numbered ...

Notice that, even with the featured snippet, page one displays 10 full organic results. This was part of our rationale for treating the featured snippet as the #0 position and a special case, even though it came from organic results. We also debated whether duplicating data in rankings reports added value for customers or just created confusion.

Now, look at the numbered SERP from January 23rd ...

The duplicate URL hasn't been replaced — it's been removed entirely. So, we're only left with 10 total results, including the featured snippet itself. If we started with #0, we'd be left with a page-one SERP that goes from #0–#9.

What about double snippets?

In rare cases, Google may show two featured snippets in a row. If you haven't seen one of these in action, here's an example for the search "Irish names" from January 21st ...

I've highlighted the organic URLs to show that, prior to the update, both featured snippet URLs appeared on page one. A quick count will also show you that there are 10 traditional organic listings and 12 total listings (counting the two featured snippets).

Here's that same SERP from January 23rd, which I've numbered ...

In this case, both featured snippet URLs have been removed from the traditional organic listings, and we're left once again with 10 total page-one results. We see the same pattern with SERP features (such as Top Stories or Video carousels) that occupy an organic position. Whatever the combination in play, the featured snippet appears to count as one of the 10 results on page one after January 22nd.

What about right-hand side panels?

More recently, Google introduced a hybrid desktop result that looks like a Knowledge Panel but pulls information from organic results, like a Featured Snippet. Here's an example from January 21st (just the panel) ...

In the left-hand column, the same Wordstream URL ranked #3 in organic results (I've truncated the image below to save your scrolling finger) ...

After January 22nd, this URL was also treated as a duplicate, which was met with considerable public outcry. Unlike the prominent Featured Snippet placement, many people felt (including myself) that the panel-style UI was confusing and very likely to reduce click-through rate (CTR). In a fairly rare occurrence, Google backtracked on this decision ...

Our data set showed reversal kicking in on January 29th (a week after the initial change). Currently, while some featured snippets are still displayed in right-hand panels (about 30% of all featured snippets across MozCast's 10,000 keywords), those URLs once again appear in the organic listings.

Note that Google has said this is a multi-part project, and they're likely going to be moving these featured snippets back to the left-hand column in the near future. We don't currently know if that means they'll become traditional featured snippets or if they'll evolve into a new entity.

How do I block featured snippets?

Cool your jets, Starscream. Almost the moment Google announced this change, SEOs started talking about how to block featured snippets, including some folks asking publicly about de-optimizing content. "De-optimizing" sounds harmless, but it's really a euphemism for making your own content worse so that it ranks lower. In other words, you're going to take a CTR hit (the organic CTR curve drops off quickly as a power function) to avoid possibly taking a CTR hit. As Ford Prefect wisely said: "There's no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later."

More importantly, there are better options. The oldest currently available option is the meta-nosnippet directive. I'd generally consider this a last resort — as a recent experiment by Claire Carlile re-affirms, meta-nosnippet blocks all snippets/descriptions, including your organic snippet.

As of 2019, we have two more options to work with. The meta-max-snippet directive limits the character-length of search snippets (both featured snippets and organic snippets). It looks something like this ...

<meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:50">

Setting the max-snippet value to zero should function essentially the same as a nosnippet directive. However, by playing with intermediate values, you might be able to maintain your organic snippet while controlling or removing the featured snippet.

Another relatively new option is the data-nosnippet HTML attribute. This is a tag attribute that you can wrap around content you wish to block from snippets. It looks something like this ...

<span data-nosnippet>I will take this content to the grave!</span>

Ok, that was probably melodramatic, but the data-nosnippet attribute can be wrapped around specific content that you'd like to keep out of snippets (again, this impacts all snippets). This could be very useful if you've got information appearing from the wrong part of a page or even a snippet that just doesn't answer the question very well. Of course, keep in mind that Google could simply select another part of your page for the featured snippet.

One thing to keep in mind: in some cases, Featured snippet content drives voice answers. Danny Sullivan at Google confirmed that, if you block your snippets using one of the methods above, you also block your eligibility for voice answers ...

A featured snippet isn't guaranteed to drive voice answers (there are a few more layers to the Google Assistant algorithms), but if you're interested in ranking for voice, then you may want to proceed with caution. Also keep in mind that there's no position #2 in voice search.

How much should I freak out?

We expect these changes are here to stay, at least for a while, but we know very little about the impact of featured snippets on CTR after January 22nd. In early 2018, Moz did a major, internal CTR study and found the impact of featured snippets almost impossible to interpret, because the available data (whether click-stream or Google Search Console) provided no way to tell if clicks were going to the featured snippet or the duplicated organic URL.

My hunch, informed by that project, is that there are two realities. In one case, featured snippets definitively answer a question and negatively impact CTR. If a concise, self-contained answer is possible, expect some people not to click on the URL. You've given them what they need.

In the other case, though, a featured snippet acts as an incomplete teaser, naturally encouraging clicks (if the information is worthwhile). Consider this featured snippet for "science fair ideas" ...

The "More items..." indicator clearly suggests that this is just part of a much longer list, and I can tell you from my as a parent that I wouldn't stop at the featured snippet. Lists and instructional content are especially well-suited to this kind of teaser experience, as are questions that can't be answered easily in a paragraph.

All of this is to say that I wouldn't take a hatchet to your featured snippets. Answering the questions your visitors ask is a good thing, generally, and drives search visibility. As we learn more about the impact on CTR, it makes sense to be more strategic, but featured snippets are organic opportunities that are here to stay.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!