#all those complex giffing techniques i see lately ;~;

[michyeosseo]

2022 creator wrap

favorite works

bringing back a love thyself tag thing-y from two years ago to fill up an otherwise empty yearend queue

january - all i ever wanted was a sister as far as i could remember. therefore, the way my brain has been wired... it’s no surprise to combine the jazzy vocals of luisa (from encanto) with chungmuro’s finest showing of sisterhood in recent memory. 

february - hongxue, my beloved. anita yuen hitting a corporate prick in the head, in cheongsam, is ~magnificent~ let’s not mince words. to my delight, i discovered she’s also been taking on roles checking the kissing women requirement all the way back to the early ‘90s. good for her.

march -  an entry for kww featuring kang malgeum. have you ever been personally changed by the nation’s unni and her ghost smile or are you normal?

april - moran × oksun. i even assigned the invu album to their dynamic only to be immeasurably disappointed.

may/june - here’s the latest in the never-ending law of the lady shoutouts. i was provided, bombarded even, with so much jiejie crush material. (warning: wetv subtitles were just a grade above machine translation.) xu jie assuming the role of chen ran’s baby daddy – putting their “partnership” full circle – i dunno where to begin to thank cdramas for them.

july - it is Not Perfect nor was it archived here but ‘twas my humble offering for queen moon’s birthday [ofc it was going to be a sehwa fancam to the kpop milf anthem wooah hip].

august - do mob bosses gently ask to have dinners with their indentured servants? as per the miniature hell in my head, chairwoman kang insook certainly seems convinced that’s how it works with her secretary kim yoonjae. and if my takeaway from that terrible movie is a positive reception of the dismembered wrist marked with her tattoo and totes not leaving her for dead, so be it.

december - meet jin hwayoung, the youngest daughter of a conglomerate. fashionista, my meow meow, achieved having a purse-carrying malewife. (the last bit representing actual affection is very notable, considering everyone else in show-window marriages.) dad, ily, but we both know why i picked this drama up. long after the faux chaebol revenge fades from the limelight, the general public will continue to owe kim shinrok for refusing her talent to be boxed as merely garnish/‘only daughter amongst many sons’ and for her commitment to having maximum fun on set for us. give her a worthy slice-of-life next.

if you’ve read up to this point, i just want to express my sincere thanks for following me/my crazed hyperfixations ♡ 

sideblog stuff under the cut

special mention

this is the (half-)year i kinda leaned into vidding. with encouragement from dear friends, here are some archived because twtr video compression is absolute dogshit fruits of those late nights. i wanna try to do more next year, maybe revisit old ideas, while not abandoning my main bread and butter, gifs. here’s to hoping the quality of the two modes of output will be honed closer.

feeling each other’s ribs that are protruding

ok i lied, i’m not a ‘little bit’ in love with gwendoline christie; i want to sell my soul to her

[reasonandfaithinharmony]

Weekend WIP Game

Thank you for tagging me, @rmd-writes and @thisbuildinghasfeelings!

I know I am very late to this, but it is still technically the weekend here in the Pacific time zone, so here we go. I'll be using the questions for Artists/GIF makers. (There are also questions for writers in @welcometololaland's original post!)

Rules: List your WIPs below (if you only work on one project at a time, feel free to include future WIPs/ideas!) then answer the following questions. Then, tag as many people as you have WIPs (or more).

1. WIP List:

I am so afraid to see these all written out in a way where I can count them. [deep breath] This is a rather mixed-up list of gif sets for 911 Lone Star, Schitt's Creek, and The X-Files. Also, since they're gif sets, they don't really have titles, just nicknames:

husbands fancy dinner lizard arc kisses quotes of devotion come rain or come shine spin instructors flashbacks yes way meet the parents until i'm okay, too pile of good things best man wedding attire tk stays capable and decent unspectacular things endless act of being loved gravity of hearts simply the best reassuring head kisses he's a jungle cat wedding behind the scenes soft light/tooms/squeeze hope is messy iris/tk arc you are good and i love you

2. Which WIP is your most complex?

Oh gosh. Anything that involves coloring of more than one scene, really. That's what slows me down. And pretty much all of these fall into that category. Which is a big part of why they're not done yet.

3. Do any of your WIPs involve you using a technique/style that you haven't used before? What inspired you to try it?

Um. Possibly? I'm not far enough along to know for sure, but I think a couple of them might involve trying out a new text treatment.

4. Which WIP do you expect will take you the longest?

I am historically a very bad judge of this. Lol. There are plenty of potential obstacles in that list. I'm afraid to jinx it/make things worse by saying anything specific.

5. Which WIP are you finding the most enjoyable to create?

The "lizard arc" set has been very enjoyable to play with. And I suspect that "he's a jungle cat" will be very fun to eventually get back to.

6. Do you have a favourite character to draw/stitch/paint/depict? Are they in many of your WIP projects?

Hmmm. Not really. I mean, I certainly tend to focus on my favorite ships, but I can't really pick a favorite from that group.

7. Which WIP do you experience the most self-doubt about. Why?

All of them. Because I am self-taught and constantly second guessing absolutely everything.

8. Have any of your WIPs been struck by the curse of creator's block?

I suppose so. Although It's more lack of energy or just… utter frustration that results in a WIP getting a time out.

9. Do any of your WIPs contain characters outside the main ship? How are you finding creating those?

Yeah, definitely. There are a couple on that list that focus on other relationships.

10. What emotions are you hoping to convey through your WIPs?

It varies. Some are angsty. Some are meant to be funny. But I think, in general, they are all trying to convey love.

11. Are there any features/details you are finding challenging in your WIPs?

[gestures wildly at the lighting teams on every show, thwarting my best efforts to see what's going on]

12. Which WIP has the most complex shading/colouring?

Don't know yet. All of them. Lol. I can tell you that the "fancy dinner" set has been in time out for months now. Because of lighting and coloring.

13. Which WIP has the most complex background?

Not sure this one applies to me.

14. Which WIP do you have the highest expectations for?

Oh, I really don't know. My opinions here change all the time.

15. Do you dream about any of your WIPs?

I normally do not remember my dreams. But very recently, I dreamt that I had finished one of those sets. I was very disappointed to wake up and realize it wasn't true.

16. Do any of your WIPs have particular complexities that your other art doesn't?

Hmm, I don't think so.

17. Are any of your WIPs commissions?

No, but some of them are friendly requests or things that came about from chatting here on tumblr.

18. Do you have a character that is more difficult to draw/stitch/paint/depict? Are they in many of your WIP projects?

I'm going to go with Patrick Brewer. That boy's face just… goes nuclear bright whenever I try to brighten a scene overall. There are a lot of rather pale characters on that show, but they take pretty well to coloring/brightening. He does not.

19. Tell us one thing we don't know about one or more of your WIPs.

Um. Some items have been on that list for years. They're not abandoned, I promise. I am just not in charge of the creative process.

Since it is barely the weekend for me anymore (and no longer the weekend for many of you), please consider this an open tag!! If you'd like to play along, go for it. Even if the weekend has passed you by.

[cafeinthemoon]

Tobirama with a talented s/o who succeeds in a jutsu he’s struggling to create 😜

So my fics are now organized and I’m back with the requests! Yay! I want to apologize for this huge delay, but it was necessary. I’ve had some stuff to solve in my personal but now everything’s ok

This was requested by anon (sorry anon, and I hope you haven’t forgotten about it lol) and I wanted it to sound like a filler episode of Naruto to me, so I’m going to write as if it was one, ok?

Fandom: Naruto | Tobirama Senju

Symbols: 💗 | ◻ | ▶▶

Of course, OF COURSE it had to be this GIF

It has been some days since you’ve noticed it

Tobirama has always spent long, lonely hours in his office, whether studying/improving old techniques or creating new ones. Man is always occupied with something

But this time is different: not only he has been spending even more time alone there, among his scrolls and notes, but he was also more grumpy brooding than usual

As if it wasn’t enough, he, who used to focus on what he had at hand, now seemed… distracted, something you never thought to be impossible

Tobirama has been ignoring anything that had no connection with whatever the task he was performing in his office. Yes, he has done this before, but now it was getting worse

He was barely eating (and when you entered his office to take his bowl it is full just like you’ve brought it to him)

He was coming to sleep later and later, and almost never opened his mouth to talk to you

You waited for it to pass like it’s just a phase but it didn’t happen. You started to think of taking some actions

And you decided the time for it has come right after he did something unforgivable: in the middle of a conversation, he just left. HE JUST LEFT

TOBI WHAT THE HELL

You can take many things, almost everything (and living with this man even Hagoromo would doubt all the things you had to take for the sake of love), but this has gone too far

Now you had to find out what was going on

So you followed him and before he closed the office’s door, you stormed inside it and demanded an explanation…

Well, the explanation you got was not a verbal one: you looked around and found yourself in a sea of scrolls and ink

Of course. A new technique. And an extremely complex one, judging by the amount of ink spent on those drafts. That also explained why he has been so tired lately

You needed to know what kind of technique was that to steal him from you for so long, so before he had the chance to stop you, you grabbed one of the scrolls close to your feet and examined it... And what you saw there almost made you laugh

That jutsu he has been struggling to finish was yours. YOURS LMAO

You created that jutsu years ago, but the need to use it never came. So when you started your relationship with Tobirama, you didn’t mind telling him about it (you kinda forgot it tbh)

Yeah, it was funny as hell but you didn’t want to hurt his pride, so you calmly asked him about it

He sighed and told you the story from the beginning: during one of his last missions, he noticed that his team had some difficulties while dealing with a specific situation. This struggle could be avoided in their next missions if they had a technique like that at hand, so he decided to create it in order to teach it to them

However, the task was being more difficult complex than he first expected, and this was stealing his sleep

You loved this man and his dedication to his young team, so that instead of concentrating on his failures, you thought of this and said you could help him since you knew exactly what he needed

And you did it in the most obvious way, at least to you: you made the hand seals and performed the jutsu

But apparently this was the worst thing you could have done, because now he was not just confused with his own failure but also irritated that you were able to do it so easily

“Of course I would be able to perform it, Tobi, since I’ve created this jutsu”

Tobirama fell silent at this… just before starting to argue that this is not exactly the jutsu he was trying to create, that his idea for the technique was more aligned to another element because bla bla bla bla bla

Nothing in this world would make this man admit he was wrong, this you always knew, but GOD THIS IS SO IRRITATING like why couldn’t he just say it ????

You tried but you couldn’t help getting involved in a fight that only didn’t end up destroying the room because you left first

An entire week passed and you treated each other as strangers. Tobirama managed to create another jutsu, different from the original plan but efficient anyway, but still weren’t going to apologize. You, on the other hand, weren’t going to do it either if he’d keep insisting on this

Surprisingly, it was his team that saved your love that time: that week could have turned into a month if two of his students who went on a mission with you didn’t talk to the others about your jutsu, that was finally proved necessary

You just came back and were at the village’s entry and the rest of team met there. Tobirama came to see his students (and you ofc) and ended up hearing their excited conversatio. One of them turned to him and asked why he didn’t tell them about that jutsu before. He just said he didn’t know about it, otherwise he would have told them

You just gave him that look but said no words

Later, when you came home, you continued in silence until you went to sleep. Only then, Tobi turned to you and said your technique was indeed impressive and that he was content that you managed to protect his young team with it

Knowing him as you did, you understood it as an honest apologize

You know, it was never easy for someone like Tobirama to acknowledge when he was surpassed by someone, but sometimes he did it. And for you, it served as a proof of love 💜

[seance]

2020 content creator tag

RULES: answer the questions and then tag 10+ other creators to answer the questions! 

finally got around to do this, terribly late i know and i’m sorry but i swear i wasn’t ignoring all the incredibly talented people who tagged me! thank you so so much for thinking of me guys ♡ probably lost some @ in the process cause my notifs are a mess. @goinesjennifer @juliesmolina @faeryglass @almondchestnut @olisgifs @andyoudoctor @yenvengerberg @iridescentides @juliesmolinas 

first creation and most recent creation of 2020: god, i already said this but giffing really became my #1 coping mechanism this year so i have a LOT of stuff just from this year. the first one is this THE WITCHER INTRO CARDS gifset and the most recent is actually my julie’s gifset from yesterday but i’m not satisfied with it so! i’m gonna say this KLAUS AND FIVE PARALLELS gifset instead.

one of your favorite creations from 2020: oof, this is super difficult because i get attached to most of my creations, even if they don’t come out as i initially hoped. i’ll go with this five gifset BIRDS HOVER THE TRAMPLED FIELD just because it’s a perfect example of a rare occurrence aka when both my inspiration and my vision and my skills align and i manage to create something exactly how i first imagined it. and also because i think there’s not better fitting poem for this man.

a creation you’re really proud of: i have a few but maybe this ODE TO NUMBER FIVE gifset just because i had a very specific vibe i wanted to give off and i think i managed alright with the colors, texture and design choices! and then i can’t not mention this YOU WERE ALWAYS GOLD TO ME gifset just because i literally poured all my heart into it. this song and these people mean so so much to me.

a new style you tried this year and a gifset that uses it: my style really evolved at the speed of light starting july and i still can’t believe the things i learned once i just let myself try. i keep having new ideas and trying really hard not to dismiss them and see if they work out, telling myself it’s okay if they don’t! i think this ALLISON HARGREEVES gifset basically has it all: the blending, the font work, the shape play. or even this JATP + BODIES OF WATER type of style, complex blending such as this one WILLEX SUPERSTAR is slowly becoming my trademark and i’m not mad about it, i love playing around with fonts like i did in this ALEXREGGIE gifset even if i know it gets really crowded and hard to read sometimes, or even with lines and block of colors like i did here JATP BORN FOR THIS, i finally got back to play around with textures JATP SCRAPBOOK and even JATP DISCOGRAPHY i also tried my hand at creating entire new “atmospheres” playing with specific visual choices like i did in the HARGREEVES AS PARANORMAL INVESTIGATORS set.

your favorite coloring: okay you guys know coloring is easily my favorite thing to do in the world and i’m usually pretty proud of every outcome because i remember how difficult it was for me, for years i thought i would never learn but i still did it, all by myself just keeping trying like a madwoman lmao basically all my the umbrella academy gifset are my pride and joy because did you see that show? how shitty the lighting is? gifmakers need a miracle every single time. so i’m gonna list a few that i still look at fondly ♥

THE SEVEN HARBINGERS OF THE APOCALYPSE

WILLIE AND CALEB 

YOU CAN SET YOURSELF FREE (HARGREEVES)

SEASON ONE FAVORITE EPISODE

ALWAYS GOLD TO ME

THE OLD GUARD + RICHARD SIKEN

a creation that took you forever: basically everything i do ahah just because one way or another i always get stuck on something for hours at end be it the fonts or the colors or the scene choices. but i’d say this STRONGER + HAGREEVES SIBLINGS gifset just because my inspiration went off and i decided i wanted to try a bunch of different techniques all at once and my brain didn’t let me rest until i did it all. to think it all started with just that “everyone will know me by a different name” line, oh my god.

your creation from 2020 that received the most notes: this VANYA + HER SIBLINGS LOVE gifset with 15.406 notes that i kinda hate because what’s up with that font? and the ugly coloring?! totally gonna remake this one because they deserve far better.

a creation you think deserved more notes: oh my god deep down i want to be selfish and say so many because that number never really match the effort i  put in most of my gifs but i’ve also learned not to get too bitter about that, few people rb it, even fewer people comment on it but those people are worth more than anyone else. if i had to chose i’d say either the ALWAYS GOLD TO ME set just because it means so much to me, this ALEXREGGIE set that was so fun to make and i love how the colors and the font work came out, this VANYA + EMPATHY set, and this SWEETIE LITTLE JEAN one.

a creation with a favorite scene/quote: i rarely do actual, canonical quotes and i never use just one scene gsjds- so i’ll go with this DIEGO + LOVE FOR HIS FAMILY one even if i don’t like the font and again ALEX&REGGIE being themselves.

a new fandom you joined and a creation you made for it: considering i was already the umbrella academy and the witcher obsessed i’d say the old guard (YOU KNOW ME WELL) and julie and the phantoms (FAVORITE FRIENDSHIP)

a creation you made that breaks your heart: oh, if you know me even one bit you also know i thrive on angsty feelings, they’re usually my main inspiration not gonna lie so choosing is not that simple! again, this KLAUS AND FIVE parallels gifset because of the sheer tragedy of their lives, this SWEETIE LITTLE JEAN five gifset, this KLAUS HARGREEVES one and this I WANNA BE NUMB AGAIN, this DEAR FORGIVENESS, YOUR BOOKER because this man is a walking tragedy (and this PIECES OF ME DIE ALL THE TIME too for good measure) and then this HARGREEVES SIBS + DAUGHTER gifset.

a ‘simple’ creation that you really love: i have brainworms and once i’ve learned how to do something i never manage to come back to the things i did before so i’ve rarely made “simpler” things lately. maybe this JATP + TIMES OF DAY still qualify.

a creation that was inspired by another one (add both your creation and the one that inspired it!): this FAVORITE JATP CHARACTERS with the circle text inspired by this gifset by the loml @evakant // this JATP ROLES with the triangles technique inspired by this work of art by @anya-chalotra and this WARRIOR JULIE set with the text layout inspired by a lovely gifset that now seems to be deleted :(

a favorite creation created by someone else: i love everything my mutuals make but there are some people who really pushed me to always learn more and their gifs are still my absolute favorite thing to date. for example: this THE OLD GUARD TAROTS set by @milkovivhs // this incredible HARGREEVES SIBLINGS one by @yenvengerberg // this GERALT OF RIVIA masterpiece by @anya-chalotra // this CROWLEY set by the queen of colors herself @meliorn

some of your favorite content creators from the year: really too many to count, my mutuals inspire me every single day, the keep my creativity alive and seeing their creations on my dash is always such a treat! so, all the above for sure and then: i‘m stupidly proud of @sunsetscurving i saw her grow into the giffing process with such speed and such vision, everything she does is so pretty, but all my mutuals are incredibly talented. they don’t do anything half-assed, everything they do perfectly mirrors their efforts! @captainheroism @emeraldphantoms @nora-reid @amandaseyfried @rockyblue @juliesmolina @juliesmolinas @lettersdeeplyworn @jakeperalta @kennyortegas @merceralexs @alexreggieluke @calebcovington @andyoudoctor @almondchestnut @iridescentides @number5theboy @evakant

 and for good measure, another a couple more creations of yours that you love: excluding all the above i’ll go with

JATP FAVORITE QUOTE  

HARGREEVES AS GREEK DEITIES 

YOU ARE HERE TO RISK YOUR HEART

THE JATP GEMSTONE SERIES x / x

SOBRIETY IS OVERRATED

AMOR C’HA NULLO AMATO

IF MEMORIES COULD BLEED

this took me so long that everyone else already did it before me so i don’t think i can tag anyone, if you’re reading this and feel like doing it please feel free!

[panicinthestudio]

Yes long, posts like this happen now and then.

It’s occurred to me during the late nights like this that all of this is armour. That people aren’t growing further apart directly because of technology or that we’ve thicker or thinner skin about things around various issues--they are barriers we’ve put up. Some of them are more subtle and others are quite literal, in general it seems like a jumble of all the things we’ve aggregated, conscious and unconscious cultural design.

Things like emergent wearable tech, beginning with portable music moving to the discreet and miniaturized, ballooning into smartphones, watches, tablets, influencing portables, and integrating into shoes and clothes. They are things that seem to build up a type of tech that tracks, covers, and are held relatively close to the body by mimicking the existing barriers that we’ve become socialized to accept, but with a sensory interface that has become pervasive.

The effect of people sealing themselves off psychologically is a mental, emotional, and physical one. It’s easy to see why VR, robotics, and direct digital to physiological interfaces are prevalent and actively being researched again. We are easily drawn in to a very solitary space even when we’re communicating with people. One such symptom is verbal and written communication becoming especially tangled with short forms like text and audio into video, gifs, emoji, and even carrying multiple conversations simultaneously across platforms.

Screens draw the vision with imperceptible flickering business and cool light; on the tactile side we have touch, cursors and brushes, and textual inputs that give real and simulated feedbacks; while our brains are stimulated with a boatload of written, generated, and created works that bombard us with almost everything possible we could want to experience visually, audibly, and intellectually. And when novelty runs out there’s the minutia of something else to follow.

Is it any wonder how quiet some places and public transit can get? People withdraw to a favourite or new album, fandom, an episode of something topical, the news, gossip, a book without pages: the person’s physical location (and really, the object of interest’s physical dimensions) stop mattering. They could be in bed, on vacation, or on a space station, and it wouldn’t matter. 

***

What it reminds me of is when road rage became a media sensation. Not the strange fascination people had and still have with hair-trigger bursts of violence, but because it was the reaction of people being shocked back into the present moment.

Consumer vehicles in the 1980s and 90s through to now have developed with this immersive design language and technology in mind. Enhanced and assisted controls, refined transmissions, state of the art audio and digital displays, climate controls, sound dampening, and other functions that conceal and seal us in a physical and psychological bubble that distances us from the reality that we’re moving and controlling vehicles, passengers, and sometimes more weight than we want to think about moving at legal speeds.

That is not to say people are less responsible, aware, or responsive; something unexpected happens and it breaks though causing a instinctual reaction of panic or anger like being startled awake or a hypnic jerk.

With the way we are starting to understand less obvious sources of stress and fatigue from sources like diet, lifestyle choices, existing life and social/economic circumstances, but particularly technology and sometimes what it’s shielding or depriving us, I believe there’s a link to those situations with the unbridled comment rage and obsession people have on social media.

Streamed 24-hour news and content cycles, work, leisure, pleasure, entertainment, and social interactions have been forming digital niches for decades now, and new ones appearing all the time. Ballooning echo chambers enhance the polarizations of a compressed world of social, cultural, political, and economic difference; worlds that are continuously in contact, exchange, and clashing with each other while on the same dimensionally flat and virtual space. This doesn’t dismiss any of it as superficial and immaterial when they can actively grow and connect to create real life experiences.

In a way it begins to explain outgrowths of popular culture like binge-watching, idol culture, virtual spectating and e-sports, media/intellectual property franchising, even the soft pop adoption of things like spoilers, trigger warnings, social justice and opposing reactionary movements. Sure, there’s older parallels and similar roles in older media and interactions, but now there’s an increasingly tense breach. On one end, the intense desire and ability to immerse beyond personal limitation to an new extreme (with multiple perspectives, narrative outcomes and specific situations as in video games or a concert, psychological or altered experiences, the perfect persona/character to leverage creative obsession, moral superiority in an  expansive argument, or an entire creative work all at once), with overload to the point of exhaustion or degrees of trauma.The latter explains the loss of enjoyment, hyper-critical, and lacking sense of novelty when confronted with so many choices, highlighting where we have very few options and issues beyond our ability to cope.

***

It ties into less direct phenomenon like cultural appropriation, plastic surgery, expansive popular body modification, as well as self-referential culture like hipsters, memes, and faux social “irony”. Cultural appropriation, misuse of cultural property, and plain prejudicial racism highlight the clearer and the ambiguous borders of cultural protectionism blockades. Depending on the context and severity, it can also illuminate the complex dynamics of where advantages are, who can effectively claim ownership, and who feels entitled to abuse and take. There aren’t pointless fights and returns to the consistent experience of threat of loss or lack of respect to a less powerful community identity.

Tattoos, piercings, surgical mods and manipulations continue as traditional sensory, cultural, aesthetic, and ritual experiences yet have been tuned very differently. Appropriation of social purpose, conservation of styles as well as techniques and designs, purpose, narrative, or communal resonance can become secondary to aims of achieving a sense of conformity, visual/functional manipulation, producing or enhancing ambiguity, and intentional divergence. Literally embedding a sense-barrier of a design that draws attention, repels it, or visually/mentally/functionally changes 

***

People have become less particular about how they want to react or deal with situations. Apathy and affected uncaring becomes part of a circuit of actively, over-invested and corresponding counter statements. It’s a world where we’re bombarded with filtered and unfiltered, poorly fact-checked opinions that stack up and we replicate them in a race not to be accurate or correct, but to rebuild the crumbling barriers as they fall.

[dorothydelgadillo]

Why Homepage Carousels Are Bad (& 3 Alternatives to Try Instead)

Throughout my life, I’ve gone through my fair share of phases.

Some were positive, such as going vegetarian. Some were funny, like my long hair and sweatband phase. Then there are the ones that I REALLY wish I could forget, like my short-lived JNCO jeans phase.

For anyone who isn't familiar with JNCO, they were jeans with extra wide legs that essentially turned yours into amorphous tubes of denim.

Aside from the obnoxious appearance, they constantly dragged on the ground and got caught on EVERYTHING.

But, at the time, 13-year-old me wholeheartedly thought I was killing it.

17 years later, looking back in shame and embarrassment and the only question I can seriously ask myself is “How did I ever think those were a good idea?”

One thing that gives me some solace is that I know that I’m not alone.

Even the web design world has had its fair share of embarrassing phases.

Just look at the marquee tag or bevel and embossed buttons. Even more recently (and still far too prevalent) are homepage carousels.

It’s tough to pinpoint exactly when carousels (also called sliders or slideshows) officially made their debut into the web design world but, despite leading to poor conversion rates, we still see them used all over the web today.

You may be wondering “if they’re not effective, why do people use them?”

There are really two main reasons:

To some people, they look flashy and cool.

It’s an easy solution for telling competing departments within an organization that their messaging is on the website

But there are several downfalls to this logic.

If you’re currently using a slider on your homepage, check out the following reasons to ditch the slider and try one of the alternatives we’ve suggested below.

Reason 1: Sliders Are Prone to Banner Blindness

Banner blindness refers to when people, over time, subconsciously learn to tune out any content that resembles an ad.

When users arrive on a website, they direct their attention to accomplishing a specific goal so anything extra, especially ads, gets ignored.

A number of studies have confirmed that the majority of users view sliders as spammy ads so they tend to skip right over these type of elements.

This is mainly because the cheesy animations and layouts that most sliders use, tend to mimic the design aesthetics we’re used to seeing in banner ads.  

Reason 2: Sliders are Not Built for Accessibility

As Beyonce and many other prominent names are learning, website accessibility plays an extremely important role in modern web design.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) is working on making amendments to the ADA (American with Disabilities Act) that would change the law to include information found on the web and create an equal user experience for everyone.

Unfortunately, most carousels are not optimized for users with disabilities.

Take a look at the site below, for example.

Many sliders, like this one, use either arrows or small bullets as a means of controlling the carousel. These elements have poor contrast from the background, making it almost impossible for those with visual impairments to navigate.  

Having a website that is accessible ensures that all your visitors have the equal opportunity to view your site’s content and interact with your company, regardless of any disabilities anyone may have.

If you do not comply, you may not only alienate some audiences, but risk facing legal action.

Reason 3: Sliders are Notorious for Low Click-through Rates

To put this plain and simple, sliders are conversion killers. People simply do not interact with them.

The University of Notre Dame ran a study on their website to determine the effectiveness of a homepage slider and found that out of the 3,755,297 people who visited their homepage, only a mere 1% actually clicked on an item in the slider.

To add insult to injury 89% of those clicks were on the slide in the first position.

The main reason sliders lead to low click-through rates is due to the “banner blindness” effect that I mentioned earlier.

People simply aren’t paying attention to sliders. Additionally, the quickly-changing slides and multiple offers can make people feel overwhelmed and skip that part of the page as well.

  Reason 4: Sliders Slow Loading and Lack Mobile Optimization

Site speed is a key piece of delivering an enjoyable user experience to your visitors in 2019.

A study done by Akamai found that about half of web users expect a site to load in two seconds or less. Site speed has become so important that even Google factors it into its search algorithm.

With this in mind, sliders have been described as the “the king size candy bar of site weight.”

This is mainly because they feature multiple large images that load all at once and require the use of additional javascript to run.

All those assets quickly eat up your bandwidth.

On top of slow load times, many sliders are not optimized for mobile.

Slider images that may look ok on desktop become impossible to read once shrunk down on mobile. Combine this with the frustration of trying to swipe left and right between slides on your phone and visitors are sure to leave your site with a bad taste in their mouths.    

Reason 5: Competing Messages Overwhelm Visitors

There’s a popular saying that  “If you’re focused on too many things, you’re not focused on anything.” This could not be truer when it comes to carousels.

Let’s breakdown the typical experience a user has with a slider:

Visitor arrives at your homepage excited and ready to learn more.

Visitor sees a message on the first slide and begins reading it - “At Company X We Strive to…”

BOOM! Gone. Next slide. “We have 20 Years of Experience Specializing in...”

BAM! Gone. Next slide.  

Pretty overwhelming, right?

Often sliders move so fast that people aren’t able to fully read, let alone digest and then take action on the information.

This usually leaves users feeling confused about what you're trying to communicate and what their next steps should be.

If the initial feeling a user has on your site is confusion, that’s going to make it almost impossible to build trust. A lot of times, this is enough to cause users to leave your site and find another solution.

If you’d like to test this out, you can visit shouldiuseacarousel.com to see for yourself. Go through the slides and see how much of the information you’re able to retain.

Reason 6: Sliders Take Control Away from the User

Sliders are also a bad idea because they break one of the most important rules of UX - Keep the user in control.

People are always the most comfortable when they are in charge. The modern buyer wants to be in control of their own browsing and purchase experience.

Your website should let users decide what links they click and how fast or slow they read and digest your content. Sliders work against this by either moving too quickly or having small navigation icons.  

What are the Alternatives to Using a Carousel?

All of these reasons come back to one main overarching theme: Sliders simply provide people with a poor user experience.

They create a scenario where users are beat over the head with multiple messages, images, and actions to take. All this adds up to a poor user experience that will leave visitors with a poor image of your brand.  

What can you use instead of a slider?

1. Smart Content

If you’re looking for a way to craft specific messaging for multiple personas on your homepage try implementing smart content.

Smart content (which is readily available in HubSpot) creates an experience that’s personalized specifically for a website visitor based on interests or previous actions on the site.

Not only does it delight users with an experience that’s customized for them but it also presents them with one clear message.

2. Make Your Most Important Messaging More Prominent/Accessible

Rather than beating users over the head with all of your offers at once, let them come across the offers naturally throughout your site.

If you’re struggling to get eyes on your most important offers, try implementing static call-outs for that content in relevant areas and include clear actionable links.

Take a look at the example below.

Instead of putting a bunch of content offers into a slider, ThoroughCare chose one of their most important offers and created a call-out section right below the hero to draw attention to it.

You’ll also notice they have a bright button that tells users exactly what it’s for.

This, like a slider, highlights a key message/initiative, but doesn’t come with any of the accessibility and experience issues.

3. Try Video or Animations

If you’re looking to add some interactivity and motion to your site, try pairing your content with animated GIFs.

The movement and smooth animations used in GIFs grab user attention and add another level of context to your content. Their smooth animations and motion help guide users to where their eyes need to go.

CarLens uses a beautiful animation in the hero of their homepage to give users an idea of the type of stats users can view using their app.     

In addition to animated GIFs, video is also an incredibly useful technique for explaining complex ideas to users through motion.

Video delivers ideas in a format that’s fast and much easier to digest. In fact, viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.

As mentioned before, sliders struggle with low click-through rates and user engagement. Videos and GIFs, however, are known to have the opposite effect.   

Wrapping Up

I can’t take back my embarrassing JNCO jeans phase, but it’s not too late for you to help your website skip an embarrassing phase by ditching its carousel.

Carousels may seem flashy and cool but they’re simply not effective when it comes to converting visitors to qualified leads.

Not only do they lead to slow load times, but they also create a poor user experience that reflects badly on your brand.

Give your users a positive, intuitive experience by delivering content that’s tailored to them using smart content, making your top content naturally and easily accessible, or adding dynamic elements to your site with animated GIFs and video.

I’m sure you’ll find no one misses the slider once it’s gone!

from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/why-homepage-carousels-are-bad

[junker-town]

What’s wrong with the Chiefs offense, and how do they fix it?

Do the Chiefs need to make a QB change? No. Retired NFL lineman Geoff Schwartz gets to the bottom of Kansas City’s problems.

The Chiefs aren’t a good football team right now. They started 5-0, averaging over 30 points per game. In their next six games, they have gone 1-5, with an offense that has gone dormant.

If you’re reading this because you’re hoping I’ll endorse starting quarterback Pat Mahomes, you’re going to be disappointed.

The Chiefs offense is in a major rut. There is no denying that. After starting 5-0, the Chiefs faced the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have the Chiefs’ number. The Chiefs lost 19-13.

The following Thursday, the Chiefs lost to the Raiders on the road, 31-30, on the final play of regulation, a touchdown throw by Derek Carr. The following week, the Chiefs got back into the win column, beating the Broncos 29-19. The Chiefs were 6-2 after that, and there weren’t many worries about this team.

Then the offensive spiral began.

Before the bye week, the Chiefs went to Dallas and lost 28-17 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicted. Following a regular season bye week, Andy Reid’s teams are 16-2. The Chiefs traveled to the 1-8 Giants and got embarrassed 12-9, with a pathetic offensive performance. Fast forward to Sunday, and the Chiefs offense couldn’t get it done again, and they lost 16-10 at home to the Bills.

The Chiefs offense has been stagnant for many reasons besides quarterback play.

When the offense was humming along for the first five weeks, the Chiefs were able to impose their will on opponents, especially with the run game. They brought in a new college run scheme, which I highlighted here, which allows them to use all their interchangeable parts on the edge.

Running the ball well opened up the play action pass, which allowed Smith to chuck the ball downfield and hit home runs, something he hadn’t done in previous seasons. He took advantage of the aggressiveness of defenses playing the run, which isn’t the case anymore with the decreasing success running the ball.

The running game dried up

Kareem Hunt reps have fallen off dramatically. Through the first five weeks, Hunt averaged 19.4 carries per game, and the last six games, 14.5 a game. This has always been a downfall of an Andy Reid offense. Too quick to pull the plug on the run game if things aren’t going well.

When the run game isn’t firing, it’s fair to point the finger at the offensive line. The Chiefs offensive line is having too many communication issues and individual break downs. As with any struggling run game, it’s not an entire unit of bad offensive lineman. It’s the left tackle one play, the center on the next run play, and right guard next and so on. This unit needs to step it up and it starts with just knowing who to block.

Injuries and the passing game

Now let’s get to Alex Smith and the passing game. I’m not going to show y’all a bunch of GIFs of “open” receivers that Alex Smith is missing. For one, that’s not fair to him because we don’t who the first read is, or even the second read. Second, I’m learning route concepts again certain coverages. Besides maybe 10 people on Twitter, no one else knows either. So I’m not doing that.

For the first five games of the season, Alex Smith had his full complement of offensive skill players — Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, Chris Conley and Albert Wilson. He trusted those guys. He threw to them all offseason and through the first five games of the season. In game five, Chris Conley tores his achilles late against the Texans. In that same game, Albert Wilson went down, and has since been in and out in the lineup with knee and hamstring issues. He hasn’t been targeted often when he’s played, until the Buffalo game, where he had seven targets.

Alex Smith is down to Hill, Kelce and young players he has zero chemistry with. This matters for Smith who has a limited skill set. He needs to play with confidence in his receiving targets and throw in rhythm. He’s not Tom Brady, who can insert anyone at receiver and have success.

He also needs to play with confidence in the pocket, which he’s lost. The first month of the season, the Chiefs trotted out their starting five offensive lineman. Smith was comfortable going through his reads. Then they lost their center and their right guard for a good chunk of time. Coupled with their young left guard, who’s struggled at times, the inside of the pocket was rough for weeks. Smith was getting pressured and he’s reverted back to being jittery in the pocket, not trusting his lineman, even with the starters back and generally pass protecting well.

There are far worse offensive pass protecting units. Entering this weekend, Football Outsiders ranked the Eagles, Redskins, Seahawks, Lions and Packers below the Chiefs in pass protection.

Game planning

Before we get Mahomes vs Smith debate, let’s touch on the coaching. Andy Reid is brilliant at designing game plans. There’s no debating that. However, it’s fair to comment on the lack of in-game adjustments. This isn’t just an Andy Reid thing. Most offensive coordinators struggle with in-game adjustments because they have already mentally game planned for every situation, including struggles.

For example, what exactly can Reid change in the middle of a game when players aren’t executing well enough? I think it’s fair to question the run scheme on Sunday. They ran too sideways. That didn’t work and they kept going back to it. But if guys are open and Alex doesn’t hit them, that’s not on the staff.

Lastly, I’d love to see the Chiefs go uptempo and spread the field out. It would force Alex Smith to make quick decisions with the ball and get the defenses on their heels.

Pat Mahomes or Alex Smith?

When Pat Mahomes was drafted, it with was the understanding that he was going to take time to get up to speed with Andy Reid’s offense and NFL defenses.

This from the MMQB sums it up well:

At Texas Tech, Mahomes played in a spread offense, which, notably, he ran with very little discipline. Raw sandlot playmaking prowess works in college, but it does not transfer to the NFL—not as a quarterback’s foundation, anyway. It will take at least an offseason (and probably more) for Mahomes to develop the awareness and discipline to run a full-fledged NFL offense, particularly one as comprehensive as Reid’s.

Nothing has changed from that assessment besides a few out of the pocket plays Mahomes made in the preseason. Unlike Deshaun Watson (who was ready for NFL action, and backing up Tom Savage), Mahomes was given zero reps in practice with the first-team offense, and maybe a drive or two in the preseason with that unit. There was never any plan for him to play, barring injury.

This Chiefs offense is designed for Alex Smith. It has the run concepts that use his legs, something Mahomas didn’t do in college. The timing routes fit what Alex Smith can do, and what he needs to do better. The route concepts are often layered and require complex understanding of both those routes and of the defense. Alex is asked to make multiple checks throughout the game based on coverages. Some are run-to-run checks based on a safety, some are pass checks. Alex makes the protection adjustments on pressures as well.

Most importantly, and if you couldn’t tell, Andy Reid trusts him and so do the players in the huddle. That goes a long way for this veteran coaching staff.

Let me address some of the lines I get about why Mahomes should be playing now.

“Well Travis Kelce said ‘what Mahomes does in practice is just unbelievable.’”

Ok, well Mahomes has an excellent arm. It doesn’t surprise me that comes off as unbelievable in practice. However, Mahomes is taking a majority of these reps with the scout team. On the scout team, you just look at a card and run that play. Often as offensive lineman, we’d get in trouble for running our techniques for a play when the defense wants it done differently. You just do what the defense wants. Mahomes is free from reading coverages and free from consequence of mistakes.

Finally, I can probably make a list of 20 scout team defensive linemen who’d be All-Pros if you watch just practice film. Then, when they get called up the show, they can’t do anything. I’m not saying Mahomes would be a bust, just trying to provide context to that Kelce comment.

I often hear “Mahomes can provide a spark.” What does that mean? The team isn’t losing because of lack of effort. Does it mean that Mahomes can run out of the pocket and throw the ball 40 yards downfield? That’s not an offense, especially in a West Coast system. That is a novelty and it eventually wears down.

There are very few quarterbacks in the NFL who are successful doing that for a living. For as many times as Rodgers and Wilson make plays with their legs to complete a deep throw, they sit in the pocket and fire missiles around the field. Successful quarterback play starts in the pocket.

“We know all how this ends with Alex, I’d rather see Mahomes throw 20 picks.”

Sure, we might know how this season ends with Alex. So be it. Mahomes could be Watson, or he could be Nathan Peterman or Paxton Lynch. The opposite of what you might think or want.

The coaching staff has a job to do, and that’s to win games ... now. They don’t get bonus points for preparing to win next season, not when the Chiefs still lead the division.

Because of how the Chiefs offense executed the first five weeks of the season, which I’ll admit might be fools gold, the coaching staff and players believe they can always regain that form. They will continue to work getting that flow and success back.

There is no magic solution to the Chiefs offenses issues. It will take improved play from everyone across the board and more from the coaching staff. That’s the answer. Play better. Run the ball more. Force Alex to take chances with empty formations. Block better in the run game. Trust the pocket. Catch the ball. That’s it. It’s simple.

I hope the Chiefs figure it out in time for this weekend against the Jets.

[tinymixtapes]

Feature: Avant-Garde Escape Strategies

[A Bewick’s wren perches motionlessly on a thin branch.] In 2017, Twin Peaks is an invigorated brand. It has awoken as if to a new life, walks and breathes more freely. It is viewed on laptops, tablets, phones, and smart televisions connected to Netflix, and it will soon be viewed on SHOWTIME. But how will Twin Peaks be viewed in the year 2117? On what devices? Will it be viewed at all, or will its exact content be experienced in some truncated, more immediate form, facilitated by body-altering technologies yet to be discovered? Who are the people who download Twin Peaks to their brains in the future? Where do they live? These are the kinds of questions SHOWTIME will have to answer in order to ensure the continued relevance of the reawakened, newly optimistic, and hungry Twin Peaks brand. Maybe those viewer-subjects live in a huddled condition, in what philosopher Peter Sloterdijk calls “ecological stress communes,” pressed inland and away from cultural centers now remembered and revered like ancestors, jostled about by resource scarcity, plagued by ridiculous fantasies of aliens and sea people punctuated by actual disaster, war, and collapse. Or maybe these troubles loom on their horizon. In the face of these real nightmares, do they dream of ending up in a place like Twin Peaks, of grappling with its fake demons? Maybe future Twin Peaks viewers see in it a refreshingly provincial vision of encompassing crisis. A town where a yellow light still means “slow down” resonates abstractly with them. They are absorbed by the dark forces stirred out of the brown-gray American forest, by the murder of the cocaine-addicted homecoming queen and secret prostitute. Maybe, naive to the reality of their own circumstances, they feel like Dale Cooper chasing after those elusive and idealized spirits. The X-Files at least has something like a vision of the future, where Twin Peaks only has a vision of the past, and a pretty abstruse one at that. The forces that will carry The X-Files and Twin Peaks together into the cruel future are similar, but not the same. The X-Files, in its simulation of a crackpot investigation motivated less by superstition than clandestine knowledge and bizarre technology, at least has something like a vision of the future, where Twin Peaks only has a vision of the past, and a pretty abstruse one at that. If, disingenuously, The X-Files sought to domesticate the demons split open by modern techniques of investigation, Twin Peaks was overcome by its monsters, disenchanted and reduced to an incomprehensible aesthetic litany. Where The X-Files resolved about a mystery per episode, Twin Peaks lacked satisfying answers. And while we don’t know how Twin Peaks will be viewed in the future, SHOWTIME is wise to bet on disenchantment, on unanswered questioning and the melting of things into dark, muddy pictures. --- [Three white plumes ascend from the smokestacks ahead.] You wake up from an unclear dream in the late afternoon. The year is 2011 or 2012. Your room is dark and warm. Your laptop is next to you, partly covered by sheets. Disoriented, you rub gunk out of your eyes. You were up late browsing Tumblr again. Your laptop screen opens upon your unrefreshed dashboard, where you had fallen asleep to a looping GIF of Laura Palmer’s freeze-framed VHS smile from “Pilot (Northwest Passage).” You “like” the post. Co-created by David Lynch, a pioneer of American avant-garde cinema known for such films as Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive, the show mixes Lynch’s unique brand of surrealism with a dated form of the primetime drama in a way that you’ve enjoyed since you were introduced to the show by friends on the internet. One of the many reasons you love Twin Peaks is that its characters feel like people you know in real life, even though everything else in the show feels very unfamiliar. Twin Peaks makes you nostalgic for a time you don’t remember and a place that doesn’t exist. Animation: Korey Daunhauer Twin Peaks makes you nostalgic for a time you don’t remember and a place that doesn’t exist. Before you knew who David Lynch was, you had seen Laura Palmer wrapped in plastic, an icon of ossified innocence. It would take Lynch and Mark Frost a while to notice, or to do anything about, the fact that Twin Peaks had taken about 20 years to strike the nerve it was always supposed to hit, the one in you. Maybe they were too cynical, too forward-thinking. They thought your parents would be like this. Or, more likely, the conversation they staged between the avant-garde and its supposed opposite traumatically fell through, revealing, eventually, the uncanny mixture obscured by those labels, which they never knew how to control. It took a while to work itself out. By eventually thickening the show with supernatural diversions and visually peculiar dream sequences, ultimately leaving many of its mysteries unsolved, Lynch and Frost created the perpetual conditions for a scrupulous, even paranoid viewing of Twin Peaks. The question is how the show’s visual language, founded upon a mostly-arbitrary complexity inherited equally from Lynch’s experimentalism and from the genre within which it is put to work, means anything at all after the fact of its disenchantment — aestheticized, separated from the ostensible movement toward resolution. Or, as Anamanaguchi’s Peter Berkman put it in a reply to a comment on one of his Facebook status updates, “the question is how that grammar has changed now that we can pause and dissect individual frames in and out of context.” You close your eyes, take a deep breath, and keep scrolling Tumblr. --- [Sparks fly from the grinding wheel as you move in for a closer look.] INT. GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL DINING AREA - MORNING Sunlight pours into the room from the right. DALE COOPER sips coffee, his tape recorder placed neatly in front of him on the table. COOPER Diane, the time is 8:05 A.M., I’m at the Great Northern Hotel. I’ve just awoke from a terrible and convoluted dream. I’m not sure how much of it was significant to the inquiry into Laura Palmer’s death and how much of it was fabricated by BOB for the purpose of diverting it; to be honest, I’m not even sure if BOB or the Black Lodge are real anymore. I don’t know if I care or if the outcome of the investigation is important to me. I feel terrible. I lied awake in bed for a few hours. I feel like I’m living in someone else’s bizarre fantasy. (He pauses.) I mean, I guess her dad did it? I live at this hotel now. BOBBY BRIGGS enters from the GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL LOBBY holding a football. BOBBY Hey, Coop! Catch! BOBBY throws COOPER the football. COOPER fails to catch the football and it hits his tape recorder, sending it flying into the mug of coffee. COOPER B-Bobby! I — AUDREY HORNE enters from the GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL LOBBY smoking a cigarette, holding an iPhone. AUDREY (puffing cigarette) “When the masses think, the intellectual dies.” –Antonio Negri --- [A massive log looms atop a dolly.] Was Twin Peaks an attempt to make the masses think, to think with the masses and to kill the intellectual, or to think of the masses? To create an intellectual picture of their supposed fears and superstitions, their vices and neuroses? First, there’s Cooper and his obsession with an idea of homespun authenticity, one of the show’s biggest memes. There’s also Harry S. Truman, the sheriff, well-intentioned and pragmatic; Bobby Briggs, the football star, surly and unpredictable; the show’s various tokens of the bumbling serendipity of small-town America (Andy the cop, Pete the loyal husband); and the town’s enigmas and obsessives (James the boyishly gilded biker, Leland Palmer, Lawrence the shrink, and Harold the shut-in). Then, there’s a group of female characters, beginning with Laura and growing to include Shelly Johnson, Donna Hayward, Audrey Horne, Norma Jennings, Josie Packard, Lucy Moran, and Catherine Martell, who are depicted at best as seriously or repeatedly traumatized and, at worst, as stupid or possessed by some unknown whim, complicit in their own undoing. Where the town of Twin Peaks is bottomless in its dark mythology, it is flat in other ways. The image of community in Twin Peaks is convincing, actually, because it is not realistic. It is a vision of the countryside native to the city and is nonetheless awkward in representing both. FBI agents and industrialists, the show’s main representatives of the latter, view the fixed category of “provincial values” with lust or disdain. The working assumption is that the city is a place that mystery and magic have abandoned in favor of particular backwaters. That urban coexistence is antithetical to wonder. Moby’s “Go,” the popular rave-inspired electronica single based on a sample of Angelo Badalamenti’s theme music for Twin Peaks, is both clearer about who it is talking to and more successful in its attempt to practice an inclusive form of mastery over its created public than the show itself. As I drive east on Phoenix’s Loop 202 away from the setting sun, “Go (Woodtick Mix)” fades into “Go (Soundtrack Mix),” a line of a hundred cars curving delicately to the returning, quantized “yeahs.” --- [A waterfall crashes.] Everybody needs an escape from the avant-garde. To think all of the time is difficult, and it seems better that one find some place of negotiation, where many people think more and few people think less. As an escape strategy, Twin Peaks faltered in its weirdness, its stubborn maintenance of a position among the few. It was, moreover, unrealistic in its concept of the many. Gesturing toward the avant-garde, it failed there most spectacularly; no matter the depth of the perennial ebb and flow of interest in Lynch’s work, it will always make complete sense to me that Fire Walk With Me was booed at Cannes. If Lynch’s murderous backwater is perfectly fitted to the fetishes and anxieties of today’s teenagers, it is only because they have many of the same fetishes and anxieties as their parents, who watched with baited breath until the questions and clues lost their impact. Lynch’s vision of provincial intrigue said more about the values and aesthetics of America’s cities than its towns, and it appeals to we who carry with us everywhere a version of what Lynch saw in the city. If Lynch’s murderous backwater is perfectly fitted to the fetishes and anxieties of today’s teenagers, it is only because they have many of the same fetishes and anxieties as their parents, who watched with baited breath until the questions and clues lost their impact. Today, Twin Peaks exists against the backdrop of a nostalgia cult. Millennials, lacking spiritual unity and drawn to promises of darkness, are fascinated. Resuscitated by the esoteric magic of the brandscape, will Twin Peaks really walk and breathe more freely, as if awoken to a new life, and find something like that original sense of purpose? Or will it lose its way again in the smoke and mirrors of a shoddily constructed model of the public? --- On this auspicious morning for Twin Peaks, you languish in your room, thinking of the past. Of dead memes, content dampened and wrapped in plastic. Sometimes you wish you could immaterialize, becoming the unfeeling aggregate of your social footprint. You dream of disappearing into a fog of blogwave, street style, spicy memes, or Twin Peaks. Other times, you feel surprisingly up to the task of remaining an aggregate of relations. Your mental image of your environment sometimes appears in the form of a monster you are working to vanquish. With an intoxicated discomfort like nausea, you realize that Laura never lived in a world, had a future. That the real mysteries were yours. --- [You approach a wooden sign on the right side of the road.] http://j.mp/2pXgudV

[kristinejrosario]

7 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid in 2017

Everybody makes mistakes. This is something that can’t be avoided all of the time. In fact, some of those errors can turn into some of your greatest learning experiences. However, one of the best ways to save time and money in your blogging is to learn from the mistakes of others. If you do that – and avoid those same pitfalls yourself – you will already be ahead of the game.

I can’t prevent you from experiencing some of the mishaps that bloggers deal with, but I can give you some pointers to help you along the way.

If you haven’t already committed a few of the slip-ups I’ll be discussing here, then great! I’m happy to know that you might benefit from my past mistakes, as well as the blunders others have made. After all, the blogosphere is really a community – and we’re all in it together. We all do better when we help each other out; so let’s get started.

Here are my top picks for the seven blogging mistakes you should avoid in the year ahead. And, hey! If you slip up and forget to avoid one or two of them, don’t worry. Consider this a handy guide for doing some damage control before it’s too late.

Mistake #1: Not Knowing Your Target Audience

I reckon more than 50% of the bloggers I’ve spoken with have no idea who they are blogging for. If you do not know who your target audience is – how do you produce the right content?

How do you figure out who you should be blogging to? No, you don’t need to be a psychic to identify your audience! You do need to be resourceful, though – and by that, I mean make use of the resources available to you on the web.

What kinds of resources, you say? Here are a few you can explore:

Survey tools

SurveyMonkey or Google Forms to run surveys by your site visitors. This will help you to understand them and what they expect from your blog. Both of these sites offer free services.

Web Analytic / SEO Tools

Alexa to understand your competitor sites better; you can cull information on where their visitors live, which websites have a similar audience, and how they rank globally. Exploring the audience of a competitor can give you a fresh perspective on your blog.

And don’t forget to check your own blog. Seeing your own statistics is always useful. The Alexa site offers a free trial, and you can utilize tools such as a competitor overlap function, in addition to taking a look at your competitors’ performance and other data.

Other similar tools that I recommend: Similar Web, SEM Rush, and SpyFu.

Persona Tool

Xtensio to create a user persona, so all writers on your blog understand your target audience and goals clearly. You and your writers need to be on the same page in terms of who you’re speaking to; this site will help you do that. You can use the software to create various personas that represent your average site users. Xtensio offers both free and upgraded memberships.

A persona sample at Xtensio.

Mistake #2: Not Collecting Emails from Day One

If I could change one major detail that I didn’t know about early on, it would be collecting emails from the very start!

Doing this one thing could have spared me so much stress after Google’s first Penguin algorithm update. I’d been cruising along successfully for a decade when this one update changed everything for my website. In one day, I lost more than 70% of my traffic (and consequently, my revenue totals tanked, too). Web Hosting Secret Revealed (WHSR), which is my blog, literally went from 80,000 monthly visitors to less than 500 per day. I had no idea it was going to happen. Ouch.

The lesson I learned (the hard way) from that experience? Had I been sending out emails to visitors, I could have salvaged at least half of the traffic to the blog.

Don’t let your blog fall victim to another algorithm update the way that mine did. Do yourself and your other bloggers a huge favor: Start getting those email addresses from your visitors immediately.

If you’re worried that collecting emails will bother your visitors and cause them to leave your site, stop worrying. If you do it the right way, you can get those emails without annoying your users.

The following are a few pointers.

Freebies / Content Upgrades

Offer freebies or content upgrades that people can only get via your email newsletter. That could include e-books, podcasts, and email courses.

One technique is to provide a great blog post that addresses the needs of your target audience. At the end of the post, offer more in-depth content in whatever form you choose (such as an e-book). Make sure your readers understand that the e-book will provide more detailed information than the blogpost; and then, let them know that you’re offering the e-book for free to your email subscribers.

Real life examples:

Free 8 week online training program at B-School (source).

Free media kit templates for bloggers (source).

Effective Call-to-Action (CTA)

Use the right call-to-action (CTAs) in the right place.

People respond better to certain types of CTAs: They should be clear and to the point, and they should tell the reader what your email subscription has to offer. Be direct and simple, use compelling language, and create a sense of urgency whenever it’s possible.

Some real-life examples:

“Join our community of 300,000+ bloggers” – Problogger.net has one of the most effective CTA.

Become An Expert” – The sticky CTA at ConversionXL.com(source).

Once you have your CTA ready, be sure to place it where it will get the most results.

Yes, you can place it at the end of a blog post, but that might not be as effective as you may think. Since a lot of readers scan articles and many don’t even make it to the end of a blog post, you may want to insert your CTA on the side of the page – or even in the middle of a post: “Get new tips weekly and my free email course now.”

Most visitors only read about 50% of the article at Slate.com (source).

Media-rich content

Provide content that gets your readers excited about seeing more from you. Good blog posts certainly provide value to your overall content, but the average reader wants to see more than text on a page.

Images break up content and keep people on the page, especially when you use them in a strategic way.

Real life examples:

One of the main reasons I love reading Andrew Lee’s travel blog“Here and There” is because his posts are always fun to read with all the memes, GIF images, photos, and first person point-of-view videos.

Tony Messer’sStep-by-step Guide to Twitter for Local Businesses consists of a .pdf file, an infographic, and a 2,000+ words tutorial.

Mistake #3 Not Promoting Your Blogposts Proactively

Good content is a must for a successful blog. But remember that just because you write an epic blogpost, it doesn’t mean that traffic will automatically come your way.

Some fundamental must-do when you publish a new post include:

Email your subscribers

I hope by now, you realize that collecting emails is vital….right? Well, now you can announce your blogposts in the emails you send to your subscribers.

Ping your guests

If your posts link to other blogs or contain quotes from other bloggers, you should ping them and ask for a share. Usually, when people are featured in your posts, they are happy to share them with their own audience. Everybody wins.

Share on social networks

Promote your blog on all major social media networks. If you don’t have accounts on sites like Instagram, Pinterest, and Google+, now is the time to do it. Don’t be afraid of marketing via social media; it’s not as complex or as intimidating as you might think.

A few basics for success include updating your users regularly, building relationships instead of coming across like you’re selling to people, and providing content that is useful and engaging. Think about what you’d like to see on your favorite social media site; you probably don’t want to be hit over the head with aggressive advertising, do you? But you probably don’t mind seeing a few links to websites and products/services that you can really use.

Advertise on Facebook

Personally, my favorite way to drive paid traffic is with Facebook advertising. Why? Because it’s: easy to get started with, effective in almost any niche, and phenomenal for both specific and broad targeting. I wrote about FB marketing strategies some time ago, and those strategies are still applicable today (like promoting benefits instead of products, offering rewards, and keeping your content simple as opposed to complicated and confusing).

Ad idea: Use Facebook Carousel Ads to promote multiple blogposts (source).

Mistake #4: Having Too Many Popups and Banners

We get it: Popups work! Using them is the best way to convert visitors into subscribers or to sell a product. My website’s newsletter subscription rate soared over 400% when I started using a popup form throughout the site.

And this is exactly why you are even seeing the pros over-use popups. When a popup ad can yield so many more clicks than a banner ad, it just makes sense to put your advertising dollars there, right? That’s why you see popups being used by virtually everyone nowadays, from major consumer brands to content marketing websites.

But too much of a good thing will drive your traffic away quickly. Popups should be used in moderation because when they are displayed in excess, they can jeopardize the user experience. Again, put yourself in the place of the average website visitor. If you’re like millions of other internet users, you visit websites on a regular basis. When you see one or two popups that are relevant to you, you probably don’t mind – do you? But if you’re bombarded by irrelevant popups, how likely are you to make a quick exit?

If your answer was highly likely, you’re in good company. 70% of Americans get most annoyed when irrelevant popups block the site they are viewing.

And here’s another point worth pondering: Google announced that it will begin cracking down on intrusive interstitials (read: popups) in January 2017. So do your visitors and yourself a favor now; use popups sparingly, and make sure you’re only using ones that will resonate with your average audience.

Mistake #5: Doing Everything Alone

Here’s the good news: You don’t have to do it all to succeed as a blogger!

Everything is easier when you have good friends and great resources. If you try to do everything without help, you will likely face burnout and limit your blog’s growth.

Whether you’re an employee, manager, sole proprietor, or entrepreneur, putting in too many hours and failing to delegate/outsource various tasks could cause you to become less effective and efficient over time.

You can (and should) outsource some of your tasks to freelancers. These are a few sites that will help you do that.

Writers / bloggers

http://problogger.com/jobs/

https://www.contentrunner.com/

https://www.scripted.com/

Blog Developers / Programmers

https://www.toptal.com/

https://codeable.io/

https://gigster.com/

Desginers

http://www.coroflot.com/

https://www.behance.net/joblist

http://jobs.smashingmagazine.com/

Freelancers platforms

https://www.upwork.com/

https://www.freelancer.com/

https://www.peopleperhour.com/

My fav: Content Runner & Problogger Job Board

Problogger Job Board needs no introduction. More than half of the writers in my team were found on Problogger Job Board.

Content Runner is one of the best sources on the web for putting clients and writers together – a great place to find talented and experienced writers. You can commission writers there to provide the content necessary for all bloggers, such as blog posts and social media posts. Best of all, you can reach out to writers who make a good fit, instead of being limited in direct communication the way you would be at many content marketing sites. Another benefit is that you can name your own price instead of paying a one-size-fits-all fee; this means that you can post jobs according to your own budget, and you can pay more to writers in certain pools who have already proven their capabilities.

Mistake #6: Not Developing Your Blog After Launch

Ever visit a blog repeatedly, only to lose interest in it because it never seems to go anywhere?

Yeah, we’ve all seen those websites – the ones that look like they haven’t been touched since the day they went live. Even if the business behind such a blog is the best in its industry, you might start to think: “Hey, if this company/blogger doesn’t keep the website updated and relevant, maybe their products or services aren’t so relevant, either.”

When I first utilized a content delivery network (CDN) on my site few years ago, the bounce rate plunged and the conversion rate (in term of sales and subscription) shot up more than 30% almost instantly.

In December 2016, we did a total revamp on our site and we are already seeing great improvements after the launch. Search traffic improved by at least 25% to date (and still growing) as the new site now loads faster and provides better/easier site navigation. This was the third major revamp since I started WHSR in the past eight years – it’s important that we keep up with the latest technology (we switched to PHP 7 finally) and make sure that the site is compatible with new trends.

Our new site design at Web Hosting Secret Revealed (source).

Long answer short: Blog development is an ongoing process. You must keep developing your blog and make sure it’s up to current web standards.

And, don’t just take my word for it, though. Here are examples of other industry leaders who know the value of website development:

Darren Rowse redesigned Problogger in April 2016, introducing new features – such as portals – to enhance the user experience.

Syed Balkhi did a site redesign at WP Beginner just two months ago (Nov 2016 and that’s the 5th redesign in 8 years).

The key lesson is this: Don’t underestimate the importance of your blog development. There is always something you can do to load your site faster, to present your content better, as well as to improve your overall user experience.

Mistake #7: Starting a Blog Without a Monetization Plan

Every blog should be able to stand on its own financially.

Even if your goals for your blog don’t include turning a profit with it, you still need to generate enough money to keep the website afloat (and continuously evolving). And even if the sole purpose of your blog is to draw attention to your business, why not make some money from the blog, too? You can always use extra income, right? Well, a blog is an excellent means of generating more income.

Here are a few proven ways to monetize your blog:

Sell informational products, like e-books and educational courses. These are not as difficult to produce as you might think; just write about what you know (which you already do on your blog).

Let people benefit from your expertise, and do it beyond the scope of your blog. You can do this by offering consulting services and private coaching sessions.

Promote affiliate products in your blogposts and emails.

Sell ad space via AdSense. Another strategy for finding advertisers is to take a look at who’s advertising on your competitors’ sites. Then, contact those businesses directly to discuss selling them ad space.

Ask for donations. If your visitors spend a lot of time on your website or come back to it frequently, they probably consider it a valued resource. A carefully worded request for donations in your sidebar could be met with much success.

Offer a job board. This is a great strategy for generating more traffic (people may find your website when they’re looking for jobs). By providing the information for a reasonable fee, you can maximize that new traffic – along with providing a valuable service that may interest your current email subscribers, too.

Now, you’re ready to hit the ground running!

Avoid some of the classic mistakes that bloggers make, so you can waste less time and make the most of your resources. I wish I’d known some of these things when I started my blog; but hey – I did learn some valuable lessons. I hope you will benefit from my experience and put some of these tips to good use.

The post 7 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid in 2017 appeared first on ProBlogger.

       from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/UJhnJfjNPW0/

[richardrobertsimsuccessblog]

7 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid in 2017

Everybody makes mistakes. This is something that can’t be avoided all of the time. In fact, some of those errors can turn into some of your greatest learning experiences. However, one of the best ways to save time and money in your blogging is to learn from the mistakes of others. If you do that – and avoid those same pitfalls yourself – you will already be ahead of the game.

I can’t prevent you from experiencing some of the mishaps that bloggers deal with, but I can give you some pointers to help you along the way.

If you haven’t already committed a few of the slip-ups I’ll be discussing here, then great! I’m happy to know that you might benefit from my past mistakes, as well as the blunders others have made. After all, the blogosphere is really a community – and we’re all in it together. We all do better when we help each other out; so let’s get started.

Here are my top picks for the seven blogging mistakes you should avoid in the year ahead. And, hey! If you slip up and forget to avoid one or two of them, don’t worry. Consider this a handy guide for doing some damage control before it’s too late.

Mistake #1: Not Knowing Your Target Audience

I reckon more than 50% of the bloggers I’ve spoken with have no idea who they are blogging for. If you do not know who your target audience is – how do you produce the right content?

How do you figure out who you should be blogging to? No, you don’t need to be a psychic to identify your audience! You do need to be resourceful, though – and by that, I mean make use of the resources available to you on the web.

What kinds of resources, you say? Here are a few you can explore:

Survey tools

SurveyMonkey or Google Forms to run surveys by your site visitors. This will help you to understand them and what they expect from your blog. Both of these sites offer free services.

Web Analytic / SEO Tools

Alexa to understand your competitor sites better; you can cull information on where their visitors live, which websites have a similar audience, and how they rank globally. Exploring the audience of a competitor can give you a fresh perspective on your blog.

And don’t forget to check your own blog. Seeing your own statistics is always useful. The Alexa site offers a free trial, and you can utilize tools such as a competitor overlap function, in addition to taking a look at your competitors’ performance and other data.

Other similar tools that I recommend: Similar Web, SEM Rush, and SpyFu.

Persona Tool

Xtensio to create a user persona, so all writers on your blog understand your target audience and goals clearly. You and your writers need to be on the same page in terms of who you’re speaking to; this site will help you do that. You can use the software to create various personas that represent your average site users. Xtensio offers both free and upgraded memberships.

A persona sample at Xtensio.

Mistake #2: Not Collecting Emails from Day One

If I could change one major detail that I didn’t know about early on, it would be collecting emails from the very start!

Doing this one thing could have spared me so much stress after Google’s first Penguin algorithm update. I’d been cruising along successfully for a decade when this one update changed everything for my website. In one day, I lost more than 70% of my traffic (and consequently, my revenue totals tanked, too). Web Hosting Secret Revealed (WHSR), which is my blog, literally went from 80,000 monthly visitors to less than 500 per day. I had no idea it was going to happen. Ouch.

The lesson I learned (the hard way) from that experience? Had I been sending out emails to visitors, I could have salvaged at least half of the traffic to the blog.

Don’t let your blog fall victim to another algorithm update the way that mine did. Do yourself and your other bloggers a huge favor: Start getting those email addresses from your visitors immediately.

If you’re worried that collecting emails will bother your visitors and cause them to leave your site, stop worrying. If you do it the right way, you can get those emails without annoying your users.

The following are a few pointers.

Freebies / Content Upgrades

Offer freebies or content upgrades that people can only get via your email newsletter. That could include e-books, podcasts, and email courses.

One technique is to provide a great blog post that addresses the needs of your target audience. At the end of the post, offer more in-depth content in whatever form you choose (such as an e-book). Make sure your readers understand that the e-book will provide more detailed information than the blogpost; and then, let them know that you’re offering the e-book for free to your email subscribers.

Real life examples:

Free 8 week online training program at B-School (source).

Free media kit templates for bloggers (source).

Effective Call-to-Action (CTA)

Use the right call-to-action (CTAs) in the right place.

People respond better to certain types of CTAs: They should be clear and to the point, and they should tell the reader what your email subscription has to offer. Be direct and simple, use compelling language, and create a sense of urgency whenever it’s possible.

Some real-life examples:

“Join our community of 300,000+ bloggers” – Problogger.net has one of the most effective CTA.

Become An Expert” – The sticky CTA at ConversionXL.com(source).

Once you have your CTA ready, be sure to place it where it will get the most results.

Yes, you can place it at the end of a blog post, but that might not be as effective as you may think. Since a lot of readers scan articles and many don’t even make it to the end of a blog post, you may want to insert your CTA on the side of the page – or even in the middle of a post: “Get new tips weekly and my free email course now.”

Most visitors only read about 50% of the article at Slate.com (source).

Media-rich content

Provide content that gets your readers excited about seeing more from you. Good blog posts certainly provide value to your overall content, but the average reader wants to see more than text on a page.

Images break up content and keep people on the page, especially when you use them in a strategic way.

Real life examples:

One of the main reasons I love reading Andrew Lee’s travel blog“Here and There” is because his posts are always fun to read with all the memes, GIF images, photos, and first person point-of-view videos.

Tony Messer’sStep-by-step Guide to Twitter for Local Businesses consists of a .pdf file, an infographic, and a 2,000+ words tutorial.

Mistake #3 Not Promoting Your Blogposts Proactively

Good content is a must for a successful blog. But remember that just because you write an epic blogpost, it doesn’t mean that traffic will automatically come your way.

Some fundamental must-do when you publish a new post include:

Email your subscribers

I hope by now, you realize that collecting emails is vital….right? Well, now you can announce your blogposts in the emails you send to your subscribers.

Ping your guests

If your posts link to other blogs or contain quotes from other bloggers, you should ping them and ask for a share. Usually, when people are featured in your posts, they are happy to share them with their own audience. Everybody wins.

Share on social networks

Promote your blog on all major social media networks. If you don’t have accounts on sites like Instagram, Pinterest, and Google+, now is the time to do it. Don’t be afraid of marketing via social media; it’s not as complex or as intimidating as you might think.

A few basics for success include updating your users regularly, building relationships instead of coming across like you’re selling to people, and providing content that is useful and engaging. Think about what you’d like to see on your favorite social media site; you probably don’t want to be hit over the head with aggressive advertising, do you? But you probably don’t mind seeing a few links to websites and products/services that you can really use.

Advertise on Facebook

Personally, my favorite way to drive paid traffic is with Facebook advertising. Why? Because it’s: easy to get started with, effective in almost any niche, and phenomenal for both specific and broad targeting. I wrote about FB marketing strategies some time ago, and those strategies are still applicable today (like promoting benefits instead of products, offering rewards, and keeping your content simple as opposed to complicated and confusing).

Ad idea: Use Facebook Carousel Ads to promote multiple blogposts (source).

Mistake #4: Having Too Many Popups and Banners

We get it: Popups work! Using them is the best way to convert visitors into subscribers or to sell a product. My website’s newsletter subscription rate soared over 400% when I started using a popup form throughout the site.

And this is exactly why you are even seeing the pros over-use popups. When a popup ad can yield so many more clicks than a banner ad, it just makes sense to put your advertising dollars there, right? That’s why you see popups being used by virtually everyone nowadays, from major consumer brands to content marketing websites.

But too much of a good thing will drive your traffic away quickly. Popups should be used in moderation because when they are displayed in excess, they can jeopardize the user experience. Again, put yourself in the place of the average website visitor. If you’re like millions of other internet users, you visit websites on a regular basis. When you see one or two popups that are relevant to you, you probably don’t mind – do you? But if you’re bombarded by irrelevant popups, how likely are you to make a quick exit?

If your answer was highly likely, you’re in good company. 70% of Americans get most annoyed when irrelevant popups block the site they are viewing.

And here’s another point worth pondering: Google announced that it will begin cracking down on intrusive interstitials (read: popups) in January 2017. So do your visitors and yourself a favor now; use popups sparingly, and make sure you’re only using ones that will resonate with your average audience.

Mistake #5: Doing Everything Alone

Here’s the good news: You don’t have to do it all to succeed as a blogger!

Everything is easier when you have good friends and great resources. If you try to do everything without help, you will likely face burnout and limit your blog’s growth.

Whether you’re an employee, manager, sole proprietor, or entrepreneur, putting in too many hours and failing to delegate/outsource various tasks could cause you to become less effective and efficient over time.

You can (and should) outsource some of your tasks to freelancers. These are a few sites that will help you do that.

Writers / bloggers

http://ift.tt/2dy2G8f

http://ift.tt/1h8R1XT

http://ift.tt/1Tb3Na6

Blog Developers / Programmers

https://www.toptal.com/

https://codeable.io/

https://gigster.com/

Desginers

http://ift.tt/niF4bk

http://ift.tt/SDOLxm

http://ift.tt/m8Q3p5

Freelancers platforms

https://www.upwork.com/

http://ift.tt/UQds8E

http://ift.tt/1EmpLgE

My fav: Content Runner & Problogger Job Board

Problogger Job Board needs no introduction. More than half of the writers in my team were found on Problogger Job Board.

Content Runner is one of the best sources on the web for putting clients and writers together – a great place to find talented and experienced writers. You can commission writers there to provide the content necessary for all bloggers, such as blog posts and social media posts. Best of all, you can reach out to writers who make a good fit, instead of being limited in direct communication the way you would be at many content marketing sites. Another benefit is that you can name your own price instead of paying a one-size-fits-all fee; this means that you can post jobs according to your own budget, and you can pay more to writers in certain pools who have already proven their capabilities.

Mistake #6: Not Developing Your Blog After Launch

Ever visit a blog repeatedly, only to lose interest in it because it never seems to go anywhere?

Yeah, we’ve all seen those websites – the ones that look like they haven’t been touched since the day they went live. Even if the business behind such a blog is the best in its industry, you might start to think: “Hey, if this company/blogger doesn’t keep the website updated and relevant, maybe their products or services aren’t so relevant, either.”

When I first utilized a content delivery network (CDN) on my site few years ago, the bounce rate plunged and the conversion rate (in term of sales and subscription) shot up more than 30% almost instantly.

In December 2016, we did a total revamp on our site and we are already seeing great improvements after the launch. Search traffic improved by at least 25% to date (and still growing) as the new site now loads faster and provides better/easier site navigation. This was the third major revamp since I started WHSR in the past eight years – it’s important that we keep up with the latest technology (we switched to PHP 7 finally) and make sure that the site is compatible with new trends.

Our new site design at Web Hosting Secret Revealed (source).

Long answer short: Blog development is an ongoing process. You must keep developing your blog and make sure it’s up to current web standards.

And, don’t just take my word for it, though. Here are examples of other industry leaders who know the value of website development:

Darren Rowse redesigned Problogger in April 2016, introducing new features – such as portals – to enhance the user experience.

Syed Balkhi did a site redesign at WP Beginner just two months ago (Nov 2016 and that’s the 5th redesign in 8 years).

The key lesson is this: Don’t underestimate the importance of your blog development. There is always something you can do to load your site faster, to present your content better, as well as to improve your overall user experience.

Mistake #7: Starting a Blog Without a Monetization Plan

Every blog should be able to stand on its own financially.

Even if your goals for your blog don’t include turning a profit with it, you still need to generate enough money to keep the website afloat (and continuously evolving). And even if the sole purpose of your blog is to draw attention to your business, why not make some money from the blog, too? You can always use extra income, right? Well, a blog is an excellent means of generating more income.

Here are a few proven ways to monetize your blog:

Sell informational products, like e-books and educational courses. These are not as difficult to produce as you might think; just write about what you know (which you already do on your blog).

Let people benefit from your expertise, and do it beyond the scope of your blog. You can do this by offering consulting services and private coaching sessions.

Promote affiliate products in your blogposts and emails.

Sell ad space via AdSense. Another strategy for finding advertisers is to take a look at who’s advertising on your competitors’ sites. Then, contact those businesses directly to discuss selling them ad space.

Ask for donations. If your visitors spend a lot of time on your website or come back to it frequently, they probably consider it a valued resource. A carefully worded request for donations in your sidebar could be met with much success.

Offer a job board. This is a great strategy for generating more traffic (people may find your website when they’re looking for jobs). By providing the information for a reasonable fee, you can maximize that new traffic – along with providing a valuable service that may interest your current email subscribers, too.

Now, you’re ready to hit the ground running!

Avoid some of the classic mistakes that bloggers make, so you can waste less time and make the most of your resources. I wish I’d known some of these things when I started my blog; but hey – I did learn some valuable lessons. I hope you will benefit from my experience and put some of these tips to good use.

The post 7 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid in 2017 appeared first on ProBlogger.

       7 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid in 2017

[silvino32mills]

7 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid in 2017

Everybody makes mistakes. This is something that can’t be avoided all of the time. In fact, some of those errors can turn into some of your greatest learning experiences. However, one of the best ways to save time and money in your blogging is to learn from the mistakes of others. If you do that – and avoid those same pitfalls yourself – you will already be ahead of the game.

I can’t prevent you from experiencing some of the mishaps that bloggers deal with, but I can give you some pointers to help you along the way.

If you haven’t already committed a few of the slip-ups I’ll be discussing here, then great! I’m happy to know that you might benefit from my past mistakes, as well as the blunders others have made. After all, the blogosphere is really a community – and we’re all in it together. We all do better when we help each other out; so let’s get started.

Here are my top picks for the seven blogging mistakes you should avoid in the year ahead. And, hey! If you slip up and forget to avoid one or two of them, don’t worry. Consider this a handy guide for doing some damage control before it’s too late.

Mistake #1: Not Knowing Your Target Audience

I reckon more than 50% of the bloggers I’ve spoken with have no idea who they are blogging for. If you do not know who your target audience is – how do you produce the right content?

How do you figure out who you should be blogging to? No, you don’t need to be a psychic to identify your audience! You do need to be resourceful, though – and by that, I mean make use of the resources available to you on the web.

What kinds of resources, you say? Here are a few you can explore:

Survey tools

SurveyMonkey or Google Forms to run surveys by your site visitors. This will help you to understand them and what they expect from your blog. Both of these sites offer free services.

Web Analytic / SEO Tools

Alexa to understand your competitor sites better; you can cull information on where their visitors live, which websites have a similar audience, and how they rank globally. Exploring the audience of a competitor can give you a fresh perspective on your blog.

And don’t forget to check your own blog. Seeing your own statistics is always useful. The Alexa site offers a free trial, and you can utilize tools such as a competitor overlap function, in addition to taking a look at your competitors’ performance and other data.

Other similar tools that I recommend: Similar Web, SEM Rush, and SpyFu.

Persona Tool

Xtensio to create a user persona, so all writers on your blog understand your target audience and goals clearly. You and your writers need to be on the same page in terms of who you’re speaking to; this site will help you do that. You can use the software to create various personas that represent your average site users. Xtensio offers both free and upgraded memberships.

A persona sample at Xtensio.

Mistake #2: Not Collecting Emails from Day One

If I could change one major detail that I didn’t know about early on, it would be collecting emails from the very start!

Doing this one thing could have spared me so much stress after Google’s first Penguin algorithm update. I’d been cruising along successfully for a decade when this one update changed everything for my website. In one day, I lost more than 70% of my traffic (and consequently, my revenue totals tanked, too). Web Hosting Secret Revealed (WHSR), which is my blog, literally went from 80,000 monthly visitors to less than 500 per day. I had no idea it was going to happen. Ouch.

The lesson I learned (the hard way) from that experience? Had I been sending out emails to visitors, I could have salvaged at least half of the traffic to the blog.

Don’t let your blog fall victim to another algorithm update the way that mine did. Do yourself and your other bloggers a huge favor: Start getting those email addresses from your visitors immediately.

If you’re worried that collecting emails will bother your visitors and cause them to leave your site, stop worrying. If you do it the right way, you can get those emails without annoying your users.

The following are a few pointers.

Freebies / Content Upgrades

Offer freebies or content upgrades that people can only get via your email newsletter. That could include e-books, podcasts, and email courses.

One technique is to provide a great blogpost that addresses the needs of your target audience. At the end of the post, offer more in-depth content in whatever form you choose (such as an e-book). Make sure your readers understand that the e-book will provide more detailed information than the blogpost; and then, let them know that you’re offering the e-book for free to your email subscribers.

Real life examples:

Free 8 week online training program at B-School (source).

Free media kit templates for bloggers (source).

Effective Call-to-Action (CTA)

Use the right call-to-action (CTAs) in the right place.

People respond better to certain types of CTAs: They should be clear and to the point, and they should tell the reader what your email subscription has to offer. Be direct and simple, use compelling language, and create a sense of urgency whenever it’s possible.

Some real-life examples:

“Join our community of 300,000+ bloggers” – Problogger.net has one of the most effective CTA.

Become An Expert” – The sticky CTA at ConversionXL.com(source).

Once you have your CTA ready, be sure to place it where it will get the most results.

Yes, you can place it at the end of a blog post, but that might not be as effective as you may think. Since a lot of readers scan articles and many don’t even make it to the end of a blogpost, you may want to insert your CTA on the side of the page – or even in the middle of a post: “Get new tips weekly and my free email course now.”

Most visitors only read about 50% of the article at Slate.com (source).

Media-rich content

Provide content that gets your readers excited about seeing more from you. Good blogposts certainly provide value to your overall content, but the average reader wants to see more than text on a page.

Images break up content and keep people on the page, especially when you use them in a strategic way.

Real life examples:

One of the main reasons I love reading Andrew Lee’s travel blog“Here and There” is because his posts are always fun to read with all the memes, GIF images, photos, and first person point-of-view videos.

Tony Messer’sStep-by-step Guide to Twitter for Local Businesses consists of a .pdf file, an infographic, and a 2,000+ words tutorial.

Mistake #3 Not Promoting Your Blogposts Proactively

Good content is a must for a successful blog. But remember that just because you write an epic blogpost, it doesn’t mean that traffic will automatically come your way.

Some fundamental must-do when you publish a new post include:

Email your subscribers

I hope by now, you realize that collecting emails is vital….right? Well, now you can announce your blogposts in the emails you send to your subscribers.

Ping your guests

If your posts link to other blogs or contain quotes from other bloggers, you should ping them and ask for a share. Usually, when people are featured in your posts, they are happy to share them with their own audience. Everybody wins.

Share on social networks

Promote your blog on all major social media networks. If you don’t have accounts on sites like Instagram, Pinterest, and Google+, now is the time to do it. Don’t be afraid of marketing via social media; it’s not as complex or as intimidating as you might think.

A few basics for success include updating your users regularly, building relationships instead of coming across like you’re selling to people, and providing content that is useful and engaging. Think about what you’d like to see on your favorite social media site; you probably don’t want to be hit over the head with aggressive advertising, do you? But you probably don’t mind seeing a few links to websites and products/services that you can really use.

Advertise on Facebook

Personally, my favorite way to drive paid traffic is with Facebook advertising. Why? Because it’s: easy to get started with, effective in almost any niche, and phenomenal for both specific and broad targeting. I wrote about FB marketing strategies some time ago, and those strategies are still applicable today (like promoting benefits instead of products, offering rewards, and keeping your content simple as opposed to complicated and confusing).

Ad idea: Use Facebook Carousel Ads to promote multiple blogposts (source).

Mistake #4: Having Too Many Popups and Banners

We get it: Popups work! Using them is the best way to convert visitors into subscribers or to sell a product. My website’s newsletter subscription rate soared over 400% when I started using a popup form throughout the site.

And this is exactly why you are even seeing the pros over-use popups. When a popup ad can yield so many more clicks than a banner ad, it just makes sense to put your advertising dollars there, right? That’s why you see popups being used by virtually everyone nowadays, from major consumer brands to content marketing websites.

But too much of a good thing will drive your traffic away quickly. Popups should be used in moderation because when they are displayed in excess, they can jeopardize the user experience. Again, put yourself in the place of the average website visitor. If you’re like millions of other internet users, you visit websites on a regular basis. When you see one or two popups that are relevant to you, you probably don’t mind – do you? But if you’re bombarded by irrelevant popups, how likely are you to make a quick exit?

If your answer was highly likely, you’re in good company. 70% of Americans get most annoyed when irrelevant popups block the site they are viewing.

And here’s another point worth pondering: Google announced that it will begin cracking down on intrusive interstitials (read: popups) in January 2017. So do your visitors and yourself a favor now; use popups sparingly, and make sure you’re only using ones that will resonate with your average audience.

Mistake #5: Doing Everything Alone

Here’s the good news: You don’t have to do it all to succeed as a blogger!

Everything is easier when you have good friends and great resources. If you try to do everything without help, you will likely face burnout and limit your blog’s growth.

Whether you’re an employee, manager, sole proprietor, or entrepreneur, putting in too many hours and failing to delegate/outsource various tasks could cause you to become less effective and efficient over time.

You can (and should) outsource some of your tasks to freelancers. These are a few sites that will help you do that.

Writers / bloggers

http://problogger.com/jobs/

https://www.contentrunner.com/

https://www.scripted.com/

Blog Developers / Programmers

https://www.toptal.com/

https://codeable.io/

https://gigster.com/

Desginers

http://www.coroflot.com/

https://www.behance.net/joblist

http://jobs.smashingmagazine.com/

Freelancers platforms

https://www.upwork.com/

https://www.freelancer.com/

https://www.peopleperhour.com/

My fav: Content Runner & Problogger Job Board

Problogger Job Board needs no introduction. More than half of the writers in my team were found on Problogger Job Board.

Content Runner is one of the best sources on the web for putting clients and writers together – a great place to find talented and experienced writers. You can commission writers there to provide the content necessary for all bloggers, such as blogposts and social media posts. Best of all, you can reach out to writers who make a good fit, instead of being limited in direct communication the way you would be at many content marketing sites. Another benefit is that you can name your own price instead of paying a one-size-fits-all fee; this means that you can post jobs according to your own budget, and you can pay more to writers in certain pools who have already proven their capabilities.

Mistake #6: Not Developing Your Blog After Launch

Ever visit a blog repeatedly, only to lose interest in it because it never seems to go anywhere?

Yeah, we’ve all seen those websites – the ones that look like they haven’t been touched since the day they went live. Even if the business behind such a blog is the best in its industry, you might start to think: “Hey, if this company/blogger doesn’t keep the website updated and relevant, maybe their products or services aren’t so relevant, either.”

When I first utilized a content delivery network (CDN) on my site few years ago, the bounce rate plunged and the conversion rate (in term of sales and subscription) shot up more than 30% almost instantly.

In December 2016, we did a total revamp on our site and we are already seeing great improvements after the launch. Search traffic improved by at least 25% to date (and still growing) as the new site now loads faster and provides better/easier site navigation. This was the third major revamp since I started WHSR in the past eight years – it’s important that we keep up with the latest technology (we switched to PHP 7 finally) and make sure that the site is compatible with new trends.

Our new site design at Web Hosting Secret Revealed (source).

Long answer short: Blog development is an ongoing process. You must keep developing your blog and make sure it’s up to current web standards.

And, don’t just take my word for it, though. Here are examples of other industry leaders who know the value of website development:

Darren Rowse redesigned Problogger in April 2016, introducing new features – such as portals – to enhance the user experience.

Syed Balkhi did a site redesign at WP Beginner just two months ago (Nov 2016 and that’s the 5th redesign in 8 years time.

The key lesson is this: Don’t underestimate the importance of your blog development. There is always something you can do to load your site faster, to present your content better, as well as to improve your overall user experience.

Mistake #7: Starting a Blog Without a Monetization Plan

Every blog should be able to stand on its own financially.

Even if your goals for your blog don’t include turning a profit with it, you still need to generate enough money to keep the website afloat (and continuously evolving). And even if the sole purpose of your blog is to draw attention to your business, why not make some money from the blog, too? You can always use extra income, right? Well, a blog is an excellent means of generating more income.

Here are a few proven ways to monetize your blog:

Sell informational products, like e-books and educational courses. These are not as difficult to produce as you might think; just write about what you know (which you already do on your blog).

Let people benefit from your expertise, and do it beyond the scope of your blog. You can do this by offering consulting services and private coaching sessions.

Promote affiliate products in your blogposts and emails.

Sell ad space via AdSense. Another strategy for finding advertisers is to take a look at who’s advertising on your competitors’ sites. Then, contact those businesses directly to discuss selling them ad space.

Ask for donations. If your visitors spend a lot of time on your website or come back to it frequently, they probably consider it a valued resource. A carefully worded request for donations in your sidebar could be met with much success.

Offer a job board. This is a great strategy for generating more traffic (people may find your website when they’re looking for jobs). By providing the information for a reasonable fee, you can maximize that new traffic – along with providing a valuable service that may interest your current email subscribers, too.

Now, you’re ready to hit the ground running in 2017!

Avoid some of the classic mistakes that bloggers make, so you can waste less time and make the most of your resources. I wish I’d known some of these things when I started my blog; but hey – I did learn some valuable lessons. I hope you will benefit from my experience and put some of these tips to good use.

The post 7 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid in 2017 appeared first on ProBlogger.

       from ProBlogger http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/SGelLu8NK4E/