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almaasi · 6 years ago

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GISHWHES 2017 List Of Items

Yes, this archive post is a whole year late. Don’t judge me.

In 2017 the hunt ran from August 5th to the 12th, and winners went to Hawaii with Misha. (Misha scared everyone by implying it was The Last Ever Hunt, when it was actually just rebranding.) Under the cut: The entire item list from 2017, including item numbers, point values, and deleted items.

[ see also: 2011 list // 2012 list // 2013 list // 2014 list // 2015 list // 2016 list ]

Disclaimer: I am not personally affiliated with Misha Collins or any of the organisers of GISHWHES. This blog post is not official. And yes, I am allowed to post it.

#1 / PHOTO / 66 POINTS / Do you live near (or within a fun road trip’s length of) some sand dunes or a beach? If so, the time has come to fulfill your destiny. Make a massive portrait (must be larger than 20 square meters - the larger the better) of either someone who inspires you, or a message of hope beautifully written in sand. Use a drone to capture footage, if helpful. Make sure you are not working on protected or ecologically sensitive dunes.

#2 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 20 POINTS / There was a hobby or talent that you used to do when you were younger that you stopped doing for whatever reason. Do it again. Now.

#3 / PHOTO / 52 POINTS / Pancake art has come a long way, and the art form doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Let’s see pancake art of Guernica, Judith Slaying Holofernes, The Weeping Woman, anything by Hieronymus Bosch., or another famous work. (You may not do the Mona Lisa or anything abstract.)

#4 / PHOTO / 62 POINTS / As anyone who reads “Cosmopolitan” magazine knows, bohemian eco-chic weddings are all the rage. Let’s see a wedding dress made from recycled office paper.

#5 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 42 POINTS / Nobody likes elevator music in an elevator - unless it’s flute or pan flute music played by a wood nymph. (We must see unsuspecting passengers in the elevator with the wood nymph.)

#6 / VIDEO / 19 POINTS / Re-enact the experience of your birth, using (only) shadow puppets.

#7 / VIDEO / 44 POINTS / (Up to 2 minutes.) You love your grandparents, or your great-grandparents, but you've never heard their stories. Get one of them to tell you about the two most transformative experiences of their early life, before they turned 30. These must be experiences that shaped them into the people they are today. They may be difficult situations or lucky ones, but they must be transformative. Subject(s) must be more than 80 years old.

#8 / PHOTO / 82 POINTS / The year is 2021. Of all the unique and amazing human specimens on Earth, it was hard for the aliens to choose which ones to collect, but your team stood out as being excessively weird & worth “analysis". Your entire team was abducted and put into an alien specimen box. In grid form, show each member of your team along with a card explaining where they got you (city, country) and a word stating what special characteristic makes you unique.

#9 / PHOTO / 29 POINTS / I can assure you, THAT has never been frozen in jello before! How did you manage to do that?!

#10 / PHOTO / 51 POINTS / Pizza was invented in Italy in 997 AD to honor the Queen Consort, Queen Margherita. The next significant event in Italian history was the start of the Renaissance Period in the 14th century, which spawned a revival in art, architecture, science and learning. Let’s celebrate these two seminal moments in Italian history. Bake a Pizza decorated as a Renaissance painting that would make the Old Masters proud.

#11 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 82 POINTS / There are many old ghost towns (Note that Little Beaver Town on the list has been leveled. We're not sure what happened to the ghosts but they may be smaller/flatter) around the world. I’ve been told, however, that almost all of these are fake and do not contain real ghosts. I refuse to believe this. Help me prove them wrong. Let’s see ghosts (at least 6) doing typical small-town activities (shopping, dropping stuff off in the mailbox, porch sitting, walking ghost dogs, as crossing guards and school kids, etc.) in one of the actual ghost towns at the link above (or in another legitimately publicized ghost town). Provide a caption to your image or video with the name of the ghost town , and the State or Province and Country you’re in.

#12 / PHOTO / 29 POINTS / Many of us have lost pets in our lifetime. As a memorial to a loved pet that is now frolicking in the clouds chasing or sniffing whatever it was that pet liked to chase/sniff, write a poem or haiku about that loved one, or create a small shrine in nature comprised of items the pet loved and a photo of him or her.

#13 / PHOTO / 41 POINTS / (Side by side) A child drawing of their idea of happiness. Then, make it happen.

#14 / PHOTO / 48 POINTS / Over the years gishwhes has always been a supporter of first responders (firemen, paramedics, ER medics, nurses, police, etc.). Let’s give them one last treatment of a proper gishwhes “THANK YOU!” Find your nearest and dearest first responders and bring them The Most Epic Cookies or Pastries the World Has Ever Seen (MECOPWHES).

#15 / PHOTO / 23 POINTS / Groucho Marx a piece of fruit. No, we don’t know what this means either, but we’re excited to see what you come up with.

#16 / VIDEO / 29 POINTS / (Up to 2 minutes.) Take your parent back to the place where they lived when they were 10. Find someone they knew from then and ask them to recall a shared memory.

#17 / PHOTO / 69 POINTS / Spicy Art! Using the spices you have in your spice cupboard, make a picture of your favorite (1) comic book cover, or (2) cartoon character. Either submit it alone, or as a side-by-side image comparison.

#18 / PHOTO / 63 POINTS / Create or provide “gishwhes” welcome blankets (if it’s cold) or cold water and snacks (if it’s hot) for newly arriving immigrants… anywhere on the planet. Here’s some inspiration for you.

#19 / PHOTO / 38 POINTS / (Side-by-side image) A photo of your pet and a photo of the portrait of your pet that you have made from their own food and treats.

#20 / PHOTO / 41 POINTS / This family’s toys get into sweet, crazy escapades at night while the kids are sleeping. Your family’s toys make that family’s toys look like do-gooders. Let’s see what happened with your family’s toys while you slept last night.

#21 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 41 POINTS / Let’s see the world famous once-every-3000-years “Spectral Olympics”.

#22 / PHOTO / 50 POINTS / We finally have a confirmed sighting of a mythical beast from urban legends (Bigfoot, Nessie, Yeti, etc.) suffering the effects of climate change.

#23 / PHOTO / 39 POINTS / This morning, my daughter, Maison reported having seen a “moon fairy” while I was sleeping last night. As you know, the rarely-seen moon fairies are mischievous, nocturnal creatures who participate in synchronized, representational flight. Using a long exposure and flashlights (or other movable light sources) photograph these elusive beasts.

#24 / PHOTO / 43 POINTS / She wore a raspberry beret… Wear a beret made out of raspberries as you shop in a second-hand store.

#25 / PHOTO / 56 POINTS / Wombat poop is shaped like little bricks. Sounds like the perfect building material for a tiny house! Show us! If we can figure out the architectural style you chose from your structure - bonus points! You’ll probably have to go to a local zoo to ask for collections of this building material. Enjoy your visit while you’re there. Your image must contain a caption that shares a little known fact about wombats.

#26 / VIDEO / 101 POINTS / (Create an old-school STOP MOTION film - up to 1 minute.) A Romeo and Juliet story... Two young virile socks (unmatched) meeting, falling in love, being kept apart and finally ending tragically.

#27 / PHOTO / 48 POINTS / The Internet has brought us all closer together, so this should be really easy: find someone from one of the 10 smallest countries in the world. Have them send you a forced perspective photo of something very small that makes that object look huge in front of a famous public landmark or historical site in that country. Caption the photo with “Big things happen in the tiny nation of [insert country name].” Teams may not share submissions with other teams, so make sure your tiny country helper isn’t helping someone else.

#28 / PHOTO / 58 POINTS / Finger-painting is often thought of as unsophisticated and associated with preschool. But we know it can be deployed for much loftier purposes. Prove the art historians and elitists wrong by finger painting a sophisticated mural with complex messaging about an important global issue on the wall of a classroom. You may want to get a pre-schooler or two to help just to make sure you’re doing it right!

#29 / PHOTO / 37 POINTS / It is either winter or summer where you are. (If it is not, please contact our support so we can send NASA to find you.) There’s something you love to do outdoors in the winter or summer where you live. Do the activity you love to do in the opposite season that you are in.

#30 / PHOTO / 41 POINTS / THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT! NEW LEASH ON LIFE USA adopts otherwise unadoptable dogs and sends them through a unique training program. Shelter pets rarely get any attention and millions are put down each year. Many times this can be avoided if people on the Interwebs (who would like and could responsibly own a pet) were to see how cute, available, lonely and cuddly they are. Let’s save a pet or two (or thousands). Grab a friend or two and visit a shelter. Spend some time with one or more of the pets there. Post a selfie of your favorite pet looking for a “forever home” on Twitter (tagging @NewLeashUSA) or Instagram (tagging @NewLeashOnLifeUSA), using hashtag #adoptmeplease, and the social media handle or name of the shelter (so people can contact them). Submit the image you take on our site, but provide the link to your social media post link in the comment field of the submit page. // UPDATED: Updated tags and social accounts. (Original said “on Twitter or Instagram, tagging @NewLeashUSA”.)

#31 / PHOTO / 44 POINTS / You’ll find all you need to complete this item here: https://yung.cloud/index.php?a=track&id=29451

#32 / PHOTO / 50 POINTS / Visit a local bakery or food market. Get them to donate still-edible items to a women’s shelter. Speak to the women’s shelter first to make sure they will accept donations like this. Submit an image of you at the women’s shelter donating the food items. // UPDATE NOTE: Please don't take images that include any of the residents in the background out of respect to their safety & privacy.

#33 / PHOTO / 73 POINTS / From @gishwhes twitter feed: Everyone knows the most ticklish parts of planes are on the undersides of the wings (or "wing pits", to use proper aircraft terminology). Let’s see the wing pits on a full-sized airplane. You can go true bohemian, decorative, or high and tight groomer - but it must really look like (or be) hair to count.

#34 / PHOTO / 89 POINTS / As this is likely the last year of gishwhes we should probably do something to memorialize it. A lot of folks have been saying, “Save gishwhes!” But we say, “Shave “gishwhes”... into the back of your head.” Try to match the amazing logo that Olivia Desianti formed way back when - which we still use today. Bonus points if you include the current or a former gishwhes hybrid mascot in your masterpiece. The same design shaved into a thick matt of back or chest hair would be an acceptable substitute.

#35 / PHOTO / 44 POINTS / Hand a bouquet of flowers (or a single flower) to a person leaving a house of worship that is not your religion. For example, if you are a Christian, you could hand a bouquet of flowers to someone leaving a mosque. If you’re Jewish, hand flowers to someone at a Christian church, etc. With the flowers, attach a note saying something in your own words, but to the effect of: “I may not worship in the same building as you, and I may not pray to the same prophets, but I am grateful to be sharing this planet with you in peace.”

#36 / PHOTO / 23 POINTS / The dewey decimal system has long been responsible for keeping good books apart— books that clearly deserve to spend a life together on library shelves. For that matter, it seems so many libraries go out of their way to keep perfectly good literary companions apart as they separate fact from fiction, biography from archaeology, science fiction from politics. Be the matchmaker literature needs and get creative at your local library or bookstore. Show the spines of at least six books together in a library or bookstore (the more titles the better) the titles of which create the perfect oxymoronic sentence or phrase. - Monica Duff

#37 / PHOTO / 92 POINTS / No one talks about the fact that the destruction of the Death Star put thousands of Stormtroopers out of work. Luckily the Empire has a pretty robust social safety net and most of them have been retrained and placed in new jobs, the majority of which have been in the transportation sector. Let’s see a stormtrooper driving/flying a large passenger vehicle. Must be for mass transit, not just a car or a van. A subway, train, bus, ferry, plane, etc.

#38 / PHOTO / 43 POINTS / THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT! Pick a celebrity social media image post (or an advertisement) and recreate it with a subtle twist like Celeste Barber does here. Tweet, Instagram or FB post your image side-by-side with the original image, “#embracereality @gishwhes” and your team name. (You may also tag or mention the celebrity or brand you are satirizing.) Submit the image you take side-by-side with the original one, but provide the link to your social media post in the comment field of the submit page.

#39 / PHOTO / 29 POINTS / You’ve heard of Cabbage Patch Kids, Garbage Pail Kids, and the Pacific Garbage patch. Let’s see a Great Pacific Garbage Patch Kid, (a cabbage-patch kid made from garbage you pick up from your local beach or lakefront), complete with adoption certificate.

#40 / VIDEO / 51 POINTS / (Up to 30 seconds.) THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT!. Have a full church choir sing Carry on My Wayward Son while wearing dental cheek retractors. Please make sure that the video shows some of the singers’ faces up close. Then, share the video via twitter with the band Kansas (@kansasband) with @mishacollins @gishwhes.” Submit the video on our site but provide the link to your social media post in the comment field of the submit page. - Nicki Bentley-Colthart

#41 / PHOTO / 21 POINTS / Show us your own personal “Stairway to Heaven” -Dylan Cacador

#42 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 48 POINTS / You ever heard of “pond dipping”? “river bugging”? Neither have we - but let’s not let that stop us. Invent and show off your own *SAFE* summer wet, wild and messy activity and caption it with a clever name.

#43 / PHOTO / 39 POINTS / Never judge a book by its cover… or bread by its shape. Bake bread or cookies into the shape of something you would DEFINITELY not want to eat. (We hate to have to say this every year, but pornographic pastries will result in docked points.)

#44 / VIDEO / 56 POINTS / (Time-lapse up to 20 seconds.) A snail (or similarly VERY slow insect or worm) crossing a path or going up a wall. Put or stick objects in its path so it has to change directions multiple times. Then have it go through some “winner” gates at the end of its arduous trek. To make it a gripping adventure, you’ve dropped frames and turned this into a fast-paced adventure and set it to 1980s video game music, complete with a grand finale sound at the end when it makes it through the gates.

#45/ PHOTO / 72 POINTS / You may not be aware, but leather-clad, tattoo-covered biker clubs love to hang out and play in those inflatable bouncy castles. Catch them in the act!

#46 / PHOTO / 29 POINTS / THE FINAL “KALE” ART. (Please note that per Commandment #4 of the 2017 Hunt, this word and material as a Hunt item is not permitted. We are aware of this. That being said, we do not care. You still may not use the word “kale”. Henceforth, it shall be called [REDACTED] BUT you may use it as a material for this item.) Therefore, take a SINGLE glorious piece of [REDACTED] and, using whatever adornments or other decoratives, clipping patterns, etc., create a stunning, museum worthy piece of art that shall then be showcased (and submitted as such) as an ornamental headpiece on you.

#47 / PHOTO / 63 POINTS / Your strict neighborhood HOA (Homeowners’ Association) got replaced by a better HOA: the Hopeful Optimist’s Association. They’ve decided that your lawn isn’t quite up to regulations. Get your front yard up to snuff by building a large-scale, jaw-dropping sculpture or structure dedicated to Hope. Make it so magnificent that motorists backup & park to gaze at its beauty. (Conversely, it could be that YOUR neighborhood HOA got replaced by the Horrible Organization for Awfulness... You get where we're going with this, right?)

#48 / PHOTO / 48 POINTS / As most people know, roosters enjoy a good sunrise. But other farm animals enjoy sunrises and sunsets, too. Let's see a photo of you, some friends or companions (such as your dog), and a sheep, horse, cow, or other non-rooster barnyard animal, watching the sun rise or set together. Bonus points if the spectacular skies are reflected in water in front of you.

#49 / PHOTO / 37 POINTS / There’s something important that your local or national politicians are not attending to properly. Stand in front of something that represents the issue/right/minority group/etc. that you care about and that your politicians are not adequately protecting and hold a large, hand-written sign with a message to the powers that be. Tweet this image to an elected official with the power to do something to help tagged “#gishwhesrights”. Submit the image and a link to your tweet in the comments.

#50 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 51 POINTS / Have too much of a good thing, by which we mean a cream-filled balloon the size of a volley ball. Volley, volley, spike! Play a game of volleyball with it in the middle of a busy plaza.

#51 / PHOTO / 47 POINTS / Anyone who serves in the military is risking their life to serve their nation. Being respectful to not trespass on military grounds, stand in front of a large military craft, ship, tank, or plane with an inclusive sign of thanks to every service member of every kind. You may post this image on social media prior to the end of the hunt, if you choose. Submit the image with a link to your post in the comment section (if you chose to post it).

#52 / VIDEO / 41 POINTS / (Time-lapse up to 30 seconds.) Paint a dignified portrait of a President, Prime Minister, King, or Queen. But we don’t want you to waste canvas or paper! Paint this on a loved one’s bare back or abdomen. (use skin safe paints or edible “paint-like” food products!)

#53 / PHOTO / 33 POINTS / Write something in frosting on a cake that you’ve always wanted to say to someone, and deliver it to them.

#54 / PHOTO / 40 POINTS / THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT! Listen to this and be scared: http://www.radiolab.org/story/nukes/. But this bill has been introduced to try to solve this global risk. Let’s get it approved! Tweet ALL of your reps to pass the legislation to make congressional approval for first nuclear strike US law. Submit a screenshot of your post. Provide a link to the tweet in the comment field of the submit page. // UPDATE: Edited for clarity: Not senators but representatives.

#55 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 34 POINTS / Make a homemade Castiel kite with a child. We must see the kite in flight.

#56 / PHOTO / 41 POINTS / Sometimes things are just too comfy to leave, but you’re prepared for this! Let’s see you in your “Hammock Self-Containment Unit”. This, of course, would be you in a hammock with everything you need to live for one week, including all life preserving items, sanitation supplies and, of course, entertainment (live or otherwise). Make sure it’s clean, well organized, and designed for easy access to everything.

#57 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 52 POINTS / Show us a beautiful mermaid or sea creature performing a politically defiant modern dance solo to the beautiful music of the Sea Organ at Zadar. (Can’t make it to Zadar? The wave organ in San Francisco or the high tide organ in Blackpool may be substituted.)

#58 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 89 POINTS / It’s time to recreate the epic historic Great Zombie vs. Vampire World War II. As you recall, this particular battle took place with Nerf guns (homemade or otherwise) in an arena, forest or field, and was wild, gruesome, and featured multiple soldiers.

#59 / PHOTO / 59 POINTS / THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT! This item takes place on Friday, Aug 11th, in whatever city you’re in at 10am in your time zone. Stand in front of your state or province’s legislative building (the building where your laws are enacted) and with your friends, hold up a large sign showing an excerpt or summary of a law that protects civil rights. For example if you live in the US, you could hold up a sign with a portion of the 1st amendment of the US Constitution written on it. Use the hashtag #gishwhes4rights. Submit the image you take on our site, but provide the link to your social media post in the comment field of the submit page.

#60 / VIDEO / 51 POINTS / Up to 30 seconds - you may speed up or slow down the video if you need to.) Using only air-moving devices or machines, successfully navigate a balloon through a strange series of obstacles. It must be suspended in the air, without anyone or anything other than moving air touching it. It must travel at least 10 yards and culminate with your friend popping it with a needle sticking out from a hat they’re wearing.

#61 / VIDEO / 76 POINTS / (As long as it takes to complete the song.) THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT! James Corden hosts Carpool Karaoke in the US— a viral show that has celebrities singing songs with him in a car. (Yes, we realize this is typical lowbrow-American TV, but it works.) We want to upgrade carpool karaoke and make it more high-brow. Create your own carpool karaoke with a political or intellectual powerhouse. Your co-singer must be either a nobel laureate, MacArthur Fellow, a national elected official, Bill Nye, Jane Goodall, Neil deGrasse Tyson, or any past or present member of the Harlem Globetrotters. Oh, and your karaoke song must have sufficient gravitas and must be an 80s pop song. For example, “Like a Virgin” would do nicely. Shoot your video Carpool Karaoke style. Tweet the video to @JKCorden with #gishwhesloveskaraoke and mention who your passenger is in the post. Upload the video on our submit page but be sure to provide the link to your social media post in the comment field of the submit page.

#62 / PHOTO / 42 POINTS / Honeybees are a “keystone” species just like sharks. If they’re gone, we’re in big trouble. Unfortunately, there are currently “Colony Collapse Disorders” happening with honeybees throughout the world. This is when the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear, leaving the queen and immature bees to fend for themselves (most colonies completely die). This has major global food crop implications, as honeybees perform the magic of pollination of agricultural crops. If bees go by the wayside, we will have to find alternative pollination solutions, and that ain’t gonna be easy. But, let’s roll up our sleeves and give it a shot: Plant something in your garden (or plant a garden if you don’t have one) that is bee friendly (even if it’s just one plant in one pot on a patio). Spring - lilacs, penstemon, lavender, sage, verbena, and wisteria. Summer – Mint, cosmos, squash, tomatoes, pumpkins, sunflowers, oregano, rosemary, poppies, black-eyed Susan, passion flower vine, honeysuckle. Fall – Fuschia, mint, bush sunflower, sage, verbena, toadflax. Take a picture of yourself wearing some sort of bee-attire doing your part to pollinate your newly planted plant.

#63 / VIDEO / 265 POINTS / (Time-lapse up to 1 minute but preferably under 30 seconds.) Loo goes to space! A person named Loo won our NASA email contest last Fall, and Loo’s prize is out of this world. Write “Loo” on a paper airplane and launch it from the stratosphere (or higher). We must CLEARLY see you writing the name on the paper airplane and folding it, the paper airplane’s journey into space, and then the actual launch where the plane is released from the stratosphere from whatever vehicle has conveyed it to those heights (high-altitude weather balloons are an acceptable means of conveyance). Oh, and one more thing: the paper airplane must be decorated and must have a message on it about a secret, global conspiracy to make the world a better place. It should also have your team name written on it and the following email address: with the instructions: “If found please email picture of airplane and location found to: [email protected].

#64 / PHOTO / 58 POINTS / Quilt a gishwhes onesie out of underwear and/or gloves. Strike a pose in the lobby of a financial institution or bank. Bonus points if it’s the floor of a stock exchange.

#65 / PHOTO / 65 POINTS / You know SuperWhoLock? The amalgamation of Supernatural, Doctor Who and Sherlock? Well, that’s been done to death and everyone has moved on to the next big mashup. Let’s see 3D street art on a pavement or wall (in chalk!) that’s of a scene or setting from SuperWhoWatch (an amalgamation of Supernatural, Doctor Who and BayWatch)

#66 / PHOTO / 18 POINTS / Personify your favorite movie title. Include a caption on your image of the title of the movie in quotes. - Tanya Best

#67 / PHOTO / 43 POINTS / Banana Hammock. This year’s summer fashion elitists are all wearing the latest rage: Banana Bikini or Banana Briefs. Join them!

#68 / PHOTO / 51 POINTS / You finally have a use for all the naked bananas you now have sitting around! Bake as much banana bread as you can with “gishwhes” spelled out in bananas on the top & distribute it to your local nursing home.

#69 / VIDEO / 28 POINTS / You’ve been putting this off for far too long. Tell your parents something bad that you did as a child that they still don’t know about. Capture their reaction. This must not be staged. We have an Academy Award Winning Judge on staff that will determine if your parent has already heard this story and you will be docked points. - CJ and Lauren

#70 / VIDEO / 39 POINTS / (Time-lapse down to 20 seconds.) Sidewalk cafes are all the rage, but most “sidewalk cafes” are total posers. Set up a “sidewalk cafe” the way it was meant to be - on an actual sidewalk. Cook a delicious omelet using just a magnifying glass, a hot sidewalk, and the sun. Share your feast with a friend!

#71 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 45 POINTS / DELETED FOR REASONS // ORIGINAL: THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT! Rapper B. o. B. seems to think that the world is flat. Perform a highly scientific experiment that proves that it is not and tweet the results to him (https://twitter.com/bobatl). Submit the image or video you take on our site, but provide the link to your social media post in the comment field of the submit page.

#72 / PHOTO / 111 POINTS / I hate to say it, but this financial company is underwater. Let’s see the board meeting— with professionally dressed people at the table with chairs, paper, pens etc… all fully submerged at the bottom of a swimming pool.

#73 / PHOTO / 39 POINTS / Visit a local laundromat. Place decorated envelopes with enough money (in coins or bills, depending on the machines) for one load of washing and one load of drying on at least one machine with the note: “We swim together, we tumble together. Love, Gishwhes.”

#74 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 43 POINTS / Modify a grocery store shopping cart to be space-worthy. Put an alien being in the pilot’s seat and help them navigate the terrain of the “Earth produce” department to collect specimens.

#75 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 16 POINTS / They told me I couldn’t, so I did. Pose in front of a sign declaring a rule. Break that rule. A few notes: It must be safe (what you are doing), and it MUST NOT be a law or illegal where you are. It must only be a “rule”. For example, you might find a sign that says, “collared shirts only.” You would pose in front of that sign wearing a tank top. - Inspired by Emily Shulman

#76 / PHOTO / 39 POINTS / Have a caveperson demonstrate glass-blowing. - Jennifer Pierce

#77 / PHOTO / 24 POINTS / Personify or embody your team name. Caption your image with your team name. - Shannon

#78 / PHOTO / PHOTO or VIDEO / 48 POINTS / Being in the hospital can be scary and lonely for kids! Visit your local hospital to play a two-player video game with a pediatric patient. Be sure to dress thematically to match your game(s)! Take a picture of yourself in front of the children’s hospital. Do not take pictures with the kids unless they approve, their guardian(s) approve, and the hospital approves; we don’t want them to feel exploited. However, you MUST play with a child to get points for this item. This will be an honor system. You will have very bad karma if you cheat on this one. - Kristin Lindsay - Child’s Play charity.

#79 / VIDEO / 29 POINTS / (Up to 20 seconds.) Why would you move from the couch during a Supernatural binge watching session? Build a complex SPN-themed Rube-Goldberg machine to fill your empty glass, catapult you a snack, or to serve some other couch potato need. - Diane-Audrey Carlier

#80 / VIDEO / 73 POINTS / You’ve all seen “dog shaming memes” on the Internets. You know that crowd that lines up at the plaza of The Today Show and shows up on air? Let’s take it over with gisher-self-shaming signs. Hold up a large, colorful sign that details something you did that you probably shouldn’t have done (for example, “I drank milk straight of the carton and put it back in the fridge without telling my roommates”). Make it a light-hearted trivial violation, not a deep-seated personality flaw, actual violation of the law, or other serious offense. Share with us a clip of the AIRED FOOTAGE that shows your team’s sign and in the comments section of the item submitter, let us know which sign was yours. Do not add your team name or “gishwhes” anywhere on the sign… we want this to be a mystery.

#81 / PHOTO / 25 POINTS / Sometimes it feels like your boss expects you to be in more than one place at more than one time, but you’re a gisher so you know how to deliver. Using the panoramic photo function on your phone, insert yourself at least three times in the same picture in different positions and/or wardrobe to show yourself as you “multitask”. You may NOT Photoshop yourself into the image. (Hint: you have to run around the person taking the picture each time they pass you in the frame.)

#82 / PHOTO / 19 POINTS / In honour of Canada's 150th birthday, even though you may not be Canadian, you and a friend should clearly cover yourself in maple syrup and go roll in some maple leaves. - Jessica G.

#83 / PHOTO / 29 POINTS / Lets see your interpretation of fireworks using vegetables and spaghetti as mixed media. - Saty381

#84 / PHOTO / 52 POINTS / (Two Images side-by-side.) The first image is a photo of an illustrated page from a children’s book. The second image is your reenactment of that illustration in 3 dimensions. - Inspired by Sarah Trumbley

#85 / PHOTO / 47 POINTS / Let’s see LABSWHES. The Largest Awesome Balloon Sculpture the World Has Ever Seen. The themes this year are “insect” or “space”—or both. You must be in the middle of this structure.

#86 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 39 POINTS / Everyone thinks unicorns are beautiful, magical, gentle creatures. You know better. Prove it to the world! You may use any media you like, including Photoshop. - Traci Akierman

#87 / PHOTO / 41 POINTS / THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT! Tweet a picture of you or your child dressed as a bear in school to @betsydevos with whatever text you like and “#KeepSchoolsSafeFromBears #Gishwhes”. Submit the image you take on our site, but provide the link to your social media post in the comment field of the submit page. - Diedra Lookingbill

#88 / PHOTO / 60 POINTS / Three words: 10 Mannequin-pin Bowling. - Ariana Preis

#89 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 43 POINTS / Apply lipstick while jumping on a trampoline. - Emily Schulman

#90 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 42 POINTS / “Why did the chicken cross the road?” There’s no better crossing guard than a mother hen! Dressed as a chicken, offer to help people cross a busy street.

#91 / PHOTO / 31 POINTS / Leave a Yelp review of gishwhes after you deliver food to the homeless or to a homeless shelter.

#92 / VIDEO / 62 POINTS / (Up to 20 seconds.) It’s nice to see a serious sport finally get the recognition it deserves: http://www.euronews.com/2017/04/30/finns-compete-in-annual-hobby-horse-championship. Now, let's see video documentation of "Human NASCAR" complete with the speeding, lane changes, a pit-stop, crashes, etc. You & at least 5 friends must be drivers of "vehicles" of your own design, complete with corporate sponsorship logos. All vehicles must be motor-free and foot-propelled (ala-Flintstones) and all engine sounds must be vocalized by you and your friends. Just to be clear... this is Human NASCAR, not roller derby. All vehicles must be propelled on foot.

#93 / PHOTO / 72 POINTS / Get an elected official’s signature on a statement (written on official letterhead paper) declaring gishwhes an act of lawful resistance or civil disobedience. (Inspired by U of C Scav, 1987)

#94 / PHOTO / 44 POINTS / Camouflage yourself in a pet store.

#95 / VIDEO / 58 POINTS / (Up to 30 seconds.) The Silicon Gourmet has been teaching a neural network to generate recipes. Learning to cook is hard (as my son can attest)! In the interest of encouraging budding AI chefs everywhere, create a Food Network-worthy video preparing one of the recipes as described in the network’s cookbook. Make sure to sample the results on camera. Oh, and you must look and behave as if you were a droid, of course.

#96 / PHOTO / 38 POINTS / (Try to take a very close-up photo - a.k.a. “Macro” photo.) Nice grill! Combine the “tiny food” trend with urban fashion. Show someone cooking tiny hamburgers & hot dogs on a friend’s “grill” (the dental kind.)

#97 / PHOTO / 61 POINTS / Do something fitting in front of the Gereja Ayam (the abandoned Chicken Church of Indonesia). For example, you could play a game of Duck, Duck, Chicken! Or you could ponder the question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Or you could host an easter egg hunt… You get the picture.

#98 / VIDEO / 38 POINTS / A marionette show featuring a puppet of Trump being controlled by a Putin lookalike. Quintuple BONUS POINTS if Putin himself is the puppeteer.

#99 / VIDEO / 47 POINTS / Letterboxing (http://www.letterboxing.org/ or see https://www.atlasquest.com/) is a game where people hide small weatherproof boxes in publicly accessible spaces with a logbook & a stamp. They share the clues to find their box on the web or via word of mouth. Create a letterbox for your team & share clues so other teams can find it over social media. Leave a logbook with your team stamp on it in the box. Then, find another teams’ box and leave them a message of encouragement along with your team’s stamp in their log book. Submit proof that you found at least one other team’s book & the message you wrote. NO COLLUSION! (And that goes for you, too, Donald.) // UPDATE NOTE: Please either pickup your boxes after the Hunt ends or dedicate yourselves to maintaining them post-hunt.

#100 / PHOTO / 38 POINTS / Calliope. Clio. Euterpe. Erato. Melpomene. Polyhymnia. Terpischore. Thalia. Urania. Inspirational goddesses of literature, the arts and science in Greek mythology. On the steps of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, provide a visual representation of the muse that guides you in your art and/or life.

#101 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 80 POINTS / As I'm sure you’ve seen, over the years we have marketed gishwhes relentlessly and shamelessly (because we really want everyone to do it). This is the last gishwhes, so now it’s your turn to go ahead and show us how we should’ve marketed it. Create a gishwhes ad that no one would be able to resist. Note: you may make false or misleading claims if you so choose, but because we’re curious, you could even take a stab at a legit one. …

#102 / PHOTO / 74 POINTS / THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT! During the First Annual and Last Ever 2017 gishwhes Tea Party, we identified gishers based on their right-brush or left-brush toothbrushing statuses. Conduct a massive poll on your social networks for the gishwhes Institute of Vital Statistics to prove conclusively whether people brush their teeth starting on the same side of their mouth as their dominant hand or the opposite side. Because this is solid science, your sample size must have a minimum of 400 respondents. Submit a visually-compelling graph of your poll data and the number of votes and the winner. Use the hashtag #gishwhesteeth. Submit a screenshot of your post. Provide the link to your social media post in the comment field of the submit page.

#103 / VIDEO / 26 POINTS / Play hopscotch at one of the marker sites of Víddaflakk. (BONUS: Play Interdimensional Hopscotch.)

#104 / PHOTO / 90 POINTS / A far-right Republican senator and a far-left Democrat Senator (or two similarly “diametrically party-opposed” legislative makers in your country) co-wearing a very large (fits two people) “This is Our ‘Get-Along’ Shirt.” Caption the image with the names of the politicians.

#105 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 81 POINTS / We know a little girl that makes a different kind of Advent Calendar. As she marks off each day on the calendar, she gives something away. Make your own version of a reverse Advent calendar. On the first day of gishwhes, create a decorated Advent calendar whereby, for each day on the calendar, you depict something you’re going to give away. Then, each day of the Hunt, take a picture of you fulfilling your calendar item. Submit 7 pictures in a grid (or a video slideshow) showing what you’ve done. Then, continue on through the calendar period. (Yes, this will continue after the Hunt is over, but though gishwhes as we know it may be ending, its spirit will live on in you!) -Keegan Connor Tracy’s 10-year old daughter

#106 / VIDEO / 79 POINTS / The Lumbasumba region is being protected this year by Gishwhes. We gishers managed to purchase for permanent preservation more than 60 square miles of the Lumbasumba forest during the final weeks of registration in July! But the Lumbasumba area is more than just a forest. It’s also the hottest new dance craze. Show us how it’s done. (As all gishers know, you need to do it next to a REAL monkey, a parrot, or a camel to do it right.)

#107 / VIDEO / 92 POINTS / (Up to 45 seconds.) AMOK ITEM! Let’s virtually graffiti the world with kindness! Using a GPS tracking app (like Figure Running or similar), walk, jog, or run as large a path as you can to spell out a message of love, hope, or kindness. As you go, stop and perform acts of kindness and document them. You must show us the map with coordinates at the end of your path as well as the minimum of 3 documented act of kindness. - Inspired by Tia Pogue

#108 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 28 POINTS / The chickens have come home to Proust.

#109 / VIDEO / 71 POINTS / (Up to 22 seconds.) Wonder Woman being “Superman-splained” to.

#110 / PHOTO / 29 POINTS / The return of the Three-ingredient Challenge! Show us: Triptych, Transylvanian, takin.

#111 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 45 POINTS / A street vendor handing out toilet paper roses at the toilet fountain in Foshan, China.

#112 / PHOTO / 83 POINTS / A ballet troupe in tutus, engaged in a bar brawl - freeze framed at its most climactic moment.

#113 / PHOTO / 62 POINTS / Set up a Maximum Security Birdhouse in a beautiful public park.

#114 / PHOTO / 41 POINTS / DELETED FOR REASONS // ORIGINAL: Let’s see a TripAdvisor or Airbnb review of your mother’s womb as an “extended stay hotel”. Keep it suitable for work and any child’s prying eyes! // UPDATE: Item only needs listing, no review necessary. / UPDATE: Item deleted.

#115 / PHOTO / 83 POINTS / Make A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Le Grande Jatte by Seraut into an elaborate dot-to-dot image.

#116 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 65 POINTS / Not many people know this, but the Kessel Run was actually a foot race. Let’s see at least 5 Star Wars characters competing in the Kessel Run in a shopping mall.

#117 / VIDEO / 65 POINTS / Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole. Let’s see Dean Winchester driving a pedi-cab or quadricycle with Castiel & Sam as passengers.

#118 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 60 POINTS / Rumor has it that Amazon is teaming up with the Vatican for a bold new service: On Demand Drone Deliverance services. Show us a drone administering a wedding service, confession, last rites, communion or baptism.

#119 / PHOTO / 22 POINTS / Trump l’oeil. (This is not a typo.)

#120 / VIDEO / 91 POINTS / You’ve heard of a soap box derby, but the sofa bed derby is where it’s at. Let’s see two “race car” sofa beds, each with pajama-clad “drivers”, racing down an actual street. Be safe and complete this where there is absolutely no traffic!

#121 / PHOTO / 32 POINTS / The people of Iceland believe in Huldufólk, which are invisible elves. They build tiny houses and churches for them. But the Huldufólk deserve to have a nightlife, too! Let’s see a tiny Huldufólk nightclub in a busy urban area.

#122 / PHOTO / 40 POINTS / They say a rolling stone gathers no moss, but can moss gather a Rolling Stone? Make a portrait of one of The Rolling Stones out of moss.

#123 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 38 POINTS / As all gishers know, Saturday, August 12 is “Meet Another Gisher Day.” Meet up in front of the largest art museum in your town at 10:00 AM (of whatever timezone you’re in). It’s a pot-luck coleslaw brunch this year, so bring your favorite family recipe of coleslaw… and as much sidewalk chalk as you can. After brunch, decorate the pavement with a collaborative message to the world. In order for a meet-up to count you need to have representatives of at least 5 teams present, so this will require some organizing. Gishwhes is all about coming together, so teams may collaborate (gasp!) on this one, but your team’s image or video must still be all your own.

#124 / PHOTO / 21 POINTS / Be someone’s “rock” to get them through the hard times. Hand-paint small rocks with a message of kindness & leave them in areas that need a pick-me-up. (On the underside, please write “Pass it on.”) You must paint & hide at least one rock for each member of your team.

#125 / VIDEO / 41 POINTS / (Time-lapse under 20 seconds.) All good things must come to an end, and so it is with the Hunt. Create a “sand” mandala featuring images that symbolize the hunt to you… all using pixie sticks as your chakpur and sand. When it’s done, show us your masterwork and then, just like the Buddhist monks, sweep it away and get ready for what’s next.

#126 / PHOTO / 88 POINTS / DELETED FOR REASONS // ORIGINAL: Reward! I won’t say that Jensen & Jared are missing their balls, but they were last seen being sent into this quarry at Britannia Beach. Find them, take a photo, and put them back exactly where you found them for other teams to find. If you keep them, you will lose valuable karma & points. // UPDATE: Added safety advisory and strong caution based on reports. // UPDATE: Apparently Item #126, the one in which you are charged with finding Jared and Jensen’s golf balls is not going well. Now, granted, these are jared and jensen’s balls, so one would expect them to be quite hard to find. But it seems their balls are leaving a tremendous number of people unsatisfied as well. (To make matters worse, the owners of the quarry in BC have also installed a “no trespassing” sign since the hunt started and several bears have been spotted there by gishers as well.) So… I’m suspending this item. However, there will be a replacement item soon wherein you will be seeking out my golf balls, (which have never left an unsatisfied customer yet.) Also, if you have already completed item #126, you will be able to submit your photo of Jared and Jensen’s ball(s) for the new item and get full credit. The new item will be assigned the same number of points.

#127 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 64 POINTS / These Kung-Fu Nuns (dare we say “Nunjas?”) are biking through the Himalayas to stop human trafficking. (No, really.) In their honor, let’s see some tricks on a BMX bike. Rider must be dressed in a nun’s habit.

#128 / PHOTO / 84 POINTS / Get a Porcupanda or other gishwhes mascot included as an emoji on an official iPhone emoji list.

#129 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 57 POINTS / IMAGE or VIDEO. Pope St. Francis set up a laundromat to help the homeless get access to clean clothes. Follow his lead by setting up a service station to benefit the homeless or impoverished in your area (a “take what you need” public pantry, toiletries cabinet, water station, public shower, public toilet, laundry facility, open library, etc.).

#130 / PHOTO / 23 POINTS / A tactometer used to measure tact.

#131 / PHOTO / 33 POINTS / Make a collage that features things only locals from your town would know about. Display it prominently in a public space in your town.

#132 / PHOTO / 79 POINTS / Couch Surfing 2: The Revenge. Last year, in our infinite wisdom, we suggested “couch surfing: real surfing, real couch.” We quickly came to our senses and pulled the item for safety reasons, but it’s been a year and we don’t hold onto the past. Couch surfing: Let’s see it in the real surf with a BUOYANT (e.g.,inflatable) couch. You may not use a real couch as it’s too dangerous and bad for the ecosystem. Make it happen. (You may not leave any couches in any body of water and you must be super safe with this. If waves are too big, do not do it.)

#133 / PHOTO / 42 POINTS / Waste not, want not. Save every piece of non-biodegradable refuse that you would have normally thrown away from Days 1-5 of the Hunt and on day 6, use this material to create a sculpture of an endangered animal.

#134 / VIDEO / 21 POINTS / My wife is so trend-forward, she recently took a “goat yoga class” (it’s real; you can google it.) Without hurting, upsetting, or endangering ANY animal, show us the next trend in animal-infused yoga that she should get on board with.

#135 / VIDEO / 40 POINTS / THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT! (Up to 30 seconds.) Freeze frame on a picture of you (like they do at the end of movies) and then roll a credit sequence for your own life. Include a "here’s what happens to you in the future" sentence or two and then a listing of the people that have helped you get where you are now or where you are going and what their “titles” are. Post this on the social media channel of your choice with the hashtags #gishwhes #mylife. Submit the video, and in the comment field provide the link to the post.

#136 / PHOTO / 29 POINTS / Often misunderstood and rarely properly pronounced, chupacabras just need a good home. Adopt one and show us your favorite bonding moment.

#137 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 51 POINTS / Take an elderly person (at least 70 years old) on a joyride in their favorite car (same make and model and vintage) from their youth. The elderly person must be at least 70 years old; the car, at least 60 years old... and you and the senior must be dressed in period attire that reflects the era when the car was manufactured.

#138 / PHOTO / 52 POINTS / Prejudice is something we can easily see and call out in others. However, we all have biases and prejudices of our own that we are often blind to. You’re going to have to dig deep here - but you’re a gisher, so we know you can do it. Show us you taking a step to overcome one of your own prejudices.

#139 / PHOTO / 61 POINTS / Each member of your team must knit or crochet one piece of a quilted throw that, when combined, showcases your team emblem or symbol.

#140 / VIDEO / 51 POINTS / Everyone talks about drum circles, but they grossly underestimate the power of other shapes. Create a complex shape with as many sides, angles or curves as you can, and demonstrate the power of percussion geometry - with as many drummers as you can drum up.

#141 / PHOTO / 42 POINTS / At least 8 people walking in twos, on the Tiger & Turtle in Duisburg, Germany as if it were an actual roller coaster. They must keep their hands up as they walk the track, except for one of the front “riders” who is clenching an invisible lap bar, terrified. It’s okay to be nauseous.

#142 / VIDEO / 80 POINTS / As all gishers know, a Gish Gallop can only be performed by a Forbes 1000 CEO in the lobby of that CEO's company’s headquarters on a hobby horse or a live pony. Caption your video with the name of the company and CEO that we are watching as they Gish Gallop. // UPDATE: CEO list changed.

#143 / PHOTO / 41 POINTS / Sure, most Stormtroopers toed the line, but back in the 1960s there were a few draft-dodging peacenik Stormtroopers. Find a famous vintage photo of a peace sit-in or Woodstock-level love-in and flawlessly photoshop in one or more Stormtroopers. We must think it’s the real thing. As an alternative, you can stage your own “peace” picture and submit an “aged” stormtrooper sit-in image. YES, YOU MAY PHOTOSHOP THIS ITEM!

#144 / VIDEO / 37 POINTS / (Up to 30 seconds.) An impromptu concert consisting of a chocalho, an apito, a reco-reco, and a pandeiro. (Bonus points if you perform in front of, or in, the Teatro Amazonas.) Oh, and of course the musicians are playing Carry On my Wayward Son by @kansasband.

#145 / PHOTO / 71 POINTS / Oversized board games are a trend, with oversized Jenga and such. Let’s see a game of tiddlywinks being played— scaled up to giant-sized.

#146 / PHOTO / 40 POINTS / Two nice suburban monster moms out for a day of shopping at Hoxton’s Monster Supplies in England.

#147 / PHOTO / 28 POINTS / Paint an extraordinary portrait of your favorite gishwhes mascot with the brand “D2N” (with the 2 backwards) on the Werregarenstraat.

#148 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 38 POINTS / Dress up as a superhero and perform acts of “kindness” heroism at Hősök tere (Hero's Square).

#149 / VIDEO / 71 POINTS / (Time-lapse up to 25 seconds.) Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gets a lot of attention for being super hot. Frankly, it's starting to detract from his ability to govern. Cool things down by making a sculpture of Trudeau out of Canada's most ample resource: ice. A couple of caveats: the frozen water you use must have something added to it to make it opaque, and inside the ice must be something emblematic of canada that doesn’t melt (for example, a hockey skate). The timelapse must be of the sculpture melting revealing the object hidden inside. Make sure to frame your shot with a fitting or neutral background so that the final product really pops.

#150 / PHOTO / 33 POINTS / Ireland has the lowest reports of UFO sightings in Europe each year. Something must be done about this! Make and display a convincing UFO in a public place in Ireland to increase the number.

#151 / PHOTO / 54 POINTS / Visit Cat Island (Tashirojima, Japan) dressed as a dog. You must have at least 10 cats in the photo.

#152 / PHOTO / 42 POINTS / Decorate the exterior of your home like the Pan House, using whatever object speaks to you.

#153 / VIDEO / 72 POINTS / Not to be quixotic, but wind power and automation are the future of personal grooming. Create a wind-powered device to automate a self-care process. Could be a wind-powered shoe shining machine, a wind-powered, toothbrush, etc. (It must actually work and must actually be powered by wind.)

#154 / PHOTO / 33 POINTS / There’s a UFO Observation Deck (redmonkeygroup.com) in Slovakia. On Sunday, August 6 at 3 PM Slovakian time, grab your friends and dress up as your interpretation of extraterrestrials and go there. Bring luggage and queue up outside of it as though you're boarding to go back home (you don’t have to enter).

#155 / PHOTO / 40 POINTS / Over the years, we’ve had menstrual-hygiene supply sculptures of everything from dinosaurs to seagulls to puppies. We’ve also gotten a lot of flak for encouraging waste, and in protest gishers have donated thousands of menstrual pads to shelters, (which actually proves that in fact we at gishwhes can do no wrong). This final year’s list wouldn’t be complete without a menstrual-hygiene sculpture, so we’re ending this by splitting the difference: Create a tiny, perfectly sculpted statue of Michelangelo’s David or another famous historic sculpture of your choosing out of a SINGLE tampon, and then donate at least 1 box of menstrual hygiene supplies to your local shelter. Submit the image of your sculpture. The donation will be on the honor system. Remember, KARMA is a bitch.

#156 / PHOTO / 71 POINTS / Sure, Misha & HRH Queen Elizabeth II had a rocky year in 2016 with their “Brexit Breakup”, but despite a brief conscious uncoupling, theirs is a love that stands the test of time. Prove it by showing us Egyptian hieroglyphics, Greek urns, or other recently-unearthed archaeological finds that prove theirs is a love that has lasted through the ages. If you’re choosing to do a hieroglyphic, you may NOT permanently deface any stone - use chalk!

#157 / PHOTO / 38 POINTS / THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT! NASA is soliciting tweets to send to Voyager 1. Tweet your suggestion with #gishwhes. I suggest it be the following theme: Voyager 1 ran to the store and you are texting to remind it to pick something up at the store. But we will permit messages of any type so let your imaginations run wild. Submit a screenshot of your post. Provide a link to the tweet in the comment field of the submit page.

#158 / PHOTO / 22 POINTS / Thanks to “reactions” we can now communicate our feelings more clearly to one another! But Facebook limits us to just 6 reactions and we at gishwhes HQ believe that this limitation constraints our ability to express nuanced emotions to one another. Let’s see an updated version of the Facebook “reactions” with feelings like “silently judging you”, “reacting positively to your face but planning to gossip about this later”, and “I’m just not sure how to feel about this” and other more subtle emotions. You may photoshop this item.

#159 / PHOTO / 47 POINTS / Who said you couldn't Hunt while in hospital? Certainly not any of us! Show off your large-scale cartoon skills by writing the longest poem (or drawing the largest mural) you can, all about the adventures of a virus caught in a hospital, on a scroll made from a roll of exam table paper.

#160 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 41 POINTS / As you all know, my grandmother lives at Roland Park Place in Baltimore, MD. It’s a senior assisted-living home. She’s been hesitant to have the shenanigans of gishwhes descend, so let’s legitimize that fear... from Tuesday to Thursday 10AM to 4PM ONLY PLEASE! (DON’T SHOW UP AT ANY OTHER TIME OR IT WILL BE AN INCONVENIENCE TO THE GUESTS AT THE HOME and you will be docked points!) Let’s invade Roland Park Place literally! Show up dressed as an extraterrestrial on an interplanetary goodwill mission. Bring an offering of your home planet’s favorite treats or creature comforts (games, large print books, slippers, slip-proof socks, soft blankets, etc) and specimens of natural beauty from this planet (humans like that). You will get 25% bonus points if you perform this item at Roland Park Place (that’s the added value of nepotism), but you can get full credit if you perform this item at any retirement home/assisted living facility.

#161 / PHOTO / 87 POINTS / David LaChapelle is a renowned experimental photographer known for his kitsch-pop surrealist style. Recreate a well-known painting as a photograph in the style of David LaChappelle. Somewhere in your image there must be a banana, and you may not depict The Last Supper. (2X Bonus: get Dave Chappelle to star in your David LaChapelle homage.)

#162 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 33 POINTS / Lube luge. That's it. That's the item.

#163 / PHOTO / 60 POINTS / This Hunt’s must-have fashion trend: an aquarium hat with live fish. The aquarium hat must not endanger the live fish in any way.

#164 / PHOTO / 62 POINTS / DELETED FOR REASONS // ORIGINAL: Get a bonafide zillow listing for property on Mars.

#165 / PHOTO / 28 POINTS / https://twitter.com/zenxv/status/845474882607632384

#166 / VIDEO / 38 POINTS / (Time-lapse up to 30 seconds.) Follow a tomato back in time from the local co-op to where the farmer grew it. Thank them for their service by sharing a sandwich with them… one that has slices of that tomato in it.

#167 / VIDEO / 29 POINTS / (Time-lapse up to 20 seconds.) There are two things that science has proven unequivocally: 1) global warming is happening and 2) sucking the melting ice cream from a tiny hole in the bottom of a sugar cone is the greatest possible pleasure in life. (Minimum 5 rounded scoops on top and you must suck all the ice cream through the tiny hole.)

#168 / PHOTO / 66 POINTS / When the apocalypse comes and the power goes out you are going to be sorry you are so digitally-dependent! Have your social media page printed on microfiche… just in case.

#169 / PHOTO / 27 POINTS / Write "Ass butt" (in non-toxic kids finger paint or chalk!) on the hindquarters of an Ass. (This should go without saying, but be careful & safe. Approach from the side, never stand directly behind it, and try to keep the donkey happy so you don't get injured.)

#170 / VIDEO / 88 POINTS / Angels may be all-powerful, but they’re luddites (technologically behind the times) and it affects their productivity in the office. Let’s see an angel writing something on an old-school mechanical typewriter (not electric) featuring a working Enochian keyboard. (The keys and keystrokes must correspond to actual Enochian typeface.)

#171 / PHOTO / 41 POINTS / A stump grinder with a unicorn decal, with a child no more than 7 years old wearing a pink princess costume in the driver’s seat. // // UPDATE: Machine should not be operational during photo op. / AMENDED ITEM: A stump grinder with a unicorn decal, being pushed by a child no more than 7 years old wearing a pink princess costume. (Edited because Misha is not much into stump-grinding and thought a stump grinder was something else.) It should go without saying, but this is a photo op. The stump grinder should not be on or operational. Safety first!

#172 / PHOTO / 32 POINTS / Now that this may be the last gishwhes-as-we-know-it ever, it’s time to reflect on missed opportunities. Let’s see the Item List Misha SHOULD have made all these years. Give us your team’s ideal gishwhes Item List with a minimum of 10 Items. If the majority of the items you create look like no thought was put into them (and you were just quickly writing down items to get the points), you will receive zero points.

#173 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 55 POINTS / Complete one of the more challenging items on your team’s homemade gishwhes Item List.

#174 / PHOTO / 33 POINTS / DELETED FOR REASONS // ORIGINAL: An Airbnb listing for the gishbus.

#175 / PHOTO / 36 POINTS / Everyone knows “high noon” means “high tea”. Bring a little bit of civilization to the frontier with Wild West teacup and saucer holsters.

#176 / PHOTO / 33 POINTS / For our gish cousins in the antipodes where the days are short and the nights are cold: Establish a “TLC” station at Federation Square, opposite Flinders Street Station in Melbourne or on the steps of the Opera House in Sydney, and provide a little warmth – be it a coffee, a heat pack, or simply a smile – for those making their journey to work on the cold winter mornings. // UPDATE: Melbourne TLC location changed. (Original said “Establish a “TLC” station under the iconic clocks at Flinders Street Station in Melbourne”.)

#177 / PHOTO / 44 POINTS / A Scottish terrier in a Scottish kilt eating a scotch egg in front of an Irish monument.

#178 / PHOTO / 54 POINTS / The Prague Astronomical Clock – or Prague orloj – is the third oldest astronomical clock in the world, and the oldest one still operating. But imagine if this feat of mechanical engineering did more than mark the passage of time... Imagine it could actually take you back in time! Gather your teammates, friends, and family members together and show us the time period you would travel back to if this historic clock warped the time continuum. Note: You and your time-travelling companions must be pictured in front of the clock.

#179 / VIDEO / 36 POINTS / (Up to 45 seconds edited.) Share an audio dream diary of your first thoughts as you wake up every morning of the Hunt (so you cannot submit this until the last day of the Hunt!). It must be the first thing you do before you get out of bed.

#180 / VIDEO / 111 POINTS / (Up to 30 seconds.) Cinema has evolved, but some actors don’t. Let’s see a silent film actress against a 1920’s style black-and-white-set. The actor/actress must have exaggerated facial expressions and the score must be nickelodeon-style piano music. Suddenly, the music changes… It's hip hop and modern technology comes in with color and sync sound, but she's still black and white and still mouthing words with title card.

#181 / PHOTO / 87 POINTS / THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT! Let’s see a (SFW) 2,000 word essay published on twitter in 140 character bursts. (no attachments, etc.) about the best way to get pregnant for the 10th time. (I’m sorry, but I promised someone this would be an item.) Submit an image of the first post and then a link to this post in the COMMENT field of the submit page so we can check to make sure you “published” the whole thing.

#182 / PHOTO / 53 POINTS / THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT! Seamlessly modify using photoshop (or other digital altering software), a well-know oil painting by adding in an anachronistic element. For example, if it were a Monet, you might put one of the ladies under a parasol holding an ipad. YES, YOU MAY DIGITALLY ALTER THE IMAGE YOU ARE SUBMITTING… with a catch. The anachronistic element must be rendered seamlessly into the image in the style of the original painter or creator. It must look like a part of the original composition; we should not be able to tell it was added in later. Post the image on FB and/or Pinterest. Submit the image you take on our site, but provide the link to your social media post in the comment field of the submit page. #gishwhesModernMasterpiece

#183 / PHOTO / 53 POINTS / You are all soon going to be a part of a sinister plot to take over the world… in a unique way. But we need your help. Here’s the first thing you have to do: Decide what your favorite point of interest, historical site or national landmark is in your town or city and enter its address here: http://qrickit.com/qrickit_apps/qrickit_qrcode_creator_geo.php . Below the map on that webpage you’ll see an “optional text” field. Enter “Taken by CFG”. Then click “Qcreate” at the bottom. Download the QR code and submit it as your item. Stay tuned for what comes next...

#184 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 92 POINTS / (Up to 30 seconds if video.) Last year, we helped people around the world get access to clean water. But it's been a year and the problem certainly hasn't gone away. In fact, as global temperatures rise, the problem is only going to intensify. Work with your team to create a realistic (not a joke or parody) schematic or prototype of an easy-to-set up portable personal AWG (atmospheric water generator) system that could be used anywhere in the world. It must be cheap to build (aim for less than $10) with parts that can be found in any hardware store. It must be compact & light enough for a nomadic or homeless individual to carry around. Ideally, it would collect enough water in a day to sustain someone for that day.

#185 / PHOTO / 48 POINTS / Hug a national forest! Grab as many friends as you can and go to your favorite national forest or park and be tree huggers. Set the camera up so we can see all the tree hugging action clearly.

#186 / PHOTO / 46 POINTS / One of the biggest problems astronauts will face when they travel to Mars will be figuring out how to bring enough food for the three year journey. Porcupanda has offered the idea of making their spacecraft out of food. Show them how. Build an edible spacecraft using anything except “space ice cream” (Per our resident Director of Intergalactic Space Exploration, that stuff tastes like strawberry Styrofoam: “Bleecht!” as he so eloquently put it.)

#187 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 51 POINTS / Every year, the scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab make spectacular pumpkin carvings that put our humble Halloween jack-o-lanterns to shame (see https://www.wired.com/2016/10/watch-nasas-high-tech-pumpkins-action/). Whatever. What’s a rocket scientist got that you don’t have? Let’s see you out-do them! Show us your best and most outlandish WATERMELON-O-LANTERN carving. - Dave Lavery // UPDATE: Now PHOTO OR VIDEO submissions will be accepted.

#188 / PHOTO / 28 POINTS / For many years, military aircraft sported spectacular “nose art”— artistic homages to people, places, and ideas important to the aircraft crew. As aesthetically appealing as aircraft nose art may have been, we think they botched it on the choice of canvas. Show us your best nose art - but this time, get it right! All art must be on, around, or incorporate, your nose.

#189 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 32 POINTS / The World’s Worst Lawyer.

#190 / PHOTO / 51 POINTS / Oranges are the new black! Let’s see your most a-peeling cocktail dress all made out of - you guessed it - orange peels. Pose in a crowded urban bar.

#191 / VIDEO / 72 POINTS / (Up to 30 seconds time-lapsed and/or edited.) You didn’t think we were going to let all those oranges go to waste, did you? Wall Drugs has signs announcing Wall Drugs locations hundreds of miles before you get to the store, so drivers get to anticipate the goodness coming. Place signs along 5 miles of road leading up to an orange juice stand that speaks hyperbolically of the life-changing rejuvenation of the coming refreshment with a countdown of the miles. You must have a sign at least every quarter of a mile along the path. If this is insurmountable to you, at the very least, host a freshly-squeezed orange juice party in your backyard for all of your neighbors. You won’t get points for that, but you’ll use the juice and make some friends.

#192 / VIDEO / 47 POINTS / (Time lapse up to 25 seconds). In our busy world, people sometimes forget to slow down and see the beauty around them. Perform a task at work extremely slowly while everyone around you carries on at normal speed. When this is played back in in time lapse, you’re performing at normal speed and it’s the world around you that’s going too fast.

#193 / PHOTO / 10 POINTS / The Riemann hypothesis of mathematics includes the Riemann zeta function, which categorizes some zeros as “non-trivial zeros" and others as "trivial zeros." We think this unequal treatment of zeros, which are clearly all equal, is just wrong! Hold a protest in front of a university mathematics or computer science building with a sign that says something to the effect of "ALL ZEROS ARE EQUAL" or "NO ZEROS ARE TRIVIAL!"

#194 / PHOTO / 67 POINTS / Do you spend too much time indoors while you GISH? It’s time to get outside! Dust off your bicycle, grab a friend or two and go out and ride a 50-mile bike ride (this can be done over the entire period of the Hunt and may be done either on a long road trip somewhere or in different round trip legs to and from your house)! You must track your progress on a GPS drawing app. (Bonus points if you draw a picture of a gishwhes mascot with your path.) Oh, by the way - you need to be wearing part of a pineapple or banana (in some fashion) while you ride. Submit an image of your GPS drawing. Yes, it would be easy to cheat on this item, but let’s all take the high road and practice honesty on this one.

#195 / VIDEO / 235 POINTS / (This video can be as long as it takes to do the job, but we hope the job goes quickly and it is gobbled up fast so the video is short!) Using a steel shredder, shred a decommissioned bus. It must be a full sized bus with at least 10 rows. It may be a school bus or a municipal bus. It may not be a VW MiniBus; it must have been built to seat at least 30. Paint a message that conveys the fact that gishwhes recycled becomes CFG (we’ll explain later). For example, you could write: “Recycled gishwhes = CFG" in large font the side of the bus. Feel free to word this differently, but convey that message. The bigger the bus the better. Oh and paint the windows of the bus to show it’s passengers. (Obviously no living being is in the bus.) Although you should upload a video as your submission, be sure to take pictures of the event in case we need those for the coffee table book (we’ll email you for them).

#196 / PHOTO or VIDEO / 62 POINTS / THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT! THIS IS A TOP SECRET ITEM! DO NOT SHARE ITS CONTENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA UNTIL DIRECTED OR YOU WILL RUIN THE SURPRISE AND BE DELUGED WITH BAD KARMA. By now, most of you may know our friend Giles Duley. If not, watch the video at the top of this page. Then, watch here to see what he did with us recently: https://youtu.be/-tOt9LfZF9w ...and he’s doing something amazing with us again with us this year (which we’ll be announcing VERY soon). Giles inspires us and we want to thank him for all of his hard (and often thankless) work. So, we’re going to thank him... BUT WE’RE GOING TO SURPRISE HIM! SO PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT POST ABOUT THIS UNTIL THE DESIGNATED TIME: On Friday, August 11th, at EXACTLY 9am PDT, we are going to give him a “thunderclap” of thanks on the Internet. Because Giles thinks EVERYONE can make a difference no matter their circumstances (and he’s a living embodiment of that), we’re going to prove it. Here’s your job: before the 11th, go out and do an act of kindness. But not just any act of kindness... Giles works hard to help refugee families and landmine victims, so your act of kindness should focus on expanding his work exponentially through the power of gishwhes and gishers. Do something that makes a meaningful, material difference in the life of either a refugee or someone who has been directly impacted by war. If you’re at a loss of how to do this, here are some suggestions: bring a care package to new refugees in your neighborhood, go to a refugee center and volunteer, bring a warm meal to a homeless veteran on the streets, volunteer at a soup kitchen where you know there are war veterans, make a donation to an organization that helps with reconstructive surgery and prosthetics for war victims, or sponsor a child made homeless by the war with a one-time or recurring donation. If you can’t manage to find or coordinate any of the above (but please try!), simply carry out a random act of kindness for another human being on the planet who could legitimately use some kindness. Dig deep on this one, guys. The goal is to cause a ripple effect from the work Giles is doing and expand it worldwide. Let's do this. Capture an image or video of this act. At 9am PDT on Friday, August 11th, post the image or video on Facebook with a detailed description of what you did and crosspost to Twitter. Be sure to mention Giles in the post. (For Facebook, tag @GilesDuleyPhotography and on Twitter, tag @gilesduley with #thanksGiles as the hashtag.) Submit the image or video you take on our site, but provide the link to your social media post link in the comment field of the submit page.

#197 / VIDEO / 24 POINTS / Play a few bars of a well-known tune on a well-known musical instrument—but not in the well-known manner. Play a cello tucked under your chin, a saxophone with mallets, or piano as a string instrument with a bow, that sort of thing. The more unexpected the utilization, the more points. -David Pogue

#198 / PHOTO / 108 POINTS / CHANGE A LIFE. "It gives me hope. I feel special when I'm doing it. If something bad happens to me, all I have to do is dance..." -Timarandarin (14 years old) / Last year gishwhes worked with the charity Random Acts and Giles Duley’s Legacy of War to forever change the lives of three refugee families by raising over $250,000 in just a few days. Anybody who has seen these families' smiles will know what an incredible impact we had working together. / This year, we are teaming up with Random Acts and Legacy of War again to grant the last wish of a dying woman, and in doing so, we will save the dreams of hundreds of children who live in some of the world's poorest conditions. / Fiona Sargeant, a former ballet dancer from England, founded and runs a ballet school in an impoverished township in South Africa that for years has provided ballet instruction, meals, education, safe refuge and ultimately hope for hundreds of children. She is not a doctor, nor running a large foundation or charity, but she does know how to dance and she wanted to give back to the world. She is the living proof that EVERYONE can make a difference, if their heart is behind what they’re doing. / Sadly, Fiona has terminal cancer and only has weeks to live. Once she passes, she expects the school to be shut down. But there is a plan in motion that, if funded, would carry on her legacy. Let’s grant her dying wish and BY THE END OF THE HUNT let her know that her children will be taken care of long after she is gone. / She has no idea we are going to do this! We are going to surprise her with this colossal random act of kindness at the end of the Hunt! / We’ve created a Crowdrise page here that tells her story. DONATIONS ARE 100% TAX DEDUCTIBLE AND 100% OF THE DONATIONS GO TO THE SCHOOL (for countries other than U.S., deductions are contingent on your laws). The Gishwhes Item here: create a fundraising “page” for your team on Crowdrise where family, friends and others can donate. Since this is Gishwhes and there’s always an extra twist with everything we do, here’s the deal: we also want you to get OTHERS to donate to your team’s Crowdrise page. We know you don’t need “points” as an incentive to help these kids, but since it is part of the Hunt, we want to maximize the power of these points to help. / Here’s your assignment: start a page and get at least 10 donations from people or businesses NOT on your team. You and your team members are welcome to donate to your campaign, but that is not a requirement for points— the Item requirement is to get at least 10 people to make a cumulative total of least 10 donations who are NOT on your team. There is no minimum amount to donate for GISHWHES purposes, but Crowdrise does require a minimum $10 donation be collected, and let’s all please encourage others to be generous above this so we can make a profound impact. SUBMIT a screenshot of your team’s page with a minimum of 10 donations on it. (To initially create a fundraising team, click the “Join the Team & Create Your Own Fundraiser“ button.) // UPDATE: You reached the goal of $150,000 in just TWO DAYS. Now we need to make it to $200,000… If we can do THAT, we will be able to fund multiple scholarships for the students, allowing them to travel to other countries to train, compete, and take their experiences and skills back to South Africa! If anyone can make it happen, it’s the gishwhes family… So let’s do this & make some dreams come true!

#199 / PHOTO / 44 POINTS / Breaker, breaker! Tune in for details: CB Channel 27 (Frequency 27.27500) broadcasting near Lacy Park, San Marino, CA. (Latitude: 34.1204167 Longitude: -118.1201348) DATE & TIME: 8/7 12 PM PDT & 4:30PM PDT or 8/9 9 AM PDT. Listen on Broadcast CB CHANNEL 32 (Frequency 27.32500) broadcasting near Hermann Park Conservancy, Houston TX (Latitude: 29.7160286 Longitude: -95.3886413) DATE & TIME: 8/11 NOON CT

#200 / PHOTO / 72 POINTS / THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT! She should run! First, research upcoming local, state, and federal elections in your area. Second, nominate, via social media posts, qualified female citizens you think should run for specific elected offices in those upcoming elections based on their qualifications and/or passion. Make a post on any or all of your social media handles, tag them (so they see it!), and explain why you want them to run, using the hashtag#SheShouldRun. But your nomination post is not what you submit on our site! IF you manage to get a woman to publicly commit to running in the next election cycle this week via their social media, submit two images side-by-side: an image of your post “nominating” them to run, next to an screenshot of their social media post committing to run, and provide a link to their post in the comments field of the submit page. Note: Candidate must not have already announced their intent to run for office. We have assigned a special prosecutor to scour the internet for your candidate’s previous declarations of intent-to-run and will vet them.

#201 / PHOTO / 61 POINTS / Outside US: 00-1-323-645-0703 Within US: (323) 645-0703

#202 / PHOTO / 46 POINTS / A gisher wrote me recently stating, “I started gishwhes in 2015 myself and my children all joined in and had the best week of our lives, so much fun, so much love, so much laughter. In December 2015 I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer… But I didn't let it beat me. We signed up for gishwhes 2016 and made beautiful art together and performed many acts of kindness to those around us and in need, my children now 10 & 8 have those lessons in their hearts now, to spread kindness and love to all around them! Unfortunately I am too sick to participate this year, but hope to still be here to see all the wonderful creations everyone makes, and if I'm not still here when gishwhes starts I will be watching down on you all, cheering everyone on.” Obviously, I cried when I read that. We emailed her back, but haven’t heard back… So this one's for you, S. (and your kids), with love from me & everyone in the gishwhes family: Find a local hospital or cancer center and coordinate with them to deliver a comfort bag(s) to a patient. Fill a cheerfully decorated canvas or cloth bag with items to provide palliative relief and comfort to a cancer patient: soft eye masks, scarves, a soft blanket, socks, ginger tea or candy, unscented natural lip balm, sudoku or coloring books, puzzles, poems, etc. Include a note of support or encouragement if you wish. (Please don't say "get well soon.” Phrasing like, "we're sending you our love" is better.) Please do not take a picture with the recipient... Just the bag. We trust you to deliver.

#203 / PHOTO / 40 POINTS / THIS ITEM MUST BE POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA PRIOR TO THE END OF THE HUNT! Bearby Von Bearamucci has an interview for a position as White House Communications Director on Saturday, August 12th at 8pm ET sharp! He was all set to drive the Gishbus across the country, but its engine wouldn’t start and he has a terrible fear of flying. He’s counting on gishers to help get him from Redding, California to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC before his appointment (by passenger car or truck only. NO PLANES, TRAINS, SHIPPING SERVICES, OR BUSES). Your instructions are here. Coordinate with other gishers to pick up Bearby and take him at least 5 miles, but no more than 100 miles, from your starting point. On your leg of the journey, post a pic of you, Bearby, and the gisher you’re handing him off to at a diner, rest stop, or point of interest (please geo-tag the location). Tag @gishwhes, the next gisher, and @BearbyVonB and use hashtag #GetTheBearThere. You MUST hand Bearby off to the next gisher to complete your Item or you get zero points. Submit your photo with Bearby to us and provide a link to your post in the comments field of the submit page. You will get 40 points if you take a picture with Bearby and a sign with your team name on it, or 60 points if you take a photo with Bearby and transport him (please include side-by-side image of the map points as well). If he makes it to his appointment at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C. by 8 PM ET on August 12th, you will get an additional 50% in points (for a grand total of 60 points for photo only, 90 points for photo + transportation). Yes, we know how convoluted this item is and that it seems destined for failure— but I believe you’ll spit in failure’s eye and say, “Not today!” Sidebar: gishwhes HQ nearly came to blows as we debated over whether providing maps and tools to help facilitate your journey was “helping” and therefore “cheating”, but after a rousing bout of coleslaw-wrestling, “Team Give Them Maps” claimed creamy victory, and so you may use these resources to help you coordinate the journey. But feel free to ignore the map entirely. Because you’re better than that. IMPORTANT NOTES: 1. Members of the same team cannot collect multiple submissions for this item. 2. Make sure other teams get the chance to help Bearby! Yes, this means you can communicate and walk the line of “collaboration” in your hand-off attempts. 3. Individuals transporting Bearby must take him at least 5 miles or up to 100 miles in one trip. 4. You may NOT take him near your homes. We have a GPS locator on Bearby (due to past felonies) so we don’t want to compromise your home locations. 5. Do not exceed the speed limit by more than 5 miles per hour, because that’s what the cops are cool with, obviously. This isn’t Cannonball Run. Make it happen, gishers. Bearby is counting on you to help him land his dream job! // UPDATE: Mileage limit increased from 50 to 100 mile trip.

#204 / PHOTO / 40 POINTS / Escape Gishwhes! https://www.gishwhes.com/escape-room/. If you manage to break out of this wild ride of mystery and mayhem, you’ll be prompted to enter your Team Name to document your success via an online form. BEFORE YOU HIT THE SUBMIT BUTTON, take a screenshot showing your team name in the Text Input Field and save the image, THEN hit the SUBMIT button. Your submission will be uploading the screenshot on our item list (backed up by what the online form sends gishbot).

#205 / PHOTO / 28 POINTS / We've received a bit of criticism that the hunt is "not really a scavenger hunt, it's just Misha getting people to help him with his chores." I'm honestly shocked anyone would say that! Also, people have been complaining that there are "too many geographically specific items" (items that require you to show up at a certain place). I want you to know that I'm listening and processing your feedback! So, I'm adding the following item: Help me help you help me help myself. Show up at 10 AM PDT sharp on August 11th at this location in Bellingham, WA. Wear long sleeves (pants and shirt) and bring a small bucket. Pick at least ONE quart of blackberries and DEPOSIT them into my big vessel so I can make lots of jam. For the item submission you must do two things: 1) You must find the woman in the sock monkey hat with the sheet of paper who is taking down team names and 2) You must take a photo of yourself with your bucket of berries. We will cross-check our list with your submitted photo as your proof. No taking pictures with me, because last year we did that and it ended up taking forever. If no one one on your team lives nearby, you may assign a surrogate, but no surrogate may service more than one team.

#206 / PHOTO / 17 POINTS / We got this letter to our support gnomes:

Name: [REDACTED]

Message : Hello Gishpeople. I want to question why there are so many specific-locations-that-aren't-Sweden only items, and no Sweden only items. I speak for all Swedes when we say that we find this very saddening. We don't understand how you could miss out on an opportunity like this, since Sweden is a very beautiful country, containting great things such as Dalahästar.

We, as a nation, expect a formal apology for this, of course.

All our love, and some sad wonders,

[REDACTED]

Sweden, you're absolutely right! You are a beautiful country and it's time we stopped overlooking you. You deserve a formal apology as requested and so in the interest of international diplomacy, it's our duty to deliver and rectify this egregious oversight. With that in mind, (I hope you'll forgive me but this is a location-specific image to appease Sweden, guys): Take a picture of yourself in front of the biggest landmark or point of interest in your town while holding a beautiful hand-lettered sign that reads, "We Are Sorry, Sweden". This is a location-based item, so you may do this anywhere in the world... except Sweden.

#207 / PHOTO / 48 POINTS / Nothing says "good life choices" like a last-minute rush job tattoo. Get inked with a tattoo that includes "We create therefore we live" or another gishy quote written in any language other than English. Feel free to adorn it with mascots or other hunt-inspired iconography. PS: Don't try to repurpose an old tattoo— we'll be able to tell and your team will be docked points.

#208 / PHOTO / 18 POINTS / As you know, no one was able to successfully find Jared Padalecki or Jensen Ackles' balls in Canada. Misha's balls are a lot easier to find... maybe because they really get around. Find Misha's balls in any of the following locations & take a picture with them. Then put them back EXACTLY where you found them so another team can have a chance to get their hands on Misha's balls, too. LOCATIONS: near the Cathedral Basilica, Newark, NJ; outside Gatorland, Orlando, FL, near Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas.

#209 / PHOTO / 77 POINTS / Gishwhes is over tonight! Forever! The crumbs of the great multi-year, wild and weird global feast are soon to be all that's left. Let's see you work magic on these crumbs (real bread crumbs or whatever other crumbs you wish to use) and turn them into a portrait of actor Misha Collins. -the Gish Gnomes

#gishwhes #gish #gishwhes list of items #gish list of items #Misha Collins #gishwhes 2017 #gishwhes item list #post of postiness

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girlsbtrs · 3 years ago

Text

The Evolution of Women’s Wrestling Through Music

Written by Jennifer Moglia. Graphic by James N Grey.

If it wasn’t already obvious, judging from the fact that I write for a publication called Girls Behind The Rock Show, music is one of the most important things in my life. It has helped me form lasting friendships and relationships, given me some of the best memories and experiences, and has pushed me to find what I truly want to do with my life. However, another one of my interests, one of my favorite things in the world, actually, is something I don’t talk about quite often - professional wrestling.

No, I don’t mean the actual activity of performing professional wrestling (my body would probably snap in half), I mean watching professional wrestling, or as it is often described, “sports entertainment.” The type of professional wrestling made popular by WWE, storytelling through combat sports, is something that I got hooked on instantly.

The reason why I love writing so much is that I love telling stories, whether those stories belong to me, someone I know, or even someone I have no connection with. At the end of the day, once a story is written, it belongs to the world, for them to fall in love with and interpret in their own way.

As a writer, I feel as if I watch wrestling differently from other fans, as pretentious as that may sound. Rather than being focused on the punches and kicks or even the costumes that each performer wears, my mind is constantly zeroed in on the story being told.

Who are these characters? Why are they fighting against each other? What do they have to prove, to themselves, to their opponent, or to the world?

What will they gain if they win this match? What will they lose if they fall short? How will they move forward, regardless of the result?

Will this feud wrap up before the Summerslam in August, or by Wrestlemania in April? All of these questions and more swirl around my head when watching Monday Night Raw, NXT, and Friday Night Smackdown every week.

There are a ton of things that a performer can do to answer these questions, from outfit choices, to the way they speak to the audience, to how they celebrate when they win or how they react when they lose. One of my favorite ways that wrestlers’ stories are told is through their theme music.

Wrestlers’ entrance songs are some of the most iconic things about them. Whether someone is a fan of WWE or not, they’re sure to recognize John Cena’s “My Time is Now”, Hulk Hogan’s “Real American”, Triple H’s “The Game”, or CM Punk’s “Cult of Personality.”

Music has also played an important role in some of WWE’s most iconic feuds. The quintessential video package for Daniel Bryan’s “YES” Movement and feud with Triple H leading up to him finally winning the world championship at Wrestlemania 30 was set to “Monster” by Imagine Dragons.

This is widely considered one of, if not the best, video packages that WWE has ever produced, due to the detailed way it chronicles Bryan’s entire career, from being considered an underdog and “B+ player” to winning the company’s most coveted prize in the main event of their biggest event of the year. The song, with lyrics about a man who feels like an outsider and has become something bigger than himself, elevates the emotional weight and epic feeling of the video.

With all that being said, it’s time to note one crucial detail. Notice how all of those recognizable theme songs and moments were for male performers?

Women’s wrestling has always taken a backseat to men’s wrestling, for way longer than WWE would probably like to admit. Matches with “bra and panties” stipulations, storylines centered around men and romance, an in-ring “live sex celebration” broadcast on TV, a championship belt shaped like a pink butterfly, and matches consistently being cut from shows or clocking in at under 10 minutes, sometimes even under three minutes, sadly were the norm for a very long time.

However, in the 2010s, the women’s wrestling Evolution kicked into high gear, as the women of WWE demanded to be seen as more than just “Divas.” In February 2015, after a three-hour episode of Raw had only one women’s match that lasted just over 30 seconds, fans on Twitter begged the company to #GiveDivasAChance.

The hashtag trended on Twitter and was acknowledged by WWE legends like Mick Foley, before the company’s CEO Vince McMahon tweeted the hashtag with the message “We hear you. Keep watching.”

The next few years saw the Women’s Wrestling Evolution taking center stage, with three of the four horsewomen of WWE (Sasha Banks, Bayley, Charlotte Flair, and Becky Lynch) debuting on the company’s main roster just a few months later in July 2015 after spending the last few years taking the NXT brand by storm. Over the course of the months that followed, women and their storylines were highlighted more than ever, setting up a red-hot feud for Wrestlemania 32 in April 2016.

What was so special about Wrestlemania 32? For the first time ever, the women would not be fighting for the Divas championship, battling to wear the glittery pink and purple butterfly belt.

For the first time in history, the woman who won the match would be winning the WWE Women’s Championship, with a belt that looked just like the one that the men fight for. In addition, female performers would no longer be referred to as “Divas” - they would now be called Superstars, just like the men.

The next couple of years saw many more “first-ever” events for women’s wrestling. Between 2016 and 2018, fans would see the first-ever women’s Hell In A Cell match, Money in the Bank match, and Royal Rumble match, stipulations that had been staples for men for decades.

This all culminated in the first-ever all-women’s pay-per-view event, aptly titled Evolution, at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York. The night included matches that fans would look back on fondly for years to come, including wrestlers that had worked incredibly hard for years and undoubtedly deserved to have their special moments.

Women’s wrestling continued to rise in popularity in 2019, with two of the four horsewomen becoming the first-ever WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions (Sasha Banks and Bayley) and the other two (Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch), along with Ronda Rousey, made up the first-ever Wrestlemania main event to only include women.

In the years since then, there have of course been many hardships for the women of WWE, but the fanbase is behind their favorite female Superstars now more than ever. And, of course, just like the men, women’s wrestlers have used their entrance music to help build their characters and put themselves on the radar of the WWE Universe.

The aforementioned four horsewomen are a great example of this. Sasha Banks’ “Sky’s the Limit” has lyrics about reaching for the stars and achieving the dream regardless of a dark past or people who may have doubted you. This theme perfectly fits her character of “the boss”, a gritty underdog from Boston, Massachusetts who ultimately made it to the top.

Bayley’s character is a bit more complex, going from an energetic, happy-go-lucky, child-friendly character to a villain who laughs at the pain of others and betrays her friends. Her theme songs have reflected this, as her first song “Turn It Up” includes lyrics about dancing with everyone around the world while her most recent theme “Deliverance” is instrumental, filled with intimidating choir-like background and wild guitar riffs.

Charlotte Flair has never struggled with living in the shadow of her father, legendary wrestler Ric Flair. Her physicality, confidence, and general dominance made her a force to be reckoned with regardless of any men she was related to.

Her theme, “Recognition”, is a remix of her father’s music, much like how the robes she wears for her entrances are a tribute to the costumes he once wore. She maintains that she loves her family and acknowledges where she came from but is still her own person.

The final horsewoman and possibly the most popular, Becky Lynch’s theme “Celtic Invasion” seemed to doom her from the start, the music poking fun at her Irish background and setting her up to be seen as this archetype forever. However, she was able to turn the tables and become an iconic character in modern media, not just in WWE, and fans sing her music louder than the speakers play it every single night.

While the four horsewomen are often considered the poster children for the WWE Women’s Evolution, there are countless women’s wrestlers who have used their theme songs to build on their characters. Asuka’s “The Future” boasts the line “I am the future”, bringing the character’s larger-than-life, confident personality to life.

The legendary Paige’s “Stars in the Night” reads more like a pop-rock heavy-hitter than a wrestling theme, which matches her studded gear, black hair, and dark makeup perfectly. Even new rising stars like Bianca Belair have capitalized on their entrance music, embodying the line “They see that I’m way better than before, I never needed you at all” from her theme “Watch Me Shine” every time she steps into the ring.

Seeing two of my favorite things in the world in wrestling and music come together like this, especially to empower women, is something that makes my heart so happy. If you don’t already watch wrestling, I hope that this has made you want to give it a try. If you don’t plan on it, at least give some of these incredible women’s theme songs a listen (playlist linked here).

#jennifer moglia

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starcrossedjedis · 7 years ago

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I got some actual free time - let’s review The Last Jedi

First things first - I loved the movie. Yes, I have several problems with it, but all in all I still really enjoyed it. And let’s be real, even a bad Star Wars movie would still be better than most. Moving on...

Imma start with what I didn’t like. Yes, that’s not how you’re supposed to do this, but if someone really does read this, I’d rather end on a positive note. So...

Needless to say - there are gonna be spoilers in this post ;)

I’m gonna put this out of the way first - Reylo. I am proud to say, I’m not an anti. I can not ship something - even go as far as to not like something - and not go on and on and on about it online. So, if I had been spoiled about the Reylo bit beforehand I would have probably flipped a table and started to smoke again. Turns out though that it wasn’t as bad as I would have expected, had I known beforehand (does that make sense?). Yes, I still belong to those who hope that Rey shutting the Falcon’s door in Kylo’s mind face marked the end of Reylo in the movies, but tbh I don’t care about it enough to really lose sleep over it. I’ll even go as far as to say I am happy for my friends (Thea!!!) who ship Reylo and were fed so good. That being said, I found the whole plot was far too heavy on the fanfiction tropes. It just felt... off.

Plot. Yes, I agree with those who feel like the overall plot was a little thin and hole-y. It was basically the galaxy’s slowest chase (my husband rightfully compared it to that bit with the steamroller in Austin Powers). And Hux and Friends basically stare out a window the whole movie and don’t see the ships leaving? Okay, they were cloaked for radar, but not invisible? Maybe I miss something here, but it surely was confusing as hell for me. Also, why did no one else think about hyperdriving through the First Order ship sooner? Like, before half the rebellion got blown up? And full offense, the whole “we tell no one what we’re really planning to do, who cares if there’s a mutiny?” was like a Republican essay on why women shouldn’t be in positions of power. The plot around Luke and Rey fell a little flat for me because they divided the time with said Reylo fic bits. I just feel like they could’ve done more here had they cut the fanservice. I did love the space!Monaco plot and the final battle though. Also, I’m just glad to be alive at a time where I get to see new Star Wars movies, so I am not bothered by something as minor as a weak plot xD

I know a lot of people have issues with the amount/use of humour in the movie. I don’t. I ugly cackled during Poe’s prank call to Hux and dutifully giggled at the Porgs and Space Nuns. I can see why people feel like it destroyed the mood set by a scene at times, but I feel like the movie would have been too hard to swallow without a little comic relief here and there. The only exception is Luke throwing away the lightsaber, thus defiling what was probably the most epic scene of the last movie. That was not cool. At all.

And now I will just go and bulletin all the reasons I loved the movie:

- Poe Dameron: My space husband finally getting the screentime and recognition he deserves. He’s beauty, he’s grace, Leia slapped him in the face. Yes, he was a tad OOC (”Do you want me to blow it up?” was painfully simplifying my unproblematic fave), but even my husband agreed that the movie was better because he was in it. I am happy the world finally got to see why JJ decided to keep him around.

- Yoda: They used the original!trilogy Yoda, I was so touched by this. Earlier this year I met David Barclay who was one of the pupeteers for Yoda in TESB, so seeing this was nice =)

- Luke’s departure: Everything he did after stepping out of that rebel base was epic shit. I flailed my arms when it turned out he wasn’t actually there and my heart grew when he just... let go to the sight of twin suns and with this piece of music playing in the back. It was perfect.

- Leia: I’m not gonna discuss her Supergirl moment. I grew up reading every Star Wars novel there was, I know what a Jedi can and cannot do and yes, she can. Period. I was crushed when spacemom died last year, so seeing her once more felt really good.

- Rose: The actual sweetest. So pure. My husband’s favourite bit about the whole movie. In just one move delivered the most prominent line of the movie and sealed it with the new trilogy’s first lock of lips. D’awwwwr <3

- That Poe/BB-8 reunion: The most in character Poe as been all movie. The way he looked at Finn and Rose like he was ready to send them right back to where they came from and get his droid. The excitement. How sweet he is with BB-(. HOW HE RESTS HIS FOREHEAD ON BB-8′S LIL’ DROID HEAD. I was feeling a lot of feelings.

- Damerey / JediPilot: And this is where I’m just gonna gush. A lot. This might have been Reylo The Movie, but still we Damerey shippers were so HASHTAG BLESSED. The fact that Poe had the beacon for so long? (and maybe I got it confused, but didn’t he also have it when it cut to Rey looking at hers?) That ingenious cut from Rey screaming in agony to Poe waking up on the shuttle? Not gonna lie, I would’ve already died from shippy bliss over this alone, but then? OMG!!! His face when the Falcon drew off the fighters? I mean, technically it was Chewie flying, but “SHE DREW ‘EM OFF! ALL OF ‘EM!” sure, flyboy, she totally did. The look of total awe when he stepped out of that cave to the sight of her looking ethereal Jedi lifting those rocks? BOY WAS SHOOKETH! Not to mention that bit where homegirl was totally cute with his puppy droid and he just has to make a move and introduce himself? I’m not saying someone took a page out of the romcom playbook, but... POETIC JEDIPILOT CINEMA Y’ALL!!!

And that’s my review of The Last Jedi - which means as of now I am open and ready for discussion. Please, talk to me about the movie.

#star wars #damerey #the last jedi #poe dameron #luke skywalker #spoiler #tlj spoiler #star wars spoiler #text

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dafrastar · 7 years ago

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10 Random Facts about Me

Hello hello #fashionablehumans! By the way- we are coining this expression. I checked Instagram and this hashtag only has, like, 3 posts- dassit, we're taking it. How have you guys been, and how was your holiday? Did you travel to go see family, or did you host? Personally, I have been super busy yet super happy! Life is good and I am overflowing with gratitude; I just need to remember to pray more often, swear less and drink my water (as of right now I am drinking wine tho).

So- in spite of me yapping for paragraphs on each single one of my posts, I realized last week that you guys really do not know much about me at all. I was prepping to post my last look from London, and I seized the opportunity to write a bit of a more personal post! To be honest- as much as I love fashion, I often feel that posts only focusing on clothing can be a little dry. For example, I am enjoying the heck out of my Fall 2017 Trends series; however, I also love to share some personal learnings and experiences as well.

I have seen the "10 random things about me" tag floating around for quite a while. I never fail to read one; I feel like they give me a neat insight into who people really are, social media/ blogger personas aside. Like- they can speak fluent Russian, are amateur salsa dancers or cosplayed as Sailor Moon last year at Comicon. That shit is just so cool to me! Sooooo I am trying my hand at it. Let me know if anything surprises you, if you knew everything or if we have some things in common!

10 Random things about me

I am an only child. I feel like that has molded me into being someone who is not at all afraid of loneliness. I am really good at entertaining myself, and I am honestly rarely (if ever) bored. The main downside to this is that I tend to assume others function the same way; I pack my days full of activities, often forgetting to bake in time to spend with other people. I love books. I easily read 1-2 MEATY books per month; at some point, I was really into fiction and finished a book every weekend like clockwork. I do not discriminate as far as genres are concerned: fiction, romance, mystery, self-help, nutrition, fitness, professional development, even prose (I cannot last through that shit though, it hurts my brain). The last opened books in my Kindle app currently are: "Necessary Restorations" by Kate Canterbary (finished it- I love the whole Walsh series and read every book twice, don't judge me- or judge away, whatever lol) "Strong Curves" by Bret Contreras and Kellie Davis (just started today, I am very excited about the workouts in this book) A sample of "Algorithms to Live by: The Computer Science of Human Decisions" by Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths (not started- I actually bought it for a friend in paperback and grabbed a Kindle sample for myself to check it out. She's smart, so I am sure anything she picks is a good book) "Drive: The Surprising Truth about what Motivates Us" by Daniel Pink (I'm on the last few chapters, good learnings) "Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell (finished it, very easy read but pretty interesting; can't wait to read another one of his books.) I speak 3 languages fluently, and English is the 3rd one. Dioula (my mother tongue, pronounced dee-oo-luh ) and French were the first languages I spoke. I did not start speaking English daily until I was 19 years old, when I moved to the US for college. I LOVE the Harry Potter series. I have watched every single one of the movies maybe 10 times and I own every single one of the books (as physical copies and in kindle format). I jusge anyone who cannot say "wingardium leviosa", or worse- who has no idea what it means. Finding jeans is extremely hard for me because I have a short torso and longer legs. I am also 5"11, which does not help. I need an inseam of 35"- 36"to be comfortable, which greatly limits my choices. Oh, and I have a shoe size of 11. Fun. When I was 19, I competed in a TV show akin to the French version of Jeopardy. I made it to the finals and won a lot of books and chocolate (It was around Easter). I lost to a history teacher, so I was honestly cool with it- listen, I was still perplexed as to how I made it that far. I got married twice... to the same man. My husband is Indian, so we had a regular wedding with the white dress, cake, bridesmaids etc. and an Indian wedding where I wore a red lehenga. It was fucking epic. I have a speech impediment; I have been stuttering since I was 6. It does not bother me that much in daily life; as a matter of fact, I have had A LOT of years to practice concealing it, so many people have no idea. I did go to speech therapy for it and got better, but I have definitely relapsed. I really should go again. I cannot drink coffee- It is BITTER!!!!! How do you guys do it??? I tried so many times, and I just can't. Nope. I understand that people can have a taste for it, I appreciate the amount of work that goes into bean selection and roasting, but the beverage itself is just FOUL to me. I love the smell of a freshly brewed pot though. I do not watch TV. Like none. I do watch Netflix here and there (usually to keep my ears busy when I'm doing my hair), but I do not have the commitment to sit in front of the TV for anything. Everything that I know about TV personalities, I found out on social media. I follow up with the news pretty easily via a triangulation of Twitter, FB, news apps, Reddit and my husband lol. There you go, this is it! Here are more photos of my outfit below, as well as a quick 411:

Top: Black sheer bodysuit; used it several times on the blog, here and here for example. It's from AliExpress and is available here. I love it so much I actually bought two more; one identical and one with a crew neck. The utility I get out of these is amazing- I wore the older one maybe 10 times, and that nets out to less than $1 per wear. Boots: Another blog favorite, here and here. They are the Stuart Weitzman LeggyLady, mostly sold out everywhere but here's a similar pair here. Blazer: First feature on the blog, but wore it several times already! It is from Missguided, and it is a much much much more affordable version of this one by Balmain; found out about it from a Jennie Jenkins fashion haul, and I have seen the Balmain blazer on Folake from Style Pantry several times in the past years (here, here). EVERY. TIME she wears it, it is DROOL WORTHY. That woman can DRESS. Anyway, back to our train of thought–this Missguided blazer has none of the structure its higher-end cousin benefits from (Jennie compares both in her video, at 10:23– you're welcome )- but it is a cute blazer, it looks nice with jeans/ minis/ shorts and has a good length. I also scored it for 50% off during a random sale by Missguided, yay! I will say though- mine is a little too large for my taste, and I wish I had sized down. (Got an 8, and I am an 8 in real life as well.) Shorts: those corduroy shorts were a totally random purchase from Nordstrom Rack, and they were $10!!! They are here, and I also just found a pair on Poshmark (they are from a brand called Moon River). I will highlight that I wear them back to front because they have cargo pockets in the front, which makes little to no sense to me. Like, why do we need crotch framing pockets? No one needs to highlight their nether regions that badly, and back pockets make MUCH more sense. They are super comfy though, super sassy and overall awesome. I wore them 2 or 3 times when I was in the UK (bought them the day before my trip).

That is it for this blog post! As always, thanks a lot for stopping by and hanging out with me. I would like to tag Shannon from Champagne at Shannon's, Tisha from Behind the Schmile, Debbie from To Thine Own style be True, Antonia from the Midwest Wife , Yawa from Stilettos and Pearls , Josie from Petite + Bold and Louisa from La Passion Voûtée to take a stab at it, as well as all of you! If you do it, please leave your link below- I would love to read your list! Look captured by @mishmash_photography at the Tower of London. Until next time! With Love, D Read the full article

#Blazer #boots #london #missguided #nordstrom #over the knee boots #red and black #stuart weitzman

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seo1code-blog · 7 years ago

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Here’s How To Outrank Your Ruthless Competitors On Google

I am sure you want the #1 spot on Google.

Who doesn’t?

Being the first on the SERPs page will get you a lot of traffic and shares. But there are many others competing against you. And outranking them is not so easy.

Or is it?

Well, what I learned is that you can use some simple methods to outrank your competitors.

But you might be wondering:

My competitors are ranked on top because they have a huge number of backlinks and they are experts in the industry.

This might be true but that doesn’t mean you can’t outrank them.

You don’t need to be an SEO expert or anything like that to beat your competition. All you need to do is to follow some methods and you will notice a change in your rankings.

And this is what you’re going to learn from this article. I am going to show you step-by-step, how to outrank your competition in Google.

This article is 2941 words long. Download your FREE checklist to know the actionable tips to outrank your competition.

1. Create Epic Content by Finding the Content Gap In Your Niche

All the SEO experts tell us to write good content. This used to work a few years ago. But recent Google updates reveal that your “good” content is not enough to rank on the first page of Google.

Your content needs to be epic and this is how you can create an epic piece of content:

By finding the content gap in your niche and creating content by filling that gap.

Content-gap SEO is an untapped opportunity to outrank your competition. This basically involves the following steps

1. Find keywords you want to rank for

2. Analyze the content of your competitor

3. Find out what is missing in the content

4. Create your content by filling in the missing part

And you’re done. Is this confusing to you?

Well, if it is don’t worry because I will show you an example of a website which used content-gap SEO to outrank their competition. So let us continue this step-by-step process:

1. Find keywords you want to rank

This is simple. All you need to do is to find the keyword you want to rank for. Before you just go for a keyword with high competition, I would suggest you to target long-tail keywords. As you can see below, long-tail keywords can bring in huge traffic to your website.

Suppose I want to rank on the keyword “best email marketing practices”. So let us search this keyword on Google and find out what comes up first.

As you can see that this keyword has a very high competition with around 8,000,000 searches. Moreover, you can see all these ads on the top of the results page. This is another indication that the keyword has a very high competition.

So let us scroll down and see what websites are ranking for this keyword.

These are the websites that are ranking for this keyword. I have selected the two highlighted posts for comparing the content.

2. Analyze the content of your competitor

Let us analyze the 2nd post first. It is found that this post is just a curated list of best email marketing practices published on their blog.

Now this is a big content gap.

Let me tell you why:

The website ranking on the first page of this keyword is not providing what the user wants. Instead it is asking the user to open each blog post and read it to get what the user wants. In a nutshell, it’s just a curated list of articles.

3. Find out what is missing in the content

As I told above, the ranked website is not providing the content the user wants. Rather it is just a list of blog posts. The biggest thing you can learn from this is that you have to understand the users’ intent to get your content ranked on top.

Now the last step of this method is to create content by filling in the missing part. And that’s what the post ranking above did. Let us see how.

4. Create your content by filling in the missing part

The last step is to create your content. But you have to make sure that you are providing much better information and also in a better way than your competitor.

Let us examine the 1st post. You will realize that this is not just a random article. It is a detailed guide covering all the best email marketing practices.

And to make this piece of content stand out, they have designed a beautiful table of contents to help readers navigate through the article.

This is the reason why this article ranked above the others.

So this is a simple way to outrank your competitors and stand out of the crowd. Many times you may not find the content gap in your niche.

When this happens, focus on creating better content than your competition and use different techniques to make it look better.

And if you fail even after trying this, then don’t panic. This is just the first tip to outrank your competition and we have 3 more to go.

Key Takeaway: Creating EPIC content can help you rank on top of your competitors. Focus on making your content better than your competitors.

2. Start Earning Backlinks

Link building is one of the most controversial topics in the SEO industry. While some experts say that link building is necessary, others tell us to focus on other ranking factors. Infact, Ahrefs recently conducted a research and found out that many On-page SEO factors do not affect your rankings.

And it is impossible for Google to determine the value of a web page without any links pointing to it. So it is still important for you to focus on links.

But let me tell you one thing:

If you are trying to get links by using some old school methods, then get ready to be penalized. You have to be very careful when building links. With Panda operating in real-time now, you just can’t be careless.

This is the reason why I prefer to say:

[easy-tweet tweet=”Don’t try to build backlinks, try to earn them.” user=”iamahfaz” hashtags=”backlinks”]

You may have heard many SEO experts say that “if your content is good, people will link to you”.

Well, here is my question then:

How will anyone link to you if they don’t know that you even exist?

I am trying to tell you that people will not link to you until they visit your website or know who you are. You will have to promote your content out there to get links.

My favorite method to get links is:

Guestographics.

This technique coined by Brian Dean from Backlinko is enough to get high quality links to your website.

I was able to increase one of my websites traffic roughly by 37% using this technique. Moreover Perrin Carrell used the guestographics method to boost his traffic by 963%.

We will discuss this method later in this section. Before that let me show you how to steal your competitors’ backlinks.

So here is what you have to do to steal backlinks from your competitors.

1. Find your competitors backlinks

The first step is to find out your competitor’s backlinks. There are many tools (free & paid) that will do your job. But I recommend you to use ahrefs.

So this is what you have to do now:

a. Open ahrefs site explorer and enter the URL of the article of your competitor.

I am using the same article about which we were discussing in the previous section. Have a look at these results:

You will find that this article itself has 52 backlinks from 28 different referring domains. And it is ranking on the first page of Google.

b. Click on the inbound links tab to find out its backlinks.

As you can see on here, this article has got backlinks from well-reputed blogs like KISSmetrics and many others.

c. Now go and check one of the articles where this article got linked.

I am checking the article on KISSmetrics.

What we find here is that this is also a curated list of “Best blog posts of 2014”.

Now it is time for you to take action.

d. You can also get links from such curated lists.

But you can’t just do nothing and get backlinks from such websites. It’s time for you now to do some email outreach. You can try this email outreach template by Neil Patel to get backlinks:

You can write an email in your words too but if you face difficulties in doing so, this template can help a lot. But before reaching out to such well-reputed websites, you should first get on their radar. You can do this by sharing their content, commenting on their posts and sending a thank you email.

And never reach out to someone without establishing any connection. So this way you can steal your competitors’ backlinks.

It all depends on how your competitor got the backlink. If it is through guest posting, then you can also provide guest posts.

But I have a better alternative than guest posting. This method will not only help you get some backlinks but it can also make your content viral.

This method is called the guestographics method about which we discussed above. Now I will show you this method works.

2. Create and publish a really good infographic

First thing you need to do is to create an awesome infographic and publish it on your website. And by awesome, I didn’t just mean that it should look good. It should also have content worth reading and sharing.

The demand for infographics is very high these days and you can use it to bring traffic and backlinks to your website.

3. Find People That Are Interested In Your Infographic

The next step is to find people who are interested in your infographic.

You can do this by searching on Google and making a list of all those people who may like your infographic.

4. See If They Are Interested In Your Infographic

Once you’re done creating a list of all those people who might be interested in your infographic, its time to ask them. You can mail them and see if they are interested in your infographic.

But remember one thing:

Don’t share the infographic right now. This is just you bribing them to check out what you’ve created.

Perrin used this template to ask people if they were interested in his infographic:

If you get a reply to send over the infographic, you can move on to the next step.

5. Share Your Infographic

Now you might be thinking:

All I need to do is to send over the infographic.

You are completely wrong. Now you have to ask them if they are interested in sharing the infographic on their website. But here is the twist:

You also tell them that you can write an introduction about the infographic for their website.

Now if you get a positive reply like “sure, send me an introduction”, you can send a 250-300 words introduction. And in the introduction, you can add a link to your website.

How cool is that!

You can read many case studies on Guestographics method. It works and can help you a lot if you follow it properly.

Now let’s move on to the next step.

Key Takeaway: Focus on building relevant links from high authority sites by using guestographics method.

3. Improve Your Website Speed

Optimizing your site speed can bring a huge change in your rankings. Site speed is often overlooked because many people just keep focusing content and backlinks. This is a big mistake which stops your website to rank better on Google.

A 1-second delay in the load time of a webpage can cause 7% loss in conversions.

And optimizing your site-speed isn’t that hard. Let me quickly walk you through some ways by which you can improve your site speed.

I will show you exactly what to do to improve your website speed.

But first, you need to know the tools with which you can analyze your website speed and all other necessary details related to it.

There are mainly three tools that I use:

GTmetrix Pingdom Website Speed Test Google PageSpeed Insights

These three tools will show you how fast is your website and what things you need to do to make your site faster. But here I will be using only GTmetrix to show you how to optimize site speed.

1. Let us first test a random website and see what

GTmetrix

shows us.

I am searching neilpatel.com.

Now as you can see this is not a fast loading website. On the top, you can see the overview of the website’s speed. This includes performance scores and page details. On scrolling down, you can see the full details of the website speed.

Now here you can see what you have to fix on your website.

As you can see here, everything looks optimized in the page speed tab. But still the images are not optimized well and something needs to be done about it.

2. Click on the optimize images tab to see more details.

Now you can see what images you need to optimize.

Optimizing these images can reduce the website speed by 17%. Let’s move on to the YSlow tab and see whats there to optimize.

Here are many things that need to be optimized. If you resolve such issues on your website, you can significantly reduce your website load time.

Now there can be many things you can do to make your website faster. This tool will help you do that. Some things may not be easy for you to understand. You can ask your webmaster to do this for you.

You can also hire someone to do these jobs for you. Try Fiverr. You can find many people there who will optimize your website speed for just 5$.

And if you want to do this all by yourself then this guide will surely help you.

When you are done optimizing your site speed, you will notice a change in your rankings.

Key Takeaway: Optimizing your website speed can help you improve your ranking on Google. Analyze your website speed and fix all the issues to make it faster.

4. Improve Your Social Media Presence

Social media can bring huge traffic to your website. There are many ways to bring flood-gates of traffic to your website.

There are many social media channels where you can promote your website and content. But it is important that you promote your content properly.

Here are the top 5 social media channels you must leverage to bring in traffic:

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Instagram

You must first focus on these five networks and then move to other websites.

And here is how you can do it:

1. Identify your target audience

The first most important thing you need to do is to identify your target audience on social media. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter or any other network, you need to know who your target audience is.

Promoting your content to a random audience of a few thousand people will get you nowhere.

Find out your target audience by researching where they hang out. Look out for influencers in your niche and see what their fans like and share.

2. Set A Posting Schedule

Posting on social media whenever you want is not an acceptable choice if you want to grow your social media presence.

You need to identify the right time to post on social media and set a schedule. Tools like Buffer and Hootsuite are really helpful in such cases.

This is how a social media posting schedule looks like:

You should also make a social sharing schedule and stick to it.

3. Add Sharing Buttons to Your Website

Adding social sharing buttons on your website will help you generate more shares and hence more traffic. I think you all know this but there is one thing you may be doing wrong:

Adding too many social sharing buttons.

Yes, I consider this as a big mistake. In fact, when I reduced the number of social sharing buttons in one of my websites, I noticed a significant increase in social shares.

Sometimes users find too many social sharing buttons annoying(even I do) and they may not share your content. Also, make sure your sharing buttons are responsive. This is because sometimes these sharing buttons may overlap the content on the webpage on small screen devices.

4. Encourage People To Tweet Your Content

You can use some plugins to encourage people to share your content on twitter. By using Click to Tweet you can increase your twitter traffic massively.

This is a very effective way to increase your traffic because just one click will share your content on twitter. There are many other social sharing plugins you can use to boost your social media traffic.

But remember to use these carefully. By this I mean such plugins should not block any part of your content or make your website look bad and slow.

Key Takeaway: Improving social media presence can help you outrank your competition. Find out the social media website your competitors are using and make a sharing schedule.

Summary

Let us have a quick recap on the 4 tips to outrank your competition.

1. Create better content by finding the content gap in your niche

Finding content gap in your niche and creating better content than your competitors.

2. Start earning backlinks

By using guestographics method to steal backlinks from your competition.

3. Improve website speed

By analyzing what is wrong with your website by using tools like GTmetrix and fixing all the issues.

4. Improve social media presence

Adding social sharing buttons and click to tweet links on website. Moreover making a social sharing schedule by finding the best times to post.

Conclusion

So that’s it. These were the 4 actionable tips to outrank your competition on google. Follow these tips correctly and I can guarantee that you will notice a change in your rankings and one day:

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shanannigansthebibliophile · 5 years ago

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TGIF amiright?

I have some reviews for you today! Shocked? I am too, but I have a really good reason for not writing… I’m READING! I’m reading a lot! And I am enjoying myself so much, I haven’t wanted to stop. For the first time in a very long time, I am reading just for me and it feels great! After the worst reading slump of my life last year, I needed to rediscover the joy of reading, and the biggest surprise to me, is that I have been reading a whole lot of Fantasy! Me! Granted, it’s not hardcore GOT, LOTR type stuff because, though I enjoy watching it, I still don’t like reading it. No I have been reading YA Fantasy. Mostly epic Fae type stuff, and I am LOVING it!

On “Bookstagram” we have a hashtag #bookstagrammademedoit and this is completely true in my case! It started with The Folk of the Air trilogy (Brilliant), which I gobbled up like candy, and then Seven Deadly Shadows (Read Review). What really hooked me however, was A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a complete noob! I loved the Shadowhunter books, I’ve read countless vampire and werewolf books (Even Twighlight *Cringes), but I don’t think I have every read Fantasy with such voracity as I am now! Seriously, I can’t get enough, and the darker the better!

Annnd, I’m going to stop rambling now and get to the review portion of the show, because even though I’ve enjoyed my “reading for the sake of reading” break, I still have a job to do lol!

A Curse So Dark and Lonely & A Heart So Fierce and Broken

How lucky was I, to find a pristine copy of ACSDAL in a used bookstore for only $6, and a hardcover no-less? At the time, I had thought to myself that it would be a beautiful book to photograph and I knew the sequel was coming out, so I snatched it up!

One of my book besties, blogger and bookstagrammer (Jenacidebybibliophile), suggested we do a buddy read to get ready for the sequel, and I thought what the hell, why not?! Plus she’s very persuasive lol! She had also talked me into reading The Cruel Prince too (Hmm, maybe she’s responsible for my obsession?).

So we picked a day and got to reading.

OMG!!!

I was hooked instantly! The story, the characters, the violence, EVERYTHING! I enjoy a good retelling as much as the next girl, but this one was on a whole new level!

This was such a unique twist on Beauty and the Beast, and a very dark one too. It was as if the author went back to the violent and gnarled roots of traditional fairy tales and then added a fae twist. As a fan of horror, I really appreciated this. As I mentioned, the darker the better, and this book is as dark as the cold coffee sitting beside me. It’s also exciting, passionate and very well-written. Rhen is as dreamy as he is terrifying, and Harper is a spitfire! And then there is Grey… *Swoon

I honestly loved everything about it and much to ‘Jenacide’s’ dismay (Sorry Babe!), my freakish fast reading talent coupled with my inability to put the book down, made for a very short, very unsatisfying buddy read.

Then we moved on to the sequel, A Heart So Fierce and Broken!

Now, some fans were disappointed by the unexpected departure from book #1. I on the other hand, adored it!

My affection for one of the characters (*Ahem… Grey), was a big part of it, but mainly it was because it’s an amazing book! We meet so many incredible new characters, the villain is pure evil, and the story-line is completely enthralling!

I could say a lot more but you know how it is with a sequel, it is way too easy to reveal the story, and I don’t do spoilers.

Let’s just leave it as this, this installment is fantastic and is just as good, maybe even better than the first!

To sum up my ridiculously long post, I will simply say these books are 5 star reads, and you need to read them! I promise you will not regret it!

Cursebreaker Series: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! I am going back to the “Night Court” where I have been living all week. Please don’t call or write 😉

Cursebreaker Series, The Cruel Prince & So Many, Many More: Lost in a World of Fantasy and I Don’t Want to be Found! @BrigidKemmerer #Review #YAFantasy #Fantasy #Books #BookBlogger TGIF amiright? I have some reviews for you today! Shocked? I am too, but I have a really good reason for not writing...

#A Curse So Dark and Lonely #A Heart So Fierce and Broken #Book Review #Books #Cursebreaker Series #Fairy Tale Retelling #Fantasy #Romance #YA Fantasy #YA Fiction

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jutebugle4-blog · 6 years ago

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11 Ecommerce Marketing Tips To Kickstart Sales

“If there’s anything that an online store needs, it’s to generate lots of traffic and have sales flow in like rain.

Some people think its easy peasy. You decide on the right product, set up your website, put out marketing ads, and sales come in. Sure, it’s simple and you can get it done, but it’s a long-term game that takes much effort to kickstart sales the way you’d like.

That’s why ecommerce marketing is a big deal. Regardless if you are just starting an ecommerce business from scratch or you’re years in, marketing is essential. You’ll need marketing tactics to draw people who don’t know anything about you to trust you and retain them.

In this article, I’ll share tested ecommerce marketing ideas that I use to get the ball rolling. Before I go into that, you need to understand that blindly working with a marketing idea without defined goals and strategies is senseless.

For any idea you pick from this list, you should align that idea (tactic) with your goal and strategy. If your goal is generating sales, it has to be more specific, say a certain amount of dollars worth of sales in a month.

Your ecommerce marketing strategy gives that goal a path, for example, increasing your brand’s reach. The tactic then takes it from there into the how you’ll achieve all of that. When you have done that, you can pick ideas from this list that aligns with your strategy.

1. Define your buyer persona and use personalization to improve customer service

You need to have results from this tip before you can accurately use the other ideas in this article.

If you have ever correctly created an audience on Facebook ad manager, you know how specific your audience can get. That’s almost what you should have. Your buyer persona represents a defined set of your target audience. Note down:

Demographics: age, sex, location, salary, education level, family status, occupation

Interests: Hobbies, values, attitudes, behaviors, lifestyle preferences

Personal: Goals, challenges, fears, pain points

If you are looking to sell eco-friendly diapers, then you’ll look for people to buy that product. It’s obvious that the primary buyer is a parent, but to get a concrete persona, you need a name, job, age group, and all.

We are also not just only looking to get demographic data, but also pain points.

So, take a look at discussions in forums. Mom/parent forums and blog comments or product reviews are resourceful places to find those for our test product. You can start with a Google search for discussion. Type “Product inurl:forum.”

Then check popular ecommerce marketplaces like Amazon, AliExpress, etc. for comments and reviews left by buyers.

Look out for people who not only buy the product but actually cares about them, to build a unique angle around who your buyer is.

2. Bring in localization by presenting your website in your customer’s local language

To up your conversion rate and dominate your market, gear everything you do on your ecommerce website towards the individual customer.

If you are delivering products to people in Portugal, Italy, or France, for example, using the local language of those countries over English is one way to pave your way into that market. You don’t have to spend many dollars on that. Some ecommerce platforms – Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce – provide translation features that you can set to sell to some people who don’t understand your language.

3. Use customer location to boost sales

There are many ways you could use individual customer location to lift sales. Alloy Apparel shows the trending items local to the visitor. For visitors outside the US, they replaced that section with bestsellers.

Another way you could go about it is sending offers to customers based on the weather in their location. If you sell women’s clothes, for example, in October, your banner could show bathing suits to someone in southern California and coats to your Maine Customers.

4. Address people with their names and go further to make them feel special

This is not the 2000s people. If you are still sending emails without addressing your customer with their names, what are you doing?

Every day, your potential customers get tons of emails from so many businesses, ecommerce and otherwise. If you want to sell your products and increase your chances of them actually reading whatever it is you crafted, address them with their names.

Secondly, in your emails, provide relevant links to each customer from their history and preferences. Make sure the messages are relevant and targeted. You could go as far as asking customers to reply to some of your emails or sending birthday messages (if you have that info).

Bonus tip: don’t over-personalize. That’s a thing. The line between using their personal information to market and invading their privacy is thin. Don’t cross it or they might perceive you as shady and take their money elsewhere.

5. Create epic content on a regular basis

For most things you want to write, I bet you there’s content on it already.

At the time this post was written (around 7 am EST), that number of blog posts had already been published on WordPress.com according to worldometers, that’s not adding those websites that are not on WordPress.com.

Creating content is more than SEO. Your content could rank on google, drive in mad traffic, and your visitors still bounce without purchasing anything because your content is not relevant. Sure, getting keywords with buyer intent and reverse engineering your competitors SEO strategy is great, but that’s all for traffic. Sales will be the one to get growth.

Content marketing is about driving brand loyalty and building authority – two things that you can easily convert to sales.

To differentiate, either give a different, more relevant perspective to what’s already on ground and/or write based on your own experience.

Whichever you go for, make it actionable. It should give 110%. Try to get images, videos even (how-tos are good rockets), screenshots, quotes, and other types of graphics that provide information to your visitors. Also, be yourself and write in your tone.

6. Scale up your content strategy by capitalizing on events that matter to your audience

One massive way to convince people to buy from you is putting your messages in the right places at the right time. Remember this?

Oreos took hold of the 34 minutes blackout at the Super Bowl XLVII stadium to show this.

You may not have the on-hand design team that they have, but you can come up with a way to astonish your audience in something that matters to them. In this case, the Oreos’ TA loves snacks during a game, add in the timeliness and humor of this ad, and you get more people who know and are willing to buy because there’s an amazing connection.

7. Use user-generated content to encourage sales

If you don’t have the time to craft fantastic content, let your customers do it for you. In some cases, that works better on conversion rates. That’s because customers like to see that you include them in what you are doing. Another thing is that customers trust information from other people over what you’re going to say.

User-generated content takes many forms. Guest posts and reviews are a big part. You could add those and go further, like Doritos with the super bowl ads of previous years or the #RedCupContest from Starbucks.

Contests are also a great way to build your email list or social media following.

You could also ask for UGC for a cause. At different times, Aerie, a female apparel brand gave $1 to the National Eating Disorders Association for every unretouched picture people took in either an Aerie underwear or swimsuit and posted with the hashtag #AerieREAL. That increased the brand’s popularity and sales.

The last UGC I’ll mention here is affiliate marketing. Letting others do the work for a small commision drives sales and bumps up revenue.

8. Send wishlist reminder emails to convince shoppers to take the last steps

Sending email for abandoned carts is a popular tactic. It’s great. However, you can up your game with wishlist reminder emails.

It’s so easy to forget items in our wishlist. I spent time on my profile after purchasing an item a few weeks ago and realized I had wishlist items from years ago that I didn’t buy. They weren’t even available anymore.

When someone places an item in a wishlist, it means they want it, so remind them.

Convince your visitors to take the final plunge in purchasing the products they have shown intent to buy. You could put urgency especially if it’s selling out; no one wants to miss out on a product they like. Alternatively, you can give a special promo like a discount or free shipping if they purchased.

9. Optimize your product descriptions to speak to the buyer persona

One mistake people make in their ecommerce store is having a copy-paste product description from the manufacturer’s website or just describing the features. That’s the lazy person’s way out that does nothing for you.

Every experience should speak to the customer. Your product description shouldn’t be different. I know it’s cotton, but what does that do for me?

Starting with your page title, make sure it’s well thought out, relevant, and delivers its message in less than 66 characters. Don’t clutter it with so many keywords all because you want to rank for search engines. Remember you are not selling to search engines but people. While SEO is important, think of your customers as well.

Make features fulfill the interest of your customers. You have defined who they are, and their pain points so make your features benefit oriented to fit the need. Even as you do that, do not leave out the critical information.

Also, write for your buyer persona. Your brand tone comes out of what you want to represent and who your customers are. Stick with that tone in your copy to connect with them and convert.

Looking at Man Crates website and their product pages, you can see that their copy has grit and tells who they are talking to because of the consistent strong voice.

10. Invest in high-quality product images to stand out

You better realize that every copy and product image tells a story to your visitors. The easiest thing to do is get product images from the manufacturer’s website, but that may not represent you. Take shots that say what you want to say. Get multiple angles with good quality. That way, it’s possible to see the back or zoom in.

11. Use a loyalty program to get repeat purchases

Getting a customer to make the first sale is 6-7 times more expensive (and harder) than getting them to make repeat purchases, especially if they had a good first experience. If you are a one-time wonder, you’ll spend more on marketing and lose out where you would have gained. Optimizing for Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a proven route to scale up.

Customer loyalty programs give CLV.

A loyalty program entices customers to return and keep on purchasing. They are easy to set up, and as long as you do it right, people will flock in.

Make your customers feel like spending more money on your store by appreciating them with a reward. You can give points that they can use to get free products, discount coupons, free shipping, or if you offer subscriptions, they could get certain days/order free. When people feel a connection to you or your program, you’re on your way to success.

Once you have loyal customers, referral programs can accelerate growth.

Final thoughts

As you pick these ecommerce marketing tips to kickstart sales on your online store, A/B test to tighten up the slack areas.

You have to keep improving your sales and marketing process regularly to make online shopping as seamless as possible for your customers. A marketing plan without testing is sailing blind; you could hit a brick wall. Test parts of your product pages, checkout process, and landing pages. Use the results of those tests to improve your process.

What stage are you in your ecommerce marketing? Do you have any questions or concerns? Let me know in the comments.

Source: https://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/ecommerce-marketing-tips/

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placetobenation · 6 years ago

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As many of you are aware, WWE Network is pretty packed with all sorts of content. And as you may also know, we here at Place to Be Nation love long term, in depth projects. So, as part of this initiative, members of the PTBN Staff are choosing programs at random and after watching each program, they will share their thoughts, notes and recommendations with our readers. So, settle in and enjoy this epic ride through wrestling history!

Smackdown! October 31st 2002

Run Time: 83 Minutes

Why Jacob Why???: Since this edition be running right around Halloween, I thought I’d pick one of the more Halloween-centric WWF/E shows. Plus, it’s an excuse to watch the Smackdown Six.

Best Segment

OhhhhhhhhYEEEEAAAAH!

Aaron George: Matt Hardy enters the Halloween party with a boom box blasting his theme song. Sure he could have entered without it, but what kind of Mattitude would that project? Before long he’s declaring Moolah and Mae Young to be “Version BC” and quickly notes that their Mattitude has all dried up. We would have been treated to sheer perfection if only he had blasted that sweet boom box on his exit.

Brian Bayless: While seeing John Cena dressed as Vanilla Ice and rapping was great and ended up elevating his career, I though the brawl between Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle backstage at the party was the best of the night. It had everything from comedy (We saw Brother Love revealed behind the Scream mask & costume, the same costume Angle was using to avoid Benoit earlier in the show) and a wild brawl that saw Benoit break a bottle over Angle’s head just before getting put through a table with an Angle Slam. And poor Shannon Moore got tossed across the room by Angle.

Jacob Williams: It feels like cheating to pick the entire Halloween party. At the same time, it’s hard to narrow it down because a lot it was very fluid. If I had to pick one bit, it would be Tajiri’s romantic encounter with Mae and Moolah. His facials were classic.

Calum McDougall: “OOHHH YEAAAH!!” – there was only one winner in this one for me and it was Matt Hardy at the Halloween Party. From him coming in with his own music playing on a boom box to calling Mae and Moolah “Version B.C.” and everything in between, it was brilliant stuff.

Dave Hall: Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit brawl at the Halloween Party. The seeds of this segment lay in the earlier segment where Benoit was looking for Kurt, who was hiding under the Scream outfit. Following Angle’s match with Eddie, Kurt comes back to the party looking for Benoit. Kurt’s approach to the “Scream Character” believing it to be Benoit was a good call back to the earlier segment, and I loved seeing the cameo by Brother Love. The brawl between the two men following this was awesome, using the tables, wall and other party elements.

Best Match

Uhhhh stay out of Riverdale!

Aaron George: It’s the brown water match and it’s not even close. Sure every other match on the card was technically better, but Dawn Marie and Torrie Wilson gave us a “stiff” (as per Tazzzzzzzzz) match that will always be etched into the annals of time as simply the best to take place in a pool of liquid shit. They can tell us it’s chocolate, but honestly what kind of chocolate has that consistency? It’s liquid human shit which is clearly their metaphor for the poopstorm that is coming in the form of this feud. Was the ref rolling around silly? Sure. Were Torrie’s chops DIRECTLY to Dawn’s breasts the best since Flair/Steamboat in 89? Absolutely. The best part was after the loss Dawn gave Torrie a look that clearly said, “Yeah? Well I’m going to fuck your dad.” A threat I have often used but have very rarely carried out. I can only imagine Vince McMahon Sr. looking down from Heaven, beaming with pride as his son carried on the family business. ******

Brian Bayless: Edge vs. Chris Benoit was an excellent TV match. The work was crisp and the finish made sense as it continued the friction between Angle and Benoit, who were the Smackdown Tag Team Champions.

Jacob Williams: On a show with some quality wrestling, the opener between Benoit and Edge felt like the most complete match. I love that they could come out and just have a great, straight-up match to start the show.

Calum McDougall: As good as Edge vs Benoit and Angle vs Eddie were, my favorite match was actually Brock Lesnar vs. Rey Mysterio. This match had three distinct parts to it – the early section with Rey out maneuvering the big man, followed by the middle part where Brock throws Rey around like a rag-doll and finally the end where Big Show comes out and manhandles both of them, looking like a complete beast in the process. Great stuff for the short time it was on, and call me crazy, but I wouldn’t mind seeing another Brock-Rey match in 2018.

Dave Hall: Kurt Angle vs Eddie Guerrero. On a show with so many options for the title of Match of the Night, Kurt and Eddie absolutely stole the show. Kurt was a wrestling machine, and looked amazing in the ring, while Eddie was crisp and quick. The two men countered each other finishers, and put on a clinic. The match built really well to some great action in the last few minutes, and a decent ending for a TV match. Benoit’s interference was appropriate to the storyline, and I loved how he took out Eddie and Chavo as well, demonstrating he was not working with them.

Most Cringeworthy Moment

Trojan Vince! Don’t let it in the city!

Aaron George: I’m not going to say that Stephanie McMahon isn’t an attractive woman, but on a show with the aforementioned Torrie Wilson and Dawn Marie, does EVERY person who comes into Steph’s radius have to fawn on her as though she were Helen of fucking Troy. Are those the tits that launched a thousand ships?

Brian Bayless: Eric Bischoff making out with Stephanie McMahon after he was in her office wearing a Vince McMahon mask was something I never need to see again in my life. It was creepy in the worst way possible.

Jacob Williams: Sorry Michael Cole, but awkwardly perving out during the women’s pool-of-chocolate-sauce match can’t compete with Bischoff forcing himself on a woman 20 years his junior in a weird incest roleplay.

Calum McDougall: The piped-in cheers every time Stephanie McMahon was on the screen. Now I know that all of the cheers on SmackDown at this time were piped in, but there was no reason for Stephanie’s to be top-tier babyface loud other than pure ego. Only Brock and maybe Edge got louder “cheers”. I don’t know whether them going to these lengths to show Stephanie as being popular is cringy or outright infuriating, but it certainly rubbed me the wrong way.

Dave Hall: Dawn Marie vs. Torrie Wilson.This segment showed us just how far women’s wrestling has come in 16 years. This match was horrible to watch, with the two women degrading themselves in little clothing and in a pool of chocolate milk. I hated every moment of this match, including the customary referee gets rolled over spot. I am so glad the women’s evolution means we don’t have to see this crap any more.

Funniest Line/Moment

Hashtag Tajiritoo

Aaron George: I’m still laughing at the image of Al Wilson dressed up like a greaser. Still.

Brian Bayless: Tajiri’s facial expressions while Mae Young forced him to be her boyfriend. He is one of the more underrated comedic performers in wrestling.

Jacob Williams: Again, I can’t say enough about Tajiri’s face after the Mae Young smooch. I love Tajiri.

Calum McDougall: “He’s saying Do La Ray, you know what that means Cole? It means “I’m beating up Kurt”” – Tazz doing his best to boost the sales of his Spanish to Red Hook dictionary.

Dave Hall: With so much good “in-ring” action, there were not a lot of amazingly funny lines. However during the Eddie vs Angle match, Tazz made the comment “I like Guerrero… I like Kurt… I like everyone on the Smackdown roster except you Michael Cole”. Also John Cena’s “Vanilla Ice Costume” was a great reminder of how he broke out in the WWE. But when he told Stephanie that Vince was looking for her, and she called him out, and he then did the “damn, I look stupid moment”, I laughed out loud. Was a great reminder that John Cena has more in his character than the hustle/loyalty/respect stuff we have seen since about 2005/06, he can do good comedy and was willing to poke fun at himself.

Highlights

Remember when we weren’t insufferable pricks??

Aaron George: The entire concept of doing a Halloween show was a TON of fun, and made the show instantly memorable. They should do more theme shows today. I know that they are actively going for homogenous, but a curve ball like this would be more than welcome. The costumes were almost universally silly. Faarooq playing Charles Wright was bang on, and while you’d think that Chuck Palumbo dressed as a Native American would go down as 2018’s most offensive, you’d be horrible mistaken as the honor easily went to the fan dressed as the Rock in full blackface. Almost all the matches were top-tier television matches. “YEAH MY DURANGO, NUMBER 95,” is possibly the most Rob Zombie lyric ever. There is something beautiful about Chris Benoit simply avoiding Edge’s top rope dropkick rather than finding a way to kick him six times on the way down. Benoit also sells a turnbuckle drop in what can only be described as “like when you’re about to uppercut Von Kaiser in Mike Tyson’s Punch Out.” Teenage Brock Lesnar is always a blast to have around. Kurt Angle staring angrily into the audience as they chant “You Suck” is waaaay better that the smiling Kurt we get today. He STILL doesn’t get why they are booing him. He also has the best near falls in the business. I could also watch Brock throw Rey Mysterio around all day. Even then he was one of the better sellers in the business. Speaking of best in the business: Tajiri’s kicks. Oh and the Brother Love reveal was great.

Brian Bayless: The party segments backstage were amusing enough and some of the costumes were funny (Chuck Palumbo as a Native American and Disco Tajiri) while some were just lame (Phantom of the Opera Billy Kidman). And while not as good as Edge vs. Benoit, Angle vs. Eddie Guerrero was a solid match ending with Benoit whacking Angle with the belt setting up Eddie to hit a frog splash for the win. Matt Hardy with his Version 1.0 character was amusing and I liked his entrance into the party. The Pudding match between Torrie Wilson and Dawn Marie was surprisingly intense and I can only imagine how hard Vince was laughing backstage after Torrie tossed ring announcer Tony Chimel into the pudding. And of course, Al Wilson dressed as a greaser was a sight to behold.

Jacob Williams: The Halloween stuff was a fun throwback to mid-80s TNT campiness that gave everyone a chance to show their personalities. I love any situation that shows that the wrestlers all hang out backstage and are basically coworkers. Smackdown had a nice roster who were either fun characters, amazing wrestlers, or a combination of both. Tazz and Cole are a fun commentary team that really fit the show.

Calum McDougall: The way the Big Show was presented was really good. It’s hard to imagine in 2018 that there was a time where people actually believed that Brock Lesnar couldn’t beat the Big Show. At least I believed that anyway… Tazz trying to call the Torrie/Dawn “match” as an actual athletic contest was excellent stuff. I watched this show on the Friday before WWE Evolution, and this really does show how far women’s wrestling has come in the last 16 years.

Dave Hall: Pretty well the entire show was a highlight. The in-ring product was amazing, and as much as I wanted to hate Chris Benoit, I loved his match with Edge and his brawl with Angle. Matt Hardy Version 1 was great, and a good reminder that Hardy always the better “character” to his brother Jeff. Brock Lesnar was awesome in the ring, although I felt he sold a little too much at the end of his match with Rey. Big Show was booked as the monster heel he excelled at. This show was a reminder of how good all these guys were in 2002, and also how much WWE missed the mark with so many of them over the years.

Lowlights

Aaron George: Big Show wrestling in his street clothes is awful. Is that business casual for him? He just looks like a god damn slob. His line delivery is worse. Is he bored? Stoned? Or did he simply study at the Stephanie McMahon “Petulant Child” school of acting? Seriously go back and watch how she says REY MYSTERIO in the opening segment when she gives him a match with Brock. Who on Earth talks that way? What on Earth was the point of the Bischoff/Stephanie kiss of weirdness? I know that she’s a sex symbol for the ages, but poor Eric simply doesn’t know what to do with himself after kissing the slutty witch of the east. Fuck Big Show for clearly ruining what could have been an awesome dream match. While I’m at it like me correct something I said earlier: there is no way Vince Sr. is in Heaven. Especially when you have a best friend named “Toots.”

Brian Bayless: One of the main goals was to build up Big Show as Brock Lesnar’s title opponent for Survivor Series and man did he fail tonight. His street clothes looked was terrible, his conditioning worse (he was gassed after beating Rikishi in a match that lasted under three minutes long), and the cut a terribly long promo that no one seemed to care about. Stephanie McMahon’s segments were all awkward tonight too.

Jacob Williams: The feud between Lesnar and Big Show was lackluster. Show looked so bloated and out of place in his biker dad jeans against a young stud like Brock. Show gasping through his promo and Brock’s stilted delivery of an S-Bomb in his response didn’t help matters. The women having to wrestle in a kiddy pool filled with Ovaltine was not a high point either.

Calum McDougall: The Big Show promo was unnecessarily long, he made the point, then made it another 2 or 3 times before Brock finally appeared. Also, Eddie Guerrero’s very noticeable bacne is a sad lowlight in retrospect.

Dave Hall: The only real lowlights for me were the segments involving Stephanie. The first segment seemed just an excuse to show off Stephanie’s breasts, while the kissing segment with Eric Bischoff, while humorous, was not necessary. With the amazing in-ring action, it made Stephanie’s part in the show seem really self-indulgent.

Wild Card BABY!!!

Wrestling!

I Can’t Believe This Got Over: It’s not rap. It’s bad slam poetry. It became worse slam poetry. – AG

Al Wilson Tidbit #1: Paul Heyman created the Al Wilson storyline and according to Torrie Wilson, Heyman gave her the option to use an actor in the role or her actual father and Torrie went with her dad because she rarely saw him and thought it would be fun as he used to act when he was younger. – BB

The Award for Most Misplaced Optimism: “Exciting times ahead in WWE after the signing of Scott Steiner.” I don’t think this one needs much explanation, let’s just let it sink in. – CM

Best Babyface in Peril: Person in the bear costume. – JW

Number of Sexual Assaults: 3! Mae Young accosts Tajiri. Eric Bischoff forces himself on Stephanie. (who is into it???) The letch in the Kane mask filming Dawn Marie. Someone should show Randy Savage footage of this guy to clearly demonstrate lust in the eyes. There is no way his hard on didn’t pierce someone’s back in front of him.

Al Wilson Tidbit #2: According to Dawn Marie, the toughest thing for her to do was kiss Al Wilson. However, Vince McMahon loved watching them kiss and even said he wanted to see “tongue.” – BB

Memories Are Forever: Looking at Brock and Kurt in amazing ring shape, and much smaller than recent years, Matt Hardy’s early character development, John Cena’s freestyle rapping and Edge using more counter wrestling really brought back some amazing memories of what these guys could do at the time. Watching this show made me think of the little things that seem to be missing today. – DH

Best Tidbit: According to Wade Keller of “Pro Wrestling Torch,” Brock Lesnar was originally going to defend the title against Hulk Hogan at Survivor Series 2002 but Hogan backed out, reportedly due to refusing to put Lesnar over. After contemplating between Chris Benoit and Big Show as replacements, Vince McMahon ultimately decided to go with Show despite Heyman pushing for a Benoit/Lesnar program. – BB

Best at Fooling Security Staff: The master of disguise Eric Bischoff strikes again. Twice now in 2002 Easy E has managed to get past SmackDown security just by wearing a mask. Extra points awarded for a good Vince impression, but points deducted for this not being as good as Billy and Chuck’s wedding. – CM

Al Wilson Tidbit #3: Dawn Marie also said that the Al Wilson angle was supposed to go on even longer with lawyers and Torrie’s brother added to the storyline but that all got nixed. – BB

Least Likely to Still be Full Time in 2018: Out of everyone on this show, who would have thought that it would be Rey Mysterio, the man of 619 knee operations, who would be the only one still wrestling full-time for WWE in 2018? – CM

I Really Tried…: I found it so hard watching Chris Benoit on this show. I really wanted to just overlook and hate him, but his match against Edge was amazing, and his brawl with Kurt was also great. As much as I wanted to, I just could not hate Benoit in this show, and I find myself really conflicted because of this. – DH

Final Thoughts

Come on! We needed one shot of this smoke show.

Aaron George: This was a fun, easy watch littered with great television matches and memorable moments. It’s easy to think of Smackdown as the “B” show, but it was clearly running on all cylinders here. Now someone please give me 75 minutes of Brock Lesnar manhandling Rey Mysterio! RATING: 7/10

Brian Bayless: The Halloween party theme worked really well and usually the WWE Holiday themed shows tend to be weak. It is also memorable for the creation of Cena’s rap character. We had a really good match and an intense brawl between Angle and Benoit. The Big Show segments were terrible but overall a fun show that breezed along. RATING: 7/10

Jacob Williams: This was a finely constructed piece of wrestling television. The Halloween stuff was enough to give the show a unique feel without smothering it. Just about everyone on the show looked to be pretty over and had something at least semi-meaningful to do. Plus, there were good matches to round everything out. Aside from the questionable Big Show spot, Smackdown looked to be in a pretty great groove at this point, so this show was a breezy watch. RATING: 7/10

Calum McDougall: It’s easy to see why SmackDown in ’02 was highly thought of at the time and is fondly remembered to this day, this stuff holds up so well. I had a smile on my face from start to finish, as this took me right back to when I would watch this on a Saturday morning. It was a fantastic trip down memory lane. It would be difficult to put on a bad show with this roster, and the quality of matches that they can and did put on was outrageous. I loved this, excellent stuff. RATING: 9/10

Dave Hall: This episode of Smackdown was awesome. 4 great matches, some good brawling out of the ring, John Cena giving us some freestyle and some good booking made this card one I would watch again. The only thing stopping it from being a 10 out of 10 was the Dawn Marie vs Torrie Wilson fiasco, and Stephanie’s self-indulgence. I may just need to watch some more Smackdown from this era… RATING: 9/10

And we are out! Where will the Network Adventure travel to? Which Coliseum will be conquered next? Which of these assholes will quit the project in an indignant rage??? Find out in TWO WEEKS!

#IFTTT #Place to Be Nation

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djsamaha-blog · 7 years ago

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How to Write Shit People Actually Want to Read (+ Free Checklist)

Let me guess.

If you’re just starting out online, you wonder…

“How do I get clients?”

“How can I start monetizing my blog?”

“How do I get more traffic?”

The answer to every single one of these questions might surprise you. Ready?

The answer is this:

Write shit people want to read.

Every single day somewhere around two million blog posts are written. The sad truth, though?

The vast majority of those articles won't be read. The vast majority of them are – let's be real – crap.

A small portion are read by 100 people. A smaller portion are read by 1,000 people. And a few get noticed by “influencers”, syndicated on massive publications and are shared thousands of times.

Those few are the ones that bring in clients, sales, readers, and traffic.

So how do you make sure that your writing doesn't just end up in the pile of “content” that slowly drifts out to sea? How do you write the 1% of articles that will get you traffic and conversions?

Well, you write shit people actually want to read.

When somebody actually wants to read your writing, they usually want to share it. They usually get value from it, talk about it, and spread it around.

Creating shit that people actually want to read (or listen to or watch or gaze at) is one of the main ingredients in the “content” marketing cake, and without it you have no engagement, no fans, no clients and no sales.

My writing is a decade in the making and is still a huge work in progress, but I'm learning and I know some of these tips will turn your writing around.

If you're too lazy to read this post, you can get the checklist I use before I publish all of my articles.

Write like a pro: Click here to get my 44-point checklist for publishing amazing articles.

#1: Know Thy Audience

You could write Atlas Shrugged but if your audience doesn’t want to read it, it’s not good.

Yup, beauty is in the eye of the beholder in this case.

That’s why you need to know your audience.

Good content starts here. Good content to your target audience could be horrible content to me. Even if I hate your writing, if your audience loves it, then it’s good.

But be warned…

Do not take that as permission to rest on your laurels and stop improving. Instead, take that as a nudge to get to know your audience intimately.

Note two things:

What they want to read

How they want to read it.

What they Want to Read

To be the one who is willing to do this and therefore brings in tons of traffic and shares, you need to be thorough.

Enter Answer the Public.

Answer the Public is a tool that allows you to plug in a keyword (in this case, a topic you want to write about) and spits out the auto-complete search terms behind that keyword.

Use these questions/search terms as prompts to include in your article. This is what people want to read.

Bonus: this is also a great way to rank for those long-tail search terms.

How They Want to Read It

The style of article you’re creating matters, too.

For example, I know that my audience loves in-depth, step-by-step beginner’s guides. Publishing an inspirational story isn’t nearly as effective for me.

That’s how they want to read it.

Find out what your audience wants to read by mimicking other popular posts (use BuzzSumo for this).

Look up your most popular competitor in your niche:

And start taking note of the *types* of articles your competitors are writing. These articles are the most popular on their sites for a reason – its’ because people like them!

One thing I’ve learned while I’m writing for my new blog is that marketing content styles do not work in the parenting niche.

If I hadn't done the research, I would have been cranking out articles that nobody (at least none of my target readers) wanted.

#2: You Have a Personality (So Use it)

Look, I know it's hard.

Shifting from writing business reports to the more casual, personal tone of blog posts can be like experiencing culture shock. It's difficult to adjust.

But do what you must to beat the boring out of your writing, because nothing will make a reader run for the hills more quickly than a lack of personality.

I should not read your articles and feel like I’m reading a text book.

People come for the information you're providing, but they stay for you. Inject personality wherever you can.

Here’s how you can find your unique voice:

Write like you talk

If you wouldn’t talk that way, you shouldn’t write that way. Writing how you talk is the best way to make sure you shine through.

If you're having a hard time going from stiff business report writing to blog writing, this tip is for you:

Read your writing out loud.

The way things sound in your head when you first write them sound a heck of a lot different when you say them out loud, so don’t limit yourself to proofreading in silence.

If you read your post aloud it will help you find your “voice” and a good flow for your article. It will also identify those sticky sentences that aren't quite right so you can rephrase them.

Modify anything that sounds out of place. If it sounds unnatural to you, your readers will feel the same way – and that means fewer shares, comments, and pageviews.

Chances are you don't say “however” and “thus” and “estimated time of arrival” (am I the only one who hates that last one?) while you're speaking. But you do say “but” and “so” and “when will you be here?”.

When you write like you talk, you’ll notice a few changes:

You use more contractions.

You’re self-aware. “Today I’m teaching you how to….”.

You write in singular and plural first person. “I” and “we” are thrown around a lot.

You ask rhetorical questions, right?

Slang slips out more often.

You use hashtags #truth

Here’s how Brian from Backlinko keeps a laid-back tone when writing serious SEO guides:

Talk about yourself

It’s ok to let your readers know there’s a living, breathing human being behind your website.

Your articles don’t write themselves, after all.

People read your blog because they also care about your opinion, your experience, and your perspective.

Don’t just write about yourself (no one wants to read that), but if it makes sense, add a personal touch here and there to resonate with your readers.

Look at how Bryan from Videofruit does it:

He uses a personal story that makes him relatable to his audience and highlights the point of his article (good design).

Don’t be afraid to use colorful language

If you curse and use slang, you might be scared that you’ll offend people by including that part of your personality in your writing. This may help:

The people who are offended by you using curse words or becomes annoyed if you use slang language are not “your people”. They’re not your target audience.

If they’re not your target audience, it’s okay to repel them.

Stay true to your writing style and you’ll find your people – the people who love your message and the way you deliver it.

If you’re still on the fence about cursing in your writing if you curse in conversation, recent studies suggest that swearing in public could actually make you more likable.

Jorden from Writing Revolt sprinkles slang and swear words in her articles, and her audience loves it:

You don’t have to curse in your writing to resonate with your audience if you don’t use curse words in conversation — the point here is to let your personality shine through by writing like you talk.

Make your audience laugh

Keep your readers glued to your words with a little humor.

Being funny and relatable will:

Make your readers more interested in what you have to say

Hold their attention for longer and make them more likely to finish your article

Help your audience remember the information better afterward

There’s a reason memes dominate the internet. We want to be entertained and amused.

If you can do that, your articles will be unforgettable.

Ramit Sethi, best-selling author and millionaire entrepreneur, is funny, irreverent, and loud, and it seems to be working pretty well for him.

Just take a look at his hilarious response to a millionaire who said people should stop buying avocado toast to afford a house (seriously):

Break some (grammar) rules

But not all of them.

Breaking just enough grammatical rules to sound conversational, but not so many that you sound like a 10-year old texting, is a delicate balance (although easier to achieve than you think).

Imagine texting your best friend.

You use all caps to show excitement or anger, periods between words for emphasis, exclamation points, or make words longer than they need to be.

As long as you stick to basic grammar rules, spicing up your paragraphs can make your personality shine through.

Lindsay from Pinch of Yum (one of the most successful food blogs on the planet) always writes epic descriptions of her recipes with relaxed grammar rules:

Ask questions

Questions pull your reader into the conversation.

It makes them think about an answer, nod in agreement (or disagreement), or leave you a comment.

You want your audience to feel you’re talking directly to them – and what better way than by asking them what they think?

Bryan from Videofruit knows what’s up. He often asks rhetorical questions at the beginning of his articles to engage his readers right away:

Example #1: Asking your readers to make a choice

Example #2: Asking a yes or no question

Example #3: Opening with a question

If you feel your writing is bland and boring, try injecting more personality into your articles with these techniques.

#3: Stop the Regurgitation Cycle

Think back to the last time you read an article, and boomeranged to the blog later.

Maybe you saw a headline on Twitter and couldn't help but click it, or had a date with the Google and stumbled across a post that impressed you. Why did you stick around?

Chances are, you stuck around the blog because it offered something unique. Instead of giving you five ways to save money this fall and telling you to cut out lattes, walk everywhere, and cut up your credit cards, the blog broke the same boring advice chain and offered you scripts to negotiate your bills.

You stuck around because the blog wasn't regurgitating the same crap that everybody else in the blogosphere is. In a crowded market, if you're trying to hawk the same wares as the next dude, you won't get very far.

There’s enough recycled advice out there. Don’t add to the noise.

Instead, focus on creating in-depth, impactful, and original articles that you can’t find anywhere else.

Here’s how:

Study your competition

Before you start cranking out epic articles, you gotta do your homework.

Read and re-read the most popular articles about your topic to find the angles and strategies that are covered already. Identify what advice is peddled non-stop and stay away from it.

Use Buzzsumo to find the top 10-20 most shared articles about your topic.

Figure out how you can do better

Now that you know exactly what’s out there, note two things:

What’s missing from the existing content. Maybe it needs: :

More images

Better copy

More examples