#and activity page says like 150 new followers the past 3 days so one of them are lying

[amphibianaday]

day 1540

[cabinofimagines]

Troubles

Percy x Reader (college au)

Fluff | Smut | Angst

A/n: So I finally finished this piece of shit. I don’t really like where it went but it’s cool I guess. This is in response to 3 whole requests we got ages ago. Also guys please remember requests aren’t open yet. It’s on our nav page; what’s open and what’s not I mean. -Day

_ _ _

i.

Staring up at the towering buildings of the main hall only intimidated you more than you already were. You gulped as you watched packs of friends roam about the campus, chattering about who they were rooming with during the overnight orientation, “Jamie said she’s rooming with a guy named Matthew-- I guess they don’t care who stays in the same room?”

“No shit, Kyla, we’re in college now. They don’t give a shit what we do in our spare time.”

You stifle a laugh at the passing conversation, knowing better  than to assume that the school doesn’t care what you do. You grimance once more at the mass of people, but pull yourself together and step into the main hall.

The inside was a lot more intimidating than the outside of the building. People of all ages huddled around in groups, overbearing parents hovered over their grown kids, various people already huddling together in packs, and younger youth were already being recruited into sororities and frats. You stuck to the walls and made your way to a long, but ever-moving line of new students who were being randomly matched with others in a room.

Your mind wandered at the thought of rooming with a stranger, even if it was just for a night it wasn’t something you were particularly fond of doing. You had to do it at some point if you were to live on campus in a dorm, but even then you would be matched based on personality and living habits. The line was getting increasingly shorter and your heart was pounding harder the more you thought about the outcome of this experience, would you meet your best friend and decide to choose one another as actual roommates? Or would you have the worst experience of your life tonight?

“Name?”

A overly cheerful voice broke through your melancholy thoughts, you crack a quick smile at the older female, “Y/n L/n.” You watch as she shifts through a few papers with scribbles of various names until she makes a hum of achievement, marking your name out with a black sharpie and handing you a brass key.

“Here’s your key, don’t lose it or the fee is $150!” She shooed you on and greeted the next person as soon as you shifted to the side. You sighed and shoved the key into your front pocket, the space being so small you were sure that it wouldn’t fly out randomly.

Before you head to your room you decided that you should save the trip and collect your things from your car before going to find your room. You packed as lightly as you could, but still managed to bring a suitcase with you, full of clothes and bedsheets for the night since it was a required thing. Although as you trudged up the stairs because the elevator was broken, you were regretting being so prepared.

You hauled ass all the way to the fifth floor, losing a lung or two on the way up. Finally arriving on the fifth floor landing you took a breather, leaning against the railing and catching your breath. You hear a small chuckle beside you, passing by you from the hellaciously steep stairs you had climbed moments ago.

You managed to pick your head up long enough to see a mop of black hair bob past you and into the hall of the dormitory. You shake your head; damn athletes. You gather your bearings and forge onward down the hall to which the mop of hair went. You strolled past the doors, some open as chatter filled the hall, and others were shut and silent as the dead. Your eyes scanned the numbers, anxiously looking for three digits. 539.

The door was open and there was a deep voice mixed with a few others emanating from the room. Your heart stopped, how many roommates did you have? You step inside cautiously, rolling your luggage into the room and setting it by the door. The room was spacious and separated by another door that led to your roommate’s room. There was a baren bed, a large desk, and a large window on the wall adjacent from the door.

The voices went quiet suddenly, having heard your footsteps and the wheels of your suitcase they must’ve realised someone else had arrived. You see a mess of curly brown locks appear from the doorway that separated the rooms, “Oh shit, it is.” He said suddenly, disappearing back into the room to talk further about your sudden appearance. You raise your brows at his words, crossing your arms over your chest and taking a strong stance.

Before you could make a move to ask the boy why he said what he said, another voice sounded out, “Great job, Leonidas, gotta fuck up my experience too, huh?” You hear a smack echo through the room followed by a whine of pain. You see the boy stumble out of the room, grumbling an apology to you before he left.

The owner of the other voice you presumed, walked through the doorway only seconds after the curly one left. You sucked in a breath at the sight that blessed your eyes, his messy black hair fell over his sea green eyes, flying out of his line of sight moments later. He stood tall and lean in gray jogging pants and a white t-shirt, basketball shoes untied like he had just slipped them on. What deemed you speechless was his smile, a goofy yet charming lopsided smile that graced and enhanced his features.

“You’re the person on the stairs, aren’t you?” He said with a chuckle, smoothing his hair back from his face, but failing as it returned into it’s messy state.

“I’m sorry?” You ask, cocking your head to the side in confusion.

He laughed and leaned back against the doorway slightly, “The person that was by the staircase catching their breath.”

You merely nod, too flustered to answer him verbally. The fact that his first impression was that you were out of shape absolutely sucked, even if it was true.

“I’m Percy, “ He said with a wink, “Probably the best roommate you’ll ever have.”

You cock a brow at his words, crossing your arms challengingly, “What makes you say that?”

He smirked and stepped closer, shoving his hands in his pockets, “Because I’m going to make sure you have the time of your life.”

ii.

By the time sophomore year came around, the two of you were close to inseparable. One could almost never be seen without the other unless it was during classes you didn’t have together.

Although how exactly you got to the local pizza place in town discussing Criminal Minds and Law & Order you weren’t exactly sure. Somewhere between his constant whining about how hungry he was and his consistent begging, you found yourself stuffing your face with pizza while you listened to him gush about the many crime shows he watches.

“But then,” He paused, taking a big bite of his slice, “Reid just like,” another bite, “figured it out because he has photographic memory-- which is like so fucking cool-- and solved the case.”

You nod along, interested in the story and the babbling boy in front of you, going on what should be his seventh tangent about each of the cases in the many episodes he’d watched. It was cute that he was so invested into these shows and even invited you to watch a few episodes with him tonight to which you gladly obliged.

You grin as he finishes off his pizza, blindly looking for another slice but finding none, “Did you eat all the pizza?” he quirked an eyebrow in your direction, a hint of a smile playing at his lips. He didn’t give you time to answer as he stood from his seat, offering a hand to you, “I didn’t want any anyways.” He said with a chuckle and a teasing glint in his sea green eyes.

You huff at his remark, standing up with the help of his hand, “You can put away some food, that’s for sure.” you grumbled under your breath.

He flicked your forehead suddenly, “I don’t waste food.”

You laughed lightly, rubbing the sore spot as you spoke, “It’s getting dark, we should get back and actually attend some of tonight’s activities.” You spun around to leave with him in tow, but managed to run straight into an older woman who looked far from kind.

She gasped as if she were doused in hot coffee from your run in, holding her hand to her chest and staring at you in disbelief. You fumbled to apologize, but naturally they made the incident a lot worse than it actually was. They spoke loudly for the rest of the pizza place to hear, “You teenagers think you can just push an elder out of the way?! Unbelievable, this new generation is so disrespectful!”

You bit your lip in thought of what to say. You wanted to argue back and clear things up, but that would only further her idea of generational disrespect. Not once did her purple coated lips stop moving, spouting more and more unrelated nonsense about such a simple situation.

“Ma’am, you’re the one who walked into the exit door rather than the entry door. This wouldn’t have happened had you simply read the sign on the door.”

You shifted your eyes to an annoyed Percy who gave the lady before him a dead gaze, something that would’ve intimidated you had you not known how friendly the male actually was.

The lady opened her mouth again, but Percy interrupted her, “They said sorry, what more do you want? You’re the only one being rude here.”

She left without another word, shimmying away with a few grumbles. You gave the ebony haired boy an impressed look, “Well, well, “ You teased, “You could've scared me off with that look.” He snorted at this, “What look?,” his face broke out in a lopsided smile as he held the door open for you.

You mimicked him the best you could which elicited a chuckle from Percy, “I don’t look like that.” You scoffed and bumped his shoulder with your own, “You’ve got a case of the resting bitch face. Or is that your courtroom face?”

You laughed loudly, making your way back down the street to campus with him. The sun was already setting, the orange and red hues highlighting the towering buildings and bathing the world around you in various shades. Your breath hitched lightly, heart picking up pace unexpectedly. He looked breathtaking to you, his messy hair was brushed away from his face and exposed his forehead, his tall nose scrunched up slightly as the cool wind blew, and his lips were turning an angry red from his constant biting. He looked like a god-- way too good to be true.

He met your stare with his own, pausing his steps and gently tugging you back to him by the arm. He raised a brow at your words, taking a moment to think over what to see, “It’s not, but should it be?” He genuinely seemed interested, “Or was I too scary or whatever?”

You shrugged and managed to tear your eyes away from his being, looking off at the passing cars, “No you just looked so serious, I didn’t know you for a split second.” You look back and flash him a small smile, but avoided prolonged eye contact in fear that your heart would hammer against your chest harder than it already was.

He let out a small giggle at this, catching you off guard. You could gain whiplash from the duality this man has. He hooked arms with you, forcing you to start walking with him and his ridiculously long strides, “Cool, Dr. Leener said that I needed a more serious look when prosecuting.”

You look up at him at this, “How else would you look in a situation like that?”

He used his free arm to reach up and scratch the back of his neck shyly, “Uh I was joking about the case a little too much.”

You pause at his confession, cracking up slightly, “Dude I’m honestly not even surprised.”

Iii.

Dust fell from the ceiling as you carefully swung your legs over the brick wall, landing on the cement flooring of the abandoned building. You threw a glance over your shoulder and laughed when you saw Percy’s long legs struggle to get a grip on the wall you just came over. You sat back, enjoying the view of his suffering a little too much.

Once he finally made it over after five grueling minutes of his lanky legs trying to get over the wall, he landed next to you with a sigh, glaring at you with a slight unknown pout. He dusted off his navy hoodie and black jeans, “I’m so glad I have such a loving and kind-hearted best friend.”

You beamed at him, batting your eyelashes at him in jest, “And I’m so glad you recognize it!”

You pat yourself off, trying to rid yourself of all the dirt that covered your sweats and your ‘junior squad’ t-shirt. You felt hands on your back suddenly, causing you to jump and turn around too quickly, elbowing Percy in the rib accidently.

He whined and held a hand to his chest, slumping against your figure dramatically, “I’ve been stabbed!” He gasped, “there’s been another victim!”

You shove him onto his feet, “Shut up you idiot!” You hiss, eyes scanning the barely visible room surrounding you, “Let’s just hurry up and satisfy your sadistic interests before we get caught.” You shuffled away from the tall boy, squinting your eyes to adjust to the lack of light in the room.

“Use your flashlight, dumbass. You aren’t a cat.”

The bright blue light of Percy’s phone flashlight blinded you, him shining it right in your face to make a point. You swatted at his hand, causing him to drop his phone. The heavy device clattered across the cement, the flashlight facing towards the ground. He squeaked at this, carefully stepping around the space as he muttered curses towards you.

You shiver, a sudden gust of wind reminding you that winter was just around the bend and the fact that you also had not grabbed a jacket before your little adventure outside. You’d much rather be in your room, binge-watching all of your favourite shows instead of the dreaded math homework that is due tomorrow morning at eight a.m.

An audible crack echoed throughout the area followed by a dramatic gasp. Your eyes flicked towards the noise stepping carefully over until you came in contact with Percy’s side, “...fuck” he whispered to himself.

Just then another source of light shone over the two of you, momentarily blinding you for the second time that night. One arm latched around Percy’s, using him as a shield as the other hand came up to block the light out. You could feel Percy tense under your touch, his posture straightening a little as if he was trying to appear larger than the possible threat approaching.

“What are you kids doing here? This is a crime scene, off limits to the public until further notice,” The booming voice instructed, “That includes you, Percy Jackson.”

Percy seemed to chill out at the call of his name, a lopsided smirk forming on his lips, “Lieutenant Brunner! You shouldn’t be out here, this is,” He cocks his head to the side, “ a crime scene after all.”

Your jaw dropped. Lieutenant Brunner was infamous for the many cases he’s solved locally and nationally, but you had thought he was out of commision due to the injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Yet here he was, obviously still solving cases despite his disability. It was actually inspiring to see someone still do what they love despite all that has happened to them in the past.

The man sighs at this, his wheelchair squeaking lightly as it pressed on toward the two of you, “Percy,” he scolds, “this isn’t the greatest place for dates, I thought you had class? Or did you forget that too after you stopped volunteering?”

The younger male’s smirk faltered slightly at this, but he quickly recovered, “Cut me some slack, it’s hard being a college student, I just wanted to blow off some steam with my favorite.” He enunciated that he was talking about you by placing a hand on top of your head.

You didn’t know what to make of this situation, but you thought it best to stay quiet seeing as they knew each other well. You were embarrassed to say the least, Lieutenant Brunner was a local at the cafe you worked at and he was always very nice to you and your co-workers, you really hoped he didn’t recognize you here of all places.

Lieutenant Brunner sighed deeply, beginning to turn away from the pair as if he hadn’t even seen you, “You both should head back to campus, I won’t tell the others I saw you here. I’ll just say I was simply investigating a suspicious noise, nothing more.”

You nudged the tall boy’s side, signalling him that this was the plan you should go with. However he didn’t seem to take that into account, “But I wanted to investigate too.” You roll your eyes and nudge him a little harder this time,pleading with him, “Can we please just go?”

Percy went silent for what felt like forever, but then he moved down suddenly, picking up his phone and revealing the cracked screen. He groaned and interlaced his fingers with yours suddenly. Your heart skipped a beat as he tugged you along, walking towards the exit this time instead of scaling that godforsaken wall. He simply saluted the wheelchair bound man, “Love you, Lieutenant Brunner!”

You hissed, tugging him along and muttering swears and curses at the ebony haired boy by your side. Once you were in the clear you removed your hand from his and stopped following him, your heart still pounding at the sudden form of affection. He slowed to a stop and looked back with a lopsided smile, “At least it wasn’t the authorities!”

You gave him an incredulous look, “It was Lieutenant Brunner. Did you forget who solved nearly every case you’ve been studying in your classes?” You bring a hand up to your forehead, still not fully believing what just happened. You got caught at an active crime scene by a notorious investigator and were just let off the hook without repercussions. What the fuck.

You locked eyes with him, walking forward and poking him with an accusatory finger, “And he knew you? Care to tell me how?”

He licked his lips and caught your finger with his hand, intertwining your fingers once more as he explained himself, “I used to volunteer at the police station when I was still in high school-- well it was more like an internship, but Brunner was my mentor sort of.”

He chuckled at your gobsmacked expression. He flicked your bottom lip playfully, causing you to close your mouth and threaten to hit him with your free hand. He laughed and nodded in the direction of his car, “Come on, I bet we can still catch some of the Law & Order SVU marathon if we hurry.”

“I still can’t believe you know the THE Lieutenant Brunner.”

iv.

The warmth from the sunlight illuminating your rather spacious dorm was enough to put you back to sleep. Lately you haven’t been able to get much sleep due to the many different responsibilities you had as your education progressed. But to just lie here in Percy’s embrace as he tried his very best to do as you said and go over his key points for his mock trial, everything seemed to fade out.

Senior year has been hellacious for the both of you seeing as both of your studies required a lot of work from you. You’ve passed most of your classes and only needed to repeat a few due to not passing with the required grade level your major allowed. Percy has become the top of his class however, surpassing even his upper classmates in some of the hardest classes. He was really smart and has just the amount of charisma to sway the jury in his favour, but you didn’t know how he made it this far with his hatred for studying.

He let out another groan, “This is so dumb!” He pouted and covered his face with the stack of papers in his hand, his other arm wrapped around your shoulders and shaking you slightly for emphasis. You rolled your eyes at his antics, he’s such a drama queen it’s ridiculous.

You lean away from him slightly, reaching for the papers hiding his face and freeing them from his grasp. You look over them quickly, focusing on the key points of the case and highlighting them with a blue highlighter from his stash of writing utensils. You elbow his side, eliciting a grunt from the overdramatic male, “Exactly how many murders can the suspect be linked to?”

He blinked, once then twice, giving you an unsure look he answered, “28..?” You purse your lips at his answer, “It’s exactly 24. There were 28 victims in total.” He sighed deeply, hiding his face in your shoulder and whining out that he was sort of right. You chuckled and shook your head at his actions, patting the back of his head and running your hands through his soft locks.

You decided to ask him something easier, something along the lines of vital information. You clear your throat and peer down at the papers in your hand, scanning for something a little easier for him to remember. With a sigh you ask yet another question, “What is the time span of the murders and reported sexual assault?”

He’s quiet for a short moment before answering confidently, “The suspect started off with sexual assault on teenage boys in 1970 but then started killing his victims at the end of 1970.” You were surprised at his detailed answer, but he left out a few important facts. You began to correct him when he surprised you once more, “The murders didn’t stop until mid 1973 when he was caught dousing 14 bodies in gasoline in a rented boat by the owner.”

You smile unknowingly at this. He truly was one of the best in his class and deserved every bit of recognition he got. You wondered what he could do if he fully applied himself and studied more, but the male was still hella smart and talented, it’d probably intimidate his peers if he used all of his talent at once.

“Perfect response”

His head lifted suddenly, hitting you in the jaw and causing you to jump away from him a little. He yelped and adjusted himself so he could properly assess your injury, cupping your face and sputtering apologies as he examined.

Your breathing became uneven at his touch, holding your face so close to his own. The hit didn’t really hurt as much as it had shocked you, jolting you from your thoughts with a nice accompanying knock to the jaw. You snickered at his reaction, finding it cute and funny how much he worried over his accident.

He cracked a smile once he heard your stifled laughter, “Hey, I was just making sure you were okay.” He defended, “But was I really spot on?!”

You nodded, eyes crinkling as you laughed at him, “Yes it was perfect” you managed to get out.

He merely chuckled at this, still cupping your face with one hand as the other held him steady in his position. But then his face dropped into a more serious one, watching you laugh as his heart gradually picked up pace. A million thoughts were running through his mind, but only one was clear to him.

He really wanted to kiss you right now.

The thought excited him. He was excited because he finally understood why his heart constantly did backflips when you smiled at him or why it broke when you were stood up by your dates. Even if he didn’t like the thought of you with someone else, he couldn’t pinpoint his feelings as anything more than overprotectiveness. But now he knows… and he’s more scared than ever.

Scared because he could potentially ruin a great friendship and lose the best roommate he’s ever had. Scared because there was the slightest chance that you didn’t return the feelings and only viewed him in a platonic light. And scared because he’s never felt this strongly about anyone before.

You take notice of the lack of laughter and turn your attention towards the ebony haired boy wearing a variation of his famed “courtroom” face. You pause when you notice his eyes hovering over your lips and his face getting closer with each second. You wanted so badly to close the distance, but you were afraid you were somehow misreading the situation. It was pretty obvious he wanted to do something similar to what you wanted, but there was this small part of you that stayed in denial.

When you could feel his hot breath against your lips, that’s when you knew that your assumptions were right. The faint brush of his lips caused goosebumps to rush down your spine, but it was gone just as quickly as it came.

Percy stumbled back, muttering something incoherent to himself as he stood to look for his shoes. You sat in the same position, appalled and slightly hurt by his actions as it seemed he wanted to be anywhere but near you in that moment.

“I forgot I made plans with Jason and Frank later, I can’t ditch them again or they’ll never let me live it down,” He rambled as he slipped on his shoes and snagged his keys of the side table. You sat in silence as he rushed to leave your comfortable dorm, unable to form coherent thoughts, let alone words.

The door flew open and out went a panicked Percy, mumbling a farewell before the door clicked closed.

v.

It had been more than a week since your almost kiss with Percy and ever since then he’d been avoiding you like the plague. Even when he did interact with you he would keep it short and tense, a shy barrier rising between you for the first time in forever. You would try to bring it down by asking him the usual questions, asking him if he wanted to binge any of his favourite crime shows, but he would brush you off and claim he was too busy.

It had bothered you greatly, to the point where you were forgetting small things like when your massive chemistry research paper was due. Stressed was an understatement of how you felt at the moment. The paper was due in two days and you hadn’t written a single sentence down on your word document, the blank page staring you down and reminding you of your problems.

Percy wasn’t much better off.

The past few days have been an argument between his mind and heart… and also Frank and Jason. He had been avoiding you ever since he realized how much he actually cared for you, more than a normal friend should. Staying over at Frank and Jason’s dorm became a regular thing, only swinging by his own dorm when you were passed out on your desk to gather his things.

It hurt him to see you like this. A bad yet old habit of yours was overworking yourself because you either procrastinated until the last minute or you were determined to finish before anyone else. It took time to get you out of this habit and damn it didn’t take any time for you to slip back into it.

Frank sighed for what seemed to be the 20th time in ten minutes. He gave a disappointed look to Percy who had asked to stay yet another night at their dorm room, “You can’t keep doing this to yourself.”

Percy shrugged, “I mean it’s fine, the couch isn’t that uncomfortable y’know--”

Jason rolled his eyes, interrupting with a groan, “He meant you can’t keep avoiding Y/n, Percy!” The blond was a little more than fed up with the longing stares the dark haired male was throwing your way anytime you were around. It’s time that Percy grow a pair and confess how he really feels about you, regardless of how you may or may not feel, he needed to get this off his chest.

Percy was quiet, fiddling with the hem of his gray Ramones t-shirt. He knew Jason was right, but it was terrifying to even think about losing you, and if he confessed he was for sure that he’d lose quite possibly the love of his life.

Frank massaged his temples in thought, “I promise you won’t regret telling them, you won’t lose them or anything like that.” He paused, his next words holding impact, “But you might if you continue on like this.”

Percy nodded, his heart lurching at the true words that slipped past Frank’s lips. He checked the time on his phone, the lock screen photo of you and him covered in paint, smiling at the camera caused a small smile to spread over his tan face. He dropped his things at the door, eliciting a combined groan from each of the roommates. He spun on his heel and walked out, completely taking the others by surprise as he booked it down the stairs.

“He could’ve taken the elevator.”

“Let him be dramatic, Frank.”

It was around 1:30 am when you were startled awake by the sound of keys in the lock. You had fallen asleep in the living room once again, your laptop light illuminating the room in a low white haze. You nearly screamed once you realized that you had still yet to finish the report for Biology class tomorrow morning, but settled for a dramatic face palm.

The door clicked open, but you didn’t bother on checking who it was because you knew it was your roommate coming back for something he forgot. You leaned back against the couch staying still and hoping he’d leave you alone unlike other nights where he’d move you to your bed. It was a sweet gesture, but the first couple of times it really freaked you out.

Although this time he didn’t walk straight to his room like usual, instead he opted to sit next to you on the couch. He whispered your name, moving to see your face a bit better.

You squeezed your eyes shut, honestly just wanting nothing more than for him to leave you alone right now. If he even attempted to move you to your bed, you just might throw hands at his tall ass. You tensed as he wrapped his arms around you, pulling you closer to his chest and swinging your legs over his lap.

You probably shouldn’t have, but you freaked out suddenly, “Nuh-uh you are not putting me to bed, I have work to do.” You grumble, glaring and pushing yourself away the best you could. He blinked, “I wasn’t going to,” He began, “I just wanted to hold you again.”

Your eyes widen slightly, “Well it’s about time you acted like a best friend.”

Percy lets out a silent laugh, his gaze cast downward, “I know I’m an ass.”

You hummed, crossing your arms over your chest. You wanted an apology and you were going to get one. You glance at him, from the corner of your eye, “Good for you.”

He pauses, running a hand through his messy waves and leaning against the armrest, “Y/n, I’m really sorry. Seriously.” He watches with sad eyes as you turn away from him, rightfully upset with him. HIs shoulders slump. He really shouldn’t have acted this way, he should’ve just taken the leap and admitted his feelings.

WIthout a reply, he parts his lips to plead once more, “Y/n I--” You yawned, shaking it off and keeping up your role. Percy cocked his head to the side, noticing how tired you look and how red your eyes have gotten from the lack of sleep. Instead of using his words, he substituted it for a chance to cuddle you close.

It was late. So late that even the group of freshmen that played around outside have decided to call it a night. Plus you were super tired and you haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep in a while. So when strong arms wrapped around you and pulled you into an equally comfy lap, you were more than halfway asleep. You twisted your body to mold against Percy’s, “This isn’t over, Perce.” Slurred words leaving your lips as you melted into his embrace.

He chuckled, busying himself with tracing the outline of your features, “Whatever you say, babe.” He shimmed into a more comfortable position before dozing off himself, the sweet dreams uncomparable to the moment at hand.

vii.

It was bright, a little too bright for your eyes after just waking up. “Damn”, you thought to yourself, “I forgot to close the curtains again.” You rub your eyes sleepily and stretch slowly with a yawn, building up the will to get up and close the curtains for a few more minutes of shut eye.

You push yourself up, but find yourself locked in a strong grasp, a groan filling the air as you tugged against the grip. You froze, slowly craning your head to see just who was holding you this saturday morning.

Dark lashes fluttered against puffy cheeks, brows knitted together as incoherent mumblings left his pouty lips. It was Percy, his hair messier than usual. You smile lightly, lying down to face him and take in all of his features. With your faces merely inches apart you were able to fully take in the beauty that is Percy Jackson.

It never occoured to you how handsome he really was. I mean, many have pointed it out and even used you to get closer to the handsome law major, but it never really hit you. So as you lay there with a fluttering heart, you got to see every detail of the man that had stolen your heart without a second thought. There was a tiny cut on his cheek from the many fights he’d gotten in back in his highschool days, a small scar above his left brow from falling off his skateboard at the age of 14, and a tiny mole just under his lower lip.

A small laugh escapes you, leaning in to brush your nose against his own. The action proved to be too much when his eyes began to open. Sleepy sea green eyes met your own accompanied by a grin, “morning” he rasps out.

The corner of your lips lifts in a smirk, a hum coming from you as you snuggle closer to his chest. HIs chest rumbles with his light laugh, “I see your attitude is gone.” You bring a hand up, pinching his nipple and causing him to yelp and push you away, “Ow! Okay okay it’s just dormant i guess…”

You chuckle and worm your way back into his grasp, “I’ve missed you.” His heart skips, bringing a hand up to your face and steer it in his direction. He leans down, stopping half way to ask, “Is it cool if I… kiss you?”

It was a simple question, one that took your breath away at that. You hesitated, your brain trying and failing to come up with a response. So you did what you could.

You tug his shirt, smashing his lips to yours in a sweet and delicate kiss. His eyes grew wide, not expecting such a response, but decided to roll with it and kiss the person that had him completely whipped for the past two and a half years.

He pulled away with a giggle, “Damn that was worth the wait.”

“Wait what?”

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[typhoonprecious-blog]

Books coming out this week: Eden, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and more

Books coming out this week: Eden, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and more

Remember the simpler times? Like when you weren't constantly dehydrated, and your weather app didn't say “feels like 150 degrees,” and you didn't sweat through your T-shirt after being outside for only 30 seconds? Woof. I can barely remember the simpler, cooler times myself. This summer is no joke. So, grab a fan, fix yourself a cool beverage, and dive into the books coming out this week. Because indoor activities are sort of the only option right now. But if you MUST be outside, these titles make great beach reads, too.

If you're reading along in the #HGBookClub with us, we're getting seriously into Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton, and things are getting tense. Have you ever had a friend like Lavinia? Have you ever felt like a Louise? Who is tricking whom? And, pray tell, who is the narrator?! Only time will tell. Follow along and show us where you're reading with #HGBookClub.

And now, here are 12 books coming out this week that you don't want to miss.

1. Eden by Andrea Kleine, out July 10th

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

When Hope and Eden were girls, they were abducted by a man they thought was a friend of their father's. They escaped, but the traumatic near-death experience left deep emotional scars. Now, 20 years later, the man is up for parole, and they may be able to keep him in jail with testimonies - but first, Hope must find Eden. Don't miss this haunting novel with heartbreaking themes of attachment and trauma.

2. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, out July 10th

Penguin Press

In My Year of Rest and Relaxation, our narrator's life appears to be perfect. She's thin, blonde, pretty, rich, and gainfully employed at an art gallery in New York City. And yet - because there's so much more to life than what we see on the outside - she's depressed. She finds the world's worst psychiatrist who prescribes her anything and everything, effectively inducing a year where she lives through a hazy drug-induced coma and sleeps life away. Though it's fiction, My Year of Rest and Relaxation will open your eyes to the realities of how much our mental healthcare system seriously lacks IRL.

3. No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol, out July 10th

Simon & Schuster

When Glynnis MacNicol turned 40, she reflected on her successful writing career and full life in New York City. But she still couldn't escape the fact that she didn't have the two things she was “supposed” to have by then: a wedding ring and a baby. Rather than feeling bad about it, she decided to create a blueprint for herself and the rest of the happily single women of the world. No One Tells You This is the most empowering memoir you'll read all summer.

4. What We Were Promised by Lucy Tan, out July 10th

Little, Brown and Company

What We Were Promised tells the story of a family that returns home to Shanghai after living the American dream in the U.S. Upon their homecoming, they're welcomed into an elite community of those who were born in China, educated in the states, and have returned back home since. When Lina finds that her ivory bracelet, a keepsake from her childhood, has gone missing, it sends everyone in their household spiraling. From the head of the household to their housekeeper, everyone is searching for meaning and belonging.

5. Clock Dance by Anne Tyler, out July 10th

Knopf Publishing Group

When Willa receives a phone call that her son's ex-girlfriend was shot and needs her help, she immediately flies across the country to take care of her (and her nine-year-old daughter) (and her dog). Why does she do it? To take a chance on choosing her own path. Clock Dance is a bittersweet reminder to take risks and live a life that satisfies you, not someone else.

6. The Marginalized Majority: Claiming Our Power in a Post-Truth America by Onnesha Roychoudhuri, out July 10th

Melville House

Want to know how to get involved? Want to know how to fight back? Read The Marginalized Majority. It will completely change the way you think about our current political climate. Onnesha Roychoudhuri reminds us that even though our country may feel divided, we're actually fighting for many of the same things.

7. An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim, out July 10th

Touchstone

An Ocean of Minutes is a futuristic novel, but it's still so heartbreakingly human. Set in a world where time travel exists and Americans are experiencing a deadly flu, Polly travels to the future to find the treatment that her sick boyfriend Frank needs. They agree to meet in Galveston, Texas, 12 years in the future. But when Polly is re-routed another five years into the future, everything has changed, and Frank is nowhere to be found.

8. From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein, out July 10th

Spiegel & Grau

Raise your hand if you miss President Barack Obama. (Same.) Even though he's no longer in office, you can relive his greatest hits and go behind the scenes of his administration through the eyes of one of his former staff members. Beck Dorey-Stein worked as one of Obama's stenographers. As she transcribed his words, she also found her own voice as a writer. Even though you've probably never flown on Air Force One or shared the gym with POTUS, you'll still relate to her stories of making friends, getting your heart broken, and finding your voice in your twenties.

9. The Lido by Libby Page, out July 10th

Simon & Schuster

Kate works as a reporter for a small local paper in Brixton, London. She receives an assignment to cover the closing of the local lido, an outdoor pool and rec center. Once there she meets Rosemary, an 86-year-old widow who has swum there every single day since it opened. The more Kate gets to know Rosemary and learns about the lido, her small assignment becomes a lifechanging friendship. And together, the two women fight to keep the lido open.

10. All These Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth, out July 10th

William Morrow

When Grace disappears from her family's lake house, it leaves her seven-year-old daughter Charlie with many unanswered questions. 10 years later, Charlie is still struggling to put the past behind her. She chooses to throw herself into life at her prestigious school. When she gets tapped by the A's, an elite secret society, she must play The Game to be accepted. Will she survive the diabolical semester-long scavenger hunt - or the terrible truths about her past?

11. Evolution of Goddess: A Modern Girl's Guide to Activating Your Feminine Superpowers by Emma Mildon, out July 10th

Atria Books

It's time to get spiritual and celebrate your inner goddess. Evolution of Goddess is filled with the histories of the goddesses through the ages that you need to know. Plus, you'll learn how to tap into your own feminine superpowers.

12. Suicide Club by Rachel Heng, out July 10th

Henry Holt and Co.

For another futuristic novel, don't miss Suicide Club, set 300 years in the future in New York City. Lea is a Lifer, meaning she has the chance to live forever. But when runs into her estranged father, she gets sucked into the Suicide Club, his mysterious group that rejects the idea of immortality. Lea must choose between living forever and spending a short amount of time with her last remaining family.

Happy reading!

The post Books coming out this week: Eden, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and more appeared first on HelloGiggles.

[geometragic]

How I Run My Blog

TAGGED BY: The awesome @fallasea​ and @unladylikc​ ! Thanks a bunch for tagging me ! ^^

TAGGING: @extravachance @votalia @crimsonroyalty @barmxcidal​ @dracdad @yamatablooded @shapetrickster @evergardcn @anikiofthesea @sengokuspirits and anyone else who’d like to do this meme ! ^^

SPEED:  I tend to reply pretty slowly most of the time, because I want to write quality replies for my partners. And because school and the lab and my personal life all keep me pretty busy and stressed. XD Normally, I tend to reply after 1-3 months, but recently, I’ve been good about replying within a week or two. ^^

REPLIES:  Hmm...as far as word count goes, I tend to aim to write about the same number of words as my partner has written. Sometimes I go over that word limit by a lot, but you’ll never see me drop under it. I have a personal thing about matching my partner’s length, but I don’t really care so much whether my partner matches mine, especially if I’ve written way too much. XD As far as the writing process goes...I write up a rough draft for a reply first, and then after a break of at least a few hours, I edit the rough draft, finish it, and queue it. In addition, I usually reply to things in the order in which I receive them.

STARTERS: I used to do starter calls twice a year (once over winter break and once over summer break), but now I’m too lazy to even do that much. XD If you want me to write you a starter, the best way is to come into my inbox / Tumblr IM, preferably with an idea. We can discuss ideas, and then when we reach an agreement about what the starter should be about, I can go ahead and write it. When I write starters, they tend to be 1-2 paragraphs in length, although with certain starters and certain muses I’ve been able to write 3-4 paragraphs just to start off with.

As far as other people’s starters go...I’m fine with pretty much anything, whether it’s plotted or unplotted, including random starters and one-liners. ^^ I suppose that the one type of starter that I dislike, though, is a pre-established relationship starter. Given Katsuie’s personality, he’s not the sort of person who makes friends / has an ex / flirts with other people / etc. I also dislike pre-established relationship starters because there’s not a specific memory for my muse to think back upon while he’s interacting with another person’s muse. There’s just this vagueness of ‘and then we were friends / lovers / rivals / enemies / etc.’ Also, I know that a lot of people dislike first-interaction starters because sometimes they get stale and boring, but I’ve found that you can have a lot of really unique first interactions from them, too. ^^

By the way, you’ll know when I’ve seen your starter when I’ve given your starter a like. ^^

INBOX: I try to send both IC and OOC memes as much as I can. I don’t tend to post memes myself that often, though. I simply don’t trust myself to get replies to memes out in a timely manner, unless it’s for a short meme. XD Right now, the inbox is open to everyone —– anons, non-mutuals, and mutuals. ^^

SELECTIVITY:  For right now, as it states in my rules, my blog is selective and semi-private. Semi-private means that I’ll thread with anyone, but I’ll give preference to interacting with my mutuals. 

...I say that, but in all honesty, I’ve gotten a lot more picky when it comes to finding rp partners over the past several months. XD I probably should describe my blog as ‘highly selective’, but that phrase is associated with a lot of negative things, so I’ve avoided using it for now. ^^; I’m also considering becoming private, since 99% of the people whom I write with right now are private, so there’s pretty much no point in being semi-private. I’ll think about both of those things more before I actually make changes to my rules, though.

When it comes to looking for new rp partners, there are a few things that I do. First of all, the blog needs to have a rules page and an about page. I don’t feel comfortable following someone who doesn’t have at least a rules page, because I don’t want to be blamed for breaking a rule that I never knew about. Second of all, the blog layout needs to be readable. If the blog has a rules page and about page but I can’t read them, or the scroll bar for their blog is broken, then I won’t be able to read their pages / threads. Third, I look to see if they have an ic interaction of decent length (150+ words) on the first page of their blog. This tells me whether they’re active and whether they can write multi-para-length or novella-length threads, which are my preferred types of threads. It also tells me whether they only write with a ship partner and / or significant other, or whether they’re open to writing with other people who aren’t ship partners and / or significant others. Looking through someone’s posts also tells me whether they tend to involve themselves in drama / reblog callout posts / vagueblog about other people / etc.

Since my own muse comes from an unknown fandom, I’m pretty open in regards to which fandoms I’ll roleplay with. Even if I’ve never heard of the series that your character is from, there’s still a chance that I’ll follow your blog, if there’s something in your muse’s background and / or personality that gives me at least a vague idea for how your muse could interact with Katsuie ! ^^ In regards of what style of writing I like to see...I can’t take purple prose or constant one-liners seriously. XD So when I look for new partners, I tend to look for ones who write in a more straightforward way. Also, I look for partners who tend to write multi-para to novella length threads, since those are the type of threads that I’m most interested in writing. ^^

If someone’s blog is inactive for a month or I feel like our muses don’t click, I tend to unfollow and / or soft-block. By the way, if you feel like our muses don’t click or that we, as muns, don’t click, then feel free to unfollow or soft-block me as well ! I’ll get the message. ^^

WISHLIST: You can find the wishlist tag here ! As for specific things that I’m thinking of at the moment:

More male friends ! I don’t know if it’s because of my preference for female muses or what, but strangely enough most of Katsuie’s interactions over the past year or two have been with female muses. It’d be nice to see him form some friendships with male muses, too ! Seriously, I can only think of one or two male muses whom he’s friends with right now. XD But honestly, Katsuie could use more friends in general, too. Whether they’re male or female or a supernatural being who has no use for the concept of ‘gender’. XD

I honestly feel kind of pathetic for admitting this next one, but...I’d like more romantic ships for Katsuie, as well. Seriously, I realized the other day that the last time that I even discussed a romantic ship with someone involving Katsuie and their muse was about a year ago. XD Now, given how Katsuie is, I understand that it’s not at all easy to ship with him. On the one hand, he’s pretty standoffish and cold to most people when it comes to romance, since he practically considers himself married to Oichi. XD On the other hand, when he does fall for someone else...once he reaches that stage of infatuation, that’s when the yandere side of him comes out and makes the relationship a mess. XD Still, though...I’d like to explore more ships with him, if it’s possible. ^^

HONEST NOTE:  Finding rp partners on this blog can be really tough sometimes, so I’m truly thankful to all of you who have followed this blog and have had your muse(s) interact with Katsuie in some way ! ^^

[bloggertutor]

Top 10 Best Ways to Earn Money Online | Start Earning Online

Quick Introduction to Online Earning Concept

In this article you will learn all possible ways of making money online or you can say "How to earn money online".

Listen, if you really want to earn online, you need to have patience and some skills or in other words you can only earn money online if you have some skills or knowledge about this field.

But wait doesn't be sad, the good part of this digital world is you can learn everything at your home in just a few days. The only thing that you need to focus on is to be expert in a particular field. And if you are an expert, there are infinite ways of earning money online is present. You just need to figure it out and work on it.

Before you see the list of methods, firstly you should know about how it works. According to me, there is a flow Audience >Trust > Marketing or some time it's like Solution > Showcase > Audiences > Marketing but the common thing in both is the audience so If you can have an audience which indirectly means you can have a lot of money. All you need is to convert that random audience in the trusted audience and to do that you need to provide some catchy things in which your audience is interested in.

There is a phrase in Hindi "Paisa to road pe gira hai, uthane ka tareeka chahiye" which means "A lot of money is on the road, you need a proper method to grab it up".

So finally Let's talk about all possible ways of Earning Money Online

1. Blogging

Yeah, I know many of you are familiar with this word blogging but for those who do not know, let me explain it.

Blogging is a discussion or providing information & tools or reviewing product and services etc. The most interesting thing about blogging is, you are fully independent to write on any topic in anyways you want. You just have to care about your audience.

So to start blogging you need a blog website and a particular niche (a theme or topic). I know many of you are now thinking "Since I don't know how to make a website, I can't use blogging to earn money online", then you are wrong. You don't need to be a professional website developer to create a blog you just need to know about some third-party services which will help you to create your blog website and start blogging. The main two are

WordPress (Recommended) [Learn More]

Blogger by Google [Learn More]

Ok, So what's next when our website is ready?

Choose a niche (i.e. Topic)Yes, It's necessary to do research before starting a blog website because there is so much competition in every field. So choose a less competitive topic in which you have enough knowledge. Then you have to write a high-quality engaging blog post that impresses your audience and Google.

"What, why to impress google?" Fine, the answer is, so that google can do a favour to your website and rank it on its first page. Because, when your website will rank on the first page only then you can get an organic and real audience and I have mentioned earlier that you need an audience to earn money. Then you need some content marketing services that will pay you for your audiences, and there are many like that. You can use Affiliate Network on your blog to monetize it.

Ok but just tell me one thing,

How much I can Earn Money Online by Blogging?

There is no limit. Seriously I am not joking, you can earn as much as you want but you need to be a perfect player of this particular field in which SEO plays a very important role. For early beginners, it can be from $150-$750 depends on you and how much you improved yourself in blogging from beginning.

And this was the first answer for your Question "How to earn Money Online?"

Learn More About Blogging

Create Your Own Blog

2. Affiliate Marketing

The second and very popular method to earn money online is Affiliate Marketing.

Affiliate marketing is exactly same as blogging where mostly you need a website (Not every time) and write a review of products or introduce products or just make a tutorial on them or anything else you can do to bring that product in your topic. Then you need an audience for your review or tutorial or post, but here you don't need an advertiser for your audience, you need an affiliate program that matches your blog niche so that when someone buys product or services after reading your review, you can get the commission.

Is that's enough for affiliate marketing?

Of course not, Affiliate Marketing have different ways, and the first is mentioned above that you can use an affiliate network to monetize your blog. Now another very famous way to promote affiliate is Email Marketing.

Ok Wait, What is this Email Marketing thing?

In Email Marketing, you send email to people have interest in a product whose affiliate program you have joined already If they purchase a product from your affiliate link you will get paid some commission depending on affiliate's commission rate.

Learn More about Email Marketing

The third way is introducing affiliate products in some type of courses and tutorials. According to many research(not by me :)), this is the most effective and converting way of affiliate marketing because there is a need to buy a product, I mean if your learner needs to learn, he has to buy that product anyhow to proceed further.

Ok... I can't explain all ways because there are so many ways to earn money online using an affiliate network.

How much I can Earn Money Online by Affiliate Marketing?

Again there is no limit of earning money online from affiliate marketing it's all depends on your patience & passion of doing work. Beginners can earn up to $500-1500 Monthly.

Learn More

Create Your Affiliate Website

3. Drop Shipping

The very new and easy way to earn money online is by Drop Shipping.

Let me first introduce you to Drop Shipping.

In Drop Shipping, you will purchase a product at low cost and sell it at a high cost to anyone who needs it. Yeah, I know this is so simple but wait you need to have two most important skills before starting drop shipping. The first thing is you should have a website and in this case, it's not optional. Then second you need to have advertising skills on some popular platform like Facebook, Google, Twitter etc.

What are advertising skills?

Actually, most social media platform offers a service in which you can advertise your product or services on their platform by paying some small amount to them. Like Facebook have Facebook Ads, Google has Google Ads or Adward, Twitter has Twitter Ads etc.

So when you have these things you are ready to go, I mean you can start you Drop shipping business online.

How to start Drop Shipping?

The first step is to create an e-commerce website.

Then choose an online store that delivers product across the world like Ali Express or Alibaba.

Select a product from these stores and Copy Paste to your website.

Advertise on any network to the proper audience and get sales.

Then order that product with your customer address.

Learn More

Create Your Drop shipping Store

4. Social Media Marketing

As you all know Social Media is a very engaging and active platform of this time, and Now I will tell you that you can earn decent money from social media too.

Yeah, Just tell me how..

Wait..wait.., It's not so simple that you can earn by just posting your good looking profile pictures to social media. But it also not too hard. The rule of the audience is still applicable, i.e You should have a large amount of fan following which will act as your audience. And after you have an audience, there are many ways of earning.

Working as Influencer for companies or brand and promoting their product and services on your social media account.

Using Affiliate Network and promoting their product and services.

Promoting your own blog, online store, product, services etc.

Learn More

Grow on Social Media

5. Freelancing

Freelancing is probably not the newest but a good way to earn money online if you have good skills in any field. There are many networks like fiver, Upwork, Freelancer etc. that provide work if you have skills.

What if I don't have skills?

If you don't have skills you can learn from the internet for free. There are platforms like YouTube, Udemy etc. where you can find many skill courses to improve your skills or to learn more new skills. After Learning you can register to any of Freelancing network to get work.

Ok but, How much I can Earn Money Online by Freelancing?

. Actually its depend on your skills but many good freelancer are earning $500 daily.

Learn More

Sharp Your Skills

6. YouTube

This is also a very popular and easy way of earning money online. In YouTube, there are three ways of earning money. The first and very used way is by using Adsense and the second one is by using promotion and the third is using affiliate programs. All you need to do here is just upload a video with an eye-catching thumbnail so that if anyone sees your thumbnail he just click on it and that's all.

If you are using affiliates and promotion then try to give quality content to your audience so that they can trust you and your affiliate conversion can increase.

7. E-commerce

The traditional way of shopping is no more applicable in metro cities, everyone wants to purchase their product at their doorstep. And taking the profit of this thing you can earn money online by creating your online shop or store and sell product or services theirs in a more affordable and efficient way.

E-commerce field is raising too fast and the reason for that vis people are becoming lazier and lazier, so all you need to do is, take the profit of this thing and scale your business.

8. Online Teaching

Teaching is now a profession of earning for many teachers, but the problem is they can teach only a few hundred students. So let me Introduce you a more efficient and profitable way of earning money online using your teaching skills. Actually, there are many coaching centres are using the same thing but for individual teachers, they think this is hard to manage but the actual answer is it's easier than your classroom.

Yes, I am not joking, Seriously it's more easy, efficient and profitable than your classroom.

Tell me How?

All you need is a smartphone for camera and editing (DSLR and Laptop if available), A blackboard or whiteboard or green board, few lights and a cheap collar mic.

Just Record your video lectures (or you can go live with your students using YouTube), edit if requires, then encrypt (secure) it using any video encryption tool so that only user with a licence can watch your lectures, and sell it online on your website or App.

There are many companies that provide Custom Teaching App and Websites. So you can go for them if needed.

9. Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is not a single thing, it is a bulk of all the method you use to earn money online like email marketing, sales funnel, advertising online etc.

I have mentioned Digital Marketing here because traditional marketing is no more effective for selling your product and services. If you want to earn good money from your business you should remove your banners and holdings from the roadside and place it online on various platform and believe me this will increase your sales and conversion.

10. Launching Software as a Service (SAAS)

This is a very professional way of earning money online and need a good amount of money investment.

Let me first introduce, What is actually Software as a Service?

Software as a Service or SaaS is a service depending upon your idea like if you want a website to count live subscribers of a YouTube channel and user have to buy your plans to use it then your website will be a SaaS. Similarly, there are many SaaS companies that provide different type of services to their user.

What is Required to make a SaaS?

The first and most important thing that really matters for a SaaS to be successful is having a great working Idea. If you have a solid idea and you believe that your service is unique or customer will love to buy your service then you are ready to go for the second step is searching for an investor because SaaS is not only a website it is a full custom platform which needs good money and time to develop.

Now the third step is to make a flow chart of your idea i.e. service and search for a good developer or a company and heir them for your work after telling them about your project. Then you are ready to serve your customer after your SaaS website is ready.

Conclusion

After discussing all these methods to earn money online, I want you to choose your favorite one in which you feel passionate of doing it. I mostly prefer blogging and affiliate marketing for earning money online since it is not tough and Creative.

If you liked any part of article please share it with your friends.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can we earn enough money online?

Yes, In this 21st century of digital world you can of course earn a decent amount of money online. Even there are people having a 6 figure income only through online earning

How to earn money online?

There are many ways to earn money online but some popular ways are Blogging, Affiliate Marketing, Drop shipping, YouTube etc. to know more click here

What is Blogging?

Blogging is a new way of expressing your ideas, reviews and discussions etc. online on a website so that whoever searches a query related to that blog he can find it's answer.

Can we Earn Money From a Blog Website?

Of course, even many people are making thousand of dollars from their single blog.

How to create a blog?

You do not need to be a professional website designer to create a blog website. You can use WordPress or Blogger by Google

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is a method to earn money online. In Affiliate Marketing you have to promote a product and if someone buys from your link you will get commission.

How much we can earn from Affiliate marketing ?

There is no restriction on earning from Affiliate marketing, you can earn as much as you can.

What is Drop Shipping?

Drop Shipping is a method to earn money online by selling third party product indirectly.

Read More https://bloggertutor.com/how-to-earn-money-online/?feed_id=494&_unique_id=5f09505707bce #blogging #affiliate_marketing #drop_shipping

[vincentpennington]

Holiday Gift Guide 2019

It’s that time of year again, when I share some of my favorite things in this 2019 Holiday Gift Guide! As in years past, I recommend only items that I have personally purchased myself and truly love. You won’t find ugly sweaters or any junk that won’t stand the test of time. In fact, some of these items are holdovers from previous holiday gift guides because I think they’re well-made, well-tested, and will bring joy for many years to come!

Gifts to help you sleep

Good sleep is the ultimate gift! And as a recovering nightshift worker, it’s the one thing I prioritize above all other aspects in my life. Every night, my aim is to get high quality sleep in a dark, cool room for at least 7 to 8 hours—and I’ve personally tested a bunch of handy aids that help me achieve the maximum in high quality sleep!

Oura Ring

I LOVE my Oura ring and won’t stop telling everyone how great it is! It’s hands-down the best sleep and activity tracker on the market, and every morning I synch it with my app to assess my readiness for the day. Yes, I have a subjective sense of how I feel in the morning, but as a natural-born rule follower, I crave objective data to nudge my sleep-promoting behaviors in the right direction. For example, if my Oura ring tells me my readiness level is high I’ll make an effort to go the gym even if I’m feeling lazy. Conversely, if Oura says my readiness is low due to poor sleep or an elevated body temperature, I’ll opt for a brisk walk instead of going balls-to-the-wall at the gym. My Oura offers up all sorts of data to help me figure out how to optimize my sleep—and it looks pretty slick, too! Get one here.

Luna Weighted Blanket

I bought a Luna weighted blanket earlier this year, and it has been one of my favorite additions to my bedtime routine. It feels like I’m getting a cozy hug all night! The heaviness of this particular blanket is perfectly balanced; unlike some other weighted blankets, the heavy parts don’t end up migrating to one side or corner, leaving the blanket lopsided. Truth be told, it took me a couple of sleeps to get used to it, but now I can’t sleep without it. We now have weighted blankets on every bed in the house! Get the one here.

’Lectrofan White Noise Sound Machine

When I was a nightshift worker, I wore earplugs to block out all sounds when I slept during the day. However, they didn’t work well because ear plugs often fall out, feel uncomfortable, or fail to block out sharp, abrupt noises.

Nowadays, I use the opposite tactic to help me sleep—a ’Lectrofan white noise machine. The constant fan-like sound lulls me to sleep and masks outside noise and disturbances. I pack it with me whenever I travel, and it definitely drowns out big city sounds and adds a relaxing hum that helps me drift off to slumberland. Get one here.

Tempur-Pedic Eye Mask

I have been a happy owner of a Tempur-Pedic eye mask for many, many years. I’ve tried plenty of other highly-recommended eye masks, but for me, none of them have worked as well at blocking out light and not squashing my eyeballs into my skull. I’ve purchased quite a few of these eye masks, though the only reason I’ve had to replace them is because I keep accidentally leaving them in hotel beds. Get one here.

Need more items to help with your sleep? Here’s a list of other items that help me catch my zzzs.

My Favorite Kitchen Gear

I’m keeping my kitchen gear gift recommendations short and sweet this year—mostly because these four items will level up everyone’s cooking for many years to come.

Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus (6-quart)

I know there are a bazillion variations of the Instant Pot, but this newest model is the one you should buy for your pals—and yourself! The new Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus is an improvement on and evolution of my two favorite models, the Ultra and Duo Plus.

Why is the Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus the best model to buy?

Improved venting for quick pressure release!

The inner pot now has stay-cool handles to make it easier to remove!

The inner pot has a flat bottom for better browning AND you can use it on other cooktops!

An easier interface for programming the Instant Pot and a digital display!

Want other options? Click here are my four favorite Instant Pot models ranked in order. But as I said, my number one pick is the Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus, and you can get one here.

Thermapen Mk4

The super-accurate, quick-reading instant read Thermapen Mk4 thermometer has been my trusty companion in the kitchen for a few years! Plus, it’ll be be marked down 25% for Black Friday starting 11/27/19. Get one here.

Chef’s Choice 15 Trizor XV EdgeSelect Electric Knife Sharpener

There’s nothing that helps a cook better in the kitchen than a sharp knife. I have my own favorite chef’s knife, but I can’t tell you which one’s best for you; to see how they feel in your hand, you really need to personally test out knives yourself. But once you pick out the perfect knife, you’ll need to keep it sharp and the Chef’s Choice 15 Trizor XV sharpener is fantastic and super easy to use. Get one here.

Magic Mushroom Powder

Magic Mushroom Powder is my go-to all-purpose seasoning that makes everything taste better! Use it in place of salt in all of your favorite recipes and everyone will compliment you on your culinary creations. But don’t just take my word for it: Dylan Dreyer, an anchor on the Today Show, proclaimed our Magic Mushroom Powder as her favorite food seasoning!

You can buy cute tins of Magic Mushroom Powder nationwide at a Whole Foods Market near you or make it yourself by following this recipe!

Want to see what other kitchen gear I stock in my kitchen and pantry? Go here to check out all of my recommendations!

Fun Gifts For Active Folks

Got a pal who loves traveling or getting their fitness on? These items may just put a spring in their step (literally)!

Bellicon Classic 44” Exercise Trampoline

I recently splurged on a Bellicon indoor mini trampoline/rebounder and my whole family has the best time jumping on it throughout the day. It’s definitely the priciest rebounder on the market—I waited a whole year before I bit the bullet—but I haven’t regretted the purchase. I bought a 44-inch Bellicon because I wanted a low impact, high energy workout I could squeeze in at home between sessions of tapping on my laptop. I literally jump on the rebounder for a few minutes every hour to get my heart pumping and to put a big goofy grin on my face. Get one here.

DJI Mobile 3

If (like me!) you use your mobile phone to shoot a lot of video, you’ll love the DJI Mobile 3. This lightweight portable and  foldable gimbal is great for stabilizing your phone—no vibrations or shakiness! Good luck prying it out of your kids’ hands after they discover how it’ll level up their home videos! Get one here.

AfterShokz Aeropex Open-Ear Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones

Earbuds just don’t fit in my weirdly shaped earholes properly, and I’ve always had a difficult time finding the right pair. But then, I got these bone conduction headphones where the sound is conducted through your cheekbones—leaving your earholes open. YES, YOU HEARD ME RIGHT! Plus, they’re super cool, lightweight, and I can still hear traffic (or my kids) while I’m listening to my favorite podcast. Get one here.

Body Back Buddy Trigger Point Massager

When I suffered from frozen shoulder last year, one of the items that made me feel better was this self-massager. It’s cheap and effective, and I use it to press out any tight muscles on my shoulders, back, and neck. Small victories, man. Get one here.

Favorite Books and Cookbooks

Our family loves books and cookbooks. If you love food and/or laughs, these books will fit the bill!

Nom Nom Paleo Cookbooks & iOS app!

I know I’m biased, but my favorite cookbooks of all time are the ones that Henry and I created. I love them SO MUCH, and we think it’ll help your whole family learn how to cook and find shortcuts to deliciousness!

Click on the links below to buy:

Nom Nom Paleo: Food For Humans

Ready or Not! 150+ Make-Ahead, Make-Over, and Make-Now recipes from Nom Nom Paleo

Nom Nom Paleo iOS app* (2014 and 2019 Webby Award winner!)

*If you got a new iPhone and the app is acting funky or missing recipes, simply delete the app from your device and download it again for free!

¡Estás Listo O No! (Spanish version of Ready or Not!)

Psst! If you want to gift (for others or yourself) the Spanish version of Ready or Not!, ¡Estás Listo O No!, you can buy it by clicking here! You can also get it with free worldwide shipping, by clicking here.

Dear Girls by Ali Wong

I am a HUGE fan of the brilliant, gut-bustingly funny, and downright filthy Ali Wong. Her new book is a collection of letters to her two daughters, and each one is hilarious, touching, and illuminating. Get it here.

No Crumbs Left by Teri Turner

My buddy Teri Turner is an inspiration inside and outside of the kitchen. Her debut cookbook, No Crumbs Left, is filled with incredible heart and amazing recipes! Get it here.

The Vibrant Life by Amanda Haas

My friend Amanda Haas is the coolest. Not only is she an amazing cook, mother, and entrepreneur—she just published a fab book that helps women live their best life. Amanda’s book has amazing gluten-free recipes and tons of tips she’s mined from her expert pals on everything from the healing powers of yoga, acupuncture, meditation, humor, and even sex! Get it here.

Vietnamese Food Any Day by Andrea Nguyen

Andrea Nguyen is the queen of South East Asian cooking, and her latest cookbook teaches you how to make delicious Vietnamese food with staples you can find at your neighborhood grocery store. This is not a gluten-free cookbook, but many dishes are adaptable! Get it here.

Looking for more gift ideas?

Check out my Amazon shopping page here filled with all my favorite things!

Previous holiday gift guides from 2018, 2017, and 2016!

Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my Recipe Index. You’ll also find exclusive recipes on my iPhone and iPad app, and in my cookbooks, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2013) and Ready or Not! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2017)!

The post Holiday Gift Guide 2019 appeared first on Nom Nom Paleo®.

[therunningpa]

New job & night shift novella

So I’ve been at a new job the past 6 weeks. I’m still a hospitalist, but I’ve moved to night shift. It’s a long story for another time, but basically I was getting burned out and it was either change shifts or move to a different department altogether. Because I love IM so much I am desperately clinging to it for the time being. In my current role, I only do new admissions and consults.

Since I only post now, like, once a year I figured I might as well write a nice long story for you guys! Because also, when have I kept things short, ever?

So, here you go, a narrative of my day (night?).

I leave my house, clutching my tote of Campbell’s Double Noodle soup cans, rice crackers, and Gatorade. I kiss my husband, tell him I love him, and remind him to please finish cleaning the kitchen for me. He needs a lot of reminding. I need a lot of therapy. We’ve had a lot of therapy. It’s been a year sober for him and the anniversary has been hard, bringing back the guilt big time. It’s been more down days than usual the past month and as I leave the house I can only hope I won’t get any liver patients or alcoholics tonight.

I pull in to the hospital, badge in through various doors, end up in the office. The day shift is coming to a close. “Hey!” my coworkers greet me, “Feeling better?”

“Tons! Not a hundred percent but good enough for active duty.”

My terrible med seeking external ED dump patient from earlier this week had given me her norovirus. I’d spent the previous night out sick, puking and near-syncopizing. (FYI- use the bleach wipes next time!!)

I check in with the three physicians I’m working with that night. One, a seasoned night shifter, a quiet man I dub “The Machine” because of his deftness and ease at admitting patients. One, a seasoned nocturnist, another quiet and confident man who could run a thousand codes without screaming “fuck!” not even once. The third, an exceedingly nice new residency graduate who recently started with us and is probably reconsidering the job after his first week on nights. They have a lot of patients coming from outlying facilities, but no one arrived yet.

I sit around for an hour and a half, check emails, clear my inbox of the previous day’s results and check up on a few of those patients, eat a cup of noodles, rub my belly, think about how I shouldn’t have had coffee, then, all at once, I have 3 admissions I’m called to see. Yes, it’s true, they really all do come at once.

I triage them, and go see first an unfortunate lady who is bleeding and clotting. Or rather, likely to bleed. She has a genetic disorder predisposing her to clots and bleeding, and has come in with chest pain. The chest CT showed a pulmonary embolism, one in each lung. I’d hoped they’d be subsegmental, but they weren’t. I meet with her, spend a long time talking. I tell her I’ll call the hematologist and get back to her. I put out a page.

I jump up to the orthopedics floor to see my next patient, a 73 year old lady with COPD and osteoporosis who fell down the stairs at home and probably broke her sacrum. She’s straightforward enough, other than saying she’s intolerant to everything IV opioid except fentanyl. Which she’s not going to get outside of the ED. I write for oxycodone and IV ketorolac and pray her pending labs show normal renal function.

The hematologist pages me while I’m writing patient 2′s note. He recommends a heparin drip, so it can be turned off quickly if patient 1 starts to bleed. He also says he has no idea what to do with her after that, as far as a long term plan. I text my attending and let him know the plan for tonight. While I’m finishing my note, he texts me back an SOS that patient 1 is refusing heparin because she’s afraid of bleeding.

I go back to the ED, I print out UpToDate, visit the poor lady with the PEs again. I talk about risks and benefits, types of heparin. She has some cognitive impairments from a stroke, but she gets it enough that she has capacity. She still declines the heparin, wants us to “watch her” overnight in the hospital though. I check in with bed control, ask for an IMCU bed since she’s refusing blood thinners, and am told there are no ICU beds left. She’ll have to go to the regular floor.

My third patient is a prisoner with history of peptic ulcers and GI bleed coming in with worsening anemia. Actually, he never shows up from the outside hospital because of some officer conflict. His name gets handed off to the next shift.

Fourth patient shows up in the IMCU, from an outside hospital. The notes he comes with are scanty. Acute on chronic hyponatremia, ?dementia. Hypotensive. Weak. I hope he can give me some history. When I walk in he tells me he’s in a hotel in a different state and doesn’t remember how he got here. He denies any symptoms or concerns. It’s 11 pm, but I dial his elderly wife and bless her, she’s up, and gives me the full scoop. He ends up with a slew of labs, head CT, cardiac echocardiogram.

Fifth patient was not supposed to be admitted. Just discharged 2 days ago with COPD flare, end stage COPD on home oxygen. I read the ED notes in the chart, indicating the family demanded the patient be admitted because they are unhappy and that we are being investigated for discharging her too soon, or was it the nursing home was being investigated for not taking care of her the past 2 days? Or both? The discharge summary from my PA colleague indicates the patient refused hospice the last stay. Awww nawwww. I go and see her. It’s late and at least that means the angry family has gone away. I sit with the patient, she’s very anxious, I’ve taken care of her before. I listen for a long time, answer questions, sometimes the same question over and over. She eventually admits her memory ain’t so good anymore. She then marvels “you’ve asked me more questions than anyone else has today”. I hope that’s a good thing. I go through her extensive workup and again conclude that “I am so sorry, but what you have is not fixable. I think we need to focus on trying to get your symptoms better, but we can’t cure you”. She agrees to at least have a palliative care consult. She grumbles about her bad nursing home experience and says her family called to have the bed held for the following day. I waggle my eyebrows at her “You know, if you don’t hold the bed they’ll give it up and then you’ll have to be here through the weekend and then we can see if your preferred nursing home has a spot now, But, you didn’t hear that from me!” She beams. Somewhere, a social worker has rolled over in their grave and pledges to haunt me in my dreams tonight.

I run up to my office again and eat some more noodles, drink Gatorade, rub my gastroparetic-feeling tummy, and finish up my notes just as one of the physicians strides in with a cardiology consult for a patient who just had a STEMI, now in the coronary ICU. They were found to have multivessel coronary artery disease, received a stent. “Should be easy” he says, “Cardiology has done everything!”.

Except, they haven’t. Patient is from outside our system. Needs an entire medical record update. I also notice his blood sugar is > 300 and there’s no insulin ordered. I add “Type 2 Diabetes” to his problem list. I go in and see him, expecting him to be asleep at 1:30 in the morning, but he is wide awake and surrounded by family. He’s a good soul, we have a long talk about diabetes. His wife has a lot of cardiac questions and try to answer as able. His nurse pops in. “His blood pressure is greater than 150 and they want him under that post cath. There’s no medications ordered”. I step out, sigh. Honestly, I have no idea what cardiology does or does not want for an antihypertensive in their post cath patient. I have a sneaking suspicion it also varies widely by the cardiologist. I wish they would order this shit on their people already. I’m just here for the diabeet-us. Gah! 

“What do they usually do for the post cath protocol?” I wonder out loud.

“How about some PO metropolol?” a nurse asks.

I make a face “Really? They do that?”

The nurse looks horrified “Um, yeah, all MIs should be getting that!”

I shake my head “No, I know that, that’s not what I meant, I just mean it’s not going to act rapidly and it’s not going to do much, I mean maybe IV metoprolol but-”

She looks further horrified “No, they never do IV!”

I wanted to say “but I would never give that”, finishing my thought, but instead I shrug and give up. “I’ll ask the attending.” 

I don’t work in the ICUs that often, and I especially don’t know the night crew being new at this job. It’s true what they say, sometimes you need to earn your stripes with some ICU staff, especially if you’re a PA. Also, goddammit cardiology, order your antihypertensives! And beta blockers! And statins! (Also, I love you my cardiology people out there, please don’t take my 2 AM thoughts too seriously to heart, ok?)

I trudge back to my office, finish writing notes and checking labs and imaging that have come back. The demented hyponatremic guy does not have a brain bleed. The COPD flare bounce back has a normal procalcitonin. The untreated PE has normal blood pressures. Broken sacrum indeed does have normal renal function. I order new labs for the day crew. I report out to my docs. Around 3:30 AM I hang up my coat, collect my soup and Gatorade cans to recycle, and stumble out the cold wintry parking garage. I cast a few glances, good, no creepers trolling about, get in my car, and drive home.

I drive through the industrial part of the city and through spotlights and fog I see that the operations are already going at this ungodly hour. Backstreet Boys is playing on the radio. I pull into the back alley outside my house. I tentatively feel my way through the backyard, trying not to fall on my ass on the ice over our sidewalk, like I did the other night. I slip inside, and am completely delighted to see that not only has the kitchen been cleaned but there’s a loaf of homemade banana bread sitting out, steaming a little still. I hear a soft pitter-patter and my puppy steals down the stairwell to greet me. She wiggles from head to toe and jumps on me, playfully stealing my lanyard of keys and running away, shaking them. I took her home one day from a rescue this past summer, pretty much against my husband’s will, and I secretly believe she at least 75% the reason his depression lifted. He now agrees. I let her out to pee, then tread upstairs and wash my face and put on my pajamas, kiss my sleeping husband. I’m too wired to sleep though, maybe because I spent the last day and a half sleeping off the norovirus, so I go back downstairs, eat some banana bread, and start to write.

[unixcommerce]

Best Affiliate Programs – And the Highest Paying

As a website owner, writer, blogger or social media influencer you work hard creating quality content. Chances are you dream of finding the best ways to make money from your efforts — and that includes the best affiliate programs.

Savvy content creators look for the highest earning opportunities that are relevant to their audience. That way they can earn cash at the same time as they serve their readers, by highlighting products and services they’ve taken the time to investigate and carefully select.

The great news is that even people with small social followings or the owners of small blogs can make money from their content. With affiliate marketing you can literally earn while you sleep — waking up to see a nice juicy commission in your dashboard. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

The only problem is, there are thousands of affiliate earning opportunities. How do you find the top affiliate programs? That’s where this article can be your guide. We help you focus on choosing the best programs and networks for your needs.

What is an Affiliate Program?

An affiliate program is a program set up by a merchant to pay other parties for each new lead or sale they bring in. The party bringing in the lead or sale is usually a website publisher, content creator or blogger, called an “affiliate.” From the merchant’s standpoint, the model is attractive because the merchant only pays if a defined action occurs leading to increased sales.

Marketing affiliates like this business model because they make money by serving their readers with great suggestions for products and services. And they don’t have to create their own products to sell — they simply insert affiliate links in their content. Creators can focus on content and maintaining good relations with their audience — while the merchant handles sales, invoicing, delivery and customer support process.

Finding the Best Affiliate Programs

With so many programs to choose from, it’s daunting to select a handful to promote. So we’ve curated a list of what we consider the best affiliate programs for entrepreneurs, small business owners, creators and bloggers. We further broke down the list by popular categories that may be attractive to you.

Not every category will be relevant to your audience. Focus on finding the best programs covering offerings your audience cares about. Likewise, you should have a passion for the offerings you are going to promote. If you are not interested in them, then skip over them — because your lack of interest will be obvious.

Last but certainly not least, choose from among the affiliate programs that will pay you more. After all, you’re going to work hard on your content to serve your audience. So you should be paid well.

Best Recurring Commission Affiliate Program

Recurring commission affiliate programs are where you earn repeat commissions from the same sale, over time. For example, let’s say a reader uses your affiliate ID to sign up for a monthly software service at $20.00 per month. You earn a 30% commission initially — or $6.00 (20 x .30 = 6). But in this case, you would also earn 30% or $6.00 every month thereafter as a recurring commission, as long as the reader continues to use that service. In a year, you would make $72.00.

That’s just from one affiliate sale. Imagine over time that you make 100 sales. That would bring you up to $7,200 a year (72 x 100 = 7,200). See the potential? Here are the best recurring revenue affiliate programs:

SEMRush

SEMush’s affiliate program Berush, offers up to 40% in lifetime commission from SEMRUSH subscription sales. This follows a revenue-sharing model where the affiliate promotes SEMrush and gets a commission on every sale made in return. The process takes three simple steps: join BeRush; advertise and start earning commissions. BeRush comes with pre-designed banners, landing pages, links to SEMrush with affiliate’s unique reference ID and SEMrush widgets. Commissions are paid twice a month on the 10th and 25th of each month.

LeadPages

The Leadpages Affiliate Partner Program offers a suite of lead generation tools. With this affiliate program you get 30% monthly commissions for the lifetime of the customer. It also provides a 50% recurring commission on all sales generated, for as long as the referrals remain customers. This also expands to renewals and upgrades of their Leadpages plan.  Leadpages comes with free hosting on a Leadpages domain, more than 200 mobile responsive landing pages templates, text-to-Opt-in comes/ SMS campaigns and much more.

AWeber

Aweber’s affiliate program is an email opt-in marketing tool. Its templates simplify the process for creating visually attractive email marketing campaigns and the reporting dashboard provides insights on visitors and sales statistics. It comes with newsletters emailing, auto responding, and RSS-to-email converting features as well. This affiliate program give a commission rate of 30% for recurring referral payments.

Ezoic

Wwith Ezoic, an affiliate can earn 3% of a publisher’s total revenue on all traffic they send through Ezoic for the lifetime they use the Ezoic platform. Referrers also receive direct help from Ezoic to support their introduction to new website owners and publishers. The minimum threshold for payment however is $20 and you must have at least one conversion. Conversion takes place when a publisher starts generating revenue through Ezoic’s platform.

GetResponse

GetResponse affiliate program provides marketing automation, landing pages, opt-in forms, webinars, customer relationship management and more. GetResponse offers two programs. An affiliate bounty program offering $100 for every sale referred and affiliate recurring program which pays 33% for every sale referred. The programs also offer free promotional materials including banners, videos and sales copy.

Pabbly

Pabbly offers a commission rate of 30% for recurring sales. Pabbly subscription plans start at $19.00 a month and there is a free version as well. The program gives you two functional dashboards to manage both traders and developers’ campaigns. The merchant dashboard offers affiliate settings, commissions, and click results. While the affiliate dashboard provides information related to subscription, invoice, transaction, profile and affiliate information.

Kajabi

Kajabi affiliate partners can earn a 30% lifetime commission for any new member they sign up that stays active past two years. This comes with special rewards package as you bring in more revenues. Kajabi’s partner dashboard allows users to track your rewards, trailing referrals, earnings and total campaigns.

Unbounce

Unbounce’s Affiliate program provides the opportunity to earn 20% of the recurring revenue for every customer they refer to Unbounce. This landing page platform helps users design converting landing pages for SaaS businesses, e-commerce sites, and agencies. Furthermore, site visitors or social media followers get 20% off their first three months using Unbounce. All these come with support tools that include a Partner coach, a dashboard to track progress, and training and promotional materials.

Teachable

Teachable is an online course platform that allows bloggers and website owners to build their classes to sell to their students. They offer a 30% commission for every signup done within 90 days. Its platform program gives you access to A/B tested funnels containing information about Teachable’s target audience.

ConvertKit

ConvertKit comes with a visual automation builder and can create triggers based on website actions and actions inside of emails. They offer a 30% commission per month. The company does not cut-off the revenue of an affiliate as long as they are active and paying.

Kinsta

Kinsta’s affiliate program starts by paying an initial commission, followed by a recurring 10% monthly payment. They can earn up to $500 initially, depending on the type of plan the referral has purchased. Plans include Starter ($30); Pro ($100), Business ($150) and Enterprise ($500). Support also comes by way of a custom-made affiliate dashboard that allows real-time tracking of subscriptions, analytics and payments.

Best Loan Affiliate Marketing Programs

These are programs that help you become an affiliate marketer for a lending platform and start generating a secondary stream of income. The following is a brief list of the top loan programs in the market that you could consider joining.

BlueVine

BlueVine is an online lender that provides multiple financing products for small-business owners. BlueVine offers invoice factoring, where the company purchases your unpaid invoices at a discount. It allows partners to refer their unqualified or declined deal-flow to BlueVine for invoice financing up to $5 million and lines of credit up to $250,000. For referrals, it provides support and residual commissions.

Credibly Business Loans

Credibly’s Referral Partners send leads to Credibly and receive a commission on the deals that fund. The sales process is handled internally by Credibly’s Customer Success Team and provides reports on which leads have been successfully funded. Businesses are generally funded in fewer than 48 hours from approval. Credibly works with referral partners in various industries and has incentives ranging from straight commissions to bonus miles and others.

SmartBiz

SmartBiz’s marketing partner program is ideal for alternative lenders, financial consultants, accounting firms and small business aggregators. Its dedicated online portal helps an affiliate refer loans as well as track the status of the sale.

Kabbage

As a Kabbage affiliate, you can get $250 for every referred customer who qualifies for the loan, and they get an additional $50 when the referral gets approved. Each small business referred to Kabbage will also receive one $50 gift card once they’re approved by Kabbage. There is no limit to the number of referrals one can make or the amount they can receive. Kabbage’s program is supported by APIs to put the power of growth directly into the hands of small business owners

OnDeck

OnDeck is an online small business lender and offers two types of business loans: short term loans and revolving lines of credit. Payouts are set at 2% for advertising performance campaigns to your audience on your blog, website, newsletter, search landing page.

Fundbox

Fundbox helps each affiliate to integrate its solutions into their platform to send over referrals to them. Affiliate partners can have their customers join Fundbox’s B2B credit and payments network by either integrating it into your workflow or through a referral link. Its partner portal dashboard provides easy status updates on your referrals, commission structure and renewals.

Funding Circle

FundingCircle is a business that allows anybody to lend small amounts of money to businesses in return for interest. It offers partnership opportunities through the landing page where you leverage FundingCircle’s brand API integration.

Fora Financial

As a Fora Financial affiliate partner, you can earn money online through commissions on all new deals and renewals. Additionally, Fora Financial’s account management team will be part of your support team.

Fundera

Fundera is a business funding matchmaker who will match businesses with funders. Any time you refer a small business using their unique affiliate link they get $1,000. However, you have to sign up for the referral program.

LendingClub

LendingClub offers each affiliate the opportunity to drive traffic to LendingClub and get commissions. It will provide commissions from referrals for its loans, investment accounts and auto refinance loans through banners and links.

Best Gaming Affiliate Marketing Programs

For content creators who stream or review games on their site or through YouTube, the following gaming affiliate programs are the best:

Alienware

Alienware is a subsidiary of Dell. The PC gaming company provides sales commissions ranging from 1-6%. The affiliate program provides banners as well as a 90-day cookies. It also helps you earn $71.86 through Earnings Per Click (EPC).

HP

HP is offering influencers to partner with who have audiences that are passionate about gaming, imaging, entertainment, or business technology. Through this program each time a visitor from your site clicks through to the HP online Store and makes a qualifying purchase, you earn a sales commission. Orders are tracked and sales credited to your site through the use of cookie technology.

Microsoft

Microsoft 365 for business Affiliate Program allows an affiliate to start earning money online through commissions on Microsoft 365 referrals. There are no limits on the amount of commission you can earn and comes with a referral window of 30 days.

Playstation

PlayStation Store offers affiliate marketing to earn commissions by referring new customers to PlayStation Store. Through online marketing, an affiliate can earn a commission rate of 5% on all sales generated by their links.

Best Buy

Best Buy offers the opportunity to start earning money by directing visitors to BestBuy.com. Every time your visitors click on Best Buy’s content and make a qualifying purchase, you earn a commission. The program includes all your necessary online marketing offerings like banners, text links, and copy aimed to improve conversion rates.

Gamestop

GameStop is a retailer providing video games, consoles, digital goods, and electronics. Its affiliate program pays a commission rate of 5% on all goods with a 1% commission on select goods. For gaming fanatics, this offers opportunities to earn a commission for click-throughs and purchases on GameStop.

Gamefly

each time a visitor signs up for a free trial and becomes a paying member on Gamefly you can earn commissions. On average commissions are $15 with a $20 commission for those able to refer 500+ sign ups a month. A 5% commission rate is earned for new game consoles as well as further improving affiliate earnings.

Newegg

Newegg helps you earn money when your website or blog refers a customer to them. In addition, when your audience makes a purchase, you earn a commission. Support comes by way of text and banner links, support team, product catalog, RSS feeds and more.

Tiger Direct

Tiger Direct is an online retailer dealing in electronics. It offers up to a 3% commission rate for sales of its products. You can add links to your site and access reports online so you can see how well you’re doing as an affiliate.

Best Web Hosting Affiliate Marketing Programs

Web hosting affiliate programs are one of the most popular categories. Is your audience interested in places to host a blog or website? Do you cater to do-it-yourselfers or developers who need to find hosting? Then web hosting affiliates are worth exploring as they one of the highest commissions.

Bluehost

Bluehost’s affiliate program includes banner ads on your site to drive interested readers to Bluehost’s products. This comes with easy-to-use instructions and widgets, by simply embedding an HTML code you can add banners to your website. Plans start at $2.95 per month with one-time payouts starting at $65 for each qualified web hosting plan purchase. Considered among the highest paying affiliate programs, payments are processed between 45 and 60 days after the sales are made.

Hostgator

Using HostGator’s new signup custom coupon codes and tracking links you can start getting commissions per signup. Hostgator is also another affiliate program with one of the highest payouts. It offers up to $100 per signup, a flexible commission structure, co-branded landing pages and others offers. Payouts are tiered starting from $65 and can go up to $125 for more than 21 sign-ups.

GreenGeeks

GreekGeeks is a web hosting service that has support for WordPress websites, offering reseller and VPS hosting for your websites or applications. Through its partner program, it offers a reward of $50 per sale, placing it among the highest paying affiliate programs. It has a cookie 30 days and the platform will immediately track the sale back to you and generate the equivalent commission.

Flywheel

Through Flywheel’s referral program you can earn 300% of the first month’s payment on any plan up to $500 for every referral. By using Flywheel’s custom referral links to promote Flywheel on your blog, your social media channels or sites get paid per referral. However, if your customers use a promotional code or coupon, payouts will be adjusted accordingly.

Namecheap

By placing a Namecheap affiliate link on your site you can start generating commissions. Namecheap will provide you banners and text links for your referral offers. You can earn revenues for every new customer along with real-time reporting on their earnings.

DreamHost

Dreamhost offers a $120 commission per signup for customers looking for a web hosting service. Referrals can reach up to $200. It offers a variety of ready-to-use banners and tracks URLS to ensure that every person that signs up through your affiliate link is tracked. Its dashboard also helps you track of the high commissions the company pays out.

Best Website Tool Affiliate Marketing Programs

These are affiliate programs that allow you to join programs under categories like web hosting, website builders, VPNs and technology.

Fiverr

Fiverr is great if you are into promotion. It has over 250 categories to promote and include logo design, writing, programming, WordPress and business services. Its Cost Per Action goes of up to $150 and this comes with no referral limit along with lifetime attribution. Another benefit of the Fiverr program is its user-friendly dashboard, as well as the portfolio of creative resources that you can use to promote Fiverr.

Wix

Wix offers unlimited payouts with minimum effort. This site builder has over 100 million users and offers $100 per premium referral. Wix’s support includes links, banners and multi-language landing pages. However, there is a minimum sales target of $ 300 per month.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact offers unlimited commissions through its email marketing platforms. Partners earn $5 for each referral that signs up to free trial and get an additional $105 when referrals pay for a full account.

Squarespace

Affiliate partners can earn payouts for every website or commerce subscription that you drive from a first-time Squarespace customer. They are also eligible to receive commissions as long as their audience is converting.

WordPress.com

WordPress affiliate programs allow partners to promote WordPress.com, Jetpack, and WooCommerce to earn referral rewards. The program was created for WordPress professionals including site and plugin developers, designers, theme creators, and others who are part of the WordPress ecosystem and its associated products. Because the program is only open to a select number of partners, specifically those who can deliver demonstrated new traffic and sign-ups to WordPress.com, Jetpack, and WooCommerce. Partners who have less than $100 in accrued rewards on a consistent basis will be removed from the program.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy offers a 40% commission in addition visitors who click through to GoDaddy from ads are considered referrals as well. If they make a qualified purchase, you can automatically earn a commission. Its cookies last for 45 days and average commissions range from 10-15% per sale. GoDaddy offers over 1,000 affiliate links including banners.

Best eCommerce Affiliate Marketing Programs

Ecommerce platforms have become very popular, and some offer excellent affiliate programs. With many working towards working with affiliates. Here are some examples:

BigCommerce

BigCommerce lets you earn 200% of the customer’s first monthly payment or $1,500 per enterprise customer. Promotions can be made through referral links, pre-made banners, emails and other marketing tools. BigCommerce’s dashboard allows users insights on clicks, trials, sales and commissions. As an affiliate, you can also use it to track earnings, performance and also receive support from a dedicated account manager.

Shopify

The world’s most popular e-commerce website builder boasts of having over 500,000 merchants and a substantial 200% commission on paid stores. When referrals sign up for a Shopify Plus account, they get paid a flat $2,000 bounty payment. Once you are an affiliate, you can get support for your own Shopify store, as well as free Shopify content to use for promotion.

3dcart

3dcart is another eCommerce platform that hosts its own program and offers a 300% commission for paid conversions. It focuses on SEO and provides tools to build, promote, and grow the online store of an affiliate. The affiliate program runs on both the Commission Junction and ShareASale networks, and both offer the same commission and 120-days cookie life.

Volusion

Volusion’s e-commerce solution helps small businesses to create, manage, and expand their online stores. It provides customers with support for domain purchase, web design, cart integration, SEO, and security. It offers commission for clients that you refer to Volusion with back end marketing support. With it, you can earn a 200% one-time commission payment of your client’s monthly hosting plan. visitors who arrive at Volusion through your referral link are yours.

Weebly

Weebly is a website builder with over 45 million users. Its drag and drop interface make it easy to build a quick site. In its affiliate program, it offers a 30% recurring commission for as long as the customer is active, and features a 120-day cookie window. Through its third-party affiliate, ShareASale provides an affiliate with third-party tracking, real-time reporting, and monthly commission checks.

Flippa

Flippa’s makes it possible to make 15% on all and any successful site, store, app or digital property sale referrals. They also have the option to further earn another 15% on all and any site, store, app or digital property listing referrals.

Best Big Box Store Affiliate Programs

Well known big retail websites can be very lucrative because of the value of each sale. Think big screen TVs, electronics, home improvement products and more. One of the biggest challenges with the companies in this category is going to through the product list. We’ve combined them all here under the banner “big box stores.”

Amazon

Through its affiliate program, Amazon provides commissions between 1% and 10%, depending on the category of the product purchased. The most lucrative items to promote are clothes and luxury beauty products, both of which can earn a 10% cut on the price. If visitors end up on Amazon through your link and buys something other than what your content links you get a commission on the shopper’s entire cart. To be a member of Amazon Associates, you must have an active site, blog, app, or YouTube channel

Bloggers, publishers and creators with a qualifying site or mobile app can participate in the Amazon Associates Program. Amazon also has a separate influencer program.

Walmart

Walmart’s Affiliate Program allows participants to earn commission by placing banner ads or text links on their site and referring customers. They can earn money each time a visitor follows a link and then completes a qualifying purchase. Commissions are between 1-4% of the item’s sale amount or $10.00 per item. One of the biggest challenges with the likes of Walmart and the others in this category is going to through the product list.

eBay

Enjoying over one billion listings from a wide range of product categories, eBay’s affiliate program offers high conversion rates and a diverse selection of products.

Through its partner network, it pays out commissions of 50% to 70% of auction fees. This means that for each item sold, eBay gets a cut by charging the seller an auction fee. An affiliate can then earn a percentage of the revenue eBay earns from that purchase, based on the product category. Items such as parts, accessories and fashion often generate good commissions.

Target

Target’s affiliate program allows users to place links via banners, widgets, text links and other tools on websites. In return, visitors are tracked within a 7-day cookie window until they place orders. There are no charges to join the Target affiliate program. The program has four categories for earning commission for affiliates. These include apparel & accessories; home & outdoor living; baby gear & furniture; and health & Beauty. These commissions range from 1% to 8%, depending on the category the sales affiliates

Best Buy

Advertise Best Buy products on your social media, your blog or site, and get a commission from every product sold via your link. Best Buy offers free tools, content, and weekly banner ads to add to your site.

Home Depot

Affiliates who join Home Depot’s affiliate program can start earning revenues on every qualified sale they refer to homedepot.com. They will receive support by way of text links, display banners, project and buyer guides. Commissions include 1% on products, mobile, and buy online pick up in-store orders, 1% on appliances, and 8% on select home decor merchandise.

Lowes

Lowe’s affiliate program is managed by Commission Junction (CJ). To be eligible as an affiliate you have to have a website and be focused on home improvement, construction, design and similar areas. Lowe’s pays 2% in commissions and cookies last for one day.

Costco

You can earn commissions as an affiliate marketer by referring new customers to Costco through Skimlinks and Commission Junky.

Sam’s Club

Sam’s Club offers commissions on sale when visitors click on a SamsClub.com ad from your site and complete a qualifying sale through SamsClub.com. Just like the other big box stores this is a company with a lot of products in its inventory. So there is a great opportunity to earn commissions.

Best Office Supply Affiliate Marketing Programs

Office supply chains in the digital and physical world are highly competitive. One of the ways they stay on top is by using affiliates and their digital presence. Here are the top office supply affiliate programs.

Office Depot

Through the Office Depot affiliate program, you can earn income by placing text links, product links, and graphic banners from OfficeDepot.com directly to your site. Each transaction made through these links from your site earns you a percentage from the transaction of the item. For example, office accessories such as binders commissions are set at 6% while a 4% commission is available for paper, inkjet cartridges and toners.

Staples

With the Staples affiliate program you have a choice thousands of office supplies. By referring your visitors to Staples and having them purchase items you can receive commissions between 1-5% in sales commission.

Quill

Quill’s affiliate program allows influencers to promote Quill products by using links to divert traffic to its site and earn a commission per sale. Through VigLink technology, it automatically monetizes terms by transforming them into revenue generating hyperlinks whose destinations are determined in real-time auctions. Quill’s solutions work across sites, apps, and social networks.

Best Furniture Affiliate Marketing Programs

These are paying affiliate programs that feature furniture retailers. They come in handy if you as an influencer or website owner have a strong following in interior design, home furnishing and related topics.

Wayfair

Wayfair affiliates program allows websites and blog owners to promote Wayfair through affiliate links and earn commission on orders from those links. Wayfair offers thousands of items across all major home categories, giving affiliates more choices and opportunities. Affiliates in return get dedicated in-house management, 7% commissions, and a 7-day referral period.

Overstock

Overstock is an online retailer offering commissions with deals on designer brands and home goods. Affiliates can earn 6% on commissions on all items, a 14-day referral period and paid media opportunities. Overstock partners with CJ affiliate for tracking, reporting, and payment for its affiliate partner program.

West Elm

West Elm is a retailer for modern furniture and home decor featuring inspiring designs and colors.  Affiliate marketers can earn 3% commissions of sales through the VigiLink platform.

Houzz

Houzz is a platform for home remodeling and design. Its affiliate program provides commissions of up to 5% per sales, a 30 day cookie duration and a catalogue of 9 million products available for purchase.

Anthropologie

Anthropologie needs affiliates to showcase its ads, banners and links on its site. In return, they receive a 6% commission on net sales, real-time reporting and sales tracking, a 30 day cookie window and other perks.

Best Educational Affiliate Marketing Programs

Help your audience increase their skills and education levels — and earn at the same time. Online courses and remote learning have become tremendously popular during the CVOID-19 pandemic, and are likely to continue long beyond that. Here are course or educational affiliates.

Kajabi

As a Kajabi affiliate marketer, you can receive a 30% recurring commission for any new member you sign up and stays active past their trial period. If you sign up one member who sticks around for two years that means you made around $1,000. Kajabi’s dashboard helps you track clicks, form submissions, conversions and conversion rates.

Coursera

Through its paying affiliate marketing program, this online learning platform offers between 20-45% in commissions with a cookie life of 30 days. Coursera has over 4,000 courses on offer and makes the generous commission worth exploring.

Teachable

Teachable is an online course platform that allows bloggers and website owners to build their classes to sell to their students. They offer a 30% commission for every signup done within 90 days. Its platform program gives you access to A/B tested funnels containing information about Teachable’s target audience.

Udemy

Udemy is probably the skill-learning platform that has the highest number of courses. It boasts of offering 150,000 courses and having 24 million students. It offers a baseline commission of 20% with a 7-day cookie.

Skillshare

Skillshare is another learning platform that provides 29,000 online and video classes. It offers a fixed commission of $7 for every new customer you refer to it with a 30-day cookie life. Each affiliate creates a custom account through Impact Radius that tracks their referrals in real-time.

DIY.org

DIY’s influencer program allows you to earn money by promoting memberships to it creative online community. It hosts courses targeting children, and commissions are given per converted sign-up or for each trial you refer to.

Best Cosmetic and Makeup Affiliate Programs

Do you run a site or blog in the beauty niche? Are you an influencer on social media who often shares makeup tips and product ideas? These cosmetic affiliate programs are for you. These programs are really good for those who have a makeup tutorial or beauty YouTube channel. The category often includes something called influencer programs.

As an influencer, you can tap into your social media following, blog or website to review products or help promote them. By joining an influencer program you use your creativity to create compelling content with advertisers to reach out to your audiences.

Murad

Murad the skincare products for acne, anti-aging, cellulite, age spot treatments has an affiliate program. Website owners can help promote special Murad deals and special promotions. It offers commission on sales of their products starting from 6%.

Jane

Jane is a boutique marketplace featuring women’s fashion, home decor, and children’s clothing. Through the ShareSale affiliate network it provides opportunities for bloggers working in baby products, home goods, clothing and other opportunities to earn revenue. With Jane commissions from new customers are 9% and for returning customers it is set at 8%.

Yves Rocher

Yves Rocher offers a selection of beauty products, including skin and body care. It offers a 15% commission with a 30-day cookie duration.

Scentbird

Scentbird has an n affiliate program for those interested in perfumes. The company helps affiliates earn $14 per sale or subscription generated through your link. This means for just 1 subscription sign up per day affiliates could earn $420 a month. Scentbird has a 45-day cookie and provides text links, product links and banners.

BH Cosmetics

Through BH Cosmetics affiliate program each time you direct a visitor to BHCosmetics.com and they make a purchase within 60 days of their visit, you earn an 8% commission rate on that order. Additional perks include bonuses, personalized creative content for your website and much more.

MAC

Mac is a cosmetics company globally recognized as one off the leading brands in the industry. It offers affiliate marketing opportunities through Skimlinks where websites or blogs owners can send traffic to them using tracked links. Sales that are generated from that link will earn the affiliate a commission rate.

ULTA Beauty

The Ulta affiliate program simply places links, promotional banners and available products on your website to start making commissions. Additional incentive offers include free shipping, exclusive free gifts with qualifying purchases, buy one and get one free promotion, affiliate special offers and more.

Sally Beauty

Sally Beauty’s program will help you earn a commission rate on every transaction referred from your site. As one of the biggest suppliers in the industry, the company has a lot of merchanidise. As a matter of fact, it has more than 6,000 hair, skin, and nail products for customers to choose from.

Best Affiliate Networks

A merchant is the or advertiser and is often the creator of the product or services. While an affiliate network acts as an intermediary between the merchant and the affiliate marketer. They help merchants find affiliate marketers to help them make sales and conduct marketing campaigns. Their job as matchmakers is to help businesses select affiliate marketers which is a good fit or them.

For affiliate marketers they help provide you with a portfolio of companies and products that can meet your niche. Very often affiliate networks work around a specific industry thus offering specialized expertise for businesses. This includes identifying the best influencers, blogs or websites that can best leverage a product or products and services.

Impact Radius

Impact Radius manages a number of affiliate programs, and by joining their marketplace as a media partner you gain access to these advertisers. These include merchants such as Best Buy, Door Dash, Cabela’s, Kohl’s, McAfee, Walmart, Lenovo and Adidas.

Using multi-layered tracking methodologies, it claims to be able to combat cookie blocking and deliver close to 100% tracking accuracy thus yielding 17% in higher revenues on the same traffic.

Commission Junction CJ

Commission Junction (CJ) like other affiliate networks helps affiliates earn commissions by driving traffic and conversion to advertisers through websites or blogs. CJ affiliate offers a pay-per-call solution enabling the promotion of advertisers’ products or services through traceable distribution channels. CJ affiliate clients include Blue Apron, Acer, AT&T Samsung, Dell, Canon and others.

ClickBank

ClickBank is an affiliate network for merchants that affiliates can choose to promote based on the interest of their audience. It offers a product database that helps to navigate and find to promote. ClickBank is one of the biggest brands in this segment and the company has a lot of products. To date, ClickBank has paid more than $4.2 billion in commissions from the sale of its product line.

ShareASale

ShareASale is an affiliate network that houses affiliate programs for more than 4,500 merchants for affiliates to choose from. Some of their clients include Freshbooks, Reebok, Etsy, Weebly and Sally Beauty along with many other products and services to choose from. With the ShareASale dashboard you can sign up to all these merchants, generate links, view your statistics and earn commissions. However, you are required to individually apply to the merchants and get approved by each.

Commission Factory

Commission Factory works with affiliates that have ave a website, blog, mobile app or a social media presence. Affiliates can take advantage of the tools it offers to easily generate revenue through links, banners, click-less tracking, coupon codes and its API. It represents over 600 small and large brands and many items to choose from.

Rakuten

Rakuten is an online store stocking everything from high-end electronics to clothing. Here affiliates can apply to each individual brand they want to promote. The consumer insights it provides measures decisions based on impressions, clicks and other metrics.

Sovrn Commerce (Formerly VigLink)

Sovern’s affiliate program allows food bloggers to draw traffic to its clients’ sites. It works on Cost-Per-Thousand system where an affiliate gets paid for every thousand ads that are viewed. It has over 70,000 merchants and it can automatically route your links to the highest bidder who wants their product or service promoted.

Skimlinks

When signing up on Skimlinks you earn commissions through link referrals. When an affiliate signs up, they are required to simply copy and paste a short line of code into the footer of their site once. Links that you add from merchants that are signed up with the Skimlinks network will then earn you a commission rate when a reader clicks through the affiliate link and makes a purchase.

ShopHer

ShopHer is an affiliate program for women bloggers. This program helps female bloggers earn revenue through referrals to ShopHer’s network members. It provides affiliate links, sponsored posts and customized video female bloggers.

AWin (Affiliate Window)

Awin is another popular affiliate network that gives you access to over 13,000 different merchants. Some of the notable brands carried by AWin include Etsy, AliExpress, HP and Under Armour. They have a user-friendly system and offer twice-monthly payments with small minimum requirements in multiple currencies.

PeerFly.com

PeerFly is hailed as being the fastest-growing affiliate network program in the world. The program is a Cost-Per-Action (CPA) based affiliate ad network which means they are paid for their ads when those who view it complete the desired action. PeerFly has over 2,000 live offers and guarantees top pay-outs. In addition, it offers access to its rewards program and contests as an affiliate.

MaxBounty

MaxBounty is a performance marketing network which connects trusted affiliate marketers with high paying advertisers. For adverts placed on your site, this affiliate marketing program provides monetized rewards on a Cost-Per-Action basis.

Webgains

Webgains allows advertisers and publishing partners to generate additional revenue through its affiliate program. They offer support in terms of training to create content to drive clicks to brands, convert to sales and get paid. They cover industries that include technology, sports performance, lifestyle, travel and leisure, and more.

Pepperjam

Pepperjam allows an affiliate to help run promotions for its clients and earn revenues through commissions. Through its ascend platform it offers advanced tracking, robust reporting and payment flexibility.

Avantlink

AvantLink works with affiliate marketers on CPA and lead marketing. It offers multi-channel analytics and referral tracking for its affiliate marketers. Payouts are made through commissions, bonuses, paid placement earnings and cost-per-click earnings.

Reward Style

With Reward Style your job as an affiliate marketer is to bring new clients from external traffic sources to Reward Style’s network of clients. There are 5,000 retail partners and a higher number of products to choose from. As an influencer, you are required to generate mobile-first content that’s immediately shoppable and even applies on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat.

FlexOffers

Flexoffers provides programs from well-known brands and niche markets alike. As an affiliate marketer you have over 12,000 programs including JCPenney, Hulu, Microsoft, Lego, Gamefly, Lenovo, Nike, L.L. Bean, Xfinity.  With its FlexRev-$hare program, you can refer as many publishers as possible and earn up to 50% of the FlexOffers.com profit.

10 Criteria to Select Affiliate Programs

When selecting an affiliate program to promote on your website or blog, the following factors matter the most:

Relevance to your audience: who your audience is will help determine what products and services they will be more willing to purchase or use. For you to get started in affiliate marketing you will need to understand and segment your audience to leverage them for businesses that are looking for promotional partners. This will require an understanding of who your audience is, what products or services might be of interest to them. A large and engaged audience will raise your chances of generating higher revenue.

Commission rate: Commissions for market affiliates are often paid on a monthly basis. Some commissions for electronics such as PCs and smartphones can go as low as 1. %. Others offer high commissions and can go up by 200% for specialized services such as loans, health care, or web hosting.

Average order value: Average Order Value (AoV) calculates the average dollar amount a customer places on order on a website or mobile application. This helps determine the long term value a customer brings to the business rather than focus on individual purchases. Simply explained it is about the quality of customers you bring rather than the numbers. Customers with high AoV indicate you are driving high volume sales which means you earn more in commissions as well as bonuses and incentives from the advertisers.

Cookie length: also known as cookie life it is the amount of time when all actions made by a user, directed by you from your site, are commissioned to you. This is all about referred customers not deciding to move into action quickly. Some businesses offer a week others offer a 90 day period. The longer the cookie length it increases the window where you receive commissions and rewards in the event the customer decides to make the purchase or take action.

Recurring commissions: also called lifetime commission it is an offering that pays every month the customer is active with the companies product or service. This is often offered among software companies and membership programs.

Dashboard, data, and support: are important for you to measure progress on your promotional efforts. Unless you measure it, it will be difficult to know where you excel and where you need to improve. It is also important to have good and responsive marketing collateral to bring more impact to your marketing efforts. Support also should come in terms of offering incentives and reward packages for good performers to recognize their work and encourage them to do more.

Payout threshold: refers to the minimum amount of money you need to make for you to receive payment. Some merchants or networks require a minimum of $100. This is in a bid to encourage more sales as well as avoid transaction and processing costs for small payments.

Fair merchants: As an affiliate in marketing you are a promotions partner for the merchant. For your services, you require compensation in terms of commissions and rewards. Some merchants look for ways to avoid paying commissions per sale after the fact and don’t treat their partners fairly. To avoid such conflicts it is important that you as an affiliate make sure to do your due diligence to see if the merchants have a fair paying affiliate program offers.

Link generators – An affiliate referral link is used to promote a merchant’s website or products. It has the affiliate’s ID or username appended to the URL so a specific affiliate can be tracked when a visitor or customer visits your website. If the customer successfully completes an action a referral will be generated and the affiliate will be awarded a commission. They can also generate their own referral URL from the merchant by pasting the page URL.

Restrictions – Some merchants do not allow an affiliate to use coupon sites or discount pages. This might be because they do not want to have a lot of bargain seekers. Others will not give you commissions if your referrals opt to use discount codes for their product.

Discounts – Does the merchant offer discounts, free trials, or special offers to your affiliate? These will do a lot to help speed up conversions as people will automatically take on the impression their risk has been somewhat reduced as a consequence of the offer.

What is the best affiliate program to join?

It’s hard to pick just one “best affiliate program” because it depends on your audience and their interests, as well as your own interest in promoting an offering. Instead of looking for a single best program, make sure what is best for you and get started. The list herein broken down by categories should help you pick the best affiliate marketing solution for your situation.

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This article, “Best Affiliate Programs – And the Highest Paying” was first published on Small Business Trends

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Hey there! After lurking for a while on this subreddit, I feel like this is a good time to share some important learnings of the last few months.TLDR: For the past 6 months me and my co-founder have been working on a new SaaS product called Mailbrew, and decided to ignore the "ship fast, iterate later" mantra. In fact we kept the product in private beta for months and iterated on it a lot based on early users feedback. Today, we are launching it and I want to share with you the lessons learned in these past few months.So here are some of the most important learnings for me and my co-founder during this long beta.You should manually onboard your first usersOctober 2019. For the first time, we've decided to manually onboard the first Mailbrew users. We've had this big and growing early access list (I think 800 people then) and we picked a few that we knew, or we felt were a good fit.We've asked these people to join a quick 30min call with us, so we could ask some questions and explain the product.Well, I can't even think of not having the insights these calls gave us in the first few months of work.Thanks to these calls:We basically realized that some of our core assumptions about the product were plain wrong.There were some huge gaps and issues with your UX that we simply couldn't see, because of all the things we were taking for granted.We had a much better understanding of the real problem we should try to solve.Some tips for people who want to do these calls:If you set 30 minutes time slots, set a timer for 25 minutes before starting the call. It's super hard to just cut the call when the time ends, so leave a small buffer for ending them.When you ask to describe the product, or what they want to achieve with it, try your best to not put any words in the user mouth. You need to focus on what language they use to describe their problem, how they want to solve it, and how they see your product.Common questions like "How did you find out about us?" are pretty useless. Ask things you really want to know, and that can give you actionable insights.When you give them access to your product, ask them politely to share their screen, and take notes while you see how they interact with it.Remember to ask about pricing. You should ask what they think it's a fair price, and what is an expensive price that they would still be willing to pay. This last one is a good reference for your price point.Mistakes we made:In hindsight, we should have scheduled just one call each day, maybe two. Instead there was this one time when we had 3 calls in a row and it was exhausting. Each call requires focus and attention so absolutely don't be overbooked.Monetize early onAs soon as we finished working on our monetization, we launched and put all our early users in trial. This isn't the easiest thing to do: the product was still in its early stages, with only few features available.Still, knowing if your users are willing to pay for your service and I mean, actually paying, not just saying they would pay is the single most important information you need.Almost immediately after implementing it in early January, one of our early users jumped on the highest plan.This was a "Pro" plan that only had one feature actually developed, but Pat decided to jump onboard early on.I think engaging our early users, asking for feedback, and pushing steady updates to the app showed a lot of commitment, and this helps in converting the first few users.Mistakes we made:Our first paywall/pricing page was really well made, but it was too tailored for one pricing strategy. You might need to add plans, remove them, have a free plan or not and so on. So make sure to build things in a way that can accommodate this changes later. We basically had to rewrite monetization from scratch before launching.Understand your positioningSince the start, we had various ideas of what this product was:A service to get automated emails from any sources.A way to follow your favorite topics.A tool to stay in touch with everything you need.A way to unplug from feeds and reduce FOMO.These can all be true for us, but it's important to understand how the majority of users view your product, and what positioning resonates the most with users.For example, in early February I've started sending a survey to our users asking them to complete some sentences.The first one is completely open:Briefly describe Mailbrew, as you would do with a friend: ...Then were the sentences to complete:Mailbrew is valuable to me because...The main problem Mailbrew solves is...What makes Mailbrew unique and different from other apps is...If I couldn't use Mailbrew anymore I...My main issue with Mailbrew is...My main feature request is...This survey gave us fantastic insights on how our users perceived the product a few weeks after they joined the beta.One response in particular really spoke to us, and also became an amazing testimonial:"Mailbrew is the taming of the firehose that is today's online information landscape. For the first time, I feel like I can keep up with the things I love without getting completely overwhelmed or falling into infinite rabbit holes that the web is so good at getting us to fall into. Mailbrew is an information diet done right. It forces you to consider only that information which is essential to you and then delivers it seamlessly and beautifully. No more having to check multiple sites. No more hunting for interesting things—it’s all right there, right in my inbox. It will save me heaps of time this year."See how far this is from "Mailbrew is a service to get automated emails from any sources".This helped us learn what the product really is, what actually problem it solves and how we can explain it. This informed a lot of design decisions for our landing page.Define your key metrics, and stick to themI have a personal tendency to get attached to some metrics and over-analyze them. I like watching numbers grow, spotting trends, and calculate the path to profitability.By while monitoring your metrics can be fun, many of the numbers about your product and its users are meaningless and even distracting. So it's super important, especially in a beta phase, to define KPIs that are essential to your product success, and keep you eyes on those.After some iteration and some reading, we defined a system of metrics that help us keep our eyes on the ball. We used Mixpanel recommended system and decided to define a Focus Metric that is our north star, Level 1 Metrics and are essential to know the product is growing and it healthy, and Level 2 Metrics which are important, but secondary.Focus MetricPaying subscribersLevel 1 MetricsMRR ($)Net new subscribersCancelationsActivationOpen RateWAUAll Users RetentionLevel 2 MetricsSignups BreakdownFree vs. Paid UsersConversion to PayFree Users RetentionSubscription Cancels (brekdown by reason)Trials EndingThis is not a perfect system but it's helping us to have a great overview of how the product is performing, and spot any criticality.Mistakes we've madeFor a lot of time we didn't have this system, especially for other products, and we thought it's enough to know your conversion, MAU and other easily readable things to know if your products are ok. Well, after finally choosing to use a tool like Mixpanel and start tracking more metrics, our product work improved as a consequence.There are no hacksThis private beta also validated something we always thought true, at least for us: that there are no hacks. You need to relentlessly focus on building a great product, all the rest comes later.By doing the manual onboardings, putting serious thought into positioning, and really focusing on providing value to the users and not develop anything that isn't essential, we feel like users naturally value the productAnd that's why even before launching we sold a few yearly licenses, without pushing them particularly. This was probably the biggest validation and made us feel like we were on the right path.We're now launching with $150 MRR, which might not seem a lot, but it's more than $0 and it shows how things are starting to work.Thanks to this strategy, we're now putting our app out there in a state that we're really happy about, and we're sure that new user will at least understand what it is about, and have a good enough experience.For example, one of the latest additions was an onboarding that presents the user with a few automated newsletters already prepared by us. This is because in the beta we initially saw a very low activation rate (Signup → Read the first issues of a newsletter). Imagine launching without realizing this and missing out on many users that could appreciate your product but are just not onboarded properly.***This is it! Of course there are many more lessons to learn, and I really want to thank you all in this community. Seriously, it's been an incredible source of inspiration and insights during this journey, and also while building other products in the past.If you want to check out the product itself it's here.Feel free to ask me anything!

[i-globalone]

Android is the most popular mobile operating system. With 1 Billion 30 day active users and almost 10 device activation per second, it is quite overwhelming to realize the traction and growth it is destined for. Even though there are over 1 Billion users for Android, sometimes a 5 inch screen is just not enough to enjoy the overflowing catalogue of media for mobile, be it a game or movie there still are people who prefer the real estate of a PC over the limited canvas provided by a tablet or phone. Now for most users running an Android app/game would mean heading over to the Bluestacks website and downloading the application and running it on your PC, but Bluestacks isn’t good enough. The User interface that Bluestacks provides is clunky and old-school and just to set up the app to work “fine” is a pain. And even if one gets past the setup process, the experience is just terrible. I am speaking about the lag, what’s the point in playing the game when all you can experience is the frame drops? In this article we will illustrate “How to run Android Apps on PC without using Bluestacks” using 3 different methods. Genymotion Genymotion is hands down the market leader when it comes to Android Emulators. While a lesser known app for the general consumers, Genymotion happens to be highly popular in the Android Developer community for its fast and snappy performance, at times one would forget that Genymotion is an emulator and not an actual device due its superior performance. In order to run a game or an app on Genymotion let’s first set it up. Head over to the Genymotion website (www.Genymotion.com) and sign up for a free account and verify it. Once that is done, sign in to your account and visit the downloads page and download it. NOTE: Genymotion requires Virtual Box in case you already have it you can download the version without Virtual Box. After downloading the software go through the standard installation procedure and once it finishes, launch Genymotion. You will need to sign in first. Once you have logged in, click on the ‘+’ button to add a new device. You will be greeted with a list of devices. Choose the one you prefer (In this case I used a Nexus 9) and download it. Be patient while it downloads and deploys. Once it is deployed successfully, click on the play button to launch it. Wait for the device to boot up, once your device is powered on, it’s time to install the game. Use Windows explorer to browse to your .apk file and then drag and drop it onto the Genymotion window. You will see a file transfer in progress prompt. Once that is done, it means your app was installed, use the app drawer to find it and launch it. And your game should start. Genymotion is compatible with following platforms: Windows: Windows Vista, Windows 7, 8, 8.1 Mac: Mac OS X 10.8 (64 bit) or newer Linux: Ubuntu 12.04 (32/64 bit) or newer, or Debian 7 (64 bit) or newer Google Chrome During Google I/O 2014, Google announced that it was bringing Android Apps to Chrome OS in an attempt of unifying the two platforms. Chrome is another platform maintained by Google, yes you read it right it is indeed a platform. The world’s fastest browser has acquired a huge userbase which made the transition from a web browser to a platform inevitable. While most of us use Chrome to browse the web and unleash our productivity with its extensions, I’m sure only a few people know that you can run Android Apps using Google Chrome. To do so you need the Arc Welder extension from the Chrome web store. Arc Weldor is a Google project and the technology behind it is worth appreciating. Before harnessing the power of Google Chrome to run Android Apps lets see what Arc welder actually does under the hood. An android app has a .apk extension while a chrome extension is a .crx file, what Arc welder does is, it repacks the android app in form of a chrome extension so that it can be loaded on to Chrome and used as a normal Chrome App. First make sure you install Google Chrome. Once you have it up and running, fire up the web store and search for Arc Welder (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/Arc-welder/emfinbmielocnlhgmfkkmkngdoccbadn) and install it. NOTE: The page says that the download size is 11MB but the actual download size is almost 150 MB, so be patient while it downloads. Once it is downloaded and installed, launch it. Click on the choose button and choose a directory. This will serve as the directory where Arc will store your apps. After doing so click on the big ‘+’ button to add your apk file. Wait till it loads up. Customize the orientation etc according to your needs. And then click on Launch app. The game should start now. NOTE: You can test/run only one app at a time using Arc Welder. In order to install another app you need to uninstall the previous app. Andy OS Andy OS is another android emulator which is similar to Blustacks in a lot of ways yet way too different in terms of performance. You can obtain a copy of Andy OS from (http://bit.ly/2LVCIKD) and install it. Once it is installed, boot it up the configuration process is quite similar to configuring an actual Android device. Once that is done you can download your game like you do on your android device using the Store. The interesting part here is that you can actually use your Android phone as a controller while playing games on your PC. Conclusion While both the options mentioned above are less known to users and are way better than the performance and responsiveness of Bluestacks. But the fact still remains the same that the immersion and experience provided by a physical device will always be better than emulators. source http://wtf.telenor.com.np/2019/12/15/how-to-run-android-apps-on-pc-the-right-way/

http://www.globalone.com.np/2019/12/how-to-run-android-apps-on-pc-right-way.html

[socialmediamarketing2sales-blog]

21-social-media-marketing-tips-for-small-businesses

The social media universe can be an overwhelming place for small businesses. And, as a small business marketer, you’re likely strapped: for funds, time, and/or manpower. That means you need to enter the space with a game plan, because without a game plan, social media marketing can be as much of an exercise in existential crises as Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

So where do you start? What do you post? How do you measure?

Luckily, many people have been through this looking glass before, so they can provide some guidance.

I asked the experts for their best social media tips, and here’s what they had to say.

Jump to a section:

Getting Started

Where Should I Post?

What Should I Post?

Scheduling

Boosting Engagement

Measuring Returns

Getting Started:

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.

-Chapter 1

It can be very easy, when it comes to social media, to think of it as a rabbit hole: it’s a fairly simple concept, but who knows what it’ll require of you once you begin. When making the case for yourself or a team member to get started with social media, here are some things the experts suggest you keep in mind.

1. A lack of social presence makes customers question your legitimacy.

“It’s no longer a question of “if” you should get on social media, but instead “what” social media you should focus on. Any business with a social media presence is automatically viewed as more competent, focused, and thoughtful than competitors that do not. An active social media presence is even better, since it shows customers that your company runs smoothly and takes care of everything, down to the online marketing presence.”

-Amy Dalcanton, Marketing Specialist at Unlimited | Sotheby’s International Realty, @Unlimited_SIR

2. Combat that lack of presence by front-loading new profiles with content..

“When you’re just getting started, I suggest pushing as much as content as possible, as consistently as possible. Don’t worry so much whether “it’s brand appropriate;” you just want to get started and build content.”

-Jas Banwait, Growth Marketing Expert at JasBanwait.co, @JasBanwait

3. That said, you don’t have to be an every-man. In fact, it might be more effective if you’re not.

“Marketing on social media takes finding your niche and building a relationship there. Trying to reach a broad audience will fail.”

-Nick Leffler, Owner of Your Brand By Nick Leffler, @Nick_Leffler

4. Knowing your target customer can help develop a niche voice on social.

“Developing buyer personas is a great way to narrow down your target audience. Your product/service isn’t for everyone, so make sure you’re speaking to the right people.”

-Ashton Haywood, Marketing Specialist at Software Advice, @SoftwareAdvice, @ItsAshtonLynne

5. Don’t over-process your posts.

“Be human! A lot of organizations are afraid of making mistakes on social – they’ll run their posts through 20 different people and approval processes before actually posting, and the result comes across as robotic and bland. People don’t respond to that!”

-Brandon Echter, Engagement Manager at Science Friday, @SciFri, @BEchter

Where Should I Post?

“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

-Chapter 6

There’s been a prevailing attitude over the past decade or so that you need to be on platform X, or that you may as well not exist if you’re not on platform Y *cough FACEBOOK cough*. But the winds are changing. And today, no platform is a requirement.

6. Start where your customers are.

“Just because you love reddit doesn’t mean your customers are there. Figure out where your ideal customers are already hanging out and learn how to use that platform to reach them. It’s much easier to go to them than to try to bring them over to your favourite space.”

-Anita Kirkbride, Head Twirp at Twirp Communications, @AnitaKirkbride

7. Take on what you can handle–and nothing more.

“Planning, creating, scheduling social media content and having conversations with potential customers takes time. If you sign up for every social media channel under the sun, you will be spreading yourself too thin and your content will perform poorly”

-Danica Benson, Marketing Communications Manager at RivalIQ, @RivalIQ

8. Don’t sweat it if you’re not on the

latest

craze.

“Some businesses may never make it to Instagram or Snapchat – but that’s okay! Concentrate on your target audience and your goals from social media. In the world of choosing social platforms to concentrate on for small businesses, less is often always more.”

-Jessica Kornfeind, Senior Marketing Manager at PrimePay, @JesKorn

What Should I Post?

“Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle.”

-Chapter 2

What sort of content is your audience interested in? It’s going to take a lot of trial and error to figure that out. But these experts provide a good jumping off point:

9. Take your cues from the successes of others.

“You can find ideas anywhere; be sure to analyze and watch what your competitors are doing/posting. It’s also important to monitor what other businesses and companies are doing that catches your attention. Sign up for social media articles and tips from experts so you can daily or weekly receive emails with all sorts of tips, new information and social updates.”

-Erin Siefring, Social Media Coordinator at Totally Promotional, @TPromotional

10. Entertaining and useful content is better than promotional content.

“People go on social media to be entertained, not to be marketed at. Therefore, whatever your company puts on social media should be built to engage first and market second, if at all.”

-Nicholas Berry, Digital Marker at American Image Displays, @Am_Img_Displays

“Being ‘useful’ to your followers is crucial for engaging an audience. A genuine approach actually enables business owners to save time… one well thought out post will bring more engagement than 10 terrible posts.”

-Jayme Pretzloff, Director of Marketing at Wixon Jewelers, @WixonJewelers

11. Images are key.

“Use high quality, crisp visuals. Recent research shows images increase social media engagement: Twitter updates with images in them receive 150% more retweets than those without and Facebook posts with images in them receive 2.3 times more engagement than those without. Canva is a fantastic resource for creating custom images, with free and low-cost options available.”

-Emily Sidley, Senior Director of Publicity at Three Girls Media, @EmilySidleyPR

Related:  Top 7 Free Photoshop Alternatives for Better Social Media

Scheduling

“My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.”

― Through the Looking Glass

Social media can seem like a daunting task; there’s always more to do and little time to accomplish it. With so much to do, how do you accomplish it all?

12. Consider a posting plan, to start.

“Lots of small businesses get so caught up in ROI, strategy,and SEO that they forget the most important part: to post consistently. So many businesses are so wrapped up in the overthinking that they leave their pages out of date by months or years – dinging their credibility when a potential client looks them up online to see what they are all about. My best tip for small businesses just getting started is to come up with simple posting plan to start – and then actually carry out that plan consistently over time. Once you get comfortable posting on a regular basis, you can invest more time and money in a deeper strategy.”

-Stacy Erickson Edwards, Founder of Organized Social Media, @OrganizedSM

13. Invest in a scheduling tool.

“Investing in a scheduling tool, like Buffer for Hootsuite, to schedule your social posts in advance. These tools will save you hours of time each week. Social scheduling tools allow you to schedule posts across multiple social channels for the day, week or month. This way you don’t spend 30-60 minutes every day on social media.”

-Danica Benson, Marketing Communications Manager at RivalIQ, @RivalIQ

Related:  The Top 7 Free Social Media Management Software

Boosting Engagement

“How puzzling all these changes are! I’m never sure what I’m going to be, from one minute to another.”

―Chapter 5

Social media moves quickly, so you need to be a little more reactive than other channels. You need to be engaged with what’s happening; if you plan on just setting something up and walking away, you’re going to have a bad time.

14. Engagement is a two-way street.

“When people mention your company on social media, let them know that you’re listening. If it’s a question or positive comment, respond ASAP. If not, make sure to like or favorite the post so they know you saw it. Little gestures like this go a long way.”

-Kyle Massa, Content Associate at TeamSnap, @TeamSnap

15. Look local for cross-promotion opportunities.

“Engage locally and authentically! Look for local organizations with whom your business has a natural affinity of demographic crossover.

Find them, follow them and engage with them. Retweet and repost their content and look for opportunities to feature them in your content. Soon enough, if the connection is real, you’ll find their audience becomes your audience, too.”

-Will Scott, CEO of Search Influence, @SearchInfluence

16. Set yourself up for success: Optimize your other channels/content for social sharing.

“You can also use email to promote social media. Include your social icons/links within the footer of your emails to build an audience.”

-Lexi Pemberton, Vendor Marketing Associate at Capterra, @Capterra

“Include social share icons with proper functionality on your web pages. Icons with ‘share’ functionality should be placed on article pages, and icons with ‘follow’ functionality should be placed in the footer or header.”

-Leslie Handmaker, Digital Marketer at LeslieHandmaker.com

Measuring Returns

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

― Chapter 6

One of the biggest challenges any social media manager faces is proving the return on investment. It’s easy to say ‘we need to be on social media,’ but–for small businesses where resources are sparse–the executive team often needs to see how you’re moving the needle.

17. Take advantage of the built-in analytics tools.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure, but measuring social media ROI doesn’t have to be expensive. Small businesses can take advantage of the wealth of information provided in built-in, free analytics tools like Facebook Insights. The key is know what to measure – don’t worry too much about gathering a million followers. The important numbers to watch are engagement and impressions.”

-Natalie O’Grady, Social Media Specialist at A.Wordsmith, @MissNatalieJ

18. Define what success looks like to you and build from there.

“In terms of measuring ROI, it depends on your business objectives. If increasing your following is a major goal, create a simple shared doc or spreadsheet with others on your team and record the number of followers per channel at the beginning of the month. Then, once a week or once a month, go back and write in the most current follower counts. This will show you where you’re growing, stalling or losing ground…

If web traffic is a goal (and it probably should be), set yourself up with a Google Analytics account so that you can measure all of the pertinent metrics that show where your visitors are coming from, which channels are the sources of valuable traffic, how long do people stay and read your content before bouncing, and whether they leave your page quickly or visit other pages on your site. This data will help you develop a solid strategy and ensure you’re not simply spinning your wheels with social media or blogging efforts.”

-Jason Myers, Senior Account Executive at The Content Factory, @ContentFac

19. Don’t get swayed by vanity metrics.

“Most businesses only focus on vanity metrics like number of followers, likes, and retweets. Those can be a good measure of your success, but they can also be deceiving. Not every follower is useful to you. Is it better to have 1,000 great followers that could potentially be customers one day or 10,000 followers that are in a different country that will never buy from you. It’s pretty obvious that you’d rather have the 1,000. High numbers don’t always mean great success.

I’d recommend figuring out what action you really want your followers to make. Do you want them to click through to your website? Do you want to start more conversations with them through social? Do you want them to claim an offer that you’re sharing specifically through social media? Define the action that you want them to take and start tracking it. Social media is at least as much about branding as it is marketing so if you make sure that you’re putting your best foot forward and branding yourself as an authority in your industry, you’ll be just fine!”

-Dustin Brackett, CEO of HIVE Digital Strategy, @HIVE_Strategy @DBrackett88

20. Test constantly

“Testing of your social media content needs to be ongoing, and there should always be a monthly, if not weekly discussion as a team on what content is performing either well or poorly, and what can be done to remedy that. This can be fixed by optimizing timing of posts, stronger call to actions, curation of industry content, etc.”

-Melissa Fears, Social Media Specialist at Anvil Media, @MJFears

21. Be patient! It’s a learning experience.

“Be patient! A lot of small business owners don’t know about all of a platform’s capabilities, or get frustrated when they don’t see a high engagement rate or grand following right away. If you’re not getting the results you want, spend a little more time going back to basics. Optimize your Facebook Page, follow relevant accounts on Twitter, post regularly to Instagram, and so on.”

-Kelly Jacobson, Content Creator and Social Media Manager at Illumine8 Marketing and PR, @Illumine8PR

Well, there you have it: advice straight from the experts.

Which one of these tips did you find most actionable? Or do you have a favorite tip I missed? Let me know in the comments!

[fitnesswomenshealth-blog]

In the Latest Fight Against Ebola, Congo Seems to Be Winning

New Post has been published on https://cialiscom.org/in-the-latest-fight-against-ebola-congo-seems-to-be-winning.html

In the Latest Fight Against Ebola, Congo Seems to Be Winning

The thirty day period-old Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which emerged unexpectedly in a harmful area and swiftly soared to over 100 circumstances, now appears to be fading.

Only a handful of new scenarios look every 7 days, and the region’s two procedure centers, whole until finally a short while ago, now have less than 30 individuals in their 78 beds.

Far more than 3,500 contacts of recognized situations are being followed, extra than 4,000 doses of vaccine have been given and officials truly feel hopeful plenty of to enable educational institutions in the spot — North Kivu Province, on the japanese border with Uganda — to open up as usual on Monday.

Having said that, it is far way too early to relax, wellbeing experts warned.

“We can’t say the outbreak is beneath command however,” said Dr. Oly Ilunga, the country’s well being minister, echoing a warning from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director common of the Entire world Overall health Group.

“While the selection of confirmed scenarios has slowed down lately, we must keep on being vigilant,” Dr. Ilunga said. “An Ebola outbreak performs in waves, and the 1st wave hit us hard.”

That wave, he defined, comprised people contaminated just before health and fitness workers arrived, and these people may have contaminated a next wave of family members members, neighbors and clinical staff who are nevertheless in their incubation periods.

“Over the future couple times,” he explained on Friday, “many contacts will occur out of their 21-working day surveillance intervals, and we’ll know to what extent we managed to crack the transmission chain.”

As of Friday, there were 118 confirmed or possible situations and 77 fatalities, and the risk of additional is still so higher that officers have not halted building of a third cure middle.

If the outbreak does fade out, credit score will once again go to speedy motion by the Congolese govt and global well being agencies, as nicely as to a new, highly protective Merck vaccine.

Although 5 experimental treatment plans for contaminated patients not long ago received approval for unexpected emergency use, so significantly as well couple individuals have obtained them to draw conclusions about how perfectly they may well perform.

Just one reason gurus are reluctant to declare the outbreak contained is that some distant towns have not been frequented due to the fact of armed teams roaming the space.

So considerably, fighting has not hampered the reaction, explained Florence Marchal, spokeswoman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the location.

Congolese health and fitness staff escorted by peacekeepers ended up equipped to properly achieve Oicha, the only town in a “red zone” with confirmed Ebola instances.

On the other hand, just two weeks in the past, Ms. Marchal explained, as numerous as 18 Congolese troopers had been killed in an attack in North Kivu, almost certainly by the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan rebel team.

Ebola industry experts also reported they would not allow down their guard since they remembered a quick, deceptive lull in the early days of the 2014 West African outbreak just before it attained 3 cash metropolitan areas and exploded, killing much more than 11,000 men and women.

But with each new outbreak, medical groups are bringing new technologies and strategies to bear on the ailment.

A new vaccine, rVSV-ZEBOV, proved alone in the recent outbreak in Congo’s central Équateur Province that began in April and was declared over on July 24.

Even while the virus had distribute from a rural area to a flourishing lakeside town and in the long run to a huge city, Mbandaka, the outbreak was quickly stopped by inoculating health and fitness staff and the rings of contacts of each and every recognized case.

Procedures pioneered in that outbreak are actively playing even extra well known roles in this a person.

For illustration, in Mangina and Beni, the towns at the epicenter, the Ministry of General public Health straight away sent about 150 medical center personnel staff into property quarantine and changed them with other individuals who experienced been qualified in donning and securely eliminating protecting gear.

To really encourage patients to come in, the ministry also designed all treatment at community hospitals no cost — for any health issues.

Then, as shortly as attainable, health and fitness officers vaccinated all health care personnel. Individuals measures lowered a significant possibility factor — professional medical employees who capture the virus from just one client and unwittingly move it to other people prior to they them selves collapse. (In the early days of any outbreak, most individuals coming to hospitals do not have Ebola but malaria, bacterial bacterial infections or other crises, like tough pregnancies.)

Quickly afterward, Alima, the Alliance for Worldwide Medical Action, deployed its new Biosecure Unexpected emergency Treatment Models, which it calls “cubes,” in its procedure middle in Beni.

The rooms, manufactured of distinct, adaptable plastic with sleeves, gloves and bodysuits crafted into the partitions, allow nurses to properly accomplish about 80 percent of the care an Ebola individual desires without the need of having to put on hot, cumbersome gowns, hoods, rubber aprons, boots and goggles.

Sporting complete equipment, caregivers can search terrifying, in particular to youngsters.

“Now they can see us as human beings,” mentioned Claude Mahoudeau, Alima’s crisis reaction coordinator.

Nurses can examine essential signals, feed individuals and transform intravenous drip charges, explained Augustin Augier, Alima’s secretary standard, and could at some point start out inserting intravenous needles from outside. Workers will have to nevertheless enter the dice to cleanse up diarrhea and vomit, unless of course people are solid sufficient to do it themselves and then seal the soiled linens in baggage and pass them out by means of a portal.

The chambers are air-conditioned for ease and comfort. Also, patients’ family can properly sit outside and speak to them.

The cubes “sound like a extremely intriguing idea” said Leah Feldman, health care coordinator for the Physicians Without having Borders therapy centre in Mangina, who reported she strategies to check out Alima’s center before long.

Her heart keeps clients and family members divided by two rows of waistline-high fencing those who are bedridden can chat on phones.

Family members will only provide in their ill if they can see they are perfectly cared for, she said. “It can not be that they just go inside and come out afterwards in a human body bag.”

Medically, the most thrilling prospect on the horizon is that, as of Aug. 22, Congo has accepted the crisis use of 5 likely therapies: two antiviral medications, remdesivir and favipiravir and three cocktails of antibodies originally observed in recovered patients, together with ZMapp, mAb114 and Regn3450-3471-3479.

Previously, only about 50 percent of Ebola patients were being saved if they got supportive treatment, together with fluid substitution and fever manage, in time.

Currently being persistently ready to heal most sufferers would be a terrific progress, industry experts claimed, reducing the terrifying aura around the virus to one extra like that bordering cholera.

[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]

In the 19th century, cholera swept absent thousands and thousands, and it can nevertheless can go on deadly rampages, as it a short while ago has in Haiti, Somalia and Yemen. But cholera can also be controlled and its fatality level slice to much less than 1 per cent if vaccines, antibiotics and fluid substitution are deployed rapidly.

Several Ebola victims have been given the experimental treatments, and the benefits have not been compiled.

As of Thursday, according to the W.H.O., 19 clients had been specified remdesivir, ZMapp or mAb114. 1 died, two survived and 16 ended up continue to on cure. (Remdesivir is presented for 10 times.)

But “Ebola is challenging,” warned Ms. Feldman, a trauma nurse doing work on her fourth outbreak. “Patients can glimpse like they are undertaking greater and then crash.”

In spite of the lull, the Intercontinental Health-related Corps, a nonprofit group of volunteer doctors and nurses, is nevertheless working to full a 50-mattress device in Makeke.

“The lessen is promising, but I really don’t assume we can take it easy,” said Ky Luu, the I.M.C.’s main working officer. “When we had been tasked to do it, the other two facilities ended up at potential, and scenarios could even now ramp up.”

Creating in this sort of a remote area is not straightforward. In addition to isolation wards, bathrooms and showers for 50 people, a centre have to have a laboratory with generators and freezers, gowning and decontamination areas, screening parts for new clients, bathrooms, kitchens and on-site housing for up to 200 personnel.

Even right before that, the floor had to be cleared and hundreds of yards of dust street had to be graded. Mainly because it is the rainy year, weighty devices was bogged down.

“We’re selecting nearby individuals to do it with shovels,” Mr. Luu reported.

Resource backlink

[bloggertutor]

Top 10 Best Ways to Earn Money Online | Start Earning Online

Quick Introduction to Online Earning Concept

In this article you will learn all possible ways of making money online or you can say "How to earn money online".

Listen, if you really want to earn online, you need to have patience and some skills or in another words you can only earn money online if you have some skills or knowledge about this field.

But wait don't be sad, the good part of this digital world is you can learn everything at your home in just a few days. Only thing that you need to focus is to be expert in a particular field. And if you are an expert, there are infinite ways of earning money online is present. You just need to figure it out and work on it.

Before you see the list of methods, firstly you should know about how it works. According to me there is a flow Audience >Trust > Marketing or sometime it's like Solution > Showcase > Audiences > Marketingbut the common thing in both is audience so If you can have audience which indirectly means you can have a lot of money. All you need is to convert that random audience in trusted audience and to do that you need to provide some catchy things in which your audience is interested in.

There is a phrase in hindi "Paisa to road pe gira hai, uthane ka tareeka chahiye" which means "A lot of money is on the road, you need a proper method to grab it up".

So finally Let's talk about all possible ways of Earning Money Online

1. Blogging

Yeah, I know many of you are familiar with this word blogging but for those who do not know, let me explain it.

Blogging is a discussion or providing information & tools or reviewing product and services etc. The most interesting thing of blogging is, you are fully independent to write on any topic in any ways as you want. You just have to care about your audience.

So to start blogging you need a blog website and a particular niche (a theme or topic). I know many of you are now thinking "Since I don't know how to make website, I can't use blogging to earn money online", then you are wrong. You don't need to be a professional website developer to create a blog you just need to know about some third party services which will help you to create your blog website and start blogging. The main two are

WordPress (Recommended) [Learn More]

Blogger by Google [Learn More]

Ok, So what's next when our website is ready?

Choose a niche (i.e. Topic)Yes, It's necessary to do a research before starting a blog website because there is so much competition in every field. So choose a less competitive topic in which you have enough knowledge. Then you have to write high quality engaging blog post that impress you audience and google.

"What, why to impress google?" Fine, the answer is, so that google can do a favor to your website and rank it on its first page. Because, when your website will rank on first page only then you can get organic and real audience and I have mentioned earlier that you need audience to earn money. Then you need some content marketing services that will pay you for your audiences, and there are many like that. You can use Affiliate Network on your blog to monetize it.

Ok but just tell me one thing,

How much I can Earn Money Online by Blogging?

There is no limit. Seriously I am not joking, you can earn as much as you want but you need to be a perfect player of this particular field in which SEO plays a very Important role. For early beginners it can be from $150-$750 depends on you and how much you improved yourself in blogging from beginning.

And this was the first answer for your Question "How to earn Money Online?"

Learn More About Blogging

Create Your Own Blog

2. Affiliate Marketing

The second and very popular method to earn money online is Affiliate Marketing.

Affiliate marketing is exactly same as blogging where mostly you need a website (Not every time) and write review of products or introduce products or just make a tutorial on them or anything else you can do to bring that product in your topic. Then you need audience for your review or tutorial or post, but here you don't need an advertiser for your audience, you need an affiliate program that match your blog niche so that when someone buy product or services after reading your review, you can get commission.

Is that's enough for affiliate marketing?

Of course not, Affiliate Marketing have different ways, and the first is mentioned above that you can use affiliate network to monetize your blog . Now another very famous way to promote affiliate is Email Marketing.

Ok Wait, What is this Email Marketing thing?

In Email Marketing, you send email to people have interest in a product whose affiliate program you have joined already, If they purchase product from your affiliate link you will get paid some commission depending of affiliate's commission rate.

Learn More about Email Marketing

Third way is introducing affiliate products in some type of courses and tutorials. According to many research(not by me :)), this is the most effective and converting way of affiliate marketing because there is a need to buy a product, I mean if your learner need to learn, he has to buy that product anyhow to proceed further.

Ok... I can't explain all ways because there are so many ways to earn money online using affiliate network.

How much I can Earn Money Online by Affiliate Marketing?

Again there no limit of earning money online from affiliate marketing it's all depends on your patience & passion of doing work. Beginners can earn up-to $500-1500 Monthly.

Learn More

Create Your Affiliate Website

3. Drop Shipping

The very new and easy way to earn money online is by Drop Shipping.

Let me first introduce you to Drop Shipping.

In Drop Shipping, you will purchase a product at low cost and sell it at high cost to anyone who need it. Yeah I know this is so simple but wait you need to have two most important skills before starting drop shipping. The first thing is you should have a website and in this case its not optional. Then second you need to have advertising skills on some popular platform like Facebook, Google, Twitter etc.

What are advertising skills?

Actually most of social media platform offer a service in which you can advertise your product or services on their platform by paying some small amount to them. Like Facebook have Facebook Ads, Google have Google Ads or Adward, Twitter have Twitter Ads etc.

So when you have these things you are ready to go, I mean you can start you Drop shipping business online.

How to start Drop Shipping?

The first step is create a e-commerce website.

Then choose a online store that deliver product across the world like Ali Express or Alibaba.

Select a product from these store and Copy Paste to your website.

Advertise on any network to proper audience and get sales.

Then order that product with your customer address.

Learn More

Create Your Drop shipping Store

4. Social Media Marketing

As you all know Social Media is very engaging and active platform of this time, and Now I will tell you that you can earn decent money from social media too.

Yeah, Just tell me how..

Wait..wait.., It's not so simple that you can earn by just posting your good looking profile pictures to social media. But it also not too hard. The rule of audience is still applicable, i.e You should have a large amount of fan following which will act as your audience. And after you have audience, there are many ways of earning.

Working as Influencer for companies or brand and promoting their product and services on your social media account.

Using Affiliate Network and promoting their product and services.

Promoting your own blog, online store, product, services etc.

Learn More

Grow on Social Media

5. Freelancing

Freelancing is probably not the newest but a good way to earn money online if you have good skills in any field. There are many network like fiver, Upwork, Freelancer etc. that provide work if you have skills.

What if I don't have skills?

If you don't have skills you can learn from internet for free. There are platform like YouTube, Udemy etc. where you can find many skill courses to improve your skills or to learn more new skills. After Learning you can register to any of Freelancing network to get work.

Ok but, How much I can Earn Money Online by Freelancing?

. Actually its depend on your skills but many good freelancer are earning $500 daily.

Learn More

Sharp Your Skills

6. YouTube

This is also very popular and easy way of earning money online. In YouTube there are three ways of earning money. The first and very used way is by using Adsense and second one is by using promotion and third is using affiliate programs. All you need to do here is just upload video with a eye catching thumbnail so that if anyone see your thumbnail he just click on it and that's all.

If you are using affiliates and promotion then try to give quality content to your audience so that they can trust on you and your affiliate conversion can increase.

7. E-commerce

Traditional way of shopping is no more applicable in metro cities, everyone want to purchase their product at their doorstep. And taking the profit of this thing you can earn money online by creating your online shop or store and sell product or services their in more affordable and efficient way.

E-commerce field is raising too fast and the reason for that vis people are becoming more and more lazy, so all you need to do is, take the profit of this thing and scale your business.

8. Online Teaching

Teaching is now a profession of earning for many teachers, but the problem is they can teach only few hundred students. So let me Introduce you a more efficient and profitable way of earning money online using your teaching skills. Actually there are many coaching centers are using same thing but for individual teachers they think this is hard to manage but the actual answer is it's more easy then your classroom.

Yes, I am not joking, Seriously it's more easy, efficient and profitable than your classroom.

Tell me How?

All you need is a smartphone for camera and editing (DSLR and Laptop if available), A blackboard or whiteboard or green board, few lights and a cheap collar mic.

Just Record your video lectures (or you can go live with your students using YouTube), edit if requires, then encrypt (secure) it using any video encryption tool so that only user with licence can watch your lectures, and sell it online on your website or App.

There are many companies that provide Custom Teaching App and Websites. So you can go for them if needed.

9. Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is not a single thing, it is a bulk of all the method you use to earn money online like email marketing, sales funnel, advertising online etc.

I have mentioned Digital Marketing here because traditional marketing is no more effective for selling your product and services. If you want to earn a good money from your business you should remove your banners and holdings from roadside and place it online on various platform and believe me this will increase you sales and conversion.

10. Launching Software as a Service (SAAS)

This is very professional way of earning money online and need a good amount of money investment.

Let me first introduce, What is actually Software as a Service?

Software as a Service or SaaS is a service depending upon your idea like if you want a website to count live subscribers of an YouTube channel and user have to buy your plans to use it then your website will be a SaaS. Similarly there are many SaaS companies that provide different type of services to their user.

What is Required to make a SaaS?

The first and most Important thing that really matter for a SaaS to be successful is great working Idea. If you have a solid idea and you believe that your service is unique or customer will love to buy your service then you are ready to go for second step is searching for an investor because SaaS is not only a website it is a full custom platform which need a good money and time to develop.

Now the third step is to make a flow chart of your idea i.e. service and search for a good developer or a company and heir them for your work after telling them about your project. Then you are ready to serve your customer after your SaaS website is ready.

Conclusion

After discussing all these methods to earn money online, I want you to choose your favorite one in which you feel passionate of doing it. I mostly prefer blogging and affiliate marketing for earning money online since it is not tough and Creative.

If you liked any part of article please share it with your friends.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can we earn enough money online?

Yes, In this 21st century of digital world you can of course earn a decent amount of money online. Even there are people having a 6 figure income only through online earning

How to earn money online?

There are many ways to earn money online but some popular ways are Blogging, Affiliate Marketing, Drop shipping, YouTube etc. to know more click here

What is Blogging?

Blogging is a new way of expressing your ideas, reviews and discussions etc. online on a website so that whoever searches a query related to that blog he can find it's answer.

Can we Earn Money From a Blog Website?

Of course, even many people are making thousand of dollars from their single blog.

How to create a blog?

You do not need to be a professional website designer to create a blog website. You can use WordPress or Blogger by Google

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is a method to earn money online. In Affiliate Marketing you have to promote a product and if someone buys from your link you will get commission.

How much we can earn from Affiliate marketing ?

There is no restriction on earning from Affiliate marketing, you can earn as much as you can.

What is Drop Shipping?

Drop Shipping is a method to earn money online by selling third party product indirectly.

Read More https://bloggertutor.com/how-to-earn-money-online/?feed_id=444&_unique_id=5f0176c2e94b6 #blogging #affiliate_marketing #drop_shipping

[dragons-in-bowties-blog]

Books coming out this week: Eden, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and more

Books coming out this week: Eden, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and more

Eden, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and more" src="https://images.hellogiggles.com/uploads/2018/07/09135458/picture-of-books-coming-out-this-week-my-year-of-rest-and-relaxation-eden-books-photo.jpg" width="4608" height="3456"/>

Remember the simpler times? Like when you weren't constantly dehydrated, and your weather app didn't say “feels like 150 degrees,” and you didn't sweat through your T-shirt after being outside for only 30 seconds? Woof. I can barely remember the simpler, cooler times myself. This summer is no joke. So, grab a fan, fix yourself a cool beverage, and dive into the books coming out this week. Because indoor activities are sort of the only option right now. But if you MUST be outside, these titles make great beach reads, too.

If you're reading along in the #HGBookClub with us, we're getting seriously into Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton, and things are getting tense. Have you ever had a friend like Lavinia? Have you ever felt like a Louise? Who is tricking whom? And, pray tell, who is the narrator?! Only time will tell. Follow along and show us where you're reading with #HGBookClub.

And now, here are 12 books coming out this week that you don't want to miss.

1. Eden by Andrea Kleine, out July 10th

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

When Hope and Eden were girls, they were abducted by a man they thought was a friend of their father's. They escaped, but the traumatic near-death experience left deep emotional scars. Now, 20 years later, the man is up for parole, and they may be able to keep him in jail with testimonies - but first, Hope must find Eden. Don't miss this haunting novel with heartbreaking themes of attachment and trauma.

2. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, out July 10th

Penguin Press

In My Year of Rest and Relaxation, our narrator's life appears to be perfect. She's thin, blonde, pretty, rich, and gainfully employed at an art gallery in New York City. And yet - because there's so much more to life than what we see on the outside - she's depressed. She finds the world's worst psychiatrist who prescribes her anything and everything, effectively inducing a year where she lives through a hazy drug-induced coma and sleeps life away. Though it's fiction, My Year of Rest and Relaxation will open your eyes to the realities of how much our mental healthcare system seriously lacks IRL.

3. No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol, out July 10th

Simon & Schuster

When Glynnis MacNicol turned 40, she reflected on her successful writing career and full life in New York City. But she still couldn't escape the fact that she didn't have the two things she was “supposed” to have by then: a wedding ring and a baby. Rather than feeling bad about it, she decided to create a blueprint for herself and the rest of the happily single women of the world. No One Tells You This is the most empowering memoir you'll read all summer.

4. What We Were Promised by Lucy Tan, out July 10th

Little, Brown and Company

What We Were Promised tells the story of a family that returns home to Shanghai after living the American dream in the U.S. Upon their homecoming, they're welcomed into an elite community of those who were born in China, educated in the states, and have returned back home since. When Lina finds that her ivory bracelet, a keepsake from her childhood, has gone missing, it sends everyone in their household spiraling. From the head of the household to their housekeeper, everyone is searching for meaning and belonging.

5. Clock Dance by Anne Tyler, out July 10th

Knopf Publishing Group

When Willa receives a phone call that her son's ex-girlfriend was shot and needs her help, she immediately flies across the country to take care of her (and her nine-year-old daughter) (and her dog). Why does she do it? To take a chance on choosing her own path. Clock Dance is a bittersweet reminder to take risks and live a life that satisfies you, not someone else.

6. The Marginalized Majority: Claiming Our Power in a Post-Truth America by Onnesha Roychoudhuri, out July 10th

Melville House

Want to know how to get involved? Want to know how to fight back? Read The Marginalized Majority. It will completely change the way you think about our current political climate. Onnesha Roychoudhuri reminds us that even though our country may feel divided, we're actually fighting for many of the same things.

7. An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim, out July 10th

Touchstone

An Ocean of Minutes is a futuristic novel, but it's still so heartbreakingly human. Set in a world where time travel exists and Americans are experiencing a deadly flu, Polly travels to the future to find the treatment that her sick boyfriend Frank needs. They agree to meet in Galveston, Texas, 12 years in the future. But when Polly is re-routed another five years into the future, everything has changed, and Frank is nowhere to be found.

8. From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein, out July 10th

Spiegel & Grau

Raise your hand if you miss President Barack Obama. (Same.) Even though he's no longer in office, you can relive his greatest hits and go behind the scenes of his administration through the eyes of one of his former staff members. Beck Dorey-Stein worked as one of Obama's stenographers. As she transcribed his words, she also found her own voice as a writer. Even though you've probably never flown on Air Force One or shared the gym with POTUS, you'll still relate to her stories of making friends, getting your heart broken, and finding your voice in your twenties.

9. The Lido by Libby Page, out July 10th

Simon & Schuster

Kate works as a reporter for a small local paper in Brixton, London. She receives an assignment to cover the closing of the local lido, an outdoor pool and rec center. Once there she meets Rosemary, an 86-year-old widow who has swum there every single day since it opened. The more Kate gets to know Rosemary and learns about the lido, her small assignment becomes a lifechanging friendship. And together, the two women fight to keep the lido open.

10. All These Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth, out July 10th

William Morrow

When Grace disappears from her family's lake house, it leaves her seven-year-old daughter Charlie with many unanswered questions. 10 years later, Charlie is still struggling to put the past behind her. She chooses to throw herself into life at her prestigious school. When she gets tapped by the A's, an elite secret society, she must play The Game to be accepted. Will she survive the diabolical semester-long scavenger hunt - or the terrible truths about her past?

11. Evolution of Goddess: A Modern Girl's Guide to Activating Your Feminine Superpowers by Emma Mildon, out July 10th

Atria Books

It's time to get spiritual and celebrate your inner goddess. Evolution of Goddess is filled with the histories of the goddesses through the ages that you need to know. Plus, you'll learn how to tap into your own feminine superpowers.

12. Suicide Club by Rachel Heng, out July 10th

Henry Holt and Co.

For another futuristic novel, don't miss Suicide Club, set 300 years in the future in New York City. Lea is a Lifer, meaning she has the chance to live forever. But when runs into her estranged father, she gets sucked into the Suicide Club, his mysterious group that rejects the idea of immortality. Lea must choose between living forever and spending a short amount of time with her last remaining family.

Happy reading!

The post Books coming out this week: Eden, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and more appeared first on HelloGiggles.

[inkundu1]

Books coming out this week: Eden, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and more

Books coming out this week: Eden, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and more

Eden, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and more" src="https://images.hellogiggles.com/uploads/2018/07/09135458/picture-of-books-coming-out-this-week-my-year-of-rest-and-relaxation-eden-books-photo.jpg" width="4608" height="3456"/>

Remember the simpler times? Like when you weren't constantly dehydrated, and your weather app didn't say “feels like 150 degrees,” and you didn't sweat through your T-shirt after being outside for only 30 seconds? Woof. I can barely remember the simpler, cooler times myself. This summer is no joke. So, grab a fan, fix yourself a cool beverage, and dive into the books coming out this week. Because indoor activities are sort of the only option right now. But if you MUST be outside, these titles make great beach reads, too.

If you're reading along in the #HGBookClub with us, we're getting seriously into Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton, and things are getting tense. Have you ever had a friend like Lavinia? Have you ever felt like a Louise? Who is tricking whom? And, pray tell, who is the narrator?! Only time will tell. Follow along and show us where you're reading with #HGBookClub.

And now, here are 12 books coming out this week that you don't want to miss.

1. Eden by Andrea Kleine, out July 10th

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

When Hope and Eden were girls, they were abducted by a man they thought was a friend of their father's. They escaped, but the traumatic near-death experience left deep emotional scars. Now, 20 years later, the man is up for parole, and they may be able to keep him in jail with testimonies - but first, Hope must find Eden. Don't miss this haunting novel with heartbreaking themes of attachment and trauma.

2. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, out July 10th

Penguin Press

In My Year of Rest and Relaxation, our narrator's life appears to be perfect. She's thin, blonde, pretty, rich, and gainfully employed at an art gallery in New York City. And yet - because there's so much more to life than what we see on the outside - she's depressed. She finds the world's worst psychiatrist who prescribes her anything and everything, effectively inducing a year where she lives through a hazy drug-induced coma and sleeps life away. Though it's fiction, My Year of Rest and Relaxation will open your eyes to the realities of how much our mental healthcare system seriously lacks IRL.

3. No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol, out July 10th

Simon & Schuster

When Glynnis MacNicol turned 40, she reflected on her successful writing career and full life in New York City. But she still couldn't escape the fact that she didn't have the two things she was “supposed” to have by then: a wedding ring and a baby. Rather than feeling bad about it, she decided to create a blueprint for herself and the rest of the happily single women of the world. No One Tells You This is the most empowering memoir you'll read all summer.

4. What We Were Promised by Lucy Tan, out July 10th

Little, Brown and Company

What We Were Promised tells the story of a family that returns home to Shanghai after living the American dream in the U.S. Upon their homecoming, they're welcomed into an elite community of those who were born in China, educated in the states, and have returned back home since. When Lina finds that her ivory bracelet, a keepsake from her childhood, has gone missing, it sends everyone in their household spiraling. From the head of the household to their housekeeper, everyone is searching for meaning and belonging.

5. Clock Dance by Anne Tyler, out July 10th

Knopf Publishing Group

When Willa receives a phone call that her son's ex-girlfriend was shot and needs her help, she immediately flies across the country to take care of her (and her nine-year-old daughter) (and her dog). Why does she do it? To take a chance on choosing her own path. Clock Dance is a bittersweet reminder to take risks and live a life that satisfies you, not someone else.

6. The Marginalized Majority: Claiming Our Power in a Post-Truth America by Onnesha Roychoudhuri, out July 10th

Melville House

Want to know how to get involved? Want to know how to fight back? Read The Marginalized Majority. It will completely change the way you think about our current political climate. Onnesha Roychoudhuri reminds us that even though our country may feel divided, we're actually fighting for many of the same things.

7. An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim, out July 10th

Touchstone

An Ocean of Minutes is a futuristic novel, but it's still so heartbreakingly human. Set in a world where time travel exists and Americans are experiencing a deadly flu, Polly travels to the future to find the treatment that her sick boyfriend Frank needs. They agree to meet in Galveston, Texas, 12 years in the future. But when Polly is re-routed another five years into the future, everything has changed, and Frank is nowhere to be found.

8. From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein, out July 10th

Spiegel & Grau

Raise your hand if you miss President Barack Obama. (Same.) Even though he's no longer in office, you can relive his greatest hits and go behind the scenes of his administration through the eyes of one of his former staff members. Beck Dorey-Stein worked as one of Obama's stenographers. As she transcribed his words, she also found her own voice as a writer. Even though you've probably never flown on Air Force One or shared the gym with POTUS, you'll still relate to her stories of making friends, getting your heart broken, and finding your voice in your twenties.

9. The Lido by Libby Page, out July 10th

Simon & Schuster

Kate works as a reporter for a small local paper in Brixton, London. She receives an assignment to cover the closing of the local lido, an outdoor pool and rec center. Once there she meets Rosemary, an 86-year-old widow who has swum there every single day since it opened. The more Kate gets to know Rosemary and learns about the lido, her small assignment becomes a lifechanging friendship. And together, the two women fight to keep the lido open.

10. All These Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth, out July 10th

William Morrow

When Grace disappears from her family's lake house, it leaves her seven-year-old daughter Charlie with many unanswered questions. 10 years later, Charlie is still struggling to put the past behind her. She chooses to throw herself into life at her prestigious school. When she gets tapped by the A's, an elite secret society, she must play The Game to be accepted. Will she survive the diabolical semester-long scavenger hunt - or the terrible truths about her past?

11. Evolution of Goddess: A Modern Girl's Guide to Activating Your Feminine Superpowers by Emma Mildon, out July 10th

Atria Books

It's time to get spiritual and celebrate your inner goddess. Evolution of Goddess is filled with the histories of the goddesses through the ages that you need to know. Plus, you'll learn how to tap into your own feminine superpowers.

12. Suicide Club by Rachel Heng, out July 10th

Henry Holt and Co.

For another futuristic novel, don't miss Suicide Club, set 300 years in the future in New York City. Lea is a Lifer, meaning she has the chance to live forever. But when runs into her estranged father, she gets sucked into the Suicide Club, his mysterious group that rejects the idea of immortality. Lea must choose between living forever and spending a short amount of time with her last remaining family.

Happy reading!

The post Books coming out this week: Eden, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and more appeared first on HelloGiggles.

[cowgirluli-blog]

Books coming out this week: Eden, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and more

Books coming out this week: Eden, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and more

Remember the simpler times? Like when you weren't constantly dehydrated, and your weather app didn't say “feels like 150 degrees,” and you didn't sweat through your T-shirt after being outside for only 30 seconds? Woof. I can barely remember the simpler, cooler times myself. This summer is no joke. So, grab a fan, fix yourself a cool beverage, and dive into the books coming out this week. Because indoor activities are sort of the only option right now. But if you MUST be outside, these titles make great beach reads, too.

If you're reading along in the #HGBookClub with us, we're getting seriously into Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton, and things are getting tense. Have you ever had a friend like Lavinia? Have you ever felt like a Louise? Who is tricking whom? And, pray tell, who is the narrator?! Only time will tell. Follow along and show us where you're reading with #HGBookClub.

And now, here are 12 books coming out this week that you don't want to miss.

1. Eden by Andrea Kleine, out July 10th

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

When Hope and Eden were girls, they were abducted by a man they thought was a friend of their father's. They escaped, but the traumatic near-death experience left deep emotional scars. Now, 20 years later, the man is up for parole, and they may be able to keep him in jail with testimonies - but first, Hope must find Eden. Don't miss this haunting novel with heartbreaking themes of attachment and trauma.

2. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, out July 10th

Penguin Press

In My Year of Rest and Relaxation, our narrator's life appears to be perfect. She's thin, blonde, pretty, rich, and gainfully employed at an art gallery in New York City. And yet - because there's so much more to life than what we see on the outside - she's depressed. She finds the world's worst psychiatrist who prescribes her anything and everything, effectively inducing a year where she lives through a hazy drug-induced coma and sleeps life away. Though it's fiction, My Year of Rest and Relaxation will open your eyes to the realities of how much our mental healthcare system seriously lacks IRL.

3. No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol, out July 10th

Simon & Schuster

When Glynnis MacNicol turned 40, she reflected on her successful writing career and full life in New York City. But she still couldn't escape the fact that she didn't have the two things she was “supposed” to have by then: a wedding ring and a baby. Rather than feeling bad about it, she decided to create a blueprint for herself and the rest of the happily single women of the world. No One Tells You This is the most empowering memoir you'll read all summer.

4. What We Were Promised by Lucy Tan, out July 10th

Little, Brown and Company

What We Were Promised tells the story of a family that returns home to Shanghai after living the American dream in the U.S. Upon their homecoming, they're welcomed into an elite community of those who were born in China, educated in the states, and have returned back home since. When Lina finds that her ivory bracelet, a keepsake from her childhood, has gone missing, it sends everyone in their household spiraling. From the head of the household to their housekeeper, everyone is searching for meaning and belonging.

5. Clock Dance by Anne Tyler, out July 10th

Knopf Publishing Group

When Willa receives a phone call that her son's ex-girlfriend was shot and needs her help, she immediately flies across the country to take care of her (and her nine-year-old daughter) (and her dog). Why does she do it? To take a chance on choosing her own path. Clock Dance is a bittersweet reminder to take risks and live a life that satisfies you, not someone else.

6. The Marginalized Majority: Claiming Our Power in a Post-Truth America by Onnesha Roychoudhuri, out July 10th

Melville House

Want to know how to get involved? Want to know how to fight back? Read The Marginalized Majority. It will completely change the way you think about our current political climate. Onnesha Roychoudhuri reminds us that even though our country may feel divided, we're actually fighting for many of the same things.

7. An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim, out July 10th

Touchstone

An Ocean of Minutes is a futuristic novel, but it's still so heartbreakingly human. Set in a world where time travel exists and Americans are experiencing a deadly flu, Polly travels to the future to find the treatment that her sick boyfriend Frank needs. They agree to meet in Galveston, Texas, 12 years in the future. But when Polly is re-routed another five years into the future, everything has changed, and Frank is nowhere to be found.

8. From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein, out July 10th

Spiegel & Grau

Raise your hand if you miss President Barack Obama. (Same.) Even though he's no longer in office, you can relive his greatest hits and go behind the scenes of his administration through the eyes of one of his former staff members. Beck Dorey-Stein worked as one of Obama's stenographers. As she transcribed his words, she also found her own voice as a writer. Even though you've probably never flown on Air Force One or shared the gym with POTUS, you'll still relate to her stories of making friends, getting your heart broken, and finding your voice in your twenties.

9. The Lido by Libby Page, out July 10th

Simon & Schuster

Kate works as a reporter for a small local paper in Brixton, London. She receives an assignment to cover the closing of the local lido, an outdoor pool and rec center. Once there she meets Rosemary, an 86-year-old widow who has swum there every single day since it opened. The more Kate gets to know Rosemary and learns about the lido, her small assignment becomes a lifechanging friendship. And together, the two women fight to keep the lido open.

10. All These Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth, out July 10th

William Morrow

When Grace disappears from her family's lake house, it leaves her seven-year-old daughter Charlie with many unanswered questions. 10 years later, Charlie is still struggling to put the past behind her. She chooses to throw herself into life at her prestigious school. When she gets tapped by the A's, an elite secret society, she must play The Game to be accepted. Will she survive the diabolical semester-long scavenger hunt - or the terrible truths about her past?

11. Evolution of Goddess: A Modern Girl's Guide to Activating Your Feminine Superpowers by Emma Mildon, out July 10th

Atria Books

It's time to get spiritual and celebrate your inner goddess. Evolution of Goddess is filled with the histories of the goddesses through the ages that you need to know. Plus, you'll learn how to tap into your own feminine superpowers.

12. Suicide Club by Rachel Heng, out July 10th

Henry Holt and Co.

For another futuristic novel, don't miss Suicide Club, set 300 years in the future in New York City. Lea is a Lifer, meaning she has the chance to live forever. But when runs into her estranged father, she gets sucked into the Suicide Club, his mysterious group that rejects the idea of immortality. Lea must choose between living forever and spending a short amount of time with her last remaining family.

Happy reading!

The post Books coming out this week: Eden, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and more appeared first on HelloGiggles.